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Night City Legends
Act 2: Running along the Edge
Chapter Twenty Two: Hear My Call, I'm Chippin in!
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"Mornin Randel," Naruto greeted as he walked out into the corridor, stretching as he yawned with a little wave towards the man. He was still a bit groggy but considering the long day he had a three hour snooze wasn't really enough. The temptation to stay in bed and just sleep the day away was strong but that nagging sense of responsibility kept poking away at him. Halfway out of his room, Naruto took a moment to register that the man was leaning against the railing in front of his door, reading something, "You weren't… waiting here for me to wake up were you?"
"No B-Boss, j-just reading this screamsheet I f-found earlier," the man motioned to the paper he held in his other hand and Naruto's eye was drawn to the headline, 'Cyberpsycho rampage in Corpo Plaza' making him sigh to himself. "Although, I d-did want to let you know that everything w-went fine with the meeting. A-Aiko started r-rearranging things last night. W-won't be long until we're open for biz." Naruto perked up and grinned at the news. "O-oh and Aiko needs to know what you wanna c-call the r-restaurant."
The blonde blinked, "Damn, now that you mention it I hadn't even thought about what to call it." He looked thoughtful and stepped over to lean on the railing next to Randel, "eh we'll think of something, get some suggestions and we'll see what sounds best," he was tempted to name it after Ichiraku Ramen but he didn't want to just veto anyone else's idea of they had a more fitting one, "you busy?"
The man folded the screamsheet while shaking his head, "No, not really,"
"You wanna head up and see how it looks? Maybe even mess with Aiko and move stuff around." Naruto smirked mischievously, pointing a thumb towards the elevator while readjusting his usual orange vest.
"You're a little late for that Boss," Randel admitted, not exactly meeting the blond's now very curious gaze, "Red and Tommy made it sound like a nova idea at the time."
"Damn…" Naruto rolled his eyes, Aiko was fun to annoy and prank since he always tried to get even, then his grin returned, "wanna go put everything back where it was to confuse 'em? Then act like you don't know what they're talking about if they ask?"
"S-sure Boss." With a little chuckle of his own Randel took his paper in hand the pair began making their way towards the elevator, "s-so… I got your m-message last night,"
Naruto got a panicked look in his eyes and quickly checked his messages, letting out a long sigh as he went over them, "Sorry about that choom… at least it's not as bad as I thought it would be." At least he didn't accidentally message him the same things he sent Gloria, he'd never be able to look Randal in the face again. 'Definitely don't need to drink like that again.'
They passed by the little corner claimed by Randel and his chooms, only one of the others remained there, most likely to keep an eye on everything. He looked like he was working on something, stopping just long enough to greet them as they neared before going back to his project. Whatever it was Naruto could see that he was concentrating hard with a small file in hand and a jewelers loupe clipped to a pair of cracked glasses so he decided not to interrupt and continued past Glorias apartment.
"Hey there young man!" Turning, both men spotted an elderly man sitting on an overturned bucket, hunched over and leaning on a dented cane. It was Glorias neighbor Mr. Thiago, a somewhat friendly old geezer once you got past the gruff exterior.
Naruto gave him a grin and a little wave, "Hey old man, how's your arm?"
Mr. Thiago straightened up and lifted his arm to show his cast and sling dismissively, "Eh this'll heal up soon enough. Worst part of this whole thing is having to wipe my ass with my other hand now," he chuckled under his breath and dug through his pockets, pulling out a half pack of cigarettes, "I wanted to say thanks, you and your boys looked out for me while I was down.
Not only had the old man broken his arm but injured his back as well, the blond checked in on him a day or two after he got home and the others had taken it upon themselves to do the same, "it's no problem old man, I see your backs feeling better too,"
"Oh yeah, my son came by and brought some stuff to help, don't know what it is exactly but they work," he dug into his pocket and pulled out a plastic container. From where he was standing, Naruto could see that it wasn't a prescription bottle and was covered in what looked like Mox themed doodles, "want one?"
Naruto chuckled sheepishly and shook his head, "I appreciate the offer but I'm good. It's a little too early for me," he denied making the man shrug before popping one out for himself.
"'bout you young man, want one? I got plenty," the heavy rattle from the bottle told them that he did indeed have more than enough as he shook it towards Randel.
But the man followed Naruto's example and declined, "N-no thanks, not re-really my thing." Give him a little Rezzin anyway of the week, he could still function just fine with that but he didn't trust most of the stuff made on the streets anymore.
"Fair enough," he put the bottle away and popped one in his mouth like candy, swallowing it dry, "I won't hold you up any more, but if you boys need anything just give me a holler. I ain't fit to be kicking gonks in the teeth like I used to but I can fix damn near anything with a motor or on wheels'' In place of the pills, the elderly Thiago fished out a small lighter for his smoke, "it's about all I can do these days too damn old to chasing girls like I used to,"
While he did so, Naruto's eyes drifted to the man's hand and saw a roadmap of calluses and scars detailing a life of hard work, "I'll keep that in mind old man, but I'm sure you'll be back to your old self soon enough."
"Nah kid, them days are long gone." The cigarette smelled awful compared to the others he'd seen before but the geezer didn't seem to care, "you should've seen me before the heart attacks, used to be two hundred and fifty pounds of solid muscle. All organic too, none of that synthetic shit kids get either." Hunched over the way he was, Naruto doubted that the man weighed anywhere close to one hundred and fifty pounds. The cigarette fell from between his fingers as he spoke, getting a frustrated growl, "damn it, my goddamn hands keep going numb."
"Is it from what happened with that dumbass?" Naruto questioned as he stepped over and grabbed it for him, he felt bad for the old dude and was really tempted to go find the gonk just to kick his ass again. Night City wasn't exactly known for its morals but shoving an old man down the stairs was some low shit.
"Oh no, it's some kinda neuropathy that I can't even pronounce the name of. Basically it's just some nerve damage that's getting worse, I doubt I'll be around long enough for it to really matter anyway." He gave the pair a humorless chuckle and accepted the cigarette the blonde picked up for him and stuck the filter between his lips, "Thanks. Anyway it looked like you two had some biz to handle, I won't hold you up anymore. But you and your choombas are welcome to come over anytime,"
Randel who had been quietly waiting for Naruto to finish speaking with the man nodded once, "I'll l-let the guys know Mr. Thiago," and got a small smirk from the wrinkled man, showing off a couple of silver teeth before the two started back on their way to the elevator.
"You got it old man, I'll drop by sometime and visit," with a thumbs up, the pair continued on their way.
"H-Hey Boss?"
"Hmm?"
Randel glanced behind him for a moment then looked towards the ninja, "I think I m-might have an idea for us to make s-some extra Eddies," seeing that he had the blondes attention he continued, "if Mr. Thiago is a-a good mechanic like he said then there's a few abandoned c-cars left d-down in the garage that we can get r-running again." It would take some work but if nothing else they could just scrap them for parts depending on the condition.
Thinking about it, Naruto nodded slowly and scratched his chin, "You sure they're abandoned?" He questioned only to get a nod in response, "then go for it, let me know if you need any help with something… oh and just make sure the old guy has some help," if nothing else maybe whoever helps him out will learn a few things.
"I-I'll have a couple of the guys h-help out," thoughts of who to send began crossing his mind. Definitely not Frank, that gonk had his own little side gig going and besides, Mr. Thiago didn't deserve to deal with his… Well, Frank was weird… let's just leave it at that. The more he thought about it Randel began to realize that maybe it was time to recruit a few more guys to join their little group. Aiko was already figuring out how many people he needed to hire for the restaurant so maybe it was time for them to grow too. He would have to talk to Red about it, the man knew a lot more people around here than he did.
[Red: Hey Randel, we might have a problem. The Boss up yet?]
Randel flinched at the sudden notification and stopped just outside of the elevator, making Naruto raise his eyebrow with a curious look on his face. [Randel: He's here, what happened?]
[Red: He might wanna come down to the parking lot- ah hell. Get down here before Gerry kills this gonk brat.]
"What's up Randel?" Questioned the blond once his eyes stopped glowing, ignoring the vidscreens mounted to the elevator wall next to him that had some so-called expert on Cyberpsychosis giving his view on why he thought Lt. Norris snapped.
"Ah B-Boss, there's something g-going down in the parking garage," he explained while stepping into the elevator, making the blonde take a deep breath and sigh while rolling his eyes.
"Of course there is," he leaned over and pressed the screen to send them down to the parking garage instead of the thirteenth level. Randel meekly grumbled an apology only for him to wave it off and pay him on the shoulder "it's not your fault choom, now let's go see what's going on."
-xXx-
Before the elevator even stopped, they could see someone waiting for them. His name didn't immediately come to mind but Naruto knew he was one of Randel's people. The man was heavyset and bald with a pair of low end cybereyes sporting simple red lenses, Tom if he remembered correctly.
"Tommy?" Randel questioned while the gate raised up, looking at several angry red scratches and two lumps across his bald head, "W-what happened to y-you?" Naruto stepped forward with him and both took a look at the damage as the man rubbed what looked like another bump on the back of his head.
"Ah that's kind of a long story," Tommy responded with a grimace, "Reds with Gerry, he can probably give you the deets better than me."
"Why don't you go get that lump looked at… or at least put something cold on it." The blonde told him, the swelling hadn't even really started yet but it was already that big, whoever smacked him over the head wasn't playing around. "Me and Randel can find our way there,"
"Yeah, I'll do that. Thanks boss. They're up near Gerry's" he hopped onto the elevator and Naruto saw a footprint square in the middle of the guy's back.
The parking area wasn't exactly the safest looking area with the amount of junk piled up in places, there was no telling what could be laying around and it only got worse the lower you went. Scrap, junk, trash, bodies, there was no telling what you might stumble across down here.
'what the hell is it now?' While not exactly hungover, Naruto was starting to feel pressure building up in his temples as they walked deeper into the large parking structure where they started hearing muffled banging that got louder as they approached. He idly noticed that he wasn't too far from where his bike was stored away, not too far from where Gerald 'Gerry' lived in his old Archer Quartz.
"So what the hell's going on?" The blonde's voice seemed to echo around, making the two older men waiting there whirl around to see them. The first was Red, the only one in the whole group to always be clean shaven somehow despite his circumstances. The other was a scruffy looking old timer with a ragged beard and a matching beanie.
"Oh hey Boss," greeted Red, motioning to a nearby Archer Hella covered in rust and old bullet holes, "glad you're here, Gerry here caught some gonk snooping around your wheels." Naruto glanced over to where his bike was and saw that the tarp over it looked like it had indeed been moved. "Well Tommy did but the kid got his ass kicked,"
"Not exactly how I thought I'd spend my morning," he grumbled rubbing the back of his head while stepping over to them, only to notice that both had fresh blood on them, "who's bleeding?"
Gerry grunted and they saw him gripping his left hand with the other, blood dripping down between his fingers and to the ground with a slow but steady pace. "He'll be fine," Red exclaimed, already holding something to wrap around his chooms bleeding hand, "might wanna keep an eye out though," both men cut a glance over to the car, "the little gonkshit bites," when the man let go of his hand, Naruto got a good look at it and saw that the man was missing a good chunk of flesh between his thumb and finger.
Randel paled a bit at the sight while Naruto frowned and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Damnit, take him to a ripper or something to get patched up… actually hold on. I'll see if Gloria will take a look at it first," he had some medical supplies stashed away just in case that she could use.
[Naruto: Hey beautiful, you busy?] He questioned with a little grin as soon as she picked up. Only to frown when he saw the look on her face, full of worry and anger.
[Gloria: Hey baby ah… yeah, I'm headed to the school. One of the staff called, Davids in trouble.] Naruto took a slow breath in as he thought about what she just said, classes should've just started so what the hell could've happened? [Gloria: I don't know what happened but they're saying that he might be expelled. They might even press charges.]
[Naruto: What do they mean press charges?] Night Citys judicial system was a minefield of corrupt lawyers, judges, and cops just waiting to fuck you over, what the hell happened? 'oh shit, did he finally kick that bully's ass?' The thought brought a grimace to his face as he could already feel the scolding they would get from Gloria, [Naruto: wait no, let me handle this and I'll be there soon ok?]
[Gloria: No baby I got this.] Even though she told him that he could see the worry in her eyes and it only made him want to be there more.
[Gloria: I gotta go, I'm close to the school. I'll call you soon and let you know whats going on after I talk to the principal. Love you!]
[Naruto: Love you too, call me and let me know something.] She blew him a kiss over the vid feed making him smile lightly before ending the call.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Naruto slowly exhaled which made the others glance at each other with a shrug, not knowing what was happening, "Ahh… e-everything ok Boss?"
"Ugh not really," he admitted with a huff before rubbing the back of his neck, "And today started off so well too. Nothing for you guys to be concerned about though but Glorias kinda busy. If I remember right there's a doc at the Manufactury up the road, go and get your hand taken care of. I'll take care of this." It wasn't too far up the road and the guy seemed to genuinely want to help people so Naruto would give him a shot. Maybe he'd see about getting the guy to give everyone a once over too since they didn't exactly have the means to get medical attention until now.
With them heading towards the exit, Naruto turned his attention to the junker and could still hear the muffled banging and yelling inside the trunk. "Choom you mind popping the trunk for me?" He asked motioning to the half open driver side door, or what was left of it anyway, "Oh and give me a sec, gotta send a message right quick,"
Randel nodded and scurried over to the door while the blond's eye lit up for a minute, "J-just say when," it took him a second to find the release, the original looked like someone beat it with a hammer leaving a rusty metal wire in its place.
"Alright, let's see what's behind door number one," he mused, finishing the text before nodding to the other man and getting ready to grab the gonk inside. The trunk flung open with a rusty groan and expecting to face some random gangoon in need of a kick in the ass, Naruto wasn't prepared for what he saw instead.
Laying in a pile of old fast food trash, dirty clothes, and a creepy faceless mannequin he spotted a familiar gremlin screaming red faced with her distinct red and green optics wide with sheer terror. "GHWM-MWNN-AHHH!" She chanted with muffled screams behind several strips of tape covering the entirety of her mouth and cheeks as she flopped around like a freshly caught fish wrapped in several colorful power cables and a prayer.
"Pfft,"
Randel stepped over to see what Naruto laughed at and couldn't quite understand what he saw. A green haired brat? Those three gonks were in the group chat acting like they were fighting for their lives and this is who it was?
Naruto took a deep breath with a little smile on his face after getting his laughs, he needed that little pick me up after the news he got earlier. It was that mouthy little micro merc that helped klep his wheels a while back, although it was kinda hard to be sure with how hard she was thrashing around in there.
"Whew, I needed that laugh… hey!" He called out to try and get the girls attention, "Hey!" She didn't seem to pay him any mind at first until he reached in and tried to snatch the tape off her mouth.
"AHHH! That fucking hurt asshole!" Rebecca yelled with her eyes clinched in pain. She turned her head and rubbed her bloody lips against her shoulder, slowly easing the pain until her head bumped into something. She ignored it at first but once her lips stopped stinging, Rebecca looked at what was touching her only to come face to face with her worst nightmare. "GETMEOUT! GETMEOUT!"
Naruto flinched back when she suddenly yelled again and watched as she violently flung herself away from the old mannequin. Seeing the look on her face, he grabbed her by the hood of her oversized jacket and dragged her out.
"Ugh I fucking hate those goddamn things!" Rebecca shuttered in pure revulsion, dangling from the blond mercs grip before being dropped to the ground on her ass, "ow hey, what's your fucking prob-" she trailed off when she finally faced him, recognizing him pretty quickly.
Naruto gave her a bright smile that didn't quite match the menacing aura around him, "Hello Gremlin," he knelt down to face her with narrowed eyes, "wanna explain what your doing here half pint… trying to klep my bike again?"
While normally she would've tried kicking him in the dick for the 'half pint' remark, Rebecca couldn't bring herself to do it, not from a lack of intent, mainly because she was tied up like a gonk with a poorly trained dominatrix. "Wasn't trying to boost your wheels choom chill,"
"Uh-huh," she heard the Merc grunt and looked up at him in annoyance to see him looking past her. "So you just came here to what? pick a fight or something?" He continued before she could see who was with him, "those were my guys too by the way, so do you wanna explain before I put you back in the trunk with your new choom?"
Rebecca glanced past him with a look of revulsion towards the still open trunk before glaring at him "Don't you fucking dare," there wasn't many things that creeped her out and even fewer that scared her, but those old ass mannequins placed pretty high in both categories. "Fine fine, don't get your circuits in a bind, mind letting me loose first?"
"Nah, you bit a chunk outta my choom, I think I'll keep you like this for a little longer." He didn't see that shotgun she carried last time but he really doubted that she was unarmed. Besides, Randel was just a few paces away and he wouldn't risk him catching a stray round if she did try something, "The quicker you tell me why you're here the sooner I might let you go," Naruto mused with a grin.
"Grr… fine!" The gremlin pouted while deflating with an annoyed groan "Would you at least close the lid on that thing?" She motioned towards the car and Naruto shrugged, making Randel reach over and close it. "Ugh thanks… I wanted to talk to ya. Figured if your bike was here I'd know this was the right place." She wiggled uncomfortably for a bit with an annoyed look on her face, "soon as I lifted the cover to see, queball jumped me-"
"Queball?"
"Yeah you know, baldie? The fat gonk. Anyway he tried to jump me so I kicked his ass then the geezer jumped in. I was trying to bite Fatboys nose off and he got his hand in the way," she continued with a shrug like she was talking about the weather, making both men sweatdrop. "I'll admit the choom had some nova moves for an old guy but they're lucky I didn't bring Guts."
"A-ah Boss, she's trying to g-get her hands free," Randel interjected, motioning to the girl on the ground between them who had started working at the power cords used to tie her hands.
Rebecca clicked her tongue and rolled around to glare at him over her shoulder, "Hey… no one likes a snitch choom and you know what happens to them right?" Randel meekly looked away from her threatening smirk only for Naruto to lean over and flicked her on the back of the head with a finger, "Ow, hey!"
"That's my choom you're threatening, munchkin." The blond deadpanned, "Now focus, why're you looking for me?"
Her annoyed grimace slowly changed into a cocky smirk as she stared him in the eyes, no doubt that had she not been tied up Rebecca would have been standing there proudly with her hands on her hips, "I need a gig,"
"Huh?" Not the most intelligent response but of all the things that she could have said, Naruto truly didn't expect that. It took him a second to speak but Rebecca took some small pride in having surprised the Shino himself. "What the- a gig? Since when am I a…" he took a moment to take a deep breath before looking back to her again. "First off, since when am I a Fixer and for that matter, what makes you think that I'd have any work for you anyway?"
"Well I figured that a big name Edgerunner like the Shino would be rolling in gigs. Especially after the way you flatlined that borged out cyberpsycho last night. Nova moves by the way," she grinned having seen it live on the holo, her tone making the blonde's eye twitch.
Randel's eyes widened, he knew Naruto was a Merc but the Shino? He wasn't exactly plugged into the streets like some of the others but even he heard some stories and rumors of that particular Merc. His rampage against Sixth Street was still talked about by local Gangoons… It made sense now that the Sixth Street gangoons were told to leave this building alone. Many still lived here and while the upper levels saw more local gang activity the lower floors were mostly peaceful.
He thought back to their first meeting, the guy who offered him work was the same guy who wiped out nearly an entire faction of Sixth Street and defused the Valentino-SixthStreet gang war before it could explode. If he remembered right, some of the sixers that used to hang around at the time said he threatened to flatline both gangs as a whole if they didn't end it. Considering that he had just turned Megabuilding H6 into a warzone and left behind a massacre, the threat had a lot of weight behind it.
"Randel, open the trunk!"
The blonde's sudden call broke the man from his thoughts, leaving him looking confused for a few moments, "Huh? I-I mean, g-got it Boss." Randel felt his face heat up, embarrassed for getting caught up in his thoughts, he didn't even know if what the girl said was true or not anyway..
Rebecca's eyes widened, "Why the hell is he doing that!" She demanded from the blonde before turning her head towards the other man after he headed back to the open car door, "Hey! Don't you fucking do it-" the trunk opened just a hair, but from where she was sitting it was just enough for her to see that faceless monstrosity staring back through the gap, "what the hell whiskers?! What did I say!? Come on, can't we talk about this?"
What was that saying Mama Welles told him a while back… When it rains it pours? Yeah that was it. He saw what she meant now, everything was going so well over the last few days then the situation with David happened, the mess with the lieutenant… The few hours he spent with Gloria really perked him back up but now the little gremlin shows up adding more to his plate.
"You pop up here out of nowhere, bit a chunk outta my choom-"
"B-beat up Tommy,"
Naruto nodded, motioning to Randel, "Yeah, that too. And all because you want a gig?" He finished with a disbelieving tone, a single eyebrow raised as he looked her in the eye as she pouted, "and besides, didn't I already give you and your crew a gig? Remember, to pay me back for klepping my bike in the first place?"
Rebecca's pout turned into an angry growl, "Yeah asshole, that's exactly why." She glowered at him with her teeth clenched "Because of your little gig, no other fixers are willing to work with us! No one's willing to take a chance on the gonks that burned the Queen Cunt of the Afterlife in her own fucking club!" Naruto started to speak but stopped short when he saw her iconic pink and green optics tearing up, "Now we're stuck working for that four eyed jackoff that keeps screwing us outta our eddies, knowing we can't get gigs anywhere else!" She was yelling by now and Randel kept looking back and forth between the two uncomfortably. "My choom died and the son of a bitch just shrugged it off so yeah, here I am!"
'Well fuck,' Naruto had no idea if what she said was true but he didn't get the sense that she was lying. Having them deliver that exploding cake to the Queen Hag of the Afterlife was more just to embarrass all parties involved but he didn't intend on getting them blacklisted. They didn't seem all that bad despite stealing from him and he didn't hold it against them anymore. Not only that but looking back, he could laugh at the entire situation and had to admit that even with how annoyed he was, he had a little fun that night.
"I'm sorry about your choom," he told her sincerely while looking away, those watery optics made her look like a child about to cry. Both watched him stand up straight and turn to slam the trunk back shut before leaning against it while rubbing his face, he should tell her to kick rocks and that it wasn't his problem but he did feel kinda bad for her now, if what she said was true that is. "Look I'm not a fixer so I don't have a bunch of gigs lined up but…" he trailed with a look of deep concentration on his face for a few seconds before shrugging, "I might be able to line something up or at least get your foot in the door with someone else," First he would see if the old man would look into this crew and see if what she claimed was even true, he learned his lesson a long time ago about blindly trusting any random gonk off the streets.
"Preem, now can you untie me now?"
Naruto nodded and stepped around to loosen her makeshift binds, Gerry and Red really weren't taken chances after scraping with the munchkin and he counted three different extension cables, a long strip of electrical tape, and what looked like a old scarf wrapped and tied around the girl in a hastily thrown together fashion. If the situation was different the blond would've laughed as he got the mental image of the gremlin as a worm with how they tied her up.
"Finally!" Rebecca snatched her arms out from behind her after he removed the binds from around her arms and wrists, quickly snatching at the ones wrapped around her feet. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a lil rope play in the bedroom but this was a bit much… oh and first off," she opened her oversized hoodie, giving them both a good look at the matching bra and panties she wore underneath. Randel quickly looked away feeling creepy for looking at a kid in her underwear while Naruto felt the same… that was until they heard the gremlin rack a weapon. Both turned back to face her in a flash and spotted the girl welding a Lexington pistol with an enraged snarl on her lips, "Die fuckface!"
Randel felt himself hit the ground hard and wheezed, heart pounding against his chest. He could still feel the pressure on his face from the muzzle blast as the pistol fried several times in rapid succession. "Cut it out!" He heard Naruto bark over the ringing in his ears while quickly covering his head even as he tried to fill his lungs with air.
"Hey, give it back!" Growled Rebecca as he snatched the pistol from her grip, swiping at it to take it back and jumping when he held it out of her reach. The blond popped her upside the head with his other hand with an annoyed glare which she returned with a glare of her own, "Just cause you got some skills don't mean I won't punch you in the dick, Whiskers!"
Naruto's eyes widened when she didn't even give him a chance to say anything and immediately went for the kill, "Woah wait a minute!" Spinning on his feet, he quickly hid his crotch and defended himself from her by palming her forehead and holding her back, "Hey cool it already- hey!" Rebecca growled and snapped at his hand with her teeth to clamp down on his hand, missing by a hair. The blond took a quick look at his fingers and turned back with an annoyed frown, only to find her pouting at him with her hand out demandingly.
"Gimme!"
"Ugh fine!" He tossed it back and she caught it less than a second later with a triumphant smirk as he shook his head. "Just put the damn thing away," She did so, never losing her smirk and he turned to his choom who had held his chest trying to take slow measured breaths, "oh damn I'm sorry Randel, I didn't mean push you that hard." The first thing he had done was to push the man out of harm's way. It happened so fast he didn't even think about it and just moved, what he meant to be a quick shove must've felt a lot worse on the receiving end.
"I'm… n-nova… boss…"
Naruto helped the man up and made sure none of the rounds hit him, while most punched through the thin metal, several ricocheted off and shot through the air. Luckily, they mostly peppered the concrete above them and no strays managed to cause any damage to them that he could tell. As he stood, Randel shot the blonde a questioning look while glancing towards the girl and rubbing his chest. "I'll tell you later."
Rebecca busied herself by reloading her pistol and slipped it back into her coat's inner pocket. At least she didn't draw her iron during the initial scuffle, who knows what might've gone down otherwise. "Welp I feel better now!" Both men sweatdropped at her statement and glanced towards the bullet riddled trunk.
"All that over a mannequin?" She shot him an annoyed frown at his remark and he held up his hands in surrender "fine fine… nevermind, everyones afraid of something I guess." He shrugged
"Who said I was scared!?" At that, Naruto reached over and wiggled the lid to try and open it only for her to jump forward and keep it shut with her bodyweight "Don't," her cheeks turned red just as she looked away, "I just don't like those creepy gonks is all… and if everyone's scared of something then what are you afraid of?"
Squinting his eyes, Naruto looked thoughtful for a moment then shrugged, "eh there's a few things I guess." He then narrowed his eyes and shot her a half hearted glare while towering over her. "like a trigger happy gremlin just randomly shooting the place up and hurting someone!" The ideas to poke her with each word crossed his but could he already see her reaction to him doing that. "But seriously, the whole thing with Rogue… I just meant to embarrass you guys a little, guess I didn't really think about how the old bag would react towards you." His eye lit up and she received a contact through her holo, a trick he just learned how to do funnily enough, "Here's my contact, I'll talk to a few people and do what I can."
Rebecca nodded, genuinely surprised at how this whole thing went, she hid it well but when she found out that the gonks she scraped with were his, a pit formed in her stomach. They obviously weren't the same as those masked goons of his, those guys probably would've just flatlined her the second she jumped on baldie but even then most wouldn't just let that go, much less agree to help her out afterwards. "You're weird, you know that right?"
"..."
"..."
Both men glanced at each other then back to her but Naruto noticeably looked her up and down with a face that said 'look who's talking,'
-xXx-
David had never been to the principal's office before and found it to be almost twice the size of his apartment and nearly half as empty. Everything seemed expensive but somehow had nothing to show for it as he sat next to his mother who he could tell was biting the inside of her cheek to keep a straight face.
'Fuck my life…' David couldn't help but hang his head as he sat across from the principal with his mother, after he left this morning he'd swung by Docs before going to the NCART station and picked up the soft that was supposed to work with the Academy's new updates and to make a long story painful short, it wasn't exactly as compatible as he'd been led to believe.
What was that old saying his mom said a while back… When it rains it pours? Yeah that sounds about right. Yesterday he fucked up with Naruto and today hes fucked up with his mother… and to a lesser extent Arasaka Academy. In his own mind at least, fuck those Corpo bastards. His 'update' had been flagged by the schools VI as a successful intrusion by an outside Netrunner and all hell broke loose in the schools subnet. At least three servers were wiped as it tried to contain a non-existent threat but the damage was already done before any of the techs could pull the plug. If it had happened to anyone else it would have been hilarious with how the holo projection of the instructor interface had been corrupted and partially replaced by a porn BD.
'Thanks a lot Doc,' David glanced up and could just feel his mother's scathing look when she heard the principal lay out the deets about him modding his wreath with 'back alley soft' to avoid paying the licensing fee. If he had been alone with her at that moment David knew he might not make it out alive, even more so when she agreed to pay the cost to have the servers restored.
"Ma'am looking at his actions, this isn't exactly behavior befitting a pupil from a financially stable home," the man remarked with a concerned look on his face, hands clasped in front of him. With the way he worded it, you could almost fool yourself into thinking that the man didn't just call them poor to their face while questioning if they could indeed pay for the repair.
"It's no problem really," Gloria replied with a pleasant tone, seemingly not catching the veiled insult, "we can afford it,"
'The hell we can,' the teen groaned to himself, hanging his head and cursing Doc for the borged out drive and bootleg soft. He should have just paid the damn fee, she gave him the money! David figured that he could slip the eddies back to her later but there was no way they could afford to pay this. The more he thought about it his leg began to bounce nervously as he listened.
-xXx-
Gloria stared straight ahead on the drive home in silence, the first thing she had done after starting up her little Galina was to swipe the volume knob and turn the radio nearly all the way down before wordlessly waiting for her son to buckle up. David slouched back in the seat next to her, still restlessly bouncing his knee up and down while she drove.
The tense silence was brutal but neither spoke for what felt like a long time as she drove away from the school. He hadn't been kicked out but he was suspended until they paid the repair fee, a fat five thousand eddies in full and David just knew he was in for it. Every now and then she would turn a little as if to speak to him but the words never came out. His mother did this several times but always just turned back towards the road without uttering a word all the way from Downtown to the Glen heading into Arroyo.
"You lied to me," her words made him flinch, "you stood right there and lied to my face this morning." Gloria frowned and David could see her hands tightening on the wheel as she slowed down at the light to turn towards the highway. "Dee, what happened? I gave you the eddies and told you to get the upgrade."
"It's Doc's damn fault, gave me a borged drive," he grumbled looking out the window at the passing cars.
"Mijo you tried to go around the system didn't you?" He didn't bother trying to answer as she already knew that he did, "Well now it's going to cost us ten times more,"
"I'm sorry mom,"
She glanced over at him and sighed, "If it's something that you'll have to say sorry for how about next time don't do it," David huffed but didn't respond as she continued, "What were you even thinking Mijo?"
"Well…" Davids leg kept twitching as he glanced around, "I saw the look you had when I told you about the update and I knew we didn't have the cred, so-"
"Mijo, I have told you time and time again that you do not have to worry about that!" Gloria snapped, cutting him off, "you are a seventeen old, a child. My child! Your education is the most important thing for your future and cutting corners like this isn't the way to get ahead." Glancing over, she saw him cross his arms and took a calming breath, "Dee, you're so smart. So much smarter than me… I know you'll make it big, all the way to the top of Arasaka Tower even."
"Yeah right, like they'll let me. Mom, you have no idea what it's like there, how bad I stand out compared to them. Anyone besides a true blue blooded Corpo gets shit on. Even if I do graduate there's no way I'd make it, no matter what I do I'll always be the streetrat from Santo in their eyes, they'll never accept me as a suit… don't even wanna be one anyway," The silence between them went beyond tense with David refusing to look back over to her, keeping his eyes out the window.
"Do you think I don't hear what they say?" Gloria looked at him with a disbelieving frown and shook her head at what he said, "I'm not stupid Mijo, do you think that I don't get treated the same way? I know what they think of us." That was also the reason why she asked Naruto not to come, despite how much she wanted him here for support, she didn't want him to see her being treated that way especially once her voice finally cracked near the end. They lapsed into another tense silence and David found himself staring at a rusted patch down by his feet.
"...Mom, I've been thinking, what if I drop out? Find some work or something. Maybe even start helping Naruto with his work,"
That made her turn her to him with a sharp then sad look on her face "Do you ever hear yourself? Tell me Dee, what is it that I've been busting my ass for huh? You want to throw it all away and be some edgerunner or a gangoon?" As much as she loved him, Gloria didn't like what Naruto did for a living and didn't want that kinda life for her son, something she'd talked with her mainline about in the past. Every time he worked a gig Gloria found herself plagued with the thought that he'd come stumbling in, half dead and dying in her arms. Or worse that he would just vanish, left dead in some God forsaken alley when his luck finally ran out. "Everything… everything I've done, I've done for you Mijo."
The moment he heard her hold back a sob, David turned to her and saw tears streaming down her face, "M-mom I-"
"You're breaking my heart Mijo… my sweet baby boy. I love Naruto, but Dee I don't want you to do what he does, that's not the life I want for you… it's not the life he wants for you either. You're so smart, so talented… you are everything to me and I'm doing all I can to give you a fighting chance in this city," David bit his lip and looked away, God he'd rather her scream at him or beat him black and blue with La Chancla, anything other than cry.
"Mom I'm sorry, please don't cry," he told her softly while glancing to his side out the window again where his view was blocked by an old Villefort Columbus with a terrible pink paint job. It caught his eye due to how it looked like the owner just hacked away at it with a bucket of paint and a brush, "I'll do better and I'll even-"
The window next to him exploded, gunshots and the roar of the wind outside deafening him as the glass from the broken window cut him in several places. David felt his mother reach out and slap her arm across the chest protectively while he brought his arms up to cover his face as they both screamed.
-xXx-
The air was thick with the heat and smoke of a nearby fire when he finally managed to open his eyes, his arms hanging above his head on the roof of the car, cut up by the broken glass all around him. Everything was oddly silent aside from this low ringing sound and the sound of his own heavy breaths. "Ugh, what… happened?" He coughed a few times and looked around in a daze "Mom?"
Her seat was empty.
David's heart dropped, "Mom?!" He coughed again and looked around in a panic. Somehow the rear window didn't shatter but he could see the surrounding wreckage and burning vehicles around them. After a moment of searching he spotted the bright reflective yellow EMT jacket his mother wore and called out for her attention, "Mom! Hey Mama!" But the moment she didn't move he felt himself snap out of his daze and screamed "Mom! Mom wake up! Momma please move! Momma!"
His heart raced from the surging adrenalin, he had to get down, he had to get to her. Gripping the seatbelt keeping him in the seat he pulled and wildly tried to struggle free before pressing the release. It was jammed, "momma just hold on!" David accidentally slammed his leg into the glove box and it sent a jolt of pain through him but also gave him an idea, "please still be here!" Opening it, several pieces of paper and random items fell out including a single kunai in a simple polymer sheath, "yes!"
He'd looked around quite a few shops and online to try and find some like Naruto used but no one he knew carried them. Most of the ones only were really poorly made or way out of his price range but he mentioned wanting to find one Naruto happily gave him one of his own. 'thank God it's here!' He sighed and snapped it up, quickly cutting the belt beside the buckle only to fall flat on his face as soon as the belt snapped.
"Ow damnit!" Broken glass was everywhere and as he pushed himself up, the teen crawled along the roof of his mother Galina on his belly, never even feeling the glass that cut his palms as he left a trail of red smeared across the roof in his wake. "Just hold on Mom!"
The heat from the nearby fires felt like they were stealing the very air from his lungs, David had to stop to rub his stinging eyes and cough more than once before he even made it out onto the blacktop. Over the sounds of the roaring fires nearby and his own heart beat that sounded like it was about to burst from his chest, he could make out the sounds of screaming from other cars caught in the mess but focused only on the form of his mother laying still ahead of him.
One of his eyes started burning again so rubbed it clear with the back of his hand, only to realize that it wasn't sweat but blood trickling down his face. He must've cut himself on the glass when he fell but panic pushed him to stand and quickly limp over to his mother who still hasn't moved.
"Mom?" David fell to his knees next to her just as a Trauma Team AV showed up and hovered above them, the thrusters buffeting his clothes and pushing the smoke away as he shielded her from it. The initial sense of relief he felt seeing them instantly turned to dread when he saw the landing markers near the other wreck, they weren't here to help them.
"Hey!" He yelled, praying he was wrong as the AV landed and out came several TT units, "please help!" They ignored him and quickly ran to the limo with several tools and began to cut open the smashed in door, extracting some suit in less than a minute. "Help my mom!" He screamed, throat stinging as he cradled her in his arms.
"Client unconscious but vitals are strong, preparing for medevac," one of the medics could be heard speaking as they carried their client onto the AV.
Looking down at his mother, David felt tears of frustration pouring down his face. Of course they wouldn't help, they didn't have a policy nor could they afford their help. They would have to wait until a Meatwagon showed up and all he could do was hold her tight and hope she held on.
[Attention: Scan in progress…] he blinked as the notification appeared and turned to see one of the medics looming over him with a scanner in hand. "Please, help us," he begged the person, unable to see their face due to the helmet they wore, hoping that by some miracle that they would. The TT member didn't answer him and moved to scan Gloria before turning away, David felt a wave of anger surge through him that they were just going to abandon them like this.
"We have two more clients over here!" David felt his heart nearly stop, he couldn't believe what he heard as another armed medtech rushed over upon loading the stretcher inside the AV. "Sir, can you move?" The second medtech was next to them in a flash and had another stretcher deployed on the road next to the redhead, "Sir!"
Snapping out of it, the teen nodded with a dumbfounded expression on his face and noticed that another Trauma Team Atlus AV had landed near the other and four more med techs were rushing over. Some words were exchanged between the two units before the first team left, leaving them to be taken care of by the new arrivals.
"Client is unresponsive, scans indicate multiple internal injuries," the teen felt numb as he heard injury after injury being listed as he was being loaded onto a stretcher along with his mother and carried into the AV "Dispatch be advised, Unit-9 inbound with two clients, one Martinez-Gloria ID number: KL6827-08621 and Martinez-David ID number: KL6827-08622. ETA four minutes."
"Affirmative Dispatch, inform the policy holder," another spoke while quickly performing their tasks with the speed and efficiency of a professional.
"Policy covers painkillers kid, lucky you," the medtech onboard the AV hummed, pressing a small mask to the teens face, "once the adrenalines gone you'll be thankful." David felt an icy sensation fill his lungs as he inhaled, it was like a MaxDoc on steroids and didn't take any time at all to kick in. He already couldn't tell the Trauma Team Techs apart but now his eyes were starting to lose focus. The tech holding the mask to his face swapped places with another that looked over him while asking him a question that went ignored.
"What about… mom," David felt what little strength he had remaining fade away and realized that he'd been sedated and was now being secured to the stretcher himself ,"how is… my… mom?" That last part came out as slurred mumbles and his body felt heavy.
"You administer the standard dose?" The female tech questioned while tearing away a bloodsoaked patch of cloth sticking tightly to the teens torso. She was one of the security units but all of them were trained to help as needed and with both the chief medical officer and his second working on stabilizing the female patient, they jumped in to help the boy,
"Kids got decent coverage, he gets the good stuff off the bat. Why, is he still up?" the man questioned while putting the TT international custom MaxDoc away, it delivered a massive dose at once and for the teen to still be up was somewhat impressive.
"He's hanging on, gotta be in shock if he didn't feel this," when she peeled the fabric from his skin a deep laceration revealed itself and continued to bleed freely down to the stretcher below him, "From the scene assessment it looks like he fell on something sharp and dragged himself out of the car." She had plenty of experience as a combat medic and stabilizing this would be easy enough. "administering a dose of Hypercoagulin that should hold for now," While technically a combat stim and extremely dangerous in the wrong hands a small injection would stop the bleeding.
"Mom?" David continued in a slow groan that was barely understandable, feeling himself slowly blacking out and going limp on the stretcher he was secured to, "mama… I'm…,"
-xXx-
Watching the Gremlin driving a MaiMai Naruto laced his finger behind his head with a snort as they stood by the entrance of the megabulidings parking structure. "Heh, she could barely reach the pedals," he smirked towards Randel who'd also noticed but tried not to say anything within earshot of the trigger happy Mox. As he said that, the girl swerved around a gonk running across the street and they could see her yelling obscenities at him from the window while flipping him off.
"T-that kid scares me, B-Boss," Randel exclaimed softly, as if the girl would hear him and double back, which she probably would, "N-not to question you b-but why'd you agree to h-help her?"
Naruto got a thoughtful look on his face then shrugged, "it's like I said, I already embarrassed them and got even with them, but that's as far as I wanted it to go. It's already hard enough to make it day to day in this city." He finished with a huff before chuckling, "and now that I think about it, if I help rebuild their rep it'll probably piss the old bag off,"
Randel shook his head but could also see what he was doing, or at least what he thought Naruto was doing. Building them back up after tearing them down would go a long way towards getting the girls crew to work under him. If the rumors about the Shino, who Randel now knew was Naruto were true then that meant he already had other trained mercs he could call in so it wouldn't be too far fetched for him to want to recruit more right?
…Especially if he was thinking of expanding.
There was a saying he learned years ago, back during his Corpo days which now seemed like a lifetime ago. His direct manager was offered a 'generous' gift from the Arasaka reps they were working with only to deny it outright and when asked he sneered and said 'There's nothing more expensive than a free gift', especially when it comes from Arasaka.
The pair left the front and started walking back towards the elevator to go up to the thirteenth floor passing several tenants along the way who went about their own business.
"I guess we should have a chat too huh?" Randel looked over at him with uncertainty as the blond tapped the display to summon one of the few elevators. Seeing the look, Naruto motioned to the Screamsheet still sticking out of his pants pocket, "Choom listen, I'll be honest… I never really planned to tell anyone about it, you know?"
"O-oh," he felt that familiar spike of anxiety well up inside him, "D-don't worry Boss, I get it and I won't t-tell anyone," the man quickly reassured, nervously rubbing his arm next to him.
The blond held out his fist to the man with a small grin, "I know you won't Randel, I trust you. I just wanted to make sure things were good… between us," Naruto trailed off as he got a notification over his holo, getting his chooms attention as the elevator arrived with a loud clatter of metal and squealing hydraulics, "sorry give me a second, got a message,"
"S-sure, it's nova," the pair stepped inside and while the blonde checked the message, Randel tapped the panel to take them up to the thirteenth floor. "I just-" his own words fell short when he heard the Boss' sharp inhale just moments before a violent chill ran up his spine.
-xXx-
01010011 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110011
Policyholder ID:M-20971 ER-893-9T
This message is to inform you that Trauma Team units were dispatched as of: 11:05:24 to the following customer(s):
Client ID: KL6827-08621, Martinez, Gloria.
Client ID:KL6827-08622, Martinez, David.
As per the terms of your policy, ammunition and fuel fees have been waived but are to be reminded that the policyholder will be held responsible for any damages incurred to equipment or Trauma Team personnel during pickup and transport.
Customer(s) are en route to: Night City MedCenter for emergency medical treatment.
01010011 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110011
-xXx-
Naruto felt an overwhelming sense of dread reading and rereading the message displayed through his optics, as if it would change what he saw, "No, no, no… Randel I have to go," he told the other man in a hurry before looking at the elevator door that had just slammed closed and was starting the slow accent up to the 13th floor, "fuck!"
"W-what's going on?" He felt another chill when the blonde looked at him with a wild look in his half panicked eyes.
"Somethings happened to Gloria and David," Naruto replied in a rush, hitting the panel so it would stop on the next floor so he could get out. "Come on…" scrolling through his holo he hit Davids contact first only to sent sent straight to voicemail, hanging up before it even played the first half of the default message, "Fuck, come on please pick up," further down he selected his Mainlines contact and fidgeted as he waited for it to go through. "Please baby pick up."
[System Message: the subscriber you are trying to reach-]
"Fuck!" He had to get to the MedCenter and he had to go now! "Randel, keep an eye on things here for me, I have to get to them," thankfully the slow moving elevator finally made it to the first floor and started to open where over a dozen or so other tenants were waiting to enter.
"Y-you can count on me b-boss,"
Nodding, Naruto looked at the crowd in his way and grumbled, "fuck it," vanishing in a flicker that shocked them all and left Randel speechless.
-xXx-
Calling Night Cities Medical Center massive would be more than an understatement, situated in the South Central area of Watson in Little China the MedCenter had both its own NCART station and road built right through the massive complex allowing a non stop flow of patients ranging from simple illness to gruesome dismemberments and everything in between.
Surging through the city at breakneck speed, Naruto raced from building to building towards watsonThe streets were packed as hell this time of the day. It might've been the lunch rush but the gridlocked roads below him weren't going anywhere fast… or at all. "Hmm?"something up ahead caught his eye and got him to pause for a split second, flickering back into view to peer down from the top a connecting bridge between two towering buildings.
The cause of the traffic jam turned out to be what looked like a wreck down on one of the many winding overpasses that snaked through the buildings around here. Downtown was so densely packed compared to Santo Domingo, that was one of the reasons he chose to live where he did.
Emergency services had the road blocked off and we're in the process of putting out a burning car, spraying a chemical foam all over it to snuff out the flames. They had already put one half burnt wreck out, from what he could see it looked like a pretty expensive ride. It had a few suits examining it that he assumed to be with Arasaka, at least he assumed they were due to the marked SUVs parked nearby, probably covering the company's ass if the guy in that car was a corpo-
"Wait is that…" the blonde was just about to continue on but before he could flicker away something caught his eye. The chemical foam quickly started running down the sides of a small brown Galina hatchback that turned his blood cold. It had to be Glorias. Whether or not it was hers, Naruto couldn't be certain but the sight only made him that much more anxious to get to the MedCenter.
-xXx-
His arrival was a blur but he knew that he raised a stir when he nearly caused a wreck sprinting across the road towards the entrance. A Thornton Mackinaw locked its breaks when he landed in the middle of the road but didn't pay it or the guy screaming slurs at him any mind after flipping him off and rushing inside to the reception area. It took several minutes for the front desk to locate them but he was soon directed to a room several floors up and met by one of the many MedTechs affiliated with Trauma Team who sat him down on a cheap metal and plastic chair to explain what was going on.
Despite being less than five feet away from him the more he listened the further the medtechs voice seemed to be from him as they went over the injuries. David would be hurting for a while but the worst of it was a deep laceration to his side that had already been stitched up but the bumps and bruises would heal quickly enough given some time. Gloria however hadn't been wearing her seatbelt and was thrown from the car when it rolled, had it not been for Trauma Team…
*Crack*
"Uhh…" The medtech trailed off, shuffling nervously and taking a cautious step back when the plastic armrest broke in his grip.
Naruto snapped out of his fog and looked down at the chair to his left, the plastic cracked and pale where it bent and buckled under the pressure, "I'm sorry about that," he grumbled, slowly removing his hands from the seat and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
"It's… it's ok," the man replied cautiously shifting his weight from one leg to the other, "I'll ah… I'll have to add that to the bill,"
"Yeah I'm sure," Naruto interrupted with a huff, rolling his bloodshot eyes and glancing up to the tech who stiffened under his gaze. He wouldn't be surprised if they tried to charge him for simply walking into the place but at the moment he didn't care, "Where is she?"
The tech was glad that his face was mostly covered, he couldn't explain it but when this guy looked him in the eyes all sense of warmth left his body and his heart felt like it sank down to his shoes, "Ahh…" he cleared his throat to cover the stutter and went back to his dataslate, swiping through it quickly, "Ms. Martinez is currently in surgery, I don't have any updates so far on her condition but Mr. Martinez was just cleared and placed in a room for observation while he's sedated. I can take you to him if you'd like."
-xXx-
Naruto wasn't quite sure what he was feeling at the moment, finding himself sitting on the edge of what had to be the most uncomfortable excuse for a chair he'd ever had the displeasure of using. It felt like he'd only just gotten here when in fact he'd been here with his head in his hands for a couple of hours just staring at the floor tile between his feet. The room was mostly silent aside from the soft hum of the machines nearby, but he didn't pay them any mind. He just sat there feeling like absolute shit and not from the hangover like he expected to be or even the three measly hours of sleep he had gotten hours earlier. Hell he would give anything for it to be just a hangover and not… this.
He shifted around in that uncomfortable chair, his legs starting to get that tingling sensation as they nearly fell asleep and leaned back to look around the room again for what had to be the hundredth time. But as always, his eyes quickly drifted to the other occupant in the room.
David.
There had been a nasty gash across the side of his head, it had just been sutured shut and several bandages were wrapped around his head to protect him when he arrived. The rest of his face was also littered with small cuts and plastic closures that kept the worse ones closed. The MedTech that led him in assured him that it looked a lot worse than it was, having seen the look on the blond's face.
The screen next to his bed showed countless lines of data and readouts, many of which he wasn't exactly sure what they meant but from what the Medtechs told him the teen would be fine after some rest. According to them, the Trauma Team techs gave him a dose of their proprietary painkiller/sedative on the way here and hooking the teen up to the biomonitor was just standard practice.
This was a nightmare, probably one of his greatest fears even. Ever since falling head over heels for the redhead there was this little nagging thought in the back of his head that kept him up at night wondering 'what if'. Night City was dangerous, so much so that some places could be considered active warzones at times and Gloria had already been hurt on the job before. Those scars just below her hip reminded him of that fact every single time he saw them and he learned a long time ago that he couldn't always be there.
He couldn't protect them all the time… well he probably could… it would be easy to have clones keep the mother and son under constant surveillance. He might not be a master tracker but he could easily follow Gloria or David unseen across the entirety of NC without anyone being none the wiser. Kinda like how gramps always had ANBU following him around the village but the thought of doing that felt like crossing a line he shouldn't. After all, granny Tsunade hated being followed by the ANBU guards after she officially took the title of Godaime Hokage.
But a few weeks back, while he was 'watching' a movie with Gloria, one of the dozen or so commercials he saw gave him the idea to get them a Trauma Team policy. It was expensive and one of the main reasons why he was broke for a while but knowing that he had a backup to keep them safe eased his worries.
"Ugh,"
Naruto's eyes snapped from the screens over to the teen himself when he started groaning. It wasn't the first time David had made a noise in his sleep but when his head slowly began to lull from side to side he couldn't help but stand and make his way over, "David?" Unlike before, the teen didn't settle back down to sleep and continued slowly coming to, eyes struggling to stay open.
"Mo… mom?" David felt like his body weighed several times heavier than normal and his thoughts were muddled. The biomonitor connected to him showed a slight jump in his heart rate when his eyes began to focus, not recognizing where he was but remembering what happened, "Mama? Mom!?" The surge of panic caused a spike in his vitals and just as he was about to try and get up he saw Naruto step up next to him and ease him back down, "Naruto?"
"Easy David, easy.." The blond spoke up while pushing him back down softly, hand on his shoulder, "Don't try to get up yet," it wasn't like David could really refuse in his current state so he did as the Merc told him, laying back down while Naruto pressed a couple buttons on the bedside rail, which slowly raised him up into a reclined position.
"Naruto! The wreck… mom was… she wasn't- she wouldn't-"
"David listen to me," he told him calmly, seeing the dazed look fade and panic bubbling below the surface of the boy's eyes, "She's gonna be ok." Another surge flashed through the teens eyes and he had to place a hand on the teens chest when he tried to sit up, "David stop, you can't feel it but you're injured. Gloria will be ok, I promise." It took a bit but David finally listened and slumped down while Naruto looked him over.
"Where is she?"
"Surgery," the screen flashed with his heart rate spiking at the news, "she'll be ok David," he said calmingly while hiding his own anxiety from the teen. Trauma Team had more than earned the exorbitant amount of eddies they charged as far as he was concerned, the med tech in charge had made an offhand comment that had they been any later her chances would've plummeted, "David look at me," The teen hesitated then slowly turned to face him, both dazed and ashamed to look at him.
"I'm so glad your ok,"
"Even after what happened?" The teen sounded a lot smaller as he said that and looked down at the tiny red cuts covering his arms and hands from crawling through the broken glass.
The blond gave a little snort at the teen's question, "You'd have to do a lot worse than call me names to make me stop caring about you," he mused while nudging the teen lightly in the arm, careful not to hurt him.
"I did, remember?" He grumbled softly, "Punched you in the face and tried to kick your ass," the teen pointed out, looking away and not wanting to meet his eyes.
"So what, still doesn't change a thing," he huffed while shaking his head before crossing his arms "besides I think you had a good reason to wanna kick my ass," besides it wasn't David attacking him that hurt, it was what he said that cut deep and pissed him off. But considering how the majority of gonks in NC were, David thinking that he was using him didn't seem too far-fetched the more he thought about it… and he'd thought about it a lot recently, "but I'll tell you what, if it makes you feel any better then the next time we spar I'll bounce you off the mat like a basketball, ok?" That got a small snort out of the teen while the blonde grabbed the chair he'd been sitting in and pulled to the teens bedside.
David watched him walk away but turned away to look down at the rough hospital blanket when the man turned back. His fingers found the edge of the blanket and picked at the seam anxiously when he suddenly hung his head, deflating in on himself, "Naruto… I'm sorry, for everything,"
Naruto glanced over to the teen as he sat down and shook his head lightly, David looked so beaten down and small compared to how he was just two days ago, and that wasnt counting the physical damage from the accident. "Its ok David, I don't hold it against you," He told him with an easy grin before they fell into a awkward silence, just sitting there listening to the teen's biomonitor beep softly before Naruto sighed and moved uncomfortably in his chair, "and I'm sorry too, for keeping you in the dark like that… but I promise you, I didn't use you just to get with her."
David winced turned his head away, "I know,"
The moment the words left his mouth, Naruto winced too. David was already feeling like shit and saying that felt like he'd just kicked the teen when he was already down. But he had to admit, the teens accusation had stuck with him in the back of his mind the entire time, "Wait I think that came out wrong,"
"No I get it," David interrupted him before he could continue, remembering the pained look the blond had when he yelled that gonk shit in his face, "I really did some mental gymnastics huh? Ugh I keep fuckin up, first with that now with 'Saka academy,"
His eyes widened at David mentioning the academy, making Naruto realize that he had almost forgotten about David getting in trouble today. Leaning forward, he nudged the teen again to get his attention, "What happened with the school?"
"Well…" David reluctantly told him the deets, how Arasaka would periodically update their software and charge them licensing fees for the 'privilege' of using it. Probably their way of squeezing them for every last ennie, the greedy pricks. Of course, the teen kept some things to himself, he didn't mention getting the soft from Doc, not wanting Naruto to know about the Ripperdoc, just that he ended up with a borged drive. During his retelling, he once again started picking at the blanket not wanting to see the disappointed look from Naruto when he mentioned how much it would cost.
"Five thousand eddies? That's just plain robbery!" the blonde sputtered with wide eyes, "Wait a minute, what about the money I gave your mother for it? Why didn't you use that?" he clearly remembered Gloria asking him if he could lend her the eddies earlier this morning and naturally he agreed. When the teen murmured the reason under his breath Naruto crossed his arms and instantly knew what happened, "I see… well I can't say I agree with what you did but… I get why you did it."
So if he understood correctly; David tried to save some money by getting a back alley workaround for his class wreath and ended up damaging some systems. Now instead of five hundred the school was demanding five thousand for repairs. Naruto wouldn't dare say it out loud, especially with David right there but that five thousand was the least of the costs right now, the hospital bill was gonna be a pain in the ass… and the car too now that he thought about it. But in the end, so long as they're ok, that was all that mattered.
"I'll pay back the money," David promised softly, glancing over and seeing what he assumed to be anger and annoyance on, clenching his fist in his lap before groaning, "all of it… somehow. I'll get a job to help pay it back."
"You just worry about keeping those stitches of yours safe, they said it looked like you were stabbed." Naruto's words made the teen think back, he must've been in shock or something at the time, he didn't remember anything stabbing him. Glancing down, he eased the paper thin hospital shirt he wore up and got a good look at the damage.
"Well at least I'll have a badass scar," he muttered just loud enough for the blonde to snort at, "I think Vik said something about chicks liking them… blows that I had to get shot at and nearly die to get it though."
Naruto released the breath he'd been holding, he'd been holding back from telling him 'Yeah, your mom sure does,' but hearing what he said felt like someone poured ice on him, "Wait, Trauma Team didn't mention someone shooting at you," they'd only reported picking them up and seeing the wrecked cars from a distance he assumed a wreck happened and you'd be surprised how many end in flames. He didn't remember seeing bullet holes either, but then again, it was upside down and partially covered in foam.
"Ah, we were on the way home and next thing I know some jacked assholes pulled up next to us and everything went insane."
"David, tell me everything,"
Naruto regretted asking David to go over what he remembered, especially when the teen asked "You're gonna go after em right?" with an angry scowl across his face, angry not at him but the ones who caused all of this. "I remember their wheels, they drove this ugly ass pink van. It looked like some gonk decided to cheap out with house paint and a brush."
'Well it's something unique to look out for,' he thought to himself while David continued. It still wasn't a lot to go on though.
"They were huge, like Bess. Animals maybe? They were shooting at a black car, hitting it with some kinda missile, it was like some kinda game or vid… it flipped and we ended up hitting it… can't really remember anything after that… Sorry,"
"Don't worry about it David, that's more than enough to go on." Since David already figured out what he was thinking, Naruto didn't see the point in trying to hide it, a choice he may regret later but these last couple of days had him worn thin.
"You are going after them right?" David stressed the question and Naruto didn't know if he liked the look David got on his face. It was too familiar, too angry, too close to his own.
But Naruto wouldn't lie to the teen and slowly nodded, "Yeah, I am." He would find them, one way or another he would hunt them down like the wild animals they claimed to be. Their fate rested in the hands of the Doctors performing surgery on his love,
"Good,"
The door to the room suddenly opened with a mechanical hum, David's head shot over to the door while Naruto tensed and did the same, not expecting a visitor.
"Hey there!" A surprisingly cheerful voice came from the open door where a young nurse strolled in with a dataslate under one arm, "I thought you might be up by now, how're we feeling today Mr. Martinez, I'm Alexia." Naruto looked her over and slowly relaxed, she was pale with several lines of EMP threading tracing her jawline and had dark blonde hair that stuck about against her pale skin. David gave her an awkward 'hey' and 'ok I guess,' in response. "I hope I'm not interrupting, just gotta give you your last jab and you should be good to go in a few hours."
Behind her she pulled a small metal cart with multiple drawers into the recovery room, "let me just grab that airhypo real quick," Alexia continued with a airy voices as she stepped around and leaned over to open the drawer, "This should help speed up the healing process, it might feel a little itchy but that'll pass,"
David, ever the seventeen year old, instantly found his eyes glued to the woman's rear hidden behind the thin material of her scrubs "What is it?" Naruto's voice right next to him snapped the teen out of it only got his face to heat up when he noticed the blonds smirking at him.
"It's a stim similar but much stronger compared to commercially available SpeedHeal. It works by stimulating the body's natural healing processes, promoting new cell growth." She answered happily as she found it and held the airhypo up, "it's pretty preem."
-xX,x-
Jackie groaned as he slowly returned to the waking world and slowly raised his head up from his pillow only to bury his face back with a pained grunt, "Dios mio," he rasped softly, the sound of his voice feeling like nails piercing deep into his skull, "the hell did I do yesterday?" his mouth tasted like an ashtray and there was a good chance that he was about to hurl but for some reason the right side of his head hurt like a son of a bitch.
*Buzz*
"Ugh, sorry choom, I'll call you back later. Need a minute," he apologized to the unknown caller, he'd disconnected it from his optics not too long ago and dropped it to the floor. Several spam calls had woken him up earlier and felt like sticking broken glass behind his eyes. But after a few more seconds, the buzzing stopped and Jackie continued to wallow face first into his pillow.
*Beep*
And now he had a message…
"Alright alright, I'll look. Just give me a break," he groaned, blindly groping around the floor, "oh come on ya pequeña bastarda," not finding it he grunted and rolled around to peer over the edge with blurry eyes, "Ah! Come 'ere ya little-." That previous wave of nausea returned with a vengeance
The screen lit up and he saw his choombas name on the missed call followed by three texts "damn Holmes, how're you up this early?" Jackie muttered, remembering pieces and parts of the night before. Neither Naruto nor himself could be called responsible drinkers last night from what he could readily recall, one beer turned into three, which turned into shots which later turned into mixed drinks and damn if Pepe couldn't make 'em smooth.
'Probably checking to see if I'm still kicking,' he joked to himself while opening the message, 'definitely need to tone it down next-'
[Naruto: Jackie I know your head's about to explode but I need a favor. That choom of yours, the one that works for Arasaka? You think she could look into something for me? I'll stop by later on and give you the deets.]
'V? Wonder what Naruto wants from her?'
[Naruto: TT are taking David and Gloria to the MedCenter. I think they were in an accident. I'm headed there now.]
"Santa mierda" he groaned under his breath, hating that for his boy. David already had enough going on and now both him and his mom were in the hospital? "Talk about some rotten luck," and while he hadn't met Gloria yet, he knew Naruto was head over heels for the woman and loved her son like his own.
[Naruto: It wasn't a wreck. David told me what he remembers, they got caught between some Animals and their target.]
"Oh fuck," as shitty as he felt, Jackie quickly pushed him up and reread the text again, running his hand across his face to wipe the crud from his eyes. He needed to get up and get his ass to the MedCenter and give his hermano some support, after all Naruto would do the same for him. But that wasn't all, he felt like he knew the blond well enough to read in-between the lines and just knew that his boy would go after the ones that did it. And whether or not Naruto liked it, he wanted in. Any gonkfuck that wants to hurt his hermanos boy then they gotta face his Tío Jaquito too… that and he wanted to keep an eye on his orange wearing choom… for his own sake. But first he needed to change into something that didn't smell like bad decisions and tequila, it was a good thing that he did his laundry the other day.
Standing up, Jackie turned to one of the wall lockers he kept his clothes only for the world to continue spinning, "Ugh, son of a-" he never got to finish and sank down to one knee, vomiting all over his floor.
-xXx-
Rolling her shoulder slowly, V suppressed a yawn while waiting for the elevator to reach her department. 'Managed a whole four hours of sleep, new record,' she thought with a snort, wincing when her neck ached, 'First night I could go home to sleep in my own bed and I sleep wrong, smooth V,' if she thought things were hectic before the redhead had no idea what was coming after Director Bennett was thrown out of his penthouse window and an internal investigation was carried out.
Hanako Arasaka was often described as sweet and beautiful in the eyes of many Arasaka employees… although most were probably just trying to kiss up to the Arasaka name. But to her department? She was anything but sweet. The Arasaka princess didn't go easy with her investigation, how Jenkins managed to come out not only smelling like daisies but with a promotion, V would never know. Two senior team leads shot themselves in the bathroom when their files were just flagged for review, much less poured over with a fine tooth comb like his was. She herself got written up for a few 'negligible infractions' which got her pay docked but kept her mouth shut like Jenkins said. Not that she had much of a choice.
Three analysts, five senior admins, twelve agents and one secretary all found themselves 'reassigned' for various backdoor dealings, using corp assets to settle scores or profit. If they weren't dead by now, V had no doubt that they wished they were. Once you're terminated like that, you lose everything, cred, pad, car, chrome, all gone with you left standing in the street with nothing to your name.
V couldn't hold back anymore and finally let out a yawn, "ugh I need more sleep… at least I got a little pick me up." She grumbled to herself while digging into her pockets, pulling out her cognitive booster and bringing it to her lips with a smirk. This little stim was a lifesaver and was the only reason she kept up with her workload till now, her body might be worn down but at least this helped keep her mind sharp.
The sleek steel doors in front of her opened smoothly and V quickly pocketed the stim before walking out into the hectic department to see someone waiting for her, 'Ugh… this dick,' for a moment she nearly voiced her thoughts but managed to bit her tongue and nodded to her coworker with a simple greeting, "Richard,"
"Hey V!" She couldn't help but find that fake smile irritating. Ever since Jenkins solidified his power here after the Internal Investigation it didn't take long for people to start calling her Jenkin's Girl behind her back while smiling to her face. This asshat was one of those gonks. "About those files I requested, is it alright if I just stop by and get a copy from you?"
"Sorry no can do, you know the procedure, gotta send the request up the chain." There was no way in Corpo Hell that she let him copy any kind of files from her, if something happened and those files went missing it would look like she did it and this asshole would no doubt hang her out to dry.
Richard could only huff and head off towards his own workstation to submit the proper paperwork and leaving her to head to her tiny cubicle office to get back to business, where she found another coworker waiting outside, "Hey Carter," Carter wasn't so bad, he was a decent computer specialist and didn't really stand out too much in the office… well except for how terrified he was of their boss but that only proved that he wasn't a complete gonk.
"Hey V," the man was preoccupied trying to straighten his tie, a light blue pinstriped monstrosity that she couldn't believe he continued to wear into the office, he continued before looking at himself in the mirror. "I heard you got called back in, rough."
V could only shrug, "yeah but with that mess in Corpo plaza I'm surprised that I stayed home as long as I could. But hey, we both know how it goes." she mused as her door slid open with her desk lit up with various notifications popping up over her optics. Idley, she cleared the alerts and noticed that Carter was standing just outside her door and asked, "Something on your mind?"
"I'm not sure but I think I might've pissed Jenkins off, he said I was being reassigned and should report to you." The man spoke quietly and for a second, V saw a hint of panic flash behind Carter's eyes and knew that he was expecting the worst and waiting for her to rip the bandaid off.
But… she had no clue what he was talking about. If she was supposed to say or do something to him then she must've missed one hell of a memo and told Carter as much, which didn't help his nerves, "I'll go talk to Jenkins, get the deets and see what's going on." she told him evenly which got the man to relax a little under his calm facade.
-x-
"Please enter the anti-chamber"
V walked past the doors before they finished sliding open and stopped several feet from the next doors as a pair of sensors deployed from Jenkins' security system. Several Junior personnel glanced at her through the thick security glass doors as she was scanned but the woman didn't pay them any mind, she was more interested in finding out what she was supposed to do with Carter.
"Visitor authorization acknowledged."
The redhead stepped towards his desk, idley glancing around his spacious office which he somehow kept both dark and bright at the same time. A section of floor leading directly to his desk was bright yet most of the corners and sides were cast in shadow to the point that you wouldn't know he had other furniture there. A subtle intimidation tactic the man used rather effectively as the now official head of the Night City branch of Arasaka's CounterIntelligence Division. The man himself sat behind his desk, tapping away at one of several dataslates while speaking openly on his holo as she walked near.
"Right on time V, I'll be with you in a moment,"
At a glance you wouldn't think that the man was as terrifying as others thought but V knew for a fact that the man could do even worse. She was his 'favorite' after all and was assigned some… pretty fucked tasks in the past. Thankfully she was able to get chipped with all the necessary chrome that helped regulate her anxiety and stress levels, it was probably the only reason she hadn't cracked just yet.
Many of her coworkers envied her position as Jenkins 'favorite'. If only the dumbass gonk fucks knew why she was his favorite, it was because she owed him. If it wasn't for Jenkins then her life would've taken a much darker turn years ago thanks to some past… altercations.
"Yes, go pay his mother a visit, explain to her what her son is doing and make it abundantly clear to him that you have no issue with paying similar visits to his sister and her children." The man continued flatly as if speaking about the weather and not ordering someone to zero some gonks family. "You know what to do," with that he ended the call and looked up to where V was standing next to the line chair in front of his desk.
"Alright V," Jenkins' voice brought her out of her thoughts and the redhead remained still as he continued and motioned to the chair next to her, "Take a seat, I already have an idea why you're here."
"Yeah, Carter Smith came by. Said he was reassigned and had to report to me,"
"He was," the man confirmed simply while moving to another dataslate and after a quick once over, slid it towards here, "Congratulations V, you've been promoted." The woman blinked and took a second to process before taking the slate, it was basically her new job description and several other documents on what would be expected of her, "I told you a while back that I take care of my people, unlike that bitch Abernathy."
"A promotion? Huh… sweet" She moved a fridge of hair that fell in front of her face as she read the slate, more accurately her raise and 'benefits'. 'I'm eligible to apply for combat chrome now!' she thought while ignoring the miniscule increase in vacation time which amounted to an extra lunch break.
"Smith was assigned to you as a direct subordinate, as a capable computer specialist he should prove useful in your work and believe me, we have a lot to do. Speaking of… here's your new assignment." The slate she was reading flashed and another file opened, downsizing her benefits page and bringing up the picture for…
"Arasaka Academy?"
-xXx-
'Animals in a ugly pink van.. hmm, I think Pepe told me a joke that started like that,' Naruto mused to himself while looking out the small window in the corner of David's room, it looked out onto a large flat rooftop to the adjacent building. He just could peek out and see some of the city below from the large column placed smack in the way. 'Animals operate all over Night City, they're not like the other gangs since they like roaming around. I'm gonna need some help.'
He was already planning on sending out some clones to search but the sheer size and scope of Night City made finding a needle in a haystack look like, what did Jackie call it a 'milk run'? 'The Padre will help, I'm sure. Regina too, I don't mind working a gig or two for her in return.' Naruto hun ed, mentally going down his list of contacts, 'Rogue? Hmm, maybe as a last resort. Wakako? Ugh… damn it, her connection with the Tygerclaws would be useful. They're a bunch of bastards but they're plugged in everywhere.' thinking about it a little harder, his eyes narrowed, 'Screw it, I'll call Morton and Gustavo too, someones gotta see something,' but first he'd call Regina. Maybe she could if a traffic cam caught something too.
Behind him, David snored lightly with his head cocked to the side and his arms crossed. Naruto took extra care to move around the room silently so as not to wake him, wanting to let him sleep as much as he could, 'I need some air,' glancing back he made sure the door was shut and looked down at the bottom section of the window that had a latch. 'Hope this won't set off an alarm or something,' thankfully it didn't or at least it didn't look like it and the ninja was able to slip through the gap with ease, landing next to a pile of several dozen weathered cigarette butts below.
The rooftop was a maze of ductwork, access panels and points, cable boxes and satellite dishes and from the state of some, Naruto really doubted that some of them worked. "There's even trash dumped up here too?" He couldn't help but mutter as he spotted several thick blue and red bags piled up near a doorway leading into an adjacent part of the building. Of course there would be, but he had more pressing matters to deal with now and found himself a spot sitting on the edge of the rooftop with his feet dangling over the ledge to make some calls.
"Hey Regina, it's been a while. Look, I need a favor…"
-xXx-
Alexia stepped into a barely used maintenance closet after looking around and finding herself relatively alone. Among the long forgotten cases of chems and musty smelling sacks of discarded hospital gowns the woman reached up and pulled her faceplate off, leaving her cybernetic throat and internals exposed as she swapped it for another.
"Procyon here, I've made visual contact," her voice changed mid sentence, the tone and pitch distortion as she changed to another preset configuration with a thought. At the same time her optics lit up, overlaying several screens around her field of view with the main feed loading in to show her handlers blank NET icon.
"Collinson here, got us some good news 'Alexia'?"
"Grabbed a scan on both of them, gonks just couldn't help checking out my ass." she reported while the EMP threading lining her jaw glowed as she inserted another faceplate in its place, "Sending images now,"
The first was of the teen staring dumbly almost directly at camera while next to him the blonde man was glancing over, neither even noticed the hidden camera she had hidden on her cart. She couldn't run a deeper scan without the risk of being detected so these had to do for now.
"Tch poor kid," the handler snickered over the com as she stripped out of the hospital scrubs and her underwear all in one go. "You'd think he's never seen a fat ass before,"
She ignored the comment from her handler "I thought he was kinda cute," her new plate completely changed the structure of her face, making it sharper and didn't match her pale skin, "nearly played with him a little," a quick command through her neural link had her skin slowly change to a healthy tan to match her face.
"Kid's a minor 'Alexia'... I know you're stationed in NC but don't go native on me just yet. Besides the kid's not the POI"
"Uzumaki Naruto," she tested the name with her new voice, this one was a bit deeper and a lot less chipper, "he looks like a gonk,"
"Well that 'gonk' is suspected to have a platoon sized bunch of cyberpunks behind him and you saw the footage from Corpo Plaza, they're not afraid to go head to head against MaxTac."
"It's a good cover I guess… no one would suspect the Shino to dress like that willingly." Cyberninja and the color orange did not mix in her mind as far as she was concerned. With that, Procylon padded over to the corner where she hid her bag behind several water damaged boxes and found it right where she left it, "anyway I need to get dressed, my tits are getting cold." the scrubs she stole would be trashed later on, leaving no trace of her presence. "You think the bigwigs are gonna try recruiting him?"
"Unknown so far. But I wouldn't bet against it. He went head to head with that borged lieutenant and wiped the floor with him, I hear there's even a XBD out there of it. Just from the vids on the NET, I can see why the bitch upstairs would want him on the payroll." He sent a screen grab of the Shino pointing at the descending MaxTac aerodyne followed by another of three blurs landing on the top of it. "NCPDs pissed, made their officers look like a bunch of rank amateurs."
"There's an XBD of it?" She looked particularly excited by that, slipping on her new outfit quickly, "Hmm… might have to check it out Jonas," in less than two minutes she had a simple pair of jeans and a T-shirt on, looking more like a soccer mom and nowhere near what she did before, "gonna get moving before someone spots me here, todays supposed to be my day off."
"Sorry choom, but you're one of the only agents we have left in NC. I'd prefer if we could get a tracker on him but the kid will have to do for now. I'll monitor things remotely for now and zip you the deets when I know something."
"Hmm, no I'm not leaving just yet. I just thought about it but I'm gonna loop around and see what I can find on the woman, there might be an angle of approach there too."
"Just be careful Procyon, I wouldn't be surprised if he's got support inside as well and we have no idea exactly how dangerous they can be."
-xXx-
Somewhere in the suburbs of Santo Domingo, deep into Sixth Street gangoon turf, in one of the larger and more fortified blocks, Rick Morton was woken up from his sleep by his hollow ringing incessantly in his ear, "Who the hell's calling?" He snapped while connecting to his holo, not many gonks would get up with him directly so it had to be something good, "better have a good damn reason to wake my ass up-"
[Hello General, it's been a while] the head honcho of Sixth Street visibly grimaced the moment the vidfeed connected and grumbled into the air above him when a familiar blond Merc popped into view. [Yeah, I missed you too. Nice beard by the way] Naruto greeted with a wave seeing the gangers wild unkempt beard that jutted out in different directions
"Ah hell, you callin me ain't never good," Morton huffed while rubbing his own face and straightening out his beard as much as he could. "look if one of my gonks did something fuckin stupid just zero em, I ain't got shit to do with it."
[Relax, I don't have any problems with you choom. I'm actually calling to ask for a small favor]
"a favor?"
[Yeah… well it's kind of a big favor, but I'll make it worth the effort.] He persuaded the other which got a raised eyebrow in return, wanting to hear the offer. [I heard you're having some trouble moving your 'shipments' across the border these days.] It wasn't too long ago that he was at the border checkpoint overseeing security for the Militech convoy and found a group of guards just casually talking about screwing over some Sixers they knew were smuggling.
"So what, you and your boys move contraband now?"
[No but some good chooms of mine do and they know the badlands like the back of their hand]
"You talking Nomads?"
Naruto saw the look on his face when he said Nomad and raised an eyebrow of his own, [You got a problem with Nomads?]
He snorted, "Dealing with thems just asking for my product to go missing, kid," Morton felt movement next to him and felt a slender arm slowly drape itself across his chest only for him to brush it off, "Tried working with em before, they flatlined my crew and deltaed with my shit." that was a rough time for him having freshly taken over as General and getting shit on like that.
[Not all Nomads are the same Mort, I nearly joined up with them myself a while back] thinking about it he was glad he stuck around, he never would've met Gloria had he left.
Naruto hadn't forgotten the talk he had with Saul during his brief stay with the Aldecaldos, he was originally waiting for the Nomad clan to return before approaching the other gangs on their behalf. But maybe he could use this opportunity to get the general to help him in return for something he already planned on doing.
"So I'd have your guarantee"
[I'll guarantee that they're good people, if you don't try to screw them they won't try and screw you]
That did sound like a decent deal but it made him wonder what the hell he wanted in return. "So whaddya want in return? It had to be something big to bring a connection like this to the table, facilitating deals like this wasn't easy in the first place so he had to have something the kid really wanted.
[I'm sending a few pictures, I want you to have your boys in Santo on the lookout for this van and its driver.]
Morton blinked as the attachments loaded and found himself looking at what had to be the most hideous Peptopink van he'd ever laid eyes on. It was parked at a stoplight and a heavily muscled black man was leaning out the window giving a one finger salute to a cop on foot patrol, "Ya really want us to look all over Santo for some Animal ganggonk and his ride? So what'd he do… aside from driving that monstrosity."
Naruto looked away from the feed for a moment before telling him, [They put two people I care about in the hospital, my girl and her son]
If there was ever something that Morton didn't want to hear it was that. He still remembered those first sleepless nights when the kid first snapped and started his campaign to flatline Gunner and his boys. "Ah fucking hell," he grunted, sitting up at the news. Personally he was relieved that it wasn't one of his that did it but he could already see what was coming for the Animals involved. "I'll make some calls, when can you set up a meeting with your Nomads?"
[I'll set it up when they return to Night City.]
So they weren't even near the city right now, that caused the general some concern but from what little he's dealt with the kid in the past he knew the psycho was reliable. Rico always swore that the kid always upheld his end of things and Morton still trusted his former lieutenant with his life. "Alright, I'll hold you to it."
Naruto nodded in thanks, [Thanks man, I really appreciate it]
"Oh hey kid, my boys have Santo locked down but I can't help you in other districts, I ain't looking to start shit with the Tinos and Claws over turf." He warned, wanting to make that clear to the solo.
[That's fine, just stick to your areas and I'll worry about the other districts. Later General,]
-xXx-
Regina Jones, Sebastian Ibarra, Wakako Okada, Gustavo Orta, and General Rick Morton, with only five calls Naruto set off a manhunt larger than anything the NCPD was capable of. It would cost a few good favors but to him it was more than worth it as he could focus on the people he loved. David would be discharged pretty soon and he still hasn't heard any updates on Gloria yet so all he could do was wait and stew in his own thoughts.
-xXx-
-Death-
Death is the card of becoming. It signifies an imminent and difficult transition – the conclusion of one phase of life and the beginning of another. Inevitably, something gets lost during the transformation, but something else will rise and take its place.
-TAROT CARD JOURNAL
-xXx-
To be continued…
-xXx-
Hey everyone, sorry about the wait but with holidays and work I haven't been able to read and concentrate on writing like I want but I promise I'm not planning to abandon this. I try to write at least a little every night but I ended up having to cut this down a little since so much was going on in the story.
I don't know if this chapter holds up to my previous ones but I really hope you enjoyed the trip so far.
I also have two small additions to the 'spin-off' from the previous chapter. Just a little something I typed out for the fun of it and hope you like!
And as always,
I love you guys!
-xXx-
David stared intently at the row of items that his father had placed down in front of him on the floor. The first was a small frog plush that Naruto had found during one of his trips through Cherry Blossom Market, much to Wakakos displeasure. He was tracking down one of the gonks that stirred up a bunch of trouble and brought it to his 'turf'. Things were tense between Sixth Street and the Tygerclaws but he couldn't let them go after they ended up hurting some of his people. Naruto just so happened to stubble on it while waiting for his target to show up and had to buy it.
The vendor selling them claimed they were made to look like a poison dart frog but to him it looked just like a plush Gamakichi, it just needed the blue shirt and a smartass mouth and it would be perfect. He'd gotten so wrapped up that he bought it without thinking and ended up chasing after down the gonk he was after with the plush under one arm.
The next was a fat five-k roll of eddies fresh from the streets that Gloria would probably kill him over if she knew he brought it into the house. She didn't want to expose David to the street life so soon, she wanted him to go to school and live a good life. He wanted that too, but more than that, Naruto wanted his son to live a happy life.
Last but not least was a simple black pen. That was it, there wasn't really a story to this one. Though if he had to guess it was probably one of the many he stuck in his pocket and brought home from the 'office' after he handled his work.
"Alright Davy, lets see what your future holds hmm?" Naruto grinned from his own place on the floor behind the three items. The idea behind this was to see what your child would value most as they grew older, one of his Lieutenants had mentioned it to him and he couldn't help but be intrigued, "no pressure or anything, just choose whatever you want. Cause daddy will love you no matter what!"
The pen stood for knowledge, his boy was already sharp as a knife so the blond could see David going on to get a great education in whatever he wanted. Hell he'd support it no matter what he wanted to learn. The eddies obviously represented wealth. Would David value cold hard cash over everything else? I mean he was being raised in Night City so there was a chance. Lastly was the plush toy Gamakichi, happiness. He wanted nothing more than for his son to lead a happy life, David was one of the most-
He snapped out of his thoughts and watched as David went on the move, crawling towards his three choices, 'the eddies huh?' his thoughts were a bit subdued seeing his son making a beeline directly towards the money between them. 'Well it's not like this is a real way to see what the future will hold' he continued to tell himself only for David to scoot over the cash and scurry into his lap with a childish babble.
His throat tightened and before he knew it, Naruto had tears in his eyes as he held the boy in his lap as he looked up at him with his innocent blue eyes. "I didn't know I was a choice," he mused looking down into his son's eyes.
According to the little test, it looked like what David would value most in his life would be his father.
-xXx-
Looking at the adorable face of his son as they both sat on the floor, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself at his own foolishness, "sorry kiddo, I'm sure all of that went right over your head… heh, it took a while for me to get it too." David giggled happily and toddled over to him, falling into his father's arms when he lost balance. Words couldn't express the feeling he got looking into his son's bright blue eyes and pulling him into his lap, "Wow look at you, four whole steps… you're mastering how to walk and here I am telling you about advanced chakra control. I guess we can see who's got their priorities in order huh?" He tickled the toddlers sides which sent the boy into a fit of giggles while trying to defend himself from his father tickle attack,
"But don't you worry Davy, you'll be running up and down the walls in no time… actually lets wait on that for a while," his tone changed as he imagined it, little David scooting along the walls on his hands and knees while Gloria freaked out, "yeah let's hold off on that for a few years ok? Mommy might flatline me,"
David had absolutely no clue about anything Naruto was saying but it was the sound of his fathers voice so he listened while squirming in his arms. "Guess I'm just excited, I don't really have anyone to talk to about my training. I mean I'm the only person who can use it…" Naruto's face broke out into a prideful grin, "don't get me wrong kiddo, daddy will always love you no matter what but I'm so excited to teach you about chakra now!" It was official, David would be able to manipulate his chakra in the future so he could pass it down to his son! Falling back, he held the boy at arms length and made a little motor noise that got him laughing as his dad held him up in the air above him.
The thought that David would be able to harness chakra filled him with both giddy anticipation and anxious dread. He hadn't exactly gotten around to revealing it to anyone else for obvious reasons but during his meditation Naruto noticed that David had a growing pool of chakra of his own. It was tiny in comparison to his own, like comparing glowing embers to a raging wildfire but it was more than any other person in Night City.
His fun was interrupted though when David began to yawn, "Looks like it's about your nap time huh?" Sitting up again, he watched his child rub his eyes with his tiny fists and kissed his forehead, "do you wanna nap in your own bed?" His answer came in the form of David's tiny fingers grabbing a hold of his tank top making Naruto sigh then chuckle, "well I guess that answers that."
"Hey 'mano you home!" Hearing the familiar voice calling him, Naruto winced and softly covered David's ears moments before his front door swung open and Jackie came strutting in with a grin across his face "Yo hermano what you, oh shit!" As soon as he saw the dead eyed stare the older man fixed him with, the young Valentino quickly shut his mouth with a quick "Sorry Holmes," when he saw the sleeping child.
"It's ok Jackie, what're you doing here so early?" It was a long way from Heywood and Jackie usually visited much later in the afternoon, not that it bothered either one of them, but Jack had only just turned fifteen and Naruto knew the boy's mother would be worried even if she didn't show it too much. Jackie muttered something under his breath and didn't meet his eyes so Naruto instantly knew something was wrong. "Jackie…"
"It's my old man," he finally grumbled, stuffing his hands in the Valentino styled synth leather jacket he wore, a gift Naruto had gotten him not too long ago on his birthday when he officially joined the gang… like his father.
Naruto had to bite his lip not to say what he had on his mind. Raul Welles was a son of bitch as far as he was concerned and while he didn't talk shit about the man to Jackie, he didn't hesitate to let the self proclaimed 'old school' gangoon know exactly what he thought of him in the past… not that Jackie knew.
He cradled the now sleeping toddler carefully as he stood up, once again amazed and a little envious of the boys ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat, "does your mother at least know that your-"
Jackie grimaced and glanced away, "yeah she knows," he knew why Naruto stopped mid sentence, it was impossible to miss the discolored black eye and the bruise covering a large portion of his cheek. "It's nothing,"
"Well that 'nothing' looks like it's about to start swelling," he retorted softly, ignoring the lie and hiding his own rising anger as he looked the fifteen year old over. Not only that but it was scorching outside today and Jackie was wearing a synthetic leather jacket out in this heat? He had to be hiding more bruises. "There's an ice pack in the freezer, Jack. I'll put Davy in his crib."
Jackie nodded and headed towards his kitchen while Naruto headed upstairs to David's nursery, pausing for a moment to make sure Jackie was out of sight before heading the rest of the way.
*Poof*
A clone appeared next to him just as he opened the door, stone faced with cold blue eyes that only softened when he looked at the sleeping child. "..." Neither spoke but the clone nodded once, already well aware of what to do before flickering away.
"Mmm," tiny fists pulled at his shirt and Naruto looked down to see David wiggling a bit in his arms, like he was about to get fussy.
'Did he sense that?' Naruto had to wonder, looking down at his sleeping child with wonder "Shh it's ok. Don't worry Davy, Daddy's here," he hummed softly, rubbing the boys back soothingly which sent him right back into a deeper sleep, "and I always will be."
-xXx-
Time skip
-xXx-
Naruto's hands shook as he glared down at the pathetic lump laying flat on his back beneath him, his knee planted firmly in the gonks gut on top of the flashy red and black shirt he wore. Even his breathing shook but not from exertion but from holding back his anger to keep himself from killing this man.
"Naruto what have you done?"
Glancing back, he saw Guadalupe Welles in the doorway of her home leaning heavily against the frame with her hand over her mouth in horror, "I'm sorry Lupe, but I promised that if he ever laid a hand on either of you again I'd do worse to him." He growled out, grabbing the thick twisted gold chain around Raul's neck and pulling him up, "and I'm only getting started,"
"Naruto please stop, you're going to kill him!" She cried, rushing out down the steps as the blond cocked back and punched him in the face again, snapping the chain and sending him crashing back to the ground spitting blood and broken teeth into the ground next to him, "Please Naruto, he's my husband!" She managed to make it down the steps and grabbed his arm as he went to throw another and held on tightly, "Corazón please…" the woman could feel the tension in his arm as he loomed over her unconscious husband.
"Heh," She felt him relax but didn't let go, "Haven't heard you call me that in years," he gave her a humorless chuckle and shook his head before standing up, looking at the woman with soft eyes. "Why didn't you tell me he started hurting you again?" His eyes traced over her face, zeroing in on her bottom lip where a freshly scabbed over cut stuck out against the makeup she tried to hide her bruise cheek with.
"Because I knew what you would do," she murmured, turning her head slightly as he reached up and touched her cheek, "Stop, you know we can't do that anymore."
"Come on Lupe," he shook his head with a little snort, "You know me better than that." She looked a little regretful at that and nodded slowly. Naruto was many things but she knew just how loyal he was, especially when it came to his family. Their time had passed and while it was only a six month fling it was one of the happiest times she could remember but both of them knew that their relationship was just that, a fling. After a while Raul came back from whatever hole he crawled into promising to change she took him back. Naruto soon met Gloria and both fell head over heels for each other and her relationship with the blond remained as just friends… and occasionally their protector.
"Lupe you know all you have to do is say the word," he continued, gently turning her head to face him, "Just say the word and you'll never have to deal with his abuse again. Jackie won't ever have to see you get hurt again and no one will ever know what happened."
"Naruto please just stop and listen to yourself." Guadalupe pushed his hand away from her cheek and fixed him with a stern look, "You talking about murdering my husband,"
"Verses what Lupe!?" Naruto snapped, throwing his hands up in the air with an exasperated expression, "just let him keep beating the shit out of you and Jackie until he kills one of you? He's already flatlined one of your children-"
The moment the words left his mouth Guadalupe slapped him, turning his head to the side, "Don't…," she hissed back, eyes filling with frustrated tears, "Don't. You. Fucking. Dare throw that in my face. Do you think I've forgotten? Every single day I look at his face, I remember my bebita."
The deep scar running from Raul's hairline and across his face to his jawbone was a reminder to both husband and wife. A reminder to her of the day he kicked her when she was pregnant and a reminder to Raul that Naruto was a lot stronger than him.
It was years ago, Raul had come crawling back with his usual charm and swagger that she fell for in the first place, promising her the world that he changed and asking her to take him back. And despite everything she still loved him… back then him and Naruto actually got along and things seemed great for a year. Jackie was about to turn twelve and she had gotten pregnant, the tests revealed that it was a little girl and she was so excited to have a daughter.
Then Raul found out that she had been sleeping with Naruto when they were separated and showed his true colors. He lost his mind, hurling accusation after accusation, insult after insult at both her and Naruto no matter how much she denied it until he finally hit her. She later found out that Jackie had heard the screaming and called his 'Uncle Naruto' when he saw his father hit her.
She wasn't sure what happened when he got there, having fallen unconscious but after returning from the hospital she found the living room window shattered and the windshield of Raul's Villefort Alvarado smashed in. According to her neighbors, Raul tried to kill Naruto when he showed up but didn't know that the blonde was as skilled as he was. One neighbor even scrolled a vid of her husband being thrown through the window then slammed face first into his car with enough force to shatter its windshield. It was painful to watch, especially when she realized that Raul wasn't trying to fight anymore. He was trying to flee for his life.
Dios mio the audio made it even worse. She never heard Raul scream the way he did, nor had she ever heard Naruto speak the way he did. When the EMTs showed up they thought it was for Raul, who was little more than a half dead lump sitting against his bumper but Naruto stopped them from helping and directed them to where she was laying in her kitchen.
"Let that goddamn son of a joytoy bitch lay there and choke on his own blood. If he flatlines then so fucking be it, he can lay there and fucking rot!" She had never heard her choom speak with so much hate before and to be honest she hadn't looked at him quite the same ever since.
"I'm sorry," he took a deep breath and bit his lip, kicking himself for saying what he did, "But Lupe, please just-
"Corazón… Naruto, please just… just stop," she put her foot down, something she felt a lot more comfortable doing with him versus Raul.
Naruto was silent for a moment before he shook his head, "No," he shook his head and turned away from her while gritting his teeth, "Not this time," for a second she thought he was about to go after her husband again but he didn't. Instead, he took a few steps and crossed his arms before looking at her "I'm sorry, but this time you're gonna hear what I have to say. Do you know that Jackie left from here this morning and walked his ass all the way to Rancho Coronado?" From the look on her face she didn't, "Yeah, surprised me too. But to make matters worse he was wearing Valentino colors… thank God I control most of those areas or who knows what some gonk ass gangoon would've done to a lone Tino on what's technically Sixer turf."
Guadalupe looked down and felt her face heat up.
"And it's so God damn hot outside I knew something was up as soon as I saw him wearing that jacket I got him for his birthday, so I guarantee he's hiding more bruises that he didn't want me to see," Naruto continued angrily before pointing at her still unconscious husband, "bruises that this." He jabbed his finger towards Raul, "This… his own father gave him. Damn it, something has to change... Something… anything, before he either flatlines one of you or Jackie zeros him and believe me that boy had murder in his eyes today." Looking at her, Naruto could see that she was overwhelmed and sighed, backing away, "Just… just think about what I said ok? Please? For both of your sakes."
There was so much going through her mind that she didn't answer him, only crossed her arms and refused to look at him.
"Alright," he threw up his hands slowly in surrender, "Fine, I said my peace. I'll leave, send me the bill for the gonks dental work, I think he swallowed his front teeth." Turning away, Naruto started to leave, "Jackie can stay until things cool down, just call him whenever you're ready for him to come back and I'll make sure he makes it back safe." Her only answer was a nod which made Naruto's shoulders sag. "... Alright… Goodbye Mrs. Welles,"
Somehow, him calling her that hurt more than anything else she'd ever been called before. Deep down the woman knew that he was right but you couldn't tell the heart what to feel and for all his flaws she loved her husband no matter what a pendejo he could be. Just like she couldn't make herself stop loving the blond even though he had moved on after she broke things off and now it looked like she finally made him give up.
As he left, she could only look down at her husband laying flat on his back, beaten half to death on her lawn as several of her neighbors peeked over to watch the show. No one called the NCPD and even if they did the pigs wouldn't show up for hours.
"Ay Guadalupe, niña tonta, perdiste a tu mejor amiga."
