Chapter Five

Rain assaulted his body as he moved his hands into position to suspend himself from the roof to see into the Titians living room. Red X was crafty but dealing with the weather was unpleasant to say the least. All he knew was that Slade should be giving him a pay raise for the shit he was currently having to put up with.

The rain made clinging to the building difficult, the suction cups kept wanting to slide the further he went. He was thankful for the natural cover though. With the dark clouds and beating rain it made visibility poor. He had modified his suit to reflect light which almost made him appear invisible. Now the wind was a bitch though. Combined with the water and wind he was starting to fear a little bit for his life. One wrong move and he was going to be squish on the rocks below.

He tried not to let the height of the building bother him either, he had a perfect view of the room from where he had descended.

From what he could see it was empty. The lights were off, and it seemed as if the Titans weren't home. He knew that couldn't be the case however, because there was food on the stove top cooking. He saw the steam rolling from the pot boiling on the burner. Just as he was about to try another window, Robin walked in through the sliding door that led from the hallway to the room. It looked as if he was followed by the newcomer.

They looked to be talking as Robin made his way over to the kitchen to return to cooking Red X assumed.

Red X couldn't read their lips from where he clung to the window so he reached into his belt and grabbed a small device that would allow him to place it on the window then lean up against it with his ear. Their voices were muffled but he could finally make out what they were saying.

"... think it would be a good idea." Robin said while he mixed the food in the pot.

The newcomer, sat on one of the stools and shrugged. "If you think that will help then I'm not against it. I'm just concerned that your methods are a little different from mine when it comes to stopping people." He paused and looked toward the window Red X was clinging to. "I don't care if people get hurt, and you have made it clear that seriously injuring someone is against your laws."

His eyes flashed red and seemed to bore into Red X's own eyes.

Red X gulped. He shouldn't be able to see him, not in the current conditions of the weather and his technology. Red X felt a shiver crawl up his spine as Sasuke stood and started approaching the window.

He had to act fast! If he was caught, then it was game over for his career with Slade.

His device he placed back into his belt, and he reached for his grabbling hook. If he could make it up onto the roof, then he could just teleport out of there. His heart started pounding as Sasuke came closer and closer. He aimed for the ledge and fired. As soon as it connected, he pushed in on his hand with the suction still in place and yanked as hard as he could. It released and he shot up into the air. He landed with a quiet thunk and rolled across the roof coming to rest on his knees. Once he was settled, he punched the button on his belt and disappeared.

The door to the roof slammed open and Robin burst through.

"Are you sure you saw someone?" he asked Sasuke as he made his way onto the roof behind Robin.

"I'm sure, they wore a white mask with a giant red X in the middle."

Robin furrowed his brows and placed his hand on his chin in thought. "That doesn't make much sense, we haven't seen or heard from Red X in months. The last we had seen him he tried to steal some important documents containing our real identities."

"That sounds dangerous."

"Ha, you have no idea. There are so many villains out there that would love to know our identities. If they had that information they could ruin our lives, the lives of our families. No one we know would be safe. It's why we wear our uniforms; it's why we live by code names." He paused to walk over to the edge and inspected it. He noticed small rings from a suction cup on the very edge. "You were right, he was here."

Sasuke came to stand beside him to see where Robin was pointing. Sure, enough, there were boot prints on the top of the window as well. "It sounds like you have many enemies that actually want you dead and yet you insist upon not killing them."

Robin sighed and looked up to the sky in annoyance. "I thought I already told you we don't kill people here. It doesn't matter if they try to hurt us or worse, we must be better than them. If we just went around killing everyone who has ever crossed us, then we would be just like the people we are trying to stop."

Sasuke watched him closely. This teen was so much different and yet the same as the ones he had grown up with. It was a strange juxtaposition. An interesting concept to allow their enemies to live even with the possible threat to civilians. Sasuke knew that the Leaf Village had him in the Bingo book so to not have these people on a similar list was absurd. Still, it was not a problem Sasuke had to fix, if it was up to him, he would be leaving to his home soon. The dark Titan Raven was already researching possible dimensions that could be his. He just wished he knew more about the portal so it could have been a one-way ticket to freedom.

The wind was warm as it touched his face. The smell of salt water assaulted his senses, and the sun shone brightly. It was an ideal condition for some training. Sasuke had neglected flexing his charka these past few days, instead he spent his time learning about the Titans.

They were a strange bunch of teens. Two of their members weren't even from planet earth, one was almost completely metal, and then of course there was one with the unmistakable green skin tone. The only one of them not advanced was Robin but even he had issues of his own. Sasuke was interested to find out more from these people and their world.

The technologies were quite fascinating. Communication devices that could contact people on the other side of the world were impressive, their weapons were also more dangerous than simple swords and kunai. The weapon's called guns were interesting. Something as small as a bullet could cause so much damage, Sasuke was thinking of ways to incorporate the idea into his own fighting style. Bigger attacks didn't always mean more powerful. If he could find a way to condense his lightening chakra into small spikes it would be a very damaging attack. Something to try, perhaps be made for a longer ranged attack.

He chose to sit on a flat rock next to the shore. Some of the spray from the ocean misted over his face as he crossed his legs and closed his eyes. The sound of the waves lapping at the rocks was soothing, he tried to make his breaths match the timing. The air felt clean in his lungs as he took a deep breath in. He held it for as long as he could then exhaled and pushed the many thoughts in his mind with it. Sasuke repeated the process until his body was fully relaxed. That was when he could feel his chakra. It pulsed with his slow heartbeat keeping the rhythm steady. He felt the strongest concentration near his stomach, so he focused there first. With every breath in he pulled the chakra from the rest of his body to his stomach and on every exhale, he pushed it out and away sending it through every limb. He didn't stop until he could feel the chakra hovering in his fingers.

Sasuke opened his eyes and activated his sharingan. His fingers crackled with lightning. It danced across his fingers one by one until he moved the energy to his palm. His sharingan showed him the smooth transition from fingers to hand. There he worked on keeping the same energy put out but tried to condense the chakra to one point. It sparked then burned his hand with a small jolt.

Sasuke shook his hand trying to get the feeling back and cursed. His palm and wrist were red from the back lash. Apparently trying to condense lightening chakra into a small ball was a no go.

A new smell entered his senses as he was thinking of a different shape. It was subtle, but the hint of lavender was on the wind.

"Mind if I join you?"

He recognized the soft monotone. She was Raven, the darkest titan.

"Sure," he answered.

Her steps were soft as she approached. The cape she wore floated in the wind when she sat down, until she pulled it close around her shoulders. "It's a nice morning."

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before nodding in agreement.

The silence settled over them, but it wasn't awkward. She was watching seagulls fishing in the distance, and he focused his chakra into his other hand.

It was strange to have someone near when he was training, but her presence was calming, almost as if they had a special understanding even without words spoken. He could feel her eyes on him when his chakra pooled in his hand again. He remained quiet while he worked.

"Shit!" He exclaimed when the chakra exploded again.

Now his other hand was burned and throbbing.

"Here let me," she said and reached for his hands.

He hesitated. Did she have healing powers? His gaze met hers and he could see her calm expression almost as if she didn't care either way. He relented and let her hands come up and around his.

Raven furrowed her brows in concentration like his earlier expressions, and a blue glow emitted from her hands. Sasuke watched in mild fascination as the burns healed over leaving no marks behind.

When the procedure was finished, she looked up at him and gave him a small smile.

"There, all better."

He took his time inspecting his hands, turning them this way and that. Strange, even the calloses from hours of training in hand to hand were gone. He had to admit she was impressive.

"That's a unique ability in your world, isn't it? If you don't mind me asking, how did you learn healing arts?"

She looked away back toward the ocean before answering.

"I'm not from here either. I was born in a place called Azarath where it was more valuable to learn healing. My mother was a healer, and with her help I was able to use my ability for that for a short time."

"A short time?" His left brow lifted showing his slight confusion.

Raven sighed. "Yes, a short time. When it became apparent to me that I was a danger to my own people I fled to earth." She paused and looked up to the sky with a bittersweet expression marring her face. "That's when I met the titans, they weren't the team at that time, but we all came together to stop a great evil and the rest as they say is history."

Sasuke swallowed then looked back out at the sparkling water. Memories assaulted him from his time with team 7. They were thrown together out of circumstances and yet he still after all this time considered them his most important people. He missed them. The anger that knowledge brought was just a little annoying, but it was the truth which irked him ever more. Of course, now he would probably never see them again.

Pain tugged at his heart with the thought. If he made it back somehow Sasuke knew he would have to track down his old teammates. Did they even care about him anymore? It had been so long since he had allowed himself to think about them, the questions continued to attack his mind. Have they found a replacement for the team? Did they think he was dead? Surely the leaf village had found the hideout by now and found the remains of Orochimaru. It wouldn't be that far fetched to think that the members of the sound had killed him for killing their leader.

She wondered what he was thinking. His expression was blank, but she could sense his inner turmoil. Her heart ached for him. Whatever he had gone through in his life must have been truly tragic. Raven could see the signs of depression clear as day the more time he spent at the tower. He wasn't much different than herself or Robin. He hid his emotions well, but her empathy was strong. Raven knew he didn't sleep most nights because of violent nightmares. She wanted to help him, but she was lost in that respect. It was hard to get him to open.

Raven decided to use a different method.

"You have much control; how long did it take for you to master such a skill with the lightening?"

He didn't answer right away. Instead, he picked up a small rock and started rolling it around his fingers.

She waited. It was likely he was trying to find a way to explain without giving too much away too much information.

Raven could understand, it was the same reason her team knew nothing of Trigon before he was actively coming for her, but she even left out important details about herself even now. Just the thought of her sweet mother brought her own pain to the surface.

"It's taken three years to achieve this level."

His voice brought her out of her own thoughts, and she was grateful to push her pain back down.

"That's quite some time."

He shrugged his shoulders. "It could have been longer if I had a different trainer. At least Orochimaru was thorough with his explanations."

"Did you have a different trainer before?"

He shrugged again, then started launching the rock into the air only to catch it and repeat the motion.

It must have been a defense because she asked something personal. It was hard to notice but his emotional state spiked before coming back to how it was before.

"Kakashi had first taught me how to use the Chidori, but to my knowledge he never took it any further. I could be wrong, but he was better versed in water and earth chakra."

She was interested to find out who this Kakashi was, because Sasuke was tense while talking about him.

"So do you have other abilities besides the lightening?"

He hesitated again and threw the rock across the ocean; it skipped several times before it finally sunk beneath the surface. She wondered if he would hesitate with all her questions. It seemed as if he wasn't used to talking about himself. But she was patient and continued to display nothing but calm and slight disinterest as if his answer was going to be nothing as interesting as a fly landing on garbage.

"I have many different techniques that I use, lightning is one of the more advanced moves. I also know some fire jutsu as well as cloning techniques. It's hard to explain I've never attempted to teach someone the different ways to kill."

This time she paused before asking her next question. She knew that he and Robin had a long conversation about laws and killing vs. injuring. Raven knew that Robin was wary of bringing Sasuke along on any of their missions for fear of him going rogue and murdering their opponents.

He must have read something on her face for his body tensed further and he picked up another rock, this time using it to flex his grip. "You have a problem with killing too?" He broke the silence with.

She sighed. "I know it's not that simple for you."

"It is just that simple." Sasuke's grip on the rock was tight and didn't look like it was going to let up.

Raven wasn't sure how to proceed with their conversation without it turning into an argument. He didn't want to show it, but he was too emotionally invested in their discussion, and she knew that if she said the wrong thing that their new budding friendship would be in jeopardy.

"I just thought you would try to avoid that outcome if there was a choice."

The grip loosened somewhat on the rock. "Sometimes there is no choice." He let the sentence hang in the air as he threw this rock across the water as well. It thunked and bounced twice before it disappeared below the surface. Much less smooth than the last throw.

Cyborg didn't like the new guy. Everyone else was gushing about him being at the tower but he was… cautious to say the least, straight up worried to say the most. It had been about a week since they found him, and he was nothing but polite and clean. The dude even did the dishes without complaining and laundry, he helped pick up the living room, and took out garbage. Cyborg didn't like to admit he was probably the cleanest out of all of them and he was living with a person like Robin. Robin who would iron his stupid socks! It was downright unnatural and put him on edge. There was just no way in any universe or dimension that a teenager the same age as Sasuke could be that clean. He was only 15 for Christ's sake!

When they first met Cyborg would have passed him off as at least 18 but when Beast Boy worked up the courage to ask him his age, he was very serious he was only 15 which apparently meant he was an adult in his world. According to Sasuke their life expectancy was lower because they were ninjas and were constantly put into danger.

Now Cyborg knew danger, he was a superhero with some good many years of experience under his belt. Robin was the same having started the gig young with Batman as his mentor. Starfire was from a warrior race and Raven was from a different dimension and was half demon. Beast Boy was probably lacking experience since he wasn't with the doom patrol for long before joining the Titans, but he was still around 14 when he started the gig. When Sasuke said he started training when he was 5, they were all surprised. To start training kids so young was almost outrageous to hear. Then he told them he graduated when he was twelve and started going on actual missions where people had died.

He had to remember it was a different world from their own, but Cyborg just wanted to take Sasuke under his wing and teach him how to have some normal fun, that had nothing to do with the job.

So that's how he started his afternoon. Cyborg convinced the stoic teen to join him for a video game promising that it would help increase his hand eye coordination.

When Sasuke and Raven had come in from outside it was the perfect time to ask. He remembered at first confusion and then resignation showed on Sasuke's face before he finally agreed. Cyborg thought the only reason he did was to shut him up about the different games they could play. In the end he settled on his favorite battle game. The same game he played with Atlas.

"It's easy, press A to jump, X to hit, and O to roll. Y is your special ability. Don't worry about the other buttons, they are only for the campaign level. For switching your gear and stuff, but for 1v1s you won't need to do that."

Cyborg could almost see the wheels turning in Sasuke's mind before he nodded that he was ready.

"Okay, I'll go easy these first couple of rounds until you learn the controls but after that it is game on." He grinned then pressed play. He had already picked his favorite character and showed Sasuke how to pick a character. Of course, he picked the only dude to look like a ninja, with a mask covering the bottom half of his face and a red getup that almost resembled Sasuke's own outfit.

Sasuke picked up the controls quickly and before long Cyborg had to use fancier moves to beat him. Cyborg appreciated the focus with which the Uchiha played, it was such a laser focus that when Beast Boy jostled the couch when flopping onto it, Sasuke was able to play through the distraction just fine.

"Man, you're really good at this, I'm not going to hold back any more though, so you better be ready."

Sasuke scoffed before he rolled his eyes and proceeded to focus even harder. The eye roll is what said it all, so Cyborg frowned and amped up his play style pretending it was Robin who sat next to him instead of Sasuke.

It worked for a few matches when he was wiping the floor with the Uchiha, but sometime around the 5th time is when he noticed a difference in Sasuke's play style. He was dodging more, rolling, and jumping to avoid Cyborg's special attacks. It was everything Cyborg could do to win that last round. So, when on the next and final round of their game, Sasuke won it was to no surprise to the whole room who had decided to come cheer him on.

When they turned to face each other, Cyborg held out his hand going for a handshake while shaking his head. Sasuke met his handshake and smirked in triumph.

"Good game man, you've got some crazy ass moves for a beginner. And I mean that in a good way."

"Thanks, it was surprisingly fun I enjoyed it, but I'm not sure how it's supposed to help with hand eye coordination at all."

Beast Boy giggled. "Is that what he told you to get you to play? I wanna play him next!"

Red flashing light and a loud noise sounded throughout the tower.

They could hear Robin's voice above the loud alarm. "Trouble!" As he moved over to the computer next to the big screen. He pulled up a map of the city and homed in on the red light that was blinking. It hovered over the bridge.

Cyborg felt his stomach drop, anytime they had trouble around the bridge someone usually got hurt. They had almost lost the battle with the moths a few years back even. So, when Robin shouted to be heard over the alarm, "Titans go!" They all hurried to their respective means of travel. Raven chose to ride shot gun while Sasuke and Beast Boy crowded the back. Robin proceeded to lead the charge on his motorcycle and Starfire took to the air.

Cyborg was curious on why Robin didn't have Sasuke sit this one out, after all the arguing he heard this very morning about the law and its regard to killing people.