The Shinobi Visitor

Chapter 42 - The Night Of The Lizards...

The chill of fall had swooped throughout the streets of Boston as stormy clouds began to roll in above from the north. The citizens eagerly rushed for the warm safety of their homes due to the forecast of rain and possible first shower of snow that foreshadowed the upcoming snow season in the winter.

However, there are a couple of people who seem to take advantage of the upcoming weather and it was in the form of a bank.

*RRIINNNGGG*

The dual-paneled front doors of Boston First Bank burst open by an unknown force in the form of bank robbers. "Come on, come on! We got to go!" A man in dirty clothes with a black ski mask ran out with a bag of cash in one hand and a gun in the other.

His accomplice in similar attire with three bags of cash chased after him as they hastily entered their getaway car: a 1967 Mustang Mach 1.

"Very subtle." Patronus said with a sigh. "They're just begging to have their asses kicked."

"Language, Naruto." A voice scolded softly as she made her presence known to him.

"Sorry, Saeko. How are the kids?"

Like him and Kuroka, Saeko's costume was the Assassins motif as it was a rather tight dark purple bordering black given the sunlight on. It was more akin to the ninja shozuko similar to the Hand except it had the beaked hood of the Assassins and a red belt around her waist to tighten the lower and top halves as it had several Rope Darts, Poison Darts and the katana she received back in her universe strapped to her waist. Several purple lines originated from the sleeves all the way to the middle of the back and stopped at a swirl logo; the Uzumaki Clan symbol.

Initially Naruto was confused by this decision but the girls had made it clear that they're basically husband/wives in the unofficial sense and they wanted to make it known to their enemies that the Uzumaki Clan is back and not to be underestimated. They knew of his clan's demise after one of their love sessions and weren't sure about their status together if they haven't had the same love for the blonde and their friendship.

The Jinchuriki had mused and agreed that his apparently-revived clan is not to make fun of given the roster: the beauty of the Nekomata, Kuroka; the immortal former Titan Queen, Rhea; priestess and Kosaka Style practitioner, Medusa; and lastly the mother of his children, and expert swordswoman, Saeko Busujima-Uzumaki.

"From what Kuroka and Medusa said after their call, they miss their mommy and daddy." Saeko said which made Naruto frown a bit. "Is this the last?"

"Of course. We shouldn't be away from our children for a long time."

It had two weeks since his rather crazy visit to Manhattan and things had returned to normal for Naruto. Back at the Homestead, the family noticed the children would get fussy and cry whenever their father is gone for more than six hours and that made the father worried and doubt himself about his heroism.

Should he hang the hood and retired for the sake of his children and wait out the cooldown period in their isolated home or continue and possibly hinder his relationship with Ashla and Masaki?

"Patronus…" Saeko placed a hand in a soothing voice. Naruto looked at her despite his eyes not in view. "They're young; only six months old. They don't understand yet."

"I should be there for them regardless. I don't want them to have the same childhood like me." The disguised Naruto stated honestly. "Let's stop this robbery and head back home."

Saeko nodded as Naruto took the lead before she followed him. She and the girls undertook the Assassin freerunning training from Naruto to improve their acrobatic skills as they wanted to help their lover in his heroism within Boston. As far as they knew, Saeko was at the top of the class with Rhea being her equal, Medusa as the third and lastly Kuroka who seemed to progress slowly despite being the first to undergo the training.

"Time to go to work."

The two hooded heroes ran across the rooftops in pursuit of the speeding Mustang Mach 1 as the Boston PD squad cars followed them as well. The chase led them to the Downtown section when the getaway vehicle's tires were blown by metal spikes called the spike strip and crashed against a pole. Soon the police surrounded the robbers with their weapons pointed at them, but the situation had grown when one of them had taken a female hostage before she could escape.

Saeko and Naruto landed atop the building behind the gunmen with their hostage as the police soon had a negotiator to handle the situation. The negotiation took almost half-hour and during that entire time Saeko had wondered about their lack of action until Naruto showed her that the gunmen later released the hostage and the police secured her before they arrested the criminals.

With that done and the crime scene being secured, Patronus signaled them to go home as they traveled to one of the rendezvous and apparent magical pathways back to the Homestead. The nearest one was in the Ferris Park neighborhood. Upon arriving at the baseball park, Naruto carried Saeko in his arms before he jumped across the wide gap/street between them.

As they were in the air, a soft glow in around the park's rooftop before a portal opened just as Naruto and his lover fell through while the fanfare of baseball rang throughout the setting and cloudy day.

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Uzumaki Manor, Homestead Grounds

Forested Massachusetts

After arriving and putting away their uniform and equipment sans Naruto's Hidden Blades, the couple walked to the living room where the action apparently is located as Kuroka, Medusa and Rhea supervised the children who sat on the black rug with their hands waving out and about to grab something.

And that something was a new member of their family.

It was the creature that hatched out of the mysterious egg Naruto procured from the Hand organization as he reminisced the moment of their first meeting.

-(Flashback Begins)-

"*Snort*" Naruto turned around with his back turned away from the egg. "We'll play later, Rhea." He whispered loudly before snorting once more.

The egg continued to crack prominently until one small piece fell to the floor and shattered upon impact as it woke up Naruto from his sleep. Naruto groaned before putting a pillow over his head to block out the noise as more shells fell to the ground and shattered in symphony.

After the last shell shattering, the sleep-deprived Naruto sat upright with a loud groan as he looked for the source and found it. Actually 'it' was also staring right at him with eagle-like eyes as the head tilted in a curious manner.

"Huh?" Naruto asked dumbly as he looked between the creature and the egg several times until it hit him. "An eagle egg? Great…" He groaned with a heavy sigh before putting his feet on the floor. "I guess I should find his parents or hand him to the government or whatever… Hold on a minute." He inspected the avian creature closely. "You look familiar for some reason."

The ninja noticed that the creature was not like any eagle he'd seen before. It was small about the size of a puppy and two small light green talons that barely support its weight. The beak and eyes were deeper shade of green as its feathers shimmered under the sunlight like the clouds outside. Naruto had also found the physical traits that separated it from other avian creatures were its wings and tail.

The tail was spilt into long halves and looked like thin whips. As for the wings, the creature had more of them: there was a pair on the main body while two smaller were slightly close to the rear and an even smaller pair on the split of the tail.

"You're not like any bird I ever seen." Naruto mused with intrigue as the bird stumbled towards him. It was taking its first steps and rather hastily too as if it was eager to get to him. "Take it easy. Don't rush yourself."

The avian creature seemed to heed his words like a child would to its parent. Its talons softly scrapped the wooden floor in its slow progress towards the ninja until it nuzzled its feathered head against Naruto's outstretched hand. The two beings stayed there in the room, enjoying each other's presence.

"Well…" Naruto spoke after a while, getting the creature to look at him. "Now we got to give you a name."

*Screech*

Naruto placed his other hand underneath his chin as he thought about the numerous potential names for the creature before speaking them aloud.

"Carl."

*Snarl*

"Jacob?"

*Snarl**Snarl*

"Simon?"

*Growwwwl*

"You really didn't like that one huh?" Naruto asked as the creature shook its head to confirm its feelings. A chuckle escaped his mouth before he continued to pet the unfamiliar bird. "I'll come up with it."

With no option and it could prove to be fun for the children to have a pet of sorts, Naruto decided to introduce the bird to his family as he carefully carried it in his arms.

"How about…"

-(Flashback Ends)-

"Raicho, how are you doing with the kids?"

Raicho perked its head and gave an approving low screech as Ashla and Masaki joyfully petted its head and tails. The residing women of the clan kissed their leader and husband affectionately and after returning them, Naruto turned to his children and gave them raspberry kisses, causing them to laugh. As for Raicho, it eagerly waited for its turn and Naruto answered the eager bird with a petting on the body.

The avian creature grew quite fast in the span of three months under their care. When it first hatched, Raicho fitted in Naruto's hands but now it had grown to the size of a grown dog.

As it turned out that Raicho was not a normal eagle in the normal sense, but one of the supernatural or better yet in Rhea's words, magical. He was a Thunderbird, a powerful creature whose native habitat is in the Arizona desert and supposedly cause storms when its wings take flight. Rhea had encountered one Thunderbird back in her universe but it was very old and weak over many years of living and she stayed with the legendary creature until it passed on to the afterlife.

Another fact about the Thunderbird was its species' near extinction status and that alarmed Naruto. If it was near extinct in the Soul Universe, perhaps the creature was also in the same boat in this universe as well. If so, they must protect the creature from the Hand or other organization with similar purposes.

Last but not least, according to Rhea, the Thunderbird can grow to the size of a building and used the Homestead Manor as comparison. That was something quite surprising and worrisome for the Uzumaki Clan, but Naruto mentioned they'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

"Naruto, Saeko, are you two done for the day?" Medusa asked with hope in her voice as Kuroka and Rhea shared the same notion.

Naruto nodded with vigor and the girls squealed in happiness as did the kids and Raicho. After all, it was the weekend for the superhero.

An hour later, the family eagerly walked down the hill towards the cove before they boarded the now-clean ship.

It was called the Aquila and the former flagship of the American Brotherhood's navy during the Colonial and Post-Revolution era. According to the Codex, the ship was a two-mast brig of a warship with twenty-four cannons on the single gun deck and main deck. On the back of the ship was the helm along with two swivel guns on both sides. In the front was a naval ram to bash into ships at the time and the eagle figurehead for which its name derived from in Latin origins.

The ship's masts changed from the original white to vibrant red like the color of Naruto's mother, Kushina's hair. As for the hull, it was no longer a mix of light blue and gray but navy blue to match the sea's own natural beauty. Something that would have pleased Poseidon in the previous universe.

The ship was kept preserved in top-notch condition over the centuries by the American Brotherhood until the purge. Now it was theirs to use for their benefit as either heroes or a family.

The family explored the Aquila's interior and saw there was potential for the ship to be more than just a naval vessel. Ideas had popped in the Uzumaki sole male's mind, but he would have to find ways to get supplies discretely and someone to upgrade the ship without anyone tracing back to the Homestead.

For now, the ship would stay the way it is for now except for the Captain's Room that was underneath the helm that was on the upper deck. It was a rather large and spacious room with maps of the world through different time periods on one wall as a lone wide desk hugged against the opposite side with a lamp. A queen-size bed was placed in the center close to the rear doors of the aft as crimson and royal blue sheets covered it.

After the brief tour of the ship, Naruto summoned his clones to prepare the vessel for seafaring as the girls readied themselves for one great adventure in the ocean. Once everything was clear and ready, the clones dispersed and Naruto took the helm before steering the ship out of the cove and into the ocean.

It had taken several practices and near-misses of the shallow rocks, but the Uzumaki male member finally got the handle of ship-steering. There was also fact that Poseidon's power also implemented him knowledge of sailing and naval warfare along with terms and slang such as scuttle-bug which is U.S. Marine Corps word for gossip. At first he was surprised by his sudden familiarity of naval terms and handling.

"And we have liftoff!"

"Wrong analogy dear." Medusa teased the blonde as he chuckled in embarrassment. "That's for space." She got a confused look from Naruto. "What?"

Naruto asked with a curious tilt of his head. "How do you know that?"

"Kuroka and I watched 'Apollo 13' two weeks ago. Good movie." Medusa pointed at the Titaness who rocked Ashla in her arms. "Rhea suggested it to us."

Saeko and Rhea shared a laugh as they held the children in their arms until Naruto came over to them and held out his arms to carry them. A freshly-created clone took his place at the helm so they would enjoy their seafaring trip together. "Now let's have fun huh kids?" Naruto asked in baby-voice, much to his children's obvious delight at being held by him.

"And something else…." Rhea cut off purposely, catching Naruto and the twins' attention as she snapped her fingers.

Suddenly a large circular table appeared in the middle of the deck with multiple silver domes on top of it as chairs and baby chairs soon followed afterwards. But the real surprise was the huge cake in the center of the table with the words 'Happy Birthday Naruto and Kuroka' on top of it.

"M-my birthday." Naruto whispered in shock just like Kuroka as they snapped their heads at the smiling Rhea, Medusa and Saeko. "HOW DID YOU KNOW?!" The two demanded with inflated heads, much to the twins' amusement.

"You both talk in your sleep." The trio deadpanned at the now-bashful duo. "Why didn't you two tell us your birthdays were on October 3 and October 10?" asked Medusa with a tilt of her head.

Becoming more bashful, Naruto sheepishly chuckled "I forgot today was my birthday."

"Men." The entire girls stated with obvious stoic, much to Naruto's chargrin.

Rhea looked at Kuroka who had her right hand grasping her left arm. "Kuroka?"

"I…I haven't celebrated my birthday because I was on the run from the Underworld back then so I couldn't." Kuroka chuckled mirthfully. "Nobody cared about my life; they just wanted me dead." She felt a hand on her shoulder and found it belong to Saeko who embraced her in a hug a moment later.

"That's in the past now. You're here with us: your family." Saeko stated kindly as Kuroka looked at the smiling twins, Naruto, Rhea and Medusa before tears of joys filled her eyes as she returned the hug back.

Soon everyone joined in on the hug sans the clone and sat in their respective seats as the trio said, "Happy Birthday, Kuroka and Naruto!"

"BANZAI!" The entire Uzumaki Clan shouted with vigor as they celebrated the life of their two members on the vast open seas.

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(One Day Later)

Sea of Japan

Japan was known as the Land of the Rising Sun like the sun ascending over the east in a grand affair. The sea around the mentioned and technologically-sophisticated island country was riddled with thousands of natural islands filled with natural beauty and pristine wilderness untamed by mankind.

These islands had proven to be strategically valued by the military, both domestic and foreign parties. They also proved to be havens for the islanders who made them their homes away from main islands that currently make up Japan such as Kyushu, Hokkaido and lastly the biggest one, Honshu.

During the ancient times of Japan, war raged across the lands for purposes such as greed for power, bloodlust against one's enemies and tyranny. It was these attributes enhanced by the grief, rage and depression of those fallen, military or civilian, that gave rise to them.

The Yokai.

They fed on graves and anguish of the fallen over the centuries in Japan until the natives figured out ways to defeat them with the way of sword or the way of Onmyo magic. However, there were twelve samurais who grew to great prominence after learning their tutelage from one particular Onymo mage; Abe no Seimei.

Decades of fighting the several kinds of yokai that defined Japanese culture, Seimei and his allies, both his students and other allies of the land like the ninja Hanzo Hattori, pushed back them with the citizens of the ravaged land being safe and sound. However, Seimei knew that the yokai could return someday and so he had established a base of operations on the island where he had spent his summers with his father and mother, Kuzunoha.

This island became home to the Exorcists, successors to the Onmyo mages' ways and led by the descendants of Seimei's twelve allies excluding the former's own since his lineage sadly ended with no heirs. Over the centuries, the Exorcists' forces grew as more families learned their ways and increased their ranks from the original twelve to twenty-three while having the secret backing of the Imperial family.

However, the last family had died out in recent years as its last member was the unfortunate casualty in a battle between America's hero and villain in New York.

Now other forces are at hand with retrieving yokai to their forces. Their allies in America reported of miasma leaked out in a ship ported in New York before it had disappeared from their radar and they found no body of a yokai. Although, there was a sign of a yokai being in New York and he was staring at them.

The shadowed figure had his hands on his table with two white-stone horns on it as the sunlight lightly beamed into his personal office. "Who or what could have done this?" The man asked aloud as he inspected the horns more closely, specifically the cut into them.

The slash was clean and precise not unlike that of a master swordsman. Clearly someone in America was skilled with the sword to bring down a yokai but it was surprising that anyone, outside the Exorcists and other than the heroes and villains around the world, can defeat one let alone an Onryoki.

This certainly prompts an investigation for the sake of the island and the citizens and their way of life.

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(Two Weeks Later)

Boston, Massachusetts

Boston was still blanketed by the dense storms yet rainfall has not started their calming effect on the city or its people, which was good for the heroes as they were out patrolling.

Patronus ran across the rooftops along with his rotated partners not too far behind him given his speed. Upon landing on another building, he waited for his lovers to catch up to him and they did after landing besides him. It was Rhea and Medusa this time. As for why, one of them couldn't no longer wait for their individual turn and asked him to let her accompany him and the other this time to which he reluctantly gave his approval.

Rhea's robes consisted of a black tight long-sleeved body suit underneath her closed haori similar to Naruto's along with the beaked hood. The color of her robes was green with lines of illuminated gold around the sleeves and the hemline of the cloak as two black metal-plated bracers was visible around her arms. The emblazoned Uzumaki Clan swirl shined slightly despite the nightly darkness on her back as her folded Tessen was held by a custom-made holster attached to her purple belt in the middle of her lower back along with a pouch holding several different types of Poison Darts.

"Medusa are you okay?" Rhea asked to her friend who was panting slightly heavy.

They'd only been patrolling for two hours max but Medusa had expected this to happen compared to her first patrol. Her weapons training followed by constant exercises and training in the Homestead allowed her to keep up with Naruto and Rhea whose prowess obviously overshadows hers, Kuroka's and Saeko's own. Between those three, they're evenly matched with Saeko being slightly stronger than them in terms of skill.

"I'm fine." Medusa answered after inhaling a small amount of air.

The former priestess' robes resembled that of a kimono similar to Kuroka's however the color was reddish-orange like her hair and the added beaked hood as a purple body suit hugged her body underneath the modified Japanese clothing. It was held and fastened by a blue obi as her bow and quiver was attached to a strap over her shoulder along with her bokken. Strapped within her sleeves, Medusa also wielded Hidden Blades like Naruto and they too were crafted out of the Adamantine metal from the secret stash back in the Homestead.

At first Medusa was somewhat reluctant about wielding unknown weapons that Shigure-sensei never taught her but she remembered about the Kosaka Style, once mastered or with enough experience, allows the practitioner to use anything as a weapon with utmost proficiency.

After all, practice comes with experience and experience comes with mastery.

"You sure?" Naruto asked with concern as Medusa nodded.

With that concluded, the trio patrolled the streets of Boston until the signature sirens of the police caught their attention and changed their route to intercept the ongoing crime. They followed the squad cars in pursuit until it ceased before a jewelry store whose glass walls were riddled with small holes and its main doors were shut tight and barricaded with overturned tables and chairs along with barb wires and rope.

"Another robbery?" Naruto asked exasperatedly as Medusa and Rhea gave him confused looks. "Don't ask. Well at least it's a jewelry store this time." He was about to reach for his earbud until he remembered about Skye being unavailable due to working on new technology for them to use on the field. "Damn it. Guess we'll talk to the police."

"You think they'll let us help?" Rhea asked as Naruto shrugged his shoulders before he dived and landed behind one of the police cars whose radio band was set to maximum volume for all to hear including him.

="All nearby units, jewelry heist in progress within Ferryingway Park neighborhood."=

"Yes!" Patronus whispered loudly with a clenched fist.

"Huh?" The officer nearby asked as he looked at his brother in blue. "You say something?"

The partner shook his head. "No man," He answered before taking a bite out of his hot dog.

The apparent paranoid officer looked around the perimeter and the top of the vehicles in case someone was there, but none was there.

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Daily Bugle, Midtown Manhattan

Manhattan Island, New York City

"She knows."

Peter had been repeating those words ever since his aunt May told him that she knows about his superhero identity three days ago as he entered the elevator. Aunt May, his mother-figure from when he was a child after his parents died, revealed her knowledge after discovering his costume and his bloodied/bandaged form one night. The night when he defeated Morlun at the power plant.

The disguised superhero wondered why she knew until he remembered that his Spider-Sense doesn't alert him of dangers, even if they were friends or family, if he was completely exhausted and its effect would be greatly weakened at the time until his body recuperates.

Since the encounter, Peter and his aunt had been a little distanced from each other, especially May. She wanted more time to adjust to her nephew being the superhero, Spider-Man, and recalled the numerous times where Peter disappeared and Spider-Man arrived at the scenes of various crimes.

Feeling the elevator stopped with a small jolt, Peter stepped out of the machine when the doors opened and was bombarded by symphonies of ringing phones and overlapping voices. He shuffled and side-stepped his way towards the offices at the back of the room.

In front of said room was a desk of an assistant whose beauty made her stood out in the room. "Hello Betty." Peter greeted as usual, gaining her attention.

Betty Allan was a woman in her late twenties with short brown hair in a bob-cut style and slightly tanned skin along with a silver band on her left ring finger. She was dressed in a gray business sleeveless blouse with a long skirt that stopped at her knees and a pair of golden earrings.

Betty gave him a smile in return. "Peter, how are you today?"

"*Chuckle* I've been better. How about you?"

"Fine, fine. Usual as ever." Betty responded with a wink. "How's Mary Jane?"

Peter froze slightly before answering with a small frown, "She's still in Los Angeles but fine. After what she's been through, I don't blame her."

His wife, Mary Jane Watson-Parker, was kidnapped by a deranged fan who orchestrated her death for months. Peter grieved but nevertheless he believed that she never died and searched for her until she was brought back home safely. However, the experience plus the added stress of his superhero duties on their marriage pushed Mary Jane to take a break between them until she's ready.

That was six months ago and yet no contact from her at all. No phone call, email, or Facebook messages. Just nothing.

"…It sounds like she blames you." Betty said with a frown, surprising her long-time colleague and best friend.

"What?"

"Given the circumstances of her leaving and our past discussions, Mary Jane blamed you for what happened to her. That's why she left." Betty clarified her reason for saying so, even it hurts Peter. "And I don't think that's right. You didn't do anything."

"If only you knew Betty." Peter thought internally. "I see. Thanks Betty. I—"

"PARKER, GET IN HERE!"

The duo looked back at the office where the voice came from and chuckled at each other. "Good talking to you, Betty. See you around."

"You too."

Peter bid her adieu and entered his boss's office where he was met with a man in his early forties. His short black hair had sides of white as his mustache slightly curled in his usual boisterous demeanor while his wrinkled suit showed the tireless working side of his job. This is Jonah Jameson, the editor and owner of the Daily Bugle.

"You called J.J.?"

"Did you get those pictures of Spider-Man?" Jonah demanded to his freelancer photographer who handed him the photos as he soon sorted through them. "Crap." He put one photo down. "Crap." He put another photo before looking at the final one. "Mega crap. I'll give $75 for all of them."

"$100."

"…$95." Jonah renegotiated as they entered another battle for the value of the photos.

"$99."

"…Fine I'll give you $110 for them."

"Deal." Peter quickly agreed as he was about to talk to Betty for his payment, but a hand from Jonah stopped him. "Is there something else?"

"Yes." Jonah said rather calmly this time as he rose up from his seat and faced the windows. "An assignment. It's in Boston."

Peter raised a brow when he mentioned the city. "What's in Boston?"

"Who's in Boston is the question." Jonah turned to face the younger photographer. "There is a new hero over there. Paternity something."

"I believe his name is Patronus." Peter stifled a giggle at the wrong name to avoid being chewed out. "What do you want with him?"

"*Scoff*What do you think?" Jonah asked in his usual angry self. "I want you to take photos of that fraud committing crimes in Boston. Also I heard there were several reports of lizards terrorizing the city just now from a colleague of mine."

"He has a colleague? That's new." Peter thought before he played back Jonah's words. "Wait, he wants Patronus in trouble too. As much as I want that rookie to pay for what he did to me, this isn't fair to Patronus. I should just decline—"

"There will be an extra $400 if you say yes."

"I'm going to Boston!" Peter shouted as he ran out of the building. "Sorry morals, but papa needs money to pay for his bills!" He was so engrossed about paying back Patronus some sweet revenge that he hadn't really paid attention about the lizards running around Boston.

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Landing on top of a thug when he wasn't looking, Patronus knocked him out with a punch while Gemma no Heiki and Terra attacked the retreating men. Gemma was Latin for 'Beauty' and Heiki as Japanese for 'Weapons' thus came the birth of Medusa's alter.

As for Rhea, her name was Terra after her mother's Roman form.

Terra blindsided her thug with her closed Tessen to the face before sweeping his legs, knocking him to the ground as she proceeded to her latest victim. He, for the chance of hurting her, drew his gun at Terra but she countered it by slashing her open Tessen and cutting the barrel off.

"Ah!" The thug shouted in pain after being hit by an uppercut, landing in a heap.

Seeing Terra take down her batch of criminals, Gemma lowered her stance to dodge two sadly-executed punches and slammed the dull side of her bokken against the criminals with two quick strikes to the head. The men soon fell unconscious on their backs as their weapons followed afterwards.

"Come on, come on, we got to go!" One of the thugs shouted to his remaining colleagues to enter their car. Before they could escape, Patronus landed in front of the vehicle and smashed his wind chakra-coated fist through the hood and into the engine as the car died moments later. "UH…we surrender?" He asked hopefully as he and his colleagues had their arms up.

"Good choice."

After leaving an anonymous tip to the Boston PD dispatch, the Uzumaki trio watched the police squad cars drive away with the handcuffed criminals and the jewelry confiscated as evidence against them before leaving to patrol more of the city.

As Naruto landed on another building, Rhea and Medusa followed behind him while talking like it was nothing.

"Nothing beats spending time with loved ones, huh, Terra?" asked Gemma, only to get no answer from her. "Terra?"

"…This was supposed to be me and Patronus alone, Gemma." Terra finally answered rather tersely, much to Medusa's surprise.

The former priestess's mouth mimicked a fish's when she realized the reason to Rhea's rather unusual displeased tone. It was her. "Sorry."

"Why?" Terra asked in a pleading tone this time. "It was going so well. Couldn't you wait for your turn tomorrow?"

Originally Medusa's patrol with Naruto was tomorrow but she had been rather less optimistic since her rotation was considered to be last in the rotation. "Sorry." She apologized sheepishly while her hand rubbed the back of her hood.

"I mean we all have to abide by the rules the four of us created and you just went against it." Rhea scolded the younger female. "And you used your 'cute girl' eyes on Naruto to make him say yes."

Medusa pursed her lips together with puffed cheeks. "Again, I'm sorry~"

"And for that, you'll get your allowance cut in for the next month." Rhea stated firmly, much to Medusa's shock as she lost her composure in mid-air towards the next building. Naruto heard the 'gawking' sound and looked back to see Rhea landing behind him while Medusa had just grabbed onto the ledge before she pulled herself over it.

"You girls okay?"

The two immortals shared looks before answering, "Yes." Rhea said casually while Medusa was downtrodden about her near-death experience.

Naruto raised a brow before shrugging his shoulders. "Okay then. Let's go girls." He resumed patrolling with Rhea and Medusa until a phone booth rang nearby them, alerting the trio. "Is that for us?" The blonde asked the duo.

The girls looked around and saw no one nearby the booth, so it must be for them. How does someone know where they were, that question was in their mind until Naruto realized one person who would do something like this. It was one of his contingency plans in case they lost contact.

Naruto landed in front of the phone booth and answered it. "Hello Skye."

="Patronus, why in the hell haven't you contacted me?!"= The hooded ninja held the phone away from his head in response to the shouting. ="Are you ignoring me now?!"=

"I'm tempted right now." Patronus responded in an annoyed tone, gaining a 'gawk' sound from the hacker. "You called for something, Skye. What happened?"

="It's better to show you and your friends. Meet me at the abandoned Boston Theater Group in Chinatown."=

After hanging up the phone, Patronus informed his cohorts about Skye before they headed to their new destination in Chinatown. Upon arriving to their location, they found a rather worn out theater building with big red emboldened words 'Boston Theater Group' before entering through the rooftop's door and walking down the stairs until they came across a steel dual-paneled doors.

The trio shared looks within their hoods before Naruto knocked on it with hard taps as the doors opened via sliding motion away from each other, revealing technology of different kinds with Skye sitting in the center of the room with a table in front of her. The room was mildly dimmed as a computer sat on the table while the hacker was typing casually the information.

"Patronus and friends, welcome to the base." Skye greeted without facing them as they entered the room. "We got a live one here in Boston."

"How long have you doing this?" Patronus asked curiously after inspecting the room.

Terra stepped closer to Skye and leaned to see the computer. "What do you mean by that?"

The projection system was attached to the ceiling as different images of a shadowed creature in several locations throughout Boston were displayed on the wall for them all to see.

"We got the crocodile on the loose."

"Come again?" Both Patronus and Gemma asked for their confused notions.

Skye sighed as she pressed a key before various calls played through the projector's sound system. "Apparently, there were calls about a reptilian-type creature running around the streets for the last half-hour." She pressed another key to bring up a particular photo of a sophisticated building on the projection screen. "The big and scaly trashed the Horizon Labs' branch here in Boston."

"Was something stolen?" Gemma asked for the obvious.

"Not much; just a few processors, one scoping mechanism and…" Skye paused as her eyes scrolled down the report. "Oh, that's not good."

Patronus turned away from the projection screen to face the hacker. "What?"

"Some sort of chemical that has modified reptilian DNA." Skye answered finally after some time.

The Uzumaki trio shared looks with each other before Patronus asked, "Why? What for—Wait, what can it do actually?"

"No idea since the scientists actually didn't save their work in computer files. Smart for them but not good for us."

Rhea chuckled at the very young mortal's frustration with crossed arms. It was always amusing to see young mortals express their emotions about various things. "There, there Skye. No need to be yourself about it."

"I'm not." Skye responded hastily before she finally realized the hooded people. "Wait, who are you two?"

"You're asking that now?" Patronus asked with a chuckle.

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Boston's Train Station

The screeching stop of Boston's underground train echoed as it unloaded its passengers while allowing new ones to enter for their next destination wherever they may be. One particular passenger stopped at the front of the station and glanced around his surroundings while taking a sniff of the air around him.

"The Boston air…New York has cleaner air than this." Peter teased as he walked to an alley far away from the station's cameras and wondering eyes. Minutes later, he swung out of there clad in his red and blue costume and drew the attention of ecstatic children who happened to see him.

"Now to make my mo—Find Patronus."

Spider-Man continued to swing around the city, hoping to run into the Bostonian hero and make easy money off of him.

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Underground Tunnels and Sewers

"Ew!"

"Bear with it, Gemma."

"Says you, Patronus!" The disguised Medusa pouted with flailing arms as they traversed through the smelly atmosphere of everyday waste. "You're not the one who has to wash our uniforms!"

Terra placed a hand on Gemma's shoulder to soothe her emotions. "Calm down, Gemma." She said motherly-like, calming the younger immortal beauty. "Besides it's Patronus' turn to wash them tonight."

"Say what now?!" Patronus exclaimed after he snapped his head at the girls. "No fair!"

="Should I even ask?"= Skye's voice spoke through the trio's earbuds.

The hacker fixed Naruto's earbud and had built two additional earbuds as spares, but after finding out that there were five of them in total, Skye lamented to the idea of spending an entire Saturday to make two more. For now, three is all they got and perfect for them.

"Not really." The trio chorused together as they stopped in front of a wall that stood in their way. "Oh dear." Terra stated after seeing it. "A dead-end it seems."

="That's weird. The semantics shows there was an door that connected to an old hallway that leads to the pumping stations nearby."=

Patronus placed his hand on the wall and felt it different than the rest of the structure. "Weak. It's weak and…I think I can break through it."

="How? You'd need an controlled explosion to blast through that."=

"Everything has a weak point, Skye." The disguised ninja answered while feeling out for the said point until his hand stopped. Naruto brought his hand back and clenched it into a fist before it swung forward and struck the weakened wall. After pulling back his limb, Patronus and his party watched as the wall fractured before it shattered into nothing but rubble, revealing a web cob-filled hallway in front of them. "There we go."

="What did you do?"=

"Secret~"

="Hooded jerk."=

The trio shared laughs against the hacker as they walked through the cavern-like hallway, down a flight of stairs and to the other side of the segment until they heard voices coming through one of the vents.

"Let me go!"

"But father, we must return you to health. We must have you backkkk."

"No! I won't be that thing again!" The man's voice shouted through the acoustics of the halls.

Patronus, Gemma and Terra followed the route that the sole male chose via his Kitsune Sense as there was invisible goo on the floor and into a large vent that was large enough for them to crawl through. Only Naruto could see them so he had the lead as they silently approached the room.

Water flowed through the room underneath the podium where high-tech equipment was scattered around, but the real attention-getter was stationed in the center of the room. Three reptilian-like creatures stood as though they were humans with scaly skin and fanged teeth. Their eyes were slit with elongated snouts like a lizard as their clawed hands and feet tapped the ground repeatedly. Attached to their bottoms were strong-looking tails as they were stubbed and powerful.

Strapped to a chair was their prisoner and according to them, their 'father' as a device was pointed at him. It was a fair-skinned man in his late-twenties with short brown hair as he wore a white lab coat over with the right sleeve torn up and his right arm completely missing.

"Let me go!"

"Not until we have you back, father." The female purple lizard humanoid responded as she attempted to hug the man, only for him to lean his head away. "And only after we get rid of your human side."

"NO!"

="I think that's our cue."=

"Girls, let's go." Patronus informed the girls before they burst into the room, surprising the lizards. "Hello there!"

"Humans!"

"Don't let them near Father!" The light green-scaled lizard humanoid ordered before he and his brethren charged at the intruders.

Patronus smirked as he jumped over the first lizard's charge and kicked him hard in the back that sent him against the wall. "That was easy." He said with a scratch of his cheek, sweat-dropping at his casual success. "At least put more of a fight, guys."

After seeing him defeat his foe already, Gemma faced her lizard and held her bow and arrow at the ready before she fired it at the knees with the hopes to wound them, however it didn't go the way she intended. The female lizard shrugged off the arrow after it failed to penetrate its scaly skin like it was armor.

"Damn it." The hooded Medusa cursed as she rolled under several claw swipes before drawing her bokken, holding it in mid-stance. "Time for the big guns I suppose."

"Foolish humans, we are the superior beings. Your race's time has come!" The male lizard-humanoid declared before charging towards his next meal, its maw wide open and arms.

Hiding a smile underneath her hood, Gemma charged towards the lizard as well and dodged the claws before she pivoted around to the creature's back. "Kosaka Slash!" She shouted before swinging her bokken with full force.

The lizard companion stood there in shock as the strikes were invisible to his eyes but he felt the blows all over his body until they ceased after Gemma took her distance away from him. Chuckling of his superiority, the humanoid lizard took a couple steps before fatigue washed over him and he fell flat on his scaly face.

"What?! How?!"

"If I had a real sword, you wouldn't have your limbs by now." Gemma stated factly, surprising her downed opponent even more.

Lastly, Terra dodged several claws from the only conscious lizard humanoid before she jumped over a tail swipe aimed at her torso. Spinning around in mid-air, Terra slammed her closed dual Tessen at the lizard's forehead from both sides. "Furinji Style: Ni Tessen Strikes!"

His legs shook from the unexpected strength of the assumed human and fell to all fours as he tried to stabilize his bearings. He was about to fight back when Terra grabbed his tail and swung him around several times over before letting go of her grip.

Naruto cringed when the last of the lizards crashed against a wall. "Ouch." His eyes glanced over to the Titaness. "Nice use of that technique, Terra. Came up with it on the spot?"

"Yep." Terra answered with pride and a thumbs-up pointed at the blonde.

"You too, Gemma. Nice work." Patronus said with a smile, much to her nervousness.

After said and done, the trio walked to the scared hostage until Naruto calmed him down. "Easy, easy. We're here to help you…"

"Connors. Curt Connors." The man finally spoke after sensing no ill will from the hooded people. Patronus cut his binds with his Hidden Blade before retracting it back into his sleeve. "Thank you. Thank you!" Curt thanked the trio as he stood up from the chair.

However, during his entire time being cast in fear, Connors failed to notice the discreetly-placed IVs injected into his arms and the back of his legs until he felt a rush of liquid entered his system followed by a sudden jolt of electricity.

"AAGGGGHHHHH!"

Patronus took a step back in surprise. "Connors!"

"What happened?" Terra asked from behind her lover along with Gemma.

The screaming Connors held his head with both hands as he flailed around, knocking down the roller table and dragging down the machine whose cords became tangled on his body. The screams turned from normal to guttural like a frog until the slight hissing of a lizard replaced as the superior tone while his body convulsed to bigger height and muscle tone.

"I think we're up for a surprise."

The right arm of Connors regenerated from within the sleeve and it was green instead of fair, possessing claws like the other lizard humanoids as a liquid fell off the claws. His face became scaly as his eyes turned red from brown and pupils changed into slits while his mouth and nose 'stretched' forward. Sharp teeth sprang from the upper and lower sides of its maw as a thick tongue licked them slowly.

Despite all that, Naruto and company found their attention drawn to the large, swerving segmented tail attached to his back.

The transformed Connors studied his arms before raising them high in the air. "I'M FREEEEE!"

"Well things just got interesting." Patronus muttered loudly for Gemma and Terra to hear. "So…" He paused to catch Connors' attention. "What do we call you?"

The humanoid creature glanced at the trio before it grabbed the machine from above him and a device off the ground with his tail. "I. AM. THE LIZARD!" The Lizard shouted with vigor before he threw the device at the ceiling above them.

Naruto's eyes widened when his senses blared and he turned around to grab both Terra and Gemma in his brace as he summoned a swirling mass of wind around them. The Lizard didn't paid no mind to the spectacle as he escaped along with his brethren who too escaped just in time.

Now their adversaries were crushed beneath the rubble of their graves, they could proceed with their plan to turn the human race into a superior race.

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Above Ground

"Holy Cannoli." Spider-Man said after hearing the explosion moments ago as he saw smoke erupted in a distance. The explosion was loud since he heard it from four neighborhood blocks away while web-swinging across the city, looking for the resident hero of Boston. "What could've caused that?"

The only choice at hand he had was to head over there and investigates the scene from the shadows, of course. He can't have everyone thinking Spider-Man's new home was Boston. His reputation was already smeared thanks to his jerk of a boss, Jameson, and he doesn't want to be seen as a ditcher by his fellow New Yorkers.

"Perhaps Patronus will be there." Peter said hopefully with a smug smirk underneath his mask as he fired another web line and pulled onto it, changing his direction towards the smoke-covered part of Boston's landscape.

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Underground Sewers, Lizard's Hideout

For normal people, being crushed by tons of debris and rubble would mean instant death except they survived due to pure luck. For people like the current Uzumaki Clan members, they have a different set of luck going for them—one of which was a favorable type of elemental ninjutsu to the blonde male.

The entire hideout was covered with tons of bone-crushing debris except for the spot in particular—the spot where Naruto and company were supposedly trampled.

A swirling wall of wind spun around in a dome-like sphere until it dissipated, revealing Naruto holding Rhea and Medusa in his brace. Finally he looked at them with concern present on his face. "Are you two okay?" He asked as he held their faces.

Smiling at his caring nature towards them, Rhea removed his hood after undoing her own and kissed his cheek. "We are now thanks to you."

Undoing her own hood, Medusa kissed Naruto's other cheek as well. "You are our husband after all. You're supposed to protect us." She smiled at the flustered blonde in front of them.

"I-I…Of course it is!" Naruto stuttered a bit before looking away from his wives. "You two are just…I don't know." He said before giving up a rebuttal.

The trio stood up and surveyed the scene around them before Naruto pressed the earbud. "Skye, can you hear me?"

*Static Crackling*

"Nothing." Naruto said as he looked at Rhea and Medusa who were doing the same thing. "How about you girls? Any luck?" Their heads shook as a response to him. "Well, that's good and bad."

"Why's that?" Medusa asked.

"For the good part: she didn't hear the part of us being husband/wives and I'd like to keep that between our family." Naruto turned around and winked at the girls. "As for the bad part, we can't communicate with Skye about Connors and his lizard friends unless we get back to the surface."

"Then we should get going."

With their notion agreed, the trio made their way through the hallway they entered before and turned several corners until they came across a heap of rubble that was blocking their exit to the surface. "Great. Girls, step back." The girls complied with a couple steps as Naruto formed a Rasengan before he slammed it through the rubble, easily plowing through them.

They made it out of the stairs and gathered at the nearest tallest building to try to communicate with Skye. And boy did they get a calling from her.

="How are you guys?! Is everyone okay and alive?!"=

"Yes, yes, we're fine Skye." Terra answered soothingly, calming the voice in their ears. "But we have a problem."

="You mean the quartet of super-strong humanoid lizards running around and causing chaos? Yeah, the whole city knows now."= The trio shared looks with each other before they ran across rooftops in search for the lizards. ="The last know location was near Horizon Labs."=

"Wasn't that the building robbed earlier tonight?" Gemma asked aloud for clarification. She got a yes from the hacker. "Why would they risk going back there?"

It was Naruto who answered this time. "Perhaps they don't expect the police to know they were going back there. It's like hiding in plain sight." Patronus spoke, getting nods from his companions. "Skye, can you contact Boston PD and let them know about the danger?"

="Got it."=

Putting her finger on the earbud, Terra spoke to the technical expert. "Skye, you have access to the city's camera system, right." She stated rather than asking as Skye confirmed her answer. "Do you have eyes on our lizard friends?"

="Hold on… Yes, I do by hacking into Horizon Labs' camera systems. It's a mess, guys. You should head there now."=

"On it." Gemma said finally as they made their way to the labs.

="And there's something else you should know, Patronus."=

"What?"

="We have a guest in our city."=

"Who?"

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Horizon Labs, Downtown Boston

Upon arriving in front of the shattered doors of the esteemed research institution, Spider-Man cautiously entered the building as he surveyed the layout around him. Several claw marks were present on the walls with overturned tables and desks along dead bodyguards who laid on pools of their own blood. Those pools had merged into one big one in the center of the lobby after some time.

At first he thought that this was about some lizard humanoids who tried to have their time in the villain spotlight, but when the bodies of innocent people laid in front of him, his attitude changed to that of a seasoned superhero.

Hearing the crash noise from the upper levels, Spider-Man fired a web line to the possible highest level and pulled himself up easily to that particular level before firing another web line to what's likely to be the research labs.

"What do they want with the labs?" He whispered so the lizards couldn't hear him with their heightened hearing after taking to wall-crawl the ceiling to avoid the broken glass on the floor.

"Careful with that formula! One mistake and this entire floor would be gone including us."

Spider-Man paused after he heard the voice. He heard it many times before in his career. It was Connors. Why was he here? Who forced him to take on his Lizard persona? Many other questions filled his head but he soon erased them since he has a job to do.

Beat the lizards and save Connors from his alter ego.

"Sorry, father. It won't happen."

"Father? Did The Lizard have a rabbit session with an unlucky iguana?" Spider-Man tried to lighten the mood, but quickly cursed himself for the bad joke. "That was a really bad joke."

"I agree." A familiar voice whispered from behind him.

It took him all of his self-control not to react with a punch to the face of the one who can completely irk him with a single word or sentence after one night in New York.

Slowly facing down at the normal ground level, Spider-Man saw the familiar hooded figure, Patronus, accompanied by two similarly-clothed heroes behind him.

"Patronus…"

"Spidey." Naruto said as the girls stared at the wall-crawler in awe. He couldn't blame their reactions since he too had the same expression back in New York. There was no Chakra in this world and yet Spider-Man can walk on walls like he could sans chakra usage. "What are you doing here?"

The arachnid-themed superhero looked to his right and left before he looked back at him. "Sightseeing. What about you?" He asked back weakly.

"Here for the tour." Patronus joked back before he gestured at his companions. "Spidey, Gemma and Terra. Girls, meet Spider-Man."

Gemma nodded her head a moment after getting over her shock. "Hello."

"Greetings, Spider-Man." Terra greeted the veteran hero soothingly, slightly giggled at Spider-Man's loss of words.

"R-right."

With the greetings out of the way, the quartet of superheroes continued their trek to the lab where the noise originated and came across a particular lab as the entrance forked to right and left. Patronus stopped suddenly, prompting everyone to do the same as well.

He made a sign towards the left and Gemma and Terra silently ran up that way while Patronus and Spider-Man took the opposite route. The male duo made their way to the balcony where they found their targets salvaging equipment and bringing them to the transformed Connors who looked busy with something.

"Hurry with the chemicals! The reaction is close to perfection now." The Lizard commanded loudly as his scaled claws scrambled with utmost precision seen only by those with experience.

One of his 'children' nodded as he bowed with great respect. "Of course, father."

Doing a sweeping glance around the tightly cramped lab, Patronus noticed Gemma and Terra on the opposite side in ground level exactly behind two of the lizard enemies. He looked at Spider-Man and pointed between Connors and the third compatriot, which a nod came from the web-slinger.

Raising his hand barely above the railing, Patronus held three fingers before he counted it down.

Three…

Spider-Man clenched his fists while Gemma brandished her bokken near her.

Two…

Terra brought her Tessens out and readied for combat.

One…

The Lizard and his compatriots didn't know what happened to them as they were all blindsided at the same time. Gemma and Terra struck the closest hostiles with quick and strong strikes with their weapons respectively while Patronus landed on the third one's back before he knocked him out with an elbow strike to the neck.

As for Spider-Man, while in mid-air, fired a web-line to a wall and used the momentum to swing towards Connors and kicked him squarely on his back, sending the transformed human against the wall and over the table he was working on.

"Give it up, Lizard! You can stop this." Spider-Man pleaded with the Lizard, hoping to get through to Connors within.

His alter ego however wasn't about to let that weakling to return to control. His body was his!

"Connors is gone, Spider-Man!" The Lizard shouted with a swipe of his free arm. He stood up from his previous position with his arms spread out occupied by the device in the right limb. "Today's the day the Lizardkind replaces mankind as the dominant species! With this device, I shall—"

His dialogue stopped once his slitted eyes caught the attention of his empty hand.

"You mean this?" Patronus asked as he held the assuming dangerous device. "Yeah, that's not going to happen."

The tied up humanoid, Lizard and Spider-Man stared at him with shock as Patronus threw the device up-and-down like a toy. Despite their superhuman abilities including enhanced perception, neither Spider-Man nor the Lizard saw him move at all!

"Connors…" Patronus called out, surprising Spider-Man even more which he caught with the corner of his eye. "Do you have a family?"

The Lizard's fangs protruded from its jaws at the mention of the family. "That is none of your business, Human." He snarled at the hooded hero, his eye directly focused on the device in his possession.

What he didn't know was that his eyes briefly flickered between brown and red.

The heroes in front of him did however and knew that he was on the right path to reaching Connors.

"Connors—Lizard…" Patronus corrected himself to calm the already angered Lizard. "Does this plan of yours include wiping out your family as well?" The slight widening of the eyes told him of his sympathy for his family. "Do you plan to start another family once mankind is gone?"

His eyes changed to normal as he lashed out. "No! Absolutely not!" Connors shouted as he gripped his head with his clawed hands, groaning and screaming as the two sides fought for control.

"Father! Don't let your human side best you!" One of the lizards shouted for support of their creator/father.

Choosing to ignore them and instead following Patronus's lead, Spider-Man cautiously took a step forward to the Lizard. "Dr. Connors, your wife and son…Do you think they deserve this?" He asked the struggling Connors. "Do not let him control you."

"Instead accept him." Everyone including Gemma and Terra stared at Patronus after hearing those words. "It's like that saying: 'Two sides of the same coin'. One cannot exist without the other half." Patronus held a fist and clenched it tightly. "I myself had a somewhat experience with this. I grew up with the knowledge of not being normal and honestly I hated the world even if I didn't know it at the time. Eventually I came to accept all parts of me and I became a better and stronger person because of it."

He didn't need to see or hear Kurama smiling at him for his words. Ever since they became comrades, the Tailed Beast and Jinchuriki were a fearsome duo and that was without the aid of Ashura.

"Connors…Lizard…" Patronus calmingly said to the transformed human. "You two…There is no reason to fight each other."

"Father look out!"

But the Lizard couldn't react in time as he was assaulted from behind and stumbled forward but didn't fall. The towering enemy raised his head just in time to receive dual uppercuts from both Spider-Man and Patronus as he fell on his back, unmoving from his current stationery position.

Staring down at his unconscious friend and ally, Spider-Man then directed his gaze at the one who blindsided Connors. It was yet another person clad in similar clothing to Patronus and his companions' own except the color was orange.

"How many of you are there?" Spider-Man asked curiously with his gaze at Patronus.

The hooded ninja gave him the peace sign. "That's a secret, Spidey." He walked to the unconscious Lizard who began to transform back to his human form, even his right arm disintegrated afterwards.

"Tch!" Spider-Man clicked his tongue as Gemma placed a finger on her earbud to inform Skye about calling the police.

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Half an hour later, the police arrived and took the arrested three lizards to custody as Patronus was talking with the arresting officer.

"Hell of a mess, Patronus." The arresting officer informed the hero while the numerous body bags were loaded onto the vans.

Patronus let out a heavy sigh as the vans left moments later. "No kidding, Sergeant." During his time in Boston, he talked with the Boston PD members and learned about their ranking system similar to his world's ranking system although they have different titles and such. "If only I was faster to get here."

"We can't save them all, Patronus." The sergeant said with a heavy heart.

"Isn't that the sad truth?"

The sergeant ranking hero was surprised by the hero's humble nature ever since his debut months ago. There were reports from several officers in different precincts including his own that he was seen sighted at several crime scenes yet he did not intervene like the recent bank robbery earlier the night.

Instead he allowed the officers to do their jobs; what they were trained to do. Uphold the law and protect the civilians. He believed in them and their abilities.

"Stay safe, Patronus."

"You too, Sergeant." Patronus bid his farewell before he ran towards the nearby building and climbed it effortlessly as the sergeant and his men watched him disappear on the rooftop.

The ninja met up with Gemma, Terra, the secret clone and Spider-Man near Boston's Fenway Park as the loudening cheers could be heard from their location. Behind Spider-Man was a sleeping clothed Connors on a chair. Apparently, Spider-Man and Connors know each other with several tussles under their belts although it wasn't by the latter's choice.

"Take care of him, Spider-Man."

"I will… and thanks." The arachnid-themed hero reluctantly stated before he hoisted Connors on his back and web-swing towards the nearest subway station for a trip back to New York. "And I forgot the pictures!" He cried under his mask while bidding farewell to his next paycheck.

After the webslinger was far away, Naruto's clone dispersed itself as the trio sighed loudly from one heck of a night. "I need a shower~" Medusa stated as she stretched her back and arms at the same time.

"Me too." Rhea agreed as she grunted after her legs popped into place. She looked at Naruto who was staring out at the distance. "Patronus, are you coming?"

"…Yeah. I'm coming." Patronus finally spoke as he and the girls ran to the nearest vanguard back home.

If he had told the girls that they were being watched by an unknown party, it would have cause them to worry about or probably fight said anomaly however it wasn't the case. His Kitsune Sense already amplified by Kurama's inherent sense told him about the person's emotions and aura bordering on neutral deadpan.

There was also the possibility about the unknown hiding his true intent since the Kitsune Sense is not perfect. After all, it was modeled after the Assassins' Eagle Sense and speaking of said ability, Naruto had read about it in the Codex and learned that original user of the Eagle Sense was the younger brother who founded the Brotherhood centuries ago.

It had mentioned that during the decades-long war between his order and his brother's army, he had encountered an eagle-like being who was touched by his noble efforts to protect mankind's free will. This said being was also someone the brother—dubbed The First One—met before and in honor to the debt the being owed to him, the eagle gave him and his followers the ability to see, hear and smell far beyond normal humans can do.

Thus, Eagle Vision was born though it was not named until the time of Altair Ibn-La'Ahad who was noted as one of the most prolific Assassins in the Brotherhood's entire history.

Back to his current train of thought, even if that person wanted to go after them, Naruto had plenty of various escape routes to go to and misdirection plans meant to distract them.

And that includes small but quick little rascals following them.

Grabbing a considerable amount by his admission, Naruto threw a boatload of smoke pellets on the last building after they jumped to the next one as he grabbed the girls by the waist and Hirashined back to the Homestead by the blanket of the huge smoke cloud that covered their escape.

As soon as the obstacle of a smoke cloud dissipated, three creatures stopped at the edge of the rooftop and searched for any sign of their target. They were little, had stubby arms and legs with pointy ears and long hair shaped like an arrow. The only difference between them was their colors: blue, red and green.

The three creatures' ears drooped lowly as if they were saddened by their failed job until a hand patted all three of them together, looking up at the one that it belonged to as he smiled at them.

"Don't worry about it, you three. He was just that good." Their master spoke for the first time, his smile still present. "I'd expect nothing less from Boston's own hero." Not to mention that he was the one who defeated the Onryoki yokai back in New York.

Their covert investigation unit discovered not only the miasma that all Yokai exert at times but also very small and potent traces of a powerful energy source unknown to them. With the help of their base in New York, the trail led him here in Boston. However, he has his work cut out for him since his methods can't pinpoint the location of the one.

He was hoping to run into Patronus and ask him for aid to find the person responsible, but alas he took off with his companions and disappeared into nowhere.

"Now we wait until he comes to us." The cloaked person said cheerily as his small companions took refuge within his pockets. "I better call Benio and tell her the news about seeing Boston's hero. Well sort of…Not really." He sighed loudly as his body leaned forward in exasperation. "What's good to eat around here?"