Age

Naruto :19

Mikoto :19

Kushina :17

Kakashi :9

Nawaki :14

Anko:12

Obito :10

Rin :10

Jiraiya :26

Tsunade :26

Orichimaru :26

Sakumo :33

Satutobi :43

Few months had passed since the Ame mission and the discovery that Danzo had been leaking vital information to the enemies. When he was questioned about it, he had feigned innocence and assured the council that he had done no such thing, he even promised to catch the culprit responsible.

Since there was no concrete evidence against him, he wasn't imprisoned for long. Within few weeks of his release, he had supposedly caught the traitor and killed him when he had supposedly tried to escape, he had even presented the body to the council along with supporting evidence which confirmed that the dead ninja was the traitor who was secretly selling information to the enemy.

This obviously was a lie, the Hokage knew it, Danzo knew it, few in the council also knew it but since there was no proof of Danzo's involvement in the matter, he was cleared of the charges against him. Instead, he was ordered to disband his root forces since they were working autonomous from the hokage's authority.

The war was now in its final stages and like Hanzo had predicted, Konoha was definitely on the winning side.

Many shinobi gained fame and notoriety in the war but none became as famous as Naruto, Minato and Kushina.

They were considered the youngest ninjas to reach the rank of Ss-class.

With his advanced hiraishin, Minato had killed 1000's of Iwa ninjas within a matter of seconds, this had earned him the title of the Fastest Ninja alive and the scorn of Iwagakure.

Kushina, with her mastery of the kyubi's 8 tails worth chakra, had defeated 3 jinchurikis at once. This achievement made her famous across the planet, since, after Hashirama, she was the only one who could boast defeating 3 tailed beasts at once using only raw power and physical strength.

Naruto was the first to reach the SS-rank amongst them, he was already famous before but his role in the war had made him legendary. In few cases, his presence on the battlefield alone would make the enemy surrender. He was known for fighting multiple S-ranked shinobis at once and coming on top several times, as such most enemy ninja would bail at the mention of his name. He was respected across the nations for his power, his merciful nature and his ability to inspire others, enemies included.

Naruto had disbanded his team since each of his student had reached jonin rank, though, he had not allowed them to lead in any missions since he still considered them too young for that type of responsibility, the only one he deemed fit to lead was Kakashi but that too was done under his own supervision.

Kakashi had also improved by leaps and bound, though only 10 years old, he had proved himself capable to fight even against most experienced ninjas.

Hence, he was being given a team to lead. The team in question belonged to Minato himself. It consisted of Him, Obito.Uchiha, Rin. Nohara and Hayatte. Gekko.

They were all standing at the village gates, with Naruto and a 4 month pregnant Mikoto bidding them goodbye.

Naruto had only recently learned that Mikoto was pregnant. Initially, she was afraid that he would not accept her or the baby, so she kept it a secret but she was soon pressured into relieving the news by Tsunade and Kushina, who had both somehow learned about it.

Though Naruto had noticed something off with her chakra, he had not commented on it. Thinking it was probably due to stress. So, the news of her pregnancy caught him completely off guard, he did what most men would do when they get news they can't handle, he pass out.

After waking up and having an heartfelt conversation with her and clearing any of her misconceptions. Naruto, with much deliberation, decided to stop taking any new missions and help her through her pregnancy.

Though, many objected his decision to abstain from the war, he ultimately decided it was worth it.

To ease the tension between him and the council, Sarutobi announced Naruto as his successor and named him the Yondaime.

Though it was a risky and spur of the moment decision, it was well received by the council, doing this the third had insured that both parties would get what they want.

Within the next few day Naruto was officially declared as the Yondaime and quickly instated in the office before anyone could object.

Naruto, on the other hand hadn't visited the Hokage office even once since his inauguration. He had appointed Sarutobi to look after all his duties and continue to act as a leader in his stead, since he didn't think it was the right time for a change in leadership, he suggested that he would take up the reign once the war was over as to not cause any problems. He now spent most of his time looking after Mikoto and Kushina.

"So, are you ready for your first mission as a team captain?" Naruto questioned, he was dressed in a long black sweat pant with an dark blue t-shirt, both of them having the clan symbol printed on them, Mikoto wore a matching sundress of the similar color. Kakashi just nodded his head in affirmative, "Its an hectic job to manage a team but I believe you will do just fine, I did train you afterall." Naruto boasted.

"Yondaime-sama, can we ask you few questions?" Rin shyly asked, hiding behind her were Obito and Hayatte, both of them looked absolutely thrilled to talk with him.

"Naruto is fine" he replied, "I haven't officialy taken the leadership of the village yet.", he looked towards Minato and asked, "I am not intruding, am I?".

Minato smiled and shook his head, "Its alright, the three of them really look up to you, even if I forbid them, they probably wouldn't listen to me. We have few minutes to spare, so, it really isn't any bother." Naruto nodded and guided them towards a nearby tree.

As it turned out, all three of them had met Naruto earlier in their life. Rin, when she was training to be a medic, Obito, in the Uchiha orphanage where Naruto regularly liked to visit and Hayatte, whom Naruto had saved from chronic illness which would have affected him throughout his life were it not been treated.

"Are you nervous?" Mikoto inquired, Kakashi shook his head in negative and replied,

"I am fine Nee-san, Naruto-sensei has been training me to lead for a while now."

"Yes, but that was done under his supervision. You were never really in any serious danger with him around, but this time you have to lead alone, without any supervision."

"Now, you are making me nervous" Kakashi replied as he looked to his team.

Mikoto laughed, "Sorry, that wasn't my intension. But, you must understand that from now on you will be considered an adult and you will have to behave as such. Their life's are in your hand and as a team leader their safety is your responsibility. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?".

Kakashi went silent for a while, quietly observing his teammates, after few seconds he looked in Mikoto's eyes with confidence and replied, "I understand and I am ready for it".

Mikoto smiled again and presented him with a scroll, "Here, this is for you. Consider it as your official graduation gift from me, Kushina and Naruto.", Kakashi looked at the scroll in wonder, "Open it later when you have time, it looks like Naruto and Minato are done".

Kakashi turned his head and spotted Naruto getting up from his place under the tree and Minato saying goodbye to a woman.

"So, are everyone ready?" Minato asked as soon as he joined the group, each of they gave an confident nod, "Then, let's move out".

Everyone said their goodbyes and left.

Mikoto sighed, "They grow up so fast, it feels like it was just yesterday that we used to play ninja with Kakashi and now look at him, going off to lead a mission of his own. Time sure passes quickly."

Naruto just smiled and nodded. "It sure does".

"Since, Kushina is off on a mission and we have time to ourselves" Mikoto started as they were on their way home, "should we have some fun?".

Naruto widened his in surprise and embarrassment, "But, you are pregnant."

"Is that a no then" Mikoto whispered in his ears.

Naruto paused for a second then suddenly picked her up, bridal style, and leapt towards his home.

"I guess not", she giggled.

(Focus will now shift on Kakashi )

It was night when they reached the border of Konoha, Minato decided it would be best to have a night's rest before continuing further since tomorrow they would be heading into enemy territory.

During their way here, Kakashi had re-familiarized with everyone in the team. This wasn't the first time they had teamed up, since Kakashi, Nawaki and Anko were promoted to Jounin at an early age, Naruto had decided it would be best for them to gain experience by teaming up with other ninjas till they were ready. Hence, they were usually individually paired with a team of chunins with a jounin leader.

After setting up camp, Minato gathered everyone and explained them the mission in detail.

"As of today Kakashi is promoted to the rank of a team captain, just like me. For this mission you three will be working under his command. Its his first mission as a team leader so treat him well."

"What!" Obito exclaimed, "Why does he get to be the captain and not me?".

"Its because I am an Jounin and you are not. I also have more experience than you in the battlefield.", he paused and looked around, "Any other questions regarding my position?".

When no one answered, Minato took it as cue for him to continue, "As I was saying, Kakashi will be leading the mission tomorrow, it was done to increase the efficiency of our team since I will be returning to the front lines tomorrow and provide support.".

"So, we will be splitting up?" Hayatte inquired.

"Yes" Minato replied and paused for any other questions.

"Now, onto the mission." He continued, and removed a map from this pouch, using the fire to illuminate it, he pointed towards a line, "This line shows where Iwa is currently invading Kusagakure (The Hidden Grass Village). We have received word that around two thousand Iwa ninjas are already there at the front lines, I'll be going there to provide reinforcement for our shinobis' since Iwa has advanced considerably into Kusa."

"Don't we share borders with Kusa, Why didn't we step in before they got a strong foothold there." Obito asked as he pointed at the land acquired by Iwa.

"They have only recently advanced into the Kusa territory, Our forces are stretched thin defending all our borders and Since Naruto has withdrawn from the war for the past few months, everyother Nation are trying their hardest to gain an advantage before he decides to return".

"Don't they know he has been appointed as the new Hokage?" Rin asked.

"That piece of information is not yet public knowledge. Only the third and the council know about it, though many rumors are going around about that but no one is confirming it. This is also the the reason that some Nations are playing it safe and not making any moves".

"Anyway, back to our topic. Your mission is here" He said pointing at a small block on the map, "The Kannabi Bridge. This bridge provides an easy transport for supplies and reinforcements for the enemy", he paused.

"To crush one's enemy at the battlefront it requirea an immense number of ninja. That is why ninja like us, who focus on Sabotage are used. We work in a small, select group and infiltrate the enemy regions to sabotage them."

"So our mission is", Kakashi replied while pointing at the map, "to infiltrate the enemy's rear territory and destroy this bridge, so that we can cripple their supply lines and reinforcements, then move out."

Minato nodded, "Precisely. And I will face the enemy directly on the battlefront and create a diversion for you all." He paused so they could all understand their mission, "We will travel together till the border but after that you will be on your own."

"Anyother questions?" He asked as he packed up his map, when no one replied, he continued "Good, we will leave early in the morning so I suggest, you all get some rest".

After their debriefing ended, everyone scattered to prepare for their sleeping arrangement.

With his bed prepared, Kakashi suddenly remembered the scroll he had received from Mikoto. He quickly unpacked it and opened it, as the smoke from the sealing vanished, he immediately spotted the three objects it unsealed, one was a red scarf and the other was a black Katana along with that there was a small bagpack, which after opening it, he found plenty of medical supplies in it. There was also a small note which said 'Congratulations. PS. Guess who gave you what'. "

Kakashi smiled then sealed it back inside and decided he would use them tomorrow, with that he went to sleep.

Xxx Next morning xxX

It was around 10 when they crossed the Kusa border. Minato had left for the front lines, leaving Kakashi incharge of the team. They had walked for almost an hour, sneaking through Kusa towards Iwa.

As they walked into a clearing which was surrounded by huge tress on all the sides. Kakashi suddenly motioned them to stop.

"You sense them?" Hayatte asked as he subtly put his hand on his katana.

Kakashi nodded and crouched down then pressed his pointer and middle finger into the ground and closed his eyes for few seconds.

"I sense around 30 in total" He announced and got back up.

"What should we do, we can't fight that many." Rin questioned.

"I doubt there are really 30 ninjas" He continued.

"Shadow clones?" Hayatte asked, as he removed his katana from his sheath, promoting Obito and Rin to remove their own weapons.

"Shadow clones" Kakashi replied in agreement, "Hayatte, Obito stay close to Rin, since she is our medic, they would target her first."

Both of them nodded and moved into a formation.

"On my signal, run and hide".

There was a brief pause of silence after which Kakashi suddenly dropped a smoke bomb on the ground.

The enemy ninja immediately sprung into action, throwing kunais and shurikens into the smoke.

"Did we get them?" one of them asked as he peeked out,

" No they seem to have retreated", the other replied as he too peaked and scanned the area.

"Too bad, huh?"

"Yeah, we would have..." He paused and looked behind to see who asked that.

"Pity" Kakashi replied and plunged the kunai into both of their throats. They gurled for a second then popped into smoke, signifying that they were Shadow clones.

As soon as they vanished, the other immediately jumped to Kakashi's position and surrounded him.

"You should have ran when you had the chance", one of the ninja said with a smug look.

"Now you die!" this time a different ninja spoke.

Kakashi looked around and noticed that the shadow clones were made by 2 different ninjas.

"You people talk a lot" Kakashi replied and unsheathed his new katana.

"You damn brat!" One of them muttered and jumped towards him, the others soon followed.

Xxx Team Kakashi from their place hidden in the trees xxX.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Obito asked as he observed Kakashi get surrounded by the shadow clones.

"No" Hayatte replied, "He ordered us to hide, we should have some faith in him, he is our captain afterall"

Obito nodded and quietly observed as Kakashi slowly took out one shadow clone after another.

"He is doing great, isn't he?" Suddenly a voice spoke from behind them.

Widening their eyes they immediately jumped out of the tress and saw the two ninja crouched on the branches.

"Too bad he isn't here to protect you" with that both of them jumped down with kunais in each of their hands.

Hayatte immediately sprung into action and leaped towards them with his katana drawn.

Obito on the other hand froze in fright as the other ninja leaped at him.

"Obito!" Rin screamed as she tried to wake him from his stupor but he didn't respond.

He couldn't move, even as the enemy ninjas blade was an inch away from his throat.

"Rasengan!"

There was a sudden pop of smoke from which Kakashi emerged and slammed his attack into the ninja's chest, who was only a second away from beheading Obito.

When the ninja didn't pop under his rasengan, Kakashi stepped forward and increased its power, tearing a hole in the ninja's chest and killing him on the spot.

The ninja which Hayatte was fighting quickly realised that the Kakashi fighting their clones was also a clone, he immediately tried to retreat as he recognized his disadvantage.

"Too late" Kakashi whispered from behind him and pierced his heart with his katana. The ninja widened his eyes and fell to the ground, dead.

As his adrenalin died down, he wiped his katana and sheath it.

"Is everyone OK?" He questioned as he helped Obito up from the ground.

All of them nodded, while Obito finally broke out from his stupor.

Kakashi nodded, he didn't comment on Obito freezing up in the fight. Instead, he just ordered them to move ahead.

It was dark when they decided to stop for rest. Obito hadn't spoken a single word since the fight and the other two were giving him some space.

After eating their dinner, they decided to rest. Obito volunteered himself for the first night guard duty.

As Obito climbed a tree to start his guard duty, Kakashi felt he should say something to Obito about his freezeup in the fight but he decided against it, since he was not good at giving pep talk and might make the matter worse.

Next morning, as they begun their journey, Kakashi noticed that Obito had gotten much better since yesterday, after asking Hayatte about it, he learned that Rin had apparently spoken some sense into him.

As they were walking through the forest, Kakashi suddenly stopped them.

"We are surrounded, again" He whispered.

"How many?" Hayatte replied, his hand subtly reaching for his Katana.

"I can't tell, they are more skilled than the previous two we encountered. My guess is those two were the scouts and this is their team." He then removed 2 kunais from his pouch and held them in reverse grip, "Get into formation" He spoke as he got into a fighting stance, the others soon followed.

There was silence in the clearing for few seconds but it was soon broken as Kakashi yelled "Get down!", after which he threw a kunai from his hand in Rin direction.

The kunai was deflected by the Iwa shinobi who was trying to strike her down using a invisibility technique.

"Ho?, you sensed me rather quickly" the shinobi replied, "Since Shiki and Yama haven't returned since yesterday, I guess they are dead and you are the ones that did them in."

Kakashi didn't reply, he just removed another kunai from his pouch held his position.

Hayatte subtly motioned Kakashi a plan and attacked the ninja with his katana.

As soon as Hayatte moved, Kakashi threw one of his kunai at the enemy and the other into a nearby tree.

The kunai was deflected by the ninja but it gave enough time for Hayatte to close the distance between them and engage him in close combat, moving him away from the team.

The kunai thrown at the tree blew up, forcing the other two enemy ninjas to show themselves.

"Obito protect Rin, I'll take care of them" Kakashi ordered and moved to engage the two.

"Silver hair and a mask" the ninja called out, "You must be Kakashi Hatake, son of Sakumo Hatake, the white fang and the student of Akagami no Naruto. Its a pleasure to meet you" The ninja continued, "I am Baki, from the explosions corps and these are my associates, Gura and Kura." He said, pointing to the ninjas behind him "and that is Mako" He finished, pointing to the ninja fighting Hayatte.

"Quite the talkative one, aren't you?" Kakashi remarked as he unsheathed his katana.

Ignoring his remark, Baki continued "I had met your teacher once, he was fighting off an entire platoon of our Explosion corps by himself. He of course defeated us, it didn't take him more than 5 mins to incapacitate 30 of us all, it was a humiliating defeat on our part. But, I learnt something very important that day - ".

"You really talk too much" Kakashi interrupted and threw a couple of explosive kunai in Baki's direction.

The two besides him immediately jumped into action.

Doton: Doryūheki (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall).

The stone wall intercepted the kunais and took most of the brunt from the explosion. As the wall crumbled away, they realized that Kakashi and his entire team had dissappeared while killing off the ninja Hayatte was fighting.

Stopping a considerable distance away, team Kakashi released a sigh of relief.

"They will catch up to us soon" Hayatte remarked, "What should we do?".

"We should split up in two groups, it'll make it harder for them to track us that way".

"I don't think that's a good idea" Obito replied, "We will be cornered if they call for backup".

"I agree with Obito, if we split up, we will be easy picking for them", Hayatte replied.

"How about this, Obito, Rin and I take care of the three behind us while you sneak in and blow up the bridge. By my estimate, we are not that far away from it. The security there should also be lax since most of their forces are on the frontline."

"That could work," Hayatte agreed, "But I am not confident I could pull this off. You would be more suitable for it".

"I know, but I can't let you three fight off against them alone. You guys are skilled but they have more experience. Besides, I have seen much of your abilities and I can confidently say that you are more than suitable for it."

Obito and Rin both agreed with Kakashi's assessment, they knew they weren't strong enough to face the enemies without Kakashi's support.

" So, what do you say?" Kakashi questioned, "Are you ready?"

Hayatte was quite for few moments, but he soon nodded. Kakashi passed him the explosive tags and showed him where to place them for more effective explosion.

"After you set the tags, activate them when you are at a safe distance away. We will meet you here within 5 min from the explosions" Kakashi marked a spot on the map "If you are not there at the randezvous point within that time frame, we will consider you captured. I'll then have to use the seal Minato-taicho gave me to summon him."

"Why don't we summon him now?" Obito asked, "With him around, our mission will be completed without a hitch."

"As you all know, this is my first mission as a captain", Kakashi started, "The war council argued that I was too young to lead a team. It was only because of Naruto-sensei that they even gave me a chance. If I ask for reinforcement, it'll prove that I wasn't ready for such responsibilities and more importantly Naruto-sensei will lose face because of my incompitance. I really don't want to dissapoint him, not unless its absolutely necessary and I don't think that we have crossed that threshold yet. We can still complete the mission without any help. Besides," he continued, "Minato-taicho will be too busy at the front lines to help us here."

After the explanation, Rin and Obito understood the situation Kakashi was in, so they decided to trust him and complete the mission on their own.

Hayatte soon left to complete his mission while the rest stayed back and cleared any enemy they came across.

The enemies they encountered were not weak by any means. Many times they seemed to have an upper hand because of their skills and experience in battle but Kakashi proved to be no slouch either, his innovative strategies and traps were even able to immobilize Baki and his team, Obito had also finally achieved his sharingan during one of these confrontations. Though, there were some close calls where the enemy had kidnapped Rin but it had turned out that the "Rin" which got kidnapped was Kakashi's clone henged as her. The look on the enemies face was hilarious, according to Kakashi, when they realized it themself but were too late to do anything as the clone blew itself up in a fiery explosion, taking the ninjas with him.

The mission was a success, Hayatte was successfully able to plant the tags and blow up the bridge without any complication. His escape route was also secured so he didn't face much resistance when he finally did get discovered. By the time the Iwa shinobi realised what had happened, team Kakashi had already retreated back to the borders.

They did not realise it but their success played a huge part in ending the war before it got dragged any further.

Sorry, if you expected some drama during his mission but since Naruto has trained Kakashi and his other students to be prepared for every possibility, the chances of a botched mission are low.Anyway give your thoughts on the chapter