The Blonde Prince Of Wakanda (CH 5) (Patreon)

A/N: This story is rated M for mature content not suitable for children.

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Chapter 5: High Society, Low Motives

Marvel Universe - Central Park

Morning light filtered through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Central Park penthouse, catching the edges of polished glass, silk sheets, and scattered titanium-alloy armor plates.

Naruto sat on the edge of the plush king-sized bed, shirtless, the lean, hard lines of his scarred back and broad shoulders catching the sun. On the nightstand, his sleek matte-black wrist gauntlet rested beside a half-empty glass of amber scotch and a silver feline mask.

Felicia Hardy drifted out of the master bathroom wrapped in an oversized white silk robe that slipped casually off one shoulder. Her silver-white hair was pinned up loosely, droplets of moisture still clinging to the ends. She leaned against the doorframe, crossing her arms, her blue-green eyes scanning him with a slow, appreciative smirk.

"You don't sleep much, do you, handsome?" she asked, her voice low and husky.

"When you spent years running black-ops missions in hostile territory, sleeping past sunrise gets you killed," Naruto replied, glancing over his shoulder. A faint grin tugged at the corner of his lips as his eyes traced the length of her legs. "Besides, I had plenty of motivation to stay awake."

Felicia walked over, her hips swaying with lazy, cat-like grace. She stopped between his knees, sliding her manicured fingers into his messy blond hair and tilting his head up. She leaned down, pressing a warm, slow kiss to his lips before pulling back just an inch.

"Flattery will get you everywhere," she murmured against his mouth. "But as much as I’d love to stay in this bed until tomorrow, we have a multi-billion-dollar party to crash tonight."

"Stark's gala," Naruto said, stepping into his dark dress trousers and reaching for his wrist gauntlet. He snapped the unit over his left forearm; with a soft hydraulic click, the vibranium micro-mesh expanded over his skin before cloaking into invisible camouflage. "Bast, bring up the layout for the penthouse server deck."

A crisp, synthetic voice resonated directly inside Naruto’s inner-ear comm link:

“Accessing architectural blueprints for Stark Tower, Manhattan. The Tomorrow Foundation Gala occupies floors 80 through 85. The atmospheric sensor array controller you require is located on Floor 92, three levels below Tony Stark's primary workshop. Security consists of automated defense turrets and a private S.H.I.E.L.D. detail embedded within the waiting staff.”

Felicia arched a silver eyebrow, sitting beside him on the mattress and pulling her knees to her chest. "Talking to your ghost again?"

"My AI interface," Naruto corrected. "She keeps me two steps ahead of a firing squad."

"Where’s the fun in that?" Felicia teased, trailing a fingernail along the whisker-like scars etched into his cheeks down to his collarbone. "I took care of our entry. Two VIP passes under the names Richard and Felicia Vance, European tech investors looking to throw capital at Stark’s clean energy grid. I had my forge contact tailor a suit for you. High-tensile impact weave, concealed holsters, and broad enough in the shoulders to fit you."

"And what are you wearing?" Naruto asked, catching her hand and pressing his lips to her knuckles.

Felicia smirked, her eyes gleaming with sharp mischief. "Something that will keep every security guard looking at my chest while you slip through the server doors."

Floor 82, Stark Tower - 9:15 PM

The central ballroom of Stark Tower was a cavern of glass, polished marble, and panoramic views of the illuminated Manhattan skyline. Crystal chandeliers cast warm light over hundreds of New York’s elite: politicians, weapons contractors, tech executives, and high-society heiresses. Champagne flowed from ice towers, while a string quartet played on a floating glass balcony.

Through the heavy double doors walked Naruto and Felicia.

Naruto wore a tailored matte-black tuxedo with a dark charcoal dress shirt, no tie, and the top button open. The structured fabric contoured sharply across his chest and flat stomach, giving him a quiet, lethal presence among the sea of standard black-tie attire. Beside him, Felicia commanded the attention of half the room within seconds of entry.

She wore a backless silver silk dress with a slit running high along her left thigh. Her platinum hair fell in soft waves over one shoulder, and a diamond choker glittered at her throat.

Felicia slid her arm through Naruto’s, leaning into his side. "Try not to look like you're calculating exit routes, darling. It ruins the billionaire aesthetic."

"I'm not looking for exits," Naruto said smoothly, scanning the floor with calm focus. His blue eyes picked out four S.H.I.E.L.D. tactical operatives near the perimeter doors, disguised in server uniforms with hidden ear-pieces and heavy bulges under their right armpits. "Four guards at the service lifts, two on the upper mezzanine, and concealed ceiling vents housing automated kinetic turrets."

"You really take the romance out of a black-tie date," Felicia muttered, reaching up to adjust his lapel while surreptitiously slipping a thin metal drive into his jacket pocket. "That’s the encryption bypass for Floor 92. Once you plug it into the main server terminal, Bast can override the tower's global tracking network."

"And your target?" Naruto asked.

"Floor 88. Stark's private vault houses a refined sample of Vibranium-stabilized palladium isotope," Felicia said, her tongue tracing her lower lip. "A little souvenir for my trouble. I give you fifteen minutes before Stark realizes his network is being tapped."

"Ten," Naruto replied with a dry smirk. "Don't get caught, Cat."

Felicia gave his arm a playful squeeze, winked, and drifted toward the central bar, instantly pulling two hedge-fund managers into her orbit with an effortless smile.

Naruto turned toward the glass terrace doors, taking a glass of champagne from a passing waiter. As he moved through the crowd, he spotted Tony Stark standing near the VIP bar in a burgundy suit, engaged in a fast-paced debate with Pepper Potts and a sharp-eyed woman in an emerald dress, Natasha Romanoff.

Naruto's eyes locked onto Natasha for a split second. She didn't turn immediately, but her posture shifted, the subtle realignment of a trained assassin picking up an unmarked threat in her environment.

“Naruto,” Bast’s voice hummed in his ear. “Sensors detect an active facial recognition sweep operating through the security cameras. S.H.I.E.L.D. is running queries against international intelligence databases.”

"Time to pull the plug," Naruto whispered.

He took a sip of champagne, walked past a structural support pillar, and subtly flicked his wrist. His gauntlet released a focused, micro-high-density kinetic pulse straight into the floorboards, targeting the primary breaker pipe below.

BZZZZT.

Every light in the ballroom flickered violently once, twice, and plunged into total darkness. Gasps echoed across the room as emergency backup strips kicked on, flooding the space with dim blue ambient light.

Floor 92 - Server Complex

While security team chatter flooded the comm frequencies below, Naruto was already through the reinforced service doors on Floor 92.

The server complex was freezing, whisper-quiet, and dominated by twenty-foot racks of black steel processing units humming with liquid-nitrogen cooling systems. Red status lights blinked across the dark ceiling.

Naruto walked down the central aisle, his boots making zero noise against the sound-dampening floor tiles. He stopped at the primary mainframe console, pulled Felicia's drive from his pocket, and slotted it into the master terminal port.

“Interface established,” Bast reported. “Bypassing Stark Industries firewall... Decrypting protocols... 40%... 85%... Complete. Accessing atmospheric satellite sensor grid.”

A broad holographic display projected from Naruto’s wrist gauntlet, floating in the dark server room. Blue and gold data lines mapped out regional electromagnetic power grids, military radar bands, and high-density energy readings across North America.

"Filter out arc reactor signatures, stark tech, and standard military frequencies," Naruto instructed, his voice low. "Look for Wakandan vibranium resonance signatures."

“Filtering... Signal acquired.”

An amber locator pin flashed brightly on the map, pinpointing an unmapped subterranean facility buried beneath three hundred feet of solid granite in the Adirondack Mountains.

"There you are," Naruto said, staring at the coordinates. "That's where A.I.M. took the heavy vault containing my mother's records."

Before Bast could finish downloading the structural blueprints, the heavy steel security doors at the end of the hall were blown inward with a deafening blast of thermite and flying shrapnel.

Smoke poured into the room. Through the haze stepped four heavy exo-suit soldiers clad in black and yellow carbon-fiber body armor, A.I.M. strike troopers. Beside them walked Natasha Romanoff, a pair of glowing high-voltage stun batons flicked open in her hands.

"I had a feeling the power drop wasn't a transformer glitch," Natasha said smoothly, her eyes locking onto Naruto's suit and masked lower face. "Hands where I can see them."

Naruto didn't flinch. He let the download complete, pulled the drive from the terminal, and turned to face her with his hands resting casually in his suit pockets.

"You should really tighten up your building security, Romanoff," Naruto said, his voice deep and calm. "Your front door was practically unlocked."

"A.I.M. thought the same thing," Natasha replied, gesturing slightly toward the four armored troopers behind her. "Though they were less polite about coming inside."

The lead A.I.M. trooper raised a heavy rotary kinetic cannon, locking its laser sight onto Naruto's chest. "Target acquired! Drop the drive and surrender the Wakandan tech, or we blow this entire place sky high!"

Naruto sighed, leaning his neck back slightly until it popped. "Every time I try to keep a low profile in this city, somebody brings heavy artillery."

In a blur of movement, Naruto stepped forward.

He didn't draw a weapon. He smashed his left heel down onto the reinforced concrete floor, triggering the primary gravimetric amplifier in his wrist gauntlet.

"Gravimetric Pulse!"

A massive shockwave of localized kinetic force blasted outward in a full circle. The concrete flooring cracked into webbed fissures. The air roared as compressed pressure tore through the room.

The four A.I.M. soldiers, each weighing over four hundred pounds in their motorized armor, were lifted off their feet and launched backward like paper dolls. They slammed into the reinforced titanium walls, their armor plating buckling, viewports shattering, and weapons crushing into scrap metal before they crashed unconscious to the floor.

Natasha, reacting on instinct, planted her feet and crossed her batons, riding the force of the shockwave. The pressure blew her back twelve feet, her boots leaving black burn marks across the floor before she brought herself to a halt in a low crouch.

She looked up, her breathing tight, her eyes wide as she wiped a smudge of soot from her cheek.

"What kind of tech is that?" she demanded, her batons humming with blue electricity.

Naruto adjusted his dark suit jacket, smoothing his cuffs with calm precision. "Custom made."

Before Natasha could close the distance, the glass skylight above shattered into a shower of fragments. A black-clad figure dropped through the ceiling on a high-tensile wire, landing lightly on her feet right beside Naruto.

Felicia held a sealed titanium cylinder in her hand, glowing with pale blue energy. Her silver mask was locked over her eyes, and her dark suit was pulled tight.

"Got your data, handsome?" Felicia grinned beneath her mask.

"Downloaded and secured," Naruto replied.

"Then let's get out of here before Iron Man figures out his favorite toy is missing," Felicia yelled, grabbing Naruto's belt and firing her cable line back up toward the roof line.

Naruto wrapped his arm securely around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. He engaged his gauntlet's anti-gravity field, inverting their weight vector and launching them straight up through the shattered glass into the dark Manhattan night.

Natasha sprinted to the broken skylight, watching the two shadows shoot into the low cloud cover where a cloaked stealth aircraft hovered completely hidden from view. She raised two fingers to her ear comm, pressing the channel button.

"Director Fury," Natasha reported, her voice cold. "We have a problem. The Wakandan operative just raided Stark’s server network... and he has the Black Cat with him."

The Adirondack Sky - Aboard The Maelstrom

The stealth jet cut through the night sky at Mach 2, its optical camouflage rendering it totally invisible against the stars. Inside the cabin, warm ambient light reflected off polished chrome and tactical displays.

Naruto sat back in the primary pilot chair, his tuxedo jacket thrown over the console. His dark shirt was unbuttoned at the neck, his sleeves rolled up to his forearms to reveal the dense scar tissue running down to his wrists.

Felicia stood near the center table, swirling a glass of top-shelf scotch she had lifted from Stark’s private deck. Her suit was half-unzipped, revealing smooth skin and black lace beneath. She walked over slowly, her eyes fixed on him with dark intent.

"You know," Felicia purred, leaning over the pilot console and looking down at him, "for a guy who claims he wants to stay under the radar, you sure know how to blow up a party."

Naruto reached out, catching her by the waist and pulling her down onto his lap. She slid her arms around his neck without missing a beat, her fingers tangling in his hair.

"Did you get your isotope?" Naruto asked softly, his hand resting firm on the curve of her hip.

"I got my prize," Felicia whispered, leaning her forehead against his, her gaze dropping to his lips. "And I got you. I'd say that makes it a perfect night, wouldn't you?"

"Our next stop is a heavy A.I.M. fortress in the mountains," Naruto murmured, his blue eyes locking onto hers. "It's not going to be a clean heist."

Felicia chuckled, her nails lightly scratching the back of his neck, sending a sharp wave of heat straight down his spine.

"Good," she whispered, leaning down and pressing her mouth firmly against his. "I was getting bored of clean jobs anyway."

Naruto pulled her close as The Maelstrom vanished into the northern clouds, flying dark toward the mountains and the war waiting for them.

Chapter End

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A/N: Things are getting tricky for Naruto, but with Felicia around, who knows what’ll happen next? Check out the next chapters!