Naruto & Naruto Shippuuden © Masashi Kishimoto, Shonen Jump, Studio Pierrot, TV Tokyo, & Shueisha. Any characters or materials used which refer to characters/material owned by those above are being used under fair use. No profit is being made by the author of this work.

Harry Potter © JK Rowling, Time Warner. Any characters or materials used which refer to characters/material owned by those above are being used under fair use. No profit is being made by the author of this work.

In another time, or in another world, Hatake Kakashi was not QUITE as useless to his genin Team 7 as he might have been in other times or places. He was still a constantly tardy, laid-back pervert that concentrated on team work rather than technique for his initial training plan. However, his approach to engendering team work also used rather necessary education for his genin team much earlier than might have been the case in other circumstances.

Such it was that led to a quite remarkable and unpredictable chain of events that would change the shinobi world in as yet unknown and unknowable ways.

"Kakashi-Sensei! When are we going to learn some cool jutsus! Just doing D-ranked missions isn't helping me to become Hokage!" Naruto was getting flustered with the lack of training.

Sakura's face took on murderous look and she bopped Naruto on his head. "BAKA! Stop being so disrespectful!"

Naruto rubbed his head and looked nervously over at his teammate. He may have a crush on the pink-haired girl – but he sure didn't like to annoy her.

Kakashi eye-smiled at his students. "I was wondering when one of you would ask."

All three replied with a shocked look.

"You're ninja now. You've graduated the academy. You have passed the team test. In the eyes of the law and in the eyes of the village, you are adults. If you want to get better, you have to take initiative and ask. I may be your team leader, but I don't run your lives. You have to want to learn."

Naruto grinned. "So now you'll teach us some super cool moves!?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Sorry, you aren't ready. There are many steps before you will be ready for 'super-cool moves.' One step at a time. Come with me."

Kakashi led his team over to the stand of trees on the edge of Training Ground Seven. "Okay, my kawaii little students, today we are going to begin a chakra excercise."

Sasuke's reply was a monosyllable "Hn." Sakura just gazed adoringly at her crush. Naruto was confused. He had plenty of chakra - why did he have to learn "chakra exercises"?

"Today you will all learn to climb trees."

Naruto took on a rebellious look while Sakura was now confused. Sasuke, however, was the one to ask, "What good will that do us? Even the dobe can probably already climb a tree."

Kakashi eye-smiled. "Yes! But can any of you do it with no hands?" Kakashi calmly walked over to a tree and without changing pace started walking up its side with visible effort. When he reached the top, he walked out on the bottom of a large branch and looked "up" at his students.

The three genin were impressed.

"To do this exercise, you must put the correct amount of chakra to the bottom of your feet. Too little, and you won't stick. Too much, and … it won't be pleasant." Kakashi turned around and calmly walked back down the tree. "Okay, each of you take a tree and begin!"

Sasuke had mastered tree-walking in a day. Sakura only took a matter of hours. Naruto, on the other hand, had been practicing for four days and still didn't have it down.

Kakashi refused to teach them anything further until all members of the team could perform the exercise.

When Naruto had taken more than two days, finally Kakashi addressed the issue. "Well, Sakura and Sasuke, until Naruto gets this down, we will be completing D-ranks and then Naruto will practice. You two can do whatever you want."

So the next day, after the D-rank, Naruto proceeded to begin on the exercise. Sasuke walked off and Sakura started stalking him, asking for a date.

Kakashi frowned and shook his head, deciding to give it a little time before he reinforced the "teamwork" message.

Kakashi had hoped that his blonde-haired student's teammates would have looked underneath the underneath and seen that it was in their best interest to help their teammate get the exercise down. He had refused to teach the team any more until all had completed the exercise. He was becoming impatient. He wasn't really impatient with Naruto per se. He was impatient with the TEAM.

He then walked over to a tree and took his book out.

From underneath the tree, Naruto watched the silver-haired man reading an orange book and giggling and cursed his sensei under his breath.

Kakashi didn't see Naruto finishing the exercise that day - but when he finally manipulated the boy's teammates in to helping him finish it tomorrow; he didn't want it to fail. So somehow, he had to goad Naruto in to getting ALMOST there today. What to do? What to do?

Ah, an idea. He put aside his orange book for a moment and looked thoughtfully over to his student - who was "resting" at the base of the tree. His student was panting a bit, a testament to how much work he had put in as very little made his cute student tired. "Let's see if I can provide a little motivation?" Kakashi murmured to himself.

Naruto watched as his sensei slowly climbed to his feet and walked over toward him. This prompted him to move from where he had fallen and to get his feet. He calmed his breath, getting ready for whatever Kakashi was about to say.

"Naruto, why aren't you working on climbing the tree?" Kakashi asked.

"But, Sensei! Why do I have to do this? It's so pointless!" Naruto replied.

Kakashi stood still for a moment and then his eyes crinkled in to that weird eye-smile thing. "Well if you need some motivation, maybe my friend Pakun could help."

"Pakun? Who is Pakun? Is he a super cool ninja with a lot of techniques?"

"Emmm. Not quite. Watch carefully!" Kakashi, who normally used very little time or motion to make the handsigns to summon, deliberately slowly moved through the necessary steps. He bit his thumb and then moved through the hand movements deliberately, calling out their names as we went: "Dragon, Cat, Snake, Fox!" and slammed his hand on to the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" Suddenly, around Kakashi were several ninken, all of them wearing Leaf hitai-ate and looking at Kakashi expectantly.

Kakashi eye smiled at the ninken "Pakun, could you and your pack help motivate my cute little student in to continuing his tree-climbing exercise?"

Pakun looked over at the startled blond and answered, "Certainly, Kakashi-kun." All of a sudden the several ninken looked more feral and the lead one spoke to Naruto, "Well, if you don't start climbing, me and my pack will want to play!" With that, the ninken each took on a more feral appearance and started slowly walking toward Naruto - who for some reason felt more nervous. Very quickly, with the proper "motivation" applied, Naruto made much progress that day.

Kakashi sat underneath his tree, reading his little orange book and giggling to himself.

It had been several weeks since he had begun teaching his genin various beginning jutsus. In that time they had gotten tree-walking and water-walking down. He had also improved their taijutsu by having them practice against each other. Sakura was still a bit useless, Naruto was still sloppy, and Sasuke was still rigid. He would need to get them to see the real world soon.

He had decided he would take them on a C-rank soon. Kakashi wanted them at least able to make a fire, condense some water, and do other necessary tasks. So he had given each several jutsus which helped and set the genin to practice them.

Naruto was practicing the water jutsu Kakashi sensei had explained. Well, not really. Really he was brooding while LOOKING like he was practicing.

"These campjutsus are weak! Who's going to believe I am an awesome ninja filling a canteen!?" Naruto thought back to the beginning of his training and remembered something. Why hadn't he considered that before?

Naruto very suddenly stopped working on the jutsu and thought for a moment, trying to recall the exact hand-seals and steps Kakashi had used.

From the other side of the clearing, Kakashi watched his student around the edge of his book. When he saw Naruto's expression he was reminded of Naruto when he was younger and Kakashi, as an Anbu, had watched over him. Naruto always got a certain expression right before a prank.

When Naruto started moving his hands in a certain way, Kakashi became horrified. He began to yell out, "Naruto! Don't …." At that moment Naruto slammed his hand onto the ground and disappeared in a flash.

A/N: I had some very valid complaints about the writing. I was spending so much attention on getting the setup on my plot-bunny and where I wanted to go, I rushed it to get to where I have the story now. But it was weak. So I have attempted to make it a little more well-rounded. I will be also correcting the other chapters.