[The Fox and the Hare] Chapter 20 - Internship (1) (Patreon)

"Is that the fox boy from UA High?" a man asked in surprise when he saw a  blond-haired boy with fox ears and three tails coming down from the  train with two large suitcases in his hands.

"Whoa... It's Uzumaki  Naruto, in person!" a girl shouted and people from all over the train  platform rushed at the wagon from which Naruto came out, crowding the  exit and effectively surrounding him from all sides.

"May I shake your hand?"

"Could you sign this t-shirt for my son, please?"

Not  expecting to get mobbed by nearly a hundred people right as he came out  from the train, Naruto was at a loss of how to react. He knew he had  become very famous but he had not thought it would be to that degree.  What he had failed to realize, however, was that people in Musutafu city  were somewhat used to seeing Pro Hero celebrities on a daily basis  because UA High was located there and quite a few famous Heroes like  Mount Lady or Kamui lived there too. But Hiroshima City was over 600 km  away from Musutafu and the only famous Pro Hero living there was Mirko,  the rest being rather minor Hero Agencies and their sidekicks.  Therefore, when news of Naruto choosing the Rabbit Hero's agency for his  internship was somehow leaked to the public, dozens of fanboys and  fangirls gathered at the train station, waiting for him.

It took  Naruto nearly fifteen minutes of shaking hands and giving autographs  before he finally got out of their encirclement. By the time he escaped,  his fox tails looked like the chainsaws from how people fondled them  and there was even a lipstick mark on his cheek too. At that moment, he  looked more like an irate cat rather than a fox.

'That's sexual harassment! What the hell is wrong with these people?!' he thought as he grabbed his suitcases and broke into a run.

⁂

"Is  this really the place?" Naruto muttered to himself as he looked at the  GPS map app on his phone to double-check that he was at the right  address and then back at the apartment building in front of him.

It  looked like a residential district where regular people lived, there  were no signs of an agency belonging to one of the top 10 most popular  Pro Heroes in the country.

"But why her?! Mirko doesn't have a real hero agency and she's never taken a side-kick before!" - he recalled Mina saying that two days ago. He had thought that she  said that merely out of jealousy but there seemed to be more to it than  that.

"Oh well," Naruto shrugged and put his phone in his pocket before grabbing his suitcases and going inside the building.

He  had chosen the Rabbit Hero as his mentor not because he cared about  fancy buildings and facilities but because their quirks and fighting  styles were similar. At that moment, what he cared about the most was  increasing his strength.

Reaching the topmost floor of the  building, Naruto stopped in front of a black metallic door with the  number 380 on it and a white plaque on which it was written: "Tiger  Bunny Hero Agency" and a cellphone number.

"One moment!" a yell came from inside after he rang the doorbell.

A cacophony of sounds was heard and the walls shuddered a little as a door had been slammed shut.

Half  a minute later, the entrance door was opened, revealing Mirko - no,  Usagiyama Rumi, seeing as she was not dressed in her Pro Hero suit.  Instead, all she was wearing was a pair of white bunny slippers on her  feet, black dolphin shorts, and a green crop top shirt that left her  midriff open, showing off her ripped abs.

"You're finally here!"  she said but then her face broke into a wide grin when he took in his  dishevelled appearance and the smudged lipstick mark on his face. "What  happened to you? Hahaha!"

"May I come in?" Naruto said, feeling a  wave of tiredness washing over him just at the reminder of what the  crowd of fans had put him through when he got out of the train.

⁂

Naruto's  parents were not poor, the Uzumaki were a successful middle-class  family. However, it was the first time he stepped into an apartment as  luxurious as Mirko's home. He didn't know much about furniture and  fashion trends so all he could think was that it looked expensive as  fuck. It was just as one would expect from an apartment on the topmost  floor of a high-rise building in the centre of the city.

"Let me  help you with that," Rumi said, playing the role of a good host but she  nearly dropped the suitcase when she grabbed it from his hands. She had  not expected it to be that heavy. "What the hell are you carrying with  you, millstones?"

Naruto chuckled at her rough language. "I have a lot of weapons."

Once  he took off his shoes and his suitcases were left somewhere to the  side, Rumi led the way to the living room and invited him to sit on a  black leather sofa.

"So, this is your agency headquarters?" Naruto  asked as he looked around the room, his eyes lingering on the tall and  wide windows that offered a breathtaking view of Hiroshima's cityscape.

"I  won't beat around the bush, this is my home. 'Tiger Bunny' is a Hero  Agency in name only, I'm the only member," she said with a shrug and  took a seat next to him.

Naruto felt his skin breaking out into  goosebumps as a fruity scent mixed up with a light smell of sweat wafted  from her when she sat down. It looked like before he arrived she  must've done some physical effort because the temperature in the  apartment was cool and nice thanks to the AC running in the background.

"There  are no special facilities for combat or fitness, no support-type  employees, no office-type personnel either. It's just you and me.  Disappointed yet?" she said with a grin.

"I came here for you, not for buildings or for other people," he said.

"Not  bad. I knew I was right to send you an offer!" she said with a grin a  punched him lightly in the shoulder. "But why did you choose my agency?  I'm sure you must've had thousands of other offers, some of them even  from the United States."

"We both have animal-type quirks and  you're great at close-quarter combat. I think that out of all the  heroes, you're the best suited to teach me. And I also know you're  strong, much stronger than me. I saw what you did to that Nomu at USJ."

Rumi shook her head at his words.

"You're  being too harsh on yourself. That Nomu creature was very strong, it was  a counter for physical types like us. Frankly speaking, you were  incredible to have fought against it for so long. If it hadn't been  weakened from his fight with you, I'm sure it wouldn't have been easy  for me to beat it."

After saying that, she hopped up to her feet  and clapped her hands once. "Alright, now, let me show you your room.  We'll probably not spend the entire week here but still, it's good to  have a place where you can get comfortable."

⁂

After  Naruto unpacked his things and familiarized himself with the guest room  he went looking for Rumi. He found her in the living room, sitting on  the sofa and munching on a carrot as she browsed the internet on her  laptop.

"You really like carrots?"

He had thought that that was something that fans had made up about her.

"I'm a rabbit," she said and shrugged. "Did you finish unpacking?"

"Yes, I'm done. So what do I do now? What is your plan?"

"Today,  we won't do any hero work. I want to see exactly what you're capable  of. I want to gauge your abilities myself and then we can discuss what  you need to improve on. But of course, if something urgent comes up,  that will take priority so be prepared at all times."

⁂

Six hundred kilometres away, the Bakugo family was in the living room, all three of them, watching the news on tv.

"Katsuki, go see who's ringing the doorbell."

"Hell if I care, go see for yourself!"

A heavy smack twisted his head to the side.

"What are you hitting me for, old woman, I'll kill you!" Bakugo screamed at his mother.

"Shut  your trap and do what I say!" she yelled back at him and smacked him  upside the head once again. "You do nothing around the house, just  loafing around like a freeloader!"

"There's no need for arguing,  I'll go see it myself. Just calm down in the meantime," Katsuki's father  said, trying to placate them only for his son to scream at him:

"Shut up, you shitty old man! You want me to kick your ass?"

A third heavy slap from his mother almost made Katsuki see stars.

"And  that's exactly what got you expelled! You never learn your lesson, do  you?! How many times have I told you to keep your temper in check? I  told you your behaviour won't get a pass once you go to UA!" she yelled  at him.

"And who did I get my temper from, huh? It was from you!"

While  the mother and son duo were screaming at each other, the father went to  the door to see who was ringing the bell so insistently.

"Good afternoon. How may I help you?" he asked.

The  visitors were two men in their mid-thirties. Wearing similar black  suits, shoes, and shades, the two of them looked like they were part of a  secret organisation.

"Hello. We are Hatake Kakashi and Yamato  Shimura from the Hero Public Safety Commission," one of the two men -  the one with spiky silver hair - said and they both showed him their  badges confirming their identity. "We would like to discuss some matters  concerning your son."

"Um, sure, please, come in," Mr Bakugo said as he opened the door wider to welcome them in.

⁂

Once the introductions were over and they were all sitting in the living room, Mrs Bakugo asked:

"So what is it you wanted to talk about? Did this idiot son of mine get into trouble again?"

"Who  are you calling an idiot, you old hag?" Katsuki screamed at his mother  but she ignored him in favour of hearing what the two agents from HPSC  had to say.

"None of that sort, ma'am," the silver-haired man  said. "We are here to make you a special offer. Yamato, if you will-"  Kakashi said and gestured to his brown-haired colleague.

"I'll  start by saying that Katsuki Bakugo was a promising prospect, one of the  top 5 students among the freshmen at UA High this year. Seeing as it's  the most popular and successful Hero Course High School in the country,  all promising students have many eyes on them, whether we're talking  about Hero Agencies or the government. Unfortunately, his misconduct put  a big black spot on his record."

The three Bakugo did not  interrupt him as they all agreed with his words inwardly. There were  many other Hero Course schools in Japan besides UA but being expelled  from UA High was always going to drag Katsuki down in the future when he  applied to work as a sidekick at a Hero Agency.

"UA High's  response to Katsuki Bakugo's misconduct had been rather harsh but I  can't exactly blame them either in the light of recent events. Had it  been another time, your son would have only been suspended for a week or  two and gotten detention. But with the disaster at USJ a few weeks ago  and with the entire country watching UA's every move, they had to show  that they would not tolerate any danger to their students' safety -  whether from outside or from inside."

"Would you get straight to the point already?" Katsuki screamed impatiently. "I don't have all day to hear you blabber about-"

Katsuki suddenly went mute when the silver-haired man glanced at him.

"You've already dug yourself a big hole. Don't make it any deeper."

Kakashi's  tone was calm but the aura of intimidation that Katsuki Bakugo felt  from him was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. Even when the  villains attacked them at USJ he had not been as scared and disturbed as  he was now.

It wasn't only Katsuki who noticed the change in the mood, his parents became wary of the two agents from HPSC as well.

"That  was uncalled for, Kakashi," Yamato said in slight annoyance. "But,  getting straight to the point, we are here to extend you an invitation."

As  he said that, he opened his black envelope and took out a sheet of  paper from it before putting it on the coffee table and pushing it  towards them.

Katsuki was about to take it but his mother snatched the piece of paper before he could get his hands on it and read it first.

"ROOT  special services... what is this supposed to mean? I've never heard of  it." Mrs Bakugo said, her eyebrows scrunched together in a frown.

"ROOT  is a special branch of the Hero Public Safety Commission that deals  with sensitive matters and tasks that cannot be performed by regular Pro  Heroes and other government officials," Yamato explained.

"My  goal is to become the No 1 Hero in Japan not to be part of some shady  organisation that nobody even heard about," Katsuki said but he kept the  tone of voice civil this time instead, Kakashi's earlier intimidation  having worked wonders.

"It is good to have dreams and aspirations  but there comes a point where one has to be realistic about their  options. And that moment has come for you now too, young man," Kakashi  said in the same calm tone as before.

"Kakashi-," Yamato tried to tell him off but Kakashi raised a hand as a sign to leave it to him.

"Being  expelled from UA is not the end of the world, indeed, but you will have  a hard time getting into any of the top-ranked Hero Course academies in  the country because everyone knows now the reason you got expelled,"  Kakashi said. "You attacked a fellow student outside of school  unprovoked and injured him to the point where he got hospitalized. You  need to understand that having a powerful quirk is only half of what  someone needs to become a Pro Hero. Good behaviour and a marketable  personality are just as important - and you don't have that. You are  rude, reckless, stubborn, and violent. You are like a ticking bomb that  nobody wants to own. You have to realize that your options are limited  at the moment."

"Why do you show so much interest in my son?" Mrs Bakugo asked warily.

"That  is our job, ma'am," Yamato replied this time. "We care not only about  Katsuki Bakugo but all the gifted children. Too many misguided children  with powerful quirks have gone astray and become a danger to ordinary  people and society."

"Are you saying that my son is going to become a villain?" she said, her voice starting to show signs of anger.

"He  just attacked a student a few days ago and left him with severe burns  in the hospital," Kakashi said plainly. "If he did something like that  at 15, what would he do in a few years? And it's not like this was a  one-time thing. We've also investigated his behaviour in middle school  and there are more than a dozen instances where he beat up other kids or  used his quirk in public and caused propriety damage."

Mrs Bakugo  had nothing to reply to that. As a mother, she wanted to take her son's  side but she wasn't completely blind to his flaws either. It was only  that until Katsuki's most recent misdeed, he had not done anything too  problematic. Until then, she had just chalked his behaviour up to "kids  being kids" and hoped that he would naturally grow out of it as he  matured.

The tone of his voice becoming kinder, Kakashi continued:  "Right now, your son is still protected by the law due to being  underage but he needs to understand that his actions have consequences.  This is no longer just about being a bully and messing around with other  kids. He possesses a powerful and highly dangerous quirk, one that  could easily cause someone's death. If your son was three years older he  could be charged with aggravated assault or even attempted murder for  what he did to that boy. Being sentenced to 10 or 15 years behind the  bars for something like that isn't a stretch either."

Hearing  Kakashi's words, Mr and Mrs Bakugo became pale in the face. Katsuki  Bakugo too couldn't find anything to say, his eyes betraying the shock  he felt. Reckless and impulsive as he was, he had not considered the  consequences of his actions when he attacked Shinso - all he wanted was  to get even with him and avenge his loss at the Sports Festival,  unsatisfied with how he lost. He had not thought much of it because,  after all, he used to beat up and bully people every day in middle  school and he had never suffered any repercussions. In the heat of the  moment, however, he failed to control his strength properly and Shinso  was gravely injured as a result - aside from his Brainwashing Quirk,  Hitoshi Shinso was just a regular 15-year-old boy, he didn't have any  sort of special defence abilities against the equivalent of a hand  grenade exploding in his face.

"You don't have to decide on the  spot," Yamato said and took out a business card from his chest pocket.  "You can contact us at a later date after you've made up your mind."

⁂ Back to Hiroshima Prefecture ⁂

Later  that day, Naruto and Mirko were standing with their backs resting  against the wall of a wooden cabin, drinking cola and eating some  chocolate bars to replenish the energy that they had lost.

"My  legs are all sore and beaten up. Damned kid, are you really only 15?"  Mirko complained as she massaged her thighs and calves with her hands.  Her otherwise strong and thick thighs were covered in bruises and her  shapely calves were red too.

They had sparred against each other  using only their martial arts skills and Naruto had chosen the perfect  strategy to counter her. Against an opponent as agile as the Rabbit  Hero, the key was to take away their movement - it was a martial arts  principle that remained relevant since the early days of MMA a few  centuries ago, up until the present. So he took on a counterstriking  strategy, focusing on defending against her blows and attacking her legs  with low kicks whenever she left herself open.

That is not to say  that Naruto had come out of it unscathed. His forearms were tender and  pulsating with pain from all the kicks that he had blocked - Mirko  seemed to like going for the head with her kicks - and he considered  himself lucky his ribs weren't broken from the crushing blows he had  eaten.

"My mom used to be a dojo instructor before she got pregnant, she's the one that made me train since I was a little kid."

"...No  matter how I look at it, you don't get that kind of fighting skill in  just a few years," Mirko said. "But you did great. You didn't absorb  many flush hits, your guard was up at all times, and you were very  technical with your counterstriking. Honestly, I don't have anything to  teach you when it comes to regular fighting. So I'm going to focus on  developing your quirk from tomorrow onwards."

"But we still have a few hours until the sunset," Naruto said.

"Are you, by chance, a training maniac?" she tilted her head at him and asked.

Naruto scratched the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

"I  just wanna make the most out of this internship. One week is already  not enough for me to learn everything, I can't afford to slack off..."

"That's  what you're worried about? Starting with the second year, once you get  your Provisional Licence, you'll be able to spend even 3 months at a  time on an internship," she said and ruffled his hair.

Him leaning away from her in annoyance only made her grin at him.

"We're  both beat up so let's get some rest for today. Right, how about I take  you out to yakiniku to celebrate your first day at Tiger Bunny?"

Naruto involuntarily started sniggering at the name of the agency.

"How did you come up with that name?"

Mirko snickered too as she stood up and said:

"Let's get going, I'll tell you on the road."

After they left the courtyard and Mirko closed the gates, the two of them broke into a light jog towards the city.

"I  bought this cabin a few months ago, not long after I broke into the top  10 rankings. I liked the peace and the quiet of this village and I was  planning on turning it into a holiday home," Mirko began to say. Despite  her earlier claims of being tired, her breathing was even and calm as  if she was walking instead of running. "It's a nice place. Only a few  kilometres away from the city but still remote enough that you rarely  see any cars outside of the hours when people go to work and come back."

"It's pretty nice, yes," Naruto acknowledged.

"Tsk.  A kid like you wouldn't understand an adult's need for a place to  retreat from the noise and chaos of their daily life," Mirko said.  "Anyway, Tiger Bunny. I actually got this nickname in high school during  my delinquent days."

"What? No way!" Naruto said while laughing and Mirko laughed together with him too.

"I'm serious. Ah, I sometimes miss those days! I used to love crushing other districts' school gangs and making them call me Aneki. Hahaha!"

At first, he thought she was joking but the joy he could hear in her laughter was a bit too pure to not be real.

"But I wouldn't change it for my present. Beating up villains to a pulp is far more satisfying."

The more she was speaking, the more he got the feeling that Mirko might not be exactly normal.

"Imagine if some reporters heard what you said now," Naruto said with a chuckle.

"Hey,  I get to help people, beat the crap out of scumbags, and even get paid  for it - what's not to love about being a hero?" she said and snickered.

Naruto  laughed awkwardly at her words. What she said was no different than  what he had told his mother on the morning before the start of the  Sports Festival when she asked him if he was afraid of fighting against  villains:

"Of course I'm not!" he said as if it was the most  obvious thing in the world. "Why would I be? Getting to beat up people  and even getting paid for it? Hell yeah!"

Naruto thinking that the Rabbit Hero was not normal was like the kettle calling the pot black.

⁂

Around  half an hour later, after taking a quick shower and blow-drying his  hair and his tails, Naruto came out of the bathroom wearing only a pair  of black shorts and an orange t-shirt with a number 10 imprint on its  back. But on his way to his room, he noticed another door in the hallway  with an A4 sheet of paper on which it was written in red:

DO NOT OPEN!

It  could be due to his fox quirk's influence or maybe it was due to him  being curious as a person, but he could not simply ignore that sign.  Looking to the left and then to the right to make sure Mirko wasn't  around, Naruto pushed the door open.

It was stuck. It wasn't  locked, the door could be opened but not more than a few centimetres.  Grabbing the door frame with both hands for leverage, he pushed the door  with his feet as hard as he could. A sound of many things falling onto  each other was heard as he pushed the door open and, in the next moment,  a mountain of things flooded out of the room through the half-opened  door like an avalanche, burying him underneath.

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

AN: Just a reminder: Bakugo's rude way of speaking to his parents is 100% canon.

I've also attached a pic with Mirko's appearance in this chapter. I do not own this pic, it belongs to the artist GuD0c from deviantart.