Changing Stances

Chapter 1

By

Archerelf

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Author's Note:

Yeah, actually a new story. It's a new concept I thought of. What would happen if you took everyone out of their natural element, their natural teams? There might be pairings later on.

Oh please review?

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Tsunade sighed and opened the door to her office. She strode forward, with the entirety of the chosen teams looking at her. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto mingled near Kakashi, hardly talking. Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were chatting quiet, while the pleasingly plump one ate. Neji, Tenten and Lee were watching, Neji with pensive thoughtfulness and Lee with ill contained movement. Hinata was hiding behind Kiba and Shino, whose eyes were darting behind his shades. Kurenai, Yamato, and Gai were near the Fifth's desk. The room was unusually quiet.

Hinata looked forward. She could sense something was wrong. Kiba too. Akamaru was outside, playing with squirrels but he had pawed at Kiba's leg. That usually meant something was unsafe.

"Tsunade-shishou, what's this about?" Sakura's voice was deceptively calm, with a note of wonder in it. Tsunade held up her hand to silence her.

A thick folder laid upon her desk was the first thing she moved to. Quietly, she sat down and reviewed it for a moment. Everyone's eyes glanced about, save for a few: Neji's, Sasuke's and Kakashi's and that was because he was reading.

Neji was trying to analyze the situation. There was at least 15 people in the room. All the Genin. This was no mission. This was no coincidence. He didn't like not knowing what was going on. He found it rather annoying.

A few moments passed. Naruto deciding to break the deafening silence.

"Hey obaa-chan! What's this about!" Sakura rolled her eyes and clamped her hand over his mouth. Tenten couldn't agree more. She wanted to know why they were all there.

She rolled her eyes, stood up and sat on the front of her desk.

"There is a serious flaw in this room. I see Chunins and Jounins, and some ANBU and yet there's a big problem."

She reached over and grabbed the giant file on her desk. "This, is a list of all of the recent missions that all of the people under age 20 have gone on recently. Can anyone guess why I think you all need serious work?"

Neji stood up, annoyed. "Tsunade-sama if you feel we need work I'd like to point out that most missions are completed successfully."

Glaring, she snapped, "Stow it Hyuuga." He gave a respectful bow and backed off with an irritated expression. Her face lightened for a moment.

"Actually, Neji brings up a good point. Most missions are completed successfully. Most are. The ones I see the great variables in are those where I switch up your teams. Basically put, you seem to have trouble with anyone but your original genin team. There are of course, some exceptions. Sakura is a full-fledged medic nin, Ino is an apprentice. Neither of you are exempt from this exercise however."

Sakura rubbed her temples, hoping to ward off an oncoming headache. It didn't work. Tsunade felt her pain. She was going out for a few stiff drinks after this.

She sighed and hoped this was a good decision.

"I'm temporarily rearranging your genin teams."

A shockwave of disbelief and anger hit the room. Everyone began talking except for Sasuke who stood, arms folded with a pissed off frown. Even Kakashi took his head out of his book.

"Shut up! Each day, you will train with them a minimum of three hours, under the supervision of Kakashi, Yamato, Gai or Kurenai. They will report back to me at the conclusion of the week. This exercise will last at least a month. Any missions you are assigned to you will take with your new team. If I choose to add another member that is by my own discretion. This will last at least a month."

She knew she was never going to get full approval from anyone.

"You are allowed limited training time with your old teams, though what you do in your spare time is up to you. I promise you, you won't have much."

She set the folder down and looked around wearily. "Choosing the new teams was a hell of a time. I was sure to avoid any obvious bombs." She threw scathing glances at Neji and Sasuke.

"Ino, Kiba and Naruto, you are one team. Kakashi will be supervising you." Naruto let out a loud cry. "You're sticking me with dog boy?!" Kiba responded in kind, "You're leaving me with this hyperactive idiot?"

With a sickening crunch, Tsunade's desk now bore a scar of the times, a fist shaped marking. "Can it, the both of you! Naruto, I gave you Kakashi because he seems to be the only one who can control that mouth. And Kiba, you will both work together with Ino, is that understood?"

She got sour looks. That meant yes.

"Sakura, Shino and Neji. You three are the second team, to be headed up by Gai."

Lee looked terrified. "Hokage-sama! You're separating me from Gai-sensei?!"

"What I said to Kiba and Naruto applies to you. We all have to do this. You included."

Neji stepped forward. "I have no large objections with them."

"Meaning you do have objections?" muttered Tsunade.

"Nothing major, Hokage-sama. I could have been stuck with worse…" He let the sentiment trail off. His glance was Team 7's way. Neji clearly thought they were the biggest waste of time. One traitor, one girl, and one idiot. Sakura sent him a scathing look. Perfect, just what she needed. A repeat of her old team, with one silent and the other one cocky. Just great.

"Yeah, Hyuuga? Just for that, I might just let Sakura beat you through a wall." She cleared her throat and started to move on. She didn't get far.

"Esteemed Hokage-sama! I shall take these three under my wing and let them blossom in teamwork and youth and…" She cut him off there.

"I get it. Next team. Hinata, Lee and Shikamaru. You three are headed up by Kurenai. Hopefully Lee's over exuberance will counter Shikamaru's laziness and Hinata's shyness."

"I shall take it as a personal mission Hokage-sama!"

"Lee, I said to can it. I mean it. That means the final team is Tenten, Sasuke and Choji. You three are going to be supervised by Yamato. I know known of you has any experience with him but he is well experienced."

"You. Cannot. Be Serious." Sasuke ground out the words like poison. No way was he working with anyone but his original team. This was so degrading. It was an insult to his talent and his team's.

"See, you I expected this from. Can you do anything about it? No. It's part of your probation. You skip this, you go to jail. Under ANBU guard in D block." She sent him a smirking smile. He was nearly seething.

"You couldn't have given me a team worth my time?" He shot back, glaring. Sakura got worried. He didn't deal well with others.

Yeah, actually that was an understatement. He only had really tolerated them, Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi.

Tenten and Chouji stepped forward, incensed.

"We aren't worth your time?" Tenten hissed. How dare he? They had proved themselves in previous years. Who was he to question it? He hadn't even been here. Neji, sensing her discomfort, put a warm hand on her arm.

"I'm not going to repeat myself." Chouji stepped forward. "How are you even worth our time? How do we know you won't run away again?" Quicker than lightening, Sasuke appeared behind Chouji with his signature kusanagi to Chouji's throat. No one had even blinked. Kakashi appeared at Sasuke's side, his book aside.

"Yo, you kill him, you go to jail anyway."

Sasuke sheathed his sword and walked back to his place besides Sakura.

Sakura took the floor in front of Tsunade's desk.

"Sensei, this is clearly a bad idea. Sasuke-kun could have just killed Chouji. Clearly, we aren't all going to get along. The personalities are all wrong. Even as Genin we had years to get used to each other and each other's techniques. In order to do it in a month, it's nothing short of impossible. No one while like this and attitude affects training. Not to mention other work. I have hospital rounds, Ino has medic training and her shop. Shikamaru works in the school. Sensei….I can't pretend to see your logic in this. It's a good idea but there are too many cons to it."

"You present a good argument. Clear, concise, as always. But there are too many risks not to. You need to work together. Not casually. I realize that this is no walk in the park. However, there is going to be no whing about it. You can't switch teammates or sensei's. Not without adequate cause. Work through it. There wil be consequences otherwise.

If you pull down your team intentionally, I will make sure that you will suffer, for the next year minimum. Dismissed."

Before they could move, Sakura put her hands blocking Sasuke and Naruto. "Meet me at my house at six. We have a lot to talk about." She shot a look at Kakashi, who simply shrugged.

"Why are you giving me the death glare?"

"You obviously knew. How could you not know? None of you were surprised in the least."

"We couldn't tell you. Not my fault." She turned her attention back to her teammates, who obviously weren't happy.

"Just meet me there." She insisted urgently. They both nodded wearily.

Ino had a similar reaction. "Go, to the Korean barbeque place in an hour. Our usual booth, okay?"

Shikamaru let off a, "Troublesome." But he nodded his head and Chouji never said no to Korean BBQ.

Kiba engaged his team as soon as they hit the front door.

"I can't believe she's going to do this! We've not been split up since our Genin days. Not for more than a week at least. What do you think Shino?"

"A learning experience. A medic and a prodigy. Should be interesting."

"Hinata?"

"I don't know. I hope it turns out alright." She was worried alright, how did they intend to work with others? It was disaster waiting to happen.

--

Sakura opened her door promptly at 6 and let Sasuke in. Naruto still trailed.

"Look. There's no changing her mind. I tried for hours. We have to do it. Sasuke, I will not see you go back in jail. Naruto, try to get along with Kiba and Ino. They aren't as bad as you think." She sighed. Her headache didn't go away at all. "What do you guys think?"

"It's an insult to stick me with them. An overweight idiot who can't stop stuffing his face and a girl with no real attacks. Might as well stick me with three year olds."

"I tried to get you both switched but she wouldn't budge. Who knows, maybe you could train them harder? Is it worth it to go to jail? And Naruto, you have an idea of what Kiba is like to work with, you fought him in the original exams…"

"Are we still going to meet after training for ramen?" Naruto asked, quietly.

"Sure." Sakura smiled but there was minimal joy behind it.

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Away in the Hyuuga compound both Neji and Hinata were trying to meditate. Neither of them succeded. Neji kept smirking. At least he had two relatively smart people on his team. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

Hinata gave up and tried to read. Their first meeting was the next day and she didn't want to have Tsunade mad at her.

--

Ino sighed as she closed up shop. She thought back to her conversations with her teammates. Shikamaru agreed that some form of familiarity with other people's abilities was essential, even if it was 'troublesome'. Chouji had a condition. No one could call him fat. He was 'pleasingly plump' or big boned. She sighed again.

There was no way Sasuke wasn't going to tell it like it was. Chouji was going to try to kill him. Like that could ever happen. Sasuke was easily the best ninja out of them. But Sakura was right. There was no way that Sasuke and Chouji, and even TenTen were going to get along.

Maybe Neji and Sakura and Shino would get along. She didn't like this idea. At all.

--

Tsunade sighed and took another shot. She hoped this was a good idea.

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