AN: I'll admit that the last chapter's cliffhanger had been a special kind of nasty lol. Anyway, I didn't torture y'all with a long wait. Here's the next chapter, enjoy!

Chapter 15 - Protector

Previous chapter

Naruto looked at him warily, inwardly expecting the weirdo in front of him to pull out a knife or a gun with his other hand. Though he raised his hand to meet the man's handshake, Naruto kept his eyes on him like a hawk, watching his every move intently, ready to react in an instant if the man decided to attack him.

"NOOO!" Eri cried out loud and jumped between the two of them in a desperate attempt to protect the kind fox boy that had taken care of her until then.

However, she did not make it in time. It only took one touch. Blood and gore splattered everywhere.

⁂

Overhaul spat a mouthful of blood as he looked in disbelief at the four spear-tipped golden chains sticking out of his chest.

"What... what is this?" Overhaul asked, so stupefied that he didn't even feel pain momentarily, his brain seemingly lagging behind in comprehending what had just happened.

He proceeded to touch himself several times over in an attempt to restore his body to pristine condition... ...however, his Quirk wasn't working.

Naruto was no less shocked than him either. Just as he had been about to shake hands with the plague mask-wearing young man, a feeling of mortal danger washed over him like never before. Outside of his conscious control, reacting to his Fox Quirk's animalistic survival instinct, four golden chains burst through from his back and skewered the young man in front of him like a beehive.

"I-...I-...!" Naruto stammered and stepped back in a stupor as he retrieved the Adamantine Sealing Chains from Overhaul's body.

He had not wanted to kill the young man in front of him! Even in his past life, as a shinobi, Naruto could count on the fingers of one hand the number of people that he had killed. The Quirk that he had inherited from his mother had acted out on its own yet again, just like when the Sludge Villain had attacked him!

He had yet to snap out of his shock when the little girl let out a cry and yelled:

"No! NO!"

A bright yellow flash akin to lightning exploded forth from the little horn poking out of the right side of her forehead and Eri cried out again:

"NOO! Run! Get away from here! Please! Run!"

While the crackling yellow light spilt out in all directions from her horn, Eri's eyes filled with desperate tears.

"Each and every action you take... ...kills people."

"No!" she cried out as Overhaul's filled with malice words rang in her mind.

"Did you know? Yosuke died! Overhaul killed him because you ran away! It's your fault someone was killed once again!"

Naruto stepped back in trepidation as his Adamantine Sealing Chains once again came out from his back of their own volition, outside of his control. His senses screamed danger at him in the same way they did when he had been about to shake hands with Overhaul and his Chains were activated in an instinctual act to ensure his survival.

As his golden chains flailed slowly around him, the light coming off from Eri's horn avoided him like the plague.

"Why did you do that?! M-Monster! I wish you were never born!" a woman's screams resounded in Eri's mind and tears started rolling down her cheeks like a river. That's because those were her mother's words. It was her own mother, cursing at her after her Quirk went out of control and erased her father from existence.

Naruto watched with wide eyes and bated breath as the bloodied and lifeless body of the young man collapsed on the street suddenly regenerated back like a miracle and opened his eyes. As Overhaul came back to life with a gasp he was extremely quick to take note of the situation and launched himself at the little girl.

However, Overhaul only managed to take two steps before he stumbled and crashed down as his legs unexpectedly shrank in length. No, his entire body shrank, his appearance inexplicably becoming more than 10 years younger.

For the first time in her entire life, Eri heard her tormentor's voice crack:

"E-Eri! S-Stop! Please stop!" Overhaul cried out in panic as he made a last-ditch attempt to jump towards her.

But in the next second, the now-teenage Overhaul collapsed once again. He had been turned into a toddler. Then, to Naruto's shock, as the yellow light coming off from Eri's horn engulfed the toddler, it suddenly disappeared into thin air!

As a nigh godlike shinobi from a fantasy-like world and as a current resident in a society of superpowered heroes and villains, Naruto had seen many things in his two lives. He had seen demonic beasts as tall as mountains, he had seen people that could transform themselves into liquids or fire, he had seen beings capable of dishing out attacks no weaker than a nuclear bomb, he had seen the dead being brought back to life, he had seen people capable of crossing dimensions and teleporting and he had even fought against a goddess.

But he had never seen anything like what had just happened in front of his eyes. He had never even heard of a power capable of anything like that! Even the most broken ability of the Uchiha clan, Izanagi, paled in comparison to the little girl's Quirk. To completely ignore the laws of physics and reverse time was a power beyond the realm of mortals. It was akin to the power of a god.

A few moments later, the horn on Eri's forehead stopped emitting light and shrunk to a size three times smaller than before. Thoroughly exhausted, Eri lost consciousness and fell down bonelessly. Even as he rushed to catch the little girl before she fell onto the hard asphalt, Naruto did not retrieve his Adamantine Sealing Chains into his body, still too freaked out by what he had just seen.

'If it hadn't been for my chains, would she have turned me into a toddler too? Or worse, would I have completely stopped existing?!'

But as that thought came to his mind, his Chains sank back into his spine and he embraced the girl's thin and scrawny body tightly.

⁂

Having run away from the bloody scene, Naruto was once again sitting on a bench in a public park. He had chosen against going to a remote place this time to avoid being attacked by the gangsters coming from Eri's family again.

Seeing as it was well into the afternoon, in May, the weather was sunny, warm and less humid than any other time of the year. It was the perfect time for people to come out for a walk and enjoy the advent of summer. Children of all ages were walking hand in hand with their parents, vivacious high school students dressed in their respective uniforms could be seen everywhere and there were even couples and old people walking around.

Every once in a while, some passers-by would throw curious glances at the blond-haired boy with fox ears and the little girl sleeping in his arms but they didn't poke their noses where they weren't supposed to.

"Eri-chan," muttered Naruto as he gently caressed the back of her head, trying to soothe her.

Even in her dreams, the little girl did not seem to have peace. Her tiny hands were clutching tightly at his t-shirt and the wetness at the corners of her eyes betrayed that she was crying. She was having a nightmare. He could only imagine what she was going through at that moment. A child as young and fragile as her had inadvertently killed a person due to her Quirk going berserk.

Her extremely powerful Quirk was no different than a curse for her, a curse that had caused her an untold amount of pain and suffering.

"Don't you worry, Eri-chan. From now on, I'll protect you. I swear. I won't let anyone hurt you anymore," he whispered as he caressed her white-bluish hair.

He spent the next few minutes in silence as he contemplated his next course of action.

'I'm a minor so the law will never let me become her guardian in normal conditions. I have to convince mom and dad to take her in.'

A troubled look appeared on his face. Adopting a child was not something that people did in the spur of the moment. Normally, people would think about such matters for several long months and have multiple meetings with the child before finally deciding on whether they would adopt them or not. He wasn't very hopeful about his parents all of a sudden accepting to take Eri in.

'Also, someone has probably discovered the massive amount of blood and gore in that children's playground by now and those thugs would surely kick up a fuss when their pal doesn't turn up the next day at their meeting house. I will become their prime suspect in that plague mask dude's disappearance.'

The more he thought about the situation, the bigger his headache was becoming. But as he looked at how Eri was clutching at his shirt as she slept, thoughts of giving up never even sprouted in his mind. He knew what it felt like to be a cursed child and carry a great burden. The desire to protect the little girl was burning with such intensity in his heart that Naruto was surprised at himself.

In the end, he steeled his resolve and made a decision. Dialling his father's number again, he brought his phone to his ear.

"Hey, dad. Do you see All Might anywhere in the stands close by?" Naruto said right away.

"What happened? Did you get in trouble? Is everything okay? Are you alright?" Minato shot a series of questions one after another.

"I did get in trouble. But everything is okay at the moment," Naruto said quickly. "I really need to speak with All Might. Please, dad."

Minato appeared to be hesitating.

"Ugh, I don't know, Naruto. How can I just waltz in front of him and demand he spoke to my son on the phone? He is All Might, you know?"

With All Might becoming his teacher at UA High, Naruto had gotten used to treating All Might almost like a normal person, like his teacher. He had forgotten just how much was All Might worshipped by the average people at large.

"It's fine, you'll see. He's our teacher at UA. He told me directly before that if I ever need help or someone to talk to, he'll always be available for me," Naruto said.

And it was not a lie. In the first place, All Might had enrolled Naruto at UA High through his recommendation because he wanted to guide Naruto into becoming a hero, to prevent the possibility of him going on the wrong path.

"Alright, alright!" Minato grumbled as he stood up and walked towards All Might's seat.

Since the Rabbit Hero had brought the Uzumaki family to the VIP booth, they were together with other members of UA High's staff - therefore, All Might was there too. With All Might being a hulking man over 2 metres tall and packed with bulging muscles, it was hardly a challenge to spot him in the crowd.

Naruto unexpectedly heard a robotic voice telling him that his call had been put on hold but 20 seconds later, All Might's boisterous voice made him go temporarily deaf in one ear:

"Uzumaki-shonen! I heard you wanted to talk to me?"

Just from hearing All Might's voice, Naruto felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. All Might's charisma and the good name he had built were so strong that just saying a few words was enough to fill people with hope and bring them a feeling of safety.

"I found a homeless girl. She ran away from her relatives because they were hurting her. I think they are part of a gang of some sort because they attacked us with knives. They want to capture her back. She has-" he began to speak quickly, trying to cram in as much information as he could in as few words as possible.

"H-Hold on a minute!" All Might exclaimed, momentarily overwhelmed by Naruto's unexpected bombardment of words. "First of all, where are you?"

"I'm in Tokyo. I'll send you the location through my dad's CrossChat right away."

All Might was startled yet again. Had he not seen the fox boy enter the stadium together with his parents a while ago? His face had been on all the screens of the stadium! How was he in Tokyo now? But he did not waste time asking unimportant questions.

"Why haven't you gone to the police first? They can help you much faster than me since they are much closer."

"The girl sounded desperate about not going to the police. Her relatives must be having someone on the inside because she was terrified of being sent back."

All Might was silent for a few moments before saying:

"Go into a public location that's likely to be patrolled by heroes, preferably around a traffic camera to discourage any attackers from ambushing you. I will come to get you in a few minutes! Don't hang up, keep the line open so I can hear you if anything unexpected happens."

⁂

Half an hour later, Naruto and All Might were sitting in a private room at a police station in Tokyo, talking.

"What a terrifying ability," All Might muttered in disbelief when he heard from Naruto what Eri's quirk was capable of.

But, in spite of that, the Number 1 hero was not looking at the little girl as if she was a time-ticking bomb. Instead, his eyes were filled with compassion. She was not the only case that he had heard of where children lost control of their Quirks and caused a disaster. In fact, although they weren't all that common, such unfortunate situations started occurring increasingly often in the past two decades. Society at large had not become aware of it yet but medics and scientists all over the world had taken notice of it.

'What have they done to the poor girl to bring her in such a state?' All Might thought as he saw how Eri - who was now awake - was clutching at Naruto's clothes, seemingly as if he was her lifeline. Furthermore, the girl appeared to be malnourished and her arms and legs were covered with bandages.

"Eri-chan, it's alright," Naruto said in a soft voice and patted her on the head. "All Might is here to help."

"You won't send me back, will you?" the little girl asked fearfully. "Please, don't. I don't know what they'll do now that- now that...that he's gone."

Tears started stinging at Naruto's eyes when he heard her plead that but he held them in. Letting out a shuddering breath to calm down his turbulent emotions, he said:

"Nobody is going to take you away. I promise."

"I'm not sure it's wise to make her promises that you might not be able to keep." All Might said hesitantly.

"There isn't anyone else who can take care of Eri properly. Nobody except for me...and Aizawa-sensei," Naruto said.

Those words threw All Might off the loop. He sensed that whatever the fox boy was about to tell him next was going to be big.

"What do you mean, young boy?"

A complicated expression appeared on Naruto's face but he had already made up his mind so he didn't drag it on.

"Sensei, I need you to promise that whatever I'm going to tell you will stay between the two of us. If anyone else finds out the secret I'm going to tell you now, my entire family will probably be murdered. This isn't a prank. I'm dead serious. Do I have your word?"

All Might's face mirrored Naruto's complicated expression.

"You're putting me in a very tough spot. But I promise you that as long as it's not something worthy of being prosecuted for, your secret is safe with me."

That wasn't exactly the kind of answer Naruto had been hoping for. But that would have to suffice because there was nobody else he could turn to. He had to make a leap of faith and trust him.

"Aside from my Fox Quirk, I have another Quirk," Naruto began to say, only for All Might to interrupt him:

"Impossible! People can't have more than one Quirk. Unless-" he didn't finish what he was about to say.

Though curious about the words that All Might had left unsaid, Naruto had more important things to think about at that moment.

"It's a strange Quirk because it doesn't manifest like every other Quirk in early childhood. It takes a moment of life and death to trigger it and it can appear at any age or it might not appear at all. My grand-grandmother manifested her Quirk when she was middle-aged. My grandma didn't manifest it at all. My mother manifested it as a child, during a car crash, when she was about to die. Her parents - my grandparents - died in that crash, mom was the only one who survived."

Naruto gulped his saliva before continuing.

"I manifested this Quirk too when the Sludge Villain was about to kill me. I didn't know what happened at that time. I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I found myself in the hospital and I heard that the villain that attacked me was dead."

As he said that, 4 chains seemingly made out of golden light slowly peeked out from under his t-shirt and started flailing slowly around him.

"These chains have a similar effect to Aizawa-sensei's Erasure. Anyone that gets entangled by the Adamantine Sealing Chains can't use their Quirks. If someone gets caught by these chains, it's game over for them. It's a very powerful Quirk." Naruto admitted. "And that's what caused my family to hide. My mother didn't tell me everything - probably because she wants to protect me - but she warned me that a very powerful person had tried to get their hands on our Quirk for generations. Someone who would stop at nothing to acquire it, even if they had to kill us. Unless my life is at stake, I should never reveal it in front of other people. Mom had kept her Quirk a secret even from me and dad until I manifested the chains - and dad still doesn't know about it even till this day."

Momentarily, All Might was mute with surprise.

'Is he talking about All For One?!' was the first thing that came to his mind when he heard Naruto's description.

"Sensei, Eri's quirk is too dangerous for her to be put in the care of an ordinary foster family. I want to take care of her. I don't want to let her suffer again. She doesn't deserve that. It's not her fault she was born with that power."

Hearing the emotion in his voice, if All Might had not known any better, he would have been tempted to believe that Naruto was the one going through that turmoil himself, not just the young girl. Little did he know though that Naruto understood Eri's situation better than anyone else.

"I know I'm underage but there are only two options for taking care of Eri and Aizawa-sensei is probably the last person you could ask to babysit a girl."

All Might found himself snorting at the mental image of Eraser Head giving him his patented dead-eye glare for even daring to suggest he became a foster father.

'But if push came to shove I'm sure he'd eventually do it even if he didn't like it. I don't know anyone who takes their duty as a hero as seriously as Eraser Head,' All Might conceded in his mind.

"Uzumaki-shonen, as much as I'd like to help you in this matter, this isn't the kind of decision that I can make alone."

But seeing Naruto's crestfallen look - sagged fox ears, tails, and all - he added: "But I promise I'll do everything I can to support your suggestion. Little Eri's case is truly a special one."

"But there is one thing you need to understand: If you want to convince the Hero Public Safety Commission and the Child Protection Agency that you can take care of Eri, that means that you will have to reveal your secret to them."

A deathly silence instilled in the room as All Might hammered the figurative last nail in the coffin when he asked:

"Are you willing to go as far as to risk endangering your family for the sake of a girl you had only met today?"

It was a cold-blooded question, something that people wouldn't expect to come out of All Might. But All Might wanted the fox boy to be completely aware of the consequences that his choice could have.

Naruto didn't reply right away and Eri too was so silent one couldn't even hear her breathing. Although she did not understand the complicated adult talk between Naruto and All Might she had a feeling that her fate might be decided based on what Naruto said next.

Eventually, Naruto spoke:

"Sensei, did you know? Up until this morning, I had been seriously thinking about dropping out of UA High. I didn't want to become a hero anymore."

The boy's words had been so unexpected that All Might choked on his spit and coughed several times before finally recollecting himself. It was not only the population at large that had been charmed and impressed by Naruto's self-sacrificing spirit and grit as he fought against Nomu in order to protect his classmates at USJ - All Might had been just as awed by the fox boy too. Hearing him say he wanted to quit had completely blindsided him.

"I was afraid for my parents' safety," Naruto confessed. "I still am. I'm thinking: what if some villains attacked my loved ones to get revenge on me? Is being a hero worth it if my family suffers?"

All Might did not know what answer to give him. Inwardly, he was again surprised someone as young as Naruto was looking at things in such a mature and cynical manner. Most teenagers at his age were only thinking about how to get famous and amaze others with their quirks, how to rise to the top and become high-ranking Heroes, famous and rich. Very few took the time to think seriously about the downsides of being a hero.

There was a reason why All Might himself didn't have a lover or any children - he had thought about the same things as Naruto many times too. With how many enemies he had made over the years All Might could not, in good conscience, let anyone get close to him because they would only end up as a casualty of their revenge against him.

"But my mom slapped some sense into me after USJ," he said with a weak chuckle "and encountering Eri today made me realize something:"

"It's not like me to live in fear. It's not like me to cower from my enemies' threats. I'm- ...I wasn't like that. I've never been one to turn my head away from someone in need of help. Even when all odds were stacked against me, I've never retreated, I never ran away."

"Eri-chan reminded me of who I truly am."

All Might felt goosebumps appear on his arms when Naruto locked eyes with him and said:

"I am Uzumaki Naruto. I don't back down and I never go back on my word. Because I am a protector. This is my Way. This is my Will of Fire."