Edited: 3-25-14

Chapter 2: No Shortcuts Allowed

Isane learned much about Gotham over the next few weeks. Granted, the whole learning didn't really start until after she'd mastered the language, but she actually got that down pretty quickly. Ah, the wonders of the shadow clone. She spent a significant amount of her non-English speaking days just getting the layout of the village-no-city memorized. The things she saw truly did amaze her. Huge buildings, moving metal boxes with people in them, and the huge metal snake-looking thing that moved around the city at random intervals were just a few.

That wasn't to say that there weren't some dark aspects as well. She quickly learned why there weren't many people out at night. Many of her clones had been mugged, killed, and even sexually harassed while gathering information. And God, did she mention the smell? There was a constant smog all over the place, with an oily smell that drove her crazy until she finally sucked it up and adjusted to it.

She ended up moving her headquarters to the park. It proved to have been a wise decision due to its closeness to a Laundromat that she learned to love, especially when she bought some clothes that she could wash. The purchase of those clothes proved to be rather easy. She had accumulated a vast wealth in ryo over the years that she kept stored in her trusty Gama-chan and in a seal on her forehead protector. Having learned how expensive the gold that the ryo were made of was in this world, she set out to find the nearest pawn-shop to exchange some of it. She did only exchange 30 ryo though, a wise decision considering how she was cheated of over half of its actual worth. Everything seemed to move smoothly from there, aside from the person that the pawn-shop owner sent after her in order to steal the rest of the ryo. Not that she had any trouble getting away from him.

Most of her days were spent reading over any texts that she could get her hands on, be it an old newspaper or an encyclopedia. She was like a sponge, soaking up all the information placed in front of her. And when she ran out of books, she often had her clones break into colleges and universities to read theirs. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, right?

Life was good, yet she couldn't keep on ignoring the fact that she lacked an identity. She'd never really considered just how necessary a name was. Having been a ninja since infancy, she'd spent most of her life hiding her true identity rather than giving it out. But she was so damn tired of sleeping outside since she couldn't rent an apartment. Don't get her wrong, she liked a good challenge as much as the next guy, but it sucked to have to spend rainy nights huddled in front of a flaming barrel.

She was also in a dire need of companionship. She now spent most of her time talking to herself. Hell, she even talked to her shadow clones, now that was a new level of pathetic. She'd tried contacting Kurama numerous times, but he wouldn't respond. At first she thought that he was playing a prank on her or something. But a quick trip to her mindscape showed that he was apparently passed out, and nothing could wake him up. She was reluctant to find out just what he did to have been drained out that badly.

Therefore, seeing as she had no skill whatsoever when it came to mind techniques, she reckoned that she was due for a visit to the more seedy part of the narrows(If that even made any sense)She wasn't new to the whole "Making a deal with the devil" situations after her travels in the Elemental Countries. She took care to use a transformation technique on herself though, transforming into a middle-aged brunette in order to avoid being recognized later on. It would be a pain if they had a way of looking for her after whatever deal they made was done. The way she saw it, she should be able to get the theory of how to create a new identity for herself and make the government her bitch in a few more weeks, but she still needed an apartment and a computer to try out the actual skill.


Dealing with the mob had been surprisingly easy. Or maybe she had just gotten too used to dealing with the Akatsuki. Either way, all she had to do was take out a man named Joe Chill. A quick miniaturized wind blade had taken care of that. She felt no remorse for killing the guy. Sure, she had nothing against him but the fact that he had killed a kid's parents in front of said kid just to make a few bucks was a dick move.

All that was left now was to pick up her new identification papers from the boss himself. Apparently he had been impressed by her skills, and wanted to meet with her (no doubt in order to try to recruit her). In her mind, there was no time for that. Their deal was done and, frankly, the whole "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine" charade had gotten really boring already.

Or so she thought. It was as she was listening to the white-haired mob boss drone on and on about how much of the city he already owned that she spotted him. The man from the courthouse. She remembered spotting him behind one of the pillars as she got ready to take out Chill. But it wasn't his whole sneaking around that had claimed her attention. It was the gun in his hand, barely concealed by the sleeve of his sweet-ass looking jacket. Seriously, she needed one of those. But anyways, back to the point, it didn't take a genius to put two and two together, especially when said man bore an uncanny resemblance to the man whose face appeared all over Gotham, Bruce Wayne. She was seriously not impressed with his whole "avenger" demeanor. She'd had enough when trying to capture the youngest Uchiha after he went rogue. Therefore, she'd decided to teach him a lesson by showing him how the big kids play. The look on his face had been priceless.

She'd had to scoot down the booth as Falcone's men sat Wayne down

How rude she complained to herself, a bit peeved but too interested in what was going to go down to voice her protests.

Despite her expectations, the whole encounter turned out to just be a wash-down for the billionaire. She was mainly only staying there due to a tiny, very minuscule part of her being that felt a bit responsible for the billionaire's predicament. Not that it was really her fault. She then waited until the man was being safely-if not a bit violently-taken out to make her escape(she had already received her payment from the boss). Leaving Falcone to turn to address her, only to be met with an empty seat.

When she went outside, she spotted Wayne talking with some homeless guy. No...wait, he was giving him all his stuff. What reason would a rich kid have for giving all his stuff away...fuck.

He was trying to run away.

Wayne wasn't her problem though, nope. It didn't matter to her one bit what happened to him, even if she was indirectly responsible for. Ah, for the love of God, she took off after him when he walked away from the homeless man after trading coats, who the hell knew what the little shit would get himself into this time. He had already approached the freaking mafia of all things.

One thing that she had to admit was that the guy took his cardio seriously. But let's admit it, no way in hell would a civilian be able to outrun the leaf village's number one unpredictable noisy ninja. Damn, that title was pretty long, and not that nice when she looked back on it. Oh well, it seemed like Wayne had noticed her now. That was if his faster pace was anything to go by. Yup, he looked like he recognized her.

It didn't take long for her to grow frustrated after he decided to try to lose her by walking into an alley. Why did he have to make it so bothersome? She wasnt going to kill him, she just wanted to get some words in with him. Isane jumped onto one of the rooftops and decided to look for him there. He wasn't easy to spot unless you were looking really hard for him. Where had he even learned that? Impressive stealth skills aside, she got ready to pounce on him.

But she didn't. Seeing him there,stubbornly trying to hide from her, brought back memories of her younger self. Albeit Wayne sure wasn't running away from bullies or anything, and she was only hiding to ambush them, maybe he was too. It took a mere fraction of a second for her to make up her mind and call out, "Hey, you!"

She snickered when she saw him jump in surprise. It did please her that he tried his best to keep a defensive stance, not that it was perfect but, hey it was the thought that counted.

"What do you want with me?" He glowered at her.

That was a good question, what did she want with him? It's not like she particularly cared about his well-being or anything. "I dunno, just making sure you're okay. You seemed pretty tense in there and I would have to be the worst person ever to just let you run away from home like that."

"I'm alright. Now can you just leave?" He was still guarded but it was better than having him running away from her. "How did you get up there so fast anyways?"

Wow, he sure didnt miss a beat. "Details, details,the important thing is that you're in an...ok state of mind and I won't have to feel guilty if you die out here or anything. Where are you going anyways?" He looked at her as if she was retarded. "Right, trust issues. I totally get that."

"If you do then can you just-"

"Just watch yourself, okay."

"Why? Are you going to kill me too? I saw you at the courthouse, you killed Joe Chill." His tone was menacing despite his obvious disadvantage.

Isane rolled her eyes. "Falcone did me a little favor for killing that asshole. Why? Do you miss him?"

"I was the one supposed to kill him!" Wayne's voice wavered a bit, as if he wasn't sure that he could've gone through with it. "You took that from me!"

"You sound like a petulant child who didn't get what he wanted for Christmas." She said humorlessly,the whole revenge talk was hitting way too close to home. "Get real. You wouldn't have been able to make it through prison, you're a pretty boy, you're used t people catering to your every need. This," she stood above him on the rooftop and spread out her hands. " This is Gotham, a filthy city full of crime and corruption. And I've done more for this city in the short week that I've been here than you have done in your entire life."

Bruce Wayne looked ashamed. That was a good thing, it meant that she was getting through to him.

Isane let her transformation technique fall and looked at him with her piercing blue eyes, her crimson hair swaying past her hips. "I killed Joe Chill and I don't regret it, do you think it would be the same for you if you'd done it?"

"No." He confessed. "It was a mistake to even think about it, that's not who I am. This city, I will save it." He looked up at her intently, his own dark blue eyes were darkened with an intensity that almost took her breath away. "I will become stronger and save Gotham."

Somehow, she knew he would.