I'm back with another chapter of 'Perfectly Balanced'. Last chapter we saw an example of love at first sight between Naruto and Kara… well mainly Naruto, but it takes two to love, or three. Hinata got personal with her new love, Kiba. And Thanos obtained the Space Stone, thus making him the most powerful being in the Marvel Universe.
Naruto was exhausted. He'd been out on the road for a year, meaning he had to get up every day at the crack of dawn to cover as much ground as possible, and when he finally got home he had to host over eighteen young adults so he only got to sleep at around one in the morning. This meant that when he finally shut his eyes he was out, and he was out for a while. He eventually woke up at around twelve midday, and even then he was still groggy. But he had to put on a black shirt and some pants to go check up on the superheroes. He quickly made sure it wasn't the black shirt Shuri had made for him the night prior.
Speaking of Shuri… "Did you sleep here all night, Your Highness?" Naruto asked. The young woman sat up a little stunned. She glanced at Naruto, then looked at her watch to check the time, she finally made sure all her clothes were on before looking back at Naruto.
"Nothing ha-,"
"No, of course not, Princess," Naruto shook his head.
Shuri jumped to her feet, "Then no one hears about this," she quickly made her way out of the room and into the bathroom. Naruto heard the door slam.
"Even if it did, it wouldn't have been a trainwreck."
"Honestly, you'd fuck anything that moved if you had the chance to."
"Wrong! I'd fuck up, everything that moved if I had the chance to. Sorry kit, destruction is in my blood."
There were ten houses excluding his own, and Naruto allowed the heroes to freely sleep in any house they wanted to, considering how each one had four bedrooms. The sleeping arrangements were discussed at one in the morning when the youngsters were tired from drinking and eating all night.
Kara (Naruto's first priority) slept in the closest chalet with Cassie, Barbara, Artemis and Raven; while Conner slept with M'gann and Dick with Starfire; Garfield, Bart, Wally and Peter chose to room with Chouji which was weird because he had his own Compound; and Robin, Kaldur'ahm and Jaime (or the Esoteric Boys) chose to sleep in one house with Zatanna. The other six manors were left empty which Naruto didn't mind. It just meant less cleaning up for him when Thanos was caught.
Naruto opened the door and walked out into the Compound Square which sat between, and connected, the eleven buildings. He made his way down the cobblestone pathway to the first buildings, his priority building. He knocked on the door.
The portal swung open to reveal a half-naked blonde with a hangover. Kara was probably an inch shorter than Naruto, but add that to the fact that she was slouching meant Naruto had to look down at her. She was wearing just a white sports bra with a red 'S' on it and a short pair of black tights. Naruto couldn't stop himself from staring. His young male hormones commanded him to just reach out and grab some boob or slap some ass, but a mental argument (in which Kurama's input didn't help) stopped him from doing something he'd regret later. He could only imagine what a slap from Kara would feel like.
"Yeah?" she groaned.
"I'm just checking to see if you guys are okay in here?"
"Who is it?" a voice yelled from upstairs. Kara cringed. Her super-hearing seemed to be working to her disadvantage.
"It's Naruto!"
The shinobi tried to add something up quickly, "Hey, there are five of you in here right?" Naruto asked. Kara nodded in agreement whilst tying her hair into a messy bun, "… but there are only four bedrooms."
"Yeah, Cassie and I shared a bed together."
Naruto knew two women would've had to share a bed, he just wanted to hear the nosebleed-inducing news for himself. He cleared his throat, "And you didn't mind? I mean, I have a spare bedroom if they feel uncomfortable. Or you could use my bed, I mean it's a queen-sized bed, meant for a couple – not that we're a couple just-,"
Suddenly a third party joined the conversation, saving Naruto. An equally exhausted and equally hungover Cassie Sandsmark who was wearing one of Naruto's mesh shirts… only. Naruto had to look up because Cassie probably didn't realise that Naruto could see her W-shaped underwear through the thin mesh.
"Nope, it was cold anyway so the more of us on the bed the better," Cassie commented. Naruto started sweating.
"What about Barbara, Artemis and Raven, how did they sleep?" Naruto had already spoken with the person he'd come to speak with so he wanted to speed things up so he could check on the other compounds.
Kara looked over her shoulder, "Don't really know about Barb and Artemis, but you can ask Raven yourself. Hey Ray, come here for a sec."
Naruto's heart picked up to about two hundred beats per minute as he heard the half-demon's light footsteps. The thought of seeing Raven half-naked caused excessive nosebleeds. His palms grew sweaty. His pupils constricted. Swallowing saliva felt like swallowing stones.
"Hey."
Disappointment.
Raven was fully clothed. Literally, everyone was half-naked, including himself, except her. Why was she so unique? He loved her for it, but at the same time he hated her so much.
"I see you're one of a kind, sleeping fully clothed," Naruto joked.
Raven said, in a serious tone, "I wouldn't say fully clothed considering how I'm just wearing my robe."
Naruto's knees almost buckled under him, "What?"
"I slept naked. Whenever I put clothes on I felt too hot, so I just took them off. It was cold, but I preferred the cold."
"What are you doing to me?" Naruto's mouth watered. He took a step back and smiled, "Interesting. Well, I need to go check on the others. See you in a few," he said. In truth, he didn't leave because he had to check on anyone else, he just left because if he stayed another second his body would've involuntarily pulled Raven's robe off, thus ruining any chance he had with her. "Don't turn around," is all he could think to himself as he walked up the pathway and into the second house.
PERFECTLY BALANCED
CHAPTER THREE
The Calm Before The Storm
The next door opened.
"Naruto," Nightwing grinned. He had his mask off and was only wearing a pair of dark blue boxer shorts. This was the most of Nightwing he'd ever seen.
"Nightwing, hey," Naruto greeted.
"Just call me Dick," he said happily. He'd learnt a lot of new names over the past two days – Gargar turned to Garfield, Linda Danvers turned to Kara Zor-El and Nightwing turned to Dick, "Dick Grayson."
"Well Dick, I was just checking in to make sure you slept well."
"Oh yeah, I'm sure we all slept well," he grinned.
"Oh… great," Naruto slowly moved backwards, "Just… replace my sheets with the ones in the main closet please."
"Will do," Dick laughed. The door closed. Naruto regretted knocking on it in the first place.
Naruto's next building smelled like a frat house. Garfield opened the door in his boxer briefs, "Yo bro, what's up," he gave the blonde a complicated handshake, "Come on in."
"I was actually just passing by to come check up on you," Naruto was already halfway inside. Beast Boy had a firm grip on the older man's wrist and he didn't let go until they were both chilling on the couch being marinated in man musk.
"Sleep well?" Garfield asked.
"… Like a baby," Naruto smirked.
"Sasuke?!" a mentally and physically exhausted Naruto looked around at the widespread destruction. Konoha was no more. The unfinished remains of Kakashi's stone face was the last remnant of the once great shinobi village.
Suddenly a pile of rubble rose. Naruto zoomed in on the figure's bright red eyes.
"Sasuke!" Naruto grinned.
The silhouette, shrouded in darkness, stood at full height – nearly eight feet tall – and silently glared at the blonde as, one-by-one, seven little gems on its fist penetrated the darkness. The figure raised its arm.
The moon came down on top of him.
"The end starts now."
Naruto nodded, "Like a newborn baby," he brushed aside his vivid nightmare, "You?"
"Had the weirdest dream bruh," Beast Boy sipped on a can of energy drink.
There was an awkward silence.
"Are you gonna tell me what you dreamt about?"
"Oh yeah," Garfield sat up, "I was in my own body, you check, but I had no control over what it was my body was doing. Like I was a backseat driver in my own brain. Worst part was that my body started attacking everyone and everything. I was so destructive for some reason."
"Sounds less like a dream and more like a nightmare to me, dattebayo."
"Wouldn't really know, I've never experienced nightmares before," Garfield shrugged.
"Everyone has a nightmare every now and then."
"Not me," he insisted.
"You probably can't remember it then."
"… If all nightmares are like the one I had last night it seems like a hard thing to forget dude-."
A mountain of cans exploded as a confused Chouji emerged from the pile. He scanned his surroundings to see where he was.
"Hey, he's alive," Garfield laughed.
"How long has he been under there?"
"He slept there bruh. Said it was his little castle of beer bruh."
Chouji fell back into the massive pile of cans, "My head hurts," was his only comment.
At some point during the day Sakura and Ino had come by and requested to see the superhero women. Too tired to ask questions Naruto gathered all the ladies and let them left them with the pink-haired kunoichi. Whilst the women were out, the men, superhero and shinobi, decided to gather on the Namikaze training field for a quick sparring competition.
"How about shinobi versus hero?" Naruto asked in his bright orange jumpsuit. Shikamaru proceeded to count the number of people participating. Since Sasuke, Neji, Conner and Aqualad considered themselves to cool for a quick spar, the gang let them sit on the sidelines for the contest. Chouji, Peter, Jaime, Naruto, Robin, Garfield, Konohamaru, Lee, Wally, Bart, Sai, Gaara, Dick, and himself made fourteen, Shikamaru counted. That meant seven matches.
"Since you guys are our guests how about you pick who you want to fight," Naruto told Nightwing who was wearing his bat suit.
"Okay, cool. Peter. You can choose first," Dick gave the honour to the only Marvel teen.
"Huh? Um… sure. Okay, I'll… I'll take the kid," Peter chose Konohamaru. The brown-haired Chuunin gave his opponent a little smile, "… Did I just screw myself over? Is he like the strongest among you or something? Like a little Yoda, just not as green?" Peter asked the shinobi. They all shrugged. He looked back at Konohamaru who put his hands behind his back and grinned.
"Your turn Bart," Peter passed the baton onto the mini speedster.
"I want the guy with the eyebrows," Bart chose the beautiful Green Beast of the Leaf. Lee had fire in his eyes.
"Tim."
"Naruto!" he chose quickly. The blonde lit up.
He gave the enigmatic hero a foxy grin, "Great choice dattebayo," Tim folded his arms and disappeared into the crowd of heroes.
Wally chose next and he went after Chouji for the fun of it; Nightwing, underestimating his opponent and overestimating himself, picked Gaara. Jaime chose Shikamaru. Finally, Garfield settled for Sai.
Meanwhile – Konoha Mall
The ladies on the other hand, had gone shopping for new clothes with Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, Hanabi, Karui, Moegi, Karin and Temari. Since there were nine superheroines and nine kunoichi, each kunoichi temporarily adopted a superhero and dragged them around the massive village. Sakura chose M'gann because she wanted to continue a conversation they'd started the previous night, Ino went after Kara simply because of her blonde hair, Tenten picked Artemis because why not, Hanabi picked Raven, Hinata coincidently picked Shuri, Karin chose Cassie, Temari picked Barbara, Karui chose Zatanna, and Moegi chose Starfire. The nine groups split up.
With Sakura
"So how long have you been with Conner?" Sakura asked strolling through the empty streets with her green compatriot.
We've been vibing since 2010," Miss Martian said.
"2010?"
"Yeah… 2010. Wait, what year is it?"
"I… don't think anyone knows what year it is," Sakura stopped to think, "It's just a year after the Fourth Great Shinobi World War."
"Fourth?"
"Yeah," Sakura raised four fingers.
"We've also had World Wars but only two, both caused by Germans," M'gann tried to comprehend fighting four World Wars, "Just two World Wars killed one hundred million of our people, how many people did four take?"
"Millions, but our whole population consists of less than a few million people so all wars together have probably taken out at least half of our population in the grand scheme of things."
M'gann took a second to look around at the vibrant green village, "And yet, your world is so clean and peaceful," she giggled, "So perfect I might consider staying."
"Oh we're not perfect," Sakura stopped in front of one of Konoha's many clothing stores, "We're just good at hiding our imperfections."
M'gann entered first and looked around, "Lots of mesh," she commented.
"Yep, mesh is in season… that, and it's like underwear to us so grab a lot of it," Sakura already had three outfits in hand. As she grabbed the fourth item she continued the conversation from earlier, "So… you and Conner."
"Oh yeah, Superboy," M'gann turned to the pinkhead.
"He seems like a difficult person, how did you guys end up together?"
"Honestly, I think fate brought us together considering how we're total opposites," M'gann brushed aside a strand of short brown hair, "I'm such a nice person so to speak, and he's so… cold."
"Relatable, I just wish your fate worked in my universe," Sakura handed the green woman a handful of clothes, "Time to get changed."
"Let fate operate at her own pace," M'gann said before being pushed into the changing rooms. Sakura sat on the bench outside the tiny room, face in hands, "and I'm not just saying that because I've already experienced love," she said. Sakura sat up, "I can read minds remember."
With Ino
"So on a scale from one-to-ten how strong would you say you are?" Kara asked.
The shorter blonde blushed, "Oh no, I'm way too modest to gauge my own strength, but if I had to say I'm probably a ten. I'm definitely better than Sakura, and probably on par with Naruto and Sasuke," Ino smirked.
"Really? I think I'm pretty tough too. I often get compared to my cousin Kal though, then I feel so weak in his shadow," Kara sulked.
They walked through the revolving glass door into a high-end clothing store, "Kal?" Ino asked.
"Yeah, you know him as Clark," Kara's feet hit the floor, "Muscular, chiselled-jaw, glasses."
"Sounds sexy," Ino giggled as she picked up a dress and held up to Kara's frame.
"Geez, that's a lot of zeroes," she read the dress's tags, "You sure you can afford it?"
"Of course I can, I co-founded this place after the Fourth Great Shinobi War," Ino explained. She picked up a sparkly black blouse and lifted it to Kara.
"You got anything in blue and red?"
Ino looked at Kara up and down. She really stood out in the Narutoverse. Kara was wearing golden-lined blue chainmail armour with a giant red 'S' on her chest and a red mini-skirt around her waist. Luckily she'd detached her long red cape so not as many people were staring in intrigue when she walked past. Ino took a step back, "You seem too red as it is, maybe something… white would suit you more."
Kara rolled her eyes. When Ino turned around Kara's rolling eyes quickly shifted into a smile.
"Try this on."
With Hinata
"Luckily for you, Konoha has a Geek Store," the Hyuuga princess said strolling through a wacky-fashion store with the slightly younger woman.
Shuri blushed, "Just because I'm smart doesn't mean I'm a geek."
Hinata giggled, "I know geek when I see it, and you are geek chic… all you're missing is a pair of glasses and some braces."
"I'm not a geek but I still feel stereotyped," Shuri flashed Hinata with her beautiful smile, "I never saw you at Naruto's house," she tried to change the subject.
"Naruto's house?" it was Hinata's turn to blush, "Um… I don't… I don't want to talk about it."
They both stopped to talk in the middle of the empty store. Hinata watched the genius carefully. They made eye contact… "You guys are fighting?" Shuri asked reading her new friend's emotions.
Hinata stopped blushing, she sounded annoyed, "It's nothing… I was just preoccupied. Can we quickly finish shopping so you can get back to the boys?"
Meanwhile – Namikaze Training Field
Wally and Bart had been forced to sit on the sidelines with Conner, Aqualad and Sasuke after quickly finding out that their superspeed didn't work in this universe, which meant Chouji and Lee won by default. The first matchup, between Peter Parker and Konohamaru Sarutobi, was already underway and neither participant was taking it too seriously.
"So far so good I'd say," Peter shot a web out and zipped across the battlefield, barely dodging Konohamaru's flying kick. The young man stood up straight and smiled. Peter slid across the floor.
"I haven't started using my trump card yet," Konohamaru made a cross with his fingers.
"Whoa!" Peter took a step back, "Am I… am I seeing double?"
"Oi! Pay attention!" the clone dashed forward. Peter looked around. He hated fighting in open fields because there wasn't much he could swing from. His whole gimmick was swinging from buildings, so a battleground with no high structures was his worst nightmare.
"Why is my spider sense going crazy?" Peter looked up at a bright blue spiralling orb of destruction, "Oh!" the ground beneath him exploded as he jumped into the air. The Rasengan made contact with the earth turning rocks to sand.
"What in the world was that?" Peter took his mask off to get a better look. The original Konohamaru approached with the same technique charged.
"It's called the Rasengan. Do you want a taste!"
Meanwhile – The Goth Store
"So tell me a little about Naruto," Hinata didn't hear Shuri's request. She was too busy scanning through the robes for anything in orange to match Shuri's fancy attire. Shuri just said, "Naruto, if it isn't too awkward."
"Naruto? If you're looking for a quick hook-up in Konoha then there's a lot of other guys out there, Naruto is a guy who just wants to settle down and have kids at this point. Is there anyone else that you're interested in?" Hinata asked trying to guide the youngster away from the blonde.
Shuri's spine straightened. She remembered the last time her mother had sat down with her and T'Challa to talk about grandchildren, "If you told my brother that he would marry me to him on the spot. He's always looking for ways to get rid of me, and my mother would love to hear that I got married to a young, rich and handsome bachelor," said Shuri.
"Marriage? You're like twelve."
"I'm seventeen. Only two years younger than he is. Perfect, don't you think," Shuri laughed, "Plus, with life as we know it on the verge of disaster, he'd be glad to hear if there's a future he could spend it with me," Shuri never pictured herself saying that about a boy.
Hanabi never bothered to explain the extent of the Thanos situation to Hinata so the Hyuuga princess just nodded to keep her guest happy. "How about that?" Hinata saw something shiny in a pile of clearance sale items.
Namikaze Training Field
Spidey vaulted over an over-enthusiastic Konohamaru. He finished the vault off by slamming Konohamaru into the ground so hard the orb detached from his grip and became unstable. Naruto blitzed in to control Konohamaru's Rasengan before it exploded. The kid was lying there, unconscious, oblivious to how much destruction he almost caused.
"No need to leave the battlefield," Robin stepped up to the plate, pushing the winner in red out of the way. Peter took his mask off and sat on the sidelines. Naruto held his right hand out and absorbed the Rasengan into his skin.
"I've got to warn you though; I don't give up."
"Neither do I," Tim whipped out a light metal staff.
Naruto blinked.
The High-End Fashion Store
"Naruto?!" Ino yelled, catching the store clerk's attention, but only for a minute. She returned to her fashion magazine, "What do you mean you like Naruto?"
"I don't like him, no! I think he likes me and for some reason that makes me want to know more about him," Kara shrugged.
"He's so hyperactive, you're just as hyperactive… how would that even work when opposites are supposed to attract?" Ino asked.
"Love is love, it has no rules," was Kara's obvious answer.
"You don't want to go after Naruto," Ino said sharply.
"Why not? Is he dating someone?"
"No."
"Is he some sort of player?"
"Of course not."
"Is he like saving himself for someone?"
"Y… well… no," Ino began to walk around the store.
"Then what's wrong with him?"
Namikaze Training Field
Poof! Poof! Poof! With three quick swipes three Naruto clones dispelled. Robin walked out of the smoke. The staff extended even more, "Believe it or not, I've been wanting to do this since yesterday," Robin dashed.
"Believe it or not, I believe it-," Naruto got smacked with Robin's stick. He took a step back, "Wait, I thought we were monologuing still," Robin kicked him to the ground. The staff hit the ground next, just missing the shinobi's face. Naruto slid across the grass a few metres away. "He's fast…" "Not fast enough!"
Four balls rolled up to the blonde. He covered his face with his arms. They exploded. He flew back. Robin attacked.
"Rasengan!"
Robin looked up. His fist was a few inches in front of Naruto's nose… but, another Naruto had burst out of the ground and his spiralling blue ball of death was just a few inches away from his chest.
"Crud," he made a choice quickly. He twisted and contorted his body painfully to dodge the attack, but missed Naruto's face. It would've been in vain anyway because somehow the Naruto's had swapped places in the smoke. The one he would've punched turned into clouds. The real Naruto was gone. "Not again."
Four clones leapt out of the ground and kicked Robin into the air. Naruto's ultimate taijutsu technique had begun.
The Geek Store / The High-End Fashion Store
"There's something you're holding out from me, Hinata… why are you and Naruto fighting anyway?" Shuri asked.
/
"Come on Ino, I don't usually ask people for help so just tell me what's wrong with Naruto?" Kara floated towards the blonde.
/
"Nothing!" Hinata snapped, "Nothing's wrong with Naruto, he's got a nice body, he's the strongest person in the world at the moment and he's such a nice guy, I just had needs and when someone leaves for a year and you're not sure whether they're gonna come back you don't know if he's going to be able to fulfil those needs… I'm not a bad person. I'm not the bad guy. I just deserve better than Naruto, and Kiba was just there for me, and he's always been there ever since our days of Squad T-," Shuri shut her up with a hand on the shoulder.
/
"Naruto is like a bad stock at the moment. You should've seen how he was in the Hokage's boardroom. He looked sickly and confused and scared. He just came back from a year-long tour of the world and he found out that the woman he'd been saving himself for was actually being unfaithful to him on the side so he's not in the perfect state to entertain relationships, so let's all just back off for now," Ino said. Kara raised an eyebrow.
/
"Whoa, slow down there. I only got half of that, but I don't think it's your fault for not being into Naruto," Shuri consoled the older woman.
/
"I don't know how you trade deals, but from my experience if you know a stock is bad now, but will be booming in the future it's best to invest as soon as possible. So that you're thousand buck investment can come out as a million-dollar deal," Kara explained.
/
"That's the thing, I was… but… I'm torn between him and Kiba right now," Hinata fiddled with her index fingers.
Shuri got a little less sympathetic and a little more serious, "Well you don't need to be torn anymore. Naruto's mine."
Hinata looked up into the woman's brown eyes. She didn't know what came over her but she shrugged and slyly said, "Sure."
Namikaze Training Field
Robin was in mid-air looking up at the beautiful blue sky. A front flip and a kick later, he was face-first on the tasteless green grass. He grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it at the blonde.
"You'd be nothing without that replication technique."
"Funny, that's what Reddit thinks too."
Robin threw something at the future Kage, who easily caught it. He stared at the little purple orb that exploded between his fingers. The blonde reversed.
"Well let's see how good you are-," Robin kicked him, "when you don't get a-," he elbowed the blonde, "chance to make a single clone!" another kick brought Naruto down.
"This is ridiculous," Sasuke growled.
"What is it now?" Conner had gotten tired of Sasuke's brooding.
"I've fought with Naruto before, he can make giant foxes made of fire appear out of thin air and generate jutsu powerful enough to form black holes. He's obviously toying with the kid," Sasuke stood up.
"Or maybe Tim's actually giving him a run for his money," Conner smirked smugly.
"Naruto! End this!" Sasuke yelled.
"I agree with the twerp!"
Before Naruto could process Sasuke's request or Kurama's comment, a giant orange-red claw fell from above and crushed Robin, stopping him in his tracks. The beast vanished as quickly as he'd materialised. Robin was unconscious.
Naruto stopped, "I was actually enjoying that."
Sasuke took his seat, "Told you."
To sum up an eventful day; Gaara drowned Nightwing in sand, Shikamaru gave up against Jaime when he realised he couldn't come up with a plan to nullify his blasters, and Garfield bit through Sai's ink lions as a real lion which quickly left him feeling sick which meant Sai won… I guess.
After a long and painful day for the guys, and an equally long and painful day for the ladies (who also had to pick out clothes for their male compatriots) everyone returned to their homes at the end of the day and rested in preparation for another Konoha day.
That Evening – The Hokage Mansion
Bruce Wayne and Steve Rogers were sitting opposite Kakashi in a small coffee room discussing their plans for the upcoming attack whilst the teenagers were asleep. The silver-haired Hokage brought up something no one else had considered yet.
"I think we're going to have to gather other anime characters."
"Other people from this universe? Not a bad idea. How many though?" Bruce sipped his steaming hot tea.
"All of them." Kakashi suggested.
"That's extreme," Steve stroked his beard.
"I like it," Bruce smiled.
Another chapter down. That's chapter three. Admittedly the story is moving a little slow, but it'll start to pick up from here as we see more of everyone's favourite purple Titan. So until next time Follow, Favourite and Review.