Chapter 37 - Out of control

'When I first awakened in this world, I was in a teenager Mito Uzumaki's belly. It took us many years to reach a common accord but eventually we did. And while she didn't have the chance to discover the power of chakra in time - she was older than 15 by the time we properly 'met' – having me living inside of her had not come without any benefits for her. She gained access to my Negative Emotions Sensing, her physical capabilities increased well above those of an average human and her self regeneration became formidable.'

Kyuubi flexed his paws and stretched as he made a small break from talking. Then, he jumped into Naruto's lap and curled himself into a ball of fur. Somewhat lazily, he started to speak again:

'Mito and Hashirama were both rather important figures on the Martial Arts international scene. But Mito never remembered the memories of her past life because we never shared our chakra like I did with your when you were about to drown your sorry ass in Gotham's river.'

Naruto lightly pulled at the fox's ears when he heard his comment but Kyuubi didn't lose his smirk.

'Mito didn't realize what would happen if someone got wind of her superhuman abilities... You have to understand, Naruto, that, back then, there were no metahumans. At the very least, the public was not aware of their existence.'

'Against my advice, Mito began using her newfound powers against other competitors in the various world championships fighting tournaments. Her overwhelming victories attracted a lot of attention. And THAT'S when it all started!'

'Since metahumans were so rare at the beginning, the scientists all over the world went crazy over finding out the secret behind their superhuman powers. Backed by the governments of their countries, countless metahumans along the years were captured and researched on...of which Mito ended up as one too. It goes without saying that Hashirama was 'silenced' in the process as well.'

Naruto sighed. It looked like no matter which life, misfortune seemed to follow his clan - not only him and his sister but Mito Uzumaki as well and (he suspected) his mother too.

'But where does my grandpa fit in all of this?'

'He was Hashirama's disciple. They were close enough to think about each other almost as father and son.'

'Are you saying that he faked his death, took control of an international terrorist organisation, assassinated the president of a country and plans on destroying it - all this for revenge?'

Kyuubi snorted.

'How is what he's doing any different from what you did? Have your forgotten how many people you killed in Arkham Asylum?'

Naruto couldn't find any words to reply at that. It seemed that the saying about the apple not falling off too far from the tree was true. Him and his grandpa were the same. Except that the magnitude of Sarutobi's hate was way, way beyond his.

Eventually, he said:

'There's still one thing I do not know and the old man never wanted to tell me about it - both Misaki and I have known from the beginning that he was not blood-related to us. Why did he take us in?'

Kyuubi looked like he was rather uncomfortable to speak about that subject.

'Before Mito Uzumaki died from all the tests she had suffered, the scientists researching her genetics started to look for other people sharing similarities in their DNA. More than 20 individuals were found in Japan and on the Eastern coast of Russia. Among them was also your mother, Kushina, only a baby back then. That she had the same surname as Mito only cemented her fate.'

'Once Mito died, I...

'...I obviously chose my next host in order to survive – Kushina... Funny how history repeated itself in one way.'

As Kyuubi spoke, Naruto anger was slowly accumulated as he could tell before Kyuubi said it what happened to his mother. The chakra in his body was slowly becoming restless and Kyuubi cautiously jumped off from Naruto's lap when he felt the tips of his fur stand on their end from the small amounts of static energy Naruto began to unconsciously emit.

'So my mother was raised like a lab rat because of you?' Naruto asked dangerously.

Kyuubi narrowed his eyes at him, his body tensing up. That was the very reason why he had refused to tell Naruto about his parents' past until then despite how many times Naruto asked him. Because Kyuubi knew just how explosive Naruto's temper was and how exaggerated his reactions could be when he let himself ruled by his anger. After all, the man in question had slaughtered over 100 people in Arkham Asylum and tortured someone to death for the sake of his revenge...

'Were you not listening to my words? Kushina was brought in before I even chose her as my next host.'

'Besides, even if that wasn't the case, what are you going to do about it?' Kyuubi asked, his voice taking on a dangerous edge towards the end.

The two were already on their feet, looking into each other's eyes. A thick killing intent loomed in the air and tiny snake-like threads of black lightning started to run across Naruto's body.

It was in that moment that the door was opened and Galatea, who was about to enter the living room, staggered back startled when the massive killing intent hit her without warning.

Kyuubi felt his very skin crawling and a sense of dread enveloped him. Being on the receiving end of Naruto's killing intent made him understand even better what a dreadful murderer Naruto had become at his core.

When the demonic fox was about to morph into his gigantic size and prepare to battle for real, Naruto spat out a long sigh. The monstrous killing intent from before disappeared without a trace and the lightning returned into his body.

'I'm sorry.' Naruto said, greatly baffling Kyuubi.

Seeing the fox looking at him as though he had grown another head, he continued.

'You helped me a lot in this life. Without you, I would've died many times until now... on the Prison Island you even willingly shielded me with your own being, despite knowing that you could have died.'

'Even if my mother's tragic fate had been your fault, after all the good you did for me, the scales would have still been tipped in your favour.'

Then, Naruto let himself on one knee to get to Kyuubi's level and extended his fist in front of him.

Kyuubi's eyes widened visibly. He knew what Naruto's gesture meant. It was something that they had done only once, in their previous life, before their fight against the godly Uchiha Madara: a fist-bump... but they both knew that that gesture meant so much more than that! The two of them had fist-bumped back then as a symbol of their complete trust in each other. A symbol of companionship... A symbol of friendship.

The fox bumped Naruto's extended fist with his tiny paw. A small sniff was heard. It was from Kyuubi. But before Naruto could comment on it, only a soft twinge of smoke was left behind as the fox disappeared in a ball of flames.

Kyuubi had used his own version of shunshin to teleport away.

Scene break

A wide, circular room. Exquisite paintings with golden frames adorned the walls and in the middle of the room, a pyramid made of marble was erected. On its tip, the golden eye of the Ancient Egyptian god Ra was encrusted with gold and lights were set to expose and outline its grand architecture.

Towards the back of the room was a semi-circular table with 6 seats. Six persons seated on them. But aside from their height and built, one could not distinguish any of their physical feature, not even their gender - all of them were wearing a hooded black cloak to obscure their identity.

Suddenly, the door of the room was opened and 2 men entered. Had Naruto been there he would have recognized them right away - they were none other than Sarutobi Hiruzen and Uchiha Itachi.

The two of them stopped right in front of the pyramid. They couldn't get even a glimpse of the 6 people sitting on the other side of the room because their cloaked hoods and the lighting in the room prevented them from being exposed.

'Why have you summoned me here, today?' Sarutobi asked, not beating around the bush. His voice made it clear for them that he didn't really put them in his eyes.

'Impudent!' one of the 6 people said, his voice sounding terrible because of the voice-distorting device they were all wearing.

Sarutobi's face was impassable.

'Your actions have caused a major disturbance in our plans. Your task had been only to assassinate the president of the Russian Federation. Not to start killing all the scientists and the important figures of the country!'

Another one chose to spoke in that moment:

'We know everything about you, Sarutobi Hiruzen. And we know why you acted the way you did. But you should not let yourself be driven by your emotions. What we do is way bigger than you or even ourselves. What we do is more important than your petty revenge.'

Sarutobi's old and wrinkled face was suddenly twisted by a cold smile.

'You know everything about me? ...You know nothing!'

'Otherwise, you would have known that I am nothing like Ra's al Ghul.'

'I am not your obedient dog. And you cannot control me.'

No sooner than his words ended, over 20 masked men appeared seemingly out of nowhere and encircled him and Uchiha Itachi! They had been in the room from the beginning - they were metahumans that shared one of Rupert Jones abilities: that of becoming invisible. They were groomed and trained from an early age to serve as the bodyguards of the 6 black-robbed people.

However, the 6 of them did not realize that not even a hint of distressed appeared on Sarutobi and Uchiha's faces. Sarutobi still wore a cold smile while the latter's face was as expressionless as ever.

'Do not worry. We will let you walk away alive today. You are still useful to us and we would like it if you didn't back away from our deal.' one of the 6 people said.

'You'd do well to reconsider your options, Sarutobi.' one of the six said, not even the voice-distorting device he was wearing managing to disguise the gloating in his tone.

The metahumans that were surrounding them parted and Sarutobi Hiruzen and Uchiha Itachi proceeded to leave the room, without as much as a farewell.

Once they were alone again, one of 6 asked the others:

'Are you sure it was a wise idea to let him go? I'm 100% certain that he will ruin everything that we have so meticulously built if we just let him be.'

A short chuckle came from another one.

'Of course he will. But he won't have the chance. The Justice League will do the dirty job for us.'

'You mean that...?'

As to confirm the other one's question he dialled a number and started speaking:

'Ms. Waller?'

'...'

'Yes. Proceed as we have talked before. Let the Batman know about the League of Shadows' next target - Novaya Zemlya.'

Right when he ended the call, the metahumans that were supposed to guard them while being invisible, started to collapse to the floor, one by one.

Noticing the white foam at their mouths, one of the 6 black-robbed people shouted in urgency:

'Hold your breath! Poi...son...!'

But he couldn't finish his words properly as he also fell down, white foam bubbling out of his mouth. None of them survived.

The culprit had been one of the metahumans that could turn invisible - he had been under a genjutsu from the moment he first met Uchiha Itachi's red eyes.

It had been a premeditated move. Sarutobi had known from the beginning that the 6 black robbed people were guarded by invisible metahumans. And he had also known that one of the invisible metahumans possessed a special constitution - that of being able to freely control poison. He was their group's secret ace because his 2 superhuman abilities allowed him to become a terrible killing weapon: nearly impossible to detect and nearly impossible to evade – the perfect assassin... but who would've thought that one day he would be mind-controlled and used against them in that manner? Who could have thought that it would take one mere glance in an Uchiha's eyes for them all to die?

Scene break

Batman's eyes continued to be sharp even as his face took on a pondering expression.

'Something is definitely wrong here.'

Having just received a phone call from none other than Amanda Waller, his brain was working now in overdrive to determine the reason why his instinct was warning him.

'I've always known that that woman was way more important than her apparent position shows her to be...but even if she is a part of the upper echelon that seems to secretly lead the USA, how in the world did they manage to infiltrate the League of Shadows' ranks?'

Having been a member of that organisation in the past, Batman knew better than anyone that it was simply impossible for any spies to infiltrate it.

'Unless...the organisation lost its edge since Ra's al Ghul died...'

But that did not appear to be the case either if the current events were anything to go by. Still, Batman was not known as the 'World's Greatest Detective' for nothing. He didn't gain that title thanks to his technology alone: although he found it extremely unprovable, another possibility appeared in his mind - that maybe, just maybe, the League of Shadows was never independent.

'That would actually make sense if I think about it now. Regardless of how formidable Ra's al Ghul has been, it seems unlikely that he would have managed to get away from his enemies for centuries had there not been a greater power secretly backing him. The proof to sustain this theory is that now he is dead.'

'He did show signs of dementia last time we faced each other so probably his death was due. Once he outlived his usefulness he was taken out.'

Arriving at this conclusion, the look on his face hardened. He understood that at the end of the day, the League of Shadows had most likely been just a pawn in the hands of those that were leading the entire world from the shadows.

'Thalia said that the League of Shadows is no longer what it had been. And that Sarutobi Hiruzen is not abiding by the code of the organisation.'

He understood then that the higher power wanted Sarutobi eliminated...however...little did Batman or Amanda Waller knew that the 6 great figures that led the world from the shadows, the pinnacle of authority on Earth have all been murdered only minutes before by Sarutobi and Uchiha's deceitful plan.

'That means that they intend to use us, the Justice League, to do their dirty work - to take out the new head of the Demon.'

Although he realized that they were playing in someone else's hands, Batman knew that they didn't really have a choice in this matter. Sarutobi Hiruzen was slowly but steadily on his way to trigger the start of the Third World War if they left him be. And that could not be allowed.

'I'm supposed to meet my new son in 2 hours...unfortunately, I'll have to be late. The fate of the Russian Federation is now hanging on a thread and with it, probably that of the entire world as well. The Justice League needs to be notified.'