Chapter 15

Leaving Victor unconscious once again, Naruto went to a much more comfortable room where he had placed Jason.

The young man of just 18 was asleep on the bed, forced into unconsciousness by the seals on his skin. He was a muscular man wearing a black suit with a red hood and a brown leather jacket. He had multiple guns on hand and other weapons.

Naruto took a seat as he gathered his thoughts about his target. He had already read the memories and was going through them properly.

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Jason Todd was the son of Catherine Elizabeth and Willis Todd and was conceived unexpectedly in an alleyway.

Jason had a troubled childhood due to his parents constantly arguing; his mother suffered from depression and drug addiction, and his father had been "showing him the ropes of thievery and conning" at a young age, which led him into trouble.

Once when he was a child, Jason's father stole tickets to Haly's Circus from an old couple in a parking lot and took Jason to see the show. That was the first time Jason ever saw Dick Grayson, and was positively awed by him.

When Bruce Wayne returned to Gotham and began his career as Batman, one of his first missions was stopping a group of masked criminals called the Red Hood Gang, lead by Red Hood One. Following this, Batman would battle the Riddler, in a confrontation that lead to all of Gotham City's power being shut off right before a massive hurricane, crippling the city in what would be known as the "Zero Year".

Jason Todd, a teenager at the time struggling to support his drug-addicted mother in Gotham's Park Row, fought for survival as Gotham went feral. When Jason's best friend Chris gave him the mask of a deceased Red Hood Gang member to join in the gang's revival and become who he wanted to be, Jason agreed, giving himself the name "Red Hood Four".

On the night of the gang's revival, Jason, wanting to be a hero, tried to stop a fight between some gang members and a mysterious woman named Talia al Ghul, who was investigating the Red Hood Gang. Jason earned Talia's respect and managed to impress her further by perfectly performing a fighting move invented by the All-Caste that even she couldn't master. Despite Jason's desire for peace, Talia murdered the leader of the Red Hood Gang revival and, when she returned to her father Ra's al Ghul, expressed interested in keeping an eye on Jason Todd in the future.

Someone else keeping an eye on Jason, unbeknownst to him, was the original Red Hood One - the man who had recently fallen into a vat of acid at Ace Chemical Processing Plant and would take the name Joker. Seeing Jason's prowess, Joker began orchestrating events in Jason's life to lead him to becoming Batman's sidekick - so that he could then kill him to hurt Batman. The Joker caused Jason's father to wind up in prison, where he would apparently die, and faked Jason's mother death with a non-lethal poison to make it look like she died of an overdose. Jason, thinking he was an orphan, was forced into stealing to survive.

When Jason was sixteen, he made an attempt to steal the tires off the Batmobile, managing to get one off before being discovered by Batman. Expecting to be beaten for his crime, Jason was surprised to be offered food instead. He and Batman talked while eating, and Batman told him that sometimes if you gave people a chance, they might surprise you. Jason would take these words to heart, even years later.

Batman attempted to help Jason by getting him settled in Ma Gunn's School for Wayward Boys, not knowing that the establishment was a front for training the children to be criminals. Despite this, Jason did see the place as a home for a while. Realizing his mistake though, Batman went to rescue him and Jason aided the hero by shoving Ma Gunn out a nearby window. Sometime after this, Batman decided to take Jason in personally and train him to be the new Robin after his first one had graduated to a new title, which Jason took too enthusiastically.

After six months of intensive training, Jason was out in the field as the second Boy Wonder. Jason was determined to live up to the legacy of Robin that Dick Grayson had put in place, but it soon became apparent that Jason was troubled. In his first meeting with Barbara Gordon, active as the vigilante Batgirl, she broken-heartedly assured Jason he would never be able to replace Dick.

He fought recklessly, seemingly haunted by the memory of his father. Jason received mentoring from Nightwing on various martial arts and fighting techniques and met Roy Harper, offering to be his friend in the future should he be in need of one.

Being put on monitor duty due to his unruly behavior, Jason one day found a picture of his mother Catherine, who was surprisingly alive. He used all his skills to make his way to the Middle East without telling Batman, in an attempt to reunite with his mother. It soon became apparent that Catherine was being blackmailed by the Joker and had lured her son there for him.

Jason learned that most of his major life events were orchestrated by the Joker, who then brutally tortured and beat the boy with a crowbar, and left him and Catherine to die at the hands of a time bomb after six months. Batman arrived too late to save them due to Jason's skills in covering his tracks and was only able to hold Jason's lifeless body in his arms.

Six months after his death and funeral, Jason was resurrected. Talia Al Ghul, who had been keeping an eye on him since the Zero Year, retrieved Jason and used the Lazarus Pit to restore his body and mind to full health. Afterwards, Talia took Jason to Ducra, the ancient instructor of the All-Caste, a group of warrior monks and begged her to train the boy. Jason developed a romantic attraction to Ducra's daughter Essence during this time.

After completing his training in the All-Caste which included management for his anger, Ducra wanted Jason to let go of his rage and move on, stating that 'One day your heart will shine brighter than the dark fury inside of you. And that day will be glorious'. However, Jason thought the only way to get revenge for what the Joker did to him was by rejecting his newly learned philosophies and teachings.

He eventually joined the League of Assassins, where he was trained by Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva. However, he disliked the fact that the group was not interested in justice like he was but merely in self-gain and left them.

Jason resurfaced in Gotham as the gun-toting vigilante Red Hood, having appropriated the alias that the Joker had used prior to becoming the Clown Prince of Crime. Back with a vengeance, Jason protected Gotham with his new brand of lethal justice.

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That was the story of the tragic young man that despised his old mentor and held deep fury for all evil, especially Joker.

Through these memories, Naruto also found the place where the League of Shadows used as HQ. It was in the Middle East in a hidden underground city.

Seeing through his life, Naruto could see that Jason was extremely talented in fighting and was only limited by his lack of powers.

Unlike others he also had the drive for justice, so Naruto had a good reason to keep him closer. His rage was a problem, but Naruto could handle it.

He was good at anger management. He had the Kyuubi to thank for that skill.

Naruto shut down the seals but Jason didn't move. The room was silent and motionless for a few minutes before Naruto decided to speak.

"I know you are awake, Jason." Naruto smiled, he could see himself doing something similar in such a situation.

Jason had been looking for an opening to attack.

Jason was shocked to find himself in an unknown place. He remembered attacking Black Mask and fighting his gang, and then suddenly he awoke in a random place.

He had zero clues about the enemy and wanted to see if he could get some clues, but the enemy seemed to know everything.

Jason hated feeling powerless and hapless. With smooth movement, he pulled his guns and shot at the armored target.

The guns in his arsenal were one of the best things available. The bullets were fast, low recoil and high penetration.

The armor would be like paper against the bullets.

But, he was unlucky.

Jason saw all the bullets bounce of the armor without leaving a single scratch.

"Jason, we are on the same side. I want to make this world a good place and you can fight by my side." Naruto stood up and closed the distance between them.

His hand on Jason's shoulder caused the young man to freeze up.

Jason felt that his body wouldn't move except his eyes and mouth.

"Why should I trust you? Who the hell are you?" Jason glared defiantly and wished to pop those red eyes for going through this humiliation.

"I am the Emperor of Mankind. I represent their need for justice and leadership. I exist to guide humanity to a new frontier.

I am just and fair in my judgment. Unlike the heroes, I don't mind killing when necessary. But, for now I am giving people second chances.

The world doesn't know me. They don't live under my rules, so they get the chance to know about it and decide their futures.

I know that sounds quite naïve. But, I am not a soft person. I make sure every one of these scum suffers before I put the fear in them. I am quite convincing, with 100% success rate." Naruto replied in a friendly tone as he showed Jason illusions of his actions.

Jason saw scenes of Naruto torturing others and curing their sick minds. He saw those people become selfless and when they didn't change, explosions.

It was a simple method, a brutal method. The idea seemed appealing to Jason, but he didn't know if it really worked.

He also didn't know why he should trust Naruto.

"I have no reason to trust you." Jason was interested. This was the first time he was presented with a solution to the problem, but trust was an issue.

"Stay by my side and watch my actions. I like you Jason. I know everything about you and I can assure you, we are not so different. My heart beats for justice.

But, that's not all. Jason, I will cure your father of his sickness. I will make Batman kill and make him enjoy life in the truest sense. Would you like that?" Naruto smiled as he patted Jason's back and let go of him.

His words were sharp and direct, as they bypassed all of Jason's defenses.

Hearing Batman's name, Jason felt his rage come back. To him, Bruce had betrayed him and treated a criminal scum better than him.

He had thought of Bruce as his father, but it seems that father never saw him as anything more than an employee.

He detested the man. He abhorred the man for his choices.

He had to resist the urge to make him miserable by remembering his path of justice.

"He does care for you like a son. But, he is broken. Just like the Joker, Batman is a broken man. He is obsessed and fallen deep into insanity. Think Jason, do you believe that a genius like Batman couldn't have formulated plans to rid the world of evil?

He can do it easily. But, that requires death so he never did it. The man is afraid of people dying in any way connected to him.

Why don't we fix him? He will become the father you always wanted." Naruto saw the reaction and filled him in on the things that he concluded through his mind reading of the criminals and super criminals.

Naruto took off Jason's cover, revealing his face before pouring his chakra to enhance the young man. Naruto's words were hypnotic and they spoke to Jason's deepest desires.

No matter how much Jason felt he was betrayed, he always knew that Batman would never kill. He had followed the man for too long. But, he had wanted the special treatment and to know that he meant more than those nameless people.

The offer was irresistible and with the chakra flowing through him, it was a done deal. He felt the energy increase his stats. He felt comfortable. He felt safe and he felt relaxed. All the anger and unhappiness melted away as the golden energy flooded his body.

He was transformed. He was reborn.

Naruto decided to give him the magnetic affinity as Jason liked to use weapons. The affinity would give him minor lightning powers and earth powers.

Unlike the others, Naruto gave Jason a bigger boost. Jason even after all the training was weaker than an Academy student but now he was strong as Chunin exam Neji Hyuga.

He could easily lift 10 tonnes and move at speeds of mach 25. Naruto also gave him basic knowledge of his new stats and academy skills like transformation, substitution, clone illusion, earth wall, earth hand, lightning arrow and basic magnetic control.

All these were things out of Jason's expectations. He never thought Naruto would give him so much power and knowledge.

All of these things were possible through the contribution of the Inuzuka clan and the research done on people without chakra or Naruto wouldn't have a way to give permanent power ups to people at the moment.

"Are you sure about this?" Jason asked once the process finished. He had to stay still for a few minutes to digest what happened and felt like a completely different person.

"I am always sure of my choices. I trust you, Jason. Even if you don't follow me, you will use those powers for good.

But, I hope you will stay on my side and see the world change. Just wait for a month and you will see your home town transform completely. Gotham will be a city of crime no more." Naruto replied to his inquiry and started walking to the door.

Jason was curious and little resistant about it. Though, he felt better knowing that Naruto wouldn't mind letting him go even after the transformation.

Naruto could tell what Jason felt, and he was happy about the results. It was always fun to win.

Jason followed behind Naruto as they walked out of the room. The base was huge and covered an area that was bigger than a football stadium.

After a few minutes, they entered the central room and Jason saw people that he never expected.

It was the meeting room and Naruto had summoned his pawns so that they could understand what was going on and who was on their side. It was to avoid having them getting into a fight.

Poison Ivy

Killer Croc

Man Bat

Clayface

Mister Freeze

Volcana

Firefly

White Rabbit

Carpenter

Konan

While he had been talking to Jason and Victor, Naruto had made clones to converse with the other new recruits.