A/N: Okay, I know that people probably thought this story was gone for good, but I promised that I would rewrite it or at least try to rewrite it.I I've played a shit ton of Batman Arkham Knight, and realized that I figured out the perfect way to rewrite Path to Greatness. Naruto doesn't fit in because I've been trying to blend Naruto from Naruto into the DC universe. However, in this particular rewrite I am blending Naruto into the DC universe. This story will be similar to my other Naruto crossover story Agent Whiskers of SHIELD. This is more of a trail run at this, you'll let me know if you like it more than the other version's first chapter. And of course, all of my work is influenced by the comics.

Update: August 26, 2019 4:02 AM: Because most if not all of you are such negative sacks of shit, I changed the name of Naruto from Nathan to Joseph so that I can call him JB in the future. Just know that I hope all of you stub your toe when you wake up this morning.

Batman was the unquestioned people's champion of Gotham … okay that was a lie as the average person in Gotham was an asshole at best and serial killer at worst. The city was toxic, negativity filled the air, anger felt from all around in waves. The city was truly dying, rotting from the inside out. The multitude of mass murderers were nothing that batman couldn't deal with, such as his least hooded gang.

The 25 year old Dark Knight had just returned from his trip around the world, having picked the heads of legends such as: Don Miguel in Brazil, Sergei Alexander in Canada, Chu Chin Lu and Tsunetomo in China, Henri Ducard and his son Morgan in France, with the trip ending in the Himalayas training with the swordmaster Shihan Matsuda. This time around the world allowed him to reinvent himself as someone who could clean up Gotham, which is what is he was trying to do, starting with the Red Hood Gang that his uncle Philip Kane was funding and using to make sure that he stood in control of Wayne Enterprises.

That is why when Kurama came into contact with the Shinigami of the Naruto universe upon him being sealed into Naruto, he could feel the city stretching across universes and dimensions, the negativity like a beacon calling for him. So with a tug that used all of his power, inside of the half of his chakra being sealed into Minato, Kurama sacrificed half his power to pull him and his new host through the death realm, towards the toxic place of Gotham, a place with the negative energy to help Kurama regain his energy in no time, especially with this super angry individual.

Which leads us to the current situation that Batman found himself in, inside of ACE Chemical. They were on the overhead platform, the chemical plant was set to explode any minute now.

"Give it up Red Hood, you've lost. The place is going to blow and I'm sure that you would rather be alive in prison cell than dying in a chemical explosion." said Batman, his voice not yet the angry growl that it would grow into.

"Hmm sorry man bat, I think I will play this another way" said Red Hood before a red blur caught both of their eyes and a baby cry was heard.

"You didn't actually bring a baby in here to die did you?" snarled Batman, his anger growing.

"Um, no a hired thug, I beat up people up and take their money, I don't kill babies." said Red Hood

Batman nodded and used his batclaw to zip over to the sound of the cries and found a somewhat large baby. (A/N: Bruh have yall seen the picture of Naruto when he was first born? He look like a middle aged man, like he should be working to support his family of 4, like he was late for his shift at the power plant, like he was ready to start working on that 10 years of work experience needed to get these 2019 jobs at the gap. OK I'm done now)

"Listen Bats, I don't know whose baby that is, but we need out of here now" said Red Hood as he managed to climb his way towards the Batman and the baby.

Batman nodded and Red Hood said "That baby got some birthmarks, don't they look like fox whiskers to you"

Batman nodded and the two of them climbed up the ladder, determined to make sure that this baby got out of this ticking time bomb.

Mid climb, the first of the bombs in the chemical plant went off and they shook the climbing men and Batman's grip on the baby slipped.

Red Hood jumped after the baby and manged to grab him and get a firm grip on the overhead platform.

"OK, ok, ok. Don't cry baby, uncle Red is here. I just have to climb up and get out of here." sang Red Hood, only for another bomb to go off and the platform he was holding onto to to break in half. Leaving the red masked man to hold on to the bending and warping metal, dangling over a vat of chemicals.

"Red, you need to grab my hand, it is time for us to get out of here" said Batman as he lowered himself to the thug.

"I think you should just take the baby Bat, I got myself with the below vat." said Red Hood, his grip on the ever growing hot metal slipping.

"No good Red, we don't trade lives" replied Batman as he got closer.

Red Hood did the unthinkable, he threw the baby up at Batman and released the platform.

Batman lunged and caught the baby in both hands and could only watch in horror as Red Hood dropped into the vat of Chemicals.

Batman was forced to quickly snap free of his shock as another bomb went off and he was forced to real himself back up and escaped the building.

Time Skip 5 years:

Joseph Bruce Dolson was a miserable child, and not just because he in Gotham. He had no parents, no real friends or family, but he a shit of bullys. Turns out that having whisker like marks on your face, made other kids all call you a "Pussy". And unfortunately for Joseph, he was not at the age where he could say "Well, you are what you eat".

"So Joseph, did you clean your room? You know who will be here tomorrow right? Bruce Wayne, he's the reason that your middle name is Bruce. He funds this orphanage, you will be on your best behavior" said the Madam of the Orphanage

"Yeeeesssssss, my rooooomm is clean. And why you always blaming me?" whined Joseph

"Oh Joseph, you are quite the liar, all the other kids say they're the one who is always causing trouble" said Madam

Joseph rolled his eyes and walked out of the room, down the stair and out the front door. Not bothering to look both ways, he crossed the streets like any normal New Yorker would. Ignoring the bright sun above him, Joseph walked over towards the park that was directly associated with the local middle school, IS 93. The park wasn't really a park, it was a large concrete square that had lines drawn on it to show that there was a baseball field, 2 full court basketball courts, and 2 half court basketball courts on the other side of the baseball field.

Joseph walked pass the concrete based "park" and down the small ramp to the playground, this was also on concrete, but there was a couple of spots for trees cut out of the ground. Ignoring the running children, Joseph sat down on a swing and began to lazily rock back and forth.

"Ya know, I used to come sit on a swing just like this when I was a kid." said a semi-familiar voice.

Joseph looked up and saw Bruce Wayne, the man who paid for his and 124 other kids to live in the heart of New York. The dark haired handsome early thirties man was dressed in a fine business suit, the classic black suit and tie with a white shirt.

" what are you doing here?" asked the young blond boy excitedly

"Don't tell anyone, but I am playing hooky. I decided that I would rather be at the park instead of a stuffy office all day long" replied Bruce as he took a seat on the swing next to Joseph.

"I don't like sitting all day either. I like to run" said Joseph as he started rocking in his swing again.

"Is that so?" questioned Bruce as he drifted softly back and forth, his feet scraping the ground

"Yeah, I'm fast too. The mean kids can't catch me" replied Joseph, his blond hair ruffling in the wind

"Why would they chase you?" asked Bruce

"i dunno know, they said my whiskys are weird" said Joseph as he used one hand to rub his cheeks.

"I think they make you unique" said Bruce as he continued to sway on the swing, watching Joseph climb higher and higher with each pump of his tiny 6 year old legs.

"What does dat mean?" asked Joseph

"It means it makes you special" answered Bruce

Joseph jumped off the moving swing and turned to Bruce "I'm not dumb, I'm not in the special class"

Bruce chuckled and said "That's not what that means. It's a good kind of special. There is more than just the bad kind."

Joseph frowned as he tried to wrap his head around the concept of special being good, finally he shrugged and ran over to the slide, climbing the short set of steps before throwing himself head first down the metal slide, screaming as he whirled around the twist and shot out onto the ground.

Bruce smiled at the scene of the child, Joseph, running around being a kid. It was hard to believe that this was the same baby he had saved when he was 25 years old back in the ACE Chemical plant. It was even harder to believe that this same child was leaking a foreign energy source with the same intensity of a nuclear bomb.

Shaking his head as he watched Joseph try to do the monkey bars, he could hear the small blond muttering to himself "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can" over and over. The blond made it 4 swings into the bars before he dropped to the ground, his underdeveloped arms not being able to support his weight.

However that didn't stop the small blond from jumping back up to his feet again and climbing up the ladder and grabbing a hold of the monkey bars again.

Same chant of "I think I can. I think I can. I think I can." and Joseph was off to the races. The blond child easily cleared 3 swings and only started to slow down after he got the 7th bar, almost twice as far as he had last time.

However, his tiny arms still had the same weakness that they had moments before when they failed him before. As Joseph fell from the monkey bars, Bruce only realized the flaw of this park just then. Joseph was either going to fall onto the hard concrete head first as he slipped and his head took point in meeting the ground.

Either hit the concrete or what actually did happen, the metal slide was in a bad location, right under the middle of the monkey bars. As he realized the soon to be current outcome, Bruce raced over towards Joseph, arriving to late to do anything but be a witness. The blond child completed his fall and the left side of his face, particularly his cheek area, slammed into the sharp metal edge of the silver slide.

Immediately Joseph cried out in pain, his left side of his face turning a nasty green and purple. Joseph's left eye swelled shut and his right eye quickly let out a stream of tears. The tiny blond boy started crying, the pain being too much for the small child.

"I … I want *sniffle* want my *sniffle* my mommy *sniffle*" cried the blond before he started crying even harder as he muttered "b b but *sniffle* she d *hiccup* don't *sniffle* wa wa want me"

In that moment wasn't Batman pretending to be Bruce Wayne like he was in his day to day life. He wasn't even pretending to be emotionally healthy at this point. He was deep inside his own mind, a 10 year old boy crying on the ground, blood pooling from the figures in front of him. He wasn't lying to himself and for a brief moment, Bruce Wayne was a real person again. Not the fake acting that Batman used during the day, but an actual person with emotions.

But Batman was who he really was even if Bruce was his given name. His eyes went from soft and teary to hard and angry. Angry that he had allowed the child before himself to get hurt. Rushing to the child's side, he scooped him up and held the boy tight to his chest, the boy's tears and runny snot running the 10,000 dollar suit jacket that he wore.

"Its ok, it going to be ok" said Batman as Bruce Wayne, rocking the boy slightly. The small boy swallowed up in the large arms of Batman.

The boy exhausted himself with the crying and the pain from the shattering of his face. A quick tap of his glasses into his analytical mode allowed him to see that bone was shattered in several places, the blood vessels that filled the cheek had ruptured, and that because the skin had refused to break open to allow the blood to pour out, there was a massive clot forming, one that could kill the young boy if it wasn't taken care of soon.

Running to his car, he slipped into the backseat and simply told his driver to take him to the closest hospital.

They rushed through traffic, Batman holding onto the small boy the entire way. His skin growing hotter to the touch and his glasses revealed that the boy's body temperature was steadily climbing, with it currently at 104.

The rush into the ER was met with gasps that Bruce Wayne was there, but Batman shut that down with a stern "The boy" that made the people who worked there do their job.

The doctors rushed to operate on the young boy while Bruce filled out all the info that he knew about his fellow orphan.

"Mr. Wayne thank you for filling out the paperwork, but he's an orphan, we need a guardian to approve the procedure. We cannot proceed without the guardian's consent." said a nurse

Batman glared at the young man and pulled out his check book and wrote down 25,000,000.00.

"Fix that kids face and I will hand over this 25 million dollar check to the hospital right now. Or I could always take the child and money to another hospital who would actually treat him"

Meanwhile:

While Batman pretending to be Bruce Wayne bullied hospital officials into doing their job, Joseph was lost in his mind.

Upon opening his eyes, he found that his cheek was healed. His left eye was able to see and wasn't swelled shut. The nasty bruising wasn't there either. Feeling his face with his hand, Joseph finally realized that he didn't know where he was.

He had been many places for a 5 year old kid, but this sewer is not one of them. It was tinted a reddish orange and had ankle deep water flooding it. It was not the type of place that Joseph would go if he didn't get forced to go there.

"Hello? Anyone here?" said Joseph nervously

There was no response, only more empty silence. Joseph climbed to feet and noticed that despite the water didn't leave him wet.

"Where am I? I wanna go home" whispered Joseph as tears built in his eyes. Sniffling, Joseph felt more than heard the vibration that shook the sewer. Looking around Joseph didn't move towards the direction that the buzzing was coming from. He didn't need to as the water went from passive to draining before it rose up and crashed like a wave. Being 5, Joseph wasn't the strongest swimmer and was washed away by the wave of water.

Twisting around the corner, Joseph was placed by the water in front of a towering rusty gate.

"Ah, young Naruto Uzumaki" said a deep voice from above

Joseph tried to look up but couldn't see high enough, there wasn't enough light up there for him to see.

"NRu-toe? Who is that?" asked Joseph

A large rumble was felt from the other side of the gate and the same deep voice as before said "It's Nar-ru-to, and Naruto is your name, the name your parents gave you"

In the real world:

Batman's glasses went off and sensed an energy spike from Joseph, his theory growing more and more correct to him with each passing second. The thing was that while he knew that Joseph was pumping out energy, the wavelength wasn't one that the normal human could feel. It's wavelength was very bio-compatible, clearly made and produced by the boy's own body.

As it came out wave after wave from the boy's body, it just hung in the air. It didn't attack nor did it impact the world around it in any way.

Answering his work phone, Batman immediately said "I'm already on it Clark, no need for you to break out the red drape. I got it under control" before he hung up.

Batman walked over to the window looking into Joseph's room and with his glassed watched as the doctor's sliced Joseph's cheek open and drained the blood. The doctor's couldn't see it but Batman saw the energy pool where the cut was and slowly start to make the cells there alive again.

"I guess it is time for the metahuman programs to begin" muttered Batman to himself.

A/N: Ok that was all that I had for y'all today. I kind of what to build up a story, always just following plot point after plot point with slight twists is boring to me now. I want to expand my stories, add depth and emotion. Make them human in a way.

As for the Batman moment, in the comics and it has become a meme now, but there is a scene where Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman are all holding the lasso of truth and introducing themselves. Wonder Woman introduces herself as Diana Prince, Superman says that he's Clark Kent, but Batman says that he's Batman.

In the Arkham Knight series, which I mentioned that I was playing a lot lately, when Batman gets revealed to be Bruce Wayne, Batman said that he didn't take off a mask, but was showing people the one that he wore under.

There is some pyschological issues there and I love it. And if you're wondering where that Joseph park seen with the monkey bars, the chant, the curious nature, and even the injury came from. That's what happened to me when I was 4, only difference was that I lived in Utah and my mom hadn't abandoned me yet and there was no billionaire bribing a hospital to take care of me.

So, yeah. Let me know what you think of this rewrite, if y'all don't like it, I can always go back to the writing board, but that is going to be an even longer wait for this story. I have the outline for 5 chapters of this story, I have other story ideas, but I haven't typed a single word of them yet. Have a good day or night, take care HighKey_Mars.