Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything. I don't make a profit from writing anything.

(AN) I actually started this before posting chapter five, since that hanger at the end urged an immediate response.

"You forge different bonds with friends than with family, tell different secrets."

Sakura's head snapped up, green eyes flashing in shock and quickly igniting in anger. "What are you talking about?" the girl asked waspishly, fear forgotten. "Of course I do!"

Raising his hands up in a placating motion, Kakashi shook his head. "That came out wrong." The jounin admitted to the simmering genin.

A dark eye tracked across the training ground to settle on the garish red bridge. "Walk with me." He ordered, stepping past the pink-haired genin and striding towards the crossing with purpose.

Still fuming, Sakura trailed after the man. The nerve of him! She'd taken the oath just like any other shinobi of Konoha. She'd pulled her weight in all their exercises and fought him just as hard as either of her teammates. She wasn't weak.

A hand clamped down on her shoulder, manoeuvring the genin to stand beside Kakashi as the jounin gaze down into the gently flowing stream. "Besides putting my foot in my mouth, I do have something important to talk to you about Sakura." Kakashi began seriously. "After I gave my report to Hokage-sama about the growth and development of the team, he told me that unless you get over your fear of water within the next two weeks, you're off the team."

Staring up at the jounin aghast with an ashen face, Sakura shook her head numbly. "I'm not afraid of water, so there's no problem right? Right?"

Kakashi sighed wearily, patting the girl's pink locks. "You can't lie to me Sakura. I've seen all the signs. I can even feel you shaking just standing this close to the water." It was a bit of embellishing, as the Hatake could only feel the faintest rare tremor under his fingertips. But the little white lie would help push the girl into confronting her fear.

"I'd offer to help you, but this is more something for you to get over on your own." Kakashi motioned significantly to the clear stream. "I kept you here because this is a good place to start mastering your fear. Accept it, confront it, and then dismiss it. That's all I can offer you Sakura."

Raising his hand in a half seal, Kakashi gave the pale girl the most reassuring smile he could muster. "I believe in you. Work hard, and you will get through this. I'll always be available for advice if you need it." A small flare of chakra and the man was gone in a swirling of leaves.

Sakura blinked blankly at the place her sensei had been standing, before turning a dark glare on the clear water. How typical of adults. Put you in a situation, and then expect you to get yourself out of it. Kakashi had been nicer when most would have just told her to stop being a little crybaby. But still, was it too much to ask for some supervision and support?

"Emotional cripple." Sakura sighed, clenching her hands and driving away the almost automatic shake with short spikes of pain. She was being irrational, and her dreams were at jeopardy. The pink-haired girl gritted her teeth.

Water in the lungs, burning her throats and driving the light away.

She took a shaky breath.

Do you even want to be a kunoichi?

Green eyes flashed fire, and Sakura stepped outward. Down she tumbled, breaking the smooth mirror surface and sinking into blue shadows.

Sasuke contained a yawn, taking in the smell of the early morning dew as he stood alone. Training Ground Three had been a part of his life for years. First with the early morning runs – his afternoon and evening runs took different routes – and then it seemed to be the ground of choice for his newly assigned team.

It was still cool, but the golden burn across the sky as dawn fell to its' end promised another murderously warm summer day. The country was named Hi no Kuni for several reasons, one of which must have been the beastly heights temperature could reach in the summers.

To complain outwardly or show his discomfort would be befitting of an Uchiha however, so Sasuke remained silent when Naruko trundled up. Unlike him, she had made concessions to the summer heat. Tube shorts, that odd mesh undershirt that it seemed every second shinobi favoured, and a garishly orange sleeveless shirt.

"Don't you ever tire of looking like a walking pumpkin?" Slipped from his lips without thought, causing the blonde to flush and shove her finger in his face.

"Don't you ever get tired of living life on the bland side bastard?" the Uzumaki retorted. Blue eyes flickered over the Uchiha's wardrobe and dismissed it as boring. Steel-blue was less common than dark green, but the sweatpants were practically Konoha standard issue. He even had bandages and a kunai pouch strapped to one leg like Iruka-sensei back in the academy. The shirt was just a plain black t-shirt.

"Fuck's sake." Naruko swore. "You're gonna roast in that today." Rolling her eyes at his grunt, Naruko folded arms and stared away with a pout. Sakura was nowhere to be seen either, and with two minutes to spare before 0700, the pink-haired girl was cutting it close.

Keeping an eye on her watch, Naruko shook her head as the minute had swung to 0700, and then to 0701. Sakura appeared in a rush of footsteps, crunching the grass beneath her heels as the pink-haired girl skidded to a stop beside the other two genin.

Clucking her tongue in fake disapproval, Naruko turned a heavy lidded gaze towards her teammate. "You're late Sakura, I'd almost think you weren't serious about being a ninja." The taunt came naturally, picked up over forced close proximity with Kakashi.

The blonde didn't expect the other girl to go white and give her a truly foul glare.

Holding up in hand peacefully, Naruko chuckled nervously. "It was just a joke, relax." The dark look in those green eyes abated after a moment, and the pink-haired girl turned away.

Taking the moment to study the Haruno, Naruko frowned in thought. Now that she actually took a moment to observe the other girl, it was clear that something had been eating at her. Dark circles curled under Sakura's eyes, speaking of a sleepless night. The plain red vest the other genin had zipped up to her chin was rumpled as if it had been thrown on in the last minute.

"Good morning minions." Broke over them cheerfully, startling Naruko to spin about and stare at Kakashi looming over his shoulder. Sasuke was barely visible at the corner of her vision with an audible scoff at her surprise, and Naruko stuck out her tongue.

"Only half an hour late this time sensei. You're getting better and better. Maybe some day you might even come on time if you really practice." The blonde snarked. "What's on the menu today, more painting? Maybe we'll get to take out some trash?"

Kakashi was quiet for a long moment, considering Sakura's haggard demeanor before coughing into his fist. "Well, nothing so grand today. We're going to get you started on taijutsu practice!"

"We did graduate the academy you know, sensei." Sakura muttered after a beat, only to squeal when Kakashi moved faster than their untrained eyes could see and kicked her legs out from under her.

"If you were well-trained in your hand-to-hand, you would have seen that, at least." Kakashi barked reprovingly, forming his hand into a familiar cross seal and spawning two Kage Bunshin with a practiced flex of chakra.

A clone stepped up to Sasuke, setting an iron grip on the boy's shoulder and steering him away to the other end of the training ground. Naruko was similarly accosted, thrown over the shoulder of the other clone and carried off in a whirl of complaints and threats.

The real Kakashi stayed with Sakura, watching his pink-haired student struggle painfully to her feet and regard him with a tired and wary expression.

"Use your Sharingan." Kakashi orders once they've moved far enough away from the others that sight of them is lost within the trees.

Red instantly swirls into Sasuke's eyes. The world sharpens, colours turning bright and vivid. Sasuke can see flecks of dust twisting through the air, blown along by the warm breeze. The engraved swirl in Kakashi's hitae-ate looks sharp enough to cut, and the Uchiha tilts his head in silent askance.

Nodding in approval, the Kage Bunshin steps away from the Uchiha. Once the Kakashi clone judged there to be sufficient space between them to prevent accidental dispelling, he turned back to Sasuke and folded his arms over his chest. "Show me your basic stance."

Sasuke hesitated a brief moment with indecision before sinking into the basic Academy-taught half squat. The form is textbook perfect. Engrained in his muscle memory after years of instruction provided to all students of the Konoha Ninja Academy. Appropriate for a genin with no experience, no specialization, and no background.

The style taught at the Academy was an all-rounder style that existed for the sole purpose of providing students and new graduates with somewhere to begin their careers as shinobi. It was not overly fast, or very slow. The strikes were not heavy, but nor were they light. It wass neutral, exhibiting neither aggressiveness nor defensiveness, with only stability as its' defining characteristic.

The Uchiha knows every movement and strike the style bounds. So he knows that when his feet move into position, that his Academy instructors would have praised him on how correct his motions were. But Sasuke sees the spark that lights in Kakashi's dark eye, and knows before the jounin even says it.

"That's wrong."

Twin dark spots swim through twin red pools, and Sasuke rises up. Dirt shuffles beneath the Uchiha's feet as he moves, shifting the positioning of his body from right angles to a forward lunge. Sasuke's new stance was sloppy, with all the hinting of something carefully practiced alone and without instruction, but seen many times.

All the neutrality of Sasuke's earlier stance is gone. Leaving only aggression. Strike first, strike hard, and strike once.

Sekkendou.

Kakashi moves closer, examining Sasuke's form carefully and noting all the minor imperfections that could fatally snowball in a real fight. Less than he'd seen in the boy a month prior – the growth in Forty-Four was more than purely mental.

Then he reaches out, settling hands on the Uchiha's shoulders and pushes ever-so-slightly down. Closer to the ground.

Sasuke allows the jounin to lay hands on him, silent and ever observant with blazing crimson eyes. His feet are nudged straight. Elbows pushed tighter and further back. Head tilted forward and lower. Knees rotated.

Eventually Kakashi pulls up his hitae-ate, inspecting the genin's positioning with all the blazing clarity of a fully developed Sharingan. Satisfied, Obito's eye is hidden from sight under cloth and cool steel.

"Again." Kakashi orders, and Sasuke obeys. The Uchiha relaxes into a neutral stand, before sinking back down into the initial stance of his family's signature taijutsu.

Staring at the boy with an inscrutable dark eye, Kakashi motions Sasuke to relax again. The ready again. Over and over and over, Sasuke dips down and up, every motion carefully controlled with the corrections Kakashi had introduced. His legs begin to burn, sweat beading on his forehead as the pace of the impromptu exercise is increased.

Mistakes are met with a slashing comment, pointing out the correct way to perform the motion. Sasuke grows more frustrated, more overheated, and more sweaty. Until Kakashi barks out "Enough!" long after the Uchiha has lost count of how often he's had to assume initial stance.

The jounin's dark eye runs over Sasuke's form, and then he grins like a wolf.

"Good."

Hatake Kakashi was a sadistic bastard Naruko decided as she collapsed to the ground face first, panting and gasping for air. Her clothes stuck to her body, adhering by the vaguely disgusting sensation of new sweat. Puffing away a small cloud of dirt in a final frustrated huff, the blond rolled back over and glared at her sensei.

Observing the girl with a bored mien, Kakashi waited for Naruko's breathing to normalize. Which occurred surprisingly quickly, the jounin concluded after waiting only a short minute for the mottled flush to vanish from the Uzumaki's face.

"You're too wasteful." The man proclaimed, chewing over the spar he'd managed to drag out of the girl over the course of the afternoon. "Your form is well-practiced and you know how to link move sets together appropriately." Lukewarm praise for the Rookie of the Year.

Kakashi's eye sharpened, staring down at Naruko with oppressive force and convincing her that remaining on the ground was perhaps safer than getting back up and pushing her luck further. "But you fail to reasonably grasp the philosophy behind the style and apply it."

Fisting his hand into Naruko's dirtied shirt, the Kage Bunshin hauled the protesting girl to her feet. "The Academy style was developed as a starting point for shinobi learning taijutsu. It tries to all round its' focus, being in the middle in terms of defensiveness and aggressiveness. The strikes aren't weak, but they aren't very powerful either. It's a form that ultimately only succeeds to being relatively stable and conserving energy."

The look of pure concentration on Naruko's face almost causes the jounin to stumble over his words when he recognizes it. Kakashi isn't sure whether to be pleased that the blonde apparently respected him enough, or at least feared him enough to take his instruction seriously. Or if he should be upset by other implications.

Such as the notion that sincere instruction is so rare for his sensei's daughter that she can't help but be drawn in.

Taking a steady breath, Kakashi forces his eye into a crinkling smile. "You're too much of a hothead for that kid. You rush in from the start, giving it your all and trying to win through overpowering your opponent. That'll work on other scrubs like you," the jounin pauses to ruffle the blonde's messy strands. "But on someone like me, it's asking for trouble."

Naruko mulled that over for a moment. "So you're telling me I should hold back more?" the genin offered tentatively. It was the obvious conclusion to be made, but it didn't feel right to her. Patience was something Naruko learned by effort – it didn't come naturally to her like it seemed to come to others. In order to be a good kunoichi the blonde was willing to force herself to slow down in a fight, but the thought didn't sit right in her gut.

"Not exactly." Kakashi returned, shoving his hands in his pockets and tracking an absent gaze over the slowly darkening sky. "You could do that, if you were going to apply the Academy style right. But in the end it's still the Academy style, and now that you're in my hands it's my responsibility to teach you taijutsu forms appropriate for your temperament and abilities."

Waving a gloved hand in dismissal, the jounin gazed down on his student with a predatory smirk. "Go home Naruko." Kakashi ordered breezily. "Be here tomorrow at the same time, and by then I expect you to have decided how you want to fight with your taijutsu. Ja ne."

Vanishing in a puff of smoke, the Kage Bunshin left the blonde girl to trudge home alone deep in thought.

Peeling off her soaked clothes, Sakura tossed the bundle into the basket her mother had set out in the bathroom for dirtied clothes and stepped into the shower. The warm drizzle chased away the chill that had set deep into her limbs after a long day of dunking in and out of cool streams and sparring with Kakashi-sensei.

Fortunately – or unfortunately – she'd gotten the real man to teach her for the day, compared to her teammates who'd been dragged off by the jounin's Kage Bunshin. Which drove the pink-haired girl to suspect that their sensei was pushing her a lot harder than he'd pushed the other two genin. Considering that apparently she was the only one in danger of being booted off the squad, it made sense.

Sakura scowled darkened. Squeezing out a dollop of strawberry shampoo into her palm and massaging it roughly into her scalp, the girl bit her lip in frustration. It was absurdly unfair for the Hokage to single her out for the scars Kakashi had inflicted on her during their little vacation in the Forest of Death.

As if the other two didn't have odd little ticks developed over that month. The Uchiha still walked through the village with tense shoulders and careful sweeping eyes as if someone was out to get him, where Naruko was more subdued and suspicious of people than she'd ever seen the other girl over their years as classmates.

Still, what was done was done. Sakura sighed mournfully, leaning forward to allow the warm spray to wash away the soap and her worries from her skull. Two weeks were what the Hokage had given her, and the Haruno would be damned if she'd fail the test. Pale fists clenched.

She still remembered a childhood of modest opulence, growing up soft and cherished by a jolly merchant and his softer wife. Haruno Kizashi had matured into a social climber, and once upon a time a soft little pink-haired girl had stumbled over negotiations for a betrothal with some minor nobility.

A bit of desperate pleading and deliberate deception on the part of a six year old girl had gotten Sakura enrolled in the Ninja Academy, and after that the Haruno family's soft little girl belonged to Konohagakure's military. Her parents found out too late that the government protected its' own, and she was not going to be sold to anyone.

And even if Sakura could have been, a kunoichi was too rough and unladylike for a proper noble wife in Hi no Kuni's feudal families. Mebuki and Kizashi had never truly forgiven Sakura for that lie when they realized their daughter had known all along how kunoichi outside of contracted clans were regulated.

Sakura wasn't sure she wanted them to. Better a dog of the military than a brood mare for her father's social standing.

Turning off the tap with a twist of thin fingers, Sakura shook the droplets of water from her hair and stepped out onto the pale tiles of the bathroom floor. Cool air brushed her naked flesh, sending her hair standing on end before the Haruno was able to fish a towel out from under the sink and wrap it around her chilled form.

Wandering back to her room, Sakura chewed a nail in thought. Burdens of the Hokage aside, Kakashi had set his own burdens on her as well. Decide on the way she wanted to fight physically.

Unlike many of her more intellectually limited peers, Sakura had been aware from the first day she'd been taught taijutsu that she would move on to a form more specialized for her strengths. Or weaknesses.

Decisions, decisions...

Naruko winced at the pulling of already scabbed over cat scratches as she pressed a yowling furball in the general direction of some fat noblewoman. Every muscle in her body ached – her bruises probably had bruises, for the sake of all that was holy.

D-ranks truly had become a mixed blessing, taking up one day a week with various utterly mind-numbing assignments. Buy some old man groceries. Paint fences or walls. Walk a horde of dogs around the village. Chase down a cat that didn't want to go home. From what Sakura passed along to her, the other teams did such things five mornings a week, which Naruko wanted no part of.

But in exchange for getting her ass kicked by Kakashi the other six, it was beginning to look like an attractive option. Six days of a week of continuous taijutsu practice was wearing all of them down, not even considering the extra assignments they were forced to undertake outside of it.

Naruko was beginning to question if Kakashi had ever heard of time off.

Tuning out the profuse thanks the fat woman directed at her sheepish and unfailingly polite sensei, the blonde wheeled about and caught Sasuke blinking away the tired strain in his constantly red eyes. Since the day after their first D-rank mission, the Uchiha had been cheerfully commanded to keep the Sharingan activated at all times in order to increase Sasuke's endurance at using the doujutsu.

It made Naruko glad she had no bloodline talent of her own to be hounded into training all hours of the day. But maybe the training Kakashi was giving her in a martial arts style he'd called Goken was a fair trade.

Sasuke didn't have near the amount of bruising she did, and the blonde doubted he'd ever gotten one of his bones cracked in the taijutsu training he was getting. Whatever it was. Stupid super secret sensei.

"Wasn't that fun?" Kakashi beamed at the three, who glared sourly at him. Three D-ranks in one day was enough, the jounin decided as he ruffled a blonde mop in one hand and a raven one in the other. Indignant squawks were brushed off as the jounin weighed over what to do with the last few hours of the afternoon.

Teamwork building it was.

Moving from one end of the room to the other in a blur, Kakashi grinned over his shoulder. "Come along my cute little students!"

Growling under their breaths, the three genin filed after their commanding officer as he led them back into the village streets.

The jounin flipped out his lurid orange book of smut, staring at the pages but not truly reading them as he navigated his team through the streets of Konoha deep in thought. The past few weeks had seen his students grow slowly but steadily, Sasuke's Uchiha Sekkendou forms smoothing out as Kakashi forced the broody boy to unlearn the hundreds of minor mistakes gained from self-teaching.

Naruko's determination and attentiveness was surprising, given how energetic the blonde girl could become and how like Obito she seemed to Kakashi. The Uzumaki took to the Konoha Goken like a duck to water after introduced to it. A style to 'kick ass and take names' indeed.

It was with pleasure that the Hatake had been able to report positive improvement in terms of Sakura's aversion to water. The girl still didn't love to spend her time swimming around in it, and Kakashi doubted the pink-haired girl ever would. But it was enough to persuade the Sandaime into allowing the girl to remain on Team Seven.

Initiating Sakura into aikido was a touch more difficult than instructing the other two, as the philosophy of reflection seemed to sit ill with the pink-haired girl. The Haruno was more direct and aggressive in personality, but the choice of style had been her's. Perhaps one day when the girl's physical strength was greater the jounin could push her towards a style better suited for her temperament.

Shaking off the thoughts, Kakashi spun about and swung into a low bow. "Welcome to an establishment of true class!" The jounin declared dramatically, smirking when three pairs of suspicious eyes panned up to stare at a faded sign emblazoned with Shushuya.

Sasuke merely gave a sigh in defeat, rolling crimson eyes and slouching as he plodded off into the restaurant. Sakura and Naruko stepped after him with mutinous looks, leaving Kakashi to bring up the rear as the four filed into the dim golden glow of the pub.

Giving the bartender a wave, Kakashi shoved his students along until they reached a corner booth. The jounin spared a moment to turn away and tell a vaguely familiar brown-haired waitress that he was looking for "Four of the usual." Before squeezing into the booth next to Naruko.

Sakura covered her mouth as the pink-haired girl gave a tired yawn, knuckling green eyes and accidently jostling Sasuke in the process.

Shooting an annoyed glare at his teammate, the Uchiha folded his arms over his chest and pinned the jounin sensei with a dark frown. "Is this going to become a habit of your's, sensei?" The last word resentfully bit out as Sasuke superficially adopted the politeness Kakashi enforced on him during training for no better reason than personal amusement.

Kakashi reached over and patted dark locks condescendingly anyway. "Of course, Sasuke-chan. We'll be here every Friday after missions."

"Well I for one am glad we came here." Naruko cut in, rubbing a hungry stomach and staring longingly across the pub at an already served pair of kunoichi. "When's the food gonna get here, huh?"

Declaring "You had better be paying." With a huff, Sakura propped her head up on her elbow and stared into space. Until Kakashi gave her a kick under the table and smiled back at her green glare.

The waitress bustled back over to their table, unloading several plates of yakitori and a jug of tea Giving the jounin a plastic smile, the teen girl bowed "Thank you for your patronage."

Slapping Naruko's greedy hand away from the food when the blonde reached out for it, Kakashi waved the waitress off and favoured Sasuke with a crinkled smile. "Well grunts, before we get started I wanted us to have a little fun team exercise. The loser has to sit here and watch the rest of us eat."

Pointing at the Haruno, the jounin smiled ferally. "Sakura, you introduce Sasuke. Naruko, introduce Sakura. Sasuke, you introduce Naruko."

Furrowing her brow in thought, Naruko turned her whiskered face towards the silver-haired man and wiped a touch of hungry drool away with a furtive hand. "What, you mean like that shit we did on the first day we met?"

The three genin stared at each other in silent trepidation, until Kakashi kicked Sasuke under the table and spurring the Uchiha to grit out "Uzumaki Naruko. She likes ramen. She dislikes..." Trailing off, Sasuke cast about in the recesses of his memory. "Cooking." The boy settled on. "Her dream is make friends."

Wilting in her seat at the answer that was technically correct but sounded so pathetic and lonely when put like that, Naruko pouted sullenly. "Haruno Sakura. She likes her friends, dislikes me, and wants to be the most powerful kunoichi."

"I don't dislike you that much." Sakura muttered under her breath, ignoring the way Naruko perked up and scratched idly at the table. "Uchiha Sasuke. He dislikes everything, likes nothing, and wants to kill some guy."

Kakashi chuckled at the offended expression that exploded on Sasuke's face when the pink-haired girl reduced Uchiha Itachi to some guy. Drawing out his considering hum for the sake of watching Naruko grow ever more hungry and desperate, the jounin finally shrugged with all the detachment of a monk. "Well I guess you all learned something about each other. So I'll let you off this time. Dig in."

"Yatta!" Naruko howled, punching a fist into the air and reaching out for a stick of yakitori. Sakura piled food on her own plate more quietly but with no less enthusiasm. After a drawn out moment, Sasuke just shook his head and reached out himself.

Wrapping hands around a warm cup of tea, Kakashi allowed his eye to crinkle into a true smile. Yes, they were learning.

(AN): 4500 words or so. Shortest chapter yet, but there's little you can expect from something called The Basics. Which is about exactly what it says on the tin. I'm managing to finish this up in between studying for exams and reading stuff for my own enjoyment.

I felt it was needed to have this even though it might feel like filler to you guys. It's setting the stage for the three to begin deviating into their own specialized skill sets. And even if it's for something as basic – and in terms of fanon, unexciting – as taijutsu, it's the place to start that. Ninjutsu and genjutsu are cool and flashy and all, but the real basic fighting of a shinobi is their taijutsu. And with Sharingan no Kakashi as their teacher, they can be molded into appropriate skill sets for it. That other stuff comes later as their skills improve, but right now it's their taijutsu that will keep them alive and let them win on actual C-rank missions against bandits and other thugs. It also sets out the weekly schedule and hints at time passing.

June – Graduation

July – Forest of Death

August – a few weeks so far of training every day, except for D-ranks on Fridays and now eating out on Fridays.

As you can see, I've adopted a name for the styles they're learning.

Uchiha Sekkendou – Which is supposed to translate to "Way of the Intercepting Fist" is the Uchiha clan's counterpart to the Hyuuga Jyuuken. Kakashi picked it up the same way he picks everything up – by observing his teammates and enemies with the Sharingan, and now passes it along to Sasuke.

Konoha Goken – Konoha's Strong Fist, which is what Gai and Lee use in canon. Kakashi knows it, though he doesn't use it himself. As an actual taijutsu style, it makes sense for Naruko since it's a Hard and External style that doesn't rely on anything but stamina and strength. In this fic, just like in real life, le ebin unpredictable street brawler would get his shit kicked in, which is just one of the oddities of fanon but one which I'm not going to adopt.

Aikido – which in terms of this fic is just a generalized, internationally known taijutsu style that's good for kunoichi because of the redirection it's based on. Sakura asked for something based on her current physical weakness, but as she grows she'll likely decide to learn something else. All of the Sannin developed their own taijutsu styles, and down the line Sakura will probably exclusively use Tsunade's so it's not a big deal to find an interim style for her.

On why Team Seven doesn't do D-ranks more than once a week: Because they don't need to, or want to. Think about it, Kakashi himself is probably wealthy if not stinking rich from a long career in ANBU doing S-ranks (remember, even an A-rank was more than Tazuna's entire village could apparently afford, even if it was poor).

Sasuke is likely similarly well off, as his parents were both head of the clan ( probably getting a generous stipend at the time, plus the perks of inheriting the wealth of any dead Uchiha through the generations that had no near next of kin) and former ninja (had savings built up from their career. Toss in Itachi's probably substantial wealth that would have been seized by Konoha after his 'treachery', and Sasuke is probably sitting on a good bit of money himself.

Plus, like Naruko he's going to draw from the orphan fund (which would exist in a military village for military orphans). Naruko would probably be listed in records as Kushina's daughter and have inherited her stuff in some trust fund (and much of Minato's via some Sarutobi book fudging). Plus whatever support her Godfather (one of the Sannin) gives her, which is probably paying her rent and bills himself.

Ironically it's Sakura hardest hit, since the only money she personally would have would be allowance from her (wealthy) parents.

So none of them need to do D-ranks to pay the bills, and Kakashi gets more benefit out of training them harder and longer instead of wasting time on missions they don't actually need to do. The only purpose D-ranks have for Team Seven is for Kakashi to evaluate their team work in a controlled setting. And while the Hokage could assign missions in a military village, D-ranks aren't of a high enough importance to specifically request Team Seven's skill set (which is not specialized at this point anyway).

Reviews: "I think the three genin would gleefully leave him to his death the first time he was in trouble against another enemy jounin: you can't put people through two weeks of fear and expect them to ever trust or like you ever again. It's unrealistic."

While that's a fair point, I'll correct you first that it was a month in the Forest of Death.

Secondly, you underestimate the human psyche. Mixing the torture and kindness like that will actually generate positive will and loyalty towards the abuser. That's how abuse in real life works actually.

Convinced that the shit they're put through is for their own good, and treated with relative kindness outside of it, coupled with actual noticeable improvements in their skills and the tapering off of the initial abuse, it's not difficult at all to see how they could become attached. Remember that these kids have also likely been conditioned since they were six or seven to expect and respond positively under that kind of stress, it's almost foregone.

Sure, they won't initially love him. In fact, they're going to have initial conditions and instincts of fear towards him, but that eventually gets trained out of them as they work together and as Kakashi gives them emotional support. It's not like these kids were healthy in the first place. In real life, they'd be prime abuse targets because they'd be easily pushed to accept it as part of their validation. Humans need other people.

I'll preempt anyone growling about stealing "Dog of the Military" from Fullmetal Alchemist. I'm perfectly aware of where it comes from. But I'll use it. It's an interesting term and I can see how one might even apply it in real life.