A/N: Not beta'ed. Though I tried to read through it, there will be mistakes.

Also, fair warning - this is AU. There will be changes to events, and this will stray from canon entirely at a point.

Titan Tower, San Francisco; October 17, 1:07 PM PDT

Naruto dragged himself through the corridor his room was connected to, exhaustion making his eyelids heavy.

He was getting better, he could feel it. Slow as the training process was, with most of his clones working on chakra control, and him only using two for Taijutsu, he was beginning to feel the progress and had even managed to use his left arm to cover the right of his body without leaving himself vulnerable at a point, something he couldn't replicate again, but was proud of nonetheless.

Opening the door to his room, he had been prepared to jump onto his bed, but he paused when he saw Nightwing come into the hall too, in a jacket and jeans.

"Wha'?" He focused on the old man, still stopped at his door, "Nightman?"

"You can call me Dick, you know," He retorted, "It would be better if we're ever in public as civilians too. And it's Nightwing."

"Sure, Nightman," Naruto walked into his room and fell back onto the bed, looking at the ceiling.

Nightwing stopped by his door as Naruto had moments ago, "Kory tells me you don't train with the Titans."

"Did she send you to talk to me?" he asked curiously.

"She's the Titan's leader, if she wants to talk to you, she'll come herself," Nightwing assured him, "And I'm sure she will. She's worried about you. I'm just letting you know."

It was hard not to appreciate the concern she's shown for him, what him still being a relative stranger to her and most of the team. He would welcome talking to her, and soothing any concern she had for him, Naruto muttered, "Alright."

He heard Nightwing walk into his room, "I watched you train out there. Can't tell you how weird it is watching so many versions of the same person casually practising about. All the worse when I don't understand what exactly they're practising. How are you able to make so many clones yourself? And what's that blue ball most of them focus on?"

"Oh, the Rasengan?" Naruto retorted lightly, "It's a jutsu I create with my chakra, like my clones."

"Japanese," he heard him whisper, "What's chakra? Like, the meditation thing?"

"No, it's -" Naruto stopped himself, entirely unsure if he wanted to explain it all to him, despite how much Nightwing had helped him set up here with his identification and what would be his suit.

"I won't pry, it's good," Nightwing assured him, "I was just curious about you, is all."

"It's like magic," The Uzumaki said, remembering its existence in this world, in people like Raven. It was the closest comparison there was to it here, and he wasn't quite trusting enough to give him a detailed explanation. Or at least, one that was as detailed as he could give.

"I get it," Nightwing nodded, then regarded the dirty clothes he had on him, "You should probably go and sort out your clothing situation. I don't think Jaimes' gonna let you borrow his for too long, especially with the way you bring them back to him. It would do you some good to leave the Tower, see what's it like out there. Staying here and only leaving when you have a mission, whenever that'll be, won't do you any good."

"Mhmm, will do," Naruto felt his eyes begin to close, but he forced himself awake.

"On that account," Nightwing started, "You've been something of a celebrity lately, with that video being all over the internet still. Normally that would be a bit awkward for your identity, what with you becoming a hero and trying to maintain an alter ego like we spoke about, but I need your popularity right now to make my job a little easier. If you don't mind helping out."

"Right."

"I have intel on a potential location for the Bedlam Syndicate," he went on, leaning on the wall, "A children's hospital with an extremely high mortality rate in Markovia."

That got Naruto up, and had him mentally do his best to dissipate his tiredness from his training.

"The now-dead King and Queen of Markovia were strongly against meta-human trafficking, and I suspect whoever's part of the syndicate orchestrated their deaths because of their stance on the issue, which means they're likely part of the Markovian elite, maybe other members of their royal family or close to them, and I have no doubt they'll be at the pre-coronation of Prince Gregor Markov."

Naruto remembered seeing something from the news about their deaths the day prior but hadn't expected the reasons to be anything more than simple state politics. He'd never think to connect it to their stance on meta-human trafficking, even if he had known about it. Did everything here have some sort of connection to the practice?

"It's a closed event, invitation-only and security will be tight, what with how the king and queen were murdered. Now, I could hack their guest system and get in that way, but I thought of a way that leaves fewer trails," he smiled at him, "I got into contact with the event organizer, and managed to secure an up and coming star an invitation to the event, and his plus twos."

"Who?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"You," Nightwing gave him a strange look, "You'll be pulling interested persons, and Artemis and I will be on the lookout for anything suspicious. Tigress and I will have to travel with fake IDs. You'll be going as yourself. We'll have to get you a suit too, the formal kind."

"I'm the bait, aren't I?"His brows furrowed, and Nightwing looked caught for only a moment.

"Well, not the bait, per se, but," He sighed, dropping his arms, "Yeah, you're the bait. Look, if the Light were interested enough in you to send Onslaught to try to bring you in from the Youth Center, which was a bit strange when you look at the way they usually do things, I'm hoping your presence has whatever subordinates I'm sure they have within the Bedlam Ring behaving in a way beneficial to the mission. And if something was to happen, you wouldn't be just sitting through it."

"Mmm," Naruto nodded, acknowledging the point as he brought his hand to his chin thoughtfully.

"I've spoken to Kory about taking you on this mission, and she was fine with it as long as you are," Nightwing put in, "You don't have to come if you feel you aren't ready."

"I promised to help. I'm with you," he said, standing up:

"Although, what the heck is the Light?"

"Ah dude, your first mission and I won't be there for it."

"I'm sure there'll be others," Naruto reminded Beast Boy, "Where we'll go as Titans and stuff."

"Not the same man, not the same," he looked at him plainly, "Plus with the U.N issue, I don't think it'll be any time soon."

That made a little more sense to Naruto now, and he knew enough now to understand why the Justice League had lost so many members, pre-planned or not. Having the entire group under the control of what was basically the enemy had them trapped, to a point where they couldn't actively save people or do anything that would be in opposition to the Light and the way they wanted to pave the future.

Nightwing had to explain it all to him, and that had in itself brought his attention to the near solitude he had put himself in here.

He did speak with Garfield at times, something that made the green boy near a friend to him, but they didn't speak about anything that wasn't TV or the games he tried to explain to Naruto whenever they caught each other in the kitchen.

Naruto spent most of his time outside of his room training or eating. The rest of them, he had never spent time with at all, and outside of his strange desire to be there for Raven, he had never been inclined to pursue anything resembling friendship with any of them. Starfire came to check on them - even him, in his room - if they were not in training, but even talking to her openly was not something he had brought himself to.

All of this worked to keep him horribly out of the loop.

Ravens' memories could only help him so much.

Garfield made it easy. The green boy was far too social for Naruto not to be able to get to know whenever they did speak, but ultimately, he lacked the seriousness that made talking about all the important things difficult, and to a lesser degree, Naruto did too.

"That's... the thing," Naruto acknowledged, slinging the bag over his shoulder, "We could go out together. Look for trouble."

"We'd still have issues man, but," For the first time since he's seen him, Garfield adopted a thoughtful expression, "That doesn't sound like a bad idea.."

Naruto offered him a smile, before turning to the Zeta-Tube, "I should probably go before I'm late. Uh, how does this thing work? Do I just walk through it?"

"I put in which one you'll be going to, so yeah, you just walk now," He nodded, "Since you haven't made a codename yet, I put in Blank."

That was something Naruto hadn't given thought to at all.

"Alright, then. See ya," He began walking towards it

"Later. Don't get hurt dude."

"Naruto," he heard a familiar voice call and turned to see Starfire standing by the entrance of the room, "Be careful."

Grinning, Naruto nodded and went on.

"Recognized, Blank, T-14."

Centennial Park, Metropolis, October 18, 00:00 AM EDT

Naruto exited in the middle of an archway, behind Nightwing, who was still in civilian clothing, and next to him was a blond, olive-skinned girl he immediately recalled to be Artemis, who turned to him as Nightwing did, the Super-Cycle landing behind them. Naruto was surprised he remembered them at all, there was way too much to recall from Ravens' memories.

"So you're the newbie," She said as he approached, not unkindly, "I'm Artemis Crook."

Retired, Naruto remembered, "Naruto Uzumaki."

"Happy to put a face to a name," Superboy approached them from the Super-Cycle, looking at him "Hope you're up for your first mission, Naruto."

"I went on plenty of missions back home," he shrugged, "It's sort of how we made money."

"Still, we got your back," He offered Naruto his hand, "I know your name, but you don't know mine. I'm Conner Kent."

Naruto shook his hand, grateful for the assurance.

"Is this all of us?" Superboy turned to Dick.

"Someone's watching us," Naruto muttered, and they all turned to him.

"Don't worry," They heard a voice from above them, gaining their attention, "It's me."

Black Lightning jumped down to them from the top of the archway, rising from his crouch to in front of them, "You've got keen senses, kid."

Then, he turned to Dick, "And don't you give me that look. One mission only. Agreed?"

"Agreed. We should get going. We're on the clock," Dick began to make his way to the Super-Cycle, "I'll brief you guys en route."

Naruto barely paid attention to said briefing when they had taken to the sky, instead of looking down to the city, mesmerized by the lights and all the buildings that seemed to be reaching for them in the sky. They seemed even taller than what he had expected up close, and he found himself wondering how many floors the skyscrapers had in comparison to the Tower, which had more than he had bothered to count on its own.

The people here were plentiful, much more than in San Francisco, and he could hear the echoes of sirens from up in the sky.

They flew past it into more familiar territory, dense forestry, with an occasional isolated building, connected by the roads. If he didn't know better, he would say he was in Konoha, but the occasional car pulled him from such illusions.

"Hey," he heard Superboy call, "You good?"

"I'm great," Naruto answered, bringing himself to pay attention to Dicks briefing.

Markovurg, Markovia; October 18, 20:21 PM EEST

As if having to awkwardly pose pictures for the few people who seemingly admired him for challenging villains wasn't enough, he had to deal the hellish experience that was flying commercially and, beyond that, something much worse:

Being in a suit.

It was a new reason to hate being at formal events for him. It made him have to act a particular way, stopped him from acting inquisitively at anything of interest that caught his eye and just seemed to stop him from entirely being himself. He had to stand straight, and constantly have something in his hand otherwise he felt incredibly awkward or like he was being judged by all the people in the courtyard.

The only thing that annoyed him more than all of that was this party's abundance of food, but complete lack of ramen!

With it, he might have at least been distracted from his discomfort, but now he could only look at the groups of people around the venue. Almost everybody here was entirely new to him, except for the Markovian royalty that Nightwing had made sure he knew the faces of.

Prince Gregor Markov, who would soon be King of Markovia, whose pre-coronation this was for, and his brother Prince Brion Markov, both of them seemed to be actively engaging in conversation if they were not going around the courtyard, minding the guests. Their Uncle Baron Frederick DeLamb was also of note, who too jumped from person to person for conversation.

Everyone here was important, and that only made him feel further out of place, but he did his best to focus on the mission. No one here had acted at all strangely, even with Naruto here. No one had even made the effort to speak to him. Seemed like that part of the plan wasn't working out, and he had to refocus on Nightwing as he tried to come up with suspects:

"... That's Doctor Simon Ecks, a world-renowned geneticist. Who for some reason has taken a low paying job at a Markovian Children's hospital."

"Maybe he just likes kids," Tigress offered.

After a second, Nightwing answered, "Yeah, you're right."

"Really? I was kinda joking."

"I mean... Ah, maybe he just likes to abduct children and turn them into meta-humans..."

Naruto phased them out, deciding to do a little investigating of his own sort. He focused on this doctor they spoke of, reaching out with his senses, trying to feel if he felt any abnormal amount of negative emotion, if he held any sort of enhanced hatred within him that might give him cause to engage in meta-human trafficking, and felt... Nothing.

If he had anything, he hid it well.

As if feeling Naruto's eyes on him, he turned his gaze in Naruto's direction, and he felt Artemis and Dick move away from his side moments after. Though luckily, the man did not pay them any attention, and he could still listen to their conversation via their comms.

Naruto was saved by the Baron DeLamb taking to the podium, and that gave him the space to turn to the man on the stage:

"Good evening," The Baron greeted courteously, "Less than 24 hours ago, our own King Victor, and my beloved sister Queen Ilona were ruthlessly assassinated. But tomorrow, we crown their firstborn, my nephew Gregor, as our new king. And I will function as regent until he is of age, using my position to give counsel and to aid him in ruling Markovia..."

Naruto turned his attention to looking for Dick and Artemis, finding them further back into the crowd, close to another food stand. Deciding against moving right now, he turned back to the stage just as clapping began, and Gregor Markov walked on to shake his uncle's hand.

He couldn't express how much he wanted to be at the hospital with Superboy and Black Lightning, having a hand in investigating the children's hospital and stopping it right then and there if it really was what they expected it to be. Instead of being here, listening to speeches and trying to find someone who might not even be here at all, and feeling uncomfortable in a suit.

Sighing, he realized that complaining wouldn't help him, and it was better to try to help in any way he could.

No one had even paid him

"Hello," A heavily accented pulled him from his thoughts, and he found the blond girl who had been talking to the Baron earlier.

"Hey?" Naruto greeted, looking behind her to the tall security guard for a beat.

Both of them looked off-put by his response, and he felt like he had done something wrong.

"You have no idea how nice it is to be speaking with someone my age," She said, brushing it off, "I must admit, I do not know your name. Though I know of you."

"Naruto Uzumaki," he offered her his only hand, something that sent her guard on edge behind her, and her gaze fell to his hand in surprise, "Sorry, I don't know yours either..."

"I am Queen Perdita Vladek," She delicately took his hand, though it seemed to make her uncomfortable.

Queen? I thought...Naruto realized that she must be from another country, but her name did not bring forth her significance in Naruto's mind. But he knew he should know her.

"Targets are scrambling. Naruto, on me. Artemis, you get our gear."

"I... Uh, gotta use the bathroom...Yeah," He edged away from the girl, "See ya."

Naruto did head in the direction of the bathroom, so as to not seem suspicious. Though that had the effect of sending him in the opposite direction Dick went, and into a part of the guarded palace that had was further away from the parking allocations.

"They're taking off. Where are you?" Nightwing's voice came into his ear again.

"Leave without me," He whispered, "I'll catch up. And... I'll leave a clone here, to watch for anything suspicious and keep things from seeming odd."

"Got you. Good idea."

Naruto did end up in the bathroom for that purpose, and after forming what was becoming the hand seal he associated with the Shadow Clone Jutsu, his clone appeared in a puff of smoke, identical to him in every way, as they always were.

"Just watch things, okay? Don't try to gather too much attention, but answer as best you can if you do."

"You got it, boss," The clone left the room quietly thereafter.

Naruto nudged the window into the bathroom open, and exited off the side of the building, jumping up to the darkness of the roof to avoid any patrols. He quickly ran to the side of the roof that overlooked the parking area, and distantly saw the car they had travelled in within the gloom of the night. He took a breath before he dashed towards it, landing on the roof with a thud.

"It's me," He talked into the device, "Open the window."

"How fast are you exactly?" Nightwing asked him as he hopped in through the open window.

"Pretty fast," he retorted, "Are they heading to the hospital?"

"I suspect they are."

Naruto nodded, looking down at the suit, which had begun getting even more uncomfortable with all his movement. He turned up to the car some ways ahead of them just as it speed up.

"I noticed you met Gars girlfriend."

"Yeah, tho - Garfield has a girlfriend?!" He turned to Nightwing, eyes wide, "How come he didn't tell me?!"

"I don't know," Nightwing shrugged, eyes focused on the car ahead of them, "They're both pretty public. Maybe he thought you knew."

Pretty public? Naruto didn't know about her at all, and worse, she was a queen. He wondered how that must have come about, and only then did realize that Raven had hidden things about the Titans from him too, as she had about him to them. And Naruto keeping his distance from them probably didn't help him in knowing the team he was in either.

He shook his head.

The car ahead of them turned into a beaten track, and Dick slid into it too, still maintaining the set distance behind the erratic driver, who glided into turn after turn, the driving a visible attempt at being unpredictable even to Naruto's eyes.

"These things aren't at all covert," Naruto said to Nightwing, "If he took a moment beyond his worry to listen, he would hear us coming."

"Yeah, but we don't have much of a choice if we want to keep up with them," Nightwing said before a realization hit him and he said sternly, "You're not carrying me."

Naruto gave him a smile as they slid into a tarred road again, still following.

"You're right, though. These guys are amateurs," He put a finger to his earpiece, "Tigress, Ecks and Brion are definitely heading to the children's hospital. E.T.A?"

"Running a little late," Came her retort, "And I'm uh... Bringing a friend."

"What?"

"Long story."

Dick looked at him, and Naruto shrugged.

The going was much slower than Naruto was used to, and really would've preferred jumping within the tree line in the way he had travelled his whole life. There was never a need for such a way of transport in the ninja world, they travelled faster on their feet, and they undoubtedly would have been more covert if the mission depended on it, like this one. Naruto never really thought of it like that when he was in Konoha, and it was becoming odd to him as to why he did now.

The car ahead of them pulled into the parking lot of the Children's Hospital, but Dick stopped just short of it.

"Lightning and SB, you've got company incoming," Nightwing put a finger to the comm piece again, to no response, "Repeat, Nightwing to Lightning?" Again, no response, "Nightwing to Lightning, do you read?"

One more, no response.

Eventually, Nightwing decided to pull into the parking lot as Brion and Doctor Ecks were walking into the building.

"SB, Lightning, do you copy?" Not getting a response again, Naruto noticed that Nightwings eyes began to glow a light shade of blue, and he was moving his hands in the air, "Tigress, reroute to Lightning coordinates."

"Roger that."

"I thought you didn't have powers," Naruto put in, curiously.

"They're the contacts I was speaking about when I was briefing the group, they're part of the gear Artemis was bringing. They offer a different of power," He said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a beetle, "Technology."

It began to flutter before it flew, leaving the car by the driver's window, following behind the two men heading into the hospital, entering it just behind them as the doors closed.

"Cool," Naruto conceded.

He sat in silence for a long moment, watching Nightwing as he presumedly follow Brion and Doctor Ecks within the building with the beetle. The technology here was useful, if not frankly ridiculous at times, though the latter only counted on things that would be near useless to have in the shinobi world - like the car, the detriments of which had been made clear to him during the following here.

He wondered if Kakashi would hold it all to a similar sentiment...

"Nightwing, we found Lightning," Came Artemis's voice again, "He's breathing but... Out of it. No sign of SB."

They heard a groan.

"Lightning! What happened? Where is SB?"

"It got him," Black Lightning said after a beat.

"What got him?" Artemis asked, and they began to hear shuffling of movement through the comms.

"The meta-human... I mean...Well, Vertigo called it... Him... Plasmus."

"Just take it slow. Breathe," Artemis tried to calm him, "What did this Plasmus do? Where is SB?"

Black Lightning sighed was heard through the comms, "I think Plasmus must have grabbed SB just as I jumped down the spillway."

"Get ready," Nightwing said to Naruto, opening his own, prompting Naruto to get out of his too.

Finally, Naruto thought, quick to remove the tie and jacket, looking back up to the hospital with a growing frown.

"Under orders from Vertigo?"

"Yeah," Black Lightning affirmed again.

"So Count Vertigo runs Bedlam!"

"And Ecks with or for Vertigo. Fine," Nightwing closed his door, "We'll take them both down. But our first priority is SB, Naruto and I are going through the hospital. Tigress, Lightning, head back to Bedlam via the sewers."

"Roger that."

"Take these," Nightwing approached Naruto, offering Naruto lenses within a box and a mask to cover his features, "Extras I had, just in case. The mask should change your hair colour, and the lenses will help with communication. I need you to clear a path to the morgue for me. Can you do that?"

Naruto nodded, putting the mask on.

A/N: Another chapter.

Hope you liked it, feel free to review and PM me for conversation regarding anything at all.