Chapter 4

The Sandaime of Konohagakure stared at the papers in front of him. He took a single drag out of his pipe and blew out the smoke with a long sigh. He couldn't help but look at the papers as though they had ruined his life. They hadn't, they had just put him in a conundrum.

The papers in question?

They were the files for the newly graduated academy students. He was in a conundrum because there was an extra student. He stared at the paper that was giving him the most grief. It was always the quiet ones. He swore that the quiet students always gave him the hardest time. All one had to do was look at Hatake and Itachi.

"Yamanaka Yuzuki, huh?" He muttered.

A pair of blank, pale lavender eyes looked up at him in a serious manner from the picture of the kid in question. Her dirty blonde hair was past her shoulders and with the way she dressed he would've confused her for a boy if it hadn't been for the highly feminine features and the red makeup that rimmed her eyes, the Hyuuga's always seemed to produce attractive shinobi. Her expression is what caught his eye when he was putting the teams together. She was a bit taller and lankier compared to other Kunoichi her age and was painfully average.

On paper at least.

But from the reports of her academy sensei's, both of them, she was anything but. She lowered her own grades and sabotaged herself in the physical portions of the test. She had used underhanded techniques and downplayed her abilities. Her mind seemed to work like the children from the last war.

She understood the lesson that most of her peers didn't.

Being above average will see you getting killed, being below will also see you being killed, average means you just might have a chance to survive and grow stronger. The more talented you are, the more pressure and the more dangerous missions you take on. He had seen it destroy more than one talented shinobi. Hatake being a prime example of that. The Uchiha massacre an extreme example of it.

She still needed to be sorted, but he had already prepared all the teams.

His problem was back to stare him in the face. What could he do with a girl who dressed as though she was in torture and interrogation? She was too young to send her to that division to go under an apprenticeship, and he personally didn't want to send a child in there. She needed a jonin sensei, but he didn't have any openings on any teams in circulation or about to be in circulation.

He needed to get a fresh batch of jonin on the roster that could handle having a team of children. As much as he trusted Kakashi, he knew that the man was the only one that could work with the team he created for him. He sighed as a migraine began to form at how difficult it was to sort this one child. He took another drag out of his pipe and released the cloud of smoke.

There was a knock at his door, and he looked up.

"Enter," He ordered.

The doors slid open and two jonin walked in, a bit worse for the wear but other feet. He waited for them to give the report that went along with their mission. Intelligence gathering had been their mission, they had been gone for two weeks. Judging by how they looked, it had taken more out of them then they would've liked to admit.

"Report," He ordered them.

"Shiranui Genma reporting," Genma started as he stood up straighter in front of his Hokage, "Subterfuge in the land of tea was a success, it seems as though Hayate here was right there was a new ninja village built. They have adopted Otogakure as their name."

The village hidden in the sound, huh?

It felt like a false village, but he had no choice but to let them into the Chunnin exams. All villages had the right to take part, especially in times of peace. The Sandaime brought his hands together in thought as Genma handed over his mission scroll for a more in-depth version of the report he had given. There was something brewing, and he knew that it would come to a head during the Chuunin exams.

"You are dismissed," He told the two.

Genma turned to leave but saw that his friend had stayed in place. Hayate had been acting a bit odd for the last few years, granted he got a kid to tease- and to all those who say that she wasn't his kid he was ready to prove them wrong biology be damned- and a partner out the strange behavior. Hayate had increased his training to make sure his illness wouldn't bother him in the future, he was a proficient shinobi and wasn't about to let anything stop him. He even allowed the kid to join him in training, granted she just practiced her juken forms.

"I'd like to take a newly graduated genin into an apprenticeship," Those weren't the words either male had expected to hear from Hayate.

"Genin are tested to make sure they understand the basic ideas of teamwork," The Sandaime said with a serious expression, "What would make this genin so special?"

"She has the aptitude for kenjutsu with her background," Hayate replied, "She's made her academy score seem average to make sure she slipped by without being noticed, I believe that with the proper training she could be a very valuable asset to the village."

Did Hayate like talking about his reincarnated friend like this? No, no he didn't, when they were alone he caught more of her actual attitude that wasn't influenced by her second upbringing. She was more like Genma then she would like to admit, it was a bit scary if one thought about it. One Genma was more than enough for the village? Two of them would most likely decimate it and then light the remains on fire to roast marshmallows. He just needed her to be under his wing to train her up, she needed to be strong to stay alive in this world. It was different compared to some of the things he heard about her past life that she let slip.

The fact that she missed her military uniform from her past life brought him some amusement, it was why she liked the T&I uniform and dressed in a style that was like it.

"Would this genin just happen to be Yamanaka Yuzuki?" The Sandaime asked.

Sometimes he wondered how the heavens worked. Here he was looking for a way to get this one child under a jonin and one just happened to walk in and express interest in having her be trained? He was almost suspicious and would have had the jonin put under watch if Gekko Hayate had been anything but a loyal ninja that had shown time and time again that he was willing to put his life on the line for the village.

"And what if she were to want to advance to chuunin?" He asked, "A three-man team is needed for the exams."

No one said anything about Uchiha Itachi and how he was able to perform as a one-man team. He refused to have another massacre happen on his watch. He would make sure to keep such a child out of Danzo's range.

"I would find a team that was down a member and also wanting to participate," Hayate answered, "Yamanaka-San is adept in adapting to a situation and flourishing, she would be able to work in a team with people she had never met before."

The Sandaime knew that Hayate held a high regard for the child. He looked down at the paper in his hand and gave a sigh, he had no choice she had graduated along with everyone else. It wouldn't be fair for her to be exempt from the chance to train and, with what he was hearing from Hayate, advance. She showed promise, even with her grades on paper.

"I will allow this," The Sandaime stated and that got Genma to blink in surprise, "Yamanaka Yuzuki is now your responsibility and under your tutelage."

"Thank you, Sandaime-Sama," Hayate bowed before leaving the office with his friend.

"I can't believe that you asked the Hokage that," Genma muttered, "You do know that I'll most likely help with the kid, right?"

"After all you seem to have adopted her," Hayate said in a blank tone, "Have you informed her of that yet?"

"Listen here you shit," Genma started and Hayate smirked at that.

"We have a kid to celebrate with," Hayate informed him.

That was how they found themselves outside the door of a half-awake Yamanaka with hair sticking up in all directions. It took one look at the hair for Genma to start cackling. It took even less time for Yuzuki to start closing the door with a blank expression on her face. Hayate's foot in the door was the only thing that stopped it from being shut.

"We didn't come to laugh at your hair," He informed her, and she slowly opened the door with a skeptical look on her face.

"I've never seen a Hyuuga or Yamanaka with their hair so messy," Genma said as he calmed down.

"Congrats, I'm human too," She grumbled, "Is there a particular reason why you two are bothering me at midnight, last thing I knew I wasn't on active duty yet so there should be a really good reason."

"You graduated the academy and you didn't think we'd come to celebrate with you?" Genma asked her in a sarcastic tone and took some pleasure out of the way she paused to think about what had just been said to her.

"Right, come on in," She sighed.

"You used your byakugan to make sure we were allies, right?" Hayate asked her as they both walked into the somewhat cold house.

"No, you two have very distinctive scents," She answered.

They both wondered what they smelt like but didn't want to ask. She was able to find people she needed to just by smell alone, with a nose like that Genma wondered why she wanted to be in T&I and assassination. He wondered if she knew that she would get bored. She was back to confusing him every so often.

He went down the hallway that he knew led to her kitchen and could smell what she had cooked for dinner. It smelt like fish, he swears the kid lives off fish and fruit. She was healthier than any other brat he knew and there wasn't much data to go on there. He went into her fridge and he could hear Hayate's amused snort.

"Don't drink all my milk again, it took me a while to get the recipe just right and I want it to last a little longer," She asked him, and he saw how her shoulders were slumped.

"Patent the recipe, then," He told her with a simple shrug as he got three glasses down from her cupboards.

"Patent…too much work," She sighed, "It's too troublesome to do that."

"You've been hanging around that Nara boy again," Genma said in a manner that was scarily like a mother.

She seemed to need a soft reset after that and Hayate made sure that she was sitting down while her mind got used to the idea of a motherly Genma. Neither had seen his mother henning get to that extent before and it startled both of them. It was terrifying what the man could do when he worried about those he cared about. Yuzuki was starting to wonder if he had unofficially adopted her when she wasn't looking. He knew enough about her house for that to be a reality. She should just tell him to claim the guest room as his seeing as he raided her fridge like he lived there.

"We got you a gift from our last mission, squirt," Genma informed her as Hayate unsealed it from a scroll.

It was a new head band for her hai-ate, it was the same dusty blue as her weapons pouch and made from layered cotton and silk. She noted that there was a seal for a genjutsu to mess with her opponents hearing sewn into the inner layers. Auditory genjutsu was difficult but being from a clan that dealt with the mind was enough for her to know how to completely screw with it. Messing with a person's chakra paths was another specialty of hers.

She really did get a leg up in this life, she would admit that even with how many people disliked her she knew that she had a form of privilege above her civilian peers.

She also knew that hard work won out against genius every time. She was a firm believer in working hard. Whoever her sensei was she hoped that they believed in that as well. She would have serious problems if she got stuck with a sensei as lazy as Shikamaru.

She picked up her homemade strawberry milk, made with actual strawberry's and not a syrup, and took a sip of it from the glass. Hayate sighed as Genma easily drained his glass. The two had a bit of a sweet tooth when it came to drinks, though he doubted that she would go for Sake. She had expressed a dislike of the drink the one time he allowed her to have some. Apparently, she went for the drinks that had fruit in them. She couldn't stand the smell or taste of alcohol, and liked it better when it was masked.

To the question she had proposed when he started laughing, no, no he had never sat on a beach with an ice-cold martini in his hand and watched the waves rock'n'rollin.

"I can't believe you passed," Genma teased their kid.

"I can't believe you did as well, congrats," She teased back, "I'm so proud of you."

Genma let out a low snort at that as she replaced the cloth on her hai-ate, the cool metal looking better against a duller blue. She left it on the table and let out a low yawn, she had to be up early the next day to meet her sensei. As much as she loved Genma and Hayate, and she really did, she loved sleep more. Granted, them visiting saved her from the dream she'd been having. It was getting close to the anniversary of her parent's deaths, and the dreams always came back. If she thought about it enough she could still smell their charred remains. Her nose crinkled in slight disgust as she smelt something burning.

"Hey, don't go getting lost in your head," Genma told her as he lightly bopped her head with his fist.

"Then let me sleep goddamn it," She grumbled, "I have to be up early tomorrow, and this is not how I expected to spend this night."

"I worry about how you'll be able to even take missions that'll be more than one day," Genma muttered.

"It's called I know the importance; this could have waited until tomorrow after I meet my sensei and we could've all gone out for barbeque."

In hindsight that sounded far better than what the two had done. Especially with the surprise that Hayate had for her. Hayate watched as she began to nod off in her chair. She was exhausted, he saw her hands and arms and knew why. She had been trying to figure out the trigrams. She had light burns covering her skin. Chakra burns were something that Hyuuga children were used to, the byakugan could only do so much to help them with their control early on.

The fact that her burns were getting lighter and lighter as she practiced meant that she was getting close.

"Head back up to bed, kiddo," Genma sighed as she finally lost the battle to sleep and her forehead slammed into the table.

She grumbled something but got up from her chair and stumbled out of the kitchen. They could hear the moment she reached the stairs. Ninja's were supposed to be light footed, but they could hear every tired step. That was going to have to be remedied.

They were already making lesson plans in their minds.

Hayate wanted to start on her kenjutsu training, working with a bokken would be the first step. He couldn't help but think she would be best suited for a tachi paired with a small tanto for when she needed to be in close combat. She needed to work on speed and stamina to be able to use kenjutsu along with any other type of shinobi arts she learned.

Genma was going to make sure she knew genjutsu. She had the chakra control for it and the knowledge of the mind. It was the best course of action for her. Stay hidden and then mess with someone's mind to get them to panic and then take them out with her sword? She could easily perform such a feat with the right kind of training. He didn't even want to think about the fact that he was training his kid to kill people, he knew that it was important for her to be able to stay alive.

The two left her house and went to get some rest of their own. Hayate and Genma had their own keys just in case something happened to their homes. It was nice to have another place to go if they didn't feel like being alone, plus she knew how to cook. Her food was weird, she remembered some dishes from her previous life, but it had a homecooked style to it that caused them to visit more. Genma was guilty of appearing on Friday nights to enjoy a home cooked meal.

Being around the kid was great, the food was just a bonus.

The next morning found Yuzuki waking up early and at the memorial stone that held the names of shinobi and kunoichi who had been killed in action. She hadn't expected someone else to be there already. She barely spared them a glance as she put a bouquet of a few white anemone and a couple aster tataricus. The flower language here followed the Japanese version, hanakotoba. She had created the bouquet, much to the sadness of the matriarch of the Yamanaka clan, to mean sincere remembrance. The light purple flowers moved a little in the slight breeze that usually appeared during the spring.

She just hadn't expected anyone to be there.

"Parents?" Her fellow mourner asked.

"Yeah," She quietly answered as she looked at the KIA stone, "Comrades?"

"Yeah."

It was quiet for a while after that and the man next to her looked at the flowers she had placed in front of the stone. He could smell them, they smelt fresher than some of the flowers that other shinobis brought. His single dark, grey eye looked over at her. She was a fresh genin.

"It's nice to see you again," She told him, "I haven't forgotten the fact that you treated me like I was stupid."

Her lavender eyes were narrowed at him through lashes. He almost smirked behind his mask; she was a sharp kid. She recognized him, how he didn't know. He was sure it was the hair; it was very distinct in Konoha. She caught his eye and tapped her nose with an amused smirk. Someone had an aptitude for being a sensor nin.

"You must be Tuski and Ryu's kid," He muttered, "You act like neither of them."

"I act like myself," She stiffly informed him with a raised brow as the breeze picked up for a few seconds.

She smelt a bit odd. Like the ocean, and ozone. It let him know exactly what type of nature her chakra was. Two nature types weren't unusual for clan children, it was becoming the norm the more that became shinobi.

"I'll see you around," She told him with a small bow, "I'll be late if I don't go."

She ran off after that. He watched in slight amusement before looking back towards the memorial. Her generation of shinobi were a strange bunch, but she was the strangest. She acted like the children of his generation; the ones that had been quickly advanced during a time of war. Too bad she wasn't on his team; it would've been interesting to try and train a kid like that.

When Yuzuki got to the academy to hear who her sensei was, she looked around at all the new genin. Most of them would be sent back to the academy, she knew the percentage rate. She wondered how many of the others knew, she shared a look with Shikamaru. He knew, and she gathered that he was the only one that knew what had been going through her mind.

"What do you think of your cousin?" Shikamaru asked as Ino and Sakura came through the doors at the same time.

"She's ridiculous," Yuzuki sighed, "But at least it's somewhat entertaining to watch."

"What a pain," He murmured.

"I think that's your go to saying," She teased him with a lazy grin that was clearly inspired by a certain jonin.

All she was missing was the senbon hanging from her lips.

The dirty look she got from Shikamaru made the grin even worse. They were brought away from their banter by a loud exclamation from the Uchiha's fanbase. Shikamaru wondered what he had missed, but Yuzuki sighed quietly. Of course, Naruto would be knocked into Sasuke and end up kissing him. That was just the blonde's luck.

She never understood the hate that the blonde got, she really didn't.

The people of the village were horrible at keeping their mouths shut, and some of the shinobi. That last one had surprised her; you'd think that a people that had so many codes would know how to keep their mouths shut and not dwell on the past. It was one of the few things that had disappointed her to learn. She looked back towards the now bruised blonde who was glaring down at the table he was at.

A nine-tailed fox?

If he was a nine-tail fox then she was mickey mouse. Honestly, if these people could see more than their own ass they'd be able so see that he was just a kid. A loud-mouthed kid, but a kid, nonetheless. Even though he had laughed when he flung the glue into her hair, she had caught him looking guilty before she was pulled into Iruka's office. If there was a small braided bracelet, terribly made at that, on her desk the next day and she took to wearing it then no one was the wiser.

It was an apology and she would accept it; she wasn't angry at him.

"This is too troublesome," Shikamaru grumbled as he laid on the desk.

"I agree, this could've easily been done yesterday," Yuzuki agreed with him as she let out a small yawn, "I feel the need to get going and not have my time waisted by waiting."

"That's new for you," He informed her.

"Not really," She shrugged, "Your around me for a couple hours a day, that's not enough time to get a complete grasp on a personality."

Shikamaru was a bit startled at those words. She had a point, six to eight hours a day wasn't enough to get the full extent of a person's personality. He knew that she was quiet, but he had thought she was also lazy. She agreed with him, a lot, so it was easy for him to think she was just like him. A genius that was hiding her true abilities, or in his case a genius that was too lazy to even try. How long had she been manipulating the system? He narrowed his eyes at her, and she glanced at him from the corner of her eye. She had mannerisms like the jonin that his parents sometimes had over for dinner.

She was going to move up the ranks before any of them.

He didn't know if that scared him or not. She was the cousin of his best female friend, someone that he could call a good friend. He now knew why his father had looked at her with a pitying look, something she hadn't liked judging by the expression that had been on her face. He couldn't tell if she was trying to prove something. Whatever she had to prove it wasn't worth dying early.

"You don't fear much, do you?" He asked her and watched as she blinked in genuine surprise.

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself," She replied without missing a beat.

He looked at her in confusion. She had a bad habit of quoting things and no one knew what or who she was quoting. He liked this one. The notion of being able to fear everything and nothing at the same time was in a shinobi's nature.

They love their hair because they're not smart enough to love something more interesting. Had been a quote that he had winced at when she first showed her annoyance at the Uchiha's fanbase. John Green, Looking for Alaska. That had been something people thought she would never be able to use. She had been quite happy when she had said it.

"Quiet down!" Iruka's shout got everyone to jump and shut up.

Iruka sighed as he looked at all the new genin. It was an odd number of children who had passed. He looked towards the one that wasn't going to be in a squad. She met his eyes and he saw a flash of suspicion in her eyes. It was like she was figuring out just what was going on.

"Starting today all of you are real shinobi," He informed them, "But you are still genin, the hard journey that lies ahead of you has just started."

"How troublesome," Shikamaru muttered.

"I'm inclined to agree," Yuzuki muttered as she rested her cheek in the palm of her hand.

"Now you will soon get missions to help the village," Iruka continued with his speech, "So, today we will create the three-man team, and each team will have a jonin sensei. You will follow your sensei's instructions in order to successfully complete your missions."

"Someone's going to get left out," Shikamaru heard Yuzuki mutter, "Damn, it."

He looked around the room and did a quick head count. There was one extra person, it was enough that there would be one person left out of a team. He looked towards her and noticed a sour expression on her face. She thought she'd be the person left out and he couldn't help but question why. She may have been average on paper, but anyone who knew her would say differently. Maybe one of the jonin she hung around would step in for her.

"We tried to balance each team's strength, but before I start," Iruka continued, "Yamanaka Yuzuki, a word?"

Yuzuki got up from her seat and slowly shuffled towards him. Her posture was relaxed, even with their graduated classmates saying that she was being demoted all ready. Ino and Hinata gave her a concerned look as she passed by. They had come to the same conclusion that she and Shikamaru had.

The two left the room and they could hear the dull roar of students murmuring. He closed the door behind them and watched as she looked up at him. Her eyes were serious and betrayed her relaxed posture. She was too ready to become a ninja. She was too ready for this line of work for it to be normal.

"You were accepted under an apprenticeship with a Tokubetsu Jonin named Gekko Hayate," He informed her, "Congratulations, Yuzuki-Chan."

"Thank you, Iruka-Sensei," She muttered with a light pink dusting her cheeks.

Honestly, if she hadn't been reborn as a child along side the generation she had she would be chasing this man down. How the hell did someone have such a pure smile? Where was he when she was still an adult in her previous life? Honestly, where were most of these guys? Using the byakugan did have a backlash.

She could understand the absolute craze around a Hatake Kakashi. He was a very pretty man and she was so confused. How the hell did so many good people make some weird looking kids? She supposed it was a good thing that she wasn't into the other kids. She wasn't sure about that. She herself was still a kid, but didn't like any of the ones around her. She liked the adults around her more than the children.

It was confusing how reincarnation worked, especially when you remember everything.

"Yuzuki-chan?" Iruka asked.

"Sorry, I was thinking about something," She said with a small smile, "I'll see you around, Iruka-Sensei."

He let out a sigh as she headed out the doors of the academy. He was letting a child who would do better on a three-man squad go into an apprenticeship with someone who was going to teach her how to use a dangerous weapon. He wondered if she was going to have to go through the same D-Rank missions as the rest of her peers. He didn't know how it was going to work. It hadn't been done in years.

Even then, most apprenticeships were taken when the ninja was a chuunin.

Yuzuki activated her byakugan and watched as Iruka stood there for a few seconds before going back into the classroom. She let out an interested hum before deactivating it. She was silent about it; she had learned that shouting out one's attack only gave your enemy your location. She had worked so hard to stay quiet when doing a jutsu.

Now, to find her sensei. Or would it be shishou? Great, he's changed the formula and she didn't know what to call him anymore. It annoyed her more than she would like to admit. Then again, he had given up having a relationship to train up for a future event. She felt bad for him, he was a nice guy. The fact that he was easy on the eyes went without saying.

She was brought back to her earliest annoyance. What the hell was up with the previous generations? No one should be that nice or desirable. She was in quite the conundrum, wasn't she? She let out a sigh.

Somewhere in the Hokage's office the Sandaime let out a sneeze.

She took in a short breath through her nose and began to weave through the crowds of Konoha. She could make out the scent of her Shishou and Genma. Those two were attached at the hip, and all they had been back in the previous timeline -something she and Hayate were beginning to call his first run- was friends. Distant friends at that. She came across the two brunettes and sent them her best glare.

Genma felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Someone was sending killing intent their way; it wasn't much but enough to get his body to react. He turned and saw a familiar head of dirty blonde hair and a pair of byakugan staring them down. Oh shit, he didn't even realize that she could have killing intent. He turned around and put the tomato in his hand down.

"You've made her mad," Genma quietly informed his friend.

"I know," Hayate gave a quiet chuckle before giving a slight cough.

"You owe me one hell of an explanation and lunch," Yuzuki informed him in a polite way.

The fact that she hadn't released her byakugan was telling that she was feeling less than polite. Hayate and Genma shared a look and Genma shrugged. He wasn't the one who pissed off his kid. He found that she was hard to piss off. Waking her up in the middle of the night and then not informing her of the fact that she was being taken under their wing. Yeah, he can't blame her for being mad.

"Barbeque?" Hayate questioned her.

She simply slumped at that and the killing intent was gone. She gave him a look and followed behind the two as they went to a barbeque restaurant. It was one of the Akimichi restaurants. One that had fish available to those that liked it more than beef.

As the food cooked, under Genma's watchful eyes, Hayate gave her a quick explanation. There wasn't much to explain, and she had already realized that she would most likely not end up on a team. Average sometimes didn't work out, but she had expected a few others to graduate. It didn't happen, two of her classmates had to redo the year. She couldn't imagine doing another year at the academy, she hated doing the years she had to.

"So, what's next, Shishou?" She asked him, teasing him a bit with his new title.

"Yeah, Shishou?" Genma muttered with a grin.

"Knock it off you two," Hayate grumbled, "We'll begin training and missions tomorrow."

She looked as though she was looking forward to that. Hayate needed to find his old bokken. He had them sealed up in a scroll somewhere in his apartment. He just needed to find them. He knew that she had a summoning scroll that she needed to sign a contract with her father's summons. He didn't even know what that summons had been, she never told him.

Yuzuki grabbed a piece of her grilled fish and placed it on her rice. She ate a bite with a small smile on her face. She really enjoyed fish; she couldn't help it. She got used to sea food because of all the different ports she had been to. They finished their lunch and split up.

"Things are getting interesting," She muttered as she watched her "friend" from earlier jump across some roofs.

She smirked to herself and continued to walk home, her hands in the pockets of her pants.