Hello, Luther." a voice said and a black clad man suddenly appeared next to the desk at which Lex Luthor was sitting.
Luthor let out a startled cry and jumped to his feet in panic, his luxurious directorial chair falling over to the floor. Still, it took a few moments for him to recollect himself. He asked:
"Why have you come here, Naruto?"
But then, his eyes fell on the crimson stains on Naruto's black clothes...it was blood. A bad premonition appeared in his mind and his hand quickly went to press the panic button under his desk...only to see his forearm landing on the floor with a thud.
For a brief moment, he didn't understand what happened. But then, his brain finally received the stimuli of pain coming from what was left of his now severed arm! A scream of agony came from his mouth as he desperately clutched with his other hand at the wound.
"We...we had a deal!" Luthor squeezed out through his gasps of pain. "Why are you doing this?!"
Naruto grabbed him in a painful chokehold and laughed mockingly.
"Deal? What deal?"
"You've brought this upon yourself, Luthor. You've tried to blackmail me with my sister. Although only for a few moments, you thought that I would become your lap dog."
Then, as though a sudden thought struck him, he appeared to fall in deep thought.
"You know, actually, I should be grateful to you for letting me know of my sister's survival..."
"Indeed! I told you about-" Luthor began to say despite being choked, his face as servile as that of a beaten dog...only for Naruto's following words to bring him back to despair:
"...I bet you hoped with all your heart that was true. Haha!"
"Don't get me wrong, Luthor. I have no particularly strong desire to kill you. But you are the one that is asking me to kill you. More exactly, your twisted character."
"That's because you're a very wealthy man, Luthor. You have many connections and nowadays, money and connections are a combo that can make nearly everything become possible."
Luthor's face was starting to become violet from the lack of air.
"Do you get my meaning? You see, I am not afraid for my well-being. I doubt I could even be killed at this point...The blood you see on my clothes is not mine but that of Supergirl's clone. I killed her only an 4 hours ago."
Had Luthor not been in a chokehold he would have probably gasped in shock at his words.
"On the other hand, my sister is an ordinary human...she is way too vulnerable."
"Knowing what a despicable schemer you are, I can't trust you not to try to get back at me through her. I am not the kind of man to leave any loose ends. I won't ever do the same mistakes as in my long lost past."
"Are you... going to kill everyone...everyone that you think they might endanger your sister? Just for that?!" Luthor screamed with all of his strength, in desperation.
"Of course. Be it women, children, a nun, a priest or the president himself. It makes no difference to me. I'll kill whoever endangers my family. As simple as that."
Holding Luthor in the air by his neck, Naruto's other hand suddenly stabbed into his stomach and dug in until it reached his spine.
"Farewell Luthor." Naruto said and the businessman's entire body was suddenly skewered by hundreds of spike-like bones, showering the entire room with his blood.
A small breeze blew and Naruto disappeared from the office, leaving behind only a few leaves...and Lex Luthor's mutilated beyond recognition body.
As he shunshined away, Naruto thought:
'Amanda Waller, Danzo and Orochimaru...wash your necks bastards. Death is coming for you very soon too.'
Scene break
A beautiful girl with long red hair, blue eyes and 2 pairs of whisker-like birthmarks on her cheeks was sitting in a wheelchair, next to the fireplace, in the living room of the Monkey King's Dojo in Gotham. She was absent-mindedly staring at the flames, her hands idly petting a small nine-tailed fox that was making some sounds oddly similar to that of cat's purring.
'For two years, I've been in a coma... for 2 years, my brother has not even know that I was alive...Just how much has he suffered during those 2 years?'
The time from 2 years ago was just like a few days ago for Misaki. Because of that, she could see very well the stark differences between the current Naruto and him from 2 years ago. She realized just how big of an impact her apparent death had had on him.
While she was deeply buried in her own thoughts, two callused hands touched her shoulders, starting to gently massaged them.
"How are you, Misaki, are you feeling better?"
"You've asked me this only half an hour ago. Stop mothering me like that!" Misaki said half amused, half exasperated.
Naruto stopped massaging her shoulders and laughed awkwardly.
"Haha, sorry, I can't help it."
Grabbing one of the sofas in the loving room, he easily brought it next to Misaki's chair, in front of the fireplace.
When he took a seat, Misaki bit her lip as though she wanted to say something. Eventually, she managed to get over her embarrassment.
"Ne, onii-chan...can I sit next to you?"
Naruto's face lighted up like a Christmas tree at her words. He stood up and grinning in happiness, he took his sister from the wheelchair in a princess carry.
When he sat down, instead of putting Misaki next to him like she had asked, he placed her in his lap, guiding her feeble body to rest on his chest.
"H-Hey, what-" Misaki weakly tried to protest but her half hearted effort was squashed when he embraced her lovingly to his chest.
Both siblings sighed in bliss. Especially Naruto, he was feeling as though he was living a dream. The reality he was experiencing seemed too good too be true.
"I missed you so much, Misaki..." Naruto said in a whisper. "After you died...I was desperate. Almost mad."
"And I did bad things..."
Naruto paused, debating whether he should continue telling her the truth or not. It was in that moment that the fox that was now resting in Misaki's arms opened its slit red eyes and nodded subtly to Naruto. Kyuubi was letting him know that he thought what he was doing was right.
"You were the only family I had left. You were my everything. You are my everything. I don't know if you know exactly just how much I love you." Naruto said sincerely. "When I thought you died...I was devastated..."
Naruto's words reached the deepest parts of Misaki's heart. In his words she could feel how much emotion was hidden - his pure love for her and his anguish at having lost her.
"...and I wanted revenge...I wanted to destroy everyone that, directly or not, had had a hand in your death."
"I killed the Joker...I tortured him."
Naruto felt his sister's body stiffening at his words. But he steeled his resolve. His sister deserved to know the truth about him. He wanted to be sincere with her. He wanted for her to hear the truth from his mouth instead of finding out about the things he did, by herself, from other, questionable sources.
"In my rage, I killed the entire Arkham Asylum. The imprisoned criminals, the guards, the doctors...even the janitors. They were corrupt people but still...I didn't let anyone escape alive...over 100 people."
Naruto didn't say anything. Outwardly, he was just calmly waiting for Misaki's reply. Inwardly, however, he was dying with anxiety.
After what seemed like an eternity for Naruto, Misaki mumbled:
"It doesn't matter."
Either because he didn't hear her well or because he thought it was just his wishful thinking, he exclaimed:
"E-Ehh?"
"To me it doesn't matter." Misaki said again, louder this time around.
"My entire life, ever since we were young kids, you acted like the big brother. You have always protected me - in a city like Gotham, I had one of the safest lives around. You have always loved me and taken care of me...it is because of you that I could have a normal childhood like other girls of my age instead of being in the dojo...it is because of you that I lived an easy life. You sacrificed so much for my well being...it's thanks to you that I am even alive right now."
"What more could anyone possibly ask from her brother? Even if the entire world will hate you, how could I ever hate you?"
"I will forever be grateful to you. And I will never reject you because we only have each other, Naruto. You're my brother. I will always love you."
A weight was lifted from Naruto's heart. He tightened his arms around his sister and buried his face into her long and silky red hair, for her to not see the tears that had started to fall from his eyes.
Scene break - throwback to 2 days before
A thin and tall man with very long black hair was running through a complicated system of underground tunnels. Despite having a broken arm, he was not feeling any pain; he was running as fast as he could. It looked as if he was being chased. He was Orochimaru.
In fact, his broken arm had been numbed. He could not feel anything from it.
'On my life I swear that whoever was behind this will pay dearly!'
Fury was smouldering in his gut and a terrible rage was boiling under his the blank expression of his face.
'When I finally found a worthwhile reason to live... when I finally got close to the feeling that people call love...they took it all away from me!'
He wanted to scream to the heavens in rage. But he couldn't. He didn't want to help his pursuers in locating his exact whereabouts.
'Is this what they call Karma? ...for all the horrible things I've done in my past life, am I paying for them in this life?'
Orochimaru could only grit his teeth in helpless rage.
'But to think that someone with such a dangerous ability was reincarnated as well...'
Flashback
It was right after the ceiling of the command room collapsed because of Naruto's and Galatea's battle.
Orochimaru was lifting himself up to his feet groggily when a sharp pain came from his broken arm - a pain different than that he was feeling from the injured bone. His eyes fell on the dart that had pierced him with a deadly precision in the vein. He quickly plucked it out and threw it away.
But just as he instinctively turned his head towards the direction from which the dart had been shot, he felt his broken arm becoming completely numb. Paralyzed.
In the next moment, his eyes met another pair of eyes. At the sight of those eyes, he was petrified in disbelief. Realizing the danger, he quickly tried to break the eye-contact, but it was too late...the two tomoes in each of those eyes started to spin and Orochimaru lost any control over his body.
Flashback end
'The Sharingan...!'
'An Uchiha...'
'Itachi? Sasuke? Madara? Shisui? Kagami? Whoever are you, your life won't be enough to pay for what you've done...You made me kill my daughter in all but blood...You made me kill her with my own hands!'
'I'll never forgive you!'
The sound of teeth grinding together was heard over that of his feet stomping the concrete floor. Orochimaru's usually pale face was becoming red, bordering violet. It was not from exhaustion but from rage. The extreme anger he was feeling in that moment, coupled with the ever present feeling of being weak and useless topped in intensity any other emotion he may have felt in both of his lives.
Eventually, he reached a heavy and large metallic door. After placing his hand on the device next to it to attest his identity, the door opened. Orochimaru stepped inside quickly, the door closing behind him with a loud metallic clank.
It was only a few minutes later that a masked man, clad like a ninja, appeared in front of the same door.
"He managed to escape...the mission was only half successful." the man said as he adjusted the large bag that he was carrying om his shoulder. From the size and form of it, it wasn't hard to realize that he was carrying a body.
Scene break - Deep into the mountains of Switzerland
The man that had been chasing Orochimaru was now sitting on one knee, reporting the details of his mission to his superior.
"I have successfully retrieved the clone's body. Unfortunately, the scientist had somehow managed to escape."
"A mere human managed to escape from you?" his superior asked in surprise.
"Yes. As you know, my ability works for as long as my target does not feel any strong stimuli. His arm had gotten broken but I paralyzed it properly. My only guess is that when he went into his lab to treat his wounds, the strong smell of the medicinal alcohol had shaken him awake from the illusion that I had placed on him. It was a mistake on my part. I will accept any punishment you think my actions-."
His superior lifted his arm, making the man stop speaking.
"We will have none of that, Itachi." He said. "The times of the past will not come back. I am not Ra's al Ghul. You are my subordinates, not some expendable tools. And you did well. Although the scientist managed to escape, he is but an ordinary human. Furthermore, he knows nothing of our organisation, let alone our plans. Very few people know anything about the League of Shadows."
"Now come, let's go to the Lazarus Pit."
Itachi followed his master. When they reached their destination, two women were waiting for them close to what looked like a natural pool filled with a green and slightly viscous liquid. Next to them, another woman was laying on a nearby portable bed. Her lack of clothes made it impossible to not notice the alluring perfection of her body. She looked like a Greek goddess, like Aphrodite herself...at least she would have looked like that had it not been for the terrible, fist-sized hole in her stomach.
"May I ask a question?" the one called Itachi said, rather hesitatingly.
"Is it about my grandson?" the other man asked, anticipating his question.
If Itachi was surprised, his blank face gave away nothing. He nodded.
"Yes. For our plans, would it not have been better to include someone of his power in our ranks? At the moment, objectively, he is probably the most powerful metahuman on Earth. He killed this clone with one move...a clone that was stronger than the Man of Steel himself. And he is your grands-"
Itachi's words died in his throat as an ominous feeling washed over him.
"It is precisely because he is my grandson that he will have nothing to do with our plans." the man said, his old-sounding voice thick with killing intent. He was none other than Sarutobi Hiruzen, Naruto's and Misaki's presumed-dead grandfather!
"I have faked my own death...I have killed my public identity - that of Sarutobi Hiruzen - so I could fully dedicate myself to leading the League of Assassins. However, all that, I did it for the very reason of not letting my grandchildren ever get in contact with the shadowy Demon. For them to never even become aware of the League of Shadows' existence."
Itachi nodded in his usual stoic manner.
"Then, why was it necessary to make the scientist kill the clone with his own hands? In her injured state, I could have simply killed them both myself and save us the trouble of having him escape..."
Sarutobi clasped his hands behind his back and turned to look at the Lazarus Pit.
"Although this pit can be seen as a fountain of immortality, it has its downsides as well."
"Lazarus Pit restores the body, regardless of the injuries it suffered and it can even revive the dead and strengthen one's body beyond its original capabilities. All that, however, comes at a price. Simply said, the user will become mentally unstable. In worst case, downright insane."
"There are only 3 ways to ameliorate these effects on the brain."
"First, is for the user to be insane himself. The effect won't be as powerful as on sane people."
"Second, is to have a very powerful will. However, this clone has lived for only 3 years. What will could she have developed in this short period of time? A powerful will is groomed by going through many ordeals and hardships through life. Three years is not enough for that."
"That brings us to the third way - to have a powerful obsession."
"You see, I don't want my subordinates to be mindless puppets nor insane. Because of that, it was needed for this clone to develop an obsession."
"For her, that scientist was like a father. He meant the world for her. Being betrayed and killed by that person and realizing that her entire existence had been a lie...just how intense will become her hatred for him? Just how powerful will become her obsession to kill him?"
Although he did not let it show on his face, Itachi was inwardly trembling. The new Head of the Demon was a terrifying man. The new leader of the League of Shadows was dangerous man. Terribly so.