Chapter Three: Well, it is called the Village hidden in the Leaves for a reason!


A/N: If you dislike Kakashi being a douchebag read something else! Because I gave him all my sidehearts and he gave them back!

A/N: Er, what I meant to say was: Kakashi is a bit OOC. Since all he ever managed to teach them pre-timeskip in canon was how to climb a tree, and Sasuke his Chidori It was a necessary change to better facilitate the plot of the story. He had them for months and months and taught them nothing! So he's you know… competent. But still a lazy douchebag.

Does this make my story au or for want of a nail then?

A/N: Thoughts – italicised and single quoted

Dialogue – double quoted

Emphasis in dialogue – single quotes or italics or both for extra flavour!

Inner Sakura – single quotes, italics and underlined.

A/N: Please review and fill the review hole in my heart.

A/N: And the rating is back to K+


"Sakura, you stay." Kakashi had ordered.

As the other students left, Sakura remained sitting on a tree stump, holding Kakashis' empty bento box. Since she'd just dropped her diet the day before, she hadn't been able to finish it and let Naruto eat the rest of the food. It had been surprisingly tasty, though.

"Kakashi-sensei, what's this about?" she asked, as soon as Sasuke and Naruto were out of earshot.

"Your dress."

"Oh, do you like it?" Sakura flushed happily. "My mom made it for me. Red is a Haruno-clan tradition. Pretty, right?"

Kakashi stared at her for a while, trying to figure out a nice way to say what he was going to say and Sakura fidgeted self-consciously under his gaze.

Finally, he figured out what he was going to say. "I... Approve the inclusion of the clan symbol. And it's reasonably well made. But... Sakura, your hair is pink. Red clashes."

Sakura looked utterly desolate so he awkwardly patted her on the head. This was going to be hard for her to hear, but it needed to be said. For both her sake, and her teammates, who had to see her every day.

Relentlessly he continued on. "And your dress tapers down at the hips and you're wearing loose white pants underneath... It makes your hips look fat."

Sakura stared at him in horror. "What about my thighs, they look okay, don't they?" she pleaded.

Kakashi sighed. He couldn't believe he was the one that had to give her this lecture. "Your clan symbol is at the bottom of your dress, which also draws the eye to your legs. Ideally, you should have your clan symbol on a shoulder or a sleeve."

"So my thighs look...?"

Kakashi sighed again. Why didn't they teach you how to handle delicate preteens in the jounin-sensei training? "They look... Yeah, I can't figure out a nice way to say this. They look fat." he told her reluctantly, watching her face lose all hope.

"And your clan symbol is too big. It's basically a big target saying 'Stab me! Stab me in the thighs, I like being stabbed!' And then the dress length, it can get caught up on things while you're fighting and you could end up losing a head. That outfit of yours is practically suicidal."

"Well, what about Naru Naru-chans' and Sasuke-kuns' clothes? You can't say they're practical!" she replied defensively.

"Sasuke is an Uchiha. He would absolutely murder anyone who dared to damage his clothes," Kakashi grinned at the thought. "As for Naruto – it's sad, but she's already beyond help. You should be happy you can still be saved, at least," he advised.

All hope left Sakuras' small frame again and she slumped down gloomily. "Well, I was thinking of buying some new training clothes anyway. But if I can't wear red, I don't know what to buy."

Kakashi sighed gloomily again. He couldn't believe he was saying this but... "I'll take you shopping."


Sakura took one final look at her new clothes before walking into the clearing. A slim fitting, short sleeved athletic jacket in a contrast of soft yellow and light grey, tucked in white t shirt with ¾ length sleeves and practical black shorts hitting a bit above mid-thigh. They looked flattering on her and there was no doubt that Kakashi-sensei had good taste. Surprisingly so, considering what he read. But she still felt self-conscious. What would Sasuke-kun think?

Warily, she walked into the clearing of Training Grounds 7. Sasuke and Naruto looked up when she arrived and then froze, eyes and mouths hanging open - or in Sasuke's case expression exactly the same as normal. She could tell he was surprised though.

Sakura awkwardly started fiddling with the hem of her new jacket. "Uh... Does it look okay?" she asked cautiously.

Naruto and Sasuke didn't reply; apparently too busy goggling at her startling change of attire.

"Oh come on, it can't be that shocking."

Still they said nothing, eyes fixed stupidly on her.

"My clothes aren't that bad, surely!" Sakura exclaimed, defensively crossing her arms and shooting them a look.

"Who cares about that?" Naruto said, looking confused, "What happened to your hair?"

"You mean the plaits?" Sakura frowned.

"It looks shorter…" Sasuke commented.

"That's because I plaited it..."

"It is shorter!" Naruto realised. "Why did you cut your hair?"

"I didn't cut it...? Hair looks shorter when you plait it," Sakura said, bewildered.

Sasuke shook his head at Naruto's apparent confusion. "Moron."

"Why would you think I cut my hair anyway?" Sakura asked, exasperatedly.

"To look cooler?" Naruto asked.

"Because you decided to be practical, and avoid your hair being a possible handhold for enemy shinobi?" Sasuke asked. Then, he and Naruto looked at each other and laughed.

'SASUKE-KUN LAUGHED FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE MASSACRE OH MY LORD,' though actually, it had been more of a snarky laugh than a joyful laugh, Inner Sakura was overjoyed.

Regular Sakura was too busy worrying about her hairstyle to notice. "I just felt like a change but if it looks so bad-" Sakura huffed.

"It doesn't look bad; it suits you more this way. Forehead protectors are meant to be worn on the forehead anyway," Naruto interrupted. "Now you can head-butt people using the official shinobi technique!"

"Like I said, you at least have better taste than Naruto. And it's more practical to wear the forehead protector on the forehead anyway," Sasuke said, shrugging nonchalantly.

Sakura flushed, surprised at receiving an almost-if-you-squinted-from-far-away-maybe compliment from Sasuke. Shyly, she started playing with her hem again. "And the clothes?" she asked hopefully.

"I appreciate the absence of red. And the absence of clashing. Again, better taste than Naruto," Sasuke commented.

"I appreciate the… yellow", Naruto commented, stepping forward to examine her jacket more closely. "But it would be nicer if it was bright yellow. Maybe I should wear some yellow too..." She trailed off.

Sakura's eyes widened in horror.

Sasuke apparently agreed with her because he pulled Naruto back, away from her. "You don't even know what bad taste you have, do you? That's borderline offensive." He glowered.


When Kakashi finally showed up the first thing he did was collect their letters of apology, their 2500 word essays and his signed replacement copy of Icha Icha Paradise. He was impressed the copy they gave him was signed. 'That was a nice touch,' thought Kakashi.

"Alright," he eye smiled at them. "As a reward for getting me a signed copy of the book, and Sakura finally wearing her forehead protector on her forehead-" Sakura blushed "-I'll forego the morning training today and we can go and pick up our first mission!"

"Yay! You're awesome, Pedo-sensei!" Naruto cheered.

"Pedo-sensei?" Kakashi asked pleasantly.

"Yeah, Pedo-sensei!"

Kakashis' eyebrow twitched. "Why are you calling me that?"

"People who molest children are called paedophiles," Naruto explained.

"I am not a paedophile,"

"But you are a Pedo-sensei, Pedo-sensei!" Naruto insisted.

"I am not a Pedo-sensei," Kakashi insisted, releasing a small amount of killing intent.

"Right! O-of course you're not, Pedo-sensei!" Naruto gasped.

"Naruto," Kakashi eye smiled at her, releasing even more killing intent ", don't call me that ever again."

"Y-yes! I'll never call you that anymore, Pedo-sensei!" Naruto squeaked.

Kakashi looked at her in exasperation. How was he going to get rid of that moniker?!

"Kakashi-sensei, I don't think you can get her to stop calling you that," Sakura explained gently.

"But… my reputation!" he protested.

"What reputation?" Sasuke snorted. "You read porn in public."

Oh, right.

"All right, let's go collect our mission then," he told them. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all followed him obediently as he headed towards the Hokage tower. When he got there they headed towards the Hokages' office, to collect their first mission as genin. Normally missions would be collected from the chuunin administration in the lower levels of the tower but the Hokage liked to hand out graduates' first official missions in person.

Kakashi suspected he liked seeing the bamboozled look on their faces when they realised their first mission was just a bunch of menial chores. He enjoyed that look too. He had even brought along a small camera.

"Ah, team seven. Here for your first mission, I presume?" the Hokage smiled warmly at them when they were admitted into his office.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. What mission do you have for us?" Kakashi asked politely.

The Hokage tossed a mission scroll to Kakashi. "See for yourselves. I particularly picked out this mission especially for Team 7," he said, smiling conspiratorially at Kakashi. Who took the opportunity to pull out his camera.

Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke all eagerly crowded around the scroll as Kakashi unrolled it. As expected the expressions of excitement and pride slowly slid off their faces, leaving growing incredulity in its place.

Click!

Kakashi looked in delight at the screen of his camera. That was definitely going in his album.

"I request a copy," the Hokage said.

Kakashi bowed deeply. "As Hokage-sama wishes."

"…." they were still staring at the scroll.

"Gardening?" Sakura finally asked.


"That was the most freaking useless mission ever!" Sakura complained, smelling strongly of plant fertilizer.

"I didn't think it was so bad," Naruto commented. She had done a good job pruning the plants, and the store owner had given her a small Venus fly trap to thank her. Naruto loved it – Sakura couldn't understand why, it had teeth - and was currently transporting it in the crook of her arm and occasionally petting it.

"Hn," Sasuke contributed. He had a thoroughly exasperated look on his face and also smelt strongly of plant fertilizer.

Kakashi eye-smiled at his cute team. "But you all did such a great job! Well except for Sasuke and Sakura that is."

Sakura and Sasuke shared a look. Next time they'd make him do the gardening, for sure.

"Eh, really? I did a good job, Pedo-sensei?!" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Yeah, you did. In fact I think that old store owner took a real shine to you. He wrote a glowing report of your abilities," Kakashi smiled at her.

Naruto beamed back at him, smile momentarily dazzling. "I did a good job, I did a good job!" she cheered.

"But that's not fair Kakashi-sensei. Naru Naru-chan said her hobby is gardening, of course she'd work better than me or Sasuke!" Sakura pointed out.

"Sakura, don't blame Naruto for having more feminine qualities than you," Kakashi admonished, leaning over to ruffle Naruto's hair. Sakura's eyes narrowed in response. Naru Naru-chan was NOT more feminine than her! In terms of being feminine she absolutely would not, could not lose to a Ramen guzzling, Orange wearing, Sexy Jutsu using, Neji chasing kunoichi!

"So what are we gonna do now, Pedo-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Now," Kakashi smiled, "we're going to start our training."


Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto all made their way back to training ground seven. When they got there, all three twelve year olds looked at Kakashi expectantly and in answer he held out a closed fist.

"You will all be training with these," he explained, directing their gazes towards his fist.

"Training with what, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura was the first to ask.

Kakashi slowly unfurled his fingers to reveal three leaves in the palm of his hand, perfectly flat and undamaged. "I'm sure you guys all remember the leaf-training exercise from the academy, right?" he asked.

They all nodded in affirmation at him. "Are we going to be doing an advanced form of that exercise, sensei?" Sakura asked.

"No," Kakashi smiled. "You will be doing the exact same exercise you learnt in the academy." Before they could protest he continued, "So, who knows how to do the leaf-training exercise? Put your hands in the air if you can do it."

Sakura and Sasuke both promptly raised their hands and Naruto looked away feeling a little ashamed of herself.

"Good," Kakashi smiled at them. "Since only Naruto doesn't know the exercise, she'll have to learn how to do it before I can start teaching all of you properly. Sakura and Sasuke, help Naruto learn the exercise and come get me when you're done."

Then he handed the leaves over to Naruto who held them very carefully, and ambled away to sit at the base of the stump and flicked open up his new replacement copy of Icha Icha Paradise.

"Seriously?" Sakura groaned.

Sasuke rolled his eyes and then turned back to Naruto. "So, you really don't know how to do the leaf-training exercise?"

Naruto's face flushed red. Were they going to make fun of her? "Uh, no I don't," she answered reluctantly.

"Okay," Sasuke answered. "Then we should start training immediately."

"You're not going to make fun of me? Or ask why I never learnt it in the academy?" she couldn't help but ask.

"I wouldn't make fun of you for that, Naru Naru-chan!" Sakura reassured her. Naruto looked unconvinced. "Uh, well, I wouldn't make fun of you for that, anymore," Sakura blushed.

Sasuke merely shook his head. "Making fun of you would waste valuable training time," he explained. Naruto rolled her eyes at his pragmatism.

"Hn," Sasuke ordered Sakura.

"Alright," she agreed. "I'll do the teaching. So, Naru Naru-chan do you know what the point of the leaf-training exercise is?" she asked. Naruto shook her head. "Alright, so you do know the basics of chakra though, right?"

Naruto looked back at her uncomprehendingly. "What's chakra?"

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged glances. How was it even possible to be this dense? "Chakra is the energy you get from mixing together mental energy and physical energy. We use chakra to perform Jutsus," Sakura explained.

"Oh!" Naruto clapped her hands together. "It's the glowy stuff! Why didn't you just say so?" she asked.

Sakura's eyebrow twitched. "Right, the glowy stuff. So this exercise is meant to teach you how to manage your chakra and increase your chakra control. Chakra control is a natural ability every ninja has, some more than others, but if you train well you can increase it. Generally the higher your chakra capacity is, the lower your control will be."

"So what's the point of chakra control? Can you use jutsu better if you have more of it?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. Jutsu are achieved by mixing specific amounts of mental and physical energy together and then channelling that into different forms. For example, the fact that Sasuke-kun can perform a fireball jutsu means that his chakra control and capacity are naturally higher than other ninjas our age. Normally, a student just out of the academy would not have the control necessary to create fire and the jutsu would either fail or explode in their face," Sakura explained.

"Why would it fail if other people from our class tried it? And how do you know Sasuke has high chakra capacity?" Naruto asked.

Sakura sighed and ran her hands through her fringe. It was nice that Naru Naru-chan was paying attention - and more than she'd expected from her, honestly - but she had so many questions! "Jutsu are divided into ranks according to how high the chakra control and chakra capacity needed to perform them is. And how destructive they are. Academy students usually can't perform anything above E Rank but the great fireball is a C Rank jutsu. Usually we learn D ranks while we're genin, and some particularly adept students or clam members might even pick up a C rank or two. The fact that Sasuke-kun can already perform it without specialised training indicates he has more control than normal. And I know he has high chakra capacity because normally using a C rank jutsu that involves an element twice would at least visibly exhaust a newly graduated student and Sasuke-kun didn't show any signs of fatigue after we fought Kakashi-sensei."

"So many words..." Naruto stared at her in awe.

"I don't have to repeat that, do I? You understood, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, I got it. So, so, Sakura-chan, how much chakra control do I have? And how much capacity?" Naruto asked excitedly. "I'm totally awesome, right?"

Sakura frowned. "That isn't really my area of expertise Naru Naru-chan. I'm not a chakra sensor. I guess your solid clone technique should take more chakra than the E ranks we learn at the academy since it's a physical duplicate... How many can you do?" she asked.

Naruto thought about it. "I don't know. When I was practicing the technique I think I made around 300 or so. Oh, and the scroll I learnt it from said it's a B rank, if that means anything." She admitted.

Sakura's eyebrows shot upwards and she exchange a shocked glance with Sasuke.

"Academy students' using a B rank technique so casually, and without getting tired, is not normal," Sasuke contributed. Sakura noticed that his eyebrows had drawn together and his eyes had narrowed slightly. What was that about? It almost looked like he was pissed off for some reason.

"I'm guessing that means you have a huge chakra capacity. Incredibly huge." Sakura told her, choosing to ignore Sasukes' change of expression. For now, anyway.

"Yes!" Naruto cheered. "I'm awesome! I'm awesome!"

"And as for chakra control, I'll tell you when I've seen you perform the leaf-training exercise. This is literally the easiest thing to do involving chakra - even little kids can do it, so no matter how bad you are you should at least partially succeed," Sakura explained.

Sasuke took one of the leaves from Sakura's hand and placed it on top of Naruto's head. "Keep this in place on your head by sticking it to you with chakra." he ordered, taking over his part of the training.

"Alright, I bet I get it in one shot!" Naruto immediately channelled lots and lots of chakra to her head trying to get the leaf to stick. But instead of doing what it was supposed to, the leaf exploded off her head and landed at Sasuke's feet, smoking around the edges.

"I think that's the first time I've ever seen someone... explode the leaf off their head." Sakura commented, staring at the leaf smoking on the grass.

"Heh, moron." Sasuke smirked at her.

"I'll get it next time! I'll definitely get it next time, believe it!" Naruto shouted.


Five hours later, Kakashi decided that his back was going to cramp if he kept sitting against his stump and reading Icha Icha paradise so he decided to wander off and see how his team was doing. When he got there he saw Naruto gingerly walking around with a backpack stuck to her head and Sakura yelling at her each time it started to wobble.

"What happened to the leaf?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura groaned and turned to face him. "Naruto has really bad chakra control - really really bad! It must be the worst chakra control in history!" she exclaimed.

"I think she's broken a record of suck somewhere," Sasuke contributed.

"Every time she tried, the leaf just flew off her head like she was repelling it. We tried it again and again but I can't tell how much chakra she's using, so I couldn't give her any guidance besides try half of that, try a quarter of that, maybe you should just try a tenth of that etc," she sighed. "So we decided to start off with something heavier, more affected by gravity, and work our way up to a leaf."

Kakashi nodded solemnly. He'd expected Naruto to have increased reserves and low control but this... this was pretty bad.

"Naruto, you can stop now," he ordered Naruto; who was still walking around with the backpack on her head, face screwed up in concentration. Naruto pulled the backpack off her head and slumped bonelessly to the ground. "Why - is - this - so - hard!" she gasped.

Kakashi crooked an eyebrow. She was obviously using way way too much chakra if practicing the simple leaf-training exercise left her so exhausted. "Naruto, do you feel like you've improved at all?" he asked.

Naruto opened her mouth to answer but before she could Sakura beat her to the punch. "Yes, she has. We've been gradually taking things out of the backpack to decrease the load and make it harder for her to affix it to her head. It's taking a while though. I don't think she'll move on to the leaf itself by the end of today, even if she spends every single minute practicing the technique."

It would be better if they had a way to gauge Naruto's chakra as she was performing the technique. "Quick question - can anyone here sense chakra?" Kakashi asked. If there wasn't anyone he'd have to ask Kurenai, but he didn't think she'd take kindly to him interrupting Team 8's training for his own student.

"Only mine, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura replied.

Sasuke shook his head.

Naruto merely looked confused. "What do you mean, Pedo-sensei?"

He was never going to get rid of that moniker, was he? "Every ninja naturally has a sense of their chakra, its quantity and quality and how to control it. Some ninja have a kind of sixth sense, to put it that way, and can tell things about other ninjas by detecting chakra, whether through sight, sound, smell, taste or a vague sense of feel."

"Oh, right. I can do that," Naruto replied.

All three of them looked at Naruto and had the exact same thoughts. 'Why didn't you say that before?' and 'That ability is wasted on someone so dense.'

Sakura switched back into teaching mode at the new information. "Naru Naru-chan, if you can sense chakra, it'll help you learn the leaf-training exercise faster. But are you sure you have this ability? Do you have any proof?" Sakura asked carefully.

Naruto rolled her eyes. "I'm not lying, Sakura-chan. Sasuke has depressing grey chakra, you have light green and Pedo-senseis' looks like cat vomit."

Sakura stifled a giggle while Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke scowled at Naruto.

"What about the amount?" Sasuke asked Naruto, looking intense.

"Sakura-chans' is the smallest. Sasuke has more than her. Pedo-sensei has even more and I have 4-5 times as much as him! That means I'm the best, right?" Naruto puffed her chest out proudly.

Kakashi noticed Sasuke frowning deeply to himself at her words. Well, that was pleasant. If things kept going that way he was going to develop a superiority-inferiority complex. "No, Naruto," he disagreed. "We're all better than you because we can actually do the leaf-concentration exercise." he smiled.

At that Sasuke and Sakura started looking very proud of themselves, when Kakashi reminded them "Not that that's a big deal or anything though." He found it amusing when their shoulders drooped again. 12 year olds could be so predictable.

"Right, Sakura, Sasuke if you two could take the other leaves and demonstrate for Naruto here," he gestured. "Naruto, pay attention to how much chakra they use and try to copy it," he instructed.

Naruto watched closely as both Sakura and Sasuke placed the leaves on their heads with little aplomb and then casually strolled around, leaves firmly staying in place.

"Did you get that?" Kakashi asked. "Need another demonstration?"

"I'm good. You'll see, I'll get it down by the time the day is over!" she declared.

"Don't make promises you can't keep...moron," Sasuke cheerfully encouraged. Naruto stuck her tongue out at him.

"You're the moron! As soon as I get here tomorrow morning I'll do it perfectly, and then you're gonna look like a big idiot!"

"Then, Naruto, I'd like you to stay here and try to get the leaf to stick to your head, to the point you can walk around without it falling off by using the same amount of chakra as Sasuke and Sakura did. Sasuke, Sakura, I'm going to take you two on a special excursion to the Hokage tower and elaborate on its many functions and facilities." Kakashi eye-smiled at her and then motioned to the other two to leave with him.

"Oh joy. More 'training'," Sasuke enthused sarcastically.

"Don't worry, Sasuke-kun. I heard they have a library in the Hokage tower with scrolls on all kinds of Konoha techniques and jutsu," Sakura comforted him.


Naruto arrived at Training Ground 7 nice and early at 7:30 am. She was still yawning, after staying up quite late trying to master the leaf-training exercise. Sasuke and Sakura weren't there yet so Naruto made her way to a nice looking stump and sprawled against the base. The sun was warm on her face and the temptation to take a brief nap was strong.

But she wasn't going to give that jerk, Sasuke another reason to call her a moron. True, he wasn't being as much of a jerk as usual, but he was still an annoying prick. Naruto was looking forward to taking him down a peg.

Sasuke arrived at the clearing next and greeted her with an almost inaudible 'hn'. At least it was a step up from his squint-and-you-could-call-them-a-nod nods. Taking the stump next to her, he sat down, crossing his arms over his knees and taking in the sun like she was.

Shortly afterwards Sakura-chan arrived and greeted them both with a bright smile. "Hey, Sakura-chan. How was the tour yesterday?" Naruto asked.

"It was the most boring, most useless waste of time that could have been used for training ever," Sasuke complained.

"It wasn't that bad. They have a library on Konoha jutsu and techniques, Vaults to keep things hidden, A storehouse for surplus ninja gear - some which they sell at half price, the missions desks, shinobi mission and training consultants, council meeting rooms, The Hokage's office, accessibility ramps and!"- Sakura tried to add some perspective to the conversation but just ended up getting carried away.

Naruto quickly cut her off before she could catalogue every single feature of the Hokages tower, up to and including the wood panelling and wide windows for fast shinobi entries and exits. "You can show me next time," She grinned at her.

"Right, maybe next time we finish a mission," Sakura easily agreed.

"Hmph. Dorks," Sasuke snorted.

"Yeah, let's see who's laughing the next time you're stuck in the Hokage Tower and can't find the toilets," Naruto snorted. "Even the mighty Uchihas don't have limitless bladders, idiot,"

Against her better will Sakura began to laugh. "Don't worry, Sasuke-kun. I remember where the toilets are, so I can just show you next time," she tried to comfort him.

Sasuke turned away with a scoff. "I know where the toilets are," he lied. And that was the end of that conversation.

"So… todays' mission…" Sakura awkwardly tried to clear the tension.

Out of nowhere Kakashi appeared in front of then, dispersing an ominous amount of smoke. "Did someone say mission?" he asked cheerfully.

Sasuke was so startled he immediately shot to his feet and both Naruto and Sakura let out high pitched screams.

"Pedo-sensei, what are you trying to do, give us a heart attack?!" Naruto yelled at him.

Kakashi deflated and despondently started walking away from them. "Well I just came here to deliver our next mission, but if you're going to be like that..." he trailed off.

Sasuke appeared in front of him with startling speed, pointing a kunai directly at the pocket where he knew Kakashi liked to keep his Icha Icha. Kakashi hastily covered his pocket with his hands and gave the kunai a wary look.

"Stop," Sasuke ordered. "We want the...mission?" Something seemed to occur to him and he glared suspiciously at Kakashi. "Is this a real mission, this time?" he asked.

Kakashi melodramatically raised both his eyebrows, even though he knew the gesture would be lost under the folds of his mask. "Sasuke, you wound me! I hand-picked this mission for all of you after witnessing your impressive teaching skills yesterday!"

As an aside he looked at Sakura and added, "Seriously, you should consider a career in teaching."

While Sakura blushed at the praise, Sasuke eagerly – for Sasuke - took the scroll and unwound it.

"Carrying hot water to a hot spa because they're having issues with their plumbing, is a mission you hand-picked for us?" Sasuke dryly asked.

"Yes!" Kakashi answered. "I know you're a teenage boy, raging hormones and all, so I decided to help you out! You can carry all the water by yourself and the girls can admire your biceps from a safe distance!"

Naruto, as usual, completely missed the point. "Pedo-sensei, I'm sure I have much bigger biceps than Sasuke! I can carry twice as much as he can, believe it!"

Sakura frowned. "I wouldn't be doing a good job at becoming a better shinobi if I let Sasuke-kun do all the hard labour," she disagreed.

Sasuke merely waved his kunai menacingly at the direction of Kakashis Icha Icha Paradise, hidden away behind his hands.

A bead of sweat materialised at Kakashis' brow and rolled down, disappearing into the folds of his mask. "Ahaha... I was joking, you guys. Seriously."

'There is something wrong with my students and their lack of hormones.' he privately thought to himself.


When they finally finished their mission, they were all soaked to varying degrees. Sakura was absolutely drenched, she'd had the most trouble carrying the pails of water and it showed. Sasuke was only a little damp since he'd only gotten splashed when collecting and depositing the water and if Sakura had dropped any nearby. Naruto had been running around like a demented chipmunk, trying to carry more than Sasuke so obviously she ended up completely soaking. Then, halfway through the mission she had a brainwave and sent a clone back home to bring her a raincoat. After that, she stayed completely dry.

"Another great job, guys," Kakashi smiled. "The owner was so pleased with the help they gave us all a ticket for one trip to the spa!"

Naruto and Sakura both looked excited when they collected their tickets but Sasuke merely glanced at his before putting it in his pocket.

"And here's a tally for all of you!: Naruto - 5 points for having the foresight to use a raincoat, Sasuke - 6 points for spilling the least water and working the most efficiently and Sakura - 3 points for trying your best and persevering!"

'Mine is kind of lame,' thought Sakura.

"What are the points for?" Sasuke asked.

"I'm glad you asked, Sasuke! Based on your performance in every mission and training session I've decided to award you all points. At the end of the month, the ninja with the most points will be 'The ninja of the month!' Whoever wins ninja of the month, wins some specialised training that I will personally arrange for them!"

'Oooooh, Trainiiing!' Naruto thought.

'If I win ninja of the month and get the training, it'll help me protect Sasuke-kun!' Sakura thought.

'I have to win,' thought Sasuke.

"Awesome, right? By the way, I won't tell you the point tallies but Naruto got the most mission points yesterday and Sakura got the most training points yesterday for being such a good sport and teaching Naruto so well! Currently, Sasuke is in the lead."

At this Sasuke smirked.

"By one point."

He stopped smirking.

"Now let's go do a bit of pre-lunch training, and then we can all get together and have our first lunch as a team," Kakashi smiled.

Naruto ran ahead of them to the clearing and then waited impatiently for the rest of them to arrive. "Pedo-sensei, look at this!" she shouted. She had a leaf in her hand. Placing the leaf on her head the same way as Sakura and Sasuke had, she channelled the same amount of chakra they had demonstrated before and got it to stick. Then she walked around, laughed, started running, scaled a tree, jumped down and did a few cartwheels. All with the leaf stuck to her head.

'Show off,' thought Sasuke.

"Good job, Naruto! I didn't expect you'd grasp this technique so fast!" Kakashi complemented her. "That's fifteen points for learning the technique in one day!"

Naruto flushed proudly. She didn't bother telling him that she had stayed up till 4am trying to master it.

"And also, minus ten points for not already learning the technique in the academy," Kakashi added.

Naruto pouted. 'Mean!' she thought. She turned to smirk at Sasuke all the same. Now, who looked like an idiot? To her annoyance he appeared to be too busy cataloguing his kunai to pay any attention to her. Jerk.

"Since Naruto has mastered the first stage of the leaf-concentration training, we will be moving on to the next stage!" he declared. "Naruto, take your leaf and affix it to the middle of your stomach, Sakura, you take yours and affix it to your shoulder, and Sasuke-" he smirked.

Sasuke had a bad feeling about this.

"Affix your leaf to your right buttock." he ordered. Naruto immediately started sniggering.

"I will not do that!" he protested. "Sakura, tell him that's a stupid idea!" he turned to the only other somewhat normal member of his team for help, but to his shame she had started sniggering herself. For someone who was supposed to be on his side she didn't seem to have any reservations laughing at him…

"S-sorry, Sasuke-kun! I'm not usually this immature but I!-" he couldn't hear the rest of her apology through the heavy laughs she was trying to smother.

Since that avenue of aid was cut off, he simply did what he did best.

"Sheesh, stop giving me the stink-eye already. It's not really helping my opinion on your maturity," Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Humour aside, there's actually a point to all this. The stomach is nearest to the majority of the chakra reservoir, so it requires far less chakra to attach the leaf. The shoulder has less than the head which is the nerve centre for the chakra coils, and the buttocks, as the biggest muscle in the body also have a large amount of chakra, requiring less for the leaf. Mastering affixing the leaf in different locations will teach you about variances in chakra and help you determine the amounts you're using. Without this crucial second stage, all that you will learn from the leaf-concentration exercise will be to maintain a steady flow of chakra in one spot. Which is usually far from helpful in a shinobi battle." he explained.

Immediately, they all took their leaves and affixed them to their respective body parts, Sasuke, very reluctantly so. Only Sakuras' managed to stick.

"Good job, Sakura. You must have naturally high chakra control," Kakashi complimented and Sakura flushed again.

"So, what we will be doing is this. While sparring, I want you all to split your concentration and have the leaf sticking perfectly to you while we spar. I will be rotating battles between the three of you while the other two fight, correcting any imbalances, any use of incorrect stance and gauging your grasp on basic Taijutsu. After you master keeping the leaf affixed in your described location, you will move on to a new location. This will happen ten times and by that time, you will have mastered the second stage of the leaf-training exercise and be able to affix the leaf to any part of your body. The conditions for the exercise are this: Use only Taijutsu to spar, and every time your leaf detaches itself, you must disengage from the spar and do ten push-ups. Before each sparring match, you will be given ten minutes to practice affixing your leaf and... Oh, this speech has already taken up two minutes! You better get started!"

Kakashi smiled and walked back over to his stump to read for the remaining eight minutes. His three cute students all looked at him incredulously.

"That's unfair! He's just being a huge jerk!" Naruto complained.

"Kakashi-sensei, my ass. More like Jerkass-sensei." Sakura grumbled. Ironically, she didn't even seem to have any need to practice as her leaf was sticking to her just fine.

"Hn," Sasuke agreed, as his leaf just slid off his shorts - again.

"Huh, did someone say something about asses?" Kakashi looked up from his orange covered book.

"No!" Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto all glared at him.

'They're so sensitive at that age,' Kakashi thought to himself with a not insignificant amount of amusement.


Sakura gasped, flopping down on the ground as Kakashi concluded his spar with her.

Kakashi turned to look at her. "Taijutsu, perfect textbook form but otherwise..."

Sakura blushed. She already knew what he was going to say next.

"Sakura, you're strong."

Huh? Sakura looked at him in surprise. 'Did he just say what I thought he said?'

"You are strong. Even our mission earlier today, at the beginning I have no doubt you could have carried five pails at the same time if it was possible to do so. At the end, you could barely carry half a pail."

Sakura flushed in embarrassment. "I wasn't trying to slack off or anything-"

Kakashi smiled at her. "I know that. I gave you points for working hard, remember?"

'Lamest thing to be awarded for ever,' Sakura thought.

"The problem is you have naturally low stamina. You're very quick to fatigue - I wonder... Did you ever get sick as a kid?" he asked.

Sakura nodded. "All the time Kakashi-sensei. I have a lot of allergies that my family only really found out about in hindsight… and I was always getting really bad hay fever. Why?" she asked curiously.

"Basically your body spent more time healing itself than other kids who were out, running around and gradually building muscles and stamina busy being active. All your time spent indoors didn't really work out in your favour," he explained.

"Well...that sucks," Sakura commented.

"Yeah," Kakashi sighed. "The diet that your records mentioned probably didn't help with the whole youthful energy thing, either."

'Oh god, I sound like Gai,' he thought.

"I think we're going to have to get you some specialised help to get you back up to genin level standards. When we finish training today, I'll take you to see a nutrition specialist in the Hokage tower, since I don't think merely dropping your diet is going to work. I'll organise a joint training session with a Taijutsu specialist I know, and if he agrees he can get you started on wearing body weights which will gradually increase your stamina. I'll also see about getting a training schedule set up for you, with exercises you can do to build up your body in our off time. "

Kakashi leaned over and ruffled Sakura's hair, "Sakura, you are strong. It's just a disadvantage, so you don't have to look so dismayed. Naruto and Sasuke have their disadvantages too."

"Really, Sensei?"

"Really."


'My arms are starting to hurt.' thought Naruto.

Pairing her and Sasuke up had to be the worst idea ever, because both of them kept dropping their leaf and interrupting their spar for push-ups. They were both starting to see some progress, they could partially attach them now, but any particularly energetic sparring and they just fell off again.

"Hey, Sasuke! Feeling tired yet?" Naruto taunted.

Sasuke had taken to fixing his leaf to him while he did the push-ups now and seeing how far he could go.

"If anyone's tired, it's you, moron," Sasuke retorted.

Naruto did a few more push ups and sighed. The push-ups weren't going to help her master the leaf-training exercise stage two.

"Oy, Pedo-sensei! Can I switch to sit-ups instead?" she yelled.

Kakashi yelled back an affirmation and Naruto changed position and stuck the leaf to her stomach. Then she turned her head and smirked at Sasuke. The silent challenge was clear.

'Now we're on equal ground.'

Annoyed that Naruto was ripping off his idea and that now she would probably improve at the same rate as him, Sasuke began performing his push-ups faster. 'I'll finish first and prove my superiority,' he thought.

Naruto glared at him and started doing her sit-ups faster too.

They finished at the same time.

"Time to spar, Sasuke-chan," Naruto invited, cracking her knuckles threateningly.

"Hn," Sasuke glowered. 'You won't know what's hit you, bitch.'

As one they jumped towards each other and started an all-out brawl. Naruto was fast but Sasuke was faster. She was agile though and easily changed positions and moves according to the situation. This brawl was shaping up to be pretty challenging.

Naruto grinned fiercely at him when she caught him around the neck but Sasuke merely head butted her hard enough to draw blood - if it wasn't for the forehead protector that is.

'Owwww,' thought Sasuke.

Naruto was back on her feet immediately and attempting to side-kick him into submission. Sasuke drew back, planning to circle around her and attack from her unprotected side.


"Morons," sighed Kakashi looking at both of them.

Reluctantly he got up and made his way over to the two of them. He grabbed them by their collars and pulled them away from each other and up into the air.

"I said 'spar', not start a bar fight." he reminded them.

"He started it!" Naruto yelled. She glared venomously at Sasuke and he glared back.

"Oh, stop it. You're both idiots. Where are your leaves?" Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other. They'd forgotten about the leaves.

Sakura walked over with the leaves in her palm. They were dirty and one of them had blood on it. "I found them over there, sensei," she said, pointing to a spot a considerable distance away.

"Really." Kakashi gave both his obnoxious genin an exasperated look. "For today's training session, Sakura gets 20 points for 'doing as she was told,'' he stressed.

He looked at both of them to drive the point home and saw something that gave him pause. "Why do I see bite-marks? Who was biting?" he sighed in exasperation.

Naruto and Sasuke both looked away from him, refusing to answer.

Well, if they were going to be like that... "Sorry, Sakura but it looks like you have competition. Naruto and Sasuke have already been exchanging love bites, it seems."

Sakura blushed and gave Naruto a look of betrayal. Naruto immediately started panicking. "Th-that's not what it was, Sakura-chan! I was just trying to bite off his finger, I swear!"

"Kinky," commented Kakashi.

"You," Naruto gave him a flat look. "Are such an ass."

"So it was YOU!" Kakashi suddenly roared, taking all of them by surprise. "What type of Taijutsu is biting?! Is that a new technique? Both of you are idiots!"

Naruto and Sasuke both finally started to look a little bit ashamed.

"I don't mind healthy rivalries, but being competitive to the point that you forget about your original objective is... not even a ninja at the academy would be so stupid. When I meet you tomorrow I expect 5000 lines on the importance of teamwork - 'a lesson I thought you already understood! - from the both of you and for now we will be switching over our combatants. Sakura you take Naruto, and Sasuke you're with me." Kakashi finished angrily and dropped Naruto, walking away, still carrying Sasuke by the collar.

"I've never seen Pedo-sensei get so angry before," Naruto stared, eyes open wide.

"You're ridiculous," Sakura sighed. "I at least thought Sasuke would have some sense but no, biting each other was more important!" Sakura glared at her.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Naruto asked fearfully.

In answer, Sakura gave her a wide pleasant smile. "Naruto, let's spar."

'Uh, I have a bad feeling about this...' thought Naruto.


Five spars later it was lunchtime.

Kakashi rounded up all three of them and got ready to enter lecture mode. "I was going to take you all out for lunch but that was before Naruto and Sasuke started acting like such morons." he glared at them. Their idiocy seemed to have finally sunk in, because they both flushed and looked away.

He sighed heavily. "I know that you kids are all 12 year olds and I don't expect you to start acting like adults anytime soon. But a ninja has to be more mature, more intelligent and more capable. A ninja 12 year old doesn't get to live like a normal 12 year old. We have responsibilities, duties. People's lives hang in the balance whenever we feel like doing our day job."

Kakashi pointed to a stone monument in the clearing across from them. "Do you see that stone?"

They were all too busy listening to his words in rapt attention to answer. "On that monument are the names of some of the greatest heroes of the leaf village. On that monument"- he paused for emphasis - "are the names of the heroes with which we would not be alive today, heroes that gave their lives in battle so that Konoha could continue to prosper. And on that monument... are the names of my former teammates and jounin sensei."

"As ninja you have to know that completing the mission is tantamount to everything else. They say that in your textbooks, right?" he asked Sakura.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura replied, sounding unusually subdued.

"That's wrong. A ninja who abandons the mission is trash. But even more important, is the fact, that if a ninja ever abandons his comrade, he is worse than trash. Because I failed to understand these principles, I disrespected my father's sacrifice and even worse... I lost my best friend." Kakashi had to pause and gather up his courage before he could continue. Would they see him differently after this? But it had to be said.

So he told them about his father and about Obito, though he left out the details regarding his Sharingan eye. He'd tell Sasuke a little later, when he'd matured a bit more. "I want all of you to cherish each other, but more important than that is you. Each of you. What you need. You need your teammates, to cover your deficiencies, to complement your strengths, to have your back so that you can concentrate on battle without worrying about a stray kunai slicing through you. I don't mind if you have rivalries, if you tease each other, you can even dislike each other, but the minute you lose sight of your goals and lose your teamwork it's over. And it's that minute, just one minute, in the middle of battle that someone can die. From now on, I don't want to see any of you compromise your teamwork because of your pride, your ego or any other reason ever again," he glared at them.

"I'm sorry Kakashi-sensei. ...and Sasuke, I'm sorry too," Naruto quietly mumbled.

Sasuke couldn't quite overcome his pride to say sorry so instead he shook her hand. Kakashi didn't protest - that was probably the closest the Uchiha heir could get to an apology for now.

Sakura nodded her head. "I won't forget, Kakashi-sensei." she told him, and by her tone of voice he knew she wouldn't.

"Alright, as long as you remember," he sighed. Bringing up old wounds like that had affected him more than he was willing to show. "Because of Naruto and Sasuke, no one else gets lunch. This is a punishment, but it's also a form of training. In the future there will be many times when you will be unable to fully rest or sate yourself. It's good if you can get used to the feeling of fighting at less than 100% early on, so that you become accustomed to it and draw out more strength in battle. Sakura, you didn't do anything wrong but since this is also a form of training you shouldn't skip it. For you especially, this is important training. Naruto, Sasuke, I suggest you apologize to your teammate." he hinted.

"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto apologized shamefacedly.

"I-I regret the imposition of this restraint upon you," Sasuke offered. He still couldn't bring himself to say sorry.

"Uh, it's okay," Sakura replied, eyes wide. "Like Kakashi-sensei said, this training will benefit me too."

"Now that that's taken care of, the three of you will now all spar against each other at the same time. Handling battles with multiple opponents is also an important shinobi skill, though at the academy your battles are usually fought one on one. I will be observing from a distance so I don't distract you. Taijutsu only, no biting or scratching." he joked. Sasuke and Naruto still looked uncomfortable.

Kakashi returned to his stump and pulled his book back out again. Though his speech had had a profound effect on his students, they still lost respect for him at that moment.

"Is he really going to observe?" Naruto muttered.

"Congratulations on passing the second stage of the leaf-training exercise!" Kakashi congratulated his panting students.

"I never want to see another leaf again," Sasuke complained. Naruto and Sakura rapidly nodded their agreement.

"Was it that bad?" Kakashi asked them in mock surprise.

"You know it was!" Naruto yelled. "Having us spar each other was fine but then you made us all battle you and you kicked our asses!" she shouted.

Sasuke and Sakura glared at him.

"I just didn't want any of you getting the mistaken idea that by teaming up you could defeat a jounin," he chuckled.

His words did not help matters. If anything, their glaring intensified.

"Anyway, I'll let all of you take a short break and then we'll move on to the third stage of the leaf-training exercise!" Kakashi cheerfully announced.

Sakura almost broke into tears. "There's more?!"

"Oh, great. I'm gonna be able to stick leaves to my butt so well by the end of this day," Sasuke flatly expressed.

"Woooooo…oooooo! More leaves!" Even Naruto's horrible attempt at her usual optimism couldn't save the gloomy atmosphere.

'I love my job,' Kakashi smirked.


SHINOBI DICTIONARY

Kakashis' bento box: It's really good! And it's homemade too! Hey, you don't think Kakashi could have…

Haruno clan symbol: Surprisingly, this is canon. It`s just a hollow circle with a solid circle inside it, as seen on the bottom of her dress pre-timeskip.

Naruto you're offensive: Orange is a shitty colour for a ninja and you have terrible taste. Ino should give you a makeover.

Leaf-Training Exercise: A simple technique taught to Academy students in which they affix a leaf to their head through the use of chakra. Theoretically mastering this technique increases chakra reserves and chakra control. In canon Naruto never bothered to learn it…

Why am I not surprised?

Why would chakra-sensor abilities be wasted on Naruto? Naruto has a short-attention span and does not do well at more institutional methods of learning. In the hands of someone like Sakura, this ability could be used to observe chakra flow and accurately predict enemies movements, to come up with a matching chakra-negating technique or even to learn techniques from other hidden villages. In the hands of someone like Naruto, the most that can be done is tracking, detecting genjutsu and observing chakra flow. Jeez, what a waste!

What's the importance of chakra colours? They signify general mood and personality. Sakura, who is normally the team mediator, the normal one, and generally in a pleasant mood has pretty light green chakra. Sasuke who broods all the time over revenge has grey, constantly moving chakra, reminiscent of a storm. Kakashi, who beats himself up over things he can't do anything about has multi-coloured chakra reminiscent of cat vomit, signifying his constant turmoil. Generally the uglier your personality, mental state or mood is, the uglier your chakra is. Naruto, as per canon has yellow chakra. I'll let you decide what that means. (For now)

Ninja of the Month: An interesting competition?! What could this mean?! Who will win?! What is the prize?! Will Kakashi play favourites?!


END OF CHAPTER THREE