Chapter 9: Hot on Your Trail
-Las Vegas, Nevada-
-March 29, 2005, 1400h local-
Natasha is just finishing up her lunch. Her self imposed mission is still continuously eating at her. She can't concentrate on relaxing while she hasn't yet solved the mystery of one 'Naruto Uzumaki.' Something in the back of her mind has been nagging her that Naruto is something special, hiding something big. She knows that Naruto would most probably be still in Vegas; the question is where. If she follows what Naruto said, she will find him in one of the casinos; otherwise, she has no clue.
Giving up on trying to relax, she left some cash on the table and walked up to her room. When she got inside, she took both of her Glock 26 Gen 4, a Ruger EC9, a pair of karambits, spare shots for her gauntlets, and a couple of magazines from her case. She also retrieved her specialized ballistic mesh and wore it under her shirt, covering all the bulging parts with her jacket. She put her Glocks in the holster by the small of her back, her Ruger at her right calf, karambits at the left calf, and the spares and magazines at the inside of her jacket. It might be overkill, but to where she's going, she might just need it all to get out.
She took her room key and valet ticket and walked out of the room, making sure to lock it behind her. She walked to the lobby and showed her ticket to the valet counter to call her car. When her vehicle arrived, she placed a tip in the jar and immediately got on and drove off.
She drove until she reached a medium-size Italian restaurant on the north side of Las Vegas. She parked in the restaurant's parking lot, got off, and went inside while making sure her car's locked.
She strode confidently inside the restaurant and approached the maitre d'.
"Good afternoon. I have a reservation under the name Vinnie." Natasha said confidently.
The maitre d' slightly narrowed her eyes. She looked to the manager behind her waiting for instructions.
Natasha followed the maitre d's line of sight and saw the manager talking to a walkie talkie. She looked around and saw a CCTV camera pointed at the reception table. After a few exchanges, the manager nodded to indicate to let her in.
"Mr. Bianchi is in the back. Straight through the kitchens. Have a good day Ms. Vedova." Natasha is definitely sure now they remembered her. Vedova is Italian for Widow.
Natasha walked through the restaurant floor. She can see the tense posture of the waiters and the watchful eye of the manager. Shrugging off the attention, she continued to walk to the kitchen door.
As soon as she walked inside the kitchen, everyone stopped. This place is even worse than the restaurant floor. All the cooks are giving her hostile glances while holding different sizes of knives, sharpening it or cutting meat. If she were anyone else, they would have been shaking in her boots, but she is not anyone else. She has seen where monsters are born. This intimidation is nothing on her.
She walked past the kitchen and head straight to a meeting room, being guarded by two hefty guys wearing a suit with a BT MP9 machine pistol.
"I'm here to see Vinnie." Natasha said to the guards.
Both guards just grunted and opened the door. Natasha walked through the door. She saw ten guards with similar looks and load out to the guard she just saw. By the right side wall of the room is the CCTV monitor screen manned by a skinny guy in glasses. In the center of the room, there is a 3m diameter table. Sitting directly opposite the door, a massive older man leisurely eating a plate of spaghetti with a side of wine. On the opposite side of the man, is another plate of spaghetti and a glass of wine.
"Have a meal with Ms. Vedova, or should I say, Ms. Romanoff..." The man said. He saw Natasha looking at the food warily, "Don't worry, none of the food is poisoned. It's sacrilegious to waste good food and wine." He reassured.
Natasha's face remained neutral as she walked to the table and sat on the chair in front of the food. She then heard the two guards outside walked in and closed the door, effectively cutting her off from her only exit.
"What can I do for you, Ms. Romanoff? It's not like you would come to me for nothing unless you just want to die, then that can certainly be arranged." Vinnie Bianchi threatened.
Vincent Bianchi or Vinnie is a huge 70-year-old man with graying hair, black eyes, and large eye bags under it. He is the current head of the Bianchi crime family. He had expanded the family's operations through smart and efficient management, making the Bianchi's gain control of Vegas underground.
The bad blood between Natasha and Vinnie came from one of the last jobs she did before being cornered by SHIELD. She was hired to assassinate Vinnie's only son, Luca Bianchi, in the hope that the one who hired her can take control of the family during the confusion. She disguised herself as a high priced escort to infiltrate Luca's penthouse suite. She drugged Luca with a paralytic drug and staged that he killed himself through hanging. The reason she was identified as the killer was through Vinnie's stubbornness. He didn't believe for a moment that his son killed himself. He used all of his contacts until he came upon the Black Widow.
The only reason she can go to Vegas without being continuously shot at or assassinated is due to an agreement brokered for her between SHIELD and the Bianchi's. As long as she doesn't wander into their area, the Widow would get to live, at least that's how they phrased it.
"I need a favor." Natasha said, channeling her Black Widow persona.
"And why in the HELL should I do this for you and not just put a bullet through your brain!?" Vinnie exclaimed.
"Don't be like that, Vinnie. You know it's only a job. It's just business, nothing personal. I'm sure you can understand." Natasha placated.
"It's personal to me!" Vinnie roared in anger. The guards hold onto their guns, getting ready to attack their 'guest.' Natasha remained calm and let the tension slowly die down. When the tension got at low as it gets, she finally said,
"I know you're going help me this, Vinnie."
Vinnie took a deep breath and said,
"Now, why is that?"
"Cause you'll finally get to know who hired me."
The world stopped for Vinnie. He always knew that the Widow is only the hired gun, but with so many suspects, he can't do anything. He can finally bring retribution for his son's death.
"Tell me." Vinnie said in a clipped tone, fixing Natasha with a hard glare.
"No, you're going to do my thing first before I tell you anything."
Vinnie thought it over for a moment. It doesn't look like it, but the Widow holds all the cards the moment she said she would tell about who hired her. They can't force if of her since she'll just bring it to the grave with her. They knew her reputation. Sure of his decision, Vinnie eventually nodded.
"Great. Besides, you'll forget all about me the moment I say who it is. I'm going to reach into my pocket and bring out a photo." Natasha stated, to not draw alarm. She reached into her right jacket pocket slowly and brought out a photo of Naruto. She placed it faced up on the table and slid it over in front of Vinnie. "I want information on him, mainly where he is. You have eyes and ears everywhere in this city. You're the fastest way to find him. His name is Naruto Uzumaki, if that helps."
Vinnie took the photograph on the table and looked at it for a moment. He stood up and went to the monitors. He motioned for Natasha to follow him.
"I know this guy. Saw him myself. But he didn't use that name. He used some weird ass name. Mama, Mana, Menma. That's right, Menma..." Vinnie looked at the CCTV operator and said, "Load up all the fights of the champion last night..." Vinnie turned his gaze to the Widow.
"See, this guy..." Vinnie said while waving around the photo. "is every fighting coach's dream. He can take punches, he's quick, he's strong, he's accurate, he has the experience, and most importantly, he's got skills."
Natasha looked at the monitor playing a compiled video. She saw Naruto took punches that would bring down anyone else like nothing and throwing punches that knocked the air out of everyone else. The final clip shows a beautifully executed combination ending in a roundhouse kick. It was all she can do not to gape in shock. She finally has a confirmation of what Naruto can do.
"That guy took home more than 1.2 mil that night." Vinnie said with a smile when the video ended.
"You organize fights with million-dollar prize money?" Natasha asked for confirmation.
"No, The tournament prize is only quarter of a mil, plus gate commission and bet commission. The most he can get is maybe 350k. Most of the money came from betting for himself. 100k for winning the whole thing and another 100k for winning every fight in under a minute. Thought we just have another cocky guy with too much money."
The Widow just stared dumbfounded at the screen while hearing Vinnie's answer.
"I'm going to take a copy of his fights. Do you know where he stayed the night?" Vinnie nodded to the operator.
"Last I heard he stayed at Motel 6. Checked out just 30 mins ago." Vinnie said, remembering the info.
Natasha took the CD handed over by the operator and pocketed it.
"A deal is a deal, Vinnie. Your brother Giovanni ordered the hit. He hoped you'd give up being head if your son died."
Vinnie and his guards took a moment to register what Natasha said. After a few seconds, Vinnie said in denial,
"Why should I believe you? He's family. He won't do it."
Natasha started to walk out the door and turned around.
"I got no reason to lie. I bet it's Giovanni who pointed you to my direction. Well, Goodbye, Vinnie. I have somewhere else to be."
Natasha continued to the door blocked by the pair of guards. After receiving a nod from their boss, the pair opened the door and let the Widow out.
Vinnie sat down and stared at the closed door for almost a minute. He finally regained his voice and said to his men,
"Looks like we got to clean house.
Natasha drove away from the restaurant towards Motel 6, hoping to find another piece of the puzzle.
-SHIELD New York Field Office, New York-
-March 29, 2005, 1000h local-
Coulson is now pouring over witness reports. Every recorded statement is basically useless. Each account is the same. A bright flash of light occurred in Central Park. The weird thing was, there are no people anywhere close to the area, even though it's pretty close to a path. It's like everyone avoided the area at that exact time.
Unbeknownst to Coulson, the seals placed on the anchor seal has an integrated repulsion seal. The Hiraishin gate works by sending four chakra seals to a random world with the given a set of specifications. These seals would be used as a guide by the Hiraishin gate to send someone through safely. A side effect of the anchor is it would create trees for each seal due to the high level of nature chakra used to power the gate. As a precaution to minimize errors and make anyone on the other side as safe as possible, a modified repulsion barrier would be formed the moment the anchor is set until the user is transported.
Coulson was still reading through the files when a tech approached him.
"Sir, we have examined those marks on the trees. The symbols we can translate are endurance, love, of, sword. We have no idea of its significance. The important thing we found out, sir, is that the symbols are made up of smaller symbols. We only found out about it when we used a microscope lens on the camera. There are numerous repeating symbols. We can translate the words anchor, bridge, gate, and away..." Coulson immediately got a cold feeling wash over him. "But sir, we hit a problem for one of your orders." The tech continued.
"What is it?"
"We can't take any significant samples from the tree. We have taken some leaves and bark, but we can't take any wood core samples. We just can't cut into it."
"What do you mean you can't cut into it?"
"Sir, we used chain saws, diamond coated blade circular saw, and even a laser. We can't even make a mark on the wood itself, only the bark." The tech reasoned. Coulson thought for a moment. Seeing that there really is nothing to be done, he said,
"Make do with what you have. Send a report ASAP."
Coulson dropped what he was reading and walked to the balcony. He took out his phone and called someone. The phone ringed a couple of times until the person on the other side answered.
"Give me something, Coulson." Fury said.
"Sir, we might have a situation." Coulson said in a grave tone. "We might have an alien on the lose."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone