- CHAPTER 2 -
Dinah Lance, known to the world as Black Canary, adjusted her blonde wig and leather jacket as she watched another young man walk past her car out of the corner of her eye.
In her hands, she held a box of sushi rolls, and she savored the fish stuffed with rice and herbs as they practically melted in her mouth. She'd always meant to visit the city, but between missions with the Justice League and her day job, vacation time was scarce.
Even now, she hadn't traveled to Japan purely to enjoy the sights or food.
Dinah twirled her last cucumber roll on her fork, thinking about why she was really in Tokyo. For the past week, she had been in the city on official Justice League business to investigate rumors of a powerful new hero who had recently appeared in Japan.
A few months ago, a video surfaced online of a new hero running across the water to save a kid from drowning in the ocean. Then it was one video or news report after another about: "Japan's First Hero!"
It was one of several serious issues Batman had brought up at the last League meeting, and Bruce, ever suspicious of new super-powered humans emerging, had sent her to Japan to make contact and assess the new hero. She knew that some of her fellow members didn't think it was a big deal as long as the kid was trying to help others. Batman tended to overreact whenever a new meta-human appeared, immediately compiling evidence and creating exhaustive countermeasures just in case the Justice League ever needed to fight them.
This time, however, Dinah agreed with Batman. But while Batman wanted to make contact with the new hero to assess his threat level in case he ever went rogue, that wasn't why Dinah wanted to meet him. The profile Batman put together indicated the new hero was young, most likely in his late teens. Teenagers were inherently reckless and Dinah knew all too well how dangerous vigilante work could be.
Without a proper support system, she was worried that the kid would eventually bite off more than he could handle and end up dead. He looked quite young in the shaky phone footage, most likely still a minor. So she agreed to try and make contact with him, and make sure he wasn't getting into fights beyond his capabilities. If he was just a headstrong teen, she hoped to provide some guidance before he got hurt, not scare him off from using his gifts responsibly like Batman might.
"Code-13! Code-13! All units respond!"
Finger's crossed he's there, Dinah thought as she started her car. She hated that someone was committing a crime, but criminals were always going to exist. The least they could do was help her complete her mission.
She had already been in Japan long enough and Batman might not be happy about her leaving without making contact with the new hero, but she wasn't very happy with him either. She wasn't naive enough to misunderstand why he had chosen to send her.
On some level, Batman was counting on her physical appearance to be appealing to the young man. It was extremely sexist, but if the new hero was a teenage male then it was more likely than not that he would give her a chance to talk. Even if he didn't care about what she had to say, he would listen just to enjoy her presence. Most males of all ages tend to make time to listen to a pretty woman.
Unfortunately, there hadn't been much criminal activity and the small crimes that were committed were handled swiftly. By the time Dinah got to the location of the crime, the new hero was gone.
If she couldn't make contact with him today she was going to head back to Star City. She had gotten into the hero business to help others, not to hunt down children.
|—|
Naruto had thought becoming homeless would be the low point of his day.
Of course, that was before Cinderblock smacked him in the face with a mini-van. The family vehicle slammed into him like a freight train knocking him down the street and he went tumbling ass over teakettle down the sidewalk and came to a stop next to a streetlight.
Shaking his head, he looked across the street as Cinderblock lumbered toward him. Why is he here? Naruto wondered as he climbed to his feet. He didn't know much about the villain. All he knew was that Cinderblock was made of concrete, had super strength, and hadn't even been in Japan before.
The country wasn't known for its super-villains.
Cinderblock roared and charged straight at Naruto like a rampaging bull, his massive concrete form barreling down the street. The ground shaking with each thunderous step.
Naruto held his ground, rapidly weaving hand signs. "Earth Release: Bottomless Swamp Jutsu!"
He slammed his palm against the ground and the pavement beneath Cinderblock's feet was liquefied by the technique, transforming into a thick, sucking mud pit. Cinderblock's legs sank up to the thighs in the clinging mud, the immense weight of his concrete body pulling him further down. The villain strained against the muck, struggling to free himself only to keep sinking deeper and deeper until trapped up to his neck.
Then, with a tremendous heave, the villain broke his arms free and started clawing his way out of the pit.
That won't keep him trapped for long! Naruto thought as he turned his attention to the still-burning wreckage of the car Cinderblock had thrown earlier. It was still burning and the flames were getting closer and closer to the stores lining the street.
As a ninja, his main mission was to neutralize threats. Either because they were the target, or they were targeting someone or something he had been paid to protect.
In this world, heroes always focused on saving people first. Even at the expense of letting villains get away.
Naruto rushed through a new series of hand seals. Ox → Monkey → Hare → Rat → Boar → Bird → Ox → Horse → Bird → Rat → Tiger → Dog → Tiger → Snake → Ox → Ram → Snake → Boar → Ram → Rat → Yang Water → Monkey → Bird → Dragon → Bird → Ox → Horse → Ram → Tiger → Snake → Rat → Monkey → Hare → Boar → Dragon → Ram → Rat → Ox → Monkey → Bird → Yang Water → Rat → Boar → Bird
"Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
Down the street, a fire hydrant exploded in a torrent of water that swirled into the shape of a massive, snarling aquatic dragon. The water dragon crashed into the burning car in a crushing wave that extinguished the fire in an explosive hiss of steam.
Ripping a huge chunk of the street out of the ground, Cinderblock flung the improvised boulder straight at Naruto. The rock was enormous, large enough to easily crush Naruto's entire body. But the physical arts of the ninja were not all about strength or size. It didn't matter that Naruto wasn't as naturally strong as a hero like Superman or a villain like Cinderblock. As long as he managed to control his chakra properly, he could smash even this enormous rock.
Chakra filled his arm, covering it in faint blue flames of energy.
The rock slammed into Naruto's fist and was blown apart.
In the ninja world, even a child could effortlessly destroy boulders, as long as they simply kept up their training.
Showered in a rain of pebbles, Naruto landed soundlessly on the ground. Not pausing for a moment, he rushed forward, flashing through the hand seals for his signature technique.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
In a blast of white smoke, ten clones of Naruto appeared. The identical ninja nodded at each other and charged as one.
Cinderblock tried to swing his massive arm in a devastating arc, but the clones were too fast. Two of them slid between his legs, kicking at his knee. There was a thunderous crack of shattering concrete as the villain's leg joint completely collapsed. Cinderblock crashed down to one knee shaking the ground around him.
Two more of Naruto's clones saw the same opening and they both hit the villain with an uppercut. His body lifted off the ground, soaring into the air.
Gotcha! Naruto grinned as he ran up the side of a nearby building. while his clones continued the attack They used each other as springboards, leaping off one another's shoulders and backs. Each took their turn kicking Cinderblock.
"U!"
"ZU!"
"MA!"
"KI!"
With every kick, Cinderblock was pushed higher and higher into the air until he was higher than even the surrounding buildings.
The real Naruto, watching and timing their attacks jumped away from the building and flipped into a spinning heel drop. He channeled his chakra into his leg just like he did with his fist moments before and the same faint blue flames covered his heel as his heel slammed right into the top of villains head.
"BARRAGE!"
Cinderblock's rock-like skull cracked like cheap pottery from the incredible force as the villain was smashed back down to earth, creating a deep crater in the shattered pavement.
Landing beside the impact zone, Naruto waited to see if the villain would recover. Cinderblock didn't move, out cold from the combination attack.
The distant wail of sirens made him glance over his shoulder. He could see the police cars already speeding down the street, no doubt being followed closely by the media looking for footage of "Japan's First Hero" in action again.
Naruto walked back over to the bus bench and was glad to see no one there. The two teens hadn't been stupid enough to wait around and must've taken the old lady and run. He grabbed his bag and he was about to duck away before the news crews saw him when a voice caught his attention.
"Hey!"
He spun around, falling into a defensive stance, searching for the source. It was a woman climbing out of her car. She was beautiful, slightly petite, and curvy, with long blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and bright blue eyes.
"Relax, kid," she said, giving him a warm smile. "I'm one of the good guys. Black Canary...a member of the Justice League?"
Naruto stared at her. Of course, he knew who she was. He had a bingo book full of the heroes and villains of this world. Black Canary didn't have super-human strength but her impressive hand-to-hand combat and her Canary Cry made her a B-Rank threat. Sound attacks were hard enough to defend against, and he'd seen videos of her sonic scream shattering steel.
"Did you see what happened here?" she asked.
Naruto shook his head. The woman's shoulders slumped and the look on her face was a mix of downtrodden and pissed off.
On the other side of the street, two police cruisers rolled to a stop next to Cinderblock.
"We've got it from here, Black Canary!" an officer shouted to the woman. "SWAT's on the way with transport!"
The pissed-off look vanished from the woman's face as she looked over her shoulder. She smiled at the cops.
"Good work, you guys!" she said, and the officers practically swooned. Then she asked, "Did either of you see the new hero on the way here?"
She's looking for me? Naruto narrowed his eyes. What did the Justice League want with him? Once he started being a "hero" he always assumed he would meet a member of the Justice League, he just didn't expect it to happen so soon.
Movement caught his eye and Naruto turned to see the two teens he had left with the old woman running across the street, his bag clutched in their hands. For a moment, he felt a spike of anger that they had abandoned her, but then he noticed two police officers helping the woman to her feet. She seemed shaken but unharmed.
His attention snapped back to the teens as Black Canary noticed them too and lifter her hand to give them a wave. She probably assumed they were fans trying to get her attention. Naruto had seen enough videos on this worlds "internet" to know that was a common occurrence. Civilians risking their lives for a picture. It was foolish.
Not good, Naruto thought once again annoyed with the teens. They had seen his fight with Cinderblock and ff they told Black Canary about his unusual abilities when rescuing them and fighting Cinderblock, it would only raise more questions he couldn't answer.
His hands blurred through seals and he vanished in a swirl of leaves, appearing on a rooftop several blocks away, crouched low against the concrete before the teens got across the street.
Peering over the edge, he watched as the two teens reached Black Canary, both talking animatedly and gesturing back towards where he had been. The heroine spun around, her expression morphing from surprise to frustration as she realized he was gone.
Naruto didn't like that. Black Canary's presence and interest in him was troubling. But why was she angry? Was she upset that he had escaped? Did that mean the Justice League was actually after him? He knew he couldn't avoid the League forever, not with how publicly he had been operating, but he had hoped for more time before they took an active interest in him. Time to establish himself, build some goodwill and trust with the public first.
If the League is already investigating me... Naruto shook his head. He needed more information before he started worrying. Maybe she really had been close by and just came to help. He couldn't jump to conclusions.
Still, he decided it was best to lay low for a little while, stay out of sight. At least until he had a better read on the situation. The last thing he needed was the full might of the Justice League coming down on him.
Rising silently to his feet, Naruto took one last look at the flashing lights of the police cars and the swarm of reporters already surrounding Black Canary and the two teens before turning to slip away across the rooftops.