Chapter One

A Promise

Kiba Inuzuka was sprinting through the forest of the Land of Fire. While it was polite for him to normally wait for his comrades and allow them to keep up with him, he ignored their cries to slow his pace.

The violet haired girl with ash grey eyes was behind him breathing heavily. "Kiba, Shino and I can't keep up!" she pleaded.

Kiba was far too focused to worry about her. "We have to get to the village before registration closes, Hinata!" he yelled. "We missed it last time, but I won't miss it this year!"

"Shino, make him stop!" Hinata cried to the third member of her team, Shino Aburame.

With a voice muffled from under his cloak, he sighed. "You know as well as I do how he is. He's still bitter about missing the Chunin Exams like last time."

Kiba yelled back. "IM NOT BITTER, SHINO!"

About two years ago, months after Naruto Uzumaki left the village, the Chunin Selection Exams were held in the Hidden Mist Village. However, the team was forced on an escort mission in the eastern Land of Fire. They were to escort a family of thirteen to an outpost town. However the father of one of the children neglected to inform the ninja of the Leaf Village that one of the children was a known sleep walker. They were set back two days after trying to locate them, and were forced to miss the registration as a result. The team that did go however was the Team of Ino Yamanaka, Sakura Haruno, and Choji Akimichi, led by Asuma Sarutobi. This infuriated Kiba, namely because Sakura had not been selected to become a Chunin, but Ino and Choji were. On the last Chunin exams that took place in the Hidden Leaf, Neji Hyuga and Shikamaru Nara were selected, only infuriating Kiba more that he was a part on the only full team to not have a Chunin. Sure, Sakura wasn't a Chunin, but she didn't even have a team. He refused to miss the registration this time.

"We have fifteen minutes!" he yelled. "You guys can catch up! I'm not letting Lady Fifth close registration on us!"

Without further regard for his teammates, he ran faster ahead towards the Hokage's mansion. He quickly faded from their view.

It took seemingly ten minutes before Hinata and Shino forced their way into the office of the Hokage, hardly having air in their lungs. As they were busy forcing themselves to breathe, their ears were shot with a booming voice.

"You do not need to worry, young Kiba!" they heard with a familiar voice.

The noise was coming from a tall male wearing all green with a bowl haircut. The Odd Beast himself, Might Guy.

"No! It's not okay, Guy-Sensei!" Kiba yelled.

Shino managed to force a few gulps of air into his chest. "What's… The problem here?"

Kiba turned to his teammates. "Kurenai-Sensei can't travel to the Cloud!"

Shino and Hinata's eyes widened. "Why not? They both asked.

The Hokage, Lady Tsunade was the one to explain. "It was law set up by the Second Hokage." She said, nearly invisible behind a mountain of paperwork. "Pregnant ninja are not allowed to travel outside of the Land of Fire. I'm not going back on that principle."

Hinata's jaw dropped. "So who will be our Jonin?"

Shino paused and had to process this information. "Kurenai-Sensei is pregnant?"

Kiba slammed his hands on the desk belonging to Lady Tsunade.

"There has to be someone who could take us!" Kiba yelled. "There has to be a Jonin not on a mission!"

Tsunade brushed some of her blonde hair out of her eyes. "At the moment, there are no Special-Jonin that are available to travel. They are all on duty inside the village. Other than that, there are no Jonin in the village other than Might Guy." She said.

"Then why can't he take us!?" Kiba yelled.

"Because young Kiba!" Guy placed his head on Kiba's coarse brown hair. "I am taking my very own team to the Hidden Cloud village. Lee, TenTen and Sakura are busy making their preparations."

Kiba wanted to rip his hair out. He was not going to miss the Chunin Exams for a second straight time, not while Sakura was about to go to her third consecutive exam! "There has to be someone who can take us!" Kiba pleaded.

Shino was still confused. "So Kurenai-Sensei is pregnant?"

An awkward silence followed, and breaking it were two people walking into the office of Lady Tsunade. The first of these people were Shizune, the dark haired aide of the Hokage. The second was another dark haired, person. They were a man with considerable height, dark hair, and smoldering grey eyes, much like the pair that belonged to Hinata. Yet this man's eyes were colder and much harsher. The man was her father; Hiashi Hyuga.

"Father." she mumbled as she placed her hands to her lips, using her arms as some sort of a barrier to hide behind. This was an unconscious tradition she allowed herself to succumb to, and she wasn't exactly sure when she picked this habit up.

The man had not made eye contact with his daughter yet. "You wanted to see me, Lady Hokage?" he asked.

"Ah, yes. We had something important to dis-"

"I KNOW!" Kiba yelled. "You can take us!" he pointed to Hiashi Hyuga.

Hinata's heart skipped a beat.

"I have more important matters to attend to." He said. "Even if I could-" he shot a quick glare at his daughter, strong enough to make her heart skip another beat. "I wouldn't."

Kiba screamed aloud in frustration. "Registration closes in five minutes!"

Tsunade was getting fed up with Kiba's vocal disapproval. "KIBA! I'm going to need you to take a moment and realize just who the hell you're yelling at!"

Kiba's mouth was shut, but disappointment and anger were still prominently displayed on his face.

"Now, I'm sorry you aren't able to go this time, but this won't be the last time that the Chunin Exams will be held. Now leave my office before I have you scrub the floors of the academy as punishment! I promise you, you'll get nothing but a toothbrush and a time limit!"

Defeated, Kiba turned on his heels and slowly walked past Hiashi and Shizune to the door. Hinata felt defeated and saddened as well, but not the extent Kiba was. Actually, she was excited to leave the same room her father was in. Shino was still trying to cope with the fact that Kurenai-Sensei was now pregnant, and nobody told him.

There are times in your life when you really begin to believe in miracles and that there is a such thing as fate. This was now Kiba's time to do so. As soon as he opened the door, and stepped through it, he bumped into a tall masked ninja with white hair.

"Sorry about that Kiba." The ninja said.

Guy, Hinata, Shino, Tsunade, Shizune and Kiba all yelled at the newest person to join the room. "KAKASHI!" they screamed.

Kakashi appeared to be visibly startled. "What? Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No, you didn't." Tsunade said. "I wasn't expecting you back for another day."

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head, a habit he unfortunately picked up from his blonde haired student. Even though he hadn't seen him in two years, Kakashi still found himself unable to break the habit. "Well, yes. That was until I ran into a bookstore and saw the newest release from Lord Jiraya. Needless to say I rushed home to read it."

Tsunade smiled. "That man and his books. I don't even want to think of what kind of research he had to do to write it."

Kiba had enough with formalities. "Kakashi-Sensei could take us to the Chunin Exams!"

Kakashi had a blank stare on his face. "That's right. Those exams. Uh…"

Tsunade clearly didn't plan for this as well. "Well… uh. I guess he-"

"YEEEEEES!" Kiba yelled. "Pencil us in for the Hidden Cloud, Lady Tsunade!"

Kakashi hung his head. He had literally just gotten back from the Land of Lightning, and now he was supposed to go back?

"Kakashi," Tsunade began. "The Chunin Exams are two weeks away, and the paperwork is due in the cloud in," she checked the olive green clock on the adjacent. "Four minutes. Can you take these three there?"

Kakashi sighed. "Uh, sure. I don't see why not. Actually, as long as everything is settled we can leave tomorrow."

"TOMORROW!?" Kiba yelled. "Waahooo! I'm going to go gather my things now!" Kiba kicked up a cloud of dust and sent everyone in the room on a coughing fit.

"I guess I'll do the same." Shino said, and exited the room with Hinata at his side.

However, Guy sensei was not impressed with his eternal rival. "You think you can gain an unfair advantage by leaving now, don't you, Kakashi!" he yelled. "If that's how you want to play, my squad WILL LEAVE TODAY!"

Guy sprinted out of the room, sending everyone else in another coughing fit.

Tsunade still hadn't gotten used to Guy's behavior during her tenure as Hokage. "Has he always been like that?"

Kakashi couldn't find words to express it. "You would be surprised."

Tsunade turned her attention to Hiashi Hyuga. "I apologize for the interruptions." She said. "We'll have to postpone our discussion until later while I have to get these to the Raikage's office."

Hiashi understood, but the look on his face was disappointment. Not because he was excited about their meeting, but because he just had his time wasted. "I'll expect you'll come to me next time you want to speak." To which Tsunade nodded her head.

Hiashi turned around and walked towards the door, and he stopped by Kakashi's side.

Hiashi never looked at Kakashi, but spoke to him. "If Hinata is anything less than a Chunin after these exams, don't even bother bringing her back."

Kakashi was initially struck by this statement, but remained composed as he replied to Hiashi. He had heard Kurenai speak of his disinterest in his eldest daughter, but Kakashi had no idea that it was true to this extent.

He looked at the side of Hiashi's head. "I'll bring her back as a Chunin, and I'll take care of her. Don't worry about her safety."

Hiashi made no eye contact as he walked for the exit. "I'm not."