Chương 52: Info Dump
-Stark Industries, Los Angeles-
-February 18, 2009, 1130h local-
Pepper's face turned a shade of red that rivaled her hair. All her cognitive abilities seemed to have simultaneously stopped. Everything outside a small area circling both Tony and her faded away. Tony's proposal might be unorthodox, but it was just like him to do something on a whim. She was about to give him an answer when something barreled through between them and tackled Tony, almost causing him to fall.
"Daddy!" Morgan shouted.
The revelation of Tony Stark's relationship going on long enough for him to propose and have a kid was already sufficient enough to make every reporter lose their mind. But the arrival of a little girl, who clearly looked to be at least four years old and had the Stark and Pott's features, just further drove the point.
"Hey, Morgan!" Tony greeted in surprise. "What are you doing here?" He asked after picking up Morgan.
"Ruto brought me..." Morgan answered, pointing to a hallway. She then turned her head towards the people, all the journalists, and cameras pointing towards them. Her inherent shyness due to her relative isolation caused her to try to hide her face in Tony's neck. "Who are they, Daddy?" She asked.
"Don't mind them, honey..." Tony softly said. He felt Morgan nod before setting herself in his arms. He looked back towards Pepper. "Pep, I still need an answer."
In the hallway that Morgan had pointed to, Phil and Naruto were watching the family interaction that occurred after Naruto let Morgan run towards her father.
"Hey, Phil. How are you?" Naruto asked as he stopped beside the SHIELD agent.
"Everything's fine..." Phil replied with his trademark smile. "I have to say you're making my job a lot harder." He stated.
"Now, why is that?" Naruto retorted with a teasing smile.
"Well, you managed to make most, if not all, protective surveillance measures on one of the agency's VIPs impossible." Phil replied.
"Isn't that like a breach of privacy?"
"Not if Howard Stark himself technically hired us."
"Oh yeah. That..." Naruto said sheepishly, forgetting why SHIELD was interested in Tony. "Either way, you guys suck at guarding him." He added childishly before extending his tongue.
Phil couldn't deny Naruto's statement since what he said wasn't exactly a lie. There were a lot of restrictions in place, preventing them from doing their job to its full capacity, which led to Tony Stark's vegas fiasco and kidnapping.
"Phil..." Naruto called him with a serious tone. This caused Phil to turn his head towards Naruto, who was still looking at the family. "Do you guys have any idea who the mastermind is?" He asked.
Phil would've acted clueless now, but Naruto's serious expression made him change his mind.
"Nothing concrete, but I have a guess. We're looking into it now." Phil answered, making sure to leave out the name. His goal was to either stop Naruto from investigating further or at least bargain that information away, but it looked like none of it would work today.
Naruto had no patience to play the back and forth that Phil was clearly trying to start, so he did something a little more drastic. He turned his towards Phil with his Shinigan activated.
Phil slowly opened his eyes. He knew something happened, but nothing seemed to be amiss except for a weak headache. Trusting his instincts, he tried to recall the last few moments, but he felt a gap in his memory.
"So Obadiah Stane, huh? That makes sense." Phil heard Naruto say out of nowhere, looking at the family. That simple statement gave Phil an idea of what might have happened.
"What did you do?" Phil asked, slightly panicked.
"Nevermind that..." Naruto retorted dismissively, causing Phil to frown. He looked towards Phil and continued. "Don't do anything to Stane. I'm not going to do anything either. Tell Fury to let Tony handle it for now, but be ready to step in at any time..." He said without any room for argument. His demeanor suddenly changed to a more relaxed one. "Looks like Pepper is about to answer."
Pepper stared Tony straight into his eyes and said,
"I'm hyphenating."
Pepper's answer caused Tony to smile brightly, which she mirrored. It also sent the reporters clamoring towards the family, and it looked like their security detail would be overwhelmed.
"This looks to be getting out of hand..." Naruto said before walking towards a blind corner. Phil had no idea what Naruto was going to do, but it was quickly answered with Naruto's reappearance. He was now wearing a suit similar to Stark's security detail, and behind him was a small army of similarly dressed people with different faces. "Follow me. They'll definitely want to talk to you."
Naruto quickly jogged towards the venerable horde, followed by his henged clones. He went straight towards the family while the clones pushed the reporters back. His appearance, though, took the family and Happy aback.
"Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts. The car is ready." Naruto said while pointing towards the exit. He also gave Happy a small gesture to get the car, which Happy understood evident by his sudden departure.
Naruto led the family out of the building with Coulson close behind.
"Congratulations, guys!" Naruto greeted when they finally got some distance away from the chaos. "I thought Tony would puss...sh it back again." He commented, making sure to make his statement kid-friendly for Morgan.
"Thanks..." Tony replied slowly before changing the topic. "Why did you bring Morgan, and who's the guy behind you?"
"That's Agent Coulson and answer the question, Naruto." Pepper interjected while giving Narito a stern glare.
"Well, Morgan and I were playing with the TV on. I'm scrolling through the channels when I came around a live interview of yours. When you reach the part where you revealed your daughter, I came right away..." Naruto explained. "Your plan to suspend your weapons manufacturing will bring some heat down on you and your 'new' family. So what better time to fully reveal Morgan than after you're announcement to give those piranhas something to report on. I just didn't expect you to propose right after..." He added. "Look at the bright side, though. No one will talk about your statement for sure after all of that."
Naruto's answer was exactly what they would expect from him. A stupid plan that would somehow work one way or another. Still, just thinking of the public relations nightmare headed their way gave Pepper a headache, so she decided to change the topic for now.
"Why is your agent friend following us?" Pepper asked after they got through the door.
"You're going to want to talk about SHIELD, aren't you? Then who better to ask than an agent himself. Just don't expect him to answer." Naruto replied.
Phil, on the other hand, started thinking about everything he could say without repercussions.
"Naruto. I'll follow behind. I need to make some calls." Phil said before walking towards a parked SUV, a distance away.
"Hmm. Phil will probably call Fury..." Naruto mused right before a limo stopped in front of them. The family got on the back seat while Naruto got in on the passenger side. "Hey, Happy. Find anything new to do? Aside from upping the security protocol as usual." He said as a start to a conversation, adding the last part as a quip.
"Hmm. Not much. I started boxing again, though. Trying to up my skills just in case." Happy answered. He was also thinking about how he might teach Tony some moves to make him be able to defend himself.
"Nice. Call me if you ever need a sparring partner." Naruto replied.
On the other side of the screen, Tony and Pepper are sitting facing each other with Morgan sleeping beside Tony, holding onto his arm.
"So, we're going to hire him, right?" Tony asked Pepper sheepishly.
"We have no other choice, do we? You basically announced it on live television, and Naruto brought Morgan..." Pepper replied with a raised eyebrow. "But, it would be less stressful to hire a group of ex-special forces. We should probably look into that." She added half-seriously.
"An army of every SAS and SEALS combined can't hold a candle to Naruto. Ask Rhodey to show you the crater to understand what I'm saying. He'll know what I'm talking about..." Tony suggested with a serious tone. Pepper immediately filed Tony's suggestion away for later. "By the way. I'm uploading JARVIS in the corporate system."
"Why?" Pepper asked, genuinely confused.
"I'm going to upgrade JARVIS's system to do a full sweep of everything. There will also be an old school audit, but only you and I will know about JARVIS being in the system." Tony explained.
Pepper's expression softened. She could see an underlying tension in Tony's demeanor.
"Be honest with me, Tony. Why are you doing all of this? What happened over there?" Pepper asked softly.
Tony released a sigh. He should've known that Pepper could see his anxiety.
"You know that a mortar caused this, right?" Tony asked, to which Pepper nodded while trying to hold back her tears. "What I didn't tell you was that the mortar had my name on it."
"Your name? I don't understand."
"The mortar was made by Stark Industries..." Tony clarified. This drew a gasp from Pepper. The whole thing finally made sense to her. "It's not just that. They had a massive cache of weapons with Stark Industries on it. On our way out of the cave, we blew up as much of it as possible..." He explained. "We apparently missed a cache inside the cave since we were rushing to get out, but Naruto took care of it."
The pair sat in silence after Tony's statement, individually thinking about how the company should move forward in the future.
"You know what. I hate all this serious talk. Let's talk about something more fun..." Tony said with a smile. "Let's talk about the wedding."
Pepper had to smile at Tony's redirection. She could always depend on Tony to add some levity to her life.
-Natasha's Safehouse, New York-
-February 18, 2009, 1400h local-
"Hey, Nat. There's some leftover pizza in the fridge if you like." Jessica greeted Natasha as soon as she got into the apartment. This was one of the few moments of free time she had throughout the week due to the increased workload because of her accelerated program.
"Thanks, but I already ate..." Natasha replied before tossing her bag at the side of the door and flopping on the couch beside Jessica. Jessica saw her tensed shoulder, so she decided to give her a massage. "Mmm. That's the spot. Thanks." She said in gratitude while holding back her moans.
"Must have been a stressful mission if you have this much tension in you..." Jessica asked rhetorically. "By the way, Naruto hasn't come by for at least three days." She added.
"Sounds about right..." Natasha commented softly. "I guess I can tell you about the mission this time." She said.
Natasha rarely tells Jessica about her missions since a lot of them are above top-secret, but from time to time, she would let out vague mission parameters and let Jessica work it out. Still, there are low priority or public related missions that come her way, so she tells Jessica the whole thing.
All of Natasha's efforts to hide it were sometimes for naught since Naruto would occasionally get carried away with his storytelling and let out details of her missions to Jessica.
"You know about Tony Stark's kidnapping?" Natasha inquired since it would be a whole lot easier if Jessica knows about that piece of news.
"Yup. Billionaire kidnapped in Afghanistan late last week. Found yesterday, I think..." Jessica replied. "I might not be updated in current events, but that kind of news would find a way to reach everyone." She added with a smug grin.
"Good to know..." Natasha said with a smile. "Anyway, due to reasons I can't tell you, SHIELD has a special interest in the guy. It's been all hands on deck since news of his kidnapping got to us. I have been working my contacts to find anything new about the situation..." She explained. "As for Naruto, He might be doing the same thing as I am, or he could be babysitting Stark."
"Why the hell would Naruto babysit Stark?" Jessica asked, genuinely confused.
"Didn't Naruto tell you?" Jessica shook her head no to Natasha's question. "Naruto has known Tony Stark personally since almost the moment he arrived here. Search for Tony Stark Vegas incident. You'll find an unnamed partner of his. That's Naruto."
"So he has been causing trouble from the moment he got here. Good to know." Jessica said with a chuckle.
"I also have a suspicion that Naruto sometimes stays at Stark's Mansion." Natasha added.
"So living with two hot ladies willing to have sex with him isn't enough? He needs to live in a mansion too. That's good to know." Jessica replied sarcastically.
"Don't worry about that. I'm reasonably sure Naruto is worth at least a billion dollars so he could buy himself a mansion anytime he wants. Add to the fact that he could create anything he wants out of thin air, and he could be the richest person in the whole world. There must be another reason why he's staying there..." Natasha said. That's when she noticed that Jessica's massage stopped, so she turned around and saw a shocked Jessica. "Hey, Jess. Are you alright?"
Jessica froze when she heard how much Naruto was worth. She hadn't even thought about how Naruto's creation ability could be used to make anything he wanted. That train of thought somehow made her feel empty inside. All she could think about is the distance between Naruto and her.
The reason why she never dated anyone after Stirling is because of her inability to process emotions well. Being an introvert with PTSD and survivor's guilt syndrome can do that to anyone. The only reason she accepted Natasha's weird offer was because she was in a bad position in life, and one of her outlets was sex. Now, she somehow caught feelings for a guy in a relationship with what could arguably be called her best friend. What a fucked up situation to be in.
"Hey, Jess. Are you ok?" Natasha asked while shaking Jessica a little.
"Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine." Jessica reassured her as she got out of her stupor.
Natasha stared at Jessica for a moment. As an expert in reading body language and psychology, she could accurately guess what Jessica's thinking. She internally smiled since she can now move to the next part of her plan.
"You know what. I know that Stark would hold a press conference right around now." Natasha said as she reached for the remote.
"Ok." Jessica weakly replied.
Natasha turned on the TV and surfed the channels until she found what she was looking for.
"As the CEO of Stark Industries..." The television blared out, running through Tony Stark's statement. Natasha could already picture the mess his announcement would cause. She knows for a fact that SHIELD got a lot of their armaments from Stark Industries through the military. Fury would surely fucking lose it. "Or my soon to be fiance if she says yes."
"So that's why he's rarely in the news these past few years. Good for him." Jessica commented when the TV showed Tony proposing to the redhead.
"That's Virginia Potts. His long time assistant..." Natasha said, giving Jessica some context. That's when a kid suddenly runs straight towards Tony. "And that's probably their daughter. Three years old, I think. We have no records on her."
Jessica chuckled at Natasha's disgruntled face. It's like she couldn't believe that SHIELD was unsuccessful in finding anything concrete about a little girl. Her amusement stopped when she saw what was happening on the Television.
"Hey, Nat. Isn't that getting a little dangerous?" Jessica asked, referring to the venerable stampede headed towards the family.
"Fuck. That's what happens when stuff happens too much too soon." Natasha commented. She couldn't do anything being 4000km away. A few moments later, though, the pair saw something that they were not expecting.
"Isn't that Naruto?" Jessica said while pointing to Naruto wearing a suit.
"Yup..." Natasha replied with a groan. "And that's my coworker behind him..." She pointed to an average-looking man behind Naruto before reaching for the remote and turning the TV off. "I don't want to deal with all of that while I'm on my break."
Natasha decided that now was as good as time as any to deal with something that she had been thinking about for quite a while.
Jessica saw Natasha leaning on the couch beside her, making sure she's comfortable. Natasha then patted her things, urging Jessica to lie on it.
After Jessica laid down reluctantly, Natasha started running her hands through Jessica's hair.
"Jess, I want you to be honest with me..." Natasha said out of the blue, causing Jessica's heart rate to skyrocket. A super spy trained to remain emotionless and an emotionally stunted enhanced having a heart to heart, what could go wrong. "Are you in love with Naruto?"
Natasha could feel Jessica immediately tense. She continued brushing Jessica's hair to calm her down, but seeing that Jessica wouldn't answer, Natasha started talking again.
"In Naruto's world, there's a law called the Clan Restoration Act or CRA. It says that when a clan is down to the last few members, each surviving member could be paired with two or more individuals to increase the clan's population rapidly..." Natasha explained. "Polygamy and polyamorous relationship is the norm in their world due to the imbalance between genders. Do you understand what I'm getting at?"
Jessica already knew about all that, although she didn't give any of it a second thought. It was a concept so foreign to her that she just pushed away at the corner of her mind.
"So, there's no reason for all of us to be together unless you don't want to..." Natasha whispered to Jessica's ear. "There's just one thing you need to know before deciding. I haven't talked to Naruto about all of this, but I'm giving you an out after you hear what I'm going to say..." She felt Jessica nod slowly. "We both know Naruto is an immortal. I managed to talk him into considering making me partially immortal. I know it's a stupid idea, but I just can't imagine Naruto being alone throughout eternity." She explained.
"You want to doom yourself into eternity for a guy? I thought you were supposed to be immune to feelings?" Jessica retorted half-jokingly after a few minutes of silence. She then stood up and walked towards the door. "Don't worry, Nat..." She reassured when Natasha when she saw Natasha's worried expression. "I'll come back. I don't know what my answer will be, but I won't just up and go." She said before walking entirely out of the door.
"Damn. Too much too soon." Natasha said to herself, forgetting her statement earlier.
Jessica, on the other hand, had no idea where to go. Ever since Nat and Naruto came into her life, it had been like a rollercoaster ride, and she was not sure if she liked it. Why can't everything be simple?
Jessica felt like she was slowly drowning in her thoughts. As a desperate measure to talk to someone, she took her phone from her pocket and dialed a number. After a few rings, somebody finally answered. She released a deep breath before talking.
"Hey, Trish. I need someone to talk to? Can we meet somewhere?"
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