AN: Some people have been asking me whether I have Discord or not. It's not that often but it's frequent enough that I decided to make a server after all this time.

I'll try to be active and participate in your conversations there. You can also use my Discord server as a platform to promote your own fics as well. Treat it as a sort of Fanfiction community for straight people to have fun and share fanfiction ideas and even waifu pics.

You can join me at SaURfaGY if you are interested.

Chapter 14 - Epilogue

Previous chapter

As Ego turned to leave, Naruto couldn't help asking:

"Ego-san! About the second selection, what happened? Did I pass?"

"This last match was never about passing or failing. I pitted you all against the world's best strikers in order to give you a taste of reality and prevent you from getting an overinflated confidence in your meagre skills."

⁂

"We seriously drowned out there…" Isagi said.

"For real… but, you know, playing against the top 5 best players in the world… I never thought I'd ever do that in my life," Nishioka said.

"I know what you mean," Bachira also agreed. "Although we got stomped, becoming the best in the world isn't just a dream anymore. It might be far, but it is within our sight now."

"What do you say, Nagi?"

"Um, one moment, I can't stop now," the white-haired boy said with a look of intense concentration on his face. He was playing a game on his phone.

"PUBG again? You're hopeless," Nishioka laughed.

Having taken a shower and changed into a clean set of clothes, the four boys were relaxing now in their beds after the exhausting football match they had.

"I wonder, is Naruto alright?" Bachira asked. "I hope he's not injured."

"He was a bit scary on the pitch today…" Nishioka said.

"Tell me about it. I've never seen a football explode like that."

"Seriously, it was like a scene out of a manga," Nagi also participated in their conversation despite still being in the middle of a match.

"Remember what Ego told us about those strikers that rose from nothing and their unmatched hunger for goals?" Isagi said. "I didn't give it too much importance before, but now I understand what he meant."

"But what I'm curious about is: how has nobody heard about him until he came to Blue Lock?" Nishioka asked. "He's 18 years old already, isn't he? Someone as good as him would have definitely made a name for himself in high school."

At that moment, the door opened, and Naruto limped inside with the help of his crutches. Having heard the last words Nishioka spoke, he answered:

"It's because my school never made it past the prefecture matches. I'm from San'ya."

"What's that?" Nishioka said. He lived in Aomori, in the North of Honshu Island. It was rather far from Tokyo, over 9 hours away by car. "No, more importantly, are you okay, man? Were you injured?"

Now in front of his bed, Naruto laid his crutches on the floor and sat down on the bed.

"I'm okay, not injured."

"Then what's with the crutches?" Bachira asked.

"It's so I don't strain my ankle while I'm recovering. Anyway. I gotta go take a shower. Talk to you all later."

Once he left their bedroom with a change of clothes in his hands, Nishioka asked the others:

"What is San'ya?"

"Oh, you don't know? It's in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward. It's the slum area of the city," Isagi answered.

⁂

Two days after Naruto's team passed the third selection, the five of them were in the middle of a self-studying English class when a bell rang from the speakers installed in the room and an AI voice was heard:

"The second selection has just concluded, and the remaining players have advanced to the third selection. Please put on your kit and make your way to the central room immediately. A total of 35 players from seven teams have made it into the third selection, and you will enter in the order you passed."

Seeing as it was two days after their match against the World Five, Naruto had recovered enough to not need his crutches anymore. Not having done any training since then, he could walk without feeling any pain now.

'Only 35 players, huh? There were 300 candidates when we first came here,' he thought.

It made him realise that his gruelling efforts had not been meaningless. For the sake of his project, Ego had recruited the best 300 football players between the ages of 15 and 18 in Japan.

There were nearly 1 million Upper Secondary school students in Japan. Of those, roughly 500 thousand were boys. Not all the boys played football, but nonetheless, football was very popular in Japan. Even if only a quarter of those boys liked football, it was still a whopping 125,000. But only 300 were accepted into Blue Lock, and only 35 of those remained.

⁂

Once the AI voice signalled for them to enter, Isagi and Bachira in particular became excited.

"I can't wait to see how many of our former teammates passed," Isagi said.

"I'm sure they've gotten super strong too!" said Bachira too.

At the VAR's voice, all the teams that passed the second selection entered one by one. The seven teams were:

The 1st team: Naruto, Isagi, Bachira, Nishioka, and Nagi.

The 2nd team: Rin, Tokimitsu, Aryu, Kunigami, and Ebina.

The 3rd team: Karasu, Otoya, Yukimiya, Himizu, and Yuzu.

The 4th team: Nanase, Tsunzaki, Baro, Endoji, and Haiji.

The 5th team: Niko, Hiori, Saramadara, Ishikari, and Chigiri.

The 6th team: Raichi, Gagamaru, Shiguma, Tanka, and Iemon.

The 7th team: Shidou, Reo, Sokura, Kurona, and Naruhaya.

"Kunigami! You passed!" Isagi and Bachira cried out in joy at the sight of him.

"It was a matter of course. Did you really think I wouldn't be able to?" Kunigami said in annoyance as he grabbed the shorter boys by their heads with his large hands, making them cry out in pain.

"Hey, long time no see!" Naruhaya also waved at his former teammates.

"Naruhaya! You managed to pass after all!"

"I was lucky. Baro decided to challenge Shidou's team and we lost. But Shidou and Baro got into a fight, so the winning team chose me instead of him."

"Shidou? Who is that?" Bachira asked.

"The pink-haired guy. Don't point your finger at him!" Naruhaya quickly put Bachira's hand down and said in a loud whisper. "That guy is a total nutcase; don't get involved with him!"

At that moment, the rest of the former Team Z also came closer, all happy to see each other.

"Man, I'm glad you managed to pass too. I've been feeling guilty the whole time that we forced you to be the goalkeeper in the first selection," Naruhaya said when he saw that Iemon passed too.

"I won't be the nice guy anymore," Iemon warned him, half-serious, half-joking. "I realised after Uzumaki broke my finger that being nice gets you nowhere in Blue Lock. It's every man for himself here."

"What about Imamura and Igaguri?" Isagi asked.

"Imamuri and Igaguri didn't pass the shooting test," Chigiri answered him.

"That's strange; if I remember right, didn't Imamuri say his weapons were his speed and technique?"

"He was the laziest among us all. He never trained and always thought about girls. I'm not surprised he didn't pass." Raichi said.

"I guess Igaguri went back to the temple now? Namusan!" Bachira said, putting his hands together in prayer.

While Team Z was having their little reunion and laughing together, the rest of the players also greeted their familiar faces.

"There you are, retard," Baro said arrogantly as he stepped in front of Naruto.

"What's with the black eye, king?' Naruto mocked and snickered at him.

Although it was faded, one of Shoei Baro's eyes was unmistakably black.

Unexpectedly, Baro's face flushed slightly when he mentioned that.

"I gave him the old two-piece and a soda special," Shidou piped in from the side, a grin marring his face.

"You piece of-" Baro began, his voice trembling from anger.

"What, you wanna go again, tough boy?" Shidou provoked him.

"You two actually got into a fight? Haha!"

"You're laughing, but I heard you did the same thing I did," Shidou said, getting closer to Naruto. "You really knocked someone out cold, regardless of the consequences."

"...I'm a changed man now," Naruto muttered, but it was as if Shidou didn't even hear him.

"Living your life passionately, fully immersed in the present—that's how it should be! Ah, your name is Naruto, right? I'm Ryusei Shidou," the pink-haired dude said, raising his hand for a handshake.

"...You can let go of my hand now," Naruto said uncomfortably when nearly five seconds passed and Shidou was still shaking his hand.

"I have the feeling we'll get along just fine! Ah, this is great! This is why I came to Blue Lock! Once I'm done crushing Itoshi Rin, you'll be next. Don't worry, I promise I'll be gentle with you," Shidou said, bending forward until there were only 10 or 15 centimetres between his and Naruto's faces.

Completely weirded out by his behaviour, Naruto took a step back and frowned. If something like that happened on the streets, he would have punched Shidou's lights out.

"I have a girlfriend. I don't swing that way, so keep your distance, fruity boy," he said in a warning tone.

Given the short tempers both of them had, it was fortunate that Naruto's teammates jumped in at that moment, unknowingly de-escalating the situation.

"You have a girlfriend?"

"What, since when?!"

"Naruto, you dog!"

To say that Bachira, Isagi, and Nishioka were surprised would be an understatement.

"Oy, what's with that reaction?!"

"What do you mean? You're the kind of guy to sleep hugging a football to your chest," Nishioka said with a snigger.

"He's right, you're so obsessed with training, I didn't think you'd be interested in relationships."

"Hey, you got a photo of her?" Bachira unexpectedly asked.

Just because Naruto didn't take the initiative to talk about his personal life, it didn't mean that he was ashamed of being in a relationship with Saeko. It was completely the opposite. Taking out his phone, he went to the gallery app and showed them the pictures he had taken with Saeko on their date.

For a moment, the three boys were speechless.

"...How the hell did a thug like you pull a goddess like her?" Nishioka was in disbelief.

Naruto couldn't even take it as an insult because he fully agreed with him. He was wondering about that himself.

"I don't know, man. I must've used my whole life's quota of luck when I met her," Naruto said.

Everyone around him burst into laughter at his words.

"Wait a minute, I think I've seen her before…" Isagi said, making Bachira and Nishioka take a closer look at the girl.

"Ohhh! No freaking way! Don't tell me, is this Saeko Busuhima?!" Nishioka unexpectedly recognised her.

"How did you know that?" Naruto said in surprise. But when he remembered that Saeko had over 2 million followers on her social media profile, he felt stupid for even asking that question.

"Okay, okay, settle down, unpolished gems of talent." Ego's voice was suddenly heard at that moment, and everyone quieted down.

As all the boys looked up at the screens installed in the room, Ego continued:

"It's too early for you to be acting that easygoing. Just because you have made it through the first two selections doesn't mean that you're out of the fire yet. It's the opposite: from the fire, you ended up in the frying pan. Your football careers are at stake now, together with Blue Lock itself as a whole too."

As the 35 players broke into murmurs, Ego said:

"But, before that, congratulations on passing the second selection. I'm sure that the defeat you suffered at the hands of the World Five was an invaluable experience. That said, something came up, and my plans had to be changed at the last minute. It seems like the bigwigs of the Japanese Football Association want to put an end to Blue Lock soon. So I decided to challenge them."

"As such, the next selection will take place three weeks from now, and the future of Blue Lock depends on it. On the 12th of January, a special match will take place between Japan's U-20 team and the Blue Lock Eleven. And if you win the match, you get to hijack Japan's U-20 team."

At those words, gasps came from everyone else in the room. Naruto, too, looked at the screen in disbelief.

"Does that mean that we'll take their place as the starting players of the national team?" he asked, wanting to make sure right away that he wasn't getting his hopes up for nothing.

"Precisely."

It was surreal.

'Am I really only three weeks away from becoming a professional football player?'

He had been dreaming about this moment for so long, and he had worked so hard for it that now that it was in front of him, he was having a hard time believing it was really true.

When the others broke into murmurs too, Ego explained:

"Well, there's nothing to be surprised about. After all, this is a ragtag team of high school players, and you're all forwards. On paper, you shouldn't stand a chance against a proper team. They all snickered and readily agreed to the match when I brought it up."

"But just because they're confident you don't stand a chance, that doesn't mean they'll go easy on you. They're going all out for the win. They've added one more player to their team, Itoshi Sae. However, I can say with certainty that right now, you're good enough to overthrow Japanese football."

Ego's words set the 35 players' egos on fire. Their eyes were burning with fighting spirit.

"Now, it's time for you to put it all on the line. You have discovered your egos, mastered your weapons, developed chemical reactions, and also seen the level of the world's top players firsthand. Bagging a spot on Japan's U-20 team is no longer a dream. It is a reality that you can reach out for and grab with your own two hands."

AN: I chose to end it here, at the final episode of the first season. I know there is a manga as well. I skimmed through it, but it's just not as good as the anime. Manga in general sucks when it comes to showing action scenes, and a sports series is all about action. So I'm waiting for the new season to come out. Until then, you can consider this fic [complete].

Thank you for reading this story. If you like Naruto crossovers, you might want to check out my other stories as well. It looks like I have a knack for crossovers; at the very least, my other two Naruto crossovers are popular within their respective crossover sections.

- "Caterpillar" - Naruto/Justice League, with a Naruto/Wonder Woman pairing.
- "The Fox and the Hare" - Naruto/My Hero Academia, with a Naruto/Mirko pairing.
- I've also started a Harry Potter/Justice League story that will have a Harry/Power Girl pairing. There are 2 chapters so far.

I hope you had fun reading this fic. I wish you happy holidays and all the best in the new year.

PS: I've been flirting with the idea of writing a Naruto/Highschool of the Dead crossover fic, a spin-off from this one but I'm stuck.

I mean, the beginning and middle part of a zombie fic are always easy to write. The zombie attack happens, the MC and his group struggling to survive, securing food and water, finding a temporary shelter, and getting a sort of foothold in the post-apocalyptic world; up until this moment, it will be smooth sailing. Most fics can do that.

However, what comes after that? What comes after the HOTD's canon content runs out? What story arcs are supposed to follow next? How do you even end such a fic?

So I'm not sure. But if I ever get a clear idea of how to write a satisfying Naruto/HOTD fic, I'll make sure to let you all know.