Marvel: Raising — Chapter 138 - Naruto and Sasuke Eloped

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha!"

A world-famous image: Sasuke, laughing like a maniac.

Generally speaking, Uchihas who smile a lot don't have great luck.

But Sasuke.

He's absolutely the most passive, most wretched of them all.

"The Uchiha are already gone. Right or wrong, I have no heart left to debate it."

But his focus sharpened quickly.

In the show, for revenge, he could turn rogue and fall in with Orochimaru. He could grow strong enough to kill Orochimaru after. He could even go after Naruto without a moment's hesitation, kill his wife to prove his path.

Truly, a portrait of psychological health and normalcy.

"Naruto, let's go rogue together!"

Sasuke said.

Anyone thinking with their toes knew that stealing classified intel was a capital offense, the Anbu, Root, the whole apparatus would come down on them.

And besides... that memory orb was already out in the world.

Who knew how many people Naruto had killed?

"Whether it's the village, or that lunatic Itachi."

"We don't have the strength to openly break with them right now."

The shock hit cold and hard. Sasuke's eyes went red again. Two tomoe.

"It's you who doesn't have the strength to break with them."

"Don't drag me down."

Naruto corrected him, then tilted his head and asked: "Didn't the files say the Uchiha Sharingan is governed by emotion? Affected by it?"

"How do you only have two tomoe?"

"Your stress tolerance is insane."

Sasuke: "..."

He went silent.

"NARUTO!" Then, out of nowhere, he exploded like a rabid dog.

"What's that about?" Naruto looked puzzled. The Nine-Tails chakra cloak surged up around him, gold light wrapping his body, and he balled his fist.

Sasuke went quiet again.

"Anyway," Sasuke said, pulling himself together. "Even though I now have a massive chakra reserve, and I know the Flying Thunder God, Body Flicker, and Shadow Clone techniques."

"I still lack real killing moves."

Having seen Azu's power — having seen what transcendence actually looked like, Naruto turned his own shortcomings over in his mind. "We really should do some serious training."

"Training?" Sasuke blinked. "Where?"

They'd made an enemy of the Hokage. He couldn't picture a single corner of the Land of Fire, or the entire ninja world, that would take them in.

So they really did have to go rogue.

"It's a long story."

Naruto was never much of a talker. "Think of it as... I got a cheat ability. I can travel between two worlds."

"Like those short video titles, you know."

"Dual Portal: Me, Who Came From the Farm, Invincible in the Ninja World."

Sasuke: "?"

He froze, completely blank.

Then.

Naruto grabbed Second Pillar and, with a single swish of the Flying Thunder God, they were on the farm.

They dropped in on Guan Fuyun.

Found Uncle Guan in the middle of a video game session with Azu.

Naruto silently led Sasuke, still frozen, Sharingan spinning with barely-contained what-the-fucks, onward to Latveria.

Or as it was also known: Battleworld.

...

In the Marvel setting.

Battleworld is a planet stitched together from multiverse fragments by the Beyonders, the Beyond-Kind.

An arena world, something like Sakaar.

Here, nearly every superhero and supervillain can be found, cutting each other down for victory, for wish fulfillment, for survival.

In the process, the Beyonders had torn across the multiverse and killed gods, the Living Tribunal, Eternity, Infinity, Lord Order, Lord Chaos, the Celestials, and more.

And it was through the Molecule Man's power, detonating the Beyonders, seizing the Beyond-Power, that Doctor Doom became what he became.

The omnipotent God Emperor Doom.

But things were different now.

The current Battleworld was built on Latveria as its foundation, reshaped by Doctor Doom through technology and magic both.

Battle Emperor Doom was its creator. Its god.

Within Battleworld, his power was at a divine level, roughly matching that old bastard Odin, a high-tier Skyfather.

Building Battleworld, he'd also received support from the Company: Space Stone, Pym Particles, Vibranium, Shi'ar technology, and more.

In return.

Doom let the Company open a branch office inside the royal castle.

He welcomed Company personnel to come for training.

Visitors from the farm especially.

"The world is vast, and it holds all kinds."

"Some people are born intellectually deficient, mentally impaired — completely unable to live normal lives."

"Battleworld gives them a reason to exist."

"Right now we have the Pirate Zone, Silent Hill, Clown Town, the European Superhero Zone, and some fragmented pieces of New York."

"Where do you want to train?"

Doom said.

The Pirate World was what President Zu had handed over to him after his slaughter, population and territory, wrapped up and delivered. The people born there came out deficient, cerebrums underdeveloped, cerebellums not developed at all.

Simply put: dim.

But their output, Devil Fruits, Haki, ancient technology, was genuinely valuable.

Silent Hill and Clown Town were magic and weirdness zones, captured by Doom from other-dimensional planes during his research into black magic.

The European Superhero Zone was where Doom had taken people like Captain Britain and put them to work.

The fragmented New York was fallout from the merger of the Gwen universe and the Venom universe, bringing surplus population and territory with it.

In short.

On this planet of perpetual updates.

Doom was the most diligent gardener, endlessly collecting world fragments that Guan Fuyun had discarded, piecing together and patching up Battleworld one scrap at a time.

While he spoke, he also ran a quick demonstration for Naruto and Sasuke.

As Battleworld's god.

Summoning storms, manifesting objects from nothing, controlling time, restructuring matter, reversing death, he had it all.

With these powers, Doom ruled without ever tiring of it, staging arena match after arena match, all of it livestreamed through the Company.

For instance:

Red Hair vs. ten thousand Sea Kings.

Result: the Four Emperors-level Red Hair, whose Conqueror's Haki could split the sky, died miserably, again and again, because he simply didn't have enough hands.

Or:

Red Hair vs. one hundred Mountain Bandit Kings.

Result: the Four Emperors, baited by a few taunts, just stood there taking hits until his skull cracked open and he bled out.

Then there was:

Kaido vs. one hundred Kin'emons.

Result: Kaido died of exhaustion. Kin'emon walked away with light injuries.

And:

Garp and Koby vs. the Blackbeard Pirates.

The real Koby and Blackbeard had long since been blown to pieces by Azu, of course. These were clones.

So you'd watch Koby screaming things like "200 times the effort!" and "I've staked Garp on the old era!" and "Senior Luffy, I have to stop your dream!", and then immediately desert.

Every single time, Doom had to personally step in and beat the deserting Koby to death. Otherwise Mr. Guan and Azu, blood pressure spiking through the roof from watching, would come over and do it themselves.

"Through researching Koby's '200 times effort' trait."

Doom said: "I invented the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."

"If pure training is all you need, the Time Chamber is available."

"If you want to expand your toolkit."

"You can go into the Pirate World and take Devil Fruits."

Naruto was quiet, thinking it over.

Sasuke, meanwhile, had a telescope to his eye and a Marvel-grade energy photon sniper rifle hefted in one hand. "This thing destroys ninjutsu."

...

Back in the ninja world.

Because Naruto had wanted to handle things himself.

And because Azu and Naruto's operation had been wrapped in a complete bio-field, blanketing the entire area, letting them do whatever they pleased without a single weak shinobi even registering their presence.

Knowing nothing, but having resolved that the jinchuriki must not be allowed to go astray, Hiruzen Sarutobi came to find Kakashi.

"Naruto. He is your teacher's son."

Hiruzen said. "I'm going to make you his guiding instructor."

Kakashi's dead-fish eyes didn't even flicker. "Yes."

"Be good to him."

Hiruzen's face was heavy as he said it, then shifted. "Also — before, he never used to hit people or draw blood."

"Look into it. See if there's anything unusual around him."

Kakashi's dead-fish eyes held steady. "Yes."

Be good to Naruto.

He turned it over in his head, like a corpse going through the motions.

Mm.

Sure, Naruto's parents were dead. Sure, Naruto got beaten, cursed at, and humiliated on a regular basis.

But that was normal, wasn't it?

That was exactly how the White Fang of the Leaf had died.

From a shinobi's perspective, Naruto didn't have it bad at all.

Dead father. Dead teacher and teacher's wife. Dead Obito. Dead Rin. Dead inside. Kakashi, walking through the world like a corpse, genuinely had no idea what "be good to Naruto" was supposed to mean.

He looked down at the roster. Team Seven: Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, himself.

Lovely.

All 4 of them together had exactly one pair of living parents between them, but that still counted as having both parents, didn't it? Wasn't that plenty?

Forget it.

Whatever.

First, go visit Obito's grave.

That was what Kakashi decided.

➤ Next: What Era Is This, Still Fighting Over Bells?