Naruto 1. Chapter 1

Changing Stances

Chapter 1

By

Archerelf

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Author's Note:

Yeah, actually a new story. It's a new concept I thought of. What would happen if you took everyone out of their natural element, their natural teams? There might be pairings later on.

Oh please review?

--

Tsunade sighed and opened the door to her office. She strode forward, with the entirety of the chosen teams looking at her. Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto mingled near Kakashi, hardly talking. Ino, Shikamaru and Choji were chatting quiet, while the pleasingly plump one ate. Neji, Tenten and Lee were watching, Neji with pensive thoughtfulness and Lee with ill contained movement. Hinata was hiding behind Kiba and Shino, whose eyes were darting behind his shades. Kurenai, Yamato, and Gai were near the Fifth's desk. The room was unusually quiet.

Hinata looked forward. She could sense something was wrong. Kiba too. Akamaru was outside, playing with squirrels but he had pawed at Kiba's leg. That usually meant something was unsafe.

"Tsunade-shishou, what's this about?" Sakura's voice was deceptively calm, with a note of wonder in it. Tsunade held up her hand to silence her.

A thick folder laid upon her desk was the first thing she moved to. Quietly, she sat down and reviewed it for a moment. Everyone's eyes glanced about, save for a few: Neji's, Sasuke's and Kakashi's and that was because he was reading.

Neji was trying to analyze the situation. There was at least 15 people in the room. All the Genin. This was no mission. This was no coincidence. He didn't like not knowing what was going on. He found it rather annoying.

A few moments passed. Naruto deciding to break the deafening silence.

"Hey obaa-chan! What's this about!" Sakura rolled her eyes and clamped her hand over his mouth. Tenten couldn't agree more. She wanted to know why they were all there.

She rolled her eyes, stood up and sat on the front of her desk.

"There is a serious flaw in this room. I see Chunins and Jounins, and some ANBU and yet there's a big problem."

She reached over and grabbed the giant file on her desk. "This, is a list of all of the recent missions that all of the people under age 20 have gone on recently. Can anyone guess why I think you all need serious work?"

Neji stood up, annoyed. "Tsunade-sama if you feel we need work I'd like to point out that most missions are completed successfully."

Glaring, she snapped, "Stow it Hyuuga." He gave a respectful bow and backed off with an irritated expression. Her face lightened for a moment.

"Actually, Neji brings up a good point. Most missions are completed successfully. Most are. The ones I see the great variables in are those where I switch up your teams. Basically put, you seem to have trouble with anyone but your original genin team. There are of course, some exceptions. Sakura is a full-fledged medic nin, Ino is an apprentice. Neither of you are exempt from this exercise however."

Sakura rubbed her temples, hoping to ward off an oncoming headache. It didn't work. Tsunade felt her pain. She was going out for a few stiff drinks after this.

She sighed and hoped this was a good decision.

"I'm temporarily rearranging your genin teams."

A shockwave of disbelief and anger hit the room. Everyone began talking except for Sasuke who stood, arms folded with a pissed off frown. Even Kakashi took his head out of his book.

"Shut up! Each day, you will train with them a minimum of three hours, under the supervision of Kakashi, Yamato, Gai or Kurenai. They will report back to me at the conclusion of the week. This exercise will last at least a month. Any missions you are assigned to you will take with your new team. If I choose to add another member that is by my own discretion. This will last at least a month."

She knew she was never going to get full approval from anyone.

"You are allowed limited training time with your old teams, though what you do in your spare time is up to you. I promise you, you won't have much."

She set the folder down and looked around wearily. "Choosing the new teams was a hell of a time. I was sure to avoid any obvious bombs." She threw scathing glances at Neji and Sasuke.

"Ino, Kiba and Naruto, you are one team. Kakashi will be supervising you." Naruto let out a loud cry. "You're sticking me with dog boy?!" Kiba responded in kind, "You're leaving me with this hyperactive idiot?"

With a sickening crunch, Tsunade's desk now bore a scar of the times, a fist shaped marking. "Can it, the both of you! Naruto, I gave you Kakashi because he seems to be the only one who can control that mouth. And Kiba, you will both work together with Ino, is that understood?"

She got sour looks. That meant yes.

"Sakura, Shino and Neji. You three are the second team, to be headed up by Gai."

Lee looked terrified. "Hokage-sama! You're separating me from Gai-sensei?!"

"What I said to Kiba and Naruto applies to you. We all have to do this. You included."

Neji stepped forward. "I have no large objections with them."

"Meaning you do have objections?" muttered Tsunade.

"Nothing major, Hokage-sama. I could have been stuck with worse…" He let the sentiment trail off. His glance was Team 7's way. Neji clearly thought they were the biggest waste of time. One traitor, one girl, and one idiot. Sakura sent him a scathing look. Perfect, just what she needed. A repeat of her old team, with one silent and the other one cocky. Just great.

"Yeah, Hyuuga? Just for that, I might just let Sakura beat you through a wall." She cleared her throat and started to move on. She didn't get far.

"Esteemed Hokage-sama! I shall take these three under my wing and let them blossom in teamwork and youth and…" She cut him off there.

"I get it. Next team. Hinata, Lee and Shikamaru. You three are headed up by Kurenai. Hopefully Lee's over exuberance will counter Shikamaru's laziness and Hinata's shyness."

"I shall take it as a personal mission Hokage-sama!"

"Lee, I said to can it. I mean it. That means the final team is Tenten, Sasuke and Choji. You three are going to be supervised by Yamato. I know known of you has any experience with him but he is well experienced."

"You. Cannot. Be Serious." Sasuke ground out the words like poison. No way was he working with anyone but his original team. This was so degrading. It was an insult to his talent and his team's.

"See, you I expected this from. Can you do anything about it? No. It's part of your probation. You skip this, you go to jail. Under ANBU guard in D block." She sent him a smirking smile. He was nearly seething.

"You couldn't have given me a team worth my time?" He shot back, glaring. Sakura got worried. He didn't deal well with others.

Yeah, actually that was an understatement. He only had really tolerated them, Sakura, Naruto and Kakashi.

Tenten and Chouji stepped forward, incensed.

"We aren't worth your time?" Tenten hissed. How dare he? They had proved themselves in previous years. Who was he to question it? He hadn't even been here. Neji, sensing her discomfort, put a warm hand on her arm.

"I'm not going to repeat myself." Chouji stepped forward. "How are you even worth our time? How do we know you won't run away again?" Quicker than lightening, Sasuke appeared behind Chouji with his signature kusanagi to Chouji's throat. No one had even blinked. Kakashi appeared at Sasuke's side, his book aside.

"Yo, you kill him, you go to jail anyway."

Sasuke sheathed his sword and walked back to his place besides Sakura.

Sakura took the floor in front of Tsunade's desk.

"Sensei, this is clearly a bad idea. Sasuke-kun could have just killed Chouji. Clearly, we aren't all going to get along. The personalities are all wrong. Even as Genin we had years to get used to each other and each other's techniques. In order to do it in a month, it's nothing short of impossible. No one while like this and attitude affects training. Not to mention other work. I have hospital rounds, Ino has medic training and her shop. Shikamaru works in the school. Sensei….I can't pretend to see your logic in this. It's a good idea but there are too many cons to it."

"You present a good argument. Clear, concise, as always. But there are too many risks not to. You need to work together. Not casually. I realize that this is no walk in the park. However, there is going to be no whing about it. You can't switch teammates or sensei's. Not without adequate cause. Work through it. There wil be consequences otherwise.

If you pull down your team intentionally, I will make sure that you will suffer, for the next year minimum. Dismissed."

Before they could move, Sakura put her hands blocking Sasuke and Naruto. "Meet me at my house at six. We have a lot to talk about." She shot a look at Kakashi, who simply shrugged.

"Why are you giving me the death glare?"

"You obviously knew. How could you not know? None of you were surprised in the least."

"We couldn't tell you. Not my fault." She turned her attention back to her teammates, who obviously weren't happy.

"Just meet me there." She insisted urgently. They both nodded wearily.

Ino had a similar reaction. "Go, to the Korean barbeque place in an hour. Our usual booth, okay?"

Shikamaru let off a, "Troublesome." But he nodded his head and Chouji never said no to Korean BBQ.

Kiba engaged his team as soon as they hit the front door.

"I can't believe she's going to do this! We've not been split up since our Genin days. Not for more than a week at least. What do you think Shino?"

"A learning experience. A medic and a prodigy. Should be interesting."

"Hinata?"

"I don't know. I hope it turns out alright." She was worried alright, how did they intend to work with others? It was disaster waiting to happen.

--

Sakura opened her door promptly at 6 and let Sasuke in. Naruto still trailed.

"Look. There's no changing her mind. I tried for hours. We have to do it. Sasuke, I will not see you go back in jail. Naruto, try to get along with Kiba and Ino. They aren't as bad as you think." She sighed. Her headache didn't go away at all. "What do you guys think?"

"It's an insult to stick me with them. An overweight idiot who can't stop stuffing his face and a girl with no real attacks. Might as well stick me with three year olds."

"I tried to get you both switched but she wouldn't budge. Who knows, maybe you could train them harder? Is it worth it to go to jail? And Naruto, you have an idea of what Kiba is like to work with, you fought him in the original exams…"

"Are we still going to meet after training for ramen?" Naruto asked, quietly.

"Sure." Sakura smiled but there was minimal joy behind it.

--

Away in the Hyuuga compound both Neji and Hinata were trying to meditate. Neither of them succeded. Neji kept smirking. At least he had two relatively smart people on his team. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

Hinata gave up and tried to read. Their first meeting was the next day and she didn't want to have Tsunade mad at her.

--

Ino sighed as she closed up shop. She thought back to her conversations with her teammates. Shikamaru agreed that some form of familiarity with other people's abilities was essential, even if it was 'troublesome'. Chouji had a condition. No one could call him fat. He was 'pleasingly plump' or big boned. She sighed again.

There was no way Sasuke wasn't going to tell it like it was. Chouji was going to try to kill him. Like that could ever happen. Sasuke was easily the best ninja out of them. But Sakura was right. There was no way that Sasuke and Chouji, and even TenTen were going to get along.

Maybe Neji and Sakura and Shino would get along. She didn't like this idea. At all.

--

Tsunade sighed and took another shot. She hoped this was a good idea.

-

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Read and Review??

Please?


	2. Chapter 2

Changing Stance

Chapter 2

By

Archerelf

* * *

Author's note: Yeah, last chapter I said Sasuke has a kusanagi, he actually has a chokuto…sorry…

* * *

Sasuke was having a staring contest with himself. The slivery glass showed his reflection perfectly: spiky black hair, dark eyes, and pale skin, eyebrows furrowed into a perpetual stoical expression. Stoic mixed with anger. Rage, he was full of. He had always been one to fly off the handle but usually it had to be good, otherwise it was a waste of his time. He looked downwards toward his feet. The moonlight was playing with his already milky skin. His bare calloused hands softened, even momentarily. He was sick of himself already.

Leaving a messy bed behind him, he stalked into his kitchen. He was running low on food. Again. Sasuke weighed the options of going out to get something in the morning. Oh wait, it was morning. 12:35 shown on the clock. He was too….something to sleep. Incensed? Depressed? Insulted? Whatever the reason was, it didn't matter. He was used to small amounts of sleep anyway. He just thought of it as more training.

The thought of the Hokage's edict put him into a mental tizzy. No matter what angle he thought of it at, there was no upside to this. Sakura was right, there were too many things that could go wrong with it. Too many variables. He collapsed back onto his bed, still irritated. He thought of himself and who he was stuck with. The girl who followed in Neji's footsteps had designed her own attacks based on his strengths and weaknesses. They said her accuracy was legendary. That remained to be seen of course. And the fat blob. A bloated butterfly? That was a laugh.

If Sasuke had ever gotten that unhealthy, his father would have starved him for months to bring his weight down. Even now, he adhered to a strictly healthy diet. It worked out for him anyway, simple traditional meals with no real sugar. Getting back to his mental tirade, he scanned the ceiling. It looked the same as before. His logical side brought up another point. Then there was that Yamato freak. Another one of Orochimaru's experiments gone bad. Infused with the DNA of the first Hokage, that was nothing to scoff at though. The First's strength was legendary. Though if he tried to bond with Sasuke, or talk to him about his time with the snake freak, Sasuke swore he'd put a well placed Chidori right through Yamato's experimental heart.

Sasuke thought of his teammates, his real teammates. Sakura, Naruto, and even Kakashi. Sakura's team was of Hyuuga Neji and the bug kid, Shino. This thought was reoccurring and jabbing, the thought of Sakura being on a team with that pretentious, sanctimonious hippie who thought he had an edge up on the Sharingan. It was more of the user itself that vaguely sent a convulsion through his stomach. Neji was too cocky, too sure and too damn smug for his own good. Ignoring the 'pot and kettle' thoughts, he focused on the other one.

Shino. Always hidden, with more than a million bugs crawling inside of his body. The thought was sickening. Allowing hundreds of thousands of bugs to dwell inside of your body. Everywhere. Surrounding your skin, heart, head. Pets or not, it was repulsive. There had to be a level of the unsanitary about it as well.

From what he knew, both Hyuuga and Shino were smart and practical. He hoped it would be good for her. She should fit in fine. There was a matter of the over exuberant idiot who claimed to be Kakashi's rival. That was funny, considering that Kakashi could beat him with one hand tied behind his back. He smirked thinking of it. At least she could heal herself if she got hurt. Though, he could think of a better place to put that chakra scalpel of hers.

Naruto had been placed with the annoying Yamanaka girl, who had clung to Sasuke like a plague and the idiot who depended solely on his mutt. At least Kakashi would be supervising them. Actually, that too was funny; he'd probably be reading the whole time. All three seriously needed someone to gag them. He was used to the dobe's speeches about becoming Hokage and his way of the ninja. What would be more than a constant irritant was the screechy Ino-pig, as Sakura called her, and smelly mutt.

They needed serious lessons in meditation. He had vaguely considered ripping out or paralyzing their voice boxes, but he'd end up in jail for sure.

He had to watch himself. One false step and one bruised bottom too many and the blob and twittering girl would have the Hokage chuck him in maximum security, ANBU guarded, rat infested, psycho surrounded, hellfire-was-on-the-breakfast-menu prison. The block for treason and traitors was particularly notorious. He really had no desire to visit it. She had picked that block for two reasons; it would be harder to break out there. Not impossible, but hard.

His training with Orochimaru had brought him some useful skills after all. He could pick a lock in under 15 seconds, could break out of a guarded cell and could hit any target in the room blindfolded and with his ears blocked. The other reason Tsunade so tactfully brought it up was to subtly remind him that he was there for the sheer purpose of whim. Hers.

He didn't really see how they considered him treason or traitorous in the first place. He had had a goal in the first place. He told everyone about the goal. If anything, he gave them set notice. He set out, and then he filled it.

No shame in that. He had to kill the thing that kept him attached to his family. He was considering selling the estate. He didn't know what to do with it.

In the time he had missed a couple of funerals, a couple of births and big announcements. Did Sasuke really care about any of them? Nah.

12:59.

Simply awesome. It was always his dream of staying up all night obsessing over something trivial.

He pulled on a shirt and went outside to meditate.

* * *

Yamato sighed in relief as all three members of the newly formed team took the field. He didn't want to have to go to the different houses of the three shinobi. He especially didn't want to have to drag Sasuke, but apparently, the threat of prison was enough to get him motivated. It could have been something else that got him there, or someone. He didn't know and didn't frankly care.

When he woke up, he knew it was going to be a bad day. The day was overcast and looked like rain, and he had no real interest of being there. But he was technically 'on a mission' and only laziness and a sense of duty really prevented him from walking back home.

He really hadn't expected Sasuke to show. His temper was legendary, second only to his skills. He really hadn't expected less of the Uchiha clan. First hand reports said Itachi had been a real piece of work. Oh well, now he was dead and the only reason Sasuke wasn't dead or imprisioned was because of that fact.

The girl was leaning up against a tree, accompanied by a scroll that was almost as big as she was. Oh yes, the weapons mistress. And the other one….eating. Again. They'd been there a grand total of five minutes and he was on his third bag of chips?

"Girl and fat one, front and center." Sasuke almost laughed; so he wasn't the only one who thought that the other kid needed a diet.

Immediately the flames went up in Chouji's eyes.

"I'M NOT FAT, I'M PLEASINGLY PLUMP!" he roared.

"No, you're clinically obese." Yamato stated with a sigh. Chouji, enraged, started to charge the older ninja. A few quick hand signs and Chouji was in a wooden cage with a deadly spike pointing only inches away from his neck.

"Look, if I'm looking over you three, there will be changes. I gotta report to the Hokage at the end of the week and she needs to see," he put his fingers in quotation marks, "improvements."

Tenten had been watching the display quietly. She had seen Chouji blow up over his weight before but no one had ever really had him on a diet. No one besides Ino had tried.

"You two, show me what you got. I want to get a sense of what I'm working with here. So, you two," he said while pointing at Tenten and Chouji, "then you two," pointing at Sasuke and Tenten, "and then you two", he said while pointing at Sasuke and Tenten.

"There will be a break in between the battles. And the limits of this battle are the tree areas."

Sasuke watched as Chouji and stepped forward. He could sense nervousness radiating off the boy. Could he really be afraid of that girl? Apparently so. She had a more hardened expression on her face, a mix of determination and….disgust? Interesting.

"Go."

With a bite of her thumb and a simple poof, Tenten was suddenly armed to the teeth with weaponry. Chouji's eyes expanded wide.

He wasn't prepared for this…maybe Tsunade was right…if anyone like her ever came after him like this again, he wouldn't be as completely screwed as he was now.

And completely screwed he was.

Chouji knew he was partially the weakest link on the team. He wasn't great at taijutsu or genjutsu, in fact, he only really ever used his enlarging techniques. From what he could tell, Sasuke was, well, great at everything and at least Tenten could do hand-to-hand taijutsu along with her weapons. If he lived through this match, he would have to take on a prodigy…

A barrage of curse words forced their way back down his throat as Tenten shifted out of sight and looked down as she fell from the sky with a load of kunai aimed straight for her opponent. Once he had moved out of the way in time, a giant Fuuma Shuriken went whizzing straight for his head.

Sasuke almost started laughing. She had him pinned almost anyway he went.

Chouji started with the handseals for his Multi-size technique. Once enlarged to more than twice his size, he tried to take swipes at Tenten. It didn't exactly work. One time, she narrowly missed and hit the dirt hard. But that was more luck on Chouji's side. He didn't really know how to attack someone who wasn't used to big sized battle.

After ten minutes of Chouji being abused by the weapons mistress, Yamato called it off.

Why did they stick him with this team? Why? He could have dealt with the smart team of Shino, Sakura and Neji.

"You both need work," he commented dryly. Tenten gave a slight bow of respect but in actuality, she was perturbed. She was used to more unending praise on the part of Gai and Lee…maybe this is what a real team was supposed to be like? She picked up a good number of her weapons and went to sit down by a tree.

"Uchiha," she called out. He looked up in mild interest. "Go all out."

He gave a sort of snorting huff. "You'd be dead within ten minutes."

She shot him a scathing glare but actually, she wanted to see what the famed wonder boy could do. It had been a miniature brain block but then she quickly reminded herself that this was the man who has taken down S class Criminals.

Yamato sighed again.

"Uchiha. During the course of the upcoming battles you can't kill anyone, or permanently maim them. And you aren't allowed to exceed ten minutes."

"Might as well take out all the fun out of it," Sasuke replied sarcastically.

Chouji's stomach dropped into a weak pit. He'd be killed.

Tenten once again summoned her giant swarms of weapons. Sasuke just stood lazily in the center of the ring.

"I'm used to keeping up with Lee's speed. You know, the one you copied from him."

What was she talking about? Oh, the green spandex freak.

"Don't lie, you're not good at it. I was always under the impression that you couldn't keep up with them so you and the white eyed freak trained separately."

Tenten's heart sank. He knew…not to mention, he had insulted her and Neji all in one.

She was used to seeing the Byakugan but the Sharingan was different. Then again, he didn't actually activate his bloodline trait.

"I'm not good enough to fight with your Sharingan?" she taunted sarcastically.

"No." Tenten was struck by his arrogance. In her frustration, she started throwing weapons like no tomorrow, and less than a ¼ of a second later, he disappeared from view and from the second the last kunai left her hand, a sword was being pressed up against her throat. His signature chokuto was sharpened to a deadly point and in any other situation she would have been dead. Then again, he couldn't kill. And that was just such a pain.

It was at that moment that she really couldn't see two things; how Sakura could like that man, or how much trouble their team was in.

He was close enough so that she could smell his musky scent. Confidence rolled off him in waves, as did a distinct afterthought of something incredibly dangerous. She didn't know how the newest medic nin could like him. At all. Warmth of a polar bear, sharpness of ice slivers.

Sakura had to be nuts. Naruto as well. Sasuke was clearly out of his mind.

Chouji shuddered. He had been on the receiving end of Sasuke's sword in the Hokage's office yesterday. It wasn't pleasant.

Yamato stepped in gingerly.

"I've seen what I have to. Go on home."

It had only been twenty minutes or so.

"The Hokage said we had to train a minimum of 3 hours a day. Otherwise, she'd make our lives hell for the next year. Trust me, I'd rather go through the training," called Tenten.

Yamato sighed. Again. He'd been doing that in increasing amounts since the start of the session.

"Clearly you three are on different levels."

Tenten raised a thin eyebrow. "Yes, and that's how we all started off in our original genin teams, on different levels. Then we learned teamwork."

"I only see one clear obstacle with that," Yamato said and pointed glared toward Sasuke.

"So, I'm clearly your biggest roadblock and whether I decided to play nice depends on the success here." Sasuke shot the words carefully. He ground his teeth together on the word, 'nice'.

"Basically."

"I'm going to jail." Sasuke turned and started to walk away.

"Ugh! How do they PUT UP with YOU?" Tenten was livid. "You're cocky, arrogant and a gigantic pain! Instead of sucking it up like the rest of us, you decide to make it harder for everyone! How hard it must be for you to mingle with us commoners again! You know, technically, you're still a genin! We outrank you!" she sneered.

"And obviously trying to insult me will change my mind." He kept walking. "If you were referring to my real teammates, we get along fine. It's talent-less, useless people like you who aren't fit to be real ninja." All of this said with a straight face and all of it pent up from his old genin days. He considered it though. He actually was still a genin. Only in name however, he decided, he was good enough to surpass jounin. At least.

"No, it's ninja like you who give the rest of us a bad name," spoke up Chouji. "Yeah you're good, but what happens when you're all alone and outnumbered? Then you need other people to bail you out. I don't like you. I can only think of three people who do like you. But unfortunately, the Hokage is right. She gave you the choice of jail. We weren't so lucky. But instead of walking around with a stick shoved up your butt, why don't you try to train us, if we're so bad."

Yamato looked mildly amused. "I'd like to see that."

Sasuke stopped. It was an interesting proposition. So either he got to break them mentally, or physically. Awesome. He turned to face the two of them.

"Remember that you asked for this, not the other way around. I still have no qualms about sitting in prison all day." He turned to Yamato, "How far am I allowed to go?"

"You can't kill either of them, and I have veto power if I think you're going overboard." Sasuke's signature smirk came out, clear as sunshine. He was CLEARLY going to have loads of fun with this. He hadn't felt this good since…well…that time in the Chunin exams when he snapped the Sound boy's arms off.

"Fine. Then we start tomorrow."

"Wait, now where are you going?" called Chouji.

"Someone has to tell the Hokage." This was said with a hint of smugness.

When he was out of earshot, Chouji defeatedly turned to Tenten, and muttered, "Yeah, he's just trying to skip out on practice."

* * *

Shizune was surprised to see the pale youth gliding toward the Hokage's office. Honestly, the kid was like a vampire. She'd be seeing him in her nightmares.

Shizune opened the door and announced his presence. Tsunade sighed. Everyone just wanted to piss her off didn't they?

"Whadja want Uchiha, I'm busy."

"My team requested that I take over their training."

"And you intend to do it?" She was surprised. Shocked even. He nodded once.

"And Yamato is okay with this?"

He nodded affirmation once again.

"Well, it's better than you killing them all."

"I had considered it, but it wasn't worth my time." He said it with a straight face. Amazing. The Hokage truly wondered if he had emotions or not.

"Do it, but fulfill the hours. I expect both you and Yamato to report to me at the end of the week. And no killings, else you face the executioners block. Now get out, I'm busy."

Once he had left, it struck Tsunade that she never asked him why he was doing it. She didn't know. She just felt partially bad for his team. If his strength and temper were indicative of his position as teacher, they'd be dead and fried by the end of the week.

* * *

Please read and review? Next chapter will focus on one of the other teams, most likely.


	3. Chapter 3

Changing Stances

By

Archerelf

-

author's note: Sorry for the lateness and the spell errors….I'm burnt out…..

No flames please, if you don't like it, then don't read it.

--

Sakura hit the snooze button on her alarm clock as soon as it when off at 8:00 in the morning. She just did not want to get up. Nobody could really blame her either. It was Monday. She had a training stint (3 hours!) to go to today, and instead of seeing Naruto and Sasuke, or even Sai and Yamato, she got to see Hyuuga Neji and Aburame Shino.

Two boys who she knew almost nothing about. And now she got to try to beat them up for three hours. Well, every job has its perks. But then after that, she got to go to the hospital until nightfall at least.

Sakura did not like this idea at all and she had already vocally expressed her concerns. Tsunade didn't actually seem to care about the possible ramifications. What Sakura was least happy about were the two people she got stuck with. If anything, Shino and Neji were two of the smarter ones in the whole Rookie 9 but with bigger intelligence comes bigger ego and less willingness to compromise.

The clock now read 8:15. She pulled herself out of bed and traveled downstairs for food.

The whole thing was wrong. Tsunade was pulling apart teams that had become like families to each other. Sakura knew that Naruto and Sasuke were her support group. Kakashi made the list too, even. Sai, not so much. He had too much a tendency to insult her, even if he meant well, and generally, he and Naruto never worked well together.

Now that Sasuke was back…well, Sakura would rather not remember that particularly busy night that she nearly had to reattach two legs, an eye, and five of the seven wrist bones. Sait let slip a comment about Sasuke and Sakura just stood by with the medical equipment. It took Yamato, Naruto and Kakashi combined to pull them off each other.

Then again, it's not like she disliked being a doctor at all. It made her feel useful, because some people are always going to get hurt. Take Naruto, for example. He got healed more often by Sakura than almost anyone else she had ever seen.

Tsunade often spoke of how proud she was of her, which no other student had taken to medical jutsu like she had. Ino was in the same program, just much further behind. Sakura liked medicine. There were very few people in the village that knew how to wield a chakra blade. It was such a change from her Genin days.

She couldn't work under pressure back then. Years of training under a fierce, powerful sensei had to get used to a intense atmosphere. Some days, she almost wished for an emergency, blasphemously, to get her heart racing and the chakra flowing.

Sakura slipped upstairs and pulled on her clothes.

8:30. She had an hour and a half to kill.

--

Long before Sakura had even left REM sleep, Neji was up and meditating. He found it more relaxing than sleep and when done right, almost more invigorating. Usually, he beat the maids to waking up and most of his other family. Branch AND Main House, thank you very much. Hinata would sleep until 8 or so. He was willing to let her sleep as long as she didn't mutter the occasional, "…Naruto" in her sleep. That was a habit he preferred she'd break.

Neji's mouth twisted into a little smirk. He was actually looking forward today to training with Aburame Shino and Haruno Sakura. Both were intelligent and capable. He wanted a bit of a change from the usual routine. Not that he wanted to fully get rid of his team, but a small vacation would be nice.

So. He got the medic and the bug user, an interesting combination. Almost all of the Rookie 9 had seen Sakura in action already, most had gone to the hospital after missions at one point or another.

Now, he got to see her famous ground punching skills and chakra precision. Shino, now that was an interesting character.

He allows thousands of bugs access to his body and systems and systematically draws them forth and has them suck the chakra from other sources. Fascinating. Not to mention a little creepy, but every good ninja has their drawbacks.

He decided to go eat. Can't try to block the chakra points of others without some nourishment.

-

They all arrived at about the same time, Neji leaning against a tree, Shino with his hands in his pockets and Sakura looking anxious. She could already hear the other grounds full of life. She just felt nauseous. Easily mistaken for butterflies in stomach. She sighed, knowing that there was no way out of this.

She had spent most of her night coming up with reasons why it shouldn't happen. Of course, she had already outlined most of the reasons in her head and to the Godaime.

They spent a good five minutes in silence, awkwardly looking at each other back and forth.

"Just waiting on Gai-sensei then?" Sakura offered. No one said anything. It was better than complete silence. She was used to the playful banter of her team and not hearing it just felt odd. She was so attuned to Kakashi sensei randomly interjecting comments, Naruto's yelling, Sasuke's smirking and while she thought getting a vacation from it might calm her nerves, but she wasn't usually wrong.

This time, she was. Neji looked at her like she was idiot, and Shino didn't move. She was beginning to wonder if he was still alive on that tree.

Shino stood in silence as per usual. He usually did. Kiba was undoubtedly the loudest person there. Hinata barely made a peep and Shino just liked his quiet. Then Kurenai would show up, announce the day's activates and they'd get to work. Shino usually liked his team. Hinata was dependable and loyal, if a bit shy, and Kiba was fierce and funny, not unlike Naruto.

Now, he was with the moody Hyuuga and the happy medic. He wasn't unhappy with the choices; it would just take some getting used to. To be honest, Shino didn't care much about the edict of the Hokage. He knew something like this would happen to disrupt the teams and such.

He was a ninja, and was used to such change.

Gai, on the other hand, was doing something that wasn't very ninja-like: he was reading profiles about his new pupils and running on rooftops at the same time. He knew he was late, but his morning jog around Konoha ran a littler later than he thought.

He cursed his lateness, promising more laps later and wondered how his protégé was doing. He knew that Lee would be fine in another group, but he had no idea what he was getting himself into with his current one.

The possibilities intrigued him; the Godaime's first apprentice and the boy from the Aburame clan. He was working with all chakra based nins. Neji, he was used to training, just not on the same level as Lee. He knew that he'd end up training Sakura similar to Lee: with her strength, she could do so much more than she was working at now.

He was looking forward to Sakura, he had heard she was kind, but took after the Godaime: fierce temper with a sucker punch to match.

Of course, with Tenten, he was used to specializations, which is basically what he was doing again for that Shino kid.

Gai landed neatly and put his trademark smile and stance to work. Sakura managed a weak smile, but Neji remained expressionless. He was used to Gai's eccentricities. Shino was intrigued but didn't show it. He wondered what he could do with his own bug abilities. He had seen the Chunin exams and expected much of Neji, Lee and Tenten.

Gai sighed; he missed Lee's chipper.

He looked on the new kids: one looked bored, the other seemed nervous. Oh well, time to break the ice.

"Neji, I've seen what you can do, so for now, just warm up. Sakura and Shino, attack me."

"What?" Sakura asked, floored. She was taken back to the bell exercise with Kakashi. Well that wasn't a first for her, she had been told attack Kakashi before. But she never really got over the fact they were asking her to punch her trainers into oblivion.

"I said, attack me. Don't pull punches, I'm a Jounin, I can handle it." He flashed his signature smile and jumped back two hundred feet.

Sakura turned to Shino, mystified. Pulling out her gloves she quipped, "Well, he said not to hold back." Shino nodded and smiled. He had an idea. Of course, no one would be able to tell, with all the facial coverings he had on.

Gai looked from across the field: Shino was whispering something to Sakura. Her face remained passive, most likely to throw Gai off. He was ready for a challenge.

"GO!"

Sakura immediately took the offensive, and charged. She started to zigzag quickly and disappeared from the visible spectrum. Gai immediately jumped and went into a spinning kick to deflect her. In her hands were senbons, tips gleaming with some sort of unmentionable substance. Once those were thrown, and deflected, kunai and shuriken took their place.

Sakura immediately thought back to what Shino had told her. "Remember the Chunin exams? I'm going to place several bugs on you. Make knick in his skin and we can go from there."

She immediately understood his intent. All she had to do was get close enough to make a cut on his skin and Shino's bugs would instinctively take over.

The battle between them went on for another ten minutes or so. She felt like she was sparring with Lee again because Gai and Lee had all the same habits.

She felt uneasy about the bugs, she could feel them on her shoulder. Sakura couldn't tell how Shino got used to them.

Neji looked from the side at Shino and again at Sakura. He seemed bored stiff and he was making Sakura do all the work. She was chasing Gai up and down the entire field. Neji oscillated his head at Shino, who didn't seem perturbed. A large boom snapped his head back into focus.

Sakura had made a dent in the earth that could easily house the foundations of Hokage Tower. Tsunade would have been proud.

She was getting tired. The sun was beating down on her and frankly, she wanted to end the battle. Gai was a marvelous strategist and he knew that she was getting tired.

She channeled her chakra into her hands to make chakra scalpels. In a move Naruto might consider cheating, she elbowed Gai in the throat and made two long slices down his arms. The bugs immediately jumped off her and imbedded themselves in the wound.

Gai hadn't actually expected her to play dirty, but he couldn't fault her for it. He couldn't remember how many times he had defeated an enemy or stared down a nin and had to resort to some tactic that would have made one of his teammates cringe.

He cringed as he felt their bodies moving inside his arms. He felt positively sick by it.

He put up his bleeding wrists as a sign of peace and they both landed. By now, many Shino's bugs had flocked to the bloodshed and the wound was full of black.

Both Neji and Shino calmly walked over. Sakura grimaced.

"Call off the bugs."  
"Why?"

"I have to clean the wound and I can't do that with a thousand legs in the way."

Slowly, the critters gathered in his hands in streams. Black, crawly streams. Ew.

Neji looked on in interest. He appreciated Sakura's ability already. Appreciated is the key word because he rarely liked people. Shino was still a mystery. He had style though, Neji had to admit.

Gai looked a bit pale. He actually hadn't expected to bleed, but he was proud of her already. She was sort of like Tenten, but had a more substantial right hook.

"I'm sorry, Sensei." Sakura fired the chakra back up in her hands and went over the wounds. They zipped up neatly and left only a small pink mark in his torn sleeves. Gai frowned, he never had any students apologize to him for harming him.

When she was done, she stepped back respectfully.

"Believe it or not, I had an inkling that you were going to do that. I was at the Chunin Exams too," he said bemused. He thought back to the complicated time.

"Shino. You never do any physical combat do you? We'll have to work on that." He turned to face his other pupil.

"Sakura. You are a testament to Tsunade's training, but we still have a while to go."

"Neji. What do you think?" Sakura rolled her eyes and Shino internally groaned. Neji was a perfectionist first and a genius second. Both of them knew whatever he said would probably be riddled with complaints or snide remarks.

Neji opened his mouth and then focused his prized eyes on his new teammates expressions. Sakura's was of mild disapproval.Shino's was unperceivable.

Neji was confused. He wasn't used to being looked down upon. He had endured taunts only once and a while. He then took it upon himself to 'teach' them why they called him a prodigy. Most of the time people just admired him. Tenten was like that, and Lee's cheer and constant support made this change odd. Exceedingly so.

"Sakura needs help with her stamina and Shino should probably learn some actual combat skills."

Sakura wasn't surprised in the least. Nothing he said was new to her. Girls naturally have less stamina than guys; that was Tsunade's first lesson. The second was to make the most of what she did have, hence the craters in the ground.

Shino snorted when he heard of what Neji proposed. He never did any real combat. He wondered if he still knew how to throw shuriken and kunai properly.

"However, both have exceptional chakra control."

Sakura perked up at the rare compliment. Gai smiled.

"I personally think that Tsunade put you three together for a reason. All of you have best chakra control of the 'Rookies'. But you can all learn something from each other. Shino, I want to train you further in combat. Sakura, you have to further stamina levels. Neji, you have to work on your interpersonal skills. There's also something else I think you can learn from these two. That you'll have to figure out for yourself."

Neji bristled.  
"I'm a Jounin, what else can I learn from Chunin?"

"You're not as infallible as you think you are," Sakura called softly. She crossed her hands in front of her and both started to glow a light green. "Can you tell which is the scalpel?" She asked.

With difficulty, Neji shook his head. Just once.

"Or did you happen to see the few bugs on your shoulder?" Her hands stopped glowing. "I think I know the lesson that Gai-sensei wants you to learn. It was one that took my team a while too. Rank doesn't matter."

Neji was slightly shaken even if he didn't want to admit it. He often prided himself on being the best in whatever he did. He did recognize that there are those who smarter than he is, but those were few and far between. "I doubt that. In this system rank is everything."

Sakura closed her eyes and shook her head. "And suddenly it all makes sense why she put us together."

She had to concede that he was right to a certain point. In the system that they had, the missions went to those on certain levels. The Jounin exams were coming up in half a year, and Sakura knew Tsunade would recommend her. But rank wasn't always indicative of skill. Technically both Neji and Sasuke were on ANBU level. Sasuke especially. But the exams could be tricky. Sometimes the smallest things could trip you up, or you could get by on sheer dumb luck.

Some people like Iruka-sensei could have tested higher probably but just didn't want to. He had found his calling teacher younger ninja generations.

Gai watched the scene unfold with interest. All three were defensive with each other. Sakura, normally the peace maker decided to take a more personal role in her new team, one that shouted that she wouldn't be stepped on anymore. Neji was most defensive about his tentative position of captain.

He knew he was good, but he also knew that he was with people as skilled with chakra as he was. Not to mention, he was sort of annoyed that he couldn't find immediate weaknesses of his new team. Shino, as usual was staying back, and Gai couldn't figure out how he would interact.

"Okay! To start, 50 laps around the city!"

All three got up and took off without complaint. Shino and Sakura were evenly matched for speed.

Shino detested running. He always got tired easily and it seemed like a pointless waste. All that energy lost going in circles.

Sakura didn't mind the laps as much. It reminded her back in her Genin days to the training exercises. Kakashi had modified the bell exercise to involve stealth, so the two without the bell would take off after the solo one. That had been sporadic with occasional bursts of speed. She fell into a rhythm soon. But time would be against them. Konoha wasn't exactly small, so the laps took most of their training time. Neji ended a full five minutes ahead of them.

On her way around she heard shouts of Rasengan and saw fire spewing. She missed her boys. It just wasn't the same.

Shino similarly heard the barks of Akamaru and bursts of Hinata's chakra. They knew him better than anyone. Kurenai-sensei had guided him through a boot camp of sorts, as she had with all of them. Hinata had needed special care but she was better off today because of it. Shino could just imagine Akamaru and Kiba spiraling towards an invisible, while Hinata blocked the chakra points of another.

He gazed sideways. Sakura seemed nice enough, and she made it clear that she wasn't going to be bullied into submission. He would have expected nothing less of the Godaime's assistant.

Sakura immediately knew how Lee got to be so good at taijutsu. With training of this intensity every day, it was no small feat to be where he was.

Both landed in front of Gai panting slightly. His smile was brilliant in the hot sun.

"Okay, now 200 push ups! Show the power of youth!"

At about 137, he abruptly announced, "Sakura-san! Tomorrow I'll outfit you with the same weights that Lee wears! And you won't be able to take them off until I think you're ready."

"Shino-san. Tomorrow you'll work on target practice. Neji will be your target!'

She paled expectantly. She saw that those weights created big craters at the exams. She always experimentally wondered what they'd do for her….Be careful what you wish for, eh?

It was official; Gai was out of his mind.  
When he let them go, Sakura turned and saw Sasuke trudging toward her. He seemed fine, if a bit edgy.

"I'm on my way to the hospital. If you have anything broken, I can't do it now." She knew that if Tsunade knew she was coming to duty running on empty, she'd get a sound lashing for her troubles. Then again, it was Tsunade's edict in the first place that landed her in this mess.

Sakura knew she was going to be downing a few soldier pills tonight.

"I'm fine. Your house tonight?" He questioned, never missing a beat.

"Yeah, tell Naruto if you see him." In a flash, Sasuke was gone. And she had never been so unhappy to see the white doors of the hospital.

--

Neji felt troubled. His normal concentration was shot. Both Lee and Tenten were loud and happy. He fed off of it. He honestly needed something to balance out his stoic and independent nature and that polar opposite came in the forms of his teammates.

Sakura was…calm, but not happy. She had a chip on her shoulder unlike the other girls. Shino kept to himself as always. Tsunade put the three relatively serious ninja in the same team. There was no balance at all.

No yin or yang.

His scowl grew more pronounced than usual. A pit of annoyance settled into his chest. And he didn't know what to do to rectify it.

Finally, he pulled the phone out of its cradle and called Tenten.

--

Shino went back to his house. As he ate gingerly, he focused his thoughts to the training. He didn't have any real problems with the new teams. Sakura seemed nice enough, he reasoned, and he could tell she was serious about her training.

That was a plus, he supposed. Neji had an attitude problem, but in a way, he was used to cocky ninja. Kiba was friendly but occasionally he was over competitive. Shino supposed it was a similar situation.

--

"Wow, Sakura-chan, you look beat," commented Naruto.

She opened a lazy eye at him. They were settled in her living room with a plate of food each in front of them. It was close to 8:30 and she was, in fact, beat.

"Gai's completely insane. I have a greater respect for Lee-san and Neji-san. That and hospital duty was no picnic."

Sasuke sat, sated with the food. It was customary for their team to converse around Sakura's living room. She usually cooked, or if not, then they went for ramen. It was better than being in an empty house for both Sasuke and Naruto. They'd talk about training, missions, life: anything that was on their minds.

Sakura was lying haphazardly on her couch. Sasuke took an adjacent chair and Naruto sat on a nearby stool. She sighed. Naruto started to tell a story about his new team.

Quickly, and unexpectedly, a she tensed into a shiver.

Naruto noticed first and Sasuke frowned.

"Sakura-chan! What's wrong? Cold?"

She opened her eyes and brought her hand to her face.

"I'm sorry Naruto. I think I'm just overtired."

"That isn't it." Sasuke untensed beside her. He was right. The man had more than the five usual senses.

She sighed. "Did you ever get a feeling that something really bad was going to happen? And then it did? Mark my words, something's wrong."

"Consider them marked. I agree. I've felt like that for a while." Sasuke spoke up.

"What, with the teams? Baba-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I don't know, but whatever's going to go one, we're going to be in the heart of it."

She didn't know how right she was.

--

Sorry for the pseudo cliffhanger. Anyway, next time the Naruto, Kiba, Ino team.

Please Read and Review!


	4. Chapter 4

Changing Stances

Chapter 4

By

Archerelf

--

Author's Note- Sorry for the wait on this. It took me a while to get the concept. Forgive the grammar and spelling stuff please.

-

Ino woke up naturally, with the sunlight streaming in on her face. Automatically she panicked. Late, she had to be late. Sunlight? And directly at her head? The clock said 9:46. She had to be at the fields at 10. She cursed. Loudly, in fact.

She threw on her clothes, ran a brush through her hair and picked up her back full of kunai and such. She sprinted through her house, cursing like a sailor, and stopped to pull her shoes on and took off. She checked her watch. 9:52. The fields were at least 15 minutes away.

Ino sighed. She thought she had set her alarm, and that would have left time for a shower, stretching, breakfast, which, when she was in a hurried got declassified to 'nonessentials'. She was used to playing through pain and surviving on nothing at all, but she was going to be training for a few hours and she was out of soldier pills. She knew she'd feel it later.

--

Kiba woke up in a similar way to Ino, no alarm clock. The difference was, his alarm was a huge puppy. Ok, well, Akamaru wasn't a puppy. Akamaru was gigantic, as compared to a couple of years ago. In fact, when Naruto went away, the puppy actually was a puppy. Now, Akamaru was a full fledged dog, one that Kiba could ride, though camouflage was out indefinitely.

Ah, Naruto. Still an annoying pain in the behind as always. Always talking about how he was going to become the Hokage and how it was his ninja way never to give up. Kiba was there, that day, when they went after Sasuke for the first time. No one talked much during that mission. What was there to say? There was a crying girl back in the village and Naruto…well, then he had been fragile. When he came back all beat up afterwards, after the longest battle of his life against his best friend and brother, Kiba didn't honestly know if Naruto and Sakura would be able to pick themselves up and try again.

There was something else going on with Sakura and at the time, he was pretty sure she loved Sasuke. He was a guy, but he wasn't an idiot. If Sasuke had only been a teammate, she would have been as enraged as Naruto and would have been on that team to bring him back. Still, they managed to find teachers, the legendary Sanin, and became legends themselves. Okay, well, they weren't legends themselves yet, but there were sure on their way. Sakura was famous in their village and had treated most all of them. She even gave Akamaru a MRI when the machine was broken in the clinic that his sisters headed up. Naruto was still the same, only more determined.

Kiba still didn't trust Sasuke. At all. Akamaru still growled every time the pale boy passed. And Akamaru liked everyone. Usually. He hoped Naruto and Ino weren't the exception.

The day started out as it usually did: get up, get dressed, and play with Akamaru. At quarter of 10, he and Akamaru started towards the fields, when he heard a loud noise. It seemed to be screaming obscenities. And it was female. It stopped a few seconds later.

He looked down at his dog, with a wary expression on his face. They both quickened their pace and arrived soon later. Naruto was already there, with his bright orange clothes. There might as well have been a bullseye on his chest that screamed, "Hit me! Hit me!"

The sun shone brightly down on the field. There were intermittent logs on the sides, mostly for target practice. When Naruto looked up, his face broke into a grin. He liked Kiba, despite appearances, and he knew him to be a good man. They tended to get on each other's nerves, but that was probably the similarity of their characters.

Akamaru bounded ahead and tackled Naruto where he stood. Kiba's peals of laughter broke through the sounds of Akamaru licking Naruto's face.

A shudder went through him. "Kiba. Kiba! Get him off!"

Naruto wasn't particularly fond of dog slobber, nor was he enthused about having his back broken from a 150 pound mutt.

They exchanged pleasantries and started talking.

"Not much going on over here eh?"

"Ino should be here soon."

"I wonder what our other teammates are doing." Naruto wondered aloud.

Kiba shrugged. "Well, Hinata's with Lee and Shikamaru. I have no clue how that's going to work out. Shino's with Sakura and Neji. No clue about that one either." He shivered. "There's something about these teams that just seems all off. Hinata's really shy, Lee's outgoing and Shikmaru's a lazy genius. Their personalities just don't seem to match up. And Shino's with Sakura and Neji, and Shino can't stand pompous people."

Naruto signed defeatedly. "I know what you mean. Sakura's used to everyone and she didn't seem too happy about switching. And Sasuke, well, I thought ol' teme was going to kill Chouji in that first meeting."

Kiba's face darkened. "Tell me about it. In a fight, Chouji wouldn't stand a chance against him."

Kiba was still guarded on the issue of Sasuke. His personal feeling was that, yes, he did Konoha a big favor by getting rid of his brother, but that didn't mean he shouldn't have been pardoned just because of his bloodline. While he knew Sasuke would be on probation for basically his entire life, he still thought the spiky haired 'avenger' got off easy. Even the full year of community service didn't appease him.

"It wasn't easy for him," Naruto remarked, as if reading Kiba's thoughts. "Sasuke takes a while to get used to people, so I wouldn't be surprised if he still isn't acclimated with them for a few weeks. Or a month or two."

"Gotta feel bad, but I think it might do both of them some good. I mean, I don't know how good they are now, but they're bound to pick up some tricks, ya know?"

Naruto nodded, but he didn't agree. Each ninja has a style all their own. Tenten was weapons, and Chouji was more bodily and physical. He doubted if Sasuke would be able to teach them something useful by demonstration.

As if on cue, Ino came running into view, panting as if she had run the length of Konoha.

"Am…I…late?" she gasped. A quick watch check insured that she was 5 minutes late.

"Only a couple minutes. Kakashi isn't here yet either." Naruto stopped for a minute and groaned.

"What's wrong?" Kiba asked, alarmed.

"Kakashi-sensei's always late, to everything," Naruto stressed. "The first day we got our genin teams he kept us waiting. He's usually an hour late to practice. Hell, he even sits back on missions and lets us do all the work."

Ino who was mostly recovered from her exercise, deadpanned. "Seriously? I don't want a late, perverted sensei!"

Akamaru whimpered and lay down in the dust. He tended to dislike excess yelling.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Naruto said wearily. "We even tried to have him switched early on, but the Third wouldn't do it."

Ino carefully sat down, looking tired. "It's weird, you know? Right now if I was still with Shikmaru and Chouji, I'd be eating, then training and then eating again."

Kiba nodded. "We all had habits on our old teams."

Ino silently agreed. "Trust me, a few of the adults weren't happy about Tsunade-sama's edict. Especially my dad." She shuddered at the thought.

"Why?"

"Because I was part of Team InoShikaChou, generation two. All of our fathers had been put together in their genin teams, so I had a feeling where I'd be going. With the teams switching he thought it was a betrayal of their service, or something like that."

Naruto looked towards the sky guardedly. He missed Sasuke and Sakura. Ino and Kiba were okay but they hadn't seen what his other two teammates had seen. Besides, they're basically some of the only people in Konoha that knew about the Kyuubi. Besides Tsunade, and Kakashi, Yamato and Iruka of course.

Sai...well, he was up in the air. Now that he didn't have a definitive team, Tsunade was sending him on quite a few solo missions. Because he was Black Ops, he got plenty of vacation time. He normally declined it, of course, but it was still there. Sometimes Naruto would look him up to get ramen with. Since Sai came into the picture Sakura kept a list, and kept adding to the number of times she got called ugly or Naruto got called on his masculinity.

A half hour later, Kakashi strolled lazily onto the field, with his famous book in hand.

"Yo," was his traditional greeting.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sensei, I'm sure you're tired of hearing it, but you're late."

"I had to…uh…?"

"Sensei, you can't even come up with a good excuse!" Ino barked. Kakashi winced. Ino's temper was famous in the Rookies. She could rant and rave for an hour and forgive in half the time. But her pigheadedness and tenacity could be compared to a light switch, on one second, off another.

Her constant feuding with Sakura had fueled another well known fact. Ino just wouldn't let some things go. She never forgave Sakura for being on the same team on Sasuke. She wouldn't get it out of her head that Sakura had stolen Sasuke from her (despite the other well known fact that Sasuke detested her).

She never forgave Sai either, once she found out that all the 'Miss Beautiful's actually meant that he thought she was ugly on the inside.

She never forgave Chouji for almost dieing on the Sasuke retrieval mission. The list goes on.

Kakashi shook his head.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"What was the first thing we did when our team first formed?"

Naruto's face broke into a huge grin.

"I remember that! You told us to say what our likes and dislikes were, and what our goals were!"

Kakashi chuckled. "I bet yours haven't changed much at all."

Naruto shook his head proudly. "Nope! I still love ramen and hope to be Hokage one day!"

Ino considered it for a moment. "I like competition, flowers, boys, and being a ninja. I dislike losing, arrogant people, and perfectionists. My goal is to one day…hmm…I don't think I have a goal." The last part was a blatant lie and Kakashi could easily tell. Naruto and Kiba were thinking about their answers and so, it was lost on them.

Ino was always in competition with Sakura. She had never forgiven her for having better chakra control, being Tsunade's student and being better at medicine than she was. Sure, Ino was Tsunade's student as well, but her work was no where near Sakura's. And she knew it. Ino's goal was to beat Sakura one day.

Kiba decided to break the silence. "I'm Kiba. I like dogs..." Naruto tuned him out while he thought more. Kakashi was right in a way. He hadn't changed much. He still liked the same stuff, he was just more powerful than before. He had perfected the Rasengan, and while he hadn't brought Sasuke back, Sasuke had taken care of that himself.

Kakashi's voice broke through his reverie.

"What was the first activity we did as a team?" he asked.

Naruto smiled fondly again. "The bell exercise. The one you said had a 66 percent failure rate or more. You sure freaked us out."

"Yeah, well, you had to learn."

Kiba and Ino exchanged glances. It was like they were being left out of a secret club with a complex language.

Naruto noticed the looks and decided to clarify.

"Okay, on our first day as a team, Kakashi-sensei had us do an exercise. We had to take 2 bells from him, by force or luck. Considering that there was three of us, we all split up and tried to get them alone. The two who got it got to eat lunch."

"Oh, I see," Kiba spoke, "The point was for you to team up against him." Kiba pointed to Kakashi.

"Exactly."

"So, what happened?" Ino asked.

"Well…I tried to steal the lunch and got caught. Sasuke considered me a liability if I was hungry, so he shared."

Kakashi looked pensive. He was remembering back. They had each grown so much. And he wasn't just saying that. Sakura wasn't a whiny fangirl anymore. Naruto was more mature, and more clever to boot. Sasuke, well, he had grown and done well in everyway that a ninja should. Emotionally, he was still a league behind his teammates. That was a whole other story though.

"Sensei? Stop day dreaming….sensei? Hello?"

"Sorry." Kakashi put on a sheepish face. Or as close as you could come to sheepish behind a mask.

"Besides teamwork, what else was the exercise about?" Kakashi recovered.

"Uh…" Naruto scratched his head. "I don't know…?"

"Naruto! It's your team, you should know!" Ino screeched. "If you can't tell us…!" she let the sentence hang. Her patience was wearing thin.

"Seriously, Naruto, you have no clue what it was?" Kiba joined in the fray. Akamaru started whining and put his paws over his ears.

"Can it, all of you!" Kakashi was getting a headache and he hadn't even read a page yet.

"That exercise was also about communication. You had to talk about strategy with your teammates. So, this exercise is going to be similar. To ward off the headache I'm getting, this exercise will be held in silence. You can't talk. At all."

Oh boy, this was going to be a strech for all of our ninja.

"Nor can you use anything but taijutsu."

Naruto dead panned. "Are you serious?"

"And you cannot attack me more than two people at a time."

Kakashi produced the bells from his pocket.

"And, Akamaru is out."

Kiba looked up in alarm and anger. "He's been part of my team since we were genin. You can't pull him away!"

"Yes, I can. He is not, technically, part of your team. You have to learn to function without him, as a competent ninja." Kakashi's answer was nonplussed. He didn't want to have to train the dog as well.

Kakashi performed a few hand seals that Naruto instantly recognized. He was summoning his dogs. All of them.

"Akamaru, on the side, will train with them." Pakkun looked a bit perturbed to be interrupted.

"What you need boss?"

"Put Akamaru through the ropes, obstacle courses and such." Pakkun looked up to see a giant dog hovering over him. Kakashi wanted him to train this?

"Are you joking?"

"No. I'm not."

Pakkun sighed. He wasn't getting fed enough for this.

With another poof of smoke, the dogs disappeared, but not without giving Kakashi a glare. Akamaru included.

Kakashi closed his book and stuck it in his back pocket. "To recap. NO talking. And nothing except taijustu. And no more than two at a time."

Ino looked guiltily to her teammates faces. She knew she had the least endurance of any of them. Naruto wouldn't give up ever. Kiba was equally as tenacious. Ino was smart but she knew if she was taken in a fight.

"Can we have a minute before we start Sensei?" Ino's girly, wheedling voice was back.

"Two minutes."

"We can't talk, so we are going to have to use hand signals. Naruto, if what you said before is any indication, he's trying to teach us something. Most likely something about rules. We'll have to stay close to each other."

She demonstrated 4 hand signals. "This is attack. This is retreat. This is change position. This is bells."

They nodded. "Remember, two at a time. Get the bells. No talking."

Kiba was surprised. He never took Ino for a leader, but it was obvious she picked up some strategy from Shikamaru. It was a good idea.

"Oh, and if you can't complete the exercise in an hour's time, you're pulling double practice tomorrow."

"Hey sensei! You were never this strict when we were younger!" called Naruto.

"You don't need coddling now."

Naruto smiled in spite of himself.

"Go."

Three ninja launched skyward. Kiba stuck with Ino. Naruto was nearby. Kiba motioned to Ino to attack. Both jumped and set sights on their target. Ino went for the head and Kiba went for Kakashi's legs. Duck, punch, spin, block….on it went.

Kakashi blocked low and high and to his bother, he couldn't read when he was fighting off two of them. Spinning kick, right hook...Kakashi knew that they weren't going to get it anytime soon.

Ino mentioned to Naruto and quickly she hid herself. She had to look at it from a tactical standpoint, like Asuma had taught her.

What were his strengths?

Weaknesses?

Obviously, he was very good. ANBU class in fact. Hm…She motioned for Kiba to switch out. She'd spotted something.

Kakashi had a split second delay when using his left side. No ace in the hole eye means you'd have to adjust to fighting without it and that side would be delayed.

He had 20/20 vision but he was compensating for two sides at once.

All she had to do was dizzy him around a bit enough for the boys to take over. But that didn't know that. They needed to know. She motioned for all of them to pull up. Kakashi jumped to the opposite side of the field.

Ino pointed to Kakashi and then her left eye. They didn't understand. They kept shrugging. She tried to mouth it. Attack left side.

Naruto caught on. Why, he mouthed back. This would be so much easier if he could talk. Ino rolled her eyes. It's not the time for it. Later, she mouthed. Attack left side!

Kakashi genuinely didn't know what they were doing.

He was just waiting for them to attack. In that time, he pulled out his book and flipped to a page.

They didn't disappoint. 15 minutes had already elapsed.

Two more shift changes had occurred and nearly half their time was up and nothing was happening. Kakashi caught on early. They were trying to spin him like a proverbial disc back and forth. He made sure to pull up early, so far as to smash Naruto's face into the dust and heave Ino in a kick against a tree that crunched a few splinters onto the ground next to her. She groaned. Asuma had NEVER been this physical. Maybe that's why Nartuo and Sasuke were so hands on with their attacks.

They all pulled up again and groaned in frustration. Ino was in pain and hungry to boot. Naruto had a headache that kept growing.

Kiba had thought of a thousand ways that he and Akamaru would have taken on Kaskashi. Stupid bell exercise…

Oh come on. They were all missing something and finally it sparked to the dog boy. They were missing the point of the exercise.

Bells! He signaled. Bells! He held up two fingers. Two of us. Attack sign. Attack Kakashi. He held up 1 finger. 1 of us, get bells!

They were trying to take down Kakashi, they weren't trying to get the bells. They gleamed mockingly in the belt loop of their Sensei's pants. They looked down again. He was reading! Oh, he had nerve.

They took more turns in shifts, trying to get the bells. 45 minutes had elapsed.

15 more minutes and they were not close at all to getting them. Naruto was getting frustrated. The original exercise hadn't taken that long.

It was Kiba who stumbled upon the real reason for the exercise. He was pretty sure this was what Kakashi was trying to teach them. He pulled them all up.

Ino started to sign something but he held up a hand to stop her.

"There are no rules in War." He spoke low and fast. Naruto's shoulders slumped in recognition.

"All three of us have to attack." He voiced this hesitantly. "Let's go."

All three launched towards the ground. Kakashi knew they had it. Or, something like it.

He held up a hand to stop them.

"What was the point of this exercise? The bells were meant to distract you. What was I trying to teach you?" He asked tentatively.

"There are no rules in war?" Ino voiced Kiba's opinion.

"No. But close. It was about listening. Being a ninja means finding a thousand ways to cheat the rules. For example, I said you couldn't use ninjutsu, but what about weapons? "You took your cue from me, because I didn't draw a kunai.

"When you all attacked at once, I knew you were close. But what was really stopping you from using genjutsu or ninjutsu? Nothing at all. I wouldn't have done anything except to try to protect myself.

"But you said…!" Naruto trailed off. He felt like a genin again, bamboozled by older ninja.

"I said you couldn't do three things. In the real world, if your enemy tells you that you can't use genjutsu, what would you do? You'd think he was crazy and do it anyway. The reason why you followed along with it is because an elder told you to. You assumed it was an exercise.

"There are two types of ninja. Those who think within a box and those who think outside of it. Those who think within the box are the dead littered on the road after the fight is over. There is always a way around the rules. There is always a way to defeat your enemy."

"What I will teach you is that there are very few real rules to War. Especially ninja war. Kill or be killed. Simple as that."

"With Naruto's exercise, what I said was that those who break the rules are trash. But those who neglect their teammates are worse than trash. You're older and don't need as many rules now. So now, the focus is going to be less on the rulebook because you already know that and more on team preparation, like the Hokage wanted."

"By the way, you're pulling double practice tomorrow." He added.

A chorus of "What?" and "Why''s rose up in unison. Ino was annoyed. Kakashi made her feel stupid and if there was one emotion she hated, it was condescension.

"Because you figured out the rules, but you didn't follow through with the mission. I used up the rest of your time. The bells were your mission. You just needed to figure out the game. Tomorrow at 8." The older ninja turned around and walked away.

Kiba had a new level of respect for Kakashi. All his life, adult and older ninja had tried to instill a set of rules inside of him. But Kakashi blew that all to smithereens. He had been in wars and battles, and knew that there really were no rules, just compromises on what you would and wouldn't do. Kurenai had tried to baby her teams slightly. She made them battle ready and efficient but she was hesitant to expose them to real devastation. Kakashi would have none of that. It was a hard lesson, but they weren't kids anymore. They weren't Genin anymore. They needed to know.

The more experience you had, the easier the transition would be.

Ino lopped home. On the way, she passed the Korean barbecue that Chouji normally ate at. She passed the spot where Shikamaru would frequent for his shougi games.

But she was troubled. It was only 11:45 but she felt deeply uneasy. She didn't necessarily agree with her new Sensei's teaching style. Upon Asuma's death, she thought she had learned all that she could from sensei's and older ninja. She felt as helpless as a child upon the completion of the exercise. Stupidity, anger…Kakashi was bringing up things she thought she wouldn't have to remember.

In the middle of the day, at noon, she set her alarm clock and went to bed.

-

Kiba, on the other hand, liked the new hands on approach. He knew he wouldn't spend as much time with Akamaru, but Kakashi was like a giant puzzle. It'd be a thrill to solve it and grow from it. He missed his pet but Kakashi presented him with something he hadn't seen for a while: a good challenge. Once Akamaru came back, they'd practice together.

-

Naruto paddled to Sasuke's field after Kakashi had left the field. Tenten and Chouji were leaving and Sasuke was drinking from a bottle of water. With a casual nod, Sasuke acknowledged his presence.

There was something different about the blonde. He was quieter, more resigned than he had seen him before.

With another head flick, Sasuke motioned him to speak.

"Remember the bell exercise? He tried that with us today…but we couldn't attack more than two at a time and no ninjutsu or genjutsu and we couldn't talk…At the end, Kakashi told us that we should have disregarded those rules and attacked how we wanted. No rules in a war…"

Sasuke nodded. It was a valid point.

"I don't think they got it. I'm not sure I got it."

"Kill or be killed. That's it." The dark haired boy spoke. "He's right."

"I just have a bad feeling he's preparing us for a war that's either right around the corner or never going to happen. Maybe Sakura's right."

"I don't think so. It's been quiet on all fronts and I don't think it was for your benefit. You've been through more than they have." Sasuke pronounced the 'they' with a tone of superiority, but Naruto let it slide. Sasuke was right though. Akatsuki? Itachi? They were far beyond Ino and Kiba.

That cheered him slightly.

"Ramen?" he asked, smiling.

"I'm not paying for you."

-

Kakashi sighed. He hadn't really meant to overwhelm them on the first day. Originally he just didn't want them to talk, the loudest of all the rookies. Ino...she seem disgruntled. Worried. Kiba was happy, he could tell that much. Naruto, he had a heavy burden. Kakashi sighed. He'd hope for the best and see what they took of it. Now, it was time to read.

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Naruto, Adventure, Romance