[Caterpillar] Chapter 18 - Prelude (Patreon)

"Is Naruto still in meditation?" the hologram of a white and gold-armoured woman asked. It was Wonder Woman.

"Mhm, still there," answered the deep voice of a male. It came from an elephant-sized nine-tailed fox. Currently, that giant fox's large tails were stirring up gales of wind as they wagged in the air. The reason for his happiness was the still-warm carcass of an enormous beast lying at his feet. His powerful jaws were crushing through its bones and ripping entire chunks of meat from it effortlessly.

"Is that a dinosaur?!" Wonder Woman asked startled.

Kyuubi licked a large amount of blood staining his whiskers before answering:

"No clue what a dinosaur is. But it's so tasty and it's huge!"

After that, he went back to devouring his prey. Though the beast's body was 4 times larger than his, Kyuubi needed less than 2 minutes for the rest of the dinosaur-like creature to disappear into his stomach. With his hunger satiated now, the fox became significantly more talkative.

"He might not look the part but that idiot is a Sage. Staying a few days or a week immersed in his connection with Nature is nothing much to him. In that state, his body recovers more easily, gets purified, and it becomes more attuned to natural energy."

A sound of surprise came from the hologram emitted by the drone flying next to Kyuubi.

"If it's so good for him, why didn't you go directly to that place and came to Earth instead?" she asked curiously.

Instead of Kyuubi, it was unexpectedly someone else who replied:

"Be it pure or polluted, natural energy in its raw form is poisonous to humans. I don't use only natural energy. I combine natural energy with my own chakra to create senjutsu which is an amalgam of both. Back then, I was hurt too badly and in no condition to properly manipulate natural energy. If I had absorbed any more of it at that time, I would have died. Going to Earth seeking sanctuary was a much better option because I knew the bleeding heart of the Justice League would not turn us down if we came there while I was wounded like that. I didn't have the fuel to come to this place even if I wanted anyway. This planet is extremely far away from the Vega System. It's several galaxies away."

After he said that, the newcomer revealed a smile and said teasingly:

"How are you, Diana? Do you miss me already?"

At the sight of him, Wonder Woman involuntarily mirrored his smile but she tried to say nonchalantly:

"I'm just checking up on you to see if you're ok. It's been a week, after all."

A snort came from the huge fox behind Naruto.

"Yeah, it's been a week... As if you totally didn't call me 5 times until now, starting from the very first day."

Wonder Woman's stoic face suddenly flushed.

"Kurama! You said you wouldn't tell!" she half-yelled in embarrassment.

Kyuubi laughed out loud at her expense, very pleased with himself.

"Haha. I'll leave you two lovebirds by yourselves," he said and left.

Meanwhile, Naruto gripped with a hand at his heart. Hearing Kyuubi saying that Diana tried to contact him 5 times already while he had been meditating filled him with warmth. The gap between how serious and stoic she was generally and how she acted when she was flustered was too much.

'Ah, my heart! This is no good, she's cute as hell. Any more than this and I'll go back to Earth this instant.'

Even after the source of her embarrassment left, Diana's normally pale cheeks were still marred by a rosy colour.

Naruto motioned the drone to come closer to him and then sat on the grassy ground with his back leaning against the trunk of a tree.

"I missed you too," he said sincerely.

Despite that only one week passed since he left the Earth, he already missed her.

"Tell me, what have you been up to these days? Is everything alright over there?"

Gladly accepting the change in the subject of their conversation, Wonder Woman replied:

"It became rather hectic after the Justice Lords incident. The government of the USA is now paranoid, thinking that someday the Justice League will also follow in their footsteps to assassinate the president and take over the planet. The United Nations didn't respond well to the Justice League becoming bigger either, saying that there's no reason for us to amass that much power. It's been one annoying meeting after another."

"No wonder Earth is still so backwater compared to other civilisations in the Universe. You're all so divided. So many races, religions and countries fighting against each other for their own interests. How can you progress like that?"

Wonder Woman inwardly agreed with what he said and sighed.

"The Justice League needed to become stronger. Earth has had too many close calls. From what I heard, a few years ago Darkseid almost took over the Earth and beat up Superman very badly, almost killing him. It was only thanks to the ruler of New Genesis, the Highfather, that Earth was spared. Then, there was Imperium and its race too, about a year ago. They almost destroyed the planet. We defeated them by the skin of our teeth."

"But the funny thing is that the talk about Justice League becoming larger has not been brought up until after you came around."

"Eh?! Why me?"

"You gave us one more wake-up call. We were reminded once more that only 7 people are not enough to protect the Earth from invaders. That we need more strength, more manpower."

Naruto scratched his cheek, rather embarrassed about what he was about to say.

"Don't mean to brag but there aren't that many beings as powerful as I am. You can't really compare me to the average alien invaders out there."

"When your skin is thick enough to brag like that, why are you scratching your cheek?" she said teasingly.

"Hey!"

The two of them laughed together.

"Still, things are coming together well. We've already gotten more than 30 new members over the past week. The two girls you've saved, Starfire and Supergirl have joined the League too. Superman also roped in Aquaman and convinced him to support it financially. We have another billionaire supporting us, Maxwell Lord, and two other members of the Justice League who are very wealthy as well. So financial resources are not an issue and we get new members every day, metahumans from all over the world. We are international already. We got members not only from the USA but from Europe, India and Africa too."

Naruto was not that familiar with the Earth's geography since, before he and Wonder Woman became lovers, he never cared about the Earth enough to study that. Nonetheless, he listened to Wonder Woman talk about what she had been up to with interest.

"Actually, we found something interesting: Japan has created a system different from other countries. They have agencies of heroes that manage and control the metahumans willing to serve. By the way, Japan is a country in the Asian continent, with over 100 million people."

"Hee~ that sounds interesting. How does that work?" Naruto asked genuinely curious.

"The hero agencies are regulated by the law and they pay taxes to the government too. In exchange, they can hire and manage all metahumans that are willing to serve. They still wear costumes and masks to protect their identity from the villains' retaliation, but they no longer need to have a civilian job too. Their work is considered legal now, not just a vigilante's act. They can work full-time as heroes and get paid for it. The government even created a public high school for teaching metahuman kids how to be a professional hero. Everything is super organised. When I found out about their system I also realized why we've never been to Japan to help out with arresting any rogue metahumans or to assist in case of natural disasters - because they're handling it perfectly by themselves. They don't need the Justice League over there."

Like that, the two of them talked without noticing the passing of time. They realized for how long they had been chatting only when the sky started getting darker.

"Ah, I must've bored you talking about hero-related stuff for that long." Wonder Woman said apologetically.

Naruto shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. It was kind of refreshing. I've never talked like this with a girl until I met you. You're my first girlfriend, have I told you that?"

"That's surprising, to say the least." Wonder Woman said.

"Eh?! Why so? I've never been the most popular guy around."

"You must be joking. You have this charm that draws people to you. Even Green Lantern, Superman, and the others, did you not notice? They were torn between liking you and wanting to chase you away due to how dangerous you are."

Naruto chuckled at her words. He was not convinced.

"No way! Back in my homeworld, I was an outcast. It was only in the last few months during my stay there that things had started to come around for me but that's only because I literally convinced someone to bring people back to life from the dead. Until then, since Kurama was sealed inside of me, I was just the 'demon brat' in the eyes of the ordinary people while for the government of my country, I was a 'human sacrifice', a weapon of war. On my home planet, people who had demons sealed inside them were used to maintain the balance of power between the strongest 5 nations on the continent. You could say that we were the equivalent of nuclear missiles on Earth. Whoever had the strongest jinchuuriki or a higher number of them held the advantage."

"That's... horrible." Wonder Woman said.

But he smiled. He did not seem that affected by his past anymore.

"It wasn't all that bad though. I had good times as well. And I think it's because I was a jinchuuriki that I got to meet great people too. My mentor, Jiraiya, an aunt-like figure named Tsunade, and also Gaara, a friend who was just like me. Ah, that reminds me, if Jiraiya-sensei could see you, even his ghost would die of blood loss haha! He was a massive pervert. The biggest pervert I've ever met. Seeing you, especially when you were wearing your previous costume would have been fatal."

"What's that supposed to mean?! What's wrong with the way I used to dress?!"

Naruto felt a sensation of danger but he braved it with no hesitation.

"You want the straight answer or the sensible one?" he asked and then chuckled when she saw her narrowing her eyes. "Your costume looked like something a hooker would wear."

"Naruto!" she yelled.

⁂

Several hours passed and the two of them were still filled with as much energy as when they just started. By now, it was already midnight. Three moons of various sizes were shining brightly above his head.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Naruto asked and directed the camera at the sky.

It was not only the three moons that were shining but the night sky was also brightly lit up by countless clusters of stars and even distant nebulas could be seen. With no artificial lights at all and with the planet's peculiar location in the universe, that night sky was something one could find on very few other planets. Violet, red, yellow, blue, and even green lights gave the night sky an otherworldly feeling.

"It is amazing!" Wonder Woman said in genuine awe.

"I discovered this planet by accident while wandering through the boundless void outside the known Universe. I have travelled for so many years and to so many places but I have yet to see a place as beautiful as this. I named this planet Myoboku." (1)

He sighed wistfully and said:

"I wish you were here with me now to see it in person."

The two of them stood silent for a while, just watching the night sky together. Since they started their conversation several hours ago, it was the first time they were silent.

"Say, Naruto, will you come to spend Christmas together with me? It's a winter holiday people celebrate on Earth. Originally, it was a religious celebration but it lost its meaning with time. Now, it is mostly a holiday when people exchange gifts and spend time together with their family."

"Oh, we had something similar back in my homeworld. It was called the Rinne Festival. But I've never celebrated it before." Naruto said. His voice was a bit melancholic.

"I haven't celebrated Christmas on Earth either because I only came to the Man's World last year and I didn't have anyone to celebrate it with back then." Wonder Woman said. Then, she smiled and added in a soft voice: "But now I have you."

He felt a rush of warmth in his heart at her words.

"I've never been a big fan of the holidays. To an orphan like me, it used to be the time of the year when I was the loneliest. But now I'm looking forward to it. I'm glad I met you, Diana."

A hint of pink appeared in her cheeks and she smiled shyly. Unwittingly, she rolled a strand of her black long black hair around her finger. It gave her an excuse to look down and prevent him from seeing her flustered face.

"Kuhk! That gap moe will be the death of me someday." Naruto said and gripped with a hand at his chest again when he saw her reaction. She was as weak to his compliments as ever and he was as weak to her cuteness as always. They were both deadly to each other.

"Seriously, you haven't bothered to study the geography of Earth but you learned all kinds of degenerated things from the internet!" she rebuked him but that half-annoyed, half-embarrassed expression on her face only served to make him grin wider.

"Hng, what's wrong with the internet? If there is anything great on Earth, it's the internet. I've never come across something as good as that on any other planet. I quite enjoyed it, especially the digital art with you in them. Look, I even downloaded some of them for my own use."

Then, he grabbed another device and showed her an image of her at the beach.

In that image, Wonder Woman was leaning on her elbows on the counter of a beach bar with her voluptuous breasts almost spilling out of the white bikini top she was wearing. Furthermore, her long black hair was wet, her white teeth were biting softly into her red lower lip and her eyes were looking ahead half-narrowed, seductively. Obviously, it was a fake picture; the Amazon princess had never been to a beach after she left the Island of Paradise. But Diana exploded:

"What do you mean for 'your own use'?! Naruto! I swear to Great Athena, when I get my hands on you-"

⁂

It was in the wee hours of the morning that Naruto and Diana finally ended their conversation. Though quite some time passed since then, he was still smiling, glowing with happiness.

'Is this what I've been missing on for almost 100 years?'

In his obsession with finding a way back to his homeworld, he purposely avoided unnecessary contact and personal relationships with other people. He did not want to become distracted from his goal. Because of that, as years passed and he watched all the death and destruction happening on a large scale across the Universe, his heart grew colder and more indifferent. He became jaded. However, despite that, in just a little over one month, that layer of stone isolating his heart from the world outside cracked.

Not knowing when or how a black-haired warrior princess had sneaked past his defences and slipped into his heart. There were over a dozen job offers pending his answer from other information brokers that had jumped in at the chance to fill the void left by Rui Nak's death but he was in no mood to work or do anything else. Now, all he could think of was Diana.

He was still drunk with happiness from the time he spent talking with her when a loud beeping sound came from his lightwave communication device.

"Who could it be?" he wondered absent-mindedly when he did not recognize the number calling him.

Seeing as it was not Diana, he ignored it and went back to watching the sky while thinking about her. But several minutes passed and the beeping would not stop.

"Fine, goddamnit, hope their house was burning or something cuz I'll be pissed if they bother me for no reason," he muttered to himself in annoyance.

Making a clawing motion with his hand, his white fox ANBU mask materialized over his face. When he hit the accept button, it was a muscular man dressed in a red suit and wearing a winged silver helmet on his head that appeared.

"What the hell."

Though they had never met in person until then, as a well-informed intergalactic mercenary, Naruto knew that man's identity. It was none other than Orion, one of the strongest and most valiant among the New Gods of New Genesis. He was a rather famous character in the Universe for his repeated clashes with the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid. Someone like that calling him on his personal lightwave device was not something that he had seen it coming.

"I am Orion of New Genesis," the god introduced himself.

"I know who you are. What does a god need from a mortal like me?" Naruto asked.

Though his words seemed polite, the tone he spoke them with was far from that. He had no reverence for anyone who called themselves gods. Not after witnessing the terror of the void, the power of the universe. In front of something like that, even gods were little more than insects.

Whether Orion noticed his disrespectful tone or not would remain a mystery because he answered Naruto's question without pause, right away:

"I need you to kill my father."

⁂⁂⁂⁂⁂

AN: A shorter chapter compared to the previous one. It's more like a prelude to what's coming next. In case some of you do not know, Orion's father is none other than the boogeyman of the DC universe, Darkseid.

(1) It comes from Mount Myoboku which means "Mysterious Tree Mountain". He named the planet he discovered after the place where he was taught the Sage Mode by the Toads.