Marvel: Raising — Chapter 133 - Papa Guan and Naruto
Yawn...
The sun was already high when he woke for the second time.
Guan Fuyun chewed on a fried dough stick. Beside him, Wanda was still bleary-eyed. Azu was working through his milk. Godzilla bobbed his head back and forth like a puppy.
Across from them.
Galacta had Ego in her grip and was deep into researching planetary cuisine.
Food cooked with a premium ingredient like Ego genuinely glowed. You had to give it that.
But Galacta's recipe,
[One part Ego + one ton of potato chips + one ton of masala + one ton of ketchup + violently mix with twenty-four units of concrete.]
"Is this an incursion from the Dark Cuisine Alliance?"
Guan Fuyun thought to himself.
He rubbed his eyes and opened a short video to scroll.
[Hello everyone!]
[I'm a superhero trainee with two and a half years of practice, Peter Parker.]
[I can sing, dance, rap, shoot webs, and kiss upside down.]
"..."
Next.
[Hello there!]
[I'm company CEO Ashley, and this is superhero news time.]
[Connecting to our field reporter now... and as you can see, Japland is currently nothing but rubble.]
[This is what supervillains do!]
[So pitiful.]
[Let's send them some paper cranes, light a few electronic candles, fire off a cyber-prayer, that should about cover it.]
[Meanwhile.]
[A huge thank you to The Seven's heavy hitters, Thor and the Hulk, for their service. With them around, everyone's best days are still ahead!]
The interview camera cut to Thor and the Hulk.
"I am the unacknowledged adopted son of Mr. Guan, son of Odin, the brother whom Loki admires, envies, and resents, Thor!"
"Right here."
"First, I want to thank the company, thank the show, thank the fans, and let me recommend this trending snack. Chicken flavor. Crispy."
"Family! Everyone here is dear, dear family!"
"Thor would never recommend junk food..."
Thor kept it brief, dropped a quick product plug, and left it there.
The Hulk stood off to the side saying nothing, fulfilling a purely aesthetic function.
Guan Fuyun: "6."
He figured the absurdity would stop there.
It did not.
Thor and the Hulk hadn't even left the Japland island when more tiny islands began materializing out of nowhere.
Obviously, another world had fused in.
It wasn't a big world. At a glance, the Five Great (Tiny) Nations (Villages) stood out immediately. Guan Fuyun could even spot the Hokage Rock carved into the mountainside.
He turned it over in his mind. Live-action Hinata, Ino, Tsunade... not bad at all, actually.
As for whether their art style meshed with Marvel?
Obviously it did.
Marvel runs on American comic art, and these characters all had Christmas skins, Lunar New Year skins, girl-group skins. The full catalogue.
Arrive and it's three-hit combos, invincibility frames on dodge, scratch that. Arrive and the vibe is pure harmony.
RING RING RING!
Right on cue, Ashley called.
"Yes, this is a fellow countryman speaking."
"Pops and I are already up to speed. This world's intelligence level is passable, they understand human speech. Worth developing."
"We'll head over to take a look shortly."
"Keep the company people at a distance."
Azu replied: "No one takes matters into their own hands. Nobody ruins Pops' mood."
...
Time moved on.
...
The Naruto World.
Paint. A boy. Insults. Konoha Village.
The ninjas had no awareness that their world had changed.
Just like the gap between a Title Douluo and a god, most ninjas were ordinary people with a bit of supernatural ability.
They could be killed by a cement truck.
In a straight-up power contest, who was actually stronger, Naruto or Douluo?
HISS!
Hard to say. Kaguya probably wouldn't be taken out by thrown weapons, and she certainly wouldn't struggle to heft a hundred-thousand-jin halberd.
But neither beat the Eight-Treasure Chicken.
And none of them could touch Marvel, with its back-to-back cosmic wars, temporal wars, and multiversal crises.
Right now, using the Time Stone, Guan Fuyun had a clear view of the Naruto World. The entertainment value was immense.
...
"Damn it! Catch that little brat!"
"Don't let me get my hands on you!"
"Demon fox!"
"Bad omen! Dead last!"
"Ha! It's about to rain, let the sky drown this cursed wretch, strike him dead with lightning!"
In the neighboring One Piece world, Momonosuke, cowardly, useless, lecherous, an absolute piece of work, was destined to become the greatest shogun of Wano by blood alone, free to strut around and throw his weight everywhere.
The Naruto World was the opposite.
The orphan of Konoha's greatest hero, the child the Fourth Hokage died to protect, Naruto got nothing but hostility and curses.
His mischief and pranks, he pulled them because they got him noticed. Somewhere inside, he savored that.
But then, alone in the empty corners of the village.
He felt it: loneliness multiplied beyond reckoning, a world that had gone utterly silent.
Honestly.
He didn't understand why.
"Has my life... always been this hopeless?"
Young Naruto hugged himself, murmuring to no one.
WHOOSH. CRACK.
Outside, rain hammered down. Lightning split the sky.
"Will God... hear my prayers?"
Naruto curled tighter into the corner of his bed.
CRACK. CRACKLE. CLICK.
Then a strange sound. The space in front of him was splitting open, pulling apart into a passage.
At the far end of the passage, a pair of hands.
A pair of hands.
Tearing through space.
What kind of ability was this. What kind of power was this.
Even the Hokage couldn't come close, right?
"Is it Kami?"
Naruto's dim eyes brightened a little, like a flashlight finding its charge.
"There are no gods in this world. There is only Pops — my all-powerful Pops."
Azu's voice, proud and certain.
A complete non-answer.
"No! You are a god!"
"God — tell me. Can I become Hokage?"
Naruto asked, urgent.
"Why do you want to become Hokage?"
This time, the voice belonged to Guan Fuyun.
"As a ninja of Konoha, becoming Hokage is the greatest goal there is! If I become Hokage, no one will hate me anymore. If I become Hokage, I can erase hatred, bring peace, make the world a better place..."
Naruto's words came rushing out.
It was the first time he had ever said so many things he actually meant. The first time anyone had ever answered back.
"Ninjas are mercenaries. They don't farm, don't produce. They survive by taking missions for coin."
"If war disappeared, if hatred disappeared — how would ninjas live?"
"The Hokage is nothing more than a daimyo's lapdog. A war boss."
"How exactly does that bring peace?"
"Too many people in this world are like fallen leaves. Born as background. After death, crushed into mud and ground to dust. Their whole lives void and laughable."
"Naruto."
"If you learn ninjutsu, Shadow Clone Jutsu, for instance, why not try farming a field?"
"Only someone with a full belly can stand against the random, merciless winds of fate."
"Someone who helps more people eat their fill, that person is a hero."
Black trench coat. Black leather shoes.
Guan Fuyun stepped through, tall and unhurried, a quiet warmth in his eyes. He reached out his hand.
"You are not the one who is wrong, Naruto. It is this world."
Slap.
By the time Naruto realized it, he had already grabbed hold of Guan Fuyun's hand.
The hand was strong and yet completely ordinary, and he couldn't tell: was this a god coming down in answer to his prayers, or just something his dreaming mind had conjured?
But in this moment.
That stifled, directionless ache in his chest, the one that had buzzed like a trapped fly going nowhere, suddenly had a window thrown open. Outside the window was not the howling storm.
It was a brilliant starry sky, and a warm wind.
➤ Next: Naruto, You Deserve Better