Kakashi sighed and looked at his three temporary students talking at the training grounds they had been assigned. Kakashi had set up his usual hiding spot to observe how they interacted when he was "late." They got along exactly as he had thought they would. It was a disaster, a gruesome and glorious disaster, and it was everything Kakashi could have wanted from it.

"I'm not saying you are a poor fighter, I'm saying you cannot compare to me. That is simply your fate." Hyuga Neji was saying this with a cold smile. The boy was very well practiced in his cold mannerisms, from the slight frown he always wore to the dead gaze in his eyes. Kakashi almost giggled when Guy had introduced the boy to him. Neji was perfect for his own needs, and might just gain something out of the bargain himself. He had instructed the three genin to show up at the usual training ground he used and set himself up in the blind to observe them.

To her credit, Tenten looked put off by Neji's manner. She had been quite polite when Guy introduced her, and while she had not been deeply enthused to mix and match teams, she had reacted favorably to know she was still working with Neji, and even more so to know she would be getting a break from Guy and Lee's exuberance. She had remained quiet once the argument had started, even as Neji started to glare at the other genin, although several times Kakashi saw her look as if she wanted to say something to the eternally grumpy Hyuga. But whether it was from her desire to not fight with her teammate or a end result of what appeared to be a mild infatuation with the pale-eyed boy, she never truly spoke up, either for or against him.

To his credit, Sasuke had politely introduced himself and had been quite companionable in his own quiet way, at least at first. Then Neji had opened his mouth and issued forth on his opinion of Kakashi, and Guy, and Konohagakure's shinobi training system in general. Sasuke had been surprisingly polite by his standards in refuting Neji's complaints. No blood had been spilled, no matter how sharp his tongue was.

Neji apparently took the polite manner as a sign of weakness, and kept pushing. Sasuke, seeing what Neji was doing, pushed back. Eventually, Sasuke had wondered out loud how competent someone like Neji could be, which had lead to this latest little gem.

"If you had been trained by the tutors I had, you would know of your own weakness, Uchiha, and the weakness of your master."

Sasuke's eyes shifted slightly to one side, just a little, but enough to give the game away if either of the others noticed. The kunoichi was looking down at the ground, too abashed by the argument to look him in the eye, and Neji was staring at him with a cold and arrogant smirk, far too occupied with his seeming victory to notice Sasuke's moment of inattention. Sasuke then looked straight at Kakashi's hiding place while he politely asked Neji for more details on Kakashi's weaknesses. Kakashi held out his arm from the blind, thumb up, and started silently making his way towards the three shinobi.

Neji, meanwhile, scoffed and crossed his arms, standing straight and tall like a teacher talking down to his students. "He's always late to everything, no matter how important. He wastes your time, and mine, in doing so. He is very intelligent, I grant you, but he is far too willing to take things easy and cut people slack. And from what I hear, death seems to follow him on every mission, claiming his friends and allies casually." His voice rose, dripping with sarcasm. "I am sure that he could have prevented those deaths, if he tried, but that's too much to ask for such a lazy sensei. I will be here, as required of me by my own fool of a teacher, but I will learn nothing of value."

"Sounds about right," said Kakashi quietly, his mouth inches from the Hyuga's right ear. Neji did not turn to face Kakashi, did not act startled in any way that Kakashi could see, which was itself telling. A surprised shinobi would turn quickly and give away their shock. An unsurprised shinobi would turn slowly, to prove their foreknowledge and prove they had no fear. But someone who was surprised, and had just enough control, would freeze as they faced the sudden surprise, and then…

Neji turned around. Behind the boy, Kakashi could see Sasuke smirking, and Tenten looking mortified. "You were spying on us," said Neji, flatly. Kakashi nodded.

"Any good sensei would spy on his students, because what they say about him when he is not around would be a greater truth. After all," he said, slipping his left arm around Neji's shoulders and giving him a companionable shake, "how else will we know that we're nothing but a self-serving, time-wasting asshole, or a green-clad moron who has muscles to spare and too much focus on his useless, crippled little orphan?" Kakashi's eye narrowed dangerously. "Seeing as we're all being ever so honest with each other, maybe I should tell you what I see before me as well?"

Neji nodded with a grimace. He'd been caught in a neat little trap, and he knew it. To refuse would be to eat his words, and he would not lose face in such a cowardly manner. He was certain he could refute Kakashi's words after the man was done.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke, turning Neji along with him. "My student first, naturally. It's only fair. I see… a young man, driven to succeed. Sometimes, he's so driven, he forgets that he is still a young man, and has to live his life as such. But to his credit, he has learned much under my guidance, and maybe, some day, he just might have a chance at being half as smart as I am." Sasuke glowered, but after a moment, his lips turned upward, and after another moment, it became a smirk, an open declaration of war, a challenge given and silently accepted.

Kakashi turned them both to Tenten, who was starting to fidget. Kakashi thought back to the files Guy had given him and found something plausible to say. "And here, we see a young woman who wants to be strong, so much so that she will tolerate things I shudder to consider. Like Guy and Lee. Together. Training." Tenten shuddered, and Kakashi found himself fighting down a grin. "And in spite of her desire to specialize in weapons, she showed up here today with the intent to learn from someone that her own sensei, Guy, the best taijutsu master in Konohagakure, suggested could help her. In time, I think she will succeed in her goal of becoming a strong kunoichi, in spite of the challenges she faces in training and in life." Tenten looked a little surprised, and blushed under the final compliment, so Kakashi gave himself a little mental pat on the back. His words amounted to little more than a cold reading on the situation, but giving her encouragement to branch out a little was one of the requests Guy had made of him, and you generally catch more flies with honey.

Wasps, however, get swatted. Kakashi swung Neji around to face him, putting the boy's back to the other genin. "And then, there is you, a child so certain in his superiority, he will openly speak out against those who would train him, about things he knows nothing about, and is not even smart enough to use his perfect perception to look around and check for the people he's talking about." The last was delivered in Kakashi's coldest voice, his one visible eye glaring. "I can train you to use techniques, but I cannot train you to think, not if you are so incompetent that you cannot bring yourself to try."

Kakashi stepped past Neji, who was frozen in place, his face remaining blank even as his hands clenched tight. He raised one hand, tapping the forehead protector he wore over his sharingan eye and looking at Sasuke, who nodded. The young Uchiha circled around the still-immobile Hyuga and moved a few feet away, dragging Tenten along with him. Then Kakashi, his back still turned, said, "Should you want training, you'll now have to earn it. Impress me. Show me the strength of your family. I'll keep my eye covered to preserve your limited techniques, although I've seen more than enough Hyuga fight to make your limited capabilities uninteresting." He turned and crossed his arms, narrowing his one visible eye and letting his tone of voice to rise slightly as if in mockery. "Begin when ready, or walk away, coward."

Neji nodded once, and Kakashi had to give him credit, the boy did not hesitate. He lunged forward, his eyes already active, fast for a first year yet impossibly slow against someone like Kakashi. Kakashi stepped back, a single step, rotating his body to evade each blow with minimal effort.

Sasuke watched with his sharingan activated, staring intently at both the fighters as his eyes took in every detail. Tenten looked fit to be sick, her eyes darting between combatants as if unsure who to cheer for. And Kakashi, after a full minute, took another step back to give himself just enough time to pull out his favorite book and flip it open. After a further two minutes, he started to parry instead of just evade, his arms spinning in a strange dance that seemed to match Neji's moves perfectly. "Kata will not suffice, Hyuga. I have seen all three hundred and twelve of the base kata of the Gentle Fist style. Try something new."

Neji managed to move even faster after that, but Kakashi's dance still matched his own perfectly, even without his sharingan exposed, even when Neji abandoned katas and began to improvise. Eventually Neji stopped, breath ragged and hair in disarray, glaring at the jonin, who stared back, his face showing only indifference, his breathing perfectly normal. "How can you be so good at my clan's style?" Neji demanded, cold fury raising his volume if not his tone.

Kakashi shrugged. "Impress me tomorrow, and I'll tell you. For today, you are dismissed."

Neji snarled, all the more terrible for the boy's previously unchanging face, and he turned and stormed away. Tenten raised her hand, took a step forward… then stopped. She hung her head and turned back to Kakashi, who was watching the departing Hyuga with a sad and knowing glint in his eye. "There but for my efforts you go, Sasuke. There is pride, arrogance, and above all, the terminal stupidity of a shinobi who, faced with an unstoppable foe, does not consider doing anything beyond charging blindly into the fray."

Sasuke nodded. The lesson was not lost on him.

"Say nothing about this to anyone, Sasuke. That, too, is part of the lesson I will be teaching him." Kakashi turned to Tenten, who was still looking down at the ground, her eyes slightly bright.

"Tenten?"

Tenten straightened to stand at attention, but her body language radiated fear.

"You have already impressed me. Faced with the choice between trying to comfort your crush," and she winced at that, just slightly, "and staying to learn from your temporary sensei, you did exactly what you should do, even if it hurt." He managed a smile, letting it travel all the way up to his eye to ensure she did not miss it because of his mask. "I am not unreasonable. I will not punish you for your teammate's folly. I do ask, however, that you say nothing to him about what we train during these sessions until he joins us in them. Understood?"

Tenten nodded.

"Then here is what you shall learn for today…"

Neji whirled, slapping out with his hands, snarling as Kakashi parried them with ease. "You'll never get anywhere with that," Kakashi said, eyes not leaving his book. "Maybe tomorrow. Dismissed."

Neji broke his kata, snapping out with a kick in the midst of a routine. Kakashi barely turned his head. "Your stance was broken," Kakashi said quietly, stepping forward to knock the boy down with a leg sweep. "It was obvious you were going to swap to a kick. Maybe tomorrow. Dismissed."

Neji lunged forward, both hands out, abandoning all pretense of defense for one single hopeful strike.

It had been a full week now. When doing team missions, Tenten had been desperate to talk about her training… and at the same time, desperate not to bring it up at all. Apparently, Kakashi and Sasuke were training her in some basic fire release jutsu. Kakashi had mentioned that her tool-heavy fighting style would be quite effective if if the right tools were used with the right sort of jutsu, and Training Ground Three was quickly gathering a series of large but shallow depressions of charred dirt from her practice.

Lee had shouted gleefully about the fires of youth in Tenten, then asked politely what Neji had learned. Neji had turned away and refused to talk, refused to look at Guy's face, which had a grave appearance whenever their eyes met.

Finally, at the end of the week, in the midst of the daily fight, Neji had enough. He lunged without any plan, just trying to hit Kakashi. Kakashi slapped aside his hand and then brought an elbow down on the boy's head hard, driving him to the ground. His face smashed into the dirt, grinding the filth into his smooth skin, and he lay there panting while Kakashi stood over him in judgement.

"You were careless. You dropped your defenses for an uncertain chance." Kakashi's voice was cold. "I am not impressed by suicide attempts, doubly so for ones that have no real chance of success, and I have seen far too many of my friends and allies die to that ridiculous notion. To think that such a pointless effort would impress me, just because it is you, Hyuga, is arrogance of the highest order."

Neji snarled and rose again, lashing out wildly. He never noticed the look on Tenten's face, on Sasuke's face. He never noticed the strange, reverberating sound, or the blue glow. He spun around, preparing another attack, then stopped dead.

"And arrogance kills."

The blue glow around Kakashi's arm faded, the birds stopped their chorus, and Kakashi's hand curled inward, snagging the neatly severed edge of Neji's forehead protector, pulling it away from his brow to reveal his family's Cursed Seal. Kakashi tossed the broken forehead protector to the ground.

"I know of that seal, Hyuga Neji. I know of the two branches in your family, the servants and the leaders, and how they are decided. And yes, I disapprove." Kakashi stepped back and lowered his arms. "Tell me, Neji, how many of your clansmen know this sealing technique?"

Neji's mind was frozen, unable to operate. He had felt the leather part under Kakashi's strike, had felt his hair sever from his temple, had felt the artificial breeze as the power of Kakashi's own creation, the infamous chidori, passed so close to his skin that it tingled with residual energy. Never before had he faced a foe who could kill him on a whim and had so clearly demonstrated it. After a few moments, Kakashi stepped forward and laid his hand, the same hand, on his shoulder.

"How many," said Kakashi, quiet as the grave.

"Three to six," said Neji, shocked. He shook his head, then looked up at Kakashi. "It depends on how far the apprentices for the main house have gotten in their training. The art of the seal is rare in our family, as it is in much of Konohagakure."

"If you wanted the practice of the Cursed Seal to end, and internal politics failed, how would you ensure that art was lost?"

"Kill them," Neji said, without hesitation.

"And if it came to that, could you take them with your family techniques?"

Neji opened his mouth to reply with hot and angry assurances, then snapped it shut. This man, this outsider, had flawlessly evaded him, without any clan training. Those who learned the sealing technique were highly placed in the clan, and generally old enough to have a great deal of experience.

"No."

Kakashi nodded. "Change does not happen when you follow people's expectations, but when you defy them. If you cannot match their experience in a Gentle Fist battle, you do not get into a Gentle Fist battle. And to do that, you need something other than the Gentle Fist. That is why Guy thought to send you to me for training."

Neji's mind was whirling with thoughts, options, considerations. Kakashi was right, if nothing else worked there was always the choice to trade his life to end the practice, but to do that, he'd have to strike with precision, speed, and surprise, or they would only turn his own seal against him. And the only way to do that and succeed would be to pick them off as an assassin, one at a time, in a manner they could not predict.

And then his thought process crashed completely as Kakashi leaned in and mumbled, "Did you check the area before publicly declaring a blood feud with your own clan?"

Neji stepped back, eyes widening as his byakugan activated and spinning in place to ensure that his tiny blind spot would be no hinderance. His eyes, veins bulging, took in every detail in every direction for a full fifty meters, looking through every rock and tree and leave, looking at every tiny speck of chakra. In the end, those few humans without his range appeared uninterested in them, and none were of his family or their more immediate allies.

"To assume nobody was listening, as you plotted murder, was arrogant. And arrogance kills. Thankfully, I was keeping an eye out for myself as well." Neji's mind swam, his eyes blurred, as he tried to regain his center. So many shocks, so quickly together, was disorienting, maddening, and he found himself having trouble just think about what to say or do.

"So," said Kakashi, his voice slowly becoming friendly, "how do you train against people who would use Gentle Fist against you?"

Neji just stared at Kakashi, unable to think under the weight of his confusion and anger and hurt pride. Kakashi laughed at the boy's bewildered face and gently pulled Neji around to face Sasuke. "You find a partner who can steal fighting styles, and show them how it works."

Sasuke took his cue. He had been expecting it, even though he and Kakashi had not discussed it previously. He bowed to Neji and started performing katas from the Gentle Fist style, the very ones he had watched Neji performing all week. Neji felt a sting in his heart, watching that thief as he used his stolen knowledge… and it hit him like a ton of bricks.

"You planned this in advance," he said, his mind clearing under the heat of his anger and shame. "You planned to humiliate me, to crush my spirit, to turn me against my family."

Kakashi shook his head, a negative. "I planned to humiliate you, to crush your spirit, so that if you ever had to turn against your family, you had a chance to succeed. You cannot climb above your current place if you cannot see the ladder above you."

Neji could not get his mind to work properly. He was awash in emotion, uncertain, and unable to return to the calm state he worked so hard to cultivate. Tenten walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder, and this time, when he looked at her, he did not see a sub-par fighter, jealous of his strength, but a friend, witnessing the pain of his weakness. He wondered how he had not seen that before.

He dropped to his knees and bowed deeply to Kakashi, his forehead resting on the cool dirt at his feet. "I am a fool for refusing your aid, and a fool for speaking poorly of you without knowing your capabilities. I ask you to teach me, Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi could not help himself. He giggled, just slightly. "A Hyuga asking for aid, from a position of overt weakness? I am impressed."

EDIT: Thank, Pom Rania, for the editing work.

Author's Note: I will not detail, just yet, the actual training they will do as a group. That will be a surprise for later.

Tenten was hard to write for me, mostly because of this particular setup. She is not meek, by any measure, but neither is she as headstrong and boisterous as, say, Naruto. In the end, she had little to say in this part, but she'll get her moment in due time.

And don't assume everything will turn out well for Neji. Every silver lining hides a black cloud.