Hey, guys! Sorry for the absence, to be honest... things were busy, busy enough that I probably could have cranked chapters out, but just had no motivation to do so. I have always wanted to use the excuse that my hard drive was corrupted or broken though, so we're going to go with that.

SIDE NOTE: I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR A BETA FOR THIS STORY. PLEASE PM ME IF YOU AE INTERESTED!


"They did what?"

Mizuki fumbled for words awkwardly in front of the elderly kage. It didn't help in the slightest that the man was now smoking like it was at risk of going out of style. It was beginning to get difficult to maintain eye contact through the haze.

"They requested to take the graduation exam early. Policies in place since the third war have yet to be repealed, and so..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi clenched his eyes shut together tightly. Did this surprise him in the slightest? Not really - monitoring the children's progress have eased some of the burden from his shoulders, as of late. It was increasingly clear that the next generation would be a strong one, and so long as he was able to instill the Will of Fire within them...

But now? Naruto was his primary concern. His attachments to the village were few and far between. He'd banked on him - all three of them - making friends at the academy. Now, his hopes were dashed that any of them would be able to experience a somewhat normal childhood. Even if Hiruzen did strip them of their newfound ranks, it would only foster resentment he couldn't risk, and perhaps their skill was alienating enough to make Hiruzen's hopefulness foolhardy, anyways.

He missed the way Mizuki's mouth dried as the Hokages snapped his fingers, and an ANBU seemed to materialize from thin air next to him. Mizuki liked to believe that he was strong, that his abilities were being overlooked by incompetent administration.

He hadn't even seen the ANBU move.

"Retrieve me Izumi Uchiha." He directed, and then directed his gaze back to Mizuki as the masked subordinate vanished. "I trust there's nothing else?"

There wasn't.

Mizuki left, just minutes before the Uchiha heiress was brought before Hiruzen.

The latter sighed deeply, all it took was one look at the girl to see, "I see you haven't been brought up to speed regarding your younger sister and her friends'... antics," he said, allowing some vague amusement to creep in.

"It seems your request has been approved a few years early. Effective immediately, you will be acting as the jonin-sensei of team seven - consisting of Sasuki Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Hinata Hyuga."


Naruto tugged at the hem of his green, long-sleeved undershirt as he and Hinata walked home. Dinner at Sasuki's was always... interesting. Nerve-wracking, really. He couldn't say he had the best ever table manners - or any at all, really! It was his two teammates that were his saviors though. Without Hinata going through the motions slowly for him to imitate, or Sasuki kicking him under the table to remind him to just loosen up...

It wasn't really all that much pressure though. Mikoto was very understanding, and Fugaku wasn't exactly a stickler... just intimidating. Tonight though, the Uchiha patriarch was over the moon about his youngest's early graduation - the next team seven!

It was apparently a big deal, it was that old pervert's team number, too.

It was almost kind of annoying.

His entire life, for as few short years as it may have spanned, he's had to deal with those eyes. The ones that didn't see him, but his burden. It's always been that way, he's always been judged because of something outside of his control, and it was like that here, too! Would others look at them and fail to see Hinata, fail to see Sasuki, fail to see Naruto just because they were following in the sannin's footsteps?

Again, he would be judged for expectations alone, because team seven was important, because the Kyubi was sealed within him.

Was it like that for the Hokage, too? For others to look and see the hat? He wanted nothing to do with any of it!

He released a breath he didn't know he was holding, and unclenched the fist he didn't know he'd balled his hand up into when he felt Hinata's hand against his shoulder.

"Is something wrong?"

He shook his head, offering her a tiny smile. "No, just excited." He lied, because why bother her? "Tomorrow, we'll really be ninja. Tomorrow..."

The words died on his lips. It was actually here and in all honesty, he wasn't that excited. The only thing he really craved was to become stronger to protect his friends, and they were doing that before the academy even began. Throughout their first year, they learned more outside of the academy's walls than within...

Would anything change, being lowly genin? How was learning from Izumi going to be different while it was 'official?'

He wasn't sure it would.

But Hinata just smiled. "I know how you feel. It doesn't feel like another step..." Her pale eyes gazed up at the sky, where the dwindling sun had given way to dusky, blue skies so dark it was nearly black. "It feels like just the first." She had goals to attain, goals that would only be achieved with notoriety and rank - to lead her clan into a new era, her name would need to carry weight beyond leading via birthright alone.

They eventually split, and Naruto took his time walking back home. People were few and far between so late, but still, if they ever had the misfortune of looking in his direction, it was always animosity or forced apathy.

He smiled.

They don't know.

He still had the opportunity to show Konoha that he was Naruto. Just Naruto. Not Kyubi, not a human sacrifice, not the next generation of the sannin.


Three groans chorused throughout the training ground team seven now occupied - Izumi's smile, however, was blithe as the three children each produced a singular shadow clone, to match hers. "It's necessary for you three to learn the history of the five great villages," she chastised gently. "I know it's not exciting, which is why your clones will be going over some of this curriculum with mine, while we work on other, more practical skills."

Four clones departed, and their new sensei regarded the three of them evenly.

"All three of you, by now, have a reasonable grasp of the very basics new genin are expected to know," and more than that, too. Basic elemental manipulation and techniques like tree or water-walking weren't expected of new graduates, let alone students that had only participated in the first year of the academy. Even knowing your chakra natures wasn't expected of newly minted genin, but all three of them did. Naruto, with the anomaly his dual natures presented, in the form of earth and water. Sasuki, who was strongly fire attuned, and had aspirations to learn lightning release. Hinata, with her lightning nature, and intent to learn wind to round out their team.

"Up until this point, we've focused heavily on your strengths, but as of now, we'll be focusing on your weaknesses. Sasuki, you're very proficient in both long, and mid-range techniques, but you're weakest in close-range engagements. Further training will help, of course, but there is an alternative."

She reached for the hilt of her tanto, unsheathing it to offer the blade for the three children's inspection. "You will be practicing kenjutsu with me, and this goes for all three of you. By the time you've become chunin, I expect that you'll all be proficient with at least one weapon - aside from kunai, or shuriken."

She resheathed the blade as her younger sister bounced excitedly where she sat, and she settled her gaze on the blonde-headed boy settled in the center of the trio. "Naruto, you're currently the most well-rounded." The blush he sported was hidden with a slight bow of his head.

"Your chakra reserves and strong affinities for both earth and water will make you formidable at a distance, and for any that close the gap, your senjutsu will make for a very unwelcome surprise for any would-be enemy. However, none of this matters if you don't have the techniques to keep opponents at bay in the first place, this will be our focus."

"In addition," she continued. "Your capability with the shadow clone jutsu will be beneficial... if you can learn to coordinate with large groups of them, without hampering either Hinata or Sasuki with numbers alone."

Her parting words were simple before she spoke to Hinata, "in the meantime, give some consideration to the weapon you'd like to train with."

He didn't spare a second thought to the matter - imagining a certain wise, old grandfatherly figure and the stories he's heard about the man's skill. "Would bojutsu be okay?"

"More than." She smiled. "Now, Hinata. You're the most formidable of your team in the close range, but closing the gap between you and an opponent is your greatest weakness. I know that your clan may not -"

"It's okay, sensei." She interjected. "My clan will not be pleased if I rely too heavily on techniques other than my clan's, but... but I am Hinata before I am Hyuga." Her gaze slid toward her teammates - her friends! Before them, there was nothing but the clan. Now, she was certain it was possible to be more, to do more, and more than anything -

"I will not hold back my team for my clan's pride! Please, teach me as you see fit."

The teenager folded her arms across her chest, lips quirking upward slightly. She hadn't been that worried that Hinata would be averse to branching beyond her clan's bread and butter, but if there were any lingering doubt the young heiress would succunb to pressure, it was dispelled now.

"Of course. But let's not be so hasty, yet. We have options available to us that will remediate some of the issues with your clan's short-range specialty without abandoning your roots entirely. I have a friend that will be able to assist you in mastering the shunshin. Like the sharingan, I suspect your eyes will help overcome some of the shortcomings of the body flicker technique, and when mastered..."

She spoke no more in regards to that. She's seen her best friend, Shisui the teleporter in action. Imagining a Hyuga with the gentle fist utilizing the basic technique to such a degree was terrifying.

"Moving on, most short-range weaponry will make it next to impossible to also utilize the jyuken. For that reason, we'll look into long range options for you."

After her assessment of the three, she created two more clones.

"Aside from our training regimen moving forward, consider yourselves lucky. It's tradition for most genin teams to complete a mandatory number of D-ranked missions, which amount to essentially basic labor to strengthen the civilian perception of Konoha Shinobi. However, any goodwill gained in having you three perform such missions will be lost due to how young the three of you are."

She snuck a glance Naruto's way. Unspoken, further, was the general public opinion of the young jinchuriki. Child labor, and the presence of the village pariah would foster no relationship between village and Shinobi.

"What are C-rank missions like?"

"When can we go on one?!"

"Can we go on one now?"

Izumi rubbed at the back of her neck. "Well, you see..."


Izumi Uchiha was plainly scary. Naruto whipped beads of sweat from his brow as he rested carefully on the branch of an unharmed tree - not that the same could be said for much of the forestry around them. Large scale earth and water techniques had reshaped the immediate area, and certainly not for the better.

He tried to calm himself. It was annoying that he wasn't putting on the showing he'd hoped, the way their new sensei had phrased it, the three were too important to the village for the Hokage to immediately send them outside of the village. While the elderly kage might acknowledge their skill, age was a factor, too.

So it was their sensei's sole judgement, whether or not they ever actually took their first mission.

He almost allows himself to relax when he felt a hand land on his shoulder, and every muscle he had went taut. "Second time I've caught you." The girl behind him muttered matter-of-factly, as if speaking too loud might disrupt the now gently-swaying branch both were resting on.

"In the field, do you know what that means?"

He forced himself to swallow, despite his bone dry throat.

"It means," she continued, "that you failed your team!" He was wrenched from the branch, but he suspected this was the girl's way of giving him a head start for round three. He righted himself, hands and feet sticking to the trunk of a still-standing tee opposite his 'opponent.'

Naruto made two clones even as she spoke, smoke billowing from them as he poured excess chakra into the technique. In any other situation, it'd be a massive waste - to create this much smoke from the simple creation of a kage bunshin was... inefficient, to say the least.

But here, it did have some advantages.

He felt more than he heard the creak of the branch as Izumi leapt from it, and the clone that'd dropped to the ground needed no communication to begin weaving hand signs, before slamming both palms onto the ground.

The ground seemed to ripple like the rolling tide, toppled trees and helpless flora sinking slowly beneath the wide swathe of chakra-laden mud. It was a simple, if much lesser variant of Jiraiya's 'Swamp of the Underworld's technique, which the old lecher refused to teach him yet because it was 'too dangerous.'

Yet another advantage of cover, it seemed - hiding the brief, annoyed scowl the original wore.

The smoke shield also had distinct disadvantages.

Leaping nimbly from protruding tree, to rolling log, to upturned stone, she had little trouble in traversing the veritable earthen lake the ground had become. Her limited knowledge borne of Naruto's use of the technique in the past allowed her to infer a few things:

One, he couldn't have begun the jutsu without contact with the ground, so sometimes after he'd created the kage bunshin, either he or the clone had dropped from the tree he was perched on.

Two, the technique was still growing, and for that to be the case, someone had to still be feeding it chakra, connected to the technique at the epicenter.

Her lips curled upwards as the clone on the ground dispelled around a fist -

Above, then?

-and she took the opportunity to ascend the tree. The smoke was thinning now, just enough for her to watch her prey push himself away from the tree.

Leaping after him, if she were any other opponent in any other circumstance, could have been a fatal mistake. She watched her pupil twist to face her in the air, a deep breath seeming to suck the moisture from the air around him. Her tanto flickered outward to deflect the cutting jet of water spewed forth, but in any other situation this defense would have been insufficient.

Both of them knew neither would use a potentially fatal technique, and so the water jet was both lower powered and too broad to be fully effective. She's seen accomplished water release users cut through steel with ease - and the fact that Naruto could utilize the humid air was testament to the fact that he was no slouch.

Ultimately, she had strong enough fire techniques in her arsenal that she would have mitigated the attack if necessary, but the fact that he had turned the pursuit on her came with a twinge of pride.

But it didn't take her long to realize something was off.

It was true that taijutsu was likely his weakest area(not to speak of genjutsu - a thought that had a cold chill run through her, in remembrance of previous lessons with the blonde boy) but being close range limited some of the techniques she relied on to close the gap between them all the same.

He was staying close to her intentionally, doing his best to avoid her without putting enough distance between them to risk Izumi whipping out any shuriken, wire, or low-powered fire techniques.

Her dark eyes widened in realization, and she palmed a kunai an instant later, whipping it at Naruto.

Let it be known that despite her gut feeling, she'd never risk an injury on a whim, and so the spinning kunai was thrown such that when it struck him, it'd be the pommel sinking into his abdomen.

He was no match for her aim.

That was a clone, too?

Now, where had he gotten off to...?


Hinata couldn't believe her sensei was torturing her with nothing more than a crude circle she'd carved into the soil with a stick.

Hinata, or more correctly, a shadow clone, watched on as her original found herself face-down in the soil again. "Excellent shunshin, Hinata!" Her sensei encouraged, "however, the landing could be improved!"

The body flicker was a very imprecise technique - useful mostly for it's rapid movement. Every Shinobi, to some degree, utilizes the 'shunshin' naturally. Anyone with large enough reserves subconsciously used the excess life force to strengthen both their body and mind, and if that was a one on the scale...

Utilizing the body flicker was like an eleven. It was a 'controlled' burst of chakra meant to do nothing more than augment you for long enough to cross a vast distance in an instant.

Safe landings weren't always a guarantee.

But Izumi said she had a cousin that had mastered it to the point that the drawbacks - namely disorientation and tunneled vision - were no longer an issue. Unfortunately, today he was not available, and so the first step on the road to mastery was throwing herself at a wide circle until she could consistently land in it.

Right now, she'd take just being able to land on her feet.

Hinata's clone turned to her counterpart, her sensei's. They both sat kneeled on the ground, just meters apart.

"The earth style technique I'm going to teach you is used to harden your body until it's near impenetrable - I know that some of the most skilled users are only capable of being physically harmed by lightning style attacks."

Her hands started with the snake hand seal.

Seeing that Hinata was paying attention both to her words and movement, she continued next with 'ox.'

"For now, because you're still a novice in earth-based techniques..."

The only ones Hinata had in her arsenal were purely for utility. For instance, she'd started with a technique Izumi showed them to compact the soil and eliminate the lingering scent of campsites and impromptu bathroom breaks, which all three children had found hilarious at the time.

"...we'll be working on the lesser version of the technique, which requires actual stone. If you get good enough, eventually you'll be able to harden your skin with nothing more than earth-natured chakra."

Boar.

Izumi reached for the soil, her hand passing through the earth like it was water. When her hand returned, it was coated in a thin layer of hardened stone. She wriggled her fingers, aside from being thin, it seemed as if it hardly hampered her movement - if at all.

Without Hinata realizing, the Uchiha brought a kunai down on her splayed-out hand, eliciting a strangled gasp from the younger girl until she realized her shock was for naught; the sharp blade was deflected with little more than a few sparks for her effort.

"When you fight an opponent with a weapon," this was her biggest concern regarding Hinata. Facing an opponent with enough reach to stay beyond the girl's miniscule striking distance, and close enough to prevent Hinata from prepping anything else, was a very unfavorable position for near any Hyuga. This is why many of their clan techniques were designed to be done without seals, such as the kaiten, which Hinata did know - and the vacuum palm, which she didn't.

Her student would have more to rely on than just those options.

"This technique will make it possible for you to fight on even ground." Hinata was already picturing that, herself - how devastating it would be for an unaware opponent to believe a strike would have the best of the Hyuga, only to have their blade deflected, momentum carried forward, and a palm pressed against any of the major tenketsu in their chest.

She wasted no time attempting it herself, face squeezed into a grimace when the lumpy, sludgy soil wasn't the same consistency as her sensei's had been. Actually, it reminded her of the roux her mother had tried to make alongside dinner the night before.

To Hinata, her mother was perfect in every single way, so... she tried her best to call her mother's culinary mishaps 'kitchen experiments.' She did miss her father's cooking fiercely though, which she'd always remembered being comfort foods and late nights curled up in his lap while he toiled over scrolls.

When she pulled her hands free, earth came with... barely. It was more muck than hardened stone, falling back to the ground with a wet thud.

"Not bad for a first try?" Her sensei... asked?

Hinata groaned, and she wasn't the one faceplanting with every failed shunshin.


Let it be known that her sister was evil.

First of all, Sasuki was being made to practice with a too-heavy wooden mimicry of a tanto, or 'bokken.' Only, this one was so terribly rounded and dull it was more like a hickory baton, and she was sweating through her shirt and dark hair was sticking to her face and throat.

It didn't help that her scrawny arms and shoulders burned with exhaustion and strain, or that her dear eldest sister was just sitting seiza and calling out instructions.

This had all begun with Izumi forming a small pool of water and submerging her hands. With a light application of wind chakra, she was able to send bubbles floating from the small water source, which her younger sister was expected to thrust the bokken through, fast and precise.

It wasn't easy with the uncertain air currents and semi-random movements the bubbles made, and without her sharingan to boot - it was annoying!

And it was apparently important to build muscle in the right places, and the heft of the mock 'blade' was to make certain that she wielded her future tanto as if were weightless, in comparison.

Now, she was running drills at her sister's instruction, stroking a poor wooden post with abandon. She was taking a breather now, though, probably while her sister cooked up something new to torture her with. Now, she was being made to hold her weapon at the ready, gripping the hilt loosely with every finger except for her pinky. Holding it like this, for this long was actually surprisingly strenuous, but -

"Right!"

Her bokken flickered to life, screwing her face up in concentration to bring the sword -

"Left, diagonal slice! Overhead!"

The second wood struck wood, she used the momentum to bring her weapon around, to let it -

"Sloppy!" Her sister called. "It has to flow seamlessly, you can't -" she watched as her younger sister lost her balance, collapsing bonelessly to the ground as her hands throbbed and he pushed herself up.

Her elder sister smiled sheepishly.

"We can take five?"

It was no surprise that her younger sister's dark head shook vehemently. "No! I can continue!"

She was proud, if a little worried about the work ethic of her devoted little ninja.

Maybe they needed hobbies.


"Do you believe they're ready?"

"I do."

The Hokage sighed, glancing at the paintings of his predecessors, and the man that was meant to succeed him.

"I might have something for you, " he murmured thoughtfully. "It should be low stakes enough not to bring them any harm, while having a diverse enough climate to get them used to the various elements."

Izumi nodded - she was initially worried that because of the age and status of their team, they'd be coddled and cooped up within fire country. Not that it was especially common for leaf Shinobi to venture to countries besides Wind, but still.

"...and expose them early to the realities of this line of work."

The words tasted bitter on his tongue. "Return tomorrow for your team's assignment, be packed for at least two weeks."

"Tomorrow, team seven will be deployed to Kinrui village."