A young man, about mid 20's, blonde hair, black sleeveless shirt, and an orange sweatpants with a black stripe down the sides finishes topping off the oil of a gloss black 1964 Chevrolet Impala and he closes the hood. He looks over his car before nodding.
"Oh yeah, that's good." He grins before he feels his phone vibrating in his pocket. "Yo."
"When are you going to the car meet tonight?" The man on the phone pauses before, and after saying car meet, as to emphasize that there is something else going on.
"Depends, when are you gonna have your Monte Carlo ready Sasuke?"
"My ride's always ready to roll, I just wanted to make sure you actually changed your oil Naruto." Sasuke jokes, which Naruto thought was unusual of him.
"Didn't know you had any jokes. But you caught me at the right time. I just finished up, I'ma get a shower and see you guys there."
"Sounds good, and remember, the fun starts at midnight." Sasuke says before they hang up. Naruto takes a quick shower and gets dressed. Replacing his shirt and adding an orange letterman like jacket with black sleeves, and black pants, held on with a dark brown leather belt. He grabs his keys and hops into the 64 and turns the key and listens to the engine roar. He looks down to see the time. 10 o'clock, perfect. He pulls out and heads to a park where a few cars are all lined up in the parking lot, with some ladies and gents walking about. He pulls up and parks next to a metallic black 1978 Monte Carlo before killing the engine, and pops the hood. He steps out and walks over to the hood and finishes opening it up to unveil the 409 cubic inch V8.
"So, you gonna LS swap it?" An all too familiar voice asks as Naruto turns to see a familiar face. "How's everything going man?"
"Neji, good to see you here. How's your cousin?"
"Ask her later when you try to get up her skirt." Neji, who has his long black hair in a ponytail, or as he calls it his racing strip, and is in a gray jacket, black gloves, and blue jeans, jokes, getting a slight grin from Naruto.
"Real clever, did you ever get around to fixing your carburetor?"
"Had to rebuild the whole thing. Finally got the parts about a week ago and finished her up the other night. Want a look?"
"Sure." Neji leads him to a metallic silver 1981 Chevy Camaro Z28. "Nice, I see some dirt and whatnot towards the bottom of the front quarter panel."
"Oh what." Neji looks to see that he was only messing with him. "Very funny, have you seen Shikamaru's Stingray?"
"No, why."
"Come with me." Neji and Naruto head to a small group of people, all of which were around a, what can only be freshly painted, metallic black 1963 Stingray Corvette. They walk up to a man in a black leather jacket, navy blue shirt, black jeans, and black fingerless gloves. "Sasuke, where's Shikamaru?" Neji asks Sasuke as he turns to face them.
"Hey guys, he's over there, talking with the guys that worked on his whip." Sasuke points to a group of four guys. One of them, who Naruto and Neji identified as Shickamaru, was in a dark green sleeveless jacket, black long sleeve shirt, and blue jeans, the shortest one had a dark yellow jacket with a red stripe going down the right side and jeans. The larger of the three had a green coat, a red and white striped shirt, and jeans. And the last one, about Shikamaru's size, had an orange turtleneck jacket, a black sock hat, and jeans. Shikamaru hands the shorter man something before walking back with a cigarette in his mouth.
"Gentlemen. What do you think of the ride?"
"Real pretty. Anything fancy under the hood?" Sasuke asks and Shikamaru grins.
"Glad you asked, you guys are gonna love it." Shikamaru heads over to the driver side door, and pops open the hood. He rejoins the three at the front of the car and grabs the lip of the hood. "Drumroll please. No, okay then." Shikamaru opens the hood to see an LS3 under the hood.
"Damn, how much?
"Around 10K for the engine. Was going to be about 8K for the paint, interior and exterior work, that was until I let him know about this here tonight. So all in all, in the neighborhood of 15K"
"Can he drive?" Neji asks as a man in a black puffed up vest over a blue shirt, a red bandana, and black pants, steps onto a milk crate.
"May I have everyone's attention, it is 11:55, all entries for racing will close at 12 sharp. If you have yet to write your name down, please do so." The man steps off and everyone goes back to what they were up to.
"Alright, better sign in. I'll see you guys." Naruto walks off to a small tent where he stands behind a man in a green unzipped jacket, black shirt, and black jeans. "Well if it isn't mister Hollywood?" The man in front of Naruto turns around with a slight grin.
"Firstly, I was visiting some friends of mine, and second, you know I don't wanna pay a few hundred for a full tank of gas."
"You know im fucking with you." The two shake hands before Naruto signs his name on the list. "How are you doing Masamune?"
"Not bad, wanna see something cool?"
"Depends."
"Follow me." He takes him over to a metallic dark green 1998 Toyota Supra with yellow tribal markings on the side. And he notices the green neon lights underneath.
"Damn, nice body work. Is that why you went to California?"
"Yeah, if you ever find yourself out in LA, head to The Pit and ask for Amano, tell em you're a friend of a friend of his daughter, he'll hook you up man."
"I will, hey take care."Naruto walks away and over to his Impala as a green 98 Subaru Impreza WRX STi pulls up to the start line.
"Alright, first up, Kevin in his WRX. Who wants some?" The guy from before with the milk crate says as a matte gray 04 Mercedes-Benz SL 500 pulls up beside him and rolls down the window.
"How much?" The girl asked the man.
"He put up 200." She hands him the $200.
"You and your sister here to keep your family business a float Liz?" Kevin asks, laughing at his not very gentlemanly comment.
"Oh no worries Kevin, I'll shove my foot up your ass for free." Liz answers as she rolls back up the window.
"You know what, I got money on Tompson smoking his ass." Sasuke says, holding up a $20 bill.
"Nobody's gonna take your bet." Naruto says as a small group walks up.
"Heard you have money on Kevin lossing?" The blonde girl asks.
"Yeah I do Nazz, you want in?"
"Don't cry when you lose your money." She says as she walks off.
"His groupies always bet on him."
"And by groupies, you mean just Nazz."
"Same thing. You want in shepherd boy?"
"Rolf is not a betting man. I came over here to see your guy's cars."
"What about him and his slab of wood?" Sasuke points to a shorter fellow who is holding a piece of 2x4.
"I don't think it would be good to get him involved." Rolf says as he walks over to the 63 Stingray.
"Anybody else want in on the race, no? Alright, this is going to be a quarter mile drag. Driver's good?" Both Kevin and Liz flash their high beams to signal all good. "Good, once I wave my hand down, that's when you go." He takes his bandana off his head and lifts it into the air. "3…2…1… GO!" On go, he waves his arm down and both cars burn rubber for a bit before the tires get traction and peel off the line. Both cars are neck and neck for most of the race, but Liz and her SL 500 starts to pull away and crosses the finish line first. With Kevin in the WRX coming in just behind her bumper. The crowd cheers as Kevin was silenced so early into the meet.
"Kevin lost Nazz." Sasuke says as he holds out his hand and she hands over a $20 bill. Naruto walks over to where the guys Shikamaru was talking to before where a gloss green 04 Ram SRT10 sat.
"Umm, hello?" Naruto says as a short man steps away from a metallic green 04 Chrysler 300 C and the two shake hands. "Hey there."
"Nice to meet you, name's Eddy."
"Naruto."
"You, the owner of a 1964 Impala Shikamaru told me about?"
"That I am. Is the 300 C yours?"
"Yes sir. This baby's got a tuned up 5.7 Hemi V8 packing 335 roided up ponies, she's the perfect balance between luxury and performance, what do you think?"
"Nice, why green might I ask?"
"Reminds me of cash."
"Alright."
"Mind showing me your ride."
"Sure, follow me." Naruto and Eddy walk over and look out to see another drag race about to start.
"What engine do you have under the hood?"
"The 409 V8. It's the most power the 64 has to offer, without swapping the engine."
"You got the money for that?"
"Not yet. Could use some tuning though." Naruto says, looking up and noticing Shikamaru's Stingray is missing, before looking at the three cars, a gloss yellow 2012 VW Golf GTI, a matte white 95 Skyline GTR R33, and said 63 Stingray Corvette.
"Hey, I got money on that Stingray." Eddy says as they walk back into the crowd.
"Is that so, I'll take you up, Nazz is winning this race." Kevin says as he pulls a $100 dollar bill out. "You haven't raced yet so I know you got the money dork."
"Yeah, and you are about to have an empty wallet." Eddy says, pulling $100 out of his wallet as a gloss gray 1995 Toyota MR2 Turbo joins the line. The man from before steps in the middle of the four cars and waves his arms down and the Stingray lunges off the line, lifting the front tires off the ground by a good five or six inches, before it comes back down and peels away from the pack and easily wins, with the MR2 crossing a few seconds after. Eddy turns to Kevin with a grin.
"Your lucky dork, how about this, double or nothing, interstate rumble."
"Hold up, if that's the case, I want in." Naruto says, pulling $200 out.
"What's going on here?" Masamune asks as he walks up.
"Interstate rumble, you want in Mister Hollywood?" Kevin asks as he and Eddy pull out their extra hundos.
"Fuck yeah, how many we got?"
"Eddy, Kevin, you, and myself. It's two hundred up."
"I hear you." Masamune says as he pulls out $200 of his own.
"Sasuke, you want in?"
"In what?"
"Interstate rumble."
"Sure, how much?"
"Two bills."
"Sure why not."
"We got five, anyone else." Eddy shouts, and while it gets everyone's attention, no one joins. "Alright, let's do this." He runs over to where his 300C and brings it over to the newly marked start/finish line. From left to right it's Kevin, Naruto, Masamune, Sasuke, and Eddy. Everyone else gathers around.
"Set your radios to FM3." Eddy says as he changes his walkies channel.
"What for?" Sasuke asks as he and the others do so as well.
"So we can hear Kevin bitch as he crosses last." Eddy jokes as the starter raises his hands up.
"Fuck you Eddy." Kevin says as they all start revving their engines.
"Ready, three, two…" He is interrupted by Kevin, who jumps the gun. "Fuck it, go." He waves his hands down and everyone else lunges forward.
"We really need to stop inviting Kevin to these." Shikamaru says as the other four start to quickly gain on Kevin.
"Something has to be wrong. How are you dorks catching up?" Kevin asks as Sasuke gets into bump drafting distance.
"Gasket about to go, vap getting into the engine, an odd mix of both." Sasuke says as he starts to pass the green WRX, with the Supra right behind him.
"Don't play ruff now, I don't want to have my ride get messed up after getting all fancy now." Masamune adds as Naruto's 64 passes by.
"Y'all done talking?" He asks as he turns onto the entry ramp of the freeway. Now it was a five mile dash down the freeway, where they will use the exit ramp to get off, and cross the overhead bridge and back on the freeway, back to the start finish line. Eddy and Kevin start bumping one another as Sasuke and Masamune use this chance to pull away.
"Thanks for the sacrifice Eddy." Masamune jokes as he slides over to the hammer lane.
"Yeah, just don't kill him." Sasuke adds as he punches it, and the two gain on the Impala.
"Don't fuck up my paint job dork."
"You're the one hitting me Kevin." Naruto sees the exit ramp come into sight as the Supra and Monte Carlo start to close in.
"Good timing, I thought you guys stopped trying." Naruto says as he pulls to the exit ramp, with Sasuke and Masamune right behind him, and Eddy and Kevin coming in fast. They turn onto the bridge and Masamune cuts Naruto's line off to take first. "That was risky, but good."
"Gotta risk it for the brisket, or whatever southerners say." Masamune jokes as all five drivers start to battle for the top spot. Eddy starts to push past them, but hits the brakes to avoid another car.
"That was a close one." Eddy says as Naruto takes over the lead as they pull off the freeway. Naruto starts to pull away from the others as he has shifted down to first gear out of the corner.
"Alright, let's give it a shot." He grabs the shifter and tries to gear skip from first to third, that is when a loud bang is heard from where the transmission and engine meet. "Oh fuck, that's not good." He shifts down to second and notes how loose it feels. "Yep, God fucking damnit." He pulls to the side of the road and turns on his emergency blinkers. He tries to rev it in neutral, but it produces a grinding sound, and he punches the wheel in frustration, before killing the engine.
"Who is that?" Masamune asks as Naruto looks up to see that the Supra and Monte Carlo have started to slow down a bit.
"Oh shit, that's Naruto's 64." Sasuke answers as they pull up behind him and rush to the car. "The fuck happened?"
"Fucked up a gear skip, transmission is fucked, probably the engine as well."
"Try starting it, let us hear it." Sasuke says as Naruto pops the hood, and Eddy's 300C passes by. "The hell, and he's a mechanic?"
"Okay, hit it." Masamune says as he shines a flashlight into the engine bay. The engine turns, but the grinding sound is again produced. "Shit, yeah engines fucked man."
"Damn it." Naruto kicks the front driver side tire a few times as back at the gathering, Eddy reaches the finish line first and drives over to Ed and Double D.
"Sock head, hop it. Ed, head back to the shop and get the tow." Ed nods as Double D hops in.
"What's going on Eddy?"
"Don't know what happened, but the 64 is on the side of the road, the guys in the 78 Monte Carlo and 98 Supra are with him."
"Shit, alright let's go." Double D says as Kevin passes them and Eddy speeds off.
"Alright give me my praise." Kevin says as people ask each other what is going on.
"Fuck you Kevin, Eddy won. Not only that but Naruto's 64 broke down." Shikamaru says as he puts the prize money into his pocket.
"And you get to keep it?"
"Eddy didn't take it yet, he rushed back to the Impala."
"Shikamaru, I'mma try to follow them." Neji says as he drives up in the Camaro. "Might want to send them home."
"I hear you. Let me know what happened." Shikamaru says as Neji nods before rushing to catch up to Eddy. "ALRIGHT, EVERYBODY CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION. I'm going to have to call the meeting early, we have a situation with the 1964 Impala right now. I'll work on setting up another meet in the near future. Again, thanks everyone for coming out, and be safe." Everyone heads back to their cars and heads home as Shikamaru stays to clean up what trash is there. As with the trio on the side of the road. Masamune is under the Impala as Naruto cranks it again, with the grinding sounding worse every time as a car pulls up.
"Stop, don't accidently make it worse." Eddy says as he and Double D steps out of the 300C.
"Glad you decided to come by." Sasuke says as he helps Masamune up.
"Had to tell Ed to get the tow so we can take it to the shop." Eddy says as another car pulls up.
"That ain't the tow." Double D says as Neji hops out of the Camaro.
"The fuck happened?" Neji asks as he reaches the Impala.
"Engine is fucked. Thankfully the shop isn't too far from here though." Eddy says as if on cue, a Dodge Ram SRT-10 with a tow truck bed rolls up.
"Is it in neutral?" Ed asks as he rolls beside the group.
"Yeah, Masamune move your Supra so we can hook up the tow." Naruto says as they start to get the Impala on the tow truck.
"Alright then, let's get it to the shop." Eddy says as they start their cars again.
"Need a ride pal?" Ed asks Naruto as he hops into the truck.
"Sure."
"Hop on in." Naruto makes his way to the passenger side and climbs in.
"Hey thanks man." Naruto says as he sighs. "I don't think we've been officially introduced yet, Naruto Uzumaki."
"Ed. Nice to meet you." They shake hands and Ed points to the back seats of the cab. "I got a cooler in the back seats if you want water, gatorade, soda, help yourself."
"No I shouldn't."
"Nah I insist. I think it helps the passenger relax a bit, you know, with their car breaking down and everything."
"I hear you. You know what, I'll take you up on the offer." He reaches back and grabs an orange Gatorade. "Thanks by the way."
"No need to, I'm happy to help. You got yourself a nice ride though. Is it an SS?"
"Yeah, got the big block 409 under the hood."
"Nice, anything special?"
"What you mean?"
"Supercharger, turbos, nitros? You know, got some mods helping with the power?"
"Yeah no, I was trying to save up to get a supercharger, but that's changed."
"We might be able to work something out." Ed says as they arrive at the garage.
"I gotta do some research on the car. As for now I'll need the keys." Eddy says as he walks up to the tow truck.
"Don't fuck anything else up." Naruto responds as he tosses his keys to Eddy.
"I plan to unfuck it, hell, I'll do better."
"What you mean?"
"I'll call you when I'm done with my research. Head home pal, get some rest, you'll need it." Eddy says as Sasuke steps out from his Monte Carlo.
"Need a ride home man?"
"Yeah, thanks. See you guys around." Naruto says as he waves goodbye to the Ed's and his 64 Impala.
"Eddy, your cash." Shikamaru says as he pulls the money from before out.
"Thanks." He takes his winnings before the Stingray pulls out and heads into the night. "Sock head, I'm gonna see what will work in it. Once I find out, get a hold of the junkyard, see if we can pull one for cheap."
"Heard."Double D says as he walks over to a gloss orange 03 Jetta and Eddy heads to the office with a groan. Ed looks over to the tow truck, seeing the Impala is still on the bed and no one to help unload it.
"So are we not going to unhook the car?"