The sun descended behind the lush green hills, and Naruto Uzumaki watched in keen interest. His father, adoptive father. Kal-El held a hand on the boy's shoulder, gently. Fatherly. Naruto looked up at his adoptive father, and smiled. A shocking white smile with the cat's whiskers scars on his face. No one knew what, whom made the marks on the boy. But, they knew Naruto had faced a lonely life. It had taken a year since arriving in Smallville for him to open up to Kal-el. Kal-El was married to his current wife Diana, princess of the Amazons. And they lived secretly after the great disaster caused by Gog. It all seemed like a nightmare, but when Kal-El returned, he found his friends alive, and well. Though, many young heroes were dead. The dawn of the third age of heroes started. Kal-El looked down at Naruto. Bruce saw great potential in the boy. The boy seemed to already possess fighting skills, and quite adept at Kobudo. Bruce believed with further training, Naruto would make an excellent student and a possible candidate for his replacement.

(*Kal-El was blown into the mainstream DCU in JSA: Thy Kingdom Come by Geoff Johns, only to return to his world and find it full of hope.)

Kal-El was hesitant, and it was only when he saw Naruto's bright, wide blue eyes. He realized that the third age needed a hero with optimism. One that could make a difference, and be a product of the first age's greatest champions. So, he trained. Every Monday through Wednesday with Bruce and Dick Grayson, who held the mantle of Red Robin after Tim Drake had long given up superheroics, and Dick had felt the Batman role was not a burden he could carry. On Thursday through Saturday, he trained with Ted Grant* in boxing techniques. He would pester them, annoy them with his questions. His diligence, and sticktoitiveness, however, paid in spades. Six months came and went, and Bruce felt he was ready to go out on patrol as Robin, the boy wonder.

(*Ted Grant is Wildcat I and as revealed in Justice Society Of America #34, he goes through a cycle of having 9 lives. Which means he can only be killed if his 9 lives are taken in rapid succession. Giving him a sort of immortality.)

"Heh," said Robin. He wore a uniform similar to Damian's, but it bore the Japanese Kanji symbol of the Leaf on the sleeves. Bruce, Kal-El, nor Diana asked him what it was for. "What are we waiting for, I'm getting bored!"

"Patience," said Batman coolly. "The Joker gang is not some one to be trifled with."

"Yeah, yeah, you told me before."

Batman looked darkly at Robin, and Robin flashed a smile. Batman resumed his perch and looked at the Joker gang. A group of misfits chemically altered by the Joker years ago to carry on his madness. All of them carry his insanity, and lust for chaos – yet lack his genius. Despite that limitation, the insanity made these normal street thugs much stronger with a higher tolerence for pain. Batman's Batdroids had never managed to quell them. Since he took up the crusade again with the aid of a powered armor. He wondered how many more years he had to cheat death because he felt time sleeping away. He was enjoying every second of it.

"Robin," said Batman. His voice was almost a whisper. "Distraction only, leave them to me."

Robin jumped down, to a flag pole below him, and leaped through the air. His cape slowed his fall and he let drop flash bangs, which blinded and deafened the Joker gang. Batman leapt down and used his cybernetically enchanced reflexes to wade through the wild gun fire. He clipped the leader across the chin, and shattered his knee cap. A hard object struck him in his weak back, and he collapsed. Robin had landed nearby and ran to intervene. The Kyubai was weak in this world, but the rage of the boy gave it strength to grow. Robin came in with a storm of kicks and acrobatics that left the Joker gang striking each other, and doing more damage than he was.

His tail wind ended with corkscrew spin and he channeled some of his chi into his fist. It was a Rasangan, but the chi of this new world was so untamed that Robin had difficulty controlling it. He let it loose into the gut of the largest of the Joker gang, and the whirl wind blast was followed by an imprint in the wall with the Joker gang member lying on the pavement unconscious. Batman fired mini-darts from his gauntlets and tranqued the other members as they were focused on the boy wonder. As Batman gasped for breath, he wondered. What was the trick the boy used to take out the biggest member of the Joker gang. He knew that would have to wait until later. Since relinqushing control of Gotham, the city was no longer a police state. Crime was returning, but so was the will of the people. A new government had taken control, and they considered Batman an enemy. For taking the city under his control for so long, and not letting people have free will, and due process. A press of a hidden stud and the hovering batmobile flew in. The tractor beam carried Batman and Robin inside. Naruto could see Batman was hurt. He removed his mask, and came closer to see if he was all right.

"Sensei-san?"

"Home."

The autopilot kicked in and the batmobile raced home. Naruto had done a good job, but he was reckless. Not unlike Jason Todd, but the boy seemed to be have a knack for on the fly tactics. He was a definte adaptable fighter. Bruce realized he would have to temper Naruto's recklessness. Unless the boy gets himself killed.

Kal-El watched his specially fertilized crops soak in the sun. It was a cheat to use Kryptonain science.

The radioactive dust had done damage to the Kansas landscape. That damage was being undone by the special fertilizer which soaked up the excess radiation and converted it to pure nurtrients to the crops. Kal-El didn't completely understand matter/energy conversion physics as dictated by his people, all he knew was that the farmland would provide a lot of food for a lot of people. Diana came out of the house wearing a fetching dress. Kal-El lowered his glasses.

"You look great."

"I should at this age, I gave up my immortality you know."

Kal-El smiled, and walked over to her and embraced her. They shared a kiss. A tender one. He pulled away from her when his super-hearing picked up the sound of foot-steps. Kal-El turned around and saw his adoptive son Naruto standing at the edge of the field. A smile on his face. He walked toward his adoptive parents with his bag slung over his shoulder. He had grown taller in the six months he had been gone. Kal-El hugged his son and so did Diana. His three little sisters and brother came to greet him as well.

"How was Gotham?" asked Lo-El. A jubilant smile on her young face. Her dark hair was long with bangs covering her blue eyes. "Did you kick some butt?"

"Yeah," said Naruto. "Sensei gave a two week break to relax before I have to go back for more training."

Jor-El walked around his older brother. Noticing the differences in his posture.

How more confident he seemed. He wrapped his arms around Naruto, and Naruto picked up.

"How you doing, short stuff?"

Jor-El hugged him a bit tighter. But, not so tight that his fledgling super-strength would hurt his brother. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, Jor-El."

He set Jor-El down, and ran his hand through Jor-El's black hair, and stared into his innocent blue eyes. Sara-El and Sora-El, the twins hugged Naruto next. Both had short black hair, and blue eyes. And looked much like their mother. While Jor-El had much of his father's looks. And Lo-El looked both parents.

"I missed you guys," said Naruto. He looked up at Kal-El and Diana, and he shed a single tear. A tear of happiness.

Once Naruto was settled back in, for the two weeks at least. He helped with the chores. Though, he often complained about them when he first joined the family. He learned to consider them training. Already he had grown stronger and faster because of the crop shearing, the hay stacking, and cow-milking, and tending to the farm animals. Kal-El rarely used the tractor that was left to him by his long dead father. Though, it still had some life in it. He preferred to use his strong back, and none of his super-powers so he could enjoy his connection to humanity. Naruto's brother and sisters were two young yet to help with the chores. That, and their powers were starting to develop. Kal-El wanted to continue to train them in precise control for a several more years before he let them help out. Naruto finished his last stack of hay. He was sweating, but he pulled a hankerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow. The hankerchief was the remains of his Leaf-nin head band. He doesn't quite remember how he got to this world, nor what happened that left him injured.

What he did know was that he had at times missed home. That thought waned when Naruto's highly trained and keen hearing heard a noise from above. He looked up and Jor-El was flying above the farm. Naruto leaped onto the barn and jumped clear up using his chakra manipulation, and grabbed hold of Jor-El.

"Jor-El, bring us down!" he said. He could see the look of disappointment grow on Jor-El's face. "I'm not mad, but we want to retain a bit of normalcy for our neighbors."

Jor-El nodded and lowered them to ground. Naruto picked Jor-El up, and carried him into the house. There Diana was tending to his sisters while Kal-El cooked. Diana was not raised to cook and clean, but to fight. So, she had little to no knowledge how. Kal-El tended to the cooking since he had a lot of practice and advice from his mother. Naruto sat Jor-El next to him, as Kal-El begain setting out plates. The others came and sat around the table. Diana noticed a down look on Naruto's face.

"What's the matter, son?" she said.

Naruto looked up, smiled his shockingly white smile, and said: "Nothing, just thinking."

Diana looked to three girls. The ones she favorited the most, but she loved all of her kids. She then looked back at Naruto as he spoke with Jor-El.

There was so much they had yet to uncover about the boy. It almost seemed that whatever answers they would like to uncover would never be available.

After supper, Naruto tucked in Jor-El and told him a story. Or a rather an account of his life mistaken for a story.

"And the boy said: I won't lose to you, no matter what!"

Jor-El pulled his blanket up above his face. "Then what?"

"He fought with the other nin and would have lost, but a great power overcame him and he managed to destroy the obstacle in his way."

"Did he kill the nin?"

"No, the nin sacrificed himself to save his partner, he took a death move called the chidori to the chest."

"What's a chidori?" asked Jor-El. He pulled his blanket back down with a curious look on his face.

"It's..." Naruto began. "Nothing, just a fairy tale."

"You tell good stories, Naruto."

"Yeah," said Naruto. He hid his sad face beneath the shadows as he wished his brother good night.

Instead of going to sleep. Naruto trained. The chakra of this world was hard to manipulate, but his was not. He had just needed to strengthen it since his recovery from his injuries upon arriving on this world. He had already managed to strengthen his shadow clone jutsu. Not by himself, but through the the teachings of his new sensei. He came to realizations he had not foreseen before about his abilities. He pushed himself harder to accomplish the new goals he had set upon himself.

Tomorrow would be a new day, and he would be ready for it. He went to sleep as soon as he was exhausted. He had no idea that the demon fox inside of him was slowly growing in power again.

End Of Part One: New Path, Old Wounds.