Author's Notes:

So, this is the first significant bit of creative writing I've done in… years at this point.

For those who want to know what's happening with Graceful Degradation: I've got a plan to end the current arc and I hope to finish it off this summer. My initial plans for the story included going on all the way through StrikerS timeline-wise, but I'm thinking I'll probably just post my plans for the story after A's rather than leaving everyone hanging. I honestly don't know if I'll ever write the story out in its entirety, but it probably won't happen anytime soon.

I wrote this up in a week of inspiration on the Dreaming of Sunshine forums, and it was recommended that I publish it as a proper story. To be clear, this is already written in full, though the editing process means I will not publish the entire thing at once.

This is a crossover between Dreaming of Sunshine (a Naruto fanfiction found on this site) and an alternate DC Earth (not one of the canonical ones). Suffice to say for now that this is a Justice League version of Earth. I'll post an abbreviated summary of the state of Earth-? (as I've taken to calling it) in an author's note at the start of the chapter where I introduce the first DC characters.

Reading Dreaming of Sunshine is recommended and familiarity with DC mythos is also a plus, but the handful of DC neophytes on the forum didn't have trouble. Simply understand that I'm playing fast and loose with certain portions of the DC mythos to tell this story.

Now that I've scared off three-quarters of my potential reader-base (the author says optimistically), let's get started.

The ten man squad was composed of a four man barrier team, a four man combat team, and two specialists.

Their equivalents in Hidden Leaf would be ANBU, but Hidden Cloud used a different name for their organization. But that was not relevant to the situation. What was relevant was that they were engaged in black ops. As such, the barrier team was very orthodox. Effective, of course, but their four point barriers could have been created by just about anyone. That was the point. Similarly, the combat team kept to basic sword skills, projectiles, and standard C rank or lower ninjutsu. They were, in principle, unidentifiable as a result. In practice, Kumo's obvious superiority as swordsmen and swordswomen was a clue. But not a provable clue.

The two specialists were not ANBU equivalents, but they wore concealing masks and dark clothes just like the rest. Their skill sets were highly identifiable, but very necessary for the mission. They were to be referred to as Ichi and Ni for the duration.

'Ichi' was the most important. As far as Daisuke understood, they were a space-time ninjutsu specialist of some sort. They had some method of opening portals between parallel worlds. The barrier team was there to protect him for the minute or so it took him to open a portal, though they were not expected to be necessary if all went well. The combat team was there to suppress the target and any enemies that followed the target after Ichi opened a portal into the heart of Konoha.

Daisuke was 'Ni'. He was lightning user with a niche in a type of plasma manipulation. It wouldn't be accurate to say that Daisuke was conventionally good at it - for regular missions his powerful but sloppy effects were middling. But he could slam a couple of miles around him with a very respectable electromagnetic pulse. Which didn't have many applications in the Elemental Nations, but on 'Earth'... well. It shut down the most common surveillance and pursuit methods of the locals rather nicely. If the locals wanted to get in the way, it was Daisuke's job to deal with it in a better way than leaving a trail of corpses. After all, they might want to do this again another time.

To minimize the risks, they had travelled on the 'Earth' side from just within the borders of Lightning Country. They were now in a small copse located near a residential district. A large city, important to the local government, was to the north. They had spent about three days traveling to get here, and seemed to have avoided scrutiny. Electrical power was widespread here, as was vehicles burning energy dense hydrocarbons for fuel. Locals would be able to call upon air assets fairly easily, but that was another reason to have Daisuke around. Locals would generally be relying on chemically powered subsonic speed projectile launchers unless the squad seriously screwed up and got a lot of attention on them, which wasn't a serious problem in the hands of civilians with unenhanced reflexes and senses and no ability to resist genjutsu. The local ninja equivalents were thin on the ground. Daisuke was unsure of the details beyond that - he was the low man on the totem pole, so to speak, and his low clearance had given him only the general idea of what was going on. The specifics of the world Ichi was using was not his concern.

The mission was to appropriate a Main House member of the Hyuuga clan. An infiltrator had managed to place a locating seal for Ichi to home in on, and Ichi was currently verifying that nothing had gone wrong. It seemed that the target still bore the seal, and there was a festival scheduled for today that they were hoping to take advantage of. The plan seemed set to go ahead.

The target was currently accompanied by a juvenile member of the Aburame clan, Ichi signaled. An overwatch was probably present, which intelligence suggested would consist of several branch members of the Hyuuga clan, but the Konoha ninjas were overconfident in their defenses. None were in the range of the seal. The barrier team stood back, and the combat team moved into position while Ichi concentrated.

Daisuke stood back with the barrier team, trying not to nervously adjust the mask he'd been given for the mission, and was forced to avert his eyes from what Ichi was doing - he couldn't look at it. It was just... his eyes rebelled at the sight and a migraine pulsed for several heartbeats until he looked away. Ichi signaled that two more chakra signatures were in range of the portal. Neither had the high chakra reserves indicative of the elite, though one was notably stronger than the other three expected to be caught. The combat team leader signed back that they would suppress the strongest one first. Ichi was to cancel his technique and retreat to the barrier team as soon as the Hyuuga was entrapped.

Daisuke swallowed heavily. The moment of truth was coming. If this went well, Kumo would be strengthened, though the methodology was unfortunately distasteful, however necessary it was. If it went poorly, Hidden Leaf would seize the excuse to escalate to war. He hoped it didn't come to that just yet. It was likely inevitable, with Hidden Leaf refusing to see reason and back down, but Kumo needed more time to prepare. If Hidden Leaf could not be crushed immediately once the fools pushed the situation to open warfare, a Fourth War might well result, and nobody wanted that.

Space twisted-

Two bodies hit the ground with a wet thump. Daisuke blinked dumbly, unsure what had happened, that was. That was half the combat squad that had- They'd hit. She hadn't had a chance to dodge, they'd done the sword equivalent of a double lariat, she shouldn't be moving what-

But he didn't keep track of the young girl who had struck those blows properly, and by the time he caught up she was engaged with a third member of the team. The fourth spat a fireball at the Aburame, who despite her young age had managed to set a small cloud of kikaichu into the air already. Another girl, with thick glasses and braids grabbed the Aburame and tumbled away across the ground - both out of the fight for the next couple of seconds, though mostly unharmed. The little girl- the target leapt in with a glowing hand and the combat specialist skipped back slightly. The barrier squad moved in as Ichi tried to move out, they'd want to trap the Hyuuga thoroughly, couldn't risk her getting hurt in the battle-

Daisuke glanced back to the ongoing fight, the girl struck out with a handful of sharp metal and her back foot, was that a seal-

-flash blinded, he tried to move away, couldn't be a target but he wasn't moving right what was, no! "Nara," someone yelled but-

Slightly cool metal. A sharp edge of pain buried in his neck. Warmth spills out, and leaves him feeling so very cold.

Shiho tumbles hard, cradling little Chiyako with her body and trying not to lose her glasses. She doesn't understand what's going on, Shikako had sensed something and the four of them had tried to get away but Shikako had been sliced up but she couldn't think about that because she had to save Chiyako-

But somehow, when she looked up after the searing blast of light and sound, Shikako was still fighting and she kept pulling weapons from somewhere in her yukata and there were masked forms limply hitting the ground. Hanabi was backpedaling futilely away from three more enemies and Shiho didn't have a weapon, she didn't even have pockets, and she couldn't think of any useful jutsu-

Then Hanabi was surrounded by dead bodies and Shikako had taken her place, and Hanabi clearly knew what to do even if Shiho didn't because she ran over towards Chiyako who was huddling behind Shiho, like Shiho could protect her when Shiho could only think that she could maybe buy Chiyako a few seconds with her body if they got attacked, and calling out as much of a swarm as her little body was carrying-

And one of the ninjas tried to go for Hanabi but Shikako threw faster than they could run (no, Shikako's shadow threw, or, no was that right?) and Shiho sighed in relief as a barrier formed around the three of them once the four kunai hit down in place and the enemy slammed into the wall of light and bounced back and everything around Shikako vanished in a roar-

Shiho only looked away for a moment to check on Hanabi, not wanting to see Shikako- to see her-

But she was fighting the last, the one who had been stopped by the barrier and they were really fast, but somehow Shikako wasn't hurt at all and they were really really fast and must have had some sort of armor or something because Shikako's kunai weren't doing anything, but then this big windmill shuriken somehow came from a different direction and the enemy had to move but Shikako's shadow rose up behind them and-

And everything was very quiet. Shikako stumbled, looking very tired, but she didn't fall. She didn't seem hurt, though Shiho couldn't imagine how she had accomplished such a feat.

"Hanabi, are there any others?" Shikako was holding a sword hilt, now, but Shiho couldn't see a blade. Was that... She'd heard that Shikako had the Lord Second's blade, but that had just been a rumor until tonight.

"I can't see any active chakra systems but ours within half a mile," Hanabi said solemnly, the veins in her temples bulging with the power of her all-seeing white eyes. "And there are as many bodies as there were ambushers at the start."

Shikako walked over to the barrier, canceled it, and pulled a small armory out of her sleeves. "I don't have any combat uniforms your sizes. Can you manage in your current clothes?"

Shiho swallowed. "I, yes, I can move freely." The parts of her yukata that would have gotten in the way had been destroyed at some point, so she turned the remains into a shirt and grabbed at the proffered weaponry. Hanabi and Chiyako got to work on modifying theirs with kunai and bandages, so that they could be decent and reach weapons pouches tied to their thighs. Shikako seemed to transition into full combat dress in one swift movement.

Shiho had never really appreciated the difference in skill level between herself and a special jounin until now. She tried not to think about the bodies.

Shikako approached the nearest, mostly intact one. "Hanabi, I'll need you to keep your Byakugan active for now. Let me know when you start to tire."

Shiho looked towards the Hyuuga, who gave a muted noise of assent. The little girl was only trembling a little. She was being so very brave.

Shikako knelt down, and pried open the corpses jaw, then, strangely, seemed to relax a little. Maybe? Shiho was probably just imagining it. The Nara bit her thumb, blurred through a set of hand signs, and slammed a bloodied palm onto the ground beside her. Ink webbed out, and there was a cracking sound and a small puff of smoke appeared, but nothing seemed to happen as far as Shiho could tell. Shikako nodded, as if expecting as much.

"They used a space-time ninjutsu." Shikako informed them. "The natural energy here is... different. And…" She looked up at the stars above, what little could be seen in spite of the strange amount of light pollution. "The sky is also different. Assume that we are no longer within the borders of the Land of Fire. Given that my summoning went unanswered, which mere distance should not be a hindrance to, I suspect we have transitioned to another world."

"Can you get us back, Nee-chan?" Chiyako asked nervously. Her swarm buzzed a little as they spread out to look around.

"I suspect so." Shikako said calmly. "I didn't understand how we were targeted at first, but Hanabi, let me have a look at the back of your yukata for a moment, and... there it is. A seal... This may take a little while, but... yes, I can work backwards from this. It might take a week or more, since I'll have to test the seal as I develop it, but it is definitely possible for us to return."

Shiho sighed in relief, Chiyako clapped her hands together, and Hanabi smirked slightly, before frowning. "We will have to deal with the infiltrator responsible," the little Hyuuga intoned.

"Oh, I think we can let our ANBU have their fun with that," Shikako said with a smile. "Now, you stay with Shiho-sempai while I deal with the bodies, okay? Then we'll go lay low for a bit. Who knows what kind of world this is, after all."

In which: Cloud has a space-time ninjutsu hobbyist get lucky for once and learn how to make inter-universal portals (and immediately squander this rather than trying to play well with others), chaotic ninja-battles ensue when they accidentally bring along a very combat-capable tokubetsu jounin during their attempted kidnaping, and a cryptologist and two academy students find themselves experiencing their first Team Seven Experience.