Caterpillar

Reunion

His hands went through a quick sequence of hand seals that ended in a Tiger seal. His chest inflated and then a serpentine dragon of fire came out of his mouth. Though it was made of fire, one would be tempted to think it was alive when it let out a roar that shook the atmosphere. Next to him, a shadow clone went through a different series of hand seals, one that ended with a Bird seal. His chest also inflated and a cyan dragon of pressurised wind came out from his mouth.

The two serpentine dragons roared as they coiled around each other. But fire always held an advantage over the wind. The cyan dragon was devoured by the red dragon, making the flaming dragon grow to more than 3 times its previous size. It was an over 200 feet long serpentine dragon of fire.

Under Naruto's control, the fire dragon lunged at the jungle surrounding the military base below. The trees, the rocks, the hundreds of corpses belonging to Mongul's army and the blood pooling on the ground - everything was melted or evaporated.

On Naruto's shoulder, a nine-tailed fox cub alternated between watching the destruction and looking at him. After he finished killing all of Mongul's henchmen, Naruto contacted him and told him to come down.

"How did that plant even sneak up on you? Your Sage senses should've detected any living being for miles around you." the fox said eventually.

"I was careless." Naruto answered in a subdued voice.

Kyuubi sighed.

"What kind of shinobi or bounty hunter lets a damned plant sneak up on him? Haa~ ...let me guess, it's because of Diana, isn't it? You were talking to her and stopped paying attention to your surroundings. Honestly, you're like a little kid."

The following silence confirmed the fox's words. A mixed look appeared in his red eyes. On one hand, he wanted to berate Naruto for messing up like that but, on the other hand, he could see how disturbed he was even despite the mask hiding his face.

After a short while, Naruto extinguished the giant flaming dragon. For hundreds of feet around the military base, everything had been turned into ash and cinders. There was no trace of corpses or blood or the previous battle at all. Due to the immense heat from before, the already cloudy sky had become covered by black clouds and a torrential downpour followed.

Naruto took the fox from his shoulder into his arms and hugged him to his chest. Through his Negative Emotion Sensing, Kyuubi could feel the tumult of negative feelings in his heart at that moment. So he did not try to get out of his embrace. A screen of chakra was conjured from Naruto's hands, shielding the fox in his arms from the rain pouring from above. But he did not create one for himself too. He let the cold and dirty rain batter his bloodied body. On that dying planet, even the rain was polluted.

⁂

After passing through the blanket of purple clouds covering the entirety of the planet, the 5 members of the Justice League were finally able to see the world below. They were above a strange-looking jungle, one that was in the process of withering. An unhealthy purple hue was shining on the leaves, trunks and branches of the trees.

Following the coordinates given to them by Naruto, they arrived at the large military base in that jungle. The wide ring of ash surrounding the base made it look very eye-catching from above. The Javelin landed not far from the place where Naruto stood with Kyuubi in his arms.

"What in the world happened here?" John Stewart was the first to speak after he came out from the Javelin.

"Aw man, it rains with cats and dogs out there. I think you can handle the situation by yourself, right? You don't need me to come out too, do you?" Flash said in a hopeful voice but he was suddenly pushed from behind with a force he had not expected. Taken by surprise, he was thrown out of the spaceship and he fell flat on his face on the ground.