Chapter II: Testing

Itachi opened his eyes and was greeted by shouldering flames everywhere he looked. It looked like he was in a warehouse and there were bodies littered everywhere. All decapitated and flaming corpses. As if a precise laser beam cut through all of them.

Itachi opened his eyes again and he was on a hospital bed. His eyes darted around but everything was blurry. He heard the sound of bats and a heartbeat monitor.

Once his eyes adjusted he noticed a lot of things he didn't recognize that seemed advanced. Some kind of weirdly shaped boat with bat wings, another vehicle which he now knew was a car which was designed like a bat. And what he assumed was an aircraft, designed like what? A bat obviously. 'I'm noticing a strange theme here. Although besides that the only thing I understand about this place is that I'm in a cave.'

He got up out of bed and noticed a gold bell on a small table. He put a hand under his chin and looked down. After a few seconds he decided to ring the bell and waited. While his eyes wandered he soon noticed a young boy with a multi-colored suit and a face that was glaring at Itachi. Itachi raised a brow at this and tried to make conversation. "Hello."

"Don't talk, prisoner."

'Prisoner? Did someone take me after I passed out when I was with Nightwing?'

A tall Grey haired man in a butler suit walked down a long flight of stairs with a glass of water and 5 stacks of pancakes with 3 eggs and 4 pieces of bacon on the side.

"Master Robin, please avoid antagonizing the guest. Good morning Master Itachi. My name is Alfred Pennyworth and I'll be at your service as long as you stay at this residence. Master Nightwing requested for you to be serviced extra food due to your malnourished state. Please don't mind Master Robin, he is very... passionate shall we say."

"I understand, and thank you for the food."

Alfred nodded and Itachi picked up the chopsticks looking at the food with a slight grimace. 'I've had dreams like that before, although lasers aren't something that was included in those dreams. Maybe it was a sign, a precognitive dream perhaps? Maybe'-"Itachi, you're awake!"

Nightwing walked in along with a long red haired girl in a batsuit. 'Her name is probably Batwoman or Batgirl.'

Man you're almost as heavy as Batgirl, I told Alfred to get you some extra food to put some meat on those bones."

Batgirl punched him in the side and raised a brow with a hand on her hip. "Heavy?!"

Nightwing chuckled, "Just joking. He's almost as light as you." He turned back towards Itachi, "Oh and sorry for bringing you down to this dreary cave, no one completely trusts you yet."

"I understand. I wouldn't trust me either."

"Well when you're done eating I'll be over there. I wanna see what you can do, so come over when you're done."

Itachi nodded and began eating his food. As he finished one stack he noticed Batman walking down what he assumed was the entrance to the cave, he also noticed that he looked annoyed. "Nightwing, why did you bring Itachi out here to the cave?"

Nightwing put his hands up, "He seems like he's good, besides you let a Kleptomaniac know your secret identity."

"Well that Kleptomaniac isn't a murderer."

Everyone's eyes besides Nightwing's turned to Itachi who was still silently eating his pancakes. Batman walked over to Itachi and glared at him and put his hands on the table. "If you want to gain our trust then you'll have to do things our way. We don't kill. Even if you're held at gunpoint yourself don't kill. Got it?"

Itachi finished his last pancake., unphased by Batman's glare. "My apologies, I understand." 'I don't understand this man's obsession with keeping people alive no matter what. I'd understand that if he was a pacifist, but the dried blood on his gauntlets says otherwise.... although he understands this world better than I do. Maybe he's more like a police officer than a soldier of war, so he doesn't need to kill to solve a problem. I'll have to go with that for now.'

Batman stood straight and walked towards the Bat computer. "Alfred, Black Mask is planning something big tonight, can you call in anyone in the family who is available?"

"Of course sir."

Itachi finished the last of his food after a few minutes then walked over to Nightwing rubbing his slightly bloated stomach with a grimace.

"There you are, so I've heard that you can do all this stuff like genjutsu, uhhh gekkei kenkai, and elemental release abilities."

"Kekkei Genkai, and yes I can do all those things. Although from what I can tell you or anyone here has no powers right?"

It's neither you, nor anyone here has powers. You're getting really good at English, and yes you would be correct. We're all powerless, we have to rely on technology and our own physical skills we've taken years to develop. No healing factor, no flying, no energy beams, nothing."

"Don't underestimate us though, prisoner!"

Itachi waved a hand. "I'd never underestimate you guys. Back home in my village there was a man named Gai sensei, he couldn't do any ninjutsu unlike the other shinobi, yet with his physical skill alone he was among the strongest ninja in the village. I've never seen him go all out but I have no doubt he'd be on the level of the Kage if he did."

Nightwing tilted his head. "Kage?"

"The Kage are this world's equivalent of world leaders. They are intelligent and embody their nation's will of fire. They are willing to sacrifice themselves so the next stronger generation can prosper, and although it isn't necessary they're often the strongest shinobi in their village."

"Wow, they sound amazing. A little too ideal in fact. Even though they're supposed to be like that, does it always work out?"

Itachi put a hand on his chin and looked down. After a good minute he looked up and spoke confidently, "Yes, there's never been a single Kage that has meant to harm their village. In my village specifically the past 3 Kage have all died protecting the village from disaster."

Nightwings mouth hung open a little, "Wow you're serious." Nightwing looked up. "Man, I wish my world could be like that."

"What is this world like?"

"Well, I don't know too much about world politics but some leaders treat their citizens like garbage and will just do things for personal gain, or sometimes even help their enemy."

"Itachi's brows furrowed, "Wouldn't that be considered treason?"

Nightwing chuckled, "You would think so wouldn't you? I don't know a lot about this stuff but something I can say with certainty is that they're all a part of the same club. Even if there seems to be opposing parties and different branches of government that act like enemies, they're really all in it together. That's Why they never get accused of treason for it."

Itachi was beginning to have a rough understanding of how things worked on this earth. The closest example to this he could think of was when the 3rd Mizukage was under Obito's control and he did what he wanted with him. "Nightwing, I want to understand the way this world works better, do you know how I could do that?"

"Yeah, there's this thing called the internet. I'll show you it later, but first" Nightwing started stretching, "Let's do some sparring. The best way to figure out what you're capable of is a good fight."

Itachi got into a fighting stance. "Are there any restrictions?"

Nightwing tossed his batons to the side, "Well let's stick to hand to hand combat. No fireballs in the cave. Whoever gives up first loses."

Itachi nodded and charged at Nightwing. He decided not to use any chakra to keep things even. He started with a side kick which Nightwing blocked but he stumbled a little. "You pack more power for someone your size than I thought."

"Thanks."

This time Nightwing charged in with a flurry of punches. Each one was dodged and blocked with little difficulty. Itachi grabbed one of his punches and tried to flip him over his shoulder, but Nightwing used the momentum to roll out of Itachis follow up kick.

Itachi gave no time to recover and quickly tried to kick Nightwing again but Nightwing grabbed the leg and caused Itachi to fall. But Itachi caught himself with both hands and attempted a sweep kick which Nightwing evaded.

They both got back on their feet and started going at it again. 'This is the first time in years that I've been able to fight without feeling the pains caused by my illness. Normally I'd have to bear through horrible chest pains and violent coughs by now. Being able to fight for the first time in years without feeling any pain feels.... good.' A slight smirk appeared on Itachi's face.

The fight continued on for a while with both nearly landing blows for a while.

Itachi received a kick to the chest but quickly took advantage of Nightwings weakened balance by grabbing the leg and twisting it, causing him to fall. He landed an axe kick on Nightwings stomach which caused him to wheeze. But he quickly recovered by bringing Itachi to the ground with him.

Nightwing sat up and tried to deliver a punch to Itachi's face, but he narrowly dodged it and grabbed his arm then wrapped his legs around his head. Nightwing was stuck in a guillotine choke and quickly tried to regain his footing.

Nightwing slowly started standing up while still in the guillotine choke, he was about to slam Itachi, but before he could Itachi unwrapped his legs and kicked off Nightwings chest into a flip before landing. But as soon as he landed Nightwing landed a kick straight to his face which sent him flying.

It was pretty close, but without the sharingan he believed that Nightwing was better at hand to hand. Itachi tried to stand up but fell back down. He started panting, "I give up."

Nightwing smiled and wiped the sweat off of his forehead. "Man you're a lot better at this than I expected! Most guys with powers I know don't bother training in hand to hand combat a lot. You gave in pretty quick though."

Itachi stood up slowly and caught his breath. "My apologies, I was sick for a very long time before this and my fights rarely lasted more than a few minutes, not all of my stamina has returned to me just yet."

"It's alright, you put up more of a challenge than Robin does." Nightwing said, pointing at Damien who glared harder than his default expression, "Hey!"

"Master Itachi, if you are finished down here may I show you to your room?"

Nightwing reached his hand out for a handshake, we're going on patrol later at night, hopefully you'll join us?"

Itachi accepted the handshake, "I'll be glad to."

"Well see you later then."

Itachi followed Alfred up the steps and through the halls until he reached a guest room.

Alfred walked up to a nightstand and pointed at a bell. "If you are ever hungry just ring this bell. Oh, and another thing."

Alfred reached in his pocket and pulled out a rectangle with a screen on it and handed it to Itachi. Itachi raised a brow at it, "How do you use this?"

Alfred was taken slightly aback. "Oh, well let's see. You press the button on the right side to turn it on." The screen lit up to the homescreen. "Ah, it's like a handheld computer right?"

"Exactly that sir. Now, the buttons on the left side control how loud the sounds coming out of it are, or volume for short."

"How do you do anything on it though? There isn't a keyboard or mouse."

Alfred chuckled a little. Itachi looked at him with slight confusion. "Sorry sir, it's just that I never thought I'd be teaching a young man how to use a phone, it's always been the other way around."

Itachi's expression relaxed, what Alfred said reminded him of when he explained how telecoms worked to his father.

Alfred's finger touched the screen, and as his finger moved the screen moved with it. He showed many of the basics of using a cellular device. Itachi was finally comfortable enough with using it on his own and he thanked Alfred. As Alfred made his way out he stopped in the doorway. "Oh one last thing, I overheard that you wanted to learn about the history of this world. Well while you're doing that make sure you look at multiple sources and compare, different websites will tell you different things about the past and the present. Oh, and personally I'd start with the Roman Empire."

"I'll keep that in mind, newspapers back home did that a lot."

As Alfred left the room Itachi's eyes became red as he typed into the search bar. The first site he started with was Wikipedia. He scrolled through fast, and after he finished one page he'd go straight to the next then repeat at a speed that would look like he read nothing to a normal person.

As Itachi continued to read the sun fell west and the moon rose in the east. Little did Itachi know, a catalyst was about to set off the chain events that would change this world forever. And it was happening right at the Blackgate Penitentiary.

"How long do I have?"

The doctor looked down at his clipboard. "A month, maybe two. I've let the warden know, he's agreed to a parole hearing on compassionate grounds. I'm sorry, Mr. Chavard.

Later Mr. Chavard sat down in front of 3 men in suits. "I'm sorry Mr. Chavard. Your illness has been taken into account, but your situation does not outweigh"-"Please don't! I have a grandson, I just want to meet him!" Chavard said, holding both his hands together.

"He knows where you are, Andre. He hasn't visited. It is the decision of this board that your crimes have still not been paid for. Parole is denied."

Andre was sent right back to where he came from. On his way back he picked up some books and traveled down a hall with bars lined up on both sides. He stopped in front of one of the cells, "Brick."

Brick crossed his arms, "Andre. What have I told you about books?"

"Don't worry. I have long since given up on your literacy, Brick. I need to get a message outside."

Brick faced Andre and uncrossed his arms. "Um..."

"Don't worry. I'll write it."

"To who?"

"To whoever can get me out of here."

Brick leaned in and put both hands on the bars with a smirk. "We ALL want to get out of here."

"You can't offer what I can."

"Yeah? And what's that?"

Andre spoke in a low tone, "Power. Power to control a God."

Itachi received a knock on his door as he finished learning about the Great recession of 2008-2009. He walked over and opened the door and saw Nightwing with a woman in black, purple, and white behind him. "Still up for tonight?"

Itachi nodded. Nightwing looked up and down at Itachi's cloak with red clouds. He put a hand on his chin, "You sure you should wear something like that in a fight?"

"Yes I'll be fine. I've been fighting in this cloak for nearly 8 years, so I'm used to it."

"Alright cool then. Oh yeah, Huntress, meet Itachi. Itachi, meet Huntress. She's pretty feisty, but once you get to know her.... well honestly she's still pretty feisty."

Nightwing received an elbow in his side and he hunched over a little. Huntress reached out a hand and Itachi accepted it. "Hello Huntress, it's a pleasure working with you. I've read up on some of your work and it's impressive."

Huntress smiled, "Well he sure has more manners than you Dick."

"Huntress! Secret identities!"

Itachi waved a hand dismissively, "It's fine, I've already deduced everyone's secret identities. Your Dick Grayson, she's Helena Bertinelli, the child in the cave earlier is Damien Wayne, Batman is Bruce Wayne, Batgirl is Barbera Gordon, then there's Tim Drake who's Red Robin. I'm not sure who Red Hood is though since there doesn't seem to be a connection to him anywhere online."

They both looked at him with wide open eyes for what felt like a minute. "Alright then, you might give Batman a run for his money on being the World's Greatest Detective. How'd you deduce that?"

"Well for Batman only someone connected to a lot of money in some way could do what he does, and both he and Bruce Wayne disappeared for a while then resurfaced at the same time. They also have a similar build. Then most of you branch off of him in some way like the different Robin's attending parties with him across the years. Things like that."

"Well if you know all of ours then you might as well know the Red Hood. That's Jason Todd, the second Robin."

Itachi raised a brow at this, "Didn't he die?"

Nightwing rubbed the back of his head, "Well yeah, but... well it's a long story. I'll tell you later. Let's just get to work for now. We're still testing how trustworthy you can be out in the field. We thought it would just be a normal patrol, but Black Mask is terrorizing the city. So we better hurry. Batman is waiting for us in the cave."

They started making their way down. "Is Batman ok with me coming?"

"He's the one testing you. I could tell by trading blows that you're trustworthy, but Batman is a different story."

When they got to the cave Batman and Damien were waiting inside of the Batwing and everyone hopped in and got into a seat. Everyone else put on a seat belt and Itachi copied the action. Huntress looked back at Itachi, "I'm assuming you've never been in an aircraft before?"

Itachi shook his head, "Only horse carriages."

Nightwing laughed, "Well you're in for a treat then. Lay the back of your head on the seat so you don't get whiplash."

Nightwing did as he was told and mentally prepared for the launch. Although that didn't do much for him since he's never even been in a car before.

The sudden launch out of the cave and through the air glued Itachi to his seat as he tensed up.

Eventually the turbulence stabilized and he could sit up properly. He looked out of the window at the city below. There were lights everywhere from the cars on the ground to the cement giants that ranged from small to so big they were still towering above the plane.

Huntress noticed the slight look of awe on Itachi's face. "Nice view right? I still remember the first time I was in the Batwing. Just wait until you see the view from the Watchtower." She pointed a finger up at the night sky.

"It's up there?"

She nodded. Itachi laid back in his seat. 'Even after catching up on all the amazing and disturbing history this world has to offer there's still so much more to learn. The most I know about these heros so far is just no killing and some of their identities.'

The plane slowed down and landed on a roof of one of the only surrounding buildings that wasn't on fire.

They all jumped out of the plane and looked over the edge of the building down at the chaos below. Batman looked at Itachi, "Itachi, does one of your elemental abilities include water manipulation?"

Itachi nodded, "It does, but I need a source of water to draw from first."

Batman pointed at a few fire hydrants, "You can draw water from those. Take care of the fires everywhere then you can join the fight with the rest of us."

"Yes sir."

Batman appreciated the compliance and they split up.

Itachi landed on the ground and briefly glanced at the others fighting Black Mask's goons before getting to his job. He looked at the fire hydrant and put a hand on his chin as he looked at the whole thing up and down. Eventually he charged chakra in his hand and cut off a piece on the side that was sticking out.

Water came rushing out and he quickly got to work. He raised one hand and said, "Water style: multi-water dragon jutsu."

The Water spraying out quickly formed into multiple dragons and they started traveling through all of the buildings hallways and rooms taking out all of the flames along the way. After a while all of the flames died off. And he got ready to help.

The goons didn't have much fighting skill so taking them out was laughably easy.

Suddenly a red blur arrived on the scene. When it stopped everyone realized it was Superman. "Can I help?"

Batman acted almost like he wasn't there, "No."

Nightwing gleefully said, "Sure! Black Mask's goons ran when we showed up, but"-"But they're all still conspicuously wearing masks?"

"Yep."

"I'll round them up."

In just a few seconds all of the remaining goons were tied up in a circle. 'His speed is amazing, it reminds me of Minato.'

Damien pouted, "We didn't need your help."

"I know, but I was happy to lend a hand.

Everyone said thank you besides Batman and Damien.

Batman crossed his arms, "I know why you're here."

"Of course you do."

"You're here to make sure I attend."

Superman smirked, "I was concerned you'd find a reason why you couldn't leave Gotham."

"Like Black Mask goons terrorizing my city?"

"Exactly like that. So, I'm glad that's over now."

Batman turned his back to Superman,, "It's not over."

Nightwing cut in, "It's totally over. Batman, we've got it. Go. Get to your party."

Batman sighed. Superman offered his hand to Batman and Batman accepted it and they flew off.

Itachi walked up to Nightwing, "A party?"

"Yep, a thank you party and retirement for the Justice Society."

"Ah, to my understanding they were the Justice League before the Justice League, correct?"

"Pretty much. Although they're all pretty old now excluding the ones with longevity and immortality like Hawkman and Hawkgirl."

Nightwings expression changed as he put 2 fingers up to his ear. "Black Gate Penitentiary? The Joker!? We'll be there as soon as possible."

Itachi tilted his head, "The Joker?"

Nightwing raised a brow, "You deducted all of our identities but you didn't take time to learn about the villains we usually fight?"

Itachi shook his head. Nightwing sighed, "Well I'll tell you a little bit on the way, but we better hurry."