[Hayate Gekko]

Hayate didn't know what to think of the genin hopeful's infront of him. First there was a civilian girl who used Bukijutsu better than he saw most Jonin who came with a wind affinity and some Fuinjutsu skill which had plenty of potential. Next there was a civilian boy who used Fuinjutsu that was able to be used in direct combat. And last there was the Younger Sister of Shunshin no Shisui who he was sure could give a lot of Chuunin a good run for their money

Hayate knew this team was supposed to be a team that Konoha could use to prove they still could produce results. In the last few years there were only a handful of shinobi that were above average. Of course you can't expect there to be Kakashi's running around everywhere but there was usually more talent than what Hayate had seen in the last few years.

Of course they had Itachi Uchiha. Had being the operative word. He went insane and killed most of the Uchiha. Leaving mostly babies, his brother, and Shisui's younger sister. Ever since then there hasn't been a true prodigy produced. Nor has there been a Jiraya or Gai like Shinobi.

'They aren't prodigies but they're going to be good if they pass.' Hayate idly thought as he observed them follow his clone. Mika Uchiha was rapidly Shunshining with both Kukui Tanku and Tenten Higurashi. Efficient speed-wise. But it was a waste of Chakra.

Suddenly his clone stopped and so did the trio. 'I suppose it's time to replace it.' Quickly using the body replacement jutsu, Hayate took the place of his clone and noticed that the three were looking at him cautiously.

"You're the real one..." Kukui was a sensor which was something Hayate forgot. "Why the fake out?" Hayate took the time to take in their appearances. Nothing really special to notice other than the gloves on Kukui's hands which had his combat seals on them.

"Because I wanted to see if any of you noticed. It appears you didn't which is disappointing." Although Hayate shouldn't be surprised. His focus was likely elsewhere. "We can always fix that lat-" Hayate was cut off by Tenten.

"Assuming we pass." The brown haired girl seemed to glance around. "The academy test felt too easy. There's no way that was it. This has to be a test." Both of the other two genin hopeful's looked at the girl with surprised expressions before nodding.

'She's smart. Good he test scores didn't lie.' He had read the files on his potential future students. All of them were smart. But Tenten was the smartest in general. So this wasn't as much of a surprise as it would be if it was someone like that Katsuki kid. "Your correct." Hayate watched Kukui twitch one of his fingers. "But I have a feeling you'll all pass. One of you is an early graduate and to of you are the second and third best of your years respectively. Now I suppose we should introduce ourselves to each other. So sit down."

Formality was important.

Hayate sat down on a nearby log and coughed. "I guess I'll start since you all know each other I assume." It was obvious from how they acted around each other. The trust they had was the main giveaway. Most would very much not like being shunshined that much. But Tenten and Kukui appeared to be completely fine. "I'm Hayate Gekko. I will hopefully be your Jonin-sensei should you pass my test. I like a few things, Mainly my sword collection and a certain someone. I dislike anything that irritates my lungs. I hope to one day retire and live a long life. You can introduce yourself however you like and in any order."

Retirement in the next five years was his dream.

"I guess I'll go first!" Mika announced, "I'm Mika Uchiha, I like a few things. Mainly fights and my friends. I dislike a certain man. I dream of stomping said man's face in one day!" Hayate could guess who she was talking about. If Mika had the potential of her brother than it was possible.

Kukui then looked at Tenten and sighed. "I guess I'll go next." He hummed, "I'm Kukui Tanku. I like Tea, Fuinjutsu, and experimenting with Fuinjutsu." At the look Tenten gave him he shrugged. "I dislike a few things but mainly a few people. I can't say I have much of a dream. More like an ambition." Hayate elected to not push the matter.

"This means I'm last." Tenten smiled. "I'm Tenten Higurashi, I like my family, my friends, and the Supernatural. I dislike jerks who threaten or make fun of the things I mentioned before. My dream is to become a great Kunoichi like Tsunade Senju. Now how are you going to test us, Sensei?"

He didn't have any fangirls or fanboys. Hayate was very thankful about that. 'A bit forward though...' Hayate knew he was going to be in for a long ride. "Alright your all unique and your own people. I don't have to immediately fail you now." Hayate then stood up. "Your test is simple. I'm going to go hide somewhere and you are all going to have to find me. Once you do you are going to have to fight me and impress me enough to pass."

He saw no confidence bubble into their expressions. Good. Them having a sensor would help them for sure. But it wouldn't mean they could instantly find him or impress him.

"So we don't have to win. Just impress you should we find you?" Kukui seemed to be reaching for something. "What if we try to fight you now?" It would be impressive but not enough. It wasn't what Hayate was testing them on anyways. "I assume we'd fail since it isn't the main objective of the test... speaking of objectives, what is said objective? Is it just impressing you enough to let us pass?"

"You just have to impress me." Hayate then made an earth clone. "My clone here will ensure you don't try to follow me for five minutes. Good luck." A few more clones to throw them off for a bit would help him too. 'I'll make those after I leave.' He still had to set up the rest of his test. 'She's ether gonna do it after extorting me or do it just to scare them... God have mercy on them.' Either way it worked out in Hayate's favor. 'Now to leave.'

Hayate then began shunshining away.

[Kukui Tanku]

"Asshole just left without warning..." Fair play. I grinned. "We just gotta find him and rough him up a bit. Prove we are worthy of being genin." No way in hell was I gonna fail now. I had put in too much e- Okay I'm lying. I'm fine with failure but I don't want my friends to fail. 'We just gotta wait for the clone to go away... Also the fucker forgot to mention if he was allowed to move or not. We might be fucked.'

"Yeah!" Mika grinned. "We gotta wait for this clone to dispel though first before we find Sensei."

Tenten sighed. "First we need to know what direction he went in. Kukui, where did he go?" Ah yes. The clone of Hayate seemed to be chuckling to himself before it dodged a kunai from Tenten who glared at the Hayate clone.

I focused my senses on Hayate's chakra. 'Fucker used more clones.' I looked at Tenten and Mika and frowned, "Around a Dozen of the bastard in all directions... I'm going to need a few minutes to find the real one." The real one should have just slightly more chakra than the clones.

"Of course," She looked over to the Hayate clone, "Any idea of where your original went?" The clone appeared to smile for a second before not speaking. "Okay so the jerk doesn't wanna speak. We're on our own. Kukui get to searching. We gotta kick this guy's ass."

I agreed wholeheartedly. This was going to be a pain in the ass. 'A great first true test for the flame seal though.' I took a deep breath and clasped my hands together in a ram seal. Like this chakra was like a light. Some were dim and one was brighter. 'It splits off into several more dim lights...' I couldn't see much further than about 30 meters. Hayate was likely somewhere in Konoha.

"See anything?" Tenten stood next to me. "Its been around four and a half minutes. We can start searching soon. Any leads will help."

I nodded. "71 degrees west is where the real one went. But it looks like he cloned himself three more times before exiting my range. Although I can sense something..." I focused on a small pocket of chakra. "There." I pointed to my left. A bit before Hayate started cloning himself again."

"Your doing good so far brats. But the Five minutes are up." The original clone suddenly spoke up before taking the cloned version of its Katana. "Good luck. Your gonna need it if what the Original had planned works out." Why did that sound ominous? "By the way your gonna wanna get moving now." The clone then killed itself.

I elected to ignore Hayate's words. "First lets see what that chakra spike is..." Mika Shunshined and was gone. "You know what. Thats faster." Mika was back in a second with a storage seal. "Something's inside."

"Of course something is captain obvious!" Mika handed the seal to me. "Now we gotta see whats inside."

"Be careful. It might be a trap." Tenten unsealed a shield. "Maybe an explosive tag is inside or something." Hayate wouldn't do that. He was a jonin and from what I remember of the dude in canon, pretty chill.

I looked down at the seal. "If I die then burn my research!" I chuckled. "Okay that was dramatic." I poured some of my chakra into the seal and out came a piece of paper. "A note?" Mika grabbed the note and looked at it. "What does it say?"

"We're basically going on a fucking scavenger hunt." Oh joy. "We have to find someone who'll give us Sensei's location and get the information out of them without fighting..." Mika groaned. "Sensei's a jerk."

Tenten swiped the note from Mika. "Great..." Tenten then crumpled the note. "Alright I guess we should start looking for people who know him. Kukui you got his chakra still?" I nodded. "Well then lets go."

I didn't expect our search to lead us to a sweets shop. I expected something like a bar or a weapons store. So did Tenten with her preparing explosives... 'I will never understand shop rivalries.' I wonder why we are at a sweets shop. I could obviously sense a lot of chakra there. Some of Hayate's was compressed inside of a seal apparently. I could sense it. It was likely a clone.

"So we're all going in, right?" Mika asked from the side. We had been searching for three hours so far. We started off by looking for someone who knew him but we had no luck. We were then led to a forest and had to fight off a giant snake. No it wasn't a summon. We killed it and it didn't dissapear... Although that may because we carbonized it. Fire and wind was a serious combo.

Tenten nodded, "Yeah. This is where our search ends." We all walked into the shop an scanned around. Several shinobi were here and some were looking at us. They definitely were apart of this. "Where's his chakra?"

Hayate's chakra was somewhere to the northeast... "Northeast." I saw a few shinboi try to hold back laughs to the side. 'Either we're being trolled or we're about to meet someone completely insane.' I glanced around. Nobody in transformations. But still. Something was off. "Something's fishy here."

We began walking anyways, with Tenten taking the lead.

I noticed Mika glance around as well. "Yeah." We were whispering at this point. I could see some jonin I think I recognized. They could be dangerous. "We need to find Hayate-sensei's chakra fast." I nodded and we continued walking.

Eventually, we stopped and saw a woman holding a sealing tag. She wore what looked like a genderswapped edgy Naruto outfit. 'Anko Mitarashi...' I didn't remember a whole lot about her. She was Orochimaru's apprentice before he defected. And from the way literally, nobody was near her she either wasn't well liked or she was terrifying. From her chakra though I could sense she was definitely dangerous.

"Excuse me miss," Tenten decided to speak up, "I believe you have something we're looking for." She had a smile on her face. I hoped we could get this done soon. That smile meant bad things usually. I hadn't seen that smile since before I introduced her to Naruto.

Yes I was scared of Tenten... Although I wasn't sure she could scare a jonin. Unless she could beat the shit out of said jonin for a few weeks straight.

Anko glanced down, "Oh this? Are you sure you want a bomb?" She then seemed to contemplate something. "Wait no that won't work. You have a sensor brat with you..." She seemed a bit sad at that. "Oh well. Nah I won't let you have it."

Tenten narrowed her eyes, "Why?"

Anko grinned, "Hayate bribed me."

That explains a lot actually.

'Alright, then how about we outbribe the bastard.' "Can we bribe you too then?" It was worth a try. I wasn't sure if it'd work but Hayate likely wouldn't make this an impossible task for us. Right? I didn't know the man so I couldn't confirm... Fuck.

"Really brat?" Anko laughed. "Sure if you can outbribe him. I'll give you this," She waved the seal in her hand around. "If you get me three extra large plates of Dango." Thats it? I know that shit's expensive but I had more than enough to cover it. "If your wondering, Hayate offered me two. So gonna accept or not?"

I grinned, "I was expecting something grander but this is good." God all of those months of hunting were still helping me. "Mika could you go get the dango?" I unsealed some ryo and looked at Mika. She could get it quickly.

"Sure." Mika quickly blazed off with my money.

"This feels too easy." Tenten seemed to look around for a trap or something. "Are you actually gonna give us that?" Tenten had her eyes narrowed.

Anko shrugged, "Yeah. I'd love to see the look on Hayate's face when he sees you at his location actually. It'll be priceless I bet." She then threw the seal at me and I caught it. Just as I caught it Mika came back, "Thanks brats. Now shoo. I got some Dango to eat." The woman looked at the plates of Dango infront of her hungrily.

Wordlessly me, Tenten, and Mika left.

[Hayate Gekko]

It was such a nice day. 'They shouldn't be here for another few hours.' If they got past the snake quickly then they would have a tough time with Anko. He bribed her with some dango to not give them his location. His potential Genin would hopefully arrive before the end of the day. 'Anko's probably making them wish they could just track me.'

Hayate knew he hid his chakra incredibly well. He made sure to leave pieces of it in seals for them to find as clues. He could have done a test much harder but that wouldn't be fair. They were just genin. So he had to go the easy route.

'Maybe I should take Yugao here sometime.' Hayate smiled. He couldn't wait to retire with his girlfriend one day. 'Think about that later when you know your alive.' He had hope that he'd live into his thirties but still.

'Why do I smell smoke?' Hayate looked around and saw a dozen fireballs be sent his way. All of them small. Hayate quickly jumped out of the way of the fireballs only to block a staff hitting his side. "How?" He didn't know how they could have found him now.

"Your not the only one who can bribe people," Hayate heard from the side of him and saw Kukui sling a fireball at him. Without handseals. "By the way fuck you for making us have to fight that snake. Carbonized flesh doesn't smell good."

Hayate quickly sliced through Tenten's staff dodged the fireball before a grabbing a kick from Mika. "We've got you now Sensei." This was going to be good. "We're gonna impress you here." They already had but Hayate decided to not tell them that.

Hayate kicked Mika back toward Kukui who caught her before unsheathing his own sword. Hayate then watched them regroup with Tenten. "I never expected you to bribe Anko. Clever." Hayate wondered what Anko wanted for his location... Probably more dango. "But you won't win."

Kukui nodded but didn't speak. he simply slammed his hand into the ground with one of his seals activated. Creating a bunch of smoke. The smoke cleared soon after and Hayate saw that his genin were gone. 'Behind the tree.'

Hayate watched as Tenten and Mika came out from behind a tree with Mika launching off of Tenten before trying to kick Hayate. Hayate blocked with his katana before Mika twisted mid air and tried to kick him with her other leg. Hayate blocked it before using the body replacement jutsu to dodge a few Shuriken. 'There.' Hayate grabbed a kick from Kukui who grinned and raised his hand with it beginning to spew flames.

Hayate dropped Kukui and jumped back. "Those flames weren't that hot." They were of course hot but not hot enough to burn quickly. "Your going to need to come at me with the intent to kill to win."

"You know you can stop acting like we want to win. You literally said we just had to impress you." Tenten tried to slice Hayate's back with a katana to which he parried the attack while keeping his eyes locked on Kukui. "How are we doing on that front by the way?"

"Well you haven't landed a hit on me yet." Hayate blocked a slash from Kukui's Katana as the boy suddenly appeared next to him. "Although your teamwork is good." Hayate swept Kukui's legs out before trying to stomp on the boy's back. Instead, his foot hit a log before a punch from Mika hit his side.

"You were saying?" Mika had a shit-eating grin on her face. Hayate kicked her away before parrying a slash from Kukui who then tried to kick him into an attack from Tenten which he dodged before kicking Kukui into Tenten. Hayate then jumped toward them and kicked them away even more.

Now that they knew he might be going on the offensive... 'Lets see how they react to me going on the offensive.' Hayate dashed at Tenten and Kukui who were recovering. Upon seeing Hayate Kukui raised his right hand and created a wall of fire Hayate then felt a kick from behind and suddenly he went through the wall of fire.

He saw nobody there.

Hayate then stood up and turned around looking at his students. 'They pass with flying colors.' It was mainly Kukui and Mika on the offensive with Tenten being support. But they worked well together. "You all pass... Although how did you two disappear?" He looked at Kukui and Tenten.

Hayate watched their faces light up in smiles. He still wanted his answer though. No way did a genin know the Flying Raijin. Hayate saw Kukui's grin was a bit more evil than his friends. "Look around. All the logs in the area are mine."

Hayate looked around and saw logs with seal tag on them.

Clever.

Hayate let a grin creep onto his face. "Your gonna be a real monster soon. All of you are. Congragulations. We're now Team Three."

I won't lie. I wasn't feeling that good when I wrote the first three parts of this chapter. The big sad was strong yesterday. I'm not too sure about the third part of the chapter where Kukui bribes Anko but i think its funny so it stays. But writing the fight between Hayate and the three was pretty fun. I finally got to write Kukui using the flame seal, him fighting with others in a team, and Kukui using his Kawarimi in a battle... This Kukui may be a tad bit OP.

Anyways I have the next arc(This one technically) planned out. I honestly am really fucking excited about it. It was something I thought about writing when making NS but I think it'll fit here better. Especially as a first mission. Well not the first mission but the first C-rank. Its something I'm really hyped about. For a few reasons. Mainly exploration of the world. It also sets up a plotline from NS which I loved greatly.

This arc should be about 12 chapters long. So 3 chapters less than the academy arc. So yeah.

Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter!

- Tobi