Disclaimer: Like everybody else on fanfiction, I own nothing.
"Standard" - Normal Speaking
'Italics' - Thoughts
November - seven Months later
Naruto stares out the window from the classroom. Despite the summer, the beauty that enthralled all of Japan began to emerge. Naruto wasn't staring at the summer emergence in a blissful daydream. Many students were starting to get distracted by Naruto's reflection of the window. The reflection gave back an empty haunting blue eye that crippled the class from completing the classwork given by Akiyama-sensei.
Akiyama-Sensei stared worriedly at Naruto, knowing what this week meant for her brightest student, but was unsure how to act as Naruto unintentionally emitted a mood that told the classroom. "If you all drop dead here, Do you think I will care?" That is what Naruto was casting right now.
"THIS GUY HAS BEEN LIKE THAT FOR THE ENTIRE WEEK. WHY IS HE IN EMO MODE." The majority of the class thought.
A Phone-call buzzed to life snapped Naruto out of his stupor. Naruto immediately grabs his bag and digs out his phone, and answers the call. The student's jaws drop to the floor, as Akiyama-sensei is pretty strict about phone usage during classes. Last week, she confiscated a phone from Mineta. He watched a video about the rising hero Mt Lady during a class at Akiyama-sensei irate.
Naruto takes one look at the caller ID and flinches, knowing the argument will be cruel for both of them. Just like the past 4 years, he gets a call from Tonomi about the same topic.
"Of all the times right, she called me while I was at school. " Naruto gives a look of gratitude to Akiyama-Sensei as she opens the classroom door and gestures outside for his privacy.
"Hello," Naruto answers, blatantly disregarding the class reactions as he heads outside the classroom with a distressed look on his face.
"Please, Naruto, why don't you change your mind? You can't do this for another year." Tonomi pleaded
Silence emitted from Naruto despite his face contorted in shame and guiltiness.
"Please, You have to. At least be there for me. It's not just for me, but they would have wanted you to visit them. It has been 5 years. I go every year, but you never did go once. You have to go this year. You know you can't keep this forever."
"You know the other 3 won't want me to be there. They still blame me for everything that happened, and I know they are right." Naruto admits in a broken voice.
"I know it's hard for us and everyone from the orphanage who survived that week. But This isn't about you or them, Naruto. This is about paying respect to your best friend, My twin Brother Toshiro." Tonomi's voice cracks as she begins to cry in frustration.
Naruto responds with a solemn tone."I will think about it. Ok, I will tell you tomorrow if I come or not."
"Promise me; you will come to the memorial." Tomomi's steeled voice caught Naruto by surprise.
"I promise," Naruto instantly says without hesitation despite his mind lurched by surprise.
"I will hold you to your word. You can bring a single person to the memorial with you if you want ." Tonomi says with an air of finality as she hangs her phone on him.
"That girl is still difficult to handle. She never changed from those days." Naruto reminisces about the days growing up in the orphanage with her and her Toshiro.
"Man, these days were the best, even if there was no one for us. We had each other." Naruto thought as he headed back to the classroom.
"Uzumaki..." Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts as the gentle concern on Akiyama-Sensei's face was shown.
"Sensei, did you hear all of that?"
"No, But I know this week is hard for you. In fact, all of the faculty staff knows. So if you want to talk, my door is open for you. Anyway, the principal just told me that you could have the rest of the week off. "
Naruto nods numbly before heading to pack his stuff
"And Uzumaki, Talk to someone. It will make you feel better."
"Sensei, Thank You, I will never forget this," as he heads out of the classroom.
Sensei, can I have my phone back now?"
"No, Mineta." Snapped Akiyama.
Gran Torino sat in his apartment eating Taiyaki for breakfast after sleeping in till 10 o'clock. To his surprise, a knock comes on the door. "Now, who could that be." As he opens the door only to find his current student standing in the doorway, still wearing his School Uniform.
"Don't you have school, kid" Gran Torino asks Naruto.
"Old Man Torino, I don't have school for the rest of the week," Naruto grumbles at him.
"Why not? The last time I checked, the school was still in session. Wait, did you get suspended?" Gran Torino sharply asks.
"No, they gave me the rest of the week off because it's that time of the year," Naruto says while he began to stretch in preparation for his training with Gran Torino.
Gran Torino began to piece everything he knows about his student from the past seven months, and it came all to a single conclusion.
"Hey kid, roughly 6 years ago, the week of Japan's Great Loss happened. The heroes only save 5 children were saved. All were from the same orphanage. The other 1300 across japan were not lucky as they were never found. You are one of the five, are you ?"
It was the wrong thing to say to Naruto as Naruto's chakra flared along with his emotion in the form of an outburst. Naruto's expression was contorted with deep self-hatred. His Sharingan blazed with rage at the old man, who stared back at him in anxiety.
"Why does everyone want me to talk about this? First, Tonomi, The teachers at my school, and now you old man. I know what happened that week. After that week, I placed my therapist in an illusion with these eyes to trick him into seeing I was doing well when I didn't want to talk about that shitty week." Naruto choked out, his voice cracking as he began to tear up before immediately began to wipe these tears away.
"A boy like him is still hurting. Even in your death All For One, you still keep hurting people." Gran Torino, though, as he closes and remembers the feeling of sadness of that day.
Gran Torino summed up his resolve and walked over to Naruto and looked him straight in the eye, and told him, "Sit down, Kid, I got something to tell you." Naruto's anger faded as he slumped down on the couch. The Sharingan faded back into Naruto's blue azure eyes.
Gran Torino sat down and stared in the eye of the troubled teen.
"Naruto, I am an old man. I have seen many things as a Pro Hero. One was the death of a good friend as she saved her successor and me from a certain villain. I was forced to run away, dragging her successor with me while she took her last stand against the villain. We never found her body. I grieved and took her successor as my student as she entrusted him to me. We both blamed ourselves for her death, But talking about it made us feel better. All Might thought of her as his own mother, and to me, she was my closest friend, and I still miss her to this day. I kept her memory alive by training All Might into the hero he is today." Finishes Gran Torino as he looks at Naruto for him to talk.
Flashes of memory danced in Naruto's mind like wildfire. A conversation he still remembers to this day.
An eight-year-old Naruto sat in the corner doing his homework while the other children played tag in the room. Suddenly, he feels a back slap from a boy whose silver eyes are strikingly similar to his twin sister. The only physical difference they had while his sister had aqua hair, his hair was jet black. Toshiro and Tonomi were the only ones Naruto was close to in the orphanage.
"Hey, Naruto, If your quirk manifests itself, will the others ignore you or not ?"Tonomi asks in a sad tone.
"I don't know, Tonomi, but the doctors told him he has two joints, but there is a quirk factor as his entire body has 2 circulatory systems. One is the blood system. The other is empty. " Toshiro said as he rolled his eyes at his sister's blunt words.
"Both of you are weird, you know. The others just keep their distance and try not to bother with me." Naruto chuckled at them
"Is that any way you say thanks, lonely kid." snarls Toshiro
To their surprise, Naruto doesn't whack Toshiro's head in retaliation for his comment as he did for the others when they called him that.
"You two are the reason why I stay at this Orphanage. Otherwise, I would have run away a long time ago, like that guy three years ago. He ran away from here while he was 11" Naruto thanked the two with a soft smile.
"Are you talking about Kai ?" Toshiro mentions the former resident troublemaker who ran away.
"Yeah, I heard last month from the matrons that Kai was fostered by a Yakuza group," Toshiro said.
"But According to the history books, yakuza don't exist any more thanks to All Might," Naruto informs them.
"You two are the definition of All Might worshipers." Tonomi snorts out.
"All Might is my favorite hero. But he's not my only favorite hero. The number 2 hero, Endeavor, is also awesome to me. I also like Edgeshot for being a Shinobi." Naruto voice filled with profound awe and admiration
"You both want to be heroes. I will be a support inventor to help you guys and the other heroes." Tonomi said enthusiastically.
"A duo like us that could work, and it would be cool to see what you invent. " Toshiro thinks as he contemplates his plans.
"Everything will work out as long as you don't drag us down by your grades Toshiro and enter U.A with us. '' Naruto smirks
"Hey, knock it off. It's not funny ." Toshiro snapped as his sister began to giggle.
"It's true you suck school. So I think you should follow Naruto and do your homework, or will you just make it. " Tonomi teases Toshiro.
"Stop that, and what will you do? Naruto if your quirk doesn't fully activate before entering U.A. It's going to be impossible for you to enter the U.A. hero course," Toshiro asked Naruto.
"There is a first for everything like you are rational like now, and when I use my quirk. I will go to U.A guys, you know." quipped Naruto before yelping in embarrassment due to his verbal tick appearing again.
Naruto began to speak to Gran Torino in a soft mannered
"My quirk didn't manifest until I was nine, So Adoption was going to be difficult for me as most who adopted a child wanted one with a quirk. One day I met a man as I was walking back from school. He told me he adopted a child years ago, and now that boy is bored and wants company. So I told him that I lived in an orphanage in this area, to which he was surprised. and then he told me he was heading to the Orphanage where I was raised and was lost, so I asked him to follow me to the Orphanage." Naruto remembers as he spoke.
Gran Torino's hands tightened around his cane as he heard the words from Naruto.
"The man then asked if I had a quirk. I told him my quirk never really manifested as the doctors have seen no sign of my quirk activating. The man then told me he never cares if someone is quirkless or not. That raised my hopes as I thought that man might adopt me." Naruto went silent after that as he remembers the horrifying events that happened next.
"Once he entered the orphanage, I introduced him to the caretakers as someone who is looking for a child to adopt, and he just killed them right there with no hesitation." continued Naruto solemnly. Naruto's mind flashes to the event that leads him to unlock his quirk and the Sharingan.
Naruto watched with horror as he could not move due to the man's spirit giving him hallucinations of his own death. Begs of mercy were muted by the white-haired man in a suit as he killed everyone in the room apart from Naruto.
"This is not what you said you would do. Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked as he began to tremble from horror.
"I only want children with quirks from the 5 generations." The man smiles coldly.
"And so I am to you. You know I never manifested my quirk, so why spare me if I don't have a quirk. I'm essentially useless to you." Naruto snapped as his fear was replaced by impotent rage at the man in the black suit, and Naruto felt his mind calm down and became unfazed by the dead bodies in front of him.
"Oh no, you weren't useless to me. Everything has its purposes as you helped me by giving me directions to this hidden trove of the 5th generation users." The white-haired man smiles.
Naruto felt unbidden anger and hatred as this man reminded something of him he always hated within the depths of his soul. Something inside him sparked, and inside Naruto, energy exploded inside him as a dam erupted and filled him with this energy. Naruto was wreathed by intense blue energy that began to create fissures in the wooden floor. His blue eyes turned red with a single tomoe spinning rapidly.
"Now things got interesting. I think Tomura will like you." The man in the suit smiled.
Naruto then lunges at him and nearly misses due to the man moving out of the way at inhuman speed. Naruo's eyes and reflexes automatically corrected his attack immediately as he spun around and kicked off the wall in a rebound before tackling the villain through the other wall behind them with a thunderous crash.
The whole building shook from the impact. Children's cries arose in the panic of feeling the building shake.
The man, unfazed by the attack, gave an amused chuckle and brushed the dust off his suit and saw Naruto laying down on the other side of the wall covered in white plaster. Naruto was on his knees panting.
"Kurogiri. Take him back to the base. The others send them to the lab." All For One orders.
"As my empire collapses because of you All Might. This is a warning to you. All Might know this for every time you strike down one of my associates. A child will be used and tossed aside by me. This is my will as the symbol of evil. " All For One chuckle.
Naruto was dazed as he couldn't hear what All For One just said and tried to stand. But to no avail, as he collapses on his knees. The blue chakra shrouding him began to dissipate into nothing. Heavy exhaustion began to settle on his body despite his resistance to it.
Suddenly a speck of black matter appeared from thin air. It began to grow in volume as it turned into a black mist and engulfed Naruto as he passed out in a dark void.
Gran Torino placed a comforting palm on Naruto's shoulder as the teenager told him what happened as he met the villain.
"I really don't remember what happened that week. The therapist told me my memories are probably suppressed because of the trauma." Naruto explains to Gran Torino, who nods silently.
"Gran Torino, I learned about this part from Tonomi when she told me at the hospital about what happened after I told her at the hospital that I don't remember what happened. Tonomi told me that she saw me with that man in the lab that she was in, but I never noticed her as a man kept talking to me. She cried as she told me that the others were from the orphanage dead, including her twin brother and other children they never met. She also told me only three others were alive when the heroes save them. They only lived as the crazy doctor shut down the experiments after her twin brother and my best friend Toshiro ran amok and destroyed the lab from the drug reactions to his quirk, which killed him." Naruto's voice trembles as he remembers the despair that hit him when he heard what happened at the hospital he woke.
Naruto's expression turned to self-resentment. " She knew I changed that week into something else. I was a different person in Tonomi's eyes as she read me with her quirk and something inside me terrified her as she couldn't look at me for a week in the hospital. She still won't tell me what she saw with her quirk."
"What do you mean she saw with her quirk," questions Gran Torino
Her quirk is called memory empathy. She is like being an empath. She can sense feelings and see images related to the person's feelings when she reads with her quirk. Using it too much makes her fall into a deep sleep for a day." Naruto explains to Gran Torino.
"So what did she exactly see with her quirk," presses Gran Torino
"She told me it's something she never wants to see again. " Naruto buries his head in his palms as he contemplates the meaning of Tonomi words.
Gran Torino felt Naruto's mood affecting him and began to speak his mind. "Kid, this was never your fault. You never knew that Maa was planning. You were a child who never was exposed to the horrors of this superhuman society. So don't blame yourself in pity and live your life remembering and respecting those who died but never let yourself be held back by these feelings. It's not what they would have wanted. So what will you do now, be a loser who complains or get stronger than this."
Naruto sat as the words struck a chord within him. "This isn't me. This isn't my way. I swore on Zabuza's and Haku's grave that I would never go back on my word. Wait, whose grave I am talking about again…?" Naruto thought those seemingly familiar names snapped's. "I don't know where these memories and named keep coming from, but they don't matter right now as I will have to go the memorial with Tonomi as I swore to never go back on my word."
Naruto just stood and thanked the elderly man with a formal bow and told him, "Thank you, Old Man Torino, thanks to you. I feel better, and I know what to do now. I will come again tomorrow for training. " Naruto says as he thanks the Old Man.
Gran Torino smiles sadly at Naruto retreating from down the street. "My life got less boring ever since I met this kid, All Might. He might not be the successor to One For All, but he has the potential …. Toshinori, the last seven months, the improvement in his quirk and its usage makes this kid a monster in combat. I know he is more special than he seems, Uzumaki Naruto. What will you show me and the world ?"
Naruto, on the train, fishes out his phone and sends a text Izuku phone number.
Naruto: Midoriya, correct me if I am wrong. Today is a day off in the American dream plan. If you are free to meet me after school, I want to ask you something?"
Within a minute, Naruto phone buzzed, indicating
Izuku: "I'm free after this class. Meet me at the school gates in 10 minutes."
Naruto: No need. I know your school is close to Tatooine Station. I am dropping by right now.
Izuku: Don't you have school right now?
Naruto: I have the week off due to personal reasons.
Naruto then walked down the path to Aldera middle school. Only to turn the corner to find the explosion boy. Both are startled to see each other. "You are Bakugo Katsuki "
"You are the extra that was stuck with me," Bakugo growls at him.
Both seemingly braced for each other's reactions. As the time they met was not good times for both of them.
"He has been training hard, but for what?" Bakugo recognizes the signs of training the other boy had.
"You have been training for the entrance exams at U.A?." Naruto asks, cautiously hearing tales of Bakugo's excellent quirk from Midroya and his aspiring to be number one.
"Eh, So you are also aiming for U.A too. I don't know what your deal is. But mark my words, whiskers, I will be number one." promises Bakugo as he begins to walk away with an arrogant smile on his face.
Both headed in the opposite direction, knowing one thing for sure: " He is strong." Both teenagers thought.
Naruto then ignored all passersby as he headed to the Aldera school gates and waited and waited.
Naruto suddenly felt a mixture of annoyance and uneasiness about Midoriya Izuku as he knew him for being punctual. "Is this a thing, now? I make people wait like Kakashi. I don't wait for someone else. I hate waiting as Sasori does." Before realizing, these names held an unexplainable familiarness just like the others.
"I think I broke a personal record for remembering unknown names and memories in a day. I got to google this one day." Naruto groans as thinking about these names made his head throb with dizziness.
A sense of intuition replaced Naruto's dizziness. As the school finished 10 minutes ago and most of the students had left the school grounds, and still Midoriya Izuku was nowhere to be seen, Naruto fired another text to Izuku.
Naruto: Midroiya, Where are you, dude?
The text was seen as read immediately but was unresponsive. Immediately Naruto felt a bad feeling about Midoriya right now.
And immediately rushed to the school building, aware he was breaking a couple of school rules as he wasn't a student of this school. He was trespassing at minimum, glancing to see a security camera facing the other direction.
Ever since the incident of him being kidnapped along with hundreds of children six years ago. Child institutions like schools have beefed security against villains or other threats. Any intruder caught will immediately call the authorities. And he will be in trouble. Still, this was a public school, and crimes rarely happened in this city due to heroes' over presence. So the maximum it had was the camera's system that worked against intruders. "
I do not need to get caught as I try to bust into this stupid school. there has to be a way to disable the security system."
"A disguise with the transformation jutsu, no, that won't work as I don't know who to transform into. " Naruto mutters.
Naruto then notices that the opposite side of the field had an electric generator. A reckless idea filled his mind. "Well, I am unpredictable. , you know," Naruto chuckled as he began to form hand seals for jutsu that came to him now quickly as it was within his affinity and took a deep breath. Gathering chakra in his stomach Wind Style: Breakthrough
Naruto expels a gust of wind that was strong enough to kick a huge amount of dirt and dust to obscure the camera sight of the entire field, and immediately Naruto rushed to the electric generator and punched it hard with a chakra enhanced strike. Naruto had dented the generator as it started firing sparks of electricity. But it wasn't enough to shut down the grid.
Naruto then, with tremendous effort, began to coat his fingers with Lightning Chakra. He learned there were 5 elements he could use with his chakra. The wind-nature chakra came to him as the easiest. Water was what he practiced the most with Gran Torino as it was the least dangerous to use. But the other elements were not really his forte, but he could still use them to a certain magnitude. Some jutsu fell out of these 5 elements, and also, some required only shaping the chakra, like the Shadow Clone Jutsu or Genjutsu or the spinning ball jutsu he saw in his dream last night.
Gran Torino told him his Quirk was powerful but required heavy control as anything wrong that happens when he executes a Justu could lead to a disaster. So Gran Torino focused on combat training using his eyes, the Sharingan and Byakugan. His body was also in good shape, thanks to Gran Torino and All Might.
Naruto's fingers began to buzz with blue sparks of electricity, and he plunges his hand to the electricity generator and flows chakra's electricity to it, essentially frying the school electricity grid. The school camera sparked and shut down from the extra surge of electricity. Naruto notices the lightning chakra has burned off his sleeve. His hand was a bit numb from using lightning chakra. Naruto activates his Byakugan to scan the building for Izuku. And finds him on the 3rd floor surrounded by two other people. Naruto rushes into the building as he fried the school security system.
Midoriya Izuku has gotten stronger in the last couple of months, but that means he still couldn't be bullied by others for being quirkless. While Kaachan has stopped ever since the slime villain, others continued, especially his former lackeys. He had a falling out with them as they ran away from the sludge villain without helping, unlike Izuku.
This falling out caused them to lash out more at Izuku.
Izuku felt them creep behind him at the end of the corridor as he headed to meet Naruto. Before he could do anything, They took his bag and pushed him, so his phone fell on the floor before they kicked it away. They took their time insulting him and bullying him against the wall. Suddenly 10 minutes later, the school lights shut down. Leaving them in the darkness.
The extended digit quirk user "I think the school forgot to pay the bills." he chuckles maliciously.
"No, they allowed me to teach you guys a lesson." the bullies heard a voice with a harsh tone behind them.
Whirling around, they found red glowing eyes with 2 tomoe in the dark. Out of the three, only Izuku recognizes the voice and these eyes.
"Who the fuck are you" yelled the brown-haired kid as he gnashed his sharp shark teeth as he uses his quirk.
"Why is he here? Oh, because he asked us to meet, and I kept him waiting." Izuku thought
"Kisame, is that you? No, you aren't blue with gills, and you don't have a big ass sword that shaves everything it touches ." Naruto asked before slapping his head.
"Oi, answer the question. Before I bite your throat off," shark-teeth asks.
Naruto just appears in a blur of speed behind him and kicks his leg in a sweeping fashion. The brown-haired kid hits his head on the marble as he falls with a resounding crack. The extended digit quirk user rushes with his finger poised at Naruto's red eyes.
Naruto then slaps the hand away and proceeds to raise his feet and boots the other bully in his stomach, and the bully begins to gasp for air as Naruto booted his breath out of him before Naruto struck him down with a savage punch knocking him to the floor.
"Who the hell are you?" Both bullies groaned in pain as they struggled to get off the ground.
Naruto then grabs their heads by the locks of their hair and glares at them with his Sharingan. Once eye contact is established, they immediately lose consciousness, their bodies slump to he drops them to the floor.
The blonde then dusts off his hands and begins to pick up Izuku's scattered belongings and stuff them into the owner's bag before speaking softly."You never told me or All Might that you were bullied at your school."
Izuku went silent as he saw Naruto's hands shaking in anger.
Naruto spoke to him with a renewed concern "Let's get out of here. I am taking you back to the beach to clean you up. You look shit. And while we are there, you are going to continue the American Dream Plan on top with one of my exercises" as he gave his fellow friend a hand.
"You are just going to leave them there," asks Izuku worriedly.
"That's the least they deserve. They have only themselves to blame for this. If it makes you feel better, they will wake up." Naruto said in a cold tone that matched the cold fury of his blue eyes.
"Please don't tell anyone else about this. I don't want them to worry about me." Izuku began to beg.
Naruto felt a twinge of sadness and a bit of hypocrisy as he sighed and said, "If you don't want me to tell anyone, you will have to tell me everything. " with a serious face.
To say Midoriya Inko is worried was an understatement. She was making her son's favorite meal for dinner that day. She was just starting to worry about where he was and why he was late for dinner.
So when he arrived late with an unknown blonde boy that wasn't Bakugo Katsuki. The blonde boy in uniform told her that he wasn't from the same school Izuku went to. Izuku looked like he was crying.
So Naturally, her motherly instincts went up the roof. Brandishing her wooden spoon at the boy in a mother's anger. "Who are you, and what have you done to my son." She says furiously.
The Boy's blue eyes widen in panic as he raises his hand in a gesture meaning no harm forgetting Izuku, which leads to him collapsing to the floor in a slump, half dead.
"Ow," groans Izuku on the floor. Which snapped his mother's attention to him as she began to worry about the state he was in.
"Midoriya, I'm so sorry, your mother has Katsudon here. So it will be okay once you ." says the boy awkwardly.
"Uzumaki, People don't feel that better once they eat their favorite food. Especially the training you put me through after you made me clean more of the beach while it was my day off." Izuku whimpers
"The training was because you have hidden all that stuff from me for seven months, and I made you clean more of the beach because there are 3 months left for the exams. " the other boy snarls at him. Before his face softened and Inko realized the boy had whiskers marks across his cheeks.
"Anyway, where are my manners? Mrs. Midoriya, my name is Uzumaki Naruto, a friend of your son..."
Naruto trailed off as Inko covered her mouth, tears filling her eyes. He stood there frozen, afraid that he did something wrong."
"Oh, my baby has a friend that cares about him!" Inko cried, wiping her eyes.
Naruto sweat-dropped and thought, "Of course, that's where he gets his crying from."
10 minutes later, Naruto sat on the living room sofa with a straight face at his friend.
" Midoriya, I think it's time I tell you something," Naruto said, nervous about the outcome of what he is about to say.
"Remember when we met, I told you about The week of Japan's Great Loss and how I was one of the five children the heroes saved. " Naruto said as he stares at the floor.
"Yeah, you said something about it." Izuku, now wary as All Might, told him that under no circumstances to ask Naruto about that week.
I want to visit a gravesite. I know you've done your homework. Everyone knows that this week is the 5th death anniversary for every child that died in the incident, and this is no excuse, but I never went to pay respect to them because I was too hung up about blaming myself for their deaths. So a childhood friend made me promise to come this year along with the other 5 who survived. So after a talk with an Old Man, I made up my mind to go there, and I am asking you to go with me this Saturday." Naruto says with
Izuku sat there as he couldn't speak after what Naruto had requested from him.
Inko sat next to Izuku. "Izuku, It's best you go with him. He will need your support," she says kindly to her son.
"I am willing to go with you to the gravesite," affirms Izuku.
Naruto was about to say something when his stomach began to growl in hunger like a wolf startling the apartment's residents.
"Damn it; I forgot to eat lunch." Naruto groans in hunger.
"You are welcome to have dinner with us. " Inko says as she begins to head to the kitchen to bring dinner.
"Usually, I am the one who cooks, but it would be a nice change to try someone else cooking," Naruto says as he thinks about the many accidents when he began cooking with Toshiro.
Naruto remembers the first time Tonomi tried his cooking when he was 8 years old. The result was surprising as Tonomi said it didn't taste bad. But when
Now his skills in the kitchen area are praised by Tonomi and Tokage. Since he only cooks for them on Sunday.
"Let's eat." Inko smiles as she lays the food out.
Tonomi was doing her homework at her apartment when the rain started. The drizzle turned into a roaring downpour. Out of frustration, she slammed her notebook shut.
Tonomi is one the most intelligent people she knew. But she couldn't focus on her homework due to the painful arguments she and Naruto had every time in this part of the year about him missing the funeral for her brother and refusing to disturb the other five who blamed him for everything that happened that week.
That week memories echoed in her dream from time to time and turned them into nightmares. The most frightening thing she remembered about that week, and she never told anyone about this. It wasn't the white-haired man in the suit. Or the doctor and his monster in his lab.
It was a video of a surveillance camera the white-haired man showed them when they asked about Naruto. Tonomi remembered the terror from herself, and Chihiro, Jin, and Yumi turned to horror as they watched the video.
Although she sees Naruto almost every week, the others refuse to see him as they believe that he was a monster that didn't care for them. She didn't blame them as they never really were close to Naruto before what happened. When Juzo and the others were saved, they vehemently told the police and pro heroes, That Naruto wasn't worth saving as he was a monster in the making. What they found shocked all of them. Naruto was in a coma, and he woke up 4 weeks later with a bit of memory of what happened. He missed the funeral for everyone. When he woke up, she told him that the others were dead.
Jin and the others blame Naruto for what happened. In comparison, Tonomi refused to leave his side after she lost her brother Toshiro. To her and Toshiro, Naruto was like another sibling. Yeah, Naruto was the mischievous brother who turned smart after the adults noticed his smartness and wit.
Yet the Naruto she saw on the video had merciless cold blue eyes. That person wasn't so lucky to receive Naruto's wrath at that time. A winged child that was related to the Doctor.
A knock on the door shook her out of her thoughts. "Who on earth would that be? It's raining buckets out there, and it's late."
She peeped through the door peephole, only to see a familiar face. She immediately snorted in surprise as she opened the door for her guest.
Naruto stood there wet-looking and a bit abashed. His wet blonde hair drips water on her carpet.
"Did you forget to bring an Umbrella?" Tonomi teases at Naruto's wet look. Before her teasing turned into a displeased face as he made her carpet wet.
Naruto then suddenly pulls her into a surprising but welcoming hug. She felt his chin on her forehead. The last time he hugged her like this, she told him what happened to Toshiro in the hospital when she cried. He jumped out of his bed, ignoring the doctor's orders and hugged her comfortingly, and held her there as she cried on his shoulder. This time only a tear fell on her, only to see Naruto had begun to cry. No, these weren't tears of grief. Naruto's eyes were filled with deep guilt and shame.
Tonomi was about to say something when Naruto spoke out, his voice cracked. "I have been a terrible piece of shit for how I ignored your words and feelings for the past five years, and for that, I'm sorry."
Tonomi felt something arise in her throat. "Yeah, you should be. You idiot." as her tears began to leak out.
"I'm going to come over to the gravesite this week, and I won't run away again. Never again from you or the others." Naruto releases his hug on Tonomi and holds her shoulder steadily.
"I know, you idiot. You were a bigger idiot than Toshiro ever was." Tonomi glares at him softly.
"What should this Idiot do to make up for my mistakes," Naruto says as he winces.
"Come with me to the memorial gravesite just like you said, and also, you will have to talk to Jin and the others. Without any fighting. "
"Yumi, Chihiro, and Jin won't like that at all. " Naruto says nervously.
"Yeah, Jin won't like it, but Yumi is willing to talk. " Tonomi told him with a soft smile.
Naruto's surprised expression was hilarious to Tonomi "After everything we said to each other at that time." Naruto squeaked in surprise.
"Oh yeah, that argument where you called her a-" Tonomi was cut off by Naruto.
"Let's not go there. I still can't believe I called Yumi that. I made her cry, and Jin then tried to beat me up by using his quirk on me, and things kind of escalated from there." Naruto looked ashamed and sheepish for his actions.
"That's when the supervisors tried to separate us. That was a year ago, I think. Still, it wasn't cool what you called her. But the blame lies on her after what she called you too." Tonomi agreed as she twirled her hair.
Naruto tries to change the topic by saying, " I invited a friend to the gravesite. Is Tokage coming?"
"Yeah, Setsuna is coming. Why are you asking?" asks Tonomi with a suspicious look.
"It's Nothing," Naruto tells her.
"Ohhh, you have a crush on her. Do you?" as her face gave a mischievous smile that strikes a scary feeling in Naruto as that is the look of her planning. This look meant that she is either planning items, or she is planning something unpredictable like relationships.
"Knock it off, Tonomi. It's just that my friend also has green hair and is also aiming for the U.A hero course." Naruto says as he derails all the silver-haired girl plan's off the track.
"Oh, too bad you would have looked so cute together," said Tonomi glumly.
Naruto then picked up her notebook with a quick scan, and he gave her a teasing grin. "Never in my life, I would have imagined that you would be struggling on something this easy"
"Hey, give that back. That's my homework, and I wasn't feeling in the mood to do it." Tonomi pouts before began shaking her fists at Naruto.
"Ok, that excuse is bad." Naruto giggles.
"Get out of my apartment right now. " Tonomi snarls.
"But it is still raining. I don't have an Umbrella with me," whines Naruto as he is shoved out of the apartment.
"Not my problem. " Tonomi says as she shut the door on Naruto's face.
Naruto suddenly sighs before wall-walking to the apartment complex roof and begins to use the rooftops to hurry back to his empty apartment.