It was an early morning in the village of Konoha. The markets were bristling with crowds of rich and poor civilians. Every tradesman had a price to offer for both.

The three students of Kakashi Hatake, team 7 were sat together watching the commotion from a nearby roof.

This was their first mission, watch over the market area and if they encountered any pickpocket thieves, reprimand them. Easy enough. The only pickpockets around here were orphaned children.

Their first mission wasn't supposed to be this but sensei thought it appropriate as well as a training exercise.

The genin sat in a deep, comfortable silence. No one had said a word other than the usual 'ohayo'. Kakashi-sensei was somewhere in the crowd, picking at dead fish from nearby trade stands.

The kids watched him in amusement as their sensei seemed fascinated by something like that, though they knew never to underestimate their jounin sensei. He had a reputation after all.

Sakura had done her own research into the man and found he had been in the Anbu black ops a few years back, not to mention he was widely known across the nations and in the bingo book, he's known as a legend.

The other two heard this from their pink haired friend and decided to take more cautious steps around him. Which of course, he noticed.

Kakashi was going to start their training soon, but before that, he needed to distinguish their level of skill in a number of different situations. Of course, they were hardly of genin level at the moment. No matter how cool they liked to act.

A small female child, no older than six skipped along the crowded street in an upbeat manner. Her hair brown as the mud she trampled on, her clothes tattered, giving away she was merely an orphan. This orphan was also hungry it seemed as she skipped up to a fruit vendor and sneakily snagged herself an apple before running away, throwing away the happy facade she played moments before.

Sasuke was the first to see the child and acted accordingly. He signaled his teammates to where the girl had run off to, into a dark alleyway.

The three jumped off the roof and stood Infront the alley "of course, it had to be a dark and mysterious alleyway" Sakura stated with distaste. 

"Hn, scared?" The Uchiha teased, though hard to tell with his face mirroring a stone statue.
"Are you? You haven't gone in there either" Naruto backed Sakura up, a smug smirk plastered on his face as he turned to Sasuke who looked ready to lay a few punches in him.

"Enough. Let's not waste any more time" the pink haired girl ordered, her voice stern while her eyes narrowed, adjusting to the dark as she looked into the alley.

"Let's go" Sasuke muttered and sprinted into the darkness, his teammates following close behind with little hesitation.

The group flung left and right as more alleyways appeared before them. Finally emerging from a particularly darker alley than the rest, they found themselves in a fairly large clearing.

The homeless and drugged up rejects lay across worn and ripped futons.

Carefully sidestepping the few who laid in their way. Naruto spotted the same brown-eyed girl who stole the apple.

If she had only stolen an apple, they would've easily decided to let her be, but Sasuke had seen her pickpocket many adults on her way to the food stand and informed his team. That wasn't something the team could simply let slide, lest they fancy themselves a lecturing from their sensei.

Slowly approaching their target, the little girl noticed the bright red dress of Sakura and looked up at her shinobi headband, her eyes widened at the sight as she came to the conclusion. They were after her.

The confused, scared little girl panicked and ran as fast as she could. Though she didn't realize the genin surrounded her while she was panicking and left her no exit points.

Sasuke glared down at the girl, not with hatred but with distaste. He felt the girl was a waste of time and a coward for not earning her keep.

Sakura felt pity toward the girl as Naruto grabbed her collar, to decrease further attempts of escape, his face void of emotion as, he too, had been in her situation once, scolding himself yet again for his past. He was weaker then, his will was nonexistent, but now he could prove himself.

This girl was in many ways the same as him, yet he saw her for what she truly was. A lost girl in need of security.

The trio dragged her outside, away from the crowds and homeless.

"Girl." Sasuke spoke with displeasure, his voice even and smooth.

The girl kept her head down in shame, not daring to look up at her captors, in case they decided to dispose of her, in her eyes, they were shinobi after all.

Sasuke shook his head at the lack of response, he never was patient with such things and instead, looked over to Sakura. His teammate seemed to have a soft spot for the six-year-old and turned the girl toward her instead. Signalling Sakura's turn.

Sakura looked down at the girl she felt for and knelt down to her height, gently grabbing her chin and forcing the young one to look her in the eyes.

"What is your name?" Sakura asked softly.

"I-I don't have one.." The girl stuttered, tears rolling down her muddy face.

Sakura's heart clenched, looking up at Naruto and Sasuke for some kind of guidance.

Sasuke ignored her plea and looked around, wondering where his lazy sensei was whilst Naruto smiled sadly and placed his hand upon the nameless girl's head.

She looked up at Naruto with sad, lonely eyes. Eyes he knew far too well.

"Come. We'll take you to the Hokage, he'll know what to do" Naruto claimed, breaking the heart clenching silence.

The girl stared with surprise at the blonde. Unfamiliar with such care.

As time would permit, Kakashi-sensei arrived. Stating their mission was done, they only needed to stand guard for two hours and be done with it.

As Kakashi moved his gaze to his pupils and to the girl still being held by Sakura. It seemed fate wasn't being kind today as they were not simply done with it.

"I see you've found a friend" the jounin remarked, eyebrow slightly raised.

"Hai. She has no name so we'd like to take her to the Hokage." Sasuke reported, slightly guarded since he doesn't know that much about his sensei.

Naruto and Sakura quickly caught on by Sasuke's tense shoulders and looked over to Kakashi-sensei. Surely he wouldn't let the girl go on her own, would he?

"The Hokage does not have time for minor situations like this"

Perhaps Sakura thought wrong.

"Will we leave her then?" Naruto questioned, surprising Sakura more by even considering the idea.

Their sensei looked deep in thought for a second before answering "No, I don't think that'll be necessary. We'll take her to an orphanage."

"Hai" the trio voiced together.

The girl had no problem leaving the place she had come to call home, a home was supposed to be a place of comfort and safety. Her home was far from it.

After arriving with the girl at the kindest orphanage in the village, they took her in with open arms and even gave her the name of 'Yuki'. The orphanage wasn't in a high enough position to give the child a surname though but 'Yuki' didn't seem to mind one bit. Her life had a purpose now, she decided on her way to the building with the ninja that escorted her. She'd follow their footsteps.

———

Team 7 stood around the wooden posts of training ground three. The three old and marked posts not reaching higher than Naruto's shoulders.

"Mah - I think it's time to start your training" Their silver-haired Sensei announced, drawing each of their attention closer than ever. Each one eager to learn from him and become stronger, for different reasons albeit.

Kakashi stared at his students. This would be the hardest training they'd come to face but no one was going to train under him and not be the best, he decided that long ago.

"First of all. No longer will you know me as a fair or kind sensei, I will drive you to your limit and beyond. Second, All pretenses of kindness no longer exist, you will not help little children finding a name and figuring out their future. You are not parents, do not act like it. In war, you would have to kill kids without a second thought, in some cases. Missions too." Kakashi explained, watching their faces turn pale. Sasuke and Naruto quickly diverted their fear to the determination of becoming stronger while Sakura's fear turned into curiosity. She was smart, he'd give her that but curiosity killed the cat.

"As such" Kakashi continued "from now, your life will be constantly put in danger, I won't go easy on you and if you do die in my training.." He paused, looking each of them in the eye "well... Good luck" he smiled lazily at them.

At this point, the genin were shocked beyond words but nothing could keep them from this, they wanted to earn their strength, their power. It won't be easy, especially since they liked working alone without the weight of a team on their shoulders but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Hai!" They said together.

"Very well"

Previously, Kakashi had gone to the Hokage needing his permission to start intense training and after a long while of arguing from the higher-up's side, Kakashi finally convinced the Sandaime.

———

Team 7 was led by Kakashi outside of the village gates. Training ground sixty-six was stationed on the west side of Konoha and that was where a lot of their training would take place.

Standing by the bottom of an insanely tall cliff, the genin looked up, barely seeing the end.

"Listen up" Kakashi spoke, he hadn't risen his voice but made it strong enough for them to hear. The trio were taken by surprise when his voice came out a lot different than his usual carefree lazy tone. His expression had darkened considerably while his voice became void of emotion and harder than steel.

They gulped.

"Your objective is to climb this cliff, no chakra. if you make it to the top, I'll continue on with the next part. If one of you does not make it, then I'll strip you of your ninja title and make sure you never practice jutsu again." he voiced and before anyone could ask any questions, he disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

The genin looked up at the cliff and down at each other again.

"No chakra? How are we supposed to do that?" Sakura asked.

"With strength"  Sasuke mumbled with an accusing tone toward Sakura, implying she wasn't nearly strong enough for this and that he'd fail because of her if she falls.

Naruto looked deep into thought before breathing out. The other two looked over at him "you heard Kakashi-sensei. This will be life-threatening. If you want to back out now then do so, but I'm going to at least try" Naruto spoke, a fierce fire trembling inside his chest as he made up his mind.

He'd climb the cliff because he'll become Hokage one day!

And so, Naruto sprinted onto a fallen Boulder, using the momentum of his jump to land ways from the ground against the cliff, cutting open his left hand in the process, luckily for him, it was only a small wound.

Sasuke decided to join his teammate and used the same Boulder to projectile himself into the air before landing next to Naruto, slightly higher on his left. They gave a strained smirk to each other before looking down at Sakura.

Sakura bit her lip and tied her pink hair up into a ponytail with a rubber band before fastening her medical book to her waist.

She jumped up against the wall with much effort, next to Naruto on his right, using the Boulder.

Naruto smiled at Sakura to which she smirked "race you to the top" she challenged. Sasuke's eyes widened at her statement, not expecting this behavior from the usually lazy and silent bookworm.

He narrowed his eyes and gladly took the challenge, determined to show how strong he was compared to the kunoichi. Which was a lot in his eyes.

Naruto looked on at Sakura as she started climbing, struggling slightly.

He felt confused, weren't they all getting along just before? Or is this what friends did? He wouldn't know after all.

He turned to Sasuke who looked rather determined and too smug for his liking. Naruto knew Sasuke could easily beat Sakura, especially when it came to stamina and strength but the guy didn't need to be so full of himself because of it.

Naruto narrowed his eyes as Sasuke hastily started his climb, easily catching up to Sakura who was heavily sweating and groaning as her muscles screamed from the overuse.

Naruto climbed up next to Sakura as Sasuke passed her without even glancing at her.

The blonde haired shinobi smiled at her, she was doing much better than he thought she would, that she could take credit for.

Sakura tried returning the smile though it came out as a grimace.

Naruto pointed out where she could place her hands and feet for better support of her weight before climbing his own challenge.

Sakura adjusted herself, feeling grateful to Naruto. Sasuke had simply ignored her and that hurt more than she'd like to admit.

Breathing out, she joined the boys in challenging themselves. She was going to make it up the cliff, even if she had to push her body to the limit and more. Sakura promised herself, she would do it, she wouldn't fall behind. She was a kunoichi.