183AN: Well, I've been wanting to write a Black Lagoon/Naruto crossover for awhile now, and I'm confident enough to finally try. So without further adue, I give you the first chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Black Lagoon.
Ghosts of the Past
-Chapter one-
A man sat leaned against a cold brick wall in a damp alley way, illuminated by the dim flickering light of an orange streetlight from the nearby road. He was a middle aged man with short black hair, worn clothes and a empty look in his eyes...
But this man is not important, as the man was dead. No the person of interest here was the figure that approached the body. In the flickering light, the figure became visible, showing that the figure was wearing white surgeons garb, a face mask and goggles and was carrying a large chainsaw.
Upon reaching the corpse the figure sat and examined the body for a bit, the body seemed to be completely disemboweled, with scorch marks covering around the area that used to be the corpses stomach, another apparent tally to be added to the list of corpses that have been showing up as of late with strange wounds.
With that, the figure started its chainsaw, revving the engine to warm it up. The figure proceeded to hack away at the body, severing limbs with an odd precision for the tool being used. After finishing, the figure threw the chunks of the corpse into the back of a van labeled "U.G. Pork". Closing the rear doors, they climbed in and started the van seemingly uncaring that they were covered in blood and tiny bits of flesh.
Unknown to the figure now driving away in the van, another figure sat perched upon the ledge of a nearby building, overlooking the alleyway down below. In the brief flickers of orange light that were cast up from the streetlamp below, the figure could be seen wearing a red duster-styled trench coat that went down to their shins, long black leather pants, and arm length black leather gloves. The figures face wasn't visible due to the porcelain fox mask they wore, but sitting atop their head was a mess of spiky blond hair that hung down slightly over the edges of the mask.
Once the van was out of sight, the nighttime air began to swirl around the cloaked figure, before compressing inward in a distortion of black and red that soon vanished, leaving behind only an empty rooftop.
The Yellow Flag was one of the better known bars on the lawless island city of Roanapur. It had gained its fame through the many large-scale gunfights that had taken place inside it. Currently sitting at one of the tables near the wall were the members of Lagoon Company.
"Hey Dutch! when are we gonna get a job? I'm sick of just sitting around!" a plum haired woman said in frustration as she sat leaning forward on the table, a glass in her hand, and an annoyed expression on her face. Across from her, a bald African-American man with large muscles let out an annoyed sigh as he looked up at her through his ever present sunglasses.
"Not until we can get the Lagoon fixed," the large man said. "The engines are still damaged from our last job." he finished, a small amount of frustration lacing his voice. The plum haired woman let out an annoyed grunt before turning to her right.
"You up for another drinking contest Rock?" she asked, directing the question at a young man dressed in business attire that was sitting next to her. "I need some form of excitement, or I'll go fucking insane!" she finished, throwing her head back and tilting back in her chair.
The newly revealed Rock simply gave a nervous chuckle as he looked up at the plum-haired woman apologetically. "Heh, sorry Revy, not tonight," he spoke, putting his arms up in a placating manner. "I have to go over our finances tomorrow and it's easier to do without a hangover." he explained, hoping not to annoy the irritable gunman.
The plum-haired woman known as Revy let out another annoyed grunt at having nothing to do. "Ugh, well something exciting better happen soon, my trigger fingers getting twitchy." she said, leaning back In her chair with her head tilted, casting her gaze behind her.
"Heh, with our luck and a statement like that, next thing you know well have to deal with another Roberta..." came the joking remark from Benny, the crews electronics specialist and resident hacker, receiving a shaking of the head from Dutch, and a nervous chuckle from Rock.
Just after the words came out of his mouth, the door to the bar opened, letting an odd looking man dressed in a red trench-coat enter.
A swirling distortion appeared within a deserted alley-way; red and black bleeding from within it's spiraling center before quickly taking on the shape of a man. As soon as the image of the man appeared to stabilize and become solid, the swirling distortion vanished, leaving behind only the figure clad in red.
Standing still for a moment, the figure gazed around the empty alley. Satisfied that he was alone, the figure reached a hand up and removed the porcelain fox mask from his face. Upon the mask's removal the figure's features became visible, revealing a set of piercing blue eyes along with an angular face scarred with three matching lines on each cheek, resembling the whiskers of an animal.
The figure smoothly put the mask within the confines of his coat, followed by the removal of a pair of rather unique, reflective, round-lensed glasses with zig-zagged temples.*(1)
Gazing down, the figure gazed into a puddle nearby. Giving a nod at their reflection, the figure began walking towards the exit of the alley. The figure had only walked a short while before coming across the bright neon sign of the Yellow Flag. Without a word they opened the door and stepped through.
Upon the sound of the door opening, many eyes turned towards the front of the bar, inspecting the new arrival before simply turning back to what they were doing. Benny gave a nervous chuckle, seeing as the joke he'd just made wasn't exactly something he wanted coming true.
"Heh, what do you guys think of him? Dressed kinda odd huh?" Revy asked, a feral grin stretched across her face. The other three examined the new arrival with calculative gazes before sharing a look.
"I think we should go." came the short reply from Dutch, as he watched the figure walk up to the front of the bar. Revy looked back down, dropping her chair into a regular sitting position before looking at Dutch with an annoyed expression.
"Huh? Why?" Revy asked, looking at the nervous faces of Benny and Rock, while Dutch kept an impassive expression on his face. "What the hell's wrong with you guys?" she questioned after a brief moment of silence.
Rock looked from the new arrival back to Revy. "Uhm Revy, when was the last time an unknown face showed up here dressed strange and nothing bad happened?" he asked her nervously.
Revy looked back at the stranger that was now sitting at the bar. "Yeah, I guess you got a point," she said plainly, never taking her eyes off the man in red. "Well, I'm gonna go talk to him. The way I see it, either he's a normal guy, or I'll get to shoot someone." she finished, her grin returning once more. Benny and Rock looked on in despair while Dutch chose to simply give a shake of his head.
As he sat at the bar drinking a glass of Wild Turkey Bourbon, the figure listened in on a few of the conversations going on throughout the place. Most of the conversations consisted of people discussing 'the new guy in the red coat'; mostly people making bets on how long it would be before he was killed in Roanapur. He smiled at the thought of the lowly thug in the alley trying to muscle him over, and their consequent death.
He was about to get up and leave, seeing as he hadn't heard anything of interest being spoken, when a rather feral looking woman jumped onto the stool next to him. 'Revy' he believed her name was from the conversation he had heard.
"Hey Bao! I'll have what he's having!" she shouted at the man behind the bar, who simply gave her the middle finger before filling her a glass. Upon receiving her drink a second later, she turned her attention towards him. "So what's up with you? I take it you're new to Roanapur?" she casually asked as she leaned on the bar.
Looking to his left at the strange woman, the blonde-haired man gave a simple, "Yeah." before looking back at his drink, seemingly uninterested in conversation.
Revy narrowed her eyes at the man that had practically ignored her.
"You got a name asshole?" she asked, her anger beginning to surface as she placed a hang on one of her modified Beretta 92FS's. The man didn't even look up from his glass as he spoke.
"Naruto." came a simple reply once again, much to the ire of Revy.
"Well Naruto," she spoke mockingly. "What brings you to Roanapur?" Revy asked, anger still present in her voice. Normally she would just put a bullet in the asshole's head and be done with it, but seeing as she had nothing better to do, she figured she would at least try to have a normal conversation. The stranger now identified as Naruto let out a sigh before he looked up from his glass.
"I'm... searching for someone..." he said cryptically, gaining a confused look from Revy, before he abruptly stood from his stool and headed towards the door. Before he could make it to the exit however, he heard a shout from come from behind him.
"Hold it asshole!" Revy said through clenched teeth, as she held one of her cutlasses aimed at the back of his head. "Don't just fucking ignore me! Here I am trying to be polite to someone for once, and you just walk away? Maybe you don't know this, but I'm not someone you want to piss off, and right now? I'm pretty fucking pissed off!"
By now, nearly the entire bar was watching the scene unfold with bated breath. Many of the common patrons knew Revy's reputation, as some had actually seen her blow a persons brains onto the floor. Usually they had been simple drunks that had made the mistake of confusing her with one of the many prostitutes that worked out of the upstairs portion of the bar.
Looking over his shoulder at the angered gunman, Naruto spoke in a calm voice, "It wasn't my intention to anger you, I simply have other things I must do." Revy didn't bother to lower her gun.
"Yeah? Well you're a little too late, give me one reason I shouldn't just blow your brains out?" she asked, blood-lust slipping into her voice. Naruto continued to look at her from over his shoulder without emotion.
"I'm only here for one reason, to find someone important to me. If you get in my way... I'll have to kill you," he said, eyes narrowing through the reflective lenses of his glasses at the woman still sitting at the bar, pointing the gun at his head. "Besides, I'm not the only one with a gun aimed at their head." he continued.
Revy looked confused at his statement, the same as those watching the scene unfold, before a near silent click was heard and a red dot appeared on Revy's forehead. Tracing the laser back to its origin, she found the barrel of a gun pointed at her from between his right arm and his body. Gritting her teeth she spoke, her words like venom.
"Just who the hell are you?!" she said through grit teeth, the muscles in her arm tensing, preparing to pull the trigger.
"...Me? No one overly special, I'm just a man looking to reclaim something that has been taken from him..." he spoke calmly. That didn't seem to please the angered woman much as he noticed her face become even more angered as her muscles appeared to tense further.
Just as it seemed like the situation was going to reach its boiling point a new voice suddenly spoke up.
"N-now h-hold on you two!" came the nervous voice of a frantic Rock. "Just settle down! There's no need to kill each other!" he said trying his best to diffuse the situation.
"I must agree with the young man, I feel there's no reason for this conflict, but I'm afraid if you don't put your gun down I'll have to kill you." Naruto spoke, turning his head slightly to look over his shoulder better at the woman behind him.
Seeing the strange man that had managed to anger the plum-haired gunman seemingly agree to the impromptu peace treaty, Rock turned his attention towards the severely pissed off Revy.
"Come on Revy! Just lower your gun, and we can all go home!" Rock pleaded, hoping with all his might that the situation would end before it truly began.
Revy remained silent and unmoving for a moment before she glanced toward him slightly. "Are you fucking stupid Rock? Maybe you just haven't been here long enough, but in a place like this you can never trust another person based solely off their words... that'll usually bring nothing but your own death..."
Seeing his attempt apparently fail, Rock spoke up once more, hoping at the very least to at least stall for time to think. "I get that Revy, I do! But that man there isn't the one that started this, and he's already agreed that there's no point in this ordeal! It'd be for the best if you both just lowered your guns and go your separate ways!" Rock finished, hoping the duo would listen to reason.
Anxiety growing with each second as a long moment passed with nothing happening, Rock was about to speak up once more but was cut off by a loud exhale. "Ugh, fine Rock, way to be a buzz kill. Oh, and if this asshole shoots me anyways I'm going to kill you." she said releasing a long breath as she eyed the man that was still standing in the middle of the bar, gazing at her over his shoulder, before she slowly lowered her cutlass. A short second later the man lowered his as well.
"Thank you." Naruto said, before he walked out the door.
Rock let a sigh of relief escape from his mouth see as the situation was apparently resolved, before he sunk into his chair once more.
Revy watched the door close as the man left before she let out a huff and headed back over to the table the others were still sitting at. She had just sat down when a shout was yelled from the front of the bar.
"If you keep causing trouble in my bar Revy, I'm gonna have to ban your ass!" came the shout from owner of the bar, Bao.
"Yeah yeah, whatever..." Revy mumbled as she crossed her arms. The other members of Lagoon Company let out a breath of relief seeing as the situation had finally been resolved.
"I...can honestly say I'm surprised by the lack of dead bodies in here." Benny stated, receiving a nod of agreement from Dutch.
"Yeah, well we probably just cashed in all our luck, so can't say I'm eager to see what's gonna go wrong next," Dutch stated before picking up his glass of Bacardi. "Well regardless, I'm still thankful I can actually finish my drink this time."
Naruto was aimlessly walking down the street as he thought back towards the woman he had just encountered. He had a feeling they would be seeing each other again eventually, but for now he needed to continue his search. As he turned into yet a other dark alley, he whistled a somber tune, he'd make sure to find what he was looking for, and if he couldn't...
He'd burn the entire city to the ground until he found where to search next...
Chapter end
(1) I basically modeled his outfit to be Vash the Stampedes look. I think it's a kick-ass look.
Well I really hope I get positive reviews for this, because it's always nice to have support, even if it's just a few people! Every positive review or helpful criticism helps me out!
Please inform me if there are any problems with the story, it'd really help as I don't have a beta-reader.
Okay since I've gotten a negative review about it and have read reviews in other stories that deal with Black Lagoon, I feel it needs to be addressed. In this story, Naruto will use a gun AND Jutsu. I have him use the gun because he can't just break out a Jutsu in a crowded place and have the story still bear any realism. I mean you can't shatter reality for the world and still have a story. He will still use Jutsu periodically when it's safe to do so but usually he'll be stealthy about it.
7-18-2015 I've begun rewriting what I have already written to be a little bit neater, and to fit together a little better.
Just as a reference, this chapter take place immediately after "Calm Down, Two Men".
PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! IT'LL REALLY REALLY HELP ME OUT!