Chapter 46 - Finals

Deep, calming breaths.

'As injured as he is right now... I have a chance. I can do this.' Mina thought to herself as she stood across from Naruto. She wasn't a part girl, in or out of battle, and mostly relied on her intuition for combat. If she thought something would work, she went with it, and didn't usually have to think twice. In normal situations, it didn't matter if Naruto was injured or not, her victory chances weren't great. Naruto was injured, he had refused to be healed from his last fight, and he had been through more fights than she had. He had to be low on blood, and slower than he usually would be too. 'Right now, I can win...' Mina lowered herself and moved her arms back and force.

She could do this, she could do it!

Naruto ġrȯȧnėd and held the side of his head.

'I can't believe I passed out in Recovery Girl's office. Thank god Momo was there... but I can't believe I had another dream about that little girl.' Naruto frowned to himself. According to a blushing Momo, he didn't know why she was blushing, he had passed out for close to 45 minutes in the medical wing.

Mina gulped.

"Fight!"

"Sorry Mina, but I just want to get this tournament over with."

Mina felt pain in her gut as she was bent over almost instantly, the distance between herself and Naruto gone. She had started to run at him when the match started, but she hadn't even noticed him move until she felt an ungodly amount of pain. Her lunch wasn't in her stomach anymore as she was lifted off of her feet, hanging in the air by Naruto's fist holding her up. She threw up, the force behind the punch getting her far more hard than she thought Naruto would be able to manage in his injured state. Her legs dangled helplessly, before she was tossed to the ground outside of the ring. Mina finished puking up what was left in her stomach, thankfully she puked no blood so nothing vital was injured. It would seem that despite Naruto wanting to finish her up as quickly as possible, he was still taking her health into account by only hitting her hard enough to stun her, so he could toss her out of the ring.

'... Should have known, I didn't have a chance...' Mina wasn't able to properly stand by herself, so the medical men came and got her, picking her up and carrying her off to the medical area just like the rest of Naruto's opponents.

Naruto was a nice guy, but people didn't usually fight him without paying a visit to the hospital after.

"I surrender from my match with Bakugo!"

Toru shouted towards Midnight from the stands. She knew she had no chance of using her luck to try and make a win against the explosive wonder himself, she was more than likely going to be blasted off of the stage like Denki had been before she could even get her shirt off. A guy like Bakugo wouldn't hesitate to blast her to pieces either, so this was as far as she was going to for in the tournament. The fact she took down two opponents alone was enough to get her some good notice, and giving up against an opponent vastly stronger than he could be seen as a good judge of strength. Not to mention, even if she lucked her way through Bakugo, she wasn't going to be taking down Naruto, whose bad luck would somehow counteract her good luck, and possible make the entire stadium collapse as a supervillain attacked it with a giant rampaging fish or something.

There was silence.

"Can she do that?"

"... I'll allow it!" Midnight shouted after a moments thought. It was up to her if she was going to allow such a thing, but it didn't really violate any rules.

*BOOM*

Bakugo, in the stands, propelled himself down towards the stadium with an explosion, using a smaller explosion to guide himself to the opposite end of the ring to Naruto. He had a wide, wicked, grin with red angry eyes as he looked towards Naruto. Walking through the hallways wasn't fast enough of a method, not when he was going to be getting to fight the one person... well the second person he wanted to fight the most. Since the person he wanted to beat the most wasn't in the tournament, he would settle for this, and earn himself the number 1 spot that he craved... that he deserved.

"I've been waiting for this chance since I saw you... I'm going to turn you into a bloody stain!" Bakugo shouted out his usual pre-fight banter.

Naruto wasn't phased.

-In the Stands-

Momo limped into the stands, still somewhat hurt from her fight with Naruto, but she had a more concerned look on her face when she saw that the fight was about to start, before she could put a stop to it. On her way to the stands, she had passed by a defeated Mina... and she had heard Toru forfeit smartly.

'This isn't good... Naruto doesn't look like he's going to hold back... if he uses his Quirk right now, he might actually kill Bakugo...' Momo thought to herself as she took her seat. She would try and stop the fight... but honestly, she didn't think she could even if she tried. Naruto wasn't a person to back down from a fight, and Bakugo was sure as hell not going to do that.

"Are you okay?" A fully healed Tsuyu asked as she looked at her fellow victim of a Naruto-fight.

"I'll be fine, she wants to heal me little by little to conserve stamina. I'm more worried about this fight." Momo furrowed her brow.

This wasn't going to be pretty.

'Fight!'

-Naruto vs Bakugo-

*BOOM*

Bakugo propelled himself into the air above Naruto, over his head and behind him. Pointing both of his hands at Naruto's back the second he was behind him, he gave a great grin when he looked at how close Naruto was. His face became shocked when he saw that Naruto had his head turned to look at him, and not like he had turned his head to track him. Like he had predicted this would have been his first move, and turned his head to see where Bakugo would land ahead of time.

"Don't fuċkɨnġ mock me!"

Screaming, Bakugo unleashed his greatest explosion to date. Half of the stage was completely cover by explosions and flames, the audience getting a taste of hot air as many of them were pushed back by the shockwaves of his boom. Bakugo was launched backwards by his own explosion, out of the ring, but before he could land on the outside, he used his explosions to propel himself back into the smoke covered ring.

"Is that all you have?" The smoke started to clear once Bakugo landed, and as the smoke cleared, Naruto became visible in the same spot he had been standing in. Both of his arms were burnt from the explosion, his sleeves destroyed as well. Naruto's position had changed, and his arms were extended at his sides. The stage behind Naruto, in a triangle, was left unharmed by the explosion. It looked like Naruto had changed the direction the explosion was flying at the cost of his arms, blood dripping from his fists as he dropped them to his side.

Bakugo took a step backwards and looked around.

How did he do that?

"Do that again, I dare you bastard!" Bakugo shouted as he pointed his arms at Naruto. His words were challenge to Naruto, who turned to face Bakugo fully.

"I just want this tournament over with, whatever is eating your ȧss, isn't my problem." Naruto spoke seriously, frown on his face instead of the usual grin when challenged by a strong opponent. "Fine, I'll take on whatever it is you have." Naruto took up a stance. He was going to finish this as fast as he could, though it would be harder since Bakugo was a range fighter. Naruto pointed two fingers on his hands, two each hand, towards Bakugo, and he nodded towards him.

"Fuck you!"

Bakugo unleashed a massive explosion, equal the one earlier in size, and aimed it right at Naruto. This time, the audience was looking at Naruto instead of Bakugo, and saw Naruto point his fingers towards the center of the explosion as it rocketed at him. The second the flames touched his fingertips, Naruto jerked his arms forward into the explosion itself, and most of the explosion started to get suċkėd into where Naruto's arms were. The rest of the explosion was safely diverted to the sides, away from Naruto himself. Using one hand, Bakugo launched himself up with a small explosion, using the smoke around Naruto to hide his spots, before he floated above where Naruto would be in the dust cloud. Aiming down, he fired another explosion with both hands this time, right into the heart of the smoke. Landing on the other side of the smoke, Bakugo started to run towards the smoke as it faded away.

When the smoke faded... Naruto wasn't standing in the smoke.

He wasn't anywhere.

"He killed him!?"

"Who the hell are you all calling dead?" Naruto asked as he stood behind Bakugo, crouched down in his shadow, using Bakugo's own body to hide himself from immediate notice. Bakugo faced his palms at Naruto, and unleashed a small barrage of explosions as he put some distance between himself as Naruto. Naruto grabbed him by the wrist though and slammed him into the ground.

'He used the smoke to hide his escape, and while I was in the air, he used my shadow to hide himself from me noticing him... I hate this, but this bastard is even craftier than that worthless Deku!' Bakugo pushed his palms into the ground.

Naruto stepped on his hand, smothering it into the now revealed dirt.

Naruto kicked Bakugo in the face, knocking him into the air with a bloodied nose. When Bakugo aimed an explosion at Naruto, Naruto swung his arm right next to the explosion and created a small air current. The explosion itself was diverted away from Naruto's body very slightly, and changed the direction Bakugo planned to propel himself in.

"I don't get why you have a beef with me, but you're not my rival. I noticed you are looking at me like a rival, but with your mentality, I'll never accept somebody like you as a rival, much less a hero. You and Torodoki both are strong, have good battle prowess, and amazing Quirks. Neither of you are even close to being worthy of ever becoming a hero though... in his eyes, I see his motivation being spite for his bastard of a father... in your eyes-" Naruto grabbed Bakugo by the face, and slammed him head first into the broken concrete. "I see selfishness... a hero is a person who saves people... a hero doesn't want to become number one, just because they want to be number one. A hero is a person with ideals, convictions, strength of heart, to save the lives of others, even at the cost of their own if required... I see a dėsɨrė to be the best in your eyes... Deku, Izuku Midoriya... that guy you seem to hate... now he is worthy of being called a hero one day. He has what it takes to be somebody I can proudly call my rival." Naruto raised his fist, and as Bakugo raised his palms to blast Naruto, he slammed his fist into Bakugo's face, slamming him into the ground a little deeper.

He just wanted this tournament to be over... he needed to talk with his uncle about something more important than this, and he needed to do it as soon as possible.

"Deku... it's always Deku... it's that damn fuċkɨnġ nerd... what does he have that I don't? Why does that little weakling get your attention, while I don't even register on your radar? I'm stronger than him!" Bakugo shouted out, his face a little beaten, but it wasn't enough to stop him.

Naruto didn't need even a second to think it over.

"Being a hero isn't about being the strongest, it's about protecting people, that's it... Deku is a weak little nerd, like you said... but even if you're weak, you can get stronger... having the strength of heart to put your life on the line for somebody in need, that is the trait I look for when I think of a hero. As you are now, until you grow as a person, you're not ever going to be on my radar... we were born with these powers to help others." Naruto slammed his open palm into Bakugo's ċhėst.

'He's...'

"Frog Strike."

Using the same move he used on Tsuyu, since he just wanted the fight over with, Naruto knocked Bakugo out the second he was able to get the blow right to where he needed it to be. Naruto frowned as he stood up over the knocked out Bakugo.

"Winner by knock out, Naruto!"

"People can change Bakugo, for better or for worse. I hope one day you'll grow up, and become worthy of the title hero... this world needs as many heroes as it can get." With those final words, Naruto started to walk away.

As soon as the winner's ceremony was over, he needed to speak with his uncle.