In the aftermath of the war while the world healed, Minato received the Medal of Honor in front of the White House. A crowd of thousands, and millions of viewers across the nation watched on TV while the President congratulated him. He rubbed the back of his head. "I'm not an official service member, you know."
Harrison shrugged and smiled, "That's true, but we don't have any medals to give heroes, so it's the next best thing. They'd string me up off a light pole if the number 1 hero with 99% approval ratings didn't get an award of some kind."
After adorning the medal on him, he offered his hand and they shook each other's hands while smiling toward the crowd, which showered them in a flashbang of camera flashes and cheers. Minato raised his hand and their cheers intensified. He smiled and got an idea, so he started doing random motions with his hand and kunai and the cheers would rise up each time.
Harrison added, "I don't think we've had a figure as popular as you since that Michael Jackson guy back before quirks were a thing. Hell, you could probably become President if you wanted."
Minato chuckled, "I haven't thought about it much. I'd like to be a proper number 1 hero for a few years before considering something like that."
Back in Japan, a short man hustled henchmen to load up trucks, "Go go go! We gotta get out of this country by morning so pack as much as you can!"
One of the large doors to the warehouse exploded and everyone turned to it to see a young man with piercing red and purple eyes. He drew his sword, and Gato's heart dropped. "Oh shit..."
He spoke in a deadly tone, "You're AFOs old weapons dealing partners aren't you... Gato?"
At UA, the 1A and 1B students lounged together and Mina happily texted someone on her phone. Uraraka peeked over her shoulder, "Texting Sasuke?"
"Yeah, he just shut down another of AFO's old associates."
Uraraka put a finger on her chin. "You're not upset that he isn't here?"
Mina shrugged, "I wish he were here, but... I'm used to it now... He's doing a good thing at least. And if he's able to beat AFO, I don't have any reason to worry about him beating up random crooks..." She stayed silent for a minute before groaning and looking up at the ceiling. "I still wish he were here with me, though."
Mineta chipped in, "If your man is neglecting you, then I can always—"
Mineta flew across the room and almost collided with Shiozaki, but Kirishima pulled her out of the way just in time and she yelped seeing Mineta fly by. Kirishima helped her stabilize and let go of her hip when she turned to face him with a now reddened face, "Kirishima... you saved me again. You're like a Guardian Angel."
Kirishima rubbed the back of his head and blushed in return, "Heh, I wouldn't go that far. It's natural for a man to help out when he can," He stared down at her midsection and asked, "Are you doing ok down there?"
She nodded, "I am yes. Recovery Girl managed to fully heal me..." She held her hands together and started rotating in place while her vines subconsciously covered her face, "Listen... Kirishima... will you..." She mumbled something.
Kirishima leaned in with a scrunched brow, "Huh? What did you say?"
"I said... will you... Come by my dorm for Bible Study sometime?"
An awkward smile crossed Kirishima's face and he blinked, "Huh?"
On the other side of the room, Jiro sat next to Shihai and he reached for his phone on the table. Although, in the first grab attempt, he messed up and grunted before grabbing it correctly, "The depth perception is something annoying to get used to... too bad Recovery Girl can't regenerate body parts."
Jiro replied, "Well... on the bright side the eye patch is pretty badass."
He snickered, "Ha... I don't feel very badass."
She looked away, "Well... you are... Besides, that might not be permanent."
He focused on her, "No?"
She looked back, "No... I mean, she probably doesn't know how to do it yet. But since Eri can rewind stuff, she could probably rewind your eye socket back to when there was an eye there."
He stayed quiet for a while until responding, "Do you... think you can take me to her sometime?"
"I'll probably need Midoriya's help first. But yeah."
The kids all socialized among themselves. And the war became more and more of a distant memory, until eventually an entire eight years passed. Eight years of reconstruction, reformation, and a better future.
One day, the afternoon sun filtered through the glass windows of the airport as passengers streamed out of the plane. Among them, a spikey head of blonde hair stood out from the rest. He wore an orange jacket and black pants; some passerbys whispered to themselves while staring at him in recognition. Kids ran up to him for autographs and he knelt down, setting his duffel bag aside to write them. "Alright, kids, I can't stay long... Gotta meet some people."
A smile stayed plastered on his face the whole time and it widened when he heard a familiar voice, "There he is!"
He tracked the source of the voice and saw Sasuke and Mina next to one another waving at him. Mina's hair grew down to her upper-back compared to what it was when she was sixteen. Although it still maintained the same curly look. Her horns grew as well, and she wore a red top and pants.
Sasuke's hair matched his motivations in their lowered intensity, sporting a slightly longer and rounder shape. But spikey bangs still remained just above his onyx eyes. He wore an open purple jacket with a black undershirt and pants.
Mina hugged Naruto, "It's been forever!"
"Good to see you too, Mina." After releasing the hug, Naruto extended his fist to Sasuke, "You both look good. Marriage suits you two."
Sasuke bumped fist and commented, "You could have gotten here way faster if you just ran here."
Naruto laughed and the three of them strolled toward the exit of the airport. "Oh, I definitely considered it, but my Dad said something about how running across the Pacific Ocean causes unnecessary international incidents. His words, not mine." He shrugged.
Mina tilted her head, "Eh? Whatever that means. Must be some kind of Presidential thing."
Naruto looked away, "Yeah..."
Sasuke side-eyed him, "Still conflicted about your dad becoming President?"
"Yeah... It's great, but now a bunch of people say I'm only the Number 1 Hero cause of Nepotism now."
Naruto sighed, and Mina waved her hand. "Oh, screw them. There will always be haters. The approval ratings show that almost everyone thinks you deserve it."
Naruto smirked, "Heh, true."
They stepped outside and Sasuke checked the directions on his phone before they continued to his car. Naruto tossed his bag in the back and hopped in with them.
While their drive began, Naruto looked around, "Come to think of it, where's little Itachi at? You didn't leave him with Bakugo, did you? He'll know every curse word by the time you get home!"
Mina snickered and waved him off, "No, silly! Kodai and Yanagi are babysitting. You know that!"
Naruto laughed heartily. "Yeah, I know. I'm just joking."
Sasuke commented, "Isn't Hinata having a baby soon?"
Naruto shifted in his seat, "Yeah. That'll be a handful."
"You guys decide on a name yet?"
"We had one in case it was a guy and one in case it was a girl. Since it's gonna be a girl we're gonna call her Himawari."
Mina clasped her hands together, "What a pretty name!" She shook Sasuke's leg. "Hey, you should give me a girl later so we can name her something pretty too!"
Sasuke almost swerved out of his lane and blushed, "Don't just say stuff like that out loud!"
Naruto laughed and their car ride continued in peace for the most part. Later that day, after sunset, Naruto and Class 1-A gathered at a Restaurant to eat together in celebration.
Everyone sat at their tables with their food already prepared for them, and Iida cleared his throat while standing next to Shoto, "Greetings, everyone! We have a few things we've gathered here for tonight. Our friend Naruto has reached Rank 1 in America, Shoto has reached Rank 3, Mina is Rank 8, S—"
"—And we all caught up on each other's ranks already so let's celebrate!"Kaminari cut him off and everyone raised their drinks with him.
"Yeah!"
Iida sighed and smiled before sitting down, and the students turned adults, conversed.
The celebratory atmosphere filled the restaurant, and conversations broke into smaller groups. At one table, Kaminari leaned back in his chair with a grin and nudged Shoto, "No alcohol for you, Number 3?"
Shoto waved his hand, "Nah, I'm meeting with my Dad later after this. And I gotta drive Momo home. I'd rather stay sober for that."
Hagekure spun the drink around in her glass, "It's getting easier and easier for all of us to meet up nowadays."
Sero replied, "Well, yeah, after the war and Sasuke taking care of AFOs connection, there just hasn't been the momentum for crime to rise since then."
Todoroki took a sip, "That's a good thing though... I have more and more free time lately... I've been considering taking bowls and chopsticks making classes lately."
Some people blinked and Bakugo snickered, "Take off all the time you need."
Kaminari remarked, "Todoroki taking some time off won't let you get ahead further than 4th place."
Bakugo snapped, "Kill yourself!"
That got some laughs out of the table and Kaminari continued, "Man, it's crazy how different everyone's paths turned out," he said, taking a swig of his drink. "Remember when we thought Mineta would end up as some kind of underground hero? Instead, he's in maximum security for..." He shuddered. "Yeah, let's not talk about Grape Island."
The mood sobered slightly as Midoriya stared down at his plate. "I just wish Ojiro could be here with us. He should have seen all of this.
Shoji spoke up, "He'd be proud of what we've all become. What we've built since then."
"Speaking of building things," Mina perked up, "Did you guys see that Ino won the Nobel Prize for her research into neural science? She's gonna revolutionize the whole field!"
Naruto stated, "She deserves it. Without her, we'd probably all be dead right now."
Kirishima stared at Shinso and Sasuke, "You two still don't wanna go for any kind of official ranking, huh?"
Shinso ate his food methodically, "I've never cared for the spotlight."
Sasuke shrugged, "Same. Nothing would change for me besides having to do more public appearances anyway."
Kaminari said, "Sasuke could NEETmaxx tomorrow, and his obsessed fan base would fund him millions. I get why he doesn't try."
Momo pointed her chopsticks at him, "Have you heard what your fans call you?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes, "Yeah. The Shadow number 1 Hero. It's nonsense."
Asui spoke up, "All people have been talking about on /b/ lately has been Sasuke vs Midoriya hypothetical fights. It's tiresome."
Sasuke peered at her, "You use 4Chan?"
"Of course. Mostly /r9k/ though."
Sasuke and a couple of others stared at her weirdly for a minute, and she looked around. "Is it cause I'm a frog?"
Iida cut in, "Speaking of Midoriya, you've truly done a fine job as the Number 1 hero so far. I'm sure All Might is beaming with pride."
Midoriya looked down at his food intensely, "Yeah... it feels surreal sometimes being up here, but I'm happy. Although I think things were harder for All Might back then. I don't need to be a huge symbol like he was."
He turned to Sasuke and asked, "Sasuke, lately I've been thinking about One For All..."
Sasuke lowered his drink, "What about it?"
"I'm the ninth user of One For All now, and I'm not worried about it anytime soon but... I'm worried that I might not be able to pass on this quirk. Do you remember what I told you about One For All back then? In that Hospital?"
"Yeah... the strain of multiple quirks on the body."
"Exactly."
"I can see where you're getting at with this. And yes, of course I'll help you pass on One For All when the time comes. With Edgeshot and Hawks' help, I've been helping a lot of people get duplicate quirks already anyway."
Midoriya smiled, "Thank you, Sasuke."
On the other side of the room, Mina's long hair covered her eyes and a mischievous smile crossed her face. "Tonight's about celebration..." She leaned across the table and peered at Uraraka, "Haven't you and Midoriya been engaged for a month now? When are you guys finally having a wedding?"
Uraraka nearly choked on her drink and her cheeks turned redder than usual. "M-Mina!"
"I'm just saying," Mina continued in an exaggerated tone, "You two have been together for what... Five years now? Surely Midoriya has shown you some of his special moves by now? Any powerful smashes we should know about?"
"MINA!" Uraraka squeaked, covering her face with her hands. Hagakure and some others burst out laughing, and even Sasuke smirked next to a blushing and silent Midoriya.
Mina looked away, staring at Sasuke's back. "Hey, don't be shy... If you wanna know... Sasuke is really good at Chidori..."
Sasuke's smirk disappeared and Bakugo laughed at both him and Midoriya. Naruto finished slurping up some noodles. "Hey, it's not like your Howitzer impacting anyone!"
Bakugo sneered, "Huh? You wanna take this outside?"
Uraraka sunk under the table and mumbled through her fingers, "You're all terrible."
Hey, at least you're not Kirishima," Kaminari laughed, gesturing toward the redhead who was sitting quietly with signs of exhaustion. "Seven kids, man. SEVEN! How do you even function!?"
Kirishima grinned tiredly. "What can I say? Shiozaki might look like an angel, but man... she is a demon when we're alone..." Kirishima pulled down his sleeves like he was hiding something and a round of laughter followed.
Everyone's night together continued wonderfully, and a week later, Sasuke visited the graves of his family. With Hawks' help, Itachi's grave was moved next to their parents where it belonged. Immediately after the war eight years ago, people who proved to be Sasuke's grandparents came back to Japan and tried to use his popularity for fame while trying to get in contact with him, although he quickly cut off any ties with them and ruined their publicity by explaining their part in his parents' debts. Over the course of the past eight years, they died in Brazil, having requested to be moved next to their children's graves. But Sasuke had denied the request and they were buried in Brazil.
Now Sasuke kneeled before the graves of the three family members he loved and avenged with a silent prayer. On this cloudy day, the fluffy clouds provided him shade throughout his visit, and he thought, 'Mom, Dad, Itachi... Thank you... for protecting me from Danzo... for training me and raising me as a kid... Edgeshot... Midoriya... Mina... Hawks... Everyone... Thank you for everything, truly...'
Sasuke smiled while the wind blew past his face and memories of everything up to this point crossed his mind. His parents' deaths, training, meeting Midoriya, entering UA, reuniting with Mina, being trained by Edgeshot, fighting Sasori and Deidara, seeing AFO again, helping Mina through her own tragedy, Danzo, the war, everything led him to where he was now. His own determination and his connections are what had allowed him to get to where he was now, and he had no regrets.
He slowly stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees before turning to his new family. At the edge of the graveyard under the sun, Mina stood with their son waiting for him. Her smile was radiant while holding their child, and his small hands reached up to the sun.
Without looking back, Sasuke sauntered toward them with each step feeling easier than the last. The last Uchiha would never be alone again. And he has found his peace.
THE END