Chapter 5
Bakugou woke up the next day in a better mood than usual. His parents had returned home early morning and though he hated to admit it, he missed them a lot. So did Sakura, considering she hadn't left their father's lap all morning. They asked him all about his week and school and were ecstatic when he begrudgingly admitted to making a friend. They were even happier when they learnt he was going over to his house for lunch today.
His mother offered to make something he could take over to their house but Bakugou quickly shot her down. He could see she was still tired and despite what it seemed, he was not a complete dimwit in cases of social meetings. He had made a Chocolate Raspberry Clafoutis in the morning. It was a french delicacy Aoyama had begged him to make for his birthday. The lack of options for desserts in the ninja world was shocking. He packed away some to take to the Uchiha compound and divided the rest for dinner and to give to Orochimaru. For a snake, the man sure did love sweets.
He said goodbye to his parents before leaving for the academy, they had physical assessments today which meant Bakugou wasn't about to skip. Fighting was the only part he liked about school, even if it was against a couple of small fries. He hesitated for a second before grabbing his new black gloves and putting them on. Even if he didn't have the required chakra control to utilise them to their full potential, they still helped to lessen the recoil of the blasts.
He sat on his usual seat beside Itachi, grunting in greeting before putting his head down to sleep. He woke up real early today. Itachi woke him up when their teacher started taking attendance. Once that was done with they lined up and went to the training area of the academy and started on their daily stretches before the matches began. These were supposed to count for thirty per cent of their final grade. Hideki sensei briefed them on the rules of the match before he started calling the pairs one by one. Bakugou mostly ignored the other matches, the ones between clan kids and civilian borns did not even last for a few minutes.
He absently wondered what was the point of them attending the academy if they did not care to catch up to their peers? According to Itachi a lot of civilians joined the academy because education for them was free and most of them had misconceptions about the job as a ninja and were seemingly blind to the harsh realities of war and death. Most of them dropped out in the later years or failed the genin exams and were sent back. It was a waste of resources in Bakugou's opinion. What was the use of spending years on children who're ultimately going to drop out? And what was the use of training for years when you're not going to make the required effort?
He was broken from his thoughts when Itachi's name was called, he was up against some no-name extra that Bakugou didn't know. "Don't lose, magic eyes," he called out and the said boy gave him a small smile. "Please don't call me that in front of my clan members, we are very proud of the Sharingan," he said quickly and left for his fight. Bakugou rolled his eyes but nodded, he thought this was bad? Kaminari had called him boom-boom-sparky-boy. How he missed his friends.
The fight, as expected, didn't even last a minute as Itachi completely overpowered his opponent by getting him under a headlock just as they charged at each other. How boring. The raven himself seemed disappointed by the lack of challenge. It was after another thirty minutes or so when Bakugou was called forward. His opponent was Hyuuga Hagakure, and though she shared the name, she was nothing like his friend from UA had been. For starters, for some reason, she absolutely avoided Bakugou at all costs, and not even for the 'i am shy and have a crush on you' reason. He did not know what the reason was and he didn't care enough to find out. He only knew because Itachi had pointed it out to him one day.
Anyway, he wasn't about to spend time thinking about her behaviour, he had a match to win. "All the best, Katsuki-san," he heard his friend say and nodded to him before making way to the clearing.
"All right, start when you're ready," Hideki sensei called out and both of them made the seal of confrontation before the Hyuuga girl charged at him, she had her own version of magic eyes on and came at him with a flat palm outstretched. He followed her movement and sidestepped the attacks, blocking the hits with his own. She managed to land a hit on his arm which completely cut off his chakra from that area. Oh, he remembered something about Tenketsu points and the Byakugan's ability to see them. Shit, he should've paid attention in class.
Deciding not to waste any more time he decided to use a small blast to send her flying back. Their class went silent, Bakugou had never used his quirk in the academy before, not counting the day he realised he still had it. He could hear whispers amongst his classmates but he didn't pay them any mind.
"How? I blocked your chakra on the right arm," she frowned as she stood back up, eyeing him wearily. "It doesn't need chakra," he replied before sending a slightly bigger blast at her which she narrowly avoided. Not wanting to delay the fight, because his arm hurt dammit, he sent a blow to her feet and pushed her down to her stomach when he jumped to avoid it.
"Winner, Haruno Katsuki," the teacher called out and he stepped back, making the seal of reconciliation before going back to where he was standing.
"Mah, you shouldn't have gone so hard on her," a boy said and he turned to face him, what was his name again? By the corner of his eye, he could see Hagakure clenching her fist as she looked at the said boy.
"Why?" he asked.
"Don't you know you're not supposed to hit girls, it's rude,"
Bakugou actually snorted at that, "Are you stupid? The enemy doesn't care about your gender before attacking. If I held back I would've lost," he huffed. Hagakure was looking at him with shocked eyes, not understanding what was wrong he turned to Itachi with a questioning gaze. He heard Hideki sensei start the next match in the background.
"Hagakure is a member of the main house Hyuuga, though not the heir she is expected to be a level above everyone else here. It is quite possible that the reason Hideki-sensei was assigned to our class is because she is in it, he is a branch house Hyuuga. Losing to you, a civilian born would be hard for her to deal with. But since you admitted to going all out against her publicly" he paused in his speech for a second, "Though I know you didn't go all out, since I have burns to prove that," he shook his head, "Anyway, because of that things might be less difficult for her." He finished.
"That doesn't even make any sense," he scoffed.
"A lot of things don't."
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"We gotta stop by Oreo's house first," Bakugou said as they walked to the Uchiha compound. Itachi raised his brow but nodded and they stopped by his lab. His assistant at this point knew them quite well ushered them inside with a wave of his hand.
"I bought you clafoutis," he said and dropped the bag on his shelf.
"Mhm," came the distracted reply and Bakugou sighed before leaving a note saying what was inside the bag. They left soon after that, knowing that the older man won't pay any attention to them unless he was finished with whatever he was working on.
"You and Orochimaru-sama have such a strange relationship," Itachi commented as they entered the compound gates.
"And you speak like an old man, you're seven, magic- uh, extra,"
They reached the main house nested near the very end of the clan compound and Itachi knocked, a minute later a woman who strikingly resembled the said boy opened the door.
"Ah Welcome home, Itachi-kun, you must be Katsuki-kun, yes? she said with a smile and Bakugou nodded, "It's good to meet you, Mikoto-san," he replied with a bow and Itachi turned to look at him, Bakugou almost smiled. He wasn't an idiot, Mitsuki had taken him to many fancy dinners in his past life and his mom wasn't shy about beating etiquette into his head.
"I bought some clafoutis for dessert," he added and held forward the bag which she took with a bigger smile, "Oh! You're so polite, thank you dear, I must admit I haven't heard of this before. Itachi, show your friend to the washroom, clean your hands and feet, I'll set the table," she said and Itachi nodded mutely.
He was looking at Bakugou strangely the whole time they were cleaning up. "What, magic eyes? I can be polite," he snorted.
"Dad is the head of the Konoha Military Police Force as you know, you could ask him questions you have regarding joining and applications," he changed the topic quickly.
"Hn."
"Come on, mother is waiting."
When they reached the dining room Mikoto and a man, who he supposed was Itachi's dad were already sitting in their respective seats.
Itachi went to sit at his father's left and Bakugou sat beside him. The table was awkwardly silent until Mikoto broke the silence with casual chatter, "Itachi has told us you want to join the police force in the future?"
Bakugou was tempted to give 'Itachi' a look, did he tell every fucking thing in his life to his parents?
"Yes. That's a faraway goal though," he replied with a small shrug.
"Oh?" Fugaku asked, a gesture to elaborate.
"Mhm," Bakugou wasn't keen on sharing his life goals with strangers, thank you very much.
"Your compound is almost segregated from the village, shouldn't the police force be in the heart of the village to work properly?" he diverted the subject and suddenly the atmosphere in the room wasn't as light or carefree. Ah, so the rumours of the Kyuubi attack were effecting the Uchiha.
"After the attack, the compounds were given different locations," by the tone of his voice he wasn't too happy with it. Bakugou hummed in response, not wanting to say too serious, he wasn't going to end up involved in clan politics.
"Nii-san!" a shrill voice came from the door and a little boy wobbled into the room. Mikoto immediately got up to pick him up and placed him on a high chair. Itachi smiled at him fondly and turned to Bakugou, "That's Sasuke, my Ototo,"
Bakugou looked at the happy baby and back at Itachi, "He looks like you already, God knows we don't need another seven-year-old old man in this world." he chuckled. Seemingly he wasn't as quiet as he thought as Mikoto let out a laugh.
"He is rather serious for his age isn't he?" she said good-naturedly, "I'm glad Itachi-kun has friends like you, he was always such antisocial child,"
"Mother!" Itachi didn't whine but it was a close thing, his ear red.
Bakugou didn't really know how to respond to that and simply nodded. Why are these people so emotionally closed off? And there were a hundred Uchiha's in this compound, was it a surprise the boy was antisocial.
"Hn. Itachi has shown remarkable progress in this year, as expected of my son, I think he will be ready to graduate in a year or so," The clan head remarked and Bakugou blinked, was that a compliment? Didn't sound right, "I believe he has told us you've defeated him multiple times, I suppose you will go for an early graduation as well?" he asked.
"No, not at all, not until I'm like, ten or something at least," he replied without a moment's hesitation. The man looked genuinely surprised. "Why?"
"Because no matter how strong I am, my body is seven and has its own limit. I don't want to advance quickly only to have health issues later on" he said looking at the older man, "Plus Sakura's gonna start the academy when she's six so I wanna be there to see it," he added as an afterthought. Itachi looked as if he just now realised his younger brother would be joining the academy as well. "I think I should wait until I'm older as well, after all, we are not at war," he said. Fugaku frowned but remained quiet.
"I support that, there is no need for children to be sent to missions, no matter how skilled," Mikoto spoke up and everyone looked at her, her expression bore to arguments and it seemed as if it was final, no graduating early. Good, he'd rather not have the only acceptable person in school get himself killed.
"I see. Would you care to spar with Itachi? I'd like to see your progress and the Uchiha clan has many training grounds,"
"Maybe some other time," he replied absently while eating.
There was a moment of silence when what he said caught up to his brain, ah crap, and he was doing so well. "Uh, I don't fight after a meal, and I have to like, be home afterwards. Maybe later," he added. He thought he heard Itachi snicker and turned to glare at him which made the boy concentrate solely on his food.
"I'll bring out the dessert, we don't usually have sweets until after dinner, but I guess we can make an exception today," Mikoto chirped and divided the clafoutis into equal servings, giving a very small part to Sasuke who ate it messily.
"...This is really good, I've never had this before, your mother is a really good cook!" she said after taking a bite. Bakugou frowned, again with the gender norms.
"Thank you, I made that myself actually," he said and she looked at him with wide eyes, "You bake?" she asked and he shrugged, he liked cooking in general, baking was a part of it.
"Yeah, your son eats half of my sweets actually, it's a wonder his teeth haven't fallen off," he said and Itachi squeaked while Mikoto laughed. Even the stoic clan head seemed amused.
"He does have an awful sweet tooth, with the decrease in his demands for Dango I thought he is getting over it. Turns out he found a new chef, eh Itachi?" she directed the last part to him and the clan heir scowled, determinedly not looking up from his plate.
The rest of the event was pleasant enough.
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Omake (idea by @/UndecidedAnimeGirl on ao3)
Danzo looked at his root agent with a raised brow, "Well?"
"We observed Orochimaru for the whole day, he spent all his time creating something called the 'sneakers', he packed the final product and took it with him but we found a spare in his lab and bought it for further investigation, Danzo-sama," the woman bowed and spoke tonelessly.
Danzo smiled in satisfaction, Orochimaru was too valuable to make an enemy off. He might not be useful in the development of the Hashirama cells now but he was a genius. According to the reports of his agents this 'sneakers' was supposed to be something to be worn on the foot. What was it's secret though? Why was it so special? Important enough to get the crazy Sannin's full focus.
His eyes brightened with glee, he now had a 'sneaker' in his possession. He would make sure to unravel all it's secrets and put it to use!
"Kana, get the sneaker to the top security locker, we will need someone to properly investigate it later, make sure it is locked tightly and kept safe,"
"Hai, Danzo-sama."