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Mount Justice; Happy Harbor; November 22nd 2013; 11:59AM
"Thanks for agreeing to do the tests yourself," Sasuke muttered with his shirt off, sitting in the med-bay with a needle in his arm; Black Canary smiled and turned from the blood-analysis on the holo-screen in front of her to face her patient.
"I'm flattered," she said flipping her hair across her shoulder, "But, I'm hardly the most qualified for a blood-sample diagnostic."
He sighed and looked down ripping the needle from his arm, "In this case, you are the most qualified, what does the result say?"
She raised a brow and turned back to the screen, "No blood abnormalities detected, the poison Naruto found in your system over a month ago is completely gone."
He closed his eyes and stood, "I was afraid of that," he announced grabbing his hoodie from the chair he was sitting on.
"Is there a specific reason you wanted me to be here?"
"I want to ask you some questions," he noted retaking his seat, "You have several degrees in psychology and sociology which makes you the best person I could think of to answer them."
Dinah raised her brow once again, intrigued by his proposal, "Okay," she responded taking a seat across from him, "I'm listening."
Sasuke looked off with a very stoic expression, "I've been seeing things, at first I chalked it up to the poison playing tricks on me but, since it's clear I'm clean I figure it must be something mental."
At first, Sasuke had Dinah's curiosity but, now he had her attention, "What types of things are you seeing?"
"My brother…"
This caught her off guard for a moment but, she shook it off quickly enough, "The one you-"
"Exactly," he cut her off, simply not wanting to hear it out loud at the moment, "I see him standing over my bed, in crowds of people, with or without my Sharingan; I'm just not sure what to do anymore."
Canary gave some thought to what he said, waiting a few seconds to give her opinion, "I think I might know what you're experiencing… I could say you're suffering from a form of bereavement but, I know your situation too well to be that naïve."
"So?"
"So, I'd say after observing you for the passed four months that you've reached, what we in the psychology field call, your crossroads."
Sasuke sat unfazed by her news but, still unsure of what exactly she meant and sounding the word out in his mouth to get a feel for it, "Crossroads?"
She closed her eyes and thought up a good way to explain, "You grew up in a world where certain things were justified by circumstance, however; you're now faced with a new world that you're having a hard time coming to grips with."
Sasuke sighed with an exasperated tone, "And what does that mean?"
Canary rolled her eyes and converted her words to a speech he would likely better understand, "You're at conflict with yourself; with the person you were and the person you are becoming."
He looked down, almost in disappointment but, more in deep thought than anything else, "So, these hallucinations are just my brain trying to figure out who I want to be?"
"Probably, I don't have an MRI machine or a Sharingan but, my gut is usually right in times like these," she gave an exhale and stood, putting a hand on his shoulder, "It's time for you to look inward, ask yourself the bigger questions, who are you? And what do you want?"
She gave him a quick pat on the back as a ringing went off in her ear, "Canary. Why? I have to see what, exactly?" She walked into the hall, disappearing into the cave and leaving Sasuke to think about what he'd been told. His entire life he spent in mourning over his family's murder whether in the stage of bargaining, revenge, or depression but, never acceptance. Sure, he accepted they were gone but, he never truly let go, he always believed that someone out there still had to pay. First Itachi, then Danzo, then the Hidden Leaf, then Obito and finally Madara Uchiha. It's no wonder he experienced such a dramatic shift in his own personality after being trapped in this world in the months before Naruto revealed himself. With Madara seemingly defeated and suffering, his mission was done but, now that the mad-man ninja has returned and Itachi has drudged up these emotional thoughts from the depths of his mind, was he truly ready to let go of his old-self? Or did the Uchiha clan still need avenging? Maybe there's a way to achieve both?
Sasuke was ripped from his thoughts by a knocking on the doorframe which caused him to look up at the source; Naruto and Artemis stood waiting in the hall, "What?" he muttered standing from his seat.
"Don't be rude," Artemis announced with a smile as he approached them and closed the door behind him, "I was just reminding you that you agreed to come over tonight to have dinner with my Mom and I."
"I remembered," Sasuke muttered walking passed her as they strut beside him.
"Six o'clock sharp, don't be late, and for the love of god wear something nicer than that hoodie," Artemis hated nagging but, knowing how much Sasuke had on his plate, she couldn't help but remind him to make sure he didn't forget anything important.
"Got it," he didn't even glance back at her as he made his way toward the exit; she huffed knowing full well this was just the way he was, giving her his stoic attitude was the usual so, she just waved it off and turned to leave.
"And don't be so moody!" she shouted over her shoulder to which Sasuke didn't even acknowledge.
Naruto halted his strut by jumping in front of him, "It's time to train!"
Sasuke was unimpressed, raising his brow unenthusiastically, "Now?"
"Yup!"
"Whatever."
Naruto sat with his legs crossed on the floor near the exit, he slapped his palm down on the floor and summoned several old withered scrolls emblazoned with the sign of the ancient Senju clan. Naruto unclasped the metal-binding and laid the thin sheet out to read, "I couldn't find even a single hint of the Eight Gates jutsus origin past Might Guy's father who taught it to him in the first place… until, that is, I stumbled upon this detailed scroll in one of the abandoned Leaf vaults."
Sasuke noticed that most of it was jumbled and pieces were missing from the text, "Only those with superior ocular Dojutsu can reveal its secrets," Naruto announced as Sasuke focused his chakra into his pupils flipping into the Mangekyou Sharingan; Suddenly, it was a perfectly readable recording of an event taking place centuries ago.
"This says that about three or four hundred years ago, around the same time as Kaguya's defeat, there was a group of monks who came together and sought to open their minds, allowing them to discover who they truly were. When they did their first chakra pool opened, allowing them to access, with more intense physical training, all eight of their inner-gates as they called it. And with that power they acquired physical strength enough to conquer entire countries," Sasuke read the last bit with disbelief, "What happened to them if they were so strong?"
Naruto shrugged and looked through the scroll, "I think they all ended up opening their eighth gate for one reason or another, or maybe they died of old age?"
"I guess the point of the story is that to open my first inner-gate and access the other seven, I have to discover who I truly am?" Sasuke asked in an open statement looking toward the scroll, "Seems like a particularly difficult task for me…"
Naruto shrugged as he folded up the scroll, "If Might Guy and Rock Lee could do it, then so can you…" standing up and turning toward the exit, "I understand this might take some soul searching from you so, take your time; until that happens just continue working on Sage Mode."
The mountain-side opened up revealing a dirt road as the sun's heat was overpowered by the winter-time temperatures sending a burst of cold passed them; Naruto walked out with Sasuke only a few feet behind him, "I'll figure it out; what are you going to do?"
Naruto slumped for a moment, "I dunno," he scratched his head and sighed, "I guess I'll be doing whatever M'gaan is doing…"
"She's going on a mission to another country."
"Can I go?"
"I don't really care to be honest," Sasuke looked down to his feet whilst Naruto made his way back inside the cave; now he had to find himself or his training would suffer, and without the boost in taijutsu power, he'd surely lose to another rematch with Madara.
…
"We came as soon as we got your message."
Dinah and Oliver stepped through the teleporters with leisure and made their way to the center holo-ring where Red Tornado, Batman, and Martian Manhunter stood around a single paused holographic video, "What's the problem," Oliver questioned.
"There's something you both need to see."
They gathered around the holoscreen which Batman didn't enlarge for privacies sake; the screen displayed the holo-ring they stood in, a recording from a few days ago, of Black Canary and Naruto doing combat training. Naruto gripped her wrist as she attempted to advance, he twisted his arm and spun her onto her back.
She let out an exhale, standing with a smile, she turned to Naruto and took a step into his personal space, "You're improving," she said coyly wrapping her arms around his neck, "Here's your reward…" she leaned in and met his lips with her own.
"Pause," Oliver gasped, "Dinah!"
"Ollie, that never happened!"
Batman interrupted, "You need to see the rest; computer, resume play-back," they all watched after about thirty-seconds into the kiss, Dinah's hair melded into an unnatural crimson with her skin following suit into a lime-green pigment, "Freeze play-back."
Oliver chuckled, attempting and failing to hide his feelings, as he broke out in a fit of laughter, "Don't you laugh! She- and he-" she folded her arms, "Oliver! This is not funny!"
"No," he cleared his throat a bit and straightened his tie, "Of course not," he responded as he wiped a tear from his eye.
Dinah turned with a glare toward J'ohn, "Please understand, on Mars this is a common game, my people all shapeshift but, also read minds, so no one is ever mislead…" her scowl didn't soften so he shrugged his shoulder, "I am sure Naruto was aware he was with M'gaan from the very start."
"We're not on Mars, J'ohn!"
"No…" he started, "But, my niece does not understand things are different on Earth."
"Then I'll make her understand," Canary stomped her way to the door where she planned to make a bee-line to M'gaan's dorm but, she stopped half-way, "Before I go, Batman, could we talk?"
"Of course, Dinah, what is it about?"
"I'm a tad worried about Sasuke…"
…
Megan sat casually on her bed, dressed in the outfit and skin color she wore to school, a holographic screen projected from an apparatus lying on the cotton sheets playing an old 90's-style sit-com TV-show. It began with the typical actor-credits and showtunes, once the peppy song was over, a woman identical to Megan walked down some obviously fake stairs and bopped her forehead shouting, "Hello Megan!"
Megan giggled a bit as the laugh track played and a knock on the metallic door cut off her thoughts, quickly shutting off the program, "Uhm, who is it?" she asked as she tossed the projector under the bed.
"M'gaan, we need to talk," Canary's voice sounded serious enough, specially not introducing herself properly.
"Just a sec!" she closed her eyes as her skin melded from creamy Caucasian back to its lime-green, "Okay, come in," she announced with a smile.
After fifteen minutes of explaining and clarifying with the Martian teen, Canary finally figured her point had been received, "So, you can see how, on Earth, this game can be very misleading and hurtful?"
"I'm so sorry… I'm really sorry…"
Dinah rolled her eyes and placed a hand on M'gaan's shoulder sympathetically, "I'm not upset… anymore, just from now on, be yourself, oka-"
She tried to be as caring as she could with her tone but, M'gaan obviously took it the wrong way when she slapped her superiors' hand away, "This is myself!"
Canary raised a brow, her outburst was certainly uncalled for but, the look on the Martian's face was one of clear regret so, she let it slide, "This is who I am…" she hugged her arms nervously as Batman came over the intercom before Canary could address what she just said.
"Robin, Miss Martian, Superboy, Kid Flash; report for mission briefing."
…
Mount Justice; Happy Harbor; November 22nd 2013; 4:21PM
"Rumaan Harjavti is the democratically elected President of Qurac; Harjavti has been praised as a fair and wise leader… a humanitarian."
The entire team aside from Sasuke and Artemis stood side by side with one another, absorbing the mission details from Batman like sponges; Wally, however, noticed a billionaire in a nice suit shaking hands with Rumaan only a few months ago, "Sure… any friend of Bruce Wayne's, right?" he received a sharp elbow from Robin who never took his eyes off of his mentor.
"However," the screen shifted to a holographic map of the continent's geography, "Five days ago, Harjavti allied himself with the neighboring country of Bialya under the totalitarian rule of Queen Bee."
Superboy scoffed, "Not a fan."
Batman agreed, "Very few are but, Harjavti suddenly backs Bee's baseless claim that Qurac and Bialya were one unified nation in ancient times and has announced the countries will reunify in two days at a ceremony in Qurac."
The screen played back a recording from a popular news outlet earlier that morning of Harjavti addressing his people with low eye-lids and the slightest of slurs but, nothing that any normal person would look twice at, "At the ceremony I will step down as president so that our rightful monarch, Queen Bee, may rule."
Another clip played from the same outlet only in a different country, recorded less than an hour after Rumaan's press conference, "I respect President Harjavti for unifying our people and I will gladly come to Qurac to be crowned the leader of our nation."
Wally folded his arms, "And the Quracies are okay with this?!"
"Hardly," Batman summoned at least half a dozen different screens of different cities across Qurac rioting, standing in traffic, protesting outside of political buildings, and even throwing flaming bottles into the line of police doing crowd control, "They are well aware of the brutality of Queen Bee's regime but, Harjavti suddenly censored the press, silenced all legitimate protest, and even invited the Bialyian military into his country to enforce martial-law."
Robin stepped forwards, "Queen Bee must be using her meta-human abilities to control Harjavti's mind!"
"Yea, doesn't she have the ability to enthrall most men?" Superboy added.
"And some women but, we have confirmation that Queen Bee herself has not left her palace since the announcement and her powers have always been limited to distance from the target."
"So, something else is messing with his head," they all turned as Naruto approached the ring receiving a casual grin from M'gaan as he stood beside her, "Any way I could tag along?" He asked sending a wink toward the Martian and putting his hands behind his head leisurely.
"What did Sasuke say?" the caped crusader asked with a dull pitch.
"Unsurprisingly, he doesn't care either way."
"Then, I don't see a problem," Batman dispersed the screens and turned toward the teleporters, "Go to Bialya, covert, find out what happened to Harjavti…" he gave an infamous bat-glare over his shoulder at the team, "And don't make a scene."
"Recognized: Batman A02."
"Wait!" Wally remembered suddenly, "Who leads?!" He shouted toward an empty humming zeta-tube.
"Maybe just play it by ear?" Superboy suggested first.
"I nominate Robin," Naruto spoke up, "Without Sasuke to shut you up, lets face it, you'll spend all day bickering, so I say we stop right now and pick Robin."
"Didn't you just get here?"
"All I'm saying is Kaldur is in Atlantis, Sasuke and Artemis are out doing their own thing so, the logical choice is Robin."
"What about you?" M'gaan asked with a finger to her chin.
"I led an entire army against a literal God last year," he chuckled and closed his eyes, "I'm good to follow orders for now, ya know?"
M'gaan had long since caught on to his rhetorical catchphrase but, she still nodded dutifully with a smile simply because she knew he liked it.
Dick pepped up and smiled, flattered obviously by the gesture, "Does everyone else feel the same?"
"I'm not leading," Superboy groaned.
"Yea, I'll let ya have this one," Wally chided rolling his eyes.
M'gaan and Naruto were obviously in agreement and so without objection, Dick gave the team a grin, "Alright, wheels up in five."
…
Sasuke sat with his legs crossed beneath a large tree right outside of the cave, brown crunchy leaves sprinkled down from the branches above; the Uchiha could feel everything with his Sage Mode, seeing further than even the Rinnegan would allow by tapping into the natural energy of the Earth. He took a deep breath in through the nose, within deep thought, he meditated on who he was supposed to be or who he wanted to be, at least. His thoughts were interrupted by a slight disturbance in the air behind him, catching his attention.
"Even you can't sneak up on me like this," Sasuke announced without moving.
Batman stepped into view from behind a tree, folding his arms, "Can't hurt to try… why didn't you join your team?"
Taking yet another deep breath, Sasuke opened his eyes; even Batman wouldn't ever get used to seeing the purple pigment over his eye-lids fade away naturally, "I'm supposed to start my training on the next technique to stop Madara."
"Doesn't sound like you've had much success."
"Yea, well," Sasuke stood dusting off his pants, looking off passed the dark-knight where Itachi stood, staring ominously, "It isn't as easy as you think."
"Never said it was easy, although; you do seem to make most things look easy."
"That's what Naruto used to say…"
"Was he wrong?"
Sasuke turned back toward the cave, looking out toward the mountain top as the sun peaked below its tip, "I have a dinner with Artemis, I'm meeting her mother."
Allowing a dead-leaf to drift into the palm of his hand, Batman curled a small smirk over his lips before letting it die back into his trademarked stoic, "Have fun, but if you want my advice, choosing who you want to be comes in one single moment, you wont know it until it happens, trust me."
"How did you-"
"Make sure to tell Paula I said hello," Batman sauntered off toward the cave once again leaving Sasuke to his own devices.
Sasuke shrugged, "Whatever."
…
Quracie-Bialyan Border; November 22nd 2013; 4:47AM
Robin sat at the helm for what felt like the first real time actually driving the Bio-Ship without the assistance of M'gaan; he felt right, like he didn't need to be Batman to be a leader, like he wasn't in anyone's shadow at the moment, he was his own person and it felt good. He took a breath and realigned his focus, "We're right above the Quracie-Bialyan border."
Kid Flash pressed his hands up against the organic-glass and gazed below, "A border that the Bialyans are in the middle of ignoring," they all followed his example and peered out the side of the Bio-Ship to watch as a group of massive tanks and SUV's mowed down the small fence that represented the border. Suddenly, the wildebeests on the other side were spooked by the loud motors of the military vehicles, starting a stampede.
Naruto, clad in body armor identical to the Anbu Black Ops, sighed twirling a kunai between his fingers nonchalantly, "No weapons, no patrol, there's no opposition at all; looks like Harjavti really is in bed with this Queen Bee character."
Robin brought up a screen from his holo-gauntlet, "I wouldn't really expect any opposition here, it's just an animal sanctuary."
M'gaan widened her eyes peering over Robin's shoulder, "The Logan Animal Sanctuary!?"
"You've heard of it?"
They were cut short by Kid Flash lowering his goggles over his eyes to clearly see through the dark, "The tanks caused a stampede… with civilians in the way!""
"I see them, a woman and a small boy," Naruto added with his Sharingan open and active.
M'gaan practically shouted, "We have to help them!"
"We're way off mission here," they all turned to Dick looking for guidance, it was his first decision as leader; let the bystanders fend for themselves or risk the mission by taking a detour? It wasn't a difficult decision for his heart but, his mind was conflicted. He turned away to think for a moment but, before he could reach a personal consensus, he was interrupted.
Naruto cleared his throat, "We deploy but, covert," they all shifted their glances to the Jinchuriki, "If the Bialyan's know we hit them it becomes an international incident."
They all gave dutiful nods, of course they questioned his authority on the matter but, he was more than trustworthy, he made sense, and there were clearly bigger fish to fry. Robin, however quiet he was being, narrowed his eyes and folded his arms which no one really noticed.
The Bio-Ship fired off a photon-beam that instantly disabled the lead tank forcing it to crash into the one juxtaposed to it; noticing this but not the camouflaged ship above, the caravan stopped and flooded the area with soldiers taking positions from all angles.
"Kid, Superboy, and I are the only ones who won't get recognized or are too fast to be seen; we deploy first," Naruto stated firmly with no room for critique as he grabbed Wally's arm, "Lay down cover fire and we can do the rest," And with that he warped through space out of the ship using his Mangekyou Sharingan.
The stampeding beasts were only fifteen feet from trampling the mother and son when a powerful force landed in front of them; a teenage boy with a black shirt and the red 'S' emblem gripped the head wildebeests' horns and dug his heels into the dirt to stop it in its tracks, he then forced the beast down to a lying position which, in turn, forced the stampede to split leaving the civilians unharmed as they tended to an injured gazelle.
The soldiers surrounded them as Superboy slipped into a fighting stance only to be relieved from the battle by a blur of grey and black shoulder-tapping men into the dirt at a hundred-and-twenty miles per hour. Naruto warped into the air about thirty-feet above the lead tank landing on its hull with force enough to dent its steel shell. The soldier within scurried out in fear as the shinobi tore the massive barrel like tissue-paper, tossing it over head and into another abandoned tank. He warped away appearing between two tanks that had their sights set on a distracted Superboy.
Naruto's skin quickly boiled with crimson chakra, his pupils elongated, his finger nails sharpened and his canines became more prominent simultaneously growing a single bubbling chakra tail; he used his new-found speed to blitz through a group of soldiers faster than the eye could see, knocking them aside like ragdolls before using Kurama's chakra to leap fifty-feet into the air, "Massive Rasengan!" having perfectly knocked the men to safety, Naruto was free to drop his attack down between the tanks completely destroying them both in a large explosion.
The stampede was nearly over and Superboy had successfully protected the civilians from harms way until the tank's explosion scared the injured gazelle from the woman's care, prompting her to scamp off into the crowd of wildebeests. The boy shouted for it by some pet name but, he was shocked when the gazelle lifted off its hooves drawn up above their heads by some unseen force.
The small boy looked up with a smile as the herd moved on and the gazelle was lowered down safely, "Mom… Mom!" he shouted excitedly as the Bio-Ship landed still camouflaged allowing Robin and M'gaan to step out, she remained hidden in the background using her Martian biology to blend in so the two civilians didn't see her yet, "We just got saved by Kid Flash and Robin!"
Dick scoffed and turned away as Naruto approached, "Actually, I didn't really get to help out," clearly frustrated he collected himself and took a breath.
"It was a team effort," Naruto mumbled as he watched Robin close his eyes beneath his mask to calm his nerves, "Was it something I said?"
"You want advice on kids from me? Cha… good luck," Kurama growled as he dug his nose deeper into his furred paws deep within damp recesses of Naruto's psyche, "But, if I should fancy a guess, I'd say it has something to do with all of that frustration and envy he's been trying to quell for the last fifteen minutes."
"So… something I said?"
Kurama chuckled in a low groan for several seconds, "You should know better than that, kid, also major embarrassment coming off of M'gaan in waves."
Naruto glanced over at her with his Sharingan, watching her steal glances at the mother but, tugging on her hood to keep their eyes from meeting, "Duly noted."
Naruto put that to the side of his thoughts and approached the mother now treating the wounded gazelle, "We diverted the tanks and soldiers around the border, you should be safe now."
"Yea, Ms. M, you can de-camo now," Wally suggested as he too pressed the nano-tech on his chest shifting back into his trademarked yellow-crimson armor.
She stepped forward a tad reluctantly but, revealed herself a few seconds later; the mother raised her brows as she caught sight of the Martian. Naruto could see it now, his Sharingan made it so clear even though he could tell that the others couldn't see it yet with the sun still under the horizon.
"H-Hi…"
The boy was almost mesmerized looking back between his mother and the Martian; he was young, easily under ten, with brunette hair and freckles, his goofy smile really portrayed his youthful innocence.
"I'm Mar-"
"Marie Logan!" M'gaan interrupted but, cleared her throat immediately, "I've, uhm, read about your sanctuary…"
She raised a brow in disbelief, "Right," folding her arms, "Look, you may have made things worse, Bialyan border-crossings are a way of life here, usually they bust a few fences and move on but, you may have made us a target."
"Mom…" the boy drew out the word to express his embarrassment, "Uncool…"
Marie took a breath and massaged the bridge of her nose, "Sorry, thank you for helping us, this is my son, Garfield."
Suddenly, the wildebeest Superboy stopped to save them limped up to them with a low moan, "The gazelle is sick and you injured this wildebeest."
Conner scratched the back of his neck, "Sorry?"
"I suppose it was unavoidable but, both of them need to go to the clinic…"
"The boys can do that!" M'gaan spoke up excitedly, "You and I could uh… fix your fences!"
Robin sighed, "That's not a part of the-"
"The sun is coming up soon, we should kill time here and resume the mission at nightfall, better for avoiding international incidents," Naruto clapped his hands and cracked his neck, "In the meantime we have to brainstorm a strategy and… sure, fixing fences and helping animals is pretty heroic too."
Robin scoffed, "Yea, that works too."
…
Gotham City; New York; November 21st 2013; 6:01PM
Sasuke appeared out of thin air in a burst of speed, two feet from Artemis' apartment door; it was a quaint building, small but comfortable, they were on the third floor and he saw from the outside they had a balcony. He wasn't exactly sure what to expect, he'd never had someone he cared enough about to actively meet and conversate with their parents, let alone a girlfriend's parent.
He had changed out of his stained purple hoodie and shorts and into a much nicer black zip-up jacket, denim jeans, and black dress shoes. In his right hand he held a small bouquet of yellow flowers, yellow being Paula's favorite color according to Artemis; his left was in his pocket, it was at this moment when he realized he'd been standing there staring at the closed door for nearly ten minutes.
He cleared his throat and knocked three times lightly, was his hair okay? Did he look decent enough? Part of him knew he didn't care and the other part was too anxious to listen; he was out of his element and he could tell.
Artemis answered the door, "You're almost fifteen minutes late," she said immediately with a frown.
"I, uh, stopped to get these," he held out the flowers and looked away. He was most definitely not in his element.
She slowly grew a smile, "Alright, you're forgive," she wrapped him in a hug and led him inside, closing the door behind them.
"Sasuke," she announced drawing his attention to the entrance to the small kitchenette where a woman in a wheelchair rolled herself closer to him, "I'd like you to meet my mom, Paula."
Paula took off her cooking mittens and placed the on the counter at eye-level before extending a hand toward him, "It's nice to finally meet the boy my daughter spends so much time with."
"It's a pleasure, ma'am," he forced trying not to make eye-contact with anyone; he took a deep breath and tried to focus on staying calm, suddenly he could smell the air which caught his attention, "What's that smell? It smells familiar…"
Artemis gave him a warm grin which made him suspicious, "I told my mom about how your culture is based highly on the Japanese."
"Okay?"
Paula came from the kitchen holding a large ceramic plate filled with spheres of rice oozing with seasoned brown sauce, "I made rice balls with bonita-sauce and a side of pork; my grandmother used to make it for me all the time when I lived in Vietnam."
Sasuke was baffled, those were some of his favorite foods, Artemis moved to set the kitchen table behind him as he grabbed her arm so he could speak into her ear, "Did you tell her I liked that dish?"
She raised a brow, "Of course I did."
"Why?"
She placed a set of forks on the table and folded her arms, "We wanted you to feel welcome, what's the matter?"
Sasuke turned and looked toward the TV where a figure stood shrouded by the darkness of the setting-sun; his crimson eyes flared up in the shadow so that he could tell it was his brother, or at least, the hallucination of his brother. Shaking his head, he turned to Paula, "Can I use your restroom?"
"Of course, it's down the hall, first door on your left."
He made his way into the half-bathroom lacking a shower but still sporting a sink and toilet; turned the knob and splashed cold refreshing water into his face several times, "Just keep it together, they're being nice, it's not a big deal."
…
The table was set, they all sat down and began filling their plates with delicious treats; after several minutes of silence, Artemis' mother was the first to speak up, "So," she announced wiping the corner of her lip with a napkin, "Tell me about yourself, Sasuke."
He looked up from his plate and cleared his throat, "Uh, I'm from another dimension…"
Artemis choked and grabbed her glass of water, chugging it down as she gave Sasuke a wild-glare, "Metaphorically of course, right?" she asked.
He raised a brow, "Sure, why not."
"Okay," Paula continued, she was no stranger to heroes, aliens, and the like so, she wouldn't be surprised if this hero her daughter was dating wasn't just average, prying wouldn't help so she changed the subject, "What about family? Any siblings?"
Suddenly, a palm slapped the table shaking their meals as Sasuke looked up facing Itachi, his Mangekyou Sharingan flaring inches from him, "Yes, brother, tell her about me."
He stood up hitting the tables with his knees, clearly, they hadn't seen what he saw, "Is something wrong?" the mother asked.
Artemis grew a solemn expression, "Family isn't the best conversational pie-"
"I have to go."
Artemis stood up, "You just got here…"
"I'm…" he looked Artemis in the eyes and turned to face Itachi smiling back at him, "I'm sorry."
With a flash of speed, he vanished, knocking his wooden chair over in the process; Paula lowered her fork with a saddened tone, "Was it something I said?"
…
Logan Animal Sanctuary; Eastern Qurac; November 22nd 2013; 10:15AM
Kid Flash, Superboy, Naruto, Robin, and Garfield made their way back to Marie's house after treating the injured animals at the clinic in a refurbished barn out back. As they walked through the massive yard, they passed below a large oak tree where a small monkey dropped from the branches above, landing on and crawling over Wally whom munched on a high calorie snack.
"Hey! Get it off!" The monkey snatched his protein bar and leapt over to Garfield's shoulder.
"It's okay, meet Monkey."
Conner rolled his eyes, "Good name, but I hate monkeys."
The simian screeched and threw the bar at Superboy's head, "Hey!"
Robin chuckled, "And Monkey hates Superboys."
"Dude, be glad he only threw a protein bar…"
They followed Garfield and his pet into the rather large house for just a mother and her one child, complete with two stories and full-sized attic and basement, they entered a rather large room which lead to the kitchen and stairs to the second story. They tried to make themselves comfortable, Superboy and Naruto sitting on a sofa whilst Robin plopped down into a recliner, opening the legs and leaning back.
Kid Flash looked over the large stack of unorganized DVD's and VCR tapes surrounding the rather dated television, "So," Garfied started, "Pretty weird about Ms. Martian and my mom, huh?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"That she looks exactly like Marie only younger… and greener," they all stared back at each other with blinking expressions, "She even wears her hair the way my mom did back when she was on Hello Megan."
"Hello Megan is a TV show?"
Robin raised his brow, "I just thought that was something she said all the time?"
"Yea, on the TV show, way back before we were born, only one season, you can't even find it online," He turned with narrowed eyes, glaring at the unorganized mountain of entertainment behind him, "I know she still has a tape somewhere…"
…
Outside, M'gaan floated twenty feet up and used her telekinesis to levitate twelve six-foot wooden steaks, thrashing them into the ground and planting them firmly for the fence. Unraveling the barbed-wire with the same power, a single gesture forced it off the ground and through the wood creating a perfectly straight barrier.
"Well, you're certainly a time saver," Marie practically sighed as she reached into her pouch pulling out a pair of wire cutters and approaching the fence.
M'gaan floated towards her with her hands clasped together, "How was it being Megan?"
Marie scoffed, "Being Megan? I don't know I was young, it was fun I guess."
She looked off and clapped once recalling a memory, "Remember the time you had to make cookies for the bake sale only you thought it would be a good idea to make one giant cookie and-"
"Listen, Hello Megan was a job, the person you saw on TV, isn't who I am."
M'gaan grew a solemn look, darting her eyes to her shoes.
…
Garfield pulled an old tape out from its plastic cover and blew a layer of dust off it with one breath, "Hello Megan, the pilot episode."
"Woah, you still have VHS? Where's your 8-track?" Wally almost snickered but was cut off as Superboy darted his head toward the window.
"Wait," Garfield popped the VCR into the tape player as everyone looked toward Conner, "Air craft, headed this way."
Naruto stood quickly as did Robin and Superboy as they all made their way outside, "Gar, stay put," Dick ordered as he followed the others into the massive yard.
Superboy and Naruto took the lead, using their powerful eyes to examine the skies intently, "What is it?" M'gaan asked on approach from fixing the fences.
A sonic boom echoed through the clouds as three automated drones flew in from above, armed with military grade weaponry; they immediately open fired on Ms. Martian and Marie as the former flew in and whisked the ladder off her feet, Superboy rushing in behind them and shielding them with his invulnerability.
"Where is my son?!"
Robin gave her a short smile, "Don't worry, I ordered him to stay inside."
She nearly had a panic attack, "He's eight! He doesn't do orders!"
"Mom!" Garfield shouted out from the clinic pushing open the doors and getting the injured animals to safety, "I got the animals out!"
One of the ships targeted the barn and fired thousands of rounds at it, far enough away from Garfield but, too close to the clinics gas-reserves causing an explosion that sent the boy off his feet thirty feet into the air, hitting the ground would have been certain death but, M'gaan flew upwards and caught him just in time.
"NO!" Marie shouted reaching out desperately for her boy, knowing she was way too far at the moment.
Naruto's skin boiled again with the same crimson chakra as before, only this time, he grew three more tails and his entire body was fried covering himself from head to toe in blood. In his four tailed form, Naruto gathered together red and blue chakra from thin air collecting it into a dark-purple sphere just above his mouth. Before the drones could do any more damage, before Robin could even think to begin strategizing, the Bijuu snapped his jaws shut on the sphere, swallowing it, and regurgitating a powerful energy orb up at the drones several hundred times faster than sound.
When it collided with one of the drones, it exploded with the force of a small nuclear bomb; it was far enough into the sky that the shock-wave didn't hurt anyone on the ground but, the echo may have made some ears ring.
M'gaan lowered herself down to Marie handing her child over to her, "I told you there would be consequences!" ashes and small debris rained down around them from the destruction above. Naruto approaching the with his skin already healing rapidly, though, his entire body was currently deformed and scarred, he groaned and put a hand to his head leaning on Superboy for support, "Always…" he coughed.
Robin narrowed his eyes at the whole situation, so much for being leader and proving himself, "Let's just get him inside."
…
Marie held a stethoscope to her son's chest as he laid unconscious on the bed, a small amount of blood seeping from his nose and mouth, a few cuts and bruises across his arms too.
"He needs a blood transfusion, fast, are either of you O-negative?" she asked desperately.
Robin pulled up a holo-screen from his gauntlet and shook his head, "No."
Wally sighed, "Sorry."
"Neither am I, it's the hardest to match," she rubbed the bridge of her nose again beneath her glasses to fight off the headache she could feel coming, "I used to keep a spare reserve in the clinic."
Wally stepped forward, "I could run him to the nearest hospital!"
Robin looked at GPS on his gauntlet and shook his head, "The nearest hospital, even at twice your top speed, is an hour away. Longer by Bio-Ship."
"He doesn't have that kind of time," Marie stressed.
"What about Naruto, he can warp him there."
"Negative," Superboy approached from behind and jabbed his thumb behind his back, "Naruto's eye is still healing, he said another thirty-minutes before he could make the jump."
"What's your blood type? She stepped toward Superboy.
He looked down with a saddened expression, "I'm Kryptonian, my blood is toxic inside humans."
"And Ms. Martian-"
"May be able to help," she finished as she walked into the room skittishly, "My shape-shifting occurs on the cellular level, I think I can morph my blood to match his."
Marie grabbed her arm as a tear slipped down her cheek, she kept a strong expression and looked into M'gaan's eyes, "Please, try."
She nodded, "I'll need to concentrate, I need complete silence, no distractions."
Marie turned furiously toward the three boys, "Out. Everyone out."
The door slammed behind them and locked as the boys flooded back into the living room with the TV and couches; Naruto sprawled out on the couch as his skin was mostly healed except for his legs and half of his face and right arm.
"Hey guys," he sat up slowly and held his head, "How's Garfield?"
"M"gaan's trying a shape-shifting blood transfusion…"
"Will it work?"
"Time will tell," Wally answered as he looked Naruto up and down, "Does that hurt?"
"Incredibly so."
Robin put his head in his hands and looked at the ground, "On top of all this, Harjavti steps down tomorrow."
Conner sat down in the recliner but, kept it up-right, "What do we do?"
Robin opened his mouth but, Naruto didn't see due to his burnt left eye and cut him off, "We gather information from the national and local news outlets, we find out what the status of the ceremony is and proceed as planned tonight, simple enough?"
Robin slammed his palm on the wooden wall and turned, "Of course, because you have all the answers!" he stormed out into the yard, slamming the screen door on the way out.
Naruto raised his growing brows, "Was that towards me?"
Wally slapped his forehead as Conner spoke up, "Did you, uh, forget you nominated Robin as leader earlier?"
Naruto blinked as his Sharingan gained its color back, slapping his temple to adjust the eye-ball in its socket, "I did? Oh yea," he looked down and sighed, "I'll go talk to him."
…
Robin threw a shuriken into the air with a grunt, "Stupid shinobis, stupid powers, stupid team," it carved itself into the large tree juxtaposed to the truck in the driveway.
Suddenly, a shuriken flew passed Robin and hit the tree only centimeters from his friend's, "Mind if I join you?"
"Since when does my input matter?!"
"I'm sorry, I just-"
"Do you know what its like to be in everyone's shadow all the time? Because I'm not as good as Batman, I don't have any powers, but I manage to pull my weight," he threw a dagger furiously into the bark and took a breath, "Then you come along and show off with your fancy powers and better tactics…"
"Dude, you're freaking Robin, you have like three black belts, and you were trained by the most intimidating human I've ever met," he smiled over toward the boy wonder, "You're awesome because you don't have powers and you still pull off crazy shit!"
Dick folded his arms, "I guess I didn't think about it that way; I just wanted to prove myself today and so far I've only embarrassed myself."
Naruto pulled a dagger from his pocket quickly and flung it into the tree again, "Look, I was in a world-war, I saw a lot of things and I spent months straight fighting for my life, every single day. I'm sorry I took the reins today after promising you the leader position, it just came as common sense to me."
Robin threw another into the tree, a tad higher this time, "Yea, well, you led the mission, it's pretty much over at this point."
"Are you kidding? The mission hasn't even actually started yet, technically."
Robin glanced back chuckling, "Wow, so much has happened in eight hours, I didn't even realize."
"Yea, well, tonight is all you, bud," he extended his hand to shake, "We cool?"
He smiled after a second and reciprocated the gesture, "We're cool."
Suddenly, Naruto heard a ring from his communicator answering with a hum, "Hello?"
"Naruto?" Artemis asked through the line, "Is Sasuke with you?"
"No, I'm with the team on the mission in Qurac, I thought he was with you?"
"He was but, he stormed out all of a sudden, he didn't even tell me why he left!"
"He does that," Naruto stepped towards the tree and pulled his shuriken out, "Don't take it personally."
"He left my mom and I sitting at the dinner table alone, she even made his favorite food!"
"Rice-balls with bonita? Save me some!"
"Naruto!"
"Right, sorry, look you have to understand something about Sasuke," he twirled the knife in his fingers as he turned to face the large house, "A lot of the time people come to the conclusion that he's some flat jerk-ass idiot who puts no thought into his actions and acts completely half-hazardly."
"I'm sensing a but?"
"But, that's not the case at all; After Sasuke killed his brother and learned that he wasn't truly a bad person, he had an existential crisis that fundamentally changed who he was. So, he no longer feels the need to explain himself for the sake of the validation of others. There's a method to what you see as madness. Find him and talk to him, he should be fine."
"Wow," She muttered, "That's actually really helpful, thanks."
"Don't sweat it, I'm practically the expert on what's going on in that guy's head."
"I'm gonna go find him," she announced before hanging up abruptly.
…
As Naruto hobbled out into the yard after Robin, Wally yawned and grabbed a universal-remote from the coffee table plopping himself on the couch, "Well, I guess we should look for a news channel covering the ceremony…" he played with the many buttons, "Which one-" the final button turned on the VHS and ran the last tape inserted.
"Hello Megan!" An obviously 90's sit-com theme played suddenly with bright colors and title cards, "Schools, and boys, and parents too; a whole lot to juggle for miss you-know-who!"
"Uhh…"
"Hello Megan is filmed in front of a live studio audience," Marie dressed one-hundred-percent exactly like M'gaan's 'Megan' persona, stepped down the fake stairs with her bag, "Bye Mom, I'm going to study with Rita at school!"
A middle-aged woman stepped from the kitchen feather duster in hand, brushing the couch off with it, "Didn't you invite a certain someone to study here?"
She stopped in her tracks as the doorbell rang, she gasped and slapped her forehead, "Hello Megan! I did!" she rushed to answer the door in an over dramatic fashion, "Conner!" she shouted, "I thought you'd never get here."
"Is this getting weird for everyone else or is it just me?" Wally questioned sarcastically.
Superboy rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Anyway that's a coincidence?"
"Oh, yea, sure; total coincidence," Kid Flash answered as M'gaan opened the door suddenly stepping into the hall. Before she could speak, Wally frantically mashed buttons on the controller, almost dropping it.
"It's done, all we can do now is wait," she turned her attention to the TV which had changed channels to a national news station with Harjavti addressing his people on a large stage.
"My fellow Quracies," he began as they all turned to watch, "Queen Bee's rule is a gift to Qurac…"
Naruto and Robin stepped through the screen door and approached the group quietly; Superboy spotted someone in the background as he pointed at the screen, "Wait, look, that guy in the back with the hood, I've seen him before."
Dick pulled up a holo-screen and zoomed in on the feed, focusing on the hooded-man behind Harjavti, "It's Psimon, the psychic we fought last time we were in Bialya!"
Naruto put a finger to his chin, "If he was working for Queen Bee then, he must be controlling Harjavti for her now."
Wally slapped his forehead and dragged his palm down his face, "I still remember the headache from when he brain-blasted us!"
Robin sighed, "We have to get Harjavti away from him."
Marie stepped from the room and out into the hall, "It worked, Garfield's stabilizing."
"Good," the boy-wonder announced, "We have our mission."
…
Dhabar; Qurac; November 23rd 2013; 9:22PM
In his office, Harjavti sat in the dark in a large leather chair facing the window, where he stared blankly out into the streets below; after lowering a camera through an air-vent in the ceiling, Robin was sure they were clear to proceed.
"Harjavti is alone," Robin spoke through the mental-link as Kid Flash, Naruto, Superboy, and M'gaan followed him into the room, analyzing the room for threats.
Dick approached Harjavti's desk and looked him in the eye, he didn't even notice him until the boy-wonder waved his hand in front of his face. This caught his attention as he slowly looked around holding his head, "Where is my daughter?" he groaned, "Where is Psimon?"
"Forget him, lets get you out of here."
Suddenly, six men armed with bright-crimson weaponry and high-tech armor filed into the room aiming their devices at the heroes, "Well, well," a bearded man in a General's uniform walked in with his hands behind his back; "American heroes, here to assassinate the President!" M'gaan snuck passed him in her camouflaged form, "Such a shame we were too late to stop you."
Superboy tightened his jaw, "Those are Apocalyptan weapons."
"Which they'll use to kill Harjavti, blame us, and Queen Bee gets to rule Qurac," Naruto explained as he opened his Sharingan and counted his opponents, "What's the plan?"
"We fight. Form up around the President," Robin announced as M'gaan looked between the General she'd already passed and the hall where she could feel Psimon's lingering psychic energy.
"I found Psimon!" she announced disobeying Robin's order.
"Ms. M, wait!"
Naruto turned towards the door, "I'll get her."
"No, the mission is Harjavti."
Naruto glanced back at the hall before standing down, giving Robin a nod, an explosion broke out as the battle to protect the President began.
…
Elsewhere, M'gaan flew through the hall still cloaked from sight, she passed a group of guards that didn't notice her but, she eventually found herself in a large, rather unkept, auditorium with rows of worn-down crimson seats. She scanned the room, finding nothing out of the ordinary until she was knocked off her feet and out of her camouflage mode by a blast of mental energy.
She hit a row of steps that led from the entrance with a thud, holding her head as she looked up to find Psimon stepping from behind some Bialyan equipment.
"Tsk, tsk; am I the only one to learn anything from our previous encounter?" Psimon forced his thoughts into her head, unlike the gentle touch she used to establish the link with her team, this was far more hostile, "You didn't stop to think that if you could sense me maybe I could sense you too?"
She stood slowly, holding her back which throbbed, as she readied herself for a battle Psimon nonchalantly walked towards her with his hands in his jacket pocket, "Or that this time I would be ready to use your greatest fear against you?"
M'gaan's eyes widened and she fell to one knee, she said nothing as he reached up and pulled back his hood revealing his translucent skull, "Psimon says show me who, or rather what, you really are!"
A mental wave of incredible psychic energy hit M'gaan's mind all at once, overwhelming her and forcing her down to her side, she gripped her head as she squirmed on the floor, "No, no, NO! This IS who I am!"
She couldn't fight it, the mental attack was forcing her to shape-shift; her fingers and arms grew long, her head became more oval-shaped, she grew several feet taller, and her eyes shun crimson. Screeching she slammed her now paper-white skinned fists into the ground, cracking the concrete from the cluster-headache she was being forced to experience.
…
Naruto dropped the last unconscious guard, currently drooling with a spinning Sharingan in his eyes, "That was the last of them," he announced as they looked around at the currently burning floors and destroyed desk.
An attractive young woman, obviously Quracie, peeked her head out from under the President's shattered desk with Harjavti; once she was sure it was over, she helped the President up with a smile, "Thank you for rescuing my father," she said with a thick accent, "We are forever grateful."
Wally dusted off his shoulder, "All in a day's work."
"We will take care of him now, you must go stop Psimon."
They gave each other dutiful nods and made their way down the hall that M'gaan has snuck through, half-way to her location, they called out to her, "M'gaan, we're on our way!" Naruto shouted psychically.
What they weren't expecting was an intense mental attack to bombard them before they even laid eyes on the enemy; Superboy, Robin, and Kid Flash easily fell to their knees and unconscious in seconds but, Naruto stood unaffected.
"What's going on?!" he announced aloud but, they all fell before he got an answer.
"You were all hit with a mental attack."
"From Psimon? Where is h-"
"No, the attack was familiar, the same energy that allow in every time you use the teams mental-link," Kurama closed his eyes and chuckled, "If I were a guessing…"
"M'gaan."
…
"Psimon says smartly done," the psychic sociopath clapped with a smile as he felt her team drop like flies just around the corner, "Attacking the mind of your own team! I had no idea you'd go to such lengths to keep them from discovering what you really are."
She narrowed her eyes as he scoffed, "Actually I did but, you needn't worry; it's being recorded for prosperity," his hand gestured toward the far wall where twelve screens had cameras trained on M'gaan in her White-Martian form.
"NO!" She lashed out with a telekinetic blast which, Psimon effortlessly countered with a shield of the same energy.
"Ah, ah, ah," he waved his finger at her with a smile, "I didn't say Psimon says!" He dispersed her attack and his shield forcing an attack of mental energy into her mind dragging her into her own psyche.
She was sent hurtling through the darkness, now appearing as her usual greener self in her Ms. Martian costume; she was suddenly pulled by gravity as she landed in what seemed to be the Bialyan desert, hitting the sand with a groan. Standing, she found Psimon fifty-feet away smiling, "Come now, we both know that's not what you really look like. Must you even lie to yourself within your own mind?"
She scowled with rage, "It's not a lie! This IS who I am!" she charged a bright-green sphere of energy at the center of her forehead, firing off as a mental beam which Psimon didn't even have to flinch to deflect.
The sand vanished and they were left in a world made of blue sky, with an orange pigment as if the sun were setting around the, "Wow, talk about pathological," another beam stuck his shield but, this time around he absorbed it and added it to a black-red energy forming around his see through cranium. He blasted her in the chest sending her flying through random floating objects, suspended in the air, eventually hitting the massive generator at the center of the mission-room in Mount Justice.
Stabilizing herself, she caught sight of Psimon as he floated towards her, "Off our game, are we? Let's dig a little deeper and find out what you're really afraid of."
M'gaan screamed as the world around her was absorbed into a dark void, taking her deeper into her subconscious than anyone but herself has ever been. When her senses returned, she found herself in her White-Martian form staring back at her friends who cowered away from her, "Guys?"
"What is that thing!?" Superboy shouted with disgust in front of Artemis and Zatanna.
Wally stepped away in fear, putting an arm out to protect Robin, Artemis, and Aqualad, "Keep back! Get away from us!"
"Oh of course!" a maniacal voice echoed from nowhere, "Your friends and teammates shrink from you in fear."
Her attention shifted as three massive figures towered above her from behind; Sasuke, Batman, and Red Tornado peered down with disappointment, "You should have told us," Sasuke spoke up first.
Batman added, "I don't see how we can ever trust you again."
"And then you're kicked off the pep-squad!"
Martian Manhunter appeared with glowing crimson eyes, "I'm sorry M'gaan but, I'm afraid there's no place for you on Earth."
"Oh, and banished to Mars too, harsh!"
She found herself on the dusty and abandoned terrain of Mars, being overshadowed by a massive dust-storm, she found herself in the void again as figure appeared behind her, "But, that's not even the worst of it, is it?"
She turned and saw Naruto with his back turned to her, "No… Please…" she whimpered.
He turned and eyed her with his Sharingan, "Love you? I can't even look at you!" he turned around again, slowly fading into dust.
Psimon appeared looking off in the direction Naruto vanished in, "Oh, and what you wouldn't do to prevent that, right?"
M'gaan narrowed her eyes and looked up with a frown, even in her current-form, he could still tell she was enraged with him, "That's right," she responded with more conviction than she'd had all day. The ground around them began to vibrate slowly, until the whole void was shaking vigorously, clearly by her own power.
"Now, now, my pretty; I know you don't want to do anything you'll regret," Psimon took a single step back and nervously looked around.
"YOU DON'T KNOW ME AT ALL!" Her voice echoed around him even louder than his did to her moments ago, her voice alone shook the entire mind-scape to pieces as just before it fell apart, she fired a single thin emerald beam of mental energy into his skull. While small, it was still so powerful that Psimon gripped his head in agony and screamed at the top of his lungs, falling back first into the darkness without a sign of stopping.
Just before they exited the mental-battle field, Naruto narrowed his Mangekyou Sharingan from the corner where he'd been hiding since the battle began, "What did you see?" Kurama barked.
"Everything," Naruto muttered as he turned the corner making his way back towards the hall where the others laid unconscious.
…
"Naruto? You okay?" M'gaan spoke over him as his eyes slowly flicked open.
"Huh? What happened," he responded groggily as Kid Flash, Superboy, and Robin stirred and recovered along-side him.
Wally moaned, "And there's the headache."
"Psimon?" Robin asked glancing around looking for threats.
Naruto narrowed his eyes at the back of her head, "He brain blasted you guys before I could stop him, I'm sorry," she lied through her teeth.
They all turned to the entrance where they slowly approached, peering into the room where they found Psimon face-up on his back staring into nothing and drooling profusely.
…
The next day, Queen Bee approached the Quracie capitol where a line of armed military kept her from entering, "What do you mean the President won't see me? He invited me!"
Rumaan shouted down at her from the balcony of his office, "Not of my own free will! And now that I am free of your control, Qurac will never bow to you!"
Bee frowned and balled up her fist at him, "Screw you, Harjavti, you'll pay dearly for this!" as she walked away she managed to camouflage herself in the crowd, making her way back to the palace and coming in through the back.
Waiting for her in the President's office was Harjavti and his daughter, Robin, Naruto, Superboy, and Kid Flash; slowly, she shape-shifted from the totalitarian dictator into a green-skinned Martian again.
"Sorry you had to lie like that," Robin announced as she approached the group, "But, I couldn't think of any other way to convince the public that Queen Bee was behind this."
Wally cleared his throat, "Maybe next time we can avoid the swearing?"
"I don't think super-villains censor themselves," Naruto corrected, "It was probably more believable that way."
Robin smiled, "All in all? Good work."
The speedster slung his arm around the boy-wonder's shoulder, "Dude! Saving a country, that's pretty impressive for your first mission as leader."
Dick smiled in return, "Yea…" he muttered, "Thanks."
Harjavti interrupted them by approaching Robin from behind, "You lead this team?" he asked.
Glancing at Naruto, whom gestured for him to answer, Dick responded, "Uhm, yes sir."
"I am in your debt, all of you, if you are ever in need of assistance in Qurac I would be happy to help."
Robin chuckled, "Thank you but, we do this because it's right not because we get rewarded, thought we are all thankful for the offer."
Naruto shifted into his mind-scape for a moment, walking on the water towards the gateless cage where Kurama laid, "Why did you pretend to be knocked out, again?"
"She didn't do anything wrong, she's just not being truthful about what she looks like, I want to wait for her to tell me herself."
"I figured you'd be angrier at her for lying?"
"You didn't see what I saw, Kurama, she's terrified of people finding out, she's ashamed of it but, it's just who she is. That must be an awful feeling, to be terrified of yourself… Besides, are you forgetting that I totally lied about what Madara did to our world?"
"Sorry, I thought we lived in a world where two wrongs don't make a right; if she's that afraid, maybe you should confront her, let her know she doesn't have to be afraid with you."
"Hm… you may be on to something but, I'll at least wait till the mission is over."
"You're procrastinating."
"Shut it, furball."
…
Gotham City; New York; November 21st 2013; 8:51PM
Sasuke stood atop Wayne Tower, the tallest building in Gotham, staring down at the night-life of the most crime-ridden city in America. He saw several crimes taking place but, felt no need to stop any of them, besides; he figured Bruce was likely prowling the streets by this time anyways.
He pulled a kunai from his pocket and threw it behind him, towards the entrance to the stairs that led up to the roof; grabbing the metal-blade from the stone wall next to her, Artemis walked towards him.
"It's cold up here," she started walking up next to him and handing him his shuriken.
"I'm sorry I left so suddenly…"
She gave a short smile, "I know," turning her head to look him in the eye, "Why did you though, if I can ask?"
"I'm still seeing my brother, hallucinating him," he put a hand to his forehead, "He was there at dinner."
"Sorry, I forgot to tell my mom not to bring up family, I guess that was a no brainer."
Sasuke gave a long-tired exhale, "I guess I'm still to blame, or at least, I still blame myself."
She turned completely to put a hand on his shoulder, "I'll explain without the details why you left, we can try it again another time, when you're ready."
"Black Canary told me I'm supposed to start thinking about who I am and what I want for myself," he turned back to face the city, watching the twinkling lights brighten the night life, "Well, I've been thinking all day and… this is what I want; I want you, I want dinner with your mom, I want to have a normal life."
Artemis was silent for about a minute before adding her two cents, "I think the only one stopping you from having those things is you, Sasuke."
"No, the only one stopping me is Madara but, I decided before you got up here that I'm not going to let him or anyone control my happiness," he walked back towards the entrance and stopped in the center of the roof, a good ten feet from Artemis, "My name is Sasuke Uchiha, I know who I am."
As he stood with his eyes closed, those words triggered a response as purple waves of chakra billowed around him like smoke, "Watashi wa Uchiha Sasuke desu!" his power sky-rocketed as the concrete beneath him cracked with the force of his chakra. His sweat began to evaporate, and his skin turned red as he forced his power even higher, a green steam formed around his body, "Second Gate: Gate of Healing, open!"
Artemis smiled, "And this would be progress, right?"
Sasuke took a glance down at his hands, flaming with blue chakra, he had never felt so sure, he had never as at peace as he did now. He glanced back up at Artemis with a very short smile, "Did your mom happen to make desert?"
She raised a brow, "I thought you didn't like sweets?"
"I don't but, I guess I could tolerate something small."
She grinned and wrapped him in a warm embrace, tightening her arms around his back, "I love you, Sasuke."
A light blush tinted his cheeks, "Whatever," staring off at the ledge over Artemis' shoulder, Itachi smiled and waved at him for a moment before slowly turning to dust, caught in the breeze.
…
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