My note: Once again, don't own the characters or the concepts. Just enjoy them lots. This one's only had the one proof-read through. There's a fair bit of dialogue lifted pretty much directly from the comic, which, yes, is quite upsetting. I've been trying to make some changes, but nothing big yet. Let me know what you think.

Ultimate Ninja

Vessels Part 3

As soon as the Professor had finished with his mysterious phone call, he'd explained the situation to them. He had a son. He'd had a wife and son and he left them when he went off to found the X-Men. It certainly cast Xavier in a new light to Naruto. He'd tried to put it into perspective for himself, but Naruto knew the pain of being abandoned and he couldn't find a good enough reason for it.

The X-Men were now finding out that some of the internet rumours were actually true. There was this other place that Xavier was involved with. Naruto wondered why the Professor hadn't told them. Okay, so Naruto hadn't exactly asked or anything. It had caught the others off-guard too though, so he knew it wasn't just him. Naruto wondered what else the Professor had been keeping from them.

"If this is Scotland," Storm said, upon arrival. "It stinks."

It really did stink, Naruto thought to himself, looking around. They'd caught the first super-sonic prototype airplane up to Muir Island, where they were supposed to meet someone called Moira, Xavier's ex-wife. It was raining and it was cold and it was dark when they arrived. There were some dome-shaped buildings a little ways away, that looked vaguely like bunkers, but they were just indistinct shapes in the distance to Naruto.

"Muir Island isn't a million miles from the Arctic circle, Storm." Naruto turned and looked over at the speaker. This had to be that Moira person that they were supposed to meet. She had short, red hair and grey eyes, partially-hidden behind glasses. She was walking on crutches and flanked by two non-descript-looking guys, holding umbrellas. They were probably doctors or nurses or something. "The average temperature at this time of year is minus ten and the average day lasts around five hours."

"Why would you build anything up here?" Naruto asked. "Why not-"

"Tahiti?" Moira interrupted, smirking slightly. Naruto nodded. He noticed the edge in her voice and the sidelong glance she sent the Professor. "This is a hospital for the less... socially acceptable mutants. We wouldn't want to scare the humans, would we?"

"Oh," Naruto said. What could he really say to that?

"You must be Charlie's newest," Moira said. Naruto nodded, grinning cheerfully. "What fool name did they choose for you then?"

"They keep calling me Nathan, if that's what you mean?" Naruto asked, keeping his grin up.

"In the field, we refer to him as Ninja," Beast clarified.

"I'm going to be the world's best super-hero someday," Naruto added helpfully.

"Isn't he a wee bit young?" Moira asked Beast.

"Ninja came with us after a regrettable encounter with a SHIELD-sponsored program," Beast answered.

Naruto knew she knew what Weapon X was, and he knew she knew what they were talking about. He didn't have to read her mind to tell that. The look on Moira's face changed subtly as she re-evaluated him. He wondered just how much she knew about what went on there.

Moira caught him watching her. He grinned. She turned her head slightly. "Where are the rest of you?" She asked, changing the subject. "I thought Charles said he was feeding and clothing eight little X-Men now."

"Jean and Scott are in Russia," Naruto said.

"Cyclops and Marvel Girl, in the field, Ninja," Beast corrected, glancing over at his petulant teammate.

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto groused. "She knows what I meant. I don't see why we need to use these dumb code-names anyway. You guys even got your picture in that magazine!"

"Dude, so not the time," Iceman said quietly. Naruto shrugged. He'd been out training and missed the whole magazine thing.

"The Professor thinks Colossus might have been kidnapped and Cyclops and Marvel Girl have been assigned to bring him home," Beast said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, by the way."

"Not under these circumstances, it isn't," Moira said. "What's wrong with your beloved mentor anyway, Beast? Is he jet-lagged?"

Naruto glanced over at Xavier. The Professor was slumped in his wheelchair, his head resting on his hand. His eyes were closed and it looked almost like he was asleep. Naruto had the urge to poke him to see if he'd wake up.

"The Professor is conducting a psychic search for your missing son, ma'am," Beast said. "In astral form, the Professor can cover ground at a little over mach three."

Naruto goggled at the Professor. He had to pay more attention, he decided, if he could learn to do stuff like that!

"Well, that's more concern than he ever showed for the boy when we were married, young man," Moira said bitterly. She turned and started back towards the big, dome-shaped hospital. Her two umbrella-holding assistants fell in behind her. The X-Men were expected to follow, though there wasn't an invitation. Moira glanced back over her shoulder, at Naruto. "To be honest, I thought he'd have relished the opportunity to crow about me losing him."
"You probably know him better than us," Naruto said, shrugging his shoulders. He fell into step behind Iceman but in front of Wolverine.

The inside of the hospital didn't look like Naruto imagined. With how the outside looked, he'd expected something more futuristic. Naruto had been in the hospital plenty of times, back in the Leaf village. There were training accidents and scuffles and such all the time. Even Konoha's hospital looked good by comparison to this place. There were a couple of those anonymous nurses sweeping up small piles of rubble across the floor. The walls were damaged and the hospital looked like it had been through a minor war. Some of the patients - at least, Naruto thought they were patients - watched them as they followed Moira past.

Naruto stopped and looked over at a couple of patients, sitting, catatonic on a bench outside an office. "Hi!"

"Ninja, don't get lost," Wolverine said, grabbing the back of Naruto's jacket and pulling him along.

"H-hey!" Naruto objected. "Lemme go!"

Naruto waved at the two oddly-shaped boys as Wolverine dragged him off. They continued to stare off into space.

"You know, I still can't get my head around the idea that the Professor had a wife and kid he never told us about, never mind this other school in the middle of nowhere," Iceman said. He was clearly still a little in shock.

When he lectured, the Professor was all about his higher mutant morality and stuff - how mutants weren't a bad thing and how they could solve the world's problems and stuff. Naruto kind of tuned him out, most of the time. The Professor liked to talk a lot.

This side of him though, reminded Naruto that Xavier was still human. Well, sort of human anyway, as human as a mutant could be, and to be honest, Naruto didn't see a whole lot of difference. Mutants were only humans with some extra fancy super-power as far as Naruto could tell.

The Professor was the perfect example. Sure, maybe there was some kind of higher reason or something that made Xavier leave his wife and son, but all Naruto could see was the pain it caused. Was that pain just supposed to go away somehow? Was it just supposed to be okay that he left them, because his ideals were so high?

"Nobody knows what's going on in Charlie's head, Iceman. Even after fifteen years of marriage, I felt like I was only scratching the surface," Moira said. Her tone had changed, slightly less bitter and angry now, as she identified with them. "As for this place... Well, it's actually a few months older than the New York operation, although our mutants here are more like patients than students, as you can see for yourselves."

Naruto glanced over his shoulder, back in the direction of those two mutant boys he'd said hi to. They were gone now, probably hustled off someplace by the nurses.

"The people who fund Charles' work hope that some of them will graduate to the Westchester facility, of course, but that's still a long way off even for the best of them," Moira said.

"What do you mean the people who fund his work?" Storm asked. "Xavier told us he paid for the school, the planes and all the other stuff out of money his parents left him."

"Really? Well, that must have been some inheritance, Storm," Moira said, smirking humourlessly. "Who did he tell you his mother and father were? Bill and Melinda Gates?"

"So, he wasn't telling the truth?" Naruto asked, frowning. He didn't like it when people lied to him. Oh, it was obvious that Moira was getting a little payback on the Professor for abandoning her and her son. Maybe it wasn't fair that the Professor was off looking for his son and not here to defend himself, but Naruto felt like he sort of deserved what he got.

"Don't like your tone, kid," Wolverine said warningly. "Chuck's done alright by us."

"It's like we don't even know him," Naruto argued.

"You can ask him, when he gets back," Beast said.

"Listen, why don't you just fill us in on whatever we need to know to bring this kid of yours back safely, Doc?" Wolverine said, changing the subject.

They entered what looked like the command centre, or something, of this so-called hospital. It sure looked high-tech! There was a large, backlit map of the planet along one wall, banks of high-tech-looking machines along another. The room was staffed by a bunch of anonymous-looking people in lab coats, armed with pens and clipboards.

"What can I say, Wolverine?" Moira said. She made her way over towards a cart, where a tea kettle and some cups were waiting. Moira didn't look at them as she poured herself a cup. "David was just your typical, little boy when Charles and I were together- average size, average intellect, a devoted Glasgow Rangers fan."

"You're a mutant too, right?" Naruto asked. Moira nodded after a moment's hesitation. "So... doesn't that mean you knew your son would be one too? I'm not up to that part in biology yet, but isn't that how it works?"

"That's right, Ninja," Beast said, looking mildly surprised.

"His powers didn't actually manifest until the day after his father left and our lives were thrown into turmoil," Moira said. "As far as we could ascertain, David had a very limited control of the matter around his person, but even the slightest use of these abilities had a devastating effect on his physical body. My son would have been dead in a week if we hadn't kept him sedated on Haloperidol and locked him in a lab where we could monitor him carefully."

Naruto wondered what that was like. He tried to imagine growing up asleep, but he couldn't. It was a pretty awful way to live. It had to be pretty tough on Moira too.

"Why he started to convulse again last night, I still can't say, but I doubt it's a coincidence that his father was back in Britain with his nice, little surrogate family," Moira said. The bitterness was back in her voice. "Unfortunately, this convulsion turned out to be the fatal one and he'd have died right there on the operating table if he hadn't jumped into poor Isobel MacLinden."

"Jumped?" Wolverine asked.

"Yes. Transferred his consciousness from his mind into hers," Moira said. She pulled her glasses off and wiped at her eyes with her sleeve. "I'm sorry, Wolverine. Could you give me a moment? This only happened last night and it's all still very raw."

"So he's kind of psychic," Naruto muttered. "And he can change stuff around him? I thought mutant powers were sort of, you know, physical and stuff... How's that work?"

"I have a theory," Beast said.

"It will have to wait." Naruto turned towards the speaker. These two weren't part of the hospital staff, Naruto knew immediately. There was a man and a woman. The man wore a rumpled, black suit, a long brown trench coat, and a fedora hat, like those old gangsters on television. He looked pretty average, like a civilian: brown hair, brown eyes, average complexion.

The woman was dressed more provocatively, in a long black coat. She either wasn't wearing a shirt underneath, or it was very small, for the amount of skin she was showing. She had long dark hair, dark eyes, and pale skin. Her ears were pierced a whole bunch of times.

"According to Cerebro, your son's managed a further three jumps since he escaped from the compound, Doctor," the woman said. "He's currently somewhere in the Grampian region, but we should have that narrowed down to the nearest square mile inside sixty to ninety minutes."

"Oh, pardon my manners," Moira said, though without much feeling. "X-Men, I'd like you to meet STRIKE Agent Dal Thomas and Colonel Betsy Braddock of Psi-Division."

"Hi there," Naruto said cheerfully.

"No need to introduce Henry McCoy, Doctor MacTaggert. I've read his STRIKE file in great detail and, believe me, he looks even more magnificent when you meet him in person," Braddock said.

Storm's eyes narrowed dangerously. Beast smiled slightly, obviously flattered.

"Who the heck are STRIKE?" Iceman asked.

Agent Thomas put his arm on Iceman's shoulder. "We're the British division of SHIELD, young Iceman," he said. "Just imagine me as a kind of real-life, Welsh James Bond and you're halfway there, eh?"

"What the heck are the Welsh?" Iceman asked.

Betsy Braddock smiled. "A quaint, little people just west of England, Iceman," she said. "Picture the Scots without the sex appeal or the Irish without the laughs and you've pretty much got them nailed."

"Very bloody amusing, I don't think," Agent Thomas said sullenly.

"Do I have a file?" Naruto asked nervously. These people were with SHIELD...

"You're a lot smarter than it suggests," Braddock said, smiling ruefully.

"Oh," Naruto said. "Well, Jean... uh, Marvel Girl is always making me study."

"Dude, she totally just dissed you," Iceman said. Naruto glanced over at Beast and Storm for confirmation. The others looked amused.

"Huh?" Naruto went over the what she said again in his head. "H-hey!"

"If you're all quite finished..." Moira said.

Professor Xavier's head snapped up, his eyes wide open again. "He's in Aberdeen," Xavier said. "David is on foot and eight miles outside the city of Aberdeen on the A90 motorway, people. If we leave now, I'll be close enough to subdue him before he reaches the city center."

"Right," Wolverine said.

"Hello again, Moira," Xavier said, noticing his ex-wife seemingly for the first time.

"Hello, Charles," Moira said. Her tone of voice could give even Iceman the shivers, Naruto would bet. The Professor didn't even seem to take notice as they made their way back outside, to where the jet was parked. The two STRIKE agents tagged along without asking.

"Why are we waiting out here?" Naruto asked, for what was probably the tenth time. They arrived just a few minutes ago, landing the jet in a conveniently wide street. Agent Thomas went off to contain the area, or whatever, leaving Xavier and the X-Men to do all the actual work. Which consisted of them standing around, while Wolverine went into the Burger King alone to confront Xavier's kid.

"Wolverine can better survive an encounter with David in his current condition," Xavier said. "Now, please remain quiet. I need to concentrate."

Naruto frowned, but kept his mouth shut and made sure he wasn't broadcasting his thoughts or anything. He knew how annoying that could be.

"Stay where you are and remain perfectly calm, David. Let your body go limp and close your eyes; my students here will get you safely home to mother," Xavier broadcasted. His mental voice was cool, calm, and collected. Naruto could tell almost immediately that this wasn't the way to go about things. Was Xavier afraid to face his kid, Naruto wondered absently.

A moment of ominous silence passed, then-

Boom! The earth beneath the Professor's wheelchair exploded upwards, smashing the wheelchair and launching Xavier through the air. "Professor!" Iceman shouted, surprised. Xavier landed painfully, his head connecting with the ground with a dull thud.

"Holy jeez!" Naruto heard Wolverine shout. What was going on in there?

"This is bad," Braddock said.

"No kidding," Naruto said.

"Telepathic contact with Wolverine is down and replaced with some kind of nervous static," she said. Naruto reached out with his own mind and confirmed her assessment. He couldn't really get a read on Wolverine ordinarily, thanks to whatever it was that Weapon X did to him, but this feeling was different.

"I don't understand," Beast said. "What does that mean?"

As if on cue, Wolverine smashed through the roof. "Oh great!" Naruto muttered.

Wolverine landed heavily on the jet, his claws fully extended. There was a crazed look in his eyes. "An adamantium skeleton? A healing factor that regrows soft tissue as fast as I can burn it up?" Wolverine's voice said, though it wasn't Wolverine doing the talking. "I think I've just found my new home, Mum and Dad!"

"Listen up! If Xavier's down, I'm assuming temporary leadership, people," Beast said, already in motion. "Iceman, Ninja, you're up next! Storm and Betsy, you're covering them!" Beast launched himself at Wolverine, with some pretty cool acrobatics, if Naruto had to judge. He caught Xavier's son by surprise with a move Wolverine would have been able to read.

So he had Wolverine's body, but not his experience. Naruto started to gather his chakra. He had a plan.

"I don't want to do this any more than you do, David, but I'll hurt you if I have to," Beast said. "Let's be sensible about this and catch the next helicopter back to Muir Island, my friend."

"I'm not going back to that-" David started.

Naruto substituted himself for the Professor's wheelchair, appearing three feet away from Wolverine. Naruto was on him before David could react. David was caught completely off-guard. Naruto launched him into the air with a strong kick to the jaw. He'd used this against Sabretooth in his first escape attempt, and he'd only gotten stronger since then. Three clones came at Wolverine from all sides, hammering into him as hard as they could, while a fourth clone launched Naruto up into the air telekinetically. Naruto's heel smashed into Wolverine's face, sending him hurtling back towards the earth. Wolverine hit with a thunderous crash.

David growled and pushed himself up to his hands and knees. "You're going to bloody pay for that, blondie!"

Naruto felt David trying to crawl into his head and put all his mental energy behind his shields. He only just managed to jump out of the way as the air itself turned into a sea metal spikes which shot towards him. Two of his clones weren't so lucky, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"You're not so tough," Naruto growled determinedly. He formed another half-dozen clones and sent them rushing towards Wolverine. David had the hang of fighting him now though and sent a barrage of metal spikes created from thin air hurtling towards Naruto.

Naruto only just managed to substitute himself in time. The metal spikes tore through his clone squad. He needed another tactic.

"Take this, you jerk!" Iceman shouted, encasing Wolverine in a thick block of ice. A uneasy silence settled over them.

"Did you get him?" Naruto asked.

Wolverine's claws broke through the surface of the ice. He gave the boys a feral grin. "What do you think?"

"I think I'm just going to have to hit you harder," Naruto shouted. David grinned inside Wolverine. Naruto felt that feeling again, like when Jean tested his defences. "I'm psychic too! That's not going to work!"

"Oh aye?" David asked. "Let's try someone a little less resistant then!"

"Holy #$&!" Iceman shouted, his eyes wide. There was a low growling noise. Naruto spun around, ducking just in time to avoid the blood red claws of a four-tailed monster. It roared and snarled angrily. This was what he'd become? This was what Iceman was most afraid of?

"It's amazing what you find in the recesses of the human mind, isn't it, blondie?" David chuckled inside Wolverine.

"Get a hold of yourself, Iceman!" Naruto shouted. He smashed the fox construct with every last bit of telekinetic power he had, tearing it to shreds. That was something he'd been practising with too and Naruto was grateful it worked. It was just an image, pulled from Iceman's brain; it wasn't nearly as resilient as the real thing. "You're going to have to try har-"

Lightning struck Wolverine's body, sending him flying. His body was probably a lightning-magnet, with all that metal on his bones, Naruto thought absently. He'd forgotten Storm could do that, throw around lightning like he threw a kunai.

"What in God's name was that?" David groaned. Wolverine's burned flesh was already beginning to regenerate itself. That didn't mean it didn't hurt like hell.

"Storm just hit you with a lightning bolt, David," Betsy Braddock said. Her eyes were closed in concentration, her hand massaging her temple. "Quite pleasant compared with what's coming up next. I've never had a psychic grenade tossed into my brain before, but my ex couldn't talk for a week one time when I hit him with just a tiny, little one."

David howled in pain, clutching at his head and writhing around on the ground. "That was some kind of psychic attack?" Naruto asked, stunned.

"Yes," Braddock said.

Wow, Naruto thought. He thought he had a pretty good handle on his powers. He obviously still had a long way to go! "Can you show me how-"

"You witch! You bloody evil witch!" David slurred. "I'm going to break every bone in your body for that, you cow!"

"Not tonight, you're not, mate," Agent Thomas said, sidling up to stand over David's prone form. If he still had any kind of control over that body, that wasn't a place Naruto would want to stand. "You're sick, you're tired, and you're getting a wee bit wobbly on your feet to be honest."

Now Naruto could hear them: silent-running military helicopters off in the distance but approaching. He peered into the dark night sky, trying to make them out, but they didn't use lights or anything.

"You're going back to your sickbed, young man," Agent Thomas said.

"Not a chance!" David growled.

"David, please!" Moira shouted, anguished. "You're going to die if you keep using your powers like this! Your body's going to burn up!"

Naruto started after him as Wolverine's body leapt into the air. David landed a hundred feet away, on the main highway.

"One thing the world isn't short of is bodies, mum," David grunted, as he landed.

"David, what are you doing?" The Professor shouted.

Naruto slammed into Wolverine with a dozen clones, each punching and kicking, trying to bring Wolverine down. His healing factor wasn't helping much though. Wolverine was slashing wildly with his claws. He managed to dispel a couple of clones, but Naruto had learned how to fight right.

They were both caught in the headlights. Naruto turned his head in surprise. David grabbed him. "What're you doing? Lemme go!"

David grinned. "Let's see how tough the real you is, laddie!"

The truck couldn't stop in time. The horn honked as it thundered down on them. Naruto drove his knee into Wolverine's gut. Startled, Wolverine's grip loosened. Naruto tore free. He substituted himself with a nearby garbage can. David turned to look at the oncoming truck, his eyes wide. The truck smashed into Wolverine, thudding over his nearly indestructible body. The truck kept going, accelerating wildly out of sight.

Naruto thought about running after it. He could probably still catch the truck, if he pushed himself.

"Ninja. Stop," Xavier ordered.

In the distance, they heard the sound of the truck smashing. The area was soon swarming with STRIKE people, rappelling down from those quiet black helicopters. Smoke rose up in the distance, from the wreckage of the truck.
"Well done, young Ninja," Agent Thomas said, clapping Naruto on his back. Naruto stumbled forward a step, surprised. "You're tougher than I thought."

"He got away," Naruto said. "I think he jumped."

"Did you look him in the eyes?" Thomas asked seriously.

"No. I was too busy trying to get loose," Naruto said, shaking his head. "He's in the truck driver, I think. Or he was."