Pairing: Naruto/Supergirl/Wonder-Woman/Mera/Grail/Zatanna/Poison Ivy/Donna Troy/Madam Xanadu
Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise or DC comics. I simply do this for fun and to improve myself as writer.
A/N: Hey everybody! I'm alive, though I feel like crap right now. Been sick all week with some kind of flue malaria combo. Anyway, I'm really sorry for the delay, but it couldn't really be helped.
I originally wanted to get this out to you guys before the New Year, like I promised in the last chapter, but on the 30th December my aunt died of cancer. She'd been on Chemo for a while, but eventually lost that fight. So yeah, that took a bit out of me and I stepped back from working on this story for two weeks. I really thought that it would be all the time I needed and things would go back to some semblance of normality, but then disaster struck. Since my aunt's passing, I've lost fourteen other members of my extended family to Covid-19, Covid related problems and other illnesses. To be blunt, It's not grief that has kept me from updating any of my stories this year, but shock. Frankly I still don't even know what to think about this tragedy that has struck my family.
Anyway, I did initially pick up the pen and began working on my stories again, but a good friend of mine who also happens to be grief counselor gave a lot of unwanted but sorely needed advice. Amongst other things, I was advised not write any action scenes or anything really that was grim and dark. I didn't like this because while the original draft for Chapter 7 wasn't grim or dark, it was very action oriented and so I had to redo this whole chapter.
The thing is, my grief counselor friend was trying to keep me from using this story as an outlet. It's fine if I did it in private, but y'all don't need my baggage. Anyway, that's pretty much the reason why this chapter will not have any over the top action scenes and is more character development, world building and fluff than anything I would normally write. So sorry if that's not what you wanted.
Next chapter we will back to the usual. I've already started working on it, and there will be lots of action there. Though I think I really needed to write a chapter like this, it was a good exercise. I tried illustrate Naruto's personal growth and internal struggles as he develops into a superhero, while also staying faithful to his more militaristic roots.
He goes through a few things in this chapter that set him up on the road to becoming, not quite a tradition superhero, but a hell of lot closer than he currently is. Naruto has quite a bit of trauma from the 4th Shinobi World War that you'll see peak out. Nothing truly bad, but it has been influencing certain decisions he makes.
Anyway, I'm pretty much drugged to the gills right now, so I better stop rambling and let you get into. But first a few reviews.
ShinigamiNoKitsune209: Naruto would probably do exactly that if he never met the other members of the Justice League. He also acknowledges the fact that he isn't in the Land of Fire or any other nation that would consider such an action Justice. Don't get me wrong, if he could get away with it, he'd kill rapists on the spot. He hates them that much, but he also respects the law of the land to a degree, and holds back on some of the actions he would normally take.
anonimo: You will see a bit about how he uses the Red and why he uses it the way he does, in this chapter.
Mindbreaker101: I've wanted to get in contact with you ever since I saw you review, unfortunately a lot of real life problems kept me busy. I've got plenty I'd like to discus with you and hear your opinion on.
Mutant-Sorcerer: I'm saving her for a different fic. As for Naruto and what he views as Justice? He's still striking a balance between the tamer views of Earth and the more ruthless views of the Elemental Nations. Basically, he will try and redeem anyone who is redeemable, even go as far as try to make some bad guys into heroes. However, someone like Joker who is evil for the sake of evil, would die the second they come within a mile of Naruto. Laws be damned.
Banjo the Fox: I don't care for Apollo, Zeus, Ares, Poseidon, Hermes or the vast majority of Greek gods or goddess. Hestia, Hephaestus, Nike and a few others are the only ones that even remotely interest me. The organization watching him is a lot more intriguing that just a terrorist organization.
Mr Nobody: Yeah, Naruto is a little…okay, I don't want to say clueless about the girls because that is strictly speaking not true. He's more willfully ignorant or self-deceptive, because he's afraid of the status quo changing. The members of the Justice League, and more specifically the girls in his life have been vital in dealing with all the scars and trauma from the 4th Shinobi World War. They are reason he is as healthy as he is instead of traumatized wreck, he's afraid of what would happen if the nature of their relationship changes. It's why he keeps rebuffing Madame Xanadu for now. However, a part of him wants that exact change, furthermore his comfortable little world is about to get wrecked. As of next chapter, his world won't be the same.
808Joker808: Grail is basically haunting him, and as resulted kicked off a sequence of minor events this chapter that will have some pretty far reaching consequences down the road.
The Anonymous FanFic Author: Don't worry about his mortality, I've been keeping quite because I don't want to spoil things. This chapter was originally supposed to reveal why that wasn't an issue, but you will see for yourself next chapter. Any in this chapter, there is a section that shows how he already has a means of attaining a type of immortality. That's not how he uses it, but its still a path to immortality.
Okay I think that's all I can do for. I got the mother of all headaches right now, and I desperately need some sleep. Oh, I forgot to mention this little bit of good news amongst all the bad. I got a new phone, my seventh so far and it can handle the crappy internet I have to deal with out here in the bush. Which means I can actually update a lot more frequently so the next chapter will come a hell of lot sooner.
I just want to give a shout out to all my supporters up on . You guys have quite literally made this all possible, especially when I didn't even have internet to keep going through most of last year. So all you older guys who've been up there, Omni-Creator Kami of Anime, 808Joker808, Zerak, Dragon God of Miracles, fnkylove, Mr. Williams, Mastercheif1229, Beastank and more. All of you have brought me this far. Also special thanks to Echoes at Dawn my latest patron, it means so much to me that you are willing to support my work.
Okay, without further delay, let's get on with the story. I really hope you enjoy it and please remember to leave a review at the end, your opinions help shape this story and inspire me.
Chapter 7: His question!
"The interesting thing about my arrival in this universe and really the multiverse as whole, is that I didn't exist here originally. I had no past, no present and no future. I was just suddenly there one day. It doesn't seem like a big deal at first but, I want you to imagine for a moment, the entire multiverse and all of its history from beginning to end.
Imagine it all as a large pool of water, you can use a swimming pool as mental reference if it helps. Anyway, the water in this pool is perfectly still, its surface almost glass-like, with no ripples, waves or vibrations of any sort to disturb it.
Once again, perfectly still.
Can you visualize that? Good!
Because then I showed up, and it was like someone threw a rock into that still pool of water. It doesn't matter how small the rock might be or how slowly it was thrown into the water, a disturbance would still be created and ripples would form across the surface of the water. In my case, the ripples flowed through the currents of time, both forward and backwards, my very arrival propagating changes in the past, the present and the future.
The only difference between me and the mental image of the swimming pool you have, is that over time, a pool of water will go back to a calm perfectly still state, provided nothing else is thrown into it. The changes I inflicted however, were permanent."
— Naruto Uzumaki
oOo
Minutes before Dawn, National City…
Lizzy Mayford inhaled deeply, desperately trying to get as much fresh air into her lungs as possible. Everything around her was on fire, and as near as she could tell, her entire apartment building had been set ablaze. Her husband Rick stood to the side holding their three-year-old daughter to the window, trying to provide the toddler with enough fresh air so that little Katie would not suffocate on the smoke and ash flooding the room.
For the past few minutes, Lizzy had been placing wet towels beneath the door to keep out as much smoke as possible, but the situation was looking grim. The hallway just outside her front door was already in flames, so they couldn't escape that way, and unfortunately with them living on 6th floor, it was too high to simply jump to the ground below. Furthermore, the apartments emergency fire escape had been undergoing renovations that week, which left them with seemingly no way of escaping the blaze.
The fire had broken out in the early hours of the morning and spread at an alarming rate throughout the building. Without any sign that things could get better, all that Lizzy could hope for, was that the fire engines that had just arrived below, would extend a ladder fast enough to at least get Katie out before the blaze consumed them all. Unfortunately, they were not the only family in need of rescuing on this floor alone, never mind the rest of the building. She could hear other families out there, crying for help, and Lizzy's chances of receiving it first were looking very slim.
Lizzy had never been particularly religious growing up, but in that moment she knew they needed a miracle. If not for her and her husband Rick, then for the sake of little Katie. She didn't care what deity out there was listening to her prayers, all she wanted was for someone to save her family, or at the very least, her baby girl. Lizzy was more than willing to trade anything for her daughter's survival.
As if in response to her thoughts, she heard the rumble of thunder and the pitter patter of falling rain. This should've been impossible. There hadn't been a single cloud in the predawn sky a few minutes ago, she knew this because she'd already checked. In her heart, Lizzy knew that this was something unnatural or perhaps even supernatural. It made sense, considering where her thoughts had been mere seconds ago.
Even the previous evening's weather forecast had proclaimed that that morning was supposed to be a sunny day, without a cloud in sight. None of that mattered now though, because with the rain came hope, a desperate hope for survival. Though a part of her privately wondered whether – if this was indeed divine intervention – whatever god was listening to her prayers would be willing to speed up the rescue. Especially since, the apartment's front door and surrounding walls were already beginning to blacken from the blaze.
Suddenly a powerful wind rushed through the open living room window, with enough force to nearly bowl over Rick as he held Katie to his chest. Her husband quickly stumbled aside, desperately attempting to maintain his footing and protect their child. Meanwhile Lizzy noted with some surprise, that this forceful wind blowing into her apartment, carried with it snowflakes, which rapidly cooled down the room's temperature from sweltering hot to more manageable levels. Katie would definitely appreciate that. The wind also seemed to force away all the smoke, leaving them with clean air to breath. Lizzy couldn't help but feel as if the wind was somehow aware…or perhaps alive was a better term. She didn't dwell on this however, quickly putting it out of her mind.
Soon, a large amount of snowflakes, carried by the wind, accumulated in a pile at the foot of the apartment's front door, where the snow began writhing and vibrating unnaturally, as if eager to go out into the hallway. Lizzy contemplated walking over and opening the door, but, before she could even hope to take action, something came flying through the window and then slammed into the apartment door with enough force to punch a hole clean through it. The top half of the door shattered into sawdust and splinters, exposing the room to a wave of heat and smoke as the fire tried to come through the newly made entrance. Thankfully, the wind immediately picked up in power and blew the flames and smoke back.
With the top half of the door gone, Lizzy and Rick had an unopposed view of what was undeniably an act of the supernatural. Even as the parents tried calm a wailing Katie who been terrified by the sudden noise from the door being destroyed, the couple could not hide their amazement as they watched the fire outside. It was a fire that had previously been threatening their lives, consuming their building, licking at their door and incinerating the floors and walls of their hallway. A fire that was now fighting a pitched battle against its elemental opposite.
The pile of snow at the foot of the door immediately leaped into action, doing so quite literally. Creatures of snow and ice formed midair taking all kinds of shapes, from normal animals such as eagles and jaguars to mythical creatures like hydras and dragons. Then with seemingly no hesitation these snow golems charged towards the flames, and as expected of a pile of snow being dropped on flames, smothered the fire. Of course the heat from the flames melted a lot of the snow golems, turning them into little puddles of water. However, that water simply gathered towards a single point and reformed itself into new animated creatures, only this time made from liquid water, before proceeding to attack the flames once more.
Before long, the fires throughout the burning hallway were quickly being doused by the water and snow creatures roaming it, and wherever the animated water did not reach, a supernatural blue light would instead seal away the flames. As unbelievable as it sounded, Lizzy watched with captivated attention as flames were captured by this blue light, held in place as if frozen in time before being dragged away to the source of the light. A source that Lizzy quickly realized was the very object that had so violently obliterated the top half of her front door. A giant scroll that was laying open with some indecipherable symbols and script written across it.
Lizzy and Rick watched in awe as the flames, all throughout the hallway, whenever they were touched by this light, were suddenly frozen in place and then dragged towards the scroll helplessly. It was like watching water swirling down the drain or light being pulled inwards by a black hole, no fire touched by the light could escape. Within seconds, the entire hallway was devoid of flames and smoke.
As they were still marveling at this, behind them, they heard a loud crunching sound as the entire section of wall holding their living room window begin to ominously rumble. The couple only just fully turned around in time to watch the wall as it was ripped out from the building, exposing a wall length hole in their apartment.
Lizzy honestly wanted to gawk at all the madness going on around her, but she never really got the chance to, not with all the new things continually happening around her before she could even fully process them. The woman was more than a bit overwhelmed, though surprisingly enough, this did wonders for her, at least in terms of helping her keep calm. After all she didn't have any time freak out anymore.
Which is why when a seemingly endless stream of sand grains suddenly came swooping into her apartment through the hole in the wall, like a giant serpent, Lizzy decided to just roll with it. Despite all the supernatural things she'd already seen in the past few minutes, none of it had been harmful to her or her family, so she assumed the sand was there to help. Admittedly, she was a little freaked out when the sand wrapped itself around her, Rick and Katie, before gently but swiftly plucking them off the ground and out through the hole in their apartment, and into the cold morning air. But again, she just decided to go along with the madness.
Helplessly suspended in midair, Lizzy looked around to see many of her neighbors and the people living on other floors of the building, being dragged out of their rooms, through holes made in the walls of their respective apartments. All of them held up by snaking platforms of sand that just floated in defiance of gravity, much like she and her family currently were. Under different circumstance Rick or Lizzy would have been screaming in fear and confusion due to everything going on, and many other residents were actually doing just that. However, Lizzy was already well past that, the only thing she really felt at this point was relief. Utter relief at the fact that she would get to spend one more moment with her family, one more day with her precious daughter. That and pure gratefulness to the one who had made it all possible.
Even as she and her family were gently deposited, safely on the street below, along with dozens of other families, she looked up and could see her savior as clear as day, hovering in the sky. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled around him, while snowflakes and droplets of rain fell at his command, directly toward the burning building. Giant tendrils of sand snaked through the air rapidly retrieving both survivors and casualties of the building fire, while above it all, Sage floated.
He was easily recognizable while cloaked in his radiant golden energy shroud, his hands moving swiftly like the conductor of grand orchestra, only it seemed he was guiding the elements themselves. "Thank you." Lizzy whispered, as her family was attended to by a nearby EMT. "Thank you for saving my family." She finished in an awed tone.
VvV
Regret!
Naruto was well acquainted with it, and he particularly disliked the feeling, it reminded him far too much of the horrors of the 4th Shinobi War and the many mistakes he'd made along the way. Yet, once again, Naruto found himself faced with this emotion, as his thoughts dwelled on the eight bodies he'd retrieved from the apartment fire. Eight lives he had been unable to save that morning, despite his vast and varied powers.
In hindsight, Naruto could see all the mistakes he had made and how he could've done better. Unfortunately, while he could look back on his decisions and think of better choices he could've made, what Naruto couldn't do, was go back in time and actually correct those choices. At least not yet.
With a bitter sigh, the ninja lamented to himself. 'I should've been better. It might've made a difference here.' His dark thoughts morphing his facial features into an unpleasant scowl.
The fire in the apartment building at the corner of Wade and Hamilton street, in the Outlands neighborhood of National City, had started out at a really awkward hour in the morning. The building in question was old, built in the poorer part of the city. It had been around since the 1920's, and in all that time had received very little renovation to bring it up to modern building code, which was why it was recently being partially renovated. A new fire alarm system, some serious electrical rewiring, a reworked sprinkler system, portable fire extinguishers, proper signage, a more accessible fire escape, the works. It was also because of how old the building was, and the area it was located in, that the apartments were rented out so cheaply. Meaning that the building was fairly packed with people living in it when the fire started, despite the ongoing renovations.
The Fire marshal was still investigating the cause of the fire, but Naruto suspected that the building's owner would be up to his eyeballs in legal battles and expenses, very soon. Either way, that wasn't his problem. No, for now he needed to focus on getting better at being a superhero, and to do so quickly. His fellow members of the Justice League believed in him and already viewed him as a true hero, but any one of them would've probably been able to save everyone in the building, had they been here in his place.
Initially, Naruto teleported to the site of the fire, after sensing the sheer amount of negative emotions being emitted by panicking people, through one of his Emergency Response seals. However, once he got here, he quickly realized that he was dealing with a building fire, something he had no prior experienced with, and was now at loss of how to properly handle.
In Konoha, everything was built to be quite sturdy in order to accommodate ninja's and their incredible lifestyles. In addition to that, there were special seals in every building that reacted to any fires that grew beyond a certain point, making building fires something of a rarity. The seals were deemed necessary due to the fact that the vast majority of the people from the Land of Fire had Fire Release as their primary elemental affinity. Without such countermeasures, fires would've long since spread rampantly across the land.
Furthermore, ninjas being superhuman individuals capable of a wide array of abilities, were also very unlikely to end up trapped in a building fire, or to let a fire grow large enough to become a threat in the first place. So again, this was something very new for Naruto to deal with. Even the civilian population of the Elemental Nations were generally capable enough that they wouldn't have found it difficult to either escape by jumping out the windows with little trouble or quickly putting out the fire themselves as soon as they became aware of the danger.
The simple difference in their lifestyles, plus a thousand years of chakra influenced evolution, meant that even with their chakra pathways dormant, civilians back home could casually perform feats well beyond Olympic medalists on Earth. Overall, the Humans of Earth were simply weaker than their Elemental Nations counterparts, though they made up for that in spades with Earths advanced technologies. Naruto had to take all this into account as he came up with a plan to save them.
3.7 seconds after he teleported to the scene, Naruto sped up his perception of time, stretching the next seven seconds into what felt like infinity, as he delved through his options for a possible solution. With so many different abilities, there were a lot of options that at first glance looked promising, and perhaps had he been dealing with something familiar, he would've even picked the one best suited for dealing with the problem. Unfortunately, this being his first time dealing with a building fire, even Naruto for all his power was prone to make mistakes. It was a subtle one, and one that in the grand scheme of things wasn't that bad really, but it would leave a great impact on him and influence his journey as a hero over the years to follow.
In the blink of an eye several plans to sprung to the ninja's mind. The first and most obvious being to rush into the burning building at hypersonic speeds and pull people out as fast as possible. The obvious problem with this plan, was the rather simple fact that his super-speed ability lacked the same type of protective aura that the Speedforce granted its users to keep them and those they carried safe. The reason why this was important is because Speedforce users did not harm the environment whenever they used their speed, thanks to that very same Speedforce aura. Without it or some equivalent protection, the G forces, the friction due to air resistance and other forces acting on the body would simply tear whoever or whatever was being carried at those speeds to pieces. This problem only got worse, the closer you got to moving at the speed of light, something Naruto himself was fully capable of doing.
Of course, with his chakra cloak, Naruto could easily keep himself and whatever else he covered in his cloak safe, no matter how fast he moved. However, what his chakra cloak did not do, was protect the environment when he moved at such high speeds, at least not in the same way that a Speedforce aura would. The mere sonic booms unleashed from moving at hundreds of times faster than sound, would've crumbled the burning building around him and deafened the victims of the fire, while burning floorboards would've shattered under the power of his footfalls as he moved.
Of course, there were ninjutsu chakra control techniques that could limit this damage. Stealth techniques to dampen the sound one generated while moving, protective shells of chakra that absorbed and harmlessly released the kinetic energy from the impacts of dropping several stories every time a ninja jumped above a certain height, and more. However, they required a fair amount of concentration to use, which when combined with trying to move at supersonic or worse, hypersonic speeds, while inside a weakening structure like a burning building, made the whole super-speed idea simply unfeasible for a rescue operation in his mind. The risk of him bringing down the building was simply too high for him to dare go with this idea so Naruto discarded it and moved on to a new idea.
His next thought was to use the Blue and his Water Release ninjutsu to fight the fire, because obviously water could put out most fires. However, Naruto was fully aware of the fact that he wasn't as capable as Mera when it came to manipulating water, particularly for rescue purposes. Furthermore, he needed to be extra careful while employing this power, in a burning building.
When it came down to it, Naruto could exceed Mera's water manipulation talents in certain, highly specific areas. Areas such as being able to channel far more energy into manipulating a large water mass, like a lake, in one go. However, his abilities lent themselves primarily to combat and destruction, as such, they were very inefficient when finesse and precision were necessary. Mera did not have any such limitations.
While powerful in her own right, Mera's hydrokinetic prowess really shone when it came to her precision and near absolute control of over water. Had she been present, the Xebellian Princess would've probably handled the entire situation in a heartbeat, without any problems. Her immense skill and control over water, would've allowed her to put out the fire in an instant, without accidentally destroying half the building in the process and risking any lives.
Water was heavy and the amount need to drench a building fire as bad as this one, might've collapsed some of the buildings weakened floors or even the whole building if Naruto got carried away. Yet in that situation, Mera would've just made the water float, eliminating the weight issue. She could remotely control the water from a distance with incredible precision, and would've simultaneously doused the fire while safely extracting everyone from the building, without ever setting foot inside. Best of all, she would've done all that in the span of seconds, because the redheaded water princess was simply that good, and she was only going to get better in future. Naruto on the other hand, just did not have that kind of control…yet.
Potentially, by deepening his connection to the Blue, Naruto could replicate anything Mera could do. However, she had years of experience over him in terms of using hydrokinesis, and as someone who had lived the greater part of their life in water, Mera naturally used it in a way that was completely different from how Water release ninjutsu was traditionally used.
To begin with, Water Release ninjutsu was primarily meant for combat between ninjas, not for delicate fire and rescue operations in flimsy buildings. It was also mostly deployed while on land, by beings who primarily lived on land. Due to this, the mindset employed behind the creation and use of water ninjutsu, was one that was geared towards violence and precise destruction. As such, using Water Release ninjutsu to flood the building was simply out of the question. Never mind the fact that there was also the risk of water getting into power outlets or touching live wires, and then electrocuting people. Without Mera's near absolute control, Naruto could've made things a lot worse, and as such, it was a risk he wasn't prepared to take. Quickly setting his second plan aside, he moved on to the next option.
Teleportation? On the surface, that seemed like a winning solution, except on its own it ran into the problem of him needing to be in two places at the same time. Naturally, Naruto of all people would've had an advantage here with his shadow clones. While some clones teleported people to safety and healed them from burns, smoke inhalation problems and other complications, his remaining clones would've continued through the building to both deal with the fire itself and search for survivors to rescue. So teleportation and shadow clones was the best solution.
Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment – and looking back on it – Naruto felt ashamed to admit it, but he was in too much of a rush at the time to truly consider using both teleportation and shadow clones at the same time. Despite the fact that time was effectively at a standstill to his sped up perception, Naruto had already fallen into the trap of rushing to do deal with the problem, instead of carefully assessing all his available options. In short, he was basically beginning to panic due to having no experience with building fires, and it was only the sheer breadth of his experience as a ninja that allowed him to form a halfway decent plan in the end. At this point, most rookies would've completely screwed up, thankfully Naruto didn't.
Instead the ninja simply moved on to a new plan, which was followed by several more plans as each idea he came up with had its own pros and cons, and was generally cast aside. Eventually the use of clones would come up, as he consider sending them into the building in a zerg-style rush, to rescue everyone all at once, but that plan too was discarded because of the narrowness of the corridors.
In the end, Naruto settled on using a creative mix of the power of the White, sand infused with Shukaku's Magnet Release chakra, a few Fire Sealing Method fuinjutsu scrolls, Six Paths Sage Mode and the power of the Blue, in order to deal with the burning building. Yet despite all this and his great success in saving well over a hundred people from the burning building, he still failed to save everyone, and this left him feeling like he had ultimately failed.
Hindsight was twenty-twenty, or so the saying went. It was easy for him to look back and see his mistakes, but it took a bit more for him to understand why he made those mistakes. As a newcomer to city life and the protector of such a large city, Naruto felt a certain amount of pressure to live up to the standards that his fellow superheroes were setting in their own chosen cities across the US. The result of this was that, he ended up rushing through his options, looking for a perfect solution to handle an unfamiliar problem in a way comparable to something Superman or Green Lantern might've done with their greater experience.
The problem was that this was simply doomed to fail. Aside from the fact that the very act of rushing through his options, also blinded him to several potential solutions, Naruto also forgot something very simple and very important. He forgot that no one was perfect and eventually everybody needed help, which was why it was okay to ask for it. It was a simple lesson, and one that he knew very well, yet had somehow forgotten today.
Either mixing shadow clones with teleportation or simply teleporting back home to grab Mera and have her deal with the fire, would've increased everyone's survival chances significantly. However, the latter option had the added advantage of letting him play a support role, which would've given Mera the center stage and allowed her to shine as she made her big debut in the city.
With her control over water, all Naruto would've needed to do was use the Blue and the White to bring her water from the air and nearby ocean, while Mera did all the precision work. At most, he would've locate survivors by sensing their life-forces and pointing them out to Mera, but he could've comfortably limited his involvement, so that she could shine. Mera would've handled the building fire in seconds, and the whole thing would've made for a very memorable introduction to the city, establishing her as one of its two primary protectors alongside himself.
With his presence at the scene, it would've been viewed as a public sign of his support of Mera, and a clear indicator of their partnership. It was a perfect opportunity that Naruto had allowed to slip through his fingers, because he hadn't even considered the possibility of asking for help until just now.
'And that's my real problem, isn't it?' He bitterly thought to himself.
He was trying to protect this city on his own, despite the fact that both him and Mera were its protectors. Sure he was busy training her in ninjutsu and more advanced applications of her hydrokinesis, and as a result had moreorless sidelined her from hero duty in the city for now. However, that didn't change the fact that he could've called on her help at any point in time, yet he didn't. It seemed that on a subconscious level, he saw himself as the sole hero responsible for National City – an extremely arrogant notion – and as a result, when he actually needed help, Naruto failed to even consider her as an option for support. Even when Mera was in fact his best option in this situation.
It was wrong, and this kind of thinking was far too much like the latter days of the 4th Shinobi World War for his liking, particularly his time battling Kaguya. Everything back then had been on him. With Sasuke incapacitated, and him trapped with Kaguya in a far off dimension, fighting not only for his life but the lives of everyone in the Elemental Nations, there was no other choice but to take the world on his shoulders. No choice but to either win or let everything he cherished be destroyed by her.
After coming to this world, and all the time he'd spent with Nimue, Diana, Mera and the other members of the Justice League, Naruto had thought that he had left this way of thinking behind. Earth was a new start for him and he had made some spectacular friends on whom he could truly rely on. There was no need to take the whole weight on of the world on his shoulders alone, yet, in the end he still acted as if it was all on him. Just the thought of his actions pissed him off, his past was rearing its ugly head it seemed.
Taking a deep breath to forcefully calm himself, Naruto allowed the light drizzle he'd created earlier, to wash over his skin and soak his hair and clothes. Basking in the icy feeling of the rain, Naruto considered what he needed to do next…no, he knew exactly what he needed to do. Without change he would never be able to move forward in this world, so Naruto need to let go of the war and all the bitter feelings that came with it. Not to forget about it, but rather to move on from it and the things he had needed to become in order to save his homeworld. He might've lost everything from that world, but he was given a second chance on this one, and he shouldn't throw it away. With a shudder, Naruto released the breath he'd been holding.
He had failed today, he'd made a critical error in judgement and it quite possibly cost the lives of eight people, but he'd do better next time. Looking at the people he'd rescued below, Naruto could see how they were looking at him with wonder and adoration for what he'd accomplished here. He could feel their awe for him with his empathic abilities, as easily someone could look up at the sky and tell that it was blue. However, Naruto did not feel he deserved any of it…not yet at least, but he would make sure he became a hero worthy of them. For their sakes and his own.
VvV
New Troy, Metropolis City, during reconstruction...
"Excuse me miss Lane, may I borrow a moment of your time?"
Lois Lane looked up from her laptop with a start at the unexpected interruption. She had been in the midst of typing back a furious email to Perry White, her Editor-in-Chief at the Daily Planet Newspaper, when her visitor suddenly announced himself.
Lois had come down to the island of New Troy, that morning, in order to see how the reconstruction efforts were going. Specifically, to see the progress that had been made in rebuilding the Daily Planet building, which had been among the many buildings leveled during the Apokolips Invasion.
She had also hoped to use her time here, to get in some work on her latest news article about Superman. It was to be one of the last pieces she would ever write for the Daily Planet, before it was completely subsumed by Glenn Morgan's Galaxy Media Network, which had bought out the newspaper company a year earlier. Needless to say, Lois intended to make the article quite memorable. It was also for this reason that Lois all but yelped when her hyper-focused mind was interrupted in her self-assigned task.
There was no mistaking who the man in front of her was, not when Sage was currently floating a few feet off the ground like some otherworldly god, his body covered in his trademark golden glowing energy. Lois was glad for this though, it made recognizing Sage a lot easier. All the other members of the Justice League had distinct costumes with easily identifiable symbols, yet for Sage, his glowing energy shroud seemed to be the only thing he had resembling a superhero costume, and he only activated it about half the time. Most of the time, he showed up to incidents and events, dressed like a normal person, making it quite difficult to identify him without his golden energy shroud active.
That's not to say that he wasn't handsome and distinguished enough that he couldn't be identified on sight by his regular appearance, no, he absolutely could. There were no doubt people around the world who had already memorized every detail about his face and could spot him in a crowd of blue eyed blondes.
However, there were exponentially more people who couldn't identify him so easily, which wasn't helped at all by the millions of blue eyed blond fans all across the U.S – never mind the rest of the world – that were trying to imitate his appearance. The end result, was a lot of fake videos and pictures posted online of people pretending to be Sage in his regular appearance. Though very few people could ever hope to get their hair done in the same outrageously spiky fashion that seemed to be the default hairstyle of the "real" Sage. Getting his hair to defy gravity like that had to be a superpower all unto itself.
So far, the golden energy shroud Sage created, along with the myriad of other abilities he seemed to possess, were the closest thing to solid proof that any blue eyed blond with whisker marks on each cheek – that showed up to a crime scene or disaster, whether in real life or in an online video, was in fact the real Sage and not just another imposter. Either that or him simply appearing with another member of the Justice League, because surely the members of the League would recognize one of their own.
Taking a moment to recover from the surprise, as well as to nervously brush off a few wrinkles that had appeared on her dress shirt and pants while she was working, Lois subtly gave Sage a once over. She had never had the privilege of personally meeting or interviewing Sage, who for a member of the newly formed Justice League, seemed to avoid the media almost religiously. There was lots of online speculation about the man, and the only bits of truth she had on him, where things that Superman had relayed to her in confidence. Things that she simply couldn't publish in a news article without breaking Kal-El's trust…nor did she ever desire to.
That said, Sage was someone new, mysterious and exciting. The whole world wanted to know about his origin, his abilities, his goals, his worldview and everything else he would be willing to tell them. Unfortunately for them, Sage had proven to be just as good as Batman at not being found until he wanted to be. The latest news anyone had really heard about him, was that he was currently residing in National City as the city's new protector. He was already being credited by every news source in the city for stopping a string of crimes and disasters in the region, over the last few months.
Catherine Jane Grant, better known simply as Cat Grant – one of Lois's rival reporters at the Planet, had called dibs on all Sage related stories, and was already planning on heading down to National City to scoop herself an interview with him. Lois even believed that the determined woman would somehow succeed in the endeavor, she was talented enough. So it was no surprise that Lois found herself surprised that Sage would directly approach her all of a sudden, after being so difficult to pin down. On a side note, Lois did not overlook the fact that Sage was quite attractive in his own right, though not quite as handsome as Superman in her opinion.
The golden energy around the superhuman dissipated as he slowly levitated down to the floor, allowing Lois to clearly see his sun-kissed blonde hair and vibrant blue eyes. Sage was wearing a white dress shirt, untucked, with the top two buttons left open and no tie around his neck, exposing a bit of his deliciously muscular chest. A green gem of unknown composition tethered to a leather string sat around his neck. Meanwhile, with his sleeves neatly rolled half-way up his forearms, Lois could see odd almost tribal tattoo-like markings made from unknown characters, circling each of his wrist and going up his arms, almost to his elbows. He wore dark blue – nearly black – faded jeans, a leather belt with a silvery buckle, and on his feet, dark gray hiking boots.
'Pretty handsome indeed.' She mentally approved with a slight blush, which she quickly fought down. "You're Sage right." She finally responded after forcing herself into the professional mindset she used when interviewing people. Now wasn't the time for her mind to wander to places it really shouldn't, or to drool over superheroes.
"Yes, I am." He replied with a disarming smile. "I'm glad you recognized me, that will make my reason for coming to you a lot simpler to understand." He casually admitted, ratcheting up her curiosity on this sudden visit.
Snapping her mini-laptop shut and placing it inside her handbag, her email all but forgotten, Lois asked. "I don't suppose this has something to do with Superman? In any case, how may I help you?"
Sage did not reply immediately, instead gesturing with his right hand to a pile of rubble, which instantly began to fuse together and change its form into an armchair with simple forest and wave-like decorations engraved into it, before he promptly plopped himself down on it without a care. Lois winced at the thought of dropping so forcefully into such an unyielding stone chair, while privately marveling at the casual display of power. It had taken her close to thirty minutes of digging through the rubble of a destroyed restaurant, to find a useable outdoor chair for her to sit on and get to work. Sage only took three seconds to make a simple albeit beautiful looking chair out of that very same pile of rubble. On closer inspection, perhaps calling it a stone throne would be more appropriate, it certainly looked like something from a bygone age.
Finally, once they were both comfortable or as comfortable as they could get under the circumstances, with all the noise from construction equipment around them, Sage took out a piece of paper with weird scraggy markings drawn across its surface and slapped it down on one of the arms of his stone throne. Immediately all the noise from their surrounding disappeared, leaving them in complete and unnatural silence. If not for the fact that she could hear her own breathing, and the rustle of Sage's clothes as he shifted in his seat to get more comfortable, Lois would've assumed that all sound was being completely cancelled, but apparently they were in a bubble of some kind. It was still an eerie experience for the reporter, but not something she couldn't overcome.
Instead of focusing on the silence, the Pulitzer prize winning reporter merely raised an eyebrow at Sage's actions and coolly asked. "What was that?" She could see men working construction across the street from them, and vehicles moving while a half-destroyed building in the distance was forcefully collapsed in an explosion, but none of the sound seemed to make it back to her and Sage.
"I just wanted to give us a bit of peace and quiet, so we could talk. I'd prefer not to have to compete with all the machinery in the city and the good men doing their work, just to be heard. It wouldn't be very fair…to them." He joked, though Lois wasn't so convinced. Even Superman had confessed that he had no idea how many powers Sage actually had, so perhaps super-shouting was one of them. "Of course, if this makes you uncomfortable, I can let the noise back in?" Sage kindly offered, to which Lois shook her head in refusal. This was ideal.
The Daily Planet's star reporter hadn't missed the fact that his answer was devoid of any specifics about exactly what it was he had done to create this silence. She also concluded that this little bubble of silence didn't just keep sound out, but likely kept sound in, which in Metropolis meant that Sage was potentially trying to keep their conversation private from Superman. She had no solid evidence of this being the case, and even if it was, Lois had no context for why Sage would do so, but her instincts as a reporter where telling her that this was exactly what was happening. Choosing not push for answers to these question, Lois decided to listen to what the hero had to say first and build a rapport with Sage, before making any decisions. Answers to the many questions revolving around him could come later.
"No, this is preferable." She admitted as she got comfortable. "Thank you for your consideration Mr. Sage." She said with a smile, already knowing he probably wouldn't like that form of address, which would in turn provide him the opportunity to correct her and set up a preferred method of address.
Sage chuckled as like clockwork he responded. "Just Sage please. I've never been very big on formalities Miss Lane, at least when it comes to me."
"As you wish, Sage." She said with smile at achieving her goal. "Now, how about we get into meat and bones of why you sought me out?" She continued getting right to the point. Her mind completely in reporter mode. Once she knew his reasons for coming to her, she could either turn this meeting into a conversation or interview. His next words would decide that.
Nodding, Sage began by saying. "I've spent most of today wandering around Metropolis with Superman, he's been giving me the grand tour of your wonderful city…well, at least all the parts that we didn't end up destroying while trying to save the world from Darkseid. Sorry about all the collateral damage by the way." He looked genuinely apologetic about that and somewhat embarrassed, but he shouldn't have; they saved the whole world. A little collateral damage was a small price to pay for humanities salvation.
With a shrug Lois said. "It was necessary. Even Superman believed so."
People were not about to blame the Justice League for any of the destruction. Ignoring the fact that Sage had personally teleported millions of people to safety, there were also the testimonies of the many victims that had been abducted to Apokolips. Testimonies of the truly horrific experiences they went through or witnessed while in that hellish dimension. Not everyone who was rescued from Apokolips, came back in one piece. A handful of people had bits of Apokoliptan hell-technology grafted into them, due to being rescued in the midst of being converted into Parademons.
Star labs was handling the study and rehabilitation of these individuals, with the help of Cyborg, or so Superman had told her. However, their testimonies of the experience had been made public to the world, and they were grateful to the League for coming to their rescue. No, there was a reason the Justice League were considered the super stars and media darlings of the whole world at the moment. Some fates were far worse than death, and the Justice League had certainly saved a great many people from one such fate.
Sage nodded and replied with a sad smile. "Indeed. Anyway, Superman was showing me how things work here, and how he operates as a Superhero in a city as large as Metropolis. Now that I'm operating out of National City, alongside Mera, I felt I could use some pro tips from someone who's been established as a superhero for a lot longer than either of us. So we talked about superhero stuff, and then one topic led into another while we flew around, until Superman said some stuff about the Daily Planet, which caught my interest."
"Really?" She asked, her eyes narrowing slightly and a grin spread across her face. Her news reporter instincts had been tingling ever since Sage began talking, but she had deliberately chosen not interrupt. She would break down everything he said first, and then begin asking her questions. It was a good thing she had an excellent memory.
"Oh yeah." Sage nodded with grin. "He thinks very highly of 'you folk', as he put it, though he also seems to dislike Morgan Edge…like a lot, and I kind of get why." Sage said with a grimace. "Anyway, that's not important. A lot of things came up that were about the Planet while we chatted away, but one thing stuck out to me, and it was what he said about you."
"Me?" She asked, getting a bad feeling about where this was going.
Something must have shown on her face because the spiky haired blond snickered before shamelessly admitting. "Superheroes gossip too; you know."
Lois could feel the heat in her cheeks even as she nervously asked. "Do I even want to know what you two were saying about me?"
This merely seemed to amuse Sage who chuckled as he replied. "Probably not! Though I promise you it was nothing bad. Like I said, Superman holds the highest respect for you Daily Planet people. He has respected you all for a very long time in fact, and you in particular are someone he considers a very dear friend, Lois." Sage assured with a soft smile.
Despite Sage's kind words and the thrill she could feel in her heart as he explained all this to her, Lois couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed that Superman only viewed her as a friend. She'd always felt like there was a bit more to their unique relationship than just friendship. Sure Superman was constantly saving her from all kinds of high risk situations, while also giving her every single interview she asked for. An outsider might've looked at Superman and wondered why he put up with her risky ventures, because surely he had to have been growing tired of her antics. However, with how often he came to her rescue, Lois had always felt like there was something special and deeply personal between them. In some ways, the whole thing was almost like a game of insanely high risk flirting between the two. So to hear that Superman merely thought of her as a friend, was frankly kind of heartbreaking for her.
Oblivious to her emotions, Sage continued dropping the bombs. "And as your friend, Superman was wondering when you were finally going to notice that Clark Kent has a crush on you."
If she had been drinking any kind of liquid in that moment, Lois would've either performed the most spectacular spit-take in all of human history, or alternatively choked to death right there on the spot. However, since she wasn't drinking anything, her heard snapped in Sage's direction so fast that even the superhuman winced, and she all but bellowed. "I'm sorry what now?!"
"Clark Kent." He repeated slowly and clearly, for emphasis. "Even for someone such as myself who is new to your city, it's pretty obvious that that man has a crush on you. Well, it kind of just slipped out while Superman was talking and I don't think he even meant to say it, but he thinks that because you are so focused on your work and on the idea of the Man of Steel – which was something that you created, mind you – that you are missing out on something special. Specifically missing the pretty obvious signals Clark has been sending you. Superman's words, not mine." He finished with a grin.
Lois's mouth open, then snapped shut, when words failed her. She took a breath and tried to think of how to respond to this hero who had apparently been snooping in her private life with Superman, only to come up with nothing. A real wordsmith she was turning out to be today. Eventually with a sigh of defeat she replied. "I…I don't know what to say honestly."
Cocking his head sideways, almost managing to look confused in the process, and Lois Lane couldn't help but find it cute for some inexplicable reason. Sage asked her. "Is there something specific you are supposed to say to that? Because it's not illegal for you to take your time and process a revelation like this suddenly being dumped on you, and then make an informed decision at a later point." As he finished, he gave her a cheeky wink that seemed to both infuriate Lois and make her blush. All her instincts were saying that something wasn't right here, but her emotions were already all over the place at this point and she need time to think and sort them out.
"Why are you even telling me any of this?" She asked, feeling something inside her twisting in an unpleasant manner.
Again, instead of giving an immediate reply, Sage simply looked up at the blue sky, as if seeing something up there that mere mortals like her could not perceive. Taking a moment, he finally replied in an almost wistful tone. "Because you matter to Superman, Lois Lane, and he's one of the few friends I have."
It was honestly quite touching to hear Sage say that about Superman, and kind of sad. In any other situation she would've used her reporter talents to pull on that thread and dig up the story she sensed there. Unfortunately, Lois was currently a ball of raw emotions that had been stirred up by that same damn blonde sitting across from her. Most notable of these emotions being the embarrassment that came with knowing you where the topic of superhero gossip, and the hurt she was feeling at Superman merely seeing her as a friend. Thus she was no longer thinking straight.
Lois had hoped for so long that Superman would finally take ten seconds to look at her, to truly look at her and give her a chance. Sure, she wasn't Wonder Woman or Mera, she had neither their abilities nor their mythical beauty, but Lois was pretty confident in her own looks. Yet Superman had never so much as looked at her inappropriately, not even to take a sneak peek at her breasts…like ever. The mere fact that this was also from a person who had X-ray vision, and could see things as far away as the surface of Mars, seriously stung her pride as a woman.
'Am I simply not attractive to him?' She bitterly thought, with her head lowered and shoulders slumped. It was a legitimate possibly seeing as he was an alien.
"Superman cares about everyone." She muttered in a distraught voice, more out of lingering hurt than anything logical. "I am not special." She added in a whisper under her breath. It was not something meant for anyone else to hear, yet Sage had. She remembered too late that Superman had mentioned something about Sage having enhanced hearing.
The chuckle the blonde gave upon hearing this came out sounding more like incredulous laughter than him merely laughing at her misery. When she looked up and saw the look of disbelief in his eyes, Lois couldn't help but feel like she said something very wrong.
"Okay, I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear you say that." Sage began, his posture and demeanor changing as he straightened in his seat, looking more like royalty as he did so. Even the light around them seemed to change in order to better frame him, as the raw charisma he exuded began draw her in. "You're Lois freaking Lane, one of the Daily Planet's top reporters, internationally renowned for several groundbreaking stories, including the Pulitzer prize winning article that exposed Superman's extraterrestrial origin to the world. But you didn't stop there did you? No, you went above and beyond that, and humanized Superman, allowing the whole world to see the truth about him and who he really is. Thanks to you, Superman gained the trust of the people of Earth, and the chance to truly inspire everyone, especially other super-powered individuals who would come to follow in his footsteps and become superheroes and protectors of the innocent in their own right.
"Since then you've constantly been publishing articles about him, giving the world a continuous accessible window into the life of Superman and his true nature as both a person and a symbol of hope. That alone would've made you special to him, Lois, but you're a gifted reporter, a passionate young woman, very attractive, and according to him, always striving to do the right thing. I personally don't understand why you think 'he' of all people wouldn't think you are special?"
Lois felt her cheeks heat up at being called very attractive by Sage, along with all the other compliments he was doling on her. However, it was the confirmation from Sage that Superman viewed her as special that really mattered to her, or perhaps the way that Sage said it that convinced her that he was speaking the truth. The incredulousness he expressed in his voice made her own self-doubts suddenly seem very silly.
"However, just so that we can allay your fears and doubts." Sage continued without missing a beat. "Let's strip away all the glitz and glamour surrounding the persona of Lois Lane the superstar reporter who makes headlines that shake the world over, and rend you down to the basics of who you really are. In the end you're still going to be Lois Lane, someone that Superman sees as his friend, and someone that he wants to protect." With each word Sage confidently spoke, Lois felt something within her shudder. She'd never really thought about the impact she had on the world as she told Superman's story, or of his opinion on the matter. All she had ever done was try to pursue the story to the best of her ability and tell the truth to the public.
Sage's tone turned softer as he continued. "You're special Lois, and yes he cares about everyone, he wouldn't be Superman if he didn't. However, while he might care about everyone in the world, not everyone in the world is his friend. In fact, he probably only has a few people he considers true friends, and among those, you rank very high up Lois Lane. I personally don't really know you, but I could hear it in the way Superman talks about you, the fondness in his voice was as clear to me as the clouds in the sky right now or the construction workers around us now." Sage assured as he gestured around them, the action making her feel warm and fuzzy inside. It wasn't necessarily what she wanted to hear, and she doubted that Sage would suddenly say something like 'I was kidding about Clark Kent, Superman's the one who has a crush on you', but it was still nice hear.
"Really? You're not just saying that to flatter me." Lois mumbled. At this point, she felt a little too messed up emotionally speaking, to deal with any of this professionally, and she couldn't bring herself to care if Sage saw her insecurities laid bare. Lois knew that she would regret this in the morning and would probably want to strangle the blond across from her, but for now….
"Wouldn't dream of it." He smiled innocently. "I'm not stupid enough to mess with a lady who has the ear of the world, and whose writing can tank my reputation in a heartbeat." Sage joked, making her chuckle, though he frankly didn't really seem worried about his reputation in the slightest. Growing serious once again, he continued. "If Superman considers you his friend, then you are his friend, and there is nothing you need to do to deserve it. Sure you did some really cool stuff that helped him out a lot and made his life easier, but it's not like someone else couldn't have done the exact same thing. No, he made an active choice to care about you and consider you his friend, which considering he is as far as we know, the most powerful being on the planet, Superman's friendship is something special in and of itself. I'm willing to bet my Ramen that he's told you secrets in confidence that he would never have told any other people, things that you haven't even published in your newspaper, because he trusted you to keep those things secret. Well, all that trust is part of your friendship with him, and not everyone has that. It might have been born out of some logical reason or a completely illogical one, but somehow you formed a solid enough bond with him that he can trust you. So why worry about it, shouldn't you just enjoy it while it last? You're special to him so suck it up, after all, you're Lois Lane damn it!"
"Yeah, you're right. Thanks Sage." She said with a small grin. Lois found herself liking the way he had just 'you're Lois Lane damn it', she was even considering making it her new morning mantra. It made her feel good, and returned a semblance of the confidence she had felt earlier when Sage first approached her.
Puffing up his chest in an exaggerated manner, the blond announced in a voice that was just dripping with false pride. "Of course I am. I wouldn't be much of a sage if I wasn't."
Lois snorted upon hearing that. A joke that was no doubt meant to raise her spirit, and had accomplished its goal. Facing him, she asked. "Is that why you chose your Superhero name?"
"That is a really long story, with several stuff that I really don't want to get into right now. Besides, we've gone way off topic." He said deliberately changing the topic. There was a real story there, and had she not been feeling the way she currently was, Lois would've done her best to pursue it. Unfortunately, she couldn't really bring herself to care at the moment.
"Right. What was the topic again?" She asked. She had intended to possibly make this an interview, but as soon as he opened his mouth Sage made a mess of her emotionally, like a terrible storm.
With a Cheshire grin, Sage replied. "Clark Kent and his crush on you."
"Right." She mumbled as she felt her cheeks burn. Thinking back on all the times she had caught Clark staring at her, maybe there was something to what Sage was saying about him having a crush on her. Lois had always passed off his behavior, as that of an awkward farmboy from a small town where everybody knew each other, suddenly thrust into the rush and excitement of city life. Everything would've obviously been confusing and fascinating to him, so she had never really bothered to think about the looks he gave her, plus she was always so focused on Superman. Now though, she could see how those looks might have been Clark crushing hard on her, poor boy. She supposed she felt quite flattered by that, Clark was kind of hot in that Kansas farmboy way, but she wasn't really sure what she felt for Clark or if she truly felt anything.
"Relax." Sage's voice interrupted her thoughts. "You don't have to act on this information. The only reason I told you any of this was because of how much Superman cares about you. However, Supes is also the kind of guy who despite his abilities to see, hear and perceive so much of the world around him, actually respects peoples' privacy…especially your privacy. He wouldn't have approached you like this and told you any of this, because he wouldn't want to influence your choices in any way." Sage admitted, his expression turning slightly sad as he did so.
"But you did." Lois pointed out, immediately catching on.
Sage nodded and with a grim expression replied. "Much like Superman, I care about everyone Lois, including you and I genuinely want you to be happy and have a good life." He confessed, before looking her in the eye – and Lois felt some kind of fiery resolve form within the hero – as he spoke his next words. "However, unlike Superman, you and I are not friends. I'd like to change that soon, but for now, for just this once it allows me to be an insensitive bastard and say the things Superman would never be able say to you, out of his great respect for you, despite how dearly he wished he could.
"I don't know what you will choose to do with what I dropped in your lap and you are not obligated to do anything with it if you don't want to. You have freewill and we are not gods to order you around, no matter how powerful we are. Exercise it as you wish and do what you want. All I ask is that you let Clark Kent down gently if he asks you out and you choose to reject him. I'm sure he's been working up the nerve to ask someone as amazing as you, out on a date, so me coming here and dropping all this on you, probably screwed over his plans. Clark probably won't be a fan of me once he finds out about this, and neither will Superman. Anyway, I've said my piece and now I need to get out of here, Superman's probably figured out what I am up to by now, and I'd rather not be anywhere near Metropolis when he learns the finer details. See you around, Lois!" With a lazy salute, Sage suddenly teleported away together with the paper tag that was keeping the sound out their space. Only his ornate stone throne remained behind, and Lois briefly considered the merits of either taking it home or selling it to a museum as revenge for the mess he'd dumped on her.
Left alone in the wrecked streets of Metropolis, Lois sat contemplating everything that Sage had just said, especially her own feelings in regards to Superman and to certain dorky farm-boy turned reporter. It would be years before she found out the truth behind Naruto's reason for visiting that day, and the consequences would be felt for thousands of years to come.
VvV
The Mansion, National City outskirts…
"Is there any particular reason why you currently have a black eye, Naruto? One which isn't healing at your usual regeneration speeds." Mera asked with a raised brow, as she observed Naruto who was lying down on one of the sofas in the living room with an icepack over the aforementioned right eye.
His hair was wet from a recent shower and he was wearing simple black sweatpants and a long sleeved burnt orange top with some heavy metal band name on it. Mera couldn't help but feel that the long sleeves were there to hide other injuries from view, though she decided not to say anything on the matter. It wasn't every day that Naruto came home looking all beat up, and if someone had done this to him, there had to be a reason why he didn't call for back up. His every action seemed to have several motives behind them.
Wincing from the simple movement of turning to face her, Naruto managed to give the sexy redhead a grin as he replied. "Don't worry about the black eye, I kind of had it coming. I pulled a super epic prank on Superman and he wasn't too thrilled with me about it." The blonde admitted unrepentantly, then with a low chuckle that sounded more and more like amazement with each second, he continued. "Actually, the Man of Steel blew a gasket when he found out about what I did! He grabbed me and dragged me to the middle of the Sahara desert for a little session of full contact sparring, but only after first shooting me with an alien time altering weapon that slowed down my regeneration speeds to that of a normal human…rather unfair of him. Which is why I still have visible scrapes and bruises." For emphasis, Naruto gestured to the dark ring around his left eye.
"Are you going to be okay?" Mera asked, a note of concern in her voice, as she put away the laptop she was using to watch YouTube videos online. It was something Naruto encouraged her to do in her spare time, to help better familiarize herself with the surface world and its people. As well as a way to stave off boredom when Naruto was out.
Smiling at her, he replied. "Don't worry about me. This is nothing."
Closing her eyes as she sighed in relief at his nonchalant answer, Mera felt her concerns evaporate. If Naruto wasn't making a big deal of the fact that he had somehow pissed off Superman enough to get beaten up by their friend, then there was probably nothing to worry about. Unknown to her, Naruto took that moment when her eyes closed to just taken in her appearance and truly appreciate the redheaded goddess's beauty…black eye be damned.
… … …
Mera was wearing incredibly short, blue denim shorts that exposed her long sexy legs, and a beige T-shirt with its sleeves cut off, that was a size or two too big. Her hair was braided and held up in a messy but stylish bun that she'd no doubt done herself, and she wore…reading glasses. Naruto did a double take at seeing that last item.
'What the hell does she even need glasses for, when her eyesight is so good it can see through the murky ocean depths?' He wondered to himself. Not that the glasses made her look any less devastatingly attractive. Had Naruto Uzumaki never met Jiraiya of the Sannin and been taken under the Super-pervert's wing, he would've undoubtedly been left drooling at this incredibly sexy sight.
Looking the side as she opened her eyes again, the ninja continued. "The time altering effect of the alien weapon is only going to continue affecting my regeneration for the next twenty hours, so I will be fine in under a day. Superman just didn't want me healing instantly from our little…match. He's surprisingly vicious when he wants to be, but fair is fair, great pranks often invite great retribution. I figured that out as a kid." Looking back towards her, it was suddenly a lot harder not to stare at Mera now that he had taken note of her appearance. It took an almost colossal amount of willpower just to keep himself focused on her eyes, instead of letting both them and his mind wander downwards. "That said, even if my natural healing has been slowed. I have more than one way to heal." He finally assured her, while tapping into the power of the Red, both as a means of healing and a distraction from the beautiful Xebellian princess. His only other option would've been a very cold shower.
The Red, was a natural energy field that governed all animal life on the planet, was not something Naruto was fond of using. When normal heroes and villains with the ability to connect to the power of the Red, did so, it was generally for the purpose of tapping into the abilities of specific animals out in the wild, either living or extinct. Naruto however, preferred to use the exotic energy to directly affect every cell in his body and speed up his regeneration to an almost ludicrous degree.
Theoretically, once mastered, he could use this ability to regrow his entire body from only a handful of cells, in the unlikely event that his body was ever destroyed. Normally this wasn't practical because a newly created body would end up a mental blank slate, due to all the neurons and synapses in the brain also being brand new. In short even if he could recreate his or someone else's body, that body wouldn't retain any of its previous memories. Thankfully, chakra had the ability to store information independently of the biological body, which was how the chakra ghosts or beings like Tailed Beasts could remember things that happened in the past. So this wasn't a limitation for him.
That said, there was a reason why he preferred the White, the Green, the Blue and just about any other type of Nature energy outside of the Grey and the Black, to using the Red. Despite the potential path to biological immortality it presented, the Red also tapped into the unified life-force of all animal life, past and present. And with that came a certain wildness.
In small amounts and for something easy, such as replicating the power of a charging rhino, the strength of an elephant or the speed of a cheetah, the Red wasn't so bad to use. Though it still gave its user the ferocity of the animal in question that they chose to use. Nevertheless, this often worked to the user's advantage, seeing as most situations where these powers were used, were also violent, and the added ferocity actually helped.
Naruto on the other hand, primarily used it on himself for healing, and at such a fundamental level that instead of getting just a little bit of the Red's 'wild aura', he ended up enduring the full brunt of its animalistic effects. Every animal that had ever lived and still lived, had been touched by this power and all of that bestial nature, all those feral instincts, the aggression and the wildness, it was all deeply imprinted into the power of the Red. So whenever he used the power too deeply, Naruto was in turn taking all of that into himself.
Put simply, it was the weight of the entire animal world's instincts pressed down on his consciousness, constantly trying to force him to devolve into a more beast-like way of thinking and conduct. Not so much that he lost his intelligence and was reduced to a dumb brute, or worse an animal, but enough that it inhibited his strictly regimented and disciplined fighting style. Which was why he disliked using it. He wasn't the smartest guy out there, but he was still pretty intelligent and he valued that intellect, even more so now that he come to a technologically advanced world such as Earth.
The other reason he didn't like it was because of what it reminded him, namely back as a teenager whenever he lost control of Kurama's chakra. Despite the great friends they became later, as well as fully master control of Kurama's chakra, there was no arguing that Naruto had hurt some of his most precious people whenever he lost control after 4 tails of chakra were released and he donned a version two cloak. He wasn't sure if he would or even could completely lose control like that when using the Red too deeply, but the feeling of losing control to foreign animal instincts was just too similar for Naruto to ever truly feel comfortable with the Red.
During the battle against Darkseid, he got lucky because that was essentially a death match and when he tapped into the Red, it responded well to his intent to kill the New god. Something about trying to kill that particular god focused the wildness in a way that wasn't distracting, so he didn't really pay it much heed. The Red had never felt quite like that in all the times he had tried to tap into it since. Furthermore, the mere thought of losing his ability to distinguish friend from enemy and attacking the first thing in sight, much like control of Kurama's chakra, was something that kept him up late on some nights. It was his greatest fear when it came to using the Red, yet today, not only would it let him heal from the effects of Superman's pesky toy, but it was just the tool he need to distract himself from the redheaded beauty front of him.
Ordinarily, when he used the Red to regenerate, it was in conjunction with his own prodigious healing abilities, and so his regeneration was boosted to a level that seemed to be almost instant or at most take mere seconds, depending on the severity of the injury. Today was different, a black eye wasn't the most debilitating injury ever, Karui had beaten him far worse when she Samui and Omoi had come to Konoha for information on Sasuke. That said, with his healing speed reduced to that of a normal human, the Red was only able to boost it enough so that it took over a full minute before the black eye and the concussion he'd been keeping hidden, completely vanished.
… … …
Much like she'd seen him do on a number of occasions, the worst of which was during the battle against Darkseid, Naruto healed at a visible rate before her. In no time at all, he was as good as new, and after releasing a staggered breath, as if pushing away some unseen pressure on his mind, he gave Mera a triumphant look and a thumbs up.
Sighing at her partner and friend's childish behavior, Mera instead asked. "So what exactly did you do to Superman exactly? Prank or not, he isn't the type of person to just attack anybody, much less a friend and colleague."
Naruto scratched the back of his head in that cute kind of way he always did when he was flustered, confused or embarrassed before replying. "Okay, so you know how I said it was a prank? In all honesty, it was a bit more than that. Under other circumstances it really would've just been a prank, a somewhat mean-spirited one, but a prank nonetheless. However, this was…well, I'd like to say that it was in his best interest but who am I to judge that." The ninja admitted, before continuing after a momentary pause. "Nevertheless, I did it for his sake and for the sake of those he will soon come to hold dear."
"I don't follow." Mera said with a frown. She suddenly had a bad feeling about where this was going, and Naruto hadn't even explained anything about what he did yet.
With a shrug her ninja instructor replied. "It's complicated no matter how you look at it, but the short version is that I got him a date with a girl that he really likes…or to be more precise, I helped ensure that this date would happen, one way or another. It might not happen today or tomorrow, maybe not even this month, but it is going to happen whether he likes it or not. Nimue helped engineer it that way, so that that particular future is now set in stone. Whether anything more comes out of that date is entirely up to Clark Kent, but I did my job and got him the undivided attention of the girl he is in love with." Naruto finished with a smug smirk.
"And he beat you up for getting him this date?" She asked, feeling both shocked and amused by this little fact.
"I'm pretty sure Kal felt I deserved it, and I will admit that my methods were rather underhanded." Naruto replied with an unrepentant shrug. "The thing is, from Kal-El's point of view, there are about a million ways that the whole thing could've gone horribly wrong and screwed up his chances with the girl of his dreams. He's more than entitled to be a little pissed at me for that." Naruto's grin somehow grew even more supremely smug as he added. "Lucky him, things won't go wrong unless he personally screws up…we've seen to that."
"You seem awfully self-satisfied right now." She noted.
"Well, when you are friends with someone who not only has the ability to see multiple possible futures, but induce specific timelines, and then with her help, successfully pull off the greatest matchmaking scheme in the history of the planet, right under the nose of the most powerful man on the planet, you're entitled to a little smugness don't you think?" He replied with a chuckle.
That gave Mera pause, Naruto had spoken to her at length about his friend Madame Xanadu or Nimue as he liked to call her. They had yet to become properly acquainted, but Mera knew that she was very important to Naruto, almost to the point that she would've have believed that Nimue and Naruto were a couple if not for the fact that Naruto had outright denied. Still, the two were undeniably close.
Before she could ask exactly what the two friends had done, Naruto contined in a more serious tone. "It was incredibly difficult to pull off and there were a ton of variable to manipulate. It took us over a month of work, with Madame Xanadu spending most of that time peering into the space-time continuum just to get the timing right, but she succeeded. Nimue engineered all available paths of Clark's future, to lead Superman towards eventually going on that date. Now nothing short of a reality warping god showing up to ruin our plans will stop this from happening." He finished with a dark chuckle before pausing and looking up as he added. "And that's not me inviting Murphy or some other eldritch deity out there to mess with this plan."
Sighing at her housemate's antics, Mera said. "I'm assuming he doesn't know about the lengths you went to, in order to arrange this. However, I must ask why you would mess with the natural course of his destiny? That doesn't sound like you; not like the man I've come to know over the past few months." Underneath the gentleness with which she spoke, Mera was actually feeling very conflicted by what Naruto had just told her. On one hand it was an amusing tale and an impressive accomplishment. Naruto and Nimue had essentially weaponized destiny, albeit they chose to use in a benevolent manner. The problem was that, on the other hand, she did not understand his motivations for doing so.
Naruto himself had called it a prank, though he seemed to have done it for the sake of Superman. However, manipulating destiny itself was no small thing, both in the sense that it was a colossal display of power and that it violated a fundamental element of the natural order of the world. It begged the question, was this an action he took lightly and performed for amusement or was it something he took seriously and did for a good reason? What bothered Mera was that she couldn't really tell, and unfortunately, the reasons Naruto had given so far seemed to be rather…lacking. Thankfully, Naruto could sense the conflict within her thanks to his empathy and understood he needed to give her a straight answer.
With a sigh, Naruto replied. "Mera, I'm aware of how this might look, but there is more to this than you currently understand. You don't yet have the full picture."
"Please explain it to me then, I don't want to believe that you – one of the kindest people I have ever met – finds it acceptable to just manipulate the destinies of your friends for no other reason than your personal amusement." She admitted to him honestly. Her voice just as calm and collected as before, yet they could both sense the tension in it.
Mera felt her admiration and attraction to Naruto warring with a sense disappoint and anger for a perceived injustice that had taken place. No, that wasn't quite right…it was because she was attracted to him and admired him so much that she felt angry and disappointed in him. However, she was willing to hear him out first before truly making a final judgment.
Naruto easily picked up on all this, easily sensing that Mera wasn't necessarily angry that he was messing with Superman's destiny, but rather that she was upset because she thought he was doing it out of amusement. The ninja from Konoha suddenly realized that Mera had come to place an enormous amount of faith in him, believing that he wouldn't do something like this without good reasons, so to suddenly be faced with the idea of him taking such a phenomenal action as manipulating the space-time continuum to set up a date, for a mere prank. Well she needed to know that he wasn't doing it on a whim, and was actually a responsible person.
In a way, Naruto couldn't help but feel honored to have his friend/student/housemate place so much faith in him. The fact that she felt angry at what she believed to be a wrong action, and was willing to stand up and confront him about it, only made him admire her more. However, he needed to correct this misunderstanding before it went too far.
"Amusement was never a factor in my actions, it's a mere unintended side effect. Things just turned out to be funny in the end, but my reasons for doing what I did were legitimate." He began softly. "To answer your initial question, on why I would do this? It all started a few weeks ago when I visited Madame Xanadu's Emporium. I was being stalked by some powerful divine being out there, meanwhile Nimue's place was also being monitored by the government. When I realized what was going on, I was both angry at what was happening and afraid for her sake, of course Nimue assured me that it was no big deal and that she could handle herself.
"I went along with her attempts to calm me down at first, but we both knew she wasn't successful. It's simply in my nature to worry about my precious people, doubly so when they are being targeted, so there was really no way I was going let what happened go, and Nimue realized this. It's probably because of that realization that she decided to show me something important as a distraction, something that kicked off everything that followed. It was a very effective distraction." He finished with a small smile, as he thought of that fateful evening.
"What did she show you?" Mera asked curiously.
"As I've mentioned to you before, Nimue can see the future or to be specific, she can see multiple futures. She uses tarot cards to single out the one most likely to come to pass, but I won't go into details about how that works right now. What's important is that she noticed that in the futures of several possible timelines, Superman ends up having a son with Lois Lane. A boy named Jonathan Samuel Kent, and she brought him to my attention." Naruto continued with his tale.
This tale suddenly took an interesting turn in Mera's opinion, it was the first time she was thinking of Superman having kids and she couldn't help but wonder what they would be like. Finally, she asked her housemate. "Superman's going to have son?"
It wasn't something that she really put much thought into normally, but when you considered the fact that Superman despite his appearance was not in fact human, Mera found herself wondering how that would even work. What did his son look like as hybrid? Could Superman actually get a human woman pregnant or did they splice his genes with a human woman's egg? Did he have the exact same kind of plumbing down there as human male or did Kryptonians have something more…exotic? These were all questions she would never ask publically, especially not to Kal-El himself, but they came to mind now. Despite her colorful background, Mera had a very inquisitive mind, and was very intelligent.
"He is now." Naruto chuckled darkly while wiggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner. The whole point of the 'prank' was for this. "Jonathan will have all of Clark's abilities, and in some ways grow up to be not only more powerful than Clark, but an even better hero down the road. Jonathan and Batman's future son, much like their fathers are now, will become brothers in future. However, that is only if their future comes to exist. One thing Nimue pointed out was that Jonathan Kent, doesn't always come into existence in every timeline she sees, most often because Lois Lane either gets killed or because for some inexplicable reason, Superman does not ask her out, as unbelievable as that sounds."
It seemed ridiculous to him that such a simple thing could have such an immense impact on the future, but then everything Superman did, seemed to have a rippling effect that spread everywhere. The Justice League had started something, and the children of the members of the Justice League would someday continue it. Then generation after generation of new heroes that followed would keep it going for more than a thousand years.
However, in all that history, in that long Legacy that was being created, Jonathan Kent was a very special part of its foundation. Him simply not existing would be debilitating to the future that Nimue had shown him, and would likely prevent that future from even coming into existence. Naruto had seen how happy Clark and Lois would become once Jonathan was born, so he decided to rig things in favor of such a future coming to pass. Naruto wanted his friend to have that simple pleasure of having a child. Besides, he wanted an adorable nephew to dot on, well, two if you counted Damien Wayne.
'You're welcome Superman and Lois.' He thought to himself.
"So you are really just doing all this so that Jonathan will be born?" Mera asked, pulling him out of his memories of what he'd seen.
Nodding yes, he said. "Two things are ensured if Superman goes on this date. First, he will keep a better eye on Lois and grow to love humanity even more, thus protecting her and so many people from death as the years go by. This is important, because his actions more than any other hero on Earth, will have a trickle-down effect through the years, and will in time, inspire people from across the entire universe. Lois also helps keep someone with such godlike power, grounded to the things that truly matter in life. Secondly, Jonathan's eventual birth will follow a sequence of positive life changing events for Clark that he really needs, not only granting Clark and Lois immense happiness, but ensuring that certain heroes in the distant future will have a Superman of their own to look up to one day when Clark decides to retire.
"Up until now Jonathan was merely a possibility that might occur. He might've be born naturally or he might not have, he was an uncertainty. However, we tilted things so that the kid has about an 80 percent chance of being born rather than the 50-50 he did before. The rest is up to destiny, biology and whoever is in charge of the kid's soul. I've done my part." Naruto said with a simple smile.
"It seems I've misjudged you again Naruto, I…apologize. My reaction was unwarranted." Mera said lowering her head in shame. 'Naruto really is a good man.' She thought to herself.
With sigh Naruto responded. "I think we are way past being that formal with each other Mera, especially when we are in the comfort of our own home. Besides, what the hell are you even apologizing for? You felt something was wrong, and spoke out. That's something to be admired, not scolded. If anything, I should be apologizing for not realize how highly your regarded me, and be grateful for your faith in me." He said with a warm smile, before walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder as he said. "I'm not perfect, in fact recent events have revealed that I have a quite a few scars from my own past that have been cropping up in my life lately, but you and the others. Just by being yourselves, you inspire me to be better than the product of the society that created a someone like me. You inspire me to be a hero every single day, and there are not enough words in any world to describe how much that means to me." The compliments, warm words and kindness in his voice was enough for Mera to look up at Naruto in surprise, especially since it all came out of nowhere. But it was his next words that truly floored Mera, as he said. "I cherish you Mera, you and the others. I don't know where or what I would be, if I didn't meet up with all of you that day in Metropolis, but I doubt it would've been anywhere good."
It took a few seconds for her to find her voice, as she leaped through a handful of emotions after hearing him say all that. Finally, she settled on. "Thank you." Her voice little more than a whisper, she continued. "But you might be the one thinking too highly of me. I'm a woman whose been filled with wrath because of things in my past. Both that which was done to me, and that which I did to others. I'm not as noble as you seem to think I am."
"What I think, is that you look down on yourself far too much Mera. I also think how noble you perceive yourself to be has nothing to do with whether I cherish you or not. So long as you remain you, you'll always be precious to me so don't sweat the details okay." As he said this Naruto wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her into a hug. Mera's heart fluttered at the forwardness of the action, though she knew it wasn't necessarily a romantic gesture. Still, it was nice to be held so close by Naruto, and added weight to his words. For a moment the two stood in silence, just enjoying each other's company before Naruto pulled away as he said. "I really enjoy seeing you smile; you should do it more."
Mera chuckled to herself as she realized that indeed, she was smiling. With a small blush of embarrassment on her cheeks, she quickly changed the topic, asking. "So are we training today?"
Naruto hummed thoughtfully before he shook his head in the negative. "Nah, your progress has been pretty amazing lately and you've adapted quite a number of ninja techniques into your arsenal. I think it's about time we changed things up a bit."
"What do you mean?" She asked.
With a smirk he replied. "There is still a bunch of stuff left that I want to teach you, but none of it is essential. You've mastered the basics of the ninja training system used in my homeland, at least the parts that are compatible with your abilities and fighting style. All you really need is practice and practical application, so I'm thinking of pulling back our training sessions to once or twice a week."
"Twice? Make that thrice at the very least." Mera insisted(protested).
"Okay fine. If milady demands three practice sessions a week, then that's what she will get." He teased, making her cheeks burn. "But in all seriousness, just because I am toning down training doesn't mean you will have any free time. It's long past the time that National City learned how privileged it is to have not only one guardian, but two. From now on I'm going to have you out patrolling the streets of National City so frequently that people will start calling this, Mera's city. So rest up while you can." Naruto's grin turned positively as he finished that sentence, and Mera had the distinct feeling that she might possibly come to regret pushing for three training sessions a week.
Turning to walk away from Mera Naruto suddenly mumbled under his breath. "I need to go pay Madame Xanadu a visit now that Operation: Get Superman laid is underway." It was not meant for anyone else to hear, and a normal human wouldn't have, but then, Mera wasn't exactly a normal human.
"I'm sorry what?!" The redhead all but shrieked as she rounded on him. People often forgot how sharp Atlantean hearing was. Nowhere near as sensitive as Superman or even Naruto's own hearing when he focused it, but still very sharp. It one of their many adaptations to living in the ocean depths, which came about from needing to be able to hear, in a medium where sound traveled faster than through air.
"I said, I need to pay Madame Xanadu a visit now that Operation: Get Superman tamed is underway." Naruto replied aloud without missing a beat.
"Really?" Mera asked skeptically, looking for any bullshit in his expression, as Naruto cocked his head at her innocently. Alas, the sheer innocence and purity the ninja was suddenly exuding, could've made a saint jealous. It was a devastating look, one that left Mera unable to reconcile what she believed she had just heard, with the man whom she believed had said it. There was certainly no way Naruto would be that crass. Right?
"Oh yeah." He said with a vigorous nod. "Setting up Clark and Lois's date was my idea, but Nimue was the one who actually made it possible, and now I got to go have a discussion with her about how I am going to pay her back for all the trouble I put her through." He continued in a well-blended mix of truth and bullshit.
Sighing for the umpteenth time at Naruto's antics, Mera grumbled. "Just pass along my greeting when you get there." She said shooing him away. "And don't do anything too crazy."
"I won't be gone that long, just a quick stop." He said with a wink, before asking. "By the way, do you want to watch a movie? I finally got that Star Wars collection Barry and Hal won't shut up about. There are also several buckets of popcorns stored in the stasis seals I placed in the cabinet from our last movie night, so they will be fresh."
Interested in the offer, Mera asked. "This isn't a training thing like the last movie, right? I mean you have an unusual habit of making just about everything some form of training."
"I told you, we're pulling back from that. Besides, during the 4th Shinobi World War, I didn't have a lot of free time so my teachers combined stuff and turned every task into some form of training, they called it multitasking. Blame them for my habits." He finished with a grin. "Unless you want to make this a training session? Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had some cool ideas we appropriated, so I can only imagine what Star Wars has."
"No, no, I was just curious. I prefer a normal movie." She replied shaking her head, before asking. "Do you mind if I invite Diana?"
"Diana?" Naruto asked in surprise. "Not at all, but she lives in Washington, and with all her superhero and ambassadorial work over there, do you really think she will be free? It's a long way to come just to watch a movie." He pointed out. Not that he didn't want to see the beautiful warrior princess again. He truly enjoyed being around her, just like he did Mera and Nimue.
Mera shrugged and replied. "I am sure she could spare a single night from patrolling, and let's not act as if distance is a problem when you can teleport."
"I suppose you got me there." Naruto conceded with a chuckle. "Alright then, let me get over to Madam Xanadu's Emporium to sort out stuff with her, then I'll come back before heading to Washington to pick up Diana later in the evening. I will leave some clones to work on dinner, but you should call ahead and ask her if she free."
"Okay." Was Mera's only response, before she headed towards the communicator and used it to establish a private link to Diana. One of the few areas that she had an advantage over Naruto, was in technology. Naruto could operate things like computers, phones and other bits of surface technology fairly well, but his culture was a few years behind Earths when it came to most technologies. So when Naruto worked on his laptop, it was similar to watching someone born fifty to sixty years ago, operating a pc. They could use it, but they likely wouldn't be hacking anything or coding advanced programs.
Mera on the other hand, while Xebellian by birth, still came from a society that was hundreds of years more technologically advanced than any country on the surface. Whereas Naruto was acclimatizing to technology more advanced than what he was used to back home, Mera was in fact acclimatizing to technology that was less advanced and highly specialized towards surface problems. It wasn't particularly difficult for her to do so either, and so when it came to things like communicating with the others or trawling the internet for specific information in any sort of timely manner, or simply using most of the advanced tech installed in the Mansion, Naruto allowed Mera to take charge.
VvV
Unknown Location, Godsphere…
"This is taking too long!" Grail growled impatiently, as she angrily scowled down at a pool of magical water, displaying events taking place on Earth. For several months now she had been keenly watching and observing the actions and activities of Naruto Uzumaki, and so far, nothing he'd done seemed all that impressive.
No matter how closely she looked at him, no matter how many tricks he pulled off with that strange life-force energy he called chakra, Grail simply couldn't understand how it was even conceivable that he'd beaten her father Darkseid in battle. All roads seemed to point to the fact that Naruto Uzumaki was not what she needed, that he was not a solution to Amazon's long held dream of killing Darkseid and freeing the universe from his tyranny.
However, Grail was not the kind of person who simply trusted what her eyes and ears revealed to her. Instincts deeply ingrained within her, from years of training. Instincts that had allowed her to stay ahead of Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips for over a thousand years, as they hunted her and her mother, Myrina Black. Instincts that allowed her to become the single greatest weapon that Amazons had ever forged. These instincts kept screaming at her whenever she got within a kilometer of Naruto, telling her that she stood before a profoundly dangerous being.
Calling Naruto something as simple as a monster would be insulting, he was more, far more than that. He was more than just a warrior and more than just an immortal and more powerful than even he was currently aware. Everything she'd seen so far was simply a thin veneer, a disguise that hid his true nature. If words could describe what she felt around Naruto, then the best Grail could come up with was that he was a singularity, a black hole. Despite his weak appearance, her instincts screamed at her that Naruto an unyielding force of nature, one that when fully unleashed, all things caught in his path would have no choice but to either submit or be destroyed.
The very fact that he had personally fought Darkseid to a stand-still and struck such a blow against her father that even the legendary New God of evil needed time to heal, was proof enough of Naruto's so well hidden true nature. He was a wolf in sheep's skin, no matter how much like a sheep he looked, a monster disguised as a benevolent angel. It only made him so much more interesting to her. Which was why she couldn't wait for him to do something interesting again…anything interesting.
"Patience, little goddess. Keeping you hidden from the sights of other gods and seers, is already very taxing. Especially when you move so openly among the mortals to track that creature of Death." A shadowy female figure draped in a hooded cloak wheezed from the throne of interwoven vines she was seated upon. "Besides, it's been a pain in my divine rear to simply predict the daily activities of normal gods, much less Olympians. Taking the further necessary steps to cloak you and enable you to rob a god without him ever noticing, was an even more outrageous request." The dark lady continued casually. She was being sarcastic of course, Olympians were especially vulnerable to her powers. Still, Grail grinned happily at the memory. Sneaking in Hephaestus' forge and stealing his tools was quite a bit of fun for her. The old fool hadn't even set up adequate security to keep his forge guarded, and it had been an easy task to frame Deimos and Phoebes in their current role of Ares, for the theft.
Turning to the primordial goddess, Grail replied in the most respectful tone she could bring herself to use. "A deal is a deal, Great elder." If any deity deserved her respect, it was certainly this one.
If all went well with her plans, then she would soon reforge the collection of weapons and artifacts she'd stolen from Hephaestus into an item that would drag out Naruto's true nature into the light. After that, Grail would personally judge the so called godkiller and see for herself whether he was truly the one she should be pinning her hopes on, or whether she should go with her mother's plan.
A dark chuckle echoed across the room as her ally replied. "Indeed. I asked much of you Grail and you delivered, so for now, I am honor-bound to entertain your curiosities. You will have the power of Lady Ananke as your shield, and not even the Lords of Order will be able pierce my cloak. For now, your Destiny is your own to shape Grail, and I will show you the path to fulfilling your desire. This is Ananke's oath to you."
VvV
The Mansion, Outskirts of National City…
"That's actually pretty impressive." Diana complement Naruto as he unsealed a few more tubs of popcorn from the storage seals in the cabinet. "Efficient too." She added, noting the popcorn was still hot. Freezing food in pockets of space where no time passed, meant that whenever they were released from his seals, the food was always the same temperature as when it was put in. It also meant that the food was as fresh as when it was put in, which preserved its shelf-life even better than a refrigerator could.
"I know right." Naruto agreed with a smile, eagerly showing off his recent upgrade from the traditional refrigeration system to the beautiful Amazon. "I can't believe I never once thought of using seals this way back home. I mean anything I put into a storage seal basically remains preserved, with no time flowing on the inside, until its unsealed back into the real world. This makes it a far superior method of food storage to simply freezing things. Of course I still keep the fridge around for ice cream, deserts and stuff that require low temperatures." Naruto added with a thoughtful expression.
Diana's eyes began to shine upon hearing the magic word. Let it be known to all, that the Princess of Themyscira liked to consider herself a connoisseur of ice cream. Ever since coming to man's world, there were a number of things that she had come to love, that simply didn't exist back in Themyscira. Very few of those things on an equally short list could beat her love for ice cream. Heavy Metal music came close, as did her love of a good fight, but by the gods of Olympus, Diana could give the Sin of Gluttony a run for its money when ice cream was on the table.
"Have you got any ice cream?" She asked as innocently as she could manage, trying hard to keep the hopefulness and greed out of her voice, and failing.
"Yep, got some in the fridge. Help yourself." Naruto casually replied with mischievous smile, while pointing at the fridge. Turning to his housemate, the blond asked. "What about you Mera? Got anything you want?"
The redheaded sea princess looked up from the laptop she had been hunched over, trawling for Star Wars trivia for the trio go over together. Having just watched the prequel trilogy, it was safe to say that the Ninja, the Amazon and the Atlantean were hooked on series and eagerly wanted more. Mera took up a thinking pose before finally saying. "I'd like some Pizza." With a small smirk, she added. "From that place."
Already understanding what she wanted, Naruto chuckled as he replied. "Okay I get it; I suppose I do have some Euros around here somewhere."
"Why would you need Euros?" Diana asked curiously, as she came back from the fridge with a tub of choc-chip ice cream and banana flavored syrup, as topping…oh, and a spoon. No one questioned the fact that she clearly had no intention of sharing.
"The place that Mera wants me to make a quick stop at for authentic Italian pizza, is actually in Italy. As pizza's go, I can vouch for them and say they it's pretty good, so I think you will like it. However, I can't pay for it with dollars, and looking around for a place to change currency will take more time than I would like." He said, as if making an inter-continental pizza run was the most natural thing in the world. "I only intend to be gone ten minutes at the most, since I already got a Flying Thunder-god seal in the area. Most of that will be spent simply placing my order and waiting for it to get done." He added to clarify things for Diana.
Wonder Woman couldn't help but gawk at the extra-multiversal ninja. Intellectually she knew that yes, Naruto could get around the world pretty fast, but knowing it and witnessing him get ready to do so – and for a pizza run at that – were two very different things. Technically speaking, any one of the members of the Justice League could get their meals from another country in a pretty timely manner if they were so incline. However, none of them would normally think to use their power to travel halfway across the world for something as mundane as a pizza run. At least, she believed that that was the case. It just felt wrong to use their godlike powers in such a manner, instead of to protect the innocent or fight crime and injustice. Yet for some reason, the very idea that Naruto was willing to do something like that for them, felt strangely appealing to Diana.
Mera simply smiled, having long since grown used to Naruto's quirks. The redhead hadn't specifically known that the pizza place with that godly cheese, tomato and mutton dish, was actually in Italy, but she wasn't surprised that Naruto had gone that far to get it either. As the weeks of training with him went by, every now and then – particularly when she did really well – Naruto would go on a food run to somewhere across the world and come back with a tantalizing feast. These divinely delicious pizzas were from a place he'd visited a month ago, and ever since that day Naruto had utterly refused to disclose its exact location to her.
Happy that she would get to taste that ridiculously delicious Pizza again, she said. "You seem to be in really good mood today."
"Well duh, Star Wars is freaking awesome!" He cheerfully exclaimed. "The fighting is kind of slow, and there's enough drama between Anakin and everyone to choke on, plus I think any one of us could've easily kicked the entire Jedi order and the Sith's asses. However, that doesn't change the fact that it's a masterfully created movie. I really need to remember to get Barry and Hal something nice for recommending it." Naruto finished with a thoughtfully expression, after all but gushing over the movie series that was their evening entertainment.
Sure they only watched the prequels so far, but Naruto's enthusiasm was dragging both herself and Mera in, like a black hole, and if she was being honest with herself, Diana was enjoying that. The Princess of Themyscira found the entire experience fun and relaxing in a way she hadn't felt in quite a few weeks, no thanks to all the drama she'd left behind in Washington. Naruto was just so fun to be around, and it made her happy that for tonight she didn't have to worry about being Themyscira's ambassador to the World man or Wonder Woman of the Justice League. Tonight she could just be Diana, a girl hanging out with her friends, and that was something really needed lately.
"I agree." She chimed in. "It's a rather grand story about the battle between the forces of Good and Evil, a story filled with both great hope and great tragedy. Honestly, it reminds me of the tales my mother would tell me as a child, about the Greek heroes she personally knew or heard of back in the day." Diana said while thinking of the tragedy that was Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme relationships, and how they were all manipulated by Palpatine. It was all too similar to the Greek heroes of old, and the things the gods put them through. She may have worshiped them devotedly, but her gods were a fickle bunch at times.
"I found the battledroids hilarious, though the technology isn't anything special. Atlantis has better technology in a number of areas." Mera added her own two-cents. "That said, I would trade nearly any sword of the sea for an honest-to-Poseidon Lightsaber." Mera's eyes seemed to sparkle at the mention of lightsabers, and Diana admitted to herself that she wouldn't mind such a fine weapon.
Perhaps picking up on this, Naruto said. "You know, you should remind me to tell you the story of the Sword of the Thunder-god from my homeland, when I get back. Believe it or not, the thing shared an uncanny resemblance to a lightsaber, both in appearance and function. In any case, I'm off to get the Pizza, don't' start the next movie without me." He finished with a warning glare, before teleporting away in a brief flicker of light.
Diana and Mera remained silent for a moment, neither of the two women talking once the man they both felt drawn to left. This was not out of any sort of dislike for one another or awkward tension. On the contrary, the two had only grown fonder one another since the Justice League first came together and even saw each other as sisters. No, it was simply to make sure that Naruto was truly gone from the Mansion, before they began a much needed discussion.
Once Diana was sure he was gone, she turned to Mera and asked. "Does he often travel halfway across the world to get snacks?"
"It's a very recent thing, and he usually does as reward for when I either overcome a milestone he'd set up during training, or I do something that really impresses him. He's only ever used it as a tool in training, never like this. I think it's because you are here that he's going to such lengths." Mera replied, shaking her head in amusement.
"Good." Diana said firmly, her eyes narrowed and her lips set in a pleased smile.
Mera raised an eyebrow at her friend and almost challengingly asked. "Good?"
With grin Diana admitted. "I think it would've been rather cruel of you sister, if Naruto had been doing this for you all along, and you decided to keep me uninformed. I've been meaning to sample traditional Greek cuisine and compare it to that of Themyscira. This way, I might be able to figure out where the food culture between the Amazons and the mainland diverged. I'd even like to hear your opinion on the dishes."
Catching on to Wonder Woman's line of thought, Mera replied with conspiratorial smile. "In that case, you should come over more often Diana. I've been quite curious about Taiwanese dishes lately, and Naruto seems quite happy to be our delivery boy."
Somewhere in Tuscany, Naruto suddenly felt the hairs on the back his neck stand as a shiver ran up and down his spine.
VvV
National City…
"Do you see them?" Naruto asked his partner, his low voice only a few decibels above a whisper.
The two silently stood above the rooftop of an apartment building overlooking an ATM outlet, next to the small neighborhood's local grocery store. Cloaked in the shadows of the night, the two heroes went unseen by the criminals gathering in the streets below, which was by design.
Mera was wearing her normal green scale outfit, with a golden belt that looked like interlocked seashells and a buckle that formed the A symbol representing Atlantis. Her hair however, was tied back in a high ponytail that slightly reminded Naruto of his mother Kushina, when she wore her Jounin uniform in that alternate dimension timeline with…Menma. Naruto still hated thinking of his bratty alternate counterpart, but his parents were the highlight of that adventure.
That said, around her left thigh Mera now wore a new addition. It was a kunai holster with a storage seal built into it, designed to refill the holster automatically with more kunai after remaining empty for a set time period. It was a new idea Naruto was experimenting with, and still hadn't worked out all of the kinks, but it gave her a physical weapon for moments when using her hydrokinesis was unfeasible.
All in all, Mera looked really good tonight in Naruto's opinion, and very eager to get to work. It was only too bad that it would take a few days before people really started to take note of her actions, like they did him. However, it wouldn't take too long, Naruto was determined to make she got noticed. Tonight, he was taking her around the city to fight crime and gain some exposure while his clones dealt with issues elsewhere. These thieves trying to rob the ATM, were just one particular group that had caught his eye recently. Mostly because of who they were affiliated with.
"Yes, I seem them." The beautiful redhead responded as she peered across the three-hundred-meter distance separating them from where the crime was taking place. "A team of six men, all armed with advanced cutting tools and high-tech weapons. They've disabled the security cameras and will start cutting open the two ATM's present for the cashboxes inside, shortly. I believe they are responsible for hitting the nearby police precinct with a cyberattack, shutting down the police's ability to respond and redirecting all other the first responders away from here. It will take at least five minutes before order is restored and someone thinks of coming out this way. This group will be gone in under three." She analyzed with a finality in her tone that made the thieves escape, seem like a foregone conclusion. "Their getaway vehicle is the windowless brown van down the street, with the seemingly bored looking man in the driver seat. This group has also already hit a dozen other ATM's across the city this week alone, their M.O is to get in quickly and quietly, then leave before anyone notices. They act with precision, like professionals but their targets aren't that valuable. I don't understand their motives." She admitted as she wrapped up her assessment of the thieves.
"They are loosely affiliated with Intergang according to our intel." Naruto explained, thinking back to the data packet Cyborg had sent them earlier that day, along with specific intel on Intergang that Superman and Batman had collected over the last year. "Intergang tends to hand out their older generation tech to smaller gangs and send them to major cities to cause trouble. This is done as means of measuring the police and superhero's response to crime and gang activity. Once they have that information, a faction of Intergang, under a lieutenant can move in on a city and grow roots. It's a lot harder to expel them from the city once they are settled in, so we better take these guys off the streets fast and hard, before the Intergang higher ups get any funny ideas." The blond finished with frown.
"I see no difficulties with doing exactly that." Mera said dismissively.
"True." He replied with a nod. "That's older generation Intergang tech according to our files. It wouldn't harm either of us even if we took a direct hit. However, Intergang's newer technology is based on remnants of Apokoliptan technology from the Invasion. That new stuff is a lot more powerful, so we should keep an eye out for it in future. Nevertheless, these guys are still using energy weapons so be careful when you engage them. This is a residential area, so the last thing we want is someone to get off a stray shot. Finish this quick." He warned, though he wasn't really that concerned. Frankly speaking, this was far below Mera's skill level and there was no doubt in his mind that she could've handled the whole situation even in her sleep.
"Worry not Sage. What's that surface expression again – this will be a piece of cake." The redheaded water goddess replied with a chuckle. Mera was fully aware that Naruto wasn't doubting her abilities to safely handle this assignment – if anything he had more faith in her than anyone she had ever met – but rather that it was just in his nature to be concerned about innocent people potentially being caught in the backlash of a fight. A characteristic he shared with most of the other Justice League members.
Naruto smiled at her and said. "In that case, strike fast, strike true, limit the damage to the environment and return victorious."
Wonder Woman had said those words while they were on a Justice League mission a few weeks back, though Naruto had clearly modified them to fit this situation. They were unnecessary, but comforting to Mera, as was the confidence Naruto had in her. She was so used to seeing him act goofy and laid back at the mansion, at least when he was not being a sadistic drill instructor during training, that it was uncanny to see him so calm and collected.
With a perfect military salute, Mera replied. "Roger! Roger!" Her imitation of a B1 Battledroid from Star Wars, making Naruto's eyebrow twitch as she leaped backwards and off the roof with snicker.
"By the Log, that's gotta stop." Naruto moaned as watched her sail through the night air towards the nearest building, only to disappear into the shadows as soon as she landed, like a well-trained kunoichi. Naruto could still sense her presence with his chakra and empathy, but she was doing well enough that he actually had to actively look for her. With a sigh he grumbled. "Why didn't Barry warn me about those stupid droids."
Mera's landing was perfectly silent despite the height from which she had dropped; weeks of stealth training were being employed as she used a new stealth technique of her own creation to remain undetected. By covering her feet in water – which she had total control over – she could use that water to absorb kinetic energy passing through it, eliminating any sounds she made upon landing or while walking, as well as allowing her to fall from great heights without creating a seismic event. It was a very useful stealth technique which when combined with even basic ninja stealth skills and hiding in plain sight techniques, made her very difficult to keep track of. Naruto also thought that it was a clever application of her hydrokinetic powers.
With a sigh, Naruto watched as Mera skillfully leaped from the building she had landed on and off to the next building, steadily getting closer to the thieves without making a sound. There was a fire hydrant on the sides of the street, right in front of the grocery store, and with a quick application of her power Mera formed water droplets the size marbles. With a gesture water droplets punched clean holes through the side of the fire hydrant, without making any noise. Again, Mera used water to absorb the kinetic energy and prevent sound waves from forming.
With that done, she allowed the water to begin leaking out and onto the street, which she then stealthily spread out all along the asphalt. As the water spread along the street and came across other fire hydrants, Mera repeated her earlier action, punching holes in those hydrants as well to increase the amount of water she had access to. Despite the water only being about an inch deep as she steadily spread it out from where it was leaking, soon Mera had plenty of water to work with, and since it was night time, unless one of the crooks stepped on the street, they would hardly notice anything until it was too late.
The Six-man team of professional thieves, were just about finished with cutting into the ATM, when thin tendrils of water suddenly wrapped themselves around the team. Like the silk threads of a spider-web, the thieves found themselves completely enveloped before the water solidified into something harder than steel. Not a single one of them was able to move or offer any form resistance once trapped in Mera's bindings. It was a fairly effective recreation of a couple of sealing techniques he knew from back home, that he'd told her about once.
The only remaining criminal element was the getaway driver, who was still seated in the vehicle. Unfortunately for him, some of Mera's water had quietly traveled down the street, towards the brown van. Once there, it had surrounded the tires, before hardening and shifting into spikes, then simultaneously puncturing all four tires. The noise startled the driver who pulled out a pistol and opened the van's front door to see what had happened. That was his mistake.
Instantly tendrils of water rose up and surrounded him, dragging him out of the vehicle and promptly immobilizing him before ferrying him rapidly towards the bank, on what looked like a small wave of water.
It was all over in an instant, and Mera who had been orchestrating everything from the top of a nearby building, simply dropped to the streets below, before casually strutting across the street towards the bank. In full view of every camera on the street, she gestured with her hands and all seven men where levitated towards her, covered in her water. Then she began to address them, probably giving them some speech she had prepared about the evils of crime and why it didn't pay or something.
Naruto stopped paying attention at that point, instead pulling out his Waynetech phone, and activated its sim-card emulator. Dialing 911, he waited for the operator to pick up and ask what the emergency was, to which he replied while shifting his voice into that of a scared teenager. "H-hello! My name is Tom."
"Hello Tom. You've dialed 911, state the nature of your emergency?" The woman on the other end of the line repeated in a professional but calming voice.
"I'm at 7th and Haywood street, Atoka Heights. There are some guys with guns across the street, they're fighting that one chick from the Justice League. I think her name is Mera. She's winning but you might want to send someone down here." And with that he cut the line, the sim emulator deactivating as he did so.
"Well that was easy." He muttered to himself. "Barring some major catastrophe, it should only take about a hundred or so more of these public activities before everyone is fully aware of both me and Mera being this city's protectors. That or some really good press." He grumbled.
Jumping down to ground level, Naruto quickly began repairing the Fire Hydrant's Mera had damaged, using Magnet: Release to fuse any holes or tears shut. It was better for her image if it seemed like she could get the job down without causing much property damage.
Looking up at the moon, Naruto decided the night was still very young and that there was more crime in the city that needed dealing with. As soon as she gave her statement to the cops, he was going to drag Mera to the docks. One of his clones had spotted a drug deal taking place over there between two gangs, and he intended to use Mera to put the fear of god in them.
TBC...
Okay, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry, if I was little all over the place, proofreading when you are sick is a pain. I hope I got the message I was trying to get across, clearly. I know there was a part in the middle that I could've done better had I not been in hospital, but oh well.
Anyway, the next chapter will get back to the action and adventure, as well as a bunch of new revelations. The main star of this mini-arc will also finally arrive, and yet get to learn the real identity of Naruto's 'boss', which will also allow me to explore the godkiller aspect of his powers and some of the things I got planned.
As you can see, Grail has something big planned for him and they will be meeting soon enough. She is also directly responsible for setting Naruto along the path that resulted in the prank which will lead to Superman and Lois getting closer and eventually Jonathan Kent being born. It was a complete accident on her part. The normalcy of home life in this chapter is meant to contradict the chaos of the upcoming chapters so I hope you are looking forward to that.
Anyway, check me out on p a treon (slash) ScarletAesir058, if you feel you are willing to help support me. Your help goes a long way to make everything I do possible, especially when you are living in a 3rd World Nation, like am at the moment.
Thank you once again everyone, for your time, support and patience. And please please please, leave a review. They really help me as a writer, to improve my skills and get a feel for what you my audience likes.
Till next time, Scarlet Out!