Chapter 34 - Heroes Menagerie Pt5

Releasing yet another pro hero to fall out of the fortress, with a parachute on, as Momo worked with the others to free the 5 Pro Heroes that were guarding 5 of the 15 strange machines that were surrounding the outside edges of the fortress. They had cleared 14 rooms of machines at this point, and had stolen 14 of the crystals in the machines, while also breaking the machines just for good measure. At the same time, they had actually come across only 4 of the 5 Pro Heroes that were being used to guard the chambers.

"So... is anyone else surprised they were picked to storm the fortress?" Kyoka asked as she ran behind everyone as they tried to make their way to the last room they would have to go towards. She, personally, had no expected to be picked for this part of the mission... period. She had been expecting to be told to stay behind, and catch the pro heroes that were falling out of the sky. Instead, she was right on the front lines... kind of, Naruto was still doing the hardest part himself. Even then, she had a bullet wound for her trouble, so she had her own hero scar from this event. 'Hopefully, this won't scar.' Kyoka hoped as she looked down at her wounded arm.

She wanted to be a hero, and if pain came with it, she would accept it. Yet, she was still a woman, and she didn't want to have any scars if she could help it. If it scarred, she would be just fine... and would get a tattoo or something to cover the scar with... more than likely she just learn to deal with it.

She expected Momo for sure, since Naruto and Momo's teamwork and their skills together were phenomenal, to the point that they had been banned from working together in class just to make it fair for other students. That girl was to be expected, and Tokoyama was on the higher end of the combat scale in their class. His Dark Shadow was perhaps one of the more powerful and unique Quirks in class, though not as powerful as Naruto's own Todoroki's Quirks.

"I thought Kirishima or Deku would be picked." Ochaco looked out, and saw the moon up high in the sky. "Doesn't Dark Shadow get stronger in the dark?" Ochaco asked Tokoyama, since his Quirk was shadow related. It would make sense for it to get stronger in the dark, and weaker in the light. Of course, the rooms they were in were brightly lit, so it wasn't like they were just in the dark. It just so happened to be night time, and it would be morning rather soon. They had been working for what felt like hours, trying to take down all of the machines they could get.

Yet, the machines were far away from each other, and the ones guarded by heroes were a lot tougher, harder to destroy in general. Not to mention every time they saw a hero pod, they took the time to free the hero inside.

"That just means Naruto selected each of us as the best for the job." Tenya stated with a nod. That was Naruto saying he acknowledged their skills and abilities, and not only were they the best for the job, but they could be trusted to do it.

"It also means Bakugo is going to hate all of us, since he wasn't picked." Ochaco pointed out as well. The rest of the class would be fine not getting picked for this, but Bakugo would be absolutely pissed off that he wasn't picked for his battle skills. "Though... maybe explosions on a flying fortress aren't smart. It would suck if he hit whatever it was keeping this place flying, and we all went crashing down." Ochaco realized with a shiver at how quickly everything could have turned to crap if Bakugo was up here, with all of them.

A lot of people could die... yet, the world might be saved, but she was pretty sure everyone on the fortress would be dead if it crashed.

Tokoyama was silent, but he made Dark Shadow go in front of everyone as the door slammed in their faces. Not only did the door slam in front of the last room they needed to go to, but extra doors appeared over this room. Massive, iron doors that were thick enough that even all of them together might not be enough to break it down. He had gotten a quick glance into the room, and inside was a crystal that was bigger than the others they had taken.

"I'll blast it open." Momo was about to form a cannon.

"No, Naruto said save your Quirk. You've about reached your limit, right?" Tsuyu looked at the girl, and she had visibly lost some weight. Her body was thinner than it had been when she first arrived on the fortress. Anymore, and her ribs would be visible, and forming a cannon with explosive power would have taken a lot out of her. It would take far too much, all things considered.

Momo formed the cannon, and she started to pant as she blasted a home through the iron doors with one booming blast. She was breathing heavily, and like Tsuyu said, her body was getting visibly thin. Her leotard was looser than before, and her belt was hanging further down her legs. She lost a little stamina too, and dropped to her knees and took deep breaths.

"I'm fine... if I'm not ready to put my body on the line, then I'm not cut out for this line of work. Naruto's facing far more danger than any of us, to allow us to get this done, and the world is counting on us now... we have too many people depending on us for me to think about myself." Momo spoke as she stood back up. She actually got some smiles, Tenya rubbing the tears from his eyes and gesturing to her.

"Well spoken... like a hero."

Suddenly, there was a loud gunshot, as Momo was shot in the shoulder, and two more as she was got in her thɨġhs. She shouted in pain as she was knocked off of her feet, and Dark Shadow covered all of them. Momo landed her back, cradling her bullet wounds with a pained expression on her face.

"Dark Shadow!" Tokoyama shouted as he sent his Dark Shadow into the hole in the wall, to make it fight against the Pro Hero and teacher, Snipe. "Asui!" Tokoyama shouted and looked back at Momo.

Tsuyu rushed to her side, so did Kyoka and Ochaco, while Tenya jumped through the hole in the wall and started to try and fight Snipe as well. It was a lot harder than fighting any of the other Pro Heroes instantly, as Snipe was able to use his gun against them. He even had robots supplying him with more ammo, and more guns, so Tenya was forced to run around the room and use anything for cover that he could. Snipe dropped a smoke grenade on the ground, and filled the room with smoke, making it even harder for Tenya to try and find the right cover.

'It's like the villain controlling Snipe is a lot more focused... Naruto must have defeated other heroes.' Tenya could see how this could happen.

The more heroes this villain was controlling, the harder it was to make all those heroes fight with any level of skill. The more heroes controlled, the more they needed to rely on using numbers. The opposite being true as well, the less heroes being controlled, the stronger the control, and the more skillful the fighters being controlled were. Tenya rushed towards the glass protecting the machine, and for his trouble, he was actually shot in the side. The bullet not piercing anything vital thankfully, and going through cleanly. Still, Tenya's foot rammed into the glass, and put a crack in it.

This was the part where Kyoka would have used her Earphone Jack to shatter the glass.

Tenya's Engines were out of juice.

Thankfully, Dark Shadow covered for him, rushing in front of him to block bullets, and grab him to pull him behind cover. In the smoke filled room, Dark Shadow grew bigger and more powerful... and more vicious. Rushing towards Snipe when Tenya was behind cover, he used a quick claw swipe, before he tried to tackle the man. It didn't go well for the Quirk though, Snipe dropped a flash grenade in front of himself.

"Aaah!"

"Sorry, Dark Shadow is weakened by super bright light... how is she doing? Tenya, can you manage alone for a minute?" Tokoyama shouted into the room, taking cover behind the mostly intact doors.

'How do they fight with these injuries?' Tenya didn't say anything to give himself away. He looked at his bleeding side, and undid his armor, tightening his shirt around the area. He looked to his side, and saw a gun pointed at his face.

It was empty, and as Snipe was refilling his ammo, Tenya used his chance to escape. He rushed to the doors and jumped through the hole, and Dark Shadow blocked the hole once more.

"Is Yaororozu okay?" Tenya asked as he limped towards them. He looked at the girl, cradling her wounded body, but she forced herself to try and sit up when that question was asked. She created bandages, and gave them to Kyoka, to tie around her wounded parts. She grunted and yelped when she had her wounds covered up, but she nodded her head and forced herself to stand up. "I'm out of juice... Yaororozu... Can you make 1 more can of orange juice?" Tenya asked the girl, purely for the reason of allowing him to keep fighting.

She nodded her head.

Kyoka frowned.

"No, I'll do it... call Dark Shadow back, and make me light Ochaco." Kyoka extended her hand to the girl. Ochaco looked concerned, but nodded her head and did it for her. Dark Shadow came back towards them, and Kyoka floated towards him. Grabbing onto her, Dark Shadow rushed into the room through the hole. "Let go of me..." Kyoka whispered to Dark Shadow, and the second he did, she started to float up into the air.

Attention on Dark Shadow, Snipe started to shoot towards the hole to try and get at the kids behind the doors, ignoring Dark Shadow.

*Shatter*

He couldn't ignore the glass case shattering, or the girl falling out of the air. Shooting at Kyoka, and hitting her in the same arm, inches away from her other wound, as she landed on top of him and pushed him to the ground. She stretched her earphone jacks down at him, and stabbed them next to his head. Playing the most intense heartbeat she could manage, she shattered the ground around his head, and when Snipe stopped moving, she guessed the tick with it. She heard the sounds of guns though, shifting their aim to her, and saw the small robot army preparing to open fire.

"Sorry, gotta use this!" Kyoka rolled across the ground and grabbed Snipe's gun, and she fired it at the robots.

It took more than just holding a gun to use it, it took more skill than she had expected it. Thankfully for her life, Dark Shadow rushed around and destroyed the robots with ease once she had missed, and quickly after, the smoke in the room cleared away. Dark Shadow opened up the doors with some serious effort, but soon enough all of her teammates were in the same room with her again.

"You did it! This is the last one!" Ochaco ran over and hugged Kyoka.

She was so glad that the girl didn't die!

"I'll use the last of my strength to make parachutes." Momo spoke as she formed enough parachutes for everyone in the room. She attached one to Snipe first, and with help, threw their teacher out of the window. Watching him fall, she pressed the buŧŧon to open the parachute from a distance, and smiled to herself as the teacher safely fell down towards where their fellow students were, to catch him. "Lets grab the crystal, destroy the machine, and jump." Momo strapped her parachute on herself.

Everyone noticed she seemed to be forgetting something.

"What about Naruto? How will he escape?" Tsuyu asked what they were all thinking, and Momo turned and looked at her with a smile.

"He's Naruto, I'm sure he has a plan to escape. I have full faith in him." Momo answered rather simply. If anyone was a pro when it came to not dying from things that should kill him, it was their strongest classmate. The guy should have long been dead from the things he had suffered from, but he was still alive and well.

Kyoka nodded in agreement, and plugged herself into the machine, blasting it to pieces with internal soundwaves in one quick blast. Tsuyu hopped up into the machine and grabbed the crystal, ripping it from it's spot.

-In the Basement-

Orochimaru spewed more blood from his mouth, his elderly, weak form unable to manage anymore without his connections to the flying fortress around him. Trapped in his machines, he was unable to get up and escape as red lights started to go off all in the room around him. The last of the tubes connecting to his body snapped, and the color of his skin started to drastically grow paler.

-With Naruto-

'Fuck! What is that robot body made of!?' Naruto rubbed his sore fist as he jumped back. He ducked underneath a laser, and rolled out of the way as Orochimari tried to kick him. The robot fell to the ground on his knees for a moment, and Naruto panted, before he grinned in relief. "What, robot body can't keep up with... what?" Naruto stood up straight as the red lights in the room started to go off.

Orochimaru's face twisted into a scowl.

"My life support! Those fools, they destroyed my life support, and the only thing keeping the weapon stable... this entire place could blow at any moment now! Your friends have doomed us all!" Orochimaru shouted as his robot body started to fade. Unable to control it very well anymore, with his real body dying. Naruto's eyes widened for a moment, before he sighed and sat down.

Well damn.

If this place could blow at any minute, and in his condition, then there was no way he was escaping the explosion. Naruto took out his phone, and looked at his contacts, before he smiled to himself.

"Well... my friends should have escaped by now. If my life is what it takes to save the world, that seems like a fair trade." Naruto looked at his broken legs, and sighed to himself. He wasn't in a great condition at the moment, and transforming wouldn't fix his broken legs. There was no way he was going to escape in time to outrun the place blowing up for sure.

Orochimaru looked shocked.

"Do... do you not fear death boy?"

"Of course, this is terrifying. This is the life I signed up for, so I really can't complain... about dying at least. You being the last person I see, now that is something to complain about..." Naruto leaned up against the wall and sighed to himself. Naruto felt the pain medication wearing off, and the pain his body was going through right was was getting much more intense.

Orochimaru bȧrėly managed to stand up, his control over his false body becoming more and more unstable.

"This place might have five minutes before it explodes... and my real body no longer has the Hoshi no Tama fragments acting as life support. To think, my 129 years of life ends today... even my immortality didn't last." Orochimaru fell down, unable to control his body anymore. Naruto looked at him with a frown on his face, before he sighed to himself.

He hated the way that sounded.

"You seem to have accepted it pretty-"

"-not! Don't think you've won just yet!" Orochimaru shouted with a dark, insane, grin on his face.

Naruto really didn't like the sound of that.

-On the Beach-

"Guys! All of the pros are safe!" Mina shouted as she rushed over towards their friends as they fell out of the sky. The countdown clock that was displayed everywhere had actually stopped. The world was safe once more... in comparison to being burned to ashes at least. There were still villains all around the world of course, but this big baddy was gone now.

'That medication should be wearing off by now... I hope... where is he?' Izuku ran towards everyone as well. His eyes widened a little when he did a head count, and while he counted Tsuyu... he didn't count Naruto among the people who had escaped.

The fortress was flying out of the sky.

"The world is safe! The bad guy was beaten, and everyone is... mostly unharmed..." Denki shouted out, before he saw the blood that was staining their bodies. Half of them were covered in their own blood, but not enough to warrant their lives being in immediate danger. "Where is foxy?" Denki looked around for their vulpine classmate as everyone touched down on the ground.

Nobody could see him everywhere.

"Where is my bro?" Kirishima asked as he walked up to Tokoyama, the least injured person present among the rescue party. Tokoyama slid his parachute off his shoulders, before he nodded at Kirishima.

"He was playing distraction, with his strength, he should escape any moment now." Tokoyama showed his confidence. Seeing as Naruto put faith in him, he would in turn put faith in Naruto to survive.

*Ding*

Mina ignored everyone else as she looked down at her phone, and she saw that she got a text from Naruto.

I love you, thank you for being in my life.

Mina didn't know why, but tears rolled down her cheeks moments after reading his message.

"Naruto isn't here yet? I'm sure he would have been done by now... but that means he is still..." Ochaco turned her head and looked towards the falling fortress as well. Everyone started to look that way, 19 pairs of eyes watched as the watched as the base started to come apart.

Eyes started to widen.

Then, it happened, the base exploded with enough force that even where they were, they could all feel the explosive power of the boom. The heat from the explosion, the blue flames filling the sky itself. Giant parts of the fortress fell into the ocean, the sky clearing and revealing the moon above. Some pieces even rained down on the beach around them, Bakugo even blasted a piece out of the air and into the ocean in front of them.

"Naruto."

"Naruto!" Mina shouted, screamed, at the top of her lungs as she tried to run towards the ocean. She was stopped when she was grabbed by the wrist, just as a giant piece of metal nearly crushed her. There was silence in the class, even Bakugo had his head bowed in respect at their fallen comrade. Mina broke down in the sand and stated to cry then and there.

His last words to her.

She didn't even have the chance to respond to them before Naruto died. His last words were so heart felt, and even over a text, she could tell they were sincere. His last thoughts before he died... they were of her. She was crying so hard, it physically hurt her body. They had been dating for nearly a full year at this point, they may not always show it, but she had strong feelings for him as well. Most of those in the class were actually crying.

'He died to give us a chance to save everyone... he was a true hero to the end.' Tenya thought, clenching his eyes shut, tears in them at the last act of a real hero.

"Can somebody please help me... I can't move my body... and I'm in a lot of pain."

...

"Seriously dude, what does it take to kill you!?" Kirishima shouted as Naruto started to float in the water towards them, a shark carrying Naruto towards the land. Everyone watched as the shark dropped Naruto off at the shore, before the shark grew wings and flew away. "Dude... I thought that shark was dead." Kirishima remembered that shark as the one that had tried to eat him. Yet here it was again, alive and well, carrying Naruto back to the shore on it's back. "What is-"

"Naruto!" Mina pushed Kirishima out of the way roughly as she grabbed Naruto. "I love you too! I love you so much, don't ever scare me like that again! I thought you were dead!" Mina pulled the limp Naruto into a powerful hug.

It hurt him, a lot.

Almost every inch of his body was covered in damage and bruises, with massive cuts along his body. Thankfully, he was immune to his own Fox-Fire, so the fire from the explosion actually didn't hurt him at all. It was the powerful explosions from the other fires in the explosion that had done some damage to him, not to mention getting thrown into the ocean hurt like a bitch.

'... Is he too stupid to die?'

It was a common thought in the class.

"Got it... got my Tama back..." Naruto let got of the Tama that was in his hand, letting it fall into the sand. He had gotten it back right as the explosion went off, he had a weak grin on his face. Mina flipped him over, before she grabbed his face, and she didn't care that they were surrounded by everyone, and that everyone was watching them. Mina kissed him, and though they had shared many kisses in private with nobody watching, this kiss was perhaps the most passionate one that Naruto had ever gotten from Mina.

Tears turned into smiles.

'... Why was he not chosen for this power... why was it given to me? How could All Might not see that Naruto was suited for this power?' Izuku looked down at his fist, and he couldn't help but feel the weight of the power he was given. Seeing somebody who should have gotten the power instead of him... it gave him an empty feeling inside. He had always thought, since All Might chose him, he had been the one most worthy of the power in All Might's eyes... but here, was somebody who had fully prepared to die today.

Mina was crying on Naruto's face, but they were happy tears.

Now this, this was a happy ending.

"Okay... now can I go to a hospital or Recovery Girl?"

Everyone laughed when Naruto made that joke, until he coughed up blood.

Okay, not a joke.