1. Prologue - Psych Ward

**Naruto: After the Fall**

**Plot: Naruto lost the war, his way, and possibly his mind. Unfortunately the people who try to help him pick the pieces find their own faults laid bare in the face of increasingly ruthless enemies in a world that fears and hates them all.**

**Disclaimer: I own neither the X-Men or Naruto**

**Prologue: Psych Ward**

**From the Audio Logs of Charles Xavier**

_"Naruto Uzumaki appears to be a sixteen year old male of above average physical fitness. He may simultaneously be one the strangest and most tragic people I have ever met. Young Naruto seems to have through means unknown to me managed to manifest in our world from one profoundly different than our own. For the sake of brevity I will only focus on aspects of that world are directly relevant to the patient's current mental state._

_The patient's life has been marked by a series of hardships and traumatic events that have left their mark on the boy. Unfortunately due to Naruto's withdrawn nature and the many fantastical details that color what little he has told me make an objective analysis difficult. The boy's childhood was marked by periods of social isolation due to his pariah status as what literally translates as "human sacrifice", the vessel of a demonic entity._

_Naruto's youth was very similar to Kurt's, though Naruto doesn't appear to have been the victim of physical violence in his childhood. Mr. Wagner at least had the benefit of emotional support from his adopted parents. Naruto was forced to cope with his ordeals alone for most of his formative years. His adolescence were marked by military service that appears to be compulsory or at last strongly encouraged for those with extra-human abilities...including that world's long present mutant population to my horror._

_Yet the mutants of that world seem to be an accepted part of their culture. Naruto himself has never displayed any fear or animosity regarding mutants. The patient though appears to have been scarred from the many ordeals he endured as a soldier_

**(Heavy Sigh)** _Note to self: I shall have to impress upon the anime fans among my students not to harass him over his ninja status._

_Prior to outbreak of war he became associated with a prophecy and found himself hailed as a messianic figure by the people who had once ostracized him. Naruto himself seemed to have believed it and while generally such beliefs would normally be associated with schizophrenia but that isn't the case here. Nevertheless Naruto entered into a war under the belief he would be able to protect all dear to him from harm. Sadly reality did not match his hopes in the least leaving Naruto profoundly damaged._

_When Logan and myself found the boy we rushed him to Moria's facility for treatment, considering the state he was in it's a miracle he was even alive. Healing rates truly are remarkable things but the lingering mental scars have, until now, made me reluctant to bring the boy to the Institute. The lad displays many of the classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder including lack of sleep, bursts of anger, and occasionally severe dissociation compounded by survivor's guilt._

_Naruto has managed over the past several months to learn an impressive amount of English. Moria claims he throws himself into his studies at times becoming obsessive, clearly eager to occupy himself. The young man has however proven unresponsive to therapy and apparently he's deteriorating according the latest report. _

_My former fiancé is now insistent I bring him to the Institute believing he may respond better to those his own age. I will brief the senior staff here in the morning about Naruto in the morning before having the boy brought here. I do hope the lad is able to find peace among the other children, if not I may have to consider other options."_


	2. Chapter One - Damaged Upon Arrival

**Disclaimer: This story is for nonprofit, I own nothing you recognize**

**Arc: After the End**

**Chapter One- Damaged upon Arrival**

**Xavier Institute for the Gifted, Bayville, New York**

**Late August**

The boy known as Uzumaki Naruto sat in the cabin of the Blackbird clearly having seen better days and only somewhat aware of the man standing over him. The most obvious clues were the dark circles under his eyes and pale complexion. If those who knew him best were here they might also point to his choice of attire as proof that he was most certainly not in his happy place. A grey long-sleeved shirt and faded jeans with not so much as a thread of orange in sight.

"Alright hedgehog hair," The short, feral man in the black leather uniform interjected gruffly, "we're here." Naruto, his expression looked somewhat dazed, blinked and looked out the window. The dark night sky was gone, instead was they were now in some kind of underground lair. The blonde grabbed his bag and jacket, his movements mechanical, forced. The Canadian's rough features softened somewhat, "Piece of advice kid," Logan said to Naruto as walked past him, the young ninja stopped but didn't turn around, "take it from a guy who's seen the elephant more then once and got trampled: What happened, happened," He stated, "Ain't no undoing that, only real choice is movin forward."

Naruto looked at him as if to say something but chose silence. There was a dead look in the shinobi's eye's Logan had seen before. The look of men who had gone to battle but didn't know how to cope with it. Men that either ate their own guns or took the slow route with alcohol and stronger substances, _"If this kid's a ninja he may be considering Seppuku, might want to keep an eye on him." _Logan decided as caught up with Naruto, the healing might rate make suicide difficult but not impossible.

When the ramp was lowered and they exited the craft, as they did two people entered the cavernous hanger. Charles had arranged for Naruto to be brought in the middle of the night so he wouldn't swarmed by the other students. Logan wasn't surprised to see Scott was with Professor, slim had clearly been worried about bringing someone unbalanced to the school. The gruff Canadian wondered how much more worried if he knew what Chuck claimed was living inside the kid's head.

The blond teen glanced briefly at Xavier who's ever pensive expression warmed at the sight of the ninja, "Naruto I'd like to welcome you to the Institute," He then gestured to the person standing next to him, "Allow me to introduce one of my top students: Scott Summers." Scott was tall, somewhat older than Naruto with dark red hair styled with anal precision. With his eyes hidden behind ruby quartz lenses and his alert expression many would've found intimidating. But there was no hostility, only caution and concern.

The field leader of the X-Men extended his hand to Naruto who seemed to take a minute to notice the gesture. The ninja did shake his but struck Scott as being lost inside his own head. Having been briefed by the Professor about Naruto's "situation" Cyclops couldn't blame the guy for being out of it. The young mutant leader had initial been concerned that the ninja represented a danger to the others.

Despite choosing what struck Scott as amoral profession Naruto was clearly suffering from everything he had seen. He himself was no stranger to tragedy, he knew how isolated pain could make you feel. He could almost imagine Jean telling him to be nice not judgmental, "We prepped a room for you, I can take you there if you'd like." He offered, "You look like you could use the rest." Naruto hesitantly followed the X-Man leaving Logan and the professor alone,

"The kid's a wreck Chuck," Logan stated, "he's gonna need a lot of help. Some peace and quiet would help but good luck with that here."

"We shall do what we can for him." In the morning he would brief the students about the institute's newest resident. He would have to make sure that he only gave them the bare minimum of information. Both out of respect for the boy's privacy but also for the sake of the other children. That last year had fairly hard on all the students and didn't want to damage their innocence any further. He doubted Naruto would want to tell strangers of the things he had endured in the other world anyways.

**The Next Morning**

Sleep had proven as elusive here as it did back on the island but some part of him did appreciate the more spacious grounds. Deep in the woods Naruto found solace away from the students of this strange school. The way they stared and whispered reminded him all to much of the dark days of his childhood. He may not have felt the same fear and malice in their actions as he had in his old classmates. But the similarities were however close enough to remind him that he really had fallen far; once more his life was without bonds or purpose.

The punishment for losing the battle, the war, and the whole fucking world. For all the false hope he had given others, for all the broken promises. Naruto didn't consider himself religious by any stretch of the imagination but didn't discount the idea that this was some kind of hell. A place where he couldn't connect with people the way he once had, at first because of language and now because...

_"I can't anymore." _People had become abstract concepts for him since arriving in this "world", like he couldn't see them as people on some level anymore. He wondered if it was this was made worse by the general strangeness of the people here.

Both Moria and Xavier had called what he was experiencing "dissociation" and had tried to assure him that is a normal part of what people who had seen war. He wondered if that was the reason for Kakashi-sensei's reclusive lifestyle and why Jiraiya had spent his life as a wanderer. Naruto wanted to ask them if porn addiction was a risk for him as well but he was unsure of how much he could trust them.

For all he knew this could be the Infinite Tsukuyomi, this whole world could the warped fabrication of a madman's dream. There was no real way to test his theory on his own and Kurama was beyond pissed with him. The demon hadn't taken a near death experience very well and had opted to give him the silent treatment.

A female voice could be heard speaking, from the tree branch he was perched on Naruto could see three of them dressed in strange (to him) civilian clothes in a small clearing. A petite brunette with her hair tied up in a ponytail in a way that reminded him of Ayame helped set up a blanket for what looked like a picnic.

A slightly taller and more filled out dark-skinned girl helped her. With them though had to be one of the most unique people Naruto had ever seen. He looked like a blue demon pointed ears, a spade tipped tail, and three large digits on both his hands and feet in place of normal fingers and toes. Could that masked bastard really have imagined all these strange things?

_"This is a guy who spent years pretending to be retarded," _Naruto thought to himself, _"I can't really assume anything." _The "demon" was carrying a backpack and cooler that he opened up once the blanket was set up. Judging by the food Naruto guessed this was a picnic, a private gathering of friends to be sure. He watched wondering if should reveal himself to them or just leave. If none of this was real though what was the harm? Did right and wrong exist in an imaginary world? Could he do whatever he wished?

It was a concept that sent a shiver up of both fear and excitement through him. All his life he had held himself back in one way or another, a strange concept for those who had grown up around him. This was the boy who had spent his childhood devoted to pranks and vandalism. The thing he had never told anyone was that the people who were on the receiving end of the worse pranks were people he honestly would've rather decked. During the battle with Sasuke all those years ago Naruto suspected in the absence of his enhanced curse mark he probably would've killed the Uchiha in his demon fueled rage.

He had come to terms with those repressed feelings at the Falls of Truth but now it was as if the recently healed wounds had been ripped open. Honestly he didn't know if could or should take the high road again. He just didn't feel up to it anymore, the fire that had driven him was gone. He watched them interact with one another, their laughter, their smiles, and the little gestures of affection they shared.

* * *

Since it was a pleasantly warm day and with the end of summer nigh such days would soon be gone, they had decided to go for a picnic in the forested grounds of the Institute. They had hoped to make a group activity but the others had plans so it was just the three of them to enjoy the food and chat about the latest and strangest happenings at the institute,

"So he's an alien?" Amanda Sefton's disbelief was quite apparent as Kurt and Kitty tried to tell her about the strange new student that had be brought to the Institute during the night.

"Vellzhe professor said zhat he's basically human just from zhis other dimension." The elf explained as he handed his girlfriend a sandwich from the basket and a drink he fished out of the cooler with, "For you liebchen."Amanda smiled and kissed him on his velvety furred cheek as she took the offered food.

"Thanks baby." She cooed before turning to look at Kitty who smiled at them weakly. The couple felt a little bad for Kitty, she had recently endured a fairly bad break up with Lance. The normally bubbly girl had been understandably down lately as a result of it all, "So Kitty have you heard anything interesting about the new guy?"

"No," she shrugged, "the professor was totally cryptic about him. We know his name is Naruto, he like not from around here, and he has problems."

"That's all he told you guys?" They both simply shrugged,

"He doesn't tell us much most of zhe time liebchen." Kurt told her, Amanda thought they both looked a little uncomfortable, "He usually has his reasons." The German boy said reassuringly as started serving himself some food. The two X-Men were silent leaving her to wonder if she had struck some nerve. They ate and made small talk, Kitty seemed to perk up as they started talking about the latest celebrity gossip. The girls gasped and giggled as they discussed the latest intrigues out of Hollywood, Kurt made an admirable effort to pay attention.

It was when Amanda rested her head on her boyfriends shoulder for comfort that she noticed they weren't alone. She saw a figure perched in a tree at the edge of the clearing, his posture not unlike Kurt's "Does the new guy have weird spiky hair?"

* * *

Naruto watched as all three of them looked up at him appearing both surprised and unnerved. After a moment of talking amongst themselves the one that looked like a demon vanished in a flash of yellow light and smoke. A heartbeat later he appeared before Naruto who's nostrils were hit with the smell of sulfur. Being in his presence the ninja knew this guy wasn't a demon at all. He gave off no malevolent chakra or intent, the blue-furred guy actually managed a smile. It was clear they weren't happy about him watching them but the teleporter managed a friendly smile anyways,

"Uh...Hi zhere, I'm Kurt Wagner" He introduced himself awkwardly, Naruto wondered briefly if this was all real. Was Kurt and the rest of this strange world nothing but the by product of a madman's dream? Was that why he had been confined first to an island and now this "school"? Looking at an increasingly nervous Kurt he had to wonder if the guy would know he was an illusion if that were the case? Rather than give himself a migraine pondering increasingly complex philosophical questions he said:

"Uzumak- Naruto Uzumaki," and shook the furred hand that had been extended to him, the shinobi tried to sound friendly but judgingby Kurt's still worried expression he hadn't succeeded, _"It used to be so easy."_

"Ve do have some extra food left if you'd like to join us?" Naruto did feel a little hungry, was the fact that he still ate a sign that this was all real? Meanwhile Kurt felt as though he was beginning to understand what Xavier meant by this guy having "profound mental healthproblems in dire need of treatment". The way he seemed to get lost inside his head between responses was fairly concerning. But the Professor wouldn't have brought someone truly dangerous to the Institute without giving them all a proper warning, right? Then again he had let them go to school without telling them their principal was Mystique. Kurt also suspect the Professor had been very aware that the shapeshifter was his mother for quite sometime before Rogue's nightmare.

"Sure" He answered finally and leapt down from the oak to Kurt's surprise. Naruto landed on his feet apparently no worse for the wear, the elf ported on the ground beside him, "So vhat do think of zhe Institute?"

"It's better then the island," Naruto muttered as they stepped into the clearing, "way more room." He added trying to sound a little less bitter,

"How long vere you zhere?"

"I..I don't know really." He said, Kurt could hear a trace fear in the other's voice and see it coloring his expression. It reminded him of Rouge right after her powers had gone haywire, when she had confided in him how deeply she had feared for her sanity. Kurt wondered what a terrible thing it would be to no longer be able to trust your own thoughts and perceptions. He stopped and placed a hand on the blonde's shoulder offered a sympathetic smile. Naruto flinched and froze momentarily. At first Kurt thought it was because of his appearance but Naruto looked shocked, not scared.

Thinking about it Naruto actually didn't seem afraid of him, most people were scared out of their minds first they saw his real self. He considered asking about that but good manners compelled him to formally introduce him to girls, "Naruto, these lovey women are my lady love Amanda and my good friend Kitty Pride." Both girls smiled and rolled her eyes at Kurt's theatrics. Naruto muttered a quiet hello and accepted a sandwich offered by the brunette who regarded him curiously with those soft blue doe eyes .

"Can I like, ask you something?" Naruto seemed uncertain, he had gotten his fill of questions from the Doctor and the Professor. It took him a moment to recognize it was a simple request.

"Just a couple of questions are okay I guess." The idea that it was all an illusion was ever present in the back of his mind. Without Kurama's help there was no breaking a genjutsu of this level anyways so he might as well make the best of it.

* * *

They sat in the clearing surrounded by trees as the boy from another world spoke in melancholic voice of a place where mystical powers and talking animals were accepted facts of life. In their time as X-Men -or dating one in Amanda's case- they had encountered a lot of strange things but if what he was telling them was true Naruto was a whole new level of weird.

"You're a ninja?" Kurt's golden eyes were wide as his inner anime fanboy took over, his previous fears forgotten"A real ninja?" His tail swishing back and forth clearly excited, a rubber pirate would've been cooler but Kurt was still pretty psyched.

The girls watched with raised eyebrows as the elf began pestering him various questions about ninja powers and weaponry. Naruto at first answering his questions reluctantly but relented quite easily, "Somebody has a new man crush." Kitty said in a sing song tone,

"Oh no," Amanda gasped dramatically, "who will break the news to Scott?" Kurt's admiration of the X-Men leader had a source of amusement for them and the subject lewd innuendo for others. The resulting giggle fit briefly caught the boys attention but they both seemed to chalk it up to something unrelated to them.

"We should step if Kurt doesn't wind down in a bit." Kitty said as she laid down on the blanket, she seemed to watching the clouds that drifted lazily overhead. One partially blocked out the sun casting a shadow over the clearing. Amanda noticed something similar happening to Kitty's demeanor, she hadn't been the same since the break up?"

"We're friends, right Kitty?" She kept her voice low as she scooted closer to Kitty,

"Yeah," She replied hoping this wasn't about what she was afraid it was, "Why?"

"What really happened between you and Lance?"

"Nothing!" The normally cheerful girl snapped, "I just finally figured what a total asshole he is!"

"Kurt told me the Professor had to beg your parents for you to be allowed back." Amanda said calmly while Kitty found herself very tempted to phase the elf's brain out of his skull,"Did...did he hit you?" She asked wondering if her parents found bruises or something. Lance had never been violent with her outside the battlefield but there was a first time for everything.

"Did anyone ever like tell you about when I first got my powers?"

"No" Amanda replied wondering what this had to with anything, "I don't think so." Kitty then proceeded to her about when her powers first manifested. About howthe X-Men and Lance had approached her and the near fatale outcome of it. Amanda's mouth was hanging open by that end of the story. She didn't know Lance especially well but she would be giving him a wide berth from now on.

"During the second year though he seemed to grow a conscience and I thought I could help him. We dated and broke up and dated again." Kitty said twirling her hand, "I thought after that thing with Apocalypse we could make it work but we were just too different, he felt the same way."

"That sounds like a pretty civilized break up." Amanda commented,

"That's like what I thought." Kitty's voice cracked, "Then Lance calls one day and left a drunken rant-slash-plea on our answering machine for us to get back together. Including a graphically detailed account of how special he thought our first time together was!"

"Who found the message?"

"My dad," She sobbed, "I don't think it would have been so bad if it had anyone else."

"I'm guessing they didn't approve of you two dating?" Amanda asked rhetorically to which Kitty responded by breaking down,

"I had never told them!" She sobbed, "I walked into the room when my dad was listening to that stupid message and oh my god the way he looked at me!" That had to have been the absolute worst way for them to find out about a relationship they probably would've hit the roof over in the best of situations. Amanda hugged Kitty in an effort to comfort the heartbroken girl.

* * *

Kurt had been practically bouncing around the ninja as he demonstrated more techniques. The ninja seemed to have become a little more willing to show off abilities to the eager teleporter. Naruto had started to make hand signs for one of his "jutsu" as he turned to call the girls when he noticed something was wrong. Kurt's eyes widened upon seeing Kitty wiping her eyes,

"Kaztchen?" his voice filled worry yet barely above a whisper.

In a flash of smoke and brimstone he appeared by the girls, "Vhat'svrongvith her?" He asked Amanda,

"She's just not feeling good," His girlfriend said quickly, "let's just get her back to Institute." Kurt nodded and looked back at Naruto whojust looked at Kitty with a blank expression, "Kurt," Amanda said getting his attention, "You can get her back to the institute faster, I'll stay and pick up the mess."Kurt nodded then turned to Kitty,

"Wait," Naruto said surprising them all, "go with your friends Amanda-san. I'll...I'll take care of this," He said gesturing to the remains of the picnic.

"Are you sure?" Amanda asked seeing what a mess it was, the ninja nodded before conjuring several copies of himself with a gesture and a phrase.

"I guess that settles it." Kurt said in a deadpan before teleporting them away leaving Naruto alone. His copies began to pick the trash while the ninja sat under a tree. He seen the tears and heard the pain in Kitty's voice but frighteningly enough it justdidn't bother him the way it once would have. Granted girls had always been hard for him to understand, mass murderers he could connect with just fine. It was however the virtual indifference he felt that was concerning but if this was all an illusion what was the point of caring?

"But what if this place is real?" He asked no one as he looked skyward, "If it's real I have no way to go home," Naruto said quietly, "If I can't get home," thoughts of Jiraiya, his parents, the Third, everyone who had given their lives for him or for Konoha. To give him a chance to create a world of peace "All that sacrifice would be in vain, completely...completely meaningless." Naruto buried his face in his hands, his breathing becoming erratic. After a moment he managed to calm down, raising his head up he seemed almost calm, "I'll talk to Kurama, we'll break the genjutsu and make it all right," He said firmly, "we'll win the war, beat some sense into Sasuke. It won't have been for nothing, it...it can't have been for nothing."

* * *

The professor watched his prized student as she meticulously read through the files on Naruto. The slight widening of her eyes was the only outward indication of how strange or surprising she found the contents of that folder. It was somewhat more informative than the one he had given Scott to read but not the complete file. Besides him only Moria and Logan had access to that, and the rest of his unabridged archives that file belonged too.

He suspected Raven may have acquired her own partial copy of those records two years back during her brake in, it would explain how she had known of Wanda Maximoff. But now was not the time to ponder such things, "As you can no doubt tell the boy is lost in more ways than one," Xavier stated, "if possible I'd like you to handle Naruto's sessions from now on, to provide the guidance he needs." Jean's emotional control slipped this time,

"Me?" The redhead looked down at the files, "With all due respect sir I think I'd be out of my depth on this in more ways than one. I've taken a few courses in counseling but that's it, this is a case unlike an-" Jean stopped when Xavier raised his hand,

"You greatly underestimate your talent Jean," He then smiled cryptically, "and I have good reason to believe he'll be far more open to you than me." Seeing Jean still look hesitant the professor sighed, "Naruto resents me for keeping him confined to Muir Island, perhaps I should brought him to the Institute in the first place."

"Why didn't you sir?"

"I wanted to avoid adding culture shock to his many problems. His mind was fragile and Muir Island struck me as being a far more peaceful setting for catharsis than here." He gave a weary smile, "Even under the best of circumstances this place is seldom peaceful, added to which I found him just after the incident in New York." Jean nodded in understanding, the entire eastern seaboard had been in chaos in the wake of the "incident". The young woman closed the file and looked up at her mentor,

"I still think I'm underqualified but I'll try," She said uncertainly, her emerald eyes glanced down at the folder curiously, "The file mentioned that Naruto appears to have years worth of implanted memories?"

"Yes," Xavier said looking uncertain, "these memories are not unlike Rogue's personality fragments in terms of the damage they've done to the boy's mind." He said sadly, "I believe since the bulk of the these memories are of some manner of training I believe they may have been implanted for the purposes of increasing the lad's combat abilities with very little regard or understanding of the damage done." Jean started reading off the effects to herself,

"Weakened impulse control leading to emotional instability, erratic behavior, self-destructive tendencies, and paranoia... oh my god this poor boy." Jean said quietly,

"All this further exasperated by his other mental issues. This young man, Logan, and Rogue together represent an encyclopedia's worth of posthuman mental health problems." The professor saidas he maneuvered his chair to face the window of his study, "Given these and other issues I must forbid from entering the boy's mind. If for whatever reason you need to subdue him a simple psychic blast will suffice." Jean was a little confused by the cryptic order but didn't question it as she got up to leave.

**Location Unknown**

In his cruelest, most cynical moments Erik couldn't help but wonder if it was almost fortunate that his beloved Magda had died giving birth to Pietro else she might have died of shame at the sight of the man he had become. Erik watched as his only son gossiped with the Acolytes like a school girl over the latest drama from Charles's apparently increasingly debauched school.

"Sorry guys they're broken up for good this time," The white haired teen said excitedly, "Lance accidently spilled the beans to Kitty's parents about popping her cherry in the back of his cherry." He paled momentarily dimming his gleeful expression, "that voice mail she left our machine was actually pretty freaky. I think she hangs out with Wolverine to much," He muttered before turning back to the others with his hand extended, "Anyways I won the bet, pay up!"

Watching his son and his elite Acolytes find both amusement and profit in the heartache of a young woman almost shook his faith in his belief of mutant superiority. Most of his follows were mercenaries rather than genuine followers of his ideology, should he come across younger recruits he would make a point of molding them the way Charles had with his followers. His old friend had created a cult of personality Joseph Stalin would've envied, he almost pitied the X-Men.

"Father?" Pietro's tone was respectful as he addressed his father, Eric's dark green eyes focused on the boy,

"Are you through gossiping?" He asked his son dryly, conveying some disappointment. The young speedster seemed a little embarrassed,

"Yes sir, sorry," Pietro said, "hearing about the X-Geek's love lives is really the only thing they have for entertainment. Do you ever think about getting cable or something?" Erik blinked,

"If it diverts them away from this disturbing fixation I will strongly consider it. I certainly hope you show far respect to the young women you are involved with then that imbecilic friend of yours."

"Yeah...totally." Pietro said not looking his old man in the eye, "So what's this about dad?" he asked eager to change the subject, without speaking Erik turned around and pushed a button on the console,

"Joanna? I need you to come here please."

"Yes sir." A strong female voice answered, Pietro raised a curious eyebrow,

"My son, I would strongly advise you to behave yourself." Before Pietro could respond the doors to main area opened and in walked a formidable looking nineteen year old African American woman. In the absence of an expression that clearly said "Don't fuck with me bitch" Pietro would have found her black leather clad well-toned figure very attractive. She looked at him clearly not impressed,

"This your boy sir?"

"Yes," Looking at "his boy" Erik said, "Pietro I'd like to introduce to Joanna Cargill who's mutant name is Frenzy. She will be providing your team much needed training," Eric mentally readied himself for the incoming hissy fit, "and leadership."

"WHAT!?" The speedster said sound simultaneously hurt and indignant, "What's wrong with the job I've doing."

"EVERYTHING!" His father's tone quelled any desire to voice further dissent, "CHIEF AMONG THEM WAS FAILING TO INFORM ME OF YOUR SISTER'S RELAPSE!" Frenzy raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Erik tempered his rage before continuing,"Her defection to SHIELD's superhuman strike team is potentially disastrous for the entirety of our cause!" Pietro hung his head low so his father wouldn't see his tears; Wanda was probably one of the few people he truly cared about more than himself. The other person he cared aboutcontinued to chew him out, "I've gave you command of the Brotherhood in the hopes you would learn a modicum of responsibility but you instead handled it with an ineptitude that shames me!" Eric sat quietly for a moment to compose himself before speaking again, "This isn't a game my son," His tone softer than before, "Apocalypse and the incident in New York have changed things. It is no longer Charles's overly pious children you risk provoking with such actions. Do you understand?"

"Yes father," Pietro said quietly, "I do."

"Good," He said and turned back towards the various monitors, "I will be sending Frenzy over in three days, I suggest you and your friends prepare yourselves. I have very good reason to believe the war will soon be upon us." Eric said as he pulled up a video of a man who looked to be in fifties who appeared to be giving a speech. With his combed back grey hair and charming smile the man had a grandfatherly look to him. Yet in his pale blue eyes Magneto saw a glimmer of madness he had not scene in since the fall of the Third Reich, "Very soon."

**Xavier Institute**

**The Next Day**

Crouched on the roof of the manor Naruto watched as the students left in groups into the town beyond the gates. He help but be reminded of the Hyuga compound back in Konoha, a luxuriant but fortified home separated from the main village. They claimed to be an academy but the way they interacted with one another was almost clannish.

Naruto then turned his attention from them to the town architecture did strike him as a little strange but none the less seemed to have the feel of a large town or perhaps a small city. Xavier had forbidden him from leaving the school grounds yet had assured him he wasn't a prisoner. What would happen if he tried to leave? Would he hit some kind of barrier proving this reality false?

"Excuse me?" A female voice asked, "Are you Naruto?" The young man turned around and for the first time in a long time his colorless expression broke with a widening of the eyes. She hovered above him like an apparition, her long fiery hair floating as if it had a will of it's own.

"Ka-san?" He said torn between hope disbelief, had his mother managed to reach himfrom beyond the grave one last? If there was ever a time he needed guidance or wanted a shoulder to cry on it was now. His hope shattered like a fallen windowpane upon the ground as the woman descended in front of him. With her features no longer blocked out by the glare of the sun it was instantly clear that she wasn't his mom.

Her green eyes regarded him with a great deal of concern upon seeing the young man look ready to break down into tears, "I'm sorry if scared you," She said to him, "my name is Jean Grey, we had a session scheduled to start ten minutes ago so I came looking for you." Naruto seemed to have regained some level of self-control before replying.

"So your my new head doctor?" He asked, Xavier had mentioned something about that before having him brought here.

"Well I'm more of a guidance councilor than a therapist." Jean explained as she set next to him on the the absence of telekinetic flight Jean might been a little nervous about being on the roof top of a multistory manor. Naruto seemed unfazed by that at least, something about her had nearly caused him to fall to pieces, "You seemed really upset a minute ago, would you like to talk about that?"

"No," he said quickly, "I really don't want to." He looked out at the town, his expression becoming distant.

"We don't have to talk about it if you don't to," Jean assured him, "But I think you need to talk; about what your feeling now or what you went through before you came here."

"Why?" No telepathy was needed to pick up on the resentment in his tone. She could see all the horrors he had experienced practically etched into his face.

"Because Naruto being able to articulate those feelings is the first step towards being able to resolve those feelings." Jean took a deep breath, "I know how...easy it seems to just to disconnect from your feelings about something horrible that's happened to you rather then face them."

"How?" Jean looked at him for a moment, it wasn't something she had spoken of with a lot of people. But the young woman hoped that opening up about herself might encourage Naruto to do the same. She looked out at Bayville, a place that had become her second home.

"Most mutants only have a single main ability," Jean Grey explained as she made her cellphone levitate, "I have two: my telekinesis which lets me move objects with my mind but I'm also a telepath."

"Like the old man?" In most circumstances Jean would've have bristled at hearing someone reefer to the Professor in such disrespectful terms but in light of the subject she was discussing Jean let it pass.

"Yes, but not as powerful." Jean said modestly, "My powers manifested when I was around eight maybe earlier actually. I sometimes heard what I thought were whispers or have strange dreams. My parents thought it was my over active imagination." Jean reminisced as sadness marred her lovely features "One day I was playing with my best friend, a girl named Annie." Jean felt her eyes moisten as she continued,"I accidentally kicked the ball into the street. She went to grab it just as a car came out of nowhere...it all happened so fast but I was linked to her in those last seconds...I felt her die," The images of Annie's bloodied body came to mind, she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before continuing, "the shock of it all left me in a coma for weeks. It was the Professor who helped bring me out of it helped to both learn to control my powers and to come to terms with Annie's death."

"It sounds like it still hurts." Naruto commented quietly,

"Of course it does Naruto," Jean said gently, "She was one of the closest friends I ever had, when you lose someone that close to you the hurt never really goes away." She explained, "But I learned to cope with it, to channel it into something positive. But for the first few months after waking up from the coma I didn't want to deal with how sad or angry or confused I felt about everything so I went numb. Even after all these years some days I just have a lot of trouble focusing on what's going on around me " She could see cracks forming in the ninja's emotionless expression, "I'd really like to help you if you'll let me Naruto."

"I don't think anybody here can help me." The ninja said as he looked at her, "It's not just that I don't feel anything most of the time but also that I can't feel anything at all from the people around me anymore!" There was a touch of hysteria to his tone now, "It's..it's like this place isn't even real, a fucking illusion!" Tears streamed down his face as he voiced his long held suspicions about this world, "Why else do the people here not seem real!?" Naruto very quickly became considerably more audible and hysterical, "Why else would I be kept prisoner first on that fucking island and now here!"

Jean needed a moment to process what the seething blond had just told her. The outbursts of anger she had known to expect from reading the file, what he had admitted during said outburst was unexpected. The telepath could understand how Naruto might come to that conclusion for several reasons. First was the fact that through his eyes this world probably was very strange to him, unreal even considering the differences in technology.

There was perhaps the chance that it was a form of denial; who'd want to admit they really was a universe away from everyone and everything they knew? The last was a factor Jean could fully understand: the virtual short circuiting of his empathic abilities. People who possessed extra sensory abilities based like telepathy and empathy or something like Logan's enhanced senses were profoundly dependent upon them. Their loss would be as disorienting as suddenly going blind or deaf would be for most people under the best of circumstances.

Jean, thankful for her accelerated thought process, placed a comforting hand on the shoulder of the hyperventilating teen who sputtering words in his native language, "Naruto?", The compassionate gesture was initially unnoticed but a heart beat later his head jerked up. His cerulean eyes had become slitted which in conjunction with his now quite palpable anger gave her pause. Once more something the file failed to mention but adaptability was a trait that she had learned as a member of the X-Men. Jean kept her voice and expression soothing as she stared into those feral eyes.

"Naruto I promise you, everything you see here is real." Jean told him, "I know how unfair it seems to have to be confined like this but it's for your safety and for the people out there." She said gesturing towards the town, "I know that you get angry sometimes, that you've punched holes in the walls of your old room back on the island," Some of the tension and anger bled from Naruto's posture as his eyes returned to normal, "that you've broken things, that you've blown up on people. What if you had an outburst like that in the middle of the crowd?"

"I've...I've never hurt anyone that didn't deserve it." He told her sounding almost hurt.

"I know you haven't," Jean said gently, "but the people in town wouldn't know that. You'd really frighten them Naruto. I don't think you'd want that do you?" His demeanor by now had completely changed gone was the feral anger and even the emotional numbness. Despite being a few years younger than her he now seemed old and like Logan the few times he dared let down his guard.

"I just want to go home." He told her wearily, "That's what I want. I want to go back to Konoha, to my friends, and try to make everything right." Jean had to work to keep herself from tearing up before responding.

"The Professor's done everything he could to find a way to send you home. It's just that your the first recorded instance of someone arriving from a parallel reality, it's unprecedented. There's a chance we might find a way someday but for now it looks like your here permanently." She hated having to explain that to him but it was the young woman's hope that acceptance would be a first step towards healing. Instead Naruto stood up, seething his teeth barred including his large and surprising sharp looking canines. Jean also couldn't help but notice that he was able to keep his footing the angle of the roof,

"I CAN'T ACEPPT THAT!" He snarled in anger, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH MY FRIENDS NEEDED ME!? ANY IDEA HOW MANY PROMISES I MADE!? AM I JUST SUPPOSED TO FORGET ABOUT ALL THAT?" The slitted eyes had returned, her emerald eyes didn't break contact this time. She could feel the pain that fueled his rage but had to raise her mental shields. While Naruto's ability to sense emotions had been damaged his capacity to project them was still intact. Like before the anger dissipated leaving the boy looking emotionally drained. He hung his head low, "I'm...I'm sorry...I shouldn't scream at people like that." Jean could see tear drops falling from his face,"Especially you."

The tone gave her pause, she though of he had looked at her when she had introduced herself earlier. Jean wonder what exactly about her that elicited such a strong reaction. Did professor know he'd be like this? Was this why Xavier insisted on her counseling him?

"I blew up on people all the time when I first got here, usually sending the surrounding furniture into the wall or out the window in the process," She told as she sat down next to him, "the Professor helped me work through that anger, if you let me I can help you work for it to." Jean sat next to him, "You need to work through this Naruto, if you somehow did go back right now would you be in any shape to help anyone?" He jerked his head up looking livid for the briefest of moments but seemed to calm himself down.

"No" The ninja answered bitterly.

"Then let me help you," Jean said and stood up, "we can talk more in my office."

**Jean's Office **

**An Hour Later**

Once they had gotten settled in the office the session had gone somewhat smoother. Naruto had opened up about his feelings towards the Professor and Moria. While Jean didn't like questioning the professor's decision confining him to Muir Island for so long may not have the healthiest thing for him emotionally.

She had hoped to start addressing his wartime experiences and perhaps his younger years but had the feeling it would be quite sometime before he'd open up about that. That's how therapy worked, more often than not you wound up having to work your way through layer upon layer to reach it's heart. Like solving the Gordian Knot without the benefit of a blade really and honestly this was far from the best of starts but Jean didn't consider herself a quitter.

"All right Naruto I'd like you to come back here next Saturday." The spiky haired blonde nodded looking fairly ridiculous seated in the over-sized beanbag chair intended for the younger students of the Institute, "Remember those breathing exercises I taught you if you start to feel angry."

"Yes Jean-san." Naruto said as he got up to leave looking on slightly better then she had found him on the roof, Jean sighed as he was about to head out the door.

"Naruto wait," It was something she had been considering but wasn't certain if it was feasible. She did understand that was a process that took time but the perfectionist in her just couldn't leave well enough alone, "I want you to make an effort to socialize with the people, if you can do that without incident I'll talk to the Professor after our next session about letting leave the Institute. Naruto's eye widened like saucers,

"Really?" Jean held up her hand.

"I don't know if he'll say yes but if I can show him that you can interact with people without incident." Jean hated seeing the cautious optimism gone from his eyes but she didn't want to give him false hope.

"I'll try Jean-san," There was a moment's hesitation before he extended his hand, "I promise." Jean smiled warmly at him as she shook his hand. A gesture that oddly enough seemed to elicit an odd array of feelings but not wanting to undo what progress had been made she didn't question it.

**Naruto's Room **

**Five Minutes Later**

Naruto looked down at the photo of his parents, like the rest of the few things from his old life it was a little tattered. With moistened eyes he looked at his long dead mother, her lovely red hair and kind smile not unlike Jean Gray's. The ninja snarled, if this was the Infinite Tsukiyomithen UchihaObito was a dead man. He didn't give a fuck about his feelings or how sorry he might be Naruto only wanted to jam his thumbs into that bastards eye sockets.

If it wasn't the dream of a madman responsible for him being placed in the care of a woman who was the spitting image of his mother that left Xavier. If this was some kind of sick mind game on that bald jackass's part Naruto didn't know if he'd be able to stop himself from wringing that cripple's neck. He closed his eyes and sighed, illusion or not the ninja that didn't have it in him to break a promise to woman who looked like his mother, _"I can play nice one last time I guess."_

**Author's Notes: **Well folks as you can see I've opted with the reboot approach. I've edited out most of the errors and changed a few details. I'm really working to make this a more polished version taking into account some of the criticisms I've received about the previous version. For example Logan and Naruto's fight will shown and I'll try to balance things a little better. I have saved the previous version of this story on SkyDrive where all chapters of all my stories will be stored from now on.

I will also endeavor to have this be the roughly the length of all subsequent chapters. I hope all of enjoy this version as much, if not more so than the previous one. Don't forget to review, peace out!

**Fanfic Recommendations:**

**Warning: Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Nazis by Baxyratty: **A Batman/Hellsing crossover that deserves a lot more love than it gets. Hans and Schrodinger betray the Major at the battle in London ending in Gotham City. Genre wise it's horror mixed with black humor at it's finest imho.


	3. Chapter Two - Hurt

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, this for purely nonprofit purposes**

**Chapter Two - Hurt**

As the first rays of the sun illuminated the dark room Naruto gave up on sleep and threw the covers off. Surprisingly he had managed to get a decent amount of sleep the previous night. Wearing nothing but black sweat pants Naruto climbed out of bed. He could hear some activity in the halls; the sounds of shuffling feet and incoherent mutterings. From what he understood they had training exercises in the morning. That worked out well enough for him really; he needed to try and pull himself together before attempting to socialize with the people here.

Even if he didn't suspect them of being figments of a madman's imagination Naruto had no intention of truly befriending these people. His friends were either dead or waiting for him back home, the blonde stopped and sighed. Aside from the bald prick they seemed like nice people but he couldn't get attached.

He hated having to shut them out, he hated that he was reduced to once again pretending to be happy regardless of what he felt on the inside. The idea Jean-san and the old man might be able to see through such a ruse didn't occur to him, long term planning was never one of his strong points. Honestly if he hadn't promised Xavier that he wouldn't attempt to leave the grounds he just say fuck it and go.

But he'd given his word and the boy felt like he had broken enough promises in his lifetime. If he managed to break the spell Naruto wanted to be able to say that Tobi hadn't broken his principals completely. He staggered towards the room's small bathroom to shower stopping in front of the mirror first. Naruto didn't recognize the person staring back at him,"When did I get this thin?" He asked himself, the blonde used his fingers to trace the visible ribs.

He hadn't been this thin since his childhood, well it wasn't that bad but he guessed he hadn't been eating as much since he got here. Naruto then noticed something else; "When did I get this pale?" While he had always been fair skinned his complexion was now approaching Orochimaru's shade of white.

Lastly were his eyes; they seemed dimmer than he remembered. They were like windows to a darkened room, devoid of their light. Naruto found himself reminded of people like Sasuke, Nagato, and Tobi; like them he had lost everything and had been left with nothing but memories of loved ones to fuel the pain. Now he truly was just like them...there was a strangled scream followed by the shattering of reflective glass and something hard being driven through a wall.

* * *

The X-man known as Nightcrawler was never one for punctuality as such while everyone was already down below for a Danger Room session he was just stepping out of his room. While blamed his alarm not being loud enough his over sleeping probably had more to do with the fact he had snuck his girlfriend in and out for a night of intimacy. He was one of a few sexually active students at the Institute, thanks to Kitty inventing a special deodorizing spray Logan was none the wiser. The elf couldn't help but grin impishly at the thought of getting away with it.

A blood curdling sound echoed throughout the hallway acting as an effective mood killer. Kurt stared at Naruto's door with his fur standing on end. The other night Mr. Logan had asked him to keep an eye on the ninja since his room was next door to the ninja's room. The normally gruff man had explained that the Naruto was likely to try and hurt himself. With this in mind the elf opened the door and darted in quickly. Noticing the light in the bathroom on the blue mutant turned and saw the shattered mirror on the floor with drops of blood.

He ported into the bathroom not noticing the hole in the wall where the mirror had once been. Reappearing on the edge of the tub in a flash of yellow brimstone Kurt found Naruto setting on the toilet. The spiky haired blonde just set there arms crossed with blood dripping quite freely from his right hand. The sight of so much blood and of the shards embedded in said hand visibly unnerved the young German mutant.

Perhaps the way Naruto just seemed fascinated by the tiny but rapidly growing puddle of blood on the tile floor didn't help. The elfin young man was uncharacteristically quiet. He was very certain talking to injured but potentially dangerous people was something that had been covered once or twice but like many subjects the elf had never really paid attention.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked as much out of concern as he did for the sake of ending the uncomfortable silence. Naruto gave no reply or even an acknowledgment of his words or presence. One by one the embedded shards popped out the shinobi's still clenched hand. The wounds appeared to steam and then mend themselves, "Oh you have a healing rate!" Kurt understood he was stating the obvious but found it better than the eerie silence.

"Why are you in my bathroom?" Naruto asked him sounding mildly surprised as if he had just become aware of the elf's presence. To stunned to say anything Kurt watched as the ninja blinked and then looked at his bloody hand. His blue-eyed gaze follow the blood drops and glass shards up to the whole in the wall where the bathroom mirror used to be, "Oh" Naruto said as if he had found a pair of misplaced glasses, "That's what happened." As if it all made perfect sense to him, Kurt blinked a few times.

"Vhat happened?"

"Nothing," Naruto said shortly, seeing the hurt in the blue furred one's face he sighed and tried again, "It...it was nothing." He said a less belligerent tone but not looking Kurt in the eye. After looking back down at the glass and blood on the floor he did add: "I need to clean this up."

"I can show you vhereve keep zhe cleaning stuff." Kurt watched as Naruto took several deep breaths before raising his head. The elf had been prepared for another angry outburst not for the smile plastered to Naruto's face,

"Sure Wagner-san that'd be great!" The ninja said cheerfully, "Can you give me a minute?" He asked holding up the bloodied hand. Once Kurt got back with the cleaning stuff the mess proved surprisingly easy to take care of...well the mirror would obviously have to be replaced but still. Nightcrawler couldn't help but be unnerved by Naruto's new found cheerful demeanor. Kurt thought of his sister after her powers had gone out of control at the concert and nearly killed her. Despite having been nearly two years Rogue still hadn't been the same. As soon as they where done Kurt planned on going straight to Logan.

**Thirty Minutes Later**

There were few people Logan respected more than Charles Xavier, Rogers came pretty damn close. Two men couldn't have been more different from one another; the pacifist and the warrior, Xavier enjoyed a cup of earl grey tea while Logan had bottle of beer in hand. Beneath his cynical exterior Wolverine truly believed Ole Chuck was one of the few people in history fated to leave the world a better place than when he found it. But there were some moments when he was convinced that the old man was secretly trying to give him a stroke,

"Absolutely not!" Charles said in a raised voice,"Naruto has spent his life surrounded by violence, raised in a culture that revered and profited from it! He needs to be shown that there is a better way!" Xavier took a sip of tea and calmed himself before continuing. Aside from Eric, Logan was one of the most argumentative people he knew. It was in a way a trait the Professor appreciated, the former mercenary was a much needed foil. But there were moments Xavier suspected it was just as well he had already lost all his hair prior to meeting him, "I am just as concerned about what Kurt said as you are old friend but at this point let's see if Naruto's efforts at emotional control work out."

"Chuck sometimes I think you don't know the difference between control and repression! Ninja boy buryin' everything beneath a big happy smile is gonna turn ugly." He was glad that it was Hanks turn to handle the Danger Room exercises allowing to hopefully deal with this problem,"I just want to encourage the kid to blow off some steam so he doesn't go apeshit 'cause one of the kids decides to prank him or better yet Magneto show's up to start a fight!" Logan took a swig of beer before continuing, "I know you being worried about something like that happening is a big part of why you kept on Muir Island as long as ya did." Xavier clasped his hands and seemed to ponder Logan's words, "Make it a daily thing, give him some real structure and something guaranteed to take his mind off his troubles." The Canadian added offhandedly as he finished off the beer,

"If Naruto agrees to it," Chuck said firmly looking him in the eye, "then you may proceed."

"Sure thing Chuck." Xavier somehow found Logan's tone anything but reassuring.

**A Little While Later**

After showering and getting dressed Naruto decided to head downstairs to wait for everyone for as he tried to pass himself off as semi-sane. He was wearing a long sleeve black shirt and jeans all things considered did look a little better than he did before. He didn't really feel any different, he still felt as disconnected from his general surroundings as ever.

Naruto though understood now though that on some level he had always been to sense negative emotions. He remembered the way the temperature seemed to drop when he found himself being scrutinized by the cold eyed stares of the villagers. The way Naruto found himself paralyzed before Gaara's suffocating blood lust, hell even the way he had been able to connect with people like Nagato.

Naruto stopped, his false smile fell as another idea occurred to him: what if it was all his empathic abilities? He barely functioned in normal day to day interactions yet he could talk down a man with a god complex into abandoning his warped visions of peace. The young man had always prided being a "genius of hard work" in the words of Rock Lee, someone who had earned his abilities through sweat and blood rather than natural talent. Yet the more he thought about it the more that belief seemed to crumble.

The young man sat down as it all became more and more apparent to him. His father had been the Fourth Hokage and a celebrated war hero and mother was the heir to an ancient and mighty clan that was descended from the motherfucking Sage of the Six Paths! Throw in the Goddamned Kyubi and honestly he had more potential than the likes of Sasuke or Neji. Which-in Naruto's eyes- made his current situation all the more pathetic the more he thought about it. What did that say about him that everything he accomplished boiled down to dumb luck and abilities?

"(Excuse me Naruto-san?)" The ninja blinked and turned to the speaker of the voice. The feral, perpetually pissed looking short man was one of the last people Naruto had expected to speak his language. He could tell the man was holding something behind his back but didn't think to pay closer attention,

"(Yeah?)" The only warning was the light reflecting off the steel blade as Logan went for a decapitating strike. Naruto managed to barely catch the blade in both hands, he appeared to be taking a series of deep breaths. The Canadian realized the kid was trying to keep calm. Logan took it as a sign that the kid could be helped. But at the moment he needed to piss the kid off.

"(Moderately impressive boy,)" Wolverine drawled trying his best to channel the arrogance of a certain Samurai he'd crossed blades with long ago, "(I find it hard to imagine someone your skills was left as bloodied and defeated as you were.)" Naruto bared his teeth at Logan in way that reminded him of Victor.

"(What the fuck is wrong with you!?)" Naruto said as his blue eyes became slitted as months of built rage so desperately tried to get out "(Give me one good reason I shouldn't take your fucking head off!?)"

"(Because it's not possible and because-)" Logan planted his foot in Naruto's solar plexus sending him tumbling down the stairs, "ya suck kid." He said in English while sheathing his blade and strolling down the stairs like he was the guest of honor at high class party, "I mean I've lost a few battles, seen a lot of good men die over the years but I never got my ass kicked to another fucking universe." Naruto was back up and going through the breathing exercises once again.

"You have no fucking clue what I've been through!"

"Hey kid, you got your ass kicked I lost friends."

"SO DID I!" Naruto roared looking as if he was going to try to rip the Canadian to pieces,

"Ya don't act like it, been here a over half a year ya hardly mention them or even mourned them. Just been moping around on your sorry excuse of a ninja as-" Logan blocked an incoming kick with his arm, "make that real sorry excuse for a ninja ass." Naruto tried to hold back the tears, Logan expression seemed to soften somewhat, "You wanna prove your not? Maybe work off some of that anger you're feeling?" He tossed Naruto a combat knife as he glanced at his watch, "In about an hour ask Kurt to show you where the Danger Room is, tell him I said too. And tell the elf ya both need to keep out of sight."

**The Danger Room**

As an X-Men Nightcrawler had been in plenty of battles, from the Brotherhood to the Sentinel. And while he had been focused on rescuing civilians he had been in New York during the Chitauri attack. Yet watching Naruto and Logan go at it was one of the bloodiest and brutal things he had witnessed thus far.

Watching from the safety of the observation room Kurt felt his fur stand on end for the second time that day. It wasn't simply the fact that Naruto, who up until this morning had seemed even more emotionally backed up than Scott had revealedsome profound anger issues. It was also the fact that Naruto about as aggressive as Mr. Logan and seemed to have more powers then he and most of his teammates combined.

The Danger Room was in ruins, Logan had activated one of his special training programs when the ninja began to over power him. Blood splatters and damaged machinery littered the ground while both combatants recovered from the ordeal. Their clothing was tattered and bloody, their wounds were the most horrific Kurt had ever seen.

A large portion of the flesh from the left side of Logan's face which had been taken off by an exploding copy of Naruto revealing the adamantium skull beneath. It was a gruesome sight punctuated the knife driven into Logan's left eye socket. The sight of Naruto driving the blade in had resulted in Kurt emptying his stomach contents on the floor of the observation room. If not for Wolverine's strict instructions he might have called for the others.

Naruto was almost as bad boasting numerous deep lacerations including three now mostly healed gashes going across his face. One thing Kurt had learned from this was how much restraint Logan showed in their battles with the Acolytes and the Brotherhood. With his claws and his sword Wolverine had managed to do fairly well against an opponent who seemed to have more powers than rest of the X-Men put together.

The most disturbing thing about the scene before him was the fact that both men despite their injuries were completely and utterly calm. Something made more unnerving because Logan had once insinuated that rapid healing did not negate the pain resulting from the injuries they sustained. One thing was certain: he wouldn't be able to look at Naruto the same way again. Once again the Professor allowed a dangerous person to walk in their midst without any adequate warning, _"First he let us go to school without varning us that our principal vas my psychotic mother. Or telling me that she vas my mother in the first place." _

Kurt felt an odd bitterness stir within the more he thought about it. He and everyone else at the Institute gave their all for the Professor and his dream. Was it to much to expect some trust in return? For a moment Kurt a genuine sense of anger in the pit of his stomach before his head started hurting. It was a problem he had started experiencing a few weeks after Apocalypse's defeat.

"Hey elf!" Logan shouted from below. Kurt hit the com button and replied:

"Ja?" To his shock Logan had pulled out knife from his eye socket,

"I need ya to run to McCoy and see if he has an eye patch I can use, things like eye balls take a lot longer than skin and muscle." The morbid sight shook Kurt from his musings.

"Alright I vill Herr Logan." Kurt told them and left as Wolverine offered Naruto regular access to the DR to work on his considerable anger issues. While the elf certainly hoped the ninja got better he felt the others needed to know how dangerous Naruto potentially was incase the Proffessor wasn't able to help him.

**That Evening**

Kitty Pride sat alone in her room staring at her phone wondering if she should call her parents. They hadn't reacted well to learning their little girl had been defloweredby a boy who had once tried to kill them. They had yelled and screamed at her for hours afterword's followed by one profoundly angry phone call to the Professor.

It was the first time she could remember her dad being so angry with her. The few times she had been punished as a child it was her mom who was the "bad guy". For the remaining weeks of the summer there had been a cold peace between them. Her dad barely looked at her much less spoke to her while her mom had talked a little with her once she had calmed down. She assured Kitty that her dad wouldn't stay mad at her forever that he just needed time to accept that his daughter had grown up.

The young woman had decided to give them both space to help expedite the process. Yet now more then ever she wanted someone to talk too. Not for the first time she found herself wishing Rogue hadn't been given her own room. In spite of -or maybe because of- because of their differences they had became close friends over the years.

Kitty sat cross-legged on her bed wondering if maybe she should see if Rogue was still awake. She glanced at the digital clock on her nightstand. It said two-thirty, "Rogue's always been a bit of a night owl." The brunette said to herself as she climbed out of bed.

Phasing through her door she moved quietly down the hallway to avoid disturbing the other students. She felt a mixture of disappointment and amusement when she heard the unmistakable sound of Rogue snoring coming through the goth girl's bedroom. The door to the room next to Rogue's opened and out stepped an irritated looking Jubilee.

"Did Vamprella's snoring wake you up too?" The Chinese-American teen asked,

"No," She whispered, "just couldn't sleep. I was gonna see if she was still up and wanted to talk." Despite being only half awake Jubilee couldn't help but notice how down Kitty looked.

"I'm not going back to sleep anytime soon we could talk if you want?" She offered awkwardly, it was clearly something personal for the petite brunette. Their friendship didn't go much deeper than shopping herself was hesitating but she wanted someone to talk too, she chewed her lower lip for a moment before replying.

"Um okay, but promise you won't tell anyone?" Kitty pleaded,

"Sure," Jubilee answered taken a back by Kitty's demeanor. It wasn't the doe-eyed childish one she used to butter up Logan. It's was one that came across as scared and more then a little desperate. Jubilee knew she had had broken up with Lance recently. Before ninja boy showed it was the only thing people talked about in the Institute.

There had been rumors going around of course as there always were in these situationsOne said that Kitty was pregnant but just not showing yet while others claimed that Lance had become abusive. Either could explain Kitty's less than cheerful mood since returning to the Institute. Jubilee also knew Lance had both been sexually involved with Kitty and had a nasty temper. The mall rat ultimately decided to just wait for Kitty to explain everything to her.

**Thirty Minutes Later**

"Oh my god that jackass!" Jubilee said in disgust. She took a sip of tea to allow a moment to ponder her words. Kitty's situation wasn't exactly unfamiliar to her but Jubilee was hesitant to go into that since the girl didn't understand the meaning of discretion"I don't think your parents don't hate you. They were fine with you being a mutant they'll eventually be fine with this...eventually."

"Your right...On some level I guess I know that," Kitty said as she had some of her own tea, "I just hate that this happened. I should of never let him touch me," Kitty said bitterly, "I was barely sixteen when we had sex." Seeing the look of self loathing on Kitty's face compelled the Asian girl to talk about a chapter of her life she seldom liked to talk about.

"I was fourteen my first time, he was sixteen." Jubilee said quietly Kitty stared at her in surprise, "Looking back it was stupid, I didn't even use a condom."

"Who was he?"

"Angelo Espinosa," Jubilee said with a sad smile,

"He sounds dreamy," Kitty commented, "You never mentioned him before?"

"It didn't end well," Seeing Curious Kitty's questioning face she elaborated, "Angelo wasn't a bad person deep down but he always got involved with bad people." Jubilee got a look on her face that Kitty had seen in the mirror more then once. A look of bitter resentment, "That's what I've told myself at least." Shadowcat definitely understood that sentiment, "He was still serving time last I heard from him. Looking back there were a lot of ways it could have gone very badly for me too. Even after he got taken away I kind of got stuck with a reputation. I thought my life was over," Her frown turned to a smile as she made a small cackling ball of energy, "My powers were the best thing that could've happened to me. Bayville and the Institute was a fresh start for me."

"I don't think going to another school is like an option for me." Kitty replied, "What if it gets out about what me and Lance were doing?" Jubilee gave her a level look,

"Do you think anyone here will make fun of you for that? You might get a few "I told you so's" before they hang whatever is left of Lance after Wolverine's carved him to pieces."

"What about the people at school?"

"Do you really think they'll treat you any worse than they already do?" She countered in a deadpan, "At the end of the day your life isn't over because a boy screwed you over. No one here will stop being your friend I promise." Kitty wiped a few grateful tears from eyes before speaking,

"Thanks Jubilee" The petite brunette got up and hugged her, "I feel like, loads better."

"Glad to help," The other girl replied before looking a little nervous, "but I would like to keep some things quiet just as much as you do." Kitty did have a tendency to run at the mouth.

"Totally," Kitty assured the other girl before looking curious again, "Does Bobby know about any of this?" Jubilee smiled softly,

"I've been able to tell him everything, he's probably one of the most nonjudgmental people you can meet." Jubilee looked at her, "There really are nice guys out there Kitty, you've just gotta get back on the horse and find one."

"I think I need a break from boys for a while." Kitty said looking tired on a both physical and emotional level, "I mean, I still can't believe he did this to me."

"His loss, you can do a lot better than him." The other girl assured her, "Plus I'm sure karma's gonna catch up to him somehow."

**The Brotherhood of Bayville Boarding Home**

**Friday Night**

Four teen boys sat amidst the filth and disrepair of their home watching DVRed episodes of Family Guy. So enthralled by the mediocre "humor" of the show that they didn't notice Pietro walk through the door. Nor did they notice the speedster like looking like a small town housewife from a Lifetime movie: titchy and looking ready to bolt any minute, "Hey guys, we've got a new teammate."

"Who?" Lance asked looking up to see a woman standing behind Quicksilver. Joanna looked contemptuously at them all and her surrounding in general before correcting Pietro.

"He means new team leader and the name is Frenzy."

**AN: **I know I promised to show Logan and Naruto's fight but the scene just didn't come out right. So I opted to imply that the fight had been a little more even than last time and to hint at things to come. Naruto's fight with the Brotherhood will get rewritten completely though, I can promise that.

In other news I am toying with a Naruto/DC crossover and X-Men Evo story that crosses over with Ben 10 -a universe that I've always wanted to write for even if the main character is a little douche imo- and cosmic aspects of the marvel universe. Please R&amp;R, peace out!


	4. Chapter Three - Catharsis

**Chapter Three:** **Catharsis**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing**

**Jean's Office**

**A Month Later**

Jean stood frozen on the spot with one hand on her left temple while the other was outstretched towards the now prone form of her patient. After a moment her outstretched hand began to tremble, the telepath sat down on the ground to try to compose herself. She hadn't expected to have to actually make use of the Professor's advice on how to incapacitate Naruto if he become violent but was glad for it.

"Note to self: the subject of "UchihaSasuke" elicits a...very," Jean glanced at the window that Naruto had flung her desk out of, "emotional response from the patient. In the future I will have to broach this subject more carefully." With that she telekinetically hit the stop button on the tape recorder embedded on the wall end of the room.

At this point Jean wondered if the Professor had given her this assignment to give her a more...realistic view of what therapy entailed. Reading about violent outbursts is one thing; actually seeing someone -with superhuman strength to boot- flip out was another matter entirely. It also made her a little more understanding of the Professor's decision to keep Naruto on Muir Island for so long. While she didn't believe he would ever deliberately hurt someone without provocation it was clear that helping him control his temper was top priority. Sasuke though was clearly a subject that would have to be revisited, glancing at Naruto she couldn't help but feel at a loss at how to help him.

Jean had been forced to cope with the death of a friend when she was very young, as horrible as it was something that any reasonably competent therapist was equipped to help someone through. Naruto had to around the same age cope with a friend trying to kill him while defecting to a hostile nation. The young woman suspected few textbooks had been written on how to help someone cope with that, if any.

It did if nothing else identify yet another personal demon amidst the Legion that plagued Naruto: very clear attachment issues. This Sasuke clearly was an obsession for him invoking a broad spectrum of emotions from the young man. Her patient clearly considered himself responsible for Sasuke's actions and choices. Naruto, much like Scott was of the cross carrying mentality shouldering the responsibilities and blame of others as if they were his own burdens.

"_I hope Scott doesn't end up this damaged one day." _The young woman filed that private fear away before dealing with more immediate problems. After a moment of quiet meditation Jean picked herself up sent Naruto a telepathic nudge. His cerulean eyes opened slowly, turning his head the ninja saw Jean standing over him with a concerned look on her face. As he picked himself up he surveyed Jean's office, shame filled as the full memory of his outburst hit him.

"I'm sorry," He said in a tight voice being unable to look her in the eye. Jean was quiet, Naruto imagined her now looking angry or disappointed with him. The older woman was simply trying to think of the best way to phrase what she wanted to say,

"You talked about how...you knew people who let their lives be controlled by hate or revenge and how destructive that path can be." She said in a soft tone, "I think this proves that guilt and being angry at yourself can be just as destructive. That desk could have really hurt someone if it had landed on them from this height or worse." Jean gently cupped his chin and raised his head up, "Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah I do," Naruto admitted, "Maybe I need a DR session with Logan to work out this out." Jean suppressed the irritation she felt at Logan for goading Naruto into that. The students were now giving him a wider berth after they learned the grisly details about his fight with Wolverine,

"If the Professor's okay with it than you are free to do so but I would like you to find outlets that don't involve violence." Jean told him, "I heard you had really gotten into your studies on Muir Island. Wouldn't that be a more productive and peaceful use of your time?" Naruto scratched the back of his head looking a little uncomfortable.

"I didn't actually do that good on any of it except English." He admitted, "And that's because I was fucking tired of sign language and mind probing whenever someone wanted to talk to me." Another thing Jean had learned about Naruto was that he seemed to be fairly casual about profanity. Jean however decide to only fight one battle at a time for now.

"I think that proves you can do good with your studies if you really want to," Jean told him, "I'll find you a tutor to help you out with what ever subjects you need but for now I think it's best to end our session. Get yourself something to eat and really think about everything we've gone over."

"Yes Jean-san," Naruto replied cheerfully enough but as he looked around at the damage done to Jean's office it faded fairly quickly.

"Don't worry," Jean told him, "In about an hour you can come back to help me clean this up as best we can." She figured having him help with the repairs in someway would help him feel less guilty about wrecking the place.

"Yeah that's definitely the least I can do." He admitted and actually looked a little happier for it so Jean at the end of it all would class this as a success of sorts for now.

* * *

Kitty Pride sat in the institute library with her laptop reading the latest chapter of her favorite Twilight fanfic. It didn't make her as happy it normally would have perhaps romance involving a dangerous boy had lost it's appeal. Even if Edward was nicer in his own way and -from the looks of the story's lemon scene at least- way more of a man than Lance.

Deciding this wasn't the most healthy thing to be thinking of she exited the page and opted to just listen to music. Slipping on a pair of head phones the young brunette played a few of the darker tracks Rogue had recommended over the years. Once upon a time she had found them to morbid but after everything that had happened to her and the X-Men her tastes had slowly changed over the years.

"_I guess we've all changed haven't we?" _She thought sadly, morale was running pretty low these days. Magneto and his Acolytes were as evasive as ever while some psycho televangelist was traveling across thecountry claiming mutants were the spawn of the devil. People hated mutants more than ever while SHIELD's superheroes were loved, _"Superheroes, that's what the professor said we were going to be." _

Kitty knew some of her fellow students felt a lot worse than she did about the Avengers popularity. The fact that a former enemy like Wanda was among seemed to be salt on the wound for some of them. The brunette was generally an optimist and inclined to see the brighter side of things. They had saved the world from a threat that by all appearances rivaled Apocalypse or Magneto.

The X-Men had fought the few Chitarui that had gotten through the defensive line. Remembering what a challenge they had beenKitty didn't want toimagine taking on a whole army of those things or the lunatic leading them. They deserved credit for all the good they did Kitty just wished the X-Men would get the same treatment.

As time went on Kitty found herself lost in the music eventually switching over to her more peppy songs. A finger tapping her on the shoulder brought her back to the present, looking up she saw Jean standing over her shoulder.

"Like what's up?" The petite girl asked as she removed her headphones,

"I wanted to ask you for a big favor." Jean replied,

"Like what do you need?" Kitty asked curiously, Jean usually gave help rather than ask for it.

"You've met Naruto right?"

* * *

The large rust colored beast regarded the boy with the same level of contempt one might have for a cockroach. But over half a year of silence had proven to rather tedious and Naruto had if nothing else never been boring. The bald mindwalker had certainly amusing to terrify and taunt but that had been his only moment of fun during that time.

His jailor carried himself in a way Kurama hadn't seen in years, it was the way he carried himself as a child when he thought noone was looking. His head and shoulders hung low, golden bangs hiding his expression causing the demon grin broadly. Naruto's response was equally tactless:

"Bite me Kurama."

"You have lost the right to address me by my true name boy." The monstrous fox said as his smile shifted to snarl, "I assume you've come to me for reasons beyond telling me off?"

"I blew up on Jean-san today," He said quietly, "I threw things and broke them but it's all a blur." The suspicion in his words elicited a rolling if the eyes from the demon who opted to preempt the coming accusation.

"No." To which the ninja blinked in a moment of confusion, sighing Kurama clarified: "I did not influence your behavior," He pointed a clawed finger towards Naruto to emphasize the point, "you have only your own anger to blame for that. The mind witch only pointed what so many have tried to point out to you: your fixation with the Uchiha boy is a rather unhealthy thing."

"He was my friend!" Naruto snapped, "Like a brother to me and she calls it a disease!"

"An "attachment disorder" I believe she called it." Kurama supplied, "An amusingly sanitary term if you ask me. But what I'm perplexed about is this: why do you care what she says?"

"What?" Naruto said dumbly,

"Don't you believe this world to be nothing more than an elaborate lie? That she's just a figment of that twisted Uchiha's imagination?" The ninja's face looked for a moment before tightening, "Of course boy, I suspect that in and was simply an elaborate you've told yourself." By now Naruto looked ready to tear Kurama apart with bare hands and perhaps teeth from the way he bared them.

"SHUT! THE! **FUCK!** **UP!"** The demon's face conveyed nothing more than bored irritation. Whatever amusement the demon had taken his host's misery had now evaporated like dew drops beneath the noon sun. Nor did he find it practical for his host to in such a state for long, the boy's fight with the clawed regenerator had driven home how atrophied his skills had become. If, by some hellish stroke of bad luck, Obito managed to recreate the space/time distortion that sent Naruto here in the first place the boy was in no shape to fight him right now.

"Do you know the trait I admired about you the most?"

"Enlighten me." The ninja seethed,

"That unlike most people you have generally been able to face the truths about yourself and the culture in which you live in with one unfortunate exception." Kurama saw no point in mentioning Sasuke directly as that always lead to a fight, "For your own benefit and infinitely more so mine you need to make use of this trait. You have for over the last half year been stranded in another world and thus the Fourth Great Shinobi War is over for you." Naruto looked ready to explode once more but instead some to calm down. Without saying anything Naruto shoved his hands into his pockets and turned to leave, "Not being able to accept loss and defeat is what lead Obito to becoming the pathetic wretch who set fire to the Shinobi World." The blonde haired boy stopped,

"...You're right," He said slowly, "Jean-san's right, even that clawed jackass is right. I really do need to stop feeling sorry for myself." Naruto didn't know if he'd ever get home and even if he did how he'd manage to fix things. But he understood the odds would be a lot more in his favor if he wasn't having an episode just because Sasuke was mentioned. Naruto paused his thought's drifting back towards the battle the bridge with Orochimaru..."Maybe...maybe I really do have issues."

* * *

To the people of Bayville it was privately owned warehouse, for the Brotherhood it was a little slice of Hell. Mystique had put some effort into training them but it was nothing compared to what Frenzy was putting them through.

Taking advantage of the fact that her team didn't have to attend school she decided they should spend their days training. The crates of varying sizes had been rearranged into a makeshift obstacle course for Blob, Toad, and Pyro to ran laps through. It was an effort to both instill discipline and encourage team work amongst them.

In a different area of the warehouse Lance was training to use his abilities in an unorthodox firing range of sorts. It consisted of numerous dummies dressed as members of the X-Men, the Brotherhood, and even the Acolytes amongst various nude models meant to simulate flatscan civilians (humans better known as expendables in Frenzy's mind) in a rough simulation of battle.

The objective being to knock down the X-Men without harming the Acolytes or Brotherhood members. It forced Lance, as Frenzy intended, to be more precise with his attack than usual. After a month of solid training he had shown some improvement, not what she would have liked but with this group Joanna had learned to take what you could get.

She surveyed all of this from a from an interconnected series of walkways high above ground. A gust air followed by the sound of heavy breathing alerted her to the presence of the last member of this team of incompetents: PeitroMaximoff, the worm-eaten blight of his father's eye.

"Took longer than I expected." She commented tonelessly not even bothering to turn around,"Did you get the stuff?" Joanna didn't even have to turn around to know Maximoff was seething and probably suffering from heat exhaustion.

"Do you have any freaking idea how freaking hot is Atlanta still is this time of year?"

"Considering it's my hometown I actually have pretty damn good idea." Frenzy said as she finally turned around to face her boss's irate son. Pietro was red face and sweating from the errand she had sent him on south of the Mason-Dixon Line. In one hand was a large brown paper bag and in the other was a clear bag containing a jug of iced tea.

She relieved Pietro of the former as she spoke, "I keep some plastic cups in the office, pour yourself some and offer some to the other morons. They can take a ten minute break before resuming drills." Opening the bag Joanna's face softened somewhat as the smells of the food within triggered something resembling nostalgia for the young woman.

The food had come a hole in the wall restaurant that perhaps represented the only vaguely happy memories from her childhood. Her parents would take her brother and her there every Sunday after church and would put in the effort to at least act like a happy family. Is was the one place she could briefly forget her father was an abusive alcoholic or that her mother turned a blind eye his issues...and her bruises.

For the most part she had severed her ties to her past life having not set foot in Atlanta much less the state of Georgia for four years and honestly wouldn't be to bothered if she didn't do so for another forty. But since Pietro had considered her training regiment "lame" she didn't mind having him make runs to her various favorite restaurants across the country and beyond. She figured it'd be a good way to test the limits of his abilities and patience. Tomorrow it would be fish tacos from a place in Northern Baja.

Frenzy was determined to make the best of this situation; it wasn't lost on her that the Brotherhood was a dumping ground for mutants to weak to make the Acolytes. She could see the value of having a few expendables around so long as she wasn't categorized as such herself.

Joanna shook her head and opened the to-go box revealing smoked ribs, cornbread, and collard greens. For all it's shortcomings the South easily had the best food in the country. She opted to try and put aside her worries and just enjoy her food. Frenzy managed to get through most of the meal in peace until her cellphone rang. Only a few people had her number so she answered it immediately, "Yeah?"

"Frenzy," Erik's ever measured tone replied, "Status report?" She glance over the railing to see Blob trying to dig Toad out of from underneath a pile of crates.

"They're better then they were a month ago but that's not saying much," Joanna replied honestly seeing no point in sugar coating it, "it'll be a couple of months before their ready for any serious missions sir."

"Time is rapidly becoming a luxury for us I'm afraid, I need the Brotherhood ready much sooner. Perhaps a little more hands on experience would serve them well." Frenzy said nothing as her superior elaborated by the end of she looked less then pleased with her orders.

"Sir I strongly advise against this," Were it not for her respect for Magneto and his cause she might have phrased it a little more colorfully, "they're a bunch of morons. From what I understand the X-Men have kicked their sorry backsides in every fight they've had! Just one month of training isn't going to do a thing to change that sir! Two more months at least just to knock the stupid out of them!"

Magneto was silent for moment leaving Frenzy to wonder if she had crossed a line. After a moment the Master of Magnetism replied, "I can give you one more month but that is all; there have been some developments that I'll brief you on in person as soon as possible." With that he hung up leaving his subordinate less than pleased with this new development.

"Motherfucker!" She muttered under her before leaping over the railing landing on her feet and cracking the concrete floor upon impact. The members of the members of the Brotherhood looked upon her with varying degrees of worry, "Alright morons listen up!"

**Back at the Institute**

Naruto sat quietly in the library looking at his history textbook in both confusion and disbelief. Apparently people in this world had somehow managed to travel to the moon. He wondered if he should warn the X-Men about the Juubi? Did it even exist in this world at all? Regardless it was just one among many of the differences between his world and this one.

"_If I'm stuck in this world I might as well learn about it." _Naruto sometimes wondered how things would've turned out if he had put more effort into the academic side of things back in school. Over the past several months he had reflected a great deal on his life on number of levels.

In terms of of his fighting abilities his biggest failing was his profound lack of understanding of the more basic aspects of being a ninja. Chakra control, basic tactics, taijutsu, and a grasp of his own world's history wouldn't have hurt either. His battle with Sasuke back at the Valley of the End stood out in his mind as exhibit A. He and Sasuke had evenly matched in terms of raw power but it was Sasuke's superior skilledthat had been the real deciding factor.

The Uchiha had been more economic, preferring to counter attack and fight more strategically. The same thing Logan had done during their fight. It also didn't hurt that Sasuke had the luxury of a larger, more versatile arsenal of jutsu. Naruto couldn't help but wonder why none of his teachers never thought to teach him more basic techniques? That may have been one weakness he had been working to over come before ending up here but still.

Naruto didn't like the idea of blaming his shortcomings on other people. He had known too many people who did that to justify being assholes. Yet he couldn't but feel some bitterness and scorn towards Jiraiya and Kakashi. But considering one was dead and the other was either likewise or trapped in some lunatic's never ending day dream he felt fairly petty for it.

He had sworn not to wallow in self loathing anymore but actually doing so was proving to more difficult. Between that and trying to make heads or tails of the positively arcane writings of his text books he felt the beginnings of a huge headache. Jean had promised someone was going help with this but so far they hadn't sho-

"Oh my god! I am like so sorry!" Kitty said as she sat across from with her laptop, "Jean had asked me to do this and it like totally skipped my mind!" The brunette said at a speed he didn't think should not have been possible, bloodline or no bloodline.

"It's okay." He told her as she started up her computer and then started stacking up his books in some kind of order. There was a subtle awkwardness between them, neither had been in the best frame of mind the last time they had been in close proximity to one another. Naruto, never one to grasp why people ignored the elephant in the first place, said: "You seem happier than the last time." Kitty shifted uncomfortably, she could tell it was a clumsy attempt at a compliment.

"Uh thanks, so do you."

"Thanks," He replied actually managing a smile in the process. A sight that made Kitty feel a bit better about tutoring him. She had been slightly worried about being around Naruto after a month of hearing rumors about his fight with Mr. Logan.

"Alright so what subject are you having trouble with Naruto?" The ninja scratched the back of his head looking a little embarrassed.

"All of them." He said quietly,

"Well, like which is your worst subject?" Kitty asked trying to figure out were he needed the most work.

"I don't know really." Something told Kitty this was going to be a long tutoring session.

**Meanwhile at the Legion of Doom**

"Yo why do we need another whole month training before getting a shot at the X-Geeks?" Toad whined, the others voiced similar opinions after Frenzy had explained things to them.

"Because things ain't as simple as they used to be," she told them, "aside from the fact the X-Men can still mop the floor with you guys on their own we now have to worry about SHIELD or God help us the Avengers dropping in on us!"

"Earth's mightiest zeros can't be all that tough." Blob said confidently, a sentiment everyone but surprisingly enough Peitro echoed. Joanna didn't know rather to chalk it up to daddy's boy being more in the know than his friends or because his sister was a member of the Avengers. That wasn't really important at the moment, the thing mattered was making the rest of these morons understand the stakes. Honestly she didn't know how to deal with this level of stupidity outside of crossing lines Magneto would frowned upon.

"The Avengers are the ones who threw me in prison!" She snapped, "If they can beat me they sure as hell can beat you morons! So we're going to keep on training until I'm sure you'll last more then five minutes in a real fight." Another round of grumbling followed leaving Frenzy at the end of her rope, "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" She screamed silencing them, Joanna then cracked her knuckles, "Alright time for a different approach: all of you against me, if you idiots win: no more training."

"Seriously?" Lance asked in disbelief,

"Yep, anything goes." All of the Brotherhood was looking eager now, they knew their handler was strong but all of them together would more than a match against her right?

**The Institute Library**

**That Evening**

Kitty suppressed to urge to cringe as she went over Naruto's work. He seemed to have a relatively decent understanding of chemistry due to ninjas making heavy use of poisons and explosives but otherwise his grasp of science was shaky at best. Perhaps due to living in a more "magical" world? Catching him up on mathematics was going to take a great deal of time and patience.

Being from another world entirely meant he was completely out of the loop about American and world history. "Out of the loop" seemed to be the best way to describe Naruto in general; she didn't get the impression he was an idiot only that he never been taught or perhaps taught poorly. Seeing the nervous look on his face it was also clear he wanted to do good.

"How did I do?" Kitty looked up at him and then back down at the paper. Those soft blue eyes moved back and forth a few more times as she chewed her lip.

"Well..." She said finally, "you totally tried your best Naruto," Kitty didn't want to hurt his feelings, "...and if you keep working I promise you'll definitely improve."

It took Naruto a full minute to get the subtext of what the petite brunette just told, "Translation: I fucked up." He sighed looking dejected, Kitty reached across the table and placed her hand on top of his own. It was a gesture that surprised Naruto,

"It's okay, now I know what subjects you need the most help with," Kitty said optimistically before her cellphone rang, "Hello?" Something the other person said made smile and roll her eyes all at once, "Yes I remember Kurt, I'm actually on my way up." She then looked at Naruto curiously, "Hey would it be okay if I bring someone? Thanks." Kitty hung up, "Kurt and his girlfriend had invited me to join them and another couple for a movie marathon and pizza night thing they do, wanna join?"

"I don't know." He said uncertainly,

"Oh come on all you ever do when your not with Jean or Mr Logan sit all by yourself." Naruto seemed embarrassed and then oddly enough confused,

"You do that a lot too." His perplexed tone made it clear no insult was intended. Kitty sighed,

"Yeah, and it's not good that I do that. That's why Kurt and Amanda are always dragging me along on their dates." She smiled at him, "So now I'm doing you that favor, come on Kurt always picks great movies." She looked at him with pleading eyes, something Naruto had no resistance to whatsoever.

"Alright I'll go." Kitty smiled at him before she started gathering up her things. Naruto watched her as she did so, he had hadn't truly noticed what a pretty girl she was before now. Her soft blue eyes, cute face, and she was such nice girl to boot_. _As Naruto followed her he couldn't help but think back to that breakdown she had during their first encounter, _"What had that been about? Had someone hurt her?"_

She had shown far more patience and kindness with him in one tutoring session than all his instructors put together save Iruka had shown back at the academy. He couldn't imagine what kind of an asshole would be mean to someone like her but Naruto really hoped whoever it was would got whatever they deserved.

**The Warehouse**

**A** **few hours earlier**

Lance limped around the corner for all he was worth as Blob of all people went tumbling past him like a blubbery bowling ball. They had all known Frenzy had super human strength but none of them had any inkling of how monstrously strong she really was, on top of which she was not shy about using it.

"Where do you think your going Fuck-and-Tell!?" Lance ground his teeth, apparently all of Magneto's top henchmen knew about the intimate details his failed relationship with Kitty thanks to Pietro.

"_Why are we friends with that ass?" _He wondered as he hid behind some crates to catch his breath. As quietly as possible Lance checked out his leg and was thankful it didn't seem to be broken. A sigh of relief was gut short by an effeminate shriek that could have either been either Quicksilver or Toad. Apparently one of them had tried to ambush Frenzy buying him a much needed reprieve, _"Come on Lance think. Youcan't let this bitch push you around!"_

Lance looked around trying while doing his best to ignore the sounds of someone begging for their life. The crates here were stacked higher and more haphazardly than rest of the of the warehouse. With his powers this was a perfect place for an ambush. Avalanche staggered to his feet and limped far enough down the corridor to hopefully not get crushed when brought this all down on Frenzy's head.

It was at this point he noticed it was a dead end which meant he'd have no means of escape but on the other hand he didn't have to worry about being ambushed from the rear. So Lance opted to hope for the best and got ready for what ever came next.

"Somebody help yo!" Toad yelled as he went leaping by, "I thought she said anything goes!"

"Todd!" Lance called out to him while trying not to ponder what Toad had done, "Over here!" The amphibious mutant came leaping down the corridor followed a heartbeat later by an even more pissed off then normal looking Joanna covered in Tolansky's noxious slime. Lance cringed at the thought of what she'd do to Toad if she got her hands on him.

Frenzy came barreling down the corridor with the power of a locomotive. Lance took the as his cue to build up his attack. The woman's training had actually improved his control over his abilities to an extant. His body seemed to spasm as he held his power back until just the right moment. Self control had never been his strong point in any aspect of his life rather it was holding back till the right moment or saying no to a cheep prostitute.

As such when it should have been no surprise that when Lance loosed his powers instead of sending very localized tremors to throw Frenzy off balance and bury her he instead wound up bringing down the entire factory down on all of them.

**The Brotherhood House**

**The Present**

Magneto stood in the living room wearing a trench coat and fedora looking fairly perturbed. All of the Brotherhood save Blob and Frenzy had been injured in the collapse but nothing life threatening,"Be thankful I had taken out a fairly large insurance policy on that building MrAlvers." He drawled as he focused those ice blue eyes on Avalanche.

"I am sir." Lance replied, the master of magnetism was one of the few people he knew who elicited an automatic sir from him. Lensher seemed satisfied with that and turned his attention to Frenzy. She had accepted full responsibility for what happened. The young woman stood at attention, showing neither fear nor insubordination in response to his scrutinizing gaze.

"You have your two months Frenzy, I advise you use them well. I will send Triage tomorrow to mend their injuries." He said as turned to leave, "I expect results."

* * *

Despite living next to him Naruto had never actually been in Kurt's room before now. It was about as spacious as his but definitely felt more cozy and lived in compared to his own Spartan room. Anime and movie posters decorated the walls. Photos of Kurt as a kid with two people Naruto assumed were his parents. There were also a few pictures of him with his girlfriend and also some guy who looked to have the same mid-length dark blue hair as he did leaving Naruto perplexed.

A moment later when Kurt and Kitty walked in Naruto held up the picture and asked, "Hey Kurt-san who's the guy with your girlfriend?" Kitty gave him an amused smile while the elf sighed.

"Zhat is me Naruto." He explained as he held his arm and pointed at his watch, "Zhis is an image inducer," He explained as he pushed a button activating what looked like a henge to Naruto, "it let's me pass as...normal vhen I go outside zhe institute."

"So that machine cast a henge on you," seeing their blank expressions he translated, "a transformation technique used to change what you look like." To demonstrate he made a hand sign and transformed into Kurt with a puff of smoke. The two X-Men stared in amazement at the ninja who seemed to have copied Kurt's appearance perfectly.

"Vow!" The real Nightcrawler said as he poked the others forehead, somehow Naruto had even duplicated his soft fur somehow, "I'd give anything to be able to do zhat!"

"It'z a basic technique, every ninja can do it." Naruto said in a perfect imitation of Kurt's voice.

"Alright showoff," Kitty said playfully, "why don't you give us a hand with these chairs." and pointed at the folded chairs that the two had brought up with them. Feeling a faint spark of his old humor he made the same hand sign transforming into a perfect copy of Kitty.

"I guess imitation is the highest form of flattery." The real Kitty said clearly impressed with the transformation technique. With another puff of smoke the technique was dispelled and Naruto set about helping them. It was the first time Naruto had actually just hung out with people in a long time.

He had his therapy sessions with Jean, his workouts with Logan, and occasionally he said hi to Kurt and Amanda if he ran into them. But Naruto was finding the idea of just socializing somewhat unnerving. Normal day to day interactions had never been his strong point. Now he would be among a group of people he barely knew of a culture he barely understood.

The ninja suddenly found himself wondering if he she should just go before he embarrassed himself or worse flip outlike hehad on Jean. As he unfolded the last chair he noticed Kurt and Kitty looking at him with concern. Obviously his anxiety must have shown through in someway for them to notice. As a child he had been adept at hiding his true emotions but these days he either felt nothing or his feelings spilled forth without warning.

"Are you alright man?" Kurt asked clearly worried, for a moment Naruto considered just excusing himself. But honestly he really wanted to be around people again, to do something besides feeling sorry for himself. Remembering the breathing exercises Jean had taught him he was able to calm himself down.

"I am now." He said before he realized something, "Hey weren't there supposed to be other people here?"

"They've gone to pick up zhe pizzas." Kurt explained as he sat down in one of the chairs, Naruto did like wise while Kitty went for Kurt's bed. There was something of an awkward silence between them for about a full two minutes.

"So who else is coming besides Amanda-san?" Naruto asked both out of genuine interest and because he found the quiet uncomfortable.

"Bobby and Jubilee." Kitty answered, "I'm sure you've seen them around here. Bobby: short brown hair, blue eyes, ice powers, and thinks he's a great comedian." From her mild tone Naruto guessed that she didn't think he was especially funny.

"Is he that guy that always tries to hide when he sees me?" Kitty sighed and nodded,

"The girl in the yellow jacket who's usually with him is Jubilee." Naruto knew who she was talking about now. A moment later the door to room opened and in came Amanda carrying a bag with two bottles of soda in it.

"Bobby and Jubilee are right behind me." The young woman explained as she sat the bag down on one of the chairs, "We would have been here sooner but Bobby spent ten minutes deciding rather he wanted spicy or mild wings and another five on what kind of dipping sauce he wanted!" Kurt gave her a sympathetic look which did elicit a smile in spite of her irritation.

Sitting in the chair between him and Kurt she turned Naruto, "It's nice to see you here Naruto." Amanda said with a kind smile. Naruto could almost see the kindness in her eyes and felt as if there was an almost palatable warmth to her presence.

"Thank you Amanda-san." The ninja found himself surprised by how much he meant that. He glancing back at Kitty he added: "And thank you Kitty-san for inviting me." Naruto said awkwardly; being unused to being this formal with people. His English lessons had emphasized conversing politely and it seemed only right to make use such skills. The brunette leaned forward to give him a hug much to his surprise.

"Oh you're welcome," She said in her trademarked bubbly tone, "just promise me you'll have fun."

"Okay." A red faced Naruto said quietly, for the couple watching it was an adorable sight. The moment though was ruined when the door was opened again revealing the other X-couple. Jubilee held the door for her boyfriend as he staggered into the room carrying four pizza boxes and a smaller box that probably had his wings.

"We brought the food!" Bobby declared from behind the stack of cardboard containers. As he sat them down on a nearby desk while elf went to the shelf which housed his beloved movie collection.

"Awesome!" Kurt said as he retrieved the evening's entertainment from his shelf, "I've been waiting for for chance to watch all three at zhe same time." The elfin mutant held up the blu-rays for all to see as they were holy relics. Bobby's light blue eyes lit up with wonder while the girls had more subdued reactions with Jubilee looking the most interested out of them. Naruto looked at the covers of the movies trying to figure out how he should respond. But for the life of him he couldn't figure out what the deal was so he asked:

"What's Batman?" Bobby looked at Naruto noticing him for the first time.

"_Why is psycho ninja here!?" _Bobby had heard all the rumors about this guy's fight with Logan and pretty much scared Bobby shitless. Granted he didn't actually know if Naruto could gouge someone's eyes out with just his pinkie fingers or breathe fire. His mild panic attack went unnoticed by the others who were all looking at Kurt giving the ninja a sermon on how amazing Batman was and how the Nolan Batman trilogy encapsulated that.

"Don't spoil it for him Kurt," Jubilee chided, "or me while we're at it, I've only seen the first movie." Looking over at Naruto she added, "It has ninja in it, they don't have powers like you but it's still pretty cool."

"Okay." Naruto said trying to imagine ninja without ninjutsu. After a few minutes of everyonegetting served and properly seated Kurt popped the first movie into his blu-ray player. Uncertain of what to expect Naruto just wolfed down his pizza and watched. Naruto felt all eyes in him when Bruce Wayne reached the League of Shadows fortress.

"Hey...Naruto?" Bobby asked after a few minutes when his curiosity over rode his fear. The blonde ninja looked him as he inhaled his fifth slice of pizza.

"Yeah?"

"How...accurate are the ninjas in this? Despite the no powers thing."

"Well in my world most ninja are members of villages that are aligned with different countries." Naruto's expression became distant as memories of home tried to slither from the back of his mind, "There are rogue shinobi organizations like these League guys though, joining them is usually a very bad idea." He commented wondering if this Batman would be to blinded by a desire for revenge to see that. A few minutes later he grimaced as the hero turned his sword on the League, "Right thing to do but they're gonna hunt him down like a dog for it." He commented,

"Do you think he did the right thing saving Ducard?" Jubilee asked a little bit curious how a real ninja would interpret things.

"The guy was his sensei so yeah." As time passed Naruto found himself enjoying the movies, the food, and the company. However as the end credits rolled the ninja noticed Jubilee looking fairly annoyed.

"That's the movie no one could shut up about?" Kurt and Bobby looked at her in horror,

"Jubs that was the most awesome adaption of Batman ever!" Her boyfriend said defensively, "What was wrong with it?"

"Aside from the easily avoidable and offensive woman in a refrigerator moment? The whole Two-Face plot was shoe horned into this movie when it would have been way better for a sequel."

"Avoidable!?" Kurt exclaimed, "Zhe Joker's plan vas as fool proof as it vas evil! My mother couldn't have done it any better!" Naruto looked at both of them strangely.

"I didn't see a woman in a refrigerator." Naruto said sounding confused, Kitty and Amanda seemed just as perplexed.

"It's the name of a chauvinistic cliché in comics where horrible things are done to female characters just to advance the development of the male hero." Jubilee explained to them bitterly before looking back at Kurt and Bobby, "What about that cellphone radar thing? Couldn't he have just used that to locate Dent and Dawes instead of trying to beat information out of a psychopath?" The two boys looked at each other trying to come with an explanation.

"Because he knew it was unethical and should only be used in certain situations?" Bobby said defensively.

"More unethical then borderline torturing someone?"Not wanting to argue with his girlfriend any further Bobby looked to Naruto.

"So what did you think of Batman?"

"He shouldn't have let Ra's die at the end of the first movie. As ninja you're pretty much honor bound to avenge fallen leaders and mentors." Naruto explained with a far off look, "The League would never stop attacking Gotham in retaliation."

"Like wouldn't that Ra's guy do the same?" Kitty suggested,

"Maybe, maybe not. The bond a student shares with his sensei is special." The ninja explained, "He still considered Batman his greatest student, maybe out of respect for that he would've left Gotham alone?"

"That's sort of how Ra's and Batman are like in the comics actually. They weren't student and master but Ra's did respect Batman". Jubilee commented before looking at Naruto "But I don't think it's going to be like that in the movies, they don't usually reuse the same villains in the movies unless it's Lex Luthor."

"Plus their castle got blown sky high." Amanda added, "and anyone who wasn't there would've been stopped by Batman in Gotham."

"In real life only someone worse at being a ninja than me would be stupid enough to bring all his forces to a single battle, plus rogue shinobi organizations tend to have multiple bases. Also they would have been way better off just coming clean about what happened with Dent. Trust me, ugly secrets never stay buried." While the girls listened Kurt and Bobby looked at each other.

"Plus that's just plain out of character for him. Batman would never cover up the truth about a series of murders." Jubilee said clearly unimpressed and looked at the ninja, "The comics are way better then this Naruto. You should read those instead before forming your opinion of the character, I can lend some of mine if you want." While Jubilee continued to preach the gospel of the Batman the other boys were looking like someone had ran over there puppy with a tank.

"Between ninja boy's genre savvy and my girlfriend being such a rabid fangirl this is worse than watching the Star Trek reboot with Beast." Bobby whispered to elfin mutant who nodded grimly.

"Or Forge." Kurt added as he reluctantly put _Dark Knight Rises _into the blu-ray player. They rejoined the others hoping this would be better received by them. The pair of them actually noticed Naruto seemed a lot happier than he had been. That was something. As was the looks on the girl's faces as Naruto wolfed down what was left of the pizza. Perhaps, they both wondered, his healing had begun.

**Xavier's Office **

**At that very moment**

"I'm afraid your request is out of the question." The professor told his star pupil with regret, "You know the kind of treatment we receive outside of these walls. We have no idea how Naruto would respond to that manner of harassment. Especially since we are likely to experience a rise in such abuses." Charles handed her a pamphlet that looked like a religious tract which is what it actually turned out to be on closer examination, "Amanda claimed this arrived at her mailbox yesterday and those of all her neighbors."

"The Church of Humanity." Jean said trying but failing to curb to her distaste. She prided herself on being tolerant of other people's beliefs but the latest Evangelical sect to sweep the nation was pushing her to her limits. Everywhere they picked up followers acts of violence committed against mutants sharply rose in both number and brutality. The CoH would always claim to know nothing of course even when law enforcement bothered to look into such matters.

"Things are more volatile than ever Jean and Naruto is too unpredictable to be allowed out into this environment." Jean let out a defeated sigh, the Professor was one of the few people she allowed to see her in such a state.

"Did...did you ever imagine things would be this hard for us sir?" She asked him, it pained the Professor to see his star pupil so disheartened.

"Jean we are a new evolutionary branch trying to find a path to peaceful coexistence with the old one. I had conceived of many scenarios but ultimately we as a people are phenomenon without precedent or exact parallel." His student looked more thoughtful than concerned to his surprise.

"Not for Naruto's world, maybe we could learn something from him? Your file said mutants were accepted in his world."

"Yes but Naruto has not been very...forthcoming with me." Xavier said before clasping his hands together and giving her a pensive look, "But he does appear to open up to you about his own past perhaps he might do likewise regarding his world's history? We can discuss this later," The door to the Professor's study opened revealing Logan who was looking like a Nick-Fury-knock-off with his new eyepatch. Considering the grief Naruto was getting Jean almost wish Wolverine had lost both of his eyes, "If you'll excuse me Jean I have some things to discuss with Wolverine."

"Of course Professor." Jean said respectfully while casting Logan a subtle look of irritation. Something she had made a point of doing ever since the Danger Room incident. The Canadian did his best to ignore it,

"You wanted to see me Chuck?" The professor waited until Jean left to respond. Xavier then focused his attention on Logan. Wolverine could tell from the way the other man's forehead creased that this was something big. It was what Chuck did when most folks were sweating bullets or chewing their fingernails off.

"I have a very important mission for you old friend; regarding some troubling developments that have recently come to my attention."

* * *

Sometime later back in Kurt's room everyone was quiet as the end credits rolled. Naruto's expression was as distant as it had been on any of his bad days. Jubilee simply looked pissed while the other girls were trying to look like they had enjoyed the movie but weren't succeeding very well. Kurt and Bobby would definitely class this movie night as a fail.

"Wow that was...really," Kitty was trying to think of a nice to phrase her feelings on the movie to avoid hurting Bobby and Kurt's feelings. The movies had been little to dark for her tastes especially considering her mood lately.

"Lame." Jubilee said as her inner fangirl rage overrode any sense of empathy, "That cop was supposed to be Robin! Why couldn't have just had Dick Grayson as Robin? Or even had Barbra Gordon onscreen as Batgirl?"

"I kinda always thought all the sidekicks ruined his loner image." Bobby said to which his girlfriend rolled her eyes,

"That's all it is: an image. Batman's had allies and sidekicks for most of his crimefighting career!" The world of relationships was possibly more alien to Naruto than the one beyond the walls of the Institute. Yet even he had the feeling a fictional character was a very strange thing for a couple to be arguing over.

"Vhat did you think of it?" Realizing that question was directed at him Naruto turned his attention from the odd couple to Kurt. The ninja took a moment to think about his feelings on the movie before speaking.

"I think it was good story ultimately; a man who turned his desire for revenge into a desire for real justice. Batman made mistakes but that makes him human I guess...in real life you fuck up no matter how good your intentions are...sometimes worse than others." It occurred to Kurt that those movies may not have been the most sensitive to Naruto's issues as the shinobi's tone became more far off. Kurt wondered if maybe he should have tried reaching out to him more over these past few weeks instead of running his mouth to any who'd listen about the fight with Logan..

"Naruto," Kurt said placing a hand on his shoulder bringing him back to the present, "You are mien friend and if you ever vant to talk about anything ve can." Amanda who had noticed Naruto's mood nodded in agreement and hugged him much to his surprise. Even after making friends the Leaf-ninJinchuriki had never been shown much actual physical affection. It was nice and though he'd embarrassed to admit it; welcomed.

"The same goes for me too." Amanda assured him as did Kitty, Jubilee and with some reluctance Bobby as well. While it seemed to have happened under fairly odd circumstances Naruto once more seemed to have truly made friends. With some hesitation he embraced the moment feeling a spark of true happiness for the first time in a long time.

"_Maybe...maybe I can find some peace here."_

**Outside the Brotherhood House **

**At that very moment**

While most of the populous of Bayville avoided the poorly maintained house as if it were a leper colony one figure approached the premises with very deliberate purpose. Hunkered down and dressed in his black, sleeveless X-Men uniform Wolverine made his way towards the house. He paused for a moment when he reached the porch.

He listened to the noises made by the idiots within before pulling out a small pouch from his belt. Opening the pouch he scattered the metal ball bearings within all over the walkway leading up to the house. He then pulled what at first glance appeared to be a grenade from his belt and removing the pin before he threw it through the living room window.

"MOTHERFUCKER!" Screamed a female voice the man didn't recognize, any other responses were muffled as Logan closed his eyes and covered his ears. He did briefly catch sight of the door swinging open as something tore out of the house at high-speed. The flashbang went off a heartbeat later temporarily blinding everyone who had been near it and leaving them with a painful ringing in their ears.

Opening his eyes Wolverine smirked as he saw Peitro on the ground rubbing the back of his head, _"I knew Eric's self absorbed_ _little sociopath would try to run instead of just throwingthe grenade back out the window." _The man thought with a touch of dry humor as he walked towards Quicksilver while being careful not to slip on the ball bearings himself. The white haired teen never even heard the foot steps or saw the boot that knocked him unconscious.

**Author's Notes: **Below you'll find a **parody**style preview of my upcoming DC/Naruto crossover. It's in the veinof the Honest Movie trailers on youtube. The actual fic will start out light in tone but will darken as time goes on but with a bit of morose humor injected throughout, for example that's pretty much what happens how Tobi dies -as nobody important in the eyes of the shinobi world- which is what he wanted, to be nobody. I did place some hints about events that take place in the story.

**To Kid Coheed: **Love your reviews man, if you get an account or at least leave an email adress I'll be able to properly reply.

**Bonus: Honest Trailer for Justice: Dissonance of Values**

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice: **_In a few weeks -or possibly more depending on schoolwork- a convenient cosmic coincidence will change the fate of two worlds_

Tobi evades the attacks by the Konohanin during the Itachi Pursuit Arc _"Naruto has been a considerable hindrance_ _to my plans. Why I don't I just kidnap him nowand teleport away before anyone can stop me?"_

In the DC universeMr Terrific hits a few keys, "Alright I think I worked out all of the kinks out of the Zetatube, initiating test run." The wormhole hole opens

Back in the Naruto world the most pathetic villain since the prequel trilogy's Anakin Skywalker activates his overly haxed eye powers but obliviously it backfires creating a powerful event horizon the tears Obito's body to pieces

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice:**_Let's see Senju DNA fix that you giant pussy_

Sakura falls to her knees and screams "Naruto!" as the Jinchuriki sent to another universe while Hinata actually tries to do something to help only to get sucked in herself.

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice:**_The most popular anime character of all time will meet some of the most iconic heroes_ _of western comics_

Superman looks at Naruto and Hinata, "Welcome to the Justice League of America."

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice:**_It's a fanfic that will actually explores the themes and morality found in manga and western comics in abalanced manner instead of having one side constantly barrage the other with long winded speeches so painfullyself righteous they could have come from a bad_ _Christopher Nolan film_

Hal Jordan and Naruto both battle scarred regarded one another as the stood over the body of Solomon Grundy, "He was going to kill those people, he going to kill Caro-."

"I know," Hal said "thank you for protecting her...for protecting them. The League isn't going to handle this well but I'll handle them." He told the shinobi and shook his hand gratefully.

"Naruto," Superman told him, "it's not something I like to mention but I have more power than most of my teammates put to together. Probably more power than anybody should have. My moral code, now matter how silly or asinine it may seem is how I keep myself in check. How I make sure I don't end up causing more harm than good."

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice: **_And both Naruto and Hinata take -as TVtropes puts it- take a level in bad ass._

Nightwing and Green Arrow stand before Hinata in a martial arts dojo. A bo staff and long bow are sitting on a mat before her along with various gadgets.

"You have 359 degree x-ray vision," Nightwing stated,

"Telescopic x-ray vision." Arrow added, "we both think there's a lot untapped potential there."

"I do wish to be stronger." She said with quiet conviction,

"Then let's begin young grasshopper." The Emerald Archer said in a jolly tone

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice: **_Naruto's power up will be revealed in story and yes there will eventually be NaruHina -it's the writer's otp- but not till __**much **__later after considerable ass kicking and character development._ _While it won't be a harem fic Naruto will have other love interests that he'll date in the meantime don't worry. Also witness DC characters actually displaying the level of_ _powers they have from the comics instead of getting nerfed to make the ninja look good_

In the flooded ruins of Gotham Naruto stares down Aquaman, "I saw that Family Guy episode your only power is talking to fish." The King of Atlantis pinched the bridge of his nose before giving Naruto a level look

"My skin is bullet proof, I have advanced hydrokinetic abilities, I'm physically strong enough to go toe to toe with Superman," He holds up Neptune's Trident, "My weapon can literally kill a God, as King of Atlantis I command a vast army armed with hyper advanced technology and sorcery and on top of it all I'm one of the only comicbook characters who's been mostly able to maintain a stable marriage to a wonderful woman that hasn't been undone by retcon, reboot, refrigerators, deals with the devil, or Wolverine's penis."

"That's actually pretty impressive." Naruto admitted, "So you don't actually talk to fish?"

"I can communicate with aquatic life, in fact I'm doing it right now."

"Really?"

"Yes, I talking to the Kraken."

"The what?" A massive tentacle shot out of the water and grabbed Naruto dragging him into the cold depths

**Awesome Movie Trailer voice: **_And lastly enjoy glimpes of the shinobi world where the villainous vagina known as Tobi wasn't able to reveal Itachi's truth. Thus without something else to rage and angst at Sasuke is forced to accept that he's been acting like_ _an unmitigated prick and makes some effort to be a semi likable human being_

Sasuke and Kakashi stand together against Pain, "I tire of people who think they have right play God with the lives of others!" The Uchiha said as his sharigan went into haxed mode.


	5. Chapter Four - Confrontations

**Chapter Four: Confrontation**

**Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor X-Men: Evolution**

**Unknown Location, one week ago...**

Peitro Maximoff opened his eyes to what could be considered an off-putting sight. Seated on a wooden stool across from wearing only a pair of jeans and combat boots was Wolverine sipping on a bottle of _Samuel Adams_. The way the Canadian was looking at him the speedster expected heat vision to shoot out of his eyes. The white-haired teen started to panic as he became more aware of his own situation. Logan had stripped him down to his underwear and chained to the wall.

"Can I tell you somethin' Maximoff?" His captor drawled as he went over to a table with various implements along with some medical supplies were on it. "Out of all you morons in the Brotherhood you piss me off the most Peitro. You're a slimy little brown noser who never gets his.. until now," Wolverine added darkly as he picked up a high-tech looking taser, "You could of course save yourself a world of hurt by just tellin me Magneto's been up to lately."

"Bite me! I know you X-Geeks don't have the stomach to do stuff like th-" without warning his captor struck him with the teaser sending electricity coursing through his body. He screamed in agony as his body convulsed for what seemed like an eternity but was actually just a few short seconds.

"The thing you don't get is that Chuck and have an understanding: I do what I have to and he understands." The feral looking mutant told Peitro, "Right now he understands that you have the most insight into what your daddy has planned." Logan adjusted the setting on the teaser, "So you wanna keep trying it the hard way?"

"FUCK YOU! WHEN MY FATHER FINDS OU-" Another jolt of electricity cut his retort off. It also disabused Peitro of the notion that this was a bluff or game. Peitro tried to struggle with the restraints using his super speed but Logan's fists had something to say on the matter. A right hook to Peitro's jaw followed by a few hard blows to the stomach. Quicksilver could already feel his face swelling. He was also certain that he had never been more terrified in his life.

"You don't get to run away this time Maximoff." Logan growled, "Your gonna stay here with me until you talk." He said as he popped his claws and held them up to the speedster's face, "Trust me, we haven't scratched the surface of what I'm willing to do to get that information out of ya bub."

The next day Peitro was found on the front lawn of the Brotherhood home alive but brutalized. In the end Maximoff had spilled his guts to his captor to end the pain, _"Father_ _will understand...I know he will."_ He thought as he slipped into unconciousness.

**Magneto's Stronghold, five days ago...**

"I woke up a couple of hours later here." Peitro stopped for a moment to recompose himself, the speedster was bruised and bloodied from his ordeal. His broken fingers had been reset and were along with the rest of his left hand in a cast. Yet Erick Lensherr felt only contempt for his son, it was his own cowardice that had allowed him to be captured.

"My interest is in the part where you began hemorrhaging information and the exact nature of said information." Magneto said in a frosty tone, "Once that is done I will send in Mastermind and Triage to help you cope with your discomfort." Peitro began to tremble in anger in response to his father's choice of words.

"DISCOMFORT!? I WAS TOURTURED OLD MAN!" The young man snapped, whatever fire burned within him puttered out when he saw the look on his father's face.

"What you endured was nothing compared to the hell that I endured when I was younger than you! The horrors I witnessed, what I endured was beyond your comprehension boy." Magneto said in a low and deadly voice before continuing, "Now if you wish your wounds to be healed you will continue your story. I want every detail."

**Unknown Location**

**The Present**

The short, feral-looking man assembled and disassembled the sniper rifle at an impressive pace that would have made a drill Sargent proud. He packed the disassembled firearm into it's case while ignoring the ringing of the phone in the other room. He continued to ignore it as he packed up various grenades, guns, and ammunition. It went straight to voice mail,

_"Raven,"_ a woman's voice could be heard, _"you can't do this; I am sorry about your children but you have to accept that they are lost to us." _The "man's" eyes turned yellow and slitted for a moment before focusing back on the task at hand, _"Their paths have now diverged from ours and this pointless rampage you're planning will do nothing to change that!"_

As the voice on the machine went on sounding ever more desperate the person with the ample stockpile of weapons began to change form. The short feral man shifted into the form of a formidable blue skinned woman with serpent-like eyes, fangs and flaming red hair. Mystique focused her attention on a pair of Glocks as Irene's tone started becoming more panicked.

_"Raven for the good of mutantkind you need to stop this, some unknown force is about to make itself felt. It's presence spreads to all things tearing the threads of fate as if it was some foreign pathogen! I don't know the final outcome of all this, please just pick up the dam-"_ Mystique didn't recall actually going into the next room and emptying a full clip into the phone. The shapeshifter only recalled letting out a breath she didn't even know she had held after trashing it.

While she had never been an especially happy or well-adjusted person Mystique had been in a downward spiral ever since that night in Egypt. Her own children had rejected her, even after a year later that memory left Raven feeling like she had been punched in the gut. Her people were rallying behind Erik and Charles even though she had fought to protect them before either of those two demagogues had been born.

It was beyond infuriating really when she though about files she had taken from the Xavier Institute a year back. She wondered if her children would be so eager to follow Charles if they know what that man was really like beneath that sickening Mr Rogers persona he used? Or how many mutants would rally behind Erik if they had known about the experiments he had conducted on her helpless infant son? The only thing she was certain of though is that ultimately no one would believe her.

So in her broken, twisted mind their was only one option: Erik, Charles, and everything they had built would be burned to nothing. She would destroy their lives and dreams in recompense for what they had done to her, "I think I'll go back to mercenary work afterwards." She thought to herself, "A good line of work; good pay and no attachments." Mystique started to walk out the room when an idea occurred to her, "Perhaps it's time I called in a few long over due favors." The shapeshifter turned around to make said calls only to be remind of what she had just done, "What did I do with my cell phone?"

**Danger Room**

**The Xavier Institute**

The metal doors of the deathtrap/training room opened as Naruto walked in wearing a black tank-top, blue jeans, and black sandals. Following behind him with some reluctance were Nightcrawler, Jubilee, and Iceman in their respective X-Men Uniforms. Logan had decided that Naruto needed to learn how to fight as part of a team again and left him some "homework" in his absence. Having been allowed to pick anyone he wanted do Naruto chose the people he was familiar with more or less. He had considered asking Jean or Kitty but decided they did enough for him already.

"Hey Naruto why didn't you grab a uniform?" Bobby asked, "We have plenty."

"I've...had uncomfortable experiences with tights.", Naruto replied earning a few raised eyebrows from the mutants. He then pointed at Jubilee and Bobby, "What are your...mutant powers." Naruto couldn't help but wonder why the bloodline users here went with such a derogative sound term. Calling a Hyuga or a Uchiha something like would probably have painful, possibly lethal results.

Jubilee's palms glowed with cackling prismatic energy bring Naruto's attentions to the present, "I can shoot blasts of plasma," She explained as she fired a blast that went off the force of a hand grenade, "It also fries electronics that aren't shielded...like my many departed Nintendo DS's." After taking a second to comfort his girlfriend Bobby assumed his ice form looking quite proud.

"You can see why they call me Iceman." Instead of being impressed Naruto looked almost unnerved,

"Your not the first Ice-User I've met." He explained to the X-Men as he pulled out the piece of paper Wolverine had given him. On it were the instructions regarding the Danger Room, "Alright I'm about to begin the session." He warned his teammates, "Uh Initiate Ninja's Run 1.2" The computer beeped an acknowledgment and thus the metallic room seemed to awaken. To the X-Men's horror it shifted into an obstacle course the likes of which they had only seen Scott, Logan, Jean, and Storm trained in, not them. A holographic image of Logan appeared before them with an amused look on his face.

"Nice eye patch." Bobby commented in a sarcastic tone that he wouldn't have used if he didn't know for a fact Logan was out of town

_"Alrighty Naruto,_ _and_ _any_ _poor sad saps ninja boy convinced to tag along. You_ _have a really simple assignment."_ The hologram's gave nasty smile that made everyone but Naruto nervous_, "You just have to make it to the other side of that little ole obstacle course together."_ The holo explained as three flame throwers went off at once behind him, _"But there are a few rules for you Naruto; no clones and you lose points if try to hold their hand too much. Everyone here at the Institute has training and experience so ya just have to work with them not for them. And there'll be consequences for them if you don't let them do their part." _

"That's not fair." Bobby muttered, "What's the point of this?"

_"From what I've understand your biggest fuck up was tryin to do everything on your own. Scott has the same problem but that gets balanced out by the fact that's he's smarter than you."_ The holo looked perturbed, _"And because Chuck and Jean seem to consider it a noble trait."_ Logan shook his head and got back on subject, _"You need to learn that delegating responsibility ain't such a bad thing." _With that the image of Wolverine faded away.

"I'm guessing Wolverine would also be against Kurt just teleporting all of us over to the other side." Iceman asked rhetorically before turning to Naruto with a more serious question: "So how do you want to do this boss?" Feeling all eyes on him -as well as a degree of animosity towards Logan- the ninja found himself rendered mute. As a child he had wanted nothing more than to be in charge, to have everyone paying attention to him only to find it felt awkward. It occurred to him that while he knew how to inspire people the tactical side of leadership was something of an unknown to him.

"Well...what do you guys know about these programs?" This surprised the others who were used to Scott's and Logan's style of command. They gave orders and you were expected to follow them.

"Basically zhe room's defenses adapt to your personal fighting style and learns new to put your life in danger without actually killing you...on most programs."

"Most?"

"Vell if this is one of Herr Logan's programs zhen zhe safeties might be off." The X-Men shared with Naruto what they knew about the DR and more about their capabilities. It felt more like a team huddle at a football game with everyone suggesting ideals on how to solve the problem. Within a few minutes they were ready for action.

Bobby and Jubilee led the way on one of the latter's ice-slides, Kurt and Naruto followed covering their left and right flank. The idea being that Iceman and Jubilee could incapacitate the various turreted weapons the DR could throw at them while the others could give quick support and evac if it proved too much for the happy couple to handle.

Initially things were going very well with Bobby being able to maneuver through the ever shifting maze. The two fried or froze anything that got in their way while their support effortlessly followed over the obstacles intended to stop them. About halfway through however the DR switched from turrets to giant flying buzz-saws launch from the wall.

Bobby froze the one nearest to him and Jubilee ending only the risk of being eviscerated not collision. The frozen buzz-saw slammed into them smashing the ice-slide sending the two falling towards the hard metal ground. Bobby didn't even get a chance to his bearings before he was enveloped in a cloud of sulfurous smoke.

"Are you alright?" Kurt asked when they reappeared behind a barrier yet despite the stench and nausea Iceman got to his feat instantly.

"Where's Jubilee?" Before Kurt could reply Naruto leapt over the wall with her in his arms.

"Thanks for the save." She told Naruto gratefully as he set her down on the ground. Jubilee didn't get to say anything else because Bobby practically tackled her.

"Oh thank God your okay Jubs." Hearing the emotion in his voice brought a blush to Jubilee's cheeks. If they had been more experienced they would've have known that the battlefield was not the best place for such moments. The metal wall protecting them lowered leaving them wide open to the second volley. As the buzz-saw flew towards them only Naruto was fast enough to react, placing himself in front of his teammates.

After few quickly formed seals he shouted: **Futon: Shinku Renpa** sending a volley of powerful wind blades that sliced through the incoming projectiles along with most of the maze only to be halted by the thick walls of the Danger Room itself but not with leaving deep scars in the metal. Turning around he was greeted by the X-Men slack-jawed faces.

"Wolverine fought you to a draw?" Bobby asked in a quiet voice, "I know the guy's tough but how did you not win?"

"I was wasn't thinking straight and I hadn't trained in a while." Naruto answered, "Now I could mop the floor with the old man's ass." There was no boastfulness in his tone which might have caused some concern if he hadn't just saw that Naruto was a good person first hand.

"Wow that was awesome!" He exclaimed,

"Ja!" Kurt added with a friendly pat on the back for emphasis,

"Can we get out of here before the DR figures out new ways to kill us." Jubilee said, a few moments they reached the other end of the maze with nothing more serious than scrapes and torn uniforms thanks to Naruto. For the ninja it felt like a small but important step in the right direction. He didn't know if he'd ever go home or if he'd truly come to terms with everything that had happened to him. He did know that at long last things were looking up for him.

**Xavier's Office**

The Professor had to commend his first pupil for her determination; having failed to achieve her goals on her own she had recruited others to her cause. Jean stood behind the two younger girls letting them plead Naruto's case, "Naruto is like one of the nicest people I've ever met Professor." Kitty said, "He's worked so hard on his studies. It's not fair to keep him cooped in this place, it's not fair sir."

"It really isn't Professor," Amanda added, "did you know that for the first few weeks he was here Naruto was afraid this whole thing was an illusion? Let him see that there is a whole new world out there, a new beginning. Some of us were planning a little outing tomorrow night, why not let Naruto come with us?" Xavier clasped his hands together, a look of deep thought on his face. Under most circumstances Xavier would have gently let his students down but Amanda's presence was a complication.

He regarded the kindhearted young woman, possibly the only human in the area who accepted mutants. Miss Sefton had been openly supportive of his school and her relationship with Kurt was the living example of his dream. The Professor feared that she may start to have doubts about this school and him.

Which was unacceptable for his long-term plans for integration which needed humans like her who were sympathetic to the cause. Altering her mind was out of the question due to the potential damage it could do to human/mutant relations if it was discovered. Wanda's public condemnation of her father after joining SHIELD had hurt Eric's recruiting efforts.

"Professor," Jean's mental voice spoke gently, "Naruto grew up being ostracized and never once retaliated with violence. I truly believe everything will be alright if Naruto's let out on a limited basis." Charles Xavier sighed,

"Very well then but we will have to set a few ground rules." The Professor said hoping he hadn't made a mistake.

**The Next Evening**

Naruto had never thought much of the bitter concoction known as coffee, he and most the Land of Fire preferred tea to the western beverage. In the nation known as the United States it seems not only was coffee the drink of choice but seemed to have an entire culture built around it. While he had no interest in coffee itself he did enjoy the atmosphere of the coffee shop itself.

He and his friends sat at table off in a quiet corner enjoying their drinks and the soft jazz music. There was a relaxed feeling in the air that Naruto found soothing, "I really like this place." He said before taking a sip of his fruit smoothie, " and this stuff. And the music." Seated next to him Kitty smiled and pointed towards the cash register.

"You should totally pick up a couple of CDs while we're here." She suggested with friendly smile that made Naruto's heart skip a beat.

"Yeah I think I will." He answered in a shy tone that didn't go unnoticed by Amanda. It was quite clear to her that Naruto was sweet on Kitty. She made a mental note to talk to the other girls about as soon as possible. Right now both of them were dealing with some serious personal issues and probably weren't ready for a relationship. But down the road they'd make a very cute couple.

_"Naruto is such a sweet guy, that's what Kitty needs_ _when she's ready to date again." _

"Vhat are you thinking of mien sweet?" Kurt had noticed the oddly calculating look on his girlfriend's face. She turned to him and smiled,

"Girl stuff." She told him to which he looked at her oddly for a moment. Kurt knew enough about women to know those two words were usually code for "none of your business" but following her gaze he had a pretty good idea what she was thinking about. Having been witness to the many moods of Naruto made Kurt as much an expert on the ninja as Jean. So he could definitely tell the blonde haired ninja was a lot perkier around Kitty. While Amanda clearly found it romantic or cute he found the idea unsettling.

Kurt knew Naruto wasn't a bad person -a damaged person for sure- but the thought of the two of them together made his skin crawl for some reason. She was his best friend and Kurt guessed it natural that he should feel protective of her. He had kept his misgivings about Lance to himself and look how that turned out. The elf felt an arm loop around his,

"Is something wrong Kurt?" His girlfriend asked having picked up on his change in mood. Kurt drank some coffee to buy himself a moment before having to answer her.

"I'm just vorried about my image inducer glitching up." He lied before realizing he had just opened up a can of worms.

"You could just not wear the image inducer Kurt, the Professor built that when mutants had to stay hidden." Amanda reminded him gently, "You should show people the real you instead of hiding behind a disguise." She caressed his face feeling the velvety fur beneath the holographic disguise. The pleading look in her eyes made forming a rebuttal difficult for him.

"Not everyone is as accepting as you are mien liebe." Kurt said,

"Give people more credit than that," Amanda pleaded, "They might surprise you." She said planting her lips on his, a tender moment that stopped when they heard Kitty clearing her throat. While she looked amused Naruto on the other hand was pink-faced and looking away.

"Let's tone down on the PDA guys." She said teasingly, "We need to decide what were doing; I want Naruto here to see as much as possible tonight." Kitty looked over at Naruto who still seemed embarrassed over witnessing the happy couples tender moment. Despite the "prominence" of Jiraiya's works romantic relationships in the elemental countries were generally discreet, personal matters. Asuma and Kurenai, Shikimaru and Temari, Neji and Tenten had never been as openly affectionate as couples in this world. It was yet another difference between his world and this one. It wasn't bad just different and a reminder that he wasn't from here.

"It's safe to look Naruto." Kitty told him, "We're going to grab some dinner and then hit the mall."

"That's like a marketplace right?" The ninja said scratching the back of his head,

"Kind of," Kitty said, "Imagine bunch of little stores and restaurants inside a very big building."

"So it's an indoor market place? Sounds pretty neat!"

"Zhat's zhe spirit mien friend!" Kurt told, "Zhis is going to a great night!"

* * *

"This is going to be a disaster!" Scott exclaimed when Jean finished telling him about Naruto's night out, "I know he's made a lot of progress since he got here but there's a lot of risk in letting him out. What if some bigot starts heckling them, do we have any idea how Naruto would react?"

"Scott, Naruto spent his childhood as a pariah in his own village. He tried to hurt anyone, the worst thing he did was resort to pranking people and he grew out of that a long time ago!" She said defensively, "And we've explained the rules to him repeatedly." Scott hadn't been aware of any of that but the stubborn streak in him wanted to things going,

"What if they run into the Brotherhood?"

"Scott they haven't done anything since Egypt, why would they start now?"

"I did as you asked sir." Mastermind said nervously, "Peitro has no memories of the more...unpleasant aspects of his captivity." Eric had ordered the memory modification due to having zero confidence in Peitro's ability to cope with trauma. Magneto hit a few keys on his computer before he acknowledged the telepath's presence.

"Good, I'll contact yo again when I have need of your services." Despite being an obvious dismissal the venerable psychic remained where he was,

"Why are you still here Jason?"

"Sir I want to warn you, as I have tried in the past, that these memory adjustments are not permanent. Especially involving people who have received them as often as your children have." Mastermind explained this with an almost clinical detachment, he wasn't concerned with ethical ramifications of his work. Jason only wanted to ensure that he didn't get blamed if it didn't workout, "Also you should be prepared for him to act unstably once in a while."

"Your concerns have been noted, now if you want to be paid I suggest you leave." Mastermind bowed and did as instructed leaving the Master of Magnetism to his own devices.

* * *

It was Friday night and as such the Brotherhood were allowed a reprieve from training. Frenzy had gone to deliver a progress report to Magneto leaving the boys to their own devices. Which this in case meant picking up pizza and booze, the latter of which the Brotherhood would regret. Alcohol was fuel for the engines of bad ideas and the recently mind fucked Quicksilver was preaching one with religious zeal.

"I'm telling you we should hit those X-Geeks for what they did to me!" Peitro declared for the third time that evening and once more his plea fell upon deaf ears, "Oh come on you assholes owe me!" Toad and Blob looked at him questioningly while everyone else ignored him, "If you had told my father that I was missing I wouldn't have gotten my brains picked by professor ass-hat!"

"We thought you'd ran away and left us...again." Lance said as he checked his cell for messages, "If you didn't make a habit of pussing out like a bitch on a regular basis we would've known something as wrong."

"Screw you Lance!" Quicksilver snapped, "I know you want to go after the X-Men as much as I do. You're little kitty cat dumped you again!" Lance glared at him, "Kicking her friend's asses sounds like a good way to get some payback." Lance knew Maximoff was trying goad him into going along with his plan but after a few beers he didn't care,

"You know Kitty usually has her night's out on friday. Somebody bring me the laptop."

* * *

Naruto's audible snores filled the interior Amanda's car much to the amusement of Kurt and the girls. The young man most of the populace of the mansion had feared would go on killing spree was asleep in the back with trail of drool coming from the corner of his mouth. His arms were wrapped around bag containing a few Batman graphic novels -recommended by Jubilee- and a few CDs purchased at the coffee shop earlier. Naruto had acted like a big kid in the mall going from store wide eyed and fighting the urge to buy everything in sight.

"Oh my god he looks so adorable." Amanda said she stole a look at him from the rearview mirror,

"I know right," The brunette cooed in agreement, "thanks for driving us around by the way Mandy."

"It's no problem, I always have a great time with you guys." She assured Kitty before taking another look at Naruto, "Why is everyone at the Institute so afraid of him? He seems about as dangerous as Kurt."

"Actually it's Kurt's fault," Kitty said, Kurt froze in his seat as he felt his girlfriend's gaze fall on him, "the elf got a front row seat to sparring session between Logan and Naruto. He then gossiped about it to the whole Institute." Amanda pulled over before giving Kurt a disappointed look.

"Is this true Kurt?"

"Ja" He replied quietly, the German born mutant didn't even fully understand what had compelled him to run his mouth off to everyone about Naruto the way he had. Nightcrawler knew arguing with his girlfriend and best friend would only make things worse for him, "I'm sorry."

"It's Naruto you owe an apology." Kitty scolded as Amanda got back onto the lonely stretch of road. Fifteen minutes later they reached the outskirts of town only to find the way blocked by the Brotherhood in uniform and apparently waiting for them, "What are they doing here!?"

"Schiess!" Kurt hissed under his breath, Kitty said the same thing only in English with the trio started walking towards their vehicle, "Amanda," The elf said as he unbuckled his seatbelt, "ve vill deal vith this, find another road back to zhe Institute and tell zhe others vhat's going on." Before anything could be done the vehicle shaken by a series of violent tremors. Behind the car a wall of earth rose twenty feet up behind them in a horseshoe shape boxing the car in with the asshole brigade.

"I don't think that's an option anymore sweetie." Amanda said trying to keep her voice as calm as possible, "How did they even know we would be here." Kitty glanced down at her smartphone with a look of guilt and quietly signed out of twitter.

"I'm sending Jean a message." Kitty told them, after sending the message she got what she thought was response but turned out to be something else ll together, "I just got a text from Lance, he says he wants to talk. I telling him he can go straight to he-" Kurt cut her off;

"Ve need to keep zhem busy so Amanda and Naruto can get avay." The brunette sighed and nodded before replying to Lance's text. Kitty looked over at the ninja who was still out like a light. As far as she was concerned he had enough to deal with without having to worry about these morons. Kurt look at Naruto as well and decided the Brotherhood didn't deserve to be ripped to pieces or blown up no matter what stupidity this was about. The two X-Men stepped out of the car together.

"At the first sign of trouble drive straight through zhem, except Blob, him you go around," Kurt told his girlfriend seeing the look on her face he added: "ve're X-Men, ve'll be fine." Amanda took comfort in that confident tone but shake the feeling this was about to get bad.

* * *

"If you ever want to see me naked again Scott Summers you're going to drop it!" Jean said irritably, her boyfriend had brought up the subject repeatedly all evening. That threat gave the X-Men leader pause before he continued,

"I'm just worried about what would happen if they do cross paths with the Brotherhood, I think it's a legitimate concern." He said respectfully, "I know we've called a "truce" with them but with if someone picks a fight"

"Naruto isn't really the type of person to throw a punch without provocation."

"And if he was sufficiently provoked?"

"Scott, the Brotherhood would have to do something extremely stupid to provoke that kind of response from him."

* * *

Naruto awoke to the something hitting the car and someone screaming "KURT!" He opened his eyes to see Kurt's prone form on the hood of the car. The next thing he became aware of was Amanda trying to get out of the car.

"Amanda-chan wait!" Naruto said as he unbuckled his seat belt and got of the car as well. When he did so the situation became very clear: they had been ambushed. There was an earthen wall behind them and five guys in strange outfits in front of them, one of whom was twirling a baseball bat. Kitty stood near them staring back at Kurt in wide-eyed horror. A sentiment he and Amanda understood when they got a good look at him.

Kurt was bleeding profusely from a nasty looking head wound, his right arm had been dislocated as well. Naruto felt a hot, bubbling anger within at the sight of his friend. Kurt had always tried to be his friend in this strange place, always friendly despite whatever mood Naruto had found himself in.

The look of horror on Amanda's tear-stained face in conjunction with Kurt's bloodied state was also tugging at some of Naruto's less happy memories. A small voice in the back of his mind reminded him that he had promised Jean not to resort to violence in confronted. Taking a deep breath he managed to temper his rage for the moment.

"Stay with him." Naruto told Amanda, forming a handsign he created a clone, "He'll do what he can for Kurt's injuries and keep you two safe." She nodded but said nothing being to shocked by the cold, hardened look on his face. For the first time since she had met Naruto really looked like he was capable of killing someone. He walked towards the Brotherhood, she could tell that he was forcibly trying to keep himself under control.

"What the hell is wrong you Peitro!?" The speedster twirled his bat and smirked,

"I told the little blue freak not to move." His mood shifted to anger abruptly, "Besides it's payback for what Logan did to me!" The others nodded in agreement, though Magneto had forbidden them to speak of it they all remembered the horrific state they had found Quicksilver in the other day. Given Wanda's little breakdown they were all considering the possibility that Mastermind sucked at his job.

"What are you morons talking about!?" Kitty exclaimed with a dumbfounded look on her face,

"The Canadian crackpot attacked our home and kidnapped me!"

"Why would he do that?"

"To pump me full of drugs so I'd spill the beans about what father's been planning!" Quicksilver screamed, despite everything Kitty tried to wrap her mind around Peitro's words. Logan would never do that as far as she was concerned yet something had clearly thrown Maximoff off balance. Then something in his story gave a decent guess about what happened. For heaven's sake they had lived with Mystique.

"Oh my God you're a bunch of...of...fucking idiots!" All of the Brotherhood members were surprised by Kitty's use of profanity, "It wasn't Logan, he wouldn't need drugs to get information out of people! The Professor could've just looked inside your pea-brain to learn whatever he needed too!"

"Then who was it? Wolverine's evil twin?" Lance said sarcastically, Kitty's face was torn between anger and disbelief.

"You actually are that pathetically stupid." She said in a shocked tone, this was the boy she had given up her virginity too? This was the boy she had nearly destroyed her relationship with her parents to be with?

"Don't call me that!" Lance yelled clenching his fist,

"That's what you and you're stupid friends are, I can't believe I ever thought you could be anything more than thi-" SMACK! Now one could speculate on what exactly triggered this response from Lance. Perhaps it was the alcohol in his system or his anger issues getting the better of him, perhaps a combination of the two? It was of course possible -quite likely actually- that he would have immediately regretted his actions. Not that he would get a chance to regret them.

Lance had only a heartbeat to register the look on Kitty's face before Naruto's fist connected with his face. There was the sickening sound of cartilage and bone breaking as Avalanche was knocked out cold by the blow. Blood ran freely from Lance's ruined nose as he was knocked off his feet causing the rest of the Brotherhood to experience the effects of instant sobriety, "Yo man he killed Lance!" Toad screamed,

"He's not dead," Naruto's voice cut in like an icy wind, "take the piece of shit and go, NOW!" Seeing Kitty get struck like that had all but severed the last threads of his self-control. It was his promise to Jean that was holding back the rage he felt. The Brotherhood had seemed ready to accept those terms happily before Peitro smashed his baseball bat over Naruto's head splintering the hardwood into a thousand pieces.

"Naruto!" Kitty cried and ran to check on him,

"The Brotherhood doesn't back down!" Peitro told his seemingly unconscious foe,

"Since when?" Toad asked, ignoring him Quicksilver continued,

"I love to see you try and pick you're sorry ass u-" He trailed off as Naruto did just that. Instead of acknowledging them he knelt down next to Kitty. The bruise rapidly forming on her cheek was fuel for the anger within.

"Stay with Amanda and Kurt, keep them safe." He told her in an oddly calm tone, "I'm going to deal with these guys."

"You're going to deal with all of us on your own shorty?" Blob laughed and cracked his knuckles,

"Yeah right," Peitro snorted, "Do your worst!" In a blur of motion only Quicksilver saw Naruto closed the short distance between them. Peitro managed to dodge Naruto's kick and deliver a few high-speed punches to the ninja's face in retaliation. Quicksilver ran behind Pyro, "Light him up John!"

The firestarter did as instructed unleashing a large fire ball in Naruto's direction. The ninja leapt just far enough to the left to dodge the blaze before forming the sign of the ram. He conjured a single Kage Bunshin that he then, to the amazement of all who witnessed it, transformed into a large Shuriken.

Naruto threw the weapon at Pyro, who hadn't even been aware that the ninja had evaded his attack. Peitro's intervention was the only reason the budding serial-arsonist didn't lose his head. However the massive Shuriken did sever the tubes that fed fuel to Pyro's wrist mounted flamethrowers. Naruto then found himself being double teamed by Blob and Toad.

The pair had decided to take advantage of Naruto's attention being focused on Peitro. Frenzy had taught them to work together to compensate for their own short comings. The quicker and more agile Toad tried to create openings for his slower but considerably stronger teammate to land a blow. Naruto proved himself able to dodge most of their attacks until Toad caught him off using his tongue. The slimy, unnaturally long tongue coiled around the ninja's throat choking him. Then using his superhumanly strong legs he swept Naruto's own legs out from under him.

Not wasting anytime Blob slammed a massive fist down on Naruto with such force the asphalt beneath cracked. Yet Naruto himself seemed to explode into a cloud of white smoke leaving only a battered "Welcome to Bayville" sign. The two Brotherhood members stared at the sign in confusion,

"What the f-?" Naruto appeared behind Toad in a blur and kicked him into the Brotherhood's jeep.

"Little buddy!" Blob cried out and tried to smash Naruto who easily evaded the blow. A scream from behind drew his attention, turning around he saw Quicksilver holding Amanda hostage.

"Give up or your pet human get's it." Peitro said earning looks of horror from Kitty and shock from his fellow Brotherhood members. Naruto for a moment looked enraged but after a deep breathe seemed calm down. If anything he seemed almost unnaturally tranquil as he spoke his voice was likewise calm. The words themselves were made that much more chilling for that very reason.

"I'm going to break you, each and everyone of you." Naruto quickly formed a few seals, Peitro turned to Kitty thinking he was giving some kind of signal to her. Yet all she was doing was staring him with a dumbfounded look.

_"Dumb skank probably forgot what that code meant."_ He thought as turned back to get very nasty shock: whiskers and the human girl had somehow switched places. Maximoff's super speed was rendered pointless as his mind was caught up trying to wrap his mind the situation.

Naruto wasted no time; he delivered a hard elbow to Peitro's stomach. Quicksilver hadn't even got a chance double over before Naruto whirled around and planted his knee in the speedster's gut repeatedly. The coup de grace was a head-butt from the ninja that had him out like a light and possibly cracked his skull as blood ran freely from his forehead.

With the exception of Amanda most those present tonight had been in plenty of battles...mostly with each other. Battles that had consisted of long ranged attacks and banter of varying degrees of wittiness. Both Peitro and Naruto though had just given them all a demonstration of a more brutal "hands on" sort of violence tonight.

As they watched Kitty and Amanda both tried to reconcile what they had just witnessed with the damaged but kindhearted person they had got to know over the past few months. For Kitty it felt like Lance all over again. Was this the real Naruto?

"Naruto stop!" The brunette's cry made him freeze in tracks saving Pyro from getting beaten within an inch of his life. The horrified look on Kitty's face was like a bucket of cold water,"Please, you stopped them." She told him, "The others should be here any minute, we can just go home." To he relief Naruto took a deep breath and nodded in agreement.

"That...sounds good." The young woman gave a sigh of relief that situation had been defused. Relief gave way to horror as Naruto was engulfed in flames. Pyro laughed liked the lunatic as the jet of fire from his favorite lighter intensified. Standing next him was a bloody faced Lance Alvers.

Kitty ran into the twister of flame and phased out with horribly burned Naruto. Most of his face seemed to have been left unrecognizable to her horror. Amazingly enough Naruto got to his feet, his single functional eye was now slitted like some wild animal and focused on John and Lance. Kitty let out another scream as flames seemed to engulf Naruto once more.

Yet she quickly realized the these flames were a radiant gold and adorned with strange black markings. The most amazing thing was that the flames actually seemed to be healing Naruto. When he looked down at her she was amazed to see both his wild red eyes and nearly healed face,

"Thanks for the save Kitty-chan." He told her before glaring at the Brotherhood members still standing, " Lance who had been unconscious for most of the fight didn't understand the danger of responding with the words:

"Do your worst!"

**Back at the Institute**

"Wait for me!" Iceman shouted as he entered the hangar. Apparently the Brotherhood had attacked the group Naruto was with on their way home. Now Naruto was kicking their asses across Bayville. So the X-Men were piling on to the Blackbird to go and try to contain the situation.

"No Bobby," Scott said sternly, "restraining Naruto and the Brotherhood is going to take our most experienced members."

"I've been in a DR session with Naruto and I've spent more time with the guy than you." The younger mutant countered, that gave Cyclops pause,

"Fine, get on board." The X-Men leader relented, "I'll brief you on the way there." It would ultimately end up being a pointless gesture since it would all be over by the time they got there.

**Outskirts of Bayville**

"Hank said Kurt's going to be okay" Cyclops assured Amanda, seeing what those bastards had done to Kurt and Kitty left Scott feeling hard pressed to be angry at Naruto. He nodded to Ororo who took the young woman aboard the Blackbird to be with Kurt. Hank was examining Peitro who hadn't regained consciousness yet. Turning to Kitty it took every once of Scott's famed emotional self control not to see red -metaphorically speaking- at the sight of her bruised cheek. A cool head was needed for this situation, beating Lance to pulp could be done at leisure later, "Do you have any idea where Naruto chased those idiots?"

The ground shook as a fiery explosion larger than any Scott had ever seen illuminated the night sky, "I think that's where Naruto is." Bobby said in a dazed tone as he watched the fireball rise higher and higher.

In less than five minutes the Blackbird arrived amidst a burning urban landscape that could've passed for Detroit or a Middle Eastern war zone. At the epicenter of the desolation was a crater the size of the Institute at the bottom of which was the now nude and unconscious form of Fred Dukes.

When the X-Men disembarked they found an army of Naruto clones tending to the Brotherhood members. They did what they could to set bones and clean gashes. The real Naruto, distinguished from the others by his slightly scorched clothes, sat amidst his doppelgangers looking lost within his own thoughts.

Jean followed by Bobby approached him as the others got the Brotherhood loaded up onto the jet. The thing that struck both of them was how utterly lost Naruto looked. If a member of the Brotherhood had caused this level of destruction they'd probably be congratulating themselves. He took no delight in any of this, he came across as being emotionally wrecked by this as the Brotherhood was physically.

"Am I going to have to go back to the island?" He asked in a quiet tone,

"I...don't know." The telepath answered truthfully, "That's up to the Professor."

"That's not fair!" Bobby exclaimed, "The Brotherhood started this fight!"

"It's fine Bobby." Naruto told him, "Right now I just want to go home." The ninja said getting up and walking towards the plane.

**Author's Notes: **I couldn't manage to rewrite the final part of the Brotherhood fight in a satisfactory manner so I opted to edit it out and leave it to the reader's imagination. The coming chapters is where the differences become more profound

My Naruto/DC story has hit will probably be coming later rather then later, some of the stuff I'm doing in that story is a little different then what I normally do so I'm taking the time to make sure it comes out right.


	6. Chapter Five - Consequences

**Chapter Five - Consequences**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or X-Men: Evolution**

**Xavier's Office**

**An Hour Later**

"Some of them will need to spend extensive time in physical therapy but they will all live." Hank McCoy delivered his prognosis to the Professor as they walked to the latter's office, "Mr. Uzumaki's efforts at first aid ensured that."

"And his violent outburst put them in this condition in the first place!" The Professor snapped, he stopped in front of the door and sighed, "I should not have allowed Naruto to leave the premises of the school."

"According to Amanda he had remained in control until Lance struck Kitty. From what I've seen of them I'd dare say Naruto was sweet on her and speaking plainly any of us would've reacted violently if we had witnessed that, especially in conjunction to what Peitro had done to poor Kurt. Honestly if Logan had witnessed that I suspect I would have spent the last hour performing autopsies."

"You make some fair points old friend," The Professor admitted, "I still can't fathom what got into those boys."

"A blood alcohol level twice the legal limit in Lance's case and comparable levels for the others. As for Quicksilver I always thought he displayed signs of being a budding sociopath." McCoy said bluntly, "What he did Kurt certainly fits with that assessment.",

"Hank, what is your honest prognosis regarding Kurt?"

"Honestly I'm not sure when he's going to regain consciousness. If Peitro had hit him any harder..." Xavier nodded grimly, " Charles...honestly I think if Naruto hadn't been there things would not have ended well."

"Perhaps but Eric will see this as an escalation on our part and humanity may use this to justify legal action against us specifically or the entirety of the mutant populace. Naruto will be discussed later for now we need to come up with a plan to limit the anti-mutant fallout that this debacle is sure to generate." Xavier said as he opened the door to his office,

"On that I agree Charles." Hank said following him into the private study only to discover they weren't alone.

"Ditto for me." Said Nick Fury standing behind Charles's desk. Standing to his right was an athletic-looking man in his mid-twenties and dirty blonde hair. He wore a purple and black outfit of a vaguely paramilitary design with a compound bow in hand. Both X-Men recognized him as the Avenger known as Hawkeye while the person to Fury's left they knew from personal experience.

"Hello Wanda, it's good to see you again." Xavier greeted the young woman, the raven-haired teen regarded him with an ambivalent look. Her hair was longer than the last he had seen her in person and she did seemed a little calmer than he remembered. Their minds were all shielded from him by means unknown.

"Hey." Wanda finally replied, her tone was short, clearly she seemed uncomfortable with being here. Fury lit a cigar before clearing his throat to get Hank and Charles's attention.

"I'm going to break down the situation for you real quick: in few hours the American people are going to wake up to learn that a mutant or mutants leveled about four square blocks in an American city. When they do things are going to get ugly for the mutant population." The Colonel took a long drag from his cigar, "I don't even have to tell you that the government is also not going happy about this situation."

"What do you propose be done about this?"

"Give them someone's head on a platter." Fury said bluntly to the shock of both the Professor and Doctor McCoy, "Specifically the morons who picked the fight with your students." The two mutants were stunned silent.

"Have you been surveying us?" Xavier accused when he found his voice again.

"Your students post the darndest things on_ twitter_ and _instagram_." Hawkeye told them as he practiced drawing back the string of his compound bow as if taking aim, "Social media really makes our jobs so much easier."

"Back to the matter at hand," Fury said gruffly, "somebody is going to have to answer for this clusterfuck. I recommend Magneto's B team personally; a reckless mutant gang might actually be less damaging press than a single powerful mutant having a psychotic breakdown."

"Neither is an acceptable option, both parties are minors! I've heard all about the facilities SHIELD uses to keep super-powered individuals incarcerated! I don't by any means condone what those boys did but they need rehabilitation." McCoy said with outrage, "I question the very legality of you of even being here much less this demand."

"When it comes to superhuman affairs I've been given, what's the fancy term..._carte blanche _to handle such matters as long as I get the job done. And letting everyone involved walk away from an act of superhman recklessness that could have potentially killed hundreds is not getting the job done."

"Colonel," Xavier interjected, "I have never sensed any bigotry in you towards us, please tell me I have not been mistaken." Fury narrowed his one eye at Xavier while his subordinates were practically seething;

"I don't care if someone's a mutant or black or a woman or a freakin' alien. I care about my responsibilities which first and foremost include keeping the world from going to hell. That means coming down hard on anyone trying to drag it there." The Colonel took a drag of his cigar before continuing; "This Brotherhood and anyone else working with your old pal Lensher falls into that category. You're not doing a damn thing for the mutant community by standing up for them. People seeing mutants being held accountable for their actions would go a long ways to calming them down. I can guarantee them due process and humane conditions but my superiors want someone arrested for this clusterfuck. I can also assure you that your cooperation would earn some points with the public and policy makers -not much- but some." Both men appeared to be sliently mulling it over. In truth they were debating the matter telepathically.

_"Charles you can't seriously be considering handing the Brotherhood over to SHIELD?"_

_"Starting a fight with the Colonel only worsens things for us at this point. Ideally I'd rather turn Mr Uzumaki over but that would create more problems than it would solve. The Colonel would not be pleased that I concealed the boy from him." _McCoy managed to keep the shock off his face but couldn't conceal it from the Professor. Xavier clarified what he meant: _"Though I empathize for him Naruto he is not one of us. In hindsight it might have been more prudent to leave him in Moria's care or perhaps have contacted Doctor Richards. Turning those boys over to the government is truly repugnant to me."_

_"I find the whole situation repugnant sir."_

"If you two are done chattin it up on the psychic plane can I have an answer?" The security czar asked plainly.

"I suppose their isn't much choice Colonel, I will release the Brotherhood into your custody."

**Institute Recovery Room**

"This is the room Kurt's in." Bobby told Naruto, "He's still unconscious but Hank said we can still visit him." They opened the door to find someone already in the room. Naruto had seen this young woman around the mansion, with the dual colored hair and heavy make up you would have been hard pressed not to notice her.

"Hey Rogue." Bobby greeted and pointed to the ninja with his thumb, "Naruto wanted to check on Kurt." The young woman regarded Naruto with her dark green eyes. Naruto could see she was trying to keep up a strong front. The fear and worry in her eyes were a clear indicator that Kurt was important to her.

"So yer Naruto?" She asked simply for the sake not sitting in silence. Under other circumstances he might have asked about her accent with seemed as strange as Kurt's compared to most of the students here.

"Yeah." he replied, "I'm guessing you're a friend of Kurt's?" She managed a faint smile,

"All that time he hung out with ya and he never mentioned his big sister?" Naruto's eyes narrowed in concentration, his memory had been flakier than normal these past several months.

"I think he mentioned that once or twice." Naruto said then hung his head in shame, "I'm sorry I couldn't protect him."

"Ya did mop the floor with the morons who did this to him, next best thing in meh book." Rogue told him, "Thanks."

"I'm really not happy with how oughta control things got."

"Amanda said ya gave them plenty of chances to back down and those morons just kept going. Ah'd hve done the same if Ah had been there." She gave Kurt's hand a gentle squeeze, "I ya hadn't kicked their asses I might have gone after them."

"Revenge never solves anything, it just breeds more pain." She looked at him strangely,

"Ah thought ninja's were all about gettin revenge." Rogue said, "Ya know bushido stuff." Naruto blinked in confusion,

"Bushido is the samurai code, ninja have Nindo."

"How does Nindo work?"

"Each ninja has his own code." Naruto answered with a shrug,

"Do ya?"

"Yeah."

"What is it?"

"...I don't give up and I don't go back on my word." Words Naruto hadn't pondered in long time, did he still live by those words? Had he given up on that code since ending up in this world? Was that code still relevant for him? Question that haunted him almost as badly as the sight of his friend on the bed.

"What about the revenge thing?"

"The history of my world is written in the blood of those seeking revenge and those taken in the name of revenge. Take it from me, it really doesn't help in the end. It doesn't bring you peace or take away your pain." Looking down at Kurt he added: "Case in point; beating those guys to a pulp doesn't make feel any better about what happened to Kurt or Kitty." Rogue sighed and rolled her eyes,

"Well ya couldn't just standby an do nothin'."

"I know that but I'm getting the feeling I may have gone to far for some people's tastes."

"The way Ah hear it it ya didn't have much of choice." Seeing Naruto was spiraling back into a dark depression Bobby voiced his own feelings on the matter:

"The Brotherhood makes a habit of looking for fights, they finally found one." Bobby added, "Besides no one's dead at least, after those dumbasses heal up they go back to their crappy house. Things will go back to normal and within a few weeks with most of us wishing that you had buried or at least permanently injured one of them."

"You sure about that?" Bobby patted Naruto on the back.

"Positive."

**The Next Afternoon**

Naruto and Bobby watched the SHIELD helicopters as they rose up and departed the hanger one by one. Naruto watched with look of uncertainty while Bobby looked just plain confused, "Putting the Brotherhood behind bars all has been an option all this time! Why didn't we just have SHIELD lock them up sooner?"

"Who knows, in my world criminal groups as stupid as them don't last long." Naruto commented before sighing, "Can I ask you something Bobby-san?"

"Sure man."

"Is she mad at me or scared of me?" It took Iceman only a moment to figure out who he was talking about.

"You mean Kitty?" Naruto nodded as they left the hanger,

"She's been avoiding me."The ninja did his best not to sound hurt at the idea.

"I don't think she's scared, just a little freaked out and not just about you." He tried to explain to the best of his ability, "You gotta understand when I first got here, when any of us did, the professor told us that we would be using our powers to help people, that weren't freaks. That was the dream but the reality's been more complicated." The normally laid back member of the X-Men started to get visibly upset, "Kitty -everyone really- it's about the way the past two years have gone. Magneto exposing us to the world, Apocalypse, Kelly getting elected as mayor, the thing in New York, and now this, our fights don't usually get this violent!"

"I get it man," Naruto assured him getting that far off look Iceman had seen both him and Logan more then one occasion, " you guys had a dream and every jackass on the planet's gone out of his way to stomp on it."

"Pretty much," Bobby replied, "any advice?"

"You can't save everyone," Naruto said cryptically, "if I had accepted that a long time I would still be back home and my friends," Then added: "my _real _friends," in a bitter tone, "would still be alive."

"Are they really...?" Bobby hesitated to finish the question.

"Yeah and the really fucked up thing is that considering the alternative it might be for the best." Naruto said in quiet tone making Bobby pale.

"I take it things straight to hell?" Naruto let out a bitter laugh.

"There's a saying I found in a history book in the library here: "make a desert and call it peace" have you heard of it?"

"No man, I daydream during history class," He admitted, "but I don't think much context is needed to get it."

"Well in my world someone with to much time, power, and ego said: "shove an escapist fantasy down the world's throat and call it peace" and with a lot of bodies and a tree god he made it happen."

"I think that one needs a lot of context." Bobby said now clearly more confused then disturbed.

"Let me put it to you this way: the most twisted, dangerous people in the world are usually the ones trying to make it a better place."

**Magneto's Stronghold**

**That Afternoon**

Eric Lensherr regarded the various view screens depicting what the media jackals were already describing as "the most destructive act of mutant terrorism in history". Magneto hit mute as he focused on the images featuring a massive crater, the area surrounding it looked like a war zone, _"This well spread the fear of mutants and hasten the road to war." _He thought with satisfaction, that had been his plan with the Brotherhood anyway. The only thing that bothered him was who had battled the Brotherhood? Most of Charles's students went through a great deal of trouble to avoid collateral damage of this sort.

_"One explanation could be Charles has a powerful new charge whom he hasn't been able to indoctrinate yet." _Magneto pondered the possibilities if that was the case but he couldn't be sure_. _He had considered leaving the Brotherhood imprisoned indefinitely for their incompetence. Besides, any injustices they suffered could be used to rally more followers to his cause.

But in light of this perhaps he should arrange for Peitro's early release before proceeding ahead with his plans. He had put much effort into training his new Acolytes, too much to lose them to some random unknown. Erik pushed a button activating his base's PA system, in a tone for softer than anyone had heard him use in years he asked: "Lorna? I need to speak with you immediately."

**The Xavier Institute**

With some reluctance Amanda stepped out of the recovery room, it's name something of a misnomer since Kurt still hadn't recovered. The poor girl was so wrapped up in her grief that she practically walked right into Kitty. The petite brunette looked at her questioningly to which Amanda shook her head. The two girls shared a hug,

"He'll wake up soon," Kitty said firmly, "I just know he will." When they broke apart they noticed Bobby standing there with an odd look on his face. With some effort he managed to suppress his lesbian fetish for the moment.

"Kitty can I talk to you for a moment?" Bobby's tone was oddly serious,

"I have to go make a phone call anyways, I'll telling my parents I'm staying over at a friend's house." Amanda explained.

"Your staying here?" Bobby asked, to which she nodded.

"Jubilee said I could share a room with her." The ice-user looked oddly down at that for a brief moment but hid it well.

_"So much for getting to third base tonight." _Bobby thought before saying, "Sounds good to me."

"What's this about?" Kitty asked curiously,

"Naruto." He said bluntly, to which the normally bubbly girl took a step back, "Oh please don't me your actually scared of him? Problems aside he's an okay guy."

"That's what I though about Lance." Bobby couldn't but look at her bruised cheek making chose his words a little more sensitively then he normally.

"Kitty you gotta know on some level those two are -literally and metaphorically- worlds apart. Is this like kind of psychological thing," Kitty raised an eyebrow, "your actually angry at Lance but since he's not here for you to be mad at your taking it out on Naruto?" Kitty looked ready to deny it before a look of self-realization spread across her face.

"Oh my God what is wrong with me?" Kitty said quietly, "How...is he?"

"For a guy who's supposedly a killer for higher he's pretty sensitive." Bobby said, "seriously though please go see him, I heard the Professor's talking about sending him back to the islan-"

"WHAT?" Kitty cried out from the way he talked about it that place had been Naruto's own personal purgatory, "I have to talk to him!" The brunette ran right through him and toward the elevator.

* * *

That evening Jean lay in bed, exhausted but unable to sleep. If hadn't been for Kitty all but begging the Professor to let Naruto stay the poor boy would in Scotland by now. He was her responsibility and she had failed him. While the Professor had talked about what kind of conditions the Brotherhood might have to endure all she could of what Naruto must have felt. To see Kurt -one of his closest friends here- in that state and then to Kitty -a girl Jean suspected he might be developing feelings for- get hit by that piece of slime.

Even with deportation no longer a problem the student body was now divided between those who were now more afraid of him then ever due to being able to singlehandedly give the Brotherhood the beating the other half was glad to see them finally receive. In disturbing irony not lost on her many of the students were reacting to Naruto the way the humans reacted to them.

She wondered what -if anything- could be done to help him. In some ways her relation with Naruto felt more like that of a brother/sister sort instead the impartial patient/therapist one they were supposed to have. You couldn't help but get attached to him once you got to really know him. She couldn't help but feel some contempt for his so called teachers and more then a few of his "friends". In her talks with him about his old life it seemed like everyone around stopped trying to do anything and just dumped everything on Naruto's shoulders.

_"And what kind of breathtakingly incompetent mentor leaves something as complicated as world peace to an emotionally damaged sixteen year old?" _Jean thought angrily to herself she turned over to try and get more comfortable. She was sorry that they were dead but some part of her couldn't help but wonder if they might all be alive if they had worked with Naruto instead of letting everything on his own.

**"Without a fucking doubt." **Something told her telepathically making the lovely redhead practically jump out of bed.

_"Who are you?"_ Jean shivered at the sensation coming into mental contact with something that could be described as pure malice.

The world around her seemed to fade away being replaced by vast expanse decorated with Japanese style arches. Her attention however was focused solely upon the massive _thing _towering over her. Covered in russet colored fur with glowing red eyes and nine swishing tails the sight of the vulpine creature alone was enough to frighten her. The creatures presence however was on another level. It was as if it was composed solely of hate and bloodlust, it was unlike anything Jean had ever encountered.

**"Greetings, I am the Nine Tailed Demon Fox." **It declared, **"And I have summoned you here to discuss the simpleton."**

"Who?" The demon sighed,

**"Naruto," **He clarified, **"your doubts to the contrary you may be one of the few people capable of dragging him out of this stupor."**

"Why me? And what's your connection to Naruto?" Jean demanded as she rose from the ground,

**"Do you not know where we are foolish girl?" **Without dropping her guard she stretched out her senses her eyes going wide when she realized where they were.

"This is Naruto's mind but then what are you?" Was Naruto in addition to his other problems suffering from multiple personality disorder? Or did this thing represent Naruto's id, the aspect of the mind that represented desire uninhibited by constraints of any kind?

**"To make a tale beyond your comprehension manageable I am a demon that was sealed within Naruto not long after his birth. His flesh is my prison, his tortured mind my abode." **Jean was about to say that was impossible but reminded herself Naruto came from a world of the supernatural. Furthermore she could feel how different this creature felt from Naruto.

"Alright let's say I believe you; why would you help Naruto? You don't seem to think highly of him." The Fox grinned admiring this young woman's boldness

**"The seal that imprisoned has an unfortunate** **failsafe: if he dies, I to will perish. War will very soon be upon this world, I can sense it. The whelp will need to be at peak strength to survive."**

"He brutalized the Brotherhood and came out completely unharmed."

**"Drawing upon my power to do so." **The demon snarled, **"Before coming here that wouldn't have been required against such weaklings. Not even your mentor comprehends the full depth of what this boy is capable of." **Jean felt a chill run down her spine at that thought.

"Even if I thought Naruto being that strong was the best thing for him how could I help him?" The fox bathed his paw before speaking to her again,

**"Do you know what Chakra is?"**

"Naruto says it's what powers his abilities, the professor theorizes it's some kind of bio energy." The demon snorted contemptuously,

**"Physical life energies is a component of chakra but not its whole. It is also spiritual energy of the mind. As a result the mind-set of the user has a subtle effect upon the potency of his chakra. Naruto's mind poisoned by doubt and loss of purpose, the stubborn will that drove him has been sapped." **The demon gave her a nasty grin, **"As for why: look at the situation your faction is in: no true allies and many enemies. I can feel the hatred the people of this land hold for your misbegotten people; his strength will be needed."**

"We've handled bad situations before, I just want to know how to help him."

**"Give him a cause," **The demon told her, **"he will feel need to be strong again. The more impossible the more he will strive towards it." **The demon's smirk became repulsively cruel at this point, **"And there is no dream more impossible than the one your faction strives for." **

With that Jean closed her eyes and severed the link with the demon ending the unpleasant and disturbing conversation. Finding herself back in her room Jean threw off the covers knowing that sleep wasn't an option anymore. When she reached for the doorknob there was a sudden sharp pain, like someone drove a nail into her skull but then subsided with the suddeness of a spring rain, "What...what was that?" Jean wondered to herself. Did it have something to do with the demon?

* * *

Back within Naruto's mindscape Kurama was himself was about to sleep when he was surprised by a peculiar sound: the sound of something metallic rolling across the ground. Opening his eyes he saw a birdcage of all things roll out from under one of the tori gates towards him. Some of the bars of the cage had been melted creating a small gap just big enough for something to have gotten out.

"You scared Jeannie," Said a small voice from behind one of the gates, "I don't like that." The demon narrowed it's eyes,

"Show yourself!" Kurama demanded, he hadn't been sure what he expected but what stepped into view certainly was not it. It looked like an eleven year old Jean Grey save she was dressed in tattered rags and horribly emaciated, "Who are you?" Her sunken in eyes glowed with fiery light as it spoke,

**"I am Phoenix!"**

**Somewhere in Mississippi**

The blind clairvoyant known as Destiny shivered as a name seemed to echo in her mind: "Naruto," She whispered, "at last he his named."

In her mind's eye the blonde haired teen became visible while the future that had been set in stone was unmade. Where as the future before seemed starkly clear it became like a stormy sea, turbulent and impossible to navigate. The what could only be described as a deluge of images filled her mind, not of the future but the past, of a world unlike anything she had seen before. Irene fell to her knees as the images threatened to overwhelm her.

**Author's Notes: **Alrighty just a couple of announcements: The next chapter will be the last one that makes use of material from the original story, it's all new material from that point onward.

Another is that due to some people requesting -I would like to thank them for being civil on the matter-that I not go with NaruHina in my upcoming Naruto/DC story I've opted to put up a pole and let you decide on the matter. The poll will be taken down next Friday so be sure to vote before then.

I would like to make the case that it wouldn't be the typical NaruHina story, for one both date other people and mature over the course of the story and since they're literally a world away from Konoha it would be free of a lot of the common dramas they'd have to deal with in most NaruHina stories: Hiashi "daddy d-bag" Hyuga, the increasingly asinine plot of the manga, Sakura suddenly becoming interested in Naruto as more then a friend, and so on. For me that's the appeal of writing NaruHina in a crossover story.

Well head to the polls and vote ladies and gentlemen, peace out!


	7. Chapter Six - New Purpose, New Directio

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize...**

**Chapter Six** **\- New Purpose, New Direction**

**Naruto's Mindscape**

The positive one thing about this bizarre world Kurama had found pleasing was that as far as he had known there wasn't a person here capable of standing up to his full power. The bald one's telepathic attacks were useless on him and his students had seemed like a farce of a fighting force. His current situation proved how very...premature that assessment had been.

For the first time since feeling the chakra of the revived Uchiha Madara the fox was experiencing fear. This thing masquerading as an emaciated child had him pinned to the ground with a mere thought, "**I intended no harm to your jinchuriki." **Kurama told her as he struggled against the telekinetic hold this thing had on him, **"If you spoke to her you'd** **know that I had** **given her much needed advice."**

**"Jinchuriki?" **It asked tilting it's head to the side, **"What's that?"**

**"Jean, your host."**

**"What's your host called?" **It asked not letting up it's hold on the kyuubi,

**"Naruto, these days I refer to him as the simpleton."**

**"You don't like him?" **Phoenix asked clearly perplexed, **"Why don't you just get a new one?"**

**"I am not here by choice! This boy is my prisoner, as his kinsmen have before him." **The demon snarled before reading in between the lines of what this entity was saying, **"Are you saying that you chose to be bound to a host?"** Phoenix released it's hold all the while looking at him oddly. Sitting up Kurama considered attacking but opted to see if this could turned to his advantadge.

**"Only when I'm** **weakened,** **I need one to** **regain my strength." **The flames began to subside as she began to look less and less menacing and more like the confused child it masqueraded,

**"You feed on your vessel." **Kurama guessed realizing the emaciated appearance wasn't being put on for show. Thinking back to the birdcage it was all coming together, **"That cage symbolized some manner of seal or prison that prevented you leeching off of Jean."**

**"I'm not a leech!" **She screamed as her glowed and once again the fox felt the full force of this creature's psychic power, **"That's what he called me when he locked me away!"**

**"Xavier?" **The only person in this world who might have been remotely capable of such a feat as far as he knew. Being a psychic -rather then spiritual- being meant Xavier probably could fight this being on more equal footing.

"He locked me away, he made Jeannie forget me...then Jeannie stopped being Jeannie."

**"Do you mean to say that he altered her mind?" **The Phoenix shook it's head,

"He taught her how to lock away her real feelings. She almost never let's herself feel sad or mad or even scared, at least no where near as much she wants too. He knew that's when I'm most able to reach her."

The Fox was beginning to understand the nature of the being. She may have once been a separate entity from Jean but he suspected the psychic entity had merged with the repressed aspects of the telepaths mind hence the form it now used, **"I take it something in the girl's life changed to chip away at her emotional self control?" **

"Everything's gone wrong, it's not the way Xavier said it would be and that scares her."

**"Ah," **The fox said in understanding, **"a young student grappling with the fact that her teacher's dreams may just be that. My vessel his coping with the same problem, his teachers was just as foolish.** **The price of which has been the erosion of Naruto's sanity"**

"What did they believe in?"

**"In essence they believed in the same dream as Xavier: that one day all humans would understand one another."**

"Can they understand on another?" Phoenix asked sounding for all the world like the child.

**"I have spent the entirety of my existence watching these creatures battle** **with one another. They fight for every cause conceivable and then some. Some humans make the effort too but ultimately it runs contrary to their nature."**

"Jeannie thinks people are basically good."

**"My host operates under** **a similar** **delusion." **The demon spat, **"Good** **is a hideously subjective concept usually invoked by humans to justify their evil. Further complicating matters is the fact many humans fit neither concept. For example** **the teachers** **of our hosts are** **not evil; they are however profoundly incompetent. They reek of failure and guilt that they mask with self-righteousness** **in this case of Xavier or shameless vice in the cases Naruto's teachers. In old age they realized they would not be able to accomplish their goals. They all pass on their ideas to the next generation of humans so that when they die they can tell themselves they accomplished something. I suspect none** **of them truly considered the impractical** **nature** **of their goals." **The fox hung it's head, **"Or the suffering their students would endure trying to bring their flawed dreams to fruition."**

"No she won't suffer," the Phoenix said firmly, "Jeannie's been through enough." The fox grinned as amicably as it could manage seeing a golden opportunity present itself. For all it's the Phoenix seemed to be every bit as childish as it appeared.

**"Perhaps I can help you help her." **He offered,

"How?"

**The Next Morning**

Xavier was looking over some old books when there was a knock at his door, "Come in." The Professor said without looking up from his work.

"Sir?" Jean asked, "Can I talk to you?" The telepath looked up to see her holding her notes on Naruto.

"I'm not sending him back to Moira's facility." Xavier assured her,

"Kitty told me actually, I actually wanted to talk to you...about making Naruto an X-Men." As the world's most powerful telepath it took a lot to surprise him but that did it.

"Jean I hold your opinion in very high regard but I cannot fathom any reason why I would do such a thing at this point."

**One Week Later**

Naruto had fully expected to get sent back to the island after what had happened. Being made an official member of the team seemed an almost surreal response from these people. He looked at himself in the mirror, the new uniform actually didn't look that bad. He wondered if Jean had input in it's design. It was essentially the same as his old outfit; black pants and zipped up jacket. The latter of which had a dark orange intersecting bands that made an "X" shape on the front and back.

"It's a good look for you." Someone said from behind, turning around he saw Kitty partially phased through the door of his room. Trying not to think of who that ability reminded him of managed a smile and asked:

"You really think so?" She smiled and nodded though lacked the perky energy that he had come to associate with her. His gaze went briefly to her eye, the bruising still visible despite her best efforts to mask it with make up. If she noticed he was looking at her bruise she didn't give any sign of it as she phased completely through the door.

"When did you get this?" She asked picking something up off his bed,

"It's my Hitai-ate," seeing her look confused he translated, "forehead protector, every ninja has one." Kitty's fingers traced the symbol engraved on the metal plate.

"What's this symbol mean?"

"It's the symbol of my village, Konohagakure, Village in Hidden in the Leaves."

"Pretty name," Seeing the haunted look on his face she felt even guiltier than she already did. With a sigh she handed the headband to Naruto,

"Naruto...I wanted to say sorry." The ninja gave her a bewildered look,

"For what?"

"Lance is my ex-boyfriend, that stupidity I think was supposed to be his way of coping with our break up." Tears ran down ran down her face making Naruto actually wish he had hurt Lance worse. To his surprise she hugged him and buried her face in his chest, "I was so afraid that the Professor was going send you away!" Not quite sure what to do in this situation he just hugged her back, "I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay I'm still here Kitty-chan." He told her, looking up she was surprised to see Naruto was smiling at her, "But the old man might change his mind if I'm late for my first DR session with the team." While still soaking in his own misery Naruto would at least put on a front for the sake of others. The petite brunette wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled back at him,

"Hey if your late it's Scott you're going to have to worry about." Kitty joked, they both managed to smile as Scott's neurotic tendencies were known even to Naruto. Yet they weren't able to keep it up for long, Naruto decided to just ask the question that had been on his mind:

"Any news about Kurt?" Kitty shook her head,

"He's still out," Kitty answered quietly, "Dr. McCoy said that...he isn't sure when Kurt is waking up, he said that if Maximoff had hit him any harder with that bat it would have outright killed him." Kitty began breaking down again Naruto tried to comfort her as best he could.

"Do you want me to stay with you?" Kitty shook her head,

"No, I'm going to go down and relieve Amanda so she can go home. If her parents find out she's here they'll freak."

"Why?" Naruto asked as they left the room together, the hitai-ate left on the bed.

"Amanda's parents don't like mutants, they actually forbid her from seeing him."

"Why?"

"Combine Kurt's appearance scaring them with Toad smashing their living room on the same night."

"Toad?"

"The guy you kicked into Lance's jeep." Kitty answered,

"Oh," Naruto said, the more he learned about this Brotherhood the less guilty he was feeling about beating them within an inch of their lives, "That's... really stupid. You judge someone by their actions, not how they look!" Naruto fumed, "You also don't judge a whole group by the actions of a few, seriously some of the most horrible things that ever happened to me were because of a mutant. It would make it fair to judge every with a bloodline by that standard." Kitty had never actually heard hate in Naruto's voice before and found it more than a little frightening but tried to squash that feeling.

"What did he do to you?" Kitty asked,

"You've got enough to worry about." He told her as they entered the elevator. As the elevator went to the lower levels of the Institute Kitty looked at him.

"I'm worried about you." Naruto hung his head, some part of him after months of saying as little about himself as possible wanted to say something.

"He's the reason I'm in this world...the reason most of my friends are dead...the reason someone who was like a brother to me grow up with out his parents...and the reason I grew up without mine." The elevator opened Naruto stepped out,

"I'm so sorry" Kitty said for lack of anything better,

"Tell Kurt I said hi when he wakes up." Naruto said as they parted ways.

**Undisclosed Location...**

It was probably one of the most advanced prisons on the planet known as the Raft. In here were housed some of the most dangerous criminals, terrorists, and super villains on the planet. It was also where the Brotherhood was being kept locked up, most of whom were in medical wing. The one exception was Pietro Maximoff who had gotten off light in comparison to his teammates in terms of injuries.

"Let me out! My father is going to make you bastards pay when he frees me!" He screamed while beating on the force field of his cell with all his strength. The SHIELD agents just ignored him while his fellow prisoners expressed contempt for his posturing.

"Hey! Daddy's little bitch! Shut the fuck up!"

"Silence you cretin!"

"I'm gonna shank your mutie ass!"

"You guys can go straight to hell!" He shouted back, "Maybe if you show me some respect I'll convince my old man to let guys out."

"You best keep quiet or I'll make you and your wanker father sorry." Said someone with a thick english accent from the cell across from his own. The other cell was larger, almost cavernous in comparison. So much so that it was difficult to see who was in there,

"Or what!?" Pietro dared, his eyes could make something of some size moving. Of the shadows stepped the largest "man" the mutant speedster had seen since Juggernaut. Covered in scales and spiny growths he was horrifying sight, Pietro recognized him as the super villain the media had dubbed the Abomination.

"Keep quiet or come shower time I'm gonna bend you over and ride your tight little ass like a stallion." That threat coming from something like him shut Maximoff right up. A moment the other prisoners added their own threats of sodomy making Quicksilver wish he had just kept quiet in the first place. Then a strange thing happened; the inmates jeers seemed to turn to catcalls and whistles.

"Hey sexy looking for a boyfriend?"

"Red's your color hot thing!"

"You locked me in here you bitch!" The source of this change stopped in front his cell, the last person he had expected to see in here was his sister. Wanda stood there in the red and black form-fitting outfit that Toad couldn't shut up about.

"Hey sis," Peitro greeted awkwardly, finding the look of contempt on his sister's face disheartening. While generally a self-absorbed douche he did care about Wanda.

"Kurt Wagner still hasn't regained consciousness and did you really just stand there while Lance beat that Pride girl?"

"He only hit her once and we were all just kind of shocked that he actually went there." The speedster said defensively,

"Was this before or after you beat Kurt unconscious with a baseball bat?" Wanda held up a hand to silence him, "Never mind, we're here to take you to interrogation."

"Your gonna let them torture me!?" Her brother cried with a wild-eyed look that shocked the Scarlet Witch.

"SHIELD doesn't do that, they have drugs and psychics for that kind of stuff!" Wanda said trying to calm him down, "If you really wanted to make things easier you could just tell Fury what you know." She suggested knowing it was a pointless to ask.

"I won't betray our father! Especially to the humans!" For a moment Wanda looked like she was going snap but to Peitro's surprise managed to calm herself down instead of hexing half the prison.

"Is everything alright here witchy?" Someone asked clearly worried about her,

"I'm fine Hawkeye." The avenging archer walked in front of the energy barrier and looked at Peitro a raised eyebrow.

"So this is your evil twin?"

"Idiot twin but yeah." Wanda said, "Any word from the Colonel?"

"Yeah they're ready for Speedy Gonzales." Without a word Wanda raised a glowing hand towards him as Hawkeye hit a few keys. Peitro was powerless to escape as the force field dropped and Clint proceeded to cuff his hands and feet. Wanda relinquished her hold on him,

"Let's go Peitro."

**New York City**

Lorna Dane, or Polaris as her father had christened her, stared out at the choppy waters of New York Harbor. A young woman of sixteen years with waist length vibrant green hair and dark green eyes tried her hardest to keep from looking nervous, _"Father is trusting me with this mission but I don't know if I can do it."_ She wanted to rescue her older brother more than anything but felt this was a little much for her first mission. She steeled herself before turning around to speak to her father's Acolytes. They stood a top the roof of an abandoned fish cannery, the metallic spheres that had transported them here hidden away within the building.

Each of them looked more formidable than the last; first there was the savage-looking Sabertooth. Out of all them he actually frightened her, something about the way he looked at everyone around him unnerved her. Next to him was a mercenary dressed in a red and black outfit and armed with enough weapons to take on army or walk the streets of Detroit at night safely. The masked mercenary known as Deadpool seemed to look right at her and wave,

"Hey readers!" He said to no one, "This is the last chapter using the old material and the next chapter will be a special treat."

"Are you alright Deadpool?"

"For the love of God just ignore Wade when he starts rambling." Sabertooth groaned, "The man's crazier than a shithouse rat."

"And your character only exists to make Wolverine look like less a dick by comparison!" Deadpool snapped, Sabertooth needed a few seconds to decide rather or not the statement was actually intended to be insulting before decide to just ignore the psychopath. Rounding out this group were Frenzy and Gambit who were both trying to ignore the other two and it appeared each other oddly enough.

"Um...were about to begin the operation," Lorna said trying to remember the plan her laid out for her, "Once we're inside all we have to do is rescue my brother, that's our top priority. Ideally we need to get out before SHIELD can mobilize the Avengers." She paused for a moment think of the half-sister she had never met and perhaps never would under happy circumstances at least. The daughter of Magneto mustered what confidence she could before continuing, "Let's show SHIELD what mutants are made of!" That managed to earn looks of (forced) approval from Frenzy and Gambit as well as a thumbs up from Deadpool who then looked past her and say:

"Now back to Naruto!"

**What Deadpool** **Said**

Naruto entered the Danger Room finding the other X-Men. From what he understood the X-Men were the equivalent of jonin and chunnin while the rest known as the New Mutants were the genin. The X-Men present in the room were Cyclops, Jean, Iceman, Rogue as well two others. Naruto didn't know them as well as he did the others. One was Ororo Munroe code-named Storm; an exotically beautiful black woman with sky blue eyes, and long snow-white hair. The other looked something like a monstrous blue gorilla and might have come across as frightening if not for his stoic demeanor. His name was Hank McCoy but went by Beast for rather obvious reasons.

"Now that every one's here," Scott said with some annoyance, "We can get started; today we're running the Firefight program."

"The what?" Bobby asked,

"It's a program that simulates the Institute being attacked by varied waves of enemies. The goal is to hold out as long as we can, any questions?" Iceman raised his hand,

"Yes Bobby?"

"Did you get the idea from _Halo_?"

"Yes," Scott admitted, he generally wasn't much on video games but he did enjoy a few rounds of _Halo_ and _Modern Warfare _on occasion, "it's a good way to keep our skills sharp. Any other questions? Yes Naruto?"

"Are we supposed to pretend that part of this room is the Institute or what?" The others stared him oddly before it dawned on Scott,

"Logan only uses the more basic functions of the DR when training on his own," Scott realized, "he's never shown you the holotechnology, has he?"

"He used it to leave behind a copy of himself to insult me and give me instructions on how to train."

"Okay...well the DR is actually capable of fully simulating almost any terrain, environment, or enemy type."

"So it creates a genjustu?" Now it was Scott's turn to look confused, "Illusions cast by ninja." Naruto clarified,

"Can you do stuff like that?" Naruto shook his head,

"I've never had any aptitude for it, heavy combat is my specialty."

"Close quarters or long-range?" Scott asked wanting to get a feel for what Naruto could do,

"I'm better at close quarters but I do have some long-range attacks." Cyclops nodded with approval, a versatile power set could only be a good thing. It was also clear from recent events that Naruto knew how to fight even though the he seemed to have taken things to far. A fact which compelled Scott to bring up another point:

"One thing I want to run by you Naruto is that you lose points for killing human enemies. Disarm and incapacitate only," Naruto scratched his head while regarding Scott oddly,

"I'm not as big on killing as most ninja but if those precious to you are being threatened shouldn't their lives take priority over those of your enemies?" For the X-Men their newest members words were surprising and disturbing. Cyclops was no stranger to people arguing for a more aggressive approach but usually from people like Magneto. People looking to justify being on a power trip or just venting their problems on the world. Naruto's words on the other hand came across as a personal code, something genuine. Scott tried not to think rather or not Naruto had actually killed anyone for now. Instead he focused how to explain why they operated as they did;

"Naruto the X-Men are peacekeepers, think of us as soldiers trained to keep situations from escalating." Scott began, "A lot people in the government want to shut us down and that's what this scenario is about: holding off waves of simulated law enforcement and military personnel and hardware. If that actually happened the goal would be to hold them off so that the less experienced students can be evacuated, not escalating the situation by killing soldiers or policemen." A look of understanding came to Naruto's face,

"You're trying to avoid inciting a cycle of revenge?" Everyone save Bobby and Jean seemed surprised by the depth of the comment, Scott just nodded while trying to figure what side of the line Naruto was actually on.

"I can respect that."

"Good," Cyclops said, "Computer begin Firefight: level one." The Danger Room beeped an acknowledgement as the front lawn of the Xavier Institute materialized before them.

"Isn't this awesome Naruto?" Bobby asked the ninja as he surveyed what was about to become the field of battle.

"Yeah," Naruto said, His voice though was distant as the implication of this training scenario sank in, "So this whole thing is about being ready in case your government initiates a bloodpurge?" For those who didn't know much about Naruto's world it was an odd, if disconcerting choice words. But for Bobby and Jean it made the very blood in their veins freeze.

"Naruto," A rather pale-faced Jean spoke, "What do you mean by that?"

"Your people actually have a word for it?" Bobby's voice was a choked whisper oblivious to the sounds of police sirens or spinning helicopter blades.

"A word for what?" Scott demanded not liking at all the looks on his friend's faces. It was a look Naruto matched when he realized why that phrase might be upsetting for his new friends. Before he could say anything to calm the situation down Jean picking up Naruto's memories of Haku answered her boyfriend's question:

"It's a word for mutant genocide." Suddenly Bobby didn't find the premise of this situation so entertaining.

**The Raft**

From behind the one glass of the interrogation room Wanda felt the beginnings of a migraine as her brother made an ass of himself, "What are Magneto's plans?" The SHIELD interrogator demanded,

"To plow your mom!" Peitro laughed, "I'm not ratting out my father to the fuzz." the Scarlet Witch had asked that her brother be offered a deal, a chance to talk of his own volition. But it was clear that Peitro would rather rot than give information about their...no his father. She felt a strong yet gentle hand on her shoulder,

"Wanda," The man behind her said hesitantly, "I don't think your brother is going to cooperate."

"I know Steve." Wanda replied trying to hold back the tears, she didn't want to believe Peitro was a lost cause but he was determined to prove her wrong.

"You what has to happen next soldier?" Steve reminded her, Wanda was about to reply before an alarm went off,

**"The Raft has been breached!" **A frantic voice said over the PA system, **"This is not a drill! Repeat the Raft has been breached! We have confirmed hostiles on level one!" **

**Danger Room**

"Let's talk about this later!" Cyclops ordered, his stern voice bringing the others back to the present. He was just as disturbed by the idea of mutant genocide as the others but now wasn't the time, "Let's focus on getting though this session."

"Is that really the most important thing at this point?" Hank questioned as the sounds of police sirens got louder. Cyclops could clearly see the others agreed with Beast's stance.

"Yes, it gives this scenario a new context." Cyclops explained, "one we may very well have to think about if -god help us- if this really happens. Better we learn how to deal with those worries here than in the field." Cyclops turned to Naruto,

"How many copies of yourself can you make at once?"

"The last time I actually kept count? A thousand." Naruto answered resulting in wide eyes and more than a few slack jaws. Scott once again managed to hide his surprise beneath his stoic demeanor,

"Alright I want you make about twenty copies and have them form a defensive line ten feet ahead of us." Naruto nodded and made the necessary hand sign while Scott turned to Storm.

"Storm we need fog, Jean link us telepathically." A thick fog rolled in blanketing the front yard of the Institute.

"_No verbal communications from here on out, understood?" _After everyone acknowledge the order Cyclops continued, _"Naruto, Jean you need to coordinate to handle this first wave. Since you're a ninja I want you to take to the cops out quickly and quietly. Jean will be able to sense their locations and inform the nearest copy."_

"_Clone." _Naruto corrected,

"_Okay, the nearest clone. Do you two understand your orders."_

"_Understood." _Jean replied while Naruto was less formal,

"_Got it." _The lights of various police cars could now faintly be seen through the mists now followed by the sounds of car doors opening and closing.

"_Iceman, create an ice wall thick enough to stop bullets between us and the cops." _

"_On it" Iceman said with unusual seriousness, clearly even he had been disturbed by what Naruto had said earlier._

Naruto couldn't help but be reminded of the mission to the Land of Waves. He and his clones stood silent in the mists listening to the sounds of stumbling policemen. Naruto allowed the first one to pass him before knocking him out with a quick blow to the back of the head. Another cop passed by, his silhouette barely visible in the thick haze.

Naruto swiftly yanked the rifle from his grasp before slamming to but end of it in the officer's face. His clones enjoyed similar successes across the misty lawn. While had never put to much use in combat situations stealth had actually been one of his strong points. A skill he had cultivated to carry out the many elaborate pranks of what seemed like another life time.

"**Wave one defeated!" **The computer announced to almost everyone's surprise,

"Storm, clear the fog." Scott ordered, when the haze was lifted and the one team ninja stood with his triumphant duplicates, "Good job Naruto, I need you to fallback here with us," He then looked over at Bobby;

"We're gonna need thicker defenses Iceman." The cryokenetic nodded and set about fortifying their position.

"**Wave two is about to begin!"**

**The Raft**

A team of SHIELD agents stood outside the elevator armed to the teeth, ready to blast the intruders which were due at any moment. With them was none other than the legend himself, Captain America. Wearing an armored uniform and helmet adorned with stars, stripes, and the colors of the flag the young soldiers and agents found reassurance in his presence.

At his side was the Scarlet Witch, he hands glowing with blazing blue energy. A few regarded the only mutant in SHIELD with a mix of caution mingled with curiosity. While on whole your average SHIELD agents was not the kind of foam at the mouth anti-mutant you'd find in a COH congregation they did regard mutants as a group that needed to be watched and regulated.

The men present were professional enough to stay focused on the mission at hand. Rather or not they would their feelings would remain ambivalent in the wake of what was about to happen would remain to be seen.

When the elevator reached the bottom the corridor echoed with the sounds of safeties being switched off. The vault-like elevator door unlocked and starting before it buckled without any warning or explanation. Wanda's eyes widened when the metal began to warp in an all to familiar manner.

"Everyone hit the ground!" The Scarlet Witch yelled as the heavy doors were sent sailing down the hall towards them. Wanda held up her hands harnessing her chaotic powers to manipulate the odds in her favor. As such the doors didn't hit anyone but no one was able to the do much about the three glowing cards that landed in front of them after.

It was fortunate for them that while Gambit was a thief and mercenary with womanizing tendencies he drew the line at murder. They went off like flash bangs, concussive flash bangs which threw _most _the men back and left quite a few eardrums busted. Frenzy charged out of the elevator to clear the way for the rest of the team. She made a b-line for Captain America and the gene traitor who had managed to stay on their feet.

The Super Soldier raised his shield just in time, Frenzy's fist slammed into it rather than his face. Made from an alloy called vibranium the shield was not only indestructible but also capable of absorbing vibrations. A trait that spared Rogers quite a few broken bones even if he was knocked back a good fifteen feet.

"Steve!" Wanda screamed and prepared to hex the Acolyte before a chunk of metal detached itself form the wall and restrained her arms. Wanda looked toward the other Acolytes expecting to see her but instead saw the source was a girl near her age. Her eyes glowed green as she hold her hand out to her making more metal wrap itself around the Scarlet Witch. The real blow came in the form of the mysterious girl's next words:

"All of you need to go find Peitro, I need to have a talk with my sister."

**Back at the Danger Room**

Compensating as it had been programmed to for the first waves early defeat the DR made the second wave considerably more challenging. Until this point Naruto had never consider how the fantastic technology of this world might work for it's military. Soldiers armed with assault rifles with support from a pair of flying machines Cyclops called helicopters made quick work of the two dozen clones he sent forward to deal with them. Thankfully the barrier Iceman had erected was standing up quite well to the suppressive fire.

_"Storm, we need heavy and a good bit of wind!"_ Cyclops said via the mind link, _"Naruto, Iceman, bring those choppers down with out killing anyone on board. Jean cover them!"_ Everyone nodded in understanding, for Naruto it like being part of a ninja squad except he was so far following orders a lot better here. Cyclops seemed like a good leader and had a far better idea of what to expect here than him. Added to which he was no longer as confident about his own judgment as he used to be.

_"What about meh Scott? Ah'm_ _not real keen on sittin_ _this one out." _Rogue said, Scott held out a hand,

_"You're going to need a bit of my power for your part, when the air support get's taken out we'll go after the ground forces." _Meanwhile Naruto was getting to experience riding one of Bobby's iceslides for the first time. Thanks to a little chakra channeled to his feet Naruto didn't have to hold to Drake. Jean flew along side them, keeping them shielded with a telekinetic barrier.

_"I'm going take the machine closest to out, get ready to save it Bobby!" _To Iceman's surprise Naruto sent a mental image of what he planned to do. While the mind link allowed verbal communication this was something only a telepath could have done. Thankfully years at the Institute meant Bobby was used to communicating in this manner.

_"Got it!" _With that Naruto exhaled a blade of wind taking out the tail of the closest helicopter. Acting quickly Iceman used his powers to create a pillar of ice that partially encased the chopper before it could hit the ground. The other helicopter moved to attack but a lightning strike courtesy of Storm short circuited it's systems.

_"Thanks Storm." _Bobby "told" the weather manipulator feeling glad they wouldn't have to deal with the second helicopter. Meanwhile on the ground Cyclops, Rogue, and Beast charged the soldiers. With near hurricane like conditions keeping them pinned down it seemed like they would be fairly easy pickings. While the Danger Room's programing couldn't capture every facet of a simulated enemies training or possible reactions the tenacity of professional soldiers had been decently captured here. The simulated soldiers took cover and gave the charging mutants hell.

Heavy winds threw off their aim but none the less the volley of hot lead forced the X-Men to take cover. Seeing their comrades in trouble Bobby and Naruto redirected the ice slide back towards them.

_"Bring us right over the soldiers, I'll handle this!" _Naruto said confidently, Bobby went along it with eager to see what trick the ninja had up his sleeve next. Passing over the entrenched soldiers conjured over two dozen clones who dropped on the soldiers engaging them in hand to hand combat. While the clones superior physicality let them overpower their foes the effectiveness of even small arms fire against them made Naruto understand the situation this world's bloodline users were in a lot better.

In the elemental countries the most complicated weapon a civilian could acquire was a crossbow. On the other end of the equation even the weakest bloodline user could augment his power with chakra and training. Unless of course they were in Haku's situation which seemed to be the norm here sadly. Here more advanced technology and weapons leveled out the playing field against a "mutant" populace that seemed weaker or at least less in control of their bloodlines.

If that was the case he was beginning to understand why the senor staff had reacted to the fight with the Brotherhood the way they did. As horrible as his own childhood had been Naruto at least had never been force to deal with psychotic mobs intent on killing him. From what he had gathered many mutants did have to deal with that.

While Naruto ponder the social injustices of this world the X-Men on the ground got their second wind after seeing Naruto's clones descend on the soldiers. Working together they began to turn the tide against their foes. When the battle was done the X-Men regrouped near the front on the Institute.

**"Wave two defeated!"** The computer announced, **"Wave three about to begin!"**

**The Raft**

Hawkeye ran past the holding cells determined to meet up with his teammates, the loss of contact galvanized him to move faster. Clint Barton had been part of a good many teams over the years but the Avengers had grown on him in a way the others hadn't. With a few exceptions had always been able to keep them at arms length, his childhood had made him weary of forming attachments.

But you couldn't help but admire Captain America no more than you could help liking the man beneath the helmet. Iron Man was the super hero version of Charlie Sheen, what more need to be said? Thor despite his oddities was the one person who's sense of honor and decency matched Steve's. Plus he had access to the nicest booze in existence; it was literally the nectar of the freaking gods.

Natasha in spite of, or perhaps because of their complicated pasts was his closest friend. Then there was Wanda, being no stranger to crappy parents Clint couldn't help but feel for the girl. Despite a childhood worse than his own she was a far better person at heart than he had been at that age. Banner and the Hulk...were...well...friends with the others.

By now Hawkeye had reached the corridor leading to the elevator just in time to see Steve come flying out. The good Captain managed to pull off a mid-air recovery landing on his feet, "Hey old-timer where's Witchy?"

"Back their fighting some girl claiming to be her sister," Clint's eyes widened behind his shades,

"So it's Magneto then?" Clint asked rhetorically as the Acolytes stopped in front of them. One of them, a large feral man Hawkeye recognized as Sabertooth, grinned like a cut throat at the sight of Rogers,

"Long time no see boyscout," Sabertooth snarled, "I thought that story about you being thawed out was a load but smells don't lie." For a moment everyone looked confused until Deadpool spoke,

"Can you please provide us and the readers some context here?"

"What he said minus the crazy." Hawkeye quipped

"I fought with Victor in the war, he was Canadian Airborne back then" Cap explained, "a little insubordinate but a good soldier." Steve said clearly disappointed in the feral mutant's choices. He then looked at all of them, "This doesn't have to go any further, if you surrender and cooperate I'll personally testify for all of you in your favor." Frenzy clenched her fist in anger,

"You expect us to believe to fall for that load of bullshit!" She yelled,

"He actually means every word of it." Sabertooth said in a deadpan tone while giving Wade a subtle nod, "well it's been nice boyscout but we have to save my boss's pussy of a kid." With unnatural speed Deadpool drew his katana aiming for the good captain's head. Now the worst possible assumption you could make about Rogers was to assume that his noble, borderline naive worldview meant that he was a push over in a fight. Without missing a beat Captain America blocked the blade with his shield while simultaneously slamming his fist into Deadpool's face.

When this happened Hawkeye whipped out his bow intending to out a few arrows into Deadpool's skull. Instead he ended up using his bow to block Gambit's bo staff, looking back his comrades he shouted: "Joanna, you an' Creed go track Maximoff! Don't wo-" Without a a word the two took off leaving him and Wade to handle two of Earth's mightiest heroes.

"That's nice." Hawkeye said sarcastically despite the fact they were in engaged close quarters combat. The Cajun shrugged after blocking a kick with his staff,

"Well Creed's a psycho an' Jo is Remy's ex."

"Did you just refer to yourself in the third person?"

"What wrong wit that?"

"It's annoying as hell!" Hawkeye yelled as he planted his foot on Gambit mid section and kicked the cajun shark back. Both men demonstrated their formidable skill when Gambit managed to throw a charged card at the same time Hawkeye loose an arrow from his bow. The two projectiles went past one another and hit their marks. Clint was knocked back by the force of the kinetically charged attack as the Avenger's arrow embedded itself in Remy's left leg.

"Merde!" Gambit cursed in pain, it was a move clearly meant to disable not kill and if not for the fact that his outfit was custom form of body armor it would put him out of the fight. Grimacing he pulled the arrow out and was back on his feet. The sound of another arrow being drawn caught Remy's attention, Hawkeye stood there, minus his shades, aiming right at him.

"Freeze Frenchy." Gambit reluctantly raised his hands,

"Remy's surprised to you back on yo feet so fast." The Acadian commented to which Hawkeye just shrugged.

"I've been blasted by aliens, bitched slapped by the Viking god of evil, and that's just the shit the public knows about." Hawkeye said with a smirk, "I'm not going to be stopped by some metro-sexual pole dancer."

**In Another Part of the Raft**

"Captain America and Deadpool," The mercenary said in his best announcer guy voice, "the man out of time and the man out of his mind. Two supersoldiers who now battled it out in fierce duel that had taken them to one of the main holding areas of the prison. The inmates watched two well built warriors in form-fitting attire grapple with one another with thoughts of violent sodomy on their min-!" Cap's indestructible shield slammed into Wilson's face with a force that only the Red Skull and Loki had experienced. Wade was sent into one of the force fields that kept the inmates in their cells giving the merc with a mouth quite a painful shock. Seeing the mercenary slump to the ground Captain America walked over to him saying:

"You have the right to remain silent and merciful god I hope you choose to exercise it." Deadpool though managed to scramble to his feet and threw himself at Rogers proving himself a formidable foe even without his swords. The prisoners cheered Deadpool on from there cells as they exchanged blows.

"I can't afford to lose to you Cap, I have to meet an emotionally vulnerable minor later on." Like any other rational, moral person Rogers found that comment disturbing.

"You wh-!" It was momentary distraction that proved costly as Deadpool managed to land a solid blow on his fellow super soldier's face. With that opening Wade went on the offensive with a machete in lui of his swords managing inflict a few lacerations on him. But the world war veteran was far from defeated which made Deadpool as happy as a man like him could be.

**Back at the Danger Room**

"What are those things?" Naruto asked as three red mechanical humanoids landed on the war scarred lawn of the Institute. From the looks of concern on the X-Men's face they were evidently something to worry about.

"Sentinel," Scott answered, "and I'd like to see how you handle them on your own Naruto."

**The Raft**

This particular section of the Raft looked like something out of episode of the _Twilight Zone. _The walls of the corridors had been bent and warped into a shifting terrain of metal. The powers of the two mutant sisters were wreaking havoc on the structure. At one point Lorna had even ripped the elevator out the shaft and hurled it at Wanda who had just hexed it away like every thing else. In the midst of the fighting Lorna continued trying to "reason" with her sister "SHIELD reprogrammed you to think those things about our father! He only wants a world where mutant are free! A world where we can be a family." The green haired teen pleaded, her innocent eyes filled with emotion.

"_Please tell me I wasn't this diluted," _Wanda thought, the whole time they had been fighting Polaris had been spewing this line of crap. The Scarlet Witch didn't know if this girl was naturally this naïve or if Mastermind had played with her head too but either way she was tired of listening to her "Our father is self-absorbed megalomaniac who's trying to start a race war and doesn't give a damn about any of us!" Lorna shook her head in pity before her eyes glowed with cackling emerald energy,

"I'm very sorry about this, we'll get you the help you need.". Lorna raised her hand while Wanda prepared to hex any metallic debris that her half sister might hurl at her. Needless to say she was caught off guard by Polaris loosing a volley of emerald lightening instead. The attack hit dead on making Wanda cry out in pain before collapsing against the wall. Lorna knelt next to her, "This really wasn't how I wanted our first meeting to go."

"Me either." Wanda said as she lunged forward decking her alleged sister hard, "Thank you Clint for teaching me that one." She muttered as got her bearings, that attack may not have knocked her out but it did hurt like hell. The raven haired young woman pulled out her Starkphone, a mobile phone that in the words of it's creator "makes the _Iphone_ look like a vagina". Amazingly enough it was still functional, _"Considering what Tony charges for these things it better." _She thought as she dialed hoping to get some help.

**Stark Tower**

The image of an annoyed looking Wanda appeared on the screen of the phone illuminating the dark room. The peppy lyrics of _Do you believe in magic? _Filled the room causing the man on the bed to stir. Grasping the phone Tony answered it,

"Kid, I like you but please tell me you have a good reason for calling this early?" He paused while his teammate responded, "Look at my age three-forty five is pretty early!" Wanda said something else causing him to glance at an empty bottle of cognac on the floor that cost more than most people's rent, "I have cut back on the booze!" He lied, what Wanda said next certainly seemed to wake him up, "No there's need to call Pepper! Tell me about the situation there."

**Back at the Institute**

**A**** few minutes earlier**

The other X-Men regarded Scott questioningly as Naruto sized up the opposition, "I want to get an idea of what his upper limits are." Cyclops told his teammates,

"What exactly are these things?" Naruto asked as the red armored mechanical humanoids landed on the lawn on the school. The X-Men behind him formed a defensive line, a few of them looking as these machines brought back unpleasant memories.

"Sentinels, machines built to hunt mutants." Cyclops explained, "They were designed by a renegade black ops groups but there are rumors that the government is putting them into mass production soon." That tidbit of information made Naruto angry, it wasn't the kind of blinding rage that he had been prone to for the past several months. That anger which was born of his own sorrow and pain, no this was a different thing altogether.

This anger gave him focus and felt righteous, the X-Men had done nothing but help him. They had given him and much like he once had they wanted nothing more than to be accepted. Yet it seemed in this world there were people like Danzo and Madara. Naruto had never been much on religion, no one had seen fit to instruct the Jinchuriki on spiritual matters. For most of his life destiny and fate had meant little to him.

The X-Men had expected any number of things from Naruto but what they didn't expect was for him to do was just to start walking up to the killing machines, _"I can't change what happened back home and I don't know if "fate" is why I'm here." _Forming a hand sign he conjured nine clones as the Sentinels issued a warning and activated their weapons array, _"I don't if I can keep this world from going to hell like mine did, if I'm "meant"_ _to or not." _Working in pairs the ten Narutos began creating Odama Rasengans, _"I just know that I'm going to fight with everything I have!" _

"**Surrender!" **The mechanical monstrosities to which our hero responded:

"Fuck you!" and charged the Sentinels, the robots opened fire on him but the one man ninja team. With his mind properly focused, his superhuman physicality coupled with years of experience, and training ensure they evaded the enemy barrage. Aiming for the Sentinel in the center they leapt into the air delivering a punishing barrage aiming for the chest and joints. The orbs of blue energy drilled through the armor plating wrecking havoc on the complex gears and circuitry within. The machine fell back and apart into a heap.

The other two Sentinels took to the air taking potshots at Naruto and his clones with energy blasts. While some of his clones were taken out Naruto himself managed to leap off the now flaming pile wreckage. Forming a few a hand signs he unleashed one of the more powerful wind jutsu he had pilfered from the scrolls Sai had taken from the home of one recently dead Shimiru Danzo. Naruto pumped more chakra than the attack required to ensure it could pierce the machine's armor.

"**Fūton: Shinkū** **Renpa** **!" **The powerful wind blades cut through the Sentinel resulting in shower of sparks. Cut into four pieces the machine joined it's brother on the lawn. The X-Men watched in awe as the last Sentinel flew towards Naruto in a vain attempt to finish him off. Needless to say it joined the growing scrapyard as well.

"The Brotherhood really did get off easy." Scott said, he remembered how hard a time one Sentinel had given the X-Men. Naruto had just dropped three like it was nothing, the scary thing was the guy didn't even look winded. Even more frightening was the fact that someone had clearly kicked Naruto's ass before he had arrived in this world. Between that and this revelation about a "Bloodpurge" Scott figured it be best to find out more, not just about Naruto but the world he came from when this exercise.

**The Raft**

**Present**

Pietro sat chained to his seat in the SHIELD interrogation room listening to the sounds of gunfire. A familiar feral roar confirmed what Pietro suspected: his father had launched a rescue mission. The door to his room was torn off it's hinges revealing Sabertooth and Frenzy, "About time you guys got here!" The looks they gave encouraged Maximoff to rephrase those words, "Uh thanks." Wordlessly they broke the chains that held him. Frenzy then pulled out a communication device, "Frenzy to Polaris we have Quicksiver." There was no reply, "Frenzy to Polaris do you copy?"

"I'm sorry," taunted the voice of Hawkeye, "but the super villain you're trying to reach is not available. Look your teammates have been defeated and Iron Man will be here in like two seconds, in other words you people are screwed."

"_Wow Gambit, Hawkeye beat you as badly in this fic_ _as his solo series beat yours!" _The voice of Deadpool could be heard taunting in the background,

"Where did you find this guy?" Hawkeye asked, before Frenzy could say anything Peitro snatched the comm from her hands,

"What did you do to Lorna?" He demanded,

"Wanda knocked her out." The archer answered plainly, "She's fine an-" The communicator hit the ground and shatter as Peitro darted out of the room in a blur.

Hawkeye glanced at the communicator he had found on Lorna wondering if the connection broke. A heart beat later Pietro's fist collided with his face at mach 2 knocking the Archer out. Before Wanda or Cap could even react he scooped up Lorna's unconscious body and ran up the elevator shaft. Gambit looked completely dumbfounded,

"Merde, he just left us here?" a thoroughly pulverized Deadpool just shrugged,

"This is pretty consistent with his characterization in _X-Men: Evolution_ cartoon which depicted him as douchy daddy's boy who tended to screw people over and run away before suffering any consequences. What the _Tvtropes_ website calls a Karma Houdini." While the two Avengers were checking on their unconscious comrade Gambit looked at Wade incredulously.

"So you think we characters in a cartoon show?"

"More or less, it's actually a little more screwed up than that."

"About the X-Men?"

"Yep." Remy stared at him real hard, so much so that he didn't even notice the SHIELD agents returning to their location no that the Acolytes had been subdued.

"Remy thinks ya might be the craziest man he ever met."

"Kinda makes you want to rethink your life doesn't it? Hanging out with people like me and Sabes?" Gambit blinked as the Avengers brought the agents up to speed on the situation.

"A bit," Remy said slowly not quite sure where this was going,"but Remy don't exactly have a lot of places he can go. This be it for it me."

"What about the X-Men?"

"You want Remy to join da X-Men, now ah know you be mad. They're heroes, that's somethin Remy could never be. Ah done to much for that." For once the mask of bravado and boundless confidence cracked allowing a rare glance at the self loathing the thief lived with. The lenses of Deadpool's mask narrowed as if they were his real eyes into a deadpan expression,

"Really? Did you kill your dad in a bar fight when you turned eighteen?"

"Non."

"Did you spend years in third world countries killing people for the highest bidder with little to no remorse?"

"Nooo." Gambit answered looking even more disturbed,

"Did you spend years working for a military organization that conducted experiments on mutants that could have come from Josef Mengele's wet dreams just so you could get cured of a terminal illness?"

"Non," Gambit was getting the feeling that he was learning more about Deadpool then he'd care to,

"Then as soon as we're out of this mess get your sweet Cajun ass to Xavier's and sign up! Seriously if they took Logan they'll sure as hell take you...trust there's a reason his enemies are the most depraved in comic book history, it makes him look nice by comparison. But the evo version of Logan was nowhere the level of douchebag his comic book counterpart is." Not wanting to encourage Wade's delusional Remy instead asked:

"Even if Remy wanted to do that what makes you think we getting out o' dis mess?" Deadpool feeling like the fourth wall had taken enough of pounding he offered an in story explanation:

"Because Magneto isn't going to want SHIELD or the Avengers interfering with his plans anymore."

**New York Harbor**

Iron Man flew towards a now smoldering barge that was actually the entrance to maximum prison known as the Raft, "I wonder who thought building a facility to house the world's most dangerous superhumans on the planet near a major population center was a good idea." He muttered before alerted him to sharp rise in electromagnetic activity, "What the h-" His eyes went wide when realized what was about to happen, "oh fu-!" The Armored Avenger halted in midair and then found himself being pulled backwards to the top of the NYC's many bridges. Standing a top metal platform hovering above said bridge was a caped man in red armor and helmet.

At he side were two teenagers Tony assumed were Wanda's siblings. Magneto looked up at him, "Ah the great and powerful Anthony Stark." The Master of Magnetism said in a dry tone of voice, "How good of you to join us."

"You know Cap loves a good _Wizard of Oz _reference why don't you try that line on him?"

"Perhaps I shall after disarming you." Without even lifting a finger Eric's magnetic fields stripped Stark of his weapons and thrusters. Being one to resort to humor to cope with his problems in lui of alcohol and loose women Stark said:

"Uh..pay no attention to the man beneath the armor."

"As you wish." Magneto said with a touch of dark humor dropping Iron Man onto the Bridge below. Lorna ran to the edge of the platform to make sure he hadn't been killed. Iron Man appeared to have landed on top of a moving van but beyond that she couldn't tell if was okay. "His armor protected him from the force of impact, at worst he sustained a few broken bones."

"Are you sure daddy?" Magneto knelt and gently cupped her chin with his hand.

"Of course I am sweet Lorna." He stood up and walked over to the other side of the platform. Lorna joined him and saw his gaze focused on the smoking barge, "Now let us rescue the Acolytes your brother left to Fury's jackbooted thugs," -Pietro flinched- "And then we will the one who defeated the Brotherhood so spectacularly."

**Later**

Erik Lensher regarded the mercenary intently, "Now I am dubious about the validity of everything my son claims but it's clear this boy is a threat to my plans. You understand what is required of you?"

"Well yeah it's clear you've already explained this to me once but are having me do it again for the sake of making things clear to the reader...although considering the fact I'm a screwball having me repeat information to ensure I remember it could be completely justified in story." Magneto had thought Victor had been exaggerating about this man's...instabilities but clearly he beyond insane, "You want me to infiltrate mutant high and kill the guy who beat your b-team within an inch of their lives."

"I want you to get me an accurate assessment of his combat capabilities! Once I have that information then I'll decide rather or not to eliminate him."

"Fine boss killjoy I won't off him." Deadpool crossed his arms like a pouting child, "But it had better be a good fight."

**AN: **Well here it is folks, the last chapter using old material, now I will have Spiderman show up later since I liked the interactions between him, Naruto, and Iceman. The next chapter will be Naruto opening up about his past a bit to the X-Men in general followed by a clash with Deadpool. Sorry if parts of this felt phoned in, the latest chapters of Naruto have really pissed me off. To avoid spoilers I'll just say Kishimoto finally killed off the last vestiges of Naruto's original screw destiny theme and my respect for him as a writer along with it...granted it's been terminal since the Kage arc, this was just the killing blow.

My Naruto DC story is coming along slowly but surely for much the same reasons. I'll try to get the first chapter posted soon enough even if it is a little shorter the originally planned.

**Fan Fic Recommendations: **

**X-Men Supreme by marvelmaster616 - **An amazing re-imaging of the X-Men mythos that initial comes across as a synergetic merger of the best parts of X-Men Evolution and Ultimate X-Men but develops it's own identity very quickly. Written with a level of skill I can only envy I can't recommend it enough for anyone with even a passing interest in X-Men.


	8. Chapter Seven - Dark Recollections

**Disclaimer: I own neither Naruto nor Marvel**

**Chapter Seven:**** Dark Recollections**

Naruto couldn't help but be impressed by how fast information spread among the Institute's student body. It had only been two hours since he had mentioned the bloodpurge and he could tell from the looks on their faces that they knew now. His mouth had always ran a little faster then his brain and now that had resulted in their worst fears being validated or realized. Naruto right now was sitting in Xavier's study with the X-Men regarding him solemnly. The Professor himself had been called away on some emergency while they were in the DR.

The blonde tried to conjure up every detail he remembered about that horrible event before speaking, "Look...I wasn't there when the bloodpurge happened and history isn't really my strong point. But what I know about it comes mostly from someone who survived the purge..." Naruto leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes as he tried not to think of Obito's twisted face, "and a few other people who were there."

"Naruto I think it's best if you provide us with some context," Doctor McCoy said pulling out a device and held it up, "I'll be recording this conversation for later review," He explained giving Naruto a questioning look who simply nodded, "now we had been given to understand that mutants such as ourselves were an accepted part of your culture."

"Pretty much, clans with bloodlines are often the most important and influential holding important positions in their villages. In most villages they're most respected, Kirigakure though was..." Naruto paused trying think of apt metaphor, "...they were the special village."

"Question," Bobby interjected with a raised hand trying to ignore the glares of the others, "what does Kirawhatever mean?"

"Village Hidden by Mist but it was also nicknamed _"Chigiri no Sato" _Village of the Bloody Mist," visions of Zabuza and Haku played out in his mind as his tone became more distant, " because of their barbaric graduation exam."

"What kind of exam?" Hank inquired despite the unpleasant feeling forming in his gut. Naruto looked up at all of them.

"In my village to become a genin you have to show that you've mastered the three basic jutsu all shinobi are expected know. In Kiri during the reign of the Fourth Mizukage -Yagura the Terrible- implemented something a little different: students were paired up -usually with people they had been close to- and expected to kill each other." The sound of pin dropping would have been deafening in the silence.

"Aren't you a genin Naruto?" Bobby asked in a shaky tone, the others looked confused for a moment before the horrific implication of that started to sink in for some.

"Yeah, I actually would be higher in rank if I hadn't missed on the chunnin exam." Now all of them seemed to grasp the full horror of it.

"How old are most people when they graduate?" Hank asked,

"Twelve, prodigies are allowed to graduate earlier."

"They made little kids...kill each other?" Scott asked managing to find his voice.

"Yeah," Naruto answered,

"Why?" Kitty asked in a quiet tone, the poor girl looked the most disturbed of them all.

"To kill their emotions," Naruto explained, "from what I know it actually seems to make them more psychotically bloodthirsty. One clan of mutants called the Kaguya started a civil war for no other reason then they wanted a fight. The war devastated not just the village but the Land of Water itself, mutant shinobi were at the forefront of the war. Both the shinobi and the civilian population ended up fearing and blaming them all for the conflict, that's when the bloodpurge began. I don't know everything that happened but I know some went into hiding. If you were found out -even by those you had grown close to- you could be killed."

As Naruto began telling them about Haku Scott felt himself go numb. He thought back to his first encounter with Magneto on Asteroid M. How certain Magneto had been that humanity would destroy mutantkind. In the aftermath of that Scott had just dismissed his words as the ravings of a madman. But listening to Naruto's account and that haunted look on his face it him: _"Magneto was right...this could really happen."_

He looked to Jean who had her hand over mouth, eyes wide with horror told them of a man who murdered his wife and tried to do likewise to his son because they were mutants. Scott took her free hand and give it a comforting squeeze wishing he could do more for her but was at a loss himself.

For Ororo hearing Haku's story brought up memories of her childhood, wondering alone in the streets of Cairo with her sister after parents death. She also understood all to well why that poor boy fell in with Zabuza having formed a similar bond with a man named Amahl Farouk. This Demon of the Hidden Mist though sounded worse then the Shadow King.

Tears ran down Kitty's eyes as she tried to comprehend everything she was hearing. Out of all the people present she had been the most sheltered growing up. Tears ran from her eyes as she tried to comprehend how people could be so evil. She thought of those children being forced to kill each other, of that poor boy having to kill his own father in self defense. But most of all her heart was breaking for Naruto; this was the world he came from. In comparison to people like this Zabuza his beat down on the Brotherhood was downright merciful.

For Hank the details of this "Bloodpurge" synced up with the circumstances that led to such atrocities in this world. An unstable nation, it's populace looking for a scapegoat to blame and a government more then willing to give them one. While just as horrified by this account as everyone else he couldn't help but wonder what this meant for the future of the X-Men? If even a world that accepted mutants as a part of their could descend to such depths given the right circumstances what did that say about mutant kinds chances in a world that was still trying to come to terms with their existence?

Bobby was now ghostly white as Naruto described Haku's death via hole in chest. Despite everything the X-Men had been through the idea of actually getting killed had always seemed surreal one until now. Maybe it was because he and this Haku guy shared powers but Bobby wondered if really had any business being an X-Men. If things ever went as bad here as it did in the Land of Water they needed people who could actually throw down in a fight not a goof off like him.

For Rogue this story vindicated her decision to tell Mystique to fuck off. In Haku's she saw what her life might have been like with her: a pawn to be used and discarded at her "mother's" whim. Zabuza's tears and killing of Gato didn't mean jackshit as far as she was concerned, _"Sayin sorry at the last minute don't make a damn bit a difference."_

Jean raised her mental shields to block out the barrage of thoughts while trying to reign in her own. The idea of mutant genocide could no longer ignored as paranoia. She wondered if the Professor had considered scenarios like these possible? Of course there was the insight into Naruto's past and mindset this morbid account offered. Sasuke risking his life to save Naruto went some ways to explain Naruto's somewhat unhealthy fixation on him despite later transgressions.

Yet she could see and hear the anger in his tone, others might be mistaking it for anger the memory of a friend nearly killed but something told her it was aimed at the Uchiha. Perhaps something she said had gotten through to him or perhaps months of nothing but time to think may have let him reach the conclusion that Sasuke may not have in the end been the close friend he believed him to be. It was something to consider talking about in their next session.

Naruto leaned back in his seat and exhaled, he hadn't meant to go into the whole mission to the Land of Waves but it had proven cathartic. It was odd to look back and realized the strange and miserable direction his life had ended up taking. The thing he kept going back to though were the things Zabuza and Haku said that he had tried to disregard. How ninja were implements of killing, how ninja weren't supposed to let attachments distract them from their mission.

Naruto had utterly rejected those ideals yet now he couldn't help but wonder if his current situation might have been avoided if he hadn't. His attachments had blinded him to the threat Sasuke had become. Perhaps instead of chasing the Uchiha he could have focused all his efforts on the Akatsuki or warning the other jinchuriki. Looking up he saw the faces of the faces of the other X-Men composed of equal parts shock, horror, and more then a little pity.

"I don't know if this helps but the purge was eventually stopped." Naruto told them, they all looked seeming cautiously hopeful "A bloodline-user seized power in the Hidden Mist becoming the new kage."

Once more felt like vindication for Magneto's views. They were all glad the violence had been stopped but they were experiencing a crisis of faith for lack of a better term. Jean than noticed the uncertain look on Naruto's face, as if he was holding something back.

"There's more isn't there?"

"I'd go into it now but it involves going into some pretty fucked up and personal stuff." Naruto told the doctor,

"You mean have some personal connection to this atrocity beyond your encounter with Haku?"

"You remember the fourth Mizukage I mentioned? The one who initiated the bloodpurge and the brutal graduation exam?"

"We're probably not going to forget for a very long time." Bobby said quietly. Naruto seemed to be struggling with rather or not to continue. The blonde-haired ninja closed his eyes and sighed revealing what lay underneath the underneath as it were:

"He actually was actually puppet. Yagura was," Naruto tried to think of a term that required the least explanation, "being mind controlled by a man named Uchiha Obito," Several of them seemed to recognize it as the same clan name as his one time friend. Naruto watched as they seemed to connect the dots, made visible by momentary confusion turning to horrific realization.

"My god," Hank said in a tone barely above a whisper looking at Naruto with equal parts horror and disbelief, "are you saying that this...atrocity against mutantkind was orchestrated by a mutant?"

"Like I said there's a lot I don't know but the purge was the result of his actions, rather he intended it or not. From what I know about him he took control of Kiri to wreck it; the bloodpurge and other atrocities left the village a wreck for years."

"What is your connection to this...individual?" Hank asked trying to stay focused on gathering as much information as possible. He would probably be grabbing that bottle of brandy he kept in his lab when this was done.

"Obito was a former student of my father." Once more stunned silence filled the room, "My dad was a good man, a man who wanted to bring peace to the shinobi world...but when he fucked up he really fucked up...a trait that runs in the family I guess." Naruto admitted looking down at the ground. Nothing but time to think over these past months had given Naruto time to reflect. One thing he discovered is that the more he thought of some of the people he knew the more questionable they and their actions seemed. "His biggest fuck ups were as a teacher." Naruto said while thinking to himself that being a father was a pretty close second.

"What happened?" Hank asked,

"From what I understand he kept leaving them alone to go on solo missions and they kept getting killed when he did," Naruto answered trying very hard to keep the bitterness out of his voice, "Well he thought Obito had been killed, turns out he survived and went crazy when another member of team got killed in a mission involving Kiri-nin."

"Who?"

"A girl he liked."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Bobby exclaimed, "All that because of girl? That doesn't even come close to justifying that!"

"Trust me what he did in Kiri was the tip of the iceberg but yeah it really doesn't it." With that Naruto got out of the chair and started to leave, "That's really all I know about the Bloodpurge and the rest of crap with Obito is honestly something I don't feel like going into all that right now." but stopped just before he got to the door. "Look," He said turning back to face them, "your dream is a good one and one worth fighting for," Naruto assured them and managed a smile, he did noticed Kitty's expression. He remembered what he had told her before the DR session; clearly she had put together the pieces. She looked like she was about to say something but thankfully she stopped herself. Looking at the others he said: "and as long I'm here I'll fight for it with everything I have."

Considering most of them had been present when he had single handedly defeated the Brotherhood or laid waste to a group of simulated Sentinels they did take find some comfort in that. When he left they were all silently processing everything Naruto had just told them. Scott looked out the window towards Bayville wondering if the people their could hate them enough to do what the people in this Land of Water.

**Later that evening**

Bobby handed Naruto a can of soda before sitting next to him on the sofa. Sleep had proven evasive for both of them so they were commiserating together. There was the distinct sound of soda cans being opened followed by a moment of silence. Naruto didn't feel like talking much and Bobby didn't want to prod much to the former's quiet gratitude. The quiet was disrupted by a weary looking Beast shuffling into the living room.

"Evening gentlemen," He said as sat down in the chair adjacent to the sofa. The two muttered semi-coherent greetings in return, "would you boys mind if I joined you? The professor is going over everything that was discussed earlier now." Not wanting to bring up that jolly topic again Bobby instead asked:

"So what did SHIELD want?"

"Apparently Magneto broke Peitro out of prison today."

"And the rest of the Brotherhood?"

"Left behind."

"Nice."

"Who's Magneto?" Naruto asked,

"The Brotherhood's boss...sometimes, other times they work for this crazy woman named Mystique." The shinobi considered asking who Mystique was but figured he'd find out later if she was important.

"Magneto is a mutant supremacist who believes we are destined to replace humans as the dominant species on this planet."

"While you guys believe in trying to coexist with everyone else." Naruto said in understanding,

"Exactly, we've been trying to stop him for years but he's always been one step ahead of us."

"Did you guys interrogate the Brotherhood while they were here?" Naruto asked, "They might know something about him or his plans."

"No, but I am certain that SHIELD will," Hank said darkly, "Peitro was the only one among them who might have known something. The others will spend god knows how long being subjected to god only knows what for Fury's goons to find that out."

"Maybe the old man or Jean could offer to look in their heads for this SHIELD?" Naruto suggested,

"There's mutual distrust between Xavier and SHIELD's leadership."

"I thought we got along with them." Bobby stated in surprise, "Fury's helped us before."

"That was more for his own benefit or due to his friendship with Logan." Hank explained, "Both the Professor and I have had enough dealings with that charming organization to know what they're really like." Seeing both boy's looking at questioningly made Hank realize he had said to much.

"What do you mean by that Mr. McCoy? Did something happen between the Prof and Fury?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourselves with, besides it's not a very pleasant affair."

"It can't be worse then genocide." Bobby pointed out.

"Yeah that wasn't a pleasant thing to talk about for me, especially when I had to go into how my dad was indirectly responsible for that." Naruto added bluntly before realizing what he had just said looking more then a little disturbed by it.

"Look I don't know your dad but it seems a little harsh to actually blame him for that." The brown haired pointed out with some hesitation, "I mean, I think at some point this Obito guy had a choice."

"Maybe it is," Naruto admitted looking a little deflated, "Maybe I'm just tired of being angry at myself." He really wanted to stop having these little relapses into depression and self loathing. Bobby placed a supportive hand on his shoulder.

"Is like everything all right?" They all turned to see Kitty standing there in pink pajamas with her hair down looking fairly worried.

"It's fine Kitty," Bobby said quickly and managed a smile, "Doctor McCoy was just about to let us in on the dark secret history of the X-Men." The brunette looked Beast who sighed,

"Those words are a little closer to the truth then you realize." The blue furred mutant ran a hand through his hair and sighed, "I'd rather not have this all over the Institute by noon tomorrow." McCoy told them, "I'm only sharing this because of what Mr. Uzumaki shared with us earlier."

"We won't say anything." Bobby assured him, Kitty nodded and sat between the two boys. Naruto looked at her, she wasn't quite awake yet and he couldn't help but notice sleepy faced Kitty was rather adorable. For a brief moment teenage hormones did what months of therapy couldn't: take Naruto's mind off his problems. The brunette noticed him looking at her and blinked her soft blue eyes at him.

"Are you okay Naruto?" She asked clearly worried since he staring at her oddly. Naruto blinked and turned red turned back to Hank who looked fairly amused. The mutant scientist thought it nice to see the poor boy actually act like a normal teenager for once.

"Yeah I'm fine." He assured her and suddenly became extremely interested in Hank. Kitty looked like she was worried for him before reluctantly turning her to Mr. McCoy.

"So like what's this deep dark secret history Bobby mentioned?" She asked him,

"Well it goes back to when I was a student here...and a member of the original X-Men team." Kitty and Bobby's jaws practically hit the floor, "It was about twenty years ago, Charles and Eric had just finished the process of turning this place into a school for our kind."

"Eric?" Bobby asked, Beast sighed and dropped the second bombshell.

"Eric Lensherr, these days he prefers Magneto."

"What!?" Kitty exclaimed now fully awake while Bobby was stunned silent. Naruto had gone wide eyed and rigid as Hank raised a hand to stave off the incoming deluge of questions.

"This will go faster if you save all questions until the end." Beast pointed out and then continued his account, "I was the youngest one in those days; the others were all adults. There was Sean Cassidy who went by Banshee, sonic scream. A former Interpol agent from Ireland who was probably one amicable people you could meet. James Proudstar, ex-marine with super human physicality and senses," Hank took a sip of his coffee, "no disrespect for the dead intended but he was difficult person to get along with I'm afraid. Even in comparison to Logan but he was reliable in a fight. Emma Frost -no codename- talented telepath and breathtakingly beautiful, she's made quite a name for herself in the world of business. And lastly a mercenary in the employ of the central intelligence agency named Raven Darkholme."

"Mystique was an X-Men!?" Kitty exclaimed,

"And what the hell was with these military types on the team?"

"Well originally the X-Men were conceived as a government response team under SHIELD's supervision."

"Like the Avengers?"

"Yes but with less then desirable results, you see the basic idea was the same then as it is now: use our abilities for the common good. The plan had been to public unveil us as a team of superheroes but instead we got suckered into doing SHIELD's dirty work. The agency at the time was headed by an incompetent named Thaddeus Ross who thought we had signed up to clean up his messes. He had over the years authorized a number ethically questionable experiments the most publicly known result of which was the Hulk." Beast shuddered, "That did not end well but the experience proved helpful later on when we captured the Juggernaut."

"So that's how he got locked away the first time." Bobby commented,

"Yes of our few successes," Hank said and sighed, "in hindsight it was clear the team was going to fall apart. General Ross barely contained his mistrust and the men he appointed to be our handlers barely showed any degree of tolerance for us. Gyrich was obstructive and controlling, Rusk was more subtle but you could feel the man's loathing in the way he looked at you," Anger colored his normally amicable tone.

"I'm surprised Magneto and Mystique put up with that." Kitty said in confusion,

"Well they didn't, not for long at least." Hank said darkly, "Magneto hadn't been very enthusiastic about the arrangement with SHIELD in the first place. He claimed he was only interested in providing shelter and education to young mutants though looking at the Brotherhood it's clear that was his of saying "mutant army". He and Charles had many debates over the pros and cons of the arrangement and our people's future. It all came to head on that last mission," Hank's expression became grim, "terrorists had highjacked a missile silo and were threatening to turn the east coast into a glass parking lot if their demands weren't met." Naruto was being reminded how little he understood this world. He didn't want to interrupt Hank so he made a mental note to use that internet thing Bobby showed him for something other then porn.

"Why wasn't their anything on the news about it?"

"The base was in a remote location and the government wasn't exactly eager to announce that terrorists were now in control of nuclear weapons. So we went in and that went about as routine as you'd expect when dealing with such things until Magneto decided to highjack several of the warheads for himself. We tried to stop him but Raven turned on us as well and they were able escape."

**Just Outside**

A lone figure was crouched in the forest watching the school intently through a pair of binoculars. He had gathered a wealth of information on the student body though the strategic value of that information was...debatable, "So Jean definitely has the biggest bust followed by Rogue with Tabitha and Amanda tied for third place." He opted to check his phone for messages, "Well my compadre was able to hack their systems let's see what we've got." He sifted through the information, "several new students are arriving next week and Xavier has an interest in Spider-Man." Well it wasn't stated that _all_ of the information was useless. Glancing through his goggle"And my target is apparently in the living room. Wow from the looks on their faces Beast revealed something mortifying." The red spandex wearing laughed, "Oh writer you're such a tease, I hope you don't pull this shit during my fight with Naruto."

**Back in the Institute**

**Sometime Later**

"so Ross was put to pasture and his successor seemed to have opted for a hands off approach regarding the Institute. I left not long after that, I'm given to understand Storm was recruited a few months down the road."

"Man," Bobby said quietly, "I knew those two were crazy but that tops that Asteroid M thing I heard about."

"Totally," Said a pale faced Kitty, "and what Mystique did...I can't even believe she and Kurt are related." Naruto looked at her oddly, he had really tried to avoid interrupting Beast's story. He may not have understood everything that was being said but basics had been all to familiar to him.

"Are they related?" He asked them, they all seemed uncertain as if this was some taboo subject.

"Mystique is Kurt's biological mother and Rogue's adopted mother," Kitty told him, "It's not something they like to talk about," she looked at him sympathetically, "From what you said earlier it's sounds like you and your dad had problems." Naruto looked shocked, had really sounded that bitter. Kitty looked worried perhaps wondering if she had offended him "I'm sorry I just assu-"

"It's fine, like I said earlier my dad was a good man I just lately feel like his dreams and ideas came before being a father...I'm starting to feel that way about a lot of people. I don't if it's just something that I pretended not to notice or if...I just looking for someone else to blame for everything that's gone wrong." He sighed, "I think I'll talk to Jean about it in our session." Naruto told them to deflect any more questions on that subject but he was giving that idea some serious thought. He was tired of feeling angry and bitter. It sure as fuck wasn't helping and honestly he doubted any of his friends would want stay miserable, _"Thinking about it the problems mutants are having in this world aren't that different from the one's in the Shinobi world..."_

The woman who called herself Destiny felt a cold shiver run up her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature difference between Mississippi and upstate New York. Irene stood across the street from the gates of the Institute. Across the street from her and Raven's little girl. Across the street from a man she hated but never met or spoken with. Across the street from a boy who might very well be more powerful then Magneto. Reflecting on her visions of his life the other world she realized that Naruto -rather he was even aware of it or not- may be more powerful then anyone who wasn't a Norse god or a green radiation monster.

_"...no it's exactly_ _like the shinobi world was...in the time of the two brothers." _It was as if a flame had been lit in his head, _"Two leaders vying_ _over which is the right path...one believing in cooperation and the other believing in power..."_

A boy who was about to make a choice that could irrevocably reshape the future of this world. A choice with immeasurable consequences.

_"...it doesn't matter how many times his students or civilians_ _are endangered Xavier would never do what really needed to be done to stop Magneto." _For the first time since he got here Naruto felt something other then contempt for Xavier, _"His old bonds keep him seeing the truth...just like me and Sasuke..."_

Thing that was perplexing her though was that he hadn't been pushed into making the choice yet. There was some inciting event that had yet to occur...something so near yet just beyond what her mind's eye could perceive.

A lone figure tiptoed across the yard of the institute while singing the theme from _Kim Possible_ to himself and armed with enough fire power to take on an army, "Worst clairvoyant ever." He muttered and went right to singing about everyone's favorite red-haired Mary Sue. The inhabitants of the Institute were about to get one hell of a wake up call.

**AN: **Not as long as I would have liked and I had wanted the explore the more morally complex aspects of the ninja world but I can do that down the road. This chapter is also the last set up chapter for a while, it's all action and character development chapters for a bit. One thing I wanted to do was to set an actually back history for the Evo universe beyond the things hinted at in the show so took bits in pieces from different universes and put my own twist on things


End file.
