Chapter 13: How Genma Coped with the Children Becoming Genin... Or, Really, How the Children Coped with Becoming Genin: As the years passed, Genma saw the children grow up and become capable pre-teens. As they had grown, he came to terms with the fact that the day would come when the kids would have to leave his apartment to become their own person. And Genma was prepared to take the necessary steps to see the kids become fully grown, responsible, mature shinobi. Unfortunately, it seemed they were set on throwing wrenches into all of the plans he had for his life.

..~..~..

"Guy, let go of the child!"

"But, Genma, isn't it good the both of them meet and get together?"

Genma leveled Raidou with an intense glare that told him everything he needed to know without saying a single word. And Raidou immediately understood, face paling and a frightened haze overcoming his eyes.

"I can't have two Guy's running around! Lee's bad enough as it is! And it's a miracle I haven't tried to murder Guy yet!"

Guy had a running start on both of them. But with Raidou helping him, Genma was able to catch up with his old teammate. And when they did, he forced the man to leave Lee alone.

"He's not your student! And won't be for another few years!" Genma growled as he held a stunned and somewhat scared Rock Lee away from Guy.

The large man, in the mean time, found himself with a paper bomb attached to his mouth, courtesy of Raidou. "And if we get lucky, you'll never be able to teach him anything. He's bad enough as is, we don't need you corrupting him even more."

What Guy thought he was doing trying to kidnap one of his kids was beyond Genma. But if any of them was an almost perfect match for the hyperactive man, it was Lee. He had the same limitations for fighting and the same fighting spirit that pushed him forward even in the face of certain failure.

Honestly speaking, when he'd first seen the kid, he had seen Guy in his younger day.

But after a few weeks of interacting and having fun with the rest of the kids, Genma had seen that Lee was his own person. And he still had a chance at being a regular human being. But those chances would be dashed if Guy managed to sink his youthful claws into him.

"What is going? I am confused."

"Nothing, Lee." Genma turned around and carried the kid off, leaving a struggling Guy behind with an angered Raidou. "That man is bad news. Stay away from him."

(Genma's warning had done nothing. It seemed that when two people were linked together by destiny, they would eventually find a way to get together.)

(He figured this out when one day he returned to his home to find all of the children wearing Guy's green monstrosity.)

(It had taken Kurenai, Kakashi, and Shikaku to stop him from murdering Guy.)

One day Genma was allowed to stay home from T&I. It was one of those unusual slow days in which there weren't that many suspects to interrogate and the paper work had been wrangled to an almost manageable point. So Inoichi had sent him home with a small smile and promises to head on over with dinner later on so they could eat with the children like in the old days.

The man actually looked forward for that dinner. The kids deserved some kind of treat after months of hard work and excelling in school. Especially after all the help they had given Naruto and Rock Lee so they could fix up their grades.

When he got to his apartment, Genma had not expected much of anything. The kids were supposed to be in the Academy, the teenagers were supposed to be on their missions or working, and the adults that sometimes muscled their way inside were off doing their own things. So he was supposed to have a few hours of peace and quiet ahead of him before the children were let out of school.

But those hopes for a quiet afternoon before the children arrived were dashed as soon as he opened his door. He had expected to find a quiet apartment without a single person in sight. What he found, though, was not that.

"Kotetsu! What are the children doing outside of the Academy?" He shouted out the second he saw the children seated around a broadly smiling Kotetsu.

Izumo was nowhere in sight. Although Iwashi was hugging a calm Hanabi to his chest.

All of the children were sitting in a circle. Hinata, Neji, Sakura... All of the good kids were there. Along with the more troublesome ones. And as soon as they heard Genma's voice, they froze up and turned to look at him with wide eyes that read of how truly surprised they were to see him.

"Genma!" Kotetsu choked out, almost falling back in his chair. "You're supposed to be at work!"

"And the kids are all supposed to be at the Academy!" Genma growled back, taking a step into his home, "And you two!" He pointed at Iwashi and Kotetsu, who froze as soon as they had been pointed at, "Are supposed to be working! What are you doing here?!"

It was supposed to have been a quiet day...

"We did not sneak the children out of the Academy, if that's what you're thinking." Iwashi answered levelly, shifting Hanabi in his arms. "They snuck out themselves."

"Iwashi, you traitor!" Naruto screeched in betrayal, immediately shooting up. "We can't get caught! Iruka Sensei said Genma would spank us if we ever dared sneak out!"

He had never said such a thing. He had never laid a hand on any of the children and none of his plans entailed disciplining them with physical enforcement. He left that to their parents.

"Naruto, don't you dare-"

But it was too late. The hyperactive blonde was climbing out of his open window before Genma could finish. And because they were followers and believed just about anything they were told, the rest of the children scattered to escape throughout the various different windows in his apartment, leaving the man with the teenagers and a baby.

Genma closed his eyes tightly to breathe in when even Hinata disappeared behind Naruto.

"It was supposed to have been a quiet day..." He lamented quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose in disappointment and annoyance.

He would have to chase after the children now. And once he found them, he would have to explain that he would not hurt them; that was a job for their parents.

Although, now that he thought about it, he may just have to do the disciplining for Sasuke and Naruto if they continued to act like this...

Breathing in heavily, Genma shook his head softly. He had never thought about raising his hand against any of the children before. And he would not do it to Sasuke or Naruto for the moment either. They were mostly good kids. And he risked ruining that if he punished them too harshly.

"Iwashi?" He asked in a strained voice, still thinking about how he would have to hunt twelve children down on what was supposed to have been a good and quiet afternoon.

"Yeah, Genma?"

The man breathed in once more to not try and throttle Kotetsu- because he couldn't hurt Iwashi while he had Hanabi in his hands. Then he opened his eyes and looked at both teenagers through narrowed eyes.

"What the hell are you doing with Hanabi?"

Iwashi glanced down at the little girl and smiled awkwardly up at Genma, "Lord Hiashi asked if you could take care of her, Hinata, and Neji for the week? He's been called up for an urgent meeting with some person or another. He has to leave the village and didn't want to leave the children in the Compound if you could look after them."

Of course.

Eyes remaining narrowed and body reading of irritation, Genma turned around. "Alright. Find Kakashi and Hana. Kotetsu, you go with Hana, and Iwashi, you go with Kakashi. Find at least three of the kids. I'm going to get the rest."

He took off to follow after Naruto, Kiba, and Hinata, whom had all gone out the nearest window, before any of the teenagers could argue against him.

And the rest of his nice afternoon was spent chasing after children and then explaining to them that as long as they behaved, he would not hurt them... It was not a quiet afternoon.

"Hey, Iwashi, when's your birthday?"

Genma quirked an eyebrow at Tenten's question, but did not interrupt. It was actually pretty surprising how the kids had yet to ask him, Kotetsu, or Izumo their birthdays... Actually, now that he thought about it, they hadn't even asked Kakashi or Raidou... Even though they insisted that Genma should share his birthday with Neji, Kiba, and Sasuke during the summer months.

The teenager bounced Hanabi up and down with a soft smile as he turned to the girl. "It's on January second, Tenten. You kids missed it."

Tenten frowned as soon as the man answered. And Genma couldn't help but smirk slightly at her expression as he followed after the large crowd of kids and teenagers.

They were to go to the park to spend a day together with some of the parents, whom would join them in an hour or so to play games with their children. The kids were free from the Academy- not skipping class this time around- and the Hokage had allowed the teenagers some time to hang out with the kids. Even Hana had joined up and was currently telling an amazed Rock Lee about the type of four legged taijutsu her clan chose to use in battle. Her three dogs followed after with a child on each of their backs.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba sure enjoyed being carried around by dogs.

"How about you, Hayate?" Ino questioned as she turned to look up at the teenager whose hand she was clutching.

Hayate Gekkou was a quiet, respectful, and somewhat sickly teenager that, for some reason beyond him, had managed to become the pretty boy for the four girls of the children he took care of. He'd heard Ino and Sakura fawning over his 'cool and dark' demeanor a few times now and couldn't help but feel somewhat humored by that.

Hayate wasn't quiet because he was cool and mysterious. He was quiet because he was overly shy and had a sickness that made him cough whenever he tried to speak, which had made him self conscious of his speech. And he looked like a 'pained and angst filled artist' most of the time because the girls were always hounding him to show them how awesome he was and not because he was an artistic soul.

"November second." The teenager coughed into his right hand as he looked away from Ino to not have to face those bright blue eyes, then glanced over to Iwashi as if he were asking for some kind of help.

But his friend merely smirked broadly at him before looking over at Tenten, "Why do you girls ask?"

"No reason." Sakura answered quickly, then turned to Hana. "And you, Hana-san?"

Like that they continued until the girls had heard all of the teenagers' birthdays. Genma thought it was somewhat strange that they were asking this, but he didn't really question it. Information like this wouldn't hurt. And they were most probably just finding out so they could make mass birthday parties with all of their loved ones united, much like they did for Sakura and Tenten or him, Kiba, Neji, and Sasuke, but in a larger scale.

He had been right. Before, the kids had shared birthdays if their months coincided. But if they didn't, they would throw separate birthday parties. Which, after a while had become tedious because of all the clean ups Genma would be forced to do to his apartment after each party.

Now though, Tenten and Ino were armed with a last of all of their loved ones individual birthdays- at least of the teenagers, kids, and Genma- and were prepared to throw large birthday bashes three times a year.

Now they were in the midst of preparing the largest birthday party to this date, one for Shino, Tenten, Sakura, Chouji, Hana, Iwashi, and Hanabi. Their birthdays spanned from January all the way to May and were being thrown in an easy medium between all of them, February 10th.

Tenten was turning nine, Shino, Sakura, and Chouji eight, it was Hanabi's first birthday, Hana fourteen, and Iwashi nineteen.

The kids were all excited, Hana and Iwashi were more than content to share their birthdays with them, and Hanabi was bubbling in joy at having so many people with her. Apparently, unlike her sister and cousin, the baby was a people person.

"Are you sure you want to let the kids decorate for the birthday, Genma?" Kizashi asked worriedly as he walked towards the man, eyes never leaving his daughter as the girl forced Hayate to help her set up the pink streamers she had bought.

It was amazing to see how much the young girl had changed over the years. She had been quiet and shy when they'd first met. And she was still rather quiet, but she wasn't as painfully shy anymore. And she wasn't all that afraid of telling the boys what she wanted them to do anymore, having learned from Ino and Tenten that boys were idiots and always needed guidance.

"It's not a bother, Kizashi." Genma smiled over at him with a shrug, "It would be an unnecessary fight if I tried to stop them, you know."

"I'm still marveling at the fact that they have yet to make us older people share with them." Raidou offered as he walked up to both of them, a glass of soda in his hand. "Poor teens, though. Wasting their awkward years playing babysitters."

Both other men ignored the scarred male, not even bothering to answer the rather cynical observation. If the teenagers did not like to hang around the children, they were not being forced to help out. They did so of their own volition. And their help was more than accepted because twelve kids were quite the handful.

His apartment was filled to the brim with people helping out to prepare it for the upcoming birthday. Even Guy and Ebisu had come along to help. Even though Guy was under the strict orders to never bring those green monstrosities into Genma's home anymore. If he did, it would be the end of him.

The party went extremely well and all of the kids enjoyed their time together. And Genma couldn't help but smile like an idiot throughout the whole time they celebrated, glad to see every single person in his apartment so happy and content.

Guy followed the orders rather well... Until Lee walked up to him and asked if he truly was as good at taijutsu as Scarecrow had said.

Genma had to be stopped by Shikaku, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Choza from using Guy as a human pin cushion all the while he ran off with a broadly smiling Lee.

The next time he saw the bubbly child, his hair and face were still the same, although he wore that disgusting green eyesore with clear pride.

A few uneventful years passed after the Uchiha massacre and Torune's kidnapping. And for that, Genma was grateful. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to survive so many years of traumatic event after traumatic event.

He was sent on a few out of village missions, although he stayed inside the village working under Ibiki most of the time. And this really wasn't a problem because the man understood that he couldn't just drop everything and leave the village like many other shinobi, so Ibiki tried his best to keep him inside the village walls whenever he had the power to do so.

A few months after the massacre, Inoichi had finally handed over the reigns of his organization over to his greatest protege. And everyone knew the reason why. Inoichi had been so struck by Itachi's sudden betrayal that he had decided life was too short to continue working himself ragged on weekdays and spend time with only Ino on weekends.

Ino had been ecstatic when her father had told her this. And whenever her father was around the flower shop with nothing much to do, the blonde girl insisted on dragging Genma and whatever child happened to be with them that day to visit the Yamanaka shop. It really gladdened Genma to see how happy Ino was now that her father was around more often.

Naruto and Sasuke had adapted extremely well to suddenly being brothers. Over the years, they had developed a system to help Genma out with the housework so the man would only have to do the day's cooking before they could all relax and work on the kids' homework. And Genma couldn't have been prouder of the fact that the two worked so well together.

In school, the children were all doing well. Even Rock Lee, who had once been stricken down as the least likely to graduate, now got B's and C's because of Neji and Tenten's tutoring. And after having finally been placed together in the same classroom (after much fighting from Genma's end and lack of understanding from the school teachers), the three were well on their way to their graduation day.

"I want a bandanna like your own, Stranger!"

Genma smiled down at the twelve year old looking at him with determination and awe, then ruffled his wavy black hair and winked, "Don't you think Guy might be the tiniest bit insulted by that?"

"Guy Sensei will totally understand, Stranger!"

Every single sentence of his ended with an exclamation point. But seeing how his genin teammate had been Might Guy, Genma wasn't really all that bothered by the volume.

For some reason, even after he had become a usual in Genma's life like the rest of the kids, Lee insisted on calling him Stranger. Much like the rest of the children called him Gen-Gen or Farmer man. Although Shikamaru still insisted on calling him by his real name.

(Genma had a fleeting suspicion that in a year or two, the kids would stop calling him by the nicknames. Once they hit their teenage years, they'd most probably be too cool to use such childish names. And he didn't mind that at all. He had been an awkward and gangly teenager once. He could understand the need to get away from childish things.)

"Come on, Lee. We're going to be late for the team assignments!"

Tenten ran up to him and Lee, sporting her brand new hitai-ite with a broad smile. She was wearing the standard headband, seeing how she still wasn't sure if she wanted to go through the hassle of forcing her buns lower on her head for the headpiece.

It was still amazing to Genma how much yet how little the kids had changed in the last few years. Tenten was now twelve and wore a pink kimono styled shirt without sleeves with dark blue pants. Lee, under Guy's influence, wore a tight green monstrosity with bandages on his hands. And Neji a khaki shirt with its collar up, short brown pants, and a bandanna styled forehead protector. He had been the only one to fully adopt Genma's style. And it hadn't been easy, seeing how his teachers had wanted all the genin to wear the same style of hitai-ite for the graduation picture.

"Do you think we'll be put on the same team, Tenten-chan?" Neji asked as he walked up behind the girl, then turned to look at Genma. "Did you have any say in team assignments?"

He had. With these three and with the rest of the children he took care of. The Hokage had been worried about possible outcomes of separating the children or giving them possibly bad teachers. So the man had asked for his input and taken every word Genma had with utmost severity.

But the kids didn't need to know that.

With a shrug, Genma turned to look behind him and found that the eleven year old kids were making a huge mess in the playground, screaming and shouting and scaring just about everyone away from them.

"Not one day of peace..." He lamented with a soft sigh, then whistled sharply.

Upon hearing the whistle, most of the children stopped rough housing and turned to look at him with wide eyes. But Naruto and Ino continued bickering, which made Genma frown. Then, with utmost precision, he spit out the senbon in his mouth and smirked when it forced its way between both blondes and impaled itself in the slide behind them.

"We're going to be late for the ceremony." He called out, "Let's get going. I thought you all wanted to see your friends graduate."

It didn't take much convincing after that to get the kids to move.

~/~

The ceremony went first and was used for the friends and family of all graduating academy students to see the new genin sporting their pride. Then would be the team assignments, but that was only for the graduating students, Hokage, and teacher to be jounin.

Getting the kids to understand that they could not join their older friends in their team assignment had been a hassle. But, luckily enough, Guy and Kakashi managed to convince them to head on back to the apartment and wait for their friends there.

They had mostly busied themselves reading up on the jutsu Iruka Sensei had given them at the end of the school year so they could be prepared for their last year in the Academy and had not caused Genma too many headaches.

No, the headaches came once Tenten, Neji, and Lee returned to his apartment.

"You did this, Genma-san! We are sure of it!"

He had known this would come. And he had been ecstatic to see the outcome of what he had told the Hokage.

"Might Guy! Our Sensei! How could you do this to us, Farmer man?! I thought you were supposed to love us!" Tenten ran into the apartment with awe and fear, only to be followed by a broadly smiling Guy and Lee.

"We are on the same team, Tenten-chan, Neji-kun! And we will be the greatest genin team to ever roam this plane!"

The smirk that Genma allowed to come over his face was filled with both humor and pride. He had known Neji and Tenten would both hate being placed on a team with Might Guy, but it would help them build character. And the fact that the kids on the team knew each other and worked extremely well together certainly wouldn't hurt.

Besides, out of all the teachers offered for the kids, Guy had not been the worst.

Over the years, Genma had become accustomed to finding the kids in his apartment at times he would not have expected them. So he had grown accustomed to expecting the unexpected, even when the days seemed to be the most normal of days.

This was the reason why when he entered his home to find the older kids of the children he normally took care of cowering in various places of his home, he wasn't really fazed.

"Tenten, why are you hiding in the cupboard?" He asked as he opened his refrigerator to begin to make dinner for the rest of the children.

For even though he was tired after a hard day's work at T&I, he was more than aware that his day never ended after his job. Even though they were now on the cusp of becoming genin, the children still insisted on hanging out at his apartment after school like they had done for the past five years. And even though the apartment truly was becoming too small to house all of them, none seemed to mind and looked for interesting new ways to be comfortable in his apartment.

Shino and Ino sometimes even took turns sleeping up on his refrigerator because they were too big now to fit together.

The twelve year old girl was hidden inside of his cupboard, which he found out when he opened it to grab spices for the meal he was going to make. Neji was nowhere to be found. Lee, though, was hidden behind his couch. And doing a rather bad job of hiding, seeing how his feet were sticking out from where he was cowering.

"Because Guy Sensei is a psychopath!" Tenten squeaked out, eyes wide as she looked back at Genma's mostly indifferent face. "He wanted us to run fifty laps around the village. On our hands, Farmer man! Our hands!"

"You know he's always been rather obsessive." Genma cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms over his chest, jutting his hip to the side slightly to try and look like a figure of discipline.

He'd tried this same pose out many times before. Usually with the more boisterous children, it didn't work. Although sometimes it did and they listened. Even though those times were few and far between.

"But he's never been this insane!" Lee suddenly shouted as he ran up to Genma, hugging him tightly to his body. "Please, Stranger, you cannot allow Guy Sensei to find us! I am terrified of dying! I have not yet lived!"

And from somewhere deep inside his apartment, Neji added his own two cents. "He is insane and I never want to see him again! Genma-san, you are pure evil for having assigned him to us!"

Genma breathed in and patted Lee's head softly before motioning for Tenten to get out of his cupboard. "Come out please."

She shook her head wildly, though. "You'll just return us to that monster!"

"Please do not do that, Genma-san! We will be good kids!" Neji pleaded from his hiding place, still not showing himself.

Taking in a deep breath to center himself, Genma smiled softly at the girl before him. "I won't tell Guy. Promise. It'll be our little secret."

Tenten smiled broadly as soon as she heard this then threw herself at Genma to hug him tightly. "Thank you, Gen-Gen!"

"But it's just for today!" He tried to warn, only to be ignored and for Neji to appear from his living room even though Genma had not even sensed him there before, "Wait a minute, where did you come from?"

But he received no answer. The three genin were just happy to hear that they would not be forced to deal with their insane teacher for the day.

~/~

During the night, Sasuke opened their home's door after a rapid series of knocks had broken through the silence reached while he, Naruto, and Genma prepared to go to bed. And he found Might Guy looking rather frazzled, looking from one spot to another as if he were looking for something.

"Sasuke! Have you seen Lee, Tenten, and Neji? I lost them hours ago and have not been able to find them again!"

The Uchiha looked back at the worried man with steady disinterest, "Not at all." Then he slammed the door in his face and turned around to walk back towards his room to get dressed.

Once he had finished dressing in his pijamas, he knocked on the bathroom door to tell Naruto to hurry up, he wanted to go to bed, then turned and walked towards Genma's room. He wanted to ask the man if he could speak with Ebisu about a series of fire release jutsu he wanted to learn so that the nerd could come around some day to help him out.

Because he was so accustomed to not having to knock after years of waltzing around this apartment without a care, Sasuke threw Genma's door open without any hesitation. He expected to find Genma either sleeping or preparing to go to bed. What he found, though, was neither.

"I know he's insane, kids, but you can't possibly hide inside of my bed covers for the rest of your lives. Don't you want to become chunin?" Genma asked as he looked onto his bed, which had three rather sizeable lumps hidden beneath his sheets.

Sasuke blinked at the odd thing Genma had said, but was further surprised when Neji's head popped out of the sheets to glare viciously at the man.

"I would rather be blind than have to go through yet another day of training with that savage!" The Hyuga hissed with pure venom, then covered his head once more with the sheets. Then Tenten's head appeared, frowning heavily, "Seriously, Gen-Gen, how could you do this to us? Even Lee's terrified of the man!" And then her head disappeared as well, even though Lee's did not come out.

Sasuke quirked an eyebrow at the odd things they were saying, then looked over at Genma and cleared his throat to make his presence known. Genma turned to look at him and frowned softly, although three heads popped out of his blankets in unison.

With all four of them looking at him, Sasuke simply said, "Guy came looking for those three. I slammed the door in his face."

"Sasuke!" Genma sounded like he was about to scold him, but Tenten flying over to hug him tightly stopped him.

"Thank you, Sasuke! You're now my favorite munchkin!"

"You're only a year old than me."

"Still a munchkin." Tenten smiled broadly, then looked at Genma. "Let us stay the night?"

Sasuke didn't bother to glare at Tenten after she had finished. And he didn't even look at Genma as he motioned for Neji and Lee to accompany him, "You know the drill. Come and get your sleeping bags."

It had taken quite a few conversations and threats, but eventually Genma was able to make Guy understand that he could not, no matter how excited he was, push three newly minted genin to run fifty laps around Konoha on their hands.

Genma had known that his friend would be over joyed at having his first genin team, especially because he knew all of them extremely well and how to work with them. And he had expected him to go kind of over board. But he had not expected for his insanity to be so... Well... Insane. Although, in retrospect, he really should have expected it.

"Listen, Guy, you know you can't really push the kids so far. They've just become genin." Genma sighed as Guy looked intently back at him, hand on his chin while he nodded almost violently to his words. "Lee already follows you blindly because; for some reason beyond me; he trusts you. Neji and Tenten are strong and disciplined, they want to get stronger. But you can't push them so harshly straight out of the gate. That will only end up with them running away from you."

"I see, Genma." Guy hummed as he closed his eyes, then suddenly jumped out of his chair to point at the sky, all the while causing the tea cups they had been drinking from to rattle at the motion. "I shall make them run twenty five-"

He hadn't finished speaking before Genma kicked his left shin, forcing him to sit down and look at his friend in betrayal. Genma looked back at him with a disinterested glare, "Five laps. On their feet. Like normal people." He deadpanned, then rolled his eyes at the horrified gasp the other male let out. "You can build them up to fifty, man. But you can't start them off with fifty. You understand, right?"

"But how will they ever get stronger if I do not push-"

Another swift kick stopped the man from continuing. "Guy, how long have these kids been genin?"

"Not even a month." The man answered softly, causing Genma to nod.

"Exactly. Did Choza Sensei have us running around to make us stronger right off the bat?"

"No..."

"What did he have us doing?"

Genma was hoping that by forcing Guy to answer these questions, he would come to the realization of what he had to first do with the kids before he forced them into vigorous training like running fifty laps.

"Team building exercises to build trust between all of us..." Guy murmured softly, then, after a second of not moving, he suddenly shot up into the air with a broad smile. "I must get them to trust me even more before I force them to work as hard as they can! I should build up their character before their bodies!"

"There you go." Genma smiled and was about to get up to walk Guy out of his apartment, but was stopped by the man enveloping him in a bone crushing hug that literally took his breath away. "Guy! Can't breathe!"

"Thank you, Genma!" His gasped shouts were ignored, apparently. "I shall implement this new style of training immediately! Before the end of this month, these kids will want to run those fifty laps with me!"

Genma highly doubted that. But he wasn't able to tell his friend that, seeing how he was currently struggling to get enough oxygen into his lungs.

~/~

"You talked with Guy Sensei."

"Yup."

"He now wants us to go through with team building exercises."

"So I heard, Neji."

"... Genma-san, he wishes to embark on a month long trip to the Land of Snow to make us survive in the cold wilderness with only our wits and strength."

Genma was actually surprised by this. But he smiled over at the annoyed Hyuga and patted his covered head softly.

"Be sure to pack some extremely warm clothes."

After Genma had spoken with Guy, the three oldest children weren't as terrified of the hyperactive man. They still hid out in Genma's apartment whenever the 'insane psychopath'- Neji's words, not his- decided to try out a particularly difficult or harsh training program, but those moments didn't happen as often as Genma would have thought they would.

Quite frankly, when the Hokage had asked him about which teams would be the best for the children, along with which teachers, Genma had totally expected Team Guy to revolt. He had believed there would be some kind of movement against Guy within the first months to remove him from his spot as their teacher.

But it seemed that years worth of tolerating all kinds of insanity from their friends had made Neji and Tenten patient. For they stuck around most of the time, going through with Guy's rigorous training schedule without fighting it... Too much.

Now it was time for the rest of the children to graduate. Brandishing their brand new forehead protectors with complete pride, nine kids chattered excitedly with each other as they all walked towards the Academy to receive their team assignments.

These kids should be a bit more happy and less terrified of the teachers they were given. Especially considering how the team assignments had played out and the kids had been assigned to a team that played with their strengths and weaknesses almost flawlessly.

But even with these hopes, Genma was sure of one thing: These kids, just like Team Guy, would hide out in his apartment at some point or another to shirk their genin duties.

He just hadn't been aware of how often this would be.

After they had all become genin, Genma found himself with an overflow of children. It seemed like they never wanted to train with their actual teachers. Which made no real sense, seeing how most of them truly knew their teachers. The only ones that didn't were Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru, but the rest had no excuses.

It didn't take long for Asuma to catch onto where his team went to avoid training and D-Ranks. Literally, it only took him a week to begin to appear at his doorstep whenever Team Ten decided to not appear for training or missions.

The worst part about this whole 'skipping team training' fiasco was that Genma wasn't sure how he should deal with it. Team Guy usually always wound up at his apartment when Guy wanted to try out something insane with them, so Genma couldn't turn them away. And Team Seven appeared mostly when Kakashi was more than three hours late to their assigned meeting place, and he couldn't blame them for getting fed up. Team Eight and Team Ten were the ones that showed up the least, but still did so with enough frequency and good reasoning that the man was left at his wit's end.

How could he turn them away when they all had such perfectly good reasons to leave their training?

"He's an Inuzuka, Kurenai. You can't expect him to chase after a cat without losing some semblance of control. And of course Akamaru would want to bite the little jerk, he's a dog."

The dark haired woman seated before him was not amused with his answer. But what else could Genma tell her? That he would tell Kiba to not chase after 52, even though that was the cat he and Akamaru hated the most? That would be a lie and he wasn't about to say it just to make her happy.

"Kurenai, you should be happy Kiba's at least completing missions. Shikamaru and Chouji are always stuck with their heads so far up in the clouds that it takes Ino and I to complete missions. If she's feeling nice." Asuma murmured with narrowed eyes, making Genma look over at him apologetically.

"They've always been dreamers."

Kakashi sighed heavily, motioning with his hand to force all four other people around the dinner table to look at him. "I have no real problems with my team other than the fact that Sakura won't stop talking about Hayate and Sasuke, Sasuke won't stop sneaking off to get lessons from Ebisu, and Naruto keeps trying to haggle me into buying ramen. Fix 'em, why don't you?"

"You know I'm not their teacher, right?" Genma asked sardonically, "These problems have nothing to do with them running away to my apartment and staying there. You, as their teachers, also have to put some effort into making them become proper shinobi."

"But they don't listen to us, Genma." Kurenai almost shouted in exasperation, "Unless you tell them, they won't stop! And you cannot deny that their little escapades to your apartment have been happening more frequently."

"I'm not a miracle worker."

"Try."

"You could always just, you know, kick them out."

Genma rolled his eyes at Kotetsu's seemingly blunt and harsh words as he downed a cup of sake.

No longer a gangly teenager, Kotetsu was a healthy grown man with a prank streak a mile wide. And that prank streak was intertwined with Naruto's own, seeing how they were prank buddies... That had just gotten in trouble with the Hokage a couple of hours ago for having turned the water in the hot springs green.

Instead of training, Naruto was pranking with Kotetsu. Sakura and Sasuke were learning something... But not with Kakashi. No, they took time out of Ebisu's busy schedule to make him teach them jutsu he was proficient with so they could be as well.

"Last time I did that, you helped Naruto and Kiba deface the Hokage mountains." He murmured softly, only to have his back slapped proudly by the other male.

"And it took Izumo's starchy syrup jutsu to stop us! No jounin or chunin was able to catch us until he came along!"

"That's not something to be proud of, Ko. You keep getting these kids in trouble." Izumo sighed from Kotetsu's side, which had his friend sticking his tongue out at him.

"It helps build character."

Genma had once known these two as teenagers. But now they were full grown men that still, somehow, for some reason beyond Genma, wound up sleeping in his apartment every now and then. This was one of those nights they had muscled their way into his home with Iwashi and Hayate's help, leaving him no other choice but to let them stay over.

"You're childish."

"And you're boring." Kotetsu stuck his tongue out at his friend, which made him roll his eyes and sigh sarcastically.

"Hard to understand why you've never had a girlfriend."

"Hey you-"

"Kotetsu, sit down." Iwashi appeared behind the older male to push him back down onto his chair before he could attack his friend, then looked over at Genma. "You could always just leave your apartment until the kids are gone. That way you won't get in trouble for housing them willingly."

Hayate walked up from the kitchen with the plates of food he and Iwashi had just made to set them down on the table. "The Hokage and sensei keep getting angry with you because you don't turn them away."

"But they can't be angry with you if you were never home to begin with!" Izumo finished for them with a gasp, then smiled broadly at the older male. "Genma, I think this is the only way you'd be able to save yourself."

Genma looked him over for a second, then at the rest of the males with him, before sighing and hanging his head.

"I guess trying that out won't hurt."

It hurt. A lot. But it didn't hurt Genma. Instead it hurt the teachers that had to become even more creative when it came to hunting their kids down because they found new and strange places to hide from them.

Seriously, Anko had found Ino, Kiba, and Naruto hiding from their respective teachers in the Forest of Death on a routine check up of the place. The Forest of Death.

..~..~..

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