Hey guys, it has been a while...again. Though, crucially, not nearly as long as my last hiatus. 2020 man, it'll get you. Been working mostly on real-life issues, joined a D&D group with my friend and Brother-in-Law, and have been mostly spending as much time with my daughter as I can. Which sadly means less writing (aside from D&D Campaign stuff).

This was basically an idea I had ages ago, and never got around to writing down until just recently. I originally wasn't going to bother releasing it, as I already have so much unfinished work on this site, but I guess if I'm writing something, I should be posting it, and you all can do with it what you will. I just have more and more things filling my mind, makes it hard to focus on any one thing. Hopefully this is an interesting enough opening chapter for you all.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor do I own Overwatch.

Guardian

The alley was dark, unlit from the dim streetlights just beyond. However, either way, nobody was looking down into the dark to see the young boy staggering and skidding across the wall. The trail of blood left behind was a slightly different shade than the brick. Many of the inhabitants of King's Row had come out in celebration. In anticipated arrival of one of the greatest spiritual leaders in history. Tekhartha Mondatta. Omnic monk of the Shambali order. His visit to the neighborhood had sparked many a controversy, due to the anti-omnic sentiment of many of its citizens. Nobody would have heard the shouts for help from the bleeding kid in the alley, even if he'd had the strength to cry out. But the blonde was unaware of all of that.

Staggering out into the light, Naruto gripped his head tightly as his senses were assaulted by cheers, and lights, and what sounded like numerous explosions from above. It was the last sound that caught his attention, and he struggled to scale the wall of the adjacent building to find the source. Ever since he woke up, he felt weak. Sluggish to a degree he only felt very rarely. That being when he was injured. Which might explain the blood, now that he thought of it.

As he reached the roof, his hands immediately shot to his ears as an explosion rocked the entire neighborhood. When he was able to focus again, he noticed two people in free-fall He noted one was holding something. 'Gun' was the word that came unbidden to his mind, and without any further thought, he pushed past his pain and launched himself off the roof. His target, so focused on her own target, failed to spot him as he smashed into her in midair. The two followed Naruto's trajectory, crashing into a window on the opposite side of the street.

The injured boy struggled to his feet to see the blue-skinned woman - bleeding in several places from broken glass - already having her weapon trained on him. Despite everything he stood his ground, and for a moment, the woman lowered her rifle, regarding him with curiosity and annoyance. But only for a moment. Three shots ripped through his stomach and chest. He vaguely heard what sounded like a woman shouting as he collapsed back to the floor. This new pain was worse than what he had prior, but wasn't near the level of a chidori to the chest, and so Naruto was able to fight loosing consciousness for nearly a minute. The woman with blue skin had fled, and now a new woman was leaning over him, saying something that he wasn't paying attention to. He was vaguely aware that it was the second person who had been falling as the blackness began to ebb into the edges of his vision.

Why she was tending to him rather than pursue the assassin was beyond him. While he certainly appreciated it, the blue woman was and should be clearly the greater concern, especially for someone who didn't know him. Still, if this person would rather worry about him, he wouldn't complain even if he could, since he was actually in quite a bit of pain. For some reason, he seemed to be experiencing chakra exhaustion - a state he had only experienced on rare occasions - and the Kyuubi's chakra was sadly not working nearly as fast as it could. Somewhere in the reaches of his mind, he heard the chakra-beast grumbling indignantly, but that too wasn't clear due to the fact that blissful darkness finally claimed him.

"Kid! Kid, stay with me!"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Lena Oxton was having an abysmal night. The assassination attempt, while unsuccessful, had transformed the celebration in King's Row into a powder-keg. In the hours since, people, both human and Omnic, had been looking at each other with unease and mistrust. Someone wanted the Omnic spiritual leader dead. Had they succeeded, Lena was sure riots would have erupted throughout her hometown. All that progress in the years since the King's Row uprising might have been eradicated by one cold sniper, by one single bullet. Now she sat in the hospital, waiting on any news of the young boy who had stopped her.

Despite herself, she blamed herself for what had happened to the whiskered blonde. The sniper hadn't shot him in rage, or spite, but because she knew the the former Overwatch agent would stop her pursuit to get the child medical attention. She'd been right, of course, and while Lena would never in a million years have made the choice to leave the kid to bleed out in that hallway, she was kicking herself for not having apprehended the assailant sooner. Now the young boy was in surgery, and Lena was alone with her thoughts. The kid was more than human, that was certain. To act as quickly as he had, leaping across from one building to another...the boy couldn't have been thirteen yet, but he clearly had strength beyond many adults. Something was different about him, that much was clear. Maybe mutation or augmentation of some kind, neither thrilling explanations in Lena's view.

"Lena." The former hero looked up and gave a small smile as her girlfriend walked into the waiting room. She had called her as soon as the kid had gone into surgery, letting her know that she'd definitely be home late and why. She hadn't expected Emily to come meet her at the hospital, but realized she probably should have. The freckled redhead was far more understanding than anyone could generally be - and certainly more understanding than Lena thought she deserved - regarding the hectic day-to-day of Lena's life. As a former Overwatch Field Agent, a slight celebrity locally because of it, and especially with her...condition. "I got here as quick as I could," she announced, embracing her girlfriend with a peck on the cheek. "Traffic was murder. Is the kid ok?"

"Not sure," Lena admitted. "He's tough though, I can tell that much. Hopefully tough enough to pull through." Emily nodded. Lena wasn't usually so distraught, and she knew that the best thing to do was just offer support for now.

"I assume we're gonna stick it out here until we know for sure?" she offered with a small smile of her own, sitting down next to Lena, leaning her head onto her girlfriend's shoulder. Tracer rolled her eyes, but gratefully threw her arm around Emily's shoulders.

"You didn't have to come down here, you know," she deadpanned.

"True," Emily replied. "But it's where you want to be, and I want to be here with you. Besides, from the way you talked on the phone, it sounds like he saved your life too. It'd be a shame not to be here when he wakes up." Lena could only nod. The sniper had been about to pull the trigger when the kid had knocked her away with a literal flying-tackle. Being disoriented from the explosion, she might not have been able to avoid a shot from the assassin, and she wasn't able to rewind herself if she was dead already. The two sat for a moment, before a chime rang out from one of Tracer's jacket pockets. With a quirk of her eyebrow, Lena pulled out her old Overwatch communicator.

The old thing hadn't gone off in years, but Lena had kept it ever since Overwatch had been disbanded, on the off-chance - and perhaps even the hope - that she might be called into service again. Now, tonight of all nights, it was going off. Emily gave her a look, before a small smile graced her lips. "Go, call him," she said simply. "And tell the big guy I say hi." Lena gave her girlfriend a grateful look and a kiss before in a blink she was off to find somewhere private to make her call. Ducking into a janitor's closet, she quickly answered the call.

"Winston?" she asked, hesitantly. "Is that you, Love? It's been too long!"

"Yes," the deep voice on the other end of the call replied. "Yes it has."

"What's happening, Big Guy?" Tracer asked. "We just had an assassination attempt on Mondatta tonight, and then I get a message about an Overwatch recall? It can't be coincidence." She received a grunt from the hyper-intelligent ape on the line.

"It's not," he replied. "Talon has gotten bold again. They tried to raid Gibraltar base tonight. Tried to steal the Overwatch agent database..." Lena's blood ran cold. That database in the hands of Talon? Every former agent's name, their locations? "...I was able to fight them off...barely, and hopefully stopped the hacking before they got everything they wanted. All the same, every former agent needs to be aware."

Tracer nodded. "Right," she agreed. "Even if you stopped the hack, better to be safe than sorry."

"Tracer." Lena went quiet again at the seriousness in Winston's tone. Something else was wrong. "Reyes was with them. He was wearing a mask, but it was definitely him. How he's alive, I don't know, but he is. He's with Talon now. He's the mercenary they call 'Reaper."

"You're sure?" Lena questioned. If Reyes had indeed survived the destruction of the Swiss HQ, and was now under Talon's employ, then every former Agent of Overwatch was in serious danger.

"Those abilities, the preference for the double shotguns, and the fact that nobody else has ever called me a monkey with that level of condescension makes me fairly certain," Winston sighed. "Everything is complicated nowadays. The world is falling into chaos again, and this time there are no heroes to do anything about it."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," Tracer said, a bit of hope in her voice as she tried to comfort the tired Space Gorilla. "I'm at the Hospital right now, waiting to hear about a little hero right now. He helped me keep Mondatta from being killed, and probably saved my life too." Suddenly, Winston heard her voice shift to one dripping with venom, something he couldn't imagine having heard from the normally cheery Brit before. "But our sniper got away, and she shot him a few times to keep me from following. Winston, the kid jumped from one building to another and tackled her mid-air."

On Winston's end, the Gorilla's interest had been piqued. While making leaps like that wasn't something difficult for himself, or some of the technologically or biologically enhanced of the world, the way Tracer was talking, he sensed there was something more to be said for it. "How old is this kid?" he asked. Tracer was silent for a moment before answering.

"He can't even be thirteen from the look of him."

"And he made this flying-tackle, unaided?" he questioned. "Impressive. Ten or Fifteen years ago, he'd be on a watch list for recruitment when he got older."

"Well, right now he needs to make it through surgery so that he gets the chance to get older," Lena said. "Listen, Big Guy, I've gotta get back. I'm waiting for any word for how things are going with the kid. But we do need to finish this conversation later. Something has to be done about all of this, and it might just be time for Overwatch again...Oh, and Emily says hi!" The cheer had returned to her voice on that last note, and Winston couldn't help but chuckle.

"I appreciate the thought. Maybe this year we can get together for the holidays. And we will talk later." The two said their goodbyes and ended the call, Lena letting out a deep sigh as she leaned heavily against the wall. She took another moment to recollect herself, before moving back out to the waiting area.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was several hours before Lena and Emily were brought any news on the mysterious kid. He was coming out of surgery, and was expected to make a full recovery. The news was everything Lena needed to hear, but something felt off.

"The kid was in pretty bad shape," she said, speaking to the doctor as he lead them to the boy's recovery room, where he himself would be moved momentarily. "How can you be so sure that he'll be back up and running so soon?"

The surgeon looked hesitant for a moment, before pulling out a digital data-pad, which was displaying a photo of some device. "We found this implanted...inside him. We think it was designed to suppress the boy's immune system and ability to heal. When we removed it, many of his superficial wounds on the surface began to...well, they began to steam and close." Lena quirked a brow at that, as the doctor flipped to a new image. "His cellular structure is literally knitting itself together. I've only seen this kind of effect in the few cases where I've gotten to work with Biotic technology. Though after Overwatch was shut down, most of the research into that field has gone stagnant."

Lena could only stare at the looped, microscopic recording of the blonde's wounds healing themselves. "With your permission, we'd like to run some tests on the boy while he's here."

"My permission?" Lena repeated, questioningly. "Why would you need my permission." She was still wondering at the kid's almost miraculous healing ability, and why anyone would wish to suppress it. The new question caught her completely off-guard and she could only look to Emily, who seemed to be likewise at a loss. Again, the Surgeon turned suspiciously quiet for a moment, as he ushered them into the room, closing the door behind them.

"I'm going to be perfectly honest with you..." he said, as though struggling to determine the correct words to say. "The kid is quite honestly a ghost. The entire time he's been in surgery, we've had people looking for any parents or guardian he may have, but we turned up nothing. There are no genetic records, and likewise no match to any dental records. It's as though he's simply popped up out of nowhere. But he's obviously special, and certainly empowered. Ordinarily, he'd be turned over to the government, who would appoint a guardian for him. However, I've got a few contacts higher up that would be willing to turn custody of the boy - at least temporarily - over to you."

Seeing Lena struggling to come up with words, Emily stepped in. "Why would they be willing to bend the rules like that. Given the views most people in the government have of Overwatch and its former agents, I wouldn't think they'd turn over a kid just like that." Lena could only nod, still too shocked to speak. She hadn't a clue what to think of all this, and was grateful for her partner's cool-headed nature. The doctor nodded.

"Not everyone who works for the government share our leaders' opinions," he replied. "As it stands, the boy is an enhanced unknown. My friends and I think it's going to be safer having a former Overwatch field agent keep their eyes on him...however, if you don't want this, that's totally understandable. Especially since we haven't actually consulted you about it before-hand." Lena and Emily shared a look, realizing that he was waiting for an answer. While Lena looked uncertain, Emily just gave a reassuring smile and a squeeze of her hand.

"Alright," Lena said after a few moments of silence. "I'll be the kid's guardian. What kind of tests are you needing to run on him?" The doctor just sighed in relief, before passing his data-pad to the pair. The former agent of Overwatch rapidly read through the digital forms and added her signature where necessary, before handing the pad back to the doctor.

"Given his natural healing seems akin to what happens with a biotic field, I managed to get in touch with an expert in that particular field who flew in from Egypt to take a look." Even before the words left his mouth, the boy was being moved into the room, and Lena found her ears assailed by a very familiar, heavily accented voice giving orders to the nursing staff. Looking to the door, Lena was met with surprised eyes shining through a pair of glasses. A familiar young blonde woman, garbed in a white lab coat had entered, a tag clipped to it bearing the name 'Dr. Angela Ziegler.'

The occupants of the room heard an excited cry of 'ANGIE!' before Tracer had nearly tackled the new woman to the ground as she nabbed her into a hug. Dr. Ziegler looked a bit uncomfortable at the sudden contact, but still gently patted her former colleague's back. "It's nice to see you too, Lena," she announced, starting a bit hesitant, but finishing warmly. She looked to Emily and gave a nod of recognition to her as well. "Still keeping this one in line?" she asked with a sly smile.

"I do my best," Emily replied with a warm smile of her own. In response, Lena blinked back to her girlfriend, wrapping an arm around her waist.

"So," Angela said, re-straightening her appearance. "Would someone like to fill me in a bit more about the boy?"

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Naruto wandered the semi-flooded corridors of his mind, seeking out the sealed gate which held the Kyuubi at bay. He frowned though. Something wasn't right. The pathways within his mindscape had grown. Rooms and halls he had never seen before had come into being, and several more seemed to be crumbling from the red chakra of the Nine-Tails. For the most part, he ignored them and decided to simply ask the fox about it when he reached the beast.

He followed the winding trails of wispy red chakra to their source, deciding it would be the easiest way to navigate the labyrinth his mind had become, eventually stepping into the massive, gated chamber. "What the hell is happening? In here, and out there?" His response was a massive sigh, the fox's hot breath crashing into him like a collision with a wall. Looking away for a moment, he looked back into the giant eyes and maw of the Kyuubi, staring down at him from behind the bars of the seal. But his eyes held less malice than before. His smirking grin not as wide. The tailed beast looked tired.

"I was wondering when you'd finally get here," he said. Naruto immediately caught the weary tone from the massive fox creature. "I've been fairly busy, so give me a moment to catch my breath."

"Catch your breath?" Naruto questioned aloud. "I know I was in bad shape when I came to, but I didn't think it could tire you out." The fox actually chuckled at that.

"Bad shape? You were in a lot worse than bad shape, boy," he replied. Naruto felt a rumbling and saw the face lower down. The Kyuubi must have laid down behind the bars. The blonde couldn't be sure, since it was very dark on that end. "Months of suppressed healing, attempted brainwashing, which I am in the process of undoing... A thank you would be nice, by the way."

"Months?! Brainwashing?! What the hell are you talking about?" Naruto took a step back from the sealed cage, a look of barely concealed panic in his eyes.

"Exactly as I said. I'm not sure how, but we've somehow entered a new time, or a new world all together. After your fight with your bastard teammate, some...thing seemed to take hold of you and pull you in. You've been subject to physical torture and mental reconditioning." Naruto only stared up at the Kyuubi as though waiting for the beast to reveal that he'd be kidding, but it was not to be.

"I don't remember any of that." The eyes of the Kyuubi closed in thought for a moment.

"Do you remember how you escaped? The voice of the one that released you?" Naruto strained his brain, but found that the first thing he remembered was the alley. "I thought not, though your mind is still fragile right now. I've been working at repairing the damage and removing some of the conditioning...whoever these people are, they sought to turn you into weapon. And somebody decided to turn you loose. Until we can find out who, and for what purpose, my advice is to avoid others for now. Put that shinobi training to use and hide...preferably right now."

"Wow...um, thank you," Naruto said, processing the information he'd just learned. "Why do I need to hide right away, though?"

"Because you're currently in a hospital of some sort, in unknown and potentially enemy territory, filled with all sorts of people, including one who feels...off..." Naruto raised a brow at the actual confusion in the fox's booming voice. "But only one weak human currently in your room with you. Now is going to be your best chance, and I would suggest taking it."

Naruto took a moment to steel himself, before he closed his eyes and faded from his mindscape. Reopening his eyes to the waking world, he heard a slight gasp and snapped his head to face a young woman with long red hair. Seeing her move to the door - likely to alert the hospital staff - and with the urging of the Kyuubi ringing in his mind, he made his move.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Incredible," Angela stated, sipping coffee as Lena informed her former colleague about what she knew. "And also horrific...A boy this young, with the kind of strength and speed you've described, coupled with his seemingly innate ability to heal...Despite the circumstances, Lena, Dr. Abbot was correct. If the boy isn't taken into Government custody, a former Overwatch agent such as yourself would be the best possible choice to place the child under."

"He stopped an assassin, and probably saved my life to boot. Kid should be given a medal, not a legal guardian," scoffed Tracer. "But something isn't right. The Doc said he had something inside him that was keeping him from healing. Why would anyone try to hinder the kid like that?" Dr. Ziegler frowned and leaned back in her chair.

"My only guess would be as a form of control. The boy is super-human, that much is clear. And from what I gather from you and Winston's recall alert, Talon is back on the move for some reason..." She paused for a moment with a thoughtful look. "Why did Winston issue a recall in the first place? Overwatch is still illegal, after all."

"Talon attacked Gibraltar," she elaborated. "The big guy told me they attempted to extract the agent database. Whether Overwatch is illegal or not, it was in the interests of every former agent to be on alert." Angela looked taken aback at the news. She knew the terrorist organization had something to do with his decision, but that database in their hands put all of the former Overwatch agents at incredible risk.

"Is it possible...that Talon was trying to make the boy into a weapon of some sort?" she asked.

"I don't know," Lena replied. "If that's the case, why stop the assassin?"

The conversation was ground to a screeching halt as the sound of breaking glass echoed from down the hall, as well as a yelp from someone who sounded too close to Emily for Lena's comfort. Blinking out the door of the room she and Angela were in, she saw the young blonde boy awake and on his feet. Emily was down on the floor, unconscious and entangled in cords and wires from the various medical machines, but otherwise seemed unharmed. Tracer locked eyes with the boy for a single moment, before he twisted and dashed down the hall.

Looking back into the room, she saw Angela already on the phone, issuing an security alert. Hopefully, the lock-down procedures – designed with enhanced individuals in mind – would be able to keep the kid in the building. Passing one last glance to her unconscious girlfriend, Lena rapidly began blinking after the kid, hoping she could stop him before he hurt himself...or someone else.

Chapter End

So, that's a thing. I'll let you all be the judges of how good the thing was, I just needed to get it out there so I can stop staring at the screen and just get on with things. I've got too many projects for my own good and I just can't part with or give up on any of them.

Review, don't review, I don't really care these days, but hopefully reading something new brings a smile to at least one of your faces in these trying times.

Peace to All my Fans

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