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

Chapter XCIV - Tartarus

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thought.'

"Demon Speech."

'Demon Thought.'

"Other Speech variants."

Location/Time.

-X- Line Break -X-

Friday 20th February, 16:45.

Massachusetts,

Salem,

Tower of Fate.

Breathing heavily, arms extended Naruto looked towards the burning wooden doll across from him with wide eyes. Sweat streamed down his forehead as he looked at the burning wood in awe.

And slowly, he let out a short laugh that dissolved into a full-blown laugh. Arms dropped by his side as he collapsed to the ground, finally having achieved the very thing he had tried and failed to do for that past month. His training in magic had been slow in the beginning, purely comprising of reading book after book, memorising the information within and then being tested upon it the next day.

Naruto had never been more thankful for the ability of the serum that enabled him to retain and recall information much easier than before.

He read everything from the basic principles of magic to the more advanced understandings of it. Then when that was crammed into his mind, Doctor Fate made him start to read the basics of the many branches and schools of magic. Naruto hadn't really been overly interested in a lot of them and those he had been interested in, such as magic meant having an understanding that Naruto doubted he'd be able to achieve in order to do anything meaningful with.

Considering the threats out there, Naruto needed something he could start practice now. Something basic that many practitioners of magic learnt the basics of after learning how to project pure magic.

Elemental Magic.

To Naruto, not only did this look cool but it was also incredibly powerful. Hence why so many practitioners learnt it so soon into their studies. It gave them the ability to fight powerful figures but it had one very severe downside. The magical power necessary to utilise Elemental Magic on a vast scale was often too great for most magicians to properly utilise.

This was why many went on to study things like Illusions, Summoning and more abstract areas of magic that could be used by those with less magical power. But for someone like Naruto who possessed a naturally large core of magic, bolstered by his demonic power as a result of the seal, he did not need to worry about the drain upon him. He had the power there, all he needed to focus upon was improving his control, something he did daily.

"You've improved." Doctor Fate noted as he watched Naruto from the side of the room. A click of his fingers and the wooden dummy both disappeared from its spot on the floor, but also reappeared back in its original spot, unharmed.

"I know." When Naruto said that, it wasn't out of arrogance, he had improved and he could feel it. This wasn't like when learning to use his magic powers or when he was learning to fight. No, he could very clearly see and mark his improvements whereas, in the past, there was always a number of factors that limited him.

His Demon powers were great but came at the cost of making him risk the chance of losing control constantly. As a result, his progress in that area was stunted by Naruto always being wary of potentially losing control of himself.

As for when learning to fight, all the way back in his time as Black Hood, his progress has appeared nonexistent. But in actual fact it was subtle, often going unnoticed due to the level of opponents Naruto was facing.

Now things were different, he could easily see his development in magic in a number of ways. 'It actually managed to reach the dummy without fizzling out like it usually does.' He thought with a smirk, sitting upright. 'That makes it three elements alongside earth and wind. Now I need to work upon the water.'

Pushing himself to his feet, Naruto looked towards the dummy and then towards the bucket of water at the side of the room. And with an upturn of his lips, Naruto extended one arm out towards it, magic wrapping around the water.

He had no time to rest, all that mattered was he kept working and working till he could use each element in its most basic fashion. After that, all it would take was to keep climbing up the metaphorical ladder before him as he strove to new heights. Then, when all was said and done, he'd hopefully no longer need to rely upon his demonic powers anymore.

-X- Line Break -X-

Wednesday 13th May, 14:00.

Tartarus,

Location Unknown.

"So, this is Tartarus?" Naruto wondered aloud, looking out across the burning landscape before him. "I honestly imagined this to be Hell from the looks of things. It always looks like how Hell is always described."

Naruto directed his statement to the man beside him, clad in a loose brown trench coat and looking a little scruffy in appearance. "If you think this is Hell, lad." John Constantine murmured, raising the cigarette to his lips as he did. "Then I'm afraid you're a long way off from that. This is peaceful in comparison to what lays in wait for you in that shithole. You've got your wankers here, but you've got some real fucking cunts in Hell."

"Anything I should be on the lookout?" Naruto asked and Constantine snorted humourlessly.

"Yeah." He responded. "Everything."

Naruto rolled his eyes at that, but he supposed he should have expected it from the man. The blonde couldn't really claim to have known Constantine all that long, a few hours at most but that was more than enough time to gain a pretty decent understanding of his character.

He was upfront, rude and crude.

Honestly, it was a breath of fresh air to Naruto, more like the people he used to have to deal with in Gotham East End every day. 'But those were simpler times.' He thought to himself. "I mean anyone besides everyone. People particularly powerful that I would stand no chance against."

Constantine looked to Naruto once more, tempted to repeat himself because as he was, the kid was out of his league. His magical powers were nowhere near developed enough to fight against even the weakest Demon yet. Small and tame Tartarus may be, especially in comparison to Hell, it wasn't a place to take likely. It made Constantine question why Nabu had allowed the kid to come to Tartarus to train.

'To gain the fighting experience he said. Fat load of good that'll do when he's dead.' Constantine scoffed once more. "Yeah, there's a few. Ixion, can't miss that big wanker. Cronos, the father of Zeus, but he's way over that way and I doubt you're stupid nor arrogant enough to believe you're ready for that. Other than that, I'd say the only ones you have to worry about are the other Thirteen Princes of Hades and Hades himself, but that annoying prick never comes down here much anyway."

"Thirteen Princes of Hades?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Bunch of equally annoying pricks that were chosen by Hades to look after Tartarus while he's doing whatever the fuck he usually does. Ixion's one of them and he's the strongest. But each of them is strong, stronger than you by a large margin." Constantine explained before turning on his heel. "Good luck, lad. Try not to die too early or pathetically."

Shaking his head at the guy, Naruto looked back over the burning landscape and felt a smirk come onto his face.

This was the perfect opportunity to train to his absolute limits without interruption. It was precisely why he convinced Doctor Fate to let him come here and why Fate had asked Constantine to lead Naruto through a back entrance that avoided going through Themiscyra and the Doom's Doorway. Plus it avoided the guardian of said gate, Jason of Iolcus or a more commonly known as the great here who led the Argonauts to claim the Golden Fleece.

However, none of that mattered to Naruto as he looked down at the nearest group of Demons below him. 'Time to start hunting.'