Connecting the Dots

Superman: "Bruce, tell me again why this arm is so important."

Batman: "Because it came from another dimension."

—Opening Lines

A desperate move by Kakashi sends the rookies into another dimension, revealing a world crisis for both the Justice League and the Teen Titans.

Essentially runs off the premise that Kakashi's MS technique Kamui sends things to the DC universe. This gets out of hand when he accidentally sends the Konoha 11 plus Team Hebi to the DC world. The Justice League has to keep their rowdy visitors in line while trying to figure out a way to send them home. Spectre and a god-powered Luthor are also involved...

If you love the rookie twelve, this is the fic for you. Every one of them gets a crowning moment of awesome (yes, even Ten-Ten; ESPECIALLY Ten-Ten). The story is set in the somewhat broken continuity of the DCAU, but numerous characters from the larger DC universe (and from outside of it) make cameo appearances or more. At over 300,000 words, its a long read, but worth it. NaruHina is part of the story, but it is a minor part and shouldn't turn you away from this excellent fic. Now complete.

Can be read here

Tropes used in Connecting the Dots include:

• Actor Allusion: Likely an unintentional example, but Sasuke ends up becoming the second character Yuri Lowenthal has voiced to wear an Eyepatch of Power.
• Alternate Universe: In Story; The main twelve of Konoha + Sasuke's Hebi group get caught in Kakashi's Sharingan Warping Technique. The result is they end up scattered about the DC universe.
• Artificial Limbs: Tenten loses a hand in her escape from Lex Luthor's captivity, but Cyborg and Fixit give her a mechanical arm with a built in laser gun. She is very pleased.
• Brought Down to Normal: The Spectre strips Sasuke of his chakra and dumps him in Gotham City. It goes about as well as you'd expect.
• Character Development: While he never performs a Heel Face Turn, Sasuke shows subtle signs of developing some measure of empathy after his experiences in Gotham City.
  • and then the final scene in Chapter 33 has him in charge of Otogakure, welcomed by Naruto into the Shinobi Alliance, cementing his Heel Face Turn.
• Child Soldiers: When first meeting Neji, Green Lantern is disturbed by how much of a professional soldier the seventeen year old is. Especially when he mentions that he started at age twelve.
• Continuity Nod: The plastic tips at the end of shoelaces are called aglets.
• Culture Clash: A major recurring theme. Of particular note is how bizarre the treatment of supervillains is to the ninjas.
• Dynamic Entry: Is shouted by none other than the Trope Namer himself when he saves Mr. Terrific and Green Arrow from Bane.
• Enemy Mine: Naruto and Sasuke make a formidable pair against Darkthor.
• Eye Scream: Sasuke loses his left eye in the fight with Kyuubi Naruto
  • Later Neji shoots Bizarro right in the eye with a Blue Kryptonite arrow.
  • Also later Luthor/Darkseid rips out Kakashi's Sharingan.
• Flat Earth Atheist: Mr. Terrific insists there's a logical explanation for all the supernatural events going on in the story, to the annoyance of several characters, particularly Deadman and Blue Devil.
• For Want of a Nail: A chapter with Karin as the viewpoint character reveals that in this version of the Naruto story, Sasuke didn't abandon Juugo and Suigetsu during the attack on the Kages, which in turn lead to Taka taking down Danzo and leaving the area before Sakura could reach them. It's never suggested to be the case, but this may have been what eventually led to the Kakashi led mission to take down Sasuke, and in turn the events of the story.
• Fusion Dance: "I was once Luthor. I was once Darkseid...Now I am both."
• Hannibal Lecture: Lex Luthor /Darkseid gives a particularly devastating one to the Superman after completing the Anti-Life Equation.
• Heroic BSOD: Mr. Terrific has a small one when Hinata unwittingly challenges his Arbitrary Skepticism by revealing details about one of his experiences with The Spectre she should, in theory, have no way of knowing.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All the chapters have words that end with "-tion" for titles.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Did you miss the part up there where it said "Justice League" and "Naruto?" There a few thousand pop culture references sprinkled around also.
  • One particularly great moment is when Death of the Endless shows up.
• Ironic Echo: "It's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission."
• Joker Immunity: Lampshaded in a discussion between Mr. Terrific and James Corrigan about how only the heroes or villains ever seem to cheat death while civilians tend to stay dead.
• Mathematician's Answer

Huntress: "Just tell me why he [Kiba] is in his boxers."
Question: "Because I took off his pants."

• Mr. Exposition: The Spectre, especially in the earlier chapters. Luthor too, to a lesser extent.
• Mythology Gag: To help verify Hinata's story about How We Got Here, Lois Lane asks her to use her Byakugan to identify what color underwear she's wearing.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Kakashi finally decides to teleport himself (and Gai) to The DCAU, and appears right in front of Lex Luthor, who rips the Mangekyou Sharingan out of his head and uses it to complete The Anti-Life Equation.
• Poor Communication Kills: Until J'onn uses his telepathy to implant the English language into their heads, the Rookie Twelve can only speak authentic Japanese. Much conflict initially ensues because neither party literally understands the other.
• Running Gag: "Unless it IS!" "Shut up, Flash."
  • It takes a lot to convince Sai that he's not in a genjutsu.
• Seen It a Million Times: Robin's explanation for his reaction to being forced to constantly relive his parent's deaths via Tsukiyomi.
• Smart People Play Chess: Shikamaru vs. Lex Luthor, frequently. At the ending, Shikamaru vs. the Goddamned Batman. Shikamaru wins before Batman even notices.
• Superpower Meltdown: Ino, unaware and untrained in her newly unlocked telepathic abilities, ends up unintentionally mind raping her friends. It takes Sai, and a handful of people with a Split Personality Takeover to reach her and rein her in.
• This Is Reality: When surfing the internet, Beast Boy introduces the concept of fanfiction to Kiba. When Kiba asks him if there are any fanfics of himself, Beast Boy points out that of course there isn't, because he's real, and that would be creepy.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: The ninjas really don't understand this pillar of the DC Universe.
• Title Drop: Reverend McCay does this when his Epiphany Therapy to Sasuke segues into discussing his own raison d'être.

"Alex, as you get older, you'll learn everyone suffers, and everyone thinks that they suffer alone. Even if they share their troubles with others, they think their own brand of sorrow is special and incomprehensible by anyone else. They feel like… like little dots. Like little, isolated dots of suffering, completely separate."

"And what so few people understand is that they don't HAVE to be that way. They don't understand how to USE that suffering, to use it to understand others and to help others. The dots don't like to reach out to other dots, they don't try to connect. As minister, that's part of my job. To reach out to the heartaches in the pew and bring them into contact with each other. And, while I'm at it, to try and guess at the order to the dots. To… connect the dots, as it were, and see the overarching pattern to it all."

• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: This is largely what Norman McCay dies of. May also be considered Too Cool to Live.
• Took a Level In Badass: Tenten likes automatic weaponry.
• Trauma Conga Line: Ooooh does Sasuke get it bad here. Halfway through the story, he loses his left eye in a fight with Kyuubi Naruto, then gets lectured by The Spectre about how is vengeance-seeking will be his downfall. The Spectre then strips him of his chakra, forcing him to commit acts of petty burglary, which gets a partner he recruited killed and his leg mangled by a shotgun. And then Johnny Rancid's gang finds him and beats him up for fun before deciding he's Not Worth Killing. Only then does he decide he Ain't Too Proud to Beg in the streets of Gotham. Fortunately, at that point, it was the only thing that prevented him from crossing the Moral Event Horizon. He gradually begins to recuperate and salvage his dignity after meeting Norman McCay.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Sasuke's Sword of Kusanagi vs Wonder Woman's Bracers of Athena
  • The sword dents the bracers. Both characters are flabbergasted, for different reasons.
• Wham! Episode: Chapter 33 came nearly a year after the story was supposedly complete. Before that, Chapter 32 had Batman and Wonder Woman peeking in at another dimension watching a costumed guy shoot webs at his enemies.
• World of Cardboard Speech: More like World of Cardboard Lessons as Superman starts his training of Naruto.
• You No Take Candle: The mysterious passerby who hands a destitute Sasuke a twenty dollar bill speaks this way.
  • This character is a cameo by Pete from The Muppets Take Manhattan, who delivers the exact same lines in this way.