Chapter 6: The Past and Present
"I can't be the bridge between the old and the new, I'm to consumed by my past."
-Naruto Uzumaki
Drinking wasn't something that Naruto originally enjoyed doing, not after seeing how ignorant it makes even the smartest of people, but that was before he had lived for somewhere around a thousand years. The first few years, after his friends were sealed away in stone, Naruto found himself wandering from village to village acting as a traveling doctor. He healed everything from the common cold to the black plague, even found a way to drive off the infamous disease from most people. The first world war had been the beginning of Naruto's drinking, after all it was he who had failed to stop the group pulling the strings from the shadows and it was because of this failure that the world nearly tore itself apart. The last Uzumaki had gotten out of that slump a few years later and found himself living in Germany for a time, a peaceful little town had taken him in. He married the daughter of a farmer, who belonged to a small yet loving family, and spent many days just tending to the land.
(Memory)
Mia Lehrer had been a young woman, of both Jewish and German descent, that had fallen in love with a wandering doctor that came passing through her small town one day. Despite being the daughter of a farmer, Mia had grown up to be a beautiful maiden that many boys in the town sought after but would never catch her interest. Naruto remembered how he had cured Mia's mother of having a bad set of lungs, which never developed properly as she grew up, and was soon after convinced to stay with them for a week. Mia learned that Naruto wasn't like the other boys of the town, all thick headed and using brute strength to get their way in life, but valued a sharp mind. A week turned into two, two weeks turned into a month, and before long a year had passed. At the end of that year Naruto took Mia out to one of the open fields they had spent many hours at, when they wanted to be alone together, and asked her to marry him.
It was only a year later when things started to change, mostly rumors about entire families being swept away to hidden locations all around Germany. Naruto didn't want to get involved with such things, having grown tired of fighting and now raising a newborn daughter, so he never did go and investigate. He had gone to another town to sell some fresh grain from the newest harvest, a trip he could have made in a single hour had he not wished to blend in with all the normal people. Instead he took three days to and from the town, enjoying the scenery the whole way while thinking of the many things he would experience now that he was an actual father.
"Hm, scaring off boys in her teenage years, teaching her how to fight just like me, making sure she is a good and honest person, and giving her the most loving father she could ever wish for," Naruto said to himself as he neared the place in which he called home.
It was the sound of engines that alerted Naruto to move off the road, only for him to blink in surprise when the vehicle passing by contained military personal followed by a jeep that held to men in long black trench coats. Thinking nothing of it, since there was a military base a few miles away and soldiers sometimes passed through town on their way, Naruto moved his carriage back onto the road and continued on his way. Yet, the closer he got to the town, Naruto began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, so much so that he flat out abandoned the cart and took off on foot.
It was the sound of screaming that made Naruto push himself even faster; the screaming was coming from the town itself. The site that Naruto arrived upon was something he had only ever seen on a battlefield, a picture of some gruesome violence that should never be forced upon civilians of any kind. Men and women alike lay dead in the middle of the roads, some looking to have been shot in the back as they attempted to run while others seemed to have been lined up against brick walls before being killed all at once. The baker, a kind old man whose family had been in this town for well over three generations, was gunned down in the middle of the street along with his eldest son and grandson.
The few that were still alive could be seen crying over the deaths of those they had known for years, or over family members that were now corpses on the ground. The sound of gunfire instantly snapped Naruto out of his thoughts, his eyes flashed red for a split second before he took off once more towards whomever was responsible for such evil. It was the soldiers, the same kind of soldiers he had seen pass him on the road on his way into town, and they had just gunned down three mothers that Mia had called friends since childhood.
"Halt, put your hands up!" a voice barked from behind Naruto, who could only focus on the still warm bodies of people he had called friends for the last year.
"I said to put your hands up!" the voice cried again, but this time the words were followed by something hard hitting Naruto in the back of his head.
"Why are you wasting time with this dog? Just shoot him and move on to the others!" another one shouted in mild irritation, clearly a commanding officer left behind to oversee whatever the hell was going on.
The barrel of a gun was pushed up against the back of Naruto's skull, the tip of it was slightly warm from being used recently and there was the unmistakable scent of death that now cloaked the area. A flash of his wife and daughter shot through Naruto's mind, reminding him that the horror of all this was nothing compared to what he would feel if they had been hurt, so the last Uzumaki did the one thing he had done since being born. He fought!
BANG!
It seemed like the impossible just happened before the eyes of the German soldier who had been ordered to shoot Naruto in the back of the head, but he wouldn't have time to ponder such a thing. Instead of Naruto being dead on the group, with a gaping hole through the middle of his head, the blonde was instead standing face to face with him. A sharp pain shot through the soldier's chest, like he had just been kicked by a mule, but when he looked down his eyes widened at the sight of his very own combat knife sticking out of his heart. He was dead before he ever even hit the ground.
The older soldiers watching, who had been smirking at what they thought would soon be another dead dog, barley even had time to blink before Naruto was suddenly upon them with their comrades knife held tightly in his right hand. Naruto was moving faster than the human eye could track, carving a bloody path up and down the street like a man possessed. Twenty three throats were cut open in the time it took the last casualty to scream in panic, although he was silenced soon after.
"N-Naruto," a weak and raspy voice caught Naruto's ears and in a flash he was standing next to the dieing form of his father in law, who had been shot in the chest but had yet to die just yet.
"Hang on, I can help you," Naruto said, moving to call upon his chakra in order to heal the man, but was stopped before he could.
"Mia, they're going to the farm. S-Save Mia and L-Lara."
The man died after those last words left his lips, the light fading from his dark brown eyes while his entire body went limp. Naruto vanished again, panic now clear in his eyes as he raced towards the large cloud of smoke coming from the farm.
(End Memory)
Naruto's azure eyes shop open when he heard the sound of a door opening to his study, where he had been nursing a small glass of scotch while watching the sun slowly rise. Goliath had left a few hours ago, having returned to the castle after a lengthy conversation, and Naruto was left all alone with the memories of a thousand years.
"What is it?" Naruto asked, his azure eyed gaze never turning away from the beautiful sunrise although he did take a sip of his scotch.
"I've taken a deeper look into Elisa Maza, like you asked," the person standing behind Naruto said in a deep yet raspy voice.
"Thank you, leave the file on my desk."
"Sir, may I ask you a question?" the man asked, adjusting his rectangle glaces ever so slightly.
"Yes."
"Why are you so interested in this single detective? She has a impressive record, that much is clear, but beyond that there is nothing special about her."
"That is precisely the reason, there is nothing special about her."
(Later That Night)
Elisa Maza just knew there was something off about David Xanatos and Naruto Uzumaki, no one got as rich and powerful as they were without doing some seriously shady things, so you could imagine her slight worry when her boss said Naruto requested to meet her. She hadn't done anything to really warrant someone of Naruto's social level to take an interest in her, in fact that night at the castle was the first time she had ever seen him, and there was the fact she was meeting him at his office after hours.
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Elisa grumbled to herself, looking up at the foreboding castle that sat atop several billion dollars worth of engineering madness.
"Detective Maza," the blonde, glasses wearing man from the night before, greeted her at the entrance, "Mr. Uzumaki is expecting you, please follow me."
'Yea, this guys has the pull to get in contact with the Chief of Police and request me to meet him after hours. What did I do to piss this guy off?' Elisa began to silently panic, thinking that perhaps she had been to abrasive the night before, it had been a long day and she had been in a very bad mood.
"Do you know why your boss wanted to see me?" Elisa asked, falling into step behind Owen.
"The reason behind Mr. Uzumaki's wishes don't concern me, my job is to simply see them fulfilled to the best of my abilities," Owen didn't even turn around when he spoke, simply calling the elevator and stepping into it when it finally reached the ground floor.
"Any hints?"
"No."
A slightly uncomfortable silence fell into place as the elevator quickly began its climb to the castle above, going from sleek metal to rough brick in a matter of moments. The door opened to a hallway seemingly lit by torches, only to find out that the fire was in fact a hologram and the area was actually lit him smaller lights hidden in the walls and ceiling. Owen didn't even wait for Elisa to regain her focus before moving in the direction of Naruto's personal office, located a few floors above David's.
As they approached the door, Owen suddenly stopped and turned to face Elisa, "Wait here."
Owen then walked inside the office, opening the door just enough for his body to slip in while making sure Elisa couldn't see inside. This gave Elisa a chance to really look at the ancient castle that surrounded her now, noting how beautiful it looked even if she had a feeling that she was being watch at all times. Inside the office, Owen walked in while Naruto was explaining to Goliath some of the other things that had changed in the world while his clan slept.
"So two teams battle to the death over a misshapen ball, while the team that is victorious gains the approval of a massive crowd and currency in which to live on?" Naruto had been spending the last twenty minutes explaining the sport called "Football" and was having varying degrees of success.
"Hahaha, something like that, my friend!" Naruto laughed, truly laughed for the first time in a long time, but that laugh turned serious when he saw Owen enter.
"Mr. Uzumaki, Detective Maza as you requested," Owen reported with a slight bow, greeting Goliath with a stiff nod.
"The woman you spoke to me of, the police officer?" the term was still foreign to the gargoyle, although he was adapting much faster than the others.
"Not just a police officer, my old friend, the possible bridge between humans and gargoyles. Don't worry, I think you'll find that the two of you have a lot in common," Naruto said as he turned back to Owen, "Let her in."
"Right away, sir."