Naruto had to admit, ice cream was good… not quite as good as ramen but it was a better snack, especially in hot weather like today.
It had been two months since his spontaneous appearance in the city he now knew as Shinto Teito and honestly, everything had been going just as he expected.
He had managed to maintain his non-existence while at the same time establishing himself as one of the world's greatest assassins, honestly he still used his official codename for those purposes, Mamushi did fit his skill set after all so why bother changing it?
He had a few clients throughout Japan as well, he didn't really bother with international affairs given that he only actually knew the language they called Japanese in this world, so he tended to just go abroad if one of his employers needed someone dead or kidnapped from another country… it wasn't really that hard to sneak across the world either, with his stealth skills he could easily board an aeroplane without anyone realising.
It was just a matter of returning that caused a few minor problems… namely that he had to figure out which planes were headed back to Japan without understanding what the electronic boards were saying… seriously, why did there have to be so many different languages?
But at least everything was going as expected, he still didn't have a home, everywhere he had been had required more than just payment, insisting on information, especially given the fact he looked like he may not even be old enough to legally rent or own a property on his own.
For that reason he had been living on the street, using the occasional warehouse or building that was scheduled for demolition as a form of shelter during the night… he had also grown to love the fact that Japan had public baths since he was certain he would stink if it wasn't for them.
"And in other news, American security forces are still attempting to piece together the mysterious assassination of the secretary of defence, stating that no new leads have emerged as of yet but that they will get to the bottom of the impossible killing any way they can," his ears picked out a news broadcast from an electronics store television as he walked past, still licking his ice cream.
That was one of the reasons he was more than prepared to go to a public bath every day, the money it cost was nothing compared to the ten billion yen he received for assassinating the secretary of defence in America. He didn't care why his employers wanted the man dead but hey, it was a well paying job and he was the best at it so why turn it down?
Besides it was fun hearing about these people trying to figure out what happened when his methods would probably be considered physically impossible… honestly some of these people called a person that walked on water, healed the sick and multiplied food the 'son of God'… he called them a Tsunade wannabe, not that he ever met the woman, the fact that Orochimaru had managed to kill her back when Jiraiya tried to convince her to be the Godaime Hokage had made sure of that, but he had heard the legends about her skills and respected her memory… except the knowledge of her haemophobia, what sort of medic was afraid of blood?
"Scary isn't it?" a tall man with glasses and dark hair stated from beside him, earning a shrug off the whiskered blond in response.
"Not really," Naruto stated calmly, earning a minor look of surprise off the other man, "only one person died during that incident and they were a bigwig. It was obviously an assassination of a major power so why would someone capable of that waste their time on nobodies like us?"
Of course Naruto knew his statement was wrong, the man that had stopped to speak about the event wasn't a nobody, he was the childhood friend and secretary of the head of Higa Pharmaceuticals and therefore quite a possible target if his employers ever decided that blackmailing Higa Izumi would be beneficial enough to risk.
"Sorry to disappoint but I'm actually a rather important person in Higa Pharmaceuticals so I could end up being a target of this phantom," the man stated with a dry chuckle, earning another shrug of Naruto's shoulders.
"Well, sucks to be you then," and with that statement, the whiskered child finished off his ice cream with a single bite before giving the man a wave and walking away, he may not have had anything to do but that didn't change the fact that he didn't want to talk to the man for any longer than necessary.
Then he stalled.
That wasn't normal here. Back home it wouldn't have raised any suspicions in his mind since such a thing was a common occurrence but here, here he had never witnessed anyone do what he just saw outside of himself.
Looks like his habit of looking up just gave him something to look into.
Turning off into an alley he quickly activated the Meisaigakure no jutsu and released his ANBU uniform, changing into it in a matter of seconds and sealing away the denim jeans, orange shirt and white trainers that he tended to wear while in public.
With a quick shunshin he reappeared on the roof of the building and with a little charka channelled to his eyes, he caught sight of what had grabbed his attention earlier.
Two women, jumping from roof to roof with strength and speed rivalling most ninja. He knew however that they most certainly were not ninja for one reason, they lacked the trained gait and finesse that all ninja possessed, instead they seemed like they were simple civilian joggers that were pushing themselves too hard.
Yes, these people may not be ordinary humans but they were by no means shinobi and that was something that made all the difference when it came down to catching up with them.
Two shunshin were all it took to close the gap between them down to mere metres, not that it made much difference in their ability to detect him, even Kages were oblivious to his presence when he stalked them during his missions to eliminate the higher ups back home.
And these two lacked the honed senses those monsters did.
He idly looked the duo over, noting that both were incredibly attractive but that was where the physical similarities ended. One had long brown hair pulled into a ponytail, some of the largest breasts he had ever seen and was wearing drapes that reminded him of Sunagakure's Nunoshibari no Jutsu, using the cloth to cover her chest and groin.
The second one had long red hair done into braids that fell down her back, glasses covering her eyes, a chest that while not as large as her partners, was still unreasonably big and on top of that, she was wearing a pale cheongsam.
Despite that however, what truly drew his attention towards the red head was what was clutched in her hands, a small cone with a spherical object contained within… he was certain he had seen something like that before and it annoyed him that he couldn't identify it.
"Matsu, are you sure MBI won't be able to find us?" the bustier of the two asked nervously, earning a firm nod from the red head.
"Yes, I deactivated the tracking chips and managed to shut down the tracking satellites before leaving, it will probably take them a few more hours before they can start tracking us again," the one with glasses stated seriously through gasps of breath.
It was quite clear to the blond that they weren't simply out of breath because of how hard they had been running, the hints of conflict he could see on them said that they had probably had to fight their way out of wherever they had left.
However what mattered to him was the fact that they were talking about MBI, tracking chips and tracking satellites. Doing so made him realise where he had seen the object before, it was back when he first appeared here, in the very room he had seen the man he now knew was named Minaka Hiroto.
He hadn't really bothered keeping an eye on MBI, they were just a company that developed new technology as far as he could tell from the outside and he doubted they wouldn't make a public announcement if they discovered these objects could access other worlds. However the fact that these two superhuman entities were running from it while talking about being tracked left him curious as to the true nature of the supposedly mundane company.
"And are you sure Miya will give us shelter?" the brunette asked earning a firm nod from the other girl and a sense of familiarity in the spiky haired teen that was following them.
"Yeah, Takehito wouldn't turn down anyone in need, so there's no way Miya would spit on his memory by rejecting us," the one named Matsu stated seriously.
"I hope you're right," the other one muttered before the duo fell back into silence.
Naruto however was focused on the names, Miya and Takehito, he was certain he had heard the names back when he first arrived here, if he remembered correctly Takehito was the name of the man that had apparently sacrificed himself to deactivate that 'Jinki' object they were obviously experimenting with.
Eventually he noted that the skyscrapers that littered the skyline were getting shorter and more spread out, indicating that they were probably heading towards a residential area, something that was pretty obvious given the fact that they were talking about meeting someone for shelter.
Of course Naruto wasn't particularly interested in those details, merely preferring to examine the women jumping across the city like drunken ninja. He was certain that the brunette was controlling her massive cloth like the Suna technique allowed, the way it moved and floated was definitely not the way physics dictated.
The other girl was still something Naruto was uncertain of, namely that she wasn't displaying anything outside of physical ability exceeding human limits in this world… and even then she was obviously weaker than the walking linen closet.
"This is it," Matsu stated with obvious relief on her face as she lay her eyes on a large, two story house with wooden panels for walls and a large fence separating it from the rest of the street.
Naruto idly noted that there was an advert for rooms to rent for fifty thousand yen a month but decided to pay it no mind as he focused on the two that dropped to the street and ran through the gate and to the front door where the red head immediately started banging on it loudly.
"Miya! Please open up, it's me, Matsu, I need your help!" the redhead shouted as she furiously banged on the front door before it opened to reveal an attractive young woman with long, light purple hair that was tied into a ponytail that fell down to her waist. She was dressed in dressed in a traditional miko outfit with purple hakama and a closed white haori with a large sash like belt that covered her entire midriff.
However what stood out to the blond the most was her stance. He felt like he was facing Kakashi all over again, the way her posture was relaxed yet ready for action at a moment's notice, the way she smiled a deceptively kind smile and most importantly, the sheathed sword at her waist. She was definitely not like the rest of the people he had met here, this woman was a warrior, there was no doubt about that.
"Oh my, you look like you've been chased halfway across the city Matsu," the purple haired woman stated lightly, earning a chuckle off the bespectacled woman, before her eyes were drawn to the object in her hands, "and why do you have a Jinki?"
So that small cone like thing was a Jinki… at least now he knew that it was likely that it was the cause of his sudden appearance in this world.
"Hehe, well that's kind of a long story Miya-tan," the redhead stated with a nervous chuckle, "but you wouldn't turn down a pair of fugitives would you?"
"Ara?" the woman said with a hint of fake surprise plastered on her face, "oh my, I suppose I shouldn't make you wait out there any longer then should I?"
"Thank you Miya-tan, you're a lifesaver," the redhead stated with obvious gratitude in her tone, "oh and my friend here is no. 10, Uzume."
Well at least now Naruto knew who the busty brunette was however he didn't bother sticking around for much longer, he had gotten enough information from this latest venture to make reasonable conclusions about what happened, so his main concern right now was finding out what sorts of dirty secrets MBI was hiding.
So without further ado, he made a mental note of this location and made his way back to the big city.
XXX XXX XXX
Night fell as Naruto found another random warehouse to bunk at. He would return to that boarding house the two non-humans went to in a few days to see if the landlady would accept someone with no credentials but lots of money… however doing so this soon after the duo got there would only invite suspicion and possibly make them think he may have followed them.
It may be unlikely but he would rather spend a couple more days on the street than invite suspicion from people that he may end up living with… the fact that he wouldn't be working normal hours and would occasionally be gone for a few days if not weeks at a time would also be enough to make them suspicious of him.
And he really didn't want them to be suspicious of him, after all, suspicion created mistrust and mistrust was the sort of thing that stopped women from sleeping with people... and there was no way he wasn't going to aim to bed at least one of those three.
Maneshi had once said that he felt the idea of teaching a thirteen year old boy with near limitless stamina how to be good in bed was a bad idea and yet it was amazing how many times he had managed to put that knowledge to use on the field… well, when he was gathering information anyway.
It didn't work with Konoichi but civilians were a whole other matter, servants in particular tended to get loose lips when in the middle of a passionate night of life reaffirming sex… though his personal preference was nurse uniforms… those just had a certain appeal to them that he couldn't stop himself from admiring them.
It didn't hurt that it gave him something to bond with his godfather over. It had taken them quite some time to finally meet and when they did… well neither of them were in a particularly good condition. Jiraiya had been drowning his regret over being unable to protect Tsunade from Orochimaru while the blond had still been down because of the Sandaime's death and the state of Konoha as a whole.
In the end the duo had managed to strike up a light hearted conversation when an attractive young woman had entered the same place they were drinking and both had ended up making lewd comments about the woman… that was the start of the pervert duo's infamy.
The villagers in Konoha never really wondered why they got along so well, they simply assumed the two had met by chance and the young teen had taken to admiring the man… sure Naruto did actually admire Jiraiya but both of them knew their connection, after all, one was a Sannin and the other was a black ops member.
For those reasons, both had been privy to the knowledge of Naruto's heritage and their relationship with each other. Naruto didn't blame the man for not coming to see him, he had been smart enough to realise that there are times when such a thing wouldn't simply be impractical but also dangerous.
But the fact remained that they knew of their relationship and were happy to have one as close as they had developed over that period of time.
Damn he missed that old pervert.
Still, none of that really mattered right now, what mattered was getting a bit of sleep while one of his bunshin scouted out MBI's headquarters and tried to find anything he could about these 'Jinki' objects and these super humans he discovered today.
Who knows, maybe there were more beauties among their group, that would make it even better.
Taking a deep breath he quickly cleared his mind of those thoughts and without any more distractions, promptly fell asleep. It had taken him quite some time to get that down, the ability to sleep on command wasn't normal for a person but for ninja going on missions outside of the village, it was a necessary skill, otherwise they may very well not get enough sleep and cause problems later in the mission.
XXX XXX XXX
The Naruto bunshin however was more focused on his mission, the extraction of information concerning these unusual subjects and he was seriously having trouble.
It was all stored on computer.
He felt like swearing but he didn't, doing so would make it possible for others to detect him.
The problem was that he had never learned how to hack into the technology, back in the elemental nations very few people had any form of computer and most of them were dedicated towards a single task and while he had started learning how to use computers in this world, he had no formal tutoring since such a thing would put his anonymity at risk, even when he used his laptop at a wifi hotspot he never put down any personal information.
That was when he remembered a conversation from earlier. That redhead talked about shutting down MBI's tracking network so it was likely that she was good at hacking… and he was already aware that the original was planning on seeing if he could rent there anyway so maybe he could get lessons off the woman.
With that thought clear in his mind, he once again took to the shadows and started trying to see if there were any conversations he could gleam any information from.
XXX XXX XXX
The next couple of days went by relatively quickly for the blond as he kept a Kage Bunshin at MBI just in case his clone managed to find out any new information. Honestly he had already gained one important piece of information, that these super humans were in fact of extraterrestrial origins and while genetically compatible with a certain type of human they called an 'Ashikabi', were about as human as a dog or a bird.
Not that it mattered to him, they may have been superhuman but that didn't change the fact that they were above everything else, lovers not warriors.
He had seen some of the training sessions and could honestly admit that they displayed skill on par with a fresh out of the academy genin… if that much. Sure they had amazing powers, that one they called no.09 was probably not far off Senju Tobirama's level when it came down to water based techniques but she lacked the skill to make any real use of that power… it didn't help that she was arrogant.
Honestly, shouting about how you're the strongest like that just made you look like an idiot, he knew that from firsthand experience after all.
He almost shuddered at the thought of what he would be like without the horrors of ANBU and war to forge him into what he was today, he would probably still be that brainless loudmouth… if he wasn't dead that is.
The others weren't really any better, not one of them was really anything special, sure some were better than others, those labelled 104 and 105 were an example of those with more skill than the rest, it didn't hurt that they seemed to have more power as well.
Still, it was certainly annoying that the bulk of the information he was looking for was inaccessible with his current level of skill. Sure he could use an employee to access the information but that carried all sorts of risks, such as whether the person could set off an alarm via a PC, the fact his existence would be exposed to MBI and other possibilities that could cause more problems for him.
His musings were cut short upon feeling a Kage Bunshin dispel and without any preamble, he made his way to a secluded area where he quickly put his ANBU uniform back on before using a few shunshin to appear in the office of the Yakuza boss that had hired him a few times.
Once again the criminal leaders guards jumped in shock upon seeing a man literally appear out of thin air, the boss however had already predicted his arrival.
"You know, I find it quite suspicious that you always know when I need you Mamushi," the man with greying hair stated bluntly.
"I have my sources," was the only answer the man received concerning the blonds ability to know when he needed an assassin, "so, what is the brief?"
Upon hearing the cloaked assassin's question, he decided to give a full detail of what was happening.
"Higa Izumi has become a thorn in our side," the leader stated calmly, earning no response from the jinchūriki, "he recently managed to get his hands on some sort of super soldier and started disrupting our operations."
Naruto found himself growing interested at the man's statement about super soldiers, it was obviously one of these aliens of MBI's that he was talking about, which would probably mean that Higa was one of these 'Ashikabi' people.
"Unfortunately, my people have already proven completely ineffective against this person so I decided that you would probably be capable of doing what they can't," the old Yakuza stated calmly, "I want you to gain leverage on Higa, something that can make him our pawn, can you do that?"
It took a few seconds for Naruto to think over the possibilities of how to put a leash on the head of the international conglomerate, using his secretary was out of the question, if Higa had access to those non-humans then holding the man would be near impossible if the location was ever discovered… provided Naruto wasn't there of course and he wasn't prepared to stand around guarding one person all day for several months if not years. The only thing he could think of that would put the man on a leash would be simple.
"Would turning him into a walking bomb suffice?" the question earned a few blinks from those in the room with him as they tried to figure out if he was being serious or cracking a joke.
"Can you really do that?" the head of the Yakuza asked seriously, earning a nod of confirmation from the masked ninja, "and is there any way for him to be saved if you do that?"
"No, attempting to remove it would result in it being triggered and killing him anyway," the shinobi stated seriously, earning a raised eyebrow off the older man.
"Well, if that'll be the case then use that method," the leader had long since decided that it was better if he didn't doubt the impossible man's skills, he had already done so much that he had been given the moniker 'the impossible killer' by some of his contacts in high places… he was still amazed that the young man he had been the first to hire had actually assassinated the American Secretary of Defence over a month ago and they were still no closer to figuring out how he did it than when they first started examining the crime scene, "so what is your price for this job?"
"One billion yen," the distorted monotone stated from behind the mask, earning a nod of acceptance from the leader of the crime syndicate.
"If you really can get him under our thumb then that won't be a problem," and that was the truth, Higa Pharmaceuticals made profits greater than that in a month despite the competition from MBI so getting their CEO under their thumb would be of much greater financial benefit to them than the loss they would make from paying the assassin to deal with the man.
Naruto remained still as he watched his employer place a smartphone on the table in front of him. The man was already aware of the blonds refusal to carry a mobile phone on his person, he knew that it was possible to track the devices as long as they were turned on and he wasn't certain if it was possible to do so while they were switched off but he didn't want to risk it.
At least his laptop didn't have anything outside of a network router that only worked if it was turned on, on top of that he had also ensured that the model he bought did not have a built in webcam… he didn't want to give hackers anything to watch him with while he was researching things online.
"I assume you want me to put you on a video call once Higa is being co-operative," the whiskered ANBU stated as he picked up the mobile without any hesitation.
"Yes, I'll be looking forward to hearing the good news," the scarred man informed him with what most people would probably call a menacing smile, Naruto however didn't even register it, the lack of killing intent made it fall short of intimidating him.
And without saying another word, he vanished from the room, leaving no trace of him ever existing.
"Damn… that guy is scary," one of the guards muttered once the masked shinobi no longer visible.
"I know… all you have to do to realise how scary he is is look at the jobs he's pulled off," the boss stated as he took a drink of sake, "but he's not worth trying anything against, he works for us and our allies and I've never met an assassin better than him."
"But do you really think we can trust him? He's been working for you for nearly two months now and you still don't know anything about him," the guard asked earning a sigh off the leader.
"And the scariest part is that our situation is normal," the scarred man informed his underling, "no one knows anything about him, we don't know where his money goes, we don't know his name, his age, his nationality or even his address… he is a complete unknown to everyone and that just goes to prove one thing."
"And what does it prove?" he unnerved guard asked.
"That he's a true professional."
XXX XXX XXX
Naruto had to admit, the Higa offices were pathetically easy to infiltrate despite the lack of entrance points. They had so much cover that anyone with enough patience and good enough senses could navigate through them without much difficulty… so for someone like Naruto who could literally hide in plain sight… well there wasn't much the security of the building could do.
He wasn't even a shadow as the light was warped around his frame and he moved with grace that made even the greatest professional dancers look like babies trying to take their first steps.
There was no hint that he existed as he darted through the skyscraper, effortlessly darting up the stairwell as his limitless stamina and well trained body allowed him to make the twenty seven story climb in mere minutes and completely unfazed by the distance he had crossed and climbed.
It wasn't particularly hard to figure out that this was the floor he was after, it was the top floor outside of the roof itself and would therefore be the location of Higa Izumi's office.
The problem of course would be opening the door without being detected, the chances were that the secretary would be facing it in order to give him a chance to decide if the person is a scheduled appointment or not.
It wasn't a particularly big problem though.
Naruto had long since come up with a trick for situations like this and was already adept at using it by the time he had gotten his official mask… and it was also the main reason he had been accepted into ANBU in the first place.
Kage Bunshin, a jutsu he was so good at using that creating one didn't require any hand seals, he could position it wherever he wanted within one hundred yards of his position and most importantly, it no longer made any smoke or sound upon being created.
He waited for a couple of seconds before receiving the memories of the copy that had knocked out the secretary before he could become a nuisance to the blonds progress.
He entered the foyer to the CEO's office, noting the drab décor, it was obviously designed almost solely as a functional space as opposed to a comfortable area, not that he was surprised by that fact, he had long since been informed that the board of directors were old men who only cared about profit.
And of course, minimising costs was one of the key aspects of generating profit and comfort wasn't cheap.
Once again he used his usual method of checking past barriers, since he wasn't a sensor type he only had limited methods of detecting those outside of his standard senses and even if he was a sensor type, it was entirely possible that the people here didn't have the power… he was completely certain he was in a different reality now and he expected humans to have different physical capabilities to what he was used to.
He was certain that even those aliens didn't used chakra to achieve the results they did, otherwise they wouldn't be restricted to a single ability like they were… exactly what they did use was something he didn't want to bother trying to figure out but he was certain it wasn't chakra… there were just too many discrepancies between the two powers.
Once again he was hit by the memories of the bunshin that had invaded Higa's office, letting him know that the man was ready for extraction, and so he entered the office and looked over the man he knew was Higa Izumi. The man was wearing a custom tailored business suit in pure white outside of the plain black tie that was tied around his neck. His hair was in a style that Naruto had come to realise was considered stylish in this reality. The main aspect of the man that Naruto was concerned about however, was that he was unconscious, just like he was supposed to be.
He quickly picked the man from his chair and with a quick summon and release of a Kage Bunshin, he vanished from the office, once again a spectre that didn't leave a single trace of his existence behind outside of the job he was hired to do.
