[Caterpillar] Chapter 4 - Let it go (Patreon)

"You're not such a bad guy after all, are you?" Naruto said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Batman narrowed his eyes at him.

Instead of replying, the blond man slurped loudly on a large number of noodles at the same time. It was Wonder Woman that answered his question:

"Behind that mean glare of yours, there is a nice personality hidden."

When Naruto made a thumbs-up gesture at her showing that her words were spot on, Batman's glare intensified.

The four of them were currently in the Chinatown district of Boston, in a Chinese restaurant. Batman had been the one to direct Naruto to that place after he asked if Earth had a dish known as 'ramen'. Thus, thanks to Batman, he was now in the middle of inhaling his 12th bowl of ramen. Even Batman's poker face began to falter at the sight of the ever-increasing mountain of empty bowls stacked on the table.

In contrast, the ever-gluttonous fox was not eating. Kyuubi was lying stretched on his back in Wonder Woman's lap, letting out quiet growls of content from the belly rub she was giving him.

Finally, Naruto put down on the table the 12th empty bowl and exhaled loudly in bliss.

"Are you finally done eating?" Batman asked.

Though his facial expression could not be seen due to his face being covered by his mask (even while he had been eating), everyone could hear the reluctance in his voice when he spoke:

"I would like to eat more...but it's enough for now. I can sense there are only 2 employees working in the kitchen at this late hour. I've already troubled them enough by ordering 12 bowls of ramen at once."

Batman and Wonder Woman looked at each other strangely. This guy was despicable enough to extort Superman of 4 million dollars but now he was worried about overworking 2 cooks at a restaurant? They did not know what to think of him.

Right at that moment, an alarming news report came up on the TV installed above the counter:

"A dangerous hostage situation is developing at the Federal Building in Metropolis. So far, the Ultra-Humanite has refused to speak with negotiators. A freak of science, the Ultra-Humanite is reportedly a genius who is also extremely dangerous [...]"

Batman and Wonder Woman jumped up to their feet. But although the situation was urgent, Wonder Woman could not help being amused when she saw that the fox cub in her lap had not fallen off when she sat up. He was still sitting perpendicularly on her lap as if he was glued to her thighs. Still, she could not afford to play around at that moment. She took the fox in her arms and handed him over to Naruto.

"Do not fry this tracker too. At least if you want to get your gold tomorrow." Batman said and handed Naruto a bat-shaped tracking device.

"By the way, if you need any help, I'm here. We can discuss the price later, based on contribution." Naruto offered while taking back a grumpy and unwilling fox from Wonder Woman's hands.

"No thank you," Batman said categorically. "We can handle this."

Then, turning towards the Amazon, he said:

"Wonder Woman, let's go."

⁂

"We don't need your help, he said. We can handle this, he said. Bwahaha!" Kyuubi laughed evilly from atop Naruto's shoulder.

Luckily, he and Naruto were conversing in their native language because otherwise, Kyuubi would have gotten into real trouble for making fun of the current situation like that. In front of them, Batman was lying on his back on a bed in the Watchtower unconscious, his body a sweaty mess. During the fight against the metahuman criminals hired by Lex Luthor, he had been bitten by Copperhead who injected him with his venom. Batman had almost died.

"The venom antidote is working." Martian Manhunter said in relief and, not long after that, Batman regained his consciousness.

"Welcome back," Superman said. "We were afraid we lost you."

"Luthor and the others... what happened?"

"They got away. All but Copperhead." Martian Manhunter answered.

"I'm heading down to Stryker's to interrogate him," Superman added.

"Alright, let's go," Batman said and tried to sit up but Superman stopped him.

"No, you're staying here. That venom almost killed you."

"So?"

"So you're staying here!"

Batman glared at him but did not continue to argue and sat back on the bed. However, after Superman left, Batman still did as he wanted. Despite the words of consolation from the Martian, he went straight to the computer and tracked down the location of the Injustice Gang through the tracking device that he had secretly planted on Lex Luthor.

"I know this must be hard for you: feeling vulnerable. You're the only one of us without special powers. But you don't need to prove yourself. You're a valued member of this team and we're only trying to-"

Batman cut off Martian Manhunter's words midway:

"I'm taking the shuttle. Unless you want to try and stop me."

The two looked at each other in the eyes for 2 very long seconds before the Martian Manhunter backed off.

⁂

On his way back to Earth, Batman also took the alien mercenary and his fox with him to hold his end of the bargain. Now, they were inside a warehouse in Gotham City.

"Here's your gold. You can check its weight yourself." Batman said and pointed at two wooden boxes on the ground.

Opening their lids, Naruto saw 35 gold bars in each box, every one of them weighing 1 kg. He nodded in acknowledgement and took out a scroll from one of the inner pockets of the fur-collared black cloak covering his body. He spread the scroll open and placed it above the two boxes. After putting his hand on top of it, a small plume of smoke burst out and the 2 boxes filled with gold vanished.

"Nifty trick," Batman said. It was almost a compliment. He naturally understood how many possibilities such a convenient ability could bring.

"Thank you for the business," Naruto said professionally and then handed Batman a card.

"A business card?" Batman asked, inwardly surprised.

"I'm an independent mercenary. Since there's no agency or corporation behind me, I have to advertise my services myself. Anyway, you have urgent matters to deal with so I won't keep you. Take care." Naruto said and raised his hand for a handshake.

The two masked men shook hands and then Naruto and Kyuubi disappeared from the warehouse with a body flicker movement. When he could not feel the two aliens' presence any longer, Batman looked at the business card the blond left behind.

"Looks like he's done other things too besides eating since yesterday until now," he muttered.

It was a black-coloured card and written on it were a few lines in red. Much to his surprise, they were written in English. On the front of the business card, it was written:

Intergalactic mercenary: Uzumaki Naruto

Alias: Caterpillar

Total missions taken: 3381

Missions completed: 3380 (99.6% completion rate)

Method of contact: lightwave xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx

Object of activity:
- escort
- sabotage
- espionage
- rescue
- assassination (scumbags only)

Batman involuntarily let out a snort of amusement at the explanation written in the parentheses. Looking on the back of the card, there was a picture of a crimson-red nine-tailed demonic-looking fox.

'Weird alias.' Batman inwardly thought.

Naruto was wearing a fox-themed mask, he had a nine-tailed fox cub as a pet and even his business card had the picture of a nine-tailed fox on it. One would think his alias would be related to foxes. Batman could not see how a name like 'Caterpillar' was related to foxes in any way.

Regardless, he did not ponder too much on it. He put the card in one of the many pockets of his utility belt and then headed towards the hideout of Lex Luthor's Injustice Gang.

⁂

An Almeracian ship exited Earth's atmosphere and headed towards the edge of the Sol System at a constant speed, in a straight line. There were only two people on board: a blond-haired man and a red fox.

"So, what's the plan now?" Kyuubi asked.

Naruto was sitting on a chair, browsing through the rather lengthy list of jobs that various information brokers and other organisations that he was in partnership with had sent him. He had been at it for the past 2 hours. It was completely unlike him. Normally, he was a decisive man when it came to job-related things.

Naruto made a slow-moving waving motion with his hand in front of his face and the white ANBU-style fox mask started to disperse in a shower of particles of light. The reason why he could even eat without taking his mask off was that the mask was not an actual, physical object but a jutsu that he had created, one that he could easily control at will. It was a jutsu that he created primarily not to disguise his identity (though it was good at it since not even Superman could see through it with his x-ray vision) but to solve the problem of poisonous gases and the lack of oxygen. That meant that he could now survive in hostile environments with no issues and even underwater. It was something that he had created out of necessity after going through countless dangerous places during his travels across the Universe.

When the mask dispersed, the previously blue eyes became red and his sun-kissed blond hair took on a darker tint too, becoming a strawberry-blond colour, almost red. As for his face, it had not changed too much since his teenage years. The more noticeable differences would be that the whisker-like marks on his cheeks had become darker and thicker and that, between his eyebrows, two rather deep frown wrinkles could be seen. He looked like a man in his mid-twenties.

When the mask disappeared, Naruto rubbed his face with his palms and sighed.

"I don't know. I don't even know what job to take or if I should take any job at all."

The reason why he had become a mercenary was that he needed a way to finance his expeditions. Intergalactic travel was very expensive. Ships capable of interstellar travel, their maintenance costs, the fuel, the weapons to equip them, information...all those things were not cheap at all, regardless of the galaxy. No, their prices were exorbitant, hence also the reason why his services were rather expensive too. But now that he realized that finding a way back home was impossible, he was at a loss for what to do.

"You've searched enough, Naruto. Almost a century is more than enough. Even if you went back now, what would you go back to? Everyone in your generation has long since passed away. You know as well as I do that shinobi don't live long lives."

Naruto frowned at those words; it had become a habit for him (and that was the reason why the frown lines between his eyebrows were so pronounced).

"Don't tell me you've forgotten what happened 88 years ago, Kurama. It's the reason why I don't look a day over 25. For me, it was only 1 hour...but when I came out, almost 50 years had passed in the outside world."

At those words, the hair all over Kyuubi's back and his nine tails became straight like needles as a series of chills went down his back. At that time, Kyuubi had still been sealed inside Naruto as the two of them had not managed to find a way to let Kyuubi out without killing Naruto until he was in his late 40s. However, through Naruto's eyes, he could see and experience the outside world, just like Naruto could. The sight he had seen that day would forever be ingrained in his brain. It was something that neither he nor Naruto would ever be able to forget.

Nonetheless, Kyuubi did not want to back off.

"I know what hope you've been clinging on for the past century: time dilation. You've been hoping that while a century has passed here, maybe no more than a day had passed in the Elemental Nations." (1)

"But forget about a day, just think about one hour. No, even 5 minutes. Who could survive against the Rabbit Goddess after she kicked us out of the dimension? You think that Uchiha could? Or that useless woman you used to have a crush on? Or maybe your sensei? Hell, at that time, even you wouldn't have been able to last all alone against Kaguya for 5 minutes."

"Shut up!" Naruto shouted incensed. The amount of chakra that his mere shout contained made the entire warship shake terribly.

Kyuubi scoffed not in the least intimidated. But he still chose to give up on his tiny fox cub form and his body enlarged until he was several feet tall, making the control room barely accommodate his enormous size. His voice became even more powerful and demonic when he spoke next:

"You don't like to hear the truth, eh? Here. I'll spell it for you: everyone is dead! You've been living with your mind stuck in the past for almost a century! Fighting for something that probably doesn't even exist anymore!"

When Kyuubi said those words it was like Naruto had suddenly lost all his energy. He sat down on the pilot's chair and let his head fall against the steering wheel of the ship lifelessly.

Inwardly, Kyuubi felt his heart crack at that sight. He cared about Naruto like his own brother. They were family. Telling Naruto such harsh words hurt him too.

'Forgive me, Naruto, but it had to be done. You've spent a human's entire lifetime already on a wild goose chase. It's enough. I can't watch you waste your life like that any longer. It's time to let go.' Kyuubi thought in his heart.

The two of them often argued and sometimes even brawled but it was play fighting. It was very rare for them to have a serious fight. The number of times they fought ever since Kaguya had thrown them into another dimension could be counted on the fingers of one hand. And Naruto had always avoided speaking about how small were the chances of them ever going back home. He even avoided thinking about it.

"You are right, Kurama. I'm sorry." Naruto said.

In the deafening silence that followed, the sound of his tears falling on the floor could be heard. They were big, bitter tears. Tears filled with the frustration and bitterness that he had bottled up inside of him over the past century. All this time, he had pursued his goal with tunnel vision, mindlessly. He had not allowed himself to cry, to doubt himself or to despair. But now, his path had finally reached a dead end. He had travelled to all the known planets inhabited by humanoid creatures, all across the 3600 sectors of the Universe. He had met the oldest beings in the Universe, the Guardians of the Universe, to ask for information and he had even ventured to explore the unknown void of the Universe, almost dying several times in the process. But it had all been for nought. He did not have any other leads. He had exhausted all his means.

"I was selfish. I'm sorry. I've only thought about myself. All these years, you've followed me and helped me without saying anything. And I never thought of what you might want to do."

"What are you talking about, you bastard? Don't make this about me!" Kyuubi shouted and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his cloak. "This isn't about what I want. It's about-"

But Kyuubi choked on his words when Naruto brought his arms around him and hugged him tightly while crying in his chest. At that moment, Naruto looked nothing like a world-famous intergalactic mercenary. He did not look like someone who had fought on equal grounds against a god and lived to tell the tale. At that moment, he looked no different than a child crying in despair.

The now giant fox brought his tail around Naruto and gently laid his chin on top of his head.

Apart from the Sage of Six Paths who had died more than a thousand years before, Kyuubi had never cared about any of the humans or beings from the Elemental Nation. Kyuubi had never missed his homeworld. On the contrary, the past century spent travelling the Universe (especially the last 60 years, ever since they found a way to unseal him from Naruto) had been the most fun and amazing period of his millennia-long life. Travelling to new worlds, exploring unknown lands, seeing all kinds of creatures, and eating so many kinds of good food. It was a life better than he had ever hoped to have even in his wildest dreams. In the Elemental Nations, he had been nothing but a beast hunted by humans and imprisoned to be used as a weapon of war. He had no sweet memories of it.

But he understood Naruto's feelings. He was a man loyal to his loved ones to a fault. And the 4th Great Ninja War happened only a few weeks after the village that used to hate him had finally acknowledged him. He had become a hero and it looked like his lifelong dream of becoming a Hokage was within an arm's reach, no longer something deemed as a pipe dream. People had started to respect him and love him. But his friends (his 'precious people') and everything he had worked so hard for had been taken away from him when he had been thrust into an unknown world. A world that he had roamed like a vagabond for almost a century. Kyuubi could understand his despair.

So he let him cry. Despite the mucus and tears staining his beautiful fur, Kyuubi did not say a word of reproach.

"It's alright, Naruto...it's alright... Let it go."

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: That incident where 50 years passed in the outside world while for Naruto it was only 1 hour is what made him become immortal. It is also what made him fear/respect the void of the unknown universe. More details will be given about it as the story progresses.

(1) Time dilation is a real thing, you can check the wiki. By the way, I did not count those years towards Naruto's age. He is 113 years old without those 50 since for him it had been only 1 hour.