Chapter 16

"I sense hostile presence near the beach." Naruto conveyed through the psychic link

"Support Lagoon-boy" Nightwing responded and Naruto located his alien team mate

Lagoon boy was an Atlantean and quite new to this hero gig going on here. In this mission he was the least experienced and the most eager to show his worth.

Naruto could easily read through him as he was reminded of himself from watching the green boy. It was sad that he was also in a relation where he loved the girl but the girl didn't actually love him.

'I never want to be used as a rebound guy that's for sure.' Naruto thought when he saw the trio the first day

Connor and MM were both hurting inside, unable to come to an agreement while Lagoon boy sadly couldn't see the truth of the situation and Naruto felt bad for him.

"Hey, how is it going?" Naruto's clone appeared beside LB without a sound

"By Neptune's beard, warn me before doing that" LB kept his voice low but jumped back in surprise

"You need to get used to that."

"Yeah, I will see to that. So let's get cracking mon ami." LB smiled viciously as he was hungry for some violence

To LB Naruto was an unknown but someone that could be trusted with your back since he had all that power and had been cleared by the League itself.

They didn't have any conversation yet but LB thought they might not be compatible since the guy worked on the clock and hadn't shown any sign of having fun.

"Right, let's have some fun. Do you want to compete with me?" Naruto nodded

"Dude, you are on." LB took the challenge and jumped into the water before the manta troopers even exited the ship

Seeing that they have been found out, the enemies start their operation to destroy the rocket as troops start moving and Aqualad watches over things carefully.

He was surprised by the addition of this new factor but trusted Nightwing to know what he was doing.

LB moved like a fish in water and controlled the water like his limbs, shooting at the troops and the ship with water bullets.

Naruto didn't mean to be left behind so he flashed through the enemies with ease and broke their armors with a single punch, sending them flying into the water.

Aqualad saw the danger from Naruto and attacked both of them with lightning but to his surprise it never hit as Naruto got both of them out of the way.

"Thanks man, I was about to get fried."

"No problem, just fight carefully while watching the battlefield." Naruto advised since the older boy was fighting blindly

Seeing that this was a difficult task, Aqualad moved towards the launch site while attacking it with missiles but all of them had been taken care of by the team.

Meeting up with Nightwing and Artemis, Aqualad was quite happy to see them but they had to keep the act.

"Aqua, Naruto knows about the mission and will be helping us out. If you need help just ask him as I don't want any of us getting hurt during this mission." Nightwing communicated to him and he took it in stride while fighting them

It wasn't a problem for him to take them down so the battle between them was quite one sided and he managed to kill Artemis to show the light, he meant business.

Seeing that his troops were defeated and the rockets intercepted, Aqualad retreated into manta flyer and escaped while launching missiles to hold back the team.

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Naruto watched the play unfold and found it quite touching. This kind of thing was really new to him and truly it only worked so well because they were good friends.

This was what he had imagined when he became a shinobi but sadly he never got to experience these missions back home.

'At least I can enjoy the experience now.' Naruto thought as he felt an explosion inside the rocket

"So the big boss had already arranged for it and used this as a test." Naruto muttered as the explosion did nothing to the rocket as it launched safely

He had covered in it in his chakra from the beginning so no weak blast was going to affect it.

The mission was a success and Naruto took a ride into space with the rocket, sitting on the head.

Arriving in space, Naruto flew away from the rocket and landed on the moon as he watched his surroundings.

'Kurama, does our world also look like this?'

'Most likely but I have never been in space so I am not sure.'

'You know, why didn't you just escape to the moon or some other planet?'

'Ahh, I was too stupid and lazy.'

'No need to berate yourself, everyone makes mistakes.'

'Some times your outlandish thoughts make so much sense that I wonder why I didn't think of that.'

'Let's forget about that and just enjoy the view.' Naruto responded as he found the sight enchanting and memorized it deep into his soul

'I should show this to mother and if they haven't seen it, Raven and Supergirl.' Naruto thought as he flew back to earth as he wasn't ready to explore the wider universe yet

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Back at the base, the atmosphere was filled with gloom at the apparent death of Artemis.

The mission was successful but the death of a team mate was unacceptable. Naruto saw the gazes and understood that they were in pain.

He had gone through these experiences since a young age from the death of the third Hokage and this wouldn't be the first time he was blamed for the death of someone.

They didn't need to say it but he could understand that some of them blamed him for not taking this seriously.

They had seen his powers and according to that, he should have handled it without any sacrifices.

Naruto couldn't blame them because if he hadn't known about Aqualad's actual job then he would have taken them all out so all he could do was take the heat because he would have also felt the same way for someone who did this act.

Sitting outside the base, Naruto was joined by Connor.

"Are you here to blame me for the death?"

"No, I just wanted you to know that it's just temporary and you shouldn���t take it to heart. You were meant to protect the rocket and you can't know everything that happens on the battlefield. So I don't blame you for missing it since all the enemies were same in your eyes."

"Wow, thanks man. I didn't think you would be so reasonable."

"I get that a lot so I don't mind but with time people have to mature eventually."

"Yeah, mature with time. I wonder if I am mature or naïve."

"I guess you also have your problems."

"Everyone has some problem these days. I can only dream of a day when everyone can live without stress."

"Not a bad dream but highly unlikely."

"Maybe but who knows what the future holds"

Connor nodded as he leaned back against the mountain and watched the night sky.

Naruto decided to put on hold his intervention with the relationship of the trio since it would be very disrespectful to talk about it at the moment.

'I hope nothing goes wrong with the undercover mission.' Naruto thought as no matter how powerful he had gotten there were too many unknown factors in this world that could affect his chances of protecting his new friends

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While the team was going through the trial of grief, Cassandra arrived on the island of Themyscira to meet with the second Wondergirl Donna Troy.

As a daughter of Zeus, Cassandra was welcomed with honor on the island and she met up with Donna without much problem.

Looking at the young woman that looked like an exact copy of Diana, Cassandra felt her warrior aura rise to her presence.

She was blessed by the powers of her father and Ares giving rise to a warrior like mentality that was present even before her powers awakened.

From the beginning she had been getting into fights and exploring the world around her with confidence but only now she had been feeling conflict within her mind as she didn't feel girly enough to attract Connor's attention unlike her pears.

Even she understood that she was too boyish most of the time but though her appearance would at least do the job but that hadn't worked out yet.

"Welcome Cassandra, are you here for advice or training?"

"How did you know that?"

"Everyone comes for one or the other." Donna replied with a chuckle as she cleared away the sweat from her face and got of the horse as she had been riding around the island and practicing archery

"I want to learn more about my powers and how to fight effectively so I can help my team."

"I see, a noble goal. You are welcome to stay and I will help you out personally since you are my successor." Donna replied as she led the horse to the stable

"Are you ever coming back?"

With those words Donna stopped for a moment before she continued but no answer was heard and Cassandra understood that she shouldn't speak about it.

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A.N Hope you enjoyed