Chapter 36: "Okay, So Maybe Being a Hero is Kinda My Thing"
In which I discover emotional growth is weirder than ghost hunting and possibly more exhausting.
Okay, so here's the thing no one tells you about winning a fight—it hurts. A lot.
Like, I'm talking cartoon birds circling your head, every bone vibrating like it's in a rock band, and your body screaming, "Why did we do that?!" while your pride is like, "Because we're awesome, that's why!"
So yeah, I was hobbling down the hallway with Sam holding my right arm and Tucker on my left, and we were headed straight for the nurse's office like war heroes who just barely survived a napalm explosion made of judo flips.
Tucker was giving me a play-by-play of the fight I had just lived through, which was weirdly helpful.
"And when you hit that spinning sweep kick thing—bro, Dash's soul almost left his body."
"I didn't know you could sweep someone that big," Sam added, smirking. "I thought we'd have to call pest control to move him."
"Pretty sure I fractured something," I muttered.
"Your dignity survived," Sam said. "And you got that idiot off our backs. That's worth a few cracked ribs."
I was just about to nod when he showed up.
Right in front of us, mid-hallway, just poof—there was Naruto, leaning against a locker like he hadn't just materialized out of ghost-ninja vapor.
"Nice work, kid."
I blinked. "How do you keep doing that?"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said with a grin like that explained everything. "It's literally in the job description."
He walked with us down the hall like a coach after a victorious scrimmage. Only, you know, the kind of coach who occasionally fights demon warlords and eats ramen like it's a religion.
"I saw the whole match. Gotta say—you've come a long way in five days." His voice was calm, but it had that mentor gravity to it, like when a teacher actually says "good job" and you know they mean it.
"Thanks," I said, still limping. "I almost lost, though."
"You didn't," Naruto said simply. "You made a choice. You pushed past your limit. You knew it would hurt, and you didn't back down."
I… had no comeback for that. So I just grinned through my bruises and tried to walk a little taller. (Which hurt, by the way. My back was absolutely not on board with that decision.)
But then Naruto's tone shifted, and suddenly he wasn't just casually proud anymore.
"This was just the tutorial, Danny."
Sam and Tucker both looked at him like he'd dropped a ghost bomb on us.
"What?" I said.
"I've been shielding this town. Keeping the really nasty things out. You needed time to grow. But now? You're ready for the real game. That fight with Dash? That was level one."
Tucker made a sound like a squeaky door. "You mean… that wasn't level one already?"
Naruto gave him a look that could fry circuits. "That was the pre-test. The ghosts that are coming next? They're not going to care about your high school drama. They're going to want to break you. And I'm going to bring them here."
I stopped walking. "You're what now?"
"I'm pulling stronger spirits in your direction," Naruto said, like he was inviting us to a cookout. "Battle-hardened ones. You'll need to fight to survive. And to win."
"But… why?" Sam asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Because that's how heroes are made," Naruto said. "By facing real threats. You want to protect this town? Your friends? Your family? Then you can't stay soft."
I swallowed. My ribs hated everything about this conversation. My brain was screaming bad idea, but my heart?
My heart was already on fire.
Because deep down… I wanted this. I wanted to be strong enough that Dash was just the warm-up. I wanted to fight—not just ghosts, but that scared kid in me who used to run and hide.
I looked at Naruto and said, "Bring it."
He nodded, and with a flash of wind and glowing light, he was gone again.
Sam looked at me. "You're totally insane."
Tucker nodded. "And we're totally going to die."
I just smiled and opened the nurse's door.
"Maybe. But at least we'll die looking cool."
And honestly? That felt like a win.
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Let me paint you a picture. I had just beaten up my lifelong bully, had the best school lunch of my life (two burgers, a milkshake, and the kind of fries that touch your soul), and was fully planning to go home, flop on the couch like a noodle, and pretend I didn't have bones made of bruises.
Instead, I got kidnapped by capitalism.
Okay, okay—maybe "kidnapped" is dramatic. But I didn't voluntarily climb into a black SUV with tinted windows and no explanation other than, "Mr. Sebastian wants to see you."
Spoiler alert: Mr. Sebastian was Naruto. Because of course he was.
The SUV dropped me off in front of Sebastian's Giga-Mart Ultra-Mega-Center, which I'm pretty sure was the size of a small European country. I walked in expecting maybe a pep talk or a ramen break. What I got was a cash register and a name tag that read: "Hello, I'm Danny (Manager in Training! 😊)"
I turned around slowly, like maybe if I spun fast enough I could un-glitch reality.
Naruto stood there, looking proud like he'd just given me a treasure map instead of unpaid emotional labor. "Surprise!"
"…This is a prank, right?"
"Nope," he said. "This is your new part-time job. You're now a cashier. Welcome to Phase Two of your development arc."
"Phase Two?"
"You want to be strong," he said, arms crossed like an anime mentor in front of a grocery aisle. "But strength isn't just about punching ghosts in the face. It's about leadership. And leadership starts with understanding how the world works—from the bottom up."
"…You're telling me scanning barcodes is going to make me emperor of Earth?"
"Yes," Naruto said. "Because if you can survive customer service, you can survive literally anything."
I was too stunned to argue, so I clocked in.
That's when it got worse.
Fifteen minutes into my thrilling journey of restocking mints and learning what a price override was, Sam and Tucker walked in wearing uniforms.
"YOU TOO?!" I shouted across aisle four.
"They got me with the 'team-building' speech," Tucker said, adjusting his vest like a betrayed tech intern.
Sam looked like she was two seconds away from setting the customer feedback tablet on fire. "He said we'd get to learn about the power structures of modern society. I didn't know he meant through minimum wage."
I sighed, scanning a pack of chewing gum. "So this is our life now."
"Yep," Tucker said. "We've been scammed into a character development arc."
Naruto passed by casually, sipping soda from a paper cup with the smugness of someone who knew he'd just triggered a three-season arc. "You'll thank me when you're negotiating peace treaties and managing billion-dollar ghost tech companies."
Sam stared after him. "He's not even kidding."
"I hate that he's not wrong," I muttered.
And thus began our shift.
Was it glamorous? No. Did I get yelled at by a lady who thought 10% off meant free? Yes. Did Sam threaten to unionize? Also yes. Did Tucker crash the self-checkout kiosk by trying to install a video game emulator on it? That's… still being investigated.
But weirdly enough, it kind of worked. Between arguing over shelf stocking, laughing at Tucker's attempts to ride a mop like a scooter, and listening to Naruto give "pep talks" over the intercom disguised as store announcements ("Attention shoppers: remember that pain is temporary, but strength is eternal"), I realized something:
Maybe being a world leader did start here.
One barcode at a time.
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The automatic doors whooshed open with all the drama of a budget sci-fi movie. Jazz Fenton, straight-A student, ghost expert, and full-time suspicious older sister, walked into Sebastian's Giga-Mart Ultra-Mega-Center like a woman on a mission.
Her eyes swept the glossy floors, the overachieving bakery section, and the poorly disguised attempts at Halloween decorations in the middle of summer. She didn't see Danny right away. But she did spot a giant cardboard cutout of a smiling blond man in a cashier vest next to a sign that read:
"Our Employees Strive for Ninja-Level Efficiency!"
Yeah. There was no mistaking it now. Naruto was behind this.
Jazz weaved past an elderly woman arguing with a robot vacuum and a toddler trying to wrestle a family-sized bag of gummy worms, until she found him—blond hair, orange hoodie under the apron, sipping soda with a straw that was somehow too loud.
"Ghost Hokage," she said, arms crossed. "We need to talk."
Naruto grinned like she'd just challenged him to a philosophical duel. "Hey, Jazz. Great to see you. Need paper towels? We're doing a buy-one-get-one ninja star deal today."
Jazz was not in the mood for aisle humor. "Why is my brother working here? Actually—why are all three of them working here? Danny, Sam, and Tucker are not exactly the 'volunteer-for-the-cashier-uniform' type."
Naruto gestured to a nearby monitor where a security feed showed Danny fumbling with coupons, Tucker negotiating peace between two toddlers fighting over a plush dragon, and Sam wielding a pricing gun like it was a weapon of vengeance. "Looks like they're getting the hang of it."
Jazz raised a brow. "Again. Why?"
Naruto sipped his drink and turned serious in that way only he could—like flipping a switch from Saturday cartoon to ancient war general. "This is part of their training."
"...You're training them to survive capitalism?"
"To understand it," Naruto corrected. "The world isn't just fists and flashy powers. If Danny's going to stand at the top, he has to understand what it's like at the bottom. Every great leader started there."
Jazz narrowed her eyes. "And you expect him to be a great leader because…?"
Naruto turned to her, the soda long forgotten. His voice dropped low, not menacing, but deep enough to make the air shift around him.
"Because one day," he said, "Danny won't just be a hero. He'll be the shield that stands between this world and something so big, even countries won't be enough to stop it."
Jazz blinked.
"Wait… what kind of threat are we talking about here?" she asked. "Aliens? Interdimensional demons? An evil version of Danny with a mustache?"
Naruto gave a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "That's not something you need to know. Just understand this—no one's ready for what's coming. Not your parents, not your government, not your ghost hunters. The only reason the world's still spinning right now is because I'm buying you time."
Jazz swallowed. The air felt colder now, even near the warm rotisserie chicken section.
"But," Naruto added, voice brightening like a sunbeam breaking through thunderclouds, "let's not ruin your day with existential dread. Want to help Danny stock cereal boxes and learn about inventory rotation?"
"…Is this seriously part of saving the world?"
"Character arcs, Jazz," Naruto said with a wink. "Can't skip 'em."
And with that, he walked off to greet a customer who was trying to return a haunted vacuum. Jazz stood there in the fluorescent lighting, her mind juggling between what the heck is coming and did Danny actually scan forty rolls of toilet paper by hand today?
She sighed and headed toward the bakery, muttering to herself, "This better be the weirdest Tuesday of my life… but somehow I doubt it."
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One Week Time Skip:
A week. That's how long it had been since I first got beat up, trained with a superpowered ninja ghost, nearly broke my bones in gym class, and started working as a cashier at a discount megastore. Honestly, I expected to feel like a zombie by now. The kind that groans about minimum wage and eats frozen pizza for breakfast.
But nope. Instead, I felt… weirdly alive.
And I don't mean ghost powers alive. I mean that this—helping people, learning things, figuring myself out—was somehow more powerful than flying through walls or blasting wraiths into the next dimension.
Let me rewind a second.
I'd been waking up early. Like, sunrise-early. The birds-haven't-shut-up-yet kind of early. I'd do stretches Naruto taught me, meditate (which mostly meant me trying to not fall asleep while sitting cross-legged), and then go out. Not ghost hunting. Not sulking in my room like I used to. I went outside.
Yeah. Outside. With people.
First it was cleaning that park near Elm Street. You know the one—rusted swings, trash that seemed suspiciously radioactive, and graffiti that probably summoned demons. But I cleared it. Took a whole Saturday and enough bug bites to qualify as a snack, but when I was done? Kids played there again.
A kid high-fived me.
You'd think I saved the world. But nah—I just picked up trash and scared off a few raccoons. Still, it felt heroic. Like I finally understood what Naruto meant when he said, "A hero isn't made when the camera's watching." That hit me harder than one of Lee's kicks to the ribs.
After that, I helped an old lady cross the street. Donated food to a shelter. Showed up at the community center to fix a broken vending machine (with a gentle ghost punch, thank you very much). People started noticing me—not in the "Oh no, it's the weird ghost kid" way. In the "Wait, didn't he help my grandma last week?" way.
I wasn't chasing fame or likes. I was chasing that feeling. That "I actually did something today" feeling. It wasn't flashy. It didn't make the news. But it was real.
And weirdest of all? I started getting along with my family.
I know. Shocking.
It started small. Sitting down for breakfast with Mom and Dad instead of grabbing cereal on the go. Asking Jazz about her latest psych paper. Actually listening to my dad's rants about ghost plasma viscosity (don't ask). I even cleaned the garage with him. Voluntarily. Without being possessed. Voluntarily.
It was awkward at first. Years of me zoning out and them being… well, themselves, meant there was a whole Everest of awkward to climb. But slowly, the distance closed. Jazz smiled more. Mom started asking if I wanted to help in the lab. Dad—okay, Dad cried when I called him "sir" unironically, but that's just Dad being Dad.
This new me? I didn't hate him.
Sure, I still got ghost guts on my shoes and had to deal with Naruto throwing surprise boss fights at me like this was a video game, but I was learning to handle it. Not just the powers. Life.
For the first time in, well, ever—I felt like I belonged somewhere. Not as the awkward kid at school or the ghost kid no one got. Just… Danny.
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Working at Sebastian's mart wasn't exactly the stuff superhero dreams are made of. No glowing swords, no interdimensional portals, no evil ghost kings threatening to vaporize Cleveland. Just a register, a stack of coupons taller than me, and an unholy number of customers asking for discounts that didn't exist.
But weirdly? I liked it.
There was something about standing behind that counter, scanning cereal boxes and smiling at grumpy grandmas that felt… grounding. It was simple, honest work. No ghosts. No drama. No world-ending pressure. Just me, my barcode scanner, and the realization that retail workers are the real superheroes.
Naruto, of course, called it "character development." Said that if I was gonna lead the world someday (his words, not mine), then I had to understand it from the bottom up. "From the floor mopper to the executive chair, a king who doesn't know his people is just a tyrant in a shiny hat." Yeah, he really said that. Guy's full of proverbs and punches.
I didn't just stop with the cashier gig, either. I had plans. Big ones. Waiter? Coming soon. Dish washer? Why not. Warehouse stocker? Bring it on. I was becoming a one-teen-job-simulator, and it was weirdly addicting.
And then there was school.
Let's just say… the food chain had shifted. Fast.
Ever since I judo-tossed Dash Baxter into next Tuesday, the bullying stopped like someone hit pause on a bad high school drama. People either avoided eye contact like I was radioactive, or they smiled like I was handing out free concert tickets. Some even tried sitting with me at lunch.
It was flattering. Also kinda fake.
I could see through it now. Their tone, their posture, the calculated pauses before compliments. They didn't want me—they wanted clout. Being friends with the guy who KO'd the school's alpha male? That was social gold. But I wasn't buying what they were selling.
I had my crew. Sam, Tucker, Jazz (even if she pretended to be my older, smarter conscience), and Ghost-Hokage Naruto whispering ominous things in my brain about "rising tides" and "gathering storms." That was all I needed.
And then… there were my grades.
Look, I wasn't bad at school before. Just kinda "meh." But now? Now my brain felt like it had leveled up. Every subject came faster, clearer. Equations clicked. Literature made sense. History wasn't just boring dates—it was context. Patterns. Lessons. I was starting to see things differently, like the world was a puzzle and I had finally found the edge pieces.
My teachers were… concerned. Not because I was failing—oh no. They were scared because I was asking questions they couldn't answer. Questions about economics, ethics, quantum theory. One poor science teacher looked like he was going to pass out when I asked if anti-ghost matter could create a stable energy source.
Spoiler: it can. Naruto confirmed it. But try explaining that in a midterm essay.
I wasn't doing it to show off. I was doing it because every shift at the store, every class, every conversation—it all meant something now. Like I was connecting dots I didn't know existed before.
I kept a notebook. Every day, I'd write down new insights. Things like:
"People respect strength, but they follow understanding."
"A job is not just work—it's a window into lives you don't live."
"Trust earned in silence is stronger than fame screamed through crowds."
Yeah. I'm getting deep. Blame Naruto and his world-domination mentorship.
A week ago, I was just another guy barely skating by.
Now?
I was someone becoming more.
And honestly?
That scared me a little.
But it also made me smile.
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So… apparently saving people, being emotionally mature, and working a minimum-wage job turns you into a chick magnet. Who knew?
Star had been the first to surprise me. I mean, sure, she used to barely acknowledge my existence unless I tripped in the hallway or exploded a locker by accident (long story), but now she was waving at me. Talking to me. Smiling. And I think—think—she might've asked me to hang out after school, but it was hard to tell because she mentioned ghosts and anime in the same breath and I kind of blacked out from the confusion.
But she wasn't the only one.
Other girls at school started glancing my way in class. Some sat a little closer than usual at lunch. One even asked me if I could explain ghost physics. (I could. I shouldn't have. I lost her somewhere between ectoplasmic polarity and "You see, ghosts actually exist in a pocket of non-linear—" Yeah. She was gone.)
Still, the attention was new. Nice, but new. And then there was Paulina.
Paulina had been my crush forever. The girl who looked like she belonged on the cover of a teen magazine and knew it. But lately? She'd been… distant. Not the "I'm ignoring you because you're a nerd" kind of distant. More like the "I'm processing the fact that you've changed and I don't know how I feel about that" distant.
Which, honestly, made her even more interesting.
She wasn't giggling or playing games. She was serious. Focused. Rumor had it she'd started working part-time at her dad's company—something about preparing for a future in corporate law or political negotiations. Or both. Because apparently she wasn't content with just looking amazing, she had to be brilliant too.
Sam noticed the attention, of course.
And before you think this turns into some cliché jealous girlfriend plot—nope. Sam was Sam. She rolled her eyes, made a snarky comment about how teenage boys were basically walking hormone grenades, and then kissed me like she didn't care about anyone else.
Which… yeah. That was pretty awesome.
Sam and I had grown close—closer than I thought possible. She'd started smiling more, letting herself relax. I think being around Naruto's "mission energy" was rubbing off on all of us. She was getting stronger, too—training with Naruto's clones, working out, learning how to handle herself in a fight. I won't lie: I noticed.
And I'm a teenager. I definitely noticed.
But no matter what, I respected her. I liked what we were building. Still, I couldn't lie to myself and say I didn't have lingering feelings for Paulina. It wasn't about choosing one or the other. It was just… complicated. Life was complicated now. I was complicated.
Naruto once told me, "Every great leader knows the weight of the heart is heavier than the weight of a crown."
At the time, I thought he was talking about diet plans.
Now I think he meant this.
I wasn't trying to be a player or some anime harem protagonist. I was just a guy figuring out what kind of person I wanted to be. And if that journey came with a few awkward stares, weird crushes, and long conversations with Sam about emotional growth?
Well… I guess that was just part of the training arc.
And trust me, feelings? Way harder than ghost hunting.