Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto nor Marvel. You should know this by now.

Well, it's been a while, it's been a long time coming, but it's finally here. And I hope you enjoy it, my friends. The first chapter of No Limits is finally yours for the reading.

Before I let you get into it, there are a few recommendations and notes that you should read beforehand. I really suggest you do, so that you don't end up asking me questions that are easily answered here. :P

1) This first chapter may not have 'Ooomph' or 'Boom' or whatever but it is a first chapter, an introductory one. Its main purpose is to make a summary of what has happened during the time skip between the end of No Reading and this first chapter and to give you many, new, nice plot hooks for you to get caught onto.

2) As you will see, with Naruto's new work, the focus is now mainly on the series Avengers: The Initiative. I always thought that series had many nice ideas going for it. Shame it didn't survive the continuity events. Well, at least some of its characters did even if not my favourite ones.

3) This story will be longer than No Reading, having to encompass many other events and most importantly a completely original arc that will be the climax of the whole thing. Can't tell you anything more because it will be hinted all over the place. Let's suffice it will begin with Layla's prediction coming true. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go re-read No Reading's Christmas Special.

4) For those asking about Naruto's 'nerfed' skill set compared to what's actually going on in the manga, I raise, rinse and repeat this: the Naruto that appeared on Earth-616 in this story comes from a precise point in the manga, as in when they meet Orochimaru at the bridge, when Sai is first introduced. So, yeah. Naruto missed on a lot of the ninja training in the manga... For now.

5) You're oh so late. This chapter has been posted up on my blog since Christmas. :P

6) Finally, with each chapter I will give you a little list of material you should read if you want to deepen your knowledge of the events happening in this story. In this first chapter, I suggest: as always, New X-Men; Avengers: The Initiative, the first 12 numbers and the Annual; Uncanny X-Men, the Breakworld Arc (which builds up over the course of the previous ones, so, Uncanny X-Men, really); and finally Civil War and No Reading itself. Cool? Cool.

That said, I invite you to sit tight, grab some Dew, and enjoy yourself as you lay eyes on the first chapter of No Limits. Also, Happy New Year, everyone!

I don't know how to call this. A Prologue?

"Hello, coming through, sorry about your toe-Hellooooooooo, nuuuuurse-walking on your feet, my ass in your face... TOUCH-DOOOOOOOOOOWN!"

"Ahhhhhh! Wade, the beverages!" In the process of getting on his knees and throwing an arm up in the air, the pile of drinks he was holding with that arm went flying and twirling in the air, much to the cringing of everyone around him because according to Murphy's Law they were going to land...

"Have no fear, Hellion is here." Thankfully, one of the advantages in having a telekinetic friend was that things rarely touched the ground if they weren't supposed to. Naruto sighed in relief as the black-haired boy also distributed them, much to his appreciation.

"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't sent him to pick up twenty drinks on his own, you know." Cessily admonished the blonde ninja who just grinned sheepishly.

"What can I say... He wanted to be useful." The comment earned a groan of exasperation from a fellow blond person.

"Useful. Whenever Deadpool decides he wants to be useful, you know something's gonna go wrong." Laurie held the bridge of her nose, sighing. "I still don't understand why he keeps following us around, by the way."

"Because nothing increases sales like Deadpool. I'm the next Spider-Man, dude." Everyone slowly turned in his direction and stared at him. He just stared back at Naruto. "No, seriously. I've been appearing in more material in the last three years than in my whole life, my sales are high and I've been appearing in other media too. Movies, my own movie... DAMN YOU, GREEN LANTERN! Video-games..."

"... I've been getting more popular too." Laura finally talked after finishing polishing her claws from the popcorn's oil. Deadpool laughed and hugged her around the shoulders.

"That's right! Our half a Wolverine here, has appeared in THE Marvel VS Capcom 3 and has gotten her own series! Attagirl!" She grunted and just pushed him away, blushing because of the compliment, while the mercenary returned his attention to Naruto, rubbing his head with his right set of knuckles. "Quite the tsundere you got yourself, boyo. Even if I still got the most awesome theme in the game."

"Yeah, whatever..." Naruto allowed Wade to do so until it started to hurt and then smiled. "I'm happy too... That you've both been getting more popular..." He then frowned as the lights went off. "Thought, I'd like to know why this thing took so much to come out."

"Well, you know how it is... Other than writing something completely non profit, there's other things to life. Finals, for example. Lots of finals. And his degree." Layla slurped on her drink as commercials started to appear on the screen. "Now he's done with that... And so it leaves him with free time."

"... Real life, huh?" Naruto sucked on his own straw and stared at the screen. "... Man, that sounds awful."

"You have no idea. But then again, without real life, we wouldn't have ninjas, superheroes, anti-villains, and the works." Deadpool slurped up his own drink and then raised it to the sky. "Here's to Lee, Kirby, Dikto and everyone else."

"Amen to that. Oh, shut up. It's beginning." Naruto commanded, as the two girls on his sides let their heads lean on his shoulders. It was time for ass to be kicked again.

-Movie Start-

No Limits

Chapter 1: The Troubled Teacher

"... I hate the taste of blood." He spat out a good mouthful as he slowly got back on his feet, moving away the rubble and debris that had covered him after his harsh landing. He cleaned the leftover on his lips with the back of his hand. "I also hate... All this. Destruction. And the senseless fighting... And the slaughter. All those deaths..." He gritted his teeth as he remembered the lifeless corpses, those haunted eyes asking 'why'. He gripped his hands so tightly that he drew blood because of his fingernails. "How can you keep do all that? How can you stand there and keep on laughing knowing you're the cause of all this? Tell me!"

"But, Naruto, it is so simple if you think about it." His opponent jumped down from his perched position so that they were now at the same eye-level. In the moonlight, he could see that if he hadn't come out of the last exchange unscathed, he wasn't the only one. His enemy didn't seem to be concerned about it, though. "No matter what brain-shrinking nincompoops tell otherwise, you aren't born like this. Uncaring, unforgiving, utterly insensitive to all suffering and misery. Why, that's quite the curriculum, right?"

The chuckle was the thing that got on the blonde shinobi's nerves worse than anything else. It was at the same time so familiar and so terribly alien, twisted. He hated it. "If you aren't born this way, that means that I had to learn. And boy, did I have one great teacher. Are you wondering who that is? Well, the answer is..." And those crazed eyes that he saw every time the subject became something like that. "Life! My teacher was life!"

And if the chuckle was twisted, the cackle was unnerving. It shook him to his very core. How could have it happened? "All the deaths, the overwhelming odds, the cruelty and tragedies, repeated over and over and over in front of my eyes to the point of nausea... It didn't do me much good, did it? My point is... I went crazy! When I saw what a black, awful joke the world was, I went crazy as a coot! I admit it!" Then there was that thing with the head turned to the side of 90 degrees. "Now, imagine seeing that more than once... And you have me!"

"... Alan Moore is a genius." Naruto observed before narrowing his eyes. "So, you decided to just go along with the flow? 'All the cool kids are doing it'? Is that it?"

"Oh, don't believe I didn't try to fight it at first, Naruto-kun. I so did. I sweated and bled for what I believed was right." The chuckle was back, although the tone was a bit less grating this time. "But no matter what I did or how hard I tried, people and things I cherished kept on slipping from my grasp. In the end I just didn't see the reason to do it any more... And then I tried being on the other side." The chuckle became a hard, high pitched laugh. "You wouldn't believe how easier things are on this side!"

"... Things are easier." He connected the dots. He understood and pity lessened the rage a bit. Also, Naruto understood at that very moment that words wouldn't do him any good, this time. He lowered his stance. "Talking's over."

"Aaaah, how I longed to have you speak those words! Let's go, Naruto-kun!" He prepared for the opponent to come at him. "Entertain me so more!" And as he waited, his mind drifted back to the period when everything started spiralling out of control...

-A few months earlier...-

"Hmm... So late, so late..." Sitting in one place wasn't very hard not an unwelcome activity for someone of such weight and volume, but waiting for people was one thing that he didn't like one bit. Wasting time while he could be doing other things while still being immobile elsewhere. "Tardiness... I so hate tardiness."

"What's surprising is that you're waiting and you haven't ordered for anyone to charcoal his ass." His ever flippant insane assistant commented, checking the dirt under her fingers with one of her swords.

"Ahhh, sometimes I wish I could give that order... But then I think about what it would imply. Losing my most prized collaborator, one of my biggest stars... The cut in profits and audience would be terrible, just terrible." Mojo said with a sigh, before something came to his mind. "Then again, maybe I could babyfy him for a while..."

"Not if you like your neck where it is, butterball." The person they were waiting for chose right that moment to enter the room, dirt marred boots leaving a trail of footprints on the otherwise white floor. Spiral noticed that it wasn't mud, though. As the person sat in a levitating chair in front of Mojo and raised his feet to eye level it became even more evident, as the colour ruby red was pretty evident on the soles. "Sorry if I was late, but I wanted to inspect the place. Changed a lot since the last time I was here, and then I got into... Huh?"

That was when Spiral's presence became apparent to the individual, causing a wicked grin to take life. "Why, she's new too, I see."

"Oh, yes. Spiral is quite new. I take you approve?" The person nodded, smiling maliciously and Spiral just stared back.

"Oh, quite. You know that I absolutely love aliens and freakshows with extra limbs..." The smile turned into a positively carnivorous grin. "I like to rip them off one by one, the sound they make in the process is so funny... Cute. Squish, rip, and the screams are just the good icing... Then again some spoil the fun with a high pain tolerance, though they compensate with being able to regrow them. Those are the best ones!"

"... Damn, I like this one." Spiral positively shuddered and met the individual's gaze with an equally crazed one of her own as she leaned forward. She had read about the person and just what Mojo's collaboration entailed, but the real thing was something else. "What do you say we explore all the different ways we can remove limbs together later, hon?"

"What is it, my birthday?" The laughter that filled the room, courtesy of both the other occupants, made Mojo ask himself how the hell he always ended up surrounded by crazy as nuts people, before realizing that he had a hand or two in it. "Ok, let's cut the crap, the fun is for later. It's business we have to talk about." The gaze of the guest remained crazed, but there was also anticipation and eagerness, now. "Where."

"Ohhh, easy there, boy. Easy. You won't believe that I would just tell you right off the start? We've done this many times, you know the usual procedure..." Mojo remained unaffected by the vicious glare, but the brief outburst of killing intent that filled the room shook him a bit. He knew though that he had the upper hand. "You and your pals have something to do for me, first."

"... Damn you and your damn shows." The person spat on the ground before returning the stare to Mojo. "Fine, out with it."

"I was thinking of something like... Hear me! Planetary Massacre! A multi-episodic feature of you and your group slowly exterminating all life from a planet!" Mojo mimicked the headlines with his hands. "It will feature gore! Action! Romance! Maybe some rape scenes!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just write everything up and contact me when it's time to begin." The figure got back in a standing position and suddenly grabbed Spiral by one of her arms, starting to drag her away and out of the room. "Come, Kalì rip off. I have some frustration to relent, and you seem more than up to the task."

"Heeee... I hope you're the one up to losing a limb or two, sugar..." Mojo grunted, raising his head upward.

"Heh, actors. Ever so arrogant and hurried, I couldn't even tell that I already had the script with me... Though, it's fine like this." After all, the moment he disclosed the location of the next target, his favourite world where to find entertainment and most of the times unwilling actors would disappear. It was best to stall that from happening as long as possible. It still was a profit.

-Break-

"Freaking... Damn it!" He hated it. He hated every single minute of this. He kind of had guessed that it would have been hard work. Especially when the guy with the giant robotic arm had started talk like the gunnery sergeant from Full Metal Jacket. He had always laughed whenever he had seen that part of the movie, but now he had newfound pity for private Pyle.

But nothing had ever prepared Roger for something like this.

"Sonuva...!" Another trap that he narrowly avoided, using his powers to create a energy field around the intended target: his head. But as he found right after as he heard another noise and looked right in front and above him... "You gotta be kidding-Ouff!" It was just a feint for another rudimentary but not less deadly trap: a giant log swinging at him. He managed to create a ruby red whole-body force field just in time to protect himself but he was still knocked off his feet and landed on his back.

"Hgh..." He held his head, disoriented by the force of the impact. "When the hell did he build something like this?"

"Built it beforehand. Just plain old playing dirty, really." That voice sent his whole body in alarm. He dove forward, dodging a punch that impacted the ground and left knuckle prints after shattering a big root.

"Are instructors even allowed to play dirty?" Roger asked, covering his head in ruby energy and deflecting the jab directed at his midsection, his arm still going numb, though.

"Your timing is getting better. And for your question..." His opponent pulled back bleeding knuckles, little tongues of steam saying that they were already healing, before throwing a straight to his chin which again the cadet parried but whose shock he couldn't fully absorb. A little disoriented, he stumbled back. "You won't find any samurai to fight against if you want to do this."

"Point taken... Huck!" He couldn't put up a defence quick enough against the kick to his midsection. He flew back and hit the trunk, falling to his knees, the wind knocked out of him.

"That ends the training session, Hardball." He found himself staring at mud stained training boots and then raised his head to find an offered hand. "You've been the last to get caught out of your group. Congratulations. Three hours and..." The hand went back up for a second to check for time of a wristwatch. "Seventeen minutes is an excellent time... I think."

"You think?" Hardball groaned, accepting the offered hand and standing back up. When he kicked his ass, he was certain that he was taking lessons by someone with more experience and knowledge than him: a true instructor. When he made them go through those hellish training sessions, he was certain that he was completely crazy. Not as much as his friend, but hey, life had just begun. But when he stopped doing anything that didn't include dealing bodily harm to him...

"Hey, what can I say." He flashed him that stupid grin and he was reminded that the guy's age wasn't that different from his own. "I've only been doing this for three months, you know. I'm as much a student as I am a teacher."

"And yet you kick our ass daily..." Hardball sighed, smiling as he thought of what Cloud 9 and the others must have gone through. "Well, better you than..." That's when a shrill scream filled the air.

"Aaaand I think the other group finished their exercise as well. That was Cloud 9." The blonde, his hair having grown considerably in those last months, brought the wristwatch he had recently observed to his mouth and pressed a button on it. "Wade, how did it go?"

"Good, I must say! These guys are getting better! Lizard Girl actually tried to rip off my arm! Isn't she the sweetest little thing?" He could hear a few obscenities being shouted in the background. "And now she's threatened my family jewels if I didn't free her from the trap! We'll make a fine mercenary out of her yet!"

"Yeah... That's not what we're here for, Wade." Raising his head, he brushed a few too long locks out of his eyes, observing a place pass by. "We're here to make them into heroes. Superheroes."

-Break-

Location: Camp Hammond, Initiative HQ. Stamford, Connecticut

"Welcome back, freaks! Have you had fun? Of course you had! Well, vacation's now over!"

"Didn't we just put them through a whole morning of forced marching and then put them through survival training?"

"Shhh, don't interrupt the man!" Naruto had the privilege of first meeting the man called 'The Gauntlet' and only after that learning what the expression 'running the gauntlet' meant. That made him appreciate the irony of what he put through all the students everyday more than most people.

For Wade it was even more than that. It was like being live in the middle of Full Metal Jacket and he loved it. Kept his mind somewhat occupied. Injuries for people hadn't been that sever and had reached a media of three a week.

In Wade's record, that was... A record.

That also meant though that most of the times it was Komodo who got it. Being the only one able to regrow limbs and all. "Let us see what our junior instructors recorded for your performance! Record: Hardball and Komodo! Three hours and counting! A nice score, ladies, but that doesn't get you less push-ups! And..." The Gauntlet slowly went through the scores and understood that he had come to a certain, particular performance. "MVP! WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? FIFTEEN MINUTES?"

"I have no excuses, sir. That was a terrible performance." The muscular teen stood perfectly still, arms crossed behind his back, chest out, looking right in front of him.

"Boy, you're one of our top cadets! Something like this is not acceptable by flunk outs, by you? This is a disaster!" The dark-skinned soldier walked till he was right in the face of MVP, shouting. The teen didn't flinch or react in the slightest. "Give me one good reason that this happened! And another one for not giving you punishment!"

"I was careless and got distracted. I have no excus-"

"Wait!" A voice broke the exchange between trainer and trainee. The one had spoken up was probably the less impressive looking of the bunch of Initiative Cadets, a girl going by the name of Cloud 9. "That was my fault! He got taken out so early because he took a shot for me! I should have dropped out early! I should be the one getting punished!"

"While Cloud 9 may have been the one to make an error, I was the one who decided to take the shot for her. She has no faults in that." The Gauntlet stared at the two, Cloud 9 as overexcited as MVP was cool and collected, mentally sighing. Damn teenagers.

"Care to tell me why you decided to take the shot for her, MVP?"

"The purpose of the exercise was to stay 'alive' for as long as possible in a hostile environment while being hunted by junior instructors Militia and Deadpool. I elaborated that it also was 'as a group' hidden in the sentence." MVP started, his pose not faltering in the slightest. "While I may have survived more than what the others did on my own..."

"Show-off." Hardball muttered under his breath, which earned him a glare from Cloud 9.

"I thought that Cloud 9's abilities would have allowed a longer survival of the group as a whole. That's why I took the shot." Saying those words, though, MVP had to resist the itch to scratch the spot on his back where the paintball had exploded, red paint splattered all over the back of his t-shirt.

"Hmm... Pool?"

"Can't say I don't agree with him. The girl's seriously saved everyone in their group's bacon a few times with that cloudy stuff. Also..." Everyone could see the lecherous grin on Wade's face and Komodo shaking with anger. "It had other uses."

"Sir! Permission to attack junior instructor Deadpool!" The lizard-looking superhuman asked out loud earning snickers from most of the audience.

"Denied." The soldier groaned. Any hope of having any intimidating effect on them was now gone. For once it was probably better this way, though. He didn't feel it in himself to fault the boy for that. The decision wasn't probably completely for the team's sake but it had been just a case. The kid was growing. "... Whatever. I'll just let it go." MVP breathed out in relief as did Cloud 9 at that declaration. "But that means extra suicides for the whole team!"

"OH, COME ON!" Rage cried out in... Exasperation. Naruto enjoyed a round of laughter under his breath at his-would it be wrong to call them students? It still felt weird to him.

When Iron Man and Captain America had blackmailed him into becoming an employee at Camp Hammond he worried mostly about just how he could do that kind of job. What could he teach someone his own age or even older in the course of an year? Ninja Arts took years to learn and he wasn't that knowledgeable about them to begin with. The techniques he knew he could count on one, maybe two hands, and a couple he didn't feel comfortable trying to teach.

He had asked for Wade to be at his side because, for all the craziness and mayhem that Deadpool brought with him, having him around helped him. Then he met the Gauntlet. He saw through him immediately. No teaching experience at all but, according to the man, with lots to teach.

He shared with him the trick to teaching people even in short periods. Compared to some boot camps an year was like a whole geological era. They couldn't possibly try to prepare them beforehand for every single possible situation or problem they may encounter. Not when they were supposed to teach them to be superheroes, a job that had you do things that ranged from saving kitties to trying to contain walking bombs. What they had to give them were the basics upon which to build and improvise.

Of course, they could always just end up being suitable for just a license and not for one of the Initiative's super-teams. That would not put them in any real danger, unless they decided to be selfless on the way home.

That had put his mind at ease and had helped him get accustomed to his new job and wasn't it a blessing. He loved being a teacher. He loved being responsible for the growth and preparation of other people. He loved having to always keep watch on them. He loved it because it left him so damn occupied that he had no time to think of many other things. And any free time he had left, there was Wade.

"-nshine! Oi!" Whose annoying voice had just broken his daydreaming. He shook his head from side to side and focused on his friend while he could see the cadets had started walking away. "The Gauntlet commanded shower and then dinner for everyone. Wanna follow some orders for a change?"

"Hmm..." He brought his arm to his nose, sniffing. He made a face. "Yeah, that would be for the best."

"And stop spacing out on me, will you?" Wade smelled even worse, Naruto noticed as he found the man's arm around his shoulders. His traps usually involved foreign substance, only two thirds of them comestible. "That's so unlike you. They will be able to tell almost immediately that something changed in the time skip."

"Any good suggestions for dealing with mixed feelings and guilt, then?" Naruto groaned. It was so unlike him, yeah, because he had never had to deal with such things in the first place. Helplessness, yes. Fear, anger? Indeed. But guilt? And whatever else he was feeling every time he thought back of the conversation he had had with Professor Strange? Unfamiliar was an euphemism and for all the figures he had come to respect and learn he still didn't feel like there was anyone he could confide into, have a pep talk with.

Except Cap. Everyone would confide into him, no doubt. The small problem was that he was now the living receptacle of the Initiative Secret ID Database and one of the two spearheads of the whole thing, which left him quite unavailable due to how busy he was. And he couldn't move from Stamford except for once a month, for a weekend.

Which brought him back to another problem. He always had two places to be but a weekend of leave a month only left him with enough time to visit one, his teleporter having been confiscated in the aftermath of the whole 'fight both sides of the Civil War at the same time' thing. That really sucked and left him even more troubled than before. Especially with the things that had transpired recently. Things which he hadn't been there for. Things he should have been there for. The most he had come close to was being part of the ineffective cavalry.

"... Shower. Dinner. Sleep." That was his program for the rest of the evening. It would help take his mind off everything else. He hoped. "... God damnit, I really hope I'm not turning emo."

-Break-

"... This is too difficult. Damn it!"

"Come on, Cess. It's a report and we got to turn it in. Also..." Nori didn't find this any more difficult than other reports they had had to turn in but she could see that Cess had troubles writing anything down. "I think your problem is more about getting some focus than the difficulty."

"... You're right." Mercury sighed and moved a hand through her hair, pulling them back. "Sorry. I just have a lot on my mind."

"... We all do." What had transpired in the last months hadn't been exactly the ideal start of a new year of school. Not that being a mutant teen was anything normal but the New X-Men had just had a taste of just how messed up the world of their adult counterparts was.

They had heard stories and tales of just what the X-Men had gone through time and again. Travelling in space, to other dimensions, turned into babies. Well, the trip to Limbo topped most of it. What Belasco had done to them, to... To Colossus' sister... The aftermath hadn't been pretty. She may have made maybe one of the worse decisions of her life and acted on it like a bitch but she couldn't bear the thought of it. Of David having something like that done to him again... And in the end, what she did had been useless. David didn't leave and on top of that he had changed.

And she probably had confused the hell out of Julian as well. "I'm sorry, Nori." Cess broke her from those depressing thoughts, an apologetic expression on her face. "I made you distracted as well, now."

"... It's nothing. Have to get over it anyway." Nori sighed and bit on her pencil. Time to focus on studying instead of thinking about ex-boyfriends and dead teachers... "You called Naruto, right? How did it go?"

"Laurie did. And... Not well."

-Break-

"He sounded miserable, didn't he?"

"Yes... He did." Laurie commented through a swollen lip before getting back on her feet in a flash and launching herself at Laura once again. X-23 stepped back and dodged the right hook, doing the same with the left one and the palm strike, the last one by a hair's breath. She was getting better. "I think being away from us is making him like that. Especially after what happened in the last months."

"He feels responsible because he couldn't be here." She grabbed onto Laurie's arm and turned around, trying to throw her over her shoulders. She did. Laurie though grabbed onto the offending arm and didn't let go, landing on her feet in front of her. "I didn't teach you that."

"No, you didn't." With a grin the blond girl raised one of her legs and managed to land a solid hit on Laura's chin, disorienting her for a bit. She let go of her arm and stood back up in a flash, following with a punch to the gut and a hook to the face. Laura stumbled back. "Why does the guy feel like he has to carry the world on his shoulders?"

"... Good job." Laura complimented Laurie as she wiped the blood off her own swollen lip, even if it was already healing. "You should have kept on attacking, though." She dashed to Laurie who held up her 'good' hand and blocked Laura's punch, gripping it tightly right after.

"Wanted to practice some defence." Laurie smirked and released the hand, stepping back and motioning to Laura to come at her in a very Neo-esque way. The clone allowed herself a little smile and acquiesced. The blonde amputee had started getting good in hand to hand fighting. Six months of her intensive training would do that, she guessed. Although...

"I guess I will be serious in your training, from now on." Laurie blinked as the punch approached without her being able to put up a defence.

-Break-

"You hadn't been... Serious... Before?"

"No." Laura declared as she retreated her hand from Laurie's throat, who breathed in deeply and coughed.

"You broke my nose three times and six other bones! Cough!" Laurie declared as she struggled to get her breath back.

"Had I been always serious, I would have injured you worse." Laura declared like it was an everyday thing. Laurie frowned and pouted cutely. "... Was I too... Indelicate?"

"Not really. It's just... I thought I was getting better."

"You are. It's not you, it's me." Laura answered, shaking her head and then smiling while shrugging her shoulders. "You're getting good but I'm just that damn awesome."

"... That's the Naruto in you talking." Laurie declared, snorting in an unladylike manner and laughing as she got up. "Hmm, I miss having him around..."

"I do too." Saying that, Laura raised her hand to finger the necklace that she still wore around her neck. She had tried to give it back to him the day before he left for his new 'assignment' since she could tell it was a very precious possession of his and he wouldn't be able to come back easily but in the end she had been persuaded to keep it. That she had been particularly subdued that evening helped his cause.

"... You're thinking of that night, didn't you?" Laurie smirked evilly as she saw Laura flush, even if for a few seconds. The blonde mutant stood and stretched, regretting it as soon she felt something go 'crack'. "Ow. I'm hurt."

"... How much did Cessily tell you?" Laurie grinned weakly and put a finger to her mouth, cutely.

"Well... Enough to know that you're the alpha and that you're very open to experimentation." The cloned mutant blushed again and crossed her arms, walking out of the room. "Hey, I think it's cute that you want to keep both your friends and your blonde hunk of alien meat."

"Shut up..."

-Break-

"Huff... Huuuuff..." Naruto breathed in and out, deeply, his posture hunched over as he heaved, large beads of sweat falling on the ground, pale moonlight his only companion. He raised an arm and rubbed some of the sweat away with the back of his forearm. "Not complete... Not yet..."

He allowed himself to seat on the ground. Since he didn't get tired easily, he guessed he deserved some rest. He observed the landscape in front of him. When he had asked if there was some place where he wouldn't have had to worry about collateral damage, War Machine had asked him to demonstrate. He did.

He was shown to the Negative Zone portal right after.

Like his old teleporter, he could use it to get only to certain zones. They had opened a portal heading right in the middle of the Sahara Desert just for him. The good thing about sand was that it couldn't be destroyed. Easily. It would just fly and then settle down again after a while.

"Geez... The Fourth was either a genius or a madman." Don't you mean 'dad'? "... No." He told himself as he sighed, narrowing his eyes at the ground. "Father, at most."

Sufficiently to say, the talk with Strange hadn't had a completely happy outcome. The Sorcerer Supreme had come to tell him about his parents as a gift and while he had never been one to return gifts or look back and recriminate... On one hand, he now knew he had parents. Cool parents. His dad was the freaking Yondaime Hokage, the greatest hero in the history of Konoha and possibly the strongest ninja who ever lived. His mother was the last Kunoichi of an once great village from who he had taken his family name. That part was great. He had great parents.

No, he had to correct himself. He didn't know if he had great parents. What he knew for certain was that his parents were great people but he wasn't so sure about the other way around. Fact stood that his dad had decided to seal the Kyuubi in his newborn son. And his mother was the previous vessel.

"... Couldn't have told me exactly what had happened that night, could you, doc?" Naruto groaned. Strange had told him every detail he had asked about his parents but he was adamant about keeping silent about what had transpired the night he was born. Something about not wanting to disrespect a dying man's last wishes.

So, Naruto on one hand had a strong reason to dislike his father for sealing the Kyuubi inside him and putting a fail-safe in the seal that left him stranded on another planet. There was also the fact that his mom, being the previous vessel... Jinchuuriki die upon extraction, right? He shook his head. That was really not something he could see happening and a very disturbing thing to think of his father. Returning to the fourth, he did it to save his village and being stranded on Earth hadn't been that bad. He had made friends, fought battles, did things. He liked it there. Also, Strange had, to excuse himself from being secretive about something he wanted, revealed to him something that had put his heart at ease.

Orochimaru was dead.

Killed by the same Sasuke for whose safety he was worried about. It was the best news he had received in a long while. With Orochimaru dead, the time limit that had caused him such anxiety was gone and with him out of the picture, Konoha was safe from Akatsuki. All was well and he could take it easy and spend his 'sentence' without having to worry about yet another matter.

Like the guilt of not having been there for his friends. He had taken it easy when they had told him that he would only be able to leave once a month. He didn't think it through. He didn't foresee that he would have to choose between going to New York to see Layla and Wetchester to see Cess and the others. He didn't foresee that he couldn't not be there in case something bad happened. He hadn't been there for them twice.

First the New X-Men's little trip to Limbo. When he heard of it, he thought it had something to do with Futurama or at least dancing. Then they explained to him what Limbo meant in the biblical term and what it really was in reality. Also how he couldn't do nothing for them since people didn't know how to get there in the first place. The outcome had been disastrous. While the group had got two new members and Santo had discovered new details about his powers, David had almost died. Laura really did die. He felt sick just thinking about that. Noriko had done something which prompted David to... Change. That was the right word, he guessed. In a few words, the group's ties had been severely strained.

Then came the bullet thing. The 'Breakworld' incident, they had called it. Well, he couldn't think of anything better to call a situation where an alien race wanted to shoot a planet-sized bullet at Earth. If on one hand, Armor had managed to make the jump bypassing the New X-Men directly to senior X-Man, for one gained they had also lost another. One of the good ones. Kitty Pride. She had saved the world but was now damned to travel in space forever. Again, the X-Men had faced everything on their own and the other heroes had been ineffective, late reinforcements.

That included him. Damn mind-control. He had been dreaming of incinerating the bullet with a moon sized Imari when Doctor Strange and Spider-Man had managed to break him and the others out of it. And then it had been much too late.

The event had done wonders for the popularity of the Initiative and of the X-Men, though. Kitty Pride had been publicly put up as an example for all heroes to follow by Captain America himself. Of course, there were those who didn't agree. Xenophobe idiots. He thought he had seen it bad during the incident with Stryker.

So, to sum it all up: he didn't know how to feel about his parents (mostly his dad), he felt guilty about not being able to help his friends in two occasions when they would have needed him, he felt alone because he couldn't meet said friends often enough to talk, confide, get some comfort. Deadpool was great to be around but trying to get some advice on emotional issues from him was like trying to get water from a well using a bucket full of holes and a faulty rope. It could be done but it wasn't easy nor pretty.

"... Better go back to Stamford." A good shower to get all the sand and sweat off and then it was time to hit the sack.

-Break-

"Goodnight, sir."

"Yeah, night." Good thing that he didn't have to wake up as soon as the Gauntlet, or it would be hell. The Kyuubi didn't heal tiredness. Speaking of which... I suppose I have mastered shape. Now... One of the things that bothered him the most of this 'being on another planet' stuff was that he had no teacher to help him along with his Ninja training. He had to rely on the unlocked memories of his time at the academy and under Kakashi and Jiraiya only.

He supposed his next step in his training would be to try and perfect the... Nature manipulation. They had kind of explained that at the academy and Kakashi sensei had talked about it again when he stubbornly had declared that he wanted to learn Chidori. "Now, though... How the hell do I discover what kind-Huh."

And here he thought he would be the only one still up at that hour. The figure jumping, running and flipping all over the training course told him otherwise. And of all his cadets, the only one workaholic enough to do such a thing was... "Hey, MVP. I think the Gauntlet left already!"

As he raised his voice to let himself be heard, he noticed the cadet's head turn into his direction but for an instant before focusing back on the track ahead of him. In a few seconds, he was done and he ran up to the blonde Shinobi. "Militia, sir."

"MVP... Stop with the sir, alright?" Naruto rolled his eyes. As always, Micheal was too respectful. If at first he had been the perfect athlete, he now was on the way to become the perfect soldier. That bothered him, honestly. "Honestly, it feels strange hearing it from people older than me, figures from people around my same age. The Gauntlet is asleep, right now."

"... I suppose." Micheal visibly relaxed. He could see it in his posture.

"Good. Now, what are you doing here at this ungodly hour?" Naruto asked, arms crossed. Micheal raised an eyebrow in reply, while a bit of sand decided for that moment to unstuck itself from his hair and fall. "... I guess the same thing I was doing, but I'm justified by the fact that this is the only time where I don't have to look after you snotty brats, yar. What excuse do you have?" He retorted, playful.

"... I felt I needed some more training." The boy answered everything and nothing at the same time.

"Does this have to do with what happened during training today? That you 'sacrificed' yourself to save Cloud 9?" He rolled his eyes. "The rules were tweaked a bit but I assure you the wound wouldn't have been fatal in a real battle."

"Still, it wasn't good enough. If it had been Captain America, he would have managed to save Ab-Cloud 9 and get away with it unscathed." There he went again. He sure chose one hell of a comparison for himself. Not that he could help it, he guessed, if his grandfather really was the one who created the Super Soldier Serum. Dr Erskine, right?

Unlike Steve Rogers, though, Michael had had nothing injected in his veins. During his research into the SSS, the good doctor had found another way for people to achieve human bodily perfection like Steve: a special diet and training regiment. It was discarded by the government because it required the subject to be trained up from the toddler phase while they were smack in the middle of World War II. So, injections it was.

Erskine then bit it and with him disappeared the formula of the SSS but not the archived, discarded, process that the doctor's son, Michael's father, had decided to apply to his own son. The results were undeniable although when the thing came out in the light, the poor boy lost all his trophies and his scholarship even if everything was sweat, blood and vegetables. That's when Justice, another one of the instructors, showed up at his house and recruited him.

"Yeah, mostly because he would have been wearing a shield on his back. Hmm... Justice had told me that you were quite reluctant to accept, seeing how public opinion recently hasn't been really favourable with us." Still wasn't. There were people happy to not see Cap and Iron-Man at each other's throat but no one had forgotten that it had happened. Some were still scared and judgemental of super-humans, others were of course thinking of the 'world conquering sups' theory with them now being independent and all. Even with the recent boost thanks to the Breakworld Crisis, the road to getting things back to golden was long and steep. "And now that you accepted you want to do your best. You aim for nothing less than perfection, right?"

"... Yes." The brown-haired teen admitted, scratching the back of his head. "Is that bad?"

"No, but you want to reach that too soon. I just think that expecting too much from yourself too soon can hurt your development." Naruto commented, scratching some sand off his chin and thinking how strange it was for him to give that kind of advice to someone else. Uzumaki Naruto, mister 'no sleep to master Rasengan'. "I mean... There are no short-cuts for anything in life, you got to work hard but also everything takes its time and everything has to be done in moderation. I bet that training regiment from your grandfather also includes precise amounts of rest, right?"

"... It does." Michael admitted, sighing. Indeed, maybe he had been expecting too much from himself too soon. Naruto nodded, satisfied from his expression. He had gotten it.

"Let's both go back, then." Naruto started walking in the direction of the barracks, MVP falling in step right behind him. "Also, if you only focus on that you're going to miss out on everything good in life."

"Like, for example?"

"For example, Cloud 9 has only eyes for you. If I were Deadpool, right now, I'd be presenting you my freshly gouged eyeballs to emphasize." MVP cringed at the mental image while blushing at the same time, which caused him to fuse the two thoughts and end up seeing Abigail gouging her eyes out in his mind which caused him to feel sick. "Well, not really but, you get the idea. So?"

"Hgh... So what?" Reigning in his dinner, he managed to give a coherent reply that was also an answer.

"So, how did that happen? I can see you giving her some appreciating looks as well. Evolved from being buddies because of having escaped death together thanks to yours truly?" He saw MVP's face took a turn for the sour for just a second. 'Whoops. Way to be an indelicate asshole, Naruto.' "Ehm, sorry to remind you of that. It's just... Well, I'm curious. Sorry again."

"It's alright." Being reminded of how you had narrowly avoided death on the very first day of your boot camp wasn't exactly the best thing in the world, after all. "By the way, how's Armory?"

"She always comes back utterly destroyed from her private training sessions. As for the other things..." Naruto thought about it for a few seconds, also noticing how MVP had dodged the question. He owed him that much for the indelicate comment from before. "Well, she's getting better. And she's grateful as always."

"... I always wondered, why did she look so desperate, so upset?" This time it was Michael who touched a bad subject even if he didn't know that.

"That's something I know but that I cannot talk about, I'm sorry. If you want to know, ask Violet." Naruto passed a hand through his hair, sighing gravely. "But I doubt she'll tell you anything."

-Break-

Third week of the Initiative Program

"Aaah! Nothing's better than a shower after... Huh." As he walked back to his room, he found light coming from inside, the door not completely closed. And that meant... He sighed. Good thing he already was in his pyjamas or it would be even more awkward. He opened the door. Right as money, there she was. "... Violet."

"Hey." She answered meekly, which was yet another confirmation that she had had another incident. Like the fact that she was sitting on his bed, hugging her legs to her chest wasn't proof enough. He almost wished that for a change she had come in his room to try and seduce him. That would have been something he would known how to handle, but this? He didn't know how to manage his own emotions, figure this. "Sorry."

"It's okay. It's just..." Naruto scratched the top of his head as he closed the door behind him and sat on his bed as well, beside her. "I know I already told you this, but when you have these incidents, wouldn't it be better to talk to... Well, an adult? You're older than me, damn it..."

"And I already told you that I don't want to see a shrink." Violet used the palm of her right hand to rub one of her eyes. "Not at night as well."

"... So you come to me for what, closure? Smart comebacks? Snark? Silky blonde hair?" She observed him and then smiled, leaning with her head on his right shoulder.

"If you really have to know, 'guardian'... You distract me." And then it hit him. How did he end up responsible for her actions, again? Ah, right...

-Break-

First Day of the Initiative Program

"Oh, god... OH, MY GOD!"

"Yeah, I know... It's gross." When the first bunch of cadets had arrived in Stamford, he had been mistaken for a cadet as well by Hardball. Ultragirl corrected him with 'You haven't been watching television, lately' and he reacted with 'What the hell? What kind of stuff can he do that I can't?'.

Useless stuff, probably. "But hey, beats being dead... To be honest, I didn't know he could survive something like this." He really didn't and he bet it still hurt like a son of a bitch.

"It's all in good fun, don't worry. Ah, there goes a kidney..." Also, good thing the shot had missed him and hit Wade. But just how the hell did that violet ray penetrate a five-tails Kyuubi cloak like it was butter? He hoped that the skin closed up soon enough. Regenerating internal organs are not a sight to be looking forward to. And that was when Wade gulped and almost chocked as phlegm and blood raised up his throat, now completely reconstructed. He spat out a large amount with a rasped cough, the viscous mix hitting the floor. He then wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. "Sorry..."

"... Are you both alright?" He turned to the two students they had shielded before he got sick as well.

"... Yes. Thanks, sir." MVP replied while he tried to sooth off Cloud 9, who went from paralysed with terror to 'can't help but stare at entrails'. And good thing Komodo could regenerate body parts.

"Everyone calm down! It's all over!" And the ones responsible of the whole thing had been 'neutralized' by the Gauntlet. The tall girl who seemed to be in a similar situation to the senior instructor and the black-haired one who had turned into a giant spider.

"... This isn't going to end well."

-Break-

"... Depower her." First day. First day and he was already faced with something this unpleasant. Weren't things supposed to be better? "That's your great answer. It was an accident!"

"She gravely injured one of the other cadets and almost killed two others. Hell, had it been anyone else she would have killed someone." Yellowjacket, Pym, declared. "She's not stable. Psychologically, I mean. What happened today shows it."

"Ah, it wasn't that bad." Wilson got a 'not the moment, Wade' glare from him.

"... Okay. I know I'm the youngest, here, but I guess that makes me the voice of truth." He raised his hand as he spoke, though he didn't ask for any permission. "From what you've just said, you knew about her having issues before she came here? Of course you knew. Background checks and all that." He lowered his hand so that he could cross his arms over his chest. "And knowing that, you didn't say anything when they asked a guy whose power is to turn into your greatest fear to use his powers on her?"

"... No." Pym lowered both his hands on the table in front of him. "I didn't."

"Oh, good. At least he's truthful about this. The reason is: why?"

"To prove a point." He shot back.

"To prove a point, he says..." He shot his hands up in disbelief and then landed him on top of the table in front of him. "Are you serious?"

"I needed to show that she couldn't endure the pressure. That's a fatal flaw for someone with that kind of power. She cracked at the first sign-"

"OF HER GREATEST FEAR, DAMN IT!" Naruto actually punched the table in front of him, this time.

"Look, Pym. I understand that after the incident in Stamford the rule is to filter people, put them under pressure but actually doing this on purpose on the very first day is madness indeed." Justice took the hot potato off his hands and maybe it was better that way. He still was a junior instructor and he was sort of out on parole.

"... So what do you suggest?" The Gauntlet leaned on the table, starting to talk again. War Machine wasn't available yet. The final decision would be up to him but better get the discussion between themselves out before that. Saved time.

"Help her work out her issues. Train her to master that object. And thanks to this stunt, this is going to be even harder than before. Did anyone see her eyes when she realized she had screwed up big time? She was about to break down. And you don't want that kind of firepower breaking down." The whole room slowly turned their heads in his direction. Deadpool just shrugged his shoulders. "What? I'm just saying..."

"... He's right. Still, if she really has those kind of issues..." Justice continued, crossing his hands in front of his face. "Her powers are in her weapon, the thing around her arm. We cannot use tech to dampen them. That means that she has to be watched all time until we know we can trust her not to break down on us again."

"She needs a guardian, then." Gauntled added, clarifying the matter.

"And where do we find someone willing to take that risk?" Yellowjacket added. Naruto's forehead twitched.

-Break

"Because I'm an idiot."

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Just trying to make sense of this situation." He sighed. This was really, really awkward. Being responsible for someone. That was the whole reason his home visits had gone from two to one weekend at the time. He guessed it was the price for challenging Yellowjacket's authority. He still was one of the seniors on base. "... Seriously, though. Are you getting better?"

"I'm still afraid of spiders, if that's what you're asking." A frown told her that's not what he asked. She sighed and raised her head. "I wish I could try to make out with you to distract you."

"First, good work on not trying that. I may be younger than you but I'm still your teacher. Second, I've had a threesome with a girl made of live mercury and another who could bend her legs behind her head. On my first time. Wouldn't work." That got him a look of disbelief. "Third, this can't go on like this. I'm putting my ass on the line for you here. I'm supposed to be your Guardian. I offered myself without thinking but I'd better start doing it right. So, I need to know if you're actually getting better. I'm not your lifeline to getting depowered." He dropped it on her to get a reaction. That was assholish, since he knew the prospect terrified her. "I'm supposed to be here to help you through this. Well, here I am."

"... So, what? I'm supposed to just open up to you all of a sudden?" That earned a reaction out of her indeed. She stood up and raised her voice, staring at him from above. "Tell you about my childhood? How come I'm terrified of spiders? What exactly are these 'issues' that asshole Pym was talking about?"

"... Do you want to?" He simply asked.

The staring match continued for a few seconds before Violet slowly relaxed, lowered her head and brought her fists to her sides, the Tactigon's light flashing at regular intervals. "... I got the Tactigon when I jumped off a bridge."

"... Drop one on me, will you?"

-Break-

Present Time

"I can just tell you that she's been sleeping a lot more easily and that she's not been sneaking up in my room any more. Thank god for the last part." Naruto joked, or maybe not. He so didn't need a... Fourth? Fifth? Geez, what had happened when he wasn't looking?

"Hmm, speaking of rooms, here are the barracks." Michael broke the conversation and did a military salute, although very relaxed. It was more force of habit or just a mock one. It was fine to the shinobi. "Good night. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah, you do that." He waved goodnight to the cadet and then turned in the direction of his room, finding it closed and with no one inside it. Good. He still had his problems but at least for now, no trouble seemed to be brewing at the horizon.

-Break-

"She's successfully implanted herself."

"I had no doubts about that. What still worries me is the other issue." He didn't react nor sigh nor move in any other way but he understood what she was referring to. The Violet girl. The one holding the 'Tactigon'. "That alien weapon is a risk."

"A weapon able to adapt itself and find a countermeasure to any situation. Yes, I know." He just nodded. "I put a plan in motion to get rid of it the very first day but... There was an interference."

"Anything I should know about?" He thought about it. The alien kid. It had been a nuisance, first by vouching for her and then becoming her protector. But it could be taken care of, and his powers weren't anything insurmountable. It would maybe require magic but they had that too. They would have it.

"Nothing more dangerous than the others." He replied, confident in his affirmation. "And eventually he will be taken care of. Like everyone else."

"Understood. Keep me adjourned. He loves you."

"He loves you."

-Break-

"Alright, Tony. You can do this. Even without alcoholic courage." Tony breathed in and out. The situation was going even better that he hoped for. The public opinion wasn't that much of a disaster anymore. The road was there, they just needed to walk on it. Of course, there would be some bumps on the way there. This was one of these. "Come on, you can do it. You just have to say to Captain America that you and a few other people have decided to shot the Hulk in outer space. No big deal."

-Break-

"Hey, Cessily..."

"Hmm?" The redhead looked at the stars above, not moving from her position on the grass.

"Remember when... Well, those creatures?" Cess understood that Laurie was talking about her kidnapping. The things they had created by giving them her body as skin. "Remember how you said that you could feel them?"

"... Yes. I do." She replied, finally turning to the side to stare at Laurie. "So?"

"Can you still feel it? You said one had escaped..." Now she understood. She blinked slowly, closing her eyes and then re-opening them.

"... Yes."

-Break-

"Oh, you son of a bitch! What's next? You send us on a mission to protect someone we're not exactly 'fans' of?" Well, now that you mention it, Wade...

To be continued...

In the next chapter...

Naruto and the Initiative are suddenly called to action, to show what they got to the world. There's the small problem though that someone in the group seems all too keen on targeting both foes and friend alike, mainly Violet. What will his decision on this matter be? Stay tuned!