Trip to the West Coast

*Sigh* "Why do I have to do this?" Naruto muttered as he was standing in the security line at the Gotham Airport. He was currently wearing a grey plaid button up shirt with jeans and a leather jacket. He also had a backpack with him, filled with many of his work items on hand, while he had his suitcase already checked in. "Oh wait, because I have to do it for work."

It's been roughly two weeks since his thought to be dead friend, Victor Fries aka Mr. Freeze, has been brought into Arkham to live out his sentence. The publisher originally thought at first that he would've ended up at Blackgate, but was told that apparently Arkham was more suited to handle metahumans with the technology they currently had in their disposal. Naruto understood this, but at least it can be at a place where he would occasionally visit from time to time to have a small lunch with Harley every so often.

Speaking of; Harley has done several sessions with Victor so far, but they were just regular conversations because of their mutual friendship with the publisher. It would take a while for the changed blonde to earn his trust, but he has nothing but time at the present time. Though he does have some of his personal effects, along with Naruto's Loveless book, to keep himself occupied once Naruto dropped them off for him.

A little silver lining Naruto shared with his former landlord was Ferris Boyle being taken into police custody after he woke up in the precinct. The video evidence helped start out the investigation towards Boyle and the end result is considered shocking due to him accepting the 'Humanitarian Industrialist of the Year' award on that one night. Manslaughter, extortion and attempted murder were pretty much what is being held for Ferris' prison sentence after the GCPD did their thorough search in their records.. With this happening, GothCorp would take a while to fully recover from this or would eventually sell out the entire company all together because of their reputation ruined.

So to get out of the bad mood, Naruto properly introduced Pam and Rachel to Victor and the scientist was glad to see his former tenant with an impromptu family in the works… much to the betrayed look of sorrow shown in the frozen man's eyes. Naruto and Pam understood this, but related with the scientist that she couldn't bare children because of what happened to her earlier this year. Regardless, things were iffy at best on the first meetings so far.

Earlier in the week, Pam had gotten a call from the botanical gardens for an interview for the position she applied for and things went well for the most part. They said they'll contact her again within a week or so if she got the position or not, but the changed botanist had the feeling she already got the job. Though she can't put all of her faith into it for now or else she'll be in a depressed mood once again.

Rachel had the education test the other day and she did well enough to place her in the grade her age is typically in: being in 5th or 6th grade. Naruto, Pam and Harley were glad to hear of this; along with Selena who just flew back in that day, and they went out to celebrate. Even though Rachel was glad, she was nervous if she was not going to be in the same school as her best friend. Who knows for sure at the current time, but give it a month for the impromptu family to get the results for her educational school placement.

'Good to finally be out of that line. It felt like forever in there.' Naruto thought as he tied his shoes back on and put some of his items back onto his person and small carry on like his belt, house and car keys, a first edition copy of his Loveless book, laptop, etc. 'Now where is my gate supposed to be?'

Now you might be wondering why Naruto is at the airport and not waiting for someone at the gate terminal like other times in the past with Selina and Pam. Well... it was the day after Victor was brought into Arkham that he got a call from his Central City branch. They wanted him to head towards the West Coast to check on places for a potential set up spot to open up a new publishing location in Starling City.

Naruto was more than willing to do such a thing and said that he could take a few weeks off from his current location and do a road trip to get over there. But that was shot down when he was told they'll be flying him out there to save on time and effort. They knew he had flying issues, which he stated before several times, but reassured him that he could take some sleeping pills to help him on the flight. The publisher relented, even after Harley and Pam pressured him into doing this, and he was set to fly out to Starling City.

But one thing did come to mind before he ended the call with his Central City location. He asked if he could also head over to National City while on the trip. Naruto brought up that he his old friend, Cat Grant of CatCo Media, lives there and in a previous phone conversation said that she could potentially like the idea of a partnership between her 'Media Empire' and Naruto's company. The man on the phone said that it could be a good idea if it could work, but he'll need to talk it over with the rest of the board. Though in the meantime, Naruto would head over there in his own methods since he brought in the idea.

So here he was inside of the airport, trying to find his way towards his designated terminal where his flight will take off. Naruto wasn't in any form of rush at all due to arriving at an earlier time so he wouldn't end up at the gate at the last minute. Call him paranoid, but the last flight Naruto took roughly 8 years ago was not pleasant at all and he wasn't prepared for what happened at the time.

And this time he'll hopefully be ready.

Looking at the nearby clock, Naruto saw he had a lot of time to kill before boarding starts. The publisher went towards one of the many empty seats in the current part of the terminal and placed his backpack on the seat next to him. With nothing better to do, Naruto summoned his Lexicon, without anyone seeing it, before flipping through the pages towards his 'story idea' section before writing inside of it.

More pages were seemingly added after his fight with Victor and for good reason. Not only had he gotten a new weapon, which he named his combat shield Yuki, but realized that it had ice-like capabilities when wielded. With that in mind, he jotted down little theories he would test out to see if he could possibly replicate what the fake hunter-nin, Haku, used back during his Wave mission. Naruto thought it was cool… heh cool… yet frustrating as hell on facing against that 'Demon Ice Mirror' technique of his.

Naruto had to train nearby Pamela's greenhouse in the Gotham outskirts to see what he could do. Frustrating as it could be, the ice abilities would take time to fully master with his weapon alone like his other gained weapons. The more frustrating bit was trying to handle wielding a combat shield, as it was truly out of place in his use of combat styles.

Naruto used a clone to primarily attack him with everything he had at a gradual pace. This helped the original know how long the durable shield could defensively last before it would shatter and gradually reform. The Uzumaki does have a good idea on how much he could handle, in theory, but things could only go so far when fighting against oneself.

But for a little upside out of this; Naruto seemed to finally create more than just one clone now, with him able to create a couple at a time now…. Progress. At least this helped him a little now, in terms of training, that Naruto could fight/spar against several at a time. Though he has fought more than several at a time in real fights in this world, it just helps a little to do more on the training aspect.

Asides from all of that, things have been alright for Naruto, his three girlfriends and his young ward. Work has been alright for the adults and the group enjoyed the Fourth of July together with Paula Crock and her two girls. Paula's husband, Laurence, couldn't show up due to some recent work assignments but he tried to make things up afterwards. But it didn't matter as things went well for the collective people as they enjoyed the fireworks that night.

"Um… Excuse me." A little girl's voice knocked the publisher out of his thoughts as he looked towards the source. She appeared to be roughly Rachel's and Artemis' age being nine or ten with chin-length, blonde hair swept back behind her ears. She had innocent green eyes with dark, arched eyebrows to help finish off her delicate features. Asides from that, she wore a knee-length dark overall dress with a white long sleeve shirt underneath and white knee socks with tennis shoes.

"Ah... Yes?"

"Is this seat taken?" The little girl asked with a hint of some accent, as Naruto looked at said seat where is carry on laid at. "The other seats are already taken."

Blinking at this, the publisher gazed around and realized that she was right. He must've really zoned out to not realize on how much time has passed on seeing the now crowded terminal. In response to this, he moved his carry on towards the ground to make room for the little girl.

"There you go miss."

"Thank you."

The little girl took off her backpack and sat down into the seat. Once situated, she unzipped her bag to briefly pull out a small stack of books. Some, that Naruto recognized from the book spines, were from the Daring Doo series, some of George R.R. Martin's earlier works (both sets Naruto published) and the Uzumaki's very own Loveless in a public copy. Seeing these got the publisher to comment about them.

"That's quite a lot of books to be traveling with." Hearing this, the blonde child looked at Naruto with a slightly raised brow before gaining a nervous look on her face. Realizing he must've made her a little uncomfortable, with a possible shy nature, the Uzumaki wanted to defuse the little problem. "H-Hey… Nothing's wrong with that at all. Everyone needs some entertainment for these flights with how long they could be."

This got the child to relax a little at this as she gazed back at her books. A finger traced over the tops of each of them as she was deciding which one to fully pull out. She came to a decision and pulled out the Loveless book with a small smile.

Naruto couldn't help but inwardly chuckle at the site as it made him happy to see others enjoy one of his best written works. The publisher went back to his Lexicon and wrote down some little ideas that he could possibly write for some later book ideas. There were six ideas so far, but he had a hard time trying to come up with a title for each of them.

'Maybe I should just make them into a series with a similar title.' He thought before going through one good title name. 'They are of the fantasy genre with lots of fighting… Maybe Fighting Fantasy…. Nah.' Naruto shook his head a little as he realized it wasn't that catchy. 'Fantasy is good for part of the title, but not enough. Hmm… Maybe… Final Fantasy?'

Writing the possible series title into his book, it felt right to possibly go with this. He'll need to expand more on this kind of thing once on the flight possibly. Though for now, he should get something to eat.

He was about to stand up to go look around for any good food stalls when he looked at the little girl. A question came to mind on why she was all by herself and not with her parents or guardians. Normally if a child was at an airport by themselves, someone should be there to watch over said child's safety. Naruto looked around to see any sign of such people that could be remotely connected, be it anyone partially resembling the girl in the physical description department or going around asking questions for where said child was at. But he found none at all.

So with that in mind…

"Are you here by yourself?" Naruto asked, getting the little girl to look up from her book. "Is there someone here with you?"

"Umm… No sir." She replied in a polite tone. "Why you ask?"

"Well… Seeing a little girl here, all by herself, makes me worried on several things. But one would stand out if there's no one looking out for you." Naruto pointed out as he missed the slightly worried look of her looking at some specific people. "So, if you'd like, I could maybe watch over you until get to your destination. It's no trouble at all, but it's fine if you don't want to."

Hearing his offer, she thought about it as she saw the man going back writing into a strange looking book of his. As innocent as she was, the blonde girl was a decently good judge of character from what she had learned from her father. She could tell the silver haired man was honest as he wanted to keep a good eye on her.

The child craned her neck towards a handful of individuals, whom she recognized and were spread out in the terminal. They gave her a subtle nodd to possibly trust the silver haired man's offer to help maintain the cover. But if something were to happen, they'll be there at a moment's notice. So she breathed out a sigh and turned towards the man sitting next to her, before tugging on his leather jacket to get his attention.

"I'd like to accept your offer sir."

Naruto gave her a small smile with a nodd before putting his book away. "Good to hear kiddo... Now I don't know about you, but I'm a little hungry at the moment. So would you like something to eat? It's my treat."

She blinked at this and was going to say something before a little rumble emanated from her stomach. The blonde faintly blushed as she heard the silver haired man chuckle at this. "Seems that might've answered the question, but the offer stands: Would you like something to eat?"

"...Sure."

Both man and child stood up from their seats, with their backpacks back on, before they went to find something to eat.

"So do you have any preferences?" Asked the publisher.

"I'm fine with anything actually. You?"

"Same."

The two eventually found an asian place that seemed appetizing, by the delectable smell wafting in the air, before entering the line. While they waited, Naruto wanted to have a little conversation with the girl. Especially since he doesn't know her name in the first place.

"Don't mind me asking this, but what's your name little one?"

"...Excuse me?"

*Chuckle* "Since I'm going to look out for you for the time being, I think it might be right for me to know your name at least. Though I should probably tell you my name first out of courtesy." He stated before he crouched down to her height and held out his hand. "The name's Naruto. What's your's?"

His name sounded familiar to her and thought that he was the author of some of her favorite books. But she shook her head as she guessed it was highly unlikely for that to happen. Though following the man's courtesy, she placed her hand in his and shook it. "My name's Perdita and thank you for looking out for me Naruto."

"It's no problem at all. Just doing what is right." As he stood back up, they kept waiting in the line before Naruto spoke up again. "I don't mean to pry or anything, but why were you by yourself earlier? Don't you have a parent or guardian with you?"

"...I'm traveling by myself actually." The now identified Perdita stated with a small lie. "And it's been a long journey getting here."

"And where were you traveling from if I may ask? And are you even going to Starling as your final destination?"

"Yes to the later question Naruto. As for the first I'm traveling from Vlatava."

Blinking at this, Naruto replied back with a raised brow. "Isn't Vlatava in the far reaches of Eastern Europe? Why are you literally encircling the globe to get to Starling, if going from your home to China and then Starling wouldn't be faster travelwise?"

Perdita could only fidget in place as she shyly looked away before answering. "I actually wanted to see the world out of my home country. Never left it's borders until recently."

"And why are you going to Starling City anyways?" He asked as before he realized they were at the front of the line.

"Hello there you two." Greeted the man at the cash register. "What would you two like today?"

"Oh… Sorry on that." Turning towards the blonde child, Naruto ushered her to go first. Perdita quickly looked at the menu before ordering a two bowl entree consisting of mushroom chicken and broccoli beef with some rice. Naruto on the other hand ordered a couple of bowls consisting of peppered black chicken, Shanghai angus beef, teriyaki chicken and string bean chicken with six bowls full of nothing; but their different noodles to the very brim. As for drinks, just some water bottles to finish off the order.

Both Perdita and the cashier blinked at this as a question came to mind, to which the worker voiced it. "Was that last order for several others sir?"

*Chuckle* "Nah… All that is for me. I have a large metabolism."

"Um… Okay."

Naruto paid for the order and both he and the little girl stood off to the side to wait for their order to be called. With how big the recent order was, it was going to take a while to cook it all due to them needing to freshly cook a whole new batch. Perdita looked at the silver haired man funnily as she voiced the same question from earlier.

"Was all of that just for you Naruto?"

"Oh yeah it is." He stated with a lick of his lips. "Wasn't lying on me having a large metabolism. I try to control what I eat in small consistencies throughout the day. But since I'm going to be cramped in a metal death trap for the next six-ish hours, I'm gonna need to eat a lot to keep myself in check."

With that question out of the way, another one seemed to take it's place. "You said 'metal death trap' right?" He nodded at this before she continued. "I'm guessing that your last flight wasn't all that great, right?"

*Sigh* "Unfortunately yes." The publisher leaned against the stoney pillar. "The first and last flight I took was when I came from Madrid to Metropolis roughly eight years ago. Before then I was traveling from Eurasia for two years from Japan…. But going back to the flight, I didn't have a great experience on my first time. At first the food wasn't all that great, but I had let that slide. But I had a very bad case of air sickness that was caused by the horrid turbulence from the storm at the time. Which, by the way, caused the other nearby passengers to barf on me."

Perdita winced when hearing this, as she imagined how that possibly had went. Having that be the silver haired man's very first flight must've left a really bad impression towards him. There was only one thing she could say to him.

"Sorry to hear about that sir."

"Nah it's alright kid." The publisher waved her off. "Got over it and got convinced by my girlfriend and her friends to take this flight."

It was then that their order number was called. The two grabbed their respective meals before heading back at the gate. As they walked back, Perdita wanted to continue the bit of the conversation.

"So why are you flying out to Starling City anyways?"

"Stuff with my job I need to do there. Wanted to take a road trip over there, but work already got me airplane tickets." He answered before he asked of her the same question. "Though why are you heading to Starling? You didn't get the chance to respond earlier."

She didn't say anything on that as it made her a little uncomfortable on how to respond. Seeing this, he tried to change the topic after an apology. "Hey sorry if I upsetted you on this little one."

"No it's alright." Perdita simply said as the two got to their seats and luckily for them, they weren't taken. Once they situated in their seats, the blonde girl pulled out her backpack and unzipped the top before putting her hand inside. Naruto was wondering what she was doing until she pulled out…

'A bottle of pills?' Naruto thought as Perdita twisted the top and took out two pills. Once taking them into her mouth, she swallowed them with the water to help get them down her throat. He caught sight of the prescription sticker to see that it was heart medication.

"...Why do you have heart medication Perdita?" He asked with a worried tone.

She stiffened as she was caught. She didn't know how to respond on this now, but she decided to tell him. "It's the reason why I'm heading to Starling City: I have a weak heart."

Two and two got together as the publisher came to a bit of realization. "You need to have a heart surgery, don't you?"

*Sigh* "Unfortunately yes." She then opened up her meal box and ate some of the food before continuing. "Reason why I need to go there was that a heart became recently available."

"And why the trip around the world?" He asked as he too opened up one of his meal boxes.

"My father wanted me to possibly 'see' the world before the surgery. Though by 'see'; it was just me doing quick stops from home, to Berlin, to Paris, to here in Gotham and then to Starling."

"...Sorry on that. But what about your mother? What did she say about that?" He waited for an answer, but by the look Perdita giving off made it pretty clear. "...I'm sorry Perdita. I didn't know."

"No… It's alright." She stopped her eating with a downcast look. "I never knew my mother… She died when I was born."

The two ate in relative silence as the people around them did their own thing. Perdita calmly ate her food as Naruto ate his at a quickened pace. Box by box got emptied due to Naruto's large appetite before he gleefully enjoyed his five boxes of noodles. Even though he rarely eats noodles these days, he still enjoyed the taste of them.

'But nothing can top Ichiraku Ramen.' The Uzumaki thought as he finished slurping the first box. 'Wonder if there's a good equivalent in this world.'

Naruto wanted to change subjects to lighten their mood. He chatted with Perdita on other things so things leading up to the flight won't go all that badly. It went well for the most part until the intercom went off in the area.

"...Flight to Starling City is now boarding." The airport worker voiced out that got the man and child out of their conversation. "The 6pm flight to Starling City is now boarding… Would first class now come up and board please."

"About time." Naruto muttered as he finished off the rest of his meal. He soon grabbed their empty bottles and containers before tossing them to the nearby trashcan. Once getting back, he saw the blonde child get back up to get her backpack back on.

"So what flight class are you in?" She asked.

"Second class. You?"

"Same... Though with seating, we could ask someone to change seats if you want so we could sit next to each other."

"Are you sure about that Perdita?" He asked with a raised brow.

"I'm sure my kind sir."

*Chuckles* "As m'lady commands."

Soon second class was called and both made their way towards the line. Naruto ended up a few people ahead of Perdita because of how they got into place. Once making it to the front of the line, the one attendant held out her hand with a nearby pile of ticket pieces.

"Ticket please." Naruto handed over his ticket, to which the woman tore off the one end before handing the other back to the publisher. "Hope you enjoy your time with us at Ferris Air."

Naruto faintly smiled as he walked down the connecting hallway that eventually met with the airplane. Though he hanged back a little to see Perdita following not far behind. With her flying for the past few days, Naruto wanted to be sure that this last one could possibly go well for her before her surgery day.

Both got inside of the plane and eventually found their respective seats. Though they waited a little longer to ask a few people if they could switch seats so Naruto could properly watch over her. He didn't have to do this, but he wanted to keep the promise of watching out for her for the flight.

So after some fifteen or so minutes later, the plane took towards Starling City, California.

-Six Hours Later, Starling City International Airport-

"...That went pleasantly well." Naruto muttered as he let go of both the armrest next to him and the headrest in front of him. When he saw the plan was starting to land from the side view window, the publisher grasped the respectively mentioned spots and tried to control his breathing. The adrenaline rush soon followed as the aircraft was trying to slow down, making him calm his heart down. At least this helped him out to finish off his first airplane flight in roughly eight years.

Imagine how it would've been like if he had his airsickness before he got his Kazekage spear(s). At least those helped him feel better while in wide opened air to feel a bit more connected to it. If he didn't have it, he would've panicked more inside of the metal death trap and possibly gone through dozens of barf bags.

"Then I'm glad you had a good flight, my kind sir." Perdita replied in a jokingly formal manner.

He could only smirk in response before replying back at her. "You as well m'lady."

During the flight, things were alright for starters. There was a decent amount of room in the seats that it didn't make him feel all that cramped. Though with Perdita, there was a lot of room for her due to her ten year old size. It made him comically grumble on how unfair a kid could have with that amount of room, much towards the blonde child's delight in seeing.

And in that time, Naruto striked up a conversation with Perdita to help lighten the mood of things. He talked a little about his girlfriend, Pam, and their young ward Rachel; along with Harley and her 'nieces' Jade and Artemis, and Selina with her pet cat Isis. Even showed pictures to the Perdita when asked on what they looked like. Naruto obviously couldn't tell Perdita on the unique relationship of his girlfriends. Though there other things to talk about like learning a little about the child's interests and hobbies due to her not wanting to dwell into her personal history.

The food and drinks weren't all that bad either as the traditional peanut, pretzel, cracker and cookie bags sedated their appetites until a meal cart came around halfway into the flight. Perdita had a small salad, due to her still digesting the big meal before the flight. Naruto though had gotten a sandwich to at least hold him off till he got out of the airport and he could get a late night meal on his way towards his hotel.

There were two inflight movies that helped speed up time for the passengers: The Goonies and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. It was fun for the publisher to see blonde child so enraptured when seeing both of the films and he possibly guessed that she doesn't see that many films back in her home country. Though for him; Naruto couldn't help but remember the actor who played Azeem looked like a younger doppelganger of Lucius Fox, the Wayne company CEO.

Though to be possibly fair, there could be other doppelgangers out there and he should know about that with whom he met so far.

Asides from all of that, nothing bad really happened throughout the flight. No bad turbulence, no screaming infants or people complaining. It was just smooth sailing through the entire time, with the occasional restroom visit for the passengers. And in that time, Naruto and Perdita developed a nice little friendship by the end of the flight.

It took several minutes for the aircraft to reach the gate. And by the time the seatbelt signal went off, the passengers started to get out of their seats in the cramped area. This bugged the publisher a lot as he didn't expect this to happen.

….Though to be fair, he couldn't exactly remember this bit happening on his last flight eight-ish years ago. The airsickness really got to him and Naruto swore he must've blacked out on the ending part of the flight, only to wake up seeing almost everyone out of the plane.

"So Perdita."

"Yes?"

"Do you need me to walk you out and help you out with your baggage claim before you go wherever you need to go to?" The Uzumaki asked as he briefly glanced to see some people now leaving the aircraft.

She shook her head 'no' in response before replying back. "Sorry Naruto, but I'm going to be helped out once everyone is out of the craft. I was told about this on each of the previous flights that one of their employees have to escort me out and help me along the rest of the way. Though thanks for the offer my good sir."

Nodding at this, he gazed over to the line as it was coming to the point that the two could leave soon. Before the line got to them, Naruto got up and opened up the compartments above to grab his carry on. Perdita's was already on the ground with her 'extra leg room' so there was no use to worry about that.

"Well… I guess this is goodbye little one." Naruto said to the blonde child. "It's been a pleasure having this flight with good company."

"You as well Naruto." She responded with a small smile. He helped raise her spirits a little during the time together and hoped this could carry on for what's to come.

"And I wish you luck on your surgery." He said with a somber tone, which made her faintly nod at this.

"...Thank you…. Till we meet again someday."

'Yeah.' Naruto thought as he soon got out of the airplane. 'Someday.'

By the time the publisher got into the airport terminal, he checked the nearby clock to see that it was roughly nine at night. Knowing the time zone difference from the east to west coast being three hours, Naruto went to his watch and made the necessary adjustments before seeing if his cellphone got the automatic adjustments or not.

'Now where the hell is the baggage claim?' The former shinobi thought as he mentally checked his 'to do' list. He needed to get his checked in bag before heading over to the nearest car rental area of the airport to see if there was one ready for him from his company. If not, then he'll need to take a taxi to get to his hotel room and figure things out in terms of transportation.

'I could use my powers to conjure up a motorcycle or a car.' Naruto thought with a chuckle. 'I have researched and made designs to suit my needs. Heh… Maybe I should just save myself the trouble and do just that. No use to rent out a car since I don't know how long I might end up having to stay in the West Coast… Though I should properly get myself a motorcycle at some point.'

In his entire time riding his one motorcycle as Vanitas, he only used the one he conjured up from his sketches in his Lexicon. He had owned one back in Eurasia to help out on his traveling after he won it in a card game. There were a lot of good memories with that bike; but gave it to his traveling companion as a token of thanks, for staying with him for that entire time.

'I wonder if she still has it.' Naruto thought in remembrance of his old friend. 'It has been close to nine years now. So I doubt Talia kept it…. Probably sold it at some point.'

The moment Naruto was going down the escalator, he gazed back to see Perdita heading towards the same destination. Though something seemed off as a couple of men were walking around her, in a guarding fashion. Normally this wouldn't seem odd to the publisher if they were airport personnel, but they were wearing civilian attires.

As the publisher focused, a couple of purple circles entered his vision before they seemed to zoom onto the men. This hasn't happened before, but the last time this happened was when he used the arcade gun during his time with Harley. It didn't matter at the moment as the purple circles gave the publisher better details out of the men

Naruto saw their gazes as they were scanning the surrounding area while trying not to stay that far away from the blonde child. They faintly patted their sides every couple of steps as Naruto soon realized they had guns on their persons. The last bit of detail that was off about them were the earbuds lodged deep in their ears.

'Wait… Weren't those men on the same flight?' Alarms started to go off in his head as several thoughts plagued his mind. Who were they? Why were they guarding Perdita? And why do they seem really worried all of a sudden?

Once stepping off of the escalator, Naruto walked to the side to not stand out all that much. With him closer to a darkened corner, the publisher summoned a few Dusk and ordered them to spread out and see what could possibly be going on. He then used his presence sensory ability to try and figure out things on his end.

'Okay… Mostly a mixed bag of emotions of frustration, annoyance, happiness, sadness, and many other things.' Naruto thought before he focused more in a wider range. 'Need to focus more on the negative. My gut's telling me that something else is going on, but what? What is going on here?'

"Sire!"

'Yes, what is it?'

"There are gunners here!" A Dusk yelled out in his mind. "And they're aiming at the men and the child!"

*BANG*

The gunshot resounded throughout the airport as it seemingly quieted the area. Naruto wondered where it came from and tried to look for the source. In an instinctual response from the sudden message from one of his Dusks, he turned towards Perdita and the men surrounding her who were now at the bottom of the escalator.

"GAH!"

The sudden cry of pain caused many to panic as several people screamed out of seeing a man falling onto the floor with a hole in his chest. The other men surrounding the blond child pulled out their guns in response to hopefully find the shooter. Their attempts were useless as another one of the men was shot in the head, making many civilians flee on site.

"Take her back up!" One of the men called out, getting the only other man to nod and grabbed Perdita's shocked form before running up the nearby stairs. Security guards soon came rushing towards the area to hopefully calm things down, but a handful of random civilians came up to the airport personnel and killed said guards by either stabbing a bladed weapon into their throats or quickly taking their guns and fired them upon the security..

'I need to stop this now!' Naruto thought as he conjured up his Vanitas attire before bringing out his escrima sticks. 'As for you Dusks, take out any snipers if there are any!'

*BANG* *BANG*

"AAAAHHH!" Cried out a scared Perdita, as another one of the men protecting her were killed from behind. She was defenseless and tears were streaming down her yes as a result. Perdita silently prayed for someone to help her in her time of need.

Just as several gunmen were going to take their respective shots; cries were yelled out and gunfire was heard from up above, causing many to look upwards in confusion.

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS?!" One of the men yelled out before getting knocked out by one of the Dusks. Gunfire soon followed as other gunmen were taken care of by the other Dusks that were previously summoned. With their task complete, they dispersed so no one else could find them.

In the confusion, a smoke bomb exploded on the floor. Thugs were coughing and wheezing as they tried to get out so they could finish their task. But one by one, each of them were knocked out in the smoke's cover. One seemed to get out of the smoke in time and was about to strike the frightened girl before hearing someone coming from right behind him.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Vanitas yelled out as kicked the thug's back before grabbing his clothed back and threw him to the side to hit a stone pillar.

Perdita was frightened to see the new arrival as she stepped back in response. She didn't mean to as the man black and white themed man saved her life. But with what happened moments ago made her emotions not great to currently work with.

"Hey… It's alright Per- *Cough* little one." Vanitas said to hopefully cover his little mishap of calling her by her given name. He crouched down to her level before speaking to her in a calm voice. "I'm Vanitas and I'm here to help."

The blonde child wanted to say something, but her eyes were still leaking tears. She was going to wipe them away with the scruff of her sleeve when the hero gave her a handkerchief. Perdita took the offered piece of cloth before replying back to him. "Th-Thank you sir."

"No problem kiddo. So… Don't mind me asking this, but why those thugs killed those men that were guarding you?" He asked to hopefully get the little mystery solved.

But what soon followed was about to surprisingly answer that question.

"Kill the princess!" One of the thugs yelled out as he came rushing through the smoke with several others.

"Princess?!" The masked Uzumaki yelled out in shock. He then saw the thugs aim their weapons at the respective hero and princess(?) and started firing at them. In response, Vanitas grabbed Perdita and jumped onto the upwards escalator before running off so the child wouldn't get hit by any stray shots. "Crap! Crap! Crap!"

Once getting onto the upper floor, Vanitas ran down the corridor only to run into a pair of goons with handguns trained on the two. "Seriously?!"

Quickly moving towards the nearby pillar, he was able to get out of the way of the line of fire as the two men unloaded their magazines at their spot. Vanitas quickly made a clone and sent it out to distract the two gunmen while the original and Perdita would get some time to move. The hero ushered the child to crouch down and make their way towards the large windows nearby.

The small plan Vanitas had in mind was to phase both him and the princess(?) through the window and possibly ride on a Kazekage lance to leave the general area. It was his fastest form of flight at the current time, but could be more vulnerable for passengers if fired upon. He was going to think of something else when he heard a small thud on the ground and turned towards the source to see an active grenade rolling their way.

"Shit!" Vanitas cursed as he grabbed the princess(?) and held her close before and jumpy phased out of the window, just in time for an explosion to go off.

*BOOM*

The force of the explosion sent the two flying in the air and were about to land on top of the nearby plane. On instinct, the hero phased them through the aircraft and landed in a roll so he could protect the child a bit better. Needing to be sure Perdita was alright, he firmly placed her on the ground to see the winded look on her face.

"Are you alright?"

*Panting* "Y-Yes… I think so."

"Good. Then we need to go." He urged her as he kept a firm grasp of her small hand. She hesitantly nodded as the two ran off with several thugs watching their escape.

One of them pulled out a radio and brought it to life before speaking into it. "Hey! The bird has flown. You've got the green light now Sparks!"

*Darkly Chuckles* "Perfect." Said the voice on the other end before it went off.

Back with the running pair, Vanitas and Perdita made it towards the end of one parked airplane. They kept their movements before ending up near a couple of fueling trucks. Perdita eventually ran ahead and was about to pass one of them, but the disguised publisher pulled the child back as a plane sped past them.

"Man… That 'dragon' almost got us."

"...You do realize that I'm ten right?" Perdita rhetorically asked with a raised brow at her savior. "So I don't require any fairy tale metaphors."

*Chuckles* "Sorry on that kid, but the current thought of saving a princess made things slip." Vanitas said as he scratched the back of his head out of habit before thinking for a brief moment. 'Then again this isn't the first time I saved royalty.'

The blonde princess(?) could only smile at this before replying back. "It is quite the forgivable sin kind sir."

"Good to know princess… Speaking of…" He turned towards the child and looked at her so he could get some answers. "One of those thugs said that you were a princess or something. Is that correct?"

"...It is."

The disguised Uzumaki crouched to her level and held out his hand, which made her curious on the action. That was until he spoke towards her. "Like I stated before, I go by the name Vanitas and I come from Gotham City. I would tell you my real name, but that could be for another time. But for now *Cough* *Cough* Would you honor this courageous hero and tell me your name, oh fair and pretty lady?"

Knowing he is trying to make light out of a dark situation through a bit of humor, she grasped his hand and shook it. *Giggle* "My name… My name is Perdita of Vlatava, heir to the royal throne."

Hearing the genuine answer, Vanitas was about to speak up when he felt something coming towards them. On instinct, he summoned his ice shield to block the attack. The force of the blow made the hero grunt in effort of holding his position so he could protect the blonde princess. Having enough of this, Vanitas used his strength to push back the attack away from the two.

When looking back at what he sent away, the hidden publisher saw the bolt of orange lightning going away from his position, along with some sparks dying out on his shield. A bit of dread filled Naruto's stomach as he looked towards the distance to see a dark figure on the airport rooftop. His eyes focused on the figure, as the same purple circles appeared in his vision to zoom in, to reveal who it was.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Vanitas muttered as he recognized the man's outfit consisting of a black leather jacket, with the hood pulled back, and pants with belts wrapping through various parts of his body with yellow lightning designs.

"Who is that?" Perdita asked before she was pulled into the hero's arms and ran off. Her question was put on hold as electrical blasts shot through the air and onto their previous position in rapid successions. Vanitas kept on running; but had to block one of the blasts with his shield, which soon skidded him back several feet.

"OH AIN'T THAT VERY NICE!" The assassin yelled loud enough for the hero/princess duo to hear his sickening glee in the distance. "I GET TO NOT ONLY KILL OFF THE PRINCESS, BUT ALSO VANITAS AS WELL?! FUCK YEAH!"

"You know this person?" Perdita asked as the two then ran towards the nearby luggage car for cover. "He's kind of weird."

*Sigh* "Unfortunately yes I'm afraid." Vanitas muttered as he peaked over the hiding spot, only to duck from the assailant's electric attack. 'Why the hell is Minato here? And more importantly, how the hell did he get out of prison?'

"COME OUT, COME OUT AND PLAAAYYY!~" The now identified Minato 'Hiraishin' Namikaze spoke out as he sent more lightning blasts at the two and hopefully lure them out so he could kill them. "IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE I'VE KILLED SOMEONE BIG AND IMPORTANT! SO PLEASE QUENCH MY THIRST YOU TWO!"

Feeling annoyed by this world's insane counterpart of his father, Vanitas dismissed his ice shield before summoning his wind lance. "Oh my kami will YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Vanitas yelled out from his cover as he threw the weapon at fast speeds.

Minato's eyes bugged out before he had to quickly dodge the attack. He thought he was in the clear before hearing the air hum and had to dodge again and again. "WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS THING?!"

"That could possibly keep him busy for a bit." The hero then turned his attention back towards Perdita with a hidden smile. "You're being very brave princess. I'm proud of you."

Hearing his praze, she could faintly blush at this since she hardly hears such things. "Thank you."

"You're wel-." *BOOM* Looking back at Minato's position, he saw his wind lance exploding from the assassin's latest attack. "We should probably get moving now."

Vanitas carefully moved towards the front of the luggage car while throwing a volley of daggers and exploding cards. Many attacks met in the center to leave explosions upon contact, resulting in a big cloud of smoke in it's wake. This got a bit of cover as the hero and princess made it towards the front.

"So mind telling me why these guys are trying to kill you princess?" The former shinobi asked as made a clone to help cover them and attacked through the smoke. "I can understand that guy since he likes the fame and glory, but what on the others?"

"Because I'm not a princess… not after last night."

"And what happened last night?" He asked as he looked towards the new fight going on between his clone and 'Hiraishin'. The clone had little power in him and was only meant for distraction to help on their possible escape until some help arrives.

Vanitas' response wasn't immediate as he looked back to see Perdita's downcasted look as tears welled up in her eyes. "Because… My father died last night… And I'm the Queen now….And *Sniffle* I wasn't there to say goodbye to him."

Naruto could only imagine what Perdita was truly going through as a lot has been placed on her shoulders. Having to travel a very long way to the states so her life could be saved from her weak heart, being vulnerable to attacks by assailants; and to top it all off, her currently being the very Queen of her country. This should not be what a ten year old needs to have on her plate right now, but he couldn't help but somewhat admire on how she's currently handling things.

"...You're even braver than I thought Perdita. *BOOM* ...And there goes my copy." He muttered before putting his attention at the child queen. "Staying put is no longer an option your highness. We need to get moving."

Perdita wiped away the stray tears before nodding as the hero went towards the seat of the luggage car. He didn't exactly get in, but pressed the gas pedal with one of his hands while steering the car with the other. Their cover was moving, hence the two had to keep up with it so they wouldn't get hit by the assassin's attacks.

"Don't you have any other relatives Perdita?... Surely you must have some right?"

"My only living relative, Count Werner Zytle, is my uncle from my father's side of the family."

"...And what might happen if something happens to you?"

"Then by the placement of succession, he'd be King of my country."

Hearing this made the masked publisher grit his teeth as a bad memory came to the forefront of his mind. Without knowing it, he ended up muttering it out loud instead of in his head. "This reminds me too much about Doto and Koyuki."

This got Perdita's attention as she thought of why Vanitas was bringing up characters from one of her favorite books. Through said names were the only ones that she could actually think of since she never read any other book with said names in them. But regardless, why bring up those two and why was the Land of Snow/Spring arc in Ninja Storm relevant with what's happening now.

-With Hirashin-

Minato was getting pretty annoyed with how things have gone so far tonight. The contractor hired them to kill off the Vlatavan princess after she got off of her last airplane ride in the States to bring her a false sense of hope that things might go well for her. When Perdita would least suspect it *POW* she gets killed off and the contractor would graciously reward them for their services.

Luckily for the crazed meta-assassin, Minato was chosen by his new boss (courtesy of Qarrad Alfidd for introducing him) to take care of the child child in whatever way he saw fit. This made Hiraishin absolutely ecstatic on getting this big time assignment from his new boss. After training his ass off since his escape, he was going to show the world how glorious his celebrity kill will be like.

Though, much to his surprise, thugs were hired to help out on the operation and this pissed off the meta-assassin very much. He was supposed to be the only one here and not them. But regardless, the thugs botched things on the attempt on the princess' life and he was given the 'a-okay' to do what he does best.

Much to his surprise; Minato saw Vanitas, the new meta-hero of Gotham City, here at the Starling City airport of all places. This made the blonde assassin smile a cheshire-like grin as he could kill another big time 'celebrity' and this would get Silver Monkey to help him finally kill the man who humiliated him on the failed assassination attempt. But the newly arrived hero was making things difficult with some of these 'toys' that were getting away from his goal tonight.

Once Minato saw the two running off, with the luggage car as their cover, he needed to cut them off. Following their current path, the electric meta saw a couple of fuel tank trucks and gleefully smiled on an idea. Following on said idea, Minato brought his hand up and shot out a bolt of lightning towards the tanks.

*BOOM*

"...Wonder if I got them." Minato muttered to himself as he jumped down and landed in a crouch. "Better check than just assuming I roasted their carcusses."

By the time he got there, due to him taking a nice enjoyable stroll, he saw no charred up corpses for Minato to know that the mission was completed. Now he'll need to search the area so he can get another go around. But before that, he needed to inform the hired thugs.

"Hey." Minato simply said once he pulled out his radio. "The hero has taken the target back inside. Take care them, if you can, but I want to kill them myself."

-With Vanitas and Perdita-

*Groan* "That could've gone better." Vanitas muttered as he felt some pain from where he landed on the baggage tram. He looked at the child in his arms and saw that Perdita was alright, not a scratch on her. "At least she's safe, for now."

When the explosion occurred mere moments ago, Naruto covered the Queen with his form before jumping off of the luggage car. The blast sent the two flying back a bit farther than Vanitas had, with the hero harshly landing on a metallic rolling bar, but the two seemingly got away for the time being. As he looked at their current surroundings, the masked publisher realized that they were currently in the bag conveyor system.

'Wonder how we'll backtrack from here.' The hero thought as this was pretty much the first time he's ever been in this kind of room. 'So damn confusing if you ask me.'

As Vanitas was getting up from his spot, he heard a harsh *thud* behind him. Turning around, he saw a pair of thugs with one holding a wrench and a knife in the other of their respective hands. The one with the wrench soon leapt forward, swinging to hopefully knock out the hero while the other stood back for support.

"You're not really good at this, aren't you?" Vanitas taunted as he moved out of way from the lozy swings.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" The wrench wielding thug grunted out as he kept missing his blows.

On one of the incoming blows, Vanitas grabbed ahold of the man's arm and twisted it around, which soon let go of the weaponized tool, before kicking the man some feet away. "Me? Aren't you after the kid?"

Hearing this, Perdita gave the hero a raised brow look before replying. "Excuse me?"

"Heh. Kidding your highness. *Grunt* Kidding!" Apologized the masked Uzumaki as he had to block a strong blow from the knife wielder. He came rushing in with stabbing motions, but luck wasn't on his side. Vanitas grabbed the offending arm and punched it at the right angle to deal a decent amount of pain.

The thug grunted loudly as he held onto his arm to ease the pain. That was his downfall as the hero dashed into his personal space and delivered an uppercut towards his jaw. This action sent the man flying and falling off of the tram to render himself unconscious.

The wrench wielding thug from earlier got back up with a gun in his hand. He started to unload its magazine onto the hero; but with a raised hand, a small barrier was formed and destroyed the small projectiles. Soon hearing a clicking noise, indicating the now empty cartridge, he threw the weapon at the black and white themed man before running at him.

Moving out of the way from the several punches, Vanitas used an opening and grabbed the man's sides before kneeing the man's stomach. From there, the hero delivered painful jabs at the man's ribs and briefly tossed the man. This was all before delivering a kick towards the thug's intended sternum….

Though the last attack ended up lower than he anticipated, as the kick ended up hitting the thug's crotch.

"Okay… That really must've hurt." Vanitas muttered as he internally winced while seeing the man land off of the conveyor belt. Turning his attention towards the child Queen of Vlatava, he saw that she was alright, but adopted a look to show that she visually winced at the man's recent form of pain.

"Did you really have to hit him there?"

All that he could do in response was nervously chuckle at his expense. He was going to say something in response, but was harshly knocked forward as his helmet knocked against the opening for the drop shoot. Vanitas fell down and felt nothing underneath his feet, causing him to grasp on the conveyor belt. It was proving unsuccessful as he was going to fall.

Seeing this, Perdita rushed towards her savior and grabbed onto one of his arms. "I got you!"

"No! Princess! Let go!" Warned the hero as she was struggling on her attempt to get him back up. "You're going to fa-AAAAAAALLLLLLL!"

-Baggage Claim-

The fall seemed to end pretty quickly with how fast they were going. The only sounds emanated from the dark luggage shaft was the Queen's screams and the hero's attempts of calming her down. Though this was useless as the two were getting knocked around before seemingly shot out and landing on the tiled floor.

"Owwww. That hurt." Vanitas muttered as he shook his head before seeing that the two were currently at the baggage claim area of the airport. "...I have no idea how we got here." Getting up from the floor, he helped the young Queen get back onto her feet. "Are you alright your highness?"

"Y-Yes… Yes I am." Perdita replied before realizing an odd misplacement of weight. "Wait… Where's my backpack?! I need to have my medication near me at all times!"

The two looked around for a moment and saw the desired item some feet away. It must've come off of the child during the tumble through the baggage vents earlier. So without any warning, Perdita ran towards her backpack at a hurried pace.

"Perdita wait!" The hero yelled out, only to sense an attack coming towards them. Reacting to this, Vanitas sped towards the child to intercept the blast. He was lucky as he got there at the last moment before grabbing Perdita and rolled out of the way. Just in time too as the orange lightning bolt destroyed the Queen's backpack.

"Damnit I missed!" Minato yelled out as he landed onto the ground. "It was timed perfectly, but you fucked it up!"

Ignoring the meta-assassin's rant, Vanitas looked over Perdita if she was grazed or anything. Though all that he saw was a blank, worried stare as the Queen looked at the destroyed remains of her backpack. Not only did it have a collection of books she brought to keep herself company on her trip to Starling City, but it had the pills to help her condition until her heart replacement surgery.

But with that gone…

"Hey it's alright Perdita…" The hero said in a calming tone. "We can get more of your prescription once this is over."

"HEY! STOP IGNORING ME!" Was what Minato yelled out before he fired a few powerful electric blasts at the crouched pair. The attack ended up unsuccessful as Vanitas shot out his hand and his ice shield was summoned to block the blast. With how strong the attack was, the shield not only broke, but the stray shots went off to various areas of the room and ended up destroying many security cameras.

Once this happened, Vanitas got up from the ground before creating a clone to get Perdita in a safe area. Though not too far away just in case if any other thugs seemed to come on by for any funny ideas. All that the former shinobi could do was glare behind his helmet at this world's bad version of his father. "You've caused enough damage today Minato. So get out of here while you still can or else I'll send your ass back to jail."

"Oh!~ Do my ears deceive me? Is my reputation so great that the new hero of Gotham knows who I am to call me by my given name?" Minato dramatically said while trying to figure out how said hero knew his name. Even when he was a member of the League of Shadows, their birth names were kept hidden so it would be better to blend with society for some missions.

But for someone to know such information about himself, he must've accidentally given his name out on a previous mission by mistake or somehow there was a leak.

-Insert RWBY Volume 4: Bad Luck Charm-

"You could say that. Then again you were the one that killed Mayor Hill's predecessor if I heard correctly." Vanitas stated before the two slowly encircled each other. It was a bit of public knowledge on who killed the previous mayor, but not his true identity. Though Naruto wasn't going to spill the beans that Kurama told him of such information.

"Ah yes.~ One of my favorite accomplishments. One that I enjoy most dear... *Darkly Chuckles* As I stopped his heart and brought it back up, only to make it explode a bit afterwards."

Not wanting to hear any more of Minato's crazed delusions, Naruto wanted to get straight to the point. "So… Who hired you to kill Queen Perdita? I can tell that you're not doing this out of fun. So what is the point from all of this."

Minato soon left out a mocked gasp before replying back at his soon to be opponent. "I'm only here to whisk her away… so I can enjoy hearing her screams while I slowly kill her."

*Growl* "And what if she doesn't want to go with you Minato?"

"Then I'd take her regardless, while you like it or not."

"Well I'm not going to let you do that."

"I'm afraid that will be impossible." Minato spoke with mocked sadness. "My boss's assignment from our client stated that the little brat must die. And I can't disappoint such clientele on backing away from this task."

"And who is your so called client anyways?" Vanitas asked as he summoned a Kazekage lance into his hand.

Minato looked at the odd looking spear and could only chuckle at this while as several kunai came into his hand from his sleeves. "Playing the intimidation game won't work on be Vanitas. But I believe we've talked long enough. Don't you agree?~"

"Took the words right out-" Vanitas spoke before he was quickly interrupted as Hiraishin dashed towards the hero with his weapons on hand. Naruto had to block the incoming attack by quickly blocking each of the strikes. Each of the parys were able to help leave a small opening, but they were closed off too soon for Vanitas' comfort. But he didn't stop his attempt by swinging his weapon down.

Minato saw this coming and dashed towards the side before leaping into the air to strike the hero down with his orange-yellow lightning encoated kunai. Vanitas upwardly swung his wind lance, causing a small explosion to occur when the two elemental attacks met. Both combatants skidded away from each other, but Naruto threw his lance at Minato before teleporting at the incoming target.

"What the-" Minato muttered out as he dodged the lance before getting kicked to the side all of the sudden. The surprise attack didn't let up from there as Vanitas grabbed his lance and used it as a bat to smack the assassin into the nearby conveyor belt. "How the hell did you do that?!"

"Since you're not telling me who hired you, I'm not going to tell you how I did that."

Growling at his opponent's taunt, Minato coated his arms with lightning and slammed them against the ground in both frustration and to send an attack towards Vanitas. The hero saw the incoming attack and rolled out of the way, but part of the electric attack had hit his legs. Vanitas tried to get back up, but his legs couldn't fully respond.

'I can't let that attack hit me like that again or else I won't fully move certain parts of my body.' He thought before he channeled some power into his hand and slammed it down to summon a good number of Dusks and Creepers.

Minato blinked at this and pointed it out in a rude fashion. "The fuck are those dipshit?!"

'Try and distract him while I try to get back up.'

"Of course sire!" The Dusk and Creeper summons replied through his head before jumping into action. The Dusks encircled the assassin and started to cause him quite the amount of annoyance with the attacks they were bringing. Didn't help when the Creepers formed into oddly shaped weapons, to which other Dusks attacked Minato with them as sturdy, blunt objects.

"HEY! QUIT THAT!" Minato yelled out in the attempts of making them stop. But the summons did not as they continued with their distraction. His anger was growing by the second as lightning started to coat him to the point that was going to explode. *Growl* "ENOUGH!"

With an explosion of power, the summons were destroyed in the built up blast. Hiraishin panted as he tried to regain his footing, but had to quickly act as Vanitas dashed towards him. The assassin leapt back and threw many electrified kunai at his opponent, who spun his lance to deflect the projectiles. When getting close enough, Vanitas brought his lance down, to which Hiraishin blocked with his knives.

*BOOM*

With the recent collision, many nearby screens were broken from the shockwave.

*Growl* "Now tell me who hired you!"

The assassin's immediate response though was something a bit expected from the disguised publisher, as Minato started to hysterically laugh while holding his ground. "Y-You d-don't have the slightest clue, don't you? *Laughs* Oh how exciting this must be for you to- HEY!"

Vanitas kicked Minato away by landing a strong hit on his stomach. The hero sent several blows by several quick attacks with his lance as impromptu escrima sticks. With it's bladed ends, the attacks were more harmful for the extra damage and that was without the wind added in. Before this onslaught ended, Vanitas threw his weapon a bit higher than the opponents height so he could teleport right behind him. He grabbed Minato's head and did an overhead throw to send him flying into the concrete wall on the far end of the room.

The impact was pretty harsh, indicated with the many cracks on the wall, leaving Minato struggling to get out. He used his power to explode part of the wall so he could get free, thus he landed onto the ground with hate filling his very being. Having enough of this, Minato focused his power into his legs and sprinted away in a dark yellow lightning trail.

Not wanting to know what Hiraishin had planned, Vanitas threw his lance at the upper floor and teleported to the spot before throwing many daggers all over the place. Teleporting everywhere he could reach in the immediate area, with the imbedded daggers as his anchors, so that he could catch up to him. But with Minato running all over the place, it was really hard to keep track of him.

As this was going on, Perdita was amazed on the spectacle before her. Seeing the two combatants fighting against each other in an odd dance of death. It was quite the sight to behold as a flurry of power was shown here. It reminded her so much on the fights depicted in Ninja Storm on what the main character, Arashi, had to deal with.

"You need to stand back your highness." The clone of Vanitas said as he kept the child Queen at a safe distance. She currently had the charred remains of her backpack when the clone used his grappling scarf to nab her belongings.

"But-" "No buts. The original doesn't want you close and harmed."

At the highest area of the room, Vanitas threw his lance at Hiraishin to hopefully stop his running, but it missed due to his increasing speed. Regardless of this, Vanitas teleported towards his lance, which dug deep into the ground and situated his feet on top of it to try and see the assassin at a moment's notice. His gut was soon telling him that the moment to strike needs to be now or else both him and Perdita might die. So he concentrated a lot of his power into the palm of his hand to form a Void Rasenshuriken. Call it overkill there, but Naruto can't take any second guesses on this one.

Just in time as well as Vanitas saw Hiraishin slowing down slightly and threw a literal pure yellow thunderbolt, like a javelin, straight towards him. Knowing that he possibly won't have time to teleport away, the masked Uzumaki threw his attack as well. Time seemed to come to a crawl as the two attacks slowly met at the center of the room. The moment the two powerful attacks came into contact...

*KABOOM*

A blast soon followed as a radius of destruction was met. The windows of the surrounding area were destroyed at this moment and many objects were uprooted from the ground. What else could be seen was the two combatants on the opposite far ends of the room. Both seemed to be panting of being pretty winded on that large attack while the state of their attires were noticeable of some fabrics burnt off and some armor broken away.

"Why… Don't you… Fucking quit already!" Hiraishin growled out as he brought his arm up as more of his power was built up into the limb. Sparks of yellow electricity were radiating off his arm as he was going to do one more attack to hopefully finish off Vanitas.

"I'm not… Going… To let you kill her!" Vanitas said as he soon grasped his broken lance and built up wind around it. His helmet was partially broken off to show off one of his hazel eyes and some of his silver hair. If one would look into the broken part of his helmet, one would see his hazel eyes glow into an amber color as power was radiating off of the hero.

Without warning, both fighters ran towards each other as they put a lot into the final attack of the match. Hiraishin having his arm coated with pure yellow lightning to make it into a spear to hopefully pierce Vanitas' heart while said hero had sparks coming off of his broken lance to make it look like a raging storm. The two eventually made contact in the middle and both thrusted their attacks at each other.

But in a bit of an odd lucky accident, Vanitas slipped a little. This caused him to duck down at the last second to not only have the lightning lance graze his helmet, thus breaking off more of it's glass dome, but gave the opportunity for the hero to swing his lance upwards. With the wind coating the blade, it was able to cleanly cut through Minato's arm at the upper half of the assassin's bicep.

It even sliced part of the man's eye for good measure.

"FUUUUCK!" The assassin yelled out as he held onto the bloody stump of his limb, as his arm was sliced off. The combined pain of both his vacant limb and destroyed was enough to blind him for a bit of time while trying to regain his bearings.

"I hope your done Minato." The hero said as he kicked the man away, adding more pain towards the crazed meta.

*Growl* "I won't forget this Vanitas!" Was all Minato yelled out before grabbing several flash and smoke grenades and detonated them for his escape.

When the smoke dissipated and vision returning, Vanitas looked around to see where the meta-assassin ran off to. He could only let out a sigh in frustration as he saw the man gone. Hell he even had enough time to grab his severed limb when fleeing the immediate area.

The hero tried to walk, but stumbled in his step as he spent a lot of energy in the fight. This caused him to bend over and rest his hands on his legs while catching his breath. "Damn… That took a lot out of me."

Footsteps could be heard from behind, causing the hero to know that the Queen wanted to check up on him.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm alright your highness. Just winded, that's all."

"That's good to hear." Was all Perdita said as she walked closer towards her savior. Though when she got closer, the Queen had let out a surprised gasp when he turned around to face her.

"Perdita? Is something wrong?" Vanitas asked with a raised brow. He gazed at her surprised look before looking over towards his clone. Said clone could only facepalm before tapping his helmet for a silent message towards the original. This was done before dissipated into smoke to give back some power back to the main one.

An automatic response happened as Vanitas brought his armored hand towards his helmet, only to feel his whiskered cheek. It soon traveled upwards to meet up with his silver hair, making him widen his eyes in response. He realized that the black dome was destroyed in the past two attacks, revealing his features towards the Valatavan Queen.

"...Um… Hey…." Naruto awkwardly said at the bug eyed child.

"Y-You're… You're Vanitas." She whispered out, making him nodd in response.

"Yeah… Didn't realize this was coming out sooner than I expected." He muttered as he scratched his cheek. Fully realizing that his features were still visible, he reformed his helmet with what energy he could muster before looking at the battleground. "Man I really did one hell of a number on this place."

At this point, Perdita's mind had seemingly shut down and rebooted itself as she was trying to process that the man she befriended on the previous flight was a superhero. What else was this man hiding and what will happen now after this exciting fight she just witnessed. Hell, the child Queen could only guess that her heart can't take much more excitement from all of this.

As this was going on, Naruto looked at the charred remains of Perdita's backpack in her grasp and a stray thought came across his mind. Deforming his attire slightly, he was able to access his backpack and pulled out the copy of the first edition Loveless he brought with him for the trip before reforming his outfit. Creating a pen on hand, Naruto wrote inside of the cover to give her one hell of surprise when she snaps out of her trance.

"Here." He said as he handed Perdita the book. "You can have this if you want kiddo. Signed it for you since you probably lost your own copy of the book."

Hearing this, the Queen did get out of her thought process and saw the first edition of her favorite book ever. She had saved a lot of her money that was entirely separate from the royal treasury, and bought her own copy of the book. Perdita had wanted a first edition after reading the public copy, but there was only so many made and were sold out quite fast.

Perdita hesitantly took it in her grasps and traced the details of the cover. Once opening the book, she gazed at the author's signature there, like of what all of the first editions had. But there was something else written in there, much to her surprise.

Perdita,

Sorry on what happened earlier and I wish that things could've gone better in the outcome. It must've given you one interesting experience to look back on at a later day. Though I hope it doesn't give you any bad memories from said experience later down the road.

I hope you get the chance to live out a full life with a family of your own one day. Having all of the great times that comes with it. But I wish you the best of luck with your new role as Queen of Valatava since the position will be strenuous, yet rewarding.

It will not be an easy task, but you have a lot of time ahead of you to do the right choices in life so you're home country will prosper. I will be rooting for you to push on forward with what's to come. After all, you need all the support you can get since doing it all by yourself will not do well in the long run.

Sincerely your friend,

Naruto Uzumaki

After reading this, she couldn't help but feel touched by his words. They were so sincere on how they were written that they made her smile by the end of it. Though something seemed odd as how this was written out, especially on the signature. Perdita's eyes widened when comparing the one clearly written months ago to what was written moments ago.

Slowly looking back at her savior, she couldn't help but ask one thing that came to mind. "You… You're Naruto Uzumaki?"

"...Yeah."

….. *SQUEEEEEEEEL* "OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! I WAS SAVED BY MY FAVORITE AUTHOR! I WAS SAVED BY NARUTO UZUMAKI!" Perdita yelled out as she latched onto the disguised author and gave him the biggest hugs she could ever muster.

'...Damn she's got a tight grip.' Naruto thought before he saw the growing lights of police cars from the distance. 'Finally showing up now huh. *Sigh* Took your damn time getting here.'