Chapter 6
Bakugo looked up at the school as he walked along the path leading to the gates. His body was still somewhat sore from all the constant fighting but hardly anything to worry about. Facing off against those clones was actually more beneficial than he would have guessed. Being able to go all-out in a fight was unusual, even with the increased training freedom offered at UA. The most similar experience he'd had were the fights in the Sports Festival, but even then there had been extra rules and so much damn drama.
Konoha, of course, did seem to have its share of drama. But at least that silly drama was constantly in the background and didn't interfere with the fighting. Its persistence had pissed him off to the point where he had gotten curious though. Even then, Hokage and that idiot did not tell him more than they wanted to. In fact, they had told him essentially nothing of any importance after he defeated that first clone. Not that he'd asked; no way he was giving that blond moron the satisfaction of thinking that he cared.
A part of him understood clearly: Naruto wanted him to figure it out. But he didn't know why, and not knowing why was what really pissed him off. At least he didn't have to give a damn about that anymore. All those stupid little mysteries had really started to get on his nerves. He wouldn't have put up with it except for the thrill of fighting.
Suddenly, he felt eyes on him. He looked around, casually turning his head, figuring it was probably just the damn Nerd or Spiky Hair. Or maybe the media, since they were always hovering around the school like vultures ready to eat the meat off any skeleton from UA's closet.
Instead, he was greeted with the sight of someone a few feet away, some kind of canvas in his grip. The freak was looking straight at him, and Bakugo's eyes immediately narrowed into a glare of his own. He noticed the guy's clothes immediately and felt a chill. Dark robes with little red clouds. Same ones Masked Man had been wearing.
The seconds dragged as they stared each other down.. The man's blond hair covered his left eye but the look in his right was sinister. Other students made a wide arc around them, a subconscious avoidance of the cold threat in the air.
"Got a problem, Cyclops?" Bakugo's voice came out steady, lazily, yet the promise of danger was very real.
"Hmph, good guess." The man's smile was more a leer as he pulled his hair to the side to show a bulky eyepatch. Bakugo already called bullshit on this; there was definitely something under that eyepatch. "Anyway, I must admit, I've been dying to meet you, Katsuki."
"Sure thing. Look, can we skip the nonsense?" Bakugo pulled his hands out of his pockets, explosions crackling to life between his fingertips as a smirk curled his lips. "I've seen those robes before. I know it's a mark of your villain club. But if you think I'm too scared to fight in public," his smirk blossomed into a full-blown smile, "you're gonna die."
"Now now, calm down. I did not come here for such confrontation! I simply wanted to meet an aspiring artist such as myself, un. Truly, your work is among the finest I have ever seen." Cyclops made several brushstrokes against the canvas; Bakugo could faintly tell that it was a painting of UA. This was all too strange, and Bakugo's smile faltered. Why the hell was the guy calling him an artist? "My name is Deidara. It's good to meet you, yeah." His smile reeked of arrogance, pissing Bakugo off even further.
"The hell does art have to do with anything?" Bakugo growled. "I know nobody would wear those robes of yours willingly, so I know you're with Masked Man. Don't screw with me!"
"Tobi mentioned meeting you. He said you were quite impressive, yeah. I told him that was no surprise to me. Oh, how I remember seeing you in that Sports Festival." Cyclops -Deidara- looked toward the sky, apparently reminiscing. "So much power, yet so graceful. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I just knew then that, finally, there was someone in the world who shares in my passion. I hadn't felt that way in so long; it was a truly special feeling, un."
A singular thought raced through Bakugo's mind.
What. The. Fuck. Could he not go even a single day without being harrassed by some stupid blond! Pikachu, Ramen Idiot, and now this guy?
"You got some screws loose, psycho?"
"Oh sure, you could say that. But considering you're the one who yelled at his classmates to die during a festival, I don't think you have that much room to talk, yeah."
Bakugo's hands opened wide, preparing to launch into combat immediately. There were a few students, all of them just nobody extras, watching now but he didn't care about them. The only thing they needed to do was get the hell away, because whatever Cyclops was capable of, he had the feeling from that smug confidence none of them could handle it.
"But don't let us be enemies, Bakugo. We could work together, the two of us. I shall be your Perugino and you my Raphael. Truthfully, I don't even care about this silly little Akatsuki gig. I shall play along for some time, but everyone knows a forced commission does not bring out an artist's most heartfelt passions, yeah?"
"WHY do you KEEP talking about ART!"
"Because, my young protege, explosions are beautiful. They contain all the majesty of an instant in time, never to be perfectly recreated again. They destroy the past to make room for the future. For that brief moment, there exists perfection. Don't you see?" Cyclops made one final, dramatic stroke, before putting the brush away into some hidden pocket. The villain slowly brought his hands back out, arms extended toward Bakugo, who watched them curiously, ready to move in any direction at even the slightest hint in danger.
"The... hell?" The guys palms had mouths... and they were chewing on something. He'd expected some kind of freakshow but this was a bit much. Bakugo stayed on guard. A useless quirk would not inspire such confidence in someone; especially not someone who was about to face his wrath and had seen his performance in the Sports Festival.
"Some artists like to be anonymous. I'm not one of them. I'm proud of my work. That's why I'm not afraid of being on camera. Always an honor to see the media appreciate my art, yeah." The palms started to spit out some kind of substance, to Bakugo's surprise and disgust. Even from several feet away, he saw it was some kind of clay, but could only watch as Deidara smiled with malicious calm and applied it to the canvas.
"You know," the freakshow continued, "you have no idea what's really happening, do you? Hokage probably didn't tell you a thing. You've landed right in the middle of a war where information is everything. And in a war of information, the ignorant die first, un."
"The hell are you talking about?"
"There was an understood agreement. Hokage broke it. Ask him about it, yeah?"
Bakugo scowled, which only seemed to increase Deidara's smile.
"I'm glad I came here. It reminds me a lot of my old school. I think that's part of the reason I wanted to meet you here. Such incredible inspiration for my art. Because art... is an explosion!"
And that's when it clicked. Bakugo knew he had little time left.
"RUN OR DIE!" He raised his hand in the air, letting loose as large an explosion as he could muster. Stupid wannabes wouldn't do anything consciously; he had to make sure they reacted out of instinct. He could see the extras scattering, fear written on their faces. He then flung his hand in front of him as a laugh boomed from nearby. His eyes darted to the sound and saw Cyclops looking directly at him, a huge smile on his face.
"I look forward to our next meeting."
Somehow, even among all the screaming, time seemed to freeze and Bakugo heard every word in slow motion. The guy made some kind of hand symbol, and on instinct, Bakugo used a small explosion to launch himself backwards. In the next instant, the canvas exploded in a bright, loud blast, filling the air with smoke and dust and splintering shards of cement and debris. He threw his hands in front of his face to guard himself mid-air and frantically scanned the chaos for Cyclops's location.
But the moment Bakugo landed back on the ground, a vortex of swirls formed in the air and Masked Man appeared, grabbing onto Cyclops... and the guy was waving at him.
Bakugo's skin crawled; if these people thought they were just going to mess around and treat him like some insignificant kid, oh boy he was going to show them. He was long past due for a bit of real explodo-killing. But before he could head in that direction, the two villains disappeared into the swirl before it winked out of existence, leaving only the smashed remains of sidewalk and the raining remnants of dust and smoke. He grit his teeth in frustration.
Nothing else to do, he adjusted his tie and began walking toward class. He ignored the confused staring of the extras as he did so. He hadn't been expecting a guy to use mouths in his palms to spit out explosive clay.
He would be ready next time. Count on it.
Despite the terrorist attack, the school day at UA was mostly the same as any other day. Bakugo was questioned about it, which was not a surprise considering the explosive nature of the attack, but the cameras had gotten a pretty clear picture. Principal said his quirk usage was acceptable, unlike a group of classmates who had gone too far in Hosu trying to fight the Hero-Killer. That caught his attention a bit, but it shouldn't have, because nothing stupid his idiot classmates do should surprise him anymore.
He didn't care about the school's press release- 'We will continue as normal but will be sure to investigate all strange behavior around our campus' - or any of that unimportant nonsense. As far as he was concerned, this incident was over. Oh sure, the extras talked about it a lot, but for the most part his classmates ignored it in favor of talking about their internships. Except for Aizawa's absolutely scalding lecture about quirk usage law.
As he was walking out of school, Spiky-Hair was, as always, right by his side and giving him a headache.
"It was so weird choosing the same internship as Tetsutetsu; well, maybe not really, he does seem like a pretty manly dude, so I guess it's a little understandable. And maybe it was a little fun having someone to intern with but overall I'd say it was a boring. I learned a lot though."
That almost made Bakugo laugh. "Doubt it." He knew first-hand that Spiky-Hair was not exactly a quick learner. It made his skin crawl even worse than usual to imagine having to try to tutor two of them. Must've interned with The Patient Hero or something.
"Always so rude. Anyway, what was your internship with Hokage like? Was he super cool and manly?"
"Mind your own business." Barely had the words left his mouth when a horrible noise reached his ear.
"BAKKUN!"
For a split second, Bakugo froze. He noticed the immediate surprise on Spiky-Hair's face and resumed walking. He should have known better than to think someone as annoying as that idiot blond would go away so easily, but why the hell did he have to get harassed at school? And why, exactly, on the first day after he had left 'Konoha'. He could see the moron, standing outside the gate, waving with that huge, goofy, asking-to-be-exploded grin. Already Bakugo's blood was boiling but continued to walk at a normal pace, until they inevitably reached the gate.
"What are you doing here, moron!"
Spiky-Hair turned to him. "Wait, Bakubro? You actually know this guy?"
Blond Moron responded. "Of course I know Bakkun. We've been hanging out for the past week!"
Bakugo ignored him, already sick as hell from the people surrounding him. "NERD!" He shouted loudly at Deku, who was muttering as he walked near them. It pissed Bakugo off. How the hell such a meek, pathetic little loser ever got such a powerful... no, he wasn't going to worry about that right now. He needed to get through this without grinding his teeth to a fine powder.
"... never calls for me so something bad's probably happening and he sounds really angry but I hope it's not about me. I mean, sure, I'm stronger, but..."
"Get a hold of yourself, Deku!" Those green eyes snapped up at him, showing the slightest hint of fear. Bakugo wasn't really used to seeing that anymore. He must have sounded even more pissed off than he felt. Which was an achievement, for damn sure.
"Yes, K-Kacchan?"
"Awww, he calls you Kacchan? That's adorable Bakkun!"
Bakugo pointed one finger at Naruto, scowl on his face. "Deku, did you know about this?" The nerd looked at him, confused.
So not even Deku knew about Hokage having a sidekick? Of course not, why the hell would Deku know? Some guy who stayed in the background doing random odd jobs wasn't going to get media coverage. But if Deku didn't know, then that meant he could at least be sure the guy had no public profile that was hero related. Or, at least, not one connected to Hokage. The guy could still have a separate hero identity; Bakugo knew, at a minimum, that Naruto was physically strong and used chakra so it was possible. But then why always hang around Hokage?
"About what?" Deku asked. "About him? Do I... know him from somewhere?"
"Nah, but I saw you in the Sports Festival. You're an animal, Midoriya! Unusual to see somebody try to kill themselves in a tournament. My name's Naruto Uzumaki!"
Bakugo scowled. A last name? That was new.
Deku introduced himself. "Izuku Midoriya."
Followed by Spiky-Hair. "Eijiro Kirishima."
Okay, that was enough. "Can the intros!" Bakugo put his face into the palm of his hand. Honestly, how did it ever get to this point? He only wanted to graduate top of his class and be the Number One Hero; how the hell did he keep getting surrounded by losers?
"So, uh," Deku said, pathetically, looking between Bakugo and Naruto, "how do you know Kacchan?"
"We've been hanging out the past week."
Nerd's eyes lit up; Bakugo could practically see the sparkles in them. "While he was interning with Hokage?"
"Yeah!"
"So you know Hokage? You must right? Wow, that's so cool. Do you know more about his quirk? Can you tell me anything? I know a bunch of people online like to theorize about it and guess what it could do but there's not enough video... oh, how many people have been Hokage? Did the past ones die or retire?"
Deku activated Mutter Mode. "I've heard it said that each Hokage has a few signature abilities but looking at the videos uploaded it gets hard to distinguish between them. Like, it's clear they don't use these signature abilities all the time and that makes it harder. But does every Hokage have the same quirk? Is that even possible? I mean, after all, there are a few baseline abilities like moving on water that seem to be shared but..."
The look of disbelief Naruto wore while being bombarded by questions and muttering had a strangely calming effect on Bakugo. He actually smirked at the sight of someone else being annoyed by shitty Deku and his ceaseless annoyances.
After a few seconds, Naruto smiled. "Wow Midoriya, that's an incredibly invasive line of questioning!" The shocked look on Deku's face almost made Bakugo laugh. He even might have, if it weren't for the deceptively serious undertone in Naruto's voice. No one else would notice it; they were all gullible as hell. "Sheesh, just kidding! Calm down man. I know Hokage, I know everything about his quirk, but I'm not saying anything or he'd be pretty mad. It'd be dangerous for me to say how many people have been Hokage, but some die and some retire. I really couldn't hear whatever all that muttering was about, sorry."
Well one of those answers was intriguing. Some Hokage had died and some had retired. That meant there were a few ex-Hokage wandering around out there. Even if they weren't doing hero work anymore, they probably kept in touch with the present Hokage.
Spiky-Hair had a smile on his face. "Well, it's pretty cool that you know Bakubro. He's a little bit prickly sometimes..." Bakugo growled as Kirishima's arm wrapped around his shoulder. If Spiky-Hair thought that a hardness quirk was going to save his sorry hide, then Bakugo was more than willing to give a Sports Festival rematch. Not that it'd be too much of a fight. "But he's caring, in his own way. When everyone else doubted Uraraka, Bakubro here gave his all against her. At first I thought doing it was unmanly but I realized, when I heard everyone start to talk about all of Uraraka's strengths, that it was the manliest thing of all!"
"I did it so I could fucking win the tournament, you red-headed jackass." Not his fault if literally everyone else underestimated her. They needed to start paying some damn attention.
"And what about earlier, when you used an explosion to warn everyone away from that crazy villain?"
"The fuck do you think is going to happen if students die and I was just casually talking to the killer? Forget being expelled, the prison would throw away the damn key." And then he'd never be the Number One Hero, which was absolutely not even in the equation.
"Kacchan." The Nerd had his head down looking all kinds of pathetic before looking up straight at Bakugo, confidence in his eyes. "If you had really wanted to, you could have ended the Uraraka fight quicker. Sure, she's strong, but her quirk is a bad match-up for yours."
"I wanted to have a little fun." Honestly, why the hell did it even matter to anyone else? It was a fight, and he was free to go about it whatever damn way he wanted without having to subject himself to the analysis of idiots.
"You don't fight for fun. You might have fun while fighting, but you only fight to win, Kacchan."
What the hell gave that nerd the right to act like he knew everything! Whenever Deku got all preachy, acting like they had some special connection because they hung out when they were practically toddlers, Bakugo's blood turned to lava.
Naruto spoke up. "Bakkun's not the type to admit he cares about his classmates, huh? That's not a surprise. He still acts like we're not even friends!"
"WHY ARE YOU HERE!" He looked toward the idiot, glaring, wanting an answer. Miraculously, Deku went to leave and talk to somebody else. Maybe Four-Eyes, Bakugo didn't give a shit as long as the nerd was gone. How was it that every interaction with that little pathetic Deku left him feeling so damn angry? Not that Naruto was usually any better.
"I saw the news report about the attack earlier and wanted to make sure you were okay!"
News report would have absolutely said zero students injured; probably no video. Possibly at most a photo of the villain responsible. Bullshit.
"That's so manly!" Spiky-Hair was, as usual, incapable of letting him think. Bakugo wondered how simple a life it was that Spiky-Hair lived with zero time devoted to things like 'thought'. "Nothing like checking up on a bro whenever they need you. I bet you had to come a long way too! Boy, Bakugo must have really been on good behavior if you like him at all after just one week."
Enough of this nonsense. He looked straight into Naruto's blue eyes, and it was clear to him that there was something more important to talk about.
"Kirishima, leave." There was a look of surprise on Spiky-Hair's face, but Bakugo didn't care.
"Oh, umm, okay. Yeah, no problem. Good to meet you, Narubro!"
"Right back at you, Eijibro!" The two fist-bumped, and mimicked an explosion before Spiky-Hair started walking away. After such a display of stupidity, Bakugo would have been happy to supply them with the real deal. He resumed walking, casually glancing to make sure nobody else was around as Naruto quickly joined him.
Bakugo did not waste anytime. The quicker he dealt with whatever Naruto wanted to talk about, the quicker the idiot would be gone. "So why are you actually here, moron?"
Naruto responded immediately. "I saw the news report; I know it had something to do with you, but I can't think of any reason why Deidara would show up here."
Somewhat serious Naruto was something Bakugo could deal with. Much less of a headache than default head-full-of-bricks Naruto.
"Typical villain shit. Asked me to join him, told him I'd kill him."
"Huh? Recruitment?" The surprise was obvious on Naruto's face. "That's... unusual. It doesn't fit at all. Why would Akatsuki try to recruit you?"
"I don't think it was for that damn villain group. He said he'd ditch them eventually. And talked way too damn much about art."
Naruto scratched his head, clearly confused but thinking. "Okay, so, it was personal then. Leader probably didn't know. How did he get away, anyway? Tobi?"
"Yeah." Bakugo remembered another part of that conversation. "Also mentioned something about Hokage breaking a deal. That's all."
"Oh yeah?" Naruto started chuckling lightly. "This might surprise you, Bakkun, but you can't trust a group of villains!" The guy's tone was loud and light-hearted, a little odd for the subject in Bakugo's opinion. "I don't know what their final plans are, but safe to say that agreement is done for and they broke it first. Doubt they'd want to settle that in court."
"What the hell is it!" Seriously, he didn't care about any agreement but it felt like Naruto was going out of his way to not say it or something and it was getting on Bakugo's nerves.
"Sheesh, easy there Bakkun! Villains who know about chakra don't want Hokage teaching about it to others, and Hokage doesn't want civilians caught up in any of it. Hokage would only teach chakra to those capable of using it, and in return, those villains would not cause too much of a mess. It's an understanding that's existed between us, keeping the public uninvolved. Obviously it wasn't the greatest arrangement, but it kept some form of order."
"How do any villains know about this in the first place?"
Naruto didn't immediately answer and Bakugo narrowed his eyes. "It's just something that's gotten around over all the years. Don't know how it started. I don't really care, either. I think it's stupid."
Bullshit, Bakugo thought. "Alright, let me get this shit straight. Basically, I was trained as a message! A sign that the deal was off. That sound about right?" Bakugo felt a bit of anger building up at the idea of being used, but it receded a little as Naruto shook his head.
"Don't be stupid. If that was all it could have been any random kid without chakra."
"Whatever." It annoyed him that he actually wanted an answer. He shouldn't care about any of this stupid shit, but Bakugo couldn't help it. Hokage sent one internship offer in the history of UA, and it was for him. There had to be some kind of reason.
There was, again, that serious look on Naruto's face that always seemed to catch him off guard. Bakugo hadn't seen it since that day he defeated the ten-percent clone, a look of pure seriousness that made the idiot seem to fade away.
"Alright, Bakkun, let me put it like this. Based on the Sports Festival performance, I imagined you'd stall out at a twenty-percent Hokage clone and then defeat it around the last day. Instead, you skipped over twenty-percent after that rematch against the ten-percent. I thought you'd be the only one from your year who could even reach thirty-percent, honestly. And somehow, you went past even that."
To Bakugo's ears, the words were spoken so confidently and simply that they had to be true, at least in Naruto's mind. Bakugo did not nod, or give any indication that he was affected by the words, but he figured that since he got stronger out of it then it didn't really matter too much if Hokage had some other motive to offer him an internship. Although, his fists clenched out of reflex when he thought of those three hellacious fights against thirty-percent.
Naruto continued talking, the seriousness fading back into Naruto's usual upbeat tone. "But honestly, I don't think any of that matters. You know, you can spend all day coming up with reasoning that can go in any direction. That's not Hokage's style. When it comes to people, he trusts his instincts. He has a good feeling about you, trust me. It's because you remind him of himself."
Bakugo paused suddenly, confused. What the hell was that supposed to mean? He thought back to all his interactions with Hokage and that just didn't really seem to fit. That must mean there was even more he was missing. And here he was, thinking he was solving all this stupid shit!
"And by the way," Naruto continued, "just let me know if you want to train some more with Hokage. Just because that little week's over doesn't mean you can't keep it up."
Bakugo spoke before he even thought about the words. "Let me guess, you'll be here tomorrow too, won't you?" He knew his words had no venom, and if Naruto's smile was any indication, the idiot knew it too. Bakugo may not want to see that damn idiot ever again, but he could endure one more day of hell if it got results. No one would ever say he didn't have a damn high pain tolerance. He was going to solve this shit once and for all tomorrow, and then he'd never think about it again.
Naruto smiled. "Well, if that means you want to hang out, then sure thing Bakkun!"
They had reached the station at this point; Bakugo was more than ready to get away. "Fuck off."
After taking his seat, Bakugo clenched his fists and stared a hole into the back of the seat in front of him. He sat like that for several minutes, fighting every single aspect of his entire existence as he contemplated the idea in his mind. If it were just him and Naruto, then he probably wouldn't get much new information. Based on what he'd seen today, Naruto could get a little careless around others. In fact, there was one person in particular that seemed to draw out information.
He grit his teeth, reaching into his pockets and grabbing his phone, almost wishing he'd blow the fucker up on accident. Except he was Bakugo Katsuki and he didn't do stupid shit like that. Bakugo found his desired contact and started a new message. Because this was damn sure the first text he'd send and hopefully the last.
'Deku. After school tomorrow. Naruto. Not going to fight unless you can't stop your damn muttering.'
His frown deepened, before he decided to send one more message. This one would be the last.
'Fuck you.'
Beta read by: the road I know
A/N: I was hoping to get this chapter out a little bit sooner but there were a few hang-ups and continuity issues I had to clean up. Plus, my beta reader has been quite busy and I have been also. Not to mention that I did a lot of writing for my other stories as well. All in all, though, as far as things go, I think everything's going great.
It's worth noting that I raised this story to an M-Rating; that's only so I don't have to worry so much about the profanity. If you're comfortable with how things have been so far, you should be fine moving forward.
I don't have much to say about this chapter; I hope everyone likes it. Naruto finally gets to interact a bit more with other 1-A students and I must admit that was fun to write, even if it was a bit brief.
Thank you all for reading; please feel free to follow, favorite, review, or simply carry on.
