Recruitment

After that, Hirata and Tetsuya formed a team since doing B-rank missions required at least a team of 2.

They invited Kayo but she said that she was going to start working at the hospital instead.

He also tried to invite Isao and Yuzume but Yuzume apparently decided to enter the Uchiha police force. As for Isao, He decided to form a team with his teammate Shimura Tae so tetsuya got rejected.

Isao had views on Tae ever since they formed a team and now, with yuzume out of the picture, He could now get even closer to her

Damn it! That guy actually chose hoes before bros. Where is the guy that would only train all day long with me? Puberty hits you like truck as they say.

But why did Tae accept to form a team of 2 with him though? Did she also have some ideas on him?

Did Hiruzen's 2 boy 1 girl team scheme actually work?

The fresh genin teams were almost always composed of 2 boys and a girl. This is made on purpose to make the boys compete with each other and let romance bloom early since Ninjas were married around 18-20 most of the time.

Seeing how good the Sannins turned out, the third Hokage decided to implement a team structure similar to that for all teams afterwards.

The sannin are good? One of them is a gambling addict wandering around, the other one is a pervert wandering around in search of an illusory child of destiny and the last one is a rogue ninja wandering around.

Do I see a pattern here?

This ploy won't work on me since in my eyes Kayo's just a kid, and even if we were both of age, I would still choose older women.

And as for Hirata, Kayo probably won't have her sights on him since he's from the Hyuga branch family and the Hyuga only intermarry with themselves anyway.

Naruto was probably able to marry Hinata only because he was the biggest hero of the ninja world and Hiashi probably accepted to avoid Hinata being branded with the caged bird.

…

January Year 58 of Konoha.

A new year soon rolled by, and Hirata and Tetsuya's team was steaming through B-rank missions as they wanted to finish the 150 B-rank missions required for the Jonin exam.

Their team has now completed 32 B-rank missions.

During this period, He learned the A-rank Earth release: Swamp of the Underworld (Jiraya), B-rank Lightning release: False Darkness (Kakuzu) and also the B-rank: Earth Release Barrier: Earth Prison Dome (Jirobo).

While the Earth prison dome wasn't practical to kill an enemy, it could be used to capture someone so Tetsuya decided to get it.

He also got the rasengan's training method.

He already knew how to train for the rasengan but suddenly training for it without prior knowledge would draw suspicions on him so he decided to pay for it.

He couldn't exchange for the chidori and raikiri since it was Kakashi's personal technique and wasn't available for merits exchange.

That damn Kakashi, Why the hell don't you turn in your jutsus to the authorities. Even your teacher turned in his jutsu. So why are so stingy.

He also saw the Flying Thunder God but it was worth 300.000 merit points while the total amount of merits he got ever since he became a ninja was just a measly 20.000.

Just how much grind did Minato do to get that jutsu?

...

Hirata and Tetsuya were now escorting a merchant caravan to the land of water's capital.

While they were patrolling, they found a white-haired boy who was hunting in the forest.

As Hirata and Tetsuya approached, the boy immediately took a fighting stance.

Oh. Isn't this Kimimaro? The Kaguya clan just got wiped out 2 months ago so this kid's still wandering around.

I think he was 15 when the main story started so now he should be 10.

Should I bring him to Konoha or just let him get scammed by Orochimaru?

Orochimaru's still in the Akatsuki now so plucking his talents beforehand should be a good thing.

And this kid is loyal as hell so recruiting him should be a good investment.

As Tetsuya was thinking, Kimimaro suddenly rushed towards them with sharp bones sticking out of his hands.

Seeing this, Tetsuya immediately used the Earth Prison Dome.

Kimimaro who was now stuck inside struggled endlessly but to no avail.

"Hey, we're Konoha Ninjas, You're from the Kaguya clan, right? Since your tribe was recently wiped out, you don't have a place to live so how about coming back to konoha with us."

Hirata:"Hey Tetsuya, Are you sure about this? Wouldn't we get in trouble for this?"

"Nah, we'll probably be fine, Kiri just wiped out their whole clan so us taking another one shouldn't matter to them, right?"

Hirata:"You'll take full responsibility for the kid then"

"Alright, if anything goes wrong, I'll take full responsibility."

"Hey, you heard that, Right? Instead of just wandering around without any purposes, would you like to come with me and become a Ninja?"

After a subpar talk no jutsu, Kimimaro reluctantly accepted since he had nothing else to do anyway.

…

As they were still doing a mission, Kimimaro followed them while wearing a cloak to hide his face just in case.

Along the way, Tetsuya continued to coax Kimimaro by bribing him with food.

As soon as the caravan reached the doors of the Land of water capital, all three of them immediately left without entering the city to avoid useless attention on Kimimaro.

During the return trip, Kimimaro asked Tetsuya the classic meaning of life question.

"For me, life has no meaning, As long as you live freely and can smile happily at the end of the day, I can consider that I lived a good life.

But each person is different so first try to find something you really want to do and dedicate your life to. Maybe you'll find the meaning of your life then."

Kimimaro was admiring Tetsuya with eyes full of stars and decided that the something he would do was to be of help for Tetsuya.

Hirata's whole face twitched upon hearing the words "freely".

….

Upon arriving in konoha, the two of immediately headed to the mission center to report.

The three of them were then called to the hokage office for Kimimaro's case.

After explaining Kimimaro's situation to the Hokage, He accepted Kimimaro's entrance into konoha.

Kimimaro would be transferred to the academy in the third year once the academy holidays were finished since he already had prior Ninja knowledge.

The hokage could've probably just given him a genin title but decided to send him to the academy to make friends in order to intergrate him into konoha better.

He was also set to live with Tetsuya since He was stuck to him like glue.

This kid really has a fanboy disposition, huh? We didn't even know each other for a week and he's already like this.

Should I also wander around the land of water to find Haku?

Nah, He's probably already with Zabuza since Haku was quite young when Zabuza picked him up if I remember correctly.