"Room for one more?" asked a dry voice.

"Gaara! Sure, jump on in! Not like we have anyone who could actually give us a fight!" said Naruko pleased. They knew they were in a disadvantage, as New Mexico was a natural desert (I/E Gaara's element) but the lack of any real challenges to their full ability meant that they wouldn't pass up a decent fight.

"What are the rules?"

"No calling on your tail, nothing reaches the spectators or civilians, and once this is over at least pretend you're sorry," said Naruko automatically.

"Why would we be sorry?"

"I'm guessing Fury will be upset at B for not telling him how strong he really is during missions, and knowing our luck he'll be increasingly paranoid after this," said Naruko shrugging.

B snorted.

"Not like they have the seals or the know-how to actually stop us from doing what we feel like. I only listen to them as a courtesy."

The other two snorted. And with that, the real battle was on.

"Is it alright that I'm terrified and relieved she didn't go all out?" asked Thor.

"Considering I learned from a single spar never to piss her off to the extent she would ever call me a genuine threat, yes," stating Loki. Darcy was sharing her popcorn with him. She found his wit more amusing than Thor's inability to blend in.

"So basically Red got you whipped already?" said Darcy grinning.

Loki twitched.

"Well I wouldn't say whipped. More like well trained," said Narutwo.

They nearly jumped.

"How... you're still fighting them!" said Thor after he got over his near heart attack.

"Yo. Call me Narutwo. Solid clone who can infiltrate and retrieve information without exposing the real one. I'm more of a leftover from when the Boss delivered the epic beat down to that Destroyer. Damn that thing was weak!"

"So why say he's well trained as opposed to whipped?" asked Jane, having come up with more popcorn and snacks.

"Whipped means she broke him so bad he's lost any spine against her. Trained means he knows better than to piss her off, but he can still argue against her. He won't try to stab her in the back, but he knows he can give his own opinions," said Narutwo, before adding "If she wants a boyfriend, then he had better be able to hold his own in a fight but still have the ability to disagree with her without backing down."

"Looks like they're winding down," said Loki, trying to distract them from the subject matter.

Narutwo nodded.

"One final attack and they'll stop. Coincidentally you guys know any decent shield spells?"

Loki winced, and immediately threw up a clear shield in front of them while the three threw one last big attack, resulting in a blast of sand. Aside from being knocked back by the shock wave, they were unharmed.

Sitting in the middle of the crater were the three fighters, laughing and chatting like they hadn't just remodeled the nearby landscape.

"Damn that was fun! I haven't had a decent fight since we left home!" said Naruko laughing as he helped Gaara and B up.

"Heard that! These guys are weak as hell, and their spying tactics are just sad!" said B.

"There's a reason why I chose to stick close to the only person who seems remotely intelligent," said Gaara, not speaking his own distaste to how weak the people of this world were.

"Makes me wonder how Shino would react to them, once he gets away from his new bugs," grinned Naruko.

For some odd reason, the previous jinchuriki of the seven-tailed beetle Fu had not been revived during the whole Uchiha mess. And when faced with the prospect of a rampaging Bijuu, Shino Aburame had stepped up to keep it from harming anyone. It was partially out of duty but mostly because of the form the bijuu had.

Yes, he had lost over half his personal hive in the sealing process just trying to contain the chakra, but in the same time he had also become the most powerful Aburame in the clan's entire history. He had since regained his hive's former strength, and had more importantly learned how to augment it with bijuu chakra.

It had been Shino who had warned Naruko of the Council's last ditch effort to keep her their weapon.

Despite the fact he had since given up his status as the heir of the Aburame clan to a younger sister they hadn't know he had, when asked by his father why he had risked so much for one person, Shino had replied that out of all the shinobi he had ever met, only Naruko had ever been worthy of his full allegiance.

Naruko had never betrayed her comrades. Indeed, she went out of her way to help them even at the expense of her own happiness and shinobi career. Once you gained her loyalty, the only way to lose her trust was to betray her first.

As Shino bluntly said, anyone that selfless needed someone to stand behind her back, no matter what opportunities would be lost in the process. He would rather lose his position and gain even more enemies than dare let someone he considered a true friend down.

Coincidentally this made him the second closest to Gaara, who liked Shino's attitude towards Naruko...and the only one of the group who hadn't been hit by her Shattered Mask. At least not directly. She had indirectly won his loyalty simply by being herself.

Which was why when they left their homeworld, Naruko taught Shino's bijuu how to travel the paths and find her at any time...not that he had any trouble with that because according to Gaara (and Shino happened to agree with this idea) she shown like the sun. They then happily left him alone on a planet full of murderous, man-eating bugs to play with.

Last time she spoke to her longtime friend, Shino had all but dominated the entire planet and was currently adding to his hive. Any shinobi who fought him now was going to be in for a very rude awakening.

"Knowing him, he's still having fun playing with the bugs of that planet we left him on," said Gaara dryly. He liked Shino. Enough said.

"True," said Naruko, then without missing a beat "So what's your opinion of Loki?"

"Too soon to tell, though the mere fact he's held your interest this long after you broken him means that there's more than he knows just yet," said Gaara.

The fact she had yet to leave him be meant there was some potential for romance between them.

"We'll reserve judgment until after you fix the mirror," agreed B.

B was of course referring to Naruko's by-now infamous mirror that showed the victim of her ability how badly she had broken their mask. It was a testament to her sealing ability that she had been able to make a specially sealed mirror to reflect someone's mask.

The fact Loki had all but shattered the glass to pieces meant he had a lot of issues to work out before he was even remotely considered stable. Fortunately Naruko didn't mind a challenge. As the Uchiha member of the team could attest, if he did try to go off the deep end, Naruko would come after him. Hard.

She did not let those she trusted go without a fight or a damn good explanation. Even then she would come after him with a very heavy bat and a 'I'm not letting you get away with that shit' attitude.

Gaara wondered how Nick Fury would react to her once he saw her conversion tactics in action. Then he realized that it would be amusing to see Fury's reaction if she decided to make her own organization to back up his...without any support from whoever paid for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s manpower and supplies.

If Fury continued to irate Gaara, he would suggest just that to piss him off.

Thor finally went back with his hammer (after finding out that it would let Naruko wield it as a joke) but Loki stayed behind.

Naruko approached the 'mutant school' Gaara had mentioned, but aside from feeling empathy to their struggle in gaining acceptance from the population as a whole, had decided that it wasn't for her. Mostly because her boisterous attitude was too noticeable for those who wanted to kill the mutants simply because of something Naruko automatically equated to a kekkei genkai.

It was disturbingly easy to equate mutants to kekkei genkai users and the people after them as Kirigakure hunters from the Bloodline Purges.

Of course that was nothing to what happened when, shortly after Thor's little mess and his return to Asgard, Fury called Naruko in to speak to someone who had recently awoken from a forced sleep that lasted the better half of a century.

Steve Rogers was more likely to feel comfortable around others who were adjusting than he was around S.H.I.E.L.D., who were still in awe of the living legend.

This had nothing to do with the threat Gaara had given him the last time he saw the red haired man about suggesting to his sister that she start her own group just to spite him...or that Fury wanted to see if she really could beat their recruitment tactics without meaning to.

Naruko's first thought about Steve Rogers was...the guy was nice. Almost painfully so.

If Naruko was the sun that lead the way, then Rogers was the one people fell in line behind if only because you knew he would fight to help the little guy.

They got along great...once he got over the fact that a girl who was an admitted assassin could beat him in a contest of strength and battlefield tactics.

Once he got over the assassin part, Steve quickly realized Naruko was like him in many ways. A natural leader, someone who had been beaten repeatedly but was too damn stubborn to stay down, and wouldn't hesitate to jump in the line of fire to protect her team.

And for a professional assassin, she had a surprisingly low number of confirmed kills to her name. Even Gaara had well over a hundred (from before he meet Naruko), but her? She barely had ten.

Steve didn't know how to handle an assassin who specialized more in the conversion of enemy units than in actually killing.

Fury's paranoia resulted in a rather amusing, if not unexpected confrontation between Naruko and Natasha Romanov (aka Black Widow).

Natasha had been assigned to be Tony's new legal aid since Gaara effectively became Pepper's assistant over a year ago. Naruko had laughed her ass off when she saw how outclassed Tony had made the opposition when they tried to force him to make more Iron Man suits.

Pepper was just glad Naruko had deftly forced Tony to calm down when, upon realizing how soon his life might end because of palladium poisoning from the same thing keeping him alive, he had started to become out of control and slipping into some unacceptable habits.

The second Gaara recognized the warning signs, he had called his sister in to deal with Tony. Naruko had dragged him down to the basement by the ear and lit into him, explaining that just because he might die within the next few months was no excuse to be an idiot.

Shinobi fought hard, lived each day like it was their last, and were considered extremely dangerous if they were lucky to hit forty after several decades of active service.

The mere fact Naruko had gained one of the highest rankings of danger presented for a shinobi without several dozen confirmed kills only spoke as a testament to how much people respected her as a fighter.

She was considered the epitome of a kunoichi, a role model for girls to try and surpass when it came to being a female shinobi.

Which made Naruko wonder how people took it when she finally had enough of the Konoha Council's bullshit and left with a firm 'screw you' attitude.

Tony reached for a bottle, only to retract his hand like a snake was curled around it when Naruko negligently threw a senbon at it. He would have complained, but then Naruko brought out a fuuma shuriken and cheerfully asked him with this disturbing smile if he wanted her to upgrade what she threw at him.

He shut up.

Loki was with Natasha, finding loopholes and ways for them to get Tony out of the hole the American government was so determined to put him in.

Naruko saddled up to Natasha with a non-alcoholic drink in hand. Natasha accepted the second one without hesitation, believing that the girl wouldn't try to poison her...and if she did she could handle the effects.

"So what sort of training did you undergo before they sent you out into the field?"

Natasha almost choked on her drink.

Naruko grinned.

"It takes an assassin to know one. And while you're good at hiding it, I'm better. So I take it Fury doesn't want these suits in the hands of the Americans either?"

Natasha knew when she'd been made, and didn't bother to try and hide it.

"He also thinks this is a good way to earn brownie points with Tony," she admitted.

"You know I'm seriously considering the idea Gaara suggested just to see how long it would take Fury's head to pop from paranoia," said Naruko grinning.

Natasha choked in amusement.

"You would make a second organization geared towards world peace just to see how long it took before Fury is driven nuts?"

"Screw world peace, I'm more interested in just keeping people safe from the bigger threats. Humans are the most violent, intolerant bastards in existence. They're threatened by the unknown because they know for a fact that the unknown is the most likely to kill them."

Natasha conceded that point. World peace was laughable concept until humanity learned to get along. Which wasn't likely to happen in the next century.

Hell, they couldn't even agree on a single language or currency.

"Besides, the last time I ran into a group who claimed they were trying to bring about 'world peace', what they were really planning was to force everyone under permanent mind control just so that they would have to follow the true leader of the group's point of view. That bastard was a pain in the ass to kill."

Natasha hummed.

"So what's your specialty?"

"Poisons mostly."

"Conversions of enemy units. And heavy damage," said Naruko.

"I'll drink to that," said Natasha amused.