Chapter 1: Lone Genin

The sun above shone upon the canopy of Area 44. A dangerous forest, much like many other parts of the deep forest were, though this one was pointedly maintained to be dangerous. And it was for a good reason, as it was a high-level training area and the current location for the latest part of Konoha's latest chuunin examinations.

Junzo yawned as he followed his jounin sensei into the tower that lay at the center of the exam grounds, using the secure passageway from the edge of Area 44's border fence. He lifted a hand to cover his mouth as he walked in. "Oi, stop dawdling!" From ahead of him, the sickly-looking sensei in question called out, raising an eyebrow at Junzo.

"Hai, hai..." The youth answered, stretching out and straightening from his slouch. The genin stepped up his pace as he moved faster to meet the jounin who was already ascending the stairs.

The genin grumbled, slightly annoyed at having to come to this when it was supposed to be a free day for him. Also since he had absolutely nothing to do with this year's chuunin exams. Nonetheless he ran up the stairs to catch up with Hayate. He managed to reach him just as his sensei started to push open a doorway, holding it open with one hand. "Took you long enough," he said as Junzo shrugged in reply. The pair entered the room, revealing a wide arena, with the Hokage and a few other jounins gathered at one end, and the center mostly occupied with the teams that had passed the second exams. Hayate nodded at Junzo, who responded in silence as they separated.

A short while later, Junzo stood aside on one of the observation platforms that overlooked the preliminary battlefield. He stood off to the side, alone, watching as the new bunch of genin were debriefed. He had to admit that he was excited somewhat now that his irritation had worn off. He always enjoyed a good fight, and enjoyed it more if he was in the fight. Although, he didn't take the current exam cause of his lack of a team, he was looking forward somewhat to seeing what he might have been up against. The teenaged genin blinked and shrugged, running a hand through his mussed up black hair. No wonder I was brought along, Hayate-sensei is officiating this all.

He wondered idly if he should've worn something more of a uniform. Nah. He decided a moment later. He looked back down to the genins, and discovered that the fight pairing was beginning. They're so young! He realized, as he looked to see the majority of them. Most of the ones who'd made it were barely into their teens, surely no less then twelve but no older then fourteen for most. Except for the two curiously old-looking ones, and the Sand genins, he was quite sure about the ages of the rest. A slight pang shot through his heart at the sight. He raised a hand up, looking at it.

How old am I? I'm...ugh. He shook his head and rubbed his forehead.

Here he was, practically fully grown. But, yet he was barely much more at heart then the young teens. Probably less focused and mature, at that. Damnit, Hayate. He sighed and shook his head. Don't you know I hate this kind of thing? He grit his teeth, both in annoyance and resignation. But true, unfortunately. He lifted his eyes back up to look over at the young genin who were now climbing, leaving two standing. Junzo recognized one of them, Uchiha Sasuke, the lone survivor of his clan's massacre. He's only twelve isn't he?

Damn.

The red light of the sunset colored the sky above as it did day by day, painting the Hokage monument with shades of crimson shadowed against the coming dusk. Junzo way lying on his back atop the flat of the mountain, a feeling of frustration and some despondency settled around him in a heavy air. The young man grumbled softly, shaking his head, and moved to a sitting position as he turned to look at the other with him.

"Hayate-sensei?"

The sickly-looking man turned to look towards his sole remaining charge, a curious look on his face. "Mmm? What is it, Jun-kun?" He spoke, coughing into one hand a bit, before sitting up.

The pair were relaxing for the day, sitting on a part of the mountain that the Hokage Monument had been carved into, gazing over the city. Junzo sighed and looked over his sensei of three years. "I know you aren't all that much older then me, but do you think I'm immature?" He spoke softly. "I mean, I'm getting quite older and I still feel like I haven't really changed since…" He paused and continued, "I saw those young genin today, they seem so strong at heart..." his voice trailed off at the end.

The jounin examiner looked curiously at the youth, eyeing him carefully. He spent a moment in silence, then replied. "Tch, I'm almost a decade older then you. I think that counts for something. But..." He ran a hand through his hair a bit, fixing the head protector with the Konoha band. "Mmm, I think that being mature or immature is a very complicated thing. We can be mature in many small ways, or in a few major ways." He paused to look at Junzo, thinking carefully over his words as it was times like these that his charge seemed most delicate to handle. "Don't worry. You still have time to change, Jun-kun. It's hardly too late for you. I'm sure you have a great destiny to fulfill in your life."

Junzo's eyes closed at that, and his figure seemed to sag as he leaned on the rock behind him, sitting on the ground. Hayate's eyes flickered in uncertainty and concern for a while, and tentatively reached out to pat the genin on his shoulder. Junzo's dark eyes opened and he turned to the jounin. A slightly sorrowful half smile appeared on his lips, as he murmured, "Will you help me?"

Hayate was a bit surprised at this and for a moment he froze up. Those words were, curiously enough, ones he had not expected to hear from the rather secretive and closed genin. It was both the words he feared to hear, and hoped he would hear from him. A weak smile of his own blossomed on his face, despite a cough or two. "Heh. Of course. I'm your sensei after all." He managed a chuckle, as Junzo's smile turned into a soft, if brief, laugh of his own. He gave the boy another pat on his shoulder, then he rose from where he was sitting. "So, why don't we keep going on practicing your jutsu eh?"

The genin nodded once, with vigor, as he stood up. "Hai! Let's do that." A slightly wavery tone accompanied his voice, then he cleared it, and spoke again. "Let's do that."

"Yosh." Gekkou winked at his young friend and student, giving him a hearty pat on the shoulder. "Come on, you still have to perfect the Mikazuki no Mai I've been trying to teach you!" The two moved off into the twilight, their voices fading into the distance.

Days pass as they were to pass, time slipping and moving, waiting for none. But in those few days since, the young man named Mizushin Junzo had spent his time well. Much to Hayate's relief, he had finally opened up somewhat and found a trustworthy friend in his sensei, and proved a steady progress with a new determination. It was rather unfortunate, he thought, that Junzo didn't have a team that could bring out his worth as an intelligent and skillful ninja, denying him the chance to perform well that year. But he was sure that in the exams to come, his student would prove most formidable. I'd pit him up against any of those genius rookies. The thought rang true in his mind, knowing he made the right choice in petitioning the Hokage to reassign Junzo to an appropriate team.

A sudden stroke from that student brought him back to the present, whom he fended off with a quick motion of his katana. His attack foiled with a counterstroke from Hayate, Junzo sped from tree to tree, leaping off one trunk to another in rapid acrobatic moves. A flash of light appeared from above him, and he barely reacted in time to flip the kodachi he held to block the incoming strike of Gekkou's katana. The ill-looking man was certainly anything but sickly in a fight or training session.

The genin grunted as the strength behind the attack pressured him, his feet sliding downwards slightly along the tree trunk he stood on. Another grunt escaped his lips as he forced the jounin back, who quickly somersaulted back into the shadows of the moonlit night. Junzo spared no time moving around as well, trying to get the initiative and attack his sensei. Flashes of light, reflecting off the two blades as they clashed time and time again filled the trees, with Junzo coming off just a bit more pressed each time they exchanged series of strikes. Damn, looks like I'm not fast enough yet to fight him with simple taijutsu alone.

Hayate launched yet another furious attack, keeping the genin once more on the defense though he managed a few quick counter strokes. With that latest assault, Hayate vanished into the dark woods. Junzo couldn't detect his presence, much to his own chagrin. Raising his left hand to his face and breathing in deeply as he summoned forth his chakra. He focused on the darkness around him, concentrating as he blocked out everything but his hearing senses. There! A faint rush of sound came to life behind and above him, and his eyes flashed open the instant he detected it. The kodachi in his hand immediately rose to respond, and the clink of two blades resounded in the almost silent forest.

"I was wondering when you'd try for that." The jounin murmured softly with a smile, knowing well that Junzo could easily hear his whisper from where he was. "But having refined hearing alone isn't going to be enough, as good as you are with it." A small smile flickered over his lips and the jounin leaped away to another branch. Hayate let the katana in his hand drift to the side as he brought up one hand of his own. Junzo's eyes narrowed as he recognized what the jounin was about to do and quickly summoned his own chakra to permeate his body, coiling up to be unleashed.

Two voices called out, one a split second behind the other, "Mikazuki no Mai!"

The two forms blurred and shadowed into three each, and six figures filled the small area where there was once two. Hayate's eyes widened in mild surprise at seeing that. Three illusions now? There was a furious exchange of blows before the shadowy figures coalesced back into their original figures. Hayate stood behind Junzo, who was kneeling on the tree branch they were on, his katana resting on the genin's shoulder as its edge glimmered near the younger ninja's neck. "Too slow."

"Too confident." Junzo breathed out heavily, a small smile appearing on his own lips. Gekkou closed his eyes and sighed, then glanced down to see the kodachi's tip shine as it pointed up near his thigh.

"Another suicidal draw? You should know better then that. Tch." The tone of the voice and small smile on his face however took much away from the words, as the jounin stepped back and allowed Junzo to stand. "Still, you've been improving. Not bad." He paused then sheathed the sword behind him, and reached into his pocket with another. "You've practically mastered the normal level of Mikazuki no Mai, so I guess this is fine to give to you."

A pair of scrolls flew through the air towards Junzo, who caught the two in his left hand. "What's this?" He asked, a curious expression on his face as he sheathed his kodachi in its sheath at the small of his back. He looked at the scrolls and noticed that they had been bound with sealing jutsu. He looked back up at Hayate who shrugged.

"You can unlock the seals, just trace your blood over them." He scratched the back of his head. "I don't know what's in them either. I was just told to give them to you when I thought you could handle more advanced jutsu." He chuckled softly and glanced at Junzo. "Since you mastered Mikazuki no Mai, I figured anything at genin or chuunin level would be easy enough for you." He paused in quiet for a moment, as a last thought echoed silently in his mind. And since I'm going to be off on a special mission soon.

Junzo didn't notice the slight shift on Hayate's face, as he pricked a finger with a kunai and traced it carefully over one of the seals. A puff of smoke and chakra came from the first scroll, and the formerly small piece suddenly exploded with another larger cloud of smoke into a scroll that was easily over two feet wide, though it was still unopened. "What the?"

"Heh, couldn't wait till you got home eh?" Hayate shook his head and stepped closer to the scroll which Junzo was opening. The youth frowned at it, as it revealed nothing more then a list of names written down with handprints on them.

"Nani? What the heck is this...?" The genin eyed the peculiar thing.

"Ooh, it's a Summoning Contract." Hayate spoke in no little amount of curiousity, as he squatted opposite Junzo by the scroll. "Let's take this to the ground first, mmm?" He nodded at his student, who shrugged and rolled it up, then followed his sensei quickly to the forest floor. He placed it down and unfurled it again, looking at it curiously as he tried to figure out what it was. Junzo hadn't to wait long before the jounin coughed and began to explain.

"Mmm, now let's see. Summoning jutsu. You know about that right?" He asked Junzo.

"Yeah. It's a special jutsu where the user summons forth an animal spirit to his side, because of a special agreement with a certain type of animal spirit." He eyed the scroll. "You said this was a Summoning Contract." A spark lit up in his eye and he glanced up at Gekkou. "I wonder what I can summon with this! Hehe!" A small smile flashed across his face as he rolled it open a bit more to a blank space, and nipped a finger. He began writing down his name on the scroll with his finger in his blood. Once that was done, he spread the blood over the rest of his fingers to make his handprint on the scroll.

"Okay. Let's see how this works..." Junzo mumbled as he rolled the short sleeve of his shirt up and let his thumb bleed a bit more. Let's see. The seals are Boar, Dog, bird, Monkey, Sheep. He breathed in and focused his chakra as his hands moved carefully from seal to seal, fulfilling the basic method of summoning. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" He barked as he slammed his hand on the grass, channeling his chakra through to his hand and outwards into the jutsu. His chakra glowed outwards onto the ground, forming the seals of summoning and a puff of smoke erupted from the ground.

Hayate jumped backwards a bit, wary of what might have been summoned out as the smoke cleared slowly. As the last bits faded, all he could see was Junzo sitting on the ground, sprawled from the explosion of force from the summoning. He sighed and shook his head. Well, I guess it was too much to hope that he'd pull that one off properly the first time around. He looked around as the student righted himself, sputtering a few choice words to voice his frustration.

"Shimatta!" Junzo cursed, sighing and getting up again. He began to relax again and try the summoning again when Hayate shook his head.

A hand quickly stopped Junzo from trying again, and he looked up to Hayate who shook his head. "No, that's enough for tonight. We've been sparring for a while now, and I had you perform the jutsu we were working on for you. I doubt you have much chakra left to summon anything."

The genin exhaled and nodded, just then feeling the exhaustion of hours worth of training and jutsu practice falling heavily on him. "H-Hai..." He managed and nodded. He took one more breath then moved to close the scroll up again. He tucked the scroll in under an arm and nodded. "Well..." He scratched his head and looked up at Hayate with a weary half-smile. "Can I have some miso and yakisoba?"

The jounin rolled his eyes in a sigh and shrugged. "Eh, fine. You did good today. Come." He gestured with his head towards the lights of Konoha's main village area. Junzo nodded, and with another breath leaped away into the trees to make his way back. Gekkou leaped up after him in a moment and began to catch up with Junzo when an odd feeling entered his field of senses. He paused suddenly, a suspicious expression crossing his face for a moment as he concentrated. The chakra presence had vanished almost as suddenly as it had been felt, barely even so.

"Oi! Sensei!" The voice of Junzo broke his focus, and he saw his student waiting for him with his arms crossed. The jounin spared on last scan behind him and shrugged it off as he leaped forward again towards Ichiraku.

A distance back behind the two vanishing shapes of the Konoha ninjas, hidden in the darkness, gazed two reptilian eyes. That was close.

The cloaked figure smiled slightly, the faint moonlight just enough to paint its face as its face spread into a fanged grin. The slit eyes blinked as a claw caressed the hilt of a tanto. "Hoho...Tokage-isshou, It seems after this long while we have someone interesting again, hoho…" The voice faded as the figure shifted silently erupted into smoke.

Note: Hi guys! Well, this is my 2nd chapter. I was thinking about making it longer, but I felt that I should just go with shorter chapters instead, and save the big ones for more climactic moments. In any case, I need a bit of help. How the heck do you do those double spaces! Xx For some darned reason, whenever I upload something, my double spaces vanish! Hence I have to use those funny lookin' lines to designate POV/scene changes.

AN: Second note…I polished this chapter a bit, added a few things to make it look smoother and slightly meatier. Basically buffed it up with an extra page. As always, R&R.