Okay. This is a reposting of chapter one with some slight (well, only slight in some places) changes from the original. Plus I hate my beta. Well, the one for this fic. Not the other one I talk about whom I love. This redone version might actually describe the characters (as requested by one reviewer) and will have Kiba mentioned. Yay. Also, some stuff that makes this fic Auish. Yes, Sakura did become Tsunade's apprentice, but she finished that and is now a jounin with her own team. Also, Shizune left with Lee to make sure he didn't overexert himself by using yet another lotus and prolly dying. And yes, there will be OCs.
"Don't worry, we'll bring him back. He might be a little worse for the wear, but he'll still be Sasuke."
That's what Naruto had said four years ago. And they still weren't back. ANBU teams had been sent out to search for them since then, but they came back empty-handed. The retrieval team had been announced dead, and Sasuke still a missing-nin. There had been a funeral in Konoha towards the brave warriors that had attempted to bring back the last remaining Uchiha in the village. The pictures of the fallen warriors held mementoes that their friends had placed in front of them. Although the feeling of sadness and depression hung about most, there were those that were happy to be rid of Naruto. But we don't like those people.
"Sakura-sensei, are you just going to stand there all day? When do we start training?"
Sakura broke out of her trance and looked at her team. Masaki Antonio, Hyuuga Hanabi, and Knight Akira. As a jounin, she was required to take on a team of rookie gennins and show them how ninjas operated. She had had this team for the past year, and they seemed to get together pretty well; or, at least as well as a group of kids could get along when they were given missions involving baby-sitting.
Antonio had brown hair, brown eyes, was the tallest one in the group, and had a knack for picking fights that he usually ended up losing. His specialty was genjutsu, although he was also good at taijutsu and ninjutsu. His clothing style consisted of a pair of baggy jeans and a loose camo shirt. He had a personality that never seemed to get put down.
Hanabi had grown some since we last saw her in the chuunin exams. She still had the dark hair and white eyes, but while Hinata was quiet and reserved, she enjoyed talking. It made Sakura glad to be able to use healing jutsus whenever her head hurt. She always wore her hair down, and it seemed to never end. She wore long shorts (now that's an oxymoron. What's next, dark lights?) and a light colored shirt, usually a sky blue, like the color she wanted her eyes to be. She fought using the Gentle Fist taijutsu style.
Akira was usually whom Antonio tried to fight. He was also very gifted at taijutsu, decent at ninjutsu, and utterly failed at genjutsu. Which is probably why Antonio always tried to fight him. He stood slightly shorter than Antonio did. While Hanabi talked a lot and Antonio tried to get attention, Akira kept to himself and acted quite humbly. Whenever he was complimented, he would usually act as if it was something anybody could do. For clothing he would wear a green windbreaker and a pair of cargo shorts.
Sakura sighed. "Ok team, let's get started."
-
At the Hokage's office, Kakashi and Tsunade were talking about upcoming events.
"Well, it's about that time again," Tsunade said.
"So it is," Kakashi replied.
"How many Chuunins do you think we'll have this time?"
"Well, from Konoha, maybe one if we're lucky. Sakura's team is the only one that has some potential, considering how we're changing a few things this year. Hidden Sand has 3 teams, Hidden Mist is sending in 3 teams as well, Hidden Sound has one team, and then there's these new villages, Hidden Spectre and Hidden Demon. They're sending in one team each. I wonder if they'll be any good," Kakashi said.
"21 gennins from villages we know of. So it's going to be relatively small this year. What has ANBU found out about the other two villages, anything?" Tsunade asked.
"No. All we know is they're also in Fire country."
"So will their Hokages be showing up as well, or will it just be the jounins in charge of the teams?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think they'll be on time?" Tsunade asked, this question directed more at Kakashi than the other villages.
"If they're anything like me, probably not," Kakashi said, smiling under his mask, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment to keep."
"And by keep, you mean it started two hours ago, correct?"
"No, this one I'll be on time to."
Tsunade just stared. 'He's going to be on time for something?' she wondered to herself.
And so everybody's favorite copy nin left the Hokage's office. Twenty minutes later, he arrived at the monument for the leaf nin who had died on their missions. He sighed as he ran a finger across the etchings of Lee, Chouji, Neji, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Naruto.
"I see my arch rival is up here," Gai said, flashing a shiny-toothed smile.
"I am."
(a/n: this next conversation comes from the idea that Gai and Kakashi can have a serious conversation. For once.) Gai walked over next to Kakashi. "We each lost two of our best. I lost Neji and Lee, you lost Sauce and Naruto, Asume lost Chouji and Shikamaru, and Kurenai lost Kiba. But knowing those six, they put up one hell of a fight before they died."
"Yes, I bet they did. It would appear that Naruto never accomplished his dream. And Sasuke, well, I do believe Itachi is still around, so he hasn't accomplished his yet. What about Lee and the others?"
"Well, Lee definitely proved that he could be an excellent ninja without genjutsu or ninjutsu, and Neji, well, I guess he was happy to have decided his own fate. I heard him talking to Hinata before they all left."
"Oh really? Did you hear what he said?"
"I heard something about asking her to change the way the clan worked when she became the head of it. Apparently he lost the idea of fate somewhere between the last chuunin exams and now."
"It would seem that way. How has Tenten been doing with her new team?"
Gai smiled. Not his "look-at-me-I'm-so-pretty-and-now-I'm-doing-the-good-guy-pose" smile, a real one. "She says they wear her out. Is Sakura the same?"
"She says that she now realizes why I was always late. And although she's not entirely right, she is kind of close," he was interrupted by a loud noise coming from the woods.
"SAKURA-SENSEI! THAT'S CHEATING!"
"She enjoys the bell drill. Speaking of which, that means that there's food up here. Shall we find it?" Kakashi suggested.
"Won't she be angry?"
"Probably, but how is she going to know it was us?"
Five minutes later, Sakura and her team walked up to the moment. Five minutes after that, Kakashi and Gai were tied to the posts much like Naruto had been so many years before.
"Well that could have been better," Gai muttered.
"Yes, but we got free food," Kakashi replied.
"Is it really worth what's coming?"
"Probably not," Kakashi said as he watched the three gennins grin at their new method of training. See who can hit the jounins the most.
Antonio, Hanabi, and Akira were walking through Konoha after their 'training exercise.' Gai ended up getting hurt because Kakashi used the Replacement Technique and just ran off, leaving him to his fate. Gai wasn't too happy about this, but he concluded that Kakashi ran because he wouldn't be able to deal with the blows that came, so he was the victor. Poor, poor Gai. He thinks everything's a competition.