Injustice Book 1: A Journeys Beginning (Naruto + Batman Comics crossover)

Chapter LVI - The Worthy and Unworthy

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thought.'

"Demon Speech."

'Demon Thought.'

"Other Speech variants."

Location/Time.

-X- Line Break -X-

'Alright, Rose.' Naruto took a deep breath to centre himself as Rose came charging towards him once more. 'If this is what you want, I won't hold back.'

Again Rose came at him with a vicious and near overwhelming flurry of punches and kicks, yet much like before Naruto carefully and meticulously avoided each one, parrying those he could not. Unlike before, Rose was not overextending herself and instead using snapping punches and kick that allowed her to instantly bring them back to her body and defend should Naruto perform a counter.

He never did and instead focused on just defending against her attack, resolutely ignoring her cries for him to, "Fight back!"

And again, much like before, Rose sacrificed defence for offence. It was just the first punch and she overextended it, adding more momentum and movement in order to build up more power. Yet, this was exactly what Naruto had been waiting for and with his forearm, hit her wrist and knocked her punch to one side.

There was a brief moment upon which their eyes met, hers widening in shock as she looked into his calm cerulean gaze. Rose, in that singular moment realised that she had been played, that Naruto had been waiting for this exact moment.

But she had no more time to think on it as pain invaded her mind as she cried out, Naruto's left first fist slamming into her side with enough force that a couple of her ribs cracked.

This time however, Naruto didn't stop.

A quick jab, cross, hock combo had Rose stumbling back with a bust lip and bloody nose. When she attempted to throw a blind jab in order to put some distance, Naruto just slapped it to one side and thrust out his leg in a front kick that picked Rose off the ground and she was launched back a few feet before she landed on the ground with a roll.

Rose barely had time to get to her feet before Naruto was upon her once more.

A flurry of punches and kicks came at her faster and harder than she could deal with in her dazed state and while she managed to block a majority of his punches, a few slipped through and others broke her guard completely leaving her open to a kick that she could do nothing to stop.

It was a miracle she remained on her feet and while her mind did start to recover, it was not enough.

Seeing a jab coming at her, she also picked up on the shifting of his hips and she realised he was winding up for a cross to come after it. 'This is my chance!' All it would take was this one chance and she could tip the favour of this battle in her favour.

However, what she didn't realise was that it was a feint. His jab struck her guard lightly, only a tap and while her eyes focused entirely on his right hand, ready to enact a counter in order to take control to the fight, she didn't realise he had wanted her to do just that. It had been a feint, a diversion, a cover up that allowed his left leg to lash out and strike the inside of her knees, buckling them.

Unsure of what just happened, Rose could do nothing as he gripped her shoulders and drove his knee into her stomach and then followed up with a punch that knocked her to the ground.

Groaning, Rose attempted to get to her feet only for Naruto to place one knee on her stomach and slam a punch into her face. "Stay down, Rose." He warned, applying more pressure to his knee as Rose in her semi-conscious state tried to push him off her, but it was easy for him to keep her in place.