Kakashi stood in the Hokage's office alongside Kurenai, Asuma and Gai. Considering all of them were sensei for the Konoha gennin who had advanced to the Finals, he was pretty sure he knew what this meeting was about. The Hokage was puffing on his pipe as usual, and he smiled at all of them. "I'm sure you've all come to the conclusion of this meeting. While I am officially not allowed to help train any of the gennin from Konoha that advanced since more than one passed, I am allowed to keep tabs on the training for each finalist. So in a nutshell, I want to know what your plans are for this month." He tapped out his pipe and said, "Since your gennin are technically enemies at this point for all intents and purposes, I will talk to each of you individually, starting with Kurenai."

The others made their way outside of the room to wait for their turn. Asuma lit a cigarette, Gai leaned up against the wall and closed his eyes. Kakashi pulled out a familiar book as he lounged on the bench up against the wall. For some reason, he had the feeling that he would be the last one called. Indeed he was correct. Once Kurenai stepped out five minutes later, Gai followed and was then followed by Asuma. As each one stepped out, Kakashi looked up at them over the top of his book, searching for any body signals that might suggest what they had discussed with the Hokage. He was disappointed to find that there was nothing of interest. Probably the mundane "Who's training them and do you need any help?" that he was sure was the norm.

Finally he was called in and stood before the Hokage's desk. The Hokage leaned back in his chair. "So, what do you intend to do? Your situation is more complicated than the others." The reason was unspoken: he had more than one student advancing. "Take a seat."

Kakashi did and said, "Well, I had just thought I would continue their training where I left off before the exams started. Seems to have worked pretty well so far."

The Hokage chuckled before leaning forward and staring at Kakashi, his eyes portraying how serious he intended this discussion to be. "Unfortunately, that will not be possible. Not only is it unfair for them to not get individual, focused tutoring as the rest of the competitors are getting, I have plans for you this month." Kakashi tilted his head to the side. "I have recalled Jaraiya for the duration of this month. Typically I recall him only when I have sensitive information that I need to relay. This month is different. He will be here for the sole purpose of seeing to your individual training."

Even with his one eye the only visible part of his face, Kakashi's confusion and apprehension was apparent. "Can I ask why, Hokage-sama?"

The Hokage continued, "Every few months the Council tries to convince me to declare a successor. Without change, there are four candidates that they have previously approved for my consideration. Can you guess who they are and why I have refused them so far?"

Kakashi pondered for a moment, "Well Jaraiya obviously, but he's too valuable in his current position." He paused and continued once the Hokage had nodded. "Tsunade is probably their next choice, but her current disposition towards Konoha doesn't make her an ideal candidate."

"That is putting it lightly, but continue."

"Those are the two obvious choices. I would guess that the third is Gai – He's certainly powerful enough. But I think you haven't chosen him due to his...eccentricities." The Hokage nodded at him with a bemused smile. Kakashi hesitated. "Would the fourth be Asuma?"

The Hokage looked at him closely. "No. The fourth candidate is you."

Kakashi lowered his head and it was a long minute until he whispered, "Why me?"

The Hokage waited until he had raised his head to look him in the eye. "You love this village with all your heart. There have been many times where events have occurred in this village or because of this village that could have driven you to be like Tsunade."

They both knew that they were dancing around the issue of his father's suicide. At this final sentence Kakashi's eye narrowed in anger. "There is nothing that would make me abandon this village!"

Sarutobi smiled in pride. "Precisely. There are few people who have the same sentiments. The first thing the Council looks at is how powerful the candidate is. I'm sure you can understand why." Kakashi nodded, still somewhat distracted. "I do not see it that way. Indeed being powerful enough is one of my priorities as well, but not the biggest. Far more important to me is their attitude, their will of fire. Do you know why I always deny you as a candidate even though I feel you have the perfect mindset?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I don't know. I wasn't powerful enough?"

"That is a reason. But not when you were first thrown into the pool." Kakashi was confused, and the Hokage noticed and continued. "When you chose to quit ANBU and become a regular jounin, you immediately became the council's first choice behind Jaraiya." It took Kakashi a moment to process that. "You were on the list ahead of Tsunade back then. If I recall correctly, you were an S-rank ninja back then."

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah I'm training to fix that past tense verb usage."

Sarutobi nodded. "Indeed. And that is why I am considering you again. There is a reason I gave you 6 months to prove your change of mind rather than the one month you asked for. It is easy to change for 1 month. It is much harder to remain changed for 6."

Kakashi was still distracted, but he nodded at the Hokage. He had always been quick to draw conclusions. "So you're trying to groom me."

The Hokage nodded. "Yes. And thus you see why I can't let you train your students this month. It is far more important to get you back to your old level. And then to push you beyond that level. I have led this village for decades and through two world wars, Kakashi, and these old bones are telling me that something soon will see me gone. When the time comes that I pass on, the last thing this village needs is a power struggle to fill the void." Kakashi nodded in resignation. "Jaraiya surpassed me long ago, and he has already trained one Hokage. He'll find you as soon as he arrives. Be prepared within the next few days. By the end of the month, you will be tested. I won't tell you how, so prepare for anything. A Hokage must always be ready for whatever might occur. In addition to that, you will make a Kage Bunshin every day that will shadow me as I go about the daily business of running this village. I will expect your clone at 0800 tomorrow morning. Dismissed."

When Team 7 arrived at their usual training ground, they all had mixed feelings. Well, that's not exactly true. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were all in fine spirits. They had all made it to the Finals at the Chuunin exams. Their happiness faded slightly when they saw their sensei sitting down and leaning against a training post. The first clue they had that their sensei wasn't feeling well was that his hair was drooping just a little bit. They had never seen his hair droop. Even when they were on missions, his hair always kept its gravity-defying nature. They all stopped and glanced at each, raised an eyebrow and carried on to sit in front of him.

He didn't say anything at first, also unusual. He usually greeted them as soon as they arrived. Sakura leaned forward and said, "Sensei, what's wrong?"

He looked at them and smiled in his usual fashion, but after spending as much time with him as they had, they all could tell that he was faking it. "Oh nothing really. I just couldn't get to sleep last night."

"Oh." Naruto summarized the general thought pretty well with that one word. "So anyway," An obvious ploy to change the subject. "what are you gonna teach us?"

"Welllllll," Kakashi drew this out, a sign that he wasn't totally down in the dumps. "I'll will be teaching you..." Again he paused and this time they all glared at him. He smiled, and this time they could tell that it was genuine. "nothing."

There was a moment of silence broken by Sasuke. "What?"

Naruto scowled at their teacher. "What the fuck does that mean?" He casually dodged Sakura's attempt to hit him for his language. A feat that earned him a glare from her.

"The Hokage has given me an assignment for this month, so I have arranged for you to have private tutors."

Naruto scowled again. "So you're just gonna hand us off to some random teacher?"

Kakashi smiled at him again. "Not exactly. All three of them are friends of mine. Friends that owe me favors. Favors that I've called in to get them to take the time off this month to train you."

Sakura said, "So who are they and what are they gonna teach us?"

Kakashi leaned back some more against the post. "There is another reason that I have chosen these particular people. To preface that, let me explain something. The main focus in general of the training of gennin is to develop their basic skills to a proficient level. For the most part, shinobi – " He was cut off by Sakura's growl. "and kunoichi start to specialize when they become chuunin. Each of these three specialize in areas where I feel you would be adept."

They seemed to accept this. Sasuke grunted in acceptance and said, "So when are we meeting with them?"

Kakashi smiled again. This time it was a smile that put the three of them on edge. "That would be too easy. They know that they'll be training you, but you have to find them first." They all sighed. "Naruto, You get Shirakumo Hayama. Sakura, you get Yamashiro Aoba. And finally, Sasuke, you get Kanden Tekuno. Good luck all!" With that he stood quickly and disappeared in a shunshin.

They all shrugged and, as one, turned to the others and said, "See you in a month." They smiled and leaped off in different directions.

Naruto immediately headed to the Hokage monument, his usual spot to think. Once he had arrived, he sat down on the edge of the Yondaime Hokage's head with his feet dangling over the edge. Unconcerned with the ridiculously high drop that he would fall if he fell off, he looked out over the village. He had always loved coming up here. Not many people came up here so it was a perfect place to come and think alone. It didn't hurt that the view was spectacular.

He lifted one of his legs up towards his chest and rested his arm on it. How the hell am I supposed to find a jounin? I don't even know what he looks like! He huffed in exasperation. I could send a shit-ton of kage bunshin to sweep the village for him, but that brings me back to the fact that I don't know what he looks like.

Another 20 minutes of contemplating later and he had his answer. He stood up and kicked a rock over the edge of the cliff. He waited 10 seconds before he fell off the edge himself. He breathed deeply as he felt the air rush by him. His eyes spotted the rock he had kicked. He was satisfied to note that the rock was about 20 feet from the ground. The rock had just hit the ground when he lifted his hands into a seal and focused his chakra. He shifted his position so that his feet would be the first thing to hit the ground and released his chakra. A puff of smoke later and he appeared on the ground, his substitution successful. The rock landed next to him a couple seconds later with a light thump and once his adrenaline was back under control, he strolled off. That was fucking awesome! I gotta remember that one! He chose to ignore the throbbing ache in his lower legs. The pain disappeared in few seconds anyway.

As soon as Sakura was in the streets of the village, she immediately set off for the shinobi records archive. Obviously, the records that it held were things that had no chance of being a point of national security. Mostly, it just held a database that had the dossiers for the active shinobi.

As she entered the archive, she flashed her badge at the bored jounin guarding the door. After being granted access – obviously, only shinobi were allowed access – she headed off to the jounin section. It was unlikely that she would find her tutor's information, but it was worth a shot.

Sasuke didn't really have an idea about how to track down his temporary sensei, so he just wandered around the village, hoping to come across something helpful. Fate seemed to be on his side because he turned the corner and found himself in front of one of the jounin bars. It was early in the day, so it wasn't very busy, but he did see a plain looking man walking out. He had brown hair and green eyes and he wore the standard jounin outfit.

Sasuke approached him and said, "Jounin-san, could I ask you a favor?"

The man obviously recognized him, for he replied, "Depends what it is Uchiha-san."

Sasuke nodded his head and said, "I'm trying to track down a jounin that my sensei said would help me train for the finals."

The man laughed and said, "Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi, right?" Sasuke nodded. "I"m guessing all he gave you was a name?" Sasuke nodded again, this time with a scowl. "Well, let's see what I can do. What's the name?"

Sasuke smiled in relief. "Kanden Tekuno."

The man nodded in thought. "Lucky for you, we're acquainted." He looked up at the sky. "At this time of day, he's probably training. He usually goes to training ground 32."

Sasuke bowed slightly, "Thank you very much." The man waved him off and strode off down the street. Sasuke watched him go for a moment. I forgot to get his name. Oops. He then scowled when he realized he had no idea where that training ground was. He sighed in resignation and continued his search.

Naruto was a common occurrence in the Hokage's office – not as much recently but that was Kakashi-sensei's fault – so the secretary smiled at him and nodded. That meant that the Hokage wasn't in a meeting, so Naruto strode in without knocking. The Hokage didn't raise his head an inch and greeted him, "Naruto-kun, what brings you here?"

"Not much Hokage-jiji. I was just hoping you could do me a favor."

The Hokage finished signing a document with a flourish and handed it off to the man next to him, Kakashi-sensei – How the hell did I not see him there? – Kakashi smiled at him and poofed away in a shunshin. The Hokage raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"Well, I'm trying to find someone, but all I know is the guy's name: Shirakumo Hayama."

The Hokage chuckled. "I'm assuming that this person would be the tutor Kakashi has handed you off to this month?" Naruto nodded. "I suppose I could help you with that. Bird!" An ANBU phased out of the corner. "Go find Jounin Shirakumo and tell him to report here." The ANBU nodded quickly, saluted, and poofed away. The Hokage looked back at Naruto with a smile. "I'm assuming that this is something that you would rather Kakashi not find out about?" Naruto nodded. "Then why don't you grab some lunch and be back in half an hour. I'll give Kakashi some annoyingly mundane errand to run."

Naruto nodded and walked out of the office. Eventually I'll be good enough at Shunshin to do it whenever.

Fortunately for Sakura, she found her temporary sensei's file pretty quickly. Luckily, it had a picture of him. There was a list of certain assignments, administrative shifts or gate guard duty usually. This guy was a jounin, but he seemed to have a large number of gate duty shifts recently. If he's not at the gate, someone there might know where to find him.

Once she had made it to the gate, she found the usual chuunin in the guard post, Kotetsu and Izumo. "Have you guys seen Aoba-san today?"

They looked at each other for a curiously long moment, before Kotetsu said, "Yeah, he just got off a shift an hour or so ago. Should be at his apartment." They gave her directions and she turned to go. She made it five steps before something pricked her in the neck. She stumbled a few steps before she collapsed to the ground.

She came back to consciousness in what seemed to be a comfy couch. Remembering what had happened, she kept the appearance of sleep while she analyzed her situation as best she could. To her left she could hear a humming sound. There was the thump of something closing and a she heard water turn on for a bit. Probably the kitchen and the humming is probably the microwave. The couch was dimpled as though it had been around for a while and the armrests were worn slightly. Her nose smelled a mix of fish cooking, and a hint of air freshener trying to hide the smell of dirty laundry. Having as good an understanding of the vicinity as she could, she opened her eyes.

Her eyes immediately spotted a man. He was obviously her new teacher since he greatly resembled the ninja ID photo in his file. He was sitting casually across from her on a comfy-looking chair and he had a tumbler in his right hand with some sort of drink in it. He took a drink and smiled at her. "What did you do wrong?"

So it was a test. Obviously testing my information gathering skills. And I obviously messed up at some point. But what was it?" It took her a moment before she hesitantly said, "I wasn't paying attention to the little details." He nodded and gestured for her to keep talking. "I noticed a weird look that Kotetsu and Izumo shared, but I thought it was just a quirk or something."

"You didn't think it was a quirk. You assumed it was. That is one of the absolute worst mistakes you can make and it can easily get you killed." She remembered the needle she had been pricked with and nodded. "It was also pretty easy, right?" She nodded, this time with a frown. "That should have been your first clue that something was fishy."

She nodded. "But it just seemed...like it was supposed to be."

He snorted in amusement. "You didn't think you were lucky to find all that information about me in that file, did you?" She chuckled nervously. "Any jounin has an important role in any village. We have access to quite a bit of information and we have clearance to enter quite a few important places, thus the obvious preference for an enemy ninja sent to spy on Konoha to either capture or impersonate. Those records would never have a picture."

"I just thought – " She smiled a bemused smile. "No. I assumed."

He leaned forward and gestured towards the coffee table in between them. "Now that your first lesson is concluded, let's talk about what I will be teaching you.

Sasuke arrived at the clearing to see a man lying down with his head propped up on a small log. He seemed to be asleep, but considering the fact that the guy was probably a jounin, Sasuke knew there was no way to sneak up on him even if he was. The man was wearing the standard jounin outfit with his flak vest unzipped. His hitae-ate was tied around his forehead, propping up the small afro he had. The man opened his eyes as Sasuke approached and waved jovially. "What's up, kid?" Sasuke scowled which only served to make him laugh. He got to his feet with a groan of protest and said, "So you finally found me. Well, I'm your tutor obviously. Let's get started with what you can do now and then we'll make a routine." He dropped into a fighting stance. "Come at me bro." Sasuke smirked before charging forward.

"You called for me Hokage-sama?" The man that walked through the door into the Hokage's office wore the typical jounin ensemble with short sleeves as opposed to the usual long sleeves. He wore his hitae-ate on his forehead, hovering over his brown eyes hidden slightly in the shadows from the rings under his eyes. He had a short scar down the right side of his face next to his mouth which was set in a line holding a hint of a smile.

The Hokage smiled at him and said, "I did. But only because he asked me to." He pointed to the corner where Naruto was sitting impatiently, waiting to make his entrance.

He scowled at the Hokage. "Damn it Hokage-jiji! I was gonna make a really cool entrance." By the end of that sentence, his shoulders had slumped in overly exaggerated disappointment.

The new man chuckled at his antics and said, "Clever little bastard, aren't you?" Naruto smiled cheekily at him. "Well, let's get started, shall we? Come on, we're going to make a schedule for your training first." Naruto nodded at him and they walked out of the room, almost forgetting to say goodbye to the Hokage.

A/N: There you go. Btw, if anyone cares, those jounin actually exist. Look them up on the wiki. If you do go to the effort of looking them up, you might get a hint of what the three will teach.

R&R if you want.