AN/ First off I want to say thank you to everyone who read the story, favorited the story, or followed the story. I would really appreciate some reviews, especially ones that tell me what i do well, or not so well. I do appreciate the short reviews I received last chapter, but they do not help me too much. Anyway, this chapter went a little differently plot wise then I had planned, but it should still be okay. Give me a little while for the next chapter. A LOT will happen in the next chapter, crazy story defining fun stuff, that you *hopefully *won't expect even after reading this chapter. In fact, if you can manage to guess what I'll be doing third chapter I will put you into the Chunin exams as a character.

Much had changed over the course of the year. The war had scared many parents, many civilians had withdrawn their children from the ninja academy. That explained all the empty seats in the room on the day of graduation. Those from shinobi clans accepted the reality of what war was, it was one of the activities ninjas participated in. For students like Naruto and Sasuke being a ninja was their destiny, nothing else would suffice in giving them happiness in life.

The students believed that today was simply graduation day, but it was more than that. In times of war a special title was awarded to the genin who could pass the elite Genin evaluation. An elite Genin could lead a team of Genin and was fast tracked to the Chunin exam. Beyond that, they had the option of joining chunin teams for a mission on occasion. Only certain Genin, typically the top three members of the class, were offered the opportunity to complete the examination. In the case of this class that meant Naruto, Sasuke, and Hinata.

"Okay. First I would like to congratulate all of you, passing the accelerated course is not a walk in the park," former Anbu captain Mitana Shimaru was speaking. Iruka had been replaced by a more qualified instructor, he was also needed in the shinobi forces. All active duty shinobi were moved to combat roles during war times. Retired shinobi were called back into service for things like teaching. "Today is also the day when the elite Genin examination will be held. The test is simple, fight me. You will do so to the best of your ability. It will decide if you earn the title elite Genin. Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata; please follow me." The Genin did as they were told, their classmates would pass the time talking amongst themselves in the classroom. Most of them though would rather this occur after everyone graduated.

The three Genin followed their sensei down a set of stairs they did not know existed. They eventually came to a door. Inside was a room, a sort of dojo. The room included an arena for sparring and a table. At the table sat the Hokage, the academy director, and the Genin commander. None of them smiled at the Genin and hardly even seemed to recognize their presence. This was all business. Mitana spoke to them again.

"Okay, Naruto you'll be going first. I want you to fight me as hard as you possibly can. We will have 2 minutes in total. I will be fighting at the level of a mid-ranked chunin," The man smiled at the boy indicating he would be fine. Even the old Anbu man had been softened by these kids. He loved teaching and this class was special, he could just feel it. He motioned to the other two candidates to sit in the chairs next to the table. Naruto followed him into the arena. They took their starting positions.

"Begin," the word came from the academy director without much warning. Naruto began to fight with no hesitation.

"Poison style: toxic bubble barrage," Naruto screamed as he completed the final hand sign. He had decided to start with one of his most powerful jutsu. Kakashi had continued to teach him over the course of the year. The man really did know over a thousand jutsu, and naruto must have made poison variants for over a dozen. Out of Naruto's mouth came a hundred or so bubbles, all the size of baseballs. Each of the bubbles seemed to take their own position in the air space of the arena. It was almost a mine field. A touch of Naruto's poison could cause necrosis of the skin. Ingesting it would make you violently ill fairly quickly. If it mixed with your own chakra it would poison you from the inside out. That being said the skin and ingestion effects were fairly short lasting, the chakra poisoning took some time.

"Wind Style: Gale Palm" the old jounin pushed his palm forward, it sent a gust of wind chakra forward popping most of the bubbles. Mitana was not taking any chances. After he popped the bubbles he went on the offensive. "Wind Style: swift kunai," he shouted as he sent a barrage of kunai at Naruto. This chakra manipulation was fairly low level, he was simply throwing kunai and channeling wind chakra into them. Naruto jumped quickly to avoid the kunai, he then pulled out one of his own.

"Poison Style: Poison dagger," he sent forward a kunai laced with poison but that was simply a diversion. "Poison Style: Spike," he said strongly directing his chakra with his voice. As Mitana dodged the Kunai he heard Naruto declare the new jutsu. He realized he had dodged the Kunai and moved into the thin sheet of poison fluid covering the floor from Naruto's bubbles. He moved out of the way just barely in time. The spike that rose out of the puddle scratched his arm. It hurt immensely, he grabbed his arm in pain. Naruto made his move. He made a familiar hand sign and five shadow clones came into existence. All of them began a long series of hand signs, this jutsu had become Naruto's Signature as it melded so well with the poison chakra he wielded. "Poison Style: Great Shark Bullet," Naruto and his clones said in nearly perfect unison. Globs of poison chakra poured out of their mouths and shaped into a shark. The shark bullet directed itself toward Mitana. In such a small space Mitana could hardly dodge, the shark came at him at full speed. Naruto was also controlling its direction. Luckily for Mitana he was not a chunin in actuality and he could save himself.

"Earth Style: Earth Wall," the jounin used the powerful jutsu to erect a large earthen wall. Naruto's shark could not avoid the wall and it crashed in dissipating the poison. Naruto's ninjutsu was in effect jounin rank, he was not the most well-rounded mind you. Mitana called the match to a halt, stating that he had used a jounin level technique that a chunin simply could not have mustered. Naruto's jutsu would have seriously harmed if not killed a chunin ninja, even some jounin from minor villages would have had a hard time. Naruto did need serious work on physical attributes and taijutsu. Kakashi had allowed him to improve greatly but his Taijutsu was just low chunin and his physical conditioning was on the more mid-range for chunin. Like his teacher, he was dependent on powerful ninjutsu. Unlike his teacher he had gigantic chakra reserves which allowed him to engage in almost endless jutsu onslaughts.

The following two fights were not nearly as spectacular. Sasuke knew about a dozen fire style jutsu, he had access to a multitude of fire jutsu from his clan library. Some of them could only be accessed after an Uchiha could activate their Sharingan. Sasuke did not 'win' his fight, but he put on a good display of his roundedness. He was a better all around shinobi than Naruto was. He was at a high level in physical training and taijutsu, he also had a very good handle on genjutsu. Mitana was very happy with his young student, he was sure Sasuke would pass the elite Genin exam. He had showcased several jutsu including, but not limited to (sorry I had to); 'fire style: phoenix flower jutsu', 'Fire Release: Hiding in Fire Technique', 'Demonic Illusion: Mirage Crow', and 'Demonic Illusion: Sinner's Desire'.

Sasuke was disappointed with his performance in comparison to that of Naruto. That being said the Genin was proud of himself, he had worked hard and he found himself to be at the level of a low chunin. He was obviously not close to his brother, but he was on his way to matching where Itachi had been. It was a long path to Hokage to a restored Uchiha clan, but he would walk it.

Hinata fared slightly better than Sasuke but it was only because she relied on one thing and had been able to execute it well. She wanted nothing more than to impress her father, she knew that gaining the elite Genin would do far more than that. Her father had made her training more difficult, but he was also much nicer. Hinata suspected that the cold-hearted man truly feared the possible loss of his daughter to the war. Because of more intense training with a slightly kinder hand she had been able to advance her Jyuken fairly far. Mitana was not an experienced taijutsu fighter and while he would have had no trouble taking a Hyuga in combat he was playing the role of a combat chunin thinking with his adrenaline. The 'eight trigrams: vacuum palm' had done more damage than he expected as Hinata had been able to direct it very well. She had also managed to complete 'eight trigrams: thirty palms' during the combat simulation. She had been able to disable him for the most part. Mitana during the exercise, as he had with all of them, decided to test her limits. He stepped up his level of combat and took Hinata's ability to use the juken. She had reacted well, launching one of the few ninjutsu she knew at the shinobi. As she did that time was called and the match came to a close with Hinata smiling widely.

The Hokage watched the last match with a sorrowful smile. These three represented another generation which would know war. He saw it as a failure of his own leadership. He hated that these children would be robbed of even one moment of their childhood, but it was the reality of what being a ninja truly was. He smiled because he was proud of these three, they had become superb ninja at a young age. He swallowed to clear his throat before he spoke to them.

"Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha and Hinata Hyuga," the two of the three who had been sitting jumped up to stand at attention. The three ninja beamed at the aging Hokage, slightly tired, they were proud of their performance. "While it is highly unusual for this to occur, I have decided to award the status of elite genin to all three of you. You have all impressed me. That is not to say you can stop working. You all have a long way to go." The Hokage made his announcement without consulting the other two members on the panel.

"Yataa!" Naruto screamed old habits die hard.

The Genin were led away by Mitana, they made it back to the room. It was announced that they had all passed and then headbands were awarded. All three of the elite Genin received a special version of the standard leaf headband. Instead of the standard stainless steel plate they received a matte black plate with the standard village symbol carved in. They all wore their special headbands with great pride, they took their seats as they awaited their sensei to announce the team assignments. The team assignments were made independent of the elite Genin selection.

"Team 7 will be led by Kakashi Hatake," Naruto gave an anxious smile at the mention of the man who was already his sensei. He wanted nothing more than for his father's student to teach him. "And it will be made up of Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno." The boy smiled wide, he was surprised he and Sasuke were on the same team. He suspected it had to do with the Hokage and the Sharingan. "Team 8 will include Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame." Hinata had known Kurenai for some time and was happy to have her as a sensei, of course, she was disappointed not to be on the same team as Naruto and Sasuke. She thought, from what she had just seen, that the three would have made a powerful group. "Team 10 is made up of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio and is led by Asuma Sarutobi" With that Mitana addressed the class about the progress they had made, he wished them all luck with their shinobi careers. He left the room and as he did the Jounin sensei came to collect their teams. There were only five this year.

Naruto saw Kakashi and moved toward him as did the rest of the team, following Naruto's lead. They were told to meet the Jounin upstairs, he disappeared in a quick shunshin. They managed to make their way up pretty quickly. Kakashi stood to wait for them, he was turned facing toward the village.

"Took you long enough," he said, turning around and giving Naruto an eye smile. The Uzumaki boy simply shook his head at his sensei. This was an obvious attempt to antagonize the three of them, make himself the enemy. It should have been obvious, at least.

"We came as fast as we could Kakashi-sensei." Sakura was already concerned with gaining the favor of her new sensei. She had thrived in the academy mainly due to her work ethic, when it came to academics, and her ability to get teachers to like her. Naruto simply wished she wasn't so loud, and that her adoration of Sasuke wasn't so obnoxious.

"Na-na. We should start by introducing ourselves," Kakashi let the statement hang hoping someone would jump in. Naruto was not doing the jounin any favors and was letting him handle the new Genin team.

"Um, Sensei, can you go first so we know what to do?" Kakashi hadn't expected the 'smartest' female shinobi to be quite this daft. Did she really not know how to properly introduce herself? He shook it off and decided to have some fun with his three new Genin.

"I am Kakashi Hatake. I like some things, I dislike other things. As for hobbies, I occasionally do things. My dreams are my own," the veteran shinobi told the three almost nothing about himself. Sakura seemed frazzled, the academy teachers were always very kind and forthcoming. She felt that she was being made fun of.

" I'll go next. I am Naruto Uzumaki. I really like learning new ninja skills and meeting new people," Naruto began. It wasn't that simple, 'I really only like meeting new people who don't hate my very existence.' the jinchuuriki thought to himself sadly. "I dislike ignorance and also writing long essays. My hobbies include ninja training and not much else, but I do garden fairly often now. My dream is to learn about my clan and establish myself as a great ninja, and finally to become Hokage," Naruto had become much more articulate over the course of the last year. Kakashi smiled at the boy who he was sure would become an amazing ninja, just as his father before him. Sasuke eyed Naruto for a different reason. The two were rivals, they had the same dream. Both of them could not achieve it.

"I'm Sasuke Uchiha. I like being a ninja, I dislike fan girls," he mentioned that hoping Sakura would take a hint. Unfortunately, fangirls never identified themselves as a member of that group. "And death. My hobbies are training and cooking. My ambition is to restore my clan and become Hokage." Sasuke was less excited in his proclamation, it was almost delivered in a threatening tone.

Kakashi realized his job would not be simple. Preparing two of the ninja of the leaf who actually had a chance at being Hokage and both of them had the ambition as well. 'They'll probably end up killing each other for the job' he mused jokingly. Last to go through the introduction was the only person who was not a ninja by blood.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. I enjoy relaxing with my friends and spending time with my family. I dislike Ino Yamanaka more than anything else. My hobbies involve," she glanced at Sasuke and never finished the sentence. "I dream of getting married and having a family." Kakashi was utterly disappointed. She disliked a fellow shinobi of the leaf. That was her largest qualm. Naruto disliked those who hated him for no reason and Sasuke disliked death because of his tremendous loss. It was not that Sakura should also have gone through these things, rather Kakashi believed that the girl would be in for a rude awakening upon her involvement in the shinobi world. He stopped thinking for a while before he spoke to his group.

"Normally I'd give you a test, but I think you guys have what it takes. We will begin training tomorrow. Know that since I won't be giving you a test you are all on probation. I won't hesitate to send you back to the academy," The only one who wasn't exactly concerned with the threat was Sakura as she thrived in the academy. She had slipped slightly during the accelerated year, but it had not been so bad.

Kakashi disappeared in another cloud of dust and leaves. The Genin had no idea where he had gone so quickly without saying goodbye, only the Hokage knew why Kakashi was always late, and where he spent most of his free time. He traveled to the monument of heroes. He stared at the names of the lost ninja, the names of family and friends. It was unhealthy, but Kakashi lived with it. Death was a part of him, he owed a good deal of his skill to the death of a friend.

The three Genin went their separate ways. Sakura's was toward the civilian sector. Her mom was a banker who had a significant impact on civilian politics. Her father had been a ninja, but he retired early. The lifestyle was not for him. Now he owned his own shop in the commerce district. He sold shoes. Her family was not one of the wealthiest in Konoha, but they were by no means poor. They were very well off, but the civilians in Konoha were an underclass, that is why their daughter was becoming a ninja.

Sakura was, for this reason, very proud of herself. She was certain that her parents would reward her nicely for officially being a member of the shinobi corps. She would leave out the detail of her probation when she told them. Sakura smiled widely at all the people in the civilian district. At this time in the afternoon the district was bustling, people were working and buying goods at the variety of stores open. Everyone was simply enjoying what was shaping up to be a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky or a care in the world.

In the same secret council room the Hokage met with his shinobi. He had just received very important news. The war was over.

"As of today, Iwa has signed a treaty with Suna. They seem content with what they have already gained," The Hokage understood why they were content. They had changed the map of the ninja world, even if it was only slightly. Now, Iwa and Suna shared a border. "Iwa, and by extension the land of earth, has partitioned the Land of Stone. This means it now shares a land border with Suna." Shikaku was one of the many council members visibly concerned with this prospect. This war may have ended but it was certain that hostilities would be high for some time. It meant that the world had just gained that much more tension.

"I assume we will maintain our current state of a minor war then?" It was Kakashi who spoke, many seemed slightly confused. The Hokage had just announced the end of the war. The more politically savvy members of the council understood why they would continue the state.

"That is correct Kakashi. We do not know what could happen. One escalation means war, especially now that there is no buffer. We must ensure that our military standards are upheld, that we are truly prepared for a war," After the Hokage finished speaking some people in the room simply hung their heads. Others stared forward, with eyes that were stained with blood and death already. They understood far too well what the future would entail. "The end of the war is not all the news I have for you. There will soon be another chunin exam," the Hokage gave pause, he knew rather than waiting for answers some of the more vocal shinobi would ask questions. This was especially true because it was likely the children, or grandchildren of these ninjas would be participating.

"Where will the exams be held?" The voice came from an unexpected, but familiar source to Hiruzen. It was Okami, he likely believed his grandson would be participating in the exams.

"It will be held in a site as neutral as possible. The land of Iron. All the major villages are allowed to field only two teams," The Hokage knew the group understood what was actually happening. This was a test, a war game, it was commonly known in history as a Grand Tournament. It meant Konoha had to select its most promising Genin teams for competition, but also they had to project the power of their clans. This was no simple task.

"Hokage-Sama, which teams have you selected?" Kakashi spoke again, he hoped his team would be selected. Naruto was perhaps the top Genin in the village thanks to a single year of Kakashi's personal tutelage. The only issue was Sakura. She was not up to par, it was not uncommon for teams to be rearranged in the face of a Grand Competition.

"I have already decided. We must rearrange the teams, unfortunately. We have only 1 year for the students to prepare for this exam. I took the time to look into all of the teams we have available and I believe I have the correct formations," the Hokage could be wrong, he usually wasn't. The god of shinobi was nicknamed that for a reason, his military strategy was one of those reasons. "The first team will be trained by Kakashi Hatake, the team will include Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, and Hana Inuzuka."

Okami was surprised that Hana was chosen, but he was also proud. His granddaughter had not been able to truly compete in the last exam because she had the misfortune of landing on a poor team. She was 14 and was very much at the level of any chunin that he knew.

"The other team will be led by Maito Gai. It will be composed of Neji Hyuga, Hinata Hyuga, and Rock Lee," the Hokage knew that these team selections would be very controversial. He knew certainly that Kakashi and Gai were the correct Jounin to send. The projection of strength was not limited to the genin teams. It also involves the Jounin sensei and without a doubt, Gai and Kakashi were the most well-known and most powerful jounin. It would do Konoha well to show that they were leading Genin of their own now.

"If I may ask Hokage-sama," he waited and received a nod from the old man, Hiashi was always formal. "Why place Neji and Hinata on the same team?" Hiashi did not see the point in sending two Hyuga, and also sending two on the same team. That being said he was glad to see his daughter and nephew were considered to be among the best genin Konoha had to offer. Hiruzen was glad Hiashi asked, this would give the man the chance to explain himself more fully.

"I want to send two Hyuga because the Hyuga clan is now the pride of Konoha. With the Uchiha gone we have but two clans with bloodlines which are well formed. The Hyuga and the Aburame. The Aburame is a rather small clan and there are only a couple available Genin," Shibi Aburame nodded his head in understanding, both of the Aburame Genin were relatively fresh. His son showed promise but was not ready for such a test. "It is important that we show the Hyuga clan has depth. As for why Naruto and Sasuke are going, Naruto is the only known holder of his bloodline and we should demonstrate its power on this stage. It would be great if he could activate the remaining portion of his bloodline in the coming months. As for Sasuke, we must that the Uchiha "will" exists still in Konoha." Really no one could argue with the logic for the four bloodline users, but then what about the other two. "Hana Inuzuka as far as I am concerned is one of our best Genin and it is about time she becomes a chunin. She also has three ninken, it demonstrates that our clans are ever-evolving. We are not the same and they don't know everything. The same goes for Lee, a very strong ninja who can only use taijutsu and Gai has assured me that he can more than deal with the average low-level chunin." Okami beamed at the Hokage's praise of his granddaughter.

"Vey well Hokage-sama, I will inform my team of the changes tomorrow and train them to the best of my ability," Kakashi made this statement in the same tone he used in his past days as an Anbu captain.

After he was done speaking there was a mild shaking. The entire room moved slightly. It was not uncommon in the region for a slight earthquake, this seemed softer and shorter, however.

Sakura could not believe what she was saying. Her home, the apartments, the bank, her father's store. It seemed like the entire district was up in flames. So many explosions had hit almost at once, they shook the very earth she walked on. Sakura ran inside of the bank, it was the building nearest to her. The interior had been pretty much destroyed. She had to crawl under and over various beams and pieces of the ceiling. She was moving almost on automatic, she had to find her mother. She was most likely in her office, hopefully, her part of the building had been less affected. Sakura ran inside the office, she found her mother. She found her body. It was burning. Sakura began to cry, she tried still to take her mother's body. She put out the fire on her clothes using a canteen of water her mother had on her desk. As she was doing this something tragic happened. The entry way she had come through collapsed. Sakura's scream joined with so many others in the civilian district at the moment.

Anbu managed to put out the fires fairly quickly with large scale water jutsu. The damage was done, that day, in under twenty minutes almost a third of Konoha's civilian population died. It was still uncertain who planted the bombs. None of that mattered. The entire village attended the memorial service which was held two days later. It was very similar to the memorial for the Uchiha clan. Kakashi, Sasuke, and Naruto stood next to each other. Sakura had been the only civilian casualty. She had not managed to save anyone, but she tried. She was placed alongside the names of all the other ninja who died serving their village. Kakashi shed a tear that day, he had not done so since the death of Minato 11 years previously. He had lost his student and now he had to prepare two others for war. The ninja world was not simply unfair it seemed purposefully cruel.

They did not train for a week Kakashi allowed the two Genin time to mourn. Sasuke and Naruto were not Sakura's biggest fans, but she had been their teammate even if it was for a short time. Naruto was taking it harder than Sasuke who had been through much more difficult loss before. Naruto had decided that he would now certainly become Hokage and that he would find a way to ensure his village was protected, the task seemed more daunting than ever if such an event was possible under the current Hokage. Naruto had a lot of work to do.

It was time to resume training one week later, with Hana. They went through the same introductions they had a week and three days earlier. Kakashi explained to them their mission and the importance of them taking this seriously. He did not have to do much convincing. All three of them were honored.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu," Kakashi said calmly. He created two additional copies of himself. Each of them had much to improve individually before they were concerned about the team aspect. So Kakashi split them up to train.

Naruto found himself at training ground nine with the actual Kakashi, at least he believed it was the actual Kakashi.

"Naruto, in the past I told you to avoid overtraining with shadow clones. After consulting with the Hokage he believes we should be using the technique more," At that Naruto had half a mind to throw a party. His improvement would be much more rapid if he could create more clones. "First take this sword," Kakashi handed Naruto a katana, unbeknownst to Naruto it had belonged to Kushina Uzumaki. "How many shadow clones can you make?" Kakashi asked.

"I can make 940 and not be totally exhausted," Naruto said with a smile, he had done quite a bit of experimenting over the last year. The boy really enjoyed testing his absolute limits.

"In that case, I want you to create 500 clones," Naruto would be able to train five hundred times faster than the average person. He could in 2 months accomplish over 80 years of training. "One hundred will be working on that Katana I just gave you, I think you need a backup weapon. One hundred will be working on chakra control exercises, the advanced ones we had begun right before you graduated. Then one hundred will be with me, we'll work on four jutsu at a time see what poison style creations we can come up with. The last one hundred will be studying, history of the elemental nations, knowledge of each of the villages. The best way to beat your enemy is to know them well."

Naruto simply did as he was told. He believed that his sensei knew best. He was excited to be learning more rest of Naruto clones went on their way. Eventually in the main clearing was just Kakashi, Naruto, and one hundred Naruto clones. In this type of exercise one clone would be dispelled every 10 minutes. This meant the other clones would gain that information and be able to learn more. Naruto would create new clones every one hour or so and this would ensure the maximum efficiency in training.

Without a word, Kakashi began performing a jutsu. The Naruto's followed along as best they could. They were learning after all. After five or so hand signs Kakashi performed the jutsu.

"Earth Style: Maximum Minefield," In Kakashi's version of the jutsu Earth chakra based mines would be formed. Naruto too completed the jutsu, his variation was incredible. Each mine was effectively a geyser of poison chakra waiting for contact. This jutsu was one that allowed for an immensely advantageous field of battle. After some time of learning to increase the number of mines and changing the locations and densities, they moved on.

"Next we have a more offensive jutsu," Kakashi held up the sign of the dragon to his mouth and said words that described a truly incredible jutsu. "Fire Style: The Annihilation of Life," the jutsu allowed a huge white flame to emerge from Kakashi's mouth it simply destroyed everything in its path. It left a dusted destroyed landscape in its wake. Naruto repeated the jutsu as he had seen it. He was careful as to the amount of chakra he placed in the jutsu as it seemed extraordinarily powerful.

"Poison Style: The Annihilation of Life," spewing out of Naruto's mouth was a black gas that was thick. It passed through an area before eventually dissipating it was so toxic that it would destroy anything it touched. That did not mean good things for Naruto. Most of his clones had dispelled in the act of performing it. The original Naruto was now coughing very intensely, he was coughing up blood and he was in an extreme amount of pain. He laid on the floor grabbing at his chest having extreme trouble breathing. Kakashi immediately called over for Hana.

Hana had spent some time training to be a medical ninja. She simply did not want to completely specialize. She wanted to do both. Hana approached Naruto and examined him. She definitely had a light crush on the boy, but it was mostly due to his goofiness and his power. From what she had seen he could go from clueless to thoughtful, from clumsy to agile. He was a clown and a shinobi. She was also simply impressed with his ability, he was accomplishing feats most ninja will never dream of achieving. While he was likely not at the top yet he easily had the potential to be one of the best genin in the entire shinobi world.

For now, though he had been chemically burned on the inside of his lungs and respiratory tract. She performed the mystical palm technique and was able to help him a great deal. She finished with her part-time shot him a smile and went back to her own training. Naruto and Kakashi began discussing the jutsu right away.

"Naruto that jutsu seemed different," Naruto could only nod his head at his sensei's words. His sensei tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, as he raised his hand to his face he called out the name of his jutsu.

"Hatake Style: Thinking," His student was baffled and looked on coughing slightly. But he would be even more confused when his sensei finished thinking. "Naruto, channel chakra into your eyes." He gave the command wondering what this meant for Naruto. He, of course, looked away from the boy's eyes opting instead to look at them from a mirror. Kakashi knew the abilities of the Ishigan from fighting alongside Kushina in the Third Great Shinobi War. She was truly mighty with the eye, she could turn people to stone for upwards of two hours this was at great cost to her.

"Okay sensei!" Naruto said with a mild excitement. He did as he was told and he knew instantly he had the eyes. The vision was trademark, more vivid colors and higher contrast levels, and the ability to better track (and eventually predict) movements of the smallest order. That was not all. He could turn people to stone.

"Naruto, do you know how to use your eyes' active ability?" Kakashi asked his student, wondering how much the boy could know. He had never met another person who possessed this eye. All of them were dead.

"Yes, Sensei. Unfortunately, I don't gain the stone turning ability for a while, according to what I've read," Kakashi himself had not been aware of that before Naruto told him.

"Maybe it's for the best; do you know the drawbacks of that skill?" Naruto shook his head immediately, it made sense that his clan would no sooner right all skills of the eye than they would write a single flaw of the eye. Kakashi perked up at getting to teach Naruto something about his sensei's wife. It made him feel closer to all of them. "Well, of course, I'll advise you not to share this with people who you do not trust. The flaws of the Ishigan's stone ability is two-fold. The first problem with the eye comes from having it activated or using the active effect excessively. Your mother once mentioned to me that if she had left her eyes on at all times other than when she slept she would be completely blind by the age of 40."

"I guess I'll have to be careful. I would say that means I can't use my eyes for more than 5 hours a day for the rest of my life. If I want to keep seeing for that long. I also can't use the stone move that often." He truly understood why it was so few who became masters of the art, the threat of blindness is terrifying even in the pursuit of all powerful jutsu.

"The second one is also sort of important. If someone else destroys something you turn to stone one of your eyes may turn to stone permanently," Kakashi did not speak further instead he waited for Naruto to ask the obvious question.

"What do you mean may?" the boy blurted out loudly. It was fair, how could something so important be so uncertain.

"Well apparently it has not occurred in over eighty years," Kakashi saw the look of amazement on Naruto's face. "Naruto have you read anything about gaining stronger poison when you awaken the eye?"

"Sort of," Kakashi was surely puzzled by Naruto's beginning. "The original bloodline does not have this ability. Instead, it was a semi-common mutation among my clansmen. I am now able to produce a more toxic poison, but it is damaging even to me. It is also the reason I activated the eye. People with the mutations activate their eyes early now that I recall. At first, I was just so confused, I wasn't thinking straight." Naruto had spent quite a bit of time researching his clan and he had a very good grasp on its history at this point. That said there was much he would never learn, much of the history and knowledge pertaining to his clan had died with them.

"Hmm...I haven't heard of another bloodline that effectively has two variations. Some of them have levels, but not like this," Kakashi thought again for a moment. "For now Naruto avoid using the special poison. I'm going to try to figure out the best way to train you for this. Feel free to do your own homework as well." Kakashi felt that self-sufficiency was a key aspect of ninja life. He really wanted to ensure it was something his students also valued.

"Sounds like a plan to me sensei!" the still pre-pubescent exclaimed. He had been trained as a killer, but it was impossible to miss the parts of him which undoubtedly belonged to a child.

A Few Weeks Into Their Training

Hana had not been as strong as Sasuke and Naruto when she had been their age. She was, however, the most combat ready of Kakashi's three Genin. She wasn't even as powerful as Naruto was at the moment, but she had one thing on her side experience. That wasn't a pass to victory in most cases though. The problem with students who weren't Naruto is that they simply could not train as fast. Hana had been working on what Kakashi called "the basics" for some time now.

The idea of these "basics" had been attributed back to the third Hokage. He believed that there were basic skills which were necessary for each level of a ninja. He had shared these teachings with all his students, and they, in turn, did the same. Kakashi had gotten this information the Yondaime by way of Jiraiya. Hana was not the most naturally gifted ninja, she was of course from a clan and was an heir. Her chakra reserves were not on par with Naruto and Sasuke and she wasn't the strongest. She did have an excellent range of clan jutsu, she was excellent in collaboration with her dogs, but she'd be even better if she could be better on her own. The dogs did physical training and Hana found herself throwing Kunai at targets.

The first element of the basics of the elite chunin ninja was accuracy. Moving accuracy. Kakashi was thankful for having Naruto as a student in this way as well. Naruto clones were at the moment running around a small section of the forest with targets. Everytime Hana saw a target she was to throw a kunai at it for this part of the training. She was obviously aiming for the bullseye. For the elite chunin basics hitting the target wasn't enough. One had to be able to hit the bullseye of a moving target at varying ranges missing no more than 5 times out of 50. Hana was now only missing the bullseye 11 times out of 50.

That wasn't all of the basics. The same accuracy skill had to be managed with a shuriken. Beyond that were the other 4 principles of the basics she had yet to even begin. Control, Strength, Endurance and the Intangible. Kakashi had laid out the essential training to her.

She would need to be able to maintain chakra control at a high level for hours. She was going to have to maintain walking on very very rough water for more than three hours. Never falling below the surface. This also contributed to agility training. That was not it of course for control, it meant more than chakra. Agility was also crucial. She would have to be able to go from tree to ground to tree one hundred times without falling and doing so at top speed.

Strength was simply daunting, she would train with boulders in Konoha's Training ground 18. There were numerous boulders of various size and weight that you could use to train strength by pushing. You hadn't really mastered one level of the boulder until you could push it for a quarter mile uphill in a relatively brief time. The third Hokage considered the appropriately sized rock for the chunin to be around 400 pounds or so. That number varied depending on the style of ninja.

Endurance was a terrifying test. She would simply have to run. She had technically begun that part but she was not even close to the benchmark set. Right now Kakashi had her running twenty miles a day at full speed. He claimed that she would be able to run thirty-five miles at top speed by the time of the exams, but that seemed ludicrous to her.

Intangibles were the Hokage's way of identifying what a ninja had a propensity for and making them work extremely hard at it. This was in an effort to differentiate ninja and maximize individual potential. That being said Kakashi was least concerned with it. If he could make Hana better at the other four her techniques would improve greatly. That being said at some point Kakashi would work on intangibles with Hana. He had asked the Hokage to designate him as the leader of a special Chunin team should the group pass. Kakashi was a bit of a jutsu savant and he had many ideas that he and Hana could work with in the pursuit of original jutsu.

Sasuke's training was different than Hana. The Uchiha as a whole were good with two things especially: speed and nin and genjutsu. While Kakashi knew that Sasuke would benefit greatly from the basics he had also been at the council meeting. He knew Sasuke was in part there to demonstrate the Uchiha clan's remaining ability. That meant Sasuke needed to be the best Uchiha he could be. Kakashi had a training plan for after the exams which put focus into the things they were neglecting now. While the things they were neglecting were a lot it did not mean that Sasuke was not becoming more powerful through the hours of training he was participating in.

Kakashi was effectively running a jutsu learning boot camp. Sasuke was learning every fire and lightning type jutsu he could. At this pace he was mastering three jutsu every week, that would, of course, slow down as the jutsu would become more difficult. It was truly incredible, but not exactly surprising from the brother of Itachi Uchiha. As soon as Sasuke could copy jutsu Kakashi thought the number would soar to mastering more than twenty jutsu or so on a monthly basis.

Speed and agility training for Sasuke was slightly different for Sasuke than Hana. Kakashi had asked the Hokage on a daily basis to summon an extremely quick monkey. For an hour or two a day Sasuke would chase the monkey through the forest. It was making him faster and was pushing his ability to predict movement and see where things were going and how they moved. He had yet to catch the monkey, but Kakashi was seeing him improve.

Kakashi was looking down on the students he trained from a hill that looked over most of the major Konoha training areas. He was slightly dismayed, but on the outside he simply looked perplexed. He was so focused, lost in thought, he missed the man walking up behind him.

"Hello Kakashi, how is their training going?" the voice belonged to the third Hokage, Kakashi had been shocked at the presence of another person, but relaxed upon realizing who it was.

"It's going well. They all seem focused and willing to put in the work," the jounin held back his concerns. He did not want to burden the Hokage with issues he should be able to solve.

"Anything the matter?" the Hokage asked of the ninja. At this point it was more of a command to let him know the issue. Kakashi knew why of course, this team would mean a lot in the coming months. They would directly influence how the other nations viewed Konoha.

"They really seem to like each other, but there is also some rivalry and animosity underneath. I think they've both identified each other as obstacles toward becoming Hokage," Kakashi spilled his thoughts on the matter to the Hokage. The man was looking down on the training grounds, his stare seemed to be looking back several decades. He was thinking back to two other promising ninjas who began much in the same way.

"There is nothing you can do Kakashi. Both of these boys have the same dream, chances are that only one will be able to accomplish it. All you can do is strengthen their bond to the village and hopefully through their time together they'll become friends," it was not the answer Kakashi was looking for. He accepted the words of the old master with a simple nod. The two of them stood there. They were two of five shinobi in the village now who could trace their master back to the first Hokage, yet even they had not mastered the will of fire.

Kakashi and his three students met with The Professor, also known as Hiruzen Sarutobi. The three younger ninja were nervous about why they were meeting with the Hokage. They had been training for four months without complaining, but the Hokage knew and Kakashi knew that they were itching for a mission. Ninja, especially young ninja, are as vain as any group of people. The three of them wanted to be out there collecting stories of battle and beating their enemies with newly learned skill. They were all much more powerful, but they still had a long way to go before the exam.

"I asked you all here today because I have a mission for you. Kakashi is needed for another mission and will be unable to teach you for a short while. So we picked now for your first solo mission. It'll be a c-ranked. Consider it your first assessment on the road to the Chunin exams." The Genin were all smiling at the words spoken just then. They all thanked the Hokage, profusely, eventually leading to an apology from Kakashi for his student's antics. It was comical.

Kakashi's students followed him back to their normal meeting spot. The area in front of the fallen ninja memorial. It was always gloomy, but Kakashi said it kept them in touch with the reality of their world. They all took their typical seats and Kakashi stood in front of them. His eye peeking into the folder offered to him by the Hokage.

"Now for some mildly serious business," they all straightened up and looked on at their sensei intently. "I'll be giving you guys all the info you need for the mission after I go over it with you. The first thing you need to be aware of is what the mission is. You guys are taking the nephew of the Lord of Fire to the River Country. He will be meeting with a cousin of his who happens to be the son of the earth Daimyo. It should be about two or three weeks both ways. You leave in two days. That's the gist." Kakashi knew they couldn't do much with this info, but they should be able to identify potential issues.

"So we will come into contact with Iwa ninja?" Naruto asked. He had never met someone from another great village before, let alone shinobi.

"Yes, but they will not be combatants. You will not combat them. Also I have one warning to you before I give you the file for you guys to go over. If you end up engaging an Iwa shinobi, and not in the defense of the fire lord's' nephew, don't come back. You'll be killed. What he said was of course going against the general idea of being a loyal shinobi, but he would not let his students become pawns in a war game. With the solemn and stern warning, he said his goodbyes and poofed away in a storm of leaves and dust.

The three ninja sat around each other; they were very much concerned about what their sensei had said. They, however, had a mission to complete and nothing would stop him. The three of them quickly organized into their roles. Some would secure maps and plan routes, others would secure their rations, etc.

The new team 7 was about to engage in their first true challenge as ninja. Little did they realize they were no longer Genin truly. This mission was mid-level C-rank of high importance. The village could not send jounin as it would stir concern during the entire meeting. So instead the Hokage sent a few new Genin, that had all the abilities of a solid chunin, and in some regards were very lethal.