[Caterpillar] Chapter 11 - Rejection (Patreon)

The word immense did not do it justice. As he looked at the endless expanse of darkness ahead of him, he could not find a word in his vocabulary to describe its size. In truth, it was way, way larger than dozens of planetary systems put together, a darkness blacker than the darkest black. His eyes would have not been able to perceive its existence in the first place if it had not been for the accretion disks glowing at its edge.

"W-What is this?"

His voice was shaking. A brave and courageous man, someone who never backed down, someone who had dared to even fight against a god: that man, at that moment, was frozen. A primal fear beyond his reasoning gripped his heart. He could not breathe. In terror, he could not even look away.

A thought came to his mind:

'This is the end.'

Alarms rang and many warnings appeared on the screen of his computer. The ship began to shake terribly because of the force pulling at it, dragging it away from its trajectory.

Snapping out of his trance-like state, he grabbed the controls of the ship in panic and pulled on them, trying to steer the ship away manually. He pressed several buttons and all the engines of the ship blasted at full power. But for all his efforts, the only result was that the ship started shaking even harder and then, with a loud bang, one of the engines superheated and exploded.

"Kurama!"

At his call, a yellow and red light came out of his body. He stood up from the pilot's seat and then squatted against the ship's floor. The yellow and red chakra increased in density around him to such a degree that his silhouette became blurry, almost indistinguishable. His legs pushed against the floor with all the power he was capable of and he launched himself up like an unstoppable rocket. He broke through the reinforced special alloy that the outer walls of his spaceship were made of, straight into the Outerspace.

"Now! Blast it!"

Crimson red chakra burst from the soles of his feet, enveloping the several hundred-foot-long spaceship below. An enormous explosion boomed when the ship's main ion reactor blew up. That explosion did what the spaceships' engines could not achieve: it propelled him away violently, lessening the pulling force that had taken hold of his being.

There was no sign of relief on his face. A tailed beast bomb started to take form in the palm of his hands and it grew in size until it was as large as a football. But he did not throw it; where could he have thrown it to? For millions of miles, there was nothing around him. Pressing his palms against it, the tailed beast bomb's spherical form was compressed to that of a plum. Then, it blew up and another violent explosion blasted him away. It was almost as powerful as a small nuclear bomb.

In the vacuum of space, those two explosions hurled him more than a million miles away from his initial location.

'Not enough! It's not enough!'

Desperation threatened to overwhelm him. He felt like no matter how far he flew, he would not be able to escape. He could not escape from the intangible claws of the devouring demon that had grabbed a hold of him.

A shadow clone appeared behind him. However, the clone did not have the momentum that the two huge explosions had granted to the original body. In the blink of an eye, the original body had disappeared from the clone's sight. Despite the original body's crazy speed and momentum, it had still not been fast enough to escape the radius of the explosion that followed. The shadow clone killed itself by creating and detonating another tailed beast bomb in his hands, just so the shockwave of the explosion could blast away the original body even further.

Terrible explosions with powers no less than that of nuclear bombs appeared like tiny suns as they lighted up, for a brief moment, the ever-present darkness of the void. The repeated shockwaves coming from them were enough to even pulverize some of his internal organs and make him cough up large amounts of blood. But after the explosion of nearly 10 bijuudama, consuming much of his chakra pool, his body gained such an astonishing momentum in the vacuum of space that he had almost reached the speed of light. It was a speed that no one could reach without the aid of a supernatural force protecting their being.

With his body wrapped in a dense yellow and red chakra, he looked like a comet as he flew in desperation. But finally, he could feel it: the pulling force from behind was weakening. He was not far from his salvation: the event horizon.

⁂

He woke up with a start. He would have jumped up to his feet if half of his body had not been petrified. In his condition, he could only grab onto the bedsheets with his still-working hand. He noticed that the sheets were soaked with his sweat. Closing his remaining eye, he tried to calm himself down. His heart was beating as if to jump out of his chest.

Years had passed from the last time he had had that nightmare. But it was not just a mere dream. Out of the 3381 missions that Naruto had taken over the past century as an intergalactic mercenary, he had completed 3380. He had failed only one. It had happened when the events from his nightmare had taken place.

A supermassive black hole located very far from the 'borders' of the 3600 sectors of the Universe... ...It was the closest he had ever come to dying. It was the most terrified he had ever been of something. It was a fear that did not make sense because, normally, Naruto was not afraid of death. It was beyond his understanding, more than his mind could comprehend.

One hour spent at the very edge of its gravitational pull had meant over 50 years in the world outside the event horizon. Though he had completed the actual bounty before the supermassive black hole's gravitation derailed his ship off its course, by the time he returned to show proof of his bounty's completion and collect his reward, the person who had issued the bounty had died of old age. That was why it was counted as a failure.

One hour under the influence of that supermassive black hole had made him unaging, immortal. He had searched for information about black holes after surviving that incident. In this wide universe, there had been other people too who had stepped beyond the event horizon of a black hole and managed to escape and live to tell the tale. But he had never heard of someone becoming immortal as a result of it. He had also never heard of a black hole of that size before. The largest one recorded reached 'only' the approximate size of a planetary system.

To this day, he was convinced that it had not been a natural phenomenon.

'Something...someone...must've created that thing.'

To this day, Naruto was left with a deep fear of the Void. In front of that world-ending black hole, he felt insignificant.

'Old Gods? New Gods? ...what a joke. Who dares to call themselves a god in front of the Void?'

"You're awake!" a girl's voice made him break out of his thoughts.

When he felt the cool sensation of a wet cloth wiping the unpetrified part of his forehead, he opened his eye. A curtain of long red hair appeared in his sight. It was Koriand'r; a worried look could be seen in her green eyes.

"Are you ok?" she asked but she realized how stupid her question sounded given that he could not talk and that half of his body had been turned to stone so she added: "Will you recover from this?"

All Naruto could do was make a thumbs-up gesture with his hand. He could not write as he had done with Kyuubi because he did not know the Tamaranean language.

"Now this is weird," the girl said as she brought her face closer to him and sniffed. "The bed and your clothes are wet from how much you sweated but it doesn't smell."

If he had not been petrified, Naruto would have chuckled at her antics.

'This girl is not right in the head.' he thought inwardly amused.

Koriand'r took his unharmed hand in hers and squeezed it but without putting too much force into it to not hurt him. She bowed her head and said:

"I was scared and confused at first because I suspected the worst when you said my parents sent you to rescue me. I mean they've been dead for years. I thought you were trying to trick me."

"But I want to thank you. You killed my captors. Your fox friend told me that you even killed the Psions who have imprisoned and experimented on me for years. I have etched this gratitude deep in my heart. No matter when or where I will always be ready to repay you for it. Thank you."

Koriand'r was a little startled when Naruto pulled his hand free from her grasp. She was even more surprised when his hand landed on her head. His hand was heavy and his palm and fingers were rough with callouses from a lifetime of wielding weapons...but it brought her a sense of gentleness like she had not felt in almost a decade, from the time when she was a young child, before her parents sold her out as a slave. She found herself leaning into his touch, taking comfort in that gentle head pat. However, that moment did not last long. After a few seconds, his hand became still and his one eye closed. Still tired, he fell asleep.

⁂

A planet reminiscent of a blue marble could vaguely be seen in the distance. Having just passed by planet Mars a few minutes ago, the Earth was now only 20 million miles away or so.

Ever since she woke up, Koriand'r had tried to talk more with the owners of the ship. But the man was in terrible shape, bedridden and unconscious while the talking fox appeared to be in an awfully bad mood, even worse than when they had just met and he hit her. Any attempt of her starting a conversation was shot down with a growl and a fierce glare from him. After the third time, the girl wisely decided to stay silent and let the angry fox have his peace and quiet.

Nonetheless, the ship's destination was of great importance to her too since she was aboard as well. When she realized that they were on their way back to Earth, she could not hold in her doubts and worries and said:

"Why are we going back to Earth? Last time we went there they fought against me and they fought against your master too. They are not friendly."

Kyuubi growled at her again.

"Naruto is not my master. He is my little brother."

Koriand'r recoiled at the anger in the fox's voice and stood silent for a while.

"I'm sorry for my wrong assumption. Don't be angry at me anymore, please."

The fox let out a low growl from his chest.

"I'm not angry at you but I'll get pissed for sure if you don't shut your trap for a moment. We're going to Earth for asylum. They are not bad people deep inside, they're just morons. But it's exactly because they're morons that they will protect us from others. Now that you know why we go there please keep quiet."

The Tamaranean princess made herself small and did not say anything else. In her mind, however, she wondered why was the fox so mean and angry at her all the time.

'Does he hate me? Or maybe he hates everyone? ...or it could be that he's stressed because of his brother's condition?'

Kyuubi was, indeed, stressed out and very worried because of Naruto's condition but that was not the only reason for his irascibility. The main reason for his 'bad mood' was the massive amount of natural energy he had absorbed. While he had not gotten ill from all the natural energy that Naruto had pumped into him (he was a chakra beast, he did not have a normal, biological body), it had certainly amplified his rage and violent tendencies. After all, it had been a crazy amount of natural energy, so much that he had become even stronger and more immense than the Ten-Tailed Beast, his progenitor, a god. In comparison to Juubi who was a mindless beast, Kyuubi was handling his power much better, and he had absorbed so much chakra that he had become a planet-busting behemoth. In the present, although it took him all of his willpower to restrain his berserk emotions, he did keep himself somewhat calm and in control. But Koriand'r pestering him with questions was not helping his situation at all; that's why he snapped at her the way he did.

It did not take long for the Almeracian ship to reach the Earth and its moon. When they were about to enter the outer layer of Earth's exosphere (about 6000 miles away from the planet), Kyuubi spoke to the AI of the computer in the control room.

"Activate the stealth mode."

"Roger. Stealth Mode will be activated in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Stealth Mode activated. Based on the remaining fuel, the stealth mode can be sustained for 20 minutes." the AI's clear voice sounded.

A light flickered on the exterior of the ship and, after a few seconds, it became almost invisible. A vague distortion of the space was the only trace left of it. It was the perfect camouflage technology. That's how they had bypassed the Watchtower's radars and sensors two days ago as well when they came to capture Vandal Savage.

The Almeracian ship was about to enter the thermosphere of the planet when a very bright yellow light appeared seemingly out of nowhere and targeted it. Startled. Kyuubi used two of his tails to abruptly steer the sheep away, performing a roll that would have made even a professional pilot proud, managing to just barely dodge that yellow light. His efforts proved to be in vain, however, when the yellow light turned around and targeted their ship again, like a homing missile. This time, it was impossible to dodge it.

But Kyuubi did not give up. One of his tails elongated and pressed a red button.

"Energy shield deployed. Shield capacity: 100%. Stealth Mode deactivated." the AI announced.

The fox growled in annoyance. The stealth mode being deactivated meant that the Justice League's Watchtower would no doubt catch wind of their arrival but it was still preferable to having their ship blown up by that weird yellow light missile.

But the following scene greatly startled Kyuubi. The yellow light passed through the energy shield unhindered and then even through the thick glass of the control room's window without as much as making a hole or causing any type of damage. It was as though it was immaterial.

The yellow 'missile' headed straight to Kyuubi who was in the pilot's seat. But now that it was right in front of his eyes and he could see it clearly, Kyuubi said in disbelief:

"What the hell?"

It was a Power Ring. A Yellow Power Ring belonging to the Yellow Lantern Corps, led by Sinestro. They were not as well known as the Green Lanterns but they were still infamous enough for Kyuubi to have heard of them in the past.

The Yellow Power Ring went straight to his right paw and enlarged enough that it fitted around it like a bracelet. An intense yellow light started to glow as it enveloped his body and Kyuubi heard a voice coming from the ring:

"You have been chosen to wield a Yellow Power Ring. Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. You will be subjected to psychological and physical reconditioning. You will be transported to-"

All the rage and anger that Kyuubi had been bottling up until then exploded.

"Don't screw with me!" he roared and a wave of crimson red chakra burst out of his body. "Psychological reconditioning? You think you can enslave ME? You think I'd let anyone ever control me again?"

His size started to increase again and his entire body became covered in fire. The board of the ship and the supercomputer were melted in an instant and deafening alarms started ringing. The ship began to shake terribly because the computer that had been controlling everything was destroyed. The gravity generator stopped working and the atmospheric pressure in the ship started to decrease rapidly. The ship began to lose altitude at a breakneck speed, and it soon reached the lower layer of the Thermosphere.

"Conflicting emotional resonance detected. Rage overpowering fear. Targeted sentient deemed unfit to-"

The voice coming from the ring abruptly stopped because, at that moment, the gorilla-sized nine-tailed fox smashed his fire-covered fists together. A crisp sound was heard and the Yellow Power Ring was crushed into pieces.

But Kyuubi did not let his rage cloud his mind any longer. Quickly getting a hold of himself, he turned and tried to grab the controls of the ship...except that there were no controls left to grab anymore. The entire board had been melted by his flames a few moments before.

Just then, the ship began to shake even harder and the temperature rose at an alarming rate. They had entered the mesosphere. Their ship had caught on fire.

"Fucking hell! One disaster after another!" Kyuubi cursed.

He abandoned any hope of salvaging the ship. With no working computer and no controls to steer the ship while it was burning up from the friction with the atmosphere of the planet, not only it was impossible to save the ship, but they would also be in danger of dying if they remained aboard when it collided against the Earth. Not him specifically but the unconscious and half-turned-to-stone Naruto and the Tamaranean girl would definitely perish.

He rushed out of the control room and ran straight to the living quarters. When he entered the bedroom he saw Koriand'r protectively holding Naruto's kneeling statue-like body in her arms, to stop it from being smashed against the walls and the furniture as the ship was going down. Decisively, the now large fox wrapped two of his tails around the two of them and brought them closer to his body. A loud crash was heard when Kyuubi smashed his fist against the outer wall of the ship. Even despite his relatively small size at that moment (he was 'only' as large as a silverback ape) his punch was so powerful that not only that it broke the wall, but the entire ship was smashed into several pieces.

The three of them were hurled into the air but with his two arms and nine tails wrapped protectively around the unconscious and petrified Naruto and the Tamaranean princess, Kyuubi curled himself in a large ball of red fur, protecting them from all angles. Now, the ball of red fur started falling towards the ground like a meteorite.

"Wait! I can fly!" Koriand'r shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to make herself heard over the intense winds and air pressure as they fell.

Kyuubi's almost rabbit-like ears were not that long just for show. Though faintly, despite the roaring winds, he still heard what she said. He unfurled himself from his curled-up position but he still kept two of his tails wrapped tightly around the two of them as they fell.

A bright green light glowed in Koriand'r's eyes and around her hands and her face became strained as she tried to stop their descent.

"What the hell, woman, you said you can fly!" Kyuubi screamed when he saw that their falling speed was not decreasing at all.

Koriand'r grabbed one of Kyuubi's large ears and yelled as loudly in it as she could:

"Make yourself smaller! You are too heavy!"

'This brat!'

His ear was ringing now. He felt like wanting to smack her for what she had done.

'I'll definitely smack her when we get down!'

Despite his thoughts, he did return to his tiny form as a fox cub. Regardless, his arms and legs and his nine tails still latched around Naruto's waist securely. He was preparing himself for the worst-case scenario: if the girl could still not stop them from falling, he would enlarge himself again and wrap Naruto in his tails protectively like before. For him, smashing against the ground from that altitude would be an annoyance at most. It was not enough to seriously hurt him. But he was worried about what the shock of their impact against the ground might do to Naruto while he was in his current state. For Naruto's sake, he preferred landing safely instead of making a crater in the ground with his body.

Sure enough, after Kyuubi became a tiny fox cub, Koriand'r managed to stabilize themself in the air easily. However, as they were currently in the mesosphere, it was extremely cold, way below the freezing temperature of the water. Holding the petrified form of the kneeling Naruto in her arms and the fox that was latching onto his waist with his tails like an octopus, Koriand'r dived headfirst towards the ground at a very high speed. But, as it was a controlled flight, Kyuubi did not worry.

They were only around 20 miles above the ground, somewhere above the Indonesian Archipelago when a very large construct of green light in the form of a human hand stopped them in their flight. From behind them, a group of 5 people appeared, surrounding them from all sides. They were none other than Green Lantern, Superman, Hawkgirl, Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman, the five that could fly out of the seven founding members of the Justice League.

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: You may or may not know but yellow lanterns have to go through a 'brainwashing' procedure and training before becoming full-fledged members of the corps. There's no way Kurama would ever allow someone to do something like that to him. Not after what he had suffered at the hands of the Uchiha's mind-control in the past. He rejected the yellow power ring.