Chapter 14: Bereft

M'gann woke up to find herself looking at a sky that was not red. It was night with a full moon. As she sat up she grabbed some of the sand. It was soft compared to what she knew from Mars. It then hit her.

"Hello Megan! I'm on Earth!" she exclaimed with excitement.

'But if I'm on Earth how did I get here? And why am I in this costume?' she thought to herself walking across the desert. 'And why does my head hurt so much?'

With her distracted the young Martian wasn't paying attention and slipped on one of the hills of sand and landed on her butt. Before she could get herself situated she was stunned by the impact of something crashing right next to her.

When the dust cleared there stood a tall very angry looking young boy in jeans, boots, and a black t-shirt with a very familiar symbol on it.

"Wait. I know that symbol." she said "Are you Superman?"

This comment seemed to set him off as he ripped the shirt off him leaving him bare-chested and charged at M'gann. Before he even got to her he was suddenly hit by a green energy blast that knocked him away.

At that same time a lone figure stood in front of her. He was wearing a green and black armored uniform of unique design and from the back of him she saw short blond hair on his head.

"Superboy it's us!" her rescuer called out as the mad boy charged again. Only the other man stopped his charged though he skidded on the sand briefly before throwing him aside. The angry young man seemed to think twice about attacking again and decided to jump away.

"Conner!" the blond young man called out. "Damn it." he said finally turning around. He was wearing a face mask that covered the lower part of his face. On his chest was a black circle with the white outline of another symbol she knew.

"M'gann, are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, Green Lantern, I am." she said. "Do we know each other?" she asked.

The young man sighed.

"Great. All I got was a headache while the rest of you have lost you memories." he said. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki. You and I are part of team of young heroes and have been here for the last six months." said Naruto.

"Six months?" M'gann questioned. "So then why can't I remember?"

"I will explain it to you on the way. Right now one of our friends and our leader, an Atlantean named code named Aqualad, is in need of our help right now." said Naruto. "It's already been close twenty-four hours since we got here and that's not good for him in this desert. Can you find him telepathically?"

Even though she did not remember who this person was she still felt compelled to trust him. She didn't know why. Maybe how earnest and concerned he seemed to be or how honest his panic over his friend was but she nodded.

"I can try." she said. Holding her hands to her head she concentrated. "He's not far, only a few meters west from our location."

"Let's go." he said. The two flew in the direction that M'gann has said he would be. Sure enough there he was unconscious. As they landed Naruto knew it was from dehydration on a large scale.

"He kept thinking in a different language but I was able to make sense of it. He keeps mentioning a name. Tula I think he said." M'gann explained as the shinobi examined him. "Is that his girlfriend?"

"Afraid not. Worse he probably doesn't even remember that right now." said Naruto as he made some hand signs and pressed his hands into the sand. M'gann watched in amazement as symbols appeared on the ground and suddenly a small pond of water appeared on the sand.

"Thank you Tenten for telling me that story." he said to himself. Though to his credit, he did achieve more proficiency with summons than she did thanks to the fact that he was an Uzumaki.

"How did you do that?" she asked as Naruto carried Aqualad closer to the small pond, gathered some of the water in his hand and had him drink it.

"Summoning Jutsu, normally I summon creatures but I can also summon other things such as weapons or even a bit of water in the desert thanks to a mention from talking with an old friend. And that's all you need to know until we get the others and get your memories back." he explained while feeding Aqualad water.

Not long after the Atlantean had regained consciousness. He looked around and Naruto could see that he did not recognize either of them and quickly rose to his feet but was wobbly and fell to one knee.

"Easy Kaldur, you just now woke up and your body is still hasn't fully recovered from its bout with dehydration." Naruto explained.

"Who are you?" he questioned them. "How do you know my name?"

"My name is Naruto. She's M'gann. Also known as Green Lantern and Miss Martian." said Naruto with M'gann who waved in response.

"That does not answer my question." said Aqualad.

"We've been part of a team consisting of you, me, M'gann, Wally and Dick, names you are no doubt still familiar with and with Conner also known as Superboy."

When he said this Naruto knew that he recognized the names of two of his closest names but was confused upon hearing of a Superboy.

"He's a clone of Superman." said Naruto. "You will understand once you get your memories back."

"He's telling the truth." said M'gann suddenly. Naruto looked and saw her floating in a meditative stance her eyes white.

"I was able to remember something. He's telling the truth. I saw myself making and giving cookies to the team. You both were there." she explained.

"That was a while ago. And they were delicious by the way." he mentioned which gave M'gann a small smile despite the situation.

"Pardon me for saying so but while I am familiar with Martian telepathy I can't just take it at face value." said Aqualad.

"Then take the fact that two of your closest friends are now in danger along with the rest of us. To make a long story short M'gann had us linked telepathically during our mission here. The reason you all have lost your memories of the last six months is because unknown to all of us there was another telepath here and he hacked our link." said Naruto.

"How come you didn't lose yours then?" said M'gann curious.

"I had some help in that regard." said Naruto looking a little uncomfortable.

'Help being me able to block telepathic attacks and probes. Thanks to our mental blocks and my presence in your head not even the Guardians have managed to get in. Which is good for you but not so good for the rest of them.' said Kurama.

'Thanks for reminding me furball but that doesn't help them now.' said Naruto to his partner. 'I can't believe I didn't stop it in time though before the attack I feel like an idiot.'

'Hey no one knew they had a telepath. You're not all seeing Naruto.' said Kurama.

'Thanks buddy.' said Naruto.

'Speaking of which, would you tell M'gann to try and stop probing and get them back on your side.' his partner mentioned. Naruto returned his attention to the situation at hand.

"Stop probing M'gann its rude and with me useless." he said.

"Sorry." she said have the decency to look foolish at her attempt.

"The idea was mine." said Aqualad. "If what you say is true than you alone possess our memories. Miss Martian mentioned that by using you as the landscape for us we could recover them."

"Not a bad idea. Except you need my permission to get into my mind." he said sternly before calming down. "In any event getting your memories back with just me isn't going to work. We need to find as many of rest of the team as possible before trying that."

"Agreed." said Aqualad. "Miss Martian can you try and get a fix on the others?"

"I can try." she said closing her eyes and concentrating. "I've got two of them. They are going south east." she said pointing the direction. Naruto noticed just now that the sun had now risen above them.

"Good we've wasted enough time as is. Aqualad are you alright for travel?"

"Yes. The water you managed to produce has restored me somewhat. I am not at full strength, but I am able to fight if need be." he said.

"It will do. I'm going to put you into a bubble construct. It will be faster to get to the others if we fly to them." Naruto explained. He immediately put the Atlantean inside a bubble construct and from there they flew off.

It did not take them long to find the two that M'gann had mentioned. Even from a distance Naruto could see the smoke trail left by Kid Flash. He assumed that he was holding Artemis in his arms while running from the attack fighter craft trying to shoot them down.

"Are they piloted or are they drones?" Naruto asked.

"Drones, I'm not picking up any thoughts." she responded.

"Good. Let's take them out." said the shinobi. "Aqualad see if you can't give them some cover with you bearers."

"Understood." said Aqualad.

'Not bad kid. Taking command of the situation like that.' said Kurama.

'Shut it furball.' Naruto grumbled as he and Miss Martian flew in unison as he dropped Aqualad with the speedster and archer. The two drones made another pass firing machine guns at them. Aqualad had managed to block the attack using his water bearers as shields. After they made their pass it was time to counter.

The task was simple as all Naruto had to do was fire a beam of energy right at his drone immediately destroying it while M'gann used her telekinesis to send the other crashing into the ground.

The two of them landed and join the others. Kid Flash seemed to be in the process of introducing, or reintroducing as it were, his friend to Artemis.

"So who are they?" she asked.

"I'm M'gann and this is Naruto. We're all part of a team." said M'gann. "I made you all cookies if that helps."

"Afraid it doesn't." said Artemis.

"How else do you explain that we are all here together and it's been six months since your last memory of anything?" Naruto questioned.

"He's got a point." said Kid Flash. "So I'm guessing that M'gann is related to J'onn and you are a rookie Green Lantern or something?"

"Look we will fill you guys in on the way. We need to find Robin and Superboy." said Naruto.

"Sure find Robin and Super-what now?" Kid Flash questioned.

"Hold on. You both have your memories why don't we have ours?" Artemis questioned.

"I only have bits and pieces. Naruto seems to be the only one that has his memories intact." The young Martian briefly explained.

"And how is that possible?" Aqualad questioned.

"I have some defense against telepathic attacks. And I have an idea to get you guys your memories returned but we need to find Robin and Superboy first. Or at least one of them for it to work." said Naruto.

The rest silently agreed as they traversed the desert.

(Elsewhere)

Psimon watched as the soldiers of Queen Bee were trying to restrain the Superboy.

'Though perhaps trying would imply a degree of success.' he thought to himself as the young man through a bunch of soldiers around like rag dolls. They had managed to tie his wrists with rope with soldiers grouped on both his left and right sides trying to hold him like a wild bull.

As the troops went flying one of the sergeants went to his side.

"You must take control of his mind!" he demanded.

"Not much of a mind left to control after I was through with it." said the psychic as he raised his hand forward towards the boy as he sent the other group of men flying as was about to jump to freedom.

"Still there is just enough." he said as he sent a telepathic command.

'Psimon says, 'be still'.'

An instant later the Superboy did just stand still. Moments later he fell unconscious as he shut down.

"Get him to the tent with the Sphere and examine him. Assuming you are capable of that now." he ordered the men. The sergeant did so and issued the orders.

As they did so Psimon pondered the events. He had heard from the Light about this new covert team and the fact that the energy omissions that were produced from when the mysterious Sphere arrived would gain the attention of the League and that they would send them to the Bialyan desert.

It did not take long for the Martian in their group to come skulking around. And being the novice she was had set up a mind link with her teammates for communication purposes.

Though she had potential, he could sense that easily enough, she was still unrefined and foolish to not set up a defense. It was almost child's play to make her and the rest of them forget about what they may have seen via the link along with about six months worth of time for good measure.

'All but one.' he thought to himself with a frown as he recounted that there had been one person among this team of young 'heroes' that he could not penetrate. Indeed up till now the only one that he had thought that his telepathic abilities could not touch was the Martian Manhunter. But this one among them had mental barriers that rivaled even his.

'Psimon wonders which one it could be?' he thought to himself. The younger Martian he suspected had the potential but was still to unrefined so it could not be her.

So who could it be?

The psychic villain put these questions aside. For now he joined the rest of the troops and returned to the tent which now held two prizes, the sphere and the Superboy. He would assign extra security but was pleased.

And so would the Light.

(Teams mobile base)

It was night time when Robin arrived at the rendezvous point that his GPS map was telling him to go. Sure enough it lead him to an apparatus. He jumped in to check it out only for soldiers of Bialya to pop up from under the sand.

The lead soldier was giving the others orders. Though his Bialyan was limited he got the feeling that Queen Bee, the leader of Bialya in fact, would want him alive for interrogation.

So naturally he dropped a smoke bomb which thanks to the sand was even more effective than normal. And proceeded to beat down, tie up and disarm them of their weapons with batarangs. Unfortunately, those he knocked to the ground got back up and started firing at him.

Robin was able to flip out of harm's way but before he could respond back he saw a familiar blur take the guns out his enemies' hands. Turning around he saw another of his old friends use his water bearer's as a shield from enemy fire and took them down with a one two punch. Finally he saw another four being launched in the air. He looked to see someone who looked like Martian Manhunter seemingly de-cloak in front of him.

Nothing however prepared him for seeing a Green Lantern of all things take down the rest of the stranglers and wrapping them in a rope construct tying them all up in a circle. He looked up to see said Green Lantern only to find it was someone that he was not familiar with.

Looking around he saw two familiar faces among this group of strangers.

"Kid Flash, Aqualad!" he said greeting them. "Glad to see two familiar faces."

"No kidding. Though some new faces are looking rather attractive." said Kid Flash in a quieter voice while gesturing to Artemis.

"Still the flirt I see." said Robin.

"I assume then that you are also suffering from memory loss as well?" asked Aqualad.

"Six months missing to be exact!" the boy wonder exclaimed. "Let's get these goons further tied up before our Green Lantern's construct disappears then compare our notes."

"My constructs don't disappear Robin but it would be nice to have some rope placed on them before we leave." said Naruto. He went to the apparatus and activated it. It was filled with supplies for the Team after all and among them he found a Kevlar made roped and tied them up.

With that out of the way they grouped up to get the full gist of the situation.

"So we're all a team?" asked Robin first.

"The six of us plus Superboy." said Miss Martian.

"Than this is probably his." said Robin taking out a piece of Superboy's shirt that he found on the ground earlier.

"Yes! Have you seen him?" she asked.

'Memory gone and she still has an almost instant attraction to the boy.' said Kurama in Naruto's head.

'Good sign that she still has something from the missing six months.' responded Naruto in his head.

"I think we did before you and the Lantern showed up." said Artemis

"Feral boy?" said Kid Flash remembering his encounter with a snarling teenager who was strong enough to rip tanks apart and whose first target was him and Artemis.

"Some team mate he attacked us." he commented.

"He didn't know who we are. I don't know who we are." she the archer.

"All I remember is Batman ordering for radio silence. We must work for him." Robin deduced.

"Wait how do we know that we don't work for my mentor?" he asked pointing at his symbol. Upon doing so his suit returned from its black shade to its yellow.

"Whoa." he said doing it again and activating the stealth-tech again. "Can you guy's suits do that?"

"Only Aqualad's. You and him are the only ones with stealth-tech in their suits." said Naruto. Aqualad pushed on the symbol in the middle of his belt and sure enough the red in his suit turned black. Naruto decided to add on by using the ring to cloak himself to everyone's surprise.

"How did you do that?" said the speedster as Naruto reappeared.

"A technique that only a few Green Lanterns can use. Basically I can use my ring to bend the light around me and make me invisible." the shinobi explained.

"That's handy." said Robin.

" Just one of the many ways I can make myself stealthy being a ninja and all." said Naruto "And to answer your earlier question no we do work for Batman." Naruto stated.

"And you know that how?" asked Kid Flash

.

"He's the only one of us that still has his memories." said M'gann

"It makes the most sense since he would have more experience than most on doing more stealth related missions." said Aqualad. "I would assume that we are on such a mission since Bialya is a rogue state under the rule of Queen Bee."

"Which we would know if we had our memories which we don't! We need them back!" said Artemis in frustration.

"Naruto you are the only one here whose mind is intact. Can you tell us what happened?" asked Aqualad.

Before he could answer Artemis again spoke up.

"We need all our memories of the last six months back!"

"There is one other way." said M'gann. "I could use my psychic powers for us to enter mine or Naruto's mind scape and be able to piece together our broken memories into a whole one." said M'gann before looking to Naruto with some sympathy.

"But let me guess since my mind is the only know not Swiss cheesed at the moment that makes my mind the best place to do this right?" Naruto questioned though he already knew the answer.

"Yes. But I can't access yours. Your mind is too well guarded. So much so that you might even have better barriers than my Uncle J'onn." she said.

'Great. You realize if we take down our barriers I won't be able to hide myself once she gets in right. That was the point of us making these barriers in the first place.' said Kurama.

'I know that.' Naruto responded.

"So what you're a telepath as well than?" Kid Flash guessed.

"No but I have my ways for protecting my mind from people trying to fidget with it." said Naruto.

"Lantern I understand that you wish to keep your thoughts private but time is of the essence. If you can help us recover what we have lost we need your help in this."

Naruto thought about this long and hard. It had only been six months when he got here and while in that time he had come to trust his new friends. With them possibly learning chakra and even his life if need be.

But could he trust them to with the secret as to why he was sent here? Or at the very least the existance of Kurama who had become his most trusted ally?

'Kurama what do you think we should do?' he asked his partner. 'This isn't just my decision its yours as well.'

'I think you should look to the Martian and you will see the decision we both would have already made.' said the tailed beast. Naruto looked at M'gann and saw the desperation in her eyes.

"Please to help Superboy." she pleaded.

In that moment Naruto had made his decision. He closed his eyes as he and Kurama shut the barriers of his mind down.

"Alright M'gann. Do it." he said.

Instantly the young martian put her hands to her head. Immediately following that action the rest of the team found themselves of a field of grass that seemed to stretch out forever.

"Whoa nice place." said Robin

"Indeed it is rather beautiful." said Kaldur. M'gann herself looked around with her hood over her head.

"I've only ever seen those of my race able to make mindscapes as advanced as what I am seeing here. This place is designed for a peaceful retreat for someone. Almost like the mind itself is essentially at peace." said Miss Martian.

"Yeah but I'm guessing the sky would be another story." said Artemis point above them. Sure enough they looked to the sky and saw what they all guessed was their memories as they saw images of them talking, going into battle, working together in one fashion or another. But they looked like pieces of broken glass.

"Well I have to say the sky in here has looked better." said a thundering voice from behind them.

They all turned to see Naruto there but he wasn't alone. Next to him was a what appeared to be a giant sized fox with human like hands instead of paws and had nine flowing tails instead of just one.

"Welcome to my head guys." said the lantern.

"Naruto who or what is that behind you?" said M'gann more than a little intimidated and the being in front of him.

"I'm standing right here little girl don't be insulting you are our guests here after all." said the being.

"Sorry! I wasn't trying to be rude." she said bowing her head.

"Kurama there's no need to be scaring anybody here." said Naruto.

"What I'm just having a little fun that's all. I don't usually meet other people in here kid." said Kurama.

"Pardon the interruption but would you please explain who or what you are?" said Aqualad gesturing towards the tailed beast.

"Ah yes introductions. This my friend and partner Kurama. Also know on my world as the Kyuubi no Kitsune. The nine-tailed beast." said Naruto gesturing to his giant friend.

"Kinda obvious with the fact that I have nine tails." he joked. "Hello everyone. Me and Naruto always suspected that this would be coming. Though under different circumstances."

"Yeah kinda a first to be meeting an actual demon in someone's head." said Artemis.

"Beast!" both Naruto and Kurama said at the same. "Seriously beast not demon. Unless its by the enemies than we are okay with that." Naruto continued.

"Right sorry. Didn't know better." said Artemis genuinely scared of the beast that spoke so loudly along with Naruto.

"You can breath now girl we are good." said Kurama in his best comforting tone.

"Not to be a bit of a drag with the giant tailed beast here but shouldn't we get back to the matter of of getting our memories back?" questioned the boy wonder looking up into the sky.

"Right we are getting off topic aren't we?" said Naruto. He then looked to M'gann who had her hood up. " If you would."

"Right." said M'gann. "Right now the sky represents our collected memories. At the moment they are in pieces. But if you let me enter your minds and with Naruto forming as the base we can make our pieces into a whole."

"Whoa so you are gonna mess with our heads?" said Artemis worried about what secrets she may be hiding.

"Myself and Naruto will ensure that only the last six months have been tampered with in terms of your memories. That will be all she will be looking for." said Kurama.

"How can you sure of that?" asked Kaldur.

"Here in my head me and my big furry friend here have pretty much domain. Trust me we have been doing this for a while hence why M'gann and pretty much any telepath will have no shortage of trouble getting in my mind never mind Kurama's." said Naruto.

Even hearing all this the shinobi could see that Artemis was still nervous. Whatever she was hiding he knew it had something to do with his past. A past that she did not want to be revealed unless it was on her terms.

She then calmed when Kid Flash took her hand and smiled reassuringly at her to which she returned.

"Last six months only no more or less." said Artemis.

"Agreed." said Robin to which Aqualad nodded in consent as well.

"And as you enter my mind don't let its brilliance overwhelm you." said Kid Flash.

"Or underwhelm you." Robin joked back. "Though seriously why aren't people just whelmed?"

"Okay here we go." said M'gann as she concentrated. A beam on energy soon emerged from her head and connected it to Naruto's. From there it was sent to the other four.

Instantly their memories started coming back to them in flood of information. Though it flowed like a river as each piece of their memories returned.

Cadmus, meeting Superboy, fighting their way out and defeating Blockbuster formerly Mark Desmond, them becoming a team, meeting Naruto, their first mission, Black Canary and Naruto meeting and training them, the shinobi revealing their potential for using chakra, then bringing in talking toads who on then visited occasionally to help with said training with Wally's head being the blunt of Fukasaku's stick.

Finally the memories poured on their mission here in Bialya. Batman explaining to them that the watchtower had found readings of a major power surge in the Biayan desert and that the readings were extraterrestrial in origin.

The memories shifted to them landing at the border of Bialya setting up base camp. Robin, using the computer from the apparatus located the source of the energy in a tent twenty miles out. M'gann using her cloaking ability went inside the tent.

She saw a sphere inside a cage with scientist appearing to experiment on it getting readings each time it rolled trying to escape.

"Its some sort of device." said the memory of M'gann. "But its alive. Hello? Can you hear me?"

"I can." said a voice in the link that was not a member of the Team.

"Someone has hacked our link!" said M'gann as she panicked. This had never happened before.

"Miss Martian break the link!" ordered Aqualad. Before she could the voice in their minds spoke again.

"Psimon can't see you. Psimon can't find you. But Psimon can make sure you all...Forget!" said the voice. M'gann then saw a man remove his hood where she could see his was pale and his head was transparent enough to see his brain.

Then it all went white as she and the rest of them felt a searing pain as their minds were erased. All except Naruto who in his head had Kurama break the link on their own. From there they all scatter to the winds before the lantern could stop them.

As they opened their minds they found themselves back in the desert. Kid Flash and Artemis looked at their hands clasped together. They broke apart immediately.

"So much for that." said Naruto.

"It was fortunate that you had the assistance of this being Naruto." said Aqualad. "But it would have been informative if you had told us that you had such an ally."

"Without revealing anything else today." Naruto began. "Me and Kurama have had issues with people before on this subject. It wasn't always as rosy between us as it is now believe me. On top of which thanks to the fact that he is inside me I have gotten some benefits. And those I will disclose at my own time if you don't mind."

"Stop this please!" said M'gann. "We have to find Superboy! Six months ago he didn't even exist he had no memories. Just animal impulses!"

"Superboy's indestructible. He tore those tanks that attacked me and Artemis." said Kid Flash.

Before anymore could be said M'gann held her head and clenched in pain. She felt Superboy being tortured.

"No! Superboy is in pain!" she exclaimed and flew off.

"M'gann wait! Psimon is still there!" yelled Robin. "He took your memories once he could do it again!"

"She's long gone." said Wally. It was then that they noticed that Aqualad wasn't looking at his best.

"Kaldur you don't look so good." said Artemis. "You need to go back to the ship."

"Agreed." he said panting. "Green Lantern. You are the only one we have seen able to withstand Psimon's powers. Go and back up Miss Martian."

"Roger. The rest of you get him back to the bio ship best possible speed. The water I gave should hold Aqualad up and give you enough time to get him there." said Naruto. Immediately following that statement he cloaked himself and flew off after Miss Martian.

Miss Martian found the tent easily enough. Saw the sphere and the still amnesiac and bare-chested Conner being held prisoner.

"My you are a glutton for punishment." said the voice that she immediately recognized as Psimon. The villain then revealed himself from his hood.

"Forget." he said telepathically. This time though the young martian was ready. The both enter her mindscape. The area of her mind was rather roughly constructed with pieces of the cave and farmland made as the place for her mind.

She soon saw the all encompassing light that represented Psimon's attempt to erase her memories once again. She stood her ground and repulsed the attack.

"Not again!" she yelled. She then saw a giant version of her enemy's head appear and fire a beam of red black mental energy at her. She struggled as she put a shield to block it.

"Hmm. Better prepared this time. No doubt expecting me thanks to the one among you who resisted me. No matter. You have potential but still untrained, unrefined." he broke off mid sentence managing to break her shield and knocking her away. The head open its mouth and the full body version of Psimon appeared.

"And not in my league."

Megan responded by firing her own beam at him.

Meanwhile back in the real world the scientists in the tent looked about in puzzlement as their associate just stood there with a smile on his face. The psychic backlash from Psimon and his invisible opponent had started making objects float. It was at this time that the bonds that held the Sphere weakened and it broke free wheeling around the tent scaring the scientists away while also freeing the Superboy.

Just in time for Naruto to appear. The Sphere moved towards him.

"Whoa hey I'm on your side here." he said to the machine. It stopped almost as if it recognized him for some reason.

Superboy in his animal like fury attacked Psimon who had a psychic shield on his body while still fighting Miss Martian. It was then that Naruto saw the clone of Superman stop moving and with a trained eye noticed the shimmering form of M'gann.

'Okay we need to get in there. Now.' said Kurama. Naruto didn't argue and immediately went opposite of where Connor was, on M'gann's left side, and touched her arm.

Back in M'gann's mindscape she was battling Psimon when Connor appeared next to her.

"You're here." she said with excitement.

"Please. You think that mindless creature can help you save your mind." said the villain. All M'gan did was smile as she grabbed both sides of his face in her hands.

"No I save his." she said touching their foreheads together. It was then that Conner felt memories, all of them, for what felt like the first time.

Him meeting the team, escaping Cadmus, the rejection of Superman twice, fighting Amazo, the Teams first mission, training with Naruto and Black Canary. All of it came rushing back.

But what M'gann was doing, to her knowledge he didn't know, was providing a glance into her memories. One thing she saw was an alien not like any he had seen which was large, white skinned, and could be considered by some to be monstrous. Yet when he saw that image flash by he felt no fear or anger. Like he knew her somehow.

'Her? M'gann?' he questioned in his mind as the images flashed until he saw the memory that she favored the most.

The moment she was cooking and had accidentally thrown food at him with her telekinesis. Right before Naruto

"I am so sorry. It was too much at once too much at once. Too much..." she said as she wiped him down before looking into his eyes and they stared at each other for what seemed like hours.

It was that he returned to see M'gann. Here and now.

Conner smiled at her.

"Kick his butt." he said.

"Yes please kick my psychic butt." said Psimon with supreme confidence. It was then that the mindscape suddenly changed from being a tangle of places that M'gann had been or what to go to a dark void it seemed with water being the ground. Almost like a sewer but with no foul smell.

"She won't have to." said a voice. Floating in between them was Naruto. "Sorry to interrupt but if you guys don't mind I decided to enter this little fight to even up the odds."

"You!" said Psimon. "You're the one who I couldn't sense before. Who managed to block out my attack on the rest of these children."

"Correct. And now you are in my mindscape." said Naruto.

"Then you have made a grave mistake." said the villain with grin. "For I will now destroy you and then the martian."

"Oh it isn't me you gotta worry about. Its him." said Naruto gesturing behind Psimon. He turned to see Kurama in all his glory standing before him.

Psimon gawked at the being in front of him.

"He doesn't look so tough." said the tailed beast.

"Size isn't everything remember." said Naruto reminding of him when the two of them fought each other at one point.

"True but I doubt he has your gumption. Do you little man?" said Kurama.

"I don't know what projection you are but you will find that Psimon is more than a match for you!" the telepath exclaimed and fired a beam of energy at the creature. All it seemed to do was annoy him.

"Really? That's the best you got?" said Kurama and with a wave of his hand a gust of wind sent the supervillain spinning out onto the water below. Psimon got up and made himself giant size to try and match the creature before him.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Miss Martian asked.

"Nah. The furball doesn't get much exercise and this is a good way for him to let off some steam." said Naruto as they watched the fight with the two giants fighting.

Or rather Kurama beating the snot out of Psimon as he tried to punch or used more psychic attacks that the beast just shrugged of and either clawed, punched or used his tails as weapon as he whipped one at sending him tumbling down once again shrinking Psimon back to normal size. Kurama issued another wave of power that the bloody psychic barely had time to shield against. He barely managed to handle it before it being shattered as Kurama grabbed a hold of him and force to look him in the eye.

"Is this the best you can do? I have been mind controlled on mine and Naruto's home world by a being who while I hated had far more skill and power than you. I have blocked out beings whose telepathic prowess are enough to shape planets. Compared to them you are nothing but a termite to be stepped on." said Kurama as he dropped Psimon opened his mouth and channeled his chakra in what Naruto knew to be the Tailed Beast Ball. But suddenly the beast stopped channeling and smile as if having an idea.

"M'gann is it?" he asked though already knowing the answer.

"Um yes that is me." said the young martian.

"Would you like to the honor of sending this rat out of here?" he asked. M'gann smiled at this.

"With pleasure." she said. "Get out of our head!"

She fired a pulse of psychic energy strong enough to cause Psimon to scream in pain as he held his head. All of them then appeared back in the real world just in time to see him fly off out of the tent. His departure forcing the tent open and having it fold out leaving all three of them out in the open desert.

"Psimon going going gone!" Naruto joked. "How are you feeling Conner?"

"Back to normal." said the clone looking at M'gann. And her staring back at him.

"Ahem." said Naruto noticing how they were looking each other as if he weren't there. "We'd better get back to the bioship." said Naruto..

"Yes yes we should." said M'gann blushing. It was then that the sphere also appeared next to them.

"Looks like we got the souvenir for Kid Flash." said M'gann. The sphere made beeping noises in response. Naruto then created a bubble construct and flew them back to the ship. From there they stored the alien object, who had more than once apparently proved it was sentient, into the cargo bay. From there they took their seats and M'gann took her post at the helm and the flew off home.

"So I guess this the part where address the elephant in the room. Or more specifically the tailed beast inside me." said Naruto.

The others looked to each other about this.

"Honestly given the fact that it was because of your friend and the mental blocks you both made on your minds that saved us today.." said Kid Flash.

"The only issue is why didn't you tell us sooner." said Robin.

"I was going to tell you. We were going to tell you about Kurama. Me and him have been talking and we thought if it wasn't going to happen now then in the next day or so." said Naruto. "Honestly, and this is no disrespect towards you, but the main reason I hadn't said anything was because of you Robin."

"And how do you figure that?" said Robin getting a little ticked off about the comment.

"Because I figured you were keeping an eye on me on orders from Batman. Since he and I don't exactly get along all that well and since he has a habit to find out the weaknesses of not just our enemies but his allies as well I assumed that he might have inquired to you about me since I arrived." he explained.

Everyone looked to Robin.

"Is there any truth to what he speaks of?" asked Aqualad.

The boy wonder rubbed the back of his neck and sighed.

"I'll admit there have been a couple of times when he has asked about the team. How we have been doing, adjusting to the training and all that. And he has asked about you. At first I thought it was just general stuff. But I found out quickly that he was subtlety asking me about your powers and abilities. And he was asking about how he was helping train us." Robin explained.

"And what exactly did you say to him?" said Naruto.

"Nothing that gave you away if that's what you mean." said Robin. "Look the guy is like my father. But even I can see sometimes how he can be more paranoid then he needs to be. So after the first mission, which thanks to you Naruto didn't go as badly as it might have, I decided to keep my own counsel about you. So no I haven't told him anything he probably doesn't already know."

"Alright I get it." said Naruto.

"Naruto despite what you may believe whatever issues or abilities we have or will gain we do not inform our mentors about our personal lives." said Aqualad.

"Yeah dude we keep our secrets and we are prepared to keep yours too. Besides like I said without you and your friend we probably would be worse off then we are now." said Kid Flash.

"You would have found your way without me around." said Naruto.

"But not nearly as fast. I could still be a wild animal and Kaldur would have been dying of dehydration before we got our memories back." said Connor. "Point is we don't tell the League everything about us. Our problems our ours to solve."

Everyone looked at the boy of steel in amazement.

"I had a conversation with Red Tornado. He mentioned that aside from mission related stuff he believes the team can handle its own personal issues." said Connor.

'Good thing he's the den mother then.' said Kurama. 'I believe you have something else to say kid?'

Naruto took a deep breath. "You're right all of you guys are." he said.

"I'm sorry for not telling you sooner. But just be aware that there will be secrets. Elements of surprise both from outside the team and within. Personal and otherwise. Some we are ready to deal with and some we are not. In the future I will do better with my own and determine which is which." the young shinobi concluded.

"That's we can ask." said M'gann with a smile. The others were satisfied as well.

"That's part of the job. All of what you said." said Robin.

"There is one last thing I gotta ask." said Artemis. "Does Kurama being inside you have anything to do with why you were sent here to Earth instead of patrolling your own sector?"

"In a word yes." said Naruto. "Aside from my being able to block telepathy I have certain other abilities, abilities that I have not shown yet."

"Like the time when you fought Amazo on you own when helping the League." said Robin

"That was more me then Kurama. But yes in a sense. My ring and my chakra have a symbiotic link to each other. My constructs are stronger and vice versa all my jutsu and powers get enhanced as well. And that's as far as I will say on the matter for now the rest you will just have to wait and see." he said with a smile under his mask.

"But that just wants us to know more!" Kid Flash exclaimed curiosity now fired up to which Naruto just shrugged.

"That's all you getting Wally." said Artemis. The others laughed as they made the journey home.

(Unknown location)

Psimon was in a room with the monitors that contained each member of the Light who were of course hidden with visual software. Although his body was still in good shape his mind was still reeling from the beat down he had suffered.

"The young "heroes" managed to take the sphere and the Superboy." he said with disappointment.

"It is is of no consequence." said the voice of L-3. "What matters is that our ally and the delivery system function is at full efficiency."

Her monitor then switched over to view the sphere arriving via a portal that appeared in the desert.

"More tech will come. And it will be far more valuable then even the sphere or the Superboy." L-3 said with a pleased tone. Psimon however appeared concerned. But as he tried all he could remember in his minds eye was a giant slit eye staring at him with disdain.

"Is there something else?" said the voice of L-3.

"Yes. I believe there is more to this team's Green Lantern. But I am unable to determine what that is. All I can say is that he was able to block my telepathy. And that is all I can remember." he said frowning from the pain that his mind was still in after the encounter. Why could he not remember.

"That is indeed troubling." said the voice of L-3.

"If I may suggest upon the Light that perhaps we should have our 'cats paw' find out more." said Psimon.

"If you feel it necessary than we shall." said L-3.

End Chapter.

So after another long wait here it is. The latest chapter of Light and Shadow. I am truly sorry that its taking me so long to get these chapter done. I don't like making you all wait as I should since this thing had been up so long and so little progress has been made. But life lately has been getting in the way of just about everything that I actually want to do.

Such is life I guess.

In any case thanks again to my beta qtar1984. Also I am in the process of getting another beta. He and I have already discussed this and we both feel that another pair of eyes would help this story along. I am also finally getting to the process of editing the revisions of the previous chapters so that it falls into current canon of the manga so if you see any changes in the previous chapters that would be the reason.

As always hope to see you all again in the next chapter and thank you for your support.