Injustice Book 2: Darkness in the Light (Naruto + Young Justice Crossover)

Chapter XCII - Akatsuki

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thought.'

"Demon Speech."

'Demon Thought.'

"Other Speech variants."

Location/Time.

-X- Line Break -X-

Sunday 30th November, 13:15.

Florida,

Location Unknown.

"Don't you want to know what happened to your mother?"

There was a pause, a moment in which Naruto's shoulders tensed, body becoming deathly still as a dangerous atmosphere befell the room. Slade didn't so much as blink or even more from his position, calmly staring out as Naruto slowly turned.

Eyes blazed red, slitted pupils honing in upon him, whiskers appeared upon his cheek, claws flexing dangerously. Slade could feel the intent of that gaze, Naruto would not so much as hesitate to kill him if the wrong words came out of his mouth. It was a strange feeling for sure, to feel like the prey rather than the hunter but it also wasn't uncommon either. He'd faced many life or death experiences and survived them all.

So despite being the target of such killing intent, Slade didn't so much as bat an eye. "What did you say?" Naruto growled out turning to face him fully.

"Dismiss your powers, Naruto," Slade ordered. "Take a moment to calm your breathing. There is much to be discussed and that can only be done if you keep a level head."

"Why don't I just make you tell me?"

"Do you think you can?" Slade posed as Naruto stalked towards him, the blondes shadow engulfing his form as he towered over him. For a moment both master and former apprentice stared at one another, studying one another until eventually, Naruto subsided. Red eyes flickered back to blue as whiskers melted away into nothing, claws and fangs shortening.

However, the atmosphere remained.

"Sit." Reluctantly, Naruto did so. "What do you know of your mother's death."

"No," Naruto responded quickly and sharply, eyes glaring out at him. "I am not answering questions. You tell me everything now."

"Very well, however before we do that. I do need to ask but a few questions, to determine whether I am telling you the information you might already know. As you can imagine, it will save us both the trouble of repeating something that doesn't need to be said." Clenching his fists, Naruto's head jerked into a nod. "You already know about your family history and their connection to the Kin of Kurama, but do you know how they were destroyed? Of the faction that has been hunting down your family for millennia?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Very well then," Slade replied as that meant there was only one more question he needed answering. "Have you ever heard of the Demon, Trigon?"

Naruto paused as while he had heard the name from Jason Blood a few times, it was not something he was overly familiar with. "I only know that he's a powerful Demon." He answered and Slade nodded his head.

"I don't know much about his origins or his character either," Slade said and the mercenary had tried. But every occult group and cult he met was so completely terrified of this Demon that they rushed him away as soon as the name was mentioned. It was why whenever coming into contact with a group after accepting the mission to monitor and then later train Naruto, he had always brought up Trigon last.

"So what exactly?" Naruto snapped, frustrated with the lack of progress the two were making. "What does this have to do with my mother?"

"What I know of Trigon is that the Demon is a conqueror of worlds. A vast army of powerful Demons under his command. But that he also had a Demon as equally as powerful as he was in his service at one point in time. A Demon that your family killed at the cost of thousands of their members." Slade explained and Naruto scoffed.

"You seem I find that a little hard to believe." Naruto countered. "I don't know much about Demons in general been a little busy with other things. But there's one thing I know very well and that's that Demons are incredibly prideful. Just allying with one another is a difficult thing for them, but to serve someone they're equal to, yeah right."

Slade was undeterred by Naruto's scepticism. "I have come into contact with many that study the Occult. Not many were willing to talks about Trigon but there were a few. And each of them said the exact same thing, that Trigon had a servant of equal power to himself. One that the Uzumaki Clan defeated. Even managing to cut Trigon's connection to Earth off for eternity. But what no one knows is that before they could do that, one of Trigon's children slipped through and has remained here ever since."

"And what does that have to do with my family?" Gone was the anger and frustration in Naruto's tone, a pit forming in his stomach. "You're a lovely storyteller, but I didn't come here for a history lesson."

Slade shook his head. "You're a smart kid, I think you've got enough clues to fit together a theory, but you'll stick around to hear it from personally. And once I do, you'll be in no state to listen. And you need to know everything because if you don't know what you're facing, then that means Trigons gets you."

"W-why do you care?"

"Because if he gets you, that means he gets Earth as well. I'm in the business of death, I've seen it, dealt it and come close to it on many occasions. I don't fear death, but just because I don't fear it doesn't mean I want to die." Slade answered simply and Naruto could see the truth in his eyes. "I didn't know the true scope of who this being was or his plans until after. I was hired to make you a slave, but I taught you so that you could be strong enough to defeat Trigon."

"You shoved a sword through my chest and let Cadmus experiment on me." Naruto shot back and he didn't deny it.

"You would have never gone willingly and I needed you to have the power necessary to defeat Trigon. This Demon within you had the power to rival Trigon according to what others have said. Considering that Trigon's son has gone through such effort to cultivate a line of Uzumaki to gain access to you, only proves that."

"Then why wait for so long?" Naruto asked. "Why not take any of the Kin of Kurama?"

Slade shook his head. "I don't know. There are things that don't make sense, either because they've been made up to fill the gaps or because someone's purposefully changed things. Considering this Demon is cunning, I wouldn't put it past him to do so." He has only met that Demon and while he didn't exude power like many heroes and villains he had encountered, there was a cunning and intelligence in those pale yellow eyes that he had only seen in a few men.

Each of them was part of a small minority of people that terrified Slade.

"Naruto, this son of Trigon. He's been hunting down and killing Uzumaki for centuries. Not by himself, but with an organisation of individuals. I've only encountered one, a snake-like Demon calling himself Orochimaru. He is but one individual who is part of this group."

"And the others?"

"I know of only three, a Shark-like Demon named Kisame. A mad immortal cultist called Hidan and another immortal, a bounty Hunter called Kakuzu. And there's more as well, many more. One so powerful that they simply refer to him as God." Slade answered. "You'll notice them instantly, they were black cloaks with red clouds stitched upon them. And they go by a name, the Akatsuki."

"The Akatsuki?" Naruto repeated lowly, before shaking his head. "I understand, I'll keep an eye out for them. But what do they have to do with my mother."

"I do not know if the Akatsuki did it personally, Orochimaru might have had a hand, possibly Kakuzu." He had not met the latter personally but as a bounty hunter, he would no doubt have killed people in many ways. Orochimaru, that seemed especially likely but again, Slade couldn't be certain. "But your mother didn't die of exhaustion, Naruto. She was killed. And whether the Akatsuki had a hand in it or not, the son of Trigon was definitely the main culprit."