Foreward: A (Very) short oneshot for your viewing pleasure.

Sasuke snorted as he stared at her.

"Useless"

Sakura's head sank down at the casual dismissal

"Hey! Don't be like that bastard! I bet she could be a Kickass Kunoichi with a little training."

"Pfft. It'd never happen."

"Oh ya! I bet even I could train her to kick your ass!"

"Mine? You? HAH! I bet she couldn't even beat Konohamaro with whatever so call training you gave her. Now me... I'd have her consistently beating Kiba in under a month."

Naruto Snorted before getting up in Sasuke's face.

"Think you could huh? Granted she on the scrawny side, but with me as a Personal trainer I'd have her throwing you around like a rage doll in no time flat!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he moved foreword far enough that their foreheads were nearly touching.

"If that's the best you've got then you need some new material. Besides, with someone like me as a trainer, I'd have her using trees as clubs faster than I can say "I win" In fact, not only would she be proficient with weapons instead of that weak-ass halfhearted shit she does now, but I'd have her throwing bigger and more powerful Jutsu than you in under a year."

"Um guys..."

Sakura's voice was quiet, her ego had taken quite a bruising over the last couple of minutes...

"Oh ya smart-ass! I bet I could triple her Chakra pool and teach her a new Jutsu in a week!"

"Guys?"

Sakura's voice was a little louder, but her teammates continued without hearing her

"HAH. Better, but still weak. Like you, and her. Frankly her chakra pools are a joke as she is. I'd have them bigger by at least a factor of ten and teach her Two new Jutsu in that time!"

A mild aura of killer intent had sprung up between the two of them, and Kakashi, who had just arrived wisely kept his mouth shut.

"Guys!"

"Oh ya! Well not only could I fix her throwing style, her chakra pool, and teach her two new Jutsu, but in a month I bet I could get her Tiajutsu style fixed and have her well on her way to developing her own style!"

"Ya?"

"Ya!"

"GUYS!"

And suddenly all three of them were swept into a (begrudging and uncomfortable) group hug by their Sensei.

"What a wonderful Idea! And to keep the fighting to a minimum, I'll be the judge of who actually does a better job."

Naruto and Sasuke took the opportunity to glower at each other across the short distance between them.

"Sasuke can go first since it seems that Naruto is the challenger. You'll swap weeks and in two months Sakura and I will sit down and figure out who actually won your little challenge."

Unfortunate that I'll have to tell hokage-sama that I'm withdrawing my nomination, but better that then them getting themselves or each other killed.

Sasuke broke the glare with a grunt.

"Be an hour early to training tomorrow Sakura. You'd better appreciate that this is cutting into my personal training time, and I will be VERY upset if you're even a minute late."

Sakura sighed but nodded, as much as she wanted to deny it, she was having a hard time refuting the claims they had made.

"AGAIN! FASTER!"

Sakura's eyes burned as the sweat dripped into them. This had to be her hundreth repetition of the tree jumping acrobatics that Sasuke said he had designed to improve her stamina and chakra pool while refining her balance... thank Kami it was Sunday, there was no way that Naruto would be such a slave driver.

Come on! One more! You can do it!

Sakura's arms trembled and her chakra wavered sinking her up to her wrists in the cold pond that she was currently doing pushups on. She didn't try to regain that lost height as her focus was almost entirely on making her abused muscles perform the last of the hundred pushups Naruto had... ah... 'Encouraged' her to do today. The fact that he was still trying to get water walking down was small consolation. She had been wrong. Naruto was every bit as stubborn as Sasuke had been, the only difference was that were Sasuke had been cold and demanding, Naruto was sad and disappointed. It made her feel like a real ass every time she let him down, and so she dug deep and got one more pushup done before collapsing. Vaguely she was aware of Naruto's arm across her chest as he swam the two of them back to shore... she'd have to do something about that... later... maybe...

"The Crane... gracefully it dances across the shore... no movement wasted... perfectly in tune with it's surroundings..."

Sakura tried to keep her mind clear and her body stable as Sasuke guided her through the cool down meditation. The contortions that he could manage still eluded her, but she was doing much better now, she had even managed to incorporate some of them into her fighting style. Sasuke had admitted that his style wasn't for her, and while Naruto, much to her shock, had indeed helped her fix the holes in her old one. Sasuke was much better at helping her make a new one... which Naruto promptly tore apart and put back together. It was a little surprising to her how well the two of them actually complemented each others teaching style, and both built and improved on the base that the other had left for them.

Naruto nodded in satisfaction at the water clone as it swung around the bo-staff he had handed it. Sakura sat nearby catching her breath. She didn't know how Naruto had learned the water clone, but he had flat out refused to teach her the shadow clone. When she had pressed him on it he had gone a bright red and muttered about it being a kinjutsu for a reason. The bo-staff was new, but she had to admit that her clone looked really damn cool spinning it around like that. Naruto sighed and shook his head however.

"You've never used a staff before have you?"

"You have?"

"Oh boy..."

Kakashi smiled at his cute Gennin.

"I'm very proud of you all. You're half way done with the challenge, and I've got to admit that you've all come a long way in a short month. So, Today I have a bit of a confession, and then a really fun mission as an apology. The confession is that the Chuuin Selection Exams start today, and I'm sorry. I didn't enter you."

Team 7 collectivity sighed

"I'd wondered when the others started talking about it."

Sasuke nodded in agreement with Naruto, before adding

"It was kind of hard to miss all the foreigners in town too."

Sakura's shoulders slumped and she sighed again before finishing their thought.

"Let me guess... poor teamwork?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Cheer up though! I landed us a C-Rank. I called in some favors and we're going to help proctor the written test. Your jobs are going to be to keep track of anyone doing a crappy job cheating. Catch anyone five times and you're allowed to kick them from the room. Be sure to be able to back up your reasoning though, because the head of our T and I will be having words with you afterword if he disagrees with your decision."

All three of them swallowed noisily at that, and each promised themselves to be extra careful about their checking.

Naruto smiled to himself as he watched the chuuin hopefuls file out the door. He couldn't help but notice out of the corner of his eyes that it was matched by Sasuke's smirk and Sakura's beaming grin.

"Well, Well, Well."

The three of them tensed up at the voice behind them and slowly turned around. Sasuke was the first to find his voice.

"Ibiki-Sama"

"Naruto. Seat fourteen. Why."

Naruto swallowed convulsively before replying

"P...poor job signaling his teammates. I admit that I only actually caught him cheating twice himself, but he was being really obvious when passing them on."

Ibiki stared him in the eye for a moment before nodding.

"Sasuke. Seat 27. Why?"

Sasuke frowned. Twenty seven had been kicked out by one of the other proctors toward the end. It wasn't until the 'boy' had stood up in protest that he had actually realized what was going on.

"His team was a plant. I'm not sure what skill they were using to look so young and suppress their chakra, but he had an ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder in flesh-tone ink."

Ibiki nodded.

"I thought you had caught that but I wanted to be sure. I'll have to have words with him later. Sakura. Why wasn't team six kicked out?"

Sakura smiled a little, relaxing as she knew the answer.

"Shikamaru used shadow bind to do all their tests at the same time. While fairly obvious by the fact that the handwriting and motions were identical for the three of them, he only used it once. So long as at least three questions were correct they pass."

Ibiki's mouth turned up a little at the corners and he nodded before replying.

"Well done. I look forward to seeing you in action in the future. This will be reported as a successful 'B' Rank mission and you will all receive a commendation in your permanent record for preforming above and beyond expectations."

As he walked away it was all they could do not to cheer.

Kakashi smiled, it had been a tough decision and a serious blow to his pride to withdraw them, but seeing the results he was certain it was the right decision. Standing he quietly followed them to the training grounds where they started stretches, two of them chattering back an forth while the third occasionally interjected a comment or correction. There were two weeks left in the challenge between the boys, but he suspected that it had mostly fallen by the wayside. They trained together, they ate together. They had the kind of synchrony that usually wasn't seen until late chuuin or early special-jounin. The best part was that they were accelerating far faster than he would have imagined! Teaching Sakura had helped the other two find balance in both the squad, and their personal lives. This had led to a little bending of stiff necks, a slight and growing feeling that they could let the facade drop around each other. Frankly, he couldn't be prouder.

AN: I've seen a lot of things in Naruto fanfic, but there are two I would really like to see someone try. The first is basically what i've outlined above. Something causes Kakashi to change his mind before he gives out the permission forms to his students. The second would be Saukra deciding just a bit faster that she was willing to sacrifice her own chances to save Sasuke and Naruto's dreams and gets them kicked out on question 10. I think both would be an excellent and highly underexplored way to start a story.

I don't recall what it was that triggered the inception of this story, but here you have it.

Love it? Hate it? Click the 'Review' Button and let me know... or don't. Your call really...

~Manatheron~