Kabei
Pairings? Depends on for now. I might go beyond the Arcane series (since season 2 is the last season) and from what I've learned Noxus is a big part of season 2. We haven't really seen Ionia or Demacia. So if I keep it to just Arcane, the possible partners are: Caitlyn, Jinx (VERY iffy on this one just on timing), Mel, Vi. If we go beyond Arcane, the list looks more like: Briar, Caitlyn, Diana, Evelynn, Fiora, Gwen, Jinx, Katarina, Lux, Mel, Morgana, Rell, Samira, Sejuani, Syndra, Vi, and Zeri. Their will only be a max of four pairings so if anyone wants to vote, I'll post a poll once I've made up my mind after watching season 2.

Paradoxity
The prologue made Naruto's thoughts very clear. He believes that oppression is a choice, which is not always true, but that's just because of what he had to experience and what he's been taught. That's why he is not so friendly with Vander, even though the latter thought he's been dead this entire time.

Last update before I watch season 2. Maybe. I'm bored so I may go back on my word.

Bye :D

II

How did it come to this?

Jayce held his head in his hands as he sat on a rough bed. He was currently held in a cell in one of Piltover's jails until the Enforcers were completely finished rummaging through the remains of his penthouse. It shouldn't take long considering how little was left to take but what was there would be damning for anyone.

The only saving grace is that there were no hexcrystals in his apartments. His notes and diagrams, however, would be enough to tattle on his projects. If there was no physical evidence of him collecting magic with science then it can be explained that he had not gone beyond musings and writings.

It will be a miracle if the only thing that happens is I'm expelled from the academy.

He was startled by the door opening and he looked up to see the dean of the school approaching the opened door of his cell. "Professor Heimerdinger, sir."

"Jayce," the small yordle nodded his head as he approached. "What were you thinking, my boy? How could you conduct experiments in such an unsafe location?"

Jayce stammered at the disappointed tone of the usually excited Professor that taught at the academy. "I just thought that my home would be… easier to conduct my studies."

"What were you studying?"

Jayce bit his lip as he avoided the man's stare. "I was just… wanting to figure out if magic could be harnessed with magic."

Heimerdinger's face hardened in disappointment but there was a chastising emotion projected at that moment. "I thought the Ethos were clear, Jayce. Magic cannot be controlled. Not through science and not through us."

"But that's… not true," Jayce said to himself, thinking about his blonde benefactor.

Heimerdinger, however, had heard him, and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I've seen it," Jayce decided to just unload the truth now.

If anyone would be able to listen and understand, it would be the professor who has been in Piltover since its founding.

"My mother and I nearly died in Freljord after losing our carriage and horses. My mother passed out and we would have died in the blizzard if not for a wandering stranger." Jayce's hands shook as he remembered the event clearly. "He could use magic, harness it, and he used it to send my mother and I back to a village where we got help. If not for him, we would have died!"

Heimerdinger is silent as he listens, truly listening, to the child that pleaded to him. He knew his student was not lying or making something up to justify his forbidden research. He still could not support the studies but he sympathized that such an event would sway anyone to the arcane.

"I understand that such a traumatic event on such a young mind would leave an everlasting impression," Heimerdinger finally spoke with understanding and without judgment. "I've been around a long time, Jayce, and I've seen the beauty and wickedness of humans and of nature. Even magic has had its good times."

Jayce shut his eyes as he knew that his professor was leading into a lecture on how he was still wrong. But he just couldn't believe it; believe that he should be turned away from a field of learning just because of one's belief.

Like Naruto said. Everyone denies the good out of fear from the bad.

Wait! Naruto! If Heimerdinger hears about him he will surely have to acknowledge the good!

"But Professor, I know someone who is harnessing magic, truly harnessing it," Jayce told the yordle excitedly. "He's lent me his knowledge on magic to help me understand the parallels between it and science. He isn't some mad man either!"

"He managed to make fire, breathe life into inanimate objects, and speak of laws of physics like they are playthings! He doesn't go around flaunting this power either! He only wants to know the extent of which magic can be used, how to manage it, and then turn that into something that can benefit everyone in Piltover and Zaun!"

Jayce got up and approached the cell bars as he talked, pacing just in front of it as he continued to ramble about his benefactor. However, without knowing, he was scaring his professor the more he talked about the boy supporting him. The feats he did, the knowledge he had, all frightened Heimerdinger until he just couldn't take it anymore.

"Jayce, stop!" Heimerdinger's shout made Jayce stop talking and flinch back. "Who is this person you are talking to? What's his name? Where is he?"

Jayce's eyes widened when he heard the urgency in the yordle's voice. "Why, professor? What's wrong?"

Heimerdinger took deep, controlled breaths as he tried to regain his composure. "Jayce, what you just described is not magic offered by normal means. This boy, however beneficial he has been so far, is dangerous."

"But he hasn't done anything bad, professor!"

"None that you know!" Heimerdinger stressed to his student for a long moment before continuing. "The Ethos that forbid magic had been formed at the rebuilding of Zaun and Piltover. There is an old saying that spoke of those who harnessed magic and brought destruction; should one arise our fate's will be undone, for the Ruins end what they've begun."

"The Ruins?" Jayce asked his teacher in confusion.

"Beings of extraordinary power that could shape reality to their will," Heimerdinger answered the boy. "They were kings and warlords before bringing a cataclysm to the world from their wars with each other. The child you speak of sounds just like one, and if he is left unchecked he will bring destruction to countless innocent people."

Jayce bit his lip at his professor's words. Was he right? Was Naruto dangerous? He didn't believe so but Heimerdinger had lived a long time. He must be more experienced in understanding these types of things.

But he could always be wrong!

He was painting too broad of a brush to encompass anyone. They don't look at all Zaunites as filthy thieves even if some to most of them are. They don't look at everyone as possible murderers and rapists just because there have been those in the past. So why do so with someone born with special abilities?

"I don't agree with your sentiment Professor," Jayce finally said and hung his head. "Even so, I don't have answers to your questions. I only know his name and I can't even guarantee to you that it's his real name and not an alias."

Heimerdinger sighed and nodded his head in understanding. "You will be standing trial for unsafe experiments. Plead guilty to it and apologize but mention nothing of the magic. You may not be able to stay at the academy but you won't be exiled from Piltover."

Jayce nodded his head at his professor's words. "Yes, professor."

Naruto sat on the roof while looking at each of the Enforcers that trudged through this part of Zaun. This little merry group of Pilties were led by Marcus, an officer of mediocre skill and a bad temper. His foxes told him that the man was somebody to be concerned about as he often caused trouble during his operations.

Naruto was not initially here for that, simply letting the tensions between Piltover and Zaun grow. It would only benefit him in the end after all. No, he was here looking after the kids that got his attention from Jayce's penthouse.

The kids were currently in an old arcade, a hangout spot they found hidden behind a stained glass wall. They were "laying low" as Vander told them to but unluckily for them the Enforcers were now this far in the area.

Naruto chuckled with a grin on his face while peeling a tangerine with his fingernail.

This might actually be fun.

"Search that building and…" Marcus drawled as he looked around before pointing at a random store. "That one."

The Enforcers did so, knocking on the doors before immediately walking in. Shouts could be heard before some people were dragged outside.

"What's the meaning of this? You have no business dragging from our homes!"

Marcus did not look up from his clipboard. "We have authority to search the area for some criminals that blew up a building."

One of the men grit their teeth. So they were after one of their own? For a little bit of thievery? Hah! If they thought they would sell out one of their own then they were dead wrong.

"So, who has information that can help us," Marcus questioned as he tapped his pen on the board.

…

"Rah!"

Vi sent two jabs at one of the many padded arm targets from the boxing machine. She weaved by the attacks launched by the pistons inside the control arms while punching the center with either fist. She controlled her breathing even when she felt she would miss the timing of each attack.

The board flipped through numbers as it climbed the scoreboard with each dodge and punch. Each score had her nickname, Vi, and each one was made to be better than the previous number. This was how she learned how to fight, where she learned how to survive the streets and protect her family.

These skills have allowed her to live freely even when the other gangs of kids targeted them. They were smaller, weaker, and yet they remained battered and unbroken. Not because they were Vander's kids but because each of them are strong in their own way. Her with her fists, Claggor with his size, Mylo with his tools, and Powder with her unorthodox thinking.

No matter what Mylo said out loud about her being a jinx, even he knew that Powder had skills that none of them could do. She was an incredible marksman, as judging by how she has always beat him at the target range game they currently found themself at. She was also very resourceful, spotting good or bad tech with a quick glance.

So why is it that she had this feeling that… this was not what she should be feeling? Her sister had been separated from them when they had been attacked by Deckard's group. She was followed by one of their opponents while they were busy with the rest and if not for some mysterious stranger tackling them into the river, Vi was sure that her sister would have tossed the most valuable of their haul that was put in her bag or - worse - have her life threatened for it.

If not for the stranger, who Powder had only seen a glance of, they would all be experiencing a very different feeling at the moment. The tension for Powder's "jinx"ing of another heist would have made it unbearable between her and the two boys. It may have even strained their relationship as sisters.

"When am I gonna get a crack at the machine, Vi?" Claggor asked from his spot against the stained glass wall. "Can't let only you get better, can we?"

Vi scoffed as the machine powered down from its timed duration, wiping the sweat from her brow before looking up at the scoreboard. She didn't beat her last score but considering her distracted thoughts it was only expected.

"How about you learn how to properly stand for a fight before I let you get hurt on my machine," Vi gave a smirk at the large boy. "We can't have you breaking something when your bigger size is enough to overpower kids ten years older than us."

Claggor laughed at the girl's taunts and nodded his head in acceptance. "Alright, how about you show me how I should stand to fight then? That way I'm not taking so many fists to the face. I can't risk these goggles being damaged."

The goggles over his eyes don't look like it but they are the closest prescription that helped his eyesight without going to see an optometrist. The types of doctors, mind you, who only resided up top with the richer Pilties.

"Yeah, sure, Claggor," Vi scoffed with an amused grin on her face and stepped down from the boxing platform.

Before the two could get close, they were all suddenly aware of the growing shouts from the other side of the glass wall.

Powder was the first to approach the wall and looked through one of the small cracks that revealed the outside. What she saw made her gasp before waving her hand frantically at her sister to approach her.

Vi hesitantly walked over and crouched down as her sister stepped back with wide eyes. "It's him! It's him!"

Violet's eyes narrowed questioningly at her sister's frantic whispers before leaning down into the crack to get a look for herself. What she found was a sight that she'd have been glad to have seen any other night but right now it only made her stomach flip and chest tense.

Standing there against a group of five Enforcers is none other than the blonde from their heist in Piltover. He was completely uninjured and without a single mark to even distinguish that he had been in an explosion earlier that day. Even his clothes are new!

"So," Naruto called out while staring down the masked Enforcer that had his hands on the shop owner's shoulder. "When I heard that the funding and training for Enforcers was being cut, I didn't know that meant they were becoming nothing more than thugs bullying the little people that were nonviolent! I should have known all of you Enforcers would have become like any of the other rat gangs among Zaun."

It wasn't true, it was quite the opposite actually. The Enforcers had gotten double their funding this annual budget, which was spent on new weapons and armor and other gadgets. But the insult was there all the same, and by the tensing of the shoulders it had dug deep into the proud policers' hearts.

Marcus's jaw clenched tightly at the taunt and took a threatening foot forward. "Apologize now, rat, or we will arrest you for obstructing justice and an uniformed peacekeeper."

Naruto tilted his head at that, his smile spreading into a grin as his blue eyes twinkled sickly under the green lights all around the undercity. "Oh yeah? Wow, sir, I sure am scared."

His tone became mocking as he shook his legs in an exaggerated cower, which only made the group of officers angrier. He began meekly apologizing to them, but they can still tell that he was making fun of them even more. He very much was not apologetic or even scared of their threats of imprisonment. If anything, he seemed even more excited.

If only they had taken the hint.

"Arrest him," Marcus barked at the two Enforcers to his right.

"Hm," Naruto hummed softly as he watched the men approach. "Do you have anybody waiting back at home for you?"

One of them held out a metal rod while the other pulled out handcuffs to bind his hands.

"I guess not. Which arm of yours is dominant? Eh, doesn't matter," Naruto quickly answered his question before the two Enforcers reached for him.

He dodged them and moved to the side of the Officer directly in front of him. He grabbed the older man's hand and pulled him over before kicking him behind his knee. The moment he was on the ground on his knee, he smashed the palm of his hand into his shoulder and wrapped his hand to the side.

Such a blow would have normally dislocated and injured the socket of a victim. But Naruto had used his magic in the heat of the moment and his element easily burned through his arm like a heated blade. The flesh and tendon was destroyed as the palm cut cleanly through.

Surprised by his own action, he took the man's arm and tossed it to the side while kicking him forward and further away from him. He rounded a right hook into the metal faceplate of the other Enforcer who was still frozen in shock from seeing his comrade's arm be punched off. Like, really?! How the fuck does that happen?

Naruto stood his ground as he breathed in short, rapid breaths, adrenaline and magic pumping through him as anger bubbled underneath his eyes. He stared down the other Enforcers before closing his eyes and standing straight, taking a deep breath. He moved his hands up his torso as he did so, only stopping his breathing when he reached his heart.

He felt the emotion and magic slowly recede back to normal levels.

"I almost lost control there, hah," Naruto scoffed to himself as he addressed the Enforcers. "Thank goodness for that, huh? You might want to get back to headquarters by the way, Marcus."

Naruto's eyes looked into the stunned gaze of the Enforcer officer that was stunned to hear their name. He slowly gave a wicked grin as he heard a faint boom in the distance. Immediately, the communicators in the peacekeepers' ears were lit up with frantic voices shouting about an explosion.

"Oh, my gift arrived for your offices," Naruto smiled and put his hands on his hips proudly. "You should go make sure everyone's okay. My fireworks tend to get messy."