"SASUKE!!" A loud voice squealed with a mixture of delight and horror upon seeing the boy emerge from the treeline of the dark mystifying woodland, battered, bruised and exhausted.

Sasuke walked alongside his Sensei, Sakura on his other side and Naruto on Kakashi's left. The mane of the charcoal eyed boy waved through the wind as he stared team 10 down whilst the group openly threw worrying and concerned glances at the lot. Sakura and Naruto felt similar to the young Uchiha, They had spent a month in the shadowy hell and coming back to the real world only to be treated as children who couldn't defend themselves again agitated the three and Kakashi noticed the stiffness in their shoulders but kept to himself. He knew they were capable of controlling themselves, especially now after everything they've experienced and learned.

Team 10 found it rather difficult watching their comrade's in a state of severe fatigue and felt slightly overwhelmed by the indifference they showed as they practically limped alongside their amused Sensei.

Before the rest of her team could stop the blonde kunoichi, Ino rushed forward to embrace her beloved. Though her efforts were admirable, they were meaningless as Sakura stepped in, laying a swift punch to the girl's abdomen causing her to hunch over in pain.

Sakura froze. She had just attacked her comrade and for what? For Sasuke? Hadn't she come to a decision long ago, she'd given up on the romantic life for now - so why would she attack her friend?

The pinkette stepped back, regret swimming in the clear waters of her grass-colored eyes.

Shikamaru and Choji rushed to the blonde's side, aiding her to stand upright. The shadow commanding boy glared viciously up at Sakura.

The girl didn't know what to do or say. She felt overwhelmed, agitated and when Ino rushed forward she had mistaken her action as an attack. Sakura glanced up at Kakashi, silently begging for help.

Naruto and Sasuke watched with wide eyes as Kakashi immediately stepped forward, his hands in the air for a sign of surrender, especially toward Asuma, who looked ready to commit a terrible deed.

"Asuma" Kakashi muttered, catching said man's attention along with the other two teammates of group 10.

"Try and understand. She is still in a primal state. They spent a month in the forest and she mistook Ino as an enemy" The silver spark tried explaining.

"Enemy?! Why would your student think mine an enemy, Kakashi!" Asuma bellowed, obviously implying a great offense.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the accusation "Fine, I'll prove it. I've trained my students in ultimate discipline and respect" He started, confusing the Hokage's son as the man wondered why he'd bring his training method into this.

Kakashi smirked beneath his navy mask and flung a lethal kunai at Naruto's head.

Team 10 gasped, reaching out to halt the attack but was useless as they were too far away.

Naruto swiftly caught the kunai and threw it with the same lethal force back at his Sensei who simply caught the weapon in return and placed it back in its holder.

Team 10 watched Naruto's facial expressions change drastically from murderous to heavy regret.

"Sensei-" the blonde shinobi stuttered, trying to find a reason for his behavior.

"It's alright Naruto. You're still in a different state of mind" Kakashi reassured the genin.

"Do you see now?" The man questioned, turning to the group In front of them. The team appeared apologetic and nodded their heads in understanding.

They muttered their goodbyes and good lucks, sympathetic stares filling team 7's nightmares as they glared in return.

"Fools" Sasuke mumbled underneath his breath.

A hard smack sounded throughout the area as Kakashi had slapped the Uchiha over the head.

The boy rubbed his painful bruising head and stared, confused, at his Sensei.

"We'll need to work on your disciplinary again, it seems" Kakashi announced slowly, allowing them to take in the seriousness of his words.

If they thought the forest of death had been hell, the genin were in for a shock.

Team 7 had limped home and had a team dinner that Kakashi had prepared especially for them before collapsing into a state of panic and fatigue in their respective bedrooms. A dreamless and sleepless night had followed as thoughts of the beasts lurking within the shadows of training ground four-one clouded their minds.

Over the next week, the nightmares had not stopped, driving the genin to a state of over exhaustion but still, they pushed forward for more training. Kakashi had eventually given the lot sleeping pills to help, which it had luckily and so the disciplinary training continued on for a week before their real training started up once again, just in time too as the genin no longer required the medicine to aid them in sleeping which meant they were ready for the next step.

The trio stood before their commanding officer outside the village and in front of a wet muggy cave, a waterfall flowing over it, hiding it from view with a large pond formed at the bottom of the mass falling water. The sight was beautiful and this was where they'd be training for the next month.

Of course, even through the harsh training, Naruto had still managed to keep up his duty of making two clones to study hard each day and was thankful to have learned so much. Sakura and Sasuke leeched of the infinite information that was Naruto. He had told them every detail he could from the books and It helped considerably in their own training.

"Alright, you'll be training here for a while and I'll be overseeing your progress this time, any questions?" Kakashi breathed out lazily, feeling particularly tired today, probably because of the new training method he's applied for himself. It's twice as hard as his previous and he found it rather difficult to keep up, especially with Mighto Gai joining him in some of the sessions.

Sakura cleared her throat "What will we be learning, Sensei?" She asked in a clear, firm voice.

Kakashi positioned his index finger to his chin, implying deep thought "Hmm, well. We're surrounded by water and your previous training in the forest, I had you learn tree walking." The jounin Sensei stated, hinting the genin to figure it out. Though such aid wasn't needed as they had already guessed beforehand and had just needed to confirm.

Although Kakashi had over trained the trio in physical aspects, he had made the extra step and taught them all and anything about the outside world, such as villages, missing-nin and advanced math even. Anything he could get his hands on, he would teach his genin. Including some tips from his Anbu days. They were in the process of learning the hand signs to use during missions so that detection was near to none.

Teaching genin this much knowledge should have been much harder but his genin had picked it up quite quickly, though they were still very naive of the world as the trio had yet to make their first kill.

"So we'll be learning how to walk on water?" Naruto asked, furrowing his brows and looking at the area.

"Exactly" was the response the blonde received in return.

Sasuke overlooked the lake and breathed in the cold crisp air.

Naruto and Sakura had grown close to Sasuke over the months and could pick up the faint body language he displayed and what it meant.

"Mah...Teme?" Naruto called out, catching the Uchiha's attention.

Sasuke stared at the boy and exhaled slowly, closing his eyes and laying his head back. Sasuke had always enjoyed the cool fresh air. His teammates smiled at his grace as if he were in his natural habitat.

"Right! listen up" Kakashi drew the attention back to him.

"Listen carefully. This practice could not only save your life later on but also helps to gain better chakra control. To do this technique, you need to emit a constant stream of chakra from the bottom of your feet and using repellent force to walk across the water surface. This technique is more difficult to learn than the Ki Nobori no Shugyo (tree climbing practice) because the amount of chakra that needs to be emitted changes constantly." he explained.

The trio hardly responded to the lecture as they waited for him to show them the hand signs, which he did shortly after.

"Alright, practice the hand signs but do not execute the technique until I'm back. I won't be long" Kakashi announced much to the annoyance of the genin.

Kakashi set out to the Hokage's office.

The Sandaime enjoyed smoking the hard to find and extremely relaxing tobacco in his pipe anytime he attempted to sort through the mountains of paperwork the village so generously provided their strong leader.

A firm subtle knock sounded throughout the Hokage's dome of silence.

"Oh, thank goodness" A mutter passed under the old man's breath.

"Come in!" He called out, perhaps a bit too eager sounding.

Kakashi walked in, confusion set upon his face until he saw the barrage of paperwork and understood the older man's suffering.

Clearing his throat "If you have a second, Lord Hokage"

"Hmm, I suppose I can spare some time" The Sandaime responded, trying to appear calm but came off rather desperate to leave the hell cast upon him.

Kakashi smirked under his mask as his higher up stood from his swaying wood chair "Let's take a walk" He said.

Both men dispersed to the roof of the Hokage's building, overlooking the massive village. The past Hokage's faces, including the old man himself, lined across a tall peaceful cliff that stood high above the village itself. A brisk of wind blew through the robes of the Hokage and Kakashi's silver spiked up hair. Memories were a given to be thought of anytime they took a glance at the mountain. Mostly regretful memories but the good always outweighed the bad, even if there weren't many.

"What is it you wanted to talk about, Kakashi?" The Sandaime questioned after taking a large breath of fresh mountain air.

Kakashi scratched his head and avoided eye contact with his superior.

"Well..." He started. The Hokage grew more suspicious by the second and tried making eye contact too which the younger male kept avoiding "It would be wise to send my charges out on a mission, away from the village" The Hokage seemed rather pleased at the news.

"Well, they have been inside the village for months, I'm quite surprised you haven't taken them out earlier actual-"

"For their first kill." Kakashi interrupted the Hokage's cheerful lecture, halting the elder.

The interrupted man took on a grave expression and looked toward the skies, leaving Kakashi in suspense.

"Their first kill you say?" He muttered sadly.

"Hai"

The Sandaime shook his head but relented his anger toward the man for trying to take away their innocence like this but, unfortunately, this would've happened sooner or later. He just wished it'd be later.

"Why now?" He questioned.

"They're still so young, none of the other genins have taken lives yet" The Hokage added.

"My genin are different, sir. I think you know that and despite their comrades' status on the matter, they need to keep progressing. The level I am teaching at is too high for them to stay the way they are now and they are becoming bored and agitated by the slow progress. Any other genin teams wouldn't have lasted with the training mine are experiencing now" Kakashi explained.

The Hokage seemed convinced of this and wholeheartedly agreed with the ex-Anbu master.

"I agree with you Kakashi, you may take your students out of the village and help them perform their duty to this village" His gruff voice betraying him as he couldn't keep the sadness out of it.

"Thank you, sir" Kakashi responded and teleported away before his superior could change his mind.

The Hokage went back to overlooking his village "I hope you know what you're doing, Kakashi" He whispered, wishing luck to the younger generation.

Kakashi appeared back at the training ground where his charges were still practicing the hand signs and by the looks of the fallen trees and patched up grass, they had also been training their newly learned taijutsu and ninjutsu.

The trio noticed their Sensei and stood before him.

"Alright, time to perform. Ladies first" He announced.

Sakura felt dejected being the only girl in the group but shoved the feeling aside to make way for unending determination and ran over to the lake.

She focused her chakra and performed the hand signs before stepping onto the water.

Cheers and Whoops sounded from behind her as she turned around to see Naruto flipping out with excitement for her and Sasuke smirking. Kakashi threw in a few 'Well done' and 'Good job's as an add-on.

"Sasuke"

Sasuke swiftly jumped into the air and onto the lake next to his pink haired teammate. The boy concentrated heavily, sweat dripped down his forehead as he kept focus.

Whoops, and cheers followed the young Uchiha as well before Naruto was called on.

The blonde ran full force to the lake. "Slow down Naruto! you're going too fast!" Sakura yelled but the boy had already reached the lake and jumped forward, determined to achieve the same level as his teammates.

Naruto took on a panicked expression as he neared the water. He landed on the wet surface as though it was watery ground, successfully performing the jutsu but he didn't stop there, it seemed.

Naruto had landed but ended up sliding across the lake as he was going too fast. Sasuke ran forward as the boy neared a sharp boulder on the other side of the lake.

Luckily the Uchiha caught the knucklehead ninja before damage could be taken and smacked him over the head.

Naruto grinned sheepishly at his friend and thanked him.

"Well done! You've performed the Suimen Hoko no gyo (water walking technique), Keep practicing this for a week and then we'll receive our first out-of-village mission." Kakashi announced, surprising the genin though they looked forward to the experience and instantly started their training before running their laps around the Konoha lake, adding an extra lap as they hadn't climbed the team's training ground cliff.

Kakashi smiled at his charges, enjoying the last moments of their innocence before they would change, forever.