Finalization

"Have to say, I'm surprised at you." Shikamaru remarked.

The enormous dark man that had been Luthor five seconds ago turned to regard him. "Why, foolish mortal?"

"Just the way you're going about this." A simple gesture indicated the scene directly below their invisible, floating box. The floor seethed with sixteen ninjas and some hundred heroes, battling more or less across the room, though various screens showed a number of fights that had crashed out into the streets or other areas of the MetroTower. Though he couldn't pretend to know the powers of all the different metas present (though he was fast cataloging them), Shikamaru felt this might have been an uneven match, if Naruto hadn't spawned about ten thousand clones into existence. They didn't do much besides throw around Rasengans, but they were EVERYWHERE, and the heroes were pretty badly disoriented by the whole... Naruto-ness of the room.

Of course, something about those red and yellow streaks shooting through everything seemed to be helping too. Shikamaru had no idea what they were, but they seemed to be keeping the metas completely off balance. Hopefully they would keep it up.

The man's stone grey face was still staring at him for an explanation. Shikamaru decided to go for it. "If I was a god, I wouldn't even be pretending to lead my forces into battle like that," said he, pointing at a clone of his captor in the thick of the fight, nonchalantly punching clones away. "Any big brute with more muscles than brains could do that. SUPERMAN could do that, if it came down to it." Shikamaru noted the faint stiffening of his enemy and smiled inwardly. "Seems awfully stupid. Last I heard, gods don't fight their own battles, they get pitiful mortals to fight them out for them."

"That is just and proper," nodded the other.

"Don't know about that, but it's what gods do. Well, all gods except you, apparently."

The man's glowing eyes regarded Shikamaru for a moment. "Your duplicity is so unbounded, mortal, that I cannot discern whether you seek to manipulate me into removing my avatar, or, by reverse psychology, into removing my pawns."

"So much for unbounded wisdom," yawned Shikamaru

"The human mind is a mystery even to gods. Your mind in particular. However, I think I shall outmatch you this time, mortal." A small curve twisted the edge of the creature's mouth. "Rather than removing my avatar OR my pawns, I shall retain both. I have underestimated you and your friends too often for me to make the same mistake again."

"Promises, promises. Well, knock yourself out, I guess." Shrugging, Shikamaru leaned back in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. "You wanna play chess? You might find this battle thing interesting, but its sorta dull to me."

"A worthy attempt, Mr. Nara, but no." Just a trace of Luthor's amusement filtered into the monster's deep bass. "I may have two bodies, but I have only one focus, and I should prefer to spend it on the real battle."

"Suit yourself." Another yawn hid Shikamaru's growing dismay. Truthfully, he hadn't expected to live beyond the prison breakout, and had more or less resigned himself to being an early casualty of Luthor's rage. But having lived thus far, his mind was busily working on ways to KEEP living as long as possible, or at least to keep as many of his friends living as could be arranged.

Unfortunately, none of his usual tricks seemed to be working. Shikamaru was unsure how to handle this bigger, darker Luthor—or Darkseid, if he'd heard that right—and there weren't many other ways of affecting the battle from this floating box, what with him being magically bound to the chair and all. It looked as though he'd be doomed to remain a spectator in this battle, helpless to aid or hinder his friends.

Young man, who are you? Are you alright?

Before Shikamaru quite had time to process the existence of a voice in his head, and the possible implications that raised, another voice chimed in. And this voice was familiar.

Shikamaru?

#

Listen everyone, I found Shikamaru. I'm updating him now.

Sakura really didn't care for Ino's interruptions, however vital. For one, they made it really, really hard to focus, something kinda important when you were trying to keep a certain Thanagarian's mace from entering your skull. For two, Sakura had more than enough voices in her head already, and Ino's wasn't making the other's any happier.

But then, maybe that was making her so doggone POWERFUL right now.

Sakura had never felt such a rush of adrenaline, such an absolute euphoria of rage. Some corner of her mind distantly noted that she was screaming, roaring in glee as her huge twin axes slashed away at Hawkgirl, whipping back just in time to block the powerful blow from her mace. The shudder of the strike shot through the blade and vibrated through the handles, but Sakura wasted no time thinking about it, for she moved with the force, yielding under Hawkgirl's pressure to duck into a roll and go right between the Thanagarian's legs.

Huh. Some kind of teenager with a golden rod was flying at her. Sakura batted her away with the flat of her axe, then whirled up just in time to catch Hawkgirl's mace on the upswing. This was actually kind of fun, in a way, like the sparring bouts she'd had with Hawkgirl.

Except a lot more forceful. And with a ton of more people running around. And, of course, everyone was using sharp, pointy objects.

Sakura caught the crackling mace in the crook of one of her axes, trying to whip it away from Hawkgirl. It was doomed to fail, but it gave her time to whip out her other axe and give Shayera a healthy slash across the midsection. Sakura tried to follow that up with a clubbing attack at the head, but Hawkgirl had recovered by then and her mace swung back around to knock the axe aside. A quick writhe of her body carried Sakura just barely away from the mace's return strike, but it also threw her off balance, sending her tumbling to the floor.

Sakura's brain barely had time to process the sight of the mace whizzing at her before an orange blur shot over head and bowled into Hawkgirl full force, knocking her backwards and sending the mace flying. With a curse, the Thanagarian tore the Naruto clone off her and hurled him at the ceiling, where he exploded into smoke.

Fumbling wildly for her axes, Sakura sprang to her feet, painfully conscious of the poofs and small explosions of smoke behind her. It was good to be alive and all, but knowing that about thirty different clones had died to give you enough time to get back up dampened your enthusiasm considerably. Getting a firmer grip on her axes, she charged at the unarmed Hawkgirl, who growled and flew right at her.

It was all in a second... axes flashing—a sudden flurry of wings—a great punch to her abdomen—a strong sensation of weightlessness, of violent motion—a desperate flailing of her free arm—again weightlessness—then a collision with the ground (or at least with a Naruto clone) that knocked the wind out of her.

The clones did their best to provide a protective ring as she struggled up, but Sakura was only just hobbling to her feet when a screaming Black Canary broke through and aimed a series of kicks at her. Sakura deflected the first more or less on luck, the second knocked her back, but on the third she blocked the leg, grabbed it, and threw Canary bodily across the room.

A roaring attracted her attention leftwards. Hawkgirl was back, and she'd found her mace again. Sakura threw up her axe to block the blow.

To her horror, Hawkgirl's mace broke the axe's blade in half and smashed into her side. Pain danced through Sakura's head and darkness swam in her vision, but she managed to bring up her other weapon and smash the Thanagarian across the face with it.

As her winged opponent stumbled backwards, Sakura caught the flash of red and gold out of the corner of her eye. Something grabbed hold of her...

#

Sakura's been replaced. Don't worry about her, just keep at it now! Shikamaru says we need to buy some time!

Chouji didn't like fighting at the best of times. It was annoying, it was tiring, and most of the time, it tended to be painful. He liked Naruto well enough, but he'd never understood his friend's delight for combat.

But fighting at the worst of times—when all other options had been exhausted and things were really desperate—that was something Chouji could do. He wouldn't like it, but he could do it.

And right now, despite the half-dozen bullets in his kneecap, despite the enormous fist Atom Smasher was trying to plant in his face, despite the annoying silver man flying around his head, despite the fact that his head kept bumping against the twenty-foot-tall ceiling, Chouji couldn't be happier. Not because the situation was desperate—though it was—but he had voices in his head.

Chouji, Shikamaru needs you to occupy more of the meta force and draw them away! We're losing too many of the clones and the Flash team can't keep this up forever!

"Yes we can!" protested a yellow blur as it raced past Chouji's ear.

Shikamaru was back! He was okay, and he was back, and he was giving orders again, and everything was going to be awesome again! Okay, so apparently the bald guy had some incredibly powerful world-controlling genjutsu thing that was turning all the heroes against them. (Or something like that... Chouji hadn't caught all of Hinata's explanation.) So what? Shikamaru was back!

And if Shikamaru wanted him to distract more of the hero-people, heck, that's what he'd do!

Ducking under Atom Smasher's fist, Chouji charged forwards, stomping his way through the crowd of heroes. He shoved a massive elbow deep into Atom Smasher's side, sending the massive man stumbling backwards.

Chouji, watch your step! You just about smashed Sai!

Suppressing an unworthy thought about if that would be so bad, Chouji planted his feet and stood still. His charge had served its purpose, though... more heroes had gotten upset, and now a whole new team of them was attacking.

The silver man whizzed in front of him, raising a giant hammer. Chouji tried to swat him aside, but the man slipped through his fingers and struck him directly on the temple. It didn't exactly daze Chouji, but it did smart. Almost on reflex, his hand slapped his head, and a badly-mangled Steel tumbled earthward.

Oh dear. They were probably going to hear it about that.

More bullets, pounding into his kneecap. Chouji tried to unseat Vigilante through a little foot-shuffle, but the westerner easily avoided his massive foot and continued firing away. And now there was some black lady in an orange outfit running up his leg, clinging to his pants like a cat, weaving skillfully around his attempts to knock her off. And there were... ow!

Turning around, Chouji saw Green Lantern shooting at him, green energy shooting from his power ring to smash against Chouji's massive frame. Even as he turned, an enormous fist formed from the energy and dealt him a devastating right hook.

Chouji's falling! Chouji's falling! Clear the area, clear the area!

Metal and concrete cracked under his weight, leaving a vaguely Chouji-shaped depression in the floor. Before he could even think of getting up, heroes were swarming over him, cutting away at his armor with lasers, swords, sharp claws, anything they had on hand. One apparently humorous Leaguer began to stab away at his hind end.

Chouji, however, was more occupied with the green glow zooming toward him. It was swelling in size, starting to grow into what looked like a giant-sized Luthor. And out of the corner of his eye, Chouji could see Atom Smasher getting up.

This was bad, Chouji realized. He didn't even know if he could handle Green Lantern, much less Lantern, Smasher, and the two dozen heroes swarming over his backside.

But he had to. Shikamaru and the others were depending on him.

Slowly, carefully, Chouji struggled to his feet, trying to shake off as many of the little tag-on heroes as possible. They were all over his back, there were a number on his legs and a select annoying few had reached his head. But he couldn't deal with them right now. Green Lantern was almost here. Chouji planted his feet, brought up his fists, and...

"YOSH!"

A green and orange blur raced up his back, plowing a swathe through the heroes adorning it. It shot across Chouji's neck, through his hair, off his head and straight into the giant green Luthor.

"Dynamic Entry!"

Chouji didn't exactly have time to wonder what Gai-sensei was doing here, or whether he seriously would be able to take on Green Lantern himself. All he had time to do was turn around and meet Atom Smasher's onslaught.

Chouji couldn't risk stepping backward, or even stumbling, not with so many of his friends around. And for the same reasons, he couldn't very well let Atom Smasher go crashing down either. So he could only let Atom Smasher hit him like a freight train and hold him there, sumo-style, while trying to ignore the heroes carving initials into his skin.

Chouji stood there, muscles heaving, bones creaking, nerves strained to the highest pitch, his fingers firmly clasped about Atom Smasher. He could feel the hero growing in size and did his best to match it, but it was only a matter of time before he reached his limit. To top it off, the lady in the orange costume had clawed her way up to his face and was tearing her way up his cheek. He had an uncomfortable feeling she was headed for his eye. Slowly, his left foot slid backwards.

Chouji! Don't fall, practically our whole team is right behind you there!

Something was pricking the back of his neck—a hero of some kind, probably, stabbing away. Atom Smasher was still growing.

Listen, Chouji, get out of here! You can't fight in these quarters, you need to get those guys off of you!

Heaving mightily, Chouji tried to push Atom Smasher away but the man was simply too big. He grew to match it, nearly bending over double to fit in the room. All across his back he felt burning sears and slashes as his armor and cloth began to give way. Something slashed away at his Achilles tendon and he fell to one knee.

Chouji!

Chouji's eyes snapped open. With a growl, he pushed himself up, shaking loose two or three unwary hitchhikers. He shrank, leaving Atom Smasher's fingers grasping nothing but air, then grew again at an astonishing rate, barreling in size upwards straight into Smasher. And as he continued to grow, smashing up into the ceiling and through the next floor, brilliant blue wings burst from his back.

#

I... I... okay. Okay. Chouji just took out... uh... half of the metas, I think. Took out, I mean, they're outside, not dead, but... Anyway, you don't have to worry about it. Just keep at it.

Sai wondered why Ino thought he WOULD worry. Chouji was a fine comrade, but hardly a close friend. Granted, Sai didn't have many comrades either, but in this situation... it was a battle, and sacrifices had to occasionally be made. If Chouji died taking out half of the meta force, or even a quarter, it would be a better death than many another ninja could have achieved.

But of course, as Sai hastily reminded himself, that was morbid and slightly inhuman way of viewing the situation. You weren't supposed to consign your comrades to death, and he wasn't doing that to Chouji. Chouji was a big boy, after all. He could take care of himself.

Although, Sai reflected as he unleashed a new set of ink hawks, these weren't exactly your average set of opponents. They ate up most of his lesser monsters, and he really didn't have enough of the bigger ones to meet them all. He could draw more, of course, but he didn't really think he wanted to risk that at this rate of...

Sai backflipped out of the way of Question's left hook and finished his drawing in mid-air, sending three snakes gliding in the conspiracy theorist's direction. Hearing a slight whirring out of the corner of his ear, he landed in a crouch and let a stray T-sphere go whizzing over his head. He turned to face Terrific, but even as he did, the scientist was engulfed in a globe of insects.

Sai had just barely time to feel relief at that before he found himself whipping away from a rather psychotic woman with a katana. Sai brought out his own sword to block it, but he couldn't pretend to be anywhere near the lady's skill level with her sword. Still, no major problem. Sai inhaled and blew a cloud of ink right into the woman's face, then gave her a sharp rap on the head.

Something heavy landed behind him. Sai rolled away on instinct and came up facing his opponent. An burly, quite ordinary-looking man covered in tattoos. What sort of...

Sai's unspoken question was answered as three snakes writhed off the man's arm and shot at him. Quicker than sight, Sai's pen formed three hawks, which grabbed the snakes and proceeded to tear them apart. The tiger tattoo adorning the man's chest came to life and leapt at him, roaring. Sai rolled away, scribbling a few finishing touches on a lion that erupted off the page and charged at the tiger. As they fought, Sai sent his remaining ink hawks at the man's head and used the distraction to get in close and deliver a few quick blows at decisive points.

Sai watched as the man slumped to the floor. An interesting opponent, he mused. I wonder if...

Sai! Look out!

Almost automatically, Sai ducked, letting three bullets whizz over his head, bullets he was sure wouldn't have missed him if it hadn't been for that whoosh of yellow energy out of the corner of his eye. Already he was up and racing toward the source of the bullets, dodging his way through the battle. Sure, there were TONS of enemies to choose from here, but right now he needed to deal with the one that was specifically interested in him.

He found him about halfway up the wall, hanging there with one powerful arm and throwing off Naruto clones with the other. His single red optic caught sight of Sai and instantly he unleashed a swarm of bullets, but this time Sai was ready and performed a quick substitution.

KGBeast? Isn't he a villain? His subconscious answered, So is Luthor.

Nodding absentmindedly in agreement, Sai shot up the wall, already sketching on his scroll. A new patch of snakes popped out, snaring the man's arms and legs for all of five seconds before they burst apart under the strain of holding him. Those five seconds gave Sai the chance to close the gap to him, but the man simply let go of the wall and plummeted to the floor, firing away at him all the way down. Despite Sai's efforts, several of the bullets grazed his side and he winced.

Need to close the distance, he reminded himself as he dashed down the wall and into the crowd. Too dangerous at long range. Quickly his fingers flew in a seal, and a new Sai condensed out of ink beside him. He shot out of the crowd, ahead of Sai, straight at KGBeast, and nearly covered half the distance before exploding into a bullet-ridden cloud of ink.

But in the meantime, Sai had slipped around behind the man. Quick as sight, his paper flipped out, and an enormous gorilla leapt off the page and onto KGBeast.

That should occupy him for a moment or so, thought Sai, flipping to a new page in his sketchpad. And now that I have a breather... let us see how Susanoo would affect this battle.

#

Okay, everybody, we've got a momentary advantage! Sai's Susanoo should keep a large section of the metas occupied for a while, so press the fight! We need to get through to Darkseid!

Shino filed away the knowledge and continued fighting. A beautiful system, this... much like a hive mind. The experience was granting him new insight into the viewpoints and techniques of his allies, insight that could doubtless be incorporated into more effective jutsus at a later date.

'Later' being the operative term, of course. Attempting to devise new jutsus in the midst of combat would simply not be optimum. Naruto might excel at that sort of improvisation, but Shino did not. Aburame had to work with their insects, and you couldn't train insects to perform totally new attacks in the course of a few seconds.

Regrettable, because his current opponent seemed to be able to adapt his floating robotic sphere to any new format he chose. Even more regrettably, his opponent appeared to be an extremely creative man.

Shino dodged the first ball shooting at his foot and made a stab at the one circling his head. His allies were occupied with the third... thank goodness this man only seemed to have three of these things on hand. But they didn't seem to be making much progress ripping it apart, and their effect on its speed was negligible. Some new tactic was required, clearly.

A buzzing of the insects on his shoulder warned Shino of the first globe's return. He'd placed a tracker bug on all three of the globes, and males got agitated whenever they approached. It wasn't much of a warning, but, in a time like this, it was enough of an edge for him to pivot on his left foot, ducking as he did so, and avoid the speeding T-sphere.

Each of the T-spheres (Shino had noted) needed a little space in order to build up anything like damaging momentum, and his sudden movement caught the orbiting sphere off-guard. It fumbled for a little before re-orienting itself, but by the time it found him, Shino had hurled an exploding note.

BOOOM!

Curious, observed Shino as he picked himself up off the ground. The explosion was disproportionate to the actual size of the sphere. Clearly, those T-sphere's contained a great deal of energy. He was a lightning type, could he--? But no. They moved too fast, too elusively, and anyway Shino had never attained a full mastery over his element.

Shino had only an instant of respite, but he used it to the full. He recorded data about the surrounding battle, about his position in it, about the probable impact on the increasingly-loud explosions that denoted where Naruto and Sasuke were. He noted his opponent, easily cutting through rank after rank of Naruto clones, and for the first time realized that he was not Terrific's only opponent. Even while fighting Shino, Terrific was constantly battling off several clones with his additional spheres—apparently he did indeed have more than three.

The observation increased Shino's respect of his opponent, and also exacerbated his regret at their battle, but it could not be helped. Ino had made the stakes of this situation very clear. If Shino had to kill the man to get through, he would.

With this in mind, Shino leapt back into action. A single outstretched arm sent out the command, sending his insects boiling outwards toward the man. Their ranks were too thin, their range too broad for any T-sphere to block.

Or so Shino thought. Terrific, somehow sensing the assault, instantly whirled about, sending two spheres at the swarm of bugs. Energy crackled between them as they whirled round and round each other, spinning faster and faster in a widening whirlwind. Shino's swarm was blown apart by the force, his many allies dispersed to the wind, left to wander their way back to his coat and re-organize. A few made it through, but they found themselves thwarted by the superhero's skin-tight spandex costume. (Shino reflected momentarily as to whether there might be a hidden insight to Lee's obsession with such clothing, but discarded the notion nearly instantly.) Defeated, they too swarmed back to their master.

Shino had not been idle. It had taken every second of his speed and instinct to dive out of the way of Terrific's makeshift hurricane, but once he had, he had wasted no time on the opening. Terrific's other spheres were still occupied with the Naruto clones, the only two he could spare on Shino were still whirring away behind him and would take a few moments to change velocity. This left Terrific (momentarily) without his allies. Shino shot forward, a kunai raised in his hand.

Now Shino was generally considered a genius, even among the Aburame. That did not, though, mean that he was an exceptionally gifted taijutsu artist. His talents were more than acceptable for a ninja, but they did not reach the levels of, for example, Sai. (Lee and Neji did not even bear thinking about.)

So when he closed with Terrific and found the other to be an expert in several different forms of martial arts, two of which were completely novel to him, Shino was understandably discomfited. The advantage was still Shino's—ninja training was more generally comprehensive than most earth forms, and Shino had been training since he could walk—but this needed to be done quickly, more quickly than a full-out fight would allow. And his allies were not yet sufficiently reinforced for a cocooning attack.

Shino made his decision. Blocking a downward chop from the scientist, he threw a handful of insects in the man's face, commanding them to swarm his eyes. Terrific still kept his ground remarkably well, apparently now relying on sound, or perhaps feedback from his returning spheres, but the distraction was more than enough for Shino to whip past the man's defenses and touch several key points on his neck.

Terrific slumped to the floor, unconscious. All about the battlefield, his spheres flickered and died.

Turning with a sigh of relief, Shino was just about to run on to a new target when a dark-gloved hand came out of nowhere and dealt him a sharp chop to the neck.

#

Shino's down, guys, but I've sent Sai over to take care of him. He took down Terrific, that frees up a lot of the Naruto clones, and those spheres you were all complaining about should be gone now too. Better hurry, though, Sai's Susanoo can't last much longer.

Neji did not bother to even think 'Roger.' He simply let go of the string and let the arrow fly, then nocked another without even waiting to see if it would hit. Already his Byakugan eyes were seeking out a new target, on the far side of the room.

Generally Neji, as a close-combat specialist, moved constantly about the battlefield, debilitating ninjas as he went. And at the start, that had been his role here, also. He'd dashed through the hero ranks, taking opponents out one by one. But it'd been going far too slowly. All of these metas seemed to have substantial training of some kind or another, and his Jyuuken style was not nearly as effective without a chakra network to aim at. True, Neji had been fighting villains without networks for months now, but heroes seemed to be much more talented. And MUCH more durable, unless that was Luthor's Equation at work. Their vastly superior numbers didn't help either, Neji couldn't really focus with all that was going on.

Things had changed after he'd found Speedy, though. He remembered the shrimpy teenager from his training sessions with Green Arrow. He'd been Green Arrow's partner (or his sidekick, Neji still wasn't sure which), and a Titan's leader at one point. Now, of course, he was another Luthor-brainwashed crazy, but that hadn't changed the fact that he was Neji's inferior, at least in close-range taijutsu. While the fight hadn't been easy, it'd been one of the quicker ones, and it ended with Neji holding Speedy's bow.

That had added significantly to his options. Neji was nowhere near as good at the bow as he was at jabbing people, but apparently most heroes were nowhere near as good at dodging arrows as they were at dodging bullets. Neji didn't understand it, but he still could use it.

He'd eventually fallen onto a mixture of both techniques, a mixture that more or less involved picking them off at long range before closing in to completely disable them at close range. And, when time allowed, running to a vantage spot on the wall and shooting off a few arrows until someone noticed him.

Like now. Apparently that last shot had been just a bit too much, someone was starting to break off from the main group of heroes, heading more or less in his direction. Worse, they were flying. Flying on a small metal disc crackling with Raiton energy...

Static.

Neji leapt off the wall seconds before the bolt of lightning struck it. Already he had the bow out, shooting off arrows at Static, but none of them hit. The teen simply deflected any that came too close. Still, at least that kept him from shooting any further charges after Neji as the ninja fell earthward.

Neji landed easily, whipping the bow onto his back and raising his hands in the Jyuuken style as Static raced toward him. As the electrical onslaught began again, Neji whirled about in an elaborate Kaiten, deflecting the attacks outward into surrounding Leaguers. Faster and faster he spun, as Static flew closer and closer, hurling bolt after bolt, until suddenly, as Static's disc neared impact, he leapt up, up and over the flying teenager, before plummeting down, hands glowing.

CRAAASSH!

Neji didn't need the dust to clear, he could already see he'd failed. With nearly unbelievable reflexes, Static had flipped over in mid-air, upturning his flying disc to meet Neji's attack. The disc itself was severely cracked in places, and the Byakugan revealed a few broken bones in Static's right wrist, but the teenager himself was unharmed.

And, Neji realized belatedly, fully capable of unleashing another attack.

Pain crystalized on Neji's palm, lancing its way up his arm and through his body before he could even think. His muscles seized up, his vision darkened, his mind grew fuzzy. Static's attack had nowhere near the ferocity of Livewire's, but it had been delivered at much closer range, and Neji could barely even feel most of his body over the overwhelming, pounding pain. Through the mist on the edges of his vision, he saw Static rearing up his disc, and realized something.

These heroes would kill.

The red-and-yellow blur flashed across Neji's immediate area, and suddenly Static was flying backwards, repelled by an unseen force. He'd no sooner hit the ground than three Naruto clones piled on him, and though he soon dispelled them with a shockwave, by the time he was up Neji had recovered and was once again waiting for him.

This time Neji went directly for the offensive, spinning into a Kaiten immediately and bearing down on Static with breathtaking speed. The other teen no longer had his flying disc, but the metal floor beneath him ripped away from its bolts and immediately he was on a flying surfboard of steel, shooting far out of the reach of Neji's whirlwind of death.

Neji did not even pause, but continued spinning all the way to the wall, smashing aside Leaguers (and the occasional Naruto clone) in his path. Only when he reached the wall did he stop his twirl, smoothly drawing the bow from his back as his feet dashed up its surface, notching arrow to the string as he rose above the rest of the tumult.

Static had been flying pretty high, apparently hoping to gain some time that way, but as soon as he saw Neji run up the wall, he flew out toward the middle of the room, hurling bolt after bolt. Neji whipped back and forth across the wall, firing arrows all the way. None of them hit, but they DID make Static do some fairly impressive arobatics.

Neji's arm flew to his quiver and groped for a moment before finding an arrow... his LAST arrow.

The distraction that came from this realization gave Static a free moment. His hands thrust outward, and with a sudden jolt of shock Neji realized his feet were lifting from the wall—or rather the metal beneath them was. Static had ripped his path off the wall, and he was swiftly heading into thin air.

There was barely time to think. Feeding chakra directly to his leg muscles, Neji leapt, out into the air, straight at Static, hands glowing in attack. If he could just reach him...

Static's surfboard darted aside easily, and Neji continued his headlong descent. Yet even as he fell he notched a last arrow to the string and shot, straight up, at Static. The surfboard dodged that too...

...but failed to take into account the explosive note attached to it.

BOOOM!

Neji watched with a quiet satisfaction as the surfboard and its airborne rider tumbled earthward. And as he heard the flutter of ink-laden wings beneath him, the thought occurred to him.

I flew...

#

Gai-sensei, please stop kicking it! That shield is formed from pure willpower, it's not going to break just because you hit it really hard!

"Ah-HA, youthful... Ino, but the... force of my will... power is twenty... times the force of his!" laughed Gai, in between his gasps of pain. "I shall destroy his shield... by sheer... WILLPOWER!" He leapt into the air. "Guillotine Drop!"

Gai fell onto the glowing, green bubble with all the power possible between his body and the force of gravity. Energy crackled and flared, and Gai saw (or imagined he saw) faint hairline cracks in the surface, but the shield held firm, and Gai rebounded off of it.

Sliding to a stop some feet away, Gai took a moment—and only a moment—to fully consider the situation. "Ino." He said, his considerable brow knitted in concentration. "I have a bit of information that may prove useful to Shikamaru. That is no ordinary shield."

WELL DUH!

Gai winced a little as Ino's angry shout echoed through his mind. While it was tempting to simply test his unstoppable force against the immovable object of that shield, Gai was quite aware of the surrounding battle. He did not have the luxury, alas, of truly single combat, that most youthful of art forms. One of his opponent's friends might interfere, or worse, one of the ninjas might. It would not be a true contest, in Gai's mind. And, of course, Ino's information called for urgency. This battle could not be fought according to his own wishes, it must be fought with clean, cold, warlike efficiency.

Contrary to popular belief, Gai thought very quickly, just not generally on subjects that 'normal' people thought about. All this passed through his head in three seconds, approximately the amount of time it took the man in the green shield to slowly relax and smile.

The next second, the air was filled with bolts of green energy. Gai weaved and dove through the onslaught with breathtaking speed and agility, gritting his teeth against the few shots that found their home. Once or twice he got right up against the man and shot a powerful blow at the shield, but once again it merely crackled with the impact.

Gai-sensei. That shield is powered by the man's ring. It can make anything he imagines. If you can catch him off guard and take his ring...

"His ring?" Gai stopped for a tenth of a second, costing him several wounds in the shoulder. "Do you mean to say he is using a weapon?"

Uh... yeah, I guess, but what...

"Ah-HAH!" Leaping high into the air, Gai landed somewhere behind his opponent. His hands flew to his belt. "Then I too, shall use my weapons!"

Nun-chucks were not overly popular weapons in the ninja world, due partly to their lack of sharp edges and reliance on blunt force. Magic nunchucks were alright, and chakra-enhanced nunchucks were acceptable in certain circumstances, but plain wooden ones? No one in their right mind would ever fight with those.

Gai did it all the time.

"YOSH!" Nunchucks whirling, the taijutsu master once again leapt to the attack. He rained down thousands of blows upon the man's impenetrable shield, reveling simply in the challenge. Green bolts flew all around him, but he was not deterred, simply smashing away with wonderfully youthful vigour.

Gai-sensei! Shikamaru says that if you attack from below...

"Understood, youthful Ino!" Leaping high into the air, Gai came crashing down, one foot extended, to smash completely through the floor into the room beneath.

Almost before Green Lantern had time to wonder what he was about, the floor erupted underneath him. "Primary Lotus!" roared Gai as he crashed upwards through the metal, legs flying in a green whirlwind.

A few powerful kicks carried Green Lantern well into the air, but Gai had not only leapt up through one room already, he had also had to smash through a floor at full speed. His power was not enough to daze the unshielded man, nor was his momentum great enough to keep the man from simply flying away from the fury of his feet. Gai watched, disconsolate, as his prey escaped him into the air.

Landing once again, Gai considered the situation. He needed to finish this quickly. He needed to help his students. He needed to break that shield.

Green Lantern floated a good distance above the tumult, keeping his eyes fixed on Gai. Apparently Gai's last move had caught him badly off-guard, and he wanted to take a moment to recover.

Unfortunately, Green Lantern did not know the first rule of dealing with Gai, or indeed with anyone who could open the celestial gates.

You never gave them time to open them.

Gai's eyes shot open, blazing with fire. The blood thumped powerfully beneath his skin, turning a violent shade of crimson. Blue sweat poured from his skin, evaporating nearly on impact, creating a glowing blue aura about his form. Green Lantern stared in disbelief as the man leapt sixty feet into the air to come exactly equal with his position, and for a moment, the two locked eyes.

"Morning Peacock!"

Gai-sensei, I told you that won't do anything! It's powered by willpower!

Ino was quite correct. The Green Lantern power ring was capable of performing anything its user imagined, and could be broken by nothing save yellow energy.

But the flip side was that the ring was weak against anything that its user imagined it weak against. The greatest enemy of any Green Lantern was fear, for only the things they feared could truly destroy them.

And Gai, powered by six of the eight celestial gates, was a truly fearsome sight to behold.

Green Lantern's shield shivered. It cracked. It splintered under Gai's blistering barrage, and the Lantern had only a half-second to realize it before Gai, in all his true might, was upon him.

#

The Susannoo's gone, but we've made some good headway! Keep it up, everyone, everything's almost in place!

A cybernetic arm sounded like a cool idea until you realized that it forced you to continually be holding a gun, Tenten reflected. Now, the majority of her time spent fighting usually DID include holding a weapon of some kind, but usually they were all different ones. You could switch, match up, toss out, do whatever. A cyborg arm? You were stuck with it, and unless you wanted to fold it back up while it was still hot, it was the only type that you could use with that arm.

Not that she was complaining, exactly. This thing was beautiful, she'd punched holes in nearly four different Leaguers so far. The others had seemed pretty touchy about killing them, so she'd stuck to non-vitals—mostly kneecaps and such. It'd been hard, with the way those heroes dodged around, but she'd managed it. This thing was beautifully accurate, and wonderfully powerful. She could get used to just using this thing.

But that wasn't necessary, really. She'd picked up one of Vigilante's pistols from where he'd dropped it fighting Chouji, and someone had dropped an impressive-looking knife which she'd gripped in her teeth. So really, she had all the weapons she needed.

What she WANTED, though, was a weapons-laden robot like the one chasing her right now.

Little tiny iron bits of death whizzed about her, punching through the metal on every side. Tenten didn't even dare to look around at the massive white robot, the heavy thud-thud of its footsteps told her all she needed to know. Quickly she checked the explosive dart allowance on her cyborg arm—three darts left.

She switched direction as quickly as possible, braking suddenly and dashing straight back. Fast as she was, it wasn't quite fast enough, several sharp pains exploded across her left arm and side, and something nicked her on the shoulder, but she pushed past the pain and ran on, straight toward the massive mech, whipping around its legs, away from its bullet-spewing hands. Before it could turn and bring its weapons to bear, she locked her arm into place, aimed for the hairline of the entry hatch, and fired off an explosive dart.

For such a small projectile, the darts were surprisingly strong, comparable to two or three explosive notes. So Tenten felt a little disappointed when the smoke cleared and revealed a somewhat battered, but still intact, entry hatch.

It also revealed ten open fingers ready to fire.

Tenten turned to run, but not quite in time. Something buried itself in her hind end (she gave a little shriek, but to her dying day she denied it), and she collapsed. Desperately, she struggled upwards, painfully aware of those ten muzzles aiming for her prone form...

"YOSH!"

Tenten's head whipped around just in time to see a green blur shoot down from the sky and smack into the mech's head, eliciting a sharp 'CLANG,' like a very loud knock on a sheet metal door. The mech stumbled a little from the impact, steadied itself, and managed to find two seconds to fumble around before Lee, having rolled to a halt on the ground, leapt back up and delivered a resounding kick to the main section.

"Oh Great Pale Beast of Metal! I, Rock Lee, the Green Devil of the Leaf Village, challenge you!" Back on the ground, Lee raced through the hail of bullets, straight for one of the robot's mighty legs. "Let us test our mettle against each other!" He hit the leg full-force and the mech tripped up, falling over backward. "No, Tenten!" He called out, seeing her make a move toward them. "This is a matter of honor! It must be decided between robot-san and myself!"

Is he seriously going to try to take out a mech by himself? Tenten wondered. Yet as she watched him turn to face the rising robot with a beaming smile, and then leap up to deliver a punch to the entry hatch, she could almost believe it. In fact, the only thing she felt was a passing regret that she wouldn't be able to pilot the thing.

No matter. Tenten hauled herself upright. Though embarrassing, the wound in her rear was not serious, and the others in her side were not life-threatening. They were bleeding, of course, but not enough to cause problems...

A green wind fanned her hair in the same instant that a sharp 'thunk' behind her convinced her that she'd been fired at. Ducking down immediately, she half-ran, crouched completely over, to a better vantage point, glancing back as she did so. A green arrow was half-buried in the floor behind her. Tenten's eyes narrowed. One of the Flashes must have deflected it, there was no way that guy would have missed otherwise.

She saw him now, perched on a small outcropping about ten feet up the wall, half-hidden by the air-conditioning unit. Even now, another green arrow was peeking out. Throwing up her arm, Tenten loosed another explosive dart.

It was badly off target, and the archer saw it coming long before it hit, but it still knocked him from his perch, and he landed lightly on his feet as Tenten came running up, cyborg arm at the ready. Impressively, for someone who'd been knocked about, he already had another arrow notched (unless it was the same one) and as she ran at him he let it fly.

Tenten was better ready for this one. Even as he had brought it to bear on her, she'd raised her arm to match it, and as it shot forward, her laser gun opened fire. The arrow ripped apart under the blistering salvo.

But now she was right up against Green Arrow, and the arm was not nearly so useful. Worse, the archer appeared to be a better-than-average taijutsu fighter. Her other arm came up with Vigilante's pistol, but she managed only a few shots before his hand flashed up and knocked it out of her hand. For a moment they grappled—she tried to grab his fist with her right hand—forgot she had no right hand—missed it completely—the man's fist shot through and smashed into her jaw, knocking a few teeth loose and slightly dazing her. Before she could quite recover, his knee came up and into her stomach, making her double over in pain. But as she collapsed to the ground, her other hand grabbed at the knife, and as his boot shot at her head she plunged it into his leg.

Green Arrow roared with pain and nearly fell forward, managing to turn it into a kneel at the last moment and clutching his leg fervently. As Tenten rose from her own position, he tried a backhanded slap, but his heart wasn't really in it. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the knife and tugged it free.

Tenten was already running. Without her pistol or knife, she was at a disadvantage at close range like that, she needed to get some room between her and the archer. She zig-zagged through Naruto's clones, well-aware of the prowess of her opponent. A number of clones poofed out of existence disturbingly close to her. If she could just get the right amount of distance...

Something struck her in the middle of the back, and pain erupted throughout her body. Her body simply folded in on itself until she became a quivering mass of pain on the floor. Her breath came in panting gasps and her vision swam.

But she was alive. How the heck was she still alive? A direct hit like that should have killed her, the arrow should have punctured her straight through.

Come to think of it, where was the arrow?

Fighting against the already-subsiding pain, Tenten rolled over and saw the arrow—a blunt-tipped projectile with sparks crackling from the front.

A shock arrow? What kind of warrior used a shock arrow?

The pain was nearly gone now. Tenten half-rose to see Green Arrow rushing toward her, drawing a new arrow to clear the clones between them. Tenten's right arm shot up.

Cloth tore, skin ripped, and bone cracked as lasers punched holes through Green Arrow's left kneecap. In mid-run he staggered, tripped, and crumpled into a heap, his arrow shooting harmlessly overhead.

As Tenten staggered to her feet, she had no time to notice the clones dispersing behind her, and barely time to turn around and catch a gloved fist right between the eyes.

#

"Tenten's down too... Don't know who did it. Kakashi-sama, can we maybe move a little further back?"

Kakashi didn't look at Ino, instead keeping his single eye fixed on the battlefield. Just on the edge nearest them he could see Sakura, raging away with her twin axes. "Any further and we'd be completely cut off. I'd much rather have an avenue of retreat available, thank you."

There was a small noise as if Ino was about to disagree, but then she suddenly fell silent, doubtless distracted by one of the thousand thoughts she had channeling through her head.

Kakashi wasn't entirely sure what was going on. First he'd nearly killed himself trying to follow Naruto to this dimension. Then he'd arrived and nearly gotten killed again by some transforming bald guy with crazy bloodline abilities. He'd had his Sharingan ripped out. THEN he woke up in a hospital, surrounded by all the others and hearing Ino's voice in his head.

And now he was in a pitched battle, apparently against the bald guy in black armor, for some obscure reasons involving a world-control jutsu and some cosmic negotiations that Hinata had worked out somewhere.

The next time Naruto gets himself into trouble, Kakashi decided, he can get himself out.

It wasn't even worth the effort of telling himself he was lying, or of reminding himself that in this case, it was KAKASHI who'd gotten him into trouble. For the moment, Kakashi simply felt better for having made that decision.

At least he didn't have to hear Ino's voice in his head anymore. Shikamaru had regulated him to guarding Ino, which meant all his communication with her was verbal. Surprisingly, Kakashi felt fine with obeying the orders of a chunin half his age. Obviously Shikamaru knew a lot more about the situation than he did, and Kakashi had seen his planning abilities first hand. And anyway he felt guard duty was the best choice for him, as without his Sharingan he didn't feel nearly as confident.

He'd BETTER get that thing back after all this was over.

A sudden movement on the edge of his vision caught his attention, and he whirled around just in time to deflect a marble-hard fist that came flying out of nowhere. The fist was followed by a chop, and after that a leg, and then...

Somewhere between the frenzied language of combat, Kakashi gained an impression of his attacker. A tall woman, raven-haired, wearing a dazzling crown and a shining belt, to which was fixed a golden lasso and a glittering sword. She wore two gleaming bracelets on her wrists.

She also wore, which was to Kakashi's mind MUCH more interesting, some star-spangled underwear and a skin-tight corset of some sort.

"I don't suppose I could ask you to dinner sometime?"

Kakashi ducked just in time to let the fist go whistling overhead. Though he couldn't even tell if the woman had really heard him—her face hadn't changed in the slightest and she'd said nothing—he decided to hold off on the introductions for the moment. At least until she'd stopped trying to kill him.

Again the flurried dance of attack and counter-attack. Kakashi dodged, darted, leapt, and blocked. The last was rather painful, for despite the woman's build she seemed to be insanely powerful. This world's Tsunade, perhaps? The dimensions were about right.

Regardless, he had to take her out quickly. She was too powerful, if someone else attacked Ino right now he'd be powerless to stop them. Leaping backwards, his hands flew in a flurry of seals. "Juha Sho!" He cried, whipping his arm in a long arc.

A blade of pure wind crystallized along the arc, shooting at the woman, striking her straight in the stomach, shredding costume and skin alike. Blood began to seep from the long gash in her side.

The woman's hand went down to the blood. She touched it, smelt it, looked back at Kakashi, growled.

Kakashi felt sweat drip down his face. Ho boy.

Without his Sharingan, Kakashi had no chance of reacting, or even seeing the attack in time. The woman literally flew straight at him, catching him in a headlong rush and punching the air out of him. Without even pausing she flew up, straight up into the air.

She can fly? Kakashi arched an eyebrow in surprise. His hands flew in another seal. "Kaze no Yaiba!"

A tiny pinpoint blade of wind shot from his fingers and pierced the woman's side, somewhere above her kidney. With a small gasp, she let go, and Kakashi would have fallen thirty feet to his death if his arm hadn't shot up and grabbed her by the ankle. The fingers of his other hand moved in a seal, and his lips formed an 'o.' "Fuuton: Wind Release Stream!"

Ino was back. Kakashi-sama, you can't keep using elemental attacks like that! The elements don't respond so well here, you'll exhaust your chakra supply!

Ah, so THAT was why he was feeling so spent already. Of course, the Sharingan wasn't draining his chakra, so that was a bonus.

He and the woman were grappling now in mid-air, doing their best to kill the other as they glided earthward. He'd clawed his way up from her ankle and now was fighting, tooth and nail, to keep a hold on one of her arms while remaining entwined enough to make sure he couldn't be shaken loose.

Kakashi was really enjoying this fight. Pity it had to end so soon.

Letting go of her hand but still gripping her firmly with his legs, Kakashi brought his hands together in a quick succession of seals. "Chidori!" With anyone else, he would have gone for the head, but with her, he went for the heart.

Pain exploded across his vision. His brain bounced backwards and met his skull, they were very close for a few moments before it bounced back met the other side. Little blinking lights danced across his vision, and the Chidori on his arm flickered out of existence. In the second that it'd taken him to form those seals, the woman had used her free hand to punch him across the face. In retrospect, he should have seen that coming. Would have, too, if he'd been watching her arms.

Several Naruto clones broke his fall, but the cold ground still gave him a harsh welcome, knocking the wind from him and causing something to creak alarmingly in his left side. I'm getting too old for this, he decided, rising to his feet.

The woman, also on her feet again, had drawn her sword, and the light gleamed along its edge. With a fresh battlecry, she rushed at Kakashi.

Kakashi's arm flew up. "Raiton no Yoroi!" If elements were such a problem here, he'd better stick to his affinity. Lightning raced along his arm just as the sword struck it, deadening the force and stopping the penetration. The charge shot into the sword and through the handle to the woman, but she merely gritted her teeth and pressed harder.

Kakashi was impressed. The charge wouldn't have been great, of course, but to not even flinch... A woman of devotion and endurance. Perhaps...

Almost faster than he could follow, the woman's sword whipped away. Her leg flashed out in a leftward strike. Kakashi managed to catch it, but the pure power behind the strike knocked him off his feet and far across the floor.

Still lying on the floor, Kakashi observed the electricity from his lightning armor disperse into the metal flooring. Interesting...

A fresh roar made him look up. The woman was charging at him again, sword upraised. Without so much as rising, Kakashi made a few seals and raised his head. "Raiton: Kaminari Shibari."

Three walls of pure lightning crackled upwards from the floor and formed a hedge around the woman. She ran face first into the foremost, sprang back from the shock, glared at the wall, and started to attack it with her sword.

Kakashi didn't intend to see if that would work. Picking up a loose hunk of metal from the floor, he carefully sounded its weight and hurled it, straight through the electric wall, at the woman's forehead.

It struck her directly between the eyes. For a moment her body stiffened, and then it loosened all over and collapsed to the ground.

Kakashi walked over to Ino. "Let's hope we don't have any more interruptions like that, eh?"

Snapping out of her telepathic-induced daze, Ino stared at him. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-sama, did you want me for something?"

Kakashi sighed.
#

Hinata, we're cutting it pretty close! Naruto and Sasuke are closing in, now do you want to relay that stuff about the Kyuubi again?

There was a warmth flowing through Hinata, the warmth of power that she had felt when calming Raven, teleporting Naruto, healing Ino. It was a part of her, flowed through her, and shot out, white-hot, at her fingertips. She saw it leave behind burning symbols like brands on Blue Devil's skin as she punched her way through him, leaving him unconscious on the ground. She saw—or rather felt—it repel the force of Zatanna's magic as spell after spell was hurled at her. It didn't leave any brands on the magician's skin, but Hinata felt a sudden rush of power and watched, astonished, as Zatanna slumped to the ground absolutely drained. Her moves were simply Gentle Fist moves, their effects came from an almost instinctive use of the power flowing through her. Somehow, she KNEW how to direct the warmth, how to make it shield, sear, sap, or suppress. It wasn't directed by her body, it wasn't even completely directed by her mind. But she was in control. She could feel it.

Hinata had never felt such power. It thrilled her. And it scared her.

She'd clocked Blue Devil in three hits. Zatanna had only taken one. Shining Knight had dodged enough to be difficult, but even so, one punch and a light jab had been enough to send him over.

How was she supposed to handle this?

It wasn't a question of the power running amok, Hinata reflected as she deflected two laser blasts with a momentary spin and knocked over the man in black armor. This power was too firmly under her grasp. No, it was a question of HER running amok. Spectre had been very clear, it was HER wishes and desires that had nearly banished Kyuubi the last time. What would happen if she let it get to her again?

HINATA!

Instantly Hinata snapped out of her trance. Right. Let me see. I think Naruto needs to hit him with a Rasengan of some kind...

A rasengan? That's it?

No, no... it's a special kind of Rasengan... he needs to work with Kyuubi to get it right. It's not a big blast, not like a tailed beast bomb or anything, but it's... Look, let me switch you over to Spectre.

Now there was a new sensation running over her. No longer an invigorating warmth, but now a burning fierceness, an almost overpowering heat that threatened to drown her mind. Pushing it back, she focused entirely on the battle, almost not hearing what she was telling Ino.

The Spectre was actually the only one who knew how to deliver the Kyuubi to Luthor. Well, presumably the Kyuubi knew too, but Naruto didn't understand him very well. So in order for this to work, he had to transmit the method, through Hinata, through Ino, directly to Naruto. Supervised, hopefully, by Shikamaru, who would analyze the technique and figure out how best to administer it.

It was an intricate business, and deep inside Hinata was glad she didn't understand it. Otherwise she'd be worrying too hard about getting it right, and not enough about staying alive. And while that had gotten significantly easier with Spectre's power, it still wasn't a guarantee.

A few punches carried her through a man in a voluminous red overcoat. He looked pretty old—Hinata hoped that she hadn't hurt him too badly. Just behind him was a woman, glowing with green fire. She appeared to be focused on Sakura, and hadn't noticed Hinata, so it was relatively easy to close the distance and knock her down with a few strokes. Another woman, clad in blue with spiky white hair, dived at her and shot an ice-laden fist at her. It connected—apparently the shield didn't stop physical objects so much—but Hinata had avoided the main force of the blow and she pushed through the ringing headache to deliver two sharp chops to either side of the woman's head. She went down too.

Spectre's heat was fading, Naruto must have gotten the hang of the Kyuubi thing. Secretly, Hinata felt deeply relieved. Despite all his help, she still felt slightly afraid of the Spectre, and she couldn't help but feel that if he got full possession of her again, it'd be all over for Naruto.

I will never use him again. She thought determinedly. I shall never channel his spirit. What I do here, I do with the power he gave ME. A fine line, perhaps, but Hinata felt all the better for drawing it.

Who was this lady now, dressed all in pink and violet with a glimmering jewel on her forehead? Hinata lashed out with a ready strike...

...and met nothing but air. The woman glided away from her, a smile on her taunting lips as she floated merely a foot above the ground.

Okay, so she could fly. Not a major problem, so long as she didn't go too high. Taking merely a second to compose herself, Hinata set herself in a battle posture and dashed forward.

Strike. Miss. Strike. Miss. Strike...

It hit, it went home, but there was none of the flowing warmth of before. There was no brand on the woman's skin, no visible mark. There was only a purple energy that crackled under Hinata's hand. Looking up in consternation, Hinata saw the woman smirk at her.

A wave of purple energy blew Hinata backwards, sending her tumbling into the mob. A Naruto clone caught her, but even as she started to rush back, the woman unleashed a blistering salvo of purple bolts. Apparently these were not magical, for several shot through her shield and buried themselves in her arm. Suppressing a cry, she broke into a Kaiten spin, deflecting the rest as she continued her onward rush. For a moment she felt the purple energy try to seize her bodily, but apparently it couldn't make it past the wave of chakra.

Hinata had neither the skill nor the endurance of her cousin, and even this incomplete version of the Kaiten had been hard-earned. But it held together long enough for her to come straight up to the woman and explode outwards in a strike. "Four palms!" She shouted. "Eight palms! Sixtee..."

Her sixteenth strike fell on open air, as her Byakugan revealed the woman shooting away from her, far up into the air, far beyond Hinata's reach. She was wincing and clutching her left side, so apparently some of Hinata's strikes had gone through, but she was still alive. And very, VERY mad.

A hail of purple bolts fell from above, augmented by the occasional full-on laser blast. Hinata wove, dodged, and spun, but she couldn't avoid them all. Several struck her heavily in the side, knocking her back as if punched. Another just barely avoided hitting her full in the face, and left a nasty slash across her forehead. Blood leaked down, making vision difficult.

Suddenly the woman's expression grew oddly vacant. She whirled around in mid-air and began to speed off, already firing at another, far-distant locale.

Everyone! Naruto and Sasuke have almost got him! He's calling in all the others to converge on him, DON'T LET THEM GET THERE! STOP THEM!

Naruto. That woman was headed for Naruto...

Hinata's feet flew over the ground. She leapt into the air, far higher, far faster, far longer than her muscles had any right to leap. And as she bore down on the startled woman, there was just the faintest suggestion of wings protruding from her back...

"Juuho Soshiken!"

Hinata landed, essentially on top of the unconscious woman, and took a moment to catch her breath. Despite her Byakugan, she didn't notice or even sense the caped figure before two black gloves came out of nowhere and dealt her a few sharp raps in strategic places.

Hinata slumped to the floor, unconscious.

#

Dangit, Hinata's down now too! Who's doing all this?

"Batman-sensei!"

The dark, caped figure rose from Hinata's body and turned to face him. Lee experienced a momentary doubt as to whether he'd even really heard him—nearly all the Leaguers were fighting in complete silence—but put the question aside. Right now, he had a teacher to contend with.

"Batman-sensei, I must apologize, but I cannot allow you to bring harm to my..."

The crimefighter had started to charge before he even finished. He swung out with his left fist, but Lee practically blurred aside, striking Batman two heavy blows on the back.

"...precious people, Batman-sensei. I regret that..."

Instead of falling, the hero caught himself with his hands and used the opportunity to lash out with his feet at Lee. The move caught him off guard, but still his greater speed told.

"...that—AH—that things have come to this pass, but surely you must agree..."

Lee dashed in front as Batman started to rise to his feet and delivered a full roundhouse kick to his midsection, sending him flying.

"...that unfortunate circumstances dictate it. I can only hope—AGH!"

Batman half-rose and threw out two batarangs. Lee ducked, but they exploded right overhead, and the concussive force knocked him flat to the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see black boots running forward, smoke billowing on either side of him as he almost casually disposed of the dozen Naruto clones trying to block his way.

But Lee bounced up immediately and met his charge with an uppercut. "I can only hope that we shall be firm comrades once you are no longer brainwashed, and that some day we will look back on this and laugh!"

Lee deeply regretted the lack of training in this fight. That is... Batman-sensei's moves were as devious and varied as ever, but Lee, at full speed, could barely profit from the experience they offered. Lee was, of course, still wearing his suit—he had been wearing it when he was captured, and they had not removed it—but it had been powered down for some unimaginable reason, and he was moving at full speed. On one level, Lee felt fine about this, after all, 'saving the world' filled the requirements for taking off his weights, and he didn't often get the chance to fight at full speed. But on another level, he deeply regretted the lost opportunity to train.

Lee, we could use you at the main fight! Things are getting hairy!

"Yosh." Lee nodded. There was no need to drag this out. He would finish it quickly. Allowing himself a quick bow, he said, "Forgive me, Batman sensei," and charged.

Somewhere in the two seconds it took him to reach Batman, the crimefighter's hand flew to his belt and pressed something.

Suddenly Lee's joints froze, his muscles straining in vain. Unable to stop his forward momentum but helpless to prevent his fall, Lee tripped and face-planted on the metal floor, sliding along a considerable distance before coming to rest at Batman's feet. Turning his head, he saw a dark smile spread across the man's face as he held up a small black box.

The remote control for his suit...

Batman's powerful foot planted itself in his midsection. He didn't go flying, Batman hadn't kicked him at that sort of angle, but the force of the kick went right through him and he felt pain erupt across his chest. Again and again and again Batman kicked him as he lay there, helpless on the floor. The pain spread and spread and grew more intense. Lee felt certain something had cracked in there. Batman's foot reared back once more...

Lee's arm inched upwards and deflected it. Not by much, but enough to deaden the blow and send it just grazing off the side. The next kick went for his moving hand, but his fingers managed to twist around and grab the boot, knocking Batman off balance. Slowly, precariously, under constant bombardment from Batman's fists and feet, Lee fought his way upwards.

It felt like swimming in concrete, or more properly FIGHTING in concrete. Lee's suit was maxed out on resistance, which on any other human would have caused them to freeze like a statue, but Lee clawed his way onward, refusing to acknowledge the hundreds of blows dashed past his painfully slow defense.

Naruto is depending on me. He thought to himself. Sakura is depending on me. Batman-sensei himself is depending on me. This is merely another challenge, merely another obstacle. I will defeat Batman-sensei in this fashion, and if I cannot do that...

A powerful elbow planted itself in his chest, and the sickening crack it elucidated made the pain explode all over again. Lee collapsed backwards, gasping, his vision fading in and out.

...I will die. He realized.

Batman's caped form loomed over him. It raised a single boot over his face, preparing to plunge down and into his skull...

"Yeeeeeehaaw!"

Lee's vision turned slightly yellow for a moment and Batman's boot was gone. Struggling, the chunin managed to roll over and study the scene.

Batman was surrounded by a whirlwind of furious yellow etched with red. Invisible forces knocked him backwards, forwards, upwards... every conceivable direction. The crimefighter himself seemed to be doing little more than shadow-boxing. Yet even as Lee watched, the man's hand crept to his belt.

"Look out, oh youthful Flash!" cried Lee in alarm.

Too late. A pellet crashed to the ground, and the yellow blur solidified into a bullet that stumbled over and collapsed on the ground to become a completely helpless Kid Flash, totally ensnared in the gummy clutches of some indefinable material.

But Kid Flash was grinning, and as Batman advanced on him, he flashed something at Lee—a small black box.

Is that...

The resistance vanished from Lee's joints. After the earlier restraint, this sensation felt like a sudden weightlessness, and power surged through Lee's entire being.

Ignoring the pain raging in his chest, Lee flew upwards and dashed at Batman. "Primary Lotus!"

#

Hang on you guys! Lee's on his way over. He's pretty banged up, but he should be able to help!

"He'd better," muttered Naruto, whipping away from a fist that smashed through the floor.

"What was that, mortal?" Two burning red eyes regarded him. "I do not think I heard you. Who are you talking to?"

Naruto leapt over the creature's powerful right hook, aiming a Rasengan at his face. "You, ugly, and I said: 'Screw you!'"

"Mature," muttered Sasuke, ducking as Naruto went flying over his shoulder and into a full-court-press of Naruto clones.

"I don't hear YOU providing any witty repartee." Naruto shot back, rejoining the battle. Luthseid sent several huge chunks of floor flying at him and he batted them aside.

Dodging around the flying chunks, Sasuke grunted: "I wasn't aware witty repartee was so important in this battle."

"Of course it is! C'mon, man, standard superhero training. You need snappy one-liners!"

"I am not a superhero. Nor are you."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Whatever." Whipping under Darkthor's punch, he delivered a full Sage-Power kick to the giant's midsection. The huge man stumbled back a few steps before regaining his balance and making an unsuccessful swipe at Naruto.

"Damnit!" Naruto hissed, and then rolled away from a few I-Beams.

Although Naruto and Sasuke's talk was innocent enough, their Ino-linked thoughts were a whole another story.

Sasuke, distract him or something! I need time to get that... Kyuubi-Rasengan thing together!

Distract him? How? The one Sharingan I DO have is half-blind, I can barely use any of my Mangekyou techniques without blacking out.

Oh what, you're saying that makes you helpless? C'mon, you got more techniques than just that!

True. I do not, however, have absolute invulnerability to blows, like some people.

Hey, this invulnerability ain't absolute, whatever else you're thinking. It's good, but let me tell you, it HURTS when that guy hits you.

A new voice broke in. Guys, maybe you should...

LET US HANDLE THIS. Both minds replied.

No offense, Shikamaru, but tactical genius or not, we know each other's fighting styles better than anyone. Just leave it to us, it'll work.

There was a short silence as both rushed from opposite directions. Naruto got batted away, Sasuke whipped around the punch and leapt back, just barely escaping dismemberment.

I have one jutsu that may distract him for a while, Sasuke admitted. But it relies on the weather to generate electricity, and Luthor controls the weather.

Electricity? Dude, we're in a BUILDING! There's electricity running through all the walls, there's a freaking REACTOR down there!

It'll take me some time to collect it.

Fine!

Naruto and Sasuke charged Darkthor again, one behind the other. Naruto caught Darkthor's left fist with both hands and held it there. The right fist came down, thirty clones leapt into place and grabbed hold of it. Sasuke leapt over the whole collection, far over Darkthor's arms and slashed downwards at the giant's helmet. The sword of Kusanagi sprang back ringing from Darkthor's armor, but there was just the faintest crack in that black surface, and purplish blood was oozing forth.

"How DARE you!" Wrenching his arms away from the Naruto-deadlock, Darkthor lashed out with one enormous arm and just barely grazed Sasuke as he leapt back. The blow sent him careening backwards in a red blur, into the floor, leaving behind a tangled trough of metal before he collapsed in a pile, several feet away.

But Naruto had not wasted time. The second that Darkthor had wrenched his hand away, he'd dashed straight at the creature, followed by as many of his clones as could fit. "Sage Art: Giant Rasengan!" He cried, thrusting his hand forward.

The giant globe of chakra hit. It burrowed into Darkthor, its full concussive force coming to bear upon the monster. Power that would knock over a building bore into the ruler of Apokolips.

And Darkthor's feet left the ground.

He didn't fly backwards. He barely even tumbled over. But he did fall, straight on his back, and in the second he did, thousands of Narutos were leaping onto him, piling high, grabbing onto his arms and legs and even onto those who were holding his arms and legs...

"ENOUGH!"

Several thousand clones dispersed in a blast of pure concussive force, and through the wafting smoke of their disintegration, Darkthor strode, eyes burning with anger. "You cease to amuse me, mortal!" He shouted at Naruto. "Prepare yourself to meet oblivion!"

He and Naruto ran at each other. Naruto whipped away from his first punch, but as he was avoiding the second Darkthor's hand shot out of nowhere and grabbed hold of his head, smashing it into the ground. Dazed, Naruto had neither the strength nor the sensibility to react as Darkthor lifted his body high in the air before bringing it down to meet his mighty knee.

Naruto felt as though he'd been torn in half. His spine was there, he felt sure—he hardly could imagine how he could be feeling so much pain if it wasn't—but it'd had a few years taken off of it, and the nearly all the organs in his middle region had been pushed into uncomfortable and unnatural places. Dimly he realized that Darkseid was holding him by the hair, at arm's length.

"Do you wish to beg for mercy, lowly..." He paused. There was a curious rumbling sound throughout the building.

In the far back, Sasuke, bleeding and bruised but still very alive, rose up, fingers raised in a seal. "Kirin!" he announced.

A dragon of pure lightning burst from the earth, swallowing Darkthor in its gullet. It shot straight up to the ceiling and crashed down again, dispersing the charge through the surrounding floor and dispelling all the clones within a fifty-foot radius.

And in the middle stood Darkthor, his already grey face appearing singed, and his armor badly charred in spots, but his eyes glowing more than ever. "You shall pay for that indignity, Mortal."

A beam of pure destructive force shot from Darkthor's eyes. Sasuke whipped away, but it followed his motion, followed his every move with pinpoint accuracy as he dashed over the floor, up the wall and across part of the ceiling, back and forth after his zigzagging leaps down, back across his erratic trail across the floor, back to Darkthor himself, between his arms, under his legs, over his head...

The arm of Darkthor flashed out and smashed Sasuke as he flew overhead, sending him crashing back into the floor. The Omega Effect Beams followed with deadly speed...

A red blur passed the space with Sasuke and he was gone, leaving a rather confused-looking clone in his wake. "Hey, what..." It started, before the beams struck him full in the chest and he exploded into smoke.

Turning, Darkthor frowned at the red blur, and without warning, the ground erupted underneath him. Off-guard and off-balance, Flash went spinning into the air, and before he could land or even spin his arms to alter his trajectory, an enormous slab of wall struck him full force, smashing him and Sasuke into the ground.

"Hey Ugly!"

Darkseid turned to regard a bruised, bleeding, badly strained and somewhat homicidal-looking Naruto, clutching a strange red Rasengan.

"Screw you!"

And Naruto dashed over the floor, between Darkthor's grasping hands, raising the Rasengan to strike him full in the chest...

And Darkthor vanished. No poof, no blink, no giant explosion, he was simply not there, and Naruto, unbalanced, tripped and fell onto the floor, sending the reddish globe smashing into the metal, where it died with a disappointingly small crackle of energy.

As Naruto lay there, a long, jagged shadow grew over him, getting larger and larger. Turning, Naruto beheld the monstrosity that blocked out the light and groaned. "Not this guy again."

"You... know him?" managed Sasuke, crawling from underneath the collapsed wall.

"He's called Doomsday." Naruto explained, gazing with resigned calm at the grinning monster. "Took me forever to beat."

Sasuke snorted. "The two of us should manage it rather better, I feel."

"Oh, I'm not so worried about him." Naruto gestured at the crowd growing behind the first monster. "I'm worried about his five thousand brothers."

#

"That's a lot of those Doomsday things," observed Shikamaru coolly. "Supposed to replace your avatar, I guess. Does that mean that your power is roughly equivalent to a couple thousand Doomsdays?"

"It is far beyond that, mortal," rumbled Darkthor. "Observe how I can not only command that power, but even create it. Even now, were I to wish it, the very ground itself would rise and swallow your ninja friends."

"So why don't you?"

"Amusement, Mr. Nara. Amusement. Killing them that way would be so easy, so fast, so boring. I have an eternity ahead of me, it seems I should make use of the few amusements left to me while they still exist."

Shikamaru watched idly as the Doomsdays charged at the ninjas. "Oh, those things can fly. That's cool."

A chuckle broke loose from his enormous companion. "And did you enjoy your part of the amusement, Mr. Nara?"

"You mean just sitting here with you while your double and all those hero people fooled around down below? Can't say I did. I mean, the part where my friend clocked your double was satisfying and all, but outside of that... Action movies bore me at the best of times."

"True, but this was not a movie for you, was it, Mr. Nara? It was a game."

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru wrinkled his brow in carefully studied confusion. "You turned down my offer of a chess game."

"But you played one nonetheless, Mr. Nara. Do you think I did not notice how silently you sat there all through the battle, how eagerly you watched their motions, how deep in thought you were? Do you think I cannot recognize the strategy of an opponent I have played for months now?" Darkthor stepped toward the imprisoned Nara, smiling down from his impressive height. "I do not know how you accomplished it, mortal, but I must say I have enjoyed our game—while it lasted. Alas, you have overlooked one thing. In this game, I am not only the King and the Player, but also the Board, the Rulebook, and the Judge." Darkthor turned back to face the battle, looking down at the embattled ninjas from his strange balcony, floating invisibly to all eyes save his and Shikamaru's. "The engagement is fought on my terms, and it will end on my terms. Now watch, as your pawns and mine tear each other apart.

Shikamaru let out a long sigh. "You always were good with pawns." He admitted ruefully.

An exploding of ripping metal—a break in the outer wall—a red-and-blue stream of scorching wind as it raced past Shikamaru and smashed into Darkthor—a whirlwind of grayish shapes as Doomsday clones were tossed aside—a gathering roar as Darkthor, still in Superman's clutches, readied his power...

"Myself," remarked Shikamaru, smirking as the two figures shot straight at a suddenly-exposed Naruto and the glowing red Rasengan in his hand. "Myself, I always liked knights."

The Rasengan went home.

#

"Shikamaru!"

Sai's ink bird caught the chunin halfway to the ground, and gracefully coasted him to a landing. Hopping off, Shikamaru managed all of three steps before his friends fell on him.

"Shika-man!"

"Oh, you're ALIVE! Oh, for so long we didn't know..."

"It is agreeable to see that you are performing so well."

"Dude, you are a freaking genius, have I ever told you that?"

"Yosh!"

"Shikamaru!" This last came from a pink-haired medic who came hopping through the hole Superman had just made. "It worked!"

"Yeah, I picked up on that," drawled the chunin. "What with all the Doomsday people disappearing and these hero people finally waking up."

Indeed, the army of grey monsters had vanished into thin air, and all around the hall, heroes were picking themselves up from the floor or just gazing about in obvious bewilderment. A groaning Batman rose and, supported by Flash, moved over the floor to release Kid Flash. A normal-sized Atom Smasher ran in through the door, carrying a limp Chouji. Gai and Green Lantern, supporting each other, stumbled over to the growing crowd. Wonder Woman, just coming back to life, caught sight of Kakashi's eye and glared.

Superman floated over to Shikamaru, landing as the ninjas made way for him. "So you're Shikamaru." He smiled before growing serious. "Thanks for the intel on how to find Luthor."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Ino gave it to you." A cloud of worry passed over his face. "Hey, how is Ino?"

"M'fine." Ino nodded, coming forward, supported by Tenten. "Really tired, and probably going to have headaches for the next week, but I'm okay."

"And thank you, too, for providing the link up." Superman nodded to her. "I'm not sure what we would have done otherwise."

Ino blushed a little. "J'onn-sensei could have..."

"I was busy enough, Ino-san." Sakura, bearing both her axes, stepped through the ranks and smiled at Ino. "And the ninjas listened better to you."

"Wait. Hold on." Kiba glanced from the axe-carrying Sakura to the one with the medic pack at Chouji's side. "How did... what... is that a shadow clone, Sakura?"

Medic-Sakura ignored him, staring with fascination at Axe-Sakura. "Is my forehead really that big?"

"I may have overdone it," admitted Axe-Sakura, forehead heightening and shading to green as its body lengthened out. "I must confess I was not absolutely certain what you looked like."

"J'onn shifted to Sakura's form," Shikamaru explained to Kiba. "Couldn't risk Luthor noticing she was missing, so the Flashes replaced her with him."

"Oh." Kiba looked a little embarrassed. "So... where were you, Sakura?"

"Flash took me—and Karin—" with a nod to the hole, where a red-haired medic could be seem clambering down, "—to where Superman was being kept. We extracted the Kryptonite bullet so he could join in like this."

"Except it had to wait until it would be decisive." Shikamaru nodded. "Otherwise Luthor could simply have brainwashed HIM and turned him loose on you guys. That wouldn't have helped at all. Though I must say you girls took your time."

Karin, just joining the group, shrugged. "That bullet was pretty deep. Neither of us had any kind of surgery kit on hand, and chakra techniques only go so far."

"In any case, it worked," said Superman, quieting all other voices. "Your plan worked beautifully, Mr. Nara. Thank you."

Shikamaru accepted the thanks with a nod. "Yeah, right. Still..." he shrugged himself upright. "One thing left to take care of." Pushing his way through the ninjas, he called back: "Tenten, do you have a...?"

Tenten looked momentarily puzzled, then, face clearing, reached into her pouch and tossed him a kunai.

Catching it with a little nod of thanks, Shikamaru turned to face the prone form of Luthor, lying collapsed on the ground. Luthor had reverted to his fully human state, and even the armor of Darkseid had disappeared, leaving him half-naked on the floor of the room.

With a little flourish, Shikamaru whipped up the kunai and plunged down...

...straight into Superman's hand. The chunin looked up placidly to regard the superhero's cold eyes. "Sorry. Did you want to do it?"

Superman's hand shot out, grabbed the kunai, and crunched it into a little ball of metal before tossing it over his shoulder. "We don't kill."

Shikamaru blinked. "Hmm?"

"Superman-san..." Neji stepped forward with a little sigh of frustration. "...surely in this case..."

"No. He's still a human." He turned to Naruto. "That attack you gave him stripped him of his powers, didn't it?" Receiving only a shrug, he turned back to face Neji. "We'll put him in the League cells. We're not executioners."

"But we are." Neji shrugged.

"What course of action will you pursue should Luthor regain his powers?" Shino came forward, his unblinking sunglasses staring at the Man of Steel. "Or even if he does not? I recall being told that he has nearly destroyed the world once or twice. Do you wish to wait until he does?"

"Last time, he was what saved the world," glared Superman. "Where would we have been if we'd killed him before then?"

Neji snorted. "Saving the world through some other means, I imagine."

"Also, was he not the one who touched off that particular apocalypse?" Shino again.

"That's not the point! The point is that..." Superman sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I'm not saying Luthor's a good person, or even that he's capable of being good. He's not, I've known him too long to try and say that. And there are occasions when I've wished he was dead. To be honest, if he'd just died in the middle of this battle, I'd have felt a little relieved."

Batman, standing just to the left of Superman, said nothing. He seemed to be considering something.

"But since he DIDN'T die, and he IS alive, that means his life is in our hands, and that means we're to respect it. It's what makes us different from them."

"No." Neji gestured at the body. "What makes us different is that he kills innocents for fun. We kill our enemies to protect our friends."

"Much different," nodded Tenten, coming up alongside Neji. Her arm was open and charging.

"He's not worth your contempt." This from Green Lantern, just to the side.

Neji shrugged. "We're generous."

"This is a waste of time." Sasuke's voice cut into the silence. Shoving Naruto aside, he stepped forward and locked eyes with Superman. "It's no concern of mine if you want to manage your world this way, but I have a private matter to settle with this man. Now stand aside."

Superman's gaze was cold. "No."

SAsuke shrugged, then quick as sight, whipped out Kusanagi and slashed downward. Superman's hand flashed out to meet it, but the magic blade simply carved a slash across his palm and continued on.

There was a sharp clang as it met another sword.

Sasuke's eyes rose to meet those of Wonder Woman. She glared back. "Stand down, or I shall make you."

"I should like to see you try, yariman," hissed Sasuke in return.

Wonder Woman and Sasuke were watching each other. Superman and Neji had their gazes locked. Everyone else in the room was staring at them.

Which is why Naruto was the only one who saw Luthor's eyes crack open and look straight at Superman.

"LOOK OUT!" Naruto dashed forward, unheeding of the tension, and cannoned straight into Superman with all his Sage Mode might, knocking the Man of Steel out of harm's way.

And leaving Naruto straight in its path.

A light arose in Luthor's eyes, it flashed, for a second there was a brilliant bridge of light between he and Naruto, and then both collapsed. But as Naruto's eyes closed, they glowed red.

All the world seemed frozen to Hinata. She saw again Naruto's leap, the surprise from everyone else, the slow dawning comprehension of horror, and the flash of light between the two. She saw it all... and KNEW what it was.

"What the heck just happened?" Flash's voice broke the spell.

Batman hunched over Naruto's form. "Looked like some sort of transfer..."

"A soul transfer." All eyes turned to Sasuke, who had momentarily withdrawn his blade. He looked up to meet their gaze. "Luthor's transferred his consciousness to Naruto. He told me he could do that. We need to kill him before he wakes up."

"What!?" Sakura stepped forward. "Like hell you are."

"That's an awfully convenient story, Sasuke," snarled Kiba. "Funny how you remembered it just now, huh? I'll bet..."

Hinata couldn't stand it. "He's telling the truth!" She all but screamed. The others started back from her, surprised. "He's telling the truth," repeated she in a quieter tone. "Spectre told me about it too. It's how we convinced Kyuubi to help, he figured Luthor would be a more troublesome host."

"So Luthor gains control of the Kyuubi as well as Naruto." Batman mused.

"He gets all of Naruto's powers. The Kyuubi among them." Fighting down the rising fear in her chest, Hinata continued: "Kyuubi thought that Luthor would attain even greater control than Naruto had."

"So he has even more power now." Green Lantern brought up his ring, charging his shield.

Hinata shook her head. "Not yet. The transfer leaves him weak and vulnerable. But he will, once he's recovered."

"That means we have to strike now." Sasuke gestured with his sword. "Before he recovers."

Superman materialized in front of Sasuke. "Nobody's killing anyone. Thought we made that clear."

"We... may not have a choice," said Shino slowly.

"Hold it, hold it." Shikamaru held up his hands to forestall the uproar at Shino's comment. Let's all just calm down now... let me think. Let me... there's got to be a solution to this. Just... give me a moment..."

"We don't have a moment. We need to act now." Sasuke's stance shifted slightly, his hand gripped his sword slightly tighter.

"Wait." Suddenly everything became clear to Hinata. Pushing her way through the crowd, she ran to Naruto's side. "Wait just a bit." She knelt down and stared at the blonde gein. "Let me... try something."

The warmth arose in Hinata, it filled her, flowed through her fingers, eyes, mouth. She grasped at the power, drawing it together and collecting it, not in her head, not in her heart, but in the very center of her being. The warmth grew greater and greater, and she could feel the fierce heat of the Spectre beating down on her.

Child, you cannot do this alone.

I will not use your power. Not again, and definitely not on Naruto.

It is beyond your power.

You told me once that you had given me the power to rip out souls and banish them.

I said that the strain would kill you. You must let me do this with you.

No... thought Hinata, as she pushed back the overpowering heat of the angel and brought her own strength to bear. I will do this alone.

#

Warmth, melodic warmth like a pillow of singing feathers. Another, more alien, this also warm, but a sharper one, more defiant. They touched....

The heat of this one was fierce, yet fragile, a tune that hovered on the brink between joy and despair. The underlying darkness highlighted the joyful weave of light that kept it from the abyss, but it was so tenuous, kept up only by the sheer energy of its song.

But something in this melody was wrong, one of the lights did not blend, there was a coldness in the midst of the heat. The melodic warmth fastened onto it, examined it—a atonal collection of numbers that danced around a chanting darkness. It was all one, all together, all focused... It took other tunes and overpowered them, it suffocated all heat with its chill.

This was it.

The warmth met with the chill, they grappled. Sucking, sapping drain like the pull of darkness on a forgotten corner. Strong, flowing music, irresistible as the river. The drain of heat, so fast, so sudden that it the cold came with a gasp, with a burning all its own, yet still the warmth preserved, still it battered against the chill, gripping the darkness with fingers of light. Excruciating pain as she pushed it beyond, outside, to the great silence of Beyond...

#

"Hey kiddo."

Hinata blinked about and sat up. She was back in the main chamber, still ruined from the ninjas' and heroes' battle. Tentatively she felt her head and chest. "Wow." She whispered. "Oh wow. How did I... I thought I was dead..."

"You thought that, huh?"

Hinata half-turned to face the woman who'd spoken. "Well, the Spectre said I wouldn't be able to do that alone without using up all my energy, and I... I..." her voice faltered as she took a closer look at the woman.

She was beautiful. Undeniably, changelessly beautiful. Oh, she was dressed plainly enough—black jeans below a too-large black hooded sweatshirt—but that did nothing to hide the quiet elegance of her body or her face. Hair the color of midnight waved about a perfectly pale face, in which was set a pert little mouth and two eyes that sparkled with dark mischief. A strange marking was tattooed beneath her left eye, and she was tugging, absentmindedly, on a golden ankh that hung about her neck.

And Hinata knew, just from looking at her, who she was.

"I'm dead, aren't I." She said in a small voice.

"There, there, sweetie," said Death, bending down with a smile. "You thought so, didn't you? I always tell people to go with their first instincts on these things. Not many people get to choose how they go. And let me tell you, you went out with style."

It seemed appropriate to cry, but somehow Hinata couldn't. She looked up at the woman with curiosity. "I didn't expect you to... be like this."

"Yeah, most people don't," shrugged the girl. "I used to try to dress up to people's expectations but that got old real fast. And a lot of people are kinda disappointed to meet EXACTLY what they were expecting when I show up. Takes a lot of the fun out of dying, I guess."

She and Hinata spent a quiet moment looking at her body, lifeless on the floor. "Did it... work?" asked Hinata tentatively. "Did I... banish Luthor?"

Death smiled a sweet smile. "Oh, no, I can't tell you that."

"Why not?"

"Against the rules. Besides, does it really matter?"

It should. Hinata could remember, academically, that it was dreadfully important. Saving Naruto and the world and... stuff. But, somehow, that no longer seemed important. She was dead, after all. So she shrugged. "I suppose not."

"That's my girl," grinned Death. "You've got a good sense of perspective on you; most people I take need a few moments to come to terms with it. Amazing, huh? Viewing things from here makes things look a whole lot different. It's one of the most therapeutic things I know."

"What else DO you know?" Hinata wasn't looking at the scenery, so she didn't notice how the chamber faded away to perfect whiteness.

Death smiled. "You'd be surprised, honey. You'd be surprised." She heaved a breath. "Well. Time to go. Do you want..."

"Excuse me."

Hinata and Death both turned, and there, walking out of the whiteness, was a man in a green trenchcoat, his flaming red hair brilliant against the light.

"Uriel!" Death spread her arms in welcome. "How's my favorite avenging angel? Come to see your little friend off?"

"Actually, I was hoping to negotiate with you."

"Negotiate?" Death quirked an eyebrow. "C'mon, Uriel, you know the rules. You don't deal with Death. There's no negotiations, no compromises. No one comes out alive."

The corner of the man's mouth twitched. "Like, say, James Corrigan?"

"Oh, don't even start," answered Death, rolling her eyes. "You should know yourself, James, that you haven't really lived since you got shot, even if you have been walking around down there."

The man's gaze grew sad. "Yes. And I would not wish the girl to adopt such an existence either. But you realize there HAVE been exceptions to the rule."

"A few, sure. But only for real, real good reasons. So if you wanna bring this one back, you'd better have a heck of an excuse, Uriel.

The Spectre gave a little nod of his head. "That is only just. This, then, is my proposal..."

#

Hinata sat up, gasping. "Oh!" She panted. "Oh!"

"What the-- she's alive! She's alive!" Sakura, kneeling just beside her, gazed at her in unbelief. "Holy crap girl, I could have sworn you were dead! I was about to mark the time! Hey now, whoah, whoah..." She said, hands shooting out as Hinata nearly collapsed backwards. "Easy. Oh my word... I've never seen anyone go from red-lining to straight-alive like that before. Lie down, at least."

"I'm... I'm fine." Hinata managed, as she lay back on the floor. "Is Naruto... is he..."

"Hey." Hinata's head swiveled and nearly collided with Naruto's. Smiling wearily, he said: "I'm good. But I... we were all worried about you there for a second."

"Hinata." Terrific stepped forward, out of the assembled heroes and ninjas. "Hinata, what did you do? Naruto told us you got rid of Luthor, but how exactly... where is he now?"

Glancing up, Hinata met his probing gaze and the questioning stares of two world's worth of heroes. "He's gone." She managed. "Gone for good." Settling back down, her eyes started to close as she muttered, "It's over."