"Hello," a masked jonin said when he walked in.

"You're late," Kiba and Sakura yelled at him.

"...The ability to be on time is a direct reflection of how you view the people you are meeting," Shino said. "If you are to be our sensei, be on time next time."

The jonin put his hand to his chin. "Well, I can try. But you never know where a person gets lost at. Meet me up on the roof in two minutes."

Kiba and Sakura started to leave. "Wait," Shino said. "He does not view us with enough respect to be prompt, we will view him with the same respect."

—oo000oo—

Kakashi was the notoriously late, not the notoriously waiting. And he did not like it. When finally they showed up, he said, "My first impression of all of you is that I hate you."

"The feeling is mutual," Kiba said. "I would rather have that new kunoichi my mother told me had just made rank."

"We do need a genjutsu specialist," Shino said, his voice still even and unemotional. Sakura didn't say anything.

Kakashi gritted his teeth. "I was going to go through introductions. But I think I won't. I'll get right to my favorite part. Tomorrow is a test to see if you stay genin. If you fail, you get sent back here for more training. And I have never passed a team." He enjoyed the looks on the faces of both Kiba and Sakura. Sadly, Shino showed no difference. "But for once, I hope you pass. Because if I do, I am going to make your lives..."

He felt something wet hit his leg and the smell of urine filled the air. Looking down, he saw the Inuzuka's dog peeing on him. "Oh, you three have better pass tomorrow. Because I will put you through hell. I want to be the one to make you quit."

Sakura and Kiba took a determined look. "My family is nothing but ninja! To stay a genin or quit is a shame I will never look down," Kiba yelled. Before putting Akamaru in his coat and telling him he was a good boy.

"I have a lot of things to make up for... And I am not going to let some ninja that clearly doesn't deserve the rank he has keep me from it," Sakura said.

"...I believe they mean bring on your test and your hell," Shino said to him. "We are not going back."

He clenched his fist so hard his knuckles popped. And Shino decided to rub salt into the wounds. "A ninja that loses control of their emotions is little more than a rampant animal."

"...I am Hatake Kakashi. And from this day forward, you will speak to me with respect."

All three of them said the same reply. "Respect is earned, not given." Kakashi vowed right then and there to do what he hadn't done in near thirteen years. Show up on time. So he would have more time to beat the hell out of them.

—oo000oo—

Naruto bolted up right, a kunai in hand. He was asleep just moments ago before something woke him up. The sound came again, from the window. He relaxed as he stood up and opened it. "Who is it?"

"Naruto...I need to ask you about a jonin," Sakura called.

Naruto arched an eyebrow. This was un-expected.

—oo000oo—

He was dressed in his normal clothing and was outside with her. "So, who do you want to know about?"

"Hatake Kakashi," Sakura told him. "I know you know allot about the higher ranking ninja in the village. I think I might be in trouble with him."

"Why?" She told him. And Naruto went wide eyed before grinning. "No wonder that went over so badly with him. Hmm. He is Copy Ninja Kakashi, as he is known in the bingo books. This is because during one of his missions, he gained one of the rare Sharigan eyes."

"What is a Sharigan?"

Naruto frowned before remembering that Kekkei Genkai study was not part of the academy criteria. "It is the Blood Line ability of the Uchiha clan. It allows the owner to not only copy any nin and genjutsu they see but also cast genjutsu without hand signs with enough skill, just by making eye contact. It gives them near total recall of anything they see with it. Including kenjutsu, the art of weapon fighting. It has no rival in that department. The greatest threat to it is really the Hyuuga Byakugan, a blind ninja, or a taijutsu fighter with great speed."

"He has one of these?"

"Yes. He also has an arsenal of around a thousand jutsus to turn on you."

"Oh my god," Sakura said. "I made him mad at me..."

"Nothing you can do about that now," Naruto said. "One more piece of information I think you should know. He along with my first sensei, Rin-chan, were the students of the Fourth." That made her throw up. Naruto kept her up right while she emptied her stomach. "Feel better?"

"Some what."

"Now, what to do against him. First off, if he ever takes you serious enough to lift up his headband, run. You might not have much of a chance but it is a chance. Second, he keeps his Sharigan covered because he can't turn it off. But it doesn't take chakra when it doesn't see anything. As he isn't perfectly aligned with it, it takes a great deal more than it would an Uchiha.

"So that is his greatest strength and weakness," Sakura said.

"Yes."

"...I really have no chance against him, do I?"

"Not in the least. Not if it is just to fight."

"What do I do?"

"I think the problem is what you just said. I. Maybe you should go speak with your team and ask them what do 'we' do. Give them what I told you. And don't be afraid to make it up as you go along."

"...A team effort," Sakura said when the realization hit her. "That is the answer to the test, isn't it?"

Naruto nodded at the sound reasoning. "It would make sense. If you do fight him, then that would be the only way to win. Maybe you need not even win. After all, you are still genin to him being a jonin."

Sakura hugged him. "Thank you, Naruto-kun!" She stepped back and saw a shocked expression on his face. "I had a talk with Iruka-sensei after you left. And in the end I decided I would start over new. That is if you will give me the chance."

Naruto smiled. "Sure. Now you better go get Kiba and Shino. It is late so you don't have much time. And I doubt you didn't make him mad enough to still be late."

She nodded. "Good nigh." She ran to Kiba's home, it was closer.

Naruto was about to head inside when he felt a familiar presence close by. "Hello uncle."

"Now, when I came to check up on how ready you were, I didn't think I would see you putting the moves on a kunoichi."

"She came asking advice."

"And giving advice and forgiveness is a great start to a relationship, my student," Jiriaya said, sage like.

Naruto just sighed, "Good night uncle."

—oo000oo—

Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata arrived at Forty Four right on time. And not five minutes later, Anko showed up as well. "Follow me." She went up to a gate, unlocked it, and walked in. Following her, she led them to a small clearing in the trees some hundred feet from the edge. "Now here is your test. You will stay in here for twenty four hours, the next twenty four hours. After which time, you will enter the tower in the center. If at any point you feel your life is too much at risk, you can take this key," she gave them each a master gate key, "and leave. But, should you feel you are up to it, you can make your way to the tower.

"Now the rules. This is pass or fail, the tower or the gates. Also, you cannot enter the tower, nor one kilometer radius of it until eight tomorrow morning. At which time, you have two hours to enter it. Fail to enter in that time, you fail the test as well. You are going to survive by your wits, and whatever gear you brought with you, alone. There is no going back now to get ready. Any questions?"

Naruto raised his hand. "What if we are to stubborn to quit or caught to fast to head back?"

"Then that should be obvious," Anko said, "you die. Those envelopes were permission slips. They explained exactly what I have planned along with the order not to tell you what it is. It also said that if they felt you were not ready for this, they were advised not to sign it."

Hinata almost cried. "My father did not care enough to read it."

"...Then I leave it up to you. You know yourself the best after all," Anko said. "Naruto-kun, Sasuke, and Hinata. You have your mission, twenty-four hours behind enemy lines. No help is coming should you find yourself in trouble. You are on your own." That was the best way she could some it up that they could understand. "Right now, accept or reject?"

"No way am I quiting," Sasuke said.

"...Has journeyed long, singing his song," Naruto gave as his yes, "in search of Eldorado. But he grew old, this knight so bold, his heart a shadow. Fell when he found, no spot of ground, that looked like Eldorado."

Hinata understood what he meant. A warrior could accept his mission for years, they could accept their for a day. "I... I, Hyuuga Hinata, will complete the mission put before me," she told her sensei.

Anko grinned, she could grow to like these brats. "Then go. I will see you in twenty four hours."

—oo000oo—

Sakura, Kiba, and Shino stood looking at Kakashi. He just arrived and was still eying them. "You are to retrieve a bell. And I have only two of them. Meaning one of you will be sent back," he told them.

"Trying to pit us against each other," Shino whispered to them.

"The one that is will also be tied to that stump and made to watch as I eat their lunch."

"And if none of us get a bell," Sakura asked.

"Then none of you pass and all of you return..."

Kiba spoke up now. "Shino, Sakura, I will go back. It won't take me long to become a genin again." They nodded.

"Though I would rather myself go," Sakura said. "It isn't hard to guess that I am the weakest one here, physically."

Kakashi arched his eyebrow. "Are you sure you want to, Kiba? Didn't you just say yesterday that it is a dishonor to fail or stay a genin?"

"And it is a far worst thing not to give your all for the pack," Kiba replied.

"...But Kakashi is right," Shino said. "It is more logical that I head back. My parents will understand."

"Boys," Sakura said, pulling out a kunai, "how about we decide that after we have gotten our hands on those bells."

"True, deciding before then is pointless," Shino said.

Kiba grinned, before crouching down to Akamaru. "Ready," he asked Kakashi.

"...How do you even think you are going to get them? You are just genin."

"Simple," they all said. "There are three of us working together." Sakura had to say it. "And we know your greatest strength and weakness."

"Do you now?"

"Copy Ninja Kakashi," Shino said. "My father has worked with you on occasion. He told me you are a master strategist."

"Signed the contract with the dogs," Kiba said. "And has almost as good as mine for it. I know because my mom told me."

"And the Sharigan under your headband," Sakura said. "We know we are way out of our league. But maybe not fighting together." She kept from smiling as she saw Kiba feed Akamaru a soldier pill unseen while she was talking. Her genjutsu she cast earlier kept his fur white. She also saw the grass shifting as a thousand bugs were moving to surround the white haired jonin. "So why don't we cut the talking and get on with it?"

"Fine... Go."

Sakura sent chakra through one of her ninja wires she had set in place last night. One of several she had set. A kunai shot from a tree, dragging a chain of explosive tags. It wrapped around him and exploded.

"Human, Beast Ninpou!" Both Kiba and Akamaru transformed into a hybrid of each other. They were each holding something in their palm. "Fang over Fang!" The jumped, spinning so faster, they could barely see where they were going. But they didn't go for the smoke filled position. They smelled him elsewhere. They hit the bushes, flushing him out. Kakashi was too busy jumping back to notice the two very small things that were thrown at him.

Just as fast as the initial attack took place, they were gone. Kakashi looked around for a few moments but didn't see or smell them. Shrugging, he dusted himself off. He almost didn't get out of Sakura's trap in time. And almost getting hit by Kiba... He didn't like it, that was a lot of almost. He sniffed his clothes and frowned under his mask. A very unique sent was coming from them now. So unique, a cub could follow it back to him. Sakura had added something to those notes.

A bug landed on his arm and he brushed it off. Then another, followed by several more. Then the swarm appeared. Knowing that he couldn't fight those, he decided the better part of valor right now would be to run. So, he jumped away but they kept following him.

Sakura only had to wait. She had a wire tied to each finger, all of them leading to traps. She just needed Kiba and Shino to direct him to the spots she could attack him from.

—oo000oo—

'Damn it! I underestimated them!' Kakashi was breathing hard and looked worst for wear. 'I may actually have to use it.' He lifted his headband and began to notice things that slipped his grasp before. Particularly the two insects that were just hanging onto him. "Females, no doubt." He flicked both of them off. 'That stops Shino for a minute. Not much I can do to Kiba. But Sakura and those damn traps have to be stopped.'

He looked around for any sign of her. His eye widened when he saw he was only a foot away from the kill zone of another of her traps. Taking a step back, he pulled a trip wire. Another trap was revealed, hidden by the first. This was a small stack of explosive notes with around fifty shurikens tied around it. And the notes exploded.

Kiba looked from behind his tree and saw the damage that particular trap did. "Hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn," he said. Where once a grouping of trees once stood, a broken pile of splinters and tinder now was. And that was just from the explosion. Shurikens were thrown everywhere and into everything. His tree included. Sakura had warned them about that but to actually see it...

A snap of a twig alerted him of it just in time. Kiba ducked a punch from Kakashi. "You stand in the open too much," Kakashi taunted. Kiba threw his own punch. Followed by a kick and then a round house punch. All of them missed and now Kakashi was behind him, his hands in the Tiger Seal. "I have been waiting to use this on one of you! Thousand Years of..."

Akamaru hit him with a Fang over Fang. As he was flying through the air, another trap was launched but these didn't explode. The wire just wrapped around him, the tags waiting to go off. Finally, Shino's bugs surrounded him and started to drain him of his chakra.

"I suggest you surrender," Shino said.

"No," Kakashi said. He began to flash through hand signs and the air turned freezing cold around him. The insects slowed then fell asleep, falling off him. "Now for you." His eye widened when he heard the chink of the bells. They came from behind him, not on him. Spinning around, he saw Sakura holding a kunai and the bells on severed strings.

"We win," she said before tossing the bells to her teammates.

Kakashi frowned, "So you did. Congratulations, all of you pass."

—oo000oo—

Hiashi gave the same frown that a certain masked jonin gave that morning. Something was off, as it had been for most of the day. He called a servant in. "Is there something out of the ordinary happening right now?"

"Lady Hinata has not been seen since she went to take her genin test this morning, sir. ...If that is what it is that has your concern."

"What what do you mean by that," Hiashi demanded.

"That you didn't even care enough about your daughter to read what you were sending her into," the woman replied. "I mean, that was a permission slip to go into the Forest of Death. And you didn't even notice they said that in big, bold letters. Do you even recognize her as family?"

Hiashi stood, ready to fight. "No servant would speak as thus! Who are you!?"

The servant puffed in smoke, revealing a woman with dark hair wearing a tiger mask. She wore the uniform of an ANBU. "I am not here to fight. I am here because of your choices. Your daughter's instructor was told you didn't read it. She is, even now, in danger and you had no knowledge. Her instructor has spoken with the Hokage about this. And he might be considering removing her from your clan for her own safety."

"He can't do that," Hiashi said.

She gave him a strained laugh. "You are very wrong there. He has every right to as she is a ninja and her safety is his prime concern and obviously not your's. But he is trying to come up with a way to not have to resort to this. Against the advice of some unbiased individuals."

"And they would be?"

"Rin-sama, Jiriaya-sama, a captain of ANBU black opts. Myself and my team."

He ground his teeth in anger. "You have no right..."

"I thought I covered this. Anyway, I will put it simple, you have one more chance to make things right with your daughter or you will never see her again. Am I understood?"

"The Hokage will hear of this."

"Tell him," she encouraged. "You will find that at the moment, I am keeping supporters from pushing this through. The fact is that we have already compiled a list of charges against you to her through the statement of witnesses."

Hiashi scowled openly at her. He would have her mask mounted on the wall. And his 'daughter' would feel his anger as well for betraying her like this.

—oo000oo—

"Look out!" Naruto pushed Hinata out of the way so the snake just hit the tree. "We need to run now!" His voice started to take a shrill sound to it. Soon, it was causing everyone pain. "Sasuke, get away from that tree!"

As he ran, he felt why. The ground was growing very loose. So loose in fact, the roots no longer had a strong enough hold to keep it steady. And when Naruto ran and punched it, it started to fall. Right on the giant snake. It thrashed around to free itself but it was pinned good. And it was also bleeding.

The three of them looked at it for a moment. Then they began to cheer. "We did it," Naruto yelled.

"Oh course," Sasuke said, though he had been a little nervous for a moment.

"Ano... How did you do that," Hinata asked.

"Huh? Oh, that. I just aimed my voice at the base of the tree and started raising the pitch until the earth lost cohesiveness. Pretty much, it became quicksand so the roots had nothing to hold it up directly around it." He went eyes wide when another roar was heard.

Hinata activated her Byakugan. "I don't see anything! Whatever it is must have evolved to avoid chakra detection as well! It must smell the blood!" They all looked at the still living snake. It wasn't going to die from the tree. But whatever it was that roared sounded big and hungry.

"Hinata," Sasuke said. "I know this will be hard but I want you to keep your Byakugan up until you simply can't anymore."

"I will do my best," Hinata said. "I see a river in that direction. There is a tree with a washed out den underneath it."

"That will be a good place to hide for a bit," Naruto said. Despite all the monsters here, he was in the best shape. Because part of the harshness of this forest lies in that there are so many sounds of creatures in a life or death struggle. But sounds take a whole new meaning to Naruto.

"Let's go before whatever that is gets here then," Sasuke told them. Hinata nodded, glancing around. If that thing had grown to avoid to be seen by the Byakugan, how many other things could as well?

They ran through the trees, on look out for anything that moved. Naruto kept clicking his tongue, also seeing things around them. Sasuke wished he had something to contribute to that as well but he knew that he had to leave it to the people that did. That is what a team did. Work together to make the best use of their strengths and also make new ones.

—oo000oo—

The centipede ripped into the flesh of the snake. The blood tasted sweet to it and was the best part. Other hunters had started to make a move on the easy kill but he made his presence known, they left. He was the strongest in the forest! Even those mighty hairless apes with their gray, sharp claws were no match for him!

But they always put up the best fight for such small creatures... Yes, yes, he could smell them around this meal. They were here. They were here in his forest again. He should go eat them. Tear their flesh apart and slowly digest them. No, no, leave them. Fore these ones were leaving him plenty of meals. Yes, yes, kill them. They think they can hide from him. Nothing can hide from him. He was the strongest!

The centipede continued to eat. He still had a meal here. If still hungry, go kill them, it decided.

—oo000oo—

Author's notes: And there we have chapter four. I'm sure you are wondering why have that last part. How could a centipede even think those thinks. Well, you are talking about a brain the size of a car engine. Limited thought isn't that far fetched then. And as you could clearly see, it is very limited. And not the most organized. I kind of got inspiration for this from the book, 'Streams of Silver' by R.A. Salvatore. When the Hunters of the Hall met a giant worm with much the same thinking capabilities.

So, think team eight was able to win the respect of Kakashi? Or should it become a love/hate relationship. That they just love to hate each other? That will be hard to work but I think I can do it. But no guarantees.

This is not a Naruhina. I like the coupling allot but I already have one of those. I don't know who it will be yet though. By the way, I do have the main plot thought out. This and a few more chapters are just the ones that will explain the strengths and mindsets of the relevant characters. I think I should be able to get into it by the end of the Wave Arc.