All characters and story belong to Kohei Horikoshi and Masashi Kishimoto
Bakugo was at Ichiraku's station eating a bowl of spicy ramen. It had been two weeks since he'd officially become a genin after passing Kakashi's test. He wore the headband with the leaf symbol on his forehead, like his partner Sasuke. If he'd thought being a ninja was for losers before, he was convinced now. The missions, if you could call them missions, were routine enough for anyone to do. Mowing the lawn, finding a cat, taking care of dogs... It wasn't the most fun job in the world.
—BAKUGOOO! —Ayame shouted, lunging at the blond, hugging him tightly.
"Tsk, always so annoying," Bakugo muttered. "Can't you see I'm eating?"
"I haven't seen you in almost a month! It would have been nice if you had stopped by to say hi and tell me you've become a genin," she complained, pouting.
"Bah, it's no achievement," Bakugo dismissed, snorting.
"Why do you look so bad?" Ayame asked. "Well, you always look bad. I mean, why do you look worse than usual?"
"It's my face, if you don't like it, just deal with it, cook," Bakugo said sulkily.
"Come on, you little grouch, you know I like to piss you off. Seriously, what's wrong?" Ayame asked, worried about her friend.
"This whole ninja thing is a bitch. Any moron can do what we're doing," Bakugo complained.
"Cheer up! It's normal for missions to be easy at first. You'll see how things will change soon!" Ayame tried to console her. "The bandana looks really cool on you. And to think that not long ago you were practically a baby..."
"And you were a scared little girl who needed a hand-hold," Bakugo said distractedly, playing with the wooden chopsticks.
Ayame, embarrassed, blushed at the blond's comment but it passed quickly.
"That's water under the bridge. I'm a beautiful 17-year-old now," Ayame said proudly. Her pride turned to irritation when she saw that Bakugo was ignoring her and still distracted by the wooden chopsticks. "Bakugo! You can't treat ladies like that!" she scolded him, roughly taking the wooden utensils away from him.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Bakugo said, snapping out of his trance.
"It doesn't matter," Ayame sighed resignedly. "Changing the subject. Don't you notice I'm different?" she asked the blond.
"Different?" the blond raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Since last month, haven't you noticed I've changed?" she insisted again, turning around so he could see that she had cut her hair.
"Mmm..." He looked her up and down, trying to find the answer to her question. "I don't know. Maybe you've gained a few pounds," Bakugo replied with a yawn.
¡PLAFFF!
Bakugo received another slap on the same cheek his pink-haired companion had previously given him. Just like with Sakura, Bakugo stood like a statue in shock.
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT, BAKUGO!" Ayame shouted, on the verge of tears, and hurriedly left the restaurant.
"What the fuck just happened?" Bakugo asked, his eye twitching. "And why the fuck is she the one who ends up angry when I'm the one who got slapped?"
From between the curtains, Teuchi, Ayame's father, peeked out with a smile.
—Bakugo, you can't say that to a woman. You may be a ninja, but you still have a lot to learn. HAHAHAHAHA—Teuchi laughed.
"No one asked for your opinion! So shut up, man!" Bakugo exclaimed as he left the place in a bad mood.
He went to the Hokage's office, where the rest of his team was waiting for him. The Fourth Hokage and Iruka were also there. When they saw him enter, they were surprised by the red handprint on his cheek.
"Bakugo, what happened to your face?" Sakura asked.
"It's none of your business, Macro Front," Bakugo replied, hands in his pockets.
—SHANAROOOO! I HATE THIS KID! —cursed his inner self.
—For Team Seven's next mission, there are several tasks available. Babysitting the governor's three-year-old son... Helping the feudal lord's wife with her shopping... Picking sweet potatoes in... —Minato read aloud the sheet with the details of the D-class missions. But he couldn't read any further because Bakugo roughly snatched the sheet away from him.
"DIEEEEE!" Bakugo yelled at the leaf, shattering it into a thousand pieces with a mini explosion. "If you think I'm going to do another one of these stupid missions, you don't know me that well, man. So find something that's a real challenge."
"He's partly right," Sasuke thought.
"How unbearable it is!" Sakura thought with a drop on her neck.
"I knew this would happen," Kakashi thought with a sigh. "But I was hoping it would be later."
"How dare you?" Iruka exclaimed, sitting next to Minato. "You're just an inexperienced genin! You have to start like everyone else! With simple missions!"
"Bullshit! What we do isn't missions! What we do is the shitty jobs that no one wants to do because they're fucking shit!" Bakugo responded, raising his voice.
—Bakugo! Don't talk to Iruka-sensei like that! —Sakura scolded him.
"Will you shut up, man?" Kakashi said, tying his student up again with the chakra thread, but this time he also gagged him with it.
—BFFFFFFFFFF—Bakugo tried to shout at the jonin, but the gag prevented him from doing so.
—Bakugo, you have to understand that every day, missions come into the village from all corners. From babysitting to assassinating someone… —Minato explained. —These assignments are recorded and analyzed in detail and classified as S, A, B, C or D depending on their level of difficulty. Since you are a genin just starting out, you are assigned D-level missions. Even my son is just starting out with those kinds of missions as well.—
Bakugo managed to break the thread holding him back by summoning all his physical strength—a strength unbecoming of a 12-and-a-half-year-old's body. Kakashi and Minato were the most surprised, as they were the ones most familiar with the qualities of the resilient chakra thread. Bakugo then removed the thread covering his mouth.
—DON'T TELL ME YOUR LIFE, MAN! I'M TELLING YOU I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT SHIT! NO MATTER WHAT YOU TELL ME! —Bakugo shouted, pointing at him with his index finger.
—Silence!—Iruka shouted.
"I see Kakashi hasn't managed to change your stubbornness," Minato said with a smile. "Heh. Fine. Since you want a challenge, I'll give you two a C-rank mission. You'll be bodyguards on a trip."
"And who are we going to protect, old man?" Bakugo asked curiously.
"I'll let him in now," Minato said. "Send the customer in."
The office door opened, the four members of group 7 turned around and saw the image of a man in his 50s carrying a hat and a bottle of liquor.
"What the...? A bunch of little brats?" the customer said, annoyed. Then he began to drink a large amount of liquor.
"Is this drunk the one we need to protect?" Bakugo asked Minato. Minato simply nodded, his head aching, uncomfortable with the situation.
"Is that loud little blond kid really a ninja? Aren't ninjas supposed to be stealthy?" the customer said, incredulous.
"No way!" Bakugo said angrily to Minatao. "I'm not going to protect that drunk!"
—Suit yourself, Bakugo. You wanted a challenge, and here's yours. —Minato said.
"Tsk," Bakugo muttered. "The challenge will be to keep him from dying from alcohol consumption..." he whispered softly, looking at his client with a grimace of disgust.
"I'm Tazuna. A master bridge builder, and I must return to my country. I'm going to build a bridge there that will change our world," Tazuna explained. "I expect you to give me super protection until I reach my country and until the bridge is finished."
"Is this a master bridge builder? The only thing he seems to be an expert at is drinking liquor," Bakugo thought, his eyes narrowed as he analyzed Tazuna.
The five of them left the village carrying large backpacks containing spare clothes and weapons for the long journey. After walking in silence for half a day, Bakugo asked what had been on his mind all that time.
"How far is your village, drunk?" Bakugo asked.
"Is that how you talk to your client, brat?" He then turned to Kakashi. "Are you sure it's a good idea for this kid to be here?"
"Hehehehe," Kakashi said with a nervous smile, rubbing his head.
"Don't talk to the man who will soon become the fifth Hokage in that tone, you drunk," Bakugo said, rolling his eyes.
"The day you become Hokage, I'll grow wings and be able to fly," Tazuna said, taking another sip of his liquor.
"You'll be...!" Bakugo exclaimed with a vein in his forehead and gritting his teeth.
"Stop arguing with the client, Bakugo!" Sakura scolded him.
Two hours later, Sakura broke the ice.
"Kakashi-sensei, will we have to fight against the ninjas from the Wave Country?" Sakura asked, frightened.
"Don't worry, Sakura. The Land of the Wave is a very small country with no ninjas. Besides, C-rank missions don't involve fighting ninjas. That's only for B-rank missions and above. At most, we'll encounter bandits or wild animals," Kakashi said.
"Phew, thank goodness." Sakura sighed in relief.
—Well, what a piece of shit...—Bakugo complained.
Sasuke was the only one who noticed the uneasiness that Tazuna felt at that moment.
Half an hour later, Kakashi noticed a rather large puddle on such a hot day. Two ninjas emerged from the puddle, their faces covered with gas masks. They quickly surrounded Kakashi with a long chain of shurikens. Pushing each one to opposite sides, they tore Kakashi's body to pieces.
—KAKASHI SENSEI! —Sakura screamed in terror.
Sasuke and Bakugo advanced a few meters to confront the ninjas, leaving Sakura behind to protect Tazuna.
"Finally, some action!" Bakugo exclaimed, unconcerned about his sensei, as he was sure he had performed the switch technique just like he had in the test.
The mysterious shinobi seemed to be about to collide with the two genin, but at the last moment they changed their target and went after Tazuna and Sakura moving in a zigzag pattern.
"Shit..." Bakugo cursed, seeing that he had left Sakura and Tazuna unprotected.
"Sir, get behind me!" Sakura ordered, kunai in hand.
The shinobi were about to kill Sakura, but Sasuke tried to stop them by throwing two kunais, one at each ninja. One hit him in the leg, halting his attack. But the other managed to dodge and continued advancing, launching a deadly attack with his claw-shaped weapon. Sakura closed her eyes, expecting the worst.
Blood soaked the mysterious shinobi's claw, but it wasn't the pinky's. Feeling no pain, he opened his eyes to see what had happened. Bakugo had stepped between the two and stopped the attack with his bare arm, which was embedded in the claws of the shinobi's weapon. The masked shinobi stared at the blond in amazement. He didn't understand how he had been so fast. He had managed it thanks to the speed his Quirk gave him to move.
—That's not a toy, bastard! —Bakugo exclaimed, removing the claws that pierced his skin from his arm. —Even if he doesn't show it, it hurts almost as much as a toothache. —Then he showed his most terrifying smile that made the chunin sweat from the fear it instilled in him. —DIEEEEE! —With his healthy arm, Bakugo used his quirk on the guy's face. Not with enough force to kill him but enough to leave him unconscious and with permanent wounds on his face.
"You never cease to amaze me, Bakugo," Kakashi said with a smile under his mask, carrying the other chunin, who was also unconscious, on his shoulder.