Chapter 2:

Kaina was actually happy. No more depression weighing her down and she was even proud to smile in front of kids, who look at her with stars in their eyes. She could attribute that last part to her working with All Might out in the open. He had called her out into the open so many times that it was becoming useless to stay hidden. Now she only stayed hidden because it freaked out the man's opponents and she gained a bit of dark humor watching them unravel as they watched out for her shots alongside All Might's massive fists.

Speaking of the man in tights, she found herself relaxing quite a bit around the older man, something he actually admitted he knew but it was nice to hear. She even helped him rest when he obviously needed it. It was nice to have friends to talk to for once. Of course, the public saw differently and it was a little concerning…to her…that people were shipping them in the tabloids. And speaking of dark humor, Sir Nighteye had the weirdest reaction to that. He thought it was both hilarious and he approved! He often teased them about it. The gull!

She still had not even considered that type of love in her life. After all, she was recovering from her depression caused by the many government-sanctioned hits she had committed; but she was happy just being out in public again and having a son to raise. He was damaged, just like her, but they made it work. To say that Naruto didn't need a parent was harsh. He had grown up without one and then got turned back into a kid. He needed someone older in his life and she was doing her best.

She was also very glad he was making friends. Judging from his memories, he did have quite a few, and seeing him with more put a smile on her face. But right now, she was debating on going through with an idea Sir Nighteye had that would involve Naruto and the goings-on in Narahata. That man seemed obsessed with trying to find a clue as to what was going on with the quirk-enhancing drug called Trigger. Speaking of the drug, she wasn't sure if there would be any adverse effects to it if it was on the normal market. People with weak Quirks would love a chance to be a hero and do some good. The problem now though was there was a new version of Trigger that caused Instant Villains… or victims, if you spoke to the people of Narahata. The victims lost their minds on Trigger.

That was what her old contact in the area said anyway.

"Something on your mind Kai-I mean Mom," Naruto asked while correcting himself.

Kaina smiled at that. Naruto was making a conscious effort to call her mom and that made her happy. "I have been thinking about what you said, how people should be free to use the quirks, even if it was just for their professions. Thanks to your memories, I have an idea of how it could go in our more modern times, but it wouldn't fly. At least not right now. You would have to get the…Commission's eyes on you along with the government and maybe other organizations. To do that…you'd have to be a Hero."

"In other words, I have to be this world's version of a Shinobi and try to get to be picked as the Hokage or the Number One Hero here," Naruto grumbled as they walked through the halls of Might Tower, since technically, his mom was still on the job.

"I know you are tired from your time as a Shinobi, but it is currently the only legal option I can think of. I know you can't see yourself as this world's version of a villain." Kaina said, smiling at the boy.

Naruto snorted at that. He had fought against some big-time villains in his time, so no, he was not into that villain shit. "If I did that, I'd have to get back into fighting shape."

"True and that is what Hero High Schools are for." Kaina stated with a grimace, "But I also know that option is too slow even for you. That is why I am going to pull a few strings for you."

"How so?"

Kaina smirked, but the smile did not reach her eyes. "My time working for the Commission has provided a few options through contacts. Not to mention they are good friends now." Peeking out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Naruto frown at the mention of the people who made her life a living hell, but he was curious and wasn't objecting, so progress. "There is a certain bunny-themed hero who is making her way up the hero rankings, but she still runs a certain side business. In short, Rumi has always been battle-crazy and she has caused many an issue with underground arenas. However, with her leading one herself, all in an effort to be able to find a person in the world to fight, I think it could work out for you. Plus, that Frog Kata you learned would be put to good use."

"A hero running an illegal underground fighting arena…that is pretty funny." Naruto snarked out but he was not saying no.

"Another option I can think of is partially the idea of Sir Nighteye's and mine combined. He wants someone to go to Narahata to help out the vigilantes in dealing with Trigger."

"That drug that makes people go berserk?" Naruto asked with a frown. "What does the Big Meathead think of that idea?"

"Oh, he hates it, even if he sees merit it has in helping people." Kaina immediately said, already on the same wavelength as her son. "That is why we won't tell him if you decide to go. I have an old contact in Naruhata that is tracking things as they go while trying to find his daughter…all the while without Quirk."

"Impressive for this world. Must be a tough son of bitch." Naruto commented with a growing grin.

"That he is and he is looking to teach the ropes to this one college kid he found, who is also a Vigilante. Could be a good jumping in point." Kaina stated with a knowing grin.

"Let me think about it and I will get back to you after school. I want to meet them though." Naruto replied after a moment.

"I can arrange that."

XXX

Naruto snickered to himself as he watched his group interact with a new member in the form of Mei Hatsume during lunch. The pink-haired girl really was something else and she easily matched Izuku in terms of intelligence. He also could see it was exhausting Hitoshi more than it should, but that boy was just looking out for them.

Like them, Mei was sort of an outcast that people were starting to pay attention to. However, Mei was so far into her own little world, that it was difficult to pull her out of it. He read, somewhere, that her type of personality trait was supposed to be on something called the…spectrum? He would have to read more on that later; for now, he just wanted to get to know her like he had for his friends.

"Wait Mei, you said you wanted to create babies for heroes?" Naruto asked, fully putting himself in the conversation and already being thrown for a loop.

"Yeah, what I call my babies, I meant gadgets! I create machines in my free time…which is all the time in my opinion." Mei replied with a shrug.

"But Mei," Izuku started with some exasperation in his voice since he was the one to bring her to the group. She was alone and looked very tired. He had to do something. "Some things we learn here will be beneficial knowledge-wise to your future inventions. Not to mention making time for food and rest will help too."

"I suppose that makes sense and some amount of socializing will help me eventually get business contracts." Mei reasoned. "Fine, I will join you and your friends at lunch and go from there."

That was probably as good as they were going to get for a while. Izuku grinned tiredly, "So Mei wants to be able to invent any gadget she wants and then sell them to heroes. She'd be great for the support course at UA."

"That is where I intend to go!" Mei grinned.

"Yup!" Izuku chirped before looking at his friends. It was nice to see that he had friends now after his early years were messed up because his childhood 'friend' had an ego the size of Texas and made everyone hate him. "You know, Mei and I should both go into the support course route. With my analysis, I could help Mei create even greater things!"

"I figured you were going for the Hero Course," Mei replied with a confused expression. "I heard that is what you wanted to do."

"But I am quirkless..."

"So? There are a lot of Heroes with useless or minor quirks. They make up for it by training their bodies. I would have a protein shake for people like that…if it didn't explode." Mei replied quickly.

"What was that?" Hitoshi asked nervously, already having a feeling that dealing with her was going to be a headache.

"Nothing!" Mei chirped nervously.

"See Izuku, you could be a hero if you wanted. You just got to train up that skinny body of yours!" Himiko replied with a giggle.

"She is right," Naruto stated as a question popped into his head. "Why do you want to be a hero though?"

"When we watched All Might as kids, seeing him saving people with a smile on his face. I wanted to do the same while…Bakugo wanted to, just so he could be the best." Izuku explained while revealing some of his oast. Naruto assumed this Bakugo person was the kid that made Izuku into the nervous wreck he is today.

"Yeah, and I want to be a hero to prove that Quirks aren't inherently villainous," Hitoshi stated.

"I guess I am in a similar state of mind," Himiko replied with a shrug. "My parents don't accept my quirk, so I want to prove that it is not bad for them. What about you, Naruto?"

Naruto frowned as he thought about it. These kids wanted to be heroes and prove they were useful to this society. Izuku just wanted to be a decent person and save people because that was how he was taught and that was how the world worked even when they both knew that most heroes just wanted money and fame. Mei wanted to support heroes with her gadgets and keep making them as she pleased. Himiko and Hitoshi had quirks that people labeled as bad, but even Himiko's own parents did not accept her for something that was a part of her. What did he want? Did he want to keep on fighting after the old fight was for nothing? Truthfully, he wanted peace like his old master wanted, but he did enjoy a battle every now and then. If he had to fight again, he wanted peace. Not just for him, but for his new friends and family too. "I want to be a hero to change the world and bring real peace to it. Where people are accepted for who they are."

"Whoa." Hitoshi and Izuku replied under their breaths while Mei grinned, already excited to make him some gear.

It was Himiko that was different, she walked over and hugged him tightly. She had told him about her home situation and she was happy that his hero goal was to help people like her. "So, how should we go about it?"

"Wait, why are you asking me?" Naruto asked with a bewildered look.

"You rave to ask?" Hitoshi replied with a smirk because they were getting under his skin.

"You are our leader." Izuku nonchalantly replied, clearing things up.

"Seriously?" Naruto asked. He did not even lead his old team and none of the other teams he had been on. He had been rather immature; he'd have to admit. Did these kids trust him that much since coming to this school? Apparently. Now he rad to be stronger than them to be their protector. Which meant he had to take his mom's offer. That was fine.

"Well, we would have to work on ourselves. Izuku, because you are quirkless, that means you will have to work harder than everyone. Are you prepared to do that?" Naruto asked.

"I can do it!" Izuku replied with determination shining in his eyes. "I will work hard, just like your friend Lee!"

"Just as long as you don't start spouting off about the power of youth, we'll be fine," Naruto commented, making them look at him oddly. He would do that every now and again, but brush it off as his old friends being weird.

"Hmm, too bad we don't have tools with which we can learn to use as well," Hitoshi commented.

"Tools? You mean like weapons or gadgets?" Naruto asked as he started to remember his ninja pouch while looking at the seal on his wrist.

"Um, both?" Hitoshi replied a bit unsure.

"That would make sense. Use anything to make a difference." Naruto stated, "Izuku, I think for now, we all need to learn a fighting style. As for tools…" He activated the seal on his wrist. In a puff of smoke, they all looked owlishly at the plain-looking ninja pouch that just appeared. Well…that was until Izuku started furiously writing again in the notebook.

"What is that? What did you do?!" Mei and Himiko shouted excitedly.

"A seal that my family was known to do…I just know the basics though. The storage seal lets me do that in a small pocket dimension." Naruto commented while showing them the small seal on his wrist.

"Basic he says. I call Hax." Hitoshi groaned, already seeing the potential of it. He cringed though when Mei started laughing insanely that she needed to make something like that.

"Izuku, I am sure you have analyzed us and our quirks. What would you recommend for us? Also, we can do costumes later." Naruto said.

"Well, I know I would need a lot of protection and I will need to figure out a weapon for myself later." Izuku started while the others eat quietly. "Mei, I think could use a pair of goggles that work in conjunction with her eyes to see really small and far away things. Could be useful for electronics. Maybe create an all-purpose tool like from this really old show called Doctor Who, I think it was called the Sonic Screwdriver. That way you do not have to keep reaching for something new and you can keep it on you most of the time in case of on-the-spot fixes."

"I…can't believe I didn't think of that," Mei replied with wide eyes.

"Everyone needs a different perspective for things like that," Naruto replied with a smile that Mei mirrored.

"Let's see…Hitoshi." Izuku said as he turned a page in his notebook. "With your Quirk revolving around your voice, I think a voice changer and amplifier will be your main thing. After that, I can think of two other items for you. One is a possible capture weapon and the other world be darts."

"Darts?" Hitoshi asked. "I get the captured weapon for capturing villains and rescue operations, but why darts."

"Oh! I think I understand." Mei replied. "Darts with poison or something so people will be more susceptible to your voice. That or just knock them out. I think Tranquilizer darts will work perfectly there. Izuku, we could work on something later."

"Heh, that is an idea I like," Hitoshi replied, he really loved the idea of being mid to long-range, but Naruto was right, they all needed to learn how to fight, just in case.

"As for Himiko," Izuku continued, "I would say a special type of claws for offense, defense, and for the use of getting the blood you need to transform. Maybe connect it to a possible storage system. I would also recommend something long range too, so maybe a whip or something."

"Heh, kinky. I will see what I can figure out." Himiko joked around, making Izuku's face turn red. He did not even think of that but he was a bit too pure sometimes.

"As for myself, I want to learn how to use a bo staff for melee combat and I don't want to hurt people so bad that I accidentally kill them," Izuku replied nervously, hanging on to his version of a Hero with all his might. "For long-range, modified arrows with a bow?"

"You get that from reading those old comics again?" Hitoshi asked with a grin.

"Green Arrow. Out of Batman, Green Arrow, and Ironman, that one seems the most doable for me." Izuku replied with a shrug.

"That makes sense, I can see you doing that," Naruto replied with a smile as Izuku turned to him.

"For you, I have a few questions. What else can your…Rinnegan do? What is in the pouch?" Izuku asked, notebook ready in anticipation.

Naruto chuckled to himself; he should have known that the green bean was going to ask that. "While I am not comfortable about it, I guess talking will alleviate some past experiences. Let's see, Nagato was a cousin of mine and he was able to use all six paths…but in a gruesome way that also left his body handicapped."

"That bad? These 'six paths' must be brutal." Hitoshi grumbled.

"They are if your body can't handle the strain," Naruto replied. "He was able to manipulate six dead bodies equipped with Chakra Receivers and each body had a set of powers related to a 'path.' The Deva path you saw with my gravity manipulation. The Asura path allowed him to augment the body with mechanical armor and weapons. The Human path allows the user to read the mind of a target…by placing a hand on the target's head and ripping out the soul to learn all the secrets. The Animal path lets the user summon any type of animal to aid them. The Preta path was defensive and allowed the user to absorb various chakra attacks or…quirks. The Naraka Path was used to restore the bodies if there were damaged and used for interrogation purposes. To do that, it would summon a creature to grab hold of a target's tongue and if they lied, they would lose their tongue and their life. Finally, there was the Outer Path…it was used to revive the people he killed. There were other abilities, but I did not read too much after that and the summoning meteors one. Others like Madara and an old Sage were able to do far more."

"What the…" Himiko whispered, looking pale with Mei.

"Fuck, I can see why you don't like these eyes, but it is what you do with them that matters here," Hitoshi said after a moment of horrified silence with the others, who were not doing much better. Hitoshi was sharp there, he noticed that Naruto spoke about them as he experienced it, not read about it. That and Naruto spoke like he was older, it was unnerving sometimes. That could be why he did not want to talk about his past all that much. "But what can you do with them?"

"The only paths available to me are the only ones I want to use. Some of the Outer Path, the Deva Path, minor application of the Asura Path, and the Animal Path. The others…I am pretty sure would nearly kill me or outright kill me." Naruto replied with a frown. he knew his current age would not allow him to pull off much of what he knew he could do. With a lot of training, that could be rectified.

"Ok, summoning animals and controlling Gravity, we can work with that. We would have to get books or something for possible weapons your body could…turn into." Izuku replied quickly, likely internally screaming. Also, going quickly stopped Mei…for now…from using him as a test dummy. "Now…the pouch?"

"Right," Naruto grumbled, hoping that his earlier explanation did not scare them off, they were kids after all. Opening the pouch, he raised an eyebrow at some of the items he left in there. "Hmm, I forgot some of this stuff was in here. We have Kunai and Shuriken."

"Oh! Knives! Neat." Himiko chirped before taking one of the kunai. "You know, this reminds me of something…a game some of my cousins used to play. A character named Scorpion used something similar."

"Oh, you mean the Kunai Spear," Izuku commented.

"Yeah that, I might use that instead of a whip!" Himiko replied cheerfully with stars in her eyes. Izuku and Hitoshi gulped a little, they hoped their friend didn't turn into Midnight.

"After that." Naruto continued, driving the conversation back to the topic, "Oh, I forgot Choji told me to hang on to these. Food pills!"

"Food…pills?" Izuku asked, not understanding.

"Yeah, Choji's line was able to make special food pills that supplemented their physical abilities or just replenish the chakra in their bodies. Oh, I forgot to mention that the downside of my chakra abilities is that if I run out of chakra…I die."

"That is a serious drawback!" Hitoshi shouted, fearful for his friend's life.

"It was why we created the Chakra pills, Food pills, and uh…these blood pills," Naruto replied as he took those out and then saw two pieces of paper with seals on them and some trap seals like Explosion and Paralytic seals. Interesting.

"Blood...Pills?" Himiko asked, her interest peaked again.

"Yeah, mostly used for medical reasons. If someone were losing blood…stuff like that."

"Could I use them for my quirk?" Himiko asked, if she had Blood Pills, that would take care of the cravings!

"Hmm, I could see you using them for your cravings and maybe a modified version for longer transformations." Naruto speculated. "Tell you what, I will have my mom's agency take a look."

"Give me one too, I want to test it and see if I can replicate it too," Mei asked/demanded with a gleeful look. Naruto chuckled as he handed her one, Himiko's eyes never leaving it as if her life depended on it. Maybe it did.

As Naruto handed her one, he looked at one of the seals and it had Jiraiya's signature on it. Figuring that it was a storage seal, he released the contents to find a few...books and a letter. Reading it, he found that one of the books was a book on seals, another on the complete version of his Frog Kata; while the other was just the books he had written and wanted to Naruto to keep the originals safe. What better way than to just give it to him in secret and not tell the blond? Go figure.

"Are you ok?" Himiko asked softly.

"Yeah, just some old gifts from my favorite uncle," Naruto replied while wiping a tear away while releasing the other seal. It was from Kakashi judging from the handwriting. The man was giving him a list of jutsu to learn, random parts to the Strong and Gentle Fist Taijutsu styles, the broken pieces of his old sword, and the broken sword of the Second Hokage. He wanted to teach Naruto more but with the war, there was no time.

"Well, judging from all of this. The Kunai and Shuriken would make for some great long-range." Izuku said hurriedly, not wanting his friend to destroy himself by drowning in memories, something the displaced Shinobi was grateful for. "I have a feeling you are more melee though, so why not a sword like a Katana or a rapier?"

Looking at the seal with the broken swords in it, Naruto smirked, "Yeah let's do that. After school, we can start looking for places that could teach us martial arts."

"Sounds like a plan," Hitoshi replied with a smirk but felt he was in for a lot of pain. Eh, it would be worth it in the end.

XXX

"I'll do it," Naruto stated as he walked into Might Tower and saw his mother waiting for him. He had already told her he was going to be late. "My friends want to be heroes or go into the hero industry. If I want to protect them, I must be stronger for them."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Kaina replied, going off the memories she shared with him. He was always there for his friends. "I assume you do want to change this place."

"It is the only way to true peace; we just have to shake the system a bit," Naruto replied.

"I agree, I am glad you are seeing reason." Sir Nighteye said as he walked out. "We will tell All Might later, besides, he will admire your heroic spirit. Do you have an outfit picked out as even vigilantes wear costumes to keep their identities a secret? You more than anyone will need one to keep your future."

"I suppose you are right," Naruto said as he thought about it. The first idea he had was going off the past of this world. People like Zorro, but he did not want to besmirch that character's image with his own…even if most people forgot about that character. However, the second character he thought about was not a character itself, it was a group from his world. They only formed because of the tyrant, Hanzo the Salamander. The Akatsuki was originally an idea to stop the goings on of the Rain Village…that is until Nagato was tricked into working with Tobi and their future antics. He could use the name and make it slightly better in the image, especially if he used it to figure out what is going on in Naruhata. "To get over some things in my past, I feel changing the nature of a name will work here. I will be Akatsuki."

Ignoring Kaina's gasp at that, Nighteye asked, "Red Dawn? Like that old American movie?"

"Why am I not surprised that is a thing," Naruto grumbled to himself. "Not really, it is something from my old village that had negative connotations. I am changing that for my mental health. They wore large black cloaks with red clouds. For here, I think blue jeans and a black hoodie with red clouds could work here."

"What about adding in a half facemask too?" Kaina offered.

"Yeah, I suppose I could go the Kakashi route for this." Naruto pondered aloud.

"I am not going to even ask who that is." Nighteye deadpanned.

"Better that you don't," Naruto said before handing him the pouch sans the two seals full of memories. "See if you could make more of those Shuriken and Kunai…I was trained to use those and it doesn't feel right to not use them."

Trained to use them? That was a concerning thought for the man but he merely nodded, "And these…pills?"

"The three together were food pills made by a clan in my village, it gave them extra energy and calories to do what they did with their quirks. The one in your hand is a blood pill for blood loss and medical reasons. I have a friend at school, who's quirk causes them to consume the blood of others to transform into them…and it forces a craving similar to how drug addicts are when they don't have their drug in their system. The final one in there is a Chakra Pill. Those in my family could use chakra for all kinds of attacks and other things. Except, if they use all of their chakra, they could die, hence the reason for those pills."

"I will see what we could do to replicate them. These could be very useful medical-wise and those with other calorie-consuming quirks." Sir Nighteye replied but he was growing more and more concerned for the boy. His having those in the first place and already being trained in those weapons almost made him rethink sending Naruto to Naruhata. It sounded like Naruto had been a child soldier. But the kid was doing well and has shown he could handle certain things in his eyes. Still, he would have to look into this. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking, "Will you allow me to see your future?"

"Oh…so you have Future Sight like Shion then. I will tell you what I told her. The future is not set, our actions can change the future if we want to." Naruto replied obstinately while Nighteye wondered who this Shion was so he could talk to her. People with similar quirks should help each other. Still, Nighteye stared at him perplexed while Kaina snickered to herself. Naruto was talking about the Priestess he saved so long ago from both death and herself.

"Funny, I believe you may be right there. Still, though, I am curious. Do you mind?" Nighteye asked.

"I guess it couldn't hurt." Naruto shrugged as he gave the man his arm. "If anything bad happens, I will love to prove you wrong." Nighteye gained a huge smile at hearing that. It was a little creepy.

After a moment, Sir Nighteye stood rigidly once more and with a forced smile that Naruto saw through but did not comment on it. "Acceptable for now. As you said, there are small things I would like to change. For now, I suggest you go meet your potential mentors while I get started on contacting the right people." He said as he walked away, but the others could tell he wasn't happy.

XXX

Naruto and Kaina found themselves in a rundown dive bar where the bartender did not care that a kid was in the place. Of course, they served normal food, so they stopped caring about that a long time ago. Walking over to a nearby booth, they found a scarred man eating a sandwich. He looked at them for a moment and grunted before gesturing for them to sit.

This man was heavily muscled and that could be seen in his 'loose' fitting clothes. He had dark but short hair along with heavy stubble on his face alongside a prominent scar running diagonally down his left cheek. As for his clothes, he wore a dark green shirt that showed off his muscles, blue jeans, and black shoes.

"Kaina…" The man replied after a moment. "I half expected you to have brought the Commission down on my ass…or just outright kill me. Damn, you were serious about me training a kid. Who's the lucky guy?"

"Iwao…you were my contact even before you lost your quirk, I would never sell you out," Kaina replied good-naturedly while the man just grunted in acceptance. His look did become uncomfortable at her caring look. "How's the searching going?"

"Not that great, that creep seems to have changed my daughter's appearance. The longer this goes on, the less of a chance she will see her mother alive." Iwao stated.

"I see," Kaina replied sadly. The woman did prop up this guy, it was sad to hear that she was in a vegetative state. "Well, Naruto does have some experience, I just feel he needs a bit more when it comes to hero work and you do not seem to mind helping out kids who need it. Plus, it will help the search go by quicker."

"Why am I not surprised you know that? I am paying the kid back for bringing me out of my depression, even if he had no idea at the time." Iwao replied before looking at Naruto. He was no fool, he heard about Kaina returning to the light and working for All Might now. They even looked like they had fun together from what he saw. But that had just happened, there was no way Kaina could have a kid with the man so soon, especially not one that was nine years old. "Where did you find the kid?"

"On one of my last jobs for the Commission. Found him near a destroyed village and took him with me. Naruto…has been through a lot but still managed to make me smile. He is my son now." Kaina replied while ruffling Naruto's hair playfully while he absentmindedly swatted her hand away. The feeling of a parent dotting on him was weird but nice. Almost like when he traveled with Jiriaya.

Iwao stared at Naruto for a while before he shrugged. "Funny thing that. Kids make you happy even if they sometimes make you want to tear your hair out. Fine. If the kid could handle being on the streets, he can handle tagging along as I search for my own and teaching another."

"She didn't say I lived on the streets." Naruto pointed out.

"She didn't have to. Kid, your eyes are different than most people I have seen. They tell me you have seen things like most hardened Heroes who have seen the worse humanity has to offer. I can tell you have had a rough life just by looking at you. Most of all, your eyes tell me that you have had time to accept or are close to accepting what has happened. I won't pry too much regarding a destroyed village, but it does sound fishy. Keep up, and we will be fine. Meet me out back tomorrow with whatever you plan to wear and we will get started. I expect Kaina's fancy new Agency will have told you more of what is going on with Trigger."

"I expected more pushback on this," Kaina replied a bit perplexed.

"Me too, but I need all the help I can get. Don't worry, I will protect your kid."

XXX

"Holy shit, you came." Shouted a distinctly female voice as Naruto and Kaina entered a local gym. The pro hero Mirko chose not to have an agency all to herself, instead, she hung out at hotels and various gyms with fighting rings.

Right now, Mirko, or rather Rumi, was in her civilian gym wear. Gyms shorts and a white tank top. It showed off her very muscular build, mostly centered around her thighs for her devastating kicks. It almost distracted them from her large bunny ears and cotton tail.

"Yeah well, with you always hounding me to hang out, I figured I'd take you up on your offer and ask for some help," Kaina replied with a smirk at her little joke. A rabbit hounding someone like a dog. "Seriously, thank you for always reaching out. It kept me from not fully losing it when I was at the Commission."

"What are friends for?" Rumi asked with a softer look before she gained a shit-eating grin. "Ooooh, Nemuri going to be so fucking jealous, especially since you have a kid!"

"Name's Naruto." Naruto offered with an easy-going smirk of his own.

"Heh, I like him already." Rumi snarked. "Just like you Kaina, not minding those more powerful than him and being familiar instead of cowering. You sure he is not yours by blood?"

"I'd have remembered that," Kaina replied with a deadpanned look. "But no, I adopted him. If you and Nemuri still want to hang out, that is fine with me, but I need a small favor. Will you train him?"

"You want me to train him? As in hand-to-hand combat?" Rumi asked with wide eyes and at Kaina's nod, she snorted. "Come on, you must be playing me. Not even you wanted to train like that."

"Considering I have a gun in my arm, I am better at long range, not short range." Kaina deadpanned.

"Fair point. You and Nemuri were no fun in that area, it was why I went off all the time to…those…fights. Oops." Rumi looked slightly nervous that she admitted that, especially when a kid was around.

"Speaking of, do you still participate in them or do you run them now?" Kaina asked with a knowing look while Rumi looked perplexed at that.

"I run my arena on the down low since those pansies stopped after a while. Now I run them because I want a decent fight, one where I do not have to put them behind bars. We can continue to fight again and again if I wanted to." Rumi stated with an almost excited expression.

"How's that working for you?" Kaina asked and watched as Rumi's excited expression lessened a bit.

"Not the best, just a bunch of low-level hooligans. I also hate to admit this, but some of that Trigger BS is getting there. I just wanna fight while people wanna be weird."

"How about you train Naruto for that? He can help clean up and you get your eventual fighter." Kain offered, gaining a serious look from her friend.

"You are serious about this. The hero high school route too slow?" Rumi asked.

"He's already had some experience with that world since his village got destroyed," Kaina replied making Rumi straighten up and study the kid a little more.

"Think you can keep up kid? I won't be around every day to take care of you. I got hero duties after all." Rumi probed.

"Oh please, if I could survive my grandma and her ability to create fissures with her finger, I can survive a battle-happy rabbit," Naruto said after a moment and decided to taunt the woman given her personality. And it seemed to work at Rumi gained a smirk and a fire in her eyes.

Walking into the arena, Rumi said, "Alright you little shit. Fight me now, I wanna see what you are made of!"

"Now I am getting pumped up myself!" Naruto shouted with a smile on his own, making Kaina shake her head with a small smile. But it did her heart good to see Naruto starting to smile again. However, Rumi looked at the kid oddly for a moment and that was attributed to the fact that Naruto was letting his genjutsu fox features show through.

"Oh yeah, predator vs prey, this should be fun!"

"Heh, this could get hare-y." Naruto joked, however, as the mock battle started, he remembered that he was in the body of a nine-year-old again and he was slightly weaker because of it. He would soon learn he was the prey in this instance. To the surprise of the two women, he put up a decent fight, but Rumi still handed him his ass.

XXX

The next day, Naruto found himself eating some instant ramen he cooked himself…much to the annoyance of one Koichi Haimawari, a rather plain-looking college-age guy. Iwao, now known as Knuckleduster, brought him over to the young man's rooftop apartment so they could meet.

"I still do not remember agreeing to you being my master…and you have a kid with you! Do you need two students?" Koichi asked, trying to get this man out of his house. Someone who had invited themselves in by the way!

"I am helping Naruto as a favor to a friend and you both will be calling me master!" Knuckleduster grumbled out as he gave Koichi his student ID back to him and went off to the fridge to raid it.

"Again, I don't remember agreeing to this!" Koichi whined as Knuckleduster promptly ignored him in favor of drinking all his beer. Turning to Naruto, he felt the need to ask, "So how old are you, kid."

"Nine, but that does not matter, I can hold my own. On the streets, call me Akatsuki." Naruto informed him.

"You are both way too eager for this." Koichi deadpanned.

"Right," Knuckleduster said after a moment of being comfortable. "I will train you because of the shit going down in your backyard. If you want to continue helping people the way you want, you gotta adapt, especially when Instant Villains show up."

"Instant…Villains?"

"Yeah, it was why I was checking the tongues of those guys I saved you and the girl from last night. Checking to make sure they were not using a drug that's been making the rounds." The old man informed them. "The Drug's called Trigger. It is a quirk booster that also weakens the user's ability to reason. This drug turns normal people into villains."

"Sounds more like more than a few of them could be victims," Naruto replied after taking another bite of ramen. "Whoever is giving them this drug sounds like they are pointing and shooting, much like a gun. Then there are the addicts who take it because they can and have to."

"That too..." Knuckleduster agreed, "This drug is why so many people are getting turned into villains outta nowhere. We gotta do something about it and what better way to train the both of you."

"Why not just wait for the heroes or the police to catch these guys?" Koichi asked.

"Ain't gonna happen," Knuckleduster replied while shaking his head. "These pop-up villains on Trigger can emerge from any crowd at any time. The cops and heroes are always stuck playing catch up."

"So, they blend in with everyone else because they are everyone else?" Koichi deadpanned, feeling like he was losing brain cells in this conversation.

"That's where we come in, we can blend in too." Naruto commented.

"Again, with the 'we', do you have a mouse in your packet?" Koichi groaned out.

"S'right boys!" Knuckleduster cheered roughly. "We gonna go out, look for suspicious characters, and check out their tongues!"

"Why their tongues?"

"Because I heard their tongues turn black when they are on Trigger or because of prolonged use of it." Naruto stated, "At least that is what my mom found out anyway. What about you pops?"

"YES!" Knuckleduster confirmed with a hard look on his scarred face. "We'll give those black-tongued losers a beatdown and make them spill the beans on their dealer. That's how we put an end to this whole drug trade!"

"Don't forget that there are some civilians in the mix, try not to beat them down too hard." Naruto injected.

"Yeah, yeah," Knuckleduster said, waving off the young boy. "How else am I going to get a look at their tongues, especially when they call us creepy for asking?"

"Well...there is always the taunting method." Naruto replied with a shrug.

XXX

"I thought that you idiots were joking!" Koichi cried out as he stopped Knuckleduster from punching out some random guy while protecting Naruto from some thugs he pissed off. "This method is going to get us killed!"

Naruto snickered from his seat on a nearby bench as Koichi panted and Knuckleduster merely lit up a cigarette, uncaring. Naruto found it funny because of his old pranks and the people he had to fight before. And here was some College kid protecting him from street thugs, it was both funny and nice at the same time. Growing up before, he doubted anyone would come to his aid like College Boy.

"Seriously, what is all the fuss now?" a new voice said as they landed on a light pole above them. Looking at her costume, Naruto wondered if she got any tips from people back in his world, mostly Anko. In a word, it was rather skimpy but she did make it work for her. Him approving briefly made him wonder if Jiraiya really did get to him.

This new girl had a painted-on mask around her eyes, tied up her pink hair in spiky pigtails, and was dressed in a devilish-themed one-piece leotard with a heart-shaped opening in the center of her chest and a smaller one just below the actual mini bat wings on her back. In addition to it, she also wore a reddish-pink bow tie, a pair of silver pearl earrings, black elbow-length gloves, a black super-miniskirt with three hearts on the belt, and black knee-high boots.

Idly, Naruto wondered, if he was cursed to always work with pink-haired people. There was Sakura and now this chick that seemed to know Koichi, who was now in an All Might themed hoodie. This guy was a serious fanboy and Naruto wondered how Izuku and him would interact.

"Nothing much…but if I don't keep an eye on these two," Koichi said, gesturing to Naruto and Iwao, "Then they will cause everyone to gang on of them. Akatsuki taunting them while Grandpa Fist here beats them all to hell."

"We are really just looking for junkies and dealers so we can lure out the Instant Villains." Naruto replied as he relaxed a bit.

"Huh, aren't you a bit young for this?" The pink-haired girl asked. "I am Pop-Step, by the way."

"Never too young to be a decent person. I cannot just sit around and let people be victims of Trigger if I can help it." Naruto replied, getting a small smile for Pop.

However, Pop-Step had some words for Grandpa Fist. "Thanks for yesterday, but I haven't forgotten how you were about to sacrifice me to those thugs, pops." Knuckleduster just grumbled to himself. "'Such a nice guy…better stick around now more than ever if the old man has you two wrapped up in this."

"The more the merrier," Naruto replied with a smile. "Koichi, we gotta get you a codename so the cops don't come after you."

"I am Nice Guy." Koichi deadpanned and then silently cried when Naruto groaned in annoyance.

"I am with the kid, but we can think up a better name for you later." Pop-Step snickered. "But are you three really going about this randomly?" At their nods, she groaned before taking out her phone. "We need to be smarter about this and use our heads. Let's use social media!" She began showing Naruto and Koichi stuff on her phone that neither one of them thought about. Mainly because one was a tired college student with bad social skills and the other from a low-tech world.

"See! Whenever a villain shows up, someone is bound to snap a pic. Let's just refine the search to unknown villains and Instant Villains. That means less legwork in the end!" Pop said cheerfully as she helped the young boys with the technology they were missing out on while Knuckleduster just grumbled to himself that his way was more fun.

"You know, I should take my mom up on her offer for a phone now." Naruto thought aloud. "Pair this with stealth, we could really get more done."

"See, there you go!" Pop cheered happily.

However, before they could do anything else, Knuckleduster was on the move again and this time he was stomping toward a middle-aged man in a nice suit. The three younger kids gave each tired looks before going to stop him, even if Naruto found this slightly amusing.

"Hey! You there, stick out your tongue!" Knuckleduster roared at the comparably smaller man.

"Really, again!?" Koichi groaned.

"Were you even listening to us?!" Pop Step screamed.

"At least this tracks for him." Naruto deadpanned before hopping up on Knuckleduster's shoulder, startling him a bit. "Come on, the street thugs I get, but an office worker? Seems a bit out there, right?"

"I don't care, I have a job to do." Knuckleduster roared as he took the suited man by his collar, however, the weaker man dropped his suitcase, and out popped…hero action figures. It just seemed to set off the older man though instead of cooling off his temper. "What kind of adult carries around dolls? Too Suspicious!"

"There are plenty of people who have weird hobbies!" Pop Step defended the now-scared man.

"I am with her on this, I know a kid that is hero obsessed and takes notes on everything about them, even their powers. So, this guy plays with or collects action figures, big whoop." Naruto replied with a bored look.

"Actually, I work at a toy company…" The man replied lowly, trying to defend himself.

"Oh…that makes more sense." Naruto replied and then gave Knuckleduster a pointed look, who didn't look ashamed at all for what he did. However, before anything else could be done, the man's raised fist was suddenly bound in...cloth?

"Violent acts in full view of the public…hardly a model citizen." The owner of the cloth stated. He looked…homeless to say the least, but Naruto's warning senses were going off with this man. Despite the lazy attitude of the man before them, he looked ready to fight at a moment's notice despite the grocery bag he was carrying. The homeless man looked slender and tall with shoulder-length black hair that looked unkempt. He wore a baggy black long-sleeved shirt with matching pants that were tucked into his equally black boots. Around his neck was a white scarf he was currently using to bind Knuckleduster, who looked like he was struggling just a bit with getting his arm back. "You must be one of those Instant Villains as of late."

"Shit," Knuckleduster grumbled as he finally got his arm out of the scarf. "You're Eraserhead."

"Either of you know of him?" Naruto asked as they shook their heads in the negative while looking nervous. "Hmm, I will just have to ask Izuku later."

"You know, I was off duty today, but even I can't help being a good Samaritan." Eraserhead droned as he shot his scarf at the larger man again. Naruto, seeing his chance, jumped off Knuckleduster's back so he would not be a hindrance.

"Heh, same here. I guess we got that in common." Knuckleduster replied with a manic grin, knowing he would get his fight today.

"Oh crap, does he think we are villains too?!" Koichi cried, making Pop Step a bit nervous.

"Oh hell no! Don't lump me in with them!" Pop Step freaked out as well.

"He doesn't seem to be all that focused on us small fry," Naruto commented as he watched the two older men square off. He found the way they fought each other exhilarating! Two pro fighters going off on each other with their own fighting styles. One with pure brute force and brass knuckles and the other with experience and a strange cloth weapon that was obviously used to capture people with. He would also have to talk to Mei and Hitoshi about that later. At first, Naruto didn't know he would actually be learning anything from the gruff older man other than a manic need to find something…or someone. Now he was observing a real clash of skills. Something that Jiraiya had taught him to watch. He could learn something after all. Plus, whoever this Pop Step girl was, he could learn technology from her!

"Oh man, we gotta stop this!" Koichi said nervously before turning to the businessman picking up his briefcase contents and was about to get the hell out of dodge. "I apologize for us scaring you, but will you please explain to that man that aren't the bad guys!"

"Uh…nope!" The businessman said after a moment and run away as fast as he could.

"I…can't really blame him." Koichi tiredly replied in response to the man just running away. Thankfully, Pop made him run after the guy when she said that he was starting to look familiar to her from the many photos of pop-up villains she was able to pull up on her phone.

"Careful Naruto, something dark is brewing." Kurama's voice rumbled in his mind.

Tearing his eyes away from the battle for a moment, Naruto's senses picked up on something. Over time here, while there was no chakra in people, he could sense a strange energy in people, which he guessed was what empowered their quirks. Kaina, Sir Nighteye, Koichi, and Pop Step all had something unique about them. Knuckleduster only had remnants of something like it had been taken away, which tracked, but the fleeing man's felt off from what he was beginning to recognize. It felt…twisted a bit and the negative emotions were not really of fear, but a twisted desire that wanted to mess with them.

And…he was running towards more people that felt the same type of twist with their quirks. Which was where Pop and Koichi were headed. Damn. He had to do something about it, however, he recently learned that his signature jutsu to overwhelm the enemy in Shadow Clones was a no-go. Thanks to the Rinnegan that popped up when he used chakra, he got overloaded senses and that really pissed him off. He really to work on that but right now he needed to help his partners. Looking at the two adults, he no longer felt this was amusing when real threats were on the way.

He had to put a stop to this and he did it in the most annoying way possible to the two men. By loudly crunching on popcorn, he unsealed it for a future taste/use. It was surprisingly good. Eraserhead stopped first and stared at the kid who was eating popcorn with a mask on. "Are you serious?"

"About your fight? Not really, but there are things coming this way that I am serious about." Naruto replied pointing a free thumb in the direction of three rampaging thugs on Trigger, trying to beat down Koichi.

Eraserhead groaned under his breath when he saw them too. He had already deduced that the brash man was quirkless, so there was not much he could or should do about that. Just someone overzealous about looking for trouble. However, it seemed that real trouble was already here in the form of three thugs whose quirks were going out of control. A heavily muscled man with fire on his head and shoulders almost like Endeavor. A humanoid lizard person that seemed to have gained the power of huge wings. Finally, their leader's quirk was obviously revolved around red spikes that now grew all over his body. Almost like his quirk was that of a porcupine or a hedgehog…the latter of which he was rolling around like. Terrific.

"Alright kid, now it is time to fight. Show me what you got while I take the big man." Knuckleduster shouted excitedly as he grabbed hold of a nearby brick to smash against the head of the fire giant. Eraserhead gave the man a 'what the hell' look for including an actual child in this.

However, Eraserhead's disbelief only grew when Naruto screamed out, "Summoning!" to bring forth a large silverback gorilla that stopped the rampaging spike ball and then slammed it into the ground like a basketball. Meanwhile, Naruto himself jumped off the Gorilla's back to punch the flying lizard man in the gut while simultaneously slapping a paralyzing seal on the creature, only for it to disintegrate shortly after so no one could figure out how he did it. Not that he figured anyone in this world would, but better safe than sorry.

Thinking quickly, Eraserhead used his capture weapon to bind the now depowered trio of thugs and called the cops, only to groan in annoyance when he saw another Instant Villain, only this one was Kaiju size! He hated dealing with those types!

Thankfully, however, it just had the mind of a toddler as it played with cars with its four massive hands and annoyingly took the flying lizard man to play with as well. Such a pain, none of this was logical! But he had to hand it to the quartet of vigilantes, they were fighting it for him. They all had guts, even the All Might Wannabe who saved the pink-haired girl when that tough, old bastard brained the Kaiju with his body hard enough to let go of the girl. The animal-summoning kid then created giant eagles to then save the falling wannabe, the tough old guy, and any other people that the giant was 'playing' with. It was surreal to watch on Eraserhead's day off.

Seeing all this, Eraserhead sighed that he would actually have to do more work on his day off though because the giant was still standing. Activating his own quirk, he forced the Kaiju to depower and shrink before capturing him too. "None of this was rational, but thanks for your help, I suppose."

"Heh, to parrot your words, we are just good Samaritans," Knuckleduster replied cheekily with a thumbs up when he landed. "It is our duty to help out heroes on the job."

"It is a little dangerous to call your make-believe heroism good." Eraserhead deadpanned, he was already tired of this crap.

"Heh heh, we pick up the slack though. We do what the pro heroes can't." Knuckleduster said as he proudly watched the eagles put people down before he started to walk away.

"What the pro can't?" Eraser asked.

"Yeah, like that giant and the other little punks. We kick the shit out of them before they have a chance to do evil." Iwao replied with a dark grin.

"Hey now, preemptive assault like that is obviously a crime." The pro hero replied as he picked up his groceries to them ready when the cops did show up to take these Instant Villains away. However, he was not moving to try and capture Knuckleduster and his brats. He had already done too much work on his day off to begin with.

"HA! If that is the case…us getting charged with something only happens afterward."

Ugh, that guy was going to be a pain in the ass later, wasn't he? "So, you admit premeditation? You are one bad-tempered guy." Eraser grumbled out.

"Takes one to know one!" Knuckleduster shouted out from the alley he entered. "And don't worry about the kid, I'll teach him only what he needs to!"

Yeah…not only was the old bastard going to be an issue later, but so were the other brats. They were going to be problem children. Go figure. Oh well, not his problem.

A/N: Please Support Me On patreon.com/The_Alchemyst