Injustice Book 1: A Journeys Beginning (Naruto + Batman Comics crossover)

Chapter LIX - Beast Unleashed

All of it had just jumped around in her head, leaving her unfocused and unable to think properly. Even now, as they rushed down the corridor of floor thirty-four of Cadmus towards where Naruto had been detained, she was still unable to focus on the area around her. On a few occasions she had ran into isolated groups of Gnomes and was saved by one of the members of their group in the nick of time.

Yet no matter how many times it happened, she kept repeating it over and over again.

Eventually they reached the door, the only one that was still intact on this entire floor, not that she had paid attention. But the others had, each of them piecing together the fact that something had happened on this floor before they had come here and it had nearly levelled the entirety of this floor except for this one room.

Barbara didn't care, only looking to Robin impatiently. "Well?" Nodding his head, Robin pulled up a holographic screen and after a few seconds of typing something onto the keyboard, the door opened with a groan.

As the team pulled in, Killer Frost and Ravager hung back making them the last to enter the room. "They'll betray us when all this over, y'know?" Killer Frost whispered quietly and Ravager nodded her head, her eyes fixated upon the pod laying in the centre of the room. It was frosted over leaving it's contents obscured from view.

"I know." She whispered back, temporarily sending a cautious look at the other members of their impromptu team.

Killer Frost looked on as Batgirl moved forwards, closing the distance between her and the pod in a matter of moments. "Can I trust you to at least back me up when that time comes?" While she was confident in her powers, she wasn't stupid. She had overheard Robin explain to Batgirl who exactly the clone was and she didn't like the odds of facing him, let alone him and Aqualad. And least of all the entire group of young heroes. She'd need help, not to win but to at least escape.

"So long as I can trust you to do the same for me?" Ravager shot back and despite their silent agreement, both already had plans in motion to betray the other if it gave them a chance to escape.

At the same time as Ravager and Killer Frost formed an 'alliance,' Robin had moved to the computer as the others stood beside him. Except for Batgirl who had already moved to wipe away some of the frost on the pod and revealed an image of Naruto laid their unconscious.

"It's him!" She exclaimed in relief before turning to look back at them. "Robin, open it up." However, Robin didn't answer, too focused on looking through the display screen.

"I don't know about you but I'm getting some serious déjà vu vibes." Wally spoke up, only to quickly shrink away when the clone of Superman looked at him. It wasn't a threatening look, more like a look of curiosity but due to the near permanent angry frown on the clowns face, it came across as threatening. "Not that it's bad vibes!" He quickly attempted to rectify any insult he made, unknowing that he had done none.

"I agree." Kaldur spoke up, saving Wally the trouble of embarrassing himself anymore. "I believe it would be best if we made sure there are no problems we should be made aware of. Are there any...files?"

"Already searching for them." Robin informed and then with a grin, a number of documents appeared on the screen. "KF, you mind?"

"Not at all." Cracking his fingers, Wally moved forwards and quicker than should be humanely possible, flickered through the hundreds of documents. "Jesus, get a load of this. All that shit we saw outside, that was all Naruto's doing. They started off small, you see, just enhancing the powers he already had. But then they started altering his DNA, I don't even know what they were doing, but they succeeded."

"What did they succeed in doing?" Aqualad asked while Robin moved forwards to read through the final document.

"Subject Nine as of the thirteenth of May has been put on ice after the latest incident with his powers. Subject showed superhuman levels of speed and strength, but this increase came at the cost of all his mental capacity, to the point he entered a berserk-like state. Jesus." Robin took a glance at the door where they had entered, imaging what a berserk Naruto did and must have looked like when destroying the entire floor. His eyes then turned back to the screen to continue reading, only to spot Barbara crouched down in front of the pod, a small hatch open as she hacked into it. "Batgirl, don't!"

But it was too late, after having being ignored by Robin, her anger and impatience caused her to take matters into her own hand. If Robin wouldn't help her free Naruto, she would do it herself and with a smile of victory, watched as the pod opened with a hiss.

She raised one hand to temporarily protect herself from the cold fog that covered her and then rose to her feet. Naruto despite the scars on his body – scars he had from his time as Black Hood and in the underground fighting arena – was in perfect health. There was no sign of muscle atrophy as he looked to be in perfect shape and considering he was only wearing a pair of tight black boxers, it allowed her to see every inch of him.

The only odd feature about him was the sight of what looked to be whiskers on his cheek. Other than that he was the same as she remembered.

Seeing his blue eyes flicker open, she smiled happily. "Naruto, you're okay." But too caught up in her relief, she didn't notice the subtle changes in Naruto's body positioning. The others however did, the first sign being the sight of his muscles quickly tensing followed by the sight of his hand flexing to reveal sharp claws.

"Batgirl, get away from him!"

Kid Flash quickly rushed forwards to get Barbara out of harms way. But it was too late as Naruto's right arm swung round and backhanded her away with enough power to send her flying into the wall. She collided against it with a gasp as her vision clouded and the air rushed from her lungs.

As she attempted to recover her breath, Kid Flash continued to rush forwards hoping to knock Naruto unconscious before they had a repeat of today's earlier events. Due to his speedy he only managed to catch a glimpse of Naruto's blue eyes turning from blue to a brilliant red, the pupil becoming slitted before a roar of animalistic fury came forth, shaking the very room.