A Jester is Born

"So what was this thesis you wanted to tell me?" A man asked as he sat on a couch while smoking a cigarette. He appeared to be middle aged due to the his hair starting to grey out on the sides.

"That there are practically two circumstances under which a person disregards the rules of society: committing a crime or being in love."

"Hmm… An intriguing hypothesis, Miss Quinzel."

"I know and it's completely unexplored as far as I know, Dr. Markus." Harley said as she stood in front of her professor. "I could use it as the basis of my graduate thesis."

"Ah! But to do that you'd need to be accepted into the psychiatric graduate program." The now identified Dr. Markus stated as he chuckled at one of his students. "And as head of the department, I'm afraid I've seen your grades Harleen."

"And as head of the department, you know I have a knack for this! I'm good at figuring out what makes people tick!" The blonde student proclaimed as she got closer to her teacher. "Good enough to get you to meet with me in my dorm room of all places. What'll we talk about here that we couldn't in your office Dr. Markus?" She soon leaned closer to the older man before speaking in a husky tone. "Or were you thinking we do something else?"

Seeing his little flabbergasted look, she soon snorted and started to bust a gut. "Oh don't worry sir, I was just playing."

"W-Well *Cough* Well I think you've shown uncommon initiative Miss Quinzel." Dr. Marcus said as he tried to calm himself down a little. "Which you'll definitely need to get into GSU grad school. So an independent experiment would help, overseen by myself of course, ideally focused on the intersection of love and crime." Once taking a drag from his cigarette, the man continued his little explanation. "Unfortunately, the thrilling 'forbidden fruit' aspect to both has been well documented several times already like the case of Bonnie and Clyde for instance."

"Then what about a situation that isn't thrilling, but stressful! For instance love can overlook a traffic ticket, but can it forgive a robbery? A murder? What is the worst thing a person can do and still be loved?"

It took several moments of self thought for the professor to come to an understanding as he gained a knowing smile. "Yes… Yes! I see great potential there Miss Quinzel!" But of course his smile soon turned into a frown. "But how would you conduct such an experiment? Who would ever agree to participate?"

Just as he said it, a man busted through the dorm room showing that he was in a frantic state. He appeared to be roughly Harley's age with light brown hair that complimented his sharp appearance and features. His eyes soon landed upon the female occupant in the room before he spoke out.

"Quinz! You seen my paper on chaos theory?" The man said as he started going throughout the entire dorm room like a miniature whirlwind. "I left it here right? I was working on it, but you distracted me…. Or was it the other way around. B-But regardless, there was some major distraction going on!"

"Whoa Guy! Settle down, this is-" "An emergency! I know!" The now identified Guy yelled out as he threw papers all over the place. "And on the same day the Joker escaped again! You believe it? Think my professor will buy there's a connection?"

He soon adopted an attentive pose with a large smile on his face. "Joker escapes, paper goes missing, so it's gotta be linked somehow! That's what chaos theory's all about! I mean c'mon…" Guy soon slipped on a few papers before ending up on the floor before he resumed his little search.

"Where IS IT? Where would I be if I was a paper? Think! Think like a…. Wait, of course! I need my drink!" The student then ran towards the refrigerator and started rummaging through it until he across what he was searching for. "Guy Kopski's special 'Think Drink!' Recharge my amino acids and free radicals and it'll be like that paper finds itself!"

Just as he was about to uncap his drink, he felt a tapping on his shoulder before turning around to see Harley with a folder in her hands. "You mean this paper, Guy?"

"Yes! That's it!" Guy said as he snatched the document from her grasp. "I told you! And think what would've happened if I actually drank my drink!"

*Chuckles* "Besides your head exploding and going through a major sugar rush like last time?"

All she got as a response was a kiss on the lips for a few moments before he pulled away from her. "No way Quinz, you wouldn't let it happen. You're the control rods to my nuclear meltdown. The chemical release valve in our very own love canal!" He was going to say more, but his eyes caught sight of his watch to see the current time. "SHIT! I need to turn this in before my professor leaves for the night! Later Quinz!"

And with that, he ran right back out of the dorm room all the while Harley had a dreamy look on her face. *Sigh* "He's such a sweetheart. He'd do anything for me and vice versa…. Anything…. Hmm."

When hearing this last bit, Dr. Marcus soon looked towards his student with a surprised look. "Are you saying… You'll experiment on your own boyfriend?!"

Realizing on the tone he was getting into, she quickly held up her hands to calm him down a little. "Whoa whoa. We're not talking about a killing spree here doc. It's more like a… game. Yeah, a carefully controlled game."

"If you say so." The teacher said before he grabbed the drink Guy had left in a hurry. "Mind if I try Mr. Kopski's concoction? It could prove quite useful right about now."

"Nah uh. No touchy doc." Harley said as she snatched the drink out of his hand. "Guy's got this secret formula he wants to market some day and he only shared it with me. Not that either one of us would steal someone else's idea, but…"

"I understand completely Miss. Quinzel. My apologies." Dr. Marcus said in slight defeat. "I was just thinking only of the experiment."

"It'll be fine doc. Trust me." The blonde student said in a confident tone. "Everything will be completely under control. So here's what I've got in mind…"

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* *BEEP BEEP BEEP* *SMACK*

Harley groaned awake as she had to get up and get ready for the day.

"Damn… Haven't had that dream in a long time." Harley muttered as she pulled herself out of bed to do some of her early morning workout and exercises. "Why would it come back now? Why would it… Oh…"

Looking off to the side of her room laid this year's calendar with this month, April, presented as two of the days circled in dark red ink. Soon memories started flooding into the forefront of her mind making of those specific days as Harley looked over the few photographs she has in her bedroom. One was the last current family photo of Harley being with her parents and brother, the other being her with Guy Kopski (her late boyfriend), and the other of her older adopted sister, Ino.

Ino Yamanaka Quinzel was adopted into the family before Harley was born since Harley's parents had a really hard time conceiving a child of their own, so they decided to adopt. But when Harley was born, Ino still felt considered a part of the family and said child loved her younger sister like no tomorrow. But when Ino was in late high school, she was ran over by a drunk driver and that was things in the family started to fall apart. Harley hardly talks about that incident, but the last person she told the story to was Pam back in their first session together.

"Get it together Harley." The intern muttered as she took several deep breaths. "She wouldn't want you to lose yourself in misery like this. So try to really look forward to tonight by pushing on through work today with dinner tonight being your big time reward."

With her feeling a little pumped up on her motivation, she went into her morning rituals of breakfast, working out, stretches and having a decent shower before heading to work for the day. Add to the fact that with the weather reports shown on the news that it was going to be bright and sunny all day long that things might go well for her today. So just as she opened the door to her apartment, she was greeted to the sight of her neighbor opening up her respective door right in front of her.

"Oh hey Paula, good morning."

Harley's neighbor Paula, is a slender, Vietnamese woman in her late thirties but looked like she was in her early thirties. She has black hair that runs down to the nape of her neck, dark eyes, and pronounced cheekbones and lips. Her hair is combed to either side behind her ears, though she has bangs that hang near her eyes and beside both her ears. Paula was currently wearing a royal blue t-shirt with her black pajama bottoms.

Harley had met Paula years back while the former was trying to get her gymnastics scholarship back in highschool. The later had helped Harley out a lot to get ready for the evaluation at the time by taking her in as her student. When the blonde got the scholarship, Harley felt that she owed owed the Vietnamese woman a lot on helping her gain the opportunity. So it was a bit of a surprise after Harley moved into the current apartment building that the two ended up as neighbors. With that, Paula decided to cash in on what Harley owed her by having the blonde babysit her kids every so often.

Not that her kids could fend for themselves with Paula's oldest being twelve and her youngest turning nine soon, but Harley didn't mind at all. It made Harley feel like she was her late sister by looking after the little girls. Even more so that the two half Vietnamese girls consider the blonde a part of the family with how the intern grew on them.

"Hey Harley." Paula said as a yawn escaped her mouth as she picked up the newspaper before she looked at the blonde with an analytical eye. "You seem rather chipper this morning."

"Well I need to keep myself happy throughout the day so nothing could ruin tonight."

Hearing this made Paula raise an eyebrow at her former student. "And what seems to be going on tonight I may ask?"

"Going out on a date." Harley said without missing a beat before realizing what she said. So in a quick stammer, she quickly corrected herself. "J-Just as friends actually."

"Oh~ And who would this date be exactly?" Questioned the Vietnamese woman as a cat like smile seemed to grow on her face. "How cute is the guy or gal? Not that there is anything wrong with that mind you of being attracted to another woman."

As those words left Paula's lips, Harley's face gained a red tint with smoke coming out of her ears on what her neighbor was suggesting. Soon thoughts of Harley being with Naruto, Selina and Pam came into her mind in an odd fantasy of them being in separate dates with her. Then ending up in romantic moments and then going into more intimate….

'GAH! Stop thinking about that, me!' Harley yelled at herself as she tried to quickly calm herself off. *Groan* 'I blame Naruto's Icha Icha books on this. Why in the world did I end up checking them out from the library anyways?' So once the intern shook her head hard to get rid of the mild fantasy, to which Paula smiled more on the scene, she finally responded back. *Sigh* "He's just a friend that I may or may not be developing feelings for as of late."

*Chuckles* "Well that's rather interesting Harley. But I'm glad that you are finally moving on from what happened in your last relationship."

"Thanks... I think I've given myself enough time to do so. But with how things happened afterwards, it would've been a miracle if I felt attracted to someone else after so long."

Paula nodded at this before looking looked at her watch to see the time due to her slight sleepy haze. "Well I won't hold you out any longer since you probably need to head to work now."

"Oh, yeah right." The intern said before she turned around to lock the door before making her way to get to work. "Tell Arty and Jade I said hi."

"Will do." The Vietnamese woman said as she saw her neighbor head towards the parking lot. "Wonder if I should find out who this man is since I have nothing better to do today…. Nah. I'll probably catch him when he comes over to pick Harley up. Unless she's picking him up or meeting him at the date…. Damn I should've asked more on the details."

And with that, Paula Nguyen Crock went back inside to make breakfast for her two daughters before seeing them off at school.

-Arkham Asylum-

"...Well here's a joke for you Dr. Quinzel."

*Sigh* "What is it?" Harley asked as she sat in front of the crazed clown in one of the session rooms. By her count, this is her tenth session with the Joker and she has tried to get a good amount of information from the man to the best of her ability. Hopefully she could get another good batch of information from this session before comparing to the other evaluations from the past doctors that tried to treat the man.

"What do you get virgin wool from?"

"Where would that from exactly?"

"Why from an ugly sheep of course! HAHAHAHAHA!" The pale clown bellowed out before settling himself to see the female doctor in front of him barely moved her mouth. "Oh come on doc. That one always kills."

Ignoring his pouty tone, she decided to proceed with the session at hand as she adjusted her glasses. "Humor is just your way of getting attention. Or a way to say the truth without having to say it."

"Or power."

"...Excuse me?" Harley asked as the Joker seemed to look at his nails like he tried to inspect them for any dirt or imperfections. He glanced over at her once or twice as he sighed in a mock fashion before he spoke in a bland tone.

"By making them laugh, you have a piece of them."

"And this is how you got your father's attention I assume?"

*Chuckle* "And here I thought you were listening." Joker stated before he got up from his seat with his cuffs taken off without her noticing. After that, he started pacing around the room with his eyes boring right through the intern. "If you have a piece of them. You have power over them. Then you can bend them to your will. You make some bozo laugh just as easy as you can make him cry, but you still get the same result: their attention."

This seemed rather interesting for the young doctor on this kind of perspective about power. She wanted to physically respond in such manners, but her mind kept fighting the urge to do so. All that she could do now was keep a steady breath, hardly move a muscle and power on through.

"Suddenly you matter." The man continued onward with his little lecture with a smile graced upon his face. "You're not just another itsy ant that they can step on… like your poor sister."

…..

"Quite amazing what you can find if you know what you're looking for. *Chuckles* They really should pay the orderlies more, but I digress. We are talking about your good old sis."

At this point now, Harley's heart seemed to have skipped a beat or two with her trying to control her breathing. Pupils seemed to recede with her body starting to shake slightly as several thoughts seemed to be running around her mind all at once. 'How did he find out about Ino?! What did he do?! What game is he trying to play?!' All those and so much more were loudly spoken in rapid successions.

The clown saw this happen, making his smile widen ever much so on his little action. Wanting more out of this, he pressed on. "Killed by a drunk driving fat cat in his tailored suit and diamond pinkie ring, who had a high-powered connections and got off. Got to live on while your poor sweet Ino was gone. And you were practically powerless to do anything about it."

Once that was said, he pulled something out of his pocket that was wrapped in a handkerchief and placed it in front of her before speaking once again. "I used to be the same way. Powerless against those who wanted to keep me down. That was until the greatest thing that ever could happen to me did. *Chuckles* An impromptu incident of scientific proportions with several dozen gallons of chemicals. And once my eyes stopped stinging, I finally saw the world for the true hypocrisy it is."

He stopped speaking as his eyes seemed to bore right towards the wrapped up object on the table. Like a silent order, Harley seemed forced to comply in the silent suggestion as her hand slowly reached out and picked up the object. It seemed slightly heavy in the palm of her hand as a part of her wanted to lift away the fabrics while the rest screamed not to do so...

But the curious part slowly won in the end as she slowly lifted the coverings. So with this happening, the Joker continued.

"All this had set me free. Just because once I didn't care about the rules anymore, I had all the power I would ever need. Sure it takes a lot of effort to do so, but each of us have that capability. All we have to do is just let it out… And I can show you how."

*BAM*

The sound of the door to the session room was slammed opened as security detail rushed in and pinned the Joker to the wall. Said man started to laugh in his own demented way as he briefly saw the scene before him.

"Okay fine~ I apologize." The demented clown said as the guards started to haul him out of the room. "It's only just the fat cat's hand! But for crying out loud, it was a total bitch trying to mule the dead body into this place! God knows I tried! HeheheheHAHAHAHA!"

"Dr. Quinzel, are you alright?" One of the guards asked the woman as he didn't get a response from her. "Dr. Quinzel?"

Harley wasn't able to give out a proper response, as her eyes were dead set on the dismembered hand in the palm of her hand with a diamond ring set on the pinkie. It was truly hard to focus on anything else for her as all of her other senses seemed to shut down all at once. Seeing the gruesome object in her grasp made Harley's heart beat faster and faster to the point that anything she might end up coming into contact with could set her off.

Unfortunately one person ended up doing this my mistake.

"Okay ma'am, I need to get you out of here." The guard said as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder…

And she screamed upon contact.

-One Hour Later, Harley's Apartment-

"It's alright now Harley." Naruto said with a comforting tone as he opened Harley's apartment door and escorted her inside. "You're finally home."

He got the call from Dr. Joan LeLand roughly an hour ago while he was at work. Reason why he was called was that Harley had listed him as an emergency contact, just in case something happened to her while on the job. In fact something did happen as Joan's tone was pretty urgent and couldn't talk all of the details over the phone. Regardless, Naruto came over to the asylum to see what happened with his friend.

It wasn't all that great from what he learned on the details from the good doctor, as he stood in front of Harley's office with a shivering Harley inside. The moment he entered the room, the publisher was tackle hugged by the scared blonde as she had let out several tears upon contact. The Uzumaki did everything he could to calm her down, but it would take a lot apparently.

So with what happened, Harley was sent home early for the day and Naruto wanted to cheer her up by taking her out for ice cream. Though with how depressed and worried the intern was, she ate her icy treat at a very slow pace with several servings to take care of her fill. But at least it was a little start for the little recovery.

"Thanks for taking me home Naruto." The blonde said as she rubbed her arms with a cold feeling running through her. And that wasn't because of the ice cream. "I-I didn't know what would happen if I-I tried to go home all by myself."

"Don't worry and think about it Harley." He said in a reassuring tone as she sat down onto the couch. "Why don't I make you some tea to help settle your nerves a little more?" Once asking, she only nodded as a response. "Now where's the teapot and fixings? Also what kind would you prefer?"

"The pot's by the sink while the tea is in the third cupboard on the right." She muttered lowly as Naruto went on with his current task. "As for flavor, I don't care at the moment."

"If you say so Harley." As the pot was set onto the stove and set to boil, the former shinobi brought his attention back to the intern. "I know I've said this several times today, but I'm so sorry on what happened to you earlier."

*Sigh* "What I don't know is how he was able to find out about Ino?… My sister."

'Not only that, but that one body Arkham security had found during their search.' Naruto thought with narrowed eyes.

During the little ice cream run, Dr. LeLand called Naruto to let him know on the search of the supposed dead body and they found the corpse of the 'fat cat' in the basement. They had indeed called the GCPD to send investigators over to get things taken care of so nothing else could be taken care of. There was a confirmation with the body with the case on Harley's deceased sister to make things even more unstable.

'With the Joker doing such a thing makes me think on what else he could've done. Not only that, but why would he do such a thing to begin with? Was he really that interested in Harley that he'll go so far to possibly… No don't try to figure out that part of his sick, demented mind.'

"You know Harley… You never told me you had a sister." Naruto said with honest curiosity in his voice. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to maybe hear about her."

"I don't know if you would seem interested." Harley lied a little since it's sometimes hard for her to talk about her.

In response, he walked over and sat down next to her before placing a hand on her shoulder. This gave her a feeling of reassurance as he smiled slightly before simply stated: "Try me."

The intern smiled at this as she can tell he really was interested in learning about her adopted sister. So as the teapot was getting ready, the blonde told her friend/love interest all that she knew about Ino. From all of her hobbies and interests like gardening and being a gymnast. It even continued after the teapot signaled that it was ready as Harley brought up that Ino was the one that got Harley interesting in being a gymnast at first, while subconsciously wanting to be friends with Pam due to similar botanist qualities.

On Naruto's end, it was rather informative on how he learned the similarities and differences between the Ino of this world and the Ino he grew up with.

"Would've been nice if I could've met her when she was alive."

"Same here." The intern said as they took sips from their respective cups. "I would imagine the two of you getting along very well."

"I bet, but it's a shame Ino's life came to an abrupt end by that 'fat cat'."

"I know… And in some odd part of me, which I don't know how it could be possible, actually thanks the Joker for doing such a thing." This earned her an odd look from her love interest making her explain a little. "He used his connections to get away scott free and this caused more problems on my family in the end. I wanted him to pay for what he did to not only my family, but to my sister. She had so much to live for and could've done a lot, but they couldn't happen without her alive to see them through."

"I understand that Harley… Really I do, but things won't change at all. I know you miss her so much and wish she can be back in your life, but she can't." He said to her with hurt present in her eyes. "She's in a better place now Harley and I can tell Ino wouldn't want to you be this way. Possibly wanting you to find happiness whenever possible."

"And how would you know?" She bitterly asked.

"Because I felt that a handful of times in my life." Was his instant response before he continued. "I wanted my 'Jiji' back, his son to be with his lover and unborn child, and so many others. But I knew that it wouldn't happen at all no matter how hard I tried in hopes of seeing them again. They would've wanted the people that loved them to move on with their lives instead of wallowing in their sorrows. I know it's a bit harsh, but what would you think they would really want their loved ones to do. It would only hurt their memories in the end. Reason why most people try not to mourn too much and only do it when it's appropriate.

It me hurt so much when I learned they died since I knew a lot about them and they were factors on how they made me who I am. It can be so confusing at times since there are various answers on the question: 'Why do other people feel hurt when others die?' There's no real definitive answer, but others have their own interpretation to all of that.

But for me, it's from what I've stated before: losing someone that was a big part of your life makes oneself feel not full or hollow. Even with others, you don't know or never reacted, you would wonder if someone you knew was there and was in that person's place to die in that situation. It can be difficult to comprehend, but one shouldn't wish others to die in such ways. But it's apart of life and nothing can really change that."

Once that was said, the apartment seemed to have an eerily comfortable silence. Nothing was really said with what has been told, but Harley felt something from out of that. She looked at Naruto as she sat there and processed everything he told her.

'He's right… Ino wouldn't want me to mope around for too long. She taught me better.' Harley thought before thoughts of Guy came through her mind in a similar, yet different fashion.

"Naruto…"

Hearing her speak after a while, he turned to her to see her coming closer to him. Not knowing what was going through her mind, he briefly spoke out to her. "Yeah…"

As she got closer, her heart seemed to beat a little faster with what she planned to finally do. The subtle sounds of the couch cushions shifting a little seemed to be a little louder than normal in the quiet apartment. The heat seemed to rush through the intern as she drew closer to her love interest. On the publisher's end, he was realizing what Harley was trying to do and he didn't know how to respond to this. But his heart started to beat a little faster as she got ever so closely.

Once Harley's lips was just an inch or so closer to his…

*Ding Dong* *Ding Dong*

"Hey Harley! You in there?!" A feminine voice called out from outside the apartment.

This ended up ruining the present mood as Harley pulled back with reddened cheeks of slight embarrassment from what she was about to do. Naruto's was a little bit better as his cheeks were lightly dusted with a blush. Even releasing the bit of breath he didn't realized he held.

"Hello?!"

"Y-Yeah! Give me a second Paula!" The intern said as she got up from her placement on the couch. She even straightened out her clothes a little before she opened up the door.

"Well you took your sweet time Harley."

"Sorry about that Paula, but why were you banging on my door anyways?"

"Well I didn't know if you were home or not since someone's car was parked in your spot."

"Oh yeah, right." Harley said as she thought of something of an excuse, but Naruto beat her to the punch.

"Sorry about that miss if you seemed worried." The Uzumaki said as he came up from behind the blonde intern. "Harley had some problems at work earlier and was sent home early for the day. Her car couldn't start so ended up calling me for help."

The Vietnamese woman looked at the man in front of her as she inspected and dismantled him to the best of her ability.

'Hmm, good form and posture. Has some experience with fighting. Possibly some form of charisma with what he possibly does in his line of work…' Paula thought with other little facts running through her head in a quick moment. That was before she focused her attention to her former student and saw something interesting. 'The way she's looking at him… Is this the one that seemed to have charmed her?' "Well I don't see anything bad out of that, but be sure to park in the guest spots next time."

"I know on that ma'am. But those spots seemed to have been filled up and I didn't want Harley to walk back to her apartment from too far of a distance." He said in his defence, getting a nod from the neighbor.

"Understandable." Paula simply said before she turned her attention to her neighbor. "So I'm guessing he's that 'friend' of yours that you were talking about earlier."

"W-Well yeah, this is indeed my friend that I was talking about earlier." The intern said as she made a face to not let Paula spill the beans and whatnot just yet. All that the neighbor could do was chuckle a little at the sight.

"So I've been meaning to ask earlier, but who was it that asked the other on this 'date' that was supposed to go down tonight?" The Vietnamese woman innocently asked getting Harley's face to gain a red tint in response.

"It was Harley that did the asking miss…"

"Mrs. Crock, Paula Crock."

"Alright. Well Mrs. Crock, Harley had asked if we could change up the little meal meet ups we sometimes have, since they would either be breakfast or lunches. So she asked if we could go out to dinner one time and see how things go from there."

'...Huh. Well that's interesting.' Paula thought since that seems to be an odd method of courting someone. 'Then again, different generation have their methods I suppose.' "So where were you two planning on this dinner anyways?"

"Well I was going to take her to this one place in chinatown, but with what happened earlier today I thought that could be held off for another time."

"I bet."

"Wait, what place were you planning to take me in chinatown?" Harley curiously asked. There were a few places she went to in the past, while others would be a bit much in her opinion.

"This one restaurant that I sometimes go for business lunch meetings." He said with a shrug before a cheeky grin graced his face. "And don't bother asking since I won't spoil the surprise."

In response to this, Harley puffed out her cheeks a little in defeat that made the two onlookers chuckle a little in the display. Paula was going to speak up when the door behind her opened up. Turning around, she and the two people she was talking to, looked towards the source.

She was a small girl that gave Naruto an estimated age of eight or nine years old with a half-Caucasian and half-Vietnamese heritage. She has olive-toned skin with long thick blonde hair tied into a ponytail and dark gray eyes that held so much innocence in them. She was currently wearing a light purple long sleeved shirt underneath jean overalls with a pair of tennis shoes. To finish off her image, she appeared to be carrying a purple eyed yellow chicken plush with a bib saying 'Let's Eat!' with confetti in the background.

"Mommy, can you help me out on my homework?"

"Sure, I'll help you out in a moment sweetie. Mommy's talking at the moment."

"Okay." Paula's daughter said before smiling a bit at the blonde intern. "Hi Auntie Harley."

Said woman smiled as she brought more of her attention to her surrogate niece. "Hello Artie. Had a good day at school?"

"It was okay." Artie said with a little shrug. That was then she placed her focus on the silver haired man next to her mother and her 'auntie'. "Who's he?"

Seeing that it would be rude to not introduce himself, he stepped up a little to the girl and squatted down to eye level. He then smiled at her in a way that reminded the little girl of a fox with the whisker marks on his face. "Hello there. I'm a good friend of Harley."

"Hi." The girl simply said before looking at his cheeks. "Are those real?"

"Huh?"

"Are those whiskers real or are they tattoos?"

Blinking owlishly for a few moments, he chuckled a little at her curiousity. "Yeah, they are real. Born with them actually."

"Cool~. So are you a catman?"

"Nah, I'm more of a fox actually." The publisher answered before he extended his hand out. "Name's Naruto Uzumaki. What's yours?"

"Artemis Crock." Artie said as she shook his hand before pausing for a few moments. "Wait… Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Yeah?"

Once getting the confirmation, Artemis gasped a little before running inside of the apartment in a hurried pace. Seeing this happen, Naruto turned to see Harley holding in a little chuckle with Paula having slightly widened eyes for a split moment before mirroring the intern's actions. He was going to say something when the little girl came running out with a few books in her arms.

"Can you sign these please?! You're my favorite author ever!" The child said as one of the books slipped out of her grasp and fell onto the floor.

Naruto chuckled at this and pulled out a pen from his pocket and grabbed each of them and signed her copies of Loveless, Gutsy Ninja and Ninja Storm. Once handing them back to the little girl, she squealed in delight before grabbing the older man's hand and seemingly dragging him inside. She seemed surprisingly strong of unbalancing and pulling him inside of Paula's apartment to hear a TV on in the background.

"Jade! Guess who Auntie Harley is friends with?!" Little Artie said with excitement in her voice.

"Who is it Artemis?! Don't you see I'm watching my show!" A teenaged voice called out from behind a couch in the living room. From what Naruto was seeing seems to be an episode of Seinfeld if he guessed it correctly…

It's been awhile since just he sat down and watched TV on free time from work and his nightly activities.

"She's friends with our favorite author?!" The young blonde yelled out as she bounced on her feet.

"Huh?" The other person said before she muted the volume and got up from her placement on the couch. Once turning around, she saw her little sister bouncing in place with her hand grasping onto a man in his mid twenties. She then saw her 'aunt' Harley and her mother walk up behind the two.

From Naruto's quick inspection, Artemis' sister appeared to be barely a teenager at best with her stature. She had similar features to the girl holding onto his hand due to the olive-skin tone due to the mixed heritage along with the grey eyes. But the girl in front of him contrasted her younger sister with her thick black hair with some innocence in her eyes with them somewhat hardened. She was also wearing a black t-shirt with khaki pants and tennis shoes to finish off her attire.

"Uh… Hi." The girl awkwardly said at the new arrival.

*Chuckles* "Hello."

"So... Artie is claiming that you're Naruto Uzumaki." Jade said with a raised brow and crossed arms. "Prove it."

So he did by pulling out his wallet to show driver's license to at least help out on the fact. Jade snatched it out of his hand and inspected it for a few moments.

"Alright then. Seems pretty genuine." She said before handing it back to the man.

"You don't seem rather excited to meeting me I suppose."

"Well you're a writer and to me, famous authors don't really hit top five on my favorites list." Jade uncaringly said before seeing the man crouch down with a dark cloud over his head.

"You don't have to be so mean about it." The Uzumaki said in a pouty tone.

This got a few laughs from the two older women while the youngest just patted his head.

-Several Hours Later-

"That was a pretty good meal Mrs. Crock."

"Why thank you Naruto." Paula said with a smile as she escorted the possible couple out of the apartment. "And thank you for preoccupying my daughters for most of the evening."

"Well the two were fun to get to know of Paula and they seemed to keep me interested throughout the night." Naruto said as the three were now in the hallway.

Introductions went a little better after the little moping moment with Naruto. Usually Paula wouldn't work on dinner all too soon, but with guests over that had to change a little to add a bit more on the servings. Naruto honestly didn't want to impose, but the lady of the residence insisted on him staying since his supposed date with Harley was ruined with whatever happened at her work place. He complied in the end and decided to kill off several hours since he had nothing else to do for the day.

So during most of this time, the Uzumaki had decided to help out the youngest Crock out on her homework after said Crock asked him. It was rather cute in the eyes of the two older women in the apartment seeing the publisher help out the little girl on her little problems here and there. Even got Harley to think more that Naruto could possibly be a great father with how he's interacting with kids.

It's a good quality most women look out for on men they want to hook up with.

When it came down to interacting with Jade, it was a little rough at first but he somehow got through with her. It took a little bit of time for him to figure out on picking up on some interests, but he caught a glance on a weapons magazine she had. It was rather odd for a girl her age and in this time to be interested in this sort of thing, but with him growing up with Tenten back in his home reality he could get a good idea on that. Especially since everyone has their own interests.

So he eased things through by talking about the various weapons he interacted with in his travels before coming to America. It seemed to snag the eldest daughter's attention to a certain degree before getting into bits of him being friends with a 'weapons nut' when they were Artemis' age up till being in his mid-teens when he left. This got her reeled in that the two started talking on more details.

Jade was a bit of an outcast in school with her being in the 'tough crowd' and even then was an outcast in said group. Just because she has interests in weapons, something she picked up from the girl's' father apparently, made things difficult for her to have friends. So it was actually relaxing for her to talk to someone else that knows their way with weapons, despite talking to a guy over a decade older than her.

Though of course Paula tries not to have discussions on weapons in general in the household to keep Artemis as innocent as possible. She has it enough from her husband, who Naruto learned was ex-military (honorably discharged), that he currently does private security and reason why the man's out quite often. Though the former shinobi knows there's more to that with chatting with Paula, but he didn't want to pry.

Discussions changed into different topics like Naruto learning on what heroes the two sisters liked. He expected for them to like Batman, since apparently kids these days liked Batman with how cool he was, but learned they had liked Catwoman and Vanitas. With Artemis, she liked Catwoman with her protecting "the cute kitties" from the bad people while Vanitas being a great hero that saved a friend of hers from a fire. With Jade, she liked Catwoman with how "badass and stealthy" she is among other things while she practically became a fan girl when seeing him fight Clayface on live TV on the Daggett interview.

Naruto smiled at hearing these details on his girlfriend that he'd be sure to tell Selina about her two fans. He can tell she'll be happy on learning that she has such adorable fans that she'll want to see them in person. At least they were different from that fanatic of hers who's currently in jail.

As for him personally, he was so giddy when hearing how great the two girls were praising him. Naruto was practically eating it all up with him meeting two of his fans, outside of being a writer. So he'll be sure to keep up on what he's doing to have a good image for others.

"Still though, it helps for them to interact with others more often so they don't end up closed off in the end."

"True."

"And what about me?" Harley asked with playful whine to her voice. "Don't they get enough interactions from me?"

"Yes Harley they do, but they just need to expand their circles than just you."

*Chuckles* "Yes I know. I was just joking." The intern replied as she knew for a long time on that factor.

"So what are you too going to do for the rest of the evening?"

"Gave it some thought and possibly the two of us would just stay in and watch a movie together." Naruto said with a small smile as he directed his attention to his friend. "Her choice in which one though."

This somehow set the blonde intern off as she squealed in excitement and opened her apartment door before dragging Naruto inside.

"Well it's been nice meeting you Paula!" The publisher yelled out before the apartment door was slammed shut.

As the two were out of her sight, the Vietnamese woman chuckled a little as she processed all of the things that happened in the several hours with Naruto being in her residence. He was a good man and would pretty much make Harley really happy. It was pretty obvious with how much she has been changing as of late and it's good for her in the mother's perspective.

"You better treat her well or else I'll skin you alive Naruto." Paula muttered before scratching her head in thought. *Sigh* 'Now I just need to tuck in my kids for the night before making a phone call to Ra's. He'll want to know I finally made contact on sheer dumb luck.'

-Hours Later-

"...Okay... Okay... Alright." The elderly man said as he fumbled around with his coat to see if he had everything on him. "Well so long."

"Grandpa?"

"Hmm." The man turned around to look at his grandson lying in his bed.

"Maybe you could… Come back and read it to me again tomorrow?"

The man just smiled a little before speaking one last time. "As you wish."

"Well that was a nice film." Naruto muttered as he watched the ending credits start up from the second film he and Harley were watching this evening. "Glad you popped that one in Harley."

…..

There was no response though as Naruto looked to the side to see Harley's head sleeping on his shoulder. It was rather cute with her snoring a little as she had her arms wrapped around his left arm for support. She even was more comfortable with her in a pair of red and black pajamas since she had changed into them earlier, before they watched the first film.

'She must've fallen asleep sometime during the film.' He thought as he made a void clone and had it turn off the TV and rewind the tape as the main Naruto just sat there so that he won't disturb his friend's sleep. 'Then again, Harley has had a stressful day earlier and it must've finally gotten to her possibly on the exhaustion.'

As he sat there in his comfortable position, the Uzumaki thought of things as of late with his dear friend by his side. She had been dealing with so much recently and he can't help but worry more about her for a while now. Harley grew on him and he wanted to do what he can to make her happy.

'But… But I don't know if I should just consider me as my friend, or something else. Something more.' Naruto thought before he heard the sounds of whimpering and small crying in the room. He quickly turned towards the source to see Harley struggling a little in her sleep. Feeling worried, he fazed his arm out of her grasps before he placed both hands on her and shook her a little, but not too much.

-Insert The Dark Knight: Watch the World Burn-

"Harley. Harley wake up."

"Guy… Guy I'm so sorry." Harley muttered in her sleep as the tears kept on running down her cheeks. "Guy. Don't. Please. I love you."

"Harley."

"NOOO!" She yelled out as she was now awake from her nightmare. She was soon gasping for air as her widened eyes soon landed upon her friend/love interest.

"Harley. What happened?" He asked with concern and worry in his voice. She didn't respond back to him as she was shaking like a leaf. "Harley…"

"I-It was just a nightmare." The intern said as she tried to move away from the subject. "It was just a bad nightmare."

"...I don't think that was just a nightmare Harley. You were muttering a man named 'Guy' in your sleep."

Hearing that made her still as she slowly looked towards her friend. "Y-You heard that?"

"Yes I did Harley." He said as she got up from her seat on the couch and tried to walk away. "Harley, please. Tell me what's wrong."

"I-I can't." The intern said as she got closer to her bedroom.

"Yes you can Harley. You can tell me."

*SLAM*

"Please go away Naruto!" She yelled out from the other side of her bedroom door.

"I can't and I won't until you tell me…. Please tell me Harley. I'm worried and I'm scared you might do something you might regret."

"I-I just want to be alone right now Naruto!"

He wasn't having any of that as he kept his stance in front of her bedroom door. "Nah uh. I'm staying here until you tell me what's going on."

"I can't!"

"And why not!"

"Because you'll hate me!"

The Uzumaki only stood at the door as he didn't know what to say at first, but he could only question about it. "What do you mean that I'll hate you Harley? I could never hate you."

"But you will and that's what scares me."

He soon heard part of the door slam a little before sounds of sliding came down from the other side. This made him guess she's leaning on the entry way with her back while sitting on the ground. So mirroring her action, he decided to do the same thing.

"Harley… I promise that whatever you tell me, I will not hate you at all. And you know I always keep my promises.

*Sniffle* *Sniffle* "...Promise?"

"Promise."

All seemed quiet in the immediate area for a while and Naruto didn't know what was going on. He was going to speak up, but Harley had beaten him to the punch.

"I-It was before I got into grad school at GSU… And I was making my graduate thesis so I can get into the psychiatric program. I did my proposal to the head of the department, Dr. Odin Markus, and he accepted it but it had to be overseen so that things could get finalized."

"...What was your thesis anyways?"

"That there are practically two circumstances under which a person disregards the rules of society: committing a crime or being in love."

"Well that sounds unique."

"I know and it was completely unexplored." She said with a tone of remembrance. "Sure the idea did come up on the concept of the intersection of love and crime when I passed through the crime couple of Bonnie and Clyde. It was thrilling, but a thought came to mind about a stressful situation. The worst thing a person can do and still be loved in the end.

*Dryly Chuckles* Of course after I made my proposal, my boyfriend at the time Guy Kopski came in and started ranting off in his crazy self as usual to find a paper he needed to turn into his teacher. *Sigh* We were so much in love with each other that things could've been great down the road… But of course I came up with the stupidest idea ever and used him in my thesis."

As Naruto heard all of this, he started to gain a worried feeling in his gut as several ideas were possibly running through his head.

"So late one night, Guy finally came back into the dorm room from work and took a swig out of his 'Think Drink' he concocted so he could work on some homework before going to bed. That was when I started off my little plan. I-I told my boyfriend that I confronted Dr. Markus about my grades in the college gym and that I was going to blackmail my professor. Told him that he raped me and would threaten to speak to the board about it. Then I added in that Dr. Markus had a tape recorder with a gun and was going to turn it to the cops.

I really sold it by balling my eyes out that I had shot my professor with the gun I had brought into the dorm room to sell the lie. Somehow Guy got too convinced and ran out to see the body himself. I went after him to the gym to try and apologize that it was a lie.

But when I got there.,. He… He shot someone. A homeless man that somehow got into the gym. Guy thought it was Dr. Markus still moving around and he shot him on instinct. *Sniffle* The man that I loved killed an innocent man. And that was before he tried to kill himself. I tried to stop him, I really did. I don't know who pulled the trigger; but in the end his blood, my boyfriend's blood, was on my hands."

Soon the sounds of sobbing and cries filled the bedroom and in the hallway as Naruto couldn't do a thing, but sit there and process what he just learned. He wanted to believe that she was lying, but he felt that it was all genuine without a hint of a lie. It made the Uzumaki feel terrible throughout the whole situation. Simular to when he saw Pam's memory of seeing her mother's corpse in front of her. Naruto soon dreaded the day when he ends up seeing Harley's memory of seeing her late boyfriend die in front of her.

So after a few more moments, Naruto got up from his place in the hallway and went to open up the door to the bedroom. He expected there to be some resistance when opening it, but it seemed not the case as he opened it with ease. Once he did his action, the sounds got a bit louder than before as he saw Harley in a fetal position with her balling her eyes out.

Without any hesitation, Naruto went down onto the floor and picked her up into his arms and held her close. From there, he walked over to the bed and sat down on it as he spoke softly to her to calm her down.

"It's okay Harley. I'm here for you." He said as he rubbed her back. "I'm sorry for what happened to your last boyfriend and I forgive you."

*Chocked Sobs* "L-Liar. You hate me. You hate m-me."

"No, I don't hate you. I promised you that I wouldn't."

…..

"You made a mistake and it wasn't your fault."

"Bu-But it was."

At this, he ignored her and kept going. "Things were clearly out of your control Harley and you of all people should know that you didn't know what happened as a possible result beforehand. Sure you manipulated your boyfriend into being in your experiment, but you wished that it wasn't too drastic on his reaction. Some things came up that messed up with your desired results that lead to that happening. So please, move on. Guy wouldn't want you to wallow in your sorrows over him because of one mistake. I even bet your sister wouldn't want you to do this to yourself."

Things seemed to be calming down as the sounds Harley's whimpering seemed to be dying down. But he didn't let up just in case she would start crying again. So for as long as possible, Naruto kept rubbing her back while telling her positive things to drown out the negative. It was helping with his soothing voice and his strong, steady heartbeat that eventually caused the intern to fall back into her slumber.

-Few Days Later, Arkham Asylum-

"...If you turn to page ***, you'll see the Joker's disorders that have probably been compressed and fitted together from other doctors that had previously worked sessions with him." Harley said to the head doctors of the asylum: Dr. Young, Dr. Whistler, and Dr. Bartholomew. Off to the side of the room, Dr. LeLand was there with a small smile as she saw the meeting proceedings of the young doctor working under her.

"Yes we have Doctor Quinzel." Dr. Bartholomew said as he adjusted his glasses before looking back onto said page and read it off. "You have stated that the Joker suffers from Hypomania, Compulsive Behavior, Grandiose Delusions, Impuls Control Disorder, and Sadomasochim. Is that correct in your assumptions?"

"I believe so sir." Harley simply stated as she adjusted in her seat. "From what he has stated in all of the past sessions from the varying doctors, I probably have guessed from him having 'multiple' backgrounds due to his lack of an official one. So I have decided to 'combine' them all together for a temporary outlook to get a better diagnosis.

Asides from those basic diagnosis', the Joker seems to have been over gratified in the Oral stage of the psychosexual level. It's probably because he needs immediate gratification and he seems to be unaware that he doesn't control the environment, even though he seeks to do so with him wanting to make others laugh and gain power over them.

With his Anal stage, he seems overly gratified with his ID and demands immediate gratification, developing him into a self-indulgent person. Though he does have a fixation with his Phallic stage, due to losing his mother and supposide wife while dealing with his abusive father and the mob. This probably drove him to become aggresive, over-ambitious and vain.

On the Genital stage, the Joker shows no concern at all in gratifying his desires symbolically and intellectually. That means no real form of friendship, relationship, family and adult responsibilities. He just sees them as mear obsticles in his way on 'having fun' and enjoying things in his sense of humor."

Once the blonde intern said her statements, she had taken a drink out of the glass nearby to quench her thirst from the long discussion. After hearing all of this, the three doctors took a bit of time to process most of this information before Dr. Young spoke out. "And what would be your recommended treatment Doctor Quinzel?"

*Sigh* "I would recommend that the Joker possibly go through a series of sessions in attemtping to bring out his unconcious to really dive into his mentality. There must be an underlying cause on what he could be repressing. And if we can bring it to the surface, then we can sort out the truth from the lies to help understand his actions. But until then, I believe there are two things that could be said on his further treatments."

"Which would be what exactly?" Dr. Whistler asked.

"That there is no real cure for any of his multiple disorders due to how damaged his mind truely is. He sees himself as an 'Agent of Chaos', so things could be thrown out in rational terms. If you try to cure him through other means, then it'll have negative results. Now the other thing I would recommend would be kept into the deepest parts of the high security wing where I believe he should be treated like an oddity against reality kept in his cage. But that is just my personal opinion on that last bit."

With that said, the three doctors got close to each other and quietly discussed with each other for a couple of minutes. As this went on, Harley looked onto the side to see Joan LeLand give her an approving smile and nod. It wasn't long from there as the three doctors separated before Dr. Bartholemew spoke out.

"After reviewing things with my two collegues, I'm going to move forward your request for the Joker." The male doctor said getting a feint smile from the blonde intern. She wanted to give out a full blown reaction out of this, but had to keep it contained to maintain her professional appearance. "We agree that the patient is too cunning and manipulative by any normal means. But for a first year intern to make this kind of progress you described is pretty outstanding to say the least."

"Thank you sir." The intern simply said in accepting the praise.

"So is there anything else you would like to say Doctor Quinzel?" Dr. Young asked.

"Yes, yes I do. For the sake of my own well being, I would like the Joker to be removed from my care immediately."

Hearing this made the varying doctors in the room raise a brow at the blonde woman. Though Dr. LeLand had a good idea why. So descided to humor herself a little and spoke out. "And why is that?"

Turning to her mentor in the asylum, Harley spoke out once again. "After these dozen sessions with the man has been very taxing on me. He seems rather fixated with me and I'm afraid if I try to further treat him, I might end up inside of one of these cells in the near future."

"Hmm… Understandable Miss Quinzel." Dr. Whistler said before he spoke again. "If anyone objects to her small request speak now." After some brief moments, no one said a thing. "Alright then Dr. Quinzel, the Joker is no longer in your care. You're free to go and that'll be all."

"Thank you sir."

With that, the meeting ended and the people went onto their other buisnesses for the day. While Harley was walking out of the room, she was approached by her mentor with a congradulatory smile.

"Well done and I've got to say that things have gone well in your evaluation."

"Thank you Joan."

"Though I do have to say that you seemed a little over the top on the main request of 'deepest parts of the high security wing', along with the 'oddity against reality' bit."

*Sigh* "Yeah, you're right Joan." Harley admitted in small defeat. "But with all of the stress that I got from the man made me just want him gone."

"I understand Harley, but you've done the best you could in trying to figure the man out." Joan said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Everyone that's worked here has had a crack at him in one way or another, but you've gone far."

"Thanks."

"Though I do have to say that you requesting to have the past few days off seemed odd at first. But stating that you wanted that time to fully clear your head after your previous session from the Joker. Then you wanted that time to work on your evaluation on him." Dr. LeLand said as the two were walking through the hallways of the asylum.

"Well after chatting with a good friend of mine, I realized that I just wanted to be done and over with him to move onto other things. *Chuckles* Also helps that I had copies of my notes and research back at my place so I could do it in the comfort of where I feel safer and far away from the Joker."

Indeed she has. After her reveal to the man she has considered to be more than just a friend on her late boyfriend, she felt rather better. Then again that day felt like an odd rollercoaster of emotions that she needed to get off of her chest to feel a whole lot better. Harley had talked to Naruto about her sister Ino, spent some good quality time with her gymnastics teacher and surrogate nieces, and revealed on details on her last relationship.

Sure things seemed awkward on the later, but it needed to be done for her sanity.

After waking up from that tearful night, the intern felt relatively better. Especially since she woke up in one of the most comfortable pillows she ever slept on. But of course said pillow was actually her crush, she ended up blushing up a storm of being so close to him in such a position.

So when things seemed a bit more comfortable, Harley had told Naruto on what else happened after Guy's death. Dr. Markus had put her into the graduate program to keep her silent on the whole situation along with the university covering up the incident to rule it as a suicide so that it could be quickly forgotten as soon as possible. Not only that, but she was forced to get rid of many things that reminded her of her boyfriend at the time for her healing process. But Harley had kept their last photo together along with the formula to his 'Think Drink' to help her remember him by.

After all that, along with some discussions from her crush, Harley decided that she fully wanted to move on with her life and she needed the Joker out of her workload. So she called work and requested some time off to work on her evaluation on the crazed clown. It was accepted and she went straight to it. It was a bit stressful, but Naruto cheered her on throughout most of the process.

"Good to know Harley." Joan said with a smile. "So what are you going to do now?"

"Head back to my office and see what else I need to do before it's probably time to call it a day."

"With what you did earlier, you might not have anything else for your workload for the day."

The intern responded back with a shrug before speaking to her superior. "Still though, wouldn't hurt to check."

Seeing Joan nod at this, the two female doctors went their separate ways. Along the way, Harley was having a little spring to her step with a wide smile on her face. She was so happy that a thought came to mind that she would truly want to do once getting off from work.

'I'm going to do it.' The intern thought as she rounded the one corner along the way to her office. 'I'm finally going to tell Naruto much I love him. He's been there for me for these past months and has never let me down at all. He made me feel so special ever since Guy died… Oh Guy... I hope you finally forgiven me for what I did back then. I truly want to move on and be with the one that I love now.'

Just as she neared the last few hallways towards her office, the building suddenly shook. She didn't know what was going on until the alarms started to blair off. Having a bad feeling about this, she started to run as fast as she could in her heeled shoes. Harley needed to quickly get to her office to nab some of her personal effects before getting to her designated panic room until things have blown over.

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" A voice yelled out as Harley neared her office. "Not now! Why'd it have to happen now!"

"The hell?" Harley spoke out as she pulled the door open to see… "Dr. Serrano?! What the hell are you doing in my office?!"

-Moments Ago-

*Groan* "...And of course she would use everything that I have given her and throw it back in my face." The Joker muttered as he laid back onto his cot in his cell. "After everything that I've done for her. Giving out some little good facts here and there with some nice honest truths laced in a story or so to keep the conversations interesting. And what do I get in return? Nada, ziltch, squat."

One might wonder why the Joker seems rather upset at the current moment. Well sometimes in the asylum, word travels pretty fast depending on what gets circulated. Sometimes it takes an hour on a slow conversation and a boring topic. But with a very interesting one, it goes around at a snap of the fingers. And thats what's happened a bit ago.

From what the Joker overheard from a passing guard talking to another that his beloved doctor, Dr. Harlequin (the clown sometimes calls her that), had requested that the Clown Prince of Crime himself be removed from her care. And not only that, but possibly get him locked up so far deep into the asylum that everyone will practically forget him.

"Oh I'll show her. I'll show her good and then we'll see about that." The crazed inmate said as he sat up on his cot before thinking of a few ideas. "I could maybe do something about her…. Maybe I could skin her like what that Bill character from the Silence of the Lambs…. Yes, yesss. Get someone very nice to wear her… with that perfect, creamy skin." The Joker said in a sickly chuckle as he pictured the sight in his head. Though of course it seemed a bit too odd for him. "GAH! Pull yourself together man! She practically mocked you behind your back! No… I need to do something more than that. But what!"

*BOOM*

After the quick event that occured, the inmated was sprawled over to the far side of his cell with a dazed look on his face. It took a few moments for the ringing in his ears to go away, along with the dust to somewhat settle. With his vision getting back together, he saw who did the explosion.

"Punch! Judy! Thank you so much for freeing little old me!" The Joker said with a giddy tone as he came up to them and gave the two large men a hug. "So glad that you got my snail mail. Had been a total pain in my ass sending those messages from here." Once the criminal looked beyond his two henchmen, he saw several others nearby in varying outfits with assault rifles that made the clown laugh more. "Oh this is going to be so much fun! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

*BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE* *BWEEE*

When his two large men parted ways, the Joker's costumed lackies consisting of two men wearing shark like masks in a black and white color scheme, a man in a panda suit, one wearing a mountain goat mask, two giant eyeball helmets, a crying baby mask, and a pair wearing 'tragedy and comedy' masks. When they were all gathered in the cramped cell, the Joker made impromptu motions for one of his men to make extra room for all of them. One of them complied by placing a small explosive on the door to his cell before blowing it off it's hinges.

*Breathes deeply* "Ah~ So good to be out of that cell…. Oh don't look at me like that boys. I know there was the hole behind us and it's besides the point." The clown said as he faced his small group. "Now lets cause as much chaos as we can boys! It's breakout time! HAHAHAHAHA! AND DID SOMEONE GET ME MY CLOTHES?!"

One of the eyeball men soon presented the Joker with a large dufflebag, which the clown quickly snatched it. "Good good. Now you boys free whoever that you can while I change into something more comfortable. So no peaking!"

The Joker's gang nodded as several armed guards came rushing into the wing before they were assaulted by varying bullets to render them either dead or severly wounded. As this was going on, several of Joker's men were destroying the locks of the various inmates' cells. With them out and about, many of them started to run after the guards to either get wounded, killed or taking said guards with them in the fighting. Others decided that it was best to find a way out and decided to make their exit from the Joker's cell if they were smart enough to know one was there.

"Ah~ Feels so good to be in familiar clothes again." The clown said as he was in one of his outfits. It consisted of an orange button up shirt underneath a purple suited attire. To help complete his attire, he wore a comically large flower on his jacket. "Now lets keep moving people! I've got an appointment with my favorite doctor!"

-Back with Harley-

"...Those… My notes. Those are my notes! On the Joker!" Harley screamed out as she glared at the hispanic doctor in front of her with a specific fiile on hand. "Why do you have those in your hands?"

"Because you have been fucking lucky with what you've done since you've gotten here!" Dr. Serrano growled out at the blonde intern. "You've taken some of the best cases that have past through our doors ever since you've first started here. Isley, Magpie, Hatter, and the Joker. Especially the Joker!"

"And what about him?!"

"I've tried to fully figure him out for years and nothing could pull through. And when you got assigned to his case and was able to get so much out of him, I considered that to be the last straw." Serrano said as she paced around the room while glaring at the intern. *Scoffs* "At first I was just going to ignore you on your attempt of getting through the Joker like what everyone else has done. But you… You had somehow gotten through and stole what was supposed to be mine! My glory! My acknowledgment!"

"And your going to do what? Take my notes away! The notes that I've worked hard day and night! Ones that you've mocked and planned to steal to publish them in a stupid book?" Nothing was responded with that causing Harley's eyes to widen on the little realization. "Are you fucking insane?! You were really going to make a book out of that?!"

"And I don't see why not."

"Heh. Good luck with that you bitch!" Harley cussed out as it was the first time in a long time she said such a thing. "Naruto wouldn't publish your book and he'll back me up in sueing your ass."

"Oh, the Naruto that you have fallen over heels for?!" The hispanic doctor said getting a shocked look from the intern. "It was fucking obvious that you've fallen for your patient's boyfriend. The few times I saw you two together I knew that you've been smitten by him. So don't think that he'll bail you out from this one."

"A-And why not?"

"Because you won't see another day outside of this room." Dr. Serrano said as she picked up a nearby pair of scissors before she slowly walked towards the intern. "Given this perfect opportunity, I'll be sure to kill you in the confusion and blame it on an inmate that did the deed. Maybe I'll blame it on Isley to show that she found out of you trying to steal her lover and killed you in revenge. No one would really believe a word she says because of her mental illnesses."

The hispanic woman got closer to the blonde intern with the impromptu weapon raised into the air. Harley was backed into a corner as she looked around for a nearby object to use for her defence, but there was none within arms reach. The intern was starting to panic with the woman in front of her was going to kill her and ruin the lives of those that she truly cares for.

"Goodbye Dr. Quinzel. You've been of such help towards-" *BANG*

The sound of the gunshot surprised Harley as she saw Dr. Serrano's head whipped back with her brains blown out of her head. The intern didn't know who to thank at the moment. But when she heard the familiar chuckle, she started to pale in fright.

*Chuckles* "Well it seems I've saved your behind my good doctor." The Joker said as he widely smiled at the intern. "Now boys, nab her and follow me."

Upon his orders, some of the men grabbed ahold of the screaming intern as she tried to break out of their hold. She used what strength she had, but it was practically useless in her attempt. Harley didn't know where they were taking her, but she didn't want to know where and be near that place.

"NO! LET ME GO! PLEASE LET ME GO!"

"Ah here we are." The Joker said as he ushered the group towards their little destination. "Now strap her onto the bed and be sure no one interupts." They did as they were told, but with how Harley was wiggling about made things a little difficult. "Punch! Judy! Hold her down!"

The sounds of gunfire was heard in the background as the goons did their job for the clown. While this was going on, Harley was fully fastened onto the bed as her eyes were wildly scanning the room to figure out what was going to happen to her. It was really hard though since everything seemed to be happening so fast.

"Well Dr. Harlequin. I would like to discuss a few things to you." The clown said as he pulled up a lamp close to her face. "Mostly complaints on my end really."

"B-But I-I helped you. I wanted to help you." She defended in hopes of being released.

*Chuckle* "You helped me? By erasing and changing my mind of what memories that I have?!" He yelled out as he slammed his fists onto the strapped bed. This startled her more in the process. *Breaths deeply* "You know doctor. You've left me in a blackhole of rage and confusion. But what about the medicine you practice? Aren't you supposed to help me instead of making me worse?"

Knowing that she's not going to make it out alive, she started to shed several tears building up in her eyes. "Wh-What are you going to do? Are you going to kill me?"

"Huh?" The clown asked in mocked confusion. "Kill you? Ha! Why would I want to kill you?" He spoke with a shake of his head. "No. No. No. No. I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to do something much worse."

He then went onto the side of the room and pulled something closer to her field of vision. Once it was close enough, her eyes soon landed upon the electroshock therapy device. She then realized what the Joker was going to do, causing her to shake even more despite her being restrained.

"Now now Dr. Harlequin. I'm not going to kill you." He then pulled out the electroshock devise with one on each hand. "I'm going to hurt you really... really... badly." As he drew closer, he paused before coming back up with a little realization. "Oh I almost forgot." He then pulled out a mouth guard and placed it inside of her mouth with a bit of force. "Don't want to ruin those perfect smile of yours when the juices hit your brain."

The device came closer to her head as the clown flipped the switch to get it fully charged up. All that she could do now was pray for a miracle. For someone to save her. For the person she loves the most right now to save her. Harley wished more than anything for Naruto, her puddin', to somehow save her.

"Hope you like the electrical shiatsu massage." The Joker said as he placed the device on her head with an insane cackle.

The moment it touched her skin, she screamed through the mouth guard throughout the entire torture process.

-Elsewhere-

*Sigh* "I wonder how things are going for Harley right now." Naruto said to himself as he looked over the city from up high on a Kazekage lance. "I hope her evaluation is going well."

Things have gone rather well for the evening so far as he stopped a few robberies and helped out on evacuating people from a building on fire. But other than that, nothing else has really happened. He did some patrols, but nothing seemed to have come up at all….

"Though I think I should try to start getting onto the police frequency so I can help out more from there." He muttered as he placed his hand onto his helmet and focused to adjust things so he could try to pick up police chatter. Nothing really happened for a few minutes until…

"Attention! Attention! Calling all units…."

"Ah there we go." Naruto said in his mild accomplishment.

"Massive breakout at Arkham Asylum! I repeat! Massive breakout at Arkham Asylum!"

"Dammit." Naruto growled out as he readied himself and shot through the sky on his wind lance. "I hope I can make it in time to stop a lot of the damage."

He sored through as quickly as possible. But with him being at the other side of the city, it'll take a bit of time. So all he hoped was that nothing else was happening at the moment.

"Attention! Attention! New notice has been brought up! The Joker and his gang have a hostage! I repeat a hostage!" The voice in the police radio was calling out making Naruto grit his teeth on the latest information. "White female, blonde, in her late twenties and appears to be an employee at the asylum."

'White female… blonde… in her late twenties… and an Arkham employee?' Naruto thought as dread started to take over. "Oh please kami, don't let it be her. Don't let it be Harley!"

With this new worry filling his very being, he did his best to push himself to his limits to try and get to the asylum as soon as possible.

"Joker Gang escaping from several white vans. I repeat. Joker gang escaping from several white vans."

"Well that is very helpful." Naruto sarcastically said as he focused on his powers and created a clone of himself to at least spread out to help out on the search better.

It took a bit of searching, but both of them were able to locate a white van respectively. Helped out more when they saw the sides of the vehicles spray painted with 'HAHA' in varying collors. So without hestitation, both bodies attacked the vehicles in hopes of stopping them and retrieve Harley inside of one of them.

The backdoors of the vehicles opened up to reveal a Joker henchman firing upon the hero attacking them. It was a bit easier to evade the bullets due to the two Naruto's being in the air, but they couldn't goof around like of what Naruto has done in the past car chases he's dealt with. So both came up close and fired void rasengans at their respective vehicles to either knock them off of the road or render them unoperable.

Each respective Naruto checked inside and clicked their tongues when they saw that Harley wasn't in either of them. So the search went onto finding his dear friend. Who knows what might happen with the Joker involved.

-Ace Chemicals-

"Ah~ Home sweet home." The clown spoke as he, Punch, and Judy walked through the main chemical area of the plant. They weren't the only ones there as Judy had an unconcious Harley over her shoulder. For what plans there were for the asylum intern, only the Joker knew for the time being.

When the group was escaping the asylum, the Joker had his group separate through the several vans they procured to distract the police on the chase. The Joker hoped that this would buy him enough time for what he had in store with his hostage. Now he just needed to wait for her to wake up.

"Okay Judy, put the good doctor over there and after that, you two go outside and guard the entrance. Don't want the Bat to ruin the fun too soon."

Said henchman nodded as he placed the hostage by the railings. With her unconcious body secured in the placement, the two large men went outside to do their duty. Once the two men were out of the area, the Joker decided to kill some time by talking to the unconcious intern.

"You know doc, this is a very special place for me since this is where I was reborn. Falling into one of these tanks of chemicals all because of Batman screwing me over. It fixed me up real good." The clown said as he peered around the vast area below the railings. "I think it might be that one. No no, that one. Or was it over there. Eh~ It was one of these."

…..

"Well since you're probably wondering why I brought you here, I'll enlighten you." He said as he used his fingers as drum sticks onto the metal railing to build up the little tension. "I'm going to make you like me!"

…..

"Well not exactly like me since you didn't have a fucked up set of moments leading up to this. I mean you didn't have a really bad day to make it be leading up to this really. Unless you did and I didn't know it before I saw you in your office earlier today. But anywho-"

*BAM* *BAM* *BAM* *BAM*

"Huh… Seems the Batman finally showed up." The Joker said as he readied himself for the Bat's appearance.

He didn't get what he expected as the doors were blown opened to see the unconcious bodies of Punch and Judy come flying in with an odd marking on their chests. This caused the Joker to question on what is going on until he saw the new hero on the block come strolling right into the room.

"...You're not Batman."

"I know." Vanitas growled out as he marched towards the crazed clown with killing intent radiating off of him. "Release Harleen Quinzel now!"

"But what if I don't want to." The clown said in a pouty tone.

"Then I'll be sure to break every bone in your body."

"Well stop me if you've heard this one." The Joker said as he squeezed the fake flower and acid was spraid out of it. It was precisional aim as it landed on it's mark, but it seemed to not faze the new hero at all. "Well that seems unfair."

"Like you're one to talk."

And like that, Vanitas dashed forward on the intent of knocking the clown out and rescuing his friend. But the clown evaded the strike before he seemingly pulled out a crowbar from his coat pocket and smacked it across the hero's helmet. With the bit of ringing in his helmet made things a bit distracted as it left an opening for the Joker to exploit. So the clown smacked the hero a bit with his crowbar several times before Vanitas grabbed ahold of it in a tight grip.

Knowing he's not going to have his weapon back anytime soon, the Joker pulled out his gun and started firing upon the hero at close range. But it seemed to not faze him at all as well. Either he has a really good set of armor or he has a stupid power that he's exploring. So with that, the clown kicked the hero away as he switched out his gun for a chain hook he seemingly had hidden on his person. He shot it towards his opponent's leg and pulled hard to get the hero flying towards him before punching him downwards.

With that, the Joker soon wrapped his chain around Vanitas' neck in hopes of chocking him to death. The hero wasn't having any of that as he used the close proximity to punch the clown's face with hard blows. With the escaped inmate dazed and confused, the masked publisher grabbed ahold of the clown and flippen him over to get the man onto the ground before pumbling his face in.

After getting hit by one too many punches, the Joker rolled out of the way before he pulled out a few knives out of his coat. He then slashed at his opponent, who evaded each swing before the hero grabbed each of the man's wrists and twisted them hard. The clown screamed out in pain before he kicked the hero away.

"You know," the Joker said as he walked up to Vanitas, "for someone who's not Batman, you've become quite a pain in my ass. HAHAHAHAHA!"

Vanitas recovered as he ran towards the clown and tackled him onto a nearby pillar. This gave the villain an opportunity to stab the hero several times. He tried, but whatever armor he was wearing ended up breaking his knives upon contact. He was going to question about it, but he ended up too busy with him getting the shit beaten out of him.

As this was going on, Harley was stiring awake due to the fighting going on. With the pain she was experiencing from earlier, it was hard for her to really focus all that well. It took a bit for her eyes to adjust due to the electroshock therapy the Joker did on her, but it seems that she can somewhat see clearer without her glasses on.

'Who… Who is that?' She thought as she saw two people fighting against each other. 'Who's fighting the Joker? Is he here to save me?'

Harley soon moved around in her placement so she could try and properly get onto her feet. It was really hard for her in her disoriented state. She had to put a lot of her weight onto the railing behind her in the process. It seemed to be working despite her legs being all wabbly.

Back with the action, Vanitas finally had it with the Joker and grabbed ahold of the clown's jacket before he picked him up with ease.

"How about you take a dip you bastard?!"

And with that, the Joker was thrown into the air and fell into one of the various chemical tanks down below. The masked Uzumaki hoped that this was the end for the clown by either a broken neck or some other life endangering injury. Unfortunately for him and everyone else, the Joker did end up in one of the tanks, but it ended up getting flushed away in the process to leave the clown outside and a few miles away from the plant.

"Well that's done." Naruto muttered to no one in particular. He then looked to the side to see Harley struggling to stand and wide awake. "Harley!"

Hearing his sudden voice seemed to startle the intern as her heel ended up caught onto the grate below her. In the process, she ended up slipping backwards from the gab in the railings. Realizing on what's happening, Harley tried to grab onto something but she was unsuccessful with her blumbeting to her possible death.

"HARLEY!"

Naruto ran forward and off of the edge of the platform to see Harley sreaming at the top of her lungs. He wanted to use his grappling scarf to save her; but with how fast she was going, Naruto was afraid he might snap her back and end up killing her in the process. He didn't have any other choices to save her from the bubbling vat of chemicals.

*SPLASH*

Harley's yells were silenced as she entered the tank head first. After a few more moments, Naruto entered it as well as he used his helmet to try and find her. He was lucky that he did that he saw her body was slowly being drifted into the hole from the bottom and was being sucked into it. Not wanting to lose her, Naruto used his grappling scarf and had it latched onto her to keep her out of the draining process.

"Don't worry Harley. I'm getting you out of this."

He fazed his way out of the chemical tank with Harley's tied up body not far behind as the two were on solid ground. With them out now, Naruto had dispursed his helmet so that he would aminister CPR on her since she had probably enhaled a lot of chemicals in the dive. So once Naruto came onto her chemically drenched body, to which a lot of her clothing was disolved in the process, he started his task at hand.

'Please Harley.' The publisher thought as he pushed down onto her chest several times before breathing into her mouth. 'You can't die on me like this.'

After several more tiimes doing this...

*Gasp* *Cough* *Cough*

...Harley regained conciousness.

"Harley!" Naruto cried out as he embraced her into a tightish hug. "Oh thank Kami you're alive!"

"N-Naruto?" Harley asked as he broke the hug to have them look at each other face to face. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving you of course."

Soon the memories of the past hour or so came to the forefront of her mind as she replayed everything leading up to this. Harley had wished for someone to save her since she didn't want to die without telling Naruto how she felt about him. As luck would have it for her, he was the one who saved her from certain death.

"Naruto?"

"Ye-MMMPH!"

Harley grabbed ahold of his face and slammed her lips onto his as shock and surprise overcame him. For Harley it was an amazing feeling that she was finally experiencing after so long. As the two had their kiss, a spark started to flicker between the two as it started to grow more from the action escalating. Before long, Naruto returned the kiss to possibly the third woman to love him dearly with possibly as much passion Harley was giving to him.

'Oh god, it feels so good!' Harley thought as she felt like she was on fire. Though she didn't know if it was because of the chemicals or something else. It didn't matter as she possibly has confessed her feelings in her current action.

But it might seem better if she did speak it…

Once separating the soul searing kiss with both of them catching their breaths, Harley decided to finally speak.

"I love you."

Regaining his bearings, Naruto tried to focus on what was just said to him. It was just that the kiss practically blew him away in the heat of the moment honestly that made things hard to focus on afterwards.

"What did you just say?" He asked making the intern chuckle in response to this.

"I said I love you puddin." She said getting a wide eyed look in return before she pulled him back into another kiss.

'S-She loves me?' Naruto thought as his lips formed a smile during their intimate moment.

After the two pulled away again, Harley looked at their current attires from most of her clothing being melted away while Naruto was in a black and white muscle suit…. Wait….

'A black and white muscle suit?' She thought as things started to click one by one. 'Doesn't Vanitas….' "Naruto."

"Y-Yes?" He nervously asked as her tone of voice seemed sickly sweet that is putting him on the edge.

"You've got some explaining to do buster!" She yelled out as she shook him like a loon.