Naruto: 8-9-3

-xXx-

Sarutobi had fought many battles, both off an on the field, on the front lines and behind a desk. He has defeated many foes, outsmarted council members and ninja alike. But never in all his years did he expect this.

Sitting in his office, the elderly Hokage studied the boy before him. He was young, still in his teens. His hair was spiked and blonde, on his cheeks were three scars, looking like a set of whiskers. It was Naruto Uzumaki, he had returned to the village after quitting the ninja academy when he was twelve.

"Hello again old man," he said casually, leaning back into the chair with a smirk.

The Hokage didn't know what to say three years had passed since he was forced to watch the young boy storm out of the village wearing a dirty orange jumpsuit, but now… He sat across from him wearing a black business suit with a red undershirt and black tie, a pair of slim reflective sunglasses on his head.

"Naruto…" he started, unsure of what to say, "You look well,"

The blonde smirked, "I wish I could say the same to you old man, you look… well older."

He let out a large grin for what felt like the first time in years, "It's great to see you again too," he chuckled, "Looks like you've been pretty well off since you left."

Naruto nodded, "I'm vary well off, you're looking at the owner of nearly a half dozen first-class restaurants and quite a few other lower class ones. I'm sure you've heard of the Black Rose Corporation that sprung up a year ago."

Sarutobi blinked in astonishment, "That was you?"

The Black Rose Co. was famous for opening strings of high class restaurants and even lower class ones for the less wealthy. The higher class ones were always named The Black Rose but the others were hard to point out, ranging from simple food stands to fast food places.

Naruto smirked and nodded, "I've always had a love for cooking, traveled around for a while, learning to cook everything I could. Turns out that people loved my food… I started out working in a small family run business and quickly turned the place into one of the most popular in the city. With that it was easy to buy out any run-down or bankrupt restaurants and turn them around. But I'm not here to rub my success in your face or anything, if I gave you that impression. I'm here on business."

"Go on,"

Naruto sat up, "There are certain properties that I want to buy, I want full ownership of the land and came to you because I trust you to do so. I don't want your little council to try and worm their way into my business to line their pockets. I've shut down two of my places and put many people out of work because of councils trying to take money out of my business, saying that it was for unforeseen taxes."

Sarutobi could practically hear the disgust dripping in his tone.

"The first area is within the walls, in sector 5. It's a forest right now but I'm planning on opening a nice place that connects to nature. The second is the shop near the Hokage monument, the one that fell into debt, I want to open a… aquatic restaurant there."

The old man nodded and leafed through some papers, "Well Naruto-kun, I do believe that I can do that for you. Both areas are up for sell and I have the deeds right…" he stopped and opened his draw, pulling out a large folder and leafing through it, pulling out two sheets. "Here,"

Naruto watched him fill out a few forms and signed them when he was told to.

"Now will that be cash or check?"

Naruto pulled out a black checkbook and wrote the correct amount on it, signing it and everything, "Check,"

Sarutobi took the offered paper and stored it away in his desk, "Well Naruto-kun, you are now the proud owner of both places," He congratulated, shaking the boys hand. "I'll have the deed and a have a copy of everything sent to you as soon as possible,"

Naruto nodded, "Thank you old man, it was nice doing business with you,"

Sarutobi was slightly hurt by the fact that Naruto was ready to leave, having finished business and not wanting to say and talk after being gone for so long. But he knew that Naruto had every right to want to be away from him, seeing as he didn't do much to help him when he was young. He could remember the day he left, angry at being tricked by Mizuki, feeling betrayed by everyone around him. When the ANBU brought him in, Naruto announced that he was dropping out of the academy and left. No more, no less.

"Naruto-kun," he called suddenly as the blond grabbed the door handle, "I'm sorry, about everything. I should have tried harder to help you when you were little,"

Naruto didn't say anything for a second, "Don't worry old man, things like that don't matter to me anymore,"

Watching Naruto leave, Sarutobi gave a small smile for what felt like the first time in forever.

Leaving the tower, Naruto met up with a rather ruff looking man in a black suit that bowed to him.

"Sir,"

Naruto motioned for him to follow as he walked by, "I've acquired the properties, inform Tazuna-san that I have a need for his skill. He will be paid the usual rate and tell him that if he can hurry up and finish before deadline, I'll give him a bonus."

"Of course Lord Chairman,"

Naruto stopped and turned to the man, speaking lowly as not to be heard by too many people who were already giving them looks. "Also, send a message to the Heads to prepare for a meeting, I'll inform them of the date and time a few days before."

"Hai,"

Naruto watched for a second as he didn't move and quickly got annoyed, "Well, your dismissed,"

"O-of course, Lord Chairman."

Naruto shook his head with an annoyed sigh and started back walking. After a minute, he started to notice the glances that people gave him and even heard a few of the elderly women talking in hushed tones about how he looked like a nice respectable young man. Even one commented on how she wished her granddaughter would try and date someone like him instead of the young thugs she normally did.

"Lord Chairman!"

Naruto sighed at to voice and turned around to see an older man running towards him while huffing like he had ran a marathon.

"Hello Nishki," the blond deadpanned while rolling his eyes.

Nishki was a young, clean-cut man in his mid twenties, he wore a brown business suit with a pair of slim box frame glasses over his eyes. He was very smart for his age and is a wizard with numbers, but the one problem was...

"Don't 'Hello Nishki' me," He hissed, "I was told to watch over you, Chairman or not, the board members insist that I make sure nothing happens to you. Your too important to the Company to lose."

Naruto snorted, "How funny, they send an accountant to watch my back, what you gonna do when some one tried to mug us?" he questioned.

Nishki lost all his steam and looked down, kicking at the dirt with his polished brown shoe, "Well sir, we all know the rumors about you, I figured that they only sent me to try and keep you out of trouble."

Naruto stared at the man for a minute before turning away with a snort, "Pussy,"

Nishki lowered his head in shame and slowly trekked after his boss. He didn't know the Chairman personally, working as one of the many accountants for the Black Rose Co. but ever since he was accepted into the position he had heard the rumors and stories about the younger man.

"Nishki hurry the hell up," Naruto ordered.

The dark haired man shook his head and saw that Naruto was way ahead of him.

"Sorry sir,"

Naruto shook his head, "It's bad enough that I have to have a baby-sitter Nishki, don't make me wait on you while you daydream."

"Yes sir,"

Naruto turned abruptly into an alley then stopped and gave an annoyed huff, "Nishki," He started with out looking at him, "I'm easy to get along with for the most part. I really don't know much about you besides the fact that your smart and-,"

Nishki cut him off, beaming at the complement, "Thank you sir,"

The blond gave clinched his eyes with a frown, "And you really don't know me, but I'm starting to sense that your a kiss ass and a bit of a bitch, so why don't you go to the dry-cleaners and pick up the suit I dropped off this morning,"

"But sir, I was told to-"

Naruto spun around and grabbed him, his arm around his neck with the mans cheek pressed into his side, "As I was saying," he snarled, "Go pick up my suit, before I remove your thumb with a meat cleaver."

Naruto leaned closer to the mans head and whispered, "Do not forget Nishki, I am the Chairman of the Kurobara clan, my word is law. The Board may have ordered you to try and keep me out of trouble and I won't stop you, but you will do as I say or else."

Nishki nodded franticly and Naruto let him go with a frown on his face. Dropping to his knees and bowing, Nishki's forehead nearly touched the stone walkway, "Forgive me Lord Chairman,"

"Get up and go get my suit from the cleaners," he ordered harshly, "Take it to my hotel room and leave it there."

"Yes Lord Chairman,"

Nishki stayed like that until he couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, he had learned his lesson with dealing with the Chairman. There was a reason that no one challenged him, the rewards that came with being in his good graces were great, but his wrath was near godlike.

Naruto walked out of the alleyway and onto the main road, straightening his coat again, he walked off towards the red-light district, his home away from home.

-X-

Jiraiya sailed through the air above the village, leaping from building to building while scanning the roads below. His sensei had just told him about Naruto, Minato's kid visiting him.

He had been disappointed to hear that Naruto had left the village years ago, giving up on being a ninja. He had promised Minato and Kushina that he would train the boy when he became a Genin and had been waiting until that day to return. He would have came sooner, but he had a spy network to take care of so that kept him busy most of the time, meaning that he wasn't able to do his duty of being a real godfather to the boy.

But when he returned, excited to meet the blonde, Sarutobi informed him of Naruto's decision to leave the village due to being trick and betrayed by his Chuunin teacher. If it hadn't been for the fact that Ibiki had already taken care of the man, the toad sage would've murdered him.

But now that he was told that Naruto was in the village, he had a chance to meet him and fulfill his promise. He would've done it years ago but Naruto seemed to just drop off the map.

'Let's see, blonde hair, black suit... blonde hair, black suit,' he told himself while scanning the roads, his long white ponytail whipping around behind him.

He landed on a rooftop and saw a large group of people gathered around in a circle with a pair of men attacking another man.

Across from him was a small three man unit of ANBU, watching the fight and prepairing to break it up should it turn deadly. ANBU were told to only break up a fight between Ninjas and Civilains, due to the ninja having an advantage and potencally killing the civilain or destorying buildings. If the fighters were both civilain, they would usually wait until the slower police force stopped them, only jumping in should one pull a knife or something.

The Toad summoner jumped over, "What's going on here?" he questioned.

"Jiraiya-sama, we were patroling the area when two civilains acused another of cheating in the small gambling house. They threatened to attack but the other said that they would ruin the place so he took them out into the streets. Following normal procedure, we watched to assure that neather tries to kill the other." the squad leader told him.

He turned to get a good look at the fighters and cursed as he saw the two civilains pull pocket knives on a blonde man wearing a dark red shit and black pants.

The ANBU and the pervert started to break up the fight but as quickly as the two pulled the knives, the blonde knocked them both out, kicking one in the face and punching the other in the nose.

-X-

(Ten minutes before)

Naruto walked into the small gambling house and looked around with a smirk. If it was one thing he liked to do, it was to gamble. Especally with his luck. He didn't win all the time but if he did then it wouldn't be fun.

He quickly found himself a place at a Oicho-Kabu table, seated on a fluffy pillow while the dealer shuffled cards. The game was older and more traditional, played in the old days with rules similar to other games like Black Jack and Baccarat. The goal was to reach a total with the final digit closest to nine using only three cards.

He won quite a few times, annoying the two other players at the table who kept drinking sake. And finally, they got pissed off as he looked at his cards with a smirk.

"Son of a bitch!" the first yelled jumpping up, "You cheater, theres no way you can keep winning,"

"Yeah, ever since you started playing you kept winning," the guys friend added.

Naruto looked up at the two who were standing, still sitting down on the pillow, "I'm afraid I don't know what your talking about,"

The first seethed, "Don't give me that shit, admit it,"

"Admit what?"

He kicked the table over, sending the cards and sake bottles to the floor, "You bitch, you know what I'm talking about, admit that you were cheating or I'll kick your ass,"

Naruto huffed and stood up, unbuttoning his coat, "I did not cheat, now, let's take this outside, I wouldn't want to ruin this astablisments furnerture more than you already have,"

The pair stormed outside, following Naruto who shrugged off his jacket and laid it over the hand rail just outside the door.

"Now," he said popping his neck and rolling his sholder. "Let's hurry this up, I have things to do."

"You'll be eating through a straw when I'm through with you!"

Naruto leaned aside and kneed the man hard in the stomich, grabbing his head and tripping him to the ground. The other man tried to hit him from behind but the blonde spun around elbowing him in the face.

"Hm," Naruto exclamed while checking his watch, "six seconds... that's a new personal best,"

"Fucker!" punk number one yelled, pushing himself off the ground, "I'll kill you,"

Naruto dodged the business end of a knife as he lunged at him. A quick roundhouse kick later and he was out cold, the knife stabbing in the dirt a little ways away. The secound punk tried to stab him too, but like before, Naruto turned around and nailed in in the nose.

The crowd laughed and cheered the blonde for the good fight but quickly dispursed as ANBU appered to arrest the two men for attempted murder.

"Nice of you to show up," Naruto mused, "Why is it that police or any law enforcement for that matter are always late?"

The ANBU ignored him and left to inprison the two men.

"Naruto?"

Said blonde turned around at hearing his name being called, "Yea?"

Jiraiya walked up to the blonde, "Naruto Uzumaki?"

"That's my name,"

the pervert smiled, "I'm Jiraiya, I've been looking for you for a while. I was a friend of your parents."

Naruto walked over and picked up his suit coat before pulling it on, "Well Jiraiya, I wasn't hiding of anything, so you must not have been looking too hard," he said dismissivly while whiping imagnary dust from the sleeves.

The blond walked back into the gambleing house and pulled a small stack of cash from the inside of his coat, "Here, this is for any damages," he told the manager who walked over.

Jiraiya followed him inside and watched this in intrest.

Naruto walked over to the flipped table and found his cards, which were somehow still togethor and facedown, "Well aint that a bitch," he mused flipping them over, "Hm 8, 9, and 3... Ya-Ku-Za"

To be continued...