Something Starts from Nothing

Naruto held in a groan as the light from the window hit his eyes and slowly opened them to glare at the sun peaking through several buildings. Even though he grew accustomed to be a morning person, there were days that he would rather sleep in entirely like in the good old days. The publisher soon felt a draft on several places on his body and guessed that he must've slept on top of his covers again or said covers were thrown off during the middle of the night.

It was then he heard a content sigh and felt something trying to burrow its way deeper into his well muscled chest. Looking down he saw a mop of messy red hair, that's when the memories of last night flooded into the front of his mind like a tidal wave. For a brief moment, the silverette thought it was all just a dream of fully professing his love to the woman he truly cared for while giving each other their virginities. In response to this, he tightened his hold on Pam causing her to groan and stir in his arms before lifting her head up and rubbing her eyes.

"Good morning Pam." He said to her softly as the botanist looked at him for a moment before smiling.

"Good morning to you too Naruto. I'm glad you enjoyed your gift last night." She said as she leaned up and captured his lips for a few moments for a morning kiss.

Once he broke the contact he smiled. "And I'm glad to receive it. You gave me something that will be hard for me to forget for a long time."

This got her to giggle as she shifted herself on him causing her to groan a bit in discomfort for some reason. Looking down she realized where the discomfort came from before smiling a little.

"Well it seemed that you left me very sore down there. I'm probably going to be limping for the next several hours. Thank god it's Christmas Day and I don't have to work."

Oh right….it's Christmas Morning and he needs to get things going for the day. He soon shifted his form and tried to get out of bed but Pam held him down into place.

"And where do you think you're going?" Pam said with a slight glare. She wasn't done with her Naru-pillow just yet. Ever since the first day she cuddled and slept in the same bed as him that she practically found the perfect 'pillow. Every other pillow she had at her apartment couldn't please her anymore and just the way his ribs were placed made things more comfortable for her to sleep on. For the love of Mother Nature, he ruined pillows for her dammit.

"Well I was going to make us a Christmas breakfast to start out the day and see what we will do from there my dear." He said to her as she slowly let go of him with her little glare still present.

"It better be good." Pam said with a pout. Ugh she wants her comfy pillow back.

He chuckled as he moved off of the bed and felt his legs brush something wet. Looking down once he stood up he saw the mess they made in their first time love making last night. It was a mixture of their juices and saw traces of Pam's blood on it from when he broke her hymen.

Seems he will be having the constant experience of changing the sheets quite often now…..Eh a little payment for pleasure and he'll be fine with that.

"So what would you like exactly? Pancakes or waffles?" He asked as he grabbed his boxer shorts off of the ground and put them on. He'll be taking a shower after breakfast of course so it wouldn't matter to get fully cleaned up before then.

"I would like pancakes. For some reason it seems appropriate."

"How so?"

"Well... when I was younger, my mother made pancakes for me every Christmas morning and it made things seem special for me. She even said that even her mother did the exact same thing for her when she was a child." Pam said with nostalgia kicking in as memories of those special mornings coming back to her causing her to well up some tears.

Seeing her shift in mood, he guessed that it was something Pam missed from her childhood and years after. He went around the bed and cupped her face before kissing her lips to raise her spirits up a little.

"Then I'll just have to make the best damn pancakes I can muster to help make up for what your bastard of a father took away from you. I know it won't be really the same, but it's something right?" He said to her making her smile before kissing him again.

Once he left the room, she wondered what she should do now since she honestly had nothing else going on. On days off from work, Pam would either read up on latest developments posted in scientific journals of any variety or pick up a book she got from the library and go through it within a day or so. Even on any given day she would be watering her plants at her apartment.

Given the fact this isn't her apartment and her boyfriend/lover has very few plants that she would need to find something to read to keep her mind occupied. Sure there are possible plans for the day with Naruto but some habits tend to come up at odd times. This is one of them.

Pam soon got up from the bed and decided to stretch a little, especially with her feeling sore from their first time having intercourse, so she can possibly walk properly sooner than later. Feeling a bit drafty, with her in the nude, she found Naruto's t-shirt and slipped it on so she could feel a tad better before resuming her stretching. At one point, her eyes caught something on the bed's nightstand and didn't remember seeing it there last night. Maybe she did but ignored it when getting things ready for last night's activity. Either way, Pam's curiosity took over as she got back onto the bed and crawled towards the item in question.

"A notebook?" She picked up the notepad and saw a faded icon in the background of a sharp cross that had curves on the bottom. Her focus turned towards the writing and started to read its contents as she sat back down with her stretching long forgotten.

-Meanwhile, in the Kitchen-

"Even though I've made breakfast for Pam several times, I can't help but feel really nervous this time." The silverette said to himself as he was gathering ingredients from the pantries and the refrigerator.

Despite his calm appearance, he was flipping the fuck out with what he had done last night. He felt like a young teenager again with him losing his virginity to a beautiful woman. Well not just a beautiful woman but someone he had actually fallen in love with. He felt so excited that his emotions were slowly affecting him physically.

His mind had so many things going on at the moment with making this breakfast perfect for Pam being the main priority. He was practically shaking now making him berate himself that he isn't doing things right now. The publisher needed to take a breather and come back to this with a clear head. Naruto assumed that Pam must've gone back to sleep now and could wake her up when he's done. For now he hoped there was something that could keep his mind occupied from making breakfast for even just a moment.

*Knock Knock* *Ding-Dong* *Ding Dong*

Huh….Convenient…..

"I'll be there in a second." The silverette said as he placed the last of the ingredients on the kitchen counter before heading to his loft's entrance.

*Ding-Dong* *Ding Dong* *Ding-Dong* *Ding Dong*

"Alright! I'm coming!" Naruto yelled out as he opened the door to see a familiar site. A site he would rather be ten or so feet away from right now.

*Chuckles* "Phrasing." The person chuckled.

"Great….You." The hazel eyed publisher said as a little headache was coming his way.

"Oh come on, don't be like that."

"Yeah….I will. So what do you want Anko?" Naruto said to his former tenant's bodyguard/girlfriend.

During the past several weeks after Naruto met the Anko of this reality, he kept on seeing her every now and then. At first it was just because she wanted to get her copies of the Gutsy Ninja, Icha Icha and Arashi Raiden books signed, which he was quite used to. Naruto would occasionally see her at random places making him think that Kurama must've sent her to keep an eye out for him…..Well he was half right. She would show up out of nowhere and hound him for when he will start writing a new book before Copperhead would drag her ass back to work kicking and screaming like a little girl.

Yeah….seemed that this Anko seemed a bit more childish from the one he knew. Well now that he thought about it, he didn't have that much of an interaction with Orochimaru's former student. So he probably didn't know much about that particular Anko all that well so he let it slide.

Anyways…..During the various interactions with Anko made him borderline tolerate her because of her dating Kurama. But other than that he wouldn't want to deal with her that often.

So question was: Why was she here? Was she here to bug him yet again on a possible book or running an errand for Kurama?

"Well I'm here on an errand for my foxy woxy." The purple haired assassin stated.

"Which would be….?"

"To wish you the best for the holiday season."

The former shinobi raised an eyebrow on hearing that. Was that all Kurama was going to do for him?

"Wouldn't it better if he called me or came in person to say that?" He questioned.

Anko just stood there for a few moments before slapping her face and muttered something. She ran off to somewhere and not too long came back with a package wrapped in Christmas styled paper.

"Sorry on that, forgot he wanted me to give this to you." She said Naruto was given his gift.

"Well it's good to know he cares." He muttered to himself. "So is that all or are you going to hound me yet again on me possibly working on another book."

"Nope. I'm all fine and dandy Mr. Uzumaki. In fact I already know you are planning on writing the next Icha Icha book quite soon."

"Why are you so sure?" He said in suspicion. Just the way she said it made it seem he was planning on doing a new book yet he wasn't planning on writing smut at all.

"Well I was going to drop off the package last night when I saw you and your girlfriend romping it out in your bedroom." She said all innocently causing him to drop the package on his foot and widen his eyes in surprise.

"You were peeping on us?!" He yelled out loud in both shock and the pain. Damn whatever is in the box must be bloody heavy.

"Well yeah. It seemed so exciting to see you go at it. Kurama told me some stories in passing about how the Icha Icha works came into being and I thought that you were finally getting inspiration to get onto your work." She said in a giddy tone that was causing his eyes to twitch like it was no tomorrow.

"So are you gonna be working on it now?" Anko asked in a hopeful tone.

Her response was him slamming the door to her face.

"I didn't hear a no!" She yelled out in hopes of him hearing her.

He soon limped over to the couch and decided to open up what Kurama had sent him. The wrapping was soon ripped off and thrown in a trash bag he had on the side for when he and Pam were gonna open some presents. Once opening the box, he saw a letter on top of the packaging peanuts and decided to check the letter before the actual content of the present.

Hello Naruto, it's been a while.

I know this isn't a good way to chat with you to wish you 'Happy Holidays' and all that fun stuff but things have been busy as of late that need to have my complete focus on.

Even though things have been complicated and time consuming, I always try to think of you often and worry on how things are going for you on your end. It's the reason why I have either Anko or Claudia (that's Copperhead's name if you were wondering) watch you from afar and report back to me every so often to at least ease my nerves. With you having no way to fully tap into your old abilities has had me on edge. This in turn has made it hard to concentrate at times but if anything happens to you then I'm ready to come help you if needed.

But when finding out that 'Thunder God' and 'Riptide' had taken interests in you in their own ways I needed to come warn you in person so you could hopefully be ready for them. Wished that I could've warned you sooner since Minato came in and almost killed both you and your woman. Even on the next day when Kushina stopped on by for her own agenda, which I have no idea her true agenda is exactly, made things a bit worse.

So when I learned that for the past several weeks you have been training in your powers like I suggested made me relax a little knowing that you're trying to defend yourself better. But I'm not going to be there all the time to possibly have either myself or one of my agents pull your ass out of the fire even with you having access to these new abilities you have.

Knowing you, you'll always try to run into danger for those that you care for and who are truly precious to you. So I decided to get you something to hopefully make up for the years being out of contact with you since we came to this world to at least help protect you as best as it could. Pulled whatever sources and materials I could get to make the contents of the package for you. I know the current appearance isn't much but you'll do something to change it at some point to suit your tastes.

I wish you a pleasant Holiday and New Year.

Kurama

PS: Just so you know Naruto, even after all these past years, you have earned my trust ever since you had released me from that blasted seal. I still thank you for that.

PPS: If you ever tell anyone how sappy I was, just like you told Claudia and Anko me being 'rabbit ears', then I'll come to your home and cut off what makes you a man.

Naruto couldn't help but smile as he read through the letter that old fuzzbutt had sent him. It sincerely touched him and made him glad that this helped make his morning seem even more better than it already is. It made him feel great knowing he had earned the hybrid's trust and he'll do what he can to keep it that way. It'll probably be hard to do so but it'll be worth it…..

Though it would've been better if Kurama had actually told him all that in person but he'll let it slide since it's the holidays.

The Uzumaki's attention was then turned towards the contents of his present as he put his hands inside and soon pulled out several things and laid them out on the floor. It seemed to look a lot like a black and white motorcyclist suit in some ways with the guards on both the legs and arms but it also had a metal chest plate with a 'utility belt'. To top off the outfit was a helmet that had no sliding parts on the visor but when he had put it on it had a computer system of sorts inside of it.

Seems he'll need to wear it sometime and 'break' it while training so he could get used to wearing it. And Kurama was right, he'll think of something to make the outfit look different but that'll come at a later time.

When looking at the time, he realized that he'll need to get back into cooking the Christmas breakfast. Before he went to the kitchen to do so, he gathered up the suit and put it back into its box to hide it in his hallway closet.

-10 or so minutes later-

"Sorry for the wait Pam. I hope you're hungry." Naruto said with a smile on his face as he peaked his head into the bedroom. "I made your favorite of vegan blueberry/chocolate chip pancakes with scrambled tofu and kale."

After reading Kurama's note, Naruto felt he had all the distraction he needed to somewhat clear his head for him to finally decide what to make for Pam's breakfast. For his meal is mostly a non-vegan version of what she is having of scrambled eggs along with blueberry/chocolate chip pancakes. Currently their meals were already at the dining room table waiting to be consumed.

"That's nice Naruto." Pam mumbled as her focus was mainly on her reading material.

"What you got there?" He questioned as he walked over to her and saw the passage that was in her hands.

Act I

Infinite in mystery is the gift of the goddess

We seek it thus, and take to the sky

Ripples form on the water's surface

The wandering soul knows no rest

"W-Where did you get that?" Naruto said as he was nervous of her reading the notebook.

The item in question was something that manifested from his powers a few weeks ago for no reason at all. All he was doing at the time in his company's office was going over documents pertaining to reports and sales when he felt a weight was placed on his piles of papers when he was going to take the next on to work on. Naruto inspected the notebook and it had the same symbol he saw in his 'throwing cards' and guessed the book came from him for some reason.

Ever since it first appeared, he had little urges to fill its pages with anything. At first it was just him putting down basic information to contact others or even just using it like 'sticky notes' for off handed reminders. Then things progressed after reading some books he had in both his office and at his loft that he started writing down various, random ideas for books. From there he ended up writing and sketching like he needed to and it worried him until he did the 'brain dump' onto its pages.

That was another thing with the notebook: no matter how many pages he filled out, there seemed to be no end of how many pages it contained. The former shinobi was at a loss when trying to figure out how the notebook worked especially when he was frustrated on the current story he was writing. Like any normal writer when frustrated, he would end up tearing the page on accident and would start over but when it did, it seemed to mend itself or make a new page to replace the damaged one.

With so many pages inside of the notebook, he placed sticky note tabs in each section to help have things organized.

Anyways back to the matter at hand…

"Found it on your nightstand and curiosity got the better of me." Pam said as she turned the page to keep on reading its contents but found it stopped on the previous page. "And I gotta say this is really, really good."

"R-Really? You think it's good?"

"Very." At this, Naruto had left out a breathe that he somehow kept in that was building up in his chest. He was actually nervous on her reading what he had for that story so far. It seemed to be his main story idea he had been writing in the book's contents.

But a question that seemed to pop up in his head was: 'How did it show up here?' He distinctly remembered leaving it in his office at the firm but how did it show up here all of a sudden.

"I can't wait to read more of this 'Loveless' story you have here. It's very engaging and poetic. The style of this kind of 'epic poem' could possibly be best selling once it's finished." Pam said to her boyfriend with a smile before looking into the notebook again and saw something that piqued her interest.

"Well that's good to know honey. This kind of project seemed pretty important and been working on it every now and again." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head with a nervous chuckle.

He was waiting for a reply of any sort but didn't hear any as he kept hearing the sound of pages turning. The publisher then looked over to the botanist and saw her really drawn into something with a faint blush on her cheeks.

'Ok something seems wrong here.' Naruto thought. 'I know I stopped writing 'Loveless' shortly after starting Act One but what is she reading now.'

He bent down to her level and looked at the pages she was on right now. What the both of them were now reading was something very sexual and raunchy in nature that it would be hard to describe further than that.

'W-When d-did I write this?!' He yelled out in his head as he tried to figure out how and when he wrote this. This was clearly in his handwriting and it showed very explicit detail on what is going on. But he didn't know what was going on here.

"You know…" Pam said knocking Naruto out of his thoughts as he looked towards her red in the face with a certain gleam in her eyes. "After reading this. I would like to continue what we left off last night Naruto."

He was about to say something when she pulled his face down and engaged in a heated make-out session. His thoughts soon went away as the two engaged in their new activity for the morning.

-The Afterlife-

Giggling could be heard as a man was peering down at the scene before him.

He was a tall man with waist-length, spiky white hair that was tied back in a ponytail with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. He had red tear mark lines that ran down from his eyes with a noticeable wart on the right side of his nose. He wore a short white kimono shirt with matching pants along with traditional wooden sandals. To finish off his look was the halo hovering over his head to indicate that he has died.

For one who doesn't know this man, this was the late Sage of Mt. Myoboku and self-proclaimed Super Pervert of the Elemental Nations: Jiraiya the Gallant.

For what he is doing, he was watching his godson every so often as usual when he saw him and his beautiful girlfriend finally do the deed last night and he couldn't be more proud. Of course a little bit of a shock was that during their sleep, Naruto summoned and started sleep-writing (similar to sleepwalking) in that odd notebook of his and wrote down things that could possibly put his Icha Icha books to shame before putting it to the side to cuddle with Pam.

"Finally! He has embraced the ways! *Sniffle Sniffle* I am so proud!" Jiraiya said to himself in joy as he pulled out a handkerchief to blow his nose in a comical fashion.

If he was paying any attention to his surroundings, sometimes hard to tell with him being in heaven with no danger at all, he would've seen two people come from behind him with malicious intents aimed directly towards his way. Without him realizing what happened next, he was then kicked from the side and tumbled several dozen feet to the side.

"Hey! Who the fuck was inter- EEP!" Jiraiya screeched out seeing the people hovering over him with auras that could possibly kill him, again.

The first person was a woman that had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, royal purple eyes and waist length red hair with shoulder-length strands framing her face. She wore a high-collared, sleeveless white blouse underneath a light grey dress with traditional wooden sandals with a halo over her head.

The second person was a woman with brown eyes and straight, shoulder-length straw blonde hair that was kept in two loose ponytails underneath her glowing halo. She had a violet diamond mark on her forehead along with a figure that most women would kill for. She was wearing a light grey, kimono-style sleeveless blouse, that was closed quite low revealing her sizable *cough* assets *cough* underneath a white haori along with a dark grey obi matching her pants. She also wore a pair of open-toed, strappy black sandals with high heels.

These two individuals were Kushina Uzumaki and Tsunade Senju, Naruto's mother and godmother respectively and they looked absolutely pissed.

"What the hell do you think you were doing?" Tsunade said as she glared at her former teammate.

"I-I was just checking up on our godson Tsunade. I-I didn't know they were going to end up like that I swear." Jiraiya frantically said as he was sweating bullets.

"A very unlikely story you old toad." Kushina said with her arms crossed.

"But I'm telling the truth you two! You've got to believe me!" He said as he scrambled away but the two women were walking towards him with the malicious intents growing a bit with each step.

He tried to get back up before Tsunade stomped her foot onto his back.

"Now listen here Jiraiya and listen good. We had tolerated you for years with your perverted antics." She said as she was digging her heel into his upper back where his ribs met his spine.

"But when you influence our precious boy with said antics, then that's where we draw the line." The redhead said while cracking her knuckles and her hair was starting to float in the air and resembled a multitude of fox tails.

"N-N-Now girls. L-Let's talk this-" The toad sage tried to say to them before he felt more pain on his back.

"Oh we are talking and you have a lot to answer for." Tsunade said to the man as the two women drew closer to him.

"No! No! No! Not the face! Anything but the face!"

"Oh really!"

"GAHHHH! Yes the face! Go back to the face!"

"You know I wonder what this halo could do…."

"GAHHHH! St-Stop ch-choking me you crazy-"

"If we kill him, where does he go? Super-heaven?"

"Maybe, let's find out."

Off to the side, a man was rubbing his face while shaking his head to the side seeing this antic happen like in the good old days. He had bright blue eyes and sunny blonde hair that was very spiky and wild on the top with jaw-length bangs framing his face. He had a decent build while wearing grey sweat-pants, a white shirt and wooden sandals. This was Minato Namikaze and he was the silverette father.

*Sigh* "Seems that this is going to happen all over again." He said to himself before looking to the scene being shown and couldn't help but smile. "I'm glad you found someone to love Naruto. I hope you end up happy with her my son."

He kept looking at this for a few moments before waving his hand infront of it to try and disperse it.

"Ok….So how do I get rid of this."

-An Hour Later-

After having their morning romp on the bed, which soon ended up in the shower, the two were soon dressed in a pair of fresh clothing eating their reheated meals having their Christmas morning was going pleasantly well.

As they were having their breakfast, they had heard from the news playing on the television of last nights events. The Joker had indeed broken out of Arkham Asylum yesterday and had terrorized Gotham through the airwaves. Prior to those events, he had kidnapped Commissioner Gordon, Detective Bullock of the GCPD and the news reporter/anchor of Gotham Media, Summer Gleeson to have his own 'family' for the holidays. The crazed clown wanted the Dynamic Duo of Gotham to stop him before midnight or many lives would be lost. During the search for the Joker, they had to stop a train from going off a destroyed bridge and stop a few bombs located on several places in the city. In the end, the two heroes had found Joker's hideout and saved the day.

"Well...That's one way to somewhat make the morning not all that great." Pam said as she was washing the dishes alongside Naruto.

"I know, but I do wonder what I could do to make it better." The publisher said to his botanist girlfriend as he kissed her cheek. She giggled as she playfully pushed him away when he accidentally splashed some soapy water on her.

"And what would that be?"

"Presents of course." Naruto said with a smile as they finished up cleaning the rest of the dishes and put them into the dishwasher.

Once drying themselves off, they made their way to the plastic Christmas tree Naruto had in the living room. It was small in size with very little ornaments on it with several presents lying underneath it. Naruto didn't like the idea of people cutting down trees just to decorate them every December and then afterwards just getting rid of them, so he had gotten a plastic one to not follow that trend. Pam liked knowing on his thoughts since she was in the same boat as she grew older.

Things were pretty simple on the gift exchange from each receiving books and clothing but seemed to change a little towards the end.

"Seems that there are no more gifts." The botanist said as she was on her hands and knees looking for any additional presents for them to open.

"Not exactly." Naruto said as he pulled an object out of his pants pocket.

When Pam back to see what he meant, she saw a small little box in his hand and her mind just seemed to stop.

'I-Is he gonna? Is he pr-proposing?!' She yelled out in her head. 'B-But we just got together weeks ago and had sex the first time last night. Th-This is going a bit too fast.'

Naruto saw her reaction when he pulled out the box and couldn't help but laugh a little.

"It's not what you think Pam. Geez, you think I plan on proposing after what we did last night." He said as he shook his head.

This statement knocked her out of her storm of thoughts and made her seem surprised on the assumption. Pam soon grabbed the box out of his hand and hesitantly opened it to possibly assume it was a pair of earrings or a necklace he had gotten from a jewelry store. What she didn't expect was…..

"A key?"

Seeing her confused look, he soon answered her running thoughts.

"From what I told you last night Pam, you planted yourself in my heart and took residence there. I soon started thinking if not just my heart would be good enough to live in so…." He drawled out making Pam realize what he meant.

"You want me to live here?" She said eying the key in her hand. The a copy of the key to Naruto's loft.

"Well if you want. You don't actually have to move in with me since you're still under contract at your current residence. I wanted to give you the key so you could come and stay over whenever you want." He said as he was rubbing the back of his head while looking away from her trying to think of what else to say. That last bit was odd for him to say, but hoped she got the idea.

She didn't say anything and tightly hugged him for the present giving Naruto the message that she likes the gift. He was putting a lot of trust towards her and wanted to go into another step into their relationship.

The moment was soon broken as a phone was going off. Both checked their cellular phones and saw that it was Pam's that she was receiving a call.

"I'll probably need to take this." She said with a smile as she kept on fingering the key in her hand. She opened up her phone and turned to the side to answer it.

"Hello, Dr. Isley here."

….

"What happened to the Hollands?" When hearing this, Naruto turned towards Pam with wanting to hear what is going on.

….

"A-Are you serious?" She said in worry making Naruto put a hand on her shoulder which she had her free hand go to and took a gentle squeeze with.

….

"I-I understand. I'll head down as soon as I can. Thank you." Pam said as she hung up the phone.

"Pam...What's wrong?" He said in worry since what her reactions were in that phone call shook her up badly.

"That was friend of Alec and Linda Holland. He's a lawyer that worked with them and called me that something happened with them a few days ago." She said to him before she explained on what the lawyer friend told her.

A family member came on by to the Hollands for the holidays last night when they found their residence destroyed in a fire. When police came onto the scene to inspect the place, they said that the fire happened a few days ago. They found Linda's body but not Alec's and with what evidence they could salvage showed that a struggle occurred with Alec being taken for his research or worse. The lawyer friend told Pam that she'll need to come to Louisiana to hear the last will and testament of the Hollands since her name was in their request.

"I'm more than willing to help pay for your trip Pam and I won't take no for an answer." The publisher said to her as she complied in his request. He cared for her very much that he will do whatever he can to help her in these troubling times.

Seems that the rest of their day would be a somber one as the two made it over to Pam's apartment to get things packed for the flight. Since things were going on last minute, Naruto called the airport and paid for her ticket over there with her coming back later in the week. From what additional details Pam told him is that the reading of the will and testament will be taking place sometime after she arrives in Louisiana and that she will want to pay her respects to the deceased Hollands.

She even called her supervisor at Star Labs, one Dr. Jason Woodrue, to let her know on what happened and he seemed fine with her going to Louisiana and paying her respects. But from what Pam told him after the phone call that Woodrue seemed odd when she spoke to him but didn't know why.

"I don't trust that guy Pam." Naruto brought up as they were on their way to the airport. "Something about that supervisor of yours seems….off to me."

"He's my supervisor Naruto and he seems off to everyone due to his eh…..eccentric personality." She said to him with a shrug. "Besides he's pretty lenient on me with my serum I'm developing."

"I know from what you told me about him but just meeting him that one time just made me ticked off about him." The publisher said as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel to which Pam noticed but chose not to say anything as they got closer to the airport.

They soon came to a stop at the dropoff point and they got out of the car with the silverette grabbing her luggage from the trunk.

"Well Pam, hope the trip goes well with the funeral and the will reading." The silverette said as he hugged her and gave her a quick kiss.

"Same." The botanist said with a sigh. "They were good friends of mine and it's really unfortunate on how their lives ended in such a way."

"I hope they catch whoever had done this and bring them to justice for what they did."

"I hope so too but for now I just need to focus on the now and not the later."

"Still though, I wish this can get resolved." Naruto said as he looked at her downtrodden face. "Maybe when you get back we can go to that one restaurant you like very much. Hopefully that could cheer you up a little."

"Maybe, we'll have to see how things go dear." Pam replied as she kissed him on the lips. "Well I gotta get going. I'll call you on how things are proceeding over there."

"Alright Pam, have a good flight." He said as she nodded and headed off to catch her flight. With it being Christmas Day that the airport will not that much of a problem with their security checks so she'll be able to go on through and reach her gate in no time.

*Sigh* "Great, now what the hell am I supposed to do for the rest of the day." The publisher said in frustration. "I was hoping that I could've spent the whole day with Pam and this turned up."

Once in his car and drove off he kept on muttering to himself. "Not that I'm complaining on the Holland's dying with it being really bad but I wish that couldn't happen at all. *Sigh* I just don't know what to do now."

A bit into the drive, an idea soon popped into his head as he remembered Kurama's gift to him earlier that day.

"Maybe I can use this chance to break in that new gift of mine."

-Later, in a random alley-

Currently in his stealth suit, which was a pain in the ass to get into with it being tight and all in some places, Naruto was looking through his helmet into the little instruction manual he found in his utility belt on what the capabilities of the suit were. Given the details of the specs, the group of people who designed the suit for Kurama referred the suit to be psychoanalytic cardiac-dampening sneaking equipment. There is supposed to be a built-in medical system that dispenses some stimulation and medical packs but there is a low amount of the product so he'll need to use them sparingly if possible.

"Gotta say, I like the suit so far from what I'm reading but does it have to ride up the crotch when I was getting over here." Naruto muttered as he had to pull down part of his pants to give his privates some 'breathing room'. "I swear Kurama did it on purpose just to spite me on the whole 'bunny ear' bit.

Unknown to the Uzumaki and at another location, Kurama stopped working on paperwork and smiled a little for some reason before getting back to his blasted workload to finish things up for the Christmas Evening.

"Well might as well get things started." He said as he focused an object into his hand and a grappling hook formed. It was pretty standard with nothing special about it. The disguised publisher twirled the hook in a fast action and threw it up in hopes of it latching onto the edge of the rooftop…..

But it fell down and it hit him hard on the helmet causing a sound to vibrate in the helmet.

"Ok….The sound is gonna be annoying."

This kept on happening a few more times before the last one finally made its mark. The costumed man tugged on the grappling hook a few times to see if it was secured before scaling the wall.

"Wish I still had my chakra so I can walk on the walls without this." He said as he kept on walking.

"Maybe I should've tried to see if I could walk on walls with this power of mine before 'breaking' this suit in."

Kept on walking a bit more as his arms were getting a little tired.

"Should've imagined a grappling gun of sorts, but don't know how the stuff functions and operates." He said with a sigh before making it to the rooftop. After stretching his arms a little, he summoned his notebook and wrote in it. "Note to self, look up grappling gun schematics and learn how to walk on walls…...again."

With that said, he willed the notebook away and looked over the city's landscape.

"Huh, don't know right now if it's just me but think the smoke and light pollution is making the sky look red at night." He kept on looking around and couldn't help but voice his thoughts. "Makes it seem creepy."

Looking around, he saw he was moderately high up with various buildings having gaps in between each other. Having the idea to jump between each of them, he decided to go for run.

Not really caring on his destination for the night, he went on a sprint and jumped quite a distance. When he got to the other rooftop, he barely made the landing but had to roll before making the recovery to keep his pace. This went on for a while with him making various movements in hopes of stretching the suit a bit more and for him to be used to it. There were some instances he had to stop running to adjust his crotch area to the point he pulled out his notebook for another reminder to get an jockstrap so it won't ride up his crotch again. Other times he ended up missing his jumps and had to catch the fire escapes so he won't fall onto the pavement below despite him knowing his defensive abilities will activate.

Eventually he made it to some of the higher buildings and focused on his hands to have claws of sorts so he could maybe scale said buildings. Taking a few deep breaths, he sprinted towards the edge of the current rooftop before taking a leap of faith in hopes of making it to the wall just in time.

As he was about to hit the wall, one thought came to mind: 'This is gonna hurt!'

And hurt it did as he slammed against the building's wall hard and started to skid. Throwing his arms hard against the concrete so that his hands can latch against anything. After a few seconds of his claws leaving marks on the wall, he came to a stop.

"Fuuuuck." Naruto moaned out as his arms and chest were growing in pain from the prior moments before taking his time to climb up the building's exterior. As he was getting higher and higher, his pain was slowly leaving him with odd tingles as usual. Once reaching the top he gazed upon the city below as it was gaining more snow for the Christmas Evening.

"Gotta admit, it looks really good up here." He said to himself as some nostalgia started to come rushing in. Seeing the current view reminded the Uzumaki when he came back to Konoha from his training trip with Jiraiya. The view was somewhat similar in a way, minus the fact that there is no mountain nearby with carved faces on it.

"I think I might be done for the evening. Should probably try out one more thing to wrap things up before heading back to the loft."

The publisher looked around for a decent 'target' for a little bit that could peak his interests when he eventually found one: the Gotham City Clocktower.

Built over one hundred and fifty years ago by Bruce Wayne's great grandfather, it has been a site for a lot of intrigue and supposed mysteries. Hell, there was even one story that started out back in the 1930's when the late mobster, Frankie Scolacci, had stolen and supposedly hidden the famous Cat's Eyes Emeralds somewhere inside of the Clocktower. People had searched every nook and cranny for the pair of emeralds and came out empty handed. From what he heard from one of his writers was that supposedly any thief that originates from Gotham always attempts to search for the jewels at some point in their careers.

Even though he isn't a thief, he used to be a shinobi and technically they have done missions in the past to search and steal valuable information and items of interest. So he might as well do this sort of thing now than later.

Walking back to the far end of the rooftop, he gave himself enough space for a running start before he takes his jump towards the Clocktower. It's quite a distance away and he doesn't know if he'll cause too much of a commotion if he fails to reach it.

"Well here goes nothing." He said as he took off.

The masked publisher started to pick up speed as he reached the end of the rooftop and he took a large leap once his foot left the very edge of the building. As he was in the air, he reached for his grappling hook he had to the side…. when he remembered he had left it behind several buildings away.

"OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIIIIIIIIIIT!" He yelled out loud, which some people heard down below, but didn't know where it originated.

Naruto was comedically clawing through the air in hopes of slowing his descent but was failing to do so.

"I need something! ANYTHING right now!" He yelled out as he tried to think of something until his arm shot out and some cloth formed from his suit. It went straight towards the clocktower and wrapped around one of its hanging gargoyles before Naruto swung around the building.

"Holy shit! This is freaking awesome!" Naruto called out before seeing the upcoming wall.

"Crap!"

-Meanwhile, some distance away-

"Well that seems interesting." A woman said while perched on a ledge. "A newbie trying out his or her luck for the first time."

If one was nearby, they would see that her attire appeared to be a leather suit with some armor sewn into the fabric at various places. The suit showed the woman's figure very nicely in all the right places while heightening other areas with a circular zipper located straight down the middle. She wore high heeled combat boots, sharp gloves, a leather collar and whip, along with a mask that appeared to look like a cat's head with red goggles to finish off the look.

The woman in question is the the thief, Catwoman aka Selina Kyle.

Reason why she is here was that while other people throughout the city are celebrating Christmas, many residences of the wealthy would be up for grabs for any thief daring to do their job for the evening. So far Selina had been able to break into several places so far and nabbed a good handful of valuables for her own agendas. She was going to call it a night when she caught sight of someone running across the rooftops in some stealth suit of sorts before making a jump to a building nearby and made his/her way up. What surprised the cat themed thief was when the person jumped off of the high rise building and somehow gotten a rope or a grappling line to attach to the Gotham Clock Tower so far away and swung to its position.

"Hmm, wonder what your up to." Catwoman said to no one in particular. She then felt movement around her neck as a black cat uncurled itself and yawned as it woke up.

"Enjoy your little cat-nap Isis?" She said as she scratched her cat in the right places making the cat to purr in confirmation.

"Well, I think you should hang on tight my dear." The thief told her pet, who gained a curious expression. "We are gonna head over to the clock tower before heading home for the night. Something seems to peak my curiosity and I intend to find out more."

-Inside of the Clocktower-

"Thank Kami above I phased through the wall or else that would've been really painful." Naruto said as he rubbed his helmet in hopes of rubbing his actual head. Wouldn't work but force of habit.

The sounds of the many clock parts operating filled the air as Naruto got up from the walkway and looked through the mechanism of the tower.

He then looked at his arms where the cloth came from and saw the remnants from one part that was torn. It appeared to look like a scarf that transitioned from black to white with the end looking like part of the symbol he kept seeing from his powers.

He looked away from the material as it faded so he can focus on his task at hand.

"Well if I want to have a better job breaking this suit in I better have some fun and what better chance than from a place that is constantly in motion." He said to no one in particular.

Naruto soon climbed up the steel ladder to get to the upper level before jumping onto one of the clockwork gears and climbed onto the next one.

The process on getting towards the top of the clocktower from the inside took a little trial and error. Getting knocked over and almost getting hit a few times by the many parts made him slow down or be extra careful on the climb. He did have to think things carefully and see the patterns to get the timings right so he could make the jumps easier for him.

As he was progressing, Catwoman was watching him closely to see what he is up to.

Once making to the top, where the main bell is at, he took a view of the entire city from where he is standing and enjoyed the view even more. Naruto took it in for a few more moments before turning back to the main contraption below.

"Well….here goes nothing."

With that, Naruto jumped down onto the first gear several feet below him as he rolled shortly after onto the next one. He soon fell off and didn't do a thing causing Catwoman to catch her breath a little and anticipated on what he was gonna do next. After falling for several dozen feet, he willed his arm to make that scarf from earlier to latch onto one of the pillars off to the side before it retracted to pull him up. Not wanting to lose momentum, Naruto had his scarf let go to send him flying a little into the air as he latched onto one of the gears up above.

During the time of Naruto having his 'go around' of the mechanism, Selina was enjoying the show of the masked individual performing all kinds of tricks all over. Her breath was caught several times when he didn't stick some landings or grabbed just in time but had recovered quickly to save his own hide by using that cloth of his to latch onto any nearby pillars or gears. She was very drawn into his performance that she kept on leaning forward from her position.

"Huh…..maybe I don't need to look up grappling guns after all." He said referring to his new 'scarf' he has. The masked publisher kept on swinging a bit until…..

*DONG*

The clock tower chimed it's bell causing the interior to vibrate and its loud noise vibrate the air.

*DONG*

With the sudden happening of the new hour, caused Catwoman to fall off her ledge and had to latch onto something quickly for her own safety.

*DONG*

That wouldn't be the same with her black cat, Isis, as the sudden movement of her master falling down caused her to lose her grip.

*DONG*

"ISIS!" Catwoman yelled out in fear for her cat's safety.

*DONG*

Naruto thought he heard someone call out a name and some screeching sound making him looked down to see a cat falling to its doom.

*DONG*

The Uzumaki willed his scarf to let go so he can plummet down to reach the cat.

*DONG*

Naruto had the scarf shoot out to snag the little creature in hopes of saving it's life.

*DONG*

As each brief moment passed, Selina felt her heart stop seeing her beloved Isis plummet to her death and the stranger trying to save her.

*DONG*

The scarf reached its target and retracted quickly getting Naruto to hold onto it for it's safety as they reached towards the bottom.

*DONG*

The thief couldn't bear it any longer as she closed her eyes not wanting to see the coming deaths of the two.

*DONG*

At the last chime of the clock tower's bell, the feline themed thief slowly opened her eyes to see the gruesome display below…..to only see nothing at all.

"W-What?" She said in shock. "W-Where are they?"

She climbed on down from her placement and kept on looking around for any sign of them.

All of a sudden, she saw the masked stranger….walked out of the giant, rotating gears on a few levels above the ground level. Simply walked out like they weren't even there. It surprised her that she unconsciously moved behind one of the support pillars to hide herself.

"Man….I'm glad I had that phasing ability of mine or else things would've gone bad for us." He said as he slowly opened his arms to show the shaken black cat.

"There there little one. It's alright." He petted Isis as slow as he can in hopes of calming her down. "The bell won't hurt you now."

After a minute of petting Isis, she eventually calmed down and 'kissed' him for saving her life.

"Good to know you finally relaxed now." He said before tilting his head in confusion. "I do wonder though, why are you here? You're clearly not a stray because of the collar and I think I heard someone call out your name."

Catwoman wanted to go out there and thank the man for saving her precious cat but a part of her didn't trust him at the current moment.

"Well it doesn't matter. As long as you are safe then I wouldn't worry about anything else little one." Seeing the cat's look he assumed he didn't know the name. "Sorry if I don't know your name little one, but the ringing of the bell might've blocked out your name being called out so I hope you don't mind."

Isis shook her head, making him smile underneath the helmet before he decided to walk off with her still in his arms.

"I'm gonna take us to the ground floor so that you can be really safe. I recommend you not going into high places for a while you hear." He said in a childish, strict tone making the cat nod. He slowly climbed down the few ladders before reaching the ground floor with the entrance of the tower nearby. Once outside, he slowly lowered himself to the ground getting Isis to crawl out and walk onto the ground.

"Well I hope you have a good Christmas little one." He said as he reached to his utility belt and pulled out some pet treats to feed the black cat. "Don't know why that furball had these in here, but right now I'm not complaining."

Once she was done eating, the masked man went on his way before Selina came out of her hiding spot and ran towards Isis and kept on kissing and petting her like no tomorrow. During the process, she felt something on the collar and pulled away seeing…..

"A note?"

When pulling it out, she heard something fall onto the ground. When looking at the source she saw two emeralds. Not just any emeralds, the Cat's Eyes Emeralds.

"H-How did they get there?" Selina said in shock before remembering of the note in her hand. Once opening it up, she read it's contents.

Hello Little One's owner, lovely night isn't it.

You might be wondering on how I knew you were nearby.

Well for one you calling out your cat's name, but like I told her I couldn't tell what name was called out.

The second was an ability of mine to tell of certain presences nearby. Learning how to properly use it better as of late, but could tell you were in the clocktower for brief moments so it was rocky at best.

Anyways…. I don't know if you were tracking down your cat if she escaped from your clutches or not, but I'm not prying.

I hope you have a pleasant Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Sincerely yours,

A simple Nobody

PS: Hope you like the present, didn't expect finding those tonight but hope you put them to good use Little One's owner.

When inspecting the note more, she saw a peculiar symbol in the background. But that didn't matter, she had gotten her hands on one of the best presents she could ever get. Now she'll be putting these emeralds along with her other valuables she got this evening towards the betterment of animal kind.

Selina looked around the area in hopes of finding this 'Nobody' and give her his thanks but she couldn't find him at all.

"Wherever you are Nobody. Thank you."

-End Chapter-