Kakashi did some very quick first aid, which mainly consisted of removing needles and bandaging their obvious wounds. He just wanted to stop further damage on their trip back to the house and prevent more blood loss. Once there he'd make sure to administer proper care, to the best of his ability.

However, on their arrival the first thing he noticed was that both Inari and his mother were not home plus he could smell two unfamiliar scents. Thankfully his genin were too tired to argue when he told them to go rest and didn't seem to question the lack of people in the home. Once out of the house he summoned Pakkun and had him to track Inari.

They didn't have to travel far, the building that served as the group's hideout was just outside the bounds of the village, and Pakkun immediately informed him that the other people he'd smelled in the house were there as well. Kakashi knew that two of Gato's thugs probably kidnapped them for leverage, but they weren't going to present challenge. Now that Gato was dead the thugs had no need for hostages, of course they didn't know that.

In less than a minute he was in and they were down, he left without bothering to question them. It had been a long day and he didn't need to listen to their babble. He led Inari and his mother back to the house listening to the tale. He complimented Inari on how brave he was but didn't get too far into anything. He asked them not to say anything to his genin, he planned to leave the next day and didn't want them getting worked up or distracted.

Thankfully the rest of their short stay was calm and quiet by the next morning the team left the land of waves and the Great Konoha bridge behind. It was almost named after him in gratitude and that would have been horrifying.

Kakashi liked to keep a low profile whenever possible.

The walk back was a bit slower than the walk there mostly to prevent opening any wounds, but his genin were in fairly good shape considering everything they'd been through.

He'd give them the rest of the day of relax before it was time to start training again, the Hokage would likely give the team some time without missions after hearing about what they went through. Kakashi doubted he'd be given the same privilege, but he was used to separating his duties to the team and his duties to the village.

"I'm going to go turn in the mission report, in celebration and for a team building exercise I'm sending you three to get something to eat as a team," Kakashi informed them of their next mission, lunch. "I'll cover the costs," he handed Sakura more than enough money to get a meal for the three of them, "you must eat together and have a good time as a group. In the future you might need to go undercover and have a meal together so think of it as training if you have to."

He'd make sure to collect their pay while he was there and give it to them the next day, plus with the money he'd end up getting from Zabuza's bounty he'd give them all a bit extra, they certainly earned it.

He left in a puff of smoke happy to leave them to their own devices, it was half a day alone he doubted they'd get into trouble.

They'd just finished their meal, ramen at Naruto's request, when Sakura noticed they were being followed. It wasn't difficult seeing at how obvious it was she knew Sasuke and Naruto could tell as well, but they were just ignoring it. "What do you want?" She turned and asked trying to keep her tone light because it was clearly a child tracking them.

"You managed to see me, you're quite skilled," the boy complimented her, but it was a bit of an empty compliment considering just how awful a job he was doing, but it was what he said next that made her pause, "as expected of boss's girlfriend."

"Who are you and who is your boss?" Sakura asked thoroughly confused.

"I'm Konohamaru and I'm the number one student of my boss Naruto," he declared proudly.

Sakura knew almost everyone herself included treated Naruto poorly, far worse than he deserved for a long time and in the past the idea of being called Naruto's friend would have annoyed her. She'd moved past that and seen sides of Naruto she didn't know existed and now considered him a friend, even if he still got on her nerves at times. However, she absolutely was not dating him and if Naruto was spreading that around she was going to be very annoyed. "Are you telling people we're dating?" she turned to Naruto warning heavy in her voice.

"No way Sakura-chan," Naruto sounded nervous, "he was probably just making a guess."

"Look kid, get lost," Sasuke finally spoke up, Sakura assumed being forced to spend the day with his teammates had worn away his patience.

Sakura sighed as Konohamaru ended up in an argument with Sasuke that Naruto managed to get sucked into which somehow ended in Konohamaru challenging Sasuke to a battle. Rather than let the little kid get hurt she cast a quick genjutsu that had him following fake visions of them down the street.

"Sorry, things were getting out of hand, so I used genjutsu on him. It's harmless," she assured Naruto.

"Sakura that was so cool," Naruto praised her not showing much worry for Konohamaru, but it wasn't really a dangerous situation the genjutsu would fade in a minute. It was just meant to get him out of sight and hopefully out of mind.

Even Sasuke managed to look impressed. "Can you do that to Naruto?" He asked, but before Sakura could respond or Naruto could get angry, they heard a crash and voices from just around the corner of where Konohamaru sprinted off to.

Naruto ran towards the sound with Sakura following, Sasuke fell behind moving at a more sedate pace. Sakura was mainly concerned because an issue might have been caused by her genjutsu and she didn't intend to hurt Konohamaru or anyone else. They came across him getting held up, gripped in the arm of a ninja clearly from another village.

"I really hate brats like you," he said smiling as he choked the younger boy. The girl alongside him just seemed vaguely annoyed at the inconvenience of having to stand around watching her companion harass a child.

"Look this was my fault, why don't we all just calm down?" Sakura asked trying to diffuse the situation which clearly didn't work when the teen just lifted Konohamaru higher and turned his gaze on her.

"Alright, so you can be next," he said with a smile that promised something very unpleasant. Diplomacy wasn't going to work here and that seemed fine with Naruto who was already getting fired up.

In some ways Sakura respected Naruto's attitude and right now his desire to help Konohamaru, but his outbursts rarely spelled anything good for anyone involved. Even if he'd matured since they became teammates Naruto still had a temper, which would probably take time for him to completely grow out of.

He went charging in his hands moving to mold chakra, but his legs were pulled out from under him and he went sprawling. Sakura only saw the slightest movement of the others boy fingers, before Naruto fell. Sakura couldn't identify exactly what he did and although she wasn't going to ask him to attack Naruto again, but she did want to try observing what he was doing more closely.

Before things could escalate further the older teen dropped Konohamaru and hissed in pain, a mark was left on his hand after something struck him. Looking to the source Sasuke was up in a nearby tree and had thrown a rock. Sakura was glad to see him helping, but she wasn't impressed by the fact that he waited around to do something. He was close enough to get involved or try to help calm everyone down right off the bat, he didn't need to watch Konohamaru suffer or Naruto get hurt before stepping in.

Although it did help Konohamaru, Sasuke's involvement did nothing to remedy the situation the only difference was that now the focus was on him. Whatever was on the teen's back was about to be released, it was likely a weapon of some sort, but everyone froze when a voice spoke from the tree, "Kankuro, that's enough."

A red-haired boy appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the same tree as Sasuke. Sakura could tell everyone was shocked even the two who seemed to know him and Sasuke who was only a few steps from him. What also surprised her was how scared the two, who she assumed were his allies, seemed to be. He did give off a creepy vibe especially with that dark tone in his voice despite seemingly being the most polite of the bunch.

Apparently, they were in the village for the Chunin exams which were coming up, Kakashi had failed to mention it so Sakura assumed they wouldn't be involved.

"So, the Chunin exams are coming up and I'm planning to put you forward to take part in them. Any questions or complaints?" Kakashi asked looking at his three genin who seemed unsurprised about the exams not bothering to ask what it was.

"Wait we're taking part in them?" Sakura asked which just confirmed that she and likely the other two had at least heard about the exams.

"Well I won't force you but make no mistake even though I'm putting you forward I don't think any of you should be promoted to chunin. Before you get upset, I feel the same way about all the other rookies entering the exams. Still, I think you'd all be furious if everyone else in the rookie class entered the exams except you and if we're using them as a standard then yes you can enter without being outclassed." He could just imagine how they'd react if everyone else was in the exam and they alone had to sit it out.

"I want you to understand that I'm incredibly proud of the growth each of you has had since I became your teacher and you all impressed me on our recent mission to the Land of Waves," Kakashi wasn't going to lie, his genin had impressed him. "However, what is expected of a chunin is different from what you are capable of and simply from a maturity and experience standpoint I don't think you're ready. Regardless, there are plenty of people taking the exam who aren't ready, that's why they fail repeatedly."

"So why are all these teams competing if they aren't actually ready to be promoted?" Sakura asked.

"I said I believe they aren't ready that doesn't mean, they or their teachers agree with my assessment. However, if anyone believes that everyone from your graduating class is ready to be chunin they're delusional." Kakashi replied further explaining, "Although the exams technically measure on a person by person basis, I'm not interested in promoting one of you until I believe the entire team has reached a certain level. Realistically even once you've been promoted, you'll generally stick with the same team until you're older anyway aside from occasionally getting pulled for missions."

He held a hand up before they could start with a rebuttal, he wasn't trying to hurt them, but it was the hard truth there were certain things he just wouldn't trust them with. "However, it is still my job to prepare you for the exam like you're meant to succeed. If you do your best maybe you can prove me wrong and make me look like a fool for doubting you."

Sasuke smirked and Naruto pumped his arm, "I'm going to show you, believe it."

"There isn't long until the exams so we have to focus on what's important. It's going to boil down to two major points your ability to work together in tasks or missions and your ability to operate alone in battle. We aren't supposed to provide much information, but there is a tournament at the end for the ninja that make it through the previous stages. I'll have time in between to train you for the finals if you make it there, meaning we need to focus on you working as a team, no arguments," Kakashi slipped into his teaching mode. If these kids were going to take part, he'd make sure they were able to work together and if they succeeded it would be together. At least until the finals where he'd have to train them separately if they made it.

He received three nods in response and thankfully not a peep from any of them. "You've practiced taijutsu against and with each other so that isn't my first concern, my feelings on weapon use are the same. Your overall repertoire of ninjutsu and genjutsu is rather limited given that we're entering the chunin exams so early. I'm going to teach each of you a minimum of one jutsu that I know will work with your teammates based on your current skills. You will likely face more experienced ninja so relying on each other is paramount."

He looked to Sakura first, "Sakura we spoke about how when water is available forming water is a waste of chakra, correct." She nodded and he continued, "However there are a large range of liquids you can produce with your chakra that have a variety of effects. I have two in mind, but I don't know if you'll be able to learn both, so we'll start with an oil based jutsu."

He saw that slight look of disgust on her face at the thought of spitting oil on people and he understood that to an extent, but he wasn't here to cater to her delicate sensibilities, "Beyond the initial effects of dousing an opponent or area with oil It will allow Sasuke to increase the power of his fire jutsu to levels he couldn't achieve no matter how much chakra he used." He saw the spark of interest in Sasuke's eyes and hoped his interest in improving would encourage him to be willing to work more closely with her.

"Sasuke, with Sakura being able to cover for increasing your firepower, so to speak, we don't need to focus on more flame techniques centered on burning opponents as she can cover you in that aspect. Obviously, you're wondering what type of fire techniques I plan to teach you if they aren't meant to burn opponents." Sasuke just made a slight noise of agreement or perhaps he wanted Kakashi to get to the point, he was choosing to believe the first. In either case he continued, "I know a few techniques that will allow you to use your fire in more concussive or explosive blasts, so we'll start there."

Finally, he looked to Naruto, "We're approaching the end of what I want to teach you about sealing before moving on to exploring elemental ninjutsu, but one thing I must make sure you're adept at is sealing things into scrolls. That probably seems simple, think of the ninja who carry around scrolls for weaponry in battle. The difference is that they're simply unsealing objects, which all of you can do it generally only takes a flash of chakra to release the seal. When we're finished, you'll be able to seal everything from large sources of water for Sakura to actual jutsu for battle. It can be a remarkable asset and trust me when I say it will be useful. If you complete that quickly enough, I have an area of effect seal that I think only someone like you can use."

It was time to kick things into high gear and hopefully get themselves prepped for the exams. Even if they were certainly growing at an advanced rate, they didn't have the maturity to take on the tasks they'd be expected to complete as a chunin. Still they'd surprised him before maybe they'd do it again.

Sakura approached the building where the initial phase of the exam was being held and saw she was last to arrive with Sasuke and Naruto clearly waiting for her. "Sorry," she apologized, "I just had a few things to do before leaving." She had spent a bit of extra time getting into the right mindset, she was confident in herself and her teammates, but she couldn't help worrying. However, she wasn't the type of person who'd let that stop her or keep her from giving it her all, not anymore.

"It's fine we weren't waiting long, right Sasuke?" Naruto asked glancing at Sasuke who only gave Sakura a nod in greeting before turning to walk towards the building.

"Let's just get inside I want to get started," Sasuke said instead of answering thankfully Naruto was too excited for the exams to get annoyed at Sasuke or he was just learning to ignore his attitude.

The walk through the first floor was fine it was when they reached the second floor that they happened across a bit of a scene. Two genin were apparently bullying the rest of the participants and one had just flat out punched a boy with a very unique look, if she was being very kind.

She hurried over with Sasuke and Naruto in time to hear one of the boys start talking about how dangerous and scary the exams are and how everyone should just quit. It annoyed her because they were preying on people who had worries similar to hers which she didn't want to make known. Before she could stop herself, she spoke up, "Who are you to decide whose good enough to be here? The fact that you're standing around trying to scare people means you're the ones who failed in the past or you're lying about your experience. In the end you're just afraid of some competition."

Sasuke added on easily, "And setting up a subpar genjutsu is hardly going to stop us, I'm sure even Naruto saw through it. Now get out of our way, I don't care if you feel like holding everyone else up or if they all quit, but you will move for me."

"What does 'even Naruto' mean," Naruto complained though he did add, "but yeah this isn't the third floor, so those door numbers are wrong." Naruto gestured to the numbers on the doors, which incorrectly indicated this was the third floor rather than the second, before sending a glare at Sasuke.

The male with tape on his face narrowed his eyes, "Just because you saw through the genjutsu doesn't mean I'm letting you go anywhere." He moved to strike Sasuke who quickly went to intercept, but neither struck because the boy in the green suit who had previously taken down grabbed them both before they could clash. Despite his odd looks Sakura would absolutely admit that was an impressive feat though she couldn't base all his abilities off just that.

She was even more shocked when he confessed his love to her seemingly out of nowhere and asked her to be his girlfriend. She might not be following Sasuke around like a lovesick puppy anymore, but she still was not interested in dating someone so intense and she told him that.

Sasuke for his part managed to find a Hyuga boy that was as rude as him, who started demanding his personal information. Before anyone could get too riled up Sakura grabbed both Sasuke and Naruto's wrists and began leading them away up to the next floor. She wasn't going to let anything happen, not today.

"Seriously, what is with everyone here?" Sakura shook her head not getting any real answer from either of the boys who were both deep in thought. The issues refused to end there soon after they had gotten away the boy with the weird haircut reappeared. She hoped it wasn't to bother her again she didn't think she was remarkably vain, but he honestly creeped her out a bit.

"I am Rock Lee and I'm challenging you to a fight right here, Sasuke Uchiha," he declared. Asking for a fight wasn't much better than being here directly for her, plus he was taking the opportunity to blow some kisses her way which she valiantly dodged.

If he kept it up, he'd end up having to fight her just because he was really starting to get on her nerves. She took a deep breath and schooled herself, the moment she calmed down Naruto started to let his own anger out apparently sick of being ignored. Glancing at Sasuke she could see he was already considering fighting so Sakura did the first thing that came to mind, "I refuse to date anyone who starts fighting before the exam." She regretted what she said the second it came out of her mouth, but she couldn't go back and tell them to start fighting.

She didn't plan on dating anyone in the immediate future, but it would hopefully stop at least one of them possibly two if Naruto was still interested in her. Rock Lee seemed to consider his options for a moment before leaping back, "Very well my love," he responded sending shivers down her spine, directing his gaze towards Sasuke he added, "we will finish this during the exams." He left presumably to return to his team.

"Sakura, why did you stop him?" Naruto asked looking slightly put out.

"Is it so strange that I don't want you two getting hurt? We don't know anything about him or even if fighting before the exams could get us in trouble," she responded truthfully. She had no doubt the two boys could handle themselves, but they didn't know anything about Rock Lee, and it was entirely possible that he'd hurt one of them and stop them from doing there best during the exam or they'd get punished for fighting.

"Oh," Naruto just said blushing slightly, Sasuke just huffed having been quiet since Sakura diffused the situation. Sakura just grabbed their arms and began leading them away again hopefully to finally deal with the exam. At this point any nervousness had faded behind pure annoyance at the situation.

With a smirk on his face Sasuke asked, "So when's your date with Rock Lee?" It was a rare moment of joking from him, but of course it was at her expense.

"Wait your not really going on a date with Bushy Brows, right?" Naruto asked taking it a bit too seriously.

Sakura just gave both of them a light smack on the back of their heads and responded, "Not a chance. Can we just focus now?"

Sasuke would've liked a chance to knock some sense into Rock Lee, he was interested in his skills, but perhaps Sakura was right. They should go into the exam at 100% not that he was particularly concerned about getting injured. He couldn't say the same about Naruto who was a few seconds away from getting involved. Finally arriving at the room for the first part of the exam it was a standard classroom, nothing particularly impressive, however the sheer number of applicants did catch his eye. He knew he'd be one of the rookies, but he wasn't expecting the other participants to be of such varying ages.

Before he could start picking out people that he thought seemed strong he felt a weight fall on his back and a familiar very annoying voice screech in his ear, "Sasuke-kun it's been so long I've missed you, I waited here just to see you."

He shrugged her off and shot her a glare, he wasn't interested in dealing with this. On his team he was away from the majority of his fangirls and since Sakura toned herself down, he hadn't had to deal with anything like this in a while. It was a very unpleasant shock to his system, and he was quick to shrug her off and take a few steps away. Somehow that opened the gate for the rest of the rookies to start approaching.

He tuned them out for the most part it wasn't until they were approached by an older teen with grey hair that he checked back into the conversation. "You're disturbing the rest of the participants, considering this is your first year you might not want to make too many enemies right off the bat," he said lightly.

Sasuke took a moment to glance around the room and saw most of the people were indeed glaring at the rookies making a spectacle of themselves. He introduced himself as Kabuto and explained that he'd been attempting the exams for four years and that he excelled in information gathering giving an example with his knowledge of the villages entering the exam. "So, you have information on the participants here?" Sasuke asked hoping to learn a bit more about some of the people currently on his mind.

"Depending on their record as a shinobi I may have varying amounts, but yes I should have information on everyone here, including you guys. I'm happy to help out my cute juniors do you have anything or anyone you're particularly interested in?" Kabuto asked holding his deck of cards.

"Gaara of Sunagakure and Rock Lee of Konoha," Sasuke answered simply. Gaara gave him a very bad feeling and seemed powerful, he was someone to be wary of not that Sasuke doubted his own abilities. As far as Lee went, they never got to fight so Sasuke wanted some information to fill in the gaps all he knew was that he was quick and physically strong.

"Gaara of the Desert, he completed eleven C rank missions and one B rank mission, but what's truly interesting is that he was never injured on any of them," Kabuto read off his data. Sasuke didn't know what to make of that, but it reaffirmed that he was someone to watch out for. Kabuto continued, "Rock Lee was a member of the class directly before yours, so he's a year older, but this is his first time competing in the exams. His taijutsu is notable and has improved rapidly since graduation, but the rest of his skills are below average aside from general weapon skills." That wasn't outside the realm of what Sasuke expected.

Just as things seemed to be settling down the sound ninja attacked Kabuto apparently feeling that calling the sound nation small in his explanation of the competing villages was a slight. Whatever attack was used seemed to affect Kabuto despite not directly landing before things could progress any further the proctors arrived.

Ibiki looked like the definition of what an intimidating ninja should be, covered in scars and growling angrily at the sound ninja for fighting. Sasuke wasn't fazed, but he knew it wasn't the time or place to act confrontational, so he calmly followed orders and made his way to his seat after grabbing a number.

The test rules were laid out, which were odd to start with and from the moment he looked at his test he knew he couldn't answer any of them and if he couldn't there was no chance Naruto could. He always got high scores in classes and understood the curriculum, but none of this was taught. Even with what they were taught he could barely understand the process of how to solve the majority of them. Glancing around he could tell he wasn't the only one. From who he could see the only people who started answering questions without pausing were two random genin he'd never met and Sakura.

It took a few minutes, but after mulling it over it hit him this test wasn't made for people to solve the answers on their own, no genin should be able to solve these, Sakura was a special case. The test had to be built to focus on information gathering that's why only lost two points were lost by being caught cheating rather than just failing and why there were so many proctors watching. The participants were supposed to cheat, but more importantly they were expected to do it well.

He glanced at Sakura again and trusted her to get the answers right, so he activated his Sharingan and started answering questions by following her hand movements. He might not be able to answer the questions on his own, but he could at the very least understand which answers went where when they were presented, and she went one by one in order which helped.

It was Naruto he was concerned about he glanced away to check on Naruto who was near the front of the room which wasn't an advantageous position to start with and he didn't look like he was answering anything. Once Sakura and in turn he had answered all the questions he saw Sakura silently make a few hand signs and immediately after Naruto flinched. A minute passed and Naruto started writing, Sakura likely did something to help him though he couldn't be sure exactly what. He'd make a point of asking after the test.

"The next answer is eight," Naruto heard Sakura whisper in his ear as he finished question five. Naruto was going to have to thank Sakura later, this genjutsu was saving him. Initially he'd been concerned it was from someone else trying to trick him, but she'd been able to prove she was herself. Now he was filling in the answers thanks to her help.

He realized the purpose of the test partway through, but it was too late, and his skillset wasn't built for this. If he'd known earlier the team could have taken out a genin and had a clone replace them. The clone could cheat for him and send him the information when he cancelled it. He'd been toying with the idea of just sending a clone out to check someone's answers and hoping it would only count for one instance of cheating. Thankfully Sakura's voice started whispering in his ears reassuring him by telling him his favorite ramen order. The only ninja who'd know that were her, Iruka, Sasuke, Kakashi, and the third Hokage.

By the time it reached the forty-five-minute mark he'd answered all the questions and he trusted that Sakura's answers were all correct whether she answered on her own or cheated from someone else.

Ibiki stepped forward and spoke just as the clock clicked, "It's time for the tenth question, now this one has some extra rules. First you can choose not to answer and immediately fail if you'd like," he was interrupted by grumbling which he cut off, "let me finish. Second if you get the tenth question wrong your entire team fails and you'll never be allowed to take the chunin exams again. However, if you choose to quit you can return for the exams next time. I'll give you a chance to think it over."

Naruto watched and listened as teams started walking out, he trusted himself and he trusted his team more than enough not to consider walking out. Although he knew Sasuke wouldn't quit he knew sometimes Sakura cared too much about them and might drop out to protect him and Sasuke. He couldn't let that happen, he needed to show that he was ready. He stood up and slammed his hand down on the desk, "I'm not giving up, I'm going to become Hokage someday and if you think you can scare me off with something like this you've got another thing coming. I don't go back on my word and I'm saying right here and right now that I'm taking this and I'm going to make it all the way, believe it."

There seemed to be a moment of silence and teams stopped dropping out after a bit of time passed Ibiki informed them they all passed, which Naruto was not expecting, not that he'd admit it out loud. Another thing he wasn't expecting was a crazy woman to come flying through the window.

The time for the second phase was coming.

A/N

The beginning was just to cover my bases on the kidnapping that happened without making it something drawn out or long. I also wrote this in chunks and put them together so if anything seems a bit off let me know. Writing the portion right before the exam was ridiculously annoying.

Let me clarify something about Kakashi saying none of the rookies are ready to be made chunin, he's not talking on a level purely of skill as I mentioned and he doesn't know the other teams too well so his judgement is based on what he does know. Realistically who actually thinks they should be chunin? The exams are held twice a year and since this is the first time they were mentioned it means these are the first ones to happen since graduation so at most it'd have to be less than 6 months since graduation at this point. Based on the show and manga I'd assume it's even less time than that.

This version of Kakashi is a bit more cautious in a lot of ways because although it isn't always shown. From my understanding a chunin should be able to lead or take on missions alone and I wouldn't send the rookies alone or as team leaders. They're still too immature and haven't surpassed the emotional and personal issues that inevitably hold them back plus some of them simply aren't skilled enough.

If I had to pick the rookie genin that I'd promote it'd probably be Shino or Shikamaru and I say that despite not being too interested in Shino when I first was interested in the show. So it's not favoritism, I just think those two could lead their teammates on simple missions, but still I'd have waited.

I'm sure some people believe some of the ninja in Gai's team should be promoted and I disagree. Some people might say with Lee's ability he should be a chunin, but I think he's possibly the one I'd be least like to promote of anyone he was willing to use a technique that he knew could and did lead to serious damage to his body for a battle that realistically didn't matter. It wasn't used to protect anyone or complete a mission. In six months he could have tried again with more skill and likely an opponent more suited for him. From his battle with Hinata and later Naruto we saw that Neji isn't capable of handling extremely emotional situations with a level head, not without cause I understand why, but we saw he grew past it and then I believe he was ready. TenTen would actually have a leg up on both of them in a mental state, but I don't think she should be promoted either we saw she wasn't able to adapt to an opponent and repeatedly used the same attacks despite it not working.

If everyone waited 6 months and went through some therapy I'd give them a shot. Kakashi most gave them a chance to practice because Asuma and Kurenai put their teams through in my canon because of pressure from their student's clans. Otherwise I thinks it's a silly choice to enter.

Obviously in canon they all made it to the preliminaries and some to the finals, but I still don't think that proves anything.