…
Gotham Academy
A fortnight had gone by since the attack on the cave. The junior justice team had been keeping their heads low as per the League's instruction while they searched for Red Tornado. Artemis hadn't been to the cave much asides the team training exercises Aqualad had organized to enhance their cohesion as a team.
Though they could understand his reasoning for doing so, everyone was still a bit unsettled by the fact that Aqualad had suspected a mole on the team and kept it from them, most especially Robin and Kid Flash. The exercises were a way to help them work through that and rebuild trust between themselves and him as their leader. So far it seemed to be working.
Outside the exercises, she didn't really have that much time to spend with anyone on the team. They like she, were all busy with their own things. Wally spent his time chasing after Megan, who spent most of her time with Superboy in the cave. Aqualad, she talked to occasionally, and Robin was usually doing some computer stuff that she didn't understand. From the looks of it he was trying to access something, but when she asked, he said it was classified so she dropped it.
She herself had quite a lot to do. Most of it stemming from the place she had hated being in the most. That being school. In the last week she had found herself swamped with schoolwork, homework and even club activities. She found the last on especially frustrating. Getting through a normal school day was already a hell in and of itself but now she had to participate in extracurriculars that made her stay back even longer.
Deciding to ignore the lesson, she glanced towards the back of the class to find one seat was already vacant. A seat belonging to a particular blond. Her lips curled up slightly as she wondered what mischief the exchange student was currently making.
It seemed the teacher had the same train of thought since he suddenly paused in his lesson. "Where is Mr. Namikaze?" he asked slightly butchering the pronunciation, and while he masked it rather well with stoicism, she could still detect the hint of dread in his voice.
She couldn't blame him. It was the last period for the day, and as their class and faculty had soon come to realize, Naruto being absent from class during final period was a clear indicator that something hilarious was about to happen. Unfortunately for Mr. Kester, it seems he would be the target today.
The poor man received a unanimous response of grunts and shrugs of dismissal. Although from the smirks and smiles on some of their faces, it seemed that they were looking forward to whatever insanity the blond had planned.
Artemis watched the man glance at his wall clock. 2:53 pm. He still had time, if he could hurry and finish the lesson before the bell, then he could get off home free. With that plan in mind, he began to rush through the study material, drawing equations and diagrams haphazardly on the board.
2:55. He decided to forgo the board altogether and began to dictate at a pace that made it tedious to take notes.
2:58. By now he was desperate to get out of the class, and as such was skipping over the lengthy parts of the material, assigning them as reading homework. This served to annoy the class and some muttered silents requests for no mercy to be shown.
"…and finally make sure to read up on Pendulum and Projectile motion against our next class." He finished, concluding their physics class for the day. And with thirty seconds left to spare he collected his things and made to leave the room. Striding out the door at a dignified but hurried pace.
When he was out of sight, all eyes immediately turned to the clock and the countdown began.
"…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…."
The bell rang, signifying the official end of the school day and almost immediately a masculine yell was heard. Artemis immediately grabbed her bags, shot out of her seat and near ran out of the classroom as did the rest of her classmates.
They ran out into the hall to find their teacher, swinging by his feet in the middle of the hallway. He had somehow been blindfolded which made him fumble around trying to untie himself. Hearing their muffled snickering, he began to call for them to untie him but unfortunately for him, they had set their sights on the two baskets placed next to him. Both were filled with balloons, one set containing water, and the other containing more mischievous items.
They instantly understood the assignment, and with a grin that could terrify the devil, Manson stepped up. In his hands he held a blue balloon that was obviously from the second pile. With aim befitting the co-captain of the baseball team, he threw the balloon, nailing the teacher in the chest, splattering chocolate all over him.
With the first shot fired, Artemis took a balloon of her own and without even a second's hesitation she took a shot of her own nailing him cleanly in the face. And then all hell broke loose as water, milk, slime and even cheese splattered across the hallway from the impromptu target practice. She quietly snuck her way out of the hallway, a satisfied grin on her face. Hers had been yogurt.
...
Crock Residence
Artemis and Naruto arrived at the stairs of said girl's home, the blond having been waiting for her at the school gate as he usually did since they became friends. Her first actual friend in the school. She had originally believed that she would end up a social outcast in the school of rich kids due to the act that she wasn't of the same social class as most of them. And she had almost been right though it had less to do with her social standing and more to do with her preemptively treating them all like arrogant snobs, which she had quickly found out was a near instant way to ruin your likability.
Luckily for her, Naruto had managed to bridge that gap with his antics that usually brought about collective dread and excitement to everyone who bore witness. He was friendly with everyone but equally as annoying and abrasive to the point that after just a week, he'd successfully made frenemies of most of the class, and nearly all the faculty. To her though, he was a friend, better than that they were 'Sundae friends' as he had termed it. A friendship bounded by ice cream. 'The second most unbreakable bond ever' in his own words.
The first apparently was ramen, which was shocking since she knew that Naruto loved sundaes and while packet ramen tasted okay, she wouldn't say it was the best thing ever. Then again, he had given her a look of pity when she'd said as such, so perhaps he'd meant a different kind of ramen.
Artemis suddenly realized that she'd zoned out when she noticed that the blond was still talking to her.
"…and then I had to tie the blindfold on him before he could see me. Luckily, he was already suspended so all I really needed to do was sneak around him, and then I managed to duck into the cafeteria and out the window before anyone saw me." He finished with a proud wide grin, having laid out the preparations he'd made for his most recent prank.
"Oh, we're already here! Gomen, I guess I got a little carried away talking, huh?" He stated scratching his cheek and giving a sheepish chuckle.
'His English's gotten a lot better.' she noted on account of his not-quite-so-thick accent. That and the fact that he now only reverted to Japanese words every once in a while, usually when he was nervous, with the exception of the previous week when he'd gone into a full-on rant to the stupefied president of the World Language Club in fluent Japanese. 'Must be all the speaking practice.'
"Nah, don't worry about it." She answered, after all she'd talked his ear off at the sundae bar just a while ago. "I'll see you tomorrow, Naruto."
"Wait what? You're supposed to be helping me get the school paper ready for print tomorrow. You know, like you promised, remember?" Naruto reminded, and watched as Artemis her face in recollection. "You totally forgot didn't you."
"No…" Yes, she had. "Can you handle it on your own today, I have something really important to do."
"No way! There's no way I'd be able to do all that work, especially not with the added reading Kester gave us. I'd have to pull an all-nighter." He protested. 'Unless I use clones of course…'
"Well, it's your fault he gave us the reading in the first place so I'd say its more than fair." She answered, crossing her arms and scowling a bit at the reminder of the extra homework. "And besides I helped you out with the interviews and chasing down leads all day yesterday."
He stared at her incredulously.
"That was your job in the first place, I was the one helping you out!"
She groaned. That was also true. She had asked the blond to help her out since she hadn't wanted to spend more time than absolutely necessary doing it. Ordinarily, she'd have blown it off, but her schedule had been unusually free. The streets had been abuzz with police activity all afternoon and well into the night yesterday. They were clearly just trying to put up an appearance of competence after having once again been shown up in their jobs after Batman had thwarted a hostage situation earlier that afternoon.
The heat had already died down now, and in the city where crime never sleeps, she'd be sure to run into at least a few gangs, and maybe a cartel or two on her patrol today. She couldn't blow that off.
Would she feel guilty for ditching him? Yes. Would she make it up to him? Maybe, ice cream always seemed to work. For now, though she put on a stern face.
"Joining the newspaper club was your idea in the first place." The archery club would have been more her style, but she wasn't all too interested in it, since it would have been a breeze for her and she didn't want that to be her only staple. So, when the blond had signed them both up for the newspaper club, she had gone along with it. It was only fair he did most of the work.
At the blonde's deadpan she knew that excuse wasn't gonna fly either.
"Alright look, I can't help you out with the editing today but I promise I'll help print it out tomorrow, deal?" she offered.
"What are you doing that's so important today anyway?" He questioned, ignored her offer for now.
"Plans."
"What kind of plans?"
"Uh…dinner with my mom…."
"Dinner. With your mom?"
"Yes."
Naruto had a brow quirked up suspiciously, but Artemis to her credit had a pretty decent poker face.
"Fine. I'll do the editing myself…but the printing's all on you." He acquiesced with a sigh and a pout. "Say hi to your mom for me. Maybe I'll actually meet her someday."
They said their goodbyes and Artemis stepped into the house. Naruto ran down the street and turned a few corners before ducking into an alley and disappearing."
…
Artemis had quickly changed out of her school garb, forgoing her homework and was just about to jump out her window, when her mother wheeled into the room.
"You're heading out already?" she asked.
"Yeah mom. Tomorrow's a school day remember, and you're the one who said I couldn't stay out on patrol late on school nights."
"Have you done your homework yet?"
"I'll do it when I get back."
"But you haven't even eaten yet."
"I'm not all that hungry now. Maybe I'll grab something later."
"That's not acceptable. I want you back home in time for dinner today."
"What? Why?"
"I wanted us to spend some time together. And besides you're the one who used dinner as an excuse with your friend earlier."
"You were listening in on us?"
"Only because you hardly tell me anything. We're having dinner tonight." Paula raised a hand to cut off Artemis' protests. "And tell your friend that I'd like to meet him too.
Not wanting to upset her mother Artemis relented with a groan. "Ugh fine, can I go now?" she asked and Paula relented with a smile.
At that moment however Artemis' phone vibrated. "What now, she complained?"
Fishing out the device, she glanced at the screen to see a new message.
'Suspension's over. Batman wants us at the cave.'
-Robin.
"Mom, we're going to have to take a raincheck on dinner."
…
Mount Justice
The team stood attentively in front of Batman as he began briefing them on the mission details.
"About a month ago, Chinese authorities apprehended a man who had attempted looting a home in the Tianjin municipality of China. His name is Adam Zhao."
A picture of a rather average looking dark-haired man appeared onscreen. "Local authorities found him there and took him into custody."
"That sounds like a pretty standard affair. What's so special about him again, because it sounds like the police already have this guy pretty handled." Wally stated from his spot between M'gann and Kaldur.
"Typically, there would be nothing unusual about this, what really caught the League's interest was how he was caught or more specifically the way he was found. According to the report of the arresting officer, he had been found near comatose, tied up and suspended from the ceiling by steel wires yet they found no physical scars found anywhere on him suggesting some sort of mental attack."
"So, he got attacked by a psychic? But why?" M'gann inquired.
"We think it might have something to do with the vigilante operating in the East. Artemis is already familiar with him." Batman responded pulling up another image, one Artemis immediately recognized. "For the rest of you, this is Mask."
"Stupid name." Superboy deadpanned.
"We picked the name." Batman responded, causing the clone to look sheepish.
"Oh."
"As I was saying, he's been actively pursuing and punishing criminals in countries across Asia, China being no exception, from opium dealers to petty crooks, so we have sufficient reason to believe that he may be directly involved in this ordeal. Chinese police haven't been able to get any information out of Zhao, since he keeps falling into an almost dreamlike trance every time he's interrogated about that night."
"Wait, if this happened about a month ago, why are we only acting on it now? I thought you said finding this guy was a League priority." Artemis inputted, more than a little interested in the mission now that she knew who was involved.
"Our current standing with the Chinese government has led to them being particularly restrictive with information lately – a sentiment most other nations seem to share – not that they were too forthcoming to begin with. It was…difficult to get this information as it is. And even then, what we know now is still shoddy at best. But for now, it's our only lead."
"Your primary objective is intel gathering. Miss Martian's, your focus will be on Mr. Zhao. Your telepathy will be helpful in gauging whether or not our suspicions of a psychic attack are correct. If they are, then try to gauge the level of mental prowess he'd have needed to induce such a state."
"Yes sir."
"Mr. Zhao has a daughter on a scholarship here in the United States, Miss Li Zhao." The image of a dark-haired Chinese woman was pulled up on the screen. "She's been informed of her father's detainment and is set to be on a plane to China this evening. However due to 'unforeseen circumstances' that flight will be delayed till tomorrow afternoon, leaving you enough time to pay him a visit."
Getting the hint M'gann morphed to take the form of the pretty woman on the screen. She did a twirl. "So how do I look?"
"Like an angel." Wally breathed with a dreamy look, which soon turned to a pained grimace when an elbow planted itself in his side. "Ow."
Kaldur smiled at the speedster, meanwhile Connor let out a small growl, wishing he'd been the one to do it.
"Seems like the mission relies pretty heavily on Miss M, so what are the rest of us going to be doing?"
"There was another interesting thing about the report. They detected an unusual amount of electricity within the building, and while Zhao is unable to reveal any information about how he was stopped, he did mention seeing lightning both outside and inside the house."
"Wait hold on, are you saying that this guy could be a speedster too?" Wally asked incredulous, and the other also looked unsettled at the possibility.
Artemis herself was mostly curious since asides the teleportation and the possibility of him having super strength based off his altercation with Batman, she too was in the dark same as the rest of them. She had barely considered the possibility of him having any other superpowers. Seems like the JL had actually been putting effort into investigating him.
On the plus side, she at least knew his name, which was something they didn't know. And she had to agree with Superboy. Mask is a stupid name.
"For right now we don't believe that he is, that's what we need you to find out for us. Aqualad and Kid Flash, you two will be investigating the house." Batman pulled out a small gadget from his belt, and tossed it over to Kid Flash. "The Flash said that this would be useful."
Wally caught the object and stared at it for a second before nodding and pocketing it.
"You three are to enroute to China in the next hour. The bioship is to remain cloaked at all times and are to be dressed in civilian attire while you're there. No uniforms. Maintaining a low profile is if the highest priority, and on the off chance that you get into a confrontation, disengage immediately. Your objective is intelligence gathering and not capture. You three are dismissed."
At this the members of the team asides the aforementioned three stared at the caped crusader in shock.
"But what about us? You can't possibly be sending just the three of them, right?" Superboy questioned disbelievingly.
"Miss Martian, Aqualad and Kid Flash are the only ones who will be going on this mission. Sending the entire team jeopardizes the mission's secrecy and that's something we cannot afford. That aside there's another urgent matter that requires the rest of you."
"Okay I get that you can't send all of us, but you could at least send me with them. I mean I've dealt with him before so-" Artemis started only to be interrupted.
"Therein lies the problem. You have encountered him before, without your mask. He's seen your face meaning your identity has already been compromised. Sending you with the team risks him recognizing you and compromising the mission from the onset. You won't be going."
The others looked ready to make complaints of their own but a beeping sound caught Batman's attention. He stared down at his wrist computer, frowning at the notification he'd received before addressing the team once more.
"I have urgent matters to attend to, excuse me." He stated, before leaving the cave, though he shared a glance with Robin as he passed by him.
The robotic voice of the computer rang clearly through the cave signifying his departure, and then followed the dissatisfied complaints of the remaining occupants.
...
Unknown Location
After Naruto had parted ways with Artemis, he had teleported back to the house he used as a base of operations. He'd eaten lunch and then promptly sat behind his computer desk and begun the work of writing and editing together the newspaper. After several hours of work, he finally finished the task. It has been a bit boring but all in all he didn't mind it too much.
The homework however had him questioning – not for the first time – why he had even decided to enroll as a student in the first place. He had even gone so far as to unbury certain aspects of his past so that she'd have something to find when she decided to research her classmate, which was a big risk on his part.
Taking off his mask was another huge risk for a huge number of reasons, one of them being that he would undoubtedly be furious when he found out.
That was another thing he'd noticed, he'd been taking more and more risks lately, most notably giving away his actual name and then using said name to enroll in the same school as the girl whom he'd told it to. Right now, he was sure that the only things keeping his secret identity relatively safe was the fact that she hadn't seen him without his mask, and that there wasn't all that much information about his alter ego for her to unite the two. But he wasn't naïve enough to believe that he was safe.
He had noticed her suspicious glances when she thought he wasn't looking. They had been more frequent when he'd first arrived at the school but had gradually reduced as he befriended her. It also helped that his two personas were so vastly dissimilar.
The blond pulled out his phone and stared at the picture they'd taken at the sundae bar earlier that day. Both he and Artemis were smiling in it. His eyes narrowed in on her smile and then on his own. He was smiling. He'd had fun.
He couldn't quite explain why that seemed so strange. He remembered having fun before and he could recall several occasions when he'd smiled in genuine enjoyment, but strangely he couldn't feel it. He didn't get the same feelings that he did when he stared at this photo.
The blond shook his head of those thoughts instead deciding to shift his focus back on his physics assignment. He considered forcing one of his clones to do it, but ultimately decided against it since they would most likely just pop themselves to get out of it, and he couldn't really afford to be too liberal with his chakra right now.
He had just about steeled himself enough for the task when the scanners he'd had placed at the borders around the continent raised an alarm.
Naruto immediately hurried towards the large cluster of monitor screens and other technological devices, both thankful for an excuse to put off his homework for a while yet and also curious as to what had happened.
Typing away at the computer, the alarm died off and he got a report of what the scanners had caught. They seemed to have detected and unidentified flying aircraft crossing the Pacific, and from a brief analysis of its flight patterns estimated its destination to be somewhere in China.
The scanners were unable to get a visual of the craft, indicating that said aircraft had been fitted with advanced cloaking technology. Naturally that required investigating.
Naruto make a clone and then promptly dispelled it, automatically giving all his other clones monitoring the continent instructions to cast their senses out and locate the object and to notify him the second it touched ground. Seems like his homework would have to wait.
AN: Alright that's chapter 5 redone. And when I say redone, I mean I literally had to rewrite the entire chapter from the very beginning, I noticed that caused a bit of confusion.
Long story short, I had it called to my attention that the previous chapter 5 had more than half its contents missing. And since my previous laptop up and died on me, I literally had no backups to reupload meaning that I'd have to rewrite the whole thing from scratch. Not to mention the fact that that chapter had been one of the hardest to write the first time around.
Anyways I took it as an opportunity to fix a few plot holes, change up my writing style a bit and implement some things I've learned recently. Please note that this will not be a regular occurrence, in fact it wasn't supposed to happen in the first place. Any modifications I make to previous chapters will be little things like fixing spelling and grammar errors, and filling plot holes. I do not plan on rewriting the chapters again until after the story is finished, or at least the first part.
I apologize for the inconvenience caused by suddenly removing the chapter in its entirety, though I've already explained the reason for it.
In an unrelated matter, I've been thinking of cutting down on the dialogue so that there's room for more stuff to happen each chapter and minimize the risk of having characters come off as too OOC but I'm worried that it might affect character development and minimize the weight of character interactions. I think I managed to balance it well enough in this chapter but I'd like to know what you think.
Also as regards to the romance aspect of this fanfic, I'm struggling a bit with finding a natural way of pushing the relationships along without them coming off as forced. I tried taking inspiration from how it was done in the Young Justice franchise but the romances there seemed slightly forced as well with most of it happening offscreen, so I'm sort of stumped.
Romance novels aren't my forte, though I've started reading a few of them recently looking for ideas. Feel free to leave suggestions as to novels or fanfics or anything else that you think might help in the reviews, even if its just to point out what I'm doing wrong. Your feedbacks are always appreciated.
With that said, I'll see you all soon. Later.