[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 35 - An Old Friend (Patreon)

Chapter 35 - An Old Friend

Hurried footsteps were heard as an old man ran as fast as his frail and aged legs could carry him. His laborious breathing was so loud that one would think he was only moments away from dropping down from exhaustion.

However, to his relief, he soon reached the end of the tunnel.

Taking one last fearful glance behind him, the old man placed his hand on the panel next to a blast door to have his fingerprints scanned.

“Come on, come on!”

The scanning process only took three seconds, but he was so terrified that even such a short time felt like an eternity.

As the blast doors parted, the old man literally threw himself inside and slammed his fist on the closing button like a hammer.

It was only when the half-meter-thick blast doors were sealed shut that he finally allowed himself a sigh of relief. The adrenaline dump was so severe that he lost feeling in his knees and fell on the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

When he finally got a hold of himself, he stood up on trembling legs and wobbled to the desk located at the back of the room. Opening one of the drawers, he took out a bottle of hard liquor and a rocks glass. His hands were shaking so badly that he spilled the drink all over the desk while trying to pour it into the glass.

As the strong liquid flowed down his throat and warmed his chest and stomach, his hands stopped shaking, and his facial expression became calmer as well.

‘What in the world was that? He… …he massacred them all.’

He shivered involuntarily as a chill travelled down his spine at the reminder of how that demon tore apart everything in its way.

His loyal agents, his well-trained operatives, and even the new prospects that he had recently recruited; everyone who had been present at the ROOT HQ that night was slaughtered.

He could still vividly recall the way the demon had burst into his office, leaving a trail of mangled and mutilated corpses in its wake. If it hadn’t been for the two powerful bodyguards that he had brainwashed to protect him at all times, if it hadn’t been for them throwing themselves at the killer and buying him a few seconds while he escaped through a secret passage, he would not have made it out.

At the reminder that he had almost lost his life, Danzo poured himself another glass and downed it in one go.

Nonetheless, he was safe now. Currently, he was inside a secret bunker designed to withstand even a nuclear explosion. There was no way for the demon to barge inside. Hardly anyone even knew of this bunker’s existence; he was sure of-

“Ichiro’s Malt & Grain, brewed over two hundred years ago, in the early 2000s if I’m not mistaken. They don’t even make it anymore. You could buy a house in the suburbs for the price of a bottle… Such fine tastes you have, Danzo-sama.”

The sudden voice made Danzo jump so hard out of his seat that he lost balance and fell on his back with a painful thud.

“WHO ARE YOU?! HOW DID YOU GET IN HERE?!” he yelled as he quickly stood up from the floor.

A rather thin and tall man stepped out of the shadows, letting the light coming from the desk lamp reveal his features. Spiky blonde hair, blue eyes, and a handsome and kind-looking face. But, in spite of his harmless appearance, Danzo wasn’t comforted in the least. The way the man was twirling a kunai on his finger did nothing to reduce his anxiety either.

“You? How does someone like you know of this place?” Danzo asked, his right hand secretly opening one of his desk’s drawers.

“Someone like me? A mere accountant isn’t supposed to know about such a tightly guarded secret of HPSC, right?”

Just as Danzo’s fingers wrapped around the grip of the handgun he had stashed in his desk, a whistling sound was heard, and, a moment later, a scream erupted from his chest as the blonde man hurled his kunai at him, stabbing him in the shoulder.

“My son loves to use these kinds of knives. I didn’t really see the point of using such small blades at first but they’re quite handy once you get used to them,” he said in the same amiable voice as if he hadn’t just stabbed another person in the shoulder only a second ago.

“W-What is your objective? What are you trying to gain from this?” Danzo asked through gritted teeth, trying his hardest not to scream from the agonizing pain coming off from his shoulder.

“My objective? Hmm, that would be to kill you. As for how I got in here, you don’t need to know that.”

As the man started walking around the desk to get to him, Danzo suddenly jumped back and, fighting through the excruciating pain coming from moving his stabbed-through right shoulder, he raised his arm and fired his gun at him.

However, the blonde man suddenly vanished. An instant later, he appeared behind Danzo and kicked the back of his knees, making him fall to the floor on all fours. Danzo desperately tried to stand up as quickly as possible, but a brutal soccer kick to the face threw him two meters away, making him roll on the floor like a barrel.

“Wasn’t your quirk Eidetic Memory? Since when can you teleport?” Danzo couldn’t help asking, in spite of the blood and pieces of broken teeth coming from his mouth.

“Eidetic Memory as a quirk? No, I’m just that smart,” Minato said with a laugh. “What, are you trying to find out whether I’m worth using your Brainwashing on me?” Minato said with a laugh when he saw Danzo’s right eye turning crimson red.

The reason why even the senior operatives of ROOT didn’t dare look Danzo in the eyes and were afraid of him was due to his quirk. He could only use his quirk once every 6 months, but that drawback made sense when considering just how powerful its effect was. It gave him the ability to brainwash people for life. It wasn’t all-powerful because those with strong will and character could fight it off but the vast majority of people could be brainwashed and mind-controlled without them even noticing it.

“I just felt you trying to use your dirty little ability. Your quirk doesn’t work on me, does it?” Minato said nonchalantly as he came closer to the downed old man and crouched to be at his eye level.

“Why are you doing this? You’re a former agent of ROOT, aren't you? Why are you turning against me now?!”

“I was never your agent, old man. I worked in the field under Sarutobi-sama’s leadership, not yours. When he retired, I became just a regular accountant. As for why I’m doing this, are you really asking me this question?”

The smile vanished from his face as he unsheathed the short sword strapped to his back. It was a tanto. The perfect tool for assassinations.

“I told you not to mess with my family, haven’t I? Sarutobi-sama also told you not to touch Uzumaki Naruto, didn’t he? But I guess that the words of a mere accountant and that of an old and retired operative didn’t hold any weight to you.”

“Don’t do this… please…”

For the first time since he was born, Danzo was pleading for his life.

But Minato’s face was indifferent as he slowly started to press the blade of his tanto into Danzo’s neck. That calmness contasting with his ruthless actions terrified the old man to the bones.

“Please, I swear not to touch your family again… No! Please! Don’t-” Danzo screamed as he tried to stop the blade from slicing his neck by grabbing it with both hands.

His begging was all in vain, however, as Minato kept pressing the blade down, cutting off his fingers and then his throat too.

Even as the blood bursting out of Danzo’s throat and mouth splashed all over his face, Minato watched unblinkingly how life trickled out of the old man’s eyes. And he didn’t stop his actions until the blade of his tanto cut through his neck completely, decapitating him.

But after decapitating Danzo with his sword, Minato let out a sigh, and the look of a remorseless killer disappeared from his face. Going back to Danzo’s desk, he grabbed the bottle of whiskey and took a big chug directly out of the bottle before letting himself fall on the comfortable leather chair.

‘I said I’d leave behind me the life of an assassin when I married Kushina.’

Meeting Kushina changed his life. He hadn’t had a real purpose in life or anything to strive for until he met her. He hadn’t had a life outside of ROOT. Despite his relatively short time spent working as a field operative, he still held the record for the biggest number of missions completed among all agents due to his Teleportation Quirk.

The vivacious and beautiful redhead had given his life colour. His life as a ROOT agent and his highly-paid job as a government-financed assassin, he discarded them all for the sake of marrying Kushina and creating a family with her. Kushina and Naruto were more important to him than his own life. And recently, he started seeing Eri as his own daughter too.

After spending more than a decade in marital bliss, Minato couldn’t imagine going back to the life of an assassin. However,

‘If it’s for them, I’ll do anything.’

He didn’t mind getting his hands bloody again if it was for the sake of keeping his family safe.

Putting the bottle of whiskey down and standing up, Minato crinkled his nose at the disturbing scenery in the bunker.

“Time to clean my tracks,” he mumbled as he took out half a dozen packages of explosives and placed them all over the room.

Lighting up their fuse, Minato waited and watched until the last moment, teleporting away only a split second before they exploded.

⁂

“Wake up!”

“Wake up, you stupid brat.”

A voice rang distantly in his head. In his muddled state of mind, he could momentarily not put a face to it.

“Wake up, Naruto!”

As the voice rang louder and clearer, Naruto stirred awake.

“Where am I?” he asked groggily as he sat up and looked around him.

He was lying on the grassy ground of a river bank, under a bridge.

“Shit, why am I naked?!” he panicked and tried to cover his privates with his hands and tails.

Luckily, as he took another look at his surroundings, he realized that it was night and that he was all alone. Nobody could see him there.

‘Last thing I can recall is… god, some secret organisation kidnapped me and strapped me down to a table.’

Little by little, his memories came back to him. However, after being drugged into an induced coma, he couldn’t remember anything else. He had no recollection whatsoever of how he had managed to escape or how he had arrived at his current location.

“Sleeping Princess finally woke up?”

When he heard that deep, growl-like voice, Naruto froze. He was stunned.

“Oy, say something.”

“K-Kurama?” Naruto asked, his voice trembling.

“Yes, it is I…”

Hearing the raw emotion in Naruto’s voice as he called out his name, Kurama too was touched, becoming silent.

“How… how is it possible?” Naruto asked. He was having a hard time keeping his voice even. “I thought you-... I didn’t know you were alive.”

“I’ve been with you since the very moment you were born. Your fox-like appearance and abilities are because of me.”

For a while, neither one of them spoke, too overwhelmed to say anything.

“What took you so long?” Naruto asked, this time in a light-hearted, joking tone.

“It’s because you were too damn weak!” Kurama shot back at him. “Even now, despite that you attained a fifth tail, I still can’t leave your body.”

Outside of his control, Naruto started laughing. At the same time, tears also started flowing from his eyes.

“Shit, why am I crying now?” Naruto asked as he wiped his face with the back of his hand but, try as he might, he couldn’t stop his tears.

Kurama remained silent for some time, giving him a moment to recollect himself. If anything, Kurama himself was feeling rather emotional due to Naruto’s behaviour.

Although they had made peace with each other and fought together against the Rabbit Goddess in the final moments of their past lives, the two of them had never really had the chance to cultivate a true friendship between them. It had been more like a “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type of relationship, a camaraderie born out of necessity.

However, it looked like Naruto hadn’t seen him only as a helper in the war. Not only that the boy had not forgotten about him in his new life, but he had even chosen Kurama as his Pro Hero name as a way of honouring him. The fox was well aware of that because he had been with Naruto the entire time.

“Looks like you saved my ass again, Kurama. Just like before.”

Although he had no memory of how he had escaped from the facility where he had been imprisoned, it didn’t take a genius to understand what had transpired now that he realized that Kurama’s consciousness lived inside of him.

“A small warning, I made quite the mess over there…” Kurama said. “I killed everyone, every last one of them. We may have escaped death for the moment but I wouldn’t count our chickens just yet. We live in a different world now and such massacres aren’t common here. It also looked like they were an organisation affiliated with the government of this country… things might get hairy soon. Is there anyone you can trust with your life to support you in this time of need?”

“Rumi,” Naruto said instantly.

“You trust her that much?” Kurama asked. Although he knew most of the things that happened in Naruto’s life, he couldn’t read his mind and feelings like an open book.

“She saved my life more than once. I trust her with every fibre of my being.”

⁂

Seeing as they were in Tokyo, Hiroshima City was over 800 km away. However, due to being butt-naked after the demonic transformation melted off his clothes, Naruto couldn’t show his face in public. Furthermore, worried about the authorities' reaction to what he had done, even if he had been decent, Naruto wouldn’t have dared to use public transportation for the sake of travelling. His only option was to go there on foot.

Activating the demonic transformation of his Fox Quirk again, Naruto controlled the crimson skin to cover his entire body except for the face. This way, not only that he solved the problem of being naked, but he also gave himself an enormous boost to his physical abilities.

Considering the fact that Tokyo was filled with CCTV cameras at every step, Naruto didn’t even attempt to sneak around with his new appearance. It was futile. Therefore, he opted instead to just bet it all on his inhuman speed to get out of the large metropolis as quickly as possible. Once he was in the countryside, it would not be difficult for him to disappear.

As he started running down the large streets of Tokyo, he appeared as nothing but a blur to the passing-by pedestrians and cars alike. If he had not been afraid of creating a large disturbance and attracting unwanted attention from the patrolling heroes, Naruto reckoned he would have been able to go past the sound barrier.

‘Is this what Rumi feels when she goes supersonic?’

He hadn’t left any sonic booms just yet, but he could already feel as if his perception of time slowed down to a crawl. The faster he was running, the more the surrounding world slowed in his eyes. Everything looked like a slow-motion videoclip.

Soon, he got out of Tokyo. Relieved at the fact that it didn’t look as if he was being followed, Naruto slowed down his sprint to a more manageable speed to preserve his stamina. After his quirk awakened for the 4th time, growing out his 5th tail, his body’s reserves of energy weren’t in a good state.

“I can’t help wondering, how did we all come into this world?” Naruto said inwardly. “Me, you, my parents, Kiba, Sasuke, Sakura, Gaara, Kakashi, Danzo, Anko and so on and so forth. How did we all reincarnate into this world?”

Kurama took his time before replying:

“We lost the war. The Rabbit Goddess was too powerful. She snatched me out of your body and you got trapped by the god tree. You were all ensnared by the Infinite Tsukuyomi. That’s the last thing I remember.”

“Do you mean-” Naruto began, only for Kyuubi to cut him off:

“That we’re trapped in an illusion? That this whole reality, this entire world is just one big lie? I did consider that for a moment… but I don’t think that’s the case.”

Naruto let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding. He loved his current life way too much. He would forever be unable to make peace with the thought that it was fake.

“What makes you so sure this is all real?” he asked, desperately wishing for more proof to confirm the fact that it wasn’t all a dream.

“The Infinite Tsukuyomi was supposed to give everyone a perfect life, their version of paradise. I don’t know about you, but my idea of a perfect life is far from being stuck inside your body for 17, nearly 18 years. Besides, look at how much hardship you’ve suffered over the past three years. You’ve been on the brink of death so many times and your parents are now living as fugitives with fake identities. In a perfect world, none of that would have happened to you.”

“You’re right… yes, you’re right,” Naruto said more to reassure himself rather than Kurama. “Thank you. Truly. For everything.”

As difficult as his life has been recently, Naruto would never want it to be just a dream. Things weren’t perfect, and there were many problems but, in spite of all the suffering, his current life was still infinitely better than his previous one.

His mother and his father were alive, and they loved him like the light of their eyes. Not only that but he had also gained an adorable little sister in Eri and he was also deeply in love with the most amazing woman he had ever seen in both his past and present life. A beautiful and strong woman who cared about him just as much as he did for her. Last but not least, even Kurama was alive too.

“Is there any way for you to come out of my body? To gain your freedom?” Naruto suddenly asked.

“I don’t know,” Kurama replied.

“I’m thinking that maybe if my quirk awakens a few more times, you might be able to…” he trailed off.

“I don’t know what will happen once you get 9 tails. It’s just as much of a mystery for me as it is for you. But I can materialize outside of your body now as long as I’m still connected to you.”

“Wait, really?? Then why haven’t you come out?” Naruto said, and suddenly stopped in his tracks, stirring large clouds of dust around him.

“Do you want to faint? With how drained your body is after your quirk’s awakening, you’ll definitely lose consciousness. Wait until you get some rest and recover your stamina.”

“But I wanna see you now!” he whined.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Kurama rebuked him. “Don’t forget your circumstances.”

Kurama’s harsh words shut him up right away.

⁂

Mirko’s apartment was just as he remembered it. Although he hadn’t been there as often as he would have liked over the past year, he was still familiar enough with the place for Mirko to have given him a key to the door (not that it helped him now, he had to enter the apartment through an open window). Furthermore, the guest room had actually been converted into his personal bedroom, and he also had a few changes of clothes stored there.

Having taken a shower to clean himself up and now dressed in a pair of grey sweatpants and a blue t-shirt, Naruto was rummaging through Mirko’s fridge, searching for food. Although the rabbit girl wasn’t a strict vegetarian per se, her diet consisted mostly of vegetables. Meanwhile, Naruto crinkled his nose just at the thought of having to eat vegetables.

In the end, he took out a carton of eggs and started cooking for himself some fried eggs. It was a simple but nutritious food.

Taking his plate with fried eggs and a bottle of yoghurt in the living room, he sat down and turned on the TV, switching the channels until he found a random action movie. As irresponsible as it may have been, he chose not to worry about his situation just yet.

After what he had gone through that day, all he wanted now was to relax and rest. He would worry tomorrow about the storm that was bound to come his way.

“I wonder, are you the only bijuu who reincarnated in this world?” Naruto suddenly asked, having tuned out the movies as he fell into his thoughts. “Gaara, Shukaku’s jinchuuriki is actually my classmate. Is Shukaku living inside of him too?”

But Kyuubi didn’t give him an answer.

“Hey, Kurama?”

Still not receiving a reply, he stopped calling him out.

‘Is he perhaps asleep?’

Looking at the clock on the wall and checking the time, he realized that it was nearly 4 a.m.

‘I might as well get some sleep too. I’m exhausted, and tomorrow is going to be a shitty day.’

The moment he acknowledged just how tired he was, it was as if his body had lost all its strength, and tiredness suddenly caught up to him.

⁂

It was 6 am. Although it was still dark outside, the first signs of the morning were starting to be seen on the horizon.

Finally coming home after spending nearly 18 hours on the streets, Mirko just closed the door of her apartment and let herself fall on the floor, resting her back against the entrance door.

‘Where are you, Naruto?’

She and the rest of the heroes had searched for him everywhere, but they hadn’t found any signs of him. The police said that the CCTV spotted a red, five-tailed creature running down the streets out of Tokyo but they had no way of tracking it after it left the city.

She was deeply worried for him. It wasn’t his safety that she was worried about but the fact that he wasn’t himself.

‘What happened at that branch of HPSC is terrible but I have no doubts that HPSC itself will try to cover it up.’

Once the police accessed the cameras of the ROOT HQ to ascertain what had happened, it became clear to all that they had kidnapped Uzumaki Naruto and imprisoned him in their facility before his quirk's feral nature turned him into a berserk monster.

‘Besides, over 10 civilians lost their lives when they attacked Naruto in Hiruya Town. If the media gets wind that the HPSC was beyond the assassins who kidnapped Naruto, set the town aflame, and killed so many innocents, the people won’t be quiet. The HPSC leaders would certainly lose not just their jobs but their lives too. The government wouldn’t dare to let their crimes go unpunished lest they lost the faith of the Japanese people.’

That being said, while Naruto’s quirk lashing out and murdering his captors was somewhat excusable and could be deemed as self defence, things were going to be completely different if he were to murder innocent civilians in his enraged state of mind after escaping from Tokyo.

She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. But, as she did that, a familiar scent assaulted her sense of smell.

She jumped off the floor as if there were springs under her feet. Running deeper inside her apartment, she came to a stop when she arrived in the living room. And there he was, the object of her worries and affection alike. Naruto Uzumaki was curled up on the sofa with his tails wrapped around his body to keep himself warm. He was deep asleep.

“Naruto?”

His fluffy fox ears flinched at the sound of her calling his name, but he didn’t wake up. He was too exhausted.

Mirko smiled at the sight of it.

‘Here I am getting wrinkles from how much I’ve been worrying about you, and look at you, sleeping with no care in the world!’ she thought but she wasn’t really angry. She was relieved and happy. It was as if a stone was lifted off her chest.

“Naruto? Baby? Wake up. Go get some sleep in your own bed,” she came to him and shook his shoulder lightly.

He couldn’t continue staying asleep after all that.

“Noo. Don’t wanna.”

Before she could protest, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down to him. She let out a squawk of surprise at his sudden actions but she didn’t fight it and let him pull her to him.

“You big baby,” she laughed softly when he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him.

But Naruto didn’t say anything in retort. He just hugged her affectionately as he spooned her, taking comfort in the warmth of her body. She was sweaty and dirty from such a long day spent running around but he couldn’t bring himself to care at that moment. Burying his face into her long white hair, Naruto fell asleep once again in less than a minute.

Feeling his breathing becoming even, Mirko turned around in his arms and draped one of her legs over his waist as she pressed her chest to his. In spite of how tired she was too, she didn’t fall asleep right away. Cupping his face with her right hand, she lost track of time as she admired his handsome face and caressed his whiskered cheek.

But after a while, Hypnos claimed her and she fell asleep in his arms too.