So… This was a Grimm. Ugly creatures with charcoal black as their fur, furious red eyes filled with primal rage, bony spikes protruding from multiple spots on its body and wore white bone masks with red markings on them. They snarled, sniffing the air for their intended victim. Haruto narrowed his eyes and leaned out of the way of a large black paw, watching without any form of fear as the nail passed his eyeball and nearly poked his eye out.
He had survived a war against a goddess. He wasn't going to lose to a pack of corrupted wild dogs.
"Grimm! Someone get the Hunters!" A civilian screamed, prompting many to rush to get help from the nearest location, Signal Academy.
Haruto ignored the screams of terror, sliding backwards away from the herd of dark wolves that Joel Hardy had called Beowolves. Where were the guardians of this town? Was this place this unprotected, so bumptious to think that they were capable of defending the town without walls to ward off the beasts? Then what was this group of Beowolves doing here, in the heart of Vale? And how did they get in unnoticed?
Dressed in an orange hoodie that fit his tiny body, a pair of sweatpants, a backpack slung on one shoulder and sunglasses, Haruto Uzumaki stared fearlessly as the dark creatures began surrounding him, their prey. Although he was glad the Beowolves had not gone after the innocents, who were doing a splendid job of not dying. Why were they after him when there were so many people around? Oh man, was this connected to Kurama? Just thinking about it made his eyes water from behind Burnie Hardy's giant reflective sunglasses, a pair he managed to swindle from the bearded cop. God, the memory was still fresh in his mind. He didn't want to think about the Elemental Nations, it was too soon, still time for grieving.
As long as we live, those we knew and loved will never be forgotten. Mourn, but don't drown in it. He recited in his head with his eyes shut. It was a phrase he memorised from a quiet shinobi who had lost his family in the fourth war. It described
Shaking the thoughts away, Haruto was vaguely aware of Joel and Burnie telling him where the weak spots were by pointing to various parts of the back and head. Haruto looked to those spots and—Ah! He understood, their bodies were lined with spines, most of which, if hit hard enough with the force on the spine, could do serious damage to them instead of the other way around.
"Someone needs to get punished." Haruto briskly walked forwards, causing the Beowolves to roar and begin their attack on the sweet-smelling little human.
"What are you doing?!" A Huntsman snarled to his captain who was watching the battle intently. "He's gonna get killed if we don't help the boy!"
"No." The captain said resolutely, bringing his hand up to the raised bow-spear, the Hornet, to stop his subordinate's weapon. "He won't."
"How the hell do you know, Ironwood? Are you going to let some arrogant kid rush to death just because you think he won't? Do something Lieutenant!" The Huntress turned to the second in command, hoping he would save the foolish boy who was already reaching the first Beowolf.
"His eyes. They tell me everything I need to know. And it's not arrogance..." Jacob Ironwood trailed off.
"... It's confidence." His lieutenant finished for him.
"Which means?!" Known to most people, being confident did not mean that you were going to survive going toe to toe with a pack of rabid Beowolves. A foe many would-be and wannabe Hunters had fallen to due to their sheer numbers. The group of well-armed Hunters watched as he jumped high up and brought his entire right leg up to his shoulder.
"It means—"
"He's done this before!"
His sneaker clad foot was brought down without any form of care for the dark animal beneath it. Of course, something he didn't know would happen was the incredible change in air pressure that the action caused, shifting the air downwards at an incredible force due to how fast he brought it down, which in turn caused more damage to the unfortunate victim.
"Tsūtenkyaku (Heavenly Foot of Pain)!" He shouted, releasing a concentrated burst of chakra right as he made contact with the first protruding spine of the creature, right on its neck.
The spine was hammered straight into the neck of the first beast with the help of Haruto's heel, ploughing straight through the spine, nearly severing its head off, on the beast and eliminating it instantly. He didn't know if they felt pain, so he decided to go the humane way to kill the beasts. Besides, if the spike through the brain didn't exactly do its job, then the blunt force dealt to it as well as the sudden change in air pressure caused by the kick certainly killed it on the spot if the giant crater surrounding the dead body. As though it was a mere illusion, the body began to dissipate, turning into black smoke and vanishing in an instant.
"Awesome!"
As the first one fell, another took its place, only to find that its neck had suddenly gotten snapped causing it to take to the ground face-first, a quick and painless death. Another approached from behind, pouncing at Haruto's back only to be grabbed by its neck and slammed into the floor in front of Haruto, where the previous pair of Beowolves had died at. He stepped on the wolf's neck hard and obliterated the wolf's spine.
"So cool!" The civilians preened, glad that they were saved from the rampaging horde of Beowolves that had forced their way through the city, apparently in search for the boy. For what reason? They didn't know. But they certainly were impressed with the way he was manhandling the monsters, with great ease.
"How old is this kid? He can give those Signal students a run for their money!"
Those were a few of the words used to describe the battle Haruto was having against the Beowolves. Thankfully, with the new body he received, he was 10 times as agile as his larger one was, which meant that he was given more time to train his already impressive flexibility. As a Beowulf ran up to him, Haruto drove his fist up into the chin of the monster, forcing it to its hind legs and delivered multiple jabs at his exposed belly before following up with a giant haymaker that sent it soaring down the streets. He flapped his wrist and red knuckles around, not expecting the wolves to be that sturdy even at the belly.
But there was something that was wrong. His chakra wasn't regenerating at all, he could still feel his coils being as large as they were. But—he ducked to avoid the claw—he could feel something that felt similar to chakra ahead and behind him. Deciding to check what it was later, he smirked and mumbled under his breath.
"This one's for you Gai-sensei."
Restarting the assault on the Beowolves, Haruto began rushing straight at them before jumping and turning his previous momentum into a one-legged falling drop kick directed at the entire group of surprised Grimm.
"DYNAMIC ENTRY!"
"See? He's more than capable of handling them. Efficient." Ironwood sniffed, impressed as he watched the group of Beowolves get kicked straight into a parked car, completely crushing the vehicle as the bundle of Grimm slammed right into it. "Efficient, but very…" The car went up in flames, "Er—Destructive… And very eccentric." His group of 5th Year Hunters, at the age of 15 to 16, were staring blankly with their jaws unhinged at the sight of the boy dusting his hands as he watched the fire burn their bodies, sending the darkness back to where it came from. Possibly, he could get a good word in for the boy at Signal. It was conceivable that someone might be getting a free scholarship, an all-expenses paid education at Vytal's number one combat school: Signal Academy.
The headmaster had heard of the news and responded to Ironwood's request for a full admission scholarship via phone call. The name of Ironwood was a powerful one. A noble family from Atlas, they had sent their son and heir all the way to Signal as they felt that the combat schools in their homeland were not up to standard. It also helped that the headmaster was very close to James' father.
"Yeah, no thanks. I hate school." Haruto replied, putting his hands into his pockets and walking off, leaving behind a further dumb-struck group of Hunters and Hardy Boys.
Huh, well that was a first. Usually people would kill to get a free pass through the first year of Signal, let alone the entire full 7 years of education, extra years not counted.
Since it was the best of the best, Signal's price for a full course Education, not including the co-curricular activities, extra curriculum classes, excursion and hunting trip, festivals and even the grandest proms for the 7th years and above, ranged from 100,000 Lien per year and could reach 1,000,000 Lien per semester. Then again, these families were waddling around their mansions, knee deep in gold.
So they weren't exactly kidding when they said that it was prestigious, incredibly expensive and only for the talented.
It was sort of like a contest between those high up in the ranks of society and were swimming in Lien notes. Which family could produce the most children capable of entering Signal with FULL scholarships, like raising a little calf into prized cattle for some kind of rating show.
Winchester, Lark, Bronzewing, and Thrush were but few of the many families that competed in the pointless game of "I'm-better-than-you-because-I-paid-my-child's-way-into-one-of-the-best-schools-in-Remnant."
So it came to no surprise that both the Hunters as well as the Hardy Boys face planted when they heard his response.
"But with that kind of talent you could easily become one of the best Hunters and stop the Grimm!"
"Yeah, sorry." Haruto shrugged, uncaring. "That's your problem, not mine." He had been in so many fights he felt that it was time for a break, a very long break. Perhaps he could try living on the mountains as a hermit and stay away from society. But there a problem arose as there wasn't any kind of ramen he could get without going back to civilization. "Besides, you guys are Hunters, aren't you? So what're you standing around here for? Aren't you supposed to be hunting the Grimm down? Making the world safer? " Haruto spoke sarcastically, making the Huntsman who had spoken up go red in the face.
The lieutenant leaned into Ironwood's ear and whispered. "Sharp tongue, I like this kid." Ironwood nodded, finding great entertainment at the sight of the nine verbally destroying his fifteen year old subordinate. The kid could and would probably kick his ass too!
Spluttering, the teen spewed up with the first excuse that came to his head. "We're on our break! And I'll have you know—"
"No." Haruto cut him off, spinning on his heel and getting right into the shocked Huntsman's face. "I'll have you know,"He poked the Hunter in the chest, causing the teen to step back." In war—in conflict—in battle… " He whispered, emphasising each word harshly. Painful memories of his friends dying resurfaced, in pitiful attempts at holding off Madara, Obito and Kaguya just for the army to get away from the fight to catch some breathing space, each of their deaths as grisly as the next.
"There are no breaks you can take. So don't you dare guilt trip me and give me your pathetic excuses as to why you're not out there—" Haruto jabbed towards the general direction of where the wolves came from, "stopping those creatures when they could possibly be killing other people. Where the fuck were you, huh? You didn't do your job well today." He gestured to the destruction he and the Beowolves caused to the street before he paused and turned back to the pale teen.
"Actually, no, scratch that. You didn't do your jobs at all. Innocents could have died today because you were on your fucking break. So don't tell me to do a job that you yourself decided to pursue." Haruto stomped away, leaving behind a group of silent Hunters to contemplate on their actions, or lack of, while the Hardy Boys chased up after Haruto.
"Look, Haruto… We gotta admit, you shouldn't have turned them down. You could do really well as a Hunter.
"I know. And I've already said that I don't want anything to do with fighting anymore. All my life, everything I've ever done was fight. I'm so tired of it." He spoke in a weary voice that described just how tired he was. The pair of officers didn't exactly know how a kid had spent all his life fighting when he was only nine, but decided to accept it as truth anyways.
"We don't know what you've been through," Joel said, voice serious. "But if we had the chance to do it, become Hunters, we would have taken it. Everyday families are in constant danger, and if we ever had the chance to be Hunters, to protect innocents, we'd do it. Not for ourselves, but for them, those who can't fight back."
Haruto paused, his eyes shut in thought. Releasing a long and tired sigh, he turned back around to where the Hunters were, the Hardy Boys smiling as they followed him back. Fuck. This was why he hated being a good person.
"Fine." He scowled, "But you two are buying me dinner… say, know anywhere that sells ramen?"
That night, their wallets never knew what hit them. A receipt, the length of thirty bowls of ramen was forever kept into both their wallets to constantly remind them to never treat Haruto to dinner.