Chapter 4 - Hauler????

My body is a little sore... thankfully, the cool air is good for this.'

Naruto, age 11, rubbed his sore shoulders as he walked in the cold air. His jacket, a black and orange hoodie, wide open to let the air touch his sore muscles. His uncle had really put him through the ringer during training, but it was worth it if the results started to show soon. He could see his breath it was so cold, and Naruto smiled to himself as he took a nice deep breath.

"Uwaah! Crapimlate crapimlate!"

'Well, that was ruined.' Naruto saw a young man wearing a hoodie from his uncle's silver age costume design line, running towards the bridge. Naruto glanced over and saw a boy standing on the railing near the edge of the water, getting ready to no doubt use some quirk and jump over it. "It's been raining, must have some kind of Jumping Quirk or a Flight one." Naruto spoke under his breath.

The running boy, seemingly 15 years old, stopped in the middle of the bridge.

"Huh? Wasn't the way to the station supposed to be this way?"

"Actually, the station is the way you came from, make a right and you'll be there." Naruto came up to the older teen and pointed out where he was going to go. The only station near was about 5 blocks away, but the boy was running in the wrong direction. Thanks to the All Might hoodie, Naruto could tell the guy was going to be using the station to go and apply for one of the many Hero Academies, he seemed like the type to try for it.

*Splash*

"Oh my god! That kid is drowning!"

"Damnit!" Naruto unzipped his jacket and transformed as he ran towards the edge of the bridge. He could see the boy from earlier, the boy had surprisingly pink hair (easy to see in the water) trying to stay afloat. As his body became larger and more fur covered, Naruto reached the edge of the bridge and jumped off into the water below. With enough distance to across most of the way between them, Naruto landed right next to the boy (who seemed about his age).

Naruto grabbed the boy and lifted him up on his shoulder, and prepared to swim against the current towards the land.

"It's a hero!"

...

"I can stand..." Naruto realized that despite the recent rain, with his current height of over 7 feet tall, he was able to stand up in the water. The water didn't even come up to his waist, the boy drowning must have just been unable to stand up because of the strong current. "... Don't worry, I'm here." Naruto said as he walked his way through the water towards the edge quicker than he would have swam it.

"Thanks for the directions Fox-san!"

"Not a problem, you go and become a hero!" Naruto called out to the boy from earlier, who was running towards the station with a brighter smile on his face. Naruto stepped onto dry land, and jumped back up onto the bridge now that he had solid footing.

"That was amazing, what's your hero-"

"Here you go, since you don't have fur, it's got to be freezing for you. Try not to jump in the water again." Naruto tossed his jacket onto the body of the pink haired boy. The boy glanced up at Naruto, and he saw the large fox-man smile down at him. Naruto lacked eyes with him, and saw pink eyes that matched the hair. "See ya... Now... I have to pick up green onions, beef, milk-" Naruto started to mutter to himself as he walked away from the scene.

He didn't pay attention when people were snapping pictures of him with their phone, since a story like this was unlikely to make it into the news, it wasn't a big deal.

A soft feminine voice spoke when Naruto left.

"He's-"

-Present Day-

"-the one that saved me from drowning!"

A middle school girl, about to start high school during her next school year, shouted as she stood up at the table and pointed at the news her parents were watching. Her jaw was dropped when she saw the news showing the fire covered building, and the fox man that saved her life jumping out of it with elderly people and young children on his back. He had a blood covered face, and burns on his body, but she recognized the orange fox man as the same one that saved her own life.

Her bushy pink hair came down to her shoulders, and spread out from her head, and her face had slimmed down from the chubbiness she had a few years back. She had a slim body, nearly no brėȧsts, and wider hɨps as she wore her school uniform. Her eyes were covered by glasses that mostly hid her eyes, but she couldn't help but drop her jaw.

"Kazuho, please don't shout."

"Sorry Dad." She apologized and sat back down, watching the phone recording that the news was airing of the incident. She smiled to herself and ate her breakfast.

She recognized one of the buildings in the recording.

She knew what she was doing this afternoon.

-With Naruto-

"Now Naruto... I don't want to say this is a bad idea... but I don't believe Izuku will survive-"

"Meh, he'll make it. Your plans were fine and all for preparing him, but all you are doing is taking him to his limits... you gave him way to much free time in the schedule... and days off... I just got rid of those silly things and replaced them with much more useful stuff." Naruto turned his nose up in pride at the redesigned schedule that would be used to train Izuku.

The 10 month plan had turned into the 9 month plan.

Izuku had been given 2 days off a week, 6 hours of sleep a day, and 3 hours of free time to be used for personal matters.

Toshinori looked at his nephew with worry.

"He's not made of money, you're having him-"

"Well then, I guess since he is your successor, you're going to be footing the bill for this stuff he needs. I've already contacted Recovery Girl, and so long as you pay her for her visits, she doesn't mind healing him when he breaks. Don't worry, with my plan he's going to be ready and STILL have a month to learn how to use One for All." Naruto raised a fist up into the air with a grin on his face. He was excited to be helping, though he had a list of things he had to do so he wouldn't meet with Izuku personally until a few more months into his training.

Toshinori was pale and sweating.

Even on paper, this training looked like hell.

"... This will break him." Toshinori was honestly, honestly, worried about not just Izuku, but his own nephew.

Was this the kind of hellish training Naruto put himself through?

Was his nephew a mȧsȯċhɨst?

"Yeah, it's suppose to break him. That's why I asked Recovery Girl for help. She already knows about One for All, so it's fine. He's not glass, if you break him, he might come back stronger than before." Naruto mentioned as he slapped a hand down on the paper and pushed it back to Toshinori. "Besides, you asked me for help... and the first time he uses One for All, he might break every bone in his body. This way, you have a month to let him get used to the Quirk, and you can be a REAL teacher." Naruto verbally beat down his uncle.

Naruto turned on the TV.

"Now, everyone, lets move onto our next segment. Here, we have a new rookie hero for an interview... The Hauler-"

"I'm the 'Crawler' not the Hauler!... Sorry, I'm the Sliding Hero: The Crawler. I just graduated from a Hero Academy... so my hero name isn't well known yet."

"Ah... its that guy... good for him." Naruto saw the teen from a few years back in a hero costume, looking good in his costume. "Glad to see his dream worked out. What did they say his hero name was again?" Naruto didn't catch the hero name.

"Hmmm... I think I heard them say the Hauler." Toshinori hadn't been the most attention to the name either. "Honestly though, back on topic, all of this One for All stuff was so instinctive... I'm not sure how much help I'll be in teaching him." Toshinori looked towards Naruto with a wiggling eyebrow.

Naruto sighed.

His uncle was such a bad teacher.

"I'll call Super Gramps tomorrow, and see if he'll train Izuku like he did with you. At leas he was a good teacher." Naruto saw his uncle feel the weight under that comment. Naruto took the paper, and he grabbed his pen with a roll of his eyes, before he added a note to it. "There... on Saturday he'll have 30 minutes of extra free time." Naruto relented and decided that this would get his uncle to stop pouting.

It worked.

He grinned.

"Good, the trauma will help him grow... Anyway, if he's going to inherit One for All... don't baby him. You're putting a lot of weight on his shoulders... he has to be ready. I'm not saying be cruel and demanding... but you can't keep secrets from him." Naruto started to walk towards the door. He rubbed his shoulder when a small flash of pain got to him, the burns still hurting him. '... I'll pick up some pain relievers later... only 8 months until U.A... I need to train harder... I heard Endeavor is sending his son to U.A. too... and if that bastard's is anything like him... I refuse to lose.' Naruto kept his thoughts to himself as he went to go out and train.

The joys of being home schooled by All Might, he had all of the time in the world to do things that he believed needed to be done.

"Naruto... you're a magnet for trouble... I know you don't like babying, but you're not a hero yet. You should enjoy your teenage years more... try and make some friends your own age... for me." Toshinori looked at Naruto when he opened the door to leave.

Naruto looked back at him.

"... Am I really allowed friends, when we're family?" Naruto spoke dead seriously.

Toshinori winced.

Naruto's lack of friends was because he was afraid that somebody would learn who he was, and use Naruto against him. Now that Naruto was stronger and older, he could worry about this less, but he had forced Naruto to go through a friendless childhood. The only people Naruto could call friends, were the pro heroes that Toshinori would ask to babysit Naruto when he was younger. Naruto had connections with pros because of it, but that couldn't replace having friends your own age.

"I'm sorry."

He wondered what kind of friends he would make.