As the afternoon sky shone brightly over Konoha, Hiruzen sat at his desk facing off against his greatest enemy, an enemy that always eludes defeat, is relentless, and seems to never to give up. The unforgiving paperwork.

The elderly man gave sigh as he finished reviewing a mission and looked over the village that he swore to protect, like all those who came before him. As he looked through the windows of his office he saw kids running around playing, he could see a few streets that were bustling with business and he couldn't help but feel great pride in the fact that his village was prosperous and safe.

Giving another deep sigh, he turned to picked up the next piece of paper that required his attention. 'God I'm getting too old for this…' Hiruzen thought as he signed his name and continued.

*** Unknown Location ***

"This is Hinata, I'm in position. No sigh of target yet."

"This is Kiba, I have target in sight now headed toward your position. Stupid thing is so predictable."

"Naruto here, ready in case it decides to run…"

"Target is on the move, headed south. Request permission to engage and subdue." Kiba's voice crackled over the radio.

"This is Hinata, I have a visual of the target. Can confirm it is the correct target, I see the ribbon from here."

"Team Leader, to all of Team 8, engage now and subdue."

Hearing the order to engage the two genin quickly rushed the targets location only for it to evade and run down an alleyway. As it tried to jump over a fence Naruto hidden from view on the rooftops quickly ran through a set of hand signs. "Genjutsu: Sagari-wa (Genjutsu: Falling Feathers)" He whispers out. The target quickly fell asleep and fell off the fence into the open arms of Hinata. After quickly double checking the identity of the cat from the description they were given, they began to quickly make their way back toward the Hokage's Office where the client was waiting.

"Good job you three, let's go collect the money and afterwards you can all go home. Tomorrow we'll train after the mission, so we won't have to take this one again." Kurenai said as she walked out of the shadows. She had been observing her Team over the past two months and was happy to say they had made huge strides in their training, both personal and teamwork wise.

As they continued to walk towards the Hokage to drop off their mission captive, Kurenai thought over how her team was working out. They had only been together for a little over two months, but each of them had made great strides towards their goal. Or at least Kurenai thought so.

Over the past two months not only had her team learned the essential chakra control exercises, but due to one of her student's interference their training seemed to have grown. Naruto had pointed out several points that made Kurenai ended up taking to heart and forced her to adjust her training methods.

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Flashback!

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Over the past month Naruto had been focusing so much into trying to integrate himself into Team 8 that his other training had suffered a little, it wasn't that hard for him, he was just used to training alone since most people didn't want anything to do with him. He was currently sitting against a tree resting after doing his chakra control exercises around the field, as he watched Hinata use her Taijutsu style against a practice pole, Kiba not far away, only using a tree that had long gouge marks all over it from his nails shredding the bark.

As Naruto sat there watching, he quickly went over everything that had happened over the month. Everything he knew on his teammates as he was getting closer to his teammates little by little. He tried to bring forward all he knew on the girl, which he had to admit, wasn't much.

As all of this was running through his head as Naruto watched Hinata as she moved through the katas of her family's Taijutsu, and he couldn't help but notice that it didn't suit her. She didn't seem to be comfortable with the style at all, and her body would make small awkward movements as if trying to fight the style itself.

Kurenai walked over to Naruto where he sat covered in sweat, and she couldn't help but think he was a little hot. Ignoring that pervish thoughts that were running through her mind, she walked over to him and sat next to him watching Hinata train.

"Something on your mind Naruto?" Kurenai asked curiously as he seemed to be deep in thought.

"Just watching Hinata is all... I never noticed before but she doesn't seem too comfortable with the style she's using right now, it almost seems wrong for her to be using it." Naruto stated offhandedly as if it was a fact everyone knew, "To be honest it doesn't look like she's any good with it."

Kurenai sat there for only a second processing what he said before a tick mark grew appeared on her head as her rage grew. "What did you say?" She asked through gritted teeth at someone disrespecting her student. She'd be damned if her students disrespected one another.

"I said it doesn't look like she's any good at the style. She should change it so it feels more natural is all. I mean from what I've observed from her stance it requires power right?" Naruto asked looking at very confused Kurenai. She didn't really know what he was getting at but she would wait to throttle him until after he finished explaining himself. "Well Hinata doesn't seem like she's built for strength, more like she's build for flexibility and speed. So in a sense that style is wrong for her, she really should change styles. Probably would be too much trouble to do so, but isn't that what everyone does? I mean you learn a style sure, but end the end you have to personalize it so it fits you perfectly otherwise your just copying something that could end up getting your hurt because you're not using it correctly." Naruto said as he turned away from his sensei to continue to watch his teammate train.

Kurenai was dumbstruck, she hadn't thought of it mainly because she knew the Hyūga family was so uptight about sticking to tradition, she hadn't thought to ask Hinata herself. "You may be right, but only Hinata herself can change it, we can't interfere in it at all." Kurenai said, almost helplessly at the whole situation.

Naruto quickly wagged his head in the negative, "That isn't true. As the sensei, you can help advise us on training, even if it goes against what our clan or clans want. And isn't it your job to try to help make us as strong as you can? I'd think personalizing our training so that it fits our individual needs is basically in your job description." Naruto said, not meeting his sensei's eyes just encase he had insulted her.

Kurenai just sat there as Naruto stood back up and pulled out senbon for his chakra control exercises. As Naruto walked away to continue his training Kurenai just sat there thinking to herself.

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Flashback End!

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From what Naruto had said Kurenai spent two days afterwards rethinking everything she had planned for their training. While most of it was still valid, as it was things they wouldn't know and needed to be taught, but their basic training hadn't met their actual needs in order for them to grow. She was really thinking on the course every jōnin sensei had to take, and thought most of what it taught was crap now.

Since this epiphany, Kurenai had taken the time to observe how her genin students behaved and what their previous training was like. From there she made plans to help each of them however she could. The only one she wasn't able to do that for was Naruto, and that was because she still wasn't able to observe him train on his own. It had become like a small game of cat and mouse, only the mouse kept getting away from the cat. The only time she'd finally catch up to him was on the nights he would play his flute.

Since the 'new' training, Hinata's stances seemed more relaxed and natural, as Kurenai forced on flexibility training and speed drills. She used her bodies flexibility to her advantage, and was very deadly in combat now. She still practiced the old way, wanting to keep up with it, just to be on the safe side. The new training also had an unintentional side effect though. While Hinata was normally very reserved, the new training focused on her being comfortable. The result, a deadly Taijutsu and her being more open with the team. Or her openness could have been when she introduced the girl to Anko.

A prime example of being more open was whenever Naruto and Kiba would argue. If it went on to long she'd just shut them both up, either by knockout or giving an all too sweet smile and scaring them quiet. Normally it was just by fear that she kept order, as neither of the boys were willing to cross her. Her more openness also allowed her to express her interest in Kiba a little more openly, though she still was too shy to fully act on it yet.

In response to Hinata's new openness, Kiba's personality seemed to quiet down a bit. Mainly due to Hinata's interference or learning from Naruto, Kiba no longer acted as rashly as he had. After trying to put himself as the 'Alpha' of the group and being put down quickly by the other two he was forced to rethink on how he went about things. He was still hot headed, but he was started to think more depending on the situation, though he now tried to show off more and more. He had found out that he wasn't the strongest on the team when he went up against Hinata and lost… badly.

Kurenai's training for Kiba had picked up a little like Hinata's, both doing speed drills constantly however she started to incorporate light training weights to also help increase his strength. However the bulk of his training was actually him reading. Kiba's grades weren't the best, being only a few places ahead of the dead last Shikamaru, so Kurenai had set out to help him increase his knowledge. Though he hated it at first, like anything he did, he threw himself into it with gusto.

When it came to Naruto however, Kurenai was stumped. It wasn't that she didn't know what he specialized in; it was that he was far more advanced than the others. When she went to do chakra control with Kiba and Hinata, he had shown that he not only knew the exercises, but that he had already mastered them. She had begun to think that he had been trained beforehand, but when she asked the Hokage, he only said that he had taught him enough to make sure his Kekkei Genkai was useable and controllable and that he hadn't taught him anything on genjutsu. This only meant that he had learned everything on his own.

Kurenai had tried to get an accurate assessment of his skill set, and even then she was sure he was still hiding skills from her. Not only had he mastered tree and water walking, but also kunai floating and spinning as well as the senbon stand. He had also come up with new chakra control exercises and was working on mastering them. His Taijutsu was something not even she had thought of and she quickly learned it. All he did was incorporate genjutsu into his Taijutsu by using genjutsu's that used no hand seals. In a one-on-one fight, he was very almost ruthless as he would change the perception of the person he was fighting using genjutsu and was able to get easy take downs. He was able to do this by expelling chakra from himself and then manipulating his opponents once they entered his. Hinata was the only one to be able to keep up with him in a one-on-one fight because of her flexibility and speed, however because he was expelling chakra from himself, when she used the Byakugan, she was unable to see anything except the cloud of chakra around him.

When it came to his genjutsu, Kurenai found that he had quite the imagination as was very successful with it. So successful that she was thinking of putting him up for the genjutsu master's exam. As far as she knew, only two people had taken it before chūnin. One was herself, and the other was Itachi.

She still remembered when she tried to teach her team as well as a college's team about genjutsu…

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Flashback! (A/N: Last one for this chapter, I swear)

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Kurenai was not having a good day. First she woke up late from a night of sleep that wasn't at all restful. She had been tossing and turning all night, hell she even woke twice in the middle of the night because she couldn't sit still.

And now she was having to deal with Gai. She had nothing against the man, well except his choice in fashion and the fact that he was excessively loud. She knew she wasn't the only one who had to deal with him, it just was her luck that she had to deal with him today.

"Fine!" Kurenai said. The Green Beast of Konoha had trying to extort a Genjutsu lesson from her, even though she'd only had her squad for three weeks. She was still discovering everything the young shinobi could do.

"YOSH! I THANK YOU KURENAI-SAN! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE MY STUDENTS TO MEET YOU?" Gai asked, making Kurenai wish for the hundredth time so far that he had a volume switch, or at least a mute button somewhere.

"Have them meet me at Training ground 27, that's the training ground we've been using so far." Kurenai said, as she started to walk away from the man. She made it all of three steps when the man thanked here again, and was off like a shot.

'Well, knowing him they'll be there soon. Might as well go and inform my team.' Kurenai thought to herself as she started to make her way to the training fields.

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"So that's what we're going to be doing today, got it?" Kurenai asked. She had decided to let them know that she was going to be teaching not only Gai's team, but hers as well on Genjutsu.

"Umm, sensei, can I just train on my chakra control? I already use genjutsu so I'm not sure if I really need the lecture." Naruto said. Kurenai mentally face palmed herself, she had completely forgotten that Naruto specialized in Genjutsu.

"Sorry Naruto, yes, you can work on your chakra control while I teach the others. However I want you to be nearby so I know you're not slacking off." Kurenai said, which gained her a nod by Naruto. As he went to stand up, Gai entered training grounds with his team.

"YOSH! KURENAI, I HAVE BROUGHT MY TEAM AS YOU REQUESTED! I SHALL LEAVE THEM IN YOUR CAPABLE HANDS!" The spandex wearing man yelled out. Kurenai just motioned for them to sit down with her team.

"Alright, now let me start saying that I'm going to be teaching you all about genjutsu. Your team's sensei asked a favor of me so let's get to it. A genjutsu is a construct, composed completely of chakra. It is designed to deceive the senses…" Kurenai said, as she gave the standard lecture that was given at the academy introductions. As she continued she was also observing everyone.

Hinata sat there listening intently to the lecture. While her Byakugan could see through most genjutsu because the chakra could be directly visible to her, she still made sure to pay close attention. After all, even if you knew you were under a genjutsu it wouldn't matter much if you couldn't effectively dispel it. As they say, knowing is only half the battle.

Kiba was the one who surprised her the most. He was actually paying attention. From the reports of when he was in the academy, he rarely sat still to listen to any sort of lecture. He seemed to be taking his shinobi career seriously, though that might be because as an Inuzuka he always tried to help his team. Teamwork was engrained in their blood.

On members of Gai's team she also watched as well. She wasn't just worried about her own students getting it, she wanted to make sure that her temporary students did as well.

With Lee, while he was extremely polite just like his sensei, hell he even looked like a copy of the man, he seemed to frown a lot as she talked. At first she wondered if he was having some difficulties with the material, but she also remembered something about Lee. He didn't have the ability to mold the chakra necessary to create genjutsu, so she ended chalking it up to his inability to use most of what the lecture covered.

Tenten on the other hand was practically starry-eyed. It took a while for Kurenai to understand exactly why she had such an awed expression on her face, and it wasn't until she remembered something she had heard about the girl. The girl was one of the most formidable new kunoichi to have some out of the academy in the last few years. She was deadly accurate with thrown weapons, and wasn't a slouch when it came to close range weaponry as well; And with being on a team with three men, she probably had started to question if a woman could be a successful shinobi or not. Kurenai slowly realized that the girl was probably idolizing her for her success and ability to show that women could be successful as shinobi.

As he lecture was coming to a close, she hazard a glance over in the direction of Naruto. She was worried that he might just be sitting in a tree napping instead of training like he said he would. What she saw, took every ouch of her self-control not to blush.

Naruto was currently in a tree, and topless. He was doing what looked like pull ups, only he was using senbon to do it. He was channeling chakra through the needles to stick to his fingers as well as having them stick to the tree. This a very high chakra control to do this, but that wasn't what was making her blush.

No it was the fact that she could see his sweat covered body, as he had been doing this since the beginning of her lecture twenty-five minutes ago, and she was doing her best not to be mesmerized by the rippling muscle that she could see flex with exertion.

Because of all of this she was forced to repeat in her head, 'He's my student, and that's inappropriate. He's my student, and that's inappropriate. He's my sexy student, and that's inappropriate.'

Her body was on auto-pilot as she finished up the lecture, her main focus on trying to stop any of her thoughts from going anywhere they shouldn't.

"So are there any questions?" Kurenai asked. She had subtly turned so she was facing away from temptation. It wasn't her fault that she hadn't been with anyone lately. The last relationship had been with Asuma, and that ended rather quickly as she wasn't able to handle his chronic smoking.

Seeing no questions she continued her lecture on how to identify if you're in a genjutsu or not. "Now, as for identifying when your being affected by a genjutsu, all you have to do is remember it is limited by two things: The amount of chakra used, and the creator's imagination. Both of those factors mean that not every element of the illusion will be perfect, this also means that each genjutsu a person casts, even the same person, will be slightly different from the last. No two genjutsu are completely the same, even if they were cast by the same person with the same conditions. Now when you are placed in a genjutsu, you will want to look for obvious things first. Don't, most genjutsu users will have thought of this so there won't be anything obvious. You have to look for subtle changes in your surrounds, a rock that wasn't there before or birds that seem to not be moving, little things like that. Once your mind seizes on these differences, the battle is mostly won. Now let me say again, MOSTLY, just because you understand you're in a genjutsu does not mean you have shattered the illusion. Now there are a few ways to break the genjutsu. One of the commonly known method of disrupting a genjutsu is to wound yourself. The pain from the wound will shock your senses and cause a small disruption within your chakra effectively breaking the genjutsu. However this is not a completely effective solution, as you've now wounded yourself and are still in a dangerous situation. So how else do you think you can accomplish this without self-mutilation?"

Tenten was the first to speak up, "Well if you think about it logically, since genjutsu is a chakra-bases energy construct, the genjutsu should be able to be disrupted by the same form of energy right?"

"Correct," Kurenai said with a smile, "but that is rather advanced stuff, stuff you shouldn't be learning to apply before your normally a seasoned chūnin. Can anyone think of an easier way to break free from a genjutsu?"

Lee and Kiba looked puzzled, while Tenten frowned. She looked at Hinata, who looked rather hesitant. She really needed to introduce the girl to Anko to help break that shyness. "Hinata? You look like you've thought of something." Kurenai said, forcing the girl into the spot light.

"Well… If the genjutsu is anchored too your personal chakra, wouldn't it be easier to just disrupt the anchors, rather than trying to disrupt the whole thing?" Hinata said a soft meek voice.

Kurenai kept her smile up, "That's very close. You can temporarily remove what the genjutsu is anchored to. It's tricky if you don't have very good chakra control, but if you can suppress your own chakra circulation for a split second, the genjutsu will fail. This is a lot easier than trying to shatter a chakra construct that might have been made by someone considerably more powerful than you are."

Moving to demonstrate, Kurenai ended up stopping herself. "Naruto," Kurenai called out though not looking directly at him. This made everyone look at the sweating blonde, which made the girls blush, "Would you come and demonstrate for them how to suppress their chakra circulation."

Naruto having to problem with it, jumped out of the tree, completely forgetting his shirt, and walked up to the group. Putting up the ram hand seal, he closed his eyes for a moment. With a sharp intake of breath, Naruto suppress his chakra circulation to almost zero. Instantly, the sunlight didn't seem to reflect as easily from his skin, his hair drooped a bit, and the warmth of the sun seemed muted on face.

During this time however Kurenai was examining Naruto. She was now able to get a much closer look at the boy, and her rampant thoughts of her doing inappropriate things to her student returned tenfold.

Naruto had only held the technique for a few seconds, before he exhaled and release his chakra. The results were staggering to say the least, as his chakra returning actually created a small cracks in the ground around his feet. Everyone was amazed for a moment before they saw him panting like crazy.

"Sorry… that takes… a lot out of… me" Naruto said in between pants. Kurenai wasn't all that surprised. Naruto had the largest chakra reserves out of his year, hell his chakra reserves out classed most jōnin. She had asked him why he didn't focus on Ninjutsu instead, all she was given was 'Personal preference'.

"Well, now why don't we get all of you to try this?" Kurenai said, as she moved to address the group. She was happy no one had commented on the blush she was trying to suppress, though she could still feel the heat coming off her face.

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End of Flashback

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After that Kurenai started to notice things about Naruto when they trained as a team; And it was annoying her. Not that he was annoying, no what annoyed her was she couldn't do anything. He was her student, and several years younger than her as well. It just wasn't what she considered 'proper' behavior.

Her thoughts were interrupted as they had made it to the Hokage Tower. Team 8 walked into the mission room with the cat in hand.

"Ah, look here; Seems Team 8 is trying to set a new record, well done you four." The Hokage spoke with a smile. Sitting next to him was Iruka. The chūnin had a lot of free time until he was given his next class so he helped out with handing out missions when he could. Across from the table the two sat at was a large woman, dressed in very pricey clothing.

"Oh, Tora deary!" The woman exclaimed as she quickly rushed Kiba who was carrying the cat. She practically ripped the feline out of the Inuzuka's hands and started to squeeze the life out of it. When she noticed it wasn't struggling at all she looked down to see it unmoving. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY DEAR TORA?!" The woman screamed at the genin team.

"Nothing, ma'am. She's just under a genjutsu I used to put her to sleep for a bit." Naruto said as she walked up and broke the genjutsu. Immediately the cat started to thrash around which prompted the large woman to glomp and squeeze the cat. Afterwards she quickly paid for the mission and left.

"So, how is everything going Kurenai-san?" Hiruzen asked, truly interested on how the new genin were working out.

"My team is doing better than I had originally expected." Kurenai said with a small smile on her face. This compliment brought out giant smiles of pride from the three genin as well.

"Good, very good. Well I actually have a small mission for you if you're team is up for it?" Hiruzen said as he grabbed a scroll from the pile before him, "It's a simple C-rank mission, do you think your team could handle it?"

Kurenai was torn, while her team was making very good strides in their overall training, she just wasn't sure if they were ready for a C-rank yet. Hiruzen seeing her hesitation quickly moved to resolve the issue, as the mission shouldn't be all that dangerous.

"It's just a simple delivery mission Kurenai-san. Your to take this scroll and give it to the client, that's it." Hiruzen said.

This however caught Naruto's attention, "Wait delivery? How is that C-rank? We've done deliveries before and they were labeled D-rank."

Hiruzen chuckled, "Ah yes, you see those were labeled D-rank because they were in the village and had no danger present for them. C-rank aren't all that far above D-rank, however because they all originate outside of the village there is an inherent risk that comes with it, hence the increase in mission difficulty and pay." The elderly Kage said.

Naruto nodded his head in understanding, and looked to his sensei. Kurenai, who now had all four (including Akamaru) sets of eyes on her, just sighed. "I was originally going to let them go home for the day, but they seem like their up for it." Kurenai said.

Hiruzen smiled, "Very good, now here's the scroll and good luck." Hiruzen said as he handed the jōnin kunoichi the scroll and sent them on their way.

As Team 8 left the office, Kurenai made sure to dish out orders quickly. While they still had most of the day, and an easy mission she still wanted them to take it seriously.

"Alright, I want you to go home and get your things ready. This may be an easy mission, but we will treat as if it isn't. Understand?" Kurenai asked her students. Getting nods from all of the, even the small white puppy, she sent them off after telling them of their meeting time

Heaving a small sigh, Kurenai took off as well to gather her equipment. 'Well a shinobi must be ready at a moment's notice. Oh well, what's the worst that could happen on a simple C-rank?'