Team 7: A Retelling
By: Tellemicus Sundance
#04: The Road to Wave Country

Training Ground 19

The Uchiha heir was crouched down hiding behind a corner, a kunai gripped in his teeth, an unrolled mission scroll lining on the ground at his feet with the binding string clenched in his free fist. He had to be very careful. Almost a month into their ninja career, Sasuke knew that he was quickly growing more skilled than he'd previously ever been before. He was already almost finished with his mission, but things could still go very wrong very quickly. And he knew that Naruto would never let him hear the end of it if that happened.

Quickly reviewing the information in his mission scroll, Sasuke peeked around the corner to survey the hall in front of him in the large, ornate palace he was in. Nodding to himself in satisfaction, a small smirk crossed his lips around the kunai before he quickly stashed the scroll back into his little equipment pouch. The information was good so far. That meant his mission objective was just down the hall in the second to last door on the left.

Using all his stealth skills, taught by his elder brother and honed by years of association with the most notorious prankster of Konohagakure's time, Sasuke crept down the hallway, a shadow within the darkness of the night. Upon reaching the doorway, he carefully and slowly slid it open with his Sharingan active for the faintest shiver of movement. Gazing through the small opening he made, Sasuke saw that his target was indeed resting upon the king-sized bedding at the far end of the room.

Sliding into the room with all the silence of a shadow, he kept to the darkness and slid forward along the sides of the room, hugging the walls. This target was supposed to be a very high-priority one in the military and government. Someone like him wouldn't sleep unguarded or without one eye open and a weapon hidden under the pillow. There were sure to be traps hidden throughout this room, but he couldn't see them just yet.

The target moved! Freezing and holding his breath as his teeth clamped down on the kunai handle in his mouth, Sasuke's eyes remained glued to the target's shuffling form. If his Sharingan wasn't lying to him (however remote it could've been), then the target was merely rolling over and moving slightly about in its sleep. Good, he hadn't been found or caught yet.

As he drew steadily closer, he withdrew the kunai from his mouth and prepared himself for the strike. It had to be clean strike, right to the throat and jugular, so the target would die within minutes from blood loss or a stab to the heart which was a considerably larger and easier target to hit when up close.

Reaching the bedframe, Sasuke hefted the kunai up with one hand and used his free one to gently slide the bedspread slightly off the target's shoulder. Just as he was about to stab, the target vanished in a poof of smoke. A Kage Bunshin! Sasuke realized too late.

A sudden sound above him caught Sasuke flatfooted as he was still recoiling from his initial surprise. Thus he was unable to do anything but watch as a pair of nets laced with potent Raiton chakra ensnare him. As he was fumbling to adjust to the trap, the traps tightened around his body and yanked him off the ground to leave him hanging in the air. Sasuke found himself unable to fight his way free due to the Raiton chakra of the netting racing over his skin and numbing his muscles.

"Chikuso!" Sasuke hissed, mentally berating himself. He should've seen this coming!

"Wow, I'm impressed, Sasuke-san," came Kakashi's voice through a loudspeaker that Sasuke quickly spotted. "You're the only one who was caught on this exercise." That remark drew a deep, heated glare from Sasuke as his red eyes drilled into the speaker. "Congratulations, you're now dead." There was only one thing that could make this situation worse.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!" Yup, there it was, an annoyingly familiar laughter echoing over the loudspeaker. "You suck, Sasuke! I told you that you should've helped me more with my pranks! They're perfect training for setting up traps and running away when they don't work out! Dumbass!"

"Chikuso," Sasuke hissed again. He was never gonna hear the end of this!

-o-

Later that day…

The young Uchiha was still fuming later that evening as he marched down the street, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the ground. He couldn't believe it. He, the last Uchiha and Rookie of the Year, with the use of his (admittedly still immature) Sharingan, had been the only one taken completely by surprise and captured in Kakashi's latest training exercise.

After the exercise, Kakashi had informed them that the true purpose of the exercise hadn't been in succeeding with the 'assassination'. Rather, the true goal was to teach the ninja in question how to react when things went horrendously wrong for reasons they never anticipated. It was designed to test their mental flexibility and teach them that sometimes, no matter how well thought out the plan was, things could and would go wrong and they needed to be able to think and react very quickly in order to adjust the changes and escape if need be.

Naruto naturally thrived under this training exercise. Sasuke had learned after his failure that the blonde hadn't done anything like what he'd done in his scenario. Rather than creep through the mansion, where there was a high chance of being discovered, the blonde had snuck in through the attic, traveled through the ceiling rafters, and dropped down onto the target. And when the target was revealed to be a fake, he immediately rolled off the bed (missing the same netting that caught Sasuke) and leapt out the window. The drop may have been a good five stories, but that was nothing to ninja, even a fresh genin. From there, it had been pathetically easy for Naruto to safely reach the outer wall and disappear into the forest before the target's samurai could've reacted to the intruder.

Sakura had taken Sasuke's route and moved through the hallways. And when she'd arrived at the target's room, she didn't even have to enter. She merely used her Hyouton to freeze the entire room to the point where any normal human would've frozen to death, unintentionally triggering several of the traps and revealing the ruse for what it was. When the alarm had been sounded, it had been relatively easy for her to use the same tactic to escape. She froze the floors, giving her a means of skating out of the mansion that also had the guards (simple Tsuchi Bunshins that Kakashi had set up) slipping and sliding uncontrollably. Like Naruto, she safely made it outside and to the forest before anyone could get a good chance at stopping her. Granted, she'd have been chased by the guards, had they been real, but she'd still have a fair chance of surviving in the end.

Though he would admit that he was somewhat proud of his friends for their success of the 'mission,' Sasuke was far angrier with himself. How was it that he couldn't succeed where the other two had? His fast mind had quickly supplied the answer to him. He had simply placed more emphasis on his combat training than the subtler aspects than his friends had. With his goals in life, avenging his clan, Sasuke knew that he would ultimately end up facing each of those five in combat when he killed them. So training in subtly and assassinations had never really been his forte, like open combat was. No, that was where Naruto was most skilled, as his prank career had long since demonstrated.

Still, knowing the reasons behind his failure didn't make it any easier in accepting them.

"What's with the dark glare, Sasuke-kun?" a familiar voice asked from nearby. Looking up, he spotted Tenten as she was approaching him, idly munching on a sesame dumpling. "Don't tell me you're angry at Naruto-kun again."

Despite himself, Sasuke felt himself beginning to relax as he watched his 'weapons sensei' walk up to him. Over the years, they had become rather friendly acquaintances. Sasuke would often come to her for help in his kunai/shuriken training, which these days had been swiftly changing to him seeking training in many other types of weaponry. And Tenten would enthusiastically help him since she finally found someone in her own age range who could push her in her own training. And though he'd never admit it, even under the promise of a slow, torturous death, Sasuke found her to be somewhat attractive in a calm, unassuming way.

"In a way, I guess I am, Tenten-san," Sasuke admitted, grudgingly. If she had been anyone else, he'd have not have said anything in reply and would've changed the subject. "Had a bad day of training."

"Oh?" Tenten said, cocking her head slightly to side as a teasing grin slowly spread across her face. Quickly swallowing her last mouthful of the dumpling, she asked, "Is that little rascal running circles around you again?"

Grunting as a bitter smirk began pulling across his face, Sasuke shook his head. "No, worse. He completely outclassed me in today's training. I was the dobe for once."

"Really?" Tenten instantly seemed to perk up at that unexpected news. "Now I have to know. Tell me!"

Sasuke gazed at her closely as he raised a brow inquisitively. "What do I get in return?"

A devilish smirk crossed the elder girl's face. Before he could stop her, Tenten suddenly leaned forward into his personal space and planted a wet kiss on his cheek. As he recoiled away from the unexpected kiss, a slight blush lit his face as he stared at her with wide eyes while his hand immediately flew up to the spot her lips touched him on. Tenten just smiled softly as a small blush of her own lit up her face in a cute manner. "How about another one of those on the other cheek, Sasuke-kun?"

Against his wishes, Sasuke felt his blush begin to deepen as the girl shot him a coy smile. His decision was made before it could even be contemplated. And what was worse was that he could see that she knew it as well, if that knowing glint in her brown eyes was any indication.

-o-

Training Ground 15

"Why are we…doing this again…sensei?" Sakura called out, the heavy strain easily noticeable in her voice.

"It's an exercise of teamwork, Sakura-san," Kakashi answered, not even looking up from where he was leaning against the training posts as he read his beloved Icha Icha book, chuckling lowly at the main character's attempt to slip his arm around the lady's waist. Surely he must've known she'd notice and—

"Then why couldn't we…do the bell test again?" Naruto shouted from his position next to the pink-haired girl. Even a month after their Genin Exam, it still felt to Team 7 that they'd only just passed the test yesterday. That was how incredibly distracted they'd become by Kakashi's regime. More often than not, they'd find themselves fantasizing about that horrid bell test and how incredibly easy it was…when compared to their current tortures.

"Because you've already beaten that test," Kakashi answered. "And this type of training is also great at strengthening your feeble bodies."

"Feeble…? I'll show you…feeble!" Naruto yelled angrily. Unfortunately, his anger distracted him from his concentration of the task at hand.

"Naruto! Keep your mind on the here and now!" Sasuke barked, glaring at the blonde as he felt the weight he was holding slowly increase due to the blonde's distraction.

Glancing up finally, Kakashi saw that they were almost three-quarters of the way through the earthen tunnel he'd surrounded them in. Above their heads, the heavy rocky ceiling was attempting to fall down and crush them. It was only being held back by the coordinated strength of the three genin as they slowly moved their way towards the exit and freedom.

This was actually an Iwa-nin ninjutsu that he'd come across back during the later days of the Third Ninja War. It trapped its targets within this long tunnel and dropped the ceiling upon them to crush them. Sometimes, the captured ninja would be able to catch the ceiling and save their lives, but they'd be trapped inside which no way of preventing any follow-up attacks from their enemies at the end of the tunnel. It was a very dangerous strategy that could usually only be successfully utilized against a single team of enemy ninja who were in relatively close locations to one another. Any more than one team in the general area risked having the captured ninjas' fellow shinobi being able to aid them from the outside.

Regardless though, Kakashi had seen its potential as a teambuilding exercise. As long as the kids continued to work together to hold the ceiling up (which he'd adjusted to their levels of strength), they'd more than likely be able to escape before they could be crushed.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto called out, earning another glance from the Jounin who noted they were only ten paces from the exit now. "Can we have a mission after lunch? Haven't we done enough training by now?"

Kakashi grinned lightly under his mask. The kid just never gave up. After he'd gotten accustomed to the training regime, the young Uzumaki would consistently ask shortly before lunch if they finally could get a mission to do. The boy probably thought that if he asked enough times, he'd eventually wear the Jounin down enough to accept.

"And just why do you deserve to have one?" he asked lightly. "You still haven't even completed our water-dodge training or the obstacle course, not mention forest foraging."

Naruto just glared at each of the aforementioned exercises. The water-dodging was actually an exercise of maintaining concentration on standing upon the surface of a pool while blindfolded as Kakashi or one of their teammates would randomly attack them or disrupt the water's surface. After all, in a real fight, the opponent wouldn't think twice before trying to disrupt their footing and they shouldn't train under that assumption either, as Kakashi had stated. Each of Team 7 knew how to water-walk ever since Sakura awakened her Hyouton. Sasuke had taught her how to water-walk in an effort to help her learn to master her Kekkei Genkai, with Naruto quickly including himself in the training when he learned of it.

The obstacle course was merely weapons accuracy training. To help them get comfortable with retaliating with kunai and shuriken even as they climbed, dodged, and slid over, under, or through obstacles, even as they were being attacked by blunted weapons from hidden launchers.

"Maybe not, sensei," Sakura spoke up. "But a change of scenery would help keep us on our toes during training, so to speak."

Kakashi glanced at Sakura with a raised brow. He understood what she was trying to say. That always keeping to a routine invited the risk of complacency to occur. Complacency was lethal to all ninja.

"And it would cut down on the complaints later," Sasuke grumbled as he took another, unsteady step forward. Was it his imagination or was the ceiling starting to get heavier?

Kakashi stifled a knowing chuckle at that remark. He knew for a fact that once they started doing missions (namely the D-ranks) that there would be nothing but complaints from Naruto. Still, Sakura did have a point. Maybe having them do a few missions would make them more willing to comply with the training? And it would definitely get Naruto to stop complaining about the constant training session…

"Alright," Kakashi said, his decision made and snapping his book closed. "After lunch, meet me at the Hokage Tower. We'll begin our first mission then."

A second later, there came a tremendous crash that signaled Team 7's exit from the tunnel and dropping the heavy ceiling. As Kakashi was glanced at the source of the noise, he was struck by how the image before him was somehow symbolic of…something. Sasuke and Sakura had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion but wearing small, relieved smiles on their faces. Naruto was literally jumping several meters in the air as he let out an excited cheer.

"Yatta! Mission!" he cheered in a singsong voice. "We're gonna do a mission! Dattebayo!"

-o-

Konohagakure west suburbs

Predictably, Naruto's excitement had been rather short-lived after entering the Tower. When Kakashi had taken them to the Hokage Tower for their very first assignment, Naruto (and to lesser extent Sasuke and Sakura) had been quite literally trembling in excitement. He was about to do his first sanctioned mission as a ninja of Konohagakure and take his first step towards becoming Hokage. How could he possibly not be overwhelmed in exhilaration? But that body-shaking excitement had died a sad and tragic death about 7.65 seconds after the Sandaime finished reading the mission directives to them.

Team 7's first mission was to repair the leaking roof of an elderly couple, go grocery shopping, and do some backed up yard work that the couple had been putting off? Naruto had been the first and most vocal of Team 7 to express his displeasure towards this 'mission,' leaving most of the people within a 50-meter radius with ringing eardrums. Kakashi had taken it in stride, knowing full well to expect such menial tasks. Sasuke and Sakura had just stared in momentary disbelief before disgust and annoyance set in.

They were now hard at work performing their chores. Sakura had volunteered to go grocery shopping, which both Sasuke and Kakashi agreed to since they suspected Naruto would only buy instant ramen and ramen ingredients. Sasuke, with help from Naruto, had taken charge of repairing the sagging and rotting roof of the house. And Naruto had created a small platoon of clones to clean up the yard and help Sasuke tear up and fix portions of the roof.

Kakashi himself was lounging upon the fence of the backyard, reading from his book while occasionally watching over the crowd of angry and grumbling Kage Bunshins. Well, on the surface he seemed to reading. In his mind, he was playing back a short conversation he'd had recently with Hokage.

- Flashback -

"Hatake Kakashi reporting in, Hokage-sama," Kakashi announced as he entered the elderly ninja's office. As was the usual, Sarutobi Hiruzen sat behind his desk as he shuffling through various sheets of the bane of all Kage: paperwork. From his position, Kakashi idly noted that the current sheet in front of the Hokage was a requisition form from some merchant or other.

Setting the paperwork aside as he sat back in his chair, Sandaime nodded to the Jounin. "You're late, Kakashi-san."

"Eh, gomennasai," Kakashi said, feeling somewhat sheepish. He was over half an hour late this time. "I had an annoying itch that just wouldn't go away until I gave it a very thorough scratching."

The Sandaime just stared at the Hatake for a moment before a small grin appeared on his face. "Sounds like Naruto-kun's being a real handful for you, eh?"

"Hai," Kakashi admitted, smiling under his mask. Quickly returning his attention to the Hokage, he asked, "Why have you summoned me, Hokage-sama? Is there a new mission for me?"

"No, I merely wished to discuss with you about a certain member of your team," Hiruzen answered easily, earning a confused stare from Kakashi.

"Didn't you read my report, Hokage-sama?" he asked. He had made sure to deliver the report directly to the man more than a week ago and had been very meticulous in the detailing of it.

"Hai," the man opened a drawer and withdrew the aforementioned report to set upon the desk before them. "But I wanted your personal opinion. You have been extremely thorough in determining her current abilities, but what do you think of her potential?"

Kakashi was silent for a moment as he collected and analyzed his interactions and observations with the Haruno girl. "I think that she's been blessed with several special gifts that could one day make her into a truly extraordinary kunoichi should she be able to further develop them. While her confidence in her own skills could use a boost, she has a remarkable determination and perseverance to succeed. She is becoming increasingly adept in the use of her Hyouton jutsu and different ways of expanding its versatility. She had admirable strength and a surprisingly high amount of chakra available to her. But what has truly impressed me is that she has the most amazing chakra control I have ever seen."

"You mean for her age, right?" Hiruzen asked, just for clarification.

"No, I don't," Kakashi answered easily, finding a sense of pride for his student when he saw a small amount of honest surprise in the man's eyes. Taking a quick breath, he continued, "But what I think is her greatest strength is her friendship with Naruto and Sasuke-san. I can only infer that they've been close friends since their early days in the Academy. They inspire and encourage her, in their own ways, to do her best and to push herself past her limits. Comparatively speaking, I can't truly judge who has made the most progress just yet, Naruto or Sakura-san. Either way, their friendships also come with a rivalry of sorts that, once I found how to provoke, further motivates her and them. And their teamwork is one of most bizarre yet effective ones I've seen in a long time."

Hiruzen studied Kakashi's masked face for a moment as he processed what his Jounin just told him. "That's very high praise for her, and your team… I must admit, Kakashi-san, that when you first passed them, I had been afraid that you'd focus your attention exclusively on Sakura-san for a few days before setting them onto missions. Seeing you taking a proactive approach to teaching them is a very welcomed and relieving surprise for me."

For a second, Kakashi honestly felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him. In a different world, one where there had been no 'surprises', Kakashi probably would've done just as the Sandaime had said. Despite what he'd told them before he'd initiated their training, Kakashi had been extremely tempted and intending to do just as Naruto had wanted, to get them started on missions right away. This would've kept the kids somewhat busy and given him lots of free time to read his books.

"Well, I figured that if I was going to find the limits of Sakura-san's abilities, it would've been a good idea to include the boys," Kakashi admitted almost sheepishly. "By training all of them at the same time, it was perfect cover to gauge her and its kept the complaints to a reasonable level. Of course, once I was started, I couldn't just stop without a good excuse to throw them off. Besides, it's gotten a little fun seeing they straining through such basic exercises."

The Hokage chuckled slightly at the man's confession. "Best be careful, Kakashi-san. At the rate they seem to be going, they'll be Chuunin before you know it."

- End of Flashback -

He knew what the Hokage had meant by that. The problem that most Jounin instructors and teachers in general had to deal with was the prospect of letting their charges go once they reached a certain level of skill. Many teachers naturally grew very fond of their students, some even would fall victim to the deadly problem of favoritism and overestimate their abilities. That favoritism could potentially lead to a dangerous situation for the unprepared and arrogant, and it was something that Kakashi was fighting to keep from taking root inside himself.

But despite his attempt, his logical side told him that his team seemed to be progressing at a surprisingly fast rate. Not only in their physical and ninjutsu skills, but their teamwork was quite exceptional for a fresh genin team. The Hokage's hint about them potentially being ready for the Chuunin Exam already was both a warning and an encouragement. Though he'd only had them for a few short weeks, Kakashi could see them fast approaching the level of Chuunin and that made him feel proud for them.

But at the same time, while their skills were nearing that level, there were other things that needed to be worked on before he'd let them try the Exam. And one of the first major problems was already glaring him in the face.

"Naruto, what did you fail to understand about the part of 'cleaning up the yard' in the mission briefing?" Sakura demanded hotly, glaring at the cowering blonde. Behind Naruto, Kakashi see that, somehow, Naruto had made the yard even messier than it had been before the boy's clones got to it.

"But I was cleaning up the yard, Sakura-chan!" Naruto whined, waving his arms in the air like a child. "They wanted the grass cut, the weeds pulled, toys picked up! I did that stuff, didn't I?"

"All that you did was throw everything over in a corner!" Sakura pointed out angrily as she jabbed her towards the aforementioned and quite large pile of grass, weeds, and junk. "That is not 'cleaning up'!"

Even as she lectured and yelled, Kakashi could feel a trickle of freezing chakra seeping from the ranting girl, causing an increasingly cooler breeze to wash over him as the ground around her began to gain a light layer of frost. Kakashi could see that Naruto recognized the signs of what was happening around him as well due to the girl's growing wrath and was becoming understandably increasingly fearful. And, off to the side, Kakashi could hear the Uchiha chuckling quietly under his breath as he momentarily stopped his work on the roof to watch the scene below him play out with an amused glint in his eyes.

'So, Sakura has a temper problem, Naruto has a hard time obeying the guidelines of a mission objective, and Sasuke finds enough amusement in the situation to not lend any help to either of them so that he watch it as it unfolds,' Kakashi observed to himself with a resigned sigh. Now that he found these flaws in their characters and personalities, he'd have to start working on correcting them. And that meant that they'd have to start taking missions a bit more regularly than he'd originally intended with this little scheme. After all, that was the point of D-rank missions.

-o-

Northern Fire Country

The man that the shadows of the underworld knew of as Madara watched with a satisfaction as the almost-unnoticeable widening of the gray-haired teenager's eyes revealed his genuine surprise and a tiny amount of fear. Tobi stood before the 'genin' team, blocking the pass between a narrow, rocky canyon with his body.

The three Konoha ninja in front of him had reacted as expected when confronted by a sudden appearance of clearly a high-caliber ninja such as him. They'd naturally dropped into defensive stances as they studied the strange man who'd risen up out of the ground to block their path back to Konohagakure. He wore a mostly black cloak with a high collar and red cloud-shaped patterns. Yet his face was hidden behind a large orange mask with an indented spiral pattern coming from the single eye hole.

"Who are you?" Kabuto asked in as calm and placid voice as he could manage. He didn't know the man, but he did easily recognize that uniform.

"You are a surprisingly hard man to find," the stranger stated as he stared at them, blatantly ignoring Kabuto's question.

"What business do you have with us?" Akado demanded hotly.

"With you? None," Tobi said, already in the midst of gathering his chakra discreetly. He knew how damn slippery the boy was, compounded by the fact that he was in league with Orochimaru, the master of impossible escapes. He had only one chance to catch the bastard, while he was still largely unaware of his capabilities. "You three are but annoying gnats. And I am the annoyed giant who's gonna swat you."

With no further warning, a pair of blackened kama unfolded from within Tobi's sleeves as he rushed forward to attack. Kabuto jumped backwards as Tsurugi and Akado rushed to meet their unexpected foe. Kabuto watched his weakling underlings attack the stranger viciously. As was usual, he played the role of team medic, letting his teammates deal with distracting Tobi. A standard protocol of all medics is that they never engage directly in combat unless they have no other option. This role also gave him the unique ability to observe and study his enemies, their jutsu and fighting styles, and their mannerisms.

Tsurugi went straight for the masked man, his limbs already in the process of loosening themselves to become spongy whips. Akado was rushing up from the left side and slightly behind, his hands glowing from his basic chakra absorption jutsu. But as they were drawing back in preparation of the first strike, the man suddenly put on a considerable boost of speed that surprised the teenaged genin. That surprise left them quite literally paralyzed and thus unable to adjust to match their attacker in time, not that they could've.

In four blood-spraying slashes of his scythes, the stranger reduced the violent and arrogant teenagers to fatally wounded and crippled sacks of meats. Not only had their spines been severed, but two major arteries and their abdomens had been cut open, spilling large amounts of blood and gore onto the ground as they collapsed in boneless heaps. They'd die within minutes from blood loss.

Tobi ignored the dying genin behind him as he rushed forward to claim his real prize. The boy hadn't been idle during his attack on the small fry, his hands were glowing an ominous blue that Tobi easily recognized as the Shosen no Jutsu. Grinning savagely under his mask, Tobi channeled chakra into his eyes, his Sharingan snapping to life as he rapidly closed the distance. With the Sharingan reading and predicting his enemy's moves, Tobi was easily able to slip through the boy's opening jab. Flowing like water around his outstretched arm and into the startled face of the false genin, Tobi felt an immense amount of satisfaction as he saw the boy's eyes widen in understandable surprise as he finally caught sight of the blazing Sharingan that was staring unerringly at him.

While the boy was distracted, Tobi dropped one of his kama and snapped his freed hand forward, grabbing roughly onto the boy's elbow. The contact snapped Kabuto out of his momentary surprise, but it was already far too late. "Jikūkan Idō."

After a second or two of disorientation, Kabuto managed to collect himself and bounced back lightly when he realized his enemy had released him. As he was setting himself up to continue the battle, Kabuto finally managed to comprehend one minor detail: he had no idea where he was anymore.

Out in the real world, Tobi idly picked up his discarded kama and stared at the filthy blood that was staining his weapons' edges. Still, fighting small fry like those two nothings and that possible future headache were really just some small prices to pay in order to ensure he didn't have to endure that young snake's manipulations and treachery.

After cleaning the filthy blood off his blades on the clothes of the ones who'd stained them, Tobi turned and casually walked away from the site of the attack. Behind his mask, he was wearing a vicious sneer as he played with thoughts of watching the trapped snake slowly die of starvation and dehydration in the coming weeks. As a medical ninja, the boy no doubt knew ways to delay the onset of dehydration and probably had enough field rations for a month. But he was quite looking forward to watching the boy's slow death take place.

So far, things were going wonderfully to his counterpart's predictions and information. Maybe it was time to provoke a few new interesting twists, like starting a bloody riot among the Bakuton users of Earth Country or the Shakuton users of Wind Country? That would be something to think about later as he let Kabuto wither away in his dimensional space.

-o-

Konohagakure
Ten Days Later…

When Tazuna had decided to use his remaining traveling funds to hire a ninja escort, he had not expected the stupidity that came with it. He was a simple man and had never had contact with a ninja community or the actual ninjas before. He had expected a rather ominous group of adult masked super soldiers. But what he got was a trio of obnoxious kids and a decidedly odd young man. From what he gathered the three brats were mere students and the gray haired man was their teacher.

It was a bit nerve wracking, considering that they all seemed to treat this mission to protect his life as some sort of field trip for the children. Of course, they didn't know of the true danger that was probably lurking in the shadows either. Alas, they were perfectly carefree as far as he could tell. The only things that identified the children as shinobi were the hitai-ate they wore and the weapons holsters and pouches upon their thighs. There was no way any of the three were older than thirteen!

How could he have been so foolish as to allow the Sandaime Hokage to assign him this group of worthless brats? Though their sensei had said that they were all very well trained and strong, Tazuna found himself continuously considering calling the mission off so that he could return to Konohagakure and demand a more experienced team. Seriously, how could the ninja be so careless with their children?

It had been nearly a week since the group had left the safety of Konoha behind and were trekking across the vast expanses of Fire Country. Normally a team of ninja, even as young and weak as fresh genin, could make the journey from Konoha to the border of Fire Country within four or five days, depending on the pace they were traveling at. But with an old man like Tazuna, they were taking it at a staggeringly slow pace. The 'old man's walk,' as Naruto had dubbed it two hours into the mission, was drawing the young genin into continual states of jaw-dropping boredom.

Tazuna, after noticing the kids' obvious boredom, had discreetly asked their sensei about it. He learned that the kids had apparently grown very accustomed to training at very high speeds and working themselves to the point of total exhaustion because of the regime that Kakashi had set upon them. Evidently, he hadn't been as discreet with his questions as he'd thought he'd been. A fact proven when the loudmouthed idiot blonde spoke up and loudly declared that Hatake-san was a psychotic demon disguised as a ninja when it came to torturing them, in the blonde's words. If nothing else, Tazuna was able to surmise two very important things about the man from the kids' rants and following conversation. Though their gray-haired sensei was no doubt a very serious and talented ninja in his own right, he was a positively ruthless taskmaster and an unforgiving slave driver when it came to his students' training.

So, to amuse themselves, the genin had taken to playing little traveling games or working on various parts of their ninja training. The pretty, pink-haired girl, Haruno Sakura, had taken to playing with her chakra by summoning the moisture in the air and creating little spheres of water to orbit around her, playing with them by twisting and warping them into various shapes. After a short amount of time, she had taken a quick liking to toying with a trio of water globs that were shaped vaguely in the form of people and they seemed to be engaged in a rather sappy romance that Sakura was probably imagining in her head. Suffice to say that neither of the boys would watch as she was doing this because of a severe lack of interest. Tazuna would occasionally watch her little performances with a type of reluctant interest and amusement. Kakashi would just grin at the silly and slightly childish use of her ancient and feared ninja bloodline abilities.

In contrast, Tazuna found he was much more interested in watching the boys, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, as they found ways to amuse themselves. Consequentially, their entertainment consisted heavily upon each other. They would hold regular arguments over a variety of topics, ranging from their favorite foods to favorite battle tactics. The boys also would have periodic throwing contests with their shuriken and kunai to test their speed and accuracy, which the Uchiha boy usually seemed to win. And on one occasion already, their little arguments had even degraded into an actual brawl, which had very quickly stopped by Hatake-san with a very stern warning to no repeat it. Tazuna could honestly say that he'd never seen a more rowdy or energetic pair before his acquaintance with them. Did they, especially that loudmouth, ever run out of energy from all that bouncing and roughhousing they did? Thank Izanagi and Izanami that his grandson Inari was nothing like them!

As for Kakashi himself, he merely walked alongside Tazuna, generally keeping quiet and always remaining on the alert. But one of his key observations didn't come from the environment and the possible enemies that were lurking there, but from Tazuna himself. Kakashi had learned from a very young age during the last war just how to tell if someone was hiding something. Tazuna's eyes shifted a bit too much, and the way he had walked when he'd first become acquainted with Team 7 had proved that he had drunk too much and was unaccustomed to it. Also, he refused to tell why he needed an escort other then he didn't want to be attacked by bandits, but this story didn't make sense. Where was the escort that he would have had from Wave to Konoha, even if Wave had no ninja village itself? Why was he even in Konoha in the first place?

Because of their different means of entertainment, no one but Kakashi noticed the seemingly-innocent puddle of water that lay on the path upon which they were slowly traveling down. He only gave it a brief, passing glance before his attention forward. He knew what would be coming very shortly.

Turning his attention back to the boys, he caught the tail end of an argument they were in. Though it an old debate passed down for many generations of ninja, it was more a matter of opinion than factual and he had a feeling the boys were arguing merely for the hell of it.

"Face it, Sasuke," Naruto was saying as he waved a kunai about in the air. "A kunai is the better weapon! Not only can you use it up close, but when you throw it, you can cause a lot more damage than a shuriken can with their stubby little points! Plus, kunai come in all different shapes and sizes, meaning that you can use them for a hellva lot more things than shuriken."

"Be that as it may, Naruto," Sasuke said calmly, spinning two shuriken on his pointer and pinkie fingers. "Shuriken are much more dangerous and versatile in combat than a kunai could ever hope to be."

"Ha! How so?" Naruto demanded, a superior gleam in his eye made it abundantly obvious he had no intention of agreeing with Sasuke's reasoning.

But Sasuke answered anyway. "While you are right that a kunai is good for close-quarters fighting, most ninja prefer to fight long-range where they don't have to worry about immediate bodily injury. With a large number of shuriken in the air, you can keep even the best enemy away long enough to formulate a working strategy and beat him before he has a chance to come up with a counterattack. Plus, many jutsu can be easily modified to conceal shuriken within and can catch the enemy by surprise."

Naruto snorted like stuck up brat at the thought. "Those who can't think on their feet don't deserve to be ninja. After all, a plan is only good in the planning stages. Once you put that plan into action, you have no idea what can happen to have it backfire on you. Why? Because your opponent thought on their feet and didn't commit themselves to only one or two possibilities while ignoring what else they could've used in the situation to their advantage. And kunai are perfect for deflecting and scaring off attackers, ruining their precious plans and strategies."

Sasuke knew that Naruto was speaking from experience, thanks to his many pranks in the past few years. It was actually kinda sad, in a strange way. That thought earned a small snort from Sasuke as he glanced away. "To think on one's feet is little more than fighting on basic animal instincts, which can be easily predicted by a seasoned ninja."

"Ha! But that's only as good as the ninja who's being attacked!" Turning to Sakura, Naruto grinned triumphantly at the girl as he said, "Right, Sakura-chan?"

"Whatever you say," Sakura answered distractedly, clearly not paying the argument any attention. She was too busy playing with her hair thanks to a small handheld mirror and comb that she'd used her bloodline to create.

"Sakura-chaaaan," Naruto whined, pouting childishly when he realized that she'd missed his minor victory over Sasuke.

That was when a pair of shaggy ninja wearing masks attacked and instantly trapped Kakashi within bladed chain, startling the kids and Tazuna at their sudden appearance. Not a second later, they yanked hard and ripped him apart, sending out a spray of gore and blood.

"One down," one of the masked attackers said, satisfaction obvious in his muffled voice.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled in disbelief, staring at the bloody patch where Kakashi's remains had fallen. Then he felt it, the ominous aura of a bloodthirsty beast bearing down on him. In another world, Naruto might've froze up in instinctive terror, his mind and reflexes slowing as the reality that he could and probably would die immediately became all-too-real to him for the first time in his life.

However, he didn't freeze up. Instead, his many hours of training and years of sparring matches against Sasuke kicked in. His body reacted reflexively to an attack that Sasuke, always the fastest of them, had always led with whenever they got into a fight. So, as the two ninja lunged forward with their chained gauntlets at the ready, Naruto inverted himself. Hands bracings against the ground, he snapped his short legs up and out, catching the two attackers by surprise with his quick retaliation as he landed a pair of kicks to their faces. The attacking ninja literally ran into his extended feet, such was their surprise.

Sharingan snapping on his leapt into action, Sasuke saw his opportunity and acted on it immediately. He hurled the two shuriken he'd still held in his hand from the argument. The first shuriken caught the bladed chain and pinned up against a nearby tree. The second shuriken lodged itself firmly into one of the chain's openings and secured the chain's captivity to the tree.

Logically, the two attackers could've easily pulled the chain free, but they'd already lost their momentum and the flow of the battle was changing. To pull the chain free would've meant sacrificing valuable seconds to allow them to continue using their preferred style, leaving them vulnerable to the quickly recovering and attacking genin. Instead, they snapped the chain's connection and freed themselves of it and each other. But they were still a brief second too late.

As Sasuke impeded their weapon, Naruto had leapt back to his feet and spun around to punch the ninja on his left. He heard as much as he felt Sasuke rush up to him and punch the ninja to his right. The two attacks happened just as the chain was disconnected, which allowed both of the brothers to be thrown back in opposite directions by the surprising strength of the small boys.

The two ninja recovered from the blows almost instantly. Abandoning fighting the increasingly troublesome boys, they both sprinted around them and lunged towards where the girl was protecting the target. But as soon as she spotted them rushing for her, the girl's hands blurred into a short series of handseals before she crouched and slammed her hands upon the ground. Both of the brothers recognized the position as the pose of summoning or creating a defensive wall.

But just as they were about to alter their course to attack around the soon-to-be obstacle, a freezing wind washed over their bodies a split second before a thick pyramid of ice shot out of the ground, drawn up from the underground water table, and surrounded both the girl and the target.

'Ice…! Meaning it can only be a…Hyouton jutsu…! Just like—!' Their worlds suddenly went dark before their consciousness could fully comprehend the surprising revelation they'd been on the verge of having.

"Yo," Kakashi greeted nonchalantly, a Demon Brother tucked under each arm.

"Ka-Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto managed to gasp out, staring at his supposedly dead teacher in confusion before looking back to where he'd seen the man be torn apart. In place of a very bloody and violent death was not a mound of body parts but a slashed tree limb. 'He used the Kawarimi,' Naruto realized, still a little dumbfounded.

Kakashi gave the boy a quick glance over. His body still running very high on adrenaline, as the faint twitches and muscle spasms of his arms and shoulders hinted towards. His breath was coming out in ragged pants, and there was a slightly wild glaze in his eyes, but that was rapidly disappearing as he calmed down. Nodding to himself that the boy was uninjured, the Jounin turned to quickly assess his other two students. Excluding his still-active Sharingan, Sasuke was the perfect picture tranquil calm and coolness, hands in his pants pockets as he watched what happened next with a somber expression. Sakura looked relieved and more than a little impressed at his sudden return from the dead and subsequent defeat of their attackers. And other than the slight fright she'd been put through at the prospect of being simultaneously charged by both of the Chuunin, she was quite fine.

But despite his evaluations of his team, Kakashi did not miss the relieved sigh that Tazuna released. Once again, Kakashi's old habit of being able to read people came out. He was easily able to determine that Tazuna's sigh wasn't one of relief that they'd survived, but a palpable release of tension. And such a response to this situation could only mean one thing: he'd expected to be attacked by ninja.

As Kakashi was coming to that revelation, Naruto was experiencing something entirely different. Though this could've been called his second battle in his life as a ninja, Naruto found himself having a completely different reaction than the one he'd had against Mizuki. Mizuki had been a bully who attacked people with their backs turned and he had an entirely too arrogant view on his supposed superior ninja skills. The fact that an Academy student had managed to beat him to a bloody pulp had been of no true surprise and Naruto honestly didn't count that fight as a 'true battle', regardless of how satisfying it had been.

Yet here he was. His first true battle as a ninja, panting and sweating as though he'd just endured five hours of Kakashi's exercises. And it wasn't as though this fight had been very difficult or long, due to how briefly it'd taken place and the attackers not trying to continue after their first counterattack. Naruto couldn't help but compare himself to Sasuke, who was standing calmly off to the side, not a scratch on his body or even a single strand of hair out of place. It was as though this fight was a common occurrence to him and he was just going about his day as usual. How could he…and Sakura to a lesser extent…be so calm after this?

"Hey," Sasuke's voice dragged Naruto back to the present as the Uchiha turned to him with a strange expression on his face. After a brief moment of staring, Sasuke let loose a small smirk as he said, "Good reflexes. I'd been a little afraid I'd have had to save you there for a second."

"Say what?" Naruto snapped, instantly pushing his anguish aside as he took offense to the Uchiha's insinuation. "Like I needed your help to beat down those two half-pints! I could've taken both of them with both my arms and legs tied behind my back!"

"I seriously doubt that," Sasuke remarked casually as he turned away to help Kakashi tie the men to a tree. "Kage Bunshin or not."

It wasn't until several seconds later that Naruto realized something important that he'd forgotten in the rush of battle. He had not once even considered the idea of creating some clones to help him take down those two bastards! What was wrong with him?

Once he'd had the two unconscious Kiri-nin tightly bound to the tree and relieved of possible weapons to cut themselves free with, Kakashi glanced pointed at Tazuna. "We need to talk, Tazuna-san."

(Author's Note) Well, this is my late Christmas and New Years gift to you all. I hope you enjoy it and that it lives up to the previous few chapters. And now, finally, some of the real changes in the storyline are about to occur. I wonder how many of you can accurate guess what's gonna happen next.

Regardless, here's the answer to the trivia question of the last chapter. Congratulations on those who guess 'Kenichi: History's Strongest Disciple'. That series is one of my more favorites and I just felt compelled to use those exercises in my story. They're great for stamina training and filler content, if nothing else.

And now, time for the next chapter. I hope what I've got in mind will catch you all by surprise!