This is Ryu Kotei saying that I do not own Naruto or anything from the DC Universe (Justice League, Teen Titans, etc.)
"Reaper!" normal speech
"Who are you?" thought/mind speak
"(Naruto...)" language change
"I am KYUUBI!" demon speech
Chapter 9
Kushina walked through the halls of the Watchtower and passed the many other heroes of the Justice League who had given her their condolences.
It had been a whole week since Naruto's death and the woman could only remember bits and pieces of what had happened: the press conference at the revelation of why Naruto had died, Kyuubi's behavior and actions, Livewire's meltdown at the prison, consoling Minato, secretly attending Naruto's funeral, and talking to the other members of the League on just what to do with Kyuubi.
Kushina walked until she approached the door that led to the Watchtower's brig used for certain villains that couldn't be easily contained even with special modifications to their prison cells. She entered and traveled until she reached a cell where Livewire was being held as she was wearing a special rubber strait jacket and bound to a hand truck.
She stood before the villainess with the glass wall/door keeping the two women separate should emotions get too high.
Livewire looked up and saw Kushina as she narrowed her eyes with a growl coming from her throat.
"You bitch!" Livewire said as she sneered at the woman, "You and your husband are responsible for Naruto's death! I should have fucking fried you when I had the chance!"
Kushina said nothing as she didn't even bother putting on her disguise…nor had she wanted to.
"All because of a few similarities…" Livewire said with tears slowly running down her cheeks, "…My boyfriend just HAD to die because that asshole you call a husband couldn't hide that damned mop of hair of his! He took Naruto away from me! That prick took away MY sunshine!"
"We had never planned for this…" Kushina finally said with a cracked voice as a few tears rolled from her cheeks, "We had only wanted our little baby boy to come back home to us so that we can fix all the wrongs we have done to him."
"Well congradu-FUCKING-lation!" Livewire said as anger was building up, "Now you won't have to worry about it because he's FUCKING DEAD YOU CHILD ABANDONING SLUT!"
"We would never abandon Naruto!" Kushina cried out as the tears were flowing freely from her eyes, "Minato-kun and I both love our children very much!"
"That's fucking bullshit!" Livewire countered as she jerked forward, only for her bindings to prevent her from going further, "If you REALLY loved him, then he wouldn't have gone through so much fucking shit because of you, your husband, and that fucking monster that you dare call a son!"
"We had to focus on Arashi because…" Kushina said before she held herself back to avoid spilling the secret about her red-headed son.
"Don't bother hiding Arashi's little secret from me," Livewire said with a venomous look in her eyes, "because Naruto has told me about how Arashi holds an actual demon inside of him! Arashi has the REAL Kyuubi sealed inside of him!"
"Naruto told you that?!" Kushina said in shock as the villainess slowly nodded her head.
"He told me everything." Livewire said with venom in his voice, "He told me of the times that you and your husband wouldn't have him train in anything that doesn't require any of that chakra crap, or how Arashi uses him for target practice for any jutsu that he learns, and even how you never seem to even fucking notice him at all! I may be a villainess, but even I would be a better mother than you!"
Kushina honestly wanted to go in the room and slap the villainess hard enough to give her a concussion, but she instead fell to her knees as her tears fell onto her hands.
She's right… Kushina thought as she let out a pained sob, I should have been there for Naruto. I should have trained him in kenjutsu or even taijutsu, but all I did was push him away and never notice any of his injuries!
It was only half an hour later when Kushina was able to calm herself down and push herself onto her feet. It was painful and tiring for her as she knew that all of this could have been avoided if she was a better parent.
"If you have nothing left to say," Livewire said as she slowly lowered her head, "then just fucking leave me to mourn."
Kushina carefully placed a hand on the glass before resting her head on the barrier and closed her eyes.
"If it's any consolation…" the woman said as she let just one last tear fall from her face, "…Minato and I are truly sorry about everything that has happened and we would have supported your relationship with him seeing how much you love him."
Kushina received no answer as she stepped away and traveled deeper into the brig while composing herself…she had one more prisoner to visit.
In the Watchtower's infirmary, Raven was sitting in one of the beds looking at her remaining hand and the bandaged stump where her other hand once was. Her hand couldn't be saved as the damage done was too much as the wrist was completely shattered with pieced of bone cutting into not just some of the smaller veins but the major arteries around the wrist.
"Knock, knock." said a familiar voice as Raven looked to see Beast Boy with a small black rose in his hands.
"I'm not in the mood for any of your stupid jokes," Raven said bluntly as she looked away as of all people to visit her it had to be Beast Boy.
"Wasn't planning on joking around this time." the changeling said as he approached the girl's bedside and sat in the nearby chair, "Just thought I'd visit you and see how you're doing."
"How do you think I'm doing?" Raven asked with slight anger, "I only have one hand now because they couldn't save the hand Reaper had cut off!"
"Okay, just chill." Beast Boy said as he held his hands up, "I just want to see how you're feeling."
"…sorry." Raven said as she reeled in her emotions, "I haven't seen anyone this past week as aside from J'onn, you're the only one who had visited me."
"Really?" Beast Boy asked with surprise, "but what about Starfire? I thought she was your closest friend."
"She's having her scars checked at by Minato and his teacher." Raven said with slight venom as she mentioned Minato's teacher, "If he does anything to Starfire…"
"I'm with you there." Beast Boy said as he had to agree after seeing how Minato's teacher had acted around Wonder Woman, "What about Cyborg?"
"J'onn told me that Cyborg was letting me have some space for a little while." Raven answered as she slightly missed her brother figure, "And last I heard, Robin was talking with Batman about what to do with Kyuubi."
Beast Boy slightly sneered at the mentioning of the red head as there just HAD to be something done with Kyuubi.
"If I had a say in anything," Beast Boy said with a serious and angered tone, "I would have let the Beast giving him a thrashing that he'll never forget."
"Really?" Raven asked in surprise, "I mean, I know that you probably would have liked to step on a few bad guys as a T-Rex, but unleashing the Beast on someone with the intent of 'teaching' them a lesson?"
The changeling chuckled as he said, "I know that it's surprising coming from me of all people, but with what Kyuubi has done…He sent a guy to the hospital, badly scarred one of our closest friends, used you like a weapon, and practically destroyed your hand! I honestly have to thank Reaper for cutting your hand off if it means for you to get away from that…monster."
"Kind of a low blow with that last part," Raven said as she looked at her stump, "but I honestly have to agree with you there as Kyuubi…I don't think he's human anymore as that power had corrupted him to the point of no return."
Beast Boy nodded as there was a fine line between being human and an animal…he had to fight that line with every transformation including the Beast.
"Thanks." Raven said with a small genuine smile on her face.
"No problem." Beast Boy said with a small smile of his own before he presented the rose, "Gotcha something."
Raven took the rose in her lone hand and gently twirled it before laying it on her lap.
"Thank you," Raven said as her smile remained on her face as a small blush formed, "Garfield."
"Anytime Rachel." Beast Boy said with a faint blush on his face before the two of them began to talk about memorable moments while Beast Boy had informed Raven about the recent changes, neither one of them noticing a figure listening on their conversation from outside the hall.
"Booya." Cyborg said with a smirk on his face before he walked down the hall before he decided to visit Raven.
In an unknown building, Flash was slowly regaining consciousness as all he could see was darkness with the exception of white underneath him.
"Where…" the speedster said as his vision was correcting itself, "Where am I?"
"You in one of my lovely homes," said a familiar distorted voice as Flash's vision quickly corrected itself to reveal Reaper standing before the hero.
"Dark and gruesome," Flash joked with a smirk, "just like you."
"Nice one," Reaper said as he adjusted his stance, "but I have a better joke: How to you torture a man who can't sit still?"
Taking a couple of steps towards Flash, Reaper said, "You make him under the threat of death."
"Oh ha ha." Flash sarcastically said from his seat, "Why bother binding me to this chair if I can just vibrate my way out?"
"That wouldn't be wise." Reaper said as he guided Flash's eyes to a small red string that was attached to the hero's costume, "As you see, there are tiny red strings delicately attached to your suit and they are all attached to something else. But only one of them is attached to the gun pointed at the back of your skull."
Using a mirror from his pocket, the assassin revealed that there was a revolver pointed at the back of Flash's head with the hammer cocked all the way back and a red string connected to the trigger.
"Go ahead and move your left pinky." Reaper said calmly, "I promise it won't kill you."
Although skeptical, the speedster moved his left pinky to only hear a loud crash of what could have been a ceramic jar or vase.
"That is the only freebie you're getting so you better get comfortable." Reaper said with a slightly confident tone.
"So what do you want from me?" Flash asked, "Clearly I have something you want or you wouldn't even keep me alive."
"That's only half of the reason," Reaper said as he turned away and began to walk into the darkness, "but mostly I just want to send Bat-Teme a little message."
"What kind of message?" Flash asked once more but Reaper never answered as he vanished into the darkness.
A bright flash shone in front of the bound hero to reveal a television screen that was set on the recent news.
"What the?" Flash said as he watched the news play out to reveal what all had happened in the past week, "So Naruto's dead and it was because of mistaken identity?"
"Indeed." Reaper's voice echoed from the darkness, "The Justice League faced a lot of trouble as Hiraishin mourned over causing the death of an innocent person…more importantly his own son."
"But of course that wasn't just it." Reaper said as the television screen changed to reveal Kyuubi swinging Raven around like a club, "Your other new recruit had used his own colleague as a weapon before I severed her hand."
"But that's impossible!" the speedster said as the screen changed to reveal Raven with her hand severed after Reaper had slashed towards Kyuubi, "How can that happen as Raven's half-demon blood would keep that from happening?"
"It's all thanks to my personal blade, War." said Reaper as the television revealed a screenshot of the blood red blade, "Through forging my own sword, seeing a few connections, and making a deal or two, I was able to have a powerful sword similar to that held by one of the Riders."
"The Riders?" the hero asked with slight wonder in his voice and face.
"As in the Angels of the Apocalypse." Reaper answered calmly, "Although it's not the real thing, the blade possessed by the Red Rider can supposedly cut down even the very Gods themselves…which is why they only entrusted such a blade to a being that brings forth ultimate destruction along with other objects of pure destruction. Though War is but a 'cheap' replica, it is still powerful enough to cut down demons…demons such as Trigon."
The television was soon shut off after revealing a small bit of Naruto's funeral as Reaper then said, "Oh how much chaos can be done through a simple case of mistaken identity?"
"What do you want?" Flash asked as he wanted to get out of the chair and find the assassin, but with how close the gun was, he really wasn't fast enough to dodge a bullet that close.
"As I've mentioned before," Reaper answered with his voice echoing around the speedster, "I just want you to send Bat-Teme a message. Talk to you later."
Flash looked around to see all of the red strings connected to him with only one of them was connected to the gun.
Maybe if I move carefully, the hero thought as he tried to trace the strings and look through the darkness, I can figure out just which one of these would spell my doom without blasting my brains out.
Carefully moving his left ring finger, Flash watched the string closely while listening for anything behind him.
*Keraaaaaasshhhhhhhh!*
The sound of wooden blocks crashing onto the floor had startled the speedster, but he was able to keep himself from visibly flinching by tensing his body.
"Impatient already?" Reaper's voice echoed from the darkness, "Consider yourself lucky that all you did was knock over a Jenga tower or else the fun would already be over."
"Oh I'm just having a blast." Flash said as he was really wanting to give the cur a piece of his mind, "You should join in on the fun."
"Maybe later as right now," Reaper said with slight joy in his voice, "I need to go make a few calls. Sayonara."
As silence echoed around Flash, the hero sighed as he was able to free another finger.
One down, the hero thought with slight confidence as he saw the many more red strings surrounding him, just a crap ton left.
In an adjacent room, Naruto had finished pouring himself some wine as Slade was nearby with his own glass.
"Ah good old fashion torture," the older assassin said with a small smile, "I've taught you well. I wonder just how long it will take for him to realized the gun is fake."
"Who said the gun's fake?" Naruto said as he took a sip of wine, "I'm wondering just how long it would take for his heart to completely stop."
Slade's smile just widened a little as he said, "That's my boy. So what are you going to do now that you're dead?"
"Dunno," Naruto said with a devilish smirk as he swirled the wine in his glass, "Might steal something from the Teen Titans, kill another Justice League member…I might even just go see a play."
"I'd love to join you," Slade said after placing his empty glass and putting on his mask, "but I have other plans at the moment. Enjoy your day, son."
Naruto chuckled as he said, "I will father…I will."
In Metropolis, Superman was flying through the air patrolling for any criminal activity and to try and get his mind off of things.
The Justice League was under some heavy fire in the past couple of weeks after everything that had happened at the Jump City Parade and Flash's sudden disappearance.
"Can't believe that this is happening all over again," the Man of Steel said to himself as he felt a case of déjà vu, "but only this time it's much worse."
"Of course it's much worse." said a familiar voice as Superman stopped to see Reaper just casually leaning against a clothesline, "Considering that a very famous and well-known celebrity was killed and how one of your new recruits just used one of your younger colleagues like a club on your watch, who wouldn't make a fuss."
"Reaper!" Superman asked as he was ready to fight the assassin, "Why are you here?"
"Just taking a stroll," Reaper said as he stepped closer to the edge away from Superman, "I've done no harm…yet."
Superman saw Reaper take a step over the side and chased after the villain in hopes of keeping the assassin from getting killed, but to his surprise Reaper was standing on the side of the building like it was the roof he was standing on before.
"How are you…" Superman asked as Reaper drew his red bladed sword as the assassin began to hum a tune.
A quick slash snapped the Man of Steel out of his stupor as he saw that his uniform was cut and the skin underneath was slowly oozing blood.
"How did you do that?" Superman asked as he quickly backed away from the side of the building to avoid another attack, "How did you cut me?"
"You may be a man of steel," said Reaper as he carefully turned the red blade as the sunlight gleamed from it, "but even steel is vulnerable to magic."
"War here was just an ordinary blade," Reaper continued as he watched the Man of Steel hold his injury, "but after soaking it in a mixture of virgin's blood and demon blood, I possess a blade that can cut the very Gods themselves. Raven is proof as I was able to slice off a half-demon's hand like a hot knife through butter. This is but one of my specially made weapons that I have appropriately named…The Blades of the End."
Reaper sheathed War before pulling out a small envelope and held it towards Superman.
"I'd like you to deliver this to Bat-Teme and tell him that I will be waiting for his response." the assassin said with a professional tone, "Don't worry, it's just a letter and a couple of tickets. I don't plan on killing him with something as cheap as bio-warfare. Sayonara."
A smoke pellet in the face caused the Man of Steel to reel back and wave the smoke away, allowing Reaper to vanish.
Seeing that Reaper was gone once more, Superman brought a hand to his ear and said, "Superman to Watchtower."
"Watchtower." Said J'onn's voice from the communicator, "Is everything alright?"
"Yeah, just had a run-in with Reaper." Superman said as he used his x-ray vision to peek at the contents of the envelope but found that the inside had aluminum foil, "I got cut by that sword of his before he gave me a letter that's to be given to Batman. I'll explain later when I get to the Watchtower. Superman out."
After cutting of the communicator, Superman looked out towards the city and said, "Just who are you Reaper…"
At the Watchtower's brig, Kushina stood before a cell where Arashi was being held in during the past week.
Arashi was wearing nothing but black briefs as his body was covered in many different seals and markings to prevent him from even twitching without alerting someone. He was also bound to an X-shaped post that kept him from moving around as a secondary measure of keeping the young man still.
"Nice of you to finally visit mother," Arashi said with visible anger on his face, "the only ones who would visit me was Kakashi-sensei, that fucking pervert, and that Bat Creep, Wayne!"
"Why Arashi…" Kushina asked with a mixture of sadness and disappointment, "Why are you like this?"
"I'm like this because I'M the hero!" Arashi answered as he jerk forward, "The village once treated me like a GOD and after that no good waste of space and air vanished, everything's gone to fucking SHIT!"
"Don't you dare talk about your brother like that!" Kushina countered with venom in her voice, "Yes! Minato and I have made a grave mistake of neglecting Naruto-"
"Because I needed to learn how to control the Kyuubi!" Arashi roared, "I overheard you both talking about giving that piece of shit EVERYTHING that's RIGHTFULLY MINE! I can use and mold chakra while he can't! Why waste your time on a piece of failure like him?"
"Because we had to make it up to him!" Kushina said as she tightened her fist, "Tsunade told us about what's been going on with Naruto that we haven't been seeing. All the countless beatings from the villagers and the other shinobi…It took just looking at Naruto's own little filing cabinet that was full of each medical report done on him ALONE!"
Arashi mumbled something under his breath before a reverberating pound was heard as his mother slammed a fist into the barrier.
"What was that!" Kushina shouted as she had a feeling that her little strike was registered in the system.
"I said "THAT FUCKING BITCH!"" the red-haired man roared out, "Tsunade was always patching up that piece of shit after I have gone through with him!"
Kushina paled as she couldn't help but ask, "Wha…What do you mean? You mean to tell me that…"
"Yes." Arashi said with a sickening smile, "I've used everything you and father have taught me on Naruto as what could make better target practice?"
"But on your OWN brother!" Kushina screamed out in pure disbelief, "How could you!"
"I was showing that shit stain about just who is the top dog in our family." Arashi said with a pure demonic smile, "And thanks to the power of the Kyuubi, I can do just that."
"Not for long." said a voice as Kushina looked to see Minato as he now had midnight black hair and dark purple eyes thanks to hair dye and colored contacts, "Once the preparations are done, the Kyuubi will be extracted from you before your execution back at the village."
"So what are you going to do with the Kyuubi after you rip it away from me?" Arashi asked with a challenging smirk, "Without Yamato around, how are you going to keep it contained?"
"Dr. Fate has agreed to throw the Kyuubi in a small pocket dimension that he calls The Void, an empty dimension where nothing exists…not even time itself." Minato answered as his new violet eyes narrowed towards his red haired son, "How could you do this to us?"
"Because I can and I have the power to do so!" Arashi answered as he then added, "After getting a taste of the infinite power I have, I knew that I can do anything thanks to the Kyuubi."
"So the Kyuubi had corrupted you…" Minato sadly admitted before Arashi began to chuckle.
"You seriously think that Kyuubi's doing this?" the young man asked maniacally, "That weak mutt only wanted to be left alone after meeting Madara and it was thanks to the Shodaime that Kyuubi became the weapon he is now! So many people thinking that it's a creature of pure hatred, but the Feared Kyuubi is nothing but a pushover! This is ALL ME!"
*KLUNG!*
Even after shutting the emergency lockdown hatch, Arashi's maniacal laughter could still be heard through the thick door.
"Minato…" Kushina said she was wondering just what had gone wrong in her life.
"I know Kushina…" Minato said as he still carried that haunted look on his face, "I just want this to be some horrible nightmare."
"You better fucking hope you wake up soon!" said a new voice as the couple looked to see Tsunade standing before them with a look of pure anger on her face, "Kakashi had told me everything that has happened and I couldn't believe it myself, but after talking to Ms. Willis and overhearing what had happened I am very disappointed in the both of you!"
The couple lowered their heads as Tsunade then said, "Once I return to Konoha, I am stepping down as Hokage and coming back here to begin a new life."
"What?!"
"Tsunade you can't!" Minato said both he and Kushina were devastatingly shocked at the revelation.
A chakra enhanced punch to the face caused Minato to collide into the wall and leaving a large indent from the impact.
"Listen here because I am NOT repeating myself!" Tsunade said as she tightly gripped Minato's shirt, "I only came back to Konoha because I believed that there was a chance of getting my little godson I loved so much back. You were able to convince me to give Konoha just one more chance because you and the pervert preached so much about how you both would do whatever it takes to get Naruto back! Now that he's dead…Konohagakure could burn to the ground for all I care now and if you ever try to find me again…I will end both of your lines by turning you into a vegetable and making it to where Kushina could never have children again because killing either of you would be too good for you and Naruto wouldn't want that."
Tsunade turned away from the couple, ignoring their calls and walked away from them as tears rolled from her face.
Naruto…Tsunade thought as she passed Livewire on her journey back to Konoha, I wish that I could have seen you just one…last…time.
At one of his bases, Naruto was looking over his collection of guns and other weapons when he sneezed suddenly.
"Someone must be thinking about me." the blonde said as he pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned his nose.
After placing the cloth tissue back in his pocket, Naruto walked past the many weapons on the wall until he reached three weapons that were on display: a snow white shotgun, a black double-headed flail, and a pale-grey sword that was curved like a combination between a scimitar and a sickle that gave it both a beautiful and an ominous look to it. Naruto then placed War on the empty display that was between the shotgun and flail before stepping back to view the four weapons.
"Pestilence. War. Famine. Death." Naruto said as he named each of the weapon in the order they were displayed, "These four are always a constant in life as pestilence can destroy life and caused the diseased crops to wither and die. This soon brings forth both war and famine as people fight for was edible food that could eat and once those two have played their parts…"
Naruto delicately picked up the sickle-sword, Death, and gave it a quick twirl before looking at his pale reflection as he then said, "…death shall arrive to bring forth the end."
"While I am not going to bring forth the actual end," Naruto said as he put Death back on its pedestal, "I only want to show the Justice League just what they are dealing with."
What does Reaper have planned for Batman and the Justice League? What will Tsunade do after resigning as Hokage? Don't forget to rate and reveiw!
Flash: Hey, what about me? I have a gun to my head!
Anyway...
Ja Ne.
