Alright, this is my first ever DC crossover. You may find that part of it is taken from the now deleted Jinchuuriki Mercs. Well, I thought that part was kinda good, so I brought it over to this story. Please let me know what you think of it!

–

Most stories begin with a birth, the raising of said child, the path to adulthood, and the accomplishments the child makes in its adult life. This story, however, is a little different. Sure, Bane had a very interesting birth, a birth more interesting than any birth I've ever known about, but... what is more interesting than anything... is Bane's creation. The Solid Stone Prison of Iwa is the toughest, most brutal prison known to man. When he was no more than four years old, the boy, claimed to be the son of the late Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, was kidnapped by Iwa ninja, and brought to Solid Stone to sit a life sentence in place of his father.

A female prisoner was sent there as well, to guard him, to make sure that Bane was to grow up to see that his life sentence wasn't too short. They were kept in protective care in the prison's infirmary. I was there, assigned to Dr. Miyamoto, consigned to Solid Stone for thirty years. Call me Zombie. It's the name given to me there.

I watched the boy grow over the years, even as I watched his guardian waste away. Dr. Miyamoto saw nothing. I could see her dying a little each day. Hope is a living thing. It must be nurtured.

But the boy was still a boy. He grew, he thrived. He knew no other place. He learned every hidden corner of Solid Stone. Every secret. It was there that he learned life. And at far too tender an age, he learned of other things.

By the boy's sixth year, his guardian had given up all life. I alone tended to her in those last days. She was a farm girl, who could not survive being hidden from the sun, and so far from Kami.

The boy would not allow himself a tear. He had become as hard as this place. His guardian was weak. For that, she died. She was denied a funeral. Her corpse was thrown from a cliff, the boy watching, to be food for the sharks that gathered there. And the boy was to be thrown to the animals within the walls...

"Your guardian has left you quite alone, little one," said Warden Tekken as a young, six-year old boy stood in front of his desk in the lush office. The boy was wearing tattered pants and the standard light brown prison shirt, and his hair was yellow and spiky. "She has left you without a single guardian but the state, understand? But the state is no one's mother. You cannot expect the same treatment. You must fend for yourself, little one. I am releasing you from protective custody and into general population. That is all."

The warden had a cruel smirk on his face when he said this, glaring down at the boy, who flinched.

Only a child, and set down among the beasts of Solid Stone. I was restricted to the infirmary block and could not watch over him.

"Boy, what has brought you here?" came a voice through the bars, from the neighboring cell as the boy sat in his bed, hugging his teddy bear close to him. "You look frightened. And so much alone."

The boy looked to his left, to see a very large, bald man with a nose ring that had a chain attached to it, and went to his left ear, where another gold ring was.

"Come closer, boy. Do not fear me. I will protect you from the others. In this place, you must have friends," the man said. When the boy didn't answer, the man gave a very cruel grin, nodding. "Alright, then. We will become good friends tomorrow."

The first night among the beasts was a hundred years long... Even so, its end came much too soon...

The boy gulped as he stepped out of his cell, and immediately found someone behind him, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders.

"We will become friends today, eh? You would like to work for me, would you not, boy?"

Before the boy could answer, another voice came from the shadows of another cell.

"The boy does not want your filthy hands on him, pig," the man said, a hulking, hairy, muscle-bound man, who looked like he could snap the boy's spine in half without so much as breaking a sweat.

"What business is it of yours, eh?" the fat man asked, spinning around to look at the new man.

"Everything on this block is my business."

The boy's fear grew. This second man was even more fearsome than the first.

His name was Goken, and he had killed more than twenty men inside Solid Stone Prison.

"Release him!"

"He's mine! One so small as this can slip beneath the notice of the guards. He will be useful to me."

"I said..." the new man said, and in a flash, he had cocked his fist back and slugged the fat man on the mouth, knocking him off his feet. The fat man his the ground with a thump. "...release him..."

The fat man got to his feet, but stumbled as he did. He stumbled into the boy, knocking him over the railing. The cells were three floors up, and the fall was a long one. The boy smashed his skull against the hard stone floor, blood immediately pooling around him as he lay motionless on the ground.

The boy died that day. And the man was created.

The boy slowly opened his eyes, to find himself surrounded by darkness. Getting to his feet, he looked around, and saw a few feet away from him his teddy bear, standing on two feet and slowly walking away from him.

"Teddy?" the boy asked as he ran after the teddy bear. "Where are you going, Teddy?" Suddenly, a bright light appeared in front of him, blinding him and making him shield his eyes. "Light... It hurts... Is someone there?"

"ONLY YOURSELF!" a voice boomed. The boy lowered his hand, and saw before him a powerhouse of a man, heavily muscled, even more so than the man who had punched the fat man.

"Only myself?" the boy asked, blinking, then pointed up at the man. "But you are here!"

"We are one," the man said, pointing at the boy. "I am as you will be many years from now."

"You are me?" the boy asked in shock.

"What you will become," the man said with a proud smile. "A physical and mental paragon. The living embodiment of human superiority. The blood of kings runs in you! The blood of your father! The world is yours, and will be yours one day. Men will be like cattle before you. Like sheep. For only a few may rule the many, and you are one of a rare breed. Only one danger stands in the way of your mastering the world."

"What is that?" the boy asked.

"Fear," the man said and pointed into the distance behind the boy. "The fear that lies at the heart. Only this can keep you from what is yours." The boy saw something over there, a shadowy outline of some massive beast, with nine long tails swirling behind it. "Conquer the fear in your heart, and you may have anything that you desire. You will be second to no man... and master of all."

"No..." the boy whispered as the beast moved closer, opening its massive maw and lunging at him.

"NOOO!" the boy cried as his eyes shot open, and he found himself in a bed in the infirmary, a bandage around his head, with that skinny, short haired man known as Zombie standing next to his bed.

He returned to the world from his coma thirty-one days after his fall. He returned no longer a child...

"Are you sleeping?" the fat man, lying in his bed in his cell, groggily opened his eyes, to see the boy standing in the doorway.

"Huh? Boy? I thought you had died..."

"The boy is dead, pig," the boy said, and something very sharp was glinting in his hand. The fat man felt very vulnerable all of a sudden, and sweat broke out on his brow. "But I am here. Do you still want me to work for you?"

"N-No... Don't..."

It was a simple thing to follow the trail of blood... And so he was named...

"It was the boy!" the warden cried as two guards charged into the boy's cell, eyes wide as the boy sat on his cot, covered in blood. "By Kami, he has turned feral! I will not have such abominations in my prison! He is a bane to all that is holy!"

"The weapon, boss," one of the guards said as the other shackled the boy with shackles that were much too big for him. The guard had found it under the boy's mattrass. "It is covered in blood, as the boy is."

"Throw him in the Hole. The chains will fit snug before he sees the light of the sun again!" the warden said, and the boy gave him a terrifying grin.

"I spoke to my guardian last night, warden," the boy said, chuckling menacingly. "She says they stoke a special fire for you..."

"THROW HIM IN THE HOLE!" the warden yelled. "He will have hair on his chest before I release him!"

The words had shaken the warden... And many heard them...

The Hole was dug out fifty years ago. Those sent there were told to pray for deliverance. The only deliverance found there was madness or death... and the boy would surrender to neither. And he would not surrender to the fear. He would become fear.

He stared into the darkness of that pit and became a part of it. And he purged fear from his heart. And he survived. The cell was below the level of the sea at high tide. And each night the ocean would flood it. And each night, he would fight for his life.

Hatred gave him the strength to hold on. Hatred and the promise of the man he would become. He learned to welcome the nightly visits of the sea. It allowed him to mark the days. It brought him food. It brought him life.

And in all those days, he heard no voice but his own. Welded into a five-by-ten foot cell. His entire world was the length of three short paces. They could not confine his mind. In his mind, he traveled beyond his tomb. He traveled outside those walls using meditation techniques all his own. He had no words for these techniques. They grew from utter desolation and crushing boredom.

He roamed worlds undreamed of. Space and time were playthings to him. And in each place, he sought out the fox-thing that roamed in his heart. And there he stood before it, stood in its shadow and defied it... and finally killed it... Fear died in him.

One day, he received a note via messenger bird. The note depicted a bird, and underneath the drawing was the word 'BIRD.' The word meant nothing to him. He had not yet learned to read.

More than four thousand days Bane was down in that pit. More than ten years of waiting. He embarrassed the warden by refusing to die. He was released in the hope that someone would seek revenge for Pig's murder. But the warden did not realize what Bane had become to the lost and the damned of Solid Stone. He had become a legend.

And many wanted his favor, and many wanted to serve him. One was the former Kumo ninja named Tori. They made a deal. Tori would teach him, and Bane would help Tori break out.

Bane became a model prisoner... a tame animal. The warden allowed him to work in the library. There were thousands of books there. And the books brought the world to him. Tori taught him how to read. Soon, he was reading three books a day. There was power in knowing things. When he had consumed all of the prison library, he sought more.

Where others had drugs and tobacco and sweets smuggled in, Bane used his network to bring him books. Hundreds of books on every subject matter. And as he improved his mind, he improved his body. A thousand push-ups each day, a thousand sit-ups, a thousand pull-ups, and instead of sleep, he meditated four hours each night. And each day of the year brought him closer to the image of perfection in his mind.

His reign over the lost and forgotten of Solid Stone did not go unchallenged. Many coveted his position and power. But they had only brutality and greed to give them strength. Bane drew his power from the very rock of this place. No one would take that from him.

One day, for reasons unknown to me, Bane seemed to snap. For some reason, he started raising hell in the mess hall, and started killing his fellow inmates. The warden was more than satisfied to see the inmates annihilate one another. But when Bane's body count reached more than thirty men, it became a serious matter. They brought him down like an animal. They removed him to isolation. He was there only a few days when I saw the strangers in the infirmary.

Zombie watched as three doctors were working on an inmate, who was strapped down to an operating table, writhing in pain. Behind two of the doctors, in front of the head doctor, the warden stood, looking over the writhing inmate, who suddenly stopped moving.

"This is the fifth inmate who has died from these injections," the warden said coldly. "What is the object of these experiments?"

"A new nerve toxin? The formula for a super soldier? Some military application, I'm certain," the head doctor said. "What is your concern? Afraid that you'll run out of prisoners?" The doctor chuckled and looked down at the prisoner, the shook his head and turned away from the corpse, and now, Zombie could see the doctor's eyes. They were a strange yellow, with slitted pupils... Something about that man thoroughly intimidated Zombie. "Dead," the head doctor said, shaking his head. "The cretin's heart exploded. I'll need another subject immediately. Can you get me a strong one this time, warden? One that will last more than three days?"

"I have just such a man in isolation at the moment," the warden said with a chuckle.

I could not get to Bane to warn him. What could he have done in any case? Th lab building was new, built by Iwa to house this experiment. They had already killed five men with their drugs. I watched them carefully as they subjected him to different chemical variations on a single formula. They called it Venom.

His body rebelled against the series of injections... rebelled and triumphed. So easy to obtain a sample of the drug while Bane provided a distraction.

The experimenters were pleased at his progress. When he survived the drugs, the surgery began. Implants were placed inside his skull. They could administer the drug directly into his brain now. The other subjects had died long before this. He knew that this was the last step on the way to becoming the perfect self.

I would have to be able to replicate this Venom so that Bane could transcend to his ultimate form. I had done this many time in designing narcotics for my former employers. But never had I seen any combination so complex. Complex, but easily copied. A super steroid derived from a drug codenamed Venom. It also contained elements that would stimulate the adrenal glands. Another ingredient targeted the Corpus Callosum segment of the brain. This drug would ultimately fuse the right and left hemispheres of the brain.

Bane was most pleased. He whispered his plan to me as he lay in his bed, tubes in his nose and the back of his head.

It was simplicity itself. He only had to die. He willed his vital signs below the place where their machines could find them. And so he followed his guardian. Out to the cliff. For the first time since he was four years old, he would be leaving Solid Stone. In the belly of a shark.

They had not killed him. They had only made him stronger. He was a free man for the first time since he was four. And yet he returned to Solid Stone. He returned from the dead, returned from freedom. He returned for us. And our loyalty to him grew even stronger.

The world was his.

Even the elements conspired with him. The fools in the prison gave in to our demands to save their precious warden. Even if we had died that night, it was still a victory.

Bane dropped the warden down a cliff, along with his old teddy bear, so that the warden wouldn't have died alone. Heh...

Months passed as we moved to Konoha. Tori used his connections to secure us false identities. With the help of Goken's talents for the electronics and my knowledge of pharmaceuticals, we created a device for Bane.

Bane grew restless as we worked. His system was dependent on the modified Venom formula now...

We fitted the headpiece. We attached the feed ports. And we gave him a way to supply himself with the Venom at will.

Bane, once known as Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto, a name long forgotten, stood in the old apartment that he, Tori, Goken, and Zombie were hiding out in. He wore a pair of heavy combat boots, baggy, black cargo pants, a black tank top, black, fingerless gloves that went up to mid-forearm, and a black mask that had something of a white skull pattern painted on the front, with red, reflective lenses for the eyes. Attached to the back of his head were four tubes, which connected to a box at the base of his neck. From there, a tube went down to his forearm, where the control device for the Venom supplier was fitted. Bane clutched his fist.

"I am complete!"

–

"So, what do we do now?" Tori asked as he sat in the window of their apartment, a bird resting on his knee, chirping happily. Bane stood in the center of the living room, his massive arms crossed over his muscled chest.

"Konoha treated me worse than Solid Stone could ever have done," Bane spoke slowly. "It will burn for that. However, for now, I need to refine the Venom formula. Although powerful, it is incredibly flawed. Isn't that right, Zombie?"

"That's right," Zombie said, nodding. "It's a very complex formula, but it is, as you said, very flawed. I am sure we could refine it and get even more power out of it."

"But for that, we will need the creator's notes, and I know just where to get them."

"Oi, oi, oi," Tori said, his eyes widening as he got off the windowsill, standing up. "Don't tell me we're going back to Rock Country!"

"Of course not. The man who created the Venom formula lives elsewhere, in the newly created Otogakure, from what I have gathered, in Rice Field Country."

"His name?" Goken asked from the couch in the living room, lounging on it lazily.

"Orochimaru."

And so, Bane and his group found themselves leaving Fire Country for Rice Field Country, where they were to search for Otogakure.

"How about this place?" Tori asked, stopping in a place called Post Town, in front of a club as he stared at the sign in front of him. On the sign was a blond woman, laying on her stomach with her eye closed in a wink. "Club Lie-Down? Sounds like my kind of club!"

"We are not here to enjoy ourselves," Bane said coldly. "But this could be a good place to get some information. Just don't spend all our money."

"I could use a drink," Goken said, nodding as the four of them headed inside.

–Inside Club Lie-Down–

"This place was a lot better than I would have imagined," Zombie said as he sat on a couch with his companions. Tori had a cute little brunette in his lap, grinning widely.

"Looks can be deceiving," Bane said simply, then looked to the cute brunette, Momiji. "Do you know anything about Otogakure?"

"Otogakure? Why do you want to know about that village? It's vile," Momiji said, looking a bit intimidated by Bane's appearance.

"We just thought we might check the place out, though we don't know where it is."

"W-Well, I'm sorry, but I don't know more than you do..."

"Did I hear you right? Are you looking for information on Otogakure?" said a woman, walking up to him. She had long, curly, blond hair and was wearing a long, purple dress which showed a nice amount of her cleavage and had a slit on her side, showing off one of her sexy long legs.

"Yeah."

"My name is Ririsu, and I have a friend who knows a lot about Otogakure. If you want, I can introduce you to him."

"Really?" Bane asked with a raised eyebrow, although no one could see it, getting a nod from Ririsu, who started walking towards the exit.

"Yes. Are you and your friends coming?"she asked as Bane got up.

"I'm coming. My friends stay here. They could use a break."

Ririsu looked a little weary, but nodded nonetheless as she led Bane outside. They walked around the corner of Club Lie-Down until they got to an alley. Ririsu stopped at the entrance of it.

"His house is at the end of this alley," she said and pointed at something that couldn't really be called a house. It looked more like a rundown shack.

"Are you coming with me?" Bane asked curiously, getting a negative response from Ririsu.

"No. I have to go back to work," she said and Bane nodded.

As soon as he'd gotten to the middle of the alley, wooden planks suddenly blocked his way in both ends of it.

"As expected," he mused.

"Well, look what we have here. A trapped rat," A man called out.

Bane looked up to see about thirty bandits, all equipped with bows and arrows. Standing on top of the alleyway arch was a man wearing a white and purple sleeveless haori with brown pants and shirt and a large sword strapped to his back while being surrounded by two bandits on both sides.

"Are you sure this man's got money, Ririsu?" the leader asked as he turned to the blond woman who walked up to stand next to him with a smirk on her face.

"I'm sure. I saw his money with my own two eyes. I'm going to try to lure his other friends out later," she said while Bane just stared at her in amusement.

"Saying things like that... I'm beginning to think that you lied to me."

"Shut up!" the leader shouted and looked at his fellow bandits. "Finish him!"

"Yes, boss!" the bandits exclaimed in unison as they pulled back their bows, the arrowheads gleaming dangerously.

"Hey, asshole! This is what happens when you let the wrong head do the thinking!"

"No, I thought with the right head," Bane said thoughtfully. "I sensed a lie coming from her, but I also sensed that she was telling me the truth about Otogakure. By the way, I don't think that you're using your own head to think. I mean, attacking me was probably the worst thing you could have done, you fools."

"That's it! Kill him!" the leader ordered, making Bane chuckle as he closed his muscles tensed. The bandits let their arrows fly towards Bane who burst into motion, moving at a speed that seemed impossible for a man his size, dodging each and every arrow with ease.

"Nice try," Bane said calmly, staring up at the leader. "But that's not gonna work against me."

"You bastard!" the leader growled.

"In all seriousness, do you know anything about Otogakure or not?"

"Why would you want to know something like that? Are you a ninja?"

"Something like that," Bane lied.

"Interesting! Well even though we're thieves now, we are also known as the Fuuma clan of Rice Field Country. In return for your life and your money, we can let you join us," the leader said, making Bane snicker.

"You guys are ninjas?" he asked with a grin hidden behind his mask. "Don't make me laugh! What's your name?"

"I'm Fuuma Hanzaki, leader of the Fuuma clan here in Post town!" the leader said, puffing out his chest in pride.

"Leader, huh? Fine then, Hanzaki-san. I challenge you for your place as head. Do you accept?" Bane asked, his hand resting on the dial on the back of his hand, which controlled his Venom injection.

"My place as head?" Hanzaki asked, his eyes wide, just like everyone around him. "Are you serious?"

"What's wrong? Afraid you might lose?"

"I'm gonna make you regret that. I accept!" Hanzaki shouted as he took the sword off his back. Bane just scoffed.

"Come at me any way you like."

Hanzaki growled and jumped down towards Bane, his zanbatou raised above his head.

"Fuuma Ninken: Zanbatou (Fuuma Ninja Sword: Slicing Blade)!" he shouted as he attempted to cut Bane, who raised his hands, and caught the blade between his palms. He then lashed out with a kick, knocking Hanzaki back and forcing him to let go of the sword.

Bane threw the sword to the side and turned the Venom dial, pumping the drug directly into his brain. His muscles contracted, veins started popping all over his arms, and his muscles started growing to twice the size they had been before. Bane charged forward and punched the leader of the Fuuma clan into the ground. He pulled the man to his feet, and delivered a beating that he made sure that Hanzaki would never, ever, forget.

When Hanzaki was beaten black and blue, Bane grabbed the man's collar and cocked his fist back. Even more veins popped in his arm as his muscles tightened, and he threw his punch.

The force of the punch was so great that it actually sent Hanzaki flying through the planks that were blocking the exit, leaving a Hanzaki shaped hole in them.

"You bastard!" one of the bandits on the archway shouted as he jumped down. "How dare you attack our leader?"

"He accepted my challenge and lost. I am your leader now," Bane said simply. The other bandit on the archway growled as he too jumped down.

"We'll never accept you as our leader! We're gonna make you pay for this!"

"Wait!" came Hanzaki's voice from the hole in the planks. He crawled inside and painfully stood up.

"Oh? You're still conscious? I guess I underestimated you," Bane said simply as he clenched his fists, his knuckles popping. "Do you still wanna fight?"

Hanzaki stood there for a few seconds, before falling to his knees and bowing.

"I sincerely apologize to you, boss! I've never felt such a powerful attack before! Can you please tell us the name of our new leader?"

"That's right, I forgot to introduce myself..." Bane said and turned the dial on the back of his hand, his muscles slowly shrinking down to their normal size. "I... am Bane," he said, making Hanzaki go bone white. He immediately turned to his companions.

"You all better bow down and beg for your lives! This guy is menace of Solid Stone! You'll all be killed otherwise!"

Hearing the name Solid Stone, everyone went wide eyed as they all fell to their knees.

"We humbly apologize for our rudeness, boss! We didn't know who you were! Please forgive us!" Hanzaki pleaded.

"Please forgive us!" the other members of the Fuuma clan pleaded in unison. They heard snickering coming from the entrance of the alley. They all turned to see Tori leaning against the hole in the planks.

"Well, well, well. We leave you alone for a few minutes and you manage to get yourself a whole clan," he said with a smirk plastered on his face.

"It's good that Hanzaki-san knew when to give up," came Goken's voice from above. "I'm too full to enjoy a good fight right now. I might've gone cranky."

"You're always cranky, and there's no way you could ever get full," Zombie said calmly, standing on the opposite side of the alley.

Bane crossed his arms as he stared down at Hanzaki.

"Now, how about we go back inside? We can talk more in there."

–

So, what do you think? The updates may be very slow, but I have no intention of abandoning this story!