Entrance Exam: Hayate style

Where the dock met land, large wooden crates of a little over a meter in both height and width were stacked on one side of the walkway. Whether for loading or unloading Hayate couldn't tell, but their mass provided a convenient place for the blond haired genning to lean back against, arms folded, and wait for the other passengers. And far enough from the ship where he wouldn't be reprimanded

The athletically built blonde haired genin was all of 15, and of average height. A half mask covered the bottom half of his face and connected down into a long sleeved compression shirt, and he had temporarily swapped out his drab swordsman armor for the chuunin vest of Kiri, though he still retained the long, dark combat pants. His crossed arms hid most of the bandages covering his left hand. And of course, the blue headband sat prominently center on his forehead, icon pristine.

They had left four and came back seven. And these weren't clients or anything, these were ninja. Hayate recognized one from his previous meeting, Hikari. But the tall, broad, scarred man contrasted heavily with her, who also appeared incongruous with the thin, brightly colored hair guy that was only about as tall as Hayate. It was a motley crew, for sure, and they seemed to know each other about as well as Hayate knew them, judging from how little the interacted and didn't naturally group together.

Now that he was chuunin, Hayate felt a little more responsibility toward the village, not just of bettering himself, but getting involved. He'd wait for the first one to exit the dock, and as long as they weren't with Xyxer, if it was one of the guy's he'd start with: "Welcome to Kiri. Passage on the Silence is one of the rarer ways to get in. Just who are you?" He repeated it a few times in his head to make sure he'd sound as nonchalant and 'cool' as he wanted to, as that definitely wasn't what he was feeling.

If it was Hikari he'd instead start off a bit friendlier, standing up from the lean and uncrossing his arms. "Heya Hikari. Welcome back. I never got to thank you for taking care of Yatagarasu."

The smallest grin appeared on Nero's face as he heard Hayate's greetings. He took a second to enjoy his friend's professionalism, and then knew as his fellow Chuunin he had to help. But how? He didn't want to repeat Hayate, or add to his words, because that would make it look like Hayate couldn't handle this on his own. If not that, it would at least make it look like Nero was thinking that. That was not the case. Nero needed to think of a way to "enhance" Hayate's greetings, but not interject, overrule or "moderate" him. After thinking for a few more seconds, he had something. 

As he walked past Hayate, Nero created a shadow clone, who proceeded to make a small insignia of ice. The ice would be shaped like an exclamation mark, the point tied to the point underneath it with a thin line, almost invisible to the naked eye. Then the Clonero held the exclamation mark above Hatare's head. The clone would have a dead expression on its face, looking at the (supposed) guests with utmost solemnity. Nero, meanwhile, was standing a few feet behind Hayate and his clones, watching the guests closely.

One month.

Neither Azami nor Asumi had seen Asami in one month. Days had passed before the pair noticed her absence and, at first, they figured it wasn't anything to worry about, typical ninja stuff. However, once it became apparent that their only bridge back to their respective planes of existence had not only up and vanished, but also taken their meal ticket along with her did anxiety descended on what had been a charmed carefree life. Well, carefree save for the whole being stranded in an alternate dimension thing.

Food in the Miyamoto house became scarce, water ceased to flow, and neighbors wondered about the sorry state of the family's garden. To stave off the unwanted attention and quiet their growling stomachs, both Azami and Asumi took up jobs. Azami worked at the grocery store as a cashier and Asumi worked as a bathhouse attendant—a job that amounted to being a glorified janitor. And so the pair fell into the monotony of everyday life almost forgetting their old lives.

Almost.

News traveled fast in the shinobi world, much faster than even The Silence's formidable clip. So, when the normally impenetrable storm wall parted its lightning-lit maw to admit Kirigakure's flagship a portion—if not the majority—of the civilian population turned out to greet the victorious shinobi. Swamped with people from every walk of life, the decks of the merchant vessels sat lower in the water, the surrounding docks creaked under the shifting weight of the humanity, and the whole marina buzzed with activity as the populace jostled to catch a glimpse of their Mizukage and his entourage.

It was with no small amount of luck and elbowing, that both Azami and Asumi found themselves on the boardwalk that led up from The Silence's moorings. The ship's berth had, naturally, been cleared of people to allow the victors to disembark unimpeded. From there, however, they would find themselves having to march through the corridor of humanity that their advance would open up. For both Azami and Asumi it was a chance; a chance to find Asami, perhaps she had slipped away to watch the exams, after all.

Either way, with their current position, they would be able to see and be seen by those returning from Konohagakure.

The first thing the petite kunoichi saw when she stepped off The Silence was a blonde man leaning against some rather large crates, ones almost as tall as her wolven companion. It was calming to see a familiar face even if he never knew she had been from a separate village, a village whose headband she was not wearing anymore and would soon be replaced by a headband matching his own. Soon the facade would become a reality. Yet she wasn’t sure how the other shinobi would feel if they found out she had formerly been a part of Konoha. Would she still get ostracized even though she’s now one of them?

If Hayate was anything to judge such a question on, then it seemed she might be in luck for the moment his eyes laid on her exiting the ship her greeted her as warmly as she’d expect from a shinobi of Kiri, friendly but not overly kind. He uncrossed his arms and straightened his back while welcoming her back to Kiri and mentioning that he had never thanked her for helping with Yata. It had been a while since that moment, and if she were being completely honest she had almost forgotten about it entirely. Brief and unimportant had the event been in the grand scheme of things, sure she had helped the young woman but it wasn’t something worth remembering to a person who dedicated her whole life to helping people, it was just another patient taken care of in her books.

As she walked closer to the blonde she noticed one of the other shinobi from the boat had created a clone to hold up a frozen exclamation point above the young man’s head, the real one standing back behind him a couple feet. It was an interesting thing to do, be a part of welcoming others back without actually being a part of it, but perhaps he had a reason for letting Hayate do all of the talking and only adding emphasis.

She also noticed a woman who looked oddly familiar to Asami, one of the other few people she encountered during her short visit to the island a few months back. Yet this doppelganger of sorts didn’t have the same chakra signature as the brunette, nor did she seem to acknowledge the snowy woman the same way Hayate had. Regardless of if she knew her or not, Hikari made a mental note to seek the girl out, curious to if she would know where Asami was, or if she was the girl in question masking her chakra.

Turning her attention back to the aforementioned blonde, her voice was its usual monotonous form as she approached him, unaware of where the Kumo operative or Kots were, ”Hello Hayate, welcome back as well.” A polite smile was forced on her lips as she replied, not obvious that it was fake for she had practice pretending everything was fine. The last thing she needed was to push away one of the few allies she had in the village because she had been incredibly rude. “You don’t have to thank me for that, it’s part of a medics duty to help after all.” Hikari replied to him as she walked by, choosing to stand out of the way beside him instead of blocking the path in front. Being trampled or shoved around by impatient passengers wanting to get home didn’t sound appealing to the Hyuuga.

Kuro stood beside Hikari, his scarlet eyes curious as to who the man was that had greeted his friend. The first time she had gone to Kiri by herself, leaving the wolf behind to help Dr. Satomi at the hospital, so anyone she knew was foreign to him. However, just because Hayate greeted her in a non-hostile way didn’t mean the wolf was put at ease, his senses on high alert and his ears perked up to hear anything in a 60m radius. If an attack wasn’t silent, he would be able to hear it coming and protect her.

(WC: 676)

From the deck of the ship now approaching the docks Nobunaga idly stood by, gazing out over the mainland as citizens flocked towards the harbor to welcome their returning soldiers. This was his new home, a vast archipelago circled by a storm wall. The smell of the sea filled his lungs and the ocean breeze coursed through his jet black hair, a stark contrast to putrid smell and eye soar of Kumo's rot fields. But neither one was truly the Hiyu's home. His home had been buried under the never ending sand dunes of the Wind Country. He was a man with no home and only his honor, what little that meant. 

Stomping his way forward once the ship docked, the Hiyu would follow at the head of the pack in order to exit the massive vessel of the Mizukage. Making his way across the docks, he was now approaching the crowd of unfamiliar faces, citizens awaiting the return of their family members and victorious soldiers. But none would be there for the Hiyu. He was a stranger in a strange land and thus received little but odd glances and confused expressions, wondering who was this brute exiting their leaders boat.

Near the end of the docks, Nobunaga came up to a young Chuunin with another standing behind him holding up some form of ice sculpture, two shinobi who had exited the ship just before he had. It seemed they were pleased to finally be back home as their goal was to welcome everyone and have some fun in the process. The scarred faced Hiyu would come to a halt upon hearing the blond haired individual welcome him and ask who he was. Nobunaga's stern gaze would descend upon the shorter, younger shinobi, staring at him in a palpable silence. 

Grimly, Nobunaga would look away and proceed forward, offering no response as he slowly made his way towards the village and through the crowd of citizens that were now forming around him. He did not think himself better than the kid or the kid unworthy of an answer. The Hiyu was simply in no mood for games or pleasantries. He was not here to make friends or engage in small talk. He was not here to mingle with the common folk or engage in extra circular activity. He was here to do his duty, whatever that entailed and currently, it did not require him to engage in formalities. Thus, with his black weather worn cloak draped over his massive frame, he trudged through the ground, making sure not to step on any feet as he went to find a quite place to be alone.

Exit. 
444 into Corrosive Gas

Approved.

Hayate nodded along as Hikari politely deflected the praise, as expected. Of course it was her duty, but it was still proper to thank her, and that was the first and really only thing that popped into his head when he saw her walk by.

There was a brief pause, though, as a mountain of a man walked by. When hayate talked to him he just paused, stared, and then slowly started away again. So that question was answered, check off the "one big grump" box next to that guys name.

As he turned back from the man to hikari, around he resumed talking. "Anyways, are you. .... " He drifted off mid sentence as his eyes looked upwards at something now on the fringe of his vision.

"Nero you absolute tool! THIS is the first impression you want?" He swatted at the taller boy to push him backwards and away, not too hard, but hopefully enough to make him pull his comically large punctuation back. "You're making me look like some sort of video game NPC!"

He turned back to Hikari. "What was I... Oh yeah. You were gone a long time, are you back for a while now?" Seeing the person from back in his pre genin adventures, combined with his high mood from just making chuunin, brought back some of the boyish excitement in the 15 year old, a nice change from some of the brooding resentment force on him early and mid trip.

Hey! Look! Listen! Hayate was a non-player alright, not playing along with Nero's, aka Mr. Originality's genius. Whatever. He let his clone disappear. The exclamation mark fell down to the ground and shattered. Nero, meanwhile, noticed two familiar figures. "Hey!" he said to the Miyamoto sisters, just loud enough so they could hear. "Asami not here? Is she coming?". 

He then started paying attention to the words being spoken by Hayate and the white-haired Konoha nin. "Gone a long time? You mean she isn't new?". He then looked to White-hair. Now that Nero thought about it, she must have been in Kiri at some point, she had the signature hair color. "Nice to meet you by the way. Nero.".

Asumi, stoic as ever, offered the grocery guard an abbreviated nod of acknowledgment and nothing more. Azami, on the other hand, cupped her hands around her mouth to be heard above the din of celebration that now exploded around her.

"Hi, Mr.Tool!" thankfully the masked one had yelled out the ice man's name because she had forgotten. "We figured she'd be with you; you know, on the boat—"

The familiar hand of Asumi on her shoulder cut Azami's exclamation short. It was, however, not the same vice grip that the cashier had come to expect from the older woman. Rather, it felt soft, weak, and...comforting? Glancing upwards the more diminutive of the pair met the gaze of the taller and for the first time she saw a woman resigned to her fate; a prisoner caught in a jail she could never hope to escape. Then, just like that, the look was gone, locked behind impenetrable eyes of coal once more.

Without another word, the two faux sisters began elbowing their way out of the crowd and back into the village.

There was nothing for them on the docks.

Asami wasn't there.

[Exit unless stopped, TWC: 575/2 = 287.5, 287 to each clone:

Azami:
+1 stat
+64 words to Genjutsu Release
+223 words to Hidden Hands Technique

Asumi:
+1 stat
+64 words to Genjutsu Release
+223 words to Hidden Hands Technique]

Approved.