"Master Bruce, a situation has arisen." Intoned the voice respectfully from the speaker.

Batman flipped a switch on the Batmobile's dashboard. "What is it, Alfred?"

There was a slight pause. "The computer has picked up... 'dimensional rifts,' it says, worldwide."

"What dimension?"

"The code is 1739, sir."

Batman's eyes narrowed to slits. "I see. That should have been sent to the League automatically, but inform them just in case. Now where is the rift?"

"Sir..." Another pause. "There are several."

"Several?" Batman paused. "Very well. Where is the one closest to my current location?"

"At Whituckney Ave, 8743." The voice replied. "Over on the other side of town. Sir, perhaps you ought to..."

"Forget it Alfred." Batman flicked the switch off. "Batman out."

#

It was the pain that awoke Ino.

The last thing she remembered was the sudden realization that there was someone behind her, moments before everything went black. The next thing she knew, she was being awoken by the pain. It felt unbearable, as if every part of her body were being twisted, shrunk, and re-expanded. Light was exploding in her mind, stars and shapes of every size and color, like a kaleidoscope of burning pain.

Just as suddenly as the pain had appeared, it disintegrated, and all Ino could feel was the cold wind blowing against her face. Her body felt curiously light, and she could feel nothing with her hands and arms.

Groaning, she cracked her eyes open and stared into the blinding wind. She could see a great many lights ahead of them, and they were swiftly coming closer. In fact, they were coming so fast...

"Whoah." Ino's eyes widened as she realized two things. One, those lights were the tops of buildings. Two, she was falling. Towards them.

Now, it was possible—even likely—that this was a dream, and that she would wake up just before she hit the ground. But on the off chance that it wasn't, she was utterly screwed. Even in the time it took her to think this, the buildings were already screaming past (dimly she noted that they were very odd buildings), and her mind was already identifying the thing coming closer as stone (perhaps concrete?).

This didn't feel like a dream.

#

There was a nasty taste in his mouth—blood, he realized—and there were definitely some odd smells around—smoke, mostly. But what bothered Kiba most were the bizarre sounds. Rumblings and squealing, and some sort of blaring noise that he couldn't identify. And every so often there would be these high-pitched whining noises that would fade in and out of his listening range. It bothered him, because at the moment all he could see were stars, and his body wasn't really responding.

Slowly feeling came back into him, and he groaned. Loudly. He was suddenly aware of thousands of burning cuts in his arms, legs, hands, feet, and head. That silver-haired psycho certainly hadn't left much untouched.

It hurt to move his arm, but he slowly maneuvered it into his pouch and found his pills. Then he crawled his hand back to his mouth and popped one in.

The effects took a few moments, but gradually he felt his energy returning. His body still hurt like anything, of course, and he was bleeding all over, but at least he could move. Akamaru was probably...

"Akamaru!" Kiba jolted up, a little faster than he should have, and hissed in pain. "Akamaru!" He called again, looking around frantically.

He didn't see Akamaru anywhere. What he DID see was a narrow, dark alleyway, and a few trashcans that he had apparently crashed into and knocked over. A few bright glowing light just outside of the alleyway made it impossible for him to see further.

Kiba pushed himself up, bracing against the wall for support, and began to limp forward. Last thing he knew, he and the others had been fighting Sasuke in the forest. How had he gotten here? More importantly, where on earth was "here?" Still more importantly, where were the others?

Most importantly, where was Akamaru?

"Akamaru!" Kiba called again, weakly now, as he stumbled out of the alleyway into the glaring light. Shielding his eyes, he looked up and gasped.

He stood upon a long avenue of black unbroken stone, with lights piercing the darkness at regular intervals. With a roaring sound, a strange beast of metal rushed past him, leaving an odd scent of smoke behind and letting out one of the odd blaring noises Kiba had heard earlier. On either side and in front of him rose towering columns of smooth steel and glass. They were tall, far taller than anything he had ever seen. Little lights blinked on their edges, and above them he could see stars twinkling in the sky. But they looked... different.

Kiba hissed suddenly as he realized what was wrong. They were the wrong stars!

As a survivalist, Kiba knew how to identify the constellations and from there, how to work out his general position. But these stars... Kiba couldn't read these at all. There were no constellations. No Rikudo the Great Hunter, no Great Inu, nothing at all! Rinhabi and his brilliant sword were nowhere to be seen! He could not even find the brilliant Juubi's Eye. No, these stars were altogether different. And they looked darker, less clear than the ones back home.

Kiba swore quietly. He had no idea where he was, or where the others were, or where Akamaru was.

Hearing a step in the street, Kiba turned to see who it was, and froze as three huge men emerged from the shadows.

#

The explosion was the first bad sign Larry had. Then again, it had been what woke him up, so perhaps there had been others, but that was the first one he noticed.

Larry had been on his guard post, catching a quick forty winks, when the enormous explosion knocked him out of his chair and landed him on the floor. Shortly afterward, three guards ran past him, screaming. That was the second bad sign.

The third, oddly enough, was the twenty-something security guards that came running back from the other direction, armed with their intensity lasers. If Larry'd been thinking, he would've hidden under his desk until it was all over, but unfortunately the captain caught sight of him and yelled, "Come on, you! Get your ass down there!"

So Larry had broken his own intensity laser out of the locker and stormed down there with the others.

Then he'd heard the roar. That'd been the fourth bad sign.

Larry wasn't exactly certain what all the bad signs added up to. After all, he didn't usually deal with odd-looking teenagers covered in glowing red energy who could rip through an entire platoon in thirty seconds.

Well... maybe he had. Kid Flash, at that job three weeks ago. But that kid hadn't actually ripped people apart, like this guy was doing. And he hadn't had any glowing red tails sprouting from his back either.

That was about as far as Larry's thought process went before the teenager in question suddenly materialized in front of him and knocked him back forty feet into the wall.

As Larry began to pass out, he was dimly aware of the approaching stomp of many feet. "Get it! Stop him!" He heard, and then all was blackness.

#

Sakura woke up fairly quickly. Her sensei's technique had kicked in shortly after she had passed out, and already it had regenerated most of her damaged cells. A large rip running across the front of her dress and a diminishing scar beneath it were the only souvenirs of the life-threatening gash that had been there when she'd gone unconscious.

Still, Sakura was surprised to find herself alive. She'd gone into that battle fully determined to kill Sasuke, and fully hoping to die in the process. It had almost worked, too. Sasuke had underestimated her—thought her to be the same weepy child when he'd left—and she'd managed to land quite a few blows before he'd managed to recover.

Of course, once he did recover and started taking her seriously, it'd been all over. Kakashi had saved her momentarily when he'd leapt in and started throwing kunai all over the place, but once Sasuke'd sent him flying with that Susanoo thing, she'd known it was over. He'd broken through all her defenses and sliced her open before she'd even managed to land another solid blow.

Sasuke...

A lone tear traced its way down her cheek. Silly, really. She'd known, even going into that battle, that Sasuke would attack her. She'd expected him to. Almost wanted him to. But the coldness and effectiveness with which he'd done it...

Not a hint of hesitation. Not a hint of regret. She'd looked into those eyes and seen nothing but darkness.

A groan to her left suddenly brought her back to the world. A badly wounded Neji was lying next to her, along with a surprisingly thin Chouji. Just to her left, she caught a glimpse of a green-clad arm sticking out of a pile of trash at an odd angle.

Eyes widening, Sakura quickly set to work. She dug Lee out of the trash and assessed his condition. Lee had opened up six of the eight celestial gates, she remembered that. But had he opened any more?

From the looks of it, no. His body had taken a substantial beating, and there were quite a few burns and slices on him, but he was still alive. For the moment, she stopped all the bleeding and stabilized his condition, then moved on.

A quick diagnosis of Chouji made her gasp. His body was rapidly deteriorating. Quickly she fumbled in his pouch and brought up his pill container—empty. He must have taken the last shortly after she went down, she'd told him strictly not to use the red.

Fortunately, Tsunade had dealt with these pills before, and the Akimichi now had an antidote to counteract the effects. Sakura dug around in his pouch some more and brought out a syringe. Unbuckling Chouji's armor, she stabbed the needle down into his heart. Chouji cried out and thrashed a little.

"Wha... What are you doing?"

Sakura glanced over to meet Neji's troubled gaze. Obviously unable to move his head, the most he could do was stare up at her.

"Chouji took the red pill." She replied evenly. "This antidote should stop the degeneration." She turned to him. "Let's get a look at you."

Neji was easily the least wounded of the three. Hardly surprising, given his fighting style. The Gentle Fist relied more on subtle jabs than on hard, straightforward attacks, and was largely a defensive school of combat. Still, his left arm was completely broken, and more than a few ribs on his left side were cracked.

"That big fellow with the orange hair..." He muttered as her hands lit with green fire. "I was heading toward Sasuke and I was focusing for an attack, I wasn't watching him. Stupid mistake..."

"Don't worry about it." Sakura whispered. "Just stay still for now."

"Ugh." Neji turned up his head. "Where are we, anyway?"

Sakura shook her head. "I have no idea. Turn on your Byakugan and see if you can find the others. And watch our perimeter." She cast an anxious look around. "I don't like this place."

#

Ino was just deciding that this probably wasn't a dream when there was a blue blur just to her left, and suddenly there was a man, falling right next to her. Smiling, he babbled something and grabbed hold of her.

How bizarre. A man, spouting gibberish, who appeared out of nowhere and now was falling alongside her. There didn't seem to be anything supporting him. He was wearing a tight blue suit similar to Lee's training outfit. And he was had a... cape? Was that a cape?

Perhaps this was a dream.

Suddenly Ino realized they weren't falling anymore. In fact, ever since the man had grabbed hold of her, they had been slightly slowing down and were even now drifting gracefully to the pavement. She now also noticed that the man was holding Sai in his left hand and Shino in his right while supporting her in the middle.

Gently he lowered them to the street. Ino was dimly aware of people gathering around and murmuring, pointing at the man. The world was growing dark, though, and as the ground rose up to meet her she faded back into oblivion.

#

"Anyone yet?"

"No." Neji responded. He was standing up now and looked to be fully recovered.

"Found any of the others?" Sakura asked, pumping chakra into a now-conscious Lee. Beside her, Chouji had pulled out a bag of chips (from where, she couldn't imagine) and begun eating.

"No."

"Try a wider range then." Sakura frowned. "I don't understand why the others wouldn't be nearby. You're sure they're not anywhere near?"

"I'm sure." Neji responded, a trifle annoyed. "Believe me, I wouldn't be able to miss them in this world."

"How so?" Sakura turned her head to look at him.

Neji snorted. "Sakura, I can identify nearly two hundred people within fifty feet of us, most of them asleep. None of them have any chakra."

"What?" Sakura stopped for a moment. Chouji looked up in surprise. Lee's eyes widened and he let just the tiniest "oooooh!"

"Precisely. No chakra coils at all," nodded Neji. "Either the entire population of this city can disguise their chakra flawlessly, or they cannot use it. If our friends were anywhere nearby, I would be able to seek them out simply by the color of their chakra."

"Neji-san! Are you saying that no one here can use chakra?" Lee's face had suddenly brightened.

"That does seem to be the case, yes."

"Ooooh!" Lee's eyes shone with manly tears. "How glorious! An entire city of people exploding with the springtime of youth! I must meet with the inhabitants so I may spread my youthful enthusiasm! Yosh!"

"Lee!" All three hissed at him. "Quiet!"

Lee quieted down immediately. "Sorry." He whispered. Stealth and silence had never been strong points with him.

"All done with you. Take it easy for a bit, though." Sakura's hands stopped glowing and she stepped away from Lee.

Lee nodded eagerly and promptly began to strap his weights back on. Apparently, for him, 'taking it easy' did not include leaving his enormous weights off.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura turned to Neji. "You said we're in a city. Do you recognize it?"

There was a slight hesitation. "No." He said finally. "As a matter of fact, I cannot recall seeing anything like it before. If I had to guess..." he stopped suddenly.

"What? What is it?" Chouji glanced over.

"There is a man approaching us." Neji answered, quickly and calmly. "He has no chakra, but he is moving at a disquieting rate of speed toward our exact position."

"Crap." Sakura grunted, pushing herself to her feet. "How'd he know where we were?"

"I don't know."

"Too late to do anything about it now anyway," shrugged Sakura, feeling around in her pouch. "And I'm out of soldier pills. He all alone?"

"For the moment." Neji nodded. "Still..."

"Where there's one, there's bound to be more," agreed Sakura. "Probably a ways behind, if you can't see them yet, but they've got to be coming. This one is likely just a scout. We'd better get lost."

Neji eyed Sakura. "There's only one of him and four of us. And he has no chakra."

Sakura snorted as she hauled Lee to his feet. "With what we've been through, most of us might as WELL have no chakra. I'm about drained myself, Lee's still recovering from the six gates he opened, and Chouji..." Sakura paused as she pulled Chouji upright. "...well, look at him."

"I hate being thin." Chouji studied his flat stomach despondently.

Sakura gave a little smile before turning to face Neji. "We don't have the resources to take this guy out, at least not before the others get here. The best we can hope for is to lose them in the city.

Neji looked about to say something, but stopped and tensed suddenly. "Too late. He's here." He announced, pointing toward the roof.

As if on cue, a dark figure swept down from the overhanging darkness and landed directly in front of them. "Not bad." A gravelly voice remarked in perfect Japanese.

"Leave us alone." Sakura gritted out. "Who are you, anyway?"

The man's gaze turned onto Sakura. "I'm Batman."

#

"Nani? Nani o hanashiteiru? {What? What did you say?}" Kiba asked, backing up a step.

One of the men nudged the other. "Dumb kid don't even speak English."

Glancing from one to the other, Kiba stumbled back another step. They were uttering strange sounds and pointing at him. The only weapon he could see was a knife, but if they were threatening him, a clearly-marked shinobi of the Leaf, they could hardly be mere mercenaries. And Kiba was not really feeling up to a full battle, especially without Akamaru.

"You from the Yamato clan, punk? You edgin' in on our territory?"

Yamato? As in, the Mokuton guy? They knew him?

"Hey, he understood that alright." One of the men snickered. "Man, Yamato's gotta be pretty dumb to start hiring punks like this kid."

"No kidding." Grunted the other. "Can't even stand up straight."

"Shut up." The one in the front ordered them. "Okay kid." He said. "We got a message for your bosses, but we ain't got no paper, so we're just gonna cut it into your face, okay?"

"Wakaranai.{I don't understand}" Kiba shook his head. "Wakaranai. Nani o hanashiteiru?"

"Let's just get on with it." Grunted one, and dashed forward.

Kiba had no choice. He leapt at the man and attacked.

To his utter astonishment, the man used no jutsus whatsoever, and did not even appear to be good at taijutsu. He simply gaped at Kiba as he flew over his head and was completely unprepared for the roundhouse kick that hit him in the face.

"Ah, man, a Karate kid," groaned the head man. "I hate the karate kids."

"Does it matter?" returned the other, drawing a pipe from his coat. "They bleed like everybody else." They rushed at the teenager.

Feeling much more confident now in the knowledge he was fighting mercenaries and not shinobi, Kiba dodged the pipe easily and trapped the man's knife hand as it whistled at him. A little twist, and the knife clattered to the ground. In one fluid motion, Kiba let go of the man's hand, dodged another attack from the pipe by ducking, rolled under the man's feet, and let two kunai fly at him and his partner.

He watched amazed, as they tumbled to the ground. Blood seeped out from the body in slowly-growing pools. That was WAY too easy, thought Kiba.

"Omoshiroi.{Interesting}"

Kiba swung around at the new voice. "Nani? Nan des ka? {What? What was that?}"

"Omoshiroi," repeated the voice as its owner strode into the light, clad in a blue trenchcoat with blue pants, blue hat, and an orange shirt. Kiba choked back an exclamation as he saw something else: the man had no face. There were no eyes, no nose, not even a mouth for him to use as he said: "Namae wa, nan des ka? {What's your name?}"

Kiba blinked at the odd question but saw no need to withhold it. "Inuzuka Kiba." He replied.

"Kiba." The other mused in English. "Of course, Fang, referring most likely to the fabled Dragon Fang project. Why would the Illuminati send one here, though? Unless..." He glanced upwards at the building. "Of course. To infiltrate deserted Montgomery Ward warehouse. Front for the Starbucks franchise, most likely being used to assist in alien-mystic rituals." He nodded. "Obvious, in retrospect."

Kiba frowned. He couldn't understand the man anymore. "Nani o hanashiteiru?"

The man seemed to focus on him again. "I will need more information." He muttered to himself. "Ore to tsurete kuru. {Come with me.}"

"Nani?" Kiba jumped back. "Ie. Ie." He responded, shaking his head just in case the man didn't get the point.

The man shrugged his shoulders. "Very well then." He said, switching back to English. "The hard way."

He rushed forward. Kiba, feeling unusually confident by now, prepared to meet him.

Unfortunately, this man was nothing like the other thugs. He glided under Kiba's jab, blocked his kick, and send one hand sweeping down to touch a pressure point on his neck. Kiba's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed to the pavement.

The faceless man bent over him and picked him up. "Must remember to investigate warehouse at later date." He noted. "For now...," he glanced at the unconscious chunin, "interrogate suspect."

#

The appropriate chord of dread seemed to have been struck. All four of the odd children stared at him in frozen astonishment. Taking advantage of their surprise, Batman gave a quick perusal of the newcomers.

Teenagers, close in years. One girl, three boys. Abnormalities: White eyes on boy, pink hair on girl, eyebrows on boy. Possible meta applications—manipulative hair, laser/x-ray/telescopic vision. Eyebrows inconclusive, perhaps a indicates an excess of hormones. Steroid user? Armor on third boy that of 17th century Japanese Samaurai. Kanji on armor for "food." Significance? Name. Designation. Possible clue as to power. Different meaning in other dimension?

While all this was flashing through Batman's head, he also noted that all four looked wounded and worn out, and the one in green spandex looked curiously winded. That, plus the surprisingly loose armor on the other boy, implied they had just spent a great deal of energy, most likely in the teleportation to this dimension.

Of course, that didn't make them innocent, or even harmless. The first time these dimensional ruptures had hit, part of the Metro Tower had been blown up. The others had been equally catastrophic. Batman didn't intend to risk finding out how bad this one could get.

The teenagers recovered with commendable speed. "Batman?" snorted the girl, whom Batman had already marked as the leader. "Nanda, ano bakana namae? {What kind of stupid name is that?}"

Batman ignored the sentiment. "Omaera, ippun inai namae to Gotham no youji wo ie. {You have one minute to start telling me your name and business here in Gotham.}"

The attitude of the teenagers changed subtly. A shift in posture, a slight adjustment in their grouping. But to a practiced crimefighter, the signs were clear. Their new postures were more balanced, and their new grouping more defensive. Without even a word, the teenagers had switched into battle mode, and formed a squad.

This was bad. They were clearly soldiers, and highly trained ones. Let loose in Gotham, there was no telling what they might do.

"Matsu {I'm waiting,}" indicated Batman.

"Naze shitteiranakya? {And why do you need to know?} Omae wa nan no tsumori? {What do you intend to do, exactly?}" That was the white-eyed boy.

Batman stared straight back at the boy. "Sore wa omaera ikanda. {That depends on you.} Demo, otonashiku tsurete kuru no hou ga ii. {But if you're wise, you'll come with me quietly.} Ore wa shitsumon ga aru. {I have some questions you need to answer.}"

The white-eyed boy glanced at the girl. She gave a short nod. "Hayaku oitsuke. {Catch up soon.}"

"Hai." The white-eyed boy launched himself forward.

#

"Get him, get him!" shouted the commander over the roar of laser cannons. "Not there you idiots! Back there—no over—wait now he's—just shoot him already! Reinforcements!" He shouted into his headset. "We need reinforcements!"

"Captain, what is going on down there?" A cold voice rang from his speaker.

The captain turned a few shades paler. "We... we have a situation, sir."

"So I hear." The impatience bled from the speaker. "What kind of situation is it?"

"Sir, we have an unprecedented breach in Sector 14!" The Captain reported. "Four intruders, three of which are down already." The captain decided not to mention that apparently they had been down since 'penetrating' the building. "We're experiencing some difficulties with the last one, though, sir!"

"In what way?"

"Well, it.... It..." the captain fumbled for a moment for words. "It's like a demon, sir! It's got some kind of energy shield that makes bullets bounce off, and it moves too fast for us to hit it with anything bigger!"

"Get the heavy artillery in place and then deploy the counter measures we developed against the Flash." The voice directed. "Once it freezes him, take him down, but do not terminate. Is that understood?"

"Yes sir!" The captain snapped his speaker off. "You there! Jonesy! Get that sonic disruptor to the back of the hallway! Smith! Run over to 317 and get the Peashooter out! The rest of you, keep on him! Don't let him stop!"

There was a small explosion and some guards went flying overhead.

"Get in there you louts! What are you waiting for? Any others with sonic disruptors? Bring them to the rear of the column!" The explosions were getting closer. "C'mon, keep it moving, what do you think the boss is paying you for?"

"Captain!" A soldier tugged at his elbow. "Captain, Smith is back with the Peashooter!" He gestured to miniaturized tank-like vehicle speeding down the hallway. An enormous gun sat atop it, connected by a pipe to a vat of some strange liquid.

"About time!" The captain wheeled around. "Smith! Get that over here! You other men, fall back! Fall back!" He turned to Smith. "Soon as you get a clear shot, fire." He muttered. "Once he does, you others, zero in on it and hit it with the sonic disruptors."

"Sir." The others nodded.

Men came flying back, shooting as they ran. The clearing hallway gave the captain a full glimpse of his enemy. Crouched on all fours, the teenager had curiously red eyes and fangs. Energy bubbled off him in a shroud-like covering. Two tails of pure glowing power sprouted from his back. Exultant in the clearing hallway, it roared aloud to celebrate its triumph over the fleeing soldiers.

"Take it." The captain whispered.

The Peashooter fired three times in rapid succession. Every time it fired, twelve great blobs of massy goo shot from the cannon and smacked into the strange red creature. They stuck to him, weighing him down. The creature roared in fury and thrashed about, yet already the strange red energy was dissolving the blobs imprisoning it.

"Shoot you morons! Shoot!" The captain shouted at the others.

"But sir, Johnson and Larry are still in the way of..."

"SHOOT!"

Four Sonic disruptors fired into action, sending a wall of pure sound at the rampaging creature. It thrashed even more furiously, clutched its head in its hands, roared aloud. The gooey balls were almost gone now.

The captain's Intensive Laser Rifle shot out. With breathtaking accuracy he fired, sending the beam straight through the creature's chest.

Doubling over, the creature gave one last roar and then lay still. The energy around him faded.

"Check Johnson and Larry." The captain ordered. "B-team, with me! Secure the prisoners!"

The guards tentatively approached the blonde laying on the floor. At an irritable wave from the captain, others jogged down the hall to find the other three "intruders" the initial guards had reported.

"Jeez, cap'n, you shot him in the chest!" one of the guards marveled. "Didn't the boss say he wanted him unharmed?"

"He said alive. A wound like that'll heal, with proper medical attention. And it should keep him down for a while. Clap a gas mask on him and give him enough sedative to stay out of it." Glancing over, he shouted, "Report on Larry and Johnson?"

"Uh... they're dead sir. Couldn't take the sonic, looks like, their brains are comin' outta their ears."

"Hm." The captain turned back to the blond lying on the floor, already being sedated and secured. "Add that to the ones this guy killed. How many does that make?"

A slight pause. "At least thirty, sir. Need to get an exact count to be sure."

"Do it."

"Sir." A lieutenant saluted as he came forward. "We have the others. Is termination authorized?"

The captain turned and surveyed the other three. A man with dark hair drawn back into a ponytail, a girl in Chinese costume with her brown hair in two tight buns, and another girl with brilliant red hair. All teenagers. All unconscious.

"Negative on that. Keep them sedated and secured like this one." He gestured. "No telling what they are or what they can do, but Mr. Luthor's going to want to look at them for sure."

#

Of the different choices available to his suspicious visitors, Batman had rated 'flight' at 43%, 'fight' at 47%, and 'come along peaceably' at 2%.

The strategy 'fight AND flight' had occurred to him, but it had earned an 8% likelihood because it didn't make much sense. Nonetheless, the point remained that he'd considered it, and the girl had barely finished saying her bit when he was already leaping into the air, above the white-eyed boy, and straight at the remaining teenagers. He could fight later, right now he had to stop them from leaving.

The boy in green spandex was in the lead. A few seconds served to validate Batman's first impression—these kids were trained. And fast. Though he seemed to be pulling his punches a little (why, Batman couldn't imagine), the spandex kid attacked with a mixture of method and madness. It was a very distinctive, and yet a very unique style. Batman felt a brief desire to stretch the fight out, just to study the fighting style...

"AAAGH!"

Batman ducked just in time to let the girl's slim fist go whizzing over his head. A second later he had reason to be glad of that, as the wall behind him cracked with the force of the girl's blow. Definitely a meta. He noted. Strength related to unusually colored hair? Samson-like phenomenon? These coincidences were not uncommon.

Even as he pondered the question, his left elbow was shooting up, into the girl's stomach. Apparently her great strength did not come with great durability, for she doubled over with a grunt and just barely managed to catch herself from falling.

Batman would have followed with a chop to the neck—it would have taken the girl out of the fight, and made things SO much simpler—but suddenly the spandex kid was attacking with a renewed vigor, and no longer pulling his punches. His speed was nearly, but only nearly, inhuman, and if Batman hadn't been getting the rhythm of the boy's attacks, he might have not been able to keep up with it.

As it was, he had landed about five solid hits and was lining up a sixth when he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye of a great whirling mass of red. He leapt backwards, just in time to let the great ball of armor and emaciated teenager go crashing into the wall, directly next to the pink-haired girl. The ball unrolled and swung around to face him, just as the girl rose to her feet.

Lashing out with a foot, Batman kicked back the spandex kid, and whirled about just in time to deflect a blow from white-eyes, who had come back to join the fight. He didn't quite manage to block all of it, and the teenager's palm struck his shoulder lightly.

A stabbing pain shot through Batman's armor and hardened nerves. He could feel the muscle tearing, the straining of the tendons. Nearly all his left arm felt slightly numb from the blow.

White-eyes had whipped away from his counter-stroke and now stood between him and the others again. "Ie {Go}." He said.

"Iya. {No way,}" growled the girl, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Sore wa itakatta. Koko ni tomatte, ano hito wo taosu. {That hurt. I say we stay and give him a good pounding.}"

"Sakura-san, mae no kanten wa mada mottomo da. { Sakura, our original points still hold.}" The boy pointed out. "Hoka no hitotachi wa sugu kite orera wa jikan ga nainda. {Those others can't be far behind, and we have even less time to spare.}" Subtly, the boy shifted position. "Ano hito wa ore ni makasete, sugu oitsuku. {Leave him to me, I'll meet up with you soon.}"

The girl nodded slowly and glanced to the others. Turning, they leapt into the darkness of the rooftops.

Batman was already moving after them, but this time White-Eyes was completely in his way. "Iie. {No.}" He said, bringing his arms up in a very odd stance. "Omae no aite wa ore da. {Your opponent is me.}"

#

Neji understood as few did the relation between chakra and power. Not just because he was a genius Hyuuga with precise chakra control and implementation, but also because he was on a team with a taijutsu specialist and a weapons expert, neither of whom could employ chakra very well. In his younger days, he had always assumed that this difference rendered him inherently stronger, but time (and Naruto) had changed this opinion. Now, he had a much healthier appreciation for the capabilities of the 'common' ninja.

But this ninja—for so Neji had to call him, there was simply no other label—was on another level altogether. He was like a melding of Lee AND Tenten, an insanely fast taijutsu specialist with an array of bizarre weaponry. True, he did not have Lee's speed, but he more than made up for that in sheer unpredictability. It was impossible to analyze his style, for either he had none, or he had so many that it was impossible to see how they related.

Worse, the man seemed to have grasped the essence of the Gentle Fist style nearly immediately. His left arm had an obvious stiffness to it, and its blows were decidedly weak, but he took great care to avoid so much as a touch from Neji, deflecting blows instead of blocking them. And often, he merely whipped away and hurled bombs or odd-looking shuriken at him.

The upshot of this was that Neji found himself relying more and more on the Kaiten, both as the best way to deflect the ninja's projectiles, and as the surest means of blocking all his strikes. And it certainly forced the ninja back.

Neji might have felt pretty good about that, if he hadn't already used up most of his chakra in the battle with Sasuke before. The few last spins he had in him were fast running out.

The man whipped away from his jab and leaped back, hurling an assortment of small artillery as he did so. Neji attempted to conserve chakra by dodging his way through them, and received a slash across the cheek for his pains. Ignoring it, he threw up a hand to block the stranger's incoming attack. He caught the slight motion of the leg and jerked backwards just in time to avoid the foot that went whistling just shy of his abdomen.

That did it. Neji's gaze hardened and he launched himself straight at the man, feet twirling and arms outstretched in the dreaded preliminary form of the Hyuuga Kaiten. A whirling blue bubble of pure death surrounded him as he charged forward.

The man backflipped away, tossing an array of objects that splintered or exploded harmlessly against Neji's shell of energy. The glowing whirlwind charged onward, shredding or blowing aside anything in its path as it vainly sought to catch the elusive crimefighter. All the while, Batman continued to hurl back useless projectiles.

Which was why Neji did not pay attention to the small blinking object he threw right in Neji's path, instead simply charging over it as it blinked faster and faster.

BOOM!

#

The glowing blue shield broke apart into little wisps of energy as the white-eyed teenager went flying. A sickening crack was heard as his body slammed into the wall, and then he slumped down and lay still.

Batman eyed the boy carefully as he approached, but everything indicated a true state of unconsciousness. Breath rate, eye movement (or lack therof), muscle tension... the teen was well and truly out of it.

Injured too. A quick examination showed that apparently that hit against the wall had completely broken a few ribs. Surprising, but perhaps they'd been cracked before the battle. The wound wasn't life-threatening and could doubtless be handled by paramedics while Batman tracked the others...

Except he didn't want paramedics touching this kid. And those others, whoever they were, had to be long gone by now. A chase would be worse than pointless.

Batman touched the ear of his cowl. "Alfred." He said. "Have the Computer alert me of any and all police reports concerning three teenagers moving at approximately twenty miles an hour.

"Sir?"

"Just do it. Any word from the League on the other dimensional rifts?"

A short pause. "Superman reported in with some people who fell from the sky."

"Hm." Batman digested that bit of information. "Anything else?"

"No sir. The League investigated the other sites but found nothing. Perhaps an anomaly?"

"Perhaps, but not likely." Batman frowned in thought. "Something's wrong, Alfred. The rifts don't usually open up all over the place like this. And there were kids at this one... dangerous kids. If there were others at the other sites..." Batman shook his head. "Tell Clark to put the League on alert. There's no way of knowing how many got through, or where they are now."

#

"Tch." Sasuke brushed some leaves off his coat. "That was annoying."

"Who the heck WAS that guy?" Frowning, Suigetsu glared at the park they'd left. "He just... came out of nowhere. Like that Tobi dude."

Juugo shrugged. "I don't know. Never seen anything like him before. All green and glowing and..." He frowned. "A relative of that Leaf taijutsu expert?"

"More likely a Kumo nin. But he didn't seem to have any headband, and besides this place is nowhere near Kumo." Suigetsu glanced around. "Come to think of it, where IS this place, anyway? And where's Karin?"

"I'm not sure. When the..."

"This is another dimension." Sasuke interrupted them. "Hatake Kakashi seems to have teleported us using his sharingan. Karin was probably outside of his attack, so she is not here." He let a small huff of frustration. "This is problematic."

"Hmm." Suigetsu pondered that for a moment. "Well... do you know how to get us back?"

"No," responded Sasuke, "but I will. I am not familiar with the technique he used, but it cannot be difficult to imitate."

Juugo nodded quietly. "But until then, we're stuck here."

"Exactly." Sasuke replied. "We need somewhere to stay while I learn the technique."

"Hide, you mean," snorted Suigetsu. "That... whatever-it-was, was looking for us, and there's only one reason why people are ever doing that."

Sasuke coldly eyed the silver-haired man. "I mean we need a secure position. We know little about this dimension, and I'd prefer to act from a position of strength." He pointed across the water. "We'll use that building on the island."

"Yeah, that looks so totally non-conspicuous and out-of-the-way." Suigetsu squinted across at the gleaming building. "There are lights on inside. Might be occupied."

A shrug was his only response. "That's too bad for the occupants. Prepare to move."

"Um... Sasuke–sama?" Juugo spoke up from the rear. "What are we going to do with her?" He indicated the girl in his arms.

"You brought her with us?" Suigetsu almost laughed.

Juugo shifted uneasily. "She was wounded... and we were in a hurry."

"Leave her." Sasuke ordered him, without sparing a glance for the white-eyed girl. "She's of no further use to us." He turned back to the harbor and the odd T-shaped tower on the island. "We have more pressing concerns."