A/N: If you think you've found a plot error in the story, PM me, but a lot of the time it'll be either a clue, or one of the characters having imperfect knowledge. I intend a lot of the plot to be solvable before it's revealed, but it won't be too easy (hopefully). I have made a few small changes to canon deliberately (e.g. ages are changed – genin start at 15 because it's much easier to write realistically, and then after that, the timeline is stretched a bit so there aren't any twenty-year-olds who've surpassed every living ninja).

-O-

The figure woke up at the same time as every other morning. What made the start of this morning in particular unique, however, was that it seemed surprised by that fact. It looked around as though the room it was in was both the most familiar thing in the world to it, and yet at the same time incredibly strange. An observer would note that it soon stopped marvelling at its surroundings. The look on its face was... intent. But after just a moment the face smoothed itself out, and once more there was nothing that made the start of this day different to any other.

It was a normal morning in how the figure showered, dressed itself, and took great care with how every strand of hair fell. It was a normal morning in how the figure ate, picking at several small dishes in the company of one other taller figure. It was a normal morning in how the figure put on a pair of sandals and left the house, waving goodbye without turning around. It was most certainly not, however, a normal morning after that point.

The figure visited several places in the village it was in, including the large tower with a stylised leaf on the front. It talked to several people, with conversational topics ranging from weapons, to information, to gossip, to relationship advice. It collected a handful of items that seemed to have more edges and spikes than was normal and wrote long notes with a fast and sure hand. All these things it then dropped off in a variety of places – including once the pocket of a conversational partner. Most curiously, however, given the speed and urgency with which the figure moved when out of sight, it occasionally stopped to seemingly stare at passers-by from hidden vantage points, empty hands moving carefully. There was nothing particularly interesting about who it watched; they were invariably ninja, but none were doing anything more strenuous than walking down a street.

After most of the day had elapsed, it purchased a large plain scroll, some writing brushes and an oversized pot of ink. It wrote long into the night, working until most of the village slept around it. Once it was satisfied that the scroll held every scrap of knowledge that it should, it re-rolled it, fastened the ties on the outside, placed it on the large and sturdy desk in the room, and lay down. After steeling itself for a moment, the figure formed a set of handseals and instantly collapsed backwards, sleeping.

At the time, there was nobody who saw everything that had happened, and nobody who understood the strange purpose that guided the actions. But soon – shortly after the figure awoke the next morning, in fact – there would be.

-O-

Naruto Uzumaki woke up in the dark of pre-dawn, full of energy and motivation. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, but he leapt out of bed and got ready at breakneck speed anyway. Apart from excitement at the graduation exam tomorrow – and this time he'd pass for sure! - he also wanted to practice some more beforehand.

As he rushed around his small apartment, eating with one hand while trying (and failing) to get dressed with the other, he was already thinking about teams. The small sheaf of notes he'd found outside his doorstep yesterday morning had had some really useful information on it, and the pages were sprawled over his kitchen table right now, along with several dirty dishes and a spare T-shirt.

Anyone who knew Naruto (and sadly that list of people was fairly short) could have told you how unusual this was. He wasn't lazy so much as lacking in focus, and it didn't usually take long before he had a more interesting idea than practising with kunai or punching logs. The level of focus he'd gained recently was very unusual, and normally only went into sparring at the Academy or planning and executing mischief.

Nevertheless, off he went to a little-used corner of a training field. He wasn't thinking of anything in particular, but without conscious planning, he'd already decided on what he would be doing to help pass his graduation exam – lots and lots of practice with shuriken and kunai throwing.

The last few times he'd practised his throwing in his free time, he'd given up after a few failures. The rote muscle memorisation that the training tried to produce meant that his mind was free to be distracted by all sorts of wonderful ideas as to what else he could be doing, and invariably he'd find half a dozen that sounded better than more failure, especially where everyone could see his mistakes.

But not today. Today, Naruto didn't care about missing the target, as long as he could correct his throws afterwards. After setting up his equipment and taking off his goggles forty paces from the targets, he threw the dozen kunai he'd brought. His first attempt only put kunai into five of the twelve targets and missed the log completely once. The dozen shuriken that followed were slightly more accurate, but overall he barely reached the passing grade for the exam he'd be taking in just over a day's time. With that thought in mind, Naruto gathered the knives up again, easily pulling them out of the shallow cuts they'd made. He stepped back to his mark and threw again. And again. And again. Until his hands were covered in tiny nicks from where he'd handled the sharp shuriken, the ground in front of the target logs was covered in small pieces of wood and bark, and the sun was well above the horizon.

Naruto set off for the Academy. He was late again, but this time, he would be stumbling through the door right after class started for a different reason than usual.

He waved at Iruka with a cheeky wink, ignored his classmates' complaints at his being late for the fourth day in a row, and sat in the nearest open seat. He had a wide smile on his face.

-O-

Sasuke Uchiha turned the plain red comb over in his hands. It had belonged to his mother, once. Now it was his, just like everything else of her's. He'd thought it lost until that morning when he had spotted the corner of it in a box in the attic. He remembered her running it through his hair when he was small.

"Sasuke, your turn to practice!" Iruka called, interrupting Sasuke's daydreams. He quickly slipped the comb into his pocket. This morning the class was revising the Transformation technique, thanks to Naruto clowning around again.

Sasuke swiftly stood up and walked to the front of the classroom. Most of the other students who were waiting were talking amongst themselves or otherwise not paying attention, but he knew that at least half a dozen were carefully watching. The pressure to perform felt natural after so long, even as it reminded of a time when he'd been under real pressure, with a constant example of where he needed to be stronger, faster, better at his side. But thinking of that man was not constructive, Sasuke angrily reminded himself. He turned his attention back to Iruka.

Concentrating for a moment, Sasuke pushed out a thin skin of chakra, using a single handseal as a focus. The soft puff of chakra-based smoke around him dulled the sounds of the rest of the room. He thought of the appearance changes he wanted, then warped the chakra skin that was hidden in the smoke, changes propagating at the speed of thought. He let it solidify once it held an image of Iruka. Sasuke was mildly pleased to notice that there was less smoke from wasted chakra than last time, but the difference was small enough that anyone else's eyes wouldn't notice it.

As the smoke cleared, he saw his reflection in the mirror at the front of the room. Sasuke's transformation was almost perfect. Some of the lines on the face hadn't been the right depth, and the clothes looked too brightly green, rather than the slightly tan colour of anything that was designed to act as forest camouflage. Anyone paying close attention would be able to spot the disguise, but the point of the illusion was to avoid any close attention, so Sasuke figured it was good enough overall. He crossed it off his mental checklist of skills to practice and realised with relish that he could spend the evening working on his only elemental jutsu: the Grand Fireball.

When Sasuke had walked to his seat again and sat back down, he pulled the comb out of his pocket once more. While it reminded him of all he'd lost, mostly it made him think of quiet, pleasant moments. Evenings as a family in front of the fire, being held in warm arms, the gentle rasp of comb on hair. Sasuke gently put it back in his pocket, and ran his fingers along the edge – for luck, he told himself.

-O-

Sakura Haruno headed home after the graduation exam, a skip in her step. Her passing had never been in doubt, but she'd not been sure of where she'd place. Top marks of all the girls in the class, that was really something. She'd mentioned it in front of Sasuke twice, and the first time he'd seemed quite surprised. He'd really looked at her, as though he was re-evaluating her. Sakura was sure today's diary entry would be a very happy one. Her mum had even promised to cook her favourite dinner tonight.

"Oi! Sakura!" she heard a familiar voice call from behind her.

"What do you want, Ino?" Sakura couldn't help the slight hardness that crept into her voice, but if Ino heard it, she kept it hidden.

"Just... well done on the exam."

"Thanks. You too."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment before Ino broke the silence. "Look, this wasn't my idea. I found a note, and it had a bunch of useful advice, and some notes on things we don't normally learn about yet, and it also said to talk to you. So here I am."

"I found a note like that as well! Do you know where it's from?" Sakura asked. Her notes had been fairly straightforward, mostly describing a chakra exercise that strengthened her hands and arms. It still wasn't working perfectly for her, but she'd made some progress. "I thought it was just the instructors unofficially letting me work on more advanced material."

Ino nodded. "That makes sense – that it was the instructors, I mean. Who else could it be, that would know our strengths and weaknesses that well? ...Hey, we've talked for almost a minute without insulting each other."

"Yeah," Sakura said. "It's... nice, I suppose. I've missed this a bit – having someone to talk to like this." Following the advice at the end of the notes – 'be open to restarting old friendships' – was natural as breathing, once she'd decided it came from the instructors.

"Swing by the flower shop sometime, and we can catch up properly. I need to go run some errands now, but it was good to talk." Ino waved as she jumped up and onto a rooftop, then darted out of sight.

When Sakura went to bed that night, she was still thinking about Ino and the notes. The suggestions that she'd received had turned out to be uncannily useful, and it seemed that the same applied to Ino. Who else was this happening to?

-O-

Iruka Umino raced towards the next hiding place that Naruto might have fled to. There was only a single thought repeated in his head. Why would he take the scroll?

He'd always known that Naruto had it hard. He'd not had too much sympathy when he saw the endless mischief and vandalism the boy had become known for, but looking back, it was easy to recognise it as a cry for help. Or was he adjusting too far the other way now? Now that there was something real, something important, at stake? Nobody knew what would happen if Naruto tried to use the Fourth's sealing technique, the same technique that had trapped the Demon Fox in Naruto's stomach. At worst, the seal would break and the whole village would suffer.

Focus! Naruto had taken the Scroll of Seven Seals for some reason. Iruka had to find him before he hurt himself trying to do something with it. The village was sealed – his fellow teacher Mizuki had been one of those called away to form a perimeter. Nobody, whether Naruto or an infiltrator, would be getting out with (or without) the scroll.

Naruto would have been found by now if he wasn't hiding away somewhere, that much was guaranteed. If he'd been killed – if the seal had broken – the whole village would know. So, by process of elimination, he'd gone to ground inside Konoha. He wouldn't be anywhere he'd been tracked down to before, so that ruled out the western training grounds and most of the south of the village. Iruka had just checked the north, so now he would swing around the east and check the forested areas. If he went near Mizuki's place in the perimeter, he could ask for any advice Naruto's other teacher had.

There! A speck of orange amongst the foliage! Iruka fluidly changed course, leaping down next to his student. "I've found you at last!"

"Wrong! I've found you!"

As Naruto explained what he was doing there, Iruka noticed the confusion he was feeling. Something wasn't right. He tried dispelling a genjutsu, but nothing changed. Then, Naruto's story meandered towards some relevant information. "Mizuki told me about the scroll. And this place too." And suddenly Iruka knew.

Iruka flung Naruto to the side. This was really bad. If Mizuki fled with the scroll, he would be chased. He wouldn't make it far. The only way he could escape would be to set up a more immediate threat to the village, that might draw away attention and either delay or outright kill the pursuers. Like Naruto...

As the knives cut through his vest and into his body, Iruka was already planning the best way out of this. Unbidden, a line from a poem someone had left on his desk that morning entered his mind.

Mizuki looked surprised that his first volley hadn't killed his target but seemed content to just stand and watch now that he'd lost the element of surprise. The traitor had a small grin on his face as he looked down at his targets, and two huge shuriken strapped to his back. The branch he stood on was too high to reach easily and wide enough that it would cover him against any return attacks.

"Naruto. Whatever Mizuki says, he's trying to trick you. He's a traitor to the village. It's all mind games. Don't listen!" Iruka yelled out.

For a while, it even looked like it might work. It was helped, Iruka thought, by the fact that Naruto really didn't want to believe Mizuki's story, and the number of taunts and insults Mizuki was using.

"How do I know you're not just lying to get me to give you the scroll?" It was a question that couldn't really be answered, and Mizuki seemed to flounder a bit. He had to realise that time was not on his side, but he still seemed to be stalling for some reason.

"Naruto. Listen to me," Iruka said. "I'm an orphan too. I know what it feels like to have no-one. But if you show me the technique you learned today, and it's good enough, I can pass you. A field promotion. You'll have a team." And hopefully, nothing like this will ever happen to you again.

Naruto's face lit up, and he turned to face Iruka, hands ready in an unusual seal. But it seemed that Mizuki's patience had worn out. He sent a windmill shuriken, large enough to bisect his target, whispering down towards Naruto, who didn't have either the speed to dodge it or the skill to block it. So Iruka did the only thing he could, and moved.

He braced for the last thing he expected to feel in this life. He prepared for an impact that never came. He heard the voice he'd been praying for, and felt the tension slip out of his body.

"Mizuki, you are a traitor to the Village of the Hidden Leaf. Your sentence, to be carried out as soon as is expedient, is execution. Take him away to interrogation first." Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice was measured, calm, and regal. Iruka could have hugged the man if his legs weren't about to give way. He smiled down at the boy looking up at him, unshed tears in his eyes.

In the corner of his eye, he saw the Sandaime walk over to them. His voice was gentler now the danger had passed. "Naruto, come here, and I'll tell you the story of how the Yondaime built the greatest cage the world has ever seen, and put a single person in charge of guarding it."

Suddenly there were a hundred Narutos all around the Hokage, appearing in a huge burst of chakra-laden smoke. "Hey, do I pass?"

-O-

Kakashi Hatake peered down at the three students he'd been given this year. Unusually, it seemed someone had taken a special interest in giving him the team most likely to crack his shell. It was clear why he'd received those particular archetypes – there was one clown (Obito), one talented and aggressive loner (him), and one talented but not very driven girl (Rin). But these three new genin had little else in common with his original team, and he refused to be swayed by attempted emotional manipulation anyway. It set a bad precedent.

He'd not been ordered on, or even offered, any sensitive or high-importance missions in the last few years, and Kakashi knew why. He was considered a flight risk. A talented jonin with no close ties, spends a lot of time thinking of the past and all his dead teammates, slightly too fond of alcohol and women – it was a formula that he'd seen lead to a desertion rate as high as one in three. And now he was part of that group, and Konoha didn't trust him anymore.

Once he accepted a team, the village would give him some time to grow attached – they called it the Will of Fire, and while he didn't like it, it was much better than the way other villages enforced loyalty – and then send him on dangerous missions again, and he didn't have the drive necessary to keep up. Not anymore. There was no-one left for him to prove himself to. As long as he could keep up with Might Guy, he considered himself good enough. Starting to care about, and then probably losing, a team of fresh genin would take him out of the comfortable rut he was currently in.

Kakashi was professional enough that his face didn't so much as twitch while those thoughts passed through his mind. "So, why don't we do introductions?" After he went first, giving vague non-answers, he noticed a detail that hadn't stuck out at first. Naruto was wearing goggles.

...There weren't many ninja who wore goggles.

Kakashi could count them on one hand.

"...I hate waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook," Naruto was saying when Kakashi started paying attention again.

"Why are you wearing those?" Kakashi asked, gesturing at Naruto's face. Nothing that a new teacher wouldn't usually ask of his charges, he told himself, and if that wasn't his true motivation, no-one needed to know that.

"I was gonna stop wearing them when I got my headband, but they're good for stopping smoke from getting in your eyes and stuff. So now I have my headband on my shoulder instead. Why, do you want a pair too?"

"No. They can hurt your peripheral vision, so I'd recommend getting rid of them." Accurate advice, and it would make it less uncomfortable for him to look Naruto in the eyes when he failed him.

Naruto seemed to consider it for a moment, before nodding. "Anyway, my goal is to surpass all the Hokage and gain the acknowledgement of every person in the village!" Save the most surprising for last, Kakashi thought to himself.

Sasuke went next. It was roughly what Kakashi had expected. Lots of brooding about killing Itachi Uchiha, despite the fact that Itachi was probably the most dangerous man alive and could almost certainly take on Kakashi with both eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back.

The only surprising part was the restoring of the Uchiha clan – not the goal, but that Sasuke would talk about it so openly. Did he not realise that he was basically announcing that he was planning to sleep with a bunch of women and get them all pregnant? Then again, if he was fifteen now, and hadn't had a chat with his parents about where babies come from before the massacre, then that would mean that his new teacher (after Kakashi failed them all and they had to retake the year) would have to sit him down and explain a few facts of life to him. Yet another reason to be glad that he wasn't taking on a team.

Sakura's introduction was unexpected, and not in a good way. She seemed temperamentally unsuited to the life of a ninja. Not counting outliers like Itachi, the main ceiling that ninja had was drive. A complete nobody who worked their ass off could be one of the elite – if they were willing to give up every distraction and pleasure for the rest of their life. Guy was the perfect example, and Sakura was his opposite. Skill and natural talent in almost indecent amounts, but no drive at all to improve as a ninja.

Kakashi looked at her – really looked, taking in all the minor details and small tells that he wouldn't usually bother with. Soft hands, with no callouses from training or small cuts from frequently handling blades. Thin arms and legs that spoke of good chakra control, but little starting strength that could be multiplied. Long hair that was a liability in even a schoolyard brawl, and it wasn't even put up into a ponytail. Her stance, huddled over and clutching her knees, added to everything else to paint a picture of someone who was in over their head, and just starting to realise it.

He analyzed Sasuke as well. Strength was there, and plenty of it, as well as control and skill. The arms could have been his own at that age, except for the shorter sleeves, and Sasuke's stance kept his hands near his mouth. Kakashi didn't doubt that Sasuke had at least one technique he could quickly launch from there, and the outline of a kunai under each wristwrap enhanced the image of someone ready to fight at any second. It was very impressive for a genin nominee, and more competent than most chunin exam candidates, although it remained to be seen if Sasuke's other skills were at the same level as his paranoia.

Naruto had calloused hands with no cuts at all. It was quite easy for Kakashi to deduce a regenerative ability – Naruto's weapon skills were good enough that it was clear he practised regularly, but not so good that he never made mistakes. The orange outfit was a horrible idea for hiding in forests, but somehow he made it work – and wasn't that a nice ace to have, if you could disappear in an outfit that bold? He was the current weakest member, no doubt about it, but Naruto definitely had enough drive to one day excel. His goal was just as out of reach as Sasuke's, and he seemed just as determined to reach it despite all the possible setbacks.

"Alright," Kakashi said, now that the new genin nominees were watching him expectantly. "We have survival training tomorrow."

He talked over the questions and complaints. "This is a different kind of training. I will be your opponent." There was a surefire way to separate the wheat from the chaff, and that was mental pressure. He waited for the confusion to reach a maximum before he started laughing gently.

"There's a secret purpose to the training. If you fail..." he built the pressure to a fever pitch. "You go back to the academy. It would be as if you failed the graduation exam. And your odds aren't good, either – two-thirds of the teams get sent back every year. Of the 27 graduates, there will usually be 9 genin."

Chuckling, he enjoyed the looks on their faces. Naruto was trying to hide his surprise, Sasuke looked angry, and Sakura seemed defeated already. Kakashi fielded their questions without offering much information of value, and gave them some misleading advice to top it off, before heading off to his favourite pub. He had a pretty girl to meet, and a new book to keep him company while he waited.

-O-

A/N: I've deliberately taken Kakashi in an unusual direction. I think he's more interesting as an unmotivated jonin with no close ties to anyone who enjoys beer and girls, and it makes a lot of sense with his behaviour in early canon (late to everything, quite laid-back, usually fails teams rather than take them on). I know that it clashes with later canon, but he won't be a static character – everyone (especially those whose POV I've used so far) will develop in some way.

Also, Sasuke's got PTSD and Sakura will be scared of ninja life, while Naruto's attention span can best be measured in seconds. Hopefully, I can avoid the common pitfall of making a character's weaknesses just be minor quirks that are mentioned once and then forgotten.

I'm planning to update around once a week. I have a complete plot planned out, and right now I expect it to take between 80k and 100k words to write the full story, but that could easily balloon out to twice the length.