Second Chances

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I never have and the day that I do I will wake up in bed.

A/N: Well hello there! It hasn't been that long since my last update and I hope to keep that going. I find that I focus better when I am alone and to be honest my sister and I aren't all that social so it is usually a few days in between me being alone but as she is helping out the building more often now I am alone more often that helps me concentrate so I will try to keep the momentum going. Do bear in mind that I do have three stories published so if I do update it may not always be on this one.

In any event wow. That guest reviewer didn't waste time spamming me again. This time on two of my stories. For someone that doesn't like my stories or writing style he/she seems to be following my stories closely. They reviewed almost immediately after posting the last chapter. Way to go. I can't tell if you are serious anymore or if you are just bored. Anyway you probably noticed that the pairing for Sasuke has changed. As I said before when the Wave arc begins the Sasuke pairing will be finalized and there was overwhelming support for FemHaku and Sasuke so there you have it. On to the story!

"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

*************Mistakes and Friends***************

As the team ran alongside the chosen route to Nami the Rokudaime couldn't help but feel a sense of dread settling into his stomach. His team should have been the one to receive the Wave mission and yet Kurenai was sent instead. There was no way that Sakura and Kiba could handle Zabuza and Haku. Shino would be able to keep calm but with little support from his team he wouldn't last long. Kurenai, Naruto had decided, was a lost cause. A special jonin in name only she barely had the skills necessary to lead her team and even though he knew that they hadn't been ready for a C-rank. He never did understand the kunoichi. She never really did anything for Hinata and to him it seemed as if any progress that was made with Shino and Kiba in the original time was because of their clans and that she had barely a hand to do with any of it. Hinata used to tell him stories of how Kurenai seemed to baby her from most anything. It was disheartening to know that someone who was so intent on protecting the one that she saw as a sister fall so far behind and endanger her even more but not acknowledging the fact that she was only making it worse.

"Hey sensei, did the message say how team eight was faring?" He asked breaking the silence. Kakashi turned slightly to look at the genin.

"Just that they had been ambushed and that they needed backup. I was instructed to take the team and head to Nami immediately to act as backup. I have no idea how bad it is or if they continued moving after sending the request." He replied. 'Probably did.' Naruto thought to himself thinking of Kiba's personality. They had been a lot alike always overestimating their abilities and never admitting that they may be over their head. However, while Naruto had learned his lesson Kiba never had and that was why the Inuzuka died on his last mission. He hadn't called for backup when he realized that he was out numbered. Despite the fact that he had been K.I.A Naruto had denied him from being added to the memorial stone due to the fact that he had died due to his own stupidity. Sakura had protested but he had merely ignored her. As far as he was concerned, show boating and stupidity should not be rewarded the same way as those that died like true heroes.

For his part Kakashi was thinking along the same lines as the future Hokage. He had to admit that Kurenai had not been ready to take her genin squad on this mission and that the tokubetsu jonin should have turned around as soon as she realized that she was out of her league. Instead she had decided to endanger the life of three genin one of which was a clan heir. He knew that if anything happened to Shino because of her the Aburame clan would never let the Sandaime live down his decision to form that team. He could only pray that Kurenai had decided to stay put and wait for the reinforcements. Somehow he doubted that she had made that call. By the time that the team reached the water they had yet to run into the genjutsu user and her team. For Naruto the feeling was growing stronger as he realized that they probably ran into Zabuza and for all they knew everyone was already dead. Crossing the water on foot they picked up speed as they neared the clearing that undoubtedly held the injured team.

Kurenai was having a bad day. She had been convinced that her team could handle the C-rank escort. It was just a bridge builder after all. Who could possibly want the old drunk dead? Then they had been attacked by chunin level ninja approximately a few hours from Konoha. After incapacitating them she attempted to interrogate them but they had decided to use their suicide pills instead leaving them with two very dead shinobi. She knew that she should have asked Tazuna for more information but at the time she had yet to make the connection. He was still just a drunk bridge builder. She sent the request and then continued on. She knew that if aid was sent then there would be at least one more jonin so there as little chance that they would be in to much danger right?

She had been naive in thinking that the next shinobi that would attack would be just the same as the last two. Never had she believed that she would be facing Zabuza Momochi. One of the seven swordsman. They had been able to dodge his first attack but after that the fight went downhill. He had demanded that they hand over the bridge builder and that was when Kurenai realized that she had fucked up. The next attack had been sudden and while she had deflected it she had not gotten away unscathed. The genin were no better. Shino had managed to avoid any serious damage but Sakura and Kiba had been completely hopeless. Sakura had decided that she was going to scream and cry instead of protect the client and Kiba had attacked Zabuza insisting that he was no big deal. His gallant, and rather stupid, plan backfired immediately and because of that both Akamaru and Kiba were severely wounded. She could only hope that backup arrived soon.

Staring at the ragtag group before him Zabuza couldn't help but sigh in boredom. The only one that he was really having any trouble with was the Aburame. Any time he came to close to the bridge builder the Aburame's hive would try and swarm him making him have to move away. He had never anticipated having issue with a genin let alone one that was severely limited in what they could do technique wise. Deciding that he should end the fight he jumped on top of the water and began weaving hand seals. He had hoped to finish the fight without using any jutsu either than the hidden mist to keep the genjutsu user blinded. As he released the water dragon he was confident that the mission was over until another met it half way. Despite the fact that his dragon was quite strong, the second one tore through it and continued heading for him. Dodging the attack he looked at the newcomers and smiled. Finally there was a challenge.

"So the copy ninja huh? I'm honored." Zabuza mused out loud. Kakashi merely landed next to the exhausted jonin and glanced at her in disapproval.

"Why didn't you hold fort and wait for backup?" He snapped. Kurenai glared at the man knowing that he wouldn't have done that.

"You're one to talk. You wouldn't have." She snapped. Internally Sasuke and Naruto nodded in agreement. Kakashi hadn't the first time around.

"Be that as it may at least I can fight on par with other jonin despite any handicap. You are severely limited in what you can do in certain situations and in the fog is one of them. Knowing that you were heading to a place that would have had a lot of fog or an extremely high chance of fog and after needing to call for aid a proper jonin would have waited." He lectured. He had very little patience for the woman that was constantly overestimating herself merely because she was skilled in one of the more control intensive arts. Granted she had talent for genjutsu but not nearly enough to have continued with this particular mission and she knew it.

"Hinata check on the others and then protect Tazuna. Sasuke and Naruto I want you to to be ready should anything happen. I trust that you won't get in over your head?" The three genin nodded and quickly took position. Hinata darted over to Shino and assessed his condition healing what she could with what she knew. Afterwards she moved to Kiba and Sakura. She barely needed to check to know that the two were beyond her ability to heal and went about giving basic first aid to the two. She had been excelling in her lessons and she was told that she was almost ready to move to the next level but she hadn't reached it yet. So her ability to heal was rather limited. Basic first aid and triage however were well within her ability.

Kakashi turned to look at Zabuza and assessed his condition. Kurenai hadn't even made him try and he was very relaxed. He knew that he would have to be careful. Had this been another time and place he would have uncovered his sharingan at the very beginning. However, while training with the team he had realized how far his skills had slipped as a result of over reliance on the sharingan and had set out to correct it. He rarely ever used his sharingan at the beginning of a battle anymore and he felt as if he had surpassed his previous level. He knew he would probably need it however at some point through the fight.

Zabuza was also assessing his opponent. He had thought that he would get to see the infamous sharingan yet the jonin showed no sign that he was going to reveal it. He was calm and despite the rumors that he had let his training slip he had the feeling that if anything the copy ninja was more dangerous now then he would have been a few months ago. Lifting his sword he decided that he would get the battle started. Dashing forward the swordsman swung his blade, the Kubikiribocho, at the jonin who skillfully evaded it and retaliated by swinging a kunai at the missing nin's neck. The fight between the two was a constant game of cat and mouse as they both attempted to land a hit on one another. It seemed that the power that Zabuza had was easily deflected by the nimbleness of the Hatake so they were pretty evenly matched. When it became apparent that the two were getting nowhere as they were they resorted to ninjutsu. However, Zabuza was quick to notice that there was something off about the water dragon that the jonin used instantly.

"That dragon that countered mine wasn't yours was it?" He asked as they stared one another down.

"Nope that dragon belonged to one of my genin. I'll leave it to you to determine which." Kakashi replied in amusement. He had long realized that Sasuke and Naruto were far beyond his level, even if they couldn't use it all for some reason, and that they were not going to show it unless it was necessary. The dragon that had raced past him when they had caught up to the team had taken him by surprise and to be honest with himself he didn't even know which genin made it. Zabuza turned to look at the three that were now guarding the bridge builder and eyed them in contemplation. He doubted that the Hyuga would have been able to achieve a dragon of that size. However, the other two seemed to be a mystery to him. He knew that the raven haired boy was most likely the surviving Uchiha but the blonde was of unknown origins. However, the was that he was being stared at was making him uncomfortable.

"Interesting group you have there. I never thought that I would see a Hyuga with iryo-jutsu. How ever did you manage that feat?" The swordsman asked in genuine curiosity.

"The clan has no control over what I teach my genin and I made them aware of that. They weren't very happy but at the same time they knew that I was right and they couldn't stop me." Kakashi replied. He knew that the Hyuga elder's had been pissed at the meeting when he had reminded them that they were not allowed to interfere in his training unless there was a valid reason. He had been ignoring their request for meetings ever since. He knew that if Hiashi had a problem with it he would have said something about by now. Not that it would have mattered to him anyway. Hinata was skilled and he would be damned if he let anyone stunt that growth. Turning his mind back to the fight he thought of an idea that he believed would finish the fight.

"Sasuke, Naruto we are using attack strategy three." He said as he left his position on the water and landed on shore away from the missing nin. The two in question moved next to him grinning in happiness. Kakashi had found that the two of them loved making new jutsu and finding ways to combine them so he had come up with several ideas for combinations that the team could use. Somehow though, they had taken mid level combinations and made them lethal to anything in it's path. Yet another quirk that they had. They loved making destructive jutsu. Zabuza stared at the trio in curiosity but that quickly faded as the three began weaving hand seals for three separate jutsu. He knew that the one that Kakashi was using was quite a high level and he had never seen the combination that he blonde was using before. It didn't take long before the three finished their strings and Zabuza quickly began weaving his own as the chakra they had been channeling merely continued to grow.

The three unleashed their jutsu at the same time. The fire jutsu that Kakashi used was impressive in itself but when it combined with a lightening jutsu from the Uchiha it became even more so. As soon as he thought that the blonde had messed up his jutsu a massive vortex of wind and water spiraled around him combining with the other two making a massive sphere of chakra hurtle towards him. Zabuza released the Giant Vortex Jutsu that he had cast and quickly began moving away from the area knowing that if he was caught in the aftermath alone he would die anyway. The combination that they had used had no type weakness and would probably tear straight through any defense. It would easily be able to destroy an army and then some.

'I am not sticking around for that! They look like they could fire off at least three more easily! At this rate Nami will be a barren wasteland. I'll come back when they are alone or not able to combine techniques so easily.' He thought to himself and hauled ass from the area. In the trees, a masked figure felt as if their eyes had fallen out of their head. There was little weakness in that jutsu and the power that it contained was frightening. 'Next time.' was the only thought that passed.

"Well it seems as if Zabuza got spooked. Oh well." Kakashi said smirking in amusement. He knew that the heat alone from the jutsu would have still caused damage to the nin regardless. Kurenai stared at the team in both horror and awe. Two genin and one jonin had created a jutsu that was about the same strength as a bijudama. There was no way that the two genin had improved this much in just a month or two. They could easily be jonin rank if the rest of their skills were up to par.

"Kakashi-sensei, Shino has low level injuries that I have healed and chakra exhaustion. Kiba has a severe head wound and has a lot of broken bones. Sakura's back was broken. Kiba and Sakura's injuries are far to severe for me to heal." Hinata called out to her jonin who nodded in confirmation.

"Do you have any stasis scrolls on you Hinata?" The heiress nodded and quickly sealed both of the injured genin away and then jogged over to her team. Kakashi looked over at the genjutsu user and shook his head.

"I suppose we should hope that the injuries can be fixed or else those two will be medically discharged from the force. I hope that this taught you a very important lesson Kurenai." He chastised as he summoned one of his ninken.

"Pakkun, I need you to take these scrolls to the hospital and this one to the Hokage." He said handing the scrolls to the ninken who nodded in confirmation before heading off. Thankfully Akamaru's injuries were mild so Hana should be able to heal him. Shaking his head Kakashi looked over at the bridge builder who stared in nervousness.

"I think that you have some explaining to do." He barked and Tazuna nearly wet himself. The fury that was radiating off of the older shinobi was nearly palpable. One long explanation, a tongue lashing and a lecture later Kakashi looked over to the remaining genin.

"I know that my genin can handle this mission but I still want your opinion. We are far closer to Tazuna's house then we are to Konoha so it would be easier to complete the mission. However, we also have to take our other comrade's conditions into consideration." Kakashi summarized. He had anticipated Naruto to be the one that spoke up but it was Sasuke instead.

"I think that Shino should be just fine with a little more training. Besides he would be a moving target if we tried to go back to Konoha with him in his exhausted state. Furthermore, as you said we are closer to Tazuna's house. While lying about mission details is grounds to cancel the mission and leave the client behind, Konoha has never abandoned someone in need before and shouldn't do so now. Zabuza will need some time to recover as there was no way that he escaped the radius of that jutsu completely so we have time to prepare for him and his comrade that had been watching the whole exchange." Sasuke reasoned catching Kurenai off guard. She truly had not expected such a thorough answer.

"Furthermore, we just got off of two missions of our own and could use the rest. As such continuing the mission is, overall, the best option considering every option available." Hinata added. Shino stared at the team in front of him. They had just completed two missions one right after another and had still been able to save them? Just how far ahead were his classmates getting? The improvement in Hinata was easily seen and Naruto and Sasuke were definitely stronger than they had been last he had seen them.

"Very well we will continue forward. We will use defensive pattern b for this. Kurenai I am taking command as it appears you are not ready or competent enough to do so at this time." Kakashi informed the chastened jonin. Not that it really mattered. Kakashi already outranked her and could have taken command anyway.

The trip to Tazuna's house was silent as everyone remained alert for any other possible ambushes. Kurenai had little to say as it was. Kakashi was trying to remain professional and not light into Kurenai in front of the client anymore than he already had. He had made some bad choices during his first mission as a jonin in charge of a squad and that had ended with his friend dying however, he was in the middle of a war. There had not been time to call for reinforcements and even had the time not been an issue a larger group would have attracted attention. The attention would have caused him to fail a very important mission. He never did forgive himself for that mistake that he had made but he also learned from it. Kurenai had more time to develop the necessary skills to make an informed decision than he and had still made the wrong call. As they entered the door to a small rundown home Tazuna let out a small sigh of relief.

"Tsunami I'm home." He called out. Almost immediately a woman came around the corner looking relieved.

"Father! Thank goodness you are safe." She exclaimed and then looked at the group behind him.

"These are the ninja that Konoha sent to protect me." He said. The woman looked a little skeptically at the group but put it off to a ninja thing that there were four children among them. She hoped that the bridge would be completed soon and that Gato would be overthrown so that everyone could return to a peaceful life.

"Grandpa! You're home!" A voice yelled out and a kid launched himself at the old man. Tazuna smiled and hugged Inari. Looking on at the scene Naruto felt a small feeling of happiness. He knew that Inari would grow to be a very reliable man with the right push of course. Naturally though he would have to put up with the bratty behavior until then. As the door closed behind them Naruto wondered exactly what else had changed. He hoped that it wasn't anything to big as that may just cause more than a hiccup in their plan.

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

A/N: Hey there I have a new chapter done and posted. I think that I am on a roll now. Like always if you catch a spelling or grammar mistake that I missed let me know and I will try to correct it. This chapter was quite shorter than I thought it would be but it still reached ten pages, so yeah. Anyway thank you for the support and I hope that you continue to enjoy the story. As I said before though I am bad at fight scenes so bear with me. Ja ne!