Night City Legends

by DrunkenFicker

2074, Naruto awakens to find himself in a world much stranger than his own. One with no place for heroes, only dead legends. He'll find his place among the city and carve out a path of his own to become Night City's own living Legend... that is, so long as he doesn't go screaming over the edge. Story will cover Edgerunners Anime and Cyberpunk2077 Act 1 Complete. Act 2 in progress.

13. C13: Can't Kill Me, I'm 0 and 1

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Night City Legends

Act 2: Running along the Edge

Chapter Thirteen: Can't Kill Me, I'm 0 and 1

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As the Vato pulled up to the stoplight at the turn to the bridge on MLk boulevard, Naruto felt several frantic taps on his shoulder, "Ah, Naruto I think somethings wrong," she told him, her voice shaking. When he turned to look at her, he saw she was pale and motioning to the bridge where a large jacked up Thorton Mackinaw truck and a Chevillion Thrax car were parked halfway on the curb just by the end of the bridge.

"A roadblock?" Sid questioned, looking grim as he saw several armed gangoons hanging around the truck.. "Dude I thought you talked to someone about this."

"I did," The blond said, narrowing his eyes. Morton wouldn't do something like this right? He didn't know the man personally but the way Rico had spoken about him made the gangoon boss out to be a man of his word at least. "But it looks like they've noticed us."

Hearing that, they turned from him and back to the bridge to see the 6th Street gangers moving around. From where he sat, Naruto counted 7 gangoons, three moving towards the car on the other side of the road while three stayed near the truck, the last one moved to the center of the road and seemed to march to the halfway point of the structure and stand at a parade rest on the centerline.

"You two wait here," Naruto told them while pulling the car up and beside the curb just off the bridge. "I'll go see what's up," Sid nodded and palmed the pistol he'd been given, both of them sitting a little lower in the car just in case.

Several other cars that had wanted to turn down the bridge made u turns upon seeing the gangoons on the end, choosing to go further down to use one of the other bridges a mile or two away rather than tangle with 6th Street. Some of the pedestrians were muttering that the gang had to have set up a toll on the bridge before noticing him. Those mutterings turned to them saying things like 'dead gonk walking' and shaking their heads at the suicidal blond but they didn't stop watching, wanting to see what horrible thing would happen to him.

As he neared, Naruto looked the man up and down. He was dressed in a full OD green uniform with a tan tactical vest that had several colorful ribbons pinned to the front. The man wore a matching garrison cap on his bald head and sported a long well groomed beard. "What's going on here? He questioned, ready to react if the man or his partners further back made a wrong move. From his position, Naruto could see that the other six men hadn't armed themselves but didn't want to risk it.

"You Naruto?" the man barked as he got near, getting a nod from the blond.

A tense moment passed before, to his surprise, the ganger stood at attention and saluted, "Good afternoon sir, Im Captain Willis Morton" He held the salute for a few moments then returned to a parade rest, "The General has asked that me and my men provide you with an escort through Arroyo and Rancho Coronado. And just let me say that I consider it an honor sir."

-xXx-

"Hmm," Sitting behind her desk, Meredith Stout sipped her coffee while going over the preliminary report on the name provided by their pet fixer Faraday. "Naruto Uzumaki, just who are you I wonder,"

Nothing before 2074 seemed to exist on the man and she had her personal data procurement team picking through any databases that they had access to… including a few they shouldn't have access to. No records of any kind could be found aside from a backdated ID that led to a dead end. His moniker of 'The Shino' however led to a quagmire of hearsay, rumor, and speculation.

He was considered to be the gangoon equivalent to Arasaka's pet borg Adam Smasher or their long time contracted merc, Morgan Blackhand. 'Heh, had someone told me that some gangoon would be compared to Blackhand I'd have had them kicked out of my office before they even finished the sentence,' she mused to herself while tossing the datapad down. The marked decrease in Scav activities were attributed to the Shino despite Commissioner Jerry Fawlter trying to claim that it was due to the hard work of the city's police officers.

6 months and nearly 45,000 eddies, that's how much this information cost Militech thanks to Faraday, the freak. Nowhere near enough to send to the higher ups, much to her frustration. Maybe she should have another chat with Faraday, remind him just who he did gigs for in the first place.

A small window popped up in her optic, alerting her that her PA was at the door, "What is it?" the door slid open as the young man rushed in, clutching another datapad to his chest, "I said what is it Devin," she asked again, not hiding her annoyance.

"I'm sorry Ma'am but there's been an emergency!" he hurried over and placed the screen on her desk in front of her. Narrowing her eyes, she snatched the datapad up and cursed as she went over the details. A Militech convoy had been hijacked and to make matters worse, the trucks contained a shipment of experimental next gen smart missiles headed to one of their biggest customers, the NUSA armed forces.

-xXx-

"Choom, I never thought I'd ever see the day something as fucking preem as this would happen." Sid said grinning like a fool as they cruised down the highway through Rancho Coronado, "This is nova as fuck!" He waved to a couple of sixers as they passed them, their dumbstruck looks making him wince as he laughed. "You see their faces?"

"Babe, let's not try to provoke them ok?" his girl asked nervously.

They were a hell of a sight, a 6th Street longbody Chevillion Thrax followed by the Vato, clearly a Valentino affiliated car, with a jacked up Thorton Mackinaw bringing up the rear as they rolled down the street? It sounded like the start of a bad joke to be honest but looking in the rear view mirror, Naruto could see the gangoon standing in the bed of the truck, a LMG propped on the roof ready to shred anything that got in the way to pieces.

"It'll be ok," he told the pair, glancing at the pair before motioning ahead of them . "We're almost at the edge of Santo anyway." Off in the distance they could see where the highway cut between through the ridge that marked the boundary where Night City ended and the Eastern Badlands began.

The truck following them revved its massive engine and pulled along the side of the Vato, the Captain poking his head out the window, "This is as far as we go, you're on your own from here!" he yelled, giving them a two fingered salute, "Good luck!" the driver blew the horn twice, causing the car to pull aside while Naruto continued on by.

"Holy shit, I still can't believe that happened," the man admitted as they got further and further away from their escorts., "your the fucking man choom,"

The praise made the blond grin back with a little laugh, "Ah it's nothing,"

The last couple hundred yards before reaching the ridge was like night and day, going from a concrete maze of roads and megabuildings to a long stretch of desert road lined with old billboards advertising everything ranging from porn, the Delamain taxi service, All Foods, and what looked like a children's show… no, wait it was porn too.

The drive past the ridge only took a few seconds before he was once again greeted by the familiar sight of the arid wasteland he'd spent weeks driving through. There were even more billboards on this side, all advertising the same things but all he could see was the massive mountain of trash off to his right, a literal mountain of trash stretching for miles with no telling just what was buried underneath tons and tons of rust and rot.

He continued to drive for another couple of miles and soon, they came upon the Sunset motel, the first and last stop outta NC for food, beer, CHOO2, and if you're desperate enough, a place to sleep.

"This is the place," Ame told him, pointing towards the garage near a set of CHOO2 pumps, "Ms. Panam is supposed to be at a garage. I think that's it, eh I really hope she didn't leave already, we are a little late." she rambled nervously before Sid squeezed her hand.

Pulling the Vato up to the side of the building, Naruto climbed out and looked around the dusty set of buildings, "Wait, here for a minute." He told the pair, "I'm gonna look around and make sure things are safe." The two nodded and got comfortable.

While he could still get hints of the stench coming from the trash miles back, the air was a bit better here than in the city that he'd gotten used to but still nowhere near as good as he remembered it being compared to Konoha.

'... then again' he thought after a moment, 'nothing will probably ever compare to home,'

"Hello?" he called out, walking around the garage to see if anyone was there. Further off near the motel, he could see several people walking around and minding their own business, several even seemed to be knocking back beers even though it was still early in the afternoon. "Guess I'll go check out the motel," he muttered to himself just as a loud clattering of metal came from inside the garage, followed by a woman cursing.

"Come on old girl," he could hear the woman plead from inside, "Don't be like this, don't I treat you right?" Heading towards the door, Naruto looked over to the Vato to double check on his charges and found them watching him like a hawk, clearly also hearing the noise.

"There you are, you little shit," the woman growled as he slowly opened the door next to the larger roll up door, grimacing as the rusty hinges groaned. "Mitch you asshole, these couplings aren't what I needed, I said a 43m not a 73m. Damn it, gotta run a bypass."

Peaking in, Naruto spotted a large heavily modified Thorton Mackinaw with the hood up and a rather large gun mounted to the roof. But his eyes quickly zeroed in on the woman standing on the bumper, working on something under the hood… or to be more exact, he zeroed in on the woman's ass as she was bent over working under the hood. "God damn," he caught himself thinking out loud, making his eyes go wide.

"What the!" the woman leaned up and turned, spotting him, "Hey, who the hell are you!" Light brown skin with long dark brown hair in a messy bun weaning blue jeans with a harness as a belt and a red and black leather jacket, the woman was a beauty in her own right. He must've been staring too long because he suddenly found himself scrambling to duck behind the door as a small metal toolbox flew his way. "I said you the fuck are you!" he heard her yell, the toolbox flying past the half open door to scatter a random assortment of tools on the sand.

"Woah woah calm down!" He yelled, peeking around the door, spotting her stopping towards him with a hammer in hand, he contemplated slamming it shut but settled for a quick retreat towards the Vato. "I'm looking for someone called Panam!"

She slammed the door open the rest of the way and stormed out, kicking some tools aside, "Oh yeah? And who the hell are you, one of dogkillers punks?" The woman looked like she was ready to swing the hammer at him as soon as she got the chance.

"Excuse me!" Ameilla called from the backseat of the Vato, "Are you the nomad woman Ms Rogue mentioned would help us?" that caused the other woman to stop short while Naruto readied himself for the hammer to come flying.

"You two the ones I'm taking to camp?" when they nodded, she lowered the hammer fully, "Hm, 'bout time you showed up, Ameilla and Sidney right?"

"Hello there, pleasure to meet you Ms. Panam." Ameila told her with a small smile, "This is Sidney, my…" she blushed a bit, "Input." the man in question grinned and waved a slightly bloody hand.

"Sup!"

Panam then turned to the blond, "Rogue didn't say anything about you," she snapped looking him up and down, "who are you?"

"The names Naruto," he answered, slowly relaxing as she didn't swing at him. "Not sure about Rogue but the Padre sent me to get these two to you safe. Had some dudes trying to zero them earlier,"

"Wait a minute," she looked like she was about to smirk, "the Padre sent you, the Fixer in Heywood?" he nodded slowly, making her laugh, "Oh boy thats fucking great." the woman held her side and laughed hard enough to bring a tear to her eye, "Oh I can't wait to tell that cheap stuck up old bitch she had to have another fixer step in to make sure her gig went through."

She turned back to the garage and tossed the hammer towards the door, slowly stopping her laughter as she wiped her eye, "Whew I needed that laugh," she sighed while walking over to the car, as soon as she was next to Naruto the tried to punch him only for him to dodge back.

"Oi what the hells wrong with you?" the blond demanded.

She gave him a half hearted glare, "You know what you did!" she growled back making look away innocently, "That's what I thought." He couldn't help it, it was a pretty nice ass in his opinion.

"Eh, seen better," he couldn't help it but at the same time he wasn't lying, so far he hadn't seen a rear quite as nice as Cami's. Then again, her's was the only one he'd been interested in for a while. This time, Naruto didn't bother dodging the punch she sent his way, just letting her punch his raised arm, making her wince when her fist struck his chrome arm. "But hey, you said something about a dog killer?"

"Oh them?" she asked while shaking her hand back and forth, "Just some gonk Raffin shiv looking to stir up trouble. Ran a few of 'em off a while back and thought they wanted to even the score."

"Are they gonna be a problem getting them to where they're going?"

"No more than usual," she shrugged, "but I doubt it, we'll be taking these two east, they tend to stay in the Northern Badlands for the most part. Might see a straggler or two though," While they spoke, the lovers both moved to get out of the Vato with Ameilla climbing out first and quickly stepping around to help Sid. "Looks like loverboy took some lead, no worries. The doc'll take a look at him as soon as we are at camp."

Putting both hands on her hips, Panam walked passed Naruto over to the pair, "If you got anything to take with, just toss it in the back of my baby in the garage." she told them, shooting Naruto a look to see if he'd been staring at her again.

He was looking away, hands behind his head whistling innocently… he'd totally taken a good look too.

Seeing as the pair only had the clothes on their back, plus the pistol Sid was given, it took no time at all for them to get loaded up. Naruto helped the injured Sid into the backseat of the Thorton while Panam finished a quick patch job on her engine, stating that while the old Warhorse wouldn't be at peak performance she'd get them there.

"Hey Naruto?" the young girl called out as the window rolled down, he turned to see the girl smiling at him while leaning over her input, "Thank you so much,

"Yeah you're a real lifesaver, a real preem Gato."

"A gato?" he repeated, looking confused. The only Gato he knew was that greedy little businessman from Wave and surely they weren't calling him that.

Sid nodded, "Hell yeah choom, means you're a cool cat, a smooth operator. Don't know how you managed to get those 6th Street gangers to give us an armed escort like that but I'll never forget it." he told him before leaning forward to kiss Ame, who was still leaning in front of him.

He cracked a grin while Panam gave them a look from around the hood. This guy got 6th Street to escort them? While she wasn't as plugged into the news coming out of Night City, she did know that 6th Street and the Valentino's had a short but violent war a few months back and that there was still plenty of bad blood between the two. Taking a quick glance through the now open garage door, the nomad nodded, that was definitely a Valentino ride if she ever saw one so how the hell did he manage that?

-xXx-

[Ric03: Hey Ortiz. Shit timing I know but I could really use a hand… please.]

She just stayed curled in a ball on her bed, hidden under her blankets like she did as a child as she read the messages over and over again. Face even more of a mess, throat raw from screaming as she punished herself.

[Faraday got me good, choom. I don't know if you'll even get this. Biomoniter keeps pinging like I don't know how fucked I am. Really wish I had that old paineditor right about now though. Wish I could tell ya how good those GASH grenades worked but the gonk had a runner disable them. Yeah I kept 'em just like I kept all the stuff you gave me over the years.]

If she'd been there to back him up, she could've fucked that Netrunner up with a few of her Daemons, fried the son of a bitch in their own chair. But no, she was busy pouting that her choom had left the gang. Just up and deltaed on him, leaving him alone and now look at what happened.

[Don't think I'll be making it outta this one girl, sorry to ask but, you remember that promise to wipe my drives? Do you mind doing that still? Don't forget to go through them first though, got some nova shit on there that I'd like you to have.]

She would. Come hell or highwater she'd do it for him. That and she always wanted to know what kinda kinks he had that he was too embarrassed to admit to.

[I'm sorry too, for going out like this. Figured it'd happen sooner or later but I always thought it'd go down differently you know, even narrowed it down to the three most likely scenarios. Either it would be my bitch wife killing me, you strangling me for being a massive dumbass, or a wild drug fueled sex heart attack.]

[Sorry, couldn't resist. Think I'm going into shock now.]

[I love you Ortiz. Always have. Sorry for being too much of a little bitch to admit it. If I could go back and change things, I'd accept your feelings all those years ago and kick that bitch to the curb like I should've all that time ago. Fuckin biomoniter won't stop, says I'm critical… no shit]

[I love…]

The last message was sent unfinished, meaning the message function had closed due to inactivity and sent the unfinished message. Every message she sent was left unopened from what she could see. God, how she wanted to go to his apartment but the thought of what she would find peterfide her. Dozens of what ifs kept flowing through her mind, anxiety twisting her up inside without mercy.

*Beep*

The notification over her holo made her heart skip a beat. For one glorious moment the world was back to normal as she checked it, hoping her choom had sent her a message, only for those hopes to crash down like a kick in the snatch as she saw her personalized contact name for the boss man pop up with a message.

[G3ner l-M0rty: Ortiz, need you to meet me at these coordinates. NOW!]

-xXx-

Waving at the truck as it tore off down the road, Naruto made his way back to the Vato while contacting the Padre, who picked up on the other end pretty quickly.

"Naruto, I pray you bring good news." he spoke as soon as the picture popped up, his face ever somber as he sat with his hand together as if in prayer.

"No worries Padre, Sidney and Amelia are safely outta the city," he reported while trailing along slowly, looking around to see what he could see around the motel now that he didn't have to lookout for threats. "They're with the nomad contact, a girl named Panam."

The old man nodded slowly but raised an eyebrow at the girl's name, "Since they are safely out of the fathers reach, I shall consider the gig closed. I thank you Naruto, I do not have much family left but it does my soul some good knowing that they are out of the wolf's den."

"No problem old man," he smirked, grimacing at the slip of his tongue.

Said old man looked at him with raised brow and a stern look, "I'll ignore that slip you little shit." he grumbled to the blond before shaking his head, "You heading back to NC or you planning on exploring the badlands? I seem to remember you mentioning that during one of our past discussions."

He was a lot of things in his long life, a Valentino, both a good and bad husband, a man of the cloth, one time solo himself, and now a the premiere Fixer for all of Heywood by holding the respect of all the players in Heywood. But one thing he had never forgotten was the power of lending an ear and had offered the boy just that.

"Eh maybe some other time, I really need to get this car back to its owner." he told the man while patting the door, "Don't think Cesar would appreciate me taking the Vato on an extended road trip."

"There are always other days,"

He nodded at that, "Hey before I forget, if I send you a name can you get some information on a person for me? I think I need to have a talk with them."

"Depends on the person in question, send me the name and I'll see what I can do." spotting how distracted the blond seemed to be over the holo, he gave him a questioning look "Everything ok?"

"I'm hearing something," he turned and focused, lowering his voice as he did so, "I'll get back to you Padre, sending you the name now.". The other man nodded and ended the call while Naruto shot the fixer a quick text with the name in question.

With that out of the way, the blond listened and could hear what seemed like a one sided rushed conversation half drowned out by the rumbling machinery next to the large gas tank fenced in next to the building.

"I don't care, tell him." he could just make out over the noise as he peered through the bent metal bars being used as a fence. Between the building and the fuel tank, he could see a dirty looking man standing over a bike trying to talk to someone over his holo, "Listen, I put a tracker on that bitch's truck… yes you fucking gonk, that bitch… no! Panam you fucking glitterjocky!"

Hearing that, his eyes widened and he jumped up onto the roof to get above and closer to the man to hear more.

"She's got two gonks with her, stupid city kids." The man reported as Naruto peered over the edge, taking care that his shadow didn't give him away, the guy was thin, wearing dusty road leathers with blue accents covered in older model tech with no chrome that he could see. But the main thing that made him grit his teeth was the patch of a flaming skull with 'Wraiths Outlaws' on the back of his jacket. "Looks like she's headed down the highway, got the tracker synced with my bike's navi soft… gonna be easy to ambush the cunt and get payback… fuck if I know, just zero the others… nova, gotta delta, I'll be there soon."

He couldn't let that happen, they'd already made it this far, escaped from Ameila's father and had a shot at their happily ever after, he wouldn't allow this to happen. While the man started packing away a small device and straddled his bike, a Brennan Apollo if he wasn't mistaken, Naruto snuck up behind the man and quickly caught him in a chokehold, dragging him off the bike which toppled over into the dirt.

"Hey who the fuck-"

"Shut up," Naruto squeezed, making him struggle a bit and claw at his arm, "I'm only asking you this once, tell me what I want to know you live to see another day. You lie to me and I snap your neck, you understand me?"

"Fuck… you," he chocked out, eyes bludging in the blonds grasp. As soon as the words left his mouth, Naruto reached around and grabbed the wraiths arm that had been clawing at his own arm and twisted it behind his back. He twisted more and more until all the man could do was stand on his tiptoes and let out a soundless gasp.

"Now let's try again, do you understand me?" he demanded, giving one final push which dislocated the Wraith's shoulder.

Unable to yell, the man only nodded furiously.

"Where will that ambush happen?"

"Eat… shit." he gasped out before trying to laugh.

Naruto growled, "I don't have time for this." he muttered. The man felt his grip tighten more and panicked, trying all he could to break free before the blond jerked his head to the side, snapping his neck. He had wanted more information but it sounded like he didn't have a lot of time before this ambush happened so the only thing he could think of to do was try to make it there in time.

Picking up the Apollo bike, he could see the flashing screen mounted on the tank which showed the position of the tracker hidden on Panams truck. He could've just walked away, the gig was over and any other solo would've done just that, but he couldn't do it, his conscience just wouldn't let him.

Redailing the old man, he turned the key and to his surprise the bike roared to life, he'd seen Jackie kick a lever to start his and expected this one to be the same. As the holo rang, he took a minute to look down at the beast he straddled with a grimace, the thing was heavily modified and none of it looked like it had been done professionally and… was that brush guard part of a stop sign?

"Hey Padre," he called out before the man's vid feed even fully popped up, "Change of plans, Panams got some Raffin out for payback, looks like she's about to run into an ambush. Leaving the Vato here at the motel, could you-"

"I shall handle the retrieval," he responded, eyes a bit wider when he heard that. "Now go with God and do what you do best." Sand and small stones went flying, partially covering the dead Raffin behind him as he peeled out onto the road, following the navipoint pointing him to the Nomad and her charges.

-xXx-

Groaning, Panam blinked away the spots in her vision just as her windshield shattered, sending small flakes of glass raining down at her which she blocked with her arms. She felt a hand on her shoulder shaking her and blinked a few more times before snapping out of it with a surge of panic. Through the broken windshield, she could see smoke and steam rolling out from underneath her hood and-

"Ms Panam!" she turned to see the young woman she was hired to escort and winced. "Ms. Panam!"

"Enough!" she cried out, shaking her grip from her arm, "I'm-" several bullets impacted her truck making them all flinch, "You two whole?" The girl nodded and when she looked at Sid, she saw the young Valentino firing back through the busted window of his door. "Fuckin Wraiths."

Everything had been going just fine after leaving the motel, she had radioed ahead to let the rest of the family know she was on the way back to camp with the two travelers and was enjoying a nice drive with a pair of friendly city dwellers who were curious about nomad life. She was happy to tell them about the life she loved so dearly and never noticed the ambush until it happened.

Several Wraith vehicles attempted to box her in but the Warhorse was too much truck for them to handle so she rammed a couple of their little shitboxes out of the way and tried getting back to wasn't until another heavily modified Thorton sideswiped her did they actually force her warhorse to stop, disabling her truck as it ran over several large rocks and damaged something that killed the engine.

"Panam! Panam!" She could hear Saul calling out over the coms installed in her dash, her call to them for help had been cut off earlier and he sounded frantic, "Panam answer me! What happened?"

"Fucking Raffin," she groaned, slapping the panel to answer him, "Wraiths! They ambushed me and-" several more bullets shredding the back glass cut her off, showering the two in the back with glass. "Need some help here!"

"Just hold out, we're on the way!"

"Hey, are you packing any heat?" she heard the man in the back ask, followed by him firing a couple rounds, "Almost out here!" Sid fired another few and was rewarded with a scream followed by a click as the slide locked back, "Fuck, I'm out."

Taking her personal link, she leaned over to the passenger seat and jacked into the console before replying, "Under the seat!" lines of data filled her vision and several warnings popped up as she took control of the turret mounted on the roof. "Oh come on you old piece of shit!" It'd been hit several times already but after some gentle persuasion, ie. her kicking the roof under it in frustration, the gun cycled and was ready to fire.

"Haha, eat this you Raffin assholes"

The turret whirled around, firing burst after burst of high caliber rounds towards the Wraiths and their vehicles. Several that had been trying to rush the truck after Sid ran out were caught flat footed and blasted off their feet as the rounds cut through them with ease. But even as it kept them back, they still managed to fire off a few rounds here and there, aiming to disable the gun.

-xXx-

Naruto followed the navipoint along the highway leading into the more 'civilized' part of the badlands where travelers still dared to go when needed and more often than not with armed guards. Considering that Panam had, at best, a good 5 or so minute head start he was surprised at how far she had gotten.

His heart sank when he heard a boom echo over the sound of his motor and the rush of the wind in his ears. 'Damn, I hope I'm not too late.' he cursed before seeing a smoke cloud rising up in the distance behind several hills. 'Hope this thing can handle going offroad.'

A small car honked at him as he cut across the entire highway and sped up a small hill, nearly causing a small wreck and wrecking himself when the bike jolted suddenly and seemed to ride a lot smoother than before.

After a couple of minutes, he cursed and pulled the brakes hard, causing the wheels to lock up and skid through the sandy dirt, throwing up even more of a dust cloud. 'Need to go faster!' he thought while hopping off and letting the bike roll on. His feet dug into the soil and he shot off towards the rising smoke cloud, surpassing the bike as it hit a rock and went crashing into the ground.

Covering the distance that would've taken a few minutes by bike in less than one, Naruto arrived at the top of a small hill just in time to see the massive gun on top of Panam's truck to whirl around and unleash hell on the approaching Wraiths, knocking them down with puffs of red mist and sparks exploding from their backs just before they collapsed like puppets with their stings cut.

From what he could see, the three were pretty outnumbered by the attacking Wraiths, who were now hiding behind any cover they could find while popping up to take potshots at the nomad. In the chaos before him, Naruto counted at least seven vehicles each marked with blue paint with gave a low whistle. 'Damn, they must really have a bone to pick with her,' he thought while trying to count the number of Wraiths. With them moving around from cover to cover he managed to count around twenty before giving up and deciding to make his move.

-xXx-

"Shoot that fucking bitches gun!"

"What're you gonks doing, it's just one gun!"

Tomas gritted his teeth as he heard Dogkillers pet bitch Ross screeching out orders, fucking cunt had no idea how to fight and she thought the best thing to do was run headfirst into the fucking bullets? He was half tempted to fucking shoot her himself and say she took a round from the nomad down there.

"Why are you gonks so fucking useless!"

"AH!"

Something heavy fell into him and brought him to the ground, nearly knocking him out of his cover which would've surely gotten him killed. Looking to see what it was, the Wraith felt his heart sink at the twitching, headless corpse that had once been his choom Wylie. Pushing his corpse off of him, he felt anger surge through him.

Ross thought that just because the boss had a thing for her that she was some kinda leader now? That she knew how things worked? She got her shit kicked in by that nomad bitch at the Sunset Motel and went crying to the boss now here they were getting chewed up by the same bitch. Why the fuck did the boss send them with her in the first place?

"You, what are you hiding for!" looking over, he saw the cunt snarling at him from behind her own ride and bit back the urge to shoot her with his weapon.

He had a Crusher shotgun, what the fuck was he supposed to do this far away? He used it to shoot while driving down gonks on the highway, not snipe them at a distance! The bitch down there would flatline him in a heartbeat before he got close enough to do any real damage.

"Fuck you!" he yelled, finailly having enough, "Why don't you go down there and get your gonk ass zeroed instead of us you fucking joytoy bitch!" looking down at Wylie's body, he gave him a silent apology and pulled the DR5 Nova revolver from his dead chooms hand, "Here, give this a try!" he snarled, tossing it at her as hard as he could, hoping it would smack her in the face.

It went wide, bouncing off the trunk of the car next to her, "Take it and show us how it's done bitch! Show us your good for something other than laying on your fucking whore back!" He couldn't see her face due to the cloth mask she wore but he knew she had to be turning purple, especially when he heard a laugh from further back.

Ross looked like she was about to grab the revolver, probably about to try and shoot him, when she suddenly looked down. He followed her gaze and saw a weird knife stabbed in the ground in front of her with a small piece of paper tied to it waving in the breeze.

'The fuck?' he thought in confusion, 'did one of the others throw it? Like passing a damn note?'

Ross reached for the knife and just as she touched it, the note glowed.

As the tag detonated, sending a few wraiths tumbling along the ground and vaporizing two. Naruto continued his sprint towards the wraiths as they tried to regroup and recover from the sudden explosion. He spotted the nearest one to him recover faster than the others and changed his course, before yelling out, "Over here asshole!" making the Wrath turn his head to look at him with mismatched optics and a look of shock on his scared face. With practiced ease, he struck the man with crippling blow to his throat and finished him off by slamming his head into the already cracked windshield of his small two door Archer Quartz.

His partner, who turned and caught sight of him just as his friend's head finished breaking the glass, spun around with a cry of, "Quinn! You son of a-" swinging the barrel of his Copperhead rifle around to shoot the new attacker. But Naruto was already too close, catching the front end of the rifle, he forced the end to point away from him as if fired several rounds off into the distance.

The heat from the already hot barrel burned the blond's ganic hand and he could feel the pressure from each gunshot next to him. "My turn!" he snapped, pulling the gun towards him with the Wraith being jerked along with it. Naruto grinned as he leaned back and struck the man in his chest with a side kick Lee would've been proud to see. The kick knocked the wind out of the outlaw, allowing Naruto to easily disarm him as he snatched the rifle away and flipped it around to aim at the now downed man.

Gasping for breath, the Wraith Outlaw seemed to try alternating between trying to shield his face and raising his hands in surrender, pure animalistic panic in his eyes as he stared down the barrel of his own gun.

*Click*

"Oh you lucky fucker," Naruto dropped the empty rifle, which made the still gasping outlaw relax for a moment before the blond kicked him in the face, knocking him out. He'd deal with them later.

Panam was still firing at the others, hopefully she either did or would recognize him and wouldn't take any shots at him. Taking a round from that arm mounted gun a while back was more than enough for him, he didn't feel like trying it again. Looking up, he locked eyes with a woman decked out in the same colors as the rest of the Wraiths and cursed as she blindly fired at him. He threw himself back as several bullets kicked up the sand around where he'd been and just as he went to grab his own pistol, her head disappeared with a spray of bone fragments and meat.

"Oh fuck," he grunted out, scrambling to his feet, Panam must've spotted her and took a shot with that beast. He could've handled it but the blond wasn't gonna turn down the help, "Thanks!" he called out, despite knowing she couldn't hear him.

-xXx-

"Is that… Naruto?" Panam asked out loud as she spotted the only person she'd ever seen wearing that much orange ambush her ambushers, slamming the head of the first one through the car's windshield and disarming the second before knocking him out. The earlier explosion must've been his handiwork too, him showing up right after it was too much of a coincidence.

Ameila, who was in the foot where it was safest, looked shocked, "Mr. Naruto?"

"You call 'em?" Sid asked, holding the lexington pistol she kept stashed under her seat as a spare. He wasn't taking potshot anymore since she started using the turret, only keeping it just in case one got too close, which she didn't let happen.

"No, don't have his contact," she admitted, "Don't know how he knows but I won't turn down the-" seeing the blond jump back and one of the outlaws pop up, wildly firing her gun at him, she cursed and lined up a shot of her own, taking the gonks head off. "Shit… is he…"

A tense moment passed before she spotted his head pop up over the bullet riddled Archer Quartz, making her sigh in relief. "He's ok," she huffed, letting them know he was fine, her earlier curse making them pale. Watching him, she saw something glowing behind the car but couldn't get a good view of it as several more Wraith's further down open fired on her truck, causing the vid feed to glitch badly and disorient her with the feedback.

As it cleared and she managed to fire a few shots of her own, something blue shot over towards the other vehicles and kicked up a massive dust screen. "What the hell is-" she started only to grit her teeth and grimace as her Warhorse rocked back and forth which threw her into the foot below her dash. Dust kicked up from the explosion spilt in through the broken back window, making them cough and sputter as a whirring sound filled the air.

"The fuck kinda hardware is he using!?" she grunted, rubbing her forehead as the sound and wind finally died down. That had to be some hell of a bomb he was using to make that kind of pressure wave. Hell he probably would've killed them all if she'd been any closer. Her vid feed was shot, something had damaged the lens and all she could see was a spider web of cracks that prevented her from seeing.

-xXx-

Back down in the thick of the battle, Naruto squinted his eyes as he got a face full of sand from his Rasenshurikens destination and covered his face partially with his chrome arm. Further ahead, over the sound of the countless blades of wind, he could hear a few screams and cries from the Wraiths, lucky enough to not be shredded by the expanding vortex but forced to see their friends be shredded to pieces before their very optics.

When the dust and smoke cleared, he was greeted by the sight of two shredded cars and what remained of a motorcycle, each covered in the shredded remains of several outlaws. Further past the bloodbath, the last remaining Wraiths seemed to be in shock, one staring in horror as the scene became clear, another vomiting, and the last even started to cry as he fell on his ass and started scrambling backwards.

"So… wanna give up!?" he yelled out to them, half hoping they did while the other half of him wanted the outlaws to try and continue the fight. Wraiths and Raffin Shiv in general were nothing but a bunch of bloodthirsty bandits that preyed on the innocent and were pretty much on the same level as any Scav.

"Ugh," hearing a scraping sound, he looked over to his side to see the Wraith he'd slammed into the windshield cough and try to shakily pick himself up off the ground, trying to use the car to pull himself up.

As he turned, one of the other Raffin shook out of his shock with a yell and fired, grinning as he saw the orange wearing solo's body jerk several times as he was hit. "I got him!" he yelled out excitedly, like a child that won a prize at the fair, "I got him!"But the man was shocked when a puff of smoke enveloped his target and all he could see was his choom, face bloodied as he fell to the ground with several holes in his chest.

"W-what the, Jakob?" the man was once again in shock, he'd been certain that he shot the other guy, he was dressed all in orange how the fuck did his hit his own choom like that! Several shuriken slammed into his chest, punching through the ragged synth road leathers he'd been wearing. The final blade sank deep into his neck, bringing him to his knees with a gurgle before falling to the ground, quickly bleeding to death as he pulled it out in a blind panic.

Naruto gave his own little smirk, it'd been a while since he'd gone back to basics like this and used the good old substitution jutsu. Having used the wraith next to him as a distraction for him to throw a few shuriken. Only a couple left now…

-xXx-

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," seeing her fellow Wraith fall, blood pouring out of his neck, Katrina pressed herself hard into the side of the badly damaged Thorton Galena, Her M221 Saratoga smg shaking violently in her tight grip. "This is fucked, this is so fucking fucked," she muttered, tears streaming down her face.

What was supposed to be a simple ambush to get even with one of the Aldecaldos had gone wrong from the very beginning. They knew she had that damn truck but didn't have a clue just how modified it was and that fucking gun on her roof was a surprise, why hadn't anyone thought to mention it? Even when they managed to disable the bitches truck she tore into them with that turret and held them off.

And now, she had backup packing some kinda artillery? What kind of gonk shit was that? Fuck she could still see that blue… thing shred her chooms… no, it mulched them and turned their 'ganics into a paste and ground their chrome into dust.

"Oh hell,"

Hearing the groan, Katrina fell to the side and aimed her SMG towards the voice and saw one of her fellow outlaws stagger around the car, "Oh shit, hold up!" he cried out, coughing as he saw her aiming at him. "It's me!"

"Theo?" she asked, shocked, "Choom, I thought that Aldo bitch dusted you with that cannon!" The woman scrambled towards him and yanked him down behind the cover of the car, "Get down before one of them finish the damn job!"

He did so and settled in against the rear panel next to her, "You all that's left?"

She nodded behind her own mask, "Grover pissed himself and ran," she motioned off into the wastes of the badlands, "Pussy will probably get himself zeroed out in the shit. You and me, we're the only ones left." she was still trembling and it showed in her voice. "How'd you manage to survive? I was sure you got hit in the chest."

"About that," Theo exclaimed while moving to kneel next to her, peeking through the broken window of the Galena, "I didn't,"

"Huh?" her confusion turned to shock. Theo lunged forward and grabbed the receiver of her SMG, ripping it from her hands and in a flurry of movement, while pinning her against the car with his forearm against her neck. The sudden assault left her no chance to defend herself and the sudden strike to her throat left her choking for breath but in her blind panic, she struck against him as best as she could, striking him in the face with a flailing arm.

Not even a moment after she struck him, smoke obscured her vision again, "Ow, that actually hurt!" she heard the voice, not recognizing it in the slightest. The pressure on her neck lightened up only slightly and once the smoke cleared, Katrina was speechless when she saw the blond man. How did he look like Theo? How the hell didn't she realize it? What kind of chrome was this monster chipped with? Was he even a human? No chrome in the world could do that could it?

Naruto rubbed his nose where the woman's chrome hand had smacked him, "Sorry to tell you that 'Theo' did die, I just chose his look cause he was close." her eyes widened when he reached behind his back and drew a Kunai, "Don't give me that look," he grumbled as she tried to choke out pleas, "It'll be quicker than what you would've done." his arm pulled back from her neck.

"No wait please I can-" her desperate plea was cut off as he sank the blade deep into her neck, a trickle of blood came from her lips and down her chin as she gurgled. After a moment, he stabbed the kunai deeper which made her entire body stiffen and jerk weakly as he withdrew the blade. It wasn't exactly quick and nowhere near painless, but he was true to his word and she died a lot quicker than one of their victims ever did.

Taking a quick moment to scan around, Naruto confirmed that there were no living Wraiths around, excluding the one running for his life deeper into the badlands but that problem would take care of itself in due time. He then ran across the open battleground where Panam had wrecked her truck.

"Hey you guys!" he yelled out as he got to the bullet riddled truck with a worried grimace, from a distance the truck didn't look too bad but now that he was closer the blonde could see all the damage. "Hey!" he called again only to come to a halt when the gun atop the truck spun to point in his direction. "Woah, woah wait!" he cried out, "It's me, Naruto!"

"Mr. Naruto?" he heard from the cab and saw Ameila peek over the broken back glass, she was pulled back down after a moment, "No Sid it's ok, it's Mr. Naruto!"

"Really?" a much paler Sid peeked this time, followed by Amilea, "Santa mierda choom, I never thought I'd be so happy to see another dude in my life."

Noticing the gun lower its barrel, Naruto cautiously took a couple steps towards the truck and when the gun didn't move he quickly moved to the door and swung it open to find the young lovers, covered in broken glass and surrounded by shell casings. Ameila looked jittery and worn out while Sid was much paler, holding his side which seemed to have reopened and was bleeding once again.

"Not that I'm keeping score or anything," the man started as he leaned against his girl on the floor of the truck, "But this is the second time you saved us."

"Are you two ok?" he questioned, getting nods before moving to the front door, "Hey, you breathing in there Panam?"

"Yeah… somehow," her voice was a lot more subdued than he'd heard previously, so when he grabbed the door and opened it, he was partly worried that she was actually hurt. What greeted him was the sight of Panam half sprawled over the driver seat and into the passenger seat, once again giving him an up close view of just how well her pants hugged her ass. "You sure that's all of them?" she questioned, disconnecting her personal link from the port and looking back just in time to see the blond look away.

When she didn't try to kick him he figured that she didn't catch him staring again and cleared his throat, "Yeah, it's safe."

"Good," the woman groaned and sat up, wincing as she bushed broken shards of glass off her which pricked her hands. "Don't know how long it would've taken Saul and the others to get here,"

"Looked like you were holding them off pretty good," Naruto mused then offered her a hand out of the truck

"Yeah well, a few lucky hits and the old girl would've short circled," Panam replied, looking at his offered hand. For a moment she started to wave it off but after thinking about it for a second, she took it and let him help her down out of the truck. "That or I'd run outta ammo…" she trailed off, not wanting to mention what would've happened to them afterward and feeling that twisted sensation in her gut as it sank in that she and her clients almost ended up flatlined.

As Naruto turned and went back around the open back passenger door to help the others out, she took a few deep breaths and calmed herself as her hand shook slightly from the adrenaline.

"Panam! Panam!" The four of them turned to look at the front of the Warhorse where the com in the dash was going off, "We're seeing smoke, just hold out for a little longer!"

Climbing back in, she sighed as her adrenaline rush slowly faded and pressed the button on the wheel, "Saul, you hear me?" Naruto helped Ameila out of the truck, who was holding her palms as she cut them on several pieces of glass then climbed back in to help Sid.

"Panam? You in one piece?"

"Yeah, few bumps and bruises but nothing a could Broseph won't fix," hearing Sid gasp as he was helped out of the back of her Warhorse, she quickly leaned over to the door panel and dug through the random assortment of odds and ends she stuffed in there to find a Bounceback, "Guy I'm bringing back to camp is bleeding again," she reached back and waved to get Naruto's attention, handing it over to him. "Wraiths are taken care of… well this batch at least but my baby's done for though."

"I'll have a hauler come and pick it up, just hang tight, we'll be there in a minute."

Naruto watched the two lovers embrace with a sad smile. The reality of the situation seemed to have sunk in and the girl was now sobbing into Sid's shoulder as she realized just how close they'd come to death. Sid was doing what he could to comfort her and just held her close, telling her that he knew they'd be ok and that he'd always look out for her.

'Holy shit,' he thought after a moment, having a realization of his own. Sid reminded him so much of himself when he was a kid and Ameila kinda reminded him of Hinata. A heiress with an overbearing, controlling father and a streetrat whom the father hated. Even with them running to escape the city, Sid had kept a grin on his face whenever he could and kept doing what he could to make the girl feel better.

As he was mulling it over, he snapped himself out of it as a dozen or so vehicles came roaring into view, kicking up a massive dust cloud as they barreled closer and closer before spreading out. Several slid to a stop and dozens of armed men and women came pouring out of the vehicles armed to the teeth despite Panam having told them that the fight was over. Many of them had taken a moment to look at the woman and looked relieved to see her standing on her own two feet. A couple even wrapped her in a hug before moving on to either going over the wrecked Raffin cars or checking over the dead outlaws themselves.

A couple of Nomads ran over and were pointed towards the two lovers by Panam, who rushed over to them and started checking them over and patching up the young man as best as they could.

"Panam says we have you to thank for taking care of most of these outlaws," a man said as he walked over to the blond, giving Naruto a look up and down who returned the gesture. He was a gray haired older man with a mustache wearing a white cowboy hat with a mostly unbuttoned plaid shirt under a body harness fitted with a holster. "The names Cassidy,"

He gave the blond a grin and stuck out his hand, which Naruto took, "Naruto," they shook hands, "I don't know about most of them, she's a good shot with that mounted gun, pretty sure she saved my ass once or twice."

That earned him a chuckle and a slap to the shoulder, "Way I heard it, you used some kinda bomb to clear most of em," he turned to look at the deviation brought on by his Rasenshuriken, "I'd pity them gonks but no one here will shed a tear for any Raffin. Especially since they tried this,"

Naruto scratched the back of his head, he really didn't want to have to try and explain what he used and wanted his chakra to be a secret for as long as possible. "Yeah, I get what you're saying. Had a couple run-ins with Raffin before." looking around, he saw Panam speaking to a larger man with long thick black hair and looking like she was getting upset.

Cassidy spit, "Fools like them give us Nomads a bad name and-" the man saw what he was looking at and rolled his eyes, "Don't mind them, that's Saul, Aldecaldo family Patriarch. Him and Panam butt heads every now and then."

Seeing the woman stomp her foot and get in the man's face, Naruto raised an eyebrow, "She gets away with acting like that to the family leader?" He might have acted out as a genin but he never outright did like she was. The old man had a lot of patience but he didn't tolerate blatant disrespect.

"Ol Saul won't admit it but he's got a soft spot for her, hell, most of their little spats are always about what's best for the Aldecaldos so he lets it slide." he replied, lowing his voice, "Saul told her not to do this alone but she didn't listen." The woman in question balled her fists and stormed away from the man who only crossed his arms before looking around and locking eyes on the blond. "Looks like it's over, pretty short spat this time… oh, looks like Saul wants to talk with you, nova meeting you Naruto."

"Nice-"

"So you're Naruto," Saul cut him off as he got near, leaving Cassidy to wave at the blond with a little look of apology. "First off, on behalf of the Aldecaldos, thank you for saving Panam. She had a habit of acting without thinking too much." he sighed after taking a moment and shook his head, "And not to sound ungrateful but how are you mixed up in all this?"

He told the man about how he was hired to get the two lovers out of NC and to the meeting point. How he'd been planning on leaving when he happened to overhear talk about ambushing someone and how he realized they were talking about Panam when they mentioned placing a tracker on her truck. How he couldn't just let it go and decided to step in. Saul just nodded and listened before rubbing his temples by the tie he finished.

"Fucking Wraiths." he grumbled, somehow looking both pissed and resigned at the same time. "Look… why don't you come back to camp with us and we'll get you back to the city later on. You did right by us so I wouldn't feel right not returning the favor, have a beer, a meal. It's the least we could do."

-xXx-

Deep in the middle of a high security Militech research and development in a small, brightly lit room, a datapad flew across the room and broke as it hit the wall, nearly hitting one of several high end terminal screens mounted there. "CHOO-headed assholes!" another datapad flew, this time bouncing off the floor. "How the hell am I supposed to snap my fingers and whip up some new tech with this dusty ass research?"

The woman started to pull at her own hair in frustration, as her company mandated Biomoniter chirped at her, "Fuck off you little svoluch!" she barked at her own implant. While not as violently as she wished, she silenced the notification and stalked across the office to sit at her desk.

Her name was Melissa Orluv, senior R&D specialist and currently, in her own words 'The bitch that got the short end of the stick'. The higher ups have been foaming at the mouth for months to get personal antigrav tech like what was seen in that vid and were slowly tightening the noose around her neck, as if that would get results.

As if this old ass data stolen from Arasaka a few years back would help them, it was just a bunch of schematics on possible cyberskeleton mods using the antigravity tech utilized in most AVs. how in the hell did they expect her to take tech the size of a MaiMai and shrink it to the size needed to be utilized in a piece of cyberware? Hell they've only just now figured out how they'd manage to downsize it enough to fit on the proposed cyberskeleton in the stolen research and it was still a massive weak point, not to mention how to power it or keep it from collapsing under its own weight.

'I can see why those Saka assholes didn't care about this research being stolen.' she thought to herself while moving to her desk to find her pain reliever, a nice bottle of Bolshevik Vodka.

They obviously decided to scrap these plans and had a breakthrough somewhere else down the line. That test run with the guy running across the side of a building and sailing across the air between them just proved it, they already had them beat to the punch and were just mocking them now.

She honestly just wished that they'd go on and release the fucking chrome to the public, have their little show in the spotlight so that her team could 'aquire' one for her to reverse engineer.

"Ma'am, Mr. Bennett will be arriving shortly, his AV is on route." came the voice of her assistant from the intercom on her desk as she finished pouring a shot.

'Of course he is,' she internally groaned, "Thank you, Cruz. I'll be there soon," The woman downed the alcohol and took a breath, enjoying the burn.

Bennett was both her biggest supporter and greatest enemy at the moment. He owned the third largest portfolio of Militech stock and was a member of the board but ever since he saw the reports on that tech he's had the biggest hardon for it and would constantly want updates on any developments. If he didn't already have massive obligations at the Corp HQ in Washington DC she wouldn't be surprised if he moved into her lab full time and joined in on the research himself.

'If nothing else, maybe we can use this to make the cyberskeleton ourselves,' she thought while looking at a concept schematic showing on one of the screens, the antigrav tech was still massive but it showed promise in theoretical combat simulations. With some work it could be a real workhorse of an ACPA.

-xXx-

On the way to the Aldecaldo camp, Naruto had to admit that the sight of a dozen or so Nomad vehicles blazing across the open wastes of the badlands was badass. While the roar produced by all the engines together was deafening it was something that put a grin on his face as he sat in the backseat of a Thorton Galena driven by a guy Panam introduced as Scorpion with another named Mitch in the passenger seat while Panam joined him in the back.

That was until he discovered something about himself.

"HAHAHA!" All three were laughing at him as he sank down into his seat with a pale complexion feeling like he was about to be sick. He tried to look out the window at the seemingly endless rows of wind turbines that dotted land but it didn't help.

"Looking a little green there Naruto!" the girl laughed, leaning against the door to watch him in his newfound misery after having watched him slowly lose the excited grin on his face and start turning green. "Hey Scorpion might wanna cool it a little, don't want him spewing in the back here!"

The hooded man looked up from the wheel and glanced at the green tinted solo through the rearview, "Hey Choom, Panam was singing your praises about that fight back there, what happened to the badass merc she was-" he was cut off as the woman started kicking his seat, making the two men up front burst out laughing again while the others in the convoy wondered what the hell was going on as the Galena swerved back and forth.

"Never sat in the backseat before," Naruto groaned out, taking slow deep breaths through his nose. How the hell could driving through the wastes be so damn fun when riding in the back made him feel like this? "Oh god how much further?" The thought of bailing out the door crossed his mind more than once.

"Not much further now," Mitch chuckled from the seat in front of him, casually pointing ahead of them, "Camp should be right over the next hill."

"Oh nice," he gumbled back, "More hills."

Luckily for the blonde, his suffering soon ended as the convoy of Nomads arrived at their camp and were greeted by their fellow Aldecaldos with waves and smiles. He didn't get the chance to see it from the outside at first, nearly getting sick as Scorpion made a show for a few kids by drifting in sideways, much to their delight and his agony.

"Oh thank god," he cried, opening the door and falling out onto the ground, shocking the nearby kids who quickly laughed at the sight. Mitch stepped out next to him and was quickly joined by Scorpion and Panam who laughed at the sight of him face first on the ground with one foot still in the car. He flipped them off and slowly pushed himself up from the ground.

"Welcome to the Aldacaldo camp, Naruto," Scorpion exclaimed while motioning to the area around him while several other Nomads unloaded from the other vehicles or moved to park their rides around the camp. He could see a few children run over to various men and women with a cry of 'mom' or 'dad' and felt a smile stretch across his face at the show of love he'd not seen at all since he'd been in this world.

Mitch slapped him on the shoulder, "I know it's not much compared to the big city but it's home." he mentioned with the other two nomads nodding along with his words. "Hey Panam, how about you show him around some?"

Naruto looked towards the woman and saw her nod before her eyes widened. When she flipped the man off, he looked between the two in confusion but only saw the two men laugh while Panam looked annoyed. "What's that all about?" he questioned after looking back at her.

"Nothing," she snapped a bit too quickly, making him raise his hands. The woman cleared her throat, "I mean, it's just Mitch being a gonk, nothing to worry about." walking past him, heading in a slightly different direction than the other two, "Come on, let me show you around camp."

He'd already read what he could about the Nomads in general during his research over the Net but all he was able to get was that a lot of people really looked down on nomads in general, calling them untrustworthy and various other harsh things. That they lived their lives on the highways between the major cities and knew the badlands in between like the back of their hands.

If needed, Naruto was certain that these people could be packed up and ready to move in just a few hours. Almost everything important was on wheels and could be driven away in an emergency it seemed. The woman led him around, pointing out a few things to him along the way.

"Most of us like to set up close to our rides," she told him while pointing to where one of the nomads was parking his ride next to a nice sized tent, where the woman driving was greeted by a grinning child who waved and ran over as she opened the door. "We've had to move camp in a hurry before and ended up losing a lot of stuff, it wasn't a good summer that year."

Naruto looked around and spotted a pair of large tanker trucks parked near the center of the camp where a couple of people were filling up smaller jugs with water, "You guys have trouble getting water out here often?"

"Hah," she snorted, "Assholes in the city charge an arm and a leg for it, most of our funds go to water and fuel but we've gotten pretty good at managing both." She nudged him in the side and nodded to a large box shaped trailer, "There's the canteen, wanna beer?" from where they were, the blond could see several others sitting at what looked like old park picnic tables.

"Sure, why not," he followed her towards it, getting several odd looks from the other nomads who didn't already know about him tagging along. He saddled up to her and leaned in, "Hey what's with all the looks?"

"Oh don't mind them," she smirked, "Just not used to seeing outsiders around camp is all."

"Hey Panam!" one of the older women called from the table below them as they went up the steps leading to the canteen, "Didn't know you went out looking for a man!" she teased, earning a middle finger in return which only made the others laugh harder.

"Yeah, didn't she go pick up those lovebirds with the doc?" a bald, clean shaven man laughed, "Maybe our little Panam found one for herself!"

"Oh fuck off Teddy!"

Naruto didn't know why he felt his cheeks burn and scratched the back of his head sheepishly, which only made things worse. Panam hopped up on the counter and slid over onto the other side, "Ignore them Naruto," she started before looking over at them and raising her voice, "Old folks just like their gossip!" that earned several squawks of 'Old!' plus more good natured ribbing from the others.

He took the offered beer and popped the cap off with his chrome thumb. "Thanks,"

They made small talk for a little bit, Naruto asking her about life as a Nomad and her asking about his life as a solo in Night City in return. The Aldecaldos were just so much more… human than the people of NC to him, sure he'd met plenty of good folks over time but people like Mama Welles, Pepe, Jackie, the EMT Gloria, even that David kid seemed alright… and especially Cami… they were like finding a needle in a haystack. But here, everywhere he looked he could see the nomads here helping each other and while it was a rough way of life, they looked happy for the most part.

Panam admitted to having toyed with the idea of leaving to try her hand at merc life in NC, mostly after a pretty big scrap with Saul for some reason she wouldn't admit to. Apparently, every now and then some fixer will send the family an offer to do gigs like the one they were doing now, smuggling people out of or into Night City for whatever reason. This time however, the fixer didn't provide the client with an escort for whatever reason and she looked forward to rubbing the fact that another fixer had to ensure the clients safety in 'that old bitches' face.

They continued taking some more and got to chatting about past jobs.

"So hold up, this Kirk guy tried to back out of paying you after you did the job and you hung him upside down," Panam laughed, finishing another beer as he told her the story about one of his jobs. "From a light pole?"

He nodded, finishing a beer of his own, "Told him if he ever tried to do it again I'd hang him by his feet outside the bar with nothing on. Hold on…" he accessed his holo and pulled up the old message he'd saved, one he'd sent to Jackie, "Check it out,"

It wasn't a flattering picture whatsoever for Kirk, not that the man knew he had it. Jackie had shown Pepe and his mother but as far as he knew, Kirk had no idea why the three of them were smirking at him. Panam snorted with laughter at the picture of the unconscious Kirk hanging by his feet, a dick drawn on his forehead.

"Hey Panam!" Both of them turned to see the old cowboy Cassidy heading up the steps where they were hanging out, "Saul needs to speak with ya, he's with the doc." she huffed and set the bottle down. "I'll keep Naruto company and show him were his tent is for the night,"

"Talk with you later Naruto," Panam grumbled, hopping up and over the counter once again after finishing her beer, "Gotta go see what the old grump needs,"

Cassidy shook his head at her and clapped Naruto on the shoulder, "Come on kid, I'll show you where you can rest tonight." the pair started off down the steps after the girl, "Oh, before I forget. We're having a little party tonight so feel free to let loose and have some fun. Saul ain't too good at showing it sometimes but he's really grateful for you helping Panam,"

The older man led him around several other tents and stopped in front of a decently sized canopy tent, "Sorry it ain't much," he told the ninja, sounding genuinely remorseful, "we mainly use this one for storage but I made sure you had a nice cot. Carol's gettin you a blanket, it can get a bit chilly out here compared to the city."

Naruto stepped in and looked at the green cot set up against the canvas wall of the tent and smiled, "It's no problem, I spent a few weeks driving across the badlands and kinda forgot to bring a cot or tent," he admitted with a sheepish grin, "had to sleep in the car most nights," he laughed, making Cassidy snicker, which he covered with a cough.

The rest of the tent had several boxes stacked up against the other walls and a small battery powered light hanging from the top. From the markings on the outside of the cases, it looked like they were protective cases for some kind of filter system, probably for the water tanks. As he was looking, Cassidy looked down and noticed the Overture holstered on his thigh, "Hey kid, are you any good with that iron?"

Turning, Naruto looked at the man with a raised brow, "Huh?" the man nodded to the pistol, "Oh, pretty good I guess," he used it off and on, practicing with it every now and then when he felt like it.

"You up for a challenge?"

-xXx-

Panam wasn't too sure what to think about her convo with Saul, they usually ended in a screaming match, harsh words, and both of them being too stubborn to apologize to the other and honestly, she expected this one to end the same way. She'd even already prepared herself to snap back at him as soon as he spoke but the man shocked her.

"Looks like you and Saul had a nice talk." She heard and turned to see Carol smoking a little ways away from the entrance to sauls tent, leaning against the man's vehicle with a cloth bundle on the hood. The woman brushed a stray strand of hair out of her face and smiled, "Bout damn time too, you two can act like oil and water,"

"It's not that bad," she denied while placing both fists on her hips but the look Carol shot at her made her cough, knowing that she couldn't really deny that it was pretty close to the truth. Looking at the bundle, she nodded towards it, "What's up with that?"

"Just some spare bedding for the outsider," she shrugged, letting the girl change the subject. "Wasn't really expecting extra guests, took me a bit to find some nice clean ones." popping the smoke back between her lips, she grabbed the bundle and carried it under her arm, "Come on and walk with me." She did so and fell into step beside the older woman lovingly known among the others as 'Agony Aunt Carol'. "Saul told me earlier that he wanted you to take the lead with this trip."

She grunted, "Yeah, talk about a shock. Got any idea why he wants me to lead the family this time?"

"You two fight and argue like hell but he still respects your views," the woman told her which made Panam scoff, "Scoff all you like but he knows that you made some good points at the last family meeting and wanted to give you the chance to prove yourself. Hell we all know how much you care about us all." they passed several other Aldecaldos who hurried past them, mentioning something about challenges.

"He sure as shit doesn't act like it."

Carol looked at the woman crossing her arms next to her and shook her head, "You two gonks just don't know how to communicate is all." when Panam started to snap back, she shushed her, "See, you were about to jump in and try to argue with me without even thinking, both you and Saul can get like that." she grumbled back like a child making the other woman snort. "Anyway, here's his tent," she mused, opening it up and laying the bumble of sheets on a nearby travel case.

"The storage tent?" Panam questioned, looking a bit disturbed. After all, they guy had saved her ass and it seemed a bit ungrateful to have him stuffed in here.

"We're getting ready to break camp, all of our spare tents are already packed away," she replied, already knowing what the other woman was thinking, "I said the same thing when it came up."

She looked at the cot and her eyes widened, "Hey Carrol, isn't that yours?"

"Yep, my old cot from my Panzer days, been sitting on my ride for years. Can't stand to use it but can't make myself get rid of it either.'' She had rather unpleasant memories of her days during the war, being stuffed in the panzer by her superiors without a care and told to go fight. Several gunshots rang out, making her look out the open flap to the tent as they heard a cheer. Seeing the look on Panams face, Carol chuckled, "Cassidy wanted to test the outsiders iron… said he'd set up a shooting range and everything."

"You mean the challenge he uses to get blackout drunk?" Carol nodded, making Panam laugh, "Preem, let's go check it out."

"Well someone has to make sure they don't shoot each other off," the older woman jokes, finishing setting the blanket out. Her own little way of saying thanks to the man for looking out for Panam.

-xXx-

"GO GO GO GO GO!" Naruto listened to the chants as he downed another harsh shot of the worst alcohol he'd ever had the misfortune of pouring down his throat. Moonshine they called it. After the first shot he was pretty sure he'd need to get a new throat despite his healing factor and now, after the fifth, he didn't care. Breathing out he could feel the fumes burn his nose as he slammed the small metal cup on the table and drunkenly smirked at Cassidy, who wobbled.

"Think you can handle it," he burped, "old man,"

The man wobbled and stared at him, "I'll show you old man, watch this!" He drew his revolver, a beautifully engraved overture of his own and fired it from the hip, shattering a bottle they'd set up in the distance on a rock.

The surrounding nomads cheered and the older man gave the blonde a shit eating smirk, "How ya like that,"

Naruto squinted at the target, "Not bad, not bad," he closed his eyes for a moment and moved like a flash, pulling his overture out and aiming. The report from the gun echoed and a bottle quite a bit further disappeared in a spray of broken glass.

A kid standing on top of a nearby car with a scope in his hands jumped up and down excitedly, "He hit it!" he yelled to the others, getting another cheer and a few bets.

"Alright, let's take it up a notch then kid!" he unloaded the spent shells and reloaded, only struggling with the last bullet while Naruto did the same. "Hey Scooter, come and toss some bottles! Ok kid, don't let 'em hit the ground! I'll go first!" A large nomad stepped up and was handed a few empty Brosephs while another poured another shot for each.

Cassidy holstered his gun and took the shot in hand, grinning at him, "Don't embarrass yourself now alright Kiddo,"

Naruto did the same and smirked back, "Don't throw out your back tossing that shot back old man,"

Both threw back the alcohol and took a few moments to get themselves back together. Cassidy, ever the seasoned vet when it came to the Nomad homebrew, managed to keep himself from grimacing on the nearly 180 proof rotgut.

"Ugh!" Naruto however, couldn't stop himself from grimacing, face twisted from the liquid harshness he'd just poured down his throat. A nearby kid pointed at the face he was making and giggled, causing a fresh round of laughter from the gathered spectators.

The first bottle flew and Cassidy dialed in on it in a flash, shattering it with a single shot. Then the second, firing six shots and hitting six targets with skill. The whoops and yells at his achievement made the wastelands around them come alive as a few more Aldecaldos join in to watch. Spinning the pistol on his finger, Cassidy nearly dropped the revolver when he burped and had to quickly cover his mouth when he almost vomited.

"That was a pretty cool old timer," Naruto huffed, smirking, "But let me show you what I got." Scooter waited a few moments for the blonde to get ready and grunted as he sent the first broseph whirling through the air, the bottleneck making a whirring sound as it spun. Naruto fired, the first meeting a similar fate after two shots. He made the next shot, ending the second bottle but missed the next, leaving him with one round and three more targets.

"Looks like you're outta luck kiddo," the man joked, making Naruto frown then stick his tongue out.

"Just watch this!"

Scooter looked at the woman who poured the shots then at the pair of drunks before shrugging, launching the third bottle which shattered, leaving him two targets and no more ammo. Without much thought, the man hurled the next bottle.

Many had wondered what the outsider would do, did he have a trick hidden in that arm of his. It was obvious that he had a chrome arm but maybe he was chipped with a fancy integrated smart gun or maybe a Projectile Launch System. It had gotten around camp over the last couple of hours that the new guy was a solo merc and that he'd given the wraiths hell earlier that day.

None of them were prepared when the blond drunkenly threw his empty revolver and broke the bottle that way, nor did they expect him to throw a knife at the last, doing the same.

Naruto thrust both fists high into the air, "Woo," he cried out in celebration which broke the stunned silence that had fallen over the crowd. His eyes soon widened as he realized what he'd done and ran around the table with a cry of "Oh shit my gun!" before running out into the badlands to find it. Several looked at eachother and snickered before the entire crowd burst into laughter once more, especially as he stumbled over a rock and nearly fell.

-xXx-

Naruto couldn't help but grin as several teens tried to wrestle him to the ground. Having heard that he was a merc in the city, one of the older kids challenged him saying that the blond looked like a gonk wuss and that he'd beat him with ease. Naturally, he had the boy pinned and was sitting on his back before the kid knew what happened and it snowballed from there. The defeated teen's younger brother tackled him to the ground and was quickly grabbed by the blond who trapped him in a headlock and ran his knuckles back and forth while the boy flailed around wildly.

"Haha, you little brats can never defeat the greatest ninja to ever exist!" Naruto boasted before noticing several other kids charging at him, "AHH!" They dogpiled him and kicked up a small dust cloud in the struggle. The parents watching only smiled at the sight of their children having fun 'beating up' the edgerunner and while a few were a bit nervous, the blonde's actions had set them at ease as he played with them.

"No wait, don't EW!" Naruto screamed as the youngest of the kids stuck a wet finger into his ear, "No, that's so gross!" he cried to their enjoyment as they worked together to pin him down. One was actually trying to make him submit, trapping his arm in an arm bar while another had him in a leg lock and despite them really twisting to make him give, Naruto only laughed.

"Alright kids that's enough!" an older gray haired woman called out, "It's time for dinner, now go on and get yourselves cleaned up."

The ninja gave a 'oof' as the kids stopped and groaned in unison, only to do as they were told when the elder gave them a stern look. "Hey brat you gonna let go?" he asked, smirking at the teen holding his organic arm in an arm bar.

"You gonna give up old man?"

"Old man?" He repeated, acting offended, "I'll show you old man you little turd." Moving around, Naruto shocked the teen by flexing his arm and slowly bringing it towards him, fighting against the teen's entire body as he attempted to keep his arm pinned in place. But to his shock, Naruto forced the teens upper body off the ground and broke free, sticking his tongue out at the boy. "Pretty good technique kid but you made one big mistake." he laughed while climbing to his feet.

The teen did the same after a moment, "Oh yeah, like what?"

Grinning, Naruto stuck out his tongue, "You tried it on me!" and flicked his forehead.

The teen went to launch himself towards Naruto for a second try but Panam stepped in and smacked him upside the head, "Alvin, didn't you hear your grandmother!" she scolded with a smirk of her own, "You can beat up the gonk later,"

"Hey!"

"Go on now, before I beat you up." she threatened jokingly before smiling at the old woman and turning to Naruto, "Are you about done getting whooped by kids half you age"

"Eh I didn't want to hurt the kids, I could've escaped at any time," he mused, looking smug. The look was ruined by the dirt coating the front of his shirt and half of his face which was still flushed from the copious amounts of moonshine he'd downed not too long ago.

"Uh huh," she didn't look convinced.

-xXx-

Many of the Nomads had busted out the beer and were having a good time around camp as the sun had fully set. Several bonfires were started and some construction lights were placed around the camp which lit up the area perfectly. Music was playing and many had started dancing the night away, some older nomads slow dancing while the younger ones flailed around comically showing off what they thought was preem moves but most only found 'adorably gonkish'

Naruto grinned, twirling Panam around as they danced together with several others by the fire, both had shared several more shots and beers as they hung out. Cracking jokes and having a blast with some of the others that Panam introduced.

"You got some moves for a city boy," she smirked, looking devilish in the firelight as she turned away from him, still dancing. "They're almost passible,"

Naruto wasn't sure if it was the booze coursing through his veins or the way she looked at him just then but he could feel the heat radiating off his face. "If you only knew," he smirked back, pulling her close until her back met his chest.

"Getting a little bold there huh?" she whispered as she felt his hands slide down her side before resting on her hips. She pulled away and turned back to face him, stepping in close once again. If the others around had noticed their closeness or how their hands roamed, no one mentioned it.

When he leaned in, Naruto slowly breathed out and whispered, "Want me to stop?" his breath tickled her ear and made her shivers course through her body.

-xXx-

"Fuck don't stop!"

Panam bit her lip as he bent her over his cot, her pants around her knees as he pounded into her from behind. She had to hold herself up and keep from shrieking as he slammed himself into her, even slapping her ass which made her tighten on him with each smack.

"You gonk," she grunted after a minute, looking at him over her shoulder with a little grin, "You're gonna get us caught,"

He leaned forward and pressed his chest against her back, her shirt bunched up above her tits as he squeezed them. "Wanna change positions then?"

"Hell yeah, let me ride you," she gasped out, feeling him slowly pull himself out of her. When he did, she felt his cock rub between her ass cheeks and laughed, "Slow down choom," she straightened up and wiggled her hips, shimming out of her tight pants. "You want a taste of that, you better make me cum hard." She finished and pushed him down on the cot where she then straddled him.

He grabbed her by the hips and steadied her as she slid him inside her, "Try not to scream too loud then," he told her, winking before thrusting up. Naruto groaned as she started to ride him hard, him grabbing and pinching her chest while smacking her ass every now and then. After a moment, a few moans would escape despite her trying to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to be heard by the other nomads who were still partying into the night.

Pulling her forward, Naruto pinched one nipple and bit the other while thrusting up into her, pushing the woman over the edge. She gasped, biting into his shoulder as she twitched and convulsed, slapping his chest as he continued to hammer away at her womanhood from below. She clenched and unclenched her fist several times as she jerked, weakly hitting his chest as she came then fell into him limply.

-xXx-

To be continued…

-xXx-

Hi guys, sorry about the wait. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Sorry not much of an AN right now but as always I wanted you all to know I love yall.