Chapter 15

September 4th, 2010

"Nothing yet?"

Naruto sighed in frustration as his meditative state was broken for the fourth time in an hour.

"Nothing. It would help if I knew who I was looking for."

"I've described them to you-"

"Yeah, you've said a lot of things. You say I'm on a team, that these are my friends, that I have an alien girlfriend, but why can't I remember any of them?!"

Naruto was sat on a sand dune in an unknown desert. The full moon hung in the sky above him and the sand below him continued for miles around, with no end in sight. If Naruto hadn't known better he might have thought he was in Suna.

"I can keep explaining this to you, or you can take my word for it. One of these psychics entered your mind and erased the last six months of your memory."

"And you couldn't stop them?"

Naruto could hear Kurama's exasperation in his mind. "Whoever it was, they didn't use the usual channels. They... piggybacked on an existing connection. Probably the mental link you all insist on sharing with the alien girl."

"My alien girlfriend?"

"The other one."

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "You mean the second alien woman in my life. Right," Naruto thought sarcastically. Kurama gave no more response, so Naruto resumed his meditation with a sigh, desperately trying to find any sign of life in the desert around him. He was pleasantly surprised when he finally found one. It was moving in his general direction with impressive speed. Naruto opened his eyes to scan the horizon. In the distance he saw sand being kicked up. Whatever was causing this disturbance was moving in leaps and bounds, each cloud of sand being kicked up over a hundred meters apart by his estimation.

Naruto stood from the dune and dusted his legs off. He released his hold on his Sage Mode and felt the energy of nature leaving him; he could navigate by sight from here on out. Whatever it was that was moving through the desert so quickly was definitely not trying to cover its tracks. The plumes of sand told Naruto that the target's trajectory would take it a kilometer or so to his left, so he set off on a course to intercept it. He vanished in a blur of speed and when he reappeared, he was in a cloud of sand. Temporarily blinded, Naruto heard a definitely masculine grunt of exertion as whoever it was jumped away again. The sand settled and Naruto saw a dark figure moving through the air. It landed and jumped once more, continuing its journey to parts unknown, with Naruto trailing behind, content to observe from a distance for a bit.

Naruto followed his target for a few minutes and considered making his presence known before a flash of green light appeared half a kilometer to the east. The figure he'd been tailing seemed to notice it just as quickly as Naruto himself and immediately set a course for it. He didn't know what its purpose was, but the figure seemed to be working solely on instinct as he approached the source of the green light.

As they got closer Naruto could make out what was definitely another person standing in a nondescript patch of desert. As Naruto watched, the person gathered a mass of bright green energy in its hands. With the aid of the new light source Naruto managed to catch a glimpse of the person's features before a massive spike of pain lanced through his head and he fell to his knees.

His eyes were screwed shut, but Naruto's vision was filling with a blinding white light. The pain in his head rose to a fever pitch; it reached crescendo of agony and then his world became black.

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When Naruto became aware of himself, he was seated in a dark room. He looked down and could feel someone holding his hand. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but Naruto could only guess it was a woman that was holding it. He certainly hoped so, considering how soft the hand was and how mortifying it would be if that soft hand belonged to a man.

Suddenly and without warning, the room was illuminated by a giant screen on one of the walls. The illumination of the screen was followed by the booming bass of a massive sound system. Naruto decided to take advantage whatever illumination he could get and looked around. He cast a glance to his right, trying to see who was clutching his hand so tightly. It was a woman, orange skinned with auburn hair. She turned to him and flashed him a dazzling smile that Naruto couldn't help but return. He turned back to the screen and settled in to watch. Whatever this was couldn't be so bad if he had a beautiful woman by his side.

"Kori's gonna love this. It's impossible that she won't, what with all that TV she watches."

It took him a second to realize that the woman's name had popped into his mind by itself. He was about to ask her why they were here, why he knew her name and what was going on, but he was stopped by the fact that he recognized the image on the screen. It was a excerpt from his own life. He was sparring with someone, a teenager with black hair and blue eyes. Immediately the scene changed, and the him that was on screen was now facing the same teenager, asleep in some sort of pod. At his sides were three other teenagers. As he recognized one of them, the tallest one with blonde hair and dark skin - Kaldur'ahm was his name - the scene changed again. It kept happening faster and faster and before long Naruto was becoming aware of more parts of his own life. Memories kept appearing, fitting into their proper spots in his mind. He watched for what seemed like hours before finally the screen darkened again.

In the center of the monolithic display there appeared a golden logo, over the top of which was written, in equally golden letters, Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Naruto recognized this logo. A lion would appear in the center, roar grandly, and finally the motion picture would begin. However, a lion didn't appear. What did was a red eyed fox.

"Kurama?"

"It's time to go now, Naruto." The fox reached out of the screen and plucked him from his seat.

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Naruto was immediately aware of the fact that he had an ungodly amount of sand in his mouth. He pushed himself onto his hands and knees, spitting and sputtering in an attempt to get the sand out of his mouth. As he regained his feet, Naruto glanced around at the once again barren desert he was in. The sun was an hour or two from setting over the western horizon and Koriand'r and Superboy had long since gone, the victor of their impromptu scuffle left unclear. He inspected the scene of their confrontation and apart from the patches of glass left over from Koriand'r's energy blasts, there was no sign to point him in an direction that they two might have gone.

Naruto sighed in frustration before turning his thoughts inward. "Back to square one, I guess."

"At least you have your memories back."

"That's one good thing. About that... how did that happen?"

"When you saw her your mind reacted, you recognized her, even if you didn't understand why or from where. Recognition was your subconscious mind's way of trying to connect her image with a previous memory, for a split second this revealed one of the memories the psychic hid from your conscious mind. I... sort of pulled on it like a string. I was improvising."

Naruto felt what must have been the mental of equivalent of Kurama shrugging. He turned his attention back to the setting sun. "Looks like I've been out for most of the day. There are no tracks to follow. I don't suppose you somehow kept track of where they went?"

"I see what you see, and I was a little busy trying to put your brain back together."

Naruto hummed in disappointment before creating three clones. "Back to the basics. Each of you pick a direction, I'll take east. Run for ten miles or until you find something. Anything that might point to signs of life. If you find anything pop, if you don't... well just pop anyway."

Two of the clones saluted before setting off, one going north and the other south. The final clone looked hesitant to follow orders but a sharp look from Naruto seemed to make the decision for it. It hastily turned around and started running west.

"Thought so," said Naruto before he set off on an easterly heading.

"Hopefully we can find Superboy before something terrible happens to him."

"He's invulnerable and super strong. What's the worst that could happen to him?"

"You said this psychic erased six months of my memories. It stands to reason that he did the same to the rest of the team. Superboy didn't exist six months ago. He's gotta be acting on pure animal instinct or he wouldn't have attacked Kori like he did. I've gotta find him before he hurts a teammate or worse."

A rumbling hum of agreement reverberated through Naruto's mind and the conversation was over. He continued to run for a few minutes, setting a good pace of ninety miles per hour, and scanning the horizon for signs of life. After seven miles Naruto's mouth was as dry as the desert around him. After eight his stomach was rumbling up a storm. Extended missions had never been a rarity in the Elemental Nations, but the last time Naruto had eaten was before his memory wipe and he'd been unconscious for an indeterminate amount of time afterwards followed by another bout of unconsciousness lasting over twelve hours when he regained his memories. He'd lost track of how long he'd been in the Bialyan Desert, but it was definitely greater than thirty hours, probably closer to forty-eight.

Naruto reached the tenth mile with nary a sign of life any direction. He doubled over to catch his breath.

"I can't keep going like this. I need food, water at least. Forget finding Superboy and the rest, if I don't find water, we're liable to die in this desert."

Kurama began to reply, but Naruto's attention was taken away by a sharp whistling sound. A quick scan of the area around him didn't reveal the culprit. He looked up as the whistling grew louder and could barely make out a dark colored object falling out of the sky directly towards his position. His eyes narrowed as he tried to make it out. As it got closer he could tell that it was olive green in color and shaped like an ellipse tapered at both ends. Naruto's eyes widened as he recognized the object as a mortar shell. His form blurred with speed, but he didn't make it far before the shell impacted the ground and exploded.

The force of the explosion knocked Naruto off of his feet and he was sent rolling a short distance. Naruto kipped up to his feet, and scanned the horizon. To the north he could make out the silhouette of two vehicles.

"I bet those guys have water, probably food too. Maybe you should go solicit a donation."

"Good idea."

Naruto's formed blurred into motion as he set off towards his new targets. His attackers, who were likely Bialyan, seemed to have grown wise to his plan and opened fire with automatic weapons. Naruto altered his course to a serpentine pattern. It was unlikely that the soldiers could hit him but taking evasive action would make it much less likely that a lucky shot would end up taking a chunk out of his body, even if this was almost twice as slow as approaching in a straight line.

Nearly halfway to the target, one of the shooters seemed to grow wise to his strategy and began firing ahead of Naruto's predictable path. One shot came too close for comfort and the ninja decided evasive action had lost it's use. He turned directly towards the target and blurred into motion as he prepared to cover the remaining distance in a burst of speed that would make him nearly invisible to the eyes of the attackers.

He didn't make it even twenty feet before a bullet ripped through his left shoulder, shredding a hole in his kevlar suit as if the words bullet-resistant meant absolutely nothing. Naruto's shoulder was jerked backwards as the rest of his body fought to keep moving forward; the result was that he tumbled to the ground, rolling end over end for what felt like a great distance. He rolled to a stop facing the sky, too shocked to do much more than lay there.

Naruto's shoulder was on fire; his clavicle was definitely broken, and he wouldn't be surprised if the bullet took a chunk of his shoulder blade with it on its way out of his body. He was very aware of the sand filling both sides of his wound as his vision was filled by four men, all pointing large guns in face.

As they screamed at him to surrender in Arabic, Kurama spoke to him in his head.

"Quite a pickle you've gotten yourself into. I thought Batman told you this suit was resistant to those weapons - guns."

"I think... I was moving too fast. The bullet was moving fast and so was I. I dunno, I'm no physicist. Fuck this hurts! Great plan! 'Let's go steal their food, Naruto. We'll take their food and it'll be sunshine and daisies and fucking buttercups.' ... I hate you.'

"I just give you the ideas, how you execute them - well, that's not my department. Now, you'd better do something, I think they're quite relishing the thought of killing you."

The men were still yelling in Arabic and Naruto could understand them calling him every foul name under the sun. He raised his right hand slowly in the universal sign of surrender and glee seemed to fill the eyes of the soldiers.

"The mistress will reward us greatly for defeating this one," one of the soldiers said to the others.

Naruto tuned them and surveyed the surroundings. He was in between the two vehicles he had spotted on the horizon. They seemed to be military humvees, each equipped with a turret. Milling about next to one were four more soldiers, seemingly chatting with each other now that the threat was neutralized. The ninja turned his attention back to his immediate surroundings as one of the soldiers pulled him to his feet by his bad arm. A scream of pain came barreling out of his mouth before he could stop it and the soldiers seemed to find mirth in his pain. Naruto would show them pain.

As he regained his feet, Naruto turned to the solder that had pulled him up, raised his left foot and brought it crashing down on the soldier's right foot. The sickening sound of crunching bone echoed out followed immediately by the man's screams. The next soldier nearest him began to bring his gun to bear before a clone popped into existence in front of him, ripping the weapon out of his hands before breaking the man's thumbs. While the soldiers were distracted with his clone, Naruto dived behind one of the humvees.

It wasn't long before the sound of gunfire rang out and his clone was popped, but by that point Naruto had already made ten more. The clones, handicapped as they were in the same manner Naruto was, made quick work of the soldiers, breaking bones liberally. Eventually, when only the sounds of pained moaning remained Naruto walked out from around the humvee. He approached one of the soldiers and kicked him right in his broken foot, eliciting a yelp.

"What happened? You were laughing before, weren't you? I thought pain was hilarious. You don't seem to think so anymore." Naruto kicked him in the foot once more for good measure. "Asshole. Laugh your ass all the way to a shitty desert hospital, why dontcha." Naruto kicked the soldier to get him to turn over ignoring his muttering and moaning. He pilfered a canteen that was strapped to his belt. "I'm gonna take this. In fact, gimme your pants too."

"Feeling a little vindictive are we?"

"It's my new rule: any asshole that shoots me loses his pants."

"Fair enough."

With a canteen and a pair of pants procured Naruto plopped down on the soldier's back. He opened the canteen and took a long swig before pouring some on both sides of his large wound. He then made a clone and they set about cutting the legs off of the soldier's pants. Afterwards, Naruto had the clone help him wrap the pants leg around his wound, creating a makeshift bandage. They managed well even if they only had one good arm each. Next he used the other pants leg to make a sling into which he deposited his arm.

After making sure his arm was secured, Naruto set about searching the packs of the soldiers for food and anything else of use. He found seven more canteens and several tins of military rations which he promptly shoved into a pack that he stole from one of the men laying around. He also found a map, on which was marked a location of interest. Whether it was a base or the location of more soldiers Naruto didn't know because it wasn't marked with anything more than a black 'X'. He walked over to a humvee and took a seat in the shade, settling down to study the map. There were no landmarks nearby but there were rock formations in the distance. If he tried he might be able to match something on the map to those rock formations and get somewhere, even if he didn't know where that somewhere would be.

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As it turned out, the map wasn't necessary because fifteen minutes after Naruto had started studying it he heard the distant sounds of gunfire. Generally it was bad form to run towards a battle while injured, but when lost in a desert any sign of life was good. He stood up and gathered his pack full of provisions before taking off.

As we was approaching the sounds of battle, Naruto caught sight of a black blur streaking away from the site.

"That's probably Kid Flash, better follow him."

Naruto kept pace with Kid Flash for about half a mile before the speedster tripped over a stone and rolled down the side of a sand dune. The ninja saw that Kid Flash had been carrying Artemis with him as well although he was distracted by the sound of incoming fighter drones. He blurred into motion and tackled the two of them to the ground as the drones rained metal over the area. He felt a hard impact and a burning sensation as one of the bullets hit his right thigh.

"Son of a bitch! Twice in one day!" Naruto gripped his bleeding thigh in pain while Kid Flash and Artemis regained their feet.

"I think it's time to consider that you may have become a bullet magnet some time since your memory was erased. My question is: whose pants are you going to take as payment for this one?"

As Kurama said that, the two fighter drones seemed to have been gripped by some invisible force and slammed into each other. Not a second afterward a new voice entered Naruto's mind and apparently the minds of Artemis and Kid Flash.

"What was that really deep voice just now?"

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as Miss Martian landed before them.

"You mean that deep voice wasn't you, J'onn?" asked Kid Flash.

"I heard it too. Did it say someone's memory was erased? Was mine erased too?" asked Artemis.

Miss Martian shook her head saying, "I'm not Martian Manhunter, I'm his niece. And that voice wasn't me, although it was right about the memory loss. Did you hear it too, Shinobi?" The fact that she had addressed him by his codename was proof enough to Naruto that she had managed to regain some small portion of her memory, however he couldn't follow that line of thought too far as the group had now turned their attention to him. He quickly schooled his expression before speaking.

"Don't we have more pressing matters to attend to? You know," Naruto gestured to his leg and then his shoulder, "gunshot wounds and all. Not to mention we're stranded in the desert."

Miss Martian seemed to notice his wound now.

"Oh! You're hurt!"

Naruto let out a sigh, reluctantly admitting that sometimes a bullet wound or two was just what you needed to defuse an uncomfortable situation. After a minute or two of discussion the general consensus was that they needed to get away from this place and the battle that had taken place nearby before someone came snooping around. Naruto took a moment to free his arm from the improvised sling and repurpose it as a tourniquet for his new wound. Miss Martian then levitated him while Kid Flash took Artemis into his arms and they were on their way.

The group had been travelling for thirty minutes when the Sun finally quit the day and sunk below the horizon. After another five minutes a new light crested the horizon. This time it was green and Naruto recognized it immediately.

"That's definitely Koriand'r!" He turned to Miss Martian. "Reach out to her, let her know we're friends. She's probably really confused... she wasn't on Earth six months ago."

Miss Martian nodded and closed her eyes as she reached out with her mind. Soon the green light in the sky turned their way and approached them quickly. In less than a minute it landed in front of them, kicking up a lot of sand. When the dust cleared, there stood Koriand'r in all her scantily clad glory. Kid Flash's jaw immediately dropped and Artemis slapped him in the chest when she noticed, which caused his black suit to shift colors to his more traditional yellow and red.

"You are... my friends? I don't remember... Where is Komand'r? Where are the Gordanians? Where am I?!"

Koriand'r's questioning took a frantic tone near the end and Naruto gingerly rose to his feet, careful to keep his weight off of his bad leg. He limped over to Koriand'r and pulled her into a hug, whispering reassurances in her ear. He was surprised when she didn't pull away, but he supposed it was just her affectionate nature that stopped her from doing so. The moment was ruined by the loud grumbling of Kid Flash's stomach.

Naruto pulled away from Koriand'r. "Oh, I totally forgot, there's food in that." He pointed towards the stolen pack that laid forgotten in the sand. Kid Flash dove on it like a wild animal and Artemis followed soon after at a more sedate pace.

Deciding he'd been standing on his injured leg for long enough Naruto plopped right back down to the ground. Koriand'r soon went to join the feeding frenzy that had commenced with Artemis and Kid Flash while Miss Martian kneeled down in front of Naruto. The curiosity in her eyes made it clear that there was talking to do.

"So... memory loss," she began.

"Yep," Naruto answered impassively.

"You're not acting like someone who's lost his memory. In fact you seem to know an awful lot about all of us."

"I regained my memories a few hours ago," he answered honestly.

"And how is it that you were able to do that? Does it have to do with that weird deep voice we heard over the connection?"

Naruto looked her in the eye for a long while before answering her question with one of his own. "Would it be a problem if it was?"

"Why would it be a problem? We're all friends here."

The tension was broken just like that and Naruto moved forward quickly ruffling her hair like he would a small child's. "That we are, Megan."

She latched onto that tidbit. "Megan?"

"Your Earth name. You picked it out." Naruto shrugged.

"Hello, Megan! Of course I did. I'm on Earth now. Still hard to wrap my mind around that." At that she walked over to join the rest of the group at the feast made up entirely of military rations and warm water.

Naruto sat there for a minute thinking on his options while rolling his left shoulder which seemed to have gained something resembling a full range of motion. He could feel the mental link between him and his teammates was still active so he couldn't consult Kurama but he had an idea on what to do next.

He dragged his injured leg into a crosslegged sitting position and closed his eyes, becoming unnaturally still. The transition into Sage Mode was as smooth as ever and he set to scanning the desert all around him, searching for any sign of his teammates. About half a kilometer to the north was where he finally found something. Robin was moving further north, slowly but with purpose.

Naruto's eyes snapped open as he let the nature chakra flow out of his body. He clambered to his feet and walked over to where his friends were packing away the leftovers of their spartan supper into the khaki pack. He walked up and slung the pack over his shoulder before speaking.

"So, I found Robin."

Kid Flash perked up. "Really? How'd you do that? GPS tracker?"

"It'll be a lot easier if we just go. I don't wanna have to explain it to you if you're just gonna get your memories back anyway. Now, as soon as we figure out who's carrying who," here he gestured to his bum leg, "we can be on our way and that much closer to everyone remembering everything."

The group quickly resolved that Starfire would carry Artemis while Miss Martian carried Shinobi. They set off, Naruto feeding Megan directions mentally. Robin hadn't made it too far in the time it took them to reach him, but he had managed to get into a fight with one of the seemingly infinite squads of soldiers patrolling the desert. Shinobi was gently set down on the ground while Kid Flash ran into the fray, Megan following behind. Artemis was dropped to the floor and immediately began firing arrows at the soldiers.

The fight was over almost immediately after the team joined in. Robin and Kid Flash clasped hands and started comparing notes while Shinobi, Artemis, and Starfire made their way to the scene.

Robin noticed their arrival immediately. "Shinobi! And... hot girls? Kid Flash tells me we're on a team?"

"Yeah. All of us plus Superboy and... Aqualad! Oh, shit! We've been out here for going on two days near as I can tell. Has anyone seen Aqualad?"

Kid Flash shook his head in the negative and he was the only one besides Shinobi and Robin who had any clue who Aqualad was it seemed. Robin, however, had pulled up a holographic interface from one of his gloves that showed a map of the area.

"He's close," Robin said, indicating a red dot on the map, "but he's not moving. I don't know what happened to him, but it can't be good."

"We landed here nearly two days ago, if Aqualad's been wandering the desert for that whole time... well, that's not good for a guy with gills," added Kid Flash. "Someone has to go get him."

"I think we should do something about our memory first. It'll probably help if we all know what's going on, I think," Miss Martian piped in.

"But what can be done?" asked Koriand'r.

Miss Martian bit her lip before before closing her eyes and putting her fingers to her temples. In an instant the team found themselves in a different place. Everything had a purple hue and there were fragments of what seemed like glass scattered all about, each playing different memories.

All were startled but Artemis was the most vocal. "What the hell?! Where are we?"

"It's a shared mindscape I've created. It's kind of hard to explain but I think I can use it to restore our memories." Miss Martian then turned to Naruto. "Since you've regained your memories, I want to use those to help fill in the blanks for everyone else. Even if it's not the whole six months, at least it'll help us remember being a team and the specifics of the mission."

Naruto stared at her impassively for a second, but inside he was nervous. There was no telling the amount of things that might come out if Megan went poking around in his head.

"Fine. But only go back as far as July. We've only been a team for that long. And nothing private," Naruto said, hoping against hope that Kurama would do his part to keep the really important things hidden.

Megan flashed him a grin and said, "Of course!"

The shared mindscape faded to white and Naruto found his memories being played back to him like a movie reel for the second time in a day. He caught a glimpse of himself standing before Kurama on the astral plane, but the image was fleeting and faded into a new memory quickly. There were a few intimate moments spent between himself and Koriand'r but Miss Martian seemed to realize quickly what was happening and moved past them as fast as she possibly could. Otherwise it was mostly times spent patrolling with the team and a few missions that passed quickly enough before they reached the meat and potatoes.

Batman stood in front of a holographic display showing satellite imagery of the Middle East, specifically the rogue state called Bialya.

"The Watchtower detected an immense power surge in the Bialyan Desert. Spectral analysis revealed elements non-terrestrial in origin. Find out what happened at that site, what landed there."

The briefing continued as such, with Batman laying out the specifics of the mission, before the scene changed.

The team was disembarking the Martian bioship in Qurac, which bordered Biaylia. Superboy was unloading a large metal box. He had set it down on the ground before the scene changed again.

The team had discovered the site of the power surge. It was covered in a tent and surrounded by Bialyan troops and vehicles. They had decided to set up camp a kilometer away and Miss Martian had volunteered to do recon on the site before the memory stopped.

When Naruto opened his eyes again, they were back in the desert.

"What happened next?" asked Robin.

"We got our memories wiped, I'd guess," Naruto answered. "Now that we're all up to speed, what direction is Aqualad in?"

Robin pulled up his holographic interface and studied it before answering. "He's... about a mile and a half west by southwest. That way," Robin pointed off into a seemingly random direction.

Naruto turned to Koriand'r. "I need you to carry me."

She needed no more explanation and moved around behind him to set her hands under his shoulders. Before they left Naruto turned to Megan.

"Keep up telepathic contact. And try to find Superboy if you can. He's been stomping around the desert for nearly two days straight, but he could be close by. Do what you can to find him, but don't go anywhere near that Bialyan camp. We still don't know who or what wiped our memories."

With that said, Starfire took off into the air. Shinobi quickly dropped into a meditative state and entered Sage Mode. It wasn't long before they reached the area where Robin had said Aqualad was. It took even less time for Shinobi to pinpoint his energy signature and direct Starfire to land near it.

Aqualad had passed out near a rock outcropping, apparently having wandered there after the team's collective memory loss. Naruto limped over to his body and inspected him for injuries. He didn't seem much worse for wear and his Atlantean physiology indicated to Naruto that he was most likely dehydrated. He unshouldered the pack and fished out a canteen that was relatively full out of it. Naruto sat Aqualad up and put the canteen to his mouth, force-feeding him the water to the best of his ability.

"Aqualad's been recovered, but he's severely dehydrated. M'gann, I need you to guide Koriand'r back to the bioship so she can carry him there."

"Of course-" Miss Martian abruptly stopped speaking. The next thing that rang out over the mind-link was her exclamation of "Superboy!" before she dropped the mind-link completely.

"Dammit!" Naruto cursed. He had no idea where the bio-ship was and he was certain Starfire had no clue either. The canteen having been emptied, Naruto lay Aqualad back onto the sand and stood.

"Why has M'gann dropped the mental link?" Koriand'r asked as searched the pack for another canteen.

"I dunno, but it can't be good." Naruto tested his injured leg and found it to be healed sufficiently that he could run, if not at full speed. "Stay here with Aqualad while I go find out what happened."

Starfire nodded, saying "Absolutely." She then walked over to him, pulled down his mask, and gave him a whopper of a kiss. "For good luck," she added, before shooing him away.

Naruto grinned before pulling his mask back on and setting off back the way they had come. It took him a few minutes to cover the mile and a half to his destination and when he arrived he found that only Kid Flash and Artemis remained.

"Where did Miss Martian and Robin get to?"

"She said something about Superboy being in pain and flew off," Artemis answered. "Robin followed after her and told us to wait here in case you guys came back."

Naruto paced around for a moment, ruffling his own hair in thought.

"Okay. Kid Flash, you stay here. I'm gonna send Robin back and you're gonna go find Aqualad and Starfire. Once you do that, Robin'll lead you to the ship. The priority is to provide adequate medical care for Aqualad. Artemis, you're with me." Naruto quickly ran up to Artemis and scooped her up in a bridal style carry, ignoring her indignant cry and not giving Kid Flash enough time to protest his orders before he set off in the indicated direction.

Sage Mode made finding Robin easy. He was on the outskirts of the camp the enemy had set up at the location from which the impetus for this mission had appeared. Naruto approached him from behind and made his presence known while setting Artemis on the ground.

"Robin! Go back to Kid Flash; he'll fill you in on the rest." Robin looked to be ready to argue, but Naruto cut him off. "Now! I won't repeat myself. Aqualad needs your help."

A grimace crossed Robin's face at his commanding tone, but he relented and ran off in the direction Naruto and Artemis had come from.

"That was a little harsh-" Artemis started to reprimand the ninja, but was interrupted by a disturbance in the camp. All the soldiers standing guard seemed to be running towards the only tent.

"Cover me," Naruto said before running towards the center of the camp. He didn't make it far before the tent was ripped apart by some sort of whirlwind that drew all of the surrounding soldiers into itself. He also caught a brief glimpse of Superboy, before the clone leaped into the center of the whirlwind and out of sight.

It was only a few seconds later that the whirlwind exploded outward, destroying the camp and sending the soldiers and anyone else that had been caught up in the whirlwind far away. Everyone except for Superboy and Miss Martian.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted as he approached the pair. "What the fuck did you think you were doing, M'gann?!"

"Don't talk to her like that!" Superboy started to shout before Naruto rounded on him.

"Not one more word out of you! This is between me and her." He turned his focus back to Miss Martian who had the decency to look ashamed under his reproachful gaze.

"Do you think that we're all out here playing games? Like you can just run off and do whatever you want and there are no consequences?"

"I was trying to help Superboy-"

"What about Aqualad? Aqualad that was massively dehydrated after being marooned in the desert for two days? The walking tank over here," he gestured to Superboy, "would have been fine, Aqualad is at death's door! There's one thing my sensei taught me that I know to be true with all my heart: Those who abandon the mission are trash, those who abandon their friends are worse than trash. Somehow you managed to do both! You're the means of communication for this whole team, you never drop the mind-link without being ordered to do so and you definitely don't run off alone on some fool's errand without telling your team. You're lucky you weren't killed this time, leaving all of us stranded in enemy territory." Miss Martian wouldn't meet his eyes and Superboy seemed to be growing angrier the longer his tirade carried on. "No, don't worry about apologizing, the look on your face says enough. Let's get out of this fucking desert." He turned around and began walking away, not bothering to confirm if Miss Martian and Superboy were following or not. In all the commotion, Naruto hadn't noticed a large metallic sphere had started following them, too.

A/N: Finally got this done. Sorry for the long wait. No excuses, just laziness and procrastination. SHONENJUMP Guy was gracious enough to do some art for this story at no charge. You can find it at owc478 . deviantart art/Naruto-Uzumaki-Shinobi-YJ-style-451152148. I dunno how links work on this site, so just remove the spaces. Until next time.