Chapter 28 - Awakening

Gotham - a city that used to be infamous for being one of the most depraved and most dangerous cities in USA.

Gotham - a city that, according to the last studies and researches, has become in the last 3 years the absolute safest place for ordinary citizens to live in the entire USA.

The main reason for this? Batman and his partner, Catwoman. But not the old Batman...the new one. The differences between the two of them are so radical that many people and even some of the superheroes and supervillains suspect that the current man hiding behind the mask might be completely different than the one from the beginning.

The way Batman and Catwoman started to maim criminals left and right had instilled a great terror in the hearts of the criminals that used to wreak havoc before. Rapists are having their genitals brutally crushed, killers their arms or/and legs amputated...there was even a case that has kept appearing on the first page of each one of Gotham's newspapers for nearly a week straight where someone who physically abused his 10 year old son was whipped until a catatonic state by Catwoman with her bull-whip.

The second reason for this phenomenon? Uzumaki Naruto. Two years ago, in revenge for his dead sister, he massacred the entire Arkham Asylum. Many of the most dangerous villains that used to terrorize the city had been killed off in that incident too.

However, while Batman, Catwoman and Uzumaki Naruto had taken care of the so-called big bad wolves, there are other characters that are preoccupying themselves with the minor criminals as well.

There are 2 other heroes:

1. Nightwing - a former side-kick of Batman that became independent because of not agreeing with Batman's policy thinking of it as being too cruel.

2. Batgirl - a hero that seemed to have popped out of nowhere. She is in no partnership with the Dark Knight of Gotham but, when asked, she declared that she is carrying his name out of respect for what he had done for the city.

Do you want to hear, though, one more piece of news that is only further cementing Gotham City as the absolute safest place for ordinary citizens to live in USA? Listen well, my dears!

After an absence of 2 years, Uzumaki Naruto, our Dark Avanger, our true Hero has finally returned to Gotham City!

As she was reading the article on her tablet, awe was written on Misaki's face.

'From what onii-chan told me, I thought that he was hated and feared by everyone. He portrayed himself as a torturer and a cruel murderer...I've never thought that the people would have such a different opinion of him! Could it be that he is not aware of what is actually going on?!' Misaki said to herself in disbelief.

She tapped with a finger on the tabs of the browser and over 20 windows popped up: they were all articles and various blogs and forums where almost all the people were glorifying Uzumaki Naruto's deeds. He was presented as someone who was not afraid to get his hands dirty in order to get rid of trash. He was shown as a "true man" and someone worthy of respect for holding such a deep love for his family.

There were some more reasonable people that looked at the situation from both angles and understood Naruto's true nature. That he wasn't really a hero but merely an excessively cruel man that had wanted revenge. But their voices were drowned by the much larger number of people that had an almost fanatic worship for their so-called Dark Hero.

The current situation in the world was very unbalanced. The ordinary people were often treated by the all powerful metahumans as no better than ants and even the government didn't give the impression that it cared about the civilians as much as it cared about metahumans. Along the years, a deep resentment was born in the hearts of most of the ordinary people and civilians. Frustration and helpless anger had been silently boiling within them for many years...that was the reason why once Uzumaki Naruto acted the way he did, most of the people embraced him as if he were some sort of Messiah; because Naruto did what they have wished for so long to do but were unable - he got vengeance for them. He killed the Joker, someone that the authorities refused to give the death penalty even after killing a few hundred innocents. That's why a civil war nearly started when the people thought that Uzumaki Naruto was going to be executed and millions of them went out in the streets, protesting violently.

Misaki clenched her fist.

'How can he not know about this?! I... I have to show it to him! It's incredible!'

Making up her mind, Misaki shouted:

"Naruto!"

"Hey, Naruto!"

But he didn't reply to her. Instead, it was Kyuubi that entered the living room where she was sitting.

"The brat is training his chakra technique now. He cannot come to your right now." the fox's squeaky voice came.

Hearts appeared in Misaki's eyes whenever she heard the miniature Kyuubi speak. She met the 'talking fox' only a few days ago but she became enamoured with it from at first sight. When she also heard Kyuubi's adorable voice, she fell in love with him completely.

"Kurama~" Misaki said in a singing voice and patted her lap with her hands. "Come here please~!"

Kyuubi harrumphed.

"I'm not a plush toy for you to smother every day, woman!"

An adorable nine-tailed fox that was acting like a tsundere...Misaki had to force herself not squeal in delight at the sight of it.

But Kyuubi always spoke with a sharp tongue...where was the 'dere' side of him? - when Misaki called out for him, despite his harsh rebukes, Kyuubi's fluffy tails would always start to flail in the air, betraying his excitement.

"If you don't come, I'm going to yell and disturb onii-chan!"

Kyuubi tsk-ed but came to her and hopped up in her lap.

"Now you better shut your trap and don't disturb the brat from his training." Kyuubi said haughtily.

In fact, Kyuubi didn't give a crap about "not disturbing Naruto's training" and Misaki was aware of that too. Kyuubi just didn't want to admit that he enjoyed Misaki's soft back-rubs and belly-rubs immensely. He always tried to make it look like he was accepting her petting because it couldn't be helped; like he was making a sacrifice.

Despite the front Kyuubi was trying to put up, in no time, his traitorous purring filled the room - much to the readhead's not so hidden glee. Still, in that moment, Kyuubi couldn't bring himseld to care about that; the pleasure he was feeling had thrown him into the seventh heaven.

Scene break

Naruto was sitting cross-legged in the dojo of their compound.

His hands were positioned in a ram seal and his eyes closed, his consciousness entirely focused on the chakra's circulation inside his body. He was paying special attention to the new chakra system that was created once the 2nd chakra heart appeared in his chest after the Heavenly Tribulation he had went through on the Prison Island. Compared to before, his reserves had become more than double. Furthermore, new pathways appeared in his body, pathways which created a dense network that connected his new chakra skeleton with his fleshy body.

Naruto opened his eyes which were now slit like that of a reptile, but still blue.

In front of him, a shadow clone had been waiting for him to finish his preparations. The moment Naruto opened his eyes, the clone suddenly threw a wooden pin with all of its strength at the original.

Naruto's slit pupils suddenly enlarged like those of cat in the darkness. The world around him looked like it came to a halt, the wooden needle that was shot at two times the speed of the sound being now almost frozen in mid-air, moving infinitely slower.

However, after a few seconds, the projectile thrown at him looked like it started to accelerate. Immediately, Naruto tried to lift his arm, to catch the needle...only to be stupefied. His hand was not responding!

"Ouch!"

It was only after the wooden needle buried itself halfway into his shoulder that his hand began to move.

"Crap...I forgot to create the Inner Bone Armour."

The Inner Bone Armour was a technique which created a thin bone membrane under the skin all over his body, making him nearly immune to any kind of physical damage - Naruto had yet to find anything that could pierce or destroy it. However, now, he had forgotten to make it beforehand. And the harm that the wooden needle could cause when thrown by the clone's insane strength was not any lower than that of a bullet.

Naruto's clone continued to throw wooden needles at him. However, the result was the same every time.

"What is happening to me now is similar to what Sasuke experienced in his first fight against Rock Lee during the Chunin Exams - his Sharingan could predict Lee's movements but his body was not fast enough to follow his brain's commands." Naruto concluded.

Naruto's eyes could follow the movement of the needle, he could see the world being slowed down many times over. However, his reaction speed was too slow.

Still, inwardly, he was ecstatic. It wasn't only once that he had been secretly envious of how easily Sasuke had had it thanks to his Doujutsu. Sasuke could instantly learn any jutsu he saw with his eyes and he could learn even taijutsu moves just by seeing them once. That, without even going to mention that when his Sharingan evolved, he became not much different than a god, being able to create even small planets, call down meteorites, control gravity and teleport. It was a terribly overpowered bloodline limit.

Naruto rubbed the tip of his nose.

"No point in still being envious. My Doujutsu may not be as spectacular as the Sharingan and not as much of an overpowered hack, but it's still amazing that I got one in this life."

The first time Naruto had slowed down the time was nearly 3 years before when Superman tried to capture him after he caused the Arkham Massacre and tortured the Joker to death. At that time Naruto had not realized it on the moment, but when it happened again, he understood that his eyes had unknowingly become a Doujutsu.

"However, I need to train hard... I have to drastically improve my agility and reaction speed. Simply slowing down time in my perception will be useless if my body is not fast enough to react."

Reaching that conclusion, he decided to end the training session for that day. He had other, more important things to do - like dotting over his sister for example.

Taking off his bloodied shirt, he went into the house to get himself cleaned up. The house where the lived and the dojo were two separated buildings. Therefore, Naruto had to walk shirtless in the cold of December. He could simply use a Shunshin to appear in his own room, but ever since Misaki came back into his life, Naruto began to enjoy the feeling of normalcy that she brought along with her. If there was an option between using and not using his powers and unless it was too bothersome, Naruto would often choose to do it the normal way - like going to his room like a normal man, instead of directly teleporting there.

He stepped outside but just as he slid the door of the dojo closed, a foreboding feeling came over him. Black Lightning immediately burst out from his body and numerous spike-like bones grew out of his ribcage and spine.

Scene break - a few hours before

"Is our plan a failure?" Hirzuen Sarutobi muttered as he looked at the female metahuman in front of him.

She was submerged in a very dense liquid similar to concrete that was making her unable to move a muscle and shackles that were crackling with electricity were keeping her tied up from her arms, legs, head, neck and midsection in an X-like fashion.

Next to Sarutobi, as calm as ever, Uchiha Itachi replied respectfully:

"It's still too early to know that for sure. From my experience with our former leader, Ra's Al Ghul, after getting out of Lazarus Pit, he would experience a temporary madness. This girl is just a clone. It's only to be expected that she would act the way she did. After all, only two days have passed since she used the pit."

Despite Itachi's words, the old man was not very hopeful. His instinct, an ability that he had honed during his entire lifetime after numerous life-death battles was telling him that something was going to go terribly wrong.

"Itachi, bring Faust and Doctor Mist here immediately. Call Brother Night as well."

Although surprised, the Uchiha was a ninja groomed and trained by Ra's Al Ghul personally since a very frail age. He didn't waste time questioning the order Sarutobi gave him. Hiruzen was now his master. And his master's orders were absolute.

Just as the ninja left the room sprinting, a subtle ripple appeared on the surface of the very dense liquid that was keeping Superman's clone imprisoned.

Scene break

"So much...I have invested so much in you..."

"All these years of research to find a way to remove your racial weakness to kryptonite...all those enormous sums of money invested...all those subjects experimented on in order to perfect my skill in modifying the DNA, to become able to improve your body...all of this to make you the ultimate fighter, the strongest being in the Universe!"

"But in the end, I did all of these for what...?"

"For nothing! It was all wasted!"

[...]

"Sorry? ...you have nothing to be sorry about."

"After all, it was my mistake for creating..."

"...A failure."

Orochimaru's words were playing in Galatea's mind again and again and again like an infinite loop.

'I disappointed him...I am a failure...'

She wanted to shake her head, but she couldn't. Her entire body was completely immobilized. Even with all her monstrous strength, she could not move an inch.

Orochimaru, the one whom she had considered as her father was then one who killed her... she didn't know what to feel. Her love for him had been genuine. But as genuine her love had been, as genuine her hatred was now. Even so, in spite of her hatred, she earned to be acknowledged by him. Galatea wanted to meet Orochimaru again and prove him that she was not a failure...to prove him that she was not just a useless tool...and what other way to prove that than to defeat the one that had defeated her first?

Her mind now set, Galatea started to struggle. But when she tried to use her immense strength to break free of the shackles, her body was violently electrocuted.

But she clenched her teeth.

'This... this electricity is nothing...it's nothing compared to that man's black lightning!'

With renewed efforts, she tried to break free again. But this time, when he the violent shock of electricity came, Galatea merely grit her teeth and forced herself to endure the hellish pain.

However, electricity was one of the few things that Kryptonians was relatively weak against. Because of that, in the end, she couldn't hold it anymore. A scream like that of a primal beast came out of her throat.

It was in that moment that a spark of black light flickered above her navel.

Galatea pulled against her shackles violently once again, eliciting another shock of electricity. She lost count how many times she was electrocuted...but at some point, a strange thing happened...the shock of electricity that should have tortured her, was suddenly sucked into the pores of her skin. Her pain disappeared.

An electrifying feeling coursed through Galatea's body. However, it wasn't a painful sensation like before. Her temperature rose up and sparks of black light began to flash on her abdomen on the place where Naruto had stabbed her through with his black lightning-encased bone spear, quickly spreading on the rest of her body, covering her entirly.

At first, Galatea did not understand what was going on with her body but it was like a new power had been awoken in her. She could feel it course from her abdomen to the rest of her body, through small, vein-like pathways. A suspicion arose in her hearth:

'Is this...chakra?'