Chapter 4
Metropolis
S.T.A.R Labs
July 10th
23:00
They say that 'Knowledge is power' and it wasn't until a few days ago, that Naruto realised how much it applied to him. He may be a metahuman that could fight with the upper echelon of super powered beings but he was destitute of information. Information that could provide him with the means to leave the Justice League. Currently, Batman had all the keys, he could always go rogue but without any contacts and any means of hiding, Naruto would be running without a sense of direction. He would essentially be blind and he would rather not have the Justice League hot on his tails everyday and night. Even he was not naïve enough to believe that he could beat all of the Justice League. Wonder Woman was the only person that could kill him and some like Superman had enough power to severely injure him. He had therefore decided that he should procure some information on the Justice League.
S.T.A.R Labs were known to have a large database on metahumans, he had recently developed an affinity for computer hacking. He realised that S.T.A.R labs was virtually unhackable from the outside and so you would need to infiltrate the building. He was dressed in a common thief's clothes, a pair of gloves and a black balaclava.
He had managed to already get into the building, it had been relatively simple. Many scientists did overnight shifts and since he was not exactly a metahuman he didn't trigger the alarm. He stole on of the computer scientists I.D badge and used short electric to bursts to disrupt the electric systems. He had already knocked out the security guard and placed a constructed loop. So here he was inside the main server room, he would install his already preprogramed Trojan into the server and download as much information as he could. He just hoped that everything would go according to plan unfortunately even the best laid plans could go awry.
He had installed the Trojan and subsequently began to copy all the relevant data, he sent out several other Trojans and download irrelevant data to get S.T.A.R. labs of his tail. When he removed the USB stick from the terminal and unplugged his laptop. It was time to pack it up and leave. He threw all of his gear into his backup and walked towards the server room door. He ran out of the room and ran to the stairs. He had around 5 minutes until someone noticed the unconscious guard. As he was approaching the last five floors, he heard from the bug he had planted in the security guards office, "Rick, Do you still have some of…" Naruto cursed, he increased his speed and jumped the last two floors. He heard, "Intruder…Intruder on the ground floor." Shit! They would activate defence mechanisms, he would need to use his powers. The question is what powers should he use, he decided on electricity and super speed. He sped out of the stairwells and emerged in the lobby area, "Superhuman powers detected." A scanner was about to scan him but Naruto was not having that he released a powerful wave of electricity that short-circuited all of the equipment.
"Freeze." The clicking of a gun was heard behind him, Naruto sighed and in a flash the man's weapons were dismantled and Naruto was behind him. He saw the doors were closing and a metal door was beginning to lower. Using his superhuman speed, he ran through the door and sighed in relief as he managed to escape S.T.A.R labs, he would have thought that their security system would be advanced enough to tackle Superman but he guessed wrong. Then again, he was reminded why exactly they didn't need such an advanced security system when Supergirl appeared in front of him. She said calmly, "Turn yourself in and I won't have to harm you." Naruto didn't want to have to deal with her so he used the one thing he brought to counteract her. A very powerful flashbang, it would cause her to momentarily lose her sight.
He threw it at her face and it exploded. A bright explosion of light covered her vision and she was forced to cover her eyes. By the time, she had recovered from it, Naruto had disappeared into an alleyway ten blocks away.
Supergirl growled as she flew up into the air, she knew how he looked like. She would find him. Using her X-ray vision and superhuman magnification, she scanned the city. It was a slow process, she was looking for the man. Unfortunately, he had seemingly disappeared like a ghost.
July 11th
Mount Justice
10:00 AM
"I tell you Batman, he was a pro. He didn't leave a single clue behind." Supergirl told Batman about everything that had occurred. "He fried the security footage, he didn't leave any DNA and he managed to stun me. " Batman was impressed although he would never express it, this young thief had showed the panache of an expert strategist. He had planned everything from cover to cover, even if he was found which would be very hard to do, he wouldn't be able to put him in jail. Any evidence the detective had gained beside what he actually stole would be circumstantial. Superman and Supergirl had two main weaknesses, Kryptonite and Magic. This thief exploited one of their strengths, he knew about kryptonians overpowered senses and he used that against them.
Batman gruffly answered, "I will look into it." He marched towards the zeta tube intent on investigating this later on but he needed to head over to the company first. Supergirl wanted some food and she smelt something very delicious coming from the kitchen.
Naruto was using his superhuman hearing to listen on the conversation, a smile played on his lips. Despite the minor setback and the fact that he never wanted to be seen by anyone in the Justice League, he was still happy that everything was going according to his plan or at least the rough outlines he had come up with. He flipped the egg and the bacon making sure that they were cooked to his standards.
He heard, "Something smells good in here." Damn it! He turned around and he and Supergirl exchanged eye contact. She asked, "Who are you?" It was of course the first time she had seen him without his visor on or his full body armour. Batman had advised that he need not wear his visor in front of his new team.
Supergirl stared at the teenager in front of her, he was quite tall around 6 foot 3, he had gravity defying spiky blood red hair and glaring purple amethyst eyes. He had a very muscular build, not as muscular as superman but muscular enough to tell Supergirl that he was a fighter. Naruto smiled, "Oh I forgot you don't recognise me without my visor." k
Supergirl almost stepped, "Kage!"
"Yes, that's me." To Supergirl the awkwardness of being with her 'rival' Kage was enough for her to want to leave.
"So tell me Supergirl, what is a member of the Justice League doing here."
Supergirl sighed, "It doesn't matter…I should probably get going."
Naruto decided to cut the teen some slack, "You can stay, I made enough for two."
Supergirl said nervously, "I don't want to interrupt your breakfast. "
Naruto chuckled, "It's fine...Take a seat and I'll finish up for you. "Supergirl looked at Kage with surprise, he seemed very mellow compared to his fiery persona as a superhero, if he hadn't given her the clues to figure out his identity, she would've have sworn that he was a different person.
"Uh thanks…Kage."
Naruto said, "My name is Naruto.
Supergirl decided to reciprocate, "I am Kara." Apart of her wondered why he was being so friendly and a creeping suspicion was beginning to sink in before she quashed it. Naruto quickly plated the food and lead Supergirl to the dining room.
"This is great." Kara complimented his cooking as she finished her breakfast at record speed. Naruto merely chuckled as he sipped some orange juice, he asked, "So what made you decide to come here."
Kara replied, "There was an incident in Metropolis last night and I needed Batman's help…" Her Justice League signalling device began to vibrate telling her that she was needed at the Watchtower. She looked at him apologetically but Naruto gave her the briefest of nods and she flew out of the room at breakneck speeds.
Naruto grinned, it was necessary for his plan that he acted as if there was nothing going on. He needed the Justice League to trust him and to feel as though he didn't hate them. He finished his drink and headed towards the exercise room.
"Recognised B03 Aqualad."
"Recognised B02 Kid flash…B01 Robin." Naruto saw the three of them emerge from the zeta beam, they seemed rather unhappy but their venture to pick up Speedy and recruit to the team. Naruto could tell that they failed. Kid Flash sped up to Naruto, "Is he here yet?"
Naruto replied, "Red Tornado isn't but he should be here soon. I am going to the training room."
Wally looked at his other fellow teammates, "Well isn't he peachy."
Robin shrugged, "Let him be Wally, we both know he doesn't exactly want to be here."
Wally bluntly said, "Or belong here…" Aqualad looked at him with disappointment and Wally quickly finished, "I mean it's just that he is too powerful to be here. I doubt Batman is going to let us fight any of the heavy hitters. " Both Robin and Aqualad doubted that he meant it that way but kept their mouths shut before walking to the holographic computer.
1 hour later
Training Room
Naruto was about done with his katas, he had practised his weapon throwing and his kenjutsu beforehand. He stopped when he heard the mechanical wearing noise behind him.
Red Tornado's mechanical voice echoed throughout the room, "You must be Kage. The other members of the team seemed to be bonding without you."
Naruto replied, "And that concerns you."
Red Tornado merely replied, "Yes…It lowers the odds of you being able to successfully work as a unit."
Naruto turned the red mechanical being and shrugged, "Now, now we both know that the Justice League doesn't do a lot of team building exercises. I believe you are more worried about my behaviour, that my apathy for my teammates would cause them to be in danger."
"An accurate assessment, I was told that you were quite perceptive. Will that be a problem."
Naruto grinned as he spun his katana, "No, not at all. If they are useful in a mission, I will be sure to use them to their fullest capacity. It's like playing a game of chess really, for now they are merely pawns."
Red Tornado finished, "But they may promote to a piece of higher significance."
Naruto smiled at the droid, "Exactly." He grabbed a towel and walked out of the room.
Red Tornado muttered, "A most worrying assessment but an accurate one nonetheless." Naruto's cynical view on how the team was viewed by the Justice League was relatively accurate but to Red Tornado it was worrisome was that if they weren't useful what action would Naruto take against them. Would he leave on the battlefield bleeding? Would he support them? He would watch the young teenager more closely.
Ten minutes later
"Naruto…There is a disturbance in the Happy Harbour power plant. The team has already been sent ahead of you."
By the time Red Tornado had finished giving the order Naruto was already out of Mount Justice and was flying towards the power plant at Mach 3.
With the rest of the Team
They were getting beaten left, right and centre. This new android that called itself Twister was capable of generating tornadoes and high powered windblasts. Wally charged at the android but he was deflected by a powerful wave of wind. The android moved to it's side to avoid a punch from Superboy before throwing him away. Twister was capable of reading their movements and their simplistic patterns allowed it to easily calculate the next mode of action.
"Where is Red Tornado? I didn't come here to fight children."
Wally growled, "We are not children."
If the android were capable of making anyone it would have but it instead voted to simply blast Kid Flash into a steel beam.
Robin shouted, "Kid!" He threw some batrangs at Twisters armour but found that the androids armour was too strong to be cut through. Twister fired a tornado at Robin who used one of the beams to acrobatically throw himself out of the way. He rolled out of the way of another jet of wind before throwing some pellets of smoke at the android. Robin shoated, "Now Superboy."
Twister however had enough of playing around and grabbed Superboy's incoming fist and punched him in the abdomen sending him flying into the wall. "This game has gone far enough." He flew out of the building and found himself moving towards the side as a blur smashed into the ground. "Another child coming out to play."
Kage grinned, "Since you were able to defeat the others, I will indulge you. Show me your best. "
Twister flew into the air, "Very well." Wind twisters blew out of his gauntlets and into the atmosphere. Naruto observed as the sky's darkened and lightning began to accumulate around him. Kid Flash and the team who had regained their bearings ran out of the room. A jet of lightning began to rip through the air and was aimed towards Naruto who merely deflected with his sword.
A powerful jet of energy zoomed towards Twister who merely threw a bolt of lightning towards it. An explosion rippled before Twister and in a second Naruto was before him and the two began a duel in the air. Twister's wind against Naruto's black fire.
Kid Flash said in awe, "Did you know Kage could do that?"
Robin shook his head, "It's a first for me."
Twister dodged a sword strike but was kicked towards the ground by Naruto's high speed roundhouse kick. The android admitted, "You are very powerful." Naruto instead of speaking flew toward the android at Mach 4 speeds with his sword ready to decapacitate it's head. Twisters fired a powerful stream of wind towards Naruto but his katana was surrounded by black fire that lit the wind up as if it were oil.
The team watched in fascination as a black stream of fire flew towards Twister and before the android could react his armour was melting. Naruto's sword impacted into the android's core causing it to die. With a snap of his finger the black flames disappeared.
Kid Flash sped up to the standing Naruto and the now disassembled android, he said, "Dude, that was sick." Naruto's visor and flashed red, Kid Flash gulped as he saw daunting and threatning Naruto looked with his armour.
"I was just doing my job. Return the broken pieces back to the cave, I believe that Red Tornado would want to have a closer look."
He turned to the others and said, "I trust that you learnt your lesson now."
Superboy growled, "And what would that be?"
Naruto merely replied, "That charging into battle without any strategy is a bad idea. There will come a time when I cannot swoop in and save you all. If you don't take this seriously, you will die." With that Naruto flew away from a team that had lost their jovial happiness about their victory as they came to terms with Naruto's words. He was after all correct. The truth as to why Batman hadn't assigned any missions began to enter their minds, they simply weren't ready.
Hours later
Washington DC
Dojo
Naruto flipped over to avoid a sword strike, he kicked Wonder Woman's back and she was forced to roll over to avoid Naruto's incoming heel kick. The two warriors duked it out, sounds of metal clanging and grunting could be heard from outside. The Dojo was part of an abandoned warehouse that Bruce Wayne had brought and renovated for her use. The walls were soundproof and had multiple racks of different weapons in front of them.
She grabbed Naruto's thrusted arm and in one fluent motion disarmed him, she spun her blade and aimed the circular hilt at his kidney. Naruto grunted at the jab but was quickly thrown into the wall. He grabbed a Bo staff and spun it for good measure.
Wonder Woman grinned as she dashed towards him at breakneck speeds, Naruto used his Bo Staff to keep the distance between her. She dashed underneath his jab and was about to hit him again but Naruto anticipated the movement and grabbed her arm in a twisting motion causing the blade to drop. Wonder Woman wasn't done as she swiped his leg and Naruto fell to the ground. She straddled him and with her arm held both of his arms above his head in a steel like grip. Her other arm had already grabbed the downed sword and was pointing at Naruto's neck. Naruto could feel her hot breath on his face as she lent down and looked into his purple eyes with a mixture of mirth and daringness, as if she was daring him to escape. He said, "It's your win, Wonder Woman."
She smiled and released her grip on his hand. "It was a good duel as always, Naruto."
She threw him a water bottle to her side and Naruto caught it. "Batman told me about your fight with the android named Twister. He expressed concerns about how you treated your teammates."
Naruto gulped down some water, he responded, "I told them the truth. They think just because they fought a few villians over the years that they can win any battle. They dived head first in to Battle and expected that they would emerge victorious. It's wishful thinking."
Wonder Woman sat beside her partner, "You must understand Naruto that unlike the two of us they weren't trained from when they could walk. They lead normal lives and for the most part, they don't fight villains. You can't expect them to fight as well as you and you can't expect them to fight as a good as the others in Uzushiogakure. When I first joined the Justice League I saw the same thing you see with your team, I saw a team of powerful people incapable of working as a unit. It was only due to Batman's tactical knowledge that we were able to win. So give them a chance."
Naruto sighed, "Fine."
Diana smiled. She stood up, "I am heading over to metropolis, I trust that you will be fine." Naruto merely nodded. He watched as she headed out of the dojo and towards the shower room, no doubt getting ready to go see Superman. Naruto found himself wondering whether he was beginning to develop feelings for Diana. He thought, 'That's absurd. I would never fall for an amazon.' Besides she was with Superman anyway.
He looked at the fallen Bo staff and picked it up, he spun it around his neck and impaled it into the wall. He quashed all of the emotions he was currently feeling as a darkness spread through his body. He had a plan and the plan was the most important thing right now. It was more important than the powerful feeling of loneliness that he was feeling.
He thought, 'Back in Uzushiogakure, you were royalty, you were important but here you are nothing.' It had taken a while to come to terms with that but he realised that it had it's perks. He was in an effect a ghost and ghosts didn't leave a trail.
Wonder Woman's apartment
DC Washington
Batman had easily snuck into the apartment, Wonder Woman and Naruto both relied on their skill to ward of intruders rather any form of technology. He walked into Naruto's room, he saw a trip wire and jumped over it. Well it appeared Naruto was quite paranoid. The young Uzumaki's room was quite plain, a queen's sized bed was situated in the middle of the room.
A rather intricate computer setup on to the left side beside the wooden wardrobe, he walked to the computer and pressed a few buttons. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the level of encryption that Naruto had put on the machine. He returned the computer back to sleep mode before walking around the room, he stopped at what seemed to be an Othello board with checker, chess and shogi pieces being placed around the board in a seemingly random way. The detective retreated from the room and thought, 'What game are you playing, Naruto.' He couldn't stop feeling the nagging feeling that Naruto was planning something big.
Back at the dojo, Naruto grinned as a kanji seal on his arm glowed red. He activated the camera bug in his room and found Batman walking out of his room. His experiment had worked, he figured out that Batman was a master of infiltration but he was incapable of detecting any of his seals. A weakness that Naruto would happily expose.
It was time for his next move.
A/N
Naruto's feelings for Wonder Woman are starting to influence him and in time he will begin to develop an attachment to the team. Batman placed Naruto on the team so that he may motivate the other members of the team, it works in a way that they would need to train their arses off to get recognition by the Justice League.
The next chapter will be mostly the Santa Prisca mission and Naruto being confronted by the Light in a way.
Anyway I posted a poll on my profile about whether you would want a harem pairing or a single pairing in this story. Note that this is not definitive but it will influence my decision significantly. If it is a harem, I only plan on a maximum of four/five girls.
I hope you like this chapter and please review.
