Disclaimer: I don't own anything of this . Both Naruto and DC belong to their respective creators

Demon/Machine /Mystical being talking

Thoughts or thinking of characters,

[Other Language]

EMPHASIS

Scarlet Scarab: Secret Origin part II

Naruto was breathing heavily, still unsure if everything that happened was a dream or not, I mean it has to be he didn't get possesed by a bug, he didn't use an power armor (Well technically the Scarab used the armor and his body just went for the ride) and he didn't just beat 3 supervillains.

So he come to the only logical and sane conclusion.

This was a dream.

A bad mix of seeing the Justice League in the news and something he eat last night. Yeah that it is.

So Naruto pinched his cheek,

Nothing,

"Great," he groaned, running a hand through his messy blond hair "It's one of those dreams."

This wasn't the first time Naruto dreamed he was a superhero, any person who ever didn't hate the justice league has ever dreamed once about it, in his case he has more than a few with him eating ramen with Wonder Woman.

So all he needed to do now was wake up. Hopefully in his bed, cuddled up with his girlfriend with her boobs pressing on his chest. Once that happened, this whole mess would dissolve into a vague, weird memory he'd laugh about in the morning.

"Maybe it was too soft," he muttered.

Determined to snap himself out of it, Naruto pinched his cheek again, this time much harder.

"Ow!" he yelped, rubbing the sore spot. "Ok... maybe this is not a dream"

"No shit. Sherlock"

The sudden voice made him jump, his heart racing as he whirled around to find the source.

"Who said that?!" Naruto demanded, scanning the room with wide eyes.

The voice sighed in exasperation, the sound seeming to come from… inside his own head.

"That would be me, genius. The Scarab. "

"Wake up, wake up, wake up…" he muttered under his breath, tapping the side of his head againt the wall as if that would somehow reset everything.

"You're lucky I'm here," the Scarab cut him off, its voice dripping with condescension. "You wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for my power. Any other person would have groveled at my kindness."

"Well, thank you," Naruto said in the flattest tone possible, his sarcasm practically dripping from every word. He clearly didn't mean it as his eyes fell on Dosu, still unconscious and stampled against the warehouse wall. He approached him cautiously, placing two fingers on the murderer neck.

"Good, he's still breathing," he murmured, feeling a wave of relief wash over him.

He really didn't want to kill someone, even if it wasn't technically him.

"How disappointing, don't you mean" the Scarab chimed in coldly.

"Don't start," Naruto muttered under his breath.

"An enemy that walks today, could kill you tomorrow"

Naruto ignoring the bait decided to speak " Look they are out now, so you can leave without worry, anf I can go back to my life. And you can go back to... suck a tree somewhere I don't know or care about, and we never have to see each other again. Comprende"

"It's not that simple, human," the Scarab retorted, its tone showing it wasn't thrilled about the arrangement either.

"Why?" Naruto asked sharply, narrowing his eyes.

"Touch. Your. Back," the Scarab ordered firmly.

The police officer hesitated, but the authority in the insect voice pushed him to comply. His hand shook slightly as he reached behind him, his fingers pressing against his back. He froze as he felt it , there was something there , something hard enough that he could even felt through the layer of the stab-vest he was using but at the same time it was small enough that from an outsider point of view it may be invisible.

"Wh-what is that?" he muttered under his breath.

The Scarab's voice echoed in his head, smug and uncaring as ever. "That, human, is me," it said. "My physical form, to be specific" the Scarab saif as if speaking to a particularly dim student, " It has synchronized with your spinal cord. Which means I can't leave your puny body, no matter how much I might want to."

Before Naruto could even respond, his ears caught the sound of footsteps and trucks quickly surrounding the warehouse. He could only make a face of displeasure, fully aware of what this meant. Even the dumbest and most incompetent police officer in all of Japan could recognize what was about to happen.

And it wasn't good.

Not at all.

"Tokyo Troopers," Naruto muttered while facepaliming. "Guess someone heard all the ruckus we caused a while ago"

Although meta-human criminals were not so common in Japan as they were in America, there were still multiple incidents and victims caused for them, so the NPA invested its funds into creating the Special Crimes Division of the Metropolitan Police. Or, as they were dubbed by the media, the Tokyo Troopers.

An elite tactical unit designed to serve as the first line of defense in case of an emergency. A way to keep the citizens safe without having to rely of the charity of heroes of other nations coming to visit.

But another thought raced through the blonde's mind.

"Why the fuck didn't you guys show up FIVE MINUTES AGO !"

The rational part of his brain knew the answer: before the fight, there hadn't been anything that indicated a situation serious enough to call them in.

However, that didn't make the situation any less of a mess. And the worst part? It was totally his fault.

Well… maybe not totally. Maybe, like, 40-45%-ish his fault.

Yeah, sure, he didn't know Dosu and his goons had powers. But he should have called it in before tailing them. Hell, he didn't even have three pairs of handcuffs on him! And sure, he was totally confident he could take out three guys in a street fight—he'd done it before. But if he'd had more backup, maybe someone could have called the Tokyo Troopers so they would have arrived earlier.

And then?

Then, he wouldn't be stuck with that fucking homicial parasite on his back.

Sometimes, he deeply hated that damn Uzumaki impulsiveness of his. To be honest, it had gotten him and his relatives into more trouble than it had ever helped them.

But now he has another bigger, bigger , BIGGER issues.

How the fuck does he explaint this

Does he tell the truth.

No... he didn't want truly test his luck with this, this could go with him being labelled as mentally unwell . Aka Insane, and getting canned or worse strapped in an operation table with a mad scientist wanting to see how this fucking thing work.

So he has to lie then.

He turned his head around and seeing the three barely alive potato sacks that were Dosu and his goons and the small fire that was next to them, and all the propety damage caused in the fight .

Yeah. This was bad.

Naruto swallowed hard as reality set in.

"How the fuck do I lie about this?"

Because any excuse he came up with—any lie—would crumble the second one of those three idiots woke up and spilled everything. He could already picture the interrogation room, his superior officers staring at him, arms crossed, waiting for an explanation while Dosu babbled on about the "Bug faced freak" that nearly blasted his head off.

Naruto rubbed his temples, feeling an oncoming migraine.

His brain desperately searched for an escape route.

Maybe I could just… run for it?

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he dismissed it.

"No, they've already surrounded the area. The second they see me making a break for it, they'll chase me all the way to Russia"

"Just kill them" Said the Scarab transforming Naruto right arm in a plasma cannon to show his point.

"I'm not going to kill those 3" Said Naruto still holding to his morals.

"I was talking about the cops"

"THAT'S EVEN WORSE!"

"Then give me a solution genius because if you small brain hasn't realized it yet. We don't have much time before they surround us !"

Before Naruto could respond . A crimson, circular portal erupted beneath him.

"What the—?!"

Gravity vanished from under him, and in the blink of an eye, Naruto was falling

BANNNNNNNNNNNN

Just as Naruto vanished, a group of five Tokyo Troopers stormed into the factory. The doors were open with full strength.

The Troopers were clad in full-body, dark blue armor that covered every inch of their bodies .. The helmets they wore were sleek, with a dark visor that completely obscured their faces, leaving only the words M.P.D on the back of their armor and Police written on their chest.

Each member of the team held a rifle in their hands, ready for action. They quickly pointed their guns ready to shoot at any hostile movement in the area.

One of the troopers pulled down his rifle at the sight of Dosu and his teammates, and approched them slowly, his teammates covering his behind in case of an emergency.

"What the hell…?" he muttered under his breath. Their team had been dispatched due to reports of strange noises coming from the warehouse—some witnesses had mentioned lasers, mechanical sounds, even small explosions.

But judging by the state of the three obvious trespassers and the destruction around them, they had arrived too late.

"Hirose, get the jaws of life. We need to pry these three out of the ground and load them into the van," the squad leader ordered, his tone sharp and controlle

"Right away ,sir" Said the man responding with a salute

"Shigeru, Ashiro " The trooper said in a commanding tone causing those two to look at him. "Search the perimeter, look at whoever did this . " Shattered steel, broken bones , concussion and that was just what he could see with his really lack of medical knowledge and without any equiment.

Whoever—or whatever—was responsible for this level of damage was dangerous.

"Yes, sir!" Shigeru and Ashiro responded in unison, immediately setting off to secure the area.

With the squad having the building surrounded, he shouldn't have gotten far.

…Right?

When Naruto opened his eyes, the only thing he could see was darkness—thick, black , absolute darkness. There wasn't a single source of light to illuminate his surroundings or give him any clue as to where he was.

He could feel various objects pressing uncomfortably against his back, their shapes unfamiliar and oddly placed. The space around him was tight, restricting his movements and making every attempt to shift or stretch a struggle.

And the smell—Kami, the smell. It was like something had gone twelve rounds with his nose and won by knockout.

Wait… tight, dark, and smells like the toilet of a bar after happy hour.

Naruto let out a groan and placed a hand over his face—only to immediately recoil in disgust as realization hit him like a ton of bricks. He had a pretty good idea of where he was.

With a frustrated sigh, he used both arms to push himself up and shoved against the darkness in front of him. The barrier resisted at first but finally tore apart, allowing a sliver of dim light to slip through. Immediately, the stench of rotting food and something unidentifiably foul hit him full force, making him gag.

"Of course," he grumbled, his suspicions confirmed as he climbed out.

A dumpster.

This was officially the worst night of his life.

Eh... looking back is still on the top ten.

"Ewwww. It's stuck under my uniform," Naruto groaned. He wasn't exactly a clean freak, but he had his limits. Being tossed into a dumpster and having his clothes coated in some unidentified green sludge? Yeah, that was way past them.

Well on the bright side, he escaped of the Tokyo Troopers

"At least this can't get any worse," he mumbled while holding the need to puke afte taking out a fish head that was stuck in his stab vest

"Emmmm... excuse me, officer?"

Naruto slowly turned around, only to see a civilian worker carrying a couple of trash bags, eyeing him with a mixture of confusion and pity.

"Is... something wrong?" the man asked hesitantly.

Naruto's face flushed red with embarrassment. "Don't worry, I was chasing someone, but I guess they escaped. Ha, ha, ha," he forced out a chuckle. "Well, you can't catch everyone."

The worker's eyebrows furrowed. "Are you su—"

"Yes."

"But—"

"Yes!" Naruto cut him off a little too quickly, straightening his posture in an attempt to look composed—just like they had trained him to do in the academy.

The worker stared at him for a long moment before sighing and shrugging. After all, if this cop was in a mess, it wasn't his business. "Alright, officer. If you say so... uh, good luck with that."

"Remember to lock the doors. There have been a lot of robberies lately," Naruto said with a small wave as he left the alley.

"You're a terrible liar," said the Scarab.

"Who asked you?" snapped Naruto at the bug. He looked around the street, searching for a way to identify where that red portal had sent him.

Naruto scanned his surroundings before letting out a relieved sigh as he quickly recognized the street signs and nearby stores.

"Ichijou Avenue." It was just a few streets down from the Kord warehouse, which meant he wasn't far—and, more importantly, he hadn't ended up outside Tokyo, outside Asia, or, worse, on another planet.

At least that's one less thing to worry about," Naruto said, relaxing a little—unaware of the figure watching him from the top of a building.

"So, the Scarab chose a cop..."

The figure was a tall woman, standing at least 1.80 meters. She wore a long coat that covered her entire body, her face wrapped in bandages like the Invisible-man or Woman in this case. Dark sunglasses hid her eyes, and a black sun hat sat atop her head, partially concealing her long dark brown hair.

"Haa," she sighed, disappointed. "Well, it could have been worse."

After all, he wasn't one of Shimura's goons. But on the other hand...

As if the universe itself shared her wrath, a powerful gust of wind lifted her hair, making it billow around her. Her grip tightened.

"That power was supposed to be mine!" she hissed, her eyes burning with a fury so intense that, had she possessed heat vision, Naruto would have been reduced to ashes on the spot.

FLASHBACK

It was easier than she had thought.

Investigate ROOT's patterns, find a small window of opportunity, locate the transport truck, and strike when they least expected it.

Just a simple portal above it, and she would slip in like a ghost on the wind.

THUD.

The woman landed on the back of the truck, the two drivers still oblivious to her presence. She glanced around, searching for her target, though a small part of her couldn't help but marvel at what she saw.

Power suits, blasters, radars, shields, drones—

And what she was 90% sure was a fully functional robot.

If she had been a weapons dealer, she could have made a fortune selling all of this. Maybe not enough to live like a queen, but certainly a baroness.

But money didn't interest her anymore.

Not now. Not after everything.

She just needed to find her target.

"And bingo," she muttered, eyes locking onto a massive, square-shaped container.

Approaching it slowly, she reached into her left pocket, retrieving a small device and carefully planting it on the metal surface.

Now, all she had to do was wait for her EMP pulse to do its magic.

Beep. Beep.

Just like that, the lock fizzled and died, the EMP doing its job flawlessly.

Seeing that it worked, the woman forced the lock and swung the door open, her prize mere seconds away.

The power she had spent decades searching for—the final piece she needed to complete her long-held ambition—was finally within her grasp.

And there it was.

The Red Beetle, bound in chains and secured by heavy locks against the wall.

If her intel was correct, this wasn't just some artifact. It was a weapon of mass destruction, a force capable of obliterating entire armies.

Her fingers worked quickly, picking the locks one by one.

Click. Click. Click.

The moment the last shackle fell away, the mechanical insect sprang to life, propelling itself into the air.

It hovered just a few centimeters from her face.

For a brief moment, she wasn't sure what it was doing. Was it relishing its newfound freedom? Evaluating her? Or simply savoring a few precious seconds in the air, free of purpose?

But she had no patience for hesitation. Overcome by impulse, she lunged forward, her right hand reaching for the Scarab—

Only for the bug to dart away, effortlessly evading her grasp.

She saw her right palm and launched it again trying to capture the weapon only for the weapon to resist her.

She knew this robot was supposed to be difficult she read his file , but not even try her test her or giving him a chance.

It looks like she was going to have to use plan B. She read that a sonar could disturb his circuirt long enough for capture.

What she didn't know was that using the very same weapon that had once been used against it was the final drop in an already overflowing cup.

The Scarab reacted.

Furious, it shot forward and tackled her with brutal force, slamming her into the ground.

The last thing she remembered was desperately opening a portal—just as the Scarab's body began crackling with what looked like red lightning and the machinery started to explode.

Flashback end.

After that the truck exploded and the Scarab escaped to god knows where. Causing her to spend the whole night looking for it.

By the time she finally found it, it was already fighting three of Shimura's attack dogs.

That moment of hesitation—that weakness—was something she would never truly be able to forgive herself. If only she had been braver, if only she had fought harder against the Scarab…

The sheer wrath at herself boiled over. With a sharp exhale, she swung her fist into the nearest wall, cracking the surface. Blood smeared across both her knuckles and the concrete.

But one thing she had learned in life was that whining and throwing a tantrum like a little girl never accomplished anything. No matter how furious she was, no matter how much she despised failure, she had to keep a cool head. That was the only way forward.

If the Scarab's power was even half of what she suspected, a direct confrontation would be suicide.

Now, she was left with two options.

The first was to wait for the cop, the current host, to die. Let fate or his own enemies handle the dirty work. Once he was dead, she could simply pry the Scarab from his corpse. But there was a problem—nothing guaranteed that the Scarab would still function after his death. Would it shut down? Would it self-destruct? Would it seek out a new host before she could reach it? Too many unknowns. Too many risks.

That left her with her second option.

She had to use him. Manipulate him. Guiding him down the path she needed him to take. That was why she had saved him from the Tokyo Troopers. Not out of kindness. Not out of mercy. But because she needed him alive.

He was already a target. Shimura's men wouldn't let him roam free forever. They would keep coming for him. Eventually he was going to face that piece of shit and when that moment came—

Then she would put a bullet through that fossil's skull.

Her fingers curled into a fist, nails digging into her palm as she lifted her left hand. A flick of her wrist and the air shimmered, swirling into a vortex at the edge of the building.

"Or my name isn't Sage," she muttered.

And with that, she stepped into the red portal and vanished into places unknown.

Meanwhile Naruto in the street felt a strange shiver down his spine.

After going back to the station and changing from his uniform to an orange hoodie, black jeans and snickers Naruto was ready to return home.

It wasn't a long trip just one quick stop at the train station and a few minutes walking to the appartament he and his girlfriend rent. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was cheap and in a great location. More importantly, it was theirs. And just theirs.

And unlike the old police dorm he used to live in, he didn't have to worry about his coworkers knowing every little detail about his life. That alone made moving out worth it. Police officers were worse than highschool girls when come to gossip.

It was actually a huge incentive when he first brought up the idea of getting a place together.

Obviously, he never told her that was part of his reasoning. He wanted to live. Duh.

Still, he just wanted to lie down in their bed, and not wake up. He was exhausted and if he was honest he think that if he lie down he wouldn't wake up.

"So this is where you live," said the Scarab. "Looks like a pigsty. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised from a slave."

"Damn loudmouth bug." He thought as he carefully closed the door.

Maybe he should sleep in the couch. He didn't want to wake -

"What do you think you're doing" Said a bossy voice right next to him.

"Ehhhh Ino-chan" Said Naruto seeing at his girlfriend with her hands in her hips, they met at the police academy. Ino's dad was apparently a detective who pressured her to follow his footsteps -Something that was more common that what Naruto expected - and while they didn't like each other very much when they first meet , the end up becoming friends after knowing each other better. Only to end up dating at the end of their time in the academy.

They had been together for three years now.

"What are you doing awake? Shouldn't you be asleep?" Naruto asked, trying—and failing—not to let his gaze linger on how Ino's purple pajama top button fought against her chest.

"I got hungry, so I went for a snack," Ino said casually, though she wasn't about to admit the real reason—she'd grown so used to sleeping next to him that being alone felt... off. But there was no way she was saying that out loud. She was too proud for that and he wouldn't let her live out that.

Then, suddenly, she froze. Her eyes widened.

"You're acting weird, also didn't you want to sleep in the station" then suddenly froze. Her eyes widened. " Oh my god, what happened to your neck?!"

"My neck?"

"Yeah, it's covered in bruises—wait, is that blood and what is that smell?" She wrinkled her nose. "Did you get jumped or something?!"

Or something, that was for sure.

"Eh, nothing serious. You know how this job is," he said scratching the back off his head and giving a small laugh, hoping to brush it off. "Some drunk guy got too rowdy and I wasn't really paying attention.

That was apparently the wrong answer as Ino frowned and stepped closer, inspecting the bruises that Dosu had left behind.

"Take of your shirt" Ordered Ino while crossing her arms

"Wh-hat ?".

"Don't be a macho Kitsune, take off your shirt I want to see if you have anything you want to hide" She said while crossing her arms and using the same tone she used when someone didn't take her seriously as a Police Officer.

"Kitsune...?" Asked the Scarab.

"Is an old nickname" Answered Naruto

During the Police academy just like in the army is practically a tradition that the aspirants get demeaning nicknames from their teachers, superiors and classmates. Basically anyone with any authority over them. Naruto got the nickname Kitsune after an incident in which he was caught contrabanding cup ramen behind the instructor noses.

For 3 months.

They were furious when they found out and literally make an examplea out of him but it was worth it.

Meanwhile Ino got the nickname gorilla , she believes that it was supposed to be a ironic nickname because of her good looks are contrasted with a savage beast that eat bugs.

She was wrong.

In actually it was because her bossy and pushy personality that make her act like she was the leader in anything she do annoyed everyone a lot, like a lot.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

To this day Naruto never had the heart of telling her the truth.

In a way Naruto was just like his dad , never capable of going aganst the woman they love.

Or how many, many, many , many people like to call them 'Whipped'

Which was a problem because...

"Destroy the woman"

"Don't you dare!" Said Naruto angrily to the scarab shaped monster that lived in his back ,Is not that he didn't trust her, if he didn't then they wouldn't have lasted this long. But the Scarab was a mess of his own that even he has trouble even accepting it.

But when Ino put her mind in something it was difficult to change her mind about it.

Luckily Naruto learned how to deal this from watching his dad and his mom.

Naruto grabbed Ino chin pulling her to look at her eyes , and while both set of blue eyes connected with each other he leaned and stole a kiss from her causing her to close her eyes the moment their lips touched each other.

When he pulled back, he pressed his hands together in a mock sign of apology. "Gomen. I did something dumb. But I don't want to worry you, I promise you I will be more careful okay"

Ino let out a huff, her cheeks tinged pink. "Baka..." she muttered, crossing her arms. "You're lucky I like you." She rolled her eyes before pointing toward the bathroom. "Now take a shower and get back to bed. You smell like you just crawled out of a dumpster."

Now Naruto could only sigh in relax, he barely dodged that bullet. That sexy big boobed , with a good ass bullet.

"There is a strange amount of blood going to your lower region."

His face went red instantly.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Naruto mentally screamed at the scarab, resisting the urge to physically shake his head. "For the love of all the kami, PLEASE SHUT UP!"

20 minutes later.

Naruto let out a long, satisfied sigh as he stepped out of the shower, steam rising in wisps around him. He stretched his arms over his head, rolling his shoulders as the tension from the day melted away.

"Ahhhhhhh," he exhaled, ruffling his damp hair. "Just what I needed."

There was nothing more relaxing than a hot shower after a stressful day.

"You're a strange one , slave" the Scarab commented with curiosity. "I thought you would be more what is what you humans called it 'Weeping' about this"

Naruto pulled an old Superman shirt over his head that he used as pajama, adjusting the fit before grabbing his blue shorts. "What do you want me to do? Freak out? Punch a hole through a wall? and start crying ' saying oh no my life sucks, bwa bwa" He said in a fake girly voice "I'm no that pathetic right now, there's nothing I can do about… well, you." He gestured vaguely, referring to the alien technology now fused to his spine. "I could throw a fit, but that'd just be a waste of energy. I asked for the day off tomorrow—I'll deal with you then. Right now? I just want to go back to bed."

Ever since he was a little kid, his parents—mostly his dad—had drilled that lesson into him: Keep calm. Focus. Think.

If there was a problem, find the solution. If there wasn't a solution, then find the best way to handle it. Panicking? Freaking out? That was just an invitation to make an even bigger mess.

It had taken Naruto until his late teens—maybe even early adulthood—for that lesson to really stick. But now? Even though he was impulsive and hot-blooded by nature, he tried to apply it as much as he could.

So when he saw Ino already snoring loudly in bed, he couldn't help but smile, thinking that she looked like a princess when she slept.

Quietly, he slipped into bed beside her and pulled her into a hug.

Sasori leaned on his chair on his lab and took a sip of his dark coffee. Before began typing on his laptop. Just like protocol dictated, he needed to create a cover story in case one of their agents was captured by local authorities. A simple request in the dark web—buried under layers of encryption—would be enough to misdirect the police, sending them chasing ghosts while the organization moved forward as if nothing had happened.

If Sasori was being honest, he wasn't surprised the cockroaches had failed. The moment the Scarab found a host, their mission had been doomed.

He exhaled through his nose, his expression impassive. If he were to classify superhumans on a scale from D to S, those grunts had barely scraped a C—maybe a B at best. Meanwhile, if his data was accurate, the Scarab's new host was sitting comfortably at an A, potentially even a low-level S.

A bum fighthing a national champion in a boxing match would be a fairer fight.

It was a miracle they hadn't ended up as corpses.

However even he can't deny that the power the Scarab displayed was amazing

If the footage from his drones was accurate, then the host was even stronger than anticipated. A self-actualizing warrior, capable of adapting to any threat and creating the perfect weapon for every opponent…

It could be the ultimate soldier.

And if that power could be replicated—mass-produced—it would be a game-changer. Military warfare as the world knew it would be rewritten overnight.

An army capable of fighting on land, in the air, beneath the sea. Deployed in the busiest city or the most inhospitable warzone.

Sasori tapped a finger against his desk, eyes scanning his notes. "Now, if only there was a way to gather more data…"

The Scarab needed to be observed in combat—real, unrestrained battle. If he could capture its movements, analyze its transformations, then recreating its capabilities for Herkus would be within reach.

And in a city of fifteen million, surely there had to be a way to provoke the host into fighting.

A slow smirk formed on Sasori's lips as his fingers typed in a new search query. Fortunately, the TMPD had no shortage of Metahuman has a good gallery of rogues he could use. He just needed the right one.

And if the TMPD's criminal files were accurate, he'd already found the perfect candidate.

Even better thanks to that small drop of blood that his drone took he already has a lead.

In the morning.

After a sleepless night, Naruto stretched in bed, his bones cracking as he moved. He turned over, only to realize he was alone.

Frowning, he got up and left the bedroom, heading straight for the kitchen. There, he found Ino making breakfast.

"Hey, babe, you're just in time. I'm almost done with the eggs," she said without looking up.

Naruto blinked in surprise. It wasn't that Ino couldn't cook—they even had a rule: if one was out, the other had to make dinner. It was just that Ino didn't like to cook, so when they were both home, she usually asked him to do it. Being the son of a chef, it wasn't really an issue for him.

"There, eat it before it gets cold," said Ino, leaving the eggs next to a cup of rice, sausages, and miso soup. Yeah, Ino went all out and gave him a full Japanese breakfast.

Shit. Did he forget something?

"Ehhh... Happy anniversary," said Naruto with slight discomfort.

Ino just stared at him with annoyed eyes. "Naruto... Our anniversary is in three months."

"Ah, yeah... right. Three months. I guess I got ahead of myself," he stammered, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm hopeless."

"Maybe, but you're also adorable," said Ino before kissing Naruto on the forehead. In reality, Ino was a little worried about him after how he came out yesterday, so she wanted to surprise him.

"Aren't you gonna sit?" said Naruto.

"Sorry..." Ino's voice was a little sad. She really would have loved to spend more time with her boyfriend. "The lieutenant asked me to go in early. Apparently, there was an incident near the station, so they want as many people as possible to support it."

Worried that it was the fight he was last nighT Naruto asked. "Eh, did they tell you anything?"

"Apparently, a gang raided one of LexCorp's old vaults, so everyone is scrambling to do damage control before we end up having to look for bodies all over the city," said Ino, her tone filled with exasperation. "To be honest, you dodged a bullet."

"Oh... fuck."

Thanks to Japan's strict gun control laws, criminals had a harder time arming themselves than in America. So it wasn't unusual to see gangs, Yakuza, and other criminals searching for the few weapons that made their way into the city.

According to her dad, when he was a rookie, the biggest concern was criminals stealing from hunters, police officers, or maybe getting their hands on smuggled weapons.

Now... they had to worry about crooks running around with weapons straight out of a comic book.

It was a huge pain in the ass.

"I still don't know how you got a day off so easily, anyway," said Ino while slirping a little bit of her coffee. "I doubt it was out of the kindness of their hearts."

"I told Iruka-san that I was going to the doctor for this," Naruto said, motioning to his neck. "And he said it was fine and sent Kotetsu-senpai to cover my shift."

He had been working overtime for a while, and since he was normally a hard worker, his superiors didn't have any issue with it.

"It looks better than last night" Said Ino watching her boyfriend neck and seeing how the swelling diminished and was less purple than before. "Told me how I need to go before they put my head in a pike. I love you"

"I love you too" Said Naruto before giving a small kiss on the lips before the blonde leave

"Are you humans always so ' Disgusting' " Said the Scarab after seeing the little display

"Don't worry after today you never had to see it again, my little parasitic friend"

"STOP CALLING ME PARASITE!"

I appreciate the feedback and the review really . I took them as consideration when planning the stories specially when there is something I like.

Is my first time writing a couple (none of my fics have reached the point of pairing , so I'm open to criticisms ) I tried to write of my own experience in romantic relatioships and what I think could be a healthy dynamic.

I was originally going for 10k words, but I decided to leave at 6k to give more focus to the final part of secret origins in the next chapter

(1) Why I choose Ino: If I'm honest I think she is my favorite of the Konoha girls, she is similar for Sakura that's for sure, but looking back they have different main flaws. In sakura her main flow is that she has low empathy the way she treated Naruto during the first part and some of her commentaries, (LIKE in road to ninja or when she told sasuke that Naruto was lucky to be an orphan) Meanwhile Ino is more empathic but her main flaw in vanity. But I think that mixed with being with a sweet guy like Naruto and she is a pretty good partner.

Hinata while good I'm not really a fan of the shy girl and I think she is kinda overused.

Tenten i like her but I think she needs more work to be a main girl .

Plus Better Left Unsaid Is my favorite Fic. And I'm trying to base their relationship on that.