In comparison to their trip to wave, team seven's trip back to Konoha was rather dull. It was much quicker than going to wave considering that they didn't have to move at a civilian pace and they quickly reached the gates and were waved through after the guards cleared their paperwork. Kakashi allowed the team to go their separate ways while he went to the Hokage's office to deliver the official mission report. Sasuke gave his typical monosyllabic grunt, Hinata left with a quiet nod, and Naruto just grumbled about needing a shower and headed to his home. Upon reaching the Hokage's office, Kakashi was allowed in instantly, confirming his suspicions of being expected.

After Kakashi finished with his report, the Sandaime asked the question Kakashi had been expecting. "What can I do for you Kakashi?"

"I would like to discus some parts of the mission, Hokage-sama. More specifically, I would like to talk about an unusual occurrence during the mission and Naruto's apparent apathy towards killing. At one point during the mission, Naruto descended into a murderous rage and began releasing intense killing intent, but that isn't what bothered me. What did disturb me was the odd sensation of wrongness that accompanied the killing intent. It was like being in the presence of something… more is the only way I can describe it. I felt like I was a helpless child staring down a snarling beast that was about to eat me." Kakashi shuddered at the memory here before collecting himself once more, "In regards to his killing, when you gave me your profile on him, it said that, while Naruto was expected to occasionally be more vicious and brutal than needed, he would likely show disinclination towards killing. When Naruto took down the demon brothers, he did so almost surgically, indicating that he may have past experience with killing. In addition to that, his rage induced slaughter of Gatou and his thugs, while not unexpected given the circumstances and the behavior he has shown since joining team seven, showed a brutality far beyond what was expected."

The Sandaime nodded thoughtfully, "It seems our initial evaluations of his potential violent tendencies underestimated him then. It is good, at very least, though, that all his most violent reactions are in protection of his teammates." The Sandaime mused. "I'll further observation of him to ensure that this doesn't become a problem. In the mean time, I want you to try to help him form bonds with his fellow genin, both with his teammates and outside his team. I also want you to try to reduce the violence of his reactions to potential threats. If you can't manage to reduce the violence of his reactions, then at least try to keep it directed at enemies. About that odd feeling that Naruto emitted, I'll look into what caused it. It may just be a side effect of the Kyuubi."

"Of course Hokage-sama. I have just the idea to promote socialization as well as help him curb his violence." Kakashi said with an eye smile that made the Sandaime worry slightly.

Scene Change The next day

Naruto was making his way to the Hyuuga compound. Normally he stayed away from clan compounds because of the potential problems with the inhabitants that might arise if he got too close, but Kakashi had assigned him the task of retrieving Hinata while their chronically late sensei looked for Sasuke. Quickly arriving at the gates of the enclosed compound, Naruto's way was blocked by the two gate guards, their covered foreheads marking them as branch family members.

"State your name and business." The elder of the two said in an official tone.

"I'm here to retrieve Hinata at the command of our sensei, Hatake Kakashi." Naruto stated in a mockery of the man's formality.

After a moment of scrutiny, the man spoke once more. "Very well, I will escort you to Hinata-sama's room."

The guard opened the gates and made his way into the compound, followed closely by Naruto. The two made their way into a large building set a short distance from the wall and any foliage, most likely by design so as to help keep out intruders, and entered through, in Naruto's opinion, disgustingly large doors, which would make it easy for any invading force to combat the people in the home as it provided a large entry point. The building was grandly decorated, walls bearing what Naruto was sure were famous pictures, rare flowers sat in expensive vases that sat on expensive and, no doubt, hand crafted wood tables. After going through a series of hallways that would have gotten Naruto lost had he not had the skill in memorization that he did, they stopped before a non-descript door.

"Hinata-sama should be inside." The branch member said before leaving, prompting a muttered comment about stuck up Hyuuga's from Naruto.

Declining to knock, Naruto entered the room only to find it empty. Looking about, Naruto took in the room. The walls were the same bland white that seemed to blanket the compound, the floor, much as with the rest, was made of expensive looking hardwood, a poster bed was set snuggly in one corner, something that was common for shinobi to do when setting up bedding in any room, and had lavender covers and pillows, There was a small side table beside the head of the bed, a desk sat in the corner opposite the foot of the bed and there was another door near it, and in-between the desk and bed was a window. The desk and table were sparsely decorated, the only things on the desk being a few scrolls and a couple books. Turning his attention to the side table, Naruto saw that there was a small electronic alarm clock and a picture of team seven that Kakashi had forced them to take sitting on it. However, what caught his eye, was the small wolf plushy that sat beside a fox plushy at the edge of her bed. While the wolf plushy was in good condition, the fox plushy had clearly undergone some serious repairs in it's time if the numerous stitches were any indication and looked vaguely familiar, reminding him of a plushy that had belonged to him before he left Konoha and had thrown out after finding it among the personal effects collected from his apartment some weeks after his return. Naruto was wondering what Hinata was doing with a wolf and fox plushy of all things, especially considering the lack of decorations in the rest of the room, when the door off to the side of the desk opened, steam billowing out and Hinata, wearing only a towel, stepped out. The two stared at each other for a moment before Hinata eeped, wrapping her arms around herself as though in an attempt to further cover herself, and Naruto turned away, having some difficulty tearing his eyes from Hinata's surprisingly voluptuous form, but managing it in the end anyway.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were taking a shower. Kakashi-sensei wanted us to meet at training ground 32 at 10." With that, Naruto quickly made his way out of the room and exited the Hyuuga compound, leaving behind a frozen Hinata, who only managed to snap herself out of her shock after several minutes. With a blush that could have lit up a room still on her face, Hinata quickly registered what Naruto had said and went about getting dressed and preparing.

Scene Change

Naruto arrived at training ground 32 nearly a half hour early, only to see teams eight and ten along with another team that he had never seen before there with their sensei's. Deciding against speaking with any of the others, Naruto waited in the shade of a tree, Sasuke arrived 15 minutes early and moved off by himself, Ino and Sakura following him as they argued over who would get to date him, and Hinata arrived shortly after and nervously sat near Naruto with a blush still on her face. Surprisingly enough, to those who weren't on team seven, Kakashi arrived only 10 minutes late.

"Ok, since we're all here now, we can begin." Kakashi said, taking up the role of explaining things to the genin, "We are going to have some inter-team training. The purpose of this is to promote unity and improve skills by allowing everyone to learn something from each other and other people's senseis. To start off, why don't we have some spars and we will help correct you on improper form and such." Kakashi finished, pulling out his trademark orange book and moving to the side of the clearing.

The man in disturbing green spandex stepped forward now. "YOSH! Time for the youthful spars!" The oddly dressed man looked about the clearing before speaking again. "How about Kakashi's youthful Naruto faces Asuma's Chouji."

Kakashi spoke up before anything could begin, "Actually, how about Naruto faces the entirety of team 10."

"You really think your kid can beat all three of mine?" Asuma questioned.

Kakashi simply shrugged. "No need to make victory so easy for him. Besides, I want to see how he fights against a group that is supposed to be in skilled working together."

"YOSH! It is decided then, Naruto shall face off against team 10!"

Naruto simply got up and lazily strolled over to the center of the clearing, team 10 mimicking him with everyone else moving to the sides, most of them forming into their teams and sticking close to their sensei's. With a signal from Gai, who moved back afterwards to give the fighters some room, the fight began.

Naruto stood, facing down Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji. After a few moments, Ino slapped Shikamaru across the head and told him to bind Naruto. With his hands in the rat seal, Shikamaru's shadow stretched out towards Naruto.

"Heh, looks like your kid knows better than to fight." Asuma gloated at Kakashi.

"Nah, I think it's just that he knows he can get out." Kakashi didn't look up from his precious porn for even a moment.

Shikamaru's shadow connected with Naruto's, earning a shout of victory from Ino and a soft smile from Chouji. Naruto smirked viciously, though it was quickly covered, at how he was about to crush their hopes of winning as he began to stroll casually towards the team, stopping their premature victory celebration. Suddenly switching from a casual walk to a straight out sprint, Naruto was directly in front of team 10, having crossed the clearing in just under two seconds. Using their shock against them, Naruto landed a devastating blow to Shikamaru's chest, his sensitive ears picking up the barely audible sound of bones cracking as the lanky boy shot across the clearing into a tree and slumped down. Using the further shock of Shikamaru's quick defeat, Naruto landed a series of blows on the much more heavy set Chouji, quickly putting him out of the fight while showing a great deal of skill in rendering him non-combat effective without seriously hurting him. With a quick back hand to Ino, sending the underweight girl flying, Naruto ended the fight within one minute of its beginning and in less than 10 seconds of moving from his starting spot.

The others in the clearing, with the exception of Hinata, Sasuke, and Kakashi were dumbfounded. Someone who was supposedly average at best had just torn apart an entire genin team like they were no more than just civilians.

"What the hell did you teach that kid?" Asuma questioned absently, his ever present cigarette nearly falling from his lips.

"Oh, he didn't even go full out. Your team must be especially weak. You really should fix that. Especially the whole letting the enemy know what they're going to do thing along with being so slow and weak. I think Naruto may have actually accidentally broken something in them too." Kakashi commented, neglecting to mention that Naruto hadn't used anything he had taught him as Chouji, Ino, and Shikamaru slowly limped over to where the others were standing.

"Yosh! That was most youthful Naruto! Winner is Kakashi's student, Naruto!" Gai announced, quite unnecessarily.

With a quickly concealed smirk and sneer of disgust at how weak his fellow genin were, Naruto moved over to where his team was, taking up a spot by them without a word.

"Now for the next match!" After another moment of looking at the students, Gai came to his decision. "The next match shall be Hinata vs. Kiba!"

As the two made their way to the center of the clearing, Naruto stopped Hinata briefly and whispered something in her ear, causing her to blush before nodding determinedly. Kakashi spoke up. "How about you kids go socialize with the others and leave us Sensei's to talk to each other about jonin things." Kakashi's suggestion that was more of an order prompted obedience from the students as they reluctantly moved over to the side to stand in a loose group as Asuma and Kurenai moved over to him.

"So what was that about?" Asuma asked.

"Oh, you know, just wanting them to get to know others in their age group and all." Kakashi dismissed Asuma's question.

"You know, that girl of yours looks rather meek. Are you sure she can take my student?" Kurenai said, deftly changing the subject back to the fights.

"Didn't Asuma say that about Naruto when he fought his students?" Kakashi idly mused without looking up from his book.

"I'm sure I've trained my students better if his can't even beat one genin." Kurenai stated confidently.

"Oh, I guess I should mention something then. Hinata has taken up training with Naruto in her free time when the team isn't together awhile before our first C-rank mission. I have full faith that she will be able to defeat your student. Oh, on another note, I advise against saying anything that could be taken as an insult or threat towards Hinata within Naruto's hearing."

"Why is that?" Asuma asked, wondering what could prompt Kakashi give such a piece of advice.

With the genin

"You may have gotten lucky in fighting weaklings like Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji, but Hinata doesn't stand a chance against Kiba." Sakura boasted, confident in her teammate's ability to beat the timid looking girl.

Naruto stared at Sakura as though she wasn't even there for a few moments before letting a smirk curve his lips. "As though that watered down mutt has a chance against Hinata."

Naruto's response elicited a small snort from Neji. "As loath as I am to agree with anything that pink haired little girl says, she is right. Hinata is too weak to win against anyone. It is her fate to be forever weaker than her opponents."

"And who the hell are you to say what she can and can't do? I have good reason to believe that I know her limits and abilities better than probably anyone else." Naruto returned.

The white eyed boy gave a small smirk. "It is rude to ask for ones name without first giving it."

"It's even worse to insult someone behind their back while her teammates are near, don't you think, Hyuuga Neji?" Naruto's smirk widened as Neji's fell.

As Gai called out the beginning of the match, everyone's attention turned to the two genin. Kiba immediately charged in enthusiastically, lashing out with a wild right that Hinata gracefully dodged. Kiba kept up his assault, blows coming faster, harder, and more recklessly with each miss as Hinata continued to weave between his attacks. Kiba, getting angry with his lack of hits, over extended himself and was immediately hit. Hinata lashed out with a jyuuken blow to Kiba's leg before landing a series of strikes along his other leg and his shoulders, leaving Kiba lying flat out on the ground, unable to move his limbs.

"What was that about Hinata being too weak to win?" Naruto flashed a fanged grin at the stoic Hyuuga.

With the Jonin

"What was that about training your students better Kurenai?" Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "Hey Gai, how about pitting one of my students up against one of yours?"

"YOSH! That is a great idea Kakashi. I'll pit one of my own precious students against one of your own!"

"How about Sasuke goes then? He's the only one of them that hasn't gone yet."

"Yosh! I will take up this challenge Sensei!" Lee called out enthusiastically.

"Oh Lee!" Gai called, bursting into overdramatic tears.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The two embraced, forever scarring all present with their unbreakable sunset man-hug genjutsu, the exception being Kakashi who had his face buried in his book as usual. Off to the side, the genin stared on, unable to look away despite the horrible burning sensation the sight was causing them. After a few moments of hugging and crying, Gai separated from Lee and directed him to move to the center of the clearing to begin his fight as Sasuke, who was thanking whatever luck he had that his Sharingan hadn't awakened yet lest the sight of Gai and Lee hugging be forever burned into his memory, moved to face the spandex clad genin.

"Let the match between my youthful student Lee and Kakashi's youthful student Sasuke begin." Gai declared before moving back to give them more room as he had with the two previous fights.

Lee settled into a basic Goken taijutsu stance with a large grin on his face as he waited for Sasuke to make the first move. Taking the initiative, Sasuke charged forward and lashed out with a sweeping kick that Lee leapt over before spinning himself into a heel drop that Sasuke just barely managed to get out of the way of in time. Sasuke lashed out with a straight punch that Lee easily blocked before pushing Sasuke away in an impressive display of arm strength. Lee charged forward, becoming a blur to many of the genin present, before appearing in front of Sasuke with an upward kick that would have connected with Sasuke's chin had he not leaned back and back-flipped a few times before dashing back in and managing to sweep Lee's feet out from under him before sending the green clad boy a short distance back with a backhand.

"Yosh, you are most youthful Sasuke!" Lee yelled before moving at speeds that made him invisible to most of the genin and left him blurred slightly to even Naruto. Sasuke made a mixture between a grunt and a gurgle as Lee's sandaled foot drove itself into his chest, sending him crashing into a tree where he slid down into a sitting position where he just sat there, breathing with a wheeze.

"Yosh, Lee wins." Gai announced even as Sasuke managed to finnaly lever himself to his feet after regaining his breath. Sasuke simply glared, having learned from the occasional encounter with Naruto that challenging an opponent that so far outclasses you was a bad idea.

"Ah, it seems that your students may provide more of a challenge for mine than Asuma's and Kurenai's." Kakashi said as Sasuke made his way back over to the gathered genin.

With the Genin

"Looks like even the best of your team can't stand against the weakest of mine." Neji said with a superior smirk.

Naruto raised one eyebrow in amusement. "Where did you get the idea that Sasuke was the strongest member of my team? I can put him down as easily as I would you."

Before Neji could retort, they were distracted by Gai announcing the next match.

"Yosh! The next match will be between Neji and Shino" Gai called out, prompting the two stoic genin to make their way to the center of the clearing. With a quick gesture, Gai started the match.

"You may as well give up now; it is your destiny to fail." Neji said, not even getting into a stance.

"It would be illogical to surrender before the fight has even begun and it is even more illogical to place ones faith in such an idea as fate." Shino said, slowly dispersing his bugs towards Neji in unnoticeable, small groups.

"It seems you have yet to understand the all powerful force that is fate. I will teach you what happens when one attempts to fight their fate." Neji slid into a stance, not bothering to activate his Byakugan against someone he viewed as so far below him.

Neji charged forward, not nearly as quickly as Lee, but still impressive for a genin regardless, and lashed out with a standard juuken strike that Shino calmly evaded using the bare minimum of movement needed. Neji lashed out once more, only for Shino to continue his calm movements that allowed him to just barely doge Neji's assault. Neji's blows begin to come faster and faster, continuously coming closer to Shino with each attack until, finnaly, he managed to land a solid blow, only for Shino to dissolve into a mass of bugs that latched themselves onto Neji and began draining his chakra. Neji attempted to brush the bugs off him, but was unable to keep them off. When he attempted to use juuken, the bugs simply absorbed the chakra and continued feeding. Within a minute, Neji collapsed in exhaustion before the bugs retreated to a tree at the edge of the clearing where Shino dropped from a tree.

"The winner is the youthful Shino!" Gai called out before moving over the Neji and lifting the boy; carrying him over to the other genin and setting him against a tree.

"Hehe, for all that high and mighty talk, you couldn't even beat a rookie genin. You didn't even land a single blow." Naruto snickered at Neji's arrogance induced loss. Neji merely glared in response, too lacking in chakra to even move properly.

"N-naruto-kun, please don't tease Neji-nii-san." Hinata said, drawing Neji's glare to her and prompting her to half hide behind her blond teammate.

Seeing Neji switch his ire to Hinata, Naruto crouched next to him and leaned in close so no one could hear his killing intent laced words to the white eyed teen. "Hyuuga, I'm only going to give you one warning. Lay off Hinata, or I will end you." With that simple threat, Naruto leaned back and gave a close eyed grin, changing his tone to something far more cheerful, but still laced with that subtle killing intent, "Do you understand? I hope you do." With that, Naruto stood up and turned his attention to Sakura and Tenten, who had moved to the center of the clearing while he was threatening Neji.

With a gesture from Gai, and surprisingly few theatrics from Sakura, the two girls began their fight. The fight was short and brutally efficient. Sakura had no chance against the physically superior and more experienced Tenten and was swiftly defeated without the bun haired girl even having to use her weapons prowess.

"Ok! Now that sparring is over why don't you genin sit down and we can tell you all what you did wrong in your fights so you can all improve." At Kakashi's prompting, the genin, team 10 limping slightly and Neji still needing Tenten to help him walk all gathered around him. Once all the genin were seated, Kakashi began to analyze their performances. "Ok, first round. Ino, you really shouldn't have told Shikamaru what do to so loudly. Actually, you shouldn't have needed to do that in the first place, but that doesn't mean you can ignore the fact that you didn't really do anything. Shikamaru, you were too lazy and unmotivated. You didn't do anything until Ino made you. Chouji, you didn't do anything at all, despite the fact that you are the physically strongest member of your team. All in all you need to get some serious motivation and take initiative as well as seriously improve your physical capabilities. Naruto, you had a good plan waiting for your enemies to strike first, but I know you know what they can do and only did that for the shock value that, while such a thing can be helpful on that battlefield to stun your enemy, isn't a habit you want to pick up

"Next round, Kiba, you really need to learn to keep your cool. You rushed right in with no apparent plan other than to overwhelm Hinata and when that didn't work you got increasingly reckless until you gave her an opening to capitalize on. Hinata, you did very well, though I suggest you put a bit of work towards being more aggressive. If you can dodge his attacks that easily, then you can score a hit on him without needing an opening as large as the one you took."

"Lee, you did fine in your match, but you took to long to finish it. Don't hold back against your opponent or it may give them a chance to defeat or kill you. Sasuke, you were too aggressive and lacked the ability to properly defend yourself. You need to work more on fighting defensively. Neji, your fight was actually one of the worst so far. You horribly underestimated your opponent and that let him trap you in a way that you couldn't escape. Shino, you did well, but, from the way you fought, I'm sure you could use some more work in taijutsu. Sakura, your fight was absolutely pathetic. I know Kurenai is very good at genjutsu, so, at very least, you should have been able to use that, but you didn't use anything but taijutsu right up until Tenten beat you. As for Tenten, you clearly rely a great deal on physical abilities and weapons, considering your accuracy with kunai and the couple of other weapons you threw just for the shock factor, so I would suggest learning some genjutsu and maybe some ninjutsu. Now, why don't you all go have an early lunch without us jonin-sensei and get to know each other or something. We'll come find you in about an hour and a half."

This got nods of acceptance from the genin, most of them welcoming the chance to rest and eat. It was only after the genin left that Asuma spoke up, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Ok, spill Kakashi, why are you being so proactive? You've been showing up hours late to pretty much everything for years now, but today you show up only 10 minutes late. Not only that, you decided what the genin were going to do first and even gave some input on who should fight who. Afterwards you take the initiative to tell the genin what they did wrong and where they can improve without any prompting, not to mention that you were the person who suggested this in the first place. You also gave that odd warning regarding Naruto and saying anything that could be considered a threat or insult towards Hinata around him."

Kakashi sighed as he sat cross-legged on the ground, his precious orange book disappearing for the first time since he pulled it out after announcing to the genin that they would be sparring. "Ok, I suppose it's fine for me to tell you. Put simply, Naruto has been on watch since he returned to the village. As you probably know, Naruto disappeared without a trace several years ago and returned with knowledge of basic shinobi arts. We've ruled out the potential of him working for an opposing village which only leaves one viable reason for him having survived in the wilderness at his age and even managing to learn something about being a ninja." Seeing the looks of understanding dawn on his fellow jonin, Kakashi nodded, "Yes, Sandaime-sama has concluded that Naruto has been in contact with the Kyuubi for an undetermined amount of time, presumably at least since he left. Added to this is the fact that 50 villagers were found split cleanly in two at the waist around the same time as Naruto's disappearance. Furthermore, around the time Naruto reappeared, 68 more villagers, all known to have hated Naruto, simply disappeared, as in absolutely no trace of them. To top off everything, Naruto has a unique set of abilities and unusual and powerful weapons that he refuses to explain, claiming them to be a clan secret. And since he's been granted clan status by Hokage-sama for his unique abilities, he has full rights to do so and there's nothing anyone can do about it. This training was set up to give Naruto a chance to get together with other genin and hopefully form friendships with them, which we hope will help negate any influence the Kyuubi has had on him. As for my warning earlier, Naruto has developed an unusual fixation on Hinata, having threatened people on several different occasions because of something they said or did that he perceived as an insult or threat towards her. The most violent of these 'outbursts' has been the C-rank we went on recently. The tyrant who was oppressing the land we were in threatened to rape Hinata or sell her off in slave trade."

The other jonin's faces darkened at this, most particularly Kurenai's, "As you can imagine, that really set off Naruto. He released killing intent that most people twice his age aren't capable of and went on a murderous rampage, killing the tyrant and his men, but that's not even the worst of it. Along side the killing intent was something else, almost like killing intent, but not. It was, as best I can describe it, a deep pervading sense of power and wrongness and the feeling of staring down something that thought of you as no more than an ant, as though I was in the presence of something not human, something I would never be able to fully understand..." Kakashi trailed off here, eyes glazing over as he remembered the terrible feeling of being near something that violates the laws of nature and the universe merely by existing. "Anyway, Sandaime-sama and I hope to help him forge bonds that will keep that power, that… whatever it is that I can't even really describe, from being used against Konoha."

There was a long moment where no one spoke, before Asuma to break the stunned silence. "So... What? Is Naruto not human or something?"

Kakashi shook his head. "That's just it; All of the tests that have been done don't indicate him as anything other than human. Physically speaking, he's as human as they come. The only unusual thing about him is that he heals as an abnormally fast pace, but even that has been explained away as a side effect of the seal. It drains some of Kyuubi's chakra every time Naruto is injured and uses it to help heal him." Kakashi sighed before getting to his feet and stretching to ease out the stiffness that comes from sitting in one position for too long. "Anyway, I'm going to go get something to eat. Remember, everything I just told you is a secret. Don't talk about it around other people and don't tell anyone who doesn't know." Kakashi gave his signature eye-smile and his tone turned light, belying the seriousness of what he said next, "I'd hate to have to kill any of you." With that, the silver haired man disappeared in a poof of smoke, leaving three contemplative jonin in an empty clearing.

Scene Change

Sasuke was thinking heavily enough that he didn't even hear Ino and Sakura arguing over who he liked more, or Naruto's and Hinata's quiet conversation, or Lee's enthusiastic discussion with the somewhat reluctant Chouji and Shikamaru, or Tenten's attempts to stop Neji from glaring at his unusual blond teammate, or even notice the previously mentioned glares the white eyed boy was sending Naruto. This isn't to say Sasuke didn't think a great deal normally, he actually thought quite a bit about the many tortures he wanted to visit upon Itachi, but that is another matter entirely. It was the nature of his thoughts that was unusual. Ever since his discussion with Hinata about why she helped him despite how cruel he had been to her, which was as much of a defense mechanism to keep people away as it was actual distain, he had been contemplating the meaning behind her words. He had wondered why the Hyuuga clan would consider her kindness a weakness. He was not very kind himself, but one of his mother's defining features was her endless kindness towards others, especially those who were weaker or underprivileged, so he could not consider kindness a weakness. He supposed that her clan could believe it would lead her to hesitate in combat, but he hadn't seen any hesitation in her since the day of the bell test, even when facing down the accomplice of Momochi Zabuza, so he discounted that idea. After a great deal of thought on the matter, both in regards to her words and the eerily familiar smile she gave, Sasuke came to a conclusion just as he finished his lunch. He was going to try to get along with his teammates. They had both long since proved that they wouldn't hold him back and Hinata was always relatively nice to him, even when he was mean to her while Naruto always seemed rather neutral towards him outside of training or when he insulted Hinata around him, a mistake he hadn't made since shortly after they became a team. As such, when the Hyuuga boy, he hadn't bothered to learn his name, insulted his teammates, he turned a glare upon the other boy.

"You should know your place Hyuuga. Everyone here may not know of the Hyuuga clan's politics, but I do and I know what it means for you to cover your forehead. Show your superior respect and be glad my teammate is as kind as she is and has been able to convince Naruto not to disembowel you." Sasuke's tone was a spear of frozen fire that tore through Neji's normal stoicism, simultaneously shocking everyone else at the table.

"What do you know you-?" Neji was cut of when his soft spoken cousin spoke up.

"Neji-nii-san, please be quiet." Her tone was soft, but there was an almost dangerous glint in Hinata's eyes as she came to her teammate's defense, backed by Naruto who wore the same disturbing grin he had when asking Neji earlier if he understood him. Both shocked and slightly scared, Neji snapped his mouth shut and settled for glaring at team seven.

No one said anything for several minutes until their sensei's showed up, Kakashi once again being the first to speak up.

"We're going on a joint mission. Pack for an extended period of time outside the village and meet at the west gate tomorrow at eight AM." That said, the masked man disappeared in the standard puff of smoke that marked a shushin.

Scene Change

When Naruto, accompanied by Hinata, arrived at the gate, it was to find the rest of the teams and the sensei's, sans Kakashi, waiting by the gates with packs that were undoubtedly filled with whatever supplies they felt they needed, though the sensei's weren't carrying packs. Naruto assumed that they were using sealing scrolls. Naruto settled on the ground near where Sasuke sat, Hinata sitting on his other side.

It only took a few minutes before Kakashi showed up, his orange book conspicuously absent. "All right everyone. We'll be heading out to Kusa no Kuni to escort their Daimyo to a meeting with the Daimyo of Taki no Kuni where we will guard them along side the Taki Daimyo's guards until the meetings are over and we will escort the Kusa Daimyo back to his country before returning to Konoha. Any questions?"

"Aren't Daimyo guard missions usually left to teams of chunin and jonin? Why are we doing this?" Shikamaru spoke up.

"Normally, yes, only chunin and jonin run missions like this due to the chances of encountering shinobi, but this is a special instance in that we aren't taking this mission because of you all, but more because of us jonin. We are some of the most well known jonin Konoha currently and have been personally requested for this mission and it was decided that we would take you all with us to show you what it's like to run a higher ranking mission. You won't have to worry too much about being attacked though; having us along is more just for the sake of prevention than anything else." Asuma explained, getting nods and murmurs of understanding from the genin.

"All right, let's move out." Kakashi ordered, leaping out of the gates and into the trees, setting a pace the genin could keep up with as he was followed by the genin and his fellow jonin.