2/2

"I imagine we've all had that impulse," commented Batman drily, pressing a few buttons on the table. "Unfortunately, that's not going to do anything to solve the problem, so let's break it up into smaller pieces to see what we can do."

A series of images floated into existence just above the table. "J'onn, try to recall everything you can about the philosophy behind this 'Life Equation' and if any parts of it were figured out. In the meantime, let's get in contact with New Genesis and see if Darkseid has resurfaced by them. For finding Luthor, I suggest we get Question…"

"No," responded Superman flatly. A series of nods came from around the table.

Batman arched an eyebrow. "He did well when we set him on Cadmus."

"When we set him on Cadmus he became convinced the world was about to end, tried to kill Luthor, and ended up captured," came the response. "Plus, his recent actions with the Konoha nin he captured make his ties to the League dubious."

A short nod expressed Green Lantern's approval. "I recommend we hold off on giving him any more league assignments for a while."

"Very well." With a surprisingly casual shrug, Batman returned to the table. "We'll go through the normal channels then. But Mr. Terrific, I want you working on that portal we promised our visitors."

Hawkgirl glanced at the Dark Knight in surprise. "Are you crazy? We need T's head working on the Luthor problem. If you ask me, those kids can just stick around for a bit, we might need their help."

"Loose cannons." Green Lantern shook his head. "They're capable fighters, but I doubt they'd follow any strategy we suggested."

"I'm still not sure we should completely trust them," nodded Wonder Woman.

"Besides, we promised we'd work on it for them. The best thing to do is fulfill that as soon as possible." Standing to his feet, Superman addressed the room. "Very well then. The only things we can do for now is search and prepare. You all have your assignments, make sure they're carried out."

One by one the leaguers filed out, with Batman coming last. He had been upgraded to a wheelchair and was swiftly healing, but his mobility was still limited. Just outside the conference room he wheeled to a halt.

"Q."

The faceless man emerged from behind a pillar. "I take it I'm to be relieved of League duties."

"For a while. General consensus." Batman gave a short nod. "Superman will give you details later. In the meantime, I have some private work I want you to pursue."

Question tilted his head in interest.

"Uchiha Sasuke. He's low on the League's priorities right now, but he's going to be a problem eventually." Batman's eyes narrowed to slits. "Find him."

"Understood."

"Control room smashed, front of the building broken in, training room battered but still usable, submarine bay physically intact but equipment all fried, and primary reactors inactive." Cyborg listed off the pad in his hand.

Rubbing his head in irritation, Robin tried to think. "Secondary?"

"Still functional."

"Well that's something. And the visitors?"

"The guys are deposited in our old trophy room, the girls are setting up in one of our spare guest rooms."

"I assume our quarters are still intact."

"Eheheheh…. For the most part. It looks like the psycho with the sword ripped up your room just for the fun of it, but outside of that, we're good."

"Good." Robin nodded. "I'd hate for Starfire to lose any of the few things she's got left."

Grinning, Cyborg added. "I'd hate for them to have stumbled into anything of Raven's."

"Don't even joke about that," came the response. "Speaking of which, where IS Raven?"

"Hard to say. Security systems aren't back online yet. Last I saw, she was headed toward her room… She's probably still there." Cyborg shrugged.

"Get security systems online as soon as you can." Robin ordered. "We're at our weakest right now and probably half the villains in town know it."

"Right."

"Yo!" Robin and Cyborg both turned at the cheerful voice that invaded the doorway. A grinning blonde poked his head in. "The one… green kid said you wanted to see me."

"His name's Beast Boy. Gar, if you can't get used to that." The sooner they figured out the name business, the better. He had a feeling, though, that it would take time.

The confused look Naruto sent him did encourage him. "They both sound pretty weird."

"Get used to it." Turning, Robin picked up the papers Cyborg had printed out moments before. "Are any of your people good at repairs? Building?"

Naruto shrugged. "Sure. We've all done plenty of D-class missions."

"You guys get 'missions' to fix houses? Seriously?" Cyborg's mouth gaped slightly.

Another shrug. "And do gardens. And catch cats."

Robin decided it best to ignore the issue. "What materials and tools do you usually work with?"

"Uh… hammer and nails for tools… materials… I guess I've usually just handled the carpentry stuff, but some of the others know how to work with bricks and clay." Grinning suddenly, Naruto added, "Some of the girls might know how to work with screens and weavings."

This was going to be more difficult than he thought. "I take it, then, that most of you haven't done technical repair either, with computers or generators?"

"Not… really, no." Naruto blinked. "I guess… Shino might know how to work generators… they use them in his clan to keep the hives warm. And Sakura—" a spasm crossed his face for a moment, "—knows how to use computers. But outside of that… not really."

Slightly surprised, Robin tilted his head. "You have generators and computers in your world, but only wooden buildings?"

"We have concrete ones too. I hear they have other stuff in Amegakure, but I've never seen it," came the response. "Why?"

Another issue to forego for now. "Never mind. Send Sakura up here so she can help Cyborg with the computers. After that, collect the others and send them outside. We'll have to give you a crash course in metalworking."

"Metalworking?"

"Please… you promised to kill me…"

"Miss Karin, I never promised anything." The bald man (Luthor, he had introduced himself as) stated calmly as he strode beside her. "You merely volunteered information on the presumption that I would carry out your conditions. I never said whether I would or would not."

Karin shivered at the intent in his words and fell silent. Lying prone in her bed, she could see the hallway speeding past as the attendants pushed her towards—whatever gruesome fate they were surely planning for her.

The thought stirred her fear-numbed mouth into motion. "Please, if you'll just…"

"Now Miss Karin, why should I possibly want to kill you? You have proven to be my most valuable source of information thus far—I should hate to lose you at this stage."

"But I've told you everything…"

Luthor snorted. "You most certainly have NOT."

"What do you mean? I told you about chakra, about handseals, about the others... What could I possibly have left to tell you?"

Actually, there was quite a lot. Karin did not have very specific information about the Nara, and none about the one "Tenten" girl. Her knowledge about Naruto was only cursory—stuff from data files. Nothing about his latest abilities or how they worked.

There could be any reason why Luthor found her information unsatisfactory. But in her heart, Karin knew the real reason.

Sasuke. She had not told him anything about Sasuke.

Even now, knowing that the man knew she was hiding something and would doubtless torture her to reveal it, Karin could not find it in herself to betray Sasuke. It didn't really make sense—after all, their team had never been close, and Sasuke especially had remained distant from her constant advances. He had only the most passing concern for them. And yet… She still felt she needed to protect him.

Part of it was that she was probably still in love with him, she supposed. But another part doubtless had to do with his behavior at the Kage Summit.

They'd been betrayed… by Zetsu, of all people, and exposed to the Kages. The samurai had charged in, but Sasuke had made short work of them. Then the Raikage had come. Suigetsu and Juugo had tried to help Sasuke, but were soon both incapacitated. Merciless and relentless, the Raikage had sacrificed his right arm in his attempt to kill Sasuke. The arrival of the Kazekage had provided a momentary relief, but even then, things had looked grim until Sasuke called upon the Susanoo. The impenetrable armor had forced the Kazekage and Raikage to flee.

Sasuke had saved her, demanding that she find Danzou and take him to him at once.

"Wh-what about the others?" She remembered herself stammering, half incoherent by the bizarre change in Sasuke's personality.

"Forget them! Find Danzou!" He had roared. But then his eyes had changed. "And yet… they might still be helpful, I suppose."

A quick flick from his Susanoo had saved Suigetsu and Juugo. They'd all charged the Kage room—nearly gotten destroyed before being saved by Madarra—and then they'd all attacked Danzou. They'd killed him.

But all Karin could remember was that moment of mercy on Sasuke's part. He'd been a leader. He'd worked for the team. For Karin, that instance of loyalty, however slight, was enough to keep her silent forever.

She could hardly explain this to Luthor, however. So she simply continued, "Please, if this is about Naruto, I warned you about the Kyuubi, I told you…"

"That was not the Kyuubi." Words came out in a short clipped tone. "He did not have the 'chakra cloak' you described. He had something completely different, something you never mentioned."

"I… he's not on our side. I don't know everything he can…"

"Fortunately, I have decided to give you another chance." The group stopped in front of a white, glistening wall and the attendants adjusted Karin's bed to face it. "Something you can help me with. Something you DO understand completely."

At a click, the wall went transparent and Karin gasped.

"I believe you called him Juugo. Your teammate. I haven't had time to do a full examination of him yet, but I've observed a number of genetic irregularities already." A trace of amusement came into his voice. "Are you familiar with the principles of cloning?"

The pale-eyed boy surveyed the beam floating above the ground with interest. "Fascinating. How do you do that? Is it some sort of gravity jutsu?"

Raven ignored him. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" The steel girder swept upward toward the collection of workers on the roof, where an orange and purple blur shot over and grabbed hold of it.

"She is waving to you and smiling." The boy—Neji—informed her. "Now she is carrying it over to the indicated crossbeam…"

Flame burst from the roof.

"And now Ino is melting the girder in place." Neji nodded. "Very good."

The communicator on Raven's cloak crackled into life. "We need a couple lithium bindings on the south side."

Raven touched the device. "Can't see you, Robin."

"I shall do it!" Suddenly a green whirlwind appeared at her elbow. "I shall carry thirty thousand latrinium bindings up the building, and if I cannot do that, I will…"

"Three will be fine, thanks," crackled the speaker, a touch of amusement in its static.

"Hm." Raven grunted. "They're in Box A3, over there." She pointed.

"Yosh!" Grabbing three boxes, the odd boy dashed across the water and up the side of the building at breakneck speed.

"Just what we need," grumbled Raven. "Another energy nut. Does he realize those boxes contain thirty bindings apiece?"

Neji shrugged. "He'll be back in a moment with the others."

A cloud of dust and an enthusiastic shout showed the truth of Neji's words. "Regretfully, I seem to have brought too many latrinium bindings to our youthful comrades on the roof. Where shall I put the others!"

"Over there," sighed Raven.

"Yosh!" There was a clatter and a clang as the boxes hit the ground. "What else do you desire me to do, youthful maiden?"

Youthful maiden?

"Lee, this island seems wonderfully adapted for training. Why don't you run thirty yards out and circle the island ten times?" Neji's voice was calm, reasonable.

Lee's eyes seemed to explode with light. "Ah-HA! You are tricky, rival Neji, but I see through you! I shall run around the island twenty—no, THIRTY times, and if I cannot do that, I will do sixty thousand push-ups! Yosh!" And the green blur of energy swept toward the water.

Turning toward her pale-eyed companion, Raven lifted an eyebrow. He shrugged. "You seemed to be disturbed by his presence."

With a snort of agreement, Raven turned back toward the tower. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

A moment of silence passed between them, broken only by the occasional requests from the communicator and Raven's manipulations of building material. At times, Neji used his Byakugan to help her guide the materials to the other side.

Apparently curious, Neji broached the subject. "So you cannot send items to places you do not see?"

"I can send them. I just might smash into plenty of things on the way there," responded Raven. "It's hard to maintain control over things you can't see."

Neji nodded. "True. That is your… power, then?"

"Among other things." Raven really did not feel like discussing her abilities with this stranger. "I take it yours is to see through walls?"

"Among other things." Apparently he didn't relish the concept any more than she did.

"Hm. And your friend's ability is to walk on water?"

"Actually, no. All of us can do that."

Oh right. That was how the others had attacked. "Like the firebreathing stuff, then." Up above she could just barely make out the blonde girl and the chubby boy, melting another girder into place.

"…in a way." Neji frowned. "All of us can use firebreathing jutsus. But Chouji and Ino have a special affinity for them."

"Affinities?" Just barely interested, Raven shielded her eyes to look up at the workers.

"Elemental affinities. Each of us has a particular element that our chakra is suited toward. Chouji and Ino's is fire. Mine is lightning."

"Hm. And the others?"

Neji hesitated, obviously unwilling to reveal the information, but he finally shrugged and continued on. "Sakura and Kiba are Earth types. Shino, like me, is a Lightning type. Sai and my cousin Hinata are Water types, and Naruto is suited to Wind."

Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind. And Lightning, apparently. The spiritual elements, if you counted lightning as Quintessence. "What about the green one?"

There was a slight pause. "Lee has no elemental affinity."

"None?" A frown creased Raven's face. "I thought you said you could all do that."

"Lee is… unique."

"You don't say," snorted Raven. She dropped the subject, though, instead asking: "So which one of you is the leader?"

"Naruto," came the answer.

"That so."

Neji glanced sharply at her ironic tone. "I have noted you do not seem to approve of Uzumaki-san. Why is that?"

"Approval has nothing to do with it." Raven answered. "As a person, he's annoying enough, but that... thing inside him makes him a disaster waiting to happen. I don't need to approve or disapprove of him, because whether I do or not, he's a danger to everyone here."

"The demon inside him… is that it?" Neji's face hardened.

"Exactly." Raven gave a short nod, her eyes drawn back in bitterness. "No good comes from demons or their hosts. I don't understand why you want to keep him around."

"Probably for the same reasons your teammates keep you around," replied Neji, voice cold.

Raven shrugged. "I've never understood that either."

Sasuke was growing impatient. The vehicle's formerly impressive speed had slowed considerably, almost to a crawl, in his opinion. "Can't we go any faster?" he demanded of the driver.

The driver, predictably, did not respond, and Sasuke gave up his quest with a sigh. Although the genjutsu technically controlled the driver, it did so only in a cursory manner, and with images, not words. His driver still could not understand him and thus could not answer any particular concerns.

Momentarily, Sasuke contemplated leaping from the car and returning to his journey on foot, but dismissed it as too overt. The men in the vehicle ahead looked official, such an activity would surely be reported. He needed to stay low.

With a sigh of resignation, Sasuke reclined back in the seat and studied the vehicle ahead of them. Large. Boxy. Very few windows, apparently very heavily armored. Several people could be seen in the driver's seat, wearing official suits and nervous faces.

Guards. Sasuke surmised. For something in the vehicle, perhaps? But…

Suddenly an explosion rocked the road, sending both cars flying.

"Gotcha!" rasped Two-Face as the armored car crashed down into the ditch. "And two for the price of one." He noted, seeing the crashed truck next to the other. "Not a half-bad day's work." Furiously, he gestured to his men. "Go on, then, boys. Lots of coin in there, time to gather it all up. Leave that." He added, pointing to the rocket launcher. "Don't need nothing burning up the money."

At that moment, however, things went slightly awry.

A dark figure, clad in a voluminous trench coat, landed on the ground next to the armored car, cocking a quizzical eyebrow at it. The teenager, tall with dark, spiky hair, though obviously very skilled, did not seem to be carrying a weapon of any kind.

"Clear outta here kiddo." One of his men growled, waving around his gun for emphasis.

Instantly the teen's gaze darkened. A sword slipped from his coat and into his hand.

Only one kind of idiot tried to use swords in battle. The superhero kind. (Technically, the insane kind might too, but sometimes Two-Face really couldn't tell the difference.) Either he'd volunteered to go with the truck, or tracked it on his own, or simply shown up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Didn't make a difference. "Give 'im two in the head." He muttered to the man.

With scarcely a nod, the thug whipped up his pistol and fired. The teen staggered back and fell over.

Two-Face raised a disfigured eyebrow. Usually those clowns moved around a lot more—the ones with swords at least THOUGHT they were fast enough to dodge bullets. That guy had just stared at the gun as if he didn't understand it. Still. No matter. He was dead, that was the main thing. "Now, get the money." He growled to his men.

Quickly a number clambered over the road and toward the truck. Two-Face smiled as he heard the door being blown open, grinned at the sound of bullets executing the guards within, smirked at the cries of terror...

Wait a minute. That had been one of HIS men.

Screaming, half the men he had just sent came streaking back over the road, firing backwards as they went. Several collapsed in the middle of the road. "What's the problem with you idiots?" Two-Face raged as the survivors approached him. "A few guards too much for you?"

"N-no… it was…"

The answer came in the form of a dark figure that materialized on the road. Straightening, the teenager from a few moments ago glared at Two-Face with murderous red eyes.

Huh. He coulda sworn that they'd hit the kid. Was he bulletproof or a replicant or… Naw. Blood was pouring from a hole in his shoulder. He'd been hit, just not in the head. Stupid Markley, couldn't aim to save his life. In this case, literally, smirked Two-Face as he recognized one of the bodies in the road.

A grunt from the teenager recalled Two-Face to the present. Right. Vengeful wounded superhero-wannabe in the area. "Kill him already!" he growled at his men.

This time, the teenager did not wait for them to fire. Obviously learning from his previous encounter, he leapt and dodged before the guns could even track onto him. His sword leapt and dodged amidst the thugs, slicing them into tiny ribbons. Electricity shot from his hands, and fireballs spouted from his mouth.

Two-Face had been in enough brawls to know when the getting was good. He left his men to their fate.

Sasuke straightened and glanced at the pile of corpses around him. That seemed to be all of them… except for the one odd disfigured man. That was disappointing, Sasuke would have liked to kill him too. For a moment he contemplated tracking him down and doing just that, but quickly discarded the idea. He was wounded and needed to seek care.

A strange wound, though. And a strange weapon that had inflicted it. Though he didn't exactly understand how they worked, he now had a healthy respect for the small projectile-firing weapons. The weapons of this world were more dangerous than they appeared.

In either case, it was over now. Time to find out what they had all been so anxious to get. Striding over to the odd vehicle he'd noted earlier, Sasuke pushed open the charred door at the back.

Four of the guard-people from before. All dead, all armed with the same odd weapons. All surrounded by piles and piles of green paper.

Was this what they were all fighting over? Sasuke didn't understand the point.

Still, he picked up several handfuls of the odd green paper and stuffed them in his pockets. If they were important enough to guard or steal, they were important enough for him to take. Maybe they had dangerous jutsus encoded on them or something.

His pockets finally stuffed, Sasuke turned to the door with a sigh. His original driver was dead, he supposed he'd have to walk the rest of the way. He strode to the door, but paused at the threshold and turned.

His head cocked in thought as he studied one of the remaining weapons.

"This is going surprisingly well." Robin muttered, examining the work done on the south side. "If we keep this up we ought to have the essentials in place by tonight." Touching his communicator, he asked, "Cyborg, how are things on your end?"

"Eh… the computers are going to take some work, but I think I got it covered."

A grin tugged at Robin's face. "What, the inter-dimensional ninja from steampunk Japan isn't helpful?"

"Dude, the most advanced language she knows is QBASIC. In Japanese." Cyborg's voice was just a touch pained. "I don't dare let her even near my babies."

"What about the generators?"

"Okay, I guess. That Shino kid understood enough to start up the secondary generators. But again, don't think I want him fooling around with the main ones."

"Hm. Probably not."

"Other than that I think we're all good. Whaddaya want to do now, Boss?"

Robin paused and thought. "The crooks probably haven't heard we're back yet. Anything on the scanners?"

There was a short silence as Cyborg checked. "Not anything major. Some kind of disturbance downtown, but that's it. We don't have all our scanners active, though, so we might be missing stuff."

"Hm." After thinking for a bit, Robin shrugged. "We'll do it the old-fashioned way then. Cyborg, Beast Boy, do a few rounds of the city and see if you can drum out any criminals on your way. Take two of the ninjas with you too, they should get to know the place."

"Sure thing boss. On my way out now."

"Good." Robin clicked off the communicator. "You!" He pointed at one of the less active ninjas. "Kiba, right? Go grab your friend Neji and meet Cyborg down on the ground. Beast Boy, go with him."

"Right!" The two jumped away.

On the mainland, a pair of glittering eyes watched four figures leap into the city.

"Well now… That's interesting."

to be continued...

A/N: And now we get back into some of the action that you all find so interesting. The next chapter may take a bit longer, as again, battles are difficult to write.

I should thank Herbblade, who beta-read most of this chapter and provided some helpful comments on character and spelling that improved the story. I've never really had a Beta REader before, but the response to this story convinced me that you guys deserve all that I can do for this story. Also someone suggested I should after some glaring errors in the last chapter.

On that note... REVIEW! See how important your reviews are? They help me make writing decisions and set policy for matters to come. And they're really fun to read, even if people want to say something like "ur story sux" or something along that line.

A few things... the Naruto / Sakura awkwardness is not NECESSARILY an anti-NaruSaku moment. It's a reference to, again, something that happened in the manga (but then, there are a lot of those in this chapter), that Kishi has COMPLETELY failed to address. Seriously, I love the guy's writing, but a lot of times he seems to completely ignore some of the most obvious issues.

About the Sasuke fight... don't get mad, please. It occurred to me that no one, outside of Naruto, has really had any experience with firearms. And one of the great things about Itallia's "Humane Studies" story (one of this story's inspirations) is that it made clear how much ninjas (at least the rookie ninjas) are outclassed by simple, old-fashioned, firearms. Particularly if, as in Sasuke's case, they don't understand what a firearm IS. Of course, once he picks up on it, he's unbeatable. Good thing they didn't shoot him in the head.

Another note on continuity. Robin in this universe is Dick Grayson. Now, this is troublesome for several reasons. One is personal-I like both Robin/Starfire and Dick/Barbara-another has to do with the Justice League. The JLU tv show takes place after the Superman series, which in turn takes place after the New Batman Adventures. And in that one, Dick Grayson was Nightwing and Tim Drake was Robin. So having Dick Grayson as Robin during the years of the Justice League makes NO sense, continuity wise. (Even if the Teen Titan series suggests this at times).

The point is moot, though, as I already identified Robin as Dick Grayson in a scene too important to retcon. And really, it shouldn't make a difference unless I reference the new Batman Adventures. So for all of you out there who are writhing at the obvious impossibilities... forgive me. I simply didn't consider the implications.

Anyway. Next Chapter, the Titans and their new Allies go up against an old enemy who's somewhat... changed. But how will the differences in technique be handled?