Smallville/Naruto

Redeemer

Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Naruto; Smallville is owned by Warner Brothers television and its creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and is based on 'Superman' created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the Manga series' Naruto' is owned by its creator Masashi Kishimoto and all characters featured in Naruto are the property of said author, all Smallville characters are owned by DC comics.

This work is strictly for Fan enjoyment and no profit is derived from it.

Fanfiction Written by; Dean Donnell.

Chapter 8

The next day Clark, Tayuya, Kurenai and Hinata rose early and began walking the remaining distance to Konoha (Clark carrying Tayuya of course due to her broken legs), Kurenai had of course insisted on holding onto Tayuya's flute after last night's genjutsu demonstration.

Tayuya hadn't been happy about this as indicated by her profuse cursing on the subject, but she had reluctantly (very reluctantly) relented.

Shino had headed back to Konoha the night before to report back to the Hokage on the situation as it now stood.

As they had walked the unlikely group had talked and gotten to know one another, Tayuya had talked first; about her life before Orochimaru, including being orphaned at the tender age of five when her only remaining parent; her mother, had been killed in a bandit attack.

She also related how Orochimaru used to beat her horribly whenever he was frustrated by her taking a longer time than he would have liked her to take to get the hang of something, or when she had been reluctant to kill somebody he told her to kill.

"I used to comfort myself by thinking 'he just wants me to get better at this' or 'at least I have someone who cares.' But he didn't really care about me at all," Tayuya told the group, trying hard not to grind her teeth in anger and (mostly) succeeding "during one of the worse periods he beat me black and blue dozens of times in just a couple of months, a few times he nearly killed me."

In that moment Clark was once again reminded just how much of a monster this Orochimaru was.

I can't imagine what that must have been like," Clark noted sympathetically "I have had a small taste of not having control over my life though."

"You Clark?" Tayuya asked skeptically "I can't even imagine you getting sick."

"I got sick once," Clark corrected his passenger "I ran my powers right down and caught a cold."

" Clark with a cold? That sounds fucking scarily dangerous," Tayuya remarked with a raised eyebrow, this drew a chuckle from Clark.

"It was," Clark replied "I sneezed the door right off the barn."

At this Tayuya had started laughing so hard that Clark had to stop and put her down lest he drop her, meanwhile Hinata was giggling as well and Kurenai was laughing as well.

"It's not funny," Clark protested indignantly "the damn thing flew half a county and nearly hit Lois while she was out jogging."

"I'll bet that made her run faster," Kurenai remarked while Tayuya laughed even harder, then abruptly stopped laughing and, doubled over grimacing in pain.

"Are you all right?" Clark asked her, concern plain on his face as he knelt down beside her ready to help any way he could.

"Argh-fuck- ribs," Tayuya managed to grind out "I'll be fine, just don't make me laugh."

Kurenai was looking at Clark, her face speaking of a suspicion that she seemed to be looking for confirmation of, meanwhile Hinata was looking at Tayuya, the veins around her eyes seemed to be standing out (which Clark thought was odd) and the pupils of her eyes had become just slightly visible.

"Cracked ribs," Clark confirmed.

"How did you know that?" Hinata asked in surprise "I could only tell with my Byakugan."

"X-Ray vision," Clark supplied "how do you think I spotted you through all that foliage last night? Well, that and my super hearing picking up your heartbeat."

"A Byakugan," Hinata remarked "but you're not of the Hyuuga clan, and your eyes don't show the physical signs of a Byakugan."

"Maybe my X-Ray vision isn't the same as a Byakugan," Clark suggested "other than X-Ray vision what does the Byakugan give you?"

"It also gives three hundred and sixty degree vision, telescopic vision and the ability to see Chakra and Chakra networks in people's bodies," Hinata supplied.

"Well mine's not a Byakugan then," Clark supplied "the only special powers my eyes have so far is the X-Ray vision and the heat vision you saw me use last night, my X-Ray eyes also have a problem seeing through lead."

The fact that Clark was willing to share information on a weakness of his, even one as slight as this seemed to make his companions more willing to trust him.

"Okay, so not quite a Byakugan," Kurenai noted "but you also have super hearing? And your hearing is good enough to actually hear someone's heartbeat?"

"From up to forty yards away," Clark confirmed with a nod "I've noticed that Hinata's heartbeat is just slightly irregular, did you suffer an injury to your heart at one time Hinata?"

"Yes, I did actually," Hinata confirmed.

"Do you want to talk about it?"
"I guess it can't do any harm," Hinata agreed quietly.

She then began relating the story of her last Chunin exam, how her own cousin had tried to kill her, and later on how that cousin was defeated by one Uzumaki Naruto, largely to defend Hinata's honor.

"I'm glad that Naruto kid set your cousin straight," Clark remarked "it sounds like he needed it."

"W-well, Neji Ni San has been a lot nicer to my sister and I since that day," Hinata noted, blushing slightly she added "I wish I could have seen Naru Kun defeat him at the Chunin exam though, I hear he gave it his all."

Is she smitten with this Naruto kid? Clark wondered, noting the blush on Hinata's face yes, she is-girl's got it bad.

"I can't imagine things getting that bad between me and my cousin," Clark noted, still a little shocked to hear what had happened "I mean Kara and I have our disagreements, she's even knocked me for a loop a couple of times, resulting in shattered concrete and bent steel respectively, but she's never tried to kill me before."

"Your cousin is just as powerful as you?" Kurenai asked in surprise.

"Yeah," Clark replied "she is, and she can be pretty damn reckless when she's angry."

After that the conversation turned to Clark and his cousin, why they were both so powerful and why Clark's Chakra felt so weird (Hinata noting that it had shown up gold colored to her Byakugan) and why no one had heard of someone as powerful as him before considering the shinobi in the group could sense his Chakra from miles away.

Clark willingly shared the information on where his power came from and the fact that he was native to another reality and looking for a way home, but he remained tight lipped about the rest of his story until it became clear that Kurenai was not going to drop the subject, whereupon he told his companions about Krypton, the Smallville meteor shower and his Kryptonian name.

"Kal El," Kurenai mused "it's a strong sounding name, it suits you well."

"I grew up as Clark Kent," Clark stated flatly "I think of myself as Clark, I have a very hard time thinking of myself as Kal El."

They continued to talk after that until just before midday when the gates of Konoha came into view.