AN: enjoy.

Chapter 14 - Death

A powerful gust of wind blew away all the dust and dirt from the rooftop of an apartment building as two people landed on it with a thud. A few seconds later, sounds of someone throwing up were heard.

"Pussy." Mirko said and snickered at the sight of the fox boy looking as though he was half dead.

"You freaking psychopath! I thought I was going to die!" Naruto shouted at her when he finally got a hold of his upset stomach.

"Oh, stop it with the drama queen act~"

Naruto felt his blood pressure shoot through the roof when he saw her laughing.

"Drama queen?! If I was a normal kid that sprint of yours would've killed me!"

"It wasn't that fast, honest."

"You broke the sound barrier!"

"Ahaha. I might have been a little too hyped because of-" she began awkwardly but her expression suddenly did a 180 turn as she said in excitement: "Oh Right! The Hero Killer!"

Taking out her smartphone, Mirko appeared to forgot all about the incensed boy as she used the Hero Network app to check again the article about the Hero Killer.

"Unbelievable," he said exasperated.

After dragging him against his will all the way to Tokyo - it was over 100 km away from UA High! - she was now acting as if he was air. He sat down and lied on his back on the building's rooftop, too drained to even feel angry anymore.

A minute later, he stood up and dusted off his clothes.

"Aight. Imma head out,"

Now that got the Rabbit Hero's attention. However, getting the feeling that he wouldn't be able to scurry away if he lingered, Naruto swiftly jumped off the rooftop with no hesitation.

Mirko rushed towards the edge of the rooftop, instinctively trying to prevent him from jumping off, but when she saw how the fox boy was defying the laws of physics as he ran down and jumped from wall to wall she relaxed, remembering just how good he was at using his quirk.

"Hey! Where are you going?" she yelled and jumped right after him.

Instead of replying, Naruto let out an "Oh, crap!" under his breath and broke into a sprint, his fluffy tails standing comically stiff in contrast with the rest of his body.

"Oy! Why are you running away from me?" Mirko shouted as she broke into a dash too.

"Why are you chasing me?!" Naruto hollered back at her and suddenly made a turn, heading into a crowded and rather narrow side alley filled with all sorts of street vendors and hundreds of pedestrians.

When Mirko entered the side alley and saw how many people were walking around, she let out a grin. "Cunning brat!" she said in amusement.

Knowing that in a race of pure speed Mirko was faster than him, Naruto had chosen a crowded place because, thanks to his Fox Quirk's innated agility and reaction time, he would be able to run faster than her here.

Her thigh muscles tensed as she launched herself into the air, landing on a rooftop. Then, she started running on top of the buildings, chasing him from above. Unfortunately for Naruto, with his unique appearance, he couldn't blend in with the crowd easily. His three golden fox tails stood out so much that Mirko had no difficulty in keeping her eyes trained on him.

Seeing that she was still hot on his trail in spite of his best attempts to shake her off, Naruto increased his speed even more and rushed into another side alley. Briefly looking over his shoulder to see if the Rabbit Hero was still following him, he slammed so hard into a wall so hard that he bounced back like a tennis ball and fell down on his ass dazed.

⁂

While Naruto was running from the Rabbit Hero as if his tails were on fire, Izuku was riding one of the biggest highs of his life. His curly hair was singed, his elbows and knees were bruised and his clothes were tattered from all the mines that he had blown up but the smile on his face could not be any more radiant. Against all odds, in spite of not having a Quirk, he had won the first event of the Sports Festival.

That turn of events blindsided all the spectators and the other participating students as well. The A-class students that had been baptized through fire by surviving the League of Villains' attack on the USJ had been the favourites by a long shot, especially Endeavour's son and the boy who appeared to be his closest rival, Katsuki Bakugo. Nobody had expected a General Studies student to defeat the prodigies from the Hero Course.

'Everyone is watching me now. Look at me. Watch me. I'll show you how far I can go even without a Quirk!'

Brimming with anticipation, he could not wait for Midnight to announce the second event of the Sports Festival.

⁂ Back to Naruto and Mirko ⁂

"Didya really think you could outrun the Rabbit Hero? Haha! I got you now!"

Shaking off the cobwebs in his head, Naruto realized that the "wall" that he had slammed face-first into was actually the very person he had been running away from.

"But I'll give credit where it's due. You weren't half bad... for a dumb little brat."

Naruto's face scrunched up in annoyance. Her smug grin was annoying him even more than her words.

"Alright, alright, you won!" he threw his hands up and said. "Look, I just wanna go home."

"You're telling me you're not in the least curious about seeing first-hand a pro hero in action?" Mirko said and put her hands on her waist, not buying it.

"Um, not really. I don't want to become-" Naruto began to say but Mirko suddenly raised her hand to stop him and said:

"Wait a moment!"

She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply.

"I smell blood."

"There are like five restaurants or more in this block alone. It's probably from the chickens they're cooking," Naruto said. He could not sense anything but he figured that her sense of smell was most likely more developed than his.

"No. This is human blood," Mirko said with a serious face this time. "If you want to follow me, you can, but don't interfere. Just watch from a distance and wait until things are under control," she told him and started running in the direction she could sense the smell coming from.

But Naruto had no intention of actually following her. Now that she left, it was his chance to slip away. He started running in the opposite direction.

⁂

"Goddamnit!" Mirko cussed when she came to a stop and looked at the sight in front of her. Blood was pooling on the sidewalk and a carved-up and mutilated body lied in the middle of it. It was a man and, judging by his attire, he was a pro Hero.

Rushing at the bleeding person, she quickly checked his vitals before exhaling in relief.

"He's still breathing."

A small battle took place in her mind. The precepts of a Professional Hero dictated that rescuing people took priority over capturing villains. On the other hand, catching the Hero Killer had been a goal of hers for weeks now.

'But I'm not a medic. There's nothing I can do to save him,' she debated with herself as she dialled 119, the hotline of the Ambulance in Japan.

Nevertheless, in the end, she could not bring herself to leave the dying hero alone. She could only clench her fist in frustration at the thought of the Hero Killer getting away once again as she waited for the Ambulance and for the Police to arrive at the scene.

⁂

"Hello? Hey, dad, it's me."

"Naruto? Where are you? The first event of the sports festival is over already."

Naruto chuckled awkwardly:

"Haha... you won't believe it, but I'm in Tokyo."

"Funny. Come here, the second event is about to start. You don't want to miss it. They're going to have a Bo Taoshi game! All first years will be split into two teams and they'll have to topple each other's poles. I'm so excited!" (1)

"No, dad, I'm serious. I really am in Tokyo. The Rabbit Hero dragged me here with her. I swear to god she is crazy."

A few moments of silence followed before Naruto heard a bunch of almost imperceptible words - Minato had covered the phone's speakers with his hand for Naruto to not hear what he was about to say:

"Honey, I think Naruto just went with Mirko on a date-"

"What date?!" Naruto sputtered. "Didn't you hear what I said? She took me with her by force!"

From the shuffling and grunts he was hearing, Naruto guessed that Minato and Kushina were now wrestling for the possession of the phone. Living up to her credentials as a judo black belt, Kushina managed to defeat her husband in this little game and snatch his phone away.

"Naruto! What date is he talking about?!" Kushina's raised voice came from the other end of the line and he had to distance the phone from his head lest he went deaf.

"I don't know what he's talking about, mom, I promise!" Naruto said immediately.

His quick denial, however, seemed to only further raise her suspicions.

"Don't do anything reckless, okay? You're still too young to be doing the deed! And I expect you to be home before 8 o'clock so we can have dinner. Better yet, bring her with you when-"

"MOM!" Naruto said now becoming exasperated, his face flushing too. "This isn't a date, for god's sake! She took me here to show me how she's going to beat up a villain."

"Aww, how romantic is that?" came Minato's snicker from the background and Kushina burst into giggles too.

"We're just messing with you," Kushina said eventually, her voice filled with barely repressed laughter. "I say you take this chance to get closer to her. Mirko is a bit controversial but she's one of the top 5 Heroes in Japan for a reason. She is very powerful and popular as well. Don't waste this chance. If you make a good impression, you could become her sidekick as soon as you graduate. Getting a first-hand look at her hero activities is a precious opportunity too."

When a few seconds passed without Naruto replying, Kushina said:

"Naruto-chan, is everything alright over there?"

"Err... ...how should I say this. I kinda... ...um, ditched her."

As his mother's annoyed sigh and the sound of someone slapping their forehead (he guess it was his father based on the volume) came from the other end of the line, Naruto chuckled helplessly before mumbling:

"Sorry."

"It's okay," Kushina said. "You told me this morning how you feel about becoming a hero so I won't say anything else to pressure you. Just-" she made a small pause to choose her words carefully, "-don't take too long before making a final decision. There are times in life when opportunities come your way and if you don't grab them with both hands, you might never get the chance again."

Naruto talked with his parents for a few more minutes before they had to end the call - with the second event of the UA High Sports Festival kicking off, the noise made by the spectators in the stands became too loud for them to talk to each other on the phone.

Putting his hands in the pockets of his pants, Naruto started walking at a leisurely pace as he gawked at the crowded streets of Japan's capital. It was not the first time he had visited Tokyo, he had been on two trips with his class in middle school. But he had never gotten the chance to wander around by himself in non-touristic places.

As he passed by a Shotengai (a local food market), his mouth started to water at the delicious smells coming from it. It had to be said Tokyo was ranked as one of the cities with the most restaurants per capita in the world and Japanese cuisine was recognized worldwide as one of the best too. With his sharper-than-average sense of smell, Naruto never stood a chance.

But when he went in line to one of the food stalls, he was startled to realize that a bunch of girls wearing high school uniforms ahead of him suddenly made way for him and took out their smartphones to film him.

"Three golden fox tails! It's him isn't it?!"

"Whoa! It really is him! What is he doing in Tokyo?"

"Oooh! He's so much cuter in person!"

The commotion that the high school girls caused attracted other people's attention and Naruto suddenly found himself in the middle of a mob of several dozen people, all snapping pictures at him and trying to talk to him.

"Excuse my rudeness, are you, by chance, Uzumaki Naruto?"

"I saw you on TV the other day. It's an honour to meet you!"

"I'm rooting for you! You're going to be an excellent hero in the future!"

With so many people all of a sudden clamouring around him and all of them talking at the same time, Naruto was stumped, not knowing how to react.

⁂

One hour later, Naruto found himself on a remote bench in a public park, his arms full of snacks and souvenirs. Once they discovered him, the crowd and the food stall owners in the vicinity showered him with gifts. It was only after shaking hands with and signing autographs for nearly a hundred people that Naruto finally managed to get away.

"Ah, there's so much food! What am I going to do with all of it?"

Food from street stalls was not the kind that could be preserved for long. Most of it would end up becoming spoiled by the time evening came. Regardless, he couldn't throw it away. His conscience wouldn't let him tarnish people's goodwill and feelings for him like that. Picking up a paper bag with Ikayaki, he bit into it with gusto and closed his eyes as he savoured the rich flavour of the grilled squid meat.

Time passed and eventually, Naruto let out a long breath as he rested his back against the bench.

"I can't eat anymore."

He was so full, his stomach bulged out as if he was pregnant but the pile of food on the bench was only halfway done. Even someone with an appetite as healthy as his couldn't finish it all. Muttering a small prayer of thanks to the people who had gifted him the food, Naruto gathered all that was left and stood up. Though he could not finish everything by himself it didn't mean he was going to throw all the food away. As any other big metropolis in the world, Tokyo had its share of unfortunate people without a home that would appreciate a small gesture of kindness.

⁂

As Naruto gave his last snack to a homeless old man, he noticed a little girl watching them wistfully with her big red eyes. Following his line of sight, the old man saw the little girl watching them too.

"She seems to be hungry too... here, young little miss, you can have it," the old man said with a gentle smile and stretched out his hands to give her the snack that Naruto had just given him.

The old man's unexpected kindness moved Naruto deeply.

'It's easy to give things away and make good deeds when you have more than you need. But this oji-san has nothing.'

Naruto put his hand gently on his forearm to stop him and said:

"Don't worry, uncle. Keep your food. I'll go get something for the little girl."

"Eh?! Are you sure that's alright? You don't have to!"

"No, it's not a problem, I insist."

He went to the little girl and, crouching to be on the same eye level with her, he asked:

"Hi. Would you like me to buy you some dango?"

The little girl looked down in embarrassment as she mumbled:

"Yes."

Naruto gave her a sunny smile and patted her head softly before standing up and rushing to a nearby convenience store. A few minutes later, he returned with a bag carrying a pack of dango and two cartons of apple juice, one for the little girl and one for the old man. After giving the old man a carton of juice and receiving his heartfelt thanks, Naruto went to the little girl and handed her the juice and the food too.

"Thank you," the girl said shyly.

Not minding his image, Naruto sat down on the sidewalk next to the little girl and watched her. It was highly unusual for children to live on the streets in Japan - it was the first time he was seeing a homeless child. The children protection agency normally took all orphan children or those without a stable home and put them into foster families. Thinking that a girl as young as her was living on the streets, Naruto could not simply leave her and be on his way.

"My name is Naruto, by the way. What's your name?"

The girl took a few moments to swallow a big mouthful of food before replying:

"Eri. My name is Eri."

"I see. Eri-chan, are you alone? Where are your parents?"

The little girl put down the stick of dango momentarily and looked at the ground as she said:

"They're dead."

He felt a node forming in his neck.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

He truly was. Looking at the deplorable appearance of the little girl and knowing that she was an orphan, Naruto felt his heart breaking. If anything, there were not many people that understood as well as he did what it was like to be an orphan. In his past life, he had been an orphan too. Even so, he had never been in the little girl's situation. Although the Third Hokage had not been the most attentive caretaker, at least Naruto had always had a place to sleep and food to eat. In contrast, the little girl was homeless, her clothes were rags, she had no shoes on her feet and her arms and legs were wrapped in bandages.

He took a few moments to calm his emotions before he spoke:

"Is there nobody else related to you? No-one else that can take care of you?"

Finished wolfing down her food Eri started wringing her hands nervously at his words.

"I have relatives. But they- are bad people that hurt me." the little girl said and whispered inaudibly the last part before looking around terrified.

Naruto's sensitive hearing, however, picked up what she said. Furthermore, he could smell it. He could smell the feelings of fear coming off her. (2)

'No, it's not just fear. She's terrified. So she's a runaway...'

Anger started bubbling in his veins as he looked at the dirty bandages covering her arms and legs.

'What kind of bastards would hurt a little girl like that?!'

When Mirko had kidnapped him from UA High and dragged him to Tokyo, Naruto had never thought he would stumble upon such a situation but now that he did, he could not ignore the little girl and pretend he had not heard anything.

Standing up, he stretched his hand out for her to grab it as he said:

"Will you come with me?"

"Come where?" Eri asked cautiously.

"To find you a new home. The police will-"

"NO!" the little girl suddenly yelled and backed away. "No," she said again, this time in a weak voice. "They'll send me back again! I-, I don't want to go back to that place!"

As though her words had been a bad omen, four tough-looking men wearing black suits appeared in the plaza and started looking around as if they were searching for something.

"They're here!" Eri said, her voice choked from fear as she quickly ran behind Naruto's legs and buried herself into his three fox tails in a desperate attempt to hide herself. "Please. Don't let them take me. Please!" Eri begged desperately.

Startled by her actions, Naruto turned to look at what had elicited such a reaction from the little girl. Seeing the four men heading towards him, anger suddenly washed over him.

"You've caused us a lot of problems this time, Eri," one of the four men said in anger as he and his pals walked closer to them. "Did you know? Yosuke died! Overhaul killed him because you ran away! It's your fault someone was killed once again!"

Naruto heard Eri's breath hitch at that man's words.

"There's no use in hiding her, boy. Step aside. This doesn't concern you," one of the men said and tried to push his shoulder roughly to shove him away.

But Naruto caught his wrist and twisted it, making him fall to his knees and cry out in pain. Thinking that they had tormented a little girl to the point where she was shivering in terror, he proceeded to further twist the man's wrist, making him start screaming.

"Argh! Wait! It's going to break! Argh!"

Letting go of the man's wrist, Naruto push-kicked him in the chest, sending him skidding backwards.

The other three tough-looking men suddenly took out knives from their pockets and pointed them at him.

"Every fucking kid thinks they're a hero these days."

"Do you have any idea who you're dealing with, you stupid bag of shit?"

If it was two or three generations ago, even the police would hesitate about getting entangled with them. But in a society of superpowered people, the Yakuza was a shell of its former self. The three men were burning with rage.

"I don't care who you are. All I see is that four men with knives are trying to take a little girl against her will."

"You little shit! You're so dead when I get my hand on you. I'll fucking-"

*bang*

The man who was in the middle of swearing and cursing was suddenly blasted away as if he had been hit by a truck.

His leg still extended from the vicious kick he had slammed into that man's gut, Naruto looked at the other three who had unconsciously stepped away from him in trepidation.

But the time to talk things peacefully passed the moment they threatened him with their knives.

With a speed that made it looks as though he had teleported in front him, Naruto grabbed one of the Yakuza goons by the head and smashed a knee into his face, knocking him out cold. The other two had no time to react whatsoever because, a split of second later, he appeared between them like a blur. A "Konoha-Senpuu" kick smashed into their jaws at the same time, sending them flying in opposite directions. Their knives laying scattered on the ground, the four men did not get up. They were unconscious.

The entire fight took less than 5 seconds but the sight of a young boy beating the crap out of four buff men attracted people's attention right away.

"We better get away before the police or a hero comes. Come, get on my back. I'll carry you so we can flee faster," Naruto said and crouched.

He was a stranger that she had met only half an hour ago but the kindness that he had shown her by buying her food and the way that he protected her from Overhaul's men made any doubts that Eri might have had about him vanish. Getting on his back, the little girl wrapped her hands tightly around his neck as Naruto broke into a run.

⁂

A while later, Naruto and Eri were sitting on a bench in a more remote children's playground, catching their breath. While the little girl was wringing her hands anxiously, Naruto was no less worried either. He was resting his face in his palms as he tried to find a way to deal with the situation.

'To think I'd pick a little girl that was a runaway from a family that's part of a gang of some sort.'

He wanted to help Eri with every fibre of his being but he didn't know what he could do for her. He was just an underage boy in the eye of the law, he couldn't become her guardian. And the worst part was that he did not know how to deal with the gang either. He could beat them up not all problems in the world could be solved by beating people up. Unfortunately, things weren't that simple.

'Since Eri-chan doesn't want to go to the police does that mean that her relatives have someone on the inside? What the hell are they, Yakuza?' he thought with a snort. 'Do Yakuza even exist anymore? Mom told me most criminal organisations disbanded after All Might's rise to power.'

While Naruto was deeply buried in his thoughts, a series of relaxed footsteps make him look up at the newcomer.

"This day just keeps getting better," Naruto said sardonically.

First, the Rabbit Hero had carried him on her shoulder like a bag of potatoes from UA High all the way to Tokyo, then he encountered a little girl that had run away from a family of criminals, and now he was being approached by a man who was wearing a pair of white latex gloves and a stuffy Plague mask in the middle of May.

'Is he a cosplayer of sorts?' he thought but when the young man opened his mouth, Naruto's amusement disappeared.

"You've been a naughty girl again, Eri," the young man said and Naruto saw the little girl stiffen in panic.

"Thank you for looking after my daughter. I was so worried when she disappeared!" he said as he turned towards Naruto and raised his hand for a handshake. "Oh, where are my manners, excuse me," the young man said before taking off the latex glove on his right hand and raising it again for a handshake. (3)

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.

AN:

(1) you can search on youtube "bo taoshi" game if you're interested. Looks hella fun and crazy.

(2) Naruto can gauge other people's emotions based on their smell (first mentioned in chapter 6)

(3) Probably most people know this but just in case - it is considered rude to shake hands with gloves on.