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

Chapter XC - Victory

"Normal Speech."

'Normal Thought.'

"Demon Speech."

'Demon Thought.'

"Other Speech variants."

Location/Time.

-X- Line Break -X-

Wednesday 31st December, 23:10.

Bialya,

Bialyan Desert.

All around him, Naruto could see white. He couldn't tell if he was dead, if he was alive, or where he was. All he could see as he looked up – he vaguely recognising the sensation of laying down – was white. His pained bleat couldn't even be heard over the incessant ringing in his ear.

Blinking slowly, Naruto tried to clear his vision, to make sense of what was going on and slowly colours began to bleed into his surroundings. A dark might night sky and the white glowing stars. Flames and smoke erupted across the sky, shockwaves visible to the naked eye ringing out as blurred figures clashed in the sky.

It was like a scene fit for the end of days.

A battle between God-like beings.

'The Justice League!' Naruto realised. 'What's happened? How long has it been?'

It was then he saw the figure of Roy Harper rushing towards him, mouth moving but words indecipherable. And he turned, rolling to his side in an attempt to push his tired and aching body, cloak gone entirely as he looked towards the unconscious Aquaman. He was laid upon his front and from this position, he looked entirely unscathed besides a little charred. Naruto just hoped his injuries were more severe on his front because otherwise, he didn't know how to react to that if he wasn't.

"-om?!" Looking back to Roy, he saw the guy crouching down beside him urgently. Behind him the battle in the sky raging heavily. "-strom?!"

Murmuring out an affirmative, it must have been just as indecipherable as Roy's own words were to him because the bow hero didn't even acknowledge his words besides a momentary pause.

"Maelstrom?!" Finally, the ringing subsidised.

"Yeah?" It was perhaps a little louder than was necessary by the look upon Roy's face, but Naruto wasn't quite used to hearing his voice, it still sounded quiet to him. Feeling almost like he had spent too long in a nightclub with music blaring constantly then stepping outside where it was quiet.

"You alright?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not really, feel like I've been stuck in a blender. What about him?" The blonde thumbed towards Aquaman. "How longs he been out, we sure we don't need to chip him yet?"

"Already been chipped, Plastic Man got caught in the outer edges of the explosion but he was able to move. Good thing too because Aquaman was getting back up after about a minute." Red Arrow muttered disbelievingly as he looked around at the massive crater, near ten miles in diameter that they were currently situated within. Ignoring the frankly inhumane levels of strength and power the Justice League possessed, just their durability alone was enough to make a shiver go up to his spine.

And more terrifying was the fact that Aquaman wasn't even top tier, he was as he had come to learn from the Flash, was jokingly considered a sort of gatekeeper along with Hawkman and Hawkgirl. He was what stood between all the others heroes, strong or powerless and the truly powerful heroes, almost godlike that were amongst them.