185 My CO Stash #85 - Doctor Maelstrom by Houkaru Kisaragi (NarutoXDCU)

-Naruto as a Doctor in the DCU! It's quite the AU with some superheroes being doctors~ Surprisingly fun.

Sypnosis: Naruto has every reason to rule earth with his limitless powers, but instead he chooses to be a doctor and save lives in Metropolis. His life becomes more complicated when a Kryptonian spaceship crashed into his backyard.

Rated: M

Words: 62K

Posted on: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/12112752/1/Doctor-Maelstrom (Houkaru Kisaragi)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

God and Doctors

Anybody working in Metropolis Paragon Hospital are bound by two rules: never say derogatory things about ramen, and leave the hell away from Doctor Naruto Uzumaki's Kawasaki Ninja H2R motorcycle. The last time someone accidentally scratched his motorcycle while belittling his obsession with ramen, let's just say that certain someone was last seen swimming in a shark pit near the coast of Queensland.

Dr Naruto Uzumaki was a complete enigma. For someone with a Japanese name, his comely feature was that of an Englishman. Some said his well-trimmed moustache reminded people of Luke Evans, while others claimed that his alluring and suave smile resembled Tom Hiddleston, which ultimately made him an infamous heartthrob in the hospital.

No one really knew about Naruto's past though, mainly because he always joked about being a ninja, but it wouldn't be a stretch to imagine. A few years ago, a gang war broke out in the hospital. The gunfight should have massacred dozens of innocent lives, but the surveillance camera caught footage of Naruto subduing all the perpetrators in A&E, escorting patients out of the premise, rescuing trapped children from a nearby medical ward, and having a ramen feast in the cafeteria, and he did all that at the same time.

After the ordeal, coupled with Naruto's unhealthy love for visiting casinos and drinking shaken and not stirred Vodka Martini, the staff in the hospital dubbed the eccentric blond "James Bond". Needless to say, he was shameless enough to accept that title with glee. However, his attire left much to be desired. T-shirt, ripped jeans, worn-out sneakers, if he didn't put on his lab coat and stethoscope, one would mistake him as a trigger-happy sociopath.

This begs the question: how the hell did he get even employed in the first place?

Truth is, even the nature of his employment was bizarre.

It involves a coin, a promise, and a girl from another planet.

Before he was the infamous Department Chief of Neurology in Metropolis Paragon Hospital, he was busy playing Robin Hood, stealing Yakuza's dirty money left and right and giving it to orphanages, thus he was constantly on the run.

"I don't get why are we even on the run. Given that they are the Yakuza, and that they are mere humans – Wait, you do know that they are humans, right? You also know that we are impervious to any physical injuries, right? You know we can kill them before they can even blink, right? Right? RIGHT? ANSWER ME, YOU LITTLE SHIT!"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he took a sharp turn around the corner of an alley, making insouciant looks behind his shoulder to ensure he wasn't followed. When the coast was clear, he sauntered towards a nearby vending machine. "How many times must I tell you, Kurama? I am not going to kill them just because I can."

"Aww! Why not?" Kurama whined.

"I can rip this planet apart if I want to, but does that mean I have to do it? Wait! Don't answer that question."

"This is the reason why we can't have nice things, Naruto! It's all your fault! You and your stupid conscience are going to get us killed one day!"

The blond chuckled. "You do know that I can't die, no?"

"Oh? Getting cocky now, huh? Show some respect to your elders, ungrateful punk! Who died and made you god?"

Naruto shut off his thoughts and rummaged his pockets to dig out some loose change, but during his endeavour, a fifty-cent coin fell from his grasp. Scratching his scalp in frustration, the blond traced after his coin, but it halted right before the foot of a young girl.

"Hey! That's mine!" Much to Naruto's chagrin, the girl picked up the coin and stuck out her tongue at him. "What are you doing? Didn't your parents teach you that stealing is a crime?"

"Finders, keepers." The girl retorted.

The blond placed a hand on his waist and flicked a finger at the child's forehead, startling her in the process. She nursed the sore spot on her forehead and glared daggers at him. "What did you do that for?"

Naruto stared at the girl incredulously. "That's my line. Now play nice and return it to me."

"Or what?" The girl probed with a haughty sneer.

"Or you're gonna get a spanking from me!" Naruto narrowed his eyes, knowing that the relentless girl wouldn't budge, so an idea came to him. "Fine. We both want the coin. Let's play a game. Winner gets to have it."

The girl's eyes lit up. "A game?"

"Yeah, but first, tell me your name."

"Mary. Mary Batson. What's yours?"

Naruto grinned. "I'll tell you if you win."

"Hey! No fair!"

The blond squat down, maintaining eye contact with the boisterous Mary while he was at it, his cheeky grin was still on his face. "Life isn't fair. Get used to it. Now, I'll explain the rules of the game real quick, so make sure you listen attentively. You're gonna toss the coin in the air, catch it with either hand, and I'm gonna guess which hand has the coin. Sounds simple?"

Mary grinned toothily. "Yeah!"

"Good, let's play."

Eagerly, the girl flipped the coin, but when she was about to catch it, the blond had already caught it in mid-air. Mary's eyes widened in shock, registering the fact that she was tricked, and pouted furiously at the blond. "You cheated!"

"Heh!" Naruto wrestled himself to a standing position. "I never said no cheating."

The blond stuck his tongue out at the girl, who was on the verge of tears. However, to Mary's surprise, a beautiful woman with lustrous black hair fashioned in a punk-and-rock style had come and smacked the back of Naruto's head crudely, causing him to yelp like an indignant five-year old. "I let my eyes off of you for one minute and I find you bullying a little girl in broad daylight."

Grail was the no-nonsense, shoot-first-talk-later kind of woman who had been by Naruto's side for many years. Despite the fact that she looked like the love child of Michelle Rodriguez and Gerard Butler, she had many insecurities; some would say she had a chip on her shoulder, partly because she had some serious daddy issues with her father, who happened to be the notorious Dark God of Apokolips, Darkseid.

"Me? Bullying her?" Naruto pointed an accusing finger at the girl. "She was robbing me! It's highway robbery, I tell ya! You gotta believe me, Grail!"

"I wouldn't if I were her."

"Shut the fuck up, Kurama. No one asks for your opinion, you oversized hairball!"

"Come down here and said it right in front of my face, squirt!"

Grail scoffed at the blond, snatched the coin away from his hand, bent down, and smiled cheerily at Mary. "Here's an extra dollar. Go buy yourself some ice-cream with it, kay?"

The girl beamed her happiest smile at Grail and accepted the coin. "Thank you so much, big sister."

Ruffling Mary's hair, the daughter of Darkseid ushered the girl away. "Make sure to stay away from this meanie -" Jabbing with her thumb at the astonished blond at her side, who looked genuinely hurt, Grail smirked. "- if you see him next time, kay?"

Mary nodded fervently, pulled down her eyelid provocatively at the exasperated blond, and skipped away. Naruto was screaming bloody murder inwardly, pulling his hair in frustration, and glaring at Grail with eyes reflecting betrayal. He caught a glimpse of Mary turning to him, shaping a 'L' with her fingers, and placing it atop her head, grinning triumphantly at the infuriated blond.

"Did you see that?" Naruto exclaimed. "She's a demon!"

"She's just a little girl, Naruto." Grail supplied. "Besides, aren't you being a hypocrite? You gave away the money you stole from the Yakuza to needy children, but you get pissed off at a girl from taking a mere fifty-cent from you."

"I never said I wasn't a hypocrite, Grail. In fact, I'm a proud, handsome hypocrite." Flashing his sparkling white teeth at Grail, Naruto did a strong-man pose, but deflated almost immediately when she shoved a stack of flyers to him. "Can you not? Can't you just inflate my ego for two seconds and not care about work for just one moment in your life?"

Grail scowled. "You promised me you're gonna sponsor the tuition fees for my medical school. That's the reason why I joined your escapade with the whole robbing-the-Yakuza ordeal in the first place. Instead of giving it to me, you threw our effort to charity. All of it! You didn't even spare ten bucks for me to grab something from Taco Bell!"

Draping a hand over Grail's neck, the blond pulled her face close to his chest. Unbeknownst to the blond, Grail's heart was racing, and she thanked God that Naruto didn't have super hearing, because he would have hear her heart thumping loudly within her chest, but she did her best to hide her flustered state. "Don't lie to me, Grail-chan. You enjoyed playing Robin Hood's sidekick the whole time, didn't you?"

"S-Shut up! Let go of me!" The flustered daughter of Darkseid pushed the blond away. "If you were a doctor in some big fancy hospital, earning big bucks, I wouldn't have to work my ass off. I should be living a cushy life like a princess! I wanna be a billionaire so freakin' bad~!"

"Life is tough, Grail. The challenges you face in life helps build character." Naruto lectured sagely, but the bright smile he carried never once faltered. "Besides, if I were to give you whatever you want, then you'll never get to appreciate life at its fullest. Be thankful for the hard times. They make you stronger."

There is a saying: those who smile the brightest are the ones hurting the most, because they don't wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do. Naruto had gone through enough horrors in a lifetime to become the man he was today. Grail wouldn't say for sure she could have that much compassion and kindness in herself after facing what Naruto had once faced. Perhaps that's the reason why she had fallen in love with a man who had saved her from her broken family.

But, she knew Naruto only see her as a little sister. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Alright, let's do this, yeah?" Rolling up his sleeves, Naruto offered his brightest smile to Grail, and it was as addictive as heroine, because she couldn't help but smile too.

It was then they heard a high-pitch scream. Snapping their attention to their back, they saw a white windowless van zapping past them and Mary sobbing at the side of what seemed to be the unconscious and bloody body of her father. Reacting to impulses, Naruto and Grail bolted to the commotion.

"What happened?" Naruto asked. "A hit and run?"

One of the witnesses offered. "Y-Yeah! That van just drove off as if nothing happened! It's horrible!"

As if going autopilot, Naruto removed his trench coat, gestured Grail to ward off the growing crowd, and yelled. "Someone called 911! Hurry!"

Switching his gaze to the body of Mary's father, Naruto was relieved to know the man was breathing, but barely. He calmly asked, "Can you move your fingers?"

The man only managed to let his pinkie twitch. Placing a hand on the man's chest, Naruto transfused a light pulse of chakra into the man's thorax, allowing his vision to be bombarded by visions of the man's inner cavity, and it worked better than any CT scan or X-Ray could ever achieve, because he could pinpoint any anomaly in a matter of seconds. "Multiple broken rips. One of them has already punctured his left lung. His diaphragm could have been torn. We need to send him to the hospital right now! If his breathing isn't stabilised within the next thirty minutes, things will get dangerous from then on!"

"This man's daughter just swindled your money. Let him die. He deserves it!"

Despite being submerged in a state of mass hysteria, a small smile curled at Naruto's lips. "You are one cranky, old liar, Kurama."

"…"

Grail hugged the wailing Mary close to her bosom, rocking the frantic girl back and forth. "It's gonna be okay. Everything is gonna be okay. Meanie here is a doctor."

Naruto glanced up at Grail's distraught face and Mary's pleading eyes. Balling his fists, he gave them a reassuring smile. "The ambulance is coming. Everything will be okay."

"Answer me this question, Naruto. Are you saving people because you sincerely want to save them… or are you doing it because you're hoping that one day, someone will come and save you like you did others?"

Metropolis Paragon Hospital had always been crowded with patients, due to its prestigious heritage for breeding prominent doctors and its reputation for having the lowest mortality rate amongst other renowned hospitals in the world. However, on that very day, a bank robbery took place near the hospital, resulting in a sudden flood of severely injured patients coming into A&E.

Professor Diana Prince led a platoon of doctors into the emergency ward, her confident gravitas demanded only obedience and respect from her peers. "Steady your hands when you attend to the patients, no matter how dire situations may be. Am I clear?"

"Crystal, ma'am!" The doctors yelled in unison.

"Move out!" Diana exclaimed, moving in a gait befitting of an aristocrat across the emergency ward, her composure never once wavered.

It was at that time where Naruto, Grail, Mary, and Mary's father were brought into the hospital by the ambulance. Grail was keeping the trembling Mary close to her side, while Naruto was awfully composed. When the paramedics rushed Mary's father to the emergency ward, Naruto was making himself comfortable, pouring himself a warm cup of water from the dispenser and taking careful sips. Perturbed by Naruto's nonchalance, Grail chastised. "Naruto! Do something!"

The blond blinked. "What do you want me to do? I'm not a doctor. They are."

Tilting his chin at the horde of doctors scrambling in disarray to their patients, Naruto heaved a heavy sigh.

Fifteen minutes flew past, but all the other doctors were occupied with other patients that they had not noticed Mary's father was in need of medical attention too.

"We both know that's bullshit." Grail gritted her teeth and pointed a finger at the disproportionate ratio between the abundance of patients requiring immediate attention and the lack of doctors tending to everybody. "Something must have happened! A&E usually are not this crowded! The doctors can't attend to everybody at once, especially when the number of patients easily outnumber the doctors ten to one. Nobody is attending to Mary's dad! You -"

"I'm not a doctor." Naruto interjected. "Besides, I can't risk getting sued by the hospital because I was masquerading as a doctor. I still have to help pay your school fees, remember?"

"To hell with my school fees!" Grail roared. "If I have to sacrifice medical school for Mary's dad, then I'll do it in a heartbeat! No question ask! Isn't that what you taught me all these years? To rise above principle and do what's right, not what's easy!"

The blond averted his gaze and stood up from his seat, but he was surprised when the girl tugged at his hand. "I-If… If I pay you… will you save my daddy?"

Naruto stared at the crestfallen girl solemnly. "Depends on how much you pay me."

Mary handed the fifty-cent coin, the same fifty-cent coin she cheated from Naruto, back to him. "W-Will this be enough?"

The blond answered quietly, "Of course not."

Hot tears streamed down Mary's rosy cheeks. It was as if her world had just collapsed. A maelstrom of thoughts struck her. She didn't want to be alone. She didn't want to lose another loved one. Breaking into frenzy sobs, Mary stared with teary eyes at her shoes. Grail clenched her fists and looked away, resisting her urge to shed her tears. She could empathise with Mary, because she had lost her beloved mother in an accident, so she swore an oath to never let another child go through what she had gone through.

Grail was about to reprimand the blond from being heartless, but when she saw the twinkle in his warm sapphire eyes as he studied the coin in between his fingers, at that very moment, she regretted doubting the man she looked up to.

"I…" Mary almost choked in her sobs. "I want my dad to live, mister. I… I don't want to be alone. P-Please save him!"

Naruto patted the girl's head affectionately. "Damn it. Me and my conscience is gonna get me killed one day."

In the back of his mind, he could hear Kurama laughing light-heartedly.

Doctor Barbara Gordon's aspiration to be a physician stemmed from a childhood trauma that involved her father, who happened to be the Police Commissioner of Gotham City. She would never forget that fateful incident; she was only twelve. Her father got a promotion and wanted to celebrate with her, but on their way to a local diner for dinner, a gang of mafia ambushed them. In her father's attempt to protect her, he was fatally shot by a hail of bullets.

Her father would have been a goner if that mysterious doctor with unkempt golden hair didn't arrive in time to save him. Ever since that day, Barbara was invigorated with the passion to save lives in hope of one day meeting her father's saviour. She graduated summa cum laude from Gotham State University and received an internship in one of the best hospitals in the world; Metropolis Paragon Hospital.

However, her good grades did not prepare her for the state of mass panic that was happening in the emergency ward. Her mind was overwhelmed with the screams reverberating in the hallways. As she was about to attend to a nearby patient, she was pulled to the side. Aggravated and annoyed, Barbara turned to the perpetrator with unkempt golden hair and scowled.

"What can I do for you sir? I'm kinda busy -"

"This patient is having cardiac arrest! I need a defibrillator now!"

Barbara frowned. "Who are you to order a doct -"

"Are you a doctor or a thug? Go get it! NOW!"

The dazed and befuddled intern nodded hastily and went to retrieve the machine. When the bemused Barbara brought the defibrillator to the bedside, the enigmatic blond administered the device like an experienced doctor would and shouted, "200 joules, now!"

"You can't do this without proper -"

"I said, NOW!"

Barbara swallowed down her consternation and pride, and did what she was told.

Delivering the shock into the patient's chest, the blond growled. "Again!"

The young intern watched in silent awe as the stranger performed a successful resuscitation for the dying patient. "There's blood pooling in his lungs. Get me a 28 Fr chest tube now!"

"I… I…"

"Pull yourself together! You're a goddamn doctor! If you can't even control your emotions in times like these, how do you expect your patients to entrust their lives in your hands? Now go and get me those damn chest tube!"

Nodding wearily, Barbara bolted to the medicine cabinet, dug out the required tool, and brought the chest tube hurriedly to the blond. Without hesitation, he applied anaesthetic on the side of the patient's chest, plunged the blade of the scalpel into the designated spot, and skilfully inserted the chest tube. "Hold the patient down. It will be a hassle if the patient starts to thrash around."

Beads of sweats were forming profusely on Barbara's forehead as she pressed her hands down on the patient's shoulder blades firmly, but she never once left her sight away from the stranger's dexterous hand. Truth be told, Barbara couldn't even fathom how fast and precise the blond was moving.

"Take a deep breathe."

"H-Huh?" Barbara blinked.

"It's okay to be scared. I take it you're new, huh?" The blond fiddled with the chest tube, trying to transverse it to the blood pool within the patient's chest cavity.

Barbara could only nod wordlessly.

"I got over my shaky hands when I saved two patients whose legs were blast off clean by landmines." Naruto connected the chest tube into the drainage canister and rubbed his hands together. "They didn't make it through, but that lesson taught me not to let my fear get to me. The greatest mistake you can make in life is fearing you will make one."

"You… were a military doctor?"

Naruto smiled. "Something like that."

Resting his hand over the patient's head and transmitting a small pulse of chakra into the brain, the blond blinked. "The concussion he suffered during the accident is causing acute cerebral haemorrhage. You need to get a neurosurgeon to operate on him fast."

"But it will take us a while to find a suitable neurosurgeon." Barbara argued. "Give or take, it'll probably take half an hour for us to find one."

"We don't have time for that. The longer we delay the surgery, the higher the probability for table death to occur."

The young intern looked around the emergency ward and spotted Professor Diana performing ad-hoc surgery on a poor sap, whose body was riddled with bullet holes. The other veteran doctors were not faring well either. Biting her lower lip, Barbara was having a war within herself. There was no way she had the aptitude to perform such a sophisticated surgery by herself. Besides, she was a mere intern who didn't have any authority to undergo operation without supervision, which means -

"I'll do it." Naruto sighed.

"B-But you're not registered as a doctor in our hospital!"

"Is now the time for something as trivial as that?" The blond growled and jabbed with a finger at the dying man. "Look at him! The patient is going to expire if we don't do something. If you have the time justifying the necessity of obliging to regulation, then I suggest you to take those precious time and put it to good use. A doctor should put the patient's life above all else. I intend to make sure he lives, so are you in or what?"

"Why?" Barbara narrowed her eyes, dubious about the stranger's ulterior motives. "Why do you want to save him?"

"Because I made a promise to a girl. A promise that involves me saving her dad no matter what. Now, are you going to help me keep that promise or are you going to be a hindrance?"

The intern grimaced. "I-I need to report to my supervis -"

"We don't have the time for that!" Naruto retorted heatedly. "Make a decision now!"

"Fine!" Barbara started pushing the hospital bed to the doorway. "Let's go! I'll bring you to the operating room!"

Naruto smiled and nodded. "Good girl."

A wave of nostalgia washed over Barbara. His charming, yet soothing voice that somewhat calmed her nerves triggered a fragmented memory to resurface; she could have sworn she had heard his voice before. Shaking her troubled thoughts away, Barbara was determined to get her task at hand completed. Her conviction only grew stronger when the charismatic blond offered her a kind smile. "We need an anaesthesiologist. You know one?"

Barbara blinked. "Umm…"

"I'll help." The source of the husky, yet enchanting voice belonged to a bodacious woman with coiffured black hair. Her beauty was elegance personified, and when she raked a hand through her silk-like hair, it was as if she was shooting for a Victoria's Secret commercial. As a doctor, she surely didn't dress like one, because her white corset, black mini-skirt, fishnet stocking, and high-heeled shoes made her looked more like a seductress than a physician.

Perhaps Naruto had watched too much movies, but this woman standing before her, with sparkling emerald eyes that let off a vibe of mischief, was what a femme fatale in a typical 80s spy movie would look like. Brushing a few strand of ebony hair behind her ear, Doctor Zatanna Zatara's crimson lips curled up into a Cheshire grin. "I know I'm attractive, but if you keep your eyes on me for too long, your patient will die soon."

"Careful, squirt. This one screams bad news. She's a magician."

"…Pardon?"


"Instead of pulling bunnies out of hats, these magicians prefer pulling hats out of bunnies. You catch my drift?"

"How do you pull hats out of bunnies? I mean, where do you even pull it out- O-Oh… Oh! That's fifty shades of nasty."

"Exactly."

Zatanna was used to guys falling head over heels in love with her, but when Naruto unexpectedly took a bold step forward, erasing the distance between them, and plucked a bead of rice from the side of her plum lips, all the while schooling his expression, she found herself intrigued with the man. "When it comes to my patients, I'm never distracted. So I take it you're an anaesthesiologist?"

Nodding slowly, Zatanna fixated her curious gaze at Naruto.

Barbara harrumphed loudly, breaking the tension in the air. "Operating room 2 just free up. Shall we?"

To say Naruto was one of the most skilled neurosurgeons Barbara and Zatanna had ever seen was the understatement of the century. He was able to perform a flawless craniotomy in record time, but he had bolted out of the operating ward afterwards like his life depended on it, leaving Barbara and Zatanna awestruck and confounded.

"What happened here?" Diana's domineering voice echoed within the chamber, her voluptuous figure loomed ominously before a trembling Barbara and an annoyed Zatanna.

"As you can see," Zatanna retorted, pointing a finger at the unconscious patient lying on the operating table. "We saved this man's life."

Diana raised a brow. "Who was the surgeon in charge?"

Her predatory eyes shifted to Barbara, who almost jolted in fright when her hawk-like eyes were cast at her. "I-I wasn't the surgeon in charge."

"Then who gave the green light to this surgery?"

Shrugging nonchalantly, Zatanna removed her gloves, all the while avoiding Diana's gaze. "Some stranger demanded to operate on the patient. Since all the other doctors had their hands full, I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth when he offered to help operate, especially when said horse is way better than any neurosurgeons I have worked with, and that's saying something."

"And you just let him do as he pleases?" Diana said, venom was practically dripping from her tone.

Zatanna glanced up and met Diana's unforgiving glare. "He saved the man's life. That's all it matters."

"And what if he couldn't?"

Anybody would have succumbed to Diana's smothering aura, but not Zatanna. She stood tall and proud without exuding any traces of fear. "I'll take full responsibility then, Professor Diana. But, as it seems, the stranger not only saved this patient's life, but the hospital's reputation as well. If news got out that our hospitals were understaffed and unintentionally allowed a patient to die under our watch, guess whose head is on the guillotine?"

Diana scowled. "Are you threatening me, Doctor Zatanna?"

"I'm stating facts, Professor Diana." Zatanna responded with a devil-may-care attitude. "Since when did we doctors put rules and regulations above our patient's life?"

Exhaling a seething breath, Diana regained her composure, pinched the bridge of her nose, and feigned a smile. "Where did this stranger go?"

"Beats me." Zatanna let out a yawn. "He ran away after the surgery. You should see that man work. He's a miracle worker. No doctor can pull off that surgery without a decade worth of experience. Anyway, my shift is over. Barbara!"

Barbara straightened herself. "Yes!"

"Clean up the mess and find a room for the patient." The dark-haired beauty commanded coolly, gave Diana a respectful bow, and strode past her.

Naruto was strutting jovially across the hospital's corridor like Leonardo Dicaprio would, humming to Maroon 5's Sugar exuberantly. Grail appeared beside the blond, catching up with his pace. She noticed the blond was smiling as if he had struck lottery. Placing her hands behind her back, Grail smiled cheerfully. "Thanks for saving Mary's dad."

Fiddling with the fifty-cent coin in his grasp, Naruto smirked. "I didn't do it for free."

"For a mere fifty-cent?" Grail teased, pinching his bicep playfully. "Admit it, Naruto! You're a big softie! You act tough and all that, but inside you is a teddy bear, waiting to be cuddled and hugged!"

"Shut up, Grail!" The blond exclaimed, his face flushed with embarrassment. "I'll have you know that I have a reputation to uphold."

The daughter of Darkseid quirked a brow. "What reputation?" She erupted into a guffawing frenzy, all the while pointing a mocking finger at him.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle. His clumsiness got the best of him though when the coin in his hand dropped, causing him to mumble obscenities under his breath. It was Deja-vu all over again; the coin bounced its way to a pair of grey Crocs. Gazing up, Naruto found himself face to face with a very angry woman.

Was it wrong for him to say that the woman looked incredibly sexy when she was puffing in rage?

"Are you a horn dog who forgot to shag for ten millennium? Get your head out of the gutter and start using some common sense, you dunce! This woman is more dangerous than Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct!"

"…But she's hotter than Sharon -"

"You're missing the point!"

The beautiful woman with cascading mahogany hair was scrutinising him with dangerous eyes.

"Yeah, she's eyeing me out like I owe her a billion bucks."

"Not that, you incorrigible fool! Her posture, her stance, and her physique scream seasoned warrior. She can conceal all she wants, but there is no hiding that divine power within her. Now that I think about it, there is something awfully wrong about this hospital. Don't you find it strange that there is an exodus of supernatural beings residing in this hospital?"

"What can I say? I'm a trouble magnet. If only I can say the same thing when it comes to hot chicks."


Diana crossed her arms under her ample bosom. "Are you the one who did that illegal surgery in my hospital?"

"Your hospital?" Naruto scoffed, before he took a squint at the professor's name tag. "I don't see your name written on the walls, Professor Diana Prince."

"Even if you're a doctor, you need a permit to operate at foreign hospitals. That's standard protocol."

The blond scratched his scalp in frustration. "That's because it was an emergency -"

"Your license can be suspended if we report to the American Medical Association."

Naruto paused and shifted his frosty gaze at Diana.

The pregnant pause lasted for quite some time, even Grail was unsettled by it.

"Go ahead then."

Diana stared in disbelief at Naruto. "What?"

"Do it." The dauntless blond closed his distance between him and the professor. "If the media were to know your hospital relied on a foreign doctor like me to save your sorry ass, can you imagine what the publicity would do to your hospital's reputation? I'm pretty sure your precious AMA will be more than happy to send down investigators to dig out whatever deep, dark, naughty secrets you guys have been hiding."

Clenching her fists, Diana bent down to pick up the fifty-cent coin, stored it in her breast pocket, and glowered fiercely at the blond. "I do not respond to threat. I make them. Don't think for a second you can play with fire and get away unscathed, boy."

Naruto elbowed Grail's forearm playfully. "I guess someone is on her period."

Without hesitation, Diana grabbed a handful of cloth from Naruto's shirt and pulled it violently to her. "Do you think this hospital is a playground to you?"

An overzealous Kurama was drooling with anticipation as he chanted aloud in glee, "Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight!"

The blond chuckled, unfazed by the brunette's aggression, and quipped, "No, but I think you're overcompensating your sense of worth by wearing slightly masculine clothing, being too aggressive than your male colleagues for anybody's liking, which gives you a prickly demeanour. I guess your peers mistook your pride for being a dragon lady as arrogance, girl."

His jest and anathematisation should have gotten him killed, so he thought, but Diana abruptly did a 180 and allowed an angelic smile to grace her lips. She let her firm grip over Naruto's shirt loosened, straightened his collar, and stood a little straighter. "Men, always assuming, always criticising, but never reflecting. That's the fallacy of your DNA. You thought you can rile me up with small talks? Let me tell you this: I am not the sort of enemy you want to make."

"Aww! Shots fired! Do you know when a woman stops arguing with you and starts agreeing with whatever you're saying, that's when shit is about to get real. Right now, she just went from Tony Montana to Miranda Priestly, and from what I gathered after watching Devil Wears Prada, you are about to get your nuts bisected."

"That's awfully graphic, Kurama."

"You're a doctor, Naruto. Crushed balls should not faze you."


"Shut up! Even doctors feel pain, okay?"


Kurama snickered. "You're in the danger zone~!"

"I think you have no idea who you're talking to, Kurama. Allow me to rephrase the great ol' Walter White. I am not in the danger zone, Kurama! I am the danger zone! A guy opens his door and get his butt whooped and you think that of me? No! I am the one who whoops the butt!"

"Why are you not speaking?" Diana scoffed. "By the Gods, do you really have that much audacity to ignore me when I'm talking to you? Has your testosterone deafened you? Answer me, barbarian!"

In the midst of Naruto's musing, the scent of vanilla lavender fragrance suddenly hit his nose. He would never forget that mesmerising scent, because it was the same scent Hinata used to have. Naruto's eyes widened when he realised that Diana shared the same preference for perfume like Hinata did. Swallowing down his apprehension, the blond chuckled. "I'm starting to feel very butt-hurt by your sexist comment."

Naruto took a weary step back, grabbed Grail's wrist, and smiled uneasily at Diana. "I think I need to go home now, get myself some antiseptic cream, apply it on my sore butt, and rest for the day. See you around, dragon lady."

Winking at a peeved and bemused Diana, Naruto spun around and attempted to make a dash with Grail to the exit of the hospital, but their path was obstructed by another imposing figure.

Any ordinary person would perceive the bearded man in a bland suit as a typical average Joe, but his mere presence incited tremendous fear from Kurama, and that's enough warning to drive Naruto on high-alert.

"What the fuck is wrong with this place? Did you just stumble into the Super-Underpants Association?"

Naruto swallowed. "What's wrong, Kurama? You sound… afraid?"

"No time for chats and giggles, Naruto! This is goddamn DEFCON 1! Get the fuck out of here now! This guy is -"

"I'm James Corrigan, Chief Doctor of MPH. Please call me Jim though." Jim chuckled while adjusting his spectacles. "I happen to come across the footage of you performing surgery on a patient and I must say that you have a pair of marvellous hands. If I don't know any better, I might mistake you as Jesus's incarnate. That surgery was exceptionally hard to perform, I must say."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "I'm not sure what you're getting at but I need to go."

Jim diverted his attention to Grail. "Do you want to be a doctor, miss?"

"Uh…"

The chief physician smiled. "Let's make a deal, shall we?" Pointing a finger at Naruto, Jim offered. "If you are willing to be part of our medical staff, we'll sponsor for her -" Jim shifted the target of his finger to Grail. "- her tuition fees in Harvard Medical School. Hell, we'll even give her monthly allowance so she can start interning in our hospital immediately. The catch is simple."

There was this dangerous glint in Jim's eyes that Naruto just didn't like.

"Join us."

"Don't take up that deal, Naruto! There's no free lunch in this shitty world!"

"I never intend to take up such a shady deal in the first place, but why are you so afraid of this guy?"


"I'm not… afraid. Argh! It's complicated! I'll explain to you later! Just get out of here!"

Naruto cleared his throat and responded impassively, "Nah, I'll pass. Let's go, Grail."

Grail gasped, cursing inwardly at a missed opportunity for her to get herself a scholarship from one of the best hospitals in the world. She glared at the blond, fuming in umbrage, but his grim expression puzzled her. Although Naruto might seem like an impetuous dick who recklessly cause trouble for his own twisted pleasure, he never does things without reason, so when he ushered her to move, she dared not object.

That didn't mean she wasn't pissed.

"I understand my offer may come off as sudden, so how about this. If you do reconsider my offer, drop by my office anytime. I'll be more than happy to talk it out with you." Jim smiled as he watched Naruto dragged Grail along with him to the exit of the hospital.

Diana shook her head and stood beside the chief physician. "You're going to let them go? Just like that?"

"Professor Diana, I have an important task for you." Jim's smile grew disturbingly wider. Unbeknownst to Diana, Jim's eyes were radiating an eerie green glow. "You'll be representing Metropolis Paragon Hospital to recruit that man as our doctor. I don't care what it takes. Bring him to his knees if you would. Make him join us. He will make a splendid collection in our ranks."

The bus ride back to Naruto's rural clinic was awkward to say the least. Grail was fuming in exasperation, disgruntled by the fact that Naruto had willingly given up an opportunity for her to get a scholarship in Harvard Medical School, but what aggravated her the most was that the blond didn't even apologise to her or bother to justify it.

An unnerving silence surrounded them, not the good kind, but the heavy one that made her held her breath. If there's one thing she was familiar about the blond was that he was anything but quiet. Crossing her arms, Grail gritted her teeth. "Don't you have something to say to me?"

Naruto arched a brow, his gaze fixated intently at his phone. "Am I supposed to say anything to you?"

Turning to the blond, the daughter of Darkseid pouted. "Can you stop pretending nothing happened? You just turned down an opportunity for me to attain a scholarship in Harvard? Do you even know what that scholarship means to me?"

The blond sighed, locked his phone, and turned to Grail. "I promised you I'll pay for your tuition, but I'll do it on my terms."

"That guy may look creepy, but he just wanted you to be part of that hospital! Do you even know how many doctors will kill for that job?"

"I am not those doctors then." Naruto retorted. "Look, there are some things you don't understand and -"

"Then explain to me so I can understand it!" Grail countered heatedly. "You always go and decide things for me. And then you make it seems like it's for my best, but why don't you ask me what I want to do? Huh? Why can't I decide what's best for me?"

Naruto sighed. "Grail -"

"Stop treating me like a ten year old, Naruto! I'm no longer that girl who cries myself to sleep because mommy wasn't there for me!" Grail almost screamed, all the while forgetting the fact that she was in a crowded bus. Naruto shot subtle glares at those who were looking at Grail, before returning his attention to the exasperated girl before her. "I'm old enough to differentiate right from wrong, so stop hiding things from me! Am I not… Am I not…"

Grail clenched her trembling fist hard enough to draw blood, something that didn't go unnoticed by Naruto. "Am I not family to you?"

"You will always be family to me, Grail. But some things are better left unheard." Naruto held Grail's hand and the self-inflicted bloody trenches on her palms were miraculously gone. He offered her a gentle smile, warming her heart in the process. "I can't tell you what that man is. Frankly, I'm not even sure what he is, but my instinct tells me he is someone we should stay away from, and my instinct rarely fails me."

"I can lift this bus with three fingers." The daughter of Darkseid snorted.

"And you never once beat me in a spar." Naruto smirked; he had always made short work of her whenever she challenged him to a duel, so that statement was equivalent to him pouring salt on her wound.

Grail pouted and crossed her arms. "Shut up."

"If everything is given to you so easily, you'll never truly appreciate what you have." Naruto smiled. "Now sit back down and enjoy the ride back home. It's always nice to have some peace and quiet."

The daughter of Darkseid gazed out of the bus window with a frown on her face. The bus eventually pulled to a stop near Naruto's clinic; he had to drag a reluctant Grail with him off the public transport. The stroll back home was something Naruto cherished the most; the night ambience was soothing, the air carried the fragrance of morning spring, and the streets were usually empty.

Naruto wasn't able to indulge in that moment of tranquillity when he glanced up at the night sky and saw a blazing meteor blitzed across the clouds. Narrowing his eyes, the blond discerned the trajectory of the meteor's flight, only to gasp in horror when he realised where it was about to land. Grail came to the same conclusion and looked at him.

"Ya can run?" The blond quipped.

"I can't imagine how you can still be so carefree when that damn thing is gonna hit our house!"

"Race ya there." Naruto gave Grail a playful wink before he vanished almost instantly.

When Naruto materialised his form into his house, the meteor had already crashed into his backyard. He surveyed the crash site warily, uncertain of what to make of the situation, because the meteor looked more like a spaceship. The fact that he could detect life within the foreign object confounded him. Hopefully, it wasn't some homicidal cockroach alien from Men in Black.

Ambling towards the damaged spaceship, Naruto peeled off what seemed to be the door of the aircraft like peeling onions and took a peak into it. There was no deranged cockroach alien or bloodthirsty xenomorphic creature waiting for him, just a beautiful girl with vibrant golden hair lying unconscious in within.

"You watch that old-school 90s movie called Species? Yeah? It's about a hot blonde chick alien killing guys while having sex with them! You better watch out or your dick is gonna end up in the ghetto!"

"I think we need to stop watching horror flicks. It's starting to make us paranoid."

Naruto plunged his hand into the aircraft and tore a chunk of metal off so that he could effortlessly reach out for the girl. Placing a hand on her chest, Naruto released a pulse of chakra into her body to assess her vitals, only to widen his eyes in dismay.

It was at that moment Grail appeared behind him and let out a whistle of awe. "Wow, you don't see this every day."

The blond turned to the still oblivious Grail and shouted, "Go get the defibrillator! She's having a cardiac arrest!"

Dumbstruck, Grail's jaw remained unhinged as she tried to register the suddenness of the situation.

"What are you waiting for?" Naruto snapped, "Go get it, now!"