Chapter 5
Naruto found himself back on the Island Turtle; he could hear the Falls of Truth roaring somewhere in the distance, just out of his line of sight. Killer B was stood in front of him, his mouth moving but nothing coming out. When he looked down at himself he saw his black and orange crime fighting outfit.
As soon as he laid eyes on these clothes, Naruto knew what had happened. He'd been hit by a super powered sucker punch and now he was here. Naruto sighed at this turn of events and decided it was time to get to work.
When Naruto looked up at his mind's manifestation of Killer B, he noted that its head had become four times the proper size and was now covered in shocking pink hair. However, now was no time for amusement. He closed his eyes and focused his will and when he reopened them he was in a different place.
Naruto was greeted to the sight of a peaceful grassy field. There were mountains in the distance and the sun was high in the sky. This was the place Kurama, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had created for himself.
Naruto looked around to find the colossal red fox exactly where it had been ever since they had come to this reality. Kurama was laid on his side on the ground, his tails limp and splayed out behind his massive body. Kurama's eyes were open and his tongue lolled out of his slightly open mouth until it touched the ground. When Naruto looked into Kurama's red eyes he saw no more intelligence than had been there for nearly a year. Whatever catatonia had stricken the fox was still as strong as the day it had taken hold of him.
Naruto didn't know the cause of Kurama's unresponsive state, or rather he knew the travel between dimensions had caused it, but he didn't know why. When Superman had first landed one of his super punches on Naruto's chin during their spar on the day of his arrival, he had tried to seek out his partner in the seal only to find him in this state.
Naruto didn't want to risk exposing the League to the existence of the demon fox in his belly, so he had no real idea as to what was causing this catatonia or what to do to break it. At any rate, the body was breathing and Kurama would keep until he came up with any ideas on how to help him.
"Don't worry, Kurama. I haven't forgotten about you, but right now I've gotta kick someone's ass." With his piece said, Naruto drew on a sliver of Kurama's power and used it to materialize a door that stood in the middle of the field. Kurama's power could jump start his body into consciousness like this quite easily, all that remained was to walk through the door.
Naruto walked over to the door, opened it, and took one look back at his catatonic partner before crossing the portal back into the waking world.
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Shinobi's return to consciousness was not marked by any outward change; his body didn't twitch, he didn't gasp, and his heartbeat remained steady. This was a skill that no amount of clones could help him learn, only a large amount of meditation and practice. It was good for gathering information when a ninja messed up enough to fall unconscious and be captured by enemy forces.
He was suspended in an uncomfortable position, hands above his head held there by the metal restraints around his wrists. This was quite the predicament, but well within his abilities to escape from.
Shinobi cracked his eyes open slightly so as not to give away the fact that he was awake. He was in a pod inside of another laboratory in this creepy place. The clone, Superboy, was standing a small ways off, seemingly staring at him and his captured compatriots. After taking in the situation, Shinobi knew this escape would take a bit of finesse. He quickly made a one-handed seal when Superboy was focusing his attention on Aqualad and a small puff of smoke in the corner of the room was the only evidence of his shadow clone's creation, and even that faded quickly.
The clone quickly jumped to the ceiling of the lab and used the Meisaigakure Jutsu to blend in with the organic texture of whatever had been used to build this place. The technique wouldn't make the clone perfectly invisible, not by a long shot, but it would pass a first inspection. And nobody ever looked up, anyway. With his clone in place, Shinobi settled in to wait for the perfect opportunity to put his plan into motion.
As it turns out, he didn't have to wait very long. The others woke up in a minute or two and proceeded to try to convince Superboy to let them out of their restraints. Kid Flash's outraged outbursts were all the distraction Shinobi needed. A quick puff of smoke was the only indication that he had replaced himself with his hidden clone. Superboy glanced in the direction of his pod but he dismissed the few remaining wisps of smoke as a malfunction in the machinery; it dissipated quickly and there didn't seem to be anything generating more.
As Shinobi prepared to spring his plan, Aqualad asked an interesting question. "Do you know what you are? Who you are?" Shinobi held back, his curiosity was piqued. The answer was not disappointing.
"I am the Superboy. A genomorph. A clone made from the DNA of the Superman, created to replace him should he perish. To destroy him should he turn from the Light." The others exchanged surprised looks and Shinobi's clone dropped the guise of unconsciousness.
"The big guy's not someone you can just clone and replace. It takes more than the right DNA to become Superman. And why would you even want to? These people made you to be their weapon. Is that what you really want? I knew someone that was a living weapon once. I had to beat the crazy out of him before he was ever happy. That's no way to live, killing whoever some boss points their finger at." Just like Gaara back during the chuunin exams, Naruto saw a chance to give someone a better life. A life beyond being manipulated to accomplish the goals of evil men.
"Shinobi's right. You deserve a life of your own, beyond that solar suit. Beyond your pod. Beyond Cadmus," Aqualad said.
"I live because of Cadmus! It is my home!"
"Your home's an underground creepshow that goes around cloning people and creating living weapons. Trust me when I say that's never a good thing. Maybe you were created to replace Superman, but we can show you a life beyond that." Shinobi could tell they were getting close now.
"We can you show you the Sun," Robin said.
"I'm pretty sure it's after midnight, but we can show you the moon," Kid Flash continued.
"We can show you, introduce you to Superman,"Aqualad finished.
"No, they can't. They'll be... otherwise occupied." Desmond had walked in through the sliding metal door, Guardian and another female doctor beside him as well as three G-Gnomes, on each of their shoulders. "Activate the cloning process."
That was all Shinobi needed to hear. He pulled three kunai knives from his thigh holster and threw them, ring end first, at the G-Gnomes. He wouldn't allow Desmond to re-assert his mental control over Superboy and it was about time Guardian was freed from this place.
As soon as the G-Gnome fell from his shoulder, Desmond realized something was wrong. This was confirmed when Guardian started speaking
"What's going on? It's like a fog's clearing from my head."
Shinobi dropped from the ceiling and appeared at his side. "We can talk about that later, right now we've gotta get those three out of their pods and get outta here!" Guardian looked at Shinobi and nodded, he pushed his way past Desmond and the other scientist to the control console for the pods.
"No! Dammit, no!" Desmond picked up one of the errant G-Gnomes and tried to shove onto Superboy's shoulder. "You belong to me!"
Superboy pushed him into a wall. "I don't belong to anyone!" He cracked his knuckles and advanced on Desmond before he felt a hand fall on his shoulder. He looked back to see it belonged to Shinobi.
"You wanna meet the big guy don't you? You wanna meet Superman? So let's get outta here. This guy's gonna get what's coming to him."
Superboy stared at him long and hard before he nodded. With the other three teens released from their pods and Guardian freed from Desmond's telepathic control, they were ready to leave. As they were leaving through the door they heard Desmond fire a parting shot.
"This isn't over! You'll never get out of here! I'll have you back in pods by morning." He picked up his G-Gnome and used it to communicate telepathically with every scientist and Genomorph in the underground lab. "Activate every genomorph in Cadmus... and release Project Deadman."
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As the group was running through the halls, they saw the weird egg-like projections on the organic walls start to glow red.
"They're activating all the genomorphs in this place. Shinobi can you do that clone trick of yours? Try to buy us some time so I can lead us out of here." Guardian may have been under telepathic control for who knows how long, but he still had intimate knowledge of the layout of this place. Shinobi nodded and set about creating a mass of thirty shadow clones to keep the freshly hatching genomorphs off their backs. That didn't do much about the large mammoth like creatures that were blocking the path to the front, though. Everyone quickly dodged passed them, but Superboy had a different tactic.
With a beastial yell, Superboy jumped forward and started laying a royal smackdown on his genomorph brothers. The ferocity of his punches and the size of his opponents sent tremors running through the whole complex.
"Superboy! The goal is to escape! Not to bury ourselves here!" Aqualad had a point. If it kept up like this, the whole place would collapse onto their heads.
With another roar of anger, Superboy picked up one of the downed mammoth genomorphs and threw it at two others. With his anger vented, Superboy and the group continued to make their way out of the underground lab while Shinobi's cadre of clones was busy delaying any forces from behind.
"These lower levels have no stairway access. We have to find an elevator shaft and get to a level above thirty," Guardian explained as they ran down another hallway. Eventually they came to an elevator entrance, which Aqualad quickly forced open. Robin shot his grapple gun upwards at the opposite wall, grabbed Kid Flash, and started ascending the elevator shaft. Before Guardian could protest, Shinobi grabbed him in a fireman's carry and jumped to the opposite wall and began to run up it. Superboy took Aqualad and flew up the shaft.
Flew until he began to fall. "I-I'm falling!" They fell only a few levels before one of Robin's birdarangs was embedded into the wall and Aqualad caught it to halt their descent. "Superman can fly. Why can't I fly?"
"Don't know, but it looks like you can leap tall buildings in a single bound! Still cool," Kid Flash said encouragingly before pulling him down to the thin ledge that marked sublevel fifteen. Before anything else could be said on the subject, there was a loud noise and they looked up to see the elevator coming down very quickly. Superboy punched in the doors that led out into the sublevel and they escaped the elevator shaft as the elevator itself rocketed passed their previous position.
They were being approached by another slew of genomorphs from the left before Guardian started leading them to the stairwell. When they opened the door to the stairwell, the group was greeted by the sight of even more genomorphs coming at them from above and below.
Kid Flash quickly started running up the stairway, knocking the genomorphs blocking his path aside like bowling pins, while Shinobi created a large Rasengan in his hand and used it to destroy the stairs leading down. With the way cleared of more genomorphs they made good time up the stairs to sublevel one, where the encountered a new problem in the form of a giant, several-foot-thick door. Superboy and Aqualad tried to pry it open with their superior strength but it was no use.
Robin's holographic interface materialized above his glove again but he said, "I can't hack this fast enough."
"I'll make sure you have enough time!" Shinobi exclaimed. He put his hands together in a cross shaped seal and in a giant cloud of smoke thirty clones appeared before him. The clones immediately charged at the genomorphs that had been approaching from behind, but before combat could commence the horns on all the genomes started to glow red and immediately all the clones poofed out of existence. Shinobi could barely register his surprise at his clones being decimated so easily before he felt a foreign presence in his was a sharp pain in his head and soon he was collapsed with the rest of the group.
The humanoid genomorph from before walked to the forefront of the mob of genomorphs, his large horns also glowing. He and Superboy seemed to have a mental conversation, before the pain in Shinobi's mind subsided and he regained control of his faculties. He was certain if Kurama was in any state to do so, he would have rebuffed that mental attack before it even started.
As the rest of the group came to their senses, Superboy said, "I choose freedom."
"I think not. My weapon won't just walk away so easily. Project Blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus, and Project Deadman will show the rest of you genomorphs exactly what your place is: under me! SOLOMON!" After he said his piece, Desmond took the vial he was holding and downed the contents in one gulp. The effects were immediate. He doubled over in apparent pain before his muscles started bulging and increasing in size. His size increased to the point where his clothes were torn off and his skin followed soon after, revealing the grey-skinned, red-eyed, massive creature inside. When the transformation was complete, Desmond, now Blockbuster, let out a beastial roar.
That roar seemed to be a signal for another peculiar series of events to start. First there was a loud rhythmic stomping sound. Soon it was joined by a deep voice that was just short of a roar itself.
"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday. Christened on Tuesday, and married on Wednesday. Took ill on Thursday, grew worse on Friday. Died on Saturday, and buried on Sunday. That was the end..." The wall to the right of the group exploded and out of the smoke came something worse than Blockbuster. "OF SOLOMON GRUNDY!"
In the dust and rubble of what was once a wall stood a veritable giant of a man. He was easily ten feet tall and half as wide, with white skin and hair, body covered in the tattered remains of a black suit many sizes too small. This was Project Deadman.
Shinobi snapped into action immediately and charged at the greater threat. "You guys take the scientist, I'll handle little Solomon here!" He shoved a quickly formed Rasengan into Grundy's gut. Grundy was pushed back a step or two, but was left largely unaffected. He had felt no pain and the spiral signature of the Rasengan was ignored by the undead behemoth. Shinobi knew that this was going to take a little more effort than his usual fights.
He quickly made a larger Rasengan in an attempt to create space for himself, but Grundy just caught it in his massive hand as easily as catching a baseball. He held it, showing no signs of pain, until his immense strength won out, the Rasengan bursting and his grip closed on Shinobi's arm. This was going to hurt. With an enraged roar, Grundy threw Shinobi threw the ceiling and followed after him with a powerful jump, widening the hole created by the ninja's body.
Shinobi had bounced off the ceiling and landed in a groaning heap on the ground in a large room that served as an atrium for what the public knew as Project Cadmus. He stood up in a shaky manner, before he shook himself off and strengthened his resolve. Grundy wanted to play rough, so it was time to play rough. First, he needed some room. A quickly formed Odama Rasengan to the outer wall opened a sizable hole into the parking lot. Night had fallen; the lot and the street adjacent to it were deserted except for a few cars parked here and there. A perfect place for him to let loose a little.
Project Deadman followed him through the hole in the wall, making it twice as large in the process, and was met by Shinobi standing in the empty parking lot, undoing the weights on his wrists and ankles. Now was not the time for weighing himself down. The weights dropped onto the asphalt and cracks spiderwebbed out from where each had fallen. "Let's do this, tiny! I ain't got all night!"
Grundy rose to the challenge and began to charge, only for his target to disappear and reappear in front of him, foot firmly planted in his face. "Dynamic entry! There's more where that came from, so come on!"
Solomon raised his hand and brought it down upon his target, only to discover he wasn't there anymore. Shinobi reappeared a ways away, hand out and fingers curling inwards in a beckoning gesture. The fight was on.
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They had been doing this for a few minutes now and even though Grundy couldn't land a hit, nothing Shinobi did seemed to have any effect whatsoever. He was doing damage as was obvious by Grundy's many wounds, but the giant man didn't feel any pain. He needed to hit him harder, a scary prospect considering the massive force he was already putting behind every hit. Or perhaps harder wasn't the answer. Kakashi had taught him only a few lightning based jutsu in their last year training together. Lightning based jutsu had the uncanny ability to cause pain in even the toughest opponent. It was settled then, Shinobi went through five quick hand seals and afterwards his hands crackled with electricity. The Lightning Hands technique would allow him to shock Grundy's nervous system directly with every hit. And if this didn't work, he would have to resort to more lethal measures.
Shinobi disappeared once again and reappeared with his electrified fist in Grundy's gut. The walking monolith finally showed some sign of being affected by something he did. Grundy's roar of rage only drew more furious punches to his midsection, but Shinobi had underestimated his resilience and Grundy managed to smack him away like so much rubbish. Shinobi rolled to his feet and dropped his Lightning Hands Technique. He was on the right track, but it wasn't enough.
He rocketed through another set of hand seals and announced the name of his technique, "Raijū Hashiri no Jutsu!" A large beast made of lightning emerged from his left hand and ran towards Grundy. This was one of Kakashi's own unique jutsu. The beast would remain connected to his hand, limiting his jutsu use as long as he wanted to keep it active and in control, but it also provided the benefit of allowing him to pump as much of his power as he need into the beast to get the job done. It had been hard to learn, considering he had no affinity for lightning release, but it was paying off now. The beast had latched onto one of Solomon Grundy's extremely thick wrists and was sending a constant electrical current running through his giant body and wreaking havoc on his nervous system.
With Grundy off balance, Shinobi went in for the kill. Another dynamic entry dropped Grundy onto his back. He jumped onto the downed man's chest and started laying haymaker punches on his face, creating cracks and eventually a small crater in the asphalt under it. This was it, Grundy was on the ropes, one more big hit would do it. Shinobi allowed the lightning beast to disperse and blurred through yet another series of hand seals. "Raiton: Hiraishin!" When he was finished he held his hand up to the sky and a second later a bolt came down and struck it. The lightning was conducted through Shinobi's body and into the downed giant.
With a final roar of pain, Solomon Grundy was defeated.
Shinobi breathed a sigh of satisfaction. It wasn't nearly on the level of his fight Tobi, but it was a fun fight, if not very challenging. It seemed to him the people (excepting a certain few) in this reality weren't very strong so it was a surprise to find someone who could stand up to his hits for so long, even if he wasn't using Sage Mode or Kurama's chakra. He patted the giant on his head and said, "That was pretty fun, big guy. Rest up and maybe we'll get to do this again some day."
"That's all you have to say about that?! You just took that guy out single-handed! And it was fun?" It seemed the group had managed to defeat the Blockbuster creature and here they were now, battered and bruised with their clothing tattered, but still whole. Kid Flash was the one who had spoken and Shinobi answered.
"Well, yeah. It was fun. Usually I have to hold back so much, but this guy, he could take it. I only get this kinda rush when I'm sparring against Superman." At that Superboy stepped up, leaving Kid Flash to his own speechlessness.
"You know Superman? Can you introduce me to him?" He desperately wanted to meet the man who he'd been meant to replace.
"Well, yeah, I guess, but-"
"Shinobi!" And there he was now, the Man of Steel was swooping down upon them, the moon providing a suitably dramatic backdrop. It seemed the entire Justice League was following behind him.
"See? I'll do you one better and introduce you to the whole gang." Shinobi laid his hand on Superboy's shoulder, but it was quickly brushed off and the clone started walking towards Superman. He stopped in front of him and pulled on a piece of his torn solar suit to reveal the large red 'S' on the front framed by a diamond.
Superman's eyes widened and Batman leaned in towards him and asked, "Is that what I think it is?"
Kid Flash came to Superboy's defense. "He doesn't like being called an it."
"I'm Superman's clone!" And just like that, the secret was out. The League shared looks of surprise and discomfort and Batman narrowed his eyes and gave one order.
"Start talking."
A/N: This is as good a place to stop as any, considering the rest of the episode is some quite dry dialogue that I can quickly gloss over in the beginning of the next chapter. I think the next one will likely deal with a unique solo adventure for Naruto, that will lead into his helping Kurama much further down the road. I didn't want to show the Blockbuster fight 'cause it was so boring and nothing would have been added by Naruto's participation other than a quicker resolution. Also, regarding Kurama, Naruto can still access his power, much in the way he did when he first subdued him, but Kurama's consciousness is not there to give it willingly. He'll be back, but it won't be until much later. Well, I've got a final today, but my next one isn't until tuesday, so I'll try to get the next chapter out on the weekend.
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