Chapter 6: "Butterflies and Purple Demons"
In which Peter saves the world without knowing it, and Naruto gives him the talk about why details matter.
To say Peter was just "walking home" would be an understatement.
He was brooding.
The scientific equivalent of storming dramatically out of a movie scene—except his movie was a live-action docuseries titled "College Student with Superpowers, Zero Budget, and One Too Many Emotions."
So, naturally, when the universe heard Peter thinking, "Maybe tonight I'll finally get some sleep," it responded with sirens.
Police sirens.
And a very tense-looking Mexican restaurant surrounded by cops who clearly wished they'd called in sick.
Peter's instincts kicked in. His senses sharpened like a whetstone had just kissed his brain. He ducked into an alley, his eyes scanning the scene.
Then he saw it.
Through the window—him.
A man with skin the color of a grape-flavored Jolly Rancher, calmly eating steak fajitas in the middle of a hostage situation.
Zebediah Killgrave.
The Purple Man.
Mind-controller. War criminal. Serial boundary-violator.
Sitting there like he was writing a Yelp review.
And the woman standing in front of him—eyes glazed over, limbs stiff—was clearly his unwilling human shield.
Peter felt a flash of rage.
"This isn't a drill," he muttered under his breath. "This is one of those moments."
He needed a plan.
A distraction.
A full Avengers-level team wouldn't hurt either.
Instead, he got Naruto.
"I'll help you out this time," the familiar voice said inside Peter's mind, calm and composed. "You might end up killing someone by mistake. Remember this feeling as I move now."
And before Peter could ask, "Wait, what do you mean by—?"
Everything shifted.
Enter: Tactical Spider-Man Mode
A dark suit—sleek, streamlined, and built for stealth—materialized around him like something out of a video game cutscene. The white spider on his chest glowed faintly as chakra pulsed through it.
Peter didn't just feel stronger.
He felt… surgical.
And then Naruto moved.
One leap—silent and powerful—brought them to the roof of the restaurant's opposite building.
"Come here."
THWIP.
A web lanced across the air like a lightning strike.
It hit Killgrave square in the chest.
Before he could even say "Wait, what—", he was yanked through the window like yesterday's trash, glass exploding around him in slow motion.
The scream was cut short as he crashed onto the rooftop with a crunch that sounded like a bowl of cereal being stepped on.
Killgrave groaned.
Then sneered.
Then, of course, tried to pull his usual mind-control routine.
"Kneel."
Nothing.
"Let me go."
Still nothing.
The man in black just stared at him—calm, unblinking, deeply unimpressed.
"Stop your nonsense, Purple," the voice said. "Your worthless power won't work on me."
And just like that, Killgrave realized something terrifying:
He was completely outmatched.
A tiny prick at his neck was the last thing he registered.
A special chakra-infused neurotoxin, invisible to most scans, laced with just enough sedative to turn a warlord into a houseplant.
His world tilted.
His thoughts faded.
He collapsed.
Peter—still inside the suit, still watching—felt a strange silence settle over him.
A guilty voice whispered that it was too much. That maybe there was another way.
But Naruto's voice cut through the doubt.
"Some enemies require extreme measures, Peter. The consequences of letting them walk free could be devastating. This man can control minds—you understand how dangerous that is, don't you?"
Peter swallowed hard.
He remembered the woman shielding Killgrave. The way her eyes begged for freedom, even if her body obeyed without question.
He nodded.
He understood.
"It doesn't feel good," Peter whispered back.
"It's not supposed to. But it was necessary."
As the suit dissolved around him, Naruto's chakra fading like mist, Peter stood on the rooftop for a long time—staring at the unconscious monster below.
Not every villain came with a cape and a speech.
Some came with control.
And Peter had just learned that sometimes?
Control had to be taken away—before it took everything else.
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The city below hummed—cars, people, life. Normal life.
He didn't feel normal.
How could he?
He had taken down Killgrave.
But it didn't feel like a fight. It felt like stomping on a snake that had just started to slither out of its hole.
And still… something inside him twisted, unsure.
"You did more than you realize," Naruto's voice echoed gently in Peter's head, like a teacher arriving at the exact moment the student's doubt crested.
Peter didn't answer at first.
He just listened.
"That move—stopping Killgrave—was small to you. But sometimes, small things shift the entire world. One feather on the scale can break the balance."
Peter closed his eyes, breathing slowly. "He was just one man," he said quietly. "A twisted one, yeah, but… he hadn't done anything big yet. I don't even know if it was my place to—"
"He would have," Naruto interrupted softly. "And what he would have done… Peter, it was monstrous."
And so Naruto told him.
Jessica Jones.
A powerful woman who was just beginning her hero's journey.
Tonight, she was supposed to walk into that restaurant—just grabbing dinner. Simple.
Killgrave would've seen her.
And that would've been it.
For eight months, she would've been his toy.
Her mind broken. Her will eroded. Her dignity turned into performance.
He would've made her beg.
Made her strip.
Made her smile.
He would've turned her pain into entertainment.
Peter gritted his teeth, nausea tightening his chest.
And she wouldn't be the only one.
College girls—his classmates, strangers—forced to dance and obey like puppets, with Jessica watching from the corner, helpless.
But it wouldn't have ended there.
Killgrave would've handed her a command.
"Kill Daredevil."
But Jessica would've misfired.
She would've gone after Scarlet Witch instead. Her mind, already crumbling, would've seen Wanda's red cloak and snapped.
A war would've followed.
The kind no Avenger could undo cleanly.
And then Doom would've come.
Not to stop Killgrave.
To recruit him.
And amplify him.
"His pheromones—already dangerous—would've covered the globe. Doom would've ruled not with weapons or ideas, but with scent. With chemical compliance. With absolute submission."
Peter felt cold.
"So… what you're saying is—today I didn't just stop a creep."
"You stopped a planetary extinction of free will."
Peter let the words sit.
He didn't speak. He couldn't.
The weight of it was real now. Not just heroics and headlines. This was lives. Futures. Entire timelines.
"You see, Peter?" Naruto continued. "That woman in the restaurant? The one you saved without thinking? She would've been the trigger. One person. One broken life. And from that fracture, the whole world would've crumbled."
Peter looked down at his hands.
They weren't trembling.
But he could feel the weight in them all the same.
"I just reacted," he said. "I didn't know any of this."
"And that's the lesson."
Naruto's voice was calm now. Like a flame warming a dark room.
"You don't have to know everything, Peter. You just have to do what's right when you see it. Don't underestimate the power of small acts. A whisper in the right moment can silence a war."
"A single heartbeat of courage can rewrite history."
Peter closed his eyes, letting that settle deep.
He had saved the world today.
And no one would ever know.
No statue.
No headlines.
No parade.
Peter stood up and looked over the city again.
The lights twinkled like little dreams waiting to be protected.
"Alright," he whispered to the wind. "I'll keep watching. Even the small stuff."
And somewhere in the space between universes, Naruto smiled.
"Good. Because greatness begins where no one else is looking."
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The rooftop was windy.
Not "bad hair day" windy. More like "hold onto your masked face because your voice might carry across Brooklyn" windy.
Which, luckily for Peter, was the whole idea.
Standing tall—with one unconscious mind-controlling psycho dangling by the collar like a sack of laundry—Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, took a deep breath.
This was it.
His moment.
Time to go full superhero public relations mode.
He activated the chakra seal Naruto had placed near his throat—kind of like a magical Bluetooth megaphone—and cleared his throat.
"Hello everyone!" he began, voice echoing like thunder but with the awkward cheer of someone giving a school presentation without notes. "My name is Spider-Man, and I am your friendly neighborhood hero."
Down below, people stopped in their tracks. Phones rose like a swarm of metallic birds. Somewhere, a lady dropped her coffee in slow motion.
"I'm new at this, but I'll do my best to help lower crime and keep everyone safe."
He adjusted Killgrave's limp body for dramatic effect. You know, just in case holding a knocked-out villain while giving a speech wasn't enough of a statement.
"I'm not all-knowing, and my powers have limits… but I'll take down the threats to our city." He glanced out across the rooftops. "So let's work together, okay?"
The crowd didn't cheer.
Yet.
Mostly because the NYPD were still aiming rifles at him like he'd just shoplifted the moon.
Down in the restaurant, where the whole mess started, chairs were overturned, glass scattered like confetti at a disaster-themed birthday party. Nearly everyone was unconscious—sleeping peacefully, thanks to Naruto's chakra suppression mist.
Except her.
Jessica Jones.
A.K.A. Jewel.
She pushed herself off the ground, legs trembling. Her hands clenched into fists, her breath uneven.
The images Killgrave had planted in her mind still clawed at her sanity—visions of leashes, mocking laughter, puppet strings she couldn't cut.
She stared up at Spider-Man, this new hero who had swept in like a flash of red and black lightning.
He had saved her.
Not just from Killgrave's orders.
From something worse.
Herself.
"Wait!" she shouted, stumbling out of the broken doors and into the open street. Her voice cracked but carried. "That Purple Man is the reason for the fighting!"
The police faltered.
They looked between her and the man in the sky like they'd just realized their math homework had been filled with the wrong formula.
Up above, Spider-Man—Peter—nodded and raised Killgrave higher like a prize at a very disturbing raffle.
"Yes. This man has the ability to control minds." His voice remained calm, but now it had the weight of command. "Unless you have a way to permanently strip him of his powers, I strongly recommend keeping him asleep."
He took a step forward, ensuring everyone heard the next part.
"His crimes include: rape, murder, running a criminal empire, drug and weapon trafficking, causing wars—" he paused for effect, "—and being a really terrible dinner guest."
Someone in the crowd coughed awkwardly.
Jessica's face hardened. "He made me see… things," she muttered, but then louder: "He was going to enslave me."
There it was.
Silence.
Real, city-wide, pin-drop silence.
A young woman's voice telling the truth, and for once, the world listened.
Spider-Man slowly descended, landing lightly on a nearby lamppost with ninja-level precision.
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Back on the rooftop, Naruto's voice echoed in Peter's mind again.
"You see it now, don't you? One man. One moment. One decision."
Peter watched the police place Killgrave into a high-security containment chamber.
"People underestimate the small things, Peter. The boring things. But it's the flicker of a candle that lights a wildfire."
Peter folded his arms, wind tousling his suit.
"So… what now?" he whispered to the sky.
"Now?" Naruto replied. "Now you go home. Finish your ramen. And start designing those gadgets. You've got a world to protect, one screw at a time."