AN: this is the final chapter. There is some NSFW content at the end, a short Naruto/Mirko lime, however, so I had to censor it. You can read the full chapter on Discord, at /x7xdd53WqE.

Chapter 51 - Epilogue

Several days passed since the fateful battle in Tokyo between the Pro-Heroes' resistance and the Lord of Crime, All For One.

The beginning of the battle went off without a hitch, and it appeared as though the Pro Heroes were going to have an overwhelming, one-sided victory against All For One. But that lasted only until Lady Nagant's bullet killed Eraserhead.

Without Aizawa's Erasure quirk, the rest of the Pro Heroes stood no chance anymore.

As the saying goes, when whales fight, a shrimp's back is broken. Knowing that they would only die a meaningless death if they got caught between his, Izuku, and AFO's fight, Naruto asked his father to teleport the other heroes away, to safety.

Up until that moment, the world at large had not been aware of what was going on in Tokyo. But once Eraserhead was assassinated and All For One brought out the 'big guns', the various mass media outlets immediately took notice of the massive explosions and sent their drones to film the incident from a distance.

The battle that followed was one for the ages. Izuku's heart and grit, All For One's limitless stock of quirks and his immeasurable strength, and Uzumaki Naruto's inhuman combat ability were all showcased in the fight. Nonetheless, the millions of people who were watching the live transmission forgot about all of that when Uzumaki Naruto lost control of his quirk.

Kyuubi no Kitsune.

It was a well-known myth not only in Asia but even in Europe and North America. But nobody had ever taken that myth at face value. After all, it was just that—a myth.

Alas, when the titanic, crimson-furred monster fox with nine tails appeared in the ruined gardens of the Imperial Palace, only shock, terror, and awe remained. It was a beast like nothing anyone had ever seen, like something out of this world. Even the largest land-walking creatures from the Mesozoic Era did not come close in size. The nine-tailed fox was simply humongous.

⁂

His fox ears twitched as the noise made by a large crowd of people shook him awake.

'Where am I?'

Opening his eyes and taking in his surroundings, Naruto realised that he was home, inside his bedroom.

'Why is it so noisy? What's going on?'

A dull headache throbbed in the depths of his skull.

Momentarily, he could not recall his most recent memories. His bones groaned in protest when he got out of bed and went to the window.

On his way there, his eyes fell on the full-body mirror on the door of his wardrobe. He froze in his tracks, startled.

He appeared to be fine; there were no visible wounds, bruises, or any bandages wrapped around his body. What startled him was the number of tails on his back. He did a double-take.

Picking up his golden fox tails, he started counting them one by one.

"...Seven...eight…nine. When did I get nine tails? Did my quirk awaken again? What the hell happened?"

Leaving the matter of his tails aside for the moment, he went to the window and peeked through the blinders outside.

It was his family home, in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. However, the quiet and chic suburb had been turned upside down as the streets and alleys all around his house were cordoned off, with dozens of police cars and SWAT teams surrounding it and many more people crowded around them.

'No, the police are not surrounding us. They're protecting us,' he thought when he noticed the fact that all the law enforcement personnel at the scene were standing with their backs to his home and facing the crowd instead.

'But those people don't look like it's out for our blood either... So what the hell happened? What are they here for?"

The harder he tried to remember, the more his headache worsened. It was to the point where he got dizzy and fell down to his knees, gripping his head with his hands in agony.

When the pain seemed to increase beyond what he was capable of bearing with, it was as if a damn broke and all his memories rushed back to him, hitting him like a torrent.

Principal Nezu's plan and the team of Pro Heroes.

The past few weeks of doing unpaid Hero work in Japan.

He and Izuku attacking Detnerat and killing Re Destro.

Luring out All For One and all the Pro Heroes cornering him.

Aizawa's assassination.

His father teleporting everyone away.

He and Izuku fighting against AFO.

Mirko… ….

"No!" he let out a cry.

He remembered now. And he realised why he could not recall his memories right away; it was as if his brain was unconsciously trying to protect himself by making him forget that she died.

Mirko was dead, killed at the hands of All For One. Usagiyama Rumi. His mentor, his role model, his best friend, and his lover. He thought that they would be together forever. Whether it was in his past or current life, he had never loved any other girl the way he loved Rumi.

It was unlike him to lose himself to despair and grief, but at that moment, he could not stop the tears that filled his eyes.

His fox ears twitched again as his sensitive hearing caught the sound of a doorknob being turned.

Looking back to see who opened the door, Naruto became mute with surprise, stupefied. For a second, he thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him. He looked at the newcomer's face dumbly, unable to utter a sound.

Their round and soft face, their red eyes, filled with unshed tears, their long silvery hair, their wide smile and pearly white teeth, their dark skin and long rabbit ears... ...it was none other than Rumi.

A gust of wind came, and with it, Naruto found himself hoisted up to his feet and engulfed in a back-breaking hug.

His arms wrapped around her back just as tightly.

"Rumi!"

Even as Naruto felt Mirko's tears wetting the nape of his neck, he heard her laughing as she said:

"Yes, Naruto. It's me."

He too buried his face in her hair, unable to say a word more. He hugged her for all she was worth. Even five minutes later, he was not letting go of her, holding onto her as if she were his lifeline.

Eventually, they broke their hug, only partially, just so they could gaze into each other's eyes. Naruto leaned into her touch when she cupped his cheek with her hand.

Their eyes were puffy from crying, and their faces were still wet from their tears, but they were smiling. Normally, neither Naruto nor Mirko were the type to express their emotions like that. But, at that moment, they didn't try to put up a strong front.

Finally regaining some of his calm and composure, Naruto took notice of Kushina and Minato, his parents, who were watching him and Mirko from the door, their reunion having moved them to tears too.

Then he saw her too: the very person responsible for this miracle, the one whom he would have to thank for the rest of his life for giving Rumi back to him.

Letting go of Mirko, Naruto walked to Eri and kneeled in front of her, taking her in his arms.

"Eri-chan, thank you! Thank you so much! Thank you!"

He could not easily put into words just how grateful he was. All he could do was take her breath away with his hug and repeat those words again and again.

"Don't cry, onii-chan. You took me in when nobody wanted me. You gave me parents and a home. You saved me before. Now it was my turn to save you."

It was as if her words had been some sort of signal because Kushina, Minato, and Mirko all rushed at them and joined in a big, group hug.

It had been a trying time for the Uzumaki family. Minato had almost lost his life, and Mirko had definitely died. However, they were all safe now. They were together. They were alive.

⁂

A while later, finally getting his emotions under control, Naruto went to the bathroom to clean himself.

He splashed cold water on his face half a dozen times before he finally noticed that he was not alone in the bathroom.

"Gyaaargh!" he yelled, the fur on his nine tails standing up like needles.

That's because, to his right, in the bathtub, a small crimson-furred fox was floating lazily on the water amidst bubbles, his nine fluffy tails spread like a peacock on the water's surface.

"Pipe down, will you?" Kyuubi said in annoyance, not bothering to even open his eyes to look at Naruto.

"But-, what?! How?!" Naruto said in disbelief.

"Not now, Naruto. Shoo! Let me be. We'll talk later."

Unbothered. Moisturised. Happy. In his lane. Focused. Flourishing.

As he floated lazily amidst bubbles, Kurama was like the living embodiment of that meme.

Watching the tiny fox cub chilling in the bathtub, Naruto didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. He was getting one surprise after another.

⁂

At last, a few hours later, Naruto caught up with the events that had transpired after the battle.

He had been unconscious for two days, but while he was sleeping soundly, the world was thrown into chaos by All For One's death and Kyuubi's emergence.

His parents were not unfamiliar with Kyuubi since Naruto had revealed his existence to them before, but they had never expected the fox to become his own person. And they had definitely never expected him to turn into a behemoth that dwarfed even the likes of Mount Lady and Gigantomachia.

If that was not enough to shock them, Kyuubi surprised them once again by showing that he was capable of altering his size at will and becoming smaller too.

"Did he hurt you in any way?" he asked his parents.

When all was said and done, in the end, Minato and Kushina had been Kyuubi's jailers in their past lives.

"You worry too much," Eri laughed. "Other than stealing Daddy's cans of Coca-Cola and demanding from us that we pet and brush his tails, Kurama did nothing but sleep and eat."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was a cat," Minato said too, chuckling.

Naruto's relief was palpable. It was as if a weight was lifted off his chest.

"By the way, what's with the crowd around our house?"

"They're here because of you and Kurama," Mirko answered. "Kurama, in particular, shook up the world. Our fight against All For One was televised from the moment Aizawa was killed. Everyone saw Kurama becoming as large as a skyscraper, and they also heard him talk to Izuku too. He's different from anything anyone has ever seen… And you basically gave birth to him all alone. He is a new person, someone who was brought to life out of your quirk. It's not only the regular people who want to know more; people from the government and researchers and scientists from all over the country want to meet him too. The only reason they haven't done that so far is because Kurama said he would not talk to anyone without you."

"...Should we run away?" asked Naruto.

Minato ruffled his hair, chuckling.

"Sure, we can escape, but what then? Where would we escape to? And how long would we manage to stay hidden when you're sporting 9 tails, Rumi-chan has rabbit ears, and Kurama-san is a talking fox? Besides, we have no reason to run away. We have done no wrong. It's the opposite: you, Rumi-chan, and Kurama-san are heroes."

"Don't downplay the part you played too, dear," Kushina said, pecking her husband on the cheek and making him smile.

As she sat on the sofa next to him, Mirko laid her head on Naruto's shoulder, and her hand reached out to his, their fingers automatically intertwining.

Kushina and Minato involuntarily smiled at the two loverbirds' nonverbal display of affection.

At that moment, Kurama walked into the living room with his nine furry tails wrapped into nine towels and wearing another towel around his waist, like a human. His appearance was so funny that Naruto burst into laughter at the sight of him.

But the fox ignored him and jumped into little Eri's lap, who swooned at being granted the honour of holding him in her lap. The tiny fox was just adorable.

"By the way, where is Kuro?" Naruto asked, suddenly realizing that their German Shepherd dog was nowhere to be seen.

"We asked the Russells to take care of him for a few days. Kurama's appearance almost gave him a heart attack. The poor dog is too terrified to be in the same house with him."

Kyuubi let out a snort but didn't say anything, feeling too comfortable in the girl's lap as she gently scratched him behind his ears.

⁂

Kyuubi's appearance turned out to be a far bigger deal than Naruto had expected. Two weeks after the war against All For One in Japan, Naruto and Kurama had gone through dozens of medical tests and psychological examinations as the medics and scientists tried to understand just how it was possible for Naruto to 'give birth' to an entirely new and independent being through his Quirk.

Furthermore, that was not even the most difficult part. Much to the fox's chagrin, the government of the United States forced him to register as a citizen of Japan and become part of human society.

That meant that he was supposed to go through compulsory education as all children do, and, worst of all, he had to get a Birth Certificate.

"Hey, son, give me that bag of chips," came Naruto's voice; he was lying in bed together with Rumi and watching a movie.

"Screw you, Naruto!" Kyuubi barked at him, his growl filled with annoyance.

Naruto snickered in schadenfreude. He was never going to let the fox live it down. He would forever poke fun at the fact that Kyuubi's Birth Certificate looked like this:

Place of Birth: Tokyo, Japan.

Nationality: Japanese.

Name: Uzumaki Kurama

Sex: male

Father's name: Uzumaki Naruto

Kyuubi elongated one of his tails to slap Naruto with it, but a golden chain sprung up, parrying it.

"How dare you raise your hand against your father?!" Naruto shouted at him in fake outrage.

"Don't make me do it, Naruto! I'll fight you! I'll seriously beat the snot out of you!" Kyuubi growled, and the bed creaked under his weight as his size quickly started increasing.

However, as three golden chains wrapped around his body, Kurama's size returned to that of a tiny cub again. The Adamantine Sealing Chains worked on him in the present life just like they did in the previous life too.

But while Kyuubi was steaming with annoyance, Eri came to his rescue.

"Mooom! Nii-san is bullying Kurama-san again!" he shouted. "Moooom!"

With their sensitive hearing, Naruto and Mirko both heard the long-suffering sight that Kushina let out downstairs.

A yellow flash illuminated the semi-darkness of the bedroom as Minato teleported into their room.

"Good grief. When will you stop teasing him?" Minato said with his hands on his waist.

As Naruto retrieved his chains, Eri rushed to take Kurama in her arms. Then, she stuck her tongue out at Naruto and made a sound before running back to her bedroom with the fox in tow.

Naruto chuckled at the way Kurama let the little girl carry him around like that. The old grump may have liked to claim otherwise, but he was a big softie deep inside.

As his father disappeared with another yellow flash, and with Kurama and Eri gone too, Naruto was left alone with Rumi in the room.

He sighed in comfort as the rabbit girl snuggled closer to him, half of her body draped over his now. Slowly running his hand along her waist and hips, Naruto smiled and kissed the top of her head lovingly.

Rumi too returned his affection by raising her head and kissing his neck.

Things were still not perfect. Although All For One had been defeated and Principal Nezu, together with Izuku and the rest of the surviving Pro Heroes, returned to Japan, trying to reinstate order, the damage dealt by the Liberation Army's propaganda could not be undone right away.

The evil deeds of the former HPSC had been brought to light, and the many faults of the previous regime had been exposed and demonised. Many average people no longer trusted heroes. But just as many wanted the civil war to be over and for things to return to how they used to be.

Therefore, that's how the present came to be: currently, Japan was in the middle of an election, a referendum whose results would decide whether the Pro Hero system and Hero Public Safety Commission were going to be reinstated or not.

In spite of the chaos and tumult in his native country, Naruto was not affected. He had already done more than most people ever did for Japan. He had done his part. H

He was in the United States now, with his parents. From now on, all he wanted was to take it easy and enjoy his time with his family.

And Mirko was the same. Previously, she had been adamant about returning to Japan and fighting for her country. However, after dying at the hands of All For One, her perspective changed. She did not want to be apart from Naruto anymore. Life was too short and too precious for them to spend their time apart.

When the rabbit girl threw her leg over him and straddled him completely, thoughts of Japan's social unrest and political instability vanished from Naruto's mind.

[Lime removed]

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[Lime removed]

THE END

AN: The Fox and the Hare has come to an end. I want to thank everyone who has stuck with the story until now. Thank you for reading.

As of now, the story is complete. But I would definitely love to write one or two more side/extra stories for this fic, similar to what I did for Caterpillar.

Or maybe another horny lemon? Showing Naruto and Mirko working towards making that football team? kek. We'll see.

I hope you enjoyed the fic.

PS: For those who wish to read more Naruto crossovers from me, I have just started a new Naruto/Justice League story called [Eclipsed]. The pairing is a throuple - Naruto/Starfire/Supergirl.

I have also started a new Naruto/Warcraft crossover fic called [Orcbane]. It has a Naruto/Sylvanas Windrunner pairing (possibly all 3 Windrunner sisters. It remains to be seen)

Until next time!