[Caterpillar] Chapter 2 - Argo (Patreon)

Through the thick windows of the spaceship's cockpit, an enormous red star could be seen. It was Rao, a red supergiant. Supergiants were the largest type of stars that could be found in the Universe. The one saving grace for the planets orbiting it was that red stars were not as hot as yellow stars, let alone blue stars. Nevertheless, the intelligent lifeforms in the Rao System still perished in the end.

As the Almeracian spaceship flew towards the area that Krypton used to orbit, they saw a very large number of asteroids glowing with a dark green light littering the space. Chunks of matter starting from sizes of several hundred feet to even tens of miles were all that remained of planet Krypton and its moons.

"When civilisations as powerful as Krypton are wiped out in a single day...it makes you realize how fragile and insignificant our lives are. That no matter what great accomplishments one has in life, in front of Nature we are nothing but specs of dust." Naruto said.

His facial expression could not be seen because of the mask he was wearing but his voice was subdued, melancholic.

"Have you been here before? I mean on Krypton." Superman who had been silent until then asked.

"Yes, roughly 4 decades ago, to get my reward for completing a bounty. It wasn't long before it blew up now that I think of it. It came out as a shock for many beings in the entire Galaxy when Krypton was destroyed."

Hearing him speak about his homeworld, Superman was listening with rapt attention.

"You may or may not know this but even today, dozens of years from Krypton's destruction, their technology and their relics still fetch a very high price on the legal and black markets alike. It goes to show how advanced they had been for their tech to have not become outdated even after all these years."

"Can't stop wondering though... how could a civilisation as technologically advanced as them die out in such a dumb way? You'd think they should have easily managed to detect that something was wrong with the planet's core and at least escape if not outright solve it. This whole situation smells fishy to me. And not just me; anyone with a working brain would think something else happened behind the scenes."

Superman clenched his fists at his words.

"You are right. Someone did orchestrate everything. My father was one of the leading scientists on Krypton and he had warned everyone that the planet was going to explode but nobody in the government wanted to believe him and the results of his research. Instead, they chose to listen to the corrupted AI that they had created, Brainiac. But, by the time they finally realized that Brainiac had been lying to them all along, it was too late. As far as I know, besides the criminals trapped in the Phantom Zone, I'm the last Kryptonian. My father sent me on a rocket, as a baby, to Earth, minutes before the collapse. A short video is all I have left of my parents' memory."

Due to his upbringing, Superman was a very kind and pure-hearted man. One that would not willingly hurt even a fly. However, if there was someone he wanted to destroy with every fibre of his being, that was Brainiac. The God of Evil, Darkseid was a close second too. Nevertheless, that was easier said than done.

"Naruto, I'm hungry." Kyuubi all of a sudden said.

And just like that, the solemn mood from before was completely broken. Naruto's voice sounded helpless when he spoke next:

"Seriously, Kurama, you ate 3 hours ago. Have some patience. You can see that there is nothing edible around..." but then his words trailed off and he turned his head towards Superman. Coincidentally, Kyuubi also turned his head and licked his whiskers as he looked at Superman with a hungry look in his eyes.

A chill travelled down Superman's spine and he unconsciously stepped back, inwardly starting to become alarmed. Only 3 hours had passed since he left the Preserver's ship and he had been nowhere close to a Yellow Sun to recover his strength. Because of that, he was still severely weakened compared to his usual self.

As Superman was bracing himself for what could be a battle for his life, the fox started snickering like a hyena.

"I'm just kidding! Hahaha!"

After he stopped laughing, Kyuubi asked as though it just came to his mind:

"By the way, can you Kryptonians regrow your limbs if you were to lose an arm or a leg?"

The real meaning was not lost to Superman. But, before he could reply, Naruto grabbed Kyuubi by the scruff of his neck and brought him down from his right shoulder in his lap.

"Stop teasing the poor boy," he said with a chuckle and, in the palm of his other hand, a glowing sphere of light-blue energy took shape. "Come, tell me what flavour you want this time."

At the sight of the Rasengan in Naruto's hand, Kyuubi's 9 fluffy tails started wagging excitedly.

"Make it spicy!" the fox said and gulped impatiently. He looked like a glutton.

In the next moment, the light-blue Rasengan turned red, transforming into a ball of fire. With no further ado, Kyuubi started to bite and lick at the sphere of fire chakra with gusto, as though it was a delicious ice cream.

"Look at him, isn't he adorable?" Naruto cooed.

A growl came from Kyuubi for being called 'adorable' but his ire did not last long because he quickly lost himself in the sauce.

"He does look endearing when he's not threatening to eat my limbs whole," Superman said and the two men chuckled together.

While they were laughing, an alarm rang and a notification appeared on the large screen of the computer in the control room of the ship. Below a red S.O.S. signal, a small map of the Rao System appeared with a pulsating red dot at the very edge of it.

"Is there anyone alive?" Superman asked, his voice betraying his hopes and expectations.

Naruto extinguished the orb of chakra in his hand but Kyuubi growled in unhappiness and bit on his fingers.

"Ow, you little shit, biting the hand that feeds you?"

Still, it was not the time to start a fight with the fox and instead turned his attention towards the screen. He changed the destination of the ship to the coordinates shown on the map.

"Don't get your hopes too high. For all we know, there is no landmass at the edge of the system, so far away from the star. Most likely it's a stranded ship requesting assistance." Naruto said.

But, to Superman's delight, the blond's words were proven to be wrong a few minutes later when a rather small planet appeared in their view. It was grey, seemingly devoid of life, and enormous cracks littered the surface, cracks in the crust that were so large that they could be seen all the way from space. It was a dead planet.

"Could anyone still be alive on a planet like this? After such a disaster?" Naruto wondered.

"We have to try! Even if the chance is minuscule, there's still a chance that there are survivors! There's no way I'm leaving without saving them!" Superman insisted vehemently.

He had always wanted to one day come to the Rao System and look for survivors. He had always hoped that maybe one of the colonies of Kryptonians located outside of Krypton had managed to survive somehow. But whereas at first, he did not have the technology to do that, after he got the means to travel in space he no longer had the leisure to do so. For example, less than 3 months ago, Imperium and his race had also tried to conquer the Earth and kill every living being on it, just like they had done to Mars a thousand Earth years ago. He was afraid of leaving the Earth unprotected for too long. However, whether it was luck or fate, he was now in the Rao System. He would not miss the chance to save any survivors for anything in the world.

When he heard his words, Naruto looked at him amused.

"What can you do about it if I decide to leave though? You may have special powers on Earth but, in this system, you're just an ordinary man. You don't even have a suit to survive the temperature on that frozen planet or the lack of oxygen."

Superman became silent. He realized his mistake. The masked person in front of him was not his subordinate to listen to his orders.

"Please, I need your help," he said and lowered his head.

To his surprise, the blond quickly agreed.

"Sure. I will help you. For 40 mass units of gold."

Superman's head shot up, his eyes wide.

"What?!"

Naruto chuckled at his reaction and the fox curled up in his lap chortled too.

"There is no free meal in this world, kid. You think people are going to work for you just because you said 'please'?"

The Man of Steel looked as though he could still not fully grasp the current situation.

"...You want me to pay you in gold to save innocent people's lives?"

Naruto nodded.

"Naturally."

"And you also better not forget that I freed you from the Preserver's cage and gave you a ride on my ship too. That'll cost you another 30 mass units of gold. Normally, I should charge you for this detour trip to the Rao System as well but I decided to do this one thing out of the kindness of my heart. Take it as a bonus, on the house."

Superman made an incredulous face and Naruto almost started laughing out loud when he saw the small bulges in his cheeks, a sign of how hard he was clenching his teeth.

"Oi, oi. You're acting as if I'm robbing you now or something. I don't know what kind of environment you've grown up in but normal people in this Universe expect to be paid for their work. Of course, you can choose not to pay and I'll drop your sorry butt in space right now."

Superman could no longer hold back his anger.

"I thought you were different! I was even feeling sorry for you, I thought that you were like me! But you're just a money-grubber, not that different from a highway robber!"

Naruto stood up from the pilot's seat and the easy-going mood around him suddenly disappeared.

"I could've ignored and left you to rot in that glass cage and be on my way. I had no reason to take you on my ship and give you a ride to Earth because I have no business there. But I do try to help people in need if it's not too bothersome. Still, this is this and that is that."

"I'm a mercenary, not a priest. I don't do charity. Do you think your words of gratitude will fill my stomach or buy new parts and cover the maintenance costs for my ship? Or maybe your gratitude will compensate me for potentially risking my life in an unknown place? Wake up to reality, boy."

An uncomfortable silence for Superman was instilled after Naruto said those words.

"Now let's cut the crap. Are you going to pay, or not?"

Superman sighed in defeat. He understood that he could not force his lofty ideals on other living beings that were not even from Earth, much less on a mercenary. Furthermore, the man in front of him held all the cards at that moment. He and his beast were stronger than his current self and it was their ship too. Not to mention that, as Naruto said, in his current condition, Superman had no way of surviving on the surface of that dead planet alone. He did not have a suit to protect himself from Rao's red radiation, from the extremely cold temperature or from the lack of oxygen. If he wanted to save whoever had sent that distress signal, he depended on Naruto. Lastly. he also owed Naruto a debt of gratitude.

"I don't recall you asking Lobo for anything." the Kryptonian still grumbled unhappily.

"That's because Lobo had a modicum of common sense to acknowledge by himself the debt he owed me. And yes, just one promise of his is more than enough guarantee. He's been a bounty hunter for decades and never once went back on his word or broke a contract. He may be a piece of shit but he does have his own standards too."

"Fine, fine, you win!" the Kryptonian said in exasperation and then muttered to himself: "What do you even need gold for is beyond me..."

Naruto sat back on the pilot's seat and steered the ship to enter the cracked planet's atmosphere.

"For transactions at an intergalactic level, what currency do you think that people use? With millions of planets and even more currencies, do you think money is of any use? Say you give me money from Earth, where am I going to use it?"

At his words, Superman momentarily forgot how annoyed he was and became genuinely curious. He had never really asked himself that question before because he had never left the Earth until then for other reasons besides fighting against his enemies.

"Payments are made mostly with goods. Usually, it's stuff like advanced weaponry, spaceships, reactors or magical artefacts. But, depending on the planetary system and the position in the galaxy, gold, precious minerals, and other rare materials can be used as currency too. Hell, you can even pay with rare or powerful creatures or even slaves. Anything that the other party is interested in. Of course, money is used for transactions as well but only between planets belonging to the same intergalactic empire. Outside of those, money is worthless."

Naruto explained all that patiently, with a very light voice. It was as if their small argument from a few moments ago had never happened in the first place. He did not seem affected by it. Apparently, it had not been the first time, by far, that someone had tried to slither their way out of paying him what they owed.

"So I'm asking you for gold in consideration of your origins. I can't expect someone from a backwater planet like the Earth to pay me with a planet-destroyer cannon or a mother box now, can I?" he said with a chuckle.

Naruto landed the ship in an open space. It looked like a large plaza of a city. A ruined city covered in ice. The entire planet was covered in snow and ice. A sombre expression appeared on Superman's face when he looked at the scenery outside. Vaguely, he could recognize the architectural style of the buildings buried below the ice.

"Alright, I'm heading out," Naruto said with an energetic voice, not exactly fitting with the desolate scene in front of them. After all, they were basically in the middle of a giant graveyard. The burial ground of an entire civilisation.

Before he opened the outside trap door of the spaceship he said:

"Don't think about doing anything funny while I'm away. The moment anyone besides me tries to start the engines of the ship, this bracelet over here -" and he pointed at the white band around his wrist "- will teleport me back to the ship. It's an anti-theft system implemented on all the military ships of Almerac. Not gonna lie, it caught me off-guard too when I stole this ship and... ahem. Anyway, I'm going. Be a good boy and stay put until I come back."

Superman was between laughing and crying, not really knowing how was he supposed to react. Indignant for being suspected of being a thief? Annoyed or amused at being treated like a naughty little kid? Or maybe worried that this guy stole a military ship from Almerac? He still remembered his encounter with the violent Queen of Almerac.

"I've met many weirdos in my life but this guy...I think he takes the cake. Phew, what a character!" Superman muttered.

The masked blond man may not be weird on the same level of weirdness as someone like Lobo but he gave off a feeling of instability, making one feel on edge the whole time while interacting with him. Throughout the entire ride, Superman had been secretly anxious due to how whimsical Naruto seemed to be. Was he a bad guy? Well, not really, because he saved Superman's and Lobo's lives. Was he a good guy? Well, he had just admitted that he robbed Almerac of one of their military ships and he also demanded a crazy expensive fee for his services. That was not the behaviour of a morally upstanding guy but the behaviour of a thief and an unscrupulous businessman. Superman couldn't get a proper read on his character.

'70 mass units of gold...where the hell am I gonna get so much gold from? I'll have to ask Batman for help once again.'

He could already imagine Batman's patented glare boring a hole in his head or Flash making lame jokes and poking fun at him. He palmed his forehead when he felt the beginning of a headache. But then, another thing came to his mind:

'Wait, how much is a mass unit?'

That was not how they calculated the weight on Earth. Clearly, it was an alien measuring unit. Was 1 mass unit equal to a pound? If that was the case then it was still ok. Somewhat. But what if 1 mass unit was equal to say, god forbid, one ton? At that thought, Superman's face became ugly to look at.

"Argh, what a scumbag!"

⁂

It did not take long for Naruto to find out where the distress signal had been sent from. With a sweep of his Sage Mode senses, all life signatures in a radius of 50 miles were revealed. All of them... better said would be that the only one. There was only one person still alive. As he walked through the ruins of the previously prosperous city, he let out a long sigh. Men, women, children, animals, vehicles, buildings, everything was buried in the eternal snow and ice.

Nevertheless, he did not dally and continued walking towards the location of the life signature. Soon, he reached the ruins of what had been a rather impressive building. Upon entering, he noticed that the temperature was a bit higher than outside. He followed the still relatively intact staircase and went down to the underground floors of the building. It made sense that if anyone was living in this building, they would be living underground rather than on the higher floors.

A few moments later, he reached a circular room that did not look too different from the control room of a spaceship. The moment he stepped in, a circle of light glowed on the floor and a rather blurry hologram appeared from the device in the middle of the room. It was the image of a tall but very beautiful blonde woman in her late thirties. She looked identical to a female human. Then, a sad but warm voice resounded in the cold room.

Naruto quickly fiddled with the translating device on his belt to understand what she was saying.

"I am Kala In-Ze. Chief position of Argo City. Five years ago Argo was a thriving vibrant world. But then, without warning, five years ago, our sister planet, Krypton, was destroyed in a giant chain of explosions. Krypton's destruction tore Argo from its orbit."

It looked like the transmission was recorded 5 years after Krypton's and Argo's destruction. As the blonde woman in the hologram spoke, one of the screens in the circular room started showing clips from when the planet was still in a pristine condition and then the following catastrophe.

"The resulting devastation destroyed most of our world and sent it moving slowly, inexorably away from our sun, leaving a few desperate survivors freezing to death. There was nothing my people could do but pray our distress signals would be answered. But now, I can wait no longer. I have taken a desperate last chance to save my surviving family."

"To my knowledge, we are all that is left of Argo. Please, help us!" she said, tears streaming down her face. With that, the transmission ended and the hologram disappeared.

Naruto sighed apathetically. It was not that he was completely stone-hearted to their plight. He was just numb. Krypton and Argo were just 2 of the dozens of planets that had been destroyed during his lifetime. Probably even at that very moment, another planet exploded somewhere in the vast universe.

Going by his homeworld years, Naruto was 113 years old. He had travelled through the Universe for 97 years. Even so, he showed no more signs of growing old at all after he reached the age of 25. For all he knew, he was immortal, never to die of old age.

Travelling from one corner of the known Universe to the other and witnessing all the death and destruction around him made him understand better than most people the frailty of life. And that, coupled with his apparent immortality, made him over the years slowly detach himself emotionally from his surroundings. Why love someone if they could get killed off just like that? Why make friends too? just so he could watch them grow old and die? Regardless, Naruto did not dwell on those depressing thoughts for long. His life was not all gloomy and dark. Because he had Kyuubi.

As though the fox knew his inner feelings, he moved closer to his right shoulder and snuggled into his neck. Naruto smiled behind his mask and brought his left hand to gently pat Kyuubi on the head. In this ever-changing world where planets and even entire star systems could unexpectedly perish in less than a day, there was one constant in his life, someone who would forever be at his side: Kurama. Through thick and thin, the two of them would always have each other's back.

Walking towards the side of the room, he arrived in front of 4 life capsules. Three of them had been invaded by ice and the people inside had become frozen corpses. But in the last capsule, a person still lived. A thin girl with shoulder-length blonde hair was sleeping peacefully. She looked no older than 16. She appeared to be the daughter of the woman in the hologram.

"Looks like our trip here has not been in vain," Naruto said.

"Mhm. And now, that big oaf won't bitch about the money he owes you either." Kyuubi grumbled making Naruto laugh.

A yellow-red light appeared around his hand, coating it up to the middle of his forearm. It was Yang chakra, unmatched in vitality. It was a chakra born mainly from his body's physical energy. He ripped the capsule's door open and his chakra-coated hand immediately touched the girl's head. The Yang chakra engulfed her body and an expression of comfort appeared on the unconscious girl's face. Her pale-white cheeks quickly became ruddy as her blood's circulation increased and she even started to show signs of waking up.

He took the young girl in his arms in a princess carry and then the yellow-red chakra covered him and Kyuubi too. In the next moment, the three of them vanished from the underground room, leaving only a flicker of yellow-red light in their wake.