Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, anything from the DC franchise, or Batman Begins.
Summary: Forced into a prison at the age of six Naruto begins to walk down a path that will allow him to become the feared and respected shinobi known to the world as Batman. AU.
Chapter One: The boy in the shadows
Blue eyes flicker open, waking... in darkness. Filthy, sweating darkness...
A small boy sits in a Jail cell; a blond blued eyed boy with a dark and lifeless expression. The blue eyed boy is weathered and too young to be in jail; yet these he sits, at the age of nine. He sits in solitary confinement within a jail cell of the village of Konohagakure: one of the worst prisons in the world if you're considered an enemy to the village. Across from the boy, within the solitary confinement ward, sits an old aged man. Adorning the man is a series of Yakuza tattoos.
"A dream, Naruto?" asked the man as he looked at the boy across from him.
"A nightmare" said Naruto.
"Worse than this?" asked the old man with a chuckle.
Their cells are tin boxes, light seeps through gaps in the roof while shouts echo all around them: Naruto shrugs at the old man as the prison guards come by.
The prisoners all move about the court yard: Naruto and the old man line up for gruel. Prisoners are scattered in small groups; all eyes on Naruto and the old man.
"They are going to fight you" said the old man.
"I fought them yesterday" said Naruto, "I fought them before over and over again".
"I don't think these guys get the message, Naruto" said the old man with a chuckle, "they will fight you every day. Until they kill you" said the old man.
Naruto and the old man sit on a table and eat the gruel in front of them, either you eat it or you die.
"Can't they kill me before breakfast?" said Naruto with a sigh.
Naruto turns from the table. His path is blocked by an enormous man, backed by six other aggressive prisoners. The enormous man smashes his plate away.
"You are in hell, little boy..." said the enormous man as he punched Naruto; Naruto went down hard, "...and I am the devil".
Naruto picks himself up and dusts himself off, "You're not the devil..."
The enormous man swings again, Naruto catches his fist in his small hand which is glowing with red chakra, he kicks the big man's knee out and as he goes down, kicks him in the face."...you're practice" finished Naruto.
Six prisoners rush at Naruto all at once. Two are hit in the face by food trays that Naruto grabbed and tossed at them. Other prisoners watch as Naruto fights skillfully and hard, flipping one prisoner into another, kicking as he is held… in a flash several prisoners hit the deck as kunai and shuriken pass by them with great force. Two guards break up the fight by throwing Kunai at the prisoners; they grab Naruto.
"Solitary!" yells the guard
"Why?" demanded Naruto outraged.
"For protection" says the guard as he shoves Naruto.
"I don't need protection" said Naruto with a scowl on his face.
The Guard points angrily at the unconscious prisoners, "Protection for them, demon-brat".
Naruto is tossed into a dank cell and the door slams shut behind him.
"I often wonder at the riches to be found in dark places" said a voice. The voice is mellifluous, foreign and intelligent. It comes from the shadows of a deep corner of the cell.
"I thought the point of solitary confinement was the solitary part" said Naruto drily.
Naruto can make out the profile of a man seated in the corner.
"These men have mistaken you for a criminal, Mr. Uzumaki..." says the man.
Naruto reacts to his name, his eyes going wide in surprise. The man steps into the light: powerfully-built, distinguished, in a well-cut suit and tie.
"Who are you?" asked Naruto, his blue eyes curious.
"My name is merely Ducard. But I speak for Ra's Al Ghul. Have you heard the name?" Ducard stares at the Naruto trying to gauge there reactions.
"I've heard the legends..." says Naruto with a grin, "master warrior, international mercenary, feared by the all the underworld... some even swear he's immortal".
Ducard smiles, "Ra's Al Ghul uses theatricality anddeception as powerful weapons as should all shinobi".
Ducard approaches Naruto and looks deep into his eyes, "You have not escaped his notice: a boy like you is here by choice... or because he forced here and left to be truly lost". Naruto's eyes flick away from Ducard's penetrating gaze.
"Ra's Al Ghul and his League of Shadows offer a path to those that are capable of upholding our code" said Ducard.
"Code? Aren't you criminals?" said Naruto.
"A criminal is simply a person that someone else thinks..." said Ducard while gestures around them, "...should be put in jail".
Naruto nods, conceding the point, "Why me, I'm the demon-brat. They kidnapped me and through me in this hellhole when I was six, I'm nine now. I doubt anyone wants to find me"
"This world is run by tyrants and ignorant. Our code respects only the natural order of things- we're not bound by their hypocrisy. Are you?" Ducard moves to the door, knocks, and it is opened by a guard.
"There is a rare flower- a blue double-bloomed poppy- that grows on the eastern slopes outside the village. Tomorrow you will be released by my associates and the Hokage will be informed of what's been done to you. Pick one of the flowers I've told you off. If you can carry it to the top of the mountain, you may find what you are looking for".
"And what am I looking for?" asked Naruto. Years of forced imprisonment and developing a survival instinct have made Naruto weary.
Ducard looks at Naruto with a glint in his eye, "Purpose".
The door slams shut leaving the three in darkness ….
-Break
At the Land of Fire foothills sits a field of the blue poppies: Naruto approaches and picks one. He studies its brilliant blue in the cold sunshine. Naruto turns and looks at Konohagakure behind him and then up at the mountain in front of him.
Naruto is exhausted, freezing, hungry, as he wanders up the street. The locals see him they head inside. Door close and bolt shut as Naruto comes into the small hidden town.
"No one will help you" says a quiet voice.
Naruto turns to find a young girl staring at him; she is a bit older than him, she is at least twelve. The girl points at the blue flower pinned to Naruto's chest. An old man appears at the girl's side.
"I need food" said Naruto weakly.
"Then turn back" said the old man.
Naruto looks at the old man; he then carries on up the mountain, he was alone since his birth it is no surprise that he is alone now. Naruto struggles through heavy snow fall up an icy ridge. He clears the ridge, flops down into the snow, painfully. He raises his scarf-wrapped face to the cutting wind to see a monastery perched on jagged rocks.
He climbs up the steps to the vast doors of the monastery. He un-wraps a severely frostbitten fist and pounds against the ice-covered wood. The knocks echo deep within. Nothing. Naruto lowers his forehead to the door, shoulders wracked by sobs, pounding accelerating to frenzy.
A grinding noise from within is heard. Naruto stops, straightens. The doors swing open to darkness...
Naruto shuffles forward into a low-ceilinged wooden hall litby flickering lamps. Hands trembling, Naruto pulls at a brittlescarf. The doors thud shut behind him.At the far end, on a raised platform, sits a dark robbedfigure; Ra's Al Ghul, Naruto moves unsteadily towards him...
"Ra's Al Ghul?" questions Naruto.
Armed shinobi of various villages emerge from the shadows: bows taut, swords drawn... rouge shinobi.
"Wait". The shinobi hold Naruto looks at the source of the command: Ducard leans against a nearby pillar. Naruto reaches into the layers of his clothing. He pulls out a double-bloomed blue poppy; he holds it out, hands shaking.
Ra's Al Ghul starts to speak in a different language, Ducard translates.
"Fear has been your guide. But now you must advance or fear will keep you on your knees. We will help you conquer your fear. In exchange you will renounce the villages of man. You will live in solitude. You will be a member of the Leagues of Shadows. And you will be without fear". Ducard takes the flowers from Naruto. Considers its delicate blue petals.
"Are you ready to begin?" Ducard threads the flower through the buttonhole of his jacket. Naruto looks at Ducard, shaking with hunger and fatigue.
"Ready? I... I can barely-" says Naruto
Ducard kicks him, Naruto crashes to the floor, "Death does not wait for you to be ready..."
Naruto crawls, gasping. Ducard strikes him in the ribs, "Death is not considerate, or fair. And make no mistake, today, death is your opponent".
Ducard turns whips his leg in a fearsome roundhouse kick aimed straight at Naruto's neck, but Naruto blocks the kick with a lateral movement of his forearm. He stares at Ducard, eyes blazing. Ducard smiles. Ducard strikes and Naruto who blocks while trying to counter strike Ducard. Naruto is driving his body through pain into a series of fluid and skilled moves of different taijutsu stances.
"Tiger, Crane, Dragon, and Fox" said Ducard with a smile, "skilled, you learned well while in the prison. But this is not a dance".
Ducard and Naruto traded punches until Ducard flipped him over his shoulder. Naruto rushed him, for a moment Naruto pushed him back.
"Facing death you learn the truth..." Naruto tried to attack from above, Ducard's head smashed Naruto's cheek causing him to falter, "You are weak..." Ducard smashed him in the ground, "You are alone..." Ducard slammed Naruto's chin sending him down hard, "And you are afraid..." Ducard crouches at Naruto's side looking into his glazed eyes, "But not of me"
Ducard pulls the flower from his jacket. Leans in close to replace it on Naruto's chest, "Tell us, Uzumaki... What do you fear?"
-Break
A few weeks have passed since Naruto's arrival to the Monastery. Life here consists of two things: training and learning. Every day Ducard teaches Naruto something new, something Naruto has known all along but has never truly understood.
"Do you still feel responsible?" questions Ducard as he leads Naruto along a screened passage overlooking extraordinary mountains.
"My anger outweighs my guilt" said Naruto, "They hate me for what I contain not what I am"
Ducard opens a door, leading Naruto onto a mezzanine level stacked with boxes and bottles. Shinobi pour powders into packets, mixing compounds. Ducard takes a pinch of a powder, throws it down, and BANG! Naruto flinches, Ducard smiles good-naturedly.
"Advanced techniques of Ninjitsu employ explosive powders".
"As weapons?" questioned Naruto.
"Or distractions. Theatricality and deception are powerful agents". Ducard hands Naruto a pinch of the powder.
"To be a great warrior is not enough. Flesh and blood, however skilled, can be destroyed... you must be more than just a man in the minds of your opponents.
Naruto listens to this: a lesson that he won't quickly forget.
Weeks have turned into months Ducard and his latest student circle each other on the ice of a frozen lake, swords poised to strike. The two stand out as dark figures in the white and blue landscape; master and apprentice. Ducard strikes at Naruto, who deflects the blow using a black gauntlet with three scallops (thick, hook-like projections). Ducard skids left, breath steaming, feinting with his sword. Naruto steps sideways on the ice, his foot landing on a thin patch which creaks, water bubbling underneath.
"Mind your surrounding, always".
Naruto strikes, Ducard blocks with his own gauntlet. Naruto slips right and flies in with a short thrust, Ducard's arm flips down in a backhand move, Ducard catches Naruto's sword in one of his scallops.
"The death of those villagers' years ago was not your fault... and neither is your suffering" Ducard rotates his arm, wrenching Naruto's sword from his grasp, it skids along the ice, "...it was your Hokage's"
Naruto, enraged, dives at Ducard, swinging at him with the scallops, furious and reckless. Ducard parries with his sword, they glare at each other, Naruto breathing... angry...
"Anger does not change the fact that your Hokage failed to act"
"He trusted the villagers to respect his wishes!"
"Did they respect the fourths wishes? Or do they blame you for there misery?"
"There afraid-" began Naruto
"That is no excuse. The will to take control is everything. Your Hokage trusted his city, its logic... he thought he understood the people and could simply entrust them with you ... his last legacy"
Narutoconsiders this... breathing slowing... calming... they separate.
"Your Hokage did not understand the forces of decay; villages like Konoha are in their death throes, chaotic, grotesque. Beyond saving".
"Beyond saving? You believe that?"
Ducard turns from Naruto; he regards the harshly beautiful landscape, "It is not right that one must come so far to see the world as it is meant to be. Purity. Serenity... solitude. These are the qualities we hold dear. But the important thing is whether you believe it..."
Naruto stares at Ducard.
"Can Konoha be saved, or is shean ailing ancestor whose time hasrun?"
Ducard strikes down at Naruto with his sword. Naruto blocks the strike with forearms crossed, slides between Ducard's legs across the ice to where his sword lies. Grasping his sword he spins, sweeping at Ducard's feet. Ducard leaps, Naruto catches his foot, brings him down onto the ice. Naruto thrust his sword at Ducard's throat, stops inches away from Ducard's bare neck. Ducard freezes, arms at his sides. Naruto looks down at Ducard, smiling in triumph.
"Yield" said Naruto.
Ducard smiles and shakes his head, "You haven't beaten me. You've sacrificed sure footing for a killing stroke".
Ducard taps the ice beneath Naruto's feet with his sword; the ice gives way, plunging Naruto through the surface.
Night has come, Ducard feeds a small fire. Naruto rubs his arms, shivering violently against hypothermia. Ducard looks at Naruto, "Don't rub your arms, rub your chest. Your arms will take care of themselves".
Naruto rubs his torso and nods at Ducard. Ducard feeds the fire. "You have strength born of grief and anger, Naruto. The strength of a being denied his natural rights. Why, Naruto… Why could you not become the monster your village believes you are?"
"Because I won't give them the satisfaction" said Naruto.
-Break
Naruto and Ducard cling to the wall just short of the roof, eyes locked. Both are in agony, sweat drenched, staring. Ducard blinks and reaches for the roof, pulling himself up. Naruto closes his eyes in relief. Ducard pulls Naruto up onto the roof. They lie there in the half-light. Ducard turns to Naruto. Puts a hand on his shoulder; proud, as a father would be a son.
"You are ready" says Ducard.
Naruto stands with his Blue Poppy now shriveled dry, on an altar. The young boy is clad in black a black uniforms. Naruto watches as Ducard, also in black, picks it up, takes a pestle and mortar, drops in the dried flower, and grinds it to dust. Ducard pours the dust into a small brazier. Lights it and motions towards Naruto, who approaches the smoking altar.
"Drink in your fears. Face them and you will be the one to lead your brothers through the darkness".
Naruto breathes the smoke. He shakes his head; reacting to the effects of the smoke... his mind is plagued by images: A trembling hand holding a kunai, a young Man falling from a giant toad, and the third Hokage searching for him.
Ducard puts on his shinobi mask an motions for Naruto to do the same. Naruto struggle to think through the effects of the smoke...
"Why the masks?" questions Naruto.
As if in reply, dozens of shinobi step forward from the shadows: the hall is filled with identical shinobi. Ducard has melted into the crowd. Naruto raises his guard...
"To conquer fear, you must becomefear... you must bask in the fear ofother men... and men fear most whatthey cannot see". Ducard strikes at Naruto, Naruto spins and parries, but Ducardhas gone. The shinobi move in unison, forming walls...
"It is not enough to be a man... you have to become an idea... a terrible thought... a wraith-"
The shinobi nearest Naruto turns and slashes, it is Ducard. Naruto leaps sideways, rolling through the wall of shinobi. He looks at his arm, it has been slashed, the uniform torn a dead giveaway. Naruto looks around, crouched, ready...
One wall of shinobi parts, revealing a wooden box; Naruto stares at it, mind spinning from the smoke.
"Face your fear..." whispers Ducard.
Naruto cautiously approaches the box. Carefully lifting the lid and peers inside...
Bats explode from the box, filling the air, Naruto dives away from the box, starring up at the squawking bats flinching...
Ducard Leaps at Naruto, who rolls sideways, blocking, Naruto turns to face Ducard, but he is lost in the crowd of shinobi, bats filling the air, Naruto flinching at with their attacks... Naruto stays low, Naruto moves to a shinobi and slashes the arm of the man, the man does not move, Naruto turns, fighting to think.
A shinobi paces softly through the crowd, this is Ducard... "Become one with the darkness..."
Ducard falls in behind a shinobi with a slashed sleeve... He knocks him to his knees, sword against the mans throat.
"You cannot leave any sign... this is a poor genjutsu" Ducard pulls off his own mask his face disappointed.
"I haven't" says Naruto. A sword is at Ducard's throat; Naruto is behind him, pulling off his mask, and dispelling a genjutsu. Ducard looks around... several of the shinobi around them have slashed sleeves. Ducard smiles, the shinobi turn in unison, and Ra's Al Ghul is seated on a small stage at the head of the room. Ducard leads Naruto to sit down in front of Ra's. A shinobi places a tray between them: a bottle and a burning candle. Ducard places the candle in front of Naruto and hands him a small glass. Ra's Al Ghul begins speaking while Ducard translates.
"We have purged your fear. You are ready to lead these men. You are ready to become members of the League of Shadows. Drink"
Naruto drinks, strong stuff.
"By blowing out this candle you renounce your mortal life. You renounce forever the villages of man. You dedicate your life to solitude".
Naruto leans forward to blow out the candle; he looks at the rows of seated shinobi.
"Where will we be leading these men?" questions Naruto, skeptically.
"You will need them in Konoha" says Ducard.
"You want me to go back to Konoha?"
Ra's stares at Wayne and starts speaking as Ducard translates, "You yourself are a victim of Konoha's decay. That is why you came here, and that is why you must go back. You will assume the mantle Konoha's Hokage..."
"For what?" asked Naruto, he is tense.
"To help us destroy the village" says Ducard.
"What?" yelled Naruto in shock.
"When Konoha falls, the other villages will follow in short order. Nature's balance will be restored and Man will finally return to solitude" Naruto turns to Ducard.
"You can't believe in this, Sensei" says Naruto.
Ducard looks at Naruto, troubled.
"Ra's Al Ghul has rescued you fromthe darkest corner of your ownheart... what he asks in return isobedience. And the courage to dowhat is necessary"
Naruto stares down at the flickering candle and at the bottle. He flicks his sword out, smashing the bottle, tipping the candle, flames spread across the wooden floor.
Ducard reaches to extinguish flames, "What are you doing?"
"What's necessary", Naruto jumps and strikes Ducard in the head with the butt of his sword, douses his mask in the liquid fire and tosses it back into the mezzanine where the explosive powders are stored...
Ra's leaps from his throne, striking at Naruto with his sword, Naruto parries as explosions roar from the balcony, shooting flame across the ceiling, Ra's and Naruto fight as explosions surround them.
Naruto leaps clear as flaming debris collapses onto Ra's, crushing him... the flames are rising, Shinobi's bodies are strewn around, fresh explosions rip across the hall as shinobi flee and Naruto spots Ducard lying unconscious. With a grunt Naruto picks up Ducard, hauls him out of the Throne room, into a passage, smashing through an ornate screen with other shinobi following: also carrying a few wounded.
Naruto and Ducard crash down onto a steep slope of ice and rocks, the monastery exploding above them; Naruto rolls over, grabs a rock, looks across to seeDucard unconscious, sliding down the icy slope. His limpform rotates, spinning as his body gathers momentum, rushingtowards the edge of the cliff.
Before Naruto can do anything he sees a shinobi diving after him, sliding head first, down the ice... the cliff closer and closer as the shinobi races after Ducard... Mere feet from the icy-cliffs edge, the nameless shinobi grabs Ducard, raises his free gauntlet clad arm, and smashes at the ice, digging in with the scallops, stopping on the edge. Ducard hangs limply over a tremendous drop, Naruto watches the shinobi struggles with the dead weight. With a grunt the nameless shinobi pulls Ducard up onto the ice and Naruto lets out a sigh of relief.
-Break
Naruto carries Ducard down the road; some shinobi carry the rapped body of the now dead Ra's, while others pull a cart that has a few unconscious shinobi. Naruto kicks the door open to a hut. The Old Man he saw on his way up the mountain stares back at him. Then motions Bruce to put Ducard down onto some mats. The Old Man wipes blood from Ducard's temple. Looks at Naruto, who is moving to the door...
"I will tell them you saved there lives"
Narutostops and turns, looks back at Ducard and then his two friends. "Tell him... I have an ailing ancestor who needs me".
Naruto puts his hands together in formal salute and bows.
-End Chapter
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