Chapter 29 - Punitive Force

Felix Faust, an over 5000 year old magician that could control the elements to his own whim and wield arcane powers beyond most people's imagination.

Doctor Mist, a metahuman rumoured to have stopped aging after standing in the Pillar of Life. His ability in creating illusions was said to be unparalleled.

Brother Night, a metahuman that specialized in taking possession of other people's body. It was different from mind control - he was actually transferring his consciousness into his target's body, directly controlling it.

They had been specifically hired by the League of Shadows to counter Galatea. And, as magic users, they truly were the ultimate counter for a Kryptonian like her.

When Galatea was first taken out of Lazarus Pit, in her temporary madness, she had tried to kill everyone in her sight. At that time, it was the 3 of them that easily subdued her: Doctor Mist cast a powerful illusion on her, Faust Felix controlled the earth to immobilize her body for a few moments and Brother Night took over her body just long enough for the assassins of the League of Shadows to shackle her with the electric cuffs.

This time, however, looking at how Galatea was holding Brother Night's still pulsating heart in her hands, things have obviously not gone like the first time...Black clad ninjas began to surround her from all the sides. In front of her, Sarutobi Hirzuen was staying ready to strike, his long bo-staff glowing with a blue light.

Galatea threw Brother Night's heart away carelessly and turned her eyes towards the old man in front of her. A rather cruel smile appeared on her otherwise angelic face.

"You think you can take me on?"

She started to slowly step forward, the formless pressure she exuded making the ninja surrounding her involuntarily step back to maintain the distance.

"Nothing but magic works against me...and even then, I just murdered two of your magicians and one scurried away into one of his portals like a rat."

"Just what do you hope you could possibly do against me?"

When Galatea got to only 6 feet away from Sarutobi, the muscles all over his body tensed, ready to strike her any moment then. However, at the last moment, she stopped.

Her sharp gaze met Sarutobi Hiruzen's steady one.

"I know that I had died. But, somehow, you have brought me back to life." Galatea said. "As a sign of gratitude for that, and regardless of your hidden agenda concerning me, I won't kill you for trying to keep me captive."

"Do get in my way though and I won't hesitate to slaughter each one of you. Not even one will escape alive today."

Sarutobi contemplated her words for a few moments. In the meantime, Uchiha Itachi's hand went to the handle of the short sword strapped on his back, his body looking as though he was one breath away from attacking.. But then, the old man lifted up his hand.

His subordinates broke the encirclement and stepped back.

"Looks like your old age did not make you senile." Galatea said rudely. "You made a wise choice."

With that, the blonde woman crouched...a sudden earthquake occurred and the concrete floor under her feet was rendered to rubble as she propelled herself into the air. Another large tremor shook the entire base as Galatea smashed her way upwards through the ceiling, destroying everything standing in her path.

Deafening alarms started to ring all over the base that was now shaking from everywhere. The entire mountainside looked like it was about collapse due to the Kryptonian's insane rampaging.

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A straight line could be seen parting the clouds above the Atlantic Ocean. Galatea was flying at a speed much higher than the speed of sound! She had never flown at that kind of speed before, she had never felt so much strength coursing through her body like after what she deemed as her chakra finally awakened. Each of her body's functions seemed to have improved and even the pace at which she was absorbing the solar radiation had drastically increased.

In no time, the shore of the Northern American continent appeared at the horizon. From there, it was only a matter of minutes for her to arrive at her destination.

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

Naruto suddenly shouted:

"KURAMA! TAKE MISAKI AND RUN!"

An enormous nine-tailed fox suddenly burst through the wall of the house. It was Kyuubi, his size now even larger than that of a horse and 5 of his tails were securely wrapped around Misaki who looked frightened.

"What happened, Naruto?" Kyuubi asked urgently, his current deep and demonic-sounding voice greatly startling the girl.

"Someone extremely powerful is recklessly projecting his killing intent on me. Run! Protect her as if she were me!"

Kyuubi jumped over the tall fence surrounding the Monkey King Dojo and broke into a very fast sprint, easily outrunning the cars on the street.

No sooner than Kyuubi ran away, like a meteorite, someone crashed into Naruto. The ground under his feet cracked like a spider-web and the shockwave resulted from their clash broke all the windows of the house and the dojo.

It was Galatea who looked positively delighted at the expression of shock marring Naruto's face in that moment.

"How are you alive?!"

But she didn't reply. Instead, she shot a powerful kick at his head.

Naruto blocked it with his arms...only to be sent hurling through the air by the strength behind her leg. He broke through the fence surrounding his compound, only stopping into the wall of one of the buildings across the street.

With a groan, he lifted himself up from the rubble resulted from him being slammed into the wall. He realized that he was inside of his neighbours' house and that they were looking at him scared, all huddled together into a corner of a room. Incidentally, his eyes fell on the father that had instinctively placed himself in front of his wife and child to protect them from harm with his body.

Then, he turned his eyes towards the blonde Krytponian that was coming towards him floating slowly and confidently in mid air.

'One careless move and this fight could kill tens of people in an instant. The collateral damage is going to be insane.'

Until then, in his current life, Naruto had never fought against someone in a place where innocents could be harmed. Most of the time he was either in remote places or in the middle of the "enemy's camp".

He looked again at the people that were looking at him frightened from the corner of the room.

'This could have been me. Had I not had Kurama to save me and make me remember the memories of my past life, it could have been me that would have cowered in fear at the sight of god-like metahumans fighting.'

Naruto made up his mind. While he generally not cared about anyone else, he had also never actively tried to hurt anyone that had not wronged him.

'How would I be any different than the ones that I killed in revenge if I were to also disregard the innocents' lives like they were ants?'

Black lightning burst from Naruto's body at an insane intensity and Galatea's confident smirk was wiped off her face when, with a black blur, Naruto disappeared from in front of her eyes.

With a shunshin, just like Rock Lee had once done it to Gaara during the Chunin Exams of his past life, Naruto appeared as though he had suddenly teleported beneath her - his foot violently impacted Galatea's chin sending her upwards. She didn't have the chance to right herself in the air as a Shadow Clone of Naruto appeared behind her back. Crystal like-bones grew up from the clone's ribcage and protruded in a grotesque manner into Galatea's back making her scream in pain.

But the clone was not done. While having Galatea immobilized in his extended ribcage, black lightning engulfed the two of them.

However, the expected howl of agony did not come... instead, under Naruto's confused stare, Galatea head-butted the clone, dispelling it. Then, startling Naruto even further, the black lightning that should have normally charred her to death, was simply absorbed into her body. As that was happening, at a speed visible to the naked eye, the wounds left by the clone's bones in her back started to close up.

'W-What the hell is with that bullshit regeneration?! And why is my lightning not working o her anymore?!'

'Don't tell me...her body adapted to it and became immune after experiencing it only once?!'

Breathing heavily, but otherwise with not even a scratch left on her skin, Galatea glared at him.

'This isn't good.' Naruto thought. Black lightning engulfed his body once more and he seemed to have transformed into a streak of black light as he broke into a mad dash towards the ocean.

'It looks like I can't finish her off cleanly...this fight will surely blow out of proportions. Countless bystanders would die if they got caught up in it.'

In the meantime, Galatea was having completely different thoughts, the danger their fight posed for ordinary people never appearing in her mind. She was single-mindedly focused on defeating her foe; aside from that nothing else mattered for her.

'What is he playing at? Is he trying to lure me into a trap?'

With that in mind, Galatea started to fly on Naruto's trail but at an enough distance for her to have time to react if he were to try to suddenly launch a sneak attack.

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Meanwhile, from the Watchtower, Martian Manhunter contacted Batman telepathically.

"Batman, a serious disturbance took place in Gotham City."

"I know. I'm at the scene right now."

Batman replied. He was in his bat-themed aircraft, following the two "walking nukes" from a safe distance. He knew better than to try to interfere by himself with the two god-like metahumans' fight.

"J'onn, please contact the core members of the Justice League...a clash between Uzumaki and the clone is going to destroy the city if we don't stop it." Batman asked.

Only 1 minute after that, Superman appeared in the skies of Gotham. Naruto had killed Lex Luthor on his "turf" as the saying goes. He was so bitter and worried about it that he had not even gone home to spend the Christmas with his family, opting instead to look over the safety of Metropolis City. Because of that, at Martian Manhunter's prompt, Superman arrived in Gotham in a matter of seconds. When he got there, with his enhanced vision Superman naturally discovered Batman's aircraft immediately.

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Worth mentioning was that Naruto didn't remember his speed to have ever reached in his past life the speed at which he was running in that moment. He was running so fast that he had to actively use his still immature Doujutsu to slow down the time in perception, to be able to avoid hitting other people or vehicles.

The friction with the air had been so powerful that his clothes had began to burn by the time he arrived at the shore.

After diving into the water to extinguish the fire on his clothes, he jumped out and started to run on top of the water at the maximum speed he was capable of, enormous waves of water rising up on each of his side after he passed.

Eventually, he stopped. He was so far from the coast that he could not see the shore anymore, at tens of miles away.

In less than a minute, Galatea reach him.

"You sure can run fast." she said mockingly.

"My personality may have many issues but I won't drag others into my mess. Here, in the middle of the ocean, nobody else will get in the way."

With no further words, Galatea plunged at Naruto who was already starting to think that choosing to fight on top of the ocean might have not been such a great idea in the end. The waves were enormous, tens of feet in height, making it hard for him to keep his equilibrium while also fighting someone as insanely powerful as the mutated Kryptonian in front of him.

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"Now, where are those two psychopaths?" Flash asked when he finally arrived to Gotham.

"Ironically, the self-proclaimed 'Fastest Man Alive' is the last one to arrive." Green Lantern said with a frown.

"Hey, don't give me that, I'm coming all the way from Florida! I was in the middle of my holiday, you know that?" Flash retorted.

Before their bickering could escalate any further, Wonder Woman intervened.

"There's no time for this. You are warriors, not children. Act like ones!"

It was rare for Wonder Woman to raise her voice like that so the two wisely didn't continue their little spat.

Hawkgirl, who arrived only a few moments before the speedster said

"Still, Flash has a point. You've called us all here but Gotham is as peaceful as it could be. Where are Uzumaki and the superclone?"

"Uzumaki baited the clone to the middle of the ocean. Apparently he can also walk on water...however, he is as good as dead. It was a stupid move for him to come into my territory." Aquaman said confidently.

"Why would he 'bait' her to the middle of the ocean? Don't tell me that he..." Zatanna began to say, only for Batman to continue her words:

"Yes, he baited her there in order to not involve others in their fight."

"So what, is he supposed to be some sort of hero now?" Hawkgirl asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Do remember that despite his cruelty, Uzumaki Naruto has never killed someone that he considered innocent. Not even once. His victims have all been either criminals or corrupted people." Shazam said.

At his words, many of the gathered superheroes frowned. What Shazam just said made their job harder than before. It would have been easier for them to simply see Naruto as an evil that needs to be eradicated. However, now that Naruto had unknowingly proven them that he was not mindlessly killing anyone and that he actually cared about not harming innocents, their conscience would stop them from takin lethal actions against him. And the head-figure of the Justice League, Superman, felt the same.

"It's time for us to step in. But before we start, I have only one a few words to say." Superman started. "This will be a very dangerous battle for all of us. I know we are seen as superheroes and that it's in our job's description to risk our life for the sake of maintaining peace."

"However, in the following fight, I ask you one thing: please...don't try to be a hero. If any of us die here today, even if we manage to subdue Uzumaki Naruto, we will have lost. Please, do not treat your lives lightly."

Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Green Lantern, Flash, Doctor Fate, Zatanna, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, Steel and Red Tornado.

Apart from Supergirl, the most powerful superheroes of the Justice League had gathered, as one, in Gotham. A punitive force with the sole purpose of subduing what they perceived as two monsters on the same level of threat with the God of Evil himself, Darkseid