At least this one is slightly longer and Naruto made some more appearance in the canon than before.

A Maelstrom's Venture

Chapter 46

Tanks For Nuthin'

Colonel Gentleman's Apartment

Right now Naruto was at the old Venture Team's apartment, mostly visiting them to see how Billy was doing after his "episode" with the God Gas from the other night, but to also help the elderly group by delivering food to them from time to time.

"Alright you guys, I've put your food away, also I hope Billy is okay after last night." Naruto tells the group, since while he shows his respect towards them in his own way, they were still elders, so he'll help them out with such things.

Billy's mom, Rose, thanks Naruto for his help, along with the other men in the building, though the group were in front of White's laptop watching something, which the men were laughing at, making Naruto curious about the whole thing, only to find out that White had recorded Billy's "loopy" episode with the god gas from the other night, "Well that's not gonna help the doc in at all(!)" He couldn't help but think to himself, where a groggy and hungover Billy makes his way into the room.

Only to fully wake up at the video that was playing, causing Billy to hit White for posting such a compromising video to the public, while Billy's mom, Rose, answers the door.

Unfortunately for Billy, the elderly men started teasing him with a paper bag from a local burger place, "Wait, is that why you wanted me to pick that up for you guys, huh, I guess I shouldn't let my guard down around you old bastards." Being somewhat impressed at the older men making him an accessory to a prank.

"That's right boyo, we old bastards still got a few tricks up our sleeves that we can teach ya." Mr Gentleman simply states, with Action Man agreeing.

Only for their joking around to be interrupted by the visitor, with Rose introducing her as a nazi, though considering her outfit, it was "kinda" understandable why Rose would think that, "Oh, hey Sheila, what's up?" Naruto couldn't help but question, where Sheila explained the whole situation about the guy that was supposed to be arching Rusty and everything in between, though asked Naruto if he saw anything, but Naruto had pretty much explained why he mostly stayed away from the building, which pretty much gave Naruto the alibi for not seeing anything at the time, though when she asked him if he could get her the surveillance footage of last night to find out who killed the villain, Naruto answered back, "Sorry but I can't help you there, my dad runs the whole security section of the Venture Building, only he has access, well, him and the doc." Naruto had explained.

Hearing this, the woman couldn't believe such luck in finding anything out, so decided to question Billy about what he saw, where Naruto decided to join her, seeing as due to her now busy schedule she never seemed to have time to join him for their usual coffee chat, though during the meeting with the guild councilors, Naruto figured he'd best listen to some music, so he put some earpods in and looked out the window until she was finished.

Though after the meeting, Sheila explained how she had to meet with the dead guy's widow to tell the woman the news, making her sigh at what's gonna possibly happen next, though the two tech supporters weren't helping much, so she decided to make the pair wait in the car.

Bar

As both Sheila and Naruto enter the bar, they saw a couple of villains relaxing and having a drink, this sight made Naruto glad he was wearing his armour and have his weapons on his back, just in case, though by the sounds of things from the widower, it was kinda difficult to understand whether she loved her husband or not.

"Listen Sheila, I'll be shooting off, since it's obvious that Ms. Battleaxe isn't gonna do anything to harm you, but the whole scenario kinda makes it a little awkward for me, you know." Naruto stated, having mostly forgotten that most of the henchmen that he killed in the past with his dad may have had families themselves, making things a little difficult for Naruto to be around the upset woman.

Though before Sheila could answer, "WAIT A MOMENT! You lad! Where'd ya get that axe from!?" Ms. Battleaxe couldn't help but question such a thing.

Naruto looks at the woman in confusion, "Um, it was my ancestor's, a couple of friends were holding on to it until my ancestor's bloodline comes for it." Naruto replied back, shocking the woman, she then went on a tangent about the axe's history, along with stating how in legends, Naruto's ancestor was a godslayer, having killed Odin and his followers, surprising Sheila since while she knew of Naruto have some god-blood in him, she didn't know the full history of it.

Naruto on the other hand quickly had a serious look on his face, "Ma'am, please don't say anymore about my ancestor's history, it's not what I'd call a "pleasant" part of my bloodline." Naruto requested, not wanting to scare anyone due to his families godslaying bloodline, with the woman apologising for her words.

Naruto then looks towards Sheila with a calm and friendly smile, "I'll see you around Sheila, try not to get scared yourself about my ancestor's history please."

Sheila just smiled back, "Naruto, you're my friend, alright, considering how you and your father pretty much brutally killed henchmen back at the compound, I think I can get pass the whole "godslaying" thing, but thank you for worrying about me and I'll see you around when I'm not too busy." She explains to him, while patting his shoulder in gratitude, with Naruto making his exit and whistling for his motorcycle to appear, allowing Naruto to make his way home.

Later

After picking up some coffee for the adults of the place, Naruto drops one off to Brock greeting him with a wave and a simple hello, with Brock doing the same thing, though it was obvious that his father was "distracted" by something, Naruto decided to leave it alone since it wasn't his business what his father did.

Only while Naruto was relaxing, listening to Rusty complain about the "video leak," Naruto knew such a thing would've bitten them in the ass, seeing as it was White's fault to do such a thing, only for a sound to catch their attention, making them look towards the balcony window doors, "White I'll have to call you back." Rusty simply stated.

"BOOOOOOOOOOM!"

Only for the sound to be coming from a cannon, or more accurately a small tank that could fit only a small person in it, with the cannon now pointing at Rusty, meaning that Naruto couldn't really do anything unless he wanted Rusty to be blown to bits, "Greetings Dr Venture, I, am Think Tank, and I will be your nemesis this evening." The man states, only for his cannon to power down, "Sit you two, please, I do apologies for the rather theatrical entrance, but I find a bold opening always makes for a more spirited game." With both Rusty and Naruto doing so, in somewhat confusion.

Only for the man to pull out a chessboard, along with it's pieces, catching the men's attention, unfortunately, Rusty doesn't play chess, causing some embarrassments for the both of them, seeing where this was going, "(sigh!) You know what doc, how about I play for you." Naruto offered, then turned his attention to Think Tank, "What do you say, are you up for a substitution, I mean, we might be able to teach the doc how to play the game for next time." Naruto figured it was a nice change of pace instead of fighting and/or killing the enemies.

With Think Tank agreeing, though was somewhat surprised that Naruto knew how to play, but Naruto explained that his mother taught him the basics, since she was mostly into the whole strategy side of things considering her profession, where both mother and son use to play the game from time to time in order to pass the time on long missions, which Think Tank can agree to, as the pair continue to play the game, which caught Rusty's attention, finding the whole thing interesting.

Only for Brock to jump from the upper floor jumping towards the villain, which caused Think Tank to catch the man on the end of his cannon and blast him out of the window on instinct, though luckily for Brock he had a metal plate on his chest due to his surgery of having Helper's head removed for it, while Naruto was thinking of his next move, only for the blast to interrupt him, "Hmm? What happened!?" He couldn't help but ask, though Think Tank just brushed it off and wanted them to focus on the game, unfortunately, that's when Rusty began getting bored with the whole thing and decided to call the Guild to complain about the whole thing with Think Tank.

Yet as Naruto made his move, Wariana came in with Brock, planning to fight Think Tank, only to stop as the pair witness Naruto playing a strategy game with the man, since mostly Think Tank was Wariana's enemy, but to see the man calmly playing a game, yet, seems to be enjoying it, along with his banter with Naruto, since the two were having a "back and forth" type of thing, with Wariana wondering about the whole thing.

Where a focused Naruto quickly and calmly explained the situation, where he too was getting a little tired of always having to fight with his fists, while using his brain for once instead was a nice change of pace, which Wariana could somewhat agree to, so both Brock and Wariana decided to watch the game as it unfolds.

Though as they were playing, "Checkmate young Naruto, my that was rather entertaining, I have never been pushed to such an extent before when it came to such a game." The villain couldn't help but compliment the young man, since it had certainly been a long while since he played such a game.

With Naruto thanking him, though once they both had finished, that's when both Wariana and Brock began beating Think Tank, mostly because they too had grown bored of the game, and wanted to wait until both had finished, where they pretty much "squashed" the man's tank suit.

Though Think Tank complained about the "unsanctioned team-up" where Wariana offered Brock some "one-on-one" time back at her place, where he awkwardly stated no butt stuff, only for her to use her lasso of truth on him, "I LIKED IT!" He suddenly exclaimed, making Naruto quickly look up from his phone, having been playing on it while his dad and Wariana did their thing.

"Wait! WHAT!?" He couldn't help but question what his dad said, "May I go?" Think Tank questions, thankfully stopping anymore of those "lines of questions" from Naruto, with Naruto slowly moving towards the man, while awkwardly looking towards his father, "Y-Yeah, I-I think I'll walk you out and help you catch a cab." Naruto offered, slowly moving backwards in weiriness about the whole thing.

Outside The Building

It wasn't long before both Naruto and Think Tank were outside the building, with Naruto being thankful for having the man around to talk with, wanting to get his mind off of whatever it was his dad was doing with Wariana, "You know young Naruto, you have quite the keen intellect, have you ever thought about going to college and getting a degree, it would certainly help you later in life if ever you wish to retire from all of this hero and villain endeavour." The man offered, since after playing a game of chess against Naruto, the college professor couldn't help but ask.

Hearing this, Naruto couldn't help but think that it might be worth it, only for Hank and Dean to arrive in the hover pod that Hank was driving, which ended up causing quite the car accident, where the large van driven by the widow, Battleaxe to head towards Naruto and the Professor, only for Naruto to push the man away and into a bush, unfortunately, the same can't be said for Naruto, "Oh this is gonna hurt!" He couldn't help but state as the van plowed into him, causing both himself and the van to fall into the hole inside the lobby and cause a mild explosion.

Where due to Naruto's "sacrifice" the college professor had decided to not arch Rusty, seeing as Naruto was the one who saved him, it would be quite unethical to follow through with any arching from there on.

Of course due to the explosion, it took Naruto a few days to recover, seeing as it wasn't as bad as the last time he was caught in an explosion, where during the professor's visit, he explained that he gave the college a letter of recommendation to let Naruto enter when the young man feels ready to do so, explaining that while a small part of the recommendation came from Naruto saving the professor's life, a big part of it was that the professor felt that Naruto's intellect was going to waste and felt that the young man needed an opportunity to expand his intellect, which the others were excited about for Naruto, with Rusty seeing it as an opportunity for Naruto to bodyguard Dean while on campus, while Brock was proud of Naruto getting accepted, there was some awkwardness between them due to Brock and Wariana "hooking up" if you can call it that.

The End.

I figured that Naruto would obviously take Rusty's place in the chess game and everything, along with saving Think Tank's life, thus making it so the man had to give up his arching rights due to being saved by Naruto, though I'm not sure if that's apart of the Guild law, but whatever.

It also gives Naruto an "excuse" to be able to go to college as well. lol

I Do Not Own Naruto Or The Venture Bros.