A New Hope

Disclaimer; I don't own Naruto, if i did Sakura would never have been a weak fan girl and she would have knocked some sense into her team a LONG time ago, cause you know they need it.

Minato was on his way to training field three, with his zombie-like brother slowly trailing behind him. Minato himself was not exhausted as Naruto, however he is a bit tired from not being completely used to jumping out of bed for mission, like he used to be. In the distance he spotted Sakura walking a bit more energized than Naruto, but still lagging and Sasuke looked a little tired as well, though not as obvious as Naruto or Sakura.

" Morning..(yawn)..guys." greeted Sakura as she set her pack down and leaned against the near by tree.

" Morning." responded Minato as Naruto dropped to the ground and proceeded to pass out. Minato sat in between Sakura and Naruto, while Sasuke jumped up into the tree on the other side of the clearing. Minato shook his head, knowing that getting the Uchiha to use teamwork would be a challenge. Minato looked at Naruto and a faint smile graced his lips as he sent a silent prayer thanking the kamis for giving a chance to be in his son's life. he then looked over to sakura, who was trying to keep her eyes open." you should rest some more as well Sakura."

" But sensei-"

" Probably won't be here for a while, if yesterday was anything to go by. Just get some sleep and I'll wake you up later."

" Alright, thanks Minato." she said as she drifted off.

By the time she woke up, Sakura knew she was no longer in the same position she was when she fell asleep. Instead of propped up against the rough frigid tree, she was on her side and her head was resting on something cozy and warm, while she felt fingers scraping softly against her scalp following her hair to the top of her low ponytail. She had to resist the urge to purr at the feeling. However she was confused by these things, when did she move? Why is this person petting her? WHO is the person petting her? She slowly began the process of opening her eyes, trying to be careful of the morning sun.

Minato knew that Sakura was conscious, when her breathing patterns changed. He watched as she slowly opened her eyes and lifted her head to find out who she has been laying on. She stared at Minato for a minute as she connected the he was the one she had been laying on and once she did she blushed.

" S-sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep on you." she apologized sheepishly, while fiddling with her pony-tail and not making eye contact.

" It's alright, you were just tired and besides Kakashi is not even here yet." he said a bit amused by her embarrassment.

" A-ah." she then looks up at the sky." How long have I been out?"

" About two and a half hours, so Kakashi should be here soon. Which reminds me, I should probably wake Naruto up."He leaned over and started shaking Naruto's shoulder." Wake up Naruto, we need to talk about what we are going to do about the test." however Naruto was still asleep, not even fazed.

" Hmm~, I got it. Naruto if you don't wake up, no more ramen for three days." said Sakura sternly.

" No! Sakura-chan, how can you be so cruel?!" shouted Naruto as he bolted up.

" She's not being cruel, Naruto." cut in Minato." As ninja, we have to be ready to be called for a mission at any given moment. So eventually, you are going to need to break your deep sleeper habit."

Naruto just grumbled to himself, but soon stopped when they all heard the sound of a poof. Everyone turned to face Kakashi, Sasuke was making his way over to the rest of the group.

" YOUR LATE!" shouted both Naruto and Sakura.

" Sorry, an old lady needed help with her groceries and me being the kind ninja I am just had to aid her." said accused man explained.

" LIAR!" the both shouted again , while Sasuke "hn'd" in agreement and Minato just looked on as if used to routine already, which he was.

" Alright. Today I will be testing you and seeing if you will remain genin or not." he began as he pulled out a chicken alarm clock." This clock is set for noon, you have until then to grab these three bells from me." he said holding up the bells. Minato knew that those were the same bells he used on his students and that, when they took the bell test a second time he brought forth the third bell and gave one to each of his students. Seeing as both Rin and Obito died, they must have given their bells to Kakashi.

" But Kakashi-sensei, there are only three bells and four of us." pointed out Sakura.

" Yes, that is because whoever does not get a bell, will be automatically sent back to the academy." the genin, except Minato, tensed." Not only that, but they will be tied to one of these three post and will not receive any lunch."

' That's why he wanted us to skip breakfast...' the same three thought, however they were also thanking Minato for telling them not to listen, well two were the other just kept silent.

" You need to come at me with the intent to kill me or else you won't stand a chance, you all have three hours to get a bell. Ready..." however Naruto began charging at him with a kunai, but before it could connect, Kakashi moved and grasped his hand so that the kunai was pointing towards Naruto's head from behind, all four genin tensed." Calm down, I didn't even say go." He released Naruto." Begin!" All the genin scattered into the trees and bushes.

' At least they are able to hide themselves well enough...' he trailed off as he stared at Naruto, who was just standing there." You know compared to the others, you're a bit weird."

" Oh yeah, well the only thing weird around here is your hair cut!"

" First lesson, taijutsu." he said as he reached into his weapons pouch, confusing his team as he pulled out a book. " Don't mind the book, it won't matter if I'm reading it or not." however that just ticked Naruto off as he charged at Kakashi and began swinging and kicking, only to have Kakashi dodge everyone with ease. Kakshi then appeared behind him, with his fingers together.

" Naruto, get out of there he's gonna destroy you!" shouted Sakura as she noticed the tiger seal.

" Too late." spoke Kakashi as he jutted his hands forward." Secret village leaf jutsu; a thousand years of death!" his fingers jammed right into Naruto's butt, sending him flying into the water.

" He just poked him..." said Sakura, slightly disgusted.

" These two are idiots." stated Sasuke, from his hiding place in the trees.

" Kakashi, I am beginning to worry for you now more than ever." said Minato, sweat dropping at his student's actions.

But soon dozens of Naruto's appeared and charged Kakashi. Though he dodged them all and wound up getting rid of most of the clones, so Naruto and the three clones left engaged him in another taijutsu attack, resulting in Kakashi using a henge technique and capturing Naruto, causing the boy to hang upside down from a tree. Sasuke launched several kunai and shuriken, but Kakashi did a substitution jutsu. Both took off into the woods, one chasing the other.

Sakura and Minato walked over to Naruto." Naruto, you should have known Kakashi-sensei would never just drop a bell and forget about it." scolded Sakura, while Minato cut Naruto down.

" I know I know."

" Naruto I'm saying this to you because you don't know. He is probably gonna be doing things like this throughout the test, not really fighting, but trapping and we can't get caught before the timer runs out."

" Alright. But I'm gonna find him and get those bells before Teme does!" he exclaims as he is about to run off into the woods, however Minato grabs his collar and pulls him back.

" Do you remember how well it went the first two times you went charging at him? Even if you used shadow clones, he was able to confuse you and trap you."

" What I don't get is, how does he expect us to go one on one with him and beat him? I mean he's a jounin and were fresh out of the academy genin. It makes no sense."

" Think about what you just said Sakura." she looked up at Minato, with confused eyes." Think about the rules Kakashi gave us and all the things he said till now."

Sakura thought back to when Kakashi told them about the passing rate, the skipping breakfast, and the rules." Well the skipping breakfast and getting here early was just to trick us into being too exhausted for the test, the passing rate scared us because we don't want to go back to the academy, and the only rule is that we have to get a bell before noon." she then thought about what she just said and her eyes lit up in realization." He never said we had to attack him one on one."

Minato smiled a bit." Yep, the only rule is to get a bell, however because of the rate on passing, we were led to think that we needed to get a bell on our own and fight separately. So how about we come up with a plan to take him down, before he is done with Sasuke?"

Both genin nodded at him and they huddled together.

Kakashi had just finished dealing with Sasuke and he was a bit surprised and impressed. The boy may not have had his sharingan, but his fire jutsu skills were great as well as his taijutsu. Kakashi could really be able to help the boy in his training and maybe get him to not go down the path of revenge.

However right now he needed to focus on the innocent looking pink-haired girl, trying, and failing, at hiding from him. He sighed and knew that despite her goal, if she could not get the basics down properly, she would be forced to quite soon or he could try to pass the boys, because the three of them were enough for a team. He crept up behind the girl and put his hand on her shoulder, but the second he did he knew something was off and jumped back, just as she exploded. Before he could recover, shuriken, kunai, and senbon were sent at him from all directions. He jumped out of the way and avoided them all, but then a dozen Naruto's appeared causing him to break out into another taijutsu battle.

But as he was finishing off the last clone a fire ball came his way, he jumped high, but felt a presence behind him and turned to see Minato, with his fist aimed, Kakashi blocked the barrage of hits the came his way, barely. Then the real Naruto appeared along with Sasuke and Sakura. All four of them battled him, until Sakura sent some senbon his way and Minato did a round house kick, causing Kakashi to lean back low, while Sakura did a few hand signs, and finally jumped back towards her teammates. The fighting had stopped as the timer went off.

" Well that was good, but you all still failed." said Kakashi dusting himself off.

" Look again, Kakashi-sensei!" shouted Naruto.

Kakashi looked down at his bells and noticed them fizzing, until finally disappearing. He looked back up in surprise and saw that Sakura was holding all three bells. Genjutsu.

" Very good Sakura, now who are you going to give them to?" he asked, seeing if she got the true meaning of the test or not.

Sakura however, just shook her head and replied." That's just the thing Kakashi-sensei, it doesn't matter who I give the bells to."

" And why is that?" he questioned again. But this time Minato spoke up.

" Because the real test was about teamwork, not to see who can get a bell."

" Yeah Kakashi-sensei! You said all that crap, just to trick us!" yelled Naruto. Sasuke just "Hn'd" in agreement.

Kakashi's eye crinkled as he smiled at them. " Well then, if that's the case, congratulations, you all pass."

It was late that evening and Kakashi was at the memorial stone as usual. He was silently shocked though, when Minato landed next to him and he did not sense the boy at all.

" Good evening, Kakashi."

" Good evening."

" Mourning lost comrades?"

" And friends."

Minato did a few hand seal and put up a genjutsu around them." Kakashi I need to talk to you about something important." Minato said in a serious voice.

Kakashi trying his best not to show his shock, sat down and silently gestured for Minato to do the same.

" What do you know of the fourth's death." he started. He saw Kakashi stiffen, but knew that this would be hard for him to talk about.

" The same thing that everyone knows, he died fighting the Kyuubi."

" I heard that you were he one to find his wife and son."

Kakashi gave a small nod." The fourth's body was never recovered, but his robes and headband were."

" Why do you think that is?"

" I assumed it had something to do with the seal sensei placed on Naruto." Kakashi answered not really caring that he just told his student who his teacher was.

" Are you mad at Naruto, because the fourth died sealing the Kyuubi in him?" Kakashi took a deep breath and in the back of his mind wondered why the boy was not shocked to hear that the legendary fourth hokage was his teacher.

" Honestly, I was at first. I had just lost my teammates and then not even a year later, I lose my sensei. For a while I never wanted to associate myself with him for that reason. However once I saw him around the village a few times as he got older, I saw him put on a brave face and smile even through all the hateful things people were saying about him. I saw him get tossed out of places, get excluded from kids, and saw his confused and hurt face, when he thought no one was looking. And when I did I realized that it was not his fault. He never asked for the Kyuubi and still does not even know of it, he never wanted to be shunned by the villagers, and he certainly never wanted to be an orphan. Once I realized those things, I could not stay mad at him."

" Why are you telling me all this, when you could have just said you liked Naruto from the beginning?"

" I figured as his brother, you would want to know the truth about what your brother went through and what some people's feelings were."

" Now, what if I told you, I'm not his brother?" he asked lowly.

Kakashi focused in on him.

" You have wondered why I look more like him than Naruto haven't you. Also why I'm not shocked to know that he is your sensei. Well it's because I already knew and because I have a secret of my own." He looked Kakashi dead in the eyes and said.

" I am Namikaze Minato."

Kakashi's lone eye widened as he just stared at Minato for a few moments." Your lying." he finally said.

" I am not."

" Sensei was killed."

" My body was never recovered, because I was never killed."

" How can I believe you?"

" Ask me anything."

" Who were my teammates and how did they die?" Only kakashi and his sensei knew what exactly happened to them.

" Obito died by getting crushed by a boulder on your first mission as leader and before he did, he had Rin implant his sharingan eye into you, while Rin died sacrificing herself and taking your chidori to the heart."

Kakashi took a shaky breath." H-how?"

" The shinigami, who was supposed to kill me, told me that the gods wanted me to live and change the horrible future that was to come."

" But why did you not just live on right after the attack, instead of showing up eleven years later as a kid?"

" I was not given the choice and was told that it was, because everyone thought I would die at the time, the gods used that as my cover story, so that I would not have old and new enemies after me already."

" So your really sensei? Can you still do your thunder-god technique?"

" Yes and yes, though I need to work my speed and chakra levels back to what they once were."

" Well that explains why you only call me Kakashi."

Minato just grinned, then placed a hand on Kakashi's shoulder." I'm here for you Kakashi and I do not want you blaming yourself for your teammates death, you were not their sensei I was." he then leaned back and propped up one leg, looking up at the starry sky." Even with my speed and intelligence, I was not able to protect them. It hurts Kakashi. Knowing that I lost them and Kushina all because I was careless."

" No one knew what was going to happen sensei. It is not your fault at all, plus you could have been taken along with them, but you weren't."

" I want you to think like that as well Kakashi. I could have lost you on either mission as well as when you were in ANBU, please don't give up on the bonds you have formed with people and the new ones you can form with your team. Besides I will be here with you, so that you don't make my mistakes or huge ones of your own."

Kakashi smiled truly at this.

For the past few weeks Team seven has done d-rank missions. Naruto has complained that they deserve better missions, Sakura has wished for more team training, Sasuke has wanted to just get away from his team and train by himself, and Minato has wondered who would snap first.

Ever since they past the bell test, Kakashi only trains them for about an hour, since he shows up late and even then, he just has them train among themselves, while he reads. Or he gives them one to two d-rank missions for the day. Needless to say, none of the genin are liking how team activities have gone.

" Guys, I think we need to have a talk with Kakashi-sensei." began Sakura. All four of them were waiting for Kakashi as usual.

" Your darn right we do!" shouted Naruto in agreement." He needs to give us better missions, that are worth our skills!"

" No Naruto, that is not what I meant."

" It's not?"

" We need to do some real team training and for more than just an hour, we need to not only improve our skills as personal ninja, but our teamwork, and finally we need a sensei, who will help us do those things, so that when a real mission comes along, were prepared for it."

" But Sakura-chan, we already beat Kakashi-sensei at his test of teamwork."

" She's right Naruto. We were able to beat him, because he did not know of our abilities, he underestimated us, and we had time to plan. In a real mission we are not gonna be able to pause in the middle of a battle and plan an attack, plus we never defeated Kakashi, so we need to work on our skills." explained Minato.

" This is a waste of my time, I don't need you all holding me back." said Sasuke, getting ready to leave.

" What do you think training is for Sasuke?" questioned Minato, but he answered himself." It is to get stronger, however you can only get so strong on your own. You need to fight other people in order to learn to better defend yourself in battle and you need someone to point out the flaws that you yourself can not see. You will not be able to take on every opponent you face and even then you will not always be fighting a one on one battle. Meaning, no matter what you say and think, if you don't start working with us now, you will be the first to fall later, by rushing into a battle you can't win on your own." Minato did not want to go through the same thing he went through with Kakashi, he has had enough of the lone wolf act. Though he respects their strengths and personalities, he will not put up with their ' holier than thou' attitudes.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes." What would you know about opponents and battles?" he sneered.

" I know that arrogance will get you killed, I know that your wall of indifference crumbles when your skills are put into question, and I know that you have not awakened your sharingan on your own, even after training by yourself for years. So why don't you get off your high horse and realize that being an Uchiha does not make you greater than everyone else. You are not weak for asking for help or showing emotions, because in the end it only helps you improve and shows that your human." finished Minato. It was silent for a few moments, until Sakura spoke up.

" He's right Sasuke. Asking for help does not make you weak and we will certainly not look down on you for doing it. My physical abilities were horrible, before Minato and Naruto began helping me, but in the end, I ended up graduating as one of the best kunoichi of the year. Their help never made me weak, only stronger and that is what a team is suppose to do."

" Yeah Teme, we don't care about your 'Uchiha honor', as long as you get stronger with us and continue being the brooding bastard we got stuck with, then all's good with me." spoke Naruto with his fox-like grin.

Sasuke was silent for a few moments.*sigh* " Whatever." he stated, however he did not get up to leave and the others realized he agreed to coöperate.

*Poof*

" YOUR LATE!" shouted Sakura and Naruto.

" Sorry, I was on my way here, when I remembered I needed to get new shoes. So I -"

" LIAR!"

" Alright. so today were gonna go and ask for another mission -"

" Hold on kakashi-sensei." interrupted Sakura.

he looked at her perplexed.

" We would like to train instead of doing a mission today."

" Yeah and by training, we mean you actually teaching us! Not just reading your perverted book!" spoke Naruto.

" We don't mean to sound rude, however training for and hour, with no real guidance is not going to make us stronger. As our sensei, you should be spotting our weak spots and flaws in order to help us work on them." said Minato, looking at him pointedly.

Kakashi sighed and put away his book.

" Okay, then today I want you to partner up. I will watch you all spar and see what points you need to work on, as well as your strengths." announced Kakashi.

" Minato, can you be my partner?" asked Sakura.

" Aww~, Sakura-chan, why can't I be your partner, I don't want to have to be with Teme." whined Naruto.

" Because Naruto, I know that if I'm paired with either of you, you won't take me seriously or push me to my limit. I'm not a fragile princess and enemies out there won't treat me like one, they will try to cut me down like any other ninja, so I need to be able to defend myself and counter them." she stated, daring him with her eyes to tell her she's wrong.

Naruto pouted, until Minato came over and ruffled his hair.

" She's right Naruto. Protecting her won't help her in the end, it will only keep her from growing, like the rest of us. "

" But, I don't want to hurt Sakura-chan."

" We know that, however in a spar you need to treat her like you would me or Sasuke. You don't want to hurt us right?"

" Yeah, I mean, I want to win, but not by beating you both black and blue, until your coughing up blood."

" Just think of it like that with Sakura as well. Watch our spar and see the difference between trying to push someone to their limit and trying to hurt someone." Said Minato as he walked out into the clearing, where Sakura stood. Kakashi was inthe middle.

" Shake hands." they did." And...begin!" both of them jumped back, while Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke were watching the fight intensely. Naruto, to see how he was suppose to fight Sakura, Sasuke to see how strong his teammates were, and Kakashi to not only see Sakura's strengths and weaknesses, but to see where his sensei is at level wise.

Sakura took out several kunai and shuriken and launched them, Minato dodged them all, however two came back and cut both his right arm and left leg. Minato blinked in surprise, before remembering Sakura's work with chakra strings and quickly deduced to watching out for all weapons she throws. He then charged her and they began a series of punches, kicks, blocks, and ducks,until Sakura aimed her fist at Minato's face. However Minato dodged and was able to grab her wrist and flip her on the ground. She looked up in shock, but quickly began rolling away, when his foot was coming down towards her face. She barely heard Naruto's cry of 'Nii-san!' as she quickly got to her feet.

Minato appeared behind her and as she turned to face him, he sent a kick toward her stomach, sending her back a few meters. Sakura quickly did a hand-stand and landed in a crouched position. She stood straight, did a few hand signs, and launched some more kunai and shuriken. Minato dodged them all and was looking out for any to come back at him from behind, however he was impaled in the front this time. He was hit in both his arms by shuriken and had a kunai in his right thigh. He wondered why he did not see them coming, when he remembered the hand-signs she did.

" Genjutsu." he whispered.

Sakura charged at him again just as he realized it and sent a punch at his face, this time connecting, but with Minato's fast reflexes, he grabbed her wrist and adjusted, so that Sakura was under him as they hit the ground. He pinned both of her wrist, with one hand and placed a kunai at her neck.

" I win." he said.

Sakura huffed." You were holding back."

" I pushed you enough, besides you were as well." she just looked at him." I know you have been working with explosive tags, for a little while now." her eyes widened for a second.

" Fine, but next time, I'm gonna push you." she exclaimed, pouting a bit.

Minato grinned." Looking forward to it."

" Hey Nii-san, are you done flirting with Sakura-chan, while you're sitting on top of her?" yelled Naruto from across the field, snickering with Kakashi.

Sakura blushed a bit, while Minato looked slightly put out.

" I-idiot! We were not flirting!" she screamed back embarrassed.

" No?" spoke Kakashi." But you two are looking quiet comfortable, right now."

Minato quickly got off sakura and helped her up. They both went back over to the rest of the team and Sakura smacked the back of Naruto's head, while Minato bopped Kakashi's.

" Just start the next spar already." said Minato, plopping down next to his old student.

While the boys began sparing Sakura moved towards Minato as he was pulling out the kunai and shuriken, from his body.

" Hey Minato, can I take a look at your injuries?"

" Hm?"

" I have been reading a few medical text and although I am not able to use medical chakra yet, I have learned how to properly clean and dress wounds."

Both Minato and Kakashi, who looked over at hearing the word 'medical', stared at Sakura, except they did not see her. They saw a girl with short brown hair and kind brown eyes, looking at them with a smile.

" Guys?" questioned Sakura, snapping both boys out of their thoughts.

" Oh, sorry. Sure that would be great, thanks a lot."

Sakura smiled." No problem it's the least I can do."

After the boys spar, Kakashi stood up and began giving feedback to everyone.

" Sasuke your skills are good, however your arrogance caused you to get hit more than a few times from Naruto. You need to remember that just because an opponent is down, does not mean he's out. Naruto, you still need to stop charging head on, because you will not always get a second chance to attack, so you need to make the first one count. You both will be working with a few of my shadow clones. Sasuke, you will be sparing against two, in order to try and see through deception and Naruto, you will be trying to sneak up on one, while avoiding the other, to work on speed and stealth." he did a few and signs and four Kakashis appeared. " I will check up on you later to see how you training is going, now go." both boys and clones went into the woods.

" Now as for you Sakura, you seem to have no ninjutsu, besides academy standards. Your reaction time is pretty good, so we can work on that later, as well as your stamina. Your chakra strings are good, though you can only use a few, however because you do not have a huge amount of chakra, you should not be using them unless necessary. I suggest you use wires for now since they are like chakra strings, because even if you pour a little chakra into them, you will only be using half or less of the amount you use to create the chakra strings." he concluded.

" So you want me to go get some wires and practice with those?"

" For now, until you are able to use them efficiently in battle. But we will also work with your other weak spots later."

Sakura nodded and turned to leave.

" Sakura," Minato called out." also buy gloves to protect your fingers from the wires, trust me."

She smiled." Alright, thanks." and took off towards the nearest weapons shop.

Minato turned back towards Kakashi." This team is so..."

" Ah, like ours."

" Except, things won't end up the same, Kakashi." Minato spoke seriously.

" I can only hope, sensei." he had a sad gleam in his eye.

Minato quickly thought of something to distract him with. " Hey by the way," he began, getting Kakashi's attention." You never did tell me what I need to work on, sensei." he joked.

Kakashi smiled a little under his mask." Well you have a lot of areas that need training Minato, but were gonna start with a spar. You against me and we will work our way from there."

Minato got in ready position." Sounds good to me."

Obito, Rin, I will protect Kakashi and the newly formed team seven for not just myself, but for you both as well. Please watch out for us all.

Done! Sorry for the wait!

Now I know many things in this chapter never happened, however I wanted Minato to confront Sasuke before the waves mission. Also, team seven were never shown training together besides the tree walking exercise and in opening/ending songs, so I wanted them to ACTUALLY train together like a real team. Cause really, Kakashi giving them d-ranks, then a c-rank mission, when he barely(if at all) trained them was stupid.( I'm not even going to get into the chuunin exams.)

And about Kakashi not liking Naruto at first, that's because it made little to no sense that, Kakashi always liked Naruto after he was the cause of his last remaining team members death, whether or not he is the last member's son.(people have hated children, who's mothers have died giving birth.)

Sorry for the long AN, but I just wanted to address some questions you all might have.

Thanks for reading and plz review!

Cha!