Chapter 5
Uzumaki Academy
Branch
Classroom
The Uzumaki Academy was where the branch members trained their children. They taught them how to use their unique powers, their abilities and most importantly how to wield chakra to it's fullest potential. The royal family were more independent and were trained in the citadel, that wasn't to say that they never brought their children to the academy. The Uzumaki Clan had a tradition of a yearly tournaments, the branch members would pit themselves against the royal family.
In one classroom, the leader of the Branch family Ryuu Uzumaki was sitting in front of a classroom filled with children. He was giving them a lecture of the importance of learning how to control one's chakra.
A student eagerly asked, "Ryuu-Sama, could you show us a jutsu."
The old Uzumaki sighed and smiled, "This technique is one of my favourite and most versatile in my arsenal. It's called the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." He crossed two fingers from both hands in a cross like fashion and spiked his chakra. In a plume of smoke, two identical versions of Ryuu stood on both sides of him.
The image began to fade and another one became clearer. Ryuu stood on a large pedestal in front of hundreds of people, he shouted, "For too long we have suffered under the tyranny of the Royal family. They take out is ours and claim it belongs to them, they brand as slaves whilst they enjoy their lavish lifestyle. I say no more! I say we take back what is ours." A roar of approval followed.
"Naruto!" Robin's voice caused the Uzumaki to jolt of out of his dream/memory viewing. He was getting more and more vivid memories as of late, he was learning things that he had never learned before. "Batman wants in the hall for a briefing. We have a mission."
'Finally!' Naruto thought.
Naruto followed Robin wincing slightly as information about the Kage Bunshin Jutsu flooded his mind as well as the variations that other Uzumaki's had created. Naruto had learned that he would get memories and information via certain cues, they were sometimes random but it was usually an object, a word or a place of familiarities.
"Isla Santa Prisca. This island nation is the primary source of a dangerous and illegal steroid, a strength enhancing drug sold under the street name 'Venom'. "Batman explained what the island was. He continued, "Infrared heat signatures indicate their factory Is still operating at full capacity, but all shipments of Venom have been inexplicably cut off." A holographic projection of the factory was showed to the team.
Batman turned to the team, he told them the missions objectives, "This is a covert recon mission only. Observe and report."
"If the Justice League needs to intervene they will. " Naruto zoned out of the rest of the meeting. His HUD was accessing the League's database, he was currently reading files about Santa Prisca. They were not only the largest distributor of Venom but were suspected of money laundering. A grin quirked Naruto's lips, he thought, 'Where there were drugs there was usually a large amount of money.' His plan was progressing rather well.
Naruto saw the team heading off to the Bioship and Batman walking away, Naruto asked, "Why us?"
Batman turned, he replied monotonously, "I'm sure you'll figure that out." With that the caped crusader walked away. Naruto's grin faded, Batman had been keeping tabs on him ever since he had invaded his room. When Naruto returned back to the penthouse, he wasn't surprised to find the house was bugged and rather well. He would have shown it to Wonder Woman but considering that she was beginning to spend more and more time in metropolis and only came to Washington when she had a diplomatic meeting or for their routine spar, he didn't really see the need.
Naruto had seen the team were still edgy but were beginning to train more, Kaldur and Robin lead the team through a number of simulations whilst Naruto monitored their actions and flaws. He wouldn't say that they were combat ready or even capable of working as a unit but they were getting there.
Bioship
"Drop zone A in 30." Kaldur stood up and pressed the golden trident on his belt, his usual red armour turned black. He said confidently, "Ready. " M'ggan nodded and the Bioship responded to her command, the floor in front of him opened and Aqualad jumped out into the ocean. The ship was already in camouflage mode.
A few minutes later they heard Aqualad, "Heat and motion sensors are off."
"Remote weapon systems are down." Kage's voice echoed through the coms. It was his plan to fly ahead, he breached the system by applying seals on his body that made him look as though he possessed no heat signature. "We'll rendezvous at Dropzone B."
M'ggan confirmed, "Rodger that."
She announced, "Dropzone B." They all unbuckled, Kid Flash pressed his chest logo of the flash and his colourful yellow and red suit turned black.
He looked at Superboy and said, "It's not too late to wear the new stealth tech."
Superboy replied coolly, "No tights, no capes. No offense."
"It totally works for you." M'ggan said dreamily. Superboy looked at her pointedly almost which caused her to continue nervously, "In that you can do good work in those clothes."
Naruto's monotonous voice interrupted their little party, "Les talking and more moving. I am already at the rendezvous point." Megan and Kid Flash looked sheepishly as Naruto ordered them to get down. Robin frowned as he buckled up, it appeared that Naruto was already taking leadership of the team even if he had expressed to him privately that he doesn't want to command.
He remembered their conversation a few days.
Flashback
Training Room
"You're improving…" Naruto moved quickly to dodge two batrangs and caught one with his fingers. Robin charged at the older and much taller teenager and engaged him in close quarter combat. Naruto showed his superiority by evading all of Robin's attacks.
Robin growled, "Are you just going to dodge."
Naruto smirked, "You're not giving me a reason not to."
A timer went off and Robin almost kicked the floor in frustration. Naruto said, "As I said you're improving Robin. "
Robin grounded out, "Clearly not enough."
Naruto smiled, "This isn't about me anymore, is it?" It was more of a statement than a question.
Robin answered smoothly, "I was reckless and stupid when I was fighting against Twister. I should have utilised the team's abilities more effectively."
"It was a lesson like any other Robin. You learnt that even though you were trained by Batman that there are limitations to your abilities. This team doesn't have a leader…It doesn't have someone that can rally them at a single notice and as such it remains disjointed."
Robin looked at Naruto with a curious expression, "So who do you think can lead this team. Batman told me that he saw you as a very capable strategist."
Naruto shook his head, "I will not be the leader of this team. It will be either you or Kaldur. The others lack the focus and the strategical knowhow to lead a team through covert missions."
Robin smirked, "So you think I can lead this team."
Naruto reciprocated the boy wonder's smirk, "We'll just have to see."
Flashback ended
Boom!
Superboy's landing had caused a large sonic wave to spread across a large radius. Superboy said, "I told you I didn't need a line."
Naruto's voice came from the shadows behind them, "And yet you just announced a presence to everyone in the nearby vicinity. I know that you are just a few months old but did Cadmus not teach you the meaning of the word covert."
Everyone turned in surprise as Naruto blended out of the darkness behind them. Robin was the first to notice the difference in attire as he stepped out into the light. He was dressed more like a heavily armoured titan and more like a member of the league of shadows. He was dressed in black garb made out of what seemed to be cloth, he wore armour around his knees, elbow, shin and a pair of gauntlets on his hand. The only thing that told them it was Kage was his visor. It made Robin wonder whether Naruto was trained to be an assassin, a shiver ran up his spine as he thought of Naruto as a more dangerous form of Deathstroke. The boy wonder narrowed his eyes and decided to focus on the mission.
Superboy growled at Naruto bawling his fists at the mention of his pervious captors, Naruto shrugged, "I know they tried to make a clone of Superman but they should have really modulated your behaviour better. It comes as no surprise that Superman doesn't want anything to do with you."
Superboy was about to jump at Naruto but Kid Flash said, "Um guys should we really be fighting." Superboy turned to Kid to glare at him but found that his momentary distraction allowed for Naruto to slip away. Robin noticed as Naruto gave a salute.
M'ggan said, "Aqualad, Drop B is go."
Aqualad replied, "Head for the factory, I'll track your GPS and rendezvous with you."
"Rodger that." The group of four dashed into the forest disappearing into the night.
With Naruto
Naruto was doing his own work, he had tried and failed to create clones which would have helped greatly with his little side quest to find and acquire the money in the factory. He jumped from one tree to the next before stopping when he saw a squadron of two groups heading towards each other. They wore different clothes and seemed to be ready for combat, Naruto knew that they weren't looking for them which meant that they were going to attack each other. Well at least Batman was right, his HUD zoomed into the face of a large muscular man with what seemed to be wrestlers mask on. Information was uploaded, it came as no surprise to see Bane here considering he was the main user of Venom and the main distributor of it in Gotham.
Oh god! Naruto almost facepalmed when Kid Flash stumbled in front of Bane. Both group startled when Bane began starting shooting. Bullets could be heard throughout the jungle, Naruto sighed as he jumped down into the forest.
Robin, Superboy and Miss Martian entered the fray, the skirmish between the two opposing groups halted as they combined their efforts in quashing the intruders.
Naruto skilfully landed, the group of people wearing red robes began to fire rapidly at him. Naruto sighed as a beam of energy erupted from his visor, it knocked half of them a few hundred metres away. He ducked to avoid getting him by the back of automatic rifle before swiping the man's legs. His punch sent him sailing into the tree, one of them escaped running into the forest but Naruto was not worried about him considering that Aqualad was running after the escapee. He stopped a hail of bullets with his gravity manipulation and crushed them. Naruto mimicked a pushing motion with his hand and a wave of gravity knocked all of the group back to the ground and unconscious.
Robin flipped over a target as he leveraged the momentum from his jump to throw one of the goons into the tree. He cried, "Why didn't you guys follow my lead and vanish into the jungle."
Wally sarcastically said, "Is that what you were doing. We're not mind readers you know." Miss Martian became visible and knocked two goons into the tree with her TK. Kid Flash looked at her, "Well not all of us anyway."
They heard a rustling from behind and then the crackling of electricity as Aqualad knocked his target out.
Robin looked at the downed goon with the red robe, he said, "Wait I know these guys, they are from the cult of cobra."
Aqualad said sceptically, "I believe Batman would have informed us if such a group as extreme as the cult of cobra where running the island."
Naruto replied, "They took it forcefully." He threw a cultist into the ground, all of them saw the man muttering gibberish as if his brain were fried. Robin asked suspiciously, "What did you do to him."
"Standard interrogation…" The rest of the team looked apprehensively at the cultist and Naruto.
Wally asked, "What do we do now?"
"Since you decided to inform all of the island of our presence Wally, We have two choices go to the factory and get ready for a large amount of resistance or withdraw and inform Batman that the team was incapable of performing a simple reconnaissance mission."
Kid Flash shouted at Naruto, "Hey I know you don't want to be placed on to this team and all but you don't get to always mock us. We never wanted you in the first place." Superboy seemingly agreed with Kid's opinion.
Naruto snorted, "Fine…find your own way into the factory. I am going by myself." He sped out into the forest.
Kid shouted, "Can you believe that guy…He thinks he is all high and mighty."
Robin replied coolly, "Well it was kind of your fault."
"Well excuse me if I don't stack up to your expectation. We are not all trained by Batman." It was true, Robin was the only one in this team that was trained in covert operations except for Naruto. The rest of the team were forced to improvise and the fact that this type of environment along with the pressure made them prone to making mistakes.
Robin looked at his minicomputer and sighed, "Kage switched off his GPS. We are on our own now."
Aqualad looked to his team, "How will we get into the factory."
Robin pointed to the tied-up Bane, "He'll help us."
Factory
Naruto had easily breached the security, he had opted for sneaking past the guards than knocking them out. The amount of product that they were currently moving was insane. He would leave the information gathering to Robin and the team. He needed to find what he came here for before the group breaches the factory.
Back with the team
Bane had agreed to help them get into the factory, he claimed that the enemy of his enemy were his allies for now at least. Robin knew that the Spanish speaking wrestler would betray them the second they got clear but for now he begrudgingly accepted Bane's help. The factory would after all be on high alert after Kid Flash blew their cover. He just hoped that Naruto had knocked a large portion of them out before they had gotten there.
Robin and the team stood on a cliff and he watched through binoculars as a large amount of shipment was being taken from the factory. He said, "Look at all that product." He surveyed the area that the shipment was going. "A buy is going down but if Cobra's not selling it to the normal suspects…"
"We need to identify the buyers."
Kid Flash added, "Just what I was thinking. "
Robin replied sarcastically, "Because you're the thinker of the team."
Wally interjected "Sarcasm, dude. A real leader would focus on getting answers."
Bane picked a large boulder and removed it from a cave entrance, he told the two squabbling children and the team, "Answers are this way."
"Oh great." Wally muttered, "So now El luchador is our leader." Robin shoved him in the arm to tell him to focus at the mission.
The team walked through the tunnel trailing closely behind Bane, they entered a massive warehouse where venom was being pumped through red vats. Robin announced, "All clear." He rolled to the side and disappeared as the team walked into the warehouse.
Bane frowned, "Has the little fool already been caught."
Aqualad sighed, "No. He just does that."
Kid Flash put his infrared googles and said, "Wait here I'll get the information we need before the boy wonder returns."
Aqualad tried to say, "No Kid, wait…" But the young speedster ran deeper into the factory.
Bane sarcastically said, "Great chain of command." The three remaining team members looked at each other. They needed a plan and fast.
Bane lead them across the factory, they snuck behind the pipes and ducked behind a crater. They saw Cobra followers moving the shipment. "They're only moving the new shipment, they aren't touching the old ones."
Miss Martian tried to be helpful by adding, "Maybe Freshness counts." Bane felt like snorting at the girl's stupidity but kept his mouth shut as Superboy announced, "Helicopter's coming." They all locked towards the open hanger room and saw a helicopter arriving.
Meanwhile Robin was currently hacking into Cobra's computer systems. Kid Flash sped into the room, "Find anything?" he asked.
"Chemical formula's." Kid Flash sped up to the computer as he ate some of his bar, "I'm guessing it has something to do with venom."
Kid Flash pointed his chocolate bar at the screen, "That's the chemical formula of venom and that's…no, that's the blockbuster formula from Cadmus. The combination makes the drug three times more powerful and permanent."
Robin deduced, "The buyer must also be the supplier then. They must have been looking to improve upon the original serum."
He tried to speak through the communication link to his teammates, "Robin to Aqualad…Static." Someone was radio jamming them. They couldn't get communicate anymore.
Rooftop
As the military grade chopper landed, an infamous assassin stepped out. He wore what appeared to a grey hockey mask and arm length gauntlets. His vest appeared to laced with Kevlar. He marched towards Cobra who was flanked by two of his most powerful henchmen.
He greeted, "Lord Cobra."
The humanoid snake replied, "Sportsmaster." A woman with bright orange hair held a briefcase. She opened it revealing vials filled with purple liquid. "The shipment is ready."
Sportsmaster took a vial and inspected it, "The new cobra venom. Finally, with this, we can fight the Justice League."
In the air, Miss Martian remained invisible and watched the meeting. She relayed, 'Aqualad, I am sending the mental image of the buyer to you now.'
Aqualad replied, "So what's the plan now."
Bane smirked, "I have a plan." He leapt over the ledge and began to attack the two cobra henchmen below.
Aqualad hissed, "What is he doing."
Cobra became alerted and Mammoth smashed through the window to engage in a brawl with the villain. Superboy and Aqualad's ledge was destroyed and they were sent to the ground. Cobra's henchmen began to flood the room. Kobra shouted, "Destroy them."
He never noticed a shadow move behind him, Sportsmaster sensed a disturbance and was forced to dodge as a katana almost slashed his head off. The assassin grinned, "A fellow assassin."
Naruto had spent the better part of the last twenty minutes placing explosive tags across the factory. He had found where Kobra kept his money, a small vault in a hut outside the factory. He sealed what appeared to be close to half a million dollars into a scroll before heading back to the team.
Sportsmaster answered, "So you must be Kage."
Naruto's eyes narrowed at the mention of his codename, "Who do you work for?"
Sportsmaster replied, "You'll have to beat it out of me." He draws out a metal rod that folds out into a javelin. He threw it not at Naruto but the invisible Miss Martian, she managed to dodge it but was thrown across the room when the javelin exploded.
"It would be my pleasure." The two warriors dashed towards each other but Sportsmaster soon found himself overwhelmed.
Superboy rolled out of the way and attempted to tackle Mammoth to the ground. Mammoth however reversed the young kryptonians plan and threw Superboy into Aqualad. More Kobra henchmen entered the room and they found themselves getting overwhelmed.
Aqualad telepathically shouted, "Miss Martian, Link us all together." A powerful gravity wave sent dozens of henchmen flying as they tried to stop Naruto from attacking Sportsmaster. The assassin flipped out of the way and replied, "Using your powers against a feeble human…Tsk Tsk, I thought you had more honour than that Kage."
Naruto sheathed his sword and raised his fists for combat, "I don't need my powers to beat you."
"So you say." Sportsmaster dashed towards him and Naruto was quick on his feet to evade a roundhouse kick before he grabbed the man's outstretched limb and brought him down to the ground. He jerked his leg with surprising strength causing the assassin's body to fly upwards and Naruto's boot smashed into his armoured back. Sportsmaster groaned, had it not been for his armour his spine would have been severely compromised.
Cobra meanwhile was getting tired of this nuisance, he saw the familiar face of the boy wonder and said mockingly, "Batman must be getting desperate, if he sends you here."
Robin pointed back towards all the fighting, "The way I see it your buyer seems to be having a hard time against us."
Kobra exclaimed mockingly, "It doesn't matter. So long as I know the formula, I can always make more."
'Aqualad to all…We need to retreat and regroup.'
Naruto's cold voice echoed throughout his mind, 'No! You guys go, I'll hold them off.' Everyone was surprised that Naruto was willing to do that for them.
Aqualad replied, 'You heard Kage. Let's go.' As each of them began to retreat, Naruto was forced to release Sportsmaster as Mammoth tried to barrel into him. He flipped over the beast and placed a tag on him. Sportsmaster, Mammoth, Kobra and his goons began to regroup in front of him. Naruto sensed that his team was a fair distance away. Kobra shouted, "Take the shipment and go." He threw Sportsmaster the case and ordered the assassin to run. Naruto was going to fly after him but Mammoth shot forward. He groaned as the beast grappled him to the ground. Naruto did a hand sign and said, "Fuinjutsu: Fūkōsoku no Kōtaiikikin." Mammoth screamed as his arms were bent backwards and what appeared to be steel crossing around him. He broke some of the steel off but found that it regenerated.
Kobra decided to run towards the chopper but found the team there fighting off Sportsmaster and Shimmer. Naruto waved his hand and a massive amount of gravity threw Kobra and his goons to the side.
Naruto replied, "You have nowhere to go Kobra."
The villain grew angry at the teenager in front of him, his plan had been foiled by mere kids. Such blasphemy could not be tolerated in his eyes. He would make Naruto bow before him. He took of his robe and raised his hands to get ready for combat.
The sound of a chopper rang throughout the factory, Kobra chuckled, "It appears your teammates are as not skilled as you believed them to be. You can either stay here and fight me or you can try and stop the shipment."
Naruto flew out of the window to see Shimmer getting tied up by Robin. An injured Superboy was holding Miss Martian. Naruto saw the plane flying in the distance, his visor flashed red as a jet of blue light ripped from him and straight at the chopper. Miss Martian grinned as she activated the C4 and the plane blew up.
Naruto turned to see that Cobra had vanished and would most likely not be found.
Naruto in hopes of catching Cobra decided to activate the paper tags that were placed around the plant. An explosion shook the area where the team, the chopper flying straight into the plant. Had Naruto been paying attention he would have seen Sportsmaster jump out of the plane and into the forest.
Aqualad and Kid Flash appeared before them, "Bane is secure."
Aqualad told them, "The Justice League should be arriving soon.'
Robin cackled, "I'm glad I didn't take up the leadership position." He looked pointedly at Aqualad, "I'd hate to have to tell Batman how this miss happened."
Kid Flash slapped the Atlantean on the back, "Cheer up...At least we can say we took down a major villain."
Only Miss Martian noticed Naruto vanishing into the night. Naruto heard in his mind, 'Thank you.' Not hearing a reply Miss Martian shut of her mental link with Naruto and peered into the night with a frown. Was he ever going to trust them?
It took the rest only a minute or so to recognise that Naruto had disappeared. Kid Flash said, I swear to go he's like a ninja."
Robin could merely nod, Naruto reminded him of Batman, Robin had still not gotten better at detecting his tutor when he disappeared. Naruto was just as good if not better at disappearing but that could be due to his super speed.
"A simple recon mission. Observe and Report." Each of the team members lined up in front of the Caped Crusader dressed in civilian clothing. He walked around and said, "You'll each receive a written evaluation informing each of you of your many mistakes."
"Until then good job." Apart from Robin and Naruto the team seemed utterly surprised at Batman's sudden praise. "No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. How you adjust to the unforeseen is what determines success and how you choose who leads determines character. " He stopped and stared into Naruto's violet eyes not missing the small and upward quirk of his mouth.
Batman said, "Do you have something to add, Naruto."
Naruto smiled, "Carl Von Clausewitz…He pointed out that no matter how carefully one plans, on the battlefield, even the smallest of details can cause setbacks. Regardless of how well-thought out it is, armchair strategizing only works in the realm of theory. Unexpected troubles can jeopardize an operation especially one as sensitive as an infiltration and recon one. You knew that the Cult of Cobra was there but you wanted to see how we could handle it." All of them looked surprised at Naruto's revelation, Robin's eyes widened slightly as he realised that Naruto was telling the truth.
Batman merely smirked before he left the mission room. Megan asked, "How long did you know?"
Naruto shrugged, "I had my suspicions all along."
Robin facepalmed as he muttered, "I should have seen it."
Naruto informed them, "Batman had his reasons for doing what he did, he needed to know whether you were capable of missions such as these. Covert operations are unlike the normal skirmishes you have with the villains in your respective cities. You aren't in an area of familiarity and the enemy has that advantage, you must be prepared for your plan to fail and when it does you must be ready to improvise. We did a good job, we took down the largest supplier of venom and may have saved innocent lives in Gotham or any other city it used in."
Kaldur looked at Naruto and saw the fierceness in his eyes, he said, "I want you to be team leader."
Wally jumped in, "Kaldur, we voted you team leader."
Kaldur shook his head, "Naruto has shown to be the superior tactician."
Naruto replied, "Strategy is important in wining any battle but Kaldur you have gained the trust of your teammate and with it you have gained something that is even more important than any strategy I could come up with, loyalty. For that reason alone, I can say that you should be the leader." Kaldur nodded in respect to his fellow teammate.
Naruto said, "Until next time." He walked off towards the zeta tube and boomed himself back to DC Washington.
Hours later
Washington DC
Park
Naruto sat on a table moving the chess pieces on his own. He heard from behind him, "Fischer and Spassky, game 4…I heard you were quite the strategist."
Naruto replied emotionless, "Considering the fact that you didn't even try to mask your presence away from me says that you aren't."
A feminine voice melodiously chuckled as she took seat in front of him. "I came here just to talk." Naruto's violet eyes looked at the slender, dark-skinned woman with dark blue eyes and long black hair.
Naruto said, "You have my full attention."
"We've been watching you for quite some time now, Uzumaki Naruto. You have caught our interest." She said, "We wish for you to work for us."
"And who are you?"
The woman smiled slightly, "People who can grant you your freedom."
Naruto narrowed his eyes, "I'm not in prison or a slave of any kind, my freedom already exists."
She passed him an envelope, "The Justice League has been monitoring your activities for a long time. They have already created enough contingency plans to subdue you should you go rogue."
"I have known of this for a long time…Batman has made it no secret that he doesn't trust me. You still haven't given me any initiative."
"Open the envelope." Naruto did as he was asked and saw a audio player, he played the tape.
"Diana, have you found Kage's weakness."
He heard Wonder Woman's reply, "It's me."
"Then it's decided. You will remain close to Kage, earn his trust." Batman's voice could be heard.
Naruto's grip on the table increased until small cracks formed beneath the chess board. She smiled, "So do we have a deal." Her coy voice seemed to be almost mocking him.
Elsewhere
Sportsmaster said, "I only managed to procure a single ampoule of Kobra Venom." He stood in front of 5 screens with light figures. The screen allocated to L-4 was switched off.
The French voice of L-6 said, "Perhaps the drug can be reverse engineered."
L-1 spoke, "What of our young heroes? First, Cadmus, then mister Twister. Now, Santa Prisca. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence but 3 times is enemy action."
He spoke with voice filled with pure power, "Enemies of the light must not stand."
A/N:
End of Chapter. It took me a while to write this chapter due to the fact that so much was going on. I wanted to post it before university started again.
Anyway Naruto is approached by Queen Bee, she was the best option in my opinion. Lex Luthour would bring to much attention, Ra's isn't good at these kinds of missions and Queen Bee seemed to be the most logical choice.
The poll is still up and it seems that the Harem is going to win. So I will probably go the harem route, I can say that romance won't be a large part of the story but that there will be a single pairing before Naruto ventures the harem route.
Tell me in the review section which harem pairings you want.
Anyway thank you for reading and please review.
Next chapter, Confronting Wonder Woman and fighting against Amazo.
