Legacies part 2

Evening, Warehouse District-

Inside of one particular building, things seemed to be rather busy in the dead of night. Scientists and gunmen were doing their respective tasks as their boss, Justin Claybourne, was showing some of his private investors around the facility. He was clearly happy on what's currently happening in the company, with people going towards him for their dying needs.

"...And thanks to the influx of cash, from our dycloseral aquisition, our D&D pipeline's fully funded for the next 2-3 years." Justin stated as he eyed the investors. "These are exciting times gentlemen, and it's just the beginning."

Out of nowhere, all of the electricity powering the lights and the equipment was suddenly shut off. It made the entire warehouse pitch black to the point that you couldn't even see anything within a few inches from one's face. Someone was going to make a move to see what was wrong with the breaker when the sound of a bow string being pulled back was heard.

*THWIP*

"GAH!" One of the gunmen yelled out as an arrow struck him into his chest. As a result, sounds of gunfire filled the darkness with the only forms of light shown was from the gun barrels as they fired their bullets. The gunmen were clearly missing as they were blindly firing at varying directions as someone was firing off arrows to take out the armed men one by one.

Claybourne was freaking out right now as he didn't know what was going on. He thought this warehouse was secure for his late night business deals, but apparently he was wrong. Justin made a run for it, resulting in running into a table, when a small explosion was lit up on the far side of the room. He turned towards it, as a reaction of seeking light, when he saw a shadowy silhouette at the source, making him realize who was behind all of this.

'The Hood.' The crooked businessman thought in worry as he eyed the bow in the man's hand with the quiver on his back. It was really hard to tell of the man's other features, due to the lack of light in the room and the only form of it was leaving an intimidating cover on the vigilante.

"Justin Claybourne!" The Hood growled out in a deep voice as he slowly approached the cowering businessman. "You have failed this city!"

"I-I think you got the wrong guy pal." Justin spoke out in hopes of defending himself. "M-My company makes drugs that help people."

"Not the people in Lamb Valley."

"Well it's not my problem that some people can't afford it."

"It is now." The archer then grabbed Justin and slammed him onto the nearby work table. From there, the vigilante turned on a small blow torch and held it up against the businessman's face. "Your days of holding this city's health hostage are over!" Nothing was spoken from Mr. Clayborne, causing the vigilante to yell out. "DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"

"Okay, okay! Yes!"

Getting the response he wanted, the archer turned off the blow torch and started to walk away. "You have until 10 pm tomorrow to make this right."

Glaring back at the man who made his wonderful night go down the shit, Justin snarked back. "And what happens if I don't?"

The pharmaceutical business owner's response was soon met with something rather painful….

*THWIP*

"GAH! Motherfucker!"

...As an arrow was fired and was lodged deep into his leg.

"I'll aim higher!" The Hood spoke out before walking towards one of the investor's bodies and picked up a copied folder before leaving the premises. The pharmaceutical owner glared at the man as he pulled the arrow out of his leg before limping away to make some calls.

If either of them would've stayed a little longer, they would've seen Vanitas phase right through the ceiling. He grabbed onto the beams from up above to halt his fall before sliding down from one of the support pillars. Once on the ground, the masked Uzumaki looked around to see the damage in the area, dropped his head and shook it a little.

"What a mess…. I should've showed up sooner."

Naruto's been investigating as much information about this epidemic for the past several hours. Checking out pharmacies in Lamb Valley to see who the supposed suppliers of the tuberculosis medication were. There were different kinds of the medication, but the one that peaked his interest were the ones that were the most expensive and possibly better effective than from the cheaper, less effective ones.

He was disgusted on the distributer literally stealing money through this method. Only those rich enough could afford bottles worth while families had to fork over portions of their life's savings to barely survive the outbreak once digesting the pills. After finding some information on the pharmaceutical owner, Justin Claybourne, Vanitas decided to pay the man a visit.

Problem was, he wasn't at his office or at his expensive looking home. He scoured the city for any places Claybourne owned or frequently goes to from supposed records via secretary schedule catalogues. Nothing really turned up, until the publisher got the bright idea that since the buisnessman was acting like a crook, then look where crooks usually hide out. With his experience in this kind of work, Naruto went towards the Warehouse District for his search.

By the time he found Claybourne's registered warehouse, Vanitas came onto the current scene before him.

'What the hell am I gonna do now?' He looked around seeing the destroyed concoction containers all over the place. If they were more intact, Vanitas would've contacted the police to see the evidence in whatever Claybourne was doing. All that the police would find were the varying dead and unconscious bodies lying about with a growing fire some feet behind him.

Not wanting to have any of the unconscious people roasted alive, Vanitas summoned several Dusks and Creepers to get them out of the building. By the time all of the living people were out, the warehouse was fully set in flames in destroying what evidence there could've possibly been salvaged if lucky enough. It's been a long day for the publisher and he'll need to get some rest for what he'll need to do for tomorrow.

Before he could go anywhere, a Dusk came before him with a small folder with some edges burnt from the flames. Raising a hidden brow under his helmet, Naruto opened it up and scanned through the first page and then the second. "Hmm…. Interesting."

-Morning, Oliver's Lair-

Diggle was coming down the stairs while he eating a breakfast burrito. He came here to not only fetch Oliver and get him back home for his family's brunch meeting, but to see on the results of last night. By the time he got onto the bottom floor; he saw Oliver, still in uniform, going through the computers with a hunched over form and expression.

*Sigh* "I take it Claybourne wasn't impressed with your Robin Hood act."

"No, he wasn't. So I did some more digging." Oliver lifted up the folder he procured from last night, making John take it before Oliver explained what he found. "Claybourne didn't just price gouge with his drug…. He created the epidemic."

"Are you serious?"

"Very. *Sigh* He's connected to something called the 'AK Desmond Group'. They're black marketeers who specialize in creating bioweapons."

Diggle didn't say anything as he was going through the file before lifting his eyes to see the pages pulled up on the computer screen. It took a few moments before things clicked. "Damn… They're weaponizing tuberculosis. And he tested it in Lamb Valley."

"He created the marketplace Diggle and he didn't care who died in the process."

"And now you're gonna kill him?"

Oliver turned around in his seat to face his 'bodyguard' with a questioned look on his face. "How can you read what I gave you and have a problem with that?"

John soon placed the file down onto the nearby table before responding back. "Have you thought of the ramifications of your actions, of actually crossing names off a list? Being judge, jury and executioner?"

"Men like Claybourne buy judges, they buy juries. The law doesn't apply to them."

"I'm not saying that you don't do some good Oliver."

"So what are you saying?"

"What I'm trying to say is that maybe one day your actions might have some unintended consequences… Maybe you should try and stop doing all of this and actually do some good that doesn't require you killing men to bring others to justice. Bring proof so that it'll be good enough that the jury won't be bought out that easily with what's right in front of them."

Oliver shook his head as he went to take off his uniform. "If that were ever so simple Diggle."

"It can be Oliver. Don't think that you're the only person in this kind of business. There's Vanitas, Batman and Robin over in Gotham and they've been cleaning up that city for quite some time now."

Oliver didn't say anything as he was getting partially undressed when his eyes landed on Diggle's food on the nearby table. He saw that it was a breakfast burrito and something seemed to click in the right places, making him realize something was wrong. Going to the computer, he saw the current time and came to a realization.

"Crap! I'm late for mom's brunch meeting!"

*Chuckle* "Partially the reason why I came here in the first place." Diggle responded as he saw Oliver quickly getting out of the rest of his uniform and grab his civilian clothes. Fumbling along the way as he tried to get dressed while running up the stairs with the calm veteran grabbing his meal and heading on up.

-Queen Manor-

"I'm so sorry that Walter couldn't join us Moira."

"Oh yes, well, the Australian trip came up suddenly. But he sends his apologies."

Standing in the dining room of the Queen estate, Moira Queen was greeting her guests for this little brunch meeting of hers. Reason behind this is to reacquaint with an old friend of hers, Janice Bowen, and her son Carter after a good number of years. Moira couldn't even remember the last time Janice came over, hence part of what's going on today.

Moira Queen's the widow of Robert Queen, wife to her second husband Walter Steele and mother to her son and daughter, Oliver and Thea Queen. She's a blonde woman in her late forties with bluish green eyes that tend to show hints of worry and sadness every so often, due to what she's been through since the Queen's Gambit incident, yet she hides it through pushing onward with her life. Moira is currently wearing a purple sweater with a black knee length skirt with a pair of black one inch heels.

Standing next to Moira is her seventeen year old daughter Thea, a brunette with her hair reaching past her shoulders to help frame her face. Having light brown eyes, that similar to her mother, showed signs of worry and sadness at times. But in contrast towards her mother, instead of pushing onward Thea just parties and messes around with her life to cope with her troubles. The Queen heiress was currently wearing a black sleeveless shirt with a pair of khaki pants with black slip on shoes.

"And where's Oliver?" Carter Bowen asked as he simple mindedly looked around for any sign of him. "He's not out of town too, is he?"

"Oh I'm sure he's just-" "Stuck in traffic." Interrupted the Queen heir as he walked into the dining room, wearing a casual business suit. Moira quietly forgave her son's interruption that he had made it to this meeting of hers. "One of the things I didn't miss on the island: Sunday drivers. And sorry I'm late mom."

"It's quite alright dear." The Queen matriarch responded kindly as she kissed her son's cheek.

Thea pulled her brother close for a small hug before whispering in his ear. "Thank god you're here."

Now normally for the brother and sister of the Queen household, they wouldn't bother in coming to any of their parent's meal meetings in the manor. Both would just do their own thing so they wouldn't interrupt said meetings like some instances when they were kids.

However, their mother has been feeling down ever since Walter suddenly left for his business trip to Australia. There wasn't much on it, but Moira needed some comfort to help ease the little pain. So she got this brunch meeting set up and convinced her children to show up, much to their little frustration. But sacrificing whatever morning plans they had to make their mother happy, Oliver and Thea will try to suck it up for her sake.

"It's so good to see you." Janice Bowen said as she came up close to give Oliver a hug. "We all thought you were-"

"Oh well, we are just happy he's home." Moira finished off getting her old friend nodding in response.

Oliver soon noticed that the dining room table had two extra seating placements. He only thought that it was just him, his sister, their mother and the Bowen's for brunch. Turning towards his mother, Oliver asked the little thought crossing his mind.

"Mom."

"Yes?"

"Why are there extra placements here?" Oliver asked as he gestured the table. "There's five of us here, yet seven spots total."

"Yeah mom. I was wondering the same thing." Thea said in agreement. She thought it was odd earlier, but didn't comment on it due to her not wanting to seem rude.

Moira smiled a little as she answered everyone's thoughts. "Ah yes, I forgot to say earlier that we're having an extra pair of guests coming over."

"And when were you going to tell us?"

"Well I didn't know if she would show up, but I got a call last night while you two were away that she'd come over with a guest she's bringing along." Moira answered her daughter's question, but this honestly left more questions for everyone else.

*Ding Dong* *Ding Dong*

"Oh I think that might be them." The Queen matriarch said as she made her way out of the dining room. "You stay here and I'll fetch our arrivals."

With Moira out of the room, a few moments passed before Carter came up to Oliver and gave the Queen heir a firm handshake. "Oliver Queen, it's been some time."

"That's right Carter. Haven't seen you since highschool I believe."

"Pretty much."

"And if I remember correctly, you were accepted into both Princeton and Harvard."

"Of course and I went to Harvard for med-school." Carter said with a bit of pride in his voice. "Though if memory serves, you dropped out of three Ivy league schools."

"Four actually." Oliver corrected since the additional one was only known to his family and his very small circle of friends. "And that was a little lifetime ago."

"Right and when you came back from your time 'abroad', you returned as a celebrity."

"...I don't know what you mean by that Carter."

Wanting to clear up Oliver's thoughts, Carter explained a little. "Billionaire scion, castaway for five years. You know, there's a bidding war for the rights of your life's story. At least that's what my agent says."

"Then you'll need a good publisher to help get the copyrights taken care of." A voice called out, causing the Queen children and the Bowens to turn towards the source. "That and the original sources' consent if you want to make it into a book or a movie someday."

He appeared to be Oliver's and Carter's age with the strangest appearance for him. He had spiky silver hair with some of it tied into a ponytail with hazel eyes and whiskered cheeks that looked like birthmarks. He was currently wearing a dark suit with a white undershirt to help pop out his features.

The person with him was a little blonde girl that was ten years old in a wheelchair. She was currently wearing a blue button up shirt with a dark sweater over it along with a black skirt. The blonde girl also wore white stockings with a black pair of slip ons to help complete her appearance.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Carter questioned as the silver haired man was about to speak, but Moira beat him to the punch.

"Yes, I forgot to tell you all, but I figured that this was good enough of a surprise." The Queen matriarch said with a smile. "Let me introduce Queen Perdita of Vlatava and her friend Naruto Uzumaki of Spiral Publishing."

The reactions given were pretty expected for Moira, Perdita and Naruto as the sibling pair widened their eyes slightly with Thea's mouth partially opened. As for the Bowen's, they were a bit more controlled to some degree in their own respective ways (possibly from years of family discipline). Of course the first person to snap out of the shocked feeling going on was the Queen heiress with a question that was unknowingly shared with everyone's thoughts.

"How the hell did you get those two to come here?" Thea asked, causing Moira to look at her daughter of cussing in front of not only a child, but also the very queen of Vlatava. "Uh… Sorry mom." She then turned her attention towards Perdita and apologized. "Also sorry, your highness."

Perdita could only chuckle a little as she knew what the corporate heiress was referring to. "It's quite alright Ms. Queen. An honest mistake that slipped on by."

"Uh… Thank you."

After that, little greetings were firstly made towards the child queen before going towards the publisher in the room. It was a little unexpected to see a renowned publisher and writer, but more so of him seemingly good friends the Vlatavan in the room. Simple greetings were made towards him by the Bowens and Thea Queen before the corporate heir had his.

"So you're the Oliver Queen that I've heard as of late." Naruto said as he firmly shook Oliver's hand. "Good grip you got there."

"So does yours and I hope on what you've heard wasn't that bad about me."

"Just the usual bits here and there of you being a playboy." The publisher said before he ended the handshake. "Though it might be a bit higher than my one friend back at Gotham."

Oliver didn't press onto that bit since he's wanting to change who he really is from his previous life. But to help hide his identity as 'The Hood', he'll have to play the role so others would be mislead. A small price to pay for what he wants to do for his home city.

"You know..." Oliver started off as he made his way towards the dining room table with the others following. "I never really heard of you before."

"Given that you've been living on an island in the North China sea for the past five years, how wouldn't you know about me." Naruto wheeled Perdita to one of the spots at the table, once moving the chair to the side of the room. "I started out my publishing firm, eventually company, roughly five years ago as well. So there's no problem on you not knowing Oliver."

"You should probably check out one of his books sometime Oliver." Moira suggested as she sat at the head of the table while facing her son. On the one side of the table sat the Bowens while on the other Thea sitting next to her brother, Naruto sitting next to her and Perdita in the middle. "Or at least some of the writers that are signed up with his company. Especially with what free time you possibly have on most days."

"I just might mom."

Naruto then looked at the Bowens and remembered the bit of what he heard earlier before introductions were made. "Carter, you said something about having an agent and something about writing a book?"

"Agent? I thought you were a neurosurgeon Carter." Oliver questioned as he took a sip of his drink.

"I know, it's crazy." Carter started off as he went into his little tale. "One minute I'm getting this book published on how long-term potentiation initiates the creation of a slow-moving protein synthesis, and the next there's an agent trying to get me into starring in a medical show of sorts."

As this little bit went on, Perdita had no idea what Carter was saying and turned towards Thea and whispered to her. "Do you know what he's talking about?"

"None at all."

"Good, because I don't know either."

This got a small smirk out of the corporate heiress as she tried to hide said smirk from her mother and the Bowens. In Thea's time in school, she sucks at science and can't really make heads or tails out of it. Though with Perdita, Thea knew figured she would possibly be in the same boat, even if it's at an early age, unless she wants to delve into it later on.

"Well, truth is, I just feel it's our duty as Starling City's more fortunate to help those most in need." Carter said getting a few to nod at this.

"Like those in Lamb Valley perhaps?" Perdita asked, getting several others to look at her.

"What do you mean exactly?" Oliver asked since the bit with Lamb Valley right now is still strong with him on what he has to do with Justin Clayborne. He knows the details behind it, but Oliver needs to keep up his little act like he doesn't know at the moment.

"Perdita and I were going around the city yesterday, since she was finally able to get out of the hospital, and both of us wanted to see the sites." Naruto started off as some of the manor staff were bringing in food for the dining room occupants. "We asked for directions at some point, but one person told us to stay away from Lamb Valley, especially with Perdita here coming out of surgery last week."

"Yes. The TB outbreak going on right now." The young queen said before saying a brief 'thank you' to the maid. "If we didn't know, my condition would've been worse and things wouldn't have gone great for my recovery period."

"That's just awful." Janice said in sympathy with her son nodding.

"I'm probably sure some people will do what they can to help out on this problem." Moira said as she cut into her meal.

"There probably are." Oliver and Naruto said at the same time, causing them to look at each other funny before shaking their heads on the oddly timed moment.

"So now that you're back, what are your plans Oliver? Will you be taking a job with Queen Consolidated?" Janice asked since she wanted to change subjects now.

Turning his attention towards Janice, he honestly answered her. "I'm opening up a nightclub actually." This got a little laugh out of Thea while earning a disappointed look from his mother.

"Well that's an interesting idea that you have there Oliver." Naruto commented as he took a small sip of his drink. "A decent business opportunity to delve into. On most days it can be just a regular night club while others could be booked out for certain events. Like persay, campaign rallies or fundraising parties."

"...Thank you Naruto." Oliver said as he appreciated the thought. To honestly admit, Oliver didn't fully think things over for his night club idea to help cover what he'll do on his nightly activities as 'The Hood'. He only thought of just having it be a night club so far, but this idea could help him a little down the road if needed.

"Your welcome."

"But isn't Queen Consolidated his right to take over someday?"

Naruto looked towards Janice before answering her. "It's his right if he so happens to take it Mrs. Bowen. But let me ask you this: Should he take a leading position in his family's company now?"

"Um… I don't know." She answered to which Naruto responded back.

"To me, he shouldn't have a position in his family's company. Not right now that is." He said as he took a bite out of his meal.

Moira took slight offense to this and spoke out at this. "And what do you mean by that?"

Putting his utensils down, he looked towards the Queen matriarch before explaining his thoughts. "First off Mrs. Queen, Oliver's been away from civilization for five years. He hasn't learned much, asides from knowing how to survive and the many ways to properly camp out in the wilderness with just nature's resources. Second, if memory serves, he's a college dropout. So no offense to you Oliver; but you probably don't have the proper education and training on leading others, along with knowing how to manage others working under you."

"None taken actually." Oliver said as he was a little relieved someone was taking his side from a previous argument he had when he first came back. He had stated some of those facts before, but his mother wouldn't listen all that well.

Putting his attention back to Moira, Naruto continued. "So to me, I think the idea of him opening up a nightclub could be a decent way for him to slowly get back into things. Reacquainting himself with a good job and learning the ropes of running a business with something he was quite familiar with before… you know… And this could be a good way for him to learn and gain the experiences he needs in life. So if he wants to work for his family's company someday, this nightclub could be a good start until such time.

But know this, a child is not their parent. They may take qualities and traits from said parents, whether they be adopted/fostered or biological, but they are not their parents. Most people would accuse something like that when rounding up the person with their family and labeling them as a whole as 'good' or bad' for some sort of legacy. But whatever choices they make, they don't define them. They don't have to define who your family will be, because there's always one moment when you can turn it all around for the benefit of your loved ones.

Take me for example, I never knew my parents or get taken in by anyone when I grew up. No legacy to fall back on if needed and didn't get any of the supposed privileges that came with it. So in the first fifteen years of my life, I had nothing before I decided to make something of it and left home to make a new one. And now, roughly ten years later, I made a name of myself that I've become quite successful in what I do now and I'm glad for it. Hoping that it'll be good enough for when I have a family of my own, it'll help start off a decent legacy for them to maybe live up to or take their own paths."

Part of the last bit in Naruto's little speech was a partial lie. He did learn who his parents were, despite learning and meeting their chakra spirit whatevers, but they were during the Pein/Nagato attack and Bijuu training respectively before the Fourth Shinobi War. If he did stay in his home reality after the war, Naruto would've been able to reap the benefits of his birth parents' legacies. But since he didn't have it here, he had to make a legacy for himself.

Nothing much was said towards what Naruto spoke as everyone else digested his little speech. Thinking quietly towards themselves while they ate their morning brunch. Though everyone chatted to make things more pleasant for the long run of this little get together. It wasn't long afterwards when the meals were almost done that Janice and Carter had to leave; due to some prior engagements they need to attend to so they pleasantly said their goodbyes. But they said they'll meet the Queen family at the benefit event tonight.

"What event were the Bowens talking about?"

Answering Perdita's question, Thea came on in to answer. "A friend of ours, Tommy Merlyn, is hosting a benefit event tonight to help raise money for another friend of ours, Laurel Lance, due to her legal firm being recently cut on funding."

"That sounds awful."

"Don't know why Stagg Industries did this, but they were the main provider of CNRI… The place where Laurel works at." Moira said, getting nods from Naruto and Perdita. "Maybe both of you could come." The queen/author pair were taken back on this before the matriarch explained. "Possibly both of you could donate some money to help her out if you want."

"...It sounds tempting Mrs. Queen, but I don't have full access to my royal treasury until I get back to Vlatava." Perdita said in an apologetic tone, to which Moira nodded in understanding. "After all, what ten year old girl would want to have access to checkbooks right now."

Thea only snorted in a little agreement. When growing up, she didn't know much on spending money until she was a preteen. But prior to that, Thea didn't even fully know what a checkbook was or even a credit card.

"And what about you Naruto?"

"...I could maybe donate a substantial amount to CNRI if I could chat with this Laurel, or a close associate of hers, at the event tonight." The publisher said getting a small smile out of Moira and Oliver. "Though is it invitation only or is it a semi-open event that you donate to actually attend?"

"The former actually." Thea answered before she opened up her phone. "Though I'll need to call Tommy to try and add you two to the guest list if you want."

The queen/publisher pair looked at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation with each other. Getting a nod from Perdita, Naruto gave the answer. "Get us in if you can Thea."

"Great." The heiress said before asking them an additional question. "Though what are you two going to be doing for the rest of the day?"

"...Well~ we plan on just seeing what else this city has to offer for the next few days before Perdita has to go back to Vlatava while I head to National City for work." Was Naruto's honest answer, getting nods from the Queen family members. "Yesterday we hit the aquarium, the botanical gardens and the museum. Though we were told at the museum, by one of the employees, that your family amassed an interesting collection over the years."

"Yes and while my family has a decent collection back home, asides from family portraits, it gets boring to see them too often." The Vlatavan added in before continuing. "So seeing the works at the museum was nice, but I'm wondering if we could see your family's collection… If that isn't too much trouble Mrs. Queen."

Moira smiled at this while her children smiled as well when seeing her reaction. It seemed that the publisher/queen pair are helping their mother get out of her depressing mood better than the Bowens. Hopefully this will help their mother to settle down a bit better than from before.

"Well I don't know what you'll be expecting Perdita, but my late husband had amassed quite the collection of 19th century American landscapes." Moira said with a smile before walking out of the room. "Though let me just get my staff to open up the rest of the house so we can give you a tour."

Perdita returned the smile with her own. "That would be lovely."

-Evening, CNRI Benefit Gala-

The sun had set for the day and things seem pretty good so far for Oliver Queen, despite of what happened this early morning.

"You seem rather chipper Oliver." Diggle said as he gazed at his client/friend.

"Well if things can go according to plan, then it'll be a whole lot better."

The brunch meeting went really well throughout the entire time. There was some little annoying moments, mostly with Carter and his inflating ego, but things got better with Naruto and Perdita being there. His mother's mood changed for the better with the two additional guests and that made things better for the siblings. Even Naruto's explanation during brunch made him feel a little happy, but made him think things a bit more than he thought he would.

During the time strolling through the family art gallery, Moira popped up the question if the company could have business with Vlatava. Though much to his mother's slight displeasure, Perdita had turned down the offer since she has enough on her plate that she'll need to do once she's back in her home country. But the young queen did ask if the offer will still be on the table down the road, so once Perdita's country is a bit more stabilized that she'll open talks for a business opportunity.

After hearing the explanation, Moira accepted it and moved onwards with the tour before Naruto and Perdita left for the day. Though before leaving, Thea asked for Naruto to sign her copies of some of his books while discreetly hiding her copies of Icha Icha from her mother's view. It did unnerve Oliver when he saw those books, due to him previously seeing them in the Yamashiro household back in China and Anatoly Knyazev's office back in Russia. He didn't know what they were on the separate times, due to the different written languages, but after a brief explanation Oliver didn't want to read them all that much.

'I'm going to burn those books when I get the chance.' Oliver thought with a twitch in his eye.

"And you're gonna do an abrupt exit?"

The only answer the veteran got was a smirk from Oliver before he walked inside. "I'm getting better at it with practice."

Inside of the gala event, it was decently packed and people were enjoying themselves. From the food and drinks being served to the music playing. It appeared to be a good fundraising event so far with how many people wrote checks towards the law firm.

"Honey, keep the alcohol flowing." A man said towards the waitress as he grabbed a glass of champagne. He was currently wearing a dark suit with a red-lined shirt and matching tie.

This is Tommy Merlyn, heir to the Merlyn Global Group and Oliver Queen's best friend. He is a twenty-six year old man with semi-short brown hair and brown eyes that had glee and traces of a mischievous nature on the surface. Though if you delve deep and really knew the man, you'd see the pain he had to go through in his life.

He hosted this event, through his father's company, to help out his old friend, Laurel. This was due to the funding of the law firm she works at was cut off recently. Laurel enjoys what she does in life right now and Tommy wants to do what he can to make that happen, even if he has to do this event for her. Sure he said that it makes his company look good, but he's doing this for the right reasons to help out a law firm that he knows that they're doing their jobs right.

As Tommy took a sip of his drink, his eyes caught sight of one of the most beautiful people he ever knew: Dinah Laurel Lance.

Laurel Lance is the daughter of Detective Lance and registered lawyer of CNRI. She is a beautiful, twenty-six year old woman with flowing brown hair and matching colored eyes. She has dated both Oliver and Tommy in the past with both relationships ending not that great, even though she is decent friends with the two of them now. Laurel was currently wearing a black evening dress that hugged her curves ever so nicely that would make single men look her way along with very little makeup to help pop out her defining facial features.

And from the expression she was getting from Tommy helped prove her point.

"I can't… Wow." Tommy said with a smile. "You just look… really lovely."

"Lovely?... Well it's nice that you've expanded your vocabulary from words like 'hot' and 'mega hot'."

"You can just say 'thank you', you know." He said with a mocked hurtful tone, to which Laurel smirked at him before placing a palm onto his shoulder.

"Thank you, you know?" She responded making him snort at the little joke she pulled. "Still though Tommy, thank you for everything you've done for tonight."

"You're welcome."

The two just stood there for several moments doing nothing when Laurel's friend and coworker, Joanna, showed up to greet the two. She is an lovely african american woman in her mid-twenties in a slimming red dress. Joanna clearly had a pleasant expression on her face as she was enjoying the event so far.

"Tommy, this is wonderful. This means the world to us."

"Well you're welcome as well Joanna." Tommy said before he saw Thea by the check-in table. "Oh god. Excuse me for just one second. I need to check up on someone."

As he walked away from the two, Laurel glanced where he was going and got the idea on what he was probably doing. 'He's such a decently good brother figure to her.' Laurel thought with a small smile.

Back with Tommy, he greeted Thea who was currently in a black sleeveless dress. "Thank you for coming."

"And thank you for inviting me Tommy."

"Well I figured the entire Queen family and their checkbooks should be present."

"Oh right. And how is that going for you so far?" Thea responded with an eyeroll.

"I should let you know that it's going amazing and it's all thanks to you." He stated with smirk. "Thea Queen, the unlikely voice of reason."

"Really? And what did I do exactly?"

"You gave me great advice for starters. And I thought about what the girl was interested in that things turned alright in the end."

Thea was wondering what he was referring to, but looked at where he turned to see Laurel chatting with Joanna.

"Ah… Of course." The Queen heiress said before a thought crossed her mind. "Have you properly added in Naruto Uzumaki and Queen Perdita into the guest list like I asked you to?"

"Yeah… I have." He said as he remembered the phone call from earlier. It was rather sudden on the request and he didn't believe on Thea doing such a thing. But after a small explanation on what happened earlier in the day, Tommy believed her and added the two in on the guest list. "Though I do wonder if they'd showed up or not."

"...I think they have." Thea said, getting the Merlyn heir to look where Thea was looking at.

"Well that solves one problem."

With the publisher/queen pair, they had arrived a while ago and went straight towards the little buffet table to grab a light snack. It wasn't much, but they just wanted to see what was currently available. Luckily there was some carrot cake and some sparkling grape juice for Perdita to enjoy while Naruto had some champagne.

"This is looking well so far."

Perdita nodded in agreement as she took a small bite out of the desert. "And I'm glad that the host of the evening got us in here. Especially not having my full name put on the guest list."

"Yeah…. That would've been awkward if we had to deal with people freaking out because of you." He said only to get a slap to his side. "Alright~ I'll lay off the teasing for now. Sheesh."

"I know, but still… It's nice to go to an event where people wouldn't automatically recognize me on the spot and try sweet talking to me."

Nothing was said as the two looked at the surrounding area for their own respective thoughts. While Perdita was thinking of what kind of upcoming events she'll be attending to in the future, Naruto's was something else. Something that he tends to have whenever he rarely comes to these kinds of events.

Naruto's brief thoughts were interrupted when a man came up to them like he apparently knew them.

"Hello." The man started off getting the publisher/queen pair's attention. "Don't know if you know me, but I'm a friend of the Queen family."

Took the two a moment before things clicked. "You're Tommy Merlyn, aren't you? We've heard good things about you from Oliver and Thea." Naruto asked, getting a smile out of the man.

"Yup and you two are Naruto and Perdita." Tommy said before giving a small bow to the young queen.

"The pleasure is ours Mr. Merlyn."

"Please your highness, Mr. Merlyn is my father. Call me Tommy."

*Chuckles* "Very well. And thank you for letting us attend this event."

"Well you've got to thank Thea for giving me the head's up or else things would've been awkward." He said getting nods from the two guests. "So have you met Laurel yet?"

"No… But I think we see her, right over there with Carter Bowen." Naruto pointed out, getting Tommy to look and let out a frustrated sigh.

"...Great. Him."

"I take it you and him don't get along."

Tommy looked at the young queen and nodded slightly. "You can say that. Oliver and I never really liked him, being so full of himself."

"Being a giant prick you mean?" Questioned the publisher, getting a small chuckle from the global group heir. "Don't worry, Oliver gave me a little history lesson back at his place and I felt the same way when I chatted with Carter during brunch."

"Glad that Oliver and I aren't the only ones."

"I've had my fair share of that grouping of people in my life Tommy and there will be no shortage of them."

"All so very true." Tommy muttered as he took taking a sip out of his champagne glass.

"Though that is only the tip of the iceberg that I've had to deal with for almost a decade."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?"

*Sigh* "Well Tommy, answer me this: What do you see? And don't worry about the answer."

Took a few moments of looking over the room before giving out a nice shrug. "A pretty good party with nice music to keep things a little upbeat. People wanting to contribute to CNRI so the law firm will keep on running so it's lawyers can keep up the good, honest fight."

"That's a pretty good assessment Tommy."

"Thanks."

"Though that's not all that I see here." Naruto said getting Tommy's undivided attention because of his curiousity. "I do agree with you on what you said on people coming here to help out CNRI, but that's only touching the surface in these kinds of events…

I also see people who only showed up to make things appear that they're supporting the law firm, but only wanted others to think that way as said people aren't donating that much money. Others are mostly a mixed bag if one really looked hard enough like wanting to get into other people's pants for example." Naruto started off before he realized what he just said. So he and Tommy looked towards the young Queen to see if she was offended or anything.

"...What? I already know about the birds and the bees from one of my maids back home. So don't worry about that." Perdita stated, causing the two older men let out a sigh in relief on this since that would've been awkward to discuss the phrase the publisher spoke. After a brief moment, Naruto continued with his explanation.

"Thing is Tommy, this is what I had to deal with and experience in nearly the past decade whenever I rarely attend social events like this. I tend to keep hearing people that really didn't want to contribute towards the event's cause as they only cared for one thing: themselves. Those people would only talk about nothing at all, just random stuff about themselves to impress others. From their hair, their clothes, their money, their stupid little problems that doesn't really mean anything towards what's really going on.

But I try to attend these things because their goals are noble and I want to at least help out one way or another. I talk to the person mostly behind the event to see if I would contribute a good amount of money towards their cause. If things are truly genuine, then things go quite well for them in terms of donations. But if the person is just trying to suck up to me for a substantial amount of money, then they're in for a rude awakening."

Once that was said and done, Naruto paused his movements as his clones' memories started to flood into his head. After processing everything, Naruto realized that it was time for him to leave. He gazed at Tommy to see that he was processing what the publisher just said.

"Hey Tommy."

"Huh.. Yeah?"

"Mind watching Perdita for a moment? Possibly chat with her if you want? I need to go use the restroom for a bit."

Tommy nodded, getting the Uzumaki to briefly excuse himself. Naruto went towards the restroom so he can safely create a clone to take his place at this event. But back with the global heir, there was only one thing Tommy came to realize from the publisher's explanation.

'He's probably not wrong in what he said.'

-AK Desmond Group-

It took a bit of time to get over here from the fundraiser event, but Oliver was finally able to make it by 10pm like in his threat last night. The archer stayed around for a bit, chatted with some people to make Oliver known that he was there for a decent alibi. He knew that Justin Claybourne wouldn't hold up onto his deal after what he had found out earlier today. So he needed to be taken care of tonight.

Though with how he was able to find this place, he went to see Ms. Smoak at the IT department again and lied to her to find out where the AK Desmond Group was located. She seemed a bit more chipper than usual when helping him out earlier today. Though after a little accident with her desk, Oliver learned why she complied a bit easier: seeing the signed copy of her Loveless novel by Naruto Uzumaki himself.

Preparing himself, Oliver took several deep breaths to steady himself before he kicked the wooden door in to give himself access onto the 30th floor.

*BANG*

"The hell?!" One of the guards yelled out before an arrow was shot and was buried deep inside of his chest.

As 'The Hood' was walking down the hallway, another guard came running towards him. The archer grabbed the armed man and tossed him through a glass door, shattering upon impact before quickly knocking an arrow onto his bow.

*TWHIP*

'Dead.' Oliver thought as he walked over the corpse. Going down another hallway, the vigilante found his desired target for the evening.

"Kill that Robin Hood son of a bitch!" The pharmaceutical owner yelled towards his two guards as he ran away.

The men complied with their boss' orders and pulled out their handguns, but they were too slow to fire their weapons.

*TWHIP* *TWHIP* *TWHIP*

Oliver fired an arrow into one of the men's chests, getting to instantly kill him, while having to fire two on another when he wouldn't go down all the way. Once those two were dealt with, 'The Hood' kept walking down the corridor before passing some doors to reach an escalator… An escalator with several men guarding it and coming down to hopefully stop his advancements.

'Like that'll ever happen.' The vigilante thought as he fired several arrows at rapid succession to kill the closest ones before firing at the ones coming down the escalator. Oliver ran and jumped onto the divider before kicking a man that came up from behind. In that moment, the archer pulled out an arrow, stabbed the man in the chest several times before pulling it out and firing it at another hired gun.

The men kept on coming as Oliver had to duck from incoming punches and kicks in his awkward position on the upward escalator. Having to grab a man's neck, the archer placed him into a chokehold before breaking the man's neck. The archer had to kick several men to the walls before firing arrows at each of them so they wouldn't interfere with his 'meeting' with Justin Claybourne.

There wasn't much left in terms of enemy forces for Oliver to deal with. They were clearly untrained goons bought by Claybourne's dirty money. So by the time he reached the rooftop, the archer saw Claybourne standing in front of a pool with two guards right in front of him. Without warning, the two men aimed their guns and fired, but Oliver rolled out of the way and knocked his bow...

*TWHIP* *TWHIP*

...Leaving Justin Claybourne all alone and defenseless.

"You gonna tell me again that 'I failed this city'?" Mocked the businessman, causing the archer to narrow his eyes in disgust.

"You infected the people in Lamb Valley to turn a profit."

"You want to make this city great again? Well this is how: with business, money."

"You are sentencing innocent families, children to death!" The Hood growled out, only making his target chuckle a little at this.

"Nobody cares about those people. They're a blight…. And I'm just thinning the herd, the surplus population if you will."

"So am I." Was all 'The Hood' said as he quickly drew and arrow and fired. But instead of it landing it's desired mark… it penetrated an oddly thin, sinuous body in a light grey jumpsuit that flew in front of Claybourne before it combusted into grey and black smoke.

'The hell?' Was, unknowingly, the same thought shared between the vigilante and the crooked businessman. Soon a helmeted figure came down from the sky with a lance in his hand, landed on the rooftop before disbursing his lance.

"Man… Got here just in time." Vanitas spoke out before turning his attention towards 'The Hood'. "So you're the vigilante that I've heard so much about… Thought you'd be buffer."

"What are you doing here Vanitas?" The Hood growled out as he glared at the Gotham hero. "This doesn't concern you."

"It does if you're trying to kill this guy." The black/white themed hero said as he pointed towards the crooked pharmaceutical owner.

"Oh thank you." Claybourne said in relief several times, much to his savior's annoyance.

"Don't thank me for this Mr. Claybourne. *Chuckles* You're ass is going to jail." Vanitas said getting a shocked look from the pharmaceutical owner and a raised brow from the vigilante.

"...What?"

"I got evidence for your crimes Claybourne and it's already in SCPD's hands right now."

Part of what Vanitas had to deal with for most of the evening, while he was at the gala event, had several clones search through Claybourne's office and home for anything to help back up what he found in the burnt folder his Dusk found last night. Even had one follow the man's movements throughout the day just in case the man tried to flee the city. There was only very little Naruto scrounged up to help back up the evidence he got on hand.

But when Claybourne came to this building earlier, Naruto's clone went to work to find anything else of value. He was so glad he had his 'memory manipulation' ability on hand when a few guards spotted the clone going through Justin's private office safe. When everything was done, Naruto's clone made his way to SCPD and phased all of the comprised evidence onto Detective Lance's desk from the ceiling with a note for him to read.

His clone silently laughed when he saw Quentin's reaction… especially with the spilled coffee on his shirt from the brief surprise. After it disbursed, Naruto had to leave the benefit and quickly make his way here to help apprehend the man before The Hood killed him. It was very lucky he barely made it on time.

'Selina would've been proud if she was here to see it.' Naruto thought with a small smile. Though it became a frown when his shoulder was grabbed by the crooked businessman.

"Y-You can't do this to me!" Claybourne yelled out before he was punched in the face and held his bleeding nose on the ground.

"I already have Claybourne." The masked Uzumaki stated as he turned around to see The Hood aim an arrow at him. "That's cute… Can you try and be more intimidating than that? I've dealt with worse."

"He needs to pay for what he's done to this city!" The archer growled out as he kept his weapon steady.

"And he will, but not by death Mr. Hood." Vanitas said as he was walking up to him, but not too far from Claybourne. "Let the courts help serve out justice on this one."

"Men like him buy judges, they buy juries! The law doesn't apply to them!"

"Then try and trust the system." The Gotham hero urged out in hopes of convincing him to let this man go through the right way. "Let those in the system help carry out the justice people like Claybourne deserve… Not like this."

*DONG*

The nearby bell tower sounded off as the two just stood there, hardly moving an inch as the archer spoke out. "I'm not going to take that chance Vanitas."

*DONG*

*Sigh* "Seems I've got no choice in the matter." The Gotham hero said as he got into a relaxed fighting position. "You have so much potential than you would've made a difference if you did the right thing Mr. Hood."

*DONG*

After the last bell tone was rung, the archer fired his arrow making the helmeted hero to move out of the way before running towards his opponent. Vanitas shot out a punch to which the archer ducked before upwardly swung his bow to hit his opponent hard on his chest. Vanitas skidded back a bit from the blow but used this opportunity to throw out an assortment of cards and daggers at the vigilante.

The Hood had to move out of the way, while using his bow to block a few of the projectiles before hiding behind a roof mounted fan. Though he soon grabbed his arm in pain when one of the razor sharp cards seemed to graze him. Even looked at his bow to see a small nick there to show how bad one of those weapons could be.

'I'll need to be extra careful apparently.' The Hood thought before several glowing magenta arrows pierced through his cover, making him widen his eyes in surprise. '...And those as well.'

Needing to find better cover, The Hood glanced about for a better defense. Saw that the concrete walls were the only available option, he bolted towards it while dodging the incoming laser arrow onslaught. Once in his better form of covering, he saw the glowing arrows fade away to possibly give him a little idea on what those projectiles could possibly do.

'Come on Oliver. You can do this.' He thought to himself as he pulled out several arrows from his quiver. 'First time fighting a meta… so you might as well get used to it now than later.'

Momentarily coming out of his cover, he quickly shot his arrows before going back behind his cover so he wouldn't get hit by any of Vanitas' shots. These were clearly different than from bullets, but these can be a bit faster than any normal bullet much to the archer's slight frustration. As the two kept firing at each other, the two kept dodging and missing each other from their respective covers.

"Yes! I can shoot and dodge at the same time thank you very much!" Vanitas spoke out in a taunting fashion. "Though can you Mr. Hood?!"

"That I can!" The vigilante growled out as he ran out of his cover before rolling into a shooting position, but only saw an empty space. 'Where'd he go?'

"Up above!" Vanitas cried out as he slammed his energy covered fist onto the rooftop. The Hood barely had time to move out of the way to see the cracks on the impact. In a brief moment, the archer dashed in close by swinging his fist at the helmeted hero's head.

It smashed against the disguised publisher's side, sending him spinning away with a grunt of annoyance with the vibrations. But much to The Hood's surprise, Vanitas rolled with the punch. And using that momentum, the hero spun low and kicked the archer's legs out from underneath.

Falling onto his back with a grunt, the archer rolled away to avoid the Gotham hero's leg from meeting his face. Springing back up, The Hood immediately bolted towards Claybourne to hopefully end him before hopefully making a getaway. Vanitas saw this, causing him to run after him as he formed his grappling scarf and shot it towards the vigilante. The scarf grabbed the Hood's legs, sending him down to the ground in response in an awkward position. This ended up causing him some pain in his arm to realize he might've dislocated something.

"It's over Mr. Hood. You lost."

Not wanting to be defeated too soon, the archer swung his bow at the hero and smacked him across his helmet several times. Vanitas backed away from the ringing before The Hood used this opportunity to throw small dart like arrows at the Gotham hero. Though instead of penetrating, the dart arrows bounced off to cause the vigilante to groan in response.

'Should've realized that was body armor instead of odd looking spandex.' Was the disguised Queen's thought as he grabbed one of the small dart arrows to help cut himself free. When Vanitas tried to get back at his opponent, The Hood kicked the man's chest from the rooftop floor to send him back a bit.

As this was going on, Justin Claybourne was trying to get himself back up while holding his bloody broken nose. He even couldn't see that well due to some blood covering his eyes. This was because on how he fell face first onto the ground, the crooked pharmaceutical owner cut his forehead to end up bleeding from the recent wound. All that he could possibly make out on what's going on at the current moment were the sounds of fighting.

"I hope they kill each other to save me the trouble." Claybourne growled out as he tried to clear his face from the blood. He dunked his head into the nearby pool to try and clear his face from the blood before pulling back out to look around for safety.

Back with the duel, the two were punching and kicking each other due to the Hood realizing he wouldn't be able to really harm him with his current arsenal of arrows. The only good weapon he had right now was his bow as a blunt force weapon and that could only go so far. He needed to end this now, but Vanitas wasn't letting up on this fight.

"I can possibly do this all night you know."

"We'll see about that." The Hood growled out before he leapt over the hero and grabbed his shoulders to toss him to the side to give himself some space. Though it wasn't long until something was thrown right past him, embedding itself into the wall and Vanitas suddenly appearing right in front of him.

"Not really."

Receiving a punch towards his chest several times before being kicked back to roll a few times in the process. It wasn't great but it did give him a view to see Claybourne try to get away. Hoping that this could work, the Hood pulled out two arrows and quickly fired to try and imobolize the man so he can be dealt with later. Though that didn't go all that well when Vanitas knocked one of them away while the other ended up cutting through Claybourne's Achilles Tendon.

Justin Claybourne felt excruciating pain from his foot and stumbled before falling over. He tried to catch himself, but with additional blood seeping over his eyes, Justin ended up missing his hopeful target and fell over the side of the rooftop. Screaming as he fell down from a thirty story drop.

*CRASH*

Both Vanitas and The Hood rushed over to the side of the rooftop as the two saw Claybourne dead on top of a parked taxi. The driver got out of his car with several other people gathered around it to see the corpse on the damaged vehicle. It was even then that the police arrived onto the scene to end up seeing an arrow sticking out of the man's foot to realize the Hood had struck again.

"I hope you're happy with this Mr. Hood, because this is all on you." Vanitas said in a low tone as he glared at the archer. "If you had cooperated earlier, then this wouldn't have happened."

Not wanting to deal with the vigilante anymore, Vanitas summoned a Kazekage lance before taking off into the night's sky to leave the Hood all by himself to find his own way back to his lair.

-CNRI Benefit Gala-

Naruto had made it back at a good of a time as any, despite his sour mood from the earlier fight. The moment he phased back into the public restroom, the publisher went back into his normal attire and snuck out to find his clone. He was able to spot the clone chatting with a few people while trying to keep Perdita entertained. Though by the look of things, she was starting to feel a little drowsy due to how late it was.

'I should probably get Perdita back to the hotel soon.' Thought the Uzumaki before his eyes met with his clone. Getting a silent nod, the clone excused himself as he quickly made his way towards the original's position. Taking cover, the copy disbursed so Naruto would gain it's memories before getting back to where Perdita was at.

While walking back, the publisher saw Laurel dancing with Carter. To most people, one would think that both were enjoying the little dance together. But to one of a trained eye could tell that the brunette was not enjoying it one bit due to the slight twitch of her eye and the strained smile on her face.

'Wonder if I should break that up now.' Thought the publisher before he heard something crash some distance away. Looking towards the source, he saw a waiter cleaning up several broken glass bottles with Tommy escorting Thea out of the event hall. 'I should maybe help out on that.'

With that in mind, Naruto pushed Perdita's wheelchair towards the one side door where he saw Tommy and Thea exit out of.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Where we going?"

"Going to check on Thea and Tommy before we head back to the hotel." He briefly explained to her. "Didn't want to leave you alone back there so might as well kill two birds with one stone. Afterall, it's getting pretty late and I bet your bodyguards wouldn't like me keeping you up for too long."

The queen nodded as she was rolled outside by her friend/savior. The two were soon greeted with the sounds of retching nearby. Being a bit curious, Naruto rolled Perdita to end up seeing Tommy standing near a sickened Thea with what appeared to be his suit jacket around her.

"That doesn't look good."

"Yeah, it doesn't." Tommy commented the publisher's remark.

"Tommy?" A female voice called out, causing the two men to turn around to see Laurel walking outside. "Is Thea okay?"

"Oh yeah." The global group heir replied in a joking tone. "She probably just ate some bad crab cakes."

"Oh no! I had some of those crab cakes." Perdita spoke out in a worried tone, causing the three adults to look at the young blonde child. "...You were joking right Tommy?"

"Yes I was Perdita. Sorry on worrying you on that."

Letting out a sigh of relief, she placed a hand on her chest before glaring at the dark haired man. "Good because that wasn't funny in the slightest."

"...Then I'm very sorry on that m'lady." What he got in return was a small smile from the little girl making him know that she forgave him.

"I'm sorry but who are you?" Laurel asked as she eyed the young girl before looking at the other man in the alleyway. She would actually admit that the man was attractive, given his exotic looks that seemed familiar to her, but Laurel shook her head for the current moment.

"I'm sorry Ms. Lance I take it?" Naruto asked getting a nod from the lawyer. "Well Perdita and I were invited by the Queen family to attend this little event. Got to know Tommy a little and that's pretty much about it."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, every word of it Laurel." Tommy replied in confirmation. "And I gotta say, these two are pretty good company."

"...If you say so."

*Retching*

"Okay so I'm taking a wild guess that Thea had too much to drink, again."

*Sigh* "Pretty much."

"Does this happen often Tommy?" Questioned the publisher, only to receive a tired nod in return. "Surprised she hasn't gotten in trouble."

"Oh she has and she's been to court several times now." Was the lawyer's response, making the publisher/queen pair widen their eyes.

"Surely you must be joking Ms. Lance."

"Sorry kid, but it's the truth."

*Retching*

"Okay so you guys can go back inside and enjoy the party while I take care of Thea." Tommy said as he tried to shoo them away. "Besides, you looked like you were having a nice little do-si-do with the good doctor." This statement got a chuckle out of Naruto, causing the other man in the alley to look at him funny. "Is something funny Naruto?"

"Yeah… She looked like she was going to knee the guy in the groin." Was his response, making Tommy look at Laurel for confirmation.

"...He's not wrong Tommy. He's a gigantic ass just like in high school." Laurel stated with a frustrated look. "The only reason why I danced with him is because he wrote a massive check to CNRI…. Why would you think anything else?"

"Honestly?... Well when it comes to you Laurel, I can't think straight."

"Aw~ That's so sweet." Perdita said with a small smile at the little moment in front of her.

"Heh… Getting something like that from you makes it seem much better." Tommy replied as he also saw Laurel's beaming smile towards him.

*Retching*

"And the moment's ruined."

"Though what I think could make things much better is if I write you a check Ms. Lance." Naruto spoke out, getting her attention. "Chatted with your friend Joanna earlier and she helped convince me to donate towards your law firm."

"Why thank you." Naruto then pulled out his checkbook and quickly wrote out a check to the lawyer before ripping it out. Once handing it over, Laurel looked at the pricing to see that it was for $15,000. "Wow… That much?"

"It's the least I can do for your current situation Laurel… If that's alright of calling you that."

"It is Mr…" She started out before briefly glancing at the name on the check. "Wait… Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Yup. That's me."

"So you're the one my father talked about last week." She said for a confirmation. Then memories on the conversation came rolling in, making her look towards the young girl to realize who she is. "A-And you're…"

"Queen Perdita of Vlatava Ms. Lance." The child queen tiredly said. *Yawn* "S-Sorry if I can't give you a proper greeting since I'm tired at the current moment."

"No. It's quite alright." Laurel simply said as she didn't expect such a meeting with a royal to go this way.

"Could you call me a cab?" Thea weakly asked as she tightened Tommy's coat around her.

"Absolutely not. I'm taking you home right away." The dark haired man said as he brought his arm around the younger girl. "I'll get you to my car."

"Okay…" Was all Thea said before glancing at Perdita and winced a little of having a royal see her in such a state. "I apologize for making such a scene Tommy, Perdita."

"Just feel *Yawn* better Thea, okay?"

Thea nodded at the queen before she was escorted away by Tommy, though before he could make it too far Laurel called out to him.

"Hey Tommy!" She spoke, making him turn towards her. "I owe you a dance! You earned it!"

Tommy smiled before glancing over to Naruto to see him giving a small smile with an approving nod. The two then went their separate ways with their temporary charges for the evening. Silently wishing each other the best of luck in whatever they have going on in their respective lives.

-Oliver's Lair-

Inside of Oliver's little hideout, the Queen heir grunted out in pain as he tried to reset his shoulder from the encounter with Vanitas earlier. It did help a little that Diggle was there to hold his body in place. Once in position, the veteran spoke to his client.

"So one... two... three."

*POP*

"Damnit!" Oliver groaned out as relief soon washed over him despite the sore feeling slowly fading away.

"Well that didn't seem too bad."

"Easy for you to say Diggle." Oliver said as he eyed the older man. "You didn't get to fight him."

"True, but it would've been better if you didn't have to." John said before he saw the downcasted look on Oliver's face. *Sigh* "Look… It wasn't your fault."

"It pretty much is." Oliver muttered as he remembered seeing Claybourne falling to his death. He never wanted that to happen honestly. All he done in the past was to make sure people's death's were quick to ease himself. Blame the past five years away for making him think that way, with what experiences he had to deal with.

"Well listen… I'll tell you this much. You say going after the guys on that list of yours is the way you honored your dad?" Oliver slowly nodded, making John scratch his head a bit. "Well, if your dad saw what happened… I don't know if he'd be disappointed or not on what went on. You wanted to help those people in Lamb Valley, but you did it at the wrong approach. Vanitas did something that you could've done to help bring them the justice they deserved."

*Sigh* "Yeah… He did."

"So maybe there is more than one way to save this city?"

"...Maybe."

When Oliver got back, Diggle had the TV on inside of the lair. The late night news was on reporting what happened in front of the one building where Claybourne fell towards his death. They explained that the SCPD got evidence of the man's crimes and action was going to take place in the morning to help those in Lamb Valley on the TB outbreak.

There was some praise for Vanitas' efforts on this, but once again Oliver was being dragged through the dirt on what he did of targeting the crooked 'rich' people. He wouldn't have minded in the past several weeks, but tonight seemed to sneak right through and hit him hard. Oliver didn't know what to do now since he promised his late father that he'll do what he can to fix this city.

But was he doing things in the right approach? That was the small thought running through his head and it's probably going to be keeping him up once he gets back home to sleep off the pain. Oliver just hoped that he could figure this out soon enough.

-Unknown Location-

Inside of a darkened room, a man was watching security footage of two separate fights with his utmost attention. Each of them were different, yet had a few things in common. Being the fact that Vanitas of Gotham City was present in both of them as he fought against Hiraishin and Qarrad Alfidd, in separate occasions, within a span of 48 hours.

'Two powerful assassins, who trained for years to get to their current levels, defeated by someone who just came onto the scene months ago. *Chuckles* There must be some form of irony to all of this.' Were the thoughts of Ra's al Ghul.

The Demon's Head was very displeased that Silver Monkey left without his permission and broke Minato out of prison, resulting of him becoming an enemy of the League itself as a whole. So once his members track them down, they are either to bring the two assassin's back dead or alive. If it be the later, it would be for the Demon's Head to kill them himself.

Going back towards the video footage, Ra's requested to acquire the recorded fights if possible so that he can assess the confrontations with his own eyes. The quality of the footage was the best that could be done; especially with the one pertaining at the airport of the slight moments of static before the camera feed blew out at the end of the fight. In the end Ra's got what he needed as a whole, though it didn't hurt to check each and every detail.

He carefully studied the meta-hero's unique fighting style, showing that it was several moves and styles meshed together. Making the fighter unpredictable and following through with his instincts and personal touches. Ra's even remembered the hero's fight broadcasted live months ago when he dealt with the one meta-human that went by the name Clayface. Vanitas was brutal with that scythe of his, showing that he could possibly go through what others may not… but it's too hard to tell right now.

As the leader of the League of Shadows, he wanted to bring order to the world and have it be cleansed of the filth that pollutes it. With what resources he had over the years, he would have only done so much in each era when he did his conquests. But as years went by, there was one thing that he hoped and longed for so he could finally rest in peace instead of prolonging his eminent demise: an heir.

With him being at least 900 years old; he has prolonged his death time and time again, to see his goals flourish. Part of what caused him to live so long was his own stubbornness to see things through to the bitter, yet glorious end. And in this expanded lifespan, he had sired and fathered many children, but none would fully met his expectations.

Sure he had plenty of son's, but each and every one of them disappointed him due to their own cruelty and arrogance to the point that they weren't worthy to rule in their father's stead. As for daughters, he even had plenty of them that could've been worthy to taken the true mantle of Warith al Ghul, Heir to the Demon. But it's sad to say that Ra's was old fashioned and wanted a man to take his place.

So at different points in time, the assassin leader took on apprentices in hopes of one of them properly replacing him sometime in the future. Some were close, while others hardly even worked out. But in the end, each and every one of them became too unbalanced and blind on what the League was truly about. So he had each of them removed so they wouldn't disgrace the League of Shadows.

But here… Here could be someone that could take Ra's place as the true Warith al Ghul, he can very well feel it in his soul. More assessments will be needed to be sure if this candidate would be worthy for such a title. Though there is one other who could possibly become a candidate, asides from the Dark Knight of Gotham, but his expectations went low after his name came to his attention: Naruto Uzumaki.

After the failed assassination attempt on his life by Minato last year, Naruto has been kept under the radar in terms of activity and hasn't really shown much in terms of candidate material. His current, eldest daughter insists that her old friend and traveling companion is quite the fighter and has the training from past spars they had 9-10 years ago; but time sometimes delude one's skill if not used long enough.

Though Talia has stated that Naruto had proven to her time and time again that he tends to be quite unpredictable.

Ra's was going to call it a night when he briefly saw something in the hospital security footage.

"Hmm… I wonder." Ra's muttered as he rewound the video before playing it, slowing the footage down to a crawl on the hospital debacle. Ra's thought he saw something and wondered what it was. Though at a very brief moment, the old assassin saw what caught part of his attention in the first place: glowing green eyes coming from Silver Monkey's mask.

Ra's narrowed his eyes as he tried to figure out one thing at the present moment. "What are you planning Odysseus?"

-End Chapter-