Chapter 13 - Shazam!

"Hello" - normal talk

'Hello' - thoughts

"Hello" - Kyuubi talking

"Hello" - telepathy

Previous chapter

'So what if I became so cruel? So what if I'm no different than a demon? At least this time I'll be called one for a valid reason.'

Naruto's bone dagger slashed.

Again.

Again.

And again.

He lost track of time. Hundreds of cuts marred the now unrecognizable body of the Joker. Naruto's feet were wet. Wet from the pool of blood that continued to flow from the nearly dead Joker.

*clang*

All of a sudden, the metallic door of the cell was torn apart from its hinges. A blue and red clad muscular figure appeared.

"Oh look who decided to come! If it's not the Man-of-Steel himself!" Naruto said mockingly. Inwardly, however, he was cursing his bad luck. Why did Superman have to be the first one to arrive?

"Cut the crap, boy. Release him immediately!" Superman in a no-nonsense kind of voice.

Naruto didn't back away in the least. His expression became twisted by anger.

"Release him. It's the last time I'm warning you! There are 6 different ways I could destroy before you'll have the time to even blink."

Naruto grabbed the half-dead body of the Joker from the head and brought it in front of him, holding it in mid-air.

"Look at how fast you arrived, just look at how readily you jumped to save the life of mass-murderer, of a psychopath."

"Where were you when this animal blew over three hundred people into smithereens? Metropolis is at a few seconds away from Gotham given your speed... So where the fuck were you when my innocent sister died? Were you scratching Lex Luthor's balls?"

"You want to save this waste of life? You want to save this fucking piece of shit?" Naruto screamed in anger.

While holding the Joker in air by the head with his left hand, Naruto's other hand suddenly stabbed forward. His right hand pierced through the Joker's spine, into his torso. He yanked his arm out of the Joker's body and threw the still warm corpse to the side like a dirty rag.

In his right hand, the Joker's bloodied heart was still pulsating.

"Okay, save him now!" Naruto said savagely and the fingers of his right hand clenched into a fist, crushing the Joker's heart into gory paste, its blood bursting all over his face and chest.

Superman stood shocked. Never before has he seen such a gory scene unfolding in front of his very eyes. Never before has met such a brutal and vicious person. He looked in disbelief at the barely 18 year old boy in front of him. A burning rage exploded inside him.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!" Superman screamed.

The floor under his feet cracked as he burst towards Naruto with a wide punch.

Once again, Naruto's silt red eyes dilated to the point where they became a full circle. Time seemed to slow down and Naruro saw clearly the incoming right cross. It was brutish and unrefined, with no technique whatsoever.

Instead of dodging to the side, in the split of second before the Superman's fist was about to blow him away, Naruto actually jumped forward.

Something like a horn protruded from the middle of Naruto's forehead and he viciously smashed his head against Superman's face.

"Aaargh!" the Man-of-Steel screamed in pain as he plummeted backward and slammed into the wall of the cell.

"Lucky shot!" Superman said as he lifted himself from the ground.

He was about to pounce at Naruto again when a weird tasting liquid reached his lips.

'Blood?'

'A-Am I bleeding?!' Superman asked himself in disbelief.

His hand went to his nose...blood was flowing from it. It was broken! Superman was stunned as he looked at his bloodied hand, unable to understand the reason.

'Why am I not healing? Why did it hurt me in the first place?!'

Naruto, however, was not one to miss an occasion to attack. He spread his fingers in front of him. Ten bone projectiles were shot and Superman cried out in pain. While they didn't manage to pierce his skin, 10 strikingly purple bruises appeared on his face, neck and above his heart.

Naruto cursed.

'Once he gets his shit together, I'll be dead meat.'

Naruto knew that once Superman got over his surprise, he would lose all the chance to get away. Those bone projectiles he had shot could easily pierce even reinforced steel, yet they only left some bruises on his skin. What Naruto didn't know was that if his bones had not become filled with chakra after he created his version of Dead Bone Pulse bloodline limit, they wouldn't have left even those bruises on Superman's skin. It was the same situation for the feat of breaking his nose.

'I have to press him! I have to not let him breathe, not even a moment! I'll lose if I don't finish him in the next 2 seconds!'

"Kurama!" Naruto shouted and with a battle cry worthy of a Viking, Naruto lunged towards the Man of Steel.

An almost viscous crimson red energy coated the blade of his two daggers and he slashed at Superman's neck with both at the same time.

Superman barely lifted himself from where he collapsed after being shot down when, like a phantom, the blond teenager appeared in front of him, swinging the now red bone daggers at his neck.

Superman instinctively raised his arms to defend himself. He cried out in pain. Blood was splashed in the air as two deep cuts appeared across his forearms.

Enraged, Superman screamed.

"Enough!"

His eyes became red and two beams of heat were shot. Just as Superman realized what he actually did and the beams hit his opponent...the teenager burst into smoke.

Superman activated his X-ray vision and looked around. However, no trace of Naruto could be found. Superman didn't know whether to be angry or relieved. Relieved at his heat vision not having killed the boy or angry at letting him escape after all the punishment he had been put through.

Suddenly, Superman lost the feeling in both of his arms. A burning sensation began to spread from the cuts he had received on his forearms and his arms fell down uselessly. It was as though they had been paralyzed.

Scene break

A red costumed man with a lightning motive on his chest was barely standing on his feet. The visible part of his face was as white as a sheet and there were traces of vomit on his chin.

"Get a hold of yourself, Flash!" Green Lantern said.

But he couldn't blame Flash for his reaction. John Stewart was a hardened war veteran; he had seen his share of death and blood in the war. However, even he felt the bile rising to his neck at the carnage in front of him.

Everywhere he stepped there were corpses collapsed in pools of blood. The most frightening thing was that each one of them had only one silt on their throat - it was obviously the work of a very experienced and bloody assassin.

The Flash bent over and threw up again.

"I'm sorry, John. I-I just can't. I need to get away from this place!"

Suddenly, Martian Manhunter's voice rang in their minds:

"Green Lantern, Flash, do you hear me?"

"Yes/Yeah."

"The subject is about to reach you! Proceed with maximum caution!"

"What about the big guy?" the Flash asked weekly.

"Superman has been defeated. Apparently his arms have also been paralyzed."

"WHAT?" Green Lantern and Flash cried out incredulously at the same time.

Martian Manhunter didn't get to say anything else as a silhouette appeared in their field of view.

Running at full speed towards the two superheroes, Naruto raised up one of the two red bone daggers in his hands.

*swish*

One dagger split the air as it was thrown towards the hovering Green Lantern.

A foreboding feeling came over John and he chose to dodge the crimson dagger instead of creating a construct to defend against it. He managed to dodge it, but just barely.

Green Lantern's and Flash's teamwork was nothing if not splendid. After John dodged the red bone dagger, in the next instant, Flash seemingly teleported in front of Naruto and punched.

*boom*

A deafening explosion rocked the entire prison and Flash was blown away with burns all over his body.

"Flash!" Green Lantern cried out in panic. He hurriedly looked around, but there was no sign of the attacker.

What John was not aware of the bone dagger that he had dodged was none other than Naruto that had Henged himself.

Naruto was a shinobi. In this life he was even more of a shinobi than he had ever been in his past.

And a shinobi never fights fair or head-on against a stronger opponent. He knew that head-on Superman could destroy even 5 of him at the same time. Naruto knew that the Flash and Green Lantern were also more powerful than him. Because of that, he relied on the element of surprise and trickery to get away. The fact that the Justice League didn't know of his abilities had been their greatest mistake and his greatest advantage because each one of his moves, in their eyes, was like a hidden ace.

Scene break

"J'onn what's the situation?" Batman asked. His voice betrayed his anxiety. Naruto may not be a heavyweight in terms of strength, agility and so on but he was extremely shrewd. Extremely dangerous. Batman had experienced that first-hand.

"Superman has been defeated. He is now at the Watchtower. I contacted Doctor Fate and asked for his help."

"What happened?"

"Superman was cut. Some kind of mystical energy paralyzed his arms. You know that he is vulnerable against magic."

With all his mental fortitude, Batman could not stop himself from being shocked.

'Not just cut, he was paralyzed?!'

Batman felt chills go down his back when he thought of what Naruto told him half a year ago. The remnant of chakra residing on spinal cord being able to paralyze him had, in fact, not been a bluff.

J'onn continued:

"Green Lantern and Flash were fooled. Flash was also grievously injured when what looked like a clone of the boy exploded upon being hit."

"How did he escape from Green Lantern?" Batman asked urgently. The more information they got about Naruto, the better their chances to capture him.

"Green Lantern doesn't know."

Batman began to pace back and forth in front of the large screen in the Batcave.

"Is there nobody else left to go after him?" Batman asked.

"Princess Diana left on a trip to Themyscira a few days ago. The rest... I don't think any of them are powerful enough to stop him. Half of our stronger members have already been either defeated or outsmarted."

"What about Shazam?"

"Shazam is at scho-"

Martian Manhunter's words suddenly halted. His red eyes glowed for a moment and then his spoke urgently. "Shazam just engaged the target."

Batman urged:

"Tell him to keep the distance until you finish relaying him all the intel we have acquired!"

Scene break

Naruto escaped the asylum's premises and started to run towards the city at his fastest speed. The Asylum was located at the outskirts of the city but given the size of Gotham, it was quite far. Just as Naruto was about to enter the area dominated by tall towers and skyscrapers, a silhouette flashed in front of him, blocking his way.

It was red-costumed man, with a short white cloak. He was tall and muscular. It was none other than Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam.

Naruto gripped his two bone daggers hard. One of the worst situations possible happened: unlike Superman, Shazam didn't have any glaring weakness. He was said to be as powerful as Superman, as fast as the Flash and even more resilient than the Man-of-Steel. His only glaring weakness was that his martial arts were crap, but with that kind of body, power and speed, it was most of the time irrelevant.

Shazam stood hovering in mid air in front of Naruto. Instead of attacking, it looked as though he was deeply buried in his thoughts. Obviously, Martian Manhunter was instructing him about Naruto's peculiar abilities. And Naruto guessed as much. He knew that the Martian was a telepath. He ganshed his teeth. His chances of escaping just went down by half now that Shazam knew what he was capable of.

Seeing Shazam apparently not paying attention, Naruto burst towards him. During the half a year since the fight against Batman, Naruto focused intensively on increasing his strength and agility. The weight of his bones no longer posed a problem for his agility.

Naruto punched with all of his strength. He had been expecting to see the cloaked hero be blown away by the force of his punch, but to his stupor, Shazam barely backed away a few feet. He raised an eyebrow mockingly at the blond.

"Was that supposed to hurt? My grandma hits harder than you!"

Shazam lifted his fist and punched. Although he had been expecting it, when the teenager in front of him exploded he was still more than a little surprised.

Using the screen caused by the smoke of the explosion, Naruto created 2 ordinary shadow clones and then launched 10 bone projectiles from his fingers. The chance made that one of them nearly hit Shazam in the eye. He cried out in pain. But then, he rushed towards the general direction where he thought Naruto was.

Shazam appeared in front of Naruto and punched explosively...only to find his fist blocked by what looked like ribs that were protruding from the boy's torso.

It was a horrifying sight.

Shazam tried to take out his fist, but Naruto's ribs locked it in place. In the split of second when Shazam hesitated not knowing what to do, Naruto's chakra heart pumped nearly all of his remaining chakra into his left leg.

At the instant he kicked, Naruto also loosened his ribs's hold on Shazam's hand.

*boom*

Naruto not just delivered a devastating high-kick to Captain Marvel's chin, all the chakra accumulated in his left leg was released, bursting in that instant.

Shazam was blown back like a ragdoll. His body had yet to land when from behind, the two shadow clones Naruto made before, appeared behind Shazam, each with a kyuubified purple Rasengan in their hands.

The two purple rasengans exploded upon the impact with the back of Shazam's head and the superhero was blown away once again. He crashed into the ground, a large crater being created at the impact. He lost his consciousness.

Naruto panted in exhaustion, but a despising sneer was on his face as he rasped through the gasps of breath:

"Overconfident retards! All of them."

Naruto didn't dare to dilly-dally. After taking a breath, he burst into a mad run. The sooner he got into the city the more his chances of escaping increased.

However, he barely made 50 steps when a steel like hand grabbed him from the leg. Naruto sumbled and fell to the ground. An exhausted roar reached his ears:

"SHAZAM!"

Black lightning descended.