You know what annoys me? The word blonde. People just add an e on the end because they don't get the context. As a French student, I'd like to point out that adding the e on the end makes the word feminine. In other words, you can't call a guy a blonde- they're a blond. No e.

Back to the fanfic- I'm actually continuing. Not sure why, my first chapter wasn't exactly a primo example of writing, but I guess I liked the idea enough.

As for disclaimers... Well, I never really got the point of those. Don't all the authors/ directors have to okay it in the first place to let the site use their works as a category? I'm so confused...

I gasped and jerked upright, clutching at my chest. I let out a slow sigh of relief as I found no hole. "Shit..." I breathed. I was unpleasantly tingly all over, and my chest felt tight. My forehead was uncomfortably warm.

Rolling my shoulders, I took stock of the situation. How long had I been out?

The container was still open. The girls... Didn't seem to have moved, at all. There were indistinct masculine voices arguing away from the crate. In fact, it seemed as though nothing had moved.

'That's 'cause time in your mind is warped. A day in there is maybe twenty seconds out there,' Naruto said. I stiffened.

'Not a dream then,' I thought.

'Nope!'

I sighed and grabbed the lock pick wires from where I had dropped them moments before. My legs were free in ten seconds, and I started checking what weapons I had left.

Gun gone, pouch gone, night vision scope gone, and another hidden knife had been found and taken. Which meant I still had my razor shoelaces and three more hidden knives in pockets among my clothes. I pulled out one of the knives.

Standing, I crept past the girls, and peeked around the edge of the container. Four men stood in a circle, arguing and gesturing at a couple of the dead bodies. My things were laid out on a small wooden crate beside them.

Carefully, I eased the other two knives from my pants. 'Hey Al,' Naruto said. I almost jumped.

'Those almost look like kunai, throwing knives we ninja used all the time. Can I take over for a few seconds?'

'No,' I growled.

'Please? Come on, man, I just-' I tuned him out and aimed with the first knife.

Thud. It hit dead on, cutting through the back of the man's neck. Another one flew a second later, hitting one in the eye as he tried to dodge. The other two shouted and tried to bring up their guns, until I hit one in the throat. I ran out of the container and around the side, hiding from the last one's bullets. The chatter of machine gun fire sounded briefly, and a couple holes appeared in the metal of the crate.

I continued into the veritable maze of shipping containers, almost immediately losing the man. I leapt up to haul myself on top of one again, stopping to listen for sounds of pursuit.

Nothing. My paranoia kicked into overdrive, leaving me scanning the surrounding crates intensely. My eyes almost flickered over a shadow.

Beat.

Beat.

Be- 'shit!'

I jumped back as the muzzle flash jumped from the gun, spraying bullets in my general area. One of them caught my thigh, sending me spinning in my backwards fall. I landed on my shoulder again, hissing as the pain there flared up again, deadening the rest of my arm.

"Dammit," I whispered.

'You know, you could let me help,' Naruto said conversationally. 'I'm a ninja, remember?'

'How do I know you're not going to possess me or something?' I asked warily.

'Uh, technically this is possession, but I'd give you back right after he's dead,' Naruto pleaded.

I rolled my eyes. 'Fine...'

I felt that weird tingle all over, and suddenly I wasn't able to move.

'Okay, same dimensions, this will be easy,' Naruto commented. Suddenly I was moving much faster than I ever had in the past, in front of the guy in an instant, and a sudden kick sent him flying into the air.

Naruto didn't stop there; we jumped straight up, twenty feet, and punched the guard, sending him crashing down to the concrete while we twisted to land on a shipping container. My leg protested, but Naruto kept me steady.

'Mind over matter, just push through it! We can heal it later!'

'Are there anymore?' I asked warily.

Naruto/I sniffed the air. To my surprise, I was able to pick out individual scents, including the tangy-bloody-dirty smell of the dead. Sixteen scents, closely packed, hit me from the direction of the girls. Then, another smell drifted from the buildings- this one alive, moving, and almost familiar. Four other scents surrounded it.

Naruto/I jumped down from the container I was currently crouched on and raced in that direction at speeds usually associated with race cars.

In the blink of an eye, I had one razor wire shoelace out and wrapped loosely around the throat of the first person. Naruto's presence withdrew, leaving me in control to speak.

"Who are you?" I hissed.

"Alex?" I heard the whisper of disbelief, and immediately dropped the wire in relief.

"Oh, it's just you," I said. "Hey Ben."

I took a step back and saw the other four men I'd smelled behind him decked out in SAS combat gear. "Which unit?" I asked. The short, thickset one glanced at Ben with his gun still pointed at me.

Ben rolled his eyes. "Alex, meet K-unit. Again. Wolf, say hi to Cub."

The first one let his gun swing down to his side, pulling up his mask to show the shocked face of Wolf. I blinked.

"Cub? But- you-!" He sputtered helplessly.

"You're...I thought you were just a kid?" Eagle said uncertainly, pulling off his own mask.

Snake pulled his off as well. "Fox? What the hell?"

"I don't get it," the fourth guy said, yanking his mask away. "Who's Cub?"

"I'm Cub, temporary fifth member of K-unit for two weeks before doing stuff for MI6... Two and a half years ago? Hm... I was eighteen then," I informed the new guy. Ben frowned after the last bit.

'Why did you lie?' Naruto asked curiously.

'Respect. If they knew I really was just a kid...'

"Well... It looks like you've taken care of the situation?" Ben asked dryly, glancing at one of the fallen guard's bodies.

I shrugged. "Amateurs."

"...Right. And the girls?"

"Are still in the container. I had only just finished dispatching the men when you arrived," I informed him.

K-unit replaced their masks and followed me to where the girls were chained. Upon entering the crate, several of the girls gasped and started chattering in Russian, shrinking away from me.

"What the hell are they saying?" Wolf growled.

"Calm down," I said in Russian, holding my hands up in a placating gesture. "They're reinforcements, here to help you," I said.

"You killed them! How do we know you won't kill us?" One of the younger ones whimpered.

I stopped. "Why would I try to kill you when I already told you I was helping? I killed the men because they were hurting you, and have hurt a great many others. Honestly, I'm not the good guy here, but I am trying to help," I told them. It seemed to work.

"Fox! What's he saying?" Wolf blurted in frustration. Fox shrugged.

"I don't know; Alex is the interpreter, not me."

I glanced back at Ben. "The thick one lying behind you had the keys."

Spinning, he bent over and almost immediately grabbed them from where they were clipped to a lanyard in the man's pocket. He straightened and tossed them to me as Wolf shook his head and led K-unit out of the box to take up guard positions.

I bent down and started working on the girls' chained feet.

The last one I freed was also the blonde I had pegged as the PM's grand niece, Clara. While the others had gathered in a huddle against the opposite wall of the container, she stood there, looking uncomfortable.

"...are you just here to stop the operation?" She asked cannily. If I were another potential kidnapper, something like 'do you know who I am' might've tipped me off to the fact she was someone of importance. So instead, I said, "Of course not, ma'am, I was sent primarily for you. I am agent Rider of MI6. That's my parter, agent Daniels. The rest are K-unit. Thus far, our retrieval mission has been a success. However, we will have to wait until morning to return home." Proper, professional.

'Damn, you sound like someone shoved a stick up your ass,' Naruto marvelled. A brief scowl crossed my face. 'Shut it.'

"Ben?" I asked aloud. "Have you called the clean up crew?"

The girl blinked. "What a harmless way of putting it," she said faintly, leaning out to stare at one of the bodies.

I had a slight wince. "Sorry about that. Though it sounds harsh, that's our job. The clean up crew will relocate the other girls, and take care of the... Mess. Most likely, they'll arrive within half an hour. Now, if you'll follow me..." I said, noticing Ben ending the call.

"Clean up'll be here in fifteen. We had best get a move on. Grab Clara and we'll go back to the hotel." He fixed me with a baleful glare. "I was woken by the phone informing me that backup had arrived. I go to wake you up, but were you there? No! My parter had already left, without informing me. I swear, if you didn't hold the spot of top agent..." He muttered angrily. I shrugged unapologetically.

"Hey, last time we waited for backup it was a good twenty four hours, and when I finally decided to go without I only just managed to stop those dignitaries from being killed. The so-called backup arrived an hour after that, and got uppity with me!" I complained.

"Yes, and they spent the next day in the hospital, I remember," Ben grumbled. I nodded sagely and gently led Clara away from the container and to the box my things were still resting on.

I stuck my gun back under my shirt, as well as the knife. I picked up the pouch with my scope and other assorted gadgets and clipped it to my belt again. Ready to go, I pivoted on one leg- and gasped as I was painfully reminded of the bullet in my leg.

"Ngh," I grunted and fell to one knee, clutching my leg.

"Alex?" Ben asked. His eyes widened. "Al!" He ran toward me and dropped beside me. "What happened?"

"The last one hit me," I bit out.

"And you were walking on it?!" He asked in disbelief. "Al!"

"Sorry," I said sheepishly. There was a small gasp behind me. Turning my head, I saw Clara begin to sway and jumped up just in time to catch her. Her weight made me stumble on my one good leg, until Ben stabilised me.

Giving me a look, he hoisted Clara over his shoulder and pushed a hand down on mine. I sat down on the concrete dock, and rifled through my pouch until I found a roll of gauze. I rolled my pant leg up until the cold air brushed the edges of the hole.

I gritted my teeth and dug a finger into the wound, finding the bullet and pulling it out with a choked-back scream. A shadow cast by a floodlight fell over me, and I looked up to see Snake standing above me with a worried frown.

"Shit, Cub, how the hell'd you manage to get roped into this?" He murmured, and crouched down.

"I was too curious for my own good and investigated my uncle's death," I told him bluntly. He glanced up sharply in the middle of unrolling the gauze and bandage.

"And you just became a spy?"

I shrugged. "Yeah." I bit my tongue as he wrapped my leg up, not bothering to clean the blood off yet. That would be easier to do in the hotel with running water.

I heard a rumble and smelled the sour-bitter scent gas of the car Ben had started. Said car- a simple silver BMW- rolled around the corner of a building a block away and drove towards us.

Stopping a few feet away, Ben got out and opened the door of the backseat. "Get him in, we need actual medical help as soon as possible."

"Actual medical help? I'm hurt, Fox," Snake grumbled good-naturedly with a slight edge to his voice as he helped me stand and hop in the car. Clara was propped against the window on the other side.

No sooner than the door was shut had Ben jumped in the driver's seat and zoomed off. I settled in for the short drive, looking forward to the warm shower and bed that awaited.

Holy crap, I got a review. Seriously guys, I got a review. Within the first day, no less! I'm probably overreacting here, but I like reviews...

Also, I'm probably going to be updating with slightly shorter chapters unless it's something that requires longer. Otherwise, I lose interest and it becomes an assignment, my work degrades, etc. I might even stop altogether if I tried to do long chapters. So, please don't be too peeved. (BTW, ever tried using 'peeved' in casual conversation? Depending on who your friends are, it gets funny real quick.)

Anyway, 94, of course Naruto's gonna be let out a bit- wouldn't have it any other way. This story's eventually going to get around to Brooklyn Prep. Possibly with Clara... I kind of made her up on the spot, 'cause Alex need a plausible mission. No way '6 would send him to Russia just to stop a small time group like that; had to be someone of importance to national security. And a girl of Alex/Naruto's age is an open possibility. Let me know your ideas, or be stuck with mine. Ciao for now!