A Hell of a Life
Prologue: The Red Deal
It was night time in the city of San Francisco with the weather being that of a light drizzle, we draw our attention to a nameless and inside it, there's a man with long white spiky hair, dressed in casual clothing but looking rather bedraggled with about 37 bottles of lager next to on the bar counter and the look of absolute depression on his face.
The bartender approached the man whilst throwing a minor glance at the empty bottles before calling out to him "Seriously Jiraiya, what's got you so down in the dumps? I know you drink a lot, but tonight; you didn't just break your record…you grinded it into dust,"
"…," the man didn't respond.
"It must be that bad huh?"
"…after everything I've done for her…it only took bad timing for me to find out that she had been playing me for a fool," Jiraiya groaned out
"Who?"
"That bitch Tsunade…she had been cheating on me with another man this whole time, and I know that bastard too!" Jiraiya answered with disdain all too noticeable in his voice.
The bartender was shocked upon hearing this, he knew Tsunade very well as she often come here to drink with Jiraiya "Are you serious, you two had a good thing going together. Heck, I was practically counting the days when you would waltz in here to announce when you're going to get married before ordering drinks on the house for everyone that day,"
Jiraiya laughed bitterly "Guess she proved us wrong," he slammed his fist angrily on the counter "Dammit! I loved her with all my heart, I had every intention to treat her right, like a queen! Then she goes and does this to me!"
The bartender patted Jiraiya's shoulder in comfort "I'm sorry man, I really am. But chin up bro, I'm sure you can recover from this and find another girl who would be worth your loyalty,"
Jiraiya scoffed at that "Yeah right, then get cheated on again,"
"Look man; go home, get some sleep, then wake up tomorrow. You'll know just where to go from there after getting her out of your mind,"
"…*Sigh*, okay I'll go and do that," Jiraiya put on his jacket and got ready to leave "Thanks man, I appreciate it,"
The bartender nodded with a brotherly smile "Always there to support my favorite customer,"
Jiraiya smiled a bit before leaving the bar, walking along the sidewalk before reaching the underground subway to hitch a ride on a train in direction of home. He was sitting down and listening to the train rattle along the rails as it sped through the tunnel when a voice spoke up next to him.
"Hey man, mind if I sit here?" he looked to see a man with gray hair, wearing a brown leather jacket, black jeans and brown boots approach him.
"Oh sure, it's anyone's seat," said Jiraiya with shrug, not seeing any problem.
"Thanks, I was actually sitting over there but wanted some company, name's Gregory," said the man.
Jiraiya nodded in agreement "Mine's Jiraiya, and I appreciate it since I need some right now,"
"Bad breakup?" asked Gregory.
"How'd you know?"
"I recognize the look, used to have it too. It took me a while before I risk to form another relationship, but this time it turned out a hell of a lot better than the first one,"
Jiraiya smiled a bit but could help feeling a bit envious "Glad to hear that,"
"And get this; my ex kept calling me, saying that she's sorry and wants to get back together. Should have thought of that before opening that backdoor of hers to someone else besides me," said Gregory with disdain "As far as I'm concerned, she's dead to me,"
"Hmph, some women think they're so smart. Wish I could find a woman who would be as loyal to me as I would to her. Truth is that I'm an Info Broker but I cover that up by publishing the Icha Icha series to wave off unpleasant eyes. Guess she thought I wasn't being serious about our relationship when the truth was that I was," said Jiraiya.
Gregory blinked in surprise "Oh, you're the author of the series. Gotta say that your books really spiced up my time with my girl as we both love them,"
"Thanks, glad to have some fans tell me that,"
"Let me ask you something; how far are you willing to go in order to connect with a true significant other?" asked Gregory.
Jiraiya frowned at the weight behind the question before answering seriously "Should she never betray me, I would give anything for her cause she's worth it in the end,"
"Anything?" Gregory pressed intently, the tone in his voice sounding rather strangely but Jiraiya failed to notice.
"Anything,"
"I'm glad to hear, no doubt you'll make the woman you meet in the future very happy. How does a double date sound when that time comes?" asked Gregory with a hand outstretched for a handshake.
Jiraiya smiled in response "Sounds like a swell idea," he shook hands with the man, the he suddenly winced as there was a cut on his finger and blood leaked out, staining his and Gregory's hand "Ow, sorry about that. Must have clenched my first too hard for me to notice,"
Gregory waved him off "It's alright, I'll wash it off once I reach my stop. Let's exchange numbers to keep in contact,"
"Sure thing,"
Soon, the train reached Jiraiya's stop for him to disembark but not before bidding his new friend farewell and promising to call him later. Gregory lifted his hand stained with blood to see it suddenly move and shift into some sort of pentagram symbol which glowed softly.
"That's another quota of deals made for the week, better call up the guys down below to pick the right girl for him. It's no joke that we love his books," said Gregory, his eyes glowing red and the nails on his fingers elongating slightly.
**Five Months Later**
As the sun rose over New York city, we now draw our focus on a detached house with a garage attachment. Inside a bedroom on the second floor, someone is waking up from his bed, revealing to be an adolescent male with spiky blonde hair and a swimmer's physique, as well as whiskermarks that would make one think of a cat or a fox, mostly the latter when they look at him.
The blonde walked drowsily over to the bathroom and turned on the shower, rousing him completely of his sleepiness as he stood underneath and took his bath. He walked over to the mirror, wiping the steam off and smiled happily at his reflection.
"Good morning to you, Naruto. Today's another day to work hard and enjoy the little things in life," said the now identified Naruto, wiping his body with a towel then undergoing the usual preparation for the day.
He returned from the bathroom and approached the closet to pick out what he would be wearing for the day; a black short-sleeved t-shirt with a large red swirl on the front over a long-sleeved t-shirt, an unzipped orange vest with a white collar, blue jeans, and a pair of orange sneakers with black accents. Naruto completed his clothing with a black headband tied around his forehead.
"Time for a little brekkie," he walked over to the kitchen and quickly made a breakfast comprising of, toast bread with butter slathered on it, fried bacon, fruit salad, and coffee. The blonde was eating when received a couple of voicemails on his phone, prompting him to play them.
[Now playing… message 1 *Beep*]
"Yo Naruto, this is Shikamaru. I just called to let you know that I've finished my section of the website that the client requested and waiting on your end to finish up so we can put them all together, be sure to get back to me on when we'll be meeting up before things get troublesome,"
[Playing message 2 *Beep*]
"Hello Naruto, it's me I'm calling to see how you are managing. Just know that if any problems come up, you can call us for support,"
"Caring as always Jiji," said Naruto with a warm smile at the thought of his surrogate grandfather.
[Playing message 3 *Beep*]
"Hey Naruto it's me Joey, calling to remind you on what day it is and could use your help over here. I'd really appreciate it,"
Naruto groaned "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about it,"
[Playing message 4 *Beep*]
"Hey sport, been a while since we last met up. Hope ya doing good over there, I'm just swell and Kimiko says hi,"
[No voicemails remaining]
Naruto smiled softly as he looked at a photo on his phone, showing Jiraiya hugging a woman with short brown hair reaching to her chin as she hugged him back with a fond smile (The Former Leader of Nadeshiko village from Naruto Shippuden EP #235). He met Kimiko when Jiraiya introduced her to him, it was awkward at first but they eventually got along much to his godfather's joy.
The blonde frowned upon recalling when he heard that Tsunade had cheated on Jiraiya with another man, Naruto was shocked then angered as she not only betrayed Jiraiya's loyalty for her but the trust of his deceased parents who had made her his godmother. Tsunade tried to explain herself but he wasn't having any of it and shut her out to avoid hearing baseless excuses.
"Enough with the depressing thoughts, time to go to work," Naruto muttered lowly to himself before going to pack up his laptop and other necessities into his backpack before picking up his car keys and heading to the garage where his Porsche Cayman S is.
He carefully reversed out through the driveway and onto the street before beginning his drive towards his destination through the busy streets of New York until arriving at a diner called Joey's Eatery where he parked at the parking area before making his way inside. Naruto walked up to the countering where a waitress wearing the workplace's uniform smiled upon seeing him.
"Naruto, it's good to see you like always!" said the waitress.
Naruto nodded in response "Same here, is Joey in?"
"Yes, he's in the kitchen. Want me to call on him?"
"No need, I'll go in and talk to him myself,"
Naruto walk through the doors leading to the kitchen where several chefs are already hard at work, but he spotted the particular one that he was looking. He's a burly man with a brown goatee who is currently barking out orders to the other chefs whilst cooking at the same time.
Naruto called out to the man "Yo Joey!" said person turned around and smiled upon seeing him.
"Hey there Naruto, good to see ya! Glad to see that you got my message!" said Joey, fondly patting Naruto on the shoulder.
"That I did, which is why I'm here. Let me just change and I'll get started,"
"Then don't let me keep you waiting,"
Nodding in affirmation, Naruto headed over to the locker room and changed into his working attire before joining the chefs in the kitchen and taking up orders to cook. This is what Naruto had been doing since he graduated from college, Jiraiya had encouraged him to taking up part-time jobs in order to gain a wide range of skills that would prove helpful along the way with his main occupation being the of a programmer/web designer which earns him a lot of customers which in turn means lots of money, enabling him to be financially secure. The blonde was snapped out of his thoughts when one of the waitresses ran up to him in a panic.
"Naruto, we need your help! One of the customers is harassing Phoebe!" said the waitress.
Naruto sighed as he made sure that the food doesn't burn "Alright, let's get this over with," he walked out of the kitchen and didn't look far for the source of the problem as he saw greaser grabbed an arm of a waitress, preventing her from getting away. Naruto walked over and forcefully separating the two with the waitress quickly moving away and the greaser appearing annoyed as he stood up to confront the blonde.
"Hey, what's your problem man?!" the greaser growled angrily.
Naruto frowned in response "You were bothering a fellow worker of mine which is not tolerated in this place,"
"I was just asking her a few questions; you had no right to butt in punk!"
"That would be true if she didn't mind your approach, but in this case, it was the opposite. So, I suggest that you leave the premises as you are disturbing our customers here,"
The greaser gritted his teeth in anger "You're really pissing me off, and here's what happens when you do that!"
The greaser lashed out with a punch whilst aiming for Naruto's face only for it to be halted merely inches from his face by a hand holding it in place. The man tried to pull his fist back but Naruto held on firmly then proceeded to squeeze it tightly, inflicting pain.
"Hey, let go you dumb bastard! Argh!" the greaser yelped in pain due to Naruto squeezing even tighter.
"My parents were happily married when they had me," said Naruto before grabbing him by the back of his jacket's collar and pushed him out of the diner into the parking lot "I'd better not catch you around here again," Naruto began walking back inside when a waitress suddenly yelled out.
"Naruto, behind you!"
Naruto instinctively backhanded behind himself, making contact with a face then hearing a thump, prompting him to look over his shoulder and see the knocked-out form of the greaser on the ground, shaking his head as he entered the diner. He heard clapping and looked to see everyone applauding him for his action.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "There's no need for applause, just making sure that we offer the best services to everyone,"
Joey walked up and slung an arm across Naruto's shoulder with a grin "It's why we like you buddy, you're a guardian for both customers and workers. Now, let's pick where we left off and show everyone why this diner's the best place to come and eat at!"
"Sure thing, boss," said Naruto, he paused for moment as he felt a small chill crawl up his spine as if someone was watching him intently but he couldn't accurately find the source "That's weird, better get back to work,"
Things went back to normal with no further incident, since Naruto's actions had effectively discouraged potentially rowdy customers from acting out else they draw his ire. He went on to use his lunch break to communicate with Shikamaru via a video call on his laptop as they discussed about the designing of the client's website after considering his preferences so as to ensure that the function as well as theme are in balance. Soon the day came to an end and Naruto was preparing to drive back home.
"Thanks for the help today, Naruto. I'll call you up when I need you help out again," said Joey.
"No problem, I'll make sure to keep an empty slot open for when you need me again," Naruto packed up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder "Be seeing ya man,"
"Drive carefully,"
Naruto left the diner and got into his car before starting his return trip back home. He made a quick stop at Chinatown to order takeout from his favorite ramen shop before getting back home. After eating dinner Naruto was reclining on a couch, watching tv in the living with a soda in hand. He was watching a comedy movie when he felt a chill crawl up his spine yet again, causing him to look around.
"Seriously, why do I keep getting the feeling like I'm being watched? It's really creeping me out," Naruto muttered to himself occasionally throwing glances around until finally calming down and resumed watching the movie.
Halfway through viewing the movie, Naruto began to dose off a few times before eventually falling asleep with his clothes on. The movie continued to play, however a black silhouette with glowing red eyes stepped out from behind the tv and slowly approached Naruto. It looked at the sleeping blonde for about a minute before raising a hand towards Naruto as a red glowing pentagram appeared underneath him, flashing brightly before dimming to revealing that he had disappeared with the black silhouette soon following suit.
…
…
…
…
Naruto groaned a bit, feeling rather uncomfortable…like he was sleeping with the warmer turned on when he could have sworn that he left the air conditioner instead. He opened his eyes and noticed something very off about certain things.
First, he was laying on a hot rocky ground. Second; the air smelled of smoke and brimstone, causing him to look up and see a red sky with billowing smoke all around. And third, he's seeing skeletons, discarded and rusted swords, spears, etc. scattered all over. Not to mention that he was hearing screams of agony around him.
Naruto looked around in growing confusion until finally speaking the first sentence since he woke up in this strange place "Just where the heck am I…and why is there a white flame on my chest and it's not burning me?"
This is Hussbek online with the latest story; as you can tell; this is a Naruto/Helltaker with Naruto being the main protagonist so it's gonna be obvious how this crossover story will go if you've played the game. A fellow fanfic reader brought this game to my attention and needless to say, ideas started flowing it for it but I ended shelving it for later…till now. For starters, I'm not bashing any Jiraiya x Tsunade fans out there, just doing this for the story plot so no offense. As you can see a heartbroken Jiraiya unknowingly made a deal with a demon without any second thoughts which led to Naruto ending up in hell (He doesn't know it yet) and for some weird reason has a white flame on his chest. Things are going to be interesting with this story, that's for sure. And so, like always;
Read and review.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out and staying alive.