Chapter One

"I refuse."

The Sandaime Hokage looked at his ANBU commander calmly. His expression revealed nothing.

"You do not have that option." The Hokage slowly sipped his tea, eyes closed as he enjoyed the rich aroma and subtle flavors. He had assigned the mission one week ago so the commander could observe his new charges. Apparently, they weren't to his liking.

"The children are nowhere near capable." The commander's tone was flat as always, but an undercurrent of... anger lurked beneath the surface. It had been years since Sarutobi had heard any emotion in the masked man's voice.

"Hmm?" Sarutobi set his cup down, questioning but not accusing.

"Their skills are atrocious. They have no talent, no skills, nothing to recommend them. The Uchiha is emotionally compromised, and despite being hailed as a prodigy, he is barely better than the average genin. The girl has some control over chakra, but her reservoir is barely a puddle. At best, she will end up behind a desk. At worst, under a tombstone!"" The commander scoffed and continued. "And the jinchuuriki? He's the worst of all. He may have the advantages of a tailed beast, but that is all! He wants to be the Hokage, but he understands nothing about becoming a shinobi."

The younger man paused, gaining control of his emotions once again. "They are a liability." The last word was the worst insult imaginable, coming from him. "I will not have them in my ANBU."

His ANBU? The Hokage raised an eyebrow slightly. Despite the commander's best attempts to squash all remnants of his humanity, the man still possessed the very human craving for companionship. Through the years, ANBU had become that family. A dysfunctional, clearly unhealthy family, but a family nonetheless. That explained his protectiveness, at least.

"Commander Hound," said Sarutobi softly, "it will become your job to teach them. All you said is true, but I have faith in your ability to change them." And hopefully, he thought to himself, this will be good for you as well.

"Hokage-sama, I am not a simple jōnin-sensei. I have responsibilities to this village. There are others who can take on that role. Furthermore, the three are high-profile students. My ability to do anything will be compromised if people are monitoring my activities. The village will not allow ANBU to teach genin."

"That won't be a problem. Hatake Kakashi will be assigned as their teacher to keep up appearances. However, you will be the one teaching them." The Hokage smiled softly in amusement.

The commander froze, his muscles taut and utterly still. After few seconds of silence, he spoke. "Hatake Kakashi is on an extended mission in Suna. He is frequently outside of the village and will not be a good choice for teaching."

"Hatake-san has been given several months of leave. He can teach them then. He also possesses the Sharingan. Sasuke will need his expertise."

"He can teach the Uchiha separately. Assign a different jōnin as the team's teacher."

"Commander," said Sarutobi sharply, raising his hand to quell all further protests. After a moment, he continued in a gentler voice. "Kakashi, this is an order."

The shocked Hound hissed at the use of his name, compulsively checking if anyone had heard it. The commander clenched then unclenched his fists before hiding behind his bland façade. Finally, he bowed.

"I understand, Hokage-sama."

Kakashi watched the three barely-genin with mild disgust. He had stood here for the past three hours, gradually expanding his chakra signature, and they still hadn't detected him. He was practically a beacon now, barely hiding his presence. What else did he have to do, wear a neon jumpsuit and carry a sign? They hadn't even looked for him nor done anything productive, content with simply sitting there. How pathetic. Eventually, Kakashi stepped out, flaring his chakra briefly to catch their attention.

The children snapped to attention, eyes widening as they finally noticed their teacher.

"You're late!" shouted the girl and the blond boy. They glared at him with irritation and disrespect he hadn't seen... well, since he was their age. Then again, he was the lazy Hatake Kakashi right now, not the Hound. The jōnin's visible eye flickered to the sullen Uchiha to see his reaction. The boy's moody expression had failed to hide his annoyance. They definitely had to work on concealment—the emotional and physical kind. Honestly, had they stopped teaching subtlety at the Academy? The Academy still trained ninjas, right?

The three began to fidget slightly, unnerved by their teacher's silence and scrutiny.

"Um, sensei?" The hyperactive boy broke the silence with an obnoxious laugh. Kakashi smiled at the boy with enough false sweetness to rot teeth.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I was just so impressed by your skills that I forgot to speak." Finally, prompted by the obvious sarcasm, a hint of suspicion entered the genin's eyes. Kakashi's grin grew wider. "You see, I was late because a little old lady needed help crossing the street with her absurdly heavy groceries, and I couldn't possibly say no. It wasn't my fault, I swear." The three stared at him with disbelief. To complete the image, he pulled out Icha Icha Paradise and began flipping through the pages, stopping at his favorite chapter.

"What the hell?" Again, the blond child was the first to speak. "I-is that porn?"

Kakashi ignored him and continued reading, almost relishing the confused and angry atmosphere. The silence continued for a few minutes.

"S-sensei..." said the civilian girl, hesitantly. "Aren't you going to teach us?"

"Why?" he replied in a dull voice, attention seemingly on the novel.

"Because that's what you're supposed to do! What happened to the test and all the other stuff you talked about?" Naruto—the boy, he corrected—was turning bright red. Slowly, with exaggerated care, Kakashi closed the book.

"You want me to teach you? To test you?" He glared at the three, leaking enough killing intent to make even the stoic Uchiha stiffen. Kakashi laughed with condescension, startling the children. "You must be joking. Normally, I'd use the bell test. It's a tradition for Team 7, you see." He increased the pressure. "But I refuse to administer any test for a group so... useless." Kakashi smirked at the outrage his words had caused while internally frowning with disapproval. They were far too easy to rile up.

"Shut up!" The jinchuukiri glared, fists shaking. The others had equally angry expressions; the girl scowled to hide her tears, and the other boy had palmed a kunai.

"Oh, so you want to prove me wrong?" Kakashi sneered, radiating disdain. "Then attack me. Now." The genin all hesitated briefly, but that was all he needed. Kakashi flickered behind the Uchiha and sent him flying with a kick. He avoided the girl's sloppy punch before retaliating with a punch of his own. Finally, he grabbed the back of the nauseating orange jumpsuit and simply tossed the last kid onto the floor.

"Well?" Kakashi crossed his arms and waited. The Uchiha was the first to recover, and he quickly threw the kunai at his new sensei. Kakashi snatched the weapon out of the air and used the flat of the blade to deflect the blonde's kick before punching him in the stomach. Without looking, he flicked the kunai and pinned the girl to the tree.

"That's it? That's the skill of the so-called prodigy? That's the skill of the class's top kunoichi? How disappointing." He turned to the jinchuukiri, fixing him with a cold glare. "I didn't expect anything from the 'dead-last,' but you were even worse than I expected. That's almost an accomplishment."

The boy's face turned bright red. "You'll pay for that!" Kakashi watched as he performed the seals for the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Well, that's the first interesting thing I've seen from these kids.

A dozen clones ran towards him, all shouting insults. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Uchiha prepare another attack and the girl free herself from the kunai.

With another simple body flicker, he appeared behind the Uchiha, disrupting his fire jutsu, and then kicked him into the pile of clones. Kakashi elbowed the girl back into the dirt after she attempted to throw the kunai.

He sighed in exaggerated dismay as he stared at the exhausted students lying on the ground. "Looks like you learned nothing at the Academy. I'll have to correct that." His voice grew serious as he filled the air with killing intent. "Listen, you brats. This is now your team. I am now your teacher. You don't have to like it. In fact, I don't expect you to. But you damn well better do as I say or you will end up dead. Is that clear?"

The students said nothing, eyes wide.

"Is that clear?"

"Y-yes, sensei," they mumbled together. Finally. Teamwork. Kakashi glared at the three to drive his lessons home and suddenly felt a stab of doubt. Why the hell was he doing this? Whose idea was it to give him—the ruthless and definitely unstable ANBU commander—three completely innocent genin? Oh, right. It was the Hokage's idea... and he had sworn to obey that man's orders, whether he liked it or not. Kakashi withdrew the killing intent and nodded sharply.

"You are dismissed. I will see you at the same time tomorrow." Without a backwards glance, Kakashi left.

Commander Hound ran silently on the rooftops, flashing the all clear symbol to the other ANBU patrolling. The sight of the ANBU's leader visibly traveling through the city was an unusual one and would have made all the others uneasy. Of course, he could have easily hidden himself, but random appearances kept his men on their toes.

After double-checking to make sure this house really was Naruto's, he leapt onto the roof. He felt a surge of amusement as the rookies stiffened in shock. Guard duty was always assigned to the newcomers, and he never passed up a chance to intimidate them.

Hound signed stand down; patrol perimeter to Naruto's ANBU guards, and after making sure they obeyed his orders, he disabled the woefully weak wards and climbed in. Hound examined the room, noting the lack of furniture and its unkempt state. The little light from the moon cast eerie shadows on the walls. It almost looked like a scene from a nightmare.

Perfect.

Naruto tossed and turned, wrapping his ragged blanket tighter around his shivering body. Though normally a peaceful sleeper, Naruto had been restless all night. Disjointed and despairing thoughts swirled around his mind, bringing red-tinted images of yesterday's training to the forefront of his dreams.

He shivered, curling into a tighter ball, and suddenly jerked awake. Staring at him was a demon. Naruto yelped and threw the first thing he grabbed, which was his pillow. The demon simply side-stepped the fluffy object and waited. Then, Naruto realized that the demon was actually an ANBU member.

"Wh-who are you? What are you doing here?" Naruto, contrary to popular belief, wasn't entirely oblivious. He knew that the ANBU watched him and always had. They rarely made contact with him, though, and never in the middle of the night.

"Get up." The man spoke the words with no emotion. Naruto gaped at him before hastily jumping out of bed. "Get ready and go to the Fifth Training Ground."

"Uh... w-what do you—"

"That is an order." As silently as he came, the ANBU operative vanished.

Naruto stared at the empty space where the man had been, going through the list of every prank he had played and wondering if he was in trouble. He stood up slowly, debating what to do next. The ANBU had always protected him, and even though he didn't really like them, he did trust them. Naruto made up his mind. He'd go. Now, if only he knew where the Fifth Training Ground was…

Hound frowned at the perfect house. The garden had flowers in neat rows, the white painted fence stood proudly and... dear God, was that a welcome mat? Why would you want to welcome someone into your home? He shook his head slowly. Civilians were weird.

Deftly, he opened the window and stealthily jumped in. There were no seals at all, leaving the house completely unprotected from shinobi. He'd have to teach the kids fūinjutsu. Their security was seriously lacking.

Hound glared at the stuffed bear on the girl's dresser before glancing at the sleeping child. Suddenly, he hesitated, realizing just how strange this situation was. Here he was, a grown man, creeping into a sleeping girl's room. He suppressed a shudder. He liked Jiraya's books well enough, but he did not want to emulate the man.

Hound stiffened as he realized that this was the second time in two days that he had felt doubts. He did nothing to hold back the irritation that was emanating from him. The sooner these brats were trained, the better. Hound released some killing intent. That should wake the girl up.

Sakura gasped, body protesting as she forced herself into a sitting position. Strange shadows had been chasing her through the forest, always a step behind her. Harsh voices whispered in her ears, calling her cruel names and threatening to hurt her. After what felt like hours of running, the deformed hands had finally caught her—and then she had woken up.

She took a deep breath, calming her frantic heart. Just a dream. Just a dream. Sakura looked up and screamed when she noticed the man at the foot of her bed. She clutched her blanket and screamed again as the lights flickered on and the door opened.

"Sakura? Are you alright?" Her mother's pale visage examined her with concern.

"I'm ok, mom. I... just had a bad dream." Sakura looked around frantically, searching for the strange man in her room. She extended her senses, like they were taught in the academy, but she could feel no one but herself and her mom. She had probably imagined him, then. He was just a remnant from the nightmare.

"Are you sure? Do you want me to warm some milk for you?"

"Yeah, I'm really ok. You should go back to sleep. I'll be fine."

"Alright, sweetie. Wake me up if you need anything." The door closed, and the lights turned off.

Sakura closed her eyes, took another deep breath, and nearly screamed again as a hand clamped down on her mouth.

"Be quiet," said a flat voice. "I am Commander Hound of the ANBU. Come to the Fifth Training Ground immediately." The hand lifted and the man stepped back. Her blood ran cold when she saw the mask. He was part of the ANBU. The Special Assassination and Tactical Squad. The village's open secret. And somehow, she had caught their interest.

"Do you understand?"

She blinked. "Y-yes, sir." The words were barely out of her mouth before the man was gone. She hesitated and then got out of bed to change. There was no way she would keep an ANBU operative waiting.

All of Hound's men were paranoid bastards—he had made sure of that. And currently, that paranoia was worse than usual, thanks to traces found of a certain genocidal someone lurking around the Uchiha compound. There were twice as many guards, and all were a bit fidgety. If he entered Sasuke's house without any warning, they would have attacked him like sharks.

So, Hound did the reasonable thing, and he entered Sasuke's house without warning. Sadly, the famed Uchiha wards were in great disrepair, making it far too easy. He body-flickered inside the main house and flared his chakra, bright enough to catch the ANBU's attention, but not bright enough to wake the boy.

In exactly 1.39 seconds, the ANBU appeared around him, weapons out and prepared to battle.

"You were not fast enough," said Hound, critically. "You can shave at least 0.54 seconds off your current time of 1.39 seconds." At the same time, he signed, I am taking the ward. Continue assignment.

The operatives indicated their understanding, and at his signal, dispersed. Satisfied, Hound materialized in the Uchiha boy's room.

Sasuke folded his arms and gazed out the window, unable to sleep. That was nothing unusual. Ever since that day, he had been plagued by terrible insomnia. No sleep was always preferable to nightmares. Tonight, however, his thoughts were different. Instead of agonizing about that day and his plans to avenge his loved ones, Sasuke kept thinking about his failure on the training grounds. He had been... useless. That jōnin had destroyed him. Utterly.

Sasuke clenched his fists. He needed more power. He needed... Sasuke flinched and grabbed the shuriken under his pillow, throwing them at the intruder.

"Who are you?" he growled. Sasuke concentrated, concentrating his chakra into a beacon to alert his guards, wondering how they had missed the man. One glance at the mask made him realize why. Sasuke didn't recognize this particular one, though, and wondered if he was a new member.

"Go to the Fifth Training Grounds," said the man, voice completely emotionless.

"Why?" He glared at the masked figure. "I will not listen to unknown operatives." Itachi had been in ANBU, and this could be a ploy for all he knew.

"I am Commander Hound. You may confirm my identity with the ANBU stationed here." The supposed commander disappeared.

Sasuke sighed and rubbed his eyes. The Commander of ANBU? This wasn't good. He would confirm the man's identity with the other operatives, and if it checked out, he would go to the training grounds. The only thing worse than being summoned by the ANBU was refusing to answer those summons. He knew from experience.

Commander Hound watched from his spot in the trees. Finally, they had arrived. It was time to begin.

AN: If you were curious, the ANBU allowed Hound to pass once they sensed his chakra signature. To my knowledge, a chakra signature cannot be copied. It can be changed and muddled, but cannot be stolen or duplicated. The story assumes that ANBU operatives are familiar with the Commander's signature, and they use it as an identity check.

This story will not contain slash, and currently, there are no pairings planned. It is an AU and will diverge from canon frequently. It (obviously) contains ANBU!Kakashi, and it will feature strong!Team Seven.

Thank you for reading. All comments, criticism, and concerns are welcome.