Let's start this from the beginning

Graduation

V

After three weeks of being the instructor of Team 8, Itachi was confident that he had a pretty good understanding of all his charges. That obviously wasn't to say that he knew all their secrets or that they couldn't still surprise him, but at the very least, he had an idea of what to expect from them by now. After all, he was a shinobi and, as he had explained to them a while ago, asserting others came with the territory.

That being said, Itachi's current evaluation of them was surprisingly uniform and simultaneously quite different from what he had initially expected.

Let's take their last few D-Rank missions, for example. While none of them was too impressed by doing odd jobs that were are generally not associated with shinobi, they did not only accept their duties with no more than minimal complaining -which had been particularly unexpected in the case of Kiba- but also approached their tasks seriously. Even something as banal as babysitting or walking dogs -a mission Itachi chose only once before deciding that it was way too easy with Kiba and Akamaru being there to reign in even the most disobedient dogs without breaking a sweat- was taken as seriously as if they were 'real' missions in the field.

Considering he had heard his fellow instructors complain about their students' attitudes and even experienced some of it first-hand in the past thanks to Sasuke and Naruto, Itachi really had nothing to complain about.

Moreover, they also carried this attitude over to their training sessions. There might be some grumbling when he gave them a particularly annoying task, his condition training being especially unpopular, but ever since he had explained the significance of training without their clan techniques during their first session, that was all the complaining they did.

Itachi had approvingly noted that all of them also spent a lot of time either thinking about or even discussing with each other what meaning might be hidden behind every one of his exercises. It was somewhat amusing to him, though, as a number of exercises they thought had a deep and meaningful secret were nothing but simple workouts intended on improving their physics -something Shino in particular seemed very happy about.

Not that he would tell them that. After all, it was a good mental exercise in its own right. 'A shinobi needs to see what's underneath the underneath', as Kakashi would phrase it.

The three of them also showed great teamwork during their training spars, the lesson he taught them during their initial test obviously having set in. However, somewhat ironically, it was also here that the problems began.

Even more ironically, the root of one of the problems could be found in Itachi's test as well.

Their teamwork when the three of them sparred against him was great, they covered each other masterfully and combined their attacks more and more cunning with each passing day, but that was only so long as Itachi stayed on the defensive. Once he decided to actively push back, things began to go south.

Oh, it wasn't anything like when Shino and Kiba decided to 'sacrifice' Hinata. Not at all. In fact, it was probably the exact opposite.

Instead of using her to get an advantage, the two boys in his team suddenly became overprotective to the point where they at least partially forgot about common sense and took unnecessary risks that ultimately lost them the fight. Shino's generally more calm and thought through fighting style limited the damage this behaviour had somewhat, but Kiba wasn't so fortunate, and he tended to literally jump between Itachi and Hinata as soon as he thought she was in danger without a plan.

Needless to say, that never worked out well for him.

It admittedly irked Itachi a bit that it was his initial approach that had resulted in their current attitude. Had he used another test instead, this problem would probably never come up.

He couldn't change the past, however, so all he could do was deal with it as it was. So far, he had limited himself to subtle hints while he waited to see if the boys recognized their shortcomings themselves or whether Hinata stepped forward to make them see reason, but unfortunately, neither of these things had happened yet. Itachi thought Shino had begun to realize the problem, at least, and he had seen the boy visibly struggling with suppressing the instinct to 'make up' for his actions during the test and help Hinata for a few days now, but that wasn't enough.

Itachi found it important to give them the chance to realize their mistakes by themselves and let them grow without him holding their hands all the time, but that could only go so far. If he waited any longer, this as of yet harmless habit might become a permanent problem that could even cause their deaths in the field at some point.

He had given them more than enough time, and now it was time for him to act.

It's unfortunate that just telling them won't be enough, Itachi thought with a small sigh while he watched his three charges paint a fence from a nearby rooftop. With things like this, people need to see that they're wrong rather than just being told that they are.

Aside from them obviously feeling bad about their actions during Itachi's test, the main reason for why they acted as they did was likely because they didn't fully understand just how capable Hinata actually was- and no, the irony of them trying to protect her when she was currently probably the strongest member of their team wasn't lost on Itachi. Consequently, an important first step would be to demonstrate her abilities to them in a way that appeared natural.

In all honestly, as things stood now, he couldn't truly fault Shino and Kiba for underestimating Hinata.

Itachi had read in Hinata's file that she had a problem with hesitating during spars at the Academy. It hadn't been very important at the time as she was clearly the top kunoichi in terms of Taijutsu in her class. The general census was that her hesitation came from using the Gentle Fist fighting style without actually being allowed to seal her opponents' tenketsu- using clan techniques was forbidden during Academy spars, after all- and that this problem would solve itself once she graduated.

However, Itachi could now confidently say that this wasn't the case. If anything, being allowed to use the Gentle Fist to its fullest extent seemed to make things even worse.

It had honestly thrown him off at first. When fighting against him, there was no hesitation whatsoever in her movements while her attacks were quick and strong. He could see in the way she held herself that she had spent countless hours going through every single form of her family's fighting style, that she had repeated every attack again and again until she could utilize them without even thinking about it, and he was also sure that she regularly sparred against someone -probably a family member- around her age who was more advanced than she was.

However, as soon as he put her against one of her teammates, most of that was gone.

Hinata still won about half her fights, but there was clearly something lacking. She didn't exploit openings Itachi was sure she noticed, hesitated in giving a finishing blow, and generally tended to be much more defensive than when fighting him.

It was no wonder Shino and Kiba underestimated her. They realized that she wasn't weak, of course, but due to her behaviour when fighting them, they unconsciously viewed her as much meeker than she actually was.

Unfortunately, her performance in the spars against him didn't change that either because it didn't look as impressive to them as it did to him. After all, he could still easily block and beat her, making for an outwardly 'boring' match. He had briefly considered acting as if she gave him more trouble than she actually did before discarding that idea; Kiba and Shino both knew that he was much stronger than all of them, so such an act would only appear fake and unconvincing.

It had taken a bit for him to understand why Hinata was acting the way she did, but once he did, he chided himself for not seeing it earlier:

The reason she held back and hesitated was that she was afraid of hurting her opponents.

It wasn't entirely unreasonable. The Gentle Fist could easily inflict internal damage, intentionally or not, and especially spars between a Hyūga and a non-Hyūga regularly ended with a short trip to the hospital. Moreover, Itachi knew that the only reason why more clan intern spars didn't end the same way was that many Hyūga knew medical Ninjutsu and could take care of most wounds themselves.

And Hinata, being obviously very aware of that herself, wanted to avoid that. Her hesitation at the Academy had been marginal, probably because she hadn't really used her clan's fighting style and thus knew that there was no true danger, and when fighting against him, she was confident that she couldn't touch him no matter how hard she tried anyway and consequently didn't care to hold back, but against Kiba or Shino?

Them, she could hit, and she didn't want to risk accidentally hurting them more than intended. So, with that in mind, the only attacks she actually went through with were those she knew would hit as planned and would do nothing more than immobilizing them.

She meant well and it was a nice sentiment, but unfortunately one very unfit for a kunoichi.

In some ways, it reminded Itachi of himself. He had never liked violence, had always hoped for a kinder world, but as he had been born with exceptional talent during times of war, the world itself had been quick to drown that trait before it could truly sprout. It had never truly vanished for good, of course, but by the time he graduated the Academy for the first time, he had been so well-versed in suppressing and ignoring it that it just as well could have.

Hinata, on the other hand, had neither been born in an abnormally violent era nor with outstanding talent, allowing her to keep that trait to this very day. Whether that was a blessing or a curse was anyone's guess.

And now it was Itachi's job to make sure that it wouldn't result in her death.

That meant he would need to have a talk with Hinata soon, but for now, he would focus on letting her teammates realize the true depth of her abilities. After all, they would be essential in helping her grow as a character later on, and for that, they couldn't view her as someone she was not.

To do that, Itachi had decided to organize a joint training session with another team.

Watching Hinata beat someone or at the very least pull off a good fight against a person whom Kiba and Shino knew was stronger than them would surely serve as a wake-up call. Especially if Itachi helped them along to come to that conclusion. All he needed was to find a team that had someone on it who was not only strong enough to qualify for that but also was someone Hinata wouldn't hold back against.

Thankfully, finding a fitting team had been easy enough. One team with the perfect opponent for Hinata had actually just returned from a mission, and after a short conversation, their sensei had agreed to a joint session between them.

Even better, the other members of that team could potentially help the two boys on his team with some of their other problems as well.

For example, it had become abundantly clear that Shino was very frustrated with his Taijutsu skills. It hadn't appeared to be a problem at first, but as his teammates' skills rose, Itachi would need to be blind to overlook how envious Shino was of their success. Oh, the Aburame didn't show it or let it affect his behaviour towards them, preferring instead to hide the emotion deep within him in the same unhealthy way Itachi suspected he did with everything else he would rather ignore, but it was clearly there.

It was foolish, of course. Comparing himself to two heirs of clans that had their own specialised and famed Taijutsu styles when he came from a clan that focused more on mid to long-range attacks was bound to end in disappointment. Furthermore, Shino's own skilly had grown tremendously over the last few weeks as well and only appeared subpar because he judged himself against his teammates specifically.

However, even when Itachi tried to tell him that, it had been clear that he didn't truly believe it. Thus, the cycle of being disappointed, becoming frustrated, and bottling these emotions up continued.

Itachi thought one particular member of the team he had in mind could help Shino out with that, but if not, he would need to take some more extreme measures before Shino's mental health deteriorated for real.

Then there was Kiba. He too had a problem with his emotions, but unlike Shino, it wasn't that he suppressed them but that he let them control him too much.

For one thing, there was obviously his guilt and consequent protectiveness towards Hinata. As mentioned earlier, this led to him jumping into situations without any regard for himself whenever he thought he needed to protect her, resulting regularly in his defeat. That particular problem would hopefully soon be resolved, but the underlying source would still be there even then.

And it didn't stop there: Kiba was proud of his skills and not shy about letting that be known. With Hinata holding back in their spars and him being better in Taijutsu than Shino, that meant he had grown somewhat arrogant over the last few weeks. It hadn't gotten too bad yet and limited itself to boastful comments and the likes, but it could become a problem in the future. It didn't affect Hinata very much as he had designated her as someone to protect and thus tried more to impress her than to elevate himself above her, but it clearly bothered Shino.

Their teamwork hadn't suffered from it so far as Kiba hadn't actually claimed out loud to be better than his teammates yet nor belittled either of them for their supposed lack of skills, but Itachi was sure that Shino, who already struggled with what he perceived as his lacking Taijutsu skills, would at some point snap even if Kiba's only indirectly and probably even unintentionally insulted him.

It most likely didn't help that Kiba, in an attempt to hide his still existing insecurities about being less ambitious than his teammates, had taken to shouting the most ridiculous claims -from becoming Jōnin within the year to even becoming Hokage in the future- whenever he felt he hadn't done well enough during training.

The joint training session would hopefully help with that as well. It wouldn't stop him from being an emotionally individual, of course, but it could help him realize that being in control of one's emotions was more beneficial than the other way around. Understanding is the first step towards improvement, after all.

However, all these thoughts made Itachi frown. Now that I think about it, their teamwork might be great, but it's truly on a knife's edge. It would take only one of them to step out of line for everything to collapse.

With them being a team for barely three weeks now, that was obviously not very surprising. Annoying, but expectable. If anything, he would say they did much better than what was generally expected from fresh Genin. They had their flaws like everyone else and lacked maturity and experience to easily overcome them, but the potential was there.

It wasn't easy to coax it out of them and training them was different from training Sasuke or even Naruto and Haku, but Itachi found that he truly enjoyed the challenge.

Shisui and Izumi have been right, he thought with a small smile. Accepting the Sandaime's offer has truly been the right decision.

Who would have thought that training a bunch of children would be so exhausting?

With every passing day, Kakashi's respect for his late sensei for dealing with his and Obito's shenanigans with as much patience and understanding as he did grow even higher. In all honestly, they had probably been even worse than his current team. At least his charges actually liked each other while he and Obito had always been in each other's hair.

The thought of how exhausting it would have been if his team were to constantly fight with each other made a shudder run down his spine.

Kakashi really shouldn't complain. He knew that. No matter their shortcomings, his team was as good as one could hope for from a bunch of green Academy graduates. From what he had heard from Asuma and some of his other colleagues, most teams had at least one troublemaker of sorts in their teams, and even if the fact that they successfully absolved their instructors' test meant they must have potential, that certainly didn't make their behaviour any less annoying.

The only other team he knew of that worked as good as his own was Itachi's, but that wasn't too surprising. Where Kakashi had tried to vanish in the background and don't stand out any further in order to let his fame die down, Itachi's exploits were still fresh in everyone's mind, and as the Uchiha's successes kept coming, so did his fame continue to grow.

Of course his team would be in awe of him and act obediently like well-trained pups. Although he would never admit it out loud, Kakashi was almost a bit jealous.

And thinking of Itachi, well…

"Don't get too eager, Sasuke," he chided the boy without taking his eyes from the orange book in his hand. "Your opponents will use it against you if you overextend yourself like this."

Then, to bring that point home, he slapped the incoming fist away, resulting in Sasuke losing his balance and stumbling to the ground before he caught himself. Unfortunately, this led to him standing in the way of an incoming Naruto who couldn't stop in time to avoid crashing into him.

The two boys rolled over the ground in a ball of limbs a second later.

"C'mon, Naruto," he called out while calmly turning to the next page. "You're usually more alert than that. Don't tell me you're already tired?"

To be fair, he had ordered Naruto to arrive at the training ground two hours earlier than his teammates to let him do some endurance training. After all, with how much stamina the boy had, the only way to truly push him was to give him additional exercises.

Kakashi was just about to open his mouth for another mocking comment -these two and Naruto in particular really needed to learn not to let themselves get riled up so easily- when the whizzing sound of an incoming object caught his attention.

However, what was much more important was actually the sound of a piece of paper flapping in the wind that accompanied it.

A second later, the place where he had just stood was engulfed in an explosion.

She really doesn't know how to pull her punches, does she?

All three of his students stood out in one way or another, and they fit surprisingly good together:

First, there was Itachi's younger brother. As was to be expected, the boy was a prodigy who also benefited from coming from a family that trained him from a young age. While it wasn't to the extent he himself or even Itachi had been trained due to the fact that there was no war to fight, Kakashi would need to be blind not to see the clear signs of someone correcting Sasuke's forms and techniques, and from past conversations with Itachi, he also had a pretty good idea who this someone was.

Thanks to that, he was ahead of what was expected from fresh -and even experienced- Genin in Taijutsu, Genjutsu, and Ninjutsu. All he truly lacked was the experience and maturity to grow and get over his hero-worship for his brother, and that would come in time. Kakashi's job would be to make sure the boy lived enough for long enough to actually have that time while refining his techniques even further.

Then there was obviously his sensei's son. He had tried to avoid thinking about him too much over the years, limiting himself to occasional checking up on him while otherwise ignoring his existent. It wasn't until a few years ago, when he finally began to get his shit together again, that he considered approaching him, but he discarded that idea quickly enough. It was clear that the Sandaime intended to keep Naruto's identity a secret, so he had no good reason for approaching the boy.

Not that that stopped Jiraiya from doing so, mind you. Having one of the Sannin spent so much time with the boy was hardly subtle, but as the Hokage tolerated it, Kakashi had no reason to complain.

Maybe he only used that explanation as an excuse to avoid thinking about the past, but he didn't care. As long as he was happy, that had been enough for him.

He still looked forward to teaching him, though. As far as he was concerned, teaching his sensei's son was the least thing he could do.

The boy was clearly talented and had also benefited from having trained with Sasuke -and more importantly, Itachi- for years now, and it showed. Skill-wise, he had clearly loads of potential. Once Kakashi managed to make him take things more seriously and stop rushing into fights without a Plan B, he was almost guaranteed to be great. After all, no matter how clever or unorthodox his strategies tended to be, there was never a guarantee that they would actually work.

And last but not least, there was the civilian girl. While clearly not as strong as her two teammates, Kakashi had been surprised by her, well, special approach to things.

Technically, she wasn't outstanding. Yes, she was clearly intelligent and her Genjutsu skills were admirable for a fresh graduate, but her Ninjutsu and Taijutsu was only about average. However…

"As always, you aren't holding your punches, are you, Sakura?"

She wisely didn't compromise her position by replying, but he had the vague feeling she was spotting a proud grin right now. Furthermore, by the time the smoke from the explosion had disappeared, Naruto and Sasuke were both gone as well, leaving Kakashi all alone in the clearing.

Kakashi sighed. "What a bunch of troublemakers…"

As it turned out, Sakura didn't understand the meaning of overkill. He attributed that to her heritage.

Being the first shinobi in her family, she lacked the chance to train outside of the Academy. At least very much, that was. Kakashi made his background checks and she seemed to train with some of her friends from time to time, at least. Regardless, there was a difference between training with agemates and friends on one hand and training with someone much more experienced who truly pushed you to your limits on the other.

Sakura had never experienced the latter.

When Kakashi told the three of them during his test to come at him with the intent to kill, Naruto and Sasuke came at him with all they had but also with the expectation that it would be ultimately useless. He hadn't thought about it much, being more interested in the fact that they didn't let his 'only two of you can succeed' – act affect them and even went out of their way to include their female teammate who didn't share a close friendship with either of them.

It wasn't all that surprising, of course. They had trained with Itachi for years and thus knew from experience that no matter how hard they tried and no matter what tricks they came up with, the odds of their attacks actually injuring let alone killing him was basically non-existent.

Sakura, on the other hand, didn't have this experience. Oh, she knew that he was stronger than them, but there was a difference between theoretically knowing something and having experienced something themselves. She, who had never fought a Jōnin before, didn't have the bone-deep expectations to fail.

So, when she attacked, she actually tried to kill him.

Not out of malice or anything like that, no. She simply followed his command and that was it. In truth, Kakashi didn't think she even realized what she was doing herself. Having neither the experience of having been in real life-or-death situations before nor having grown up with the grim and not at all romanticised stories of shinobi life, she didn't realize what exactly she was doing. Not truly, at least.

She wouldn't have used some of her far-from-mastered yet extremely deadly medical techniques that could easily kill someone against him who was supposed to be a comrade if she did.

Almost against his will, he smiled.

All three of them are interesting in their own ways, aren't they?

In all honestly, training some newbies still sounded rather bothersome to him. Training Itachi's brother and his sensei's son caught his attention, yes, but he had been unconvinced that this would be enough to hold his interest for long. He had even considered letting them fail regardless of who they were.

And yet, they somehow breezed through his test when everyone before them had failed, showed surprising amounts of talent, and even convinced him to give this a real try.

Even now, several weeks later, Kakashi couldn't say he regretted that decision much.

I wonder if this is how you felt, Minato-sensei?

Yes, maybe this hadn't been a mistake after all.

This was a slower chapter than usual, but at least the groundwork is done now. The next chapter is about the joint training session with another team, which should be a lot more exciting and action-packed. You can look forward to it :)

Here's a question for you: Which team do you think Team 8 will train with?