Second Chances

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did. I don't. I want to cry right now.

A/N: Hey guys! I know it hasn't been that long since I last updated and I know that you all will probably be thrilled at another chapter so soon. I am trying to become more active here on fanfic and I would like to think that I will succeed. In fact in the last two days I have updated two stories and fully rewritten Underneath the Underneath to be better. Anyway thank you all for staying with me for so long. Especially those of you that have been with the story since it was published in 2012.

"hello" people (bijuu in human form) speaking

'hello' people (bijuu in human form) thinking/coded hand signals

"HELLO" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity yelling

"hello" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity talking

'hello' bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity thinking

hello jutsu

************************Trials****************************

The morning was cool and the air crisp. It was an unusually cool day in Konoha but it would warm up soon enough. The three genin were sparring as was becoming custom and it would be exhilarating to watch and compare from the children that had only been academy students a mere month and half ago. The ease at which Hinata was adapting to new things was startling even for Sasuke and Naruto who had seen her adapt to rapid changes. While she had not managed to jump several levels in skill she had managed to catch and easily surpass her old self's talent by the chunin exams. While that wouldn't seem like much of a jump to most in retrospect she managed nine-ten months of training in just a month and half with Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto knew that if Hinata could see herself with a different jonin and the improvements that had been made she would never have believed it. The visible difference was staggering. The loss of her stutter, the confidence in her posture and the more fluid movements were just the beginning. She was also excelling in her studies with a bow and arrow and was trying to combine her juken with Senbon needles. If she could manage she would easily become a mid-range fighter. Their progress with their elements was rapidly excelling. Despite the fact that Naruto and Sasuke had already done some of it before they had needed to start over due to their younger bodies. Regardless they had soared past their previous benchmarks and according to Kakashi there was little more that they could do to improve their mastery.

Sasuke, Naruto and Hinata disagreed. As a result they were working on pushing their control further. Sasuke believed that the height of mastery of lightning manipulation was the ability to control the electrical impulses that the brain sent to the whole body. Thus technically controlling the person. Hinata insisted that the height of fire control would be the ability to remove or add heat to specified places. For example, remove all the heat in the human body and cause sudden hypothermia or add heat to another person's body in order to stave off hypothermia. Naruto just wanted to fly. He was working on a way to use his wind chakra to mimic Onoki's ability to fly with his particle release. For him it was a matter of importance. If he could fly himself and his team around they would be able to avoid ambushes and arrive at battle fields faster. It would also give aerial coverage to any large battles. That was something that only Iwa and the Akatsuki could boast at the moment. The three genin looked up as Kakashi stepped into the clearing.

"Yo! How are my cute little genin this morning?"

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU I AM NOT 'CUTE' NOR AM I 'LITTLE'?!" Naruto yelled in response making everyone laugh. Sasuke had been unable to curve that habit with the blonde and as a result it was always comical when it happened. Kakashi just laughed and waved his hand dismissively.

"Well no need to get antsy. I decided that we are going to do a mission today and instead of the boring D-ranks we are going to do a C-rank! Then afterwards it will most likely turn into an A-rank! Doesn't that sound fun?" Kakashi chirped. The three genin blinked in shock.

"A C-rank followed by an A-rank?!" Naruto squeaked out. Make no mistake he wasn't scared he was ecstatic to be doing higher level missions again, but he knew for a fact that the team wasn't quite ready to jump into A-rank missions!

"Calm yourselves. The A-ranking is merely because of its location. Technically it is more of a C-rank. However, because of its location it is classified as an A-rank." Kakashi explained. The three blinked and looked at each other before nodding in agreement.

"So when do we leave?" Sasuke asked. He was eager to get back to doing what he knew best, missions. He also wanted to make sure that his skills hadn't suffered any. Although, he was anxious given the last mission he had been on. A small part of him was worried that he wouldn't be able to protect Hinata or his Hokage. The last thing that he wanted to do was hurt Naruto any more than he had already been hurt. 'Stop thinking about that! You need to be focused on the mission. If you are focused on screwing up then you will!' He chastised himself.

"As soon as all of you reach the gate." Kakashi informed them and then headed off to gather his mission gear.

"Ten?" Naruto asked the other two.

"Ten." They chorused their agreement. The three then vanished from the clearing leaving hardly a trace that they had been there. When Hinata got home she quickly began to inspect her gear to ensure that nothing was missing. One thing that Sasuke and Naruto had told her to do was always keep her gear packed and maintained so that little time would be wasted when they headed out. She kept that advice to heart and then darted down the hall to her father's study.

"Father, may I come in?" She called through the door. Receiving permission she entered the room and bowed to the stern man before her. "Kakashi-sensei just informed us that we are heading out on a mission and I am to meet them as soon as possible at the gate. I wanted to inform you before I headed out so you wouldn't worry." She informed him.

"What kind of mission? As far as I remember your team has done few D-ranks." Hiashi inquired slightly surprised at the abruptness of Kakashi's decision.

"A C-rank immediately followed by an A-rank mission." She said softly hoping that the other man wouldn't explode at the news. To be fair the stoic Hyuga managed to not spit out his tea at the news.

"A-rank?!" he sputtered trying to clear his lungs of the tea that he had just swallowed.

"Hai."

"Kakashi better know what he is doing." Hiashi snarled. He had no desire to see his eldest die due to a careless jonin. Hinata, on the other hand, was trying desperately not to laugh at her father. She had not expected him to try and drown himself in tea.

"I'm sure that I will be fine." She managed with a straight face. Nodding tentatively Hiashi gave Hinata permission to leave and groaned. He would make mincemeat of the copy ninja if anything happened to Hinata.

Sasuke and Naruto didn't take that long retrieving their gear as well. Seeing as Naruto had been spending the nights at Sasuke's to try and decipher the Edo Tensei he had left all of his mission supplies there. As soon as they had them and ensured everything was fine, Naruto waited for his friend to lock the door before applying some high level security seals. The last thing that they wanted was for some fan girl to break in and find the scroll of sealing unrolled on Sasuke's bed. Darting to the gate they found that Kakashi was already there and Hinata was just arriving.

"Not bad. Seven minutes and thirteen seconds. You really have increased your speed haven't you?" Kakashi commented. The three nodded breathlessly and after an equipment check (Kakashi almost had a heart attack at the mini armory Sasuke and Naruto had brought) they headed out. It was almost an hour of silence before Kakashi spoke again.

"The first mission is a bandit elimination mission. I decided that we should get this out of the way now so that there are no problems later. The client has requested that the bandits be eliminated not captured. As such no one leaves the camp alive except for anyone they may have kidnapped. This will be your first kills so I will not hold it against you if you fall apart but try to hold off until after the mission is finished." Kakashi said. Normally he wouldn't have been so blunt but a part of him had a feeling that only Hinata would be making her first kill today.

The rest of the trip was made in silence and it didn't take very long for the group to reach the client's village. A brief exchange with Tsubasa revealed nothing new about the mission either than the fact that the bandits had kidnapped several young girls three days prior. While it only made it more difficult to be able to attack freely it also meant that he would be able to assess his team's overall stealth in the field instead of tame exercises.

"Alright since Tsubasa had no idea where to find the bandits we will have to look ourselves. Thankfully the Byakugan and my nose will be able to find them swiftly. Hinata if you would?" Kakashi said to the formerly shy heiress. Nodding and activating her dojutsu she quickly scanned the surrounding areas.

"Seven miles north-north east." She said after a few moments. Nodding the team headed out once again.

"We will try to take as many out as possible with stealth. The last thing we need is one of them using one of the girls as a shield or hostage. If our cover is blown make sure to try and get as many as you can before they try it. Your shadow clones will be invaluable to this operation. We'll be able to eliminate a lot of them in less time. Just remember regardless of whatever you see or hear you must remain calm and keep a clear head." Kakashi informed them before they fell into silence once again to prevent the bandits from overhearing any conversation that they might have.

As soon as the camp came into view Kakashi and the genin immediately began to look for the kidnapped girls while taking note of the visible amount of bandits. Hinata used her Byakugan's to look for scouts that may not visible and their exact locations.

'Thirty bandits. Three hostages in southern tent unharmed from what I can see. Ten scouts keeping perimeter keeping just out of sight of the camp. The one under us is sleeping. Possible shinobi in northern tent.' Hinata signed to the others. The other three nodded and then split up to try and take the guards out first. Kakashi was swift and efficient dispatching four of the guards before they could react. His experience was what made it easy and as he was hiding the last body in the shrubbery he wondered how his genin were doing.

After splitting up Hinata took up watch at a distance and notched an arrow onto her bow. If there was any time to put her practice to the test it would be now. As soon as she let the first arrow fly she notched a second and released that one just as quickly as the first using her Byakugan's to help and pinpoint the enemy. Both arrows hit their marks, going straight through the back of their heads. Feeling a little bile rise up she forced herself to calm down and beginning looking for any way to get to the hostages without being noticed.

Sasuke also had no problems ridding the guards on his end. After all slitting the throat of a sleeping man was never hard. A kunai to the forehead was all it took to take out the other one. His mind kept going back to the possible shinobi that Hinata thought she saw. Granted it could be a civilian with higher reserves but hat rarely happened outside of shinobi families. With their luck it was a nuke nin and they were going to have another mission escalation on his hands. 'Why us?' he thought to himself.

Naruto wasn't impressed with his guards either. They unfortunately turned around before he could kill them but then instead of raising the alarm they just stood there looking at the kid that appeared out of nowhere with the headband. Rolling his eyes he swung his glaive removing both of their head's at the same time. 'Please tell me that they are not all this stupid!' he whined mentally. He then made his way towards the camp. Realizing that they were not going to be able to lure the bandits out of the camp, Kakashi raised his hand and signaled for Hinata to release a volley of arrows into the camp.

Meanwhile inside of the camp the bandits were lounging and complaining about the poor hauls that they had been getting.

"Why are we still raiding this area? There is nothing good here!" One of them complained to their friend.

"Because that is what the boss wants and whatever he wants he gets. You know that. Remember what happened to the last guy that complained?" Came the reply.

"So why can't we have fun with the girls?"

"Orders. They are not to be touched. I don't know though it seems almost as if the boss wants shinobi to come after us."

"You idiot! Why would he want us to get caught? Maybe he is planning to sell them to Gato or someth….." The man's reply was cut short as an arrow lodged itself in his throat and the area was engulfed in thick smoke. That arrow was the first of many to fall as Hinata used the shadow clone on her arrow as soon as she had loosed it. Of the thirty that remained in the camp only twelve survived the barrage. As soon as the arrows stopped three figures obscured from the smoke burst into the clearing and swiftly brought death with them. The whole episode lasted no more than two minutes. As the smoke cleared from the area another figure could be seen as having joined the original three.

"That was too easy." Naruto remarked. While they didn't voice the rest of the team was thinking along the same lines.

"Well my apologies for my men not being shinobi. Perhaps this will make it less boring?" A voice rang out from the direction of the northern tent. A figure stepped out into the clearing and snickered at the shinobi only to sweat drop as all four of them yawned.

"Great…You are Hachi from Iwagakure. You abandoned the village after failing to receive your jonin promotion and was informed that your former genin squad had all made jonin already. Not much of a bounty on you either. It's almost as if the village doesn't care what happens to you." Naruto said through his yawn. Hachi growled at the blonde. How dare he speak down to him!

"You little….Wait a minute you look an awful lot like that damned Yondaime of yours. Who the hell are you?" He demanded. The resemblance was uncanny and he would never forget the face of the man that murdered his parents during the war. Naruto shrugged.

"Does it matter? You are going to die either way." He replied and then grinned at him.

"Tell me why did you decide to just wait here and let your camp be discovered?"

"None of your business!" Hachi yelled charging at the blonde only to receive a foot to the face as Sasuke knocked him away from the Rokudaime. Glaring at the raven haired boy he raised his hands and started to weave hand seals. He was going to kill these Konoha trash one way or the other. He would kill the Yondaime look alike and then they would have to let him back into the village!

***********************T.B.C*******************

A/N: I'm back! I am impressed with myself. I published two different chapters in one day! Yay! This mission will wrap up and then they will immediately head for their A-rank! No yelling about it being too soon for them either. As I had Kakashi explain it is only A-rank because of location and what might be found there. I am not sending them straight into an overpowered mission that they would need crazy skills to do. Yes I know that Sasuke, Naruto and Kakashi could do one considering time travel and being a jonin but Hinata is most definitely not ready for that. After the next chapter I think that I will have one more training chapter and then head into the wave arc. It will depend on how much training I can think of for the genin to do that won't bore everyone. Ja ne!