Chapter 15: SECRETS PART 1
The morning rays started to shine through the bedroom, as the light started to creep towards the loft's resident. The brightness of the sunrise had landed upon Selina's sleeping face, causing her to groan in discomfort from her well rested sleep. She tried to seek comfort from her pillow to block out the rays of the sun and it felt just right when turning her head a bit more into it.
Selina had thought it was just a cruel dream when those moments from last night come to the forefront of her mind as she tried to go back to sleep. She wanted to stay in that dream and never wake up, but Isis had gotten into bed and started to wake her up with her normal morning kisses for her breakfast.
*Groan* "I'm getting up Isis, just be patient please."
She tried to move as per muscle memory when she felt her lower half really sore. Not only that, but when she tried to move her arm, it grazed against something warm and firm. This confused the thief in her morning haze that once she rubbed the grime out of her eyes, she looked upon the naked, sleeping form of her only male friend turned lover. She then realized what her 'pillow' was exactly that made her realize what occurred.
"I-It can't be…." She muttered as her eyes started to water up as a smile graced her beautiful face. "It happened. It really happened."
The sudden movements that were taking place started to stir Naruto from his slumber as he soon woke up to Selina looking up with him with unshed tears.
"Selina?..." He asked her in a concerned tone. "Are you alright? Did you have a bad dream?"
She shook her head before responding back to him while wiping her barely shed tears. "I'm better than alright and I didn't have bad dream. In fact it was a good dream….a great dream."
"What was it then?"
"You…. Telling me you love me."
She slided up a bit on his form and gave him a pleasant kiss on the lips that made him wrap an arm around her to hold her closer. Her breasts pressing on his muscular chest with their hearts quickening their pace to sync up like one organ. The publisher then broke the kiss as his unused hand went up to her face and held it in comfort.
"It wasn't a dream Selina." Naruto said to her with a small smile on his face. "It really happened and I'm glad for that."
"Meowr." Isis called out from the end of the bed. She then walked up towards the two while moving out of the way of the mess they made last night. Once the black cat came close, she started to lick Naruto's whiskered cheek and rubbed her head against it with a loud purr.
"Hey Isis. Good morning." He said petted her head a little before she kept licking said cheek. *Chuckles* "Cut it out girl. It tickles."
"Really.~" Selina smirked at hearing this and out of curiosity, she brought her hand up against his cheek and started to rub it .
"N-No, d-d-don't do tha…A-A-A-A-Ooooooooo…" He was cut off by her strokes on his cheek before she pulls her hand back with odd look and a little pinkish tint on her cheeks.
"Did you just purr?" Selina asked in wonder, finding it a little cute.
"N-N-No, I do-O-O-Ooooooo…"
She kept on stroking his whiskered cheek and couldn't stop herself from laughing. "N-No way! *Laugh* I can't believe it!"
"I-I-I don't purr at all!" Naruto cried out as he lightly pushed her hand away. Of course the moment he did, he felt a paw on his cheek and started to rub it. This caused him to purr once again with the rumbling sound coming from his throat and chest.
"Ah~ That's so cute!" Cooed the thief as she found the sight adorable. "Isis thinks you're a cat as well."
"It's not cute at all!" He said in denial with his red embarrassed face. 'I thought I grew out of that years ago!'
It was, unfortunately for him and fortunate to others, something he was either born with or that was left behind for being 'bunny ears' container.
He first came across this discovery back when he was a little boy. Naruto had just started to go to Ichiraku's and he didn't have any money with him at the time. Ayame had offered him a free bowl of ramen to him for a price of her petting his whiskered cheeks. It was out of mild curiosity for the young chef that she wanted to feel what they were like. He didn't mind at the time since he was hungry.
After devouring his meal in good manners, since Ayame smacked his head with a ladle on the head for bad table manners one time, she collected her payment. It felt really nice with her soft hands rubbing his cheeks and with him in content with a full belly, came a surprise to them both: he purred.
They thought it was just their imagination and she repeated her action to get the results. When realizing that he indeed purred, she squealed in joy on how cute it was and kept doing it for a while, much to his growing dismay.
So every now again, when he went by there, Ayame would hound him down to 'pet' him and he would refuse. Even would offer a free bowl for the chance. It was hard to refuse on those times and he had to suck it up on those moments.
But since he never came to this world, he never purred at all and thought he grew out of it.
Some people might end up asking: But wouldn't he purr when someone caressed his cheek or something similar?
Well caressing and petting are considered two different things. I'm not going into detail about them. So moving on.
After the little moment in bed, the two had gotten Isis' breakfast out before retreating to the bathroom and 'freshen' up. Practically spent an hour in there by cleaning themselves up, dirtying each other before cleaning each other again. By the time they got out of there, the newly made couple were pretty shiny….well Selina was extra shiny due to her satisfied glow.
Once all that was done, the two were in the kitchen with Naruto cooking up breakfast for the two of them. While she wore a fresh pair of clothing for the day, Naruto had resorted to wear the clothes he wore last night. Not that he minded really since those were entirely clean, but he'll probably change later.
"So how is this going to work out?" Selina asked while sitting at the kitchen counter.
"On what exactly?"
"With us being together." She said to bring up the subject from last night.
"Right….Well Pam told me that I have one hell of a big heart."
"That's for sure." She quickly added as she remembered how the two ended up falling asleep after their continuation of last nights activities. His heartbeat was so strong and so relaxing that she was able to drift off to sleep easily. Add to the fact that Naruto turned out to be a very nice pillow with those ribs of his.
"And said that 'they' can be fine of me being with others as long as I come back to 'them' and show the other women the equal amount of love I have for Pam in general. Add to the fact that Ivy keeps saying that since I'm her king that I need to have 'consorts'."
"That seems odd."
"I know, right?" He said towards her agreement on that little statement. "But I want to respect 'their' wish and possibly see if this can work."
"Yeah….." She didn't say much as she was starting to make plans on doing soon. One of them being her seeing Pam and ask on her opinion on all of this. Possibly might do that today while running errands from the bank and something else to kill her free time.
"But hey, it's okay. We've got all the time in the world. We can take things slow if we have to."
The thief smiled at his happy go lucky attitude as he served her the starting meal of the day. He was right though about having all the time in the world. No one knows what the future holds but one can be happy if they patiently work on things at a decent pace. Which is what the two plan on doing in their new relationship.
'Possibly should plan a date at one point since we're now a couple.' Selena thought as she took a bite out of her delicous breakfast. 'Need to actually have that happen to show that we're now dating.'
The two had some small talks while they ate and nothing much occurred there….. That was until Selina asked a simple question.
"So was there anything else Pam said to you?"
"Yeah there was."
"Which would be…" The thief said while dragging on the answer. She ended up taking a sip of her drink when he ended up answering.
"...That apparently Harley has feelings for me as well."
*Cue Spit take* "What?!"
Selina's response was pretty normal to say the least, given with the new shocking detail revealed to her. She had thought it was just her that fell in love with the publisher, but she didn't expect the asylum intern to have feelings as well.
"Are you sure that Pam's right on her?" She questionably said to him. "Not to offend her or anything, but it's pretty hard to tell with Harley during the few times I've hanged out with her."
"I was wondering the same thing actually. So while I had to think things over on both you and Harley, I've been wondering how Pam noticed that with her doctor."
The thief took some moments to think while chewing down her food before swallowing to respond to that. "For some odd reason, this is making me think of an odd soap opera thing of the doctor going after his/her patient's girlfriend/boyfriend or the other way around."
This got Naruto to think it over and came to the same realization. "I guess you're right on that."
"Even though I had been coming in terms to my feelings towards you, I think she might not know she has any towards you at all."
"What you mean?"
After taking a sip out of her drink to clean out her palate before explaining to him. "During the few times we hung out and during the moments being with the gal at Arkham, I could tell she has a secret. One that might've affected her deeply and could've buried any romantic feelings towards anybody. I don't know what it is exactly, but I've seen my fair share of variations to roughly guess that it deals with death on a loved one."
"...I see."
This... could make a bit of sense now he thought about it. Sure he knows that she has started to keep a neutral appearance at times while at work so she won't show that much of a reaction at all. Harley could've used that subconsciously when dealing with certain feelings and end up burying it down and not dwell into them.
"So my little advice for you is this: just keep doing what you're doing and don't try to date her too quickly. Just take things slow and things might go well." Selena said before taking a bite out of her meal. "I mean *Swallow* you're opening her up from her shy attitude and trying to get familiar with her. So just keep doing that."
"I'll take what I can get Selina and thanks."
"You're welcome."
The two ate in relative peace after that before finishing up their meals. They cleaned up the dishes and had to finish getting ready for the day before doing their own respective things. From Naruto heading to work and Selina doing her thing with her one dealer, the bank and now seeing Pam because of recent events.
-Later, Arkham Asylum-
"Hello, I'm here to see Pamela Isley."
The security guard then pulled out the patient's guest list and asked the usual question. "Name?"
"Selina Kyle."
"And may I see some identification?"
"Of course." The environmentalist complied as she pulled out her wallet and handed the guard her Driver's License. After a few moments, the guard of the asylum handed the item back to her before handing her the usual guest pass. From there, Selina navigated her way through the building and made her way to her destination.
Though along the way, she came across Harley's office and this made her come to a stop. She wanted to see if her friend was in or not like in her usual habit when she came on by alone the past several times. But after remembering what Naruto told her from what Pam told him, Selina hesitated in wanting to chat with her at the moment.
'I should probably tell her, she's my friend after all and should probably deserve to know.'
'And then what? Have things get complicated between you four or five, if you consider Pam counting as two?'
'Oh great, you again.' Selena thought with a sigh escaping her mouth. 'I thought you went away when I got together with Naruto.'
'It was only temporary really.' The inner Selina/Catwoman simply said. 'I am, after all, your inner instincts and subconsciousness. And I should tell you that telling Harley now instead of later will ruin the relationship in the group.'
'So what should I do then if I meet Harley next time?'
'To simply put it: just be her friend and act like what you normally do with her.'
Selina could only sigh in defeat with her inner self winning. 'Ok….I'll keep this secret a little longer.'
'Good girl. Now you have someone you had planned on seeing.' The inner Selina said before the voice receded to the back of her mind.
'Right.'
She made her way to the women's wing of the asylum and was able to see Pam in 'their' green house styled cell with 'them' lying on the bed reading 'their' copy of Loveless.
*Knock* *Knock* "Hey Pam. Hope I'm not interrupting."
The changed botanist looked up from the novel to see 'their' fellow ally towards nature and gave her a smile. "No... not at all. So what brings you here Selina?"
*Sigh* "I….I wanted to come clean and tell you 'two'…."
"Tell us what?"
"That me and Naruto made love last night." Selina finished off on what she wanted to say. She had somewhat expected Pam to go through a bit of a negative response of some kind. The only she got in return was a smirk upon the botanist's lips.
"And how was it?" Pam replied as she got up from her cot and walked towards the glass barrier.
"E-Excuse me?"
"How was the sex?" Pam replied with the ever growing smirk at 'their' friend's flustered face. "It's just a simple question Selena."
"Uh...I-It was good."
"Really? Just good?" Both Pam's respectively asked with a tilt to 'their' head.
"Wasn't it supposed to be great?"
"Mind blowing?"
"Heavenly?"
"Orgasmic?"
"Okay fine! It was amazing! It was perfect! It was the best sex I've had in my entire life! It was even in fact: the greatest experience of my life up till now! Happy?!" Selina yelled out at the slight taunt with her realizing she was being joked around a little.
"See." They said to her with a smile. "It wasn't that hard to answer."
The eyes of the dark haired beauty started to twitch before she pointedly accused the 'two' of 'them'. "You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"Guilty.~"
"So why do that?"
"Because 'we' were bored."
The response seemed a tad familiar to the cat burglar as she said a similar thing to Naruto.
"Mind explaining please."
"As you can tell Selina, things aren't all that exciting being here." Pamela started off the explanation.
"'We' do enjoy watering the plants around the asylum, interacting with 'our' favorite doctor Harley, along with 'our' king's novel. But after a while, things tend to get boring and one needs to find entertainment in anything really." Ivy jotted into the conversation.
"If you don't, you go mad."
"Sounds perfect if you're in here." The environmentalist said before quickly replying back to 'them'. "No offence."
"None taken." 'They' responded to 'their' environmental ally.
"I have a feeling there's something else you wanted to talk to 'us' about. Asides from you and Naruto joining in 'our' relationship."
"That's actually what I'm here for really. Why go through this with him and me as a supposed 'consort'? And don't say because you're the 'Queen of Nature' and all that stuff. Just….please tell me so I can have more sense on this asides from your odd excuse."
*Sigh* "She does have a point Ivy. Might as well tell her."
"Tell me what exactly?"
"Selina...What 'we' are about to tell you, you must promise 'us' to not tell 'our' king." Ivy said to the fellow environmentalist in a stern gaze. "If he finds out….'we' don't know if it will shatter him and unlove us."
Selina looked at Pam and saw how serious the gaze was to realize that 'they' are going to indeed gonna tell her something big. This made her wonder how bad of a secret this was going to be. But like any other person, there was one thing that came to mind in this situation."
"What do you mean exactly?"
-Few Days Later, Evening-
It was a pleasant night in Gotham, to say the least, with the sky ever so clear from the clouds to reveal the lunar rays upon the city. With the cold light casted upon Gotham, it seemed to make the setting right for what crimes are being committed in the moonlight hours. Various ones would be committed from robberies, murders, attempted rapes, you name it and it could be happening at the very moment.
Take for example in a random warehouse as the sounds of a man being electrocuted while writhing and screaming in pain. When coming closer to the source, we would see the man being strapped down to a chair with a contraption on his head with electrical sparks coming off of it, to reveal it being what's causing the pain and suffering for the man. Standing not too far away was the person that was doing this to the poor man.
"That's a good boy Joe." The person said with a small, sadistic smile. "Just a little longer."
Once the electrocution torture ended, the man passed out from the pain as he fell down onto the ground with a mild thud. Soon a pair of feminine hands came out from the barely lit room to pull the device off of the man's head. She then brought it closer to her face to marvel the glint of the moonlight reflecting off of the reflective surface.
"Shiny~ Shiny~." The woman said with wonder in her gaze.
With what bit of light that was shone in the room revealed her identified form. She has shoulder length white hair in a bob cut with black make-up around her eyes and on her supple lips. She wore a black leather outfit with feathery wing-like ornaments on her shoulders. With the leather portion of the outfit though was unique with it only consisting of arm length gloves, mid-thigh length boots, women's bloomers, a corset vest that uplifted her breasts and a fishnet material that covered the majority of her body asides from her mid-drift.
She placed the device into the pouch she had strapped around her shoulder before something glinted in her peripheral vision. Taking a closer look, she saw it was an oddly shiny stapler with it labeled 'Property of Miskatonic Psychiatric Hospital' before she too placed it into her pouch. The woman then ran out of the room with her goal for the night already done. Before she could get any farther, she was kicked onto the side by surprise and seemed to fly a bit into the air. She quickly recovered and twisted herself upright to land onto several boxes up above.
"Hey!" She yelled out to whoever assaulted her. "You just hit a girl!"
"No. I just hit a criminal." The woman's assailant calmly said to her. When he stepped closer, the person was then revealed to be Batman.
"You know, you've given me quite the run." The Dark Knight said to her before coming to a complete stop. "Six warehouses and stolen technology that roughly estimate in the hundreds of thousands."
"Really?" She curiously asked on the new information. "I've only liked them for how they sparkled Mr…."
"Batman."
"Magpie." As she introduced herself, she caught her eye on something on his person. "Oh~ Nice belt. Shiny~ Shiny~. Can I have it?"
"Sorry, I'm using it right now. How about a shiny pair of handcuffs instead?" He told her as he pulled out a pair of batcuffs.
Magpie narrowed her eyes a bit and jumped off of her placement to try and land a kick at the Gotham hero. He rolled onto the side to evade the blow when Magpie landed onto the ground. She stood up and wiped her hands onto her sides to have her nails elongate into sharp weapons before diving towards him for her assault. She swiped and kicked towards the hero as he tried to dodge and evade her quickened blows. He soon had to block the claws with the bracers on his arms before being kicked onto the side.
When he recovered from the blow, Batman pulled out a few batarangs and threw them towards the bird themed criminal, who knocked them away with her claw like weapons. When she got closer, he pulled out the batcuffs and quickly placed them on one of her wrists and attempted to put them on the other. Magpie got angry at this and spun around to kick him at the head. It was successful and he landed onto the ground with a mild thud.
Not wanting to see him get back up, the white haired woman ran towards the dark themed hero before leaping towards him. He saw the attempt she was about to do and shot his feet out and kicked her belly into the air. It was good, at first, to get her away from him but he momentarily forgot about the support pillar nearby as she landed her feet on it and used it as a springboard to launch herself back at the hero.
Batman had to dodge yet again from her diving towards him, but this gave Magpie a clear path to a hanging rope that was behind him. She grabbed ahold of it and used it to swing around to land a powerful kick onto her assailant, which sent him straight to the support pillar that ended up knocking him out.
With her opponent out of the way, she swung towards her parcel that was lying on the ground and would've caught it if it wasn't for someone else snagging it before her.
"Sorry pretty bird, but you need to do better than that." The person said to her as she let go of the rope and glared at him.
"Who are you?" She questioned at the shadowy man.
"Moi? Alright, I'll tell you." He said as he stepped into the moonlight coming from the ceiling windows with the bag in hand. "The name's Vanitas. Got it memorized."
She inspected his form before her eyes were then drawn towards his dark glass like helmet. The moonlight gleamed off its surface and made it seem to glow and radiate in her eyes. When seeing this, her gaze then adopted a look of wonder and awe like before.
"Shiny~ Shiny~."
"Shiny? What's shiny?" He asked as he then remembered his reflective helmet with the moon out tonight. "Nevermind."
"I have to have it!" Magpie demanded as she came towards him in a surprising amount of speed.
She leapt off of the ground and wrapped her legs around his head and circled around him before throwing him off to the side. In the process, he dropped the parcel from his hands making it free for Magpie to take it back.
Once she landed onto the ground, she made her way towards her property before several daggers were thrown towards the bag to hold it in place. She glared at the black and white themed hero before attempting to hit him again with her claws this time. Vanitas moved out of the way before grabbing ahold of her arms and held her down.
This unsettled greatly as she hissed towards him before swinging her leg up to kick him from below. This knocked him back a bit before she came onto his back and attempted to stab him with her claws. Magpie's attack was blocked, however, with his arm before she kept swiping at him several times. She grew tired of this and wrapped her legs around his neck to render him unconscious. He surprised her by phasing himself out of the hold and attempted to take her out.
She got out of the way and in a last ditch effort, she went towards the ground and sent her legs towards Vanitas to send him flying. It was a successful hit with him flying towards a large stack of boxes that toppled all over him. Knowing he'll come back up soon, she went towards her parcel again before escaping. She had to pull out the daggers that held it in place and placed them into her bag before grabbing ahold of the rope and climbed her way towards her exit. By the time Vanitas got out of his toppled box holding, the bird themed criminal was long gone.
"Damn, she took me by surprise back there." Vanitas muttered as he had to pop a few kinks out of his shoulder. "Should've fought better against a female opponent. Then again... there is sparing against Selena, but she never done any of that in our 'fights'."
The masked publisher then heard Batman groan a bit as he tried to get up from his placement by the support pillar. He came up to the downed man and helped him up for support.
"You alright Bats?"
"I'll be fine." Batman told Vanitas as he held his head a bit. "Where's Magpie?"
"The bird girl? Well she's long gone Batsy. She's surprisingly agile though."
"I get that."
The two then heard a groan from the other room before making their way over to see what happened. When getting there, the one man was hunched over in a fetal position with the ground around him seemingly scorched due to the electrocution torture on him.
Placing his hand onto the man's shoulder, Batman spoke to the man. "Are you okay? What's your name?"
"I….I don't know." The man said as he looked around with uncertainty in his eyes. "Who am I? Where am I? What happened?"
This ended up leaving more questions than answers for the two before Batman placed his hand towards his ear and called for the GCPD on their current placements. Once that was done, he turned towards Vanitas to only see empty space to indicate the man already left. Batman could only sigh yet again on not getting the chance to talk to the mysterious man as he pulled another one on him. Once the police arrived, he informed them on what happened before he left for the night to do his own investigation on the matter.
-Hours Later, Naruto's Loft-
*Sigh* "Glad that I don't have to go to the office today." He said to himself as he was sitting at his desk, going over various documents he brought home yesterday.
Going over several revenues to see on what's up to date and if they seemed accurate or not. Looking over a few books that were waiting for approval before being sent to the editor. Going over various resumes of potential new employees for the Metropolis location and current ones who would be fine on transferring there.
Naruto was glad these were the only ones he had to deal with for the day. Especially on what he had to deal with for the past several ones.
It had been a few days since he and Selina had shared their very intimate moment together with them starting out their relationship. Both of them hope this can work since they truly care for each other after all the time the two had spent with one another. Things have been memorable in the early stages it's going through a decent start and they were fine with it.
While he was at work on that first day, he had gotten a call from Selina and asked if they should have dinner at either one of their places for just a dinner and whatever else they could do. He complied and told her to come by his place after he got off from work so he could cook dinner for just the two of them. The evening was pleasant and they decided to just cuddle up on the couch to watch a movie before falling asleep in each other's arms.
The next evening was relatively the same, but this time it was at her place with her wanting to cook dinner and afterwards having an evening romp to burn off the food. It was very enjoyable for the two of them, but the morning after wasn't all that great….
-Flashback-
Naruto was breathing in the morning air inside of Selina's bed and reached out to grab ahold of his 'second' girlfriend, only to grab empty space.
'Huh, wonder where she went.' He thought as he looked around to rub out the grime out of his eyes. He looked around the room to see how oddly messed up it was with their clothes thrown about and wondering how certain articles got stuck on certain places. Like how the hell did his boxer shorts stay hanging on the wall without any hooks or how her bra was swinging on the hanging fan away from the bed.
He heard the door open and looked over to see Selina, wearing his button up shirt that was too big for her, with two cups of hot coffee. Once again, she looked radiant in the morning after and had the pleasant smile on her face when she got closer to the bed.
"Hey. Made some morning coffee."
"Thanks." He told her as he grabbed his cup from her before they both took a sip out of them. Not too hot and not too cold, just right that they could just take more than just a sip.
"I was wondering….was last night a dream."
"Oh it was definitely real." She said with a small, growing smirk.
"Then you were right, about everything. I had no idea."
"So you liked it?"
"Yeah." He immediately responded to her on the question.
"Even with the part where-" "Especially that part, yeah"
She giggled on that bit as he brought his lips onto hers for a few moments before separating.
"You know… I don't have any plans for the day." The thief said as she unbuttoned the shirt a little.
"Really?~"
"Yeah." She replied with her biting her lower lip a little while unbuttoning a bit more.
"Well since I'm my own boss," Naruto told her as he pulled part of the shirt off of her shoulder, "I can probably call in sick for the day and no one can tell me otherwise."
"That would be nice having the day to ourselves."
"So what would you like to do for the day?" The publisher asked as he brushed his lips on her shoulder before biting slightly, much to her pleasure.
"W-We could cuddle up and r-read." She tried to muster as he nibbled onto a sweet spot between the shoulders and neck. "W-We could just ea-eat in."
Naruto kept on nibbling and kissing along the trail before reaching her ear and whispered towards it before nibbling. "Or….We can maybe spend the day doing nothing but work up a sweat before having fun in the bed."
"Y-Yeah...we can do that." Selina responded as she was breathing heavily and cursing herself on Naruto learning all of her sweat spots already.
They were about to get frisky with one another until the door opened and slammed with a voice calling out.
"Selina! I'm home!" Shizune called out to signal who came into the loft.
"Oh Shit!" Both of them cried out as they ended up falling off the bed. It wasn't long until both popped back up from the floor with wide eyed looks with both of them covering each other up with the blankets.
"Oh god!"
"I thought you said she was still in Russia for another day!" He whispered loudly to her as he tried to run around the room and snag his clothes.
"I thought so too, but I must've gotten the time wrong and she came back today!" She responded back in the same tone while getting her clothes as well.
"Hey Selina? If you're here, can we talk about something?" Shizune asked out loud into the loft.
"You need to hide."
"What?!"
"Hide."
"Are you serious?"
"You need to hide in my closet Naruto." She told him as she was pushing him towards the closet in her room.
"I am not hiding in your closet Selena!"
"Just hide!" She whispered back just as she pushed him in and closed the door by that time Shizune walked in.
"Oh hey~. How was the flight?" Selina asked her roommate as she tried to keep herself cool in the moment.
"It was alright and before you ask yes Russia was fine as well."
"That's good." Was the response as the thief awkwardly nodded her head.
"What were you doing?" Shizune skeptically said as she looked at her friend's behavior.
"Nothing really. Just got up and needed to make the bed."
"Naked."
"I was feeling rather hot last night and had to go stark nude." Selina said the excuse on the fly before her eyes caught sight of Naruto's boxers on the ground. She swore she saw him grab them, but he must've let go slightly out of his grasps when she pushed him into the closet.
"Okay…. Anyways I need to talk to you about a few things."
"That's fine, but can I at least change first? It would seem awkward if I was naked."
"Oh yeah right." Shizune said as she quickly got out of the room before calling out from the other side of the door. "I'll be by the kitchen counter when you're ready."
Once Shizune was some distance away, Selina quickly went to her closet and opened it to see Naruto holding a certain piece of lingerie.
"I didn't know you had these." He said as he felt that material. "Were you saving these for another occasion."
"What are you doing?! Don't touch those!" She responded back with her face starting to go red.
"Like I had no choice in the matter since you shoved me in here!"
"I'm not talking about this now. So get out of my closet and get changed."
"But what if I don't want to get out of the closet?" He said with a coy smile before she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him out. "Ow ow ow."
"Don't start with me on that and just do as I say." She responded back as the jokes weren't going to work at the moment.
Once things somewhat settled down, the two had to quickly change as fast as possible before Selina got out of her room first to distract Shizune long enough for Naruto to get out of the loft. It was….somewhat easy with Shizune kept turning slightly and Naruto had to quickly hide without being spotted. Luckily for him, he used his sound manipulation around him to keep himself quiet so he wouldn't give out any noise before reaching the door and bolted.
-Flashback End-
…..that both realized the harsh reality that they needed to keep their relationship a secret from Shizune. Sure they could tell Shizune that they were in a relationship, but they didn't want to reveal it to her too soon. Just only when things seemed comfortable.
So now both needed to try and fix their dating schedules around the roommate.
Like for example, they decided to go out and properly eat at a nice restaurant last night. It was nice, simple, quiet and pleasant that nothing really went wrong at all. Selina did apologize in shoving him into the closet that morning since she practically acted on instinct….like a sophmore in highschool. Her words, not his. It was just that the relationship was still new to her and she wanted to keep this between just the two of them, asides from Pam who is on the know, before they come out on the information.
Asides from all that, things were relatively normal. But there were two things that somewhat bugged him the past few days. One was Selina acting like she had something to hide. She did have secrets just like everyone else and he respected that since he had his own for that matter. But from what he saw was that the secret she had seemed uncomfortable and she wanted to tell someone about it. Naruto would've pressed onto it but decided to let it be and let her tell him when the time comes.
The second, however, was the fact that he ended up sleep writing those intercourse moments he had with Selina. It infuriated him that he ended up doing this ...again… and there was no way into stopping this at all. Seriously though….Is Jiraiya making him write these moments with both Selina and Pam and possibly any other person he does the deed with from beyond the grave. To make him want to write the continuations of his Icha Icha works?
Unknownst to him in the afterlife, Tsunade and Kushina were trying their very best in trying to maim and harm Jiraiya to the best of their abilities for what he has done to their precious Naruto. The deceased Toad Sage keeps denying that he is involved with that habit now, but the two women aren't buying it at all. They do not want Naruto to pick up on that trait from his godfather and will do whatever they can to make it not occur.
Asides from all that, he went out on patrols after seeing Selina off at her loft when they got back from dinner. He wanted to get rid of a lot of energy he had on him and both had in mind of them having sex in his loft. But they didn't want to have Shizune seem suspicious on her staying over at the other person's place after a date and there was no way in hell they were gonna try and do it in their loft. So both held it off for the time being, but not after giving each other a kiss good night.
For the patrol that evening, Naruto had stopped a few muggings and a robbery. He thought it was considered a slow night since he didn't know the whole standard thing on what Batman would've done on these kinds of nights...or on a busy one for that matter. The publisher was going to call it a night until he heard some screaming when he passed by the warehouse district and went to investigate. What he came across was Batman getting knocked out by that Magpie character and he needed to stop her and figure out what was going on. His attempt failed and she got away in the end.
After helping Batman up, they came across the man from the other room with his memories gone apparently. While the Dark Knight wasn't looking, Naruto saw a box on the nearby table with Blackgate Prison labeled on it and saw a file placed on top of it. He would've looked into it then and there but he didn't want to get questioned by Batman again. So he ended up grabbing the oddly placed file and phased himself through the floor to the basement level and waited till the coast was clear for him to head back home.
Naruto realized that it probably wasn't the smartest idea at the moment to take evidence from the scene of the crime. But he wanted to try to start investigating on his own without relying on Kurama too much. He already got the notice from his former tenant before that he now had a 'favor limit' that the hybrid will do for free, but will want to save those for a rainy day.
Now regarding the file, he had looked into it and saw that it belonged to a man named Lunkhead. From what Naruto got from his files, he was a tall, bald man that was roughly 7 ft or so in height and had some pain tolerance and super strength of sorts as his meta abilities. But the downside was that he was dimwitted. Odd trade off he supposed of 'all brawn and no brain' sort of thing along with the bit of excuse of being hit too much on the head. Would explain the large bump on his head though.
After he was done with his workload for the day, he was going to search for Lunkhead and see what he knows asides from what was in the file dealing with him in an experiment in Blackgate with mind control.
-Wayne Industries, R&D Division-
The elevator to the section of the building sounded off as the doors parted open to reveal Bruce Wayne with a case on hand before he walked out. Before coming here in the past, he always had to sneak in through his masked persona and take what he could get to supply his arsenal back in the Batcave. He had to do that the hard way since he didn't want to be caught stealing from his own company. The process was difficult but manageable.
That all changed when his friend and CEO of his company, Lucius Fox, was attacked by Matt Hagen/Clayface. It made Mr. Fox start losing his trust in his long time friend and that point was dug even deeper when Naruto sternly lectured him. After thinking long and hard into this, Bruce decided he needed to bring Lucius into the fold and revealed to him that he was Batman.
Suffice to say, Lucius was pretty shocked on the new information given to him. But after several moments thinking things over, it did make sense on all of the details that would've fitted things together. The CEO did ask why his friend was revealing such a big secret to him and he explained his reasonings with the Clayface event and what Naruto told him when he was in GCPD for his charges. Not only that but he also asked Lucius if he can have better access to the R&D division/Wayne Tech since Lucius was the previous head of the division before being made into the CEO of the company.
The man complied but if Bruce wanted better access to that part of the company, then he'll need to bring the current head of that division and his daughter into the fold as well. It was only fair with Lucius not wanting them to be left out. The disguised hero hesitantly complied but accepted it since they were pretty familiar with his alter ego.
"So Mr. Wayne….How'd the new gadget's work out so far?" A female voice called out as soon as Bruce came near the person's field of vision.
The person in question was an african american woman in her late 20's with poofish black hair that wore a standard mechanic's uniform with the Wayne logo on the cap and shirt. She had a well fit figure for her age, given the fact on what her previous occupation was with the heavy lifting and how hard she worked.
"They worked out well so far Marva." Bruce said to the woman before handing her the case with said gadgets. "Though I think they might need a bit of tweaking."
"Understandable with them still prototypes." The now identified Marva replied as she opened up the case to see what remains there were in there. "Most of them are still unstable and I'm trying to fix all 'em bugs. They work out well in the testing area, but…"
"They sometimes would work better to test in the field."
"Definitely." She replied with a smirk. "Sometimes one would need to consider all of the variables that we don't have here."
"True." Her boss told her before looking around a little. "Do you know where your father is exactly?"
Marva thought for a moment before shrugging her shoulders as she replied to him. "I'm guessing he might be by the garage again sir."
"Good to know. Hope the next batches turn out better."
"Same here and I know you've heard this several times already, but thanks again for taking us in." As she said that, she went back to doing her work load for the day as the billionaire walked off to find the woman's father, Earl Cooper.
One might be wondering how this Marva and Earl Cooper, a daughter/father pair, know that Mr. Wayne is the legendary Batman. For that, we must got back by several years.
Earl Cooper as a top-flight engineer for Global Motors till he predicted that their latest sports cars had serious safety defects. He protested it to the company board, but they refused to listen to him so he decided to quit right on the spot. The executives were afraid that Earl will reveal to the press on what is going on, so they sent thugs to take care of the engineer. Batman intervened and saved Earl's life, but it didn't come without consequences.
Before Global Motors closed down because of the scandal, they had blacklisted Mr. Cooper as a whistleblower and he wasn't able to find work in the auto industry afterwards even after 20 years in the business. The man was literally down to his last dime, no job, no supporting wife due to her dying some years prior. But Batman came in and saved his life yet again by offering the engineer the challenge of a lifetime: build him a new car.
Earl was paid upfront in cash to get things started from paying off his mortgage and all of his bills from past ones till the next six months on just the design specs alone. After that, Earl was hired yet again by the vigilante to actually build the car and yet again paid half now, half when it was done. It fitted everything that Batman could ever dream with all of his needs and expectations and both men were satisfied. Of course after the vehicle was finished, Earl was still out of a job.
So Batman suggested Earl talk to Mr. Wayne and get an interview from him personally for a position there. Mr. Cooper protested in thinking the man wouldn't help him due to his blacklisting. But the Dark Knight told the man that Mr. Wayne had hired wrongfully, blacklisted people before along with down on their luck people and there were no problems in the end.
Earl was hired into the company and later on in his new career, he was promoted to become the new head of the R&D division. Even Marva joined the company when she was old enough and she enjoyed working at Wayne Tech alongside her father.
When Bruce got closer to his destination, he heard the sounds of engines running with the gears grinding before hearing someone cuss out loud a few times as things settled. Bruce then saw a car leveled up as a man, who turned out to be Earl, working on the underbelly of one of the vehicles.
The R&D head was an african american male in his early fifties with him balding on the top of his head with the only remaining hair being on the sides. He had his mechanic's uniform he wore while working in the building as per habit over the years. Underneath the suit, he had a well built form after years of heavy lifting and working hard throughout his life.
"...Seems I'll need to get that fixed up as well." Earl said to himself before spotting the new arrival. "Oh Mr. Wayne, good to see you again."
"Having problems Earl?"
"Just some minor problems, that's all." Mr. Cooper said as he wiped his hands off with a spare rag. "So what can I do you for sir?"
"I came on by to not only drop off the latest prototypes to your daughter, but I needed to access the systems."
"I understand that Mr. Wayne." Earl said as he threw the rag onto the sides before ushering his boss to follow him. "Right this way."
On their way over, Bruce decided to ask a certain question he had while coming over here. "Don't mind me asking Mr. Cooper, but how's the progress coming along on the new suit."
"The suit….well it's doing alright on designs but it's going to take a while to properly figure out a proper way to blend things together to your specifications." The engineer turned division head said as he rubbed his chin in thought.
"It's alright. You can take your time just so you know." Bruce said as he didn't want his employee to feel rushed.
"I know that Mr. Wayne. Just wanted to make things as safe as possible for you. That's all."
"Earl….If you or your daughter are uncomfortable-"
"Mr. Wayne…. I know what my daughter and I signed up for when Lucius brought us into this. The risks we are taking in helping you out. We are committed to help you out for as long as possible and we won't take no for an answer. We take great pride in what we do." Earl said to the billionaire hero before he continued.
"We weren't stupid when you came to us in previous times to fix up your car. With all the parts that needed replacing or fixing weren't cheap at all and you paid up front when the repairs were done. We eventually realized who you were under that mask so please do us a kindness and don't consider us as idiots."
After hearing all of this, Bruce had let it all sink in and sighed deeply before giving the mechanic turned Wayne Employee a subtle nod as he spoke. "Fair enough."
The two then made it to their destination as Earl started typing into the keyboard to get into the better systems of the place.
"So Mr. Wayne, what do you need searching for anyways?"
"I need to look for everything there is to know of a man named Joe Braxton and his connection to Blackgate." Bruce said as Earl typed things down onto the computer.
"Okay."
As Earl started typing away, he decided to tell his boss an obvious suggestion in his mind. "You know Bruce, if you want, we can come on by your Bat Cave of yours and do a proper upgrade to your systems so that you can have better searches to whatever else you're doing. It would save you the trouble in coming here way too often."
"I would like that very much, thank you."
"Don't thank me yet. Thank Marva when the job is done. She was more of the tech wiz than I ever will. Pretty much got it from her mother." The man said with pride in his voice with hints of sorrow.
"You're wife must be very proud in what you two are doing."
"Oh we know, there's no doubt about that." The mechanic replied before the search was complete. "Bingo."
Bruce then looked onto the results on the screen to see what they were. Joe Braxton was apart of a research team at Blackgate Penitentiary, but it didn't say what they were researching in. Possibly the files where physical copies and not much were fully put on record. Might explain why Magpie was at the one warehouse, but for what reason. Asides from that, the only other person in the team is a woman named Bethanie Ravencroft and she currently has a practice here in Gotham.
"Thanks Earl. This is all I need."
"Glad to be of service Bruce."
"Hope you two have a good day." The billionaire said as he made his way towards the elevator to head back home and get ready for the stake out this evening.
-Meanwhile-
"Took a while but I think I found you." Naruto said as he stood near an alleyway with Lunkhead's file on one hand and a grocery bag of candy in the other. He was currently dressed in one of his usual attires of a leather jacket and a button up, but he also wore a hat to try and cover most of his features. Further down from the Uzumaki's position, he found the man he was looking for unloading packages from a freight company he was currently working for.
He had to go to a few shady bars to find Lunkhead's location, but none worked well so far. He almost gave up on his search until he decided to go to the Stacked Deck and ask Moxxi if she knew the man he was looking for. She was very willing to help out on his search. All that she asked for in payment was hearing from his mouth on how far he and Selina had gone to in their relationship. Suffice to say, the bar owner was very happy to hear the thief had gotten laid and was in a relationship with the publisher.
After getting his required information, Moxxi had asked why he needed to know where the man was at. It took some pressuring from the barkeep to make him tell her that he was helping out 'the new hero' in an investigation. It was complicated on the explanations but in the end she bought it and suggested to him if Vanitas needs any information, she would be willing to help the man on information depending on what it is exactly.
'Glad that I possibly have a new informant that I can get in touch with.' Naruto thought as he made his way to the large fellow.
From what Naruto read from the man's files, he was easily startled so he needed to be weary. Not only that, but he tends to willingly comply to various things if someone gives the man candy of any variety. So before attempting to confront the man, Naruto went to the nearest grocery store and bought several bags of candy just in case.
As he got closer to the large man, his cellular phone started to go off to end up alerting Lunkhead that someone is behind him.
"RAAAH!" Lunkhead yelled out as he swung a box towards the person behind him.
"Gah!" Naruto cried out as he narrowly dodged the large package before hiding behind the dumpster.
"Who the hell is trying to call me?" The publisher asked as he checked the caller ID. "Oh, it's Selina."
"Hey Selina. Sorry if I have to cut this short but I'll call you back. I promise." The silver haired male said into his phone before ending the call.
"What's the big idea sneaking up on Lunkhead like that?" The large man questioned in a broken speech.
Naruto held up his hands with his items on hand before coming out of his hiding spot to address the man in front of him. "Hey big guy. I don't mean any trouble at all. I just want to talk. I even brought candy."
To authenticate this, Naruto tossed the grocery bag of candy towards Lunkhead who caught it in his grasps and saw it was true once he opened it.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Naruto said as he got closer to the man who was unwrapping a piece of sweets. "Now reason why I'm here is that I have a few questions to ask you."
"Which would *Gulp* be?" The man said while digging into the first piece of candy.
"I have a file on me about you while you were in Blackgate Penitentiary." The publisher stated as he waved the file a little. "It said that you were in an experiment dealing with mind control."
"Uh huh." Lunkhead simply said with a nod. "Wanted to help Lunkhead's brain….didn't work."
"Sorry to hear about that."
"Thanks." Was the response as he opened up another candy wrapper.
"Now just two more questions and I'll be out of your way."
"Okay."
"First off, were there any other people in the experiment with you? Second, what was the person's name who did the experiment?"
Lunkead scratched his head a bit before nodding towards the man who gave him the bag of sweets. "With first. This one lady. She was nice to Lunkhead. She was in cage next to me. They took her away."
"I'm sorry to hear that and what was her name for the first question?"
"Margaret *Gulp* Sorrow."
"Good and what about the second question?"
"What was that *Gulp* again?"
"What was the person's name who did the experiment?"
"Eh….something that dealt with bird." The man said as he tried to remember. "Lunkhead's brain hurt."
"Hey take it easy buddy. You don't have to rush."
Suddenly a lightbulb seemed to light up in his head and it made him feel happy to hear it. "Oh I remember, I think, it was a black bird."
"A black bird?" Naruto said in thought. "Was it like a crow or a raven?"
"That's it. Raven. Raven something."
"Thank you Lunkhead. You've been a big help." The publisher said in kindness as he walked away from the man. He would've used his memory manipulation to make the guy forget he was there, but with how badly damaged his mind was, the former shinobi didn't want to hurt him any further.
"You welcome." The man replied as he ate more candy before going back to his work.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone