01000011 01111001 01100010 01100101 01110010

Night City Legends

Act 2: Running Along the Edge

Chapter Twenty-Five: Mayhem Flows!

01000011 01111001 01100010 01100101 01110010

"Ah man! This is gonna be so frickin sweet!" David couldn't sit still on the couch taking up the corner of their apartment. It was moms favorite spot to curl up to sleep and his ever since she ended up in a medically induced coma. Even the dull ache in his cheek didn't deter him while he continued to imagine himself as a solo in his own right, living on the edge and answering to no one he didn't want to.

It had been little over two hours since leaving Naruto's new scopshop up on the thirteenth floor and the excitement had only escalated, leaving David to go over all his Edgerunner XBD knowledge in his head. What would he need? I mean, he couldn't go in unprepared right, how embarrassing would that be? Naruto needed to know that he could be reliable and maybe this would become more than a one time run.

With his holo chirping out a notification, the teen sat up in a flash, nearly knocking over a half empty carton of takeout from the night before as he snatched up his holo before the third chirp. It was Naruto!

[Naruto: Hey D, hope you're not busy. We got a gig to do. I'll be there in an hour to give you the deets.]

Reading over his text multiple times, David couldn't help but cackle excitedly and threw himself back to where he was chilling before, "Yes! yes! yes! Fuckin yes! Hahaha! Ow ow ow Shit, what is that!

Something jabbing into his ass cheek ended his laughter and made roll to his side, digging for the offending object stuck in his back pocket. It was a knife. "Ow, damn I forgot I took this from AV." He muttered to himself while rubbing his injured rear, fingering a small metal notch that had been the offender. It wasn't anything special, just a cheap switchblade with a heavily scratched blade and plastic handles on each side, part of which was cracked and glued back together.

It flipped open halfway but with a flick of his wrist it snapped into place, ready for use, "guess I'll keep this," he mused, remembering how he handled his old chooms and folding the blade back in. Avery was one of the gonks that stole from him back then so what was wrong with getting a little payback? Turnabout's fair play after all, right?

'Wait…' David paused as he remembered something else that could prove to be useful and turned to the small closet opposite their bathroom. It was stuffed with several boxes of odds and ends from their old home that they never bothered to unpack but he knew that his mother had hidden a few things there thinking that he didn't know about it.

Hidden underneath several old shirts and a few stacks of old mail he found it stuffed inside of an old sock just like it had been since they moved in here. "Sorry mama, but I think I might need this," he apologized while easing the sock out from its place and nearly dislodging a small green frog shaped bag that he didn't remember being here before. But with his goal in hand, he pushed the object back inside and retrieved a small, somewhat compact Unity pistol from the sock.

Like any resident of Night City, they owned a gun and like any responsible mother, Gloria had hidden it from her son the best she could. But like any nosy teen, David had found it not long after and even though he could just buy a cheap budgetarms Slaught-O-Matic if needed, this was not only better but saved him a hundred eddies too.

Now he just needed to finish getting ready…

-xXx-

Just around the corner a few doors down from the excited academy student lost in his own world, Naruto was grumbling to himself in much the same way, "Alright, let's see. Gears all good, doubt we'll need anything big but maybe I should take some extra stuff just in case…"

"How about this? You think David could wear it?" From the other side of his apartment, a clone stuck his head out of the little workroom and held something up for the original to see.

"Wear what?" Turning his head, the blond saw it holding up a standard ballistic vest by the collar and looked thoughtful, "Hmm, maybe… wait, no!," Naruto stopped what he was doing and snorted, "hehehe look at me, haven't acted like this since my first C-rank,"

"Oi, I bet Davids acting the same way,"

"Pfft," he couldn't help but snort, pictureing David bouncing off the walls much like him, "no doubt," the laugh was nice but in the end he couldn't help but worry. The ass kicking they'd get would be legendary and if something happened to David on his watch the beating would be the least of his worries. The clone retreated back around the corner with his cheeks puffed out, returning the vest to its place while he continued to mentally cross his Ts and dot the Is.

"Oh yeah! Haha I found it!" The clone returned not long after a triumphant whoop, making the original wince when something fell on the other side, "Good thing that wasn't important."

Naruto took the container, a flimsy metal box stamped with the Militech logo and opened it up to see a rats nest of tangled cables and devices that he'd forgotten to separate weeks ago. It would take forever to sort through to try and find the- "oh here it is."

Taking the desired device and latching the box shut, Naruto slid it back across his floor and back into the armory where it hit something. "Ow!" his clone hobbled out, leaning against the doorway to press his right heel down against his injured left foot, "Hey asshole, that hit me!"

"Sorry!"

Leaving his clone behind to pick up the mess, Naruto made it to Glorias apartment and was Knocking on the door in less than ten minutes. it would've been sooner but in the time it took him to make it down the hall, he was stopped at least three separate times by passerbys.

Once by a elderly woman who reminded him of Abuela, thanking him for helping her out the day before. Truth be told, he didn't know what she was talking about but apparently one of his boys took it upon himself to help her out and she knew he was a part of his 'crew'.

The second was entertaining. Moments after turning a corner, he was caught in the most adorable ambush he'd ever seen as four children around the ages of four to six jumped out of their 'hiding places' with brightly colored water pistols. Their antics, both the kids and his own made those nearby pause as it really showed just how much the place had changed in less the past months. Naruto spent a minute or so dodging their attacks until they ran out and his backup showed up in the form of their parents. They apologized like crazy but he didn't mind, the fact that people felt safe enough to let their kids play made him feel like he had definitely made the place better.

The third time was by none other than one of the kids' mothers, he didn't know her personally but recognized her from around the complex and could remember seeing her wrangling a mischievous little girl that was caught drawing on the wall in the hallways. Recently laid off and out of work, she heard about his new place up on the thirteenth floor and was hoping to get hired on even if it was only part-time. He sympathized and sent her in Akios direction, they'd certainly need employees for the restaurant and he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of that.

Flicking the cook a quick heads-up, Naruto checked the time and estimated that they still had a little time before needing to head out, giving him time to explain things and do what he planned.

"Hey David, you ready?" He knocked quickly, pressing the call button next to it. Less than a second later the door slid open revealing an excited seventeen year old in his usual street clothes and a simple black shirt.

"Hell yeah, just let me grab my shoes,"

When David turned to grab his shoes, Naruto caught sight of a familiar shape partly hidden by the teens shirttail that made his eyes widen, a gun? David had a gun? Without pause, he moved next to the teen, pulled the shirt up and over his head then snatched the pistol from his waistband in one smooth motion.

"Hey what's the big… idea?" David squawked, fighting with his shirt for a moment only to turn and see Naruto holding moms pistol by the grip, looking between it and him with a raised eye, "... I can explain?"

Naruto stopped him by raising a hand, looking down at the gun in his hand for a moment then pulling the slide back slightly, it was loaded. "Who gave you this?" he flipped the safety on and held it up questioningly while fixing the teen with a serious expression.

"No one, it's Moms." he admitted quickly, pulling the shirt back down to its proper place.

That was a bit of a surprise, Gloria didn't shy away from guns but she never struck him as the type to have one. But then again, having any kind of weapon was smart in a city like this one, "I see… you plan on using it?"

"N-no, not really. I thought that I could watch your back… you know, in case something happens,"

Naruto held it for another second, bouncing the barrel against his chrome palm, "Do you even know how to use this thing?" He questioned the teen, who nodded confidently. "Alright," the blond tossed the weapon up, catching it by the barrel and held it out for David to take, "Show me,"

-xXx-

The beautiful thing about a MegaBuilding is that while each monstrosity was originally made the same, after a while they each took on their own layouts with the thousands upon thousands of residents renovating what they could. Some floors were residential, some commercial, there were even a few dedicated to infrastructure such as water pumps, servers, and generator rooms used to ensure each portion of the building got what they needed… assuming you paid of course.

H4 was no different, but being one of the furthest from the bustling City Center or the more affluent areas, the denizens of H4 worked with what they had and if there was one thing Naruto could respect, it was their ingenuity. Especially when building management dragged their feet on repairs, leaving them to figure it out for the most part.

With Naruto wanting to see how well he could use moms pistol, David followed the blond into one of three local gun shops located in H4. A small, heavily fortified storefront with thick armored glass and heavy metal bars welded over each window with a young man standing behind it playing with his holo.

"Welcome to Locke and Load," another man crowed cheerfully, much older and rounder than the teen who continued ignoring the new customers, "Welcome welcome, please come on in.'' As they did so, the owner glanced over to the older teen and barked, "Denzel, what the hell do I pay you for! Get off your ass and get something done, have you finished the inventory yet?"

David glanced over to the blond while the owner ripped his employee a new one, "You know this guy?"

"No not really, but they have a range and I want to see if you know how to use that pistol before you carry it around."

"Comeon dude. I'm not a gonk, it's not like i'll shoot myself in the foot,"

Naruto's mind wandered a bit, recalling the time he'd suddenly gotten a clone's memory of doing that exact thing when he was practicing with his old Overture, "I'm sure you won't, but it never hurts to check right?"

After verbally ripping his lazy employee a new one, the man quickly approached the pair and looked to the blond with a sheepish smile, "Sorry about that," he cut a look over to his employee who was counting boxes of ammunition behind the counter and chuckled weakly, "He's my nephew… and not all there if you catch my meaning,"

The way the other young man shot his uncle with a scathing glare didn't get past either of them but was ignored, "But how can I help you? I have good deals on my new stock of Federated Arms pistols! Nothing like a new piece for a little peace of mind am I right?"

"Maybe some other time, choom. We're just here to get some bullets and rent the range for a while…"

Minutes later, the pair were sharing a firing lane and looking down at the pistol laying on the counter before them. Naruto was leaning against the support just to the side, arms crossed while waiting for David to 'show him' while the teen in question suddenly found himself suffering from an acute case of stage fright.

"I know how to do this!"

Snort* the teen's sudden annoyed growl made the blond smirk, replying with another little laugh, "I didn't say anything Dee.

"You were thinking it," David picked up the weapon and felt a bit more confident, it wasn't too awkward but it weighed a lot more than it did in the BDs. "I know how to shoot," hold it like so and…

BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

The confidence he had dried up pretty quickly after the first few rounds with Naruto casually standing behind him with a frown, "I don't think that was the target you were supposed to hit."

Still holding the weapon out in his right hand, David sweatdropped and realized that even with all the Edgerunner BDs where he felt what it was like to fire a gun, he still had absolutely no real world experience, "I know! I was aiming at that one but I don't know what I did wrong, I was doing it like they did in the BD,"

The pistol was placed down on the counter again while naruto thought about what he said, laughing under his breath, "David, do you remember what we talked about a while back? About that gonk messing with you at the Academy?"

"Tanaka?"

"I guess," Naruto racked his brain but couldn't remember if David ever mentioned the bully's name, "But remember how he uses a martial arts shard but can't actually handle doing it without the chip?" He waited just long enough for David to nod, "well it's the same concept here, BDs aren't a good source of training. You might pick up a few things here and there but you have to take the time to practice. No one can pick up a weapon and be great at it without practice, talent or not."

Looking at the unity, David huffed and set it down on the booth, "yeah… I guess you're right,"

Motioning for the teen to look up, Naruto stepped closer and pat the teen on the back, "Come on let me show you a trick I learned with aiming, I don't know everything but I can confidently say I know how to hit my target,"

"Grr… you know I'm still holding this thing right?"

The blond's grin turned mischievous, "Yep and according to what I saw I'm probably the safest one here!"

-xXx-

"You little gonk!" Denzel flinched when his uncle slapped him in the back of the head after making sure his two customers were fully in the range, "You're lucky your my brother's boy!"

Denzel, a tall gangly young man, was kneeling down behind the counter mid inventory when his uncle slapped him and covered the back of his stinging skull, " Ow Uncle Loc, that shit hurt!"

"Good!" The older man crossed his arm, his bulldog-like face twisted into a scowl, "I meant for it too!"

"What's the big deal?"

"The big deal?! Don't you know anything! H'aint you heard about the new Gangoon boss that took over the lower wards?" The question was accompanied by less than subtle nods towards the reinforced windows separating them from the shooting range.

"That guy? He's younger than me!" Denzel gasped, looking at the teen shooting on the other side which made his uncle groan,

"Not the kid you…" stopping just for a sec, his uncle pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "I told my brother not to let your mama smoke when she was pregnant with you…" Loc then looked a bit thoughtful and rubbed his chins, "or maybe it was when I dropped you on your head… eh.

The blond one ya gonk! He's the one that kicked those boosters out onto the streets!"

"He doesn't look like a ganger though!"

Gonk brained or not, Loc had to give his nephew that at least. The only reason he knew about the blond was due to several of his fellow shop owners' worries over whether or not they had to pay this new boss for 'protection', something he also worried about. Would this new head-gangoon come in one day and tear the place up like the previous ones? Break his shit, threaten them and demand something or else worse would happen the next time? The smart eddies were on 'yes' and Loc was hoping that since the guy seemed kinda chill, he would be able to build some kind of rapport and hopefully get a better 'deal'.

"And I don't look like I have a seven inch cock! I keep telling you that appearances can be deceiving, Denzel!"

-xXx-

"Not bad though, I have to admit you did better than I did the first time I used one,"

With a quick glance over to the target in the other lane where the silhouette sported a single bullet hole inches away from its hip, David couldn't help but be skeptical, "Really, how bad could you have been?"

Considering he had been stupid enough to look down the barrel at one time and even shot a hole in the old No-Tell motels wall when he was living there, Naruto considered himself pretty bad at the time, "You'd be surprised. I've been meaning to practice with my new pistol too, one of those tech guns. It's kinda neat, the bullet splits into three parts in midair."

The teen nodded towards the orange grip of his smaller Omaha Tech pistol pointing out of the holster on his thigh, "By the way, I noticed you didn't have your other pistol anymore, What happened to that big revolver you had?"

"Eh, some gonk shot it. Turned it into scrap metal." Those MaxTac guys were pretty good shots he had to admit but the fact that they broke his stuff still kind of annoyed him. "It's probably in a dumpster now… wait no, it's probably still on the streets somewhere in Corpo Plaza,"

"When did that happen?" Naruto told him the day and David took a moment to calculate something in his head, "Wait, that was the day before the wreck, right?"

"Oh damn it was wasn't it?" But before anything else was said, Naruto's holo chirped and suddenly began playing Us Cracks 'Ponpon Shit' much to David's amusement. Naruto however, scrambled to silence his holo, face turning bright red, "what the fuck is this playing on my- why is it so damn loud!? Stop! Stop! Stop!" His question came out in a jumbled panic while he fumbled to grab it, silencing it with some difficulty.

David couldn't hold it in and laughed, something the blond pouted at but ignored in favor of checking the holo. Someone had messed with it and he didn't know- "oh goddamnit!"

"What!?" David nearly flinched at his sudden growl and watched him start a call. "What happened!" Could it have been something to do with mom, was it from the MedCenter or something? [Hey 'mano! How's it hanging?] 'Jackie?' the voice was unmistakable but soon after the man spoke, Misty chimed in as well from the otherside as well, [Oh! Are you on speaker? Hey Naruto!]

The annoyed scowl vanished from Naruto's face for a bit, "Hey Misty!" There was just something about her cheerfulness that surprised him, she'd been a little depressed with the lack of business lately and hearing her happy made him feel slightly better... But it still didn't stop him from doing what he set out to do, "Jackie you asshat! You know I'm gonna get you back for messing with my holo!"

[Hahaha! You shouldn't have left it sitting out!]

[Jackie!] Misty almost sounded admonishing but a stifled giggle ruined it for her.

"Just you wait Jack! Next time you crank that bike of yours it's going to sound like a Maimai!" while he didn't know exactly how to pull it off, both knew he would if only to prove a point.

[Whoa! Espera un minuto, Holmes! Don't you dare touch my baby!]

"Too late! I'm already on the way!" He smirked at the sounds of panic Jackie made on the other end of the line. It sounded like he was hurrying to beat him to his garage/apartment when he hung up, leaving David snickering by his side, "Sorry about that David, Jackie got ahold of my holo and messed with some settings,"

He knew it was the man not only because of his admission but the fact that he added a note for it that displayed when the alarm sounded. "I'll admit it Jack, you got me pretty good…" he chuckled to himself, already thinking of ways to retaliate while disabling the alarm for now and turning back to the waiting teen, "Anyway, come on. It's time we get moving, I've got something a little different planned for this gig and I think you'll like it. Oh and before I forget again, I got this for you,"

Blinking as he was handed something from the blond's pouch, David took it and turned the device over in his hands several times, looking at it from all angles, "Err… thanks?". It was simple looking, had a small switch on one end with matching indicator light and from the polymer clips on one side he assumed it was worn on a belt, but that left one very important question, "What is it?"

"Just a little something we'll need for the gig. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to track down, at least that's what the old man said anyway… I'll explain it later. First things first, I've already gone over all the deets from my fixer and it's pretty straight forward." Since they were alone in the range, Naruto continued to explain the situation. They had to break into an apartment during a specific time when the occupant would be gone, locate and copy the paydata from the dataterm, then leave without a trace. Not exactly what David was hoping for but then again he couldn't exactly expect the blond to take him along for a dangerous job right?

"So what's the plan?"

"Well that's the thing," Naruto grinned and pulled a shard from his own neural port for David to take, "I got a good plan in mind but I wanna hear what you think, here's the details." the teens fingers gripped the offered shard but the blond didn't let go just yet, "You slot this shard and there's no backing out, come what may, we see it through,"

Something about his tone made the teen hesitant but for only a bit. Some of his BDs were of gigs gone wrong so the teen knew exactly what he was getting at or at least he assumed he did. There was no going back. "Yeah, I'm sure. I can handle it dude, don't worry,"

"Alright,"

Naruto released the shard and watched the teen slot it. If David backed out he wouldn't hold it against him, the only reason he said that before was to try and make him think. After all, this wasn't exactly legal and a record wouldn't do him any favors in the long run, "I shouldn't be nearly as happy as I am to say this but screw it.. Welcome to the edge, Dee…"

It may only be a brief glance of living the solo life but David couldn't get any more excited. Running along the edge and tempting fate at every turn to make it big in this city? Fuckin nova! Beats dealing with those rat faced Corpo assholes all day.

-xXx-

The apartment was much nicer than their Mega building apartment, no doubt with a rent to match the location in Charter Hill, one of the newer and nicer areas in Westbrook with holographic Sakura trees projecting shimmering pink petals fluttering to the ground and disappearing the moment it got too far away. But for all its beauty, with a simple glance down the street one could see the dregs of society struggle to make ends meet.

Standing just a few paces away from the doors, Naruto stared up at the towering structure counting the floors before giving up when he lost count. Sure it was way bigger than the Hokage tower but somehow it didn't continue to awe him the way the tower did back home. It probably had something to do with the ever present neon hum and the swarms of drones and AVs pelting across the sky from his point of view if he had to hazard a guess.

That was when someone bumped into him, making him look back down to see a young woman who had been looking down at her holo on the way out of said building, "Oh man I'm sorry about that miss," he exclaimed sheepishly while making sure she didn't drop anything, "I was distracted, you ok?" She was an attractive young woman, wearing casual yet expensive clothing that definitely didn't come from a second hand shop much like his own. He mentally prepared for her to start hurling insults but was honestly shocked when she brushed the entire accident off.

"It's fine, I wasn't looking where I was going either," She replied while smoothing down her shirt a little and brushing the accident off with ease, "Anyway sorry about that, but I gotta delta!"

Naruto blinked, speechless. He fully expected her to curse at him for bumping into her but was pleasantly surprised by her attitude. It was quite refreshing to say the least. "Ah… yeah, see ya," waving slowly, Naruto grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, slipping the other into his pocket, "Man why'd she have to be nice?"

"What do you mean?" Coming up from behind the mumbling blond who stuffed both his hands in his pockets, David gave him a curious look, only catching that last part while slipping past a passing group of haggard looking corpos coming and going to and from their soul crushing jobs

"Hm?" Naruto glanced back and waved it off, "Oh I'll ah… I'll tell you in a bit." he laughed weakly but continued before the teen could speak, "Let's focus on the gig first alright?" That did it and got a little grin in response so Naruto returned his attention back to the building and nodded towards it, "So, what do you think?"

"There's some scaffolding leading up to the fifth floor, could climb up to that ledge and we can make it to the fire escape." the teen reported lowly, as not to be too obvious to any passerbys which ignored the pair for the most part.

Naruto nodded slowly, "Not a bad idea, any cameras around?" He considered it a dumb question considering he'd already spotted four without even trying but had David noticed? This would be a good lesson for the teen, letting him take the lead would help build David back up a lot. Besides, if things got out of hand he would step in but so far he was actually pleasantly surprised at how seriously this was being taken.

"Yeah, there's no way to get in without being spotted at least once," David reached down and patted the piece of tech he wore on his waist hidden mostly by his shirt. "That's why you gave me this right?"

It was a simple looking device, at a glance it wouldn't raise any eyebrows but that nifty little device would cause any cams seeing him to register a large blur. It was an older model external lens disruptor, much like the optic that Vik had chipped him with except much stronger and vastly more noticable. Anyone watching the feeds would quickly notice the blurry figure and be alarmed but this was the best he could get for the teen at the moment considering this was so short notice.

"Yep, but don't forget it's only for cameras, everyone else can still see you clear as day," it was an obvious thing to say but he didn't want David making any stupid mistakes… like he did, "and stop messing with it. Apparently it's illegal to have or something,"

David sweatdropped at the flippant and shockingly loud admission on the blond's part and slowly brought his hand up and away from it, "... Like… how illegal?"

Naruto looked thoughtful and laughed lightly, "Well the way the old man put it back when I got this a while back was 'hearing that 'Jesus loves you' in the house of the Lord is one thing if you get caught with this and hearing it in prison it takes on a whole different meaning,"

It didn't take long for David to catch on, "Oh," taking a quick look at it he shrugged and made sure his shirt covered it by tugging at the fabric, "how's that?"

Having watched the entire thing, Naruto had to admit that him trying to cover it only brought more attention to it, "It looks fine David, just act natural." He stepped over and laid an arm across his shoulder with a grin and continued in a low tone, "As far as anyones concerned it's an external battery pack to charge your holo, until it's turned on the only thing a scan will see is a battery."

After a moment David cocked his head and remembered something else that he'd noticed about it before, "Hey, when I was putting it on, I noticed something on the back." The teen could recognize kanji but didn't take the time to look too deeply, "the weird marks?"

"Oh yeah, that's just a little something I added myself," Naruto admitted, instantly knowing what the teen was talking about, "kinda like a goodluck thing. Its something my old man made before i was born."

"whats it mean?"

"Hiraishin,"

The word meant literally nothing to the teen so he had to ask, "Is that supposed to mean something?"

"Eh... no, not really... besides," the blond suddenly smirked mischievously and patted him on the shoulder, "If something happens I won't the police getcha," David didn't see the sharp look that flashed across the man's eyes but disappeared just as quick, "but ah, let's not get the cops attention of we can help it huh? Cause then I'll have to kick their asses, then catch some charges, lead them on a city wide chase while thoroughly humiliating them around every corner. Actually no… I'd probably let them take me to prison, just to see if I could break out… ooh, or maybe take over?"

David snorted an amusement while listening to the blondes amused rambling, "What? You gonna go find the biggest baddest gonk there and flatten his ass?"

"Nah…" Naruto thought about it for a second and conceited, that was definitely something he would do. "Well, maybe… but on second thought I'd just break out, taking over and bossing a bunch of gonks around in the slammer sounds boring. Besides I already have one person calling me papi and she's all I need!"

David sputtered then elbowed the blond in his gut who responded by quickly running his hand over the teens styled hair and getting another set of squawks. "Man, hey!" He whined out between swipes, trying to get him to stop, which he did, "Come on dude, don't joke like that… at least not yet, I'm still processing this whole you and Mom thing,"

"Hehe sorry D," Naruto let the teen go with an apologetic grimace and rubbed the back of his head, "you know Glorias gonna be pissed if she finds out about this right?"

"Good, that means you'll be sleeping on the couch and away from my mama," the teen jabbed back, making the blond chuckle.

"Wait, doesn't she sleep on the couch most of the time anyway?" Most of the time, sure. The rest of the time had been sleeping in his bed but that little tidbit would be saved for a rainy day.

David moved to retort but froze, going over it in his head "Damn," the man was right, he'd complained about her refusing to change her sleeping habits more than once. A quick side eye to the gonk next to him made him growl at the dopy look on the ninja's mug, "Stop perving on my mom!"

Laughing, Naruto slapped the teen on his shoulder and nodded, "Fine, I'll stop… but for real David, if anything happens I'll be there in a flash." The teen raised an eyebrow at the odd way he said that but shrugged it off, appreciating the sentiment at least, " Now come on and let's get moving. This is probably the perfect time to make our move."

-x-

They got in with surprising ease, and it turns out that after climbing up to the fifth floor fire escape the door was unlocked and the pair were able to stroll right into the upper middle class apartment complex with ease. David found it odd but Naruto brushed it off which the teen slowly nodded to before joining him on the walk to the target's apartment door.

"Ah Shit!" David slapped himself in the forehead and groaned, "I didn't think about the door!" Naruto raised an eyebrow at the outburst so the teen explained, "I don't think I can bypass doors like this," It wouldn't be the first time he bypassed a door, older soft was easy to trick or crack but these looked well maintained and up to date. With that in mind, he turned back to the blond who leaned against the wall to act as a lookout, "any ideas?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the teen who cursed and grumbled under his breath, "Well…" Naruto trailed off in a teasing manner and stuck out his tongue while fishing a cartoon weasel keychain from his pocket to show a small set of access tokens to the teen. "If nothing else I figured we might just use the key like a couple of civilized gonks,"

David's jaw dropped, staring between the sheepish yet smirking blond and the token, "is that the-" Instead of answering right away Naruto held the small electronic tag towards the sensor that made the panel flash green. "How long have you had them?"

"Around the time you looped around the building to see if there was another way in." Naruto admitted, spinning the keychain on his finger before dropping it back into his pocket, he would just leave them somewhere inside for her to find when she returns, "I grabbed them after bumping into her on the street,"

David looked confused then thoughtful, that explained why they were able to get through the fire door easily. remembering the chick that ran right into the blond earlier while on her holo, he asked, "Wait, that wasn't an accident?" The teen gaped, shocked as he hadn't even noticed the slight of hand at the time. "How'd you know it was her?"

"I had her name and knew she would be leaving the building soon," he replied with a shrug before tapping the interface and continuing, "I just scanned the people walking out and got lucky," Whoever did all the prep work for this went above and beyond to a near psychotic degree and that was coming from him. The guy even had a creepy list of time windows that could be used to break in and apparently they had an hour at least before she was due to return.

Walking a bit closer, the door panel unlocked itself, allowing the both entry.

"Woah!" David was impressed at the layout but quickly found himself comparing it to his own one bedroom apartment the more he looked around, "check it out, the place has a second floor and everything."

The place seemed to be one large open floor with a sort of modular loft installed which gave it both an industrial yet modern feel without much extra work. Next to the door below the loft was a small kitchen with a half burnt slice of toast left sitting out next to the sink. The rest of the place was one open living room kept in immaculate condition and if he didn't know better Naruto might've worried that they just broke into the wrong place.

"Let's look around, find the dataterm. We'll copy the data and try to leave everything the way it is" he mused, walking deeper into the apartment with a casual strut as if he belonged while the teen cautiously followed suit.

"Wait, what if there are cameras inside."

It was a good question to ask but Naruto already knew that there wasn't any according to the information he'd been supplied, "We're covered on that," he assured him, "The only cams to worry about are the ones outside, even if they spotted us the only thing they'll see is a pair of dumbasses climbing up the scaffolding,"

"How do you know that?"

"I did my own scouting while you did yours," But didn't he wait at the front? When did he have time to do that David found himself wondering only to be reminded of the task at hand, "why don't you search upstairs? I'll look around down here, give me a yell if you find anything,"

David agreed and headed up to the raised section of the apartments while he turned 'I could see us living in a place like this,' he mused to himself while taking a quick look around the small enclosed kitchen not too far from the front door. Aside from a half empty mug of Synthcoff and a half washed plate it was pretty well maintained to be a college students place, "Must have Corpo parents paying the bills… oh a banana!"

As shameless as it was, Naruto snagged the piece of real fruit and peeled it absentmindedly, snacking on it while walking back out and taking a leisurely gander around the living room where he found a well maintained record player with several records that he didn't recognize but took the time to loom through.

"Let's see, oh that's awesome," he could help but compliment. It was pretty preem looking, a cybernetic hound snarling off to one side as if it had broken off its chains. "Too bad the labels messed up, what else does she have?" Sure he told David not to mess with anything and leave no trace behind but curiosity had long since knocked a few lives off this cat.

"Hey, I think I found it!"

"I'm heading up!," he finished off the banana and tossed the peel in the trash, stopping just long enough to make sure it was partially covered by some old takeout bags before heading up to where David was waiting in the bedroom, "Good work D! Let's see if this is it." smirking at the praise, David stepped back to let Naruto raise the screen, "Oh yeah this is exactly what we're looking for." it powered on with a beep and while it finished, the blonde pulled a small device from his pocket and jacked into the term. "Lets see, if I remember right all I gotta do is… Damn it," he suddenly groaned, seeing the term demanding a password.

He didn't know how to hack into this thing, usually he just had to plug in the little device he'd been given, a 'data sniffer' Regina called it and it would do the job for him, "this thing has better security. Looks like we're taking the whole thing, so much for leaving no trace."

"I can do it!"

Turning to David, the blond blinked looking between him and the terminal sitting on the vanity "You can bypass it?"

"Yeah, I got this!" David spoke excitedly, leading the blond to shrug and step out of the way with a motion for him to 'have at it's. "Just give me a minute," between what he picked up experiencing edgerunner XBDs and his academy classes surprisingly enough, David felt like he could do it and sat down at the woman's vanity to work on it.

"Hehe," Naruto took a moment to pat the teens shoulder and told him, "See Dee, you're far from useless… but I do have to wonder how you know this," when the teen didn't answer, he only snorted and turned with a laugh, "fair enough, I won't ask. I'll leave it to you."

Leaving David to his task, the blond took a quick glance around the room and stepped out of the raised walkway looking over the living room. 'This really is a nice place,' his apartment was nice, especially since he decorated and added his own style to the mix but this place just had it all going for it. Nice big windows, open floors, hell the second 'floor' was nova too. He could easily see him and Gloria living in a place like this but then again, he kinda wanted a place away from everything, maybe even outside of the city.

His mouth fell open, releasing a soundless cry of dismay at the sight of the door opening up, revealing the familiar young woman whom he'd pickpocketed less than twenty minutes prior. 'What the- why are you back!!!' she looked annoyed, upset even which made the blond wince as he flung himself back into her room and out of sight before she could spot him.

David jumped when Naruto suddenly burst back in and snapped screen of the terminal shut while speaking in a hushed tone " Keep it down, we got company," The teens mouth snapped closed, eyes wide as he quickly put the chair back in place then turned to Naruto who was back at the door and keeping an eye on the resident.

"Oh shit, wh-"

Naruto quickly spun around and pressed his hand over the teens mouth, "Don't whisper like that, It's louder than you think," he waited until David nodded and removed his hand, "Don't panic and speak quietly under your breath, teens are good at that right?" The remark earned him a rude gesture but it did the trick and got him focused, " Anyway, follow my lead and we can sneak out of here easy, just give me a second," with that, Naruto eased himself silently over to the open doorway and listened closely with the teen following behind nervously.

"Alright, follow me,"

With Naruto leading the way, the pair stealthily left the bedroom and out onto the walkway where David could see the young woman from before looking in a small metal bowl sitting on an end table by the door, "I know Daddy, but I swore I had my keys when I left. Would you ask Mom just to make sure?" The voice downstairs spoke with a bit of annoyance in her tone. "Sorry Dad, it's just that with the trip coming up, I don't wanna be late."

'of course she would return without her keys!' he hissed internally, feeling pretty stupid as he nudged the teen to calmly get the teens full attention. "Don't rush it, calm and steady movements," Naruto waited for the teens nod before motioning to the stairs, "Guess I'm teaching you stealth now too,"

"Daddy, you know I don't lose stuff, hold on I'm switching to neuro-link l while I look." David followed Naruto's lead and calmly eased down the steps where the blond leaned to peek around the corner. Hearing only one side of the convo, he couldn't help but hear that annoyingly sweet way she spoke, it sounded so fake and made him want to see what this chick looked like as she continued speaking, "I had them in my hand before when I was getting dressed," Without thinking, the teen leaned forward a bit to try and catch a glimpse but bumped into the blond who was already doing the same.

Feeling the teen leaning towards him, Naruto rolled his eyes and shifted over to let him. It was kinda fun taking the teen along on a 'gig' he was doing just fine all things considered. "Shi-" David suddenly slipped and caught himself on the handrail, somehow all without making a loud sound yet pushing Naruto out and into the open.

"I won't Dad, don't worry," she continued, picking up the copy of her Black dog Samurai vinyl record that was laying by her father's old record player. It was a dusty relic by today's standards but she kept it due to fond memories. All the while she remained unaware of the blond haired intruder falling face first into the floor across the room and skittering across the open floor to hide behind the nearby couch.

"Hmm?" The woman glanced back behind her for a moment, "Oh nothing Dad, AC just kicked on I think." She spared a second longer to glance around, still somehow unaware that barely a few yards away there was a pair of Edgerunners hiding just out of sight. "And no, I don't need any of those guys following me around, they're weird… I love you too daddy, I'll call you later ok,"

Naruto groaned internally and rubbed his nose, shooting a look over his shoulder to where he could see the culprit cringing. David was mouthing the word sorry with a worried expression until he waved the teen off while thinking, 'I'll get you back for that later,'

Thoughts of a little payback aside, he waited until the time seemed right and waved for David to get past him and into the small kitchen area where he planned to follow only for the girl to huff loudly and make another call while heading directly for the couch Naruto hid behind. "Dammit! Nothing's going right today… Hey Doll! No, I've lost my keys… bite me bitch tits. No I'm probably going to stay home now, already gonna be late as it is… you do? Girl you know I'm only going to be gone for the break right… A surprise… I know what a surprise is, you gonk!"

Now with at least one wall and a few appliances between him and them, David crouched by the open entryway and peeked out. Naruto was on his side, pressed against the back of the couch as the pillows were removed one by one, staying out of her sightlines by a hair's width, even as he was slapped in the face by the end of a decorative throw. He wanted to laugh, especially with the deadpanned expression the blond wore but soon the woman continued her search and headed upstairs while Naruto was able to quickly make his way into the kitchen undetected.

"Sorry about earlier,"

"It's fine," It wasn't fine, that shit hurt and he left a trail of spit across the floor where he fell but he would have time to prank the teen later. "although, I did hear something interesting right then… eh I'll tell you later. Come on, let's get outta here.

" Wait Naruto, we still need to get the data don't we?"

Making a face and silently screaming because he knew the teen was right, Naruto hung his head " Shit, yeah ah… give me a sec and I'll…" David looked concerned when he stopped mid sentence and waited when he held up a finger, listening in on the new call and smirking, "I got it… David, do you trust me?"

There was something about that look in the blonds eyes that made him doubt,"... Not when you ask me like that," the deadpan expression David got in return made the teen sigh, " alright fine yeah what's the plan,"

Naruto peeked around the edge of the door again and David tried to do the same, only to be pulled back, "Look, I'm going to sneak back up and grab what we need,"

" Ok," nodding along, David motioned for more, " What do I do?"

Naruto grinned and patted the teen on the shoulders, " You have the most important part," that perked the teen up but worried him too as he waited to hear what he needed to do. "I need you to distract her,"

"Distract her? Dude, how the fuck… how am I supposed to do that when we're not supposed to be caught?"

"You got this Dee," He placed a hand on each of his shoulders with an easygoing grin and nodded to the teen while slowly easing him towards the doorway "Just trust me and go along with what she says, I promise it'll work."

"Why don't you distract her?" David tried racking his brain for a way to do just that but truthfully found himself unable to come up with a single decent idea. What was he supposed to do to distract her, tell her jokes? Maybe do a little song and dance?

"Because I'm loyal to your mother," he smirked before suddenly spinning him around and shoving the teen out into the open, " Good luck!"

David made a strangled yelp and scrambled not to fall, shoes slapping the floor loudly as he tried to stop himself. He managed not to fall and looked around in a panic like a mouse as the owner stuck her head out from her bedroom door upstairs and looked down directly at him.

"Oh good, you're here already! Just a second, let me put a little something on and I'll be right there."

Forcing the panic down, David smiled sheepishly just a few paces from the door, "Ah yeah, no problem!" He replied, trying not to sound suspicious. Once she vanished, he quickly made his way back to the open doorway leading to the kitchen, where Naruto was still hiding, " Naruto?"

"..."

Not getting an answer, he leaned in and found himself alone. Naruto was gone. " Naruto?" He wouldn't have left him here would he? A quick look around confirmed it but before he could call out again to try and find him, the owners voice answered him instead,

"Are you looking for something in particular cutie?"

Spinning around, David tried to keep a calm look but failed instantly at the sight, nearly skipping down the stairs, making her laugh at his bright red face as he tried and failed to reply. She was a bit older than him and slightly taller by an inch or two with shoulder length curly brown hair wearing an oversized Tainted Overlord shirt that did nothing to hide the fact that she only wore a pair of blue and pink panties below.

"Aw, you're blushing! Dollie said you were new but I didn't think she meant you'd be young," she eyed him up and down in a way that made the teen blush harder and bit her lip, moving even closer to drape her arms over his shoulders. "Have you ever done this before?"

Movement behind her drew his attention to where Naruto had reappeared near the top of the stairs, giving the teen a thumbs up and a shit-eatting grin as he quickly and silently slipped into her bedroom. David shook his head quickly, the scent of her perfume filling his nose with hints of vanilla and something sweet "N-No,"

"First time?" Her dark brown eyes sparkling with excitement which made him blush worse at her correct assumption. "Oh I'm so excited, I've never had a virgin Joytoy before!" David finally realized what was going on but couldn't quite believe it until she leaned back and ran her fingers down his chest. "Ooh and you have some muscles too, nice. I'm Xochi by the way,"

Once again, movement caught his eye and glancing up, he spotted the blond trying not to laugh while holding himself up on the doorway they fled from earlier

With her feeling his chest, the teen swallowed nervously, stuttering when one hand slipped down to his waist and played with his waistband, "D-David,"

Xochis seductive little grin never faltered, having grown along with a certain part of his anatomy that was now hard as steel, "fuck your so cute," David groaned lowly when her teasing fingers hooked underneath his pants and boxers to pull him along with her, "Come on I was about to hop in the shower, you can join me! I so can't wait to pop your cherry!"

While this wasn't exactly how he envisioned this gig going, he wouldn't complain in the slightest with how it was going.

"Come on cutie, my room is right over here,"

Each stair he climbed felt like another step towards something great… and considering how she'd given up on pulling him along by his pants and went straight to tugging him along by his shaft, it was something great indeed! 'Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! I can't believe it, this is happening!' having long since lost blood flow to the proper head, David nearly screamed when his holo chirped with a notification from the blond then once again after reading

[Naruto: Grab her ass!]

Had he not already been blushing to the max, David would've turned atomic at the suggestion, [David: What? No way, I can't! And dude, I don't need your advice on this!]

[Naruto: what do you mean you can't!? She's dragging you up to her room to fuck!] David glanced down at striped panties that tantalized him, begging to be grabbed. [Naruto: Wait, advice? Just do it and don't argue with me, it's for the gig! Now grab a good handful and trust me! Or her titty if that's what you're into, I don't care!]

[David: But-]

[Naruto: I'm still in here and I doubt she'll suck your dick when she finds me in her room!]

-x-

Still listening at the door with the DataTerm safely under one arm, Naruto grinned when he heard a loud smack followed by a surprised moan, "Oh? You're into that, good me too!" He heard David start to speak but his voice suddenly cut off as she continued, "Hmm how about this?"

'Hehehe, good luck D!' with a quick glance around to make sure he didn't leave anything, he tossed the weasel keychain along with all the keys and access tokens on the bed then peeked around the door, still grinning when he spotted the now shirtless woman standing with her back to him and David getting a feel of his first real titty. 'Dude I'm so proud of you!'

Taking the chance David was giving him, Naruto took a few silent steps and leapt through the open doorway headfirst and diving over the railing much to the teens' shock. Luckily, the music she started earlier covered any sound he might have made below them as he landed in a crouch.

She must've seen his eyes widen and glanced over her shoulder just as he vanished out of sight, "Something wrong?" she asked before squealing when he pinched her nipple, "Oh you naughty boy! Just wait till I get you in my bed!"

-x-

This was certainly not how he envisioned the gig going and that was a fact. Sure it was a hastily thrown together plan so the Shinobi couldn't exactly account for every possibility but having listened in on her last holo call, Naruto had an idea.

It seemed like this Xochi lady had a thing for younger guys and had a 'choom' named Dollie who specialized in younger joytoys. Something he would look into later on principle alone but for now it seemed like David lucked out. His first gig and not only did he succeed but he was about to get laid too, the lucky little shit… he couldn't be prouder.

Although… now that he was thinking about it, this wouldn't exactly deter David from wanting to drop out to be an Edgerunner… "ah shit," Naruto shook his head, adjusting the laptop in his grip and pressing the elevator panel to take him to the ground floor where he strolled leisurely through the front door. 'Sorry Gloria baby, I may have messed up a little… oh well,' David was happy and out of his funk hopefully or would be in a little bit.

Anyway, he needed to get moving, time to send this thing to Regina and complete the gig. He'd check back in with the kid in a while, let him have some fun.

-xXx-

N.C. Medical Center…

(Around the same time)

-xXx-

" And another thing. Don't ever kid yourself about loving someone. It is just that most people are not lucky enough ever to have it. You never had it before and now you have it. What you have with Maria, whether it lasts just through today and a part of tomorrow, or whether it lasts for a long life is the most important thing that can happen to a human being. There will always be people who say it does not exist because they cannot have it. But I tell you it is true and that you have it and that you are lucky even if you die tomorrow…" Naruto paused in his reading and stared at the page for a bit longer than he expected to before leaning back, "Damn Jackie, I didn't expect you to read stuff like this… hehe he strikes me more as a comic fan, right Gloria-chan?"

His redheaded mainline didn't respond of course, even his horrible attempt at reading to her didn't even earn a twitch… although had she awoken to comment on it would've scared the absolute hell out of him… It was a rare copy of some old book according to its original owner at least, the thought that Jackie would be tearing his hair out trying to find his copy of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' put a smile on his face and Naruto delighted in telling his unconscious mainline the tale.

Gloria was radiant, even in her hospital scrubs and bundled under her TraumaDrama throw she looked amazing to him. The thick layer of bandages around her head were gone, the Medtechs were amazed at how well she responded to the treatment but as always, any optimism was tempered with caution especially with the sheer damage she endured.

"There's another book I wish I could read to you, my Sensei wrote it… oh I guess I never told you too much about him did I? He was a lecherous old man, got his ass kicked more times than I can count for peeping… hehe I kinda got him busted a few times just for the fun of it… but porn isn't the only thing he wrote. It was called 'The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi,' it was pretty good and I wish I got the chance to tell him that. Mom and Dad liked it, shoot, they named me after the hero…" it was still rather unfortunate, being named after a damn fishcake made him the but of many jokes and caused more than a few fights over the years.

Silence engulfed the room once again as he trailed off, broken only by the rhythmic beeping from the monitors as he bounced his knee anxiously with Jackie's book in hand. "Baby I have some things to tell you," even though she showed no signs of hearing him, Naruto couldn't help but lean closer to her bed before he continued, "Its… kinda unbelievable and you'll probably think I'm insane but hey, it's not like I don't already have a screw loose huh." a weak chuckle escaped his lips, "I'll tell you everything when you wake up ok baby? I mean I wanted to tell you first but things don't always work out like we plan huh,"

Once again the room fell into silence, this time stretching on for a little longer than before with him reaching out to hold her hand until something caught his attention, "Damn," the chair he was sitting in groaned with him moving to stand and scraped the floor when he slid it back against the wall, "Sorry baby, I have to go. You have a visitor!"

With a quick look around the room to make sure he didn't forget anything, Naruto took a moment to make sure she was nicely tucked in and planted a kiss on her forehead, whispering in her ear the words, "Love you,"

"-and I'm telling you Nora, you should totally come out and hit a few clubs with us tonight!" The moment the door slid open, a woman's voice could be heard over the cacophony of noises in the hall where two Medtechs walked in from outside. Both wore the same bland green scrubs with white paper masks over their face but only one seemed to be working, the other seemed to just be following the other and talking her ear off.

Nora, the one that looked like she was supposed to be there, grunted and flicked the lights on in the room, "I don't know Lexie, those kinda places aren't really my scene,"

The other girl shrugged, walking in behind her into the tiny room and looked around boredly before spying something that piqued her curiosity. "Oh wow, check it out girl."

"What is it Lexie? I'm trying to do my rounds here," God this bitch was close to getting an upclose and personal look at her dataslate, cozy up to a fuckin icepack for a while you cocksucking slut. 'Fucked herself outta doing her own rounds again I bet,' despite her annoyance, curiousity won out in the end.

The aforementioned cockersucker was at the sink, eyeing a breathtaking arrangement of vibrant orange lilies speckled with flakes of reddish brown in a vase next to the sink.

"This thing must've cost a wad," Lexie remarked with a hint of envy as she turned to eye the patient, "Hmm… if she's here, you think I could get a hold of her man? I bet you I could make him forget all about this chick,"

"Lexie I swear, one day you're going to end up with some pissed off output beating your ass… again."

"Girl you know I can't help that guys follow me around like some gonks lost puppy.

'More like flies buzzing around your blown out snatch,' Nora thought ruefully with several quick taps at her dataslate, thankfully the patient was under sedation and couldn't hear what this bitch was saying, "You know what, it's weird. These flowers weren't here earlier and I haven't seen anyone bring anything in at- hey stop it, don't touch them!"

Lexie shot her a small frown then rolled her eyes, "Ugh, Nora you gotta chill. No one will know, I mean damn, we could take them if we wanted and no one would even know,"

"Not this one Lexie, this patients off limits," with the curious look she was getting, Nora rolled her eyes and nodded towards the door, directing the other Medtech to get moving, she had other patients to check on, "Girls got connections, you should've seen security freaking out the other day when a bunch of Valentinos were hanging around and…" The pair exited and the room went quiet again the moment the door slid shut.

-xXx-

One hour later…

-xXx-

Running the term over to Gina took less than ten minutes much to the woman's shock, having passed along the deets just a couple of hours beforehand. Naruto enjoyed the confusion in the Fixers eye when he handed it over but quickly wanted to return to Charter Hill. A clone was left behind just in case, mainly to keep an eye out for the teen but should push come to shove the blond was certain that he could be there in a flash. But for now, all he could do was wait…

And wait he did…

"Damn Dee, I don't know if I should be impressed or worried for you," he huffed, shuffling the screamsheet he'd been reading for the past half hour to check the time on his holo, "I could've started my last load of laundry if I knew you'd take your sweet time… or grabbed something else to read other than this trash,"

The screamsheets were interesting to a point, being able to print off the news or a section you wanted to get the most up to date deets on local affairs was a godsend on an intelligence standpoint. Spy masters would cry tears of joy to have that kind of resource and that's not even mentioning what the NET would be worth but only if both weren't so inundated with corporate propaganda and what he suspected to be blatant lies then he'd use it more.

"Oh well, so long as Davids having fun then I guess I don't mind waiting," he leaned back and crossed one leg over the other to get comfortable, "Not like I haven't made him wait before while I was with Gloria-chan," Oh well, maybe the next article would be interesting, 'Legendary Rockerboy Kerry Eurodine causes scene at-' "eh ok maybe not. Hope your having a good time at least dude,"

-xXx-

"Please no more!" David gasped, hands gripping the doorframe as he tried crawling away from the room. Behind him and just as nude, Xochi had him by his ankles with a manic grin, pulling him back towards her bed, "I can't keep going! Please! Nooo!"

"What are you talking about cutie? You're still primed and ready to fire!" The woman had a wild look in her eyes, one that thrilled him yet sent chills down his spine, "Come on, I wanna see if I can squeeze out lucky number seven. Most guys wanna call it quits after the first couple! "

"You slipped me something!" David was proud beneath his fear but there was no way he could still be ready to rock with how long they'd been going at it. It was getting painful at this point

She giggled, "Yeah, I did! But not what you're thinking," his horrified expression was adorable but she tried to pacify him, "It was just a little something to give you a slight energy boost, it's got nothing to do with that hardware you got Mr. Stud!" Without much warning, she jerked him back and dislodged him from the doorway, much to his horror as he started clawing at the carpeted floor which offered him no purchase, "Now come on, I got a few more things I wanna do!"

-xXx-

Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen counter, bedroom again, the floor, on and on Xochi did her best to wring his manhood dry. Position after position, when his arms got tired she flipped him over and rode him just as hard as before only giving him the briefest of breaks before giving him another prod.

She must've pitied him, because after his third unsuccessful escape attempt, David found himself sitting down on her couch to relax while the woman slowly rode him like a sex crazed cowgirl who screamed as she tightened around him and ended up smacking the hell out of him at the same time.

"Who the hell are you people!" Xochi screamed from atop the teens lap, covering herself with her arms while David took slightly longer to snap out of his first ever fuck-drunk haze. "Get out! Get out now!"

'The hell!' that didn't seem right to him but the stars hadn't quite cleared from his vision at the time.

"What the fuck, the bitch is supposed to be gone by now!"

Two new voices from behind him had him twisting and turning to see who it was, nearly dislodging Xochi from her spot atop him much to her unwanted pleasure.

"You know what the boss said, no loose ends,"

The hair on the back of his neck tingled, the chill of Santa Muertes breath making her presence known. This wasn't a BD, this was fucking real and he was about to die like this? There was really only one thing he could do, if he kept still it was the end. He had to at least try, keep fighting till the end.

Seizing the girl in a hug, David pulled her tight and flung them both off the couch moments before the first shot made the chances of getting her security deposit back slim to none. Both landed with a wheeze but the teen couldn't help but grimace at the sudden burning coming from the back of his shoulder.

"Nice try kid," one of the mercs raised his compact shotgun again and leveled it at the prone pair, "But you ain't nothing special, shoulda chromed the fuck up before trying to play hero,"

"But he bought me enough time to!" As if he'd been standing there the entire time, Naruto stood next to the teens would be executioner. His fingers wrapped around the barrel just in time to redirect it away from David and towards the mercs partner just before it fired, deafening anyone without the auditory chrome to filter out the sound and truly ending any dream of seeing a single eddie of that security deposit.

Xochi screamed, holding on tightly to her human shield while David trembled, processing yet another close shave with death.

"Hey!" Snapped the blond, snatching the weapon away and swinging it like a club as hard as he could, "Dee, talk to me! You hit?" The gun shattered into a half dozen broken parts, both it and the mercs skull unable to withstand the full force of his adrenaline fueled swing. "Dee!"

"Y-yeah. I'm nova!" It took him a second but David finally answered after the second bark. Naruto spared himself a moment to breathe and looked around, now certain that he'd secured the area. Outside in the hall two more of their buddies, lookouts most likely but neither saw his clones coming and wouldn't be much of a threat ever again.

The moment his clone alerted him to the group breaking into the apartment, Naruto zeroed in on the marker he'd placed on the device he'd given David and fi

He'd finally done it, had the situation not been so serious, the blonde would've been screaming for joy that he had officially recreated his fathers Flying Thunder God technique. It was a lot more into it than he expected, having much more in common with summoning than other sealing techniques like he first thought. More than one clone was lost out in the badlands testing his failed seals and more than one nomad told tales of screams and explosions echoing out across the dusty waste on moonless nights.

Suffice it to say, this was the first time he used it under real stress and everything went perfectly. Well except for appearing at the foot of the girls bed upstairs while the action was going on down stairs.

The pair shakily pulled away from one another in shock, everything having happened so fast that neither really processed it until the girl gasped, "You're hurt!"

"What?"

"What!"

Both turned to her, David in confusion and Naruto in concern. It wasn't until she touched his back with a cautious finger did the burning sensation return to the forefront of his mind earning another gasp, this time from him. Naruto was next to them in a flash getting a look at the teen injuries.

"Uh oh,"

"Uh-oh? What do you mean 'Uh-oh'?"

Naruto grabbed the teen and stopped him from moving, "Dee stop, here." He snatched a pillow from the couch at the same time and slung it around the teen, who caught it questioningly, "use this to cover yourself,"

David did so immediately, realizing he was still nude and pressed the pillow against him. Xochi caught on just as quickly with a squeak and pressed her legs together, covering her chest with both arms and running away towards the stairs. Loyal or not, Naruto glanced over and got a good look at the girl's ass as she sounded up to her room before returning his attention to the teen.

"David, listen to me." Shaking the teen out of his thoughts, Naruto was busy digging into the pouch on his belt and jabbed the end of something into the teen's shoulder while asking, "where's your clothes?"

"AH!" The jab made him yelp but David quickly realized he been stuck with a BounceBack the moment Naruto injected him with the Airhypo, "what the hell!?"

"Focus! Your clothes David, where are they?"

"Upstairs!" Naruto blinked 'duh' then vanished, leaving the teen confused for a split second before a scream from above made him spin around, just in time to see the blond once again dive over the railing with his clothes under one arm, "What happened? Was I… was I shot?"

Naruto landed in a crouch, grimacing as something flew after him and shattered on the floor a little further away. It looked like a framed picture but he didn't bother stopping to double check and tossed the bundle to him, "You'll be fine, it's just a flesh wound." It was mostly grazes but one or two pellets from the shotgun found their target and buried themselves under the skin at an angle but thankfully nothing the BounceBack couldn't handle until they got a doc to look it over. "Get dressed and don't worry about the blood for now, we need to get outta here before security or the cops show up."

"Ok," David did so, throwing on his pants, shirt, and shoes as fast as he could while quizzing Naruto on the damage, "is it bad?"

"You'll be fine Dee," although after a moment the blond winced and rubbed his head, 'For now… man Glorias gonna kick both our asses once she finds out,' there was no way he wouldn't have a scar and Gloria had seen more than enough to know exactly what kind of scar her son would sport for the rest of his days.

"What about-" the teen glanced up to the room where Xochi was and lowered his voice, "What about leaving no trace, you know for the gig?"

"Fuck the gig," Naruto snapped with a shake of his head, motioning for him to get moving towards the door, "you got everything?" When the teen nodded, they both bolted for the door just as David's new choom came running out after them.

"Wait!" Xochi chased them to the door, still nude but grabbing the pillow that David had covered himself with now before, "don't go!" it barely did anything to cover her but didn't stop her from reaching out for the fleeing young man sprinting for the fire exit door, "Call me!"

-xXx-

"Come on D,"

David followed closely as the pair deltaed double time back down the hallway towards the fire exit they'd used earlier, grieving the end of what probably would have killed him had it continued much longer. Naruto led the way, holding the door for David to join him back on the fire escape.

"Oh man, this is gonna blow," this was going to suck indeed, his shoulder didn't hurt as badly but that didn't mean he could climb down this or the scaffolding beside it

"Hehe, don't worry about it, I got you,"

"Whatdaya-" Naruto didn't give him a chance and caught him around the waist unexpectedly, "Hey hey hey what the hell are you-" the line of questioning ended with a girlish yelp as Naruto flung himself off the edge with David in tow screaming. Only, instead of falling down to a painfully sudden stop several floors down like he believed, David was shocked that the blond easily hauled his ass along like a gym bag as he leapt to the adjacent wall, skidded down a few feet then did the same over again until they landed gracefully… in a puddle.

"Oh son of-" Naruto kicked his foot and shook some of the water from his shoe, whining like a child as he muttered about his wet sock but Davids remained fine, not that he noticed.

"Woah, fuck yeah! Dude that was nova to the core!" he was too awestruck at what he'd just experienced, that weightlessness and the sensation of his guts flipping with each sudden jolt. "You gotta teach me how to do that."

"Let's worry about getting you to clinic first,"

As if brought about by the very mention of it, his shoulder throbbed and the teen nodded along with the idea, Naruto could teach him how to pull that off later, "Yeah let's, man this getting shot shit sucks,"

Naruto shook out his shoe one last time and snorted, "tell me about it," he may heal unnaturally fast but that didn't make it any less agonizing, "That's why you should stick to school David, this life isn't exactly all it's cracked up to be,"

"Pfft," David thought back to the fact that this man had used him as a distraction… not that he was complaining, quite the opposite in fact. Xochi has the lips of a goddess and barely any gag reaction, letting him fuck her however he wanted for his first time. Today was fucking awesome and he wanted to do this again! "Dude, today was fucking preem."

No Corpo academy beating him down, a little B with his mentor on an actual 'gig', who cares if it was a favor for his fixer, it was a gig to him! And to top it off…err, well ok maybe Xochi got a little intense, but holy shit he got laid too! Life on the edge was freaking sweet!

"Preem?" Repeated the blond, shaking his head with an amused little grin as he looked at the teen or to be more exact, the 'gifts' that his boy was left with, "If you say so D… come on and let's get moving, clinics not too far away,"

"Sure," the pair got moving and headed to the street side, coming out on the somewhat busy sidewalk where dozens of passing gonks ignored them with a few honking cars waiting at a nearby stoplight. "Hey Naruto, I was thinking about visiting Mom today, you wanna come with?"

Without missing a beat, the blond nodded while casually scanning the area, "Sure, wanna Play grab something to eat too while we're out and- uhoh," Naruto threw out his arm to keep David from stepping out with him and motioned for him to back up.

Just a few yards away from them, a NCPD rig was parked on the corner with its lights flashing but no siren blaring. Two officers were standing, casually leaning against the hood and chatting as the locals made a wide berth around them so it didn't look like they were responding to a call just yet. But in the short time he'd stood there, he noticed that one officer was taking keen interest in him.

"What is it?"

Naruto shook his head again and turned, "it's probably nothing…" he hoped out louder, motioning for the teen to go in the opposite direction, "spotted a pair of cops out front, let's not risk it,"

David nodded and the pair retraced their steps, it would be a bit longer but they could cut through here and go around to come out on the next street to avoid the police. That was the plan… at least until Naruto grit his teeth and quickly pushed him back behind the scaffolding with a mutter to stay hidden and not make a sound.

"What's going-" the moment the words left his lips, David caught himself just as another voice called out from where they had come from and watched Naruto as he nonchalantly continued walking as if he'd been alone the entire time.

"Hold it creep!"

Naruto paused, clinching his eyes with an angry grimace on his face which he quickly hid behind his best clueless grin, "Oh hey there Officers! Something I can do for-" he trailed off seeing the two aiming their sidearms directly at him and laughed nervously. There was no way that the cops would have showed up here this early, this had to be the absolute worst timing for a pair of beat cops to pull iron on him.

"Don't fuckin move!" The woman snapped without breaking her line of sight on him, "Novak scan 'em I'd recognize that ridiculous getup anywhere,"

That made him glance down at his clothes in question, "Hey, I look awesome!" if they weren't responding to a call about two males running from the worst cockblock known to mankind then what the hell were they doing?

"Zip it!" she continued to keep her eyes and weapon trained on him, "This is it partner, we got this scumbag." Naruto noticed her eyes flicking to the side towards her partner as she said this but didn't move as she turned her glare back on him, "you gonna come quietly or do we need to drag you in?"

"Probably not," he coughed awkwardly, a small grin appearing on his face, making them tense for him to run or fight, "I mean I can get really passionate when I cum but I'll try from now on. Has someone filed a complaint or something?" A single moment passed in silence before David snorted, something Naruto covered up by laughing as well, which pissed them off.

"Let's waste this creep,"

"Whoa, hold on pump the brakes a little Heartwell," he whispered frantically beside her, already bringing up the soft to check the suspect's profile. She noticed that her partner didn't seem to look as certain about what was going on but trusted him to back her up, "Hey cool your circs, don't let him make you do something you'll regret," when she finally growled and relaxed a bit, he nodded and got back to the task at hand, starting the scan, "you sure about this Heartwell?"

Naruto wasn't exactly sure what they'd find or where this lady thought she knew him from but a small window popped up alerting him that an unauthorized scan was in progress. "That's the fucker that got us busted down to traffic, remember?" Heartwell explained, half pissed that he didn't remember the gonk as well, "The booster that nearly flatlined us both on his damn bike, caused that pileup during the case."

The blond's eyes widened as he remembered the duo, while he didn't recognize their faces he did recall nearly running into a pair of cops during his escape from that Corpo apartment building where he met that silver chick. What were the chances of running into them and getting recognized?

The scan finished a lot quicker than he expected, barely even giving him the chance to react before the man was reading off his ID… and butchering his name "U-zu-ma-key Naru-toe," making him shrug, it was close enough. "Shit," the man suddenly cursed and lowered his Lexington, to the confusion of both, "Heartwell, he's under Corpo protection,"

"I'm what?"/"He's what!?"

Naruto was truly confused by what he heard, what the hell was he talking about? But Heartwell was just as pissed as he was confused and kept her weapon trained on the blond, in fact she even raised it level with his head. David tensed, having already seen the slight movement as Naruto palmed a pair of deadly looking ninja stars. "Holy shit!" He whispered before snapping his mouth shut, he couldn't draw their attention, he'd only get in the way. That thought stung almost as bad as his shoulder and he clinched the edge of the scaffolding Naruto shoved him behind to not make a sound.

That cyberpunk's voice echoed in the back of his head, he wasn't good enough to play hero. He'd only slow him down, only get in the way…

Heartwells arms shook as she held the blond at gunpoint, wanting nothing more than to ventilate this scumbag hiding behind his Corpo connections. Unknown to her, said scumbag was trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about and maybe he should just go ahead and take them both down. David was hurt and he couldn't exactly snatch the kid up and body flicker his way there. He wanted to be honest with the kid and wasn't exactly ready to spill the beans just yet as Jackie would put it. He was already in it this deep, what were two more bodies at this point? She was going to try and zero him, it was self defense at this point right?

"Heartwell, listen to me." Her partner reached out and slowly lowered her weapon, "it's not worth it… he's not worth it." Naruto blinked, both impressed that this guy was trying to get his partner to stand down and maybe a little insulted too. But whatever, he needed to get David to the doc nearby while this BounceBack did its job, the cops backing down would be the best outcome for all parties involved.

Officer Novak continued, "Come on, don't stoop to their level. Besides you kill him and we're both fucked, you saw the scan,"

The Brass would nuke both their careers if they killed this guy. The name authorizing his Immunity was the new Government Relations Executive, one Meredith Stout. The same one that just announced the new initiative for Militech to form closer working relationships with the NCPD, this time without the sudden cyberpsycho deathmatch halftime show. The same one the Captain had a raging hardon for.

The woman snatched away from her partner and Naruto made the split decision to stay his hand seeing the exchange. While they were distracted, the blond slipped the shuriken into his back pocket and shot David a small grin. If only they knew just how close they had come to dying, but Naruto himself was suddenly struck by a thought that he was thinking of killing cops and shook his head, which pissed the already raging officer off even more.

"Oh fuck you asshole!"

With his partner storming off, Novak sighed then turned back to the blond with an icy stare, "I apologize for the inconvenience sir, you're free to go,"

"Hey wait a minute," the blond called out, causing the officer's shoulders to tense and still stop in his tracks, even as his partner continued to storm away to their rig parked nearby. "You said I'm under Corpo Protection, what does that mean?"

"Why don't you ask your choom Stout, she's the one that signed off on it,"

Naruto blinked owlishly upon hearing that bit of information, "My choom Stout?" he couldn't help but repeat dumbly, as if unable to comprehend the meaning of such words. What the hell is she up to? For a split second his mind raced with the thoughts of how to abuse the hell out of this! There was no way he'd let a get outta jail free card like this slip by but that damn paranoid voice in the back of his head made him hesitant. Thinking about it, the chances that this wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass were absolutely zero and going through with his earlier plans would cause him more grief in the end.

Stout was up to something, their last conversation had her nervous and while he hadn't had the time to deal with her just yet but this little snippet told him that she was up to some Corpo fuckery. But with the officers now gone, Naruto glanced over to David as he emerged from his cover and rubbed the back of his head, "Well… I didn't expect that,"

"You have Corpo immunity?"

"... I guess so… I think," the look in the teens eyes told him that David wanted to know more but as it stood, Naruto was just as surprised, "but come on, we need to get going before they come back," Looking into that would have to wait, it seemed like everytime he turned around there was more to deal with.

Now that they were safe, Naruto gave the teen another once over and both scurried to the small clinic nearby. Thankfully it was mostly empty aside from the couple of people hanging out by the entrance who didn't really even care to glance at them as they walked by. Walking in with a bullet wound should've been an emergency in his mind but to the ripper it was just another day. David was directed to a seat beneath several hanging robotic arms which twitched as they were activated and Naruto was fascinated to watch it work.

Oddly enough it didn't hurt like the teen expected, the little mechanical arms clicked and popped with a fine red laser firing away at the teens shoulder, sealing the jagged flesh back together. Now all that remained of the injury was rosy pink scar tissue that remained tender to the touch and a couple pieces of lead that had been extracted earlier.

Afterwards, the pair made their way to the station and boarded the NCART back to Santo where they both sank back into the ratty seat with a sigh when Naruto suddenly laughed, "David, I have to say, I'm impressed."

"What, with the gig?" he winced when the movement made his injured shoulder twinge, reminding him that things didn't go exactly as planned.

"No, well… yeah that too. But I'm impressed that she liked you so much she claimed you as hers."

Huh?" Seeing the blond trying not to laugh and pointing to his neck, David reached up to find that he still had the black collar on with a small heart shaped lock keeping it firmly in place and died a little on the inside. "Oh dear God…" a quick glance into the nearest reflective surface confirmed it along with the presence of several dark hickeys. Even lower were bites that peppered his neck and even trailed down his chest that made him both proud and ashamed to be seen in public but the worst was the collar that refused to budge, "Damn it, this thing won't come off! Dude a little help?"

Naruto could only laugh as the doors to the NCART closed with a loud clatter, leaving them both in for the long ride home back to Santo, "Man I can't wait to tell Jackie about this!"

-xXx-

Xochi looked at the detective questioning her, trying not to stare too much at the corpse being loaded into a body bag while some unlucky medtech was stuck scouring her floor for any missing pieces of skull or greymatter left from the other. He was a shorter man with a receding hairline, probably a bit older than her father if she had to guess. It looked like he was just called in from his outfit, a simple pair of jeans with a white shirt underneath a long brown trench coat while wearing his badge on a chain around his neck.

"Sir you can't go in there! This is an active crime scene!" They heard a forensic tech speak just in time to see a well dressed gentleman all but rush in, looking around quickly before locking onto the young lady and calling out.

"Xochi!" He was clean cut and dressed in a simple yet tailored Kitsch suit. Nothing flashy or gaudy like what you would see around the clubs but with just one glance and you could see the quality.

The young woman in question's head spun around, "Daddy!" Another officer was quickly coming up behind him as if to attempt to detain him but was quickly waved off by the detective who recognized the new arrival, "I thought you were at a meeting!"

"Xochi, sweetheart I'm so glad you're ok! I left as soon as I heard. Are you ok!? The girl made a beeline for him and wrapped both arms around him which he reciprocated. They shared a tight embrace that lasted a few moments until her father pulled back, holding her at arm's length to look the girl up and down, "You're not hurt are you?"

"No dad, I'm ok." She tried to give him a shaky smile but it didn't quite reach her watery eyes. Now that her father was here the dam broke and tears started flowing, "I was so scared dad, they broke in and were going to zero us!"

"Us?"

Xochis' face turned pale then reddened but thankfully the detective stepped over and cleared his throat, "Councilman Peralez, I'm Detective Harold Han, lead investigator for this case."

The police cordon was once again broken but this time by several stone-faced private security contractors in matching black collared shirts and carrying an array of gear and equipment that was quickly placed around the room.

"Detective, thank you so much for your hard work but our SSI personnel will take it from here." The councilman exclaimed while taking the detective's hand in a firm handshake, "I'm sure you understand,"

Han nodded, watching the security contractors swoop in with forensic equipment better than what the department could afford with all the budget cuts, "Of course, if I were in your position I'd want the same, especially if we're my daughter,"

"Come on honey, let's go and let these gentlemen do their job," Jefferson spoke as she neared, leading her to the door with a fatherly smile. The Night City Councilman spoke quickly to one of his security personnel and were quickly taken away under their guards watchful optics.

Xochi smiled sweetly, holding her purse tightly as both she and her father were escorted from her former apartment. Whoever that adorable gonk was, he left his pistol behind up in her room and it was now safely hidden in her bag, 'Don't worry cutie, we'll finish what we started one day,'

Harold Han watched the pair leave, escorted by a pair of the councilman's bodyguards while the others remained to perform their own investigation. River was going to be a pain in his ass because of this but his partner would learn that there are things well above their pay grade and sometimes it was best to play along but he'd deal with that later, for now he had something else to handle.

Walking out, he paused for a bit to look at the two gonks left cooling just outside the vics door and muttered "What a fucking mess," It didn't take a detective to be able to tell that these two were guarding the door but what the lacked in subtly they chromed up for to compensate. But even with the serious cyberware this crew had, it seemed like they never even saw it coming.

[Hey it's Han. Just a heads up, your mercs were flatlined and I was unable to locate that Dataterm you mentioned. Looks like someone else was here first.] The SSI personnel began looking the stiffs over, similar to how he'd done it earlier but too bad for them they wouldn't find much… it wasn't the first time he had to clean up after someone else's mess.

-xXx-

Jackie howled with prideful laughter as David took the offered napkin dispenser from the bar and angled it to see the dark bruises trailing up his neck where Xochi had left numerous sets of bites and hickeys behind. The sight of the teens embarrassed yet still proud expression made the laughing intensify until they all quickly got it under control.

David even got to try Jackie's personal drink of choice, a shot of vodka with lime and ginger beer on the rocks. Pepe gave the trio a warning look but ignored the underage drinking since the teen shied away after the first sip. Naruto finished his retelling of the story, unknowingly kick-starting David's rep on the street as several gonks overhead some of his tale.

"I'm sorry for laughing at you, Hermanito, but I gotta say my first gig definitely didn't go nearly that nova. Just look out though, she might come looking for ya later on eh?" Jackie started to smack the teens shoulder proudly but caught himself before doing it, wincing when David flinched away, "oh yeah sorry, almost forgot you got clipped on your first gig too."

"HE WHAT!?"

Over the music playing in the bar, everyone heard the enraged scream coming from above the bar and looked up to see Mama Welles looming over the railing, her face aglow with the buzzing neon between them and her. One poor gonk playing the best game of his life at the pool table scratched on the eightball and sank to his knees in despair but no one paid him any mind, preferring to see what new drama was about to unfold.

"Oh shit!" Pepe muttered, easing himself back and away from the group to catch up on cleaning a stubborn stain left on the bar while Naruro asked a foolish question.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I-" the bar owner frowned at his question, "What do you mean what am I doing here? This is my bar! Better yet, what the hell were you thinking-" she cut herself off by throwing her pencil at them, or more accurately, at Naruto who swiped it out of the air which somehow pissed her off even more.

"Well 'mano, it was nice seeing you. I'll catch you later, me and Misty are gonna go and… well go somewhere." Jackie was up and on his feet in a flash, paying his tab all in the same motion while Pepe hid a smirk and slid over to continue tending the bar but Mama Welles was having none of it.

"The hell you are! None of you move, I'm coming down and we're all going to talk about what I just heard!" she hissed in a way that only a mother could then stomped her way toward the stairs, bypassing them to the blonds confusion and entering her small office a little further on.

"Oh shit!" Jackie grimaced and bumped the blond with his elbow, "tough luck bro, she's getting La Chancla. If you run now you might be able to make it out before she smacks you,"

"What the hell is a La Chancla anyway?" Demanded the blond only for both men to motion up to the door she entered just in time for her to storm back out, "That's La Chancla!" Naruto's horrified screech was enough to stop everything around the bar and caught the attention of everyone sober enough to pay attention. The blond however didn't care and looked at the woman in a whole new light as she tightened her grip on her iconic weapon, the legendary bat called… La Chancla. "What the hell, that's what you guys live in fear of!?"

The nods he got from both Jackie and Pepe along with a handful of the other patrons nearby made his jaw drop. David was far too busy laughing at the blonds predicament to see the genuine fear cloud his eyes but quickly noticed him turn tail and run moments before Mama Welles could get in striking range.

"Whoa whoa whoa, come on stop playing!" Naruto back peddled the sight of an angry Guadalupe charging at him, La Chancla raised, "Wait! Wait! Wait! Mama Welles, I can explain!" His offer of an explanation didn't even make her hesitate and the blond yelped when she took a swing, "Jackie, help me!"

When he heard nothing but the chuckles of the barflies, a quick glance showed him that his 'hermano' was quietly drinking his beer pretending that he hadn't noticed a thing. In fact, both him and Pepe seemed to have suddenly gotten a case of selective blindness while David continued to watch the scene with a grin.

"Pensando, ¿llevar a ese dulce chico contigo en algo tan peligroso?" Mama Welles wasn't playing and Naruto felt a shiver crawl down his spine at the sound of her bat swinging past his head, "¡idiota! ¿Qué habrías hecho si se hubiera quedado sin vida?" He couldn't understand exactly what she said but he got the message and continued to evade the woman who only got redder the more he ran.

"Might as well give it up there, Holmes," Pepe mused after the third time she tried hitting him, Naruto had rolled over the pool table much to their amusement. Guadalupe was hot on his heels, chasing him around it with a couple Valentinos quickly moving out of her way, "Jefe won't give up till she gets you,"

Naruto ignored his suggestion and once she was on the opposite side of the table, he turned and ran back to the bar with a laugh as she cursed, "Hahaha, better luck next time!" dodging two drunks staggering away from the bar, he continued to run and waved to David before bolting towards the door, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do D, gotta delta!"

Seeing him gaining some distance, the bar owner turned to the Valentino she nearly bowled over and snatched his broseph from his hand, "¡Dame ese!" The ganger did so, holding up his hands in surrender and Mama Welles wasted no time in turning and slinging the bottle towards her prey, "Get back here Naruto!" The only warning Naruto got was the sound of the bottle whooping through the air behind him just a split second before it bounced off the back of his head.

-xXx-

The End of Act 2…

-x-

Next time…

Act 3: We are Edgerunners!

Chapter 26: Let you Down…

-xXx-

Sneak peek

-xXx-

The pachinko machines clanked and clattered along as he walked into the fixer's place of business and waved at the attendant standing behind the counter.

"Jesus Christ not you again!" Naruto blinked upon hearing the man's startled yelp and saw him push away from the counter he was leaning on, he clearly spotted the sword and raised his hands in surrender, "Come on man, I don't want no shit with you!" Several patrons quickly noticed what was happening and tensed up, clearly fearing the worst and trying not to draw attention until they could run.

"Hey everyone, don't mind me," he chuckled to the surrounding patrons enjoying their games, slinking past them and towards the attendant who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. "Just looking for the old wicked witch of Westbrook so I'll be out of your way in a second." The casual insults made the attendant gape while the blond continued past them.

Before passing the counter, Naruto shifted the sword and partially hid it behind him before poking his head through the beads hanging in the doorway to the old bags office. "Hey guess who came to visit!" Naruto cheerfully announced, shaking one of the strings of beads out of his face and grinning at the elderly Fixer.

It had been a while since he'd seen her office. Wakako could be a crotchety old bag but she had a decent interior designer. Her office was dimly lit and slightly hazy from the incense she had burning on a counter behind the desk.

Wakako looked up from her grumbled conversation and raised an eyebrow at seeing him then ignored him to continue her call, not seeing his grin turn into a sinister smirk. Due to her little power game, she didn't notice the sword he was blocking from view while boldly swaggering into her office.

"Mr. Uzumaki, you have impeccable timing," she finally spoke to him after a minute and ending her call while making no mention of overhearing his earlier insult. "I was just about to contact you." The blond looked intrigued and scooted closer to rest his elbow on the desk, which annoyed her, "I'm calling in the debt you owe me. You are to-"

"Yeah… about that," Naruto interrupted, getting a stern look from her as he picked his nose then made a show of flicking his finger to the side childishly, "I'm not going shit for you,"

Wakako clearly didn't expect him to say that tightened her gaze, "Think hard before you speak Uzumaki, not only do you still owe me for destroying my machines but you also owe me for letting that thief escape… You will find that I am a far greater friend than enemy so I'll give you a moment to rethink your words. Considering the recent unfortunate events that befell you, I'll attribute our previous conversation irrelevant.

Naruto mockingly took a thinking stance, resting his chin on his fist, "Hmm… you know what? What I meant to say was, 'Take your gigs, your threats, your pachinko machines, and take all of Westbrook for that matter and stick it up your ass!" He finished with a sharp look of his own then stood up, "and you know what, take this," grabbing the black and gold guardless katana and throwing it on her desk without a care as it knocked a small teapot to the floor and shattered it, "and stick it up there too,"

"This is…" Wakakos eyes widened in realization then narrowed again, "Byakko… this is my Grandson's sword," Naruto's playful demeanor vanished and she met his cold look with one of realization, "It was you."

-x-

Inside an old hauler parked nearby the offramp leading into Santo, two men sat waiting ignoring the smell of knockoff nicosticks and even cheaper pussy, both of which had left they're marks on the cheap synthetic upholstery.

The truck had a bunch of aftermarket gauges and dodads that didn't work, some gonkass too stupid to wire it up right and too dumb to know when to stop. Luckily the damn radio still squawked, it covered up that annoying belt that's been squeaking for that past half hour when they waited.

The driver was a lanky asshole with pale skin and long dark hair slouched back in the seat with his arm on the door, cheek resting on his fist. Beside him sat a much larger man with a frizzy man bun who shared his slouched position except had his attention sorely on the screen of his holo casually flipping back and forth between different convos with practiced ease when Core spoke up.

"Hey, heads up." He nodded towards the street where they could see an incoming panel van making its way down the offramp leaving the overpass. "Targets on the way. Pac should be moving into position by now, we should do the same."

Cranking the truck, they moved it across the street roughly above a large pink pair of tits that had been spray painted there days earlier. Had to admit that it was both original and somehow a lot more inconspicuous than a large X to mark a spot out in the open. The same way that the large red throbbing cock that had been painted across the center median just before crossing the intersection, roughly the best area to strike from all angles simultaneously

"Where is Pac anyway?"

"Over there," the driver nodded over the wheel towards one of the many Biowaste processors found all across the city. If he strained his eyes, Alexi just could make out the sight of someone pissing on the side of what looked like a large industrial dumpster plastered with old and rusty warning signs. The damn things were notorious for being used as body dumps and more than one unfortunate gonk had been fed into them alive.

"Pac looks right at home, doesn't he?" Alexi muttered with a lopsided smirk, putting his holo away and pulling his weapon closer from its place leaning against the seat between his feet, a double barrel Testera power shotgun. The Testera is a modernized version of the old tried and true DB-4 Igla, just made from more durable materials with a shortened barrel and reinforced with a polymer handle. Just like the Igla, it held a single shell each barrel and fired both at the same time for devastating results, add to it the tungsten slugs and it would punch through damn near anything.

[Pac-Man: Fuck… you.]

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were on coms." judging from the tone he used, he totally knew the man would overhear. But before the pair could start, Core interjected with a half annoyed grunt.

"Meds or something. We boost this shit and bank ourselves a preem payday. So both of you chill, targets pulling up,"

As expected, the panel van started to slow to a stop, its brakes squealing loudly amongst the backdrop of today's early morning commute. "Come on you bastard, just a bit more!" Both waited and watched, trying to will the van forward just a few more yards closer to the throbber marking the spot just ahead but something didn't seem right.

"It's not moving!"

Alexi's anxious remark made him frown, could something have tipped them off? Beside Alexi, Core gripped the wheel tightly and slid down in his seat, "Come on you gonk, you don't see shit. It's all in your head, just keep going!" he muttered, as if trying to telepathically urge the van forward.

[Pac-Man: They're onto us]

"No they're not!" Core snapped, gripping the wheel even tighter. A long body Thrax cruising down the adjacent street slowed and turned to pass between them and the van, rolling over the marker on the road without a problem. "Stick to the plan, we're way too close to Sixer turf to slammit-on with a few delivery boys."

Once the van was in Santo Domingo, Sixth Street wouldn't look too kindly on boosters operating on their streets without permission. After all, if they already knew about this shipment of meds, they were either already paid off by whatever company was hired to transport or planned on klepin it themselves.

Tap* * Tap* * Tap*

Both mercs jumped at the sudden tapping coming from Cores' window, Alexi flinched as if shot and moved as if he were about to run but both the door and his seatbelt kept him in place. Core closed his eyes and let out a strained sigh through clenched teeth, not only had he jumped but he hit his knee on the steering column and that hurt like a mother-

"What the fuck do you want!" He snapped, turning towards the window and pulling a revolver he had wedged in-between the center console and his seat. The bastard in question was some strange one eyed freak wearing some kind of headband over one eye and in his opinion, the gonkest fucking hairstyle he'd seen so far. "Huh?"

"Sorry about the scare guys, but I'm a little lost and just want to make sure I'm in the right place," the stranger spoke, completely ignoring the pistol locked cocked and ready to rock his shit at the drop of a hammer. Core and Alexi shared glances when the weirdo produced a small map and traced across it with one finger. "You see, I was on my way and couldn't remember if I turned the dishwasher on or not and it kept bothering me, so I called her up and in the process of giving her the old razzle dazzle, I kinda got lost,"

"Oh and by the way, your wife said you were out of synthcoff at home. You might wanna grab some on the way home,"

Alexi was the first to catch on and couldn't help but cackle at his chooms dazed then darkening expression. He'd been to Cores' wedding and while he considered him a dear friend that shit came out of nowhere and if you can't laugh at your choomba then are you really chooms? As he was about to chuckle out an apology the door next to him opened with a clunk, "Ahh! hey what the-" Still leaning on it, the larger of the two released his grip on the gun and fell back with a yelp, arms flailing and slapping at the dash for something to stop him. Core took his eyes away from the white haired soon to be deadman and turned, eyes widening. Someone else had snuck up on them when they were distracted and-

"Catch!" Their distraction gave them a weird eye smile as he tossed something in through the open door and down into the floorboard at his feet. Core nearly shit himself at the sight of the round canister rolling under the pedals and screamed when it let off a quick pop, spewing thick white smoke that filled the entirety of the cab in an instant.

Alexi on the other hand landed in the gutter with a wheeze, head bouncing off the sidewalk causing stars to dot his vision well before the smoke started rolling through the open door above him.

"I see what you did there, too bad Sensei never tried using anything like that when he showed up late," he heard a voice say when a new weight on his chest made him groan and look up and through blurry eyes, "Heh, right Kakashi?"

"Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck."

A man with long straight brown hair stared down at him with a haughty expression and… was he blind? It had to be custom optics of some sort, his eyes were white but the way he half glared down at him as if smelling something foul told him that this guy could see him clearly.

"Yo Neji, thanks I kinda just came up with it."

The pair shared knowing looks and chuckled before turning to them with Neji saying, "You guys lucked out today. Orders were to let you gonks live this time but know this, there won't be a next time," more smoke billowed out from the open door with Core still inside, sounding like he was hacking up a lung before the pale cyberpunk frantically tried to get free from his seatbelt and escape. He managed the first step but upon opening his door, Kakashi kicked it back closed.

"What's with you guys stealing med supplies anyway? Don't you know that stealing is wrong?" The one eyed smartass looked pleased with himself until he noticed the deadpanned expression Neji sent him, "What?"

"We kelp stuff all the time…" he trailed off.

"Never said we didn't." He retorted when suddenly, Core popped his head out of the gasping for air, "Ahh!" He yelped and caught the pale man with a snap decision punch out of reflex, sending him back into the smoke filled truck.

"Oi, Sensei wouldn't scream like a little girl!" Neji mocked with a grin that even Alexi found out of place underneath the strangers feet. Where was Pac? Why wasn't he helping them? After running his damn mouth about how nova he was with that Kyubi rifle he had, now was the time to prove it at least in his opinion.

With Core being hauled out of the smoky truck cap and dropped on the sidewalk with blood pouring from his busted nose, Alexi managed to squirm and look underneath the truck to see where the hell Pac was. Had he set them up? Across the road the man was spotted half laying against the Biowaste processor, it looked like he never got the chance to finish pissing and was left where he fell, cock still hanging out.

Not too far away, the only remaining Merc left conscious could see another figure standing near the target's passenger window and motioning for the driver to continue on his way.

"Anyway, as I was saying before," Neji reached down and pulled the cyberpunk to his feet, pushing him against the cab of the truck and pinning him there, "I don't know which Fixer brokered this gig but your going to inform them that from now on, these particular shipments are off limits and the next crew they send will be left dead in the street."

Alexi nodded, "Y-you got it choom!" anything to keep his ass in one piece, this was supposed to be simple. Core would block the van in with the truck while he disabled the motor with two tungsten slugs. Pac would come in from behind and take out the driver and guard if they tried anything while he and Core loaded the merchandise. All in all it shouldn't have taken more than three minutes. His train of thought was derailed suddenly when Neji suddenly struck him with a single punch. The blow felt like a sledgehammer struck his stomach and the larger tanned cyberpunk fell, coughing and holding his torso to ease the pain.

"Who the hell - Cough- who are you guys?"

The pair looked at each other and shared a quick smirk, "Eh, we're just Shadows," Kakashi mused with his usual eye smile, earning a snort from his partner while Alexi continued to cough, "and don't worry, your crews still breathing… for the most part, but like I said, you won't be so lucky next time…"

Then with a wink, both vanished in a flicker of movement, leaving the lone Merc alone on the sidewalk in the wreckage of their failed gig.

-x-

Jigjig was in chaos…

"You wanna go, pal?"

"Hey knock it off!" Their banter was interrupted by the group's designated 'captain', wearing the face of rising mystery man Kiba Inuzuka dressed in his original leathers and glaring hotly over his shoulder at them to say, "Don't forget our goal," below him he held his own struggling target facedown in the gutter. With the heel of his boot digging into the back of the Tygerclaws skull, Kiba watched the booster spit and sputter in the filthy chem laced puddle left behind from the rain the night before, "I'll pop each of you myself if I got to, so keep it together."

It didn't take long for his opponent to go slack but before reaching a point of no return, the leather clad ninja kicked him over onto his side. Allowing the tyger to gasp for air between coughing and wheezing before being knocked out as well.

Not even thirty seconds elapsed before the chaos stopped.

"And then there was only one…" while the street was not exactly silent the Shinos voice reverberated around in the Fixers ear as he pulled Wakako along with him in what would look like a friendly manner towards the aftermath. Most of them were bottom of the barrel punks, mostly wearing colorful biker leathers and sporting their signature chrome with only a couple wearing the usual tacky suits that higher ranked tygers sometimes wore.

"Go on Wakako, don't be shy,"

Naruto stopped and nudged the elder forward, letting her get a good look at the random assortment of his clones that surrounded the downed but lucky to be alive Tygers. She did so and he could see the way she tensed, whether or not it was from fear or anger he didn't know… or care. Because the moment she turned around to face him she found herself staring eye to eye with the business end of an orange Omaha Tech pistol.

"This is the last and only warning you get Wakako." he spoke first with a whisper then loud enough for the entirety of JigJig Street to hear the next part, "If you mess with anyone under my protection and next time I'll leave your corpse cooling in the middle of this street. A warning to whoever's gonk enough to take your place." Naruto hissed at her through the snarling mask while aiming down the sights. Without missing a beat he nodded his head up and to the left. "Look up,"

She did so along with a few nearby pervs close enough to hear what he was saying over the music blasting out of a small neon glowing bar with a single stripper pole by the bar.

There were dozens of them, all wearing the same long eared masks and vest that both he and his hustle were known for and perched upon the rooftops like birds of prey. It was then that Wakako knew she was well and truly outmatched, the gangers she called in earlier were not only outnumbered but outmatched from what he'd forced her to watch.

The Shino leaned forward and let her watch the crimson bubble up into his organic eye, a sight easily replicated by today's optics if one were so inclined. So why did the sight of that crimson eye have her envisioning the merc suddenly pulling the trigger?

He got less than an inch away from her face to the point where the mask he wore nearly touched her as he finished, "You have a choice to make Wakako. You get rid of that fucking bounty on my head or I declare open season on the Tygerclaws."

"And plunge the city into a new war?" She challenged

"You don't know anything about a real war." Naruto shook his head at her statement then snorted, "so let me clue you in… I'll go after your sons first. Then while the gonks fight over who's in charge I'll attack their operations and cut the tigers throat by taking their cash flow." He shrugged carelessly then looked thoughtful. "I'm sure I can work out an agreement with the other gangs here in Night City and I doubt the people of Westbrook would mind the change. So if you want to keep fucking with me then get ready to be fucked back… hehe and I promise you Wakako, you ain't never been fucked by a real Shinobi before."

-x-

Naruto knew that something had fundamentally changed about them all the moment they watched his body collapse. They weren't just a group of homeless misfits anymore, they were on the path to becoming something different. Whether or not they become Guardians or Boosters he didn't know but Naruto still questioned himself on which category he fell into.

Hold on to a dream or hold on to those he loved? How could he protect them if he wasn't willing to do the thing that needed to be done?

"Hahaha… Naruto-kun I appreciate you confidence but sometimes even the Hokage is forced to do the things he hates. This hat is a lot heavier than it looks."

Back then he took the old man's words at face value, it had to be a joke right? After all, he'd worn it more than once and while much too big for his head, the weight was more than manageable. Later on, he thought it was the weight of the responsibility it represented… doing what was best for the village that looked to you to protect them. Now he understood, it was having to live with the weight of your actions afterwards. The anger he felt from that betrayal faded the moment Frank ended the traitors life, leaving him mostly numb with the knowledge that what was done could never be undone and nothing would be the same.

-xXx-

And of course, here's a new installment of my little side story…

-xXx-

David, that little shit… he knew exactly what he did and thought he'd get away with it? Did he forget just who taught him the ways of the prankster?

Starting down at his son for a moment, Naruto nodded slowly, turning away and leaning against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed. David continued his chores, washing the dishes with a little shit eating grin smeared across his face and glancing over at his father every few seconds.

That's when their eyes met.

'You know you fucked up right? I'm going to get you back for that,'

David stuck out his tongue, holding up one hand covered in suds and flicked the soap onto the man who narrowed his eyes, 'Bring it old man,'

Gloria, dressed in a tank top and a pair of oh so very thin shorts, continued messaging Mama Welles while propped up on her elbows against the island, unaware of the war slowly heating up between her man and son.

The blond knew this day would come, the day his boy would decide to test his old man. But little did his son know that just because he was the blond's own flesh and blood didn't mean that he wouldn't take things even further.

The adolescent felt a shiver worm its way down his spine and side eyed the blonde as he continued washing the dishes. His old man was scheming something, he'd seen that glint in his eyes before and oh shit he's moving!

While the boy was currently thinking that Naruto was about to get even somehow, the blond turned to him with a little grin and nodded to one of the cups he'd just finished washing, "you mind handing me that glass Davy?" Cautiously, David did and held it out to his father with narrowed eyes. "Mind getting me some water from the tap?"

'What are you planning, old man?' his son's eyes never left his own, grabbing the clean cup next to him and filling it.

Naruto's answer was to smirk and take the now full cup and drink half of it silently, 'Wouldn't you like to know, you little shit?'

With half of it gone Naruto, to David's confusion, looked up and poured half of the remaining water on his face, leaving his head soaked and the upper portion of his shirt rapidly turning dark and sticking to his chest. But that wasn't the end of it, the man then stood up straight, moved to stand so that Gloria was directly behind him with David in front and smiled… tossing the remaining water over his shoulder and directly onto the redhead's back.

David paled, especially when he suddenly found himself holding the cup that Naruto had moments before.

"AHHH!" Gloria yelped, nearly climbing up the island from the shock and turned around in a flash. "What the hell was that!?" She cried, her tone going from shock to anger in less than a second. Naruto turned his face into a mask of shock and innocence when he turned around looking just as confused.

"Mijo what the hell?!"

"No wait, Mama it wasn't me it was…" David sputtered but looked down at the cup in his grip before tossing the thick plastic back into the sink and pointing at his father accusingly, "it was Dad! He did it, not me!" The redhead turned to her husband and looked at him as he grabbed a nearby hand towel hanging from the oven door. Shirt partially soaked, hair hanging limply and had she not been splashed herself, would've found the sight particularly steamy and enticing. But alas, the chill of their AC cooled that passion and replaced it with the desire to break out la chancla.

"Mom for real, you have to believe me it was Dad!" Naruto started roughly drying his hair with the towel, hiding his triumphant grin behind the cloth as his lover started to remove her slipper, "Mama, wait! ¡Not la chancla!"

Naruto finished drying his face and turned to his wife before she could mete out justice and gently held out his arm to halt her advance, "Why don't you go change and let me handle this baby," he told her gently with a calming yet serious tone then turned so that she couldn't see him but that David could see his smirk, "David, you know you were wrong to do what you did right?"

Seeing her husband in dad mode, Gloria slowly dropped her slipper back down and stepped back into it. Naruto would handle disciplining their child this time since he was the one David threw water at. Her baby boy was growing up and it looked like he was starting to get to that rebellious phase and she couldn't be more pleased that Naruto was being the stern parent this time instead of laughing it off

"Fine, I'm heading upstairs…" she groused before fixing their child with a look to match his fathers, "Mijo I'm very disappointed,"

Naruto's stern frown turned upside down the moment she went around the corner and after a few more moments to ensure that she was gone, he stuck his tongue out at the pouting boy, "Don't forget who taught you those tricks kiddo," he told him with a grin before ruffling his son's hair, much to his annoyance, "Your a few years away from being able to pull a fast one on me,"