Chapter 11
Clues and Cover Ups
"That no good for nothing ninjutsu flipping piece of crud!" Gizmo shouted. He was inside his H.I.V.E. Dormitory and he was currently wearing a hole in the floor due to his frequent pacing. Gizmo's latest disturbance was due to a certain new ninja on the block known as, Shadow.
Ever since the small genius had laid eyes on Blackfire, he had found her majestic, graceful, and beautiful.
But now that Shadow was here, things had suddenly gone wrong. Blackfire barely acknowledged his presence these days, and when she did, it was usually to give him a kick through the nearest wall. Damn she was strong.
But Shadow was stealing her away from him.
Gizmo had always been good at knowing people. After all, he was a genius. And in his life so far he had learnt one vital thing. Everyone hides something.
He was going to find out what it was that Shadow was hiding. Then he would present it to Blackfire, she would no longer like him and then he could be with her till the end of time…he thought so anyway.
Slowly a plan began to form in Gizmo's young mind. This plan was accentuated with a large grin.
Meditation was as it always was in the Hall. Disturbed.
Naruto had gotten back from his test mission a few hours ago. His body was bruised and battered but he had ignored the pain and bowed down before Slade. It made him feel almost sick to his stomach to have to bow to such an evil man, but he had to do it.
He had handed Slade the Eagles eye and was rewarded with nothing more than a displeased look. But it seemed he had passed the test.
An hour later Ivy had arrived and explained her whole part in the test. Slade had found her to be of some skill and had recruited her even though she had failed.
Naruto found himself quite suspicious of this, but then again…maybe Slade was just short on minions.
The area around him was thick with noise. Laughing and planning of evil deeds filled Naruto's ears to splitting point until a single voice cut through them.
"Hi." Blackfire said.
Naruto didn't reply.
"Erm, I was impressed by the way you handled your mission. I never liked that brat 'Rose', apparently you almost killed her. To do that to a child…you must have a lot of courage." She said with an obvious grin.
Naruto spoke:
"It does not take courage to take a life, it takes cowardice. It is not brave to attack a child, it is also cowardice. To give life is the greatest power. But to whom you give life is your own responsibility. Be it a monster to do your bidding, or a child to carry on your legacy. I look with disdain upon those who murder. No one that deserves death should have it, and those that deal it should not be so quick to judge. If you truly wish to take an act of vengeance and justification upon an individual, you do not grant them the luxury and gift of death. Instead…"
He turned around and looked Blackfire in the eyes.
"…you make them wish for it."
Blackfire was a little horrified. That was dark…a little 'too' even for her.
"You make them wish they were dead? Why?" She asked lightly.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
"Because then the fun truly begins."
Blackfire could not see Shadow's mouth, but she got the distinct impression there was an evil grin behind that veil of black cloth.
Blackfire thought this would be an ideal time for a subject change.
"Err; say…do you wanna get some coffee?" She asked.
Naruto looked at her with narrowed eyes.
"Coffee contains caffeine which is an artificial stimulant for the body. Were I to drink some it would interrupt my daily flow of chakra." He said simply.
Blackfire scowled at him.
"Jeeze, I was only asking if you wanted something to drink. No need to get all serious on me. Come on…don't you ever relax. Take a break, PARTY EVEN!" She was up in his face almost nose-to-nose with a determined look in her eyes.
Naruto looked at her pointedly.
"No." he said blandly.
"ARRRGGGHHHH!" Blackfire growled. "YOUR IMPOSSIBLE! WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO JUST RELAX SOME! YOU KNOW! GET SOME R&R! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? ARE YOU A ROBOT OR SOMETHING? ARE YOU ANYTHING OTHER THAN SERIOUS ALL THE TIME?" She screamed at him.
Naruto stared at her with the same vacant expression.
He appeared to think for a moment. Then he said:
"No."
Blackfire screamed. Her head went red with the blood rush and her ears had smoke puffing from them.
She stormed off.
"I want to party." Gizmo piped up.
"I ALREADY SAID NO YOU LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!" She grabbed Gizmo and drop kicked him into a wall on the other side of the Hall.
Naruto was still sat meditating and trying to ignore everything. What he couldn't help was letting out a little sigh of relief that, thankfully, no one heard.
Jinx watched the commotion from a distance and couldn't help but giggle. She didn't know why she liked the white haired boy, but she did. She felt like she had seen him from somewhere before.
"DUDES! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?" Beastboy yelled. "NARUTO'S OUT THERE AND WE CAN'T GUIDE HIM ANYWHERE! HECK, HE COULD EVEN BE…" Beastboy couldn't bear to say it. He symbolised the word by raking his finger along his neck. "…FOR ALL WE KNOW!"
"Beastboy calm down." Robin told him. "Where gonna get him out of this. But right now, if we go bargin' in…we'll blow his cover. And we can't let that happen. We have to trust him…for all our sakes."
Gizmo picked himself off of the floor and brushed himself down.
He looked up and narrowed his eyes at Shadow.
He watched Shadow sigh.
WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!
Warning bells sounded off in his head.
He sighed.
HE SIGHED!
NINJA'S DON'T SIGH!!!
Gizmo almost went into a rage. But he quickly composed himself because he was currently receiving some disturbing looks from the others around him.
Then again, why was he acting this way? It was only a sigh after all. But Something about Shadow just didn't add up.
Where did he come from? Where did he learn his moves? And why did he turn up when that other ninja guy did with the Teen Titan's? And even more than that, why hadn't the Teen Titan's interrupted any of his missions?
The other missions conducted by the other members had mostly been thwarted by the gang of dweebs.
But Shadow's missions remained untouched.
Well, Gizmo would just have to conduct an experiment. If Shadow got away with this next mission coming up without meeting the Titan's and having to face them…well…Gizmo would simply have to proceed with a few inquiries with Slade.
Naruto had been picked to retrieve a device from the local science installation in the south end of Jump City.
"Your task, Shadow, is to find me the Positron Regulator and destroy anyone that gets in your way. Plus, as an addition…I want you to destroy the labs."
Naruto's eyes almost widened.
"Will there be any individual's inside?" Naruto asked him.
"Hundreds. Won't that be fun for you?" Naruto only just managed to conceal his gulp. How was he going to do this?
"You start immediately and I want you back within the hour. Now…go."
Naruto leapt to his feet and ran silently down the Hall and out into the corridor.
He exited the H.I.V.E. Head Quarters and began his way to the science installations.
He knew what they were; he had been shown a picture and given a drawing of a map to memorize. What he didn't know was what the hell a Positron Regulator was.
He needed to somehow complete the task without endangering any of the people inside. But he had to make it look proper. Because he was sure that he was being tailed.
Naruto reached over to his left arm once he was within sight of the science installations.
He pressed a little tiny button that Cyborg had told him about if he was in any danger.
He had to get them here, but he had to somehow give them a message to not call him by name and to attack him. After all, if he was being tailed, then it really wouldn't go down well if the Titan's allowed him to walk right in front of them and for them not to attack.
Naruto made it to the base of a large wall that surrounded the installation.
He easily jumped over it and proceeded through the grounds.
It had been about 10 minutes since he had pressed the button and still no sign of the Titan's.
Naruto carefully concealed himself in the dark and rolled back a single little flap in the armour and looked at the cybernetics underneath.
Before they had glowed a slight blue…now they didn't glow at all and were a little grey. Naruto didn't know what this meant, but he was sure it wasn't good.
Suddenly a little squeaking sound reached his ears. He looked down and saw a little green rat by his feet.
Beastboy.
Naruto pulled out a slip of paper and wrote on it his situation, he handed it to the rat inconspicuously and watched it scamper away.
He had asked the Titan's to attack him and hold nothing back. He hoped they would trust him.
Naruto skimmed across the way to a spot below a large window.
He ran up the wall and gripped the ledge.
He brought out a shuriken and began scrying into the large glass.
Soon Naruto was inside the window. The lights were off and the room was dark.
He looked around the place he was in, computers littered around the area. There were desks and a few pieces of paper that neither looked important nor interesting.
Naruto tried the door, it was open. He opened the door a fraction and peered out.
A pair of men in white coats were just approaching; luckily neither of them were looking at the door. They were far too busy talking.
"…it can harvest is amazing." Said one of them. "I mean, think about it. This device generates a positron burst that absorbs the negative energies of matter itself. It has unlimited energy manipulation potential."
The one that spoke was a red headed English man. His accent was posh, like his posture.
He wore a blue tie that could be seen hanging from his neck from underneath his white coat.
"I understand that. But as much as I find this enthralling I must protest to the government's views. Consider this: What device was ever made that could harness awesome power, that did not become used for the governments own ends in war?"
The one that had spoke that time was a bald young thin man that seemed very week and weedy in comparison to his red haired counterpart.
"I understand your fear, I feel it too. But think of the proceeds derived from this. We could be rich." Said the red haired one.
"But what good is money in a world of few places to purchase. Such a device would be catastrophic. Can we even measure a tenth of it's storage capacity. It's amazing it was ever created in the first place. How was it created anyway?" Asked the Bald one.
"By accident." The Red haired one said. "Thomas Fillten was looking for a way to use the particles in the atmospheres to power electrical devices. Instead he created an object which absorbs and contains the energy."
"Fillten did this?" The other looked bemused. "That sore excuse for a scientist created the most powerful device in the world?"
"Apparently so." Said the red headed one chuckling.
"So where's the device being held?" The bald one asked.
"Down the corridor in the clean room, I just checked on it a few moments ago."
Naruto was already there.
"Erm, he wants us to attack him?" Raven said hoarsely.
"That's what the note says." Robin said holding the simple piece of paper.
"But…Why?" She asked.
"I don't know." Robin answered. "But he wouldn't ask us to do this if he didn't have a good reason. We have to do this, and I don't think we should hold back."
"What do you mean?" Beastboy asked eyeing Robin with curiosity.
"I mean that when we attack, we should do it for real." Robin said.
"ARE YOU CRAZY?" Beastboy exclaimed.
"Naruto can handle it. Don't worry. As long as we don't seriously hurt him, he'll be fine." Robin said while checking his motion tracker.
"IT ISN'T 'HIM' I'M WORRIED ABOUT! DUDE! What about us? He kicked your butt remember…" Beastboy began.
"HE DIDN'T KICK MY BUTT!" Robin exclaimed angrily at Beastboy.
Beastboy grinned back at him.
"Not nice when it happens to you, is it?" The green boy asked.
Naruto had the device.
It had been poorly defended, probably because no one was supposed to know it existed.
He had had to get through a few laser security grids and a touch sensitive floor but it was easy stuff to deal with.
Naruto looked at the object he held.
It looked like a metallic egg. It was shiny silver, oval and relatively heavy.
Naruto carried it under his arm.
As he made his way across the grounds again, the alarm in the building sounded out loudly into the night.
Strangely enough though, there was no shouting or commotion from inside the building he had just exited.
Naruto had hoped that this was a good sign. He had also written on the note for the Titan's to evacuate everyone from the building.
Naruto had set some charges around the supports in the basement of the building. Slade had given him the explosives and he had been shown how to activate them and what would happen when they went off.
He hoped that no one would be in the building once they did.
Naruto pulled out a small little remote control with a large red button on it. He looked behind him at the building and hoped beyond all hope that the structure was empty, and if it wasn't…well…he tried not to think about it.
Naruto pushed the button.
The area was suddenly silent. As though all sound had been drowned out by another noise that Naruto could not hear.
Then the noise came back, and Naruto's ears were filled with the roar of flames, his eyes with the amber glow of the scorching embers, his face lit with the luminance of the blaze.
Heat swept over his face but it was only enough to warm his flesh.
Something was wrong.
Naruto sensed something behind him.
The teenage ninja dodged out of the way as the ground where he had been standing was hit with a green blast.
Naruto tumbled to the floor but was back on his feet in an instant.
The Teen Titan's stood before him, defiant and golden in the blaze that set a glow upon their bodies.
"Ah." Naruto began in a dark voice. "The Teen Titan's. I have heard of you but somehow I expected…more."
"And you are?" Robin asked.
Naruto looked at the Titan's with a deathly glare. His features were obscured in darkness due to the fire behind him, but it only heightened his image of menace.
"Shadow." Naruto said crossing his fingers as he gathered his chakra. "Remember the name, for you shall be begging me to finish you before the end."
"Your out numbered." Beastboy said with narrowed eyes.
Suddenly, multiple clones of Naruto flew from either side of Naruto's body and surrounded the Titan's in a circle. All of the copies looked exactly alike.
There were at least twenty of them.
"You were saying." They all said.
Beastboy gulped.
"Erm…we'll just be going now." Beastboy said backing off until his back rested against Cyborg's cold metal.
While all the clones looked alike, there was a single difference that allowed the Titan's to identify the original.
Only the original was holding the device stolen from the burning building that blazed in the background.
That Naruto placed the device into a bag and strapped it to his back.
"Titan's GO!" Robin shouted.
They all jumped in.
Beastboy turned into a Tyrannosaurus Rex and roared loudly into the night.
Starfire flew in and began pummelling the Naruto's with starbolts.
Robin threw some explosive discs and furiously struck out at the Naruto's with his staff.
Cyborg punched out at the Naruto's and blasted them with his sonic blaster.
Raven was more hesitant though, and so were the Naruto's that attacker her.
Their kicks and punches were ill placed and held barley any strength or force. Raven herself merely attacked them with tentacles of blackness or solid objects that she threw at them.
Robin swung his staff and watched as the Naruto he hit disappeared in a puff of smoke.
He swung around and barely managed to avoid a kick to his back. He countered by sweeping the Naruto's legs and slamming down on the clone with the staff causing it to vanish.
Suddenly a sharp pain ripped it's way over Robin's back and something sharp cut into his flesh from a slash.
He swung around whacked the Naruto around the head, only to be kicked in the back by another one.
There seemed to be more Naruto's than he thought. That or the original was creating more by the moment…was there any limit?
Swarms of white haired youths flew at Cyborg from every angle.
He blasted and blasted but soon found himself overwhelmed.
The Naruto's began to pile themselves on top of him, forcing his bulk to the ground.
Starfire flew at a Naruto clone and kicked it across the face causing it to disappear in a small white puff.
Another clone kicked her in the back while another appeared in front of her and gave her a powerful uppercut to the face.
She was thrust down to the ground and piled on.
Naruto's swarmed over Beastboy and slowly managed to bring his giant beast form down.
It took about fifteen Naruto's to keep him held down until the green boy turned back to normal from exhaustion.
Raven was grappled by some clones and brought to her knees.
She could have beat them off if she wanted, but she found she hadn't the will.
The original Naruto watched the scene without moving an inch.
With five minutes, the Titan's had been overpowered and forced to the ground where they currently struggled against the bunshin clones.
Naruto shook his head, seemingly at their pitiful efforts.
"This is what the H.I.V.E. is afraid of?" Naruto asked. "Disappointing." He sighed.
"Well," Naruto began again. "At least I can use you as test subjects for a new jutsu I've been working on." The original said with the hint of a smile. Though what his feature's expressed, no one could know due to the darkness.
Naruto made a few handsigns.
He kept his eyes closed at first, but then he opened his eyes suddenly and called out into the night: "Kage Katon Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Literally: Shadow Fire Clone Technique!)
The clones exploded.
The area was engulfed in a powerful blaze as the Clones exploded whilst they gripped tight of the Titan's.
The flame lasted for barely a moment and it took maybe a scale of thirty seconds for the dust to settle.
In the clearing the Titan's looked unharmed. But the were certainly unconscious.
Naruto surveyed the scene for a moment before he slowly walked away.
As Naruto walked along the streets he grew to be aware of something. He slowly turned around and looked directly into a dark alleyway across the road.
Jinx lurked in the shadows.
She had been watching the young ninja ever since he had set out after the device. She had watched the fight between Shadow and the Teen Titan's and she couldn't help but feel…suspicious.
It had seemed too easy. It had seemed as though the Titan's had actually tried to hurt Shadow…but it also seemed that they had held back.
She lurked in an alleyway and watched the white haired youth walk calmly down the deserted streets. Suddenly he stopped.
Jinx leaned forward to get a better look.
Shadow turned around and looked into the alleyway that Jinx skulked in.
Jinx darted back into the shadows around a corner and waited for her heart to stop it's incessant fast paced beating.
She slowly regained her breath and hoped that she had not been seen.
She looked around the corner.
Shadow was gone.
Softly there was a cold blades edge placed against her throat.
She took an instinctive breath inwards and backed away from the knifes edge. Her back rested quickly against another's chest and the blade was pressed a little more forcefully against her throat.
"Why are you following me?" Shadow asked. "Where you asked too?"
"No." She answered quickly.
"Then why?" He asked her, his voice was threatening and deep.
"Because I wanted…wanted…to see you in action. You were amazing…please, don't kill me…I surrender."
Naruto let her go.
"What kind of bad guy are you meant to be?" Jinx asked him while she brushed herself down.
"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.
"Well, you never really do anything bad unless your told too, you give yourself a rule and code or something along those lines to follow, and now you just let me go because I asked you to. Why did you let me go? I might've attacked you." She asked.
"Are you trustworthy? Do you lie often?" Shadow asked her darkly.
"Of course not, the truth is always so much more fun." She said.
"Then why should I not believe you when you say you surrender?"
She was stumped.
"Ninjutsu Rule 23: Never attack a surrendered opponent."
Jinx blinked in shock and recognition at what he said.
Naruto jumped into the air and seemed to vanish into the blackness of the night.
Chapter 11 finished.