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Night City Legends

Act 2: Running along the Edge

Chapter Twenty: It's the Animal In My Blood

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-xXx-

2076

-xXx-

"Mijo, didn't you already leave for class?"

Looking over to the bathroom doorway, David winced sheepishly under his mothers questioning gaze, "Sorry mom, forgot my wreath for class," he leaned over to the desk with their data terminal and plucked his school wreath from its port and slid it into his bag.

Looking over, he saw her leaning in the doorway to the shower looking at him with a raised eyebrow and quickly looked away as he realized she was covering herself with a large towel while the water ran behind her, "oh sorry mom, didn't know you were in the shower," of course she would be annoyed, obviously not expecting someone to walk in when she was in there. "Anyway, I gotta run or I'll miss the NCART."

Shaking her head with a little smile on her face, the redhead gave him a little wave, "Stay safe mijo, be careful on the way to the station," the teen gave her a quick thumbs up, "I love you Dee!"

"Love you too mom!"

Before the door could even close all the way, she felt a warm breath on the nape of her neck that sent a pleasant shiver up her spine. Then a pair of hands slowly slid up her thighs, fingers lightly brushing her skin before being embraced from behind, "Naruto!" She giggled, wiggling against his chest as he kissed the back of her neck, "That tickles!"

"I know," she could feel the smirk he wore, the low whisper he used right next to her ear getting her even hotter, "can I have my gun back?" she spun around in his arms and dropped the towel she used to hide her bare chest, holding his Overture just under her breasts which pushed them up slightly.

"I thought some gonk had broken in," she grumbled, wiggling closer as his hands quickly found their way down to her panty clad rear with a little grin on his face, "here,"

He smiled at her but didn't move, "Just a sec, my hands are a little full," they squeezed each cheek as if to prove his statement, making her smile seductively and let out little noises as he played with her. Looping her free arm around the back of his neck, she pressed herself against him fully and swayed her hips side to side against his rapidly swelling erection, "I missed you so much,"

"I missed you too," they shared a short kiss and pulled away after a second as the redhead ran her hand over the back of his head, playing with his hair. Naruto let go and took the revolver from her hand, dropping it back on top of his pants laying on the edge of the sink, "You know, I don't think I've seen that sexy gunslinger side of you before," Naruto chuckled as she knelt down and picked up her towel.

"You haven't seen me pull out La Chancla yet." She winked, taking the chance to loop her arms around his neck to pull him close, pressing her breasts against his chest and catching his lips with hers.

"Mmm…" he couldn't wipe the stupid grin off his face if he tried as he pulled back but couldn't help but ask, "I've heard of that before, what's La Chancla?" Jackie apparently lived in fear of it…

Gloria pecked him on the lips again, "Prey you never find out," she laughed and gave him a little wink before pushing away. Reaching down she wiggled out of her panties and dropped them the floor next to his shirt, "come on, let's hop in the shower before the water runs out,"

His own underwear joined hers soon after and he followed her into the small steaming stall, there was barely enough room for them both to move around but neither of them cared to complain. "We should really tell David about us soon."

She nodded, "Yeah… I know, I don't like hiding it from him but he's got so much going on now with school…" she let the water run across her body and sighed, rubbing her hands along his arm as they both enjoyed the hot water, "I just don't want to put any stress on him right now by telling him that his mom is banging his idol."

Naruto snorted with laughter but sputtered when she suddenly poured body wash on his chest, "AH, that's cold!" she giggled and went back to running her hands all over him before he did the same to her.

"David has exams coming up soon…" she groaned as his hands worked at her shoulders and leaned against the wall as he worked his way down her back, working out all the tension she carried from work, "I'll tell him about us after that and we can all go from there."

Naruto didn't like keeping their relationship a secret from David but could understand why she wanted to wait. He'd taken a peek at what David was learning and instantly got a headache trying to make heads or tails of it. "Ugh, I was never any good with tests," his hands rubbed down her sides, getting another pleased groan from her but Naruto frowned as his fingers brushed over a few scars. The most prominent being a series of small circular depressions surrounded by faint rings of rough pink flesh just below her hip. Some booster was gonked out of his mind and shot at her on the job is what she told him.

It happened years ago according to her but knowing that she'd gotten hurt like this worried him deep down. Naruto hid it well but had gone through the whole 'What if' game for a few days before he managed to reign himself in. Those anxious thoughts just got under his skin and no matter how hard he tried not to think about it. The thought that something could happen to her while he wasn't there just kept pestering him. While working away at the heavy punching bag with Bess critiquing his form from the other side, he got a little carried away and ended up scaring the massive woman.

Bess said it looked like he was in some kinda trance, had this far away look in his eye and started getting a lot rougher with his hits. The former Animal member was too afraid to move out from behind but said it was like he was trying to murder something inside it.

"Naruto?" He felt Gloria lean back against him and look over her shoulder at him with half lidded eyes, "is something wrong?" Her hand went up and touched his cheek softly as she asked him.

He just stares at her for a moment and smiles softly, "Nah, everythings… pretty damn good right now… why ,what's up?"

"You've been rubbing the same place for a while," she bit her lip and he noticed just how heavy she was breathing and how she was softly rubbing her back against his chest, "your being so mean," the redhead told him with a pout. That's when he realized that he had slowly started to rub her inner thigh dangerously close to her mound, "your teasing me so much,"

Yeah, life is pretty damn good right now.

[R: Hey Boss? Sorry to bother you but are you around the mega building?]

Naruto inwardly groaned but couldn't ignore it. Randel wouldnt message him unless it was important… but that didn't mean he would stop what he was doing. [N: I'm kinda busy, is it important?]

[R: Ah… kinda?]

Gloria suddenly spun around and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her lips to his softly as the water washed the soap away. [N: Just tell me what it is!] She started lowering herself, trailing kisses down his chest while her hands quickly went to her prize.

[R: Well there's some corpo here to see you,]

He left out a long breath as her lips wrapped around him and started working him up and down while looking up at him, "God I love it when you do that," [N: Just handle it]

[R: Me!?]

[N: I trust you!]

[R: Boss please, I don't want to deal with this woman! She's scary as shit!]

[N: Then tell her to do the Corpo thing and make an appointment!] Gloria moaned approvingly when he suddenly gripped her hair a bit more forcefully, sending a small shiver up his spine. [N: just have 'em come back around noon or something!]

[Connection Terminated]

-xXx-

Down in the parking structure below the Mega building, Randel shivered under the icy glare of the blond Corpo dressed in what was probably a thousand eddie tailored business suit with a pair of shoes that matched both the style and price tag, "Ah, M-Mr. Naruto isn't a-available right now Ma'am," he gave her a nervous and what he hoped was a calming smile as she stared at him with cold steel like eyes. "B-but he'll be happy to meet with you around noon."

The woman reached into her coat and the man felt his heartbeat quicken, fearful that she was about to draw a weapon. Instead, she pulled out a sleek thin cigarette case with a Militech logo emblazoned on the front and lit up another of those expensive cigarettes that had a floral scented smoke.

"And what're you supposed to be?" the corpo questioned, lighting the end of it while her own hustle stood awkwardly behind her. They all stood next to the large unmarked corporate Chevillon Emperor, a beast of an SUV regularly used by NCPD for when situations on the streets got hot. "You his secretary?" As he opened his mouth to speak she waved him off, "Nevermind I don't care, I'll be back, noon sharp… and Julian, stop playing around and get in the car."

She looked over to where the man in question was leaning against the back of the SUV with a terrified expression on his face staring down the barrels of an old DB-4 IGLA double barrel shotgun being held by an old man. Normally he would've been killed for threatening them but considering where they were, they didn't want to cause a scene. It was probably a good thing too, the old guy seemed to be connected to Naruto somehow and called this Randel guy when he found them.

"Ms. Stout, I'm not playing around. This guy will zero me," the young man whimpered, visibly trembling with both arms held high above his head.

-xXx-

Stretching out on the bed, Gloria stared lovingly at her inputs back as he sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her eyes with a little yawn, "Mmm and I was just starting to get comfortable,"

Naruto turned and gave her an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry Gloria, didn't mean to wake you up," she shimmied over and ran her hand over several fading scratches that she had left during their earlier fun. "Randel got up with me earlier, someone came by looking for me." he told her while putting on his shoes.

"Was it about the restaurant?" News around the megabuildings residents had been buzzing about it for a while and she herself had been surprised when he told her that he was financing it. She knew he did merc work but didn't know that he was that successful in it. From what little she did know about that life most mercs burned through their eddies one way or another, never really trying to save anything for the future. The fact that he was investing his money in a business once again showed just how different he was.

"No, but since you mentioned it I do need to go and check on it soon, Aiko managed to get a great deal on a flattop and some other stuff for the kitchen." She watched him lean down and grab his shirt then blushed when he held it up to show that the collar was ripped.

"Sorry about that," she had gotten a little carried away before when she got him alone. It had been years since she had an input and got a little too excited to have the morning alone with him. Thank God they had moved to the bathroom before David walked in.

He tossed the shirt on anyway and gave her a grin as he reached down then held up her bra, "don't be, I got a lot carried away too," the hooks on the back never stood a chance when he got fed up and just pulled it off with a tug. "but I kinda forgot to ask him who it was, some scary corpo apparently." His grin turned sheepish at forgetting to ask something that important and she just smiled at the look he gave her.

'He's so adorable,' if someone had told her a year ago that she'd be dating an Edgerunner her first response would be to wonder just how many stems the gonk had used. She always told herself that if she ever did find someone it would never be someone that lived on the edge. Work had her responding to crime scenes way too often and the thought of finding a would be input dead like that scared her. But here she is, shamelessly watching him get dressed like some lovestruck teenager… again.

He crawled halfway into the bed and leaned over her suddenly, "I'll get you a new one by the way," she was tempted to grab him and pull him back into bed with her but settled for the kiss he gave instead, "why don't you go on back to bed, you didn't you just get off from a double shift?"

"It wasn't the double shift that got me off," she joked and instantly covered her face with a pillow at her horrible joke, "ugh I can't believe I said that," Naruto only snickered at the joke and after a moment she removed the pillow to see him looking around the floor below him, "looking something?"

"You didn't happen to see what I did with my pistol did you?" His holster and weapons pouch were still in place but the overture itself was missing.

"It was on the sink with your pants, it might've fallen off when we got out of the shower." They weren't exactly paying attention at the time but she did remember him setting her on the edge of the sink and knocking a lot of stuff onto the floor.

Watching him head across the apartment and into the bathroom, Gloria melted back into the blankets and gave a content sigh before sniffing, 'I definitely have to wash these before Dee gets home… and use an air freshener,'

-xXx-

Randel rubbed his eyes and cried a little on the inside as he realized that he was indeed returning to his Corpo roots as a secretary. Seems you could take a corpo out of the suit but couldn't quite take the suit out of the Corpo. 'Well at least Naruto's a better boss than my old department head,' he told himself thinking of how things had improved.

Heading towards Naruto's apartment, Randal felt certain that he had forgotten about the woman coming to speak with him. 'I don't want to deal with her again, that Stout woman scares the shit out of me.' He was halfway there from the elevator when the door to the Martinez apartment slid open and out walked the man in question, making his eyes widen a bit. 'Ooh I see,' he thought, now it made sense.

He was 'busy' alright.

"Ahem," he cleared his throat which caught the blonds attention as he finished sliding on his usual orange vest, "Hey Boss, I-I was just looking f-for you," Naruto looked over to him and grinned, "I-I thought that y-you might have forgotten about your 'appointment',"

"Oh come on, you really think I'd just forget?" He laughed, ignoring the exasperated look the meek man wore before checking the time, "it's still a little over half an hour till noon, how's things going upstairs?"

Randel looked thoughtful for a moment, "Akios actually a-ahead of schedule but there was a small s-setback with the d-delivery," he stated before seeing him motion to continue, "it's-nothing major, they dropped it off but the d-damn things too heavy to m-move without equipment," they actually wanted to charge a few hundred eddies extra to move it any further but Akio told them to jump off the edge of the walkway if they thought they could screw with him like that. Suffice it to say, they didn't stick around and left the crate sitting in the middle of everything.

"Of course they did," Naruto grumbled darkly, while he was sure that there was more to it all he really cared about was that something was holding up progress. He couldn't wait to have a place this close to get a good bowl of ramen, "alright then let's go take a look!"

The meek man blinked at the blond and started walking towards the elevator and passed him, "wait n-now? W-what about the c-corpo?"

"We have plenty of time choom, besides if she wants to talk to me so badly then tell her to come on up." Naruto shrugged and waved it off, "this shouldn't take long anyway, twenty minutes tops,"

-xXx-

One hour later…

-xXx-

From a distance, one couldn't truly understand just how massive these Megabuildings were, sure they towered over most of the surrounding areas but once inside you could get an idea of just how massive they were. Each of the older buildings were constructed to house nearly 130,000 of the displaced residents during the aftermath of Silverhands terrorist attack on Arasaka HQ with larger ones being built over the years. Now they had entire sections and floors dedicated to businesses that provided goods and services, even to the point that you didn't even have to leave the building at all if you could afford it.

Meredith Stout felt her blood pressure slowly raised as she rode up the filthy yellow industrial freight elevator that all Mega buildings used. She was waiting in that damn car park for over fifteen minutes after the agreed time before the old guy with the shotgun popped up again to tell her the 'Boss' was waiting for her on the thirteenth floor.

Had it been anyone else she might take offense to this kind of treatment but considering who it was…

"Ma'am as your security I highly advise against this," one of her guards told her as the elevator stopped just short of the ninth floor, "there are too many targets in the area to be able to effectively take down any threats."

The doors opened up to a group of teens that stopped short at the sight of her other guard glaring at them with a Militech Crusher strapped at the ready across his chest.

The kid in front, some punk with trashy green hair in a spiked Mohawk slowly backed up with the others, "sorry chooms… we'll ah… wait for the next one," he spoke nervously as the other guard hit the panel to continue up.

"Good choice,"

"I'll take it under advisement but either way this meeting will happen." Stout told him while standing in the center of the elevator, her entire body tense, "Just keep your shit together and don't fuck this up, that goes for all of you. We're in his AO now," To an outsider she was the model of calm and collected, but they'd been with her long enough to know how nervous she was by the way she chain smokes one nicostick after the other.

After another minute or two, the slow moving elevator once again stopped and after what seemed like an eternity the doors slid open again to reveal the thirteenth floor where they were met by Uzumaki's secretary… Randel if she remembered correctly.

"Hello Ms. S-Stout, Mr Naruto a-apologizes for the wait, p-please follow me and I'll l-lead you to him," she studied the meek man for a moment, recognizing the bullshit he was feeding her with that apology. She rather doubted that Uzumaki even gave two shits about making her wait but here was his assistant trying to smooth any ruffled feathers. He was definitely a former company man, but with who?

Her guards instantly tensed at the amount of people going just about their day to day. They both began to scan the crowds for any potential threats, "Ma'am I strongly advise against-"

"Your objections have been noted and taken under advisement, now do your damn job soldier and fall in line." The woman snarled lowly, fixing the man with the coldest stare that promised consequences should he open his mouth. Did he think that she was completely ignorant of the danger here? They were deep within the Shinos territory as far as she was concerned, as far as she knew half the people in here could be one of the Shinos masked goons.

Randel found a Real foods advertisement on a nearby holopanal really interesting as the woman hissed at her goon. 'I see nothing, I hear nothing, I know nothing,' when a Corpo like her gets going it's usually best to fade into the background.

They continued after a moment and were soon led to a storefront blocked off with privacy barriers where a handful of clearly unprofessional contractors were sitting around eating lunch. Several muttered curses were heard when they spotted her but none made any moves other than to just side eye them every now and then. Just past the barrier they came across what seemed to be the beginnings of a restaurant being renovated.

'What the hell would he be doing here?' She wondered trying to think of a reason why someone like the Merc would be here. Surely he wasn't working here? The thought that a highly trained solo would be working on a renovation job was as amusing as it was baffling but she schooled her features as she scanned the area.

There were a handful of civilians hanging around, eating and drinking various prepackaged scop, one was in the process of devouring an entire Locust Pepperoni Pizza by himself which disgusted her to no end. But further back she spotted something she truly didn't expect.

"Come on just a little more to the left…a little more… did you even move it? Come on, come on… whole too far! Go back, go back!"

Naruto pushed that massive flattop across the floor and shot the grinning cook a look that promised payback, "You better be screwing with me Aiko!" He grunted before snatching the equipment back to where it had been, making them both wince at the screeching sound of its metal legs scraping the floor.

"Well I was at first but now it does have to go further left," the other scruffy man told him with a shrug. Naruto stared at the man with a dead eyed stare worthy of Captain Yamato and once again pushed the stove slightly, creeping the cook out as he did so. "ah… that's good right there," he wouldn't mention the fact that it would have to be moved again later, the blond might blow a circuit or something.

Meredith stopped in the doorway of what she assumed would be a kitchen area and just took in the scene for a few moments. Naruto was moving heavy equipment by hand in orange pants, a shirt with a ripped collar, and a scuffed yellow hardhat… the Shino, a highly trained solo with unexplainable tech and a bunch of runners at his disposal was working construction in a Mega building. 'If this is some kind of cover then this is taking it to a new extreme,' she mused to herself.

"H-Hey Boss?" Randel called out as he stepped into the room ahead of the Corpo, "y-your guest is here,"

"Guest?" Naruto turned to them with a confused look on his face and inspected the newcomer, "Stout?"

"Mr. Uzumaki," she greeted with a curt nod while schooling her features to project the very definition of professionalism and courtesy without showing weakness, "can we talk?" When the blond shrugged and motioned for her to go ahead she cocked her head with a deadpan stare, "alone?" While cutting a look towards the others in the room.

Naruto studied her for a few moments then checked the time, "Hey guys why don't you go grab lunch?" He looked to both Aiko and then to Randel who slowly nodded and filed out the door past Stout, throwing curious looks at him as they left. Aiko looked like he wanted to ask but didn't want to pry into the guy's personal business, either way he couldn't help but worry a little. Afterall, Naruto was the guy investing in his dream.

The woman confidently walked the rest of the way in to stop beside a large metal prep table covered in thick plastic sheeting, "I'll be blunt Uzumaki, the last time we spoke you mentioned the possibility of coming to an arrangement. Is that offer still on the table?" She questioned while crossing her arms, a cigarette held between her fingers.

Naruto joined her at the table with a curious expression on his face, "Depends on the arrangement," he started, a little surprised that she actually seeked him out considering how their last meeting ended, "I'm not doing anything shady for a Megacorp,"

"It's all above board," she admitted quickly, wanting to ensure that there was no misunderstanding here, "I want to hire the services of you and your men to act as security for several shipments from our facilities here in Night City to the border where the NUSA military will take over from there."

"You want me to deliver a bunch of trucks to the border?" He questioned with a look that screamed 'are you serious?' Didn't they have an armed force of their own?

"No, I want you and your people to guard the trucks. We've been getting chatter about nomad activity around our routes and I want you to make sure that my damn trucks actually make it to the destination." Stout snapped after a moment before taking a deep breath and a drag from her smoke, "Look, my career hinges on these next trucks making it to the border and I'd say you also have a vested interest in this if you don't want the possibility of a Militech snatch and grab team coming after you and everyone you associate with."

The easygoing look on the blonde's face vanished and before she knew it, Naruto appeared next to her in a flash, "Are you threatening me?" It was more the threat against the people he cared about that pissed him off. The thought of Gloria and David being threatened or hurt… If she thought that she could force him to cooperate with that then she was sorely mistaken, "you going to send gonks after my people to get your way?"

She backed away from him as cold wave of dread washed over her, the image of her being killed by this man flashed through her mind making her shake her head quickly, "No, that's not what I'm saying," her guards quickly moved to help her but she held up a arm to stop them, "Stand down!" They didn't like it but they lowered their weapons slowly and backed off when she signaled them to, "My career is on the line which means my life and their lives are on the line," Stout stressed as he stopped following her retreat, "and if I flatline and techs start digging through my company files they might just find some interesting files hidden among there."

A rather ambiguous threat to be sure, a corpos favorite kind to be sure.

"How are your lives on the line?"

She rolled her eyes, "Me? I'm a Senior Operations Manager, we don't get fired, we're terminated. Them?" Stout nodded towards the door where her two guards and assistant stood, "they'll be guilty by association."

Naruto crossed his arms and turned away, stopping as he smelled burning plastic. She had dropped her cigarette when he looked over her and the ember was now melting a hole through the thick plastic sheet, "you know, I was having a pretty great day today until now," he groaned before snatching the lit cigarette up and patting out the smoldering plastic. "What's so special about these that if they go missing you die?"

He offered the cigarette back to her and Meredith took it after a moment, "The cargo itself? Not a damn thing. I've been up for a promotion to Government Relations Executive for the past year and someone's been trying to sabotage me every step of the way." She took a moment to let that sink in and enjoyed her smoke, "I need to ensure that my track record stays perfect, one slip up and it'll be used as the bullet to zero me."

"You don't know who's after you?"

She snorted, rolling her eyes at the question, "easier to say who's probably not out to see me dead," Meredith knew she made a lot of enemies in and out of the company, having cut a lot of throat so to speak, "look I can handle the office politics, I only have four more deliveries until my promotion is effective and it's no longer my problem. For payment, Militech often pays for contract work through an intermediary using discretionary funds so I'll arrange payment for each trip," never before had she worked this hard to sell a pitch to someone. Usually she just told gonks to do something and shit got done but it was pretty obvious that wouldn't work with the Shino and like it or not she was desperate. Not quite desperate enough to degrade herself but she was getting there.

The blond rubbed his eyes, "what's the pay?" He didn't appreciate the feeling of being forced to do this but it could be for the best. He had come to a realization a while back that he needed connections if he wanted to protect what he cared about. So…as much as he hated the way megacorps treated the masses, having someone on the inside willing to work with you wasn't something he could ignore.

"How many of your men can you provide?" She shot back. Stout still found herself wondering how his tech worked. How he managed to perfectly copy Julien right down to his voice. The disappearing soldiers… the more she thought about it the crazier the theories seemed to become. This would also give her an idea of his numbers at least, information was power after all.

"Wouldn't you like to know," that made her click her tongue, apparently he wasn't going to fall for that.

-xXx-

Randel stepped back from his spot next to the doorway leading into the kitchen as one of the Corpos bodyguards suddenly stepped through, he just knew the goon was eyeing him for any sudden moves so he froze. After a moment he continued on and took a position opposite of the doorway across from him and seemed to stare into his soul.

"I'll arrange the meeting and you'll be contacted with the details soon," he heard the woman exclaim just before she walked through, never even glancing in his direction and stepping through the now nearly empty storefront. "Julian will provide you with the shard containing the details on the job and timeframes,"

Behind her, Naruto stepped out followed by the assistant who was trying to hand over a small case containing the aforementioned datashard, "I'll have a team ready," Randel couldn't really tell how the meeting went with the neutral expression Naruto wore, having only just returned a minute ago,"you just make sure and keep your end of our little deal, ok?"

The woman stopped by the door and gave him a condescending look, "as I said Uzumaki, the meeting will be arranged and-"

He snorted and came to a stop in front of her, "I know what you said Stout," the assistant stepped next to him and offered the small protective case, which Naruto only glanced at before looking back at her, "but I also seem to remember how our last deal ended," she gave him an annoyed grimace, "So before I even look at that first Militech transport, I expect you to deliver on your end first."

It was clear that she was annoyed and agitated at that but she quickly reigned it in. Her assistant hesitantly lowered the shard case after realizing that the Merc wasn't going to take it, feeling awkward. "Goddamn it, fine." She finally grumbled, nodding to the man next to her, "Just take the damn shard and I'll arrange it as soon as possible." Naruto held out his hand to the man who placed the small case in his palm, "the first transport is scheduled to leave in three days."

He shrugged and fiddled with the case, "then looks like you have two days," Naruto tossed it up once and caught it before stuffing it in his pocket and turning away, "See ya later Stout!" She seemed to bite her lip, wanting to say something but decided not to.

"Is e-everything alright?"

After Stout left, Naruto had made his way back into the kitchen and looked over to him from the table with a oddly smug look on his face, "Oh yeah everythings fine, this Militech gig might actually be a good thing for me," he may or may not have gotten a bit carried away with his recent expenses over the past weeks and things had gotten… well he couldn't sugar coat it to himself, he was broke.

Money wise, yeah it was a good thing but something about it had pissed him off. Whether they liked it or not, they both had something that the other didn't want leaked. But Stout managed to maneuver herself into a position where it was in his best interests to help her. True Corpo fuckery at its finest.

"Ah B-boss?"

Realizing that he had gotten lost in his thoughts, Naruto blinked, "Sorry about that," the blond rubbed the back of his head with a little grin, "but like I said everythings fine. I'm just thinking over some stuff," the other man didn't look convinced but didn't argue, "But it looks like I'm going to be busy for a while so I'm leaving this to you," he motioned to the surrounding construction to which Randel nodded.

"Y-you can trust m-me, I won't let you down,"

"I appreciate it, choom. I really do." At least he had Randel here to keep an eye on things. When he first hired the man to clean up, he never expected that he'd stick with him this far. He needed to do something nice for the dude someday, just to say thanks. And speaking of reliability, he needed to talk to Jackie sometime soon about a favor.

-xXx-

"Hey Naruto, you home?" David rapped his knuckles across the apartment door, giving a little wave to one of the guys that worked under said blond when he noticed him step around the corner. They were supposed to train some more today and the blond had sent him a message earlier for him to come on over when he got the chance. Mom had to work the night shift tonight so he didn't expect her home until early the next morning.

Finally the door slid open but David found himself slowly looking up to a much larger grinning man dressed in a padded motorcycle jacket and sporting several gold chains around his neck, "ah… I think I got the wrong apartment," he started slowly while trailing off as he looked at the machete handle poking over his shoulder and starting to back away.

He was just about to send Naruto a message that some gonk had broken into his place when the man spoke up, "Hola hermanito, it's about damn time I get to meet you!" David winced as the man's hand slapped him on the shoulders with a laugh, "Naruto told me all about you David, the names Jackie, come on in kid," before he knew it or could even really react, the teen was pulled inside in what must've looked like a brazen kidnapping to an outsider.

Once inside, a surge of panic bolted through him as he searched the room for Naruto. He didn't know this guy at all and what if he was some kind of sicko? David was a split second from making for one of the many weapons he knew were scattered around the room when he spotted Naruto standing by the window on a call.

"Yeah I can make that work," the blond looked over to him and nodded, holding up one finger then motioning to his holo. "... Set it up and I'll be there…look I gotta go… Later Stout." Naruto ended the call and slid holo back into his pocket as the teen calmed himself, "Hey David, I see you've met Jackie,"

"Something like that," the teen murmured awkwardly as the man came up beside him and threw a friendly arm over his shoulder. "It's umm, nice to meet you," he then looked between the two for a moment and asked, "Wait, he talks about me?"

Jackie jostled the teen lightly with a chuckle, "Course he does!" David, while a little uneasy and annoyed at being shaken, looked towards the blond who looked thoughtful then gave him a little nod while the other man continued speaking, "should hear how he goes on and on like a proud parent," What David didn't see was the smirk Jackie sent the blond or the twitch it got in response.

"What? I like to brag about my student," Naruto shrugged as Jackie let the teen go and motioned to the door, "but hey we need to get going, I wanna introduce you to someone today and I told him we'd be there…" he trailed off and checked the time, "in 20 minutes,"

When David wasn't looking, Naruto spun around and punched Jackie in the arm which made the man rub the spot with a grimace before shooting the blond a playful grin. 'I warned you!' He mouthed with a pointed glare over the 'proud parent' comment before both of them acted like nothing happened when David turned back to them. He asked Jackie not to mention anything remotely about him dating the teen's mother but it seemed that the man wanted to crack jokes.

[N: Jackie I'm serious!] He shot the man a quick text [N: I'll paint your bike every single color I can get my hand on!] The man visibly grimaced and shot him a glare, [J: You stay away from my baby Holmes!] Neither of the pair seemed to let on to the exchange so David never noticed a thing.

"So we're not fighting today?" The boy asked after a moment as the three headed out the door.

"First off, it's sparring not fighting," corrected Naruto since there was a huge difference between the two, "and sorry but no… well I guess we have time for me to school you once or twice if you really want," Naruto had a good chuckle from the look David shot at him then turned to lock the door.

"So David, I hear you're going to Arasaka academy," Jackie nodded his head slowly with an impressed look on his face, "That place is crazy hard to get into, hell they sent me a rejection letter and I didn't even apply."

"Yeah, I've been studying like crazy to cover everything." He felt a pit in his stomach at the thought of exams, if he didn't do well enough it could screw with his scholarship and that couldn't happen, "im taking a break for now though, if I have to read anymore my head might explode."

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Naruto mused with a reassuring smile as he joined them and the all three started down the hall making small talk. David gave them a questioning look when instead of going towards the gym they turned their heads towards the entrance, "Oh yeah I guess I forgot to mention, we're heading somewhere else today."

Jackie nodded along as they went down the stairs and noticed a broken section of the wall near the end, "Hey 'mano, been meaning to ask but what's up with this?" he knocked on the wall with his knuckles as he passed and looked back at the blond following him. There were a few cracks and spots where gunshots had left a few jagged holes in some old faded graffiti but this damage looked recent.

David snorted as he passed by while Naruto grumbled taking up the rear.

-xXx-

A few weeks ago…

-xXx-

"If you know what's good for you old man you'll shut your fuckin yap and pay the toll!" Several people stopped what they were doing and looked to see what the commotion was and were shocked to see a heavily muscled man wearing a dirty white tank top yelling at a much smaller elderly man holding a plastic bag in his hands. "If the next thing outta your trap isn't a 'yes sir', you'll be sucking scop paste through a straw for the rest of your days after I throw you back down these fucking stairs!" he continued to threaten while pressing the end of a dented metal baseball bat to his chest.

"You can't do this-" the old man tried to say but the gangoon pulled back and jabbed him hard in the chest. He tried to catch himself on the railing as he stumbled back but wasn't able to hold on and ended up falling back down the several steps with the few groceries he had in the bag tumbling down along with him.

"What can't I do, old man?" the goon snapped, stepping down towards him and stomping on a foil package of Tomato 'Juice' that burst under the pressure. His next step crushed several packets of something that crunched loudly, not that the old man heard as he groaned in pain on the floor. "I'm gone for a while and you gonks forget how things work?" he sneered while looking around at the people watching, "You want to use my-" something grabbed the side of his head and the next thing he knew, his face was slammed into the wall with enough force to make his vision darken slightly

"I thought I got rid of all the trash blocking the stairs," a voice growled as the rough concrete dug into his cheek while the bat he carried rolled down the stairs, ringing out with each drop until it bumped into the elderly man on the ground, "Hey Randel, check on the old guy would you?"

"Who the…" the goon grunted out as he strained to get a look at the man pinning him and caught sight of a blond man glaring at him, "...hell are you supposed to be, fucker?"

"I'm the fucker that'll do this," his other hand lashed out and punched the section of wall in front of his face, breaking a chunk off with a small cloud of dust and debris peppering them both, "to your face if I ever see you around here again!" The man threatened while slowly pushing his face down the wall, the rough texture grating at his face painfully which caused him to yell in pain.

"M-Mr. Naruto?" The blond turned his head to glance over to where Randel was kneeling down next to the old man, "h-his arm, it's broken a-and I-I think he h-hit his head,"

"Call an ambulance," Naruto stared calmly before turning back to the goon he held half kneeling against the wall, a small red streak left on the wall where his face was bleeding, "and you, you'd better hope you have the eddies to pay for it. But first," the Merc grabbed his arm and held it out before slamming his knee into the gonks elbow, breaking it with a wet pop that made him scream and Randel look sick. The other onlookers were a mix of wincing at the sound as well or close to cheering him on to do more. Guys like this had taken advantage of them for years and it was nova to have someone give them a taste of their own meds.

-xXx-

"Some gonk was being stupid," Naruto told him before giving a quick summary of what happened, making Jackie shake his head, "the old dudes fine now though,"

David remembered that day pretty well, that gonk had been an issue a while back but ended up in the Night City Penitentiary for the last year or so if he remembered correctly. He used to do the same shit before too and as far as the teen could figure out thought that he'd just go back to his usual tricks and extort the locals for easy eddies. Old Mr. Thiago, the old guy ended up in a cast and had cracked some ribs and his hip but was back home and resting after a few days. His son came to check on him every now and then when he had a chance.

Three of them continued on and piled into a car much like his mother, a dark green little four-door hatchback that didn't mesh with the big guy's style. He must've made a face at the thought as Jackie slapped the roof of the car through the open window and said "sorry 'bout the mess, Misty let me borrow her ride," right before they climbed in.

"It's kinda preem actually," David looked around the backseat and found that it really was the same car his mother drove. Kinda weird just how similar yet different it felt, there was even a small pile of clothes in the foot behind the driver's seat "It's just like Mom's car," it even made the same odd little squeal as the engine started up.

"Speaking of Misty, how is she?" Naruto wondered as they drove, adjusting the seatbelt across his chest. Partially to be a good influence on the other passenger but mainly because Jackie was driving, he wouldn't exactly call his choom a bad driver but accidents happen more with him behind the wheel.

"Oh she's nova, we're having dinner with moms this weekend, you should come on by too bro."

David listened to the two talk while looking around the backseat. Whoever this Misty chick was had some odd but preem stuff back here. Some fancy skull decorations and incense holders, a few spiked bracelets hanging from the handle above the other door, even a few stickers stuck around on different places around the car.

As the car turned sharply, a small box fell into the seat next to him, 'what's this?' He mused picking it up and looking it over, 'Dragons Blood,' the teen had to admit that it sounded like a badass name for a box of incense and didn't smell too bad either. He leaned over to put it back where it fell from and felt his face heat up slightly, there was a pair of purple panties half hidden under the small boxes, 'a thong!' David quickly dropped the box on top of it and looked away, he didn't want the big guy up there to know what he'd just seen… just in case.

"Speaking of dinner, I'm hungry," Jackie suddenly exclaimed after a moment as he stopped at the light, "how about you Holmes wanna grab a quick bite first?"

Naruto looked thoughtful and nodded, his eyes lit up as he read something over the holo and looked back at the other passenger, "how about you David, you eat yet?"

He hadn't but he didn't exactly have any money at the time, "nah I'm good," The blond looked at him for a moment, a sight that was a little off-putting with only one of his eyes glowing like that.

"I'll cover it today David, it might be a while before we get back since today's little trip was kinda last minute," Naruto finally spoke with a sheepish little laugh which made Jackie snicker, "and yes jack, I appreciate you helping out too."

If David didn't know better he would start to suspect that Naruto was taking him along on one of his gigs. 'That would be so preem!' He couldn't help but imagine what kind of gigs they did, if they were anything like some of the XBDs he got from Doc then it had to be wild, "ah sure then, if you're paying."

Jackie smirked in his direction "Hey 'mano, what about your boy?" Naruto turned in his seat and raised an eyebrow, "what?"

"Nevermind," Naruto shook his head with a smirk, deciding not to make a joke like he wanted to. He wanted to ask why 'why wouldn't I pay for both of his kids,' but had to bite his tongue for now, "yeah sure why not, just don't go crazy… again."

"Hey I wasn't that bad, besides your one to talk ramen boy,"

He opened his mouth to retort but stopped short, "fair enough,"

-xXx-

Vik grinned to himself as he flexed his hand and shook off the stiffness in his shoulder, just another problem with getting older he supposed. He could 'upgrade' and not have to deal with it but he liked his 'ganics. When asked he liked to say that he had grown rather attached to them over the years.

'Lets see if I still got it,' the Ripper mused while facing his heavy bag and starting off with a few simple jabs, as embarrassing as it was to admit, he had slacked off on his boxing recently but it was all coming back to him, "like riding a bike,"

Behind him, his old boxing vids played in the background, the ringside announcer excitedly calling out a blow by blow with the crowd going wild. Jab, weave, jab, hook, shift to a southpaw stance, and then his personal favorite a corkscrew punch. When done correctly it could intentionally cause a cut on your opponent, a bit dirty but he only used it to even the odds, some fighters liked to to chip in for an edge. The further he went the more natural and smooth his movements became, chrome up all you want but to him you just couldn't beat good ol organic muscle memory.

Wanting to have a little fun, he started to stick and move, constantly moving around the punching bag aggressively while giving it a little shoe shine, a series of quick and flashy blows that looked a lot more impressive than they were worth, but hey, they were fun. He worked up a light sweat when the ringside bell rang out, making him back off without even thinking.

"Hey Vik, I see your already getting started,"

He turned and realized the ringside bell he heard was in fact from his own, which he rigged up to ring when a customer opened the door, "Figured I might need to shake the rust off a bit," Vik respond as he steadied the bag and turned to were Naruto and Jackie were leading the way with a young man following along behind them, "good to see you guys,"

Naruto raised his hand in greeting and turned to the teen following him and motioned for him to come over, "Vik this is David Martinez, David this is Viktor Vector, former heavyweight boxer and currently the best Ripperdoc in Night City, but that's just my own opinion."

"Nah 'mano, you're right about 'em being the best," Jackie called out laughing before nodding back behind him, "I'll be right back, gonna swing by and talk to Misty real quick,"

Vik only shook his head and walked over to the duo and reached out to shake David's hand, "I don't know about being the best but it's nice to meet you David, oh and call me Vik."

"Ah, nova to meet you too," the teen sounded a little confused seeing as neither Naruto or Jackie told him what was going on the entire time, "I'm not really sure why I'm here though, I don't have any chrome." He took a moment to look the man up and down. Aside from some old stains on his blue shirt and the injection marks on his left arm, the guy looked pretty normal.

"You didn't tell him?"

Naruto shot him a sly grin and shook his head as David cautiously asked, "tell me what?"

The blond threw his arm over the now nervous teens shoulders and directed him further into the clinic with Vik chuckling behind them, which didn't help with the nervousness whatsoever, "Well David I've been teaching you a few tricks here and there but honestly you need a good basic foundation to start with before I can help you grow and Vik here is more than happy to help teach you the basics," he told the teen while walking him around the rippers chair and motioning to the ripper in question who gave them a thumbs up. "But before all that, Vik needs to see what he's working with, especially since I've already taught you a thing or two. So we've set up a little sparring match for you."

David raised an eyebrow at the end there and felt glad he didn't take Naruto up on his offer for a quick spar earlier. "So we're gonna spar here instead?" His initial nervousness faded now that he knew what was going on, they already trained in front of a bunch of people anyway so he didn't mind an audience.

"Hehehe, not exactly," Naruto's laugh brought back that anxious feeling, "I'm not the one you're up against. You, my number one student will be going up against Viks number one student in a friendly little match," the blond then pulled him closer and whispered in his ear, "feel free to fight dirty and use all the tricks I taught you, just be careful,"

David nervously looked around hoping to spot the student he was supposed to go up against, "this seems kinda unfair don't it?" He wasn't cocky enough to think that he was unbeatable, that was one of the first things Naruto made sure he understood. He didn't spot anyone else but was kinda impressed by the mock boxing ring that was set up in the center of the room.

"Life's pretty damn unfair Davy," the blond only sighed as they went around the corner beyond the clinic area, "why should this be any different right?" He patted the teens shoulder a few times and motioned to an open area ahead of them that had a few shelves lining the walls but was pretty much an empty storage space, "But don't worry, your opponents are a decent enough guy. A bit hard headed but it's not like I can say anything about that though,"

They heard another chuckle and saw Vik coming around the corner behind them with a bag "Isn't that the truth," Naruto stuck his tongue out at the doc who smirked back, "might wanna put that tongue back in your mouth choom, next time i have you in my chair I might accidentally cut it out," he held up his hands and shook them lightly, "got these shaky 'ganic hands after all," The merc did so and closed his mouth with an audible click while Vik came over with the bag "Alright David let's see, I'm pretty sure I got some safety gear just your size,"

"Safety gear?"

"Yep, better safe than sorry kid,"

David grumbled a bit but accepted it while missing the look Naruto had on his face as he saw Jackie walk back in while David was facing away, "so we're both gonna be wearing these things?" He asked as Vik handed him a padded helmet and looked it over for a few moments.

"Not exactly hermanito," they turned towards the voice and David felt a wave of dread wash over him at the sight that greeted him. Standing there cracking his fingers was Jackie without his jacket or weapons, his wrists were wrapped and a pair of custom boxing gloves hung around his neck depicting a grinning skull across the top with 'your face here' written below it. He had also taken off most of his chains and jewelry as well just to be safe, "I doubt I'll need any padding but don't worry, I'll go easy on you,"

The teen was about to question Naruto about this, was he really expecting him to climb in the ring with… well THAT! The guy was three times his size and built like a bull, he wouldn't last a few seconds at all. But before he could speak, Naruto called out to his choom, "Don't count him out yet Jackie," he then slapped the teen lightly on the back, "Davids thinks quick on his feet so I'm sure he'll surprise you," the vote of confidence from him helped but still… Jackie looked like he'd be able to knock his head off in one swing.

Before he knew it David was geared up and found himself feeling really outmatched as he nervously stretched at Naruto's advice. Jackie seemed like a good guy and he doubted that Naruto would let him get really hurt but couldn't help but feel nervous. "You don't have to do this you know," he jumped as Naruto sudden nudged him, 'I didn't even see him walk over,' he thought realizing how distracted he was

"Huh?" Was his less than intelligent response. "Sorry I wasn't listening,"

Naruto smiled and shook his head, "it's fine David, but I said that you don't have to do this if you don't want to." He nudged him in the side again and smirked, "if you don't think your ready just say the word,"

"Well…" there was no doubt that Jackie would absolutely flatten him in the ring, "what the hell am I supposed to do against him?" He motioned over to where Vik was adjusting the wraps around Jackie's hands, saying something about how he wrapped them like he was about to join some back alley brawl which made Jackie whine a bit.

Naruto turned to him and crossed his arms with a calm smile, "David, this isn't a fight to the death or anything, Jackie might look like a meatheaded booster-" the aforementioned meathead turned to the blond "Hey!" But Naruto made a face at him and turned back to the teen. "-But he's a big softie at heart and one of the best chooms you could ask for."

"I trust you but… for real what am I supposed to do against him?"

The blond smirked, "Just remember what I taught you David," he leaned a little closer and his smirk seemed to look a little more mischievous, "and use it all,"

'Alright, I got this,' David tried to hype himself up as he faced off against Jackie who seemed to tower over him. For a moment the old David and Goliath story crossed his mind but was quickly quashed as the man came towards him grinning with his arms up and at the ready, 'I don't got this!'

"Alright Davy, let's see what Naruto's been teaching you!" Jackie looked nearly maniacal as he approached, which had David feeling a lot more nervous as he brought up his own fists and moved so as not to get trapped against the edge of the makeshift ring.

"At least the kid isn't just trying to punch his way through, lots of first timers try to punch through a guard…" Vik mused after a bit, watching as Jackie blocked a few of David's punches but took a couple when the teen switched up his targets and managed to land a few hits to his side. That being said, he could still see a lot of room for improvement with how the teen was moving and proper technique, "I still don't think he'll be able to win you this bet,"

Naruto shot the man a smirk who returned it with a challenging look of his own, "don't be so sure about that Vik,"

David winced as he tried to guard one of Jackie's hits but instantly regretted it as the force only made him smack himself in the face with his own glove, 'Ok, not doing that again,' he thought while Jackie generously gave him a second to step back and wipe at his face, checking the glove for blood which he didn't find, 'I can't beat him! What exactly am I… ' he nearly smacked himself when he realized that Naruto had already told him what to do. He'd been copying how Jackie was fighting for the most part, 'Just remember what I taught you and use it all,'

'alright… oh God this is gonna be so stupid!' He screamed in his mind as the man approached again. Like before, he swung a few times towards Jackie's head which the man laughed at and guarded. He moved in like he was about to go for his torso again but Jackie was already lowering his arms to defend his gut but David already had another target in mind and slipped around to his side to punch at his kidneys.

"So that's what he taught you!" The man grunted, catching David in the head with a backfist as he turned. For a second the teen saw stars and wobbled, falling to his knees and clutching the padded helmet that was the only reason he wasn't out like a light. Jackie grimaced both at the teen and as he rubbed his side, "Shit 'mano, that fuckin hurt,"

Naruto snorted and put his hands behind his head while walking around to where David was getting his shit back together, "Well I'm not teaching him to play fair. Speaking of… hey David, you ok there?" He asked, leaning forward.

"Yeah," David rubbed his head a few more times and turned to look at Naruto, "Yeah, I'm just getting warmed up,"

Seeing the glint in the teens eyes, Naruto grinned back and chuckled, "Give 'em hell… oh and David," he waited until he looked back at him and stressed, "remember, this isn't a boxing match, now go kick him in the ass."

The teens eyes widened, he'd been so caught up that he forgot that he could do more than just punch and when Naruto gave him a mischievous wink, he understood. Jackie said he was only going to use his arms but that didn't mean David had to play fair, 'Lesson one: If you can't win, run like hell!' Well he couldn't exactly do that. 'Lesson two: Never fight fair!'

He grinned and turned back to Jackie, "You good kid?" The man asked with a nod while rotating his arm around and stretching, not looking upset in the slightest about the kidney shot. That particular blow would've gotten him in some trouble with the ref if this had been an official match… although he would've made some fans.

David nodded and hit his gloves together, "Just getting started,"

Vik nodded towards the pair as Naruto made his way back over, "David's movements changed," he had been partially copying his opponent's movements before but now seemed more sure of each step where before it seemed hesitant and cautious. "Its starting to remind me of you,"

Naruto laughed a little, "it does?" He looked at the two moving around the ring and winced when David managed to hit Jackie below the belt.

"You… little fucker," Jackie grunted, leaning over, David winced and went to apologize but as he stepped closer, Jackie did the same to him and hit him in the balls, "Paybacks a bitch ain't it?" He chuckled slowly but stopped and winced, "ow

… fuck. Why didn't I wear my cup?"

Naruto looked back at Vik who looked at him with a smug smirk on his face while the pair got themselves situated, "ok maybe you're right… hmm." He looked down and saw the bag with the spare equipment sitting nearby and reached down to grab another head protector before smirking, "Hey Jackie, you sure you don't want to wear one of these head protectors?" Naruto suddenly called out which took them all by surprise.

Jackie glanced over with a smirk and started to wave him off, "Nah I'll be fine, I doubt-" his eyes widened when David lashed out and kicked him in the side of his right leg by the knee. The strike wasn't painful in the slightest but it took him by surprise and knocked off his balance as his knee naturally bent with the blow, "oh shi-"

With the larger of the two trying not to fall, David took advantage and copied one of his earlier swings and landed a sloppy right hook of his own. His form was awful, he relied too much on his arms strength and didn't put his body behind it like he was supposed to but it did the trick and cut Jackie off short, sending him straight down onto the mat with a grunt.

Naruto doubled over laughing at the scene as Jackie grumbled from his position flat on his back, it took him a second or two but the blond finally looked back up and gave the teen a thumbs up "Nice combo David but you made one mistake ," Still shocked that it actually worked, the smaller fighter turned to look at Naruto questioningly who winced, "actually make that two mistakes, first you should've followed up with something while he was down,"

Vik shook his head but couldn't help but agree, Naruto wasn't training the kid to fight in the ring he was training him to protect himself and survive, "yeah as dirty and unsportsmanlike as it is, it's best to either haul ass or kick ass when your opponent's down."

"Ok," he started with a nod, seeing where they were coming from, "I was kinda shocked that it worked but what else did I… do… wrong?" He trailed off when he felt something heavy press down on his shoulder and slowly turned towards it to see one of the custom gloves Jackie wore, the skull image on the end grinning at him.

"You took your eyes off your opponent, hermanito," Jackie muttered darkly from behind him, grinning just as darkly as the teen slowly turned even further to look him in the face. A sight made much more intimidating by the small line of blood that dripped down his upper lip and reddened some of his teeth.

"... Shit,"

Jackie quickly looped his arm around the teen and started wailing on him but to David's shock it wasn't as painful as he expected, "You got me good kid, Narutos definitely been teaching you some of that ninja shit of his," the man laughed while alternating between lightly smacking the teen in the side and rubbing his gloved knuckles back and forth across the top of his head, "But your lucky this wasn't a real fight," he continued as David struggled and yelled at the man to stop.

"Told you David was quick on his feet," Naruto said next to Vik who shook his head slowly with a little half smile on his face.

"I'll admit that the kid's got potential… He'd be disqualified damn quick on an official circuit but he could be a serious contender in more private circles with some work," Vik observed while thinking about how the kid handled himself despite the obvious disadvantage, "although he never would've been able to take Jackie to the canvas like that if you didn't distract him," he finished with an accusing tone which made the blond look away guiltily while Vik just continues to shake his head, "But either way I guess you won the bet, the kid managed to knock Jackie down, I'll keep my end of the deal."

-xXx-

"You know… you look a lot different now,"

Gloria shot her partner a look as they continued to prep their rig for their usual inspection/restock and marked down several items they were low on, "Different? How so?" She looked down at herself and couldn't really see anything out of place.

Danny shook his head and laughed, "No I mean you look a lot… happier now. Not that you looked like a mope or anything, it's just you seem more alive."

"Gee thanks Danny, for saying I looked like a zombie,"

Danny let out a long drawn out huff, "You know what I mean. Ever since you finally hooked up with that cute ass blond with the big-" he ducked out of he way when she threw a box of gaze at him and couldn't help but laugh as he turned to pick it up.

"I'm starting to regret letting you know about us." Gloria called out jokingly while marking down that they needed another case of bags, and didn't want to run out after all. Last time, she had to leave a preem set of Zetatech implants behind and learned her lesson.

The driver rolled his eyes and tossed the box back in and leaned against the open door, "Choom I was so jealous of you after you told me. How the hell am I supposed to do something like that for my output? Talk about setting the damn bar high…" he'd seen on the news about how the amusement park in Pacifica suddenly lit back up. There were several vids showing the park from the outside but any drones in the area were quickly destroyed. N54 tried sending an AV but as usual, someone started shooting at them well before they made it too far into the district. Gloria hadn't meant to go into too much detail but couldn't help but gush over the night to her best choom.

"But seriously," he went back to what he was saying before, "You're smiling a lot more and you're a lot more relaxed. I was gonna ask what's gotten into you but I already had a pretty good idea of what it could be,"

She slowly turned to look at him with a lazy glare, her hand easing towards another heavier box with several Bounce back air hypos inside but he had already taken cover mostly behind the door and was smirking at her through the window, "you can be jealous all you want but that particular part of him is all mine," Gloria smirked at him.

He smirked back, "you're just mad that I got to see it first,"

-xXx-

"Wait, you're leaving me here?"

Naruto blinked when David said that and looked at him with a little frown, "you don't have to say it like that David, you're gonna make me feel bad," he joked before looking serious, "look I'll be honest with you… I have something personal to settle and it's happening tonight." When David started to speak, Naruto just cut him off, "I'd let you tag along but I don't think either of us would survive if Gloria found out."

That made the teen begrudgingly nod at the thought, all training aside no son could defend himself from la chancla. He could also tell just how serious Naruto was about whatever was going on, the look in his eyes when he mentioned settling biz gave him a chill and he had to remind himself that even though he was probably the oddest gonk in all of NC, Naruto was still an Edgerunner. There was no telling just what kind of gigs he handled to be able to cough up the cred for all the things he did.

After a moment, Naruto spaced out a bit as he thought of an angry Gloria charging at him. What was probably a scary sight to the teen seemed kinda hot to Naruto if he was being honest. After that thought though, he had to wonder if there was something wrong with him.

"Ah… you good choom?"

Naruto blinked as David snapped his fingers in front of him and grinned, "Oh yeah, just thinking…" 'about angry sex with your mother,' he mused afterwards but he'd never say that out loud to him… for now at least. His holo beeped with a notification and he took a breath before looking at the teen again, "I need to get going. I'll be back pretty soon ok,"

Jackie and Vik walked over and after a quick word, Vik directed the teen over to where he would start teaching him the proper way to throw a punch while Jackie followed Naruto out to the alley.

"Don't worry about a thing 'mano, me and Vik will keep an eye on 'em for you," The man told him as they got far enough away not to be overheard by the teen who was now being shown proper, "What about you though bro?" He smacked Naruto in the arm with the back of his hand, "You got someone watching your back?" Naruto didn't go into much detail aside from having taken some corpo gig but Jackie could tell that something was bugging him and stressed the question, "You do have some of your people with you on this right?"

"Yeah don't worry Jackie, I got back up just in case." Naruto told him, genuinely touched at his friend's worry and feeling a tiny bit guilty for lying, technically he wouldn't be alone but he wouldn't have help, not that he needed it.

As they walked upstairs to street level, they looked up in tandem as the drone of an AV caught their attention, "shit bro, look at you. Got an AV pulling up to take you to a gig," the larger of the two joked before seeing a smirk on the other's face, "wait no freaking way!"

"Corpo gigs have their perks," Naruto shrugged before Jackie reached out and grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey 'mano, just be careful working directly with them ok?" Corporations didn't like keeping loose ends when it came to solos, and if they found out he was the Shino they'd never let go of him, "don't want to see one of my best chooms lose his soul to those pendejos,"

"Don't worry Jackie I won't sign any weird contracts bargaining for my soul," the blond joked which made Jackie roll his eyes before looking surprised.

"Wait, you actually watched that movie I was telling you about?" He questioned with a knowing grin, moving to nudge him with his elbow a couple times, "pretty good huh?"

Naruto rolled his eyes this time and then laughed a bit with a little smile, "Honestly I wasn't really into it, it was a weird horror movie plot but Gloria loved it," he told him thinking about their little home movie date a little while back before his holo beeped again, "I'll be back in a little while Jackie, they're getting impatient waiting."

"Where are they picking you up? I can give you a lift if you want," Naruto pointed up to the rooftops above them and Jackie nodded, "ah, of course." The city had a bunch of regulations about AV use and landing on rooftops was generally frowned upon unless you had the eddies or threw your weight around like the megacorps. After all, what cop was going to risk their ass trying to ticket some rich ass gonk? "The elevator over through that door has roof access, Misty has a little meditation spot hidden away up there,"

"Eh the elevator takes forever," Naruto commented as he looked around at the sides of the buildings surrounding them, "I think I'll take a shortcut,"

"Shortcut, what short… cut…" Jackie trailed off as Naruto suddenly leapt up and cleared three floors with ease, landing on the railing of the nearby fire escape. The blond gave him a cheeky grin and a little wave before leaping onto an ac unit attached to the window of an adjacent building and using it as a springboard to land on the roof. "ok that was fuckin nova," Jackie couldn't help but gape before chuckling, "But seriously though, how the hell can I compete all that ninja shit?"

-xXx-

"We're here Boss, Militech AVs already landed, want me to shadow you or wait here?"

"Did I tell you to get out and follow me?" Faraday fixed his driver with a condescending sneer at the question then just shook his head with a scoff, "just wait here, this shouldn't take long,"

The man behind the wheel looked straight ahead and didn't make another peep as the fixer opened his door and stepped out into the mostly abandoned lot underneath the overpass leaving Santo Domingo. Faraday sneered as he stepped on a half crushed Slaughterhouse Burger wrapper and looked around to where a Militech AV was waiting.

'Let's see what demands the bitch has for me this time,' he thought hatefully while schooling his expression and straightening his suit as he started walking towards the AV.

"Alright Stout, what's going on?" He demanded, knowing that the woman would hear him inside the corporate Aerodyne as the door started to open "I had to push back a meeting with another client so-" the fixer trailed off, all four eyes widening as he saw who stood in the now open doorway.

"So you're Faraday," Naruto greeted coldly, his Overture in hand.

-xXx-

Flashback

-xXx-

"How many of your men can you provide?" She shot back. Stout still found herself wondering how his tech worked. How he managed to perfectly copy Julien right down to his voice. The disappearing soldiers… the more she thought about it the crazier the theories seemed to become. This would also give her an idea of his numbers at least, information was power after all.

"Wouldn't you like to know," that made her click her tongue, apparently he wasn't going to fall for that. Naruto smirked at her annoyance but something she said caught his attention, Militech worked with edgerunners through intermediaries. Thinking about it made perfect sense since and from what Rico told him…

"Hey Stout, before I agree to take this job I have two questions," she raised her eyebrow questioningly in response, "yes or no. The guy that gave you my name… was he a fixer?" The woman sighed out a cloud of smoke in response and gave him a curt nod. "Was it a guy called Faraday?"

He had almost forgotten about that name, it wasn't until he finally got back up with Rico that he heard the name again and learned what the fixer did to his former choom. In return for helping him get the Eden Beach Mega Ride park going for his date night, Rico asked that he get even with Faraday the first chance he got. Told him to go old testament, eye for an eye… whatever

"Officially I can neither confirm or deny any involvement between Militech and the Fixer Faraday," the Corpo rattled off without even skipping a beat or even looking at him, "But!" She held up a hand to stop him from speaking, "unofficially… we have a contract with him."

"And by having a contract with him does that mean you'll protect him when push comes to that ?" He moved around the plastic wrapped table with one hand smoothing out the plastic, eying her as he walked, the sheeting making a crackling sound under his hand.

"Once again, officially we are obligated to protect our assets but unofficially… Are you trying to zero him?" As much as she disliked the four eyed fixer he was useful, Faraday wasn't exactly under Corpo immunity either so selling him out was just a matter of price. So if the Shino wanted him dead, she wanted her eddies worth.

"He would deserve it but that's up to him. He hurt a friend of mine trying to get my name and left him for dead. I intend on returning the favor." Naruto admitted.

"Agree to do the first three shipments free of charge and I'll arrange a meeting," she instantly went to negotiations. Like he said, the man would track the fixer down sooner or later so she might as well use it to get something out of the situation, that and build a stronger working relationship with the solo.

"I'll do the first run free, one way or another I will find him but if you arrange it I'll leave him breathing,"

She studied him for a moment and contemplated the deal, having thrown people under the bus for lesser reasons before this particular arrangement didn't bother her and had it been any other time she'd push to get more out of it. But like he said, the Merc would find him sooner or later on his own and she had no doubt about that. Faraday had stepped on a lot of toes over the years and it was only a matter of time until something happened.

"Fine, I'll make arrangements for a meeting,"

-xXx-

Seeing the Merc holding a gun, he signaled his hustle for backup via his holo and started to turn just a gunshot echoed through the lot. Faraday's leg gave out mid turn as a bullet ripped through the side of his knee and he fell to the ground in pain. "Do you know who the fuck your dealing with!" The man snarled, sitting on the ground with his hands clutching at the bloody hole left in his leg as the man stepped out of the AV. Behind the blond he could see Stout sitting in one of the seats with her legs crossed tapping away at a data slate, "Stout, what's the meaning of this!

Naruto stepped towards the downed man and fired again, the round from his Overture sending Faraday flat on his back as it tore through his arm with a spatter of red, "Are you fucking insane!" Screamed the man, his one uninjured arm instantly going towards the new bullet wound, while the Merc seemed to tower over him.

Panic whelmed up inside him as he heard the hammer cock again "Wait! Just wait! I can double whatever they're paying you!" He screamed while throwing up his hand in a vain attempt to stop him. 'Where the hell is that idiot?' He raged in his mind, taking a quick glance over to his Chevillon thrax only to see the driver laying in the dirt just a few steps from the open door while someone sat on the hood waving at him mockingly.

What the hell was going on, did that bitch set him up to be flatlined? It seemed that way but it was hard to think with two bullets lodged in his- a third gunshot echoed underneath the overpass… make that three bullets. A fine red mist covered his face as a hole was shot through his raised hand, leaving his index finger barely hanging on by several strands of muscle and flesh.

"Why!?" Was all he could grunt out while breaking out into a cold sweat, dread filling his soul as he looked up at the solo still holding him at gunpoint, "God dammit why!?" His vision shot between the Merc and the Corpo sitting in the AV behind him, the bitches assistant looked like he was about to piss himself as he peered around the open doorway and met his eyes.

Naruto closed the distance between them with just a few more steps, still aiming the pistol at him at he cocked the hammer again and fired a fourth round into his other leg, "Just repaying a debt," he spoke coldly before lowering the gun, "Do me a favor and don't move ok?"

Faraday grit his teeth and glared at the man with all four eyes as he received notifications from the Trauma Team alerting him that they were on the way. All he could do was hope this bastard didn't zero him before they showed up.

The blond grabbed his holo and made a call, "I'll just be a second," he told him before whoever he called picked up, "Hey choom, putting you on vid ok, got something to show you." It took him a second but he tapped away at a few things before getting it, "you seeing me ok?"

"Yeah kid, what up?"

With a smirk, Naruto turned the screen to face Faraday and the now pale and sweating man seemed to sneer at the sight of who showed up on screen, "Enrico… of course." His voice was strained but it made the other man laugh over the holo and stick his middle finger up.

"The names Rico, you four eyed bitch… hey kid put two in his gut just like he did me."

In a flash, Naruto fired the remaining two shots into the fixer's stomach and held the screen so that Rico could watch the man scream for a few seconds. "Now lay there and suffer, cocksucker,"

Naruto turned the screen back to him and saw the man drinking a beer with Ortiz in the background, "so are we good?" The man took a second to take a deep breath and nodded.

"Yeah kid, we're good."

Putting the thing away, he knelt down and planted his knee into the gasping mans torso, making open his mouth with a soundless cry but was unable to get any air, "Look at me Faraday," he muttered darkly, reaching out and grabbing him by the neck when he didn't, forcing him up slightly to look him in the face, "it's only because of Stout that I'm not going to finish you off. But before you get any funny ideas just know that I can find you anywhere in this god forsaken cesspit of a city… Do you understand me?"

The fixer struggled to breath with the mercs weight against his chest, all he could do was nod, "Good!" The ninja let him go and forced his head back to the ground before standing up and turning away, "hope you have decent Trauma Team Coverage, those policies are damn expensive,"

Naruto returned to the AV and acted like he didn't notice the fearful look he got from Stout's assistant. The corpo sat next to his boss and refused to meet the blond's eyes, keeping his hands clasped together in his lap without moving.

"Got that all out of your system?" Stouts inquired with a bored tone, leaning against the armrest as if a man wasn't shot several times and left to die under a god forsaken overpass less than twenty or so feet from her. "So are you satisfied with my end of the deal?"

Naruto sat down on the seat across from her and cursed as he noticed the blood staining his pants at the knee, "ah man, I just cleaned these…" he sighed and leaned back in the seat, looking her in the eye, "like I told him, I was just repaying a friend," then after a moment he shrugged, "but yeah, I'm satisfied,"

Turning her head slightly, the woman pinged the AVs system and the door closed, "good, well drop you back off and I'll send you an update on the details." The screens around them flickered and displayed the area outside the AV as it rose off the ground, giving them the illusion of having windows while traveling. "The first delivery is scheduled to leave early in the morning, if possible I would like for you to show up tomorrow night to oversee any additional preparations you deem fit."

Naruto nodded slowly, already having thought of a few ways to cover the security using the deets she provided earlier on the datashard. Nothing too detailed though, just some basics from how he was trained to cover clients on missions that he could apply here. "I'll be there,"

A few moments of silence passed as the AV found its way to the nearby flight path and started to head back towards Watson. Stout handed the dataslate she was reading over to the man next to her who nearly fumbled it while she grabbed her smokes.

"So I'm guessing this is a smoking flight?" Mused the blond Merc, suddenly wearing a smirk that made the woman raise an eyebrow while Julien just continued to feel uneasy.

"No, it's not," she deadpanned, popping the end between her lips and lighting it before blowing twin streams of smoke from her nose.

He only snorted and rolled his eyes at what he assumed was another Corpo power game, "Oh calm down, I wasn't gonna ask for one of yours," the image they had in their mind of him being a ice cold operator was shaken when he stuck his tongue out at them, "I just figured I'd ask before I did this… later!"

Both corpos were taken aback when the passenger area was engulfed in smoke, leaving them coughing and half panicked. "Goddamn it!" Cursed the woman waving her hand in front of her face, nearly reaching to order an emergency landing but to their surprise, the smoke started to clear nearly as fast as it arrived, "What the hell's wrong with… you… Uzumaki?" She trailed off as she realized that they were alone.

"H-how did…" Julien was at a loss for words as well as he looked around dumbfounded. The door never opened so how did he manage to get out?

She was just as shocked but did a slightly better job at hiding it, though she did drop her lit cigarette from her lips in shock. "Fuck!" The nicostick burned a small hole in her skirt and singed her leg, making her pluck it up and slap her leg to clear the ash, 'How did he do that?' She couldn't help but wonder as well, 'Interesting,' it seemed that the Merc had a few more tricks up his sleeves. If she played this right, Stout had no doubt that he'd be useful in her rise to the top… one way or another.

Julian stood up abruptly, unable to believe what just happened and cautiously waved a hand in the space above the luxury leather seats where the blond had been, "he's really not there!?"

Something caught her eye and made her double take, making Stout bite her lip. Somehow, Naruto managed to draw a badly made cartoon of himself on Juliens back without either of them noticing. Thinking back, she couldn't even begin to guess when he had time to do it, neither of them ever turned their backs to him at all.

But either way she got the message, she played her little power games with him and this had to be his way of warning her. She was already well aware of his tech… skill… abilities? Whatever the fuck he called it, but this just added onto the list of already frightening things he could do. 'what the fuck are you Uzumaki?'

-xXx-

"No not like that hermanito, you're close but you need to do it like this, let me show you." David stepped away from the punching bag where he was working on his form under Vik and Jackie's watchful eye and studied what the larger man showed him, "to get the most outta your swing, you gotta move your hips with the punch," He demonstrated what he meant a few times, moving slowly so that the teen could see what he did, "Like a lotta things, you gotta move those hips just right to get the most bang for your buck,"

David snorted at the sudden change in Jackie's voice but was once again impressed as the man demonstrated a powerful blow that would most likely break every bone in his face had he used it earlier.

The punching bag rattled on its chain for a few seconds while Jackie looked pleased with himself before slapping him on the back, "like I said, it's all in the hips," after a second he nudged the kid again, "that goes for when your with the chicas too,"

Copying the movement and David noticed a big difference and grinned as he replied, "I think I got it now,"

"Got what?" The three of them all turned as Naruto walked in getting odd looks at his new look. He didn't want to show back up with blood on his pants since he didn't really want David to see him like that. Luckily there were plenty of places to pick up a new pair of pants between Santo Domingo and Watson. Unluckily he just grabbed the first orange thing he could find and ended up in a very bright pair of orange sweatpants.

"Hey Naruto, welcome back," Vik greeted from his stool nearby, watching Jackie tutor the teen, "you just missed Misty, she brought us a couple pizzas. You want some?" He motioned to a trio of pizza boxes nearby and glanced back over to the other two.

"Ooh I sure do," Naruto quickly snagged one and took a bite. It definitely wasn't Ramen but he wouldn't turn down a slice of pizza… Well, unless it was from Buck-a-Slice, it was hard to ruin a pizza but somehow they managed to do it on the regular, "Anything exciting happened while I was gone?"

Between the flight, waiting for Faraday to show up, and an impromptu shopping trip, he had been gone for maybe an hour and a half to two hours, somewhere in that range.

"Showed the kid proper form and technique," Vik mused, sliding over to snag another slice for himself then nodding over to the others, "Jackie jumped in to help out, turns out he's a decent teachers assistant,"

"And here I thought he was gonna be today's training dummy," Naruto joked, getting a middle finger from the man in question who stepped over with David following after a few moments.

"I'll show you a training dummy," Jackie grumbled good-naturedly as he hit the blond in the arm then swiped another slice as well, "glad your back though bro, everything go ok?"

"It did… for me at least," he mused before nodding to David. "Hey David, looks like they put you through the paces," looking the teen up and down, Naruto chuckled at the sweat drenched yet grinning teen.

"I'm definitely gonna need a shower tonight but this was nova," David put his glove under one arm and pulled his hand free like he'd seen Jackie do earlier. "I never thought I'd be learning from a boxing pro."

"I said the same thing hermanito," Jackie laughed as he chewed half of the slice at one time, "if it wasn't for Vik I wouldn't have this cannon right here," he flexed his right arm and laughed as the others shook their heads but had to agree, the man packed one hell of a right hook that even knocked Vik out cold in one swing, "gotta be careful out on the streets, wouldn't want NCPD booking me for carrying these deadly weapons,"

That got a chuckle out of the rest until David spoke up, "why don't you and Naruto jump in the ring?"

"Cause I'm the reason why he's got new facial implants," Naruto answered without hesitation, which made the other two men wince. It wasn't a secret between any of them that Naruto had nearly killed Jackie the first day they met.

David on the other hand looked shocked, "wait what happened?"

They glanced at each other and shrugged, "Eh… so me and Jackie didn't really meet under the best circumstances," Naruto started sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head at the memory, "one thing led to another and we ended up fighting in the middle of the bar and I nearly killed him."

"That's not the whole story 'mano," the man in question interjected, "kid I was being a major league piece of shit, I was drunk and found out that he was my ex's new input and tried to kick his ass." Jackie told him, reaching up to rub the gold EMP threading across his face with a smirk, "Don't remember much after the first hit but let me tell you from experience that a cue ball is a handy skull crusher if you're in a pinch."

Naruto nodded slowly as Jackie said that he hadn't wanted to be the one to tell that part of the story mainly because he didn't want to paint his choom in a bad light. That and he was really ashamed of how he lost control so easily. The blond shuddered to think what his mental state would've been like had he kept on and murdered the man who would become his best choom.

"You know it's been a while since we scrapped, 'mano. How about it, wanna go a couple rounds?"

Naruto looked at them one by one, Jackie looked confident and aside from the slight redness around his nose from where the teen slugged him, looked ready to throw down. David shared Jackie's enthusiasm, he really enjoyed watching him spar with Bess every now and then when the woman felt like she had gotten better through her own training. Vik looked interested as well, wanting to see what Jackie called his 'kung-fu-mushi-mushi ninja shit'

"That would be so nova!"

Seeing how excited David looked and how interested the other two were in this Naruto felt like he didn't really have a choice, "alright then," he shrugged and gave them a little laugh, "I'll try not to embarrass you too much ok Jack?"

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing,"

-xXx-

After their initial shock wore off and contemplating the fact that Naruto had indeed just vanished into thin air, neither Corpo spoke again for a while. She had updated the aerodynes destination back to Militech HQ after a few moments but spent the rest of the time just going over things in her mind. If she hadn't seen the footage of his subordinates vanishing in a burst of smoke she might have freaked out but to her this just confirmed that he was also capable of doing so. Then another thought crossed her mind, was that even him? She was already all too familiar with him perfectly mimicking another person, Julian unfortunately found himself being tested whenever he did something remotely odd. She still hasn't told him why either, mainly for her own amusement though.

"Did we really just see that?"

Meredith broke from her musings and turned a steely gray blue eye towards her assistant, "Yes Julian, that happened,"

The man fidgeted, "But that… that's not possible,"

"Clearly," the woman droned, bumping the ashes from the end of her smoke with her calm demeanor making him look at her in disbelief. While that particular trick wasn't exactly new to her, having seen it happen on the footage she was forced to bury, it was the first time she'd seen it clearly and in person. "It should go without saying that what took place today officially never happened."

"Yes ma'am," Julian knew that already but no matter how he looked at it the man just disappearing like that was simply impossible. Was there some kind of cutting edge tech development that no one knew about? If so then how the hell did some edgerunner have access to it? Was it even tech?

"Can I…" the man fidgeted for a bit, looking between the empty seat and his boss, "can I have one of those?" He finally asked, looking towards the cigarette case in her hand.

She looked at it then looked at him, coming close to telling the younger man to fuck off but he looked like he was about to short circ. "Here,"

-xXx-

2076

-xXx-

"Ugh!" Pushing the notebook away from him, Naruto leaned back in his chair and groaned, spinning around in the chair with an annoyed pout on his face, "Why does everything cost so much," he whined while taking the pencil he was using and balancing it between his nose and upper lip. For the past couple hours he'd been going over his accounting, making sure his expenses were paid one way or another. At least he didn't have to deal with a lot of the dumb ass city taxes Night City had, wanted to own a pet? You had to pay ten thousand eddies a month in taxes or face a forty thousand eddie fee plus possible criminal charges if you were poor. Same thing with cultivating many different types of plants if you could even manage to get a hold of one.

His fern sat innocently on the ledge next to his window, a newly grown leaf peeking out from the top of it while another pair of larger planters sat on the floor below it, one containing a small strawberry bush while the other sported a healthy tomato plant with a cluster of shiny green tomatoes being supported by a makeshift stake.

The Militech gigs were definitely what he needed to get back out of the red… well aside from that first one of course. The payoff was massive compared to the amount of work he had to do which was little more than riding somewhere in the convoy with his clones and the few Militech gonks that drove the actual trucks. He didn't even have to deal with border security since the NUSA military and Militech were involved to handle the bureaucratic corpo crap.

Outlaw nomads did try something one time but after learning the route the trucks would take, he sent several clones to scout ahead and had them either run off or disabled before the convoy drove by their positions.

"Almost sad to see my stint as a Samurai coming to an end." He mused dropping the pencil from his lip but catching it before it bounced or rolled to the floor. "But I got bigger and better things to look forward to now!" The blond said to himself with a sudden giddy expression as he spun around in his chair for a moment, tossing the pencil onto the notebook on his third turn.

The reason why? Gloria had messaged him to say that David's mid term tests were over today and that she was going to tell him about their relationship when she picked him up from school. The thought made a surge of relief wash over his guilty conscience and while not the only thing weighing on his mind, Naruto felt like a bastard for keeping this from the teen. 'Hope David isn't too mad though…' he worried to himself after taking his few moments to be giddy.

A knock at his door brought him from his thoughts and Naruto had to take a second to check the time, thinking that he might have lost track of time.

"H-Hey ah, Mr. N-Naruto it's me, Randel."

"Come on in choom, doors open!" He called back and after a moment the door next to him slid open revealing the haggard looking man holding a small cardboard box, "Hey Randel what's up?"

The man held up the box, "S-some courier d-dropped this off for you," he stated while stepping over and holding it out for him to take which he did. It was small and didn't have any markings to tell him where it was from when he turned it over in his hands. "A-also, Aiko messaged me, wanted to know if the meeting with Building Management was still on?"

Picking at the tape for a moment, Naruto looked back up at Randel when he asked that, "yeah, I've been bugging them non stop for the past week since they rescheduled last time." He grumbled making the man wince, Naruto had a cruel streak a mile wide when it came to those gonks but if anyone deserved his particular brand of torment it was those cheapskates. Giving up on picking at the tape, Naruto grabbed a tanto from the small stand on his desk and used it to open the box.

It was the same one he stole from the late Francis Bennett, the former Arasaka Director he turned into abstract street art a while back. The fact that he used it as a box cutter just felt like the most appropriate fuck you he could give to the dead man's memory.

"Oh I know what this is," he grinned as he opened it up and found another smaller plastic box inside baring the Militech logo, "Here," he handed the box back getting a confused look in return, "It's a gift for you and the other guys, you mind making sure they all get one?"

He slid the corpo branded box out and set the outer one down on the corner of the blonds desk while asking, "what is it?"

Naruto looked pleased with himself and waited until Randel opened it up to find several credit chits or shards lined up in neat rows on a piece of foam, "I really appreciate you guys and wanted to do something for you. It's not a ton but each one should have the same amount of eddies on them." he said how his face went from confusion to surprise then shock in less than a few seconds.

Randel slid one out and slotted it at the blonds urging, "B-but this is w-way t-too much!" He cried out after a second looking at the blond as he gained access and found an even two grand waiting for him.

"Not really," Naruto shot back, "you guys have been working your asses off," he honestly wanted to pay them more and planned to do so later but for now he split part of his last payout from Stout and had this sent to him. "I don't know what I'd do without you chooms,"

With the blond grinning at him ear to ear and reared back in his chair, Randel had to take a moment to process. The statement was bullshit, he really doubted that Naruto wouldn't be just fine without any of them but he rarely ever felt appreciated, "T-thanks Boss, that… means a lot to me." He quickly transferred the credits over to his personal wallet and watched his account grow, it was more than enough in his mind.

Naruto's eyes lit up with a notification just as his holo started beeping, "hm?" Randel assumed that it was probably his mainline by the way his eyes brightened, "sorry Randel I'm getting a call," he explained sheepishly, "but for real, I have noticed a lot of the things you guys do around here and I know I can count on you." He looked thoughtful for a moment and laughed, "it should go without saying but you know you guys can count on me if you ever need anything right?" All they'd have to do was ask.

Randel nodded and motioned to the door, "I know boss… I'll l-let you get to your call, I-Ima go give these t-to the guys,"

Naruto gave him a wave and answered the call to be greeted by Gloria with a tired smile as she sat in her car, "I was just thinking about you," he hummed which made her smile brighten a bit, "everything ok?"

"Oh yeah," she assured him while waving her hand softly, "I'm just waiting for David now, feeling a little nervous though," the redhead quickly added while brushing off the front of her shirt, her EMT jacket laying on top of several other articles of clothing piled in her back seat. "Wanna chat?"

"With you?" He leaned back and kicked his feet up on the desk, "always,"

-xXx-

Stepping out into the hallway, Randel was greeted by the usual sounds of life in H6. What was once as dangerous as it was depressing was a far cry from what it was just a year ago. The Gangers were still around, hell many of them still lived here but they didn't start trouble like they used to anymore.

The thought of them made him hug the small box protectively, if they knew what was in there then the chances that some gonk would risk klepping it were pretty good. Luckily he didn't have to go too far with it.

"H-Hey guys!" He called out while heading towards their little spot, still holding the box protectively, "you'll never g-guess what the b-boss got us!" Naruto had changed things and while he couldn't really do much himself, Randel would do whatever he could to be useful and make sure that the boss kept him around.

-xXx-

"Hey mom,"

Gloria's eyes widened a bit as David suddenly opened the door and climbed in with a little groan from his day at Arasaka Academy. He had unintentionally snuck up on her while she was talking over the holo, she must've lost track of time, "Hey Mijo, how'd you do on your tests?" she greeted him and saw Naruto give her a grin before disconnecting.

[N: I'll see you in a little bit, love you!]

David gave her a little smile as he got settled in her little car and buckled up, "Nova mom, got the highest score out of my group." he happily told her before taking a deep breath, all the stress of the last few weeks fading away now that he didn't have to go to the academy for a little while. The tests were a pain in the ass and he'd seen more than one of his classmates look like they were about to cry with just how difficult some of the questions were, "oh by the way, admins announced a mandatory update for our wreaths."

Gloria grimaced but nodded, "how much is it?" If it was too much, she might have to dip into her emergency stash or ask Naruto to help.

"Five hundred eddies,"

She winced, 'I definitely need to ask Naruto,' she'd pay him back when her paycheck hit her account, 'or I'll see if I can find some chrome to sell to the chrome junkie.' the redhead decided with a little nod. David must've seen her expression and got quite, "Don't worry Dee, I try to keep a little stash just in case things like this happen. It's fine," she didn't mention that her 'stash' was down to 300 eddies now so she would not only have to dip into it but ask her mainline for money too.

'well at least I can go on and tell David about my relationship with Naruto,'

"Actually, I have something I need to talk with you about Mijo," hearing that instantly made David feel anxious as his mother continued to drive towards home and quickly racked his brain to try and remember if he'd done something wrong lately. Gloria looked a little embarrassed and anxious herself as she started and saw the way her child looked at her with worry in his eyes, "It's nothing bad, your not in trouble or anything,"

"Oh," he felt a little relieved at that, for a minute he thought that she might have discovered his XBD collection but was still a little worried about what she wanted to say, "What's going on?"

"David," she slowed down and stopped at a light just as it turned red and the teen looked at his mother as she seemed to be mentally putting the words together, "I've been keeping something from you and… well, I… started seeing someone," the redhead glanced over at him and saw surprised look he gave her, "romanticly," The teen wasn't exactly sure how he felt at the news and could only give her a dumbfounded look as the light changed.

"Is it serious?"

She nodded, "Yeah… I really do like him," David was silent for a minute and Gloria anxiously adjusted her grip on the steering wheel, "Mijo?"

"Sorry mom… I'm just pretty surprised," he quickly told her, hearing the worry in her voice, "this guy you're seeing, who is it?" his mother had never had input before that he could remember. It was always just the two of them against the world so her telling him that not only was she seeing a guy but had been for some time was the last thing he expected to hear today.

"It's Naruto,"

His eyes widened, "You and Naruto?" she nodded and he looked straight ahead for a few seconds to process, "How long have you guys been dating?"

"Well…" she told him about how Naruto took her out for lunch not long after they met, how it was his way of saying thank you for patching him up when he was really hurt. The entire thing was innocent but before they knew it, they were going out again whenever they had some free time.

"Why didn't you guys tell me?" he sounded a little disappointed which made her feel a little more guilty.

The woman gave him a little frown, "I didn't know how things between us would go and I know how much you like Naruto so I didn't want it to damage your friendship with him if things didn't work out." she told him to which David nodded slowly understanding, "Then when we got serious, you were so stressed from school we didn't want to add to it. I'm really sorry for hiding it from you Dee, both of us are."

"No, it's ok mom. I get it." He gave her a big grin that set her heart at ease, knowing that her boy wasn't upset at her like she had feared. But David could never really be upset with his mother, she'd worked so hard and struggled to give him all that she could in life. But at the same time… they lied to him and hid it for that long? His mom he could easily forgive but Naruto? He was his best choom and confidante, even shared his worries and fears in the past. He even looked up to him but… did Naruto not trust him?

David sat back and racked his mind, trying to think of any instances he might have overlooked that should have tipped him off. The few times he'd gotten home from class and found them talking together just outside the apartment. He thought that Naruto was waiting for him so they could train but… were they screwing around instead? That thought made his eyes widen and then narrow, the thought of someone touching his mother set him on edge.

Thinking back again, he remembered Naruto helping buy him a new holo, an early birthday present he called it when his old one took a tragic fall down a storm drain during one of their runs. He got it back but the filthy sludge water shorted out the internals and turned it into an old paperweight. But thinking about it now… did he only do it to get with her? Was everything that the blond did for him only for that reason?

He started thinking back to any other instances where he saw Naruto and his mother around each other, wondering if he had missed something that would have or should've tipped him off. He understood why his mother wanted to hold off on telling him but couldn't help but feel like his friend had done him dirty, sneaking around with his mom behind his back

That particular thought hurt deep down and nagged at him... Was it all a lie? They stopped at a small convenience store on the way home and grabbed a few things that they needed. David kept a straight face during this but his mind brought up different situations where Naruto may or may not have lied to him. Either way, the teen knew that as soon as he got the chance, he needed to speak to the man.

The trip from the store to home took only a few minutes and before he knew it, David was riding the elevator up from the parking garage with Gloria, telling her about some of the test questions he had today when she asked. He knew it went mostly over her head, 'Saka Academy expected a lot from its students but she always showed interest in his day to day no matter what it was.

They stepped out of the elevator, ignoring the N54 news announcement that Militech would be holding a press announcement soon at their NC Main offices in Corpo plaza when David stopped a few steps down the walkway, causing her to do the same and give him a questioning look, "something wrong David,"

He gave her a smile and shook his head, "I'm just gonna grab a drink right quick," he told her while pointing at a vending machine they'd passed a moment ago, "you go on ahead I'll be right behind you." She had a few things that needed to be tossed in the fridge so she nodded after a second and headed down the walkway.

Watching his mother walk away, David started noticing little things starting to make even more sense. The way some of the remaining Sixer gangoons would move out of her way when they hung out in front of the vending machines. There was more than one time she had to go to other ones because they were just being assholes. Even building management was more courteous now, they actually sent maintenance to fix the door when a software glitch fucked with the soft and they couldn't get in, someone showed up just a couple hours later and fixed it easily.

His mother was seriously dating Naruto.

… and others knew it

Looking out across the guardrails, he could easily spot Naruto talking to someone near their apartment door, his orange vest stuck out like a Maelstrom gonk walking the streets of Heywood. He stopped and watched, half hidden in the small alcove where the vending machines were and saw his mother stop and speak to Naruto.

Then she kissed him.

His initial reaction was just to roll his eyes and the sudden urge to tell the pair to get a room, 'ugh gross,' he didn't want to think about his mother like that… 'wait…' He'd deny it nonstop but David was a mama's boy at heart and the thought of any man touching his mother made him a little angry.

But seeing the proof pissed him off.

-xXx-

Seeing Gloria heading his way, Naruto grinned which made Randel stop mid sentence and turned to see what the blond was grinning at, giving him a knowing look when he turned back "Ill g-give you some p-privacy B-boss." The man stuttered while stepping to the side and giving the approaching redhead a nod, "H-hello Ms. G-Gloria,"

The EMT gave him a kind smile, "Hello Randel," she didn't really have much to do with the man working for her lover but the man always treated her with respect. She stepped up to Narutos and for the first time, openly kissed him on the lips for all to see.

"Mmm," he was pleasantly surprised by the sudden kiss, "well hello to you too," Naruto grinned as their lips parted before looking behind her, not seeing her son "where's David?" He really wanted to speak with him and apologize for hiding the relationship like they did.

"He stopped to grab a drink from the machine. But I'm gonna head inside right quick, got a few things to put in the fridge, I'll see you in a few alright?" He nodded and she turned to head to her apartment door, her hand brushing his as she passed, mouthing the words, 'I love you' as she did.

"Sorry about that Randel," Naruto coughed lightly at seeing the look he was getting, "but like I was saying, don't worry about it, when Aiko gets back, work out the deets with him and go talk to building management, ok?" Every now and then he would look down the walkway and actually felt a bit nervous now that David knew of his relationship with Gloria. She told him that he took the news pretty well but still felt a bit guilty hiding it since he genuinely cared for the teen… hell he might even love the kid like his own.

When David stepped around the corner, heading his way, Naruto took a breath and spoke to the man who'd become something akin to an assistant to him, "Management should be expecting you two soon, just call ahead before you go and let me know if anything unexpected comes up." The scruffy but now much cleaner looking man nodded at his words and scribbled something in a small, badly creased and bent notebook.

Stepping over to the pair of them, David caught the tail end of the blonds convo, gritting his teeth but his it behind a grin when Naruto looked over to hide his true feelings, "I'll catch up with you later choom, I really need to talk to-" he didn't give the blond a chance to finish and suddenly threw a right hook that connected with his nose.

Randel froze, staring on in a stunned daze as the teen leapt forward and punched the blond full tilt in the nose, snapping his head back and to the side, "You…" David clenched his fist, searching for the right word as he gave the blond the angriest glare he could muster. Naruto reached up and grabbed his nose instinctively, checking for blood then he turned his gaze back to David, oddly calm for a man who's just been sucker punched full force. "You… Motherfucker!,"

Naruto's steely gaze darkened a bit then cracked as he looked thoughtful then amused, the punch was one thing but thinking about it, 'I guess technically I am a motherfucker,' he mused. Randel and a couple of his chooms hanging back looked on at a loss, unsure of what to do. Had it been someone else, they might've rushed the gonk that assaulted their choomba in front of them, Narutos been going out of his way for months helping them and while they weren't fighters by any means, they'd be damned before they didn't try to help him out. Except… the one who threw the punch was his mainlines teenage son.

"So I guess you didn't take the news quite as well as your mother thought huh?" Naruto sighed, rubbing his nose one last time while David visibly grit his teeth.

"You've been sleeping with my mom!" He accused with a growl, she had only admitted to dating him for a while but David just knew there was more to it and when Naruto didn't immediately deny it, he had his proof.

"Randel, you mind? Me and David need to have a conversation," was all the blond said just before David lashed out again, only for his fist to be caught well before it reached its target, "I'll let you get away with that first punch David, I deserved that one-"

"You deserve more than just one," the teen snapped, cutting him off and snatching his fist back only for Narutos grip to tighten. After another couple of tries, Naruto just sighed again and let him go, "you lied to me,"

"It's not like that David… well I guess it was a lie of omission," the blond looked genuinely remorseful to the teen but the maelstrom of emotions whirling inside of him had the younger man itching for a fight. His choomba, the man he looked up to, the guy he wanted to be like was sneaking around with his mom behind his back!? Unconsciously, David slowly raised his fists to fight and positioned himself just like Vik and the blond had taught him, "David, please don't do this," it genuinely hurt to see the look in the teens eyes, one he knew and understood all too well.

They stared each other down, frustrated brown eyes glaring daggers at disheartened blue. They didn't care about the spectacle they were creating for the other tenants around, they're focus was only on each other.

Naruto sidestepped as David shot forward with another stiff right hook, trying his hardest to break the blonds jaw. When that didn't work, he tried again and again, using everything he'd learned to hurt the man who taught him, "David please let's talk about this," the older man pleaded, never raising his hand against the teen, "I don't want to hurt you,"

"You already did!" Growled the boy, changing tactics and attacking low with a leg sweep that Naruto leapt over with ease, "I trusted you!" David shrugged his Arasaka school blazer off in a hurry, freeing up his movements and slung it at Naruto's head as a distraction. "And you treat me like some dumb ass kid!"

He caught the expensive uniform coat before it could hit him and dodged another blow as David lunged at him with a flying punch, putting all of his weight and force behind it. "Randel hold this," that man scrambled to catch the coat that sailed towards him before unholstering his Overture and dropping it to the floor, "this too!" The slid it over with his foot, he didn't think that David would do anything rash like go for his weapon but didn't want to risk it.

Downstairs, the other guys that worked under the blond with Randel heard the commotion going on and looked over to see their employer being attacked. Things had gotten infinitely better for them thanks to the man and seeing him being assaulted sent a fiery rage coursing through them so they dropped what they were doing and charged up the stairs to help him.

"Wait!" Randel stepped in front of them after hearing them rushing over, the jacket in one hand and the revolver in the other. "Don't get in the middle of this!" They looked at him in shock for a moment and he pointed out who the boss was fighting which quickly ended any thoughts of jumping in.

"What do you mean?" Naruto pleaded again, catching the teens next punch in one hand and then the other just as easily leading to a stalemate. Still wearing the rest of his school clothes, David pushed against him and Naruto could see tears of frustration starting to build up in his eyes. "David God damnit please, just talk to me!"

With both fists trapped by the blond, David jumped up and planted both feet into Naruto's chest, copying a move he'd seen the man use before in a spar with Bess. He kicked as hard as he could, which did manage to get him free, but ended with the teen landing flat on his back with a groan.

Naruto couldn't help but be impressed that David managed to copy that from him and brushed off the front of his orange vest to get the dirty shoe print off his clothes. But his pride was overshadowed by the fact that the boy was so upset with him that he blindly lashed out.

"You were my friend," the teen growled through clenched teeth, tears now falling down both cheeks as he stood up and balled his fists again "I looked up to you! I thought you trusted me and cared about me but you only act like you give a damn just so you could fuck my mother!" David poured all his frustrations, anxiety over money, his anger from school and those corpo gonk fucks that bullied him, tests, condescending instructors and now this finally broke the dam.

"David…" Naruto stared at the teen and dropped his arms limply down to his sides, "It's not like that," he tried to tell him with a pained expression on his face but David didn't listen and charged at him again. But this time he didn't move to defend himself and let the teen punch him in the cheek, turning his head only slightly, "the fact that you think that or that I somehow made you think that, hurts more than anything anyone could throw at me," Once again, Naruto didn't even seem to be fazed even as blood dropped from his nose and onto his lip.

Their 'fight' had moved further down the walkway towards the corner where Randel and his chooms had made their homes and they were doing the only thing they could think of to help, which was to block the hall so the others couldn't see clearly.

Stepping out of her apartment, Gloria wondered what was taking the boys so long and caught sight of all the other people around excitedly looking down the hall, "what in the-" her heart sank as she looked past the crowd and spotted David attacking her lover, "Dee, stop!"

Gloria rushed over, shoving past a gonk holding his mobile up to try and scroll the scene before him, he cried out as her shove made him nearly drop it but she didn't care. 'Naruto wouldn't hurt David,' she kept telling herself while getting face to face with Randel, who's eyes widened when he recognized her "Move!" The meek man did so in a flash, nearly falling over at her yell.

David's resolve cracked when he saw blood coming from Naruto's nose, looking down at his fist he saw just a thin smear of red on one knuckle and the realization of what he was doing hit him like a MaiMai "Naruto… I…"

"I'm sorry David, I really am," Naruto said lowly while hugging the teen tightly to keep him from fighting anymore, he struggled a bit but was easily overpowered and was left trapped in the forced embrace, "But I love your mother David, I really do and I love you too. God you remind me of myself so much that it's scary… you're the son I never had and hurting either of you is the last thing I ever want to do,"

This was how Gloria found them when she finally made it over to them, "Mijo what's gotten into you?" She cried out having seen the teen attack her input just moments prior and she just couldn't understand why after their talk earlier.

"Just.. " David pushed away from the embrace as a fresh wave of guilt washed over him and Naruto let him go, "just leave me alone!"

"Mijo!" Gloria cried out as the teen ran, looking between him and the blond with a confused and heartbroken look on her face, "Naruto you're bleeding, what happened?" She had to know why the two most important men in her life were fighting like that.

Naruto wiped the blood from his nose, the damage already long since healed, "I'm ok baby… but he thinks I used him to get close to you," he looked at her with a hurt expression of his own. They both knew that wasn't true but it hurt to think that was what the teen thought, "Go and check on him, I'll be ok… just gonna… go get cleaned up."

She reached out and touched his cheek with concern in her eyes, looking him over once before nodding, "I'm sorry baby, I don't know what happened, I really thought he took the news better." She whispered as he leaned into her hand and smiled sadly, "I'll go talk to him…call you later ok?" he nodded and and they shared a quick kiss, "I love you,"

"I love you too,"

She nodded and turned to make the embarrassing walk back towards the crowd of gonks that gathered to watch the drama. Thankfully, Randal and the rest of Naruto's followers blocked the bulk of the crowd and were dispersing them so that she didn't have to deal with any of the nosy neighbors on the way.

Naruto watched her leave and rubbed the back of his head with a tired sigh, he didn't hold anything against David at all but the entire situation frustrated him so much. How did he even come to the conclusion that he used him just to get close to his mother? The more he thought about it the more his head started to hurt.

"You ok Boss?" A couple of the guys working under him came walking over with Randel who handed him his Overture followed by David's school jacket. Naruto holstered the weapon and took the jacket by the collar, brushing it off with his hand before groaning.

"No… I'm… well I'm not sure… but I'm far from ok," he told them while looking over the jacket, he'd send Gloria a message in a few to let her know he had it and get it back to David as soon as possible.

"A-Anything you want us to do?" This time Randel spoke up but the blond just shook his head.

"Just keep doing what you're doing, Aikos on his way and all we need is the final signatures from management to get the restaurant open." Naruto told them before draping the coat across his arm while they shared glances.

"N-no, we mean with-"

"I know what you mean!" Snapped the blond before grimacing when they all flinched back. He closed his eyes and took a breath, "I'm sorry guys, I didn't mean to snap at you. Just please stay out of this ok?" There was a moment before they murmured in agreement, promising to do so, "I think I'm done for today, just… I don't know, contact me if something big comes up ok?"

"You got it Boss," another said, leaning against the rail next to them and giving the blond a thumbs up, "well handle things from here, go take it easy for the day," the others agreed and Naruto nodded, saying his goodbyes and heading down the hall to his own apartment.

Watching the unofficial boss of the lower levels walk down the hallway towards his own apartment, the guys all shared glances and shrugged knowing that that wasn't anything else they could really do. Naruto had asked them to stay out of it and that's what they would do since the man had been so good to them over the months since he moved in.

"So that happened," one of them muttered after the blond rounded the corner where they'd built their little makeshift homes and went out of sight, he was a heavyset man wearing dirty construction overalls with a pair of simple cybereyes in place of his organics. He rubbed his bald head anxiously and looked to his partners with a worried face, "are we really not gonna do anything?"

"Nothing we can do," another older man sporting a beard and a long ponytail shrugged before slapping the wider man on the shoulder in a friendly manner, "boss says to stay out of it so we stay out of it,"

"I guess we don't really bring it up too often," the oldest of them grumbled, he was a wrinkled old man with thinning gray hair and a clean shaven face that went by the name Red, "since he's new and all, Tommy probably hasn't heard." The newest addition to the group looked confused so the man chuckled, "Look kid, unless he asks, do. not. stick your nose in his personal biz," while he sounded friendly there definitely was a warning in those words.

Tommy looked a bit worried when they all nodded knowingly until Randel spoke up, "D-don't worry about i-it Tom," he must have seen the look on his face and gave him a calming smile, "H-he appreciates the c-concern but it's best to just l-let him handle t-these things."

Whether he knew it or not, Naruto held a lot of influence with the residents on the lower floors of Mega Building H4. Local gangoons pretty much keep a low profile around the lower levels now since he made 6th Street back down. The peace of mind residents got knowing that they wouldn't be shaken down or tormented by a bunch of punks whenever they walked out of their apartment was amazing and they wanted it to stay that way.

They were even in the process of getting a couple apartments for them to rent, just had to wait for the final forms to be processed and they would finally have a home to call their own. He denied it but they couldn't have done it without his help and considering how much he improved things for them all… well if he asked them to leave his personal biz alone they would. After all, they'd do a lot worse for him if only he'd ask.

-xXx-

Letting the door close behind him he looked up at the ceiling and let out a long drawn out sigh while rubbing his face with his free hand. The feeling of the blood left on his upper lip made him pause and sigh again, he needed to get cleaned up.

Passing by his chair in front of the dataterm, Naruto started to toss the Academy jacket into the seat but stopped and laid it across the back instead. Just because of what happened he wasn't going to toss the kids stuff around like it didn't matter. "Hope I still have some hot water," he grumbled heading over to his sink and looking at the damage but aside from the smeared blood across his lip there wasn't any other sign of the fight.

Hundreds of thoughts raced through his mind as he washed his face, mostly pertaining to what just happened and replaying it over in his mind. A small twinge of anger started to grow the more he thought about it, until he couldn't help but let out a painful chuckle, "Fuck he really does remind me of myself." Had he been in David's position he probably… no he would've done the same thing so he didn't hold it against him… well maybe he did just a little.

He left his restroom and found his way to the end of the circular couch that came standard in most units, "I really should've seen that coming though." Of course David wouldn't be thrilled, Gloria was his mother and he was… well before today he was the teens choom and possible role model but now he was just the bastard that was sleeping with Gloria behind David's back. "Definitely should've done things differently,"

Another few minutes passed as Naruto sat in near silence, the look of utter concentration etched on his face before sagging with a huff, "...I want Ramen,"

-xXx-

As always, Lizzie's bar was alive with a dizzying spectacle of colors as the neon lights pulsed along with the pounding music that had dozens of Night City denizens from all walks of life showing off their moves on the dance floor with varying levels of skill and talent. A young corpo, some fresh faced intern from the cut of his outfit even had a few half drunken gangers cheering him on as he showed off, dancing wildly with his corporate issue tie secured around his forehead.

All in all it was a normal night for Mateo Thiago, resident drink slinger and member of the Mox… mostly anyway. "Becca you've been pouting on my bar for the last half hour, what's wrong?" In the months since she left the crew, she had dropped in every now and then and looked a lot happier. He assumed that the merc life was just what she needed but from the looks of things now, something must've gone wrong.

Sitting with her chin on the bar, the gremlin cocked her head to the side to look at him from her position, "Eh just bored," her expression didn't look bored but downtrodden.

Fixing her with a look that clearly showed that he didn't believe her, the bartender turned away and quickly pulled several bottles from the shelf behind him and mixed a drink with practiced ease, a dangerously smooth cocktail of his own creation that he knew she loved. The girl rolled her red and green eyes as he set it down in front of her but slid it out of reach when she reached for it.

"Mateo," she whined, still not picking up her head but reaching out for it with her lip poking out but he only slid it further away, "Ugh fine, I'll tell ya. Crew I'm running with got bent over big-time and wrecked our rep. Now our fixers dropped our asses like a used rubber."

While the man didn't have any first hand knowledge about how mercs and fixers operated he knew enough and winced on his chooms behalf, "Damn Becca, what happened?" he slid the glass back over to her and she started sipping it. A customer came up to the bar and paid for a beer while this happened and the man casually opened a broseph before sliding it to him without leaving his spot or giving the gonk a second glance.

"Some corpo asshat wanted us to steal this old bike and the owner tracked us down, long story short he wiped the floor with us, fucked up the client, wrecked the clients shit and took his wheels back. In return for letting us go we had to do something for him…" she grumbled while taking a few more sips which did perk her up a bit, "Just a simple delivery run, nothin special."

"I'm guessing there was something more to it huh?"

"Yep," she popped her lips at the last part, "It'd be a fucking riot if it had been anyone else… ugh. He got us into the fucking Afterlife of all places and even a face to face with Rogue, can you believe it? All we had to do was take a package and deliver it to her…" the gremlin finished off the drink and rubbed her head in frustration, "Turns out it was a great big fuck you to her and we were the gonks that proudly brought it to her." She told him about what happened, the message and the exploding cake that got them kicked out and fucked their rep. No fixer wanted to touch them after they were a part of publicly smearing such a well known fixers image like that.

Well all except for that four eyed asshole, he was the only reason the crew remained in the biz at all right now and took advantage of their radioactive reputation to keep them reliant on his gigs. They could try running gigs without going through a fixer but they were always sketchy and mostly chump change when it came to the eddies.

Her bartending choom listened to her woes and made a little noise as she finished, "Damn girl, this guy must be connected if he can pull shit like that and not nuke his own rep too." he observed, to which she nodded, "wanna go round up some Mox and go fuck the gonk up?" the girl might have left the gang but she was still their little gremlin.

She grinned at the thought but shook her head, "Nah, you guys don't have to do that, I'll figure something out.

"If you say so… What's his name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto," she wasn't gonna reveal that he was the Shino, they'd seen the shit he did to his enemies and outright outing him to the city seemed like a good way to get a late night visit from the solo and not in a fun way.

"Wait wait wait," the bartender stood in front of her with a look of confusion on his face, "I know that name, blond guy, wears too much orange, got these cute whiskers on his face?" he pointed to his cheeks and made little imaginary lines with his fingers. "That Naruto?"

"Ah yeah, that's the guy. You know him?"

"Not personally but my dad lives in the same Megabuilding as him." he informed her before another customer came up and ordered four shots of ROMVLVS gin. Becca sideyed the gonk that placed the order, while not the most expensive shots they were still stupidly expensive for what they were. Mateo quickly set out glasses and filled them up once the eddies cleared, expecting him to take them to his group but both were amused to see him throw them back one after the other.

"I don't know whether to be impressed or what," the girl mused as the guy left, leaving her choom to set the now empty glasses aside to be cleaned later. Gonks like that were the ones the Mox looked out for and Mateo was already sending a heads up to the others just in case the chump did something stupid once the booze did its thing.

The man nodded to what she said and shook his head, "But back to what I was saying, I don't know him myself but Dads been singing his praises. Some son of a bitch threw him down the stairs, broke some ribs and his arm,"

"Holy shit," Becca exclaimed, she never met the man herself but knew that he was damn near eighty years old, "your old man ok?"

"Oh yeah, dad spent a day in the hospital and kept flirting with the nurse but he's been home ever since."

She nodded, glad that her choom's old man was ok, "Glad he's still going strong, but what happened to the cocksucker that did it?" She really hoped that he didn't get away with it but with how the city was there was a strong possibility that nothing would happen to the guy.

"Oh he got what was coming to him," Mateo chuckled darkly, a far cry from his usual easy going look as he leaned on the bar across from her, "get this, according to dads neighbor the gonk that hurt him got his shit kicked in by Blondie. Made 'em hand over every eddie he had to dad and kicked his ass again before throwing him out into the street." Both shared a cruel laugh at the gangoons expense, gonks that fucked around in here often got the same treatment and found themselves broke both financially and physically.

It was rare that the little guy got some measure of justice, Night City was the definition of dog eat dog and if you didn't have the rep, cred, or the strength to push back you generally had to just bite your lip and take it.

After a few moments of contemplation, Becca looked her old choom in the eye and asked, "Hey which Mega building did your dad live in?"

-xXx-

To be continued…

-xXx-

Chapter 21: Won't Spare What I'm Huntin For!

"Eh it's better than going home and listening to the old lady go on and on about her online shopping," he grumbled while flicking through the pictures on his screen, stopping every now and then to zoom in for a close up of the explicit pics. Movement to his side caught his attention and he glanced over to see some tough guy standing in the rain facing the window of his rig, "hold up, got some punk at my door," he growled not wanting to have to deal with this, "Hey! The hell are you doing? You looking to get shot, back it up!"

The end of a sawed off double barrel tapped the window next, giving the officer just a second to realize what was happening before it fired. Buckshot tore through the car, instantly reducing the officer's skull to shrapnel and painting the interior of the rig red with both his and his partner's blood. The gunshots echoed throughout Corpo plaza and for a moment, the other officers and nearby civilians stood frozen in the rain, processing what they had just seen. Sparks of electricity shot from the damaged holo panel mounted to the side of the cruiser, flashing blue then red and fading to black just as quickly.

The shotgun opened and two spent shells were ejected with a loud click that seemed to echo throughout the plaza. Behind him, an officer drew his sidearm and fired with a yell that got the rest of them to follow suit. Hundreds of rounds flew through the air in the span of just a couple seconds that struck both him and the weapons carried across his back. But the man didn't flinch or even seem to react to the rounds that tore through the tac vest he wore and ricocheted off of his body, he only calmly loaded in two shells and closed the weapon, ready for more.

Dropping the double barrel, letting it swing by his side, James drew the pair of Arasaka HJKE-11 Yukimura smart pistols and spun around, firing them with deadly accuracy. With his preset targeting parameters, the smartlink ensured that each homing round aimed for the head and he quickly murdered seven NCPD officers within seconds.

"Got a cyberpsycho!" Screamed one of the officers hiding behind his rig and scrambling to open the truck where a heavier weapon was stored. Several others had the same idea and were now firing their own shotguns, "someone raise MaxTac now!" There was a split second where all shooting stopped before the hulking cyberpsychos arm opened and he launched a HE projectile at one officer, killing the man and three others taking cover near him in the explosion that shattered windows all around them.

"JAMES NORRIS!"

The yell seemed to echo out over all the sirens and rain in Corpo plaza and succeeded in pulling the man's attention to where another figure was standing in the road next to a bullet riddled NCPD cruiser. He had on a bulky hooded jacket of his own to shield him from the rain and James quickly turned one of his pistols towards the now approaching man. Undeterred by the weapon, the man ripped the zipper down revealing the well worn battle scarred plate carrier he wore underneath. The entire left portion of the plate was freshly repaired and looked slightly darker compared to the rest, but you could still see burns and melted spots around the edge of the new fabric.

He moved to fire on the new arrival when the man threw back his hood, but seeing a familiar snarling mask gave him pause. A mask so similar to the one he wore that struck a cord deep within his broken mind. One that he tried to emulate in his own way and painted in his daughters favorite shade of red.

"...Shino…" his own voice felt foreign, almost like a distant echo.

"What do you think you're doing, soldier?" The approaching solo snapped. For a moment, James was back in basic, much smaller and younger then and being stared down by the meanest son of a bitch he ever had the pleasure to train under.

The man shrugged off the jacket and dropped it on the street behind him, "you spent all this time trying to copy what I did and now you're killing cops?" He shook his head slowly and confidently saddled up to the much taller man to growl "if you were trying to be me then you failed,"

The remaining cops behind him could clearly see the faded '6' painted across the back of the newcomers plate carrier. Those plugged into the rumors on the streets instantly knew that this was either the 6th Street Shino or a really convincing copycat but either way they were taking the chance to fall back. They'd let MaxTac deal with whatever happens back there.

Seeing them retreating officers he had previously tagged trying to escape, James activated his Sandevastan, rushing towards the retreating cops. None of them would get away. He tried to pass by the Shino with the world frozen in place, raising his gun to fire at the retreating officers and-

"Where do you think you're going!" The Shino moved just as quick and appeared in front of him with his arm outstretched, catching him with a lariat to his throat that took him off his feet. The soldier landed hard on the pavement, slightly dazed and with his cyberware twitching as his gun clattered to the ground several feet ahead of him, "it's just you and me soldier, you've killed enough innocent people,"

The Mantis Blade in his other arm opened in a flash and the soldier thrust out his arm to skewer the Shino. But the merc stopped it with ease using a single kunai in a reverse grip, "that's right… just you and me," the two blades separated with a few sparks and James used the chance to grab his double barrel, firing it at point blank range where the Shino had been a split second before.

-xXx-

Yay 20 whole chapters!

I'm terribly sorry about the long wait, I've lost a lot of my free time lately and it's not looking like I'll be getting it back anytime soon but I'm committed to continuing this story one way or another. I wish I could give you all a definite release schedule but I wouldn't be able to stick to it honestly. Chapter 21 will probably also take some time although I do already have some of it written now lol.

But as you can see, the next chapter is the definite start of Edgerunners, I really planned on it being in this chapter but it had to be pushed back some for various reasons.

Anyway I really hope you enjoyed the trip so far. I know I've probably missed some mistakes and made errors so I hope they weren't too jarring to you while reading. Feel free to review or even send me a PM, I love reading and responding to them.

And as always, love you!

-xXx-