Several loud knocks on her door roused Raven from her research. "This better be good." She grumbled. It had been three weeks since Slade had marked her, and she wasn't any closer to finding a way to stop Trigon. Naruto had offered to help, and with his shadow clones, she'd been sorely tempted. However, many of her books were too dangerous for anyone but her to read, and most curses would not be fooled by the technique. They were thorough like that.
She opened the door and was pleasantly surprised to see Naruto. "Good morning." She greeted with a small smile.
"Hey Raven-chan!" He greeted with his usual cheer, before scratching the back of his head. "Look, I know you're busy the prophesy," He spoke in his own language to avoid being overheard. Even though he knew that the others would accept her, he respected her decision to keep her heritage a secret. Kami knows how nervous he'd been when his friends found out. If anyone questioned him, he could just say that he hadn't noticed that he was speaking Elemental. "But you need to take a break. You aren't any good all stressed out. Besides, you've earned it."
"Ok." She said, knowing he was right even if she didn't like it. "I'm assuming you have something in mind?"
"You know it!" He replied in English. "It involves our favorite green-skinned friend."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "And that's supposed to help me relax?"
"Oh, it will. Trust me." He reassured with a fox-like smirk. After explaining his idea, she was smiling too.
"Are you going to tell me what we're doing here or not?" Beast-Boy complained as the trio entered the training room.
"You know I'm a Sage, right?" Naruto, being familiar with the room from all his time spent there, walked towards a fairly open area before sitting down.
"Yeah…" Beast-Boy replied cautiously. He did not like the look on the Blonde's face.
"Well, most of my more powerful techniques need to be used in Sage Mode." Technically, he could also use them with Kurama's chakra, but so far he'd only gathered a tenth of his over-all reserves, and Naruto was saving up to protect Raven. "But I obviously can't use it in battle without putting you at risk. So, I've decided to do something about it."
"How?" Beast-Boy asked, getting more concerned as the conversation progressed. He tried to scoot towards the door, but found his way blocked by Raven. Her smirk didn't inspire much confidence.
"By practicing of course!" Was the happy reply. "I'm going to enter Sage Mode, and when you space out, Raven's going to smack some sense into you!"
He looked between the two of them and sighed in defeat. "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"
"Oh yeah." Raven answered.
"I think we made some good progress." Naruto nodded as the trio entered the main room.
"We did, didn't we?" Foregoing her usual monotone, allowing some satisfaction to seep into her voice. "Same time tomorrow?"
Behind them, a battered Beast-Boy groaned, "Whyyyy."
Robin looked at them in slight concern. "What happened to him?"
"Training." Raven replied simply.
"He was training?" He asked, surprised that he had done so without being ordered to.
Naruto made eye contact with Raven, his eyes pleading. They seemed to have a silent argument, before apparently reaching an agreement. "We're still working on fetch, but we did get him to stay." She said casually, walking past her stunned leader into the kitchen.
"You enjoyed that." Naruto claimed, having joined Raven in the kitchen.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She denied.
"Come on, you know you did! You hide it well, but I can tell you're a prankster at heart. And it's my job as your friend to bring it to the surface!" Raven had an amazing sense of humor, though she usually hid it behind sarcasm. Raven had explained to him how her powers were tied to her emotions, and that if she felt too strongly, they could get out of control. While he hadn't seen any evidence of this, he took her word for it. However, one of the most important lessons he'd learned when training in Kurama's chakra was that you had to embrace all aspects of yourself. As such, he'd been trying to get her to open up more.
Before he could say more, Raven held out her hand, seemingly waiting for something. He grumbled as he dug into his ninja pouch, producing a scroll. "Worth it." He said as he handed it over. 'What she doesn't know is that I just got another ramen scroll. That one's basically empty anyw-'
"The other one as well." Raven ordered.
A now sweating Naruto glanced around rapidly before asking, "What other one? That's my ramen scroll."
"Yes, this is the one you got a week ago. I know you just got a new one. Now hand it over." Knowing he'd lost, he did so. "Don't be such a baby, it's only two days."
"Yes! Two days without the food of the gods! How am I going to survive?"
The next day the Titans found Robin in his room, packing a bag. "Robin, you are leaving us?" Starfire questioned.
"I have to." He answered, not looking around.
"Dude, you got your butt kicked. It happens." Beast-Boy said in an attempt to get him to stay.
"Happens to some of us more than others" Raven quipped.
"Anyway, it doesn't mean you have to quit." He continued, shaking off his irritation.
Naruto recognized Robin's expression. It wasn't one of defeat, but rather determination. "He's not quitting."
"You're right, I'm not. But my fight with Katarou showed me how much I still have to learn about martial arts." He said, scowling darkly.
"No problem, I can help you train. I've got a new simulated fight sequence in the gym!" Cyborg went through several fighting poses as he spoke.
"I've already trained with the best, and apparently it wasn't enough. There's only one person who can help me."
'Wow. Brooding, leaving for power. If he starts ranting about revenge, I'm going to take over and kill him. We are NOT dealing with another Sasuke.'
'He's not that bad…' Naruto defended uncertainly.
"You are going after the true master of whom the villain spoke?" Starfire guessed.
"I'm not coming back until I find him."
"What! Oh come on man, how do you even know this 'true master' is even a good guy! How are you going to find him!? Do you even know where you're goin'?" Cyborg questioned dramatically, pointing in Robins face.
"I'm not sure." Robin admitted.
"Sounds like a plan." Raven commented sarcastically as she sat on the bed.
"According to legend, the true master lives in the mountains on the other side of the world, and can be found only by the most serious of students."
Beast boy raised his hand before declaring excitedly, "Oh, I'm in. when do we leave? What should I pack? Will I need shots? This is going to be so cool."
"I have to go alone." Robin denied, leaving the room.
"That guy takes himself way too seriously." Cyborg observed.
Naruto was walking down the hall when his prankster-sense started tingling. Hoping Raven had somehow converted, he followed it to Robin's room. There, Cyborg stood menacingly over Starfire and Beast-Boy, both of whom were wearing Robin's uniform. "I can't believe you two would just barge into Robin's room when he's gone, dress up in his uniform, and pretend to be Robin!" He scolded, holding the pose for a second, before pulling a complete 180 and whining, "Without me!"
"Hahaha!" Beast-Boy laughed, realizing he'd been had. "Dude, suit up!" He said, giving him a uniform.
"Oh yes, come Robining with us!" Starfire exclaimed in joy. "It is most delightful!"
"Mind if I join?" They heard above them, drawing a shrill scream of surprise from Beast-Boy.
Looking up, the Titans saw Naruto standing on the ceiling. Flipping to the floor, he grabbed a uniform and held it up. "A bit small, but it'll fit. I wonder if I can get Raven to try?"
Starfire smiled as she saw an opportunity. "Glorious! You wish to do the role-play with friend Raven?" She asked 'innocently'.
As Cyborg and Naruto froze to stare at her, the oblivious Beast-Boy cried, "Yes! That would be awesome!"
'No, it can't be! She's so innocent. There's no way she can mean THAT!' Naruto thought, wiping away a small trickle of blood from his nose. 'Still, I wonder wha- NO! Bad thoughts! You are NOT a pervert! Stupid Ero-Sennin, he's still trying to corrupt me!'
Raven walked in on… an unusual sight to say the least. Her teammates were all dressed in Robin's uniform. Cyborg was making engine noises while rocking on Robin's motorcycle, Starfire was playing with a grappling hook, Beast-Boy was on the ground for some reason, and Naruto was doing trick shots with birdarangs. "Well, this is just disturbing."
"Disturbing yet magnificent! Join us! I never knew wearing a cape was so much fun!" Starfire implored as she pranced around Raven. "It is wonderful to be Robin!" She continued, getting in her face.
"Yeah, he has all the best stuff!" Cyborg corroborated, waddling over on the R-Cycle.
"Uh, right." Raven replied, unsure.
"Come on! Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like to be Robin? You know you want to try it." Beast-Boy encouraged as all four Titans stood before her.
She locked gazes with Naruto. While she couldn't see his eyes through the mask, she just knew they were pleading with her. "Four days." She said, confusing everyone but Naruto.
"What, No!"
"Do you want me to join or not?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.
Later, the five Robin-dressed Titans were lounging around the table in the main room. "Would you like another slice of the cheese, Robin?" Starfire asked as she cut a slice with a birdarang.
"Thanks, Robin." Beast-Boy replied, grabbing the slice then passing the box off to Cyborg using a staff. "Got room for another one, Robin?"
"Don't mind if I do, Robin." He replied before stuffing the whole pizza, sans the missing slice, in his mouth.
"This is actually pretty good Robin." Raven, now dressed in Robin's uniform, commented as she ate some ramen from a cup, much to the distress of a crying Naruto.
"Robin, can I have some? Please?" He pleaded with his hands clasped together.
"Hmm, no." She quipped, prompting a fresh wave of tears. "You know Robins, I have to admit. The mask makes me feel… cool." Raven said with a blush, not noticing the figure behind her. Upon noticing the horrified expressions of her teammates, she looked over her shoulder and did a double take. She quickly joined the others on their couch, dragging the suddenly dry-faced Naruto behind her.
"Huh, pizza. Sweet." Robin jumped onto the couch and grabbed a slice. "You know, Robins... the mask makes me feel cool, too." He happily ate his pizza as the others fell backwards, crashing to the floor.
It has been a good day, he decided. Sure, he'd lost his ramen for four days (five if you counted yesterday), but he'd gotten Raven to loosen up some. She'd needed it. As he lay in his bed, Naruto pictured her smile. 'Definitely worth it.'
"Mega-sonic sound! Ultra-plasmic Display! Phase shield amp! And to top it all off, a brand new, hot-off-the-shelf, impossible-to-find-anywhere Game Station XL!"
As Cyborg introduced each increasingly over-sized device, Beast-Boy's eyes grew larger and larger, until Cyborg pulled the giant, impossibly bright console from it's tiny box. Beast-Boy, unable to contain himself any longer, released tears of joy. "It's… beautiful!"
"I'm glad you're upgrading Ops, Cyborg but is any of this actually going to help us fight crime?" Robin asked, shielding himself from the glare with his cape.
"Uh, sure?" He responded hesitantly, still holding the glowing box.
"Why is it so bright. Better yet, how? It's not even plugged in?" Naruto asked. He may still be new to much of the technology in this world, but even back in the Elemental Nations, they'd had the basics. That knowledge had grown since his arrival, though there was still a fair ways to go.
"I stopped questioning things like this a long time ago." Raven answered in resignation.
Over in the kitchen, Starfire examined a tall white box on the counter. "And for what purpose is this crime fighting device?" She poked it, accidentally setting the thing off. "Eek!" she yelped as a barrel extended from the top. It launched several waffles, some butter, and a fork into the air as it dispensed a plate and orange juice to the side. The waffles landed on the plate before being covered in butter and impaled by the fork.
Cyborg posed proudly, before Raven held up one of the pastries. "Evil beware, we have waffles." She deadpanned.
"I like this stuff as much as the next guy, but don't you think it's a little… big?" Robin asked.
"Come on, guys, this is the future. If we don't keep up, it'll just leave us behind. Besides, don't you want to hear the new equalizer?" He asked, enticing three of them while Naruto stood to the side with Raven. Before Cyborg could press the button on the wall sized device, he was struck by lightning before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
The other Titans looked at where he'd disappeared, wide eyed, and Starfire mechanically chewed her waffle. "Okay. Before anybody says anything, that was totally not my fault."
"Finally." Raven said in relief.
"What'd you find?" Naruto commented from his position sitting on the bed, sealing away his empty ramen cup. After he had commented on the similarities between Cyborg's disappearance and his summoning jutsu, Robin asked Raven to try to find the spell, if that's what it was, that had taken their friend. Having no better way to help, Naruto had decided to keep Raven company while she researched in her room, unaware of the others' shock.
They'd been there for most of the day. Since they had both been hungry and it had already been three days, she'd allowed him to make them some ramen. Provided, of course, that he not spill a single drop. When teasing him with it the other day, Raven had found she quite liked the noodles. Of course, it wasn't "the food of the Gods" as her friend, and secret crush, so eloquently put it, but it was pretty good.
"You were right, it was a summoning. But it didn't take him to a different dimension," She showed him the illustration on the book. "It sent him back in time."
"Are you sure this will work?" Robin asked. The five of them were currently standing back in the ops room. Using a mixture of science and magic, they'd managed to lock onto Cyborgs sonic cannon. Apparently, he'd been summoned from five thousand years ago.
"It should." She replied simply, before her eyes lit up with power. "Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" She shouted as her magic coalesced in the form of a large raven around her as a swirling vortex formed. Her soul-self extended its claw through the portal, before it retracted, pulling a figure through the ports. "I think it worked." Raven clarified uncertainly as they crowded around the person.
"Cyborg?" Robin questioned.
Cyborg, clad in some sort of stone armor, rushed the closing vortex. "Sarasim!" He cried, just missing it before it vanished. "No! Send me back!"
"Cyborg, it is us! You're friends! You are home!" Starfire told him.
"The village! It's under attack!" He grabbed Raven by her shoulders. "They need me!" He cried desperately.
"It was kind of a one-way deal." An uncomfortable Raven awkwardly informed him.
Beast-Boy was about to speak before Naruto quickly clapped his hand over his mouth. He didn't know what the changeling was about to say, but he was sure that it wouldn't help. Judging from his appearance and what he'd said, it was clear that they'd pulled him from the middle of a battle of some sort, and that he'd been with someone he cared about.
"I made a promise. They were counting on me." A depressed Cyborg said, causing Naruto to flinch.
"Cyborg, I'm sorry. We had no idea." Robin apologized.
"I didn't even get to say goodbye." He said, walking away.
In his room, a now armorless Cyborg flexed his hand. "Welcome to the future." He said in resignation. As he placed his sword on a stand in front of his armor, Naruto opened the door.
"It's hard isn't it. Not knowing." He said, walking towards the large man. "You constantly wonder what happened, hoping that those you left are ok."
"Yeah." Came the dull reply. A tear fell from his eye. "We were being over-run. Without me, I don't know if they could survive. Serasim-"
Naruto placed a hand on his shoulder, cutting him off. "You can't do this. You can't wonder what could have been. You have to have faith that your friends pulled through." He paused, before continuing. "When I told you that I was sent while fighting a traitor, that was only part of the story." Cyborg looked at him then, giving him his attention. Naruto had told them some about his past, but he usually avoided the exact circumstances of his arrival.
"Before that, we were fighting a war against a madman. A lot of stuff happened, and I lost a good friend. We eventually won, but everyone except me and my team were trapped in an eternal dream world. We needed Sasuke's help to free them, but... he betrayed us instead. I didn't get any sleep my first night here. I kept wondering what happened, and if everyone was ok. It was eating me up inside."
Cyborg was struck by the similarities in their situations. "What did you do? You seem fine now." He asked.
"I was lucky. the next day I was able to contact home. Apparently Sasuke had turned a new leaf after I left and freed everyone. But before that, my friend helped me."
"Friend?"
"Kurama." Cyborg vaguely remembered something about a fox spirit. "He's been sealed inside me since birth. He kept me grounded, and reminded me that I wasn't alone." Naruto locked gazes with him. "You're not alone either, Cyborg."
A moment passed, before he nodded. "Thanks."
"No problem."
As he said this, the door opened again, revealing Raven. She nodded at Naruto, who sighed in relief, before she turned to Cyborg. "I have something to show you." She said. She placed a book on the table and turned to a specific page.
"Sarasim," He breathed in surprise. "She did it! They won!" He exclaimed as he studied the picture of a female warrior standing victoriously over a large green humanoid.
Raven turned to a different page. "Apparently, they had help. That's you, isn't it?" She questioned, pointing to a man. He nodded. "Interesting, you're the only one without armor."
"Yeah, didn't need it." He sat down to look through the book as the others left to give him privacy.
She didn't want to be here. She really didn't, but, she had to do this. She owed it to him. So, she knocked on the door.
It took a moment before Naruto opened it, rubbing his eyes. "Hey Raven-chan, what's up?" He asked, yawning.
"Can I come in?" She asked. "I need to talk to you. It's important."
He got a good look at her before frowning. "Of course." He moved to the side, all tiredness gone. Whatever had Raven here at one in the morning had clearly upset her. Most wouldn't notice, but he'd spent enough time around her that he'd recognized the slight tensing in her shoulders, as well as the imperceptible strain on her face.
He sat on the bed and motioned for her to join him, which she did. "When… I was looking for the spell that took Cyborg, I found something. It's complicated, and it would be a one-way ticket, but," She took a deep breath before looking at him in the eyes. "I can send you home."
He… he could go home! He could see his friends. He could become Hokage! He grinned. This was great! He could… leave. His smile slowly fell. He'd never be able to come back. He could never sleep in the tower, or hang out with the Titans. 'I could never see Raven again.' It was this last thought that really bothered him. He liked the other Titan's, he really did. They were his friends. But his dream, his village, and his other friends were back in the Elemental Nations. But, could he really leave Raven?
It wasn't just that he felt he had to help her with Trigon, though that was a small part of it. It was her. It was everything about her. Her smile, which she'd begun to show more. Her laugh, which sounded so beautiful. Their teasing, meditating together, spending time together, everything. He… couldn't. He couldn't leave her. She inspired feelings in him that he'd never felt before. It was like all the pain he'd been through, all his suffering, just faded into a distant memory, only to be replaced by a feeling of bliss. His feelings for Sakura hadn't even come close to what he felt for the girl sitting next to him. At this thought, he made his decision.
As he came out of his reverie, Naruto realized Raven had been talking. "… take a few days to prepare the spell, and you'll need to send a beacon with the toads, but-"
"Raven." He interrupted her. "I'm not going."
"What?" She asked, surprised.
"I'm staying here." 'with you.' He added in his head.
Raven turned away. "If this is about Trigon, then-"
"This is not about him." Naruto denied.
Her head whipped around and she snapped at him. "Then why!" All the stress she'd been bottling up, what with Cyborg and Trigon and now this, came bursting out. "You have friends there! You have a surrogate mother! You can be Hokage! You're a hero there, it'll be easy to make the family you've always wanted! So why! Why are you staying here!" A lifetime spent under the prophesy had made her believe that she was destined to be alone. Her friends had been slowly helping her through that, but after Malchior, she'd convinced herself that she'd never be wanted romantically. It's why she'd never acted on her feelings for the whiskered blonde, and it was why she was totally blind-sided by what Naruto said next.
"Because you're here."
"What?"
"I don't know how to explain it." He explained, frustrated. "When I'm with you I'm… happy. I feel more at peace than I ever have before. And the thought of leaving you… it physically hurts. I just can't." He gazed into her eyes, talking with such emotion that it was a wonder he couldn't hear her heartbeat. "I- I think I…. that I-"
Anyone who knew him would be shocked. The blonde idiot who always spoke his mind, that could turn enemies into friends with a speech, was struggling to say a few words. Luckily for him, Raven had decided that she didn't need words as she pulled Naruto into a kiss.