Before you begin reading this fic, there's a little thing you should know.

I have a few topics I'd like to talk about regarding this story... such as why I have decided to write it, about the pacing, original characters, fundamental changes to the plot, my update schedule, action scenes, use of Japanese, future revisions of posted chapters, fixing mistakes and etc... it's a lot.

However, there is no real need for me to inflate this chapter's word count with that, so everything is neatly organized in my profile. I really recommend reading it at some point soon if you decide that you want to keep reading this fic in the future; there's a table of contents there so you can find and skip parts that do not interest you, if you wish.

This includes info about the major revision that the story is currently going through. As such, there will be a drop in quality and even consistency if you just read everything in one go; I recommend checking it out to see how far it is "safe" to read.

If you for some reason don't know how to access it, just click on my username above and you will be sent there!

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first book of the story, "Chasing After You," which revolves around the Part 1 of Naruto.

As the summary stated, Hinata will be a main character this time around. To explain why she gets that opportunity in this retelling, I'll need to talk about the changes I did to the Wave mission and Hiruzen's educational project. Both of those things will end up having big impacts on the story, so I devoted our prologue to talk about them, and a bit to indirectly introduce you to Hinata's character and past.

If I may be so bold, I request that you stick with the fic at least until you've read the entire prologue arc (Chapter 1-6). In this arc, I'll show you where I intend to take the main characters, and you'll also have a taste of my style and how I handle things like humor, drama, friendships/romance, character development, action sequences and other important aspects of the story going forward.

The key events of this prologue arc happen in Chapter 4 and 6. I believe that only after all of that you'll have seen enough to safely determine if it's worth continuing reading or not—though I thank you for time and patience nonetheless.

Finally, a couple warnings about this chapter:

*The existence of Hiruzen's educational project is more important than what it actually is about in the first half, thanks to what I already mentioned in the summary. The project will only be explained in the second half.

*I used the present tense in a few moments of the chapter despite sticking to the past tense for 99% of the story—I felt it was justifiable and more suitable for those specific parts, so I apologize for the tense shifts.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Masashi Kishimoto does. I know disclaimers are legally useless, but I still think this deserves to be said... once, and only once. I'll put another disclaimer if I get the rights of the series, ok? (Spoiler alert: Never.)

Prologue arc

Chapter 1: The Professor's Plan (v3.0.4)

"For someone to be a ninja, they must be able to put their life on the line for the sake of the village."

This is a lesson taught to all academy students of Konoha before they even come close to becoming genin and something they simply get used to as time passes. When a ninja gets a new mission, they know they might not be coming back from it... and while the concept is extremely scary at first, it eventually becomes nothing more than routine; it's something that is easy to accept and live with. After all, danger has always been part of the job description.

Whenever a ninja from Konoha enters the Hokage's office to learn about a new assignment, they see their Kage, but not just that. Behind the person wearing the white robes and a red hat with the kanji for "Fire," they would find multiple large windows, and from beyond the transparent glass they would be able to view the entire village.

The First Hokage of Konoha, Hashirama Senju, believed that this sight would motivate his shinobi to do their best, not only for the village that they are fighting to protect, but also for their loved ones that waited for their safe return. It would remind his shinobi of what was at stake for every mission they took and why they had to risk their lives every day… of why their pain and sacrifices were worth it in the end.

This impact was something that a young Hiruzen Sarutobi experienced first-hand, but many decades later, now sitting on the blue chair on the other side of the Hokage's desk—his desk—he couldn't help but see things from a second perspective as well.

As Hiruzen came to understand not too soon after assuming the office as the Sandaime Hokage, being a Kage means that one, at times, needs to look at a mission scroll, realize that whoever is assigned to that mission is practically guaranteed to die during or after the mission... and still carefully construct a team to take the job. It doesn't end there, of course, because he would need to brief his men about what their suicidal mission is, fully aware that they would probably never see their village, families and friends again.

After all, while blood would be in his hands regardless of his decision, he is still the one sending them to their supposed deaths. Just like every time he killed an enemy when he was still an active ninja, the guilt never goes away. It actually gets worse… but all he could do was hold on to the Will of Fire and trust that his men would return, even if a more realistic side of him told him otherwise. Usually that side ended up proven wrong, especially now that they weren't fighting a war, but not always.

'I am far too old for the weight of this hat...' he lamented, taking a drag from his pipe. One look at the man and you would think that, considering his white hair and wrinkled face, Hiruzen was absolutely right. One as old as he was shouldn't be spending his last years locked up in an office dealing with mountains of paperwork and the impossible choices he needed to make on a daily basis, but thanks to the untimely death of his successor, no one else was able to protect his home.

No matter how tired he was, he needed to do it—for the village.

The sound of someone sighing snapped him from his thoughts.

"He's taking way too long," the person spoke in a feminine voice.

Hiruzen had to chuckle at the person across his desk. "Patience. You know how he is. Twenty minutes is actually not too bad for his standards—not yet, at least."

"I suppose you're right…" she mumbled under her breath. "It could be worse."

The woman in front of him was Kurenai Yuhi, a young jonin and the village's most skilled user of genjutsu. Her black, messy hair and striking crimson eyes made for a beautiful visage, despite the impatient scowl marring her features. She wore a red mesh armor blouse that only had one sleeve (on the right) and a thick, sleeveless dress with a design that resembled wide white bandages with black thorn patterns, positioned just right to expose a little of her cleavage covered by the black mesh armor underneath. While her dress only resembled bandages, the ones covering her hands and forearms were genuine.

Luckily, they didn't have to wait for much longer. Barely a minute later, a man entered through the open window. He was dressed in the traditional blue jonin uniform of Konoha under his green flak jacket, with the headband tilted diagonally to cover his left eye. Between that and the mask over his face, he made for a mysterious figure. Despite his aforementioned chronic tardiness and his disheveled silver hair that spiked upwards, he still gave the aura of an experienced and dangerous ninja—as far as Konoha went, few individuals deserved that description more than him.

"Sorry I'm late, Hokage-sama," he said, before giving a lame excuse that Hiruzen tuned out completely. Kakashi Hatake never changed. Always late, always with an improbable excuse. Hiruzen had long since accepted his incorrigibleness, but Kurenai gladly took the chance to chastise him.

"Honestly, Kakashi. Would it kill you to be considerate, for once? I have a team to get back to."

"I suppose you do," he said with a subtle shrug before taking a little book out of a pocket. A porn book, which he proceeded to read despite being in Hiruzen's presence.

Seeing Kurenai's eye twitch at the sight of Icha Icha Paradise—a book Hiruzen was more familiar with than he could admit aloud—he cleared his throat to give start their meeting.

"Kurenai, Kakashi... I called you two today because I have an important mission for both of your teams. But before anything else, I must know one thing." His gaze fell onto Kakashi, whose head was buried in the book. "Is Team 7 finally prepared for a C-rank mission?"

"Well... they are still not quite where I want them to be in terms of teamwork," Kakashi confessed, almost apologetic. "Still, they are starting to tolerate each other a little, and at least a couple things about teamwork are finally getting through their thick heads… so I believe that they can handle a C-rank." He sighed. "Finally…"

The Hokage had to smile. He could still remember the tantrum one Naruto Uzumaki threw a week prior, once he had enough of how mundane and boring the D-rank missions were after a nasty encounter with a certain unruly cat. Hiruzen was sure the boy had insisted on it every single day afterward.

"I'm glad to hear that they are warming up to each other. Kurenai has already confirmed to me that her team is also ready for a C-rank mission yesterday," the woman nodded at that, "and I happen to have one that I want to assign to both of your teams tomorrow."

He grabbed a scroll that was on his desk and offered it to Kurenai. "The client is named Tazuna, an accomplished bridge builder from the Land of Waves. He's requesting a team of shinobi to escort him back to his home country and offer him protection while he builds a bridge that will connect the island to the continent. The motive behind his request is that he fears bandits might ambush him before he gets home or once the bridge is close to our country's coast. He is offering enough payment to justify a C-rank mission."

Kurenai briefly scanned the scroll, confirming all of the information that the Hokage had just shared with them before looking curiously at her boss as she passed the scroll to Kakashi. "This mission isn't complex enough to warrant two genin teams," she stated, one eyebrow raised in suspicion. "Does this have something to do with the post-academy educational project you mentioned to us in the previous meeting, Hokage-sama? For our genin teams?"

Hiruzen's features darkened. "Indeed. As the mission is somewhat time-consuming, it will give you ample time for you two to start the deeper courses on ninjutsu and genjutsu that the project mentioned, even if only for half of the genin in question."

Kakashi and Kurenai both tensed. Between how their teams hadn't been called for this meeting and the grave expression that their Hokage wore, they now knew for sure that the next part would not leave them happy.

"However, that's just on paper." Hiruzen leaned forward, elbows on the desk and hands clasped in front of his face. "The client lied about the mission's parameters. This is, in reality, an extremely important A-rank mission. And with my educational project acting as a cover, I'm giving this A-rank mission to you, two of my strongest shinobi, under the guise of the jonin-sensei that are accompanying two teams of genin on a C-rank mission."

Kurenai's eyes widened. The thought of bringing her team to a dangerous A-rank mission—of possibly getting them killed—made her blood run cold. She bit her lip, stopping herself from demanding an explanation. Not only was Hiruzen her superior, but she trusted him. Surely he had a good reason to endanger mere children like that.

Kakashi, on the other hand, didn't hesitate to speak his mind since his questions were on the practical side. "Why, exactly, is this mission improperly ranked and why is it as important as you say, Hokage-sama?"

"The bridge is the cause of this mission's high level of danger." Hiruzen grabbed a scroll that had been on the corner of his desk and spread it open, revealing a world map. "As you can see on this map, the Land of Waves is a rather small island country. Much like the Land of Water, they rely heavily on ships to trade with other countries, and as such, ports are of the utmost importance to the country's economy. But two years ago, their situation changed dramatically... I suppose both of you have already heard of a man named Gatou, yes?"

"You mean the president of the Gatou Corporation? The shipping tycoon?" Kakashi asked, pocketing his book. The topic merited his full attention. If someone as powerful as Gatou was involved…

Grimly, Hiruzen nodded. "The very same. My sources discovered that he used his money to buy all of the country's ports, effectively cutting off the Land of Waves from the rest of the world. He practically owns the country nowadays. He has full control of the country's economy and he can freely drain its resources with barely any costs," the Hokage said, in a low tone that allowed hints of anger to seep through his words. For someone like him, who sacrificed so much of his life to ensure the well-being of his village, Gatou's tyranny was infuriating. Hiruzen wanted to personally end the man's greedy existence, but for many reasons, that wasn't a possibility.

"Ah, I think I see where this is going," Kurenai muttered, crossing her arms. "That's where our client and the bridge that he plans to build enter the scene, correct?"

"Exactly. The bridge is a threat to Gatou's monopoly. Losing his control over of country will cripple his business as a whole, and thus he will undoubtedly seek to eliminate our client. That man has more than enough money to hire assassins, which is why I consider this mission as an A-rank at this moment. As I'm sure you have guessed by now, the proposed payment for the mission is all that the Land of Waves can afford to give us at the moment, which is the reason behind Tazuna's attempt to lie to us and say this is a C-rank."

Mentally, Hiruzen noted how futile it was to lie to him. He knew that Tazuna had no other option, but he was the Hokage, for god's sake! Being informed about the world around him was part of the job!

"Normally," he continued, "despite wanting to help, I would not accept this kind of mission. After all, I do have to think of my own village first... but that's exactly why we must help them right now." Hiruzen pointed at the world map, specifically at the Land of Water. "Gatou is a key player in the economy of many other places, one of which is Kirigakure, the Land of Water's hidden village. As you know, the Mist is currently in the middle of a bloody civil war, and according to our intelligence, Gatou is the Fourth Mizukage's key supplier. Be it food or weapons, it could be said that Yagura's army is practically funded by Gatou, and if he loses his hold on the Land of Waves, Kiri's insurgency will be given an incredible advantage."

"So," Kurenai raised an eyebrow, "we are trying to depose the Mizukage indirectly by crippling Gatou's business, is that it?"

"Yes," Hiruzen confirmed. "The one who will become the Fifth Mizukage if the insurgency wins, as of now, is a woman by the name of Mei Terumi. Considering what my sources tell me about her personality and morals, as well as the situation that the Hidden Mist would be in if she assumes the position... I see in these events a chance to forge an alliance with the Mist. The previous rebel leader was of dubious character, but he was recently caught and executed, which is why this situation wasn't interesting to Konoha up until now," he explained. While some might think his spymaster might have been focusing more on the woman's sizable bust rather than her character, he knew that Jiraiya's opinion about Mei was trustworthy.

…Both about her character AND her bust size, which Jiraiya had emphasized quite a bit in his report.

"What if this Mei doesn't survive the war?" Kakashi eventually questioned.

At the thought, Hiruzen suppressed a sigh. "Who would assume the village then is not known. Firstly, it would depend on which side wins. With Gatou out of the equation I don't believe the Mizukage's forces will hold out, but the person who would assume the village in Yagura's place might be more reasonable than him. As far as my sources were able to discern, Mei is the only remaining Kage-level shinobi on the rebel's side, in terms of combat ability. We'd need to wait and see who would be the new Mizukage before making a move, but offering help during the reconstruction to improve our ties with them should still be feasible."

Kakashi nodded, and Kurenai followed up with a question of her own. "But Hokage-sama, why can't we offer our support to the resistance in the Hidden Mist directly instead?"

That what she truly wanted to know was 'why does my team need to be involved in all of this?' was something Hiruzen didn't fail to notice.

"So far our only ally in the five great elemental nations is Suna," he continued, deciding that an explanation of Konoha's relationship with the other major villages was in order. "After the Sandaime Mizukage's death, our relationship with Kiri became neutral once again. However, the current Mizukage, Yagura, violently opposed the idea of making an alliance with us for unknown reasons, and we are still not in good terms with Kumo and Iwa, thanks to previous wars and some smaller incidents over the years," he pointed at the hidden villages of the Water, Earth and Lighting countries on the map as he spoke. "Openly siding with the resistance would be enough for Yagura to declare war on us. It's far from a wise move considering how the civil war affected his village, but that man is literally insane, so it's a very real possibility that must be considered.

"But the real danger here is that, despite the Mist's precarious situation, there is a chance that the Hidden Cloud or the Hidden Rock would see an opportunity to oppose us by supporting Yagura, and potentially invading Konoha as well as providing manpower to shut down the resistance in Kiri. It does not help that the Hidden Sand is currently economically crippled, and thus, we'd be surrounded from three sides with little backup. This why we must capitalize on this opportunity to have the Mist on our side and why participating in their civil war is unfeasible. Lastly, the Mizukage himself is also the jinchuuriki of the Three-tails... and worse, he can fully control it. I believe you can see why we cannot take this risk, correct?"

Resisting the sudden urge to gulp, Kurenai realized that she had no way to counter her Hokage's logic. Still, the safety of her genin depended on her, and she found herself pressed to continue questioning the Sandaime in hopes of changing his mind.

"...Hokage-sama, I... I do understand," Kurenai stammered, "but why must our genin teams do this kind of mission? It's too dangerous for them!"

Being completely honest with herself, Kurenai didn't care much for the bigger picture. She had no issues with risking her own life during this or any other mission, but while the situation of the world around her was truly worrying, directly dealing with that was not her job. Protecting her team, on the other hand, was, and she knew Kakashi would also do everything in his power to protect his own squad.

But when you add that to an equation that already had a defenseless client and unknown assassins, their A-rank mission could easily become S-ranked in difficulty.

Unlike Kurenai, Sarutobi's expression kept his feelings very well hidden—a leader could not show weakness in front of their subordinates after all. "I am perfectly aware of the dangers, but we do not have another option in this case. The council of elders has no idea of the true nature of this C-rank mission or my intentions, and if they knew about it, they would veto my decision immediately." Neither jonin were very informed about the inner workings of Konoha's government, so they didn't question the Hokage on this matter.

In truth, Konoha's council of elders was a system created by the First Hokage. It was composed of three members, one chosen by the Hokage, another chosen by the Land of Fire's Daimyo, and the last one decided through a vote between all of the village's clan heads. All councilmen were meant to aid the Hokage in managing the village through delegated roles in the high administration, but the members chosen by the Daimyo and the clan heads had the additional duty of helping defend the interests of the party that put them in charge. Though this resulted in the possibility of the council vetoing the Hokage's decisions if all of them disagreed with him, among other lesser limitations, it made the village a much safer investment for clans and the Daimyo, providing the village with much-needed manpower and funds, and the First Hokage had deemed it a worthy sacrifice to help the village grow.

As for the council nowadays... Hiruzen had spent too many decades with his teammates Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado. they were predictable. The former was always reluctant in dealing with other countries unless they were forced to or there was no risk involved, while the latter had a heavy bias regarding the Hidden Mist due to past personal losses. If they were the only elders, Hiruzen knew he would convince at least Koharu.

The last elder, Danzo Shimura, would be just as impossible to convince as Homura. He'd never risk so many key resources of the village (the Kyuubi, the last Sharingan and an unsealed Byakugan) and if Hiruzen knew his old friends well, Danzo and Homura would be able to convince Koharu to veto the mission. Luckily, Hiruzen knew that Homura would be on his side instead if Danzo proposed an alliance with Yagura, so at least that wasn't a worry.

Hiruzen firmly refused to ally himself with someone that supported brutal practices such as the Bloodline Purges or Kiri's deadly graduation exams. Those two things already said enough about the Mizukage's character—he was not someone Hiruzen wanted on his side. However, considering the man was also a perfect jinchuuriki and mentally unstable, he also was far too dangerous to make an enemy of.

"But now," he proceeded, "thanks to my project, I have the perfect cover to send two highly capable jonin to deal with this "C-rank" mission. As I already mentioned in our previous meeting, the council approved the possibility of joint missions for the four genin teams involved in my project. It just so happens that your genin have a good combination of supporting abilities that would help both of you during the mission and the skills that will help them survive the ordeal; in particular Team 8," he said, eyes falling to Kurenai.

Albeit reluctantly, the kunoichi finally understood her Hokage's intention. "I see... between Shino's kikaichu, Hinata's Byakugan and Kiba's sense of smell, we could avoid unnecessary conflicts and prepare more thoroughly if running is not an option, correct?"

"That was my logic, yes." The Hokage confirmed. "I also believe that Naruto's shadow clones can assist in that regard, and there's also the fact that his teammates were the best the academy had in this year. Between all of the jonin-sensei and their teams, this is the best combination that I have available for this mission at the moment, Kurenai."

In truth, Hiruzen wanted Might Guy's team over Kurenai's since a Byakugan user would be more than enough support in most situations, but they had been sent to a border patrol mission a week before and thus were unavailable for the next ten days. Still, between the skill of the two top students, the tracking/scouting abilities of the other four and the strength of their sensei, these two teams had the highest odds of returning from the Land of Waves without suffering too many deaths, or dare he hope, any casualties at all.

Mulling over the Third Hokage's words, Kurenai's shoulder sagged as she finally nodded. "I understand," she practically sighed.

Hiruzen allowed himself to relax a little, internally glad that this discussion was nearing a peaceful end. Having to pull the "I'm the Hokage, shut up and do it" card was never very pleasant.

"It's a dangerous mission, but I have faith that you will all accomplish it and return safely. But while I don't like to lie to those kids, it's better if you don't mention the level of danger they are in at first." All three of them were aware that having that kind of pressure on the genin's shoulders from the get-go would just get them killed. "Still, do reinforce the fact that such things could happen during missions in order for them to keep their guard up," Hiruzen recommended. "You can never be too careful, even on a normal mission."

The two jonin nodded to their leader, and the Hokage moved on to conclude the meeting. "Finally... I cannot give any reasons for the council to cancel my project thanks to a lack of results early on, so I want both of you to work with the other's team tomorrow and with everyone during your downtime while in the Land of Waves. Try to get a feel for the new kids, both for the sake of the project and the mission itself. You will depart the day after tomorrow, at seven in the morning, but do come to the Mission Assignment Room with your teams later tomorrow for me to give them the mission officially. You can tell them about the mission before that happens if you wish, but everything that wasn't on the scroll is classified unless strictly necessary for their survival during the mission. Any questions?"

There were none.

"Then you are dismissed."

Nodding, the pair left the office through the front door. It pained Hiruzen to watch. Kakashi seemed unaffected, but a simple comparison of how Kurenai entered and left the room—how fear had corrupted her confident stride—made Hiruzen even more aware of the burden he was placing on their shoulders.

It wasn't the mission, but the young lives he was risking for that goal. It was a massive gambit. But his instincts—the one thing he had learned to trust above all else during his career—told him he was doing the right thing.

Still, he worried. Finally alone, he grabbed his pipe again and slumped in his chair, sighing loudly. "That went well enough... hopefully, their debriefing will be no different."

If there was one thing he thought worse than discovering that his men died in action... it was the fallout. Having to tell to a person's family that their father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son or daughter… that they would never see that person again. It was, by far, the hardest part of being Hokage.

In this case, the situation could be even worse since the heirs to the Aburame and Hyuuga clans were involved, but to Hiruzen, the true problem lied with the two genin that didn't even have a family in Konoha to return to.

One was Sasuke Uchiha, the last person in Konoha with the mighty Sharingan in his blood. While losing access to that kekkei genkai would be a huge loss for the village, what truly worried the old Hokage was how his elder brother might react to the boy's possible death. Itachi Uchiha, despite what everyone else thought, was still a loyal ninja of Konoha, but losing Sasuke… Hiruzen wasn't sure that boy would be capable of handling that. His psyche was frail enough as it was.

The other case, Naruto Uzumaki... was the one possible death that would hit him the hardest, both as a Kage and as an individual. His concern as a Kage was obvious: the Kyuubi. But as a person… it would be losing a boy he came to consider as his own grandson. A grandson that Hiruzen had failed enough as it was—his lack of foresight ended up ruining Naruto's childhood, and it was one of his biggest regrets in life.

Hiruzen's hope was that he would one day witness the young Uzumaki getting the recognition that he so desperately wanted—and considering his burden, rightfully deserved. But if Naruto died so young… he'd go down in history as an evil being that deserved to die, rather than the hero that he is for shouldering such a heavy burden.

Perhaps, if he had gone through with his decision to remove Danzo from the Konoha Council after confronting him about his dubious role in the Uchiha Massacre, he might have been able to convince the remaining members that his plan was sound and spare those kids from this mission, depending on who would take over Danzo's chair. But now… that was just another failure added to Hiruzen's pile of regrets.

He put his pipe down.

'This is no time to ponder the mistakes of the past', Hiruzen told himself as he went back to fight against the one opponent that even the God of Shinobi, as they sometimes called him, could never beat: paperwork.

Being the Hokage was never easy... but even as his fears and doubts nagged at him, he knew that he needed to set them aside and trust in his subordinates.

In the Will of Fire.

On their way out of the Hokage's Tower, Kurenai and Kakashi talked for a bit and decided on a simple schedule for the next day. First, they'd swap teams for the morning, meet up at lunch to get the mission from the Hokage, go back to one of the training grounds to have lunch and then train together for the rest of the day.

As soon as the discussion was over, Kakashi simply asked her to tell her team to avoid eating breakfast and disappeared in a gust of leaves. If she knew her old friend well, he was headed to the memorial stone to reminiscence or talk to his fallen teammates, as he often did. She was sure his genin team was waiting for him, but she was also sure he didn't care about making them wait just a couple extra hours.

'As long as he doesn't pull that stunt with my team, I suppose that's fine. Not that I'm one to talk now,' she sighed.

Kurenai had left Team 8 during their lunch break after an ANBU appeared to inform her of the Hokage's summons, but it had already been over one hour since then. She felt a bit guilty for not going any faster—she could have gotten to the training grounds that her team used with a Body Flicker after all—but she decided to take the long route and settled for a walk instead. It wasn't a particularly fast way of traveling, especially for a ninja, but she needed to clear her mind a little before facing Team 8 again. She was still shaken from the meeting, and she couldn't project that aura of fear around her genin.

Her genin… the thought still brought a smile to her face.

It still surprised how much she became attached to "her kids" despite only knowing them for a couple weeks. Or rather, she knew Shino and Kiba for a couple weeks, since the Hokage had assigned her to teach Hinata a couple months before the graduation. As much as she cared for the boys, it wasn't on the same level as their teammate. She felt as if Hinata was her own daughter.

However, at first Kurenai had considered teaching Hinata as an insult. Firstly, the Hokage had said that "nobody else was available," which was an obvious lie. Secondly, she could not teach the Gentle Fist to the girl and wouldn't be allowed to teach her much about genjutsu because of the Hyuuga clan's traditions, so why her? Was it some sort of punishment?

The only thing that had crossed her mind was that the girl needed academic help, but surely there would be better options than her. Ultimately, that mystery had piqued Kurenai's curiosity enough that she ended up accepting to meet up with Hiashi Hyuuga, the clan head and in this case, her client. She hadn't intended to accept his proposal—as a jonin, she had the right to deny a job when Konoha wasn't in a crisis or war.

Her encounter with Hiashi on his mansion's dojo had changed her perspective completely. Much like the bridge builder from the Land of Waves, he too had lied about the mission's parameters. What he wanted was not a teacher for his heiress… he just needed someone to take out the trash.

Useless. Failure. Inconvenience. A waste of time. Those were only some of the terms Hiashi had used to describe his own child. The memory alone made Kurenai's blood boil, but when it happened? It had angered her enough that she accepted to teach the girl before she even realized the words were leaving her mouth, purely out of spite for the man.

Kurenai had decided to do everything she could to prove Hiashi wrong, even if she didn't know how… but as she left that dojo, she found not only an answer to that problem, but a better reason to go through with it: Hinata herself.

The girl had been right beside the dojo's door, and by accident or design, she clearly had overheard every word. Her shoulders were slumped and her head hung low in defeat, body as still as a statue and so destabilized that she hadn't even noticed the woman's presence. Her eyes… it still hurt Kurenai to remember the raw sorrow she saw reflected there. Hinata didn't cry, but somehow it just made Kurenai's heart hurt even more as she watched.

Be it pity, empathy or even some sort of maternal instinct that awoke inside her at the moment, Kurenai felt that she could—should—help that girl.

She didn't believe in coincidences. Their paths crossed for a reason. That the Hokage told her later that day that she was guaranteed to be the Hinata's sensei if she graduated all but confirmed it.

As the days passed and they began to interact, Kurenai realized the girl's problem wasn't a lack of talent. She was no genius, but she wasn't as bad as Hiashi had made her out to be. Hinata's problem was mental. She hesitated too much, gave up easily and didn't believe in herself; her attempts to become stronger were corrupted by both fear of failing and the belief that she already was a failure—results of having her self-worth crippled by her clan and family.

Coaxing Hinata out of her shell was one of the hardest things Kurenai had ever done. It took a lot of patience and understanding, of praises and encouragement at the smallest of successes... but Kurenai saw that the little flower she had found wilting would definitely bloom one day. She had just needed a little love.

Kiba and Shino's inclusion to their dynamic had been a worry. Kiba was brash, explosive and intimidating, which made the Hinata fearful of upsetting him or even his dog, Akamaru. Shino was quiet like Hinata, but he was intelligent, unapproachable and blunt, making Hinata hesitant of proving herself stupid and a burden in his presence. Both boys constantly disagreed with each other because Kiba wanted to be the leader of his "pack" and Shino undermined him with constant criticism of his poorly-made decisions and uninformed comments, leaving Hinata as a nervous, silent observer to their conflicts until Kurenai stepped in.

The worry went away when Kurenai had the idea of grooming Hinata to be the team's peacemaker. In a way, the girl's first attempt had been disastrous. She had been a stuttering mess and not even Kiba's sensitive ears deciphered her mumblings… but it made the boys realize there was a third person in Team 8, and that they were scaring her.

Kiba still had a desire to be the pack's alpha, but regarding Hinata, it began to manifest itself as a protective instinct. His outgoing personality ended up working in the team's favor when he noticed he could help the gloomy girl to keep her spirits up. Shino, on the other hand, kept Hinata grounded. His logical personality made it all but impossible for the girl to doubt or undersell herself with him nearby. Unlike Kiba, these two were loners and struggled to connect with others, but a team building exercise revealed that both enjoyed reading books, giving them enough common ground to begin their friendship.

It warmed Kurenai's heart to see how quickly Team 8 had bonded over the two weeks she had spent with them. Their bond was more than just interpersonal—it flowed into how they worked as ninja. They quickly understood the concepts of teamwork and Kurenai knew they would pass Kakashi's infamous bell test without problems.

As she walked through Konoha's busy streets, Kurenai's thoughts took her back to the meeting she and a select few jonin had with the Hokage roughly a week before. It was during that meeting that the Sandaime introduced his educational project, and it was because of this same project that things like her team taking Kakashi's bell test would actually be happening.

The Sandaime had been carefully reviewing the concepts that the academy was teaching as well as the performance of genin teams that had participated in previous Chunin Exams, regardless of promotions. To say that he wasn't impressed was an understatement.

The Hokage had come to realize that the academy was focusing far too much on the theoretical aspects of being a ninja and the cultural aspects, such as the history of the shinobi world. Because of that, the Academy didn't give the necessary attention to practical skills, leaving that job to the students themselves, their families (who many times weren't even ninja), and later on, the jonin-sensei.

The Academy only taught three E-rank jutsu: the Substitution, Transformation, and Clone jutsu. The physical training barely strayed from target practice with kunai/shuriken and basic taijutsu practice with spars.

Genjutsu was, much to Kurenai's disappointment, barely covered in practice. The teachers used basic E-rank genjutsu (such as changing someone's hair color) to teach the students how to dispel the illusions, but the actual execution was nowhere in the curriculum. They taught some theory about it, but that would only help those that chose genjutsu as their specialty.

And talking about specialties, the data from the Chunin Exams showed that ninja that came from clans were focusing only on their own niche, whereas those that didn't have a shinobi on their families struggled to find an area to focus on. This held true for many of those that were promoted as well as the majority that failed (not to mention those that died). Being predictable was one of the worst flaws a ninja could have, and the alarmingly high rates of death and grave injuries among recently promoted chunin were a testament to that fact.

It was clear that if things continued like that, Konoha's current generation of ninja would be crippled. As the Hokage, it was Hiruzen's job to find a solution to what could end up being a great problem for his future forces.

From there, the Professor, as some called the Sandaime, devised a project that sought to continue the education of genin and chunin. While the genin were still focused mostly on D and C-rank missions, they would undergo extra lessons on topics such as tactics and genjutsu in order to sharpen their skills and minds in preparation for the Chunin Exams and the B-rank missions that they would be then participating in.

In order to help those that managed to earn their flak jackets, chunin that didn't choose to pursue administrative or educational duties would also take extra classes on areas and subjects that they could specialize on, such as bukijutsu, fuuinjutsu, tracking, capturing, infiltration, poisons, medical ninjutsu and information gathering. Not only would this help to expand the skill set of his chunin, but it would allow them to better utilize the ninja they would be leading during missions. A Yamanaka, for example, might not be fully aware of how to use an Aburame under their command for tracking purposes.

His ultimate plan was to then integrate the extended genin curriculum into the academy, and then the extended chunin curriculum to the genin after a year or two. But… unfortunately, Konoha didn't have the funds to invest in such a huge project.

They would need to reform and expand the academy, hire new teachers that would able to teach these subjects to the students (which would also have another cost from both parties being unavailable for active duty at some points), invest in utensils for classes that required specific materials (like scrolls, brushes and ink for fuiinjutsu lessons, or the ridiculous amount of accessories needed to deal with poisons), update Konoha's library with materials the students would need... it was definitely costly.

That fact led the council of elders to reject Hiruzen's idea for the time being, but the old Hokage stubbornly insisted that his project was an immediate necessity and well worth the money and the cuts on the yearly budget. After much debate, the Sandaime decided to propose a smaller, cheaper version of the program to test if the results would truly justify the costs of the full project, and that was readily accepted.

They decided to experiment with only a select few genin teams, and instead of having classes taught in the academy, the lessons would be on training grounds or during missions.

For the "trial" version of the project, he chose the three genin teams that graduated from the academy that year, as well as one squad that had graduated in the previous year and still had to participate in a Chunin Exam. The choices weren't because Hiruzen had somehow used his crystal ball like a common fortune-teller to determine that those four squads would be involved in many important conflicts over the coming years and that every other squad Konoha had wouldn't be of note until a future war.

Of course not.

That would have been ridiculous.

Teams 7, 8 and 10, all of which graduated recently, were specialized squads. Team 7 was an assault squad, Team 8 a tracking team, and Team 10's specialty was in ambush/capture. The "veteran" Team Guy—Kurenai had no idea why they didn't use a number—was also chosen because, despite being another assault squad, the team was surprisingly balanced and able to perform well at any of the areas the newly-formed teams focused on.

The fact that all of the twelve genin involved with the project were either the children of clan heads, the top students of their class or the worst students of their class wasn't a mere coincidence. Another important factor behind Hiruzen's decision was related to the jonin in charge of the project and the teams in question. Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy were the very best Konoha had to offer on the subjects of ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu respectively.

Asuma Sarutobi, the jonin in charge of Team 10, might have seemed like the odd one of the four since he had no specialty of his own. However, a ninja with no niche is a ninja that can fit into a wider variety of teams and take a wider variety of missions. Asuma had a fair amount of experience with practically all facets of the profession, hence why Hiruzen chose him for the tactics class. He was the perfect shinobi to take the knowledge the genin have from the academy and transform it into something usable in real life.

Kurenai, who now was not very far from the Training Ground that her team was using, had been very excited about the project and the chance to finally teach people about her craft. While she loved her squad, Shino and Kiba had no talent for genjutsu. Hinata, on the other hand, had some potential and interest in the art, but the girl refused to learn illusions because of her clan. They believed that a Hyuuga should only move on from the Gentle Fist once they master it, and going against the tradition was taboo.

To Kurenai's surprise, Hiruzen had convinced Hiashi to make an exception for the sake of his project. Perhaps Hiruzen had called in a favor… but it didn't matter to her. She now had more than a few genin capable of learning from her, and she was definitively looking forward to her time with Team 7, however grim the circumstances around that arrangement.

But that would only be on the following day. She still had much to do before that.

Finally, Kurenai arrived at the gates of Training Ground 5, where she had left her team. Even after all that time walking, she still felt the need to close her eyes and take a deep breath to center herself.

If the Sandaime was correct, the eight-man team's chances of survival would be much higher if Team 8's tracking abilities were working as they should, and thus, she would push them hard for the rest of the day.

With determination blazing within her red eyes and her confidence restored, Kurenai continued moving forward. She had to do everything in her power to ensure these kids would survive the coming weeks. That, was her top priority.

None of them would die on that mission. Not on her watch.

A/N:

And... we're done! I know this chapter was mostly exposition and once again, I apologize for that; I tried to make it as interesting as I could. The Sandaime's project and the geopolitical background of the mission needed to be explained for the "Team 8 also goes to Wave!" part to make sense.

I'd like to remind everyone that, for all intents and purposes, this is an AU. There will be things that will change and things that have already changed so don't expect everything to match canon despite me not straying very far from it for the bigger plot.

For example, the Wave mission originally happened only a week after graduation. With an extra week between these events, Team 8's stronger bond is more believable, and Team 7 are now a little more tolerant of each other. Kurenai taking Hinata under her wing earlier was done for a similar reason.

Another important change that surely most of you noticed is that Hiruzen's power as the Hokage is slightly more limited... and that he didn't get rid of Danzo (though he did order him to disband ROOT, which Danzo didn't. Obviously). While this might not come up in my story, the reason behind this is that Hiruzen had no solid evidence to back up his claims about Danzo's involvement with the Uchiha Massacre, so he was unable to get rid of the old war hawk. Also, I found it rather weird that they didn't have someone to become part of the council after Danzo left... but that's about it.

Ah, one thing I think that deserves to be said here (and it's on my profile too) is that fanfics are community projects. If you spot any errors, inconsistencies and such, please send me a PM about it. I don't care how small the error is, or even if it's just a letter that wasn't capitalized on the A/N... please do warn me. You will be credited with any errors you find on the revised version of the chapter (check my profile every now and then to see if any chapters were changed), and I will personally thank you via a PM and maybe give you a shout-out in an A/N too.

But enough of me explaining my explanations... hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, though! I'd like to remind you all that my profile has quite a lot of information about this fic. If you haven't already seen it already, please do it soon! Otherwise, feel free to read the next chapter.

Changelog:

v1.0.1 (10/25/15) - Added Horizontal lines to separate blocks of text. I used a few hyphens to do it before, but this site gets rid of them for some reason. Also fixed a few typos.

v2.0 (11/07/15) - Enhanced pretty much the whole chapter, both in terms of content and grammar. Heck, the chapter went from 6200 words to basically 9000 words, and some stuff got deleted too.

The most important changes are that Sarutobi's project was explained better (thank reviewer Serious Sam for prompting me to expand that part) and that Hinata's character was explored more deeply. But the briefing of the first half also got additional content.

v2.0.1 (11/08/15) - Fixed some small mistakes that I didn't catch on the 2.0 revision

v2.1 (12/21/15) - Reworded some stuff, and added a small part talking about the Kyuubi Festival/Naruto's birthday.

v2.5 (04/07/16) - Fixed some mistakes regarding improper use of Present Tense, as per JLBShecky's detailed suggestions in a review (though some parts were kept in that tense as I felt Past Tense implicated those things no longer would apply in the present or future). Additionally, after reading DryBonesKing's review (author of the incredible fic True Potential), I decided to add a little clarification to the "depose the Mizukage" comment. Other minor errors I caught by myself were also fixed.

v2.6 (10/30/16) - Addressed the possibility of Mei's death during the war, as per Fury074's suggestions.

v2.6.1 (01/30/16) - Fixed a single typo. Kudos to RoseWarden, author of the amazing Fire Emblem Awakening self-insert fic named Cycle. I am against recommending anything but Naruhina fics on this story/under this profile, but Cycle is one of the major inspirations for my story here, as it proved to me that slower-paced story with a focus on characters can work wonderfully.

If you liked my story, I'm sure you will fall in love with it as long as you know about Fire Emblem Awakening. It makes my fic looks like the product of a toddler hitting random keys on the keyboard and somehow managing to post the "story" anyways.

Entertainment aside, it's a very good fic to read and analyze for aspiring writers, particularly those that want to try improving at using the first-person perspective or at writing deep characters and relationships. Her Lucina in particular is mind-blowing, and the bond F!Robin has with Lucina and Chrom is just amazing to read.

v3.0 (20/08/17) – Multiple things changed and the chapter was polished across the board.

For the first part: The intro about Hiruzen is less heavy, Kurenai is introduced a little before Kakashi enters the room, the council bit was expanded so it doesn't feel like Homura and Koharu are Danzo's puppets. The Kyuubi festival bit from v2.1 was removed due to irrelevant.

For the second: 99% of the exposition about Hinata comes before the project, much of said exposition has changed so that it will be shown in her character later instead of told to your face now, her backstory regarding Kurenai/Team 8 was explained, minor details about the educational project were changed/expanded.

v3.0.1 (24/08/17) – I decided to cut the little bit about Team Guy's name since I thought it could be better used in Chapter 21. Instead, Kurenai simply doesn't know how that came to be. Also fixed a little thing about the councilmen.

v3.0.2 (28/08/17) – Fixed some stray typos and missing line breaks.

v3.0.3 (16/09/17) - More small fixes, most of them because of the feedback I got from gio08, who recently became the fic's second beta reader.

v3.0.4 (02/02/17) - Fixed one typo, thanks guest reviewer Stickler. Alsoexpanded on more details about the council of elders and their objectives after discussing things with Bearmauls.