Chapter 22 - Fight at first sight

"Father, why are you awakening the girl after all this time?"

"Because we have to move out, Tea." Orochimaru replied.

The one Orochimaru called "Tea" scrunched her nose in displeasure.

"Is it because of General Danzo, or that fat bitch-"

"That language is unbecoming of someone of your stature." the scientist interrupted his daughter, looking deep into her eyes.

He had never screamed at her. He had never punished her in any way, ever since he had created her. But the young woman never disobeyed her father when he gave her that look.

"I'm sorry, father."

A gentle smile appeared on Orochimaru's pale face and he ruffled Galatea's blonde hair dotingly.

"It's alright as long as you understand it. Have some pride, some self-esteem. You have to know your worth. Someone like you cannot behave like an ordinary ruffian. Even more than so since you're a lady. How are you going to ever get married if you act more like a man than men themselves?"

"Dad!" the girl protested, a small flush colouring her perfect complexion. "I told you I don't need anyone! I have you already!"

The scientist palmed his forehead and sighed.

"What if someone that didn't know you would hear these words? What would they think about you?"

Galatea crossed her arms like a petulant child...only her body totally contrasted her behaviour if one were to look at the voluptuous breasts she was unknowingly pushing up with her arms.

"As if I cared about something as trivial as that. Those that don't know me, can take their opinions and shove them deep up their-"

A pointed look from Orochimaru made Galatea stop and gulp in guilt.

"Honestly, you're too much...where did you even hear these kind of words? You have certainly never heard me saying them."

As the duo kept conversing, their light banter did not distract Orochimaru from his real task - his fingers continued to tap on the keyboard of the computer at an impressive speed.

"To answer your questions, though, look here - " the scientist said and on the large screen, an image appeared.

It was the same picture that Superman showed Batman when he had busted into his home, in the middle of the night. The photo a street surveillance camera in Moscow had captured - that of Lex Luthor walking alongside a particular person, a very infamous one: Uzumaki Naruto.

"We have to leave because of him. No, this is not correct. We're moving our headquarters because we must not be caught, as they say, between the hammer and the anvil."

Galatea looked at photo on the screen and one surprisingly dainty finger went to her chin; she was making the connection between what she knew and the words Orochimaru just said.

"From what I heard of him, that man is no joke." Galatea said seriously, no trace of her usual arrogance.

"Kukuku." Orochimaru chuckled. "You have no idea how true your words are, my dear."

Galatea looked at her father in wonder...and expectation.

"Will he be hostile against us?"

Orochimaru laughed at her. She was radiating so much thirst for battle that her thoughts were like an open book for him - she was hoping for that to be the case so she would have a legitimate reason to fight him. Galatea always got like that at the sight of a potentially powerful opponent.

"If everything goes according to my plan, not only will he not be hostile, but actually grateful!"

"Danzo's and Waller's original plan had been to simply get rid of Uzumaki Misaki after we extracted everything of use from her... but it was thanks to my suggestion that she had been kept alive..."

"That's because I knew what kind of person Naruto used to be. True, this is a different life...But I didn't want to leave any loose ends. I didn't want to risk having someone like him chasing after me for the rest of my life."

Orochimaru looked at the screen to nothing in particular, too absorbed in his own memories.

"Even so," he said after a while "if my speculations are correct, Luthor must have blackmailed Naruto with his sister. Otherwise, he wouldn't have convinced him to obey him."

Galatea rephrased his words.

"So we're leaving because you want to take away from Cadmus the only tool that they could use in order to control Uzumaki... You just want to screw them over.."

"Your crass language aside, yes, this is my real intention." Orochimaru said and a smirk graced his pale complexion.

"Luthor, Cadmus...they have messed for too many times with forces that are outside of their understanding. Now, they will see first-hand what will happen when you jump at a bear with your hands empty."

Scene break

Rupert Jones was sweating profusely.

'It's just me and him..'

Rupert fidgeted nervously, as he looked at the still form of Naruto.

"Ahem!" the fatty dressed his voice in an attempt to get Naruto's attention and start a conversation. The silence was suffocating for him.

The fatty even sat up from his couch and passed by Naruto, two times, despite that he was still hurting and limping from the wound on his thigh...but Naruto had not even spared him a glance. His electric blue eyes were staring in front almost unblinkingly and if it weren't for the constant moving of his chest, one would think he was a very realistic wax doll.

'...Creepy.' the fatty shuddered.

"Erm... m-mister Uzumaki?" Rupert began eventually.

Naruto blinked like an owl for a few moments before turning his head towards Rupert.

"Yes, is there a problem?"

Rupert flinched. Naruto had asked him calmly, but for the jumpy fatty, everything Naruto did would be scary. He was like frightened deer.. a rather fat deer but a frightened deer nonetheless.

"I... could we talk for a few moments?"

"Go on." Naruto said.

Rupert fiddled with his meaty fingers for a few moments. This discussion would have been much more simple had things gone according to his original plan. He had wanted to nurse Naruto back to health as to plant a seed of gratitude in his heart. The problem was that his plan went to hell when another abnormality happened with Naruto back on the prison island – when the threads of lights had gathered around his body, wrapping him in a cocoon of light... after a few hours, a perfectly fine and better looking than ever Naruto appeared from within the fading cocoon of light.

That being said, Rupert was now in the situation of asking for a "favour", for "help". Not for a "reward" as he had initially planned for.

"I want to become your partner."

Naruto's handsome face showed confusion.

"Partner in what? Do you even know what is that I'm about to do in the future?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm ok with everything!" Rupert blurted out before he could stop himself.

'Way to go, Jones! Make him see your value by showing how desperate you are!' Rupert mocked himself sarcastically.

Naruto's electric blue eyes bored into Rupert's, small, beady ones. The fatty felt his heart start thumping as if he had just been electrocuted.

That wasn't an intentional action from Naruto's part. His mere will just had that much effect upon ordinary people after he transcended. He was not even aware of the effect any of his banal actions could have on the surrounding people.

"If I told you that I wanted to assassinate the USA president would you still join me?" Naruto spoke, his eyes still boring into Rupert's and the fatty feared that sparks were going to come out of them.

"If I told you that my goal was to kill your family, would you still do it? Join me in killing innocents?"

Rupert broke the eye contact and he clenched his fist into two meatballs. He steeled his resolve. Still looking down, Rupert spoke:

"I do not care either way... I don't have any family - I was abandoned at birth. Apparently, I've always been a fat and ugly fuck." Rupert said and laughed sarcastically.

"As for innocents or the president... Why should I care? I was an innocent too, when a criminal organisation kidnapped me for the first time. Did anyone come to rescue me? No."

"As for the president... When the government caught wind my abilities, instead of offering me protection, they only tried to use me."

Rupert lifted his eyes, to meet Naruto's.

"I do not want much. All I ever wanted was safety. This is all I ask for in exchange for offering you my abilities."

Naruto analysed his words and looked for any sign of deceit in his eyes.

"You make it sound like you have some sort of ridiculously overpowered abilities...just turning invisible and an enhanced sense of smell is honestly pitiful compared to what I can do."

Rupert's face nearly broke into a smile. Naruto showing interest in him was like having won half of the battle already - because for Rupert, convincing someone like Naruto felt truly like a battle.

"It's not my metahuman aspect that everyone was interested in."

Rupert's eyes shone.

"It is my programming skills. And my brain - my IQ is over 200."

Naruto seemed to enter into deep thought. What Rupert just said changed the situation completely. One minute passed in silence.

For Rupert Jones, that minute felt like an eternity. His breathing accelerated with the passing of each second and sweat began to pour from his forehead. Unknowingly, his right hand clenched on the fabric of the sofa, nearly tearing it apart.

"How can I possibly trust someone that I had met on a prison island for death-row criminals? What would you do in my place, Rupert?" Naruto suddenly asked.

"Say that you had a sister, or a person you loved... I would rest assured that you wouldn't betray me for the fear of me killing said person. But you are all alone... The worst that could happen to you is to die. And, for all I know, you might not necessarily fear death."

Naruto's voice never changed its tone. Even now, he was speaking calmly, merely stating the facts.

"That being said, give me a reason to trust you. I know that there is none...but who knows? With your IQ you should be able to think of something."

Naruto said and then turned his head away from Rupert, going back to staring blankly at the ceiling, in the same manner he had done before.

What Rupert didn't know was that Naruto was not just dumbly watching the wall and the ceiling if the room. He was deeply immersed into his thoughts planning on how to rescue his sister.

A while later, Naruto sat up and went to the luxurious balcony of the apartment - it was located in Luthor's tower and Metropolis in its entire splendour was laid at its feet. With his expression still unchanged, his feet suddenly left the ground...his body began to levitate!

Sitting now at the very top of the tower, Naruto watched the city wordlessly. From that height, the city looked like a swarm of ants.

"They are all going by their lives, worrying about ordinary things and enjoying the small things life."

"Their life is beautiful." Naruto sighed in longing.

He missed those days when his worries were resumed to just keeping the thugs away from his sister or training hard enough for his grandpa to be pleased with him.

True, he had been weak. Pitifully weak when compared to other metahumans. But life was simple back then. Now he had to deal with secret branches of the government, trained assassins, crazed metahumans and an entire league of heroes. And what annoyed him the most was that brute strength was no longer the solution to all the problems.

'I have to find a way to secure Misaki...while Luthor may have been terrified, others could react differently. For all I know they could carry a remote to a bomb that was planted on her location.'

'This cannot be done using strength.'

Naruto closed his eyes and sighed. He didn't like that he had to ask for help. Especially from that person... However, for his sister, he would easily step on his pride. Such things were trivial.

Naruto came to the edge of the tower...and jumped!

He was going to Gotham.

Scene break

An alarm rang throughout the Watch Tower.

"What's happening?" Flash asked as he was the first to arrive at the large screen in the command room.

Martian Manhunter rose up from the floor. Soon after, the other members arrived as well.

"I was the one that pushed the alarm." the Martian said. "The mass of mystic energy that we have identified as Uzumaki Naruto has started to move from Lex Luthor's tower... towards Gotham."

Before anyone could say anything, Batman turned with the intention to leave.

"Wait! I'll be damned if I let you go alone to that monster!" John Stewart exclaimed and got into Batman's way.

"He's right, Bats. You're not doing this alone." Flash said too.

Batman glared at them.

"He is my responsibility - he's from Gotham. I though we've had an agreement all these years - we don't butt into each other's personal business."

"That may be so, but not for cases of this magnitude. Uzumaki's threat level is on a different scale. Besides, what could you, alone, do against someone like him? Last time - when we assume that he was much weaker - he took down so many of us." Superman retorted.

Batman was not impressed and countered with his own argument.

"We've been monitoring his energy signature in the past few days. And he has been only in Lex Luthor's tower the entire time. Now let me ask you one thing: do you really think that someone who just got out of prison would simply stay locked in a room for days?"

"Are you saying that we've been fooled the entire time?" Hawkgirl asked clearly pissed at the thought of someone leading them by the nose.

"Uzumaki Naruto proved to be a very resourceful individual. It's not that hard to believe that found a way to do so. We all remember that he can make copies of himself..." Martian Manhunter explained.

Using J'onn's line of thought, Batman continued:

"That means that since we can see that his energy signature is moving, he wanted us to see it. I think he wanted me, in particular, to notice it."

"Do not follow me. We do not want to screw up what could be the only chance we have to interact with him in a neutral fashion."

Not waiting for an answer, Batman got into his aircraft.

Scene break

A black jet landed on the roof of one of Gotham's towers. A dark cloaked silhouette jumped out of it and studied the surroundings. But his sharp eyes couldn't notice a thing.

Suddenly, he felt the cold touch of a bone blade at his throat. For a moment, Batman felt cold shudders. He used to be a ninja. Probably the second best in the entire world. He was a master of stealth and blending in the shadows...yet this time, he could not feel this person sneaking up on him. Something like that had never happened to him before. Never.

A voice reached his ears.

"I assume you were smart enough to come alone?"

"Yes."

"Good." the voice acknowledged.

Naruto removed the bone knife from Batman's throat and then he made a one hand ram seal. A small wave of chakra was released and the genjutsu that he had placed over the roof, faded away.

In Batman's vision, Naruto's body materialised out of thin air, as if he had the ability to turn invisible. Batman couldn't have possibly known that Naruto was able to create illusions.

"Do you have any secure place for us to talk? I have very important matters to discuss with you." Naruto said.

Batman nodded and headed towards his plane.

"Get in. We're going to one of my secret bases."

A short moment later, Batman and Naruto arrived at the villa where Batman had holed himself in to defend against an eventual attack from Superman. Not only that it was a secure place, but it also gave Batman a sense of safety - that's because the tubes capable of expelling lethal gases were still fully functional. Should their discussion take a wrong turn, Batman could depend on this system to protect himself.

Seated now at a conference table, Naruto started to speak directly, skipping any sort of pleasantries. Neither him nor Batman were fans of them anyway.

"I came here to make a deal with you."

Batman narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"What could you possibly need from me?"

Naruto's right hand pressed over the seal inscribed on the band he was wearing on his left wrist. A puff of smoke appeared and Batman tensed, ready to press the red button placed beneath the table. However, betraying his expectations, in that plum of smoke, the only thing that appeared...was a photo.

"My sister. She is alive. I need her location."

At his words, everything clicked for Batman.

'So this is how Luthor is able to keep Uzumaki around himself!' Batman exclaimed to himself. 'He must be using her to blackmail him.'

"And what is that I get in return? You said that this was a deal - what is that you're offering in exchange?"

"I have information. Valuable information."

Seeing Batman waiting for more details, Naruto continued.

"The kind of information that would give your little league of heroes a chance of survival."

Batman tensed.

"What do you mean by that?"

Naruto didn't explain. He asked first:

"Do we have a deal first?"

Batman nodded without hesitation. He believed that Uzumaki would not try to screw him over. After all, it was in Naruto's interest for Batman to hold his end of the deal.

"The government cloned Supergirl. Yes, they cloned the big guy's cousin."

Batman was not one to let emotions rule his behaviour, but when he heard Naruto's following words, both of his fist clenched:

"And they are fairly confident about the clone being more powerful than Superman himself. They aged her body till the point where it reached its peak condition. Luthor told me that also Supergirl's body is stronger than that of Superman when he was her age. That means that if the clone reached her maturity-"

"-it could truly become more powerful." Batman continued his words.

"Wait, things are getting even worse." Naruto said. "They clone they have crated is immune to Kryptonite."

Batman rose up from his seat secretly distressed. He couldn't imagine a way for someone that was not a god to defeat Superman fair and square without Kryptonite. This new development was totally out of his expectations.

"Besides the clone, the government assembled an entire team of metahumans. Expendables." Naruto continued "They are planning on eliminating the Justice League."

"I have a question. Where do you come in all of this?" Batman asked.

"The weapon they created proved to be more perfect than intended. They fear the eventuality of it slipping away from their grasp - and this is where I come in. I am the one who is supposed to terminate it should the need come."

"I have my hands tied. As long as they have Misaki I can only dance into their palm." Naruto admitted.

"Batman."

"Yes?"

Naruto paused for a few moments.

"I am very powerful now. Powerful enough to be confident that Superman would stand no chance against me - that being the case especially since the very core of my abilities were seemingly made to counter him."

"What I am trying to say is that should I be deployed to fight against the league-"

"Is that a threat?" Batman asked with his eyes narrowed in a glared.

Naruto though, remained as calm as ever.

"I'm merely stating a fact."

"Ask yourself: what would happen if I were to be ordered to aid the battle against the League?"

"Will any of you survive?"

Scene break

"So, for how long are we all going to be waiting here?" a woman with short red hair huffed in annoyance.

"Patience, princess." a one-eyed man said lazily.

"You have a problem, Lawton?" the woman retorted, ready to start a fight.

"Colonel Flaggs said not to fight. He'll smack the puddin' out of you."

"Hm~ I wouldn't mind him doing just that." another redhead moaned and fire started to flicker at the tips of her fingers.

Everyone was arguing against the one next to him, one was juggling with deadly sharp boomerangs, another one was making tricks with handling guns like you'd see in western movies...there was no sense of order. It was like a pandemonium.

On the other side of the room, a man with pale face and smooth long black hair was sipping casually from a cup of tea, as if nothing was concerning him. He had a lab coat on top of his normal clothes, signifying that he had been called to come over while he was working. Next to him, a beautiful young woman was seated. She was dressed in a white, skin tight body suit that covered only the upper part of her body, leaving her long and fit legs exposed. Despite how gorgeous she looked, none of the males in the room dared to glance in her direction lest they be killed. Literally. There was a gap between these two aloof persons and the rest of the occupants of the room.

Just as a blonde woman grabbed a metal baseball bat to start fighting against the man wielding boomerangs, 4 people entered the room.

"Will you all cut it out?!" a scream was heard from the one the 4 newcomers and everyone quieted down in a heartbeat.

It was a black woman, quite fat. She had short hair and she was dressed in a blue suit. Her name was Amanda Waller, the one responsible for everyone gathered in that place.

The other one was Lex Luthor, their main sponsor. But he looked changed this time around. He no longer had that air of superiority around himself and one of his legs was in a cast. The third one was also a well-known figure for everyone gathered there because, after all, it had been him, general Danzo, that had blackmailed most of the present people into joining the cause.

When the last person entered, however, most of the occupants jumped up from their seats startled.

It was a blond haired man in his early twenties. He was tall - easily above 6 feet - and his entire body, while it was not packed with huge muscles, it was very well built, giving off a feeling of extreme strength. Each on of his muscles seemed to have been trained to perfection. It was the ideal body for a warrior. Compared to his physical appearance, his clothes were just plain black.

It was when they took in his facial features that everyone sucked in a breath of cold air - they could never forget who was the one whose cheeks were marred by 3 pairs of whisker like marks. That's because what he had done two years before had remained engraved into everyone's mind forever. Uzumaki Naruto was a living legend.

At the sight of Naruto entering through the door, a fire started to burn into Galatea's chest. Anticipating his daughter's actions, Orochimaru tried to grab her by the shoulder... However, his reflexes simply proved to be too slow. Galatea's speed was so extreme that she seemed to have blurred out of sight.

An instant later...

*bang*

A deafening sonic boom thundered and a shockwave exploded from the impact of two hard surfaces. The shockwave produced was so powerful the everyone was blown up their feet and thrown towards the edge of the room. It was as though a grenade had been detonated.

At the door, two silhouettes were in a 15 feet in diameter crater, locked in a contest of strength.