Chapter 19
"You're probably wondering why we asked you to come back to take a second exam after you've already received your acceptance letter." Aizawa stood at the gates of a rarely used training facility and motioned to his left. "You're registered as a two quirk user. One healing and another a powerup quirk. We'd like to see your healing quirk today and a little more of your power up quirk."
Sakura waited for him to continue but the man just stood there looking at her.
"It's so nice to see you again my dear, why didn't you come see me?" Recovery Girl ambled forward, her cane pressing small precise hole like indents into the training ground's dirt floor. "I've been expecting you but you never came."
Sakura bowed politely. "I'm sorry grandmother, but I was new to the city when we met and didn't, um, have time to come see you."
"Yes yes, but you have time now." Recovery Girl circled Sakura looking her up and down, her wrinkled face stretched and gathered into a heartfelt smile. "My my you have excellent muscle tone dear, strong fingers and sharp eyes. Yes, I was correct when we first met. There's something special about you. Aizawa here thinks so too. You must have impressed him in the entrance exam, not an easy thing to do."
Recovery Girl stood beside Sakura. "Shall we get a move on? I'll be evaluating, but feel free to push her. I'll heal her if I'm needed. Not getting any younger here you know." Recovery Girl chuckled to herself, that one never got old.
Sakura blinked. 'Push her'?
"I was waiting for you to finish talking." Aizawa loosened his scarf a bit. "Sakura, I don't want you to hold back. I know you were holding back during the first exam, but this one will not be like the other. If you injure me, or get injured Recovery Girl is here to heal us. She is very good at what she does, you don't need to worry."
"I'm not worried." Sakura cracked her knuckles. "Are you sure though? You don't want me to hold back, not even a little bit?"
"Yes. Come at me with everything you have Sakura. I want you to think of this as a fight to the death." Aizawa watched the girl before him stiffen in awareness, then watched every muscle in her body relax into a natural fighting stance. It was a verteran gesture, he had seen it many times before in his fellow heroes before a battle.
Experience. His hunch had been right.
"On the count of three I want you to attack me. I will defend for the first three minutes, then I will attack for the remaining three. Do you understand?" Aizawa asked Sakura.
Sakura nodded, then smiled. "I understand." She almost laughed. It reminded her of the bell test Kakashi sensei had her team take on their first day.
'Come at me like you want to kill me.'
"You got it sensei." Sakura set her jaw and dropped into an offensive fighting stance. This might be fun. "Remember sensei, you told me not to hold back." If she hurt him, she could heal him if Recovery Girl could not. Like he had told her, there was nothing to worry about.
"One."
"Two."
"Thr…"
Sakura darted forward, her body close to the ground, her legs out in front of her, she slid along the dirt, under Aizawa before his scarf could be pulled from his neck, kicked his legs out from under him, pulled two kunai from her pouches, with a quick glance at their surroundings, a slight adjustment to her stance, her arm flew out, the cold metal of the sharp projectile sliding along the hottest tips of her fingers straight toward Aizawa's face.
Far above Sakura, Aizawa and Recovery Girl sat All Might, Midnight and Principal Nezu, observing.
"She isn't holding back is she?" Midnight was on the edge of her seat.
"He did tell her not to." All Might watched Aizawa deflect the kunai, watched as the girl jumped, flipped and spun out of reach of Aizawa's scarf, her second kunai at the ready, pointed at his throat. "She's serious."
"She moves like a natural." Midnight commented. "I'm impressed."
"She moves like a ninja." Aizawa muttered as he dodged swipe after swipe of the girl's blades. She's not only lightning fast but insanely accurate. He was under no false pretenses that she could have killed him twice now if she had really wanted to. She was holding back, even though he had told her not to, and he was grateful.
However, he wouldn't be able to fully evaluate her like this, he wouldn't be able to convince the other teachers that it was in all of their best interests for Sakura Haruno to join Class 1-a, if she didn't give it her all, if she didn't show them her quirk.
"Show me your quirk Sakura. I have to evaluate how you use it in battle." Shota ducked, dropped to his knee and spun, kicking up and over the girl as she lunged forward, dodging his blow, and her fist missing him by a hair.
Sakura's fist slammed into the ground. At the point of impact she felt it, a small, sudden surge of chakra, one she hadn't intended to release.
"No." The word escaped her mouth as she leapt back from the training ground floor.
BOOM!
Dirt flew into the air from her point of impact and the entire training facility shook. The metal frames of the walls creaked under the pressure of her chakra infused punch, and the glass in the windows shattered under the moving pressure of the frame.
Aizawa's eyes went wide, but he didn't have time to appreciate her power. She flew at his head with another punch, her small fist hard and determined. He sent his scarf out encasing the girl and pulling her to him.
"Ha." It was subtle, it was confident, it was right in his ear as she shot past him, breaking free of his scarf. Pieces of his foolproof scarf fell to the ground around him. "It's been three minutes, sensei."
"Attack me." Sakura leapt into the air, Aizawa lunged forward, the remainder of his scarf stretching out through the air like ninja wire.
Sakura grabbed the fraying end, wrapped it around her knuckles, infused her left arm with her chakra and pulled, whipping Aizawa through the air and slamming him down into the ground hard. Shehad done it to Kakashi sensei so many times before while learning how to use shinobi wire it was flawless, smooth and precise.
It was also at half the strength she would have thrown her former sensei.
"Aizawa!" All Might jumped to his feet in the stands. "Oh my gosh, did you see that?"
"I saw it." Midnight's voice was quiet as she watched the dust clear, saw the pink haired girl standing tall, confident and...expectant. "Most students would hold back when fighting a teacher, but she doesn't."
"Nor is she giving it her all like he asked her too." Principal Nezu chimed in. "Endeavour said she didn't know the limits of her quirk, but she seems to have a good grasp on it to me."
Sakura unfurled the ends of Aizawa's scarf from her fist and let it drop to the ground by his head. Kneeling over him she looked down into his closed eyes. "Are you okay?"
"Never let your enemy…" Aizawa tried to grab Sakura to flip her over and restrain her, but she pinned him to the ground with two chakra kunai and a chakra infused shuriken before he could get a solid hold on her wrists.
"I didn't assume you were injured or that I had the upper hand. I'm not an idiot." Sakura scoffed at his assumption. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't hurt. I didn't mean to put so much power into the punch earlier."
"Very good, very good, times up!" Recovery Girl ambled over to them with a huge smile on her face.
Aizawa tried to pull one of the kunai from his clothes where Sakura had pinned him but couldn't. "What?"
"I uh, infused my kunai with my energy, only I can release you." Sakura pulled her weapons from the ground, releasing Aizawa, and tucking them back into her pouch.
"We didn't get to see your healing quirk." Aizawa watched Sakura carefully as he stood up and brushed the dirt from his clothes. She was much more skilled than he had thought. Still, after all that jumping around she was barely breathing above a resting pulse.
"Oh." Sakura pulled one of the kunai she had just put away back out, took Aizawa's hand and sliced his palm open without warning, without giving him time to even think of drawing back from her.
"Shit, what…" He jumped back and away from her holding his bleeding hand to his chest, his hair flying out from his head, his goggles off and his eyes red. "Don't…"
Sakura narrowed her eyes, darted forward and pinned him to the ground with her kunai again. "You said you wanted to see my healing quirk didn't you? So watch."
She lifted his hand up so he could see what she was doing and with her other hand, infused with her healing chakra, she healed him.
Aizawa watched as his skin closed up before his eyes, watched as the blood ceased to flow and the wound became no more. "There isn't even a scar."
He rubbed his hand with his other hand as Sakura released him. "It doesn't even hurt."
That however, wasn't why he was staring at her in half awe, half confusion.
Her quirk, she used her quirk on him after he had taken it from her, how, how was that possible. He knew he hadn't blinked, he knew he had used his quirk because in that moment, he thought, he had felt like she was really going to kill him, that intent, that look in her eyes it wasn't the look of a determined student. It was the look of a true assassin.
Aizawa stared at Sakura who stared back at him without blinking. For the first time since he had started teaching at UA, he was uneasy. This girl made him uneasy. That chill he felt earlier, that killing intent that had come and gone in a flash was unnerving, no it was more than that, it was thrilling.
Shota shook his head. He needed to focus. She would be his responsibility soon. He had to do his best to guide her, to turn that intent into something more, something useful. Aizawa continued to stare at Sakura, but she was looking at Recovery Girl.
Cheerful clapping broke through his deep thoughts.
"I knew you were special." Recovery Girl beamed at Sakura not at all put off at her violent display. "So glad you came today sweety."
Principal Nezu, All Might and Midnight looked down at Aizawa, Recovery Girl and Sakura Haruno.
"She's amazing. Did you see what she did?" Midnight was excited. It had been a few years since they had such a promising student at UA
"Hum yes, very talented that's true but it worries me, she didn't hesitate to hurt a fellow human being, even if Aizawa asked her not to hold back. The way she cut his hand was very…" All Might scratched at his chin thoughtfully.
Principal Nezu clasped his hands behind his back. "Be that as it may, she will be an excellent addition to Class 1-A this coming semester."
"Yeah." All Might agreed with the principal, hesitant to disagree with him so openly in front of the other teachers.
There was a sense of unease in the pit of his stomach and he wasn't sure what it was, but as he looked down at the pink haired girl smiling and laughing with Recovery Girl as Aizawa picked up the remnants of his scarf, he felt like something bad was coming, that no good would come of this.
Aizawa approached Sakura after the other teachers had come down from upstairs to congratulate her and to ask her a few questions of their own before they left. He wanted to ask her a few questions of his own but he didn't want the others to hear. He felt foolish, but he had to know.
"Haruno, you did well today. I got to see exactly why a man like Endeavour would go out of his way to recommend you." He watched the girl's eyes dart to the left. So, there was more to that story.
"You've been trained well. Who was your trainer?" He asked her bluntly.
"You would not know them." Sakura stood completely still facing him, looking him in the eye. "They are not from Japan."
Aizawa's brows raised. "You are trained though."
"I am trained." Sakura nodded, unsure where this conversation was going.
"Your quirk, it's different from other quirks." He wasn't asking.
"It seems that way, doesn't it." Sakura forced a smile. He had noticed.
"Are you familiar with my quirk? I'm the eraser hero, Eraserhead." Aizawa watched and waited but no form of understanding or recognition broke across her face. She didn't know who he was. It was clear by her expression she had never even heard of him, which wasn't completely unheard of. He wasn't fond of the media.
"I thought your quirk was your scarf." She told him honestly, pointing to the rags in his hands. "Sorry about that, you have another one right?"
"I do. My scarf is a support item, my quirk is called Eraser, I can erase another's quirk momentarily, preventing them from using it as long as I don't blink." He continued to watch her, there it was, realization.
"I healed you." She looked down at his hand. "After you erased my quirk."
They continued to look at one another. Quietly sizing each other up.
Aizawa shoved his hands in his pockets. He had a hunch about her skill and decided to go out on a limb. If he was wrong, no harm done, he would sound foolish to her, but if he was right…
"You're power, your skills aren't from a quirk are they Haruno?" Aizawa asked her.
She hesitated, and that was enough.
"Does Endeavour know?" He asked. "Does anyone know?" He waited patiently for her to answer.
"No." Sakura answered him honestly, sending her chakra out into the space around them, reading him.
His heart rate was normal, his skin was dry and his breathing was calm. There was no ill intent that she could find, no deception. She relaxed.
"Are you…" He stopped speaking as All Might walked up. He thought the show pony had left already.
"My quirk is registered as a power up quirk, with a secondary in healing." Sakura bowed to Aizawa, glancing at All Might.
"Thank you." She turned and walked out of the training facility.
Aizawa ignored All Might's questions and continued to watch Sakura Haruno through the shattered glass as she headed for the front gates of UA. There would be time, once the school year began, for him to ask her his questions.
Shota looked down at his hand, flexed his fingers and made a fist and continued to ignore All Might who continued to speak to him as he walked out of the training facility. This year was going to be very interesting.
Shouto was waiting for her on the bench just outside the school's front gates.
"How did it go?" He asked her, raising to his feet to greet her as soon as she walked out the gate. Her hair was messy and a little tangled, but she looked okay. He relaxed a bit.
He had been worried they would push her too hard. He'd never known anyone to be called back for a second private exam. He was worried there might have been something wrong with her quirk registration. "What did they test you on?"
"You were right, they wanted to see my healing quirk and more of my power quirk. I guess I didn't use it very much in the exam, so they were curious. I got the impression because they hadn't seen what I could do in the first exam that they didn't know how to place me." She shrugged. A raindrop fell on her head making her jump then laugh.
"Here." Shouto held out an umbrella to her, then paused. "I only brought one." He opened it, pulled her close and lifted it over them just as the rain began to drop more steadily from the sky.
"Thanks for meeting me after my exam Shouto." Sakura slid her arm through the crook of his elbow as they walked back to his house together.
"I wanted to see you." He looked down at her. "Will you be going out tomorrow, like you do every Saturday?" He asked her.
"Yes, but once classes start, I probably won't be going out too much during the week." She hummed as the rain pattered down onto the umbrella over their heads in a steady tattoo. "You know, I've always liked the rain. Do you like it?" Sakura stuck her free hand out from under the protective cover of the umbrella.
"I've never thought about it. What do you like about it?" Shouto watched Sakura knit her brows in thought.
"It's simple. It's just falling water and yet it isn't." Sakura laughed, jostling Shouto's arm that was holding their umbrella. Big drops of water fell on both of their heads before he could right it again, making Sakura laugh. "It's free."
"Free? Rain is free?" Shouto watched the rain fall into the growing puddles on the sidewalk as they walked by. "It looks trapped to me." He stepped down into the next puddle causing it to moved out from his foot, then back again when he lifted his foot and stepped away, onward.
"Momentarily." Sakura pointed to the next puddle ahead of them. "Soon the puddle will be so large it will join another puddle, then another and flow down into the gutter." She smiled up at him, her green eyes reflecting the grey dull rain.
"Where it will be trapped again, in the storm drain." Shouto pointed out.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Yes, but it will be moving, still flowing down and down then out and onward into the ocean where it will be free again." Sakura closed her eyes.
Shouto looked to his left where he knew the ocean was. He couldn't see it of course, there were buildings in the way and they were miles from the shore but the way she spoke, the tone of her voice was so pleasing and almost magical that for that moment, that brief closing and opening of his eyes, he almost saw it, could see the rain moving underground out into the ocean.
"So freedom, you value freedom." He spoke above her head, his eyes closed.
"Yeah, maybe." Sakura opened her eyes. Shouto's eyes were still closed, a faint smile stuck at the corners of his mouth. "I like it when you smile, Shouto. You should smile more."
Shouto opened his eyes. There were so many things he wanted to say to her at that moment, each one more ridiculous than the next. He cleared his throat. "Until recently, I haven't had much in my life to smile about, but I'll try to smile more. For you."
There was a pain growing deep in the pit of her stomach, or maybe it was her soul. She couldn't look into his eyes anymore. She had to look away. She felt like a thief. She felt like a villain.
He was falling in love with her and she had no intentions of staying with him.
"Damn." She exhaled against his lips as he bent his head to kiss her.
She hadn't planned on this, on him, on any of this.
Sakura opened her mouth to tell him they would be late for dinner when Shouto hugged her to his body and deepened their kiss under the cover of his umbrella, in the middle of the sidewalk, while the pedestrians of Musutafu City passed them by.