Chapter 3

Hayate Gekko could easily claim he was an incredibly lucky man. Seeing as one moment he was surrounded by an inky darkness and the next he was waking up to his white ceiling that had a ceiling fan. He laid still for a few seconds and listened to his breath. Each one rattled within his chest and he felt the familiar need to cough. As soon as he felt that, he jumped out of his bed in surprise and looked around his spotless room with wide eyes.

He relaxed when he saw that his room was empty. His shoulders visibly slumped and he let out a soft cough, he hadn't missed that when he was in the darkness. He let out an annoyed sigh and shuffled towards the bathroom. No sooner had he finished his business his doorbell started ringing. He stood there for a few seconds before slowly reaching into his kunai pouch and pulling one of the hand-knives out. He held it by his thigh as he went to answer the door.

"You've been asleep all day," A familiar voice said with a slightly lazy tone.

Hayate rolled his eyes and put the kunai back into his pouch before opening the door a bit more to let his friend in. Chestnut brown hair cut the same length as his, with senbon between his teeth, and his dark eyes looking around his apartment. A grin was on the man's face as he eyed him from his spot at the door. He let out another sigh.

"I have the week off, Genma," Hayate informed him, scratching the back of his head.

"Right," Genma muttered, his lazy demeanor shifted from vaguely amused to solemn, "Did you hear about what happened to the Yamanaka's?"

"Yamanaka's?" Hayate questioned.

This was new, he was sure that he had never heard of any Yamanaka's besides Inoichi and his wife. He was still a teen, having been twenty-three when he had died, and had yet to have his illness show up in its entirety. He eyed his friend, waiting to watch his expression change and say that it was just the punchline to a distasteful joke. When a few seconds passed he realized there would be no joke.

"What happened?" Hayate questioned as he sat down on his couch.

"It was an assassination mission gone wrong," Genma informed him, crossing his arms across his chest, "One of their targets had a bodyguard that knew fire jutsu and caught them unaware. Their kid had to identify their bodies."

Hayate hadn't heard of this in his previous run of his life. He brought a hand up to his chin in thought. He wondered if someone else had been unlucky enough to be reborn, though that wasn't a correct term for what he was going through. He had been given a second chance; he knew better than to squander it. He could extend an olive branch to help the other person that had been brought back, but he needed to find them first. He wanted to grow a network to try and stop what had happened to him from happening again.

"That kid is weird though," Genma continued.

"Oh, how is a kid weird enough to bother you?" Hayate asked with a slight grin, teasing the now annoyed man.

"She just stares at everyone," was the answer, "She doesn't say anything unless she needs to."

"It just sounds like she's observant," He muttered.

Genma simply scoffed at that and stretched to crack his back. He sent Hayate a look and the brunette knew that he had to go get ready to eat lunch with him. He sometimes forgot how pushy Genma could be if he put his mind to it. He was a bit of a mother hen, but he wasn't going to tell him that. He got up from the couch and went to change, when he finished and pulled on his sandals they headed out.

As they moved through the village they saw a group of academy aged kids running around. One of the leaders was a boy with straight black hair. He was boasting about something to his friends and they ran off once again. Genma let out a sound that came from the back of his throat and motioned with a hand where the children had been. It was easy to tell what he was thinking.

"Kids are weird?" Hayate asked with a slight grin.

"They get weirder every day, I swear," Genma grumbled slightly as he moved his senbon around his mouth.

He put his hands into his pockets, and a girl with long dirty blonde hair sprinted past them and in the direction that the group of the children had gone. Genma paused in his tracks and watched as she easily took a sharp corner and picked up the speed with a strange sense of urgency. That had been the kid he was talking about, that much Hayate was able to pick up just from the way his body tensed.

"There goes the weirdest," Genma muttered before sighing, "Something must be wrong if she's running."

"That's the Yamanaka, huh," Hayate could help the slight scoff that fell from his lips, "She such a squirt."

"A squirt that can use the Juken on you," Genma informed him with a frown, "Kids part Hyuuga."

Hayate simply rolled his eyes and headed towards the area that the children had gone as Genma sputtered for a few seconds before tagging along. He could sense where they were, the small flickering chakras easily discernable. The scene that he came upon was something he hadn't expected. That little girl was curled up in a ball with something protected in her arms. He let out a low curse, where the hell was ANBU when you needed them? He sometimes found that they were lacking in their response time.

"Oh, the half-breed is protecting the runt?" A boy taunted.

The girl didn't even react to those words. He didn't even see her flinch when a different boy sent a heavy kick to her side. She kept her guard around what ever was in her arms up. She was still, but he could tell that she was still alive just from her chakra alone.

Genma watched as his friend walked forward and held up one of the kids by the back of his shirt. It had been enough to scatter the group of kids and he felt his left eyebrow twitch. Hayate usually wouldn't get himself involved in academy problems even with how good of a guy he was, so for him to step in was a big deal. He stepped forward as well and knelt next to the Yamanaka that was curled into such a tight ball that he was impressed. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and the girl finally flinched.

"Hey, kid," He greeted, "It's over now."

She simply moved her head and turned to see who had spoken to her. There was a slight glint of distrust in her eyes, but she slowly brought herself out of her balled up form. He could see the bruises on her face as she slowly moved to look at him and Hayate. He was even privy to what she was protecting.

It was a kitten.

A small black kitten, with a somewhat squashed face, large eyes, and short stubby legs. It was pushing its head against the girl's chest in a kind manner and the girl would pet its head in response. This kid was willing to face getting beaten to a pulp to protect a cat? She was weird, but at least her heart was in the right place. It made her seem less weird.

"You endured all that for a cat?" He questioned her in an exasperated tone.

"The cat didn't do anything wrong, why should it be beaten because these boys need to find a way to stroke their ego?" She countered in a soft monotone, getting up to her feet.

"We'll report this to your sensei," Hayate informed her and watched as her hands flinched before she gave the cat a small scratch behind the ears.

"Our sensei is Umino Iruka," She informed him.

She met his eyes and Hayate knew that was the person who had been reborn. The level of awareness of the situation and the way she handled it told of years of discipline. She carried herself in a manner that made it easy to tell if one knew what to look for. The one person that he could turn for help was a brat, an academy brat.

That was just his luck and par for the course if he really thought about it.

"Is the cat yours?" Genma asked her.

"No, it belongs to my Uncle," She replied as she met the other brunettes' eyes, "It ran away a few days ago and I've been keeping an eye out for it."

Said cat let out a small meow at the girl and licked her chin. They saw her grimace at the rough tongue before a small, genuine smile appeared on her face. She seemed to like animals more than the child who was still in Hayate's grip. It was with that knowledge that Genma shooed her off and sent her home. Hayate's humor at the dirty look she sent Genma was something that he would deny until the day he died.

"Still a weird kid?" Hayate teased the older brunette.

"Shut up," Genma huffed, "Let's go inform Iruka of what's going on in his class."

They both started the walk to the academy, the child they were able to catch being brought with them. They were not looking forward to the loud shouting that Iruka was famous for. It was just their luck to be brought into this situation. Yet, it had been Hayate that had brought them into it. He owed his friend lunch for putting up with this.

Yuzuki would never admit that the happy smile on her Uncle's face as he accepted his cat made her year. The training afterwards to help with her speed was what she would say if anyone asked her. She was making plenty of progress with the juken and the mind transfer technique. She was moving faster then she should, but she knew the way the line of work she was going into ended.

If you don't train up and work hard on your skills than you were going to die. A ninja was stealthy and could kill with any weapon in their arsenal. Her arsenal was the two clan jutsu's that she had been taught. She knew that she really was a gunner for torture and interrogation, not that she minded she was used to getting answers out of people, with how detached she was she would be surprised if the Hokage attempted to put her on a sensor team.

As the two trained she quietly began to draft up future training plans. She needed stamina, strength, and agility. Her Chakra control would be perfect due to her Hyuuga training, even the amount in her reserves had grown from her training. She wasn't ready to die in her early twenties again, if she could make it to her thirtieth birthday then she would be happy.

The next two years of her life followed that pattern, but she had started to notice something strange. She would run into those two shinobi that helped her out with the bullies. First it was something as inconspicuous as bumping into one another while grocery shopping. She would always write that off when it happened since she did go shopping in a shinobi district and not a civilian one. When she ran into them in a weapons shop when she was buying a basic starters pack so she could start training with weapons, she began to think it was rather odd. What was even weirder to her was the fact that they started to help her with her shopping.

"Don't buy it in the pack, kid," Genma had told her, "It's a bit of a scam, buy them individually."

"Carry a whet stone with you," Hayate stated as he grabbed one off a shelf, "Granted you won't be using it to sharpen your weapons to a degree where you could do actual damage, having one won't hurt."

She looked at her pile of weapons. Two packs of Shuriken, Senbon, and Kunai each and a small dull blue weapons pouch with a blue metal button to keep it closed. She had narrowed her eyes at the color of the pouch and slowly moved her attention towards the man who had picked it out. Hayate had a feeling he knew where she was going to end up. Assassination with some backing in T&I.

She was going to be a terrifying force and barely came up to his waist.

The eight-year-old stared him down before giving a soft sigh. He could tell by the expression on her face that she didn't like it when people were able to read her. She easily paid for the weapons and quickly put them away in the pouch before placing it around her waist with a thick belt that was the same dusty blue.

"What's a kid like yourself needing weapons for?" Genma asked her.

"I like being able to practice on my own," She answered with a simple shrug, "It helps me to figure things out."

He couldn't tell if she was a natural genius or was smart enough to think things through. He looked towards Hayate and the brunette gave an unhelpful shrug. He couldn't help but be annoyed at that, he was the one that had dragged him out to bother the kid. He had to admit that he was wrong about her. Well, he had been dead on when he said she was weird, but she was a quiet kid that just wanted to protect the only family she had left.

She wasn't quite the brat he thought she was.

"Shiranui-San," She called with a slight frown, "You keep staring at me, I'm gonna hit you."

"You wouldn't be able to do much damage at your age," Genma informed her as he flicked her forehead.

"Ah, yes, but you seem to forget that I'm at perfect crotch hitting height," She informed him in a dead serious tone, "I don't need the juken to do damage to you."

He was able to keep a wince off his face. Getting hit in the crotch by a Hyuuga did not seem like a good time to him. He had a feeling that she would make good with that thinly veiled threat. She was getting too familiar with him if she felt comfortable enough to do so.

Her smirk showed that she knew what he was thinking. Her smirk stayed on her face even when she narrowed her eyes and discreetly looked over her shoulder. Her Uncle seemed to be training her to be able to use her senses to know when someone was following her. He knew that she had a strong nose as he had seen her easily pick out the best produce at the grocery store.

He sent a lazy gaze the direction she was looking at. An ANBU was watching her and he could tell that she was familiar with this operative. She removed her attention away from the ANBU and gave the two men a wave. Hayate gave one of his own and Genma simply ruffled her long locks. With an annoyed looked sent at the taller man she went on her way.

"ANBU's keeping an eye on her," Genma muttered, "After that problem with the Hyuuga clan they doubled down on their clansmen."

"She's more Yamanaka than Hyuuga," Hayate countered, "Anyone would be stupid to even try and kidnap the kid."

"Yeah, they'd get a juken to the crotch."

"You are never going to let her forget that, are you?"

"Nope."

Hayate couldn't find it in himself to feel bad for the kid. This was why people typically watched what they said around his fellow tokubetsu jonin, he had a good memory for what people said. His ability to blackmail people was just as good as Anko's. He typically used it in good fun. He let out a cough and looked away as Genma sent him a grin. For as good of a ninja as his friend was, he was such an idiot.

Yuzuki let out a sigh as she returned home and kicked off her sandals. The weight on her lower back was something she was unused to. The medieval weapons were something else she wasn't used to. She was starting to miss her guns; they were easier to use and a bit more efficient. Jutsu was efficient as well and could be used to the same accuracy as a gun, but she liked the feel of a gun in her hands. She liked the weight, and they were reliable compared to ninjutsu.

She thought back to her first station in Korea. She had been let off the ship for no more than an hour and had gotten drunk with a fellow officer. AP classes and college credits had helped her in her goal to advance faster than she normally would've. The pay had been nice, and she was able to buy gifts for her older brother and his daughter.

Thinking about her niece made her sad, she hadn't been able to see the little girl before she passed. She would've loved to have another picknick with the child or wear another handmade flower crown. Oddly enough, she had ended up that kid's hero. Her mother didn't want anything to do with her, so she stepped up to be the caring aunt. She was used to destroying things, not taking care of them. Sometimes she still dreamt of those baby blue eyes looking up at her from the chubby face of her newborn niece, and it hurt. It hurt horribly, and whenever it started she would start reading the academy scrolls with gusto to ignore the pain filled memories.

Another year passed and she was still the odd one out at the academy. Her scores showed that she was painfully average, but Iruka knew better. He watched as they took exams, he would catch those who attempted to cheat and would take their test and made sure they received a failing mark. When she got her test she quickly moved through the answers in a way that no nine-year-old should, and then would go back over her work and change things. One time she hadn't properly erased her paper and he had seen that she answered everything correctly and would go back and change some of her answers to remain average on paper. She never made that mistake again.

He sighed as he stared down at the child in front of him. Her long hair had a wad of sticky glue in it, something he knew she could dodge as a juken user, and was being kept away from her clothes by a small bandaged hand. Her expression was one of slight annoyance as she stared at the glue, even following its path onto the floor. He knew who had put it in her hair, the blonde boy didn't even try to stop himself from laughing.

"Can you just…cut it?" She quietly asked him.

"You know that if you do, Hiashi-Sama will be angry," Iruka informed her as he already reached for a pair of scissors.

"And Inoichi-san won't let him do a thing," She sighed, "He's already annoyed at Hiashi-Sama for trying to say what I can and cannot learn, techniques are taught to all Yamanaka regardless of family status."

It wasn't much of a family secret; she knew better than to give out information that could get her into trouble. She had simply told him a little bit that he didn't know and give more evidence to what he did know. He heard the doors slide open and watched as two jonin walked in. They both gained the same expressions on their faces; worry mixed with amusement and a lethal edge that was carefully hidden.

"How'd you end up with glue in your hair, kiddo?" Genma asked her and she looked at him.

"I refused to dodge a prank by Naruto," She answered with a slight shrug, "This is why I hate long hair."

Her annoyance at the length of her hair was new to Iruka. He liked to believe that he was a good judge of character when it came to his students. For some reason he could never get a good read on her. She had two friends that so happened to be tokubetsu jonin, and he didn't know what to think about that. Her parents certainly had kept to themselves, even though they were war veterans, and didn't have many friends but plenty of peers that respected them. Every time he looked at their daughter, he saw a child that was going to make it her life's work to protect the village with everything she had.

It scared him to see that in a child, especially one as young as her.

"Man, your grades suck," Genma informed her.

"No, just average," She stated as Iruka finally got over his shock and cut the hair around the glue.

It looked rough, but it would be her choice whether she cleaned it up or not. She wanted to go home and cut it even shorter and keep a long fringe to cover one eye to show which family she liked more. As much as she loved her Uncle she didn't like her Hyuuga family members. They all treated her with disdain and hate. They didn't like the half-breed Yamanaka.

"I'll make sure Naruto knows what he did is wrong," Iruka sighed.

"Don't," She said with a frown, "He already feels bad enough, there's no need to punish him further."

There she goes again, confusing her sensei. Iruka stared at her and noticed the way that she kept her eyes trained on his in a fashion that was more Hyuuga than Yamanaka. Sometimes he wondered if she knew that she acted more like her Uncles family than her Aunts. It was a weird sight.

"Stop confusing your sensei with your weird manners," Genma told her as he flicked her forehead.

"Get in all the shots you can, Shiranui-San," She informed him as she rubbed at the spot, "One day I will wipe the floor with you."

"You are ten years too early for that kiddo," Genma grinned at her and she glared at him.

It was probably the most childlike expression Iruka had seen on her face. Hayate almost laughed at the expression on the other mans face. He looked slightly disturbed and curious at the fact that Genma brought out that indignation from being treated like a kid. He treated her like a mini adult and that was why he was her favorite.

"This is why Gekko-San is my favorite," She grumbled at the brunette who was shooting her a lazy grin with a Senbon hanging from his mouth.

"You wound me kiddo," Genma said in a sad tone that was obviously fake.

"Give me a few minutes," She grumbled in response to that.

It was a threat, but one made in jest. Something that wasn't going to be taken serious by the older man, but it brought her Sensei some worry. She was far too comfortable around the jonin for it be a friendship that her parents had that carried down to her. He looked at the two and watched as Genma brought her into a headlock and easily gave her a noogie.

"Oi, knock it off you old goat!" She barked at him.

Well, that was just grounds for him to continue giving her the noogie of a lifetime. She narrowed her eyes at him and eventually Iruka let her go for the day. The two jonin looked down at the grumpy nine-year-old. She probably didn't even realize that she was nine, she never seemed to pay attention to when her birthday came.

"Don't you celebrate your birthday?" Genma asked her and she looked up at him through her lashes, "You seem to be the only kid who doesn't."

"No, there is another," She muttered as she thought back to the Uchiha in her class, "When you lose everything important to you, birthdays don't seem to matter much."

"You are one of the most depressing people I've ever met," Genma informed her, "And I know Hatake."

Hayate let out a snort at that. She did give Hatake a run for his money in the self-deprecating department. She got worse after learning how to use her Byakugan. Sometimes, when she was training on her own, he would catch her using the Byakugan and keep an eye on the area. The Hyuuga began to pressure her more and he could see her slowly drifting away from them and attempting to figure out their techniques through trial and error.

He was sure that she was slowly working her way through the trigrams.

"Thank you?" She sounded confused and decided to take Genma's words as a compliment.

"It's better than another Gai," Hayate pointed out.

Genma had to concede his point, it was far better to have a depressing ninja walking around than another that could generate a genjutsu by pure willpower alone. The fact that she seemed to gravitate towards muted colors such as a greyish tan and dull blue was something that he was grateful for. Her hair was a bit unusual but not as bad as one of her classmates. Bright pink was a death warrant for a shinobi who wanted to be out on the front lines.

Dirty blonde could be worked with, and with how good her chakra control was she could easily put a henge over it and make it brown.

She bid her farewell to them, thanking the two for getting Iruka to let her go early, and headed home. She walked into her empty house and stared at her feet before taking off the closed toe sandals. She didn't mind the fact that she was alone for her birthday. She was used to being alone, though she was lying to herself.

It bothered her.

A lot.

She walked into her kitchen and noticed a small parcel on the table. She paused and activated her Byakugan and looked at it. She saw no traps and no tags on it and deemed it safe to open. With a quick slice of a kunai the paper covering the parcel was opened and inside was a small charm that belonged on the end of a swords hilt. It had the Kanji for Wolf on it and she couldn't help but smile at that and place it on the table. The paper went into the trash, it had no scent so she couldn't really figure out who had sent it, and she headed to sleep.