Legacies part 1

It was a pleasant day in Starling City. The sun was shining and the breeze was cool enough to make things comfortable for the city's residents. It was so good that nothing bad could ever happen today….

"GET DOWN! EVERYBODY GET DOWN! NOW!"

...Nevermind…. Spoke too soon.

We cut to those ruining such a perfect day as they're robbing the Starling Trust Bank. They're wearing hockey masks that had playing card graphics of 'King', 'Jack' and 'Ace' respectively. Each of them were carrying assault rifles with two of them carrying duffel bags. King and Jack were attempting to get inside of the safe while Ace stood watch to make sure no one messed around.

"You can't jackhammer into the safe." A bank teller voiced out, making Ace turn towards him. "It's too thick. It'll take you guys too long."

This made Ace punch the man across the face, making him fall onto the ground and possibly get knocked out in the process. "Shut up!"

*BANG* "Alright! We're in!"

"Let's move Jack. We got less than three minutes."

While King and Jack were emptying the vault, one customer slowly shifted his body around. One woman saw the action and spoke in a harsh whisper. "Are you trying to get us killed?"

"Don't worry ma'am. I'm a cop" The man said as he slowly unclipped his ankle gun.

"Please… Please don't do anything, okay? I don't want to die. Please!"

Ace seemed to notice this little conversation as his eyes landed on the ankle gun. With narrowed eyes, he pointed his assault rifle at the cop. The very moment Ace was about to pull the trigger…

*BANG* "Hope I'm not too late!" Ace whipped around and fired his weapon at the new arrival at the entrance, only to have the bullets impact against an odd looking shield. "Well that's not very nice."

The man dashed forward and knocked the one robber back, causing Ace to stumble and drop his loaded weapon. The hero didn't let up and smacked the robber to the side before tossing him to the ground. Not wanting Ace to get back up, the shield wielder slammed down his weapon to the ground and froze part of the lobby floor, encasing Ace in a strong layer of ice.

"Now stay while I deal with whoever's in the vault."

"What is going on out-" Yelled out King before he aimed his weapon at the shield wielder. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Oh me?" The shield wielder blocked several bullets before replying back. "I'm Vanitas and I'm visiting from out of town."

*Whoop* *Whoop* *Whoop*

"And that must be the SCPD finally showing up."

"Starling City Police Department. Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up. I repeat: Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up."

"You heard the officer 'King'." Vanitas dismissed his shield before throwing a dagger across the room. King instinctively moved out of the way, but looking back he saw Vanitas seemingly disappeared.

'Where the hell did he go?' King thought before he heard a voice right behind him.

"You know..." King turned around and aim his weapon at the hero. "You're supposedly the second 'king' I stopped since I've been here. Wonder what else might happen."

King was about to shoot, but Vanitas grabbed the barrel and phased the weapon out of the robber's hand. The hero soon knocked King out before bullets came towards him. On instinct, Vanitas let the bullets phase right through before turning around and teleported towards his dagger to knock 'Jack' out.

"All I'm missing now is a Queen and a Ten, then I'd get a Royal Flush… Though I wouldn't want that if I played 2-7 Triple Draw."

*Bang* "SCPD! Nobody move!" One officer yelled out as many filed their way through the bank's entrance.

"Oh hey guys." Vanitas cheerfully said, gesturing the incapacitated people. "Got these robbers for you."

-One Hour Later, Abandoned Queen Consolidated Steel Factory-

Sounds of metallic pipes were in the air inside of the abandoned steel factory. If people came close to the building, they would figure it was some punk ass kids messing around inside private property. But with how fast the sounds were being made could say otherwise to someone trained in combat.

Dwelling deep inside of the factory, going through the basement door and through a flight of stairs, you would see two men sparring against each other. Both were in work out fatigues with signs of grime and sweat on them. While one man was feeling exhaustion, the other felt outright fine for the most part.

"Anchor the rear hand Diggle. Come on." The first man spoke as he encircled his sparring partner.

This is Oliver Queen, heir to Queen Consolidated. He's in his mid-twenties with brown hair and a thin beard to match; appearing to be well built with scars littering his body. A playboy and a college dropout that changed five years ago when he was shipwrecked on Lian Yu. Learning how to survive, among other things during his time away.

Now that he's back in his home city, Oliver has one wish to fulfill. Something entrusted to him by his late father: get back home and right his wrongs. Oliver has come home a little over a month ago, planning to bring down those that poisoned his city. To do this, Oliver Queen must become someone else… or rather something else.

"I'll keep that in mind Oliver." The second man said as he readied his stance..

This is John Diggle, Oliver Queen's driver and 'bodyguard'. An african american in his mid thirties that he too has several scars on his body. He got some of these back in his childhood, but got the rest in his time in the army. Honorably discharged with the Master Sergeant rank.

Diggle came into service of the Queen family after being hired by Moira Queen, Oliver's mother, after her son's kidnapping. Diggle eventually found out an interesting tidbit on the man who he is paid to protect. And once that was revealed, Oliver convinced John to help him in his crusade to help fix their city.

They increased the speed of their swings as they were getting faster and faster until…

"GAH!" Diggle cried out as the pipe smacked across his jaw. "Damn that hurts."

"Variable acceleration… Most fighters work at the same pace. You switch it up, you throw your opponent off his game."

*Groan* "That was nice and all, but where'd you learn that?"

"His name's Yao Fei."

"And he gave you those scars?"

"Eh~ Only one of them."

"And the others?" Diggle questioned as he got no response. *Sigh* "You know, one of these days you're gonna be straight with me about what really happened on that island."

"Oh absolutely."

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

"GAH!" John cried out as he was smacked across the lower back. Falling onto the ground to nurse the sore spot.

"But not today!" Oliver stated as he walked away from the training mats.

"Still some pretty sweet moves. But did you have to be a bit more aggressive this time?"

*Sigh* "Sorry Diggle, but just frustrated that's all." Oliver apologetically said as he flipped on his computer monitor.

"Which would be what exactly?" The veteran walked up to the computer screen to see what had Oliver so upset. What he saw actually surprised to him. "TB outbreak in Lamb Valley? Since when?"

"Since this guy got greedy." After typing on the computer, a picture was pulled up.

"That's one smug-looking son of a bitch."

"Justin Claybourne owns Clayborne Pharmaceuticals that recently acquired the rights to this drug, Dycloseral." Oliver started off before typing in more commands to pull up more information. "And this drug fights off a particular strain of Tuberculosis."

Not liking the sound of this, Diggle commented on it anyways. "And let me guess. As soon as the outbreak started, he jacked up the prices."

"Prices went up from $5 per pill to $1,000 overnight." Oliver said as his fists tightened on this bit of news. "The people in Lamb Valley; they're working class Diggle, low income. They can't afford this."

"It's disgusting, I give you that, but not illegal." Diggle then noticed Oliver's darkened expression. Wanting to lighten up the mood, he went to the computer and typed.

"What are you doing?"

"Thought you should learn about this." Once the searching was done, several news articles popped up. "These guys, what the news call the Royal Flush Gang, started off at Keystone three years ago began moving West and hitting banks along the way."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

Diggle went to the side, grabbed the morning paper and showed Oliver the article in question. "This morning they hit Starling City Trust and were about to make away with a lot of money. That is until he showed up."

"He?" Curiosity hit Oliver as he took the newspaper from Diggle's grasp. "He who?"

"Vanitas: one of Gotham's vigilantees. He stopped the robbers and was able to stop an attempted shooting on an off duty cop."

'Ah… That's right.' Oliver thought as he reflected back to what happened last week. Oliver was incarcerated the day the airport was attacked for supposedly an assassination attempt on the Vlatavan Queen's life. Luckily for her, Vanitas came in to save the day but caused property damage when facing off a meta-assassin by the name Hiraishin.

Oliver thought it was pretty suspicious of the Gotham hero to appear in Starling all of a sudden. But the hero stated in an interview that he saw something suspicious at the airport, decided to investigate and stowed away on the flight. It was an odd excuse, but the media seemed to buy it. All except for him.

Oliver couldn't do a thing about it at the time with the next day after his trial as he was placed under house arrest until further notice. Using this to help cover his tracks of him being 'The Hood', due to Oliver realizing that someone's going to make connections. Returning back to Starling after five years and 'The Hood' shows up a handful of days later. To help sell his cover a bit more, he convinced Diggle to masquerade as 'The Hood' to take down an arms dealer the night of Oliver's party he hosted at his family's estate.

It was the morning after Oliver's first night of house arrest that troubling news came to light: Queen Perdita died. He and his family, along with Diggle, were saddened to hear about the ten year old girl dying on the operating table. Learning the reason why Perdita was in Starling in the first place: getting a heart transplant with the donor being a 100% match and the queen had to personally come to Starling for the operation.

Despite it being heartbreaking, this was lie as another news bulletin came up half an hour later. As it was revealed that the earlier news coverage was a ruse created by Detective Quentin Lance and Vanitas to draw out the culprit to what occurred within the past two days: Former Count Werner Zytle. Charged for crimes against the Vlatavan crown, with attempted murder on Perdita's life and murder on the late King Victor. Justice was served that day and Perdita will rest easily until she goes back home for her official coronation.

"But why bring this up Diggle?"

"I thought you should maybe try and extend what you do Oliver. Don't just focus on what you have to do on your father's list and help out on street crimes. At least give yourself a better picture to the city's citizens."

"I think you have the wrong impression about what it is I do."

"You take out bad guys with a bow and arrow."

"I don't fight street crime Diggle. That's a symptom of what's wrong with this city and I'm trying to cure the disease." Oliver stated as he picked up his father's book, getting Diggle let out a mental sigh.

Robert Queen, Oliver's father, gave his son a list of names of corrupted people and it was all inside that book. A good number of them was already crossed out, either getting killed or brought to justice by 'The Hood'. Diggle wanted to be sure Oliver would try and stay on the right path on this crusade of his. From staining his hands with so much blood on this path Oliver paved out. Yes Diggle has killed men back in the army, but he was doing it to serve his country, but not killing others in a meaningless fight.

"CEO's and crooked entrepreneurs. I get it. But I'm just saying maybe you can make a difference if you think beyond the scope of those pages. I'm probably sure your father wouldn't mind."

"No, you don't get it. My father died so that I could live. Live and make a difference by fixing this city that he and the people in this book ruined. Every name that I cross off this list honors that sacrifice. And Claybourne's name is in it." Oliver said as he moved to the towel nearby to whip off the sweat before heading back home. "And about that one comment earlier, I'm not worried about illegal right now to help honor said sacrifice."

"Oliver, there's more than one way to save this city."

"Well not for me. Crime happens in this city every day. What do you want me to do, stop all of it? That's for the police to handle."

John only shook his head at Oliver's statement. "It sounds like you have a narrow definition of being a hero. Possibly take a page out from what Vanitas' doing to at least help make a difference. Maybe then it'll help you see what it means to be a hero."

Once Diggle left the room, Oliver was left by himself to think things over as he prepared for Justin Clayborne tonight. If he doesn't plan to change his ways, then Oliver will make him see differently, one way or another. But as he tried to prepare, one thing echoed through his head… That he's not a hero.

-Wildcat Gym-

Inside of the boxing ring, two men were fighting for supremacy… well it appeared that way to any outside viewer.

One was an older man that looked like he was in his mid-late forties, but he was in fact in his sixties. Apparently with his excellent workout routine, the man was built like in his prime with him being a head taller than his opponent. Balding over the years with hints of grey littering his facial hair to help show his real age. Asides from his physical appearance, he wore workout clothes with a pair of grappling boxing gloves.

This was Ted Grant and he was currently sparing against Naruto, who was in a similar attire. They've been at this for roughly an hour now and neither one showed signs of stopping, despite the younger fighter struggling a little after fighting for so long. He kept up his movements throughout the whole ordeal with Naruto being quicker with his younger age.

Dodging a kick from the elder fighter, Naruto came in close with two fast jabs before performing a combination attack with a series of elbow strikes and kicks in no particular order. Despite receiving the many blows onto himself, Ted was able to send strong uppercuts towards his younger opponent to send him back a bit. He copied Naruto's action earlier of coming in close as he feinted an attack before weaving through the spar with hardly no difficulty at all.

"Come on kid." The elder fighter evaded a few blows as he spoke. "You need to remember: You reach, while I teach."

"You say that while you can take a lot of punishment." Naruto grunted out before getting punched. "Even being so damn fast for your age."

"Heh. Maybe you're just too slow kid."

Ted then grabbed ahold of Naruto, tossed him before coming in at close and unleashed a variety of jabs. The publisher took his punishment as he was forced to be on the defensive. Blocking several punches towards his face, Naruto had to move to the side so he could lay a few hits onto Ted's side before backing away for some recovery.

"You know, you're doing quite well from what the little 'pussy cat' taught ya." Ted complimented as Naruto deflected the incoming strikes he couldn't evade with his open palms. The elder fighter then backed away to avoid an upward kick aimed at his solar plexus. "Though it really can't keep up with my way of fighting."

*Grunt* "Thanks." Naruto coughed when Ted got close to punch the younger man's chest. "And I agree on that old man."

"Good that you're respecting your elders brat. Also you had your guard down for a moment there. You need to focus all the time in a fight so the variety of distractions won't mess ya up."

Ted backed away to give the younger man a small breather before dashing in to deliver another series of jabs. Naruto evaded several hooks before sending a few quick jabs, only to have them blocked with one of his arms trapped in a hold. He gritted his teeth as he tried to pry his arm out, without using his powers, as Ted punched his vulnerable side a few times.

Once free, Naruto kicked the boxer away before the limb was snagged, raised high into the air before Ted grappled the kid by slamming him onto the boxing ring floor. Naruto groaned out from the last attack as he punched Ted several times to get him to let up on the hold, but it wasn't working. Calling defeat, Naruto eventually smacked the boxing ring several times.

*Chuckles* "Seems that it's my win once again kid." Ted smirk as he let go of Naruto before helping him get back onto his feet. "Though I gotta say you lasted a bit longer than last time."

"Watch yourself old man *Grunt* since I'll beat you one day."

"Yeah. You and every student of mine say that and they never get one up on me." The elder man walked to the edge of the boxing ring to lift the ropes to get himself and Naruto out.

It's been a little over a week since Naruto came to Starling and all of the 'exciting' moments that went on between him and Perdita. After Count Zytle's incarceration, Naruto stayed with her for a while to help out a little when she broke down crying of hearing on how her father was murdered. She could've kept it in for so long before it was ready to burst and Naruto had to break it early so it wouldn't be too damaging for her.

After leaving the hospital, Naruto ran by a few locations on his checklist for work: Castlefall, Lamb Valley and the Triangle. Things went well on those assessments and on the next day he went to check on Pennytown and the North District in East Starling. With all that done for work, he called his board of directors to give his full assessment on the locations so they can pick out which one was the best from his initial report.

Going back to the day of Perdita's successful recovery, Naruto needed to let out some steam from dealing with China White and her lackeys, Silver Monkey and Werner Zytle. Eventually coming across the Wildcat Gym, which took a bit of time to find, and spoke with the man. He was pretty pleasant to talk to, even when Naruto told him he was Selina's boyfriend.

They ended up sparing for roughly half an hour so the publisher could get rid of his frustrations. Suffice to say, Naruto was surprised when Ted kicked his ass kicked, but there were no complaints from him. Ted commented it being a good match with how much Naruto kept up. Even had to break out of the typical boxing style to really get into it.

Since then, Naruto kept showing up everyday for the duration of his stay in Starling. Ted was a great sparring partner to help keep him up on his toes and to not rely at all in his powers. Naruto knew that like before, if he solely relied on them, then his powers would be a crutch. So going up against a better physical opponent, that wasn't out to kill him, was great for training than from what Naruto had to deal with on just his clones and Selina for equal terms.

Asides from that, Ted asked Naruto on what Selina was up to these days so he could possibly be caught up with one of his old students. It helped out when Naruto gave Ted his girlfriend's phone number for a surprise call. Made things good when hearing from Selina that catching up with her old mentor went well, despite it only being a phone call and not in person.

"Sucks that you can't stay in Starling much longer kid. It's been great fighting ya."

"Same here old man, but I have to make my way to National City in a few days. Even then I live in Gotham and that's where I primarily work."

"Even then, it would've been nice if I could get a good student to teach that would actually keep up with me after so long."

"Hey, don't count Selina out too short Ted. She's been a great sparring partner and taught me a lot, which she learned from you by the way."

"True, but she has her own feminine charm to it which can't fully muster that of a man." Ted stated with pride before realizing what he just said. "Don't tell Selina I said that or else I'd sound sexist."

*Chuckles* "I won't Ted. Besides you've been teaching me some good pointers in fighting and that must count for something. You might even get a student here in Starling someday, just be patient." Naruto went back to his backpack to get a few things out from it, like his wallet for instance, before going back to Ted. "Well here's the money for today Ted. The lessons and spar were well spent."

The boxer nodded as he was handed the money. Even though Ted has a good amount of people coming by to help keep the gym afloat, he still likes to get paid for private lessons. He didn't want to have the younger man pay him for the lessons, with him being in close relations with one of his favorite students, Naruto insisted on it.

"Then have a good day Naruto. Don't get into any trouble before you come back tomorrow." Ted the Wildcat said as he went towards the showers to clean off the good sweat.

"See you later Ted." Was all Naruto said before making his way out with one destination in mind, after taking a shower at the hotel. 'I should check and see how Perdita's doing.'

-Later, On the Streets-

"Are you really sure we couldn't just use the limo back to your hotel room Perdita?" Naruto asked as he wheeled the young Queen through the city's streets. "It would've been faster to do so."

"It's quite alright Naruto." The young queen smiled while looking at the cityscape around her. "I didn't want to just stay inside of my hotel room until I have to head back to Vlatava for my coordination. I want to see this city as much as I can, with some safety limits of course."

Naruto was surprised to see her already in a wheelchair. Expecting her to not be moving out and about for a while longer, due to her needing to adjust to her new heart. But she was adapting quite easily. Though Perdita was advised that she should be in a wheelchair for another few weeks just to be sure her six week recovery period went smoothly.

"It'll be an interesting sight if you had to wheel yourself down the aisle for your coordination." He joked before she turned around in her seat and smacked him slightly. "Okay. Okay. Didn't mean that."

The young queen could only smile a little at this. "I know and besides, I have my new cane to help steady myself when I'm doing my preparation walks."

"Asides from speaking about your big day in the coming weeks, how are you liking Starling so far?" Naruto questioned as the they were crossing the street with some bodyguards a good number of feet away from them. It's just so they wouldn't draw much attention to the publisher/queen duo.

Perdita hummed in thought as she kept looking around through the sites before her. "It's looking quite well for the most part and I wish I could see more outside of my country… Even wish I could've made friends in such time."

"But aren't I your friend Perdita?" He asked in a mocked hurtful tone. Naruto chuckled a little on her flustered expression. "Nah it's alright Perdita. I understand on that little problem quite well."

"How so?"

"Remember in some of our past chats, I based my Ninja Storm story off of my life. I was being truthful in most parts of my childhood. Hardly having friends at my age and when I was a pre-teen, I eventually gained connections to those of varying ages."

"...I'm sorry to hear that Naruto."

"It's alright Perdita. What happened, happened. But the point is, yes you should have friends closer to your age to have a better connection with them. Not only that, but ones that do want to become your friend despite your status as a queen. Some would want to take advantage of that and possibly abuse their connection at some point."

"I know all of that, but I don't know how to make any."

*Sigh* "You can't just make friends right on the fly, you know. Sometimes it's easy if things work quite well, like us for example, but others take time to earn it." Naruto saw her downcasted look as he thought of something to cheer her up. "I do know a couple of girls around your age that would possibly like to have another friend."

This perked up the child queen a little with interest. "Who?"

The publisher smirked before answering. "Rachel, Artemis and Jade. I can get them in contact with you and possibly have them become your pen pals if you're interested."

Perdita thought it over before she softly smiled and nodded her head. "I-I think I'd like that."

"That's good." He said as he wheeled the child queen through some of the crowded areas. "I'll call them later and maybe have you girls chat to see how things go."

"Like when I chatted with… what were their names again? Lois and Catherine?"

"She prefers Cat, but yeah... those are their names. Also hope that it possibly won't be as stressful or boring to ya."

A few days after the heart surgery, Naruto received a call from Cat while he visiting Perdita. He was about to head outside to talk with her when Perdita's voice was heard over the other end. She convinced Naruto to let her talk to the young queen, but he asked Cat to not dwell too deep, reminding her that Perdita is ten years old.

Some minutes into the phone call, his cell phone went off, causing him to pull the phone away to see that it was Lois. Not wanting to be rude or anything of ignoring the dark haired reporter, Naruto used the hospital phone to call her and tell her why he couldn't answer from his cell. This was a mistake on his part, as like before, Perdita's voice was heard by Lois.

So the reporter asked to be put on speaker phone, eventually the same with Cat, so both of them could chat with Perdita at the same time. Naruto once again asked for them to not overwhelm the queen so it wouldn't over stress her during her early recovery period. And just to be safe on this, Naruto sat next to Perdita so he could keep the two women back if they were going a bit too far.

Lois and Cat did little arguing in this odd interview group call, but just like old times, Naruto went back into being their mediator. Asides from that, the generalized questions asked were on her health condition and why exactly Perdita had to come to Starling for the heart surgery instead of having the heart shipped out. Eventually the two asked Perdita that once sitting on the throne, what would she want to do on first orders of business among other questions.

Naruto was glad that Lois and Cat were patient with the young queen so she wouldn't feel rushed. And he's gotta say, Naruto was impressed on Perdita trying to be mature on answering the questions. Though he had to 'step in' to help fill in some blanks from some of the past chats he had with the young blonde. Like why her uncle killed King Victor and wanted Perdita dead to adding in the little fun tidbit of the queen being all fan girl towards him, much to said queen's embarrassment.

In the end, Lois and Cat were satisfied on the interview and thanked Perdita for her time. They even thanked Naruto for letting them chat with the queen, despite having to share the gained information for a possible headline column as an end result. Naruto then knew the two will now back off like they promised… well Cat promised to convince Lois on that bit.

'It really felt just like old times.' He thought with nostalgia settling in. 'I'll need to get a copy of their respective papers to see what they wrote.'

It was then Naruto heard a bit of a screeching sound several feet ahead of the two. He looked towards the source to see a delivery truck slamming against a taxi, sending it towards a lone woman by the intersection. Naruto left Perdita's side, rushed towards the woman and pushed her away to end up taking the hit instead of her.

*Crash*

"Oh my god!"

"Someone call an ambulance!"

Naruto groaned out in slight pain as he got off of the ground. Looking towards the car that hit him, he saw that his body impacted the car's hood and landed on the front windshield to leave several deep cracks. He shook himself off a little as his powers kicked in to mend his injuries before someone grabbed his shoulder.

"Hey, are you alright?" The woman asked getting Naruto to get a good look at her. She was roughly a head shorter with her blonde hair tied into a ponytail. Wearing a pair of thick glasses that hid her light blue eyes with some pink lip gloss. To complete her look; she wore a pink button up shirt, a knee length black skirt, a pair of black slip ons that seemed to present her form quite well.

"Yeah I'm fine." Naruto stretched out a little to pop some kinks before speaking. "Not the first time this happened, but I'm quite alright. Though question is, are you alright?"

"But shouldn't you stay down and wait for the paramedics." The blonde said in a worried tone before rambling onwards as she seemed to ignore his question. "Though you do look fine to me... Not of you looking fine-fine, but just physically fine. Even though you do look fine."

The publisher chuckled on her odd form of babbling that he thought it was cute, especially with the blush dusted on her cheeks. Reminded him on some of the funnier moments with Harley when the two first started dating. Shaking his head of the stray thoughts, Naruto spoke towards the spectacled blonde.

"I'm fine ma'am. No worries at all." He then spun around slightly to emphasize his point. "Nothing wrong here."

"Oh, good. I was really worried there."

"But you still didn't answer my question."

"...Huh?"

"Are you alright?" Repeated the publisher as he eyed her once more for any scraps. "I pulled you out of the way and I think I saw you land on the ground badly."

Realizing what he meant, she snapped back with widened eyes and answered. "Oh! Yes, I'm totally fine! Thank you for saving me back there."

"It's no problem." He looked to the side to see Perdita wheel herself closer to them. "Hey, sorry I had to leave you back there kiddo."

"It's quite alright." Perdita stated with a smile. "You had to save her life after all, so it's quite the forgivable sin."

*Chuckles* "Good to know." Turning towards the woman he saved, Naruto asked her something. "I don't mean to pry ma'am, but where were you going exactly?"

"Uh... Well um… I'm on my lunch break and I wanted to get something to eat." She honestly answered before gaining a curious look. "Why you ask?"

"I was wondering if you would like to maybe join us for lunch for your troubles." Naruto offered as he gestured to the young queen. "I was showing my little friend here around the city since neither one of us had anything else to do for the day."

"Um.. Are you sure on that?" Questioned the blonde before turning to the little girl in the wheelchair. "And wouldn't you mind at all if I ended up tagging along with you two?"

Perdita adopted a thoughtful pose in her seat, in a playful manner, before answering the older blonde. "I wouldn't mind the company at all and I was told that I should meet new people."

The blonde soon scrunched her face to think things over. *Sigh* "Okay, I'll tag along if it's no trouble."

"Great. And I think I know a good place to eat if you don't mind."

"Well I'll trust your judgement this one time. Though I hope it's not too crazy on the menu."

"It isn't. I swear."

"Okay." The woman said as she followed the two before a thought came to mind. "Aren't we supposed to not leave the accident area? I mean, you were hit and the driver should be doing insurance stuff or something."

"Nah, I think things are doing just fine enough for us to not actually be here." The Uzumaki stated as he looked onto the scene and flared his powers a little to wipe the short term memory of the accident from the handful of people in the area so he, Perdita and the blonde woman would head towards their destination.

-Big Belly Burger-

'This is so nice of him to treat me to lunch here.' Felicity Smoak thought as she opened the door to the food establishment to escort the little girl and her handsome savior inside. 'What an odd way to make my day pretty good.'

Felicity Smoak is a twenty-three year old that has been working for Queen Consolidated in their I.T. department for roughly three years now. One might wonder how she was able to get into the position at successful company at her age. With her brilliant smarts, Felicity was able to graduate high school pretty early and got a scholarship into MIT.

Things have been a little interesting in her line of work ever since Oliver Queen returned to Starling City a little over a month ago. She met him a few times for some random forms of help on his personal life. Felicity did so as she had nothing else to do with her assignments completed for those days.

Today felt like any normal day for her. Working on some projects for her superiors on the latest computer software the company was developing. Felicity wanted to give herself a well deserved lunch break after working so hard. While minding her own business at one particular intersection towards her favorite fast food joint, she was pushed towards the side.

Felicity fell onto the ground hard and was about to yell at the person who did that when she heard the crash. Turning towards the source, she saw someone getting hurt by a taxi instead of her. Realizing the person saved her life and had to momentarily hurt her so she wouldn't die as a result.

When checking on him, she blushed while gazing at the gorgeous man roughly a few years older than her. With his odd spiky, silver hair tied into a ponytail to compliment his hazel eyes on the chiseled, whiskered face. He was so nice to her to see if she was okay over himself, despite him stating that he was fine and didn't require any medical attention.

Felicity swore he looked familiar to her, but couldn't place the name at the tip of her tongue. Even the wheelchair bound girl with him made the IT girl think the same thoughts. Before she knew it, they offered her a lunch with her savior paying for her troubles. She relented and here they are at Big Belly Burger and she thought that this day couldn't get any better.

"...Glad you decided to pick this place." Felicity smiled as she looked for a place to seat. "For a moment earlier, I was thinking of something way too odd for me to handle for some reason."

"You had nothing to worry about Felicity." The blonde child responded as she gazed at the restaurant's interior with mild curiosity. "I kept hearing about this place and how good it is, but I've never tried it at all."

That was a thing that came up on the way over here. The child asked Felicity for her name, but when asked in return the whiskered man seemed to either delay the answer or change the subject. This bugged her and Felicity swore she'll get their names, one way or another.

"Don't know what you were missing, but might as well try it out now. And since this is your first time at this place, I recommend the basics so your taste buds won't go too overboard."

"I agree with her kid." He said in acknowledgement. "When I first tried this place years ago, I tried one of their 'extravagant' combo meals and my taste buds were going way wonky. Next time I went, got a basic combo and I adjusted as time went on."

"Then I trust your judgement my good sir and madam."

Felicity chuckled a little on the display of the little girl being so polite towards her. She admitted it was an interesting little experience on the feeling. Oh how she can't wait to feel that way later in her career of others saying such things with her having a higher position.

It wasn't long after they found an available table when a waitress came on by and handed them menus to look over on what they wanted to get. Even though the older people didn't want to look it over, with them already having their desired meals in mind, the young girl had to take a bit see the delicious sounding meals available.

"Like I said Perdita, you should just get the basic combo."

"I know that Naruto, but some of these meals sound so good that they're giving me second thoughts."

'Perdita?… Naruto?' Felicity thought with a curious glance as she finally learned their first names. 'Where have I heard those names before?'

Felicity was going to verbally question this when their waitress showed up. An african american woman that seemed to be in her thirties. She wore a smile on her face, along with casual wear underneath a restaurant apron.

"Hello, my name's Carly and I'll be serving you three today." The waitress said with a notepad and pen out. "Are you three ready yet?"

"I think we are." Naruto stated before he ordered first. "I'll have a double cheeseburger bacon combo with special sauce and a coke." This order seemed to get a giggle from the spectacled blonde on the table, causing him to look towards her. "Something odd on what I said Felicity?"

"Nope. It's just that's my usual order when I come over here… Well except I tend to have a Sprite." Felicity answered, getting a raised look from the others in which the blonde woman noticed. "Not that I want to copy the same order as you Naruto and stating that we having something in common. But seems that we do… I'll stop talking."

The others chuckled at the blonde woman's expense as attention was put towards Perdita. "Umm… Well it's my first time here madam and I was told that I should just have a basic combo. As for my drink, I'd rather have water with some lemon and lime."

Carly was satisfied in getting their orders and went behind the counter to hand the copy of the order sheet over towards the cook. Said waitress looked towards her latest table with a curious look on her face as the three chatted away with each other. Something about two of the customers seemed familiar to her, but she didn't know how.

Her musings were interrupted when she saw her brother-in-law, John Diggle, coming through the door.

"Oh hey John. I take it you want your usual?"

"Hi Carly and yes I do." Diggle said with a small smile. "How's today so far?"

Carly gave John a 'so-so' hand gesture before replying. "It's been slow for the most part, so nothing interesting to say the least." This got a nod out of the veteran as the waitress wrote up the meal ticket. Once handing it towards the cook, she turned back towards John. "So how's working for Oliver Queen today?"

*Sigh* "Stubborn."

"How so?"

"Let's just say that he and I have different opinions in what he should do 'career wise' and leave it at that."

Carly accepted the answer before her eyes kept going back towards her previous table. This action caused Diggle to notice before turning around to see where her eyes were aimed at. "What's so special about them Carly?"

"I don't know John, but something about the man and the little girl is really familiar to me and I can't quite put the name towards their faces."

Feeling curious, John moved around a little in his current place to get a decent look at the table. He recognized the blonde being an employee at Queen Consolidated and mentally questioned why she was with those two. But said questioned died as he gazed at the whiskered man and the blonde child in the wheelchair. A few seconds passed before his eyes widened slightly and looked away so he wouldn't get noticed from staring.

"John? Is something wrong?" Carly questioned in a worried tone.

"I… uh… I know who they are."

"Really? Who?"

John couldn't really say it outloud, so he ushered Carly to come closer before whispering in her ear. After a few moments, she pulled back with widened eyes and was about to yell something out if John didn't cover her mouth. A few more moments passed after that before he uncovered her mouth to let her speak in a hushed whisper.

"Are you seriously telling me they're Naruto Uzumaki and Queen Perdita?!"

"Yes I'm sure Carly and please keep this to yourself." He whispered back so they wouldn't draw too much attention towards themselves.

"I-I mean how could I?" She questioned as she kept looking back at the table with recognition on her face. "One of my favorite authors is here along with the freaking queen of Vlatava."

"And you should calm down before you possibly cause any problems." Diggle warned his sister-in-law. Before she could say anything else, the cook called her and said that the one table's meal was ready. Carly tried to recompose herself before grabbing the meals and walked. Even as this happened, Diggle's order showed up and he paid it before leaving.

'Okay. Okay. Don't mess this up Carly. You can do this.' The waitress thought to herself. 'Think of them as any other customer instead of being famous individuals.' After dropping off their orders, Carly scurried away so she wouldn't make much a scene onto herself.

"Um Perdita?"

"Yes?" The Vlatavan asked as Naruto chuckled at her expense. She was looking for some utensils for her to use so she could start eating, but couldn't find any.

"You don't eat your burger with a fork and knife, unless it is too big for your mouth." He said before grabbing his burger with his hands. "This is how you eat a burger."

Perdita owlishly blinked as she looked at Naruto taking a bite out of his meal before Felicity soon followed. So the child queen took hold of the burger before hesitantly taking a small bite out of it. After some chewing to get a good taste out of the beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles; it seemed pleasant towards her taste buds.

Once swallowing, she beamed out with a small smile. "It tastes wonderful."

The two adults laughed a little at her response before dining into their respective meals. All three of them chatted during this time on different topics like what Naruto and Felicity do for a living, with the former being a bit vague on his full occupation. Felicity did ask on Perdita's association with Naruto with said man responding that he's just a friend helping her out during the child's stay in the city before heading back home. Naruto did try and hide the truth from Felicity since he guessed she won't keep her mouth shut if something seemed to come up.

By the time the three finished their meals, it was time for them to head off towards their separate ways.

"Thanks for the meal and it's been great chatting with you two."

"It's my pleasure to at least help out a little from what happened earlier."

"Then, as much it is a bit odd of me saying this, I'm glad that I almost got run over this morning…. Not that I would want to be run over in general for this to happen again."

*Giggle* "It would've been odd if you did so Ms. Smoak." Perdita added in, making the IT girl playfully glare at the child. "So what are you going to do now Felicity?"

Cutting off her playful glare, the IT girl answered. "Well I need to head back to work now, but hopefully not get run over like earlier."

"Of course."

"And what are you two going to do?"

"We plan to go see some other areas of the city, but we haven't really decided which one to go to next." Perdita answered getting a nod from the older blonde.

"That's fine. Though I do recommend you guys don't head over to Lamb Valley. Moreso with you Perdita."

This got a raised look from Naruto before he questioned this. "And why not?"

"...I take it you two didn't hear what happened over there." Cue head shaking 'no'. "The tuberculosis outbreak happening over there?"

"...When did that happen?"

"A day or two ago I think. The news didn't want people to know about the outbreak, but it's being carried via word of mouth."

"And why hasn't there been anything to get thing this handled?" The young queen asked getting an exhausted sigh from the older blonde.

"Something about medication prices being raised and hardly no one can afford them. I don't know all of the details going on, but I wish things could be better in the long run."

The answer let a few small thoughts running through the publisher/queen pair. With Perdita, she was thinking of what she could possibly do to to maybe help those of Lamb Valley. As for Naruto, he decided he was going to look into this when he has time and fix things on his end.

"Well thanks for letting us know Ms. Smoak, we'll be sure to be careful near its border."

Making their way towards the counter, they were greeted with their waitress as she rung up the bill. Naruto paid for it via credit card and signed it. Though before he could make his way out, Carly spoke out to him.

"Excuse me sir."

"Uh. Yes?"

"There's something else you could probably sign for me." Carly said, getting him to look at her funny.

'I thought I signed everything needed for the meal.' Naruto thought before he eyed her copies of Gutsy Ninja, Ninja Storm and Loveless. *Sigh* "Really?"

"Sorry Mr. Uzumaki, but this is possibly a once in a lifetime chance for me and I don't know if this opportunity will come by again. So it'll great if I got your autograph." Carley said in a hushed tone so she wouldn't disturb the other customers.

Naruto shook his head and relented as he quickly signed them before turning around…. To end up seeing the wide eyed look of Felicity staring right back at him.

"Y-You're… You're…"

*Sigh* "We should talk of this outside."

-Hours Later, Starling City Plaza Hotel-

"I hope you enjoyed your first day out of the hospital Perdita." The publisher said as the Vlatavan queen was escorted inside of her hotel room by her bodyguards.

"I have Naruto and thank you for spending time with me once again." She responded back before steadily getting out of her wheelchair with her heirloom cane.

After spending additional time throughout the city, Naruto and Perdita made it back to the hotel they both were surprisingly staying at. Neither complained, moreso with the child queen, knowing they'll see each other before having to leave their separate ways when the time comes. Though with the amount of days left for Perdita's stay in Starling, she'll want to exploit the time as much as possible to be with her friend.

The two enjoyed some of the sites like the botanical gardens, the aquarium and the museum; though they'll check other places over the next several days. But after the long day, the two decided to partially call it a day and headed back to rest at their respective hotel rooms.

"You're quite welcome your highness. And what did you enjoy the most?"

Humming in thought, Perdita took a moment or two before responding. "Out of everything I've experienced today, I've got to enjoy spending the small time with Ms. Smoak."

*Chuckles* "Thought so."

"Even when she 'freaked out' of finding out who we are."

*Sigh* "Of course."

Felicity overheard the conversation between him and the waitress, resulting of things piecing together inside her head. She remembered seeing the news reports last week, pertaining to the airport attack and the heart surgery respectively. A small amount of video coverage was shown of the Vlatavan Queen being at the airport and Naruto in the background.

As things finally clicked, Felicity was about to freak out inside of the restaurant if it wasn't for Naruto covering her mouth and ushered her outside. It was an… awkward moment to say the least on how that turned out. And suffice to say, Naruto was so glad he put up a silence barrier around them and the bodyguards so the IT girl's fangirl moment wouldn't be heard.

He signed the Loveless copy Felicity carried around in her purse all the time. Asking her to try and not reveal who they were at this time for security reasons. She understood and complied with the request. Though before leaving, she properly thanked Perdita… in an oddly awkward curtsy given how tight her skirt was, of having lunch with a royal. Even when walking away, Felicity had an odd skip to her step.

"So what are you going to do now?" Asked the queen, snapping Naruto out his thoughts.

"I've got to do a few things before I go to bed?" Though with how he emphasised 'things', Perdita realized he meant by his hero persona.

"Is this about what we heard about earlier about Lamb Valley?"

"Pretty much. Something about this seems odd and I'd like to check it."

"Well I wish you the best of luck Naruto."

*Knock Knock* "Excuse me, your highness." One of the bodyguards said as he peaked his head inside of the room where Naruto and Perdita were currently in.

"Yes Marcus, what is it?"

"I'm here to inform you that you had received a message earlier today."

"...From who exactly?"

"One Moira Queen of Queen Consolidated." Marcus said as he gained questioning looks from the publisher and queen. "She called the hospital earlier, but you weren't there so the message was forwarded towards the suite."

"And what does Mrs. Queen want to speak to Perdita about?"

Not batting an eye at the publisher's question, Marcus answered. "Moira Queen had wondered if you'd like to come on over to her home for brunch tomorrow. Wanting to possibly talk to you for well wishes on your recovery so far and hoping to discuss business."

"Ah~ Thought so." Naruto muttered as he figured this would've happened. Back in his home reality, different companies would discuss contracts and businesses with certain Kage's and Daimyos so trade routes could be made. It's a rough process for either side and this is very much the same in the current reality. But instead of Kage's and Daimyos, replace them with presidents, royals, lords, dictators, mayors, etc.

"So what's your response Queen Perdita?"

Perdita was silent for some time as she slowly paced through the room with the slight clicking on the floor via wooden cane. She was weighing her options and had to figure things out as a proper royal. This is going to be the first of many decisions she'll be making and Perdita learned from her father that first impressions are very important in certain meetings.

"Alright…. Marcus."

"Yes your highness?"

"Contact this Moira Queen and inform her that I'll show up at her home for brunch."

"Of course."

"And tell her that I'll be bringing a guest." She added in as she eyed Naruto, who relentlessly shrugged before nodding his head that he'll come alone.

"Of course ma'am." Marcus finished off as he left the room to complete his task.

"Well… I bet this is going to be an interesting one. Possibly being your first business meeting so soon."

"And I just realized that I'm going to be pretty nervous on this." Perdita stated as she nervously hobbled around the room. "Maybe I should call Marcus back to tell him to decline the offer."

"Nope~ You got yourself into this and you'll have to work your way through it. And before you say anything, I won't be helping out the entire way since you can't rely on me all the time you know."

Perdita sighed in defeat and fell face first onto the nearby couch in response. Even letting out several groans as well on her being frustrated on the whole thing. She wanted to be mature on this, but she probably jumped the gun on the situation.

Naruto soon got a little idea to lighten up Perdita's mood. Going towards the nearby hotel phone, he dialed and he waited. Naruto hoped that Pam will answer and some of the others were at his loft tonight for the little 'sleepover' that he vaguely remembered happening tonight.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Hey Pam, it's Naruto."

"Oh darling, it's good to hear from you." The Green champion spoke out with a little joy in her voice. "Harley, Selina and I have missed you a lot."

*Chuckles* "Yeah I figured honey."

"So why have you called, especially on a phone I'm not familiar with?"

"I'm using the hotel phone at the moment since there's something that I need to check up on my own."

"...That still didn't answer my question Naruto."

"Figured, but I forgot to mention that I'm currently with Perdita at the moment."

"...You are?"

"Hence the reason why I called." Naruto stated before elaborating further in depth. "Perdita doesn't have that many friends her age and I was wondering if Rachel's currently there, along with Artemis and Jade. I figured they could chat together to preoccupy their evening, possibly becoming penpals if things work out."

"Hmm… It could be good for them to expand their circle of friends, but Perdita being a royal would be a wild card I think. Especially if, at some point, they talk about being friends with an actual queen and people might think of them as liars."

"Yeah… I figured as much. But still, are either of them at the loft at the moment?"

"No they are not." Pam answered over the phone. "Harley currently has them on grabbing something for dinner."

"And where's Selina?"

"Right here Naruto." Came a second voice on the phone for him to recognize as his ravenette girlfriend. "Pam had you on speaker while she was making treats."

"Well this might actually help me out a little." Naruto vaguely said as he left his two girlfriends with a questioning thought. He walked over to the couch where Perdita laid on and tapped her shoulder.

Raising her head, the young queen gazed at the publisher with a questionable look. "Yes Naruto?"

"There's some people I'd like for you to speak with."

"...Who?"

"My girlfriend and a friend of ours." He said to her before going back to the phone for a brief moment. "Hey, talk to her about the preservation idea you mentioned Selina."

Once that was said, he handed the phone to Perdita before making his way to the side of the room. Morphing into his hero attire before phasing himself out of the building. Naruto was going to be searching for answers with what's going on with Lamb Valley and he hopes this can be solved very soon.