[Eclipsed] Chapter 14 - Debate

Knowing when to push ahead and when to pull back, Naruto instinctively cancelled the Electromagnetic Murder and backflipped to avoid his wild strike.

“You miserable rat!” Mongul screamed, and despite the shameful state of his nakedness, he charged at Naruto like a rhino.

However, just as the brutish alien smashed his huge fist into Naruto’s face, the blonde tilted his head, letting the punch brush past his ear, and slammed an Oodama Rasengan into Mongul’s chest.

The alien was hurled back violently, rotating through the air like a spinning top before smashing into the large screen in the middle of the arena, blowing it into smithereens.

Despite the massive Rasengan hitting him straight in the chest, Mongul stood up and jumped down from the broken screen, landing with a powerful stomp that cracked the podium below. Faster than one would expect from someone his size, the alien grabbed an enormous chunk of the metallic podium and threw it at a group of shadow clones that were charging at him.

Two other clones burst from the curtain of smoke with a Rasengan in their hands, but Mongul abruptly turned and backhanded them, swatting away their Rasengans and killing them.

Dozens of Vacuum Bullets and Fireballs came from the clones hidden in the dense curtain of smoke all around him, but he brought his hands together and slammed them powerfully into the ground. The floor of the arena was shattered, sending immense chunks of concrete and steel into the air and blocking the bulk of the ninjutsu attacks. As for the attacks that did land on Mongul, most of them didn’t even scratch his skin.

‘What is he made of?’ was Naruto’s thought as he and his clones started going through a long series of hand seals.

Mongul did not merely wait for him to attack. While Naruto was in the midst of forming the necessary hand seals, Mongul suddenly clapped his hands powerfully, generating a shockwave so strong that it instantly blew away all the smoke in the arena.

Losing the cover of the smoke, the blond and his clones found themselves surrounded by over a hundred flying robots with laser rifles for hands. As the robots opened fire, many of the clones were dispelled, unable to finish their techniques. Those who did dodge the laser beams were forced to cancel their techniques.

As for Mongul, now that the enemy was finally in the open, he charged at them like a mad bull, each step leaving deep footprints into the shattered ground. Each one of his punches generated shockwaves that dispelled two or three clones at a time, and, from his red eyes, powerful heat beams exploded, incinerating everything they touched.

For Naruto, it was as if he was fighting a Kryptonian, but Mongul was, somehow, even more durable, withstanding with minimal damage most of his jutsu. He did not have any particular vulnerability to mystical attacks. He was like an unstoppable juggernaut.

“Focus on the robots,” Naruto shouted at his clones before bringing his hands together and making another 50 shadow clones to attack Mongul.

‘I can see only three jutsu putting this guy down.’

Rasenshuriken was the most obvious choice. However, that technique could even cripple Naruto’s own hand. Furthermore, he didn’t have Kurama and his super healing anymore.

The second option would be Hell Stab, but that jutsu could not be cast by regular shadow clones because it required too much chakra.

Mongul was far too powerful and too dangerous in close-quarter combat. Without Kyuubi to enhance his strength and heal him in case of injury, Naruto could not fight as recklessly as he did against Darkside. There was no guarantee that his Hell Stab would kill Mongul in one strike. If Mongul did survive, the blond would be in grave danger.

As for the third option, it seemed like the least risky one, but on the flip side, it was also the most taxing on his chakra. Though he still had enormous reserves of chakra compared to other shinobi, Naruto’s chakra was not as vast as when he used to be Kurama’s jinchuuriki. He had to be more mindful of his fighting style now.

In the end, he settled for the third option. Oodama Rasengan Barrage.

The 50 shadow clones that he had just summoned all raised their hands, and enormous balls of blue chakra coalesced in their palms, growing as large as their own bodies.

‘If this doesn’t kill him, nothing will.’

A powerful war cry came from the chests of Naruto and his shadow clones as they launched themselves in unison at Mongul.

The alien’s red eyes started burning, and his heat vision instantly obliterated half a dozen clones, but there were simply too many of them, and they were too spread out.

But just as they closed the distance—

BOOM.

A deep, rumbling tremor came from below, and the entire colosseum shook. Then a massive stream of fire burst from the ground, like the eruption of a volcano.

There was no time to react. No time to flee.

The sky itself turned white, and a mushroom cloud of dust and flame rose from the facility underneath the coliseum, killing everything in its range. Robots, shadow clones, spectators in the stands who had yet to leave the arena. . . and even Naruto and Mongul did not escape. Everything was reduced to ash and molten rubble.

⁂

The massive explosion and the powerful shockwave that erupted afterwards obliterated most buildings within a radius of two kilometres around the arena. As he watched the devastation, Green Lantern was reminded of the video he had watched about the atomic bomb dropped by the USA on Hiroshima.

The commotion shook the unconscious Superman awake, too, and he looked at his surroundings in confusion, momentarily not remembering where he was and how he had gotten there.

It only took a few words from his comrades for the Kryptonian’s memory to be jolted and understand what was going on.

“My God. . . all these people died. . .” Superman said as he looked at the ring of destruction around the arena.

He was not the only one who was shaken by the massive loss of life. Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter were sombre too. Only Big Barda did not look any different from usual. As the former Captain of Darkseid’s Furies, she had seen much worse things in her past.

“Did Darkseid’s son create all this destruction?” asked Hawkgirl. 

“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Green Lantern answered while using his power ring to create a pair of binoculars. He was studying the epicentre of the explosion.

“It doesn’t look like it,” Superman also answered while observing the surroundings with his microscopic vision.

Despite that he had been in a brutal fight only a few minutes ago, he was back to top form. If not for his ripped and burnt hero costume, there would be nothing to remind others of the damage he had suffered.

“Superman, where are you going?” Big Barda asked when she saw him taking flight and heading towards the arena.

“I think I saw something at the bottom of the crater.”

“Impossible!” John Stewart exclaimed. “Nothing could have survived an explosion like that!”

Despite his words, he flew after Superman, curiosity getting the better of him.

When they arrived at the place where the arena had once been, they realised that a seemingly bottomless chasm had opened underneath. The walls of the crater and those of the chasm were still red and burning, looking almost like lava, but with their superhuman durability, Green Lantern and Superman were not affected.

They flew down nearly 300 metres into the burning chambers, in the remains of the underground facility, before Superman stopped.

“Jesus Christ!” John Stewart shouted in shock and turned his head away.

Floating atop a lake of molten rubble were the remains of a human body. Everything below the waist was gone, and so was a good chunk of his torso and even half of his head.

However. . . that thing was alive.

Superman was no less shocked than Green Lantern, staring at the thing floating in the lake of fire, stupefied.

“John, could you scoop him out of the fire with your power ring?”

Green Lantern forced back the bile rising in his throat as he turned his attention back to the mutilated remains of that human body and used a green construct of light to pick it up.

John’s and Superman’s shock only grew after that. Taken out of the molten rubble that had been continuously burning it, the mutilated body started regenerating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It was like something out of a horror movie.

The half-melted head grew a brain, then the skull closed up, the eyeballs were regenerated in their sockets, and a layer of skin appeared on the exterior of the head. Even his hair grew again, reverting to how it had been before: spiky, wild, and golden blonde.

The regeneration didn’t stop there. His obliterated heart grew back, as did the missing portion of his spinal cord, his ribs, and his muscles... it was almost like watching a video in reverse. Less than one minute later, his missing legs grew back, too.

Getting over his shock, Superman took off his ripped cloak and put it over his body in an attempt to cover his state of nakedness.

“What the hell did we just witness?!” Green Lantern said in shock as he and Superman flew out of the burning chasm with Naruto’s body in tow.

“That’s not something you get to see every day, alright. Kara told me many things about him. . . I knew he had a regeneration factor, but I had no idea it would be to this degree.”

“I’ve never seen anything like that in my life. I’ve never even heard of someone regenerating from something like this,” Green Lantern said. “No, wait. There is someone like that.”

Superman nodded. “Yes. Vandal Savage.”

Vandal Savage was a notorious criminal, an immortal metahuman. The US government had tried to give him the death penalty multiple times after World War 2, but nothing had worked. He simply couldn’t be killed. He did not age either. He was eternal. In the end, Vandal Savage escaped from prison and disappeared. Nobody had seen or heard anything about him for decades.

“Could they be related?” asked John.

“I doubt that. To my knowledge, Vandal had never left the Earth. As for this man, he’s from a part of the Universe that even your Guardians don’t know,” Superman replied.

His cousin, Kara, had talked to him about Naruto so much over the past few months that Superman could say that he knew the blond alien almost as well as she did.

Returning to the surface, they left the unconscious young man in Martian Manhunter’s care before joining Hawkgirl and Big Barda, who had flown away and started searching for survivors among the rubble of the houses that had been demolished by the explosions’ shockwave.

⁂

Even with Superman’s x-ray vision and Green Lantern’s ability to easily move away large piles of debris with his power ring, scouring the entire area would have taken many hours, if not days. Martian Manhunter would have loved nothing more than to help save the innocents who had been caught by the explosion, but, weakened as he was by Warworld’s atmosphere, he could not do much.

Thankfully, one hour into their rescuing work, the three heroes were unexpectedly joined by nearly 1000 identical men; they were Naruto’s shadow clones.

Only a few hours later, the heroes and Naruto’s clone had dug out all the survivors who had been trapped underneath their collapsed homes.

Warworld may have been a den of poverty and crime, but in the end, the planet’s inhabitants were still people. Many of them were just unfortunate people who had been pushed by the regime into a lawless life. With that being said, despite most of them being rough individuals, the heroes’ efforts in rescuing the injured had not gone ignored. The people had gladly offered them shelter for the night and food at no cost.

Currently, Superman, Big Barda, Green Lantern, and Hawkgirl were in the middle of a rather heated debate inside a room. The conversation was not only among the four of them. Thanks to Big Barda’s Mother Box, the holograms of three other heroes were also present in the room. They were having a real-time video call despite being in a different galaxy from Earth.

“Are you out of your mind?” Batman’s hologram shouted. “How could you even suggest bringing someone like him to Earth?!”

“There is no need for shouting,” Wonder Woman said, frowning as she glanced in Batman’s direction.

“He wants to bring to Earth a mass murderer who is strong enough to kill Darkseid on his own. Someone who is even immortal by the looks of it. What do you call that if not crazy?” Batman shouted at her.

“I have nothing against you, Superman, but I have to agree with Batman on this,” John Stewart said. “That guy is dangerous. Extremely dangerous. Even the Guardians of Oa are wary of him. And you’ve seen with your own eyes. He’s also unkillable. And his cloning ability and the ability to transform into other people? Could you imagine the chaos he would bring on Earth if he were to go rogue?”

“Uzumaki Naruto is not an evil person,” Martian Manhunter spoke in his defence. “I have seen his inner thoughts. I have entered his consciousness. Before Darkseid invaded his planet, he had been a devoted soldier to his people and even a hero. Although the government had turned him into a human weapon, he had never resented them. He had never sought vengeance against them. All that he had ever wanted was to protect them and to be acknowledged.”

The fact that a telepath and a stoic person like Martian Manhunter spoke in favour of Naruto made Batman’s glare lessen somewhat, and Green Lantern adopted a thinking expression too.

⁂

While the Justice League were in the middle of a debate about him, Naruto was in a different room sitting cross-legged on a bed, his hands alight with a cyan-coloured chakra. He was healing a young woman with his medical ninjutsu.

Her tall and athletic figure, the long, crimson red hair that reached her ankles, her glowing green eyes, and the exotic, orange skin made her unmistakable: she was Starfire, also known by the people of Warworld as the Fire Princess.

He was silent, and his facial expression would make one think he was at peace as he healed the young woman, yet, in his mind, there was an uncontrollable storm. All sorts of conflicting thoughts and emotions created a whirlpool that he could not stop.

He had watched Starfire almost die in her battle against Superman. He had been terrified for her safety. But just after he rescued her, when he was about to kill Mongul and make him pay for what he had done, a massive explosion had obliterated everything.

‘I was going to die. I am sure of it.’

However, his spirit did not leave for the pure lands. It clung onto his remains stubbornly. Even as the explosion melted off his legs, half of his head, and a large part of his torso, he did not die. Even as the molten rock and metals burnt his flesh and bones, he remained awake, feeling that agony the entire time.

‘Is that how I also survived after unsealing Kurama?’

‘When the hell did I get this kind of healing power?’

It was beyond logic and reason. Even Kurama’s regeneration couldn’t compare to what he had just experienced.

“It’s alright, Naruto. I am all healed up now,” came the young woman’s warm voice.

When he did not stop his medical ninjutsu, she softly took his hands in hers.

“Dearest friend? I am fine. I promise,” she said, smiling as she got up in a sitting position and tightened her hold on his hands just a bit.

As he met her green eyes, he felt pained deep inside. Something in his facial expression must have tipped her off because her smile receded, and she asked worriedly:

“Are you okay? Are you hurt somewhere? Or, perhaps, are you exhausted?”

Naruto bit his lower lip briefly, unable to answer.

“You took care of me and healed me. Come, I will do the same for you now.”

He did not have the strength or the will to oppose her as Starfire leaned with her back against the bed’s headboard and pulled him to her.

She pressed down on his shoulders and positioned him to lie down with his head resting on her thighs. Due to her clothes being ruined in the fight against Superman, Starfire was wearing a simple white dress made from a material similar to that of the linen from Earth. Her long, thick red hair flowing down her shoulders and her orange skin made a stark contrast with her dress. At that moment, he couldn’t imagine anyone more beautiful and pure than her.

As she started running her hands softly through his short spiky hair, her gentle, comforting touch made it increasingly hard for him to hold back his emotions.

“Talk to me, dearest. I am here for you. Always. Your worries and your fears, you can tell me everything. I will never think any less of you,” Starfire said, her hand caressing his cheek now, her thumb going softly over his whiskers.

“Can you read minds?” he asked, trying to make a joke.

“I do not possess this ability. But you look sad. . . You look like you want to cry.”

When Naruto turned his head to hide his eyes, Starfire didn’t stop touching him. Her fingers stayed gentle on his face.

“It’s never good to bottle up your emotions. On Tamaran, our emotions are like our skin. Always out in the open for all to see. If we are happy, we laugh. If we are sad, we cry. If we are angry, we fight.”

“That’s not normal outside of your planet,” said Naruto. “People hide their feelings. They rarely speak what’s on their mind. They keep secrets. They are plotting. They are lying.”

He wasn’t talking about others. . . he was talking about himself.

“I will never do that to you. You are my dearest friend. You are the person I love. The person with whom I wish to be together forever.”

Unbeknownst to Starfire, her words were like twisting the blade in his wound, making it even more obvious how filthy and undeserving he was of her affection.

Even now, he could not muster the strength to tell Starfire about his real identity. And he hated it. He hated himself for his cowardice. For hiding things from her. For lying to her.

Yet, knowing that he might never get to feel her touch, that he might never hear her joyfully call his name, and that he might never taste her sweet and passionate lips again made him hesitate.

Starfire raised his head off her thighs and shimmied down the bed, lying down on the mattress next to him now. Now on the same eye level as him, she cupped his cheek and leaned in, planting a chaste, short kiss on his lips.

She smiled and leaned in again, kissing him softly one more time. Pulling away, their faces were only a few centimetres apart.

Being so close to her, he felt his heart lurch with his yearning for her. He could feel her sweet breath on his lips and the natural warmth that her body radiated. Those bright, lovely green eyes never left his, and her hand never stopped caressing his cheek.

“I like you, Naruto,” she whispered and kissed him again. Pulling back, she smiled and pressed her forehead against his.

“I do not know why you are hurting deep inside. But I wish to help. I wish to comfort you. When I was at my lowest point, you were like a ray of sun in my life. You gave me hope. You gave me your friendship. And you helped me regain my freedom.”

“I adore you,” she said emotionally and kissed him again.

Faced with her heartfelt confession, he could no longer hold back his feelings. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body flush to his.

Starfire threw her leg over his waist and moved on top of him. As the pleasant weight of her heavy breasts settled on his chest and her long, thick red hair cascaded over his head, all he could feel and smell – all he could think of – was her.

She tilted her head and made a small, needy sound as she kissed him deeper. Her long tongue slipped into his mouth, wrapping around his, embracing it, and caressing it, moving with slow, eager passion. Her soft lips moved against his, wet and full, and he could do nothing but let her have her way with him.

Her scent, her warmth, her taste, and her passion. They were intoxicating. It was just a kiss, but the pleasure was so much that it made him light-headed.

However, when her hand started trailing slowly down his chest and reaching for his belt, a flash of lucidity that he did not know he still had suddenly cleared the haze of pleasure clouding his mind. Unexpectedly, he grabbed her wrist and pulled back from their intense kiss, his breath coming out in gasps as he said:

"We-, we can't."

"Why?" Starfire asked, utterly confused.

She leaned in to kiss him again, trying to pick up where they left off, but he pulled back and hurried out of bed. He knew that if he didn’t stop her now, he wouldn’t be able to resist her anymore.

He walked over to the chair by the window and sat down with a groan, burying his face in his hands as his elbows rested on his knees.

"I’ve been keeping a secret from you, Kori. . . I can’t do this to you. You deserve better. You deserve to know the truth."

[...]

⁂

Completely unaware of what was happening in Nauto and Starfire’s room, the Justice League continued their intense debate.

“Look, I wondered myself whether I should bring him back with us. I’ve thought about it the entire time while we were digging up the people buried in the rubble today,” said Superman. “I, too, am worried about the risks of bringing him back, but I want to believe that he is not evil.”

“Of course you do. You always try to see the best in everyone!” Batman retorted.

“Look, I don’t want to be that guy, but I have to admit I’m kinda worried too,” Flash said. “You’ve seen what he did on Apokolips. Can you imagine if he has one of those episodes in the middle of Metropolis or in New York City?”

“We talked to him today,” Hawkgirl chose to speak at that moment. “He didn’t seem like an unhinged psycho. We saved the lives of hundreds of people today with his help.”

“Big Barda, what do you think? You’ve known him the longest. What is your opinion on him?” Wonder Woman asked.

“What I think wouldn’t be relevant to the matter at hand. The person I used to know is different from the person I met today,” Barda replied.

Superman let out a sigh.

“I want to help him.”

Seeing as everyone remained silent, listening to him, he continued:

“You all know that a few years ago, I was in the exact same position he is now. Darkseid brainwashed me. I conquered planets in his name. I shed innocent blood with my own hands. It's because he had altered my memories and made me believe I was his son. He made me think that I was fighting for peace, that I was bringing order to the universe. And in the end, he turned me against Earth.” He looked down at his hands, which were now clenched into fists.

“Even after I snapped out of his control and fought back, my deeds remained. Everyone hated me, and for good reason. Good people lost their lives because of me. I regret that. Not a day passes without thinking of what I have done.”

“It was difficult making people trust me again. But at least I had my parents. They supported me. They gave me the strength to persevere. Even when the media was writing articles condemning me, even when the very people whose lives I saved walked out in the streets protesting and shouting for me to be arrested and prosecuted, I persevered. I had the strength to endure because of those who supported me.”

“But this young man has nothing left. His homeland was destroyed by Darkseid, and everyone he had ever held dear is dead now. I want to be there for him. I want to help him. I want to support him just like my parents supported me. I believe he deserves a chance. And so does Kara. She deserves to have a family. I want to do this for both of them.”

Faced with Superman’s impassioned speech, the rest of the Justice League members did not know what to say. Except for Batman.

“You would risk the lives of thousands just for him? That’s your idea of giving him a second chance?”

“I will take full responsibility for him,” Superman said. “Should he ever step out of line, I will put a stop to it myself. No matter the cost. You have my word.”

Sensing that their conversation had come to an end, Martian Manhunter spoke:

“All in favour of allowing Uzumaki Naruto to come to Earth?”

At his words, Superman, Martian Manhunter himself, Hawkgirl, and Big Barda raised their hands.

“All against?”

This time, Batman and Green Lantern raised their hands.

“Flash, Wonder Woman? What about you?”

The speedster palmed his forehead.

“I get this whole second chance thing. I mean, Superman and Big Barda got a second chance, and they turned out great, right? But I haven’t met this guy in person. I mean, the reformed version of him. So I don’t know what to say. I can't make a decision without having met him. I’m abstaining from voting.”

“I'm on the same page as Flash,” Wonder Woman replied.

“Four in favour, two against. The vote has concluded,” Martian Manhunter spoke.

Such was the system of the Justice League. There was no actual leader in the Justice League. Whenever they had to make a difficult decision, all members would vote. Everyone’s vote held equal weight.

“Don’t come to me for help once this blows up in your head,” Batman spat in his usual tone. “I did my job and warned you. When this goes haywire – and it will – it will be on your heads.”

And with that, Batman’s hologram disappeared as he ended the call.

⁂

Superman wore a pensive expression as he made his way to the room where Naruto and Starfire were staying. If it hadn't been for Starfire’s injuries, Naruto’s insistence on healing her, and the Justice League's need to decide whether he should be allowed to return on Earth, they would have departed in the Javelin immediately after finishing rescuing those trapped beneath the rubble.

That being said, none of the heroes had mentioned anything to Naruto about coming to Earth.

‘What if our earlier conversation was all for nought? What if he doesn’t want to come?’ Superman thought.

In the end, having gone through the same experiences in the past, Superman had a pretty good idea of what was going on with Naruto at that moment.

‘What if he doesn’t feel anything for Kara? What if their relationship had been something that Darkseid created?’

The Man of Steel had not spoken about it with anyone until now, but several years ago, before Big Barda became a Fury herself, when he had been brainwashed by Darkseid, he had also slept with Lashina, the whip-wielding woman among the Furies. But after snapping out of Darkseid’s control, anything he might have felt for her disappeared. Fortunately, nothing had come out of his tryst with Lashina, but it was different for Naruto and Kara.

‘Even if he doesn’t feel anything for her. . . even if he doesn’t love her, he should at least come to Earth and be by her side for the sake of their son, if nothing else,’ Superman thought as he arrived.

He raised his hand, just about to knock on the door, when an unmistakable feminine sound reached his ears. If he had any doubts the first time, they all vanished when he heard it the second time. It was the sound of a woman who had surrendered to pleasure.

Almost instinctively, his X-ray vision activated, and what he saw left him frozen. The blond shinobi sat in a chair, and the red-haired princess was straddling him. Her nails dug into his shoulders as her body moved with fierce intensity in his lap while his hands clutched her firm, curvy rear, steadying her rhythm. They were both completely naked.