Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Borderlands.

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Blood and Bullets

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Chapter One

As the silent night drew on and Moon shifted higher into the serene cloudless sky, the terrain grew dark and menacing. For the prey. In regards to the hunter of said prey, however, he paid no heed to the biting cold that ravaged the frozen tundra of the Southern Shelf. He was focused solely on bringing down the creature that alluded him. As silent as the night that wreathed him, the hunter raced through the field of icy crags and snow banks, weaving through the canyon-like gaps in the frosted over rocky terrain with nary a sound despite the bulk of his attire and equipment. Catching sight of his prey for only a moment, terrified and disoriented, he quickly moved for a better position, trying to close the two-hundred meter gap between them as he swiftly and silently marched up a snowy slope of rock that led to what had possibly been an outpost of some sort in the past due to the delapitated ruins of what had once been shelter from the constant blizzards and arctic chill.

Narrowing his eyes after spotting his prey adjusting his bearings, he leapt from his position and raced across the top of a small plateau of ice, rock, and snow, his chosen weapons grasped in his hands in reverse grips; they were special short-swords crafted from a collection of old artefacts he had uncovered in an old temple of some sort, each one having been melted down and mixed in with the special metals used to craft his blades. They bore a two-foot long primary blade that curved slightly much like the katanas of old times while a shorter, one-foot long secondary blade stood directly in front of it, a short four-inch long curved blade protruding from the base of the curved handles. The two main blades were primarily a dark grey/black trimmed with a polished silver edge while the dagger-blades on the pommels were a solid polished silver color, the six-inch long handles bound tightly in black leather.

"Hn!" Grunting with effort, the vigilant hunter lunged from the ledge and soared over the broad gap with his knees drawn up to his chest and his arms extended out to either side in the likeness of wings, his blades stabbing towards one another behind him and reflecting a thin moonbeam ray along its glistening edge. Extending his legs as he drew closer to the surface of another plateau, his booted feet made contact and he instantly curled into a shoulder roll, only to spring back to his feet without pause and continue in his marathon run.

His target was a Bandit that went by the name of Rauth, leader of the Iron Hands. They were called such due to the one primary requirement to join; their left hand and forearm had to be replaced with a metal prosthetic. From there, most of them had taken to continuing their augmetic surgeries, replacing bones and some organs with mechanical replacements of surprisingly high quality. However, it was of no more importance now than the air in his lungs; the Iron Hands were no more, leaving only Rauth and the hunter to wage war with one another.

Knowing from experience that the Iron Hands' shields and augmentations were very vulnerable to Shock-based weaponry, the hunter tightened his grip and focused his mind on the raw, uncontrollable power of pure lightning, causing his tri-bladed swords to crackle to life with electricity. Leaping from the very end of the plateau, the hunter descended upon his prey, the Bandit spotting the shadow blotting out the Moon's light, but it was already too late. Encountering little to no resistance, the electrified blades pierced the man's energy shield, stabbing into his shoulders where they met the base of his neck, the primary blades gliding through his flesh behind his collar bones while the secondary blades passed in front of them, the serated edges lining the dips between them grinding into the bone and locking it in place.

Even before he could scream, electricity surged through Rauth's body, frying him from the inside-out. The hunter remained unaffected due to his own powerful shield, which he had crafted himself from a variety of different units to give it an incredibly high resistance to all elements, but not so much to non-elemental damage. As the body was scorched beyond recognition, the hunter planted his foot on the corpse between its smoking shoulders at the base of the neck before kicking the body, freeing his swords and allowing him to sheath them behind his waist with the handles sticking out from behind either hip.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't taken flight of foot..." The hunter whispered quietly as he stared down at the body with an apathetic gaze, idly picking out gaps in charred flesh that revealed bone and bits of shriveled up internal organs. Turning around, the hunter calmly stalked away, soundless and without a trace of ever being there, his foot prints gradually disappearing as the wind tore at them and snow continued to fall. Stepping out from behind the dark abyssal shadows of a large rocky outcropping and into the pale illuminating rays of the Full Moon's light, the hunter was finally revealed, although no one was present to witness.

Standing at 6'1", the man held a lean muscular build, perfectly balancing strength and agility. He was dressed in baggy black and dark grey camouflage pants tucked into black knee-high steel-toe combat boots, a black leather belt used to hold them up, a black skin-tight long-sleeve turtleneck, black fingerless gloves on his hands, a black cloth face mask pulled up over his nose with pitch black metal armoring it from his nose down to his chin and stretching from cheek bone to cheek bone with an air filtration system built into the object, a set of pitch black metal body armor strapped over his torso with a thick raised collar armoring the sides and back of his neck while a black hood was attached to the collar and pulled up over his head to hide his hair, a curtain of black cloth hanging from the belt-loops of his pants by black metal rings that formed an ankle-length 'skirt' around his legs while shrouding the black metal sheaths for his swords, a pair of solid black storage devices mounted to his body armor just below his rib cage with both objects set at an angle, a large blade hunting knife strapped to the side of either thigh, a cluster of four grenades hanging from either of his hips, a pair of black-framed goggles placed over his eyes with crimson-tinted lenses, and a pair of solid black Vladov non-elemental TMPs holstered behind his lower back that bore a larger ammo capacity than any other Vladov machine pistol and a slightly longer barrel.

"Hm?" He muttered, noticing the quiet sound coming from his ECHO device as it attempted to notify him of an incoming call. "What?"

"Ah, as unfriendly as ever, hm?" A woman answered back, her voice naturally seductive and alluring. He didn't need to see her face to see the smirk playing across her lips. "Don't worry, I'll keep it short. To put it simply, I have a friend that is in need of a permanent partner to work with. I'd do it, but I'm not of much use these days. They said they needed someone that could, in their words, 'take the heat and stay ice-cold'. I won't bore you with the details, but if you're interested, you know where to find me."

"..." He simply narrowed his eyes slightly as the call was disconnected. Calmly staring up at the sky for a moment to gather his thoughts, he continued on his treck through the tundra back to his truck. Normally, he wouldn't bother considering the woman's offer the first time, let alone give it a second thought, but he had found it increasingly difficult to acquire jobs that best fit his skill-set and paid enough money with him being a solo-operating mercenary/bounty hunter.

Perhaps with a partner, he would be able to support himself better. It would also give him a better chance of surviving heavy resistance with the two of them watching each other's backs. However, the reputation of his 'partner' would affect the available jobs; low reputation would provide few decent jobs while a high reputation would allow for more high-paying jobs, but at the cost of painting a target on his back. There was also the risk of his possible comrade being untrustworthy, meaning the chances of him being shot in the back went up.

"Geez...Why is everything so damn complicated these days?" He grumbled under his breath as he reached his 'baby'; a Bandit Technical. Modified, of course. It was painted a black and dark grey camouflage, it bore heavier armor than normal with an engine three-times as strong as normal, a far more durable suspension system, a double-barreled machine gun mounted to either side of the hood, armored butterfly doors set on either side of the vehicle with seating for three passengers along side a driver and gunner, a triple-barreled rocket launcher mounted to the turret, a row of six lights mounted to the roof just above the 'windshield' of armored slates instead of glass, and the bumpers also having been reinforced with a large plow-like bumper guard mounted to the front. The entire vehicle was sitting a full foot higher off the ground due to the customized suspension system he had outfitted it with, the chassis was broader and longer than normal, and there were a number of hidden gadgets stored within the heavily armored husk of metal.

All in all, his Technical was best classified as a tank or APC...

Reaching up and opening the driver-side door, he climbed in and slammed the door shut behind him. Pulling out his keys from his pocket, he started his truck, the engine roaring to life before settling into a deep, savage growl. Grabbing the end of the gear shift, he put the truck in reverse and backed up for a moment, only to shift back into first gear and drive off down the deep crevice set between two glacial monuments of ice-coated stone. As he drove, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes with one hand and pulled his mask down with the other, using his left knee to keep the steering wheel from moving on its own while he lit up one of his 'death sticks'. That was when he caught a blur of color in the corner of his right eye, prompting him to glance down at the old photo taped to the dash just above the radio.

"..." His eyes grew cold and his facial expression became grim as he used his left hand to grip the steering wheel again. Using his right, he gently gripped a corner of the photo before pulling it free of the dashboard and reaching over to open the glove compartment, stashing the picture away before slamming the compartment closed. Why did he keep torturing himself over her? It had been ten years since that night. She was gone and there was nothing he could do about it.

"...Damn it...Why can't people leave me alone?" He growled quietly as he shifted into second gear and answered his ECHO for the second time, not even bothering to check the number this time. "What?!"

"Don't use that tone with me, brat!" A woman snarled back over the line, making him wince slightly. What the hell was it with him and having so many psychopathic old hags in his life? Then again, the woman had been the one to pull his ass out of the fire on a few occassions; it had even been a literal thing at one time. "You better start showing me some fucking respect, you little shit!"

"Geez...Sorry." The man apologized a bit cautiously and out of mild confusion. It wasn't his fault that he was irritated; Rauth was the idiot that tried to run away. "So, what was it that you wanted, Tsunade?"

"You know damn well what I want." Tsunade spoke calmly, yet coldly. He winced again, glancing out the back window at the unmarked wooden crate strapped down in the bed of his truck. The damn thing barely fit in there, but he had managed. Somehow. How the hell did she know it was him that took it, anyways? "You're an idiot, you know that? Apart from you, who else would use a god damned Tediore rifle, of all things in the world, to short out the electrical circuits to an industrial power generator just to disable a single alarm system?"

Another wince. Honestly, he would have used a paper clip or a bobby pin or something, but he didn't have anything else on him. All he had was an old Tediore that had somehow been left in his storage unit from a past job. He really should learn to think inside the box. Or was it think outside the box? Either way, he got caught and he now had an angry old lady hounding him.

And he needed to empty his storage unit more thoroughly. He still couldn't figure out how that damn thing got in there...

"Um...Sorry?" He offered with uncertainty, only to be answered by the nearly unintelligible howling of a pissed off woman that was at least in her mid-sixties by now; strangely enough, she only looked to be in her early to mid-fourties. Flinching back at the volume as he plucked the tiny speaker from his left ear, he eyed it warily as Tsunade continued to scream into the reciever from her end. He only caught a few of the words amongst the myriad of obscenities, but even then, he hoped he never ran into her again. At least he could just hang up on her whenever she started bitching at him again. Speaking of which...

Click!

"Phew..." He sighed heavily with relief while stuffing the ear-bud back into his ear, taking a drag of his nearly forgotten cigarette before focusing back on the task at hand. Exhaling and sighing out a lungful of smoke, Uzumaki Naruto, bounty hunter, slouched slightly in the driver seat, letting his left arm rest against the driver side door while his right arm was draped along the top of the pitifully padded bench that made up the Technical's driver and front-passenger side seats, his cigarette held between his lips lazily. "Joy...Now to suffer through another five-hour drive through the Maze of Bullshit back to town..."

He hated long boring drives...

xXx

Taking a long drag of his cigarette and filling his lungs with the acrid smoke, he slowly exhaled as he stared up at the ceiling from his spot at a table in the far corner of the bar, his feet kicked up on another chair and his arms draped over two more that he set on either side of him. He had kept his hood down along with his mask and goggles left to hang around his neck, leaving his face and head completely visible. Taking a drag of his cigarette before ashing it, Naruto mentally complained about the piss-poor lighting of the 'Slug-Spitter' bar in Sanctuary, which was starting to give him a tiny headache.

His hair was a golden blonde styled into an undershave that reached down to his waist in a thin braid, his chin adorned with a touch of blonde stubble. His skin was tanned from constantly being out in the sun, and although it was impossible to see due to his choice in clothing, his body was littered with dozens, if not hundreds, of scars from a great many different methods of injury. His eyes, however, unsettled many people. Once full of life and boundless energy, his sapphire blue eyes were now cold and frosted over with the darkness in his heart; many referred to them as the 'eyes of Death'. Nothing escaped his notice, these days. He didn't even have to try to pay attention to know exactly what was happening around him.

That's how he knew he had a guy standing behind him with a Jakobs revolver aimed at the back of his head...

Ka-chik!

Blam-Blam-Blam!

"ARRGH! Fuck! My leg!" The man cried out as he fell to the ground, clutching his left leg that now bore three new holes in it. Everyone in the bar froze and went silent as they glanced back at the blonde. His right hand grasped his left machine pistol and sat just below his left arm, the barrel still smoking from the three-shot burst. Inhaling another lungful of smoke from his cigarette without moving, he continued to stare up at the ceiling, ignoring the wounded man's screams of pain. Exhaling with a sigh, he closed his eyes and reluctantly pulled himself to his feet, slipping his TMP back into the custom-made mag-lock holster he had made for both of his machine pistols. Turning around and walking over to the wounded man, he picked up the fallen revolver with his right hand and grabbed the poor bastard by the back of his shirt with his left hand and dragged him out of the bar, still ignoring his exclamations of pain and curses.

"Get lost, dumbass." He muttered coldly while letting the man go and turning around to head back in. Sitting back down where he had been a moment ago, he plucked his cigarette from his lips and knocked the ashes off over an ash tray before taking one last drag and putting it out. Slipping back into his previous position, he reached over and grabbed his beer, taking a couple sips before setting it back down. Just as he lit another cigarette, someone sat down in the chair to his right, prompting him to cock an eye brow curiously and glance at them, only for his eyes to widen slightly.

She was a beautiful woman, probably about his age, with light colored blemish-free skin and deep blue hair cut short in the back that gradually tapered down to being chin-length in the front, her eyes a dazzling cerulean with two bright blue dots under her left eye while a small dark beauty mark sat on her right cheek bone. It wasn't her beauty that caught him off guard, though; she was a Siren, made obvious by the pastel blue tattoos that covered her entire left arm. She was clad in a skin-tight black and yellow leotard that bore only a full-length right sleeve, a black glove on her right hand, a pair of baggy black pants that hung loose on her broad hips with a dark brown and black leather belt looped through it to hold her pants up, a thick book hanging from a belt at her left hip with the familiar seal of the Vault on its cover, and a Maliwan pistol strapped to her right thigh. Before she could even say a word, the blonde had already decided to voice his thoughts.

"What can I do for a 'powerful' Siren such as yourself?" Naruto mumbled out a bit sarcastically as he took a drink of his beer and set it back down on the table, only to stick his cigarette back in his mouth and stare up at the ceiling.

"I got a phone call from a friend of mine yesterday. She said to look for, in her own words, 'a cold-blooded heartless bastard without a shred of respect for others and an obsession with the color Black'." The Siren answered, making Naruto smirk and, in turn, making the Siren smirk as well.

"Aw, so she does care. How touching." He muttered sharply, rolling his eyes as he sat up and ran his left hand over his hair, sighing. "Let me guess; You're Maya, the one I'm supposed to be working with from now on. Right?"

"Yes. That would make you Uzumaki Naruto." Maya stated, only for Naruto to finish his beer and stand up, walking away without another word. Getting up and following after him, Maya was confused and annoyed with the blonde's behavior. Then again, Lilith had warned her that he wasn't exactly a 'gentleman', to put it lightly. "Hey, where are you going?"

"What's it matter to you?" Naruto grumbled, flicking his cigarette off to the side as he headed for Sanctuary's main gates, his Technical parked off to the side. Reaching the vehicle and opening the door, Naruto paused for a moment and sighed heavily. Turning around, he faced Maya and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against his vehicle. "Look, Lady. I'm not going to suger-coat it for you. I don't want a partner. It would be nice to have one, but I can do just fine without one. Now, I've got a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in, so if you don't mind, I suggest you make your choice in the next five minutes before I make it for you; tag along and stay out of my way or stay here and look for someone else. Either one doesn't matter to me."

"You really don't care about anyone, do you?" Maya asked sharply while narrowing her eyes, crossing her arms as Naruto started climbing back into his truck. She watched as he suddenly froze, his eyes locked on the dashboard in front of him as the empty coldness in them shimmered faintly with lost emotion, only for them freeze back into their previous state of apathy.

"That tends to happen when you have nothing left to live for..." He muttered quietly under his breath, but Maya still heard him. Without another word, he pulled his mask back up and placed his goggles over his eyes before coiling his braid around his neck and shoulders, flipping his hood up over his head a moment later. Turning on the massive behemoth of a vehicle, Naruto reached up and grabbed the handle to his door, pulling it down and slamming it shut. When he glanced out through the narrow gaps between the armor slats on the door, he found Maya still standing there and figured she had chosen not to come along or something.

"Figures...Who wants to go galovanting across the wastelands with an asshole like me?" Naruto grumbled to himself as he put the truck in reverse before shifting back into first gear and starting to turn the truck around. That was when he heard the passenger side door open up, causing him to glance over just as Maya pulled the door down and slammed it shut, only to reach down and flip a metal lever over, locking it in place. Facing him, Maya glared at him slightly, but it was softened by the faint smirk on her lips.

"Do you know how hard it is to find a partner without them freaking out about me being a Siren? Even my old friends were unsettled by it." Maya commented, unknowing of the smirk forming on Naruto's face. As the gate opened, Naruto looked forward again, gripping the steering wheel with both hands.

"Seat belt." He muttered, getting a look of confusion from Maya. "I suggest you put your seat belt on."

"But...you don't have any." Maya responded hesitantly. Naruto already knew that, but he just couldn't resist hazing his new partner. Slowly looking over at her, he grinned fiendishly behind his armored mask.

"Well, ain't that a damn shame..." Naruto replied sarcastically before suddenly slamming on the gas, swiftly throwing the truck into second gear as the front tires rose up off the ground as all four wheels spun, the truck lurching forward savagely. Letting out a startled cry as she braced herself, Maya felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment as Naruto started laughing, driving his truck through the artic tundra like an expert mad-man. When he glanced at her and saw her look, he only laughed even harder. Cheeks burning hotter, Maya's eyes started glowing a pale blue-white along with her tattoos. Noticing the light, he glanced over at her and suddenly paled. "Uh-oh..."

WHAM!

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"Oww..." Naruto whined in complaint as he held a handful of snow to the side of his face, where Maya's energy covered fist had impacted with his cheek. His other hand held another handful of snow, which was held to the other side of his head near the top, having hit his head on the bare metal framework of his Technical's cab. Not too far away from him was a small fire, the two having taken shelter in a cave for the night due to a blizzard that now raged outside.

"Hey, Lilith. It's Maya." The younger Siren greeted, having called her friend up in an effort to gather a bit more information on her new partner.

"How's it going? He hasn't tried anything, has he?" Lilith growled out over the communicator, knowing of the blonde's habits and behavior. Maya could only sigh at the red head's 'big sister' complex when it concerned her.

"No, Lilith. Well, not unless you count him scaring me with that damn truck of his." Maya muttered, glaring over at Naruto from the corner of her eye as she said it. Lilith laughed on the other end, having experienced something similar when she first met Naruto while they temporarily worked together on a job. "Anyways, I was wondering if you could tell me more about him. I keep getting this feeling that there's more to him, almost as if...I don't know..."

"Don't worry, Maya. I had that same feeling about him when I first met him, too. As for information, it's easiest to describe him as a Hunter, kind of like Mordecai." Lilith began. "He spends most of his time out in the wilderness, making stops in towns only to restock on ammunition and sell any wares he comes across. He often hunts down bounties and if those aren't available, he'll wipe out entire bandit camps and simply take anything and everything they have. Personality wise, he doesn't really care about anyone else, he only respects strength, he has a mean streak in him worse than Brick on a bad day, he's very vengeful, and he's very, very thorough in his work."

"He mentioned something earlier today; he said something about not having anything to live for." Maya responded curiously, yet cautiously; people didn't say things like that without a reason and none of them were pretty. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Yeah, I do..." Lilith answered softly, her voice quiet and rippled with pain. "He's lost a lot of people, Maya. His entire family, almost all of his friends; they were all killed in some way. Local wildlife, bandits...Jack. He used to be a good friend of Roland's, too. However, apart from that, I don't know much else that would be of any help. A word to the wise, though; keep an eye on him. He's even more unpredictable than Jack was."

"...Thanks. I'll call you if I need anything else." Maya muttered softly before disconnecting the call and looking back over at Naruto, who was starting to cook some strips of Bullymong meat skewered with thin metal rods. She noticed how he would pause imperceptibly every few minutes as if he heard something out of the ordinary, his hands twitching to reach for one of his weapons, but he would stop himself and return to the task at hand. She could see it now, the trauma and pain he suffered from. She could see all the tics he had from the slight twitch of a trigger finger nagging for a gun to shoot to the gentle unconscious caress of a handle to his knives or his swords to the subtle actions hinting at possible self-destructive thoughts. It was saddening...

"..." Naruto stayed silent, trying his best to ignore the fact Maya was watching him from where his truck was parked, but it was getting hard. He knew she was being just as cautious of him as he was of her. Despite her being a Siren and being more than capable of killing him with her brain, Naruto could easily kill her as well. If anything, they were evenly matched in concerns to their threat level to one another, but Naruto became even deadlier the moment he manages to escape his prey's sight for even just a few seconds. Maya's Phase power, however...He didn't know what it was and that proved irritating. Chances are, though, she uses it in conjunction with an element, meaning his shield would take the brunt of the assault and keeping him from dying almost instantly.

Then there was that...

"You going to keep staring at me or are you going to come over here and eat?" Naruto suddenly grumbled at her, snapping Maya from her own thoughts. Quietly, she casually walked over with a natural sway in her hips that ensnared Naruto's attention for a moment, only for the blonde to shake his head and focus back on dinner. Now that he thought about it, maybe he could finally start putting it together. He'd had it for almost a month now, but he had yet to actually build it. Maybe later...

xXx

Maya grit her teeth as she reloaded her gun, having found herself pinned down behind cover by Hyperion infantry. She was running out of ammunition and she was tiring fast; she didn't know how much longer she'd be able to last. Loading her last magazine of ammunition into her Maliwan Venom submachine gun, Maya closed her eyes and...started praying. She didn't know who she was praying to and she didn't care; she just wanted to live. Opening her eyes, Maya steeled her resolve and stood up from behind cover to make her final stand against the armored figures, but that's when a massive explosion of red Phase-like energy erupted from within the sea of Hyperion ranks...

Sitting up with a startled gasp, Maya glanced around, finding herself lying on a portable cot not too far from the fire that still burned steadily, a blanket she didn't recall using having fallen from her upper body and pooled in her lap. Judging from the dim light filtering in through the cave entrance, it was probably a little after sunrise. Hearing metal connecting with rock, kind of like a tool being dropped, Maya looked over towards the Technical, only to see Naruto doing something behind it, but she couldn't tell what it was. Getting curious, Maya quietly slipped off the cot and made her way over to where he was, trying to get a look at what he was doing. Before she could get close enough, however, something lunged over the Technical and tackled her to the ground before she could get a good look at it.

"HEEL!" Naruto suddenly called out, causing the thing to suddenly climb off of Maya and back away from her. Groaning, Maya pushed herself back up and looked up to find something she had not been expecting at all. Standing before her at almost six feet tall at the shoulder was a...machine or robot of some kind. It looked like a giant mechanical hyena-like beast of some sort with a very familiar fully-outfitted Dahl Sabre Turret mounted to its back; it had an over-under double-barrel machine gun flanked a pair of rocket pods, a laser targeting sight placed between the two machine gun barrels, a grenade launcher pod mounted between the rocket pods and behind the machine gun barrels, a shield emitter set just below the grenade pod, and hefty ammo boxes attached the sides of the barrels with them wedged between the barrels and the rocket pods. Letting out a low growl as it calmly stalked out from behind the Technical, Maya was shocked to find a second one making its appearance with Naruto following right behind it. Both hyena-machines were painted a solid matte black and dark grey camouflage scheme with polished silver-chrome lining the edges of the clawed paws and the fangs in their jaws, their eyes glowing a bright and menacing crimson.

"I would like you to meet my companions; Spaz and Taz, the Hyena Brothers." Naruto Introduced as he stepped between both of the giant automatons, patting their shoulders. Simultaneously, the turrets on both Spaz's and Taz's backs disintegrated into pale blue-ish light fragments and sparks via the digistruct module built into their spines directly below their shoulder blades. Once the turrets were gone, the Hyena Brothers became more relaxed and laid down with their head resting on their front paws. "They were an experiment being conducted in private by a member of the Dahl company seeking to create a weapon that could act and move on its own. However, they were deemed 'too dangerous' to mass produce due to a problem with their AI programming that made them ignore orders and were to be destroyed. After finding out about them, I intercepted the transport that was carrying them and...rescued them, if you will."

"And where were they before?" Maya asked cautiously, her eyes never leaving the two behemoths and her right hand never straying too far from the pistol on her thigh; they made her nervous. Naruto jabbed a thumb towards the back of the Technical.

"They were stored in a wooden crate in the back of my truck, deactivated and segmented." Rubbing the back of his neck, Naruto glanced at the two. "I had been meaning to fix 'em up for now, but I was either busy with bounties or I just ended up forgetting. So, I decided to get to work on them last night after you went to bed. I was honestly hoping to go 'hunting' for a bit before you got up so that the twins could stretch their legs."

"What exactly were you planning on...hunting?" Maya asked uncertaintly, causing Naruto to gain a thoughtful expression that went unseen due to his face mask and goggles. Pulling out a handheld touch-screen device from his pocket and tapping it a couple times, Naruto found what he was looking for and put it away.

"There's a band of nomads just ten miles north of us. Why? Want to join?" Naruto inquired, smirking slightly behind his mask. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and for a second there, he thought she would start protesting, but he was surprised when Maya just sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, cocking her hips to the side as she put her other hand on her hip.

"Alright, fine. Just don't expect me to save your ass if you get into trouble." Maya muttered before turning around and walking back to their make-shift camp, preparing to head out. Raising an eye brow at her reaciton, Naruto glanced down at Spaz as it looked up at him.

"What's gotten into her?" He muttered before shaking his head, mentally chastizing himself for thinking the autonomous weapon platform would actually be able to answer him. Whistling as he slapped the tailgate to the truck, Naruto watched as the Hyena Brothers reacted instantly by hopping to their feet and jumping into the back of the Technical. Jabbing a finger at the truck bed, Naruto narrowed his eyes behind his goggles. "Stay."

They obeyed the order and laid down in the truck bed once Naruto closed the tailgate, the blonde walking around to the driver side door just as Maya finished folding up both of the cots, the only thing that Naruto actively carried with him whenever he was out in the wild. As she carried them back to the truck and strapped them down, Naruto couldn't help glancing over at her and staring at her rear, only to wisely avert his gaze the moment she started turning around. His smirk hidden by his mask, Naruto opened the door and climbed in just as Maya made her way over to the passenger side.

"Ready to go?" Naruto asked once Maya was inside, getting a wordless nod before jabbing his thumb at the turret's internal access opening. "Good. Man the turret."

"Geez. Bossy, much?" Maya muttered under her breath as she climbed over the back of the bench seat and into the cylindrical turret housing, the Technical's engine roaring to life as she did. Despite hearing her, Naruto ignored the comment and slowly pulled out of the decent sized cavern, the sound of snow being compressed under the massive off-road tires going unheard due to the bellowing motor. Reaching up and banging on the metal ceiling twice, Naruto waited a moment before two more bangs echoed back from Maya responding. Grinning a bit more fiendishly, Naruto figured it was time to start teaching the Siren a few things about him that would never change. First on the list?

His driving habits...

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