Kakashi had given this tons of thought.
His Genin team had been in dangerous situations countless times, just like what happened with Zabuza and the issue of Gaara. He'd become far too dependent on his dog summons. He had been in the ANBU a few years ago, but compared to his tracking skills now... they were definitely lacking. That's how he found himself in his favorite training grounds at 4:30 in the morning, trying to improve his tracking skills once again. You never knew when they'd come in handy.
It was dark, and he was trying to effectively use one of his shadow clones to train with. He had given the shadow clone strict orders to mask his chakra and act as the enemy. Just when he thought he was on his trail, BAM!
"Dynamic Entry!"
Kakashi went flying a good 15 feet backwards, the whole left side of his face throbbing in pain and his eyes producing unshed tears.
"Oh, Kakashi! I am so sorry my eternal rival! I didn't know that was you; all I could see was a shadowy silhouette." Gai-sensei said as he gave him his brightest smile while awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.
Kakashi, after realizing what had just happened, allowed himself to do something that he hasn't done in ages; he got furious, allowing his emotions to show with clarity through his one dark eye.
"Gai! You just kicked me in the face!" He shouted at him.
"My dear Kakashi, you could have been an Akatsuki agent! You were doing a very good job of hiding your chakra for no reason!"
Kakashi stared at Gai very briefly, wondering just how many people would miss Gai if he were to kill him right now. For once, Kakashi couldn't tame his anger, and the two argued back and forth well until sunrise.
Lee sprang himself out of bed at the crack of dawn, radiating youthfulness as always.
He had 30 minutes, which he only took 10 minutes, to eat breakfast and get ready to meet Gai-sensei at their favorite training grounds for their special warm up session of taijutsu. Only minutes later he was out the door, dashing through the village with way too much excitement during the early hour.
He spotted Gai-sensei first, but then he also spotted Kakashi. One could easily tell that the two were about to face off, but Lee mistook it to be another one of their many competitions as rivals.
Lee looked on in awe. He had never actually witnessed the two fighting before, but before he could get too settled, an even better idea hit him.
You could literally see a light bulb click on above Lee's head, and he was dashing away as fast as his legs would carry him.
Kurenai was taking her routine walk in one of many of Konoha's parks.
She always chose the one closest to her house, and she loved watching the children play in the evenings, but in the morning, no one was there and it was where she spent most of her time reflecting.
Just as she sat down on a bench, Asuma walked up to her, already a cigarette in his mouth.
"What are you doing here?" she questioned him accusingly.
"I thought you might be up for a good sparring session. It's been a while," he suggested with the slightest hint of a smirk.
She hesitated for only a moment. "Sure," she nodded.
The pair casually approached the training ground they had always gone to in the past and stumbled on something they never thought that they would ever see. Kakashi and Gai arguing, all the while a strong killing intent coming off of Kakashi's body in almost tangible waves. Asuma stepped in between the two, because it looked as if they could have a serious fight at any moment, and that would not have been good for either of them.
Asuma asked the simplest question he could think of.
"What the hell is going on here?"
Gai was the first to answer. "As Kakashi's eternal rival, he does not respect me dutifully carrying out my mission to rid the world of the Akatsuki like a good, faithful Konoha shinobi."
Kakashi shot back, "And as a fellow Konoha shinobi, one does not go around kicking their comrades in the face before confirming the identity of said shinobi!"
Kurenai decided that this would be as good of a time as any to step in. "Why don't we have a friendly two on two spar to let off some steam?"
Asuma nodded his head at this, taking his position on Gai's side while Kurenai took her position on Kakashi's.
Those two were here for a spar, yes, but more importantly they were now here to ensure the other two didn't cause too much damage. It would suck if she and Asuma had to explain to Lady Hokage that two of her finest Jonin had killed each other over something so stupid.
Meanwhile...
"Kakashi-sensei is late again!" Naruto shouted angrily while Sasuke glared at him.
"We might as well get used to it," Sakura managed to say between yawns.
Not much time had passed, and Lee came running up to Team 7, trying desperately to catch his breath.
"Let's go to training ground 4! Everyone is there, even Kakashi-san!" Lee exclaimed.
"There's no point in waiting here if Kakashi really is there." Sasuke retorted.
Team 7 didn't really know what to think, but anything was better than waiting around for a sensei who may or may not show, so they followed Lee. They really didn't know what to expect, but when they arrived, they weren't expecting Kakashi, Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai in an all out brawl. From the looks of it, they had been at it for a while too.
Panting, sweating, evident chakra loss, yep. At least half an hour.
Definitely what was more surprising, though, was the fact that all of the sensei's respective Genin were here too, thanks to Lee no doubt.
Lee threw his hands up in the air and shouted loud enough for them all to hear, "This is an ultimate battle royale, pick a partner and GO!"
At first, they had been skeptical and hesitant, but what could it hurt to do some sparring? They all decided on the pairs, and even if it was very spur of the moment, it would be good for them all to reassess their strengths and weaknesses since the Chunin Exams.
Hokage Tower - approximately 8:00 A.M
Tsunade was sitting behind her desk, filling out all of the paperwork that came with being a Hokage.
She had just finished assigning a C-rank mission to a team of Chunin. She looked to the left of her desk at the D-rank missions that had begun piling up not long after sunrise. She just realized that most of her Genin teams had not shown up this morning. She hadn't given them time off!
"Shizune!"
Within moments, Shizune popped her head in her office. "Yes, Lady Tsunade?"
"Have you seen any of the Genin today?"
Shizune shook her head, only spiking Tsunade's rage.
"I'm missing FOUR Genin squads!"
Shizune looked terrified; she hated when Tsunade got like this. "Shall I send out an ANBU team to search for them?" Shizune asked, hoping to solve the problem rather quickly.
However, the exact opposite happened. "NO! Assigning missions to an ANBU search team is too much damn paperwork!" she shouted as she stood up, slamming her hands down on the desk.
"Shizune! Watch my office! I'll find them myself!" she said with determination as she stomped the whole way out of the Hokage Tower.
Sakura had lasted a lot longer against Ino than she thought she would.
This satisfied her, giving her proof that she was improving, even if only a little. The fact that they were at a stand still though meant that Ino was improving as well. As she was trying to catch her breath, she let her eyes survey the area around her. It looked as if everyone had truly been giving their all, because they were all approaching their limit.
She could tell that everyone was about to end their sparring matches with a blow that would leave only the victors, and the next thing she knew, she was dodging Ino's punch and the ground was shaking beneath her as if an earthquake had just happened.
She lost her balance, and due to chakra exhaustion, she fell unconscious before she even hit the ground.
It had taken Tsunade the better part of 10 minutes to find the damn brats, and when she saw all of them sparring instead of reporting for missions duty, she got furious. (As if she wasn't already.)
She knew, even though her voice was loud and demanding, she would never be able to capture all of their attention just by yelling. So she did the next best thing. Gathering the appropriate amount of chakra to her feet, she ran up the tree nearest to her all the way to the top. She flung herself off the tree, aiming with deadly precision for the center of the training field.
Gathering all of her chakra in the bottom of her heel, she struck a lethal blow. The ground exploded on impact and rippled all the way throughout training ground 4. Just when she was getting ready to give them all a piece of her mind, she looked around only to notice that they were all laying in her aftermath, unconscious.
"Ah, hell!"
They'd all woken up in one huge room in the hospital.
There was about 20 or so beds in said room, and 16 of them were currently taken up.
They were all awake and Tsunade had just given them all death threats that entitled so much more than what she was actually saying.
"What in the hell was going on?" Tsunade asked.
Asuma was about to open his mouth to explain, but Choji actually beat him to it.
"Lee gathered us all together for the most awesome sparring session!"
Everyone was shocked to hear this, especially coming from Choji, but all of the Genin nodded their heads in agreement.
Asuma said, "Wait a minute, we got there before you guys. Me and Kurenai were trying to calm Kakashi and Gai down."
Tsunade sent a glare in the two said Jonin's direction.
"What happened between you two?"
Kakashi promptly explained that he was training when Gai kicked him in the face and he lost his cool.
"I assumed that injury was sustained during the fight, but it doesn't matter because I've healed it. The only other person I had to heal was Hinata because she just so happened to be the closest to me when I hit the ground." Tsunade explained, a little ashamed for hurting Hinata.
At this, everyone turned to look at Hinata, causing her face to go red with embarrassment.
"Please stop staring at me!" Hinata said, and then clasped a hand over her mouth.
"Hey, hey! Did Hinata just speak normally for once?!" Naruto shouted.
"You idiot! Don't be so rude!" Sakura said, reaching across the bed to hit Naruto in the back of the head.
"Ah, yes, while I was healing you, Hinata, I noticed that your vocal cords were very strained, so I healed them. You shouldn't have a stuttering problem anymore, and your throat should feel more relaxed than ever. I'm surprised they hadn't been healed sooner."
Hinata blushed even harder, turning her face tomato red. "Thank you Lady Hokage!"
"Yes of course, now that that's been taken care of, double missions for everyone tomorrow!" Tsunade said as she walked out of the hospital room.
"Aw, man!" Naruto screamed, blaming Kakashi and Gai for starting all of this in the first place.