AN:- Part of the things I'm posting over at AO3, this was based on TwinEnigma's deviantart piece "no idea". Please read the notice at the end of the chapter.
No one liked to talk of Yagigakure. But first, a little bit of geography. It was situated in Freedom country, and the capital of the River Region. Hey Freedom country is big. It took up two fifths of the Shinobi world's land mass. And they had a lot of problems.
Most considered it taboo for all the hilarity of their chosen name. Yagigakure - Village Hidden in the Goats indeed, Goat's home. Gotham - as its nins and civilians liked to call it.
They stayed out of the way of everyone, and everyone - even sick bastards like Orochimaru, stayed away from Gotham.
Because however bad he was, Gotham was ten times worse.
...
In fact, it was pathetically easy to pick out Gothamites - the civilians of Yagi. They were the ones travelling, seemingly, without any form of protection. Most civilians would be deathly scared when travelling on the roads alone where bandits and rouge nin could leap out at any second.
Not Gothamites.
A Konoha-nin team once stumbled across a civilian raid attempt. Attempt. The 'civ' in question was from Yagigakure. The bandits were left bleeding.
It was a truth not commonly acknowledged that most Gothamites were on par with the genin of other Hidden Villages, their civilian police force were as well trained as most chunnin and their genin… Trouble was, for all it's founding as a Hidden Village, Gotham did not appear to have any nin.
At face value that is.
...
There was a Kage that held down the law, but he never referred to himself as Kage. His name was Alfred Pennyworth, and he was the retainer of the clan Wayne. Instead of a jounin commander, he had the police Commissioner Gordon. He wasn't the head of the village - not officially, but everyone knew that Alfred's word was law.
...
The Waynes were merchants and medics. Till the massacre that wiped out the nin of Yagigakure happened, taking the Waynes with them - all but one.
Eight year old Bruce Wayne, the new Head of the Wayne clan. Who proceeded to swear vengeance against the criminals who went on the killing spree - for fun. Please note that before the massacre that claimed the lives of the nin of their village, Gotham was pretty much like any other hidden village, if somewhat more grim. It was only after the massacre that Yagigakure and its inhabitants gained a reputation.
And what a reputation to gain.
There will never be nin from Yagi participating in the exams ever again.
...
Then a nin popped back up again.
He wore the Village symbol across his chest. No Hitai-ate. His head was covered by a cowl. He was Black Ops, he was Batman. And he was the greatest Detective the Shinobi world would ever see.
Because although the Waynes, not being a ninja clan, had no Kekkei genkai. They were a bunch of unique individuals. They could see how everything connected together - which was what made them so formidable in the hospitals and the boardroom. See if they had been ninja, and constantly molded their chakra then they would have had developed a Kekkei genkai, as such all the last Wayne had was that.
Because Batman was Bruce Wayne - not that anyone apart from the unofficial Kage would ever be able to tell. And he was alone.
And Gotham needed it's nin again. Not even their civilian police force could keep up with the uncontrolled Chakra Manipulators.
...
Now usually, a ninja needs training to access their chakra. But once in a while, someone will pop up who instinctively knows how to use it. It's not much trouble in regular Hidden Villages, the child would be typically called a genius and be sent straight to the Academy.
Because not having any form of control can potentially cause them to go insane. And the lucky ones that find a way to control their chakra? They are liabilities, for their minds were fragile - and the slightest thing could send them off the edge into insanity.
And that was how terrors like the Joker popped up. If not for the massacre - he would have been great, because of it, he was feared.
Poison Ivy appeared when a girl who could use Mokuton, managed to control her chakra till the threats of her research centre closing down made the veil of control snap.
Harvey Dent was one of the most brilliant District Attorneys in Yagigakure. A criminal causing disfigurement during a case caused his control to snap, resulting in Two-Face.
There were many, many stories more that were just like this. And the only thing that could take down a Chakra Manipulator - was a nin. A Bat.
That was their nickname for the Batman.
...
If civilians and police were as good as genin and chunnin, then Batman was definitely on par with the Sages. And the one time Tsunade ran into him and inadvertently sabotaged his arrest by accident, he kicked her butt. Jiraiya shudders at the thought of him. Orochimaru prays that the shadow of the Bat would never touch Oto.
But he was still only one person. One nin.
Then one day, a gang boss got cocky when the circus was in town. A young boy saw his parents fall and Bruce decided to act. He adopted the young boy into his clan.
That was how Richard Grayson became a Yagi-genin. Again - not that anyone knew about it of course.
...
Remember what was stated before? That the police force were on par with Chunnins of other villages? By the time he hit the streets alongside the Bat as Robin, The Boy Wonder; he was on par with the elite Chunnin of other villages. The criminals and Chakra Manipulators laughed at his too colourful outfit. Traffic lights they called it. Complete with the Hitai-ate that hadn't been worn in years tied firmly into place with a blindingly yellow cloth that matched the cape.
A mask covered his eyes- and he was the first genin-student of the Bat.
...
Bruce saw himself in the child, but saw something more. Richard John Grayson had an ability of his own that was similar to the Waynes. He could see how everyone could work together. He could take other genin (don't ask, Freedom country was having a bad day that day) and make them into something great - a team. He had the potential to one day become the leader of their village no - the whole of Freedom country.
But as he grew up, and grew stronger, he left the traffic lights behind. New genin were recruited. New children were adopted into the clan. Every one of them had something that made them unique.
Jason was an excellent marksman. but before he became known for his guns, he was a pickpocket equal to the Catwoman (who was not a Chakra Manipulator, but a burglar rogue-nin of a destroyed village that had made her home in Gotham). He was excellent at retrieval missions. After all, does it count as stealing if you are stealing to return it to it's rightful owner?
Timothy could compartmentalise like no other. He had a very well organised mind. Even though Bruce and Dick could perform this technique, and perform it well enough for an Ino (who mistook them for enemy-nin) to not be able to even touch their minds. Tim was on a whole other level.
Cassandra read body language like most people spoke words.
Stephanie was a survivor.
Barbara Gordon - the Commissioner's daughter was not a nin. But she ran the spy Network of Yagigakure, and Freedom country for that matter. So she ended up working very, very closely with the Yagi-nin, or as the Gothamites came to call them - the Bat Clan.
And she knew how good their nin were. Their genin on par with elite chunnin. Their chunnin on par with special jounin. Only their jounin could somewhat be fitted into the normal scale, if you took into account people like Sharingan no Kakashi and the ex-jounin S-Class Missing-nin Itachi Uchiha.
...
Then Bruce "died". (Except not really because he was stuck in time and other nin of the Freedom Alliance were trying to get him back but that took time.) And he left behind a mantle and a biological son.
It was a truth not commonly acknowledged that Nightwing - the persona Dick Grayson took on, was in fact on par with Bruce.
There was a brief scramble in the ranks, and Damian Wayne became Robin.
And Dick became the second Sage of the Shadows - The Batman.
Note from Eastonia,
I promised myself I would not come back here till the things I previously stated were rectified. I have to go back on my word for one reason.
Dick Grayson is in danger.
If you love a certain Boy Wonder and want to prevent something like his demise from happening (or for more details) please go over to
Change. org and search for "Save Dick Grayson". This is on a timeline people. He has only until April (so really, mid-March). Alternatively contact me for the link.
The link is (remove spaces and apostrophes please!)
change'.' com' / en-GB/petitions/dc-comics-save-d i c k-grayson-2
Also, I'm slowly getting back on my feet (in terms of writing stories) after my boycott.
From now on I'll be Eastonia over at AO3 - don't really like it (format s a little confusing for me) but I feel it is necessary. My previous stories are undergoing a revamp. There will be minor changes - just to improve flow and grammar and things like that.
But to let you know the order of revamp...
Five Years On AU (and it's other related stuff) fics first.
Then The Shift!Verse fics.
Then The Keeper's fics.
Thanks for following me.
This is Eastonia signing off.