Summary: During his final clash with Sasuke, Naruto is thrown into the dimensional void. To save his partner, Kurama manages to open a portal to a dimension frozen in time. - Raven was not having a good birthday. Having accidentally frozen time and being chased by Robin's resurrected foe, an unexpected ally appears. Will he be able to help her stop her father?
"HANG IN THERE BRAT! DON'T YOU DIE ON ME!"
Deep within a seemingly endless void, Kurama was desperately pumping every scrap of chakra he had left into his host. After finally sealing Kaguya, that damn Uchiha brat had betrayed them. Somehow, the vast amounts of energy released from Naruto's Rasengan and Sasuke's Chidori colliding had created a rip in space and time, throwing Naruto into a space between dimensions. Unfortunately, this plane of existence was literally trying to tear them apart. Searching desperately for a way out, the monolithic fox sensed a distortion in the space time plane caused by some sort temporal disruption. Channeling his last bit of Chakra, Kurama was able to create a tear just large enough for them to pass through, barely keeping it open until they were through.
'… p … ke up… WAKE UP!'
"GAH!" Naruto flailed, attempting to jump to a defensive position. However, as he attempted to brace himself on his nonexistent right arm, it looked much more like a flailing fish than the trained warrior he was. Groaning, he managed to sit up, glaring at the missing limb, and look around at the strange buildings.
'Oi, Where the hell are we!?'
'How should I know! You're the idiot that blasted us into the dimensional void! Do you know how much energy it took to just keep us alive, not to mention open a portal into another dimension?'
'Hey! It's not like I told the teme to go crazy!'
'Tsk, he was always crazy. All Uchihas are.'
'Hey, Itatchi wasn't so bad.'
'He killed his entire family in one night.' The fox deadpanned.
'…Point taken. So, we're in another dimension, we have no idea how to get home, and I'm missing an arm. Am I missing anything?'
'Besides the fact that time seems to be frozen, no.'
'Oh, and time's frozen. Cool.' Honestly, after everything that just happened, time breaking didn't seem that strange anymore. 'So, what no-' He was cut off by a purple blur shooting past his alley, followed closely behind by another, this time black and orange, blur. 'The hell was that!'
Raven was not having a good birthday. Instead of being able to enjoy the party that her friends had set up, a gesture that she secretly enjoyed but would never tell them, she was being chased by Robin's apparently undead arch foe. And that wasn't even the worst part! He hadn't been revived by just anyone, oh no. Trigon, her (quite literally) demon of a father, had brought him back to mark her as his portal. After Slade had separated her from Robin at the church, she'd been desperately trying to escape him.
Flying out from between the buildings she'd flown through to escape his arms of fire, she yells her mantra: "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!" Using most of her remaining energy, she slammed the two buildings together in an attempt to stop him. Looking at the dust billowing out, she sighed in relief, only to jerk up in surprise as Slade burst from them in an explosion. She gasped as he tackled her, and barely had any time to brace herself as they crashed on top of a tower.
She struggled to her feet and tried to run again, only for Slade to snag her by her cowl, ripping it off: "What you have concealed you shall become!" He exclaims as she fell down, revealing more runes on her now exposed back. "You have no other choice!"
"NO!" She charges at him, desperately channeling her remaining energy around her to hopefully drive him back. However, he effortlessly caught her hand, dispelling the claw of black energy.
"The message will be delivered." Slade hissed, grabbing her other arm. "Your destiny shall be fulfilled."
Struggling against his grip, Raven groaned in pain as the glowing red runes covered the rest of her body, ripping most of her clothes. Red energy beamed from her eyes as the sun and moon rapidly switched places while her hair grew out. Once completed, Slade released his grip, allowing her to collapse to her knees in exhaustion. She looked around, only to discover that the city had become apocalyptic ruins, surrounded by a sea lava. Off in the distance, she could see the ruins of Titans Tower, and around the city, everyone, including her friends had been turned to stone. "NO!" She gasped, horrified.
"Yes" Slade dragged out. "Look at it. Drink it in. Behold the world you are destined to create." Raven could only stare in disbelief as Trigon's rose, releasing a deafening roar.
Grabbing her head in pain, she tried to block it all out. "NO! I won't do it! This is just a vision! This can't be real!"
She flinched as she felt a metallic grip on her shoulders. "This is the future. Your future. It began the day you were born, and nothing can stop it." He stated in her ear. "This will come to pass. I will make sure of it. You're going to destroy the world Raven. It's written all over yo-"
"Konoha Senpū!" Slade was interrupted as a sandaled foot slammed into his face, driving him away from Raven. The new arrival steadied her with his good left arm, not noticing the small spark of black energy that passed between them at the contact.
"Hey, are you ok?" Raven heard as she turned to face the man. She jerked back, startled by his appearance. He looked like he'd just been through a damn war-zone! His pants and chain-mail shirt were in tatters, his face looked like Mammoth had repeatedly jumped on it, and he was missing an arm! God, it was still leaking blood!
Noticing her reaction, Naruto rushed to reassure her. "Hey, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." After the blurs had rushed past, he'd gone to investigate, wondering just what the hell was moving when time was frozen. When Kurama had informed him that they were both using demonic energy, even if hers was suppressed, he decided to just watch. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't weary of the girl. With his negative emotion sensing, he could tell she wasn't evil. However, he barely had a fresh gennin's worth of chakra and didn't think he'd be much use in a large scale fight. His belief had seemed justified as he watched her slam two flippin' buildings together. However, when the masked man started ripping her clothes off- Seriously, another one-eyed masked man!- he decided to intervene anyway. Using what little chakra he had left, he'd scaled the tower to find the man grabbing her from behind. Borrowing a move from Bushy Brows, he'd kicked him away.
"You're not going to hurt me?! What about you! How are you even standing!" Raven uncharacteristically shouted in disbelief, having momentarily forgotten about Slade. With everything that had happened, she found it impossible to maintain her usual control over her emotions. "What in Azarath happened to you!"
"Heh, well it's kind of a long story." He chucked nervously, scratching the back of his head with his hand. "Can we talk about it after dealing with the zombie dude?"
Upon hearing the word 'dude', despite everything, she had to resist the urge to face-palm. 'Not another Beast-Boy. Please, I can't handle two of them.' She shook her head. 'Focus, Slade's getting back up.'
"Yo Zombie man! I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the cute girl alone!"
'Cute!' Even as her eyebrow twitched, Raven felt a faint blush spread across her cheeks.
Slade looked at him, honestly, he was impressed by the strange young man. Despite his severe injuries, he was still standing strong with a warriors air about him. 'If I wasn't serving Trigon, he would have made a great apprentice.'
For some reason, Naruto felt a shiver crawl down his spine. 'Why do I feel like Orochimaru's lusting after me?'
'Focus brat. That demonic energy coming off him isn't his. It's from a very powerful demon. His master is dangerous, especially in the state we're in.'
Expecting a fight, he was surprised when the masked man jumped away, saying "We'll meet again."
'Huh, I wonder what he said.' Turning back to the girl, intent to ask what was going on, he paused, finally getting a good look at her face. Unbidden, a blush spread across his face. 'Kami she's gorgeous. Focus, this is not the time to stare into her pretty eyes- wait, I mean-'
'Heh, looks like that perverted old man finally got to you.'
'No, I am not a pervert. I've resisted Ero-Sennin's influence for four years. I will not fail now!'
While Naruto was talking to the voice in his head, Raven was studying him just as intently, numerous questions flying through her mind. 'Who is he, why did he help me… are those whisker marks?" Coming back to her senses, she asked "Who are you."
Snapping out of his daze, the man gave her an impossibly bright smile that made her cheeks flush. "Oh! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! What's your name!"
Taken aback by his cheery attitude despite his injuries, she hesitantly answered "I'm Raven."
"Nice to meet you Raven-chan!" He reached forward for a fist bump, but with the crisis apparently over and his adrenaline gone, he fell, finally succumbing to exhaustion, hearing a surprised "Naruto!" before the blackness overtook him.
After the teen, Naruto, collapsed, her powers flared, returning time to its normal state. She just barely managed to catch him before he hit the roof. Afterwards, Robin had shown up. She'd eventually managed to convince him to bring him to the tower instead of the hospital, weary of the strange man. However, he'd warmed up to him after she told him how Naruto drop kicked Slade in the face. After dropping him off in the medical wing of the tower and ensuring he was stable, she'd gone to her room to replace her clothes before healing him.
The boy, Naruto, was a mystery. He'd somehow resisted whatever she'd done to freeze time, saved her from an undead Slade, all while horribly injured. It was that last part that had her both confused and worried. So, she hurriedly put on fresh clothes before rushing down to the medical ward.
"I'm tellin' you Rob, he's human! Full DNA scans, x-rays, and infrared readings come back as normal."
"Then how on earth did he get up there. Better yet, how was he moving after Raven froze time."
"Weren't you doing the moving to, friend Robin?" Starfire asked.
"Only because Raven freed my from her spell. From what she told me, he just came out of nowhere and kicked Slade in the face."
"Dude! He drop kicked Slade! Hahahaha! That's awesome!"
Behind them, the door swung open and Raven entered the room.
"Friend Raven, it is glorious to see that you are unharmed. Tell me, who is this man?"
"His name's Naruto." She responded in her usual deadpan. Walking up to him, a shimmering blue aura enveloped her hands.
"Ooh, are you doing your glowey hands thingy to heal him?" Beast-Boy asked.
"Yes."
While this was going on, Robin was talking quietly to Cyborg. "Are you sure he's safe."
"Well he's human, I can tell you that much, but safe? No clue. Why are you so worked up about him? I mean, he saved Raven."
"We don't know anything about him, and he just shows up out of the blue right when Slade comes back from the dead weird fire magic. Doesn't it seem a little suspicious to you?"
Back with Raven, she was examining his body. 'How does he have so many scars?' one in particular caught her attention, right over his heart was a fist sized scar; she could tell it had pierced him deeply. 'how did he survive THAT'! Putting it out of her mind for the moment, she sat on the edge of the bed and placed her hands on his chest, then gasped at the flood of emotions. So much pain and grief, it almost made her cry. But even more powerful, far surpassing his pain, was hope and love. It wasn't a directed love, like one might have for their spouse, but a general sense of love directed towards everything around him that seemed to shine from his very soul. Just feeling it comforted her in a way she hadn't felt since she was a child in her mother's arms back on Azarath. Despite the comfort, it was just so strong that she jerked back in surprise.
"Raven! Are you alright?!" Robin asked, figuring that the boy had done something to her.
"Ye- yeah, I'm fine." After a moment to calm herself, she said "He just feels everything so strongly, it surprised me."
"What do you mean? Is he a threat?"
"No, he-" She was cut off by a grown from the bed. Quickly turning back to him, she watched in astonishment as his eyes fluttered open.
Having been woken up by a burst of energy that seemed to jump start his chakra network, Naruto looked around, confused, until he saw her familiar face. "Oi, Raven-chan! Where are we?"
"We're in the med-bay of Titan's Tower. How are you awake? With your injuries you should have been unconscious for a few days at least."
"Eh, I've always been a fast healer. So, what's Titan's Tower?"
"… You don't know what Titan's Tower is?"
"No, I just got here, I don't really know much about this place."
Now, this piqued her curiosity. Most people at least knew who the Teen Titans were, even if they didn't live in Jump City.
"So where are you from?"
"Oh, I'm from another dimension." Naruto replied casually.
'Idiot.'
'What? We can trust her.'
'You literally just met her.' He deadpanned.
'So? she's nice.'
'You just think she's hot.'
'Yeah- Wait NO!'
"NARUTO!"
"Whah!" Looking up, he was met with an annoyed Raven.
"Finally!" Raven snapped in agitation. "I've been trying to get tour attention for over a minute!" Her expression shifted to one of concern. "Are you ok?"
"Oh, yeah sorry. I was just arguing with Kurama."
"Who's Kurama?"
'Idiot.' The fox repeated.
"Oh, heh heh" While he trusted her, he hadn't been planning on telling her about Kurama. Then again, she had demonic energy of her own, so she probably wouldn't react too badly. "Kurama's the fox demon sealed in my gut." He replied casually so as to make it seem like it wasn't a big deal. Judging from how she recoiled slightly, he hadn't been to successful. "But don't worry!" He added hastily "He's cool."
"He's cool?" Raven replied skeptically.
"Yeah! The furball used to threaten to eat me a lot, but we're friends now." He said with an eye smile reminiscent of Kakashi.
'FURBALL! I'LL SHOW YOU FURBALL!' Kurama cried indignantly.
'I was just trying to make you seem less threatening.' Naruto reasoned.
She looked at him with a sort of cautious hope. "So, you don't think that they're all evil?"
"Of course not. They're like people, they're not inherently good or evil. Mōryō and the Juubi were bastards, but demons like you and the Bijū are pretty nice!"
Raven froze at that. "What do you mean 'like me'?" 'How did he know! Wha- Why isn't he afraid of me?'
Naruto tilted his head, looking confused. "You're not a demon? I mean, you have demonic energy. Are you a container then?" Raven couldn't help but relax slightly at his nonchalant question. He was asking that like he was just talking about the weather.
"No, I'm not." Coming to a decision, she continued. "I'm a hanyou." She mentally braced for rejection, for him to fear her like the monks of Azarath did. She really shouldn't have bothered.
"Really? How does that work?"
She smiled, happy that he didn't seem to care, but also confused at the question. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, how'd your parents… you know…" He trailed off awkwardly.
Raven blushed an atomic red, made all the more obvious by her pale complexion. "I-Idiot! Why are you asking that?!"
Recognizing her female fury, something ingrained in him from Sakura and Baa-chan, Naruto rushed to defend himself. "I mean, Kurama doesn't have a, well, penis, so… I mean-"
As steam started pouring from Raven's ears, Kurama decided that now would be a good time to interject. 'That's because I'm a girl, brat!'
"WHAT!" So startled by this revelation, Naruto began yelling out loud. Raven stumbled back and fell from the bed. Off to the side, Starfire jerked in surprise, but maintained her grip on the other Titans, whom she was restraining for some reason. "YOU'RE A GIRL! HOW! I mean you sound like a guy!" Instantly realizing what he said, and fearing a Sakura-like reaction, he quickly backpedaled. "Wait, I didn't mean it like that! You have a lovely voice! And-"
'BHUAHAHAHAHA' Kurama bellowed, unable to hold it in anymore. 'You- HAHA- You actually thought I was a girl!'
Raven watched the odd display, growing increasingly confused as Naruto's panic turned to rage. "THE HELL KURAMA! That wasn't funny!"
'By the sage- HAHAHAHA- I can't breathe!'
Naruto's impending shouting match with is still howling partner was cut off by Raven. "Naruto, stop yelling." She was annoyed that he was ignoring her again for his, apparently female, demon friend. For some reason, that irked her.
"Oh, sorry." Naruto apologized, his attitude pulling a full 180. "Kurama was being a jerk." He pouted.
Her irritation battled with her curiosity over what the fox could have done as she asked, "What did she do?"
"He convinced me he was a girl! Just because I called him a furball! Which he is!" The last comment was more aimed at said furball than Raven, but he was too busy laughing to care.
As his shouting finally began to make sense, her irritation gave way to mirth at the blonde's misfortune, and she started giggling. The giggling soon turned into full blown laughter, joining Kurama. This, more than anything, startled Starfire enough that she released her grip on the other Titans, as they all stared in shock at their teammate.
"Dudes" Beast-Boy whispered. "Ravens laughing."
"I don't believe it." Cyborg muttered in disbelief as he began a system-wide scan of his systems. Robin just stared on in shock
"Glorious! Is this not a wonderful courtship!" Starfire's exclamation snapped everyone out of their disbelief, or laughter in Raven's case, to stare at the red-haired alien.
"Courtship!" Raven shouted, grabbing Naruto's attention.
"Courtship?" he mumbled in confusion.
"Yes!" Starfire confirmed, seemingly ignorant of the Raven's shock. "Oh, this is a most wondrous occasion! We must prepare a Tamaranian feast to celebrate!"
As her teammates paled in horror, Raven sputtered "We're not courting Starfire!"
Starfire deflated at this. She'd been so sure they were involved. She'd never seen her friend so… animated before. And her powers weren't even flaring up! She knew that her friend couldn't control them when excited, so when this mystery boy had shown up and seemingly allowed her to express herself without fear, she'd been over the moon. So, she'd grabbed her friends and covered their mouths so as to keep them from ruining any moment they might have. But apparently, they weren't courting. A smile formed. They weren't courting – Yet.
"Uh, Naruto, was it?" Now that he was free from Starfire's clutches (not that he minded being there in the first place) Robin decided that it was time for him to get answers. First, though: "Do you mind speaking English?" Honestly, why the two of them were conversing in different languages was beyond him.
"Eh, Raven-chan, what's he saying?" Honestly, was Raven the only one that could talk normally?
She looked between them, confused. "What are you two talking about?" Now that the others were around, she found it easier to slip into her usual deadpan voice. She idly wondered why it was so difficult before.
Robin looked at her oddly, "I need to question him, and he obviously understands English since he was talking to you."
While they were talking, Naruto took the time to finally observe the other people in the room. First there was a little green dude with fangs; thanks to his sage training, he could feel natural energy flowing through him. 'He's not a sage, I can tell that much. Hell, Raven's the only one with working chakra pathways. It's like he's a part of nature." Then there was a man that looked like he was from Kumo. Or he would, except he was covered in metal. He kind of reminded him of Sasori. Or maybe Nagato's Asura path. Then there was the girl in spandex. She looked eerily similar to his mom. He just hoped she didn't have her temper (cue shudder). Finally, there was the masked boy. Honestly, with the mask, gravity-defying hair, and air of command, he was half convinced that he was Kakashi's inter-dimensional lovechild.
'Odd,' Naruto thought. 'Why are they talking in two different languages.' "Hey, Raven-Chan, can you tell him to speak in Elemental? He obviously knows it."
Now, unlike a certain blonde in the room, Raven was a pretty quick thinker, and was able to figure out what was happening. "Uhg." She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Naruto, you are hearing me in your language, correct?" He nodded, confused as to why she asked that. "Robin, when I'm talking to him, am I speaking English, or am I speaking his language?" She asked, even though she was pretty sure, she still wanted confirmation.
"English." He replied, and he could guess where she was going with this. "Are you saying that…"
"Yes. Naruto and I hear each other in our native tongues, while to everyone else we are speaking different languages." For some reason, she felt the urge to add something to her statement. Not seeing any harm, she did so, "How troublesome."
Naruto snickered at how much she sounded like a Nara. She'd probably get along well with Shikamaru. He stopped snickering; for some reason the thought bothered him. 'Oi Kurama, if Raven-chan's not speaking Elemental, how do I know what she's saying?'
"Do you know why?" Robin asked. She shook her head. "Does he?" He asked, indicating Naruto.
"I doubt it." Turning back, she asked, "Hey, Naruto." He didn't respond. Judging by the glassy look in his eyes, she figured he was talking to Kurama about it. After his eyes regained clarity, she asked, "So, what did Kurama say?"
'Kurama?' The other Titans wondered.
"Hm?" He wondered how she knew he was talking to the Bijū "Oh yeah. Apparently whatever fūinjutsu marks Zombie-teme put on you put your energy in a state of… uh" 'Kurama?' He asked, having forgotten the word he used.
'Flux.'
"Yeah, flux, and apparently a little bit of it entered my chakra network, creating a kind of mental bond."
Whereas before she was just annoyed, now Raven felt a touch of fear. Her mind was dangerous. For anyone. "Naruto, how strong is this bond?"
"Eh, if you're worried about me hearing your thoughts, don't worry. Kurama said it's barely strong enough to overcome the language barrier as it is."
She let out a sigh of relief at that. "What bond?" She heard Robin ask. "And who's Kurama?" Raven looked back at the other titans. Beast-boy and Cyborg looked confused, Robin looked concerned, and Starfire… seemed strangely happy, even for her.
"Whatever Slade did to me made my powers temporarily unstable, and when Naruto caught me, some of my energy merged with his, creating a weak mental bond that lets us understand each other. As for Kurama…" She trailed off, looking at Naruto. Being a half-demon, she knew how hard it was to reveal something like that to others. Honestly, she was surprised that he'd told her so readily. Naruto, seeing her unasked question, merely smiled, and shrugged in permission. Despite said permission, Raven didn't really feel like convincing her team that a demon wasn't a threat, so she compromised. "He's a fox spirit sealed inside Naruto. Don't ask." She added, cutting off Robin's pending question.
A bit miffed that she'd cut him off from asking about the spirit, he turned to Cyborg. "Well, what language is he speaking. It sounds like Japanese."
Cyborg, who had his arm display showing, replied, "Yeah, it has a similar structure, but the words are completely different. The only thing the computer understands are the honorifics."
"Honor-whats-its?" Beast-Boy asked.
"Honorifics. They're kind of like Mr. Or Mrs. that you add onto a name, but there are a lot more of them. When he was talkin' 'bout the why he could talk to Raven, he mentioned 'Teme', which means bastard. I'm pretty sure he was talking about Slade there."
"What about '-chan'?" Raven asked. She was curious. He'd added it to her name several times.
Cyborg, though, looked worried. He wasn't sure how she'd react, and he was worried about the kid. "Uh, ya' don't wanna' know."
"Cyborg." She warned. On the inside though, she was worried. Was it an insult of some kind? She thought he liked her, he seemed nice enough to her, but why wouldn't Cyborg want to tell her.
"Ya' really don't!" He complained, trying to save Naruto from her wrath. After all, most guys that hit on her ended up in a brick wall. Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain, as black energy surrounded him and dragged him by the arm to where she could read the display there.
"'-Chan', a term of endearment meaning 'cute', often used for close female friends or lovers." As Raven read aloud, she felt her face heating up. She released Cyborg, allowing him and the other Titans to back away from the soon-to-be-more injured blonde while praying for his swift recovery. Addressing Naruto, still read in the face, she asked "Is that what '-chan' means?"
The Titans were shaking their heads at him from behind her back, begging him too deny it, for his sake. Oblivious to their warning, he nodded, smiling. "Yeah, your really pretty, and you're taking care of me which makes us friends. So I call you '-Chan'!" His smile fell after a moment. "Unless you don't want me to, of course." He said, frowning.
Raven felt her heart skip a beat when he called her pretty, then felt it fall when he offered to stop calling her that. "No!" She replied, a bit hastily. "It's fine." she continued, calmer.
Naruto's smile returned full force as the others' jaws dropped to the ground. Shaking his head to clear it, Beast-Boy shouted, "Dude! Who is this guy! First drop kicks Slade, then he talks to Raven in her with a mind-link-thingy, he's possessed by a fox ghost, and most importantly HE FLIRTED WITH RAVEN! AND HE'S STILL ALIVE!"
Embarrassed and wanting to change the subject, Raven choked out, "Well, he's also from another dimension."