Pairing: Naruto/Supergirl/Wonder-Woman/Grail/Mera/Shay Veritas/Zatanna/Poison Ivy/Donna Troy?

Rating: M

Summary: The 4th Shinobi World War lasted 6 months longer than projected and ended the day Naruto killed Kaguya. With her dying breath Kaguya hurled Naruto through a portal and into the unknown. So when Naruto wakes up on a strange new world full of gods, aliens, metahumans and magic, he has to figure out his place in the world. Preferably after dealing with the sudden invasion of monsters from some place called Apokolips. Naru/Harem. Strong/Smart Naruto. AU

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto franchise or DC comics. I do this for fun and to improve myself as writer.

A/N: So welcome to my new story, Sage of War. I figured I should do something for DC as well since I already have a Naruto/Marvel fic and i've been thinking of doing second on as well. Also I wanted to do a story with much shorter chapters so I can get into the habit of updating more frequently(I really hope that works out). For those of you waiting for the next chapter of 'An Unorthodox Hero', it will be uploaded by tomorrow along with a bit of an explanation on why it was so late.

This story focuses on a godslayer Naruto, with the act of slaying a god having more unique consequences and being more meaningful than in AUH. Naruto's journey begins with Darkseid's Invasion in the New 52 Justice League run and will follow a lot of the stories from the New 52 comics. However there is also a ton of shit about the New 52 stuff that I just utterly hated, so there will also be a lot of changes.

That said, everything revolving around Wonder Woman will be from the New 52 to run of her comic. All of it will be canon in this fic, rather than the Rebirth stuff, though I will draw inspiration from there. Like make the gods look less like freaks, and keep Themyscira hidden, but also still accessible to Diana. I will also be bringing in Supergirl into the story far earlier rather than after the 5 year time skip from Darkseid's invasion when all the other stories really begin to pick up. I am basically throwing out most of the stuff from the supergirl comics, holy shit they fucked up that comic hard.

Okay so I am little sore about that, she's always been a favorite character of mine. In short there will be changes here and there, and somethings will simply play out differently cause of Naruto's presence and unique power set. Naruto will also be based in National city when he isn't doing Justice League stuff.

You can also see the pairing above, its already big and not changing so please don't ask me add more women, heck I am contemplating whether or not to add Donna Troy as it is? And yes, Naruto will be with Mera, Aquaman will find someone else to be his Aquawoman or just woman. The reasons why will probably show up next chapter. But enough of this, lets get on to story. I hope you enjoy it and please leave a review at the end.

Chapter 1: The Godslaying Ninja!

"Madara! You intend to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi in front of us, such a pointless decision. Even if you could succeed at it before Naruto and I attacked you, what's to stop a fellow Rinnegan user such as myself from simply undoing the jutsu? You are the one who said that you have both our powers. Put another way, the two of us have the same abilities as you. So go ahead and wast your chakra trying, we will stop you over and over again."

— Sasuke Uchiha to Madara Uchiha

oOo

Darkness!

It was present as an almost tangible feeling here, thick and completely suffusing the evening air, to the point of sending every single one of Naruto's empathic senses haywire. Something was coming, something well and truly evil, and for the first time since he had killed Kaguya in one on one combat, Naruto felt truly afraid.

Yet even now, despite what his instincts were telling him, Naruto knew that he could not run away. Not from this, not from humanity in its time of need.

It was a different reality, with a different humanity than the one he had all but given his life to protect, yet some things would always remain the same. Naruto Uzumaki had always been someone who would lend a hand to anyone who looked like they simply needed a little help. He wasn't one to go out of his way to save people just because he had powers, he was too new to this world to ever contemplate that. However, he was still willing to help anyone he came across that needed it, and would not ignore any injustices that caught his attention.

He bore no illusions about being some grand defender of the innocent, champion of justice or guardian of truth. No, he was a very down to Earth person and simply aided others out of the kindness of his heart because they genuinely needed it, nothing more. There was no need for a grand design or some great drive to motivate him to help people, he just did so cause he was a kind person. And, right now Naruto felt in his very bones that the Earth really needed his help.

Naruto had barely been on this culturally diverse world three weeks, and spent most of that time discovering everything he needed to learn to blend in. Thankfully, he had assistance in the form of a few thousand clones scattered across the globe and a witch capable of peering into the future, to give him some much needed direction. Between his favorite ninjutsu technique and Madame Xanadu's help, he sufficiently closed the gaping hole in his knowledge base, to a point that he could pass himself off as a local. His research mostly focusing on general things about the world, with the only exception being the world's self ordained protectors. Naruto was keenly interested in them and their abilities.

Vigilantes in colorful costumes were popping up everywhere in America, and cause of that the rest of the world was paying close attention to the US. Batman, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman were all heavily featured in US newspaper articles as the most famous of these vigilantes. It was mostly due to the authorities wanting to either reign them and their activities in or bring them to justice for some various reason. However, as far as Naruto could tell, these vigilantes were doing a better job at ridding their cities of crime than the authorities themselves.

He recognized these selfless individuals for what they were, heroes trying to do whatever they could to help their cities regardless of anyone's opinions. However even Naruto had to admit that they were a flashy bunch in their eye catching costumes. In the end, while he wouldn't be caught dead wearing tights or spandex, Naruto respected them for what they were doing to protect the innocent. It was very noble and their approach to it was fascinating.

If he ever stopped in one city long enough to become attached to it, he would probably would try it out. For now, though he had other things to worry about. Mainly the calamity that was soon to befall the Earth.

From his perspective almost no time had passed since the end of the war. He had been 17 and half back then, and fighting Kaguya all alone due to Sasuke being injured earlier. It was easily the toughest battle of his life, lasting several weeks of non-stop fighting. In the end he emerged from it victorious, with Kaguya on the ground, mortally wounded from their fierce battle.

Truthfully, Naruto had merely survived the fight to the death with the goddess. Kaguya had beaten him to within an inch of his life and broke nearly every bone in his body over the course of the battle. It was only Kurama using all of its remaining chakra to heal him and Naruto's skill in Senjutsu that allowed him to out last her after Sasuke somehow cut Kaguya off from accessing more chakra through her prisoners stuck in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. By the end Naruto had been little more than a giant human shaped bruise, extremely low on chakra and merely the victor cause unlike Kaguya, he wasn't quite dying from his injuries.

Unfortunately even in defeat the Legendary Rabbit Goddess was a sore loser and had one last trick up her sleeve for him before she died. Naruto remembered as she lay at his feet dying, how she laughed a bitter remorseful laugh before saying. "If i won't ever see my garden again, then neither will you. Perish, Naruto Uzumaki."

The sudden build up of what was left of her monstrously powerful chakra, was all Naruto was able to sense before the world turned pure white around him and he resigned himself to an end. He had very little memory of what happened afterwards, but he expected to die after the technique activated. He did not though.

Instead of death, Naruto ended up flung somewhere else, somewhere beyond both the Elemental Nations and Earth, somewhere extremely dangerous. His memories of that in between place were faded, but he still remembered how it felt, and that someone had found him there and began talking to him. What was said was beyond him but he came out of that in-between place, forever changed because of it. It was from their that he was sent to the planet Earth.

3 weeks ago Naruto woke up in a random alley in Gotham City, physically five years older than he last remembered. His body was now that of someone in their early twenties, despite having no memories of ever aging. He also now stood at 6'3"ft as opposed to the 5'5"ft he once was, and at 174lbs, weighed an additional 62lbs than he remembered.

Every fiber of every muscle in his body was perfectly toned from a lifetime of combat and training, he lacked the bulkiness of Superman or even Batman and was closer in form to the Flash due to his preference of speed over power, though slightly bigger than the speedster. Even his hair that had always been a perfect spiky golden blond, now had a large splotch of white just above his forehead bangs. A remnant from his Otsutsuki heritage.

His increased height and weight had necessitated new clothes, cause his old one's were shredded. Lucky for him, Madame Xanadu Xanadu foresaw his arrival on Earth, and was waiting with a cab and a fresh change of clothes at the mouth of the alley he appeared in. She had foreseen not only his arrival with her precognition, but all the good he would do for the world, and she decided to help provide him with clothing, food, shelter and information while he got his feet under him. Naruto owed the immortal witch a great debt of gratitude for everything she had been doing for him over the weeks. A debt he was determined to repay someday.

Naruto currently wore black military cargo pants, with combat boots and a black T-shirt with an orange flame pattern adorning its edges. All in all he looked pretty normal aside from his three whisker-like birthmarks on each cheek, which people passed off as a some kind of genetic anomaly when they noticed them. However, Naruto was anything but normal now.

Even beyond what was normally considered his peak ability, Naruto's pure strength, speed, durability and regenerative powers had all steeply increased since awakening on Earth. Every single one of his senses had also been heightened to new levels, so much so that even in his base form he felt like he was constantly in Sage mode. The sudden changes had necessitated finding an abandoned warehouse and spending 3 days mastering his heightened senses. He had then entered sage mode to confirm for himself that he could still do it and that it was not somehow active.

He almost had a heart attack when he found that his Sage mode was not active. When he finally activated Sage mode, Naruto discovered he was vastly more powerful, to the point that it actually terrified him. He felt like he could juggle mountains with ease and punt Madara halfway across the planet if the Uchiha fought him, the way he was now.

There was just something ridiculously powerful about the Nature energy of this world, or was it Nature energies. As far as Naruto could tell, Sage mode wasn't pulling in just one type of energy whenever he gathered nature energy for Sage mode but several different powerful energy's. Luckily he was a pro at balancing different kinds of powerful energies and using them to empower himself. He hadn't tried them out yet, but Naruto suspected that Kurama chakra mode, Kurama-Sage Mode and Six Paths Sage mode would only further heighten his abilities beyond normal, despite his already ridiculous power upgrade.

In the end, Naruto wasn't sure whether the power boost to his base form, had come from growing five years older before he woke up, killing Kaguya or the sheer potency of the natural energies of this world. He personally leaning towards having grown more powerful as he aged, but he could be wrong. Even so, Naruto believed it was fortunate that he grown so much stronger due to the threats this world faced.

For while he was new to this world, enough had been covered in different news articles to point out that the dangers it regularly faced were vastly greater than anything he had encountered in the Elemental Nations. Even Superman who was far more physically powerful than him had enemies that could match his seemingly limitless strength and possibly exceed it. That thought actually terrified Naruto, he was very confident in his fighting skills and chakra abilities, but there was a reason Superman was called "Superman", and Naruto did not want to tango with any of the Man of Steel's sparring partners if he could help it.

Speaking of Superman, it was about time the two met for a chat according to Xanadu. Naruto would've preferred to reveal himself to the world and its protectors at a much later time, but some things it seemed, couldn't be helped. Particularly when, today was a day the world would potentially end if key heroes did not gather besides Superman. It helped that he had a mysterious box he had confiscated from a monster that had defeated in National City yesterday, after Madame Xanadu's directed him there.

With all the information he had been gathering about Earth since his arrival, Naruto easily noted that the markings on the cube were not of Earth. He had pressed Madame Xanadu for answers on this mystery and she had merely told him they were most likely alien in origin. So what better idea was there than to ask the only confirmed alien he knew about, for answers. Superman loved to help people right, so this would probably be right up the guy's alley.

Rising to his feet his icy sapphire eyes took in the faint glow of the dusk on the skyline, and then he turned west as he began to ascended into the air. It had been a pain in the ass to get the 3rd Tsuchikage Ohnoki, to teach him the secret to flight, mostly because Naruto was the son of Iwa's greatest enemy, but everyone had had to make great sacrifices in the war for the sake of peace. Turning towards the direction he knew Metropolis was located in, Naruto shot off at well past Mach 6, creating a loud sonic boom in his wake.

VvV

"Aww man and we were just getting to the good part!" Naruto whined childishly as he looked down at the group of four Vigilantes from on top of a street lamppost he'd been crouching on. His words were more than sufficient to startle everyone present, who were all surprised to find him silently watching them from his perch. Superman was especially shocked due his super-hearing failing to pick up Naruto's heartbeat or something.

The sun had gone down and it was much later in the evening when Naruto stumbled across this admittedly interesting sight. He had been searching the Metropolis skyline for Superman, when he picked up loud explosion green flashes of light with his enhanced hearing. It made it easy for him to hunt down the benevolent alien, who would no doubt be at the epicenter of it all. What he hadn't expected was to find Superman trying his best to pummel the vigilante's Batman and Green Lantern to do death. Weren't they all supposed to be good guys?

Naruto was about to intervene and hopefully save the two, when it became unnecessary due to a new arrival. One second Superman was beating the absolute tar out of a green spherical barrier Green Lantern had erected, and the next something hit him. Naruto called it something, because whatever it was, it was fast and left streaks of yellow lightning wherever it went.

However Naruto knew that it couldn't have been lightning, cause Naruto himself was faster than lightning, and yet he couldn't even keep up with this thing due to its frankly frightening speed. Admittedly he was still in his base form and entering Sage mode or Kurama mode would definitely allow him to at least visually keep track of it properly. However that would've also give away his position and Naruto felt his intuition telling him that he could learn a lot more by simply observing for a moment from the sidelines.

It was only after the thing finally stopped that Naruto realized it was in fact a man in a red outfit, and not just any man, but the Central City vigilante, the Flash. For a few milli-seconds he ran circles around superman who tried to physically catch the Flash with his own impressive speed, but the flash was simply far too fast.

That said, the lightning encased speedster was also too over confident in his speed and got too close to Superman, who surprised him by flicking him on the forehead and sending the speedster flying 30 meters away, into a car. Noting the casual and unnecessary destruction of property, Naruto felt he understood why Vigilante's were really unpopular with the U.S government. Finally Batman decided that enough was enough, and courageously step between Superman and others. With a single sentence he stopped Superman from punting them all halfway across Metropolis.

That was no surprise to Naruto, he knew the power of a few honest words and the affect they could have on people. Honest words had changed Haku, Zabuza, Gaara, Obito and he'd like to think Sasuke too but that might have just been the war. They had all been changed by his words, from evil people into good and they were simply the most extreme examples. How many more people had come to believe in him simply due to a few words.

What was a surprise however was the familiar alien box that Batman carried under his arm. Naruto speculated that Batman must have come here to see Superman for similar reasons as himself, due to the box's unearthly nature. And with that knowledge Naruto decided to reveal himself to them.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Flash asked as surprised as everyone else that they hadn't notice Naruto crouching there. But then again with Superman on a rampage, who would have paid attention to the top of a single isolated streetlamp. Its not like it was a normal place for people to crouch.

Waving the alien box for all of them to see, Naruto responded. "Just another guy who was curious about these alien looking boxes and the creatures carrying them." Tossing his own box down at Flash who caught he, he continued. "I thought I might ask big blue and red over there if he knew what they were. But when I got here you were all pretty busy fighting each other, so I figured I would just watch and see how it ended. I am glad I did too, you heroes all have pretty interesting abilities."

"You're not a hero?" Superman asked, picking up on his choice of words.

"If by hero you mean a vigilante running around a city in tights, trying to make it better, then no, I am not that." Naruto replied somewhat sarcastically, but his tone was lighthearted. Sure he respected them and what they did, but seriously tights. "I am a warrior more than anything else, but one who's never been able to turn his back on humanity when it needed help, kind of like it does now. Anyways now that you are no longer fighting and Superman clearly knows nothing about these boxes, as do the rest of you. I think I will tag along with you guys, at least until you find something. From what little I observed, Batman seems pretty smart and skilled at figuring things out, I am sure we can all come up with something together."

"Wow their kid. This job is dangerous and we can't just have a rookie running around. You don't even have a suit or mask to hide your identity. We can't just let another civilian-" Green Lantern began only to be cut off as hand placed itself on his shoulder.

Startled Green Lantern spun around to find a second Naruto standing right next to him who asked. "You're Green Lantern right? The same guy the Airforce is after right?"

Shrugging the hand of his shoulder as he stepped back from Naruto to give himself some, he replied. "Ah yeah! And how the hell are their two of you? Are you twins or something?"

"That one is my clone, a temporary copy of myself for you to attack in the event you turned out to be hostile after I revealed myself. I believe that's unnecessary now." Naruto said, as the clone on the lamppost disappeared in cloud of smoke, leaving only the one near Green Lantern. "Also, I am not a civilian, I am a ninja and trust me when I say we are not like your pop culture likes to depict. I have all kinds abilities that you couldn't even dream up on your best day, so quit it with the rookie shit. I've been saving lives since I was 12."

With that Naruto smirked as he held up Green Lanterns power ring to show off to the space cop, whose Green Lantern uniform was beginning to disappear. Looking to his finger where he realized that indeed his power ring was missing, Green Lantern glared at Naruto who was toying with the ring and yelled. "When did he-?"

In unison Batman and Naruto replied. "You weren't concentrating."

"That's mine." Green Lantern yelled before calling the ring back to his finger through his connection to it. He then turned to Batman and said. "And this time doesn't count, is he your son or something Spooky?"

"No!" Was Batman's one word reply.

Naruto watched the two, finding some amusement in Green Lantern nickname for Batman, there was a whole story there that he didn't quite understand yet. Turning to Superman Naruto said. "Now that we've established I can take care of myself, can we get going before those helicopters show up."

"You have super-hearing too?" Superman asked surprised at the revelation from the young man who had joined their ranks. Naruto nodded in response, to which Superman then explained. "That would be the army, which means Lex Luthor isn't far behind."

"Not a fan of Lex Luthor I take it?" Batman asked, his own disdain for the billionaire audible in his tone despite the fact that his mask and dark body armor kept his face and body language mostly hidden.

"No!" Superman replied before turning to Naruto and asking. "So what do we call you?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, a remnant of the Uzumaki clan of shinobi's. You can all call me Sage though, for now at least, or Naruto. I'll be honest, I don't particularly care about hiding my identity, and I have ways to disguise my appearance if it ever became a problem." The shinobi explained

"Sage it is then. Seeing as you are already here, you are welcome to tag along." Batman said, welcoming him to the group, no doubt to keep a closer eye on him and get whatever information he could out of him. Naruto almost felt like he was back home and was beginning to like the darkly clad vigilante for it.

"Get clear guys. I will clean up." Flash suddenly volunteered as he motion to the mess that was formerly their battle ground. Blurring away at speeds that would've made lightning envious, the red clad speedster rapidly begin to repair all the damage from the fight earlier. Naruto had to admire the guy and his attitude if he was willing to clean up after his messes.

Figuring he shouldn't leave all the work to Flash, Naruto joined him with his own super-speed, helping Flash fix what ever they could. After all, 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do', and all that jazz.

In mere minutes, all the damages from the fight that had spanned the entire downtown area where quickly repaired and Metropolis was looking good again. Then a small fleet of army helicopters showed up and the five heroes decided to escape through a sewer much to Green Lantern's Chagrin. With a smile on his face, Naruto thought to himself. 'This might actually turn out to be fun!'

VvV

The ninja and his four vigilante companions found themselves in an old abandoned factory belonging to the Daily Planet. It was an abandoned printing press and apparently acted as Superman's base of operations, until he could find a proper one. Batman seemed less than impressed with it, and voiced his opinion. "An abandoned printing press? Don't you have place to go hang your cape at the end of the day? You don't wear a mask so you don't have an identity to hide."

"I don't have a base of operations?" Superman defended.

"And you Sage?" Batman asked Naruto who was quietly listening to both Superman and Batman's conversation, as well as Flash and Green Lantern's further off.

"I was trained to blend into the shadows and one of my powers allows me to disguise myself as other people or things. I don't really need anything elaborate right now." Naruto spoke up, giving a little worthless information to get them to relax a little more around him. Batman tensed momentarily upon hearing this revelation but did indeed relax a second later.

Curious about his abilities Flash shifted his attention to them and asked. "What other powers do you have? You said earlier that you could disguise yourself, and we've already seen you use super-speed, as well as make copies of yourself."

"I can manipulate the elements, I'm stronger than everyone here except Superman and pretty durable. I can fly too, but I am not very good at it yet. There's is also more but I'll keep that to myself for now." Naruto replied. Truthfully, he had thousands of different techniques, but it was best to give out information on only a handful and have them think he was more...limited.

"You don't trust us." Superman accused. The Kryptonian must have picked up something in his tone, he did have better senses than Naruto after all.

Naruto merely shrugged, figuring it would be a waste of time to try and pretend, then replied. "Not one of us completely trusts the other, except for Flash and Green Lantern who are apparently friends. I only revealed as much I did so we have a basic understanding of what I can bring to the table. And to gain enough trust for you guys to work comfortably with me, but I'm not just going spill all my secrets to people who were complete strangers to me less than an hour. Those secrets you will have to earn."

"Reasonable." Batman said before he and Superman continued their private conversation. Flash, Green Lantern and Naruto meanwhile moved closer to the two alien boxes to examine them.

Ping!

"This can't be good." Naruto muttered as he took a closer look at the two alien boxes hovering in mid air where they were suspended by a field of emerald energy coming from Green Lantern's ring. He had just noticed that they both made that ping sound at the same time as if they were both receiving information from the same place. That or talking to each other, neither possibility was very welcome. "We should probably split these boxes up."

"Agreed. Those ping sounds they keep making might be messages they are transmitting to one another, or to another party. The creature that was carrying my box blew up trying to take us with it. That's military tactics and they act like expendable soldiers dedicated to finishing the mission at any cost. They've also been planting these boxes at strategic location...Metropolis, Gotham and you said yours came from National city right? I'm worried we might be staring down the barrel of a full-scale invasion here." Batman explained, filling the room with an uneasy air as everyone silently contemplated his words.

"That's paranoid." Green Lantern said, breaking the silence. A full scale planetary invasion wasn't something anyone wanted to really consider, so it was naturally easier to just dismiss it as paranoia or superstition. The truth was a hard pill to swallow after all.

"A little paranoia isn't bad in this job Green Lantern. A friend of mine warned me that today would be a dark day. She was the one who sent me to confront the creature in National city where I found my box. I would rather be ready if a war is coming." Naruto said.

"National City is your stomping grounds?" Batman asked.

"No, I was just passing through. I'm more of a wandering sage, seeing the world, helping wherever I can. Or at least I was trying to be before this mess started up." Naruto replied.

Ping!

"There it goes again with that creepy sound. Why not just crack one of these boxes open and see for ourselves what's inside? We have a spare." Green Lantern suggested as he motioned towards the boxes.

Frowning Batman replied. "Because without any idea of what these boxes contain, who knows what might come spilling out, radiation, disease or something worse."

"I can run one to a lab and do a full spectrum analysis on it, in case of fingerprints, DNA or anything else that might give us a lead as to what these things are and where they may have been." Flash offered.

Turning to him Batman said. "You sound like a cop."

"I am a cop, I work in a Crime Lab." Flash confirmed.

Elbowing the speedster in the ribs, Green Lantern not so subtly said. "Barry, you're giving away your secret identity."

"And you just called me Barry genius." Flash said with a glare at Green Lantern for revealing his name. Those two had a strange friendship in Naruto's opinion.

"I can't see anything when I try to look through the box's casing." Superman said floating closer to the box, his eyes glowing fain pale blue.

Bewildered, Flash asked. "You can see through the casing?"

"I can see through most things." Superman casually confirmed.

Everyone suddenly turned to look at Naruto to see if he had anything to add, since he had been silent for a bit. Shaking his head Naruto replied. "I am not like him. I do have pretty good eyesight and reaction time though."

Everyone then turned to Batman as Green Lantern asked mockingly. "What about you, what can you do?"

"I can keep us focused." Batman firmly responded.

Ping!

"Gaaaahh!" A short but pain filled scream tore itself from Naruto's throat as his right hand began to glow and the Yang seal that Hagoromo had once gave him began to glow a brilliant white in the center of his palm. Around the white circle, nine black tomoe formed, making it look like a pictogram of the sun. Going up the length of his right arm, red flame-like tribal markings appeared and finally connected to a diamond shaped mark surrounding by two wing patterns, right between his shoulder blades. It was a mark he had received on the day he killed Kaguya.

"Sage, the hell's going on with you? Your arm is glowing like a damn flashlight." Batman barked at him, as the pain began to recede. It had felt like he was being branded, like his skin had been flayed roar and every nerve ending exposed before being dipped acid. But he had also learned something while the process was going on.

"My Apologies Batman. My powers seem to be reacting negatively to the boxes. Its like they are trying to protect me from those boxes." Naruto explained after taking deep breaths. What had just happened was something new and strange, and it worried him immensely. Especially since both the Yang seal and the marking he'd received from killing Kaguya had activated simultaneously. 'Why had they activated? Was it because whatever was coming was nearly here?'

These questioned would remain unanswered for his attention shifted to Green Lantern, who moved closer as if to touch the boxes but-.

Ping!...Ping!...Ping!...Ping!...Ping!..Ping!.Ping!Ping!Ping!PING!PING!

"What the! I didn't touch anything." The emerald theme hero yelped as he jumped backwards. The boxes both began pinging at faster and faster intervals as if it was a countdown. Naruto could feel his power begin to rage in response, as if trying to empower him further, even in his base state. It was almost time

"They're activated themselves." Superman yelled as the volume and frequency of the pings increased.

Moving in to action Batman pointed at the boxes and yelled. "Green Lantern isolate those boxes, we don't know what they might end up releasing when fully active."

Green Lantern responded by doing as batman ordered, a shell of emerald energy encased each in a large, spherical forcefield. He then moved them to the other side of the room in case the boxes exploded or something. They didn't, at least not in the way anyone would have expected.

BOOOOOMMM!

Green Lantern was barely done tossing the two boxes away when they were all hit with the wall of sound. Two large portals had suddenly bloomed into existence, one originating from each box. Big enough and forceful enough that they shattered Green Lantern's forcefields just by opening. Out of the portals emerged the very same type of monsters as the one Naruto had initially defeated to recover his box. Only this time, it wasn't just one or two of the monsters, but hundreds, and all of them were headed straight their way. 'Looks like Batman's invasion theory was right.'

The monsters were the stuff of nightmares, standing at about seven and half feet tall, with arms bigger and bulkier than Superman's thighs. They were Humanoid in form, 20 razor sharp claws on each hand and foot replacing the digits traditionally located there, clearly designed for tearing through flesh and bone. Their skin was putrid green and had a leather-like consistency to it, their eyes covered by red goggle-like visors, glowed liked hellish embers.

They had a mouth filled with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth, beyond which lay a maw that burned a molten orange, and from which the monsters could spew fire, like some kinds of humanoid dragon. From their backs they could sprout bat-like wings for flight, while their flesh was mostly protected by a strange bronze colored metal that was fused to their skin in a way that was most certainly painful. He would have pitied them, yet instinctively knew that pity was something wasted on the creatures. They were an enemy that needed to be killed, and quickly.

They hadn't even existed the portal, yet these creatures set off every single one of Naruto's instincts. His empathic abilities easily picking up what to him felt like pure evil. A mindless, all consuming evil that simply radiated from the monsters, and would soon begin corrupting the world around them. It was as if they were so heavily steeped in evil that it formed an aura around them that was almost tangible. The shinobi godslayer utterly hated it.

Growling at the creatures, the Sun symbol pattern in the palm of his hand flared even brighter in response to the invaders. Golden chakra slowly began to coat his right forearm, giving it an ethereal glow. Meanwhile Naruto's eyes shifted shifted from sapphire blue crystals to a flame-like yellow-orange, his pupils shifting into toad-like horizontal bars. It was a visual indicator that he had entered Sage Mode,and an unspoken promise of the world of hurt, the invading fiends were about to find themselves in.

Just as the first monster crossed the event horizon of the portal with a horrendous cry of, "For Darkseid!", Naruto moved. He moved so fast that the concrete beneath his feet shattered in series of spiderweb cracks spanning over 10 meters. The air in front of him formed a cone around around him and blossomed outwards in a shockwave, displaced by his mere passing. Behind him, air rushed back into the vacuum he had created, bringing with it a thunderous sonic boom that shattered every window in the abandoned building. And then he was in front of the enemy.

The demonic looking creature did not have time to react before his fist connected with its solar plexus. It didn't even have time to realize it was dead before it flew backwards in a shockwave of energy, its whole body incinerating from the sheer force of the punch. The incinerated creature and blast of superheated air carrying its remains, slammed straight into its invading companions behind where it previously stood and bowled over the rest of the creatures, and throwing them right back into the portal.

One of the demons that had manage to dodge around Naruto's attack, tried to fly past him. However his hand reached out and grabbed it by the face before slamming it into the ground so forcefully, it created a small earth-tremor. With a mighty stop on its chest to keep it from moving, Naruto glared at the invaders and flared his killing intent at them.

For a moment the invasion, at least the part coming through these two portals ground to a complete and utter halt, as every one stared at Naruto in shock, heroes and demons alike. Naruto took note of none of this, glaring murderously straight at the demons, he barked an order in a tone so dead that it would have stopped even a rampaging Tailed Beast in its tracks. "Retreat or die!"

It was just for a few seconds, 4.3 seconds to be exact, yet in that moment every single one the creatures feared him. Survival instincts that had supposedly been bred out suddenly kicking in making them all take a step back. Unfortunately it only worked for a moment and a second later they all simultaneously retorted. "For Darkseid!"

Feeling he needed to answer this challenge, Naruto said the first thing that came to mind, but rather than shout it, he simply whispered back. "For the Will of Fire!" Then he moved again.

VvV

Naruto scowled as he ducked under the claws of one of the monsters before shoulder checking it aside with enough force that it cleared a path through its companions that had moved to surround him. Not a second later, he used the hole to escape while leaving an explosive tag behind, that was already activated.

The detonation caught ten of the monsters in a ball of flame, light and pressure but there were thousands more invading Earth through more portals each second. A well timed roundhouse kick connected with the head of a monster that thought him distracted enough to sneak up upon, said head was torn from the monsters shoulders. Naruto then spun low and then extended his foot into a sweeping kick to drop a follow up monster, before lifting his foot and bringing it down in a heel drop kick on the fallen monsters armored chest, crushing it.

Sidestepping a blast orange flames spewing from another of the monsters. Naruto lodged a kunai down its throat for its troubles, before crossing his fingers in the Clone Seal and muttering. "Mass Shadow Clone Technique." A moment later 1000 clones surrounded him and he ordered. "Spread out across the city, secure the civilians, report in any Intel you might consider valuable and kill any monsters in your way. When your done await further instructions."

"Yes Sir!" A thousand voices replied in unison,before dispersing in a thousand different directions fast enough to create a buffeting wind.

With his clones on the counterattack, the original Naruto and his vigilante comrades had a bit of breathing room. They had been on the brink of being overrun by the sheer number of monsters invading Metropolis, especially after they all started converging on the groups location due to the fierce resistance the vigilantes were putting up. Thankfully that all changed the moment Naruto created his clones.

A thousand copies of Naruto with similar strength, speed and skill, all very well coordinated and tearing into the monsters while saving civilians. In the blink of an eye the whole battlefield situation seemed to reverse itself as, pairs of Naruto clones rapidly tag teamed the uncoordinated monsters and ripped them to shreds. Sometimes quite literally, as one clone would grab one limb and while the second would grab another, and then they would simply pull in different directions.

His clones new not use any chakra intensive techniques like Rasengan, so that they would last longer. In fact they were determined to conserve as much of their chakra as possible. This was a war, not a skirmish. It likely wouldn't end in a day, barring some kind of miracle, so he needed to use his power as efficiently as possible.

Dropkicking one of the monsters than had tried to attack Batman from his blindspot, he asked. "Now, what. These things are just gonna keep coming, and this clearly isn't an isolated incident."

A bolt of yellow lightning blurred past as Flash literally slapped half a dozen of the monsters nearby, the sheer speed and impact behind it actually cooking the monsters in their armor. He came a stop near Batman and Sage, where he said. "Sage is right guys. I'm getting radio broadcasts through my earpiece, this invasion is happening all around the world. People are blaming us for it."

A massive green fly swatter smacked dozens of the monsters out of the sky after they took to the air or squashed them on the ground if they didn't. Green Lantern who while exhausted looked like he was having fun said. "What else is new Flash."

"Lantern concentrate! Your mind is scattered, your constructs are fading. You need calm dow-" Batman yelled, noting that whenever Green Lantern stopped focusing on his constructs, they began disappearing. A very bad thing when his forcefields where also being used to create a safe haven for civilians caught in the crossfire.

"I am calm, I'm always calm." Green Lanter argued.

Shaking his head as he threw Batarang one the monster with wings extended, swooping down to pick a child. It exploded horrifically. "That's not what it looks like." He disputed.

Green Lantern merely snorted as he replied. "You should worry about yourself. You are the one without powers."

"Wait! Batman doesn't have powers?" Flash asked feeling rather alarmed by this revelation.

Seeing as this could undermine their quickly developing teamwork, Naruto jumped in saying. "No, but he has better training than all of you. He's also a better tactician and leader than the rest of us."

"I didn't pick him to be in charge." Green Lantern refused.

"No one did, yet he is the only one whose really stepped up for the role." Naruto pointed out. He personally could've taken up the role, but from what little he had observed both today and over the past few weeks. Batman was a far better strategist and leader, in a way the Bat themed hero reminded Naruto of Shikamaru Nara and Shikaku Nara when it came to strategy, data analysis and formulating brilliant plans. A scary thought, considering he just and ordinary human that trained themselves till they were pushing the limits.

"That's not entirely true. You have leadership qualities of your own." Batman pointed out.

Naruto did not deny, instead replying. "That's true, but they are inferior to yours."

"All your copies seemed to obey you just fine Sage." Green Lantern said, more cause he wanted anyone but Batman to be the team leader. With greater preferences for himself to take the role.

"Of course they would, they are all me. Besides, micromanaging them across the country and possibly the world will take a hell of lot less effort than truly leading a team of strangers who barely know anything about each other. Yet Batman has already started analyzing our strength's and weakness as well as the most effective ways to deploy us against the enemy and win. Make no mistake people, this world is at war and this team needs someone to lead us through it. I vote Batman, at least until someone more suitable shows up...that is if such a person even exists."

Superman who had flown closer to join the conversation thanks to the reduction of monsters in the area, courtesy of Naruto's clones, said. "Sage has a point, and he's the guy whose given us enough breathing room to actually talk and come up with a plan. Of us all, I feel Batman has come up with the most plans to deal with the problem and shown a greater understanding of the world and the enemies way of thinking than the rest of us. Not to mention that he did all this, while we were fighting. so I'll second Sage's vote."

"Batman is pretty smart but for the record, I can out think all of you combine if I wanted to. My mind works thousands of times faster than yours, but its geared towards science, not military strategy and leadership. Batman has my vote." Flash chipped in.

Seeing that the rest of us had voted on a leader, Green Lantern huffed as he threw his hands in the air, before turning to Batman and saying. "I'm not gonna say it Spooky. But I'm clearly outvoted here, so for now if you lead I'll follow."

Batman nodded, a small smile on his lips before it shifted back to a more serious look as he said. "In that case, we need to shut down the portals here in Metropolis first."

"I don't know about shutting them down, but I can create barriers around the portals that will trap anything that exit's them." Naruto offered.

"Can your clones create these barriers too." Batman inquired.

Nodding his head, Naruto replied."Yes. They can do just about anything I can do."

"Good, Flash you will scout out the city and find any portals, Naruto have your clones begin sealing of the portals. Lantern, I want you in the air, you are shiny, so I need you to keep those monsters attention focused on you. That will keep them away from civilians. Use Hit and Run tactics, make them chase you." Batman rattled off a bunch of orders.

"I will give you a couple of clones to help." Naruto offered to Green Lantern who nodded at him in gratefulness.

"And what about me?" Superman asked, curious about his role in this sudden turn of events.

"Civilians. You are their last line of defense. Two of the orders Sage gave to his clones, were securing civilians and gathering valuable intel. Once Flash is done with locating portals he will need to find a spot further in land but within the city limits that can hold millions of people. Flash and some clones of Sage will then evacuating who ever they can find to there. You will guard them, you can also use your superhearing and your ability to see through walls to spot anyone in need of help, then direct Flash or Sage there." Batman explained, Superman nodding, surprisingly content with his role.

"What about you Batman." Naruto chose to ask, so far he was dishing out orders and roles for the rest of the team but had yet to say anything about what he was going to do.

"I will be re-tasking a couple of satellites to other cities and parts of the globe, to figure out where we go next and what strategy to implement there. I'll also need to find a way to get the US and other governments off our asses while we work." Batman explained.

"W-wait a minute! You have a satellite." Green Lantern exclaimed in disbelief.

"About a dozen actually." Batman replied with smirk before adding. "What? My superpower is being rich. But enough jokes, after we settle things here we are going to Washington D.C next."

"Gotham is closer, and you are from Gotham. Aren't you worried about protecting your city?" Superman asked.

Batman paused, and Naruto could sense that he was troubled by the thought. However it was only for a moment, they could all here the steel in his resolve as he replied. "I am. But if Gotham falls, its just one dead city. If the Capital falls, we are looking at the fall of America itself."

Sighing tiredly, Naruto sat down, crossing his legs while saying. "In that case, I better start gathering energy for more clones. If I gather enough natural energy from the planet, I can deploy clones all across the globe. They will at the very least be able to keep the monsters distracted long enough for us to get there. Though this will take a lot out of me, and since you're rich, you mind paying for my vacation when this is over, cause I am going to need one."

"Pick a private island. I'll buy it and build a mansion for you to relax on." Batman replied in a dead serious tone, making Naruto and the other pause.

Exasperated by the rich superheroes response, Naruto pointed out. "You know I was joking right. That last bit about vacation I mean."

"Oh, I know." Batman said with a smirk.

VvV

It had been over half an hour since the monsters had started attacking, and Princess Diana of Themyscira had carved a bloody trail from Washington all the way to Metropolis, with naught but her sword and golden lasso in hand. Hundreds had already been saved by her on this trek, and the monsters instinctively understanding the threat she was, prioritized her over the civilians. In fact, the more she fought, the more were drawn towards her, so she felt comfortable leaving the civilians behind. It helped that Colonel Steve Trevor, the first male she had ever laid eyes on, was helping direct the local military defenses against the monsters, so it wasn't like these people didn't have any defenders whatsoever.

As an Amazon Princess, it was her duty to exterminate any monsters threatening man's world wherever she found them. And she had overheard a Lieutenant report to the Colonel that large swarms of the monsters were flying towards Metropolis for some reason. With that knowledge Diana had located the nearest map and made a beeline, straight for the so called "City of Tomorrow", killing thousands of monsters along the way.

When she finally arrived on the outskirts of Metropolis, Diana witnessed what had to be the most bizarre battle of her entire 1500 years of life. It was chaos everywhere as two armies clashed in bloody battle. On one side fought the invading monsters, too numerous to properly count there numbers in the heat of battle, but easily well over ten thousand. Some filled the air like a swarm of giant locusts, while others attacked from the ground.

From their mouths spewed orange flames, hot enough to turn the ground molten and set the surrounding forests and buildings ablaze. Yet for all their numbers the monsters were completely unable to set even one foot into the city limits due to the opposing army. If the invading army was an endless swarm, this new rival army was ruthless efficiency given form.

The opposing army was comprised of blond haired warriors in dark clothing, wielding strange triangular knives and some of the most impressive hand to hand combat skills she had ever seen. Their hand to hand was better than anything she had been taught on Themyscira and his blade work with those knives was equally impressive. It was clear to see even from a great distance that every single one of them had been wielding those knives for a life time.

Diana had the sudden urge to cross blades with these strange warriors and test their skills for herself. However such thoughts were forgotten as she took a closer look at the warriors. They were all similar, far too similar for it to be natural. It was as if she was staring at copies of the same person, and the more she looked, the more it became apparent that all of them really were the same. A singular being she eventually concluded, yet she was impressed by how all the copies were acting independently of each other.

Their unnatural nature was further proven when one of the copies was overwhelmed and took an unlucky blow to the gut, getting its intestines shredded. Instead of bleeding out on floor with horrific screams coming from his mouth, like such an injury demanded, their was a burst of smoke as the copy simply vanished out of existence. 'Magic. Extremely powerful magic.' She concluded.

Meanwhile all the other copies of the warrior flinched and rubbed their stomachs as if feeling the pain of there counterparts demise. Their retribution for the death of the fallen copy was equally swift and painful for the enemy. In the blink of an eye, several monsters had there limbs, torso's and heads sliced off or apart and bled out. She was even able to catch one of the blond warrior copies split one of the monsters from chin to crotch with a sword made of wind. It was an application of magic she had never heard of, wind didn't just cut things, it pushed, it buffeted, it carried, it did not slice like Amazonian steel.

Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire of the major battle, Diana tried to sneak through an area of the battlefield that was less chaotic. She made good progress, cutting down any monsters in her way and was even on the brink of entering the city limits. However, she must not have been paying as much attention to her surrounding as she normally would, because just as she crossing an abandoned street, she was suddenly ambushed by a dozen of the monsters. They must have had the same idea as her or something, that is if they could think.

Though surprised, she was prepared to cut them all down, she had faced hundreds of their kind on her way here so twelve more were of no concern to her. As she was preparing to engage them in battle though, Diana felt a sudden bout of vertigo and for a moment her vision darkened as the world blurred and twisted in unnatural ways. When her vision cleared again she found herself standing on a roof, a little further within the city limits.

Below, in the street where she was previously standing was a copy of the warrior fighting the monster. It had been horrifically skewered by multiple clawed hands, but instead of exploding in smoke like the other had, this one stuck out his tongue in a childish manner without a care in the world for the fact it was literally skewered to death. Then right before her eyes, the copy turned into pure lightning. 'By Zeus, that's enough lightning to cook the monsters in their armor.' She thought in amazement as she watched exactly that happen to all twelve monsters.

"Lightning Shadow Clones are pretty impressive, aren't they?" A voice said from behind her.

Spinning around she found another one of the blonde warriors behind her whom she immediately asked. "Who are you?"

She was relatively sure that he had no intention to harm, especially after he had gone out of his way to save her, though it wasn't actually necessary. The blond warrior merely gave her friendly smile and replied. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, but I go by the codename Sage for now. I take it you are that lady from Washington, the one everyone is calling Wonder Woman? From your stance I can tell that you are a real warrior and even though I did it, my gut is telling me that saving you was completely unnecessary."

"I am Diana, Princess of Themyscira, and yes I am a warrior, an Amazon warrior. I take it you are the original." She then gestured to the army of other blondes still fighting off the invading monsters. "I've seen a number of your copies explode in smoke or lightning when they die." She announced to his amusement.

Shaking his head the now named Naruto replied. "Unfortunately, no. I am but a temporary copy created by the original Naruto Uzumaki with his memories and fighting abilities to keep this horde monsters at bay. The real Sage is with the other hero's and warriors further in the city, he is gathering energy to fuel our existence coordinating the different armies of clones all across the city. Our job is to keep the enemy at bay, while he and the others like us come up with a plan to deal with the invasion and evacuate the civilians. I would request you meet up with them, they have a plan in place and sooner rather than later we will need your skills as a warrior to win this war. This war is a global even and we fear that the worst is yet to come."

Nodding upon hearing this and marveling at the fact that all the Naruto's she could see were a single person fighting all across the city, she then replied. "Then I will be on my way, Sage. It was a pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise, my friend." Naruto replied with a charming smile before leaping of into the midst of the fray. With a smile Wonder Woman turned towards the heart of the city and began to sprint as fast as she could towards this assemblage of warriors and heroes. If things were only going to get worse from here on out, then she needed to be at heart of the matter, where she could best thrust her blade into the problem.

TBC...

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Sage of War. Next time the League gather's together with a surprise addition, we get to see more of how the Justice League counters the invading Parademons with Naruto help and Darkseid decides FUBAR their plan, by merely showing. Please leave a review and tell me what you think.

Scarlet Out!