All characters and story belong to Kohei Horikoshi and Masashi Kishimoto
"You are the shame of our village," the boy said in a monotonous tone.
"Umm, erm... Gaara..." Kankuro said very nervously. Temari also felt very uncomfortable.
"The bastard mummy and the fan bitch are scared of the eyebrowless one. That means that stopper must be the boss," Bakugo thought, analyzing Gaara's gestures.
"Have you forgotten why we came here?" Gaara said without changing his monotonous voice.
—I know. But listen Gaara, they started it. I'll tell you what happened...—Kankuro said with a trembling voice.
"Shut up," Gaara ordered, to which Kankuro obeyed without question. "Or you'll regret it," he said, narrowing his eyes.
"Okay. I was out of line. Sorry, Gaara..." Kankuro apologized, sweating profusely.
"I'm sorry for the trouble my brother has caused," Gaara said, not really sorry.
"Eyebrow-less plug!" Bakugo shouted, pointing at him. "Don't pretend! What you say doesn't match your face!"
"STOP BEING LIKE A DUMBASS, BAKAGO!" Sakura yelled, strangling Bakugo. He tried to escape her grasp without success, since, for some strange reason, Sakura acquired superhuman strength when she attacked her ash-blond teammate. "Apologize to them!"
Gaara looked at the scene curiously, but decided it was better not to act as it could put his mission at risk.
"Let's go," Gaara said, teleporting to the ground with a trail of sand. "We didn't come all the way here to play."
"Yeah, sure," Kankuro answered hurriedly and very nervously.
"Wait a minute!" Sasuke exclaimed, appearing in the tree where Gaara had been a moment ago.
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed with a smiling face, letting go of Bakugo in the joy she felt.
"Damn big-faced bitch..." Bakugo whispered, catching his breath from the strangulation.
"From your ribbon, I gather you're from the Sand Village," Sasuke continued. "Am I wrong?"
"What do you care, you nosy brat?" Kankuro said, turning around.
"This guy is so cute," Temari thought, smiling and looking at Sasuke. "He's got nothing on that stupid blond."
"No ninja may enter another village without permission. What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked, turning his full attention to Gaara.
"It's true we're genin from the Hidden Sand Village," Temari replied. "But we do have permission, handsome." She showed a card stamped by the Fourth Hokage.
—SHANNAROOOOO! WHO DOES THIS HOT BLONDE THINK SHE IS TO CALL MY SASUKE HANDSOME?—shouted Sakura's inner self.
"Ha. It was obvious the genin from the Hidden Leaf Village were going to be ignorant," Kankuro said with a smile. "We come from the Land of Wind, and we're here to take the chunin exams." The three Leaf genin looked astonished at this revelation.
"A stupid bird handed a scroll to the one-eyed guy," Bakugo thought, remembering what had happened a few minutes ago. "Does it have something to do with what the blonde bitch said?"
The sand ninjas, led by Gaara, turned around and walked in search of their instructor.
"You, identify yourself," Sasuke ordered, climbing down from the tree.
"You mean me?" Temari asked, turning red.
—No. The one with the pumpkin. —Sasuke answered.
"I'm Gaara of the desert. And who are you?" Gaara asked, his face reflecting some curiosity.
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha," Sasuke replied with a cocky smile.
"Eyebrow-less plug! The only name you should remember is the one that'll make you bite the dust in that stupid exam! So remember the name Katsuki Bakugo!" Bakugo exclaimed, pointing at himself with a smirk.
"You senseless lunatic!" Kankuro said, clenching his fist in anger. "If you keep bothering people you shouldn't, you'll end up dead!"
Once again, Gaara didn't take the ash-blond's nickname the wrong way. His curiosity about Bakugo grew even more intense.
"I'll remember that, Katsuki Bakugo," Gaara said.
After those words, the three Suna genins left without saying anything else.
"This is getting interesting," Bakugo and Sasuke thought simultaneously.
The next morning, the three genin were impatiently waiting for their sensei. Two hours later than the agreed-upon time, Kakashi appeared.
"Forgive my delay. I'm afraid I've lost track of time," Kakashi apologized, scratching the back of his neck.
"Liar!" Sakura shouted angrily.
"You better tell us something about the chunin exam, one-eyed," Bakugo said, irritated and making mini explosions with his hands.
"Have you heard yet?" Kakashi asked.
"Some bastards from the sand came yesterday, just after you left," Bakugo replied.
"Great, that saves me some explaining. I've nominated you to take the chunin exam, which starts tomorrow afternoon," Kakashi said, turning serious.
"Heh. I'll forgive you for being late this time, one-eyed," Bakugo said, clenching his fist in excitement.
"What do you mean by nominated, sensei?" Sakura asked.
"I bet I can't force you to take the exam. It's voluntary, so it's up to you." Kakashi took three pieces of paper out of his pocket. "These are the forms to fill out. If you don't feel ready, you can wait until next year."
"I'm not going to wait until next year!" Bakugo said, grabbing his form angrily. "When I pass this stupid exam, I'll be one step closer to becoming Hokage!"
—And with that, discover the truth once and for all. What the Uchiha massacre village is hiding. I owe it to Mikoto.—Bakugo thought, crumpling the paper.
"Anyone who wants to take the exams, please sign the form and come to Class 301 at ten o'clock tomorrow morning," Kakashi said. "There won't be any missions today. You can spend the day figuring out whether you're up to the challenges the exam will throw at you. That's all." With a leap, he disappeared from the genin's sight.
Sakura was the only one who wasn't entirely sure.
"Hey, big forehead," Bakugo said, seeing Sakura's worried face. "The one-eyed guy is an immature and unpunctual bastard, but he's not stupid. If he nominated you for this exam, it means you're ready for it."
—Bakugo... —dijo Sakura.
—So stop going around in circles in that huge head of yours—Bakugo finished, yawning.
"YOU'RE RUDE, BAKAGO!" Sakura yelled, slapping the ash-blond boy. She looked angry, but the truth was, she was grateful for Bakugo's words.
The three genin decided to meet at the academy entrance at nine in the morning the next day, to make sure they didn't arrive late. Despite arriving an hour early, the outskirts of the academy were packed with ninjas from various hidden villages.
"Good morning," said Sakura, who was the last to arrive.
"We were supposed to meet five minutes ago, big forehead!" exclaimed Bakugo, who was entertaining himself by doing sword swings in the air with his Kubikiribōchō.
"I'm sorry..." Sakura said sadly, still not entirely sure about taking the exam.
"Hmm." Bakugo was surprised that she was behaving so docilely, so he didn't prolong the discussion. He placed the sword on his back, tying it with the belt Tsunami sewed for him in the Land of Waves. "It doesn't matter, now we'll go in and finish off all the extras who get in my way," he said, leading Group 7.
In the third-floor hallway, numerous genin were trying to enter room 301, but were blocked by a pair of thugs. Rock Lee was lying on the floor, his mouth covered in blood.
Even though he hadn't seen him in over three years, Bakugo recognized him immediately. Although he made a face of disgust when he saw Lee's new look with his bowl-cut hair and green tights.
"Is the big-eyebrowed guy going to take the exam too?" Bakugo thought, hesitating whether to intervene or not.
"You show up for the chunin exam and you can't even beat us?" one of the bullies with band-aids on his face said to Lee.
"Why don't you leave before you hurt yourself?" said the other bully.
"Yeah, you're just a kid who needs his mom," said the band-aid bully.
"Please let us in. We need to get in," pleaded a girl with brown eyes and brown hair tied back in two buns who was helping Lee. She was wearing a sleeveless pink blouse and dark blue pants.
The girl stood up and took a step forward, but the band-aid thug punched her hard in the face, knocking her to the ground. Bakugo unbuckled the belt holding Kubikiribōchō and pointed the tip of his sword at the thug's neck. He was now strong enough to hold it with one hand, though it made him more than he should have been.
"You heard the girl with the bows, bastard. Don't make me get violent," Bakugo threatened, narrowing his eyes.
The bully smiled at Bakugo's attitude.
—Bakugo...—Lee thought, his eyes wide as he saw the man he considered his first friend again.