บท 29: The Date Part 3
-Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa-
-January 29, 2007, 1910h local-
"Vibranium Ore."
Vibranium. The strongest metal on Earth. The same metal used in Captain America's indestructible shield.
According to Coulson, Howard Stark accidentally found a piece of Vibranium ore when he was traveling around Ethiopia. He studied it for a while before World War 2 came to America, and his attention completely went to helping the government. When the Captain asked for a shield, he used the Vibranium to make sure it would last as long as it can. He never expected it to be virtually indestructible.
If the laboratories they were raiding are studying Vibranium, SHIELD needs to do better against them. Who knew what would happen if they somehow finish studying the indestructible metal.
"Okoye. How much can the Talon carry?" T'Challa asked through his comms. Naruto is binding Klaue for the meantime.
"Around a ton? That should be enough, if barely. Swing around towards my position. Breach the hull in front of me. You'll understand what you would get when you see it..." T'Challa answered his comms, presumably after Okoye answered. "We're going to make our own exit. Naruto, you'll handle reinforcements; it would be loud for sure." He said towards Naruto and Natasha. Naruto nodded and walked out of the door, probably to stand guard.
After a minute, a loud impact sound can be heard from the far side of the room, and dust rushed out of the entrance. For the first time, Natasha saw the Wakandan ship.
It turned around and opened its rear door, revealing the Okoye and W'Kabi.
"Great, Bast. That's a lot of Vibranium..." Okoye said in shock. "W'Kabi, help the prince load the canisters." She ordered before walking back inside.
W'kabi walked towards the side panel, and large metal claws extended from the side of the ship. The claws grabbed hold of dozens of canisters at a time.
T'Challa tossed Klaue inside, then both of them jumped inside the ship when they heard gunshots coming from below them. Naruto must've encountered more of Klaue's forces.
Natasha and T'Challa are rolling all the canisters inside the ship to make room for more. She didn't expect that small pieces of rock are that heavy.
The moment every canister in the room are loaded T'Challa shouted,
"Naruto! One minute."
The backdoor closed, and they moved away from the ship.
"Hey! Naruto's still down there!" Natasha shouted to T'Challa.
"Don't worry about him. It's safer for us to be this far away." T'Challa answered calmly.
The Talon hovered around a kilometer away and faced the ship. Natasha could see a bright blue pulsing light is emanating from inside the boat.
Five seconds later, the whole ship is covered by a spiraling dome, grinding everything inside it to dust. The dome is producing such a powerful gust of wind that the plane they are in is experiencing strong turbulence.
Natasha realized at that moment that SHIELD wouldn't stand a chance against Naruto in a head-on fight.
"Bast. So the one he used before is not his most powerful skill." T'Challa whispered in awe.
Natasha really needs to figure out how Naruto and T'Challa met. The small snippets of conversation she heard suggest that they have some knowledge of each other's abilities.
"Hey! Let's go! I still need to ask the king!" Naruto suddenly shouted behind them.
Natasha reflexively turned around, struck him in the chest using the staff.
"Oh my god! Are you okay?" She asked immediately after she realized who she attacked.
"Wow, that hurt." Naruto said while rubbing his chest, the shirt he's wearing is a little singed.
"That's your fault too, you know! You just don't appear behind someone and expect not to be attacked." Natasha reprimanded Naruto while placing her hands to her hips.
Behind them, T'Challa and W'Kabi are placing paralyzing cuffs and a blindfold on Klaue.
"They're like an old married couple. How long have they been together again?" W'Kabi told T'Challa in a quiet voice.
"This is their first date." T'Challa answered in a deadpan voice. W'kabi looked shocked at T'Challa's statement before shaking his head and saying,
"They would be married on their third date at this rate. Who the hell thought raiding is a great idea for a date."
"Apparently, Naruto does. To be fair, he's a walking nuke, and she's a master assassin..." T'Challa answered with a shake of his head. "Just look at it this way, we got what we came for, and we retrieved the stolen vibranium." He finished before W'Kabi stood up and carried Klaue forcefully to a bar and tying him up there. They really don't want him to get away.
Naruto led Natasha to a couch at the side of the plane after a few more exchanges and sat down.
"So, are you ever going to tell me about how you and the Prince met?" Natasha asked, giving in to her curiosity.
"That's a good story. Let me set the scene. It was more than a year ago near the southwest border of Sudan or South Sudan, whatever you might want to call it..." Naruto started his story.
~Flashback Start~
Naruto just came from Khartoum, Sudan, to establish his branch of Shokugakure. He has no idea if it will even turn up a profit, but he doesn't care. He just needs a home base in Sudan.
His next destination in mind, Birnin Bashega of Wakanda. Nairobi, Kenya, would have normally been his next destination, but there's something he needs to confirm in Wakanda because there's something weird going on there.
The first thing Naruto noticed was that its complete isolation. No country would survive for thousands of years in complete isolation. Some resources are always unavailable inside a country. The fact that they primarily only export textiles and crafts and almost no import is an insane notion.
The second thing is its uninfluenced culture. He can understand if a tribe or two remained isolated and retained their original tribal culture, but a country as a whole? It's just not believable, especially if they are so close to the slave trade and western expeditions routes. Not to mention the fact that they have no reported standing armies ever since the countries formation, the surrounding states would have pounced to conquer the land, especially in the 1600s to 1800s.
For Naruto, something fishy is going on. That's why he's going there himself after the clones he sent to scout the capital reported back.
The two information he needs to confirm is the location of the Royal Family. The family would typically stay at or near the capital as it is the seat of power, but members of Royalty rarely shows up in the city. Naruto's clones found that they stay somewhere outside the city, but it's also mostly empty.
The next one is the weird movement of people. Groups of people would regularly trek towards the Wakandan jungle and return a few weeks later. Six months survey of the villages showed that there is some kind of cycle for each group to go towards the middle of nowhere. Even the caravans that are moving from village to village always travels through the forest, not around it.
That's why he's going himself to follow the people to where they are going.
Naruto was tree jumping through the forest a few kilometers away from Binin Bashega when he heard shouting and gunfire from nearby. He decided to check it out and run toward it. When he was around 100m away, he stopped on a tree branch and activated his Shinigan to watch the situation.
There's a large group of mercenaries surrounding a slave caravan. All the males are beheaded while the women and children are corralled on one side. The presumed leader of the mercs is interrogating a woman harshly.
The leader is wearing a tattered combat suit, hunter's hat, and a necklace made of teeth. He remembers his name as Mufasa. A warlord turned mercenary with a disposition for carnage. They often take the heads of their enemies as a trophy. He usually operates in southern Africa, so it's a wonder why he's this far north.
The woman, on the other hand, is wearing an assortment of green clothes. She's acting well enough for everyone else to pass as a refugee or slave but not for Naruto's eyes. Her muscle development and physiology can't be hidden from Naruto's eyes.
"I know who and what you are..." Mufasa said. "You think you're smart by sticking with refugees and slaves, but what you don't realize is that people talk. Give enough 'incentives,' and they would tell you anything..." He continued while retrieving his knife and running it all over the woman's neck. "Everyone of them said the same thing, an angel in green called a man in black and saved them from a terrible faith. I remember the stories of my childhood. The stories passed down from the ancestors, never fight the man in black..." Mufasa walked over to a girl and pulled her towards him. "I also remembered the story of a golden city hidden in Wakanda, where the man in black came from. I'm only going to ask you once, Wakandan..." He said while placing the knife on the now crying girl's neck. "Where is the Golden City?"
Nakia is in turmoil. She's a loyal War Dog of Wakanda. Her mission is to serve for the best interest of Wakanda above all others and keeping Binin Zana a secret. She hardened herself, believing the girl would die today.
But Bast seems to give her a gift.
Death wails of mercenaries echoed around the outer perimeter. Mufasa's men are dropping left and right, and he can't even see it.
Mufasa tossed the girl aside, took his gun, and scanned his surroundings, trying to find the man that's been taking out his man.
"I know you're there!" Mufasa shouted before he shot Nakia in the kidney. He grabbed her and pointed his gun at her temple. "Show yourself, or I swear to God I'm going to blow her head out! You got three seconds! 3! 2!"
That's when a man in a black suit showed himself.
T'Challa has just been appointed as the new Black Panther a month ago after his father decided that he's not fit enough to be the Panther. An hour ago, an emergency transmission came from Nakia's Kimoyo Beads. He immediately took a Dragon Flyer and set out to help her.
When he got to the location, he saw a gruesome sight. Bodies are piled up on the side of the road while the heads are in the back of an assault jeep. He took out the outer perimeter guard working inside.
T'Challa got spotted by one of the inner guards, and all hell broke loose. Rookie mistake. Now he's in front of a mad man with his love rapidly bleeding out, not sure if he can get to him first without him pulling the trigger.
"Ah. The man in black. The protector of Wakanda..." Mufasa theatrically said. "The Black Panther. Maybe you can answer where the Golden City is?"
T'Challa was now in the same position as Nakia a few minutes ago, but he doesn't have the same determination to let Nakia die.
"Don't tell him." Nakia forced out. She's getting weaker and paler as time goes on.
"I'm sorry. I can't do that, Nakia..." T'Challa answered. He faced Mufasa. "The Binin Zara is in." He never got to finish his sentence since a stone pillar suddenly impaled Mufasa.
T'Challa was surprised by the suddenness of the man's death. He looked around and saw that all the remaining mercenaries are suddenly impaled.
"You should help her before she keels over." A voice said out of nowhere.
T'Challa looked back to Nakia and saw her starting fall. He ran toward her and caught her.
"I got you. You're going to be okay." He said while checking Nakia's wound. It's a through and through. He took a Kimoyo bead from his and Nakia's to plug the entrance and exit wounds. It stabilizes her condition momentarily, but she just lost too much blood. She might not make it back to Wakanda for treatment. He's feeling the weight of the situation when a hooded guy walked over to him and crunched down in front of him.
"You need help, man?" The same voice that told him to catch Nakia came from the man. "Come on. Just nod if you need help..." The man said in a calm voice. T'Challa nodded. He would do just about anything to save Nakia right now. "Alright. Lay her on the ground and move three steps back..." T'Challa was hesitant to leave Nakia's side, but he knows he can't do anything now. Naruto did a single hand sign and placed his now glowing white hands-on Nakia's abdomen. "Fair warning. I have almost zero medical knowledge. I'm just boosting her resilience. So yeah."
T'Challa almost lunged at the guy, but he can't do any better right now. A few minutes of waiting, and he finally took a sigh of relief. Nakia's color returned slowly, and she slowly opened his eyes.
"Glad that worked, huh." Naruto said to T'Challa after he walked some distance back.
T'Challa rushed over towards Nakia and held her in his arms. He removed his helmet and checked her over.
"Thank you. Thank you very much..." T'Challa said in gratitude towards Naruto. He extended his hand towards Naruto. "I'm T'Challa. Crowned Prince of Wakanda, and I'm in your debt."
The man removed his hood, revealing a young blonde man. The man took his hand and shook it.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki..." The now named Naruto introduced himself with a wide smile. "Freelance contractor and I'm lost."
~Flashback End~
"...we talked for a while, and he gave me a communicator. That's how we kept in touch. I did some job for him and worked together from time to time. I also snuck in Binin Zana to leave some packages for him." Naruto ended his story.
"Baba is slowly losing his mind trying to find the intruder that keeps on leaving him a package. I only told him about Naruto this morning when he received a package with Klaue's picture. The price was a meeting and considerations for his request." T'Challa interjected with a chuckle.
"We're now approaching Wakanda." Okoye announced.
"You're going to want to see this." Naruto whispered at Natasha's ear. She looked out the front window and saw a mountain rapidly getting closer. She was getting nervous, but Naruto just held her hand and calmed her down.
The moment she thought they were going to hit the mountain, the plane passed through some kind of barrier and saw one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen.
"Welcome to Binin Zana. The Golden City. True Capital of Wakanda." T'Challa declared.
-Clint's Homestead, Missouri-
-January 29, 2007, 1500h local-
Clint burst through the door and rushed up the stairs. He went straight towards the master bedroom and saw Laura sweating profusely.
"Hun, The Johnsons just went into labor before you. The midwife won't be able to come until after she's done." Clint quickly said, clearly out of breath.
This kind of moment magnifies their living situation. Living partially off the grid would remove some comforts that people take for granted, like going to a hospital.
"Clint. Take a breath and find the birthing binder. You're going to help me through this." Laura said between contractions.
"I can take you on the jet and take you to SHIELD HQ." Clint suggested.
Clint Barton is usually calm and collected, but when the life of his wife and unborn child is on the line, the gloves are off.
"No time, babe. My contractions are 3 minutes apart and 60 seconds long. We're not going to make it..." Laura asserted. "You. Need. To. Do it."
Clint nodded and ran down the stairs to retrieve the binder, including some ice chips. He checked on Lila, watching cartoons in her room before going back to the master bedroom.
"Breathe, Love. You can do it." Laura reassured.
Clint opened the binder and read through it.
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