CyberPunk Solar Eclipse

Chapter One: Living on a Prayer

Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto or Cyberpunk 2077 or Edgerunners. This is a fanfiction.

Arasaka Hidden laboratory (Nevada) 2068

"Are you listening to it again?" A cool voice snarked. Naruto jumped slightly as he quickly paused his music and turned to face the speaker. Shortly cut white hair framed a round face and silver eyes that sparkled with barely restrained amusement.

"You gave me a heart attack, Lucy!" Naruto cried embarrassed at being caught unaware by his friend. Lucyna Kushinada stared back at him amused, "If you aren't careful the Lab Techs may catch you." She replied. Naruto grimaced at the thought; the punishments that were handed out for disobedience were legendary, Naruto could only shiver at what they'd do if his actions and hidden files were discovered.

"Is it really important enough for you to risk everything for a couple of old songs?" Lucy asked gently. Naruto sighed, Lucy and Hubert didn't understand, not yet. Naruto had given the two copies of the songs and the three had listened to them together three nights ago. Hubert didn't really care all that much and Lucy, despite trying for his sake, didn't really understand it either.

"It's kinda like a promise Lucy. A promise that there's something out there for all of us." He responded after considering his words, "It's like they're saying that even when things are gone their memory is still there." Lucy scoffed at the younger boy.

"Once you're gone you are gone. That's it. That's all there is." She responded. Naruto flinched a little, Lucy had been growing colder and more closed off each day. The deaths of their friends affected them all differently, Lucy was getting colder, Hubert was straining to be the one everybody leant on and he…well he had been losing himself in the old recordings of Samurai songs. The deaths had affected the other children too, but the truth was despite being his friends Naruto wasn't exactly close with the others. Lucy and Hubert were his bunk mates, they sat next to each other throughout training and their net-chairs were even next to each other, they were his best friends.

Naruto was snapped out of his musing by a slightly deeper voice with a very slight German accent, "The two of you aren't arguing again are you?" Naruto turned to see Hubert standing there hands on his hips in a supposedly authoritative manner. Hubert was the largest child in the group, probably the oldest too, Naruto guessed. He had slightly tanned skin and was heavily set in his build, he had a small patch of black hair on the top of his head and a synthetic chin that Naruto still didn't really see the purpose of. Hubert had been trying his best to be a leader, Naruto supposed, since the latest fatalities. There were only six of their group left, Lucy, Hubert, Tobias, Midori, Yelena and himself. As their numbers shrank their fears grew, these days Midori had to be forced into her Netrunning chair by the technicians. Every day was a test of nerves and courage and Hubert had taken it upon himself to try and be the rock everyone relied on.

"We aren't arguing, I was just…advising him." Lucy responded. Naruto grinned, Hubert had a way of making arguments seem silly and pointless. Even Lucy couldn't deal with Hubert's disappointed older brother act. Hubert smirked as he stretched his arms out behind his head.

"Good because we all need-" He began, "To work together to survive the Net." Lucy and Naruto both chimed. It had become a mantra Hubert tried to drill into the others over the last few weeks.

Hubert pouted at the mocking response of the younger children, "Okay so maybe I do say it too often, it doesn't make it any less true." Naruto and Lucy giggled at his let down tone.

Hubert smiled at the younger children for a moment before a frown stole across his face.

"We're doing another dive in half an hour." He announced. Lucy and Naruto stopped giggling immediately.

"Two dives in one day?" Lucy whispered disbelievingly. Naruto couldn't help but frown, Arasaka had always limited them to one six hour dive a day. Any longer or more than that could be dangerous for any number of reasons; overheating, neural overloads and strain on the immune system to name a few. The fact that Arasaka was making them do a second dive within twenty-four hours was a worrying sign.

Hubert nodded slowly, "The techies have already prepared our chairs, something has riled them up fierce." Naruto and Lucy shared a look, not much would excite the Arasaka Lab Technicians enough to risk their greatest 'assets' in such a way. Lucy rubbed her arms trying to ward off the cold, the compound they lived in was kept very cool, a countermeasure to combat the high temperatures that a Netrunners Interface ran at during a dive. Hubert patted her shoulder consolingly.

"We should get going, the security forces have already retrieved Midori." He softly intoned. Naruto winced, Midori had not been doing well lately. The chirpy Japanese girl had pretty much been reduced to a whimpering mess over the last two months, and knowing that the possibility of multiple dives a day was now on the table was not going to help. Naruto sighed as he quickly buried his Samurai audio files and covered his tracks before following along behind Hubert and Lucy.

"Something has to change soon, we can't keep on like this." Naruto murmured. Lucy scoffed as they walked down another corridor.

"What are we going to do, ask Arasaka if we can take a break? Maybe cash in some sick days?" She snarked. Hubert sighed as he ran a hand down the back of his head, it was a nervous habit for the thirteen year old.

"Don't be so loud with those thoughts." Hubert warned. Naruto and Lucy both nodded as the older boy subtly tilted his head towards a security camera that sat in the corner of the hallway.

"We'll talk more tonight, in the dorm once this dive is over. For now we keep our heads on a swivel and come back alive."

Five Hours Later

Naruto sat with his head in his hands, Lucy leaning into his shoulder as Hubert and the others consoled the sobbing Midori. The second net-dive went well all things considered, they didn't lose anyone and they retrieved some data on a rival of Arasaka (admittedly the data was like 60 years out of date but apparently that didn't matter). It was only when they had safely jacked-out of their chairs did things go wrong. Professor Akira Hojo, the head of this particular Arasaka Lab, had happily declared that the group had done so well that they could expect two Net-dives a day as the new norm. Naruto had managed to keep a straight face as had many of the others but Midori had not taken it well. The younger girl had screamed in terror, shouting that she wouldn't and tried to run. Security had tranquilized her and carried her to their dorms while escorting a somber group of children.

Midori had woken up ten minutes ago and had been inconsolable since. Her green eyes were red from crying and her pinky-red hair was a mess from her pulling on her own tiny pigtails. Hubert stood from his spot next to Midori's bunk before looking around the room cautiously. Naruto nodded quietly as he wirelessly accessed the local systems with the Kiroshi optics that were standard for his group and put the camera's in the room on loop.

"We're clean." Naruto announced. Hubert nodded as he and the other children relaxed knowing they could speak freely.

"We're all going to die." Tobias said quietly. Naruto inwardly winced, the African-american boy was always so negative and never bothered to worry about how his words affected anyone else. Midori broke into heaving sobs as she clung to Yelena who was now glaring at the boy.

"Watch your mouth Tobias! We're going to be fine! You'll see, Arasaka is just testing us." She trailed off. Naruto and Hubert shared a glance at that, Yelena had started out as Arasaka's biggest supporter. The Russian girl had always believed that their suffering had an important purpose, for her to be so unsure was as good as her giving up.

"We need to get out of here." Naruto murmured to himself, missing the shocked looks from his friends.

"What are you talking about Naruto?" Yelena asked him worriedly. Naruto's head shot up from where he'd been staring at his feet. Unease filled the blonde boy as his friends eyed him warily.

"I was just talking to myself, it's nothing." Naruto mumbled, the idea of an escape had been an idle thought nothing more. Tobias scoffed scornfully before he stood up from his spot next to Midori.

"Of course it's nothing! Like we could just leave! We'd be killed. Are you an idiot?" He sneered.

The room was silent as a grave as Tobias' words seemed to bring a heaviness to the room. Only for the silence to be broken by Lucy's next words.

"Why…why don't we escape?" She cautiously proposed. The room fell to silence again as her words filled the room. Naruto winced as his idle thought was seconded by Lucy, Midori's eyes were wide and there was a sparkle of something (hope?) in them. Yelena looked shell shocked, the normally unflappable brunette had covered her mouth and was looking around the room in horror. Tobias had reeled back as if he was struck by Lucy's words before his sneer was back.

"What part of we'll die is difficult to understand Lucy?" He growled. Hubert looked pained as Lucy puffed up her chest and looked Tobias in the eyes.

"We're already going to die!" She cried, "We've lost so many already! Don't you see, Arasaka is going to kill us no matter what!" Lucy said passionately, "Whether it's killing us slowly by sending us into the Old Net or using us until our implants fail, we're going to die."

The silence after Lucy's impromptu speech was almost deafening as the children considered her words. Midori had drawn her legs up to her chest and was leaning into Yelena who looked stunned by but sadly accepting of Lucy's outburst . Tobias had slumped onto his bed and was staring at a blank wall emptily. Naruto honestly wished he had kept his treacherous thoughts to himself but a small rebellious part of him was elated with what he was hearing, the simple idea of being free of Arasaka had him feeling excited. Naruto took a deep breath to calm himself before looking at Hubert. The oldest of their group was inscrutable as he rubbed at his chin.

"Say we do try to escape, how would we do that?" Hubert asked. Naruto almost choked on air as Hubert pretty much approved of this nonexistent plan.

"Well…" Lucy trailed off unsurely. Hubert sighed as the energy started to leave his friends. Naruto grimaced, without a plan the others wouldn't risk anything and Lucy looked a little stumped. Someone needed to support Lucy's escape plan before the others gave up and decided to never consider it again. Naruto braced himself thinking of how to do this.

"Well if the Techies and security haven't noticed when we loop the security cameras and jam their feeds it's safe to say we're the better runners." Naruto began. Hubert sat up straighter at the younger boy's words, "We could access the security network during a dive." the German boy continued. Lucy perked up as her best friends began scheming. Midori watched with rapt attention as Hubert began to pace.

"We mess with everything we can in the security network. We disable all the camera's, overload the security turrets, and open all of the doors and gates." He mused. Naruto grinned as a plan began to form, "We give a bit of a neural overload to the staff which takes them out of the picture and puts us in control of the sub-net." At this point Yelena was stroking Midori's hair with a thoughtful look on her face.

"You make it sound like it'll be that easy." Tobias said quietly, "If we do this, we'll only have one shot. They won't try to take us alive. It'd be easier for them to simply get rid of us and start over rather than increase security to make sure we don't escape again." Naruto could barely keep the smile off his face, if Tobias was talking like this he was already on board.

"If we're going to die, don't you want it to be doing something for yourself?" Lucy asked. Naruto looked over at the girl. She had been quiet for a while now.

"If I'm going to die I want it to be on my own terms, not doing whatever Arasaka wants." She continued, "Even if it's a tiny chance for freedom I want to take it." She finished.

Hubert nodded as he glanced around the room seeing somber but hopeful faces.

"All right, tomorrow we'll wait about an hour into our dive and then we'll rush the Security net, we'll hit the Tech staff first and then the communications. Turret's and doors next and then camera's will go last. If this all goes well, we can make a run for the garage on the ground floor and steal a car and be gone before Arasaka can restore systems." Hubert planned.

Naruto grinned as he and Lucy locked eyes. Hubert had a plan, Tobias and the others were on board and they were finally going to be free.