Okay guys, it was a little harder putting this out than I thought but here it is. I want to thank everyone who stuck by me and encouraged me. You really don't know how much I needed it, these last few months especially.

FINALLY, chapter four, for your express pleasure.

Chapter Four: Pass it Forward

Kakashi wasn't entirely sure what to make of his new team.

On the surface they certainly seemed a normal enough team, but Kakashi had long since gotten used to looking underneath the underneath. He knew the real reason Uchiha Sasuke was placed on a team with Uzumaki Naruto was more because of the sharingan's effect on the kyuubi than graduation scores. He also knew that the Sandaime was personally concerned with the isolation Uzumaki faced in his own village, and hoped by placing him on a team with someone as popular as the Uchiha would help.

Sarutobi-sama had told him all this when they both entered the orphan's apartment. Later, when Kakashi was sitting down to a chat with Uchiha Fugaku and his wife Mikoto, the silver-haired jounin privately thought the Hokage wouldn't need to worry much longer. While Fugaku was more concerned about Sasuke's teammates holding him back, Mikoto had looked as much like a mother hen as an Uchiha matriarch could upon hearing Naruto lived alone. Should the genin pass his test, he had the sinking suspicion that the blonde would be all but adopted into the family. And if the way Fugaku was eyeing his wife's frowning face, the clan head was thinking the same thing.

To be honest, with the issues facing both male members of his team- one under constant threat as a jinchuuriki, the other struggling to get out from under his father's high expectations and his brother's all-encompassing shadow- Kakashi had not given much thought to his female student. She was the only one he expected next to no problems from. At least, so he had thought (and earnestly hoped) until her mother answered the door.

He had heard of the Harunos, of course. The family has owned the largest construction company inside the Land of Fire for generations, and it was rumored the current head was trying to expand into neighboring allied countries. It was certainly odd that one of his children- the eldest, no less- became a kunoichi, but Kakashi had just assumed her parents were humoring the child's fleeting fancy. But when he introduced himself as her daughter's jounin sensei, Haruno Amaya's face went from politely curious to politely indifferent in a matter of seconds. Though she was never rude and even invited him in to tea, any questions he asked were vaguely answered at best. He was sorely tempted to ask how she and her husband handled Sakura's career choice, but he figured he would get a polite non-answer at most and at worst be booted out the door for his prying. It was well known the Harunos didn't take kindly to people intruding on their family life. Still, when he left an hour later, Kakashi resolved to pass on his concerns to the Hokage should the trio not pass, and to keep a close eye on the situation if they did. He's seen quite a few first-generation shinobi turned out from their families, or pressured into resigning, and sometimes even abused.

It was certainly a trio of problems handed to him in genin form. But, standing in the training ground as the three twelve year olds disappeared from sight and (mostly) sense, he found himself strangely hoping they'd pass.

After all, it was, in his experience, the most troubled nin who had the most potential.

Sakura breathed in the deep, earthy smell of her hiding place under a bush. Attempting, and failing, to calm her racing heartbeat, she tried force her mind empty, tried to think of a plan. Not two minutes into this, Naruto had revealed himself to Kakashi and was now getting his butt handed to him while their sensei read a book. The pinkette watched with narrowed eyes as Kakashi positioned himself behind Naruto with impossible speed. At the sight of his hands though, her eyes widened with a gasp. 'Ninjutsu…He's going to use a ninjustsu on Naruto! But that's way too advanced! Naruto'll be-'

"Naruto! Get out of there! You'll be killed!" She'd shouted without thinking, and now her position was exposed. Swearing under her breath, she moved to a nearby tree, keeping a close eye on the battle below. Sakura clenched her teeth as Naruto landed in the river. 'A thousand years of pain, hah! He's just playing with us! There's no way I'll be able to take a bell from him; he's too good!'

'Maybe not directly, but leave the forward attacks to the boys. Come on, girl! You did not come all this way for nothing!'

Sakura took a deep breath and watched the shuriken flying from the river land easily on Kakashi's fingers. He never even took his eyes from the book.

'You're right, I at least have to try my hardest. But if this is going to work, it'll have to be on my turf.' With one last glance at the one-sided battle below, the kunoichi got to work.

Making her way swiftly through the undergrowth in a bid to relocate after Sasuke's 'surprise' attack in Kakashi's substitution, Sakura suddenly dropped to her knees at a glimpse of her sensei reading in a clearing just ahead. Praying he hadn't heard her, the pinkette slowly began the hand signs and the careful channeling of her chakra-

"Sakura, behind you."

She whirled around just in time for her to see Kakashi smile at her, hands held in a final seal. A wind swept through the area, fast and strong, rustling the leaves into a whirlwind around her, obscuring her sensei from view. A fog began to settle over her mind, and in a bolt of realization Sakura gasped.

'Genjutsu!' Jumping back into the clearing, her hands flew into the correct sign.

"Kai!" The wind and leaves immediately settled. Smirking, Sakura swiftly sent a few shuriken at Kakashi's hiding spot. Like she knew he would, the jounin, moved into the open clearing his bushin had just been in. Facing him, Sakura sunk into a stance.

"Ne, Kakashi-sensei," she called, trying to distract him a little, "if you'd read my file you would have known that genjutsu is my best subject. That's not going to work on me." She flashed him a disarming smile, her hand sinking slowly into her kunai pouch. This had to go just right.

"Second best. As I recall you were slightly more proficient elsewhere," he drawled, turning a page in his bright orange book. Sakura slid slowly to her left, and he eyed her over his book. Her hand tightened on the metal handles. "Though I do wonder if the word 'proficient' is too generous." And like the trigger to a spring loaded trap, her wrist snapped four kunai flying at him, immediately chasing after them. He nimbly dodged left only to jump back to dodge the kunai swipe. The man barely had to step aside to avoid the following shuriken, eyes on his book.

"It would seem your aim needs work-" sensing the weapons spinning towards his back the jounin sprang into the air to avoid them, only to twist away from the log that barreled towards him. Landing in a crouch, Kakashi danced around the eight Haruno Sakura's rushing towards him. They were regular bushin, unlike Naruto's solid shadow clones, and the experienced jounin easily picked out the real kunoichi. In the next second he was behind her, still reading his book when he grabbed the back of her collar to throw her across the clearing, narrowing his eyes when the girl disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The log tumbled to the ground and the jounin backed up a step and inwardly cursing when he stepped on several smoke bombs lying at his feet. The bushins he'd ignored earlier burst through the smoke cloud and dispersed in his face, clouding the air even more. Twisting around to avoid the sword slashing at his side, Kakashi turned his full attention on his book when his female student continued her taijutsu advance. It was obvious to both parties that even with the smoke obscuring some of her attacks he was clearly her superior in every way. So when he missed her arm by six inches and overreached, giving the pinkette the opening she needed to grab at the bells, the white haired man jerked away in surprise and was gone in the next heartbeat.

Clenching her teeth, Sakura stood in the rapidly disappearing smoke and tried to catch her breath. 'Damn it! I was so, so close!' That plan was a one-time only shot, and now she'd have to think of something on the fly. Bringing both sai up in a defensive position, she scanned the clearing with her chakra and ran through scenarios as the last of the smoke wafted away.

A cheerful chuckle broke through the silence, echoing from all sides. "Not bad, not bad. A displacement genjutsu set so subtly you almost got me. But almost only counts in horse-shoes, Sakura-chan!" Scowling, she glared at the trees for a moment and the closed her eyes in an attempt to pinpoint his location. "In case you're wondering my little student, what gave you away was the obvious gap in the miss. A jounin doesn't miss by six inches; but that's a rookie mistake, being so obvious. Hopefully…"

"…you'll learn." The sudden spike of chakra behind her had her whirling around to- nothing. The clearing was empty. 'Did he leave?'

'He better not have! We are so not finished here! SHANNARO!'

'Shush, Inner. What was that chakra spike for?' When nothing happened in the next few minutes, Sakura slowly eased out of her defensive position. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what was going on. Kakashi had obviously left, but something still felt off about the space around her. The complete silence was setting her teeth on edge and she was rapidly losing her patience.

"Graaahhh! KAKASHI-SENSEI! Quit the crap and get out here!"

"Onee-chan." Squealing like a startled rabbit, Sakura spun to face the voice and brought up her sai once more, only to still at the sight before her.

Her Hiroki, her darling little brother, was slumped against the trees, stuck like a fleshy pin cushy with kunai and shuriken. He was missing an ear and an arm from the elbow down, and a large gash bisected his right eye. The ground soaked up more blood than she'd ever seen in her life. "On-nee-chan," he called again, and though Sakura couldn't breathe, could barely hear him over the roaring in her ears, the next she knew she was at his side choking out assurances that everything would be okay, she'd make it all okay. The genin gathered the broken boy in her arms just as he gasped his last breath. Accusing, lifeless green eyes stared up at her.

Sakura screamed.

Honestly, Kakashi thought, glaring at his would-have-been students, genin these days knew next to nothing about what it meant to be a ninja. Though to be fair, they didn't grow up in a war like he did. Still. He had expected better, especially of these three, though he couldn't say why for the life of him.

He'd gathered the three of them to the posts when alarm went off, and Sasuke and Sakura were sat on either side of their blonde teammate, who was tied to the middle post. Uzumaki should have known better than to try and steal the lunches, but the child had been screaming bloody murder since he'd been tied up, only quieting for a moment when Kakashi had escorted a red-eyed, sniffling Sakura to the area.

Both boys in fact had looked concerned at her obvious distress, though the blonde had translated said concern to death threats at making "their Sakura-chan cry!" Even the Uchiha's death glare and gotten a little icier at his appearance. Really, their concern for her was strange, considering none of the three had even considered helping each other. Kakashi eyed the female who'd outwardly clamed but still held the water bottle dug from her pack in a white-knuckled grasp and wondered if she would have nightmares from whatever the Hell Viewing technique had shown her. Guiltily remembering the way she'd been mumbling about her otouto between gasps when he found her, he thought that was a pretty sure bet.

She needed to learn to harden her heart though, the same way the Uchiha needed to rid himself of his arrogance and Naruto needed to think before he leapt. The way all of them needed to learn teamwork was everything to a ninja.

So he gave them The Speech, listing out their individual faults and telling them to quite while they were behind since they'd never cut it in the shinobi situations. When he tackled Sasuke to the ground (does it really only take one prod at his pride to provoke him? Really?), he was even so kind as to demonstrate one of said enemy tactics. (Truly, they should thank him. He was being quite generous, spelling it all out for them.) By the time he'd finished telling them about the memorial stone, looking underneath the underneath, and, most importantly, that shinobi who broke the rules were trash, but that those who abandoned their friends were worse than trash, they were quiet.

In fact, they were so quiet and contrite looking, sneaking peeks at their teammates from the corner of their eyes in shame, that Kakashi felt his deeply buried heartstrings twang. Just a little bit. So he went with his gut and gave them a second chance.

Listening to them divvying up the lunches, Kakashi couldn't help but smile a little- though that Sakura had actually eaten breakfast made him pout a bit inside- because it seems he was right. They did have the potential to be great, and for once Kakashi was glad the old man had assigned him a team. So it was that the smile he gave them when he passed his genin was genuinely proud and pleased.

He really couldn't wait to get started.

Alright, I hope you all enjoyed it. I'll try to update really soon! (Or as soon as I can crank out a good chapter!) I'm thinking there's going to be more family action next. Itachi most likely be in the next one, but don't quote me on that. I'm also planning to take Kakashi's training techniques in a different direction the manga went, which is to say there will be actual training. Let me know how you liked Kakashi's POV, ESPECIALLY his thoughts on Sakura's family. I'm really interested in some feedback on that front.

See you all next time! And thanks again for your support.

-I.C.