AN: Thank you to everyone who has shown their support for the first chapter! I'm glad the story has been so well-received so far. So here's the second chapter where we get a little more insight on Naruto's past and where the canon diverged at. Since this is quite short, I'll be uploading chapter 3 soon to make up for it so enjoy~

Naruto sighed as he just about collapsed in relief onto his bed. The whole fiasco in Star City had taken almost a whole day to deal with. Things had gotten even more complicated as the Injustice League seems to have been more involved than they had originally thought.

It was a surprise they didn't need to call in the others for help to contain the situation.

Naruto can still vividly remember the Joker's annoying taunts and Solomon's punches. He was sure his body is littered in bruises at this point, but he can already feel his healing factor kicking in. By morning this would all just be an unpleasant memory of the night before with no evidence to show for it.

Rolling onto his back, he tossed his mask onto the bedside table with a clatter. Placing his arm over his eyes, he allowed them to shut and his mind to clear of all thoughts. His mind remained blank for a while before he felt himself being pulled into his mind scape. In less than a second, his surroundings turned into that of a familiar dark sewer.

Facing what used to be a cage that sealed a demon, he now watched as said demon looked at him with those scarlet red eyes. Without a barricade between them, it would've been terrifying if not for the fact that the gigantic being is actually one of his closest friends.

"Yo," Naruto simply greeted at the towering figure. The fox grunted and a toothy grin formed, showing off the row of sharp canines.

"You seem tired," Kurama replied, his eyes examining the tiny human in front of him.

"Well, I had been fighting for the past 10 hours or so," Naruto shrugged before squinting up at the fox. "Not that you would know with how much you sleep all the time."

Snorting, Kurama rolled his eyes at him. "I wouldn't be sleeping this much if this place wasn't so boring all the time."

"True, it's not like all the criminals here are like the Shinobi back in the Elemental Nations. Some of them only commit petty crimes and have no affiliation with the bigger villain community," He decided to lie down with his arms crossed behind his head. It was going to put a strain on his neck if he keeps looking up at Kurama.

Staring at the ceiling above, he briefly thought back to the fights he had experienced so far in this world.

"No shit, even the genins could handle some of them," The fox gave a huff before resting his head on his front paws. The conversation entirely normal and comfortable to them at this point.

It had taken a while for the both of them to get along with each other, but it had been worth it. And even now, their trust and respect for one another has only gotten stronger. Kurama was a trusted companion to Naruto just as he was to the demon fox.

"Who were you fighting this time?" Asked the fox, his gaze wasn't on Naruto, instead it had a slightly faraway look in them as they stared out into the darkness of the tunnels.

Knowing his friend just wanted to have a small chat with him, Naruto decided to entertain him.

"The usual Injustice League who can't seem to control their obsession with world domination and trying to kill the superheroes." Muttered the jinchūriki, closing his eyes, he listened to the soft rumbling coming from the fox.

"Those pussies again? Can't they come up with a better plan already? It's starting to get on my nerves that this world only has those idiots as its greatest threat. Even Madara and Kaguya had done better," Kurama complained.

Naruto laughed, the lack of action for the past couple of months has definitely gotten to Kurama. Not that he could blame him though, both of them had grown used to hardened criminals and assassins coming up with plans that could have a better chance of ending the world than some of the ones here.

It could also be the way the people from both worlds were brought up differently. The Shinobi world wasn't one where you would ever want your children to grow up in. Full of war, hatred and betrayals, only the strong had survived to reach adulthood.

Naruto himself had been drifted into the ANBU black ops by the time he was five. Without a family or a clan to look out for him, Danzō's scheme of the perfect living weapon had fallen into his hands easily. It had been easy as hell to manipulate the council with a few choice words and firm beliefs of protecting their village.

Despite the Third Hokage's attempts to prevent it, Danzō had brought in the voices of the people into the situation. Spurred on by the fear and anger that had accumulated over five years, the villagers had demanded that if they were to live with the demon child, he might as well serve the village and atone for what the Kyūbi had done.

With so many voices of his people crying out for 'justice', the Hokage had no choice but to let the young jinchūriki join the ranks of his Shinobi forces. He had ensured everything in his power to only let Naruto train and go on low risk missions and always with a team of ANBU to look after him.

But almost all efforts from the old man Hokage had just been for naught.

The ANBUs accompanying Naruto had always hated him as well. They never bothered making sure he kept up with them and always reprimanded him on the smallest of things, throwing insults and threats as effortlessly as the villagers who had hurled rocks at him. There was even a few times that some of the ANBU teams had left him behind when they were under heavy assault.

Whenever he finally escaped and caught up with them, they made sure he never told the Hokage of what they did.

Even the situation between Danzō and him had never been spoken to the Third Hokage. The twisted bastard had kept sending him on crazy missions all over the Elemental Nations, not caring he might actually not make it back one day.

Sometimes he would try to convince Naruto that all he did was to ensure Naruto would grow stronger and be able to defend himself in the future. He made it sound like he cared. As if Naruto didn't know of his cruel and manipulative ways already. It had made his skin crawl whenever he had to come in contact with that man.

Naruto may have been young and alone in his own village, but he sure as heck wasn't that much of an idiot to believe a word that asshole said. The look in his eye had told Naruto everything he needed to know.

He had the same look as most of the other villagers and shinobi. There was no way he was going to trust the guy who had never bothered about Naruto as a human being in the first place.

But after all the time in that hell, Naruto met a boy about the same age as he was. With a similar look of loneliness in his eyes like Naruto's. He was always alone too, never interacting with others out of his own will. Danzō had seem to be watching him from time to time.

Naruto hadn't figured out why then, but when he did, it had made him sick recalling what Danzō had probably thought of doing. Luckily Itachi had foreseen this happening and the threat Itachi left with Danzō had been enough to deter the bastard from carrying out his plans.

Naruto could still clearly remember the time he had finally formed a proper bond with Sasuke. It had been one of his first bonds ever, and had remained as one of his most special bond that would last a lifetime. Even despite all the betrayals that Naruto had dealt with over the years, Sasuke had remained like a brother to him.

At least after so long, they managed to make up before Naruto got stuck here. From what he had heard, Sasuke was currently completing missions from the Hokage like any other Konoha shinobi. He's glad at least the Uchiha is trying to integrate himself back into the village.

"Hey, at least we don't have to always go all out all the time," Naruto rebutted. "It would be too exhausting to keep that up."

"Hm, you're right. But the constant monotony is bordering on ridiculous. I have barely set foot outside of your mind scape since we first arrived, all I can do is watch you beat some people around and sleep all day." Growled the orange beast.

'Guess he's really frustrated about this,' thought Naruto, he turned to look at his friend. Maybe it was time to find some place where both of them could let off some steam for real.

Even Naruto have to admit that he was itching to get rid of the limiting seals he placed on himself and use his more advanced jutsus. Only problem would be the lack of suitable space that he could use as a training area, which could lead to the League and potential enemies being alerted to the high amount of energy levels released by him.

He certainly didn't want to out his secret just because of a training session. Guess it was high time for him to figure this out, find an appropriate place to train where energy levels can be kept isolated in that area. Maybe Batman can help with building a training ground that can handle nuclear-level destructions. And preferably not one in outer space like the Watchtower's own combat training room.

He certainly didn't want to accidentally blast himself into deep space.

"Don't worry Kurama, I'll figure this out. I might bring it up to Batman and see what he says. Pretty sure he's quite interested in what I can do anyway," Naruto got up from his position on the flooded floor, not paying any mind to the wetness of his clothes, before offering a fist bump to the fox.

The red eyes looked at him once more before the fox raised his own paw, now shaped into a fist, he bumped it lightly against his companion's. Their own way of farewell done, Naruto gave Kurama a smile before disappearing into the outside world again.

This time, he got out of most of his uniform before submitting into the grasp of unconsciousness and falling asleep instantly.

AN: Next chapter will go into more details on the Star City fight and some interactions between the JL members and Naruto. I'll try to have it up in a day or two :)

To answer some of your questions so far, yes I will be starting the story off where Naruto and the JL has already been formed since their origin is kind of overdone by now, but I will do some flashbacks and mentions of how this JL came to be as the story progresses.

And Naruto didn't lose his right arm after that last fight with Sasuke so he has kept the Ōtsutsuki mark on his palm. Same with Sasuke who didn't lose his left arm. More will be explained in later chapters. That was what I meant by the Rikudō Sennin part, sorry for the confusion :P

And lastly, yes I'm hoping to do some pairings in this story, just that it won't be the main focus so I'll leave it until then to decide on the proper pairings.