Chapter 11 - Planning

Six months passed since Naruto's fight against Batman and well over a year since the death of his sister, Misaki. It was the beginning of October and Naruto's birthday was coming very soon.

"The 10th of October." Naruto murmured to himself.

His face was split by a grin. A bloodthirsty one. He could barely wait for the present he was going to gift himself.

Although it was noon, Naruto was not training today. It was an exceedingly rare moment; during the last year Naruto could count on the fingers of one hand how many times he had skipped his training. Like a machine set on becoming stronger, aside from those few situations when he needed the entire day to finish collecting a bounty, Naruto did nothing but train, eat and sleep. However, that single-minded determination paid off.

"Naruto, I suggest you to not fully trust the intel you coerced out from that bat fleshbag." a deep voice rumbled from within his body.

"That's natural. He isn't the only one I bought information from."

Half a year before, in the end, Naruto chose not to kill Batman because in the end he wasn't a psychopath and that despite the despising feelings he held for the so-called superheroes, Naruto didn't hate them. At least not to the point of wanting to kill them; after all, unlike others, they did help ordinary people, even if they did it in a half-assed manner. That didn't mean though, that Naruto simply let Batman go as though they hadn't just tried to kill each other. Naruto wanted to ensure the fact that Batman would no longer obstruct him in the future...and Kyuubi had been more than willing to take care of that problem. To this very day, Batman still held on his spine a residue of demonic chakra. A residue of chakra that would paralyze him if Kyuubi willed it so.

Naruto looked over the papers on the desk. There were 3 stacks of them, but they all contained information about the same subject. Apart from the information he forced Batman to give him, Naruto had also bought intel from 2 different information brokers. Therefore, he now wanted to compare the information he got from the 3 different sources.

Information...it was information about the Justice League's most powerful members.

Naruto remembered his past life perfectly. Almost better than some of the memories of his current life. Therefore, he knew exactly how he had been back then: loud, obnoxious and rash, always jumping head-first, without thinking about his chance of victory or the consequences of his actions. It was so because deep down the previous him always relied on Kyuubi to save him every time: against Haku, agains Sasuke, against Zero-Tails, against Orochimaru, against Pain, against Menma, against Obito, against Madara.

But Naruto, the current Naruto was not like that. He only relied on his own power and strength. Getting angry and throwing a tantrum would no longer confer him a godly power to crush his enemies. Because Kyuubi wasn't all-powerful anymore. He had to rely only on himself. He had to know his enemies and calculate his chances of success before doing anything.

Naruto read Batman's report about Superman's abilities. He could be summarised like this: powerful and invulnerable to everything but kind of stupid when it comes to actual combat. Can fly and shoot heat beams from his eyes.

The report from the first information broker said pretty much the same thing, but when Naruto read Superman's file from the 3rd stack, his eyes narrowed.

Vulnerabilities: poisoned gases; magic; kryptonite.

"Apparently Batman 'forgot' to mention this."

Naruto mulled over the new information.

"Oi Kurama. What do you thin it's the difference between our chakra and magic?"

Kyuubi was surprised by Naruto's question.

"I'm not too sure about that. I have never encountered someone that used magic. But while chakra is the result of both the physical and spiritual energy of one's body, I think magic consists of just the spiritual side. Therefore-"

Naruto completed his words:

"While chakra may be able to hurt Superman, it will be two times less effective than magic because of the physical energy in its composition, right?"

Kyuubi hmm-ed in agreement.

"I don't like our chance to get away unscathed." Kyuubi said after a small pause. "Look over the blonde girl dressed in the same colours at that so-called Man-of-Steel."

Naruto didn't even need to read the name to know whom the fox was referring to. It was of course, Supergirl.

Kyuubi continued:

"...basically she's almost as powerful as him, but she's more dangerous because she's not as stupid as him. Look at the note at the end of the page: she ripped a cyborg's kryptonite heart from its body by using a halberd."

"Shit.." Naruto felt a headache incoming.

As he went through the 3 stacks of files, Naruto's expression became more and more gloomy...The Justice League was powerful...way too powerful for him to take on. In fact, he thought that even him from his previous life when he was at the peak of his power with both Kurama and the 6 Paths Sage Mode would not be able to take them all by himself.

"Wait a minute...Kurama, you can no longer manifest physically in real world, can you?"

"You don't have to rub it in every time you have the chance asshole." Kyuubi growled unhappily.

"No, listen up, idiot. Since you don't have a physical body anymore, doesn't that mean that your chakra is different now?"

Kyuubi didn't reply him right away.

"That may be so, but my chakra still has physical energies. Otherwise I couldn't hope to one day regain my body."

"Even so, the physical aspect of your chakra should be in a much lower proportion than the spiritual aspect. Therefore, your chakra would be more effective against those two Supershits." Naruto countered.

"How much chakra have you gathered until now?"

Kyuubi became depressed, knowing what Naruto wanted.

"Two tails' worth." the demon growled, the tone of his voice making sure to show his displeasure.

It took Kyuubi almost a year to regenerate two tails' worth of chakra. And if what he suspected was anything to go by, he would have to gather a total of 10 tails' worth of chakra in order to create himself a body. And the problem was that the higher the number of tail, the harder it was acquire. If it took him an entire year to get just two tails, just how long would it take to get 10? Probably two decades or even more.

Naruto understood Kyuubi's thoughts. And he knew that he couldn't ask him to do something like that without giving him something equally valuable in return. Kyuubi was no longer his prisoner and Naruto was no longer his jailer. The two of them were now partners. Their relationship should be a "give-and-take" type of relationship.

"How about this, Kurama: help me with all of your chakra in the upcoming fight. Probably I'll be lucky enough to not encounter the red pants pervert and there will be no need for me to use it. But if do encounter him or his side-kick I'll need the very last drop of it.

"But still, this is what I'm offering in exchange: for the next two years I will not use chakra at all. All the chakra that my body produces every day will be yours to hog."

Kyuubi's rabbit-like ears perked up at Naruto's words. It took him 1 year to reform two tails just by using the leftover chakra that Naruto didn't need in order to heal his broken body after every training session. If just by leeching off such a small proportion of Naruto's chakra he achieved two tails, then how far will he get to after 2 entire years of taking all of Naruto's chakra? He could probably reach even the 7th tail in those conditions.

Kyuubi became excited and his normally mighty demonic voice trembled, betraying his state of mind:

"A-Are you serious? All of it? F-For two years?!"

Naruto confirmed his words with not hesitation whatsoever.

"All of it. Getting my revenge is more important than everything! If losing 2 years of training is the price for that, I'm more than willing to sacrifice them!" he said and the blue in his eyes became tainted with a malevolent hue of red. "That's why I'm asking you for a concret answer now. Deal or no deal?"

"Deal!"

After a few good hours of reading and thinking, Naruto made his own files with information compiled from the 3 reports. But he made one only for the superheroes that he thought that could pose a threat for him

Green Lantern

- the most versatile member of the League: can attack, defend, track, fly and capture

- experienced fighter;

- very level-headed

Note: Avoid at all costs. If combat is inevitable, I should sneak attack him with my deadliest move and then run away.

The Flash

- safe to assume that he has a supersonic speed

- poor, amateurish combat skills

- an airhead

Note: As long as I don't get one-shot blitzed, 4 kunais and some ninja wire would be enough to kick his ass.

Superman and Supergirl

- poor martial arts but nearly invulnerable

- can fly and shoot heat beams from their eyes

Note: If I managed to steal some kryptonite, dealing with them would be no problem. If I didn't and if it comes to trading blows with any of them, I would burst with my and Kyuuby's combined full power instantly, to catch them unprepared.

Shazam

- super speed, strength, resilience

- can fly and call forth lightning

- poor martial arts.

- no apparent weaknesses

Note: one of the hardest to deal with as he has no apparent weaknesses. Avoid at all costs. In case of combat...run using scattered Bunshins.

Martian Manhunter

- a telepath - but my mind should be safe thanks to Kyuubi

- can fly and he has an ability similar to Obito's Kamui.

- can transform into a humanoid snake

Note: no apparent weaknesses but I should be able to deal with him...that if it weren't for that troublesome ability to become intangible.

Wonder Woman

- unrivalled martial arts, very high intelligence

- super strength, speed, resilience, power of flight

- her lasso renders the victim immobilized and forces him to speak the truth

- no apparent weakness

Note: the most dangerous superhero for me to face. Avoid at all costs. In case of combat I won't bother to even try to retaliate. Run away using Bunshins or even Kage Bunshins.

Naruto ruffled his hair roughly in frustration. Kyuubi was right: the situation didn't look too promising. The files he compiled were only about the superheroes he wasn't confident to face. And that was under the premise that they were alone. But from what he gathered, the heroes often acted in teams of two.

"Even if I manage to get away from Arkham at first, eventually they will still catch me. Not only are those fuckers very strong, they are also connected to everything of importance in the country. Many of them are also probably very rich...and with money you can get nearly everything you want in this world."

Naruto sighed again. Right now he was confident in defeating pretty much everyone in the Justice League except for a select few... the problem, however, was that there was a huge gap between those select few and the average superhero. Wonder Woman, Superman, The Flash, Shazam, Supergirl... those like them were on an entirely different league compared to what Naruto called "average scrubs" (those like Batgirl or Green Arrow for example) or the "cringy kids" (Teen Titans).

Naruto was very cold and harsh to himself as well, not just when judging other people. He didn't overestimate his own abilities. He was well aware of the fact that he still had a long way to go till he would be able to go toe on toe with the big shots.

"What are you going to do in the end, Naruto?" Kyuubi asked. "Are you sure you want to proceed like that with your plans? Your chances of success would be much higher if you were to wait another 1 or 2 years."

Seeing Naruto not replying anything in return, Kyuubi continued.

"You said it yourself, even if we escape, eventually we'll still get caught. The problem is not that we'll be imprisoned...the problem is: what if these humans will deem you worthy of death penalty?"

Naruto froze. He hadn't thought about that before. The Joker escaped death penalty until then because he was considered mentally ill. The other metahuman criminals were spared from death by authorities because despite the atrocities they caused, the government saw them as potential recruits, a resource that would be ready to be exploited in the case where the Justice League went berserk one day.

But him? For all they knew, Naruto was an ordinary human. Naruto realized once again the ugly truth of the world he lived in.

"It's the same as in my past life. Despite the degree of 'civilisation' and 'freedom', Earth is no different from Elemental Nations. Both here and there normal people aren't worth anything."

"When that shitstain of a father died after making his own son a living sacrifice and sealed a demon inside him, he was revered as the greatest hero to have ever lived in Konoha. But nobody really cared or remembered about the countless average shinobi that died during the first 3 Ninja Wars."

"Nobody cared about the thousands of innocent people that died in Amegakure thanks to the 3rd Hokage's orders but when Orochimaru killed him, an entire nation mourned for him."

Naruto abruptly stopped and exhaled loudly. In his anger, dozens of bones had burst from all over his body, skewering the leathery chair he was sitting on and the desk as if they were made of paper.

Naruto clenched his teeth. He knew that Kyuubi was right. An average human like him would easily be condemned to death if he were to proceed with his plans and get arrested.

But he couldn't wait anymore. The fire in his heart was too powerful for him to resist against for another month, let alone a few years. He couldn't wait anymore. He couldn't bear with waiting any longer. It was eating him from inside. Every night he was dreaming of Misaki and every morning his thirst for the revenge was making him feel like wanting to go and slaughter not only the Joker but the corrupted guards of the Arkham Asylum too. He wanted to slaughter everyone there, to make the entire prison a pool of blood. It was driving him insane.

But then, by habit, Naruto's chakra heart began to pump at an alert pace. As the chakra started to flow through the five meridians that he unlocked making his rage and bloodthirst gradually subsidise. His breathing became normal and he calmed down.

"Don't worry, Kurama. On the 10th of October..by the end of that day there will be nobody in the entirety of the United States that would not know what I have done and what I am."

Naruto said. A wicked idea was born in his mind. A ruthless look appeared in his eyes.