Chapter 4

I just want to let you know that I have permission from the author HighKeyMars

go check out the story on

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12873369/1/Marvel-at-this-Shinobi-s-Tale

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A/N: Like i have mentioned in some of my other stories, to have a consistent update pattern, i will be writing somewhat shorter chapters. Instead of 6500-8000 word chapters, i will be producing 4250-5500 word chapters. I work a lot now and i have to prepare for these entrance exams coming up. Hope you all understand, now let's get to the reason that you are here, the latest chapter in the story.

A grunt was heard

"79"

Another grunt

"80"

Another one

"81"

There was no grunt this time as the man doing pull ups looked towards the door to the gym open and in step a figure.

"82" the man doing the workout continued

"So, you're just going to act like I'm not here?"

"87" the out of working continued with no signs of stopping

"I get what happened to you wasn't ideal, but things like that happen. You can't avoid that type of stuff working in this organization."

There was no response other than the guy doing the pull ups continuing his count

"96 … 97 … 98 … 99 … 100"

The figure doing the pull ups dropped down to the ground and said, "Listen Clint, I don't know what you want from me, but I don't have time to talk to you."

"Hmm, really you don't have time to talk to me? Have an assignment?"

"You know how Fury runs the ship here Clint, non-stop working"

"Really? Because Fury has you blacklisted from taking any missions until you deal with whatever it is that you are going through. You can lie to everyone else, you can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to me, Naruto"

Naruto glared at Clint, saying nothing as he didn't know what to say.

"Sit down Naruto, you're going to listen to what I have to say"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard what I said Stark. SIT. DOWN." The forceful words of Nick Fury

"Geez, no need to yell" mutter Tony Stark as he sat at the table that was in the room

"You really are a pain in my ass Stark, do you know that?"

"Look Fury, I have no idea what this is about, but I have places to be, money to spend, and women to –"

"I don't care about what you do in your time Stark, but there are certain things that we have to talk about"

"Well, lay it on me Fury. I'm all ears" said Stark as he leaned back in his chair.

"You were given a file on a project for a group of my own design"

"Yes, the Avengers Initiative Program, which was very fascinating, but a little unrealistic."

"Says the guy who build himself a robotic suit in a cave with pieces of scrap metal."

"Okay Fury, I am willing to play ball, what do you want from me? Do you really want me leading the group? A group of 4 people who don't seem like they are all willing to buy into the whole team thing. The kid was amazing on the roof, I will give you that. You did a great job, but that green bean from down south, he is uncontrollable. Nothing can stop him, you remember that news report from about 3 or 4 years ago.

He destroyed that base in Colorado, imagine what he would do in Chicago, LA, or New York City. You put him in a city and he'll leave nothing but a pile of dusty rubble behind. Also, part of your group is a girl who can do what exactly? Fight well? The kid lifted a car, the green giant could eat the car, and I can build the car. What would she do other than drive the car?"

"You don't understand, Stark"

"Why don't you start to explain then Fury" countered the genius billionaire

"Why don't I start from the beginning Stark. Do you know who founded SHIELD?" asked Fury as he looked the annoying rich asshole in the eye

"It started up after World War 2 … um my dad said something about it. He said it was needed for a world … a world where I didn't need to see the things that he saw." Rambled on Tony Stark as his mind was filled flashbacks of his father.

Fury gave a short nod, impressed with Tony's ability to recall a throwaway phrase from 20 to 30 odd years ago.

"Well Stark, that is a start, but that is just the start. S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed shortly after World War II as a successor to the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR), an Allied deep science agency which fought against the Nazi-sponsored special weapons division HYDRA during the war.

The founders of this agency were Chester Phillips, the director of the SSR, Howard Stark, the greatest industrialist of great wealth, who was also the scientific genius who masterminded all of it, for his time but you probably called him dad, and Margaret "Peggy" Carter, the former partner of the American war hero Steve Rogers, better known as Captain America."

When Fury had started the history lesson, Tony had retreated into his mind, ignoring the super spy commander. It was only when the name "Howard Stark" got mentioned that Stark all but demanded that his brain pay attention to what the man had to say.

Looking at Fury in the eye, Tony grew extremely serious.

"Okay director, that whole 'Avengers' thing had my interest, it was something to think about. But this, what you just said, that has my attention. You wanted me on board, well guess what Fury. You couldn't get rid of me now, even if you tried."

Fury leaned back in his chair and said, "I'm glad that you've decided to lend SHIELD your expertise as a technological genius Stark. Now what would you like to know?"

Stark leaned forward, over the table and replied with "Everything that you can"

With Naruto and Clint

The stare off had lasted more time than Naruto or Clint would ever want to admit that they wasted. The silence that accompanied it didn't make the situation any better.

"Okay enough Naruto. I don't understand what your issue is, so why don't you just tell me."

"My issue is literally what just happened was an –" Naruto didn't get to finish as the door to the gym opened and in walked the always very fine Natasha Romanoff

"Hey boys, sorry to break up your little heart to heart crying session, but we got a mission that needs to be handled right now."

Clint groaned before he looked and pointed at Naruto "We're going to finish this when I get back from this."

Naruto made a face and Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"Hold it there buddy, the mission is for the boy wonder and I."

Clint and all of his confidence dropped the ground while Naruto laughed and pointed at the older SHIELD agent on the ground.

"Okay whiskers, let's go."

Naruto followed the attractive agent out of the gym and through the halls of the helicarrier.

"So what is mission Natasha?" asked Naruto

"Well imagine that you were about to face a faster, stronger, smarter, and more flexible version of me, because that is our mission." Replied the redhaired beauty

Naruto stopped and frowned, unsure that he wanted to fight the current Natasha let alone a physically superior version of his friend and fellow agent.

"And we have to kill her?" he asked

"Maybe, that all depends on if we can get what we want and if she is willing to give it to us." Replied Nat "Now, hurry up and grab some stuff from your room, I want to move before the information expires."

Naruto slipped down the hall and into his room, grabbed one of his pre-packed duffle bags. When he exited his room, he came face to face with a girl. A somewhat pretty girl as well, with her fiery orange hair, bright green eyes, flawless skin, and a natural cute face.

"Hi, my name is Stacy, I am from the Logistics department. I really just needed your expense reports for the last year." Said the newly named Stacy

Naruto turned around and grabbed a thick folder off of his bedside nightstand and handed it to the smiling redhead.

"Um here you go Stacy" said Naruto before he made to move around her, but he accidently bumped into the small 5'1" 147 pound girl, sending her to the ground. Naruto dropped his bag on the ground and rushed to help the downed girl up.

"I am so sorry" exclaimed Naruto as he pulled the petite girl back to her feet

"It's no problem" said Stacy as she pressed her hand into Naruto's muscle covered chest "Your pretty strong, I mean you have a very solid body"

The words left Stacy's mouth and she turned a bright red, but Naruto didn't get to reply.

"NARUTO. INFO. EXPIRE. PLANE. YOUR ASS. NOW" Screamed Natasha from down the hall. That snapped Naruto out of his brain meltdown, so he picked up his bag and rushed off down the hall.

With Naruto and Natasha rushing off, neither one of them were around to see the scowl that graced the face of Stacy. Her anger boiling over at the sight of Naruto and Natasha running off together, it would only make her job harder in the long run, because Naruto didn't sign his paperwork.

With Naruto and Natasha:

Natasha had fired up the SHIELD jet and taken off before Naruto even managed to put his bag away.

"So, do you mind telling me some more details about this mission." Asked Naruto as he finally managed to get into the co-pilot seat.

Natasha glanced at him but didn't say anything as she engaged the auto-pilot for the jet. She got up and slipped into the back, but Naruto refused to get up when he just sat down. She returned with a folder, a very thick folder.

"Everything in that you need to learn is in that folder. I would normally just talk about it, but I want you to read all of the information in there. Don't ask me anything until you've read everything in there. I can answer anything you want after you finish that."

Naruto listened to Natasha and all of his questions died in his throat. He just shrugged and looked at the folder and read the title on the first page: Yelena Belova (Black Widow)

Location Unknown: Somewhere in Space

A young adult looking male human dropped down from the sky. Landing on one knee and one foot, the red ground below him cracked with the force of his landing. Standing up, he noticed the numerous figures, all pointing what looked like their version of spears at him.

The human looking man chuckled lightly at these so called threat they these people thought that they posed to him. The orange figures with their large heads and tiny bodies were not a match for him or his might. (Think of orange mega minds)

"You fools know not what threaten, you should not mess what you know not" said the young male human looking figure.

Several of the aliens spoke in a clicking language, and the human looking figure laughed.

"Surrender? Why would I surrender when I am not in danger?" was his response

A spear flew at him and he pulled out his weapon of choice from his side and batted away the wooden and stone made weapon.

A snarl ripped through his throat and he raised his weapon into the air, and lightning crackled all throughout the dark sky before it came down and hit the weapon in the human like figures hand. With a roar, he slammed his weapon down into the ground and caused the world to shake with the power that he unleashed.

The lightning caused cracks to tear up the ground, causing many of the orange aliens to fall as the ground became uneven. Lifting his weapon out of the ground cause the lightning that was tearing through the ground to rise up through the cracks attacking the aliens who attacked him first. The orange aliens were quickly defeated and the male stopped his lightning based attack and looked at all of the downed injured aliens.

Just then a burst of multi-colored light crashed down next to him.

"Brother, are you done here?" asked the dark haired male figure, the person who had come in the burst of light.

"Loki? What are you doing here?" asked the light haired male figure, asking his dark haired brother Loki.

"Father had sent me to make sure that you accomplished what you were sent to do. So, I will ask you again Thor. Did you finish?" asked Loki

"Um…" mumbled Thor

"Did you free the Agami from the Locia?"

"Which was which again?"

"Did you free the orange people from the purple people?" said Loki before he looked around and sighed as he noticed all of the large headed orange aliens on the ground.

"Let's clean this up" said Loki as he got prepared to help clean up Thor's mess again … again… again… again… again for the 33rd time … this year …. It was only march.

Back with Natasha and Naruto somewhere near Europe

Naruto wasn't someone who tended to get surprised. He was a very capable thinker, SHIELD made him that way, and he thus he was always thinking of new things. New things such as new ways to train, new strategies to attack people, new fighting moves, new ways to interrogate people, and new ways to develop himself whether through his newfound Chakra ability or standard mental/physical/instinctual developments.

But what he had read in the folder, it was very much inhumane to do so to any human being. When he had started his reading on the folder that contained information on Yelena Belova (The New USSR Black Widow), Naruto wasn't expecting what he read.

The tortures, both mental and physical. They would tie her up and beat the shit out of her until she was on death's door, only to heal her up and repeat the process until her body hardened and became able to endure more than any human could, making her physically tougher than 99.9 percent of the world.

To make her mentally tougher, they would rotate between forcing males on her until she was with child. Then when the fetus was starting to make its presence known in her body, they would terminate it. Naruto found this to be a very cruel and unusual tactic, as the pregnant body of a female begins to produce Oxytocin, the love hormone. They basically waited until her brain chemically forced her into emotionally loving the unborn baby, before forcibly removing it from her body.

That combined both of these methods when they decided that they should just sterilize her at the ripe age of 17. She was mentally and physically destroyed time and time again, only to rebuild her again and again. Whatever they did, it work because she was basically Natasha Romanoff 2.0.

Where Natasha was a solid 5'5, Yelena Belova was 5'7. Where Natasha had 7 percent body fat, Yelena Belova was at a staggering low 3.7 percent. Where Natasha ran a 4.8 40 yard dash, Yelena Belova ran a 4.4, closer to Naruto's 4.2 than Natasha's 4.8. Where Natasha had an IQ of 158, Yelena Belova was all the way up there at 177 (On the scale to 200, on the 150 scale, Nat was at 113 and YB was at 131).

Yelena Belova really was as Natasha said, a faster, stronger, smarter version of Natasha. And while Naruto wasn't sure how flexible Natasha was, based on the picture of Yelena Belova, he wouldn't mind finding out just how much more flexible.

However, despite everything that he read in the folder, there was just one thing that didn't add up. Naruto was never the most intrusive guy, he didn't care about people's past as long as they were okay now and their past didn't come back to haunt them and SHIELD. But in the few times that Natasha and Naruto had talked about their pasts, she had mentioned something called the "Red Room".

While that isn't exactly the most pleasant sounding place in the world, Naruto had brushed it off as the name of building or wing, but it kept coming up all throughout the information on Yelena Belova. Once is just chance, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a trend, four times is enemy action, five or more times is direct war. That was the twisted SHIELD version of the Moscow Rules.

"Hey Nat, we're friends right?" asked Naruto as he broke the several hours long silence streak.

Natasha bit her lip and her eyebrows burrowed together as she thought of the possible conversations that could follow Naruto's question.

"Well, you're a little on the annoying side, but yeah. We are friends, Whiskers." Answered Natasha in a calm voice, as she still tried to figure out where this was going.

"I'm glad to hear that, because I care about you a lot. And not just you, but Clint as well. For as long as I can remember, the two of you, first Clint and then later you, were all that I've had outside of my SHIELD training mission and then SHIELD Active Roster missions." Muttered Naruto as his emotions were unable to remain buried.

"Are you okay, Naruto? You've been different ever since that mission that involved Stark." Asked Natasha

"If I can be completely honest with you, it feels different waking now than it did before."

"Is it because of the fact-" Natasha didn't get to finish as Naruto cut her off.

"It has everything to do with almost dying. I rarely get hurt and if I do it is usually nothing more than a scrape or a cut. But to almost die, feeling my body numb up, feeling the light-headed feeling as the view of the world got darker and darker. To feel my blood leaking out by the pint, it was a wake up call." Rambled on Naruto as he tried to put his emotions and thoughts in words that would do justice to what he was feeling.

"Naruto, we've all been through something like that before, those moments happen. What you need to do is determine whether you will allow the thought and the fear dying hinder you, break you. Or will you use it as fuel, something that will allow you to rebuild yourself, better than ever."

Naruto nodded and before he could think about it said, "It really makes me amazed at Clint, he's just an average guy. He doesn't have a foreign energy source pumping through his veins. And he isn't a super solider experiment like you are, am I right, Natasha?"

His question surprised Natasha more than anything else that he had said so far on the mission trip. Her neck snapped towards Naruto and looked at him in the face, with wonder on her face.

"What did you just say?" she asked

Naruto didn't wait in repeating himself "You're a super solider experiment Natasha."

"What makes you think that?" she asked again, trying to wrap her head around this sudden change in direction of the conversation.

"Well, you mentioned the "Red Room" before as the place that helped form your skill set, well Yelena Belova also was trained there. And all of the things that were done to her, seemed to have been reported by someone who knew exactly how they happened. It was as if, the person who reported all of this information had gone through the same exact situation and torture.

I couldn't help but wonder, 'Who do I know that has ever even mentioned this "Red Room" place. Well, it was the one and only Natasha Romanoff. What really tipped me off was the way that you described her, a better version of yourself. The issue with that, is that you have proven to be the best time and time again, and you're not exactly Miss Modest in terms of praising your own skills.

Which leads me to my next point, in the files on Yelena Belova, it mentions that she was experimented on to try and become the Soviet's version of Captain America. Suddenly, it all clicks for me. You're both from the same training place or experiment lab, the personal style of the torture descriptions, the way that you described her, and the immediate rush to put her down. She's basically who you used to be, but with enhancements."

Natasha groaned at the long explanation that Naruto provided, mostly because of how correct that it was. Also because of how fast that he put it together, they hadn't even started the mission yet and he already had figured it out.

So, she did what she could and groaned before saying, "Sometimes, I really hate SHIELD for making you into this world class super spy. You've basically got it right except for a couple of minor details."

Naruto didn't look happy and all he could do was look at Natasha with a very sad expression on his face.

"So, how long have you known that you could never have children?"

Natasha frowned

"For around the same amount of time that I wished that I could one day start a family in my life after SHIELD."

With Clint and a generic ass SHIELD Strike team

Clint had learned many things in his 11 years of spy work, some things applied to life and others were just useless in all areas of life. The key to being a really good and competent spy was being able to learn new things, something that Clint sometimes struggled with.

They say you learned something new everyday, Clint just learned something new today. When your partner is off on a mission and she doesn't take you, maybe you don't complain to your boss that she picked another agent over you. Because all he hears is that you want a mission and don't have one.

So, what does he do? He gives you the shittiest one that he could find, by sending you and 4 nobodies to the middle of nowhere, South America.

"You know, I didn't go to medical school for this" said one of the new Strike team members.

"Charles, do us all a big favor and shut the fuck up." Said Agent Castle, a sandy haired white man who had been a Strike team leader for close to 8 years.

Clint decided now was the moment that he impart the mission details to the rest of these guys, mostly because he didn't want to be the only person capable of doing the mission. Not only would that make everything harder to accomplish, it wouldn't make sense to bring 4 other guys with him, if they didn't serve a purpose.

"Okay, listen up ladies. Our objective is not a complicated one. We are simply here to observe and report."

Generic Strike Team member number 1 smirked and said, "I love that movie. Hell, I like anything with Seth Rogan."

Clint made a face and said, "Yeah no, that has nothing to do with the mission at hand. Do any of you remember the thing that destroyed a bunch of Colorado and Utah a couple of years ago, it was big and green."

Getting a round of nods, Clint continued on.

"Well, it has regressed back to it's normal human form. The name is Bruce Banner, the scientist. We were monitoring him when he was travelling through rural American towns, but for some reason he decided that he was going to come down here to South America. Fury wants us to find out why he is down here and if possible, don't let him green out on the people down here."

Getting another round of nods, Clint sighed as he had no idea how troublesome this mission was going to be. It would lead to him just enjoying every moment that Natasha went on a mission by herself or took someone else with her. Let's just say, South America and Agent Clint Barton will not be a mutual positive experience for anyone on the mission. But then again, you win some and you lose some, but you can't spell Clint without using a L.

In the SHIELD Base

Stacy answered the SHIELD Board of Directors summons through her wrist watch.

"Board Members, what can I do for you today?"

"You can start by giving us an update on your progress" stated Male Board Member number 1

"I've made contact with the target, I even engaged in conversation and made physical contact with the target." Reported the red haired agent

"Good, we expect more of the same progress in the next report" said the lone female Board Member

"Actually, the target was assigned a long term mission with Agent Romanoff." Said Stacy as she tried to lower expectations for her next week report.

"Well, all that means is that you need to throw yourself at him harder than you have before" said Male Board Member number 2.

"I will do what I can" said Stacy before they hung up on her.

"God, I hate people" muttered Stacy as she started getting ready for bed.

A/N: I tried to get something out yesterday, because it was my day off. However my boss had different plans for my day off, which was not a day off because they called me in to work. It must mean that they hate me, it is the only reason that I can think of for the fact that they always call me in early and on my days off.

Now, what did you think of the chapter, I wanted to provide some of my own story that will bridge the gap between Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2 which take place about 18 months apart. The timeline goes Iron Man 1 to Iron Man 2/ Thor to Incredible Hulk to The awakening of Captain America to the First Avengers Movie to Iron Man 3 / Thor 2 then Cap 2 to Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2 and then Avengers 2 to Ant Man. Then it is Civil War to Doctor Strange to Spider-Man Homecoming to Black Panther to Avengers Infinity War.

Speaking of Infinity War, that movie was absolutely amazing. Everything about the movie was excellent, from the CGI to the Character Development to the Character Interactions to the way it ends. It was a really good movie.

Okay, now to the summary of this chapter. Naruto is confronted by Barton at the same time that Stark and Fury are talking. The Barton emotion hospital is stopped by Natasha who needs Naruto's help on a mission against Yelena Belova. Nat gives Naruto a folder to read as a mission prep folder, and Clint complains to Fury that Natasha took Naruto on a mission instead of him. We get a glimpse of Thor and Loki doing the good work as they try to help planets and the people in the universe that need it. Naruto makes a correct assumption about Natasha and Clint gets watching duty from Fury for Banner. Oh and Stacy is the mole, why not tell people now instead of drawing it out.

Expect more fighting in the upcoming chapters. You'll get a surprise character that I will give a shout out to whoever can get it right. Oh and as always, there will be more character interactions.

Speaking of interactions, I have an interactive twitter page, the interactive Twitter is up, my handle is HKM_FF, so that is HKM_FF, please follow me there. Now you know the usual, I will tell you that I will update by this date or that date, but we all know that my pants are on fire, because I am a liar. At least when it comes to my update dates and actually updating.

Anyone who has ever messaged me can attest to the fact that I do reply, and I do read you message. I respond to PM's, Reviews, bat signals and everything in between.

That's all for now, until next time. Also, if you have any suggestions or complaints, feel free to leave a review or PM me. Unless you're going to be a dick about it, then you can literally kick rocks.