Chapter 33 - 'The hero we need'

'Did they leave just like that?' Kyuubi asked, his deep, demonic voice laced with incredulity.

The moment the Green Lanterns received the call from Oa, they turned around and left without even a moment of hesitation. And the most annoyed by the situation was none other than Kyuubi. He went all the way to even become Naruto's summon in order to save him...only for the Green Lanterns to suddenly retreat! Kyuubi and Naruto did not even know the reason for their sudden departure. Although not impossible, they thought it was a bit too far fetched for the corps to leave so abruptly only because they were intimidated by Kyuubi's colossal size.

Naruto let himself lay on top of Kyuubi's gigantic head. He didn't dislike this outcome at all. He was too exhausted and his body was all like an open wound. True, he had fully 'recharged' himself with chakra but he used all of that to summon Kyuubi and supplement him with the rest. His reserves were now once again at an all time low and that, added to his critical condition, made it so there was even a risk of him dying.

'Oi, Naruto. What about the clone?'

But the fox received no answer from him. He had fallen into a deep slumber.

Kyuubi sighed.

'Now I have to play the role of a nanny again.'

His immense body began to shrink in size until he reached the size of an elephant and he grabbed Naruto and Galatea with his tails as he did so. Noticing that the blonde woman was conscious, he asked:

'You should have been dead. How are you alive, woman?'

Not receiving an immediate answer from her, Kyuubi continued, his fierce killing intent stirring the water's surface.

'I can sense lies and any other type of negative emotions. Answer me and do it truthfully if you hold your life dear.'

To enforce his words, the tail that was holding her started to slowly increase its grip, making Galatea groan in pain – her body was no different than that of a regular Earthling in that moment.

'Had I not been so weakened, I'd wipe the ground with you!'

But when she felt her bone beginning to hurt, Galatea relented. Stubborn she may have been, but she was not stupid. Showing defiance in her current state was nothing but asking to die. She was at Kyuubi's mercy.

'A secret organisation took me after I was killed by my father.'

'From what I remember, it was the brat that killed you, not that slimy bastard.' Kyuubi interjected.

'I was still breathing after you left. It was the one that created me that also dealt the finishing blow.'

Her voice was so bitter that Kyuubi didn't say anything immediately.

'That still doesn't answer my question.'

'They were calling themselves 'The League of Shadows'. I was submerged into a pool of green liquid - not only my body had become fully healed, but I have also become immune to lightning. That liquid made my body adapt to the still lingering residues of Uzumaki's lightning in my wounds.'

Kyuubi has not heard about the League of Shadows until then. He wanted to find out more and he decided that he would bully Rupert into digging out information about them - after all, an organisation capable of bringing people back to life was not something that could be ignored.

'It reminds me of the damned Edo Tensei...still, what this organization did to the clone is obviously superior. Not only was she brought back in her natural body, she became even stronger.'

Turning his attention back to Galatea, Kyuubi asked:

'What happened while I was away? You seemed hell-bent on killing him. What made him save you from drowning a few moments ago?'

'The Naruto of the past was certainly prone to doing such a dumb thing like saving his mortal enemy, but not the present one.' Kyuubi mused.

And Kyuubi was right in his opinion of Naruto. Towards enemies, Naruto showed no mercy whatsoever. He didn't care whether their reasons for attacking him were vile or noble; he didn't care whether they were children or women or elderly; he didn't care about anything related to them. The Naruto of the present had one very simple policy: whoever tried to harm him or his family would get slaughtered. No mercy whatsoever. That's why Kyuubi didn't understand Naruto's actions this time.

'He fell in love with my looks.'

'...'

'I've known Naruto since the very day he was born in this life. Never has he shown interest in any girl except for his sister.' Kyuubi said plainly, making Galatea sigh.

'He defeated me. He was about to kill me when the Justice League showed up. But he was also grievously wounded...All the wounds you see on his body were made by me.' she said, her voice not quite managing to hide the pride she felt at having been able to bring to that state someone as formidable as Naruto.

'We made a deal: I offered to protect him in exchange for letting me live. We worked together.'

Kyuubi hmm-ed in thought at her words. But the explanation he received was satisfactory so he didn't stay idle anymore. He broke into a light sprint towards the shore - he was secretly worried about Misaki's safety and whereabouts.

'Naruto will rip me a new one if anything happened to her'

'Though, I'd really like to see him try now that I'm back to my full power.' Kyuubi chuckled silently to himself.

In this world, from what Kyuubi knew, there was no Rinnegan and no Mangekyo Sharingan. There was no Mokuton specialist and no Uzumaki elite able to wield the Adamantine Sealing Chains. He had also become impossible to ever be sealed again due to his body having used the body of an animal as its anchor, a real fox.

It was only those 5 bloodline limits that had the chance to pose a threat to him. But since they did not exist, Kyuubi was now basking in the great feeling of knowing that he was once again at the top of the food chain. Because even the most powerful shinobi of his past life - Uchiha Madara and Hashirama Senju - would not stand a chance against him without their genjutsu or without their Mokuton.

But then, Kyuubi thought back to Naruto. Shikotsumyaku - Dead Bone Pulse. He had never thought that this kekkei genkai would become that powerful. And he had never imagined that Naruto would be able to reach that kind of mastery with a self-created ability, from scratch.

As he continued to run across the turbulent ocean, his mind went to two particular incidents from the past: first, on the Prison Island. Back then, Naruto had killed almost 200 metahumans, in an instant! Tree-sized bone spikes had burst from the ground causing a massacre. He reckoned that had the Justice League attacked him on the ground and had Naruto not cared about harming the innocents, he would have easily destroyed them.

The second memory that popped up in his mind was about the moment when Naruto lost his mind to rage when they attacked Orochimaru's secret base. Kyuubi had honestly been shocked to see him become something like a humanoid dragon. And that power he had possessed at that moment had been downright frightening - he had blown a hole through Galatea's Kryptonian body as if it was nothing.

At that moment, even him, the mighty Nine-Tailed Demon Fox had been terrified.

Kyuubi turned his attention back to the matter at hand, at the present situation - he wasn't quite sure what to do with Galatea. He had sensed that she did not lie to him and he knew that she held no ill intention against Naruto anymore but, even so, he didn't really know what to do with her.

'I guess I'll just have to wait for the brat to wake up and see.'

Scene break

'Kurama, w-what happened to him?!' Misaki cried out in panic when she saw Naruto's mutilated appearance.

Before starting to run towards Naruto, Kyuubi had left Misaki in a cinema. Of course, it wasn't the safest of the places, but, on the spot, he had not been able to think of a better solution.

It goes without saying that Misaki had not glanced even once at the screen to watch the movie, she had been too anxious about her brother's well being. Her intuition had been telling her that that time around, Naruto was in serious danger.

'Not here, Misaki.' Kyuubi stopped her and grabbed her with one of his tails. 'I'm attracting too many eyes here as it is.'

And true, even after diminishing his size once again when he reached Gotham City, it was still not something normal to see a horse-sized nine-tailed fox strolling on the street while holding 3 people in its tails.

A few minutes later, Kurama arrived at the Monkey King's Dojo that was almost in shambles after Naruto's and Galatea's brief fight in it.

'Let's grab some money and all of Naruto's credit cards. We won't be able to live here for a while.'

'What about onii-chan? We should go to a hospital right away!'

Kyuubi shook his head.

'What could the doctors do to a patient in his state? His skin had been completely melted off. Anyone else would have died after that.'

'Now quit yapping and do as I said!'

'B-But-...' Misaki tried to say, as tears started to flow from her eyes.

Kyuubi sighed and berated himself in his mind.

'Looking at Naruto, I forgot that she's just an ordinary girl. Being suddenly attacked, having her home destroyed and suddenly seeing her brother arriving on the verge of death would not be easy on anyone.'

Kyuubi wrapped one of his tails around her shoulders before saying in a gentle tone as to placate her:

'Look, your brother is very strong. He won't die from something like this. He had survived even worse things before.'

But Kyuubi's words only made her cry even harder as she started to think of what other terrible things Naruto had experienced until then. What could be more terrible than his current condition?

While Kyuubi didn't know how to comfort the crying redhead, Galatea pulled at the fur of the tail that was holding her. Around half an hour passed since she had fired the large heat beam and since then, little by little, her body started to regain her strength as it continued to store the radiation from the sun.

'Put me down, fox. I can stand on my own now.'

So overwhelmed by the situation she had been, that only then had Misaki finally taken notice of the blonde woman.

'W-Who is she, Kurama?' Misaki asked through her sobs.

Kurama hesitated.

'If I told her that she's the one that brought her brother in that condition, she would freak out.'

'Sigh, as endearing as she might be sometimes, dealing with weaklings in this kind of situations is annoying as fuck.'

He was saved by giving an answer as Galatea replied in his stead:

'I'm a friend. I helped him fight against his enemies.'

It was only a half-truth but Misaki didn't question it - after all, Kyuubi would have not kept Galatea around had he thought that she was dangerous.

'Now, tell me where he is keeping his money.'

Kyuubi narrowed his eyes at her. He didn't sense any malicious intent from her but he was still suspicious that she would try to just take the money and run.

'Are we going to stay like this all day?' Galatea asked impatiently.

'Who said you were coming with us?' Kyuubi growled.

Galatea frowned.

'I don't have anywhere else to go. And, for a while, I have to lay low. Until I rob a bank or blackmail some billionaire, I need to live somewhere.'

Kyuubi nearly whistled at her mindset.

'Besides, right now, you need me just as much as I need you.'

'As if. Of what help can you possibly be to us?' Kyuubi scoffed.

'You need to rent an apartment or book a room at a hotel. How will you do that? Will you send the paralyzed girl over there to do it by herself, or are you planning on carrying her around in Gotham like until now? Not even half an hour will pass before the news reports will show titles like 'A giant fox kidnapped a poor girl'. Then, some wannabe superheroes will pop up and you'll open another can of worms that you don't need to. Not in the current situation.'

The fox didn't like to admit it, but Galatea had a point. In the end, although he didn't trust her that much, he caved in. After all, given Naruto's fortune, a few thousand of dollars - that's the amount he had at home in cash - was a negligible amount. Even if she were to run away with the money, it wouldn't be such a major loss.

Scene break

It was a peaceful night of late December. The flickering light of the fireplace batted away the semi-darkness of the room, giving it a warm and cosy appearance. On the sofa located in front to the fireplace, a red-haired girl with whisker-like birthmarks on her cheeks was sleeping, her face scrunched into a frown. Her slumber was not peaceful, plagued with worries for her injured brother. Next to her, a nine-tailed fox cub appeared to be sleeping profusely, cute snoring sounds coming from it every so often. Laid on a futon next to the couch, Naruto was also immersed into a deep sleep, as his two chakra hearts were working on regenerating the melted skin on his face, arms and torso.

Only a few hours passed since the major incident that happened on top of the Atlantic Ocean.

Galatea had stayed true to her words and managed to book a room for a week at one of the more luxurious hotels of the city.

While the fox and the siblings were all sleeping next to the fireplace, she was sitting on the opposite side of the room, by the window, watching the snowflakes drifting slowly in the air.

'What am I going to do from now on?'

She didn't have any goal set in stone. Sure, she wanted to kill Orochimaru for having betrayed her. But after that?

'My purpose has been, from the beginning, to become the ultimate warrior. To protect my so-called father... but now?'

Galatea had never thought of anything else aside from that until then in her short life. Each day of her life had been filled only with training and fighting. She had no other dreams or aspirations. She did not know what else to do aside from that. Once Orochimaru betrayed her, it was as though her very reason to exist, disappeared. She was lost.

She went to her room. She did not even know why was she still staying with Uzumaki Naruto's family. Although they became allies, the fact that they had been enemies had not been changed. Not to mention that she was killed by him once and she nearly managed to kill him in revenge after that.

In spite of all that, at that moment, she felt closer to Naruto than to any other person on Earth. Because although he had defeated her and despite that they had been mortal enemies, he had acknowledged her worth. He had acknowledged her existence. After Orochimaru deemed her useless, Naruto had quenched her most burning inner desire - that of being recognized for her strength. He told her that she was not useless. That she was not a failure.

As she lay in bed, a lone tear fell from her eye. Although her intelligence quotient was genetically engineered to be that of a genius, in the end, Galatea had lived for only 3 years. Furthermore, she had never experienced any particularly negative or powerful feelings until the recent incidents. Now, when the heat of the moment passed, she was like a child that was suddenly abandoned by her parents and found herself in a very big world. A big world where she was all alone.

Scene break

'I knew that he was extremely powerful...but even in the worst case scenario that I had envisioned, things did not end that badly.' Bruce Wayne muttered, a grim expression marring his face.

Next to him, Selina Kyle was biting her lower lip in worry.

'Bruce, do you think he'll come after you?'

He shook his head and said categorically.

'The chances are slim. Close to zero.'

Knowing that Selina wanted to ask him what made him so sure of that, he continued.

'Most of the Justice League thinks of him as of a rabid animal with no sense of reason. But I know Uzumaki...and I dare say I know him very well. Ever since I took notice of him nearly 3 years ago, he had never attacked anyone unprovoked. Not even once. And every time he killed someone, it was either in revenge, for the assumed death of his sister, or for the sake of staying alive.'

'I have not harmed Uzumaki nor his sister in any way ever since you convinced him to spare my life.' Bruce said and kissed the back of Selina's palm in gratitude. 'Unless Uzumaki has suddenly changed his personality and principles, he has no reason to come after us.'

Scene break

Two days after the major incident that happened during Christmas, Naruto could be found in the same hotel room that Galatea had booked for them. He was sitting in the living room, tucked in the futon in front of the fireplace, sleeping.

However, this time, it was only a regular sleep - the melted skin all over his arms, torso and face had miraculously been regenerated. During those two days, his body had been in a deep slumber, his chakra hearts focused solely on healing his grievous wounds. Now that he was perfectly fine again, he only needed some rest for his dantian to recharge.

'Hey, Kurama... how exactly is our relationship with the blonde girl going to evolve from now on?' Misaki asked, her face scrunched into a cute frown.

During the past days, although hesitatingly, Kyuubi had told her the truth in the end. On one hand, Misaki was grateful to Galatea for having stood by her brother's side. From what Kyuubi told her, Naruto would have probably been killed or captured had it not been for her. But, on the other hand, none of those would have happened had Galatea not attacked and grievously wounded him in the first place. Because of that, Misaki had mixed feelings in regards to her.

Kyuubi, who was curled up in Misaki's lap like always, opened one of his eyes and looked at her.

'It's not my decision to take. It's Naruto's.'

'B-But she nearly killed him! And now she's living in the same place as us. How can you be ok with that?!'

That was, indeed, not something that an ordinary person would overlook. But having the memories of their past lives made it so such a thing to not be something that Naruto and Kyuubi would be really affected by.

'Don't forget that it was Naruto that actually killed her first.' Kurama replied.

'Yeah, but...' she didn't continue her words for a while. '...then how can she be ok with sharing an apartment with someone that killed her before?!'

Misaki could simply not wrap her mind around it. They were talking about life and death matters there! She couldn't understand why were both Kyuubi and Galatea treating the entire affair so casually.

Kyuubi growled in irritation. But then, once again, he sighed. He reminded himself that Misaki was just a civilian. With that thought in mind, he tried to explain.

'Misaki, think about it: Naruto killed her before, but she came back to life somehow. You can count that as him 'nearly' killing her. As for Galatea, she nearly killed Naruto as well. You can say that now they're on equal grounds - they both tried to kill each other and they both failed in the end.'

'The most important thing, however, is what happened after that: the two of them joined forces to fight against a common enemy.'

'You're an ordinary girl; hopefully, and, if Naruto gets his way, you will never have to go through a similar situation. But you have to understand that, in that moment, in their 'darkest hour', Naruto and Galatea only had each other to rely on. Imagine, two mortal enemies having to trust each other with their lives... It's not an easy thing. Any of them could have simply stabbed the other in the back.'

'...Yet they didn't! They had protected each other's back until the last moment. And that is something extraordinary! It is because of the trust that was born between the two of them in that life and death situation that now they no longer hold any kind of ill feelings towards each other. And I would know that since it's an innate ability of mine to sense negative emotions and feelings.'

Scene break

Whether Kyuubi had been aware of it or not, with her enhanced hearing, Galatea had heard every single bit of his conversation with Misaki. And the fox's words were like an eye-opener for Galatea. They helped her greatly in understanding her own feelings about the situation.

Shortly after Kyuubi stopped talking with Misaki, Galatea came out of her room.

She was just about to take go out for a walk when she heard a loud yawn. Unconsciously, she stopped - Naruto had just woken up. A strange feeling of relief washed over her.

'Onii-chan!' Misaki exclaimed and, despite the frailty of her body, she launched herself from the sofa, on Naruto, who was getting up from the futon.

Naruto had no intention to dodge her whatsoever. He let himself be embraced and smothered by his sister, all the while sporting a content smile on his face.

'Get a room you two! There are people watching. Perverts!' Kyuubi said and snickered when he saw Misaki's face turn beet red.

'I'm a pervert? Then what about you?' Naruto asked all the while grinning wickedly.

'N-Naruto! Don't you dare!' Kyuubi growled.

But Naruto was unmoved. With a high-pitched voice, he imitated the sound he had heard from the porn movie that Kyuubi had watched a few weeks before:

'Ah! Master, fuck your slutty kitten harder!'

'NARUTO!'

Scene break

'You should consider changing your outfit if you want to be able to blend in with the rest of the people.'

'What exactly is wrong with my clothes?' Galatea asked, her eyes narrowed at Naruto.

'Do you really want me to go there? Take a look around you.'

They were currently in one of the main boulevards of Gotham City and, true to Naruto's words, the passers-by were all looking at Galatea in a manner that would better be called 'ogling'.

Naruto sighed.

'Listen to me...first of all, it's the 30th of December. It's snowing. Normally, at this time of the year, people all dress with clothes as thick as possible. It's minus 10 Celsius degrees outside - nobody walks in a paper-thin one-piece swimming suit.'

'You think someone like me is affected by cold?' came her retort.

'Even if it was the middle of the summer, it wouldn't be proper for a girl to walk around dressed like that. What are you, a hooker?' Naruto asked. He was getting annoyed with how stubborn she was.

Galatea grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

'Want me to kill you, bastard?'

Naruto merely shrugged.

'If you want to walk next to me on the street, you better dress properly. If you don't want, well, feel free to piss off. As simple as that.'

Getting himself out of her hold, he started to walk towards one of the more expensive commercial districts of the city - Galatea wasn't the only one that was stubborn; Naruto was too. Plus, he had the common sense on his side. After all, they were headed for a meeting with a rather important person. Even a former thug like him knew that it wouldn't be proper to go dressed up in his usual outfit - the traditional black ninja clothes.

'Tsk! I don't really give a crap about some rich boy anyway.' Galatea said and flew away. 'There are other, more important things that I must do.'

Naruto just shrugged and continued on his way. After he just woke up that day, one of the hotel's bellboys came to their suite and delivered him an envelope. It was a small letter in which both him and Galatea were invited for a 'business meeting'.

Now Naruto wouldn't normally care about such things. It was only out of curiosity that he decided to go. He was wondering: 'What business would a useless playboy like Bruce Wayne have to do with a world-wide known criminal like me?'. Deciding to answer to Bruce Wayne's invitation was merely a whim.

After he entered a store, it didn't take long for him to pick up some clothes: a pair of dark blue jeans, a brown long-sleeved blouse and a black leather jacket. For shoes, he chose a pair of brown leather ankle boots. It was not elegant but it was still decent and, obviously, much better than his current outfit.

After he paid for his clothes, he headed towards the exit...what awaited him there, however, startled him.

It took only around 30 minutes for him to finish his shopping but, when he exited the store, the entire boulevard was in a furore!

In spite of the cruel cold outside, thousands of people had gathered together, forming an enormous crowd that was making the wide boulevard seem narrow...and more people were coming, with each passing minute! The clamour of voices was deafening.

'What's going on...?' Naruto mumbled to himself, wide-eyed.

The people gathered there were all cheering and shouting enthusiastically. Children had whiskers drawn on their cheeks and countless others were holding placards and panels with 'UZUMAKI', 'THE REAL SUPERHERO' or 'THE HERO WE NEED' written on them. The flashes of light coming from photo cameras were blinding and many reporters from various TV channels were trying to get closer to the front of the store via helicopters...

Gotham City was greeting its hero.