Chapter 14
August 9th, 2010
"I had the boy right where I wanted him! The tide was turning!"
Deathstroke stood in a dark room, seven screens displaying seven figures obscured by a bright light were arranged in a semicircle before him.
"You had nothing. The boy was toying with you. You've reviewed the footage, you've seen what he did to L-7's demon, to L-7 himself, to you. Shinobi is more dangerous than you seem to give him credit for and your vendetta against him has become a burden on the Light." The figure on the central screen berated the mercenary. "The Light has plans for this boy that do not include your petty revenge and honorable duels with him. You were brought in to ensure the success of the mission, a task you have failed in twice now."
"I can beat him! He's nothing-"
"Nothing but an extremely powerful adversary who has defeated you twice and thwarted our plans more times than it is prudent for us to allow. The next time you are faced with this target, you will not be doing it alone."
Deathstroke grit his teeth and lowered his gaze. L-1 was right. He had lost sight of the endgame, his ultimate goal of gaining a seat on the council of the Light. The true depth of their plans for the world had not been made known to Deathstroke or any of their underlings quite yet, but he was certain he wanted to be one of the people calling the shots when they went into motion.
L-1 cleared his throat before continuing. "Now that we've settled that, we come to the matter of the serum you had the Gotham lab cook up for you. How would you describe the effects and any side-effects?"
Deathstroke hummed in consideration before answering. "My strength has been increased tenfold in addition to my already enhanced abilities. No notable increase in speed or reflexes. Marked increase in resilience. No side-effects made apparent other than the reddening of my eye. A good result, all things considered."
L-1 gave a hum of approval at the good news. "The council will discuss the possibility of mass producing this serum. You are dismissed, Slade."
Deathstroke nodded and walked out of the darkened room, the screens turning off abruptly as he made his exit.
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August 20, 2010
Naruto sat on the floor of the training room, leaning against the wall in a contemplative silence. In front of him Superboy and Koriand'r were having a friendly spar, although Naruto was too wrapped up in his own thoughts to pay them much attention.
The night before the team had been given orders to investigate the disappearance of one Kent Nelson. It had all been pretty routine if one discounted the fact that Artemis and Wally had argued throughout the whole mission, the team had gotten lost in an enchanted tower, and Wally had almost had his body taken over by some mysterious and powerful avatar of Fate. However, out of all of those things, only one had stuck in Naruto's mind: a few words spoken to him by the avatar of Fate while it was holding Kid Flash's body hostage.
"You hold a dark presence inside of you. Be careful to keep it under control."
It was a simple enough statement that was spoken in the Spirit's last moments of control over Wally's body, but it had chilled Naruto.
There was a being that could detect Kurama's presence as easily as Naruto himself could detect the direction of the wind. If it was so simple for the supernatural entity to detect Kurama, it stood to reason that more people might be able to.
"As if any of these hairless apes could stand up to our combined might to take my power."
"I'm not worried about us. People like those, people that would try to take your power, they're all the same. They hurt the people closest to you - to me - to try to take what's yours. And if they all work together, that might be a bigger problem than we can handle alone."
"Now they're working together? A larger than life conspiracy to take what's ours? And this lack of confidence? I've never known you to want for self-assurance or to be anything less than certain of your own abilities when compared to your enemies. Even when said abilities were less than impressive."
"You don't understand. That Deathstroke guy just managed to have a drug that increased his power so much on him? I'm not a genius or anything, but from what I've been told you don't just pick up that kind of stuff at the grocery store. Not only that. He was working with the Shadows. I've read his file. No former affiliations with any of their agents and minimal recorded contact, and those were just because they were going after the same target. People who go out of their way to avoid each other like that... they don't just team up out of the blue. I've got this feeling I can't put my finger on... Like things are escalating."
"Wow."
"What?"
"I'm just really surprised. That was so perceptive of you. I used to think it was a miracle that you could dress yourself in the mornings, but look at you now."
"You're such an asshole."
Naruto was drawn out of his thoughts by footsteps approaching his location. He looked to his left to see Artemis and Wally, clad in casual attire, walking his way.
"Hey. You just watching?" Artemis asked while nodding her head towards Superboy and Koriand'r who were still going at it.
Naruto shrugged as he climbed to his feet.
"Yeah. I can't be the only one that trains with Superboy. He'll never get anywhere if he only learns how to fight me."
"So... you guys are pretty close, huh?"
Naruto looked at Artemis with a raised eyebrow and she met his gaze steadily before continuing.
"What are his hobbies? Do you know what he likes in a girl? Just trying to know if I have a shot."
Wally palmed his face and muttered something under his breath and Naruto could only open and close his mouth in incredulity.
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August 25th, 2010
Naruto was taking a break from patrolling the Metropolis streets on a relatively low rooftop and enjoying a medianoche sandwich from a nearby Cuban deli that had been recommended to him, surprisingly, by Superboy. How the clone had even come to know of a such a place escaped Naruto, but he supposed even genetically engineered weapons had to eat. As he wiped his mouth, his ungloved hand came into contact with his smooth face.
The facial hair that he had been busily cultivating for the better part of a month had turned out to be disappointingly scraggly and he had been forced to shave it off after many protestations of its itchiness from Koriand'r.
As he enjoyed his sandwich and lamented the loss of his facial hair, Naruto took in the city traffic as it crawled on below him. Even at an hour approaching midnight, Metropolis was a lively hub of activity. People heading to night shift jobs, shiftless youth spending their evenings in night clubs, tourists taking the chance to explore the city at night, criminals heading towards their next score and a likely meeting with his fists. No matter what the reason, Metropolis never slept, not completely.
Naruto finished his sandwich and began to pull on his gloves when his attention was drawn to something out of the ordinary. A black van was speeding down the street, nosing its way between slower moving vehicles and doing its best impression of a racecar at the Indianapolis 500. It wasn't altogether strange that someone was rushing in Metropolis. However, it was concerning to see the driver's clear disregard for the rules of the road as he ran a red light and screeched around a corner and out of sight.
With a sigh Naruto pulled his mask into place and jumped onto the roof of the neighboring business and began to tail the black van that was conspicuously weaving its way through the not-quite-gridlocked Metropolis traffic.
"Why exactly are you chasing a reckless driver? The authorities can't handle this?"
"Gimme break. It's been a slow night. Let's just see where this goes."
Naruto heard Kurama release an explosive growling sigh before he quieted down and the ninja continued his pursuit.
Thankfully the van didn't go far before it reached its destination. It pulled up in front of a building that was ordinary in every way except for the fact that there was a plaque stuck to the left of the double doors reading "Metropolis Institute of Scientific and Paranormal Research". The name of the building meant nothing to Naruto, but it certainly meant something to the occupants of the black van. It was parked there for only a few moments before he saw the doors on either side roll open and four individuals piled out. They were all dressed in black paramilitary outfits and black balaclavas were pulled over their heads. Each figure was well armed, all of them carrying automatic rifles and holstered sidearms, and an assortment of grenades clipped to their tactical vests.
The soldiers, for Naruto could only assume that was what they were, stacked up on the front doors to the building while one went to work picking the lock. It seemed like all civilians on the street had wisely decided to clear out and, Naruto guessed, called the cops. Naruto put a finger to his ear and tried to activate his communicator to inform anyone of the situation but found that a call would not go out. It seemed like he would have to deal with this situation alone.
Naruto waited for the men to open the doors and walk into the building before jumping off of his perch on an adjacent rooftop. He crept up on the driver's side of the van and before the occupant could register what was happening the ninja had pulled him out through the window and dropped him on his front to the unforgiving asphalt while wrenching his left arm behind him at a painful angle.
"Tricky little situation you find yourself in, huh?"
The man didn't respond but Naruto could see his jaw moving under the balaclava that obscured his features. Naruto pulled the mask off and was greeted to a white foam dribbling out of the man's mouth through his clenched teeth.
"What the hell?"
Naruto flipped the man onto his back and shook him slightly as he saw the light leave his eyes.
"This guy just killed himself. What the fuck?"
"Perhaps you scared him to death?"
Naruto grunted as he checked the man for any sort of identification. He found none and gave it up for a lost cause. Whoever he was, the man had been dead set on not being caught or identified. Having reached a dead end with the suicidal drive, Naruto decided that his best bet would likely be the men that had already entered the building. That is if they didn't kill themselves at the sight of him as well.
Naruto passed by the front of the van, absentmindedly driving a kunai into both of the front tires as he went.
Naruto entered the building and was confronted by a lobby with a pair of metal detectors at one end and a security room next to them which looked out at the lobby through what Naruto guessed was bulletproof glass. As he approached the metal detectors, Naruto discovered that the men had disabled them via several well placed gunshots and had moved on. Naruto followed their trail, which wasn't very hard because the men had not exactly tried to conceal their presence. Their boots left scuff marks on the floor, motivational posters hung along the walls were skewed slightly by their passing. No, they had not made their trail hard to follow at all.
Naruto followed them to the second floor of the building and to the closed door of an what was likely an office. Naruto pressed his ear to the door and could hear them shuffling about inside, although what they were doing was anyone's guess.
Naruto's hands flashed into a cross-shaped hand seal and a shadow clone appeared next to him in a small puff of smoke. Naruto pressed himself against the wall to the left of the door as the clone squared up in front of it. At Naruto's nod, the clone kicked the door in and entered the room. In less than a second Naruto heard the sound of suppressed gunfire and he received the memories of his short-lived clone. There were two men on either side of the door and one was taking cover behind a desk while the fourth was working on a large safe that had apparently been concealed by some sort of portrait.
"Time to go to work."
Naruto shoved his hand through the wall he had been pressed against and pulled the soldier that had been taking cover against it on the other side through. He immediately pulled him to the side as gunfire filled the newly made hole. Quickly laying a punch on the man's temple, Naruto removed what he recognized as a stun grenade from the man's vest, pulled the pin, and tossed it into the room. He waited for the bang and jumped through hole shortly after.
Naruto threw a Kunai at the man posted to the side of the doorway first. It struck him in the hand and the man lost his grip on his weapon. Turning to the man that had been taking cover behind the desk, Naruto closed the distance in a blur of speed, kicking the desk and driving it and the man who had been in the process of standing from behind it to take a shot at him into the wall behind it. He grabbed the now pinned man's weapon and turned to the final combatant who was turning away from the safe, raising his pistol in preparation to fire. Naruto threw his procured weapon, stock first, and nailed the man in the face and he stumbled backwards into the wall and slid down it into a seated position, presumably unconscious.
Letting out a breath Naruto walked over to the man who had been posted beside the door. His weapon had fallen to the floor when Naruto's kunai had pierced his hand. Now he was standing there, his hands up in a sign of surrender. Naruto approached him and pushed him into the wall before speaking.
"Who are you guys and what were you looking for here?"
"They said we wouldn't meet you until we were ready," the man responded in a monotone voice.
"Who's they? What the hell were you people doing here and why did the guy outside kill himself?"
"They said we weren't ready yet. I think we're ready."
"What the fuck are you talking about? Who's they."
Growing frustrated, Naruto pulled the man's balaclava off and was shocked at the sight that greeted him. It was his own face, down to the smallest detail, however lacking Naruto's own whisker birthmarks. He also noticed for the first time that its eyes were a deep red color.
"What the fuck?"
"We're definitely ready."
Naruto was so taken aback that he didn't see the apparent clone of him rearing its head back and headbutting him in the nose. He heard a horrible cracking sound and his mask was quickly suffused with blood. Naruto stumbled back, against the desk that was pinning one of the men to the wall as the clone of him walked over. Naruto pulled off his mask as the clone approached and pushed off of the desk squaring up and getting ready for a fight. That is until the desk behind him impacted against him and threw him off balance.
Naruto looked back and found another red-eyed clone walking towards him. His eyes snapped to the safecracker he had put down to see that he had also pulled off his balaclava, revealing a third clone. Finally, his eyes turned to the doorway, where the fourth clone was entering.
"What the fuck is going on here?!"
"Someone's been busy. It seems someone is trying to take your power. Or at least replicate it. I think gratuitous violence and overwhelming force is the only only appropriate answer to this new development."
With a roar of anger, Naruto charged the clone that was coming through the doorway. He tackled the clone by the midsection and they both flew through the wall outside of the office. When they landed, Naruto straddled the clone before he could regain his bearings. He gathered as much chakra into his arms as he could and proceeded to beat the clone's head into the ground.
After the third punch, the floor gave way, dropping Naruto and the clone to the first floor, into the lobby at the entrance of the building. The clone's face was caved in and Naruto knew for certain that it was dead.
Naruto stood up and looked up to the hole in the ceiling to see the remaining three clones standing there, one holding a fragmentation grenade in his hand. He pulled the pin and dropped the grenade. It impacted next to the dead clone's body and rolled a foot or two before coming to rest. Thinking fast, Naruto kicked the dead clone's body onto the grenade before retreating to a safe distance.
The body was blown into the air a ways before it landed on its back. The clone's caved in face was now accompanied by a ruined torso. Naruto didn't have much time to take it in as the remaining clones dropped through the hole in the ceiling and landed next to the remains of their dead brother.
Naruto decided not to let them take the initiative and closed the distance with a blur. He knocked the clone standing in the middle out of the building with a flying knee to the chest that would have sent any normal person's ribs and sternum flying out the back of their body. The clone flew through the still open double doors and impacted the van parked on the street outside.
Naruto couldn't admire his handy work as the other two went on the offensive. They moved in perfect synchronization, throwing a flurry of punches that Naruto was hard pressed to dodge. This continued for a few moments before Naruto decided he had had enough. His form flooded with golden chakra and now Naruto was on the offensive. Naruto's golden chakra cloak materialized two more hands that dealt with the clone on his left, blocking kicks and punches as the ninja turned his attention to the other clone. The clone swung around, attempting a roundhouse kick aimed at the ninja's midsection. Naruto allowed the kick to land before trapping the leg with his right arm against his side. A look of surprise flashed across the clone's face before Naruto turned and brought his elbow down against the side of the clone's knee, causing it to bend at a sickening angle with an equally sickening pop.
Naruto turned back around to see that the two arms made of chakra had pinned the final clone to a wall and held him there by his wrists.
"That was quick, you haven't lost a step."
"Of course I haven't."
As Naruto approached the clone, two more arms materialized from his chest and held the clone's thrashing legs against the wall. Naruto looked it in the eye as he unholstered the clone's sidearm and a fifth arm materialized to turn its head to the side. Naruto pressed the muzzle of the pistol against the clone's ear and pulled the trigger.
The golden cloak of energy receded and dissipated into nothing as the clone fell to the ground, like a puppet with its strings cut. Naruto turned to the clone with the broken leg and dispatched of him in much the same way. before dropping the gun on the ground. He made a cross-shaped seal and two shadow clones appeared on either side of him.
"Gather the bodies and burn them."
Naruto walked out of the open double doors to find the final clone still embedded into the side of the van. He felt its pulse and found that it was unconscious and not dead. With a grunt of effort, Naruto pulled the clone from the side of the van and onto his shoulders.
As he prepared to leave, Naruto heard the clone's weak voice rasp out, "I thought we were ready."
"You thought wrong." It was disturbing for Naruto to realize that if nothing else the clones had been bred with his same overconfidence, if not the power and skill that backed it up.
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Naruto realigned his broken nose with a sickening crack and a hiss of pain. Batman turned from where he had been inspecting the unconscious clone and barely spared him a glance before turning back to his work.
After his startling discovery and the ensuing fight, Naruto had returned to Mount Justice with the unconscious clone via the nearest zeta-beam-teleporter. When he arrived, he had immediately placed a call to Batman, he being the only person Naruto knew who could make sense of this clone business. Batman had arrived a few minutes later, Robin in tow, and the commotion had brought Kaldur, Koriand'r, M'gann, and Superboy from their rooms to see what was going on.
"Jesus, doesn't that hurt?" Robin asked, as Koriand'r doted over Naruto, trying to nurse him back to health with worrisome hands and good intentions.
"Yeah, it really does," said Naruto while pulling Koriand'r into a hug in an effort to get her to stop touching his tender face.
"You mentioned that there was more than one?" Aqualad asked.
"Yeah, four of 'em."
"What happened to them?" Superboy asked. There was a tone of suspicion in his voice. Being that he was a clone himself, it was understandable that he might be concerned for the fate of others like himself.
"They broke my nose and got away." Naruto felt a tingle of guilt as he lied to his friends.
Superboy's eyes lingered on him for a moment more before he nodded in silent acceptance.
It seemed they were ready to continue their impromptu interrogation, but Batman's arrival had put a damper on that.
"Megan, why don't we all go and we can help you bake some cookies."
M'gann's eyes brightened and she dragged Koriand'r from Naruto's embrace while Aqualad led Superboy away with a hand thrown around his shoulder.
As soon as the rest of the team had left the room Batman called out, "Analysis." A cylinder rose from the ground a short ways away and Batman produced a vial of what Naruto assumed was the clone's blood and placed it into a receptacle in the cylinder. He produced a needle and motioned for Naruto to hold out his arm, which he did. Batman placed this vial of blood into another identical receptacle in the cylinder.
As the cylinder retracted into the ground again, Batman asked some questions of his own.
"Did the other clones really get away?"
"No." It was hardly ever a good idea to lie to Batman, and Naruto hadn't exactly tried to cover his tracks after dealing with the clones.
"What happened to them?"
"They're taken care of."
Batman turned and looked Naruto in the eye with a penetrating gaze. Naruto returned his gaze unflinchingly and they remained that way for something nearing a full minute before the computer announced that the analysis was complete.
A holographic display appeared next to Batman and he turned to inspect the results.
"One hundred percent match. Definitely a clone."
"Thanks for that..." Naruto retorted in a voice dripping with sarcasm. If Batman had noticed, he didn't acknowledge it.
"It's been enhanced. Some sort of chemical compound present in its cells. Metabolized but not disposed of as waste." Batman hummed in thought before speaking once more. "Computer, send this data to the Batcave." He turned to leave before Naruto stopped him.
"Is that it, you're leaving? There's a clone of me sitting right there and possibly more out there!"
"You said you took care of the others. The League will handle this from here." Batman stopped by the unconscious clone, picking it up and carrying it away with watched his retreating back with frustration.
"Why did I even bother calling this guy. Of course he was gonna shut me out."
"That's never stopped you before. Conduct your own investigation, get to the bottom of this."
"Looks like I'm gonna have to."
With his course of action decided, Naruto walked towards the kitchen to join his friends in whatever they were doing.
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"Another resounding failure. All four weapons have been disabled, three confirmed dead, another presumed. Surveillance footage recovered from inside the building shows that Shinobi was responsible."
"And the driver?"
"Dead as well. Cyanide capsule, as ordered. I have to say, I didn't predict Shinobi's willingness to kill. Perhaps he can be turned."
"Not if he finds out the Light was responsible for these clones. You saw his rage at the sight of them. And if he took one of them, how long will it be before one of the Martians searches through its mind?"
"It has only been conscious for three days, it doesn't know the location of the facility, and it knows none of the specifics of our organization. The Light will prevail."
"And the book they were sent to retrieve?"
"Put a call in to the Shadows. They'll likely need to retrieve it from police lockup if it was taken as evidence."
A/N: The plot thickens. Naruto kills some fools! What's the book the Light is after? An army of Kobra-Venom Naruto clones? Oh my! I'm taking this in a different direction from the original Starro-tech angle, if anyone hadn't noticed. So... yeah. Also, if anyone's mad at me about the clones, it's not just a singular dark Naruto with his abilities, like I promised it would not be. It's several much less powerful clones that the light is enhancing with the hopes of unlocking the secret of Naruto's power and using them for grunt work in the meantime. Until next time.