CyberPunk Solar Eclipse
Chapter Four: And the Healing has Begun
Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto or Cyberpunk 2077 or Edgerunners. This is a fanfiction.
Aldecaldos Camp, 140 miles east of Carson City, Nevada. 2068
Blood, the hallways of the Lab were filled with it, covered in it. The walls were drenched and the floors were completely engulfed. Naruto waded through it, the gore sloshing as he moved forward. Everywhere he looked he could see bullet casings and wires. Suddenly his momentum was stopped as he felt a tugging at the back of his head. Thick cords and wires from his Deep Dive port were still attached to something and were not letting go. Turning his head slightly Naruto's eyes followed the cords back, heart stopping as he realized he was still plugged into his Netrunning chair. Naruto desperately tried to unplug himself but the cords were now thick chains hooked into his Deep Dive port. As he struggled he felt something shift beneath his feet. Looking down he screamed as he saw a multitude of hands reaching for him. Voices, his friends' voices screaming at him asking why he got to survive when they didn't. It was too much, It was too much. It wasn't his fault, he didn't mean to, he wanted everyone to survive. Why wouldn't they stop screaming?
Naruto gasped for air and panicked as he awoke to a firm hand shaking him awake. Slapping at the unknown assailant Naruto's eye shot open to find Cassidy standing over him.
"Easy Naruto, easy. It's okay now, it was just a nightmare. Easy son." The older man soothed. Cassidy moved back a little and sat on the same overturned barrel that Saul had yesterday, giving Naruto some space. The boy took a minute to try and calm his breathing before after a quiet moment or two he finally relaxed. Naruto, feeling guilty and weak, looked over at the cowboy.
"Did I wake you up?" He asked quietly. Cassidy shook his head firmly, his cowboy hat nowhere to be seen.
"Not at all Naruto, I was already up cooking some breakfast. I was just the closest to your tent, I doubt anyone else heard a peep." Cassidy reassured him. Naruto ran a hand through his hair. It was damp with sweat and Naruto still felt jittery from the nightmare.
"Do you want to talk about it?" The man asked gently. Naruto shook his head firmly trying his best not to let tears fall.
"That's alright then, nobody here is going to force you to talk about anything you don't want to. But when you feel ready just know that Saul, Mitch, Carol and I, hell even Bob are ready and willing to listen." Cassidy told him. Naruto smiled gratefully as the cowboy stood up from his spot on the barrel.
"Anyway I've been making a lot of food If you're hungry. You should come eat, get some meat on your bones." The cowboy chuckled. Naruto snorted as he rose from his bed and put his boots on and followed Cassidy outside. It was still kind of dark, the sun was still rising and barely visible over the horizon. A few people milled about the camp checking supplies and chatting quietly as they sipped coffee and cooked whatever they were in the mood for. Cassidy moved back to a small campfire with a metal flat plate over it. Naruto's stomach gurgled loudly as the smell of something delicious wafted into his nose. SCOP or Single Celled Organic Proteins, was what Naruto and the children at Arasaka had been raised on, it was nutritionally balanced and could be tailored to any flavor, that said SCOP had no scent. But whatever Naruto was smelling now was amazing. Cassidy laughed as he dished something up onto a plate before the man offered it to Naruto.
"Thanks! It smells good, what is it?" Naruto asked, accepting the plate. Cassidy smiled as he threw another strip of something on the hotplate. It sizzled and crackled as it cooked and the delicious smell intensified.
"It's bacon Naruto. One hundred percent genuine bacon." The man explained, "Real meat is hard to come by in the cities but out in the remote quiet places some people still work real hard to farm pigs and chickens. They pay us nomads to guard their convoys and sometimes they'll even pay in livestock and fresh meat." Cassidy pulled the now crispy bacon off the hotplate before he himself began to dig in.
Naruto took a bite of the bacon and moaned happily, it was nothing like the bacon flavored SCOP Arasaka gave them. This tasted crunchy and the grease gave it a texture and flavor that SCOP was missing. Naruto quickly wolfed into the bacon, enjoying the taste.
"It's nothing like the SCOP they gave us at the lab, it's delicious. Thanks Cassidy." Naruto grinned. Cassidy chortled, "Yessir, SCOP and the real thing are as different as night and day. SCOP is good for nutrition but its taste leaves something to be desired. That said, don't get too used to it. Real meat doesn't come along too often." The cowboy warned.
Naruto nodded as he finished off his plate and looked around the slowly waking camp.
"So what am I going to be doing to help around here?" The boy asked. Cassidy hummed a moment as he finished his breakfast.
"Well pretty much anything we could use help on, mostly you'll be helping Carol with her computer stuff. She's our techie so she'll probably have a better idea of how you can be helpful. But it's still early, so relax and take a load off." Cassidy calmed the boy. Cassidy reached down and grabbed an acoustic guitar before he began to strum lightly. Naruto's ears perked up as the chords sounded familiar.
"Oh it's Chippin' In! I love this song!" Naruto said enthusiastically. Cassidy stopped playing for a moment, "Now how would you know that? I doubt that Arasaka are big Samurai fans." He asked.
Naruto blushed, "I may have found some unauthorized files while they had me trawling the Old Net." He explained. It was nice being able to openly talk about stuff.
"I bet they loved that." Cassidy laughed, picking up the song where he left off.
Naruto listened to Cassidy's playing for a while more before something Cassidy said struck him.
"Why wouldn't Arasaka like Samurai? I mean their music is a bit anti-corpo but that can't be the only reason." Naruto questioned. Cassidy chuckled at the question as he put the guitar down.
"How much do you know about Samurai Naruto?" the man asked. Naruto shrugged as he fiddled with a zipper on his pants pocket.
"Almost nothing, I just found the album." the blonde boy replied. Cassidy stroked his mustache as he considered how to explain things to the young boy.
"Well Samurai's lead singer was a fella called Robert John Linder though everyone called him Johnny Silverhand because he lost his arm in the Second Central American War and got a silver replacement." Cassidy lectured, "After everything he saw during the war he began hating the government and the corporations that caused so much violence, so he formed a band and started writing anti-corpo songs."
Naruto leaned forward enraptured at the tale. Cassidy inwardly chuckled, glad that Arasaka hadn't squashed this child's enthusiasm and curiosity.
"Well he performed a lot of anti-government and anti-corpo music and inspired a lot of people. The government called him a rebel, some people called him a revolutionary. Eventually though in 2023 it came to a head, don't know why but Johnny Silverhand had a real bone to pick with Arasaka so he and a few of his friends went to Arasaka tower in Night City and planted a Nuke.
It killed almost Two Thousand people, the radiation killed a lot more and Johnny was killed by Arasaka's personal boogeyman Adam Smasher." Cassidy finished.
Naruto sat back taking the whole story in, "But there weren't just Arasaka employee's there right? There were innocent people too." He asked. Cassidy nodded solemnly, "Yup final count says there were only roughly five hundred Arasaka staff killed by the bombing, the rest were just regular folks trying to survive." Naruto felt a bit sick to be honest, he was all for hurting Arasaka but all those innocent people didn't deserve to die.
"Johnny Silverhand died a terrorist. Arasaka lost a lot of money and data, was blamed for the catastrophe and the Government banned them from operating in our country." Cassidy said gravely. Naruto mulled the information over in his head before something stuck out to him.
"But if they aren't allowed to operate over here then what about my Lab?" He questioned.
Cassidy licked his chapped lips as he reached into his pocket and pulled a packet of smokes before putting one between his lips and lighting it.
"Well that's the thing, technically they weren't allowed to be here. If their Lab was found by the New United States Government there'd be hell to pay. It's probably why they made the lab in the middle of nowhere. By now if they have any sense they'll have destroyed the Lab and any evidence and gone home to Japan." Cassidy guessed. Naruto mulled it over in his head.
"So what'll happen to the Arasaka SUV I stole?" Naruto asked innocently. Cassidy choked on a lungful of cigarette smoke before coughing a few times and grinning.
"You stole a marked Arasaka SUV and drove it around?" He asked, hoping Naruto would clarify.
Naruto nodded, "I ditched it on the side of the highway when it ran out of gas." He said simply.
The cowboy chuckled a bit, "Well assuming that Arasaka didn't find it immediately and hide it. Someone has probably stripped it for parts or reported it to the authorities." Cassidy said mirthfully. Naruto nodded, not really understanding the issue.
"Let me put it to you this way, nothing will probably come of it. But if the government found the SUV, Arasaka would have to answer some awkward questions." Cassidy explained, "Admittedly it'd be easy for them to make some good excuses. So I doubt anything will happen."
Naruto nodded as a comfortable silence grew. By now the sun was up and the camp was bustling with people getting ready for the day ahead.
Cassidy collected their plates and put them to the side before standing up.
"Now we need to go see Doctor Zed. We should have brought you to him yesterday but we wanted you to get comfy here first." Cassidy said stretching. Naruto stood up to follow the man.
"Why do I have to see the Doctor?" Naruto asked curiously, he was certain that the Aldecaldos didn't mean him any harm but he still wasn't comfortable with doctors.
"Well you did collapse from heatstroke a while ago but mostly Saul wants to make sure that you haven't got any sand stuck in your neural interface, that'd be bad for you." Cassidy explained.
Naruto ran his fingers across the port in the back of his skull softly, he hadn't even considered what sand could do to the cyberware he had installed.
The two moved through the camp quickly waving at the few people who noticed them before they climbed the steps of a large cargo truck that had been converted into a moving clinic. The walls of the trailer could lower and the vinyl curtains that dropped could be zipped together to make a sterile environment in a pinch. In the middle of the 'clinic' was an operating chair and there were a few gurneys and a lot of medical equipment Naruto didn't understand.
"Hey Zed, you got a minute?" Cassidy called. A man emerged from behind some equipment staring down at a tablet before he looked up. Doctor Zed was a stocky middle aged man with short cleanly cut dark hair that was graying around the temples. His other features were hidden by a surgical mask he was wearing but his brown eyes looked tired and rough. He wore brown pants and a green surgical scrubs with a doctor's frock over them and he had his sleeves rolled up, long green surgical gloves finished the ensemble.
"Well good morning Cass, I see you've decided to bring our rescue here for his check up." the man Cassidy called Zed replied. Zed had a similar accent to Cass but somehow in Naruto's opinion it sounded a little more comical than the reassuring timbre of Cassidy.
Cassidy clapped a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder, "This is Naruto, we would have bought him yesterday but Saul thought we should show him around first." Cassidy explained.
Zed nodded understandingly, "Fair enough, well youngin' I'm Doctor Zed. It's a pleasure to meet you. I fix up any of these fools who injure themselves or when they need new chrome." he introduced. Naruto gave a quick wave as he took the 'clinic' in more closely, it all looked legit but to be honest Doctor Zed kinda gave him the impression of a man who was one bad day away from becoming a mad scientist.
"Saul wanted you to check Naruto over and make sure his neural interface is still running ok." Cassidy told the doctor. Zed nodded as he moved towards the doctor's chair and patted it a couple of times.
"Take a seat Naruto, I'll jack in to your biomonitor and then we'll have a gander at your implant." Zed said bluntly. Naruto sat down in the chair and winced slightly as Zed plugged the personal-link from his tablet into the port behind his ear.
A small red pop-up advised Naruto that he was being scanned as Zed stared down at the tablet's readings. The doctor nodded a few times as he scrolled through the info before he seemingly was content with what he found and removed the cord from Naruto.
"Well good news is that you are in pretty decent health. A little on the scrawny side like most Netrunners but nothing puberty and physical exercise won't fix. You're also recovering from the heatstroke well, just be sure to drink a lot of water over the next few days to make sure." Zed listed. Cassidy gave Naruto a small but reassuring nod who happily returned it.
"Now let's take a look at that Neural Interface." Zed said enthusiastically.
Naruto stayed in the chair as Zed moved around preparing some piece of gear before disappearing behind Naruto. A quiet click was heard before Naruto heard Zed once again giving hums and uh-huh's. Zed walked back into Naruto's line of sight and grabbed a small handheld machine that had a nozzle and was connected to some sort of generator.
"There's a little bit of sand in there but not enough to damage anything, however corrosion is one of the worst enemies of cyberware so I'm gonna vacuum your noggin." Zed chuckled. Naruto felt an eye twitch knowing that the 'handheld machine' he had been ogling was simply a handheld vacuum cleaner. Cassidy smirked at the boy as the telltale 'vrooom' of the vacuum cleaner started. A burst of cold hit the back of Naruto's head making him shiver before it quickly subsided.
Zed appeared in his vision again as the doctor put the vacuum down and sat on a nearby chair. Cassidy stood nearby leaning against a wall, his presence a comforting one.
"Now onto the important stuff, I was looking at that chrome of yours. Saul told me a little about what happened to you, as a doctor I do need to know about my patients." Zed began. Naruto nodded in understanding, Zed couldn't really help if he didn't have all the info.
"We have a couple of options. First, I could just get some synth-flesh and we could cover up the ports until you need it, keeping it hidden and safe. Second, we can get some basic plugs to keep the ports airtight, but sand will still get into all the nooks and you'll need to vacuum it regularly." The doctor smirked, Naruto looked at the vacuum and shot Zed, an annoyed look.
"Or the final option, I can remove the Neural Interface completely and fill in the hole with a permanent synth-flesh job. It'll be as if it was never there." Zed offered.
Naruto froze as the words registered. He could remove the Neural Interface? The thought appealed to Naruto a lot, the cyberware forced on him by Arasaka could be removed. It'd be as if Arasaka had never had him at all, he could pretend that he was a normal kid with a somewhat normal life. Just as quickly as the euphoria had come an ice-cold realization washed over him.
Cassidy stopped leaning on the wall as he noticed Naruto go still before the boy's face turned pensive. The cowboy shot a look at Doctor Zed who nodded subtly.
"Anyway you should take some time to think about it kiddo. Now skedaddle, I've got work to do." Zed said abruptly. Naruto snapped out of his thoughts as he hopped out of the chair.
"Thanks Doctor Zed, I'll get back to you with an answer soon." Naruto replied.
Zed smirked, "You're welcome kid, now get outta here. I gotta focus." The man said as he picked up a bonesaw.
Naruto, still unsure why Zed needed a bonesaw, followed Cassidy out of the trailer.
Cassidy looked down at the boy, wondering what was bothering him but not wanting to push.
"Well with that out of the way it's time for us to get to work." Cassidy announced. Naruto looked up at the man eagerly, "What are we doing?" he asked. Cassidy smirked as he lit up a cigarette.
"I'm going to go get my hat. You are going to be helping Carol with whatever netrunning mumbo-jumbo she's working on." He explained.
Naruto was silent as Cassidy led him to a tent a little further away before he stopped in front of it.
"Okay Naruto, here we are. Carol will be inside and she'll explain what you're doing. That said it won't be anything too difficult, you'll just be her assistant." Cass said.
"Be sure to keep hydrated and if you don't know how to do something remember that there's no shame in asking for help." The older Aldecaldo lectured. Naruto nodded rapidly, eager to help.
Cassidy smiled at the boy, "Alright, I'll see you later. I've got work of my own to do." he said.
With those words Cassidy turned and walked away, passing behind a tent and disappearing deeper into the camp.
Naruto opened the flap of the tent and was greeted by a lot of technology. Carol who was staring at a tablet looked up before a grin took over her face.
"Good morning Naruto." The techie greeted him. Naruto waved at the woman as he inspected the room more closely.
"Hi Carol…" Naruto began before trailing off as he noticed an empty bath sitting to one side. Bathtubs filled with Ice were often used to carry out the same function as a netrunning chair, keeping the Netrunner cool and stopping them from overheating.
"Don't you worry about that one bit sweetheart. You're not gonna be doing any deep dives for a long, long time and we certainly aren't gonna be forcing you to." Carol said soothingly. Naruto pulled himself out of his momentary shock before shaking his head rapidly.
"I didn't mean - I didn't think you would. I just…have bad memories." He finished quietly. Carol frowned as she put her tablet down and sat at her desk.
"Like I said, no one here is going to make you do anything you don't want to." She proclaimed.
Naruto nodded as he tore his gaze away from the bath and sat on a chair next to Carol.
"Now what I do need some help with is decoding some data we klepped from some local Scavengers. This group is apparently running a lot of guns and if we can find where they're storing everything we can steal the guns and sell them ourselves." Carol explained.
"However these scavs like to encrypt everything so we have thirteen shards to try and decrypt." Carol grumbled as she gestured to a pile of the small microchips. Naruto nodded before he picked up a shard and slotted it in. Watching as the breach matrix appeared in his vision, Naruto quickly went to work finding the right combinations of code and lining them up before entering them into the Code Matrix.
Naruto sat quietly as he and Carol went through the shards. The middle aged woman kept a steady pace but it was clear that Arasaka training and cybernetics made Naruto the better hacker. By the time Carol had finished with her first shard Naruto already had three decrypted shards set aside. The Aldecaldo woman smiled as she watched the boy work. She had been a little doubtful of his claims about his Netrunning skills at first but seeing Naruto break through the Shards' encryptions so quickly laid those concerns to rest. The two worked in a comfortable silence for a while longer before Naruto hit paydirt.
The shard he had just finished with contained the location of a large weapons cache kept in a lockup garage. Naruto grinned as he held the shard out to Carol.
"This one has the data you're looking for. Should we decrypt the others just to make sure?" Naruto asked. Carol quickly finished with her current shard before taking the offered shard and slotting it into the port in her neck. The telltale red-tinged gleam of her eyes let Naruto know that Carol was checking the contents of the datashard. Carol smiled as the glow of her eyes faded before she stood up from her chair.
"That's the stuff we're looking for. As for the other shards, you can decrypt them while I take this to Saul. Maybe you'll find something useful. I'll be right back." Carol said as she gave Naruto a quick pat on the back.
"You did really well Naruto. Thanks for your help." She praised the boy. Naruto felt heat creep up his cheeks, he had never been thanked for his work before. At Arasaka it was his purpose so gratitude and positive reinforcement were new to him. Naruto couldn't stop his smile as he continued to decrypt the shards casually. It was simple busywork for sure, but Naruto enjoyed the leisurely pace as he moved from shard to shard.
Finally cracking the decryption on the last shard Naruto stared at the message within. The scavengers planned on reinforcing their people at the garage. Naruto quickly stood and made his way through the camp towards the 'command' tent where Saul and the senior family members organized jobs and ran the camp. Climbing the steps Naruto was pleased to see that Saul, Carol and Mitch were all there. The young netrunner knocked on the wall of the trailer to get their attention.
Looking up from the map and the location Carol had marked Saul smiled as he spotted Naruto.
"Hey there Naruto, Carol says we've got you to thank for this intel. Good work kid." The Aldecaldo said. Naruto flushed as Mitch gave him a thumbs up before he remembered why he had come.
"I finished with the other shards and I found this." Naruto proclaimed as he held the new shard out. Saul took a step forward before taking the shard and inserting it. The man stood still for a moment before he ejected the shard and passed it to Carol.
Turning to Naruto, Saul ruffled the boy's blonde hair, "Well done, that could've been a nasty surprise. Now we know to send some extra muscle."
Carol smirked as she ejected the shard and placed it on the table, "Pretty good work for your first day, don't expect every job to be this exciting though."
Mitch coughed lightly, gaining everyone's attention, "Mind letting me in on the secret?" The mechanic asked. Saul rolled his eyes as he slotted the shard into the table's holographic projector. Mitch nodded as he read the holographic text box quickly, "I planned on scouting the place with Scorpion before moving in anyway. It may be best to wait for Panam and some of the others to get back before we do anything." the balding man mused. Saul nodded at Mitch's cautious tone before turning back to Carol.
"Any word from Panam's group?" Saul asked the techie. Carol quickly checked her tablet before looking up at Saul. Naruto stood quietly off to the side wondering who they were talking about.
"They managed to sell off the cars we stole from the Raffen Shiv and they're on the way back. They'll be home before dinner." Carol explained. Saul nodded as he turned the projector off and passed the shards off to Mitch who pocketed them.
The room was quiet as everyone settled down, the bustle of the camp outside being the only noise heard. The silence in the room dragged on for a moment before Mitch broke it.
"Well I'm going to go and prepare my Little Mule. I'll get back to you once Panam is back." The balding mechanic grinned. Saul nodded to the man as Mitch walked past Naruto, stopping to pat him on the shoulder, before leaving the 'command tent'. Saul smiled at the byplay before he looked over to Carol.
"Carol, do you have any more work for Naruto today?" The leader of the Aldecaldos asked. Carol looked up from her tablet before glancing at Naruto.
"I'm done with him for the day, I honestly thought we'd take a bit longer with those Shards." The nomad woman said cheerfully. Saul nodded before clapping Naruto on the shoulder.
"I'm gonna borrow him for a while then." Saul declared. Carol tucked her tablet away as she sauntered out of the tent casually, "Of course. You did good work today kid. I'll see you later."
Naruto waved as Carol left before he looked up at Saul, wondering what job the bearded man had for him now.
Saul grinned down at the boy before he began to usher him out of the tent.
"Now that we don't have to worry about our next jobs we can move on to something more important." The Nomad said. Naruto stood straighter wondering what was more important than planning a heist. Saul strode through the camp purposefully as Naruto moved quickly trying to keep pace with the man before they came to a large green tent.
The inside of the tent was pretty comfortable with bookshelves that were filled with texts about many simple topics. There were half a dozen decently sized desks set up around the room with chairs occupied with other children behind them. A whiteboard stood at the front of the room next to a holoprojector that was being operated by a pretty middle-aged blonde woman. Naruto felt his excitement wane as he realized that this was a classroom. Naruto looked up at Saul, betrayed as the man smirked.
"You gotta learn about the world outside of Arasaka somehow, kid." Saul snickered.