Hope!" Normal Speech

'Despair!' People's thoughts

"Truth!" Flashbacks

Chapter 6

Meeting

"I see you're finally up, Naruto."

The first thing he saw when his eyes opened was the disgusting sight of All For One, grinning down at him in a way that had his blood boiling.

He was immediately on edge, his body jumping into action from the chair he had been sitting on. He saw there was some sort of glass wall between him and All For One, but he doubted it would do anything to stop his Quirk.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you..." His comment was akin to someone talking down to a child, which only made him growl. He jumped, his fist reeled back for not only was he going to break the glass, but he was also going to break the bastard's face in.

"Gah...!"

Or he would have, if a sudden shock hadn't been sent through his entire body, his form spamming on the floor as he felt as if he was getting hit by Denki's Quirk, only ten times worse.

"I did warn you, didn't I?" The pain only stopped after a few seconds, followed by those words. "If you try anything, that little thing on your neck will have you down in a second. It could even kill you if I amp it up enough, just so you know."

As he gasped for breath, his hands went immediately to his neck, to where he could feel something metallic. Some sort of collar if he had to take a guess, one that was seemingly the source of the shock.

Suffice to say, he tried to break it almost immediately.

"Silly boy..."

What followed was another handful of seconds of nothing but pain.

"As long as you're staying here, the rules are simple enough." The only thing he could do was to glare up at the bastard. "You try to get violent, to escape, or to break my new toy and, well, you already saw what happened, didn't you?"

"Fuck off...!" Deciding to do his best Bakugo impression, he simply cursed out as he spat into the ground, but his actions only got a chuckle out of him.

"Now now, there's no need to get all angsty. I just want to have a talk, Naruto." The friendly tone coming from his mouth only made him feel even more sick. "You have no idea how hard it was to find an opportunity to get you back, and I would rather not waste what little time we have."

"You sent your goons to our camp just to get to me...?" He spoke through gritted teeth, with both anger and shame growing inside of him at that thought.

Anger at the fact he let himself be caught by the League of Villains.

And shame by the fact all his friends from both classes had been put into danger because of him.

"You should have just sent me the address and I would have come directly to kick your ass!"

"How scary..." Another chuckle left him, which did not help with his mood in the slightest. "Perhaps as you were before, but right now? There's a difference between confidence and foolishness, young man."

He only growled in response, wishing more than anything to wipe that smirk off his face. His comment though, did make him pause for just a moment, as much as he hated to admit it.

As he was before?

"Intrigued, are you?" And sadly, for him, All For One caught on that fact pretty much immediately. "Let's do a little test then, since I'm curious myself."

Next thing he knew, All For One had suddenly thrown something to the floor in front of him, almost hitting the transparent cube that was his current prison.

It was a... mask?

A weird white mask with a bit of paint on it that made it look like a...fox?

"Guess I would be carrying one of those too if I looked like you." Seriously, what was he trying to do?

"Nothing then..." But his words seemed to have little effect on him, as he suddenly threw something else, the object making a metallic clank as it landed right beside the mask.

Now it was a... knife? Dagger? Something like that, although a weird looking one considering it had three pointy ends.

This time he said nothing and simply glared to the side. He wasn't going to be entertaining All For One of all people. He rather just think of way of getting out of this mess before things got worse somehow.

"How about this one, then?"

He wasn't looking, so he couldn't know whatever other thing had been thrown at him. It sounded made out of metal too, and as much as he hated it, his curiosity did end up getting the best of him, as his gaze slowly turned to the front once more.

And his body froze as soon as it landed on the third item.

It was a headband, a black one with some sort of plate on it, with a symbol that he recognized quite well.

It was the same symbol he had felt more than a little compelled to add to his Hero Suit.

He hadn't known why at the time, just that he found himself drawing it without realizing it one day.

And now, looking at that same symbol on that piece of cloth, for reasons beyond him, it filled him with some sort of...familiarity? It was a warmness, almost nostalgic feeling that he didn't even understand properly.

"Hoh? So, I suppose your memories aren't as buried as I thought."

"...!"

Then, in one swift move, All For One grabbed everything he had thrown, hiding it from his sight in barely a moment's notice.

"Give that back!" Without even thinking it, he launched himself at All For One once more, not caring even a little that his chances of actually landing a hit were slim to none.

"Ahhhh!"

Of course, another shock was sent right to his body from the collar on his neck, but even as he writhed in pain on the floor, he still dragged himself forward as much as he could, his yells being a combination of pain and sheer frustration.

"Give...that...back...!" He yelled through gritted teeth, his Quirk activating even as more and more pain filled his body. Everything was feeling numb at that point, but that didn't stop him from throwing one desperate punch at the transparent wall separating him and All For One.

The satisfying crack that appeared on it did help his mood just a bit, right before everything finally went dark.

"You do realize this is probably a trap, right?" Kaina's voice ringed on his ear as he walked closer and closer to his target.

It was a mansion, a pretty massive one that for some reason All For One had hidden on the mountain side of Osaka, and that now Tomura was apparently using if the tracker was anything to go by.

"Well, in that case it wouldn't be the first time one of these blow up in my face." He said lightly, a small smile forming on his lips as he heard Kaina snort from the opposite end of their communication headset.

"I'm not apologizing for that again." And even from here he could feel her huffing in annoyance, which only made him even more amused. "I won't be able to assist once you go inside so...just be on your guard, alright?"

"Good to know you actually care." His smiling visage slowly turned into a neutral expression once he reached the door. "I have my escape route ready, so just make sure to give me a heads up if you see anything."

That's why he had left her up on the mountains from where she could see the area around the mansion, after all.

So, after receiving one last confirmation from Kaina, he moved to open the quite large doors of the mansion.

What he found was utter darkness, with the only source of light being the sun shining behind him upon the entrance, but even that was enough to highlight something resting precisely on the middle of the room.

It was a lone T.V on a table...

The feeling of deja'vu had him blinking for just a moment, his eyes sweeping around the seemingly otherwise empty room before they landed on the TV once more.

"Fine..." A sigh left his lips, already having an idea as to where this was going...

That didn't stop him from moving towards the middle of the room, nor from sitting on the chair resting right in front of the table.

The result? Well...

"It has been a while, hasn't it? Uzumaki Naruto."

Shigaraki Tomura's face suddenly appearing on the screen, sporting nothing but a smile on his chapped lips.

"I'll assume you found the tracker I put on Compress?" Not wanting to lose time with meaningless talk, he asked as such without missing a beat.

"You have become craftier than before, but indeed I did." He confirmed it quick enough, to which he could only shake his head. "I hope you don't mind; I did want to talk to you after so long, but I think we aren't ready for a proper meeting just yet."

"Yeah well, I don't really care." He said as he stood up from his seat. "Unless the next thing coming out of your mouth is your address, I rather we skip whatever monologue you had prepared. I heard enough of those from your master for a life time already."

"How impatient!" But even to his words, Tomura simply laughed in a way that made his eyes narrow in response. "But fine! We're both busy people so I'll go straight to the point. What are you trying to achieve with this little...crusade of yours, exactly?"

"Your head in a stick." He answered with a deadpan, thinking that it was obvious enough.

"How crude, but the feeling is mutual so, who am I to judge?" The amusement he saw clearly on display on Tomura's eyes only made him frown. "If I'm being honest, I think dragging you into all of this was the biggest mistake from my Master's part, one that even ended in his death."

"If only you knew..." He whispered under his breath, thinking of how literal Tomura's description actually was.

"And what makes you think that I don't? It isn't just his Quirks that my Master bestowed upon me. I wonder what the world would think if they knew the kind of monster that is living among us, especially when this isn't even your world."

And then, before he could even process what he had heard properly, Tomura's visage was gone, leaving nothing but static being displayed on the screen.

He glared at it, cursing himself for thinking All For One had kept that tidbit of info for himself. It seemed the ancient villain had been far more forthcoming with Tomura than he had expected.

That...complicated things, just a bit.

Looking on the bright side, at least the place didn't explode this time...

"Oh..."

Five seconds later, when the mansion did, in fact, explode, it made him decide to stop testing his luck so often, because it clearly wasn't working for him.

This wasn't what she had expected.

When she had been...recruited by Uzumaki of all people, she hadn't expected to also have to play sparring partner with the guy.

It wasn't like her Quirk was particularly good for a one-on-one brawl, after all, so her only real advantage was that she knew how Uzumaki fought.

Or at least, she thought she did.

Because nothing of what she had been told about him, or even witnessed herself, could have prepared her for what she was facing now.

That red energy of his? That was his Quirk alright, she knew plenty of it already. Alongside boosting Uzumaki's physical capabilities, he could also control it at will, like extending it from his hands like massively long claws, for example.

It also let him stick to surfaces and walk on water for...some reason, but all of that she had known already.

Controlling the elements was a completely different matter altogether.

"Wind Release: Gale Palm."

Which was why she was barely able to jump upwards before she was blasted by wind of all things. It was at moments like these she was grateful that she still had the Quirk All For One had gifted to her.

Otherwise, and judging by the way the trees behind her were pretty much decimated, she would probably be in a bad spot right now.

Well, a worse spot, given that she was forced to block the punch that the second Uzumaki that had appeared right behind her had thrown at her.

Because he could also make copies of himself now apparently.

"Were you going easy on me before?" It was at the end of their session that she asked that through gritted teeth as sweat went down her forehead, with a glare aimed at Uzumaki, who seemed to be on his own little world as he sat on the ground...meditating?

She didn't know how else to describe it.

"Would you believe me if I told you I forgot I could do any of that?" He told her as he cracked open one eye for just a moment to look at her before closing it once more, only earning a snort from her in response.

She didn't know if he was being serious or not.

A seemingly frustrated breath left him then soon after, making her raise an eyebrow in question, but before she could say anything he was already on his feet, looking down at her with a look that she was already starting to understand meant she would be having a headache soon enough.

"You're done? I want to try water next."

What the hell did he mean water next?

"You're still alive, right?"

"Yeah yeah." That was the only thing he could answer back as a sigh left his lips; his eyes glued to the flaming remains of the mansion as he grabbed the Hiraishin kunai he had lodged on a tree before going in.

"I'll assume it was a trap?"

"Something like that." He didn't know if to truly considered one with how little it actually did. Was Tomura that arrogant to think that would have taken him out? Because the only thing he had accomplished was wasting his time at best.

Maybe it was just another one of his childish games? It was honestly either that or...

"Wait, I'm seeing something!"

Things weren't done just yet...

"What is it?"

"Something is flying towards you." Kaina's tone was nothing but serious, her words making him look up immediately. "A person, silver hair and flying fast, at this rate they'll be there in a few second-"

"Kaina." He interrupted her, his mind quickly putting two and two together. "Leave now, I'll meet you in the rendezvous point. Make sure no one sees you."

"What? I'm not leaving you just like that-"

"We can't have the Heroes knowing you're with me just yet." He shut her down once more, his gaze still aimed up as he hid the kunai inside his vest. "I'll be fine, but we can't show all our cards yet. Leave."

And without waiting for an answer, he quickly pocketed the transmitter too just as a frown set itself in his face.

So that was Tomura's move? To throw the Heroes at him as if they were dogs? That seemed to be the case, that he had somehow leaked the fact that he would be here to the Heroes, because judging by Kaina's description and by what he knew about the Heroes that worked close to this area, the one coming at him probably was...

"Nejire Wave!"

He was prepared for it, as he jumped to the side the moment he saw the silver figure above, her attack clashing on the ground where had stood just a moment prior.

His attention wasn't on his current attacker though, for if there was one thing he knew, it was that she didn't work alone.

So, when the sound of leaves rustling was heard from behind him, he called forth on the Kyubi's chakra immediately, coating his arms with it just as he turned around, just in time to grab the quite literal crab claw that had tried to trap him.

Rolling backwards on the ground, he dragged the owner of the claw with him, a grunt of pain leaving the newcomer as he then kicked him on the stomach, sending him flying to the opposite end of the clearing just as he stood up once more.

That made two, which then only left...

"Power!"

It was only because he was ready that the upcoming fist didn't hit him in the face, just as the third figure seemingly popped out from the ground below. Even so, it was close enough so that he could throw his own punch at his stomach.

Of course, it didn't connect, but rather it just went through his body as if it was nothing, but he had already expected as such, so not losing the momentum of him attack he jumped once more so that he could have all the newcomers in his line of sight.

To think that, of all Heroes, it would be them...

And even as slight pain surged from his head, he still offered them nothing but a smile as the trio now stood a few meters away from him.

"Yo! It's been a while, senpais!"

Big 3 are here, can't wait to write for them next chapter.

This chapter hinted at some stuff, it will all be explained in due time, but there is a reason present Naruto isn't exactly like canon.

Once more, thank you all for your words in your reviews and for your continuous interest in this story!

Next Chapter: Remembrance.