Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Borderlands.

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Blood and Bullets

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Chapter Five

"Live a life of no regrets."

That's all that ran through Naruto's mind the moment Maya's lips made contact with his own. He didn't think about what the kiss may or may not lead to, he didn't worry about her possibly getting hurt around him, and he didn't even wonder what had spurred the kiss to begin with. The crash kept replaying through his mind, slowing down to a crawl when it came to the end when the rockets hit his truck. His mind had been racing a mile a minute, his instincts screaming at him to protect the woman beside him instead of worrying about himself. The night he lost his family ran through his mind a dozen times in the time it took to blink, his body moving on autopilot as he wrapped his arms around the blue haired woman and cradled her against his body to shield her from the chaos around them. It wasn't his actions that confused him, but the reason as to why he reacted that way did...

Was it because he knew he would need someone to signal for help in the end? Or was it because he didn't want to lose that speck of light that had pierced through the metaphorical storm clouds that shrouded his heart?

"I-I'm sorry..." Maya muttered nervously as she pulled away from him, keeping her eyes turned down to the ground. "I don't know what came over me..."

"It's, uh..." Naruto trailed off, still rather numb from the simple peck on the lips that had felt like an eternity to him. He was a bit confused; all of the tension and uncertainty he had been feeling earlier was now...gone. All of it. As that one phrase ran through his mind again, to 'live a life of no regrets', Naruto felt at peace, oddly enough, and gave Maya a faint smile. "It's okay. I...I kind of enjoyed it, really...but could you give me some kind of warning next time?"

"...What?" Maya asked quietly in shock, looking up at him with a look of surprise. Sure, she had kissed a couple guys before, but they weren't exactly 'boyfriend' material, to put it lightly. Even after she kissed the blonde beside her, Maya still didn't quiet know how she felt for him, not knowing if it was just an attraction to him for whatever reason or if they were honest feelings. Either way, she hadn't expected him to react like that. "You mean...You're not upset or anything?"

"No, it just...caught me off guard, that's all." Naruto replied a bit sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked away for a moment. Looking back over at Maya out of the corner of his eye, he continued, hints of hope and uncertainty showing in his tone. "You can do it again...if you want to, that is..."

"..." That one caught her off guard this time. Gone was the jaded, cold-hearted, brutal killer the blonde haired assassin was known to be and in his place, what she could only assume to be, was the real Uzumaki Naruto. It could just be the alchohol that's made him open up so much, it could be the verbal ass-kicking Reina had given him and then later told Maya about on the ride back to Sanctuary amidst her venting rants of simmering anger, it could be from some sort of 'soul search' that Naruto had undergone in his time away, or quite possibly some kind of blend of all three that did it, maybe even a fourth option that she hadn't thought of, but...she was glad for it. At the same time, however, she couldn't just forget about how he had acted and what he had said back in that cave before they went separate ways. "Are you...Are you sure that's a good idea, Naruto? I mean...What you said back in the cave-"

"-is irrelevant now." Naruto interrupted and finished for her before heaving a heavy sigh, looking down at the ground as he leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees. "I know that what I said to you back there was...cruel and harsh and pretty much a dick move, to put it lightly, but...I can't take it back, you know? It's in the past and it's not like I can go back in time and fix it; what's said is said and what's done is done..."

"..." Maya stayed quiet, waiting for him to say what he wanted to before she ended up getting her hopes pumped up for no reason just to have her heart crushed in the end. She had had too many 'relationships' go bad in the past because of that kind of thinking; just because she was raised in a temple on Athena as a supposed 'goddess' or whatever didn't mean she hadn't snuck out on occassion. Then again, she had been young and naive back then and mistakes were unavoidable, but she could still learn from them, even now. Still, she couldn't stop herself from secretly praying to whatever god or goddess that was listening that Naruto was, indeed, trying to say what she was hoping to hear...

"But even then...that doesn't mean I can't redeem myself and ask for forgiveness..." Naruto went on, letting his eyes close with a slight sigh of resignation to accompany it as he let his head hang; the tension and nervousness was building back up, but for different reasons now. He hadn't opened his heart up to anyone in ten years. Yeah, he and Reina had been in a position not unlike the one he and Maya were in now, but things had gone differently back then. Only a day or two after they had just gotten through a rather nasty arguement, Reina had been taken prisoner by a clan of bandits that had a vendetta against Naruto and were planning to use her to bait him into a trap in order to not only kill him out of revenge for killing their clan's founder and leader, but to also collect the rather sizable bounty on his head and use the newfound reputation as being the killers of the 'Ghost of Pandora' to force other bandit clans and tribes into submission. It would have gone according to plan for them had their prisoner, Reina, not broken free of her restraints and shoddy prison cell the day after she had been kidnapped and proceeded to kill almost a fourth of the clan during her escape, which ultimately ended in the loss of her right leg from the knee down. "I should have at least given you a chance to prove yourself capable of taking care of yourself, but after losing so many people...I guess I became something akin to an antisocial and rather heartless control freak and after three, now four, failed attempts at taking on a partner, I became a loner, isolating myself from everyone to keep from being hurt again. I guess I just got so used to being on my own and not having to worry about anyone other than myself...that I just kept looking for an excuse, any excuse, to get rid of you...What better excuse is there than for me to actually start caring about you and worrying about your well-being before my own? I know I can't think of one..."

"Naruto..." Maya whispered softly as she moved from her spot on the couch and knelt down in front of him, wordlessly provoking Naruto into looking up at her. Giving him a small and reassuringly kind-hearted smile, Maya reached up with her left hand and cupped his cheek, lightly brushing her thumb across it as she slowly, almost hesitantly, slid her free right hand into his left while staring into his eyes. "It's okay, I understand. I might not know even a fraction of what it is like to go through the things you have and I understand that you aren't exactly a 'social butterfly' or even much of a friendly person most of time, really, but...I still had a good time out there, however brief it may have been. Yeah, you were acting like a complete asshole more than half the time, but you know what?"

"...What?" Naruto inquired cautiously, his heart fluttering slightly out of sheer nervousness. Having grown comfortable and content with keeping people at a minimum distance of arm's length, both physically and emotionally, being so close to Maya with her touching him so...tenderly and affectionately...was now a completely foreign thing to him and because of the physically and emotionally torturous experiences in his life, it was honestly a little scary to him. He was torn, a part of him wanting to just pull away from her and leave without saying a word, never to return, while the other part just wanted to give in and start learning how to feel again. It was so confusing to him that neither idea could fully register in his mind, leaving him in that thin, almost non-existent section of Grey between the contrasting realms of Black and White...

"I don't regret a single moment of it. If I was given the chance to go back to when we first met at that bar and change what had happened from that point on, do you know what I would do differently?" Maya paused for a moment once more, waiting for Naruto's response. When he hesitantly shook his head, Maya's smile grew a bit bigger and warmer, the volume of her voice dropping to a whisper as she leaned in a little closer to him so that their faces were only a couple inches apart. "Nothing. I wouldn't change a thing that happened because if even a single moment was different, neither of us might be here in my apartment right now or having an honest heart-to-heart talk like this...In such a short amount of time, I learned more about myself than I have in my entire life just from being around you and while I don't know for sure if it was the same for you, I have a feeling that it was."

"Live a life of no regrets." There was that saying again, that 'Way of Life', as it were. To Naruto, time froze in that instant, his mind running a thousand miles a second. He now understood, at least partly, what Sarah was trying to tell him with her dying breath, what Reina was trying to get through his head, what his own conscience had been trying to tell him. Moving on didn't mean he would forget Sarah or how he used to feel for her and, technically, still did. His father hadn't been much of an emotionally expressive person nor much of a social person in the slightest, unlike his mother, who had taught him what emotions were, what caused them, what they did to someone, and what they meant. For Naruto, he took after his father most of the time when it came to 'expressing' himself on the outside, but he was more like his mother on the inside. Perhaps it was about time that his 'inner-self' became his 'outer-self', even if it was only a slight change...

Maybe...just maybe...He could try one more time to open up to someone and let them in. With Sarah, they had been young and a bit overly expressive of their feelings, letting it blind them to the chaos of the world around them. With Reina, he had let his past rule his emotions too much and inevitably brought about the ruin of the budding relationship he had with the short red head. Perhaps, with Maya, things would be different, but he wasn't foolish enough to believe that it would work out no matter what. However, he also wasn't going to write it all off as being a disaster waiting to happen or a ticking time bomb that was about to blow at any second before anything actually happened between them.

Maybe he needed to follow those words, to 'live a life of no regrets'. To trust in his instincts and let them, at the very least, assist in pointing him in the right direction in order for him to make the right decision for whatever situation or predicament he was caught up in. He could only imagine what kind of trouble he was about to get himself into, but...so what? This was probably his only chance to finally pull himself back together correctly instead of just letting his heart harden into an impenetrable shell. Again. Another thought occured to him after that; he'll never know what will happen if he doesn't try...

"Maya, I...I want to...Could I...?" Naruto stammered quietly and cautiously, his eyes never leaving Maya's as a once-familiar and now-foreign emotion was resurrected within the dark bowels of his heart and began to stir within its tomb. Maya, seeing just what it was that he was feeling in his eyes, stayed quiet and patient, waiting for him to speak his mind. Closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath to calm his nerves along with steeling his resolve, Naruto opened his eyes back up, looking back into Maya's eyes. A bit stunned by the sudden fierceness and self-confidence in Naruto's blue orbs, Maya barely kept herself from outwardly reacting to them, but she could do nothing to prepare herself for what came next.

Letting his mind go completely blank, Naruto's right hand suddenly, but gently, cradled the back of Maya's neck and head before he both leaned forward and pulled her closer to him at the same time, locking lips with her in a second, spur-of-the-moment kiss. This time, however, it lasted much longer than a mere second like the first. Although caught by surprise, Maya's eyes closed in contentment as she slowly and cautiously began to return the kiss. When he started leaning back without breaking the kiss, Maya could only follow after him, standing up partly before being pulled into his lap, prompting her to stradle him. After what seemed like forever and a day to them while it was only ten seconds in real time, they finally broke apart, both left a little breathless and light-headed from the relatively calm, but infinitely impassioned liplock.

"S-Sorry..." Naruto mumbled quietly with a momentary stutter as Maya sat up straight in his lap, her hands resting on his shoulders at the base of his neck while his own hands had come to a rest on her hips; just like before, he wasn't tense or nervous anymore. The serenity of the aftermath was just too...intoxicating, in a way. "I don't know how long...this...might last, but I didn't want to regret not kissing you again, whether this was as far as we'd ever go for the rest of our lives or not..."

"It's okay. I kind of enjoyed it, really..." Maya responded softly, repeating what he had said to her earlier, as she leaned down so that their foreheads were touching, a mix of a small cheeky grin and a small excited smile gracing her lips. "...But could you give me some kind of warning next time?"

"...Hm...but then it wouldn't be spontaneous..." Naruto whispered with a small smirk of his own. Laughing quietly and briefly, Maya rolled her eyes before smashing her lips to his in their third kiss, this time poking and prodding at Naruto's lips with her tongue until he opened his mouth to give her access. Rubbing her tongue against his, Maya let out a small, stifled moan and pressed her body against Naruto's slightly when she felt his right hand slide down to her rear and gently squeeze her left butt cheek through her pants. Just before he could try to force his own tongue into her mouth, Maya put a hand on his chest and leaned back, breaking the kiss with a seductive and teasing grin on her lips that only grew all the more smug when Naruto's face shifted towards a half-hearted look of mild annoyance, disappointment, and a slight childish pout all rolled into one.

"I'm curious; what would you do if I just...I don't know, got up and walked away right now?" Maya questioned with a frisky and deceptively 'innocent' tone and facial expression, feeling a bit brazenly playful at the moment. In her current position, she could feel Naruto's arousal under her and she had to admit that he was far bigger than what she had once thought he was, having been a whimsical and fleeting thought at the time, a revelation that only proved to excite her even more than she already was. It also gave her the opportunity to be a 'little' intimately cruel...

"...You wouldn't dare." Naruto mumbled out in a half-hearted growl of warning, partly out of irritation if she did and partly out of hope that she wouldn't. His hopes were crushed when Maya, smirking even more devilishly than she had been just a moment ago, slowly and torturously began to grind against him for a few seconds, making Naruto breathe more heavily with lust and excitement, before she tauntingly and sadistically pushed away from him and stood up, only to start walking towards her bedroom with a very distinctive and alluring sway in her hips. Pausing at the doorway, she threw him a sly smirk over her shoulder and a flirtatious wink before disappearing into her room, leaving the door cracked open behind her. Pouting slightly in his spot, Naruto glared at the door with a combined expression of disbelief and confusion on his face, huffing quietly. 'Now that was just mean...and what makes it worse is that I can't tell if she was actually being serious about cutting me off like that or if she was trying to tell me something else...'

He sat there for another minute in silence, weighing the pros and cons of taking his chances, when he reminded himself about regretting things. It was another minute before he made up his mind...

"Fuck it. I won't know if I don't try..." Naruto mumbled under his breath as he stood up while taking his gloves off a bit hastily, leaving them and his knives with the rest of his belongings beside the front door as he made his way to Maya's room, slowly opening and shutting the door behind him. The room was completely dark due to the timed automated shutters on the windows being closed to help simulate the darkness of night and no electrical lights being on. That was when he felt a pair of slender arms wrap around his waist from behind and a warm, feminine body press against his back.

"Took you long enough..." Maya whispered into his ear teasingly while sliding her hands under his shirt and lightly dragging her nails down his chest and abdomen, making him shiver slightly out of excitement. "I was starting to wonder if you had caught on to the hint or not..."

"I almost didn't..." Naruto admitted as he turned around in Maya's embrace and captured her lips in another passionate kiss while pulling her closer, taking the initiative this time and forcing his tongue between her lips and into her mouth, making the woman moan heartily and lean against him for support, her legs suddenly failing to hold her up properly. As they broke for air almost a full minute later, Naruto gave the slightly dazzed woman a smirk. "I'll be nice and let you make the first move."

"Oooh, a gentleman, huh?" Maya purred quietly before looking up into his eyes again, her seductive smirk still firmly set in place. "I'll have to fix that, now won't I? Shouldn't take too long..."

xXx

"Mmm..." Moaning softly in her sleep, Maya pressed back against Naruto more firmly for warmth, her bare and naked body held close to his own from behind, using his arm as a pillow as she slumbered peacefully. With only a thin white sheet covering the lower half of their bodies, Naruto laid where he was with his tattooed left arm draped over the Siren's waist with his hand tucked under her side directly beneath her right breast. He couldn't believe it; for the first time in ten years, he had finally had a full night's rest without being plagued by nightmares or memories of losing someone close to him. By standard times, it was about a quarter to three in the 'afternoon', the automated shutters having opened around the set 'dawn time' earlier that morning, but neither of them had even fallen asleep until some time between five and seven in the 'morning'.

Careful not to wake her, he slowly pulled his left hand out from under her before gently brushing a few locks of hair out of Maya's face and tucking them behind her left ear. Gently kissing the side of her neck, Naruto let a genuine smile of peaceful contentment form on his face. Slowly and gently tracing some of the pastel blue markings decorating the back of Maya's left shoulder and along her bicep with his finger tips out of slight boredom, Naruto noticed something rather peculiar. Whereas Maya's markings were a soft shade of blue, in less than a standard month, his own Warlock markings had gone from being a rather dark imperial blue to being more closely described as a deep bluish-purple that could almost be mistaken as black from a distance, contrasting quite heavily with his tanned skin.

Frowning slightly, he wondered why his markings had changed in pigmentation, seemingly of their own accord. Could it be some kind of side-effect of him using his newfound Warlock powers or maybe a natural 'mile-marker' relative to either the level of control he had gained over them or possibly the number of powers he had unlocked? Could it possibly be some kind of 'bad omen' or a symptom of some kind of sickness or disease unique only to him? Discarding the thoughts on the subject for now with a mental note to talk with Lilith and Dr. Tannis about it whenever he got the chance or some spare time, Naruto focused his attention back on the woman sleeping beside him, admiring her true beauty and not the beauty everyone else saw. He didn't know if it was because of some kind of bond due to their similar 'conditions', being a Siren and a Warlock respectively, or if it was caused by something else, but...he felt so calm and at ease whenever he was beside her, almost as if he could almost feel the energy of her Siren powers and the aforementioned energy having some kind of effect on him that actually made him relax just because he was near her.

Despite that, he wasn't going to jump the gun, so to speak, and call the feelings he had for her 'Love', but it was still something more than just 'Liking' her and far beyond the base instinct of 'Lust'. For now, he would simply 'go with the flow' and hope there wasn't a towering waterfall with jagged rocks at the bottom waiting for him at the end of the metaphorical river he was floating down. Not letting his feelings blind him to anything any longer, he didn't doubt that their relationship, if anything even remotely serious happened between them, would have varying levels of 'rough waters' ahead of them, but thus was every the woe of every relationship for nothing was truly perfect. In his personal opinion, perfection lied in the imperfections and flaws.

'Great...I'm starting to think like some kind of philosophical sage or some other bullshit...' Naruto mentally groaned with a quiet sigh. A part of him wished he could just go back to just not thinking so much, but the other part of him wasn't so keen on it, having started to grow accustomed to it. Sighing once more and forcing all form of thought out of his head, Naruto wrapped his arm around Maya's waist again and tucked his hand back under her with her breast resting in his palm. Pulling her closer and holding her a little more firmly, he gently kissed her neck again before burying his nose in her hair, smiling slightly again when Maya mewled softly in her sleep and nuzzled his arm before going still once more.

"Mmm..." Quietly moaning in her sleep again, Maya's left hand found its way to Naruto's, haphazardly covering it as a faint smile formed on her lips...

xXx

After sleeping in throughout the rest of the standard day, they had decided to simply take the next day off and mostly stayed in the bedroom, taking advantage of their isolation and 'alone time' to rid themselves of any and all sexual frustrations while they had the chance to while also spending time devoted to them getting to know each other better between frequent bouts of fierce make-out sessions, heavy petting, and several long and exhausting rounds of sex. Fortunately, despite their 'busy evening', they had managed to go to sleep early enough to keep from sleeping in again.

However, there was just one little problem...

"...This better not be a daily issue." Maya mumbled to herself as she frowned slightly, having already showered and cooked breakfast for them both, only to find that Naruto had fallen back asleep some time between the time she woke him up when she got up and before she came back to the room. However, she was glad to know that he was actually capable of sleeping now. He had mentioned that he hadn't been getting much sleep for the past few standard months and for her to know that he felt comfortable enough around her that he was actually able to sleep made her indescribably happy. However, they had things to do that day, such as Naruto getting his truck out of Scooter's shop, restocking on their individual supplies, and a few other menial things before finding some kind of job off the bounty board. Her frown then shifted into a smirk, thinking of a way to wake him up and keep him awake this time...

Easily slipping out of her clothes and climbing back under the covers beside the blonde, Maya took a moment to put a condom on her newly acquired lover's stiff shaft before she slowly climbed on top of Naruto and straddled him while lightly kissing a handful of the scars scattered across his chest. When he started to stir, Maya gently pressed her lips to his in a tender kiss, waiting until he started to return it before slowly sliding her hips down, a small gasp of ecstacy escaping her as the rock hard reproductive organ gradually disappeared inside of her, inch by inch; she would never get tired of feeling so utterly complete, her muscles stretching to accommodate the width and length of Naruto's cock. By the time he was fully buried inside of her, the tender kiss had grown more passionate and hungry with every inch that entered her until all ten inches of the two-and-a-half-inch thick rod had penetrated her.

Eventually, they started calming back down after almost ten minutes before Maya slowly pulled back while nibbling on Naruto's bottom lip, grinning down at him as he opened his eyes fully. Sitting up and opening her mouth to make a comment about him sleeping in, Maya found herself unable to do anything other than moan at that moment when Naruto suddenly thrust up into her, causing her to lean her head back and close her eyes, placing her hands on his chest and arching her back. Rolling her hips a little, Maya allowed another moan to escape her, savoring the moment. When she looked back down at him and relaxed her arms while opening her mouth to say something again, Maya was caught off guard once more when Naruto thrust up into her a second time, this time causing her to collapse against him and convulse slightly with pleasure, a strangled moan slipping free.

"C-Cut it...oooouuut..." The Siren moaned out as Naruto's hands massaged and groped her left breast and right butt cheek, her hips rocking back and forth on their own as she tried, and failed miserably, to keep herself under control. Arms weak and shaky, Maya tried to push herself off of the blonde Warlock under her, only for her lips to be captured in another mind-numbing, tongue-filled kiss as Naruto rolled over on top of her, still situated between her legs and still buried inside of her. Thankfully, the kiss lasted only a couple minutes, but the slow and gentle thrusts were driving her mad with lust. "D-Damn it, Narutooo...Now's not...a good time...for...Ooooooh..."

Maya couldn't even finish her complaint, which was wrasped out between gasps of blissful pleasure and small moans, when Naruto's lips found a particularly sensitive spot on her collar bone. Unable to endure much more, Maya was in the process of gathering up the strength to put an end to it when Naruto gently pinched her left nipple between the knuckles of his right index and middle fingers while giving the tit it was attached to a firm squeeze. Moaning louder than before as her resolve crumbled to dust, Maya slowly wrapped her legs around Naruto's waist and gave in to desire. Then again, she could only blame herself for it since she had been the instigator this time.

"Just relax, will you? There's no need to rush out the door." Naruto whispered into her ear with a wolfish grin, which grew a little bigger when the only response he got was a pleading moan from Maya as she bucked her hips against his. He couldn't help chuckling slightly. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were becoming addicted to sex."

"Mmm..." Maya grinned against his neck before pulling him in deeper with her legs, locking her ankles together as she slowly dragged her nails down his back while staring into his eyes. "Even if I was, you'd be the one responsible for it. Honestly, I've never been with a guy as big as you."

"Now you're just kissing my ass." Naruto teased, laughing slightly when Maya glared at him half-heartedly.

"Keep it up and I'll start biting..." Maya threatened quietly, only for her breath to hitch in her throat when Naruto thrust into her more strongly than before.

"Ooh, kinky. I always did have a thing for-Ow!" Naruto teased, only to be cut short with a quiet exclamation of surprise and pain when Maya bit him on the shoulder. Laughing a little again, Naruto leaned down and gently nibbled on her ear as he bucked his hips against hers again, coaxing out yet another throaty moan of sexual bliss. "Keep it up and I'll start biting back..."

"Please don't..." Maya whimpered quietly, yet playfully with a mildly nervous laugh...

xXx

It wasn't for another two hours before they finally managed to leave the apartment and started making their way to Scooter's garage to pick up Naruto's truck. While walking through the streets, Naruto found himself wondering about something, but didn't quite know how to voice his question. Just as they reached the block Scooter's garage was on, Naruto gently grabbed Maya's arm and pulled her into a small alley directly behind the warehouse-like structure, making the blue haired woman curious and somewhat nervous.

"Maya, before anyone starts asking questions that we may or may not be ready for, I want to know..." Naruto started hesitantly before looking her in the eye. "I want to know what we are now. I mean, are we...boyfriend and girlfriend, I guess, or was last night more of a one-time thing?"

"I..." Maya stumbled over her words a little, looking down in thought as rubbed her left arm with her right hand. "That's a bit of a sudden question to be asking right now, Naruto, but...you have a good point. To be honest, I would like it if...last night wasn't just a one-time thing..."

"Same here, but...how exactly do we label our relationship right now?" Naruto asked quietly. Still looking down at the ground, Maya smiled slightly before reaching up and cupping his cheek, only to lean up and kiss him.

"To the world around us, we're just partners." Maya answered before leaning back up and kissing him again, this one lasting several more seconds than before that they both melted into. Slowly pulling apart while staring into one another's eyes, Maya smiled faintly. "But for now, just between the two of us, when we're alone, we're a couple, I guess...That is, if you want to be..."

"Sounds just fine to me." Naruto whispered before spotting a rather dark alcove in the wall directly across from them on the other side of the alley. Smirking slightly, Naruto glanced towards either end of the alley that opened up into the more heavily trafficked streets to make sure no one was watching or anything before suddenly pushing Maya into the alcove without letting go of her. Just as Maya was about to say something, Naruto smashed his lips against hers and pushed her up against the wall, causing the Siren to let out a long and drawn out moan as she wrapped her legs around Naruto's waist, her mind going blank as he pressed against her.

"Na...Naruto..." She gasped out breathlessly with a look of absolute euphoria on her face, tilting her head back and thrusting her chest out as Naruto moved his mouth from hers and to the slender opening on the chest of her leotard, sucking on the visible flesh of her left breast while roughly squeezing her rear with both hands. Looking down at him and panting lightly in time with his grinding, Maya put her hands on either side of Naruto's head, running her fingers through his hair and down the sides of his neck. As her body temperature started to climb alongside her arousal, Maya knew she wouldn't be able to keep her hands to herself for much longer and decided to fix the problem while she could, her hands already starting to fumble with Naruto's belt as she tried to undo his pants. "We're doing this...right here...right now...and there's nothing...you can do...to stop me."

"Not like I'd want to stop you to begin with..." Naruto whispered into her ear as he leaned back up, breathing almost as heavily as Maya was, before suckling on her earlobe, making her shiver with a great need for sexual gratification as she managed to undo Naruto's pants before starting to do the same with her own. Having made a quick run to the store the other night before things got too heated between them, Maya retrieved one of the last few remaining condoms they had from her personal storage device, her nimble fingers easily opening the wrapper despite all of her focus being concentrated solely on sex and putting it on Naruto while he pulled the crotch of her bodysuit and panties aside to give him access to her vaginal opening.

"Ngh!" Biting down on her bottom lip to keep herself from getting too loud as she was penetrated, Maya wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck and shoulders while fisting her right hand in his hair, the Warlock's shaft sliding into her with ease until it was fully sheathed. As he repetitively thrust in and out of her, a very small part of Maya's mind in the very back of her head idly mused about how dirty and almost whore-ish she should be feeling at that moment since they were not only fucking in 'public', but in a rather dirty back alley, at that, along with neither of them being unable to go even a meager four hours, outside of sleeping, without one of them relentlessly teasing the other until they gave in to their desires. That thought was then over-ruled by its more 'reasonable' and 'psychologically inclined' counter-part, rationalizing the constant acts of sexual intercourse as the only readily available method, more so for Naruto than for Maya, of showing their deepest and most sincere feelings for one another at any given time, no matter the circumstances, time, and/or location so long as it was within reason.

Even though Maya was oblivious to such thoughts running through her own head, they were no less true in their own respective points of view. Sure, they could show a little more restraint and at least wait until they found a more private location, but at the same time, life on Pandora was far too unpredictable and one's life was always in danger, the risk of death being much greater for people of professions similar to their own. With it being impossible for anyone to know what the future held, it was similarly impossible for anyone to know when they would have a second chance to do or say something, especially to those that they may hold close to their heart. Mere milliseconds after every last one of those thoughts came into existence in her brain, they were bulldozed almost immediately after as Maya grew closer and closer to a climax, her blonde haired lover being not too far behind her.

"Oh, god! Oh, god! Na...Naruto!" Maya whimpered out quietly as the inferno that had built up within her core became excruciatingly unbearable, holding onto him as tight as she could as she buried her face against his neck and shoulder, struggling desperately to keep quite so as not to draw any unwanted attention to them. Her body jerking as she was repetitively impaled again and again, Maya couldn't take it any longer and squeezed her eyes shut while biting down on Naruto's shoulder as hard as she could in an attempt to muffle her scream of sexual gratification, the relatively strong muscles of her canal constricting Naruto's cock as she orgasmed quite heavily, something that was followed rather closely by Naruto's own with one last thrust from the blonde.

Both left breathless from exertion and sweating a little, Maya tiredly pried her jaws from Naruto's shoulder and leaned back against the wall for a moment, only to lean forward again and rest her forehead against Naruto's, staring into each other's eyes. Staying as they were for a couple more minutes so that they could catch their breath, Maya leaned forward a little more and closed her eyes as she hungrily attacked his mouth in another kiss with Naruto quickly overpowering her, his tongue rubbing against Maya's own and gradually forcing her into temporary submission. It was another ten minutes before they regained control of themselves and eventually split apart.

"Not bad...for a quickie..." Maya muttered teasingly with a small, somewhat drunken smile of satisfaction on her face, leaning back against the wall as she continued to let Naruto support her completely; it wasn't like she weighed much, being only about a buck-ten soaking wet. Giving him an apologetic smile, Maya tenderly rubbed Naruto's shoulder where she had bit him. "Sorry. I didn't want to alert anyone to what we were doing...I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

"I'm fine, Maya. Relax." Naruto reassured with a small chuckle. Reluctantly pulling out and getting a slight whine of disapproval from Maya, Naruto carefully set Maya back on her feet as he retrieved an old and ragged, but clean hand towel from his stash of 'random and miscellaneous items' in the supply-oriented storage device on the left side of his armor. Handing it to Maya so that she could do a quick clean-up job on herself, Naruto retrieved a second hand towel from his storage device to clean himself up, tossing the used condom into a nearby trash can with the towel following after it a few seconds later. As Maya discarded the towel he had given her, he took the time to readjust her leotard and panties before zipping up and re-buttoning her pants, something she reciprocated for him. He then gave her a small smirk, his next comment making her blush slightly and glare at him indignantly and stubbornly. "Think you can walk or do I have to carry you?"

"...You're such an ass..." Maya grumbled while looking away as she made a few final adjustments to her clothing to get rid of any obvious signs or clues that might lead someone to the conclusion that something was happening between them. That thought made her mentally pause and think. She knew for a fact that she wasn't ashamed of the fact that she was, technically, seeing Naruto on a very intimate level, but at the same time, she didn't want anyone talking about them or spreading any rumors about them just in case things didn't work out between them before they actually reached a more serious and stable point in their 'relationship', whatever it may be at the moment.

"...Before we get moving again, I want to ask you another question, if you don't mind." Naruto spoke up, stopping Maya from leaving the little alcove before she could even fully turn to do so. While she didn't give a verbal response, Maya did give him a look of concerned curiousity as she took a step closer to him. "Back when we were heading towards Liar's Berg, you were going to say something before we were attacked by those bandits. What were you going to say?"

"..." Maya was actually rendered speechless for a moment, having almost completely forgotten about that with everything that had been going on. She didn't even think that he had been paying attention to her when that happened, let alone for him to remember that all this time. Thinking back on that moment and recalling what she had been about to say, Maya's cheeks gradually reddened out of embarrassment as she rubbed her left arm with her right hand, the only nervous tic that she had that showed itself only when she was embarrassed about something. "I, uh...I was going to tell you that I was sorry for calling you an ass and that you..."

"That I, what?" Naruto inquired out of partial curiousity and partial confusion. Maya only blushed a little more, glaring at the wall off to her side.

"That you weren't really that bad of a driver and that I only had a problem with you pulling off all of those stupid stunts that could have easily killed one of us, if not both of us." Maya reluctantly grumbled out just loud enough for Naruto to hear her, refusing to look back at him. Cocking an eye brow out of slight surprise and a touch of confusion, Naruto couldn't help it and smirked with honest amusement. Shaking his head with mild disbelief as he pulled his mask up over his nose and flipped his hood up over his head, Naruto let out a quiet chuckle as he put his hand on Maya's upper back and led her out of the alcove and then out of the alley. She merely glared at him half-heartedly out of the corner of her eye as they continued towards the front entrance to Scooter's garage. "...What's so damn funny?"

"Nothing, really. I just thought you were going to say something a bit more important than your opinion of my driving skills." Naruto answered with another slight shake of his head. Walking passed the first large bay door, Naruto entered the building through a normal-sized door that sat between the large bay doors that adorned the front of the garage. "Now, to collect my truck..."

"Naruto! Long time, no see!" Scooter, excited to see his friend and fellow lover of vehiclular warfare, called down to the blonde from the suspended platform set up in the upper-back region on his garage, a number of simple metal shelves set up all across it with various parts and tools scattered amongst them. Cleaning the motor oil and grease from his hands with a simple little rag, Scooter made his way down the catwalk staircase to the ground floor of his shop, grinning rather stupidly at Naruto. "I was wonderin' when you would come by to pick up your truck."

"Yeah, I would have stopped by sooner, but I was...busy." Naruto answered, hesitating for a moment at the end as he restrained himself from glancing at Maya. Although people instantly assumed that Scooter was stupid and thick-headed, the mechanic was actually quite smart even though he was admittedly a little slow a lot of the time if it didn't deal with engines or vehicles in general; still, Naruto wasn't going to take a risk around the man. "Anyways, where's it at? I don't mean any disrespect, Scooter, but I want to make sure everything still works right after what I put it through. You know that I trust your expertise and mechanical wizardry and all, but I'm really the only one that knows that truck inside and out."

"None taken, but still...I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'wizardry'..." Scooter replied sheepishly with a doofish grin plastered to his face. Still acting a little bashful from the rather simple compliments, Scooter gestured with his hand for Naruto and Maya to step back a good bit as he walked over to an industrial control box hanging from the ceiling by a three-inch thick black cable before grabbing it and pressing one of the buttons of the large, dulled and dirtied yellow remote. A moment later, the automotive lift slid back several meters along the heavy-duty tracks they were standing on with a large and rather thick section of dull grey diamond-plated steel sitting on the ground between the two towering pillars of the automotive lift and the twin industrial rail tracks and a few feet in front of the first bay door the garage sported. Once the automotive lifts had reached the end of the tracks they sat on, the aforementioned diamond-plate floor-piece then started rising up off the ground at a painfully slow rate as the hidden vehicle storage bay beneath it was revealed, a set of four two-foot wide and two-foot thick dull grey steel beams supporting the section of diamond-plated steel a little more than fifteen feet above the nearly identical diamond-plated steel floor-piece to the previously hidden vehicle storage bay. "There you go, Naruto!"

"...What...the fuck...did you do...to my truck?" Naruto growled out quietly and angrily while glaring at the mechanic, who went from proudly grinning at his self-proclaimed 'Masterpiece' to now performing a rather accurate and near-perfect impression of a terrified rabbit that had just been cornered by a very large and very hungry predator. Maya cast a mildly nervous glance at Naruto before slowly and cautiously stepping back and to the side so as to put a little more distance between her and the Warlock. Resting on floor of the twenty-foot-by-thirty-foot storage lift was definitely Naruto's 'Technically-Not-A-Technical', the paint job having remained its original black and grey camouflage color scheme, but with a number of rather obvious and drastic changes done to it.

"I, uh...I upgraded it with some of the best materials and parts that I could get my hands on?" Scooter answered uncertaintly as he took a half-step further back from where Naruto still stood, his blue eyes turning back towards the vehicle that only partially resembled his old truck...

The truck itself was now a full eleven feet in width from one side to the other instead of being only eight feet wide and was also about eighteen feet in length from fender to fender with the chassis now being five feet tall from the bottom of the chassis to the roof of the truck cab with the same height being constant throughout the rest of the truck's rear half while it was only three and a half feet in the front from the bottom of the chassis to the top of the hood while the new turret only added an insignificant two more feet in height in the back for a total maximum height of roughly ten feet in all, the cab had been extended in proportion to the rest of its length when compared to its original measurements, the front and rear wheel-wells were now far larger than they used to be in order to properly house the four absolutely monstrous fifty-four-inch diameter and eighteen-inch wide tires it was now standing on, the front and back 'windowshields' along with the door 'windows' now had what appeared to be incredibly high-grade bullet-proof glass installed in them while the armored slats had been made of what looked to be more durable metals and still ran across the transparent panes of near-indestructible glass, the truck bed was now enclosed with a covering of metal armoring that followed the contours of the truck's rear half, a decently sized turret mounted to the roof of the truck that looked eerily similar to the turret of a Guardsmen Praetorian APC being a set of four large cannon-like barrels mounted to the sides of a simple-looking rotating base-mount in pairs, twin pairs of large heavy machine gun barrels mounted to opposite sides of the hood that were of a similar caliber as to the original hood-mounted guns and spanned the hood's full length from the base of the windshield to just above the headlights with the ejection slots for the spent rounds aimed up and out to the sides of the truck near the base of the barrels, a new plow-like bumper guard mounted to the front of the vehicle with an angled bottom edge that ran parallel to the ground while an almost blade-like edge ran along the vertical crease in the middle of the plow as well as the bottom edge, a set of two rows of a dozen unusual six-inch long and three-inch diameter metal tubes mounted horizontally to the quarter panels on either side of the truck bed that added up to a total of four dozen tubes that could rotate into a specifically designed housing in the armor plating on either side to keep them hidden with the tubes of the bottom row on either side pointed towards the front of the truck and angled out to the sides at a twenty-five degree horizontal angle while the top row on either side were aimed similarly at a twenty-five degree horizontal angle out to the side with an additional twenty-five degree incline to each one, the truck's suspension system and shocks appeared to be top-of-the-line that now held the underbelly of the armored behemoth of destruction a full three feet off the ground instead of the previous two feet the original truck stood at, a row of six rectangular lights were mounted to the roof of the truck cab right behind the front windshield's top edge that looked like they were slightly bigger and wider than the old ones with metal cages placed over the lenses for better protection from anything that might damage them, the frame, chassis, and bumpers looked far sturdier and much stronger than they originally were, and to finish it all off, the truck's armor plating covering the new and much larger chassis appeared as if they could take even greater punishment than the old truck's armor plating could while the truck's under-carriage was defended from taking any real damage during intense bouts of vehicular combat by additional armor plating made of moderately lighter and, unfortunately, less durable metals than the rest of the truck's armor plating.

"I'm still waiting for an answer, Scooter..." Naruto suddenly growled out quietly as his hands balled up into tight fists while his dangerously narrowed eyes turned to the vehicular aficionado, causing Scooter to flinch and take another fearful step back as Naruto focused back on him. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO MY TRUCK?!"

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

A/N: Holy shit, that took forever to write...Almost a full fourty-eight hours straight on non-stop typing. INSOMNIA FOR THE WIN! Anyways, yes, I understand that Naruto's and Maya's relationship is quite...physical, but so what? I've been in several relationships myself that started out almost the same exact way and they weren't bullshit 'one-night-stand' types of relationships either. Besides, just because their fucking each other, it doesn't mean that they actually love each other yet or anything. Neither of them really knows how they actually feel for the other yet. In other news, yes, people, I understand that the new truck's description at the end was...Well, obscenely excessive in length, but I was too lazy to make an attempt at breaking it up into separate paragraphs after spending almost a full two days writing this with zero sleep; plus, it's currently Blood and Bullet's longest chapter.

I hope you enjoyed the new chapter and that you'll leave a review. Thank you for reading my story and please wait patiently for Chapter Six!

-Winterfang