Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the affiliated characters, nor do I make any money from this work of fiction.
Warning: This is an AU fic. Non-cannon is kind of the theme here, so please don't be offended by what you read. It will contain multiple different pairings of the Homo/Het variety. No likey? No read-y. That simple. This chapter doesn't contain anything of the graphic nature, so you're good... for now. Also, this is non-Beta'd, so please pardon any gramarical mistakes. ^^
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Kyuubi
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The sounds of ratchets turning, pistons firing and torque wrenches drowned out the grease smeared radio sitting on the work table; playing the local rock station at a moderate level. To the left of the radio, two black-coverall clad men, also littered in streaks of grease and slime, joked around an ever empty water-cooler. The "Akatsuki" auto shop was full this time of year; summer was just beginning and what they termed "Radiator Season" had begun. Already there were four cars lined up on the blocks; only two of them being serviced at the moment.
The garage was large; having enough room for the four servicing stations as well as the office, a waiting room for the clientele, and a back room for his workers (where they had installed lockers to hold onto their extra-coveralls and clean clothes to wear to and from home). They also had two bathrooms along the back wall; one specifically for customers (kept constantly clean by Deidara) and the other equipped with a shower for the mechanics (no one wanted to ride in his own car with sludge dripping off of them).
On the whole, the interior of the garage was the light grey of unpainted cement. Along the back wall ran a long counter covered with rags and discarded parts packages. The counter was separated between each station with large, red and black tool boxes. And as covered in filth as everything else was, these were still as pristine as the day they were ordered.
The bay doors were open, trying to invite a breeze that didn't exist. Three industrial fans blew from strategic points by the doors; bringing in new air and letting the fumes escape. Their noise nearly covered the sounds of outrage that flowed from one side of the building.
The office on the far side of the garage was a flurry of phone calls, paying customers, people waiting for appointments, and those that had been towed into the shop. The owner, a large, odd-skinned man by the name of Kisame, stood off to the side as his secretary, a friendly blond-headed man named Deidara, worked his way diligently through the madness.
The stations in the garage were already filled, but there was still a lineup of cars in the parking lot, and he could see another tow truck trying to squeeze in. He hated this time of year, to be honest. Sure, they got a lot of work, which meant a lot of money; but then, they also got the colorful spectrum of clients that felt they knew more about automobiles than the mechanics did.
His sharpened teeth grit together as he heard the currently paying customer complain about his bill. "How could it cost $1400!? All you had to do was get rid of the banging noise!" Deidara smiled placatingly at the irate man. "Sir, we had to replace two of your engine valves. It is a very costly procedure, yeah. We had to put in a special order for the part and it took several workers to complete the job in a timely manner, un. If you don't wish to pay the bill, we have full right to keep the car for services rendered, yeah."
Kisame pretended to cough so that he could hide his smirk behind his hand as the man's face turned a brilliant red and he sputtered. He opened his mouth, fully intent on complaining, when Kisame decided enough was enough. "Is there a problem here?" He stepped from the shadowy corner of the office, his deep voice reverberating around the portly man.
The customer's face went from red to pink; growing paler and paler as his eyes rose higher and higher; his pallor ghostly white when he finally reached Kisame's eyes at a towering seventy-nine inches. The man choked and coughed as he hastened to pull out his checkbook. "You take checks, right?" he squeaked to Deidara, receiving a beaming smile and nod from the blonde man. Feeling his quota for office time fulfilled, Kisame exited into the garage.
"Get back to work, you lazy assholes! That front end ain't gonna align itself!" He barked in a raspy baritone to his two wayward employees. With a dismissive wave of hand, the men walked off; going to their respective projects, but continuing the conversation that had been having. Kisame ran both dirt-smudged hands down his face, unknowingly covering the tattoos of gills one either side.
He loved the men that worked for him, he really did; saw them all as a second family, as a matter of fact. But sometimes he just wanted to whap a few of them in the side of the head with a monkey-wrench. He smiled a shark toothed grin though as he saw the banter going back and forth between his workers; each one trying to out-do the other in a seemingly endless battle of insults.
His shortbread colored eyes scanned the noisy garage, coming to rest on a pair of legs encased in blue sticking out from under one of the cars. He walked closer on silent feet, already knowing which of his boys it was and knowing that 'his' reaction would be the best. With the subtlety of an elephant on a pair of roller-skates, he slammed his hand down onto the work bench directly in front of the mid-sized sedan being attended to. His efforts for stealth were not in vain as he heard the mechanic bang his head on the undercarriage.
"FUCK!" came the scream from under the car before the man it came from slid out into the open. Kisame burst into roaring laughter at the sight of enraged blue eyes; though he discretely checked to make sure the young man hadn't actually hurt himself. Normally vibrant blond hair was matted down under a dirty orange bandana and the whiskers on his cheeks were concealed with copious amounts of the same familiar engine sludge.
"What the fuck, Shark-man?! You want me to screw this up or somethin'?!" Off to the side the two could hear the muffled laughter of the other mechanics. The irritated blonde threw a towel in their direction, pegging the green haired man closest to him. "Shut it, Zetsu! It's not that damn funny!" Zetsu continued to laugh and tossed the towel into the heavily pierced face of the man working on the mini-van with him. "Pein was laughing too, kid. Don't get pissy at me." His voice was the thing children's nightmares were made of, but the smile on his face softened the terrifying quality… a bit.
Pein removed the towel and used it to wipe his hands off; using it as an excuse to keep from having to work on the piece of junk presented to him. He hated mini-vans. They were built on a completely obsolete frame and always smelled funky. He blamed the parents. The red-head working on an oil change for the SUV beside Zetsu and Pein lifted an eyebrow. "You know it is, Naruto. You laughed when Kisame did the same thing to Hidan just yesterday."
The loud clang of a socket-wrench filled the room as the last mechanic popped out from beneath the luxury sedan at the, so properly named, "Cleanish" end of the shop. "You fucking did you little bastard! I fucking heard you over the fucking ringing in my ears from hitting my head so fucking hard!" Blue eyes rolled at the silver headed man as Naruto got back down on the dolly.
"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for reminding us all, Sasori, you're a real pal," he sighed, "Whatever. I just want to get this done on time." He said as he rolled himself back into position. Kisame snickered as Hidan cursed again, throwing down his own towel and calling out that he would be taking his lunch. The large man squatted down beside the car, "So what's up kid? Why're you in such a hurry today?"
Another sigh came from hidden blond, a hand reaching out to grab a recently unpacked transmission belt before disappearing again. "I just want to be able to clean up before I go get Kyu for once. Y'know I don't like getting this shit on 'im." Kisame smiled at the quiet admission, taking a glance over to one of the few framed photos hanging on the wall of the garage.
In the picture sat his entire crew and their family members at the most recent "company picnic". They had managed to arrange themselves on a park bench and got a random passerby to snap the shot. On the bench sat Pein's blue haired, steel-eyed wife, Konan. In her hair, a gorgeous origami flower primly sat. On her left sat the shop's accountant, Kakuzu. The man looked as impeccable as always in his black and grey suit; his sharp, nearly white eyes trained intensely on the camera, even as a smile tugged on the corner of his perpetually split lip.
To Kakuzu's left sat Hidan, his silver hair not slicked back for once and wearing a clean shirt. He had his right arm draped across the back of the bench as he laughed at his co-workers. His left hand was raised and his fingers were curled, the picture taken while he was waving at the giggling red-head sitting in Naruto's lap.
To Konan's right sat Naruto, free of all the dirt and grime that normally hid his shining features, with a wide grin on his face and a little boy, age seven or eight, in his lap. The boy's bright green eyes were nearly eclipsed by his own eyelids as his cheeks rose in grin to match the man he was sitting upon. Wild, bright red hair stuck up in every direction, also matching the blond locks of the man holding him.
Behind those four stood the other five members of the "company"; Kisame was resting a large, blue tinted hand on Naruto's shoulder while he laughed at something Zetsu had said. Zetsu was rubbing an elbow into Pein's side even as the man had his arms wrapped around his wife's shoulders, and Sasori stood with an arm draped across Deidara's middle, a small smile on his face as he listened to the blond laugh.
He shifted his focus back down to the blond man under the car. He heaved an exaggerated sigh as he rose to his feet. "Well, there's no helpin' it then. Naruto, you're off for the rest of the day." The dolly slid out so fast he barely even had time to blink before watery blue eyes were right in front of him. "Really, boss?!" Filthy tan hands were folded together under his nose as Naruto struck the, ever-so-lovingly-called, "OMG Please?!" pose.
Kisame made a great show out of running his hand through his blue tinted locks and sighing over-dramatically; but he couldn't hide the grin that came charging onto his face. "Yeah, just tell the brat that you're gonna be working extra hard over the next few days." The grin widened as Naruto let out a 'whoop' and ran out of the open garage area and into the back room.
"Oi, boss, what's up with him?" He turned toward the green topped man and answered even as he lowered himself onto the dolly. "Sent him home early's all." An incredulous snort came from Sasori. "The picture got you again, didn't it?" Kisame laughed heartily and got to work, the rest of his men following his example; each with their own smiles well hidden.
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Naruto smiled softly as he stood outside of his dark red SUV in front of the elementary school building. His blue eyes stared off into the distance aimlessly until a quiet 'woof' sounded at his side. Looking down, he was caught in the dark brown gaze of his dear black lab, Sebastian. The large dog's tail wagged briefly before the animal turned back to watching the entrance of the school.
A clean tan hand reached down to fondle the over-sized canine's ears, earning a groan for his efforts. A positively wicked smile turned Naruto's lips but he didn't get the chance to act out whatever thoughts had caused such an expression, as the bell rang and children came pouring out of the building like water over a recently broken dam.
Sharp blue eyes focused every so often on random passersby; waiting to see a head of shocking red. Just as he spotted it, the owner of said head spotted him and came running over with a gleeful smile upon his young face.
"Daddy!!" the boy cried, throwing himself into the arms of the blonde and relishing in the feeling of being twirled around. His joyous laughter escaped into the air, causing his father's own to join in. Sebastian barked as he jumped around the pair; the whole affair looking to an outsider as if this family had never been whole, when in fact Naruto had dropped the boy off that morning.
"Mr. Uzumaki! Mr. Uzumaki!" Naruto looked up as his name was shouted, putting his son back down on the sidewalk. A frown marred his handsome features when the boy immediately went to hide behind his legs; a behavior he knew only existed when his son was in trouble, or had caused someone else trouble.
"Hello, Mrs. Yuuhi, how can I help you?" he asked the dark haired woman cautiously, one never knew what to expect when a teacher hailed them from across the lawn. Kurenai Yuuhi straightened out her dress, which had gotten a bit wrinkled in her trek over, and looked at him with piercing red eyes.
"I have tried to get in contact with you all day today. Your work said you had left early, but you did not answer your house phone." Naruto winced at the reproachful tone, excuses popping up and dying in his head. What could he tell her? 'Sorry, I took the afternoon off so that I could get the grocery shopping done, clean the house, and take the first REAL shower I've had in days?' Yeah, that wouldn't go over well with his son's teacher.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Yuuhi. I was… indisposed for most of the day." Her normally beautiful face soured and she looked down her nose at him, even though he had almost a full head over her. "I am aware that you are young, Mr. Uzumaki. But I would have thought you'd spare a bit more maturity for your son."
Naruto gaped at her, completely taken aback. He was ready to let her have it, but small hands fisting into his pants leg stopped him. He looked down at his son, only to be caught in watery green eyes. Ignoring the aggravated woman in front of him, Naruto knelt down to wipe away tears that had yet to fall.
"Shh, Kyuubi. It's okay. Daddy's here, alright? It's okay." He pulled the sniffling child into his arms, then stood. "Mrs. Yuuhi," he spoke, his tone icy and his eyes matching, beside him, Sebastian growled, "If you're done insulting me and upsetting my son, what is it that you wanted?"
Kurenai at least had the decency to look ashamed at her actions. What had she been thinking? Nearly verbally attacking a parent in front of their child. It didn't matter what her personal feelings were on the matter of Naruto's age, she should never had done that. "Uh-hm, yes," she cleared her throat and looked away, now aware that they had drawn a small crowd of parents, none of which looked too happy with her.
"The school will be having Back to School Night next Tuesday night, from six to eight pm. It is mandatory attendance and we had yet to receive Kyuubi's formed, signed by you, stating that you would be there." Naruto continued to stare icily at her but nodded his head in understanding.
"I see," he finally said at length, "Will it be alright if I just verbally said I was gonna go?" Kurenai shook her head in the affirmative, wanting nothing more than to get out of the limelight. She just knew her colleagues were going to have a field day with this.
Naruto nodded again and a short smile came to his lips. "Then we'll be there Tuesday night, won't we, Kyuubi?" He nudged the huddled figure resting on his chest and shoulder getting a somewhat frantic nod in return. With a last tilt of his head, Naruto turned away from the educator and opened the passenger door of his vehicle.
Sebastian hopped up into the bed as he finished securing Kyuubi in his booster seat. He closed the door to the vehicle softly, not wanting to jostle the precious cargo inside. Sliding into the driver's seat, he turned the ignition and laughed along with Kyuubi in pleasure to the V-8 engine's purr.
He pulled slowly away from the curb, then made his way into traffic. He glanced at his smiling son from his peripheral and sang along to the song on the tape with the little boy. 'My little boy, my little Kyuubi.'
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End Chapter One
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Author's Note At The Bottom!!
So, hi everybody. ^^ While I'm still working on the update for "Just For Us" this little guy has been clogging my head for the past few days. Excellent news in regards to it... chapter two is already half-way done! *gasps* I know, isn't that just ludicrous. I never thought I'd see the day. heehee
Anyway, this story has potential (in my mind at least) and that gives me hope that I'll actually be willing to sit down and finish it (for my regular peeps this is another gasp moment). So, I hope you enjoyed this little intro/chapter, the ones to come should be longer, adn if not, more frequent updates. ^^
As always, please review, I love the feedback.