Date: March 29, 2015
Location: Winchester, Virginia
-x-
The roar of a barely maintained engine was m.u.f.fled out by the various mutters and whispers of the pa.s.sengers within the bus the engine powered. The blocky vehicle chugged along down the street at a tedious pace, causing one of its occupants to grown in annoyance.
"Why are we taking a bus again?" Illyana groaned.
"Because there are no taxis here and I don"t want to rent a car. It"s not my fault you teleported us to some random building in the city." Naruto answered from his seat next to her.
"And it"s not my fault that there"s no picture of the place he works on Google. And I picked the first picture I saw when I Googled the town." Illyana muttered.
"Well, then it"s clearly no one"s fault, and we"re just gonna have to accept the fact that we"re riding a bus." Naruto said curtly, folding his arms over his chest.
Illyana looked over at her partner, sighing as she said, "Sorry."
Sighing himself, Naruto said, "Me too."
"This is..." Illyana admitted, "I should"ve just let you do this alone like you wanted."
Naruto shook his head, "No, you"ve got every right to come along. That and…"
"What?"
Naruto sighed, "Well, things have been...well you know. It"s been awkward as f.u.c.k. And I think we just need to break the ice a little bit, you know? So, I figured this was the best way to do it."
"Right." Illyana said slowly. Turning to him, she said, "I agree. I mean, yeah sure, we made a huge mistake-"
"Huge." Naruto rea.s.sured.
"But, we"re adults. And we"re friends. We"re a part of a team. And when you"re all of those things, sometimes there"s gonna be a b.u.mp on the road."
"And this was just one of those b.u.mps?" Naruto asked.
"Exactly!" Illyana rea.s.sured, "We"ve just gotta stop being weird."
"Weird like when you almost got into a fight with Jessica Jones when we went to go talk to her about helping us out?" Naruto offered.
Illyana looked away at that, "She was being…well, an a.s.shole."
"I mean, technically she was, but that"s just everyday Jessica. She wasn"t actually trying to be rude." As soon as he said that, Naruto corrected himself, "Okay, well that"s probably not true…but you get what I mean."
"I just don"t like her." Illyana rationalized, "The way she talks to you just p.i.s.ses me off."
"Well she"s been helping me out, and will continue to help me out if I pay her." Naruto said.
"Why don"t you just make her a member then?" Illyana asked, though she was glad he hadn"t yet.
The blonde man shrugged, "Because I know she"ll say no. She"s a lone wolf kinda girl."
"Yeah well, she"s a b.i.t.c.h alright." The sorcerer mumbled much to Naruto"s hidden amus.e.m.e.nt.
With that, the two entered a slightly more comfortable silence. As the bus trekked on and on, a thought suddenly came up to the Master of the Mystic Arts trainee.
Looking at Naruto, she asked, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure." Naruto answered with a shrug.
"Why didn"t you learn any kind of magic from the Ancient One? Like, you could"ve learned how to use a Sling Ring and teleported to yourself home. h.e.l.l, a good chunk of the things I"ve learned could be useful to you." Illyana observed.
The blonde laughed to himself, scratching the back of his head, "Do you know how many people have asked me that?"
Illyana raised an eyebrow, "No?"
"Freaking everyone that is aware of my relationship with the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Every. f.u.c.king. One." Naruto explained.
"Well make it one more then." She said with a helpful smile.
"Fine." He relented, "I can"t do it, that"s why."
"You…can"t?"
"Yup. I can"t"
There was a thick pause as Illyana gave Naruto a blank look. Finally, she muttered, "That"s hilarious."
Naruto lowered his head in defeat, "I"m not joking." Looking over he explained, "I asked AC to train me in the ways of the Mystic Arts and she told me that I wasn"t capable of learning anything she had to teach…magically. She helped me get up to date information wise, but other than that all I did when I was at the temple was sit around and spar with anyone willing."
"But…you can breathe fire and walk on water." Illyana wondered.
"That"s not magic, that"s chakra. Chakra is the combination of the physical and spiritual energies my people are all born with. As you probably know, the magic you learn is dependent on a kind of energy called personal energy. Technically, personal and spiritual energies are brothers in almost every way, but my people are unable to separate our spiritual energies from the physical. The two are forever bonded to make chakra. They"re symbiotic of each other in that sense."
"So…you have the thing necessary to learn, but you can"t use it the way you need to actually learn it." Illyana summarized.
"There"re two others, universal and dimensional, but those are some advanced studies that require years of study and discipline after I get an understanding of personal energies." Naruto said with a shrug, "In other words I"m literally incapable of learning from the Masters of the Mystic Arts."
"Wow." Illyana mumbled, "That sucks."
"That"s exactly what I said." Naruto said.
Illyana pauses for a moment before looking over at the blonde again, "Why do you call her AC?"
Naruto gave a large smirk, "AC equals Ancient Chick."
The blonde mystic blinked at the stupidity of what she just heard, "You call the Ancient One, one of the most powerful sorcerers ever known, Ancient Chick?"
"AC for short."
"That"s so lame."
His smile growing, Naruto said, "That"s what makes it perfect."
She blinked again, "Does she know that that"s what it means?"
"I dunno." Naruto said with a shrug.
Illyana looked up as the bus came to a stop, "I think this is our stop." Pulling the cord above them, the two got up and exited the bus. Stepping off, they looked around before spotting their destination.
Pointing, Naruto said, "There it is, that"s where he works."
Illyana looked at the average sized grocery store in front of them, "I can"t believe someone who"s ranked by the world government to be as dangerous as Bruce Banner works at a local grocery store."
"Well, in his defense he is an ex-con who"d been in prison since he was nine years old. It"s not like he"s going to come out with every opportunity available to him." Naruto defended.
Walking into the store, Naruto looked around for an employee. Spotting someone behind the customer service desk, the two quickly walked over as Naruto asked, "Excuse me ma"am, but do you know if Owen Reece is working today?"
The woman, her lips smacking as she tore away at the gum in her mouth, asked, "Owen? Yeah." Looking them over she asked, "You his parole officer or something?"
"No, just some old friends." Naruto lied smoothly.
Seemingly believing him, the woman pointed towards the back of the store, "He works over in the dairy. Just knock on one of the doors if you don"t seem him."
Walking to the back of the store, the two looked around for the man that matched the picture in the SHIELD file. Not seeing him, Illyana walked over to the row of dairy doors as she gave a sharp knock on the gla.s.s.
"Can I help you?"
The two turning around, they found the man they were looking for behind them. A lanky young man around Naruto"s age with a dark complexion, he looked at them with barely reserved annoyance, his eyebrow twitching in both curiosity and impatience. His body was hunched in and his clothes disheveled, with barely kept hair and wrinkled work shirt that looked to be a size too big.
"Are you Owen Reece?" Illyana asked.
"…No." Owen said after some thought, trying to walk pa.s.sed them.
He stopped at Illyana said, "We read your file, Owen. What you can do…is incredible."
Owen narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Are you guys with SHIELD or something?"
"No." Illyana said, "We just wanna talk about a common interest we all have."
"And what"s that?"
Naruto and Illyana shared a look. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, Illyana opened a portal the size of a basketball right next to her, another of the same size opening next to Owen. Placing her hand through the portal next to her and out the other, she tapped Owen"s shoulder.
Owen, his eyes nearly bugging out of his skull in shock, looked back at the two in a new light.
"Think you can take a break so we can talk?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah…sure."
-x-
Owen, a cigarette in hand, leaned up against the building as he took a drag. Having taken them outside to the back of the store, Owen told them they could talk freely there.
"So…you both got powers like me. You want me to join your club or something?" Owen asked as he released a breath, smoke pluming from his lips.
"We read your file." Naruto said, "Your powers…they"re pretty scary. If you were to master them…I can"t even describe what you could be."
The man took another drag, "You know, I"ve heard this speech before. And, out of all of them, yours is probably the worst. And trust me, I ain"t no hero. What kind of club are you guys again?"
"We"re building a team to hunt down and protect a collection of items called the Infinity Stones." Illyana answered.
"Never heard of "em." Owen dismissed.
"You wouldn"t have." Said Naruto calmly, "But trust me when I say that they"re dangerous in the wrong hands."
"Trust you huh." Owen said, "And how do I know that you"re not the wrong hands."
"I understand if you don"t trust me. And, in all honesty I didn"t think you"d be up to join right away. Instead, I"m going to give you an opportunity." Naruto stated, "Let me teach you how to use your powers."
"Use my powers?" Owen asked.
"That"s right."
Owen took another drag, "You read my file, right?"
Naruto nodded.
"Then you know why I got locked up. I hurt people. I lost control, and because of that people died. After that I hated using my powers." Owen explained as he released the smoke from his lungs.
Naruto ran his hands through his hair, "Yeah, yeah I read that. That"s why I want you on my team."
Owen"s brow scrunched in confusion, "What?"
"I know what it"s like to hurt people with a power you can"t control." Naruto said softly, "I"ve hurt people, people I loved. I know what it"s like to hate that power and to shun the idea of using it. I know what it"s like to fight for every inch of control, all in the vain attempt that maybe one day you won"t have to hurt anybody else. I had to literally fight with myself over control. But in the end, it worked. And I don"t have to worry it anymore. My curse became my blessing. I can help you do the same thing."
The cigarette smoked down to the b.u.t.t, Owen looked it over as he said, "My mom used to call my powers a blessing too. Something would break around the house, and I"d be her big helper by fixing it good as new. But she was afraid of what the world would say about me if they found out. This was all before people with gifts were expected to become superheroes. This was when you expected to get ostracize. I grew up thinking I"d never be the world"s heroes. My mom always made sure to tell me that. But she thought I needed to use my gifts, that I needed to be a hero of something. So, she replaced herself with the world. I became her hero."
The cigarette b.u.t.t in his hand began to glow, quickly reforming into a full cigarette, good as new. Bringing it to his mouth, the tip on the other end lit up for a moment, lighting up the cigarette. Taking a long drag, he finished, "Then she died. And I hurt people. That kinda put a damper on the whole hero business."
"If you hated using your powers, how did you learn to do that?" Illyana asked, impressed at the small display.
Blowing another cloud of smoke, Owen answered, "I was in solitary confinement for my entire sentence. The only human contact I had was with Mr. Pierce, the warden, and a physician named Dr. Kirby. Mr. Pierce would try and sell me on how I should use my powers, and Dr. Kirby would make sure I wasn"t killing myself when I used them. Both of them would come by once, maybe twice a month. But the warden? He"d come in on a weekly basis. He"d ask me to train or use my powers in some way with the promise of a reward. Make ten copies of a brick, I"d get a softer mattress. Make the blocks disappear, I got a better meal that night. Make his clipboard bigger, he"d give me some school books to study. Make some evidence disappear, I got a bigger cell with a window. If I refused or failed to do what he wanted? He"d take those things away."
"That"s terrible." Illyana said.
Owen shrugged, "It made me learn the basics I guess."
"Then how about you come and learn the advanced stuff?" Naruto offered.
Taking one last puff, Owen flicked the cigarette away, "When the warden had me doing all that stuff, I told myself that if I ever got out of that I"d never be anybody"s monkey ever again. I"m not gonna dance for you man."
"Then don"t do it for me. Do it for yourself. Trust me when I say that getting the weight of that burden off your shoulders is the greatest thing you can do for yourself right now. Because if you don"t, you"re just holding yourself back." Naruto tried to argue.
Owen seemed to be getting agitated as the conversation continued to go in circles, "Look man, I can"t just go off with you guys. I"ve got the FBI all over me after SHIELD fell apart, that and I"ve got my job. The job I need to live. So, unless you can make all of those things go away-"
"We can pay you." Illyana cut in, "We"ve recently gotten a benefactor whose family is literally the richest in the world. That means a place to live too."
"Okay, but-"
"I"ll take care of the FBI." Naruto a.s.sured confidently.
Owen looked at him as though he were an idiot, "You can"t just "take care of the FBI.""
The warrior smiled at the challenge, "If I do, will you agree to at least come over and let me teach you?" Naruto offered hopefully.
Sighing in pure agitation, Owen rubbed his face with both hands, "Look, I…gotta get back to work." Walking pa.s.sed them, he stopped as he was about to turn the corner. Having an almost physical fight with himself, Owen finally relented as he turned back around, "If you do all the s.h.i.t you said you"d do, I"ll do it. But only then."
With that, Owen turned the corner as he jammed his hands in his pockets.
Looking at each other, Naruto gave a wide victorious smile, "I think we just got a yes."
-x-
A Month Later
Date: April 23, 2015
Location: Washington D.C.
-x-
"I can"t believe he"s late."
"I can"t really say I"m shocked. He"s a busy kid."
"A busy kid that can replicate himself." Captain Rogers shot back.
Tony shrugged, "He"ll show."
The two were sitting in a waiting room within the Headquarters of the CIA. Steve was sporting a standard black business suit, a pristine white dress shirt under the sharp jacket and a matching black tie wrapped around his neck. Tony was a little more casual, with a dark tan suit with a grey dress shirt that he"d neglected to b.u.t.ton all the way and lacked any kind of neck piece to tie it together.
Rogers squirmed in his seat, "You told him the meeting was at eleven, right?"
"Yup." Stark answered as he adjusted his shades.
"In the morning?"
"Pretty sure."
"What do you mean, pretty sure? Either you did or you didn"t." Steve barked in annoyance.
Tony shrugged again, "I"m not gonna pretend to know exactly what I said when I told him last week. If I didn"t, I a.s.sume that he would a.s.sume the meeting would be in the morning. Who has a meeting at eleven at night?"
"Well you know what they say about a.s.suming." The captain muttered.
"That it makes an a.s.s out of you and me?" Tony asked rhetorically.
"No," Steven looked at him incredulously, "Not to do it. Jeez."
"Oh. Well yeah, I guess that"s true too." Stark admitted.
Their back and forth was cut off by the door coming from the lobby swung open, revealing a rather disheveled Naruto as he asked, "I"m not too late, am I?"
Walking forward, he quickly tried to smooth out his impossibly messy hair before straightening his jacket. Wearing a dark blue business suit, Naruto looked strangely professional.
Tony smirked at the younger of the three, "No, no you"re right on time."
"Well, technically he is late." Steve corrected, "We just haven"t been called in yet."
Stark waved him off, "Exactly. We"re fine."
Sitting down next to Steve, Naruto muttered, "The boss kinda lost track of time and totally s.p.a.ced on when to send me."
"The boss?" Steve asked, only to quickly realize with a frown, "You"re a copy, aren"t you?"
The Shadow Clone turned his nose up in indignation, "We prefer the term, clone, sir."
"Well what"s he doing that"s so important that he couldn"t bother showing up in person?" Rogers demanded.
"He"s raiding a Hydra base." The clone answered, "And he"ll swap with me as soon as he"s done."
Tony raised an interested brow, "And that couldn"t wait, why?"
The shadow clone smirked, "We found the dead trickster G.o.d"s scepter, that"s why."
-x-
Moments Earlier
Location: Novi Grad, Sokovia
-x-
Perched upon a luscious European mountain range, the ma.s.sive compound once called Orlovoto Gnezdo, or Eagle"s Nest, shook as a ma.s.sive tremor ripped through the nearby area. The brick laid walls shifting back and forth, dust and loosened rubble bursting from the seams. Hanging light fixtures danced as another quake shook the facility.
"Who"s attacking?!"
"Is it the Avengers?! It has to be the Avengers!"
"We"re not seeing the thunder G.o.d, Stark, Agent Romanoff, none of them are showing up on our feed."
"Then who the h.e.l.l is tearing through our men like this? It"s unreal!"
Standing amongst the chaos was a man of true stoic façade. Noticeable taller than his subordinates, the man was dressed in a stiff dark green military uniform, a Hydra pin shining on his left breast. Running a hand over his shaved head, he turned his attention towards the large array of computer screens.
"It"s not an Avenger." The man claimed, the monocle sitting on his right eye gleaming in the flickering light, "I"d say it"s something just as bad."
One of the men occupying a computer turned to his superior, "What could possibly be worse than an a.s.sault by the Avengers?"
Glaring down at the center most screen, he lazily pointed out, "Him, the Maelstrom."
Everyone turned their attention towards the screen he was pointing at, their eyes widening as a man covered in a golden fire stampede pa.s.sed a squad of Hydra soldiers like a locomotive. Coming to a stop, the man somehow managed to spot the camera recording him, turning to it before giving a one fingered solute and a goofy smile.
"I can"t believe it." Whispered a well-dressed, middle aged man, "Why is he attacking?"
"Perhaps he heard about your experiments, Doctor List." The monocle baring man answered.
List glared, "Surely you meant our experiments Wolfgang. You"re just as guilty as the rest of us."
Wolfgang von Strucker sighed, "Indeed."
"What are our orders, sir?" Asked the closest soldier to Strucker.
Strucker turned at attention, "All outside forces are to converge onto the southern sector, that seems to be where he"s heading. Tell every superior officer in that sector that they are to hold off the Maelstrom for as long as they can while we secure as much data as possible. When we have what we need, they"ll hear a call to retreat. At no other point until then are they to try and flee, no matter what he throws at them, understand?"
"What of the laboratory, sir? The research?"
"We"ll get what we can, leave what we can"t. We can"t afford to be killed or captured. Not now after all we"ve accomplished." Strucker advised.
Doctor List stepped into the conversation, "And the miracles?"
Strucker scoffed, "They"re not ready."
"They"re the perfect weapon to distract him with. If we leave it to the men, he"ll be here any minute." List concluded, "You"ve seen the footage from the invasion, you know what he"s capable of."
Hydra"s number one thug ran his hand over his scalp once again. After an intense internal debate, he sighed, "Fine, send them out. If they"re overwhelmed, they"re to retreat. They only need to hold him off."
List smiled as he gave a smooth Hydra salute, "Yes, sir."
-x-
Naruto landed in a crouch, his head ducking low just in time to avoid a tanking unloading a sh.e.l.l directly at him. Shooting off towards it, ignoring the hefty explosion that went off a good distance behind him, Naruto expanded the chakra around his arms to increase the ma.s.s of his cloaked appendages, and heaved the ma.s.sive war machine onto its side with a horrendous thud.
Hearing another group of soldiers heading his way, Naruto extended his arm out with his hand shaped to look like a gun. Taking quick aim, bullets of pure wind zipped from his finger tip, pa.s.sing through the three soldiers as though they were tissue paper.
His senses telling him that a battalion of men were heading his way from the east and west, Naruto quickly clasped his hands together as he chanted in his head, "Acid Style: Wisdom Wolf Decay!"
He then took a ma.s.sive breath in before releasing a thick wave of pink corrosive acid into the large group of men coming from the west. The acid wafted pa.s.sed the trees and foliage, melting it as it did, quickly crawling towards the oblivious Hydra soldiers.
Drowning out the screams of pain that came afterwards, Naruto continued on his path.
"You gonna finally let me out, brat?" Kurama asked, clearly excited at the prospect.
Naruto shook his head, "Sorry buddy, this needs a bit more finesse then you"re capable of."
"I don"t know whether to be insulted by that or not." The fox muttered.
"I thought you always took my thoughts towards your more destructive side as praise?" The Jinchuriki wondered to himself.
Kurama shrugged, "Whatever, at least you"re finally doing something destructive."
"I destroyed what was pretty much a small town of militants like a few days ago."
"Yeah well maybe if you"d let me out more I wouldn"t feel the need to criticize your lack of bloodl.u.s.t." Kurama observed.
"Maybe if you"d stop b.i.t.c.hing about it, I"d consider it." His container shot back.
"I hate you so much right now."
"Hate isn"t a strong enough word to describe your feelings for me." Naruto quipped.
The beast made of chakra nodded in acceptance, "You"re right, how about abhor? Maybe loathe. Oh no wait, despise. Yeah, yeah that"s good."
"Love you too bud-"
His thought was cut off as Naruto was suddenly knocked off his feet by a sudden blow to the back of his head. Tumbling forward, he quickly made to stop himself as he landed on his feet after a few smooth rolls. Squaring himself, Naruto looked around for whatever managed to hit him, extending his senses outwards as he did.
Suddenly, he heard what he could describe as someone"s feet hitting dirt at an incredibly rapid pace. It wasn"t a second later that he ducked his head under what would"ve been a nasty left hook as a blur of silver and blue blitzed pa.s.sed him.
The blur coming to a sudden stop, Naruto blinked at the man that looked to be around his age. Sharing a similar build as himself if only a bit bulkier, his brown hair was swept back from the speed he"d been going, silver streaks freckled along his hair line.
The man raised a curious eyebrow, "You saw that coming? Wow?" He said with general surprise, Naruto recognized his Sokovian accent, "You"re that man, right?"
Another voice came from behind them, this one feminine, "Of course he is, Pietro. Just look at him."
Keeping his stance on the now named Pietro, Naruto partially turned his attention towards the newcomer. Like the human blur, she was around his age, standing just under his chin with long brown hair decorated with scarlet red highlights. Her hands positioned out in front of her, Naruto raised an eyebrow as a strange red energy slowly enveloped them, her eyes glowing a matching shade.
Pietro scoffed, "I told you not to call me that when we"re working, Scarlet."
The woman shook her head as she kept her eyes on the blonde, "I"m not calling you Quicksilver, so you can just forget it." Her eyes shifted over to Pietro to give a quick glare of warning, "And don"t call me that."
The blur raised his hands up in a placating manner, "Fine, I just thought you"d like a cool codename like mine."
"I"m sorry." Naruto interrupted, "I don"t mean to cut into…whatever this is, but who are guys exactly?"
"Who we are doesn"t matter." The woman answered, the energy around her hands flaring, "All that matters is that we stop you."
"Oh, I get it." Naruto nodded slowly, his knees bending in preparation, "You"re with Hydra then."
Pietro shook his head, "We"re with whoever points us where we need to go."
Naruto glared at that answer but decided not to push it further. Instead, he quickly stomped his foot on the gra.s.s bellow, a column of earth rising up from the ground and throwing the woman into the air.
"Wanda!" Yelled Pietro, only to get a fist to the face as Naruto blurred into his vision. Stumbling back, he grunted, "d.a.m.n, you"re fast." As he said this his fist shot out like a bullet into Naruto"s guard.
The blonde ninja could admit to himself that Pietro was fast. His speed was comparable to Rock Lee or Guy-Sensei. But even then, it wasn"t fast enough for Naruto to lose track of him. He could see him just fine, it was just making sure he was quick enough to dodge the bone shattering strike.
Sidestepping the punch, Naruto let Pietro swing pa.s.sed him, pressing his hand into the blur"s back and shoving him forward. Off balance, Pietro was sent tumbling into the dirt. Coming to a stop, he was refused any reprieve as the Jinchuriki grabbed Pietro by his shirt and threw him into a nearby tree, knocking the wind out of him.
The sound of energy being projected caught Naruto"s attention, allowing him to see Wanda shoot up into the air using her strange ability. Landing right next to him, she threw her hands in his direction and weaved them upward. Feeling something grab ahold of his ankle, Naruto cried out in shock as he was thrown into the tree line, crashing through two trees before coming to a stop on the third.
Wanda"s red energy grabbed ahold of his throat, causing him to choke out in shock as he was pulled up to into the air, hanging limply as Wanda ran up to her brother"s side.
Choking as the energy"s hold grew tighter, Naruto quickly exuded Kurama"s chakra, breaking the hold. Falling to his knees, he coughed as he attempted to catch his breath.
"d.a.m.n, she"s strong." Kurama observed.
Naruto chuckled, "Yeah, didn"t see that one coming at all."
Kurama nodded, "The other kid"s fast too, but you can deal with that as long as you stick to any of the Cloaks. She"s a bit trickier though."
He wasn"t able to answer, as another grappling of energy wrapped around his arms and legs, keeping him still as a silver blur came rushing in, pummeling him in the face before coming back with a shot to the kidney. Each hit cracked bone, blood spurting from Naruto"s mouth as he pushed out his own energy once again to break the hold.
Catching the third punch, Naruto glared at the shocked Pietro as he drove his fist into his stomach, doubling the man over as he gasped for air. Grabbing him by the throat, Naruto let out his frustration with a large battle cry, lifting Pietro up into the air before slamming him down with enough force to crack the ground.
His small victory was cut off by yet another wave of energy rushing into him, sending him flying from the duo of Hydra compatriots. Landing on his feet, Naruto shot off towards Wanda, a Rasengan in hand as he went in for the finisher.
Wanda somehow seemed to expect a counter attack, as a thick wall of energy quickly came up in front of her just as he was on top of her. Slamming his signature attack into the shield, Naruto blinked in shock as the wall of energy actually managed to fight off the ball of spinning chakra. The pressure building up from within, the Rasengan burst in an explosion of chakra, sending the two flying back.
Bouncing off the ground harshly, he tumbled to a rough stop. Grunting as he got up, Naruto dusted the tree bark off his shoulders and hair.
His eyes landing on the downed Wanda, he slowly made his way to her side. Kneeling next to her, he reached over to check her wounds, only for her energy clad hand to shoot out and grab onto his head.
In that moment, Naruto felt himself get sucked into his mindscape against his will, gasping as consciousness left him.
-x-
Where am I?"
Naruto blinked as he realized he was in Kurama"s seal. Looking over, to see a very confused Wanda standing next to him. Huffing, Naruto answered, "We"re in my mindscape."
Jumping at his voice, Wanda quickly threw her hands up in what he a.s.sumed was her go to stance. Realizing nothing was happening, she blinked as she shook her hands as though she expected them to be faulty.
"You can"t use your powers here, intruder. This is my world after all."
Startled, Wanda jumped again, her eyes landing on the giant nine tailed fox sitting within a cell that accommodated his ma.s.sive state, "Whwhat? What the h.e.l.l are you?"
Kurama smirked, "I am Kurama, the Nine Tailed Fox. My tails cause natural disasters, my roar can destroy entire cities, and my mere presence is a challenge to the G.o.ds themselves. I am the harbinger of hatred, death, and despair. Most hate me, all fear me. So, don"t even think about challenging me, intruder. I will not hesitate to obliterate you and everything you love."
As Wanda stared up at Kurama with a mixture of fear and wonder, Naruto laughed, "I think that"s the best speech you"ve given yet, Kurama."
Said Tailed Beast looked down at his partner, "Of course, after all the best kind of boast is when it"s the truth."
Wanda went back and forth between the two, blinking rapidly as she tried to comprehend what was happening. Finally, she landed on Naruto, "What…what the h.e.l.l are you?" She repeated.
"I"m just…a guy." Naruto said with a shrug, "What exactly did you do to me?"
"I a.s.sumed you did this." Wanda admitted as she looked at Naruto in suspicion, "My abilities, they"ve never let me do this before."
"Hmm, well I"m gonna guess that you were trying to do some kind of mind thing to me." Naruto said. Wanda didn"t answer, instead continuing to glare at him, "Well if that"s the case, I"ve run into a lady who f.u.c.ked me up mentally before. After that, me and the big guy over there set up a safe guard."
"Safe guard?" Wanda couldn"t help but ask.
Naruto nodded, "Anyone that tries to brain **** me gets sent here to chat with us."
Wanda breathed in and out as she began to calm herself, "So, I can"t leave until you let me." She concluded.
"Yup."
"My brother won"t let you keep me here for long." Wanda threatened.
Guessing he was the super fast guy he was fighting, Naruto said, "This whole conversation is moving at a speed way faster than outside. By the time we"re done, it"ll have only been a few seconds out there. That"s how this seal works."
Wanda cursed to herself silently. Pulling from deep within herself, she dug as deep as she could into the confines of the energy gifted upon her.
Naruto raised an eyebrow as the woman closed her eyes in concentration, then gasped in shock as flecks of red energy began to leak from her hands and eyes.
Feeling a familiarity with the strange energy, a realization suddenly dawned on Kurama, "Naruto, that energy, it"s Cosmic-"
Everything around Wanda instantly faded away, the dreary backdrop of the sewer like cage disappearing.
Feeling as though she was in a free fall, Wanda opened her eyes to see the ground rushing up towards her. When her feet finally reached it, she came to a quiet halt. The sounds of birds chirping and children laughing immediately caught her ear, the woman looking over to see what looked like a bunch of kids meeting up with their parents after school. Feeling a presence next to her, she turned her head to see a young boy sitting on a lone swing set, his body positioned in the wrong way so that he could look over at the other children.
"Stop it." The boy muttered.
Wanda blinked, "What?" Looking around she asked, "Where is this?"
"Stop it." The boy repeated himself.
Getting a better look, Wanda realized that the boy was a younger version of Naruto, around five or six if she were to guess. A look of anguish was on his face as he stared over at the children and their parents.
Closing his eyes, he muttered, "Please…stop."
"I don"t-"
His eyes swinging open in a rage, he screamed, "I said stop!"
Feeling a sudden shift in the air, Wanda used her energy to try and calm the boy down before the realm fell apart. In doing this, a sudden flood of partial memories came pouring into her mind.
A man with a scar across his nose leaning over a scared Naruto, blood flowing from his back. A pretty girl in a pink dress talking about protecting what"s precious. A boy with a bowl styled hair cut being attacked by a wall of sand, the mobile grains wrapping around his arm and leg before crushing it to pulp. A raven-haired boy shoving his lightning covered fist into Naruto"s chest. An older Naruto talking angrily to a crippled man with long red hair about vengeance. An even older Naruto kneeling over what looked like a giant ma.s.s grave stone, crying as he etched another name into it.
But as quickly as they came, they were gone, and just like that the ground left Wanda"s feet once again, sending her into another free fall. Once again, the ground came rushing upwards, this time much, much faster. Bracing herself, she closed her eyes as she waited for the inevitable impact. Only it never came. Her eyes creaking open slowly, she sighed when she was back in the cage.
Naruto, huffing from having his mind tampered with, within Kurama"s seal no less, glared at the woman, "What…who…how did you do that?"
"I don"t-"
"Those powers." Naruto interrupted, "You"re using Cosmic Energy. It"s diluted, but when you use enough of it, it"s pretty obvious. Where did you get them from? Your powers."
"Why would I tell you?" Wanda demanded immediately. Huffing in desperation she asked, "What was all that?"
"My past."
Wanda looked at Naruto in shock, "That was real? You lived through all that?"
Naruto paused, "How much did you see?"
"I saw enough…I think." She mumbled, "How did you do it?"
"Do what?" Naruto wondered.
"I saw you talking to the man who killed your teacher, and you forgave him. How can you forgive someone who did something like that to you?" Wanda demanded.
The ninja rolled his shoulders in thought, "I didn"t see the point in continuing such a stupid cycle. If I killed him, the people of his village would"ve wanted to kill me in turn. And if they"d somehow succeeded, my friends would"ve wanted to kill them, and so on and so on. Catharsis doesn"t come from the end of a blade, but at the beginning of an olive branch."
Wanda shook her head, "You make it sound like it"s easy. It"s not. Not when nearly everything is taken away from you, and the person responsible gets off just because they claim to have had a change of heart. That kind of person doesn"t really learn from their mistakes. His victims aren"t given retribution."
"So you have to take that retribution into your own hands then, am I right?" Naruto asked, shaking his head, "There"s no such thing as retribution! Nothing can replace what"s taken from you, ever."
The woman narrowed her eyes, "I will never forgive Tony Stark."
Naruto"s eyes softened, "You asked me how I forgave him, earlier."
Wanda kept quiet, allowing him to continue out of curiosity.
"I never forgave him. He took away my master and destroyed my village. When I finally met him, it took everything in me not to kill him." Naruto frowned as he said, "But I recognized that all I was doing was feeding the thing I hated, that I wasn"t following my master"s teachings. I didn"t forgive him. I simply replaced my hate for him with something else."
"What"s that?"
"Understanding." Naruto answered.
Wanda scoffed, "And if that"s not enough?"
Naruto shrugged, "Sometimes it isn"t. Sometimes, it"s best to try and move on rather than let someone else"s life consume yours. You don"t have to listen to me, I"m just an a.s.shole who hates the concept of revenge. It"s destroyed so many people"s lives, a lot of them people I love." Looking to Wanda he asked, "What do you expect to get out of it?"
Wanda, at first so sure, caught herself hesitating. Before long, she was speechless as she tried to think of a valid answer. Finally, she said, "All I want is for it to feel like it wasn"t for nothing."
"It"s always for nothing." Naruto said softly. Walking up to her, he slowly rested a hand on her shoulder, "I think it"s time we left."
-x-
Wanda swayed back as consciousness finally returned to her, having to catch herself so as to not fall onto her back. Looking around, she saw her brother getting up as he glared over her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Naruto who had gotten up and was dusting up his pant legs. The man was looking back at Pietro, a stern look on his face.
"I"m done fighting you two." Naruto called out calmly, "Get you sister and leave."
Pietro growled, bending his body in before he dashed forward at an impossible pace in an attempt to tackle the man of fire. Naruto easily sidestepped him, the blur shooting pa.s.sed him with an audible whoosh.
As Pietro came to a stop and made to charge again, Wanda yelled sharply, "Pietro, enough!"
Stopping, he looked at his sister in shock, "Wha? But Wanda we-"
"I"m done fighting him." She declared, "Let"s just go."
"What about the base? We have to-"
"We don"t have to do anything for them anymore." Wanda said, "We got what we wanted from them, let"s go."
Pietro struggled with this, cursing to himself before saying, "Okay." Dashing to her side, he picked her up bridal style, "Where to?"
"Anywhere but here." Wanda answered. Giving Naruto a parting glance, she said, "Goodbye, Naruto Uzumaki."
Her brother raised an eyebrow, "How do you know his name?"
"I"ll tell you later." She said, though her attention was still on the frowning blonde.
"Oh, uh, okay." Pietro mumbled before sprinting away, the blue and red blur gone as gra.s.s and dirt burst from the launch zone.
"Well that was annoying."
Naruto, his gaze stuck where Pietro and Wanda had been standing, muttered aloud, "They weren"t all that bad."
Kurama scoffed in his seal, "You mean she wasn"t all that bad."
"Come on Kurama, let"s go."
-x-
Strucker looked over the screen, frustration wrinkling his features as he slammed his hands down on the table next to him, "The ungrateful rats!" He cursed, throwing his glare over to List, "I told you we shouldn"t send them out! The first sign of adversity and they flee!"
List sighed to himself, "I figured their resolve was stronger than that." He admitted, "I never expected them to run from a challenge given their new gifts."
"It doesn"t matter-"
"You"re right. It doesn"t."
Everyone in the run jumped in absolute shock, looking over to the corner of the room to find Naruto, his cloak deactivated as he lounged along the wall nonchalantly.
Giving a lazy single finger salute he blurted out a simple, "Sup."
Blinking rapidly as he tried to calm his nerves, Strucker stuttered, "Ho-how…how did you get in here?"
Naruto chuckled, "I swept through your men like the plague, and you want to know how I snuck into a room? You need to get your priorities straight man."
List, practically shaking, took a step back, "What do you want?"
"Loki"s scepter." Naruto answered plainly.
Strucker swallowed the lump in his throat, "We don"t h"
The man gagged as his throat was put into a vice grip by Naruto"s hand. The last shin.o.bi lifted Strucker up off the ground, glaring up at him as he growled, "You don"t even know what you have. Give it to me before you accidently mess with something you have zero understanding of."
"We understand enough!" List insisted, "With the scepter"s artificial intelligence, we can push the advancement of humankind forward by decades, if not centuries. We"ve managed to scratch the surface of this intelligence, if given more time-"
"Enough!" Naruto shouted impatiently. Taking several calming breaths, he glared at the doctor, "If by scratch the surface you mean pa.s.sing on the scepter"s energy onto people, onto human experiments, then I don"t want to hear it."
"If you can"t understand the reason for making miracles happen, then-"
List was cut off by a bullet made of wind driving into his skull. Dropping with a sickening thud, everyone looked over from the former doctor to the blonde-haired warrior. His hand was extended outward, his hand forming a handgun.
Naruto reigned his glare in on Strucker, "Where"s the scepter?"
"In…i-in the laboratory." The Hydra Agent choked out, "Down in the laboratory…I"ll take you."
Dropping him down, Naruto looked around at the room, everyone shocked into silence. Giving a strangely sincere smile, he said, "Now don"t any of you guys go anywhere."
They all gave quick nods of confirmation. All of them knew the kind of extreme consequences that lay in wait should they disobey.
Following Strucker over to a seemingly normal wall, Naruto raised an eyebrow as the man pressed his hands up against it, the wall caving in slightly before swinging open.
Slowly, the two walked down the long set of stairs. As they eventually reached the bottom, Naruto raised a surprised eyebrow at the sight before him, "How the h.e.l.l did you get a Chitauri Leviathan? Scratch that, how"d you manage to get it and stuff it down here?"
Hovering over them was the ma.s.sive corpse of a Leviathan, the whale like Chitauri warship strung up above them. Bellow it, the lab station was filled with several stations filled with incomplete robotic limbs and mechanics. Walking over to the nearest table, Naruto picked up a metallic head, it"s blue eyes glowing in the dimly lit room.
"We built this section of the fort over the creature." The baron wheezed out, his throat very much bruised, "We"ve been using its armor as a resource."
Setting the head down, Naruto looked the room over. Hearing a subtle humming sound coming from the corner of the room, he finally located the scepter, the weapon being contained in force field, electricity arcing around the field at random intervals.
Reaching his hand out, Naruto used Magnet Release to attract the scepter to him. Giggling with the field for a moment, it finally flew towards him with a sudden thw.a.n.g. Gripping the scepter at the staff, Naruto grinned as he looked at the large jewel situated at the base of the blade.
"The intelligence you found…do you want to know where it came from?" Naruto asked.
Strucker looked at the man curiously, "You know of its origin?"
Looking the scepter over, Naruto muttered, "This scepter was given to Loki of Asgard by a man I doubt you"ve ever heard of. To Loki, it was a sign of trust. For the man, it was a sign of doubt. The man knew that without the scepter, Loki would most a.s.suredly fail his mission to dominate the Earth. In the end he failed anyway, and two Infinity Stones flew out of his reach and into the hands of Earth. Into my hands."
"Infinity Stones?" Strucker wondered.
His eyes now focused on the jewel that held the Mind Stone at bay, "This jewel is meant to hide the power of what it holds, the power of the Mind Stone. That"s the intelligence you found, though only a small margin of it I"d say."
"Jesus." The Hydra Agent breathed, sweating at the thought of what he had. He simply couldn"t believe he"d held an object of such power without knowing it. The things he could"ve done.
Naruto gripped the jewel and yanked it apart from the scepter.
In a puff of smoke, the jewel was gone. Grinning at his victory, Naruto thought, "Now all I gotta do is seal it with the rest."
"You can do that anytime." Kurama muttered, "You"re running late to that meeting, remember?"
Naruto blinked, "…oh s.h.i.t."
Quickly creating a Shadow Clone, the blonde rubbed the back of his head, "There, that should cover me for a bit. I should go drop the Stone off at Stark Tower real quick though, I promised Tony I"d let him take a look at it."
"I can"t believe you"re letting that monkey look at something like a f.u.c.king Infinity Stone." Kurama growled in annoyance, "A smart monkey is still a monkey. Give him a stick and he"s more likely to use it to poke himself in the eye."
"Ah come on Kurama, I said he could look at it for a week to see what made "em tick. What"s the worst he could do?" The blonde rationalized nonchalantly, "Tony may be a monkey to you, but to me he"s as smart as they come. Him and Bruce should be able to get something useful from it. It"s a win-win."
Kurama scoffed, "And how exactly is this a win-win?"
"Simple. They get to look at something cool from s.p.a.ce, and I get them off my back about me having two-"
-Three objects of ma.s.s destruction in my pocket." Naruto explained, "I know I don"t have to, but I need allies, and allies usually tend to like to share."
As this conversation went on in Naruto"s head, Strucker slowly began to creep backwards away from the seemingly distracted blonde. As he finally crept near the stairs, he came to a halt as his back pressed into someone behind him.
Slowly looking back, he tried to pull off a charming smile, "You wouldn"t happen to want to let me go now?"
Naruto smiled back, "No. No, not really."
Sighing in defeat, Strucker turned around and held his hands out in front of him, "Fine."
Raising an eyebrow, Naruto asked, "Oh, you thought I was going to arrest you?" He chuckled, "No. That"s not how this works."
"But…but you"re an Avenger. You don"t just kill-"
"I"m not an Avenger." Naruto interrupted, "And you lost my sympathy after I found out what you guys were doing here. There are a lot of things on the list of s.h.i.tty things I"ll forgive, but human experimentation? No. No, I don"t let that slide."
Before Strucker could argue his case, the scepter was driven into his chest. Gasping in shock and pain, he nearly collapsed onto his knees but was held up as Naruto gripped his collar.
Glaring down, Naruto continued, "You and everyone that helped you in this place died the second I found out your address." Twisting the blade to give the final blow, Naruto watched with satisfaction as the man of Hydra gurgled his last breath.
Dropping him down, Naruto said aloud, "Hey Kurama, how"d you like to stretch your legs out a bit?"
"G.o.d dammit kid, you really know how to spoil me." His partner answered with excitement.