chapter 15

"Wow! Look at her go! She's incredibly fast!" A tall boy in a gym suit shouted as he raced along side Shouto, a ridiculously enthusiastic grin dominated his face, his eyes shining like stars as he watched Sakura gain more and more ground on them "She's sure to get in!"

Shouto clenched his fists and his jaw as he ran after Sakura, he didn't have time for this fool, he didn't want to have a conversation with this moron, he wanted to catch up to his girlfriend.. Shouto pushed his quirk harder, laid down more ice and sped past the grinning fool of a competitor, annoyance burning behind his eyes.She had been holding back this whole time, never showing him who she really was or what she could do.

He felt like a fool. He could feel the wind of the boy in the jumpsuit keeping time with his ice, was he really that good? Enough of this, Shouto pushed his ice to its limit, as the boy opened his big mouth to say something else ridiculous. "Shut up. You're in my way."

Shouto shot off into the air, sliding up along the arc of his ice path, as he caught up to Sakura. Dropping down beside her at the edge of a large man-made lake, he grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around to face him. He wanted answers from her and he didn't want to wait until their exam was over.

"I didn't know you could run that fast." Shouto glared at her. "You said your quirk was versatile but this is just, I mean…" Now that he was in front of her again, had her attention again, his words failed him.

"I know." Sakura looked out across the lake, saw how the buoys moved floating along the surface to guide the participants through the next part of the course, planning her route in her head. No doubt Shouto would follow close behind if not next to her. There was probably another obstacle in the water, easily hidden under the surface, it's what she would do if she were testing the next generation. "You also didn't know I can walk on water."

Shouto's eyes went wide as Sakura stepped out onto the lake's surface...and didn't fall through. He could see the ripples around her feet. He could see just as clearly that her boots weren't wet, that there was a thin barrier of sorts under her sole. Her quirk?

"How are you, I thought your quirk was…" He didn't understand, this defied the laws of physics. "Sakura." He was too shocked to be angry anymore. Not a power up quirk, that's what she said right? So if her quirk wasn't super strength it was...Shouto looked back down at Sakura's feet, energy?

"You'd better hurry, they're catching up." Sakura waved to the kid in a jumpsuit who was coming up fast behind Shouto, and ran across the surface of the water to the other side, leaping gracefully over the robotic sharks UA had set in the lake as obstacles.

He should have followed her, he should have run along beside her but he couldn't move, he just stared at her, watched her step onto the dry land on the other side of the lake, turn and wait for him.

Wait for him, like this wasn't a race, like this wasn't hard for her at all, like...

"She's insanely powerful!" The kid in the jumpsuit grinned as Shouto shot out across the water after his girlfriend. "So is he." Inasa Yoarashi jumped into the water to swim after the two students in the lead.

Sakura watched Shouto glide over the water with ease, freezing robotic sharks one after another as he crossed the lake. Their eyes met as he jumped off his ledge of ice, she saw resignation in his eyes, she sighed. In her own way, she had tried to warn him but it wasn't her fault she didn't have a full understanding of his assumption, it wasn't her fault she hadn't understood what quirks were. She hadn't meant to mislead him.

Running together they came to a clearing, tall trees on either side. "There." Sakura pointed to a small spinning object flying through the air fast, straight for them.

"Are those blades?" Shouto covered his right arm in a protective layer of ice and stepped out in front of Sakura.

"They are." Sakura pulled two kunai from her pouch, one for each hand, jumped over Shouto's head and deflected the first bladed disc, then the second that was hiding in it's shadow. "Like demon shadow shuriken." She almost laughed out loud.

"More are coming." Shouto looked out and saw several more shining bladed discs heading their way. "This is going to take too long. The others will catch up to us in no time." He looked over his shoulder where the jumpsuit boy and another were running up fast.

"Yeah." Sakura looked around the edge of the clearing. "We need to end this quickly." She looked up the length of the tall trunk of an oak tree.

"From what you said, I thought this test would be much more difficult." Sakura infused both of her arms with chakra, and pulled the huge oak from the earth with one mighty pull, swinging it back and forth in front of her like a metronome as Shouto shot ice bullets out of his right hand at any of the robotic bladed disks that escaped her death blows.

Sakura threw her tree to the side, caught Shouto's outstretched hand and ran with him down the narrow path. They had to be close to the end.

"I have monstrous strength, Shouto, but that's not all I can do." Sakura jumped out of the way of a huge boulder, then another.

"I admit, I too thought it would be more difficult but I must say…" Shouto ducked as Sakura was thrown back against him, wrapped his arms around her and rolled off to the side as a large flaming boulder slammed into the gravel beside them, missing them by a hair. "...you're doing much better than I thought you would. I see now, how much you haven't told me about yourself."

Sakura stared at him, she was laying on top of him, his arms around her. "We need to get up, we need to finish this race, I see now why they made this path so narrow." She tried to move but he tightened his grip. "Shouto, there's probably more flaming boulders coming, we need to get up."

"When this is over, when we win this race you're going to tell me, I swear Sakura, you're going to tell me who you really are." Shouto threw her off of his chest, took a deep breath and shot fire from his left at two more bladed disks that had followed them down the course sped through the air toward Sakura's head. "Until then, we watch each other's backs."

Shouto grabbed her by the hand, nodded at the two other participants gaining ground on them, and threw her into the air. "I'll make a bridge." He called up to her.

Sakura landed on a downward slope of solid ice, Shouto just behind her as they crossed the finish line, the guy in the gym suit four paces behind them and two more to follow and collapse after the last horn. The other participants hadn't made it to the finish line.

Shouto was bent over, his hands on his thighs trying to catch his breath. Sakura stood beside him, nothing daunted by the intensity of the race. She didn't even look tired.

Shota Aizawa stood off to the side surveying this year's recommendations. All of the participants that had finished were good, really good but one, stood out from the rest. The girl with pink hair. She wasn't breathing heavily, she didn't even look tired. All of the other students, even Endeavour's son, were well winded, slumped over or leaning against something for support, but not that girl.

Sakura stood beside Shouto and watched the other applicants. "It looks like we won."

Shouto stood up and looked around, Sakura came in first, he came in second and…

"Hey!" The guy in the jumpsuit was walking toward him and Sakura. "Hey girl, what's your name, you were really amazing, I mean just so damn cool!" Inasa Yoarashi extended his hand to Sakura. "You're really pretty too, I want to know your name!"

"Stay away from her." Shouto pushed Sakura behind himself. "Who are you?" He demanded.

"Shouto." Sakura rolled her eyes, was this what it was going to be like? If they were going to go to school together, he would need to calm down.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to know her name." Inasa looked over Shouto's shoulder at Sakura, then back at Shouto, still adamant at making a good impression. "You're Endeavor's son aren't you? Man you're incredibly talented too! Let's be friends!" Inasa extended the hand he had extended to Sakura, to Shouto who knocked it away.

"No thanks." Shouto reached back for Sakura and pulled her to his side as the two men shuffled papers and called the students to order.

"That was a little mean, don't you think Shouto, he was just being nice." Sakura looked back over her shoulder at Inasa. The boy's fists were clenched at his side and his face was hard, gone was the grinning smiling idiot, replaced by a sickening loathing. "Do you know him?"

"He doesn't matter." Shouto squeezed her hand. "All that matters is that we finished first."

Sakura looked back at the jumpsuit kid, smiled and tried to apologize with her eyes, but he was still staring at the back of SHouto's head. She sighed. Why were all the males here so intense, she wondered, but if she were honest, Naruto wasn't any less intense than that other boy and Kakashi was just as intense as Shouto at times.

She had never had a boyfriend in the Leaf. Her and Gaara had gotten close when she had gone to Suna to help with his rescue, and then stayed to make sure he was in good health but it had never gone past holding hands. Was Shouto any less intense than Gaara? No, she supposed he wasn't.

"Here are your results." The scarf man called out to them.

Sakura bowed to the man with the long scarf when he gave her a print out of her evaluation test score. "Thank you." She looked down at the sheet. "125%"

Shouto looked over at her paper. "How did you…"

Sakura took his paper from his hands and gave him hers. "98%"

"You're dismissed. Go home, wait for your acceptance letter." The man with the scarf told them. "Or your denial letter. Don't call the school for ranking, they won't know. I'll see some of you in a month, the rest of you, there's always next year or another hero high school." The man turned and walked away without another word.

"So, that's it?" Sakura asked Shouto who was still looking at her print out.

"Yeah." He just stood there staring at her paper. It seemed she had earned more points for the versatility of her quirk and how she used it for not only strength enhancement but function. Hum.

"So, you want to go then or…" Sakura waited. Was he still upset with her?

"Let's go for a walk." Shouto took her hand, ignored the chatter from the other teens there and pulled her off UA's main campus out on the main street of the city.

They walked in silence for a few blocks. Sakura thought he might need a bit of time to get his thoughts and feelings in order. She hadn't lied to him, but she didn't tell him the extent of her abilities.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked her just as she was about to speak, unnerved by his silence. "Why didn't you tell me that your quirk wasn't a power up quirk?"

They turned off of the main road into the residential section.

"I never told you it was a power up quirk, you made that assumption on your own." She pointed out then sighed. Fighting and arguing the finer points of her chakra manipulation would get them nowhere. "I never asked for your help, Shouto." She wasn't trying to be mean or ungrateful, but it was the truth. She hadn't asked him for money, or to get her into UA, much less pay for it. He had done all of that on his own.

In a way, he was like Shigaraki.

"You have no right to be upset at me." She said shrewdly.

Shouto stopped, and she stopped with him. They were passing the park now, along a residential street, instead of by the market. Shouto was looking down at his feet, his hair covering his eyes. He was shaking.

"I'm not saying I'm not thankful for your help but…" He cut her off again.

"I have no right to be upset?" He looked up at her, hurt in his eyes. "Do you...do you really mean that?" His voice broke as he looked at her. Didn't she care about him?

"Shouto." Sakura bit her bottom lip, she had missed something. He wasn't pissed like she thought, he was...hurt? "Try to understand. I don't know this place and you were the first person to talk to me here. I didn't know who I could trust and…"

Shouto dropped his head to his chest, reached his right hand out to her, waited until she took it and pulled her to him close. "You don't trust me?" He wrapped his arms around her, dropped his head to her shoulder.

Sakura swallowed. Of course she didn't trust him. How could she, they just met…

"I don't trust anyone, Shouto." Her voice was quiet, apologetic and fake. "Trusting the wrong person where I come from, is a fatal mistake. A mistake you can only make once." She tried to explain. She didn't want to hurt him. There is no way he could possibly understand, it wasn't him, it was her.

"Where do you come from, you called it Konoha, but there is no place in the world called Konoha, Sakura. I looked." His hold on her was almost painful. "I looked." He told her again, crushing her to his chest.

"In this world." Sakura muttered.

"What is that supposed to mean?" He drew back from her to look her in the eyes. "You don't trust me, fine, but don't lie to me. Maybe we haven't known one another very long but…" How could he explain how he felt to her?

"I like being with you." He told her. "Until you, there wasn't a lot to be happy for in my life and…" He swallowed. In order to get something, you had to give something right? "I want to keep you."

'Keep you', Sakura blinked. He thought of her like a...she watched his red hair float up, then fall over his eyes in the breeze, watched how his eyes seemed to grow in intensity as he looked at her, waited for her to respond, watched her to see what she would do. He looked like Sasori. That silent cold calculation. He was learning her.

"I'm not a doll for you to play with, to possess Shouto." Sakura pushed away from him, and started walking down the street toward the industrial zone. She knew where she was, had he come this way on purpose?

Sheets of ice flew past her head along the sidewalk blocking her way, caging her in. Shouto slid up and over his wall on a raised platform of ice, jumping down into the cage with her. "Wait. Please, that's not what I…"

What should he do? He didn't like this, he hated it when she walked away from him, he hated it when she refused him, when she shut him out. He knew he wasn't perfect, he knew he didn't know how to be in a relationship, how to care for someone but...whenever he was with her he felt warm and...like he could lose control any moment, wild.

Shouto grabbed her by the face, his hands sliding past her cheeks into her hair where he wound his fingers through her locks and kissed her forcefully, his tongue pressing past her lips, over her tongue, he stepped closer to her body, moving her back up against his wall of ice.

Sakura's eyes went wide. She had never been kissed before, hadn't expected this and…

Shouto broke their kiss, rested his head against her forehead and spoke against her lips. "I'm sorry. You're not a doll, or a possession. I don't know what I'm doing, how to feel. I just know that when I'm with you, the pain...it goes away and I don't want it to stop. I don't want to stop feeling whatever it is I feel for you, so please. I'm sorry."

There was that passion again. Unleashed. It was thrilling and addictive.

"Okay." Her heart was beating so hard in her chest she could barely breathe. "I want to tell you where I'm from Shouto, but I'm just not ready yet. You want me to trust you, well, maybe you should trust me too."

Shouto nodded against her skin. She was right, that was fair. "You're right. I will. I promise."

"I promise, I'll tell you just, give me some time okay, I promise Shouto." Sakura closed her eyes. She could feel his breath on her face, could feel the muscle of his body against hers. "Was that um, was that your first kiss or, have you um…"

It had been her first kiss, he could tell by the pink in her cheeks, the hesitation and curiosity in her voice. Good, he nodded his head, he would be her first and her last kiss. "It was my first." He assured her.

"Mine too." Sakura bit her lip, looking off to the side. A little embarrassed.

"Good." Shouto voiced his thoughts out loud. "So this means you're my girlfriend then." It wasn't a question., but he waited. He needed confirmation. He needed to know that she saw him as a boyfriend, that he had a claim on her now and that she knew it.

"Yeah, I guess I am." Sakura smiled at him, her green eyes shining in the reflection of his ice.

"Good girl." Shouto smiled and pressed his mouth to hers before she could protest his condescending comment. "Mine." He moved his body against hers, pressing her into the cold.

Tomura Shigaraki slammed his fist down onto the bar's countertop, his pinky fingers wrapped in thin tape so he wouldn't disintegrate the bar or turn his own hands to dust.

"Master why, why did you register her skills as a hero's quirk, I don't understand and why the hell is she taking an admissions test for UA?" Tomura grabbed the beer mug in front of him and threw it into the mirror behind the bar in his frustration. The glass shattered and cracked. "How is she supposed to support me when she is surrounded by filthy heroes?"

"Tomura, I'm surprised at you." All For One's voice was calm in the fury of his ward's outburst. "I would have thought you would see the many benefits of having Sakura inside the impenetrable walls of UA."

Tomura stopped his tantrum and began scratching at his neck thinking furiously. "No, no I don't understand, I don't see the point in her going to UA Master, it's not like she'll tell us anything, I mean she's not exactly…" Tomura stopped speaking, stopped scratching and walked slowly toward the monitor.

"How did you know? You know something you're not telling me Master, what is it, I want to know what you know, tell me." Tomura demanded.

"We are not her only protectors, Tomura. Our little Sakura is cunning in the most dangerous way. I did warn you, Tomura. Kunoichi are not only dangerous because they can kill, but because they can distract you while they kill you." All For One laughed a deep, slightly sinister laugh.

"She almost had you didn't she? You'll have to be more careful Tomura, if I hadn't stepped in, you would be dead right now." All For One warned his ward again. "Do not make the same mistake twice."

"She wasn't going to kill me, Master." He was sure of it. He wasn't sure what she was trying to do but he knew she wouldn't have killed him.

"There are many different kinds of deaths, Tomura." All For One retorted patiently. "You must make her see that the only real choice she has, is us, you Tomura."

Tomura began to pace back and forth in front of the monitor. Not her only protectors but who would she… "That boy, that dual haired kid?"

"Not just any child Tomura, the son of the number two hero, Endeavour." All For One watched Tomura's back stiffen, watched the man's fingers claw at his neck, then grip his head and pull his hair.

"That kid, is Endeavor's son and she, how did...he is her other protector? You mean he's the one who…" Tomura pulled at his hair, drool escaping the corners of his mouth as he started to laugh.

"Not to worry Tomura." All For One assured him. "She will see, it will be as I predicted, she doesn't belong with them, she isn't a hero Tomura. They will never see her as a hero."

"She'll come back then?" Tomura let his hair go, let his hands fall back down at his sides and threw his head back, his laughter wild and unhinged. "I haven't lost her? My patience will pay off, she'll come back to me?" He turned his head toward the monitor where All For One had connected the two way video feed.

"Yes Tomura." All For One placed his hand against his monitor from the comfort of his chair. "She will come back to you because you can give her what they can not. Be patient."

He understood. "You're right Master, forgive me for doubting you, You're always right." Tomura raised his hand and set it against the monitor over his Master's, his pinky finger still taped. "You're always right." He bowed his head to his Master.

Everything would be okay.

Shota Aizawa was sitting in the teacher's lounge reviewing the tapes from the recommendation exam when his phone began to ring.

"Aizawa here." He answered his phone with a lazy drawl.

"Yeah, the recommendation exams are over." Aizawa rolled his eyes. He had told the students not to call about their results. He hadn't realized he had to tell their parent's not to call either.

"You know the drill Endeavour, I can't tell you until I get all of the results in, and they're not in yet. I'm reviewing the tapes right now, you're keeping me from my work." Shota pulled a fruit squeeze from his pocket, popped the snap top and squeezed it into his mouth while Endeavour bombarded him over the phone about his son Shouto and his girlfriend Sakura Haruno.

"You didn't say she was his girlfriend when you recommended her for the entrance exam Endeavour." Aizawa threw his now empty fruit pouch into his garbage can with a loud clang. "That changes things."

Shota closed his eyes, he just wanted to review these last three tapes, then take a nap.

"Look." Shota was getting annoyed. "If they both pass and get accepted, they can't be in the same class, you know that. UA does not allow same class relationships. It messes up with their training and school work. Nothing's changed over the years Endeavour, in fact weren't you the one to advocate non-class relationships claiming it was an unnecessary distraction?"

The line went dead.

"He hung up on me?!" Shota shoved his phone back in his pocket and hit 'Play' on his computer. "That guy will never change." He muttered.

There had only been one female applicant this year for the recommendations aside from Momo Yaoyorozu, and Aizawa knew for a fact she wasn't Shouto's girlfriend. Which meant, it could only be…

Aizawa watched as a little pink haired girl ripped a fifty foot tree from the earth and swung it back and forth in front of her knocking attacking obstacle after attacking obstacle to the ground before her as a two toned, dual eyed boy took out the spares with his ice bullets.

Yes they were both impressive and yes they were both 1-A material. It was a shame he would have to put one of them in 1-B, but the rules were rules. They would have to be separated. There was no doubt in his mind they would both pass. With quirks like that, they were incredibly impressive.

Aizawa continued to watch the race, watched Sakura run across the lake, her feet barely making a disruption in the water's mirror like surface, and wondered what kind of quirk allowed her such massive brute strength and control over bendable elements like water. Did she have multiple quirks?

Leaning over he pulled her entrance file from the stack on the desk next to his and thumbed through her paperwork. A late quirk registry...classified? Shota looked back at the screen, she was rolling head over heel with Todoroki. Was this Endeavour's doing?

Impossible, even he didn't have that much clearance. He doubted even the world famous hero All Might would have been able to pull off something like forging quirk paperwork successfully. Who was Sakura Haruno? Whoever she was, Aizawa knew, someone very powerful and wealthy was watching over her.

"Maybe a politician's kid?" Aizawa watched the rest of the tape, shut his computer off and stuffed the rest of the folders into his bag. "Whatever, time to go home. I'll figure it out tomorrow.