"Aren't you going to apologize?" The black-haired boy said with an irritated expression. He noticed the tears that were streaming down Hachi, but he didn't care. No one was just gonna bump into him and runoff. It was an insult.

Hachi grit his teeth. Who was this egotistical boy in front of him right now that wanted an apology instead of asking what was wrong with a person that was clearly not okay? His sadness and anger that were directed at Raido seemed to shift towards the boy in front of him in an instant.

"No," Hachi snapped and turned to leave again. The boy scowled at the response. As Hachi tried to take off, the boy's grip on Hachi's wrist didn't loosen. Hachi pulled his arm, trying to get away. This made the boy's grip on Hachi even tighter, almost cutting off his blood circulation.

Hachi winced a bit. His wrists were still a bit sore from the restraints from the Doctor. This tiny motion didn't go unnoticed by the boy in front of him.

"Apologize." He said again.

Who the fuck? Hachi thought. He was tired of this annoying boy in front of him. With chakra flowing to his hand, Hachi swung his fist towards the boy. The boy casually stepped out of the way.

Hachi smirked slightly; he wasn't what he was aiming at anyway. His fist connected with the fence that ran along beside the two of them. Instantly, the wood caved in and the first five planks of wood that were on the fence exploded at the impact.

The boy's eyes widened and his grasp on Hachi's wrist slackened just enough for Hachi to snatch it away.

"See ya," Hachi said while sprinting away. The boy clicked his tongue and quickly tried to catch up to Hachi, only to realize that he was long gone.

He's fast… The boy thought. He was left to bite Hachi's dust.

Hachi was glad that he got away from the boy, but he was more than irked at their little interaction. He stopped at the top of the Hokage Rock to overlook the village.

Various lights lit up the place below, almost making it look like a city. It was truly beautiful. Hachi clutched his chest to stop the stinging pain that arose.

He couldn't tell if the village was good for him or not anymore. Ever since he got here, he's been crying nonstop. Every time he thinks about his past, he can't get rid of his tears. Hachi bit his lips. How weak was he?

A shinobi was someone who got rid of all emotions, but Hachi couldn't even get rid of one. It was pathetic. He needed to become stronger, faster, better . How could he even do that when he couldn't even learn an academy-level jutsu?

Hachi slammed his fist against the ground, almost causing a crack near the Hokages' faces. He froze, his anger replaced immediately by fear. He didn't want to get in trouble for vandalizing the village's precious Hokage mountain and decided to head down quickly. Hachi checked his surroundings carefully and sprinted off. If he was going to be angry, he'll let it out in a training ground.

But the only training ground that he knows of is the training ground with Raido. He wanted to try his best on avoiding Raido for now. Hachi clutched his hair in frustration. He needed to let out his anger and sadness somehow , but he didn't know where to go. He can't just go rampaging around the village either. He'd be labeled as a rogue and be thrown out before he knew what hit him.

Hachi sighed as he wandered around aimlessly. He kicked pebble after pebble. It wasn't long until Hachi looked up to see that he was lost. Of course, it didn't really matter to Hachi. Kakashi probably didn't care enough to search for him so he would be sleeping outside today.

Soon, the sound of weapons clinking against each other and people sparring came into Hachi's ears. He visibly brightened. This might be a chance to see another training ground. Hachi raced over to the source of the commotion.

When Hachi got to the training ground he was surprised that four people were the source of the ruckus that he heard from a few hundred feet away. He was also surprised to see that the training ground seemed to be even bigger than his old one.

"Can we help you?" A girl with two hair buns spoke out, catching Hachi's stare. Everyone had stopped their training and was watching Hachi.

"Oh uh… I was wondering if I can train with you guys." Hachi looked down at the ground, a little embarrassed to be asking people that he didn't even know. He saw a flash of green through his peripheral vision and Hachi almost regretted his decision as strong hands grabbed onto the sides of his arms.

"You want to train with us, young shounen?" A man with a bowl cut asked enthusiastically. He shook Hachi to get his answer. Hachi was forced to nod and the man grinned. He put Hachi down. "What's your name?"

"Uh… Hachi Kobayashi."

"I'm Might Gai." The man said while pointing to himself, "Team Gai! Introduce yourselves." The three kids that seemed to be around Hachi's age lined up. Hachi presumed that they were Gai's students.

"Hi, I'm Rock Lee." A kid that looked like a carbon copy of Might Gai stood before Hachi. He didn't know whether to be impressed or not.

"Hello, I'm Tenten." The girl with two hair buns from before spoke again. Hachi gave a nod in reply.

"Hn… Neji Hyuga." A guy with long hair and pale, colorless eyes stared back at Hachi. The negative attitude threw Hachi off, causing him to scrunch his eyebrows.

"So why did you want to train with us?" Gai said, interrupting Hachi's gaze towards Neji.

"I ran away from my sensei cause he sucked at training me," Hachi said vaguely. They didn't need to know the real reason that Hachi ran away. Neji narrowed his eyes at Hachi. His eyes see all and there is no way a kid just crawls their way into his team by lying.

"And who is your sensei, young shounen?"

Hachi scowled slightly, thinking back to Raido's actions towards him earlier today. "Raido Namiashi."

The name caught Gai off guard. Since when was Raido Namiashi training a kid such as Hachi? Raido Namiashi was a tokubetsu jounin. He didn't have the time or luxuries to be training someone. Especially someone that looked to be as weak as Hachi.

Gai looked down at the kid in front of him. He wasn't one to judge, but the kid standing before him was extremely malnourished. It seemed like there was only a thin layer of skin covering his bones. There was no way he could be a shinobi looking like he could die from a single breeze.

Hachi looked back at Gai with a hopeful gaze, breaking Gai's thoughts.

"Okay, you can train with us." Gai started, making Hachi grin, "After, we test your skills." Hachi slumped down slightly. He was done with tests, but he understood that he was in no position to decline. He was just a stranger that came out of nowhere and asked rudely to train with them.

"Fine." Hachi sighed. "How are you going to test me?"

"By sparring." Hachi dreaded that answer. He almost audibly groaned. He was sick and tired of sparring every single shinobi he met.

"Who am I gonna spar with?" Hachi asked.

"Tenten." The girl stepped up and they both nodded to signify their acknowledgment towards one another. They both distanced themselves to start their small match.

"You can use any weapons and jutsu. Start on my command." Gai said. Tenten and Hachi both waited for Gai's words. The air was thick with tension.

"Start!" Gai shouted and Hachi blasted off his position. His speed surprised everyone on the training ground. He clenched his fists tightly and wound up to take Tenten out. She gracefully took out a staff and deflected the oncoming attack. With Hachi's right hand diverted, he used the momentum to kick with his left leg. Tenten saw through the attack quickly and slapped Hachi's leg away with her staff.

Knowing that close-combat would be a little dangerous, she jumped to gain distance from Hachi. She took out her scrolls and summoned a huge amount of kunai and shuriken towards her opponent. Hachi's eyes widened at the new attack. He had never seen such vast amounts of weapons being stored in a scroll.

"Damn," Hachi smirked, clearly impressed with Tenten's abilities. Hachi put chakra to his feet and jumped out of the way of Tenten's attack. Another wave of weapons came towards Hachi and he bit his lips. With so much distance, he doesn't stand a chance against Tenten. Hachi dodged the oncoming weapons.

He tried to formulate a plan while dodging all the weapons that were thrown at him. With his mind racing, he almost didn't see a kunai that was aimed straight at his head. At the last second, he twisted his neck quickly to get out of the kunai's way but ended up getting his cheek cut.

Hachi clicked his tongue. He picked up the kunai and kept it to block all the weapons that he couldn't dodge. Tenten was skilled. Hachi had to admit. She was advanced in bukijutsu, something Hachi envied. He needed to train with Tenten and get her advice on weapons training. Because of this, he absolutely needed to win this match.

Hachi's eyes burned with passion. Gai picked up on Hachi's eyes and smirked. He was indeed impressed with Hachi. He can go head to head with Tenten, his team's weapon specialist. Gai saw the way Hachi manipulated his body. If he could cultivate that body, Hachi would be an unstoppable taijutsu specialist. Hachi seemed like a diamond in the rough in Gai's eyes.

Hachi smirked. He finally formulated a plan, although it was a little risky. He was a little low on chakra from his training with Raido, so he hoped the genjutsu he had planned for would last just enough for him to attack.

He will commence at Tenten's next wave of weapons.

Just as Hachi thought, Tenten pulled out another scroll. She unfolded the scroll and kunai rained down towards Hachi; however, her weapons turned almost 180 degrees and started flying towards Tenten.

"What?" Tenten shouted, clearly confused on how her weapons could turn their trajectory. Hachi used this confusion and launched himself forward, towards Tenten. He seemed to be going in front of her to block her weapons.

He was not.

He brought the kunai that he was holding up and got ready to slash Tenten. The kunai that almost stabbed Hachi and Tenten disappeared without a trace.

Genjutsu! Tenten's eyes widened. She tried to get her staff out quickly to block Hachi's attack. She was late by a millisecond and Hachi was almost on top of her when Gai shouted.

"Stop." Hachi tried to stop his body, but his speeding body couldn't stop moving. The momentum was too great. Gai realized this and grabbed onto Hachi's collar. Hachi almost choked on his collar at the force that he suddenly stopped.

Gai dropped Hachi and in a panic asked if he was alright. Hachi coughed ferociously but nodded slightly to signify he was okay.

"Sorry, my body wouldn't stop moving," Hachi explained to Tenten after his coughing fit was over.

"Eh, it's okay. It was completely my loss either way." Tenten said with a shrug. While she seemed fine on the outside, she was burning with anger and frustration. She was completely disappointed in her abilities. It seemed to be useless against Hachi.

"No, you were great!" Hachi shouted enthusiastically, causing Tenten's head to shoot up. "You're really good at bukijutsu! I don't know what you did to seal so many weapons in your scrolls, but I've never seen anything like it. I decided I needed to train with you. That's why I was so determined to win."

Tenten's mouth went slack. She couldn't think of any words. Hachi thought that she was great? This compliment seemed a bit different than any other compliment she had received so far. No one was this excited about her abilities other than Gai-sensei. It was really nice to have her abilities acknowledged.

"Thanks," Tenten grinned. Even though the sparring match ended with her loss, she couldn't help but have a feeling of success spread in her chest.

"Yeah yeah, you need to teach me how to use weapons! I'm really bad at bukijutsu. Even my sensei said I was really hopeless." Hachi shouted once again.

Neji scoffed, "You say that as if you're showing off."

"I'm just saying," Hachi scowled.

"Well, I must say Kobayashi-kun. I'm impressed." Gai said, interrupting the small quarrel that was about to erupt. Hachi grinned at the compliment. "You were made out for taijutsu but you also have an affinity for genjutsu. Very good."

"Yep, there's more of where that came from, so let me train with you!" Hachi's eyes shone brightly. Gai chuckled slightly.

"Why of course, young shounen." Gai raised his fist up. Hachi cheered.

"Yes, another training buddy." Lee finally spoke up. He was quietly observing Hachi and he was also impressed with his abilities. He was ecstatic at the thought of training with someone else other than his teammates.

While his teammates and Gai-sensei were certainly great to train with, he wanted a new experience and Hachi was the perfect person for a fresh breath of air. He could tell when Hachi fought that Hachi brought something new to the table every time he fought. This will be exciting.

Neji thought the opposite. Who was this person just barging into the middle of their training session? He was more than a little annoyed. He had to sit through a thirty-minute sparring match just so they could determine if Hachi was worthy enough to train with them. That was thirty minutes that he could have used to train himself .

Hachi was a pain in the ass and Neji was not having it. Of course, by judging how the rest of his teammates were reacting, he wouldn't be able to bring it up in front of them. After they all leave, Neji was going to tell Hachi.

"Okay, since there's someone new, we should celebrate with 100 push-ups!" Gai exclaimed and Lee cheered. They both dropped down quickly to complete their new training regiment. Hachi and Tenten sweatdropped.

"Are they always like this?" Hachi whispered to Tenten and she just nodded, also slowly dropping down to complete her own set of push-ups. Hachi sighed. He knew that Gai was not a normal person, but he didn't realize that Gai was so passionate. He started his pushups.

By the 20th pushup, Hachi was clawing at the floor. His breath caught in his throat every time he went down. His arms were about to snap. Hachi's entire body wobbled.

Gai just stared at Hachi after he was done with his own pushups. Everyone starts somewhere, but this was something Gai had never seen. Usually, when someone starts their training, they are at least average weight. Hachi, on the other hand, was malnourished. They would never get anywhere if Hachi doesn't start gaining weight soon.

He saw Hachi struggle immensely and couldn't help the feeling of pity towards the other individual. Hachi needed to start changing his diet first, then they could start changing his training to be more strength and speed-oriented. Hachi would take up Lee's training. It would help him tremendously.

Hachi almost collapsed at his 50th push-up. His body was about to convulse on the training ground. The others watched him with sympathy while Neji just glared.

He could barely do 50 push-ups and he wanted to train with them? It was a joke in Neji's eyes. The skinny kid in front of him would never amount to anything. This training is meaningless when you aren't destined for great things.

"Hey, Kobayashi-kun, you can take it easy, you know? Your body isn't cut out for this kind of training yet." Gai spoke out, voicing everyone's thoughts. He couldn't watch anymore. Hachi's body was breaking in front of him and he was not going to be responsible for crushing Raido's student.

"Don't look down on me. I'll do this stupid training if it's the last thing I do." Hachi said stubbornly, causing Gai to sigh.

"There's no point in training to get stronger if you die from training," Gai replied. Hachi scowled. He hated being wrong and Gai just pointed out a fallacy in his ideology.

"I'm already a little more than halfway there. I'll take my own time, you guys go have a sparring session together or something." Hachi huffed, his breath ragged. The dirt underneath Hachi's head had turned to mud with all the sweat Hachi had supplied it with.

Neji left quickly while Tenten and Lee looked at each other nervously. Could they truly leave him alone? Would he be okay? Gai dismissed them with a flick of his wrist, signaling with a nod that he would look after Hachi.

By the time Gai waved for his other teammates to leave, Neji was halfway across the training ground. He had no business with this new intruder, and he didn't have any plans to cross paths any time soon. Neji went to an unoccupied stump in the middle of the training field and took a long breath.

"Byakugan!" Neji's eyes gained deep veins as he activated his clan's dojutsu. He focused his chakra into his hands and started slamming at the tree stump in front of him. His irritation only magnified with each hit.

Team Gai could only watch with worry towards their newest recruit and their other temperamental teammate. It was obvious that Neji immediately had a strong dislike towards Hachi because he interrupted their training. At first, everyone on Team Gai was also annoyed, but they saw Hachi's potential as a future fellow shinobi of Konoha and also as an excellent training partner. If Team Gai trained with Hachi, they would also gain immense skill and knowledge. This simple exchange was the reason why no one on Team Gai refused the addition of Hachi.

Neji rejected him, however. There will never be a day that Neji would accept such a loser. His negative thoughts continued to fuel his anger-driven training. Within minutes, the tree stump in front of Neji became withered and was barely standing. Neji panted at his slight exertion. He looked towards Hachi to sustain his anger once more.

Hachi was only struggling like he was before. Neji sneered. Of course, there was no improvement. Hachi was only tiring himself out. At this rate, Hachi would be too exhausted to do any other training and leave. Neji prayed for such an occurrence to happen sincerely.

Neji rushed to another tree stump to be his next victim. He forced chakra towards his hands again.

99… 100… Done! Hachi let his body slump on the ground.

He was finally done with his stupid hundred push-ups. It took him close to fifteen minutes. The others were done by an average of five. Hachi wanted to throw a temper tantrum at his weakness, but held it in. It was completely natural for him to be so weak. He had never trained his upper body in the four years he had been on the run. His legs were probably the only strong feature about him, but even then, it was average compared to a regular twelve-year-old.

Hachi winced slightly every time his chest moved up and down. The expansion of his lungs was a painful stretch. He laid down on the ground for a couple minutes, trying to catch his breath and also calm down his body from going into shock.

"Good job, young shounen!" Gai's voice thundered across the field, startling Hachi. His body jolted slightly, immediately making Hachi groan. "You finished your 100 push-ups! You're free to go!" Gai finished with a smile and a thumbs-up. He turned around to focus on his other students. He couldn't just abandon them for Hachi.

Tenten was focusing on her bukijutsu and weapons scattered around the area while Lee started practicing his taijutsu on a tree stump much like Neji. Gai nodded with satisfaction. He didn't need to do much. His students knew the drill. He felt a slight chill, however.

Gai's sudden dismissal caused Hachi to freeze. That was it? Was that all Gai saw Hachi for? This was a joke. Hachi glowered at Gai. He was just lounging around without teaching anyone . Hachi's body shook, but instead of exhaustion, it was because of anger.

"Stop fucking with me!" Hachi shouted. Everyone stopped and stared at Hachi's outburst.

"Hey, that's no way to talk to Gai-sensei," Lee spoke out.

"I don't care." Lee's mouth gaped open. "If you're a true sensei, then teach me. Train me and your students. Stop just inspecting your students and start actually teaching them." What Hachi meant was for Gai to teach him, but his words reached deeper.

Gai realized his mistake. It hurt that a single twelve-year-old was the one that pointed it out, but that didn't matter. How can he be a sensei, when he doesn't even teach his students? Sure he focused mainly on Lee, but never on his other students. He just thought they would figure it out on their own. This was embarrassing.

Hachi's words were right. Tenten did realize that there was a very unfair amount of attention towards Lee by Gai-sensei. Initially, she was a little frustrated at Lee for getting all the attention, but she soon turned her anger towards Gai-sensei. He was the one that didn't train her. It wasn't Lee who was her sensei, it was Gai.

Tenten was surely surprised at Hachi's outburst and also wanted to call him out on his behavior towards her own sensei, but after hearing Hachi out, she couldn't help but agree. Gai's attitude towards her made her try and train harder to gain Gai-sensei's attention, but she was never the receiver of such luxury.

Tenten stayed quiet. She wouldn't voice her thoughts. She didn't know how Gai-sensei would take in this new information and if she started agreeing with Hachi, she might be even more ignored than before.

Lee was beyond confused. In his eyes, Gai-sensei was like a god who gave him a second chance to survive in the shinobi world. He would always shower him with attention and training, so Hachi's words were upsetting.

He looked down at his hands that were bandaged from all the excessive training that he had endured. His hands were proof of Gai-sensei's hard work. Lee glanced at his other teammates and realized. Oh…

Tenten and Neji's hands were completely clean. Sure they were riddled with calluses and blisters, but that was from their own training. None of Gai-sensei's training dirtied their hands, because Gai-sensei never did pay attention to them hard enough. He knew now just how oblivious he was. Lee frowned.

"I'm sorry." Gai quietly spoke with his head down in shame. "You're right. I should have paid more attention to my other students."

Team Gai was surprised, to say the least. Lee and Tenten gaped at their sensei while Neji squinted. Was this truly their teacher that was in front of them?

"I'll be better," Gai turned to Tenten, "I'm sorry. After focusing on Lee for so long, you guys seemed to be doing well even without me that I thought I didn't have to teach you anything. You guys had it all figured out. Tenten, I will help you with your bukijutsu more… though, I don't think I have more to teach you since you have such great abilities already."

Tenten blushed at the sudden compliment. She never thought this day would come, but it did. She looked back at Hachi. He really is amazing. To make Gai realize that he was a bad teacher was no easy feat.

"I apologize to you too, Neji." Gai started making Neji step back. "You were already doing so well even without me, I completely ignored you. It was my fault and I'm truly sorry to the both of you."

Neji stared incredulously at his teacher that was bowing deeply to both him and Tenten. He never really found it a huge problem that Gai-sensei never paid attention to him. He was better suited to train by himself anyway. It did annoy him from time to time since he would always shower Lee with everything, but he didn't think it was to the point that it would get in his way.

Somewhere in Neji's chest, a burden seemed to have been released and that was when Neji realized. He did care. He quickly looked away from the group to make sure no one saw his face. Gai-sensei's constant attention towards Lee was something that deeply bothered Neji, but he ignored it and buried his own feelings. Now that Gai-sensei had acknowledged his mistakes and apologized, Neji's envy and discontent had resurfaced.

Hachi noticed Neji's weird behavior, but he chose not to say anything about it. Neji already didn't like him, it would just be a pain in the future if he acted on his feelings and harmed Hachi in any way.

Unbeknownst to Hachi, Neji was glancing at him. A feeling of thankfulness washed over Neji and he almost threw up. Him? Thankful to that idiot? Unbelievable. It was a disgusting thought and he hated his brain for even suggesting such a thought.

Hachi stared at Team Gai's emotional scene and didn't know what to do. He was glad that he solved a problem for the team that seemed to have been going on for a while, but he also wanted to train. This wasn't the plan that Hachi had thought of. He was planning on getting Gai to train Hachi seriously, but it turned into an emotional party. A part of his brain called out his selfishness, but Hachi pushed that feeling away.

Gai started sobbing while clinging onto Tenten and Lee who were immediately flustered at their teacher's actions. Neji's lips twitched into a frown at the scene and he wanted to bury himself from embarrassment. It was a joke that he had someone as emotional as Gai-sensei as his teacher.

"Hey," Hachi snuck up and whispered into Neji's ear causing him to flinch and almost gentle fist Hachi in his side.

Neji turned to face Hachi with an annoyed expression, "What do you want?"

"Want to leave your teacher since he seems a bit emotional at the moment and train together?" Hachi's proposal was a nice alternative to listening to Gai-sensei's emotional outburst, but Neji quickly shook that thought out of his head.

"Me? Train with you? Forget it. You're too weak." Neji scoffed. He was not going to train with Hachi. Training with him wouldn't even be a warm-up to Neji.

Hachi huffed and stomped his foot with chakra to create a crater in the training ground. Neji's eyebrow twitched from Hachi's childlikeness and his sudden display of strength. This was completely different from the Hachi that he had seen when he was trying to finish his push-ups.

"I'm not weak. Stop underestimating me and just train with me, goddamn it." Hachi growled towards Neji, gaining the rest of the team's attention. It seemed since Gai was putting on his one-man show, Hachi had moved onto a different target, Neji, to train him.

Neji was on edge. If he did train with Hachi, it seemed that he would never let him go and cling to him like a child, but if he didn't train with Hachi, it seemed that Neji would never learn anything new. Although Hachi was physically weak and extremely malnourished, Hachi moved around with more energy than Neji could ever have. If he were to harness such energy, maybe, just maybe , he could be free from his cage.

"Fine…"