(PROFESSOR UZUMAKI) TAYLOR HEBERT II

Taylor did not know how to feel about Greg.

Watching him land beside her on the rooftop had brought back a rush of old impressions she had carried for a while. For most of her time at Winslow, Greg Veder had occupied a very specific place in her mind. He had been loud when he should have been silent, awkward when keeping to himself would have served him better, and possessed a strange ability to insert himself into conversations that had nothing to do with him. It had always been irritating in a way that was difficult to properly explain.

At the time, she had dismissed him as little more than an annoying classmate. Socially awkward, somewhat pathetic, and far too eager for attention.

A small part of her had even hated him.

It had never been the same kind of hatred she felt toward the trio. Those emotions had been sharp and personal, carved into her by months of humiliation and misery. Greg had never been that important. He had never thrown anything at her, never cornered her in the halls, and never laughed while someone else turned her into the butt of a joke.

But he had been there. 

Another face in the crowd. Another student who saw what happened and did nothing. Another bystander who watched and then went about his day like it was normal.

At the time, that quiet indifference had felt almost worse.

Even then, however, she had known that the hatred was unfair. Greg had never seemed like the type who could stand up to anyone. If anything, he looked like the sort of person who would fold the moment someone raised their voice at him. Expecting him to intervene had been unrealistic.

That did not mean she had liked him.

But a lot of things had changed.

Greg had changed.

She could see it now in the way he stood on the rooftop, the nervous energy still there but tempered by something steadier beneath it. The difference was subtle, yet unmistakable. Before Naruto arrived, Greg had carried himself like someone desperate to be noticed. Now there was purpose in the way he moved, even if it was still clumsy around the edges.

He was trying.

And strangely enough, he was not the only one.

Naruto had changed all of them. Some more than others.

Taylor’s thoughts drifted, unbidden, to another familiar face.

Sophia Hess.

The idea that she and Sophia might one day share anything resembling the same goal would have sounded absurd not long ago. Even now the thought felt strange when she thought about it for too long.

And yet here they were, training under the same teacher, learning the same techniques, and being pushed in the same direction.

Even Sophia had changed.

The girl was still abrasive and sharp-tongued, and she still carried herself like people were there to be dominated rather than coexist with. But there had been moments during training when something different surfaced beneath that familiar hostility. There were flashes of grudging respect when someone else succeeded, and a willingness to listen when Naruto spoke.

Taylor had noticed.

Everyone had.

Still, none of it erased what had happened. The memories were still there: the whispers in the halls, the shoves, the humiliation, and the constant pressure of knowing that any day could turn into another nightmare. 

They had left marks that would not simply disappear…

But they also did not have to define the rest of her life.

Taylor exhaled slowly, the cool night air brushing against her face as she looked out across the darkened street below.

For a long time, she had been trapped inside those memories, unable to imagine herself as anything other than the girl who had endured them. That version of her had been small and angry at the world, yet afraid of it at the same time.

She was not that person anymore.

Now she was a student of Naruto Uzumaki.

And she was going to be a hero.