[Caterpillar] Chapter 44 - A New Beginning (II) (NSFW - lime) (Patreon)

His heart was filled with content and with happiness whenever he looked at his wife and daughter. Furthermore, he could live his days in peace together with his parents, his grandfather-figure, Sarutobi Hiruzen, his auntie Tsunade, his perverted mentor, Jiraiya, and his best friends, Gaara and Sasuke. Diana was happier too, no longer stressed and tormented by responsibilities and she could live together with her mother, away from the oppression of the Olympian gods. What more could he ask from life?

'This is paradise.' he thought as he watched everyone around him having a good time.

Sasuke and Gaara were playing a game of shogi, Jiraiya was trying to flirt with Tsunade, Sakura and Diana were chatting together with Hippolyta and the three genins were having a mock fight against a bear-sized nine-tailed fox while Naruto, his parents, and Sandaime were having a drink.

[...]

"No! This can't be happening!" he shouted, his face livid.

A massive rip in the space appeared above the courtyard.

A pale-white woman with horns on her head and long white hair stepped out of the rift. Her pupilless white eyes stared at the people below with hatred. She raised her hands and said:

"All-Killing Ash Bones."

Time seemed to slow down to a crawl but despite his heightened senses and superhuman powers, Naruto found himself unable to react. Under his horrified eyes, he watched how bone spikes were shot from the Rabbit Goddess' arms, impaling everyone below.

⁂

Softly murmured words woke her up. She was a light sleeper, sometimes even a whisper could be enough to wake her up.

"Kurama... no... not Thea... no..."

Next to her, in bed, Naruto was talking in his sleep. It was not a peaceful sleep. There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead. He was not loud, nor was he trashing in his sleep but his quiet sleep-talking gave away the fact that he was having a nightmare. His eyes were rolling furiously under his closed eyelids and he was murmuring names in a pained voice.

She shook his shoulders (not vigorously so as to not scare him) and said:

"Naruto. Baby, wake up."

He opened his eyes wide, startled. For a second, she saw a haunted look in his eyes. But once he took in her appearance, he quickly calmed down and his eyes were filled with warmth.

"Sorry. I woke you up again," he said and winced.

She lay in bed again and rolled on her side to look at him. She brought a hand to his face and her thumb caressed his scarred cheek with a tenderness that almost brought him to tears. However, he did not shed any. A small smile appeared on his face and he closed his eyes, melting from her affection.

"Bad dreams happen, it's not up to you. Just remember I'm here, ok? I'm always here." she whispered and pressed her lips on his forehead.

Two months passed since Naruto parted ways with Kurama and Diana with her mother. Maybe due to the increased control that she had gained over her emotions after becoming a goddess, Diana was handling it rather well but Naruto was hit hard by it. He and the fox had shared the same body for over 4 decades and they had been together for over 110 years. He had never been truly alone. Being suddenly split away from his lifelong friend had affected him greatly.

Naruto had never forgotten the illusion shown to him by Black Mercy on planet Debstam. Whereas before, he had managed to push it away from his thoughts thanks to Kurama's and Diana's presence in his life, after the fox left, his subconscious fear of loneliness brought that nightmare back into his life. It did not happen very often - about once a week or so - but every time he dreamt about the death of everyone he loved was no less painful.

Nevertheless, Naruto understood Kyuubi's reasons for splitting up when they bumped their fists together. He wanted Naruto to grow up, to evolve. He wanted the blond to stop relying on him like a crutch. The fox wanted him to start a life of his own.

While Naruto understood Kurama's reasons and agreed with them, the change was not easy. Fortunately, he was not alone. Even if Kurama left, Diana was still by his side. Never once had she complained that his nightmares were ruining her sleep. Never once had she tried to shoo him away or to sleep in another bed. Instead, every time he had a nightmare, she embraced him to her chest and comforted him without a word of reproach.

He hugged her closer to his body and she brought his face in her bosom. There was nothing sexual about it. With her fingers caressing the back of his head and his face resting in her softness he let out a sigh of comfort.

"Love you, Di," he said, his voice muffled by her breasts.

She placed a kiss on the top of his head at his words and continued her gentle and comforting caresses.

"Love you too, baby. Now sleep."

Under her tender ministrations, it was not long after that he fell back asleep.

⁂

Diana woke up with a groan as the impossibly bright light of the morning peeked through the curtains, right on her face. They were on a planet with 2 suns. Mornings were twice as hard for her than on Earth. She hid her head under the blanket.

"You'll never be a morning person, will you?"

"Go away," she whined grumpily, only for him to chuckle.

"Then, I guess I'll go eat breakfast alone. A shame really. I ordered room service for both of us but since you're sleepy, it can't be helped..."

As on cue, she kicked her blanket away and looked at him pointedly.

"Sometimes I wonder who's older and who's younger between the two of us," he said with a chuckle and came closer to her bed.

"Oh shut it!"

Wearing only white panties and a tank top, and even with a bleary face and messy white hair standing in all directions, he thought that she was the most beautiful person in the world.

"Come on, or the food will get cold," he said and pulled on her hand.

"Nooo. Bring the food here. Or better yet, carry me!"

It was only to him that she ever showed that spoiled attitude. A strong warrior woman acting like a spoiled little girl was so cute that it made him feel warm and fuzzy every time he looked at her.

"Who are you and where's the warrior princess that I used to know," he muttered but Diana giggled. He was not fooling her. She knew all too well that despite his complaints, he secretly loved it. He loved it a lot because he could never resist any of her demands when she acted like that.

He brought one of his hands under her legs and the other behind her back and Wonder Woman smiled pleased with herself, thinking that he was going to take her in a princess carry. But then-

"Eeek!" she squawked when he lifted her up and threw her onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Naruto, put me down!" she half-yelled, her voice high-pitched from surprise.

"Nope!" he said and playfully swatted her bare asscheek, making a crisp sound. She squealed and kicked with her legs but when another smack landed on her other buttcheek, she froze up and became completely silent, obedient.

When he put her down on the sofa in the living room of their suite, Naruto was amazed to see that Diana's face was boiling red, up to the tips of her ears.

"Don't tell me..."

"Not a word!" she growled threateningly.

"...you're turned on from having your ass spanked?"

A butterknife wooshed through the air, missing him by only half an inch.

"Shut up! Pervert!" she barked at him, her face mortified with embarrassment.

Naruto's grin was so wide that it stretched from one ear to another.

"To think that you were into that sort of thing, princess. How audacious of you. How shameless!"

When he also said "I can't wait for tonight!" she jumped up to her feet and made a beeline to the bathroom. A slam and a resounding click were heard as she furiously shut the door closed behind her and locked it too.

⁂

Taking Kyuubi's advice, Naruto had actually taken Wonder Woman on a honeymoon. They weren't married yet but the two of them had been very open with each other about their intentions from the very beginning; after receiving Hippolyta's blessing, they were for all intents and purposes married. It was only the formal ceremony that they were missing. That said, there was no doubt in their minds that they would be together forever. And for two immortals, forever was a very, very long time. They did not age.

Passionately in love with each other and with nothing holding them down, no urgent matters to attend to, the two immortals lost track of time. The honeymoon that was supposed to last one month turned into two and soon, two months turned into three.

Now, they were on a particular planet in a dwarf galaxy adjacent to Andromeda. Named in the language of the natives as 'the Sea', the planet they were on currently was very famous in the galaxy for its summer tourism. Wealthy and powerful VIPs from all over the galaxy spent large sums of money to spend their holidays there. With 2 suns illuminating the planet, 85% of the surface covered by oceans, and the land consisting mostly of islands, 'the Sea' was a planet perfect for facilitating littoral tourism.

Currently on the beach, the two of them were sitting in the shade provided by the white canopy of a king-sized beach bed. Diana was sitting with her back resting on the headboard, entertaining herself with Naruto's device, browsing the intergalactic web. Her white hair was tied up in a messy bun revealing her beautiful neck, and her red bikini swimsuit left little to the imagination. Her large breasts, her athletic waist, her abs and her butt made even the aliens that were of humanoid races ogle at her in amazement. However, hanging from one of the bedposts was a light blue long beach cardigan. Apart from when she went out for a swim, she usually wore it on top of her swimsuit.

"Seriously, am I the only goddess who cares about getting a tan?!" Diana huffed in exasperation. "How is there no cream or some sort of substance for it!?"

She had spent entire days under the sun, trying to get herself a nice tan but her skin was still a milky white, unblemished. Ever since she had become a goddess, it looked like her regeneration factor had increased to the point where her skin could not get burnt by the rays of the sun. She could not get a tan anymore! Now, she was searching for products and items that could help her get a tan but there were no such things on the market. At least not the type that worked on gods.

She put the tablet on the mattress with a long sigh and looked down at Naruto who was lying down with his head resting on her thighs.

"Comfortable much?" she asked with a teasing smile.

"You have no idea," he said and turned his head to place a quick peck on her tummy.

She giggled at his fascination with her abs, momentarily forgetting her annoyance at not being able to get a tan. She started playing with his hair, her fingers massaging his scalp so gently that one would find it impossible to believe that she had wielded swords and spears her entire life with those hands.

"I thought that that one week on Genesis Stadium had been the best of my life but these three months..." Diana said and trailed off wistfully.

"It's been 3 months already, huh?" Naruto said and then groaned. "Gimme the tablet for a bit."

A few taps and swipes later, he groaned again.

"This is our last week here. I'm out of credits."

'The Sea' was a very expensive planet. For that galaxy, it was like what Dubai was for Earth. It was a luxury location. Furthermore, it was already the 5th planet that they were visiting. After 3 months spent lavishly in various luxurious locations, Naruto had run out of money and goods that he could convert into currency.

"So we're going to do bounties?" Diana asked. The tone of her voice betrayed her excitement. She truly thought that the past 3 months had been the best time of her life but as of late, she was beginning to grow antsy. She was a warrior at heart. She wanted to fight against someone. She craved action.

He grinned at her reaction. "Let's see what I've got."

When he checked his inbox, he had over 200 undread messages and lost calls. During his honeymoon with Diana, he had set the device on the DND mode to ignore any calls or messages aside from the lightwave number owned by Doctor Fate on Earth and the lightwave number owned by his main information brokers.

"Sit up, I wanna see too." she urged him.

Now leaning with his back against the headboard too next to her, the two of them scrolled together through the job offers he had received.

"Robbing the Central Bank Headquarters of Hydrus Galaxy... eh, not worth the trouble or the mess in the aftermath... Searching for the missing Queen of Almerac... I don't care..."

Suddenly, Diana interrupted his mutterings: "Wait, Queen of Almerac? Isn't she the one that tried to make you her husband by force?"

"Yeah," Naruto laughed awkwardly. "A spitfire that one. A stubborn and violent woman who won't take no for an answer. I don't like violent women. Can you believe she sent her interstellar fleet after me to capture me? Chick's crazy."

"It looks like she went missing." she pointed out.

Naruto shrugged his shoulders uncaringly.

"I see this bounty all the time. She goes missing every year, it's almost like a ritual at this point. She runs to whichever planet she hears rumours of a strong male specimen to fight them. She's trying to find someone stronger than her to marry and make kids with strong genes. And every time she goes on her little trips, her homeworld is left in a ditch. You know, Almerac is a unified planet, with just 1 government, not like Earth. She is the Queen, the absolute ruler; by the Void, I don't understand what's going through her mind. Isn't she afraid her people will get fed up with her irresponsibility and stage a coup?"

"Maybe she's confident nobody on Almerac can defeat her. How strong is she? And what does she look like?"

Naruto glanced at her curiously. It was unlike Wonder Woman to show that much interest in someone else.

"I won't lie, she is good-looking and decently strong. But we're out of her league, by far. And she's nowhere near as beautiful as you either." he said and kissed her on the cheek. The smile that appeared on her face was radiant. She also stopped asking questions about Maxima.

They scrolled through the bounties for nearly half an hour before selecting several jobs.

"Sooo, we have 3 bounties:

1. An espionage mission in a private robotics research lab in the Draco Galaxy. A very easy mission with my jutsu but it will be boring for you as you won't be able to participate.

("You really have to teach me your spells soon, you promised." Diana muttered while he was speaking)

2. Capturing alive the Captain of the pirates from Zarus System of the Milky Way Galaxy and handing him over to the Monarchy ruling that system.

3. Intercepting the galleon-class ship of a slave trader company and saving the captured people on board. If there are no slaves, kill the entire crew. The ship is travelling on a fixed route between 2 systems in Andromeda."

⁂

"A galleon-class starship is generally at least half a mile long."

Wonder Woman raised her eyebrows in surprise. "That's enormous."

"By Earth's standards, they're very large, true. A ship of such size also has extremely durable outer plating, a strong energy shield, and very powerful artillery. Its only downsides are its cruising speed and that it's impossible to travel through wormholes with it." Naruto explained.

"So that's why is 'our' slave-trader travelling on a fixed route instead of doing space wraps!"

"Yep. Besides the New Gods from Apokolips and New Genesis, as far as I know, the rest of the Universe doesn't have the technology to create wormholes big enough for galleon-class ships with just a portable reactor. They can only open such wormholes by using reactors built on a planet but if they do that, they risk the space gate destroying the entire planet."

Diana looked at him impressed. "There's so much stuff I don't know. It's good I have a dedicated teacher."

"I've had decades to learn all this stuff. Trust me, it took me a very long time. I'm not exactly book smart." he said and rubbed the back of his head shyly at her praise. He felt that he did not deserve it because he knew that he was not smart that way. After he told her a few more specific details about galleon-class ships, he asked her: "How would you complete this mission?"

She thought for a moment before answering:

"The easiest way would be if you could somehow bypass their energy shield and teleport inside the ship. The other way would be to get in their range and let ourselves be captured."

While they were chatting about possible ways to complete their selected bounties, a blue-skinned half-man half-snake waiter came with a tray in his hands, serving them a smoothie. He was one of the natives of this planet, a species of sentient beings that lived mostly underwater but they could survive on land too for a limited amount of time.

⁂

Their last week on 'the Sea' planet eventually came to an end and they had to leave. But they were not sad about it. After 3 months spent lazying around and just having fun, both Naruto and Diana were looking forward to some action. Now, he was teaching her how to activate the space-warp technology of their ship and create a wormhole.

"How does space-warping even work?" she asked in curiosity.

He made a troubled expression. "I'm not quite sure about the details, it sounded too complicated when I looked it up. But from what I learned, it looks like space is not straight but more like it's made of countless layers folded on top of each other. That's why when you open a hole in the space-time continuum you can get to millions of light-years away." He scratched his hair with both of his hands. "Argh, I know, it makes no sense to me either, I get a headache just thinking about it!"

She laughed at his antics. "It actually makes sense to me. But I'll have to research the subject myself, I feel like your explanation is missing something."

He shrugged his shoulders, not offended. "Suit yourself. I'm okay with just knowing how to use it, I don't care about learning why it works."

A few hours later, in the Andromeda Galaxy, a wormhole appeared in space and a small spaceship (less than 100 feet long) came out of it. However, the slave-trading galleon-class ship that they were supposed to intercept was not a stationary target. Getting to the Andromeda Galaxy had been the easy part; it was now that the tedious part of the mission started: locating their target.

They have been flying on the route given to them by their employer for several days already without any luck.

"This isn't as exciting as I thought it would be." Diana said bummed out.

Now, the two of them were sitting in a coffee shop in the space terminal of a planet located on the slave-trading ship's route. It was like an international airport from Earth, but for spaceships, an interstellar spaceport.

"Well, I told you not to start with this bounty first, didn't I? Some bounties can be completed in a few hours - like the espionage mission we selected, missions with a fixed objective and a clear location. But others can take entire days or even more than a week. But this is different. Searching for the ship in space is impossible. All we can do is check the planets and space stations on the route and search their logs. We will find them eventually because galleon-class ships burn through fuel very fast. They will need to make a stop at some point to refill their tank."

It was while they were chatting like that that they noticed the spaceport becoming more alive as troops of robots and attendants armed with blasters flooded the dry dock.

"What's happening?" Diana asked, that being the first time she had seen such a scene. "Is someone attacking the space terminal?"

"Don't think so, there are no alarms. Probably they caught sight of a very big spaceship approaching the planet and they want to be prepared for a conflict just in case. You can never know if they're merchants, military, or pirates. Nobody advertises what kind of ship they are. If people aren't vigilant, they can very easily get killed by their negligence. Space is not a friendly place."

Saying that, he suddenly became energized. "This could be our ship!"

"What are the chances?" she said sceptically.

"Higher than you think," he replied. "It's very rare to see galleon-class ships that don't belong to an intergalactic empire, and there are none close to this system. Galleon-class ships are also crazy expensive and their maintenance costs are sky high too. Weaker forces and organisations would not be able to afford them. Also, this planet is on the slave-trading ship's route too."

⁂

Sneaking into the control room of the terminal was a piece of cake for Naruto. He did not have to do anything spectacular to get access to the logs of the spaceport either. The registration code of the ship was the same as the one given to them by their employer. Slave trading was frowned upon by the Universe at large. That said, for a slave-trading company to survive, they had to pretend to be something else. Their ships had to have proper documentation too in order to not raise any suspicions. Otherwise, they would not be able to blend in and refuel at any space terminals.

"It's a double-edged sword," Naruto explained to Diana while he was piloting their ship.

They had left the space terminal right after the galleon-class ship and they were now following it from a distance.

"On one hand, it's almost impossible to detect the slave-trading ships when they have no 'merchandise' because nobody will inspect a half-mile-long ship for no good reason. It could take days to search the entirety of the ship; neither the military nor the merchants are willing to waste that much time so slave traders take advantage of it. They will never come to a space terminal while having slaves on board. But on the other hand, if someone gets wind of their real identity it's very easy to find them and capture them because of their perfect documentation. My guess is that someone sold them out."

Diana was paying careful attention to his words. She smiled at how earnest he was to explain to her every little thing and she was happy about it too. What he was telling her were things that he had learned from long years of experience as an intergalactic bounty hunter. They were not things that could be learned in a book, nor were they wisdom that could be readily bought up using money.

A while later, the galleon-class ship appeared on their radar. Naturally, it stood to reason that the other side had detected them as well. Nevertheless, a half-mile-long ship equipped with powerful artillery and a strong energy shield had nothing to worry about from them. Compared to a galleon-class ship, their 100-foot-long ship was as small as a mosquito in front of an elephant.

Five smaller spaceships left the dry dock of the galleon-class ship and flew towards them. Their intention was obvious.

"Do we let ourselves get captured?" Diana asked.

Naruto chuckled at her excitement.

"Yes, we better let them think we're scared. We don't want them to destroy our ship and we don't want to destroy their own ships either."

The interesting aspect of this bounty was that there was no reward for it from the employer. Clearly, the person who put up the bounty had done it out of a grudge. The message was clear: they did not care what happened with the galleon-class ship and the riches found on board as long as they got proof that the slave traders on board had been killed.

With that being said, Naruto wanted to preserve the galleon-class ship in pristine condition. After eliminating the crew, he would be able to sell the enormous spaceship for a very high price.

Right before the 5 smaller spaceships reached them (they were still larger than their own ship), Naruto told Diana:

"I'll make a shadow clone and let it be captured instead of me. As for myself, I'll Henge into a ring that you can wear on your finger. It's to prepare for the case where they have some sort of technology that can cancel out metahuman abilities and/or magic. You can never be too careful when interacting with someone in space. Don't underestimate anyone, even if you are a goddess. For all we know, there could very well exist technology that can subdue the powers of a god. The New Gods of New Genesis or Apokolips are certainly capable of creating something like that."

She nodded in understanding.

"Also, when we get on their ship, try not to kill anyone before we make sure that they're really slave traders. We don't want to kill innocents. We'll use your Lasso of Truth to interrogate them. You can never trust your employer for their words because there are times when you will get bounties to assassinate someone who they will say it's a bad guy simply because they are enemies or because they want to get rid of them. We always have to do our own research first. I don't take assassination bounties for decent people. I never take someone's life lightly."

The respect and admiration Diana felt for Naruto increased at his words. The more time she spent with him, the more she realized just how meticulous and thorough he was and how much he stuck to his own code of morals. He was far from the lawless and unhinged mercenary that the Justice League was making him out to be.

⁂

Letting themselves get captured, Naruto, Diana, and their spaceship were brought aboard the galleon-class ship. However, just moments after landing on the dry dock, the two of them burst into action. Naruto cancelled his Henge and transformed from the ring on Wonder Woman's finger back to his original form. Then, a smoke bomb exploded and impaired their captors' vision.

In a show of brute physical strength, the princess ripped the high-tech cuffs around her wrists as if they were made of paper, not reinforced alloy. The arcs of electricity that were released from the cuffs to paralyze her barely counted as a tickle. Her resistance to any sort of attacks had greatly increased after becoming a goddess.

After that, it took only a few seconds to dispatch of everyone. Upon confirming with Diana's lasso that they were indeed slave traders, the dry dock of the galleon-class ship all of a sudden became very crowded as over 300 shadow clones popped into existence. While to other people it would take days to inspect such an enormous ship, with the help of his shadow clones Naruto could scour the entire ship in less than an hour.

A crew of nearly 200 slave traders were sitting on the floor, in the prison section of the spaceship. There were pilots, weaponry handlers, jailers, cooks, cleaning personnel, and mechanics too. Everything that was needed for such a large ship to function properly.

He took out a small drone camera from his pocket and activated it, making it float in the air, around his eye level. It was to record what was about to happen.

"Are you... are you going to kill them all?" Diana asked.

She was hesitant, showing a conflicting look on her face. The slave traders looked almost identical to humans, the only difference being that they had red-copper skin. She looked at him but she could not see his facial expression due to the mask that he was wearing.

"They are slave traders," he said curtly. "The worst kind of people in the galaxy. They pillage, kill, rape, and sell other living people like cattle. They're even worse than space pirates because most pirates would at least let you keep your life after robbing you of your valuables. But slave traders...every single one of them deserves to be killed. No, even dying is less than what they deserve."

She became queasy. She understood that they were terrible criminals (after all, she had been the one to interrogate them with her lasso of truth) but that did not make it easy for her to kill them. It was one thing to kill someone in the heat of the moment, in battle, and a completely different thing to kill nearly 200 of them at once while they were unable to defend themselves. She was a warrior, not an executioner, she could not kill so many people in cold blood, criminals or not.

"Don't worry. I will never ask you to do anything you're not comfortable with." Naruto said calmly, having expected her reaction.

Killing others had never been a pleasure for him. However, it was something that needed to be done. Killing 200 slave traders meant that thousands of other innocents would be spared from a terrible life in the future. Furthermore, he was getting paid for it. He had known what he had signed up for when he took up the bounty and he always completed his mission. His good name and impressive reputation in the 3600 sectors of the Universe had not been built on lies.

Trying to lighten up the mood with a joke, he said: "Usually, Kurama would be more than willing to eat these guys up. He'd never pass on such a good snack. Living things, especially sentient, always gave him much more chakra than regular food or animals."

It was a rather morbid joke. He cleared his throat and then said lightly as 200 clones appeared next to him: "You might want to look away."

Despite his warning, Wonder Woman did not turn her head. She stubbornly looked at how the 200 clones executed every single slave trader with a clean stab of their kunais into the back of the slave traders' heads, into their brains. It was a clean, swift death. Then, Naruto went to the Commander and his 3 adjutants and beheaded them, storing their heads in a sealing scroll. The video of their execution and the four heads were going to serve as proof of his bounty completion.

It was a chilling moment to watching the execution of 200 criminals and the decapitation of 4 bodies.

'Naruto doesn't need a self-righteous warrior at his side. He needs someone that will be with him through thick and thin. Besides, they are criminals, worthy of a death penalty.'

With that thought in mind, Diana forced herself to watch it. It was not going to be easy for her to change her principles in a very short time, she was aware of that. However, she was willing to try. She did not want to become a burden for Naruto or a dead weight that held him back. She wanted to stay by his side and help him and support him in times of need. She wanted him to know that he could rely on her when the time came.

⁂ One year later ⁂

A bit more than one year passed since Naruto and Diana left the Earth and started their lives together as intergalactic bounty hunters. After this much time spent together, she realized that his fame in the Universe at large was much, much bigger than she had thought before. Especially after the stunt he and Kurama had pulled in the Vega System - the annihilation of the Psion race - his name was almost as well-known as the name of the Green Lantern Corps by the significant powers of the Universe. There was no intergalactic empire that had not at least heard of 'Caterpillar' within the 28 galaxies of the known Universe. With that being said, Caterpillar's new partner, a white-haired human female, also became known for her monstrous physical strength.

"Look at this, another 20 new endorsement offers from interstellar merchant companies. Everyone loooves you~ I'll pull one out of Kurama's book and say that you're stealing all my glory!" Naruto said teasingly from behind Wonder Woman while she was checking her own email on a device that looked like a futuristic version of the laptops from Earth.

"Can't help it that I'm so popular. In a few years, I'll take your spot as the no1 bounty hunter, you'll see." she said smugly and flicked her long white hair over her back with a great deal of self-importance.

They both started laughing.

"You sure you're not popular simply because you're a woman and you're hot?"

There weren't many women acting as bounty hunters and even fewer were strong enough to be known on an intergalactic scale. Her strength coupled with her almost angelic appearance (long white hair, wearing white and golden armour, wielding a golden shield and a god-slaying sword with a silver blade) made her extremely popular. There were even some rich corporations or kings of planets that wanted to hire services as a "Bodyguard", obviously, just a pretext just to spend time with her.

"Need I remind you of the video that kick-started my stardom?" she said with a raised eyebrow.

The video that she was speaking of had been recorded during a job where they had been hired by a merchant company to escort a shipment of crystal-like ore. An unlucky pirate ship tried to rob the merchant fleet, only for the Amazon princess to use her lasso to yoink and hurl the several hundred meters long pirate ship into an asteroid belt. It was not only the merchants that were terrified out of their wits, even Naruto got a little shaken back then. Seeing as it was an interstellar merchant company that had hired them, the footage that recorded her feat immediately became a sensation.

Naruto embraced her from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. It had become one of their favourite positions while they browsed the intergalactic web - sitting together in bed with her between his legs and him hugging her from behind.

"Anything that catches your interest?" he asked while nuzzling her neck and planting soft kisses on her nape.

She shivered and tried to shy away from his ministrations.

"Not now, Naruto, stop it."

Although over a year had passed since they started living together, it was as if there was no time limit for the passion and lust they felt for each other. It always took only a few kisses to get them started and it often took hours for them to calm down.

His hand rose to her breast and he pinched her nipple gently. She bit her lower lip at his touch. When his teeth sank softly into the lob of her ear and pulled at it, she shuddered. She felt heat pooling in her core and she quickly closed her device and pushed it off the bed.

Diana turned to look at him with a hungry look in her blue eyes. Their very active life as mercenaries - they had completed over 30 bounties over the past year - meant that they were very often in the middle of a mission; they did not get to make love every day. And maybe that was also one of the reasons why they were always so ready to start a romp whenever they were free, even after one year of being intimate in their relationship.

Turning around in his arms, she straddled his legs and her thighs pressed tightly on the sides of his waist. She pressed her lips against his hungrily, her tongue meeting his in a sensual embrace. She moaned into his mouth when his hands cupped her big ass and squeezed her toned cheeks greedily. Her core brushed against the bulge in his pants and she started to dry hump him lustfully, their moans and groans muffled by their deep, open-mouthed kiss.

Just when things were starting to get more intense, the particular sound made by his lightwave device started to ring.

"Ignore it!" Diana almost growled before diving back into his mouth and started sucking on his tongue. It always drove him mad with lust when she did that.

But the beeping sound from the lightwave device continued to ring.

It took Naruto every ounce of his will to rip his mouth away from her lustful lip lock. "This could be an emergency," he said between gasps, his voice rough with barely suppressed desire.

"Jerk, you're the one who started it!" she jeered at him but did not insist and let herself fall on her back, on the bed.

Naruto took a few seconds to recollect himself and at least get his breathing under control. Then, he waved his hand over his face and his usual ANBU white fox mask covered his face.

Grabbing the lightwave device from the nightstand next to their bed he said in a surprised voice when he saw the ID of the caller:

"Doctor Fate?"

Diana straightened her posture and sat up when she heard what he said.

Answering the call, the hologram of a man wearing a blue suit and golden helmet appeared from the lightwave device.

"Hello, Mr Uzumaki. Is Wonder Woman still with you?" the sorcerer asked without any pleasantries, going straight to the point.

The princess came next to Naruto for Doctor Fate to see her and said: "Yes, we are together. Has something happened on Earth?"

Naruto had given a lightwave device to Doctor Fate the previous year as a token of their friendship and told him to call him whenever he needed his help. Knowing that, it stood to reason that Diana became worried when he called.

"The situation on Earth..." Doctor Fate made a pause to find the right words "...is far from good."

"Tell us what happened."

"Not long after you left the Earth, the Justice League disbanded. The population did not want to believe that you had left the planet. No, not just the population, even among the members of the Justice League, most of them thought that the core, older members, were hiding you, protecting you from the consequences of your deeds."

If it was a year ago, the princess would have burst with indignation at his words. However, a year after the incident, her wounds have healed. She was no longer affected by the past. She loved Naruto, she was happy together with him, and she had fallen in love with their life as bounty hunters as well. She got to do what she had always wanted: to fight to her heart's content and to protect the innocent. Moreover, she did not have to care about mass media, public opinion, the government, the gods of Olympus and so on. She was free. On top of that, she was even getting paid for her deeds and she also got to visit all kinds of weird and interesting planets and meet all sorts of people. Even if she was given the chance to return back in time and be a member of the Justice League on Earth once again, she would not want to. Wonder Woman loved her new life.

Therefore, she was very calm, and borderline indifferent when she spoke:

"Aside from Green Arrow, nobody stood up for me. The rest shunned me and even expelled me from the League. I honestly don't really care what happened with the organisation. Has anything noteworthy taken place?"

Doctor Fate was momentarily silent, not expecting to hear such words from her.

"Yes," he said eventually. "Something terrible has happened."

"Superman is dead."