Chapter 6: "Ten Clones, Ten Fights, One Foxy Game"
(In which Naruto goes full ninja army, Lagoon Boy regrets taunting the sea, and everyone learns never to give the blond a reason to show off.)
The air above the island had been calm… until Naruto decided otherwise.
A shriek of wind split the sky as the air pressure shifted unnaturally. Leaves spiraled upward, the sea churned, and clouds twisted into a vortex of roaring energy. A massive tornado exploded into existence, spiraling between Starfire and Superboy like nature itself had hit the panic button.
"Whoa!" Superboy grunted, flinching instinctively against the gale-force winds whipping around him.
Before he could regain balance, a golden blur blasted through the tornado like it was made of cotton candy.
Naruto.
Riding the wind like a living missile, chakra arms glowing and trailing behind him like divine banners, he slammed full-force into Superboy—Rasengan-first.
"Found you!" Naruto shouted gleefully, chakra limbs snapping forward as he grabbed both of Superboy's arms mid-air, pinning him.
The Rasengan—bright, buzzing, and bloated with nature energy—detonated against Superboy's chest. It didn't explode violently, but rather expanded, enveloping him in a swirling cocoon of force that sent the half-Kryptonian hurling backward like a very angry cannonball. He smashed through a cluster of palm trees before disappearing in a shower of debris.
"I always wanted to try that in flight," Naruto muttered with a grin.
Meanwhile, Starfire—blazing with emerald light—had already shifted her attention to the clone Naruto that had zipped toward her.
"You think trickery can win you this battle?" she said, firing twin bolts of star energy.
The clone held up a hand and compressed the air between them in an instant. The bolts dispersed mid-air like someone had smacked them with a paddle of pressure.
Then—snap—two glowing chakra arms shot out, each wielding a Rasengan aimed right at Starfire's flanks.
With reflexes born of combat against literal immortals, Starfire screamed forward, unleashing concentrated beams of energy from her eyes and hands in a defensive crossburst. The air ignited between them in a burst of light, chakra clashing against alien energy in midair.
The clone held firm for a second—then poofed in a puff of smoke and golden sparks.
Starfire hovered, breathing heavily, scanning for the next incoming threat.
Back on the other side of the battlefield…
Naruto barely had time to adjust his flight path before gravity itself betrayed him.
"Gotcha!" Beast Boy shouted—except his voice was weirdly low-pitched and echoey.
Naruto's feet suddenly dragged downward like someone had tied sandbags to his soul. The pressure on his body doubled, tripled. Even his chakra cloak wavered for a second.
Beast Boy, in his chosen Galilean form (complete with glowing eyes, anti-gravity pulses, and six weird antennae), soared overhead like a smug alien stingray.
"Gravity control, huh?" Naruto muttered, dropping to one knee midair as he tried to adjust.
Then it got worse.
A searing red beam of heat scorched toward him—Superboy's heat vision—cutting through the sky like a laser pointer from hell.
Naruto's eyes widened, but his hands were already forming seals. "Substitution Jutsu!"
BOOM!
Superboy blinked as the beam struck something—but instead of Naruto, it was… Starfire?!
"Wait, what the—" she shouted, spinning midair to brake.
Naruto reappeared above, grinning upside-down as he hung suspended in midair thanks to his wind chakra.
"Sorry, Star! But I really needed a fire shield!"
Kurama snorted in his mind. That was dirty. I'm proud.
Naruto laughed. 'Don't worry, I'll buy her a fruit smoothie after this.'
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From the sky to the sea, chaos broke loose.
Wind howled, sand kicked up into miniature cyclones, and chakra surged like a tidal wave as Naruto, hovering midair with golden energy blazing from his skin, clasped his hands together with a grin that said: now I'm done holding back.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
With a thunderclap of chakra and a flash of golden light—poof! poof! poof!—ten Narutos exploded into existence. Each was cloaked in a swirling mix of Kurama's chakra and nature energy, their hair fluttering, their eyes sharp.
Each clone turned to a specific opponent.
"One for you," Naruto muttered, pointing to Nightwing.
"One for you," he said, turning to Superboy.
"And one for each of your lovely faces," he added, spinning dramatically and pointing toward Batgirl, Bumblebee, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl, Lagoon Boy, M'gann, and Tim Drake like a reality TV host giving away door prizes.
Then came the wind.
Naruto raised both arms as the very air seemed to tremble, and dozens of mini-tornadoes burst into life. They scattered the sand, kicked up seawater, and sent the team into a scrambling frenzy.
"Let's play."
Naruto's clone dove into the shimmering water like a golden dart, and the ocean welcomed him with a cool silence. But before he could swim forward, crushing water pressure suddenly slammed down on him like an invisible cage.
"You're in my domain now," came Lagoon Boy's voice through the current, confident and smug. His figure shimmered through the waves, his arms outstretched as the water around him twisted like living serpents.
The clone grimaced slightly but remained calm, his golden glow rippling.
'I could end this… but I won't. Not yet,' he thought. 'I'm here to learn. And to learn, I've got to be patient.'
Lagoon Boy wasn't joking about control. He fired high-pressure water bullets like torpedoes, each one sharp enough to punch through rock. Naruto dodged them with smooth underwater spins, enhanced by the calm clarity Sage Mode provided.
But then came the surprise.
Naruto raised his hand, and with a subtle twist of his fingers, the water around Lagoon Boy shivered—and then pressed inward.
The Atlantean's eyes went wide.
"You—!?"
Naruto's voice echoed softly through the water. "Yeah. Turns out Sage Mode boosts elemental control a lot. And this planet… it's just full of energy. Feels like I've tapped into the sea itself."
Lagoon Boy snarled and puffed up, his muscles bulging, his frame doubling in size as he activated his mutation. "Then come at me like a real man!"
The chakra around Naruto's clone shimmered, and with a sly smile, he snapped his fingers.
Water sharks materialized out of the swirling ocean around them, snapping toward Lagoon Boy like summoned beasts from the deep. The Atlantean roared, pushing back with focused jets of water and precise bends, expertly breaking apart the constructs.
But the control Naruto had shocked him. Each shark didn't just exist—it moved with intention, as if the water itself was listening to Naruto's will.
'This is impossible… he's a land-dweller!'
Inside Naruto's Mind
Kurama snorted from his spot in the seal. "Inspired by the Akatsuki, huh?"
Naruto, watching through the clone's senses, smirked. 'Yeah. Kisame always made water techniques look cool. I figured it was time to upgrade my style. You think he'd be proud?'
Kurama chuckled. "Proud? He'd probably challenge you to a shark-summoning contest."
-----------------------
Lagoon Boy shot through the water like a torpedo made of pure ego. His green fins sliced through the ocean currents as he aimed straight for the glowing golden figure floating beneath the surface like some kind of sea deity on vacation.
"Let's see what you got, Land Ninja!" he shouted, fists raised, water coiling around his limbs like living armor.
Naruto's clone waited calmly, his Bijuu Sage Mode casting warm light through the surrounding sea. His long chakra tails drifted behind him like tendrils of sunlight, his eyes sharp and glinting with fox-like curiosity.
"Oh, I've got plenty," he replied, and then—boom.
The water exploded between them as they collided.
What followed could only be described as an underwater ballet with an action movie budget.
Lagoon Boy fired water bullets, dozens of them, each one sharp enough to punch a hole through coral. Naruto weaved between them with a lazy grace, letting the current twist him into fluid dodges.
Then came Water Prison Jutsu. Lagoon Boy formed a spiraling dome around Naruto with practiced ease—until Naruto simply smiled, raised his hand, and the prison burst into harmless droplets around him.
"Nice try," Naruto called, spinning a stream of water into a pressure spear and hurling it like a harpoon. Lagoon Boy barely ducked, using the tail of his own current to redirect it.
Slash after slash, bullet after bullet, the two clashed with water-bending fury. Lagoon Boy's strength, amplified by the sea, made him fast—stronger than Naruto expected. In fact, if Naruto had faced him without Sage Mode…
"He might've actually bruised me," Naruto muttered to himself, flicking away another spiral of water slashes with a casual chakra tail.
As the fight wore on, it became painfully obvious—Naruto wasn't breaking a sweat. Or gill. Or chakra bead.
Lagoon Boy, on the other hand, had a busted lip, a cracked rib, and was now moving with that classic "this is fine" grin that screamed I am losing gracefully while my pride weeps.
Finally, breathing heavily, Lagoon Boy threw up his hands—figuratively, because his actual hands were busy blocking another mini water shark. "Okay! Okay!" he gasped. "Just hit me already! Give me your strongest shot and end this, man!"
Naruto tilted his head, surprised by the sudden surrender. "You sure? I was having fun."
"Yeah, well, I'm not," Lagoon Boy muttered. "You're like—water itself hates me now."
Naruto chuckled and gave a respectful nod. "You were awesome. Seriously. You almost made me use two tails."
"Wait, wha—?"
Pop.
Naruto vanished from sight.
Lagoon Boy's eyes darted around. "Where'd he go—?"
FWOOSH.
Naruto reappeared at his flank, chakra glowing brightly around his hand as a massive Rasengan spun to life.
"Thanks for the spar," Naruto said kindly.
WHAM.
The Rasengan didn't explode. It didn't rip the ocean apart. Instead, it became a controlled spiral of force, compact and precise—slamming Lagoon Boy downward and pinning him gently to the sea floor like a surprisingly considerate wrecking ball.
The Atlantean's eyes fluttered, and then… darkness.
Naruto sighed and caught him before he hit the seabed too hard. "Kurama," he muttered, "you were right. I am getting better at control."
"About time," the fox muttered lazily from inside.
A few moments later, a soft poof announced the clone's exit from underwater combat.
Naruto emerged from the surf with Lagoon Boy slung over his shoulder like a seaweed-covered gym bag.
He laid him gently on the sand, then looked toward the others, some mid-battle, others watching in disbelief.
"One down," Naruto said cheerfully, brushing kelp from his jacket.
---------------------
Nightwing had been in a lot of chaotic battles before—alien invasions, time-traveling assassins, even that one time Wally West turned into pure electricity. But this? This was something else.
From his perch atop a tree trunk, he watched as clones—so many clones—erupted from golden energy and smoke, each bearing the same cocky smirk and flowing chakra limbs that made them look like fox-themed Green Lanterns with no off switch.
"Oh great," he muttered, ducking as a mini tornado spun uncomfortably close to his head, whipping leaves and a poor squirrel into an involuntary air ballet. "He's a golden lantern ninja now. That's fun."
He tapped his comm. "M'gann, we need illusion cover—give 'em something confusing. Keep 'em guessing."
From somewhere above, Miss Martian's voice answered, "Already on it."
In the blink of an eye, the battlefield shimmered with clones of the clones—dozens of them—Narutos dancing around each other, laughing, sparring, exploding. Some rode giant frogs. One seemed to be holding a bowl of ramen while fighting.
It was peak chaos.
But it didn't last.
Naruto's voice echoed from multiple directions at once, calm but playful:
"Nice try. But I can sense life force… and nature's telling me exactly where you all are."
The illusions shimmered—and were instantly dismissed like bad fan theories on the internet.
Nightwing cursed under his breath. "Figures."
----------------------------
"Alright, new plan," Nightwing barked as he flipped back to the others. "Everyone, close ranks. Do not split up. Naruto's goal is to isolate us. We're not playing that game."
With practiced efficiency, he flung out metallic discs, each clinking into the ground and pulsing with blue light. A shimmering energy barrier sprung up in a wide perimeter, surrounding him, Miss Martian, Static, Robin, and Batgirl.
"That'll buy us time," he muttered.
"Plan B. Stay together. Beast Boy, increase gravity—force those clones down!"
Beast Boy in his hulking Galilean form, the air around him shimmering as he manipulated gravity with a low growl. "Crushing field incoming!"
A gravitational pulse slammed into the clones, distorting the battlefield like a collapsing star.
"Blue Beetle, go!" Nightwing shouted.
Jaime's armor hissed to life, anti-gravity boosters flaring. "On it!" he yelled, zipping through the gravity field with ease, cannons blazing.
Behind them, Bumblebee hovered at range, firing sonic blasts like a wasp on steroids. Static followed up with crackling lightning arcs, lighting the sky like an angry thunder god.
Wonder Girl took the lead, the Silent Armor wrapping her in an invisible cocoon of divine force. With a gleaming diamond-forged sword in hand, she slashed through the air, guarding the others while the barrier discs from Nightwing held firm.
For a second, it looked like it was working. The gravity held. The attacks were relentless. The field was secure.
Then came the substitution.
Poof.
Leaves fluttered.
"Leaves? Seriously?" Robin muttered, scanning the battlefield.
Nightwing's eyes widened. "No—!"
Too late.
The real clones had already swapped out with Wonder Girl herself and her team's cover. Like a fox in a henhouse, Naruto's clones emerged from the ground, chakra arms erupting in a golden explosion that cracked the earth and grabbed at the team's legs like glowing vines.
"Look out!" Batgirl shouted, dodging by flipping over a spiraling tendril.
Wonder Girl reacted instinctively, her sword flashing as she cut through one of the arms trying to snare Nightwing—but she didn't see the Naruto clone behind her.
"Thanks for the save," the clone said cheekily—and SLAM.
A full-powered Rasengan drove into her back, controlled enough not to kill, but forceful enough to hurl her like a rocket into the air.
Wonder Girl was tough. Her armor absorbed most of the impact. But she was out of the formation now.
"She's down!" Robin called, scanning the trees. "One of the clones dragged her away!"
"We're losing people," Nightwing growled. "This kid… he's doing exactly what I'd do. Flank, divide, isolate, and incapacitate."
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Naruto was starting to think he might have overdone it.
He hovered in the air like a chakra-wrapped demigod, watching his Rasengan-slinging army cause panic, flash-step confusion, and the occasional light property damage. He wasn't trying to win exactly—it was more like he was letting off some steam.
That is, until Nightwing called him out mid-chaos.
"Naruto!" Nightwing's voice cut through the wind like a shuriken made of calm logic and authority. "Can we talk for a second? Preferably without a Rasengan in my face?"
Naruto blinked and waved four of his clones over—the ones hovering near Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Miss Martian. The golden chakra flickered slightly as they landed.
Nightwing crossed his arms and gave Naruto the Classic Nightwing Look™—calm, cool, with just a dash of "I will out-think you, sunshine boy."
"Look, I get it. You're strong. Like, freaky-dimension-level strong. But we're not Kryptonians. I'm human. Robin's human. Batgirl's human. And while we've got training, gadgets, and a ridiculous tolerance for pain, we're not built for a Rasengan hug."
Batgirl gave a thumbs-up behind him. Robin just frowned like someone had insulted his cape's stitching.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head, sheepish. "Ah… right. Sorry. I guess I got carried away."
"Understandable," Nightwing said, smiling a little. "It happens when you drop tornadoes on your new coworkers."
Robin muttered, "Multiple tornadoes."
Nightwing continued, "How about this—power down. Drop to, let's say, bare-minimum superhuman. Enough to give us a challenge, but not enough to crater the island."
Naruto grinned. "Deal. Let's see what you Bat-people can really do."
Meanwhile... in Clone Town
While Naruto and the four "conversation clones" were distracted hashing out power limits, something subtle stirred in the mental waves.
Meghan—Miss Martian—was focused. Psychic energy swirled around her like mist, invisible to all except those attuned to minds.
She reached for one of the clones. Not the loud one. Not the one laughing at Batgirl's gadgets. The quiet one. The one deep in thought, considering Nightwing's suggestion with furrowed brows and a philosophical sigh.
She slipped in.
No resistance.
Just like that, she was inside.
Her green eyes widened. His clone mind is completely separate from Kurama… which means no fox to stop me.
"Gotcha," she whispered—and made the clone turn.
Robin, ever alert, noticed the twitch in movement. "Is that one looking weird to anyone else?"
Before anyone could respond, the possessed clone flared to life and lunged forward with shocking speed—not toward Nightwing or Batgirl, but toward the other Naruto clones.
"Hey, I wasn't done talking!"
The other three clones instantly sensed the surge of unfamiliar intent.
The air crackled. One clone yelled, "Wait, he's compromised!"
In a synchronized blast of golden energy, the three unaffected clones flew skyward, leaving a glowing crater behind as they rocketed out of range.
The possessed clone blinked—then looked surprised. "Aw, come on," Meghan muttered through it.
Naruto, from his ocean-view perch, blinked in confusion. Then realization hit him like a Sage Mode chakra brick.
"Wait… she can hack my clones?!"
Kurama's voice echoed in his head with a low growl of disbelief. "Of course she can. No fox in them, remember? They're basically walking windbags with flashy hair and no mental defense."
"I thought I made them smarter this time!"
"You made them shinier. There's a difference."
Naruto groaned. "Ugh, this world has psychics that can remote control me?!"
Robin, now fully intrigued, stepped beside Miss Martian. "Can I… try something?"
Meghan, still linked to the clone, handed him the reins.
And just like that, Tim Drake was in control of a Naruto clone.
He grinned. "So… this is what it feels like to have chakra."
The clone's arms glowed, chakra limbs extending slightly like golden tendrils of energy. He aimed one at a tree and flicked.
BOOM.
"Sweet."
Back on the field...
The remaining Naruto clones regrouped above the trees, keeping their distance now. One of them whispered, "Okay, new rule: if anyone acts even slightly weird, assume it's mind-hacked."
Another nodded. "Noted. No blinking weirdly, no sudden poetic thoughts."
Naruto facepalmed from afar. "This was supposed to be a fun spar... Now I'm getting cloned, hacked, and played like a chakra-powered puppet."
----------------------
Robin wasn't usually the kind of guy to gloat—he left that to certain other Robins—but as he stood on the battlefield in a borrowed Naruto clone body, golden chakra rippling off his arms like solar flames, he couldn't help but whisper to himself:
"This… is awesome."
From across the field, the real Naruto watched the golden-cloaked version of himself spin twin chakra machine guns into existence and mow down a tree just to test their kickback. A bit excessive? Sure. But undeniably stylish.
'That clone's chakra is being pushed to its limit… and Robin's controlling it like a pro,' Naruto thought, eyes glinting with excitement. 'Let's see what he can really do.'
With a crackle of energy, Naruto launched himself at the possessed clone.
The clash came fast.
Robin spun a chakra staff into existence just in time to deflect a Rasengan uppercut, the golden sphere fizzing with compressed energy inches from his borrowed face. He retaliated with a wide sweep, his new chakra limbs helping him maintain balance as he whipped around and slammed the staff down.
Naruto dodged, bending backwards with a flexibility that would've made acrobats cry, and responded with a low leg sweep. Robin jumped, twisting mid-air, and rained down glowing kunai made of solidified chakra light. Naruto blocked with a golden barrier that shimmered like stained glass before shattering it with a roar and countering—
BAM!
Chakra fists clashed mid-air. The resulting shockwave blasted dust and leaves in every direction, rippling out in concentric circles across the training field.
Robin's eyes lit up. "You really fight like a storm."
Naruto grinned. "And you fight like a tactician with a chakra cannon. You sure you're not secretly a Lantern?"
Robin replied with dual eye lasers that scorched a path straight toward Naruto, who vanished with a pop and reappeared behind him with a chakra-laced roundhouse.
Robin caught the kick—barely—and twisted Naruto's leg with a judo technique, slamming him to the ground.
"Okay, not bad!" Naruto laughed, flipping back up and returning with a flurry of blows: muay thai knees, taekwondo spin-kicks, and grappling grabs that turned their spar into a rolling, glowing brawl straight out of an anime-fighting tournament.
Robin, for his part, kept pace—countering with sleek staff work, precise aikido redirections, and pressure point jabs Naruto barely dodged thanks to Sage Mode's enhanced perception.
They weren't just fighting.
They were dancing in battle.
And the choreography was made of chakra and sheer willpower.
Robin clapped his hands together—and Naruto's clone body responded with mouth lasers.
"Why is this a thing?!" Robin laughed even as Naruto backflipped through the beam, his own hands forming a Rasengan that crackled like thunder.
Robin met the Rasengan with an energy barrier shield and absorbed part of the blast—only to have Naruto shoulder-check him mid-defense, knocking him into a tree.
"Okay," Robin groaned, picking himself up. "Definitely not meant for close-range bullrush."
Naruto raised a hand—and vines of golden chakra erupted from the ground, wrapping around Robin's clone-body limbs.
"Had enough?" Naruto grinned.
Robin grinned right back. "Not even close."
A chakra shockwave exploded from the clone, blowing the restraints apart. Robin darted forward, his staff splitting into twin batons of hardlight energy, and met Naruto once more in a dazzling display of strikes, dodges, and counterstrikes—all lit in gold.
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Robin had barely recovered from the chakra clone's explosion when a breeze blew through the field—cool, calm... and deceptive.
Because Naruto was no longer laughing.
He cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck with a loud pop-pop, his expression still friendly… but now edged with anticipation.
"Alright," Naruto said, his grin sharper than usual. "You've seen my energy stuff. My elements. My Rasengan. But now…" He stepped forward. Another Naruto stepped out from behind him like a shadow peeling away. "You're gonna see Clone-Fu."
Robin blinked. "...That's not a real thing."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Is now."
Robin readied his staff as Naruto vanished, blurring forward with Sage-enhanced speed. The real strike came low—a sweep kick to Robin's ankles—but before Robin could dodge, a second Naruto appeared mid-air like he'd teleported above and delivered a flying axe kick aimed at Robin's head.
WHAM!
Robin barely blocked the high strike with his staff—but the clone popped on contact, releasing a chakra shock that threw off his balance.
Naruto was already back in motion. He darted left—faked a punch—and two clones erupted out of the ground like trapdoor ninjas, one delivering a spinning elbow to Robin's ribs, the other landing a leaping side kick from behind.
Poof—Poof!
Both clones vanished on impact.
"You're fighting like—like a hive mind!" Robin coughed, staggering back.
"Nope!" Naruto said brightly. "More like a ninja flash mob."
From the Sidelines
Nightwing, perched atop a tree branch, narrowed his eyes. "That's… dangerous. Every clone has just enough substance to land a hit before popping. It's like he's spawning traps mid-combat."
"He's making the battlefield himself," Batgirl muttered, impressed despite herself. "Each hit sets up the next one."
Back to the Beatdown
Robin tried everything. Sweeps, blocks, counter-grabs—but every time he thought he'd gotten the real Naruto, the real one attacked from the opposite direction.
One Naruto punched.
Another Naruto appeared mid-strike—turned the punch into a grapple—and threw Robin into a third Naruto, who flipped him again.
It was like fighting a dojo full of prankster monks who could teleport.
Even when Robin tried to retreat, Naruto appeared mid-leap behind him, launching a spinning backfist.
Clone.
Another Naruto caught Robin in midair with a Muay Thai knee to the ribs.
Clone.
Then a chakra limb whipped out from behind a tree and pinned Robin mid-roll—so another clone could uppercut him like a launchpad.
Clone.
Robin hit the ground, coughing but grinning. "Okay! Clone-Fu is real! I admit it!"