Chapter 6
Sakura held her brother's hand as he walked her to the park. He had his academy exams soon and was busy the last few days so she was very happy that he could take her to the park again. The last time she went she had to play with Sasuke. Ugh, she doesn't like him at all. But he's Itachi-nii's brother so she sees him quite often. She liked her brother's best friend. Unlike his younger brother, Itachi-nii is cool and calm. He doesn't boast about his shuriken practice every day and most importantly, he makes Katsu-nii smile. And laugh. So she likes him.
Still not worth playing with Sasuke though.
"I'm going to go and visit Kabuto, he said he had some things he wants to try out, you sure you'll be okay for an hour or so?" Bakugou asked looking down at Sakura who was walking beside him.
"Yes! Maybe I'll make a friend or something, can we have sushi for dinner tonight? Yours is better than what daddy makes." she said happily, which made Bakugou wince thinking of how his father will react to his 'speciality' being indirectly insulted. Probably with a lot of tears and dramatics.
"Don't tell dad you said that and I'll make it yeah?"
"Deal!"
After he left her at the park with a final ruffle on the head Sakura looked around. The swings were already occupied but the sandbox was mostly empty. She decided to try and make a tower with the sand. She started to quietly work on her own game, the feel of sand between her fingers felt weird, but also fun! Some time later, a girl approached her with a haughty look on her face.
"Hey, you're the girl who was playing with Sasuke-kun before right?" the brown-haired girl said and Sakura frowned, already thinking that if that emo has pissed them off then it's not her problem. She wasn't his keeper
"..Yeah." she hesitantly replied because she was playing with him some time back, though it couldn't exactly be called playing with his exclamations of 'Of course Itachi-nii can do it! He's the best." and "I can hit eight out of ten shurikens on the board every time." every two minutes.
"Why would he play with you? You're a civilian." she sniffed and Sakura glared at her.
"I don't know, go ask him." she went back to her sandbox with that, already suspecting how this was going to go.
Katsu-nii told her that some clan children are mean for no reason but when you're strong they all shut up. Katsu-nii is strong, but Sakura is not. He says she'll be strong once she starts the academy and that he was weak before that as well. He also says that she shouldn't listen to extras so she decided these girls are not worth her time.
"Just because he played with you doesn't mean you're better than me!" Why would she make these two things related anyway? She didn't even know this girls name.
"He probably did because you're so weird and he's kind. Your hair is pink." Sakura knew her hair is pink and that it's too distinguishable, but she'll be so strong that she doesn't have to hide from the villains who're trying to hurt her or her friends so there.
"And your forehead is so big!"
"I could probably write a whole paragraph on it!"
They kept speaking and laughing to themselves and Sakura felt her eyes watering. She knows her forehead is big, they don't need to repeat it. She might be unique with the pink hair and the giant forehead but everyone is with their own features
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE 'TTEBAYO!" someone yelled from the other side of the park and Sakura turned to look at the voice. It was a blonde girl with whisker markings and spiky hair, and ocean coloured eyes.
"My mom told me to stay away from her."
"Yeah let's go, she's only trouble." the other girls whispered to themselves before leaving. Sakura was once again left alone in the sandbox with the blonde girl who stood up for her standing a few feet away.
"Hiya! I'm Uzumaki Naruto dattebayo, don't listen to those meanies, they're just jealous cause your hair is so bright and pretty," she said with a laugh and Sakura looked at her with wide eyes.
"Do you want to play with me?" she asked, gesturing to the sand tower in front of her. Naruto looked a little surprised and pointed to herself, "With me?" Sakura nodded.
"Uhh, the others won't want to play with you if they see you playing with me I think..." the other girl trailed off, her voice getting smaller, compared to the cheerful and bright tone before, she sounded really really sad.
"I don't want to play with them, they're mean." she shrugged.
"OKAY!" and the happy expression from earlier was back again making Sakura smile herself. "So what are we gonna play? Did you make this? So cool! Hey! Do you wanna play ninja?"
------
Kabuto was a weird person. Like really weird. And Bakugou knew one Kaminari Denki and one Sero Hanta. The first time he had met that guy had been during a weekly check-in at Oreo's lab where he went to demonstrate his workings with the various types of equipment and leave a day worth of food because that mad scientist totally forgot to feed himself again. He was just setting the bento on one of the table's when a boy with white hair appeared there wearing glasses entirely too big for his face.
Orochimaru introduced him as Yakushi Kabuto, his new lab assistant. Assistant? He was barely a year or two older to himself and as scared as a squeaky mouse. Why would Oreo want to keep him around was beyond him. Whatever suited him he supposed.
It didn't take long before he found out exactly why the snake sannin kept him around. Kabuto's personality did a three-sixty whenever he was engrossed in a project or assignment and he was ferocious enough to scare even the older servants when they did something inadequately. Like leaving things in the wrong section, mislabeling the pieces, forgetting to align them alphabetically. Kabuto told him he had graduated from the academy but failed the genin exam, he was assigned to the genin pool when he was found by Orochimaru who took him under his wing.
Bakugou could tell is was an obvious lie, he didn't become one of the strongest heroes without knowing to look for subtle behavioural patterns. Though he simply hummed and accepted it, he wasn't too curious about how the boy had come across Oreo. He himself met the man while trying to set the training ground on fire and then the other stuck around like a leech.
After he was done with his business at the lab, he headed over to the Uchiha compound. The guards at the gate were familiar with him visiting almost every day and didn't even bat an eye when he approached the main house. The tensions around the compound had lessened significantly since the first time he visited his friend's house three years ago. Itachi said it was because the Hokage had removed the ANBU stationed there as guards and everyone felt a little more relaxed.
"Hello, Mikoto-obasan. Is Itachi ready? We planned to go over our notes for the exam together." he said as the Uchiha matriarch opened the door. She smiled and told him to wait for a minute as she fetched her son.
"Good morning, Katsuki. Are you done meeting Kabuto-san?" the raven asked as he put on his sandals, an excited looking Sasuke jumping behind him asking to go too.
"Hn. Let's go, Sakura's at the park so we have to pick her up first." Itachi hummed and the two of them walked to the park in silence, letting the warm sunshine hit them even as the chilly winter winds blew. Bakugou didn't like winters, it was harder to utilize his quirk in the cool weather. Though now he had not just that to rely on, but also chakra. Which was pretty neat too.
One more semester and then Sakura would enter the academy, just another year or so and then he'd graduate. Becoming the number one ninja was closer each passing day and this time he enjoyed the journey rather than fixating towards a single goal.