What the Hell Happened Pt 1

-Bellagio Hotel Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada-

-March 30, 2005, 1000h local-

Tony was sleeping peacefully until he was woken up by the most beautiful voice he ever heard,

"Wake the hell up, Tony! I swear to God."

Shaking up the cobwebs in his head, Tony opened his eyes and saw something he never expected to be his Angel.

"Don't make me throw this bucket of water at you."

"Ugh." Tony tried to get up, but his pounding headache begged to differ.

"Ok, you asked for it." Tony felt water splash his face, and he immediately shot up.

"What the hell!?" Tony looked around to see what's happening and where is he. He looked like he was in his hotel room. The weirdest thing was the only other person in the room is his personal assistant, Virginia "Pepper" Potts.

Pepper used to work for another scientist entrepreneur until she finally had enough of the flirting of her boss and left. Stark Industries later hired her as an accountant for their finance department. Her diligence and detailed work in the department caused her to find some discrepancies in an account. After her immediate superior ignored her findings, she marched her way towards the office of Tony Stark to report what she saw.

Pepper caused a scene at Tony's office when she wasn't allowed to meet him. In a natural reaction of Tony Stark's personal bodyguards, they pepper-sprayed her. When Tony Stark got out of his office and saw the aftermath of the commotion, he laughed hard. This event would leave such a great impression on the CEO that he pulled her out of the finance department and made her his personal assistant, and more importantly, Tony gave her the nickname Pepper.

Pepper continued to grow and develop being under Tony Stark's personal employ. This is not because Tony taught or guided her; no, this was because Tony basically put her through a trial by fire.

Whether you love him or hate him, Tony Stark is an undeniable genius who appears once in a century. This genius caused Stark Industries to grow from a technological research company to a multinational conglomerate focusing on weapon manufacture. Tony's corporate ability enabled him to make the company flourished, but he was never enthusiastic about running a company. He only wanted to tinker and invent new stuff. This trait caused Tony Stark to place Pepper Potts in a position that would allow her to do basically everything Tony was supposed to do.

Pepper's sudden predicament forced her to learn the ins and outs of the company. She expanded her studies while working for Stark until she got multiple masters and doctorates from Harvard and Yale, all related to business administration and management. Currently, she had more than enough credentials and skills to run any fortune 500 company. Everyone else in the industry tried to hire or poached her away, but some part of her was always telling her not to leave her boss.

Through the years, She and Tony have developed a good working relationship and an even better personal relationship. Pepper had somehow applied order to Tony's chaotic lifestyle. The only part of the job she now minds is she had to take care of Tony's one nightstand.

But, that's not why Pepper is so angry this morning.

"Why did I have to find out on the news that you and another guy took down an Italian mob while drunk!?" Pepper shouted.

"What!? Ow, Not too loud." A hangovered Tony asked.

"I don't know! All I know is what the news is telling. The Las Vegas Metro PD and The FBI are trying to get hold of you trying to make sense of a situation. Your lawyers are trying to contact you too. What the hell happened, Tony? This is one of the worst things you've ever done."

Tony was seriously worried about what happened; he tried to recall what happened last night. He tried to remember what happened last night.

Tony remembered that he, Elon, Kobe, Floyd, and his invite, Naruto was playing poker with Happy as the dealer. Naruto was destroying them until one by one they folded out except for himself.

~Flashback start~

"I'm tapping out while I still can. You're seriously like the pool shark of poker..." Elon said while collecting his chips. "I'm going back to my room. You should fold out to while you still can." Elon finished, referring to the small stack of chips on Tony's table. He barely got $3 million left while all the others pulled out when they reach around $50 million left. They saw that it was pointless, and they would only lose money to Naruto.

Tony's only answer is a nod with a grunt. He is already a little bit wasted, indicated by the half-finished bottle of bourbon by his side. Happy is at the dealer side of the table, absolutely enjoying the poker beatdown the kid was giving his boss.

Elon said goodbye to both Naruto and Happy. He took one last drink and left.

Tony looked back to see Elon go out of the room, thinking about folding out of the game right now. Only Stark's ego and overwhelming alcohol are pushing him to keep playing. He looked back at Naruto and asked,

"Next round?"

Naruto looked at Tony a little bit weirdly. He knew that Tony took the most hit during the game because of his aggressive game style. The chips he had left could only cover the small blind, but he has to cover the big blind for the upcoming round.

"Are you sure?" Naruto finally asked. "Cause I'm okay with covering the big blind again. You'll just have to go all-in as your opening bet."

Tony rechecked his chips and saw that Naruto was right. He thinks over a solution for a moment until he finally spoke,

"I'll give you an open favor for one last game. All or nothing?"

"What good is your favor? I got almost $350 million here with me. Why the hell should I say yes." Naruto said, baiting the CEO for more.

Tony act offended at Naruto's statement.

"I'm Tony Stark. One of the richest and smartest men alive. I could literally put you on the moon, and here I am, basically giving you a blank check..." Tony said exaggeratedly. "As long as Pepper is not entirely opposed to it." Tony finished with a little fear in his eyes. Pepper would skin him alive if he gave another person one of those open favors without running it by Pepper first. Happy laughed hard when he heard the last statement.

"Who's Pepper?" Naruto asked the laughing bodyguard.

"She's Tony's personal assistant and nanny." Happy said the last part as a joke.

Naruto giggled a little bit at that, understanding the jab on Tony's personality. Naruto looked at Tony and said,

"Make that 5, and you have a deal."

"Three." Tony countered while extending his hand.

Naruto was going to shake Tony's hand, but before he reached it he said,

"Three and a room in your LA residence, and you're going to teach me engineering and computer stuff."

Happy gave Naruto a weird look, but Naruto only shrugged.

"I just moved to the US, lost most of my stuff, and I have nowhere to go. This would solve that problem and learn something new..." Naruto defended himself. "Don't worry, though; I'll be traveling for a while..." Naruto then looked at Happy and said, "You can even check my background if you like."

Tony agonized it for over a second. He likes his solitary lifestyle, and adding this unknown guess might shatter that. On the other hand, the kid would like to learn something from him, and his ego like that. That was the tipping point.

"Deal." The two of them shook hands.

The result was as expected; Naruto won without much difficulty. This caused Naruto's finance to grow to $410,489,374. He also got a temporary home base and three blank checks on one of the most influential men alive.

"Ugh, you really have the luck of the devil..." Tony said while pouring himself another drink, looking at Naruto, packing the chips in his bag, almost making it burst at the seams. "Leave it there. I'll just have the manager encash it tomorrow. I'll even cover the fee. I own this place anyway."

"Really!?" Naruto asked. Seeing Tony nod, he just left it on the table. He then stood up, fixed up his jacket, and looked at Tony.

"Well, I'm leaving. When and where are we going to meet tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"Woah, woah, woah. Hold up there sunshine. You just made me lose a whole lot of cash, a room, and a lot of my time in the future. At the very least, you're going to have a drink with me." Tony said, stopping Naruto in his tracks.

"But I don't drink, and I have to find a place to stay." Naruto countered.

"Nope. We're going to have a drink and talk like men..." Tony said, urging Naruto to accept. When he saw Naruto sat down again, resigning to his fate. Tony looked at Happy and said, "Take the night off, Happy. You look like shit."

Happy thought for a second before nodding and going to one of the spare rooms.

"What's your poison?" Tony asked.

"I don't know. I only ever tried sake with my grandma." Naruto said.

"Damn, your grandma's hardcore..." Tony poured two glasses of bourbon and handed one to Naruto. "You should try that one."

Naruto took it and stared cautiously at the amber-colored drink. He took a small sip at it to taste it.

"Hmm. Not bad..." Naruto looked contemplative for a second before saying. "Yep, she really was. I can't believe I only met her when I was 13."

"Why's that?"

"I only met her when my godfather, which is also my grandfather figure, tried to find her. She was something of a traveler and a medic. The thing is, she only stayed in bars and casinos even though she can never really win at gambling."

"Damn, and you basically win every time you play. Some weird family you got."

"Yup. So what about you, what's your story."

Tony swirled his bourbon before taking a swig.

"You really don't know, do you..." He saw Naruto shook his head no and continued, "Well, basically, it's the same as other wealthy families' stories. Parents don't have time for their kids. They died on a business trip when I was around your age. How old are you actually?"

"21. Birthday in October..." Naruto said. "You're lucky. You never said they didn't love you. What I would give to get a chance like that."

"Did they beat you or something?" Tony asked a little cautiously. He's aware that there are a lot of people who have it worse than him.

"No. As far as I know. They loved me a lot. I just never had the chance to meet them personally. They died on the day I was born. Some huge calamity happened on my birthday. Took the lives of a lot of people in my home town, including my parents. I only got to know their names when I was 17." Naruto said with a sad chuckle.

There was a lull in the conversation, with both of them trying to cheer themselves up from the conversation.

"Got a girl in your life?" Tony asked, trying to continue the conversation and stir it away from the heavy talk.

"You really think I would move to the US alone if I had a girl." Naruto said with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I don't know! That's why I asked." Tony defended himself.

"How about you, you got someone?" Naruto returned the question.

"No, not really. Only one night stands."

"Oh. How about that, Pepper?"

"Pepper? Where'd you get that? We're great friends, I guess. But we don't have any romantic inclinations."

"Why not?" Naruto asked.

That simple question echoed continuously inside his head, getting louder and louder. Looking back, Tony would always say that particular question by Naruto changed his life.

Naruto saw the blank stare on Tony's face. Being respectful, he allowed Tony to think over whatever he was thinking about. After a few more minutes, Naruto finally had enough and shook Tony to get his attention.

"So, what are you thinking about?" Naruto asked with a sly smile.

"Nothing..." Tony said a little too fast. "So, what do you want to do now?" Tony asked, trying to get the topic moving.

Naruto taught for a second before removing a small calling card from his jacket pocket and showed it to Tony.

"You said you own this place, right? I had one of your attendants gave this to me saying that if I have any problems, just call the number on this and look for Ricardo Falcone. Want to look into it?"

Naruto immediately knew that the attendant is up to no good since he already saw a lot of those scams when he was with Tsunade. It also helped that Kurama said that the guy reeks of negative emotions.

Being a little thrill-seeker himself and intoxicated, Tony only saw the good side of this endeavor.

"Oh hell yeah. Let's go to security!"

~Flashback to be continued~