Hey hey, people. Issex here.
I'm back in college and for the umpteenth time in 24 hours, I wish I was either a graduate or a dropout, anything but a student. Don't mistake this for me wanting to quit though. I will continue, I will just complain every chance I get.
My brand new flshlight just arrived yesterday and it's serving me and my roommate quite well. I have developed a newfound respect for Chinese products. Many thanks to the children. My roommate and I appreciate you, kids!
I would like you people to flood grumpywolf's inbox with death threats if he doesn't keep his promise to me. He has said things to me and now, he needs to take responsibility. Notice my work, grumpywolf-senpai!
Now as is custom, it's time for me to promote the fanfiction server(s) I'm in/can promote.
If you're looking for a server where you can send messages without worrying about them being buried under dozens of other irrelevant texts from people, don't want DMs from people promoting cryptocurrency servers and would like to contribute to the growth of a fanfiction loving community, MADB's Overseers is the place for you.
We are few, but we are active(except for me because I'm usually dead asleep by the time most others come alive. Timezones, amirite) and we're always looking for new members to join our growing numbers. The members are chill people and after speaking with the owner for five minutes, I've come to realize that I love his girlfriend more than him and will fight him to the death for her hand in marriage.
But my future duel aside, if you're interested in writing a story or need help with an existing one you have in the works, me and the other writers/readers will endeavor to help you to the best of our abilities.
The code to MADB's Overseers is: 84R9NfxEd
…
I would also like to promote a discord
server that I've been a member of for a long time now. AizenTheGoat's discord server. It is large, it is perpetually active and it has lots of skilled writers like Helghy, TheChamp123, Esdeath's Soft Feet and our chairman, AizenTheGoat himself.
If you're trying to get into writing but lack a concept to work with, need help with a fic you're already working on, want a beta reader, a co-author or just want to hang out with readers, writers and everything in between, feel free to join in. But beware, we do a little bit of trolling so having thick skin is advised.
The code to AizenTheGoat's server is: DrQGYf4z6
How many of you actually read the entirety of my author notes? They feel like a waste of time sometimes lol. I'll keep doing them though!
Oddly enough, they did get food. A table covered with dishes from both worlds had simply appeared in their front and having spent enough time to know not to question the irregularities they saw anymore, no one looked a gift horse in the mouth and simply gorged themselves on what they could eat with the more gluttonous people like Barry stashing away several food items on their person.
"You really underestimated your people's cooking, Naruto," Diana complimented him. "I didn't know noodles could taste so good."
"Well, it's all traditional stuff," Naruto smiled. "None of the processed ingredients in yours. I mean, we have instant ramen too, but they're still traditionally made."
"I still don't like it much," Clark huffed. "It's still too salty."
"Yeah, because you took salt ramen again," Naruto grinned. "You should have asked for the difference."
The Kryptonian blinked. "Oh come on, again?! What's the difference between them?"
"That's a topic for another time," Naruto said dismissively. "I've got to admit though, I get why you like junk food so much, especially ice cream. The cold somehow makes the taste come out more."
The amazon grinned. "That's not even the best one I've had. There's a brand that makes the best ice cream I've ever tasted, but I can't remember the name anymore."
"Don't they sell them in stores?"
"Not this one." Diana said disappointedly. "Batman brought it to Mount Justice once and I didn't get to look at the body because it was dark."
Batman narrowed his eyes. "Wait, that was you?"
"You don't like ice cream, you complain about me liking junk food. If I didn't eat it, no one would," Diana defended herself.
"It was a gift from a friend. I would have eaten it."
"Now that I think of it, my one liter coke went missing a while back too," Hal glared at her.
"So did my maple bars," Barry said, his tone accusatory. "You've been eating our stuff at night?"
Hal shook his head. "Cyborg wants his whipped cream back, by the way."
Diana flushed and looked away.
"You…really like junk food, huh?" Naruto teased her.
"I can't help it," she muttered.
Naruto imagined the Amazon tiptoeing to a fridge in the middle of the night, clad in nothing but her underwear and his grin widened.
"There's nothing sexy about kleptomaniacs, Naruto." Tsunade seemed to have caught on to his train of thought. Diana flushed an even deeper red when Naruto shook his head in refusal to the busty woman's statement.
Hl
"Don't listen to her," Naruto assured the Amazon. "You keep practicing like that and you'll become a master thief in no time."
"Not a very heroic title to have," Barry muttered.
"Batman's a master thief." Oliver pointed at the vigilante.
"I'm a good pickpocket," Batman corrected him.
"You swiped my own ring out of my hand without me noticing, that's not being a good pickpocket," Hal argued.
The caped crusader smirked. "That just speaks more of your self awareness or lack thereof."
"Fuck you."
Kara, who'd been stuffing her face full of sticky buns, finally licked her fingers clean and heaved a satisfied sigh. "Man, that filled a hole. You really should have tried one, Naruto."
Dinah shook her head disapprovingly. If not for their superhuman metabolism, the Kryptonian and the Amazon would be in a diabetic coma by now.
"Err, I'm good." Naruto plastered a smile on his face. Honestly, the snacks looked good, but seeing Kara eat them had sapped whatever desire he had for them.
"Your loss," Kara said and brought a closed fist near Diana's face as if holding onto a microphone. "Now, how does it feel knowing that you're the last member of the Justice League left in your home dimension, Diana?"
"Ehem." Oliver gave her a pointed look.
"Hey, you haven't been putting up any numbers since the beginning of the story, man," Kara shrugged. "I'm just calling it like I see it."
"If you're using that logic, you're worse than him since the only things you've done are get rescued and kissed against your will," Kakashi said.
"And I don't feel anything," Diana pushed the girl's hand away. "I'm more worried about what these replacements are going to do."
"Actually, worry's still a feeling," Naruto pointed out.
"You know what I mean, Naruto."
"Nerd." Hal pointed a mocking finger at the blond who frowned confusedly.
"What does that even mean?"
"Diana's right," Clark chimed in. "If my other self didn't show any remorse about lobotomizing that creature, it's safe to say he's accustomed to carrying out acts like that. That shows he has a much shorter fuse than I do. Who knows what he'll do to my villains?"
"There's a chance that their world's worse than yours," Tsunade suggested. "Perhaps they didn't have the luxury of choice in theirs and now that they're in yours, they might see they don't need to go as far as they're used to."
"I doubt that's going to happen with these people," Kakashi shook his head. "That Clark seemed more…"
"Authoritative?" J'onn offered.
The Kage snapped his fingers. "That's the word. The way he carried himself, the tone with which he spoke…it's like he's used to being in charge, like he's more accustomed to asking questions than answering them."
"So we might be getting a dictatorial Superman?" Hal asked.
"More like a dictatorial Justice League," Dinah said. "You guys really messed up with this interdimensional switcheroo."
"I doubt they did it willingly," Naruto gestured towards Batman. "You really think he'd let some other guy he's not familiar with just go to his world because they have the same moniker?"
"We might have been kidnapped by a dictatorial Justice League too." Barry smiled humorlessly. "It's just great news after great news, isn't it?"
Kara brought the imaginary microphone back up. "You've really got your hands full this time, Diana. How do you plan on dealing with these recent developments?"
"She's got savior Naruto with her this time," Oliver pointed at said blond. "He'll be there to fight with her."
Once again, Diana pushed Kara's hand away. "It's all hypothetical. And stop pushing your hand in my face, it reeks of saliva."
"Hey!"
"Kara's bad breath aside…" His cousin's curse brought a smile to Clark's face. "We should probably keep reading now."
As if in response, the book flew over to Batman who, like the first time, caught it in one hand.
"Showoff," Hal scoffed.
The Dark Knight ignored the man in favour of opening the book. The screen came down and lit up as he began to read.
Chapter 15 - Crisis (III)
After the Justice Lords took flight and left the group of reporters behind, Diana suddenly flew in front of them, cutting their way.
"Yep. Definitely dictators," Naruto nodded to himself
"At least with the League, you get a feeling that it's just people who came together to uphold justice." Tsunade said. "But the Justice Lords? The name itself is telling."
"It's not looking good for Earth, bruv," Oliver mimicked a British accent as he spoke.
"Where is the rest of the Justice League? And what were you thinking?! How could you lobotomize someone in front of the whole world?!"
"Well first, he fires a laser through the sku-"
"Not the time, Kara." Naruto stopped her from continuing.
The 5 Justice Lords members stopped in their flight and looked at each other. It was the other dimension Wonder Woman that replied to her:
"If you were raised anything like I was, you would be an Amazon. You should be no stranger to the concept of not showing mercy to your enemy."
"There is a difference between doing the needful and ruthlessness." Diana scowled.
It was a real shame because many of her sisters couldn't tell the difference and often considered her soft hearted for not wanting to kill everything that wasn't an Amazon.
"It feels like every chapter makes us debate the 'why's of killing," Kakashi said awkwardly. Tsunade nodded. She'd grown weary of it too and seeing as how not even the heroes said anything, she wasn't the only one who shared the sentiment.
Diana clenched her hands into fists.
"Even if that was the case, why do it publicly?" Turning towards Superman she said: "I don't know what is the situation back in your world but here the Justice League is a symbol of hope. Not of terror! We don't just take the law in our hands to punish whomever we please."
"I think that's the goal here," Naruto said to the amazon. "He meant for people to see what he could do to his enemies."
"But it shouldn't be so," Diana's tone was taut with anger. "We set out to give people hope for a better world, of safety from the dangers from both terrestrial and extraterrestrial beings. They might feel a lot of things for us, but they certainly shouldn't fear us."
"Yeah, half the reason they let us stick around is because we don't give them a reason to be scared stiff of us," Barry agreed with her.
"We already figured that out," Kakashi muttered.
If a government or agency cloned a person and sent said clone to kill the person, it meant they were either a hundred percent certain of the clone's success or just unafraid of retaliation and the latter wouldn't be possible if the person had already been seen tearing their enemies in half or maiming them for life.
No, the people of earth might be cautious of the heroes, paranoid maybe, but they weren't afraid. They couldn't be.
Justice Lord Green Lantern retorted:
"You think we were any different at first? We tried the same route back in our dimension too. Until our Flash was murdered and Luthor crawled his way up to become the United States' president. Do you know what happened? He triggered World War 3!"
The heroes froze.
"...I died?" Barry croaked out.
"And Luthor became president." Clark couldn't believe his ears.
Nobody missed that, but the most attention was given to the first statement. Barry had been killed. That speedster who had been with them since the league's founding, could be murdered was almost difficult to even think of.
Much like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, Barry made the League, the League. He was the guy who kept the grimness out of the watchtower with his humor, even if it meant being the butt of the joke. That wasn't even counting what he contributed ability wise. They'd have made a lot more fuck ups without him being there to either fix the past or see the future.
Even if they didn't always tell him, the League needed Barry.
"I can see why they'd get fucked up," Hal frowned. He couldn't imagine a League without Barry. With how everyone was, it'd only be a matter of time before the strain of their lives caught up with them.
Justice Lord Superman also said:
"Democracy is nice. But the problem with it is that it doesn't keep you very safe. Too much freedom leads to chaos and chaos leads to war, death and misery. If we hadn't taken control of our dimension with an iron fist, the world would have been destroyed. Do you think hope or honour or honesty are what keep people in line? No. What keeps them in line is fear. I lobotomized that creature in front of the whole world, for them to understand that crimes will not be tolerated anymore. For all the villains to learn what fear means."
"Fear is a double edged sword," Kakashi sighed. "It dissuades some and for others, it only gives a reason to innovate. Many will quit, but the ones who don't will become doubly more dangerous than they once were."
"I'm sure aware of that. He just doesn't care." Tsunade pointed at the black and white clad kryptonian.
Diana could not help shouting:
"Do you even hear yourself? How are you any different from Darkseid? He also keeps the "peace" on all the planets he had conquered. That's not peace! It's terror!"
Justice Lord Hawkgirl's mace began crackling with electricity and she said:
"Batman was right when he said they wouldn't want our kind of help. That they wouldn't understand. Good thing that we've captured the rest already."
"Yep. Kidnapped." Barry's head dropped.
With no further ado, she lunged at Diana and swung her mace at her wildly.
"Typical Hawkgirl," Oliver couldn't help saying. "Give you an earful first, dash your brains out before giving you a chance to answer next. And that's assuming she doesn't do it the other way round."
"She'd brain you for that." Barry chuckled, but it didn't have as much life as it usually did. The man was still more than a little shaken by his death, even if it was an alternate counterpart.
"You know, Bats, when people don't want your help, the usual response is to not force it on them." Hal looked at the man in question who ignored him.
Diana blocked the mace with her wrist guards but the electricity made her shout from pain and lose control over her flight. She had awakened as a demigoddess, as the daughter of Zeus who was the God of Lightning so normal electricity should have not been able to harm her. However, Hawkgirl's mace was made of the Nth metal, a metal capable of disrupting all forms of magic. The Nth metal was the bane of all magical existences: and magic was what protected Diana and gave her supernatural powers.
"That explains why she rushed at you without hesitation," Naruto said to Diana. "Doesn't matter what magic protects you when the metal just ignores it
"A metal that powerful and all she did was make it a mace?" Tsunade couldn't believe it.
"They make armor out of it too," Clark added.
"A magician's worst nightmare huh." Kara muttered to herself. That was a hack if she'd ever heard of one.
Before Diana could right herself in the air, Green Lantern followed up with a concentrated blast of green light and then the other dimension Wonder Woman grabbed Diana's arms from the back and locked her in a Nelson hold.
Right away, Superman came to the immobilized Diana and he punched her in the stomach with all his strength, creating a shockwave no smaller than the one that the grey-skinned alien made when he punched him, blasting all the glass windows in the vicinity. Spittle flew out of Diana's mouth and her eyes rolled in the back of her head.
Everyone winced at the force the Kryptonian had put into knocking Diana out.
"Ouch," Kara bared her teeth, feeling the phantom pain. "She'll be feeling that till next month."
"You don't say." Diana's expression was sour. Once again, she was getting kidnapped.
"Did he have to hit her that hard?" Dinah rubbed her own stomach. That punch would have burst a normal person's organs and turned their bones to dust.
"Saviour Naruto is about to come in clutch once more." Oliver smirked.
"Did you have to hit her that hard?" the other dimension Wonder Woman said with a frown.
"I know exactly how tough you are, princess. Your physique is not much below mine. If she was anything like you, she wouldn't stay down unless I used my full strength." Superman justified himself.
"That's…flattering?" Kara's tone was tentative. "I mean, it means he considers you powerful."
"I wish he'd expressed that belief in a better manner than using all his strength to knock me out." Diana rubbed her head.
"Well, we don't always get what we want."
From the start to finish, the other dimension's Hawkgirl, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Superman's teamwork was completely flawless. With the 4 of them working together against her, Diana was not given a chance to react in any way.
"You can't deny that they're a lot more coordinated than we are." Clark admitted. Most of the time, it was just everyone working towards a common goal but doing their own thing unless coordinated by a tactician who more often than not, was Batman.
But the other ones weren't like that. They acted without having to be told what to do and did it in a manner that complemented the others' movesets.
"It would be admirable if they didn't use it against us," Batman said.
Green Lantern used his power ring to envelop the now unconscious Diana in a bubble of green light, intent on taking her away but a smoke bomb suddenly exploded in the Justice Lords' midst. Before anyone could make sense of the sudden situation, a massive appendage slammed against Green Lantern, sending him crashing into the ground like a cannonball. It was an enormous crimson-red tail.
"Let's go!" Kara roared. "Fuck them up, Kurama!"
"This makes two times that I'm saving you," Naruto grinned at Diana. "You should start thinking of how to make it up to me, you know?"
Diana rolled her eyes.
"John!" Hawkgirl cried out and dived down after him.
But when she broke away from the group, a voice came from the side:
"Fuuton: Vacuum Bullets!"
Four bullets made of highly pressurized wind perforated Hawkgirl's feathered wings. Screaming in pain, she crashed into the ground not far from where Green Lantern was lying unconscious.
"Ouch." Clark's face twisted.
"She's definitely going to try killing you for that," Oliver warned the blond. "She said getting injured in her wings hurts like a bitch and takes a long time to heal."
"Shouldn't have tried abducting her host," Naruto shrugged pitilessly.
Superman came to his senses immediately, in less than 3 seconds. However, for a powerful shinobi launching a surprise attack, 2 seconds were more than enough to reap the life of 2 unsuspecting people if he desired so, especially while working together with a tailed beast. Superman inhaled sharply and then blew out a powerful gale of wind from his lungs scattering the curtain of smoke previously clouding the air.
Naruto whistled. "You've got some lungs on you, Clark."
"How large do you think they are?" Tsunade rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
"You'd be the life of the party in a hookah lounge." Oliver joked. "I can see you blowing out a cloud's worth of smoke in one puff."
"I did that once," Kara said. "It wasn't as fun convincing people that it was a party trick though."
"John! Shayera!" Superman yelled when he saw the unconscious Green Lantern and Hawkgirl and the blood flowing from her wings.
He turned to the attacker with rage in his eyes.
"Who are you?" he shouted. "Why did you attack us?"
"It'd have been better to ask a person who didn't see you go Mike Tyson on a woman." Barry bumped fists with Oliver.
Once the smoke was completely scattered, the remaining 3 members of the Justice Lords, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Martian Manhunter were able to finally see who had attacked them. In front of them, an enormous nine-tailed fox blocked the very wide boulevard below with its sheer size alone and the tips of his tails rose even higher than the skyscrapers of Metropolis City. The low growl that came from the fox next made their blood almost congeal in their veins.
"It's a lot more frightening when you have something other than space to compare him to." Dinah chuckled. She wasn't a fearful person, but the sight of the gargantuan fox staring murder at them made her heart skip a beat for a moment.
On top of the gigantic crimson-red beast, a fox-masked man stood while holding a woman in his arms - it was the unconscious Diana.
Diana buried her face in her hands when Naruto poked her in the side. She didn't have to see him to know he had a shit eating grin plastered onto his face.
"Aww, he's protecting you." Kara cooed.
"I'm not going to lie, that looks cool as hell." Hal said.
"Shit, he's got to be at least eight inches." Oliver rubbed his chin. Dinah gave him a strange look.
"Why did you attack her?" Naruto asked back.
A tense silence was instilled as the three still conscious members of the Justice Lords glared at the enormous beast and the masked man standing on top of it.
"It looks like they want to have a go at it. Kurama, prepare some fire for me." Naruto said and laughed coldly.
"Bitch I got my own fire, don't need no security in the club," Kara rapped under her breath.
Hal perked up. "All that talking on the net, ni-"
"Come on, man." Barry cut him off once more. "Really?"
"If they can say it, why can't I?"
He was too weakened to use complex nature transformation techniques like his Rasenshuriken but regular jutsu were not beyond him. It was Kyuubi that was going to provide the main firepower anyway.
He put the unconscious Diana down on Kyuubi's thick fur and his hands moved through a series of hand seals so fast that they were almost impossible to discern with the naked eye.
"I saw it in slow motion," Barry said smugly.
"Yeah, we get it, you're fast." Naruto rolled his eyes.
"I could see it too." Kakashi smiled. "I'm so proud of you. A bit slower than I'd expect but that's probably just age catching up to you."
Naruto gave him the middle finger. He wasn't old and neither was his other self…physically.
"Fuuton: Blazing Whirlwind!"
An enormous stream of fire was shot from the bijuu's large mouth and a vortex of pressurized wind was shot from Naruto's mouth as well.
"You two would make a killing as drycleaners," Oliver said. "Well, when you can figure out how to spit out superheated air rather than Nebuchadnezzar's furnace."
According to the 5 elements rock-paper-scissors system, wind was weak against fire because fire fed on wind. But when these two elements were combined, an even more powerful technique would be created. The stream of fire pouring out of Kyuubi's mouth was combined with the vortex of pressurized wind coming from Naruto's lungs and a terrifying tornado of fire took birth.
"Now that I think of it, what do our fights look like to normal people?" Kara mused.
"Depends." Clark shrugged.
"When it comes to you two, probably the end of days," Hal replied. He'd seen Clark at his worst on earth, he left miniature hurricanes in his wake when he flew and every punch he threw landed with enough force to trigger a seismic event. She might not be quite as powerful yet, but Kara had the potential to match, if not surpass him.
Naruto looked away. It'd probably be best not to mention that the fight against the ten tails, Obito and Madara, had caused disaster after disaster.
The thousands of people below watched with trepidation, the scene taking place above their city. The vortex of fire made the night sky appear almost as bright as the day. It engulfed the three Justice Lords, completely obscuring their silhouettes from view. The humans below could not see that Superman had tried to blow icy wind from his mouth with all his strength but his actions were no different than that of a regular person trying to extinguish a conflagration by spitting on it. His Kryptonian powers were greatly restrained by magic.
"Magic." Clark and Kara sighed at the same time.
"At least you're not weak to it, just vulnerable." Diana comforted them.
After only a few seconds, Naruto abruptly clapped his hands and the terrible wind and fire technique was instantly snuffed out, disappearing like magic. Two silhouettes collapsed to the ground with their skin and clothes burnt up. They were unconscious. The only one still flying was the other dimension Wonder Woman but she was in no better condition either. She was still standing only due to the magical nature of her abilities offering her a better degree of protection against magical attacks. Even so, she was on her last legs.
"Yeah, they got cooked." Hal laughed.
"You don't say." Kara looked at the burnt bodies. "I'm surprised they're not dead."
"If Naruto wanted them dead, he'd just keep the fire going till they were reduced to bones," Kakashi said.
"Let me guess, you've done that too?" Clark asked.
Kakashi shook his head. "Sadly, no. I've drowned someone in a bubble of boiling water though. The steam smelt a bit like pork and his skin peeled off easily when he hit the ground."
"Okay, I think I'm going to be sick." Barry gagged. He wouldn't be eating pork for a while.
Naruto's voice came from above Kyuubi's head. Although Wonder Woman was flying at a considerable distance from them, every word spoken by Naruto was heard as well as if they were spoken right into her ears:
"I don't care about how your dimension is. I don't care what philosophy is right and what is wrong. To me, your squabbles are insignificant. However-" he said this word with a drawl, "when I was at my lowest, the Justice League offered me asylum and they even nursed me back to health. I owe them a favour."
"One good turn deserves another." Naruto smiled at the heroes.
"Aren't you grateful you didn't force him to give up Starfire and give him the boot?" Oliver asked Clark.
"It's not like they decided not to, they weren't able to do it at all," Tsunade said. "But yeah, you guys are lucky he didn't say 'fuck earth'."
"He kind of did, he only came back for asylum after nearly getting turned into a statue," Kara pointed out.
"Same thing. Would he come back if he didn't think you guys weren't reasonable?"
Kara had to concede there.
The other dimension Wonder Woman grit her teeth in unwillingness.
"If you had not attacked us by surprise, do you think you could have gotten one over us?" She shouted at him.
"Yes." Naruto folded his arms.
A deep rumble made the skyscrapers around reverberate when laughter came from the titanic fox's mouth. Naruto chuckled as well at her words.
"Don't tell me you also want a referee and 3 judges to score our match the next time we fight?" he said in ridicule. "What is this, some play fighting exhibition?"
Saying that, Naruto's and Kyuubi's obnoxious laughter reverberated through the city.
"Seizing the opportunity to attack is a form of strength as well. You're over 3000 years old, how have you not learned that even to this day?" he said, still sniggering.
"To be fair, most of our fights in Themiscryia are duels," Diana said. "And those are heavily monitored."
"I don't want to live in your world, but I'd take that over ours." Naruto said. "The only time our fights are monitored are in the academy and chunin exams and in the latter, the only way the fight's ending is if you get knocked out, surrender or you get killed."
"I swear your world is the embodiment of fuck them kids." Dinah frowned.
Naruto moved his hands and pressurized blades of wind gathered around his body like ribbons. With a flick of his wrist, a ribbon of pressurized wind suddenly slammed into the other dimension Wonder Woman like a whip and hurled her crashing into the ground right next to the rest of the Justice Lords. Aside from her, they were all unconscious.
"I know these guys are a lot weaker than we are, but it's still scary how quickly he beat them," Barry remarked.
"Yeah," Oliver agreed. "They're the Justice League, they shouldn't be getting packed up so quickly."
"Sometimes you meet someone so much more powerful than you, you might as well be a toddler fighting a full grown warrior," Naruto said. "I've had my fair share of one-sided fights too. It's life."
"I don't care how you do it, you have 4 hours to release the Justice League from wherever you're keeping them. Otherwise-" one of the sharp ribbons of wind dancing around his body suddenly extended to grab the unconscious Justice Lord Superman from the ground and yanked him up "your dear leader here will die."
"Go for Superman, why don't you." Clark sighed.
The black and white costumed Superman was brought on top of Kyuubi's enormous head and thrown down not far from Diana.
"Remember," Naruto said to the other dimension Wonder Woman, "you have 4 hours. I'll wait for you here, in this city."
After saying those words, the enormous fox shrunk down in size and then, the four of them vanished into thin air.
⁂
It was still the same night, only two hours after the Justice Lords fought against Doomsday and Naruto & Kyuubi that a portal was opened in a side alley, somewhere in Metropolis.
Batman, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Flash and Green Lantern who was holding a slumbering Hawkgirl stepped out of the portal, returning to their dimension. Thanks to Flash who had managed to stop his heartbeats and fool the other dimension Batman into freeing him from his cuffs, the Justice League managed to escape from their cells. Eventually, Batman convinced his other dimension counterpart to activate the portal and let them come back to their original dimension.
"Takes Batman to fool Batman, eh?" Kara asked the man who only smirked.
"They are as strong as we are and just as smart. But they are willing to kill. They will not hold back. We can't win like that." Batman said.
"No need to worry about any of that, they're already done for." Dinah made a show of dusting her hands.
"What are you saying? That we have to be willing to kill too?!" Superman shot back outraged. "I won't cross that line!"
"Then how else can we stop them?" Batman asked.
"You're the smart one, you figure it out." Superman said.
"Of course. I'll just think of how to subdue people who are just us, but more willing to snap our necks like twigs," Batman's tone was uncharacteristically sarcastic.
He didn't believe his other was right to want to kill, but being told to just…figure it out by an alien with a supercomputer for a brain was more than a little bit irritating.
Batman narrowed his eyes in thought.
"We can't do it. Not unless we cross some kind of line too..."
But as he said those words, he suddenly got an idea. When he looked up, however, he noticed that a strange mood appeared among them.
"Am I right to guess that you're all thinking about the same thing as I do?" Batman asked.
"Hey, do you smell that?" Naruto sniffed.
Diana raised a brow. "Smell what?"
"It smells crisp…" Naruto looked around. "Very crisp. Neat too…like it's newly made…" he paused. "Oh, I recognize it now."
"What is it?" The amazon was concerned now.
Naruto stared at her intently. "It's…the smell of money!" He laughed as he did a dance on his seat.
Batman felt a headache begin to form. When this was over, he'd open an account for the League to contribute money.
Diana however, thought of something else. "You still owe us a favour, remember?"
Naruto halted mid dance. "Oh…"
Flash grinned.
"The alien mercenary and his fox, right? He said he owes us a favour. Just the perfect time to cash it in."
"I hate to admit it but with his help, beating back the Justice Lords doesn't seem far-fetched at all." Superman said too.
Little did the Justice League know that Naruto had already more than held his end of the bargain. The 6 of them barely stepped out of the side-alley into the main street when the portal that had brought them back before was opened once again. The other dimension Batman came out of the portal hurriedly and even with the mask covering half of his face, the Justice League could sense how distressed he was. Just then, the other dimension Wonder Woman also appeared from the corner of the street, dragging herself by learning on the walls of the buildings.
The other dimension Batman ran towards Wonder Woman who stumbled and fell on the ground. He wanted to roll her over but he hesitated for a moment; he did not even know where to grab her from because her arms and shoulders were covered in burns.
"Some magician with a giant beast almost killed us all," the other dimension Wonder Woman said with difficulty after Batman rolled her on her back.
"A gross simplification," Naruto said disapprovingly. "I'm a spatially displaced, nearly immortal space mercenary ninja bonded to a thousand year old energy construct born out of the fragment of a primordial being by the son of the goddess of chakra who gained her powers by eating a fruit."
"...what?" Kara squinted.
The members of the Justice League looked at each other sharply at the same time. Naturally, their reactions did not escape the other dimension Batman's eyes.
"What's she talking about, do you know that guy?" he glowered at them.
"He has captured Superman. If we don't return the Justice League in 4 hours he said he'll kill him," the other dimension Wonder Woman said.
"He'll make his innards rain all over Metropolis, paint the buildings red with his blood, pave the roads with his bones and wipe the buildings clean with his flayed skin," Kakashi threatened.
Tsunade gave the man an odd look. "We're going to be having a long talk when we get back, Hatake."
"That's good because I enjoy spending time with you, Lady Tsunade." The silver haired man smiled at her.
Ugh.
Then, her eyes closed off and she fell into a deep slumber. In her delirium, she had not even noticed the fact the Justice League she had been talking about was standing right next to her.
"Yeah, getting burnt does that to a person." Naruto nodded. The clones who'd been burnt to death had about the same problem too.
⁂
When Justice Lord Superman regained his consciousness he found himself inside a spaceship. Looking around, he recognized the ship as the Javelin used by the Justice Lords.
'Looks like the Justice League uses the same ships as we do.'
"You're them but with cooler clothes." Kara pointed at the heroes in the room who looked offended by that.
"I'll have you know my costume inspired seven Vogue models," Dinah huffed.
"And Balenciaga ripped off my outfit and painted it black," Oliver frowned. "The guy on the runway even had a black quiver with it."
Despite the familiar surroundings, he was not mistaken by his current situation because his entire body was burning. First and second-degree burns were covering his arms and chest and even parts of his face. With his Kryptonian physiology, he could not remember when was the last time he had been hurt as badly as that. But the fox's flames were of a magical nature and they were even hotter than the sun.
Naruto blinked. "Really?"
"It's got to be," Clark agreed. "Even with magic, it takes a lot to harm me."
'He was a magic user. Ugh."
A groan came out of his mouth. He hated magic.
"You're awake so quickly even after an attack like that?"
Hearing that voice, his body stiffened. Following the sound, he saw a man wearing a white fox mask and a dark combat suit partially covered by a fur-collared cloak kneeling next to Diana who was lying unconscious on the floor of the ship. Justice Lord Superman instinctively tried to jump up to his feet and lunge at him but the moment he moved, an arc of electricity zapped him and his body shook uncontrollably while he cried in agonizing pain.
"Nothing demotivates an attacker better than a surprise electrocution," Batman nodded approvingly.
"I worry about you sometimes, Bats." Barry shook his head.
A chuckle came from the masked man but he did not even deign him with a glance. His hands became coated in a cyan light and he placed them on top of Diana's chest. The Mystical Palm Technique was the bread and butter of any medic shinobi in his homeworld. It was not exceedingly difficult but it was required for one to have a nigh-perfect chakra control in order to cast it. In his current condition, Naruto needed to focus more than usual to cast it properly.
"Why the chest though?" Kara raised a brow. "Is that the part where your hand slips and lands on her boobs?"
"Accidents happen." Naruto ducked under Diana's half-hearted swing.
"Noice," the blonde snapped her fingers.
"What did you do to me?" Justice Lord Superman asked through gnashed teeth.
It was Kyuubi that answered him. He was now back to his tiny form, a little fox.
"Where I came from, it was called fuinjutsu. Nasty shit, I'm telling you. Even I got merc'd by fuinjutsu at some point in the past. In this world, people call it magic but it's the same thing. So pipe down and don't make a move unless you want your ass roasted. Haha!"
Superman watched for a few moments how Naruto continued to heal Diana but there were dozens of questions in his mind.
"What happened to the others? And why did you capture me? What are you planning?"
"Organ harvesting!" Naruto and Kakashi exclaimed cheerily.
"You two take organs?" Kara asked, a tad disturbed.
"A handful of times," Kakashi nodded. "Some sell better than others."
"Not personally, but yeah." Naruto agreed. "Organ trade is very lucrative. It's just a lot riskier than most because it goes hand in hand with kidnapping, meaning if your coworker decides to strike out on his own, you might be his first trade."
The more he spoke, the angrier he became and he unconsciously tried to move once more, only to be electrocuted and made to scream in agony again. Kyuubi snickered like a hyena at the sight of his suffering.
"Stoopid. Are you a masochist?"
"Kurama 6ix9ine." Kara made a few gang signs with her hands.
The others were more amused by Batman having to drag out the 'stoopid'. Even the man in question looked embarrassed, at least as embarrassed as his normally stoic disposition would allow him to look.
Naruto's control over his Mystical Palm technique was broken when he snorted with laughter.
"Don't make me laugh, Kurama, or I can't focus. And you there, shut your piehole! No-one is dead, I only took you hostage until your pals released the rest of the Justice League," he said to Justice Lord Superman.
After that, he knelt on the floor and went back to healing Diana.
"He's gonna kill you, you know?" Kyuubi said snidely and snickered. "If your friends don't release the Justice League in 2 hours...hehe, you're as good as dead."
Naruto stopped his Mystical Palm technique again.
"Kurama, I swear to the Void..."
Luckily for Naruto, he was wearing his mask or otherwise Kyuubi would have seen the traitorous grin on his face in spite of his different words. Though Naruto wanted to concentrate on healing Diana, Kyuubi was making it very hard for him to focus. It always cracked him up to see the fox toying with his prey.
"Oh come on, what's the fun in that. Don't worry about your princess, she's fine." Kyuubi exhorted.
"I'm not his princess," Diana argued.
"So you don't like me?" Naruto looked broken.
"No, I do," came her hasty reply. "It's just…" when she saw his lip quiver, she gave up. "You're impossible."
"You're the one who gets pissed every time someone calls you princess. Makes you easy to mess with, you know?"
"What 'your?' she's not my princess! This dickhead hit her so hard that you'd think he was trying to kill her. I owe the Justice League a favour so I'm just making sure that she is fine!"
"Nothing more than that?" the fox said, his voice dripping with all kinds of insinuations.
"Nothing more." Naruto bit out.
Kyuubi chortled at his overreaction but he didn't press the issue.
Now that it was silent again, Naruto went back to channeling the Mystic Palm technique.
"Ya know, I've never eaten a Kryptonian before. I wonder what they taste like..." Kyuubi said after a while.
"Isn't your DNA an amalgamation of all Kryptonians?" Kara asked Clark.
"Yes…why?" Clark asked suspiciously.
"So…if Kurama were to eat you, he's technically eaten every kryptonian." Kara theorized.
I like the sound of that. Naruto's head tilted to the side as if listening to something.
Of course you do, the blond sighed.
"We've had this discussion before you came and it's still no." Clark said with a note of finality. "I'm not letting Kurama eat me. Or take a bite out of me."
"But you can't help but wonder though." Oliver stroked his beard. "It's not even cannibalism since you're not human."
Clark's expression got flatter as others joined in debating the moral implications of eating an alien, even if he was human in appearance. He needed new teammates.
Naruto stood up in annoyance.
"Alright, that's it!" He said and grabbed Kyuubi by the scruff of his neck like one would grab a naughty cat and threw him out of the Javelin.
He was about to start casting the healing technique again but he could not help stopping in his tracks when a massive head appeared on the front window of the ship. Kyuubi had grown very large and pressed his huge head against the window of the cockpit, staring at Justice Lords Superman unblinkingly and licking his whiskers in a hungry fashion.
Naruto finally gave up. He burst into laughter.
"It's not funny." Clark sighed. "It's not funny at all. Other me isn't safe and you're laughing. Why are you laughing?"
"It's done." Batman closed the book. "I'd rather not read again. Who's next?"
"What's the rush?" Kara asked. "We have all the time in the world."
"I'd rather not spend an eternity here, it's bad enough that we spend an entire month or three here before getting to another chapter."
"Can't be helped," she shrugged. "But you know, I can help you out every time it's your turn to read. You know, take your place instead."
The Dark Knight raised a brow. "What's the catch?"
"A ps5 when we get back," She said. "And none of that 'give it to her, Clark' nonsense. You send it directly to me."
Batman didn't so much as contemplate the offer. "Do you want it standard or customized?"
Kara grinned.
I believe no in-game criminal experience is fully immersive if you can't carry out acts of kidnapping and organ trade. Emphasis on in-game, please. The in-game is very important.