The Price of Justice

by KishiTheJuubi

Naruto had learned just one thing in his few years on the planet: money never failed you. How will Naruto survive in the world of Young Justice with wealth as his primary goal?

2. Chapter 2

Happy Harbor August 8, 21:59 EDT

Hiding the doctor in the highschool had in hindsight been of both an advantage and a disadvantage. While keeping guard over one person with so much ground to cover was a logistical pain, it offered the team options on how they could distribute themselves in ways that would best suit their individual strengths.

As such, Ms. Martian and Superboy were on the roof, where Superboy could use his far above twenty twenty vision and auditory range to pinpoint any threats entering the area, while Ms. Martian would be able to relay any information she received from the boy of steel to the rest of the team.

Aqualad and the rest of the team were stationed in the computer lab with Dr. Roquette.

'Ms. Martian, link us up, I don't want the Shadows intercepting our coms.'

Following Aqualad's order, Ms. Martian established a mental link between all the members,'Is everyone linked up?'

While the established members of the team all sent a mental affirmative, Artemis marveled at the feeling of other voices in her head,'Woah, this is weird.'

'And incredibly distracting,'Dr. Roquette drawled,'coding a distributive algorithm virus on a kiddie computer with less ram than a wristwatch is already hard enough. Now I have to listens too teen-think in my skull?'

'Lady, do you always complain when someone's trying to help you?' Kid Flash questioned.

'Pot, kettle. Have you met?'Artemis chimed in response.

'Hey, I don't need attitude from the newbie who drove Red Arrow off the team,'Kid Flash snapped in response, brandishing a chocolate bar like a weapon.

'That is so not on me,'Artemis snapped just as aggressively.

'Fate of the world at stake,'Roquette reminded them.'At least have the decency to stay quiet like mister knife fetish in the corner.'

Those in the room turned to look at Naruto, who was sitting cross legged in the corner, resting his head on one hand while spinning a kunai knife around the index finger of the other hand.

Naruto, realizing he was being watched, looked up to the group.

'What? Something on my face?'

Ignoring the pun, Kid Flash decided to get some information out of the second new member of the team.'So what, you're a weapons specialist? We already have Robin and apparently the knock off Red Arrow-''Hey!''-so what do we need you for?'

Naruto tapped his chin in thought, before shrugging,'Maybe he felt you needed comedic relief, who knows. Haven't heard a good joke yet so eh.'

Robin snickered,'Batman hates jokes.'

'I know, man had the sense of humor of a rock when he came to recruit me.'

'Can you all be quiet?! For the love of God please,'Dr. Roquette gripped her hair in exasperation.

'You know what, I'm just gonna go help Ms. Martian and Superboy with the perimeter, how about that,'Artemis said as she stood up, eager to get out of the room Wally was in.

'That's a good idea,'Aqualad agreed.

As Artemis left, Robin turned to his closest friend on the team,'You know you might wanna cut her some slack. She did save you from getting wasted by Amazo.'

'No, that was Red Arrow's arrow,'Wally asserted, though he didn't sound sure.'Right?'

'Not even close.'Robin replied.

'Well, still not giving her the satisfaction,'Wally replied.

From a stairwell on the way to roof, Artemis replied,'You know I can still hear you right?'

Wally grunted, cursing his own stupidity, while Robin broke out into snickers again.

'I couldn't have gotten the Justice League, instead I get a bunch of chatty teenagers,'Roquette grumbled.

'The virus won't be of much use against the weapon if we can't find it,'Aqualad stepped behind the desk and looked over the blonde doctor's shoulder.'Can you track it?'

'First of all, my utility fog is not a weapon. It's science, brilliant science. And of course I can track it, but that requires me to go online. Might as well put up a billboard with my location on it.'

Aqualad placed a reassuring hand on the doctor's shoulder,'We will protect you.'

Resigned to her potential death, Roquette typed in the final command to her terminal, initiating the link,'Tracking the fog now.'

The tension in the room hiked as Roquette's program began to triangulate the fog's location. A few moments passed, before the computer displayed the results.'It's done, the fog is in-'

'Mmm, that boy,' Artemis purred over the mental connection.

'He can hear you you know. We can ALL hear you,'Ms. Martian drawled, irritated.

'Oh, I know.'

'Enough. Ms. Martian, the fog has been located. Reconfigure the bioship for Robin and Superboy to go find and neutralize the fog. The rest of us will stay here and protect Roquette.'

'Got it, ready in a minute.'The resident martian replied.

Robin shared a fist bump with Wally and nodded to Waly before quickly ducking out of the room.

'Kid Flash, stand guard outside the room. Kistune and I will stay with the doctor,'Aqualad continued to dole out orders. Kid Flash resisted the urge to suckhis teeth as he stepped outside the room and closed the door behind him.

The room was silent for a while afterward, the only sound coming from Roquette typing away at her keyboard.

A few short moments later, the door to the room crept open, and from the darkness of the hallway came soaring in a single kunai, perfectly poised to bury itself in the back of the good doctor's neck. The shuriken never found its mark, however, as Naruto's kunai sailed through the air and intercepted it with a clang.

Aqualad instantly placed himself in between the Roquette and the door while Naruto gingerly stood to his feet, stretching as though he wasn't in a life or death combat situation.

Three more shuriken came flying in, all of which Aqualad blocked with his water bearers.

"You know, you might as well come in, you've blown your cover at this point,"Naruto drawled lazily. "And if you don't come in here…,"Naruto's voice adopted a bit of edge as he allowed his chakra to seep out, making the atmosphere slightly heavier,"I'll have to come hunt you down."

"No need for that,"the door opened, and a young woman dressed in a green kimono that stopped midway down her thigh and was missing its right sleeve stepped into the room. She was of average height with a mane of black hair, and her face was obscured by a white cat mask very similar in style to Naruto's own,"You have something I want. Hand over the doctor,"she drew her sais from her waist band,"and I won't have to kill you both."

"Sorry lady, I like your style but I don't think letting you kill the mission critical asset will help me in my payment negotiations. Business, I'm sure you understand kunoichi-chan,"Naruto replied cheekily.

Cheshire chuckled,"I understand. I would say I'm sorry about this, but I'm really not."

With that the assassin charged forward, lunging at Naruto with a series of jabs and slashes, which Naruto weaved around, managing to avoid the attacks despite his mobility being limited in the computer lab.

'Megan, Kid, Artemis! We're under attack in the computer lab,'Aqualad called, still standing between the now fighting shinobi and the doctor.

'On it!'Artemis and Megan replied, though there was no reply from the young speedster.

Cheshire, seeing that she was making little headway attacking Naruto head on, decided to try and catch him off guard. Stepping back she quickly hurled one of her Sai at Naruto's chest. The shinobi, rather than be rendered dead via cold steel to the heart, made use of inhuman reaction speed to side step and pivot simultaneously, grabbing the sai with his left hand by the handle.

Quickly flipping it across his body to his right hand Naruto blocked a downward stab to his chest, crossing blades with Cheshire with little effort.

"You're good, very good,"Cheshire remarked.

"I'm as good as the money lady, and the money is very good,"was Naruto's reply. With his piece said, Naruto produced a kunai with his left hand from his left hip pouch and went for a stab to Cheshire's stomach, forcing the woman to disengage to avoid him. Naruto quickly flipped the sai in his right hand over, sending it end over end at his female assailant, who moved her head to the side, allowing the sai to become imbedded in the drywall behind her rather than her forehead.

"That was a dirty move for a hero,"the woman replied, readying her sai for another go if necessary.

"What can I say, I'm a hero-for-hire,"Naruto shrugged.

Cheshire raised her sai, preparing to go up against Naruto once again, only for the sai to be knocked from her hand by a green arrow from behind her.

"Oh? This gig is getting interesting,"Cheshire commented, retrieving a collapsing short sword from in her sleeve, which she drew with a flourish. Turning her back to Naruto, she deflected multiple arrows from Artemis with practiced grace. Before she she could move to engage Green Arrow's niece, however, Ms. Martian and Kid Flash entered the room behind her, taking positions on either side of Naruto.

"Maybe a little too interesting," she acknowledged. Quickly reaching in her pouch, she threw a small ball on the ground which exploded, filling the area with thick black smoke. Kid Flash lunged through it, hoping to catch the woman who had left him to drown in a swimming pool, only to sail clear through the smoke and inadvertently hug Artemis, who quickly shoved him away.

Naruto sighed,"Well that was a good stretch!"

"That was hardly a stretch, it looked more like mortal combat,"was Aqualad's reply.

Naruto shrugged,"In all honesty I could have taken her out anytime I wanted, she's slow, weak, and frankly outmatched."

"If you could've beaten her why didn't you beat her?" Kid Flash asked, incredulous to the actions of the newest member of The Team" You just gave her a chance to come back again!"

"Two reasons actually. First of all, despite me being better she's still very well trained meaning if I had captured her then at least one of us would have to be on guard duty for the rest of the night, which reduces the mission success rate. The second reason is to play mind games, mental warfare if you will."

"What do you mean Kitsune?" Ms. Martian asked.

"What I mean, Ms. Martian, is that now she will go report that I am a well trained hand to hand combat specialist with weapons training who is beatable with minimal backup. If I had decided to use anything else from my bag of tricks, then the League of Shadows decides to either one,"Naruto raised his index finger,"give up on assassinating the doctor and just hope we can't produce a virus for the fog before they get what they want, or two,"Naruto raised a second finger,"send a larger, less easily driven off force to assassinate the doctor. And that's ignoring the possibility of them just setting off explosives and hoping the doctor gets killed by a building collapse or even hiring a metahuman that we can't deal with to kill the doctor for them."

"That… would not be good,"Artemis summed up.

"Not at all,"Naruto agreed,"so, just like every mission, use of the minimum effective effort is required."

"Wait, what are your powers again?"Kid Flash questioned.

"Now is not the time for that,"Aqualad interjected."We can inquire about our new teammate's abilities later. Now, we need to move the doctor while we wait to here back from Superboy and Robi-"

"Robin to Aqualad,"Aqualad's radio flared to life with a slight crackle."We're over Philidelphia… oh no, we're too late. The fog has already hit Starlabs. The building is decimated. That's cutting edge technology now in the hands of the Shadows. What's our next move?"

Aqualad pondered for a moment, before replying,"We're gonna rescan for the fog. But first, we have to move the doctor."

The team quickly picked a new location not too far from the highschool, a small pier side office building. It was decided that Aqualad would work the perimeter while Kid Flash and Artemis would stand guard over Roquette. Kitsune and Ms. Martian would remain hidden.

Kid Flash positioned himself on top of a printer, while Artemis paced back and forth behind the doctor as she worked in silence. The two caught each others gaze and shared a glare.

'You two, that's enough,'Aqualad scolded from his position checking the trees across the street.

'What?'They asked in unison.

'I can hear you glaring,'Aqualad replied.

'Whatever.'

Aqualad ducked through the trees, looking for any signs of the Shadows. Outlook, he called,"Ms. Martian, stay in camouflage and make a wide perimeter sweep."

Before the atlantian could react, he was pulled into the tree above him by red webbing. Aqualad struggled briefly against his assailant before he found himself bodily thrown out of the trees and into the side of a van with such force that he left a man sized dent in the side. Standing to face the Black Spider who landed before him, he never saw the giant metal hook that proceeded to slammed into the back of his head, leaving him laying on the cement prone.

Cheshire flipped out of the treeline shortly after, landing between Black Spider and Hook, who looked to her for instructions."The martian will be back soon, and I'm not keen on evening their odds. Be careful with the boy with the fox mask. Regardless, Roquette dies now."

Inside, the room was jostled as Black Spider flipped through the front door. Kid Flash moved to engage, attacking with a low kick that Black Spider flipped up and away from, landing on the ceiling. Black Spider attempted to grab KF with his webbing, but Kid Flash dodged to the side and threw a trash can at the assassin, forcing him to dodge by dropping to the ground, where they started engaging in hand to hand combat.

Artemis took aim at the combatants, hoping to get a clean shot on Black Spider, but she was forced to turn away as the skylight behind her broke under the weight of Hook, who brandished his hook.

Shooting a quick barrage of arrows which forced the well armed man to dodge behind a bench, Artemis barked out to Roquette,"Don't stop working."

With Kid Flash and Artemis distracted, Cheshire opened the window above Roquette as silently as possible, taking aim with a small crossbow with the intent of putting a bolt directly into the womans forehead. She let it fly, but a bench floated into te way and saved the doctor, who continued typing away.

"Shit, the Martian is here! It's now or never!" Cheshire called out, discarding her crossbow as Black Spider pushed Wally off and used his webbing to pull the still floating bench out the way. Cheshire descended quickly from the roof, landing on the desk in front of the doctor, causing the woman to turn and attempt to run. This interaction served to distract Artemis, leading her to take the blunt side of a large metal hook to the face.

Cheshire tackled the doctor to the ground, drawing her sai,"Where's your little ninja boy now?"

What she did not expect to happen was for the doctor's skin to turn green as her head spun around giving her a triumphant smirk,"He's with the doctor."

"Shit, we've been duped,"Cheshire cursed.

About a quarter mile down the road, in the Sandbar Computer Cafe, Doctor Roquette was typing away at a computer under the bored gaze of Naruto, while Aqualad stood guard at the front door.

"I've almost got it!" Roquette called out.

Back in the hotzone, Ms. Martian levitated from the floor,"You will never find Dr. Roquette!"

"Never is such a long time,"Cheshire replied, before turning tail and sprinting out of the room,"pursuing the target, keep 'em busy."

Artemis, seeing Cheshire leaving, began to pursue,"Pursuing their leader, take the rest down!"

Kid Flash ducked a punch from Black Spider and stuck him with a clean left to the jaw, calling after the archer,"Hey! You are so not the boss of me!"

The moment of distraction was enough for Black Spider to grab Kid Flash in a choke hold, which he began to struggle against.

Outside, Cheshire mumbled to herself,"Oh I do not like being played." Pressing a hidden button on her mask, she activated the built in thermal goggles, allowing her to pick up on Aqualad's footsteps.

Running along the path left by the footsteps, Cheshire continued to move towards her goal until the sound of an arrow whizzing towards her back caused her to turn. Deflecting the arrow, Cheshire locked eyes with Artemis,"I was hoping they'd send you."

Turning, Cheshire kept running, dodging a few arrows before using her parkour skills to pull herself onto the roof of a nearby building. As she continued to run forward, an arrow impacted the chimney in front of her, releasing a gas.

Coughing, Cheshire collapsed backwards.

Approaching cautiously, Artemis found her feet swept out from under her as Cheshire proved to be playing possum."Built in filter in the mask."

Artemis kicked out from her position on the ground, standing and attempting to neutralize Cheshire with a series of strikes which were blocked. Throwing a final punch, Artemis found her arm twisted behind her back by Cheshire, who cheekily remarked,"Almost got me! Better luck next time, kid."

Then she elbowed Artemis in the back of the neck, rendering her unconscious.

Inside the cafe, Aqualad looked up towards the ceiling at the sound of a thump. "We have company."

"Uploading now, and by the way, you said you'd protect me,"Roquette pointed out.

Before Aqualad could reply, a black ball rolled towards him from the shadows, popping and releasing a thick black smoke. Naruto hopped up from his seated position as Aqualad activated his water bearers.

Behind them, a vent in the ceiling slowly opened. Turning quickly, Naruto drew a tanto with his right hand and deflected a series of darts that were poised to hit him and Aqualad.

"En garde, kitty-chan?" Naruto called out, pointing his tanto at Cheshire as she dropped from the hatch. Off to the side, Roquette pressed the key to start the virus upload and then stepped behind her protectors.

Cheshire didn't reply, instead drawing her weapons of choice, before charging Naruto. Naruto merely waited for her to get to him, blocking and dodging all of her attempts to cut him.

Kicking the assassin away, Naruto waved his sword at her admonishingly,"Ya know, the way you're swinging those swords, I think you're actually trying to hurt me."

Before Cheshire could respond, Roquette called out,"The upload is complete!"

"Huh, guess that means you can go right, kitty-chan?"Naruto asked.

"The only reason I'm leaving is that the Shadows may still need you down the line, Dr. Roquette." Cheshire called out, looking at the doctor over the shoulders of Naruto and Aqualad."Do keep in touch."

With her piece said, she threw down a smoke bomb, and when it was cleared, she was gone.

"Well that was a let down. I was expecting some sort of really difficult end of mission conflict, but oh well,"Naruto shrugged.

"Good work, Kitsune,"Aqualad acknowledged the least tenured member of the group.

"It was nothing,"Naruto waved him off,"just doing my job."

"You truly are skilled, perhaps we could spar sometime?"

Naruto scratched the cheek of his mask,"I don't really do the whole sparing thing, it's not that I'm bad at it. Just that I don't like using my skills for non-paying gigs, you understand right?"

"I was hoping we'd be able to sharpen our skills against each other," Aqualad persisted.

"My skills are sharp enough, no offense,"Naruto replied."We should probably get Roquette out of here."

"Superboy and Robin have likely already used the virus to neutralize the fog. All that is left is to relocate the doctor somewhere safe,"Aqualad agreed/relented.

Stepping out of the cafe, Naruto, Aqualad, and Roquette were greeted to the sight of Artemis looking somewhat rattled.

"Artemis! Where is the assassin?"Aqualad questioned.

"She… she got away,"Artemis replied, turning away.

"From you? No surprise there,"snarked Kid Flash as he and Ms. Martian arrived.

Noticing Cheshire's mask on the ground, Aqualad questioned Artemis once more,"Did you see her face?"

"Was she hot?"Naruto asked as an add on.

"It was dark,"Artemis replied weakly.

"It's fine,"Aqualad assured the girl."The fog is defeated, and the doctor is safe, in large part thanks to you."As Artemis turned to face him, Aqualad smiled,"Welcome to the team."

"I always wanted a sister,"Megan beamed."Here on earth at least. I have twelve back on Mars but trust me it's not the same."

"I wouldn't know...but thanks,"Artemis replied good naturedly.

"And you Kitsune,"Aqualad turned to his masked team mate."I hope that you can learn to put your greed aside and learn what it truly means to be a hero as you work with us."

Naruto shrugged,"I wouldn't hold your breath fish stick, I am who I am."

Aqualad cringed at his new nickname, while Kid Flash broke into chuckles,"Fish stick? Classic!"

"It's time we head back to the cave,"Aqualad got a handle on the situation before it could get to out of hand,"It's time to head home."

Alright so from here on out I'll probably be taking some more liberties with how the story progresses to give Naruto a more active hand in how the YJ storyline goes on. The show storyline is a shit show to follow especially on a rewatch years removed from the original viewing but I'll get it in time. Im also not really spell checking this cuz its like 5 am and Im leant off my ass so however it goes out it goes out.

Join the discord if you have major concerns or just wanna get in contact and talk about the story, also please review. Most people look for stories via reviews or favorites so if yall could help me kick the search engines ass I'd appreciate it.

Kishi.