Kakashi sat in the same bar where barely a week ago he and Kurenai had met previously, and his newfound ally sat across from him once again. They were both leaning back, sake cups in hand and wordlessly staring at the wooden table, both fighting to keep a smile from their face. Such a small celebration, suitable for a successful C-rank mission or learning a new jutsu, and certainly not sufficient for the unmitigated success of their cross-training efforts.

Kakashi wanted to leap into the streets, crowing like a freshly minted chunin. He wanted to run up to Maito Guy, show him the notes they had made on their student's progress, then pants him in front of his "Youthful Team" and run giggling into the night. He wanted to smack Shimura Danzo in the face with another copy of those same notes and vanish before the exploding tag inside went off.

None of this would happen, naturally. Danzo would never learn, not until someone hit him with something a little harder than paperwork, and Kakashi thought he knew which little genin on his team might end up doing just that some day. Guy might take it as a challenge and try to get him back, which was a thing of nightmares. No, Kakashi and Kurenai had quietly compared notes, had a short discussion, and promptly returned to their usual bar to get a small drink in quiet celebration of the possibly that their students were going to crush all who faced them, and nobody would ever see it coming.

And if anyone knew the value of being underestimated, it was Kakashi. He was beginning to suspect that his students would have the benefit of the same once they were up for their exams. He pulled the papers back to his side of the table and flicked through them again, barely able to believe what he already knew. Their normal morning training was progressing about as he had expected, and all of their students had completed the task of climbing trees with chakra. But the group training...

Hinata was still timid, but she had finally started really fighting back on the third day, after she "accidentally" hit her sparring partner in the face with a palm strike while trying to deflect his attack. Kakashi slotted the mental quotation marks into that thought, as he was fairly certain Naruto had deliberately taken the blow to his face after specifically asking for permission to fight her, to test what he had picked up observing his clones. He had even had the audacity to wink at Kakashi just before he was hit.

He had fallen back, blood streaming from his face. As Hinata stuttered a broken apology, mortified, unable to look him in the eyes, he had laughed. She had stood there and stared in shock as he laughed, wiped the blood from his nose, then offered her a fist bump while congratulating her on her strike. She hesitantly returned the gesture, a tad awkward with the informal acknowledgment.

It had taken, by Kakashi's count, seven "accidental" injuries before she accepted his encouragement and started to actually fight with some degree of force. By the end of that day, she was physically exhausted, but was still smiling when they split for the night.

On the fourth day, it had only take one reminder from Naruto about her progress the other day for her to get back into the fight. On the fifth day, it didn't even take that. And on the sixth day, Kakashi had been deeply amused to see the shy, timid, frightened little kunoichi end the first spar with a sudden and immediate blow, without hesitation or warning. And he was even more amused when Naruto had cheered her on from where he had landed in the dirt.

Naruto, meanwhile, had learned a lot by observing his clones getting crushed, both with their memories and his own outside point of view. He still had no real taijutsu skill, but in the end, that only made him more terrifying in his fights. At one point, he had watched Hinata dispel three clones with a single sweep of her hand. When the next set of clones was sent in, they approached in the same way, and when she tried the same arm sweep, he had neatly trapped her arm before it could really get moving and had tapped her in the ribs before she could break free.

On the sixth day, after the first match, they had been permitted to fight with ninjutsu in light of Hinata's improvement. Naruto had demonstrated just how well he had been paying attention to the actual lesson Kakashi was trying to teach him by refusing to use any jutsu at all. He simply waded in, evading Hinata's strikes and following his own reflexes, born of nearly a month's worth of sparring practice crammed into a week from the use of his clones, until she was so tired he casually ducked her last strike and tapped her on the forehead. "I got you, Hinata," he said with a roguish grin, giving her a pat on the shoulder and a thumbs up.

Kakashi called it a win after she passed out with a sigh... a very happy sigh.

Sasuke and Shino had started off well enough. They fought with almost mechanical grace, two genius shinobi testing their own skills. Not a word was said as they fought, no compliments paid or taunts thrown, just a single silent nod each time a round ended definitively.

On the first break of the first day, Shino had silently sat down on the branch of the tree next to where Sasuke perched. They said nothing during the entire break, did not even look at each other.

By the third day, Kakashi had noted that Sasuke was seeking out Shino during breaks. They had yet to say a word directly to one another at that time, save for as required by their teachers or as needed in their spars. Finally, on the sixth day, Sasuke had sat down next to his quiet companion and challenged him to a spar with ninjutsu allowed. Shino agreed, asking only that excessive damage to his kikaichu colony be avoided.

What happened a long and skillful battle that lasted nearly an half hour, and Kakashi was proud of them both. Shino showed a great deal of skill in deception and evasion, and Sasuke, for all of his slightly antisocial tendencies during morning training, had been careful not to slaughter the bugs. Even when it made tactical sense. Even when it cost him the match when a bug clone finally knocked him down. He simply accepted the loss with a quiet nod and returned to the ready position.

But the real surprise had been Sakura. Kakashi felt almost ashamed how badly he had underestimated her, and he was willing to bet Kiba certainly did.

On the first day, they faced off one on one while Akamaru watched. Kiba was in much better shape and was much stronger than his sparring partner, and Sakura would have been hard-pressed under any circumstances. Sakura kept glancing at Sasuke the entire time, however, and once Kiba noticed it, he punished her for it. Every time she looked away, Kiba was there to bring her attention back to him with a fist or foot. This went on for half the day, until Sakura finally seemed to accept that Sasuke was paying her no mind in the least while she fought. He body was covered in bruises, she was having trouble keeping her arms up, and something in her just snapped when Kiba clubbed her down again. She stood and took her ready stance, then glanced at where Sasuke was fighting.

Kiba was already moving in, and was already fully committed to the easy hit when she screamed out a battle cry and stepped into it. His fist glanced off her arm, but his face caught her fist perfectly in return, and he tumbled nearly three feet back with the force of the blow. He knelt in the dust, hand covering his jaw, and looked up as Sakura, Angel of Death, sailed through the air at him, that silly pink dress suddenly not so silly as the woman inside of it brought down the fist of the gods themselves with the force of every muscle she could use...

Kakashi had caught her arm carefully before she did something permanent to her opponent, and he was proud of the twitch he felt as she fought down the reflex to take a swing at him. He told her she was done for the day, and to come back tomorrow with the same amount of passion but a little more self-control, all while discreetly pretended he did not see the wet spot that had grown under Kiba as he stared at the curled fist inches from his eyes.

On day two she came early to the morning training, caught Kakashi before the others arrived, and apologized. Not for smashing Kiba's face, but for not doing it sooner. She remained the same polite, slightly annoying girl during team training, but managed to only sneak glances as her crush when they were not busy. During actual training, she was focused.

When the time came for the afternoon training, she started systematically demolishing her opponent. Kiba had the strength, but she had the technique, and now she had the drive. Every wild charge was rebuffed with a throw or a painful counter-strike. Kiba spent almost as much time on the ground as standing. By the end of day two, she had spent the last five minutes of sparring tossing him around the clearing and letting him get up, only to slip in for another throw, deliberately practicing her ability to toss him and, at one point, counting out how many feet she threw him over the course of a minute. Kurenai had grinned when the girl counted to ten, and openly laughed when she reached twenty.

On day three, Akamaru was permitted to join in the fight, and the puppy made almost no difference save for picking up some bruises of his own. By the end of the day, Kiba was fuming, furious at having not landed a single meaningful blow the entire day. He was shouting angrily as a smirking Sakura when Kakashi finally took him aside and whispered in his ear. Kiba turned to stomp away, but when Kakashi called out and said, "That's exactly why you're going to lose tomorrow," he stopped, then turned and stomped over to Sakura.

Kurenai's jaw dropped when he kowtowed formally to the pink-haired girl, his forehead pressed firmly to the ground and arms spread wide as he begged her to teach him. After a moment Akamaru had trotted over and did his best to take the same pose, yapping furiously and wagging his tail. Sakura had laughed at the display and agreed.

She had trained the Inuzuka boy in the academy stances and punches... but those were worthless to him, she admitted, with his clan's taijutsu stance, a hunched and animalistic stance that encouraged full body blows. Instead of focusing on the basic strikes and throws, she focused on how they worked and how those same principles could be applied to his own techniques. The academy strikes were too awkward to use, but knowing the forces she used to toss him around until then, he was able to take advantage and adapt the same principles to his own efforts.

By day five, Kiba had absorbed much of Sakura's knowledge on academy taijutsu with the aid of Kurenai during their morning sessions, and he and Akamaru started to demolish her. Knowing how to use their bodies and apply leverage properly turned the two into powerful foes, and they spent most of the day tossing the pink girl around just as hard as she had days before. It was then that Sakura returned the favor, dropping into the same begging pose, and asked Kiba to teach her how to "go crazy like an Inuzuka."

On day six, Kiba arrived to group training with a scroll and showed it to Sakura. Kakashi managed a glance at it in passing, and saw it was filled with drawings of humans in various poses. They spent the day practicing the most basic of moves for the Inuzuka Four Legged stance. He apologized, explaining that the stance was all he was permitted to share as it was fairly easy to figure out through observation, but the rest of his clan's techniques were forbidden to outsiders. He also quietly assured her that his family was discussing permitting her to train formally with the clan, after being impressed with his quick improvement with her aid, and they wanted to see how she did with the basic form.

The image of Haruno Sakura on all fours, snarling at Kiba and Akamaru as they sailed away from her after a particularly good throw, was probably going to stay with Kakashi forever.

On day seven, they gave their teams a day off to rest and relax. They spent the day comparing notes and discussing their team's progress, eventually culminating in the report that they continued to pass back and forth at the bar between drinks. "I can't believe nobody ever thought to do this," Kakashi mumbled quietly as he set the papers down. He took up his cup and turned away to sip at it, concealing his face with his hand, which always got an amusing huff from Kurenai.

"I can't believe the Inuzuka were willing to teach Sakura anything from their clan," she replied, still staring at her cup.

Kakashi shrugged as he placed his cup down. "They are a lot less formal than many of the clans in Konoha, and Tsume seems to have a thing for strong women. I would not be surprised if she was watching them train at some point, and I am willing to bet money that she noticed Kiba's improvement after the first few days. Now if only we could get the Hyuga to be so open and helpful..."

Kurenai managed a snort at that little joke.

"So," he asked, resting his chin in his hands, "glad you accepted?"

She nodded and took a sip. "Shino found a good sparring partner who is respectful of his bugs and who has no objection to his quiet nature. Kiba has an appreciation for technique... and the potential strength in the other gender." She smiled sharply at that comment, as Kiba and the Inuzuka were hardly chauvinistic by nature, but his brash mannerisms often came across that way. That smile faded a little, but it did not vanish completely as Kurenai continued, "And Hinata is still very timid, but she's willing to hit at least one person now, and I think I can get Kiba and Shino to help me get her to open up more." She sighed and drained her cup, then sat back. "I think we can report this as an outstanding success to the Hokage."

Kakashi raised his cup to that.

EDIT: Thanks to Pom Rania, who has now gone over this chapter in an effort to finally stamp out the early installment weirdness *GLUG*

Author's Note: Like many, I have an issue with Sakura in canon. It's not that she is essentially Team 7's doormat. It's that she never changes, no matter how many little revelations she has. When I first watched the show, and she cut her hair, I was all hopeful for a strong female character. And we all know how that worked out.

Well, this time, she got her epiphany at a time and place where she could afford to let it sink in, and got a little support for it too. Frankly, she always had Inner Sakura to provide some power, and she in theory had the academy knowledge of taijutsu, but never the will or forced practice time to make it useful.

And don't worry, this is not 100% fix fic. There will be consequences to what has changed, but many of them hit later, in some cases much later.

Fear not, Okiro Benihime, Madara and his ilk will still be quite powerful. There is a reason he was feared. I just hope to tamp down on the "I summon meteors like a FFVII boss" level, hypothetically world destroying, apocalyptic power. That does not mean he is not capable of feeding the world ninja their teeth through applied force. The changes to him and his will crop up in the story quite early, and they will be a delight, I suspect and hope.