Chapter 44 - Fight to the death (1)

'What's your opinion on this, Batman?'

Clad in his blue suit and red cape - it was Superman.

Batman did not reply immediately, he was busily typing on the keyboard of his supercomputer. On its very large screen, countless coding lines were appearing in an unending stream.

'My opinion does not really matter. Ever since you excluded me from the Justice League a few years ago, my opinion stopped being significant for most of the members. I'm back in the league now but it's not the same.' Batman said eventually. 'For most of them, I'm just one step away from being labelled as a villain. Probably, my only saving grace is only that they haven't seen me killing anyone during duty.'

Superman narrowed his eyes at him.

'My decision at that time was correct. Your methods are too cruel! If the situation had not become so chaotic ever since Uzumaki came into play and had Wonder Woman not taken your side the entire time, I would have seen it myself that you were brought to justice! A few years ago it was only her intervention that saved you!'

The air suddenly became tense between the two of them. Superman realized that he might have crossed the line with what he just said when Batman's patented 'batglare' met his eyes.

The coding lines on the screen disappeared and then, Batman started to access various files from his database.

'Carol Hughs - 15 years old, raped by her uncle. She committed suicide a month after the incident.'

'Rachel Red - 67 years old. A punk robbed her when she was on her way back home from the Tea Club. She tried to resist and her aggressor stabbed her in the liver. She died within minutes.'

'Ronald and Martha Hopkins - they were both murdered by their own 17-year-old son because they didn't give him money for drugs. He also set their house on fire, with them inside, once he was done.'

Turning to face Superman, Batman said:

'What I do brings me no pleasure. Some people are like a plague, like cancerous cells to a body. My action are simply an evil that must be done.'

'You're in no position to decide that, Batman.' Superman said, his voice taking a dangerous edge.

'The one that raped his own niece and drove her to the point where she committed suicide.. are you telling me that it was too cruel to crush his genitals? After what he had done? What about the one that murdered his parents and set them and their house on fire? Was it too harsh to make sure he becomes paralyzed and will not be able to harm anyone else?'

'I once had the same philosophy of life as you, Superman...and it took the mass murder of nearly four hundred people for me to finally realize the truth!'

Superman fell silent at that. The Joker causing the death of a few hundred people on the same day was the largest stain in the Justice League's history.

'I had countless chances to kill the Joker! To kill that psychopath and be done with it! I would have traded his death for the life of those nearly 400 hundred civilians! I would have done it had I not been too stupid and too much of a coward to accept this truth: that some people are like rabid dogs. There is no changing them. They need to be put down!' Batman said, his voice filled with deadly intent.

'Just a rough statistic shows that the Joker has killed over 2500 people while he was still alive...but because he was certified as being insane, he was never deemed eligible by law to be sentenced to death. And every time I locked him up, he would break out of prison and continue to cause mayhem and murder people again.''

''I will not do the same mistake again. I will never allow animals like that to roam free. Not anymore.'

Superman couldn't find any words in response to that. In exchange, he could only say:

'You've changed a lot, Batman. I barely recognize you from how you were when we first met.'

Batman snorted while the large screen of his computer started to display again an unending stream of coding lines.

'When I took up this mask, my goal was to create a world where no other 8-year-old boy would see his parents die in front of his eyes because of a random punk with a gun...'

Looking directly into Superman's eyes, he said, filled with a such a strong conviction that it shook Superman from inside:

'What I fight for has never changed!'

Then, ignoring him, he poured his entire attention on what he working on. Even so, after a few good minutes, he couldn't help turning and asking Superman who appeared to have no intention of leaving.

'Why are you still here?'

'What's with those coding lines?' Superman asked, ignoring his question.

Batman sighed.

'Remember what Uzumaki said about my past a few days ago when he came at the Watchtower? I can count the people that know that information on the fingers of one hand. And none of them had had any contact with him.'

'It was very suspicious so I decided to run through my security system. Someone broke into my database... they could have taken everything out. If profit had been their purpose, they would have downloaded everything. But it wasn't. Someone extremely meticulous, a real expert, bypassed my security system and managed to browse through the database for specific files regarding the Justice League's members' past, all the while not triggering even one alarm.'

'The one whom Uzumaki had hired to do that, is a real expert. A very dangerous asset. I'm trying to find through which flaw he infiltrated my system and retrace it back to him.'

Superman appeared to be slightly out of this depth and did not pursue the matter. Instead, he turned the subject back to what he had asked the first time:

'What is your opinion on the alliance with Uzumaki and Kara's clone? Doctor Fate is nowhere to be found, so we can't be sure whether Uzumaki is speaking the truth about the supposed invasion or not.'

'The Justice League decided on a pact of non-aggression with him. While not ideal, it's still better than outright refusing any sort of agreement with him. The Justice League has nothing to lose by allying themselves with 2 metahumans of your calibre.' Batman said eventually, knowing that Superman would continue to pester him to no end until he got a clear answer. Although Superman never said it outrightly, his behaviour clearly let the others know that he still placed a great deal of importance on Batman's opinion, even after he had changed.

'So you think that-' Superman began to say, only for Martian Manhunter's voice to suddenly ring in both his and Batman's mind:

'Metropolis City is under attack! John Stewart, Hawkwoman and Flash have been taken down! Wonder Woman and Hal Jordan have engaged the enemy but things are not looking well. All the Justice League members close by are requested to provide assistance!'

Scene break - two hours before

'Hey Misaki, Barbara came to visit again!' Naruto called out as he looked on one of the screens monitoring the gate of his home. Barbara Gordon was shown on the screen - she was waving at the camera.

'Tell her to come in the kitchen!' Misaki yelled from the other side of the house.

'No, you go to her, I'm busy!' Naruto yelled back.

A frustrated groan could be heard from his sister but she complied and went to open the gates for Barbara. When she came back inside along with Barbara, she passed by the room where Naruto was in.

'What kept you so busy that you couldn't go and open the door? I was cooking!'

He was meticulously using a brush to write some Japanese-looking symbols on a white sheet so he didn't turn to face them.

'Kurama, sic 'em, boy!'

An enlarged orange-red fox tail suddenly smashed against his face and Naruto was sent tumbling towards the other end of the room.

'The fuck was that for, Kurama!'

'That's what you get for making stupid jokes! You dare treat me like a dog?! This demon lord here is going to royally kick your ass now!' Kyuubi growled.

It would have been a lot more intimidating if the fox hadn't had a squeaky voice and hadn't looked like a fluffy little animal.

'Onii-chan!' Misaki yelled from the entrance of the room but did not dare to enter it. She knew that one casual slap from either Naruto or Kyuubi was enough to kill a normal human. 'You two are fighting again?!'

For Barbara Gordon, it was the first time she was seeing Kyuubi and Naruto having one of their usual fights. She didn't know whether to be scared or amused at seeing a puny fox cub sending a muscular man tumbling on the floor.

'Does this happen often?' she asked in an unsure voice.

It was then that the alarm rang from the oven and Miskai slapped her own forehead.

'Oh crap! I forgot the apple pie!' she shouted and she broke into the fastest run that her still not fully recovered body allowed her.

On the other side of the room, a now large dog-sized Kyuubi jumped on Naruto, pinning his limbs down with his tails and trying to get close enough to bite his neck. Barbara hurriedly left them alone and ran after Misaki.

An hour later...

The entire furniture in the room was trashed and Naruto's clothes were not hanging on his body in shreds. Kyuubi was not any better as his fur was all ruffled and some of the tips of his tails were singed. They were huffing and puffing while glaring daggers at the other from the opposites sides of the room.

Suddenly, they both started to laugh and let themselves fall to the floor exhausted.

'We should do this more often. Haven't had a good, old-fashioned brawl like this in a long while.' Naruto said, still grinning.

He was, at his core, a thug. Because Sarutobi Hiruzen, his grandfather, trained him in martial arts from a frail age, he became very good at fighting. In the process of taking care of his sister, especially during high school, he forgot how many times he got into fights with other guys.

'Back then, before I got these powers, it was all about skill and stamina. Kinda miss those days.'

While he said that, he did not really want to go back. Now, he had true power. Although fights were not as satisfying as before - he could just smash his opponents with mere brute force or turn them into ash with his lightning - in the end, his primary goal was to protect what he loved: his sister, Misaki, his best friend, Kyuubi and, more recently, his new girlfriend, Galatea.

'Not that Kyuubi or a monster like Galatea would actually need my protection.' Naruto laughed to himself. 'If I'm being honest, if my version of Shikotsumyaku didn't perfectly counter her Kryptonian physiology, I don't think I'd be able to win against her.'

Groaning as he sat up from the floor, he complained:

'All fun and games, but who's gonna clean up all this mess?'

Just then, the sound of a phone ringing could be heard. It came from Kyuubi.

'Y-You have a phone?!' Naruto asked, his mouth agape at the sight of the fox cub-like Kyuubi tapping on his smartphone's touchscreen and holding it with one tail to his ear.

Kyuubi spoke at the phone, completely ignoring Naruto's question until the conversation ended.

'Naruto, I'll have to go somewhere far for a while. I have some...business to take care of.'

Naruto looked at the fox weirdly. He wasn't sure when it started, but Kyuubi was becoming more independent with each day and more...human-like. A sudden memory started to play at the front of his mind - 'Master! Fuck your slutty kitten harder!'.

'I guess I know when it started.' he said to himself and he covered his face with his palms at that memory.

'It shouldn't take more than one week...2 weeks at most.'

'Two weeks?' Naruto asked in surprise. It was at that moment that he also realized that from the day when he first met Kyuubi in this life, it would be the longest period of time they would be apart from each other.

'Oh well, not like I'm your nanny or anything. You can more than take care of yourself... but just in case you need my help, don't hesitate to reverse-summon me, ok?'

'That won't be necessary.' Kyuubi snorted and said arrogantly.

'I'm leaving. Cya!'

'Wait, you mean right now?'

'It's pretty urgent. Not like I have anything to do here anyway.' the fox said and, without wasting a second more, he swiftly jumped out of the room through the window.

Scene break

With Kyuubi's sudden departure, Naruto found himself with nothing to do - and he certainly didn't feel like starting to clean up the mess they made in his room. But after leaving his room, he realized that he was alone in the house. On the entrance door of the house, he found a sticky note:

Barbara and I went to submit my application at the university.

I cooked for you an apple pie, it's in the oven.

Love you,

Misaki

'Probably she left without telling me because she didn't want to get in between Kyuubi and I.' Naruto chuckled to himself.

A smile lighted up his face when he thought about eating his sister's cooking and he nearly started to drool as he made a beeline to the kitchen. But just as he was about to start gorging himself with the apple pie, it was as though a figurative bulb of light was turned on in his head.

'Wait, the university she wants to apply for is in Metropolis!'

Had it been anywhere in Gotham City, Naruto would have not had any worries about her going out without him. The reason for that was that there was nobody in Gotham that didn't know of her identity - after all, the Uzumaki siblings were the only people with whisker-like birthmarks on their faces. Furthermore, Naruto was very famous by now; there wasn't anybody in the entire USA that wouldn't be able to recognize his face. That said, he wasn't afraid that anyone would dare to attack her in their city.

'But Metropolis is full of idiots and metahumans wreaking havoc.'

While Batman and Catwoman's vicious methods have brought Gotham City to the point where the police stations were facing the problem of not having anything to do most days, Uzumaki Naruto starting to live in the city again after an absence of a few years, further accentuated the change, turning the previous urban jungle into the safest city in USA if not in the entire world.

But Metropolis City was different...and quite paradoxical. Superman was still considered by the general population as one of the most powerful metahumans...The symbol of hope and strength.

However, in spite of that, Metropolis City had one of the highest criminality rates on the Eastern Coast of USA. For some reason, many criminal metahumans were attracted to this city, just like the moths were attracted to fire. Despite knowing that the flame (Superman) would burn them, they still chose to go there, seemimgly uncaring about the danger. Because of that, the city was quite chaotic.

His appetite suddenly, lost, Naruto quickly got up to his feet. Pressing a chakra-coated finger to a wristband he wore on his left hand, a puff of smoke filled the entire kitchen for a moment. When it dissipated a few seconds later, a folded outfit appeared in his hand. Due to the nature of his powers - he could grow bones from all over his body - Naruto always had a few changes of clothes sealed in the wristband he was wearing on his left arm.

After quickly changing in the new clothes and locking up his house and the gates, he started to sprint towards the docks.

Gotham City was in the state of New Jersey, North of Metropolis City, which was located in Delaware. By land, one would need a few good hours to get from one city to another as they would have to go around Delaware Bay. But in a straight line, the distance would be of only around 60 miles (~90km). Crossing the bay with a ferry would shorten the time needed by more than half. Because of that, Naruto was sure that they would take the ferry.

With that thought in mind, he breathed out in relief. If he activated his Raiton no Yoroi, he could reach them before they even got to the docks. And sure enough, he managed to reach the docks in only a few minutes. One phone call later, he was reunited with them just as they were about to board to the ferry - their car had already been loaded.

Scene break

A roar shook the entire area and an entire truck was hurled through the air at a speed that nearly let a sonic boom behind. It was only due to pure luck that Batman managed to dodge it. Even so, when it brushed past him, the wind left in its wake threw him to tens of feet to the side and his body was about to slam into a building. It was only Hal Jordan's timely apparition that saved Gotham's Dark Knight from what could have very well been his death or paralysis for life.

''Hold on, buddy. I'll take care of it in no time!''

Batman tried to say something but blood burst from his mouth. His injuries were terrible.

''Don't worry, Batman. I'm a Green Lantern. We eat monsters like this for breakfast!'' Hal Jordan said confidently and rushed towards the alien lifeform that wreaked havoc in rage.

A giant construct of green light in the form of a jackhammer appeared above the monster and it suddenly started to hammer it into the ground, seemingly flattening the creature.

''See? I told you that I'd-''

Whatever Hal Jordan was about to say was cut off when, by sheer instinct alone, he conjured a protective bubble of green light around him. A bone-covered fist smashed into the newly conjured barrier with ferocity and the Green Lantern was thrown back like a cannonball. He thought he had the time to breathe but the monster was relentless. In the blink of an eye, it appeared above him. It took only a few strikes for the green barrier to shatter like glass under the brute power of the creature. It was just about to deliver the final blow when Martian Manhunter's hand phased through the creature's chest, directly impaling its heart!

A roar of pain came from the creature...but it was only for a second. A moment later, a deep, hoarse voice came from its mouth:

''I've had my heart destroyed before. That won't work on me again!''

Slightly turning to the side, a vicious backhand slammed into the body of the Martian Manhunter and the force of the blow launched him like a rocket into the tank of a nearby gas station. The gas station exploded with a deafening boom and an unearthly scream of agony came from the alien superhero as the flames started to devour his body.

All of a sudden, a large ray of heat vision hit the monster head on. With his entire body bruised and battered, Superman stood up from the rubble beneath which he had been previously buried.

'Superman from the Justice Lords of the other dimension had lobotomized it first with his heat vision last year. I tried to do it earlier too but, it didn't work anymore.'

'Martian Manhunter crushed its heart but even that did not work. Its body is so durable that it shattered Wonder Woman's sword with its bare fist alone...not even a Kryptonian could do that to a magical weapon of that quality.'

'Batman's bombs and mines have no effect whatsoever, telepathic attacks do not work on it, Cyborg's lasers seem useless as well and the two Green Lanterns barely lasted a few moments against it.'

Superman was at the end of his wits. He didn't know how to deal with the creature in front of his eyes. Nothing from the Justice League's arsenal seemed to have any effect on it. Almost all of the core members of the Justice League had been defeated, with some of them not being certain to survive.

At that moment, it felt as though time slowed for Superman. He looked at his comrades and friends: Batman was unconscious, his left arm bent in an unnatural angle. Wonder Woman was laying in a crater in the road, her unmoving body full of blood. Cyborg's chest was caved in and his right arm completely shredded from the elbow; the 2 Green Lanterns, Hawkwoman, Flash and Steel were nowhere to be found, buried under the collapsed buildings around them. Martian Manhunter was unconscious, his body covered by 3rd-degree burns.

'This can't go on...'

'I have to let it go.'

'I will no longer hold back.'

'Even if it kills me, I will stop it.'

'Even if I die, I will gladly trade my life to save everyone else!'

A scream of anger burst from Superman's chest and a sonic boom was left behind him. A devastating shockwave levelled all the surrounding buildings as his punch collided against the monster's bone-covered chest. The creature was thrown back as though it was hit by a speeding train and its body broke through several buildings until it finally dropped into the sea.

'I have to lead it away from Metropolis!'

Sorrow and rage filled his heart at the thought of how many innocent people were killed by the beast's rampage. That rage empowered him like never before and, just as the creature jumped out from the water, he was upon it. The fabrics of reality itself seemed to bend as Superman's heel collided into the cracked armour-like bone that covered its chest. The bone chest piece was completely shattered and the creature roared in great pain. The force behind the blow so enormous that its body was instantly thrown miles up in the air, almost leaving the Troposphere. Superman did not want to give it any time to catch a breath. He was instantly above it, his right fist in the position to deliver another devastating blow, when the grey monster defied the laws of physics as it abruptly turned in mid-air. Its forearm covered in bony protrusions caught the Man of Steel with a crushing lariat, flipping him upside down. Superman didn't even have the time to react before the monster's double hammer fist smashed against his spine, catapulting him towards the ground with such a speed that his suit began to catch on fire from the friction with the air, like a meteorite.

Scene break

''Argh! What the hell is with this traffic, we've been stuck on this damned bridge for half an hour already!'' Naruto complained from the backseat of the car.

Barbara Gordon, who was on the driver's seat, was also tapping with her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently. Out of the three persons in the car, only Misaki was still calm, idly surfing the internet on her tablet.

''I'm really tempted to just dump this car, take you on my back and sprint on foot to your University and back. If I had done that from the beginning, we would have been home already by now!''

''You know we can't do this! What would all the students and the professors think of me if I suddenly appeared in front of the university riding on my brother's back?!'' Misaki said scandalized.

''Heeeh~ So you don't like a piggyback... Maybe a princess-carry would suit you better?'' Barbara asked, an insidious smile on her face.

''That's completely beside the point, Barbara!'' Misaki yelled in embarrassment, her face gradually turning of the same colour as her crimson-red hair.

''I was thinking of carrying you only up until we got closer and then enter the university by foot, like normal people. Who would've thought my cute little sister had that kind of fantasies running through her brain?! You pervert!'' Naruto also said. (1)

Seeing both Naruto and Barbara ganging up on her like that, Misaki could only cover her ears with her hands and bury her face into her knees in an attempt to 'cut herself off from reality'.

''Barbara, onii-chan, I swear I'll get back at you for this!'' her muffled yells came, which only made Naruto and Barbara start cackling even harder than before.

Naruto was just about to say one witty teasing remark when what felt like a massive earthquake shook the entire bridge terribly. Screams of panic and terror filled the air when what appeared to be a burning meteorite crashed into the mid-section of the bridge, instantly destroying it and killing every living being in range. A series of ruptures started to spread from the large hole in the bridge and one car after another began to fall into the churning waters of the river below.

Misaki and Barbara were not any better either as they were also petrified in fear at the sight of the rupture in asphalt rapidly advancing towards their car to swallow them as well. It was at that moment that, with a black-lightning coated palm strike, Naruto completely obliterated the ceiling of the car. One cross-shaped hand-seal later, a Shadow Clone popped up in existence next to him. The original and clone both grabbed one of the two red-haired girls each and then, as one, they pushed with their feet against the floor of the car, instantly jumping to over 100 feet away from the bridge, safely landing on top of the water.

And they had done it not a moment too late seeing as, a split of second just after they safely landed on top of the water, a large and grey humanoid creature covered in bone spikes crashed into one of the still standing parts of the bridge, the structure of steel and reinforced concrete crumbling like wet sand beneath its feet.

The roar of victory that came from the depths of the creature's chest shook the sky. With its gleaming and cruel red eyes locked on a blue-costumed man that was struggling to keep himself floating on the water's surface, the monster jumped to deliver the finishing blow.