The Crimson Speedster

by choejhulkp9

Barry Allen AKA the Flash wasn't the only one who was affected by the particle accelerator. He and Star Labs find another speedster who has similar powers to Barry, yet he's a bit different. Watch as the Scarlet Speedster joins the Crimson Speedster possibly join forces and protect Central City. Naruto x Linda x ?

6. Pied Piper stirs the pot

Here is Chapter 6 of the Crimson Speedster. And old acquaintance from STAR Labs returns with a serious mind game to play against Team Flash and Dr. Wells. And he shows us that there was more to the disappearance of Ronnie and the death of Naruto's parents. On top of that, they deal with a teleporter and the military, Karma must really hate them. Enjoy!

My name is Barry Allen and I'm one of the fastest men alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother get killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. To the outside world, I'm an ordinary forensic scientist, but secretly I used my speed to fight crime and find other people like me. And one day, I'll find who killed my mother and get justice for my father. I am…the Flash.

Before the Particle Accelerator explosion, I had a very set belief of principles on how the world works. Rules like gravity kept people on the ground, the sun heated the planet and theoretical elements were theoretical. After my parents' death, I gave up on my path in science but after the Particle Accelerator explosion, my body changed in ways that I never imagined. It restarted my life and now I know what to do. I will use my speed to help Barry and everyone keep this city safe and make my parents proud. Meet Central City's newest Speedster, Impulse.

Pied Piper stirs the pot

February 2015-Naruto Age-23

After the discovery of Linda's meta-human ability to produce light, she went to STAR labs regularly so the team could help her with her powers. She could produce pure light from her hands, absorb light for energy and to heal, and she could create light force waves from her hands. Dr. Wells theorized that since Linda controlled light, there was a lot she could do such as creating light constructs, fly, and even bend light to turn invisible. Of course, she still needed complete control of her powers to do anything advance like that. But she was getting there and was now an official member of Team Flash.

There was also a lot of progress with the ARC reactor and it was now 70% finished. Barry had helped a lot and between him and Naruto's super speed, the construction was coming along a lot faster. Naruto was able to speed up the process by figuring out better energy calculations and design shortcuts to speed up the process and now, the entire math and physics of the ARC reactor made complete sense to him whereas a few months ago he only understood half of it. It was like his mind was getting sharper and sharper with use.

Currently, the team was in the cortex at night as Flash and Impulse were on their way to stop the Royal Flush Gang from getting away with stolen diamonds. The police were after them as Flash and Impulse left STAR labs and were on the way to stop the gang from getting away on bikes.

"Guys, hurry up. They're gonna get away." Caitlin said as she, Linda, and Cisco were at the computers watching the gang's predicted pathway through the city. "There's an intersection coming up."

"This should slow them down." Cisco said as he pressed a button and the traffic lights at the intersection turned red which caused a traffic jam. But the only thing it did was separate King, Queen, and Ace as they kept moving.

Flash and Impulse stopped at the intersection. "Guys, where'd they go?" Flash asked.

"Right-Left." "Left-Right." Cisco and Caitlin said, picking a different direction and confusing Flash and Impulse.

"Ok, stop. You guys aren't helping." Impulse said.

"Boys, listen carefully. Barry, head north and turn King back towards Adams Avenue with a detour. Naruto, Queen is heading towards the bridge." Dr. Wells said as the two split up.

"I see her." Impulse said as he saw Queen up ahead.

"Make her go west before Freemont." Dr. Wells said as Impulse quickly made a barricade, causing Queen to go take the street to the left.

"Done." Impulse replied as Dr. Wells' plan had the Royal Flush Gang met back up at an intersection. Impulse sped by and grabbed the keys from their motorcycles. "Got the keys!"

"Checkmate." Dr. Wells said as the police arrived and the Royal Flush Gang surrendered.

Naruto and Barry appeared back at STAR labs, a sense of pride that another group of criminals was taken care of. "Give me some!" Cisco shouted as he high-fived both of them.

"Efficiently done, gentlemen." Dr. Wells applauded them.

"We need a picture." Cisco said as he took out his phone while everyone looked at him like he was crazy.

"Dude, I'm pretty sure superhero rule number 1 is not taking photos of yourself in your suit." Naruto told him.

"Oh, come on, please! This is just for us, to document all this." Cisco pleaded.

"Who knows? Maybe people in the future will want to know how all this happened." Wells said.

"All right, but if you want the future to have the whole story, then we all need to be in it." Barry said as Cisco smiled.

"First, let me put on some makeup." Caitlin said.

"The future does not care about your makeup." Cisco told her.

"Besides, you don't need it." Naruto said as they all moved over to Dr. Wells. He was in the middle with Cisco to his left and Caitlin to his right. Naruto was behind him as Linda was on his side, his arm wrapped around her.

"All right. Big smiles. Three…two…one." Barry said as he super sped back to the group next to Naruto as the camera took the picture and then back to grab the phone. "Ha."

"Does that count as a selfie?" Caitlin asked.

"Absolutely." Barry replied as he handed Cisco back his phone who was thrilled about the picture. Barry walked over to Dr. Wells as Naruto took off his suit.

"Nicely done out there, speedy." Linda said to Naruto causing him to grown.

"I told you before that the nickname is not sticking." Naruto said as Linda chuckled.

"Give it some time, it'll stick. But nicely done out there." Linda said.

"Yeah. Regular robbers should really rethink trying to pull off crimes in Central City." Naruto said as she smiled. "But how are you doing?"

"I'm fine. I'm starting to get into the rhythm you guys have here." Linda said.

"It takes some getting used to. I was a newcomer here months ago and it took some time getting used to how the team worked without me. To be honest, sometimes I still feel like I'm treated like a sidekick." Naruto said.

"Oh, but a cute sidekick." Linda joked as she kissed him. "If we're done for the night, I've still got a piece for my editor that I need to finish."

"Ok, how about lunch tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

"Sounds perfect." Linda said as they shared a kiss. "Good night."

"Night." Naruto replied as she left and the others left.

"Well done, Naruto. You were excellent tonight." Dr. Wells told him. "And just so you know, you're not a sidekick."

"Thanks, Dr. Wells." Naruto said as he put his suit on the mannequin. "I was actually hoping to go over a few things with you. I've had some ideas that I'd like to get your input on."

"Of course. Perhaps we can move this to my humble abode rather than reside here in STAR labs. I could use a good drink." Dr. Wells said as Naruto nodded and he super sped Dr. Wells to his house. They walked in the front door as Naruto pressed a light switch and Dr. Wells pressed a button on his phone and Nessun Dorma began to play. "Ah."

"All these years and I was hoping that it would improve your taste in music." Naruto said as they moved to the kitchen.

"Classics are known as classics for a reason, Naruto, because it doesn't matter if it's now or 200 years in the future, they will stay classics." Dr. Wells said as Naruto walked over and poured Dr. Wells a glass of Scotch.

"Hey, I love classics as much as any other guy but good classics. Frank Sinatra, Queen, Jimi Hendrik and Michael Jackson are excellent. But that music doesn't make me feel like I'm at a funeral." Naruto said as he handed Dr. Wells his glass and they sat down at the kitchen table. Naruto took out a tablet to show Dr. Wells some schematics and plans he had written.

"Now, what plans do you have that you want me to look over?" Dr. Wells asked as Naruto showed Dr. Wells schematics for advance medical technology, new microprocessors and even energy cells fueled by the ARC reactor they could sell to companies and other cities and even a method to turn that energy into fuel for cars and planes. "This is extremely impressive. When did you have the time to do this?"

"You'll find that as a speedster, you seem to have endless time. I had to do something to keep myself busy. Plus, a lot of those ideas came from my parents' journal. I just had to suss out the math. They did a lot of the hard work." Naruto told him.

"I wouldn't sell yourself short, Naruto. This is impressive math and engineering that will help the world's reliance on oil and could help the environment. This just proves my earlier point. Mr. Allen is smart but one thing he isn't, is a genius like you." Dr. Wells said.

"Thanks, Dr. Wells but I wouldn't call myself a genius." Naruto said. "I don't know, ever since the Particle Accelerator went off and I've been Impulse, it's like my brain keeps getting better. I mean, I was smart before, but now I'm working out math to problems I didn't think I could ever solve."

Naruto got up to get a glass of water as Dr. Wells looked at the designs and at Naruto. These designs and the math were at the level of a super genius. Dr. Wells could tell that Naruto had the potential to pass Cisco in terms of intelligence and it was only Cisco's experience and time with engineering that put him above Naruto at the moment. Dr. Wells figured that if Naruto kept going at this pace, he would surpass Cisco…maybe even himself, which was an intriguing thought.

"Brains do better with age and it could be a side effect of your enhanced speed and cellular makeup. The designs for the armaments you made the Arrow and his cohorts prove that. That sonic scream device was a work of genius. Cisco-level genius." Dr. Wells said.

"Thanks, Dr. Wells. So, what do you think? I mean, if we finish up the designs, STAR labs will be back up on the top spot as one of the leading pillars of science. Not to mention it would give the team and STAR Labs good revenue." Naruto said.

"My trust is more than enough for that but I do see your point." Dr. Wells said as the phone went off. Dr. Wells picked up his phone and saw it was a blocked number. "Harrison Wells."

The sound system short circuited and the music stopped which was a bad sign. "Hello?" Dr. Wells said into the phone.

"We both know what you did." A voice said as the line dropped.

"Here's my happy thinking but maybe it's a wrong number." Naruto said as Dr. Wells moved over to the safe he kept near the living room. He dialed the right code and opened the safe to reveal a pistol. "Still hate that you have that."

"Not all of us have powers." Dr. Wells said as he cocked the gun. He and Naruto moved through the house until they stopped near the open air living room with the side and ceiling made of glass windows.

"It's time to pay the piper!" the voice shouted through the speakers of the house as they heard the high-pitch whine of a sonic device. The glass started to shatter and fall down as Naruto grabbed Dr. Wells and moved him back to the kitchen. Another high-pitch whine went off causing all the glass on the front side of the house to explode as Naruto covered Dr. Wells from flying glass.

It stopped as Naruto and Dr. Wells saw the destruction of whoever did this. "Ok, so it wasn't a wrong number." Naruto said as Dr. Wells looked at him.

They called the police as Joe and Barry arrived early the next morning to see a lot of broken glass and destroyed furniture. The front doors opened and they saw Dr. Wells waiting for them. "Come in." He said as they did and followed him. "Look, Joe, I apologize for all of this. Naruto shouldn't have called the police; it really feels like case of a whole lot for a little. I got a prank call before all this happened."

"This feels like more than just a prank, doctor." Joe said as they saw the destroyed living room and glass everywhere and Naruto collecting some evidence.

"Well, there are those who feel I did not suffer enough for the Particle Accelerator explosion last year, and some of them act on it." Dr. Wells told them as Caitlin and Cisco arrived.

"Dr. Wells, are you ok?" Caitlin asked.

"Dr. Snow, I'm fine. A little chilly. Otherwise, I'm fine. Hello, Cisco. Make yourselves home as best you can; I'm going to make a hotel reservation." Dr. Wells said as he left.

"Whoa. This place is so sick." Cisco said.

"Yeah. Hey, what took you guys so long?" Barry asked.

"We got lost." Cisco replied.

"We've never been here before." Caitlin told him.

"Really, never?" Barry asked.

"Dr. Wells tends to keep his private life, private." Caitlin told him.

"What about Naruto?" Barry asked as they looked at Naruto checking out the sound system.

"I came with him last night when all this happened. And I've been here a few times. I grew up with Dr. Wells, remember?" Naruto asked as he took the circuit board out and bagged it.

Naruto bagged the evidence and overheard Eddie and Joe talking about Wells and how he said he was in the middle of the room and has no scratch on him. "Joe." Naruto called him as Joe walked over. "Hey, I overheard you and Eddie and Dr. Wells didn't tell you but I was here last night as well."

"So, you saw what happened?" Joe asked as Naruto nodded.

"And it definitely wasn't a regular vandal attack but we couldn't exactly say that to Eddie and the patrol officers." Naruto said as Joe nodded.

"You think this is a meta-human?" Joe asked.

"I don't think a Meta did this but something is off. And I was with Dr. Wells in the center of the room and super sped him away when the glass broke. That's why he doesn't have a scratch on him." Naruto said as Joe nodded. "But I bagged the evidence we need. We should head to STAR Labs."

They arrived at STAR Labs where Dr. Wells had told everyone he knew was behind the attack, Hartley Rathaway. Team Flash was in the cortex as Dr. Wells told Joe, Barry, and Linda about him.

"Hartley Rathaway possesses one of the finest scientific minds I've ever encountered." Dr. Wells said.

"Any ties to Rathaway industries?" Joe asked.

"His grandfather founded the company, his father expanded it, and Hartley here was set to inherit the throne." Dr. Wells told them.

"What happened?" Barry asked.

"He came out to his parents. Old money, old values." Caitlin told him.

"They were estranged when we met, but brilliant. Without his aid, the Particle Accelerator would have taken a few extra years to be complete." Dr. Wells said.

"You guys have never even mentioned his name." Barry said.

"That's because Hartley had a challenging personality." Caitlin said, putting it nicely.

"What she means is he was mostly a jerk. But, every once in a while, he could be a dick." Cisco said as Joe laughed.

"Let's just say that Hartley, like many outliers, had trouble relating to his peers." Dr. Wells said.

"Yes, but he was always your favorite." Caitlin said.

"The chosen one. He referred to himself like that." Cisco said as Linda noticed Naruto hadn't spoken a word and was glaring at the picture of Hartley with a burning anger she's never seen before.

"Naruto, you ok?" Linda asked as they looked at him.

"I could have gone my entire life without seeing this asshole again." Naruto said as he glared at Hartley's picture.

"Are we missing something?" Cisco asked.

"Hartley had trouble relating to his peers, but Naruto's relationship with Hartley was never on amicable terms. They had a very…tense history." Dr. Wells said.

"What he means is that Hartley was an arrogant, all-knowing, condescending jackass." Naruto said as they were shocked that the usual composed and relatively level-headed Naruto was so angry. "Hartley always looked at me like I never belonged and at every opportunity he did his best to try and prove himself right."

"Which he failed. Naruto has a tremendous scientific mind, even at an early age and Hartley underestimated him. But that didn't stop him from speaking his mind and saying some rather…un-colorful words about Naruto and his parents." Dr. Wells said.

"Do we even want to know?" Barry asked.

"That my very existence in STAR labs was a proven sign that nepotism rules out over anything, especially when it comes to brain-dead spikey haired animal with an affinity for orange." Naruto said, remembering one of Hartley's biggest insults to him. "Hartley told me that when I started college. That earned him a black eye and several bruised ribs.

"Damn." Joe replied.

"And it only got worse when Naruto interned at STAR labs one summer under his parents. He called him…" Dr. Wells said, not wanting to repeat the words.

"A spiky haired waste of cells trying to prove himself to two washed up scientists who would have more luck discovering the scientific value of pie over building a Particle Accelerator." Naruto said as they were shocked. "That earned him a broken jaw and leg."

"Naruto." Caitlin said.

"I know, it wasn't my proudest moment but he deserved it." Naruto replied.

"After that, I kept Hartley on a strictly limited interaction with the rest of my staff and Naruto's parents. That was one of the compounding factors that led to his termination a year ago along with a disagreement we had." Dr. Wells said.

"About what?" Joe asked.

"Who cares." Naruto replied before Dr. Wells could answer. "Hartley may have had crap parents and a hard life but that doesn't excuse his actions anymore. We're finding him and throwing his ass in the pipeline where he belongs."

Naruto left the cortex to blow off some steam as everyone was tense. "Wow, I didn't think I've ever seen Naruto that angry." Joe said.

"Me neither. Even in a fight or against those muggers, he wasn't like this." Linda said.

"One thing you've never seen of Naruto is that he has a temper. It was relevant when he was a child, but his parents helped him control it. He learned to control his temper and can use it in a more productive way, as you may have noticed when he goes out to protect the city. But this kind of rage in Naruto is a ticking time bomb. Let's just hope it doesn't get worse." Dr. Wells told them.

Line Break xxxxx

Barry and Joe went to the CCPD to go over the evidence and track down any lead they could on Hartley Rathaway while the others in STAR labs tried to figure out how Hartley caused all the damage and high-jacked Dr. Wells' sound system. No one had seen Naruto since he stormed out of the cortex in anger and Dr. Wells told them that it'd be best to let Naruto cool off for a bit before they talk to him. Naruto was in one of the spare rooms by the ARC reactor that he had set up as a training room after Oliver had trained him. It's how Naruto became a much better fighter and how he did so well when he helped Dig, Felicity, Roy, and Laurel with Brick and his gang.

He was in a tank top and jeans, sparring against a training dummy to let out all his anger and rage. He punched the arms, torso, and head of the dummy with speed and grace that showed Naruto knew what he was doing. Naruto increased the speed of his punches as the dummy began to tremble when Naruto pulled his right fist back and punched straight through the dummy.

"Dammit." Naruto said as he took off his fighting gloves and grabbed a drink of water to try and calm down.

"I'd ask how you're doing but I think I know the answer to that already." Naruto heard as he turned and saw Linda at the doorway.

"Sorry. I felt that it was best not to be around anyone for a while until I worked this out." Naruto said as he wiped his face with a towel.

"And have you?" Linda asked as Naruto sighed and shook his hair.

"No." Naruto said as he sat down and Linda walked over next to him. "To be honest, I never thought I would behave like this again."

"I'll admit I never thought I'd see you that angry but it's nothing to be ashamed of." Linda said.

"It's not that I'm ashamed of it." Naruto said as she looked at him. "Ok, a little of that. But I thought that this was behind me."

"What do you mean?" Linda asked as she sat down next to him.

"When I was a kid, I had a problem with my temper. It wasn't that I went out of my way to pick fights, but when kids made fun of me or picked on others I acted and it got me in a lot of trouble." Naruto said as Linda chuckled.

"Who knew the charming and level-headed Naruto was such a hot head." Linda said as Naruto managed to crack a chuckle.

"My parents helped me with my temper and I got better. That's also when I began my pranking phase as a way to substitute fighting. But it's always been there, lurking in the back of my head and it has crept up over the years like with Hartley. And how I'm reacting now just proves how right he was. I haven't changed and I'm no better than the Neanderthal he thinks I am." Naruto said as he stood up and ran his hands through his hair and exhaled. "I've always been afraid of my anger and I honestly feel like I'm a different person when my rage takes over."

"And I think you're wrong." Linda said as she got up and held his hands. "Because the guy I fell in love with over these past months isn't a monster or an angry Neanderthal. He's one of the most kind, caring, and smartest guys I know. Someone who can't be the monster you're afraid of turning into because a kind, caring and selfless hero who goes out and protects the city with risk to his life can't be that monster."

"I hope your right. I don't ever want to hurt you or the others." Naruto said as Linda cupped his face.

"And you won't. You have a part to your past where you've felt ashamed or made a mistake, everyone does including me. This is something that you didn't know before, but I guess what better time to tell you then now but…I'm bisexual." Linda said as that shock managed to pull Naruto out of his funk.

"Excuse me?" Naruto asked as he looked at her.

"Yeah, I'm bisexual. I came to the realization before I started college." Linda said as Naruto was still shocked. "And it's something that's never come up before in our conversations so that's why I didn't say anything."

"Ok, wow. I wasn't expecting that kind of revelation, but thank you for sharing that." Naruto said as he looked at her. "So, you went through a sexy phase in college."

"Ok, glad you're enjoying yourself and back to normal." Linda said as Naruto kissed her.

"Hey, I'm honored you told me and it doesn't change how I feel about you." Naruto said as she smiled. "Although it does increase the odds of me asking for a threesome."

She punched him in the chest causing him to laugh. "Just a joke." Naruto said as he kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Linda."

"Anytime, speedy." She said as Naruto just ignored it.

"So, should I be worried that you might leave me if you see a girl more beautiful than I am handsome?" Naruto joked as she chuckled.

"Maybe, depending on if she's blonde or not." Linda replied as Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, ok. You're into blondes. Good to know I had some points in my corner even before we started dating." Naruto said as Linda smiled.

"There's the Naruto I know and love. He can't be the monster you're afraid of turning into." Linda said as Naruto kissed her again.

"You are my lightning rod, never forget that." Naruto said as the intercom went off.

"Naruto, we need you in the cortex." Caitlin said as Naruto and Linda went back to the cortex.

"What's going on?" Linda asked.

"Multiple 911 calls. Rathaway Industries is under attack." Caitlin said as Naruto walked over to his suit.

"Naruto, maybe you should wait for Mr. Allen to provide backup." Dr. Wells told him.

"No, I can do this." Naruto said as he put on his suit and slipped his mask on. "I need to do this."

Naruto super sped out of STAR labs and raced to Rathaway Industries. Hartley was in front of the building and firing sonic blasts from green-colored mechanical gauntlets on his hands as huge panes of glass windows shattered into pieces and bystanders ran away in fear. Hartley blasted a parked car as three police vehicles arrived. Hartley blasted one of the police vehicles as the hood was blasted off and it swerved to a stop. The other two cars stopped, and the officers got out and pointed their guns at him.

"Get down on the ground!" The officer shouted as Hartley fired another sonic blast at the car, destroying the windows and sending the cops back.

Impulse sped into the area and punched Hartley across the face as the force sent him tumbling across the ground. Impulse tightened his fists as he glared at Hartley but quickly calmed himself down. Hartley spit out some blood as he saw Impulse in front of him.

"It's over, Rathaway." Impulse told him.

"You know my name. I know some names, too. Caitlin Snow, Cisco Ramon, and Harrison Wells." Hartley said as they heard him over Impulse's comms. "I can hear the radio waves emanating from your suit. About 1900 megahertz. Is that them on the other end, listening? Are they gonna hear you die?"

"No, they're gonna hear you lose." Impulse told him.

"Ok." Hartley said as he raised his hands and fired a sonic blast. Impulse saw everything happen in slow motion and managed to move his body out of the way of the blast so Hartley hit nothing but air. Hartley fired again but Impulse super sped around him, kicked out his leg, yanked the gauntlets off his arms, and then kneed him in the face. Impulse yanked him off the ground and slapped cuffs on his arms.

"Guess you were smart enough to see that coming." Impulse told him.

"Smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is. You see, I know his secret." Hartley said as Impulse grabbed him and super sped back to STAR labs. They exited the elevators as Impulse pushed him forward.

"Being scooped up by a guy clad in head-to-toe leather is a long-time fantasy of mine, so thanks." Hartley said as Impulse shoved his forward. Cisco and Caitlin walked forward to take Hartley to the pipeline.

"Well, well, well, the gang's all here. You've lasted a lot longer than I would've thought, Cisco." Hartley said.

"And you didn't last ten seconds against Impulse." Cisco replied.

"I was thinking of calling myself Pied Piper." Hartley said.

"Hey, I assign the nicknames around here. Although that one's not bad." Cisco said as Hartley looked at Caitlin.

"Caitlin…never did get that wedding invite." Hartley said as Impulse grabbed Hartley and kneed him in the gut.

"Shut the hell up!" Impulse said as Cisco grabbed Hartley and pushed him to the pipeline. Caitlin followed him as Naruto walked to the Cortex and took off his suit.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Linda asked as Naruto exhaled.

"I'm fine. Seeing him now, he hasn't changed one bit." Naruto said.

"And you didn't turn into the monster he thinks you are. You showed him how wrong he was." Linda said as Naruto nodded.

"Yeah. You're right." Naruto said.

"What's wrong?" Linda asked.

"Just a nagging feeling that this isn't the end of it." Naruto said as he left for the pipeline.

"I forgot. You don't like emotions. They're messy." Hartley said in French.

"At least she isn't the one stuck in a cell." They heard as Naruto walked forward. Cisco, Caitlin, and Hartley were surprised that Naruto spoke excellent French. "Go."

Cisco and Caitlin left as Hartley smirked at Naruto. "So, you managed to worm your way into STAR Labs after all, little fox." Hartley said in French.

"And you haven't changed one bit. You were an asshole then and you're an asshole now." Naruto replied.

"Little Naruto, always ruled by your emotions." Hartley spoke back in Spanish to try and trip-up Naruto.

"Emotions are a fundamental part of what makes us human. But I understand why you don't use them because they didn't build you with the capacity to recognize emotions like an actual human being." Naruto replied back in Spanish. "And look how well that served you. All alone and stuck in that cell."

"I won't be in here for long." Hartley said in Russian.

"You will never get out of that cell as long as I have a say in the matter." Naruto replied back in Russian.

"Oh, so the little one has gotten smarter. Impressive for a spiky haired Neanderthal." Hartley told him in Japanese.

"This spiky haired human is currently working on new advances in science way beyond whatever you were doing. I have everything in my life that I could have wanted. A beautiful girlfriend, amazing friends and a bright future ahead of me, unlike you." Naruto replied back.

"Except for your parents' approval. Oh, so predictable, little fox. Always groveling for their approval and for them to take you seriously and see you for anything except as a waste of space. How are you doing since their death?" Hartley asked in Latin as Naruto tightened his fists in anger but quickly calmed down so not to give him the satisfaction of proving him right about being an animal.

"Fine. At least my parents loved me for who I am. Your parents may have been horrible, and it was difficult staying in the closet but that doesn't give you the right to try and ruin everyone else's lives." Naruto replied in Latin as Hartley shot him a death glare.

"Enough, Hartley." Dr. Wells said as he rolled next to Naruto. "Give us a minute."

Naruto shot Hartley another death glare as he left and walked back to the cortex. "See you soon, Naruto." Hartley said.

"Go to hell, Hartley." Naruto said as he left.

"Your silence speaks volumes." Hartley said to Wells in Latin.

"No man is more deaf than he who will not hear." Wells replied.

"God, I wish I had taken a language in high school." Barry said as Naruto walked into the cortex. "Hey."

"Hey." Naruto replied back.

"Nicely done matching Hartley shot for shot." Cisco said as Naruto nodded.

"Where did you learn to speak all those languages?" Caitlin asked.

"I've grown up speaking Japanese. The other ones were easy with speedster brains." Naruto said as he tapped his head as they watched the cameras in the pipeline.

"It must be good to have another loyal lapdog, Harrison. Naruto only has the brain functions for simple fetch quests, after all." Hartley replied.

"Naruto's genius is something you continue to underestimate or was your verbal joust not enough evidence." Wells told him as Hartley shrugged. "How did you know we were working with the Speedsters?"

"I wrote a hexagonal algorithm to track all of his known sightings and extrapolate a theoretical exit trajectory." Hartley said. "In other words, every time they ran from a scene of a crime, they ran in this general direction."

"You are brilliant. And …any anguish you have been through because of me was never my intent." Dr. Wells told him.

"Not bad as far as heartfelt apologies go. Except that wasn't for my benefit. That was the idiots who follow you. Must feel good to have the great Harrison Wells behind you, doesn't it? But one day, this man will turn on you…in a flash and none of you will see it coming. Especially you Flash and Impulse. I only hope that he leaves you in better shape than he left me. If you're lucky, you'll only be dead. Because every day I have to live with the agonizing, piercing screaming in my ears." Hartley said as Dr. Wells turned away.

"Again, that was never my intent and I'm truly sorry for what you've gone through." Wells told him.

"How kind of you. I almost forgot that kind was a luxury for you, except for when it came to your favorite disciple." Hartley said, referring to how even though he was Well's second, Wells still treated Naruto better than him. "It must be nice to have such a loyal dog again, Harrison. To bad Naruto's too stupid to see what kind of monster you really are."

"Naruto is many things but one thing he isn't…is stupid. That boy has tremendous potential, potential I saw in him at an early age and potential you were jealous of ever since you laid eyes on him because you knew he would be smarter than you." Wells replied.

"He didn't deserve any of it. I've worked my entire life for science, put countless hours into my studies to earn every single opportunity given to me and it's just handed to him on a silver platter. That kind of genius shouldn't exist in a waste of human cells and organs." Hartley said as everyone saw the jealously he had towards Naruto, which surprised Naruto himself.

"Genius and the advancement of science doesn't discriminate. That's one thing you never could grasp." Wells said as he turned to leave.

"I almost forgot…I told one of your pets I know your deep, dark secret, Harrison. Have fun letting him on that one." Hartley said as Wells left for the Cortex.

The others waited in silence, thinking what secret Hartley was talking about as Dr. Wells entered. "I assume you were all listening. Well, Hartley was telling the truth. I have not been honest with you…any of you." Wells said as he took a breath. "The accelerator…Hartley warned me that there was indeed a chance that the accelerator could explode. His data did not show there was a 100% certainty just that there was a risk, but it was a real risk. And yet I made the decision that the reward…that…everything we could learn and everything we could achieve, that all of that…simply outweighed that risk. I'm sorry."

There was a moment of silence as everyone absorbed the information. Caitlin then stood up and walked forward. "The next time you choose to put our lives, and the lives of the people we love at risk, I'll expect a heads up." Caitlin said as she and Cisco left.

"I'll see you later." Linda said as Naruto nodded and left.

"After the accelerator explosion, Cisco and Caitlin stood by you after everyone left. They need more than an apology." Naruto told him.

"They might soon get more than that what with Hartley so intent on sending me to the next world." Wells told him.

"That's not what they want, Dr. Wells. You broke their trust." Naruto said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I'll always be by your side no matter what but if you want to repair your relationship with them, you need to do more than just apologize."

Dr. Wells nodded as Barry left for Jitters while Naruto went to do some work in his lab downstairs.

Line Break xxxxx

Naruto walked into his lab and was greeted with the familiar sight of whiteboard with dozens of calculations and formulas written on, notebooks with notes and drawings in them piled on tables, books on every notion of science and physics scattered about and some old chip bags and candy wrappers in a garbage can. Naruto got on the computers to work out the designs for some of his latest projects like new body armor that would be a hundred years ahead of Kevlar along with new tactical gear and state of the art suppression and non-lethal firearms for law enforcement. Plus he was working the designs for energy technology along with environment reparation and consumer tech. He was definitely proving Hartley wrong and showed that he deserves his intellect.

Naruto went back to the cortex to get some things and saw Cisco at his workstation looking at Hartley's gloves. "Cisco, what are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"Not sure. Something doesn't seem right. Hartley was using sonic resonance in his gauntlets, similar to the one for that sonic device you made. But you know what's weird; he had it set to the lowest decibel rating." Cisco said as Naruto raised an eyebrow. "If he wanted to, he could have destroyed his father's building in one blast but he didn't. He could have done it and left but he stayed behind."

"Because that was part of his plan." Naruto said as he ran to the cameras and brought up the video of Hartley's cell and it was blown open.

"Dr. Wells, we have a pipeline breach!" Naruto shouted into the comm system as Cisco hit the alarm. Naruto and Cisco ran for the pipeline and were about to open it when it was blown open by some kind of explosion that sent Naruto and Cisco flying back. Naruto hit the wall as Cisco dropped to the floor, both unconscious from the force of the explosion.

Naruto woke up with his head pulsing and his ears ringing. He felt like he was thrown through a wall as his whole body hurt. He leaned up and saw he was lying down in the hallway with debris all around him. He got onto his feet, staggering a bit as he saw Cisco lying on the ground, injured.

"Cisco!" Naruto shouted as he ran over and found a pulse. Naruto picked him up and took him to the cortex and saw Barry, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells. Naruto put Cisco on a gurney as Caitlin checked him over.

"Naruto, are you ok?" Dr. Wells asked as Naruto nodded.

"A little banged up but I'll be fine. Hartley?" Naruto asked.

"He's gone." Dr. Wells replied as Naruto cursed under his breath.

"Shit!" Naruto shouted as he punched the wall. "I should have known it was too easy to put him away."

"You couldn't have known that, Naruto." Dr. Wells told him.

"Well, I should have. If I really had the genius potential you think I do and Hartley's so envious of, then I should have known it was too easy to stop him before. But I was too wrapped in my own satisfaction of stopping him when I should have realized it was just a ruse." Naruto said as he exhaled in frustration. "And I gave him access to STAR labs to do god knows what. It's my fault."

"This is no one's fault but mine. I earn the blame; I'm not interested in sharing it. Hartley doesn't think I've paid for my crimes, and he's right. He won't stop until I do." Dr. Wells said as he turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Barry asked.

"To earn back your trust." Dr. Wells said as Barry left with him.

Naruto got to work looking over every single scrap of data to see what Hartley took and trying to find a way to track him down while Caitlin looked over Cisco who had woken up and was nursing a concussion. Dr. Wells had called for a press conference and told the public that he knew there was a chance the Particle Accelerator would fail but decided to turn it on. Afterward, Barry and Dr. Wells returned to STAR labs.

"Has Hartley made contact yet?" Dr. Wells asked.

"What makes you so sure he will?" Caitlin asked.

"Because he's Hartley and he'll want to have the last word." Dr. Wells said as they looked at Naruto on the computer.

"Naruto, you should try and get some rest. Even with super speed healing, you got hit by a massive blast." Barry said as Naruto kept working.

"I'm fine. I managed to isolate the code Hartley used to break in and it will provide the answer to what he was looking for. Not to mention I'm running an algorithm with the STAR Labs satellite to track any sonic or vibrational waves his gauntlets give off." Naruto said as Dr. Wells rolled up next to him.

"You have nothing to prove, Naruto." Dr. Wells told him.

"Tell that to my subconscious." Naruto replied as Dr. Wells chuckled.

"Do you know why we came looking for you, Naruto?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Because of my powers." Naruto replied back.

"Yes, that was a factor but it wasn't the only reason. The reason we came looking for you…why I came looking for you is because when you came to me earlier asking if the Particle Accelerator had caused any change, I saw in you the same spark that you had when you were 10 years old." Dr. Wells said as Naruto knew what he meant.

"I was 10 years old and you were babysitting me. You showed me what my parents were working on and told me how science is supposed to be for the betterment of mankind…it's one of the reasons I wanted to be a scientist." Naruto said as Dr. Wells nodded.

"In that moment I realized that you had the potential to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest scientific mind on this planet. And you proved me right as I got to watch you over the years and I saw the mind of man beyond his age. Someone who solved problems and had a keen attention to detail but more importantly it was your attitude that proved me right." Dr. Wells said as Naruto looked at him.

"Anyone can pick up a physics book or put their mind to studying the sciences through rigorous work, but true genius is born. You and Hartley are two of them but what you understood, and Hartley never did is that science is never about proving how much smarter you are or putting yourself above your fellow man. True genius is about humanity. You and Hartley are both brilliant, you both have mental sparks. But his brilliance subtracts from the overall goal of science whereas your brilliance, your heart, your warmth, your drive…your humanity, it brings it to new heights." Dr. Wells said, filled with pride in Naruto as Naruto smiled back. "There is no chosen one, Naruto. There is no second or third favorite, it's just us."

The beautiful moment was halted when the comms system in STAR labs short-circuited. "What's that?" Caitlin asked as the speaker system turned on.

"Hartley." Naruto said as Dr. Wells nodded.

"Nice gambit, Harrison. But this duel isn't over." Hartley told him.

"Hartley, what do you want? What do you want, Hartley?! I already gave my mea culpa today!" Dr. Wells replied.

"The city already hated you. You don't think I noticed that press conference was a pathetic bishop sacrifice? Oh no, I've played with you too many times to let you get away with that. This is between you, me, and Impulse. Or would you prefer me to use your real name…Naruto." Hartley said as everyone was shocked he knew Naruto was Impulse.

"You don't want to do this with me again, Hartley." Naruto told him.

"Actually, I really do. Time to prove I was right all along. What do you say, Harrison? One last game of chess?" Hartley asked.

"You and I both know that the winner of the game is the one who makes the next-to-last mistake, and you clearly have a move in mind." Wells said.

"You're right. And I'm already at the board. So, why don't you move your precious little crimson knight while I take out a few pawns." Hartley said as he ended the communication line and Naruto's algorithm picked up Hartley's vibrational gauntlets.

"Your algorithm picked up Hartley's gauntlets at the Keystone Cleveland Dam." Cisco said as he brought up the map on the screen.

"During rush hour. He's putting innocent people in harms way." Caitlin said as Naruto put on his suit.

"Naruto, let me go with you. We can do this together." Barry said as Naruto put on his mask.

"No, Barry. This is something I have to do alone." Naruto told him.

"Naruto, be careful. You know exactly how dangerously deceptive Hartley can be." Wells told him.

"Good thing I'll have you here." Naruto said as he tapped his ear. Naruto super sped away to the dam.

Hartley was on the Dam road looking at the line of cars he stopped. A woman was in her car, scared for her life as Hartley smiled. "Rook to Knight four." Hartley said as he fired his sonic blasts at her car and used it to launch her off the dam.

Naruto was speeding to the dam and saw the falling car, so he ran up the dam, through the car, grabbed her and stopped on the road, saving her life. Hartley glared at Naruto as he walked forward.

"Naruto, you need to disarm Hartley immediately! Do you hear me!" Wells told him.

"On it." Impulse replied as Hartley fired another sonic wave that sent four cars flying in the air. Impulse ran forward and grabbed all the passengers out of their cars and placed them on the road.

"Naruto, you need to get out of there, immediately!" Dr. Wells shouted but before he could act, Hartley pressed a button on his gauntlets and they began releasing a unique sonic frequency that communicated with the speakers in his suit.

"ARGH!" Impulse shouted as his whole body began violently vibrating,

"I got the idea watching you and Wells chit-chat to use your suit's own speakers to kill you." Hartley said as Impulse fell to his knees and coughed up some blood. "That feeling? That's your organs shearing apart. Hurts doesn't it."

Hartley kicked Naruto in the gut and knocked him to the ground as Naruto shouted in pain. "Proving my point for me, what a colossal waste of space. I don't know what Wells, or your parents saw in you." Hartley said as Naruto managed to get to his knees. "Oh, you can still stand. Guess I'll have to beat some sense into you."

"Naruto's vitals are dropping out! What do we do?!" Caitlin said as she saw his vitals getting worse.

"I'm…not…a…failure…." Impulse managed to say as something inside him triggered and his eyes began to glow crimson and his body began to vibrate and pulse with lightning.

"What's going on?" Hartley said as Impulse began to stand on his two feet and his body began pulsing with more lightning like he had an aura of it around him.

"What's happening? His vitals are evening out." Cisco said.

"Hang on, there should be a security camera up there." Dr. Wells said as he hacked into it and they saw Naruto stand on his two feet despite the sound frequency destroying him from the inside. But what was most interesting was that his body was generating an aura of lightning around him like some kind of shield.

Hartley pressed a button on his gauntlet to amplify the frequency, but Impulse's body vibrated even more as the lightning turned into solid crimson and white light that enveloped his body like some kind of armor. His entire suit was glowing with solid crimson and white lightning as Impulse seemed unaffected by the frequency pulse. Hartley fired a sonic blast at Impulse, but the glowing suit just absorbed the energy.

"Impossible. It's too soon." Wells said to himself as he watched Impulse access Speed Force armor.

Impulse then walked forward and grabbed Hartley's gauntlets. He vibrated his hands and they fell to pieces, leaving Hartley powerless. Impulse then raised his hands to Hartley's head and vibrated them to create his own sonic pulse that destroyed Hartley's cochlear implants and left him under the pain and torment of the horrendous damage from the injury he suffered.

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Hartley shouted as he dropped to the ground and held his head in pain. With no cochlear implants, it felt like someone was shoving a spiked toothbrush through one ear and out the other. Impulse then kicked him in the face and knocked him out as the lightning aura disappeared and he was back to normal.

Naruto dropped to his knees in exhaustion as he felt he just ran around the planet twice with an anchor tied to his back. He coughed up some blood as he wiped his mouth and saw Hartley was unconscious and the civilians were ok.

"Naruto. Naruto, can you hear me? Are you ok?" Dr. Wells asked as Naruto took a deep breath.

"Sort of." Naruto said as he wiped his mouth. He managed to stand to his feet and looked at Hartley. "Checkmate."

Naruto arrived back at STAR Labs with an unconscious Hartley. They locked him in another cell and gave him non-explosive cochlear implants. Naruto sat on a gurney as Caitlin looked him over and other than the exhaustion, he was fine.

"It just doesn't make any sense. That sonic pulse was tuned to your body's exact frequency. It should have been impossible for you to move." Caitlin told him.

"Glad to know that you didn't want to me to make it. I'm fine by the way." Naruto said as Caitlin just pinched him.

"You know what I mean." She replied.

"What happened to you? How did you do…whatever you did?" Barry asked.

"To be honest, I don't remember much of what happened after Hartley activated that pulse." Naruto said.

"What do you remember?" Cisco asked.

"My insides being shredded to pieces and a killer headache. Then…just energy…pure energy. Like when Barry and I run…but 1,000 times more powerful. It was fuzzy, kind of like dreaming and my body was on autopilot." Naruto said. "What did I do?"

"You were badass, man. You turned your lightning into solid armor, it was insane." Cisco said.

"But how?" Naruto asked.

"There's still a lot more of your powers that we don't know about, Naruto. Perhaps this ability is what differentiates you from Mr. Allen. Or it could be another factor. But we'll run some more tests to figure out what happened." Dr. Wells said as Naruto nodded. "For now, you should get some rest."

"Rest sounds good." Naruto said as he laid down on the gurney in the med bay. "And thank you, Dr. Wells for not losing faith in me."

"I should be the one thanking you. And I hope to pay back that kindness and restore all your faith in me." Dr. Wells said as they smiled.

"That day was today." Barry said as he shook Dr. Wells hand and handed him the picture they took yesterday causing Dr. Wells to smile.

"Barry, think you can keep the city safe without me?" Naruto joked as Barry chuckled.

"Don't worry, Impulse. I got it." Barry replied as he, Caitlin, Cisco, and Dr. Wells left to let Naruto rest up.

Hartley woke up in a cell in the pipeline and cursed under his breath that he lost and miscalculated. He turned and saw Cisco standing by the doorway.

"Your evil hearing aids won't help you escape this time. Naruto reduced them to pieces and the ones we gave you won't be of any use. So, I'd get comfortable." Cisco said.

"You must be enjoying this, Cisco." Hartley said to him.

"Oh, I am. But I'm more enjoying the fact that Naruto was the one who beat you. Despite everything you've said about him…he proved he was better." Cisco said as he turned to leave.

"I can't imagine how you must feel when you'll have to go behind his back and let me out of here." Hartley said.

"Hmm, maybe I'm going deaf because I could have sworn that you said I'm gonna let you out." Cisco said.

"And very soon, too." Hartley replied.

"And why would I ever do that?" Cisco asked.

"Because I know the truth about what happened to Ronnie Raymond. And I know how to save him." Hartley said as Cisco looked at him.

"And I think you're full of it, Hartley. Always have been and always will be." Cisco said as he turned to leave.

"And he's not the only one of your little team that you'll want to help. Getting Caitlin her fiancé back is important but what about Naruto?" Hartley asked as Cisco stopped.

"What about Naruto?" Cisco asked.

"There's a lot more to Naruto's parent's death than a simple drunk driving accident." Hartley told him as Cisco considered if he was telling the truth.

Dr. Wells was in his secret room using the Tachyon device to stabilize his Speed Force energy.

"Warning! Tachyonic output has passed acceptable tolerance range. Continued exposure is not recommended." Gideon told him.

"Increase to maximum, Gideon." Wells told her.

"Increasing to maximum, Doctor. Speed Force absorption at 35% and rising." Gideon told him.

"I'm not stabilizing. I can't hang onto my speed. It comes and goes, and I cannot control it. Gideon, for how much longer is the Tachyonic device viable?" Wells asked.

"Calculations inconclusive. I'm sorry, Doctor." Gideon replied.

"Oh, that's ok, Gideon. This was only meant to be a temporary fix. It would appear that after today, the final endgame is even closer than I thought." Wells said as Gideon brought up the video footage of Naruto's fight on the dam. "This is dramatically different than what should have happened."

"You were aware of the changes your journey here could cause, Dr. Wells." Gideon said.

"I am. I just didn't anticipate this would involve Pierce or the ASA's involvement or Minato and Kushina's final gambit and untimely demise. Clearly what they did seems to be affecting Naruto because it's the only reason behind his enhancing intelligence or his unlocking of an ability he shouldn't have access to yet." Dr. Wells said.

"All ventures have consequences, Dr. Wells." Gideon said.

"Indeed. I'll need to keep a closer eye on Naruto or his progress might endanger my overall plans." Wells said as he shut Gideon off.

Line Break xxxxx

The next day, Naruto was sitting in the cortex at a table tinkering with some electronics and circuits to make what looked like a high-tech arm casing but in actuality, Naruto was working on some new stabilizers for Linda's powers. In theory, all she would do is put her arm in the casing, and then her light would power it and allow her control the range and intensity of her light blasts. He thought of it last night, took him an hour to suss out the math and began building it shortly afterward.

He was soldering some components on the arm lock when Dr. Wells strolled into the lab. "Good morning, Naruto." Dr. Wells said as Naruto looked up.

"Morning." Naruto said as he blew off the smoke of the soldering iron and got back to work.

"I see you didn't take Dr. Snow's advice to stay in bed." Dr. Wells said.

"I did. Got 8 hours of sleep, rested and ready so I decided to do a little something." Naruto said as he took another component and began soldering it into place.

"And that is?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Something for Linda. A device that would allow her to adjust the intensity of her light blasts. A sort of light gauntlet if you will." Naruto said as Dr. Wells picked up the scraps of paper that held his calculations. The math was right, of course but it was complex calculations and designs that were beyond the best minds at MIT. This was Cisco level quality of engineering.

"Impressive. Your designs and calculations continue to improve." Dr. Wells told him.

"Well, I learned from the best." Naruto said as he finished the last piece. "Done, now let's test it."

Naruto took the power lines and attached it to a large battery as the device began to power up and the circular palm base where the light blast would come out began to glow. "You sure you know what you're doing?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Pretty sure. What's the worse that can happen?" Naruto asked as he pressed the fire button and a concussive beam fired from the gauntlet that blasted a hole in the wall and knocked Naruto onto the floor. Dr. Wells covered his eyes from the blast of wind and papers that scattered all over the place as he saw the hole Naruto's gauntlet made.

"Naruto are you ok?" Dr. Wells asked as Naruto raised his arm and did a thumb up.

"I didn't expect that." Naruto said as he collapsed on the floor in pain.

Soon enough the rest of Team Flash arrived at the cortex and saw the large hole that was made. Barry was fixing the hole while Cisco was looking over the gauntlet that Naruto made. Caitlin went to retrieve Naruto's tests and Linda was looking over Naruto.

"I thought Caitlin told you to take it easy." Linda said.

"That was me taking it easy." Naruto said as Linda hit him on the head. "Ow."

"I'm serious, ok. You were nearly killed and instead of resting you were tinkering with some stupid gauntlet." Linda told him as Naruto heard how concerned she was, so he grabbed her hand as she looked at him.

"Hey. I'm fine. I'm here in one piece, just a slight stinging in my head from your slap." Naruto joked as Linda sighed. "Hey, I'm ok. Believe me. I was just here overnight to make sure everything was fine, and it is. Don't worry."

"Ok, ok. You're off the hook for now." Linda said as she kissed him.

"Yeah, not really." Barry said as they looked at him, fixing the hole. "This is not fun."

"Sorry about that." Naruto said as Cisco walked over carrying the gauntlet Naruto made.

"Normally I'd be pissed too but I'm too busy looking over this piece of beauty. I mean, the circuitry and design of this thing. You're gonna put me out of a job." Cisco said as he held up the gauntlet.

"Nah, I'd never do that to you, Cisco. I'd miss your quipy one liners and references." Naruto said. "Besides, it's just something that I had rattling in my head. It's nothing serious."

"Yeah, hole in the wall? Kind of serious." Barry said as he finished fixing the wall. "What does it do besides blast holes in walls?"

"Well, from what I could tell after looking at this beauty, once powered up it would take Linda's light beams and allow her to adjust the intensity and range of her light blasts. But instead, it powered up the gauntlet and fired high mass negatively charged muons as a concussive energy blast, but the intensity was configured so it turned the blast partially into plasma. It's why the blast went through the wall." Cisco said.

"That was for me?" Linda asked.

"Yeah, for your powers. Think I might have to make a few adjustments first." Naruto said.

"How on earth did you make something like this?" Cisco asked.

"It kind of came naturally. The math wasn't that hard and after sketching out some designs, the building came easy." Naruto said as he saw Cisco was deep in thought. "Why?"

"It's just that this kind of circuitry, math, and design is MIT level engineering. Heck, beyond MIT level engineering." Cisco said.

"Oh, it's good to know that I'm now on Cisco par level engineering." Naruto said.

"Guess all the studying at college paid off." Barry said.

"It might be something more than that." They heard Caitlin said as she walked in with a tablet holding Naruto's medical scans.

"What do you mean?" Linda asked as Caitlin pressed a few buttons on her tablet and connected it to the main screens in the cortex.

"These are the medical exams I've conducted since Naruto's been with us back in October. Everything from cellular makeup to brain scans. After your fight with Hartley, I did a full body scan to make sure nothing was wrong and I found something odd." Caitlin said as she brought up a scan of Naruto's brain and odd was an understatement. The entire cerebrum was lit up with activity, even more so than a typical speedster brain like Barry's. It also looked like the cerebrum grey matter had increased a substantial amount and there was a small flare up in the left hemisphere of his brain like with an injury.

"What the hell?" Naruto asked as he looked at the scans of his brain and everyone was confused. Dr. Wells figured that it was only a matter of time before Naruto learned about his unique mental ability and it would now open the proverbial Pandora's box about how this happened and what it had to do with his parents.

"How the hell did that happen?" Barry asked.

"For those that didn't major in science or biology in college can someone explain what's going on?" Linda asked.

"Naruto's brain took some steroids." Cisco put it bluntly.

"Caitlin, how did that happen?" Naruto asked.

"I'm not sure. The flare up in the left hemisphere is from your extensive fight last night and the scans I ran this morning shows it healed but the rest stayed the same." Caitlin said as she showed them the scans Caitlin took just moments ago. "The reason you're able to build that gauntlet and you can understand and do math and science on Dr. Well's level is because your brain has gotten smarter."

"And I'm guessing that's not a figure of speech?" Barry asked.

"No, but it would appear to be the truth. Your brain's cerebrum is much larger than a typical male your age and its activity is a lot more hyperactive, even for speedsters such as you and Mr. Allen." Dr. Wells said. "And it would explain why his intelligence has risen so steadily these past few months."

"I think that might be the case. Here are the scans I took of Naruto when he first came to STAR Labs after he got his powers." Caitlin said as she brought them up and they showed the same hyperactive brain makeup but the cerebrum wasn't as large as it is now, just slightly larger. Something you'd miss on a first glance. "Here is from after our run in with Prism. And this is after New Year's."

Caitlin showed the two other pictures and they showed the cerebrum grey matter steadily growing and growing until it reached the point where it is now. To Dr. Wells's words, it would seem that Naruto was in fact getting smarter, both literally and figuratively. "Ok, and I thought dealing with metahumans was weird but so is this." Cisco said.

"So, what happens? Is my brain just going to keep getting bigger until it explodes?" Naruto asked.

"I highly doubt that Naruto. But we'll have to run a few more tests to be sure." Dr. Wells said.

"Well this would explain why Naruto's been able to work on stuff the US military would love to get their hands on." Cisco said as he held up the gauntlet.

"And it would explain your work on the Arc Reactor." Barry said.

"That was my parent's work, I just finished it." Naruto replied.

"What about the other uses for the Arc reactor you showed me? Or your other designs for energy cells, capacitors, weapons that are miles above ordinary intelligence, and dare I say, Hartley level intelligence?" Dr. Wells asked as Naruto looked at him. "Despite what appears to be happening to you, you've been using this gift for the better. And Caitlin and I will get to the bottom of this. Don't worry."

"Ok, sorry. Just a little freaked out right now. My head is already bigger than most and I don't need a bigger brain to make it even freakier than it already is." Naruto said.

"At least you're not losing your hair." Cisco said as everyone looked at him. "What? Naruto would look freaky bald."

"Oh, very funny, Cisco." Naruto said as Caitlin sat him on the gurney as she and Dr. Wells ran some more tests. Linda had to get to work as did Barry but with Naruto at STAR labs, Barry said he'd cover for him.

Naruto was sitting at a table, making some adjustments to the gauntlet so it was less volatile, easier to control, and a lot less cumbersome while Caitlin and Dr. Wells were working on the tests they ran on Naruto. They ran every single test known to man to figure out what was going on with Naruto's brain. Dr. Wells was working with the results and set up a program on the STAR Labs server to flag all known files that could tie into what was happening with Naruto from all servers and stored databases in STAR Labs. STAR Labs had never encountered something like this but a file came up which caught Caitlin's attention.

"Hello, what's this?" Caitlin asked as Naruto popped his head up from his work station.

"What's up?" Naruto asked as he rolled his chair over to see a flagged file. "What file is that?"

Caitlin tried to open it but it was locked. "I can't access it. It's locked." She said.

"Not for long." Naruto said as he took her spot and began hacking into the file. Normally, this would take skilled hackers hours to do, but with Naruto's super speed he did in a minute. He opened the file and they saw a unique genetic sequence on a DNA molecule. "Whoa? Is that Metahuman DNA?"

"I think so, but different. It's not like Barry's DNA after the Particle Accelerator." Caitlin said as she brought up the file and they realized it was Naruto's DNA. "Wait, this is yours."

"So, my metahuman DNA is different than Barry's. That's good to know seeing as how I've used different powers than him." Naruto said.

"No, this DNA sample is from 2012." Caitlin said as she brought up the file and to her word it was from a physical Naruto had before college in 2012.

"No, that's not possible." Naruto said as Dr. Wells came over. "Wait a minute, how are my DNA scans from 2012 showing metahuman DNA? Better yet, why are my DNA scans even in the STAR Labs system from three years ago? I was in college then."

Dr. Wells did a little digging and the DNA file that Caitlin inadvertently accessed was on a STAR Labs sub-server. It was very well hidden and encrypted. The only reason it was flagged was because the program Dr. Wells created searched through every single file ever entered in the STAR Labs servers.

"That's a very good question." Dr. Wells said as he did a little digging to see who created the file and the secret server it was hidden in. "This server was very well hidden and made by someone who knew what they were doing."

"Can you figure out who made the server?" Naruto asked.

"One more second." Dr. Wells asked as he brought up the STAR Lab's server log sub-routine data and got the id of the creator of the server. "It was your father."

"What?" Naruto asked as he saw the login that created the server was indeed Minato Namikaze. Naruto was frozen in shock for a while as Dr. Wells and Caitlin both tried to process what this meant.

"Naruto?" Caitlin called his name as he blinked and tried to come up with words.

"Ok, there are a million things running through my head that are leading me to worst case scenarios but for the sake of me needing to hear it...could my pre-Particle accelerator meta DNA be the reason for my enhancing intelligence?" Naruto asked, doing his best to keep calm.

"That would be the most likely answer at the moment." Dr. Wells told him.

"Ok, but what does this all mean? I thought I got my powers after I was struck by lightning. How could I have metahuman DNA before the accelerator went off?" Naruto asked.

"Something tells me that whatever your father was working on might have the answers." Dr. Wells said as he tried to access the files on the server but the encryption was too advanced, even for him. "Unfortunately, whatever your father was doing he did a very good job in keep it hidden."

Naruto gave it a shot but this kind of encryption was way too complicated and advanced for him to break so he needed help. "Well, lucky enough I know a very skilled hacker." Naruto said as he took out his phone and called Felicity.

"Hey, Felicity. I know this might be a bad time but I need a favor. I ran into some very well encrypted files on the STAR Labs server and could hold some answers to…a question we've been dealing with but we can't get through. Do you think you could take a look?" He asked.

Caitlin and Dr. Wells looked as Naruto listened to Felicity respond. "Felicity, you're a god send, don't let anyone tell you different. Sending the file right now." He said as he attached the server files to an email and sent it to Felicity. "Keep me updated and can you try to rush this. I know coming from me that sounds pushy but this is kind of important. Thanks."

"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Felicity's the only one who could hack into that file. And if it has answers to what the hell is happening to me, then I need to know." Naruto replied. "There has to be a reasonable explanation as to why my father had this kind of server set up and why my DNA is so messed up."

"And if you don't like the answers?" Dr. Wells asked.

"It has to be better than what I'm thinking of right now." Naruto replied as Caitlin got a text from Barry about a case from Iron Heights about a new metahuman.

"Barry thinks he has a new metahuman case." Barry said.

"Ok. I could use a distraction." Naruto said.

"Naruto…" "Its fine, Caitlin. There's nothing we can do about this now until Felicity breaks through the encryption." Naruto said in a relatively calm demeanor. "What I can do now is help Barry stop another meta."

Barry and Joe soon arrived with a unique case of a vanishing inmate at Iron Heights Prison. The prisoner was supposedly in his cell at check in yet escaped along with half of the cameras in the prison being destroyed. Prisoner Clay Parker was possibly a metahuman and the only evidence they had of his disappearance was some kind of organic particulate. When they put the particulate in the scanner, they were amazed at the speed at which they moved.

"Not even Barry's and Naruto's cells move this fast." Caitlin said as they looked at the cells.

"So, Clay Parker is a metahuman?" Joe asked.

"Not so fast. The particulate residue Barry gathered at Iron Heights does contain Clay Parker's DNA, but also DNA of a woman." Dr. Wells said as he looked at the genetic chromosomes.

"Run her DNA against the CCPD criminal database. See if you get a match." Barry said as Cisco ran it and did get one.

"Yahtzee. Her name's Shawna Baez. Mostly petty crimes, and this girl likes to party, apparently. Long list of disorderly conducts at local bars." Cisco said.

"So, I'm guessing we find her, we find Clay Parker." Joe said as Naruto looked at the molecules and the neurons in his brain were firing as he began to see something there.

"Naruto, what's wrong?" Caitlin asked.

"Joe, do you have the copy of the camera footage from Iron Heights?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah." Joe said as he gave it to Cisco who uploaded it into the STAR Labs database.

"Ok, run it back to right before the alarm went off. Then, bring up any nearby CCTV footage by the prison at the time of the escape and bring up blueprints as well." Naruto said as Cisco did those things and laid them all out on one giant screen.

"Naruto, what are you seeing?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Spooky action at a distance but why the close distance?" Naruto said to himself as he began to put together the pieces of the puzzle. "Forward the video footage to the time of the malfunction but run it through a wide multi-meter adjustment. That should give us the last second of footage before the camera was damaged."

Everyone was a shocked, but Cisco did as he ran the video through the multi-meter adjustment and three cameras managed to pick up the last second of footage which was on Shawna Baez smashing them with a long object. "How about that." Joe said as he was amazed they got the footage.

"Cisco, zoom in on her right hand." Naruto said as he did, and they saw what looked like a club but was actually a small telescope.

"A telescope?" Caitlin asked.

"Not exactly something you bring to a break-in at a prison." Barry said.

"Cisco, bring up the blue prints but overlay the parts where the cameras were destroyed and Clay Parker's cell." Naruto said as Cisco did and the cameras were all located within close proximity to one another and to Clay Parker's cell.

"All the cameras were close together and to Clay Parker's cell." Barry said.

"Cisco, the CCTV footage bring up anything at that time?" Naruto asked.

"Uh, several cars on the road." Cisco said.

"Which one was the closest to the prison?" Naruto asked as Cisco stopped on the footage down the road of the prison which showed a silver and purple sports car.

"That one picked up a car half a mile from the prison road." Cisco said as they looked at the car.

"Zoom in on the mirror and run an overlay adjustment." Dr. Wells said as Cisco did and they got a clearer image of Clay Parker and Shawna Baez driving away. "Now we know how they got away."

"I'll have CCPD put a bolo out on that car." Joe said. "Naruto, how did you know to do all this?"

"Because I think it explains her meta ability. She's a teleporter." Naruto said.

"A teleporter, as in beam me up, Scotty?" Caitlin asked.

"Of course, quantum entanglement. The ability to manipulate interconnected particles over an infinite distance. Or as Einstein like to say, spooky action at a distance." Dr. Wells said. "Impressive, Naruto."

"It's also the only reason how Shawna's cells could move that fast. Faster than mine or Barry's. Instantaneous teleportation explains how Shawna and Clay got from inside the prison to outside in the car with no one seeing. And she destroyed the cameras to make it harder for the police to figure out what she was doing." Naruto said as the others began to put the pieces together.

"But if Shawna is the meta, how come Clay was able to teleport with her?" Barry asked.

"Maybe she can teleport whoever she touches." Caitlin said as she did a quick test and to her word, once another group of cells came into contact with Shawna's they adopted her properties. "Look, once these cells come into contact with hers, they adopt her properties."

"Allowing her to teleport anyone she touches." Barry said. "Great, so how do we stop someone who can teleport anywhere she wants?"

"If she could teleport anywhere she wants, she would have just grabbed Clay and left. But she stayed around to take out the cameras, then go to his cell, then teleport into the car." Naruto said as he got an idea when he remembered Linda's fight with Darkforce and how her light blinded him. "Cisco, remove the light source from Shawna's cells."

Cisco did and when that happened, her cells were no longer hyperactive and were normal. "Whoa, what happened?" Joe asked.

"That's the key. Shawna can teleport, but she needs to see where she's going. It's why she has that telescope in her hands when she destroyed the cameras and why you found the particulate in Parker's cell. His cell has a view outside of the prison, so she teleported them out from there and then to the car." Naruto said as he pointed to a window on the blueprints by the first camera that was destroyed. "And the first camera destroyed is closest to a window. It's how she got in. And the other cameras, all within sight of the other. It all fits."

"Damn, point to Naruto's steroid super brain." Cisco said.

"Super what?" Joe asked.

"It's a long and complicated story." Barry said.

"But Naruto may have solved this one in record time. Shawna must need to see where she's going. That's how we'll stop her. We'll begin working on something for this situation." Dr. Wells said.

"I'll head to CCPD and track down any of Parker's old contacts." Joe said as he left.

"Impressive deduction, Naruto. Like I said, you're using your new ability for the better." Dr. Wells told him.

"Right. Super genius intelligence, deduction, and crime solving skills are the one benefit to my super growing brain. Upside, I'm a Japanese Sherlock Holmes, downside, my head may very well explode." Naruto said, sarcastically as Dr. Wells chuckled.

"I don't think that will happen. I would never let anything happen to you, Naruto. You know that." Dr. Wells said as Naruto looked at him. "We will figure out what your father was doing and how this touches your new increasing intelligence. You have my word."

"I know." Naruto replied.

"For now, let's figure out how to blind a teleporter." Dr. Wells said as they went to a workstation as Cisco sat back in his chair.

"Now that Naruto's all super Sherlock Holmes, how about we call it a day and get some lunch?" Cisco asked Caitlin. "How about it, Caitlin? Maybe head to Jitters or grab a taco? On me?"

"Maybe later." Caitlin said as Cisco looked at her.

"You ok?" He asked as Caitlin sighed.

"I was looking for my tablet at your work station, and I found this." Caitlin said as she held it up to show a digital copy of Project FIRESTORM on the screen.

"I can explain. I know you said we should stop looking for Ronnie, so I didn't stop looking for Ronnie." Cisco said.

"Why?" Caitlin asked.

"Hartley. He said he knew what happened to Ronnie." Cisco told her.

"Oh, Hartley Rathaway, who is currently locked up in our super jail because he went psycho and tried to kill Naruto with soundwaves?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes, he made some poor choices and he's an asshole but I looked into what he was saying and…" "Cisco, Ronnie's gone. And it's time for me to move on with my life." Caitlin said.

"Are you sure about that? Because I'm no expert on love but to actually move on from Ronnie, you would actually have to move on." Cisco said as Caitlin thought about what he said. "But there's something else."

"What, Cisco?" Caitlin asked.

"Naruto." Cisco said as Caitlin looked at him. "Hartley said there's more to their death than a simple car crash." Cisco said.

"Cisco, Hartley could be saying all this to get you to let him out, which you're thinking of doing. Now, if Hartley does know something, which I highly doubt he does, I don't think Naruto even wants to consider letting him out of the pipeline." Caitlin said as Cisco nodded.

"But if he does know something?" Cisco asked.

"Then we let Naruto know. For now, until he can prove he does, he should stay where he is." Caitlin said as Cisco reluctantly nodded.

Line Break xxxxx

The group tried to narrow down the last known addresses for Shawna Baez and Clay Parker but they didn't come up with anything yet. Cisco took off somewhere to track down a lead while Barry and Joe got word from Barry's dad in prison that Clay Parker owed money to a gangster named Marcus Stockheimer. Now that Clay was out of jail, he had to pay his debt before he could leave. Naruto and Dr. Wells were figuring out ways to track and trap Shawna while Cisco, despite Caitlin's warning, decided to see if Hartley did know what he was talking about. He said he knew what happened to Ronnie, so Cisco slapped a pair of cuffs on him and led him out of the building.

"You said you were gonna show me what happened to Ronnie. Ronnie died inside the building. What are we doing out here?' Cisco asked.

"What do you see?" Hartley asked.

"I don't know. Buildings, walls, dirt." Cisco said as they walked along the side of the building.

"Wells would be so disappointed in your observational skills. Look again." Hartley said as Cisco saw a shadow imprinted onto a wall that resembled a man.

"Bakudan no kage." Hartley said in Japanese. "It's Japanese."

"How can you speak six languages and sound like a dick in every one of them?" Cisco asked.

"It means bomb shadow. They found these all over Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb was dropped. This shadow belonged to Martin Stein." Hartley said.

"The accelerator explosion did this to him?" Cisco asked.

"You really don't see it, do you? You're gonna kick yourself when you figure it out." Hartley said.

"Oh, man. You were full of it then, and you're full of it now. This is just another one of your lame-ass tricks. Come on. We're going back into the pipeline." Cisco said Hartley elbowed him in the face. He threw out a punch, but Cisco dodged and punched Hartley in the face. He threw him into the wall and then onto the ground. Cisco threw out a kick, but Hartley caught it and pushed him away as he tried to run but Cisco pulled out a device and pressed a button. Instantly, Hartley felt a high-pitched screeching in his ears.

"You're not the only one who knows a thing or two about vibrations, Hartley. Those cochlear implants I made you. I made a few adjustments." Cisco said.

"No, please don't!" Hartley shouted as the pain was unbearable.

"If you know how to find Ronnie, then you better tell me now." Cisco said.

"Please, make it stop. Please. I'll show you." Hartley said as Cisco deactivated the button.

"Do something like that again. And I won't make it stop, ever." Cisco told him.

"I'm impressed. Didn't think you had that in you." Hartley said as he got an idea. "But you have to take these off me if you want to find out the truth."

"And why's that?" Cisco asked.

"It'll look a little conspicuous where we're going." Hartley told him.

Barry and Naruto were back in STAR Labs as Caitlin had some info for them. "Hey. I put Shawna and Clay's information into a search matrix and that will notify us if they use any of their old aliases or go to any of their old spots." Caitlin said as Naruto nodded. Barry then noticed Caitlin was a little off.

"Something bothering you?" Barry asked.

"Why would you ask that?" Caitlin asked.

"You're doing that biting-your-lower-lip thing that you do when something's bothering you." Barry said as Caitlin cleared her throat.

"I'm fine." She said as Barry nodded. "Cisco says I don't have a life."

"You technically don't, do you?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"I do! I cook, and I eat, and I read, and I help you two." Caitlin said.

"So, what you're saying is, you do everything that has nothing to do with having a life." Barry said.

"You don't have to be rude about it." Caitlin said as Barry chuckled.

"Hey, I'm not doing any better than you. My social life consists of running at superhuman speed and Netflix." Barry said.

"We are quite the pair, Mr. Allen." Caitlin said.

"Yes, we are, Dr. Snow." Barry replied.

"Both of you are making me sad right now." Naruto said as they looked at him.

"Well, not everyone can be in a happy relationship with a girl who also happens to be a meta." Barry said.

"Touché. But even when I was in college I had a life." Naruto said as he sat down in a chair and looked at them. "I mean, didn't you guys go out and have fun? Go to parties, bars? Meet new people? Go on dates?"

"Kind of." Barry said.

"It's been a while." Caitlin said.

"It's just like riding a bike. All you need to do is try and it'll come back." Naruto said as the computer beeped.

"What's wrong?" Barry asked as Naruto brought up a police emergency.

"Armed robbery in progress. Two suspects, male and female in their 20s. Sounds like our metahuman Bonnie and Clyde are at it again." Caitlin said.

"Time to ruin their social life." Barry said as he grabbed his suit and super sped to the location. Naruto grabbed his suit and followed.

Clay and Shawna were robbing an armored truck from Black Hawk Security to pay off the debt to Marcus Stockheimer. Shawna used her powers to overpower the guards cuff them using their own handcuffs. Clay held them at gunpoint while Shawna moved the money to her car.

"Just a few bags, baby. Enough to pay back Marcus." Clay said.

"These things are heavier than they look." Shawna said as she smirked and teleported to her car and put the bags in the trunk. Flash went to stop Shawna while Impulse grabbed Clay. He saw Clay holding the guards a gunpoint so he ran by and swiped the gun from his hand.

"What the hell?" Clay asked as Impulse ran by again and punched him in the face. The force sent Clay flying through the air and hit the ground like a sack of potatoes. Impulse then reached down and vibrated the cuffs off the guards.

"You two ok?" He asked as they nodded. Impulse took one of the cuffs and tied up Clay when he saw Shawna teleport around some buildings with Flash running after her. It's like they were playing a game of catch the leader. Shawna then teleported back to her car to grab the money and leave but the Flash appeared in front of her.

A white and crimson blur then ran in front of her and knocked her back and through the air. She hit the ground, unconscious as Impulse ran up and slapped cuffs on her. "And she's down." Impulse said.

"I had that, you know." Flash said.

"Sure you did." Impulse joked as he grabbed Clay and super sped him to the CCPD where he was arrested and sent back to jail while they took Shawna to STAR Labs and put her into a cell with a reflective material so she couldn't teleport out.

Naruto, Barry, Caitlin, and Dr. Wells watched as Shawna attempted to teleport but she just wound up back in the same spot. "Anyway she can teleport out of this?" Barry asked.

"No. It's one way glass on the other side, completely reflective. Dr. Wells and I came up with that. She won't be getting out of there anytime soon." Naruto said as Barry nodded. Naruto pressed a button and the pipeline locked down.

"I think that has to be a record for our quickest metahuman takedown." Caitlin said.

"It wasn't that hard. Barry kept her distracted while I took her out. Excellent teamwork." Naruto said as he high-fived Barry.

"Impressive work, gentlemen." Dr. Wells said as they nodded.

"It was a good thing you acted when you did. Shawna just kept teleporting out of my grasp. It was like we were playing a game of…" "Peak-a-boo." Caitlin said as they looked at her. "What, can't I name one?"

"Not bad." Naruto said.

"Well, a job well done everyone. I think we can call it an early night." Dr. Wells said as he left.

"Or a late one. How about we all grab a drink and hang out? Make some semblance of a regular life outside of STAR Labs?" Naruto asked as Barry and Caitlin chuckled. "Come on. I saw a karaoke bar that Linda loves on Shawna's list of hangouts. Let's get a drink."

"Sorry, I have to help Iris with something." Barry said as he left while Naruto and Caitlin looked at each other.

"That's not healthy is it?" Naruto asked.

"What? The not going out thing or the pining for Iris when she's with someone else?" Caitlin asked.

"The latter?" Naruto asked.

"No, that's not healthy. But I think a night out would be fun." Caitlin said as Naruto smiled.

"Ok. So, what about Cisco? Where is he? I haven't seen him in hours." Naruto said.

"I don't know. Maybe he had something to do." Caitlin said as walked away. "I'll meet you there."

Naruto smiled as he walked to the cortex and saw the gauntlets for Linda he was working on. He planned to keep on working on them but he'd give it arrest tonight. He grabbed his phone and called Linda. "Hello, amazing girlfriend who lights up every room she walks into, both figuratively and literally." Linda answered causing Naruto to chuckle.

"Hey, beautiful. I think something's wrong with your voice message because it didn't have the word beautiful or gorgeous with it." Naruto said as he heard her chuckle.

"Just wanted to hear you say it. So, why the call?" She asked.

"I was wondering if you were doing anything tonight. Maybe we could head to that karaoke bar you love so much." Naruto said.

"Yeah, that sounds great." Linda replied.

"Ok, if Caitlin comes along?" Naruto asked.

"That's no problem. What's up?" Linda asked.

"Cisco said something along the lines that Caitlin doesn't have a social life so we're trying to get her back out there." Naruto said.

"Well, I'm all for it. I'll meet you there in 30 minutes." Linda said.

"See you there, lightning rod." He said as she sighed.

"It's still not working, Naruto." She said as she hung up.

"Huh, I think it's cute." Naruto said as he went back to the shelter to take a quick shower and a change of clothes. He put on some nice shoes, jeans, a black button up and a jacket. He finished up some chores at the shelter and helped Tsunade make dinner in the span of a second and then made his way to the bar when he got a call from Barry. "Hey, Barry."

"Hey, Naruto." Barry said as Naruto heard him sigh. "Is that invitation to the bar still open?"

"Yeah, of course. What's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"It turns out that Iris didn't need my help tonight." Barry said. "So, I could use a night out with some friends."

"Definitely dude. I'll text you the address." Naruto said as he texted Barry the place. Naruto super sped to the bar and got a table. He ordered a whiskey as Barry and Linda appeared soon after. Barry got a gin and tonic and Linda got a glass of wine and they all relaxed and enjoyed themselves as they listened to some guy singing Working for the Weekend by Loverboy and it was funny.

"You're kidding." Barry said.

"I'm not. Linda had red hair." Naruto said as Barry chuckled while Linda punched him in the shoulder.

"I went through a punk rock phase in high school. And to be fair it was red highlights not red hair." Linda said as she sipped her wine.

"I still can't imagine the dark brown Linda Park with red hair and playing a guitar." Barry said.

"It was a phase. And I grew out of it in college. And I'm kind of grateful I did because it'd be kind of hard to be taken seriously at CCN with red streaks in my hair." Linda said as she held her hair up.

"Well, I think I missed out on something. You looked cute with red hair." Naruto said as Linda smiled and kissed his cheek.

"And you looked ridiculous with the short haircut." Linda said.

"Short haircut?" Barry asked.

"Naruto showed me an old photo of him from middle school where he had short hair, no spikes. And he looked horrible." Linda said as Barry laughed. "Like a little blonde colored egg."

"And what about your regrets in the past, Barry?" Naruto asked.

"Oh, I'm keeping my mouth shut." Barry said as he took a sip when he saw Caitlin walk in wearing a beautiful black beaded long sleeve minidress. "Hey."

"Whoa." Naruto said as he and Barry were a bit shocked.

"What?" Caitlin asked.

"What? Nothing, it's just…uh, well you look really nice." Barry said.

"I don't always dress like a high school principal." Caitlin said as she sat down.

"So, this is the place you and Linda like to come to?" Barry asked Naruto.

"Yeah, I've always loved coming here. Great atmosphere, nice people, good drinks and the karaoke is entertaining." Linda said.

"And while I can't sing to save my life this place has grown on me." Naruto said as he sipped his whiskey. "I figured we could kill two birds with one stone tonight. Enjoy a night out and get your two social lives in some semblance of order."

Caitlin chuckled as Barry sighed. "Everything ok, Barry?" Linda asked.

"I keep making the same mistake. Every time Iris falls, I race to pick her up thinking that one of these times things are gonna change, but…things are never gonna change. I am just destined to be just the friend." Barry said.

"Well, I've gotten to know Iris at work and if she can't see the great guy you are then maybe it's for the better. Who knows, maybe there's someone else out there for you? If Naruto and I weren't together, I'd ask you out." Linda said as Barry and Naruto looked at her.

"Really?" Barry asked.

"Sure. You're cute." Linda replied.

"Sitting right here. Right next to you." Naruto said as Linda chuckled and kissed his cheek.

"Don't worry, baby. I only have eyes for you." She said as she kissed him again.

"At least you're not pining for someone who bursts into flames and wants nothing to do with you." Caitlin said as Barry shook his head.

"What is wrong with us? We're in our 20s. We should be having fun. We should meet people and go on lots of dates." Barry said as Caitlin picked up his drink.

"Well, here's to liquid courage." Caitlin said as she drank the whole thing.

"Whoa." Linda said.

"You drank all of it." Barry said as Caitlin waved at the waitress.

"Excuse me. I would like to start a tab." Caitlin said with a smile.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Naruto said.

The night went on as the four friends had drinks, food and enjoyed themselves. Barry and Naruto were completely fine since regular alcohol didn't affect them. Linda was ok as well, only on her second glass of wine while Caitlin was definitely tipsy.

Barry was at the bar to get some water. "Excuse me, could I get some water?" Barry asked the bartender, but he was completely ignoring him. "Yo? Dude?"

"Mr. Barry Allen! Come on down! Or up!" Caitlin shouted as she was on the stage for karaoke, definitely a little wasted.

"I'm not going." Barry said as he waved her to stop.

"Barry, go!" Naruto said as Linda encouraged him.

"Come up here with me. Oh, come show'em what you got. Come on. Barry! Barry! Barry! Barry! Barry! Barry! Barry!" Caitlin started to chant as the rest of the bar began to do so as well as Barry relented and joined Caitlin on stage. "Ooh, look at him go. He's so fast! Ooh, shh!"

"You know I'm not much of a singer, and you're not much of a singer." Barry told her.

"We are gonna bring this place down." Caitlin said.

"Ok, just…good girl." Barry said as the music started to play and it was Summer Nights from Grease.

"Get ready." Caitlin said as the lyrics came up and she sang a little off tune. "Summer lovin' had me a blast, summer lovin' happened so fast"

"I met a girl crazy for me" Barry sang perfectly and on key which caught Naruto, Linda, and Caitlin off guard.

"I met a boy cute as can be." She sang.

"Summer days, driftin' away to uh-oh those summer nights. Uh well-a well-a well-a uh." Barry and Caitlin kept singing and it was a really memorable and funny moment. Naruto began recording and he definitely wanted to show Cisco. Speaking of Cisco, where the hell was he? Naruto called him again, but he still wouldn't pick up. Maybe he was in some kind of trouble, so Naruto activated a tracker app to see if it could narrow down his location.

While his phone tracked down Cisco, Naruto and Linda joined Barry and Caitlin at the bar. "You're fast and you can sing? What can't you do?" Caitlin asked as she grabbed a drink and took a sip.

"Stop you from drinking, apparently." Barry said.

"I'm not even sure that was mine." Caitlin said. "I have to go to the bathroom."

Caitlin left as Linda raised an eyebrow. "I'll go with her." Linda said as she left.

"Not bad up there, Barry." Naruto said as he looked at the bartender. "Hey, Steve. Can I close out my tab?"

But the bartender ignored Naruto like he did Barry, so a woman walked up to Barry at the bar. "Hey, Stevie. Can they close out their bar tab?" She asked.

"Sure thing, Ino." He said as Naruto froze a bit.

"Ino?" Naruto asked as he looked over and to his surprise, saw his old friend Ino. He recognized her the second he saw her long blonde hair which was down to her waist and it was as always covering the right side of her face only showing one of her blue eyes. She was wearing a purple jacket, a white off the shoulder top, and black pants.

"Hey there, Naruto. Long time no see." Ino said as Naruto was in shock.

"Oh my god. It's been forever." Naruto said as he walked over and hugged her as she hugged back. He lifted her up and spun her a bit as she laughed while Barry was a bit confused but then remembered her from a photo on Naruto's Facebook page of his friends. "What are you doing here?"

"Just here to troll for some arm candy." Ino said.

"What happened to Sai? Things didn't work out?" Naruto asked.

"We're taking a bit of a break." She said.

"Oh, sorry about that." Naruto said.

"It's all right. We just wanted different things. He went to New York to pursue his art career." Ino said. "So, how are you? It's been a while since we saw each other?"

"Yeah. A lot's changed. Well, for one thing I went back to school and got my degree. I've been working part-time with the CCPD as a CSI." Naruto said.

"And he's gotten really good." Barry said as Naruto smirked. "Thanks again for getting his attention."

"You're welcome, Barry." Ino said as Barry was confused.

"How do you know my name?" Barry asked.

"Barry. Barry. Barry." Ino repeated the chants as Barry chuckled.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that." Barry said.

"Are you kidding? I've seen dozens of people go up there and submit my ears to torturous singing. You made them very happy tonight." Ino said as Barry chuckled. Naruto saw Ino flirting with Barry so he gave them a bit of privacy while he paid his bar tab. "So, that girl, was she your girlfriend?"

"Her? Oh, she was just a friend. She's been going through some rough stuff lately and she hasn't gone out in a long time." Barry said.

"Guess it must have been a fun night." Ino said as Barry chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess so." Barry replied.

"So, you work at the CCPD?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, as a CSI." He replied.

"You're kind of young for that, aren't you?" She asked as Barry chuckled.

"You are not the first person to tell me that but it's something I'm good at. What about you?" Barry asked

"I work at the Central City Conservatory gardens as a botanist. It's pretty much researching and categorizing plant species for the pharmaceutical use and some for research labs." Ino said.

"Wow." Barry replied.

"So, how did you meet Naruto?" Ino asked.

"Uh, a friend of a friend introduced us. And we've gotten close." Barry said.

"I'm glad. Naruto's a great guy, and he went through a lot after his parent's death. It's nice to see him back to his old self." Ino said as she took out a piece of paper and wrote something down. "And Naruto's someone who has great taste in friends."

She handed him the piece of paper and stood up as Barry looked at it. "What's this?" Barry asked.

"My number. Whether or not you call me is up to you. Bye, Barry." Ino winked at him as she walked out of the bar. Barry watched her leave as Naruto walked up to him.

"She's something, isn't she?" Naruto asked as Barry nodded.

"Yeah." Barry replied.

"That's Ino for you. And she must like you if she gave you her number. What are you going to do with it?" Naruto asked.

"Not sure yet." Barry said as Naruto heard his phone go off. He checked it and the tracker app on Cisco's phone showed him at CCPD.

"What the? Barry, there's something I need to check out. Can you tell Linda that something came up?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, sure. Everything ok?" Barry asked.

"Not sure yet." Naruto said as he left the bar just as Caitlin and Linda came back.

"Barry, I don't feel so good." Caitlin said.

"Ok." Barry said as he super sped them out of the bar into the parking lot where Caitlin threw up.

"It's ok." Linda said as she rubbed her back and Barry held her hair up. "Let it out."

Cisco was at CCPD because Hartley said that there was evidence there of what happened to Ronnie. Cisco took off Hartley's cuffs and gave him a hat to make sure no one recognized him. They were in Barry's lab, using his computer to access the files they needed.

"After the Particle Accelerator explosion, CCPD confiscated everything from STAR Labs. Video, audio, traffic cam footage." Hartley said.

"Ok, so?" Cisco asked.

"I saw Martin Stein the night STAR Labs went boom. He walked right past me. You see, Stein specialized in transmutation. Molecular transmography. Quantum splicing. Taking two things and making them one." Hartley said, leading Cisco but he didn't get it. "Let's go to the videotape, shall we?"

Cisco accessed the video footage and they saw Professor Stein with what seemed like some kind of weird device. They slowly advanced the footage to the point where he was hit by the accelerator energy.

"His eyes. They turn white just like Ronnie's." Cisco said.

"Now, stop there." Hartley said as Cisco did and in the wave of energy that hit Professor Stein, Cisco saw the corporeal image of Ronnie.

"Ronnie. The dark matter merged them together." Cisco said.

"Explains why Ronnie hasn't seemed quite himself lately. It's because he's not. He's Martin Stein." Hartley said as he pulled out his cochlear implant and broke it, creating a high-pitch screeching that sent Cisco to his knees in pain.

"AAH!" Cisco shouted as he covered his ears.

"You can't say I didn't keep up my end of the bargain." Hartley said as he took out the device Cisco used and smashed it. He then kicked Cisco in the gut. "I figured that makes us even Stephen. Adios."

Just as Hartley was about to leave, a blur rushed past him and sent him flying back across the floor. Hartley groaned in pain as he saw Naruto standing there. "You just never learn do you." Naruto said as he super sped to Hartley and threw out speed punches all over, hitting him in the face and body as Hartley couldn't react and was pummeled. Naruto then did one final punch to the face and Hartley was knocked unconscious.

Naruto just glared at him as he walked over to Cisco and heard the high-pitch screeching. He saw the implant on the ground and stepped on it, destroying it and stopping the sound. "Cisco, you ok?" Naruto asked as he helped him up.

"Yeah, I think." Cisco said as Naruto nodded. "How'd you find me?"

Naruto held up his phone to show it had tracked Cisco's phone to CCPD. "Good thing I'm an inquisitive person or else I wouldn't have come." Naruto said as he looked at Hartley. "I'll get him back to the pipeline."

Line Break xxxxx

The next morning, Barry and Linda were waiting by the elevator for Caitlin. They took her home after the bar and helped her to bed and made sure she was fine. They waited by the elevator, sipping their coffee when the doors opened and Caitlin walked in with a cup of coffee, wearing a jacket, scarf and thick sunglasses.

"Hi." Barry said as Caitlin jumped a bit.

"Oh, so loud." Caitlin groaned as Barry chuckled.

"Oh, I just wanted to make sure you were ok." Barry said.

"Let's just say that I envy your inability to get drunk. I don't remember much from last night." Caitlin said as they slowly walked down the hall.

"That's probably for the best if you don't, Caitlin." Linda said.

"Summer lovin'." Barry said as Caitlin winced.

"Oh god, that I do remember." Caitlin said as Linda and Barry laughed.

They walked into the cortex to see Cisco standing in the middle of the room with a shameful expression and Naruto and Dr. Wells looking at him. "What's wrong?" Barry asked.

"Hartley nearly escaped last night." Naruto said.

"He got out of the pipeline? How is that even possible?" Barry asked.

"He didn't. I let him out." Cisco said as he looked at Caitlin. "Are you mad? I can't tell with those glasses on."

"I'd like to yell and wave my arms, but I'm afraid I'd throw up." Caitlin said.

"Why? What were you thinking, Cisco? You know how dangerous he is." Barry said.

"Hartley said he knew what happened to Ronnie." Cisco said.

"I told you to let that go. I didn't want you looking into that for me." Caitlin said as she took off her sunglasses.

"I wasn't doing it for you. I…I sealed Ronnie into the accelerator before it blew. He told me to wait two minutes, and I waited but he didn't come back. And I can't stop thinking, 10, 20 seconds and…Ronnie wouldn't be like he is now." Cisco said, feeling completely guilty as he looked at Caitlin. "I've wanted to tell you so many times. I'm so sorry."

"So, you carried that around this whole time?" Caitlin then walked around next to Cisco. "Do you know what Ronnie would say if he was here? He would say that you did the right thing. It wasn't your fault. What happened that night wasn't anybody's fault."

Caitlin hugged Cisco as he hugged back. "Aw." Naruto said as Caitlin chuckled. "Now that, that is out of the way, I believe you could use this, Caitlin."

Naruto handed her a small water bottle of a green colored liquid. "What is this?" Caitlin asked.

"Pickle juice." Naruto said as she handed it back to him. "What? It's Tsunade's hangover cure. It's either this or hot sauce and a raw egg."

"You're making that up, right?" Barry asked.

"I wish I was." Naruto said as Cisco looked at Caitlin and she nodded.

"Naruto, there's something else." Cisco said.

"What? Did you let out another meta?" Naruto asked.

"No. Hartley said he knew what happened to Ronnie and he's right…but he said he also knew some stuff about you as well." Cisco said.

"Like what? How many times he's aggravated or insulted me in my life? I think I know the answer." Naruto said as he sipped his coffee.

"No. When Hartley told me he knew what happened to Ronnie, he also said that there's more to your parent's death than a drunk driving accident." Cisco said as Naruto was frozen for a second.

"Naruto?" Linda called his name as she walked up to him.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Naruto asked.

"I didn't think he was telling the truth. It's Hartley, I mean, it could have been a ruse." Cisco said as Naruto rubbed his hair, trying to process all of this.

"No, it's not possible. My parents died when a drunk driver, Andrew Hayes, ran a red light, smashed and flipped our car. I remember that night, vividly." Naruto said. "And I'm not going to believe, from Hartley of all people, that they there were killed for any other reason."

They could all tell that this was opening a raw wound for Naruto as they heard the anger in his voice. "Naruto…I know Hartley isn't the most trustworthy source but why else would he tell Cisco this?" Linda asked.

"To do exactly this to us. To cause doubt within our group and give him the chance to escape. Well, no. That asshole is staying in the pipeline where he belongs." Naruto said as he left to cool off.

"Wow." Barry said as everyone nodded, seeing that Naruto wasn't exactly thrilled to hear that his parents' accident might not have been an accident.

"He actually took that a lot better than I thought he would." Dr. Wells said.

"So, what do we do? Do we just leave it alone?" Caitlin asked.

"Or…" Cisco said as they looked at him. "We look into it."

"Guys, I know I haven't been a part of this team that long…but Naruto seemed really adamant that he didn't want to dreg this up." Linda told them.

"Technically, he said he didn't want Hartley out of the pipeline and he won't, I promise. Let's just do a little inquisitive digging and see if Hartley might be on to something." Cisco said.

"Cisco, you know what Naruto meant." Caitlin told him.

"I know, but if Hartley's right, Naruto deserves if Hartley could be telling the truth. I mean, he's been there for all of us ever since he became apart of the team. Naruto deserves answers." Cisco said.

"Cisco's right. He's been there for us since this started. We owe him to get to the bottom of this." Barry said.

"But we should also respect his wishes." Caitlin told them.

"And we will. I'm not saying we let Hartley out because we won't. We just look into things from our end. We do know two people with the police would could do some digging." Cisco said as they looked at Barry. "All I'm saying is we just look it over. If it seems like nothing's wrong, we leave it alone."

"And if something is weird?" Linda asked.

"Then we tell Naruto." Cisco said.

"A point of fact, what happens if we tell Naruto and it leads him down a path towards vengeance?" Dr. Wells asked. "And by vengeance, I mean the brutal and lethal kind."

"Do you really think Naruto would go that far?" Barry asked.

"I think that if Naruto does go down this path, he might not come out the same person we all know." Dr. Wells told them.

"Then we don't let him go down that dark path." Barry said. "I'll talk to Joe and see if I can find out anything on my end."

Barry went back to the CCPD and talked to Joe about what Cisco told him and asked to get the case file from the accident. Joe came back from the records room and handed the file to Barry.

"Here." Joe said as Barry took it and looked it over.

"Thanks." Barry said as he looked at the information from the arresting officer, CSU, and medical examiners.

"So, can I ask why you're looking over the file on Naruto's parent's death?" Joe asked as Barry looked at him.

"Hartley told Cisco that there may have been more to their death than a simple drunk driving accident." Barry told him.

"Like a deliberate accident? Damn, how is Naruto taking the news?" Joe asked.

"He's in denial. And to be honest, we're not sure how to take the news." Barry said.

"Well, everything seemed on the up and up, Barry. His parents were killed do to injuries sustained in the accident. Hayes hit their front end of the car with enough force and speed causing it to flip. His parents died on impact and Naruto was saved because he was in the back. And Hayes's was royally hammered so it seems pretty cut and dry." Joe told him.

"I know. But with everything that's been going on, we just want to make sure. Think we you can get me to talk to Hayes?" Barry asked.

"Yeah." Joe said as they took a drive to Iron Heights.

They parked and walked up to the security gate as the cop at the front desk saw them enter. "Twice in one week, Detective West. What's the occasion?"

"Cop work, Higgens. Keeps everyone busy. This is CSI Barry Allen. He was here before." Joe said as Higgens nodded at Barry and Barry nodded back.

"Uh, we need to see an inmate of yours. Andrew Hayes. We need to speak to him." Barry said.

"What's this about?" Higgens asked.

"Uh, just some questions we feel only he can answer." Joe said.

"Well, if you were looking for answers, better get a Ouija board. Hayes hung himself in his cell a week ago." Higgens said.

"What?" Barry asked.

"Yeah, we did morning roll call and some guards found his body strung up in his cell." Higgens said as Joe and Barry looked at each other. "His body's in the morgue before it gets sent to the funeral home. Anything else I can do for you, Detective?"

"Yeah. In his time here, has Hayes had any visitors?" Joe asked as Higgens took out the visitors log and turned to a page from a week ago.

"Yeah. He has one visitor stop by every week. His daughter, Anna Hayes." Higgens said as Joe and Barry went to talk to her at her apartment.

Joe knocked on the door as he and Barry waiting in the hall. "Ms. Hayes. My name is Joe West, I'm a detective with the Central City Police Department. Open the door." Joe said as they waited for a response and the door opened to reveal a 22-year old woman. "Ms. Hayes, I'm Detective Joe West, this is CSI Barry Allen."

"We're here to talk to you about your father, Andrew Hayes." Barry said as Anna looked down the hall and opened the door.

"Come in." Anna said as Joe and Barry walked in to see a modest apartment with some pictures of her and her father before he went to prison. "I imagine this is about his supposed suicide."

Barry and Joe looked at each other and then her. "You don't believe your father killed himself?" Barry asked.

"I know he didn't. He would never do that. When I got word of his death, I went to the police, to the DA's office, hell anyone who would listen, but they didn't believe me." Anna said as she took a breath and walked over to an old picture of her and her dad when she was a kid. "My father was a good man. He wasn't perfect, but he always put himself before me. When my mother died…we both took it hard, but he did everything in his power to support me."

"Ms. Hayes, you seem pretty adamant that your father wasn't suicidal, and you saw him a week before his death. How did he seem?" Joe asked.

"Anxious but determined. When I went to see him, he told me that he would be getting out soon. That, things weren't like I thought. I didn't understand at first until I got this." Anna walked over to her kitchen table and held up an opened manila envelope. "My dad gave instructions to his lawyer that this was to be sent to me if he died."

She handed Joe the envelope and saw it was a DVD. "What's on it?" Joe asked.

"The truth." Anna said as Barry and Joe looked at each other. Barry got Anna's permission to burn a copy and they took it back to STAR Labs. Joe went back to the CCPD to get some more files on Hayes and when they returned, all of them minus Naruto were in the cortex, ready to watch the video.

"So, what do you think's on this?" Linda asked as she held the DVD.

"Don't know. But whatever it is, it's important. It was given to Anna by her father's lawyer if something happened to him." Joe said.

"Sounds like something he wanted to be kept secret." Dr. Wells said.

"But what? What could this guy have that's so important?" Cisco asked as he took the DVD from Linda.

"What could who have, Cisco?" They heard as they turned and saw Naruto standing in the doorway.

"You should really think of getting a door there." Joe said.

"Naruto, look it's not what—" "Save the excuse, I overhead everything." Naruto said as he walked up to them and took the DVD from Cisco. "I thought I told you guys to leave this alone."

"You know us better than to think that, Naruto." Cisco replied as Naruto wasn't amused and Cisco immediately regretted speaking.

"It's not funny, Cisco. I told you guys I didn't want to dreg this up. I made my peace with this already." Naruto told them.

"Really, because it doesn't sound like that to me." Barry said. "We know you well enough that you wouldn't be this on edge."

"You're talking about the man who killed my parents. If anyone understood why I wouldn't be thrilled to speak about it, I'd think it'd be you Barry." Naruto told him.

"And we get it, but if there was a possibility that there's something more to it, you deserve to know the truth." Caitlin said as she stood up and walked over to him. "Now that I know the truth, that doesn't mean I want to help Ronnie any less."

"It's not that, Caitlin." Naruto said as he rubbed his eyes and let out a huge sigh. "I went to a dark place when my parents died. I'm more afraid that if I go back down the rabbit hole…I'm might not come out."

They could all hear the fear in his voice as Naruto was really struggling with everything before him. The idea that his parents weren't killed on accident and that if he figured out what really happened, he might not be the same person.

"Naruto." Dr. Wells said as he strolled up to him. "I understand what you must be going through. Believe me, I'm among the few that does. After what happened with Tess…I wasn't the same after. The darkness, the anger, the grief, and loss I went through. It changes someone…but you are different. You may have a darkness inside of you, Naruto but the light outshines that. And no matter what may happen, nothing will change that. We can never recover what was loss…but we can honor their memory and figure out the truth behind this." Dr. Wells said as Naruto took a deep breath.

"Play it." Naruto said as he sat down in a chair. Linda sat down next to him and held his hand as Barry pat his shoulder. Cisco put the DVD in and it began playing, showing a black screen before it showed Hayes sitting in front of a computer.

"Anna…it's daddy." They watched as Hayes struggled to find the words and noticed Naruto was struggling with his emotions. Linda reached her hand out and took Naruto's hand into her as he smiled at her and kissed her hand. "If you're watching this, it means I'm dead. I know, it sucks. I don't know if you'll get this tomorrow or…30 years from now. But I want you to know the truth. I didn't kill that couple. The husband and wife…I didn't do it. And I know it'll mean nothing coming from me…but I'm sorry. I would never take away someone's parents. I'm sorry for all the birthdays I missed. Graduations, everything. But daddy wants you to know, Anna…I love you."

Everyone absorbed the information that the man who killed Naruto's parents in a drunk driving accident admitted to not killing them. Could he be telling the truth? "Well…I wasn't expecting that." Cisco said as he paused the video. Linda looked at Naruto and saw he was dealing with this new information.

"Naruto, are you ok?" She asked as Naruto looked at the screen and looked at the face of the man who killed his parents when he noticed something. The digital clock in the room read 11:10pm on 2/15/2012, the day of the accident. He also noticed the window in the corner with the view into the city.

"Barry, did Anna tell you where this message was recorded?" Naruto asked.

"Uh, she said it was at their old apartment on Bleaker street." Barry said.

"That's downtown. The accident was on main street in the restaurant district at 11:27 pm." Naruto said as Joe looked at the video and saw the clock with the time at 11:10pm.

"It's a 30-minute drive to Main street from there. There's no way he could have been in the car during the accident if that time is accurate." Joe said as everyone realized what was going on.

"This was recorded the day of the accident. February 15, 2012, 11:27pm was the time of the accident. This is 17 minutes before it happened. There's no way he could have recorded this and got to Main street to get in the truck that hit the car. Which means whoever did kill my parents got away with this and is still out there." Naruto said as he knew his parents were killed on accident…this was deliberate murder. And the killer was still on the loose.

Line Break xxxxx

Everyone was grappling with the new-found information that the man who supposedly killed Naruto's parents was innocent this whole time and took the fall for the crime. Based on everything, it seemed that the accident wasn't an accident but actually planned and deliberate murder. Joe and Barry went to the CCPD to dig up any more information on the accident while Cisco worked on his end to figure out more. Naruto was sitting in a chair near the med bay as he was still grappling with the information. His elbows were resting on his legs as his hands were clasp together and he was just sitting there and thinking.

Cisco was working on a lead and digging up anything into Hayes's life with Caitlin and Dr. Wells helping him. Linda had left for CCPN to go find anything that could help with the search on finding out anything they could on Hayes and what was going on during the time the accident took place. Caitlin looked up from her computer and saw Naruto sitting by himself in deep thought as he was looking at an old photo on his phone. She got up and walked over to him to see he was looking at an old photo of his parents when he was a kid.

"Hey." She said as Naruto lifted his head up and looked at her. "You ok?"

"I honestly don't know." Naruto said as he put his phone away. "I don't know what's worse. That my parents' accident wasn't an accident or that the person who did this is still out there."

"Naruto…we'll find out what really happened that night. You know we will." Caitlin said as Naruto looked at her.

"That's what I'm worried about. No one would commit this kind of conspiracy and kill their scapegoat unless it was something that needed to stay buried. What the hell kind of conspiracy got my parents killed and more importantly…does it have to do with what's happening to me?" Naruto asked as Caitlin didn't know what to say about that.

"I think I got something." Cisco said as they looked at him. They all walked over to the computer to see Cisco doing some hacking. "Ok, now this took some time but after a little computer trespassing I think I managed to figure more about what was going on with Andrew Hayes. I did some digging and found some irregularities with his financials a few years ago."

"What kind of irregularities?" Naruto asked.

"The kind of serious debt. It looks like Hayes's job wasn't enough to cover expenses for his daughter to go to college and with her scholarship only being a partial one, he needed money. He took out loans and then tried to pay them off with gambling and that didn't work." Cisco said as they looked at the computer to show his financials.

"He was just a regular guy who got dealt a bad hand." Naruto said as they looked at him. "But why him? Why him as a scapegoat and why go through all this trouble? How does a guy with debt end up taking the fall for my parent's accident?"

"Well, to try and fix his debts, Hayes took to illegal gambling and the hole got only deeper and deeper." Cisco said.

"Maybe that's how this all started?" Caitlin suggested.

"It is." They heard as Joe and Barry walked in. "We managed to find an old copy of Hayes's financials when he was brought in. He got even more in debt and that's how they got him. But then we saw a list of transactions that shows he might have been their inside guy at the docks where he worked as a foreman. His financials then showed deposits of $9,950 on a bi-weekly basis that wasn't coming from his job."

"Just under the $10,000 mark so there wasn't any chance to tip off the SEC or FBI. Someone knew what they were doing and wanted to stay out of trouble." Dr. Wells said.

"Where was the money coming from?" Naruto asked.

"From the Otogakure Miyagi Import Company." Joe said as everyone recognized the name.

"Miyagi tea import company?" Naruto asked as Joe nodded, seeing Naruto make the same connection he did.

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Cisco asked.

"It's the name of a front used by the Japanese Yakuza." Joe told them.

"And it's also where Kabuto would meet with Orochimaru back when I was in college." Naruto said as he walked out of the cortex.

"Where is he going?" Barry asked.

"I have an inclination." Dr. Wells said as they looked at the video cameras.

Naruto walked through STAR Labs until he came to the accelerator ring. He pressed a few buttons on the console and the doors opened. The accelerator ring door opened and Kabuto's containment cell was brought forward as Naruto looked at him. Kabuto was sitting there in his cell calm as can be. His hoodie was down so Naruto could see that his body hadn't mutated any further so he still resembled a half-man half-white snake. He was sitting on the ground, his back leaning against his cell and he was reading a book.

Kabuto looked up, his glasses on the bridge of his nose and smirked at seeing Naruto outside his cell. "Well, well, this is a surprise. You know for a cell, this is quiet cozy." Kabuto said as he saw Naruto was angry. "So, what brings you to my little humble abode?"

"Otogakure Miyagi Import Company." Naruto said as Kabuto smirked. "One of your father's fronts."

"One of his many fronts. If you're looking for information to get him arrested, I'm afraid it won't do you much good because my father constantly changes his operations to the point where the information I give you now would be useless." Kabuto said with a proud smirk. "But that's not why you're here. You're here because you want to know about Andrew Hayes, the man who was charged with your parents' murder."

"You know about that?" Naruto asked as Kabuto chuckled.

"Oh, Naruto for someone so smart you don't seem to have a keen grasp on the obvious. I was a part of my father's organization and was privy to many things. I will say that I did try and plead for your parents' case. They were fairly good people. But…business is business." Kabuto said.

"Bullshit. My parents were world respected scientists and completely happy and comfortable with their lives. How could any of their work get them involved with the Yakuza?" Naruto asked as Kabuto chuckled.

"Oh, it didn't. They didn't work for the Yakuza…they worked for my father and his organization." Kabuto said.

"What are you talking about? Your father is a Yakuza boss." Naruto said as Kabuto laughed his butt off causing Naruto to get angry and punch the door to his cell. "What's so funny?!"

"Oh how little you actually know. I imagine this doesn't happen that often." Kabuto said as he smirked at Naruto. "My father may have Yakuza ties but he's not Yakuza. They're just a means to an end. Money, resources, and allies. The organization my father belongs to is far deadlier."

"What organization?" Naruto asked as Kabuto smiled at him. "Tell me!"

"No." Kabuto said as Naruto opened his cell. Kabuto stood up as Naruto marched in and punched him across the face, knocking him to the ground. Naruto grabbed Kabuto and slammed him into the wall and punched him in the face again. Kabuto chuckled as blood was dripping down his mouth. "Oh, guess the Naruto I know isn't so squeaky clean anymore."

"TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!" Naruto shouted as he punched Kabuto in the face again. Kabuto spit out some blood and a tooth and just chuckled in Naruto's face.

"I can't tell you what I don't know. And no matter what you do to me, I'll never tell you anything. You don't have it in you." Kabuto said as Naruto kneed him in the gut and slammed him into the wall.

"I'm learning to live with a lot." Naruto said as he began beating the holy crap out of Kabuto with speed punches that even with Kabuto's enhanced physiology hurt like hell.

"Naruto, stop! Naruto, stop! You're killing him!" Caitlin shouted into the intercom as they watched on the monitors. Naruto continued to beat the crap out of him as he then slammed him onto the ground and began punching him in the face.

"Naruto, stop!" Linda shouted. "He's gonna kill him!"

Barry, Cisco, and Joe ran to the pipeline and saw Naruto continue to savagely beat Kabuto in the face with his bare fists, turning Kabuto's face into a bloody mess. Joe and Barry tried to pull Naruto off of him but Naruto was relentless and tried to get free.

"Naruto, stop!" Joe shouted as he tried to pull Naruto back but he was like a wild animal.

"Naruto, you don't want to do this!" Barry shouted as they finally managed to pull him off of Kabuto and out of the cell so Cisco could close it.

"NOO!" Naruto shouted as the pipeline door closed. "What did you do?!"

"Stopping you from making a horrible mistake." Barry said as Naruto pushed past them and went back to the cortex as they followed. He walked over to the med bay and got a paper towel to clean the blood off his fist.

"What was that, Naruto?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Interrogation. I was getting information." Naruto said.

"That wasn't interrogation that was just brutal anger and aggression. Naruto that served no purpose except to fuel more anger and aggression." Dr. Wells said as Naruto looked at him.

"It's not like he didn't deserve it." Naruto said.

"That's not the point, Naruto. You were gonna kill Kabuto in there, all for information that he didn't know. It was reckless, it was stupid, and most importantly of all, it didn't help us get any new information as to what happened. I've always told you to use your head in situations like this but you just let your emotions dictate your judgement." Dr. Wells scolded him.

"I don't care what happens so long as we get information on my parents murder." Naruto replied.

"And what did you find out? Kabuto gave you nothing because he knew nothing. It was idiotic!" Dr. Wells shouted as Naruto snapped.

"AAARRGGGHH!" Naruto flipped the medical gurney in pure anger and rage causing everyone shout in fright and step back on instinct. Naruto flipped the gurney, smashing a lot of glass, beakers, and tables as he then threw out a speed punch and smashed a cabinet in pure rage. "I DON'T CARE! I JUST WANT TO FIND THE SON OF A BITCH WHO KILLED MY PARENTS!"

Naruto punched the wall and began slamming his fists against it in pure rage and anger, his breathing got heavy. "I'm so angry I can hardly breathe. He's been out there for nearly two years and every second he's still free…is another second he can hurt someone I care about. Or someone I love." Naruto said as he blew out his anger and began to calm down a bit.

"Naruto…believe me I understand exactly what you're going through but this isn't who you are." Barry told him.

"I've got to find the son of a bitch who did this. I need to." Naruto said.

"And we will. We will avenge your parents death and get justice for them but if they were here right now they'd tell you the exact thing I'm about to tell you. You cannot forget who you are…and you can never become the people who did this." Dr. Wells said as Naruto looked at him. "I promise you we will get to the bottom of this, find out who is behind all of this and we will get justice for your parents."

"Right." Naruto took a deep breath and saw his hands were shaking, still coming down from the rage. "I need to go, I shouldn't be here."

Naruto grabbed his jacket and left STAR labs as everyone watched him leave and there was a brief moment of silence. "Ms. Park…" Dr. Wells said as Linda looked at him. "I believe it'd be a good idea if Naruto wasn't alone. He needs someone to be there for him now more than ever."

Linda nodded and grabbed her stuff as she followed Naruto out of the STAR Labs while Cisco and Barry walked over and picked up the gurney. "I don't think I've ever seen Naruto that mad before." Cisco said as Dr. Wells looked at the hole in the wall.

"Neither have I." Dr. Wells said as everyone looked at him. "We've opened up Pandora's box."

"I should have kept my mouth shut." Cisco said.

"It's not your fault, Cisco." Caitlin said. "You did what you thought was right. None of us could have predicted this would happen."

"Naruto did. He told us to stay away from this for good reason and he was right. I went behind my friends back and he exploded…I feel like Judas right now." Cisco said.

"Cisco, come on Naruto doesn't blame you for any of this. Because of you we now know the truth." Barry said.

"But at what cost? You saw him just now? He went from normal to Incredible Hulk in three seconds and he was like a wild animal at the pipeline." Cisco said.

"As a cop, I'd say we keep Naruto as far away from this as possible but that's no longer an option." Joe said.

"Then what do we do?" Barry asked.

"We help him get to the truth but we watch him. I've known Naruto all his life and I've never seen him lose control like that. I believe that Naruto's fears were warranted…if we do find the truth, he may not come out of this the same man he was before." Dr. Wells said. "For now, we let him cool off and keep a close eye on him. Detective West and Mr. Allen will continue to dig up leads on the case."

"Sure thing." Barry said. "And what about Naruto?"

"One day at a time. For now…we let him cool off." Dr. Wells said as everyone nodded.

"What kind of lead can we dig up? Kabuto didn't give us anything and it's not like we have an inside with the Yakuza, even if it's the organization that Orochimaru works with. If the FBI can't take them down, what can we do?" Cisco asked.

"We work this from the other angle. We know now that Hayes was a patsy and he couldn't have caused the accident but the police arrested him for the crime and everything in the police report indicates that he was responsible." Joe said.

"This means that whoever is behind this has people working for him at CCPD. At least the detective on the case, the CSI and the some others as well to pull off this kind of conspiracy." Barry said.

"Not to mention someone at the prison." Caitlin said as they looked at her. "You mentioned that Hayes said he'd be getting out which meant he was planning to reveal the truth behind everything and then he found hung up in his cell."

"There must be a guard at the prison who was in on this as well. All right, we've got some work to do." Joe said as he and Barry got to work.

Barry and Joe did all the digging they could on Hayes's case to figure out who the lead detective was on the case and he did but he passed away last year on the job. The CSI passed away from cancer and everyone else checked out normal which left the guards at the prison and that's where they struck gold because Guard Ryan Adams had a large amount of money wired to his bank account. In small increments of course like with Hayes so no one wised up but he was in on and it he was the guard who found the body which was the weird because he was assigned to a different section of the prison.

They went to the prison to talk to him but he never showed up for work. Cisco did some digging and tracked his cellphone on the way to the airport, he was skipping town but not before he answered their questions. Ryan Adams was in the lounge of the Central City airport, waiting for his flight to England when he was suddenly whisked away from the lounge and found himself on the roof of some building. He turned around and saw the Flash standing there with his arms crossed.

"What's going on? Where am I?" Adams asked.

"Oh, you're still in Central City. What's the matter? Gonna miss your plane?" Flash asked.

"Why are you doing this, man? Since when does a superhero kidnap an innocent man?" Adams asked.

"Except you're not exactly an innocent man, are you Adams? An innocent man doesn't leave his job so suddenly and have a mysterious amount of $200,000 transfer to his account over the course of a year." Flash told him.

"My bank account and personal life are private and none of our business." Adams told him.

"They are when it involves the murder of Andrew Hayes, the prisoner you found in his cell three days ago…sorry, I meant to say the prisoner you murdered and staged so it looked like a suicide." The Flash said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Adams said, sweating bullets and clearly lying but also very afraid.

"I know Hayes was a patsy used to cover up the murder he was charged with. I know he was planning to come clean but he committed suicide before that could happen and everyone else involved with the cover up is dead except you." He said.

"But I will be soon…that's why I was leaving." Adams said, scared out of his mind. "Everything was fine and peachy until Hayes decided to grow a conscious. Then when they ordered me to handle him, I wasn't going to stick around and be next because I knew too much."

"Who ordered you to kill Hayes? Who paid you to do it?" Flash asked.

"I don't know, ok. I never dealt with the main guy, just his lackey. Some Yakuza big wig named Mizuki." Adams told him.

"Where can I find him?" The Flash demanded as Adams didn't want to say. "If you don't tell me what I need to know I can't help you."

"No one can help me. You don't know these guys, dude. I was a prison guard, I've seen bad people but these guys….they'd give the boogeyman nightmares." Adams said as the Flash saw he was truly terrified.

"I can protect you. And I can help you but I can't do that if you don't tell me what you know. If these guys are so bad and scary then you know I'm your best shot at staying alive but only if you cooperate." The Flash said as Adams sighed, thinking he had no choice.

"Ok…but I have some conditions and I want a deal with the DA." Adams said as the Flash nodded.

"All right. I'll take you a detective I trust. You can talk to him." Flash said as he super sped Adams to the CCPD and into Joe's custody.

Line Break xxxxx

Adams admitted to his role in killing Andrew Hayes in prison to Joe and Joe talked with the DA to get Adam's a deal for a lighter sentence, possibly even parole for all the information he could give the CCPD and the DA's office on the Yakuza activity in the city. Joe was in charge of his protective custody and assigned officers he trusted to watch over him 24/7. Adams gave the DA information on all the Yakuza fronts in the city along with all the members he dealt with. It was a lot of good information but as for the tie to Mizuki and the people responsible for the cover up…that was a different story.

The big raid they did on the Yakuza front got them a lot of agents but street camera footage shows Mizuki had left an hour early and was on the run. So, Team Flash minus Naruto was in the cortex trying to track him down.

"Anything?" Barry asked as Cisco shook his head no.

"No, facial recognition isn't picking him up yet." Cisco said.

"Mizuki is Yakuza so he knows how police operate. He'll want to avoid cameras and keep his face covered at all times to avoid being seen." Joe said.

"I've got nothing on ATM, credit cards and his cell phone has been turned off." Caitlin said.

"He got rid of it. He'd know that how the police would try and track him." Joe said.

"Then how can we find him?" Linda asked.

"He'll want to get out of the city so CCPD have officers at all bus depots, train stations and the airport." Joe said.

"He'll be expecting that." Linda said as they looked at her. "I've written my fair share of crime articles to know that seasoned criminals like Mizuki know how police operate. If you want to catch a criminal, you'll have to do something he won't be expecting you to do."

"And what would that be?" Cisco asked as Linda shrugged.

"I'm not sure." She replied as Joe took a deep breath.

"Ok, let's think this through. Mizuki knows that Yakuza are done in Central City with all the raids going on. He'll want to get out of the city." Joe said.

"That leaves us with dozens of ways to make that happen. CCPD have all the bridges and tunnels under heavy surveillance and patrol along with the airport, train, and bus station." Barry said.

"How else can he get out of the city? I mean, unless he sprouted wings or something he's stuck here." Caitlin said as Cisco got an idea.

"Maybe by helicopter?" Cisco got on the computer and did some digging and brought up a map of all the heliports in the city which was about a dozen.

"That's brilliant. If helicopters fly below 1,300 feet they don't have to call in their position, only their destinations and any number of passengers." Wells said as Cisco did some digging and all 12 heliports were grounded with zero flights out.

"Well, that struck out." Cisco said.

"Maybe not." They heard as they turned around to see Naruto there standing at the entrance to the cortex. "If anything the police are going to ground all air traffic going in and out of the city so Mizuki can't make his escape. Doesn't mean he won't try and take one."

"Naruto, what are you doing here?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Seems kind of obvious doesn't it?" Naruto said as he held up a copy of the Central City Picture News with the headline about Adams' arrest and his statement in the murder of Andrew Hayes along with the information that Adams killed Hayes because he was going to come clean about who was really responsible for the deaths of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki. The article also explained how numerous Yakuza fronts were taken down with the information. "I'm here to help."

"Naruto, maybe it'd be a good idea that you're not here right now." Barry said.

"Would you want me to say the same thing to you if the Reverse Flash was here?" Naruto asked as Barry thought for a moment.

"No, but you also told me a while ago that having a partner means having someone there to handle the things the other can't. You told me that once and I understand that now. Let me handle this." Barry told him when they got an alert on their system.

"Bank Robbery at Central City National Bank. 5 robbers have over 20 hostages. Police and ESU are already on the scene and are under fire." Cisco said.

"Fine. If you don't want me here, guess I'll go keep the city safe." Naruto said as he grabbed his suit and super sped away.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Caitlin said.

Impulse sped through the city and saw the police and ESU under fire by the bank robbers. Impulse sped through the air and swerved out of the way of the bullets and made his way into the bank. He then super sped past all the robbers and swiped their weapons, then hit them all with a right cross to the face before tying them up with some rope.

"Done." He said to himself as he then untied the hostages. "You five must be some serious idiots to rob a bank in this city."

"Well, we didn't have a choice." One of them said as Impulse looked at him.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"We all got a call on our phones saying to rob this bank and make hell for the police or else our loved ones would be dead." He said as Impulse realized this whole thing was a diversion.

He super sped out of the bank as the police came in and arrested the robbers and skidded to a stop in an alley down the block. "Guys, the robbery and shootout were just a distraction. Mizuki planned this." Impulse told them.

"Why would he do that?" Linda asked.

"To pull police and men away from any area he could make his escape. Cisco, where's the nearest heliport?" Impulse asked as he hesitated.

"I—um…" Cisco hesitated to do it because it might send Naruto on another rampage.

"Cisco, we don't have time! If we don't do something now we'll lose him!" Impulse shouted as Dr. Wells nodded to Cisco and he did a quick search.

"The Adams and O'Neil Heliport is 4 blocks away from the bank and all the police cars in that area were called away for the robbery." Cisco said.

"I'm on it." Impulse said as his eyes flickered with lightning and he zoomed to the heliport.

"Mr. Allen go after him." Dr. Wells said as Barry nodded. "Barry…do not let him make a mistake he'll regret."

"I won't." Barry said as he grabbed his suit and zoomed towards the heliport. At the Adam's and O'Neil Heliport, Mizuki and a small group of his Yakuza men arrived at the heliport and killed the heliport workers along with the receptionist so there weren't any witnesses.

Mizuki sliced his sharp kunai knife against the pilot's throat and tossed his body away. "Ah, it's not a good day without a little murder. Contact the eight and let them know we're on our way to Starling to see Orochimaru." He said to one of his men who nodded but a blur ran by and swiped his phone.

"Mizuki!" They heard as they turned and saw Impulse standing there.

"Well, well, well. Impulse live and in the flesh." Mizuki was amused at this. "I have to admit, I thought you'd be taller…not that it matters because you'll be dead in a matter of minutes."

"I don't think so. You're not going anywhere. You have a lot of deaths you need to answer for." Impulse told him.

"On that we can agree on. I have a lot of deaths on my hands. And yours will be next." Mizuki said as he signaled his men to open fire but Impulse sped out of the way. "The man who brings me his dead cowl gets a bonus!"

Impulse sped around the heliport in circles as Mizuki's men opened fire but he was too fast and they couldn't get a clear shot. Impulse ran by one of Mizuki's men, knocked his gun away, kicked out his leg and kneed him in the face. He then super sped to another guy, grabbed his gun, broke his arm, tossed him to the ground and stomped on his face before super speeding away to avoid a hail of bullets. The Flash then super sped into the area and disarmed some of Mizuki's men and knocked them out. Impulse sped by and knocked down the last of Mizuki's men before stopping on the heliport. He glared at Mizuki with sole searing hatred as he slowly walked towards him.

"All right, this should be fun." Mizuki then took out a pistol and fired a bullet but Impulse caught it with his bare hand. He then fired his entire clip until it was empty but hit nothing. He quickly threw his kunai knife, but Impulse caught it in his hand before it hit him.

"Yeah, I can do that too." Impulse said as he then threw it back at Mizuki and hit him in the leg, sending him to the ground.

He walked up to Mizuki as Mizuki pulled out a spare pistol, but Impulse kicked it out of his hand and speed punched him across the face. Mizuki got up and threw out a punch but Impulse grabbed his fist, twisted, and broke his wrist and then punched him across the face again, drawing blood and causing him to spit out a tooth. "You're done, Mizuki. It's over. You're not going anywhere. Now you're gonna answer my questions." Impulse told him.

"Or what?" Mizuki taunted as Impulse grabbed the knife and yanked it out of his leg hard causing Mizuki to shout out in pain.

"Answer me?! What do you know about Andrew Hayes and who was responsible for the murder of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki?!" Impulse shouted as he held up the knife to Mizuki's neck.

"Impulse, take it easy!" Flash told him.

"Why the hell do you care about those two?" Mizuki asked as Impulse grabbed his mask and pulled it down.

"Impulse what are you doing?!" Flash shouted, seeing him take his mask down.

"I care because I'm their son!" Naruto shouted pricked the kunai against Mizuki's neck and drew a little blood. "Who killed my parents?!"

Mizuki saw his face after hearing all this information and couldn't help himself as he began laughing his ass off in a maniacal way. "Oh my god, isn't this just a perfect example of life's little eccentricities. Never did I think I would see this and now that it's here…I couldn't be happier!" Mizuki shouted as Naruto and the Flash were confused.

"What the hell do you find so funny?!" Naruto shouted as Mizuki chuckled.

"You want to know who killed your old man and his bitch?! IT…WAS…ME!" Mizuki shouted as Naruto froze in shock a bit. "I was the one in the car that hit them. After I saw you knocked out in the back of the car, I was tempted to kill you then and there, but I was given clear instructions for the assignment."

"Assignment? ASSIGNMENT?!" Naruto punched him in the face in anger. "Is that all they were to you?! They were my parents! They were good and kind and the best people in the world! Why did you kill them?!"

"Because my boss wanted them dead." Mizuki said.

"Your boss? Who is he and why?!" Naruto shouted as Mizuki chuckled.

"If you actually think that just yelling at me would give you that information, then you are way out of your league kid. I've done things and been through worse that I'd never give up anything of my own volition…but I'll tell you." Mizuki said with a sadistic smile on his face as Naruto and Flash were confused.

"Why? Everything you've done has been to clean up a mess. You had Adams kill Hayes because he was going to come clean about everything so why tell us who you work for?" Flash asked as Mizuki chuckled.

"Because I want you to find him, kid. I see it in your eyes…you want vengeance. Cold, bloody, anger fueled vengeance. I'll give you the name of my boss because when you find him, he'll kill you and I wish I could be there to see it when it happens." Mizuki chuckled as Naruto glared at him with soul searing hatred. "One of the men who ordered the hit on your parents, the one who wanted them dead…his name is Orochimaru, the White Snake."

"Kabuto's father." Naruto said as Mizuki raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, so you know his kid. Well, let me tell you something, Kabuto may be one thing but Orochimaru is another. But he wasn't the only one who wanted your parents dead." Mizuki said. "I hope you find him kid because he'll kill everyone you've ever loved and make you wish you were dead. But if by some miracle you actually manage to stop him, the rest of the Nine will finish what he started."

"Nine? What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto asked which made Mizuki cackle madly. "What the hell is so funny?!"

"You have no idea the hole you've dug yourself into, kid. And I wish I could be there to see it all blow up in your face because I know it will. But knowing that I'm sending you to your own doom is enough for me." Mizuki said as Naruto punched him across the face again and held the kunai up to his eye.

"Impulse, don't! You don't want to do this!" Flash told him.

"Yes, he does. I see it in his eyes. The anger, the hatred, he wants this. You think just because you save people and wear that suit that it makes you better than me but it doesn't. You're just one bad day away from being just like me. Too bad I'll never see it happen." Mizuki then used his tongue and flicked the top of his upper canine and it chipped right off. He then chewed the chipped off part and swallowed it. "See you hell, kid. Something tells me I'll see you there soon enough. I'll save you a spot."

"NO!" Naruto shouted as Mizuki began to shake and foam at the mouth before he dropped down dead.

"Cyanide pill." Flash said as Naruto let go of Mizuki's body and stood up. Barry saw Naruto stand up and look down at the knife in his hand and was about to say something when they heard police sirens arrive at the heliport. "Naruto, we need to go."

"Right." He said as they super sped away just as the police arrived on the scene.

Team Flash was gathered in the cortex of STAR labs to watch the news about the death of Mizuki and the capture of his men. While the police and the news were in the dark about what happened and what information Mizuki had on the Yakuza, Team Flash now knew the truth that Mizuki was the one who killed Naruto's parent's in the car crash years ago and he did it because he was ordered to by Orochimaru. Everything seemed to go back to him and Kabuto but what the hell could have made Naruto's parents the target of an assassination ?

The team was watching the news on a monitor as the news reported the police found Mizuki dead on the heliport having ingested a lethal dose of cyanide poison, committing suicide. His men were arrested and weren't speaking at all which still left a mystery for the police.

"So, is it over?" Linda asked as Barry shook his head no.

"No. This mystery's got a second chapter and it involves Orochimaru and whatever organization he works for." Barry said.

"This mysterious Nine group he's apart of. I've already done a search and the only information there is on a group known as the Nine was from an Interpol report over 20 years ago." Cisco said.

"What did it say?" Joe asked.

"Nothing, except that a takedown of a large cell of the Armenian mob where one of the higher ups mentioned something about a group called the Nine. The report doesn't go into further detail. It was heavily redacted." Cisco said.

"That's not good." Linda said.

"What the hell did we get ourselves into? It's like ever since we dug into this case it's been one twist after another." Joe said.

"It's safe to say that whatever reason Mizuki had for killing Naruto's parents and why Orochimaru and whatever this Nine group wanted them dead for is no simple task. We've open up Pandora's box and there's no closing it. We have to see this through." Dr. Wells said as Barry nodded. That's when he noticed they were short one member.

"Where's Naruto?" Barry asked as they looked around.

"I'll go find him." Linda said as Dr. Wells wheeled up in front of her.

"I know where he is. I'll go see him, Ms. Park." Dr. Wells left the cortex and made his way to the elevator to take him down to where Naruto was and that was in his father's old office.

He wheeled into the room and saw Naruto sitting in his father's old chair looking at an old photo of him and his parents when he was just a kid. It was of when Naruto first had Kurama. Things were so simple then. Naruto looked at the photo as he had Mizuki's kunai in his right hand. He was spinning it with his finger hooked through the small hole on the bottom of the blade before he stopped and held it in reverse grip and then threw it at the wall in frustration.

"I'd ask if you're ok, but I know you're not." Dr. Wells said as Naruto put the photo down and grabbed his hair in frustration.

"I'm beyond not ok. I'm angry, upset, and feel like my heart's going to burst out of my chest." Naruto said as he stood up and grabbed the kunai he threw into the wall. "But more importantly…I'm ashamed of myself."

"And prey tell why?" Dr. Wells asked.

"I let my anger get the better of me. I've proven Hartley right. All these years I've been trying to prove him wrong and that I'm better than that but I'm not." Naruto sat down in the chair and grabbed his hair. "Ever since I've learned the truth about my parents' death, I've felt the anger rising more and more. And now I'm conflicted because I'm not sure if I want to keep pursuing this."

"What do you mean by that?" Dr. Wells was intrigued as to what Naruto meant by this.

"Mizuki wasn't lying on the heliport. Everything he said about me is true. I wanted to kill him. I wanted to drive this knife straight through his throat and kill him like he killed my parents. I took down those Yakuza men with brute and lethal force…something I never thought I'd be capable of." Naruto said. "I stomped on someone's face, Dr. Wells. Mizuki was right about me…just because I wear that suit doesn't mean I'm better than him. I'm one bad day from being just like…and I don't want day to happen. God it feels like my whole world is coming apart. My parents were involved with something so bad that it involved criminals that no one has heard about and I'm trying to not believe it. I'm trying to think that Mizuki and Kabuto were lying…that it wasn't true, but I don't even know what to believe in anymore."

Dr. Wells looked at Naruto in despair, anger, sadness, and frustration and he felt a pull at his heart. "Naruto…I can't begin to even imagine what you're going through right now. The turmoil your heart must be going through of learning one thing about your parents while trying to hang onto the memory of who you believe they are." Dr. Wells took off his glasses as Naruto looked at him, his eyes bloodshot from his tears. "I knew your parents almost as long as you did…maybe even longer and the only thing of comfort I can tell you is that above all else…your parents loved you…as much as anyone could have loved a person. I was there when you were brought into this world…was there when you uttered your first words…was there when your father helped you take your first steps…I was there when they dropped you off for your first day of school every year to make sure you had everything you need, and you were safe."

"The love and pride your parents had for you is something every person wishes they had and is something that once loss can feel like a part of you is missing. But despite everything that happened…I know your parents are looking down at you and are seeing the same thing I am. I now know what your mother and father must have felt every time they looked upon you with pride…and with love." Dr. Wells brought Naruto close and hugged him as Naruto hugged back. A tear even welled up in Dr. Wells's eye as he hugged Naruto close.

"I know you must be upset…but never lose faith in the people you knew your parents to be. I know they never lost faith in you…neither have I." Dr. Wells told him as he hugged Naruto close as Naruto cried a bit.

It was an emotional tornado the entire team had been through as everyone went home to try and process what they learned. Dr. Wells strolled through STAR Labs and went to the time vault. He stood up and walked over to the Reverse Flash suit on the mannequin before going over to the console and bringing up the article from 2024, Flash missing vanishes in crisis and Impulse urges city to keep hope.

Wells looked at the image of Impulse on the front page before waving his hand over the console and the image then zoomed into a small blurb about STAR LABs CEO Naruto Namikaze celebrating the birth of his twin son and daughter on the eve of being named the world's smartest man and philanthropic man the third year in a row and winning a Nobel Prize for his work on environment reparation.

Dr. Wells's sense of pride in Naruto swelled up again as he wiped a stray tear that collected up in the corner of his eye. He looked at his hand and saw the tear stain on his hand and it surprised him. All of a sudden, Gideon's hear appeared on the console. "Is everything all right, Dr. Wells?" She asked.

"For the first time after all these years…I'm not sure." Dr. Wells said.

"What seems to be troubling you, Dr. Wells?" Gideon asked as Dr. Wells chuckled.

"If what I'm feeling is what I believe it to be…it's pride and love for Naruto." Dr. Wells chuckled as he looked at the picture of Impulse. "I believe you were right in that my trip to this time period had unforeseen consequences but I never realized until now how much those changes were prevalent with Naruto…and how they would affect me as well."

"What do you mean by that, Dr. Wells?" Gideon asked.

"Something I've been pondering since I've been here and today I've finally realized that the Impulse I know from the future and this one in this timeline are vastly different individuals. The Impulse from the time I know is a crass, smart talking cocky boy who was nothing more than a sidekick…but Naruto. He's shown amazing potential, true grit, some flaws but above all else…he's not the same man I've loathed for years." Dr. Wells wasn't lying about what he said to Naruto before. He was close to Naruto because of his unique position but he now fully admitted that he viewed Naruto as a son.

"Are you having second thoughts, Dr. Wells?" Gideon asked as Dr. Wells hesitated for a second.

"No. The plan hasn't changed." Dr. Wells told her. "Let me know if there are any more changes to the timeline."

"Of course, Dr. Wells." She replied as he left.

End of Chapter 6

And that's the end of Chapter 6. Sorry it took so long, I had some writers block with this but I'm glad the way it turned out. I have to say, out of all of the stories I've written, this is one I'm the most proud of and I guarantee all of you that I won't stop writing it so long as you guys enjoy it. This Chapter, Team Flash dealt with Peak-a-Boo and Pied Piper. Honestly with two speedsters, dealing with Peak-a-Boo would have been easy for them. I hoped you guys liked Hartley's introduction and a little more insight into Naruto's past with him and the unpleasant history they have together. But a big thing this chapter is the revelation that Naruto was a meta-human before the Particle Accelerator gave him his Speedster powers and that they might have to do with accident…sorry, the assassination of his parents. In terms of Naruto's unique meta-human DNA before the Particle Accelerator, it'll all be explained soon but just so you know, whatever gave him Meta DNA before the Particle Accelerator gave him his super genius brain and access to speed force armor before he was supposed to discover it along with maybe a new ability to discover in the future. His genius brain will continue to develop and grow until it reaches its maximum. It's not something that's instant, it's something that's grown and will continue to grow over the rest of season 1.

Orochimaru and this mystery Nine group are behind it and all the answers will be revealed soon. For those that picked up the subtle references to Black Lightning, yes, I'm making it so that Black Lightning is on Earth-1. For those that don't like that Mizuki was the one who was responsible for killing Naruto's parents, again, he's just the hired gun, the people who actually wanted them dead are much worse. And for the small Ino teaser, she'll kind of be taking the place of Linda from Flash season 1 but some of Naruto's friends may show up later as well.

Also, reading a lot of your reviews I have made a decision regarding the last love interest for Naruto. I love Naruto and Linda and I'm glad I chose her because I like writing her into a more fleshed out character than the show portrayed her. Granted, I'll admit I thought I could have handled her sexuality reveal a bit better but I couldn't really think of anything else so if it came off as in poor taste or bad than I apologize to whomever it offended. I have plans to develop more of their relationship in future chapters so look forward to that.

The final contenders for the last spot in Naruto/Linda's love triangle are Kara Danvers/Supergirl, Sara Lance/White Canary, Laurel Lance-Earth-1/Black Canary or Zari Tomaz/Isis. Kara Danvers is kind of the front runner at the moment because I know when she and Naruto meet they're gonna hit it off immediately and after all the crap Kara's been through, especially in season 3 with Mon-El, she deserves someone like Naruto. The second contender is Sara, the badass former assassin/legend and I know when I get to the Legends part of the story, these two will get along. Granted, I love this idea but I'm also a fan of Sara and Ava together so I'm not too heartbroken if this one doesn't work. Laurel Lance kind of came into my head randomly but after thinking for a bit I kind of figured out a way to make it work. Obviously, this would change out a lot of how things would work in season 5, 6, and 7 but it's not impossible for me to do. I could do some changing, maybe have her briefly join the legends or change everything so Naruto and Sara save her from Damien Darkh. Who knows but I'm open to what others think. I think she's had a great arc for the show and when she was getting better and better, the writers killed her off. She deserved more so i'm interesting to see what others think. And lastly Zari, my new favorite character on the show. It took some time to warm up to her but she's become my favorite character on the show, she funny, smart, witty and the fact that she's can be seen eating maybe once in every episode makes me think she and Naruto will find some common ground. I'll post a poll on my profile page that will run until I post the next chapter of this story so please vote and help me decide. Realistically, I figured out a way to make each work now I just need to narrow it down.

Next chapter, Team Flash encounters Firestorm and tries to save Ronnie and Professor Stein as Naruto's quest to discover the truth about his unique origins and his parents lead him to face the White Snake himself. In both name and appearance. Till next time.

Naruto Namikaze AKA Impulse: Age-23

Casual outfit: friction-proof sneakers, dark blue jeans, a dark-red shirt, black button up and jacket.

Uniform: Prototype environmental suit. Friction and heat proof, developed by Minato Namikaze. High-tech goggles created by Cisco Ramon. (Original Dark Red and White Impulse suit)

Current top speed for Naruto Namikaze AKA Impulse: Mach 1.5=1150.9 mph.

Current abilities in bold are unlocked now

Super Speed (can run on buildings and water)

Accelerated healing

Enhanced endurance

Enhanced reflexes

Improved homeostasis

Enhanced mental capabilities to speed read and process information quickly

Superhuman intelligence (Will develop into Thinker Level genius)

Speed punches: Mach punch

Speed force constructs: Draws power directly from the speed force to create solid constructs like armor or even weapons (Instinct driven, not learned yet. Only taps into power when near death. Drains stamina incredibly fast if used)

Speed force armor: increases speed and resistant to damage

Speed force weapons: weapons made up of pure speed force energy, highly destructive

Molecular Oscillation: Vibrate molecules at high frequency (Bold is unlocked or learned at the moment)

Accelerated Mass/Force punch (Infinite mass punch potential in the future)

Physical disruption

Air solidification

Intangibility/phasing

Multiple Pairings: Naruto x Linda Park x?

Leading Options: Kara Danvers, Sara Lance, Laurel Lance-Earth-1, Zari Tomaz

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or the Flash, both belong to their respective owners, I'm just a big fan.

Don't worry, there will be more updates this month as a Holiday gift for all my readers. Sorry for the delay but a computer crash and hard drive problems screw you over. Keep watch for updates to some of my others stories and enjoy the holidays. Spend time with family and loved ones, remember the people we've lost this year and aid those who aren't as lucky as us. Happy Holidays and be safe!