Pairing: Naruto/Supergirl/Wonder-Woman/Grail/Mera/Shay Veritas/Zatanna/Poison Ivy/Donna Troy/?

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise or DC comics. I simply do this for fun and to improve myself as writer.

A/N: Hello everybody, I am back! I apologize for my long absence, it took a while to get myself back into the right headspace to start writing again, and I need time to mourn my friend. So I am really sorry for leaving you hanging for so long, but thank you for being so patient with me. Anyway, I am ready to get back into it. You know how these things go, if you fall out of the saddle, the only thing to do is get right back on that horse. Thanks .16, you were right.

Anyway, this chapter which is already much longer than I would've preferred, was initially significantly longer. It focuses mainly on the immediate aftermath of the invasion, but due to the sheer ridiculous length of it, I decided to cut out entire chunks of it. There was originally a lot more scenes dealing with people's reactions to Naruto, but I decided to focus more on Naruto and how he was dealing with this strange world he had found himself in. You will still get a couple of reactions, and things are being set up in secret that will have a major impact on Naruto and the Justice League in future. Naruto also goes around showing different sides of himself to different people, the more he trusts someone the more of the real him he is willing to show. Keep in mind that the person he currently trusts the most in the world is Madame Xanadu, so she knows a good chunk of his story and secrets. There isn't a whole lot of action in this chapter, and sorry if at one-point mid-way through the chapter Naruto just seems to go on and on talking. I wanted to shorten it but I promised a bunch of guys who PM'd me that I would drop it today, so yeah...

I also wanted to say a special thanks to NyaNyaKittyFace. A funny story is that I actually finished this chapter originally back in November last year and was all set to publish it, then just as I was clicking the save button, power went out right as it was saving. This ended up corrupting the whole file and I had no back up. I just went ballistic after that, I was so pissed and utterly shocked that it took me a few days to even think of starting the chapter again. Even then, I had a spent a month researching everything I wanted for the chapter, and I couldn't really bring myself to do it again. I was feeling so low and disappointed with how everything had turned out, then NyaNyaKittyFace sent me a review. It was just what I needed to here to get me over that moment and keep me going, so thank you,

The same goes to all of you guys who have been sending private messages. Oh how you aggravate the perfectionist in me who wants to make sure everything is just write before I publish my chapter. You can all be so annoying at times, yet it's because you keep pushing me to publish more content, keep asking me questions about the story and keep sharing your opinions that I am able to do even half as well as I currently am. You guys truly make me a better write, and I am grateful for you. Anyway, there is a like a hundred of you, so I can't really write a list of names here. I just want to say thank you.

Now, I should also mention that this chapter is completely different from the original Chapter 5 that got corrupted. I just really couldn't bring myself to do many of the things I did in the original chapter, once more. One of the changes is the scene where in the New52 comics and at the end of the Justice League War movie, the team is being honored at the Capital Building Washington. I didn't write that in this version of Chapter 5, I only mention that they were honored.

Anyway, let's just do a couple reviews and get right into things.

ElementalMaster16: Naruto's strength will fluctuate depending on the situation, he is incredibly potent against anything divine and most things supernatural, but he was struggle against powerful aliens or even humans whose abilities lie in the realm of science. That said, his life has been weirder than most people and the sheer level of experience he brings to the table, as well as his better training generally equalizes the situation or outright gives him the advantage. The most powerful person doesn't always win in a fight, and Naruto generally just strong enough to put up a fight against most of the stronger enemies in the DC universe. Maybe not a good fight, especially in direct confrontation, but he's a ninja, he is not supposed to fight fair.

oj: It's a bit mixed, or rather the masses love them but the governments of the world are far warier. I was going to show all those reactions but that would have added another K10 words to the fic, and proofreading large chapters' sucks. Don't worry, I will add some of those scenes to the upcoming chapters.

RubixJr: I considered Hawkgirl at one point, but the harem is already about as large as I can manage while making it a somewhat realistic story. Remember, I need write Naruto's relationship developing with each of these girls and give legitimate reasons why they would even consider sharing him with other women, and that's taking into account that Mera is currently throwing pissed at Aquaman for sleeping with her sister. So the harem is already pretty tricky to write, adding anymore girls is currently beyond what I feel myself capable of writing. That said, there will be other Naruto/DC crossovers in future, and I will consider them there.

dloold87: Yeah, Darkseid is rather interesting when you think about it. He is a multiversal being that exists in the godsphere and is the self-proclaimed god of evil, not that anyone would dispute that. It also seems like when he uses a boomtube to travel between the fourth world and the multiverse, he is projecting a fragment of his power into an Avatar that he controls. At least that's what I got from reading Final Crisis. It also makes sense when you consider that other gods, who are Old gods now, have multiple bodies in each universe but are also said to multiversal beings in the same way as Darkseid. Anyway, glad you enjoyed it.

RajahDLajah: Of course I plan to continue. This story will go all the way up to where it currently is in the comics at least. I have no intention of stopping.

The Storm Master 567: Thanks! That really means a lot to me. I have a bunch of Naruto/Fate stuff planned.

NobodyOwens5: No problem. As for the way the story progression, I won't time skip to five years later when David Graves goes all crazy. Rather, I am bringing Supergirl's arrival early, and creating some Atlantean drama between Mera, Naruto and the people of Xebel. There is also the fact that I am writing sections of Wonder Woman's New52 origin as canon, as well as most of her Rebirth stuff. At least everything regarding Firstborn and Donna Troy will be canon. It will all take place within the 5 year time skip, along with a few original mini-arcs.

Okay that is enough reviews for now, let's get on with the story. I really hope you enjoy it and please remember to leave a review at the end.

Chapter 5: In the Aftermath!

"We saved the world that day and we were named global heroes. We ushered in a new age of heroism across the world, but not peace, never peace. Peace, was all I ever wanted for the world, but humans love war and the universe was full of it, it threw everything it could at Earth and more. Unfortunately for me, and it's a little hard to even admit it, but I've always been better at war than I have at peace. I wonder what my parents and Jiraiya would think of me now if they could be here to see me."

— Naruto Uzumaki

oOo

Dreamscape...

"What happened here Chunin?" Sasuke Uchiha asked as he looked around at the utter devastation of what had once been a small civilian town, near the borders of Tsuchi no Kuni. The Iwa Chunin was apparently all that was left of its population of 2000 people.

"Huh? I-it...I, I'm." The older Iwa shinobi fumbled over his words, as he looked around at the devastation, too shell-shocked to properly respond. Sasuke noted that when he finally did look back at him, it was as if he was staring through him, rather than actually seeing the Uchiha scion. Only years of shinobi training and discipline had allowed the Iwa-nin to even attempt a response but he was still far too shocked to deliver anything useful. Realizing this, Sasuke decided to help him along.

Madara Uchiha had definitely done this, there was no question about it in Sasuke's mind. The Juubi Jinchuuriki's presence had momentarily flared up in this area and both he and Naruto were dispatched by the Gokage to this location. That was less than sixty seconds ago.

At the moment Naruto was flying around in the air above them, keeping an eye out and using his senses to determine if Madara was in the area, while Sasuke investigated what happened to the town. The entire mountain valley, the lake at its base, the forest surrounding it and the town along the lake shore. All of it was just gone, torn asunder like a gigantic god had reached down from the heavens and start pummeling the earth into a massive chasm. The ground around them was still molten and releasing incredible amounts of heat from whatever attack Madara had used here.

The Chunin Sasuke was talking to was the only survivor, and there was no doubt in Sasuke's mind that Madara had allowed him to survive deliberately. If the man was too shaken-up to explain what had occurred here, then Sasuke decided, he would just have to look for himself. Activating his Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan/Rinnegan combo, Sasuke peered deep into the man's dark brown eyes, and then through them into his psyche. That's where he saw it all.

The Chunin, a teacher at the Iwa Ninja Academy had been escorting a group of 30 academy students out of Iwa, under the cover of darkness. They were headed to Konoha where most of the remaining shinobi forces where gathering. Konoha and by extension Hi no Kuni, was now the safest place in the Elemental Nations, due to Konohagakure no Sato, being the home of Sasuke and Naruto. Not even Madara was daring enough to attack it directly.

The Chunin and academy students were being accompanied by an eight man Iwa ANBU team for protections, not that it made much of a difference when Madara struck without mercy or hesitation, and wiped out everything. The group had merely stopped at this innocent border town to rest during the day, they were going to continue their journey to Konoha that very evening. Unfortunately, they never got the chance.

All the Chunin really saw was a brilliant flash of light, heat and then the melting flesh of the ANBU operatives, the children he was protecting, and the towns people around, as it liquefied and fell off their very bones while they screamed in agony, before slowly turning to ash. It was a painful and gruesome way to die, a sight that Sasuke knew would give even him nightmares that night. What the Chunin had witness, had presumably occurred to every single person who was present in the small town. And as for the Chunin, himself had no idea how he was even alive, but this just confirmed to Sasuke that he couldn't have survived unless Madara had ensured it. As a message to them.

Pulling out of the man's mind, he looked at the poor Chunin with pity. It was bad enough that the man had to watch the Academy students he had been teaching for several years now, a future generation of Iwa shinobi, all perish in such a fashion. Add to that, him being the sole survivor in order to spread the news of what he had seen, and it was remarkable that the sheer terror he had felt, had not completely broken the man. Taking a better look at the Chunin, Sasuke could see that he was shaking slightly, his eyes were bloodshot and twitched in the direction of every sound he heard. He also had tear stains from crying, clearly visible on his cheeks due to dust and ash that had accumulated on his face during this catastrophe.

"It was all my fault." The Chunin spoke, barely above a whisper.

Sasuke frowned and asked. "What?"

"All this destruction, was my fault. I decided we should stop at this town, and in doing so I brought death to everyone in living in it." The survivor spoke in a haunted voice, his eyes looking dead.

Scowling at the man's words, Sasuke said heatedly. "This wasn't your fault; it was Madara's. He picked this town on a whim and you and your team just had the misfortune of being here at the time, but he could have chosen any other town. What he did here, was not about you, but rather about slowly breaking the resolve of the entire Shinobi World. To show us that as long as we continued to fight him, he could and would strike at us wherever we were and whenever he pleased, with zero concern for whether the target was shinobi or civilian. It's a psychological warfare tactic, something that Madara as a master manipulator excels at. However, we cannot give in to him, we cannot afford to lose hope no matter what. For the sake of this world, we who call ourselves shinobi have to keep on going forward, and for the sake of our fallen, we must continue to endure or their deaths will be in vain." Sasuke finished solemnly. A deep frown of frustration at the state of the entire 4th Shinobi World War which had been prolonged thanks to Madara and his terror tactics, marred his face. Things hadn't been going too well for the Allied Shinobi Nations ever since Madara had made himself the new Juubi jinchuuriki.

Taking one more look around at the devastation, and the numerous lives that he and Naruto had failed to save from Madara's madness, Sasuke muttered, more to himself than anybody else. "Naruto will not be happy about this though."

Speaking of whom, Sasuke looked up to where he felt a familiar presence hovering in mid-air. Naruto's golden Six Paths Sage Mode chakra clinging to him majestically as he stood motionless in the air, while his face was fixed in a grimace of horror. The blonde Jinchuuriki's supernatural senses, no doubt delivered to him information about exactly what had occurred here.

Only one thought crossed Sasuke's mind as his bestfriend visibly snarled, and it was. 'Oh no!'

"MADARAAA!" Naruto's scream was accompanied by a colossal shockwave of energy, so powerful that Sasuke was forced to shield the surviving Chunin with his Susanoo lest the man be torn to shreds by the sheer power being unleashed. Even so, Sasuke knew that this atrocity would scar Naruto's soul for a long time to come, and that at least for the next 12 hours, he would be no good to the war effort. Naruto would need to grieve for the thousands of lives lost tonight, before he could truly bring the fight to Madara. Sasuke merely sighed at that, he wished he could be as innocent and kind as Naruto. Unfortunately, his time with Orochimaru had changed him far too much for that. The best he could, the only thing he really could do for his friend at the moment, was to pick up the slack for him, until Naruto could get back on his feet again. The day would come when they would make Madara pay for every atrocity he had committed in this farce of a war, and that day would come soon.

VvV

Madame Xanadu's Emporium...

The shift from sleep to wakefulness came almost instantly for Naruto. He was suddenly fully alert and assessing his surrounding, despite the fact that a heartbeat ago, he had been dreaming of the past and fully immersed in REM sleep. The dream itself was a memory from the 4th Shinobi World War, a period of his life that still haunted him up till this day, though he hid it well. Except, it wasn't his memory but rather Sasuke's, and Naruto had no idea why he even had it.

Putting that out of his mind, the Jinchuuriki focused on the here and now. He did not open his eyes immediately, instead using his other senses to reach out to everything around him and figure out where he was, or more importantly what state he was. This was important because his last memory was from when he was in the middle of Metropolis with the other heroes of Earth, having just defeated Darkseid. They were being cheered by surviving humans and then suddenly everything went black, with the last thing he remembered being Madame Xanadu's voice. Realizing that he must have fallen unconscious or something and that Madame Xanadu would have been there to take him to safety, Naruto opened his eyes, immediately recognizing the starscape ceiling of his room deep within Madame Xanadu's emporium.

There was a familiar Illusion showing the night sky, magically anchored to the ceiling, while a collection of sounds similar to those found in the forests surrounding Konoha, softly filled the air. The walls were painted a forest green, with black Uzumaki spirals and other iconography popular in his home village. Several potted fern-like plants were placed on the wooden floor, in each of the four corners of the room.

The air which was temperature controlled, had natural scents taken directly from various forests and woodlands on Earth, and was constantly being recycled and controlled via magic as it flowed in on a breeze through the soundproofed open window. Magic preventing any unwanted sounds or smells from floating into his room from outside. All of this served as a reminder of the home that Naruto had sacrificed everything for, and allowed him to forget for a moment as he slept each night, that he was stranded on Earth, a very long way from home.

Naruto didn't have many things in the room, making it seem rather Spartan by all accounts. A small closet held his very few changes of clothes, most of which were black and functional, 14 different pairs in total, including underwear and socks, and 6 different pairs of shoes, mostly sneakers or combat boots. The drawer held his toiletries, a few books and half a dozen sealing scrolls containing shinobi related things that had survived the journey to Earth. He had a small work desk near the window, with a study lamp next to it, and an old laptop Madame Xanadu had given him to connect to the internet and speed up his learning. A reading lamp lay on top of the mini-cupboard next to his bed along with an empty coffee mug and a few books he was currently reading on physics, sociology, computer sciences and mental healthcare. Naruto had decorated the room by hanging a few giant shuriken and a katana on the walls in lieu of actual artwork and paintings.

The only other thing of note in his room was the magical king sized bed, which Madame Xanadu insisted he sleep on, and was supposedly spelled to give him enough energy for the next day, no matter how little or how much he actually slept in it. Incidentally, Naruto was also not alone in said king sized bed at the moment, nor was he clothed for that matter.

"Nimue, what are you doing in my bed?" He asked his first friend in this world, using Madame Xanadu's true name, since they were in the privacy of her home. Naruto had immediately sensed the younger sister of the legendary King Arthur in his bed from the moment he woke up. It took him half a second after that to realize that she was also lying complete naked in his bed, with him, her breasts pressed firmly into his side as she hugged Naruto tightly. This knowledge made him blush quite deeply.

Naruto was fully aware that despite her seemingly sleeping appearance, Nimue was wide awake and alert. Naruto's blush deepened even further as he felt her soft breasts press further into him, when her sleepy hug tightened by a fraction. His face growing even more red, when for a moment her glossy black curtain of locks brought to mind a certain Amazon princess he had recently become acquainted with.

Shoving his less than innocent thoughts about said Amazon to the back of his mind, he patiently waited for Nimue to give him an answer, which she did after a moment, smirking as she said. "Oh don't be such a prude Naruto, you were Jiraiya's star pupil, and we both know that the man was perverted enough to shut down an entire whorehouse on his own. Nothing happened between us while you were unconscious. Not that it would've been very hard to take advantage of you in your sleep."

"And yet we are both naked, and in my bed. How exactly did that happen? I don't even remember getting in bed." Naruto stated.

Leaning into his ear she whispered in a sensual tone that sent shivers up and down his spine. "That'd be because you fell unconscious shortly after the battle with Darkseid, my dear. You've been in a magic induced comatose state for a while now. All that magic energy you absorbed during your fight with the New god was beginning to quite literally weigh you down and put you into a magical deep sleep. For comparison, think of it like the tale of Snow White, with you being the poor princess in this particular analogy. Your very body was unable to process that much raw magic, because while you are quite good at absorbing and handling large amounts of energy, you are not a natural magic user, and so it just ended up trapped inside you, where it lay dormant. In fact, your body was starting to mutate in strange and unknown ways just to keep itself functioning due to the sheer amount of magic you absorbed, when I finally discovered the problem."

"And how long did that take?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Hours at the most, however the damage was done by then. With the other types of ambient natural energy that you absorbed, there was no problem because those energies naturally sought to return to their own environments in the world once you were done with them. Unfortunately, Magic is something far more unpredictable and fickle. The magical energy you absorbed clung to you rather fiercely, which wouldn't have been a problem in small amounts. However, you had enough dormant magical energy within you to power the entire North American continent for at least a month." She said with an amused smile, clearly impressed with the amount of magical energy he had been able to harness.

Giving his sorceress friend a blank look, Naruto asked. "And what does all that have to do with you and me being naked, in my bed?"

"I had to drain all that magic out of you somehow. Even Snow White was woken with a kiss from her prince, though in your case, a bit more was required to wake you than just a kiss on the lips." She replied with sultry smile, and eyes dancing in amusement. "Short of a tantric ritual, which we both know you would have objected to had you been conscious at all, skin to skin contact was the fastest and most efficient way to drain all that magic from your body. How someone as innocent and prudish as you could be the prized student of a man that openly called himself a super-pervert, is a mystery beyond even my thousand years of experience and understanding."

With an exasperated sigh at his friend who was far too comfortable laying naked in his arms, when they weren't even in any form of romantic or physical relations, Naruto asked. "How long was I out?"

"12 days?" Nimue promptly replied.

"What?!" He half yelled, squeezing her tighter to his chest in his shock, much to Nimue's secret delight.

"That is, 12 days, worth of time within the confines of my mystical emporium. On the outside of the shop, it has been a little over 36 hours since you battled Darkseid." She clarified, raising her index finger with which she tapped him on the nose while drinking in his shock at the news. "Remember, it was more than enough magical energy to power North America for a whole month. Just draining you of enough magical energy to bring you back to consciousness took quite a bit of time, several extremely powerful artifacts and a few favors." With a lecherous grin and a wiggle of her eyebrows she added. "Especially since I wasn't doing it the fun way."

"Yeah, keep dreaming princess." Naruto snorted. Madame Xanadu wasn't at all shy about offering to have a physical relationship with him. Friends with benefits as human's on Earth called it, but he wasn't sure he wanted that with her. Not because he didn't find her extremely attractive, Naruto genuinely viewed her as incredibly hot, but rather because he trusted her more than anyone else on the planet and he liked how things were between them right now. Having sex with her would shift that dynamic into something unfamiliar and he needed the sense of stability that she brought to his life at the moment. Furthermore, he was afraid of losing what they had now, especially since they wouldn't be committing to a real relationship.

"I am a princess of Camelot, and I demand compensation for all the trouble you've caused me over the last 12 days and nights, young man. A celebratory dinner and a fun movie, once you get back from your meeting, will do quite nicely." She declared with all the haughtiness, authority and sense of expectation one expected of your typical Disney princess, though the playfulness in her shining eyes kind of ruined the image, as did her miserable attempt to keep her amusement out of her voice.

Naruto snorted, it was useless to resist. She wanted them to spend time together and one way or another she would engineer things so that they ended up spending time together, even if it meant using a little magic. Worse yet, she was precognitive and not above using those particular powers to ensure they spent some time together. The smile on his face turned into a confused frown a moment later, as he caught on to the last part of what she had just said, and asked. "What meeting?"

Tilting her head to the side, in an act, as if only now recalling something, Nimue said. "Oh, Batman wants to talk with you and a few others. If you shower now, and get something to eat, then you should make it to Gotham just in time. He will be on top of the Wayne Enterprises building, with your other hero friends."

For a moment Naruto hesitated, he knew she wanted him to go to this meeting or she wouldn't have brought it up in the first place, but he also knew and could literally feel her reluctance to let him go. Both through his empathic abilities, and because her hands were still locked around his waist in a rather clingy manner. Naruto knew that at the core of these feelings was her fear that he would get hurt again or worse, die.

"I...huh?" Words were lost to him in light of these feelings coming from his friend. He wanted to apologize to her. Nimue hadn't said anything to him about it but he knew that she must have sensed it when he died, or seen it, it was the only reason he could think of, for the emotions he was currently feeling coming from her. He found himself debating whether to attend this meeting or stick around for the sake of the immortal woman's peace of mind. Surprisingly it was Madam Xanadu who solved Naruto's inner dilemma for him.

"Go! This meeting is far too important for me to monopolize your time, no matter how badly I want to. Today the foundation of a new future will be cemented." She said grandly, before pushing him off the edge of the bed with her feet, while pointed towards the bathroom.

"Right." Naruto muttered as he managed to get his feet under him, even as he fell out of his bed, then grabbing a nearby towel to wrap around his waist, and some other toiletries. Marching to the shower in the bathroom opposite to his bedroom, Naruto paused in the doorway and looked back over his shoulder at Madam Xanadu still lying nude in his bed and not looking like she was about to move from there any time soon, then said. "And Nimue."

"Yes?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow, she turned her head towards him, delicately placing it in the palm of her hand.

With that foxy grin that he had always been famous for, Naruto continued. "Thank you for taking care of me."

"Of course." She replied with a smile of her own, before stretching languidly in a way that clearly showed off her naked body to him. The sheets that had been covering her nudity, choosing that exact moment to suddenly fall to the side. Naruto's face turned scarlet as all of her majestic form was suddenly revealed to him, and he quickly turned his back to her, even as the chuckling Nimue Inwudu aka Madam Xanadu added. "It's quite literally been my pleasure Naruto. One gets bored after going it alone for over a thousand years."

Still looking anywhere but at his naked fried while fighting down his blush, and attempting to get a raging Naruto Jr. back under control, he nodded in acceptance. Naruto better than most knew the pain of loneliness, and was internally happy that he could bring the immortal woman's pain to an end, even if only momentarily.

"You know that I am always going to be there for you, right? Just like you've been here for me, ever since the day I first arrived here." He asked. There was a strange determination shining in his eyes, and his voice was more serious than she had ever heard from him.

"I know." She replied just as seriously, making Naruto grin. Reluctantly she said. "You better get going, or you won't make it for that meeting I mentioned."

"Right!" Naruto replied as he quickly left the room for a shower, a preferably cold shower. The only thought on his mind being. 'Crazy super-attractive immortal witch! Jiraiya must be having a ball wherever he is.'

VvV

Rooftop of the Wayne Enterprises building, Gotham...

"Sage, thank you for coming! I didn't think you would get my message in time." Batman said as he looked up into the sky, watching the hero descend to the rooftop.

Naruto shook his head in the negative as he replied. "Oh I didn't get your message at all! Luckily, Madame Xanadu can see the future and foresaw this meeting taking place with me present for it. She was the one who told me to come here."

"I will take that into account next time I need to you for something." Batman muttered, before gesturing to the other two heroes present.

"Superman! Victor! Good to see you guys." Naruto greeted the Man of Steel and the cyborg kid he had helped during the invasion. Victor had arrived in his human form for this meeting, dressed in a pair of Jordan sneakers, black baggy jeans and a gray Nike hoodie that shadowed his face. His left eye glowed a deep and ominous red from under the hood's shadow.

"Likewise Sage." Superman replied with a nod and a smile.

"Same here. Oh, and I am going by Cyborg now. I mean I was staring at myself in the mirror last night, and I figured that I might as well embrace it, right?" Victor Stone said confidently, thumping his chest. Even as he did so, he began shifting from his human form into his armored combat form, a slurry of liquid silver metal pouring out of him as it swallowed his clothing and covered his flesh in armor.

"Awesome." Naruto replied with a nod of acceptance, before focusing on the fact that it was only the four of them present. Finally, he asked. "So, where are the others? Won't they be a part of this meeting?"

"We will be meeting with them tomorrow." Batman responded. "Tonight the four of us need to deal with something we exclusively experienced."

"Apokolips." Cyborg said to which Batman nodded.

"Indeed. Sage, myself and Superman have all physically been there, while Cyborg, you were in their Motherbox network and downloaded a massive amount of information on them." Batman said, immediately getting into the details of why the meeting was called. "In short, we all gathered different pieces of intel from our encounters and experiences in regards to Apokolips. The reason we are all here tonight is to compile all that intel into a single data packet which we will share with the team tomorrow, and the government after that."

"Why the government?" Superman asked. "Just curious." He added when everyone looked at him, he was not one for trusting the government wholeheartedly.

Batman replied. "President Anderson contacted Victor's father, Dr. Silas Stone, in order to get into contact with Victor and through him, get a message to us. He has an offer for us, one that I think we should seriously consider."

"What's the offer then?" Naruto asked.

"He wants us – as in our group – to continue on as an official superhero team, intervening in state and global level events across the world, in addition to the usual song and dance we perform in our local cities. If we agree, we will have the full funding and support of the United States of America and her allies, in any emergency situation that might arise. Additionally, we will have clearance to cross any borders and airspace we deem fit without contention, provided they belong to these allied nations. We will also have the right to intervene in and take jurisdiction over any emergency situation without our government or the governments of our allies breathing down our necks, or worse trying to arrest us." Batman explained, sounding amused at the idea of their team being arrested by anyone. As an afterthought, he added. "Oh, and Sage will get an official, public identity as an American citizen."

Superman frowned as he asked. "And what's in it for the president? It can't be a coincidence that he is being so generous."

"Obviously! The elections are around the corner. He wants to be seen as the man who rolled out the red carpet for us and openly welcomed the world's first Superheroes. If nothing else, it should do wonders for his reelection." Cyborg pointed out.

"Superheroes?" Naruto asked, having never heard the term before. Being called a hero was one thing and being a vigilante was another, however a Superhero was something new to him.

"It's the fancy new term they are now calling us, instead of vigilantes, because we saved the world. Our prior records as vigilantes have also been expunged from all databases, regardless of whether we agree to these terms or not." Batman said, clarifying things for Naruto.

With a smirk Cyborg added. "I'm sure they're sucking up to us, because someone in the White House had the brains to figure out that its best not to piss off the guys that singlehandedly saved the world, especially since we are all allied." Victor paused in thought before asking in a more unsure voice. "We are all allied with each other right?"

"We are not enemies, and the President wants us to be a team. Whether we will be allies, going forward into the future is something that will be decided on tomorrow, but at the very least we are acquainted, and that's good enough for me." Batman promptly responded.

Superman nodded and simply said. "Agreed."

"We shed blood together in battle. As far as I am concerned, you guys are all my brothers and sisters in arms. At least, so long as you remain the good guys. So I am cool with being your allies, acquaintances, friends or whatever." Naruto finished lamely with shrug.

"Great! Now that that is settled, we will need to bring up the subject with others tomorrow. We saved the world as a team, whether we continue on as a team or not should be a group decision." Superman said.

Nodding vigorously in agreement, Naruto chimed. "Well said Superman."

"In that case, we will bring up everything relevant to the matter tomorrow. For tonight, lets focus on Darkseid and Apokolips." Batman said. Producing a memory chip from somewhere beneath his cape, he handed it over to Cyborg who promptly downloaded whatever was on the chip, before projecting an image of Darkseid from the palm of his hand which had transformed into a holo-emitter. "I doubt we've seen the last of him." The Dark Knight added in an icy tone.

"Alright then, let's get to work." Naruto added with a grin, even as he bit his thumb and smeared a bit of blood on a seemingly ordinary tattoo he had on his wrist. A small puff of smoke later, and he had unsealed the battle axe and severed arm of Steppenwolf, that he had taken as a trophy after their battle on Apokolips. Superman promptly turned green at the sight of it and looked like he wanted to hurl, much to Naruto's amusement who simply said. "Both the axe and the arm belonged to a New god general named Steppenwolf. He and another New god named DeSaad were-" The meeting would go on, late into the night and Naruto would only return to Madame Xanadu's emporium, sometime around dawn.

VvV

The next day, Jay's super special pizza's, Metropolis...

"What do you mean she is not coming?" Naruto asked Aquaman, his tone a little too loud for indoors, but then again, as a member of the infamous Uzumaki clan, Naruto had always been known for being loud and passionate.

"Exactly that." Aquaman replied. "Mera wants some space for herself, which in this case means that she wants to be in whatever zip-code that I am physically absent from. As you can see, since I am here, she's made sure that she wouldn't be." Aquaman's voice was slightly strained and he sounded hurt, even as he gestured to their surroundings.

"That's not good. This meeting is pretty important, we need everyone here." Naruto grumbled.

He still didn't really know what Aquaman and Mera were fighting about, only that Aquaman had somehow hurt Mera. He wasn't about to take sides or anything, because it was a private matter, that was none of his business to begin with. However, he liked Mera a lot and despite how briefly they had known each other, he considered her a friend, more so than Aquaman at least. Besides it took real guts to be willing to jump in the way of Darkseid's Omega Beams and risk incineration, doubly so to do it for Aquaman when she clearly had problems with the guy. That and many littler things Naruto had noticed about her, made the very idea that they should meet without the beautiful redhead being present, feel incredibly wrong to him.

"The others are on the way, but Mera ditched her communicator and took a dive into the ocean before I could properly convey the importance of this meeting to her. She doesn't even know where we are meeting, and could be anywhere by now." Batman said. He had called everyone that morning and had given them the location and time for the meeting, as well as confirmed all of their attendance except for Mera. So far only Naruto, Aquaman, Batman himself and Superman had arrived, though Superman had gone outside to fly around for a bit and help around in his city wherever he could, until the meeting began. The four of them were all a little early anyways.

Frowning Naruto turned towards the door and said. "Then I will go get her."

Before he could leave, a firm hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to find Aquaman giving him an intense look. The Atlantean King's eyes held a deep sorrow and regret in them, which Naruto was sure was related to his issue with Mera. He took a moment to lock gazes with Naruto, as if searching for something in his eyes, before finally saying. "Are you sure you can really convince her to attend this little get together? Especially with her knowing that I am here."

"I will convince her." Naruto replied confidently, but added no further explanation much to Aquaman's chagrin. He had convinced some of the most dangerous killers on his homeworld to turn back from their misguided beliefs and walk in the light, so he was sure he could easily convince Mera to lend them a few hours of her time. Looking to Batman, he said. "Give me thirty minutes."

"You have twenty." Batman responded.

"Uh-huh. I will be right back." Naruto said, waving over his shoulder without looking back, as he walked out of the restaurant that the team was gathering in.

Outside of Jay's pizza place, there was a military cordon surrounding the restaurant. Personnel from the different departments of both the military and law enforcement, were stationed there in order to keep an eye on the Superheroes, as well as to, in theory, prevent anything bad from happening to them. The unspoken reason for why they were there however, was to prevent any civilians from pissing off the group of the most powerful beings on the planet, and to hopefully glean any kind of information about them they could manage, without looking like they were spying. Somehow word had gotten out about their get together, and the government had thrown everyone it could get away with on short notice, at them.

Casually waving at a pair of female soldier he spotted who waved back from their sniper nest on a rooftop across the road, Naruto knelt to one knee in the middle of the street and closed his eyes, before very carefully entering Sage mode. Now that he was aware that there were additional risks to using Sage mode here on Earth, he deliberately focused on pushing away any magic and most of the other Elemental forces he could sense. Carefully he formed a limited connection to the Clear and only the Clear.

The Clear or the Blue as it was also called, was the energy field that connected and pervaded all aquatic life and oceanic themed elements. Granting those who could connect to it, powerful hydrokinetic abilities among many other gifts. When combined with his chakra and sensory powers, Naruto was able to use it to scan any water body with life in it that he focused on, regardless of distance. In this case Naruto used it to check if Mera was in or near water, which there was a very high chance of, seeing as she was an Atlantean.

Thankfully his gamble paid off and after a few seconds he detected her somewhere off the coast of Miami Florida, on an isolated and nameless islet. Due to the sheer amount of life in the oceans, lakes and rivers, Naruto had to specifically look for Mera's life-force signature, while pushing aside everything else as useless data, lest his mind be overwhelmed by the information. He had memorized the life-force signatures of everyone on the team except for Green Lantern, Batman and Superman, because he hadn't given any of them his chakra during the battle with Darkseid. Naruto could sense those three well enough when they were nearby, but locating them out of billions wouldn't be possible, until he did give them his chakra and connected to their life-force signatures.

Rising back to his feet, Naruto dusted himself off, before using the Flying Thunder-god technique to teleport to the other side of the country in the blink of an eye. One of his clones had marked the side of a dedicated Hurricane shelter in Miami with his Flying Thunder-god formula while they were battling Darkseid's forces. This formula was conveniently also really close to the sea, and where he could sense Mera.

With a powerful leap, Naruto was airborne where he activated the flight technique he learned from the 3rd Tsuchikage and steadily made his way, at a low hypersonic velocity, towards the redheaded Princess of Xebel. A minute or two of flight, Naruto found her sitting on the little islet, all alone and surrounded by the deep Atlantic Ocean waters. Slowing to a halt once above her, Naruto began to descend in order to speak to her, slowly because he still wasn't too proficient at flying when he didn't have Six Paths Sage Mode active.

Perhaps it was the fact that she was distracted, that she didn't quite notice his presence immediately or because of his own foolishness in not announcing his arrival to her. However, when he had descended enough for Mera to notice his shadow, despite being lost in thought, she reacted with startling precision, sending a massive wave of water directly towards Naruto with a casual wave of her hand.

Caught off guard by her sudden attack, Naruto could only yelp before he got hit and lost control of his flight ability. Literally getting knocked out of the sky by the giant wave and into the ocean...or rather in this particular case, onto the ocean.

Flipping himself around while in midair, Naruto calmly landed – feet first – on the surface of the water where he bobbed up and down gently, soaking wet but completely unharmed. Realizing who it was that she had attacked, Mera cried out. "By Poseidon! Naruto is that you? I am so sorry I didn't realize who you were."

"Don't worry about it?" Naruto replied waving her off as he began to casually walk across the surface of the water, not at all bothered that he was drenched.

This action however shocked Mera, and the princess asked. "How are you doing that?" Gesturing with her hands to his feet.

"Doing what?" He asked, completely missing out on the fact that walking on water was rather abnormal in this world, even with its powered individuals.

"Standing and walking on water like that." She quickly clarified.

Naruto paused mid-step and looked down, as he finally realized how it must've looked to his friend. "That's right, it's not exactly normal for people to walk on water around here huh. Well, this is a chakra technique taught to all ninja's in my homeland, once they graduate from the Academy. It's pretty useful in situations like this, as well as to improve your control over your chakra."

"Really?" She asked, excited by that tidbit of information he had dropped. "So are you controlling the water to make it solid beneath your feet, and if so, can you teach me to do the same?" Mera inquired, looking closely at his feet and analyzing the way he stood on the water like it was solid ground.

"I guess in a way you could say that I am controlling the water beneath my feet. However, this is not a Water Release technique, Water Release being specific water related ninjutsu technique's that completely manipulate liquids primarily composed of water, and most of forms of water. Rather this is just something that any ninja can do with training. That said, I have been trained in the usage of each of the five elements, including actual Water Release technique's. At a later time if you are still interested, I am sure I can at least try and pass on a little of what I know. Not sure whether it will work though." Naruto finished with a shrug.

He had no idea what the source of her power was, but Mera had already shown incredible control over the water she manipulated. At the very least, he could show her a bunch of the Water Release technique's that Mei Terumi had taught him during the war, and hopefully she would be able recreate them. Maybe even some other ninja related skills.

"Thank you, I would greatly appreciate any tutelage you can offer." She said, sounding relieved. Suddenly looking down in shame, Mera added. "During the fight with Darkseid, I realized how useless my abilities where against him, and that I really wasn't making a difference in that battle."

"That's false, utterly ridiculous and very unfair to yourself Mera." Naruto said as he walked up to her, before sitting down next to the gorgeous redhead. "You might not have been able to strike a decisive blow or really wound Darkseid for that matter, but that doesn't mean you were useless. You were able to distract him, which considering he took out Superman in one shot and did technically succeed in killing me – albeit only for a short while – was vitally important in that battle. I recall one moment when your solid water weapons touched his Omega Beams and turned into steam, blanketing the whole area and allowing me to sneak in and change the flow of the battle in our favor at a critical juncture. If you hadn't done that, he would've seen me coming and probably done something painful – possibly lethal to me."

"I guess." She admitted with a small blush. "But that wasn't deliberate." She insisted.

"True, but what if the next time it is deliberate? What if next time, you will actively be able to manipulate the battlefield to your will?" Naruto asked her, to which Mera looked up in surprise and curiosity. "As far as I can tell, you are just inexperienced in fighting beings of that caliber. Not that I can claim to have much experience fighting gods. I've only fought four gods in my entire life, but the point is, I think you and your abilities have a lot of potential." Naruto smiled as he said this. Mera on the other hand simply marveled at how casual he delivered such a statement, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world to have fought a god and walked away from it, much less four different one. Despite her disbelief, Mera chose not to point that out to him.

Instead she asked. "Really?"

"Yep! Our powers likely work differently, so I can't promise you concrete results, but I'm willing to work with you and show you every water related trick I know and many others that I picked up from back home. It will be hard work though, and the hours will be long, in fact, I will probably make you hate me for what I will put you through. However, if you get through the training, you will be a force to be reckoned with no matter what. That is if you are willing to have me as your ninja instructor?" Naruto offered, hesitantly.

Mera fell silent, contemplating the offer for a few minutes. Eventually she replied. "Then I will have you as my ninja instructor."

"Great! Then we will start your training next week. I'm going to make you the world's first Atlantean ninja…I hope. I doubt there have ever been an Atlantean ninja before, but you never know. Still, even if there were others before you, I will at the very least make you the best." Naruto said with a cheerful grin.

Nodding, she replied a small smile of her own. "Then I look forward to it." It was a distraction she sorely needed at the moment.

"Oh, you say that now." He muttered under his breath, low enough that Mera did not hear him, but his grin still gave her chills that she couldn't quite explain.

Suddenly wanting to change the subject, she asked. "So, what are you doing out here? I doubt you came all the way here to simply lift my spirits."

"If I had known your spirit needed lifting, then I would've come out here sooner. However, in this case you are right, I came out here for the sole purpose of finding you." Naruto explained. "We – as in the team – are having a meeting right now, and we need you."

Sighing she muttered more to herself than him. "Right, Batman mentioned something about a meeting before I hung up on him."

"More like you ditched the expensive communications gear that he gave you and others last time we were together, except for myself because my friend, Madame Xanadu, took me home early that night. Anyway – the team – the nine of us who fought Darkseid together, well you make nine. Batman wants to brief the rest of you on some stuff that he, myself, Superman and Cyborg discovered while on Apokolips. Mera, I am sorry to say, but this war isn't over yet, not by a long shot, and in the days to come the world will need your strength." Naruto said sincerely.

"Will Aquaman be there?" She asked plainly, her body language turning rigid and her emotions growing frosty.

Looking her straight in her suddenly glowing eyes, Naruto ignored the anger and hurt he felt coming from her when she mentioned Aquaman, and said in a very serious tone. "We will need the both of you Mera. I know that something happened between you two, and that you would rather avoid him or even hate him. As your teacher of the ninja arts, we won't ever have to talk about it unless you want to or its impeding your progress. However, you were willing to put aside your feelings and die for the man when Darkseid tried to kill him. That speaks a lot about your inner character Mera, and honestly, your courage in that moment was really inspiring to me."

Blushing, Mera replied. "I don't think that was anything special. Besides, you intercepted Darkseid's Omega beams and were incinerated in my place. You physically died and came back to life. Now that was something special."

"This is about you not me. Besides, I normally wouldn't jump in front of a lethal attack for a stranger. A good friend, a brother in arms or a family, sure, but definitely not a stranger. However, after seeing how selfless you were in that moment, after seeing you at your very best, my body was moving on its own before I realized what was happening. I guess I just couldn't let someone as amazing as you, just die." Naruto said, with a soft chuckle.

Mera blushed at the compliment, but said nothing. Averting her gaze from him.

Clearing his throat, Naruto said. "Anyway, I want you to be a part of the team and help us protect this world from Darkseid and its many other troubles. I want to help the world and I want to be on a team of amazing likeminded individuals, which in this case is the same team as all of you guys. I feel deep down inside me that we started something special that day when we fought Darkseid, and that it would never feel complete for the rest of us if you weren't a part of us. I don't expect it to be easy, and you are going to have to interact with Aquaman on some level sooner or later, but I watched you put everything aside to save him, so I already know you have the strength and determination to get through this. Seeing as I already consider you a fledgling ninja, now that you are my student, I will tell you right now that our motto as ninja's, is "Ninja's are those who endure to achieve their goals". What we are willing to endure, differs from ninja to ninja, and is defined by our goals and our personal ninja creed, but that's the true nature of a ninja's life, it's one of sacrifice. So I am asking, will you join us on this team Princess Mera of Xebel? I might add that Diana would be quite devastated if she was forced to remain the only female on our team."

"She could handle it." Mera replied, a small amused grin on her face as Naruto mentioned the other warrior princess.

Grinning back, Naruto replied. "That is true. Diana is a one hell of a warrior, and a really strong person, she wouldn't be happy, but neither would she really be that badly affect by your absence. Still, I would be devastated if I no longer had one of my friends to watch my back."

"Let's attend this meeting first. I will make my decision after." She replied after single second of hesitation, a slight blush on her cheeks.

"I understand. We've got about three minutes to get back to Metropolis. Batman didn't give me a lot of time to get you, so I hope you don't mind us teleporting directly there to save time?" Naruto asked, to which she shrugged. So taking her hand in his, Naruto and Mera disappeared in a yellow flash of light.

VvV

Jay's super special pizza, Metropolis...

"We're back." Naruto announced as he entered the store with Mera to see that everyone else had gathered already. "Is the food ready, because I am starving?"

"Yep. We've been waiting on you two so that we could finally dig in." Flash announced holding up a meat pizza of some kind for inspection. It was shaped like the shield surrounding Superman's S logo. "Batman paid for the whole menu, by the way." Gesturing to one of two long tables in the room, that was simply covered in all kinds of food, buffet style.

"Awesome." Naruto happily chirped while giving everyone a nod of greeting, before taking his place at the second long table, which also had a few pizza's and other kinds of food. He sat next to Batman, who was at the head of the table, with Superman at the other end. Mera sat next to him, with Wonder Woman on her other side, it was a deliberate action on his part, knowing that Mera probably felt safest with him and Diana. With that settled, Naruto's hands blurred through a dozen seals as he erected privacy seals too fast for anyone but Superman, Wonder Woman and the Flash to notice, not that they were paying attention to him. They were too busy serving themselves some rather delicious looking food to even notice the near-invisible barrier that suddenly surrounded Jay's. Satisfied with his work Naruto said. "Then we can eat while we work."

"Work? What exactly are we doing here?" Green Lantern asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Our glorious leader can explain that tidbit." Naruto said as he picked up a slice of pizza and bit into it, while thumbing at Batman.

Batman frowned at Naruto, not happy with the way he shoved the duty of providing explanations onto him. Picking up a devise that he put on the table, he tapped it and said. "That should keep the government agents outside from listening it." Then glaring at Naruto added. "Yesterday, Sage, Superman, myself and Victor who is now going by the codename Cyborg, had a meeting. We wer-"

Aquaman gave Batman an affronted look as soon as he heard this and interrupted him, demanding. "Why weren't the rest of us invited? Weren't we special enough to warrant an invitation to this special meeting of yours?"

"He's getting to that Aquafresh, aren't you Spooky? Let's at least give the man a chance to finish speaking before we jump to conclusions." Green Lantern cut in, surprisingly coming to Batman's defense as he chastised the Atlantean King. When everyone around nodded in agreement, Aquaman fell silent with an embarrassed scowl on his face, allowing for Batman to continue.

"As I was saying, last night we had a meeting. After the battle with Darkseid, the four of us quickly realized we had something in common that the rest of you lacked. Each of us, in some form or another, had gained valuable first-hand intelligence on Apokolips. Whether that was by physically going there, like Superman, myself and Sage's clones did or by being connected to their Motherbox network like Cyborg was, and downloading a massive data packet from it. The point is that we all had important pieces of information that we needed to compile into a single briefing packet to present to everyone here today. Our meeting yesterday was basically preparation for this one, so no Aquaman, we had no intention of hiding anything from the rest of you, we just needed to make sure we got all the information we could before we presented it to you." Batman assured them.

"And what did you find out?" Aquaman asked in a firm tone, though his body language indicated that he was still a little embarrassed about his earlier outburst. He had a box of buffalo wings with extra-spicy BBQ sauce, and chips, in front of him.

"Darkseid's invasion was weird." Naruto cut in, before chomping down on a slice of extra-cheesy pepperoni pizza, without explaining a single thing more. He pointedly ignored the looks everyone was suddenly giving him as they awaited further explanation from him, that would not come.

"Weird how?" Wonder Woman finally asked in general, realizing Naruto was not going to reply. She had a half empty tub of chocolate-chip and mint ice-cream she had been digging into. She also had an ice-cream mustache above her lip that everyone ignored.

Cyborg's eye glowed brightly and a holographic image of numerous Earth's suddenly appeared above their table. Everyone looked at it in surprise as Cyborg began saying. "According to the information I was able to dig up while I was connected to the Apokoliptan Motherbox Network. It seems Darkseid has deployed the full force of the Apokoliptan military engine, to fight a war on a different version Earth in another universe, a world that they call Earth-2." The appropriate Earth suddenly lit up as it was highlighted. "According to their records, which I might add are quite extensive, there are at least 50 known universes out there, and Darkseid has been numbering them as he either explored or devastated them."

"What's our Earth numbered as?" Flash asked curiously. He had a large burger in his hand, that he had taken a massive bite out of. Three extra-large boxes of pizza were sitting on the floor besides him, already emptied in the time since they started eating. He was eating very slowly for him.

"Earth 0 apparently, and we are smack dab at the center of the multiverse." Cyborg continued, while highlighting their Earth in the very center of all the other worlds. "We barely got a taste of what his reserve forces have to offer, with him being the only New God – which is his species of god apparently – to have been present here on our Earth during his invasion. Had other New gods and some of Apokolips' more devastating weapons been brought to our Earth, then things might have gone very more differently for us." Cyborg finished his explanation.

"We also learned that he was looking for someone." Batman added, after taking a bite out of the salad he was eating.

"Any idea who he was looking for?" Mera asked, before sipping at a bottle of mountain dew she had picked up.

"His daughter." Superman replied. "While they were...while they tortured me on Apokolips. As I was fading in and out of consciousness between the pain and general sense of...evil. I heard two of Darkseid's underlings talking about how he had come to our Earth primarily to find his daughter." The Man of Steel was clearly uncomfortable with even thinking about his time back on Apokolips and the things that he had experienced while there. Everyone silently swore not to bring up the issue, unless Superman himself felt like talking about it.

Dropping a half-eaten slice of pizza, Green Lantern changed the subject as he said in a disgusted tone. "Okay, that's just sick! And holy hell, what woman would ever let that granite-faced piece of scum climb onto her and-" Of course, he never got to finish his sentence before he was smacking in the back of his head by Flash.

"Lantern!" Batman barked in warning. He looked like he really didn't want to eat his salad any more.

"Ouch!" Green Lantern whined, as he gingerly clutched the back of his skull. Flash's hand had been moving at super-speed when he struck.

With a frown, Flash said. "Bro, we so did not need to hear that. Now I got to go bleach my mind, thanks a lot man!"

"To answer his...attempt at question." Naruto began with a scowl, blatantly trying to ignore the image Green Lantern had put into all of their heads. "I also learned of Darkseid's daughter from the same New God's that were torturing Superman. I fought them on Apokolips, and I can personally attest to the fact that there are other New Gods on Apokolips, many more, however they are nowhere near as tough as the big granite bastard himself."

"When did you have time to fight other New gods? You were on Earth with us the whole time." Aquaman questioned, everyone but those already in the know, looking at Naruto in disbelief. After all, they all distinctly remembered him being on Earth during the invasion.

Naruto smirked as he replied. "Correction, my clones fought Darkseid, however, they are technically all me, albeit weaker echoes of the real me. Nevertheless, as extensions of my will, I fought the two new gods through them." It was by no means an accurate explanation of Shadow Clones or how they worked, but then, Naruto had no desire to get into the details behind the Shadow Clone technique.

"I'm almost envious of you Sage. You can be in more than one place at the same time. Something which even I, the fastest man on the planet, find rather difficult." Flash said. There was a strange sense of longing in the speedster's voice. Naruto also noted that Flash had specifically said 'difficult' not 'impossible'.

Nodding in agreement, Green Lantern added with a laugh. "Yeah, talk about your potential to be the ultimate multitasker and workaholic. The real you can quite literally go on vacation and avoid any hard work, while your clones can remain doing that actual work for you, all at the same time. That is so unfair."

"The problem with that idea is that my clones are still very much me, if I wanted to ditch work then they will want to ditch work." Naruto replied with an amused grin. "Additionally, I get their memories, their pain to a certain extent and their exhaustion every time they dispel. It can lead to some really nasty migraine headaches, though I'm willing to admit that they can be pretty cool, and incredibly useful at times. That said, clone techniques in and of themselves are really not that big of a deal back home, because every good ninja and their grandmother knows at least one type of clone technique. Though I suppose my shadow clones are considered somewhat more advanced than other versions of the technique out there. Still, it's nothing too special."

"Yeah, about that. You said you would reveal more of your secrets when you trust us, and I would like to believe that fighting side by side against an angry evil god has won us some of your trust, right? So if you don't mind, why don't you tell us a little more about yourself." Green Lantern asked, reminding him of his promise the other day.

"I did say that, and I am going to tell you." Naruto assured

Aquaman stated. "But not today!"

"No, I fully intend to reveal many details about my past to you all in this very meeting. I believe you all deserve that much." Naruto reassured everyone present, before adding in a playful tone. "However, I really think we should finish with the important stuff before I start spilling all my secrets to you."

"I supposed we should." Mera agreed, while the others simply nodded.

"To bring us back on track." Batman began, regaining everyone's attention. "Sage provided us with two items for analysis, that he brought back with himself from Apokolips. One was an axe forged with unknown alien meta-materials and hyper-advanced technologies. Its currently being analyzed at a special Waynetech black-site facility that I and I alone have access to."

"And I'll want that axe back by the way, undamaged. It will look super awesome on my wall." Naruto said with a dark grin. Meanwhile everyone fought the urge to facepalm upon hearing the reason behind why he wanted the weapon back. Well, everyone except Diana who seemed to get it.

"Ah, a worthy trophy then?" Diana asked, to which Naruto nodded proudly before mouthing 'Absolutely' back at her.

Batman ignored the two and said. "The other thing Sage brought back, was the severed arm of the New god general he fought. It's been handed over to a Starlabs facility for further analysis."

"And they will only be doing analysis on it, no cloning or genetic splicing. Or else..." Naruto said darkly.

"Or else what?" Flash asked.

Batman, Superman and Cyborg gave each other nervous looks before turning to Naruto who smiled so innocently it was nearly sickening. Eventually Superman said. "Before we left Star Labs Midway City, where we dropped of the arm. Sage threatened that if he found out that they had made a biological clone or genetically spliced DNA from the arm of the New god with, well...anything. Then he would nuke every single Starlabs facility on the planet, and destroy every hint of their research in all of existence, before wiping their minds of any memories related to their research."

Flash looked horrified at the response, and suddenly everyone understood why the other three had been giving Naruto such nervous looks. They had all scene Naruto throw a ball of energy that was essentially a nuke at Darkseid during the battle against him, and that wasn't even his most powerful attack in that fight. There was currently a gaping hole in the ozone layer somewhere near Australia, that spoke volumes of the firepower he could bring to bear if he wanted. Feeling a shiver run up and down his spine, Flash yelled. "What! But that would kill all the works and countless innocents. Not to mention mind-wiping people is rather extreme."

Naruto snorted and replied. "Who ever said anything about killing anyone. I would evacuate the facilities myself before, reducing everything to ash. All of those years of hard work turned to ash in the blink of an eye, it's a suitable punishment for screwing around with life and things that humans have no business messing with. There is no harsher punishment for a researcher than taking all that they had been working towards and destroying it utterly. Mind-wiping them is merely to ensure that they can't recreate that research."

"Still, that is a pretty harsh response, especially from someone who uses clones all day long." Green Lantern said.

"Clones made of my own life energy, that are essentially still a piece of me and rejoin me when they dispel. Genetic splicing and cloning are something else entirely. Look guys, I know it seems incredibly harsh, but I fought in a war against an enemy that had the power to strip people of everything that made them diverse and interesting and beautiful for the sole purpose of turning them into living weapons for her army. The goddess I fought left everyone, everywhere, as nothing but humanoid pale husks that looked exactly alike. In essence, humans were being transformed into an army of identical living weapons for a future war, kind of like what was being done to humans on this planet with the Parademons. Before that, I fought against this ninja mad scientist from my village, who was fond of injecting newborn babies with the blood cells of the first leader of my ninja village, in order to see if they would bond and recreate that leader's special powers. Anyway that's a long story, and not a pretty one."

"I take it that, things did not go well for the babies." Green Lantern asked with a grimace, already reading between the lines.

"Not at all. Only one infant survived out of sixty newborns, the rest were horrifically transformed into monstrous mutated lifeforms. Had the children been able to even somehow survived that monstrous experiment, they would've been put out of their misery as a mercy killing. Yes, I know, the very idea of killing babies is beyond repulsive to all of us, but I need you to understand that those kinds of experiments were simply so vile, that killing babies to give them peace would've been considered an act of kindness. I have seen the result of genetically splicing yourself with something else, particularly something far more powerful than you, go so very wrong more times than I care to count. So trust me, when I say this is all a bit personal for me. If the scientists at Starlabs want to simply analyze the arm, I won't say no, but I have given them my warning. If they start trying play god, well I've already defeated four gods already, one of whom I killed, they will end up wishing they had heeded my warning." Naruto said with a haunted look in his eyes, and bit of a bitterness in his voice that was quite frankly alarming.

"You're so much more experienced than us." Mera finally said after a few moments of silence, breaking the somber atmosphere as everyone took in what he had just said. It was already apparent to the group, while they were fighting Darkseid and his Parademons, that Naruto had an unusual amount experience. However, his words made it even more clear that Naruto was all too familiar with a plethora of varying and rather horrific situations, as well as how to deal with them.

"Only in some things, some very very strange and really out of the way kind of things." He insisted, before saying. "I come from a society where walking on water, breathing out fire and sealing matter into pocket dimensions is about as natural to us, as watching a plane fly through the air or watching a person make a phone call would be to you. Some of our animals talk and have powers of their own, I've met more zombies and ghosts than I care to list, and my grandmother was an alien goddess with a Messiah complex. My version of normal is bound to be different from what people would consider normal on this world, and since I entered the ninja academy when I was six years old, I have picked up and seen a lot of bizarre things. So you know..." Naruto finished with a shrug.

"That sounds so crazy." Flash said. Everyone agreed, but no one really knew what else to say to that.

Nodding his head with a small amused smile, Naruto responded. "I know, but this Earth is just as crazy in own unique way. I mean the internet, airplanes and cellphones aren't even things where I come from."

"I rule a Kingdom under the sea." Aquaman eventually said with a shrug, before adding. "Who am I to judge what's crazy."

"And I wasn't even born on this planet." Superman added. "So yeah…"

As everyone nodded in agreement to Aquaman and Superman's statements, Batman said. "Now, as exciting as hearing about Sage has been, and I in particular want to hear more on this. I would like us to focus on the topic at hand, and not get derailed any further. The sooner we wrap this up, the sooner we will be able to get back out there and help the victims of the invasion."

When everyone nodded in agreement he continued. "As we said, Darkseid has deployed the majority of his forces on Earth 2. He was also only here searching for his daughter. His Parademon hives were serving as both a distraction for us while he fulfilled this task, and as a means harvesting humans in order to convert them into more Parademons and replenish his forces. Superman and Sage have thankfully destroyed these conversion centers on Apokolips, stopping him from perverting the remains of our people, as well as, for now at least, denying the enemy anymore resources. Cyborg also fried the majority of Apokolips's motherboxes and left a couple thousand super aggressive Trojan viral codes in the Motherbox network to keep them busy."

A round of 'good job', 'well done' and 'nice work' was called out to Cyborg upon hearing this making the young man grin. Naruto could literally feel Victor's embarrassment at all the praise, much to his amusement.

"So what where you doing the whole time?" Green Lantern asked, turning his attention on Batman.

"I was gathering intel on Apokolips and freeing Superman obviously. Sage's clones were busy fighting and Superman was still out of it. I recorded everything in sight, then helped free captive humans and direct everybody to the boomtubes Cyborg opened, allowing us to return. The footage I collected is being analyzed, and along with several hundred sketches of the landscape that Superman drew from memory of when he was flying through the sky of Apokolips, as well as data provided by Cyborg, we are in the process of rendering a partial map of Apokolips." Batman said.

"Know your enemy's stronghold, in case we ever need to Storm it." Wonder Woman spoke, as if quoting an old lesson from her days training to be a warrior.

Naruto nodded and added. "Or in the unlikely event we all get trapped there for some other reason. It would be nice to have access to a map of the land."

"Which brings us to the next and final topic of importance." Batman said, while looking at everyone to make sure he had their undivided attention. "President Julian Anderson has made the nine of us an offer that I feel we should seriously consider and decide on today. He wants us to officially become a team that will intervene in national and global catastrophe's, like Darkseid's invasion. In exchange for the formation of this team he is prepared to pledge the full backing and support of the United States of America and its allies. This will allow us to travel through any allied nation's airspace without contention and take command of whatever situation may arise, along with any local emergency or military forces already in place. This includes giving orders to military forces, law enforcement and other emergency services in the event of a crisis, whom will do their utmost to provide us with any and every form of aide we might require while doing our job. This however, will only apply to allied nations, so don't think you can just cross in Bialya do whatever you please. That said, I do not believe I need explain to you how much this would help us in our ongoing efforts to protect the world and our home cities."

"I admit; it would make things easier if the army and Lex Luthor aren't always coming after me!" Superman said.

Green Lantern frown as he added. "The same goes for me and the Airforce."

"The police have been giving me quite a bit of trouble." The Flash said. "So yeah, I can see the benefits."

Mera frowned, as they continued. She hadn't contributed that much during the meeting, mostly because she understood far less about the surface world than others, with her coming from an underwater Kingdom. "The surface world can be so very confusing at times." She grumbled.

"I agree sister." Diana said cheerfully to Mera from where she was seated beside her. "Man's world is a mess. That many would turn away help freely given and without any expectation of repayment, out of misguided pride and suspicion. It's just sad, but I believe things won't always be this way."

"Additionally, any and all records of our vigilante activities will be expunged from all databases, and all law enforcement agencies and in some of your cases, military forces, will cease pursuing you with immediate effect provided you don't do anything criminal. This last bit will happen regardless of what we decide. America will not drag its national heroes through the mud, or so the official reasoning goes." Batman finished, making it clear to everyone that there was an unofficial reason for this.

"Unofficially, it's an election year and the president wants to get into our good graces." Cyborg supplied. "It makes him look good." He added with a wink of his natural eye.

"These documents have all the relevant information you need to know about this offer, and if there is anything we agree that we don't like then we can negotiate it with the government at a later date. Take your time, consider the pros and cons, and make a decision." Batman said sternly, even as he rose to his feet and began distributing advanced Waynetech tablets to everyone.

Naruto barely skimmed over the document on his tablet, before simply pocketing it and saying. "I'm in."

"Batman just said for us to take our time." Wonder Woman lightly chided, to which he smiled back at her.

"I know, and I've decided that I want to be a part of team that can make a real difference. Fighting off threats to humanity, helping those in need, making the world a better place. It's what you guys already do in your cities, and now we will have a chance to do on a far greater level. I can't really say that I have anything better to do, and after this last invasion I've come to realize that the world really needs our help, so I want to be a part of that, and I want to do it with you guys. I have this feeling inside me that you guys would make the best possible team for me to work with. Probably because aside from Madam Xanadu, you are all pretty much the only other friends I have on this planet. But that's beside the point, all I'm trying to say is that I'm in." Naruto explained, before pausing in thought and adding. "I will however mention that there are a few points in this document I noticed, that I believe we will need to discuss at a later date, in order to change them before we officially become a team."

"Well, Sage certainly knows what he wants, and quite frankly so do I. I'm in too." Superman said. "If the invasion taught me one thing, it's that even the strongest man on the planet needs help, and frankly the threats I have been facing on my own have been escalating. It would be nice to be able to call in some back up when things get tough."

Batman had a little smirk on his face as he said. "I don't really need help with Gotham, but the world is an entirely different matter. The world needs this team, and I will be happy to be a part of it."

"Batman and Happy. Too words I never thought I would ever hear coming out of spooky's mouth." Green Lantern whispered to Flash with snort, the speedster nodding in amusement.

Cyborg had a frown on his face as he said. "My life changed when I first became Cyborg at the start of the invasion, and then changed again after Sage gave me an 'upgrade'. I know that I am both the youngest and least experienced person here, and that I wouldn't feel as conflicted as I do now, if I was unable to disguise myself as a regular human. However, because I can disguise myself, I am constantly faced with the temptation of finishing High School, gaining a College football scholarship and making a career in football. I know it's an unrealistic dream now that I am augmented beyond any human and that no matter how human I may look, I am not like the rest. My life has changed irrevocably, and things can never go back to the way they were in the past, and my future that once looked certain is now unclear. I'm not entirely sure of anything anymore, however, one thing is clear to me, and that is that I would rather face that future among friends, than on my own. So I guess I'm in."

"I am still trying to figure out everything about my powers, but I am happy to lend a hand." Flash said with a shrug, as if it was no big deal.

"Normally, I am not a team player, and I already have a job as a space cop, patrolling an entire sector of the galaxy. This means that at times I am going to have to leave the team for extended periods of time in order to fulfill my duties as a Green Lantern. That said, being a part of this team seems like fun, and if Darkseid is gonna someday come back for round two, then I wanna be here to help kick his ass granite ass all over again. So I am down with this." Green Lantern said.

"It would be an honor to walk and fight amongst a pantheon, once again. Each of you have shown me things I never could have even imagined before leaving Themyscira. Now I can't help but look forward to more." Wonder Woman said, with a beautiful smile.

"In case any of you missed it, that means that she is in, and after hearing what you all have to say, so am I for that matter. Like Sage said, I don't really have anything better to do." Mera said a small but earnest smile on her cheek.

"What about you Aquafresh?" Green Lantern teased with a grin, much to Aquaman's annoyance.

With a sigh, Aquaman rose to his feet and walked around the table towards Mera, where he said. "As you've all no doubt noticed, Mera and I, have had some issues. She's also made it clear that she doesn't want anything to do with me, and rightfully so. However, she also clearly wants to be a part of this team, to be with her friends. So for her sake, I am willing to remove myself from this newly formed team, I have a Kingdom to run anyway."

"No!" Naruto cut in. His voice, harsh and firm, while he glared at Aquaman challengingly. "You don't get to run away."

"I'm sorry." Aquaman said, startled by the intensity of Naruto's voice and glare.

"He said no, King Orin, and frankly I agree with him." Mera began, before looking at Naruto who gave her a firm nod and small smile. "Whatever issues we may have, are meaningless in the face of the bigger picture. This isn't about you or me, it's about the whole world. You didn't come to Metropolis back during the invasion because of me, you came because of a duty to Atlantis, and a desire to help the surface world that you care so much about. Our issue's didn't stop you from working with me and saving the world then, so neither of us have any excuse to let them get in the way of us helping the world now. I am not ready to put what happened between us in the past, but I will work with you, trust you even and watch your back." She said calmly. Her eyes were still very cold and angry towards him, but Mera also had a hand stretched out to in a handshake. "Unless of course you have some other reason to not want to join this team."

"Of course not! Thank you Princess Mera." He said, shaking her hand. Naruto sensed a plethora of intense emotions going through the Atlantean King, before they settled on acceptance and determination.

"I am not the one you must thank King Orin. Sage and everyone in this room are the ones who convinced me that it is worth it to work with you again." She said coolly before returning to her seat before

"Now, if there is nothing else pressing. I believe we would all like to hear that story you promised us Sage." Batman said, sounding oddly eager to get into it.

Inclining his head to Batman, the man had truly been patient with him, and Naruto knew for a fact that being so patient when a mystery was dangled right in front of his face, was against his very nature. So as reward, Naruto had decided to tell him his tale, it would be selective truths of course, but far more truth than most people would ever hear. With that he began by saying. "As I said before, my real name is Naruto Uzumaki, and before anything else, I should start by telling you all that I am not from this world."

"Not from this world? Like an alien?" Green Lantern asked in curiosity.

Shaking his head, he responded. "No. I am human, but I come from another variation of Earth, in another universe somewhere out there. Or rather that's what my friend Madame Xanadu told when we first met. The information Cyborg downloaded on the multiverse from the Apokolips Motherbox network, just confirmed for me that there are in fact other Earths in other universes."

"Oh wow!" Flash said in shock, before saying. "You traveled even further than Superman to get here. What are you doing here on this Earth?"

"I was fighting an alien goddess on my Earth, who was technically my grandmother I guess. Anyway, she was hell-bent on taking over the world, and transforming humans into monstrous biological entities that she could command like foot soldiers. I defeated her, but she was a rather petty woman and a sore loser. Using the last of her power, she physically ejected me from my native universe. If she couldn't have my world, then she wanted to make sure that I would never see it again. Anyway, after an unknown period of time, floating around beyond the universe or whatever, I fell through a portal and ended up in Gotham city where Madame Xanadu was awaiting me. She had foreseen my arrival on Earth for a while now, was there to provide me with shelter, clothing and basic everyday knowledge of this world. That was a few weeks ago."

"Well, that explains why nobody knows who you are, you've only been here on this Earth a short while and were probably keeping a low profile." The Flash said.

"Yeah. It took a bit of time to acclimatize myself to this Earth's diverse cultures and technological advancements. I had to do a lot of studying and make subtle observations of the world around me through my clones." Naruto added, with a groan of annoyance.

Batman nodded before saying. "I take it you've been searching for a way home since then. In that case I will do what I can to help you, and I am sure the rest of us would be happy to render assistance." Around him the other members of the team nodded in confirmation.

"Thank you all very much for the offer, but I am not entirely sure it will do any good." Naruto said.

"What do you mean by that?" Batman asked.

He sighed as he replied. "It's rather complicated to explain, but when I was ejected from my universe, I wasn't this physically strong in my base state."

"Base state? What's that mean?" Aquaman asked.

"You've all seen me when I'm glowing with a shroud of golden flame-like energy surrounding me. Well, think of that energy as me being in a higher state, a sort of battle mode that I can enter to drastically increase my speed, strength, durability, senses and abilities. I have several other "battle modes" so to speak, that I can enter at will, but this form I am in right now, this is my most basic form, my base state. Now, before I was forced from my universe, my base state was not this physically powerful. Don't get me wrong, I was still incredibly powerful, just nowhere near this level." Naruto said.

"And what's the significance of that?" Batman asked.

"I can only assume it's the passage of time." Naruto said with a shrug. "I do not know how long I was floating around out there, I also have no way of really proving it, but I believe I am older than I was when I was still in my native universe. Additionally, my fellow ninja will have written me off as dead after a certain period of time. Just showing up back there at the wrong time, has the potential to throw my whole world out of balance, it would also open up a lot of old wounds. Suddenly, those who had decided to put aside their difference for the sake of honoring a hero who gave his life to save them, would find themselves at unburying their hatchets when that very same hero shows up alive. There would be many who would question whether high command had told the truth about me dying, which would naturally lead to whether they can trust their leaders.

"To a ninja, loyalty to your village and its leader is absolute, our leader has authority comparable to a dictator or an absolute monarch. If ordered to die for the sake of the village, many a shinobi have willing to gone to their graves, only trusting that the sacrifice demanded of them would benefit the village and country as a whole. However, it is also the Jounin council, the most powerful and trusted shinobi in the village that vote on whether to accept any leader nominated. If you have the faith of the villagers and its shinobi forces, then their loyalty is absolute, if you lack their faith however, problems begin to arise that could even lead to something as bad as civil war. Regardless of this, I wouldn't want to burden you with the cost and troubles of finding me a way home, which would no doubt be significant." He finished as if it was no big deal much to everyone's shock.

"But that's still your home. Surely you want to go back?" Aquaman asked.

Naruto scowled, and unable to keep his emotions out of his voice, replied. "I do, I miss everyone there and I think of them all the time. But I also know my people. As far as they are concerned, I died to save the world and ensure a lasting peace, and they will honor my sacrifice now that I am gone. However, like I said, just returning has the potential screw that up, and I really don't want to screw up the peace so many worked so hard for. It's the first time in a thousand years that the whole shinobi world is finally working together, the next generation has a real chance to know what it's like to live in a world without war or conflict. I know it won't last, war is a constant in every era, but for a time there will be peace, and I won't risk that just to see the faces of my friends again."

"What about family, don't you have parents or siblings you left behind?" Mera asked worriedly.

Naruto sighed, as he said. "My parents died about an hour after I was born. They were skewered on the claws of a certain nine-tailed fox-shaped fragment of a primordial deity, just as it was trying to kill me. They died protecting me from it, so that I would live, and because they were so young at the time, I didn't get to have any siblings, only friends who I loved like brothers and sisters. Make no mistake, the choice to not go back does not please me at all, but I am a proud Konoha shinobi, if nothing else ninja's from my world are they who persevere for the sake of our goals, even when those goals call for great sacrifice. Over sixty-five thousand other shinobi, my brothers and sisters in-arms, laid down their lives for the sake of this peace I cherish, I will do absolutely nothing to risk jeopardizing it. It might not make sense to you, but this is just our way as shinobi."

"Okay man! We won't force you." Green Lantern said raising his hands as if in surrender. "That was really grim though."

Bowing his head slightly, Naruto said. "I apologize. My life has had its ups and downs; I didn't mean for it to upset you."

"It didn't upset me, and frankly I think we all want to hear more about your life, that is if you are willing to tell us. Am I right guys?" Green Lantern replied, to which everyone nodded.

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, an obvious warning in his tone.

Everyone nodded again, before Wonder Woman said. "We would be honored to hear your tale."

"Thank you!" He said in an almost whisper, before continuing. "I warn you though, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I will try and give you the abbreviated version of my life story."

"Just spit out man. We are all friends here." Green Lantern said impatiently, never noticing the slight smile that appeared on Naruto's face when he called him a friend. It was gone an instant later, only a handful of people in the group even noticing.

Taking a deep breath, he began strongly. "Of course. I am the son of Kushina Uzumaki of the Uzumaki shinobi clan and Minato Namikaze, the 4th Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. My dad led the Hidden Leaf village and its ninja's, as our highest elected official and political leader. A position known as Hokage, or Fire-shadow when translated into your language. The Fire-shadow was one of the two highest political position in my entire country, which is the Land of Fire, only the Feudal Lord or King if you wish, was higher. Though technically they had about the same amount of authority over the nation as each other, making them both known as the 2 kings of the nations. As I said earlier, they died on the day I was born. I grew up an orphan, attended the ninja academy at six where I trained until age twelve and after failing the exam three times, I finally graduated into a fully-fledged genin, the lowest rank a ninja can attain. A beginner if you will. After that I began taking missions, serving my country in a military capacity until a war broke out just before my seventeenth birthday. The 4th Shinobi World War."

"4th Shinobi World War? You had four world wars?" Green Lantern asked incredulously.

"That's crazy?" Flash asked.

"In your World Wars, millions died. Such a massive loss of life would be beyond comprehension to most shinobi. In many ways, your World Wars were far worse than ours due to the sheer manpower and scale of the wars. In other ways, ours were worse. Only tens of thousands shinobi ever participated in our world wars, but that still tens of thousands of superhuman beings with all kinds powers to reshape reality on a whim. In the 4th Shinobi World War, there were over 80,000 shinobi of the Chunin or mid level ninja and Jounin or high level ninja. Half of that number perished on day one of the war, a war which lasted six months."

"That's awful." Flash said, looking horrified.

Naruto nodded, as he agreed. "That it is. There is absolutely nothing pleasant or beautiful about war. I love a good fight and I am at this point admittedly pretty good at waging war, but I view war itself as with contempt and hatred. All I want for humanity, whether that of my homeworld or this world, is for them to have peace. Anyway, I think I would like to speak about something a bit less heartrending that old war stories."

"Agreed! You mentioned that your country was named the Land of Fire. Why is that?" Mera asked.

"All of our nations had names like that, it was a description I suppose, of my country, its people and our values. The most powerful five nations in the world, were the Land of Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Lightning, which were home to the Hidden Leaf, Mist, Sand, Rock and Cloud ninja villages respectively. Nearly every country in the world had a hidden ninja village, but only the leaders of the Five great nations had the right to call their leaders by the tittle Kage or Shadow, which was affixed to the element in the name of the country. Fire-Shadow for the Land of Fire, Water-Shadow for the Land of Water, Wind-Shadow for the Land of Wind, and so on. The reason Kage's had so much respect and authority to be seen as the equal of the King, was because they commanded the absolute loyalty of thousands of ninja's, with those ninjas serving as a moreorless a super-powered army meant to deal with supernatural matters in the nation. The supernatural aspect of my homeworld was fairly active, and it required beings far more powerful than average man or woman to deal with it, which is where we ninja's came in. Officially the Feudal Lords were the recognized ruler of the nation and led their respective nations from the light, they also ruled the civilians and primarily dealt with the natural world. The ninja world on the other hand was under the authority of the Kage and their counterparts in the lesser ninja villages, who primarily, as I mentioned earlier, dealt with matters of the supernatural.

"My home village, the Hidden Leaf is the oldest ninja village in our world, created after the two most powerful ninja clans in the world, bitter rivals who had been trying to exterminate each other for about 900 years, finally decided to have peace and make a safer world for their children. A deal was struck with the Feudal Lord at that time, in which he would grant them the land to build their village in exchange for Leaf ninja's dealing with supernatural threats and providing protection to his family. The ninja village system was meant as a means to protect children and allow them to grow up enough for them to truly experience life. Before it was established, the average age at which children of ninja died on my world was six years old, as rival clans tried their best to annihilate the offspring of their rivals. The villages that sprung up in every country after ours was created, successfully eliminated this problem for the most part, allowing children to grow up, to learn and to only take on missions they could handle. A Jounin was provided as a teacher to every Genin, creating a four-man cell. This was both to protect the young ninja and educate them. In the event that an enemy overwhelmed the Jounin, and this was something perhaps unique to our village, the Jounin would generally lay down his life to allow the Genin to escape to safety. Anyway, later on, after other nations copied our ninja village system and began collecting clans of their own, an added stipulation by the Feudal Lord was that we ninja protect the nation itself from invasion by foreign ninjas. If the Feudal Lord's regular army went up against trained ninja's, it would've been a slaughter. Even one ninja can annihilate thousands of regular samurai in seconds. The Hokage at the time in turn convince the Feudal Lord to allow the village to higher out its ninja's as – for lack of a better term – mercenaries. These ninjas would perform missions for a client that would earn money for the village as whole to sustain itself, and would in turn receive a stipend for their part in the mission. How much they were paid depended on the difficulty of the mission and the rank of ninja in question. Ranks ranged from D, C, B, A and finally S. D rank missions being things like walking a dog, painting a fence, babysitting and fetching a missing pet. C rank involved eliminating bandits, drug cartels and other such mundane trouble makers, as well as escort of civilians or important goods. The involvement of enemy ninja automatically made a mission B rank, with that rank increasing if the other ninja had a high rank. The A rank missions are where things like espionage, infiltration, assassination and intel gathering really came into play, and S rank missions generally meant near suicidal odds for the average ninja were in play, but those were also generally vital for the prosperity of the nations..." Naruto continued talking about his world, specifically none classified information. Giving everyone an idea of its nature and the way of things back home. It took a few hours of their time.

When he finally finished talking, Green Lantern just threw up his hands and said. "Your life is crazy man. I just gotta say it, and it's the honest to god truth man, and this is coming from a freaking space cop who regular travels to alien worlds"

Standing up, Batman said. "Okay, I think we are done with all the relevant stuff, except for one final matter."

"And what is that?" Superman asked.

Turning to Naruto the Dark Knight said. "Naruto Uzumaki, I acknowledge you've taken a big risk with telling us about your home world. You've bestowed a remarkable amount of trust in us, so I feel it's only appropriate I reciprocate a fraction of that trust back to you. I will not unmask in this place, too many eyes outside are watching us, but they certainly can't hear us. My real name is Bruce Wayne, I am sure if you google it you will find my home address and numerous pictures of me. Come by Wayne Manor discretely on the weekend, we have a lot to talk about."

"As you all know, I don't have a mask, but I have a secret identity that I work very hard to protect. It helps me blend in with normal people. My birth name is Kal-El and I am from the planet Krypton which was destroyed many years ago. My parents sent me to Earth before they died with the planet, so I can sympathize with how your parents gave their lives to protect you shortly after your birth. I was found by a loving couple, and grew up in Kansas as a farmboy. My adopted human name is Clark Joseph Kent; I prefer Clark."

"Victor Stone, but you already know that and my story." Cyborg said with a nod.

"Princess Diana of Themyscira, and I told you about myself when we first met." She said, reminding him of their meeting during the invasion.

With a little reluctance the Flash said. "I guess I'm next. My name is Bartholomew Henry Allen but everyone calls me Barry Allen. I'm a CSI in Central City."

"Princess Mera of the Kingdom of Xebel, one of the original Atlantis' seven city-states." Mera introduced herself officially.

Aquaman went right after her, making Mera Scowl a little, but she kept her emotions in check as he said. "To Atlantis and the dwellers of the deep, I am King Orin of Atlantis, ruler of the seven seas. To America and the nations of the surface, I am Arthur Curry, and my home is in Amnesty bay."

"Of course once you got the ball rolling Spooky, everybody started revealing their secret identities. Now I will feel like a dick if don't tell him mine. Fine. I'm Hal Jordan, ace pilot, space cop and adventurer. Coast city is my home, and this entire space-sector is my beat." Green Lantern said confidently.

"I see." Naruto replied, feeling somewhat shocked that they had all revealed their names to him. It reminded him a lot of when the same thing happened with the Tailed Beasts. Smiling he said. "Thank you for telling me your names, my friends. I didn't want to say it earlier, but calling you by your Superhero names was becoming annoying. You real names are just so much more…real."

"Superhero?" Aquaman asked.

"That's what the government is calling us, now that they want to be a team." Batman clarified, turning to everyone he added. "And with this, we've finally come to the end of our meeting. I will schedule another in the days to come, in order to discuss a name for our team, and so that we can finalize what we want from the government. However, for now there are people who need our help out there, and about a thousand reporter who I am sure will wanting to take our pictures, so you all better give them your best smile."

VvV

Darkseid's Palace, Apokolips...

Darkseid stood on the balcony of his palace, leading to the regenesis matrix, a device holding a diluted pool of Element X and several other divine liquids, with which he could immerse himself and accelerate the healing of his substantial wounds. He had spent three days submerged in this pool due to the severity of his injuries, and the lingering effect of the warrior called Sage's divinity suppressing abilities, from when he battled the human champions on Earth 0.

It had surprised him that they could put up such a fight, and that Sage could actually reduce his divine might to a level where the whole group could actually fight him and win. Regardless of the fact that he was never actually subdued, was definitely not killed, nor did he surrender at any point during the battle, and in the end the best the heroes were able to do was send him back to Apokolips, but Darkseid still considered this a win for the humans. The mere fact that they were able to force him to retreat, even if completely against his will, was a loss in his eyes and proof that they had won. He was a powerful and proud god, evil incarnate some might say, but he respected strength and would not spit on the accomplishments of others that he deemed worthy.

That said, he couldn't help but feel a little enraged by what Sage's clones, Superman and Batman had done to Apokolips while he fighting the rest of the Justice League on Earth. The sheer amount of damage and chaos they had caused during the brief amount of time they were on Apokolips, was simply appalling.

They successfully crippled the Apokoliptan war engine by destroying the Parademon conversion factories, freeing abducted humans meant to become Parademon reinforcements and slaughtered those that had already been converted to full Parademons. Even his subordinates, the New gods, Steppenwolf and DeSaad were not spared, with Steppenwolf being defeated in single combat and losing an arm and his treasured Electro-Axe.

The only reason either had survived being that the fact that hundreds Boomtubes all across Apokolips were forcefully opened just before Sage could deliver a finishing blow, due to the human Cyborg. This scattered the two New gods to some unknown parts of the multiverse. And as if to add insult to injury, the Cyborg promptly crashed the entire Apokoliptan Motherbox network, crippling all but a handful of Motherboxes and preventing them from opening Boomtubes to anywhere. That it stranded his military forces on Apokolips and prevented his forces from reinforcing the rest of his army already deployed to Earth-2 in his war against them, made the situation only that much more infuriating.

His people couldn't even reboot the Motherbox network because the Cyborg had infected it with a self-adapting viral codes that the network was not designed to handle. Darkseid had actually been forced to send Gordon Godfrey to locate Metron and request his aide in purging the network, as favor to him. Darkseid hated owing anyone favors, especially those like Metron who would force him to honor promises and return favors when the time came, but in this case there was no choice. If the Motherbox network was not restored to proper functionality, his brother Izaya would consider it a sign of weakness and command the forces of New Genesis to attack Apokolips. Truly as much as he respected the champions of Earth 0 for being able to force his retreat and do all this damage to Apokolips while he was distracted fighting them, Darkseid also silently swore that he would make each and every one of them pay dearly for this humiliation.

Initially Darkseid had felt nothing but rage towards those particular heroes and wanted to return right away in order to annihilate them. But after considering things carefully and with logic, he had also admitted to himself that what they had accomplished was impressive, far more so than any of their counterparts across the multiverse. Which is why he would use this defeat to forge a path towards his future victories.

Only a handful of Motherboxes with Boomtube capabilities still worked at this point, and he felt wary about using them for anything other than repairing the enormous amount of damage inflicted on Apokolips by the Justice League. However, what he planned to do had the potential to change everything, for Darkseid had not left the battlefield empty-handed.

With a gesture a tooth telekinetically floated up to his eye level, a tooth that he had knocked from the mouth of the original Sage during their battle under the ocean. The same being who had at the time shown the unique ability to drain his vast unfathomable power and grow stronger from them, weakening him to the point that the other members of the Justice League had enough of a chance that they were able to defeat him together. This being, and his ability to weaken a god, was something that truly interested Darkseid, and he intended to exploit it. He saw so much potential for someone like that under his complete control, that Darkseid couldn't help but find a way to try and manipulate Sage...or in this case, his genetic material. He wasn't quite ready to fight the brat again.

"Granny Goodness." He called, his voice rumbling like thunder throughout the room.

His loyal servant and the trainer of his elite fighting force, the female furies, quickly stepped forward from the other side of his chambers, where she had been patiently waiting for him to give her a command. The New god was the visage of an old overweight lady, was not even fazed by the fact that Darkseid was completely nude, simply dropping to a knee as she answered. "How may I do your bidding my liege?"

"I need DeSaad, find him for me. Send Kanto and whatever resources you deem necessary to retrieve him, but be discrete. I want my god-scientist found as soon as possible and brought before my feet intact. I have a special task for him, so consider this our top priority next to restoring the damage inflicted up Apokolips by those champions of Earth." He commanded.

"Of course my lord." Granny Goodness bowed her head and rose, then after a moment of hesitation asked. "Sire, If I may inquire, why do you seem so pleased?"

At first glance, Darkseid seemed as stoic and cold as ever. However, Granny Goodness had been his servant for countless millennia and thus was very family with his 'moods' and body language. Which was why she sensed that he was unusually pleased for some reason, almost happy but not quite.

"One of the humans I fought, the one that calls himself Sage. Within him lies the key to ending our stalemate with New Genesis, even without the need for the Anti-life equation. I intend to harness his power and use it to cut a swath across the entire multiverse," Darkseid replied, deigning to answer her question. "And for that, I need DeSaad back."

"Should I also instruct Kanto to find Steppenwolf?" She quickly asked the ruler of Apokolips who was still in a good mood, with trepidation in her voice.

"No. My general allowed my kingdom to fall to ruin while I was away. Let him squalor away in indignity with the humans or whatever 3rd World filth he now finds himself with. His exile in the 3rd world, along with the weight of his shame in losing his arm to a mere echo of the anti-god I fought, will serve as penance for failing all of Apokolips. As of now, Steppenwolf is forbidden from returning to Apokolips until I deem him worthy again, this is the will of Darkseid!" The ruler of Apokolips proclaimed, his very words carrying power in them and etching his decree into the very fabric of the Fourth World.

"Of course Sire. I will attend to my duties immediately." Granny goodness quickly said as she nervously walked away from her liege, feeling very shaken by Darkseid's words. Never once did she notice the slight twitch of amusement on Darkseid's lips.

VvV

Metropolis Memorial garden, Outskirts of Metropolis city...

Naruto knelt before a giant twenty-foot-tall statue made from pure diamond, and shaped like a phoenix, rising in flight. Superman had pulled it from somewhere deep in the planets core and helped chip it into its current shape. He had just finished covering it in every single security seal he knew how to perform in order to prevent anyone from stealing it or damaging it. Madame Xanadu and several of her fellow magic practitioners and friends, had also shown up earlier and added their own protective spells to it for extra security. Wonder Woman had even negotiated with Apollo for a tongue of his divine flames, which she had imbued into the center of the diamond statue, where it danced eternally, giving the whole statue a life-likeness.

According to Diana, Apollo had promised that so long as the sun continued to exist, the fire in that statue would never go out. The flames also had the unexpected side effect of giving the statue a supernatural durability approaching the levels of dwarf star matter. No diamond thieves would be cutting it up for a quick profit, especially with all the additional security to the thing in the form of seals and magical curses. Whatever Wonder Woman had said to Apollo in order to convince the god to go along with something like this was truly beyond him, but Naruto was grateful to both Diana and Apollo.

The Phoenix statue was at the center of the cleared grounds that were a quarter mile in circumference. There were twelve main pathways that spread out in equidistant directions from the center, as if marking the numbers on a clock. Additional six pathways then intersected those twelve paths at various points, in six ever expanding concentric rings, like ripples in water. Everywhere along the pathways, on either side of them lay giant stone tablet-like monoliths, with names carved into them of all those who had died in what the media was now calling the Apokolips War. Certain details about Apokolips having been released to the media by the US government after Batman handed over some of the information they had gathered, which was only what the League as a whole had agreed to hand over.

The world needed an enemy to blame and Apokolips – which was in fact responsible for the mass loss of life – was the perfect target. However, details such as information about Darkseid and other New gods, as well as that Apokolips wasn't just another planet, but rather a planet that existed beyond space, time and the entire multiverse, were kept classified. Furthermore, just last week the Justice League as his team had come to be called thanks to a writer they had saved named David Graves, were all honored at the Capitol building in Washington D.C., where they were presented with both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for saving the world, and more specifically America

Naruto had even worn a black 3 piece Armani suit for the event, since he did not actually have a costume like the others. Though the only reason he actually did it was because Madame Xanadu wanted to wear a fancy green evening dress and be seen by the photographers with him, so that they could take their picture. All the best photographers in the world where present at the event anyway, so she decided beforehand that she was going to take advantage of that.

Putting his hands together and closing his eyes, Naruto said a quick traditional prayer for the dead to rest in peace, from his homeland. It was more out of habit than anything, having done so countless times during the 4th Shinobi World War for victims of Madara Uchiha. In this foreign universe, he wasn't even sure if any of his local universe gods existed here, or whether they would even listen to his prayers of all people if they did, seeing as he was technically a godkiller. Nevertheless, it just felt right to him to say a prayer for the dead.

Naruto sighed as he rose back to his feet from where he was kneeling. With the finishing touches complete, the Metropolis Memorial garden was now open for the public. This one held the names of every single person who died or went missing during the Invasion, while still in America, regardless of nationality. Cyborg with some forensics aid from the Flash, had spent a few days cataloging a list of all the casualties which Superman used his heat vision to etch them into every stone tablet present in the memorial garden. Naruto did the same using lightning chakra, streamed into his fingertips.

There were other memorial gardens around the world that the Justice League had built to honor the dead, each of them tailored to suit the dominant culture and belief system of whatever country they were erected in. However, they were all far smaller than the one in Metropolis, and none possessed anything like the diamond phoenix statue at its center. At the statue's base, there was no elaborate wall of words or plaque. Only the words, 'They will not be forgotten' etched with seals and magical light into the solid diamond. It was simple, but it served its purpose.

Everyone would know that these memorial gardens where there to honor the fallen during the Apokolips war. What almost no one except the other members of the Justice League would know, is that it was Naruto's idea to create the memorial gardens in order to honor the fallen, and that he had practically threatened his team with endless pranks and in some cases bribes, to get them to go along with it.

VvV

Project Cadmus, unknown location...

"What do you have for me Dr. Isaac?" Asked billionaire tycoon, brilliant scientist and now Director of Project Cadmus, Dr. Alexander "Lex" Luthor to one of his top employees. Already anticipating the question, Dr. Simon Isaac produced a tablet with a full report of his activities on it for Lex as he entered the facilities operations control room.

President Anderson had tasked Lex with the job of running Project Cadmus, a secret off the books division of the U.S government whose sole purpose was to provide solutions for the United States to defend itself against all enemies – mundane, supernatural, terrestrial and extraterrestrial – by any means available to them. Cadmus was designed to have no physical ties to the government that could be traced, and only the current President, as well as the Presidents to come would ever know of its existence. However, it would be the last line of defense in the event of another invasion or the unlikely scenario in which the Justice League went rogue

As Lex scrolled through the information on the tablet, Dr. Isaac said. "Welcome Director Luther. For today, we were able to discretely acquire seven new Metahuman specimens, and of those seven, there are two who will be of particular interest to you. Elisha and Lara Falls, a brother and sister duo with particularly interesting abilities."

Lex liked Dr. Isaac for his professionalism and his straight to the point attitude. He was good at getting things done, intelligent and a hard worker, qualities Lex respected in a man. "Which are?" He asked.

"They individually have the ability to control space and time. Elisha seems to be able to generate fields of hyper-accelerated, hyper-slowed and stagnant time, at varying distances around himself. One of the guards who brought him food earlier today, had the unfortunate luck to run into a hyper-accelerated chrono-field that Elisha subconsciously projected, and was promptly turned into fine dust moments later. He visibly aged thousands of years in a mere 3.4 seconds flat, until even his bones broke down to their base elements. Strangely, his scream of agony lasted 5 seconds longer, after the complete deterioration of his body, something to look into I think." Dr. Isaac said, sounding both saddened and excited by what had happened.

"I see, well done." He congratulated the man who simply nodded. "Mercy." Lex said turning to his ever present shadow, secretary and bodyguard, Mercy Graves.

She stepped forward to his side and replied. "Yes sir?" Pulling out a tablet of her own, already anticipating what Lex wanted much to his approval.

"Make sure that the family of the guard who died, gets his retirement package, a big extra bonus large enough to sustain them for the rest of their natural life, a letter of condolences from yours truly and a bouquet of flowers." Lex listed off to her.

Mercy nodded once as she replied. "Yes sir." Then began making the arrangements on her tablet as she added. "It will be done shortly."

"Good girl." Lex said with charming smile.

Dr. Isaac's curiosity was clearly visible to anyone looking at him, as he observed the interplay between the two, before finally saying to his boss. "That's quite generous of you, sir."

"Generous? Not at all Simon." Lex scoffed at the very idea. "I just like to reward hard work and good results, and let's face it, the guard who died helped provide unique insight into the abilities of our latest specimen, which will be a real game changer in achieving Project Cadmus's primary goal. Also think of the sheer possibilities and of what we can learn about time itself by merely studying this boy."

"In that case you will just love his sister." Dr. Isaac said with a small smile, as he swiped his hand repeated across his tablet with practiced ease to access the relevant data.

"Oh, tell me about this Lara Falls? You mentioned that they control space and time, and since Elisha manipulates time, then Lara must manipulate space." Lex said with a grin.

"Yes sir. Lara Falls' ability seems to distort space around her so that nothing can actually touch her, unless she allows it. The sole exception to this rule being her brother, and even then we suspect she subconsciously allows him to touch her. She can increase or shorten the distance between herself and everything else in the world, at will, and to extreme distances it seems. Just bringing her to this facility actually required digging up the ground she was lying on from beneath her and transporting it with her on top in order to physically move her. Any attempt to touch her by anyone but Elisha, has resulted in failure. She increases the distance between herself and whoever or whatever is trying to touch her until what should've been a single step or maybe two, suddenly became 600 miles." Dr. Isaac explained, and at Lex's skeptical look he added. "We fired a rocket boosted mini-drone with an advanced sensor suite at her, it's been flying at her for the last 3 hours without success." Dr. Isaac shrugged.

Grabbing his clearly shaven chin, Lex rubbed it as he said. "Fascinating. In your personal assessment, do you believe these abilities can be trained?" Lex Luthor fully believed that they could, but he wanted to hear the opinions of his subordinates. It helped him with rooting out the innovators and creative minds that would push Project Cadmus and Lexcorp forward, from the parasites and dullards that would hold it back.

"Yes." Dr. Isaac replied without hesitation. "They are just kids, scared kids who recently lost their parents in the Apokolips War, but I fully believe subjects Aeon and Spatial can be trained and taught to harness their incredible abilities under Project Cadmus's supervision. So far I have identified that Elisha subconsciously applies hyper-accelerated chrono-fields to his hands, aging whatever he touches, yet after three days without food he instinctively deactivated the fields long enough to eat a meal, keeping it from rotting and turning to dust. He also instinctively applies a stagnation field over his clothes, which as far as I can tell are time-locked and cannot be harmed by anything. Additionally, according to Elisha, his big sister Lara had to bring down some kind of barrier that surrounded her for him to physically touch her. Its subconscious so far, but proof that they can on some level control their abilities."

"Good work. These two will do just nicely. Fast track them to division Kr, I will be handling them personally." Lex said with a sinister grin.

Gulping audibly, Dr. Isaac responded "Of course Director."

"Tell me something Simon. Were their powers activated by Sage, like all the others we have acquired?" Lex asked.

"Yes, they were. He was too late to save their families, and they were on the brink of being taken by Parademons when he teleported them to safety, inadvertently activating their unique powers. He was careless, just like with the others." Dr. Isaac confirmed.

"That fool is the gift that just keeps on giving." Lex said with chuckle to himself. "You've done well Isaac, but we need more. We need an army in order to be ready for the day that the Justice League reveals their true colors, instead of this pretense of being benevolent gods. I find anybody who would willingly team up with that monster from Krypton, suspicious, especially when they appear from out of thin air. My plants in the government tell me that a false identity was created for Sage recently, but they were unable to gain access to his civilian identity before Cyborg locked them out."

"And you are sure that Cyborg can't get in here somehow." Dr. Isaac asked warily, at the mention of the mechanical god safeguarding all the Justice League's secrets and keeping an eye on the digital world for any sign of a threat.

Snorting Lex replied. "There is a reason for all the extreme security measures in place, around this facility. Security measures that I designed myself, I might add. Nothing from outside with a computer chip is allowed to approach this place, and likewise, nothing with a chip from inside is allowed to leave. Additionally, we are miles underground and the secret entrance is at a Lexcorp facility in a different city where you are required hand in your cellphone and every chipped device that Cyborg might be able to track. That entrance is heavily guarded and there are no digital records taken. The guards themselves were selected because they have eidetic memories, good observation skills and are utterly loyal to me. There is also a small analogue micro-nuke that can be easily be activated by any one of the guards in the event that some intruder comes across the entrance, to bury it and all evidence.

"Furthermore, this facility is shield by a massive Faraday cage that is always active, then above us is a massive natural deposit of lead to shield us from the Superman's X-ray vision. The hills on the surface emit fluctuating Electromagnetic fields that interfere with all radio waves and most of the EM spectrum, rendering satellite surveillance and any other form of scanning you can care to mention useless, also making this area a naturally occurring communication deadzone. Core staff like yourself live here 24/7, constantly guarded by a private army I bought several years ago composed of mercenaries whose identities I erased. We have some of the best chefs in the world on our payroll and you don't even need the internet for anything down here, because I downloaded the entire internet minus all but a mere 5 percent of the porn on it to a local database of my own design in order to keep you all entertained. We grow our own food, produce our own power, and create our own technology, which we then discretely leak the old prototypes to U.S government through Lexcorp in order to keep them the dominant military power in the world. Me and Mercy are really the only people who come and go frequently from this facility, and I have ways to make sure no one is tracking us. If the world above us died for any reason, then everyone down here would survive as a colony to repopulate. This facility is even equipped with the terraforming technology necessary to fix the planet, if it was suddenly rendered lifeless for some reason, and all that doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all the security measures in place." Lex finished.

"I see your point." Dr. Isaac had seen the list of defensive and precautionary measures that Lex had set up to keep Cadmus hidden from the world and more importantly, the Justice League. It was impressive to say the least, and extreme in many cases, even by his loose standards. However, he also trusted Lex Luthor to know what he was doing, considering the man regularly picked fights with Superman of all people and walked away unscathed.

"Still, there is nothing wrong with over-engineering, I'll say. We could always make more improvements to my designs." Lex said with a shrug before walking off as he threw back over his shoulder. "But that can come later, for now I want to see this Aeon and Spatial for myself."

VvV

A bar, somewhere outside Silver city, New Mexico...

"Another." A 'uniquely' beautiful woman said with a happy smile, lightly thumping her empty beer mug for the bartender to refill it with hard whiskey. She had pale, grayish skin, long luscious black hair, a figure that would put supermodels to shame and red eyes that glowed in low light. Yet despite her clearly inhuman feature, dressed in black form fitting jeans, cowboy boots, a navy blue tank top, a feminine black leather western jacket and navy blue Stetson, she looked absolutely stunning to the locals.

So much so that several members of a biker gang that frequented that particular bar, were eyeing her up and down and had been doing so since she entered the joint hours ago and began her drinking spree. Eventually, fed up of waiting for her to show signs of actually getting drunk, one of the bikers, a big bear of a man with a thick beard, bald head and muscular tattoo filled arms walked up to the strange woman and said. "Hey baby, why don't you come along with me, and good old Harry will show you good time."

Grail, for that was this woman's name simply rose an index finger in the air, in the universal sign of "wait of a moment", even as she guzzled down half a liter of whiskey from her refilled mug in one go, without even so much as flinching. Harry who looked shocked for a moment, looked back at his friends who gave him a thumbs up in encouragement before he looked back at the woman, particularly at her ass. Between her tight jeans and the bar stool she was seated on, doing absolute wonders for it, Harry couldn't help himself, he took a swing at the woman's ass...or at least tried to.

Grail merely switched her beer mug from her right hand to her left hand in the blink of an eye, and without even pausing as she continued to drink, meanwhile her right hand came down to casually block Harry's attempt to swat her ass. Smacking his arm aside as if it was nothing, which to her it was, she retaliated by chopping him in the throat which cut off his air supply. Harry was still reaching up to grab his throat in pain and shock as he struggled to breathe, only for Grail to form a fist, which she used to back-fist him in the balls...lightly, for her. Harry's eyes widened in agony as a scream failed to tear itself from his collapsed throat, manifesting instead as some kind of strangled choke.

He doubled over clutching at his balls, while Grail grabbed the back of his head and helped him along, slamming his face into the bar counter, knocking him out cold. Harry was unconscious before he even hit the floor, while Grail tipped the last of her whiskey down her throat before slamming her cup on the counter and demanding. "Another." The whole thing had happened in under two seconds flat.

The bartender looked at her in shock, then looked at poor Harry who was unconscious on the floor with a nasty gash on his head, and then at his dozen or so friends in the back who were still trying to process what the hell had just happened, before he said. "Look lady I don't want trouble, and you've brought trouble into my bar." He finished with a nod to the biker gang who still hadn't moved from where they were standing, but where now clearly beginning to react and grow angry, as some of them were clutching at their belts where they had concealed weapons.

Grail looked behind her, and raised an eyebrow in amusement, then dismissively looked back the Bartender as she said. "Get me your strongest liquor." She then pulled out a solid 24 karat gold bar and dropped it on the bar counter.

"That's-" He began in shock, but was cut off.

"Payment for the drinks I've already drunk, the one you are about to give me and any damages incurred in the next five minutes. I think that bottle of Everclear Firewhiskey will do." She said, before leaning forward and whispering. "It would be a shame if you had to shut down your establishment because of me."

With a wink, Grail reached past the bartender and grabbed the bottle in question before the bartender could protest, and then turned around to face the biker gang who had gotten over their shock and surrounded her while she wasn't looking. Popping the liquor bottle open and taking a large gulp, she waited to see what the mortals would try against her. One of the braver biker gang members walked up to her and said. "Hey missus, I know Harry can be an asshole but he didn't deserve watcha did ta him."

Still blatantly guzzling down alcohol, Grail looked back at Harry's unconscious body who was bleeding quite a lot from the gash on his forehead, and then back to the man who had spoken. Bringing down the bottle she had been drinking from this whole time, Grail merely shrugged and said. "I don't like being touched by strangers, and if you know what's good for you, you will drag your friend away, take him to a hospital and act like this never happened. I'm in a particularly good mood today boys, my tyrant of father just got his teeth kicked in by a rather cute blonde boy. I wouldn't advise any of you trying to ruin that mood, for your own sakes, that is."

"I don't know what yer talking about ya crazy bitch, but Harry's our friend, ain't nobody gets ta treat him this way." Another brave member of the gang said pulling out Bowie hunting knife threateningly as he stepped towards her, while the rest followed, closing in on her.

Grail ignored them like the insects they were, nothing they had could even hurt her and luckily for them she didn't feel like killing anybody today. Instead of worry, Grail took one last long draw from the bottle of Everclear, nearly emptying it, before belching loudly and saying. "Oh Hades, this one wasn't bad. I almost felt buzzed this time." With that her red eyes took on a brighter glow and her smile turned from beatific to sinister, as she finally gave the gang her full attention.

Before any of the men could even react to her, she swiped her hand around her, splashing the liquor into the eyes of the men surrounding her. Screams erupted from everyone who got even the tiniest amount of Everclear in their eyes, while a few managed to cover themselves protectively.

Grail shot forward in a blur and shoulder checked the nearest of the unaffected bikers, sending him tumbling through a table and into the wooden wall on the far side of the room. Dodging a punch from another biker, Grail lightly thumped him in the shoulder, dislocated it, before pulling him into haymaker thrown by another man, knocking the one with a dislocated shoulder out. With a soft and casual kick to her last attacker's balls, in order to not utterly destroy his pelvis, the man doubled over in agony where Grail put him out of his misery with a gentle elbowed to the side of his head, allowing for him to collapsed bonelessly to the floor.

She had taken her sweet time with this, whatever it was...fight was not the term that came to mind, nor was any other word that implied that this was in anyway a conflict. Grail had shown incredible restraint against the mortals, and none of them would ever know how close they were to death that day. If she had wanted to, she could've physically ripped out the hearts of every single person in the bar before anyone could even blink

By then everyone in the bar who was not involved in this altercation had already fled outside, and everyone who was involved, was either blind and screaming in pain, knocked unconscious or the bartender, who was busy dialing 911 behind the bar-counter. Grail looked at the bartender in amusement before shaking her head, human mortals were as pathetic as ever. She quickly riffled through each and every one of the Biker's pockets for keys to their rides outside, knocking out anyone who resisted with a finger flick.

Ten minutes later, Grail was cruising down the interstate high way in a black and red custom Harley-Davidson V-Rod at top speed. Her Stenson was blown clean off her head, allowing her hair to whip around in the wind freely, as she cruised away at 200 miles an hour. Grail hadn't had this much fun in over a 1000 years, and she was determined to thank the man who had made this all possible, as well find out everything she could about the Justice League of this universe, particularly about the one called Sage. He now had her attention and only fates knew if that was a blessing or a curse.

TBC...

Okay, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Sorry for all the talking, honestly I prefer writing action scenes, but I have been watching the entirety of Naruto Shippuden to get a bit of a feel for Naruto and then extrapolating from that how I believe a longer war would've changed him. Movies and anime are fun right up until you actually begin studying them to write a more accurate story, then they begin to suck. Anyway, next chapter will continue to wrap up a few loose ends, as well set up a few new things including the beginning of the next arc, not sure who will be the main antagonist though, I got a few people in mind. I will also hopefully show a bit about Naruto's settling into his life as a Superhero.

As for me, like I said earlier, I am back. I don't currently have a job (Thanks to this damn virus), my university closed down, and I am stuck very far away from home. Also the internet prices, tripled for some reason, still I will try and get things out as fast as possible now that I got some time on my hands.

Also, I created a page last year, mostly to prevented some guy who was plagiarizing my work and posting it on other sites, pretending to be me and asking people for money, from opening up a account with my user name, ScarletAeisir058(I am very attached to it). Anyway, check me out on p a treon (slash) ScarletAesir058, if you feel you are willing to help support me, right now more than ever I could really use your help, (because I am in a foreign country and all the borders are close) but I will do my best deliver content to you regardless. However, it's not something critical, I am safe and have a roof over my head so only donate what you feel comfortable giving. It will also really help me expand into writing crossovers with other franchises, because a big chunk of my time writing each chapter is used up researching stuff online in order to make everything seem as realistic as possible. Anyway, thank you once again for your time and support. And please please please, leave a review. They really help me as a writer, to improve my skills and get a feel for what you my audience like.

Till next time, Scarlet Out!