A/N: I would like to thank everyone that added this story to their favourite and follows, as well as everyone that reviewed the last chapter.
(Three years ago)
Is anyone going to help untie me?
It was a question that haunted Naruto after Kakashi and her teammates left her tied up to the tree post. She doesn't know how long she has been tied up, but it must have been long enough for her nose to start to itch and for her to feel the rumbles of her stomach.
She was now beginning to regret the stupid prank that she pulled in her third year of the Academy. Mizuki had been so furious with her prank, sending her out of the class and telling her that she wasn't allowed to enter the classroom for the whole day. Maybe if she hadn't clowned around then she would not be in this stupid mess. She would have escaped and be back in that cold apartment of hers.
Naruto inhaled deeply and wiggled her body around, trying so hard to loosen the binds that enclosed her to the tree post. This is a hell lot more harder than just having my hands tied up. She could feel the ropes itching her, stopping her from breathing properly. The whole wiggling thing was just making the whole thing worse.
Why did they forget about me? If this was a joke then it stopped being funny a couple of hours ago.
Kakashi-sensei preached to her about how she went after him by herself, never asking Sakura or Sasuke for help, but could he blame her? He was just showing her that none of them would try to save her. Teammates required trust. Naruto used to trust Sasuke but then he became a bastard. A bigger bastard and Naruto doesn't like bastard.
You don't like how everyone fawns over him even more. Naruto furiously shook her head at the voice that whispered those traitorous thoughts. Why would she dislike it? She just thinks it was just stupid that everyone likes him so much when he couldn't even give them a smile. It might even annoy her how much the teachers praised Sasuke, even though Naruto knows she could be just as good as him.
Blue eyes grew large when she saw the familiar duck-ass hairstyle of her former friend. His black eyes held almost little to no emotions, but Naruto knows the bastard like the back of her hand. He found it funny that she struggled to get herself out of this mess, while he had no problem of getting out of the ropes that she bound him with.
"You can't get yourself out, can you idiot?" Naruto wanted to give him the middle finger at the smugness in his voice. But her body was tied up and she could barely her hands upwards. It was actually quite terrible when she couldn't do all the usual hand gestures to him.
So she settled with a scowl and yelled. "I am not an idiot!"
Naruto wonders why he keeps saying those words to her. He knows she wasn't an idiot like everyone thought she was. The pranks she made and the questions she did choose to answer correctly showcased it, but Sasuke was a bastard that doesn't want to admit that she was better than him. He didn't even think of the possibility that she could catch up to him.
"There is a simple jutsu that allows you to escape, even a baby can do it." When Naruto looks back, she thinks that the bastard was so damn lucky that she was tied up because she would have murdered him for that remark. Arrogant asshole. It escaped her mind about how the two of them used to be so close, used to consider each other as their best friends.
Naruto didn't even know what they were now.
She still doesn't even know when she turned fifteen.
"I don't need your damn help, Bastard!" Naruto kicked the back of the tree post while Sasuke raised his eyebrow, not looking one bit impressed about her behavior. Good because she didn't want to impress him. People who wanted to impress the bastard were fangirls, and Naruto was anything but a fangirl.
She had her pride, god damn it.
"How long have you been to stuck to that tree post?" Sasuke asked. His voice didn't carry any hints of arrogance but Naruto knew he was smug about it. The bastard had always taken pride whenever she needed his help. It had been his habit since they were kids. A habit that Naruto hated because she didn't need his help.
Naruto was capable of saving herself. If he wanted to act like a Prince then he should do it to Sakura-chan and the other fangirls. They would swoon and coo over his behavior.
Sasuke rolled his eyes, pulled out his kunai from his pockets and slashed the ropes. It tumbled down and Naruto crashes hard onto the cold, hard ground. Prince? God, I wanna know what part of Sasuke is a prince. Princes helped maidens from the ground and all that shit. Sasuke just seemed to have enjoyed watching her crash.
"How could you not know how to get yourself out of the ropes?"
Naruto bristled at his comment. Was he trying to mock her? Did he forget that Iruka-sensei always untied her ropes? Or was he acting too much like a self-brooding bastard to notice? She blew out a single strand of her blond hair before scowling at the boy that Naruto once considered to be her friend.
"I know how to get myself out when it is just my hands!" She finally yelled. Sasuke raised his eyebrow as if waiting for her to say more. Naruto knows what her teammate was searching for, but she wasn't going to say those words that he longed to hear. But…she could say this. "Can you teach me the damn jutsu, bastard?"
"Which one?"
When Naruto looks back at this day, she remembers the teasing glint in his eyes but right now…all Naruto wanted to do was throttle the bastard for putting her in this position.
"You know which one you little piece of…"
Sasuke rolled his eyes. "It is close enough, idiot."
When Naruto looks back at this day, she remembers that this had been the day when their friendship had been on the road of being repaired from the shattered remains of the massacre. While everyone else had abandoned her, left her in the blazing sun and seemed to have forgotten her…Sasuke remembered her.
When she thinks of that reason, she thinks that was why it hurt her so much when Sasuke left her and Team Seven.
The sight of a crooked home mat was one that put Naruto Uzumaki on guard. She was not obsessive in her cleaning like some of the shinobi that she knew. Her memory was good but it was not photographic like Sakura's memory. However Naruto knew how she liked to arrange things. She knows her matt would not be slanted completely to the left.
She could only come to one conclusion:
Someone broke into her apartment.
Naruto took in a deep breath, unslung her school bag and pulled out a kunai. Was she going to the extreme with her paranoria by taking a kunai with her to school? Most probably, but there was always a possibility that people would be after her. Better be prepared than to be taken by surprise.
Although it surprises me that someone is willing to go to my apartment. She shook her head and pushed the door slightly. The smell of something terrible waffled through her nostrils, consuming her to the point that Naruto almost felt ready to choke. She was no chemist but the scent coming out of her apartment was one that she made sure never to have.
She entered the apartment and willed herself not to be consumed by the scent. The world around her seemed just to be a little bit blur but Naruto pushed through. She needed to push through, because Naruto was not going to be defeated by some damn gas.
A shadow appeared to her left and a large fist hurled towards her. Naruto grabbed hold of the fist, twisted the arm and swung the person in the first direction that she turned. Maybe if the scent didn't seem like it was going to kill her, or maybe if she was more aware then this would never happen.
She didn't mean to send the man at the direction of the only shelf that had photos of her past.
The man smashed against the shelf, breaking it in half and her two picture frames hit the ground. The glasses cracked and thankfully her photos weren't completely damaged but… her only photo with the Hokage was destroyed. She clenched and unclenched her fist. Her teeth grinded against each other as a swirl of emotions enveloped her.
Naruto didn't care so much about the photo of Team Seven, not when every single one of them was alive.
But the Third Hokage was a whole different story for her.
"Come on now Naru-chan, smile for the camera."
Naruto grabbed hold of the man. The one photo she cherished, the one photo that Naruto had of the old man that rescued her, had been destroyed and she could never forgive this man. She slammed him against the floor, ignoring his whimpers and cries for mercy. Mercy were for people that didn't break into her apartment. Mercy were for people that were innocent.
He tried to knock me out like I was some kind of animal.
She held him up in the air and growled. "Who the hell sent you, you little weasel?"
Her attacker gulped as his eyes avoided hers. There was a tremble in his legs and Naruto thinks she didn't scare him hard enough. Because…how dare he make her destroy her precious photo. Was she taking things to the overboard by doing this? Most probably but Naruto had so little photos of the Third Hokage. The ones she did have, were the ones she cherished with all of her heart because…
"You are a child of Konoha."
He had been the first person to see her as human and Naruto loved him so much because of it.
"I-I won't tell you anything!" The man stuttered out.
Naruto balled her hands into a tight ball of fist. Won't tell me anything? I am going to force it out of you. She had the whole night to force him out because the way he attacked her, told her that this was not some random attack. Random attacks would not have him trying to knock her out with his Quirk. If it had been a burglary then he would have dropped any valuables she had.
Naruto didn't have anything valuable to a thief…not unless her photos were considered valuable.
She pressed the kunai against his cheek and the man began to quiver even more. Keep your emotions in check. Naruto thinks this would be the best course of action. Emotions would make the bastard think she was nervous. It would allow him to think she was terrified of what she was willing to do to get information. Naruto wasn't terrified.
She was a kunoichi and kunoichi would do anything to get information.
"But you never liked what being a kunoichi meant." A voice whispered in her head as Naruto dug the kunai a little bit deeper against the man's skin. Being a kunoichi had meant the world to her. Her parents had been shinobi, powerful and strong or so the Hokage claimed, and being a kunoichi was her connection to them. The voice inside of her head was just stupid.
It had always been stupid.
"I won't tell you anything!"
Naruto smiled tightly but didn't remove the kunai. The dark part of her wanted to murder this man for breaking into her apartment and forcing her to break the two things precious to her. I will just have to find a way to get him to talk. She observed the man, taking in just how young he looked and the tattoos peaking out of his sleeves.
Yakuza tattoos.
The only experience she ever had with the Yakuza had been in the Land Of Waves when Gatou hired a couple of goons to terrorize the small island. She didn't know much about the Yakuza. She avoided them in Konoha and made a point to avoid them here. They brought trouble, did terrible things to young girls and Naruto had been lucky that none of them considered going near her.
She looked at the phoenix tattoo and an idea popped into her head. Naruto knew from those western books that she liked to read that phoenix symbolized rebirth. It was not a tattoo someone could make lightly, not unless they have a story to tell.
"You must have had a difficult life," Naruto said softly. The man stiffened and flickered his eyes at her while the blond-haired girl hummed. "No one ever chooses the Yakuza life but something must have forced you. I mean you are so young and handsome… it is just a pity that you chose to be in the Yakuza."
Naruto allowed her voice to lower and she fluttered her eyelashes, before brushing her breath against his ears. He stiffened, staring at her with disbelief but the blonde forced herself to make her cheeks red. Her whisker marks adds to her beauty. Todoroki's words echoed in her ears, telling her that she could be seen as attractive to people.
It reminded her that she did have a charm.
"I didn't choose to be a part of the Yakuza," the man whimpered. Naruto hummed and slowly gently eased the use of her kunai against his throat. She allowed her hand to wander to his chest, playing with it slightly and the man stared at her with such wide eyes. Desire shone through those eyes but it only made Naruto disgusted.
"Really? But you wear those tattoos with pride," Naruto smiled and touched the tattoos. The dizziness inside of her head was slowly fading away, telling her that the Kyuubi had increased the rate in which the gas was being excreted outside of her body.
"I was discarded by my girlfriend." Naruto frowned and the man took a deep, shaky breaths. Don't get moved by his story. It was painful to be discarded but not painful enough that she would do something as reckless as joining the Yakuza. "I just kept wandering around until I met Overhaul. He offered me a chance to prove my worth."
"It must have been so rough on you. Your girlfriend didn't respect you and you have no place to go…that is rough buddy," Naruto kept her voice light and forced herself to cry those crocodile tears that Iruka-sensei could never say no to. Her heart did break for the man but not enough to cry. "Overhaul must have been your savior."
The man nodded. "I would do anything for him."
I am getting somewhere.
"Even attack an innocent girl like me?" She pushed her lip forward and looked at him with hurt eyes. He flinched and reluctantly nodded, looking almost apologetic at the fact that he hurt an innocent girl like her. Either I am better at this interrogation thing than I thought or he is a dummy. She was more inclined to believe the former than the latter.
"You made him really, really angry," the man informed her. Naruto blinked and the man seemed to hesistate, only to be complied to move on when she stroke his chest again and looked at him like he meant the world to her. Always stroke a man's ego. That had been the advice of their kunoichi teacher, one that Naruto took to heart whenever she wanted to get out of trouble. "You took away his prized tool."
"And what might be his prized tool?" Naruto leaned closer to him and smiled sweetly when the man flickered his eyes at her. This Overhaul guy is an idiot if he thinks that I am not capable of finding out information. She wiggled against him. "Please tell me, mister."
She pretended to be hurt by his lack of answer.
"Eri. You took Eri away from him!"
Naruto beamed at the knowledge and stared at the blushing man right in front of her. So the bastard that hurt Eri-chan wants to hurt me. He wants to find Eri-chan. She should go to the police and tell them everything she knew. But it would bring too many questions and the police weren't exactly known for getting the job done properly.
She could go to the Heroes but they wouldn't find a child abuse matter to be of great importance, not when Eri was safe from them. But Naruto couldn't take the chance that the bastard would haunt Eri just like how the matron haunted her in her dreams.
She would make them pay.
"If Overhaul wants me so badly then he will get to meet me."
Naruto would show Overhaul what she did to people that hurt her precious people because Eri was her most precious person.
(Next day)
Izuku frowned as his fellow classmates waited anxiously for Midnight to come and start their first class of the day. Everything looked normal from an outsider's perspective since almost everyone was here, but there was only one person missing. Uzumaki hadn't arrived to class, which was strange since his classmate was never late for school.
There was not even a clone and that really worried Izuku. He might not know Uzumaki as well as he would like but it was well-known in their middle school that Uzumaki never had a sick day. She was always healthy even when the flu season come and infects everyone in their school.
"Isn't it weird that Uzumaki hasn't come?" Ashido asked, swirling her head around the classroom to find the only blond female in the class.
Uraraka frowned and tilted her head to the side. "Do you think she might have skipped school?"
"Maybe she is sick?" Tsuyu suggested.
Whispers broke out as everyone tried to figure out where their classmate was. Everyone looked at each other with concern, wondering if maybe their classmate was doing all right. It might have been a week since school started, but there was no denying that everyone in their class cared about each other in their own way. His classmates always seemed interested in knowing how everyone was doing, even if certain people weren't friendly.
"Midoriya, Bakugou, do the two of you have Uzumaki's number?" Momo asked. "Maybe you should contact her and see if she is alright."
"I don't have Whisker's number."
"Me neither."
Everyone blinked and stared at the two of them in surprise, like they really expected them to have the blond-haired girl's number. Izuku tried for so long to get Uzumaki's number but every time she would give some excuse or time seemed to have run out, leaving him with no chance to talk to her. Uzumaki really did not give her number to anyone.
It had been fine until now.
"How do we know if she is fine?" Hagakure fretted.
Yaoyorozu turned to Todoroki and asked. "Todoroki-san, do you have her number?"
Izuku swirled his body around and observed his other mysterious classmate. There were not many people Uzumaki was willing to talk to or have lunch with, but Todoroki seemed like a constant presence by his classmate's side. They worked well together and Izuku had seen the way Uzumaki interacted with him. It was a lot more friendly then how she treated other people.
Todoroki shook his head. He flickered his eyes to the empty seat and knitted his eyebrows slightly together. The only emotion swirling around his usual stoic eyes was concerned. Izuku didn't know Todoroki very well but he knows his classmate has to be really worried to show this much emotion to the world.
"Maybe we should check up on Uzumaki after school," Uraraka suggested. "You do know her address, don't you Deku-kun?"
Izuku nodded. He lived quite near to Uzumaki's apartment and he passed her apartment block whenever he did his jogs. Sometimes he slowed down, hoping to talk to her in the hopes of asking her to help him with his Quirk. Uzumaki's Quirk seemed to mimic One For All and maybe she could give him an idea on how to not damage his body.
Of course he was always too nervous to spit those words out.
"Midoirya." Izuku blinked when he saw Todoroki standing right in front of his seat. The younger male seemed to have a calm expression with his eyes not betraying any emotions, but Izuku could sense something was up. He could see the twitch in Todoroki's fingers as if something was irritating him. "Can I please have her address?"
"What? Now? Why?" He shoots the questions and squeaked when those cold eyes stared at him. S-Scary. Izuku brought out one of his spare notebooks, tore off a page and quickly scribbled down the address while only one person seemed to stare at them with a thoughtful look.
Todoroki grabbed the paper and shoved it down his pockets.
"T-Todoroki-san, why do you want the address now?" He hoped that the fear doesn't leak out but Todoroki really made him feel nervous. Actually all of his classmates made him feel nervous because all of them had such wonderful Quirks.
"Because Uzumaki might be in trouble."
Shouto looked down at the address given to him by Midoriya and then looked at the apartment number right in front of him. It felt almost weird for him to stand in front of his friend's apartment when he should be back in school, preparing himself for their science class. But the fact that Uzumaki wasn't in class had worried him.
He might not be very close to Uzumaki and she might not trust him, but Shouto knows Uzumaki well enough to know she would drag herself to class even if she was sick.
"The one time you decided to skip class, you decided to come here." Shouto blinked and clicked his heels together before swirling his body around. Standing behind him was both Bakugou and Midoriya, who seemed just to be a little bit anxious standing here.
Shouto tilted his head and regarded them. "What are you doing here?"
"You made me really want to check up on Uzumaki," Midoriya admitted.
"I am not here because I'm fucking concern for Whiskers," Bakugou declared hotly. "A friend invited me out and I decided to take them up on their offer."
Shouto raised his eyebrow at his fellow blonde while Midoriya just blinked at the obvious lie made by their fellow classmate. The boy scowled, daring him to make a comment that contradicted his statement. Shouto did not have the time nor the desire to pick a fight with the boy. All he wanted to do was make sure that Uzumaki wasn't doing something dangerous.
Something told him that his friend might have decided to do something dangerous.
"What! I should be asking why the hell you decided to skip class and come here?" Bakugou snarled. Shouto tilted his head and regarded the blond-haired boy in front of him. The way he lashed out really did remind him of Uzumaki. They even looked a little bit similar too and if he didn't know Uzumaki had no family, he would presume they were related.
"She doesn't have anybody."
He kept the answer simple and to the point because Shouto doesn't understand what the big deal was. Friends checked up on each other, didn't they? And Uzumaki seemed to have missed school for some reason and that really troubled him. His friend would have sent a clone if something was happening, but there had been nothing.
"And you want to be somebody to her?" Bakugou asked.
Shouto contemplated for a moment and nodded. "I want to help her if she has a problem."
Bakugou snorted and stared at him for a good moment. His red eyes seemed to be searching for something but Shouto didn't understand why his classmate would do it. As far as he was concerned, Uzumaki and Bakugou did not have the best relationships. They fought half of the time and his male classmate seemed to enjoy provoking her.
"Knock the damn door. She would probably answer the door if it is you." Bakugou barked.
Shouto frowned at the tone and stiffly nodded, before knocking the door. They waited for a couple of minutes, hoping and praying for some kind of sound but nothing seemed to happen. Midoriya flickered his eyes at him, silently pointing to his ear and then to the door as if telling him to hear for any sounds.
Shouto complied with the request.
Midoriya knocked the door, the loud bangs echoing throughout the corridor of apartments. Shouto pressed his ear harder, waiting and praying for any signs of life in that apartment. Nothing. I am really getting worried now. He pushed himself off the door, glancing at his two fellow classmates and then shaking his head at them.
Bakugou growled and pulled out a hairpin from his pocket. He scowled when the two sets of eyebrows raised at the strategy that the boy planned to use.
"What? It worked in the fucking movies and I am sure it can work in real life!" Bakugou snapped as he jammed the hairpin against the lock of the door. He twisted and turned until there was a clear click sound. The boy smirked at them before pushing the door open for them.
Todoroki strolled into the apartment, only to find himself halting at the sight of the living room. This is not some kind of mess that a sloth would have. The shelf seemed to be cracked in half and there seemed to be two broken picture frames. The couch seemed to be in a good condition but everything else made it seem like there had been a tornado inside of the apartment.
This was definitely not the mess created by someone his age.
"I-It looks like Uzumaki got attacked," Midoriya suggested. He flickered his eyes through the messy living room, lips chewed as his brain tried to process what he was seeing right in front of him. Bakugou kept quiet, not making any snarky remarks, instead he seemed intent of looking through the apartment.
Shouto sighed and began picking up the evidence of the crime scene. The first thing he grabbed was the broken photo frame since it seemed to be the closest thing to him. It might not seem like evidence but a person needed to consider every possibility.
He flipped the photo and blinked at the sight of a twelve-year-old Naruto scowling for the camera. She looks different. The scowl might be prominent but her eyes held a lot more emotions. Just a little bit of joy and maybe even hope. The black-haired boy, standing to Uzumaki's right, seemed to be scowling like there was no tomorrow but his eye seemed to linger on Uzumaki.
The one thing that stood out to Shouto was how much their senior looked a lot like the boy from the photo. Did something happen between them? Is that why Uzumaki doesn't look at our senior? He filed the question for later, for when Uzumaki seemed to trust him just a little bit more.
"Should we just call the police? Or just tell the heroes about this?" Midoriya asked, snapping him out of his train of thought. The green-haired boy looked almost queasy at the sight before them. "We can't find any evidence of where Uzumaki might be…maybe we should leave this to the professionals."
Shouto contemplated over his classmate's suggestion and stared at the scene before them. If Uzumaki was kidnapped then wouldn't she leave a trail for them? And if she was kidnap then why? Something just was not adding up. The smart protocol would be to call the police but something was not adding up.
Uzumaki was strong, insanely strong, and was more than capable of getting herself out of this mess. He knows she was strong. He knows and respects her for her ability to speak out when something was not right. It was why he knows if someone kidnapped her then Uzumaki would have given them hints. Right now, there seemed to be no other hint then her getting into a fight.
"We should wait here till sunset," Todoroki suggested. "We wait till the end of the day. If Uzumaki still doesn't appear then we tell the other heroes and the police."
As much as he wanted to help Uzumaki, they had no evidence to go with and so Shouto just had to pray that his classmate knew what she was doing…because he really had a bad feeling about this.
A/N: What do you think of the changes so far made in this story? And of the characters? What do you think of the flashback? Do you think I should cut back on the flashbacks?