It was night when they came. Gaia had no way of protecting himself against their onslaught.

"It's our last day as academy students!" Risa insisted, tearing his blankets from him.

"That's only if we pass the exam. Which is why it would be beneficial to get a full night's sleep," he groaned.

"You can sleep when you're dead!"

Jin, who was usually the more responsible of the two, agreed with her friend, "Come on Gaia, you've studied enough to be able to pass the exam in your sleep."

Gaia gave them another dramatic sign before putting on a pair of pants that had been lying on his floor and hurrying after the two girls.

Risa dragged them to a bar in the civilian district. Technically, they would only be allowed in after making genin, but the bar was owned by the father of their classmate Dirukku.

When Dirukku saw them he smiled and excused himself from his father, who was working behind the bar.

"Come on guys, you're the last to show up."

He directed them to the back of the room, where other children from their class sat.

"How did you manage to rope the Hyuugas into coming?" Risa asked the redhead.

"They asked! Can you believe that?"

"Are you sure they're not secretly clones sent to spy on us? I mean, I heard there were some foreign nin in the village for a peace treaty."

"Don't be mean," Jin reprimanded them, though she had a smile on her face as well.

"There you are!" Akimichi Shitou greeted them, "We almost thought you weren't coming!"

"Gaia-kun was trying to bail on us!" Riza told their classmate, "We had to drag him by his hair!"

"You did not!" Gaia protested as the rest of the group laughed.

A few years ago, Gaia would never have thought he'd one day be sitting in a civilian bar with children his age and have a good time with them.

He'd had friends in his homeland as well, of course, but there he wasn't Gaia-kun, an ordinary academy student, he was Gaia-sama, the daimyo's son. While he missed his family and the comforts of a rich lifestyle, he couldn't deny that he liked Konoha. A lot.

The academy students spent the evening chatting and eating the salty snacks that the bar offered.

Later than he would have liked, Gaia was back on his way home to get as much sleep as he could before the exams the next day. Halfway there he realized that his pocket was unusually light.

Reaching inside, he couldn't find his wallet.

"Damn it."

He turned around to head back to the bar. The wallet must have been forgotten on their table.

On his way there, he came across Dirukku.

"Didn't you plan on going to bed?" the redhead asked.

"Yeah, I forgot my wallet at your dad's place."

Dirukku snorted, "Well, I'm heading home but he's still cleaning up. See you tomorrow for the exams!"

Gaia waved him goodbye and continued on his way.

Entering the bar, Gaia was unable to see where exactly Dirukku's father was. Shrugging, he made his way to their table and found his wallet lying on it.

Suddenly, there were crashes coming from the back room.

Hesitating only for a moment, Gaia went to investigate the noise.

"Uzumaki-san?"

An unfamiliar voice cursed.

Gaia pushed open the door and saw two shinobi with unfamiliar headbands stand in front of the older Uzumaki.

"Gaia-kun, run!" the redhead yelled.

Too surprised to act immediately, Gaia hesitated, giving the unknown shinobi the chance to get close to him.

He turned to run but was caught by one of the men who pulled him back at his arm. A kunai was coming for his throat, so Gaia ducked, aiming a kick towards the shinobi's leg.

Pain shot through his face as he failed to completely evade the more experienced shinobi but he managed to free himself nonetheless.

Quickly forming seals, Gaia tried to summon a simple water technique but was interrupted by the other man's fist hitting his stomach.

Uzumaki-san took the opportunity to smash one of the bottles stored in that room over the head of the ninja. Both Konohans were surprised when the enemy didn't even flinch.

"You should have just given us what we wanted," the man growled.

Unprepared and unarmed, Gaia could do little to block the assault of the stronger shinobi but tried his best nonetheless. During the fight, his ponytail had become undone and some of his hair was covering part of his view but he didn't have the time to push it out of the way.

A groan from the other side of the room made the boy look over to where Uzumaki-san was sunk down on the floor, unmoving.

"Uzumaki-san?!"

Before he had a chance to check on the redhead, the main door of the bar banged open and Gaia could hear a multitude of footsteps.

One of the enemies had pulled something from Uzumaki's suit pocket and then motioned to his partner, "C'mon, we have to go."

"You got lucky, kid," the other one told Gaia as they quickly left through the window in the back room.

Gaia turned to see the head of the Konoha police force make his way to him.

"What happened?" the man demanded, "We were informed of a break-in."

"I-," Gaia stammered, "They- Uzumaki-san;" he was gasping for breath to try and explain what happened but it seemed like he just couldn't get enough air in his lungs.

The Uchiha's dark eyes travelled to the prone form of the bar owner on the floor, "Ah, I see," he motioned to one of his men, "Get the kid to the hospital, then-"

Gaia didn't hear any more of his words as the world around him turned dark and he crashed into the arms of one of the officers.

—

Gaia woke up surrounded by white walls and the smell of antiseptic.

"Oh good, you're awake," a soft voice said.

Gaia blinked and realized that half his face was covered in bandages. he lifted a hand to touch them but was stopped by the medic-nin.

"You can't remove those yet."

"My eye?" he croaked, voice hoarse.

"I'm sorry, Gaia-kun, but we weren't able to salvage it."

Gaia remained silent for a moment before falling back into his old habit of masking his emotions, "Well then, I better get going before I miss the graduation exam. I can go shopping for a stylish eyepatch later."

"I don't think that's a good idea, you should take some time to rest."

Gaia smiled, "Of course medic-san."

The medic sighed, "You're going to wait till I'm gone and then climb out of the window, aren't you?"

"Why, I wouldn't dream of it."

The medic gave him a look that clearly meant she didn't believe him.

He waited until she left before climbing out of the window and quickly making it to the academy. One of his knees wasn't bending properly and his abdomen hurt like crazy but he was not going to be stopped from graduating!

"Sorry I'm late!" he called out as he barged into his classroom.

His teacher looked up from his desk and his eyes widened, "Gaia-kun, shouldn't you still be in the hospital?"

"The medic-nin said I could leave for the exam," he lied with an easy smile.

"Well then, take a seat, please. The written exam has already begun."

Gaia sat at his usual desk and turned over the paper that his teacher had given him. He was pointedly ignoring the stares of his classmates.

"Eyes on your papers!" the teacher commanded, "You can gawk at your classmate later."

"Thanks, sensei," Gaia muttered sarcastically.

—

Gaia just barely passed the physical parts of the exam and he half suspected that his teachers went easy on him for it but that mattered little to him.

He was a genin now.

After the exams were over, he was hunted down by a medic-nin and brought back to the hospital where he stayed until it was time for his team assignments.

Only when he returned to his classroom a final time he realized someone had been missing that day. Dirukku hadn't shown up.

Before Gaia could ask anyone about it, their teacher was already going through their names to announce the teams.

"... Hyuuga Unkou, Uchiha Miho, and Gaia will make up Team Fifteen…"

Gaia's eyes flew to the Hyuuga boy he had talked to briefly last evening and the Uchiha girl he'd never exchanged words with.

"You will be meeting you jonin sensei shortly," their teacher concluded.

One after another, jonin entered the room to pick up their students.

A broad-shouldered man eventually opened the door and called, "Team Fifteen?"

Gaia stood up and left the room with his new teammates, giving a last wave to Risa and Jin.

"I'm Sarutobi Tadashi," the dark-haired jonin introduced himself, leading them out of the academy. "I want you to introduce yourself with your name and what you're good at, then tell me what you want to work on."

"I'm Hyuuga-"

"I'm Uchiha Miho," the girl interrupted her teammate, "I'm good at genjutsu and bukijutsu. I suppose I could improve my taijutsu."

"Hyuuga Unkou," the Hyuuga said with disdain for the girl clear in his voice, "My greatest strength is my taijutsu and I am able to wield my clan's kekkei genkai well. I'm not sure what skills to expand on."

They looked at Gaia now with clear expectancy, "I'm Gaia, no clan name," his lips curled into a smirk, "My strengths are my bukijutsu and overall intellect. However, I will have to re-train my debt perception," he motioned to his eyepatch.

"Yes, I was informed of your recent injury, we will be working on that," he told him. They had arrived at a training ground now.

"Now, as I said, I'm Sarutobi Tadashi–Tadashi-sensei to you. I look forward to working with you but first," he grinned and pulled out two twin blades, "We will spar."