59Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or DC Comics
1. Starting From Somewhere
Gotham City wasn't exactly the nicest of places to live in.
In fact, some people would say that it was something of a veritable concrete nightmare. With good reason to, the city had been earmarked as the worst city in America for god knows how many years, some had the inkling suspicion of it being such since it's founding.
The city had a sprawling crime problem. One would throw a stone in one direction and it would more than likely end up falling on a recent crime scene or better yet, depending on the person, on the person who's asking.
Although Gotham still boasted the title and distinction of being the worst city in America, people would grudgingly accept that the city had got much nicer in recent years, and all because of one person.
Batman.
Gotham's dark knight.
The man who led the charge against the city incessant corruption and crime, and still doing to this very day.
Of course, for a city the size of Gotham and the ridiculous crime rate the city was subjective to over every single day, it would be impossible for just one man to go after every single crime. That and the fact that the bat-themed superhero occasionally left the city to take care of international business with other super-powered beings that fought on the side of justice meant that he had to have someone to come in and pick up the slack and keep the good criminal population of Gotham terrified enough for them to think twice, or thrice about committing any sort of criminal act.
That's were he came in. Robin, the Boy Wonder and one of the members of the Bat family.
Tonight seemed to be one of those nights. Batman was away doing whatever the Justice League did when it required Batman to be there, leaving Gotham free and clear for him and his fellow sidekick in Batgirl to traverse the city, stopping crime.
Robin always did find something amusing in the fact that the more dangerous elements of Gotham's criminal underground had something of a obsessive relationship with the man in black himself. Whenever he was away from the city, all of the big criminals like Joker, Killer-Croc, Penguin, Riddler all seemed to take the day off, as if it was a public holiday.
But who was he to care about that? He loved times like this. It gave him and Batgirl the freedom to take care of the seedy elements of Gotham without having the man himself watching over their backs every single time whenever they had to take care of some criminal element.
It just so happened that on this particular night, he was finally closing in on a criminal deal that was happening. It was nothing major. A small deal between two of the many criminal gangs that Gotham seemed to boast. If it had been one of the major gangs, Batman would have got wind off it one way or another and put an end to it.
He would certainly not have given such a task to one of his two wards, let alone both of them.
Going over his facts, Robin swung over to the shadows of a nearby roof before making his way to the edge of it to peer down, to get a lay of the land, the numbers of the foes he would most likely have to give a large amount of debilitating injury.
When he did reach the rooftop edge and peered down, he certainly wasn't expecting to see the gangsters that he had been chasing lying face down in the ground. He could hear faint groans of pain and see slight movements from the ones that didn't seem to have been just knocked out plainly,
"Well now, that can't be right." The Boy Wonder said as he looked down at the scene below him rather confused. Making sure that he anchored his hook, he began to reel himself down to the ground below, one hand going to activate his communicator, "Batgirl, where are you?"
It took a moment before the sound of his fellow teenage partner in the war in crime finally spoke up, "South Gotham, why?"
"Oh nothing, just wondering." The two had something of an agreement in the works when it came to who tackled what when it came to their nightly activities. They sometimes even fought, but that was neither here nor there. Right now, all he knew that Batgirl was on the other side of town and thus whoever had done this was certainly not Batgirl, the only other person he knew off who could have done this.
"You sure?" Batgirl's question came over the intercom as he landed in the alleyway, "Is this about that deal? You need help?" He could hear the worry in her voice.
He shook his head, as if Batgirl would somehow be able to know he had shaken his head over the communicator, "No." Robin said as he moved towards the nearest body, "I have it covered. It seems something went down during the deal." He looked around and noticed guns lying around. It seemed none of the users never had a chance to fire a single round before whoever took them out, well, took them out.
Something had clearly happened here. Maybe the deal had gone bad, a disagreement between the two parties. It wasn't as if such a thing was new. Most deals in Gotham somehow always ended up with a death one way or another, 'Maybe a third party got interested in what was being sold.' It was unlikely. He was only seeing the colours of the two gangs he knew that were in the deal themselves.
"Alright," Batgirl said, relenting, "Don't get in over your head."
Robin wanted to snort. Who did she think he was? He never got himself in any situation that was in over his head. No way.
...Maybe sometimes, but that was when he was young and still learning the perks of the job. Now he liked to consider himself older and far more wizened.
He knelt at one of the groaning bodies and rolled him over, "Hey, who did-." He stopped when he noticed the man was clutching at his shoulders, his hands a red colour and glistening in the moonlight. Robin quickly checked him over for any other injuries. They were other injuries, but injuries meant to debilitate or paralyze, nothing to kill, "This seems really, really familiar..."
Robin quickly got up and started looking around. A glint of metal attracted his attention. He walked towards the object and picked it up, "A shuriken..." He muttered to himself as he looked over the weapon, turning it within his hands, "I should have known." He finished quietly.
He should have known that this entire scene, let alone the whole situation would have attracted the attention of Gotham's resident pest criminal. Well...Robin didn't know whether to call him a criminal or not.
What did you call a criminal who stole from other criminals?
'Maybe he's still around.' Always think positive. He needn't have worried about the state of the gangsters. The new guy never seemed to kill anyone...well, to his knowledge either way. That and the fact that the deal had been supposed to happen at 11 on the dot.
It was 11:03.
Whoever had done this was quick to take care of that group within the span of a couple of minutes. But then again, this was to be expected. If who had done this was the same person he was thinking off, then it wouldn't be a surprise.
Also, this presented an opportunity, an opportunity to have a chance to finally get eyes on the person that has been ducking him and Batgirl for nearly two years now.
Taking to a nearby rooftop for a bird's eye view of the area, Robin took the chance to look around. Rooftops was always a way to go when one wanted to quickly make way from one place to another, case in point, the Bat-family, and every other person with the necessary physical skills and tech to jump from rooftop to rooftop.
If one wanted to be all incognito with their getaway, they certainly did not use the rooftops.
So that only left one other solution; the alleyways. That and the fact that he had made his way here on the rooftops and he had not seen movement making his way here.
'Now if I had I just stolen from a bunch of criminals, what would I do?' Robin thought as he looked around, the night vision option of his mask activated. He noticed the bright lights of Gotham downtown immediately attracted his attention, 'Alright then, that's one way to go.'
Robin quickly started combing the backstreets and alleys that lead downtown before he noticed movement from the corner of his eye as he swung overheard, 'Got you!' He thought as he quickly changed his trajectory to land on a nearby building. He quickly landed before firing off his grappling hook, he quickly rappelled down to the ground below, right in front of the mysterious , "We finally meet face to fa-." He stopped when he took a look at the runner, "Okay...face to mask then? And here I was really hoping to finally have a good look on your face."
The masked person snapped his fingers and pointed at him, "You can't talk. You have that stupid mask on your face."
"I wear mine for a reason." Robin replied succinctly, "What's your excuse? You don't want people to know that you're a criminal? And what is yours supposed to be?" The mask itself was white and was shaped and seemed to be made to be like one of those Japanese festival animal masks, this one in the shape of a fox with orange markings across it.
"Dude, that's so not cool." The fox-masked person replied evenly, seemingly sounding somewhat offended, "Just because I'm wearing a mask does not equate me a criminal. That's just a generalisation, and everybody knows generalising things is such a bad thing to do. You can make an ass out of yourself."
Well, this was certainly not what he had been expecting when he finally got face-eh, mask-to-mask with one of Gotham's pest criminals, "Alright then, what's in the bag?" Robin asked, a slightly amused smirk on his lips. If anything, this guy was highly entertaining.
The fox-mask wearing thief turned to look behind him, most likely staring at the backpack on his back. He then turned to look back at Robin, "...My gym clothes?"
"Nice try." Robin was quick to fire off several batarangs aimed at spots of the body that hurt when hit...essentially anywhere on the human body. What surprised Robin was that his adversary was equal to him as he whipped out several shuriken that bounced off his batarangs, stopping them mid-flight, "...Well, I didn't expect that."
He laughed, "Well, if you fight me, you won't be expecting a lot of things." The fox-themed mask wearing thief then stopped laughing to look at Robin, "Okay, don't you have better things to do? Isn't there some madman out there that needs stopping or something like that?"
Robin shook his head, "Unfortunately for you, no. It's a quiet night in Gotham today."
"If that's the case, go stop some real crimes. I'm sure you'll find someone needing of a dose of healthy ass-kicking."
Robin pointed lamely at him, "You need a dose of healthy ass-kicking."
"For what?"
"Stealing."
Robin could practically feel the young man in front of him rolling his eyes behind that mask of his. Yes, he knew it was someone fairly young speaking from behind that mask. His voice might have been warped by his mask to a degree, but he was still able to tell that whoever was behind the mask was someone young, probably a teenager like him.
Which beggared the question of what the hell he was doing stealing from gangs and criminals. Sure, who he had been stealing were small-time, but there was going to be a certain point in time when the person he stole from was most likely going to be connected one way or another to the bigger criminal elements of the city.
"Stealing?" The fox-masked thief questioned dryly, "Stealing from criminals doesn't count as stealing."
"...You did not just say that." What sort of dumbass logic was that? How was he brought up in the world?
"I just did." He ran a hand through his somewhat vibrant blonde hair that seemed to reflect the light of the moon, "I would just love to hear you report that to the police, 'Hello? Police? Yeah, I just came by to drop this guy because he stole money from some gangsters that were about to use that money to buy guns from another gang.'"
When he said it like that, Robin did have to admit that what he was doing was pretty stupid and rather difficult to explain to the police. Essentially, what this person was doing was public service, much like himself, except that he was going to walk away from this with five grand in cash.
...But it wasn't like he was going to admit that, "So you just admitted to taking money from those gangsters?"
A silence lulled between them as they just looked at each other.
"Did you..." The thief began, "Did you just pick only that from everything I had just said?" He shook his head, his messy blonde hair swaying with each shake of the head, "You know what, I'm just going to go now. Some of us have things to do in the morning, like school."
Oh wow, he was still school. He just admitted that, even as begrudgingly as he had, 'Then again, I can't talk.' He was still very much in school himself, "You can try, but I'm not just going to let you go like that."
"We'll see." Robin found himself having to move quickly to avoid several flying metal stars sent in his direction by the thief, 'Talk about sleight of hand.' He was just as quick as he was, maybe faster when it came to drawing and throwing his batarangs, 'He's definitely been trained.' That thought brought a load of questions that would have to be answered, questions that could be answered as soon as he brought him in. He went to meet him only to notice he was gone, "Alright, what?"
He would have lost him if it wasn't for the fact he saw a shadow move in the alleyway that prompted him to look up, "Well, that's certainly is new." Was he running up the wall? Yes, yes he was actually running up the wall of the alleyway. And he was running pretty damn fast as well.
Robin quickly drew out his grappling gun that quickly sent Robin up to the roof, allowing him to land right in front of his target just as he had finally appeared on the top of the building. He took this moment to finally get a good look on his target as the moonlight gave him a clear view and there was no shadows obstructing it.
The thief wore black clothing that consisted of a long sleeve black shirt with a collar that seemed to extend up his neck and underneath his animal-themed mask. Above the black shirt, he wore a dark-grey coloured, slim looking combat vest, black pants with black boots that went up slightly above his ankles. He also had what looked like to be dark-coloured metal arm guards, protective, dark coloured elbow and knee pads on his clothing, combat gloves, two supply pouches located at the back of his waist and what looked like to be a kunai pouch on his right thigh.
Robin took a moment taking this in before speaking, "You are taking this whole ninja thing to the extreme aren't you?"
"I am a ninja if you must know." The self-confessed ninja admitted somewhat heatedly, "So in all honesty, I'm not really taking anything to the extreme."
Robin squared him off, preparing himself for an encounter against, from what he had already seen, a very tough opponent, "I'm going to admit, I have been looking forward to this."
The reply was quick and blunt, "I haven't." He had been doing his damn best to make sure that he never attracted the attention of anyone that went around with a cape or was related to the Batman in any single way. He didn't need that sort of attention on him.
Robin ignored that last statement, "I have always wanted to see who was capable of ducking me and Batgirl for nearly two years. All we got from the people you stole from was that they didn't see you coming. One minute, you went there, the next you were."
"I like surprising people." The ninja admitted freely, "In fact, some people think I'm the number-one, most surprising ninja that is currently in existence and will ever live. Be humbled in my presence."
"I think I would prefer to knock you senseless." Robin stopped for a moment and gave him a curious look, "So...who are you supposed to be anyway? Me and Batgirl a name for you, well, loads of names for you, but for posterity's sake, I think I would like to hear it coming from the horse's mouth."
The ninja didn't reply. Instead, he just stood there, staring at him from behind that porcelain looking mask of his before he finally spoke, "To be honest, I never really thought of a name. I never actually planned in running into any of you." He rubbed the back of his head in a sheepish manner, "Rather stupid now that I think about it." Of course he would have run into Batman, Robin or Batgirl sooner or later, although personally, he would have preferred Batgirl, but that was neither here nor there.
Done of talking, the thief rushed forward, surprising Robin by the speed he could move at as he was quick to appear right in front of him, in the motion of already throwing a punch. Robin brought up his hands into a cross-guard to protect his face from the punch only to feel his bones jar from the punch as he found himself lifted off the ground slightly and sent flying back before he regained his footing.
He suppressed the urge to shake out his hands, 'Okay, he can hit hard.' Very hard. Not as hard as say someone like Superboy or Wonder Girl but hard enough to know that several clean hits or more were going to make his life a living difficulty for the foreseeable future, that and the bruises that they brought along with them.
'He might be faster and stronger,' Robin thought as he ducked underneath a round-house kick that would have been sure to catch him on the temple. And with the strength of his punches and kicks, he was sure that it would have left him out cold and if not, very debilitated that he wouldn't be able to do anything afterwards, 'But I'm better grounded.' Robin flowed smoothly, showing all his martial technique as he flowed from the duck to a leg sweep aimed to take out his legs.
His attack would have worked to if it hadn't been for the fact that the mask wearing thief had lifted his leg and allowed the momentum from his kick to spin him in the air. Robin was surprised by that act, "You have got to-." He stopped speaking when he noticed a glimmer of dark metal before abruptly ducking to avoid having a throwing star lodged to his skull, "Hey! That nearly killed me!"
"That was rather the point." The thief readily admitted, as if he was talking about the weather or he was just shooting the breeze, "But don't worry, I knew you could dodge it." This time, he took it upon himself to restart the fight and proceeded to fire several punches in Robin's direction, all of them aimed at different parts of the body.
"Gee, thanks. It's so nice to know that you care about my wellbeing." Despite the fact that he was trying his best to hurt him. The dark haired Boy Wonder was now of the mind that this was no ordinary thief. He was well grounded when it came to fighting and he was starting to think that there was something about him that might have made him a meta-human, running up walls not included in that observation.
Periodically training with one of the world's best martial artists and then some allowed Robin to catch at the wrist a right hook that had been aimed for his jaw before taking an inward spin and planting his elbow into the chest of his opponent. He could hear the rush of air that was knocked out of his opponent before Robin planted himself and then throwing him over the shoulder in a leverage toss.
The thief was able to catch himself in mid-air before righting himself so that he landed on his feet and not damage himself from an unwelcome landing. A hand was located where Robin had landed his punch and he looked up at him, "Okay, that hurt." He said, his breath slightly laboured as he regained the air that was literally knocked out of him.
Robin didn't bother replying as he went into his pouch and threw several balls at his opponent. The thief didn't have time to protect himself or use his own inventory of weapons to block the balls before they neared him. He braced himself for impact but found himself confused when the spherical metal looking balls merely bounced off him harmlessly.
He looked down at them, before looking back at Robin, "What was that supposed to do?"
Robin smirked. His smirk visible to his opponent from underneath his domino mask. The metallic looking balls then suddenly burst out in a sudden blare of light and noise, "That." Miniature flash bang grenades, courtesy of Wayne Industries. Not that he was going to say that out loud.
As the effects of the grenades receded, Robin was quick to pull out a bola from his supply pouches, twirling it in the air in readiness before seeing the shadow of his opponent. He threw the bola and smiled to himself in victory when the bola wrapped itself around his opponent.
He made towards him, confident in his victory, "Wait till Batman hears about this. Although, admittedly, you are small-time, quite small-time, you are still a pest criminal. It would be good to have you out of the streets for a while."
Much to his surprise, the thief replied, "For stealing from criminals? I'll be out in no time." It seemed any other criminal that had been locked up in this town, in fact, this entire world did not stay in jail for long. He sometimes wondered why the people that called themselves superheroes even bothered capturing them in the first place. Some of the baddies running around were complete psychos, wouldn't it have been far easier for them to just kill them and be done with it? Well, it wasn't his place to be philosophical.
It seemed his words had an effect on Robin as he had something of a small frown on his face, "Then I'll be here, waiting to catch you again." He declared as he neared him. Robin then stopped when he noticed that his opponent had something of a smile on his face. A smile that was rather suited on someone who was victorious in something, rather than tied and up and bound, "...What are you smiling about?" He asked, suddenly wary.
"Oh right, there's probably something you should know."
Robin was now in front of him, looking down at him, "What?"
"There's never one me in any given situation." The thief replied...from behind Robin.
Robin felt his eyes widen, surprised that someone had been able to sneak up on him like that, someone who was not Batman. He whirled as he tried to move away from the voice but found a strong grip clutching his arm. He was drawn in before he found himself at the receiving end of a head-butt that send his head recoiling back and that was also sure to leave him with a headache in the morning. He tried to escape from the grip by lashing out with his leg, directing his kick at the head of the thief, but he ducked underneath it.
He felt his planted leg getting itself kicked from underneath him before a hand placed itself on his face and smashing him into the ground. He had definitely felt that one. Robin tried to rise, despite his head swimming from the repetitive and powerful blows to the head, "Stay down. I don't want to hurt you more than I've already have."
Robin tried to get up, but his head and body seemed to exist on two different planets, "Nice of you to care for my health." Was he seeing stars? No, those were just black spots, "Just who are you?"
Robin, the Boy Wonder thought he saw the thief shrug. Shrug and a puff of smoke from beside him, where the other thief had previously been, "Honestly? I don't have a name. I never planned into running into you or Batman." He stopped for a moment, seemingly thinking about something, "...Although, I don't think I would have minded running into Batgirl. I'm a big fan of hers."
Robin rolled his eyes, "Of course you are."
The thief secured the bag that was on him and made to move away. He gave a parting wave, "Well, this has been fun. Let's never meet each other again, or do anything like this again."
The spots were starting to leave him now and the swimming in his head was starting to recede, but he definitely knew that he was going to need Alfred to check him out when he returned to the Batcave later on. He wondered if he would still be able to put on a pursuit for the masked thief.
'Argh...He doesn't even have a name.' That was the worst of it. He had been doing his job so well, of stealing from other criminals and getting away with it that he didn't even feel bothered naming himself, in the hope that he would never have to run into anyone that he would need to introduce himself to. He heard the sounds of thunder from the sky and a flash of light that could only indicate lightning, 'Great, now it's raining.' When he reported this to Batman and by extension, Batgirl, she was probably not going to let him leave this down.
XxX
(Later)
He was soaking wet down to the bone by the time he entered his literal home away from home that had been his home for the past three years. His boots made a squish sound whenever they met the contact, "Great, that's something to look forward to do tomorrow." He muttered to himself, not really looking forward to cleaning up to the mess he had made. A suddenly realisation came about him as he stopped, eyes widening behind his mask, "Oh god, the money!"
He quickly forgot all else, tearing his fox themed mask away from his face and throwing it suddenly away from his face. He dropped to a knee as he quickly removed the backpack from his back and might as well have ripped the zip from off the bag as he opened to look at the contents inside.
The outside of the backpack, which was a dark grey in colour had been soaked by the rain to the point that it now looked closer to black than dark grey that it originally was. Of course it would be his luck for today to rain that particularly heavy.
The outside of the bag might have been soaked, but it seemed inside of the bag was coated with fleece, giving the contents of the bag, some protection from the rain, "Safe." He allowed himself to sigh out as he slumped back onto his backside, leaning his head back to look at the ceiling in the dark of the night.
A flash of lightning revealed that the ceiling was a rather dour looking cream colour.
The thief that had previously found himself tangling with one of Batman's prime protégé not long ago found himself thinking, thinking back to home. Not this place, but his real home. A world completely and utterly different from this rather strange one that he had found himself in.
Not for the first time, Naruto Uzumaki wondered just how he had come to be in this world?
Did he die at the Valley of Death when he clashed with his supposed friend Sasuke?
If he did, was this supposed to be his reincarnation?
Naruto for starters, didn't know what reincarnation entailed, but he was sure that from everything he had read, it certainly wasn't supposed to go like this. He had his memories about his time in the Elemental Nations. Every experience, feeling, memory.
Where you supposed to remember such things when you were reincarnated? Naruto didn't think so.
So Naruto had come to the only conclusion that he had come to that made sense, which he had quickly come to think as the only solution due to the fact that he came from a world that included a lot of things that could be taken as out of the extra-ordinary but were merely par of the course.
Apparently, as ridiculous as it sounded, he had somehow managed to find himself in an alternate world or universe or whatever it was. Naruto didn't particularly care what it was, as long as he could go back home.
Considering everything that was possible in this world, he was sure that there was something in this world that could be of use. Something that he could use that would allow him to go back to the Elemental Nations, were all of his friends were.
He couldn't actually believe he was thinking this, but he actually missed the old lecher that was Jiraiya or the Granny Tsunade. Naruto rose from his place of seating with a small smile on his face, 'If Jiraiya was here, he wouldn't want to leave.' He would most likely go around leering and perving at every female that went around in leotards that seemed to be the norm amongst the super-powered female population of this world.
Whether they be heroic or villainous. Jiraiya was sure not to discriminate.
He needed a shower or at the very least dry himself up from the rain. He cast a look in the direction of the digital clock that sat above his moderately sized tv set. It read 12:48AM. Well, it wasn't that bad considering everything else. It could have been later, 'And I have school in the morning.' He sometimes wondered why he even bothered with the thing. It had been an entire misunderstanding that had resulted in him being forced to go to school in the first place.
It was just his luck to run into one of the few extremely straight cops that ran around Gotham in the middle of school hours. He could still remember the face of the damned woman who looked down at him with that self-righteous look as he minded his own business. That and her name as well, some detective by the name Renee Montoya.
Why he bothered to continue to school, three years after the fact was beyond him. Maybe it was some longing for a sense of normality or some other in him? Despite his hatred for everything that included learning that did not involve any ninja-ing whatsoever.
Argh well, that was another thought for another time. Right now, he needed some sleep. A sleep would do a whole good for now. When he woke up in the morning, that was when he would start worrying (or not) about the fact that he had encountered a member of the Bat family for the first time since he started stealing money from criminals.
What this meant, Naruto would honestly admit that he didn't know, nor did he particularly care. Although it irked the ego that was within him thinking of himself as such, but he was rather small-time compared to some of the madmen that ran around Gotham.
All he did was steal money from criminals, actually, he didn't steal, it was more in the sense that he was repurposing those funds for himself to be used for better things that did not involve drugs or guns or anything of the likes.
He even donated a certain percentage of money to charity every time he brought it in. So he wasn't doing anything bad in the strictest of senses, anyway.
That was his logic and he was sticking to it.
It wasn't like he could get any care from the state...he wasn't even a citizen of the United States...or this particular world anyway.
Frankly, one of the few good things that he could thank Gotham about was the fact that crime was so rampant that it was easy for one person, with enough funds and knowing the right people, to get themselves some fake I.D. Something someone in Naruto's situation needed in case for emergencies.
But sometimes he wondered why he had bothered. It was as if no-one in this city cared about that that.
'I suppose that's just Gotham.' He mused to himself as he slumped onto his bed. Strangely enough, the boom of thunder, the flashes of lightning and the pitter-patter of the rain was soothing enough to lull him to sleep rather quickly.
XxX
(Next Day - Gotham Heights High School)
When Barbara had returned to the Batcave after her nightly patrol of Gotham, she had come to be greeted with the sight of Robin receiving medial attention from Alfred. The Boy Wonder as he was also known had received several stitches to the back of the head. All stemming from a fight with a thief that the Bat-family knew nothing about.
Barbara had got her laughs out of it for a bit, taking pleasure at the looks Tim had cast her but she had got over it quickly enough. Whoever this thief was, he had been skilled enough to take down Robin and sneak up on him if what he said was to be true.
From what she knew, there were a very few people in the world that could sneak up on her and Tim. That was disconcerting in some way. Strong enough to fight Robin and win? Whilst also at the same time, having a level in stealth that allowed him to sneak up on him? With all those questions, Barbara had found herself rather curious as to who this thief was and why he was relatively small-time with everything he did.
He never did anything major that could potentially propel him into the big leagues so to speak, 'Then again, why would he want to bring attention to himself like that?' Everything Tim had said had lead them to believe that fighting against any members of the Bat-family were strictly something he wasn't interested in.
Ever.
And doing something that would propel him up the criminal ladders of Gotham seemed to be something that would attract the attention of Gotham's premier protector and his associates. Even if Batman couldn't do it himself, he could very well send either herself or Tim or both after him.
After all, he had been something of a pest criminal.
He had just happen to run into Tim by pure coincidence really. The thief (they had yet to come up with a code-name for him) had simply targeted a group of gang bangers that so happened to have been on Robin's own radar.
She was also surprised to learn from Tim that the guy was supposedly rather young as well, 'If he was young, then that would explain why he's thinking that stealing from low-timers wouldn't come back to bite him royally up the arse.' One way or another, someone was connected to someone, who was connected to one of the major criminal elements of Gotham.
And that major element might not take it to kindly to have their cash inflows hurt. But this wasn't the time to be thinking about such things. She had all the time to think about that later, right now, she was in the middle of a lesson and needed to pay attention.
Barbara couldn't help but turn her head slightly to look at the person who sat beside her. She was met with a mop of unruly and messy bright blonde hair, with the head it covered face down on the desk on the desk and knowing from experience, the owner of the hair was most likely asleep.
Naruto Uzumaki was probably the strangest person Barbara had ever come to meet. He was a rather lively person when he wasn't sleeping in class. The only class he didn't seem to sleep in and enjoy was Phys Ed. and he seemed to be rather good at that class, good enough that he was periodically invited to run track for the school or join other sports clubs. And somehow, despite his constant sleeping in class, his grade-point average was better than what one would expect.
Naruto was certainly easy to talk and seemed to know how to make friends easily as well, but rather difficult to truly know him. For a person who was seemingly as open and lively as him, it was rather strange at how little the people around him knew so little about him apart from the basics that was his name, age and the fact that he lived alone.
'I don't think the people that are his 'friends' are truly his friends.' She thought. Due to the fact that she was a protégé of the world's greatest detective, she was rather aware of her surroundings and the people in them.
Naruto being one.
She knew that Naruto wasn't who he really said he was. His social security number belonged to a child that had died as an infant four years ago in North Dakota. And from his name alone, even though he certainly didn't look like it, it came to Barbara that Naruto may have been a victim of human trafficking.
When he came to the US or Gotham, she didn't know. Nor did she know how he was able to leisurely live his life like this if he was actually a victim of human trafficking, but it was something she never pressed or cared about. She just left him live his life.
And as the exemplary student that she was, that life did not include sleeping in class, especially next to her. She sighed before prodding him in the head with the butt of her ballpoint. She couldn't just allow him to sleep in class, even if he was somehow passing it.
He didn't move from the first prod to the head so she did it again. All she got for her troubles was a lazy swat from the blonde haired boy. She prodded him again.
This time Naruto stirred. He raised his head and turned to look at her, his chin resting on the table. Naruto probably had the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen. A rather attractive aspect of his, she would have to admit.
He looked at her with lidded eyes, "Mornin' Barb."
Barbara turned to look back to the front of the classroom, "It's after two in the afternoon."
Naruto blinked, "Then why the hell am I still awake?" He would still be taking his afternoon nap at this time.
Barbara levelled the driest look she could muster on him, "Because you are in the middle of a class?" She suggested, making sure he noticed the sarcasm in her voice.
Naruto grinned at her, "A class that I'm passing, thus giving me free reign to sleep within its confines." Barbara somewhat reminded him of Sakura, strangely enough. Barbara was definitely gorgeous. Long red hair, emerald green eyes and a fantastic body to go along with it. She also happened to be one of the smartest people he knew and the most athletic girl in school as well. Naruto thought the familiarity with Sakura was because it had something to do with the green eyes and the fact that Barbara Gordon was damnably smart. Smart like Sakura was.
The thought of Sakura soured his chipper mood somewhat. He turned his attention to the front of the class, raising his head and bringing a hand to wipe away the sleep, "That's some dumb logic and you know It." Barbara replied to him, continuing to right down notes in her notebook, "Don't you want to excel? Go above what is expected of you?"
"No thanks, I rather just pass." In fact, he would rather be sleeping right now, but he supposed that he could actually pretend to pay attention in class for the remainder of the school day. Very few of the teachers apart from Barbara seemed to bother him whenever he slept in their class. He guessed it had something to do with his strangely good grades, 'Now that I think about it, they were caused me no end of grief when I first started learning at this blasted school.' That was when he could barely keep-up or make-out what they were trying to teach him.
School in Konoha was vastly different from school in Gotham or this world by the looks of It.
From the corner of his eyes, he could see Barbara shake her head slightly. One couldn't have even caught the subtle shifting of her hair from the shake, "I don't get you. I've seen your grades, they are surprisingly good. And you sleep in class." She said, stressing the word 'sleep', "Think of what you'll be able to achieve if you didn't sleep in class. Do some extra work and you'll be able to enter any university you wanted."
Naruto found himself slumping in his seat. His face soured at the thought of university, "I can barely force myself to come to high school. What honestly makes you think I would want to go to university? I'd sleep through it all." Never mind that, he doubted he would get out of his room. And anyway, he planned on not being here by the time he was considered suitable age to go to university.
"And somehow pass and get a degree I suspect." Barbara returned, a tone of playfulness in her voice.
"Now you are just thinking too highly of me." High school level work had been enough of a pain to address. University level? He shuddered. He hoped to never find out.
Time must have gone faster than he thought, because the last bell rang. As always, Naruto was the first to his feet, bag on his back, "This was fun Barbara."
Barbara put away her stuff at a more orderly pace, "If you call 'fun' hearing you drool, snore and mutter in your sleep."
Naruto levelled a look in her direction, "I don't drool." Let alone the other two.
Barbara looked up at him with a smile, "I've sat next to you in several classes for the past few years Naruto. You drool."
"Liar." Naruto returned. He had never seen any drool whenever he woke up, so she had to be lying, "Well, this has been fun as usual Barb, but I'll be going now. Later." He said, leaving with a parting wave.
Barbara returned the wave, "Later."
XxX
(Later - Elsewhere)
Oswald Cobblepot, the man known as the Penguin to the Gotham underworld never really bothered to involve himself in the finer details and actions of his criminal life. In fact, he never did anything directly unless it was a last resort. Instead, the man had enough of a keen intellect to keep a healthy distance away from the masked vigilante of Gotham City that gave many of the people in his line of work nightmares.
But just because he knew that Batman was not someone to be trifled with did not mean that he was entirely innocent. He had many a things going on in Gotham, being one of the big players in the criminal underworld despite the fact that he never seemed to rarely take a foot outside of his rather profitable and popular bar, the Iceberg Lounge, despite his reputation as a criminal mastermind being public knowledge.
...And also of some of the people that attended his bar.
The Penguin had many a things going for him in the city and sometimes beyond. He just made sure that there were a lot of buffers between them and him so that in the event some of his dealings were discovered by the Batman, there wasn't really much he could do about them. And one of the facets of his multi-faced criminal business that he had a toe tipped into was that of weapons.
Well, to be more accurate, somewhere down the chain of command and business' that he owned, he had nominal control of one of the many street gangs that loitered Gotham. Street gangs weren't really that much of players whenever it came to the big picture of Gotham, but they were numerous enough to bring you easily disposable thugs and pawns to use in the correct manner.
And from the daily accounts he had revised, he hadn't been exactly pleased with some of the numbers that he was seeing.
The Penguin casually thrust the ledger that he had been reading to the side. He looked up to the representatives of the gangs that he controlled over. All of them were scruffy looking and were completely out of place in a club such as this, "So," He began, "Why have your monthly payments dropped?" The gang leaders looked around. Looked at anywhere other than the Penguin himself. The Penguin did his best to give them a disarming smile, "Come on now, I won't bite."
It seemed his words worked. One of them stepped up. He noticed that the colours the gang banger wore where that of green and gold. A member of one of the Irish gangs he surmised, "We keep getting hit by a thief."
"A thief?" The short, stunted, fat man asked, eyebrow raised in curiosity. He had heard about a particular thief that went round targeting gangs, but he had never been one of his problems or interfere with his operations directly. Until now it seemed.
The Irishman nodded his head, "Aye. We don't know what he looks like. We set a deal, a collection, anything. He seems to know and he hits us quick before we even know what's happened." The other gang leaders nodded along with him.
"Is that so?" Penguin's tone was still as casual as casual it could be, "Have you tried killing him perhaps?"
A different one stepped up. A latino this time, his hair slick and oily, "Si, boss. Traps, fake deals, nothing like that seems to work. He either never turns up or on the days he does turn up, the traps never work."
"Is that so?" Penguin dismissed them. He had thought of having them killed out of sheer incompetence alone, but that would do nothing for him. Instead, they will get a beating for their troubles.
With them gone, his attention was now brought to the attention of exactly how to deal with this supposed thief. He couldn't allow him to run around stealing money and hurting his investments. If he did, what would people start to think of him? In the seedy belly of Gotham, fear and respect ruled. Once you lost either or both, it would be difficult to earn them once more.
It seemed as if he had a pest to kill.
From what little he had heard about this thief, was that he had a liking for wearing a fox-masked mask. The British had outlawed fox-hunting, a shame really, he liked the sport. He supposed that he should have it revived here, in America. But the breed of fox that he was going to have hunted was certainly going to be different than what others would expect.
He decided he had some calls to make. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day and who knows, a couple of days later, Gotham was going to be a lively city.
AN: Thought I should do this and see where it goes. Expand my universe rather than keep to Got/ASOIAF since those stories will come to an end soon enough, but with DC it's open ended.
Right, just so I can say I said it, the DC continuity is a right royal mess. Sometimes it's awesome, sometimes it doesn't make sense, but I'll try to make it sense one way or another. So be warned, I'll be taking artistic license to the extreme here, some proper DC events haven't occurred but will occur in the future. I'll probably also mix-it-up a bit with the new DCnU, if all goes well in future chapters.
Oh yeah, Naruto codename, I'll admit, the names I'm thinking for are pretty basic or cliche. So you know what that means? throw me some lines people. Let's see if any of you can come up with a codename for the time-space displaced ninja to use. The ones that I'm thinking of have been used to hell and back.
It doesn't even has to be fox-related, just something that keeps into theme that A) He's a ninja B) Something to do with foxes I suppose C)...He's a ninja... you get the gist of it. Nothing that screams cliche if you would mind.
Well, I hope you enjoy it.
TheForeverKing