[Caterpillar] Chapter 19 - A New Bounty (Patreon)

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

"I need you to kill my father."

From daydreaming happily about the girl he was in love with to being told to assassinate someone's father it was too much of a jump.

"I beg your pardon?"

Momentarily, he thought that he heard wrong.

"You want me to kill Highfather? I don't kill everyone, bub. Look here and read what it says."

Taking out one of his business cards, he pointed with his index finger at the part where it said he took assassination bounties but for "scumbags only".

Orion shook his head.

"Highfather is not my biological father. My real father is Darkseid. Previously, Apokolips and New Genesis had been locked in a war for tens of thousands of years. However, an uneasy truce was established when Darkseid and Highfather exchanged their newborn sons. Darkseid's son, me, was given to Highfather and vice and versa."

The terms of the non-aggression pact between the two societies of gods were not known to the general public. Naruto had not known about them until then either. The gods were generally shrouded in mystery and not much was known about them besides some of their feats. In the first place, the new gods lived in a different dimension altogether.

"Why ask me of all people? Better yet, why not do it yourself?"

Orion said bitterly:

"I've tried to kill Darkseid my entire life. But I couldn't. He is too powerful and always surrounded by his nigh-unbeatable army and countless Parademons. And now with the truce between Apokolips and New Genesis, invading Apokolips by myself could spark the start of a new great war. I'll never do something like that. I won't spit on Highfather's efforts to maintain the peace."

"But, although a mortal, you have enough power to even destroy a planet, without the use of technology. That is a feat I could never replicate. You could destroy Apokolips and Darkseid together."

Naruto sighed.

"I'm afraid I'll have to refuse this bounty."

Orion immediately became angry.

"Why?" he shouted. "Billions of innocent people were massacred by Darkseid and his army in his crusades. You have the power to end it all! Why aren't you doing anything?!"

In contrast, Naruto was as calm as the water of a still lake. He could not just willy-nilly destroy a planet. He nearly paid with his life for amassing that much power before. His power was restricted by the environment. He grew stronger the more power he siphoned from the world. But it could also work against him like it did on the Psions' planet.

"There are limits to my power. There are certain conditions to be fulfilled in order for me to obtain that kind of strength. If those conditions are fulfilled, then yes, killing Darkseid, or you, or anyone really, would be like killing chickens. Otherwise, I can't defeat a god like Darkseid, to say nothing of his army and those mutated beasts you call Parademons."

If he were to fight anyone on Myoboku, on his untainted and pristine planet, he could stomp even on gods like they were bugs. On a planet like Apokolips, however, a wasteland of fire and smoke, he would be nowhere near that level.

"But even if I was strong enough to do it, I would still not accept your bounty."

Though Orion's head was covered by the winged silver helmet he was wearing, Naruto could discern that his face was contorted in anger. The new god had some very pronounced anger management issues.

"Supposedly you're a god. Don't you know how the universe works? Do you need me, a mortal, to spell it for you?"

Seeing Orion not replying, Naruto continued:

"Light and darkness, good and evil, life and death, creation and destruction. The universe cannot exist without a balance of both. No matter how much you fight against evil, you can never eradicate it. I annihilated the Psion race almost 2 months ago. Do you think that my deed was all that great?"

Bitter laughter came from him.

"What do you mean by that?" Orion asked, this time calmer than before. Naruto's obscure words had sobered him up.

"I liberated the Vega System from the Psions' tyranny. That is indeed a great deed if you look at it alone. But less than 2 months passed since the Psions were killed. Wait a few more months or years and you will see: a new power of darkness will rise to take their place. Obviously, it won't be in the same place. But mark my words, in the following months or years, a new intergalactic power will appear, an intergalactic power hell-bent on conquering and destruction."

He raised his head and looked at the sky. The first signs of the morning started to appear on the horizon as pale orange rays of light shooed away the darkness of the night.

"It's almost poetic. I was like the daybreak when I brought light upon the Vega System. But while morning comes here, on the other side of the planet, evening falls. Just like that, while the Vega System was liberated, in another part of the universe, darkness will rise. This is the law of the Universe. There is always a balance between light and darkness. Once the balance tips in favour of either of the two, it will be destroyed."

Looking back at his device, he told Orion:

"Do you understand now? Even if you somehow managed to kill Darkseid, it would amount to nothing. Another one will rise to take his place. This is the truth of this world. This is the truth that I've come to know. No matter how powerful you are, no matter if you are a god or an all-powerful being: you could never extinguish evil."

"Then why did you annihilate the Psions if you knew another force would take their place? Why do all that if it's meaningless?" Orion countered.

"But it wasn't meaningless for me. The Psions wanted to capture me and make me their toy. For the universe at large, the Psions' destruction is nothing but for me it was crucial. I don't have to live my life looking over my shoulder in fear of their plots. The Psions were a powerful race, one of the most technologically advanced races in the Universe. Having such a threat looming over my head at all times would undoubtedly spell my death eventually if I didn't do something about it."

"But Darkseid and I have no friction. He never acted against me, why should I take on such a dangerous job for no reason? As I said, even if Darkseid died, another God of Evil will rise in his place. There must always be a God of Evil... and don't tell me I should do it for the reward. What reward could be worth it for me to go fight against the God of Evil and his intergalactic army, by myself? That's suicide. You want me to do what you, Highfather, and your army of gods could not do even after dozens of thousands of years. Do you hear yourself?"

Orion became silent for a few moments. When put that way, he realized how ridiculous it sounded for him to ask one man and a demon fox to do what he and an army of gods could not do even after thousands and thousands of years. He let out a deep sigh. He understood why would that be seen as a suicidal mission. Though they could not close the deal, he did not end the call right away and, instead, he asked a question regarding the words that the blond had told him before.

"If what you say about evil being indestructible is true, what is the point of fighting? What is the point of it all? With such a bleak look on life, how does one muster the will and strength to continue on living?"

Somehow, from offering an assassination bounty, they ended up discussing the meaning of life.

"You fight to achieve your goals. You may never be able to eradicate the darkness but that doesn't mean you cannot live in the light. You may never be able to protect every single being in the universe, but you can always devote yourself to protecting the ones you love and care about. You may never achieve peace in the universe at large, but you could make peace in your house, in your city, in your country, in your homeworld." Naruto said. "Life in itself has no meaning. You give your own life meaning when you find something and devote yourself to it. And that could be anything: it could be your family, it could be your job, or it could even be a hobby or a passion like music or fishing."

Not long after that, their conversation ended and Naruto went back to watching the sky, also thinking about the words that he had told Orion. A sudden voice came from his shoulder, startling him. Not knowing when Kyuubi had returned to his side.

"So you found a new purpose in life?"

Previously, Naruto's reason to live, his goal, had been to find a way back to the Elemental Nations. He had devoted nearly a century of his life to it, completing over 3000 bounties and travelling through the Universe unceasingly for it. It had been more than just a goal, it had been an obsession. But, when Kyuubi gave him a wake-up call and he finally realized the futility of it all, he had been broken. He had been lost.

"Let me guess, it has to do with a certain warrior princess, doesn't it?" Kyuubi pressed on and chuckled.

Naruto flicked his snout, making the fox let out a yelp.

"So what if it does?" he grumbled. "Yeah, yeah, you're gonna say it's 'too early' but that's how I feel now. I can't help it, ok? I like her a lot and I'm happy. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing is wrong per se but the higher the expectations, the bigger the disappointment if things fall down. So I'll say it again, it's too early."

Silence was instilled between the two of them for a while. Eventually, Kyuubi said:

"Oy, how about you wipe that disgusting smile off your face and do some work?"

Naruto threw the fox off his shoulder in annoyance.

"What's wrong with my smile?" he retorted. "What's so disgusting about it?"

The fox snorted.

"Hng. That love-struck face you're making is gross. I threw up a little in my mouth."

Naruto stood up and started rubbing his fists.

"Looks like you got a lot of courage after getting a win over me on Earth while I was weakened. Come, "Kurama-sama", let's have another go at it now that I've fully recovered."

Kyuubi revealed a scared face and he jumped from his place as if he had springs in his legs.

"You won't get away!" Naruto hollered after him and threw himself into his pursuit.

Man and fox started shinobi-jumping at breakneck speeds through the virgin jungle, greatly startling the creatures in their way. Using his four limbs and his nine tails, Kyuubi was unsurprisingly extremely agile while in the trees, even more than Naruto.

"You talked the talk but you can't walk the walk, eh? Haha!" Kyuubi yelled at his back and laughed, confident that Naruto was not going to catch up to him anytime soon.

But the fox's laughter died in its throat when a particular dagger with an inscription written on its handle whirred by his ear, nearly nicking him. Kyuubi did not get scared by the dagger almost stabbing him but he got scared about what he knew was going to come next: and true to his predictions, a dark-blond-haired man appeared with his hand on the handle of the dagger, in mid-air, in a yellow flash of light.

"Cheater!" was the only thing Kyuubi had the time to yell before Naruto kicked him down from the tree like a football.

⁂

"You're in an awfully good mood today," Naruto remarked.

"It's been quite some time since we went on a proper job, hasn't it? More than half a year. I kinda missed it." Kyuubi replied, his tails wagging happily behind him. "I wonder who are we going to kill now."

At his words, Naruto was surprised to realize that, indeed, they had not taken jobs like they used to ever since they rescued Superman from the Preserver's ship. He had been depressed for months after realizing that it was impossible to find a way back home. He had not taken any bounties in the meantime, just staying on his lush planet, Myoboku, doing nothing but fishing and lazying around all day long. Then, when they finally accepted a bounty, it turned out to be bogus, a trap from the Psions and Rui Nak. It was only now that they were finally going again on a proper job.

Naruto bonked him on the head and chuckled.

"We're not going to kill anyone this time. It's an espionage mission, you brute."

After typing a few commands to the AI of the ship to adjust their course, Naruto said:

"Man, I miss our old ship."

After Kyuubi destroyed their previous ship while trying to get rid of the Yellow Power Ring that had attempted to kidnap him, Naruto bought a new spaceship from the black market.

"Why? This one is capable of space-warping too and it's pretty much the same size as the other one." the fox said.

Naruto shook his head.

"It's a bit slower and it doesn't have cloaking abilities so we can't go incognito anymore. This mission would've been so much easier if we could go invisible like before."

They were currently in the Milky Way Galaxy, Cygnus System. The objective of their new mission was to infiltrate the habitable planets in that planetary system and gather intelligence.

"I say, screw the 'infiltrate' thing and just smash your way through. Who's gonna stop us?" Kyuubi said arrogantly.

Naruto chuckled at his words.

"That's what our employer wants, secrecy, that's what we have to do," he said to placate the fox. "Besides, not all things can be solved with force. Not all the time."

The fox sniffed but did not retort.

"But who would've thought the Green Lantern Corps would send us a job offer? That Green Lantern from Earth said that they named you and I *Universal-level threats*. You'd think they'd want nothing to do with the likes of us." Naruto said in wonder.

A few days ago, Diana called him on his lightwave device and told him that John Stewart had something very important to discuss with him. It turned out to be a job offer from the Guardians of the Universe.

The two members of the Green Lantern Corps assigned to watch over the Universe Sector that included the Cygnus System of the Milky Way Galaxy were suddenly killed a few weeks before. Two new Green Lanterns were assigned to that sector but they were killed shortly after that too. In total, 4 Green Lanterns died, without the Guardians even knowing the reason for their deaths. Before doing something drastic like invading the sector with a punitive force, the Guardians decided to take on a more subtle approach and use other means of obtaining some information first. The mercenary Caterpillar was, not surprisingly, their first choice. That way, not only would they protect their corps from further damage, but they would also create the opportunity to start a relationship with the powerful mercenary. Two birds, one stone.

Through the cockpit's window, a dark-purplish marble could be seen in the distance. It was one of the very few habitable planets in the Cygnus System, Debstam.