[Eclipsed] Chapter 5 - Blitzkrieg

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Chapter 5 - Blitzkrieg

Sitting on his throne-like chair, Darkseid had a smile on his face as he watched an intense fight between five women. 

“You have done a fantastic job training her, my son,” said Darkseid. “When I brought her here, she was a scared little girl. Unsure of herself; scared of her own powers and abilities. But look at her now. I reckon even Big Barda wouldn’t hold a candle to her.”

At that moment, Kara ripped out a giant chunk of the massive coliseum and hurled it at Stompa, the most physically imposing fighter among the Furies. The burly woman let out a battle cry as she braced herself for the impact, but she had underestimated the velocity at which Kara had thrown the piece of building at her. She was flattened and buried in the ground. 

“It’s mostly on her. I don’t know if it’s a Kryptonian thing or if it’s just her who is that talented, but her ability to learn new skills and information often makes me think of the Uchiha from my homeworld, the ones who could copy techniques and skills with a glance. She’s incredible.”

Stompa lay unconscious in a crater, Mad Harriet was frozen in a block of ice due to Kara’s ice breath, and Guilotina had a bloodied and charred wound on her shoulder from Kara’s heat vision. 

Lashina was the only one still able to fight. She wielded her whip, throwing its spiked end at the Kryptonian girl with all her strength. Even regular humans could break the sound barrier with a strike of a bullwhip to say nothing of a New God like her. 

Nonetheless, Kara was just too fast for her. Lashina’s whip hit nothing but an afterimage and, before she could react, Kara appeared in front of her, her fists mere centimetres away from her face. 

‘I’m going to die.’

That was Lashina’s unconscious thought. 

At the very last moment, Kara stopped her fist from turning Lashina’s head into a gory paste; instead, she flicked her finger on her forehead. 

It was just a finger flick, but Lashina was flung backwards as if she had been smashed by a speeding truck, leaving a human imprint into the wall of the arena. 

Darkseid stood up from his thronelike chair and clapped his hands. 

“Impressive. Bravo!”

Kara smiled happily at his praise and made a victory sign with her fingers.

Neither Kara nor Darskeid noticed that after Supergirl knocked Lashina out cold with a finger flick, a grimace of pain twisted Naruto’s face. 

A blonde woman appeared in his mind. In that memory, she seemed taller than him. Hazel eyes, a diamond-shaped mark on her forehead, and an impressive figure, especially in the chest department: she was a mature woman of rare beauty. 

“Though I may not look like it, I am one of the Sannin. Why should I take a Genin seriously?”

She raised her index finger and pointed it at him.

“With one finger. This is enough to take you down.”

Naruto involuntarily let out a groan of pain as he remembered the rest of the memory. It was as if his brain was fighting against it. Something was trying to block his memory. 

The sound he made attracted Darkseid’s attention, and he turned to look at him. 

“Is there something wrong?”

“. . . No, father. I am only a bit tired. I might have overtrained yesterday.” 

“I do want our campaign of conquest to start as soon as possible, but not at the cost of your health. You are more precious to me than anything else,” said Darkseid and patted him on the shoulder. “Make sure you rest properly. How about you take the rest of the day off and spend some time with Kara? Maybe go on a little trip to one of the worlds you have conquered. I have been told that the two of you share a special relationship now.”

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, chuckling awkwardly. 

“You have nothing to worry about. I am not against your relationship. Quite the opposite. A Kryptonian and a warrior of your calibre . . . I can only imagine how powerful a child coming from your union would be.”

Naruto’s embarrassment only grew bigger at his words. 

As he left the arena and returned to his quarters, Kyuubi’s deep chuckle rang in his head. 

‘Why did you lie to him, Naruto?’ Kyuubi asked in an insinuating voice. 

‘I had a new flash of memory while watching Kara train with the Furies,’ Naruto said honestly. ‘It was about a woman with blonde hair and crazy physical strength. In that memory, my younger self fought her, but she sent me flying with a finger flick. She also split the whole street in half with just a finger.’

‘So you’re wondering if your little lover is related to her in some way?’ Kyuubi asked in understanding. 

‘. . .Yes.’

‘What if it’s just another fake memory that I created?’ the fox said snidely. ‘You always say that whenever you remember anything from your past and quickly run like a dog to your so-called grandma for her to ‘cure’ you. Why aren’t you doing the same now too?’

‘Look, I don’t want to fight. If you don’t want to talk, fine. Forget I said anything,’ Naruto spat in annoyance. 

Kyuubi let out a sigh and dropped the confrontational tone. 

‘Her name was Tsunade, the Fifth Hokage. She was your grandmother figure, the real one. The two of you argued all the time because you were a disrespectful little shit, but she cared about you deeply. But no, similarities aside, there is no relation between Tsunade and your Kryptonian girlfriend.’

‘I see. Thanks, Kyuubi,' muttered the blond. 

With his mean and vindictive tendencies, Kyuubi would have loved to rub it in and tell Naruto something like “I told you so,” but he chose to hold his tongue. It looked like Naruto’s brainwashing was finally starting to crack after such a long time; he did not want to halt its progress now with his antagonistic attitude. 


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That night, Kara was lying with her head on Naruto’s shoulder, drawing circles with her finger on his strong chest. The two of them were both 18 years old, but whereas Kara was rather short and petite, Naruto was a head taller than her, and his body looked like it was sculpted from marble; he was nowhere near as burly or as tall as her Kryptonian cousin, Superman, but he was shredded. It was the result of nearly a decade of strenuous physical training and battles as a shinobi. 

She draped a slender leg over his waist and pressed herself tighter against his body. A smile of content graced her face when Naruto embraced her in his sleep. 

Witnessing her parents’ deaths, watching her homeworld explode, and seeing her cousin on Earth not accepting her had led Kara to believe that she was all alone in the universe and that nobody wanted her.

‘But Darkseid brought me here, to Apokolips. He gave me a home.’

Sure, things weren’t perfect on Apokolips either, especially when she had just arrived and the Furies tried to make her life miserable . . . but everything was much better now. Not only that she finally had a place to belong as the Captain of Darkseid’s Honour Guard, but she had found love too. 

Her mind filled with pleasant thoughts, Kara let out a quiet giggle as she rubbed her cheek on Naruto's shoulder. 

“What are you laughing at?” asked Naruto in a sleepy voice; her silent laughter had woken him up.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake up. I’m just. . . so happy!”

It was to the point where she couldn’t contain her feelings. She moved her body on top of his completely and straddled his waist. She laid down on him, and rested her head under his chin. 

Naruto smiled as he caressed her hair and ran his other hand gently over her naked back. Having made love earlier that night, now they were content just lying in each other’s arms. It was a feeling of intimacy different from their usual trysts. He didn’t mind her weight on top of him, and she loved the warmth of his body too. Soon, the two of them fell asleep.

But they were rudely awakened when a massive explosion made the entire royal palace of Apokolips shudder. 

Naruto and Kara were startled awake, and they jumped out of bed at the same time. 

“Enemies!” Naruto said, his Negative Emotions Sensing having already located the source of the explosion. 

He rushed to the closet and took out his black and red combat suit. Kara also changed into her day clothes in the blink of an eye.

“Kara, go to my father’s side,” Naruto told her seriously.

After all, Kara was the captain of Darkseid’s Honour Guard. Her most important duty was to protect Darkseid. 

“Understood,” she said and flew out of the room. 

Naruto formed a cross hand and five shadow clones appeared next to him. He did not tell them anything, for they all knew what they had to do. One second later, the six of them disappeared with a body flicker movement. 


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Big Barda and the seven members of the Justice League were all gathered at the Watchtower together. 

Before Barda opened a boom tube to Apokolips, Superman said a few last words:

“We’ve been over the plan. Everyone knows what they have to do.” He paused for a moment and then added: “We’ve been through many difficult trials in the past, but we’ve always prevailed by working together. This time, we’ll be facing a challenge bigger than any other. I want to thank all of you for supporting me in this endeavour. I know it’s not easy-”

“Come on, big guy, we’ve been friends for years,” Flash cut off his words and blurred over to him, putting an arm around his shoulder. “Darkseid took away your family. Of course that we’d help you save her. You'd do the same for us, wouldn’t you?”

“Without hesitation,” Superman said with conviction. 

“Well, there you have it,” John Stewart, the Green Lantern, also said. “Flash is right. We have your back, Superman.”

Flash took the initiative to put his hand out in the middle. Wonder Woman put her hand on top of his, and, following her, so did Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern too. Hawkgirl seemed a bit uncomfortable, but she did join them too in the end. 

“I’m not doing that,” Batman said with a deadpan.

It was like pouring a bucket of ice over their burning spirits.

“Of course you don’t. You’re too cool for us, aintcha? Boo! Someone boo this man!” Flash jeered at him. 

Hawkgirl found herself snickering at Flash’s antics, and with that, the awkward moment created by Batman not joining their group bonding moment passed. 

“Are we ready?” Big Barda asked, holding a Mother Box in her hands. 

“One last check, everyone knows what they have to do, right?”

“Yes,” everyone answered in a chorus. 

“I will head straight to Darkseid’s throne room. Flash?” Superman asked.

“I’ll do what I do best: create chaos amongst their ranks. I will also be the backup for whoever is unlucky enough to encounter the true body of Darkseid’s adopted son.”

“Martian Manhunter?”

“I will infiltrate their Power Plant and shut down their power.”

“Big Barda, Wonder Woman?”

“The two of us will keep Darkseid’s Furies busy,” Wonder Woman replied. 

“Hawkgirl, Green Lantern?”

“We will beat the crap out of all the so-called New Gods who will try to stop you from getting to Darkseid’s throne room,” Hawkgirl said, patting her spiked mace into her palm. 

“Not the way I would have put it, but yes,” John Stewart agreed. 

“Lastly, Batman?”

“I will infiltrate their arsenal and arm their Hellspores,” Batman said calmly. 

The rest of the members of the Justice League glanced at each other worriedly. Sensing their unease, Batman said:

“I have no intention of blowing up the entirety of Apkolips. But it’s always better to have a Plan B.”

“Always the optimist, aren’t you?” Hawkgirl's sardonic question came. 

As Batman glared at Hawkgirl, Big Barda spoke in his defence: 

“It is only wise to prepare for a scenario where things don’t go our way. Even with the element of surprise on our side, we are at a severe disadvantage against Darkseid and his troops. We need all the advantages that we can get.”

Batman nodded, pleased that someone was rational enough to understand the reason why he had to do it. 

“Those Hellspores will be our ace in the hole in case things go south. It will be our escape ticket," said Batman.

Now that their preparations were ready, Big Barda activated the Mother Box and opened a boom tube. It was a doorway to Apokolopis, a one-way ticket to hell. 


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Ignoring the deafening alarms blaring throughout the city, Superman, Hawkgirl, and Green Lantern flew in a straight line towards Darkseid’s palace. 

Hundreds of Parademons blackened the crimson-red sky as they started converging on the three heroes' location, firing a rain of fireballs at them. 

John was quick to conjure a sphere of green light around the three of them, protecting themselves from the first wave of fire attacks. Before the Parademons could launch a second attack, Superman blitzed through the sky, his punches leaving basketball-sized holes into their bodies. 

The Man of Steel always held back. He was always worried that his great strength could injure or even kill the people around him. There were times when he felt as if he lived in a world made of cardboard. 

But now, a portion of his true strength was unleashed, and he stopped holding back as much as he always did, for he was facing an army of beings with no will, intelligence, or emotions of their own. The Parademons were bioengineered creatures whose entire life purpose was to serve Darkseid. There was no need for him to be soft against them, especially now, when he was in a rush to find and rescue his family. 

But Superman was not merely fighting against the Parademons; simultaneously, he was also using his X-ray vision to search for his cousin. 

“Guys, I found her!” Superman shouted in his earpiece. “She’s in Darkseid’s throne room!”

“Go ahead, Superman! We’ll cover you!” Hawkgirl shouted, and she appeared to transform into a whirlwind of electricity and death as she violently smashed the skulls of all Parademons in the vicinity with her Nth metal mace. 

Not one to be left behind, John Stewart also willed his power ring to conjure a construct of green light that looked like a massive mounted machine gun and started firing thousands of rounds of green light bullets per second, clearing entire swaths of Parademons around them. 

Knowing that his trusty teammates had his back, Superman stopped worrying about the Parademons’ attacks on him and rushed to Darkseid’s palace. He smashed his way through the walls, ignoring all rooms, stairs, and corridors, until he arrived outside the throne room.

“Go on, what are you waiting for?” Hawkgirl asked when they arrived in front of the massive double doors. “We shall let nobody pass!”

Superman took one last look at his friends, just in time to see an army of robots and a few dozen New Gods with Devilance at their forefront running through the holes that he had created in the walls, but he decided to put his trust in Hawkgirl and Green Lantern, knowing how reliable they were. 


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Pushing the palace’s doors open, Superman was greeted by the sight of a large room with a very tall ceiling supported by numerous majestic, finely carved pillars. And at the very end of the room was Darksaid, sitting on his throne. 

Alas, the Man of Steel barely gave him a glance. His eyes locked onto Kara, unable to look away. Not taking his eyes off his cousin, he spoke:

“Darkseid, Kara leaves with me!”

The God of Evil was amused. “She’s free to leave if that’s what she desires."

“Hello, Kal,” Kara said in greeting. “Nice of you to stop by. But, between you and me, we could’ve done without the explosions in the middle of the night.”

“Kara . . .”

He had expected his cousin to jump into his arms and be overjoyed at finally seeing him again and being able to escape from Apokolips. But what stood in front of him was a Kara who looked more than a little annoyed with his appearance. 

“I don’t know what he’s done to you, but the nightmare is over,” Superman said as he flew to her. “I am here. You’re safe now. Let’s go home.”

Kara didn’t take his extended hand. 

“We’re going to have a problem, cousin, because I am home. Apokolips is my home.”

“You’re just confused,” Superman tried to talk sense into her and grabbed her by the arm. 

But the girl yanked her arm out of his grasp and decked him in the jaw, sending him flying like a cannonball into the wall. 

“You didn’t listen to what Darkseid said! You never listen to anyone! He said I was free to go if I wanted to! And I don’t want to!”

Superman had yet to pick himself up from the crater his body made in the wall when Kara smashed her high-heeled boots into his chest, making spittle fly out of his mouth from the strength of her double kick. 

An evil grin twisted Darksedi’s face. 

“Good! Now kill him!” Darkseid ordered. 

Superman groaned in pain as he tried to stand up, but Kara smashed her foot into his chest again, keeping him down. 

“I won’t fight you,” Superman said through the pain. 

“Good. That just makes my job easier,” Kara replied, her eyes turning crimson with her heat vision. “All these years of pretending to be human have made you soft. But I know who I am, and I accept myself fully. I am a Kryptonian. I am a warrior. I am Darkseid’s left hand.”

“Do not hesitate, Kara! Kill him now!” Darkseid shouted from his throne in a strange mixture of excitement and irritation. “Kill him, and everything he owns shall be yours. The Earth will be yours to rule and manage as you see fit.”

Kara smirked and lifted Superman by the throat. 

“As you wish, Darkseid.”

“You think killing me will accomplish anything? He’s just using you, like a tool.” 

“You know nothing about Darkseid! He took me in when you threw me away, when you left me to rot with the Amazons! He gave me a home! He cares about me!” Kara shouted at him. 

“No, Kara, I didn’t throw you away! You were kidnapped and taken away from me! Darkseid doesn’t care about you more than he can use you. I care about you. I didn’t want to believe what Barda told me, but it seems like she was right. Darkseid’s control over you is absolute. I see that now. I’m sorry, Kara. You leave me no choice.”

Saying those words, Superman threw a palm strike to her sternum, sending Kara flying through one of the walls of the throne room, straight outside the palace. 


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Flying above the royal city of Apokolips, clone-Naruto glared at a red and yellow blur of light that was flashing all over the place, phasing through buildings, war machines, and even through the Parademons, destroying everything in his way.

'I've never seen anyone this fast in my entire life.'

That metahuman’s ability to phase through objects and destroy them from within was also different from anything he had ever seen. 

‘Single target techniques would be useless against someone as fast as him. I need something big. No, something enormous, something that would render his speed useless.’

Bearing that thought in mind, clone-Naruto went through a series of four hand seals before his chest was inflated beyond the capacity of a regular human and a massive torrent of water burst out from his mouth. 

‘Exploding Water Colliding Wave!’ 

A regular shinobi would have found it almost impossible to create such an enormous amount of water on a planet as dry and arid as Apokolips, but, as the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox, Naruto was anything but normal. 

A lake’s worth of water flooded the capital city, running over all the beasts, war machines, and Parademons in the streets. The speedster was flushed away by the massive tsunami-like wave too, colliding painfully against several buildings as the current carried him all over the place. 

Overconfident in his speed, Flash often let his guard down, and his opponents had taken advantage of that on more than one occasion; such was the case in the present as well. 


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On the other side of the royal city, Batman killed two Parademons and stole their armour before infiltrating the Armory. Breaking through the security protocols had not been particularly difficult for someone with his talents.

Now, he was inside a room holding no less than 500 Hellspores. They were round, dark red egg-shaped devices about as tall as a human’s waist.

The explosion of one Hellspore was powerful enough to destroy a planet. What if 500 of them were to blow up simultaneously? There wouldn’t be a spec of dust left from Apokolips. 

Batman took out his mini-computer, and his fingers appeared to become a blur as he started working as fast as possible to decrypt the arming code of the Hellspores. 

All of a sudden, a lightning-coated kunai split the air, and it was sheer instinct that allowed Batman to dodge it by a hair’s breadth. His mini-computer, however, was not as fortunate. 

The dark knight felt his back break into a cold sweat when he saw the football-sized crater that the lightning-coated kunai had made into the ground. 

‘If that knife had hit me, I would have died on the spot.’

He looked at his assailant. Nothing about his appearance could be discerned other than the fact that it appeared to be humanoid. Nonetheless, the black combat suit with red accents, the ninja-like weapon, and the lightning magic he had just used betrayed his identity. 

‘Darkseid’s adopted son.’

An exploding Batarang slipped into his hand, but just as he raised his arm to throw it, Naruto appeared to have teleported in front of him and grabbed him by the wrist—it wasn’t actual teleportation but a body flicker movement. 

One second later, Batman howled in agony as his forearm was snapped like a twig. 

“Don’t worry, I won’t be killing you,” Naruto said, his Mother Box translating his words into English at the same time he was talking. “After all, I’m curious to find out just how crazy one must be in order to invade Apokolips. Granny Goodness will have the time of her life picking your brain apart and pulling all the information hidden within.”

Despite the terrible pain coming from his broken forearm, Batman forced himself to stand to his feet and grabbed a hand grenade from his utility belt. He just barely managed to bring the grenade to his mouth and pull its pin out with his teeth when two arms burst out of the concrete floor and grabbed Batman by the ankles. 

It was Earth Release: Headhunter Technique. 

Two things happened instantaneously:

• Batman suddenly and inexplicably found himself buried into the ground up to his neck.
  

• The grenade whose pin Batman had pulled out fell on the floor and exploded. 

However, it was not fire and shrapnel that exploded from the grenade. Instead, it was an extremely powerful sound wave. 

Caught completely off guard, the two shadow clones’ eardrums couldn’t handle it, and they were both dispelled in a puff of smoke. 

The sound attack was very powerful but also short. The sound grenade was a device that Batman had created after Big Barda told everyone that Uzumaki Naruto’s shadow clones would be dispelled upon being hit once. 

All members of the Justice League carried such sound grenades on their persons, and the earpieces they used to communicate with each other also offered protection against the frequency of the sound grenades. 

Although he had managed to catch the Shadow Clone by surprise, Batman could not be any more miserable at that moment: he was buried in the concrete floor up to his neck. His utility belt did have many wondrous gadgets in it, but they were all simply out of his reach. He could not move an inch, not even a finger. He could not even activate his earpiece to ask for his teammates’ help. 

 

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AN: for those who are interested, I have started 3 new Naruto crossover stories. You can find them in my collections, here, on Patreon.

• [Orcbane] - Naruto/World of Warcraft crossover. [Naruto/Sylvanas] pairing. There is a chance for all the Windrunner sisters to be included
  

• [Hope In Ruination] - Naruto/League of Legends crossover. [Naruto/Ahri] pairing.

• [Samsara] - Naruto/Bleach cover. [Naruto/Rangiku] pairing most likely.