Orphans Chapter 4:
"" – Dialogue
'' – Thinking/Writing
Gotham City
October 16th, 2013
9:11 PM EST
Naruto
Red was a color Naruto hated.
Red is a color that primarily represents anger, an emotion that could only negatively affect him. Anger caused sloppiness in his old line of work and sloppiness usually increased the already high mortality rate even further. But more personally, Naruto primarily associated the color with his previous tenant, the Nine Tails.
The creature's hateful chakra manifested itself like a crimson second skin that boosted his physical attributes in exchange for his morals. Not a fair trade if you wanted friends.
Thus, when he descended upon the scene of Commissioner Gordon holding onto a rapidly bleeding black-haired girl, he had to quickly hide his discomfort.
"Oracle! Send the Batmobile to GCPD, now!" Naruto commanded; hand raised to his ear to activate a special communicator courtesy of Batman. Oracle being the nickname used by the Bat family to refer to Alfred while managing the Batcomputer. "A girl's been shot and she's losing blood fast." Naruto relayed.
"On the way, sir." The ever-calm butler coolly responded. "Turn on your video feed so I may relay more exact guidance." He requested, to which Naruto obliged. Tapping an area near his right temple, near-invisible lenses in front of his eyes gently began to glow, indicating the live stream had begun.
"Kitsune." Gordon acknowledged as the blonde teen gently took the nearly unconscious black-haired girl into his arms, returning a nod as he got to work.
"The shooter's down." Kitsune relayed simply, flicking his head behind him to the unconscious man he carried down with him. "He was on the roof behind me. Get some officers and secure the area. I've got this." Naruto instructed as he checked the girl's condition.
Her breathing was steady but weakening. Her eyes were barely open, with furrowed brows and gritted teeth telling Naruto that this was not by chance.
"Check for an exit wound, around her lower back." Alfred instructed. Naruto obliged by carefully shifting the girl so he could get a hand to her back. Lifting her black shirt, Naruto was greeted by a small hole with enough flowing blood to indicate the bullet not being present.
"Kitsune, here!" A man in a GCPD uniform called, as he hurriedly descended the stairs. The man had a modified uniform that bore a yellow cross on each of his shoulders, and he held various supplies in his arms. Hurriedly laying down a thick white sheet, the man tapped it twice before laying a bag down next to it. Getting the message, Naruto laid the girl down on the white sheet.
"Remove her clothing from the affected area." Alfred instructed as soon as Naruto laid her down, the girl's slight groans of pain urging his hand. Tearing the black fabric in such a way that the girl's modesty was still intact, but her midriff was exposed, Naruto was able to get a clear view of the entry wound.
"Clean the affected area with the peroxide and cloth in your utility belt, it'll be faster than searching the medical bag." Alfred's instructions continued in time with Naruto's actions. "Place pressure on the wound and hold it until you feel the bleeding stem, then wait for the bat mobile." He finished as Naruto nodded his assent.
As Naruto held his hands stacked upon one another over the girl's wound, he began to notice everything wasn't normal with her.
Primarily, he noticed that her stomach was heavily scarred and bore an unnatural amount of muscle tone. The kind of muscle tone he'd expect to see on another shinobi or hero, but certainly not on a civilian.
Secondly, he noticed that her expression was nowhere near what a person who'd just been hit by a sniper should be. A normal person's face would be scrunched up in excruciating pain, he imagined that their panic would generate a look like they were choking on a scream that refused to come out. Compared to that, this girl's eyebrows were simply scrunched while her consciousness seemed to be fading from the blood loss; panic didn't even seem to be a thought.
Nonetheless, Naruto tried to comfort her while they waited.
"You're going to be alright. I'm with Batman." He explained, not expecting a response.
The girl's black eyes shifted over to him. "…Bat…man…" she said in a horribly gargled voice that sounded like it had never been used.
Her consciousness faded after she parroted his sponsor's name and soon after that, the Bat mobile arrived with a mighty roar. With the situation contained and no time to waste, Naruto loaded the girl into the Bat mobile and set course for the cave.
A girl's life hung in the balance.
Gotham City
October 16th, 2013
9:32 PM EST
The ride was tense, as Naruto's eyes kept shifting over to the unnamed girl seated in the passenger seat.
The sound of the Batmobile was mostly muted on the interior, allowing Naruto to listen for the girl's ragged breathing. He was confident enough in his skills to know that he'd successfully stemmed the bleeding, but he still kept his eyes peeled for any signs of the wound re-opening.
After an intense few minutes, they finally arrived back at the cave; At which point, Alfred quickly pulled up a stretcher and allowed the teen to load their patient onto it. This was the last Naruto had seen of her as Alfred wheeled her over to the medical ward to begin surgery- a skill he honed with the master of this house.
Speaking of the Bat, he was out on league business; that being the only reason Naruto was tasked with investigating this call in the first place.
That being said, Naruto couldn't just sit still while she was being operated on. He felt a level of responsibility as his slowness in responding almost caused two people to lose their lives tonight, and that was unforgivable.
Thus, he found himself back at the scene of the crime.
The police had already collected the gunman (since Naruto left him hogtied on their doorstep) and had already cordoned off the effected areas with yellow police tape. He decided to take things a step further, though.
With the assistance of a little bit of chakra to defy gravity, the young blonde ran up the wall opposite the police station. Standing on the ledge next to the spot where the shooter was camped, Naruto crouched down and analyzed the scene of the crime. Specifically, he was looking for a feasible way someone could enter the area without being seen. He was trying to deduce how the girl could've intercepted the shooter without being detected first.
"The area's too well lit…" Naruto quietly remarked to himself. "The stairs have lights, the sidewalks too… So, unless she scaled the wall… No way." Naruto concluded as he set off to test his hypothesis.
"Way, I guess." He corrected himself as he came upon an abandoned bag on the roof of the police station.
The bag was an unassuming black duffle that wasn't even close to being filled. The only items stored within were a couple of water bottles, an MRE, a specially designed black mask and a sword held within a black sheath. A cursory search revealed there to be no kind of trackers in the bag.
Using the bag as his starting point, Naruto was able to easily piece together what happened as the duffle bag was laid against the side of the building facing the shooter. Thus, his best guess was she'd seen the shooter, made her way to the side of the building where she'd be hidden climbing down and used the shrubbery surrounding the police station to sneak towards the stairs.
"But why…?" Naruto asked himself with a hand on his chin.
After mulling on the issue for less than a minute, Naruto gave up. There was no use trying to think on such little evidence when he literally lives with a man called the world's greatest detective.
Thus, with the duffel flung over his shoulder, he headed back to the cave to check on their mysterious patient.
Gotham City
October 17th, 2013
7:46 AM EST
Cassandra
Cassandra was special.
She wasn't born this way, mind you. She was trained in the art of murder from before she could form words and had her vocal cords destroyed to further this purpose. The most she'd ever been able to utter being short bursts of language that barely resembled words. This left her with only one language available.
Body language.
Cassandra gained the ability to interpret what a person was going to do via their body's movements. The ability was so extreme that Cassandra could accurately predict what a person could do almost before they did. Thus, when she woke up in an unfamiliar room and was approached by an elderly man in a bat-themed mask, she didn't panic.
The room she was in was hardly a room as the metal floor and wavy walls told her that it was more likely a temporary medical tent. The black-haired girl was currently lying in a medical cot with all-white bedding and an IV going into her right arm. The gentle beeping coming from the same side alerted her to the heart monitor she was attached to. Speaking of her hands, she was also bound to the bed with a set of handcuffs around her left wrist. Though it was something she'd be able to escape easily; she figured it would give peace of mind to those who helped her if she kept them on.
The man approaching her walked perfectly straight with practiced grace and based on his formal wear, was a butler of some kind. His gait, though practiced and careful, didn't give off any malice; combined with the tray of food he was carrying led Cassandra to relax.
She'd made it.
This old man must be associated with Batman judging by his mask, unless of course she was being pranked by fate.
"Good morning, young lady." The man greeted in a gentle, British-accented voice. "I see you're recovering well from your run in with the right side of the law." He lightly joked.
That brought the ex-assassin's attention to the bandages wrapped around her mid-section that she'd failed to notice. A dull ache thumped from her right side in time with her attention, reminding her of her activity the night before.
"I thought Gotham's newest hero might like something to eat." He said, placing the tray on a small bedside table before lifting the metal top to reveal scrambled eggs and bacon with a singular metal fork. "Forgive the accommodations," He said, gesturing to the handcuffs ", but we really can't have you wandering around."
Nodding in understanding, Cassandra took one look at the offered food before tearing into the meal with a ferocity that surprised the aged veteran watching.
"Good thing you ate it before it ran away." He remarked dryly as the teen finished off the simple dish.
"Now, this may be sudden but there's someone that would like to have a word with you regarding your next steps." The man said as he gathered up the dishes, he'd entered the room with. "My only advice is to be honest. We're here to help." The man concluded with a friendly smile as he turned to leave.
Cassandra saw the man turn and say some hushed words to someone just outside of the threshold to the room before walking away. Then she saw him.
Batman.
The caped crusader calmly stalked into the 'room'. The man's broad shoulders held up with confidence and his head held straight. Even without a vision as acute as hers, she could tell that he was the real deal.
Stalking up to her bedside with hands hidden within his cape, a tense moment passed before the man parted his cape to reveal his hands. Held within his outstretched hands were a pen as well as a notepad.
"I've been informed of your… situation, but I still have some questions. Can you write?" The man asked in a deeper voice than she'd imagined.
Quickly realizing he was referencing the scar on her throat; she nodded and accepted the outstretched tools. Briefly glancing down at the metal binding her left arm, she was surprised to see the man reach down and unlock them for her.
"These aren't necessary if I'm here." He answered at her confused look. "Now, for my first question: why did you save Commissioner Gordon?" He asked.
Thinking about it for a moment, Cassandra clicked the pen and began to write. It took her a little more than a minute to finish and turn the pad towards the vigilante.
'I didn't want to see someone die.' She wrote in large, messy handwriting.
Batman's eyes widened slightly at reading the girl's response. "Do you regret that you got hit instead? You nearly lost your life in exchange for his." He prodded solemnly.
The girl's head shook in the negative in response before she began scribbling once again. The four words written shook the man to his core.
'Better me than him.'
Those words combined with the detached look in the girl's eyes spoke not to Batman, but to Bruce Wayne. The slight slump in her posture and eyes that held depths of sadness others couldn't understand reminded the man of himself. They reminded him of a turbulent time in his life when he'd desperately needed the support of others.
"Why do you think that?" he asked, softening his tone. He needed to know more about her before he decided.
The girl's scribbling had less energy to it now, but she continued, nonetheless.
'Not a good person.' She wrote on the next page, making these word stand out more than he'd like.
Batman considered those words with her appearance. She resembled a cornered animal in the way she held herself. Scars painting her arms and many more covered by her gown, according to Alfred. Her eyes were bagged, a classic indication of declining sleep quality. Muscles unconsciously tensed, she seemed to be trying to relax but her body spent too long in an activated state to calm down on command.
Bearing all of this in mind, Batman concluded that she was more of a victim than anything. Leading him to his last question:
"Do you have anywhere to go?"
Her response would change her life forever.
Chapter 4 End
A/N: Finally, Cassandra joins the family! Is this the end of her struggles with the League of Shadows?
Of course not.
But first, she's got a bigger struggle coming up in the form of dealing with Naruto Uzumaki. Will they get along? Will they fight? Do either of them even know the meaning of teamwork?
All will be answered in due time (read as: I'm bad at scheduling my chapters due to fluctuating motivation).
Next up for updating is RLT then I'll do a chapter of GoR because those have been left untouched for a few weeks. After those are done (or simultaneously), I'll keep updating this and see if I can get back into a groove.
With that, I'll see you all in the next one!
-Mango G.
P.S. I was really hooked on adhering to canon when I started this before realizing that this is fanfiction so I can do what I want. So I'm gonna go off of what I wanna do with elements of canon YJ going on in the background as opposed to letting canon dictate the story.