Mending shattered hearts
I do not own Naruto or Batman, they are owned by Misashi Kishimoto and DC Comics respectively. I just do this for fun.
"People speaking"
'People thinking'
"Kyuubi speaking."
A/N Guys, I want to thank you all for your fav's and follows. It means a lot to me, really does. Thus I humbly present Chapter 2 for mending shattered hearts.
Chapter 2
Bethanie Wayne breathed in a sigh of relief as she entered her limo, she'd survived the fashion show without a headache.
"Did you have fun Miss Wayne?" Alfred asked his former ward and now employer in mock seriousness.
Bethanie looked at him through the mirror and replied sarcastically, "Yes Alfred, I did," before she turned serious, "Let's swing by the office, there's something that I need to check."
Alfred followed the command dutifully and drove Bethanie to Wayne tower, the crown jewel of Gotham, at least according to her father.
She cast her eyes down at the memory of him and her mother, they did what they could for the city and in the end it took them. Bethanie shook her head out of that train of thought, it wasn't the city. It had been a mugger, Joe Chill, one of the many that her parents had tried to help. Her anger towards him was the driving force that made her into what she was today, but she'd forgiven him for what he did, it helped the both of them. Bethanie was in a bad mood in respect to her rouges and them reforming, she hoped that they would and the incident as it was called helped her have hope. It happened several months ago when Joe Chill had been released from prison. She had been sitting in her office working on spread sheets when an angry Luke had paged her.
Flashback
"Ms. Wayne, there's a Joseph Chill here to see you,"
At the sound of the name Bethanie froze, her blood ran cold as the memories from that night ran through her mind, it had been seventeen years since that day when he murdered her parents.
Her breathing became heavy with anger and her eyes brimmed with tears before she pressed the button on the intercom, "L-Let him in."
Bethanie made a fist and her nails dug into her skin which drew blood as the doors opened to reveal an old man in a white dress shirt who looked scared out of his mind.
'He should be,' she thought with such malice that it scared her.
Anger was her only train of thought towards the man that had murdered her father and mother right in front of her, at least until he spoke.
"Ms. Wayne… You probably remember me but uh I'm Joe Chill," He said in a shaky voice before Bethanie cut him off.
"I remember you clearly Mister Chill. What do you want?" Her question was laced with venom but the man continued.
"I uh I just wanted to say that I'm sorry… I know that I don't deserve forgiveness for what I did to you and your family, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry. There's nothing that I can do to bring them back but I would if I could, that's all," Joe said his peace with a shaky voice, he turned to leave before Bethanie called out to him.
"Mr. Chill, sit," She said before the man paused then turned around and did as he was told.
Bethanie breathed in deeply before she looked him in the eye, "You took my world away from me… My mother and father are dead because of you. Every single day of my life since then was spent with a hole in my heart, and I'm not going to lie and tell you that I wasn't happy when they sent you to prison," her voice cracked and fresh tears poured down her face.
Joe looked down, he knew that he deserved such scorn for what he did. He had hoped for forgiveness but wasn't expecting it.
'Hell I'd never forgive me,' he thought soberly before the raven haired woman before him. Took a few breaths to calm down.
Bethanie continued, "We had just gotten out of a play, we couldn't get out the normal way since the doors were locked… then you came."
The room was silent for a few moments before Bethanie had a thought come into the forefront of her mind. Her parents had been devout Christians, they'd gone to church every Sunday and had brought their daughter up with a kind but firm hand. Her father had taught her about being forgiving after a bad day at school when Thomas Elliott made fun of her.
"I forgive you…," she said quietly and a weight lifted from her chest, she was still in pain from that day but the weight of her anger was gone.
Joe was stunned at her words when he broke down in tears as he babbled, "Thank you."
Bethanie breathed in deeply and stopped herself from producing more tears before she reached into a bin on her desk and retrieved a paper then handed it to him.
Joe took it and looked at it to find that it was an application for a job.
"Fill that out then come back here tomorrow for it to be approved, you'll have to take a drug test but I'm sure you'll pass," Bethanie said softly, she wasn't content on leaving Joe to fend for himself as no one in Gotham would hire him after what he did.
"Thank you Ms. Wayne," Joe replied with a smile before he exited the woman's office.
Flashback end
Joe ended up working in the mail room, as far as she knew he was content with the job. The media however was in an uproar over the fact that she had given the man that had murdered her parents a job.
Bethanie was brought out of her memories by the brakes of the limo squealing quietly as the vehicle came to a stop. Alfred opened the door and held out a hand for her to take, she grasped the hand softly and exited the stretch car.
"Mr. Adam is waiting for you in the lobby Mistress Bethanie," Alfred said before he went to park the car and wait for his employer and former wards instruction.
Bethanie entered the lobby where a bearded man in a black trench coat waited for her. Adam got up from his leaning position on the receptionist desk and walked to meet her, before following her to the elevator.
He spoke in a nearly hoarse voice, "Ms. Wayne, I've had our analysts working on the possible loop hole that you said was in our fire wall to discover that it panned out. Someone breached it without setting off any alarms in the system."
Bethanie frowned at the news but smiled inwardly, she liked her head of security. He was blunt and to the point, and he never minced words. Something that she valued in all of her employees.
"Did we fix it?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, we found the data that went through it to. It was connected to your daily schedule, the ones that attacked must have hacked into our systems," Adam said as the doors to the elevator opened.
"Good work. Thank you Adam, for your hard work in my family's company," Bethanie said with a smile.
Adam let out a laugh and nodded at her before the doors closed and the car shot upwards. The car came to a stop on her floor and she exited the elevator.
"Luke, be a dear and make sure that I'm not disturbed for the day," She asked Luke who nodded at her request.
Bethanie opened the doors to her office and sat down in her chair that was behind her desk. She smoothed out the long white dress that she wore to the show before she did so and logged into her computer to check Byron's computer. After a few minutes she found E-mails that linked to Daggett's company, nothing that would constitute legal evidence but enough for a visit by Batwoman.
Naruto watched his daughter in amusement as he and Himawari walked down one of the halls of one of Gotham's elementary schools. They had registered her for school and were now going to drop off Himawari.
When they reached the door Naruto embraced his daughter in a hug before he said, "Do your best, make good grades. I love you."
Himawari hugged him back and replied, "I will daddy, love you too."
It took Naruto all of his will power to not stay like that but he let her go and returned to his police cruiser. He was scheduled for patrol from eleven to seven at night, if he was a normal being this would be a problem but he nor his daughter were no ordinary beings. Naruto had several shadow clones in the apartment to wait for Himawari. Naruto started the engine and backed out of the parking lot and began his work day.
"This is Brendan, Uzumaki are you there?" A voice crackled over the radio.
Naruto answered, "This is Naruto, go ahead."
"We need you back at the station, have a hostage situation on the monorail," Brendan responded and Naruto headed towards the station to grab his gear.
The Gotham monorail was completely shut down, the only train that was not in the station at Wayne tower was situated in between two buildings.
Naruto sat in the van as the team drove to the area, like the night before Commissioner Gordon met them there.
"We have a hostage situation, the entire train has been commandeered by a group of mobsters, not affiliated with the attack last night. Officer Uzumaki, you'll be acting sniper. Don't want you going cowboy again. The offices are giving us their cooperation in this so take the elevator, don't fire until you tell me that you have a shot and I order you to," Gordon said with a twinkle in his eye.
Naruto nodded and followed Brendan to the seventh floor of an office building.
"What happened to our normal sniper, Johns?" Naruto asked Brendan.
Brendan shrugged and replied, "Frigging wise ass decided to have a hangover."
Naruto rolled his eyes and said over the radio as he looked down the scope to find one of the gangsters in his sights, "I have a shot commissioner."
"Don't shoot until I say, we're still in negotiation for the hostages," Gordon replied.
Naruto kept his breathing steady for a few moments as he considered the situation in his head, on the one hand it could get out of control, and the thugs could start killing hostages. If he had to he'd create a shadow clone henged as 'The Kitsune' to deal with them, thus tipping off Batwoman to his presence. He'd come to terms that he'd have to face her eventually but he was going to do that on his own terms, unless the situation called for it.
Commissioner Gordon was about to get on his bull horn and talk to the kidnappers, only to hear his cell phone ring.
"Bullock take the call while I handle this," Gordon ordered Harvey Bullock who took the phone and answered it.
"This is Harvey Bullock for the commish, were in the middle of an operation call back later," Harvey said gruffly before he was about to hang up the phone until the other person answered him.
"I am the operation detective Bullock," The voice was of a man with an Italian accent as Harvey slammed the phone to his ear.
"You let the hostages go you bas-," Harvey shot back. As the commissioner got a number of tech personal back at the station to listen in on the call.
"I am afraid that I cannot do that just yet, you pigs must be taught a lesson in who you kill. Give the phone to the SWAT sniper or I will kill the hostages," the man ordered.
Harvey looked at the commissioner and silently asked whether or not he should follow instruction. Gordon nodded and Harvey went and handed the phone to the new guy, Naruto.
Harvey whispered in his ear that the suspect wanted to speak with him.
Naruto set the phone on speaker and said, "This is Officer Uzumaki speaking."
"Hello mister Uzumaki, my name is Henry Valentine and today you will be a part of a social experiment, you will decide which of these hostages I will kill," the now identified Henry said.
"I'm not going to play your game," Naruto replied stiffly before the suspect held a child in front of him.
Naruto growled in anger as the man did so, and Henry spoke again, "I suggest you do, as long as there are hostages you have no choice."
"I take your silence as a yes, good," Henry said with a chuckle after a few moments, not realizing that Naruto had made a shadow clone appear on the top of the train.
Commissioner Gordon, who had entered the upper floor, squinted at the oddly dressed man standing on top of the train. He wore a dark blue body suit, a green vest, and a metal plated headband that was over a mask.
"What the hell is that?" Bullock asked in confusion.
The clone made the hand sign for a shunshine and in a swirl of wind it teleported inside. There were three gangsters, all armed. One in front with his back facing the clone and two taking cover behind the steel walls. One of the kids let out a gasp, alerting the three men.
"What the hell are you supposed to be, some kind of Ninja?" one asked as they took more hostages.
"Kind of the idea, yeah," Naruto answered with a fake rasp before he substituted three shadow clones for the kids.
"Holy crap!" the gangsters shouted, but it was too late all three were knocked out simultaneously.
'Well that was rather… anticlimactic,' thought Naruto who nearly sweat-dropped at how easily the situation was diffused.
The three clones were dispelled as the children in the car cheered for the unknown hero. The clone made a human rope with more clones before lowering the thugs to the street. The driver of the train gave the clone a thumbs up, before he smiled as he was handed his discarded conductor cap and was free to go by the police. The clone then jumped to ground level right in front of detective Bullock.
"Woah wise guy, who do you thing you are? We had the situation under control," Bullock asked him grouchily before the commissioner came over.
"Thanks for the hand, but uh… what do we call you?" Gordon asked in confusion as he'd never seen anything like the proverbial magic show that he'd just witnessed.
"You may call me Kitsune, it's Japanese," the clone explained before he made a hand sign and dispelled himself, leaving confused officers.
Naruto himself packed up the sniper rifle as the other officers whispered about the new hero in town.
"God, this is going to cause a headache," he grumbled to himself.
"What's with the frown Uzumaki? Got a ninja as a guardian during the day, what's there not to like?" Brendan asked as he'd over heard the grumble.
Naruto thought up a quick excuse, "I just don't want to be out a job," he said with a sheepish grin.
"Ah don't worry about it, if we get crime so low to be stuck with handing out tickets to jay walkers it'll be a friggin miracle," Brendan said as he put his arm over Naruto who chuckled at Brendan's optimism.
Bethanie stared at her television screen in her office with a scowl on her face, the Kitsune was in Gotham. That was unacceptable, this was her city, her criminals, her mess to clean.
"I'm going to have a discussion with him, very, very soon," Bethanie growled to herself.
"Miss Wayne, I know you said to make sure no one disturbed you but Ms. Vicki Vale is here for an interview," Luke called from over the intercom.
'Lord, what did I do to deserve this?' Bethanie thought in exasperation.
She didn't hate Vicki, far from it, but she was very nosy. Always trying to tie her to Batwoman, she couldn't allow that.
"Send them in," Bethanie replied, putting on the damsel in distress mask.
A short haired blonde woman strolled into the office with the reporter Alex Knox trailing the group. She enjoyed his reporting of her when she first started. Alex, unlike so many others believed the criminals when they swore to being thrashed by a giant bat. She anonymously donated money to his paper for the honest coverage of her exploits.
"Ms. Wayne, is it alright if we do an interview?" Vicki asked sweetly.
Bethanie smiled cordially before she answered with a lower lip quiver, "It's about the attempt on my life, isn't it?"
A forced tear rolled down her face, smudging her makeup slightly, she caught a look of sympathy for her. Hook line and sinker, Vicki fell for it again. Bethanie smashed the impulse to giggle, the 'distress' mask worked every time.
"I know it's hard but please tell us the facts," Vicki began the tape interview.
"Well, it all started when they rushed us, the scientists and myself," Bethanie started to act and relay what happened.
For a good ten minutes there she sat, retelling the story. About how a lone SWAT officer had freed her and all of her employees. The reporters wanted a name to print, which she honestly didn't get. And as fast as they entered they left to find information about the cop who saved her life.
She stayed silent until she was sure that they were gone, then giggled as she dabbed her face with a tissue. After a moment her demeanor became serious again, and she stared out of her window. Bethanie had work to do tonight, and she was going to make good on her promise of visiting Byron, and it would be one that he'd never forget.
A knock resounded through the apartment, tearing Himawari away from her homework, under her father's clone's supervision. Her father had always warned her to never open the door if she was home alone, which she never was due to there always being clones disguised as various objects. One of the clones looked through the peep hole in the door and opened motioned for Himawari to open it.
There, in the hall were a group of reporters. In front was a blonde woman who looked at her for a moment before she smiled and spoke.
"Oh, hello, is this the Uzumaki residence? My name is Vicki Vale with the Gotham gazette, I'd like to interview your father."
Himawari answered honestly, "Dad's not in now, he'll be back tonight after work."
"Oh, ok. Well here's my card, please tell him to call to set up the interview," Vicki handed the girl her card before the door shut.
As the group made their way back down the elevator Vicki muttered, "What kind of a father lets his daughter dye her hair blue?"
Naruto sighed tiredly as he opened his apartment's door later that evening, it'd been a long day. Seventeen robberies, three domestic disputes, and one case of a guy getting his pants stuck in an escalator.
"Daddy!" Himawari shouted as she hugged him.
"Hey Himawari-chan," Naruto said tiredly as he sat down in the living room.
"Are you going to go out tonight?" his daughter asked as she watched the news about the Kitsune appearing in Gotham.
"Yep, got to face her sometime," Naruto replied as he watched the sun sink in the distance.
"Can we eat first?" Himawari asked with a smile.
Naruto couldn't refuse and made a shadow clone outside of his window with the instructions to meet the Batwoman on the roof of the GCPD. He and Himawari began to make dinner, rice and minced steak.
Bethanie sat within the bat cave, brooding as normal, or normal for her at least. She sensed Alfred behind her and donned her cowl before she headed to the bat-mobile.
"Bethanie, if I may, perhaps Mr. Byron has had enough trouble to worry about before you go and interrogate him?" Alfred suggested as he turned on the TV that was in the cave.
Bethanie raised an eyebrow as she glanced at the TV, apparently John had decided to turn himself in after nearly committing suicide earlier that day.
Bethanie let out a snort, "He's lucky, now he'll get to spill the beans to the police."
"What will you do now? It would seem your evening plans have been changed," Alfred asked with one eyebrow cocked.
"I'll look into why the GCPD has the signal on," Bethanie said dismissively before getting into the car.
Bethanie used her grappling hook to ascend to the roof of the GCPD building, once on the roof she hid in the shadows. Just in case of an ambush, which was unlikely but still, she felt the need to be pragmatic on this one. She glared when she saw him, there, next to commissioner Gordon was the Kitsune.
"What are you doing here?" Bethanie cut straight to the point as she revealed herself, startling both men.
"Was in the neighborhood, decided to help," Kitsune replied in a happy tone as Gordon made an exit, he apparently knew what was coming and wanted to be clear of the storm.
"Thank you for dealing with the hostage situation, now get out of my city," Bethanie growled out, fully expecting for him to decline.
"Can't, just moved here. Jobs were bad in LA, needed work," he replied smoothly before adding, "And last time I checked this was a free country, and I don't need permission to operate where there's trouble."
"You do if the city's already taken," Bethanie shot back acidly.
Kitsune paused for a moment before granting," You have a point, at night it is taken. Criminals still operate during the day."
It was Bethanie's turn to pause, it was true. While she cleaned up the city for up to six hours every night, save for attending unavoidable parties, she left a good of Gotham unchecked for about nineteen hours. But still…
"I don't need help," she said icily
"Never said you did, just suggesting a way to share," Kitsune said in an attempt to appease her.
"Bethanie, there appears to be a break-in at the north Gotham mall, perhaps if our friend proved himself to you then maybe you could let him take the proverbial day shift," Alfred who had been monitoring the conversation said over the cowl radio.
Bethanie put her hand to her face in a thinking gesture as a small smile formed, the Kitsune tensed as she did this.
"There's a break-in at the north Gotham mall, we'll head over there and see what you can do. I want to see how you handle yourself with Gotham's criminals," Bethanie said, expecting him to rebuke her offer.
"Alright, meet you there," Kitsune answered and vanished in a puff of smoke.
Naruto, who had finished with dinner and established new shadow clones around his apartment changed into his Kitsune outfit and shunshined near the mall in question on a roof top.
"Beat you here," Batwoman said from behind, Naruto didn't jump this time.
"Seems so, though you know I could've gotten here faster," Naruto responded seriously as Batwoman came up beside him and her eyes turned a shade of grayish blue as she scanned the building.
"I've scanned the area, there are five thugs inside, including their boss. Keep all of them inside, and you can have the day shift," Batwoman instructed before she looked back to her companion only to find him gone.
"…So that's what that feels like," She muttered to herself, irked that he stole one of her gimmicks.
Naruto stood in the rafters of the mall, it wasn't that big so he could easily spot the five thugs, not that he really needed to see them. They talked loud enough, which must have been a pain for their boss.
"Joker want's as many jack in the box's as we can get, so we get em all," Shouted the obvious leader of the group.
Naruto made a mental note of telling Batwoman who these guys worked for after it was over. He jumped and landed silently on the floor behind one of the men who looked for the jack in the boxes.
Naruto tapped the man's shoulder, the thug looked back not thinking anyone was behind him. Only to be knocked out by a punch to the face.
"What was that?" the leader yelled out as the man's buddies came out to check their friend. They only found their friend next to a pile of toys.
The leader, James, a burly man in a trench coat and a clown mask kneeled down and check the pulse of his friend.
"He's out cold, Batwoman's here!" he shouted to alert his friends, only to find he was the only one in the toy store isle.
"Dom? ...Harry? Larry?" he called in near fright, this wasn't the bat's MO. Batwoman while quiet would get everyone's attention on to one person before getting everyone else. This was as silent as the grave, he heard the rustling of wind behind him.
James gulped, fearful of what was back there. He turned and aimed his weapon, only to find that instead of just one guy there were three. John, Larry, Harry, and Dom all tied up.
"I don't really appreciate being called a woman," a voice behind him said.
James spun and fired only to have his arm directed up, and in his face was a ninja looking guy.
He grunted as the man smashed a glowing ball into his ribs, and sent him flying into a wall.
Naruto shunshined back to the rooftop and looked to Batwoman expectantly.
"Alright, you pass. Take the day shift," Batwoman growled out.
"So that means we're partners?" Naruto questioned with a raised eyebrow.
"No, but if you need me, you know how to find me," Batwoman said as she leapt off of the roof and glided into the night.
Bethanie rounded a bend and landed on a fire escape, where she hauled herself up to the roof with her grapple gun, only to come face to face with the Kitsune again.
"If, perhaps, you need ME. You can leave a message on top of the GCPD," The Kitsune said before he nearly vanished in a swirl of leaves.
Bethanie stopped him as she outstretched her hand, "Alright."
Naruto smiled, he was finally making headway. He grasped her hand and shook it before he finally took off back to his apartment.
Naruto appeared inside his apartment and took off his mask when he noticed something, on one of his gloves he found a tiny black chip, shaped like a bat.
"That witch, she tracked me!" he said to himself as he looked out his window to the building across from him.
There was Batwoman, with a smirk on her face as she stared right at him. She waved briefly before jumping into the night. Naruto stewed, his identity was compromised. The bat chip, rested on the pad of his index finger until it was vaporized by a tiny Rasengan.
"Well played," Naruto murmured quietly to the window, he supposed that he'd do the same thing.
A dark smirk came over him, one that hadn't appeared since his pranking days.
"It takes two to tango, don't forget starting this game Batwoman," Naruto said as he would find out her identity soon enough.
Bethanie couldn't help the triumphant smirk that was glued to her face as she took off her cowl in the cave. It had been a good night, she had a… co-worker on the 'opposite shift', she stopped penguin from stealing a solid gold bird, and had saved three people from a fire.
"Perhaps it wasn't best to compromise his identity this early in your partnership Ms. Wayne," Alfred commented from the stares.
"He wants to help protect my city, he has to play by my rules. He was the officer who got me out of the hostage situation yesterday," she said after heading to her changing room to slip on a pair of pajama pants and a tank top.
"Would you like a mug of hot coco Ms. Wayne?" Alfred asked as Bethanie put her hands behind her head as the bat-computer powered up, she wanted to find out more about her 'partner'.
"That would be perfect Alfred, Thank you," Bethanie accepted the offer with a relaxed look.
Alfred went to his task but as he reached the top of the stairs, he turned and addressed Bethanie, "Turnabout is fair play Ms. Bethanie, if I may suggest to watch yourself. Kitsune of Japanese folklore are known to be tricksters. Do be careful my dear."
Bethanie looked up to her father figure and nodded, she knew she was playing with a lit fire cracker if half the stories were true, and more than half were. She'd be careful, as much as she could be with her own identity.
A/N Guys please tell me how i'm doing, I really don't want to mess this story up. if you find anything that's out of place or a suggestion for the next chapter please let me know. And I have a question of you all, Do y'all like the circus?