Change
Act One: Night of the Punisher
(Three years ago…)
Walking home from the Academy, Sasuke unexpectedly came across the scent of blood.
His heart began to pound as he ran, looking for the source of the overwhelming stench.
Suddenly, he found his uncle bleeding on the ground, dead. Looking down the street of the Uchiha District, he found more and more dead bodies—his entire family had been killed.
Running to his house, he opened the door and was horrified to find the broken bodies of his mother a father. Looking up, Sasuke saw two crimson orbs that came closer to him.
He recognized the red spheres as the Sharingan, and they belonged to his brother.
"Itachi, what's going on? Who killed Mother and Father? Who killed everyone else?!"
With a fully dead voice, Itachi said, "I did, Sasuke. I killed them to test my new power; the power I gained by killing my best friend: the Mangekyo Sharingan." The three tomoe in Itachi's eyes merged together into a windmill as he said "Let me show you my Tsukuyomi."
Sasuke found himself in a red-and-black world of some kind, tied to a cross. Colors—everything seemed inverted. Itachi said, "I will show you how easily I killed them, Sasuke. You will be forced to watch me kill our family repeatedly for three days."
No matter which way Sasuke turned, or what he did; whether his eyes were open or closed, he could not avoid seeing his brother—the person he looked up to more than anyone else in the world—slaying his clan over and over again. He saw it happen ten times before he heard Itachi say, "One second has passed. Seventy-one hours, fifty-nine minutes, and fifty-nine seconds to go."
"NO!!"
The next morning, Sasuke was found lying comatose on the street, surrounded by dead bodies.
It took five days for the medical ninja to heal him. The day after that, he was brought before the Council.
One of them said, "Sasuke Uchiha-kun, we wish to help you in any way possible so that you may avenge your Clan." She was about to continue before she was interrupted.
Sasuke's voice was as dead as his brother's had been when he said, "Not vengeance. Revenge is an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment."
Turning his back on the Council, Sasuke finished, "If you can't understand the difference, then you're wasting my time."
The next morning, Sasuke was reading the newspaper when a side column caught his notice. He read, "Serial rapist Shinji Matsumura acquitted of charges due to insufficient evidence."
His cousin had been reading up on that case—after all, an Uchiha had been raped as well.
Shinji Matsumura was going unpunished, just like Itachi was.
"Not for long, you aren't."
Shinji Matsumura was 5'11", blonde, and slightly muscular—he looked like the Chunin he was. His brown eyes were slightly unfocused due to intoxication from alcohol, but he still noticed that he was being followed.
Suddenly, something hit him hard in the gut, before clamping his mouth shut and knocking him out for a moment. When he came to a few seconds later, he was in an alley by the night club he'd just exited. Someone stood in front of him, wearing a black jacket and a shirt with a white skull on it.
"Shinji Matsumura." It was neither an accusation nor a question, simply a statement of fact.
"You raped seven women, two of them fifteen, before killing the first six."
With a smug look on his face, Shinji nastily replied, "I was acquitted, so what?"
Sasuke Uchiha flicked open a lighter, revealing his face as he said, "Not by me, you weren't," before tossing the lighter onto the kerosene-soaked Shinji, setting him ablaze.
As the burning man's screams summoned people from the night club, as well as the general area, Sasuke disappeared without a trace, leaving only a note.
'In certain extreme situations, the law is inadequate. In order to shame its inadequacy it is necessary to act outside the law-to pursue…natural justice. This is not vengeance. Revenge is not a valid motive, it's an emotional response. No, not vengeance. Punishment.'
When the ANBU Black Ops showed up, they couldn't find any clues to the murderer's identity, but one of them wearing a Hawk mask said, "I don't care who did it—that bastard raped and killed my sister; he got his just desserts."
By now, Sasuke was in his room, panting. He'd barely made it out before the ANBU would've been able to detect him. "I'm not strong enough to punish Itachi; that will have to wait. But this Village—the civilian sections were kept in control by the Police force, which was run entirely by the Uchiha Clan, which no longer exists."
Thinking to himself, he said out loud, "The rats will be coming out of the wall in droves…. Killers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers—you will get to know me very well. You will know me as… the Punisher."
Change
Act Two: Goblin at Morning…
(Two years after the Uchiha Massacre…)
Rock Lee, age 11, Genin, was currently in the Library, looking for anything that could give him a new idea to help him out in his next sparring match with his teammate and rival, Neji.
Coming across old records, Lee was suddenly inspired. Checking out the book, he also got a number of other books on subjects such as metalworking, electronic engineering, and sealing.
Going through some junkyards to get whatever scrap metal he could find, Lee then bought some paint and a brush.
Tenten, Guy, and even Neji were fairly worried when Lee didn't show up for the next day's meeting. He also didn't appear for the next five days.
Volunteering to go check on her teammate, Tenten went to Lee's house, as she was the only one who'd been there before.
Knocking on the door, she heard an exclamation of "Ow, my head!" with a metallic sounding thunk.
Just as she was about to knock again, Lee opened the door and asked, "Oh, Tenten, what is going on this fine youthful day? Did you need something?"
Tenten stepped back and appraised him briefly. He was virtually drowning in soot, grease, and black paint and he also looked a little burnt.
"Lee, where on Earth have you been?! We've all been worried about you for the past week! And… is that a blowtorch you're holding?!?!?!?"
Lee looked down at his hand, and then said, "No… that is a welding iron, not a blowtorch. And what do you mean you've been worried about me for the last week? I've only been here a day or two."
Holding up her hand, Tenten said, "You missed FIVE meetings in row, Lee. Not one, not two, but FIVE. Even NEJI's getting paranoid. What have you been doing?!"
Honestly shocked, Lee said, "I did not know I had missed five meetings in a row! You see, I have been working on a youthful project that, once completed, WILL TRANSCEND MY YOUTHFULNESS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!!! Could you please tell Guy-sensei and my youthful rival Neji that I am at a very delicate part of the project, and that I would like to finish it as quickly as possible? I will be there in less than an hour, and apologize for my completely unyouthful tardiness once I arrive. Would you please do this youthful favor for me?"
Not entirely sure what was going on, Tenten chose to humor him and give the others Lee's message.
Once she relayed it, Guy said, "So my most youthful student is trying to improve his youthfulness with some sort of mechanical contraption, it would seem. I honestly look forward to seeing the results of his labor. Until Lee arrives, we will simply have to wait. Tenten, Neji, you will spar using only Taijutsu, and then using only ranged weapons. Begin!"
Resigned, Neji and Tenten did as they were instructed, Neji winning the Taijutsu matches and Tenten winning the weaponized battles.
Twenty minutes later, Lee arrived, still looking sort of burnt on his face, but now wearing dull green, semi-form-fitting armor in place of his bright green spandex. His gauntlets covered the back and palm of his hands, but left the fingers exposed.
Bowing, he said, "Neji, Tenten, Guy-sensei, I must apologize for my unyouthful absence and equally unyouthful tardiness. I know it is little more than an excuse, but I have been working on a project to enhance my youthfulness to a level I cannot have ever dreamed of!"
Guy gave his 'pose of youth' and said, "All right, Lee, I want to see this new project of yours in action. You will spar with Neji—all techniques, weapons, and abilities are permitted. If your youth has increased as much as your devotion to this project leads me to believe, you will not be punished. However, if I feel that you have squandered your time and energy on something with no or little practical application, and then I will challenge you to defeat me in a seven-hundred lap race around the Village, on our hands! Do you accept, Lee?"
"Yes, I will accept any challenge you set before me Guy-sensei, and I will not only meet your expectations, I will surpass them by completing nine hundred laps around the Village on my hands regardless of how I do in my spar with Neji!"
Turning to his rival, Lee then go into the Strong Fist stance, smiling as he asked, "Do you wish to make the first move, or shall I?"
Neji simply activated his Byakugan and rushed Lee, channeling his chakra for a Gentle Fist-style attack.
Suddenly, Lee caught his hand in mid-strike before tossing Neji into the air and kicking him in the chest… which then sent him flying into a tree.
Chasing after Neji, Lee aimed a punch that missed, but split the tree in half.
On the sidelines, Guy and Tenten gawked—Lee had NEVER been this strong or fast before with his weights still on.
Lee then bit his finger, drawing blood, and swiped it over a hidden seal on his left shoulder.
In a 'poof' of smoke, a black piece of metal about six feet long and one foot wide appeared next to Lee, who then set it on the ground before stepping on it.
His boots latching to the piece of metal, it began rising into the air with a soft hum.
Neji cried out, "Lee, how is this—that thing is flying, using your chakra as a power source… that shouldn't be possible!"
Lee crouched a little to improve his balance as he said, "Normally, it would be impossible, as my chakra pathways are irreparably damaged, preventing me from being able to control it. However, I found a book on seals in the Library, and one of the seals in it was used for chakra absorption—I am not putting my chakra into my glider, it is TAKING my chakra FROM me. I also found out that my reserves are much larger than yours, is that not correct? Therefore, chakra exhaustion isn't really a problem."
Smirking now, Lee began to move forward on his glider, as he'd called it, steadily gaining momentum. Activating more seals on his gauntlets, it suddenly fired a large number of shuriken at Neji, who was only able to avoid bodily harm by using his 8 Trigrams Rotation technique.
By the time he'd stopped spinning, Lee was on top of him, grabbing a sphere from a pouch hanging from his shoulder. With the Byakugan, Neji saw that it was covered almost entirely with different types of explosive seals—some he recognized, and some he didn't.
When Lee threw it, Neji had to jump out of the way as the detonation virtually decimated the tree behind him. Before he could react again, Lee had Neji pinned to the ground with his glider, saying, "I was inspired to create all of this in the Library, when I found records of an ancient scientist named Norman Osborn… who after inventing a glider and weapons like those I've just used, began calling himself the Green Goblin."
(For a basic template, I'm using the New Goblin's costume and Glider from Spider-Man 3. His armor, however, is more like it is in the first Spider-Man film.)
Guy said, "Lee, using that bomb on Neji was rather unyouthful, but I believe that, overall, your performance was at least three times as youthful as any of your battles prior!"
But, true to his word, Lee sealed up his Glider, then did a handstand and said, "Guy-sensei, you challenged me to a handstand race—let us begin!"
Neji and Tenten simply decided to go home for the day.
_____
Author's Note: this is the beginning of the 'Change Arc', as I call it, since this chapter and the next will both center around some of the characters being 'changed' into Marvel Characters. Sasuke is now the Punisher and Lee is the Green Goblin. Next chapter will be Hinata, Sakura, and someone else…
Regarding the Yakumo poll, the votes stand at:
Mysterio: 7
Doctor Strange: 4
Thus, the Master Illusionist triumphs over the Sorcerer Supreme! Yakumo will become Mysterio! All other polls are still open for the time being.