Good to see that people are still enjoying the story and I do intend to keep this going, but I am considering getting a Beta for my story, that and I suck at choreographing fights, so I wanna know if the fight will be any good before I post it on my actual fanfic and not look like an idiot who can't write worth a damn. But this is where the cannon of the comics starts to play out and this is issue #20, 21 & 22 of New X-Men. Not the Grant Morrison series, but the Craig Kyle & Chris Yost series, the whole Academy X was taken off the series' title for whatever reason after the House of M event. Now on with the story! Oh, and I do not own Naruto or any Marvel products nor rights, if I did, I'd be awesome :)
Chapter 3: Childhood's End Part 1
-Dallas, Texas; Two years before M-Day and Naruto's arrival-
William Stryker, in ragged clothes walked out in the stormy night to his former church where he once preached the word of God, and against mutant kind, it was boarded up and was in a state of decay. He made his way inside taking a look around his former house of God. He hoped by coming here, he would gain the answer as to what he should do now, as it seems that his way had been lost.
"Lord! Why?! I served you faithfully…I sacrificed everything I held dear…my wife! My child! All for you lord. All for you…"
He was looking and speaking to a large altar with the crucifix in the center of it high in the air.
"But now I am alone…lost! Forsaken! And when I came to you for guidance….for hope…you gave me nothing! Nothing…"
He pulled a pistol that he had kept in his house for self-defense in case of a break in and began to prime the trigger to pull on himself, he truly believed that without God, he had no purpose in his life after losing those things most dear to him.
"I ask you now, Lord. One more time…give me your strength. Light my way back to you. Please Lord…please…"
As he was pulling the trigger to end his life, a bright light had appeared in front of him in place of the cross. He shielded himself from the light as his eyes began to adjust to hit and he was able to make out a figure within it.
"Thank you, God."
But just as he finally caught sight of what was in front of him, he was hit in the back of the head unconsciously by a man completely covered in a pitch black cloak.
"You'll wake up soon dear 'soon-to-be-again Reverend' to continue on your pathetic existence and path to self-destruction. Oh, how I could just end your miserable life right here, right now and save those that don't deserve the death you inflict on them…but they need to be killed…otherwise some things just may not end up happening…but who knows really? However…that's a chance that I'm not willing to take, but now, I have some things to collect in the meantime, and lie in wait for the time being, since I can't really go back just yet. Ah well…"
The figure soon went to work and once he was finished, he disappeared from sight, as if he were never there.
-Now-
"Danielle? What...Dani, wait! What's wrong?!"
Scott was baffled as to what was going on, it he had a small idea as to what it was when Dani had stormed out of Emma's office with an angered look on her face and slammed the door shut. He though that the glass would break from the force.
"She has no place here Scott. None of them do."
"And I said we would discuss this!"
Scott was adamant about discussing the future of the non-mutant staff and students since he wanted to honor Xavier's idea of having both mutant and human staff and students attending and teaching at the school. Emma however though that they would be more susceptible to danger from their enemies, now that they saw only 200 mutants left in existence. But they weren't alone as Logan was overhearing the whole argument.
"Without her power she's nothing but a potential victim. Just like the rest of the students."
"I don't care! She's one of us! We don't throw our family..."
"This is a school for the gifted and she no longer fits into that category. Scott I understand how much she means to you, to the students...but don't you see...I'm trying to save her."
"This isn't right."
"Don't be selfish, Scott. Let her go...for her sake."
And with that Logan had heard enough. He needed to make a call to someone that needed to be here, now more than ever. He headed down to the med bay were he had some privacy, as he knew that no way in hell that Emma would ever agree, but he believed that he could count on Slim to help vouch for her. He dialed up her current number as he knew that she changed phones every so often to avoid being tracked down. The phone rang a couple of times as he held it up to his ear, he soon heard the ringing stop and someone breathing on the other end of the line.
"You might as well say hey kid. I can hear you breathing."
"I miss them..."
"I know you do, but they aren't there anymore."
"She was my only friend."
"I know she was Laura. I know she was...but she's gone now and you being there won't bring her back. Look, you're breaking my heart, but I didn't call to talk about that. You have to come back."
"No!"
"You and I had a deal and I kept my end of it. I didn't tell anyone I knew you. I even let you kick my ass, something I don't remember agreeing to, but whatever. And you…" (AN: Go read X-23: Target X to get some more clarification on this conversation, it is part 2 of her origin story.)
"I couldn't!"
"Yes, you could've. No bullshit! You need to come here and try it."
"They'll find me there. They found me once before."
"You're probably right. But do you think Weapon X will ever stop looking for me? Not a damn chance! But that doesn't matter now."
He was looking at the body of the kid named Hydro. He had jumped into the school pool in order to try and prove that he could still breathe underwater and that he didn't lose his mutation like the vast majority of the other students who had. Logan had spotted him in the water and dove in to try and save the kid while he still could, but he was too late.
"The world just got a whole lot scarier and the kids at the school need you."
"But…"
"And more importantly, you need them! The only chance you have is here Laura. If you don't come back, you're already dead. Trust me, just come…"
And before he knew it, she just hung up the phone on him midsentence, just as if this conversation were on the ending of an episode for The Sopranos.
"Dammit, she's just as stubborn as I am…guess I'll have to go get her myself instead, hopefully she won't try to take my head off this time unlike last."
-Saint Michael's Hospital, Chicago; one year ago-
The evening had begun to storm making the roads slippery, wet, and almost in-navigable to get through the crowded streets of downtown. The now reinstated Reverend William Stryker had been gathering followers in the past year, trying to continue his work from before, as he waited patiently for the man that he would save from death and enlist him into his new Purifiers: Dr. Jack Abrams, a very well renowned surgeon of high caliber. And right as it was predicated, the man had exited the main entryway to the hospital, he almost…dare he say…that the good doctor almost looked like the actor Gary Oldman from the Batman films.
"Thy will be done." He checked his watch and stepped out of his limo to save the man as he tried to call out to a taxi.
"Taxi! Taxi!" As he waved to one that had caught his attention, and just as he was about to get into it, out of the cold weather onward to his home, a man in an umbrella had placed his hand on his shoulder and spoke to him.
"Doctor."
"Wha..?"
"Dr. Abrams. A moment of your time please."
"I'm, uh…I'm sorry but I'm in a bit of a rush…" He really wanted to get out of this damn weather and not catch a cold.
"Doctor, do you know who I am?" The man didn't appear to be giving up on getting some of his time, and he wouldn't be anytime soon.
"I uh…I believe so…yes. Yes, I've seen you on TV Reverend. But why do you want to talk to me?"
"It's a matter of life and death. If you just give me a moment, I can explain."
"Hey! You coming, or what?!" The taxi driver was getting inpatient, since he wasn't getting any money as of now, and most taxi drivers barely made a living, if they did, then they wouldn't be doing the job at all.
"Please." Nope, he wasn't giving up one damn bit, so he decided to just indulge the man.
"Thanks but I'll have to catch the next one."
"Idiot!" The driver drove off to find his next meal ticket, since this man wasn't it.
"Okay, what's this all about?"
"It's about you, doctor."
"I don't understand…"
"Tell me, Mr. Abrams…do you believe in God?" And right on cue as the vision he was given, a bus swerved out of control hydroplaning on the surface of the road and crashed right into the taxi that would have been the good doctor's ride home out of the terrible weather.
"How…how did…?" He was honestly astonished by what had happened…the reverend had just inadvertently saved his life.
"Because God believes in you, my son."
On a nearby rooftop out of sight from the streets, the cloaked man stood and watched the event play out.
"It seems everything is still going according to what was originally intended to happen. Good, I'll have to keep an eye on both parties to make sure of it in the meantime."
-Surge and Forge-
Down in the med bay, Surge had headed down there due to Mr. Summers request. She wasn't exactly sure why but went ahead anyway, as she arrived she saw her friend Forge. He had created her original gloves for her powers and would come by every now and then to sub for one of the other teachers that were out doing X-Men things, whatever they were. But she noticed that he had a new set of gloves in his hands and that she realized why. He had helped her change them out while keeping her discharge steady for a bit.
"How's that feel?"
"Uhhh…good. Really good." She tested them out to get a feel for them. The electricity flowed better than before, in her old gloves.
"They're lighter than your last pair by about half."
"Yeah…thanks Mister uh…forge."
"It looked like you had enough weight to carry already, Miss Ashida." Forge had been the X-Men's primary genius for all of their tech such as integrating Shi'ar tech into their own to improve the school and his own inventions. He had mad Nori's original gloves and was forced to do a rush job due to other things he had on his plate, and that she needed something to regulate her uncontrollable electrical discharges and get off of the drugs that did the same thing for her. He knew she hated them more than anything.
"It's…it's been a messed-up few days. So many students leaving. My friends…no one knows what's going to happen. Nothing's ever going to be the same again, is it?"
"No. I'm afraid dark times are ahead of us…and with so few mutants left, we must do everything we can for our people…or risk losing everything."
She knew he was right. Why? Cause he was the major tech dude that would put Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man put together to shame. If he said something like this, then she had to prepare for what was to come and savor every moment she could until then…maybe she should actually try to be a little nicer to the new guy Naruto.
-Naruto-
Classes had been canceled for the rest of the day for whatever reason, but the Danger Room was left open to some students to blow off steam if they wanted to, provided that there be a teacher up in the control room. He wanted to try and get with Mr. McCoy and see if he could ask his help in programming his past enemies into the Danger Room for future private practice when no one else could see him, at least until he felt comfortable knowing that he could trust the students with his past.
However Mr. McCoy was working on something's for a while and couldn't be disturbed. So he decided to go see what the other students were doing and caught several of them in the lounge room, with what a large TV with the channel's constantly changing. He overheard some of the students talking about their current predicaments and whatnot.
"What are you going to do, Brian?"
"I don't know Cess…I Don't wanna go home…do you think they'll really make me?"
"Maybe you could fake like you still had your powers. I could just randomly run away from you and stuff."
"Shut up, Santo." She knew he meant well, but he just was to dense to even be sensitive to the matter at hand.
"What? I'm just trying to help. It's not my fault he got, you know…tagged."
"…bombings in downtown…bzzt…rise in the stocks today…bzzt…appearance by the Fantastic F…bzzt…Wrestling Federation!" Just as Santo had stopped hitting the button, a tongue had shot out at the remote and yanked it out of his hand.
"Santo!"
"What?"
"Do you go out of your way to be a jerk?!" Cessily really thought that he once was a stereotypical high school jock before his mutation kicked in, though that did little to change his personality.
"Hey"
"I am not watching wrestling."
"Yeah jerk!"
'I guess Cessily wasn't the only one to get offended by his taste in entertainment.' Naruto thought to himself on the matter.
"It looks like there's someone that's just as big of an idiot as you are here after all."
'Shut it furball!' He squinted his eyes and grew a frown at the fox's joke. Just as he had finished with that little thing he heard Josh try to shift the mood to something else to try and stop any violence.
"Did any of the other healers have any luck?"
"You're the last one, Josh, well…along with Jay and Naruto."
"Oh, right."
"I overheard Dr. McCoy say that there was no trace of the X-gene in any of us….there was nothing to be healed."
'Dammit, that leaves Creation of all Things out of the picture, even though I could give them all chakra networks like the old man did, it'd take a lot out of me and it might actually put them into coma's or worse, I don't know….guess the Doc really was right after all, there's no reversing something like this…' His thoughts were interrupted by the TV as Vic had turned the volume up to hear the news. He knew that the world got affected by it, but odds are they didn't know yet…guess they'd find out eventually though.
"We interrupt this program for breaking news."
Nori had finally arrived just as the news started and wrapped her arms David, surprising the former mutant.
"Wha...?"
"Hey."
"You scared me Nori."
"You're just lucky haven't moved up to biting…yet."
"Shhh!"
"Get a room"
Naruto just simply rolled his eyes and had wondered if that's how teen couples were back home, since he never saw anyone like that very often considering his line of work of course.
"So what's going on?" She was answered with the news reporter on the TV instead of her friends.
"…reports coming in from around the world about mysterious, wide-scale disappearances in the mutant population. We take you live to Neal Conan in Mumbai."
"X-Corps offices around the globe have suddenly closed their doors, without explanation. There have been massive catastrophe involving all mutant kind, in what some are calling it simply, 'M-Day'. But so far, nothing has been confirmed."
The other students were surprised by the news, and began asking questions of their own.
"Oh, no…"
"That didn't take long."
"So it's not just here..?"
"Why is this happening?"
"What's an X-Corps?"
"I had a feeling the news would break soon, but not this soon…" Naruto thought that maybe within a weeks' time, but apparently things got around a lot faster here than back in the Elemental Nations, given that they only really had access to messenger hawks to get information around, here it was just one click away with a camera and phone.
"Wait a second, you knew?!" Nori was flabbergasted by the blonde's words.
"Yeah, I knew that this was gonna happen soon, Doctor Strange filled me in on what had happened when he brought me here." Everyone turned their heads with wide eyes to towards the blonde shinobi. And only one question was asked: "You know Doctor Strange?!"
"Yeah he brought me here from Japan and gave me a crash course in English on the way…wwwhhhyyy are you guys looking at me like that?"
Everyone then turned their attention to Santo with scowls on their faces. "Wwwhhhyyy are you guys looking at ME like that?"
"'Some old looking dude in a cape.' You said… are you serious! You don't even know who Doctor Strange is do you? He's literally the most powerful guy in existence!"
'That's rather debatable…' Naruto had thought to himself since he was literally immortal now and had access to all of the Tailed Beasts', the Sage of Six Paths', Madara's, and more than likely, Kaguya's powers and abilities if he could draw on it. He prolly could give the good man a run for his money, along with several other beings of the like.
"And you could, there are probably only a select few in this reality that could even come a little close to the power you have now. Like that hot red-headed woman in that white room."
Naruto had blushed heavily at the fox's last comment, put quickly put it down so no one would notice. After everyone had their little 'Are you stupid?' stare at Santo, they turned their attention back to the newscast.
"…of the so called 'Mutant Town' in New York City, only to find the streets empty. Once the most visible symbol of the rise of Homo Superior, Mutant Town's residents are now either in hiding or have disappeared. There has been no comment from the super hero community regarding this matter, nor from the Xavier Institute where four massive Sentinels have been stationed for several days now. The White House has so far refused to address this issue, which adds fuel to the growing fuel to the growing rumors of an apparent crisis. In a related story, the Reverend William Stryker, once well known for his condemnation of mutants, held a press conference just days before news of the mutant disappearances broke."
"God will give the world a sign, one that I am destined the faithful will be watching. Once given, we must all look to the results of this grand miracle and the path to righteousness." Naruto narrowed his eyes at the man speaking out about his 'vision', and began to get a bad feeling about him already.
"The Reverend Stryker was interviewed this morning at his ministry…"
"After the incident with the X-Men at Madison Square Garden, you were imprisoned…then thought to have died in transport. Can you explain what happened?"
"My life was spared by God."
"Your sentence for murder and conspiracy was commuted by the governor of New York, an act which many have condemned. How do you respond?"
"Everything in this life happens according to the Lord's Plan."
"You made a statement weeks ago. A prediction that there would be a 'world-wide miracle'. And over the past two years, you've made many predictions…most recently, the earthquake in Central America, and an airline disaster in Colorado…how do you explain this?"
"When God spared my life, he also gave me a gift, the gift of foresight. It is my mission to ensure that his miracles are no longer squandered"
"Your number of followers grows every day, and those within your church call you a prophet and a savior. But many still see you as a racist and a bigot. How do you respond to those people?"
"The path to Eden is paved with swords and serpents, only the chosen will survive the journey. I am not here to complain about the obstacles and difficulties that face me on this trek, but rather to light the way for the Lord's children. My message is simple...God has taken the first step, now we must take the next."
"He's extremely dangerous..." Naruto was reminded of a certain Akatsuki member that killed in the name of his god and religion.
"What makes you say that?" David wanted his input since he thought that the Reverend had basically told that all mutants should burn at the stake.
"Back in Japan, around where I come from, there was this guy that would go on a killing spree every now and then in the name of his god: Jashin, I think that was its name was…and would do some sort of prayer before and after killing someone. And he enjoyed every damn bit of it. But this guy...he's doing a pretty good job of hiding his bloodlust with his words and behinds his little cult followers here. He isn't speaking for God, he's speaking for himself, and I bet you if anything, someone either told him those things would happen, or he orchestrated those disasters just to seem like a prophet. I wouldn't be surprised if it was both." He had a deep scowl across his face, he loathed people that would hide behind religion in order to justify killing someone, that was one of the reasons he went with Team 10 to track down the Akatsuki members that had killed…no, murdered Asuma-sensei for the bounty on his head, and to their own enjoyment. But he knew that it wasn't his place to take down Hidan, that honor belonged to Shikamaru, so he settled for taking out his partner, Kakuzu instead.
"Dude, aren't you taking this a little too serious?" Santo had said, but everyone else had a feeling that Naruto was right about the onscreen Reverend.
"Serious? Yes. Too serious? No, I'm just being realistic about this guy, and I doubt that this is gonna be the last we're gonna here from him. If anything...he'll lead some kind of hate event right on our doorstep just to gain more ground and idiotic followers. Or worse..." Now everyone began thinking the exact same thing about the hate monger.
"What if it was a miracle?" Jay's opinion left the room silent, several cold glares locking onto the red head.
Cessily looked downright disturbed. "Miracle? You really think God decided to cripple mutants around the world? Oh, with the exception of us!?" she asked heatedly.
"Nice one, God," Santo retorted in a sarcastic manner.
"This guy is nuts, Jay," added Josh. "I mean like, cult nuts 'don't drink the Kool-Aid' crazy."
"Sorry, Jay, but I really don't think that you're asking the right nor a good question." Naruto had tried to get Jay off this train of thought, but he clearly didn't register it.
"Look, can any of you honestly say that even for a moment, you didn't wish you'd lost your powers, too? That you didn't want to be normal? Maybe there was a reason we weren't chosen." Now that was a hell of a blow down low.
"If this was such a beautiful damn miracle, then where's Jeffrey Garrett?" Noriko jumped in. She was nearing pissed off mode due to his choice of words. "He's dead, Jay! Hydro's dead, too. And who knows how many more mutants are out there dead or dying right now?" She was just itching for him to say something else to give her a reason to knock him out on his ass, it David had got in between them to stop the two from getting into a fight; more than likely with Nori the winner of it, given her power that is.
"Okay. Everybody take a breath and calm down. No one knows why this happened." Looking to Nori, eyes pleading for her to calm down, "And right now we need to stick together, not attack each other."
"What do you mean 'we' human?" Heads turned to see Julian, dressed in his team uniform, leaning against the doorframe, a smug smirk was on his face. "I know it's hard to tell with you, but last time I checked, 'you' just became a part of 'them'."
'Wow…just wow…I know that Kiba could be a jerk sometimes, but at least he knew better than to say the wrong things at the wrong times, and wasn't a major asshole like Julian. This guy literally has no filter for his words.' Naruto thought to himself….maaaaybe he could make some sort of seal for Julian's jackass-iness? Hell if he knew…
"What the Hell is your problem, Keller?" Noriko snarled.
"Nori, it's okay…"
"No, it's not!"
Julian's smirk turned into a small smile, though still looking rather arrogant. "It's okay, because David knows that when we're all up against the wall, he'll be free and clear." It seems like low blows would be traded today. "Did he tell you about his little phone call with Harvard, yet?"
Noriko's anger had immediately turned to shock as she looked to her boyfriend. "What?"
"Nori, I…"
"It's better this way, Ashida. He doesn't belong here or with you…not anymore."
"And why is that, Julian?" He seemed to falter at Sofia's question. She had apparently come into the room sometime during his little antihuman debacle, and had heard every word that came out of his mouth. "Please, tell me. Why is it 'better', Julian? Because David is human now? Are humans not worthy of being loved in your eyes?" She too had lost her powers, and would be sent home soon.
"Sofia… It's not like that."
"You used to call me 'beautiful'. Am I less so now?"
"I…" His mind just couldn't answer. He wanted to say something to make her stay, but the words weren't coming to him.
Turning, she walked away. "Just stop, Julian. You're making fools of both of us."
Julian finally working well enough to register that she was leaving, the room and most likely the mansion, he called out to her. "Sofia, wait!"
But Noriko was far from finished with their conversation, and intended to do just that.
"We're not finished Keller!" She grabbed his hand charging it up with her electricity, with Julian putting up his telekinetics to counter said charge, and hoisting up into the air ready to bear down on her.
"You just picked the worst time to mess with me, little girl."
Naruto was going to jump in and throw them to opposite sides of the room and give them a good fearful lecture in not raising a hand to a comrade, but he was stopped by a new voice that had entered the room, with all heads turning its way to see Logan and another person beside him.
"Am I interrupting something? No? Good. This is Laura, my sister. She's a genetic clone created from my DNA and...you know what? It doesn't matter. The bottom line is, she has my claws and, yes, she could kill you if she wanted...well 'cept maybe you kid." He glanced momentarily at Naruto after looking at the 'full' file of the kid's powers. "So, don't make her want to. Consider yourselves introduced."
And with Logan had left it at that. But not before turning around looking at Naruto. "Oh, and before I go, Summers said he wanted you to head to his office for bit." He then turned his attention to the bickering duo. "And for the record, my money's on Nori."
"Let it go, Nori. He's not worth it."
"Can't I kill him just a little?"
"You wish, Gloves."
"Come on, Guys. I know a better way of blowing off steam."
"I'll see you later tough guy."
"Looking forward to it."
They still wanted to duke it out even after getting even tempered...a little bit. And with that everyone else started to head back to their rooms seeing as how the mood had been killed.
"Where are you going Cess?"
"Julian...I love you and all, but it's time for us to grow up."
Once more, Naruto was amazed at Julian's social skills and his ego. He wasn't as smooth as he thought he was.
"What are you looking at, clone?" the hot headed kid had snapped.
Naruto had wacked the teen upside his head. "Don't be an ass, Julian." Looking to the newly introduced Laura, "Don't mind him, while the stick up his ass seems normal enough for him, he's in a drama queen mood today." he said in a friendly tone. Julian glared darkly at him. The dark-haired girl answered him with a blank look, not knowing how to react to that. "The name's Naruto." he said cheerily before heading off to Mr. Summers' office.
-Cyclops & Emma Frost-
"Even I have my limits. Absolutely not!" Scott remained immobile, while Emma had exclaimed in anger and surprise, slamming her fists on the desk. He knew this was coming. "It took time, but I've finally pierced X-23's mental shields. Death is all she knows! She's assassinated hundreds without remorse. She even killed her own mother."
Scott let her talk. When she stopped, he just simply said what he felt needed to be said.
"Logan vouches for her."
"That doesn't exactly help your case, Scott. With everything he's done recently, I don't think he should be around the kids, either." He raised his voice only when she started talking nonsense.
"Logan is an X-Man, Emma. He's saved both our lives, time and time again. He vouches for her. Just like Professor Xavier vouched for you. That's good enough for me."
"Scott, the children have enough dangers facing them outside the walls of this school. The last thing we need to do is bring more inside."
"Well, if the point is danger, Naruto is a lot more dangerous than X-23, or any of us for that matter. But you didn't complain when we took him in when Stephen brought him to us, did you?" He was trying to counter her argument when they had just taken in someone also trained from a very young age to kill and had 10 omnipresent beings of power inside him ready to be unleashed at a moment's notice, and end not just the world, but all life within their reality.
"Because he knows the difference between right and wrong, Scott. And because I saw inside his mind, we both did. He's only killed because of how his society works, he knows that things are different here, and that the way we do things are what he strives for! He took a beating to half of his body simply because he didn't want to sell out someone that was once his best friend to a rival nation that wanted his head for committing murder and kidnapping the brother of their leader. He wouldn't take revenge on the one who had killed his godfather! The only true family he had left!" She knew that he was a kind person at heart, and would be willing to lay down his life for the sakes of others. But she believed that X-23 was merely a weapon. Nothing more, nothing less.
Gritting his teeth, he stood in a less than welcoming, becoming rather hostile pose, pointing what seemed like an accusing finger. "Emma, I stood by you when you let Danielle go and I'm willing to stand by this new training system, but…" he turned to leave.
Something turned in the White Queen. Something about the way he was regarding her. Just maybe she had gone a little too far. "Scott..."
Looking back, his ruby-lensed visor flashed. "Emma, that's enough! X23 stays! End of discussion! Now I need to go make an introduction, I'm sure Rachel can help make his stay here more comfortable and show him around town." And with that, Scott had left Emma's office heading towards his.
Emma frowned. She hated losing arguments, but she also hated bearing wrath from someone she loved. The next few nights were no doubt going to be rather awkward with several of them to be nothing but silence. 'Wait...she? He? Is Scott really trying to play matchmaker for a bit?' She smiled at the thought...naaah, he was rather the serious type when it came to stuff like this. She doubted he really was doing it, Hank was more the romantic than Scott.
-Naruto-
Naruto wasn't sure why Mr. Summers wanted to see him. Did he do something wrong already? Or was it something else? Whatever the case, best not to keep the man waiting as he thought to himself, while stepping inside the office.
"Mr. Summers, Logan said you wanted to see me for something?"
"Yes actually, I wanted to know how you've been doing the past two days. I know that it's not easy adjusting to this whole thing, being stuck in some foreign place with no way home. But you should know, you're not the only one out of place here."
Naruto's eyes had widened at that last sentence. He never thought that someone else was stuck here like he was. How did they get here? What was their home like? He heard the door open behind him and turned around to see a girl more than likely maybe about a couple of years older than him. She had bright green eyes, and was about his height, and fiery red hair. That's what caught his attention. He wondered if she was somehow related to the woman back in the white room.
"You wanted to see me Scott?"
"Yeah, thanks for coming by Rachel. Naruto this is Rachel Grey. Rachel, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze." He gestured between the two of them. "I'd thought that you might want to show Naruto around town and whatnot, since he's not from around here like yourself before you head to the reunion."
Rachel was a little surprised, she herself had become stranded in this past alternate timeline, so she wondered where he had come from, judging from his appearance and name. What had really caught her attention were the whisker marks on his cheeks, they reminded her of her own 'hound' tattoo's that she masked psionically from other people to hide her shame. Was he also used as a hound or something? No, his eyes were too cheerful looking to be a former hound like herself. But she couldn't read his mind at all, which was really strange, and she doubted that he was a telepath like herself otherwise he'd be talking back to her to stay out of his head.
"Yo, nice to meet you Rachel!"
Naruto had jumped out of the seat in front of the desk and put his hand out in a fist bumping gesture towards her. She was really surprised a bit by his speed and didn't even notice him move from it until he appeared in front of her mouth had shown that she was rather neutral before, but had been replaced with that of a smile when he himself.
"Hey, what's up Naruto." She returned the fist bump.
Scott had smiled at the interaction between the two of them. He knew that the two of them would get along rather nicely, he had heard some shouting outside that came from Foley and turned to see Dani saying goodbye to her students.
"Thanks for stopping by Rachel, I have to go take care something's in the meantime, let me know how things go later tonight."
-Outside-
"They fired you?!" The whole team, just couldn't believe that their advisor, their squad teacher that they had been training and bonding with for almost a year was about to leave the school, and quite possibly for good.
"Dani, were you even going to tell us?"
"Look, I don't want it to be this way, either. This is my home. I don't want to leave…but if I'm going to be of any use at all, it's going to be outside these walls."
"But Dani…you're my guardian! What happens to the squad?" Josh really had no one else to call family other than Dani when she had basically adopted him.
"You'll be ok, Josh. Shan is still here, and Amara will be back soon. You can trust them. Look I just…just can't be here. Not right now. Sofia…I'm so sorry." Dani was beginning to shed tears as she kept talking to her former students. She tried to keep as composed as she could, but the tears just kept on coming as Sofia had hugged her and had doing so in return.
"Me, too."
"Agent Pierce is here to pick me up, but I want you guys to remember one thing…trust yourselves. Trust each other…because sometimes that's all you've got." She wanted to make sure she gave one last bit of advice and wisdom to her students that she herself had learned whilst still an X-Man.
"Excellent advice. Now, I know this is hard children, but we need to let Danielle go."
"Goodbye." The rest of the students from the Danger cave including the Hellions and Laura had also followed to see if Dani's leaving was true or not. As Dani left the school grounds, the other students had thought it best to head back inside to relax for a bit in their rooms
"And just where do you think you're going?" She held up her hand in a stopping manner to Laura, trying to get rid of her again.
"Emma, that's enough. Need I remind you of our conversation regarding Laura?"
"No."
"Good. Now please go inside." Scott then turned his attention to Laura.
"Hard to believe that she used to be a super-villain, isn't it? Well, let's find you a place to sleep."
-Naruto & Rachel-
Rachel told him she'd be taking him into town for a bit to show him around. "What is that?" Naruto asked, pointing to the one of the many large objects in the garage. "I saw a lot of them in that town where the Doc found me."
"It's called a car. You don't have them in your world?" Naruto shook his head.
"No. I mean, civilians and nobles use horses and sometimes trains, but I didn't need either. I can usually cover distances fast enough on foot." Rachel was a little intrigued at that small fact. Did he have super speed like Northstar and Quicksilver? They were heading into the car, but they had caught another voice coming from the door revealing Nori in her casual clothes with a folded up apron in one hand.
"Hey guys. You heading into town? I need a ride real quick to work, and I'm still trying to figure out how these new gloves work, so i can't run like I usually can."
"Sure, we were heading there first anyway, Scott asked me to show Naruto around town before I head to the reunion."
"Sweet thanks."
Rachel and Nori had strapped themselves in, while Naruto was still trying to fiddle with the buckle giving Nori a rather amused and befuddled look.
"Grrr...how do you guys do this thing here?"
Rachel decided to just use her telekinesis to do it for him, showing him how to do it properly.
"Ohhhh, ok then...stupid simple straps." He mumbled that last bit to himself, but the girls still overheard him and chuckled to themselves.
"Hey it's not funny! I grew up isolated from these type of things, ok!"
After finally getting into town, they arrived at the mall and followed Nori to the coffee shop that she worked at. He'd been to a mall in the capital with Pervy Sage, but even that was nothing like this. And soon enough he was able to ignore the fumes of the hundreds of cars that make you nauseous which had been ruining the experience. It really hurt riding behind what Nori had dubbed an 'eighteen wheeler'. He had thought the fumes would kill him.
"So, late shift I take it?" Rachel was already in line for her coffee and if Naruto wanted anything.
She sighed. "Yeah, I don't get off until closing, that and it's someone else's shift and I needed to get away from the school for a few hours, so you want the usual?" she asked, knowing the she preferred her coffee with sugar in it, sometimes to just enjoy the flavor. Turning her head a bit to see Naruto, "What about you blondie?" He frowned and twitched at the nickname, but ignored it nonetheless. Looking at the menu, his eyes focused on one thing.
"What's espresso?" he asked innocently enough. Both Rachel and Noriko felt a chill go down their spines.
So far, the ninja had had three cups of coffee with three shots of espresso in ea h one of them. He had a rather bored expression on his face the entire time he gupled them down. "No fucking way." Noriko whispered in disbelief.
"Watch your language." Corrected a still staring Rachel.
"I don't get what's the big deal, what's supposed to happen?"
"Technically you're supposed to have wide bloodshot eyes, twitching fingers and a fast paced speech pattern and then you crash in an hour or so."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at the supposed effects espresso would give someone.
"Well thanks for the small discount Nori."
"No prob Rachel, so why are you out with him? It's not a date is it?" She hoped that he didn't just ask her out to a date right after coming here. Plus he seemed a little young than her too.
"Scott asked me to show him around town for a bit before I head to the family reunion later tonight."
"Ahhh...alrighty then, I'll leave you to your babysitting then.
"Hey!" They both shouted in unison. Getting surprised looks from each other. Awkward...Nori got a laugh out of that one for sure.
"We should get going, see you back at the school Nori."
Rachel had left some extra money for Nori's tip. The two friends then began to hang out and chat around town until they finally came to a bench in the nearby park, where it looked like no one else was around to hear their conversation.
"So how exactly did you get here? In this reality I mean." She was curious about both how and why he came here.
Naruto looked down in remembrance and sadness, something Rachel had immediately saw.
"I actually got here by accident. I was...in a war back home. A man had tried to gain power to put the world into an infinite illusion by binding with what was considered to be the most powerful creature in our history. We had managed to stop him for a bit, but in the end, he succeeded. But only then we had to deal with an even more powerful enemy, literally a primordial god, someone with power that seemed so far out of reach and belief. I, my two best friends and my sensei were able to avoid the Infinite Tsukuyomi, the illusion that it was called. We were able to beat her also, but now she's sealed up inside me, and now my eyes are like this because of her." She saw what they had had, calm and collected, but also sorrow in them. But she also saw that they also contained kindness and sincerity, and she also believed that they could show rage and anger at other times. They were captivating to say the least.
Naruto expression then changed to that of happiness, strength and determination as he stood up out of his spot on the bench. "But, I can take comfort in knowing that they broke the Infinite Tsukuyomi back home when I shot them through the tear home, and that everyone's rebuilding things after the war. And even though I may not be able to return home, I can make a new life here. I won't be able to become the Hokage and protecting the village and friends like I always dreamed about, but now, I think I have a new dream..."
"And what's that?"
His smile became even bigger than what it was before. "To become the greatest X-Man ever, and to make peace and coexistence between mutants and humans a reality! No matter how long or how hard it takes to get there, I'll do it dattebayo!" He had turned his left hand into a thumbs up gesture in front of her. His face held an expression that was filled with excitement and determination, bit it quickly turned to one that of embarrassment and he covered his mouth with his hands, cursing under his breath about getting something from his mother.
Rachel was wide eyed at his declaration as she sensed no lie about what he wanted. Somehow, she believed that he would make the world a better place, and his dream a reality, he was almost like a teenage combination of Xavier and her mother. She smiled sincerely at him, stood up alongside Naruto and gave him a warm hug.
He was seriously wanting to yell at his mom if he could for passing on the whole verbal tic thing, but as he was doing so, Rachel had just simply hugged him, much to his surprise. He wasn't used to this kind of thing, it weirded him out a bit. Did he say something wrong or what? He didn't know how to deal with women, as that was more Pervy Sage's forte, even though he told Naruto that he was a natural charmer.
"You know, I don't have to read your mind to know that you're not lying. You and I, we're not like the rest of the others, they don't know what it's like to be displaced out of reality. I came here for a reason, and I think you did too, and from what I've seen and experienced, there are no accidents in history."
Naruto had thought about that for a bit, and began to wonder if Hagoromo had trusted him more than Sasuke to seal away Kaguya, and maybe somehow he sent him here to help these people. He'd have to ponder this later, as he was now curious about how Rachel's reality was.
"Wait, so where did you come from exactly? Was it like this one? Or something else entirely like my own?"
Rachel had a pained expression on her face, remembering all the people she had lost back in her home reality, she wished she could've brought them with her, but she was unable to save them from the hell of the reality and Naruto caught on immediately, his face went to that of panic and was waving his arms in front of his face at a fast rate and his eyes going wide and turned white almost growing out of the sockets, along with very visible beads of sweat going down his face. Rachel saw this and had wondered how that was even possible.
"Oh, crap! I-I'm sorry 'bout that! I didn't mean to upset you or anything! We-we can talk about something else...hehehe...please don't hit me in the face."
Rachel had put her hand on his shoulder to calm him down, before he started to make a scene in public, effectively calming him.
"Hey, hey. It's alright, it's just...my reality isn't the best one there is, but since you told me how you got here, I'll tell you how I got here..."
-The Institute-
Allaabu akbar. Allaabu akbar. Allaabu akbar. Allaabu akbar" Alone in her room, Sooraya was performing her evening prayers like every night. "Ash'hadu an laa ilaaha allallaah. Ash'ha-" But the ssilence that she had was broken by a pair of sharp taps to her door. Soon the door oopens with the headmaster stepping just over the entryway.
"I'm sorry, Sooraya. I didn't mean to interrupt." He does his best to apologize to the student.
But she felt no ill will towards him for the interuption in her prayers "How may I help you, Mister Summers?"
He had on a kind smile on, when he could allow it. "After Nori requested to room alone, I thought you might like some company…" He waited for a negative reaction before he continued. "And, well, Laura needs a roommate, someone who wouldn't mind showing her around," thus explaining the presence of the uncomfortable looking young woman behind him.
Bowing her head in acceptance, "I would be honored."
Ushering the silent girl/former assassin in, he bid them both a good night before leaving.
"You are Sunni." More of a statement of fact, rather than a question of what, and was one of the few times she had actually spoken since arriving.
Sooraya was surprised to hear that someone recognized her distinct way of worshiping Allah. "I-yes…yes forgive me, I did not realize you spoke. You are familiar with my home?"
"Yes. I have killed in Afghanistan." That was putting it rather bluntly. This was going to be an awkward first night indeed...
-Elsewhere in the Institute-
"Come one Sofia...just talk to me! You've been avoiding me for days...please come out." Julian had been at Sofia's door for the past few minutes trying to make up for the things he said back in the rec room.
"Julian please...just go away!" She was leaning up against the door hoping that he wouldn't break it down in the case she didn't. So far it hadn't escalated that far yet.
"Look, I know you're hurting beautiful...I want to help. Please...let me help." He slumped up against the door sitting down facing back out to the hallway. He saw his teammate Cessily out of his peripherals walking towards him.
"Julian...have you seen Kevin around?" She noticed that he wasn't around after they all left the Danger Cave to see Danielle off.
"I'm a little busy right now, Cess."
"Yeah, well Kevin's missing and I thought you might want to help me find him."
"He's a big boy, Cess. He'll get over this." He really hated dissing his friends, but he was too caught up with trying to apologize to Sofia.
"Nice way to look after your friends Julian."
"Cess don't...hey, I'm sorry...Cess, come back! Cess!"
Sofia had been packing the last several hours due to losing her powers, and being sent home. She'd had thought about leaving a note for Julian in her room when she left apologizing for not telling him she was leaving, but she felt that it was best if no one else but the staff knew since anti-mutant groups and enemies of the X-Men were more than likely already making plans to hit the school.
-Naruto-
Wow, and he thought he heard it all. After hearing Rachel's story, he felt that he had to return her hug, but he almost crushed her lungs in the process. Apologizing for suffocating her, she said that it was alright and she was used to things like that, but told him to ask before hugging someone like that since not every girl was as nice as she was. They drove back to the Institute to drop off Naruto since he was still a student and she had a family reunion to get too.
"Hey let me know how everything goes, ok Rachel. Oh, and before I forget, bump fists with me real quick."
"Alrighty then." She chuckled a bit before complying.
As they fist bumped she noticed a strange marking from on the back of her palm begin to take shape and form; her eyes grew wide from the astonishment, she had known no one else that could possibly do something like this, save maybe Dr. Strange, but even then she had never seen him do it.
"It's a teleportation marker for me, if you ever need any help, just focus a little on it, and I'll be there in a flash, literally. And don't worry about it having a time limit on it or anything, a Flying Raijin seal never disappears from where it was placed, only I can actually make it vanish from anyone or anything it's on." He had a smile on his face the entire time he explained the purpose to her, he hadn't felt this happy in a while, not since he finally started bonding with his teammates back home.
She was perplexed by what he had done, but she was thankful for the 'gift' that he had inscribed on her, she looked at it for a bit to see that it had actually disappeared like it was never even there.
"Thanks for that, but why did you give it to me?" She was still curious why he had done it though, but having a friend come to her aid in a fight within a second would be really helpful.
"Well, no one else really knows how it feels to be out of place like you do. And it made me feel a little better about being here and whatnot to know that I'm not alone. So in a way you're my new best friend now, I hope you don't mind me saying that..." He rubbed the back of his head in slight embarrassment and chuckled a little to himself.
"No biggie, I'll talk to you later Naruto, good night."
She waved to Naruto cheerily as she drove off back into the city to see her mother's family. She couldn't help but think that he had some sort of friendly atmosphere that people were drawn to, and that he could be trusted with anything, as she found herself doing as such.
She finally arrived at her grandparents' house and was nervous as hell. Seeing as she was from an alternate reality and not from this one, she believed that they would reject her due to her status, but Scott and Emma had introduced her to mother's parents for Christmas before the whole House of M thing and they were pleased to meet her, and invited her to their family reunion coming up soon, and she was excited and nervous about it.
'Ok Rachel, you can do this...'
She knocked on the door a bit, and saw that her grandfather Dr. John Grey answer the door with happiness and welcomed her in introducing her to the rest of the family.
Unbeknownst to the Grey family, they were being watched by the masked man from a nearby tree.
"So...this is the night of the Grey family massacre...I could step in, after all...no one should face the coming end alone." He chuckled with dark humor and stood up from the tree reaching into his sleeve, he pulled out four separate objects that were labeled with kanji's and threw them into the air, each one landing on the edge of the Grey house and began to light up a bit, then the man made several hand signs and brought them together.
"Four Corners Protective Barrier." (AN: This was something I just made up on the fly, I'm not sure if it's really cannon.)
"Now that they can't hear, see, smell and Rachel can't sense outer minds that will be coming to the area. I better get ready for them."
The man stood out on top of the tree and watched the sky for the assassin's meant to come for the Grey's. The wait was not a long one. He then eyed the aliens whom in turn where staring him down for a few minutes, until the Skrull had spoken up.
"Who are you?! And do you dare stand against us?!"
"My name is of no importance, however...I do stand against you; this shouldn't take too long..."
"Then you will die along with the Starchylde and her family line as well, for we are the Shi'ar Death Commandos!"
The alien assassins charged at the man to kill him, while he stood still the whole time not worrying about a thing.
-Naruto-
"I'm surprised that you didn't make a move on that girl kit, what gives?"
"Seriously! What's wrong with you! I can't make a move on a girl that I just met! That and she probably already has a guy in her life and not just that, she's also probably older than me! I'd look like a complete idiot if I asked her out!"
"You still are an idiot, hehehehe. But seriously you deserve some happiness after all the crap you've been through. Or are you still hoping that you'll get home and finally get with that pinkette? Did you ever tell her how you felt about her, hmm? You do remember what your mother told you before she died right?"
Naruto gained a look of self-disappointment and sadness for a bit, and thought back to his mother's last few words; specifically that of what she told him about women.
"And as for women...well I'm a woman so I don't know what to say, but there are only men and women in this world, and you'll want a girlfriend someday...just try not to pick a weird one...try to find someone like your mother..."
"Plus she's a red head, so that's one thing down, now you just gotta see if she gets as pissed off as Kushina does as easily!"
"Yeeeaaahhh...I'm not gonna test that out of curiosity since I like being alive and not drooling like an idiot for weeks on end." He imagined Rachel with her short hair flailing about like her mothers with an angry look on her face. He shuddered at the thought of Rachel using her telepathy to lobotomize him.
Kurama laughed at Naruto's explanation, he thought that he really should find a girl and settle down, he deserved it since he no longer had any of his friends from home.
He went back to his room to retire for the night, he tried to get back into the white room, but he couldn't for whatever reason. Maybe she was blocking him out for some reason, she prolly didn't like that someone would get in to what she considered her 'home' or whatever it was called, but as he was finishing up with his meditation, he felt a small surge of chakra back over near the city for a few minutes, but it dissipated moments later. What the hell was going on? This is the second time it's occurred since he's arrived here. He'd have to talk to Mr. Summers about tracking down the user tomorrow, should he prove to be an enemy to him.
-Outside the Grey family household-
The street was littered with craters and soaked in blood in all manner of colors. The man in the cloak was spotless and was holding the severed bloody head of Black Cloak, the leader of the Shi'ar Death Commandos, in one hand and had his other hand around the throat of Warshot, applying pressure around his neck to the point of breaking it entirely. Hypernova had her intestines' strung out and was barely clinging to life coughing up blood. There was no sign of SeGa as he most likely dissipated, and Devo's body was nailed to a tree by a large combat knife going thru his heart. The other members of the death squad were severely injured as they soon fled, but not before giving a glance to the man simply stating: 'This isn't over...'
"Hmm, I really need to clean this little mess up before they all begin to leave...and there's just one insect left to deal with."
He dropped Warshot's body and walked over to Hypernova, he stared at her for a bit before bringing his foot down on her smashing her skull and effectively killing her then and there on the spot.
"I can still use these however." As he looked to each of the dead bodies.
He looked around and began to clean up and repair the damage done to the neighborhood, and releasing the barrier around the house. He watched the family through the window enjoy their dinner, and at the end they all welcomed Rachel in a group hug and she cried tears of joy.
"Enjoy it all...while you still can..."
The man then disappeared into the night.
Wow, this one took me some time to write since the Childhood's End arc takes place over the course of two weeks and the issues swap between time frames. Now Naruto has met Rachel, and I really hope that I got it right. To me the two of them would be great friends and seeing as how both of them are stuck in a reality that's not of their own. Now I wasn't exactly too sure when the End of Grey arc took place, but I do know that it took place after House of M, and it made me sad that Jean and Rachel had lost their family due to the Shi'ar being so fearful of there being another Phoenix host from the Grey family.
I originally wanted to write Naruto as the one to save the family, but I unfortunately don't own the collected edition of the arc to make sure to write it out properly, so I decided to have the cloaked/masked man to be the one to do it. Why? Can't really say why…for now. But next chapter will have Naruto help out with the Stamford tragedy, a certain Avenger will be sticking his nose where it shouldn't be, and the Childhood's End arc will finally come to an end. Thanks for reading this story and I hope many of you will continue to favorite, follow, and review it. And don't forget to vote on the poll posted on my profile. Until next time :)
P.S. I will have Naruto return back to his world later in the future,more than likely post AvX, and the story arcs will be that of the Shippuden films as they were never originally cannon with the exception of The Last, and I will be writing chapter about the aftermath of the war in the form of a funeral/memorial in a later chapter, so don't worry about Naruto not being able to return home for a bit. And also, I would like to hear everyone's thoughts on what Naruto's X-Man codename should be. I already have one in mind, but I'd like to hear other names as well. Thank you :)
