That first day, Tadashi-sensei kicked their asses. Then he bought them all lunch to discuss his plans for them.
"Now, do you know what your greatest mistake was in our spar?"
"The Hyuuga was never where he was supposed to be?" Miho sniped.
"Well, if you weren't so selfish and arrogant-!"
"We lack teamwork?" Gaia guessed dryly.
"Yeah, you do," Tadashi-sensei agreed. "Other villages might think of us as soft for valuing teamwork, but it keeps us alive. Now, during my genin days, they didn't have to make us do team-building exercises. They just threw us out onto the front lines and if we didn't cooperate, we died."
Unkou and Miho looked down at their food in silence at his words.
"So," Tadashi-sensei continued, "We're gonna have to come up with our own ways to strengthen teamwork. My old man used to test his genin on their teamwork before even accepting them as his students but I don't believe in punishing you for not being able to work well with complete strangers yet. Instead, we're going to work on it together, starting with eating all meals together during the week. You get Saturdays and Sundays off to rest or train with your clans."
—
This led them all on a week-long camping trip together.
"When out on missions," Tadashi-sensei had said, "Being able to make camp in-between travelling days is an important skill. Living close together for a week will also help all of us to get a bit more comfortable with each other."
And so they hiked an entire day until Tadashi-sensei had them make camp.
Unkou was the one who had been tasked to build up a tent for them. Not every mission allowed for them, but sometimes you got lucky and this was their first time out of the village after all–well, the first time since moving there, in Gaia's case.
"That is the most pathetic tent I've ever seen," Tadashi remarked when he saw the Hyuuga's attempt at the tent.
Gaia chuckled.
"Gaia-kun, since you find this so amusing, why don't you help Unkou-kun with disassembling this monstrosity and setting it up properly?"
The blue-haired genin immediately stopped smiling, "Yes, sensei," he sighed.
Tadashi ignored the Hyuuga's smirk and turned to the only girl on the team, "You ready to light this fire?"
"Yes, Tadashi-sensei," she nodded seriously and formed a tiger seal in order to breathe their campfire to life.
"Good. Now, if you don't want to sleep in the same tent as the boys, we can set you up outside by the fire. The weather is good enough for it. When you're older, it will be expected of you to be comfortable with sleeping in close quarters to male teammates but I understand if you're not ready for that yet."
The girl's eyes mustered him for a moment before she shook her head, "I appreciate your concern, Tadashi-sensei, but I don't require different treatment from my teammates."
"Of course not," Tadashi grinned before growing more serious, "But I expect you to tell me if you are uncomfortable with anything me or the boys do, understood?"
"Understood, Tadashi-sensei."
When they retired that night, Miho placed her bedroll on one of the sides of the tent and made a show of pulling her ninjato from its sheath to place next to her in her sleep.
"If one of you touches me," she told them, getting comfortable in the bed roll, "I will gut you like a fish."
Then she turned her back to them and closed her eyes.
A shiver ran down the boys' spines, "Yes, Miho-chan," they spoke simultaneously.
Tadashi-sensei's quiet chuckle could be heard from outside the tent.
—
The next day was spent learning how to set traps and kill small animals for food.
"Trust me, if you're able to hunt and prepare meat properly, your mission partners will love you," Tadashi-sensei said as he gutted a rabbit in front of them.
Unkou looked slightly green in the face.
"How are you gonna be a shinobi if you can't handle this?" Miho sniped.
Just then, some of the rabbit innards flew towards them and landed in front of their feet.
"I'm gonna-" the Hyuuga fled into the bushes to empty the content of his stomach.
His teammates exchanged amused glances at the boy's suffering, Miho quickly catching herself and wrinkling her nose in disgust instead.
That was the day Unkou decided to swear off of meat for the rest of his life–aside from Perch Stew, since that was his favourite food.
—
On the third day of their trip, they started sparing.
"Now, you've only ever sparred in nice even academy fields. Today, we're going to be training on the hillside."
He had the three of them start out in a triangle formation. They were supposed to all spar against each other and rotate as they went along so that eventually each of them would have to literally fight an uphill battle.
Unkou fought with chakra-charged hands, his movements fluid, as it was expected from his clan.
Miho wielded her ninjato with an ease that stemmed from many years of practice.
Gaia might have been struggling with his debt perception at the moment, but his sword skills were nearly on par with that of the Uchiha.
All three of them were schooled in the art of masking one's emotions–though one could argue that Unkou was not quite as adept at it as his teammates–but where the Konoha-born genin were thought to simply not show any emotions that they didn't have to, Gaia was thought to mask with happiness or amusement.
Tadashi watched his three charges whirl around each other, occasionally stumbling along the hill or–in Miho's case–setting wildlife on fire (Gaia would extinguish it with a water jutsu right after).
They still had leagues to improve and the generation-deep animosity between the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans would surely be no help in this regard. but they had potential. He could work with that.
—
Two years after he had become their sensei, Tadashi signed Team 15 up for the Chunin exams.
"These are the slips you have to sign to participate," he said, handing them out the sheets of paper.
"If you decide to take them, you can only do so together, so talk about with each other first."
"I'm in," Unkou said immediately.
Gaia nodded, "Even if we don't pass, it will be good experience."
The two boys looked at their teammate, "Of course, I'm in, idiots. And we're going to pass."
They turned to their sensei in unison.
Tadashi chuckled, "Alright then, come to the academy in a week for the written exam."
—
The week before the exams were spent alternating between physical training and cramming theory. In the evenings, they would crash in Gaia's place, getting up early the next day to continue on with their preparations.
On the last day before the exams (they had dedicated this day to some rest), Tadashi-sensei invited them to lunch.
"I just wanted you kids to know that even if you fail horrendously during the exams and all get your asses kicked, I'm going to be proud of how far you've come since I first became your sensei."
"Aw, you're being all mushy, sensei," Unkou teased the older man.
"I'm just gonna be glad to be rid of you," Tadashi shot back, "Finally some peace and quiet."
"Which I assume you will be spending with your special lady friend," Miho said with a straight face.
Gaia's eyebrows rose, "Oho? Sensei, how scandalous! You haven't even introduced us to your secret inamorata!"
Tadashi let out a surprised cough, "How do you even know about her, Miho-chan?"
"You've been shaving more lately and your clothes have been cleaner. You also started using a body spray whenever you knew you'd be in-village," she chewed on her food before continuing, "You're also painfully straight so it has to be a woman."
Their sensei crossed his arms, "I could be bi."
Gaia rose a perfect blue brow, "Not dressed like that you couldn't."
Just for that, Tadashi only left enough money for half the bill before bailing on them. Brats, he thought fondly, shaking his head.
—
As Tadashi-sensei had said, the first exam was a written one.
The genin found themselves split up into three different rooms so they would be separated from their teammates.
The room Gaia entered was made up of multiple rows of desks, each desk made for two genin at a time.
Gaia found the seat that had his name on it and quickly sat down. The boy that sat down next to him was a couple of years older and had a prominent scar running across his face.
The boy gave him a nervous smile that he returned with a nod and an easy grin.
Few people in the room were whispering amongst each other quietly. They stopped as soon as the door opened.
In came a young man with greyish hair that was mostly hidden by a bandana on which he wore his village symbol.
When he talked, it pulled at the big scar running down his face.
"Now then, I'm Morino Ibiki and I will be the proctor for Group B on the written exam. If I catch you glancing at anyone's paper that isn't your own, you're disqualified. You have thirty minutes to complete the exam. Begin."
Papers appeared on their desk-they had probably been hidden by a genjutsu-and they hastened to turn them over to look at the questions.
Around half the questions were easy to answer, mostly some on general history, bukijutsu theory, and some calculations. Sealing theory and trap settings were not Gaia's forte, however.
"War dates?!" the boy muttered, "How the hell-?"
Though he had clearly been loud enough to be heard by the proctor, Morino said nothing.
Carefully keeping his eyes on his own paper, Gaia muttered "First War: Year 33 after founding, Second War: 52 until 55, Third War: 56 until 64."
The boy next to him stiffened, then quickly started writing. Gaia waited until he heard the writing stop before quietly asking.
"You know anything about sealing?"
The boy–whose name he later learned was Iruka–did happen to know a thing or two about sealing. And so, while keeping their eyes strictly on their own papers, as ordered, they managed to pass the exam with almost perfect scores.
When the written part was over, Gaia found his teammates again.
"Did you realize they sat us next to people with the opposite strengths as us?" Unkou asked when they were done, "They wanted us to cheat, right?"
Miho blinked, "Hn, of course."
Her expression might have seemed blank to most, but Gaia and Unkou knew better.
"You didn't cheat at all, did you?" Unkou teased her, "You're such a nerd."
"It's called being smart, you should try it sometime," she replied, but her words had no real bite to it.
To their surprise, the second part of the exam started right after the first.
"A chuunin should always be prepared to leave for a mission at a moment's notice. Anything you need should already be on you," the blond Yamanaka who acted as proctor for the second stage announced.
Those who had passed the written exams were lead towards a fenced-off area.
"Welcome to Training Ground 44. This part of the exam is the survival exercise. All you need to do is survive for two weeks. That, and protect your charge."
A group of academy students arrived on the scene, accompanied by a group of chuunin.
"Are they serious?" someone asked from behind Gaia.
"They must really wanna get rid if some of them kids," a Suna nin chuckled.
"During your two weeks on the training ground, you will have to prove that you are capable of protecting your charge from both enemies and the environment itself. If your charge dies or is seriously injured, you are disqualified."
Each of the academy children found themselves a team to partner up with. Team 15 was joined by a small brunette girl with big brown doe eyes.
"Please take care of me," she requested with a bow.
"Of course," Gaia nodded, "Nice to meet you. I'm Gaia and these are Miho and Unkou."
Unkou waved at her while Miho gave the girl a nod.
"I'm Yoriha."
Before they could continue getting to know each other, Yamanaka-san gave them the go-ahead for the exam.
Some of the participants had their charges on their backs and dashed into the field, others walked in slowly with the charge in their middle. Gaia saw a Kiri team drag their kid along by his arm roughly.
"Do you want us to carry you?" Miho asked their charge, "Gaia-kun could give you a ride."
"No, that's scary," the girl told them, "I like walking more."
"Okay then," Gaia grinned, "Let's go!"
—
Their first day on the training grounds was largely uneventful. Miho hunted down a couple of rabbits while Unkou happily shared the edible plants he'd found with Yoriha.
Since most civilians were squeamish around blood and they were trying to simulate a mission, Gaia prepared the rabbit meat away from Yoriha's curious eyes.
The night was spent with Yoriha sleeping close to their small campfire and the genin took turns taking watch. On a mission without civilians or if they were in a hurry they would have taken two-hour shifts; with the charge accompanying them, they took three-hour shifts to give the small girl more time to sleep.
It was Unkou's shift last since he had trouble falling back asleep when he was once awake so it was the Hyuuga boy that noticed the movements between the trees.
Activating his byakugan, he saw that a group of three Konoha chuunin were trying to sneak up on them. These must be the enemies that Yamanaka-san had mentioned.
Quietly, he shook awake his teammates. One look at him had both of them on high alert. Unkou lifted three fingers to indicate the number of enemies and then made another hand sign that they recognized as chuunin.
If this was an actual ambush, Unkou would remain behind to guard their charge while Miho and Gaia snuck forwards to try and catch the enemy in their own ambush, killing them quickly and efficiently. Given that they were Konoha shinobi, Gaia and Miho instead headed straight for them, both with drawn swords.
Realizing that they had been noticed, the chuunin jumped forward to attack.
Gaia and Miho moved in unison, each holding their swords in the opposite hand and covering each other's weak spots. They fought with a focus on each other's movements, knowing full well that anyone who broke through their defences would be taken care of by their third teammate.
After sufficiently showing off their swordwork, Gaia pushed forwards into the chuunin before pushing chakra into his feet to leap back. Distracted by the blue-haired genin, they only noticed the Uchiha's Great Fireball coming towards them in time to narrowly dodge it.
Gaia chuckled and they quickly made it to where Unkou had convinced Yoriha onto his back. The Hyuuga took point as they dashed away from their attackers, Gaia and Miho guarding both their charge and their teammate's back.
—
After their first escape, they quickly realized that holding back was not the intended purpose of the exam so Gaia quickly took to partially drowning most chuunin they came across. Anyone who could escape Gaia's watery wrath quickly became victim to the Miho's Uchiha-worthy flames.
Since Yoriha was still vehemently against being carried, Unkou also managed to show off some of his clan's prided fighting style when one of their enemies left their comrades behind in a desperate attempt to do something to them and was viciously taken down by the Hyuuga.
The two weeks passed quickly that way, some days featuring near-constant battle while others saw little to none. On those days, Gaia would practice his control over water by creating small waterfalls behind his back for their charge to clean up with. An important part of a mission was also keeping the client happy, after all.
All three members of Team 15 were surprisingly good at handling kids, as it turned out, and so they were all feeling confident about their results when the two weeks were over and they left the Training Ground.
To their surprise, not a lot of other teams had made it.
"Well, congratulations," a voice suddenly said.
Team 15 snapped their attention to the brunette woman that suddenly stood in front of them instead of little Yoriha-chan.
"Though I would avoid contact with the chuunin you guys routinely brought to near death, I can hereby announce that you have passed the second part of your exams."
"What?" Unkou asked, "But the byakugan- I- how?"
The woman, Yoriha? laughed, "Don't worry about it kid."
She threw a peace sign in the air and disappeared in a whirl of leaves.
"Huh," Gaia remarked, watching the leaves sail to the ground slowly, "Guess we passed?"
"Hn," Miho commented, raising an amused brow at the still gaping Hyuuga.