AN: new chapter up, enjoy.
Chapter 6 - Beyond the limits
By the time Naruto woke up, the sun was about to disappear beyond the horizon. It was evening. Letting out a yawn, he closed back his eyes and attempted to turn on the other side when a sharp voice of an old woman slammed into his eardrums.
"You've slept enough already! Get up, classes are over. It's time for you to go home."
"Noo," he moaned and covered his head with the pillow.
"Don't act like a baby now, you're going to be a pro hero, aren't you?"
"Alright, alright!" he said in annoyance and sat up.
But when he saw two people waiting at his bedside, he blinked at them owlishly.
"What are you two doing here?"
Sitting on a stool next to his bed were a boy with curly green hair and a girl with short dark hair and something that looked like earphone jacks on the lob of her ears. They were none other than Midoriya Izuku and Kyoka Jiro.
Before Izuku could reply, the girl quickly stood up from her chair and bowed at an almost 90 degrees angle.
"I'm terribly sorry, I've never thought the attack would catch you too. I'm so sorry!"
Naruto quickly waved his hands in front of his face to dispel her worries when he heard her trembling voice. It looked as if the girl was on the verge of crying.
"Don't worry, don't worry! I'm at fault too, I should've seen that coming. I should've built my suit with a countermeasure for it. But I forgot, haha!" he said and rubbed the back of his head.
Due to regaining the memories of his past life, Naruto could still vividly recall his first Chunin Exams - specifically, his fight against Inuzuka Kiba. Back then, Kiba was a much better fighter than him. The genin Kiba was so fast and so strong that Naruto wasn't even allowed the two seconds needed to make the hand seals for casting a Shadow Clone technique. It looked like he was losing the fight and quite badly at that until... ...until he farted. And he farted just as Kiba came in his proximity. For the Inuzuka's enhanced sense of smell, it had been devastating. Kiba lost that fight because of a freaking fart.
That said, Naruto had learned from that experience and designed his suit to prevent such a scenario from happening to him as well. His fox-like ANBU mask was equipped with a respiratory system that would protect him from harmful gases. But, in typical Naruto-ish fashion, he did not think everything through. He had forgotten about his enhanced sense of hearing. And he had paid for it.
"No, this is unacceptable," Kyoka said, shaking her head. "I hurt my teammates. When we go out in the field, this could be fatal."
He tried to pacify her but she was inconsolable. After apologizing for half a dozen times more, the girl bowed one more time and left.
⁂
"I heard you fought against Kacchan again. Tell me more!" Izuku asked while he and Naruto were going home together.
"Bakugo's quirk is really strong but he's so easy to rile up. I made him chase after me and lured him into a corridor where I had prepared a trap. Nothing amazing, just two kunai with a thread tied to the loops of their handles. When he flew in, I pulled on the thread and made him stumble. He didn't even have the chance to react before I knocked him out with a lariat!" he said smugly. "I can't wait to rub it in his face tomorrow, he's going to- ...what are you doing?" Naruto suddenly stopped and asked.
At some point during his tale, Izuku had taken out a notebook and started writing down his words.
"Well, you know. I often write down information about all the amazing heroes and strong quirks I see."
Looking at what was written on the notebook's cover, Naruto did not know whether to laugh or cry.
"You're noting down the story of me beating Bakugo in your notebook for becoming a pro-hero?" He cleared his throat and fanned his face with his right hand. He did love showing off in front of others but Izuku fanboying over his fight against Bakugo embarrassed him. "Sheesh, you're making me blush, man! N-Nevermind my fight with Bakugo, tell me, how is the General Education course treating you?"
Izuku shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess it's not bad. It's not any different than junior high. We only have normal classes..."
They became silent after that, walking shoulder to shoulder on the sidewalk, with Izuku looking at his feet and Naruto gawking aimlessly at the sky, his hands behind his head.
"I won't give up," Izuku said eventually. "I understand now. After failing the practice exam, I see how big is the difference between me and those who have quirks. But I still won't give up. Not all villains have super powerful quirks. And I don't necessarily need to have a quirk to save someone's life. Before quirks appeared in the world, firemen and policemen were still saving people, without any superhuman powers. I can do it too."
"Then why not just apply for that? Why not become a policeman or a fireman?" Naruto asked. "It would be much easier."
"Policemen and firemen aren't as important as they used to be. Nowadays, heroes are the ones who usually get to the scene first. They're the ones who solve the situation. Policemen and firemen work mostly as the cleaning up crew after heroes," Izuku explained.
When they were about to part ways, Naruto stopped and looked into Izuku's eyes. In spite of the boy's timid and shy disposition, he could see the fierce determination in his gaze, the stubbornness to never give up. It reminded him of himself when he was younger, in his previous life.
"There might be a way for you to shorten the gap between you and those with quirks," Naruto said.
Izuku's eyes widened but he kept silent, drinking every single word that came out of his mouth.
"Have you heard of hysterical strength?" he asked.
"N-No, what is that? It sounds bad," the green-haired boy said and gulped.
Instead of continuing to walk, Naruto led Izuku to the side and they sat on the short garden fence in front of a nearby building. He frowned in thought for a few moments, trying to find the right words to explain to Izuku what he meant.
"You know that our body usually can't use 100% of its strength. We have some sort of limiters, we limit our strength to protect and preserve our bodies. But there are times when even regular people can do superhuman things. Have you ever heard of the woman who lifted a car weighing a few hundred kilos in her desperation to save her child? It's a classic example."
At Izuku's wordless nod of affirmation, Naruto continued:
"You've probably heard many stories like that. Someone woman lifting a car to save her father that was trapped underneath, someone breaking through a concrete wall to save people from a collapsed building and so on. These aren't just stories, they are real. There are moments when even regular people can do incredible things."
Naruto made a pause on purpose before saying: "I could help you with that, train you until you can squeeze out every single bit of your power. BUT-" he said loudly when Izuku started to show signs of excitement, "-you gotta understand that our bodies have these limiters for a reason. If you make use of the hysterical strength too often, you will suffer."
"If you do it rarely, you'll only feel exhausted and probably tear your muscles. But if you abuse your hysterical strength you could end up disabled for life or, worse, dead."
Midoriya gulped at Naruto's words, understanding the severity of the consequences.
"Now that you know the danger do you wish to learn?"
Despite the risks, Izuku's answer was instantaneous: "YES!"
"I can't say for sure that you'll be able to turn on your hysterical strength any time you wanted. It's something that even I can't do easily despite that I've trained for months. But if I get you to experience it a few times, you will become more used to it. You'll have a bigger chance to surpass your limits in a crisis." Naruto explained. "But you need you to promise me, Izuku. Promise me you won't use this skill easily. You-...-you are my friend. I don't want you to end up becoming a vegetable. This is only to be used in a matter of life and death, it's going to be your ace in the sleeve to turn a hopeless situation around."
In spite of Izuku's promises, Naruto still felt uneasy about his decision to fully support him like that. On one hand, he wanted to trust in his friend and help him achieve his dream of becoming a Pro Hero: that's what friends were for, to help and support each other. But, on the other hand, Naruto was no longer as naive as he had once been in his past life. Having the memories of two lives and witnessing the death of his old world had matured him beyond his physical age. He knew that there were limits to what one could achieve through hard work alone.
'What if he gets himself killed? Mercy is not in a villain's character. What if he meets a bloodthirsty villain with a powerful quirk?'
He cared about Izuku and he was worried about his future as a quirkless person. That's why Naruto decided to even go as far as to teach him something as dangerous as tapping into the potential of his body and surpassing his limits by activating his hysterical strength.
⁂
The next day at school, Eraserhead discussed everyone's performance in the combat training class from the day before. Giving praise where it was deserved and admonishing someone when it was needed, Shota Aizawa was a strict but fair teacher.
Eventually, he also addressed the elephant in the room, namely the "teamkill" incident from the very first fight between Bakugo + Mineta team vs Naruto + Kyoka team. He started off with Kyoka:
"Using your quirk to locate the enemy was smart. But what you did later on, not so much."
The girl looked down, unable to meet anyone's eyes at that moment. In spite of her looks and the seemingly flippant attitude that she had in her daily life, Kyoka was a conscientious and kind person. The fact that she had injured her own teammate - nobody was more upset about it than her.
"Mah, in the first place, the two of you were a bad match-up. It was unlucky for someone with your quirk to be paired up together with Uzumaki who has an enhanced sense of hearing. But that is a scenario that is quite likely to happen down the line if you become a pro hero. There will be times when you will have to team up with all kinds of heroes. You need to learn how to use your quirk responsibly in order to not become a liability for your team."
"Yes, sensei," Kyoka said.
"Bakugo," Aizawa suddenly said, making the boy in question look at him intently. "Frankly speaking, in such a confined space, your Quirk gave you the complete advantage against Uzumaki. Not only that you could engulf the entire corridor in an explosion to keep him at bay but, with his sensitive hearing, Uzumaki wouldn't be able to get close to you if you kept causing explosions due to their loud sounds. You should've just gone directly for the objective and let him come at you. But instead of taking the time to formulate a plan, you let your emotions cloud your judgement. I don't know what happened between the two of you before you came to UA but I don't care either. Learn how to control your emotions. You're very talented so don't act like a kid."
"I know," Bakugo replied grumpily but his serious-looking face let Aizawa know that he took his words to the heart.
"As for you, Uzumaki, your planning and methods were flawless. You made use of your strengths and created a scenario where you could take advantage of them. But as smart as you were in that battle, what were you thinking when you designed your suit? If you knew your sense of hearing was so sensitive, why didn't you prepare a countermeasure for it? If I'm not mistaken, your mask has a respiratory system to protect you against harmful gases. Why didn't you get something similar for your ears?"
Naruto chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head.
"Haha, I kinda forgot about it?"
Eraserhead narrowed his eyes at him.
"Make sure you go to the Support Department after classes and see what they can do for you."
"Yes, sensei," Naruto said and nodded obediently. He acknowledged his mistake.
"Also," the teacher began to say rather hesitantly, "I suggest you stopped using those knives of yours."
Before the fox boy had the chance to ask why, Aizawa continued:
"I could see from the videos that you are very skilled with your weapons. But accidents can happen. Imagine if those six knives that you threw did not meet their mark and instead wounded Bakugo fatally. As pro heroes, our job is not to kill the villains. We don't have the right to take anyone's lives. We are heroes, not vigilantes. Villains are to be arrested and handed over to the police. They will receive a fair trial and pay for their crimes according to the law. Do you understand?"
Naruto did not reply right away.
'I'm already at a disadvantage against guys like Bakugo and especially against someone like All Might or that giant Mount Lady. Even my hysterical strength won't do much against powerhouses like them...not using blades puts me in an even worse position,' he thought bummed out.
Naruto was not a bloodthirsty person. Even in his past life as a shinobi, he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people that he had killed. He avoided killing if he could. But that did not mean that he was pulling his punches when the situation called for him to go all out. Besides, growing up in this world had made him understand that the values of the society he lived in currently were different from those of the Hidden Leaf village.
Eraserhead said: "If you want to keep on using weapons, blunt weapons are preferred - they can pack a serious punch while keeping the injuries at a minimum. But you should avoid lethal weapons that could easily kill someone."
"Okay. I understand," Naruto said eventually.
⁂ A few days later ⁂
"Hey, Naruto, we're going to karaoke after school. You wanna come with us?" a girl with pink hair, pink skin, and two horns on her head asked while motioning with her hand at her a group of teens waiting for her in the hallway.
"Sorry, Mina, I have to take care of something."
The pink-haired girl pouted at his answer.
"Oh, come on! You're always busy after classes, let's go have some fun! Look, even someone like Bakugo is coming along."
"What's that supposed to mean, huh?" the edgy blond screamed. "Do you want me to kick your ass?"
But the girl ignored his shouts. Bakugo's classmates had gotten used to his personality by now and tended to tune him out whenever his anger management issues flared up. Naruto rubbed the back of his head and grinned apologetically.
"Sorry, maybe next time. It's really important, I can't put it off."
Saying that, he grabbed his backpack and waved his hand in goodbye at the rest of his classmates:
"See you later, guys, have a nice weekend!"
As he went down the stairs, Naruto had a distracted look on his face.
'She likes me.'
He was not experienced when it came to interacting with the opposite sex but due to his enhanced sense of smell, Naruto could roughly identify other people's emotions. He could smell people's fear, anger, sadness, happiness, hatred or feelings of attraction. It was an underrated but very useful aspect of his Quirk, one that he had not told anyone else about except for his parents.
He let out a wry smile while thinking that, unlike how unpopular he had been at school in his previous life, in his current life, he had always been one of the more popular boys in his class, throughout all of his school years.
'I guess that not annoying the heck out of everyone made all the difference. These cute fox ears must've helped too.'
He absent-mindedly ran a hand through his hair and scratched his fox ears. They seemed even fluffier than usual due to a pair of fluffy white mufflers that had been stuffed inside. He was still not used to wearing them because he had gotten them only two days ago. They hindered his sense of balance sometimes, especially when he stood up quickly from a chair, but they did help a great deal in protecting him from loud sounds. He knew that it was only a matter of time before he became accustomed to them.
Eventually, he reached the gates of UA. A rather well-built but still timid-looking boy was waiting for him, his face haggard from exhaustion. It was none other than Midoriya Izuku.
"Yo," Naruto said and bumped fists with the boy.
"Hey," Izuku greeted him, not even having the energy to smile.
"What happened to you, man, you look like you got run over by a truck," Naruto said with a chuckle, looking at all the bruises on Izuku's face and the bandages wrapped around his neck and hands.
"Fuck off," the boy said with a growl, looking as if he was barely stopping himself from attacking him.
Naruto was taken aback. It was the first time he had ever heard Izuku swear. But then, he grinned ferally.
⁂
A wooden bo staff made whooshing sounds as a green-haired boy used his entire strength to smash downwards. His opponent, also wielding a similar bo staff, easily parried the hit by holding his weapon horizontally above his head. In the next moment, a powerful kick in the gut sent the green-haired boy flying.
"You telegraphed your attack and left yourself wide open," Naruto said, his voice serious.
Lifting his staff above his head, Naruto slammed it at the boy that was coughing his stomach out, showing no mercy. Izuku barely managed to roll away, escaping by a breadth. Seeing how the ground cracked from the hit, however, made the boy's heart start beating as if to jump out of his chest.
Despite that he was out of breath and still coughing from the vicious kick in the stomach, Izuku forced himself to stand up on his feet and clenched his hands around his weapon.
"I'm not done yet!" Izuku shouted with as much conviction as he could and charged at Naruto with a scream.
The blond swatted his strike to the side with one end of his staff and immediately hit Izuku in the face with the staff's other end. He did not get up again this time around. Instead, his body started shaking and sobbing sounds came from him.
"Are you serious? Crying?" Naruto said in disbelief.
He came at the boy and lifted him to stand on his feet, his hands clenched on the collar of his t-shirt.
"Is that what you're going to do when a villain tries to kill you? You'll cry like a little girl? Do you think they'll feel pity for you and let you go?"
He threw Izuku away and grabbed his bo staff from the place where he had discarded it before turning away to leave.
"Useless, gutless, and lazy. You'll never amount to anything if you keep going like that. Pro hero my ass. You'll always be a reject. No, even below the rejects-" Naruto said over his shoulder.
It was completely out of character for the kind and cheerful fox boy to speak like that. Until then, he had always been supportive and helpful toward Izuku. The words he was saying right now sounded more like the words that Bakugo often spat at the green-haired boy. However, in his current state of mind, Izuku could not see the strangeness of the situation. Instead, those words - so similar to how Bakugo often bullied him - triggered his anger.
"SHUT UP!" Izuku screamed. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
Naruto did not appear to be surprised in the least by his outburst. He scoffed at him.
"I wasted nearly a year of my life training you. And for what? You failed the entrance exam. All you do is cry. Now you asked me to train you again. Once again you're crying."
The more calm and derisive Naruto appeared to be, the more enraged Izuku was becoming.
"You trained me? Beating the crap out of me every day, you call this training? Fuck you and your training!"
For over a week now, ever since Izuku decided to go through Naruto's training to learn how to tap into the latent strength of his body, his hysterical strength, the blond pushed him to the limits mercilessly. After making him run out of stamina and energy completely by running, they would fight. But calling that a fight was a stretch: it was a one-sided beatdown.
After nearly one week of bitter suffering, he could no longer bear the exhaustion. He could not endure the pain coming from his bruised and battered body. He could no longer endure the verbal and physical abuse anymore. He was at his limit.
"Maybe if you actually learned what I taught you wouldn't get mauled like that every day. Is it my fault you can do anything?" Naruto said indifferently.
"You know nothing! You know nothing about my struggles! You don't know how it feels to be quirkless! SHUT UP! SHUT UP, ASSHOLE!" Izuku screamed and charged at Naruto madly.
But Naruto easily parried his wild swing and countered with a right cross that made Izuku stumble back on wobbly feet. If Izuku had been in his right mind, he would have noticed that the fox boy's punches were far less powerful than usual, that he was going easy on him. But he wasn't thinking straight. Emboldened by the fact that Naruto's punch did much less damage than he had expected, Izuku charged back at him again with a tackle, shooting down for a double leg.
But Naruto met his tackle head-on and before Izuku could wrap his arms around the back of his legs and take him down, the blond's right knee smashed into his face. It was a method often used by strikers to defend against wrestlers.
Izuku fell face-first on the ground, unable to muster even the slightest strength to get up anymore.
"I tried to help you, you know?" he heard Naruto's voice coming from above. It sounded a bit muffled but he could still understand the words perfectly. "Quirkless as you are, I didn't want to let you jump head-first into danger and get yourself killed."
"But you are helpless. You can't do anything. Just a pathetic crybaby. You'll die on your first patrol mission against some cannon fodder villain, bringing a bad name and shame to all heroes. If that's the case, I might as well do it myself. I'll send you away quickly and painlessly."
Izuku felt the end of a wooden staff rolling his body until he was on his back, with eyes on the sky.
"What? You don't think I will kill you?" Naruto asked. "You think I don't have the guts?"
Saying that, the blond pressed the end of his bo staff into the notch of Izuku's neck, that dip in someone's neck between the adam's apple and the sternum.
Izuku's eyes widened in disbelief and he grabbed the end of the staff with both of his hands. Despair flooded him when he felt the stick going deeper into his throat, suffocating him.
"You wouldn't be the first I killed. How do you think that Sludge Villain that had attacked me died? Do you think some random vigilante just happened to pass by and saved me?"
Naruto let out a mocking laugh and started pressing the staff harder into the green-haired boy's neck.
'He's gonna kill me! He's gonna kill me!' Izuku screamed in his mind, tears falling from his bloodshot eyes uncontrollably. 'I don't want to die! I don't want to die!'
Cracking noises suddenly came from the part of the stick where Izuku's hands were clenched around.
"AS IF I'D LET YOU KILL ME!" Izuku screamed and half of Naruto's staff was suddenly shattered into splinters.
He rolled away from the end of the blond's staff and jumped up to his feet in an impressive display of agility and flexibility. Then, still screaming, he lunged at Naruto and punched him with his entire strength.
But the blond did not evade his punch and let Izuku hit him. Possessing a strength abnormal for a body like his, Izuku's punch sent a 70kg heavy boy flying through the air nearly two metres before he collapsed.
However, upon connecting with that powerful punch, it was as if a veil had been lifted from his eyes and Izuku finally regained his clarity of mind. He looked at the collapsed Naruto on the ground and then at his still clenched fist. His entire body started shaking and he started crying anew.
"This is-...!"
But these were no longer tears of despair or pain. They were tears of relief.
"I did it!" he said through his sobs.
His entire body was one big bruise and he had almost died only a few moments ago - at least he had truly believed that he was going to die. But in that moment, Izuku felt joy like no other time in his life.
"I did it!" he said again, and let out a cry that sounded like a mixture between a sob and a cheer.
Naruto stood up from the place where he crashed and knelt in front of Izuku. He wrapped Izuku in his arms in a brotherly hug and said, his voice filled with remorse:
"I'm sorry for what I did to you, Izuku! I'm so sorry! I tried for almost one week to push you beyond your limits but it wasn't working. Making you believe you are in a life and death situation was the only method left. I'm sorry, I didn't mean any of the things I told you!"
Naruto's words made the floodgates open and Izuku started bawling his eyes out, hugging the blond back for all he was worth.
"I know, I know, don't apologize. It's my fault too, I'm sorry!" Izuku cried.
Having regained his wits, he understood what Naruto had done to him. There was no way that someone as kind and helpful as Naruto would suddenly change his character and speak such words to him, much less try to kill him. But he had needed to push Izuku to his limits, physically and mentally. He had brought him to the edge of despair and even made him think that he was going to die.
As the shadow of death encroached on his soul, his exhausted body was suddenly energized. His fear of death and his desire to live made his survival instincts kick into overdrive. Having long since reached his limits, that burst of strength made him overcome them. Hysterical strength. A power beyond the limits of the human body. He had achieved it! All the beatings that he had taken until then had not been for nought! All his tears, sweat, blood, and effort had not been in vain. He had done it!
As that feeling of relief washed over him, adrenaline quickly left his system and Izuku felt his eyes grow heavy. His body lost its strength completely and he closed his eyes, falling unconscious into Naruto's arms.
AN: Hysterical strength is something real, you can look it up. It's super interesting what humans can be capable of in some life and death situations. By the way, Izuku had achieved the state of Hysterical Strength in the canon as well, but he had done it under the effect of One For All, when he had almost died at the hands of that grotesque muscle villain while trying to save the little boy, Kota. I decided to make him go through that experience sooner, in a controlled environment, to access his latent strength while he is still Quirkless in order to not cripple himself.
In regards to Izuku swearing and acting seemingly out of character, Naruto had been torturing him for over a weak, making him reach his limits and despair. So don't bash the poor guy. Unlike in the canon, he is putting his life on the line to become stronger instead of simply being gifted the most powerful quirk in the world.