Here we are yet again with a new fic. I know some of you are less than enthusiastic about another new venture but this is a bit of a special case. Doesn't mean I don't have a problem with churning out new concepts more often than I should but in this case it's actually a sort of trade challenge agreement type of thing.
I'm sure most of you know AizenTheGoat's stories, if not you really should go check out his account. Not only is he a killer writer he and I are sort of trading ideas for this one. While I am writing this fic within the overarching Justice League umbrella, so including bits from that as well as Young Justice, Teen Titans so on and so forth, he will be writing a story with Naruto in Harry Potter.
Even if that isn't your cup of tea I am pretty sure he has something to grab your interest so give it a go.
Speaking of myself and Aizen, both of us can be pretty easily reached on discord, whether it's to bullshit or if you perhaps wanted to commission something with us you can find AizenTheGoat's discord server right here→ /7x4YFstKcz
I also am active on another server hosted by myself, Kiege, and Madlad aka TheChamp123. A link for that server can be found here→ /auc4PQjVtz
Anyway we will be jumping in right off then so I hope you all enjoy.
Chaos Theory
Chapter One
Trials of Youth
The small sleepy little town of Ridgefield Wyoming was about as unassuming as any tiny town dotted along the highways of the United States. With a population of less than two thousand people in the entire county it was pretty much as rural of a community as one could get and still have the basic amenities of a town, like a grocery store or internet connection.
This of course was the veneer that Ridgefield presented to those that passed through it's narrow streets before they jumped back onto the highway and went on their way to some place truly interesting.
For Charles Lepelle it was more than interesting enough. After all he could see beneath the thin layer of normalcy and boring appearance that Ridgefield and its people put up. The truth was as disgusting as it was fascinating to him.
An entire town acting as the best for a Coven of witches. The very thing he and his order were created to stomp out. Sadly most of his brothers in arms had lost sight of that. Their foolishness having led to a pact with the great enemy.
Now hunting any but the most rogue of witches was forbidden to himself and his brothers and sisters of the order. That sacred task that he and his ancestors had performed since at least the sixth century. Now it was considered the actions of a warmonger.
So places like Ridgefield blossomed across the continent and even the world. Something that he found absolutely disgusting and against his natural instinct. Just letting magic users and their sycophants to grow in strength and pervert the blessed earth with their filthy existence.
They were almost as bad as the aliens that his comrades knew to be growing steadily in number across the world as well.
Finally turning away from his place peering down on the town, he turned to face the handful of his comrades that had followed after him.
There were only sixty of them, but that was more than enough for a place like this.
"Ser Kaye, have the disruptors and sentries been placed?" He asked, turning to his second in command. A young woman, Ser Kaye Wagner.
"Prepped and ready to be put to use Ser Charles. They can't run away." She replied sharply.
Behind his helmet Charles smirked at his right hand before turning to face his approaching left hand, Ser Ruben Kriel.
"Are you certain of this plan sir? The rest of the order might label us enemies for breaching the Treaty of Cambridge." Ruben said with uncertainty.
Kaye glared from behind the visor of her helmet but Charles was more understanding. His brothers and sisters needed guidance back onto the proper path, not ridicule.
"Ruben, this is what we are here for. Our purpose is to remove aliens and magics from our world for the betterment of the planet and mankind." Charles explained.
Ruben shifted slightly. "All our armor and weapons originated as alien technology. Our disruptors have some sort of magic to them to be able to weaken a witch's spells. We are about to kill an entire town full of innocent people because they have some magic users there when we use magics and weapons ourselves to do it."
"The ends justify the means. We are not magic users, we only use the tools necessary to defeat the great enemy of humanity. One day we won't have need of all this anymore and we can toss it aside. Until that day we must do whatever it takes to reach our goal. Unless you want innocents to suffer the same fate as your father did?" Charles replied far too easily to Ruben's worries.
The younger man turned his eyes to the ground as the memory of his father's murder at the hands of a rogue witch ran through his mind. Ser Charles was right. He was always right.
As Ruben returned to the other gathered members of their order he was filled with a new determination while Charles reassured Kaye that Ruben would become a model Knight of Eternity given time.
Charles didn't wait long after that, choosing that it was best to hit Ridgefield before the sun rose. He thought it a bit poetic that with Dawn a slightly more pure world would rise.
The Ridgefield coven was a very peaceful group. Only a handful of the people in the town were actual members of the Coven but every family had at least one member within its ranks. For the most part there appeared no difference between those that were and those that were not witches.
Ridgefield had been founded with that concept in mind. A melting pot of different shattered Covens from around the world all settled into one spot. A community based on the simple shared goal of living a peaceful life and raising families.
Among this community was the relatively newer Namikaze family. They had only lived within Ridgefield for a couple of years, ever since they had discovered that Kushina had become pregnant. Their nomadic lifestyle no longer felt good enough and they were happily welcomed into the small community and coven here with open arms.
Since then Minato and Kushina had quickly become important members of the town and coven both. They were talented with their magic, even if they held some rather concerning beliefs for the rest of the community. They kept those mostly to themselves though and made it clear they just wanted to raise their son in a safe and happy environment. Something neither of them received as a child.
So for two, nearly three years the couple lived and raised their son in Ridgefield. Slowly but surely surrendering the semi-paranoid nature that had ensured their own survival since childhood.
Just like everyone else they never saw the raid on Ridgefield coming until the first explosions along the north edge of town began.
Minato and Kushina both jolted awake as their house shook from the sudden violent attack. They scrambled out of bed and over to the window to see what was happening only to stare in terror as they saw the northern side of their home, everything on the other side of the main paved street in their town going up in flames as entire houses and shops were burst apart by the explosives bombarding Ridgefield.
"Kushina grab Naruto!" Minato ordered as he quickly ran through an incantation to begin opening up a portal for his family. Transportation spells were something of his specialty.
That was why he felt the edge if panic began to settle into his heart as the spell sputtered out. He stared at the small scorch mark on the wall where his spell had failed in brief confusion before more explosions, this time from the west brought him back to the present.
"They're real." He murmured.
"What's real?" Kushina asked as she rushed back into the room with a bawling toddler in her arms.
"I heard some rumors that the organization developed a sort of forcefield. Not to shield things but to trap things. They use it to trap rogue witches." Minato explained as he changed objectives and quickly tossed some rugged clothing to Kushina from the closet before throwing some on himself.
"But, no that can't be right. They would have to be using it on the whole town. We would have noticed them setting it up!" Kushina argued. She still quickly dressed as she needed to.
"We have grown complacent. Being part of a Treaty protected coven like this? We all stopped looking over our shoulders. We should have known better." Minato growled mostly at his own failure to be ready for this attack.
"Come on." Minato said as he grabbed his wife's hand and led her and their son for the door.
The explosions and sound of flame still roared but by now the rapid pops of gunfire had begun as well and the sound of screams filled the air.
"Why are they breaking the treaty? Won't that start a war?" Kushina asked as the family ran into alleyways away from the advancing sound of the Knights of Eternity as they meticulously made their way through town attacking the residents.
"It should, but with how things are now, I don't know. We just need to focus on getting out of here." Minato replied before jolting backward, dragging Kushina and Naruto with him.
Out in the street a dozen heavily armored men and women marched around a large egg shaped object that moved along on a set of small threads like a tractor or miniature tank.
Opposite the advancing Knights, a collection of townsfolk had organized themselves. A few had hunting rifles or shotguns while a couple of their number were clearly wielding magic as light began curling around their hands in an unnatural manner. The witches let loose what should have been a devastating attack.
Instead when the spells, condensed blasts of magical energy, reached a point less than a foot from their targets they seemed to shudder and pulse from an unknown energy.
They still impacted their targets though. They slammed into the forward most knights and hurled them off of their feet and crashing onto the roadway, even skidding a small ways. That however was not what should have happened. The spells had initially been strong enough to reduce their targets to ashes and even injure the others around them.
Now though the targets were already staggering back to their feet. Their comrades stepped forward to cover them as they shakily regained their footing.
The Knights opened fire, their boxy weapons letting loose a torrent of gunfire that tore through the group. Those townspeople that managed to return fire were inaccurate, missing most of their shots.
Out of the exchange all of the gunners and witches as well as dozens of unarmed townsfolk behind them were cut down while only three of the knights fell. A handful of others were wounded but the force continued forward, blowing apart or burning down buildings as they passed and firing at anything that moved.
Minato was horrified by the sight and even the little boy in his wife's arms was too shocked by the horror of what was happening to continue crying. The blond man wisely led his family back away from the street and continued trying to flee.
"Minato they're heading everyone in this direction. It's their typical tactics. We can't escape that way." Kushina said as she pulled him to a stop in one of their, now former, neighbor's backyard.
"I know but what other choice do we have? It's the only way out." He said.
"It's not a way out. Just a way to get us all killed. But Naruto doesn't have to die. You know that, we have to form the pact." Kushina said.
Minato recoiled from her words, even pulling his hand away.
"You want to make a pact with that…thing? It's worse than the knights. We would be condemning him to a life in service to a monster. A demon!" He was furious.
"Well at least it would be a life!" She bit back.
Minato's defense against her collapsed then. She was right, it was the only way and they had to hurry.
"We need a sacrifice." He said quietly.
"Go, find one of the knights that's checking the bodies and bring them here. I'll start on the altar and sigils." Kushina said before setting Naruto down and proceeding to cut her left palm with a small grimace.
Minato hesitated a moment to watch as she began using the blood welling in her hand to begin scrawling evil looking symbols along the concrete of the patio nearby. He hated it but this was the course they had left to follow.
Kushina worked carefully but quickly to draw out the marks necessary to summon the attention of one of the abandoned gods. Creatures so primordial and ancient that earth, the planet itself, was still a new development. A spell forbidden by even the darkest of covens the world over.
All the while, Naruto sat nearby silently watching. Terrified but trusting of his mother and father. Too shaken to even openly cry about what was happening. Kushina was heartbroken to see her child like that but his silence was a blessing. It kept Knights from coming to check the yard they were in. So far at least.
Soon Minato returned. An unconscious knight drug behind him, a woman by the look of it. Her armor had Ser Kaye etched into the chest much like a military uniform might have a soldier's nave on the breast pocket.
"We better hurry. She was stepping away from the others to check out a noise when I grabbed her. They'll figure something happened to her soon enough." Minato said as he placed the knight at the center of the hurriedly created altar.
"I'm done, now we have to do the incantation as well." Kushina said as she took her place on one side of the bloody sight.
Minato grimaced before doing the same. Naruto chose now to snap back to the present as well and began crying loudly again. His parents had to ignore him for the moment though. They had already started, they couldn't stop now, no doubt they had a few short moments before the other knights came looking for them.
Husband and wife together began speaking and curling their fingers and hands into positions that were almost inhuman and painful. Their voices steadily became unnatural and a sense of foreboding power settled over the area as Naruto began to cry even more loudly.
The Knight awoke then screaming as something seemed to be burning her from the inside out. She clawed at her chest and head, eventually succeeding and removing her helmet and clawing at her face as if trying to dig something out from beneath it.
Until a single powerful pulse of energy released from her body and she fell entirely still just as Minato and Kushina stopped speaking. Their toddler son looked on in horror as the bloodied woman jolted to a standing position at unnatural speed with audible sound of cracking bones and snapping tendons.
Ser Kaye's head rested at an unnatural angle and blood ran freely from her nose as she slowly seemed to settle into a position that looked incredibly uncomfortable. Her body stood despite being twisted and broken.
Slowly her eyelids slid open though and the nearly pure white eyes beneath them somehow seemed to take in the area around them with mild interest and surprise.
"It has been a while since I was awoken in such a manner, partially as it is." The being wearing Ser Kaye said with a voice that sounded most similar to gravel being run through a blender.
"My lord-" Kushina began only to grow silent as a cold dead hand suddenly grabbed her by the throat and easily lifted her up off of the ground.
"Do not speak my name mortal. Something so insignificant should have known better than to summon me like some pitiful little demon." The being said before it released her.
"How annoying." It spoke again as it noticed the markings that restricted it. "Cunning, I will grant you that but these bindings are only so strong and what I gathered from this one's mind you are all very…hmm fucked is the word she would have used."
"Insignificant, we might be but even so, we wish to ensure the safety of our child." Kushina coughed out in painful gasps as she rubbed at her throat.
The being rolled its blank eyes before looking down at the child the woman had mentioned. Ever so slightly it's eyes widened before a cruel grin spread across it's face.
"I see. It is natural for any parent I suspect. Even I have been known to be reckless when it comes to my offspring." It said, causing both of the humans to shiver at the thought of the being before them reproducing.
"We only ask that you take Naruto somewhere safe so that he is able to survive this attack. Your consciousness will be freed from that vessel upon doing so." Minato explained carefully.
The creature snorted in amusement. Yes, being bound like this, even just such a small amount of their being as their consciousness was incredibly painful. Soon the body housing them would burn away as their power tried to return and it would force the being through an even more painful process of reforming their mind.
Taking Naruto to safety would surely be a small issue, and a fair exchange for being freed from such a painful and annoying process. At least in Minato and Kushina's eyes.
"I will take your spawn to safety, but my release is hardly enough to pay for all of this inconvenience." It commented getting even more worried looks between the couple.
"What else could we offer?" Minato asked quietly.
"Entertainment." The being said and suddenly both Minato and Kushina felt a burning sensation across all of their being, inside and out. Pure agony. Their very souls were ripped free and stolen away to entertain the monster they had summoned. That wasn't enough though.
It's eyes settled back onto the weeping child who had pathetically crawled toward it's collapsed mother and clung to her dead form.
"Yes. You will entertain me too, won't you little one?" The puppet of Ser Kaye said as it snatched up the boy and held his shuddering form in it's arms.
"Such fun interesting entertainment you will provide. And even more if you have a little gift from me to go with it." She said as a twisted finger gently tapped him first on his chest and then his forehead.
Blazing pain wracked his tiny form and he passed out mid scream. Still he breathed and the corpse of a knight smiled. A foul expression as the lips split at the side and tore open to stretch the smile from ear to ear.
"Now, let us send you somewhere interesting. This little body will only last for so long and then I will have to reform. I look forward to seeing you in a few years my little Champion of Chaos." The being said in an almost motherly tone before Naruto vanished from it's arms and Set Kaye's body began to blister and burn as energy overpowered it's form.
Just as the dead knight began to crumble and burst into flames another unit of Knights entered the yard, pausing at the sight of one of their own before them apparently burning away all while smiling madly back at them.
"I truly cannot wait to reform and watch you little ants once more. I had forgotten how interesting little pests like you can sometimes be." And with that Ser Kaye's body collapsed into a pile of boiling blood and ash.
Ser Ruben stared in horror at what had happened before realizing that his comrade had been used for some sort of sick ritual as a vessel.
"You recall now why we must exterminate them from this world, Ser Ruben?" Ser Charles asked as he joined them in the yard.
"Yes, I remember now. Suffer not the Witch to live." Ser Ruben said, reciting a common mantra among the organization.
"And suffer not he who shelters the Witch, for he is lost and swayed to foul deeds." Ser Charles replied with a nod before turning to face his forces in the yard.
"Alright. Ladies and gentlemen, back to your work!" He called out and the Knights returned to the massacre they had been perpetrating.
Some might have thought that the Massacre of Ridgefield would be the kind of thing to hit national headlines. Instead it became the stuff of legend and conspiracy theories. Most doubted that such a place ever existed to begin with, let alone that it has been wiped out.
Those that bought into it never drew close to the truth either. The prevalent theories being that the government has wiped it out as the fictional Ridgefield militia had refused some sort of shady government experiment. Or that some government experiment had gone wrong and the military had cleaned house by terminating the town in its entirety.
No one came close to suspecting that at the core of the event had been a coven of witches and an ancient knightly order dedicated to wiping covens like Ridgefield from the face of the earth.
Slowly the event faded out of the minds of everyone, even those described as conspiracy theorists. The only real evidence kept deep within government agencies that even most other government agencies had no idea existed.
That and one small toddler that had appeared on the steps of a firehouse. Complete with a birth certificate and family records. The orphanage that took him filed a report, but due the circumstances of the cases of both young Naruto Namikaze and the town of Ridgefield made sure that the information wasn't connected until nearly ten years later.
By then the United States Paranormal Investigation Bureau, or USPIB had been expanded by cast amounts to compensate for the amount of alien and supernatural phenomenon that had begun to appear on earth. After all heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and others had been almost the only effective defense against a recent invasion by Alien race. The same race responsible for the near annihilation of the martian race some decades prior.
Naruto came to the USPIB's attention originally because of the number of strange occurrences surrounding the orphanage he lived in. The unit sent found that one of the children present was most definitely a Homo Magi. The sub-race of humans that could wield magic.
They realized exactly who it was when they began digging into their records and found the lost connection between Naruto and the Ridgefield Massacre. The last survivor, one that barely recalled the event at all.
While it got them no closer to answers for situation between the Covens spread across the continent and the Organization, as the Knights of Eternity had begun to call themselves, it did reveal an especially powerful Homo Magi just coming into his abilities. Something the United States government was ecstatic to get their hands on.
So, for the second time in his short life, Naruto was torn away from all that he knew. For the second time he was quick to recover from it as well. The first time he had been too young to truly feel distraught beyond the loss of his parents. This time he simply had nothing he cared for at the orphanage to lose. His abilities had ensured he would not fit in well with his peers, and his ostracization had led to a near continuous fight with bullies itching to vent their own issues out by punching down on the loneliest of the lonely orphans that lived together.
The fact he hadn't outright killed one of these bullies yet was a small miracle in and of itself, but with how badly he had injured a couple after losing fights against larger more numerous opponents had made it easy for him to cooperate as well. A mere suggestion that the agency could help him to control these strange powers and Naruto was on board and completely cooperative.
At least until they arrived to the facility and he realized he had effectively been tossed into a prison for the magically capable. It only worsened when the test batteries began.
Brutal, exhausting, and frequently painful experiments were frequently run on himself and the handful of other subjects the agency had snatched up across the country. Everything was tested, from their actual magical abilities, to their physical bodies, and to their mental acuity.
Soon enough it became clear that the agency didn't wish to just learn about the extent of Homo Magi capabilities they wanted to find ways to harness their power and forge them into weapons.
As the director, a former army general named Hector Smythe, had told them when they assembled into the dining hall one morning.
"The Russians and Chinese already has divisions of their special forces dedicated to this sort of thing. So America is behind the curve. We need to expedite the process if we want to stay on top."
Expedite it they did. Their testing became more like training and soon, Naruto and the others could use their abilities to do things Naruto hadn't even imagined.
It also meant Naruto and the other younger subjects had to be educated. Not to the same level of normal children, they lacked any sort of basic social training, instead they were force fed knowledge in such a way that they could retain it in the most efficient method possible.
The Brutality, Exhaustion, and Pain only became worse.
For years Naruto and the others were kept there. Never allowed outside the multiple layers of razor wire fences or allowed any privacy. Eventually something had to give.
Naruto felt the stress building in himself. He had taken to curling a small built up amount of pure magical energy around his hands when he became agitated in an attempt to calm himself. It wasn't enough on this day though. The examiner kept pushing and pushing for Naruto to be able to finally achieve flight.
He did so but they wanted it better, more smooth and instinctual than he was currently capable of. The negative reinforcement used on him became too much as he shakily lifted into the air for the hundredth time or so that day.
With a cry of frustration he let a small, but potent, blast of red energy loose that washed over the facility frying most of its monitors and other systems before dissipating.
It also loosened the restrains on some of the first generation subjects who had been pushed too far and been placed in collared restraints to keep their magic disrupted. Naruto had found himself locked away in his quarters for a couple days after that while some sort of riot began as five powerful Homo Magi were suddenly let loose on their captors.
By the time they let him out again, there were many new guards and staff, and the restrained Magi were gone as well. Training resumed immediately but was different now. The focus changed to training the remaining Magi in how to combat others with similar abilities or other superpowers.
Again the training became harder and more intense. The new guards were more numerous and even more sadistic than the old. Naruto was sure it would only be a matter of time before he and the other remaining subjects lost it and launched their own riot or escape attempt.
As fate would have it, quite literally actually, the next and final escape attempt didn't originate from within the USPIB facility but from outside it.
A solitary figure with a golden helmet had been investigating the strange sensation he had received almost a year prior and with a few favors from the Justice League he was able to find the USPIB facility and tear it open like a tin can.
Naruto and his fellows didn't wait for the chance to pass them by and launched their own attempt at freedom when Doctor Fate began his raid.
For the first time Naruto killed someone with his magic. A handful of guards and two scientists as well as a fellow subject that seemed to have lost themselves to the bloodshed and attempted to take Naruto's life as well.
At the end of the chaotic day, the Headquarters of the USPIB and nearly ninety percent of it's staff were no more. Of the subjects they had held within, only Naruto and two others survived, huddled together as the golden helmet superhero softly settled onto the ground before them.
He took in the sight of the three poor wretches before him. A teenaged boy and what looked to be a couple in their mid twenties. The couple was, weak, for lack of a better term. They barely qualified as Magi and had only survived the chaos earlier due to hiding and using their limited power together to ward themselves from the notice of the guards and other escaped test subjects.
The teenager though. He was abnormally strong and had a faint sense to him that both halves of Doctor Fate, Kent Nelson the host and Nabu the Lord of Order could vaguely recognize.
"He is tainted by the power of a chaotic being, Nelson. You know what must happen." Nabu stated simply causing the three survivors to share a confused and fearful look.
"No. He may be enveloped by chaos but he hasn't embraced it in any way and he is clearly just a boy, Nabu." A far more human voice argued.
There was a moment of silence before the man removed his helmet to reveal a shockingly old man. Despite his obvious age however, he seemed healthy as a horse and clearly had plenty of fight in him.
"I'm sorry about all that you three. Allow me to properly introduce myself. I'm Kent Nelson but when I'm running about in this old thing, they call me Doctor Fate." The now introduced man said as he tapped the shining metal helm in his hands.
"You helped wipe out the agency guys. Saved us too." The male half of the couple said.
"Thank you." His wife added in hurriedly.
Kent smiled sadly. "Of course. I just wish I had come along earlier and freed you from that nightmare before hand. No one deserves to be used up like they were using all of you."
"Now what though?" Naruto asked.
Kent stared back for a moment, locking with his blue eyes before he replied. "Now that is going to be up to each of you. Why don't we head back to my home to figure it out. Eventually someone is going to wonder what happened here and it's best that they don't tie us with all of this mess. Your records of even being here are taken care of so we can make a smooth getaway."
The trio of survivors had no arguments with that and soon all four were quickly headed back to the Tower of Fate to decide their own Fates.
They all stayed at the tower for a few weeks after that. They three of them were in incredible health, after all the government wanted them healthy and powerful. Too bad for them that it backfires.
Still they needed plenty of time to regain their bearings. Tom and Lisa, the new names the couple had chosen, had been there before Naruto had even been brought in. They'd actually only been snatched because they managed to create enough residual energy to catch the USPIB'S attention during their honeymoon. Lisa was all red from that reveal but Kent had simply tipped his head to Tom with a grin.
With the Agency gone for good the two of them had taken the fake identities that Kent and his connections got for them and settled for a modest quiet life, finally free to live once again.
Naruto was different though. He didn't really understand the outside world properly anymore and had no one to rely on. Just giving him a new identity and funds wouldn't help him at all. If anything it would be setting him up for disaster.
Fortunately, Kent Nelson had grown to become a lonely man after his wife had passed. Nabu made for incredibly poor company. He was more than happy to take him in and show him the ropes.
That is he taught him more than just a wider range of spells beyond uses for fighting. He taught Naruto to actually socialize and really live once again. Kent felt more like a kind and caring grandfather more than a simple teacher or caretaker.
So it was natural that Naruto wanted to follow in his adoptive grandfather's footsteps. It didn't take much to convince the old man that he should be doing something productive with his abilities. After all why have such abilities at all if he was never going to use them?
Kent made him wait until his eighteenth birthday before setting out on his own to stop crime. He knew that many heroes, especially those in the Justice League, all seemed to focus on a single city or region and only left it for large scale emergencies. Unlike them though, his home in the Tower of Fate was located near Salem, a short ways north of the city. Salem as well as the nearby Boston were by no means strangers to crime, but compared to places like Gotham or Metropolis they were perfectly peaceful. So Naruto started in Boston, but soon used his abilities to work up and down the New England coast. Never straying into the territory of the Big Boy Blue, or the Bat.
Taking on petty criminals was little to no challenge and organized crime was only slightly tougher. His powers were extremely unfair in dealing with them. A few twists of his fingers or a flick of the wrist, or in some cases a mere spoken phrase and it was over and all that he had to do was deliver the bad guy to jail. Unsurprisingly such easy pickings were not satisfactory for the young man stepping into crime fighting and he soon began looking into far darker corners.
The streets of Central City were typically patrolled by the Flash. For the last few weeks though, he along with much of the rest of the Justice League had been preoccupied with handling a series of problems from various super villains that had temporarily joined together. The attacks they had launched in New York, Metropolis, and Gotham had been devastating but thanks to the League they were contained and civilian casualties were astoundingly low.
However the rescue operations had to continue on for days and the League was all hands on deck in the meantime. With their focus on the cities in need their home towns were suffering Some places were better off than others. Starr City, for example, had a new rising star among the hero community in the shape of Black Canary patrolling their streets. Others were not so lucky.
Central City was in pretty good shape on the surface, but with the absence of the Flash, a handful of higher level criminals had decided to take advantage and attempt to move into the area. The most obvious and easy to curtail for Naruto when he decided to pick up the slack had been the subtle moves of a couple of east coast crime families into the area.
Turning three truckloads of assorted drugs and weapons into either lube or extra large horse-shaped dildos had put an end to that move. It probably also got a lot of criminals killed by their own bosses somewhere if Naruto stopped to think about it. That wasn't on him though so he didn't bother to dwell on it.
With the situation largely kept at a status quo for the city, Naruto planned to make his leave and continue to some of the other less secure cities. He found that he couldn't though. Instead he felt an odd, yet familiar presence somewhere in the New Brighton neighborhood of the city.
Drifting between the buildings Naruto settled down into an alleyway that seemed to be the origin point for the sensation. As he stepped out into the path of the alley though, he couldn't properly prepare for the sudden surprise attack that was launched his way.
A club formed from what had been a stop sign, sent Naruto flying through the air until he righted himself and stared down in shock at the force of the blow. Had he not been trained so rigorously by the agency to keep a ward up around his body at all times he likely would either be dead or crippled by the strength of his sudden opponent.
"Who are you?" He asked as the gray skinned being strode out of the shadows with what could only be described as a sneer decorating its face.
The pair of individuals couldn't be more different. Naruto was a lean young man with bright blond hair that contrasted with his darker set of form fitting robes perfectly. After all, heroes had to have an image and Naruto looked equal parts a warrior and mystic. The figure below was dressed in nothing more than a tattered pair of trousers and had skin that looked like it could have been made of concrete.
Its red eyes glared up at Naruto as he hovered above and slammed its road sign club into the ground.
"I am the Herald. Come down so that I might end you and move on with my day, child." It said with a voice that sounded like two pieces of steel scraping across one another.
"Alright, Harold is kinda a crap name so Harry it is. Listen up Harry, randomly swinging signs at folks is just bad manners. Plus I'm pretty sure stealing road signs is against the law, so give up now. That or stand still and let me turn your big gray self into a balloon animal so I can float you down to the police station." Naruto commented.
The Herald growled at Naruto's words. "You speak far too much for a true Scion."
With that simple comment the Herald spun in place and launched the sign at Naruto like an oversized Javelin. The blond's eyes widened before he pivoted in the air out of the way and twisted his right hand to summon up a flicker of his power. Before the improvised spear could impact the glass walls of the building across the street Naruto turned it into a cloud of sand that harmlessly fell into the street below.
Turning back to face Harry, Naruto was shocked to be face to face with the beast as it had launched itself into the air right after its weapon. Harry wrapped its thick stony arms around Naruto tightly as they plummeted back to the ground. The landing was jarring but Naruto could tell that whatever his new acquaintance had planned next would be much worse and so he quickly worked his hands into motion to regain the advantage in this fight.
Before it could slam him into the ground and likely finish him off from there, Naruto willed the nearby streetlamps to suddenly coil and stretch like living vines that wrapped tightly around the Herald's arms, legs, and neck and slowly forced him to release Naruto.
"Harry, we just met, you should buy me dinner before trying to take my body." Naruto joked, getting a snort from somewhere nearby.
"You still speak far too much for a Scion." Harry replied gruffly.
"Yeah, okay I don't know what the hell you're talking about but let's get you down and head down to the station alright."
The Herald eyed Naruto coldly before attempting to break his restraints. It became clear that it was pointless. As physically strong as he was, he had no chance of beating the five coiling tentacles of steel that held him in place.
"Do not think that this simple trick means you have passed my challenge, Scion. We will see one another again." Harry said coldly.
"Yeah, sure we…will…" Naruto said as Harry seemed to fade from existence. Slowly disappearing into thin air as if he was just a figment of Naruto's imagination.
"That is definitely something I need to talk to Kent about." Naruto mumbled before jolting as he noticed a presence nearby.
"I gotta say after the week I had I have had enough of magical bullcrap so I definitely appreciate you handling that one friend." The presence said with a cheerful tone.
Naruto turned to look at the stranger before his eyes widened at the sight of the grinning speedster before him.
"What's the problem, kid? Cat got your tongue?" The Flash asked.
"No, no it's just I thought you were busy on the coast so I-" Naruto began to defend himself before clearing his throat and standing a bit straighter.
"Some folks were making a move on Central City while you were indisposed. I decided to step in and keep the rats away while you were busy." Naruto explained in a more serious and determined tone.
"Whoa, hey relax. I'm not Batman, I have no problem with a little help on my home turf from time to time. Especially when I'm busy like I have been. Now, before we get all caught up in explanations and things like that, maybe we should start with introductions? Call me Flash, what's your alias?" Flash asked, clearly able to tell that Naruto was still pretty new to the whole crime fighting thing.
"I- well i haven't really thought of an alias." Naruto admitted while scratching at his head. He figured that he would earn a nickname from the public and run with it.
"Trust me you want to control the narrative on that. If I didn't I'd probably be called something stupid like the blur or Runs-Fast-man." Flash replied. "If you don't have any idea though, what about Scion? Like your big gray friend was calling you?"
"Scion? Kinda random truth be told. Although I guess it does fit in well enough all things considered." Naruto admitted thinking of himself as the Scion of Kent in a way, or the lost people of Ridgefield.
"So…?" Flash urged.
"Yeah, yeah call me Scion." Naruto said with a small grin.
"Hah, alright. Nice to meet you Scion, now can you give me an idea of what that was all about and where that big guy poofed off to?" The more experienced hero asked.
"I have no idea." Naruto answered truthfully. "Never seen that guy before in my life. Still he kind of felt familiar I guess."
Flash nodded. "It sucks to say it, but that happens. And it usually ends up with a big pain in the ass of some kind. Now since you're here and evidently have been helping my town out a bit. How about a meal? Always good to catch up, cape to cape."
Naruto nodded, a bit more excitedly than he wanted. Although he was being asked to come eat by a member of the Justice League so that was definitely worthy of a little bit of fanboying. If Flash noticed he didn't say anything and the pair casually made their way to a diner that the Flash stopped by frequently while in costume.
Neither realizing they had just made their first step onto a new path of a friendship that would last years.
A year. All it took for Naruto to go from meeting the Flash, or rather Barry as he knew him now, to being invited to join the Justice League on a permanent basis was a year. Now of course in that year plenty of different opportunities to impress the other members had come by. He had made sure to do his utmost to make it clear he wanted into the big leagues but wasn't completely focused on the glory that came with it.
Scion was a hero now. One that handled an abnormal amount of the more abnormal villains and cases. He was already one of the go-to figures for the Leaguers if they needed help with something that delved deeply into magic or something similar. The fact that he was very powerful and skilled in a fight despite his age made it a bit easier of a choice as well.
So now he was the newest, and the youngest member to be brought onto the League roster. Replacing Black Canary that had joined a little over a year earlier at twenty-one.
Naruto was all set to accept the invitation. The only issue was that an old friend had come to visit on today of all days. Harry was back, but this time in Salem and clearly set on wrecking the town until Naruto came out and faced him head on. Foolishly believing that the woods outside of Salem would somehow protect him better than the urban sprawl of Central City had.
"Alright Harry. I'm here for a fight, but we have to make this quick, I have a meeting in a couple hours and I don't want to be late for it." Naruto said, causing the warrior to snarl at being treated as an inconvenience rather than a threat.
"Today is the day of your end or yo-" Harry began only for the ground to suddenly begin opening as if it was a giant mouth.
Naruto really did not want to spend time fooling around today after all, best to end things quick.
And that is a wrap. So we will pick up pretty much right where we left off in the next chapter. I hope you guys liked it. Lots of fun stuff on the way for this story and I am really looking forward to it.
For those interested- A. The Knights of Eternity are based on the Forever Knights from Ben Ten.
B. This is a single Pairing, you'll see how that pans out as the story goes.
C. Naruto has magical abilities similar to a mix of Scarlet Witch and Doctor Strange from Marvel.
Till Next Time