Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Outlaw Star

A loud beeping noise came from somewhere. Uzumaki Naruto, Castersmith and inventor, waved his hand around until he could finally hit the alarm clock and shut it down. He slowly forced his eyes open, waiting for them to focus as he feebly tried to remember when he fell asleep. The young man's gaze drifted over several of his failed blueprints for his dream weapon, the Caster Cannon. So many littered his desk that there was hardly space for much else. He had no real pictures, no awards (ungrateful bastards don't recognize his sheer talent) or anything. Naruto did have his favorite orange mug though, currently filled with cold, who knows how old, coffee. Finally deciding it was time to get up, he pushed back on his favorite chair, invented and manufactured by one Uzumaki Naruto, and had it glide him into what he hoped was the bathroom.

As soon as the chair went through the bathroom's threshold, the automatic lights flickered on, making him squint his eyes in discomfort. The chair stopped directly in front of the sink and rose up enough so he could reach over and turn the faucet on to wash up. The cold water immediately made him more awake to the world and he was able to fully open his eyes and look himself in the mirror. He was 17 years old and had been living on his own practically his whole life. His hair was a bright yellow and he considered it unruly on the best of days. Since he hadn't had any real time to get it cut for a while (or indeed, do much of anything), he decided to let it grow so that it covered most of his neck. His blue eyes, although a bit tired looking, had a bit of a gleam to them in the artificial light and the three small whisker markings on each of his cheeks gave him a somewhat fox-like appearance. After brushing his teeth and doing his best to tame his hair to something acceptable, he pushed his palms on the chair's armrests and it slowly lowered him back down and returned to his desk. Naruto smiled at how perfect this invention turned out, it took him everywhere in his workshop and never made a single fuss, unlike somebody he was working with. His gaze turned to the large cannon that hung silently in the air beside him.

"YEAH, YOU!" He pointed dramatically towards it. It never worked. Or as he liked to think, it didn't want to work. It was simply unwilling to do his bidding no matter how many times he coaxed it, begged it, yelled at it, hit it, you name it. The young blond spent at least six months on trying to get the damn thing to work. Most of the time when it thought about coming to life, it ultimately decided to not give a shit and go back to sleep. Obviously, this results in one pissed off Uzumaki Naruto who flies into a rage at any little mishap the rest of the day.

"I'll be back to deal with you later," Naruto grumbled as the chair rolled towards the kitchen. Although he had a kitchen, it was the least used room in his entire workshop, mainly because he never cooked a single thing. He just never had the time to go out and buy groceries, prepare the meals, and so on. It took too much time away from his work and usually his inventions would keep him so occupied that he forgot about meals entirely. However, a few years back he had discovered a miracle food that he could count on for all of his nourishment for the day: instant ramen! Since it was cheap, it allowed him to save most of his money for more equipment and supplies. It was also something you could buy in mass quantities and make in three minutes flat. The fact that it came in such a large variety of flavors was simply a bonus.

The chair came to a stop in front of a large pantry door. The blond's stomach seemed to recognize the door and let out a low growl as he reached forward and grasped the handle with a happy grin on his face. The door opened smoothly (after scanning his fingerprints of course) and revealed an enormous trove of ramen he had formally dubbed "The Vault." Naruto's chair moved slowly forward, allowing him to look at each shelf of organized flavors, as he chose a number of cups for breakfast, lunch, dinner and, of course, a late night snack. The chair backed out of the room and Naruto prepared the hot water for his breakfast. As soon as his mental timer dinged, he ravenously dug into the steaming cup of ramen. Patting his stomach with a content sigh, he allowed his chair to bring him back to his workbench.

"Ahh, so tasty!" Naruto grinned. "Looks like it's time to get to work!" He picked up his favorite (and only) pair of goggles from the corner of his desk and slipped them over his head. Reaching behind him while tracing a symbol in the air with a finger, a black and orange jacket suddenly appeared in his hand. The blond shrugged it on and zipped it up, going through a quick mental checklist of the tools inside the various pockets. He pulled out a holographic data pad from a large pocket in the front of his jacket and glanced over his notes on latest blueprints. "Let's see, attempt number 428, that failed because of too much energy running through the main chakra coils...number 496 ended up exploding..." Bright blue eyes scanned page after page of results, none coming even close to working. His gaze stopped on the latest entry as he read out loud, "Barrel was warped from overheating during startup, replaced barrel and reinforced it with another layer of heat resistant panels." Sighing, he turned the page and wrote the beginning of a new entry. "Well, the good news is they don't utterly destroy my workshop anymore," he muttered, trying to keep up his spirits. "Alright, let's go!" He shouted, eager to prove his worth.

He crossed his arms and glared at the gigantic piece of metal elevated before him. "You better work this time, damn you!" He gave a small nod of approval at his threat and started configuring the boot up sequence. The Caster Cannon's mechanisms stirred to life as the systems begin to draw the necessary energy from the city's power grid. The cannon was (supposed to be) a large scale version of the pistols that he and various other castersmiths had created in the past and was meant to fire caster rounds of a much larger magnitude. Everything came up green on the display and Naruto couldn't help but feel his eyes widen at the possibility of finally getting the damn thing to work. The energy being created charged the workshop's atmosphere and the young inventor could feel his hairs stand on end. A sharp blue light began emitting from the barrel as the turbines spun furiously in order to convert the energy of the shell in the chamber. It hummed a happy sounding tune and a grin began to appear on Naruto's face as the round was about to fire. Then…everything went dark. No one would ever see his face at the time, but if they did, they would have seen the entire spectrum of human emotion in an instant before the young man's face stuck with disbelief.

A loud banging noise could be heard in the dark as the frustrated blond slammed his head against his desk repeatedly. "Why...why, why, WHY the hell won't you work you piece of shit machine! I am your father and you are going to do as I say!" He snarled. The lights came back on and he saw the machine still hanging there, lounging around, as if openly mocking him. Naruto grabbed a heavy wrench from his desk and flung it as hard as he could at the machine. The machine whirred to life for a second time that day before the lights dimmed again causing him to heave a sigh while sitting down on the cold, hard floor, mumbling, "God...Dammit..."

The power soon came back to life and Naruto calmly stood up and began to write his newest entry, "Attempt number 597, cannon finally ran successfully until power source gave out. Must find a substitute power supply on par with chakra." He underlined the last sentence for importance, and heard his shop's bell ring. While not in the best of moods, he figured that doing some business would help get his mind off of his frustration. Brushing himself off as best as he could to make himself somewhat presentable, he swiped a seal in the air with his palm and a door appeared. He took a deep breath to regain composure and opened the new door to his front desk.

"Welcome to Uzumaki Inc., where the guns are hot and the ammo cheap!"