Yo, it's me with another update. The sun is bright, the wind is cool and I hate March.
Anyways, if you want ideas for a story, need help with one you're working on, are looking for motivation or need a beta reader, join AizenTheGoat's discord server. It's got lots of skilled writers like Helghy, Kiege(update when), Bigtrunk, DRAGONFromHeaven and others. If you just want to hang out with writers, readers and everything in between, feel free to hop in. The code's: cswtVb6mzE
PS: I take commissions now
Let's get to it.
Diana clenched her teeth irritably when Kara wedged herself in between her and Naruto, slinging her arms over their shoulders in the process.
"Hey, I didn't want to hold up the reading process so I kept from asking, but who's Shizuka?" The kryptonian asked Naruto who smiled hesitantly.
"A member of the Nadeshiko village."
Kara waited for him to say more, but got nothing. "What's a Nadeshiko village?"
"Think of amazons, but in a village rather than an island." He nodded towards Diana.
"Huh, that's nice but my real question is what she's got to do with you." Kara took her arm off Diana to poke him in the chest.
"The custom in their village is to marry whichever man managed to defeat them in single combat. Shizuka challenged Naruto and lost." Diana helped him out.
"So you're married now? How come you didn't say so earlier?" Kara deflated.
"Because I'm not." Naruto shrugged. "I managed to talk her out of going through with the marriage thing."
"You talked her out of following her people's tradition?" Kara asked, her skepticism obvious. "That's like convincing amazons to let men coexist with them."
Diana scoffed. Even she'd never let that happen.
"It helped that they're a lot more lax with the no men policy and her heart pretty much still belonged to a recently departed guy." Naruto said. "You can get out of the marriage by killing your opponent."
"What?" Kara blinked. "Who'd want to say yes to a random lady challenging them to a fight to the death?"
"You'll be surprised what people say yes to when the lady's attractive enough." Naruto's mind went to Jiraiya and Kakashi. "And to be fair, they usually just do it with men who enter the village uninvited."
"You win, you get married against your will. You lose, you die." Kara hummed. "Doesn't seem all that bad in that situation. Could be a lot worse…wait, why'd she challenge you in the first place?"
Naruto scratched his head. "Let's just say I inherited more than my teacher's money."
Diana rolled her eyes at his attempt at being cryptic. "His teacher used him as a replacement for himself after encountering one."
"No, he promised them a student of his." Naruto corrected her.
"You were his last and only student at the time." Diana pointed out. She felt a little tempted to bring up the impregnation issue, but decided against it. Kara probably wouldn't want to believe he refused to sleep with the woman.
Naruto conceded to that. He couldn't help but wonder what it'd have been like had an older lady gone after his dad instead. She'd have probably ended up having to face off against his mom
"Oh wow." Kara exclaimed. "They are a lot more lax with their rules, but you talking her out of going through with the marriage is crazy."
"That's Naruto, good with his words." Kakashi joined in cheerfully.
Naruto groaned. "Couldn't you just stick with granny? You two have been bonding pretty well since we got here."
Kakashi ignored him. "Hey, did he ever tell you about Chiyo?"
"Chiyo? Is that another old flame?" Diana asked teasingly. Even Kakashi couldn't help but gag a little at the thought.
Naruto shuddered. "Never, ever assume that again. She was old enough to be my great grandmother. Shit, her own grandson was twice my age."
"Oh, sorry. It's just that whenever a woman from your world, it's almost always because you've been involved with her to some degree."
"But he was involved, just not romantically." Kakashi said. "See, Naruto here talked Chiyo into killing herself."
"What?!" Hal shouted. Everyone who heard the silver haired man's words stared at Naruto in shock.
"I'm sorry, you talked her into suicide?" Clark repeated, his mind reeling.
"Jesus, man. What the hell?" Oliver shook his head.
"That's like a chaotic evil playthrough but with maxed out charisma stats." Barry whispered disbelievingly.
Even Batman was shocked by that. While he knew Naruto was no stranger to dealing death, the boy was still a good person and most definitely wasn't the kind to talk someone into suicide.
Gaara spoke up in his friend's defence. "He didn't talk her into suicide, he convinced her to save my life using a technique that would take hers in exchange."
"That doesn't sound much better, Gaara." Dinah sighed.
"To be fair, she was saving the technique to breathe life into a puppet. Compared doing that to sacrificing your life to save the leader of a village." Naruto said loudly.
"Yeah, I think it'd suck if she let me die just because she was saving her energy to pinocchio some doll." Oliver admitted.
As everyone muttered their agreement, Kakashi spoke again. "But wait, there's more. She ran out of chakra while using it and he lent her his to go through with it."
"Having trouble killing yourself? Here, let me help." Oliver joked.
"Is that true?" Gaara asked. The majority of the time before his death and reaching Suna had been a haze, but he vaguely remembered having Naruto's hands on his belly too.
Naruto sputtered. "Well, she was complaining about not having enough chakra. Would you want her to die without having even achieved what she was dying for?"
"We understand, Naruto. It's just…strange." Tsunade said quietly. That hadn't been included in the report. "You need to keep that charisma in check though, we wouldn't want you convincing more people to die."
"Yeah…it ended with Chiyo thankfully." Naruto's mind went to Nagato. He really had to go back to Ame.
"Anyways, this has made me realize something." Oliver clapped his hands. When he had everyone's eyes on him, he spread his arms out wide. "Saviour Naruto is a low tier god!"
"Low tier god?" Naruto ignored Kurama's wild laughter. How offensive!
"You told her her life is as valuable as a summer ant." Kara choked on her laughter.
"I did not! She chose to die, she had no regrets."
"She spent her time faking senility to pull pranks, regretting her actions with Sasori and resenting my father to the point where she tried to kill me when she first saw me." Kakashi said flatly.
"She lived a full life, she already had a foot in the grave." Naruto grasped at straws.
"She served zero purpose? How could you say that to an old lady, Naruto?" Dinah clucked her tongue chidingly.
"She saved Gaara! She served a good purpose."
"You should kill yourself now! And give somebody else all the oxygen you're breathing in. Period." Oliver mimicked Naruto's voice. "Why are you alive? So you can bring puppets to life? Kill yourself!"
"Hey, that's actually a good impression." Clark said.
"Thanks man, I try." Oliver smiled.
"I hate you all. Seriously, I do." Naruto sighed.
"I didn't think you were capable of hate." Hal said. "You're always so polite. Hell, I'd say it's in your blood."
"That's kind of racist, man." Barry said.
"In his soul?"
"That's creepy." Naruto grimaced.
"In his eyes? They are the windows to the soul." Hal nodded to himself.
"That's gay." Dinah snorted.
"Point is, he's nice. Like pretty much every Japanese person I've met. Honestly, I even considered relocating to Japan once back when I was a teenager just because of that." Hal said.
"You and a lot of other people." Oliver said. "Cyborg read too many doujins and thought he'd have better luck with ladies if he went to Japan. I had to clip his wings, man."
"Why would you do that?" Superman frowned. It wasn't like Oliver to stop someone from trying to pick up girls.
"Because he's not…genetically qualified to be found appealing and I've been telling him that like bro, you're just not the kun they want over there." Oliver said.
Everyone stared at the man weirdly for the last part. Dinah let out a choked laugh, but didn't say anything.
"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Barry asked.
Oliver shook his head disappointedly. "Let's just move on."
Eventually, they ran out of topics to discuss and took their seats to prepare for the next chapter. The book flew into Oliver's hands and with an annoyed groan, he began to read.
Origins
"Yes, a burrito with extra cheese. Yes, the top floor. The name is Diana Prince."
Placing her smartphone on the coffee table in her spacio-
"Wait, I just got the kun thing!" Kara shot up. "You are a terrible person, Oliver!"
Naruto squinted confusedly. How did using a suffix make someone a terrible person?
Oliver grinned. "I'm sorry, I've been holding that in for months now."
"I'm telling Cyborg you said that." Clark said.
"You snitch."
Placing her smartphone on the coffee table in her spacious living room, Wonder Woman focused on drying off her wet hair with a head towel. She had just come out of the shower, proof of that also being that there was only a white towel wrapped around her torso.
"Hmm, I think this is the brightest start to any of the chapters we've read so far." Kakashi giggled perversely as he admired the woman's body through the towel.
"You're not getting any points in her book with that attitude, Hatake." Tsunade rolled her eyes when the silver haired man smiled at her uncaringly.
"None whatsoever." Barry muttered. He hadn't made a good impression on Diana either with his flirting.
"To be fair, she didn't get half the stuff you were saying at the time. The only thing she got was that you were trying to get in her pants." Hal comforted him.
"I wasn't trying to do so either." Barry lamented. It'd have been a welcome bonus, but he'd really just found her interesting at the time.
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang and she left her head towel on the backrest of the sofa as she sat up and went to open the door.
"Good evening, ma'am. Here's your-"
The delivery boy's words died in his throat 2 seconds after that door opened.
"Good evening. Is there a problem?" Wonder Woman asked, completely oblivious.
"Nothing much, you just opened the door for him while clad in only a towel." Dinah grinned. "You wouldn't happen to be trying something, would you?"
Diana flushed. "Of course not! My other self only made a mistake."
"N-No," he said, his face quickly becoming as red as an apple.
Long black hair, wet, barely out of the shower, striking blue eyes, defined cheekbones, full lips and a body even a model would be envious of - a body wrapped in only a white towel that strained to contain her voluptuous breasts and left her soft shoulders and strong yet still feminine thighs and legs bare.
"Goddamn." Oliver whistled amazedly. He made sure to burn the image into his mind, it would be the closest he'd ever get to seeing Diana naked.
"I actually agree with you on this one." Dinah nodded.
"Only thing that can make this better is if the towel falls off." Kara rubbed her hands together.
"Kara!" Clark snapped, having looked away from the screen. He still had a little attraction to Diana, but he felt like he was doing Lois wrong by looking.
"Didn't know you swung that way, Kara." Hal muttered.
"I just like to admire a good sight, much like you're doing." Kara retorted, feeling a bit jealous of the Amazon. She got attention so easily without even trying.
"You probably get this a lot, but you're really beautiful, you know. Like, a little too beautiful to be real." Naruto whispered to an embarrassed looking Diana. It was obvious he was still stuck on her image on the screen.
"You'll be surprised by how little I actually do. Thank you." Diana smiled. A part of her felt proud to be able to leave him in his current state.
In truth, the costume she wore on a daily basis in public while fighting crime did not cover much more than the bath towel but there was a stark difference in the atmosphere surrounding her at that time and in the present.
Till the very end of the transaction, the delivery boy fumbled very flusteredly. He almost dropped the package with food when he handed it to her and, after getting her money, he bolted away, forgetting to give her the change. But he turned around after a few seconds, his face even redder than before, boiling, upon realizing his mistake.
"Wait, my change!" Diana yelled. "He didn't give me my change!"
"You actually take back your change from delivery people?" Oliver asked surprisedly. What did she need it for?
She nodded. The archer shook his head.
"That's a level of tightfistedness you expect from Batman. Remember the burger place where he paid the waiter in coins just so he wouldn't leave any change?" Dinah said.
"Oh yeah." Barry laughed. He'd never seen anyone give a suited up Batman the stink eye before then.
"I always tip delivery men though." Batman said.
"Because Robin forces you to?" Clark asked. The caped crusader reluctantly nodded.
Hal scoffed. "If I had to drive through Gotham to drop food off at your doorstep and you don't tip me, next time, I'll put the air conditioners on full blast and place your box in front of them."
"That's some next level pettiness." Kara chuckled.
Wonder Woman giggled softly.
"It's alright, you can keep the change. Thank you and have a nice evening!" she said with a smile and waved in good-bye.
She may have been oblivious in the first few seconds but Wonder Woman was not stupid. She realized the reason for the boy's embarrassment. After starting to live as Diana Prince among regular people, she began to understand how big was the effect of her physical appearance on most men.
'What I don't get is why almost everyone acts like that when I'm Diana Prince but nobody shows any reaction in front of Wonder Woman...'
"Maybe because they're afraid of you?" Gaara offered.
"Intimidated is a better term." J'onn said.
"It speaks!" Barry and Oliver yelled in unison. The martian gave them a blank stare, but they were familiar enough with him to know he was annoyed.
"No offense, Di, but you're kind of unapproachable when you're on duty." Dinah said.
"What? Do I come off as unfriendly?" Diana frowned.
"No, no. You're just kind of larger than life, you know. People just admire you from a distance because the thought of even talking with you is kind of overwhelming." She explained.
"Yeah, same with Clark and Bats here." Oliver pointed at the two men. "But then again, most people don't see Batman unless it's night so they're more terrified than anything else."
"Let's be honest, it's pretty much that way with all of you." Kara said. "And it's not even a fan thing. The first time me and Batgirl met, she stuttered a lot around me too."
"I wish it was like that with me." Naruto grumbled.
"Ah, the woes of overfamiliarity among fans." Kakashi chuckled. "I told you to stop saying you're one of them."
Scenes like the previous one when men became "star struck" were not really that common (hence her amusement) but it was a fact that dozens of men had tried to hit on Diana Prince during the past few months since she adopted this civilian identity yet hardly anyone seemed to like Wonder Woman as a woman.
'Maybe it's because Wonder Woman looks like an untouchable being, powerful and dangerous, while Diana Prince is the normal but attractive and rich human girl?'
"Yeah, that's exactly it." Barry snapped his fingers.
"The world's greatest playboy would never think of trying to chat up Wonder Woman." Kakashi shrugged. "An excessively rich lady is a different type."
"Are you saying I'm easy?" Diana asked, a little offended.
"No, rich girls are usually the easiest to score so long as you've got an in and they're not the traditional type, especially the ones who're looking for as much adventure in their lives as they can get." Kakashi explained.
"Are you talking from experience?" Tsunade smirked. "No offense, but you don't seem like you get laid often especially since your head's in that smut book most of the time."
"I did a few Hyuuga back in the day and got out of marrying any of them, take it from me." Kakashi grinned.
"Hyuuga?" Diana asked Naruto who stared at his teacher in shock.
"Rich clan, very traditional. I'll explain later."
What Wonder Woman was completely unaware of was that her hero persona was way, way more popular with men (and not only) than her civilian identity. It was just that nobody would dare to express their honest thoughts in front of someone who could bend steel with her bare hand and throw cars around like they were pebbles.
"I wanna fuck you, fuck you. You already know…" Hal whistled the tune. Of course he'd never say those lyrics out loud. The ones who understood snickered, but nobody called him out on it.
If she had browsed the internet for even as little as 2 minutes, typing 'Wonder Woman' in the search engine, she would have seen how different the situation was. But she had never done that. She did not know about the hundreds of blogs dedicated to worshiping Wonder Woman or about the existence of websites like rule34…
"They worship me?!" Diana's eyes widened.
"Not in the way you're thinking, Di." Oliver started slowly. He'd seen some of those blogs himself and many of them left him feeling the need to touch grass.
"" Oh, Wonder Woman's so perfect. I'd drag my tits across broken glass just to smell the spot she stood on!" You know, the typical stuff." Kara shrugged. The ninjas looked at each other strangely.
Diana's face contorted in horror. "Why would they do that just to smell dirt?!"
"They hardly mean it literally, it's just a way of showing how attracted to you they are." Kara chuckled.
"Yeah, I've heard worse things. Someone said they'd suck a tapeworm out of Dinah's digestive tract like a noodle." Oliver pointed at Dinah who shuddered.
"Someone told me he'd let me castrate him and use his severed penis as a dildo." Kara said. "Wild stuff. Discord's such a weird place."
"Wait, what's rule34?" Naruto asked. The superheroes froze.
"Err, well, it's more of an internet rule than anything. " Oliver started.
"The internet has rules?" Diana asked.
"Not officially." Barry said. "It's kind of a bunch of joke rules that kind of just define the internet for what it is today."
"What's rule 34 then?" Kakashi asked.
The two men sputtered. "I mean, it's not like we keep them in our heads, it's hard to remember -"
Kara sighed as she watched them dance around the topic. Fine, she'd do it herself. "If it exists, there's porn of it."
Diana frowned in thought before realization hit her. "So there's pornographic content of me?"
"Yep. And me. And Dinah. Pretty much all of us have it, even the guys." Kara nodded. She'd been disgusted when she first saw a drawn picture of herself getting plowed, but she'd learnt to ignore them.
"How's that even possible? Does someone watch me bathe?!" The mortified Amazon asked, feeling violated by the thought.
"No, it's usually just drawings, cosplays and deepfakes. No nudes." Oliver sighed. "Along with fanmade stories about us being together. You'll be surprised how many think we're swingers."
"And slash lovers." Kara pointed out. "I've seen more stories involving Clark plowing Batman than my mental health allows me to take."
"I'm sorry, what?" Clark's head shot up.
"Yeah, you and Batman are the most popular pairing among your fans with Flash and Batman being a close second. Surprise!" She said.
Batman felt the urge to vomit. He and Superman were brothers in all but blood, what about their public interactions made people think they even made a couple?
"Wait, what?" Barry looked horrified. "Why would people do that? I'm married for Pete's sake!"
"Barry Allen's married. The Flash however, is very single. At least to people's knowledge." She winked.
"Wow, what a wonderful place Earth is turning out to be." Naruto's smile was fake as plastic. "They make porn of their own heroes."
"How do we tell him?" Kakashi asked an amused Tsunade.
She shook her head. "We don't."
With these idle thoughts, Wonder Woman came back to the living room and, after plopping herself down on the sofa, she grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. Then, she opened the paper bag and grabbed the burrito from it. She took a huge, very unladylike bite from her burrito and an expression of bliss appeared on her face.
"Someone's feeling peckish." Kara nudged Diana who rolled her eyes.
"Sorry for not wanting to eat everything with a fork and a knife." The amazon retorted. In Themyscira, table etiquette was a nonexistent concept. Nobody cared about the manner in which you put food in your mouth.
"...what looked like an enormous ship of alien invaders appeared above Jump City-"
Wonder Woman put her burrito down for a moment with a dissatisfied expression and changed the channel.
"Everyone is asking the same question: who is the newly-emerged hero?"
"Hehe, hero." Oliver snickered. "They don't know about it."
"They really don't." Barry agreed.
The princess' expression darkened and she changed the channel once more.
"The Justice League has yet to release a statement in regards to the previous incident so we don't know what exactly had transpired-" the host of the show said but one of his partners interrupted him.
"Nonsense! It's as clear as day that he's a hero. Everyone saw and heard that hologram of the spaceship's commander. Those alien freaks would have destroyed the entire city if they hadn't found their allegedly dangerous prisoner. This new hero saved millions of people that night in Jump City and with no collateral damage at that! If that ain't what being a hero means then I don't know what is."
"If someone who doesn't cause property damage becomes an instant hero in their eyes, I hate to see how exactly you guys fight." Kakashi eyed the heroes who shifted in their seats.
"It's not like it's our fault nobody wants to take the fight to somewhere empty." Clark said defensively.
"Like a Morbius theater?" Oliver and Barry high-fived.
Her face now scrunched up in annoyance, Wonder Woman changed the channel again. It was a music channel this time. A large group of women dressed in a bikini and other types of promiscuous outfits were dancing on the beach while two men were singing.
"Bi-" Oliver stopped himself in time.
"No, keep going." Dinah grinned. "I want to hear the whole verse."
"I-I can't remember it anymore, I haven't listened to Snoop Dogg in years." The archer lied.
"Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks
Bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks
Lick on these nuts and suck the dick" (1)
"Oh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "That's a…vulgar way of rapping."
"Sadly, that's mainstream rap now." Hal sighed. "It's all about sex, drug abuse and bragging about wealth."
"Not to mention gang violence." Kara smiled. "I'm begging, begging youuuu-"
"Link me in the field, you pussy." Oliver laughed.
Naruto looked at Diana who shrugged. She was just as lost.
Suddenly, the sound of a crash was heard when the remote control slammed into the large flat screen of the TV, cracking it beyond recognition. A small vein was pulsating on Wonder Woman's temple.
"Men! All men are the same!" She said in anger.
"I take offence to that, we're not all the same." Kakashi huffed.
"She only said it out of anger, sorry." Diana smiled apologetically.
"Don't listen to him, Diana. He's the last person to be saying that." Tsunade said.
"I'm not wrong though, am I?" Kakashi asked.
"You read porn in public."
"Which most men don't do. And look at that, I'm a man too. Doesn't that mean I'm different?" He smirked, content with his logic.
Tsunade rubbed her forehead with a heavy sign. "Just…keep going. Please."
But she closed her eyes and breathed out in an attempt to regain her composure.
'No, there are good people among men too.' She conceded in her mind once she calmed herself down a little.
It had been almost one year since she had come to "The Man's World" and she had seen in her fellow members of the Justice League that men were not all that bad. At least not all were as bad as she had been taught to believe. There were also brave, honest, noble and self-sacrificing characters among them.
'But they are a minority. The average men out there...'
She let out a long sigh and massaged her temples with her hands. Since the Justice League's clash against the alien mercenary in Jump City and the Gordanian Ship's following destruction, the Earth had been thrown into an uproar. Her level of stress and her worries were off the charts.
Videos of the incident in Jump City spread on the internet like a wildfire. The videos did not contain scenes of Naruto's clash against the Justice League because all the civilians evacuated the area after Koriand'r went on a rampage but they all contained the scene of a man glowing in yellow and red light, almost like an angel, annihilating the enormous half a mile-long alien spaceship.
"Saviour Naruto has been seen by mortal eyes!" Oliver cried out. "Sacrilege!"
"Oh give it a rest, Oliver." Barry rolled his eyes
In the general population's eyes, he was a newly emerged hero. They had no idea that he had fought against the Justice League at first.
That said, the entire Justice League was very rattled by the incident. Batman hid in his Batcave and has not spoken to anyone ever since, John Stewart was summoned to Green Lantern Corps' HQ in an urgent fashion and Wonder Woman herself just stayed at home all day, in her apartment, eating junk food and hiding from the crazed reporters.
"You shouldn't eat so much junk food, Di." Superman chided the woman gently. "I'd like to have myself a burger too, but they have negative effects on the body as time goes on."
"Unless you're Barry." Hal pointed at said man who shrugged. "He's probably the only one who benefits from eating unhealthy food."
"Yes sir." Barry smiled proudly. "Now if only I could put on more muscle…"
"That's some good advice, Clark. It's a shame I won't be taking it." Diana said. She couldn't imagine a life without soda, chocolate, hot dogs and ice cream.
"Providence has it that I tried." Clark sighed.
The rest of the Justice League did the same too but after seeing the huge disparity of power between them and the alien, Wonder Woman, in particular, was almost starting to question her abilities. Of what use had it been that she had trained for thousands of years as an Amazon when someone could just obliterate everything in their path with a snap of their fingers?
"You can still snap lots of people like a twig, Diana." Naruto comforted her. "There just also happens to be lots of people capable of snapping you like a twig. There's always a bigger fish."
"I've come to terms with that, it's just annoying to see people who make all your work look useless." Diana said.
"You're telling me. I nearly lost the use of my hand while inventing a technique only for some guy to absorb it with his hands." He grumbled.
"That sounds…disheartening." Kara spoke.
But she was stopped from continuing that line of thought when the doorbell rang again.
"Who could it be at this hour?"
It was already past 10 pm; it was night. Furthermore, she had no real friends or social life outside the Justice League and if they wanted to contact her, Martian Manhunter would have done it through their comms or even telepathy. There was no need to come all the way to her apartment. But when she looked through the door's peephole, a startled cry came out of her mouth
"Mother?!"
"Your mom left Amazon island to come visit you?" Clark asked, honestly surprised.
Hippolyta hadn't been the most unpleasant of the bunch he'd met on Themyscira, but she also gave off the impression of someone who'd slit her wrists before visiting man's world.
"She'd never do that unless the situation called for it." Diana frowned. What matter could make her mother leave the island rather than call for her instead?
"Whatever it is, it seems discretion is of the highest value here considering she personally came to you rather than summon you." Kakashi said.
"We'll find out as it goes. Keep reading, Ollie." Barry gestured towards the archer who complied.
⁂
Long blonde hair, blue eyes and wearing a white robe and a golden tiara on her head - it was none other than Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons and Wonder Woman's mother.
Kara whistled. "Don't take this the wrong way, Diana, but your mom is fine."
Clark sighed unhappily. How had Kara become the way she was now?
"I wonder why you didn't get her hair though. Does your dad have black hair or something?" Naruto asked.
Diana shook her head. "No, all amazons are made from clay."
Naruto looked at her skeptically. "You're kidding right? If you have a mom, you most definitely have a dad."
"I think it's best not to bring science into mysticism, Naruto." Gaara said. "There's a likelihood that she's just simplifying the actual process."
"Yeah, don't be like Barry's idiot apprentice." Oliver snickered.
"Oh come on, man. Again?" Barry scowled.
"He called Zatara 'smoke and mirrors'. He's lucky he didn't say that to Dr. Fate."
'"Dr. Fate?" Tsunade asked.
"A man who works with a lord of order as a vigilante." Batman said simply.
"Sounds like someone Neji would have liked." Naruto muttered.
"We haven't seen each other in so long. Don't I get a hug from my daughter?" Hippolyta said.
Wonder Woman embraced her mother tightly and she took her hands in hers after she broke the hug.
"What brings you here?"
"Does a mother need a reason to visit her child?" Hippolyta asked teasingly.
"You've never visited me before and I..." Wonder Woman trailed off.
For a little while, mother and daughter became silent. Due to their laws, as the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta had to exile her own daughter even despite the fact that she had broken those laws for the sake of saving their lives. Because of that, Wonder Woman could not visit her mother and her fellow Amazon sisters even if she wanted.
"Awkward…" Kara sing-song'ed.
"Yesterday night, while I was in meditation, I sensed an incredible magic power. It was like the power of a god. I've come to the Man's World because I was worried about you."
"We met a very powerful foe. The strongest we've ever faced. He defeated the entire Justice League effortlessly. We could not do anything against him. If he had been evil, I don't know how many of us would have been alive now."
"At least one." Oliver raised a finger.
"Yeah, at least one of you would still be alive." Kakashi nodded.
Hearing Diana's words, Hippolyta took her in her arms and embraced her again.
"My little stars and sun!" she said lovingly.
"Aww, little sun." Barry cooed.
Diana glared at him with reddened cheeks. "Say that again and there won't be a third time."
She looked around the room. "That goes for all of you. This never leaves this room, you understand?!"
"Her rage shines bright and indiscriminate, like the sun." Kara said.
Diana sighed.
Naruto leaned into her and whispered. "I think it's cute."
Her subsiding embarrassment resurfaced again.
"Mother." Diana also said and hugged her back.
" They were warriors, born for battle and they were both several thousand years old... but when it was just the two of them, Diana and Hippolyta were not Wonder Woman and the Queen of the Amazons but just a daughter and a mother that loved each other dearly.
"It's time I told you the truth, something I've hidden from you since forever," Hippolyta said and then she took out a pendant from her neck.
An incantation spoken in an Ancient Greek language came out of her mouth and the pendant started glowing with dark blue light, coating the entire living room with its colour.
"This is a very powerful spell, one that was cast upon this medallion by your father himself. For a short while, no-one will be able to see or hear what is happening in this room."
"My father?" Diana frowned. Her mother had always avoided the topic of her other parent till she eventually gave up and stopped trying to ask.
"I feel like we shouldn't be seeing this." Naruto said. It had to be a heavy secret if Diana's mom didn't even want to risk someone eavesdropping on the conversation.
"We've been reading everyone's thoughts as well as their actions and words. I think it's clear at this point whatever brought us here doesn't care much about privacy." Kara said.
It felt wrong to become privy to a secret in such a manner, but what else could they do?
"My father?" Diana asked in a strange voice. "What do you mean? You said you sculpted me from clay and the Gods of Olympus themselves blessed me with life and their powers."
"Oh, the Gods did bless you with their powers after you were born. But they did not give you life. I gave you life...together with your father."
Wonder Woman was at a loss, unable to find her words. She was almost 3000 years old. For three millennia, she believed that she had been made from clay - that was also why her devotion to the gods was so intense. Because she believed that everything she was, was because of the Gods. But now, her mother suddenly told her that that had been a lie from the beginning.
"Why did you lie to me? All this time, I-" Diana said in agitation.
"I did it to protect you. To protect you from those that would have wanted to kill you if they had known about your true origins."
"Who would have wanted to kill me? Who would have even been able to? The Amazons are under the protection of the Gods!" Diana said.
"Gods only care about you when it benefits them, Diana." Naruto smiled bitterly, remembering Kaguya. Gentle in the beginning, but upon seeing that no-one was buying what she was selling, she turned cruel.
"It's something I've come to learn myself too, Naruto." Diana sighed. Faust being able to enter Themyscria and turn her sisters to stone had made her lose a great portion of her faith in the gods.
"You and I both saw how much protection the gods gave us when Faust had turned everyone to stone. The Gods... they do not care about the Amazons that way. We... are expendable. Just tools that they can use as they see fit. If we broke, they would just create another set of tools to replace us. In front of the Gods, mortals mean nothing.
"Yeah, no shit. You tend not to value anyone when all you can just slap dirt around and make another one just like them." Oliver said before grunting in pain as Dinah elbowed him in the side.
"Oliver, that's insensitive." Clark reprimanded the archer.
"That's the basis of expendability though." Kakashi shrugged.
"I don't get it, why would they create you to serve them but still give you free will?" Barry asked.
"That's true. What's the point of freedom at all of choice when indoctrination and a lack of other options exist in the same scenario?" Tsunade scoffed.
They lived in an island isolated from the rest of the world, raised all their children to worship the gods wholeheartedly and painted 'man's world' as evil. It wouldn't matter one bit even if anyone somehow chose not to serve gods.
Diana shook her head, not wanting to think of any of it. "I don't know, let's just keep going."
"Mother!" Wonder Woman shouted, scandalized.
What Hippolyta had just said could very well be considered as blasphemy against the Gods! It was the first time that Wonder Woman had ever seen her mother speak like that about their gods and wearing that expression of bitterness on her face.
"You've ever wondered why the Amazons were punished to guard the Gates of Tartarus for eternity?" Hippolyta asked.
"Was it not because you aided Hades and the Titans in their battle against the Gods of Olympus?" Diana replied.
"Why would they go against their own creators though?" Naruto asked.
"She never told me, at least not the truth." Diana sighed, realizing even that had been a lie already. How many other things was her mother hiding from her?
"Maybe she just didn't tell you the whole truth." Kara theorized. "Blatant lies have a way of falling apart quickly."
"But why would Hades, Zeus' brother try to plot against him by siding with the Titans? And why would we, the Amazons, support Hades in his rebellion? Do you really think I was so blindly in love with Hades that I just went along with whatever he wanted without questioning the fate of my people?" Hippolyta continued to ask.
Seeing her daughter falling silent, she continued. "One day, Hades came home while I was bathing and he joined me in."
"Weird way to talk about the beginning of a war, but okay." Kakashi shrugged.
"Mother!" Diana cried out, her cheeks instantly turning rosy in embarrassment. She did not want to hear any details about her mother's sex life. But Hippolyta continued unbothered by her daughter's protests.
"Like any other couple, we started to make love. But I noticed that the way he was kissing me was different from before. Hades was a gentle lover, very caring and conscious of my needs. But that day, he was acting strangely. Rougher, more dominant, more selfish. I did not like it…"
"Wait..." Batman's eyes widened. His many bouts against Maxie Zeus had made him perform an extensive study of Greek mythology to understand the man's line of thinking.
Consequently, he'd done enough research on the gods' antics to have a feeling of who Hippolyta was talking about.
"However, by the time I realized that something was terribly wrong, it was too late. He had already spilt his seed inside of me. Him being such a quickshot and then teleporting away immediately after that further cemented my suspicions: that man had not been Hades. It had been someone else."
"Oh no…" Diana whispered as realisation set in.
"Don't tell me!" Diana muttered with her hands covering her mouth in disbelief. It was not hard for her to guess what had actually happened.
"It had been Zeus all along. You know very well the history and how many women he had raped before. In my case, he had not dared to do it openly. He had disguised himself as Hades, who was my lover at that time. Naturally, I did not hide what happened from Hades. You can imagine his and my rage at Zeus. But we could not do anything against him. He is the king of Gods for a reason. No-one could ever defeat him - except for goddess Athena maybe, one day."
"Jesus." Kara trailed off, feeling disgusted. First Starfire, now Diana's mother.
Tsunade shuddered. To rape someone whie disguised as the person's lover was wrong on so many levels It wasn't just vile, it also smeared the way the victim saw the person.
She looked at Diana who stared at the screen in horror. She couldn't start to imagine how she felt at the moment, finding out she was the product of a deceptive god's lust.
"Of course he'd do that." Diana said bitterly. "He raped two of his own sisters, why not his brother's lover too?"
Naruto rubbed her hand comfortingly and blinked when she wrapped it around his. He had no idea what to say to her so he remained silent. If the very king of the gods that made the amazons was a serial rapist, he didn't even want to think of what the others would be like.
"And that's the king of the gods you worship?" Gaara asked disgustedly.
"They probably don't suffer such at their hands considering Zeus had to disguise himself." Batman said. "The mortals who don't have that 'protection' are another story."
"Coincidentally, around that time, the Titans waged war against Olympus. Hades jumped at the chance to get his revenge against Zeus. Though I hated Zeus too for what he did to me, I was reluctant to join him. As the leader of my people, I did not want the Amazons to be embroiled in a war of the gods. But he guilt-tripped me into accepting it, accusing me of colluding with Zeus behind his back. Zeus forcing himself on me that day...it had changed him. He became more taciturn, quick to anger, always ready to explode. Hades became very different from the man I had once fallen in love with."
"Being cuckolded by your younger brother changes a person. Especially when that brother refuses to be held accountable." Kakashi said. He couldn't say he blamed Hades.
"As for the rest, it is as you know it: the titans lost the war and Hades was exiled to Tartarus while the Amazons were punished to guard its gates for eternity for having sided with him."
A poignant silence followed.
"I assume Hera would have wanted to kill me if she had known that Zeus cheated on her again?" Diana asked.
"One rapes, the other punishes the victim." Hal scoffed.
Diana shook her head in disbelief. "No, she wouldn't…we're all protected by Lady Hera, she's our patron goddess."
"I'm sure she could choose who she wants to protect and if she is your patron, it wouldn't take her much to rally the others against you." Naruto said. "And from your own question, it's safe to say this isn't the first time she's killing your dad's kids."
"Yes," Hippolyta answered. "But if Zeus has one quality that is that he cares about his children. Together with Great Athena, they made a plan. They gave me an enchanted necklace that hid my pregnancy and they also told me to sculpt a baby out of clay. When it was time for you to be born, they pretended to give life to that form of clay."
"Clever." Kakashi commented.
"Lady Athena is the goddess of wisdom." Diana said as if that explained it all.
"Ah, I see."
"At least he doesn't leave his kids out in the wild." Oliver said.
"Knowing that, as the daughter of Zeus, your strength would far exceed that of your fellow Amazons, Great Athena sealed your powers. To remove any possibility of Hera becoming suspicious even of your sealed strength, goddess Athena organised a birthday party for the newborn you, a party where she invited the rest of the gods to bless you."
"Goddess Athena blessed you with her wisdom."
"Goddess Demeter blessed you with her strength."
"Goddess Aphrodite blessed you with her beauty."
"God Hermes blessed you with his ability of flight and speed."
"Goddess Artemis blessed you to have unity with nature and wild beasts and affinity to fire."
"Goddess Hestia blessed you with the power to discern the truth."
"That's pretty much all the Olympians." Dinah stared at Diana with surprise. "You've been holding out on us."
"I wouldn't say she's been holding out considering we've seen all of the blessings on her." Naruto said.
'Especially the beauty?' Kurama asked from within the seal.
'You're awake now?'
He felt the tailed beast roll his eyes. 'Don't dodge my question. It's odd that you haven't tried making a move on her. What, are you afraid?'
'No, the time just isn't right yet.'
The tailed beast snorted. 'Of course, not right. Keep telling yourself that.'
"...and now, the truth shall set you free."
"You are Diana, the Princess of the Amazons, the daughter of Queen Hippolyta and the King of Gods, Zeus!"
The sound of chains being snapped was heard and an aura of power and nobility burst out from Wonder Woman's body. Had it not been for the powerful spell coming off from the medallion that Zeus had enchanted, just that release of aura would have blasted the top floor of the building to dust.
Everyone jumped at the outburst of power.
"What the hell?!" Barry cried.
Even Diana looked shocked. How much had the medallion suppressed her power?
"Even while dampened, it's still this much." Kakashi shook his head. Had the medallion not been there, she'd have blown the room up.
Naruto just thought she looked beautiful.
"The spell will not hold on for too long, Diana!" Hippolyta said urgently. "Where are your bracelets? Put them on immediately!"
Though extremely bewildered by her mother's words and the massive changes she could feel taking place in her body, Diana automatically listened to her mother's words and tried to run to her bedroom where she had left her uniform.
"Wait, don't move away from this spell's range! Just tell me where they are and I'll get them for you!"
Not long after that, Hippolyta returned with the Bracelets of Submission and gave them to her daughter. After she put them around her wrists, Hippolyta said.
"Unless it's a matter of life and death like it was two days ago, never take these off. They will continue to suppress and hide your true nature and powers as long as you wear them. Never tell your identity to anyone, unless you don't have a choice. The moment you take them off, the Gods will take notice of you and Hera will learn of your identity as well. An angry and jealous Hera is no less dangerous than her enraged husband."
"Of course even getting my powers freed would be a double edged sword." Diana sighed. One never got an absolute win when dealing with gods.
Looking at Diana who was still silent and had a lost look in her eyes, Hippolyta took her once again in her arms and hugged her to her chest.
"I'm sorry I had to hide this from you for so long. If I hadn't been afraid I could lose you, I would have never told you the truth. I never cared about how powerful you could be while you were at my side. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. To be safe and to feel loved."
Diana could feel her mother's tears wetting the crook of her neck. She had never seen Hippolyta cry, she had never seen her as vulnerable as that before.
Hippolyta broke the hug and she raised her hands to cup her daughter's cheeks, making it so their blue eyes locked on each other.
"Even though Zeus forced himself on me, I never regretted giving you birth, Diana. I swear this on the River Styx."
"You are my little stars and sun. You are the joy of my life, my beloved daughter. Never think otherwise!"
Diana closed her eyes to keep her tears from escaping. She wanted to leave here now. To go back to Themyscira and hug her mother and never leave her arms, but to return to Themyscira would mean death and remembering that only hurt her even more.
Naruto and Kakashi shared a look. Neither of them had grown up with a mother and while the latter had met his, it had only been for a few minutes. Not nearly enough time to realize the value of one in his life. They couldn't help but Diana a little, if only because she got to experience a mother's love.
Hearing her mother's pleading and love-filled voice and seeing her tears made Diana's eyes start swimming in tears too. She leaned into her mother's touch and hugged her tightly once more. Though her heart had been shaken by these revelations, the love and respect she had for her mother only increased after learning the truth.
That night, Hippolyta did not return to the Island of Paradise. That night, Wonder Woman, a 3000 year old woman, a valiant and tough warrior, slept like a vulnerable little girl, curled up in her mother's embrace. In contrast, Hippolyta stayed awake for a long time, watching her daughter sleep. A gentle expression was on her face as she softly caressed Diana's head.
Oliver closed the book. "The chapter's over."
The others let out relieved sighs as they got up and went around. None of them had been comfortable with watching what was supposed to be a private moment with Diana and her mother.
Naruto sighed heavily and made to get up, but stopped when he felt Diana's grip tighten. Getting the message, he settled back on his seat and shuffled closer to her. He stiffened a little when she leaned against him slightly, but stayed silent. The two spent the next few minutes in that position before he felt her tremble a little.
She was crying. Not loudly, but he'd done what she was doing enough times to easily tell that she was trying to hide it. He absently rubbed her hand with his thumb. There wasn't anything to say, nor was there the desire to speak.
He was content with just being there for her.
And that's a wrap.
I had a lot more points to make here, but I realized I'd end up making most of their debates about religion here and honestly, that's pretty much all this chapter reminded me of. I'm not an atheist, but there's a lot of things I can't help but question.
What's the point of giving people free will at all when the only choice they really have is to serve you or suffer eternal damnation? Why put them in the world and make them focus on getting back to you? Why not just leave them where they were? If it's so they can bring other people along with them, why'd you bring them into the world too?
Why say you love all men but make every man's destiny hell unless they change their fate because of something their ancestor did millennia ago? It's all weird and I don't want to kill the mood(if I haven't already)
Anyway, join AizenTheGoat's server. It's fun, it's active and nobody brings up controversial or boring stuff like this.
Till the next chapter! Hug your moms now before they get old and wrinkly and die!