A/N: I would like to admit that this chapter was a bit of a struggle for me to write but I hope that everyone enjoys reading this chapter. I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourites and follows as well as everyone who reviewed the last chapter.
"Inko, what are you doing here?"
Naruto couldn't stop herself from asking these questions when Inko had knocked on her door the next day. The number of times that her neighbour knocked on her door was surprisingly very little. With the both of them being so busy with their part-time jobs and taking care of their kids, they barely had the time to chat. In fact, she forgotten the last time that the two of them had the time to chat.
"I know you are busy Naruto but I would like to have a chat with you," Inko said, smoothing her skirt down. The green-haired woman flickered her eyes around her small apartment and Naruto felt the sudden urge to blush. Why hadn't she tidy the apartment up? Every time she visited the woman, her apartment was flawless while her apartment was a huge mess. Taking a deep breath, the young woman gestured for her neighbour to come in.
While Inko took a seat on her couch, Naruto picked up the numerous drawings her daughter made and the toys that Hikaru left lying around on the ground. Her heart cracked when she saw the family drawing that her daughter made. It was just the two of them. If she had just been a little bit more careful in her attack than Hikaru would know what her Daddy looked like.
"Do you want tea or coffee?" Naruto asked, heading towards the kitchen.
The older woman took a deep breath. "Some coffee would be nice."
Nodding her head, the blonde quickly prepared the cup of coffee and took her seat beside the woman, who grabbed the drink with shaking hands. What was the woman nervous about? She had never said a bad word to the woman, always thanking her for picking up her daughter. Unlike some of the other neighbours, Naruto always greeted her whenever she had the chance so what was wrong? People of this world was strange.
"What do you want to talk about?"
The older woman bit her lips and looked at her hands. "I want to talk to you about Izuku."
Izuku? What about…oh the boy must have told her about what she planned to do for him. Swirling the drink around, the blonde could only stare at the older woman and waited for her to tell her about the issues that she had with her son. If there was one thing Naruto couldn't deny, it was the fact that this woman loved her son.
"What about Izuku?" Naruto finally asked, taking a sip of her coffee. Was the woman going to complain that her son couldn't walk properly? What did she want to talk to her about?
"Izuku-kun told me that you have started to train him," Inko said. "I'm glad that you have taken an interest in my son's dream but do you really think you can do it? Do you really believe that you could help my son accomplish his dream of becoming a hero? Because if you don't believe it then stop right now before you break his heart. I don't want to see him become disappointed that he couldn't enter Yuuei's Heroic Department."
If she didn't have Hikaru then Naruto would never understand why her neighbour would ask her these questions. She wouldn't understand the dilemma the woman must be feeling at the thought that her child might have his dreams ruined. If her daughter came to her and tell her that there was a chance that she could get into her dream school then she would be pretty concerned too.
She would want to meet the person that was making these claims.
"I can't promise that Izuku can get into Yuuei High," Naruto finally said, putting down her cup of coffee. "I'm a lot of things but I can't make these kinds of promises, because I don't have a quirk that can predict the future. If he wants to get into Yuuei High then it is all up to him, but I will help him get there. I will teach him how to fight because god knows that his brains won't get him far."
Inko swirled her drink. "Izuku always dreamed of becoming a hero and when he said that you will help him enter Yuuei High, I just got worried. It is my fault that he doesn't have a quirk and it is my fault that I haven't been supportive enough but Naruto, I don't know what to do if this fails."
"Why do you think it will fail? You think it will be hard for him to get in because of his lack of quirk?" Naruto asked her. "It is going to be tough for him but Izuku isn't going to give up. I have seen a lot of quitters in my life and your son isn't a quitter. I'm certain that even if he doesn't get into Yuuei that he would find another way to become a hero."
The way the boy analysed those heroes and ranted about their powers told her that the boy was passionate about them. The number of times Hikaru raved about the boy's skills told her that was where his talents lay. Unlike some of the heroes that she had seen on television, the blonde knew that if given the opportunity that the boy would become an amazing hero.
"I really want to believe that he will get in but I have my doubts," Inko whispered. "The chances of a quirkless person becoming a hero is nearly zero. My son has so many things against him and I can't help but feel like it is my fault that he wasn't born with a quirk."
The blue-eyed woman took a sip of her coffee before saying, "It isn't your fault that Izuku doesn't have a quirk and you are right, he has a very low chance of becoming a hero but there is a chance. I know Izuku and he probably figured out that there was only a slight chance of this working but he knows that this is still a chance and that he can increase the chance if he worked hard…but if you don't want to believe in me, then believe in Izuku."
Because the only thing that would hurt the boy was if he knew that his mother had her own doubts about their training regime.
"Um Uzumaki-sensei…why are you carrying wristbands?"
Izuku couldn't stop himself from asking the question when he came over to his neighbour's house. He knew he shouldn't ask about it but the way that Hikaru was staring at it with resentment told him that he might be in trouble. After all, there were only few things that made the kindergartener angry with her mother. In fact when he took a closer look at Hikaru, he noticed that there were two wristbands on her hands.
"I decided to go a little bit old school when it comes to lifting weights," Naruto answered as she juggled the wristbands with just one hand. "I don't know how people in the city does it but back in the olden days in my village, they would put weights on their arms and legs to not only increase speed but to get some strength. Hikaru and you are very weak, which is unacceptable, so to fix that…I decided to get these wristbands and shoes custom made for you."
He should be happy with the fact that Naruto was doing so many things for him but the gleeful tone in her voice just terrified him. Ever since he started training with her, he came to realize that the woman was a complete sadist. The first big clue that hinted her sadism was when she laughed at their misery. How could the woman laugh at the fact that they were in pain? It was just cruel.
"Izuku-kun, aren't you going to try it on?" Naruto asked, pushing the wristbands towards him.
"I-I will but I just have one question, what is the weight of the wristband?" Izuku asked, staring hesitantly at the green wristbands.
"Each wristband is around 5kg which means that the combined weight would be 20 since there are four of them," Naruto answered. "I thought of making it higher but then I considered that I needed you to be able to run with these, so out of mercy, I made it less heavy."
Izuku blinked his eyes and picked up the wristbands, grimacing when he felt the weight of the bands pulling his hands down. He had never lifted five kilograms before so this was really going to be a big step for him. If his mother knew what this woman planned to do then there was no doubt that in his mind that she would complain. He was even tempted to complain about how unfair this was but he wanted to become a hero.
He wanted to be a hero so badly that he would do anything to get there.
"When are you going to teach us how to kick butt?" Hikaru asked her mother while he slipped on the wristbands and socks. "I want to be able to kick some people's asses, Mummy!"
The young woman pinched her nose at those words. "This is just proof that you are my daughter, if I ever thought that you didn't inherit any of my traits then that impatience of yours is evidence. Don't get me wrong but your father was impatient but he didn't immediately try to kick people's butt."
Hikaru stiffened at the mention of her father and Izuku wondered if the black-haired girl didn't like the mention of her father. In all his time babysitting the five-year-old girl, she never really talked about her father. She never stated whether the man was dead or alive, although the lack of photos indicated that he wasn't a part of their lives. He glanced to the blond-haired woman who stared at the window.
"He isn't my father," Hikaru said softly. "How can a dead man be my father? A father is someone that is always there for us and he has never been there for us."
The green-haired boy could only stare at the blond-haired woman and the little girl. For the first time since he gotten to know the young woman, there was only a blank expression on the woman's face. Naruto had always been expressive from the loudness of her voice to the large smile on her face. She rarely cried although the woman was often stressed out from working multiple jobs.
"There are a lot of things that I accept Hikaru but if there is one thing I won't accept is you disrespecting your father," Naruto said, clenching her hands into a fist. "He might be dead but that man would have adored you. He might be gone but you would have been his pride and joy. He would have given you the world if he could! Just because he died, doesn't mean that he isn't your father!"
The black-haired girl rolled her eyes. "And how would you know that? How would you know what a dead man thinks? Face it, Mummy! You are living a fantasy!"
"Hikaru!" Izuku yelled. "Don't say these things to your mother! And do you even know what you are saying!"
"My daughter knows what she is saying, Izuku," Naruto said, standing up from her seat. "And Hikaru, before I was involved with your father, I was his best-friend. I knew his dreams and your father always dreamt of having a family. Now I'm sorry to bother you Izuku but could you watch my daughter while I go out for a walk? Because god knows that I can't be in this room when she makes me angry."
Izuku opened his mouth to tell her not to go but the pain in her eyes was shining through. He couldn't force his neighbour to stay with her daughter, not when she was so furious with her child. In fact, with how cruel Hikaru had been to say those words to her mother, it was better for the young woman to go and have some times to think about it.
It must hurt her feelings to know that her daughter disrespected her father.
Some people eat when they were upset while others just needed to cry their heart out before becoming happy again. Naruto wasn't like those people when upset. When she felt upset or frustrated about anything, she would go out for a walk in the park. Walking allowed her to gather her thoughts and see where she went wrong. Walking also meant that she could take her time and breath in the fresh air, or rather as fresh as the air in this world could be.
What the hell did she do wrong when it came to raising Hikaru? What had she done to make her daughter think that because her father died before she was born that he wasn't her father? It wasn't like she kept her father a secret from her. It wasn't like she told her the truth about how damaged her father was. All Naruto did was tell her that she acted like her father, looked like her father and was smart like him. Was it wrong? She asked herself, slipping her hands into her pockets.
Maybe it was because she didn't have any pictures of her father, Naruto reasoned with herself, looking up at the clear blue sky. Maybe if Hikaru could put a face to the name then she wouldn't act like this. Maybe if she showed her daughter the sketches that she made of Sasuke then things would be better. It wasn't like she kept the sketches to herself but there were pages of her sketchbook that was just too gruesome for a five-year-old to see.
Was she a bad mother for trying to keep her child just a little bit more innocent? Was it wrong that she wanted Hikaru to see her father as a good person? If they had been in Konoha, her daughter would have been hurt for what Sasuke did. Even though he changed in the last minute, Naruto knew that there would be so many people who would think that her best friend was a criminal.
They might hurt her daughter just for that reason.
Shaking her head, Naruto took a seat on the bench and stared at the kids, who were running around with that All Might action figure. If there was one thing that Naruto still didn't understand, it was the idea of having heroes as some flashy job. Why should someone be paid to save someone? Why should that person have his name flashed on television like some celebrity? It made the acts done by real heroes to be nothing.
She hated how there were heroes out there that didn't give a damn about the people around them.
"I hate to ask this but lady are you okay?"
Naruto blinked her eyes and turned her head to find the source of the voice.; only to blink her eyes when she saw that it was the same strange man from yesterday. Was he following her? Or was it coincidence that they met the next day? She couldn't help but ask herself as the man take a seat beside her. It was probably the latter because she couldn't suddenly decide that he was following her from just one day.
"Why should I talk to a guy, who I barely met, about my problems?" Naruto asked him, clasping her hands together and staring at the laughing kids. "You could be a serial killer for all I know since you were crawling around in a sleeping bag."
The black-haired man blinked his eyes at her and said, "You realize that nothing you said made any sense, right? And has anyone told you that you have an overactive imagination? If I were a serial killer than why haven't I tried to lull you to somewhere quiet, where I can kill you?"
Naruto could only scowl at the man's smartass reply. It made perfect sense in her mind since she didn't know a damn thing about the man. What was she going to do? Whine about the fact that her kid hates her to a stranger? Even she wasn't stupid enough to do that. Mothers weren't supposed to whine about their kids even if their kids hurt their feelings. She was supposed to make her child seem like an angel, but it was hard when her daughter just decided that her mother was delusional.
"You might be a smart villain who is trying to make me drop my guard before attacking me," Naruto pointed out, looking at the smiling kids. "It would be something I would do if I want to kill someone then I would lure them to a false sense of security before attacking them. Anyways I know you aren't a villain since you didn't want to ask me but I guess you can't help but ask about other people's wellbeing."
He quirked his eyebrow at her but the blond-haired woman just ignored him and focused her attention on the smiling kids, who were now running back to their parents. Watching the kids being spurn around by their fathers and having their mother smiling at them made her wonder if her daughter hated Sasuke for not doing those things to her. Maybe Hikaru wanted the perfect family…maybe she wasn't happy just to have a mother.
"Since you made a guess about me then I am going to make the assumption that you are having problem with a kid," the man commented, snapping her out of her train of thought. He stared at the smiling kids and their parents before turning his attention to her. "Is my presumption correct?"
"It must be obvious if a stranger can figure out my problems," Naruto grumbled, pushing a strand of her hair back. "Yeah, I am having problems with my five-year-old daughter but what gave that away?"
The man thinned his lips and pointed to the smiling kids and their parents. "The fact that you look at those parents with envy and not longing tells me that. Secondly, you had your eyes on those kids for a long time and you were staring at them with envy. If I were to put those factors along with the fact that you didn't deny you have a problem, then it leads to you having issues with a kid. Admittedly, I didn't think you have a child but more to the fact that you wanted a kid."
He got all that from just one simple look? There weren't many people that could analysis someone's behaviour from just one simple observation. The only people Naruto knew, who had that level of intellect were Shikamaru, Izuku, Kakashi-sensei and Shino. Not even Hinata would be able to notice her problem and she was her best friend. It was actually quite terrifying that there was another person, who could do that.
"Does anyone tell you that it is scary how good your observations are?" Naruto finally asked. "Because honestly there is one other person that I know with your level of intellect is my neighbour's son and let me tell you that kid uses his observation on heroes' quirks."
The man nodded his head and stared at her for a good couple of seconds before finally asking. "You don't want to talk about your problem do you?"
"If I talk to you about my daughter then it means admitting that I have a problem," Naruto admitted. "I have issues with my daughter but it isn't like it is enough for me to rant about it. By the time I get back home, Hikaru will apologise to me…she always does that. She might say harsh words that hurt my feelings but in the end, she will always apologize because she doesn't know how to say things gently."
It was something Hikaru inherited from her because Naruto never knew how to put things gently. She knew how to lie but Naruto didn't want her daughter to be a liar like her. She didn't want her daughter to put on a mask like Naruto had been forced to do…and maybe that was why her daughter's words hurt.
Because Hikaru couldn't pretend for just one moment that she was fine with their situation.
"You know I met you twice and I told you about my kid but I never really introduced myself," Naruto said, holding her hand out to the man. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto but you can call me Naruto."
He stared at her for a good couple of seconds before finally saying:
"Aizawa Shota."
And that was how Naruto met Aizawa
"Hikaru, why did you say those horrible things to your Mum? Do you know how much your words hurt her?"
Izuku couldn't help but ask the little girl, who was struggling to walk towards the couch. It had been half an hour since Uzumaki-san left him alone with Hikaru and not once had the five-year-old made any attempt to explain herself to him. At first, he waited for the black-haired girl to tell him about her problems but the girl only folded her arms against her chest and stared out at the clock. Only when she tried to make her way to the couch, did he ask her the questions.
Hikaru stopped walking and stared at him. "Mummy always compare me to Sasuke from the way I look to the way I talk to her. She always say he would have been proud of having me as a daughter but Mummy never tells me how he died. Mummy never showed me any photos of him. She always screams his name, telling him to come back…and I don't want her to think I'm like him. I don't want her to think that I'm like the man that abandoned us."
"Hikaru…"
"Mummy always tells me that man was smart and that he would do anything to protect his family," Hikaru continued. "She tells me that he loved tomatoes and that he was a very strong man but she never tells me about the bad things about him. Mummy never tells me about why he left us. She never tells me if he ever yelled like one of my friend's Daddy. She never tells me about the bad things about him. She thinks I don't know that no one is perfect when I know that not even Mummy is perfect."
"Your Mum isn't the only one who tries to paint a good picture of your father, my mother does that too, Hikaru," Izuku admitted and he really wasn't lying. He didn't really know much about his father except that he had a fire quirk and that he worked overseas. "But I still consider my father…my father?"
Hikaru snorted. "But you have memories of him, don't you?"
"Yes."
The black-haired girl slumped her shoulders and rubbed her eyes. "Then it is different, Izuku. You know what your Daddy looks like but I have no idea what that man looks like except that he has my hair colour and black eyes…I don't have any memories of him. Whenever my friends talk about how their Daddy take them to the park or how they played with them, I feel jealous because I don't have that experience. I won't ever have that experience because he abandon us."
"But you have a mother that would do anything for you," Izuku pointed out and the black-haired girl blinked her eyes. "You might not have your father but Naruto always does her best to be there for you. Do you know how many times your Mum complains about the fact that she can't always be there for you? Your Mummy attends all your events and she never hesitates to brag about you. Your Mum always tries to make you happy and encourages you to be yourself…not many people have that."
"Didn't Inko encourage your dream?" Hikaru asked, blinking her eyes.
Izuku hesitated before finally shaking his head. "Mum wants me to give up on my dream because I don't have a quirk. She is scared for me and she tries to reason with me but I can't help it. Your Mum believed in me despite my lack of quirk…and I can't help but envy you for having a mother like that."
"Mummy is cool, isn't she?" Hikaru said softly, looking at the photo of the two of them. "You know most of the kids in my kindergarten thinks the coolest superhero is All Might…but to me, Mummy is the best superhero out there. She isn't a professional hero but Mummy always smiles and tell me that everything is going to be alright even when I know it isn't alright. I know if I am ever in trouble that she will protect me with everything she got. I want to be a pro Hero because I want to be like her but to the rest of the world."
"You want to be the next symbol of Peace?" Izuku asked, ruffling her hair.
The black-haired girl shook her head.
"I just want people to know that when they look at me that everything will be alright…just like I do whenever Mummy protects me from the monsters in my dream. I want to become the Hokage in her stories…the shadow that protects the people."
A/N: Please review and tell me what you think about this chapter, especially between the interactions between the characters.
