Loki was still grinning about how Sif had been beaten by someone known only as Red. She couldn't believe a bar maid of all people had beaten her in a simple contest of strength, and as such was spending a massive amount of time in the training grounds proving she was better than the men.
That was nothing to the reaction of the girl beating Volstagg in an eating contest involving some soup and noodle concoction only she knew the recipe to. She called it 'rah-men', whatever that was, and watching Volstagg try to eat with those two wooden sticks had been hilarious. She ate with practiced dexterity and voracious appetite. It took four cooks to even keep up with her ability to eat the food stuff.
Loki had managed to convince Naruko (she had finally told him her name with amusement watching him try to say it without mangling it) to hit Thor next. He had been particularly annoying, dragging his more scholarly brother out of the palace library when he had been trying to figure out which world Naruko came from without telling Odin she had slipped through the old paths.
"So the girl you're so interested in wants to see how she fairs in a fight against one of us?" asked Thor. Loki had told Naruko to come to the edge of the palace grounds so he could lead her to the training grounds.
"She said she wanted to see what was so great about 'Thor and the Warrior Three' after she beat Sif in a simple contest of strength," said Loki smoothly.
Thor laughed. He hadn't been present that night, but he had heard tales of how Sif was beaten by 'Red' for weeks after. Her foul mood only told Thor that maybe the rumors weren't exaggerating about Red beating Sif.
Actually it was more along the lines of Naruko was bored and hadn't had a decent work out in months. Hauling food and drink around under some heavy gravity seals was good enough to keep her muscles from atrophying, but it did little for combat reflexes.
Besides, she had a major issue against lightning users, which Loki assured her his brother was.
Loki returned with a red haired woman in loose fitting clothes looking rather bored. Thor did his best not to stare at the very obvious bust that was hinted at but not shown overtly. Sif barely refrained from slapping him on principles.
"Last one standing was the agreement right?" asked Naruko to Loki.
"Beat him and you get a hundred," agreed Loki.
"This out to be fun. Been a while since I had a proper fight," said Naruko cracking her back. She looked at a confused Thor "Oi, Blondie! You gonna be staring at me all day or what?"
Thor blinked, before he grinned. He drew his hammer and got into the ring. A decent crowd of bored observers showed up to watch, believing Thor would beat the woman who had defeated Sif earlier that month.
Naruko had a crazed grin as she walked in.
"Begin!" said Loki, once they were ready. Naruko vanished without warning and Thor was abruptly sent flying.
There was dead silence as people suddenly realized that the girl had literally vanished from half a court yard away to behind Thor, her leg fully extended. Loki had a predatory grin that was only slightly obvious.
Naruko gave Thor a good head start to use his hammer, only for her to vanish again before it hit. She helpfully tapped Thor on the shoulder just in time for him to be thrown back from his hammer slamming into his stomach. Loki looked like he was trying very hard not to laugh.
Thor was actually becoming frustrated. This girl simply wouldn't stay still, and she was so fast!
"Strength is one thing blondie, but it doesn't mean jack if you can't hit the target," smirked Naruko. Then her grin turned the sort of predatory that only an apex killer could hope to match, "Besides... you're not as strong as me."
Thor growled openly and tried to slam Mjolnir into the woman, only for her to avoid it with contemptuous ease...and then grasp the broken ground beneath her hand. Without warning, a loud rumble came from below.
Everyone stared at the massive boulder she literally ripped from the earth and held in one hand. Everyone.
"Your skill is lacking and your technique is quite frankly appalling to watch. Now are you going to continue making a fool of yourself or do I get to play with an idiot some more?" she asked boredly.
"I do believe she has you outclassed brother," said Loki openly amused.
Not even Thor could rip a boulder that size from the ground from sheer strength alone. Not without using his hammer and having it in chunks at any rate.
Thor slumped.
"I admit defeat..." he said.
Naruko grinned and replaced the chunk of earth she had ripped out of the ground. She then walked over to Loki and held out a single hand. To the bafflement of Thor, his brother handed over a sizable sack of what was clearly gold.
"Worth every coin," said Loki.
"You actually paid her to beat Thor?" said Sif incredulous.
"I paid her every time she beat one of you. Thor was extra," said Loki smugly. Seeing his brother and his idiot friends taken down a few pegs was totally worth paying Naruko.
"I can't believe she works as a simple bar maid," muttered Sif, staring at the girl.
'If I had known what showing off would have brought, I would have made that jerk pay me double,' thought Naruko irritably.
After her casual beat down of Thor, the blond idiot insisted on joining his brother at the tavern. To make matters worse he wanted either a rematch or to have Naruko join his group.
She reacted to such offers the same way she reacted to B's rapping when it got out of hand. She slammed the tray on Thor's head, to Loki's open amusement. It didn't kill him, but it did leave one hell of a headache.
"For the last time you blond moron, I have no interest in joining your so called group of warriors. And you, hill barbarian! Try actually eating the ramen without gulping it down like some savage!" barked Naruko.
Volstagg slowed down a little in his eating. It wasn't great, but it was better than the way he had been devouring it without even tasting a thing.
"Why not?" asked Thor, rubbing where she had hit him.
"Do I really have to list why?" she asked. Seeing his kicked puppy look, she growled.
"Your techniques are sloppy, you rely too much on brute strength and frankly the only interesting one among your little group is Loki! Do you have any idea how hard it is to find anyone who can match me in a challenge of wits?!" said Naruko, venting.
Loki choked on his wine. She thought him more interesting than Thor? That was a first.
Thor however grinned widely.
"I knew you were interested in my brother!"
"Again, he's the only one who seems to have a brain in that group of yours," deadpanned Naruko, "Now if you don't mind I have to finish working. Unlike you two I actually have a job that pays."
Loki snorted in amusement.
Naruko was deeply unimpressed with the warriors of Asgard and could care less about their status. The fact she beat Thor with such ease and still worked as a bar maid spoke volumes about her. She was someone who knew there were such things as rules and didn't give a damn about what people thought about her.
And Loki would be the first to admit she interested him a damn sight more than that idiot Sigyn or worse, Amara. Now if only his mother would quit pestering him to bring her to the palace so they could meet.
I am so bored, said Naruko.
Deal with it. At least you aren't being annoyed by a paranoid moron with an eye patch who has the subtlety of a brick when he wants something, said Gaara irritably.
Fury was a damn pest, and shortly after Gaara had done his random good deed of the year the man had come trying to get his 'help'. Unfortunately for the spy master, Gaara was a shinobi and well versed in double talk. It was hard to beat someone who had lead an entire village full of master murderers, thieves and liars since they were fifteen. So no, he wasn't interested in joining this S.H.I.E.L.D. organization...though he also wasn't surprised B had opted to jump in headfirst if only to alleviate his complete boredom.
Unlike the others of their group, B had never developed what many would call patience.
Gaara did, however, take full advantage of his presence to slowly drive anyone paired with him in the field insane by requesting certain...ah...songs which he knew full well people hated to listen to.
The number of time Fury yelled at him to quit clogging the radio frequency with his rather poor attempts to rap numbered in the hundreds easily.
So tell us more about this...Loki...character, purred Yugito. Being resurrected and stuck with the Nibi aside, she was one of the three females of their group.
The third was a teen who had just recently been sealed before Naruko took them out of their world and onto new ones through the paths she found.
Naruko snorted.
Loki is the only one of the group who even remotely has something resembling a brain. Should have seen their faces when I pulled a Tsunade on their leader, a blond moron named Thor. Kami, even I wasn't that arrogant when I got this strong!
Her problem with Thor wasn't just because he was a loudmouth idiot. There was also the not-so-subtle hint of arrogance, like he was entitled to the throne purely because of who his father was.
It was like dealing with Uchiha Sasuke, with her old mask as the village idiot fully in place and all the uptight arrogance of the Hyuuga.
She was so glad to have ditched that mask in favor of trying to act like Anko. Her friends, not so much. Mostly because she was very good at duplicating Anko's bitchy personality.
Naruko missed the woman dearly.
That bad, huh?Gaara said amused.
Worse.
Look on the bright side little nine! Chances are you could snag yourself a rich husband there! I heard the gold really flows in Asgard!
B, shut the hell up. Loki is the second prince of Asgard, and he's been paying me to take his older brother Thor and his groupies down a few pegs. He even paid me triple what he offered after I showed Thor just how outclassed he was against me. Kicked his ass to the curb and then stomped it flat, said Naruko cackling. Oh, yes, she would do Anko-nee-sama proud with that laugh.
Anko, who had been her big sister in all but blood. She tore Kabuto into so many pieces for killing her.
Details, girl, details! Tsuki squealed. She was the third female and had a third of the tails Naruko had to boot. She was, thankfully, not a fangirl but she had apparently taken one too many kunoichi lessons that wouldn't be out of place in Konoha.
Tsuki tried to convert her fellow females into the nightmare that was the romance genre, but they were smart enough not to fall for it. As Naruko had said, the day she read a trashy romance novel willingly is the day she would stab herself repeatedly with a blunt kunai.
Not gonna happen.
Fine.
And so Naruko told them about Loki.
He was a prankster with a bit of a cruel streak, and in her words was very similar to herself. He was ignored, but not overtly as that would upset Thor and Frigga. He didn't fit in at all and preferred reading to fighting, though he was a decent one in a pinch. He was pretty much second fiddle to his brother, and he hated every minute of it.
The only thing missing was a desire for a higher station just for attention from others.
Gaara winced.
I can see where this will end up and I only feel pity for this Loki character. He doesn't have a hope in hell of surviving this without something snapping, said Gaara flatly.
The minute Loki showed any signs of her 'idiot mask' as she called it, Naruko was going to use her Shatter Mask ability at full blast to break him before something else did. The only reason it wasn't a banned technique was because anyone who had mastered the bizarre ability to any real degree of success generally had to know how to heal the mind and soul.
To date, Naruko was the only person to be considered a master of it. As Gaara had once said when asked what he thought of Naruko after the doctors realized there was in fact a pattern of what happened to those who were mentally damaged in some way coming back completely sane, she was the Sun in human form, given life by Amaterasu herself.
She had to have some divine ability to heal broken souls as effectively as she did without fail, and that was before one considered her bizarre luck in games of chance. Or her crappy luck during missions.
The other seven chuckled at Gaara's flat declaration. Nearly all of them, at one point or another, had been hit with a full-on Shatter Mask effect. Naruko would never allow her fellow brothers and sisters suffer from the mistreatment of their villages without something to cling to in the dark hours of the night.
Gaara had simply been the first to be 'saved'.