[Kukui Tanku]

'This is the first time in a while... I was starting to think he lost interest in me.' I looked at my visitor with a smile. He somehow always knew when I had tea ready it seemed. That or he just had impeccable timing. Either or. Still it was weird to know I had garnered the attention of Hiruzen. He wanted me for something but what?

"Wonderful tea as usual Kukui-kun," Hiruzen placed down the cup of tea I had given him. "Now how has your time as a genin been since our last talk? You are going on a C-rank mission later are you not?" Me and him both knew I was. This was just small talk to butter me up.

I nodded. "I am. It's the diplomatic mission to Takigakure. I'm sure you know that though Hokage-sama. Other than that it has been a peaceful time since we had stopped getting Tora Miissions. Hayate-sensei has begun to introduce us to other teams so we know each other and it's been a nice experience I suppose." I took a sip of my tea before looking at it. "I just can't help but feel like somethings going to go wrong on my mission though."

"That's a good feeling to have Kukui-kun," Hiruzen remarked. "It allows you to be more alert and cautious. You may be going on a diplomatic mission but anything can go wrong on a mission. Although the odds of something happening are unlikely it is always good to be ready for the unlikely." Hiruzen seemed to get a flash of something in his eyes before it went away. "Also it is good to hear that your time as a genin is going smoothly so far. I'm sure you know that plenty of your fellow teams are a bit..."

"Disorderly?" Hiruzen nodded. I chuckled. "They are but I do think they will come together in time." After we had trained with team seven we also met teams nine and eight and had trained a bit with them. So far it looked like most teams were a clusterfuck. "I think that every team this year has been put together for a reason." After many nights of thinking I had concluded that the teams were put together for; DPS, Tracking, and Pressure. Ours was put together with being all-rounders in mind.

"Correct Kukui-kun." Hiruzen said with a hint of pride. "They will be ready to go on C-rank missions like your team is with time. Team Seven is already getting there and soon they will be ready to go on C-rank missions as well." I often wondered over the last month if the wave mission would happen. Naruto and Sasuke graduated a year before. If it did Suigetsu might ditch them for Zabuza... Maybe in this AU I was in Wave Country wasn't being ruled by Gato.

"Good for them. I'm sure Naruto is just begging for a C-rank now though." I internally smiled. Team Seven had gotten the most Tora missions. Naruto cursing out Tora was one of my favorite things in the world to remember. "Would you like more tea Hokage-sama?" I noticed his cup was now empty.

Hiruzen nodded. "Indeed I would Kukui-kun." I poured him some more tea and handed another cup to him he took a sip once more and sighed a weary sigh. "Once more its wonderful as per usual." Hiruzen then looked at the notebook on the table. "Have you progressed in any of your seals yet Kukui-kun?"

'Ah here we go.' I had a feeling he was going to ask about them. I sighed. "Not much." I asked Kurenai-sensei for some help and she enthusiastically taught me and the other guy who I learned was a Yuki more about genjutsu which helped greatly. But it wasn't enough to help with the fuinjutsu aspect of things. "The Genjutsu seal hasn't been progressing quickly and the Medical seal is going even slower somehow." I chuckled. "I'll get them eventually though. I can feel it." Blind optimism wasn't good. But mine wasn't blind. "Maybe within two years even!" Thats how slow progress was going right now.

"I suppose that would make sense. It took you months to get down your flame seal after all." Hiruzen said. "I do think you will get it down sooner than you might think. I would recommend focusing on one of your seals for now though. It would make progress go by faster if you put your efforts into one seal."

That might be a good idea. Then again I did try to master a few seals at once to make the flame seal it got me here.

[Flame Seal lvl 5:

Seal that stores fire chakra to be used in a one time powerful and precise attack or multiple smaller, cost effective, and creative attacks

Cost: 115 chakra points

Capacity: 480/480 chakra points.

Creator bonus: lvl's up 20% faster ]

It leveled up slowly since I didn't use it much but I was proud of it. If I hadn't worked on multiple seals I might not have had it ready by the time of the genin exams. "Maybe so. But I'd rather work on multiple projects at once so I can use the knowledge I gain then for other projects hopefully."

"If it works for you then that is fine. Although I'd advise against it." Hiruzen then finished his second cup of tea. "I do believe it is time for me to leave though. Paperwork calls after all." Hiruzen then waved a goodbye.

"Goodbye Hokage-sama!" I waved back as he shunshined away. 'And the Anbu are gone as well.' I put a hand over my chest.

Every time this happened I almost had a mini-heart attack. At least it was over now.

[Hanabi Hyuuga]

Hanabi looked up at her sensei. He looked dead serious today. Was it about his mission? Or was he doing something else... Oh god he wasn't dropping her as a student right? Hanabi hoped not. Kukui-sensei was a great sensei! It'd be a real shame if he stopped teaching her. Where else was she supposed to learn how to spit fire or use a sword?

"So, Hanabi." Kukui-sensei started. "I'm going to be leaving on my mission in roughly... thirty minutes now." That soon! Hanabi wanted to whine because she had so much she wanted to talk about today but she held it in as it was unbecoming of a Hyuuga to have an outburst. "I kinda want to do something before I go."

"What is it sensei?" Hanabi wondered. Would she be learning a jutsu? Probably not as Kukui-sensei said he didn't have much to teach her other than raw elemental manipulation which he was going to start her on... soon hopefully!

Kukui-sensei unsealed a notepad. "I might not come back from this mission." Hanabi wanted to protest but Kukui-sensei had a serious look in his eye for once. "Something. Anything could go wrong. If it does then I want to give you this. This is a training regimen I made for you last night. It contains a lot of information on stuff that you could learn and stuff that you might just find useful later on."

Hanabi took the notebook into her small hands and opened it into the middle. She immeditely was bombarded with some blank pages. "Why are these pages blank?" There had to be some hidden thing. Maybe something involving Fuinjutsu?

"Fuinjutsu. If you notice on the sides there is some ink which basically seals away the pages contents. I did this so if you ever decide to learn fuinjutsu you will do it safely unlike me." But safety was boring! "I probably won't die as this is a simple C-rank but just in case I don't want you to be stuck with the boring hyuuga stuff."

Hanabi wanted to retort but she bit her tongue. She both agreed and disagreed with her Sensei. But she wouldn't argue with him. "Your going to be okay Sensei!" Hanabi decided to say instead. "I still gotta beat you up one day!"

Kukui-sensei chuckled. "One day indeed." Kukui-sensei then pat Hanabi on the head before dodging a jab to the stomach. "You'll still always be a little firecracker to me though." Hanabi glared at her sensei. Before she could retort he sighed. "I'm so gonna regret a lot of what I say when your older and stronger than me as an old man."

Hanabi laughed. "You are you jerk!" That got a laugh out of her sensei. "You'll see one day!"

"Maybe." Kukui-sensei sat down. "It depends on the outcome of this mission." Hanabi watched Kukui-sensei's face darken. "I'm probably overthinking it. No. I definitely am." Hanabi nodded. Her sensei was strong enough to beat almost anyone she knew. "But still. Its good to be paranoid I guess."

'One of the three most important things to a shinobi. Paranoia.' Hanabi didn't judge her sensei for being rational. "I would be paranoid too. The shinobi rules state that paranoia is a must." That was rule 34 of the shinobi rule book. One of the five most important. "And this is your first time outside of Konoha right?" Hanabi had been outside of Konoha a few times for diplomatic reasons since she was probably going to take her sister's place as clan heiress. It was awesome outside of Konoha... Until your third hour of seeing the same damn tree.

Kukui-sensei nodded. "Yeah." His smile then came back. "I honestly am excited for the mission. Its one to another village which means I might be able to study fuinjutsu from another village!" The excited glint Kukui-sensei's eyes died a quick death. "Although I wonder what other things I can discover."

"Probably not a lot." Hanabi said. " If its a hidden village then there's probably not a lot you can do sensei."

Kukui-sensei nodded. "Yeah. I'm going to one so I'm probably not gonna get much." He then looked up at the sky. "I gotta go now Hanabi." Kukui-sensei said suddenly. "If I don't come back then you can look through the notebook I gave you..."

Before Hanabi could say anything, Kukui-sensei disappeared with a pile of leaves replacing him.

'Damnit. I still needed to talk to him about chakra flow!'

[Kukui Tanku]

We had left Konoha a few days ago. It was a nice time at first. It was beautiful and fun. The sights were incredible, especially at night when the stars were out and we had to run to the next safe spot from the rain. And it was so much fun to just jump across trees. But after two days of that it got boring quickly. At least we were somewhat close to the halfway point in The land of rivers.

Speaking of the land of rivers the border was just around here in the town we were in. We were due to be there in a few hours so a shinobi from Takigakure would be able to take us to Takigakure. THen we'd be set up in a very cheap motel until we were going to leave. A simple affair really.

For now though, We could enjoy the land of rivers.

"This place is so lively!" Mika was running around, looking at everything. "We gotta come back here one day!" The streets were filled with people in costumes and people selling various things. It reminded me of a parade or a festival. "Maybe I should get something for my brother here?"

Hayate sighed. "You can if you want. But please don't go too far you little gremlin. We're in the middle of the land of river's celebration festival. We don't want to cause a national incident whilst we're here." Hayate looked like he wanted to go to bed. I didn't blame him. He had been up for a while and he had to deal with Mika being hyperactive.

"Does this mean I can go and see if they sell any exotic weapons?" Tenten popped up from the side and looked at Hayate with a glint in her eye. "Maybe they have something I don't have!" She and Mika shared the same energy today.

Hayate dragged a hand across his face. "I regret going on this mission." Hayate then looked at Mika. "You go with Tenten and you can do whatever. Just be sure to not take too long and to not go too far okay. We only have six hours left." Tenten and Mika immediately dashed off with a "Thanks Hayate-sensei!" And Hayate looked at me. "I don't suppose there's anything you want to do." I could always go try to find some new clothes to wear but my current outfit was perfect for a shinobi.

"Nope." I looked at where the two went. "I don't really want anything that might be sold here and I don't really wanna do anything. So I think I'll stick with you for now sensei." Hayate sighed a sigh of relief. "Really that tired huh sensei? Maybe we should go get you a cup of coffee." The man seriously looked tired. Like he was about to pass out in three minutes. Some coffee would probably help him a lot.

"I haven't slept in a few days... Insomnia sucks Kukui. A cup of coffee does sound pretty nice and there are a few coffeehouses I know of that'd have good enough coffee to wake me up some. THe closest one though is my favorite by far. I guess its time to introduce you to the wonders of caffeine addicition." Hayate grabbed my shoulder and shunshined me.

We were now in front of a simple coffeeshop. It didn't look modern but it defintely didn't look like anything I had seen in Konoha. It was nice to look at.

"Wow." I whistled. "This place looks homely..." Hayate nodded and we walked in. The smell was captivating. It was like heaven on earth... 'Okay I'm so coming back here one day if the coffee is good.' I

"You find a seat and I'll go get some coffee. Want anything else?" Hayate almost sounded excited.

"Nah." I'd need to look at a menu first and I didn't want to take up much time. "I'll go find a seat Hayate-sensei." Hayate simply nodded and like lightning he was off. I saw him at the back of a relatively long line. I then looked at an empty seat and sat there.

The feeling that something would go wrong from before we reached the land of rivers came back in full force. 'Not now...' Not when I was about to do hopefully have some good coffee. The feeling quickly died a quick death soon after.

Surely nothing would go wrong now would it?

I sat down and looked out the window. Everything looked so beautiful. Nothing bad would happen now would it? I let myself relax. Maybe for a little while my paranoia about this mission wouldn't flare up.

'Somethings gonna go wrong somehow...' A little voice in my head told me. I elected to ignore it. Nothing bad would happen. This was our first C-rank mission. I had bad luck but I didn't have enough bad luck for something too bad to happen right?

Probably not.

Soon Hayate came to the seat across from me and handed me a coffee. "Here is the best thing you will ever have in your life. if you ever meet my girlfriend don't tell her about this." I decided not to ask before I took a drink of the coffee.

I immediately took another sip. And then another. 'This...' The flavor was indescribable. It was like an explosion of flavor of pure joy and everything right with the world. I understood why Hayate was so excited for this... "I don't think I will ever find anything better than this in my life."

Hayate chuckled. "Trust me you won't."

"Wow look at what we have here. Hayate Gekko or the crescent swordsman. Fancy seeing you here." A slimy voice drew out. Me and Hayate looked to the side and saw a man with a hat that looked like a darkened version of Luffy's, a fur lined black coat, some jeans and a white T-shirt. He looked like an edgy pimp. He was grinning and he had Black hair and black eyes.

"The rubber man..." Hayate's hand was on his Katana right away before he was stopped by an outstretched hand. Like rubber.

'Oh come on!' I internally screamed. Of course the guy who looked like pimp Luffy had rubber powers.

"Relax." The man drew out. "I'm not here for your bounty as good as it would be. Its too much trouble and besides, we wouldn't want to ruin the festival now would we?" The man gestured outside. "I just figured I'd drop by and say hello to an old friend."

"You killed an entire platoon of Konoha nin during the third war." Hayate spoke although it was just a whisper. Suddenly breaking the window and running was very tempting. "There's no way you're just here for a friendly chat."

"I'm not!" The "Rubber Man" said with a grin. "I just saw the only survivor of my slaughter and figured I should say hello. No longer a Kumo Nin but I'm sure you know that." The man waved at me then. "I see you have a student or some students of your own now. Nice. I see you've got some coffee now though. I guess I'll leave you two alone now. Don't want it to get cold now!"

The man promptly left the shop.

I let out a sigh of relief I didn't even know I had in me. I then looked at Hayate-sensei who looked absolutely mortified. "Kukui. We are getting Mika and Kukui and we are going to the meeting spot ahead of schedule. And when we do I want you to be on constant guard." It was an order not a question.

I nodded. "Okay Sensei." I gulped down the rest of my coffee.

I honestly didn't know what to expect when the shinobi from Takigakure arrived. Since Takigakure is the most secretive village in the world we had to wear blindfolds to ensure we didn't know where we were going whilst the shinobi guided us. Once we were at the village we could take our blindfolds off. Luckily we were not that far away from the village at this point.

It made sense but I didn't like it. We could be backstabbed at any time. But I'd sense more shinobi if that were the case and so far I didn't. Which was great. 'Definitely overthinking this Kukui.' I didn't want to be caught of guard but at the same time I didn't want to sound like I was a paranoid dick.

"We're here!" The Taki shinobi announced and I breathed a sigh of relief. "Just follow me and we'll get to the gate and we'll get you all checked in. You can all take off the blindfolds by the way!" The man's words sounded beautiful at the moment. I took off my blindfold and immediately my jaw dropped. What the fuck is this place?

There was a massive tree in the middle of the village which appeared to have a bunch of different lights in it. Houses maybe? It'd make sense. How the fuck was this place hidden? There was also a massive lake around the place too. We were walking across a bridge to get to the gate.

"And we're here!" The Taki Shinobi announced happily.

Now we could at least rest... soon enough

[Chapter End]

So this is the first chapter I've written in weeks and I started really strong. Then the fire I had in me to write died a sad death at the end. I suppose it makes sense though since I'm still sick and a bit depressed. But anyways this chapter kinda went off my plans by a lot. The first two parts for the chapter were something different entirely and the part where Hayate and Kukui meet the Rubber Man(Who's character is completely different than planned) is wildly different. And the end part is a lot shorter than expected.

But overall I like the chapter a lot. Its not my favorite but I like it. This puts the chapter stockpile of up nine again too which is nice! I still gotta write a few more chapters though to prepare just in case I lose my will to write completely for a few months. I'm very glad I went on Hiatus. As of writing this I plan on being on Hiatus until December with hopefully 15 chapters in the stockpile so around six more. But I'll likely only get to maybe twelve. I still have other things to write after all. Like chapters for Gamer of Kiri and whatever else I have planned.

Anyways thanks to all who've been reading. I greatly appreciate it and every review and comment makes my day better.

- Tobi