All characters and story belong to Kohei Horikoshi and Masashi Kishimoto
Bakugo was in his room playing quietly with his All Might doll when someone knocked on the door.
"Katsuki, honey. I'm coming in," a female voice said.
—Boom, boom, boom. And All Might wins again! —Bakugo said in a very childish voice, ignoring the knocks on the door.
When the door opened, the figure of Mitsuki Bakugo emerged from it.
"Son, are you still playing with that? Dinner's been ready for 10 minutes," Mitsuki said.
"Shut up, old lady! You're distracting me!" complained Bakugo, who was making the All Might doll hover.
"Come on, son," Mitsuki said, pinching his cheek.
"Ow! Get out of the way, you're hurting me!" Bakugo whined, flinging his mother's hand away. Mitsuki returned the attack by pinching his other cheek. "Ow! Didn't you hear me?"
But Mitsuki kept squeezing Bakugo's cheek harder than ever.
—I SAID GET OUT OF THE WAY, OLD WITCH!—Bakugo shouted.
But the blond's voice wasn't so childish anymore, and he wasn't in his room anymore, but in the forest of death. Furthermore, the person he yelled at wasn't his mother, but Ino, who was applying ointment to his cheek to reduce the swelling of his facial wounds caused by Zaku.
"Who are you calling an old hag!" Ino yelled, a vein popping out as she held the potion in one hand while applying it to her face with the other.
"Calm down, Ino. Can't you see she just woke up? What a pain," Shikamaru said, scratching the back of his neck.
"That's not enough reason to insult me!" Ino said indignantly. But seeing Bakugo's stunned expression, she became alarmed. "Are you okay, Bakugo?"
"Was it all a dream?" Bakugo thought, still somewhat dazed. The pain in his shoulder brought him back to reality. "Fuck, it's true... that fucking fucking shoulder." Then he realized he could see, so he felt his face and realized it wasn't as swollen anymore. "The swelling's gone down. It must be that shit that blonde bitch is giving me."
"How long have I slept?" Bakugo asked, with a terrible headache from the fever.
"Just half an hour," Ino replied, continuing her treatment on the blond's face.
"Psss," Bakugo complained, feeling the sting it caused. "Get that out of my face, I'm fine!"
"You're not okay!" Ino retorted, going back to the charge and putting the ointment under the blond's right eye.
—Ow! I told you...!—Bakugo tried to push Ino away, but she looked at him in an authoritarian manner, making him shut up in surprise at that attitude.
"Stop acting like a crybaby!" Ino retorted. "You're not okay!"
"Tsk," Bakugo muttered.
"Besides, you don't have to worry about those sound guys anymore. They're tied up and unconscious to that tree," Ino said, pointing to the tree behind the ash-blond. "Shikamaru stopped the guy with the bandages, and I knocked the girl out. And you... well, you almost killed the other guy."
—Bakugo ...Here—Choji said shyly giving him a roll of the earth.
"Huh?" Bakugo said, still processing the information. "Why are you giving me this?"
"I wanted to thank you for saving my life. I... I was dying to see what you were talking about, so I tried to get closer. It was my fault that we almost got all of us killed," Choji explained. "It's the roll we took off the sound guys after tying them up. I know it's not enough after what you've been through..."
"I don't need your fucking sympathy or your fucking gratitude. Keep it for yourselves, you need it," Bakugo said sullenly, massaging his head to soothe the pain. It felt like it was about to explode at any moment.
—...—Choji looked at the ground, embarrassed and sad by Bakugo's response.
"Bakugo, please..." Ino begged. "We don't feel strong enough to continue if you don't accept this. It's the least we can do to avoid feeling so guilty."
—Mmmm... —Bakugo looked first at Ino, then at Choji. He grimaced, but accepted. —Fine, give me that shit.—
Then Bakugo stood up to pick it up, but he almost fell over from dizziness. He was on the verge of vomiting.
"Fuck, if I see the round-face again, I won't bother her about her stupid nausea," Bakugo whispered.
His face was dripping with blood, and he was paler than a vampire. The blood on his face had dried, too. In short, he was quite pitiful to look at.
"Round face? Who's round face?" Ino asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No one," Bakugo replied, taking the scroll from Choji's hand. "I'm leaving now. I can't wait to get out of your sight."
"No way. You stay here. I've stitched up your stomach wound. If you move, the stitches in your stomach will open," Ino said.
Bakugo looked down at his body. He was topless, and his eyes widened when he realized he was topless. His stomach, just like Ino said, had stitches.
"Who undressed me from you bunch of perverts?" Bakugo asked angrily.
"Don't think anything strange!" Ino said, blushing. "Your wound needed to be closed, and your shirt was in the way! So, well… But that's not important!" She tried to divert the conversation. "The important thing is that you must stay here. I've seen acacia and juniper trees south of the forest. I'll go pick them, and they'll help with your shoulder infection."
"So, besides being a flower freak, you're also a total pervert," Bakugo said with a mocking smile. It widened even further when he saw Ino's face turn even redder.
"I already told you that...!" Ino tried to defend herself, but fell silent when she saw Bakugo putting on a serious face.
"Why the trouble? I'm your rival..." He first looked at Ino and Choji and then focused on Shikamaru. "From these two idiots, (referring to Ino and Choji) I could understand. But you're smart. You know the smart thing to do would have been to take the Sky Scroll I stole from some annoying clones, and keep the Earth Scroll from these three sound idiots," Shikamaru explained.
"Hmm, what a drag. Let me see how I explain this to you," Shikamaru said. "It's true that that would have been the smartest thing to do. But I could never look in the mirror again knowing that I left you stranded after sacrificing your health to help my classmates. Besides, if I go back and tell my parents about this, they'd probably kill me for it."
"Mmm." Bakugo fell silent. Those words reminded him of a friend from a very distant past. Although that friend must have said the word "manly" at least a couple of times. (A/N: You know who I'm talking about, right? Hehe)
"And I'm not an idiot!" Ino said, crossing her arms and pouting.
Bakugo slowly lowered himself to the ground and then lay down. He looked very tired.
"Do whatever you want," Bakugo said. "I'm going to lie down for a moment..." He closed his eyes.
"Choji, you stay with him. Shikamaru, you're coming with me," Ino ordered.
"Why do I have to go with you? I don't know anything about plants," Shikamaru complained.
"Aren't you going to leave a lady alone in the woods?" was the last thing Bakugo heard before he fell asleep again.
Once again, the fever was playing tricks on Bakugo in his sleep. However, what seemed like a misfortune, as he couldn't stay asleep for long, was a blessing. By waking up in a cold sweat, he was able to avoid his untimely death.
Dosu was towering over him, a kunai poised to plunge into his heart. Bakugo only had time to place his left hand in between and exert force to prevent the kunai from advancing further toward the vital organ. As a result, the kunai pierced Bakugo's palm.
"Argggg!" Bakugo complained, straining to pull the kunai away from his heart. "Weren't you tied up, you fucking mummy? And what did you do with the fat guy?" His face was completely red from the effort.
"He's gone into the forest to find some food. It was pitiful when I heard his stomach growling," Dosu said, pushing down on the kunai with both hands. "I was tempted to take my comrades and leave. But this opportunity won't present itself again. You're the biggest obstacle standing in the way of killing Sasuke, and I must eliminate you, here and now. Curse those idiots you saved from the other world for being so bad at tying knots…"
The kunai bounced up and down with no clear prediction of which side would win. It felt like a kind of arm wrestling match.
"You should have taken advantage of this to escape, moron! I'll make you regret this!" Bakugo said, despite his difficult situation.
"Stop fighting, Bakugo," Dosu said, seeing that he was losing ground. "I'm doing you a favor. Your death will be quick. If I had run away, however, you'd continue to suffer and eventually die. I lied to you when I said Kin could have helped you. You're finished, Bakugo."
Dosu changed his strategy when he realized that with each passing second, the kunai was further away from Bakugo's heart. So he removed one hand from the kunai's handle and used it instead to press the wound on his right arm.
—AAAAAAHHHHHH!—Bakugo shouted, losing much of his strength.
The change of strategy was a success for Dosu. The kunai descended until it grazed the skin of the blond's bare torso.
—I want you to know that this is nothing personal, Bakugo. I'm just a soldier with a mission to fulfill. You've fought well, and I promise I'll only have Sasuke accompany you to the grave. I'll leave the blonde, the pink-haired girl, the chubby boy, and the rest alive,—Dosu said, the tip of the kunai already embedded in the ash-blonde's torso.
It was at that precise moment that Bakugo gave up; there was nothing he could do. Truth be told, he felt relieved. Dead, he'd never feel pain again.
—NIKUDAN SENSHA! (human cannonball) shouted Choji who had returned from his trip to find food.
The genin from team 10 transformed into a giant ball that was speeding towards where Bakugo and Dosu were.
"Shit..." Dosu cursed as he was abruptly hit by Choji's jutsu, causing him to crash into a tree trunk.
"How many times have I been on the brink of death between yesterday and today?" Bakugo thought, painfully removing the kunai embedded in his palm. "I don't know if I'm very lucky or very unlucky."
Choji broke the technique and pointed at Dosu who was struggling to get up.
—AND LET YOU KNOW THAT I'M NOT CHUBBY, I'M JUST A LITTLE PLUMP!—Choji shouted angrily.
"Lie," both Dosu and Bakugo thought at the same time.
—Anyway, I wanted to end your life quickly, now you'll die in agony of pain because of that fatty...—said Dosu, going to the tree where Zaku and Kin were tied up and unconscious and freed them from there.
—I TOLD YOU I'M NOT CHUBBY! NIKUDAN SENSHA! —Choji rolled again like a giant ball but this time Dosu easily dodged him taking Zaku and Kin with him. Choji remained embedded in the tree.
"You're even more of an idiot than I thought if you think such a direct attack can hit me. You were lucky earlier because I was off guard. I'll see you again at the next exam, Bakugo," Dosu said, bidding farewell to the ash-blond man and walking away.
"No way. I'm going to make him tell me everything he knows about Orochimaru's experiments and arrest him right now," Bakugo thought, focusing on the direction Dosu had fled. "I'm badly hurt, but that bastard mummy is carrying two bodies with him. I should be able to catch him without much trouble, even if I can't use my explosions to move faster."
Bakugo, before going after Dosu, saw how Choji undid his technique and freed himself from being embedded in the tree trunk.
—But first I have to take care of one thing.—Bakugo thought.
"What a silly dizziness I got..." Choji whispered.
"Hey you, chubby," Bakugo said sarcastically.
He then tossed him the Heaven and Earth Scrolls the ash-blond had obtained. The Heaven Scroll after the fight with the Mist Trio, Kagari, Mubi, and Oboro; and the Earth Scroll after Team 10 snatched it from the Sound Trio and gave it to Bakugo as a thank you. Choji caught them in mid-air, but stared at him blankly.
"What are you doing, Bakugo?" Choji asked.
"Sakura, Sasuke, and the big-browed one should be near gate 12. If they're not there, that means Sasuke's condition has gotten worse, and his big forehead has landed him in the hospital," Bakugo explained. "I want you to give those scrolls to my classmates, and if they're not there, you can keep them for yourselves."
—But...—Choji objected, but Bakugo interrupted him
"That perverted examiner said all three team members need to be at the tower to pass. So if they're not where I told you, those scrolls are useless to me. If Sasuke's still there, tell the flower geek to help him with her medicinal knowledge of plants." Bakugo said, starting to run in the direction Dosu had gone, but stopped when he remembered something. "Aah, I almost forgot. Take that piece of shit with you." He pointed at his greatsword lying on the ground. "That's a weight I can't carry if I want to catch the bastard mummy."
"Are you going to look for him? I don't think that's a good idea, you're too badly hurt..." Choji reasoned.
"I have to take care of him and his group before he comes back for Sasuke or any of you. Besides..." Bakugo said, his face serious, not revealing the other reason why he had to go after Dosu. "It doesn't matter. I'll see you at gate number 12."
Bakugo started walking again, leaving Choji there with his scrolls and his Kubikiribōchō.
While chasing Dosu, Bakugo realized that the pain had not only not decreased, but had actually intensified.
—In the end, the bastard mummy is going to be right when he said he was doing me a favor when he was about to kill me. —Bakugo thought, trying to focus on his goal instead of the pain. —The pain is only mental... There is no pain... —psychology didn't work to calm the pain— There is no pain... —it still didn't work. —THERE IS NO PAIN... —he bit his lip. —FUCKING HURTS, MY FUCKING SHOULDER HURTS, I SHIT ON EVERYTHING SHITTABLE!—