Author's Note:

I've aged the characters up two years, as I believe it's more believable, so everyone is 14 soon to be 15 at this point.

Secondly, for those that like to read stories in chunks, or wait for several chapters to be uploaded, or are just curious, these first 5 chapters are very much going to be more like 'training' chapters with some setup, chapters 6-8 are very setup heavy, and I would consider chapters 1-8 as Act 1 of Part 1.

For some reason, Sasuke had led Naruto back to the training grounds instead of the hospital. They met with Sakura just outside the training ground limits and Naruto's face twisted in suspicion.

"Is this some kind of lame trick Sasuke?" he said, turning to Sasuke in annoyance, but Sakura quickly came to his defense.

"No, Kakashi told me to tell you guys to come here, and no I don't know why he would say that."

"But we can't go in there, aren't those seals supposed to do something terrible?" Naruto shot back, still confused.

"I hate to say it, but Naruto's right," Sasuke responded in agreement.

"Right about what?" said a lazy voice from behind them.

The trio turned around in shock to see Kakashi standing behind them, his eyes crinkled in amusement. He appeared completely healthy even though he had been bedridden just a few days ago.

"Well go on, don't leave me waiting here forever," he continued.

This time it was Sakura who spoke, "It was Jiraiya, he sort of forced us to have a day off today, he said if we didn't those seals on the ground would make us regret it."

"I see, Jiraiya did mention something like that. How nice to know that my students have been working hard even when I couldn't be here for them," the three genin cringed at his tone and couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. They decided to say nothing and let their sensei keep going. But he instead knelt down and put his hands on one of the seals. Naruto and Sakura winced, expecting him to activate it, but nothing happened for a few moments until Kakashi stood up and the seal he had touched was crinkled and deactivated.

"I'm sure he won't mind if we come in and have a little chat for a while," Kakashi said as he beckoned them to follow his lead.

When they had made their way to the center Kakashi seemed satisfied and began speaking, "Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, I think I owe you three an apology." For the third time in 5 minutes, their faces twisted into confusion, what was Kakashi apologizing for?

"It's all my fault you see, I had thought that because we were in peacetime I could afford to teach you three at a leisurely pace. Let you grow and discover at your own speed, and prepare you diligently until you were ready for the life of a shinobi. But as you all saw, war doesn't care if you're ready to be a shinobi or still just pretending to be one."

Sakura's eyes widened, "Are you saying-"

But Kakashi knew what she was thinking, "No Sakura, the talks with Suna are actually going well, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have gotten into war. In fact, it doesn't mean we even we're out of the frying pan yet. Orochimaru is still out there and other enemy nations might decide that now is the perfect time to strike, while we're weakened and still rebuilding." He paused to let them soak everything in and continued.

"Back in the Land of Waves, I told you three that I would do everything in my power to protect you, that I would keep fighting till my dying breath. But then, I found myself in front of Orochimaru, with an unconscious Sasuke behind me."

Sasuke grimaced, realizing what exactly Kakashi was talking about, to think Orochimaru had gotten that close to him. . . .

"I was afraid, and if Orochimaru had felt like it, I wouldn't have been able to do anything to stop him."

There was a long silence as they took in what Kakashi had told them. It was rare that their sensei spoke this seriously and sincerely all at once. After gathering up the courage, Sakura spoke first, "But Kakashi you couldn't have done anything, Orochimaru beat the Third and he would have beat you too."

"Nonsense Sakura, my job as your sensei is to protect and teach you until you three are strong and capable enough to face these threats on your own. I haven't done good on either of those things, so there's going to be a lot of changes,"

"What sort of changes?" Naruto cut in, not sure whether to be excited or not.

Kakashi's demeanor softened and he began smiling again, "Well now is the fun part, we all get to become very powerful shinobi together."

Now it was Sasuke's turn to smile. Finally, it was time Kakashi got serious about their training. This was what he had been waiting for, training with Kakashi for that month to fight Gaara was exhilarating, to feel his power grow so much and so rapidly was intoxicating.

"Now Naruto, I understand you've grown a lot better with chakra control ever since the Forest of Death?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, "I can even walk on water now!"

Kakashi smiled as he put a hand in his pocket and materialized several square pieces of paper, "Excellent Naruto, I want you to try and focus your chakra in this piece of paper and tell me what happens. It's okay if it doesn't work on your first try, that's why there's more than one of them."

Naruto nodded as Kakashi handed him the papers, and Kakashi turned to face Sakura. "You have a lot of catching up to do, we're gonna focus on your taijutsu, and when I think you're ready I'm gonna have you and Sasuke get started on genjutsu."

"What about me?" Sasuke questioned.

"Until Sakura is ready, you and I are going to be working on our endurance. What's the point of this Chidori if we get exhausted after a few." This answer seemed to satisfy Sasuke and he looked in the direction of Naruto who was now crowing about something trying to get Kakashi's attention.

"Kakashi look! Look! My paper! It split in half!" he said flailing his arms around, "What does that mean?"

"It means your elemental affinity is wind Naruto," Kakashi responded.

"Wind?"

"Yes, it's quite a rare element to have an affinity for in Konoha," he remarked, and this seemed to be enough to get Naruto excited about it.

Kakashi looked at his excited students, "I know you're all excited, but these won't be the only new things happening. There's going to be some serious changes in the way we do missions. Being strong isn't enough to be a good shinobi, you three have some serious team-dynamic problems. This is a problem that stems from all three of you, and not just Naruto being stubborn, as you'd like to believe Sasuke and Sakura. Nor is it just Sasuke being arrogant as you might be thinking, Naruto."

Sasuke cringed at the criticism but stayed quiet along with Naruto. Sakura was the one asking questions again, "What's going to happen sensei?"

Kakashi smiled mischievously, knowing they weren't going to like his answer, "That's for me to know and you to find out tomorrow after promotions." Before any of them could object, Kakashi cut in, "Also Jiraiya's seals are going to reactivate in 30 seconds. I suggest you get out of the training grounds if you don't want to be in a great deal of pain for the rest of the day."

And with that Kakashi poofed out of existence, revealing he was just a shadow clone. However, it meant very little to his students as they were tripping over their feet, desperately trying to escape the training grounds.

"You know Kakashi, I would have expected this from you and your team, not Asuma's," Jiraiya said, trying to lighten the mood in the room. It had been an agonizing half an hour waiting for Team Ten who apparently forgot what day it was today. Gai's team was the worse for wear, Lee had been admitted out of the hospital just in time for today. Despite being confined to a wheelchair for the time being, and still just generally being in a bad physical state, he had still managed to get on Neji's nerves. Tenten had to calm them both down while telling Lee this wasn't the appropriate time to ask for a rematch.

There was a brief knock on the door but before anyone could open it the door swung open and Team Ten was standing there awkwardly. An uncharacteristically angry Shikamaru had a piece of Chouji's shirt in his hands.

Jiraiya smirked, "We were beginning to think you weren't going to join us Asuma,"

"Did you get lost on the path of life?" Kakashi asked jokingly.

Asuma glanced down at his students wondering if there was a way to explain what had happened that morning. He decided there wasn't but before he could dismiss it Ino decided to cut in.

"Shikamura got lost on the path of dreamland, and had the audacity to get angry at us for waking him up,"

Shikamaru had the decency to look embarrassed by this and Jiraiya wasn't sure what to say. He was sure if Hiruzen had been sitting at the desk rather than him, he would have something very wise to say in response and would eloquently transition to the next topic. But Jiraiya wasn't his sensei, Jiraiya made his living writing porn, so he decided just to ignore the outburst.

Naruto looked at Choji's expression and his mind ran wild wondering what sorts of things a cranky Shikamaru was capable of, but just as soon as the thought had occurred to him Jiraiya seemed to recover from the situation and began speaking.

"All right then, now that that's out of the way I'm sure you all know why we're here today. While I didn't get to see the battles before the final round, I did have all the Jounin who were present describe to me exactly what happened and their own beliefs in your capabilities. It seems to me that all nearly twelve of you are comfortably Chunin level shinobi,"

Everyone's face lit up at this but their hopes of guaranteed promotion were quickly stomped on.

"However," Jiraiya continued, "Only three of you are going to be promoted today. Now before you all get angry at me, don't worry, I'm not going to make the rest of you enter another Chunin exams. You guys are an incredibly powerful group and I, along with your Jounin sensei have decided you still need some time to mature and grow before we let you all be Chunin who have the power to lead missions and take on high-ranking ones without your sensei." Jiraiya stopped and soaked in their reactions.

Tenten spoke this time, "So what do we do then if we're not going to enter another chunin exams?"

"Your sensei described to me ways each of you need to grow, they'll lead the way for you and if in 6 months they feel you're ready, you'll be promoted."

The genin in the room had mixed expressions on their face, but didn't say another word.

"Now that that's out of the way, three of you are going to be promoted right now." an ANBU walked over and handed him three flak jackets.

"First Up, Shikamaru Nara," Shikamaru nearly let out a sigh but was able to stop himself. He had figured something like this would happen, and now he would have more and more responsibility strapped on to him that he didn't ask for; still, he wasn't stupid enough to look disappointed at a promotion in front of the Hokage. He accepted the flak jacket from Jiraiya and noted it was heavier than he thought it would be.

"Next, Shino Auburame," Everyone looked surprised at this, even Shino looked surprised for a moment, but surprise turned to satisfaction and Shino stepped forward to take the flak jacket.

"Finally. . . " The room tensed up, nobody was really sure who was going to be called last. Before the exams, Shikamaru would have guessed Sasuke or Neji would be promoted, but Sasuke's match had been interrupted, Neji had lost, and Shino had apparently impressed the elders. Shikamaru figured Shino had done something during the invasion, after all, he himself had done something similar. With that train of thought, he realized that there was really only one candidate at this point.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Naruto was elated and dashed over to his flak jacket, boasting to Kiba on his way back and taunting him about who was going to become Hokage.

"Those are your flak jackets. You don't have to wear them, but if you do, wear them with pride. I need you three to meet me tomorrow morning, other than that, you're all dismissed." Jiraiya said.

The Genin and now Chunin made their way out of Jiraiya's office, Ino said they should celebrate, and Chouji eagerly suggested a restaurant he hadn't been to in a while. Everyone obliged and were soon on their way, everyone except Sasuke.

Sasuke stood in the same spot he had been the whole time, his fists clenched. Jiraiya and Kakashi glanced at each other, figuring something like this would happen. Before Sasuke could ask his question, Kakashi decided to start answering.

"Don't take it as an insult to your strength Sasuke." he tried.

"I just don't understand, what did those three do that I can't? I didn't see Shikamaru or Shino fight Gaara." Sasuke wanted to continue but Kakashi wasn't having any of it.

"The reason they got promoted is because they weren't reckless like you Sasuke. Shikamaru knows his limits, Shino took on Kankuro for you, and Naruto actually did beat Gaara. What you did was recklessly chase down Gaara and try to beat him for your own selfish satisfaction. Not only that, but you overused the Chidori and nearly got yourself killed from chakra exhaustion. That's why they were promoted Sasuke. Because you made a mess and they did a good job cleaning it up."

Sasuke twitched in anger taking it all in, although he tried his arrogance couldn't conjure up an argument for himself. He had already acknowledged to himself that Naruto was stronger, trying to argue was pointless now. Sasuke cursed himself silently for attacking his teammates to explain his own weakness. He would never beat Itachi if he kept doing this, this was stupid. Concerning himself with something as stupid as a promotion, the green flack jacket wasn't going to help him kill his brother. . .

"Let it go Sasuke," Kakashi said as he watched Sasuke start to reach his boiling point, "What's done is done, just don't do anything like that again and you'll have your promotion in a little while."

Sasuke eased up, he had been doing a lot of that these days, at first it felt weak but eventually he realized that brooding only made Kakashi and the others lecture and pretend to understand him more.

"Fine," he said curtly as he began walking off. Jiraiya and Kakashi made brief eye contact once again.

"Where are you going Sasuke?" Kakashi asked in the least accusatory tone he could muster. Sasuke's mouth twisted into a very uncharacteristic smile. He obviously wasn't used to making this expression and even he could tell it was hollow and unconvincing.

"I'm going to celebrate my teammate's promotion." he replied before closing the door behind him. Kakashi stood wondering what to think of this for a moment.

"Well at least he's pretending to care about team dynamics now isn't he Kakashi," Jiraiya said.

"Yes, I suppose it's an improvement," Kakashi replied in defeat.

In the dim light of a flickering candle he had relit several hours ago, Kakashi sat at his desk facing the single window in his apartment. In front of him was a sprawl of Minato's old notebooks on sealing.

When Kakashi had skimmed through them, he hadn't been very interested in soaking up all the information, but he had learned two very important things upon further examination. Firstly, these notebooks were far more valuable than just any sealing scrolls you could find put away in the vast directory of information held in the library at the Hokage's residence. The information in these notebooks was incredibly advanced and pushed the art of sealing forward tremendously. Uzumaki clan sealing usually focused on either locking very bad things away, or pushing the boundaries of storage sealing. However, many of the sealing jutsu and applications Minato had concocted were very innovative and previously thought of as impossible or far too dangerous. Minato seemed to have an affinity for applying sealing jutsu to ordinary weapons and making them extremely dangerous. Some seals he had experimented with tried to actively manipulate sound. Another particularly interesting one, allowed you to teleport an object back to yourself, whenever you wanted, as often as you wanted.

As exciting as this was, Kakashi's second observation explained why they hadn't in fact, pushed the art of sealing forward tremendously. Minato was incredibly disorganized and hadn't written his notes with the assumption that someone might need to learn or extract information from them at some point in the future. It was filled with fragmented sentences and half-finsihed sealing instructions. Kakashi had spent the better part of his waking hours recently trying to piece everything together and making sense of all the notebooks.

Kakashi rubbed his throbbing eye, tired from reading in the dim light for hours. He was currently piecing together a notebook that went into elaborate detail about using chakra suppression and chakra blocking seals on the human body. Minato apparently had many theories on how this might be used, but ultimately didn't have the test subjects to confirm all his theories.

Suddenly Kakashi's sharingan started to hurt. Amazing, he thought to himself, now both of his eyes were throbbing, and he didn't intend to stop his work anytime soon. At times like this, Kakashi became fed up with his sharingan, wondering if it would be better to just tear it out of his eye socket and be done with the chakra siphon that lived in his skull. But the thoughts always left him as soon as they came. He couldn't do that. He couldn't disrespect Obito like that. He had to be Obito's eyes and ears-

But he never finished that thought. Somewhere in his brain, in between thoughts of his painful sharingan, and Minato's chakra sealing experiments backdropping his mind, it came to him. At first he felt absolutely brilliant, this would change everything. However after his momentary elation, he felt disappointed in himself. Sure it might have been brilliant if he had managed to do it ten years ago, but now it seemed like it was just long overdue. Sure he hadn't actually had a solid theory on how to accomplish it back then, but he was fucking Kakashi Hatake, he became a jounin at thirteen, and his sensei was Minato Namikaze. He of all people was the perfect candidate to try something like this, even if that prideful Fugaku Uchiha had told him it wasn't possible.

He paused in his thoughts however, he shouldn't get ahead of himself. It was after all still just a theory, and he had to run it by Tsunade to see if the logistics worked. But he couldn't contain his excitement and he was already contemplating how soon he could get in front of Tsunade. It was late, he thought, but if she was still in the village it's doubtful she would be asleep. More than likely she would still be at a pub at this hour, either getting drunk or already passed out.

Yes, it was perfect, if he left now he could probably still catch her and ask her about it. Kakashi clumsily pushed himself away from the desk and snatched the appropriate notebooks he would need to explain it all to her. He nearly rammed into his door opening it up and hastily pulled his mask back over his nose as he set out to find the only female member of the sannin.