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A/N

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Chapter 4

"I refuse." Naruto slapped the folder shut and pushed it across the table. On the other side of said table were three men in business suits with rifles drawn and a smaller man with messy brown hair and a shirt that read "Eat Me" in blue and red across his black shirt. The man grimaced and looked to the three armed people with him. Rolling his eyes, Naruto took the file back and opened it up. "You want me to kill one…" he stopped and tried to sound out the name of the person before giving up, "…I'm not going to bother trying to pronounce his name. This man is a member of the council that governs over Mistral. And true, he is here on vacation, but I know how these people work."

"So you are refusing?"

"Of course I'm refusing." Naruto dropped the file and ran a hand over his face. It was surprisingly hot today and while Naruto didn't mind the heat nearly as much as the other four people did, Naruto did have to admit he hated how much his tail was going to smell in a few hours once all the sweat was stuck in his fur. "You're asking me to kill a member of the Mistral government that is an acting councilman. I know the kind of bodyguards these people have. The heat would be too great and the risk of death too high. You couldn't pay me enough money to kill one of these people even with a rifle that could reach out and touch someone at ten miles away."

"That's too bad. I really wanted this guy dead and from what I hear, you're pretty good at it. So I thought I'd try you out. Clearly, you're not as hyped up as I was lead to believe. But," he snapped his fingers and they aimed their rifles at Naruto, "you know what my plan is so you can't be alive anymore."

"Fair enough," Naruto said while nodding. "But before you're people start shooting up this place, let me remind you where you are. You are in a moderately public place, though right now it's closed, and you are within about four blocks from the police station. Now, I know that most of these cops are either dirty, blind, deaf, and dumb, but if a public place is shot up… Well… they're going to look into it. This is a dinner and they do like their coffee from this place. Even I like it."

"So what's your point?"

Scratching his nose, the blond Faunus laughed and said, "Well, the cops are four blocks down and they do patrol these streets at night. So any loud noises, they're going to come running if they're in the area. This," Naruto checked his scroll and shook his head, "would mean they're driving by right now. So you'll have to wait a little bit before you can shoot me." And on cue a cop car strolled by. The four men looked at him questioningly for a moment before they lowered their weapons. "Now let's be civil about this and just move on by. I don't remember the name of the person and you didn't pay me. If I go to the cops then you can just throw this away. They have nothing to show for you wanting to kill this person. I don't even know your motives for doing it."

The man licked his teeth and glanced at the three men at his side. "You don't know why I'm doing this?"

"And the cops don't really matter around here," one of the men told him. Naruto gave him a questioning look and allowed him to elaborate. "We may not be well-known mobsters, but we certainly are them. The cops in this area aren't the brightest, but they're not going to question the body of a Faunus showing up somewhere with a few bullets in it."

"That's interesting and I don't care about why you want that man dead. The less I know means the longer you get to live. If you try to kill me, I will kill you. It's that simple." Naruto stood up and dusted off his shirt. The three men pointed their guns at him. "Do you guys really even have to point a gun at me at this point? I can kill two of you before the third one takes me down. Only one of you idiots have access to your aura, so that means you'd be harder to put down. But I suppose your boss here pays for all your deeds and other needs. So if I off him, you're out of a paycheck. Also, I'm not going to go tell the cops. I also know that you three are just buddies of his. You're not even real mob people. Also," Naruto reached forward and grabbed the mans' shirt to haul him to his feet, "if you try to blackmail me again, know that I will introduce you to the ground. And you're relationship will be intimate."

Naruto strolled out the front door shaking his head as the four people looked to each other as if asking one another if this was okay. Naruto pulled out his scroll and dialed Junior's number. "You need to start making sure these people aren't idiots wanting me to do something stupid."

"You were the one that took the job to scare a little girl in red, remember."

Naruto chuckled and scratched at his chin at the memory of that. Ruby was a sweet girl. She was actually very nice and would more than likely go on to become a truly terrifying fighter if she survived long enough. She did have Qrow backing her, so that was a plus. But on the up and up she wasn't all there in the head, really. That was two weeks ago and in that time he had caught her at the other various weapon shops around town glued to magazines and fawning over other weapons hot off the line as state of the art weapons of war.

"Yes. I do remember doing that. But," Naruto paused as a cop car raced by him with its sirens on, "I am not going to do these idiotic assassination missions. Junior, you of all people would know how stupid it is to go after one of these guys on the ground. Why allow him in?"

Junior was quiet for a while before saying, "If you're referring to the Flight 107 incident, that's real cute. Mistral was screwed because of that flight."

"I did my research on it as well. I'm well aware of what happened. But I am not taking a job to assassinate a councilman that's on the ground. They have three to five teams of a well-trained Huntsman guarding them throughout their term. Once their term is over, they are then more easily reachable on the ground than they are in the air. That's why I refuse to the job."

"So if I told you he knew where and when the person was flying, you'd take a shot at them?"

Naruto watched a cop go by – stopping for a moment and seeing him on his scroll – as he responded to call. "Even then I'd have mix feelings about it. People that do those sorts of things are often willing to cover up the mess they make by killing off the killer. Some people just don't want the evidence to come back on them."

"That's true. Listen, I got a another job for you. Some woman showed up wanting to speak with you and only you. Gave us a card and said he name was Scarlett Schnee. I'm looking in to it now to see-"

"Don't bother. It's an alias. But I'll talk to the person. See where this job goes." Naruto hung up and stopped walking. He glanced up at the night sky and a flash of fire formed in his minds' eye. His left arm tightened as anger flashed through his entire body. He felt heat and then there was nothing but coldness. In the blink of an eye it was gone and he smiled.

The click of a gun being prepped sounded behind him and he sighed. "Really?"

(-)

"You're late," Melanie grumbled.

Naruto gave an apologetic smile that she rolled her eyes at. "Sorry, I had to clean up."

"Is that blood?"

Naruto looked down at his shirt and narrowed his eyes. "Maybe… Hard to tell. Why? Want to go out on a date or something? This is my nice shirt."

"Funny." She shoved a washrag into his chest. "Clean up and then go talk to the client. She's at table five."

Naruto glanced over his shoulder to the table in question and saw a woman in a brown business suit with black hair done up in a tight bun. She was sipping on one of the fruity drinks that Junior loved to make. If he had to guess it looked like a Strawberry Sunrise. "Fine," he grumbled to her. "Are my clothes still in the back room?" She sauntered off, popping her hips as she did. "I am soooo pranking you tonight."

"Cut her some slack," Miltia told him as she walked up to him. "She's not happy with our bills for this month. The landlord wanted more money because we incurred some damages after a neighbors' dog got loose, got into our house, and then chewed up the floor."

"…What?" Miltia followed him to the backroom where his spare clothes for times like these were stashed. Junior liked Naruto a lot, but he didn't like him when he showed up covered in blood. Most of the times he did it as a joke but now that the novelty of the joke was wearing off, Naruto wasn't too sure about doing it anymore. Today was just an accident. "That sucks. If you two need help…"

"We're fine. She's just upset from the increase in the pay for this. Give her a few days and she'll settle down." She shut the door behind herself and leaned against it. Naruto pulled his shirt off and she turned away as he changed into new clothes. "So why did you refuse the job? This should have been easy. Having a change of heart?"

"No," Naruto said with a grunt while pulling on his slacks.

He hated them just as much as Melanie hated him wearing orange. There was nothing wrong with orange. There was, however, a great crime being committed by his awesomeness being forced to look nice and business like for someone he didn't much care to see when he was a paid mercenary. As much fun as he had arguing with Melanie over what he was, he knew that deep down he was nothing but a contract killer. Pay him enough money and give him enough resources, and you might get exactly what you paid for. His latest job involved him "evicting" a family of three out of their home by an upset business owner. Of course said business owner was also dead, but that was because he refused to pay up after the deed was done.

It wasn't really like Naruto was a bad guy either. He had done a little bit of good in the world every now and then. Shortly after meeting Ruby and "scaring" her into not going to a weapon shop as often, he found a peculiar little cat Faunus being arrested for simply being in the area. Honestly, it was amazing they even figured out given how it was nothing but the stupid cops that found her. But even a bunch of brain dead idiots could spot something amiss with the little girl in black. Stealing seemed to be her thing that got her caught and when they arrested her they were quick to notice that her bow twitched.

So being the good person that he was, Naruto paid her bond and then settled everything later that night by breaking in and stealing all the evidence pertaining to her case. Without any evidence they weren't exactly boned, but a quick call to Ozpin set everything straight and gave her passage to Beacon. While Naruto had also received another offer to join, he politely declined and continued to do things his way.

Throwing his shirt on and then grabbing a red button up shirt, Naruto grumbled out, "I'm not changing my ways. But I am not suicidal. I refuse to do a job that puts me against three powerful teams of Huntsman that I know could kill me without breaking a sweat. My semblance might be powerful but it's not that powerful."

Miltia huffed at the idea of his semblance having power behind it. She hadn't seen it. Only Junior seemed to know what it was and he wasn't sharing. "So you're not going to do that job but you're most likely going to get another assassination job from this person."

"Well we don't know that. Maybe this Scarlett Schnee just wants me to have sex with her. That'd be a thing. I'd probably turn that down, though."

"You'd turn down sex where they're paying you?"

"I don't know what she's got up her ass. What if she's got some sort of terrible disease that makes me sterile? At some point in my life I would like to have kids. Maybe three kids. One boy and two girls. That sounds about right."

"Three kids? Two girls and one boy?"

"The son would be the oldest and he would look after his little sisters when I can't. He would be the daddy that I can't be when it is needed. Plus I'd like him to pester them and learn that women are terrifying and powerful creatures that can both make a man and destroy him. It's sort of a running thing in my life that all women I know can kick my ass. I'm not sure why." Naruto stopped to check himself in the mirror for a moment. "How do I look?"

Miltia turned around with twitching eyes. Naruto was finishing up by tucking his shirt in when she reached forward and unbuttoned the top button on his shirt and then turned his collar down. "Now go to your meeting. You look presentable… though I fail to see why you even need to look good anyways."

"Even I don't know the answer to that." Taking a deep breathe, he opened the door only to stop at the door and faced her. "So what's the point in you dressing up? That doesn't make much sense. You are just a guard."

Crossing her arms underneath her bust and gave him a dark smile. "Perhaps I do this to gain the watchful eyes of men that may gain my interest."

Naruto face fell as he stalked up to her a put a hand on her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed. "All that does it make you look like a whore that wants sex. As much I like the outfit on you, I think you should wear something else unless you want to wind up in a dumpster somewhere someday." Her eyes twitched in response and she slowly turned away from him. Naruto slowly cupped her chin and pulled her gaze back to him. "I may joke a lot about you two, but you are really good friends to me. So I do care about you. This is me caring." He let go and walked out the door.

Miltia stayed for several minutes before following after him and ended up missing the meeting that she needed to eavesdrop on.

(-)

"Sorry that I'm late. I just got back from a job and I do like to dress to impress," Naruto confessed as he sat down in front of Scarlett Schnee. The woman gave a tight smile as she saw his tail wrap around his waist before sitting down. "So I understand you request me for a job?"

"Yes," she replied bitterly. Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly. "Sorry but I was under the impression you were human, not a Faunus."

Smiling through her harsh tone, the blond clasped his hands and said, "Well I am terribly sorry for that. I do know that the Schnee Family has a very low tolerance for Faunus," as politely as he could. It was easy to spot his sarcasm. "So what's the job?"

Scarlett cleared her throat as she laid her scroll down on the table and clicked it. A hologram showing one of Mistrals' islands appeared between them. "Mistral, as you know, has over a dozen islands surrounding it. Each one is inhabited by over a thousand people. This island is called The Distant Haven and is the location for your job. The job will be a simple guard and escort one. The nature of the job is to secure information that the SDC wants currently." Naruto brow furrowed together as she changed the image to a bunch of charts. "The island in question is rich in Dust and the SDC has bought the rights to it. Naturally we'd start mining it, but we ran into a small snag. Before any mining could be done there was a series of seismic anomalies that took the life of three workers and over a dozen civilians in the town five miles west of the worksite."

"So I'm to guard people from a natural disaster?"

"It's not a natural disaster. This is something else entirely." She pointed to one of the graphs that had a spike going up and then down sporadically. "Earthquakes can vary in duration and power. You could say that Vale is currently being hit by one right now and we just can't feel it."

"So earthquakes are bad. Got it."

"They can be good as well. But I'm not going to waste my time speaking of such things. So we're putting together a team to go investigate the odd seismic anomalies. The reason this is strange is because the location for which they originated is at least a thousand meters below the surface of where we want to mine. Normally they'd be further underground, but what makes this whole thing stranger is that it's rising to the surface. The last scan put it at least seven hundred meters below the surface."

Naruto tapped his fingers on the table in thought. Scarlett looked worried as he leaned back and started drumming his fingers harder and faster before stopping. "So what do you think this is?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I'm not a huntsman. I'd like to assume we haven't found a nest of some sort, but with the way this acting…"

"It could be a volcano," Naruto told her. She laughed and adjusted her glasses. "You don't think so?"

"Uzumaki, there is no volcano on this island. It wouldn't be amazing to see such a thing on it. But I highly doubt that's what this is." Naruto took a deep breath and ran a hand over his face. "This thing is rising to the surface. Whatever it is we want to know. The Mistral Government wants answers as well. They've turned to us for information on this and have allowed us to send in our specialists. Our specialist has the equipment necessary for this operation. We have been working on a new sonar scanner just for this. The operation won't be going down for a month of two if we're lucky. We are trying to be very thorough about this."

"And all I have to do is guard these people?"

"That is your job, yes. While we would love nothing more than to use the Huntsman and other military personal that Mistral has, their current government is in a state of decay that could lead to a civil war. The island we're sending you to is currently occupied by both sides of this potential war. To that end we're reaching out to other Huntsman and our private military force to ensure the safety of our scientist."

"Then why come to me?"

She tapped her scroll and an image of a wanted poster came up showing Naruto, a woman with long black hair and red eyes, another man with black hair and white eyes, and a man with brown hair with red triangles pointing down his cheeks. Each wanted poster showed a bounty for each person. Naruto's bounty wasn't nearly as high as the two people with black hair. "We understand that you and a group of people are wanted in Mistral for your terrorist attack on Flight 107 that killed two hundred plus people, including the two Council Members that help govern them. But you did kill Dr. Theodor Thadius in your act, so that's a plus to us."

"Why?"

"His research was very… alarming to us. To show good will for your actions, we are currently speaking with the Mistral Government to gain you pardon for your actions. Should we get the pardon for you, you will be allowed to enter Mistral again and do this job for us. If you complete the job we can remove all crimes you've committed in Mistral."

"I left a lot of bodies behind in Mistral."

"And we'll cover each and every one of them up. But you must complete the mission we're giving you. To make things easier, we are also in the process of procuring other members to assist you. While we would like to gain the aid of the Mistral forces, due to their current problems, we fill more secure in finding people of questionable allegiances to Mistral. You'll be happy to know that the Wolf of Vacuo will be joining you in this operation."

"That just fills me with confidence."

"I understand that you two don't work well together. But we don't care if you hate each other. As long as you work together, that's fine."

Naruto drummed his fingers on the table for a while. He kept his eyes closed and when he opened them, his scalar was red. "I'll do the job. But if he gets out of line, I will kill him."

"Do what you want; but understand that I may not be able to guarantee your payment if you kill members of your team." Naruto's left eye twitched in irritation. She picked up her scroll and flicked the hologram off. "We'll be in contact, Uzumaki." She walked out the door while popping her hips. Naruto watched her go with a snort of indifference before grabbing up his drink and downing it in one go.

"I'm drinking tonight," he muttered while walking out onto the open floor and up to the counter. Junior was cleaning of a cup. "Something strong and dark, please." Miltia put a beer down and sat beside him. Naruto took the beer and started hammering it down. "I hate that lady," he finally breathed out in a rasp.

"You've met her before?" Junior asked carefully.

Naruto drank the rest of the beer and slammed it down. Miltia gave him another one. "Yes," he answered hatefully. "The last time I saw her she went under the alias of Rose Ycaruse, and before that she was Ruby Hyuuga." Naruto drank some of his beer, his anger finally starting to subside. "She had me go on various jobs and for a while the pay was great, but then she made me work with someone else as a handler and… well… Flight one hundred and seven happened."

"So you were there when the plane went down?" Junior asked.

"I wasn't just there. I pulled the trigger on the rockets. They told me we were destabilizing Mistrals' economy for Vacuo. I didn't much care about what was being done or why. The pay was good and I did it. Then they cut us loose and we became wanted people in Mistral. Strange that it didn't reach out here to Vale or back to Atlas. Maybe it never got out because they only have a picture of my face from back then when I wore a mask." He laughed and shook his head. "Well when she cut us loose she told the Mistral Government out names, so I highly doubt that's the case."

"So if she cut you guys loose, why come back and recruit you now for a job?" Miltia asked. She was in the middle of making a mix drink for herself. Melanie already had a mix drink and was currently sucking it down.

"Who knows? I did good work. I followed orders. Maybe she just wants to keep me on a short leash so I don't go against her. Whoever she is, she does have some interesting means of getting around. I don't know her real name." Naruto downed the beer and motioned for another. Junior provided the drink and watched as the blond sucked it down. "It doesn't matter. This job isn't going to be for a while. So I have time to get some information on this woman and the state of affair in Mistral."

"Well I can tell you that the state of affair there isn't as great as they want people to believe. It is in the hole right now with a chance for civil war breaking out. If that does happen, then things are going to get messy there real fast. The White Fang have been using their trade routes for their illegal activities. The last known usage they had of that trade route was the bombs they smuggled out that they used on the SDC mining facility in New Haven. That was three months ago. They traced the bombs to a manufacturing plant out of Haven. The weapon creator was Ycaruse Industries. The supplier was the main guys' older son."

"I remember. They put him down shortly after that. Cobalt, I think his name was." Naruto took another long pull from his drink and sighed. "I really hate my job sometimes. I mean I like the fact that I go places and do amazing things, but at the end of the day, it's kind of boring."

Naruto got up and grabbed two more beers and moved to a table away from them. Miltia grabbed her mix drink and followed after him. Naruto sat down at the table and started drinking. Miltia sat down beside him to watch him drink. It was a long time before Miltia said, "Are you truly going to go on this mission? If they cut you lose what are you going to do?"

The blond finished his beer and then started on the second one. "I'll kill everyone to get out. I'm good at hiding and escaping when I need to. So this won't be anything new to me."

"You're most likely be cut while in the hands of the military?"

"Then I kill everyone and escape." He took another long pull from his drink. "It won't be the first time I've done it. That bitch left me high and dry in Vacuo during an operation that she wanted us to do. We had to kick a mobster that was a witness that was under military protection since he was an eyewitness in an investigation a war crime that was done by an entire squad. We didn't know the full details of what we were getting into. When we offed the person that we were sent after we were cut lose and the military tried to get us. It was only after everything went down that we figured out what had happened."

"How'd you escape?"

Naruto finished off his beer and motioned for another one. "We killed everyone in order to escape. When we got out of there we were told that our action managed to stop the trial and gain the pardon of the troops responsible for the war crime. In the end, we learned that it brought out a great deal of hatred amongst the people. That hatred brought a lot of Grimm o the city and in the end our actions caused the death of a lot of people. In the end the only thing that mattered was that we survived."

Melanie brought over his last beer. "We're closing now," she told him.

Naruto nodded as he got to his feet. He stumbled towards the door and a helping hand stetted him. Glancing at the owner of the helping hand, he smiled when he found it to be Miltia. "Let's get you home," she told him.

Naruto finished his beer with a laugh. "…Thanks…" Miltia smiled and helped him get home. "Do you think I should do this?"

"The job?" She nodded. "I can't not take it. As much I'd like to turn her down, if I don't do this, I might end up on a wanted poster out here." They walked up the steps to his apartment. Naruto fished out his keys and opened the door. She helped him in and moved to his bed with him. Naruto collapsed on his bed and laughed as he sat up and said, "I'm not done drinking," as he wobbled over to the fridge. Miltia watched with worried eyes as he pulled out two beers and tossed one her way. She snatched it out of the air and noticed the label was removed. "I start drinking when I was sixteen. I got a fake ID and I buy whatever I want when I want it. This is just one of those drinks."

Popping the top she took a swig of it and sat down on the floor. Naruto returned to his bed and continued drinking.

"So do you have a lot of things you regret?" Miltia asked carefully.

Naruto struggled to remove the cap from his drink. Miltia helped him with it. The alcohol was already setting in on him. "…Yeah…" he finally said. "There are a lot of things I regret doing. Some of them are things I wish I could change. But the sad truth is that I wouldn't be nearly as happy as I am if I didn't do them. Do I regret making those choices? Yes. Am I happy in the end? Yes." Naruto finished his beer and moved to the fridge to grab another one. He slammed the door shut to it and stared off into space before blurting out, "If things were different, I'd be dead and they'd be laughing," as he moved back to the bed.

Confused by his words, Miltia opened her mouth to speak but then noticed that he had returned to normal as if he had sobered up. "I guess I should go," she told him. She finished her beer and wobbled as she got to her feet. Naruto was quickly beside her helping her stand. "I'm good. It won't be the first time I've wobbled home before."

"You're not going anywhere like that." He guided her to his bed where she sat down and took a deep breath. "It's not safe at night around these parts. I'll sleep on the floor." He got up to get more blankets and stopped when she didn't let go of his hand. "…Are you okay?" he asked with a slur.

Slowly her free hand wrapped around his waist and she hoisted herself up to him. He was surprisingly taller than herself. Half drunk, her lips locked with his. For a full second he fought the kiss before dropping his beer and grabbing hold of the back of her head to press deeper into the kiss. She let go of his wrist and began undoing his pants with her freehand. Naruto broke the kiss. "Don't stop," she ordered tiredly as she pulled him close again. Forced to bend to her will, he continued to his tongue war with her. His right hand went to her breast while his left hand went to her butt. "Take me now," she ordered after breaking the kiss for air.

Slowly, Naruto untied the lace on the back of her dress and everything became a blur.

(-)

Why are my hips so sore? That was the first thing to go through Miltia's mind as her mind registered the suns' rays slipping through the blind and hitting her square in the face. Slowly, she sat up and a groan escaped Miltia's lips as she did. Her right arm and hand were asleep, so Miltia rubbed her eyes with her left. While she was trying to figure out the three main questions on her mind – Where am I? What happened last night? And why are my hips so sore? – she swung her legs over the side of the bed and looked down to see her dress scattered amongst other various clothing.

But more to the point: Not her room.

"Ngn…" The groan to her right made Miltia look over her shoulder. With unruly blond hair sprawled across the pillow, a sleeping boy lay. A smile worked its way across Miltia's face.

"And that answers all of my questions," she mumbled. She looked down at the clothes on the floor and found her panties and her dress scattered amongst other clothes and other items.

Tentatively she got up hugging the thin sheet to her chest. It took a moment for her mind to settle from her original panicked state, but when rational thinking kicked in she remembered parts of last night. Glancing around the room she was quick to find her panties and quickly scooped it up, along with her dress, and made her way to the bathroom to shower and clean up.

Rolling her shoulder to wake it up, she grimaced as blood flow began to return to her limb, giving her a tingling feeling that made her groan. She turned the water on and felt it a few times before getting it just right.

Warm water will loosen me up. She grimaced and rubbed her sore hips and back as she got in. As soon as she was in the shower she sighed in relief as the warm water began to do its work.

(-)

The sound of running water was the first thing Naruto heard when he started to wake up. Sapphire eyes blinked open and a sleepy hand reached around the empty of the bed. Once he could see more than blurry shapes, Naruto frowned at being unable to find Miltia beside him.

Last night had been a terrible mistake.

Naruto sat up in his bed and rubbed his eyes to further clear the blurriness from his eyes. Last night was a terrible mistake on both their parts. They were drunk. They had sex. Naruto was emotionally wrecked by the arrival of the woman under the alias of Scarlett Schnee. They both wanted it, but there wasn't a reason for them to do it.

Sighing, he got to his feet and touched his forehead as a headache began to form. The wonders of aura only went so far. They could heal bones in hours, mend flesh in minutes, but curing a hangover was not on their list of amazing abilities. If it was, every drunk in the world would try to unlock their aura.

Naruto walked to the bathroom and pushed the door opening, ignoring a whispered yelp of surprise. He picked a bottle of painkillers up from the sink and downed three of them without water before looking through the thick steam and spying the terrified form of Miltia. She did her best to cover her naked body, but Naruto didn't really. Care he'd seen it once. Seeing it again wasn't really anything surprising to him now.

"I'm taking the next one," he told her tiredly as he walked out. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Unless you want me to join you," he added. She groaned and finished cleaning up as quickly as she could. Once she was out of the shower she bolted from his apartment. Naruto took his shower and closed his eyes as he knew what would happen next. Melanie is going to try and kill me.

He finished up and got dressed. Naruto began heating up his ramen before grabbing a pitcher and taking it into his computer room to water his plants. His monitor was flashing with a message. He ignored it until he watered his plants and grabbed his ramen. Once he was seated, he opened it and skimmed over most of it. It was a message from the contact and details on his operation. He skimmed them till he got to the end. He blinked and re-read the message two times before shaking his head. "Fucking hell," he grumbled as he turned the monitor. I'll kill the both of them. He walked out to take his punishment and start his work day with Junior as a bodyguard. There was no way this day was going to get any worse.

(-)

The idea of coincidence was that something happened without reason. For people like Naruto, the idea of a coincidence was like the idea of the moon being full of Ramen: Not possible. Over the years Naruto had grown used to the idea that everything happened for a reason. Nothing could not be explained with the power of science or just thinking really hard. In his mind, everything could be explained and if it couldn't, it was a lie, something Naruto was really good at doing or figuring out.

So when he stepped into the bar, he got the vibe of something being off and decided to see how it all played out.

Miltia avoided his gaze when he got to the bar. "I'll take something not dark today," he said tiredly. Miltia slowly brought him his drink and dutifully went back to work. Melanie watched the interaction carefully before Junior gave a nod and she moved to his side. Naruto dropped some lien on the counter to pay for his drink when a hand not belonged to Junior snatched up the money. "I'd drop it if I were you," Naruto warned while turning to face the owner of the hand.

A man in a bowler hate with orange hair – Was it natural? – wearing a white button down jacket and carrying a cane glanced his way. "Well thankfully I'm not you, so I'll be taking this." Naruto's grip tightened. The man winced and swore he could feel his wrist starting to crack. "Alright!" he bellowed, releasing the lien. "Have your filthy money, you mongrel."

"I'm a fox, actually. And get in line. I was here first." Naruto made a showing motion and started making the rest of his order. "Can I also get something sweet to drink? Wine, if possible." Junior shrugged and got Melanie on it. "So any new requests?"

"Not since the odd lady yesterday."

Naruto snapped his fingers and accepted the drink from Melanie. He took a sip and his eyes shot up. "What is this?"

"Moscato."

Naruto tasted it again and got up to let Junior conduct his business with the orange haired man. Naruto caught the tail end of, "…my bodyguard," before he was out of earshot. He sat down at a small booth and watched the two girls hover over Junior like hungry animals staring down a potential meal. The nagging feeling of something odd happening remained throughout their entire talk. When the orange haired man got up to leave, Naruto got to his feet only to stop when a woman with long blond hair walked in and eyed the place.

Naruto watched her carefully as the twins turned away from the man with orange hair and sat down beside their boss. Junior put his head in his hands. The blond haired girl moved to Junior and the twins. Naruto ground his teeth and moved to his side.

"Strawberry Sunrise. No ice. Oh! And one of those little umbrellas!" The blond haired woman smiled at the bartender as he began preparing the drink.

"Aren't you a little young to be in this club, Blondie?" Junior asked.

"Aren't you a little old to have a name like "Junior,"?" she asked with a laugh.

"So, you know who I am? You gotta name, Sweetheart?"

Arms crossed, she gave him a seductive smile. "Yes, Junior, I've got several. But instead of a Sweetheart, you can just call me Sir!" And then she grabbed nuts. Junior faced became one of shock and then pain in an instant. The men watching drew weapons to defend their boss.

Naruto grabbed a beer from behind the counter and started nursing it, intent of drowning away his sorrows from last night.

"People say you know everything," the woman's voice changed from sweet and innocent to demanding in an instant. She brought out her scroll and showed a picture of a woman with dark hair wearing a black and red outfit. It was hard to make out the outfit, but Naruto could see the face clearly. "Tell me where I can find her and I'll let you go!"

Junior hastily took in the image. Her gripped tightened when he took a second longer than what she wanted. "I've never seen her before! I swear!" His voice was a whimper and high pitched.

"Excuse me?!"

His eyes were tiny as her grip tightened. "I swear, Sir!" Junior quickly glanced around for his three bodyguards. Miltia was most likely in the back doing inventory while Melanie was probably beautifying herself in the bathroom. She supposedly had a date tonight that was showing up. When his eyes tracked down the mercenary blond, he ground his teeth at the sight of him raiding his stash of strong beverages. "Naruto," he squeaked out. "Get over here…" the strange blond girls' grip tightened on his nuts, "…and do your job!"

Naruto wobbled over to them, his eyes unfocused. "Can we talk about my raise?"

"What?!"

Naruto took a long pull from his captured beer and whipped the froth from his mouth with his sleeve. "Can we talk about my raise?"

"What?! Now?! Why?" Junior screamed as the blond haired woman began rolling her wrist. Junior yelped with pain. "Fine! I'll double it! Now – AHH! – do your job!"

"Thank you!" Naruto turned around and wobbled off, leaving a confused blond woman behind and a seething Junior as he sat down at the counter to finish his drink.

"…Right…" She turned her gaze back on the man who's nuts she held in a vice-like grip. Her eyes danced around the rest of the club. A few dozen men in black outfits with red ties and sunglasses had circled around her like fish hungrily awaiting a meal. Her smile grew. "Looks like we have an audience… This must be kind of embarrassing for you, huh? Awkward~"

"Listen, Blondie – Sir – if you wanna make it out of this club alive, then I suggest you let me go. No-"

A sonic boom ripped between the two. The blond haired girl released Junior in favor of covering her ears with Junior doing the same. Junior fell to his knees and doubled over. The strange woman dropped to one knee and groaned as the ringing in her ears grew louder. Eyes tightly shut, she never saw the left hook that came barreling into her stomach that forced the wind out of her lung and sent spittle flying from her mouth.

Eyes cracked open, she found the sight of the drunken blond standing before her with his left arm already sailing for her face. She threw up a hasty defense only to miss entirely as his fist penetrated her defense and nailed her in the side of the temple. She dropped to both knees and fell flat on the ground.

"I really don't like fighting women," Naruto said as he knelt down beside her. He grabbed her hair and started dragging her out. "Is it sexiest to hit you? Is it more sexiest to not hit you? I mean the line has always been sort of in the gray area of things. You hit me for no reason, I can hit you and claim self-defense all I want, but it just gets thrown into the air thanks to the media." Naruto walked outside and happily tossed her to the other side of the park lot where she groaned. "Listen, I don't know where you got your information that Junior knows everything, but he really doesn't know everything or he'd be locked up somewhere for knowing things he shouldn't."

Coughing, the girl got to her feet and wobbled as the ringing in her ears began to die down.

"Listen, you seem like a good person. I'd hate for you to get in trouble doing something stupid. So how about next you not grab some guys' nuts and demand information. There is a better way to do it. Try battering next time. It'll save you a beating, Yang Xiao Long." Before she could ask how he knew her name, Naruto punched her one more time with his left arm and knocked her out. I really hate fighting women. He walked back inside to do damage control with Junior and enjoy the perks of his raise.

A/N

So just so we're clear, Naruto is not an official "good guy" and he's not a "bad guy" either. He's in the middle of that fine line. Naruto will kill an "good guy" just as well as he will kill a "bad guy". Naruto is a mercenary and will fight for whoever pays him the most. And just so we're clear, Naruto, during the two years that hasn't really been drawn out yet, is meant to know things that no other person really knows. Having said that, he doesn't know everything, like how Junior didn't know where Raven was or how later on he doesn't know where Roman is. So there are things that Naruto knows and things that Junior knows and that's why I have him work here as a mercenary/bodyguard.