AN: Thought I'd finish this arc to start the new year.
From this point on there will be a few minor and major changes to the plot as well as the introduction of a few new plot devices, one of which you might have noticed in the previous chapter. Just a quick heads up.
...
China
Kid Flash had scanned the house from top to bottom with the Speed Counter for traces of speed force energy, finding out in the process that the house had actually been empty the entire time. Unfortunately, the search turned up no results as the device was unable to detect anything confirming Aqualad's earlier suspicions.
After coming to that conclusion, the two started to comb the house carefully looking for any clues as per Aqualad's suggestion. Sadly, Naruto – who was still perfectly hidden – was unable to get any new information from the two, and seeing as the two had been conducting their search in silence, the blond determined that he wouldn't be getting anything else out of them.
Now seemed like a good time as ever to get on with the prank, he might even modify it a bit so that he could get a bit of leverage on the two heroes just on the off chance that he needed it in the future. He created another clone and sent him to ensure that everything was set up properly and to make sure that they couldn't run away, in the meanwhile he would wait patiently for the perfect opportunity to start.
"Ugh, this is exhausting. You find anything Kaldur?"
"No, I have not. Though I suppose that may be because there is nothing here for us to find." Aqualad replied causing Kid Flash to groan.
"So that means that this was all for nothing?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, it seems so. I just hope M'gann was able to turn up something on her end. We should leave, there's nothing left for us to do here."
"Alright l guess we should probably get going…right after I raid the fridge."
"This is not the cave Kid; you can't just search someone's house and take what's not yours." Kaldur admonished with a stern frown.
"Hey relax, I'm just gonna get a few snacks and maybe a soda." Just at that moment a bag of chips lightly hit Wally on the side of his face, before falling to the floor.
"There doesn't seem to be any cola, will tea work?" Naruto asked dropping his transparency jutsu and revealing his presence to the two which immediately set them on edge. They jumped back to try and put as much distance between them, while reflexively getting into battle stances, with Kid Flash getting ready to run, while Aqualad's hands slowly inched for his water bearers.
Naruto stared at them for a few seconds before commenting. "You two have some pretty decent fighting form for tourists."
The duo was immediately reminded of the importance of maintaining their cover, and also the need to avoid any unnecessary conflict with anyone, and especially not with him. Right now, the masked black and yellow clothed blond didn't seem to be particularly hostile, leading Aqualad to believe that diplomacy might be their best bet.
He immediately relaxed his stance and Kid Flash followed suit, though the pair still remained extremely cautious. Kaldur put on a friendly demeanour, smiling a slightly forced smile before he spoke. "Yes well, we thought it would be a good idea to learn to defend ourselves as we weren't sure what we could encounter while travelling."
"I see, that was a very good idea you had. It is pretty dangerous to be travelling to new places. Though I wasn't aware that this house was such a popular tourist attraction." Naruto replied sounding as casual and disinterested as he had since the beginning though the sarcastic statement at the end told them that he didn't believe the lie for even a second.
The two heroes had one thought running through their heads. 'Shit.'
"This city gets a fair bit of traffic and I've had other locals accidentally taking tours into people's houses and leaving with souvenirs. I think I've had to stop about a hundred of them in the past couple of months. Though this is the first time it has happened to the same house twice, and with international tourists no less." Naruto continued as his voice turned icy.
'Double shit.' Wally thought feeling the tension in the room intensify while Aqualad started to sweat a little.
Naruto on the other hand was internally struggling to hold back his laughter at the faces they were making. He wasn't able to go as loud or as flashy with his prank as he would have liked, simply because he didn't want to destroy the house, but he could get his fun by messing around with them mentally. That part of his training was really going to come in handy now, and he was loving every second of it.
He took two more steps forward before folding his arms over his chest in an authoritative stance. His visible eye staring daggers into them. "Could you explain to me what two supposed tourists are doing breaking into this house?" He stared around at the room which was still disorganized from their search. "Besides the obvious of course."
They didn't need to see his face to know that he was smirking under his mask, that much was clear from his voice. It also dawned on them just how bad this looked, and how much worse it could get if it got out that they were actually superheroes, and the Justice League's protégés nonetheless. Their only saving grace right now was the fact that they were out of uniform, and that Mask couldn't possibly know who they really were. That aside though, the situation was still pretty bad.
It was only made worse though when Wally got offended at the subtle accusation. "Hey! What the hell is that supposed to mean, we weren't robbing the place!"
Naruto smirked further while Aqualad barely resisted the urge to facepalm. "I never said you were, but now that you mention it, it really does seem that way doesn't it." He asked rhetorically, shutting the speedster up.
"Look, I am aware that this is not the most situation, but I promise you that what my friend said is correct. We did not come here to steal anything." Aqualad said stepping back into the conversation and trying to guide it in a more favourable direction.
"Ok then, let's say I believe you since as far as I can see you don't seem to have stolen anything, well besides this." Naruto uncrossed his arms and showed them the Speed Counter he'd pickpocketed off the speedster earlier.
"Hey! That's mine." Kid Flash yelled, and Kaldur couldn't blame him. Having the masked blond in front of them be in possession of the device was obviously bad news.
"I find that a little hard to believe but I'm willing to return it to you, if you can prove that it actually belongs to you. Well?"
Wally looked like he wanted to punch the blond in the face but he couldn't do that without using his superpowers and having this turn into a full-on fight. And he couldn't prove that it was his without explaining how it worked and subsequently how he came by it, which would also lead to him finding out about them. This was literally a lose-lose situation. The speedster looked like he was just about to say screw it and try to steal the device back and then superspeed the two of them out of there.
"Calm down Kid, let it go…for now, we still don't know if he's a speedster as well, I will handle this, you just get ready to steal it back from him if things go awry." Aqualad whispered lowly to his partner, but Naruto could still hear it clearly. He didn't give them any indication that he had, but just resolved to keep his eye on Kid Flash so that he didn't get surprised by his speed.
I'll take your silence as a 'no' then." He said pocketing his hands and the device, while Wally muttered angrily under his breath. He didn't do anything though, as per Aqualad's instruction.
"We might not be able to prove that that's actually ours, but I can assure you that we are not criminals. We have not stolen anything." Aqualad said firmly.
"Okay, let's say I believe that you're not thieves, despite having not provided any proof of that, that still doesn't excuse the fact that you two are the only ones that could be responsible for the vandalism done to this house." Naruto stated biting his lip slightly to keep himself from ruining his stoic image.
"What vandalism?" Aqualad asked sincerely confused, sure they'd moved around a few furniture during their search, but that could hardly be considered vandalism. Either Mask was over exaggerating or something had happened while they were inside the house that neither teen was aware of.
"How about we start at the rolls of toilet paper covering this house from top to bottom."
"What are you even talking about? There wasn't any toilet paper anywhere near this place when we entered."
"Ignoring the fact that you shouldn't even be in here in the first place, I'm going to have to disagree with you. If you don't believe me, just look outside." Naruto stated nonchalantly.
Aqualad cautiously walked towards one of the windows and pulled up the blinds, and sure enough the window was covering in rolls of toilet paper. It stretched up over the house, onto the lawn and even into the street.
Kaldur looked absolutely mortified by the sight, and Wally who had run up beside him to check was also in a similar state. They had no idea how to even begin explaining this situation, especially since they had been in the house the entire time, and they hadn't even noticed this happening.
"Then there's also the graffiti you two painted across the house." Naruto added getting them both to turn back and look at him. "'The JL Rules'. Interesting message, but I don't think a house is the best place to express that."
The blond genuinely had to choke back a laugh at the looks on their faces. He had thrown in the graffiti part as a joke, since his plan had never actually involved any graffiti in the first place. But now that he'd seen their reactions, he was definitely going to roll with it now. Both had their jaws dropped and were doing their best impressions of a gaping fish; ironically Kid Flash was doing it better.
Naruto cleared his throat slightly, regaining their attention. He was cracking a toothy smile behind his mask, and his blue eye shone with mischief. "So do you wanna start explaining this?" He asked cheekily.
...
India
"What! You brought him into the cave?" Superboy yelled in outrage for what seemed to be the tenth time in the last fifteen minutes as Artemis narrated the events that led them here, minus of course the more intimate moments. "Are you insane? Some of us actually live there! What if he came back and KILLED US!!" The blond archer seemed irritated by the constant interruptions and the berating. Though she had to admit that he did bring up a good point, and she didn't really have much of a response…that didn't mean that she'd just take it though.
"Let's get something straight, I didn't just bring him into the cave, he appeared and saved me when I was trying to figure out a way to save the rest of you! Why would he help me save you if he was just going to come back and kill you?"
"Well, I could have been biding my time until the greater android threat had been disabled, and any possible reinforcement from the Justice League had already left." Naruto unhelpfully supplied smirking at the glare Artemis was throwing him.
"See?" Superboy said emboldened at having his point proven. He wasn't quite sure what to think about having the person in question be the one to do so, but he'd go with it for now.
"You're not helping here." Artemis whispered harshly to the other blond.
The masked blond just upturned his eye in what looked like a smile.
"You put the whole team in danger." Superboy continued bringing them back to the conversation.
"Oh really, because it sure didn't seem that way when I was saving your lives, in fact I remember you guys telling me the complete opposite, yourself included." Artemis retorted.
"Yeah, that was because we didn't know that you brought him into the cave and basically compromised our location."
"Like I said before, I didn't bring him into the cave, he came to help, and if he hadn't been there, we'd all be dead. Besides I thought the whole point of the cave was that everyone already knew where it was so they wouldn't think to attack it. Newsflash: they attacked it anyway! That's how we got into this mess in the first place. The bad guys already know we're there so what's the big deal if he knows too."
"The big deal is that we barely know anything about him, he's proven that he doesn't have any problem killing people, and he was able to take down Batman without breaking a sweat."
Naruto wondered whether or not he should interject that he only killed people if the punishment fit the crime, and even then, it rarely happened, accidents notwithstanding, but he ultimately decided against it. He didn't want to risk distracting them from the conversation and losing valuable information. That was the whole point of getting them to talk in the first place. He noted that these two really needed to get a better handle on their emotions. People were a bit too loose with information when they were angry, he could personally testify to that. And it seemed that these two were just as hotheaded as he used to be.
"And yet you shattered his arm and chest in an instant with a few punches, so we know he's not unbeatable." Artemis rebutted.
Naruto would admit that that one had stung a bit, and he got the feeling she said it to get back at him for his earlier antics. It wasn't entirely true since he could have easily dodged the punch and counterattacked if he wanted to, even with his chest caved in, but he'd caught it to try and get a measure of the black-haired boy's strength, which was an admittedly stupid idea albeit a necessary one.
"Exactly and he healed an injury that bad in a matter of minutes, there's not even a scratch left. That just makes him even more dangerous. Even me and Wally can't heal that fast." Superboy rebuffed.
Naruto felt his ego swell a little at the involuntary praise, though he could have done without having Superboy's finger shoved in his face as he said it. He also filed away that last bit of information about the healing ability for later.
"But if you disagree that he's dangerous, and you see no problem with him knowing the cave's location, then I guess you'll have no problem with me telling Batman." Superboy finished.
"I would've thought you'd rather tell Superman." Artemis quipped making Superboy's scowl deepen as he bristled at the insult.
Luckily the kryptonian clone didn't seem like he was going to act on his anger but the Naruto could clearly sense the negative emotions bubbling beneath the surface of the bare-chested teen. He also filed that away for later.
"You didn't let Batman or the team know that he came into the cave, you didn't say anything about the knife either. And on top of that you've been meeting with him constantly behind our backs while we've been trying to find him; doesn't that sound a bit suspicious to you."
"Are you accusing me of something?" Artemis spat with enough venom that it actually made Connor shrink back a bit before he regained his composure.
He had made a reasonable point, all things considered but from the limited time the blond had spent around the archer, he could tell that all she heard was the accusation.
"I'm saying that we all thought that Red Tornado was the mole on the team, but it seems like we might have had another one right under our noses."
"You did not just seriously accuse me of being the mole! Are you kidding me? What reason would I even have to be a mole for him?"
"I don't know, you tell me, you're the one who's been sneaking around with him. Maybe he knows something about you and he's blackmailing you, or maybe he's controlling you and you don't even know it." Superboy returned.
"Oh, that's rich coming from you Project Kr." She stressed the last part out meaningfully. "Isn't it a bit ironic that the person accusing other people of being the mole is the Cadmus Labs test tube baby."
Now that one got a visible reaction. Superboy's fists tightened and his scowl deepened even further at the sarcastic remark. If he had heat vision, Artemis would definitely have two holes bored into her skull from the intensity of his glare.
Despite the frightening visage that was the rage filled Superboy, Artemis refused to back down either, glaring heatedly at him, as her fingers flexed in preparation to pull out an arrow should thing get violent.
Meanwhile though Naruto was suddenly assaulted with a rush of images, almost too fast for his brain to process. The two things he was able to process were the words Project Kr and...
"Cadmus?" Naruto's curious tone as he asked the question brought the two teens out of their glaring match, and they suddenly remembered that they had a spectator.
"That's none of your business, just point me in the right direction so I get this mission over with already." Superboy said, breaking the standoff and walking past Artemis. He knocked her back a bit as he walked away making her glare at his back.
Naruto's sudden onslaught of what he assumed were memories told him that it was his business, but he decided not to press the issue for now.
"Ok then, there's a massive group of signatures not too far from here, down that way."
Superboy barely gave a nod in response before he jumped in the direction that Naruto had indicated, leaving deep craters in his wake.
Naruto started to walk towards Artemis but before he could even say a word, she was already walking past him but not before giving him a menacing glare that made him shrink back, and stepping on his foot as she stormed past.
Naruto just stared after the blond girl with a small frown before he decided to follow after them at a slower pace, so he could give them time to cool off. The hostile signatures he'd sensed earlier should give them something else to direct their anger at besides each other.
...
China
The Naruto clone had listened to Aqualad and Kid Flash or as they called themselves, Wallace and Gill - you can guess who came up with the names - try to explain their way out of the situation for the past couple of minutes.
The two had spun a story that was reasonably believable, and with a nice act to go along with it. The only problem was that Naruto wasn't particularly interested in the lie that they'd spun him.
He knew they wouldn't give up any more information now that they knew that he was here, and even more so, if they believed that he didn't know who they were. So, with that Naruto decided to kick into phase two of his plan. He'd quickly grown bored of the mind games, idly wondering why certain people seemed to like it so much. Despite all his training, there were some things that he just couldn't fully embrace and mind games happened to be one of them.
With that the blond straightened up a bit more, his blue eye gaining a new level of intensity as he addresses the two.
Why don't we stop with this act now, it's getting really boring, I already know who you are, Aqualad and Kid Flash. He said staring at the atlantean first and the speedster next so they understood that he knew what he was talking about.
As soon as the words left the blond's mouth, Aqualad realized that there was no hope for a peaceful resolution. Their mission had been compromised, as per Batman's orders, they needed to get out of here, ASAP.
Kid now. Aqualad barked and Wally needed no further encouragement to act. He was already dashing across the room at speeds that would make it almost impossible for anyone to keep track of, and time seemed to slow down around him.
He was at Naruto's side in a near instant, and was already reaching into the blond's pocket to grab the device he'd stolen earlier, when he looked up to see a strangely pattered red eye staring down at him, and trailing his movements.
Unnerved by that, and noticing that the masked blond still hadn't moved an inch, Wally attempted to punch the blond across the face, only to receive a vicious haymaker that sent him flying across the room and crashing into a bookcase.
Kid! Aqualad yelled running towards his downed teammate. He had no idea what had just happened but he knew that the now red eyed blond had something to do with it.
He matched Naruto's gaze for a few moments, before unsheathing his water bearers and changing them into blades as he moved to engage the blond.
Naruto promptly brought out his axe brandishing it by the handle as he blocked the attack from the dark-skinned hero's water swords. The fact that the atlantean was dual wielding barely made any difference.
He dodged a sideways slash to the head, and push kicked the atlantean in the chest, sending him flying back into a coffee table. Aqualad immediately recovered from the crash tucking into a backwards roll before launching himself forward once more.
Naruto swung his axe downward, forcing Aqualad to sidestep to the right. He attempted to thrust his blades into the blond's chest but had the attack blocked by the blond's axe hand. Naruto then used his free hand to send a blow to the atlantean's gut, before dropping him with a sweep kick that sent him on his back.
Aqualad immediately had to roll out of the way of a crashing heel that splintered the wooden floor where he'd just been.
He quickly shot to his feet in an attempt to put some distance between the two of them, but Naruto wasn't having that. He seemed to disappear and reappear in an instant, and grabbed Aqualad by the arm, flipped him over his back.
Aqualad however wasn't Aquaman's apprentice for nothing, and in a show of dexterity he righted himself during the flip, landed on his feet, and used the built-up momentum to send a rising knee to the blond's jaw.
An expertly executed maneuver, and it would have served to at least daze the blond for a little bit, if not launch him back entirely had he not already planned for it.
Instead of the results he was expecting, Aqualad got an intense throbbing pain in his knee, like he'd just made contact with solid steel.
He dropped his water bearers and the magic in them dissipated as he clutched at his knee. 'How can a person's jaw feel so hard.'
The answer came in the form of the clone – who had had his eyes shut – opening them to reveal that they were no longer blue nor red but rather golden with a black bar in them, similar to a toad. Had his mask allowed it, he would also see the reddish coloration around his eyes.
Naruto disappeared once again and reappeared directly in front of Aqualad, this time delivering a punch that sent him skidding back across the room, and almost knocking him unconscious.
Wally had already recovered by this point and was about racing in to deliver what he hoped would be a barrage of punches too fast for the masked blond to react.
"Kid stop!" Aqualad yelled getting the orange haired speedster to pause in his tracks. "Don't attack him!"
"You should probably listen to him, unless you also want me to kick your ass!" Naruto commented a bit cockily to which Wally glared.
"Don't rise to his bait Kid, our priority right now is getting out of here, not fighting him."
Naruto raised a brow. "I don't know how you think that's gonna work especially since I can stop you before you even make a move. Your best option is just to sit tight till the police get here and deal with whatever happens next."
"Sorry but that is not an option." Aqualad firmly stated as he got himself back into a standing position.
Naruto caught the subtle glance that Aqualad gave Wally, but he didn't act like he noticed and instead allowed them to do what they planned.
The two teen heroes could already hear the sound of sirens approaching, letting them know that the blond hadn't been bluffing when he'd mentioned the police earlier.
Wally ran and grabbed Aqualad's water bearers, replacing then on the dark-skinned teen's back, and then grabbed Aqualad so that he was leaning against him before he ran towards the door. The two teens smacked face first into the door and fell back when it refused to open.
"What the hell happened; can he make force fields too?" Wally asked with a pained grunt as he rubbed his quickly reddening face.
"That's not a force field, it's plastic wrap. I thought it'd come in handy in case you tried to run away. The door only opens outward so that should keep you in here."
"I see. It seems you were well prepared, and you already knew our identities before we got here. It makes me wonder how you came by this information." Aqualad said staring suspiciously at the axe wielding blond.
"Hey Aqualad, you're not saying there's another mole on the team, are you?" Wally asked catching on to Aqualad's train of thought.
'This could be a problem.' Naruto thought, though outwardly he maintained a stoic silence.
"I'm simply stating that it might have been a mistake not to consider the possibility of multiple moles. Right now, that isn't our main concern, we need to focus on getting out of here."
"Yeah, that isn't going to happen, I need you two to stay put for a while and then you can sort things out with the police." Naruto said pulling out a roll of steel wire. He was about to restrain the two when he suddenly gained the memories of a popped clone.
Apparently during his momentary distraction Wally had had an idea. The speedster had placed Aqualad's arm around his shoulder supporting him, as he stared determinedly at the door.
"If Flash can do it, I can probably do it too." He heard the speedster mutter. "God, I hope this works." Wally added before he ran once more towards the door, only this time he started to vibrate and phased through the door when he ran through it.
Naruto blinked owlishly, having not expected that to happen. Seeing as there was nothing else for him to do, the blond teleported out of the house, lifting the toilet paper genjutsu he'd placed over the house as he left.
Meanwhile Aqualad and Kid Flash had just run out of the house and into the street. After getting over the weird feeling of running through a solid object, they watched as the toilet paper that had covered the house and the street disappeared.
"I can't believe that worked!" Wally exclaimed ecstatic at his success.
The excitement quickly died down though, when they were immediately surrounded by police cars on all sides and they had blinding lights burning into their eyes. They heard one of the officers yell something at them in Chinese. It went along the lines of surrender yourselves now or we will use deadly force.
"This is bad, really bad, I can't even run us around them without them noticing me using my powers."
Luckily for them, help came in the form of a telepathic message via a mental link.
"Hey guys, brace yourselves!" M'gann warned before the Bioship suddenly appeared in the sky drawing awe filled looks from the officers and the curious neighbours staring out the window. Miss Martian flew out and she levitated the two up into the Bioship.
The ship had already been recloaked and had flown well out of range before the police snapped out of the shock of seeing the two teens be abducted by the alien.
It was too late to try and pursue the ship, but they could still go off the anonymous too they'd been given. Apparently, the Justice League was behind this.
Meanwhile in the Bioship
Aqualad, Kid Flash and Miss Martian had settled into their seats on the Bioship.
"Thanks for the assist, Miss M."
"Indeed, your quick thinking got us out of an unpleasant situation, for that I am thankful as well. Though it would have been better had our retreat not been so 'flashy'." Aqualad added.
"Yeah, sorry about that, but I couldn't think of any other way of getting you out of there without them shooting at us."
"Hey, it's cool, we had no idea how to get out of that ourselves. I'm just glad you got us out of there before it could become even worse of a disaster."
"Thanks Wally."
"No problem. Hey Miss M, how did you know that we needed help anyway. Aqualad said that if we ran into any trouble, we should all meet at the rendezvous point. So, how'd you know to come get us.
Miss Martian tried to come up with an answer but her mind was drawing a blank. "I don't really know either, I guess I just had a feeling."
It didn't really explain anything but none of the guys seemed to question it, though Aqualad did regard her with a slightly suspicious look.
After a few moments of silence Wally finally stated the thought that was on everyone's mind.
"Batman's going to kill us, isn't he?"
"Oh yeah/Definitely." came the unison response from the other two.