"Normal Speech."
'Normal Thought.'
"Demon Speech."
'Demon Thought.'
"Other Speech variants."
Location/Time.
-X- Line Break -X-
Thursday 23rd April, 17:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
The next few days had been relatively peaceful for Naruto, albeit boring. Most of it consisted of Naruto just lounging at his apartment and letting his body heal while pretending that the conversation that had taken place two days prior had never happened.
It worked pretty well.
Sure, it was still boring. Before becoming Black Hood, Naruto had always enjoyed just lounging and resting in his apartment, preferably with Barbara. But that was his teenage hormones coming into play there. Now, all he wanted to do was go out and be Black Hood.
It was hard to believe that a few weeks ago, Naruto had considered retiring from the life as a vigilante, and now? All he wanted to do was go out and be Black Hood.
It would certainly make forgetting about Barbara easier.
They hadn't spoken to one another since and Naruto certainly wasn't going to reach out to her. The sting of the secret and the magnitude of said secret still hurt, even then he knew why she kept it secret and partly agreed with her. Despite all that though, it still didn't make him feel any better.
As a result, Naruto had just done what Barbara was doing and something they both did when presented with a problem they didn't nor couldn't face, ignored it all together. It wasn't healthy and was probably a reason for why Naruto was so miserable.
Jim definitely didn't help by trying to invite Naruto around for tea.
He understood that something had gone on between his godson and daughter. In his own way he was trying to help, he understood how important their friendship was for one another and was trying to help. But neither was willing to face the other, not while things were still awkward between them.
As a result, it left Naruto here alone and watching the news play out.
It was the only thing that interested him on TV anymore.
He had tried getting back into his old shows and even tried to catch up with some his favourite TV series' that had a few new episodes. However, he just couldn't find it within him to care about them anymore.
Whatever interest he had in them once, was gone and now Naruto found his days of resting and recuperation that much duller. The only thing of interest being the news and even then, that was both repetitive and dull. It was only when news presenter were talking about recent superhero and villain activity throughout the world that things actually got interesting.
Even then, it wasn't saying much.
Everyday news had declined once superheroes took to the stage and since then, all people cared about was what the heroes were doing. What villain they had faced? Who the heroes were? Were they a threat? Not to mention the various conspiracist theories that aired as well. They had been entertaining at first, but much like everything, it got repetitive.
Now the news had once again begun to start decline.
People still tuned in when heroes and villains fought to see clips of the fight mostly as well as to see what the effect of said fight was. Some, in the case of a Superman could be very destructive, even with the Man of a Steel attempting to mitigate damage.
So, while the news did help to elevate some boredom, it certainly wasn't enough for Naruto's liking.
As a result, Naruto sat on his couch, an empty beer bottle in one hand as his head lulled back and his eyelids slowly closed. Yawning, Naruto ignored the TV and let his eyes fully close about to catch up on some sleep when one news reporter mentioned the name, "Gotham."
Much like all news pertaining to Gotham, Naruto listened intently. Most of it had been focused on the Court of Owls, the Fearless Toxin and the Arkham Breakout that had happened in the hour that the Talon had been attempting to defeat Batman.
"In other news, Gotham city has been dealing with a number of murder cases." Jerking awake, Naruto looked at the screen blearily, the empty beer bottle dropping to the ground with a clank that temporarily drew Naruto's attention. "Each victim has been found half eaten and police state that there may be more and a number of those people having gone missing in the past two days have been presumed dead at the hands of the same killer."
Rubbing his eyes, Naruto looked at the screen as the relatively beautiful, mature anchor-woman then indicated towards a photo of a blurred figure. He was tall, bigger than any man with a body rippling with large muscles. Beside it, a picture of Killer Croc appeared.
"Police believe that the person behind these murders is none other than Waylon Jones, also known as Killer Croc. Police urge anyone with information upon the whereabouts of Killer Croc to come forward." Switching off the TV Naruto leaned back with a groan, his fingers slowly running his temple in a soothing gesture.
'Seriously, this city can't go five minutes without one killer deciding to rear their head can it?' He questioned internally and stood up as he made his way towards his bedroom. Lifting up a few floorboards, Naruto pulled out his Black Mask costume, including the gloves from the Talon as well as the suit from Batman. Despite the numerous cuts in it, Naruto certainly wouldn't go back to Batman to get it fixed and it still worked better than his old suit. 'Maybe if it gets into really bad condition, I might ask him to sort me a new one out. He certainly seems to like helping me, even if it's for his own agenda.'
Then his eyes turned to the briefcase sticking out from behind his dresser.
Pulling it out, Naruto flipped open the lid and pulled out the two Glock 17s and the military knives. As he did so, Naruto distinctly ignored the serum laying there innocently and instead put the briefcase back where he got it from.
Giving his shoulders a roll and stretching off his still sore and recovering body, Naruto headed straight out. He may still be injured and recovering from his fight against the Talon, but Naruto certainly wasn't going to let Killer Croc or Waylon Jones run around Gotham unchecked.
Not while he was still breathing.
Black Hood still existed and the criminals of Gotham needed to be reminded of why he was to be feared.
-X- Line Break -X-
Thursday 23rd April, 22:00.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
The East End of Gotham was as lively as ever.
While the much posher and less criminally infested areas of Gotham had practically gone dead what with the reveal of the cannibalistic criminal, Killer Croc being on the loose. The East End functioned relatively normally.
Most were too high or looking to get high to care about the possibility of being eaten by a humanoid-crocodile with superhuman strength. As a result, it made Naruto's search a bit harder. Sure, on paper it should be pretty easy to find a man-eating humanoid crocodile the size of a truck. But in reality, it was much harder.
He had of course, considered going into the sewers but Naruto had quickly scratched that off his list. Yes, he was looking to find and fight against the Killer Croc to bring an end to his rampage across Gotham once and for all, but he wasn't suicidal.
It was a choice between a possibility of surviving and winning or being lunch. He quite liked the former even if the odds were slim.
So, he had waited patiently, using the rooftops to search for any signs of Killer Croc, but there had been none.
Which was strange considering the East End in its current state was practically an all you can eat buffet human edition. Not to mention, Killer Croc had been focused in the East End, so finding him shouldn't be this difficult.
Except it was.
'It's times like these that I wish I was at least pretending to work with Batman, his technology would certainly be helpful when looking for Killer Croc.' He bemoaned mentally, especially considering he had to rely on the Black Hood supporters for any information. They were certainly determined and there was quite a large number of them, but it had some large limitations that really stopped him from being able to match Batman in the information collection department.
Feeling his phone vibrate, Naruto pressed answer and raised it to his ear. "Hello Naruto, I see that you could use some help." Deathstroke spoke on the other end.
"No." Naruto replied, quickly hanging up and continuing to look around. That's when his phone vibrated once more.
He ignored the vibration and instead let it go to the answering machine. However, after another four times Naruto eventually relented and picked up the phone. "What? I already told you that I don't want your help."
"Oh, I know." If Deathstroke was annoyed at being ignored, he certainly didn't show it. His voice calm and collected giving nothing away. "However, I wonder if you'll be saying the same thing when you attempt to save the families a few blocks north from here. Seems a certain Killer Croc has decided to have a meal."
Freezing, Naruto looked north and without hesitation took off while hanging up the phone once more. If Deathstroke called him to offer help then it was obvious he at least had Naruto in his sights. On any normal day he would be looking to find then confront Deathstroke, but right now, other things required his attention.
-X- Line Break -X-
Thursday 23rd April, 22:10.
New Jersey,
Gotham City,
East End.
Naruto had moved quickly, using the apartment buildings in order to avoid the bustling streets below in order to get to Killer Crocs location. It wasn't overly difficult, there was already a trail of half-eaten bodies on the ground.
Bodies that people avoided and some even ignored entirely as if it was already a normal thing for them.
Eventually however, he came to the area of the East End were apartment buildings turned into small houses. It was also much cleaner and less crime ridden as a result of bordering on Gotham Heights. This meant it gained a bit more attention from the police compared to the rest of the East End.
Scaling down the apartment using his claws to control his descent, Naruto started jogging down the street. There were already a few houses that had doors broken down and Naruto could also make out a few bloodstains on the window as well.
'He's getting bolder.' Naruto thought aware of the fact that Killer Croc had killed and eaten more people tonight than he had done previously. 'It's because Batman hasn't come to stop him. If Killer Croc can see this then I reckon more of the crime lords will as well.' Knowing that if Killer Croc wasn't stopped soon it would only cause more problems, Naruto pushed himself to move even faster.
Eventually he heard the sound of a commotion coming from one of the houses and moved forwards cautiously. The blinds were closed and the lights were off which left the house shrouded in shadow.
But as Naruto approached the front door that was currently open, dented from where a large fist hit it and hanging off a single hinge, Naruto noticed a shadowed figure moving around the house. As soon as the shadowed figure came into view, Naruto rushed to hide behind the wall in order to not be seen.
Letting a few seconds pass by, Naruto peaked around the corner to see that the figure was gone from view.'It's best to not go through here.' Naruto thought knowing that Killer Croc was already downstairs and instead began scaling the side of the house.
Lifting open the window to what looked like a child's bedroom, Naruto stepped inside and looked around cautiously. It was a generic bedroom for a boy, with spaceships and loads of toys scattered around the room, toys he had to carefully avoid as he tiptoed across the room to the door.
However, just as he was about to open the door, he heard some shuffling and spun around, one of the Glock 17s at his side raised and ready to shot. Only to freeze when his eyes landed on the figure of that of a terrified young boy no older than seven or eight hidden under the bed.
Seeing this, Naruto released a sigh and lowered his gun, once again placing it back in the holster at his hip. "Hey, it's okay." Naruto raised his hands up in order to show that he meant no harm and it seemed to at least calm the terrified kid a little. "I'm here to help."
The kid didn't say anything, only hiding further under the bed when Naruto moved towards him. Seeing this, Naruto stopped and instead after a moment of consideration pulled back his hood and mask to reveal his face.
"Look, I'm just like you." Again, Naruto moved forwards and this time the kid didn't move. "My names Naruto, what's your name?" Naruto asked, trying to help but the kid at ease.
It worked as the kid moved forwards, not coming out of the bed. "Jason." He whispered quietly and Naruto smiled.