A/N: Most of these early chapters will be used for establishing Baki's relationships between the more prominent characters of Naruto's graduating class as he finds a foothold in this world. Some characters will be objectively OOC, like Hinata, who I'm having way too much fun writing in the style of her Road to Ninja Movie character. Important training sequences will be expanded upon, as in anything pertaining to superhuman abilities like chakra manipulation and other crazy skills, but bare bones physical exercise will be generally glossed over unless something paramount to the plot pertains to it. Baki will consistently be exercising to his limit and I can only make so many man-boob jokes ;)
Chapter 1: Unleash the Beast
The rest of the day in the Academy felt like a whirlwind for Baki. After his surprisingly easy one-shot victory in the spar against Kiba, the atmosphere had shifted. Whispers and glances followed him everywhere, and none more so than from Hinata. She seemed to be constantly watching him, her eyes filled with a mix of confusion and curiosity, as if trying to figure out this 'New Baki'.
Despite the attention, the transmigrator remained focused on the task at hand. He sat attentively in his seat, determined to absorb every word of Iruka-sensei's lecture on chakra theory. The intricacies of chakra control and manipulation were crucial for any shinobi, and Baki knew he had a lot to learn considering his loose understanding of chakra was based off a work of fiction. Iruka was already throwing some terms around that certainly threw his perception of the energy right out of the window. Interesting stuff, as apparently the physical aspect of 'neutral' or normal chakra was directly correlated with metabolism and cellular conversion of energy. Not unlike the actual real word body processes he had come to understand during his own education.
Iruka's voice carried across the room, explaining the fundamentals of chakra. "It is a combination of physical and spiritual energy, and mastering its control is vital. While I believe you all have a good understanding of the physical aspect, the mental seems to be a bit harder to grasp. Who can describe the spiritual application of mental energies - Ino?" Baki scribbled notes diligently, his mind racing with both the information and his own memories from the real world. The concept of chakra was fascinating, and he was eager to understand it fully. Even if that meant listening to a half-assed explanation from one of the two mega-fangirls that had recently called him ugly not too long ago.
Throughout the lecture, Hinata's gaze never left him. Baki could feel her eyes on him, filled with confusion and scrutiny. He couldn't blame her; after all, he literally wasn't the person she had known and considered a friend, if he was reading the context clues correctly. It wasn't too much of a stretch to believe Hinata was not entirely just a meek, looming in the shadows, Naruto-obsessed stalker all of the time. She must of had some friends, people to shoot the shit with...or whatever 12 year old preteen killers did in their free time. Verbalizing that in his head, Baki rationalized it was entirely possible that she was just that; Kishimoto created a real fucked up world, after all.
As the class continued, Baki found himself more and more engrossed in the lectures. Iruka explained the different types of chakra nature, the importance of chakra control exercises, and the various actions that relied on subconscious manipulation of chakra. By the end of the day, Baki's notebook was filled with detailed notes, diagrams, and questions he wanted to explore further. He felt a sense of mild readiness for the bullshit ahead, as he was now a smidge more knowledgeable of the nuances in this world than before, if only by just a little.
The final bell rang dismissing the class, Iruka gave a brief farewell before disappearing in an imperceivably fast blur of motion. As the students filed out of the classroom, Hinata tugged on his sleeve hesitantly. "Baki," she began, her voice soft, "Did something happen over the break?"
Baki schooled his reactions, quickly readying the excuse he had been grossing over during the day in preparation of Hinata's unmistakable curiosity. He smiled thinly and drawled, "Yeah, I guess you could say that...sorry for ghosting you, I really didn't mean to. My mind's been a mess lately, puberty or something I guess."
Hinata stared intensely at him for a moment, as if trying to catch him in a lie, before a pretty smile parted her lips. She turned her nose upward in a faux pompous manner and mused, "I suppose I can forgive you, just this once. Lenience is a virtue, they say." Baki fought the urge to chuckle, what weird version of Hinata was this? Settling on a grateful smile, the blonde bowed his head playfully, "And virtuous you most certainly are, Hinata. We could all aspire to be a bit more like you."
Hinata's cheeks reddened slightly as a brilliant giggle escaped her lips. She rose from her seat, and offered a dainty goodbye. Baki could only blink as he had just now only noticed the looming figure of her escort, Ko if he remembered correctly, was waiting only a few feet away from them. He purposely ignored the truly frightening implication of a grown man being able to sneak up on him in an empty room - directly in front of him no less - and completely escape even the slightest bit of detection. Watching as the pair left the classroom, Baki let loose a long sigh and sagged into the seat for a moment. Taking no more than a few seconds to gather himself, he slapped his cheeks and grinned roguishly, "Enough moping around. Time to burn some calories, you roly-poly salad dodger!"
After a long and eventful day, Baki returned to his apartment, feeling a mix of supreme exhaustion and dying exhilaration. His muscles burned to the bone as he dragged his sweat soaked form towards the bathroom. Barely finding the energy to shed his clothing, the blonde practically collapsed into the cold shower he had just turned on. Icy water stung his skin as he leaned against the wall, completely uncaring as steam permeated off his exerted body in contrast to the cold liquid. The small, modest shower warmed very slowly, but Baki was content to simply rest as it did. His day was not yet done.
Dried off and now in a change of undergarments, Baki was determined to create a comfortable environment in this littered home he had now dubbed "The Shit Shack". He picked up discarded training gear and clothes, straightened out his bed, and organized his studying material neatly onto a designated desk. As he cleaned, he couldn't help but reflect on the day's events—He truly had no faith in his preemptive knowledge after realizing almost everything was different than what he could have ever anticipated.
As he tidied up, Baki gazed upon the small mirror by the closet again. The face staring back at him was still unfamiliar—a young boy who couldn't keep his grubby fingers out of the cookie jar. He frowned as he struggled to recall what he had looked like before, but nothing had come to him, only a blurry silhouette of a large and broad man. It was a little difficult not to linger on the thought, but he forced himself away from the mirror. There was nothing he could do about it, he could only shape this body with purposeful intent from here on out. With a renewed sense of acceptance, Baki finished cleaning and took a moment to appreciate the neat and orderly room. It felt like a fresh start, a place where he could focus on his training and prepare for the challenges ahead.
Feeling accomplished, Baki allowed a smirk to settle onto his face. Things certainly were not going to be easy, but he felt confident he was taking the right steps forward. Humming a familiar tune, the blonde decided to prepare a small meal before ending his night, a good way to conclude the productive evening of an otherwise shit-storm filled day. As he reached forward and opened the compact refrigerator door, the smirk was completely wiped clean off his face. The light growl of his stomach echoed in his ears as he stared at the absolute horrid inventory of sweets and processed foods occupying the fridge. With a groan of exasperation, Baki lamented sourly, "You've got to be kidding me - is that fucking cake?!"
A week had passed since his arrival in this world, and Baki had settled into quite the hectic groove. His days were spent absorbing all the information he possibly could from the academy while ignoring a few dozen psychotic preteens as best as humanly possible. Save for Hianta, that little oddball was starting to grow on him if was being honest. The evenings were reserved for intense exercise and self-study by his lonesome and nothing much ever bothered with that schedule he had fallen into. Doro Baki was loser with, at best, only one friend in this world. A true background character. Nobody gave a rat's ass about what he did, as long as he didn't disturb the status quo too much. Unfortunately, this new Baki was nothing but a disturbance to the norm. Every question he answered correctly stirred heads, anytime he preformed better than expected someone had a problem with it; hell, in the short week he had been occupying this body, the light amount of weight he had managed to burn off by exercising and fasting had apparently rubbed more than one person the wrong way.
During their lunchbreak, Baki was sitting next to Hinata at one of the few benches scattered around the academy compound. The clan heiress was happily eating her meal and chatting animatedly about something related to her younger sister beating up the Hokage's grandson. Baki, who had been preoccupied with a book titled 'suppression of your presence and the application of stealth', perked up comically and parroted, "Wait, what did you see say? Hanabi beat up Konohamaru?" Hinata continued happily munching on her meal as if she didn't imply anything of the sort. Baki placed the book down by his bag and looked at her with genuine curiosity. Begging for further context, the girl was happy to make him squirm over the details by himself. The blonde opened his mouth to speak again, but was interrupted by a sudden and hard impact crashing into his nose.
Hinata dropped her meal in alarm as a rock bounced off Baki's face, followed by a jet of blood that dribbled down his lips and chin. Baki yelped out a curse as the familiar sensation of having his nose busted watered his eyes. An arrogant voice spat their way, "I've heard you got a big mouth on you, fatso." Sasuke, flanked by fangirls and civilian born boys alike, glared harshly at the pair - tossing a stone idlily from palm to palm, clearly the perpetrator behind Baki's new injury. Hinata shot to her feet like women possessed and activated her Byakugan with a snarl, "Who do you think you are, Uchiha?!"
Baki spit some blood from his mouth and rose as well, placing a hand on the now very intense Hyuga to hold her back. Sasuke glared disdainfully at her and grunted, "Stay out of this freak, it's between me and your lapdog over there." Sasuke's onyx eyes settled onto Baki and his glare intensified, "Word is you've been talking trash about the Uchiha. Do you think getting a win over that mutt and losing a couple pounds changes what you are, you loser?"
The blonde in question narrowed his eyes, having to put some genuine effort in holding Hinata back as she practically attempted to fly at Sasuke in a fit of rage. He spit once more and barked angrily, "I don't have a fucking clue about what you're on about, you emo-fuck! I couldn't give two shits about you or your dead family; clearly, someone is starting shit between us and you fell for it."
A cursory glance to the side confirmed Baki's suspicion. Kiba was lurking around a corner with a few other boys, shit eating grins marring their faces.
Sasuke hardly seemed to care. He dropped the stone and inclined his head, "Another word out of that fat mouth of yours and you'll be getting off with more than just a bloody nose, loser. Keep your idiot on a leash, bitch." With the dramatic sass only a twelve year old could pull off, Sasuke marched away with his group of harpies following after him. Or he would have, had Baki decided not to let go of a frothing of the mouth Hinata who was pulling so hard it threatened to tear her jacket. Like a bat out of hell, Hinata zipped towards Sasuke like a dart and launched a powerful Juken at his unexpecting and unprotected back. Sasuke was sent blasting into a tree with a mighty thud, his nose cracking on impact as Hinata screeched like a banshee, "WHO ARE YOU CALLING A BITCH, PUSSY?!"
Baki ignored the blood dripping down his face and let out a guffaw of laughter as Sasuke cradled his matching bleeding nose, "Oh damn! Karma's a bitch ain't it!" Sasuke had no retort as Hinata spat some more obscenities at him that'd make a sailor blush. He was only saved from the verbal lashing by the less than timely intervention of Iruka and Mizuki. The pair of Chunin shared shell shocked expressions at the words flying from Hinata's mouth, so much so they only escorted Sasuke to the infimary without dishing out any disciplinary repercussion to the other two parties involved.
Hinata simmered down from a white hot rage to a manageable smoldering anger before turning her attention back towards Baki. The blonde had whipped away the blood from his face, and had an clearly amused expression about him. He gave her a grin and chuckled, "Don't insult the heiress, duly noted." The Hyuga heiress harrumphed at his attempt of a joke before seeing the state of her forgotten meal, now spread across the ground. She frowned deeply and muttered quietly, "I'm still hungry."
Her now dubbed lapdog smiled coyly and reached for his bag, "That reminds me, I made something for you. It was your birthday the other day, so this kind of works out pretty well." Hinata watched as he pulled a small Tupperware container from his bag and presented it towards her. She gently reached out and accepted it, mumbling with a small smile. "Oh, you didn't have to..." Hinata's words fell upon quivering lips as the lid slid off revealing something more precious than gold. Hinata's hands trembled as she stuttered in barely contained astonishment, "Y-Y-you m-made t-this?"
Baki gave her a bright smile and a thumbs up gesture, "A-huh, it took a couple tries but I think I nailed it this go-around. Baking isn't exactly my forte, but I figured it out. It's all yours, Hi-" He trailed off as Hinata began devouring a large homemade cinnamon roll with intimate gusto not appropriate for a girl of only thirteen years old. Wisely turning his attention away from the...entranced girl, Baki gazed towards the retreating forms of Kiba and his cohorts, the likes of whom had thought they had gotten out of this debacle scot-free. Feeling the blood matted shirt over his man-boobs, Baki refused to let that slide. His chunky feet padded the ground softly as he gave idle pursuit after the Inuzuka clan heir, a mean smirk growing on his face.
There was more than one way to skin a cat...or dog.
End of Chapter 1