[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 26 - All For One (I) (Patreon)

Chapter 26 - All For One

"Focus, Eri-chan. You keep making mistakes because you're too excited. You need to calm down. There is only one chicken left," Kushina admonished her lightly.

"Sorry," the little girl said guiltily.

"Don't worry about it. Just try to calm down and do your best," Kushina said in encouragement, patting her on the head. "Come on, take a deep breath, and then exhale slowly. Yes, just like that. Now do it again."

So enthusiastic was she at the prospect of getting a dog that she couldn't focus on controlling her quirk properly. Instead of de-ageing the chickens, she turned two of them into eggs, and she even made one of them stop existing.

But the real problem was not the lack of chickens but the fact that Eri could not use her quirk limitlessly. Depending on the duration and the number of times she activated her quirk, the horn on her forehead would lose its energy and go into a dormant state for several days or even weeks at a time. Therefore, Eri had to do her best in every training session because the number of times she could actually train her quirk was limited.

Repeated usage during training did increase the speed of her quirk's accumulation of energy compared to before, but, in the end, she could still not use it too many times before she ran out of power.

After taking in several deep breaths and exhaling slowly as Kushina had instructed her, Eri extended her hands towards the last remaining chicken in the cage and activated her quirk.

A golden light came out of her horn and engulfed the chicken, which started beating its wings, scared by the spectacle of lights.

"Very good. Take it slowly. Imagine that you're slowly rotating a faucet's knob, only letting out a small stream of water. Bravo! That's perfect! You can stop now."

After she stopped casting her ability, instead of the 2-year-old chicken in the cage, there was a golden baby chick now.

"I did it! Mommy, I did it!" Eri shouted happily.

"I knew you could do it when you put your mind to it!" said Kushina in praise before he swept her off her feet and twirled her around.

If God existed, Kushina taking Eri in her arms and twirling her around at that exact moment had to have been an act of His because, if she had not turned around, she would have never seen the purple portal opening behind her head and the hand coming out of it to grab her.

"Who are you?!" Kushina shouted as four golden chains instantly burst out of her back, thoroughly ruining the back of her dress and destroying the rest of the courtyard as well as they lashed out in a spheric pattern, breaking and ripping everything they touched.

A scream of agony came from Kurogiri who was at the front of the house, as his arm was violently ripped from the elbow, despite the fact that it had been covered by the Dark Fog of his Warp Gate quirk.

But Kushina did not pursue the attacker. Although she heard his scream and knew that she must have injured him, protecting Eri was far more important than catching him. She could not risk leaving Eri alone while she suspected that the enemy had a sort of teleportation quirk.

"Don't worry, Eri-chan. Everything is fine. Mommy will protect you," she said while hugging the frightened girl tightly to her chest.

Focusing on her Adamantine Sealing Chains, she controlled them to take the shape of a protective dome, encasing herself and Eri at the centre of it. Then, taking out her phone, she called the police.

⁂

"Kurogiri? What happened to you?!" Doctor Garaki said startled, quickly standing up from his seat when he saw him stumbling out of a portal with his dishevelled appearance and the stump that remained instead of his right arm.

"What's going on?" also came a deep voice from the speakers of the supercomputer installed in the laboratory. "Did Kurogiri fail in securing the girl with the healing quirk?"

"Sensei! Our intelligence was wrong! Uzumaki Naruto's mother is not quirkless!" Kurogiri said, his voice strained from the pain, "I don't know what quirk she has, but they look like golden chains. My Dark Fog couldn't stop them at all; my arm was ripped off."

"This lack of information made us lose the girl with the healing quirk. Now that they have been attacked by a villain, the Uzumaki family will no doubt enter a protection programme. We won't get a second chance. What a shame," All For One said. However, in spite of his words, the tone of his voice did not reveal any feelings of frustration or anger. It was the opposite.

"You did well, Kurogiri. Although we couldn't get the girl now, the information that you have just brought me has more than made up for it. Doctor, treat him to the best of your capabilities."

As he led Kurogiri into the operation room of his laboratory to treat his amputated arm, Doctor Garaki continued talking with All For One:

"Are those chains what I think they are? Are they, perhaps, that quirk that you tried to obtain a few decades ago?"

"Indubitably," All For One said. "Some regular chains should not have been capable of hurting Kurogiri while he was protected by his Dark Fog."

"Does that mean that Uzumaki Naruto's chains are the same? Your spy at UA High did not mention his chains having any special abilities."

"Either the boy didn't know about it… …or he tried to hide information from me. Now this won't do! It looks like I need to make a visit to his family soon and remind them of our arrangements," All For One said meaningfully. "But that is for another time. I cannot miss out on this opportunity today."

Hearing All For One's words, Doctor Garaki momentarily stopped working on treating Kurogiri's wound and said:

"Are you planning on going after the Adamantine Sealing Chains right now? I suggest you don't do that. It's Uzumaki Naruto's family that we're talking about! There are probably over a dozen Pro Heroes on the scene by now. I wouldn't be surprised if even All Might himself was there."

"Oh, I am counting on that!" All For One said and let out a soft chuckle. "You see, I am going for the Adamantine Sealing Chains right now. But I won't go for the mother. I will take them directly from her son, from Uzumaki Naruto!"

"I see. While the police and the Pro Heroes' attention is focused on securing Uzumaki Kushina and her daughter after Kurogiri's failed attack, nobody will expect you to attack the boy, especially since the location of their training camp is supposed to be secret. I guess that congratulations are in order!" the doctor said, laughing.

"When that woman, Mito Senju, managed to escape from my grasp, I thought that the Adamantine Sealing Chains had disappeared forever. To think that I would find them again, nearly 60 years later. This must be fate! I am going now. How many Nomus can be deployed?"

"Six of them are ready, all first-type. The High-Ends are still a work in progress, they need more time."

"I will take all the regulars with me then. I can't leave anything up to luck because if I fail, the Uzumaki family will likely go into hiding once again, and I won't get another chance. Those Nomu should be more than enough to keep those two professors and the other Pro Heroes while I'm taking care of Uzumaki Naruto."

⁂

"When muscle fibres are overused, they break and become stronger and thicker. Quirks are the same."

It was a popular saying among the professors at UA High, and it was true. The more someone used their quirk, the stronger it became and the more they increased their control over it.

Naruto too believed in that philosophy; that's why he was training his ass off every day. It was the same in the present as well. While the boys and the girls from classes 1-A and 1-B were taking a one-hour break to rest and recover their exhausted bodies, Naruto was still out in the sun, at the edge of the woods, practising with his Adamantine Sealing Chains.

'They're a little slow. Someone like Mirko or someone with my speed wouldn't have a hard time dodging my chains,' he thought as he was throwing his daggers at a moderate speed and trying to hit them with his chains in mid-air.

'And I know what the problem is. They still don't feel like they are one of my limbs just yet because I haven't used them long enough.'

Whenever he used his chains, he had to consciously 'order' them with his mind for them to move. It wasn't like the instinctive way in which he was moving his arms or legs. Because of that, there was a very small delay between the mental command and the chains' movement. That said, their speed was still faster than most people would be able to react to, but agility-types would be difficult to ensnare.

"Professor Aizawa sent me to call you inside. Why are you not taking a break like the rest?" the voice of a child came from behind him, and Naruto stopped his knife-throwing for the moment.

"Tell him I'm not tired yet. I need to push myself harder."

Then he turned around and went back to his training, throwing the kunai and trying to intercept them with his chains before they could hit the target.

"Why are you trying so hard every day? What's the point?" the boy asked.

A metallic clang rang as one of his golden chains clashed against the kunai as Naruto kept at it without replying to him. Maybe because Naruto ignored him every day until then (unlike the rest of his classmates), the kid seemed to have made it his mission to attract his attention.

"Oi. Can't you hear me? I asked you a question."

"Stop bothering me. I'm busy. Go play in the sand or something like every other kid your age," Naruto said, shooing him away with his hand.

He didn't have time to deal with some random kid's temper tantrums.

"You're wasting your time! All your effort won't matter at all when-" the boy began to shout, but Naruto tuned out his ramblings as he went to pick up the kunais from the trunk of the trees.

Then he took to the trees and sped away, leaving the annoyance behind. However, as he was shinobi-jumping through the trees, a bestial roar suddenly shook the tranquilly of the forest.

⁂

"What was that?!" the students of 1-A and 1-B classes all jumped at the sudden roar of a beast from outside.

"Was that one of your mud creatures?" Mandalay asked Pixie-Bob.

"No, I'm having some rest too, training so many kids at once is exhausting."

"This isn't good," Aizawa said when he heard another roar from a different beast. "Ragdoll, can you check if all students are here?"

The green-haired woman closed her eyes for a moment before replying:

"Everyone is inside the compound except for Kota-kun and Uzumaki Naruto. The two of them are in the woods. Oh, it looks like Uzumaki Naruto came to him, and, considering how fast they are both moving now, he must've taken Kota-kun in his arms and run."

Turning towards the 1-A and 1-B students who were sitting in the shade and having ice-cold soft drinks, Aizawa said seriously:

"No matter what happens, stay here. I mean it! Don't come out, no matter the reason!"

"What's going on, sensei?" Kaminari asked.

"...Are the villains attacking again?" When Todoroki asked that question, the whole student group became tense.

"We don't know for sure just yet," Aizawa said. Turning towards Vlad King, he asked: "Can I leave the students' safety to you?"

"Yes, rest assured. Who are you going to take with you?"

"I'm going alone for Uzumaki Naruto and the boy. Pixie-Bob and Tiger, go check the source of those roars. Ragdoll and Mandalay, please stay here with the students and guide us through your Search and Telepathy quirks. Does that sound good to you?"

"I'm okay with it."

"Me too."

"Alright. Sure."

"But I'm not okay with it at all!" Kirishima suddenly shouted, and his arms hardened as he subconsciously used his quirk. "What are we in this training camp for? What are we studying at UA High for? What kind of heroes are we if we run every time a villain attacks?"

"He's right!"

"Yeah, I want to fight against the villains too!" the other students also piped up in support.

"SHUT UP!" Eraserhead screamed and everyone quieted down in an instant. "Not even three months ago, Teniya Iida was killed by Stain, and Mineta lost his life at the USJ too. Do you still think that this is a game? Don't you realise the kind of danger you are in?"

Unlike other times when Aizawa could silence their complaints merely by raising his voice and activating his quirk to intimidate them, it was different this time around.

"We want to fight because we know exactly what we've gotten ourselves into," Kaminari shot back. "After how Iida and Mineta died, I can't just sit and watch the villains do whatever they want!"

"Before you can think about protecting others, you have to be able to protect yourself first," Vlad King cut in and said. "In the line of duty, even experienced Pro Heroes can get killed after one wrong move. You are a greenhorn; you're just a boy. You are not strong enough. You are not prepared. Leave the fighting to the grownups. If you're frustrated, work hard on becoming stronger to prove yourself. Remember this frustration in your heart. Remember this feeling of powerlessness and use it to drive yourself to new heights and surpass your limits. "

⁂

The moment he heard the bestial roars, Naruto used his chains to abruptly stop himself in mid-air and turn around. As much as he was annoyed by that kid pestering him every day, he couldn't, in good conscience, leave him behind in that situation.

"Kota!" he said in relief, and the kid couldn't even react before a golden chain sneaked around his waist and he was yoinked up in the air.

"W-What are you doing? Put me down!" the kid yelled and started struggling to get out of Naruto's grasp.

"Stop kicking up a fuss, you stupid kid. Didn't you hear the roars?" Naruto berated him and strapped him on his back with the use of his chains, carrying him like a backpack.

"Big deal! It's probably Pixie-Bob's mud golems. She can make as many as she wants!"

"They're not. They sound different."

With his enhanced sense of hearing, Naruto could clearly distinguish the difference between the roars made by the mud golems and the ones he had just heard.

Kota let out a shriek of panic as Naruto suddenly dropped from the trees in a free fall. He was about to complain, but his words died in his throat when he saw a strange living creature diving towards them, its talons missing him by a hair.

It had a vaguely humanoid appearance, but it couldn't be called human. With its bright yellow skin, exposed brain, claws and talons, and bat-like wings, it looked like a chimaera, like a creature out of a nightmare. It was a Nomu.

Even as he flicked his tails to manoeuvre himself in midair to keep Kota safe, Naruto grabbed four kunai from the pouch strapped to his thigh and threw them at the flying Nomu with all his strength.

The creature let out a shriek and flapped its wings powerfully, managing to avoid the knives by the skin of its teeth, but just as it was about to dive for another attack, Naruto clenched his fist and pulled his arm back.

The Nomu's limbs and wings were suddenly snapped close to its body, bound by seemingly invisible ropes, and the creature let out a terrible shriek as it fell head first from the sky, breaking tree branches and trunks in its way before smashing painfully into the ground.

Now free from the thin metallic wire that had been binding it, the Nomu tried to get up to its feet… only for a knife to suddenly get lodged right in the middle of its exposed brain. The Nomu's limbs twitched for a few more seconds before it became still, lifeless.

And that was the scene which Aizawa had stumbled upon when he finally found Naruto and Kota.

'He killed it with no hesitation whatsoever,' Aizawa thought.

That viciousness and decisiveness to go straight for the kill made him momentarily pause in his steps. He couldn't quite comprehend how a boy as young as him could be capable of acting like that. His martial arts and weaponry mastery could be explained by his being a hardworking prodigy. But that kind of mentality and that willingness to kill someone at the first chance possible were not normal for a teenager born and raised in Japan, to say the least.

"Uzumaki. Get the boy and hurry up back to the accommodation!"

"What's going on, sensei?" Naruto asked as he retrieved his kunai from the creature's brain and wiped the blood on its blade off its pants before putting it back in his pouch. "Is it the League of Villains again?"

"That creature you just killed pretty much confirms it," Aizawa said as the two of them started running towards the Wild Pussycats' compound.

"How did they find out about our camp? I thought it was supposed to be super secret; that's why All Might and the other teachers didn't tag along, isn't it?"

Aizawa was asking himself the same thing too.

'There is a traitor in our midst.'

The principal, Nezu, had already warned everyone of this possibility after the USJ incident, but this attack on their training camp confirmed those suspicions.

Suddenly, Naruto's survival instincts kicked in, and he tackled Aizawa's side, jumping with him nearly 10 metres away. But even that dodge was not enough to completely evade what came next.

A massive gale of pressured wind suddenly exploded forth, gouging the ground and uprooting all the trees in its proximity.

"You truly are formidable," a deep voice rang, and another gale of wind blew away the clouds of dust and dirt, revealing the devastated landscape below.

Crawling up from between the collapsed trees, Naruto glared at the man who was floating in the sky as if he were standing on solid ground.

In spite of the massive destruction of the landscape, his timely jump allowed him to avoid the epicentre of the explosion. Other than some bruises on his back and arms, he was unharmed.

"To think that you have become that capable by using a quirk as banal as a fox quirk. I am impressed," the man said, clapping his hands slowly.

But, as he was speaking, all of a sudden, Naruto's silhoutte seemed to blur out of view, and a moment later, a metallic clang rang and sparks came out from the contact of Naruto's kunai with the man's jugular artery.

"Seeing my long-range attack, you must've reasoned that I'd be weak in close-quarter combat. A good judgement… …if I were a normal person," the man said with a laugh, and his arm bulged until it became two times bigger before he punched.

At the very last moment, Naruto's chains came out from the small of his back and formed a sphere of golden light around himself.

A massive bang shook the forest as Naruto was smashed down like a cannonball, rupturing the ground upon contact.

'How…?!' Naruto thought in disbelief as he picked himself up from the ground with difficulty.

Although the Adamantine Sealing Chains had protected him from suffering the direct hit of his attacker, the impact with the ground almost knocked him out cold.

'He's already shown three different quirks! An air burst quirk, a hardening quirk, and a super strength quirk. What is going on?!'

But as he listed out the three quirks, a certain memory came to the forefront of his mind.

'A man with multiple quirks… is this… is this All For One? But didn't All Might say he was dead?!'

As far as the world at large knew, it was impossible for humans to have more than one quirk.

'I probably have two quirks because I'm a reincarnated person. Kurama's influence in my past life is what probably gave me the fox quirk, and the chains are from my mom. But other than me, I have never heard of anyone else having more than one quirk. Nobody else except for my family's enemy.'

"Judging by the look on your face, it appears that you've somehow figured out my identity without me even needing to introduce myself. Honestly, I am starting to feel like it would be a great shame to kill someone as gifted and perceptive as you are."

As he said those words, All For One floated down from the sky and walked until he was no more than five metres away from Naruto.

"On account of your brilliance, I'm willing to give you a chance. Join me," he said, and he extended his arm towards Naruto. "Join my side, and I promise I will let you live. Not only you but your family as well. I give you my word."

"Uzumaki! Now!" Aizawa suddenly yelled from the side, and Naruto burst forth like a bullet.

His sensitive hearing had picked up Aizawa's movement while he was climbing up from underneath the collapsed trees and their foliage. Finding out that he was not unconscious and knowing how capable his teacher was, Naruto had been waiting for his signal to attack the entire time.

Therefore, when Aizawa shouted, Naruto's reaction was instantaneous.

"It's useless! Your knives can't hurt-" All For One began to say, only for him to choke on his words as Naruto's clawed hand gored a huge hole into his neck.

Not wanting to wait to see if the villain also had a self-regeneration ability like the Nomu from the USJ incident, Naruto pierced with his clawed hand again, going for the kill.

But right as his fox claws pierced through AFO's metallic mask and were about to gouge out his brain, a massive fist smashed into Naruto's exposed right side, sending him flying as if he had been hit by a speeding train.

"That was quite close. Eraserhead, was it? What a great quirk you have there! I may not be able to use myself it because I don't have my eyes anymore but such a quirk would be great in the possession of Shigaraki Tomura."

Aizawa jumped back and used his binding cloth to tie up AFO as he lunged at him, but even with his quirks cancelled, AFO's physical strength and speed were too much for a regular human to contend with.

But then, a grunt of pain came from AFO as the spear-like tip of a golden chain pierced through his forearm right as he was about to lay his hand on Eraserhead.

Naruto commanded his other three chains to ensnare All For One, but before they could wrap around his body, AFO abruptly yanked his injured arm back (the arm that was pierced through by a chain), pulling Naruto's body by the chain.

Feeling his feet leaving the ground as AFO yanked him towards him, Naruto instinctively deactivated this quirk, and, with a flick of his fox tails, he flipped in midair at the perfect time to regain his balance and land on his feet.

'I have to close in on him and land a killing blow. Even with sensei actively cancelling his quirks, if he lands flush on one of my vital areas, I'm dead meat. I can't take another punch like the pervious one.'

But he couldn't just waltz headfirst like an idiot and hope for the best. It had been possible back in his past life because he could make hundreds of shadow clones and he also had Kyuubi's healing. However, in the present, he couldn't afford to do that.

Right at that moment, AFO raised his foot and smashed it powerfully against the ground.

Naruto's first thought upon seeing that move was, 'What is he doing?'

But then, time seemed to pass in slow motion as he watched the clouds of dust and dirt rise up in the air, making Professor Aizawa involuntarily blink because of the dust particles getting into his eyes.

"Noo!" Naruto yelled.

Simultaneously, right after Eraserhead blinked, a massive burst of pressurised wind shot forth from AFO's hand, hitting the teacher full force.

"Aizawa-sensei!"

"You've given me one of the toughest fights I've had in years. I will commend you for that," All For One said while he activated a quirk to regenerate his pierced-through forearm. "But the time for playing is over."

Slowly walking towards Naruto, All For One spoke:

"Uzumaki Naruto, I will give you one more chance. Join me, and I will let you and your family live. Refuse, and you and everyone close to you will die. In the end, one way or another, I will get what I want. I always get what I want."

"Do you, now?" Naruto said as if he didn't know what fear of death was. "Just like you also got One For All? How many years has it been? Forty? Fifty? Or more?"

All For One became momentarily silent at that mockery. When he spoke, his voice had a tone of finality in it.

"I confess, I didn't expect All Might to tell you about One For All and All For One. I didn't think he would share his precious secret with anyone, much less someone as young as yourself… But did you really think I wouldn't see through your actions? Do you think I can't see you're trying to stall for time?"

Aiming with his hand towards his left side, AFO continued:

"I have already given you two chances to surrender, Uzumaki Naruto. In spite of what All Might must've told you about me, I am a man of my word. So I will keep my word. I promised you that I would kill you and everyone close to you, didn't I?"

Realising what he was about to do, Naruto's eyes widened, and he lunged at the highest speed he was capable of to get between AFO and his target. Alas, he was just a split second too late.

When AFO finished saying those words, a massive ariburst exploded from his palm and razed everything in its direction off the surface of the ground. Kota-kun, who had been hiding curled up in a ball under the collapsed trees, was no more. He was reduced to nothing but a smear of blood on the ground.