The air was thick with tension as the three new Genin stood facing down their mentor, each assessing the situation before taking action. It was now that Sakura saw her chance to take charge of her comrades, and prove her worth to Kurenai-Sensei. She glanced quickly to each side, and took measure of the others. Hinata was hanging back waiting, but Naruto was tense and ready to strike. "Hold it Naruto, we need a plan. We can't just go-"

Before she could even finish, the idiot was running headlong at sensei, kunai in hand. "Hey, old lady, let's see what you got!" He was fast, faster than Sakura expected, but Kurenai side stepped him easily, never even turning to look at him. Before Sakura even knew it, there was Kunai against her throat, and Kurenai was looking directly into her eyes. She shouted for Naruto, but he didn't seem to hear her. He was still running, fighting fiercely against some foe she could not see.

"Are you scared, Sakura?" Her teacher's voice was soft, and somewhat taunting. "I must say this is a sad showing. Naruto acted rashly, and all you can do is stare, and as for Hinata, she isn't even here." Sakura turned slowly, and saw it was true. Her teammate was gone, probably running in fear. She was alone. She was done for.

She closed her eyes, and waiting to feel the sting of the blade. When she did feel something, it was not cold steel, but a strange rush of energy, that coursed through her like an electrical shock. Her eyes snapped open, and Hinata was staring back at her, but not with her usual meek expression. The veins showed prominent around her eyes, and she had a serious look to her that took Sakura aback. "I am going after Naruto, follow me. Be careful, Sensei is using Genjutsu." With that, she was off and running, and Sakura had no choice but to follow her as closely as she could.

Naruto was slashing at the air in front of him when Hinata caught up with him. As she tried to get close, moving cautiously, the orange clad ninja turned, and began to attack her, moving with surprising speed. Hinata dodged, and drove an open hand into his midsection, sending him stumbling back. He looked read to keep coming, but them her shook his head, and looked up to see his partners.

"Wh-what are you guys doing here? Where'd Kurenai-Sensei go?" He looked first to Sakura, but she was as clueless as he was himself. He turned to Hinata then, and she responded immediately.

"Sensei ran while you two were under Genjutsu. She said our challenge was to find her in the training grounds." The others looked to the normally shy girl, but what they saw was a strange sort of confidence neither would have guessed she had. "I can track her with Byakugan, form up behind me." And just like that, the team had a leader, and a direction. Hinata followed the near invisible trail that Kurenai had left, picking up the subtle marks on the ground with the use of her extraordinary eyesight. The others kept close, and the trail lead to a thicket of trees near the edge of the training grounds.

Sakura stopped shoot as they came to the tree line. "Careful in here, guys. Sensei could be anywhere in this." They slowed pursuit and walked into the thicket, quietly drawing kunai from their pouches. The woods were silent, and for a while, not a word was spoken. When the silence was broken, it was Naruto who spoke. But of course.

"So, what's the plan, once we find her?" for a long while, no one answered, possibly because they had no idea how they could possibly take down a jonin. The silence was wracking his nerves, so he kept talking. "I mean we have to have some sort of plan, right? I'm mean come on, Sakura, you're good at that sort of thing, right?"

"Naruto, keep quite," his pink haired teammate told him as they walked. "you'll give away our position to sensei!" Just as Naruto was about to reply, a kunai came from nowhere and broke their concentration, and from there hell broke loose. Naruto and the girls took a defensive stance, but soon more kunai flew from every angle. When the army of Kurenai Sensei's appeared, they knew they were caught in the trap. It was a Genjutsu.

The real Kurenai emerged from the bushes with roe in hand. She approached the three genin, intending to tie them up,and drag them to the woods as a punishment test for failing her examination. She had no doubt they could find their way home, but the ordeal would be a lesson. Just as she reached Hinata, she heard a faint, familiar sound. On instinct she dodged, and looked up to see Naruto dashing out of view. She looked back to see he was still captive, only to find him absent, along with sakura. Laughter was ringing through the woods.

"What's wrong Sensei?" Suddenly Naruto came out from behind the nearest tree, and from behind she heard someone coming up to free Hinata. She looked to see that Naruto was there as well, waking his teammate. She gave a sigh, and let out a laugh, putting her Kunai away, as Sakura revealed herself, accompanied by the third Naruto.

"Well, very impressive! You pass the test. Though I must ask when your friends joined us, Naruto?" It was Sakura who spoke as the other two grinned proudly. It was apparent already that the plan had been hers. She always was a smart girl.

"Well, I didn't know what we could expect, so I had Naruto create the clones before we got to the training grounds. You can never be too prepared. They were waiting in the trees in case we needed them." She was altogether too proud of the plan, and they had plundered by revealing themselves too early. In a real battle, that would have undid them. But for untested genin, it was far more than she could expect.

"A brilliant plan. You all played your part excellently. Don't let that go to your head, though. A ninja can always improve." She expected they would hate that phrase soon, as much as she intended to drill it into their heads. "That is for another day. Tomorrow as it happens, when you will meet me in this spot, before sunrise, just like you will be doing every day from now on, until I say otherwise." A collective groan filled the air. "But for tonight, I am feeling generous. A bowl or two at Ichiraku could do us well."

Naruto lit up like thanksgiving, and gave a loud cheer, jumping up and down. Sakura berated him for being too loud during the mission, and hit him upside the head. Kurenai, however, was watching Hinata, who was backing away from the group, all the confidence she had earlier gone again. Kurenai left the others to their devices, tapped Hinata on the shoulder, and lead her away from the group to have a private word.

"Y-yes, Kurenai-Sensei? What is it?" The girl was practically shaking, probably afraid of punishment that was coming. It was really rather sad.

"Oh, I was going to ask you that. You really took charge in the mission today, why so shy now?" The girl averted her eyes. "Really, you can tell me. You did great you know!" At this the girl finally spoke.

"I didn't do anything, really. I put on a brave face, but it was the others who really pulled through. Sakura came up with that great plan, and Naruto…well his clones made it possible. In the end, I didn't do much."

"You freed them from Genjutsu, and lead them right to me, following a trail they couldn't have seen. You think too little of yourself, you know that?"

Like I said, it wasn't that great. Sakura could have found you in that thicket, and even Naruto would know to scout there." The older woman sighed.

"Yes, either one of them could have found me, but they didn't. You did. The victory today was a team victory. Yours as much as Naruto and Sakura's." She clapped a hand on Hinata's shoulder, and the girl blushed. "Now let's grab the others and get ramen. I'm sure you're all hungry.