After emphasizing the standards for recruitment and the positions available, Shiranui Hayate concluded the meeting. He led the group to a lavish dinner prepared by the Continental Hotel, while Hotaru worked on processing Naruto Uzumaki's official identification papers.
During the banquet, Hotaru struck up a conversation with Sasuke and Rock Lee. As she pried for information regarding Naruto's true strength, she couldn't help but feel a wave of shock at what she discovered.
A kid with that much power?
She had originally hoped to recruit a master mechanist to bolster their technical division, but the Boss hadn't been impressed by the Russian candidate.
Hotaru felt a flicker of frustration. Thinking of the tasks ahead, she knew her priority had to be the reconstruction of the agency and the establishment of their new base.
The dinner ended quickly, and the guests settled into their rooms within the hotel. Hotaru, however, remained awake, diving headfirst into her mountain of paperwork.
On the other side of the world, Tony Stark was deep into his flight tests.
"Three... two... one!"
The thrusters roared. Tony was instantly catapulted across the room, hurtling toward the concrete wall of his subterranean laboratory.
In a flash of movement, Paku intercepted him.
The Ninken slammed into Tony's path, cushioning the impact and preventing him from making "intimate contact" with the hard surface.
Despite the save, Tony still tumbled to the floor. Paku was, after all, a dog—he didn't have hands to catch a full-grown man. If it had been the Blue Snake, a tail might have done the trick, but here, there was only Paku.
Tony lay on the ground, gasping. "Thanks, Paku!"
Paku hung off the wall, staring down at him with his signature bored expression.
"Don't mention it. My job is to protect you."
Tony hauled himself up and returned to his terminal. He realized that the propulsion system didn't just need thrust at his feet; it required hand-mounted stabilizers to maintain balance.
Just as Tony was assembling the primitive gauntlet for his mechanical arm, Pepper Potts entered the lab. She punched in the security code and walked in, carrying a small box, a stack of magazines, and a cup of coffee.
"I've been paging you. Didn't you hear me?"
Tony, focused on the wiring, looked up in surprise.
"What was that?"
Pepper set the items on a nearby table.
"Obadiah is upstairs."
"Right, right. I'll be up in a second," Tony replied.
Pepper walked closer, her brow furrowed with concern.
"What am I supposed to tell him?"
Tony finally locked the gauntlet onto his arm. He raised it, mimicking an attack stance.
Pepper's eyes narrowed instantly. "I thought you said you weren't making weapons anymore."
"I'm not," Tony insisted. "This is a flight stabilizer. It won't hurt anyone."
He triggered the device.
Whirr—BANG!
A massive shockwave erupted. The force of the recoil sent Tony flying backward. Pepper gasped, covering her ears as the sound echoed like a cannon blast through the room.
Once again, Paku was there. He braced himself behind Tony, halting his backward slide before he could crash into the equipment.
Tony steadied himself, looking sheepish. "Sorry. I didn't think it would do that."
Pepper stared at the floor. Specifically, she stared at the pug that had just anchored a billionaire.
"Tony... since when did you get a pet?"
She had no idea Paku existed. This was her first time seeing the dog.
Paku remained silent. Outside of his employer, Tony Stark, he had no intention of revealing his intelligence to just anyone.
"He's not a pet, Pepper," Tony explained, adjusting his shirt. "He's my partner. And my bodyguard."
"A bodyguard?"
Pepper blinked. She briefly wondered if Happy Hogan knew he had been replaced by a pug. The thought of Happy's reaction was almost as strange as the dog's performance.
"Is he some kind of robot you built?" she asked, leaning in. "He looks incredibly real."
Tony chuckled. "Pepper, he's not a machine. His name is Paku, and he's... highly capable."
He looked down at the dog. "It's okay, Paku. Pepper is one of us. You can speak. She won't leak your secret."
Paku shifted his gaze from Tony to Pepper, his droopy eyes looking perpetually exhausted.
"Hello, Ms. Potts. I am the Ninken, Paku."
Pepper's expression froze. She looked at Tony, then back at the dog, her jaw dropping.
"You're still telling me he's not a machine? He's talking. Is JARVIS controlling him?"
The ceiling speakers crackled as JARVIS chimed in.
"Ms. Potts, Paku is a Ninken—a Ninja Dog. He possesses the innate ability to speak. He is a natural biological lifeform and is not under my control."
Pepper let out a muffled scream of surprise.
"Tony! It really talks! This is... this is incredible!"
Paku lay back down on the floor, looking utterly bored. Every time he met a human from this world, it was the same scene. He was getting used to it.
Tony shrugged, spreading his hands. "He belongs to Shiranui Hayate. You asked him to save me, yet you didn't know what he was capable of?"
"Oh my God..." Pepper whispered, covering her mouth. It was too much to process.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to regain her composure.
"Tony, I'm going back up. Clean yourself up and come quickly. Obadiah has been waiting for a while."
"OK."
After Pepper left, Tony tidied up his station. He stripped off the mechanical gauntlet and headed upstairs with Paku trotting at his heels.
As he emerged from the basement, the sound of a piano filled the living area. Obadiah Stane was seated at the keys, playing a somber melody.
Tony walked over to where Pepper was sitting. She was staring at a tablet, monitoring the company's plummeting stock price.
"How does it look?" Tony asked.
Pepper glanced up, her face grim. "Not good."
Obadiah didn't stop playing. He spoke over his shoulder, the music continuing uninterrupted.
"Just because I brought pizza back from New York doesn't mean things are bad."
Tony reached for the box on the table. "Of course not."
He pulled out a slice.
Obadiah straightened up and turned to face him. He noticed the pug standing by Tony's leg. He looked surprised for a fleeting moment but didn't dwell on it.
"It might have been better if you'd gone yourself," Obadiah remarked, standing up.
Tony tore a piece of the pizza and tossed it to Paku. Then he took a large bite of his own slice, looking Obadiah in the eye.
"You told me to keep a low profile. I've been following that advice religiously. I'm letting you handle everything."
Obadiah approached, his gaze lingering on the dog again.
"Fine. I was referring to the public and the media."