Kidnapped bride
Naruto looked up at the clock to see what time it was, it was nearly six o'clock, only thirty more minutes before it was time for him to go home. Naruto smiled to himself as he pushed some of his curly hair out of his face and behind his ear. He went back to reading his book for a little while, he was told to watch the front desk for a little while until his supervisor came back from her lunch break. The task wasn't a hard one, and he had already been taught how to check out or check in any books, he knew what to do when someone had late fees to resolve, so on and so forth. As he was just getting to the good part, he heard someone approach the test.
Thinking that it would be someone ready to check out a book, he put on a nice smile as he picked up his act as Mia once more. "Hello, did you find everything alright today?" He asked as he put down the book he was reading, set up the computer to check out the books, and went to look up at the person. When he did, his heart nearly stopped in his chest, it was Zen. He didn't pause for a second before putting on a brave face, he had on his disguise, so he didn't look like himself. His whiskers are gone, his hair is longer, and his eyes are a different color, so there was no way that Zen would recognize him, right? With that in mind, he paid close attention to what he was saying, the facial features of the man standing before him, he was nervous but tried to play it cool.
Zen, for his part, was upset. He only came to the library to find a book to read and calm down for a while. He really needed a quiet place to think, he had a lot on his mind to the point that he wasn't paying much attention to the person at the front desk when he came to check out a couple of books. He was only there for an hour and picked up three books to take up within that time, when he approached the desk, he did notice that the usual person that was working there during the week wasn't there. Instead, he was greeted by someone much younger, she looked to be a girl around the age of his angel, her hair was an unusual golden brown color and her eyes were like sparkling gems that complimented her freckles. Her freckles seemed to stand out more on her smooth, pale skin, in his mind, he thought that she was very cute.
However, he still had his angel to think about. He was still missing from his side and those idiots that he hired were not able to get him back so easily. From what he understood, there had to be some way for him to get his precious Naruto back, but at the moment, he was at a loss. He sighed, "yes, everything was fine," he stated as he continued to think about ways to get back his angel while he checked out his books.
Mia, aka, Naruto, nodded, going through the motions of trying to get through the checkout process quickly. He wanted nothing more than to be anywhere close to this man ever again. He typed in the information needed and scanned everything before handing the books back to the man. "Here you go, sir, have a nice day," she said putting on her best hospitality smile.
Zen nodded absentmindedly as he picked up the books and walked out of the library. "I wonder if my little angel would have been more willing to stay with me if he had someone as pretty as her to keep him company while I was away." It was a lingering thought, but it was only that much, a thought, and he carried on about his business without carrying too much about the pretty new girl he meets at the library that day.
Meanwhile, Naruto breath a heavy sigh of relief once Zen left the library and didn't look back. From that point until Shikamaru came to pick him up from work, Naruto was on edge. He didn't know if Zen recognized him, and was just playing it cool, but he was worried that he might see him walking behind them on their way home. Shikamaru noticed how on edge Naruto seemed during their walk home, "did something happen?" He asked after seeing him look behind them for the third time in a row, his thoughts went to Naruto's time being kidnapped, he was on alert instantly, "did you see him?"
Naruto jumped at that, "what?" He asked looking over at him.
Shikamaru frowned, they were almost back to the abandoned area, so he stopped, "what's going on? You're on edge, you've been that way since we left the library."
Naruto nodded, he knew he had been, but he didn't want to talk about it in the open, "I'll tell you guys, but can we please get back home first?" Shikamaru nodded and they continued their way back home. Naruto still looked around them to make sure that he didn't see Zen or his men following after them for the rest of the walk. Once they made it back to the house, they walked inside and locked the door behind them. Hinata and Chouji had arrived back at the house only a few minutes before Shikamaru went to pick up Naruto from work.
"Hey guys, you made it," Chouji greeted them with a smile, "I brought ice cream and cookies for after dinner." That was when he noticed that Naruto looked to be a little shaken up about something, "Naruto? What's wrong?"
Naruto came to have a seat at the table after taking off his shoes. He didn't say anything because he was still on edge after seeing Zen in the library after so long. The image of Zen's face in his mind made Naruto start to shake as memories of what happened to him flooded his mind once more. Clear as day, he remembered everything in great detail, including how he felt while it was all happening. Hinata walked out of the kitchen sometime after she heard the front door opening, when she walked out, she saw Naruto sit at the table with a grim look on his face. Instantly, she was at his side, worried big sister mode turned on in full force.
"What happened?" She asked, trying to keep calm even though she felt as if she could rip someone's head off just for looking at Naruto wrong.
Naruto looked up at her face, Chouji and Shikamaru were behind her. Chouji tried asking his best friend what happened, but Shikamaru didn't know anything, they both looked down at Naruto worriedly. The disguised blond sighed, "I think I'm ready to tell you what happened while I was missing." He crocked out slowly, he didn't want to relive the situation, but he knew that he had to. He wanted his friends to know what they were getting themselves into if they hung around him for too long. So he told them about Zen, when they first met, and how their relationship was before that night.
Zen, to Naruto, was a creep. But not just any old creep, he was a creep with a plan. When Naruto first met Zen, he was just moving into his apartment building after the Hokage found out that he had been living out on the streets when the orphanage manager kicked him out. The Hokage had tried to get him to go back to the orphanage, but Naruto refused since that was far from the first time he had been kicked out from there. And also other orphanages in the village, not just that one. The village had about three major orphanage facilities, one that was for children born from civilians, a second one for children who had parents from shinobi backgrounds, which needed slightly more security than the rest. And lastly, one for children whose parents had no background at all, which was the smallest out of the three.
When Naruto entered the building, Hiruzen introduced him to Zen, the building's owner, and manager. Zen, to Naruto, looked like someone who he did not want to mess with or hang around, alone, for any amount of time. It was as if there was a small voice in the back of his head that kept on telling him not to be around this man. He tried his best to listen to that voice, but Zen would try everything to get Naruto to be alone with him. Naruto never felt very comfortable, or even safe, to be around Zen, and he told Hiruzen this a couple of times. Yet, with Naruto's situation, Hiruzen didn't really have any real choice other than to keep Naruto in that building because no one else would take him in or let him live with them. Naruto had no family, no friends, and his so-called godparents were nowhere to be seen.
That meant that Naruto had to do his best to keep himself safe, and he did just that. Although, there really wasn't anything much that he could do to protect himself. He wasn't allowed to buy weapons, not that anyone would let him, and if he was able to get anything, it wouldn't be of any good quality. Naruto knew that he wasn't paranoid when he thought that Zen was planning something because of the way Zen acted with and around him. Then that night came, all the times that Naruto had tried to stay away from the man only seemed to make Zen want to be even closer to him. It made living in Zen's building somewhat of a living hell.
It also didn't help that Zen had a spare key to Naruto's apartment. The thought along kept the boy up at night. But he had nowhere to go to get a break, no one cared for or about him back then, so there was nowhere he could turn. It all felt hopeless, that was one of the main reasons why Naruto started to look forward to graduating from the academy, even if the teachers made it harder for him to do so. "And after all this time, I want nothing more than to be far, far away from him, even if that means that I can no longer be myself." Naruto explained, "he was totally obsessed with me, ever since he met me. I have no idea why, but I just know that if he were to recognize me walking around the village, he would try to kidnap me all over again."
Hinata squeezed Naruto's hands in a reassuring way, "I understand, I really do. But Naruto, if you could please put a little more trust in us, I know we can figure out something." Shikamaru and Chouji nodded their heads, they were not about to let their friend go it alone. "We've got your back," she smiled.
Her words did make Naruto calm down a bit, "okay. Well, I know, for one thing, we all have to pass the graduation exam. Even if we aren't all put on the same team, we could at least find a way to defend ourselves once we're out in the field." Naruto stated, "old man Hokage told me that he's expecting good things from me, so I think that it's only natural to live up to his expectations."
Shikamaru sighed, "well, I guess that means that I can't keep being lazy for no reason anymore. What a drag."
Chouji chuckled, "oh come on, everyone already knows that you're smart anyways."
Hinata nodded, "true." She turned back to Naruto, "we should start training together. If we use each other as training partners, we can definitely bring out the best in each other."
Naruto wiped a tear from his eye, "thanks guys, that's what I wanted to hear." He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, "now, let's talk about what our future is going to be like. Even if I have to bring up a baby on my own, I don't think I will be." His friends smiled back at him, Shikamaru and Chouji took their seats at the table and they started talking. They had no real idea what the future had in store for them, but they wanted to at least set some goals for themselves. One of those goals happened to be moving in together, they were already acting like a family, so they felt that it was only natural.
With Zen
Zen sat behind his desk in his temporary office. Since he allowed the villagers to burn down his apartment building just so that they would think that Naruto was dead, but really he was with him. Things had not been going to plan. First of all, he had planned to keep Naruto locked up carefully in a special room he created just for him in the basement of the bar that his grandparents left to him since his own parents had passed away, and could not take it on. The bar wasn't a very busy one, Zen completely left the place up to the management of the people who had been employed by his grandparents. The bar didn't make a lot of money, not like it used to, but it still got quite a few customers every now and then.
The basement entrance was located at the back, away from prying eyes, so Zen felt that it would be fine to leave Naruto there. The room was built as a panic room a long, long time ago in case of emergencies, so there was more than enough room for a little kid to run about and make loads of noise. Another reason why Zen had chosen the place. Naruto wouldn't disturb the patients when they were partying upstairs, and no one upstairs would be aware of what was happening downstairs. A win-win in his book.
The plan was supposed to go as followed; Once Zen captured Naruto, he would bring him down to the basement, blindfolded, and have a little welcoming party for him. The place was decorated to the nines with everything that Zen thought his angel would just adore. Toys, teddy bears, vibrators, and dildos of every size, would have been perfect, and no one would ever think to look for him there. Not that Zen expected anyone to look for his angel. He knew the public's opinion on Naruto wasn't good, so if they were ever tasked to look for him, he highly doubted that they would even bother looking all that hard. He was right, of course, but he still took precautions. He made his men guard the room in shifts to ensure that he would not escape. The room came with a bathroom with a working toilet and sizable bath, there was a large king-sized bed for him to sleep in, and only one door that would lead in and out of the room.
It would have been perfect. A simulation would have been able to stick to the schedule without much worry. Because of that, Zen left his men in charge of guarding his angel while he went out to deal with the insurance of his building, not to mention his tenants, plus his savings, and bank statements. He had to be gone for most of the day to do these things since the villagers who burned down the building signed a contract with him stating that the building would be destroyed in the name of the Fourth Hokage. Zen would have to turn in all of those contracts and have those same people vouch for him about their agreement in order for his claim the building's insurance successfully. It would be a long meeting to sit through since he also had to listen to them talk about Naruto being dead.
Of course, that meeting was held in secret so that the Hokage would not find out and send them all to prison.
When Zen returned from that meeting, his men were trying to tell him something. Zen was too stressed out to listen to them, so he ignored all of them and went straight to the basement to find his angel. He had planned to let out his stress by 'cuddling' him. Low and behold, the room was empty when he walked in. That was when he found out that his angel had escaped. One of the men he had hired wanted to have his own fun with Naruto while Zen was away, so he snuck into the room while the other waited for him to finish upstairs.
From what Zen gathered from the man before stabbing him to death one hundred times with the dull blade of scissors, was that Naruto got the better of him. He distracted the fourth man by pretending that he wanted it, but then fled the room after giving him nether region a hard bite. Naruto then slipped out of the room, ran through the back door, and out of sight. They didn't hear any news about what happened to Naruto after. No ER visits, no one boasting about catching Naruto during his escape, nothing was heard about the boy for days. They did hear someone say that they had sent him on fire some time ago and that he must be dead by now. But when Zen sent his men to search the area that Naruto was supposedly burned in, they only found a trachcan that looked to have been used as a fireplace once. No other news came after that, and that made Zen frustrated.
As Zen thought back on all of that, his door opened slightly with a knock. "What?" He called out angrily since this person was disturbing his thinking.
A man walked into the room, he was wearing a dog's mask and had gray hair on his head. "Hey, Zen, the Hokage would like to speak to you about your letter," the masked man said.
Zen scuffed at the ANBU, he didn't like their kind, he didn't like the way they worked. Covering their faces so no one would know who they were, leaving no traces of their lives behind once they died, it disgusted him. But he reminded himself to be civil in front of them since he knew that they could, without a doubt, snap his body like a twig without a second thought, or remorse, if they were asked to do it. He heaved a sigh and stood up straight with his arms up, showing that he had no weapons on him, "what letter are you talking about?" He asked since he just heard what the man said. He had no recollection of sending a letter to the Hokage.
Dog raised an eyebrow and took out the letter in question, "oh? Is that so? Then why are your fingerprints all over this paper?" He tossed the letter onto Zen's desk for him to see, "we dusted the paper for close to see who sent it after the contents were read. From what we found, your prints were all over it, not only that, but the design of the paper that the letter was printed on is only used in a small selection of shops. We tracked you done using that information, along with your fingerprints being the smoking gun to bring you in for questioning.
Zen was shocked, "what?" He snatched up the paper quickly and read it over, then once again, yes, this was his favorite stationery paper, but they were not his words. And how did his parents get all over it? He was at a loss for words. "Who sent this to you? It clearly wasn't me, like you said, it could have been anyone since this type of paper is sold in more than one place." Zen shot back, "I have never seen such incompetents in my life!" He got angry, was someone trying to frame him? He could only think of three people who had any knowledge of his actions that night. It had to be one of them, and whenever he got his hands on either of them, he would make sure to do to them what he did to the first one that betrayed his trust.
Dog could see that Zen was started to behave irrationally. He tapped the chin of his mask twice, in the blink of an eye, two new ANBU showed up from seemingly nowhere and pulled Zen into a tight hold. Zen couldn't move once the ANBU had restrained him, he knew that he wouldn't be able to escape without major damage, so he begrudgingly allowed them to take him in. "Good to see you've calmed down, now then. Let's all head over to the tower for a nice long chat, nee?" Dog turned away from Zen's glare, making his way out of the office, his teammates following behind him.
To be continued...