{Somewhere in the Land of Fire}

{07:09 AM, 25th Mar 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

Sasuke was running laps around the same old path that they had been using for the last 2 weeks, it's been more than a month since he had been training with Team 7. Kakashi didn't believe in teaching them new jutsu although he had been working extensively on fixing Naruto's bad habits.

The seal was restricting his actions and his legs were starting to hurt, he was currently running on level 3 of his restrictive seal.

"Sasuke your pace is lagging behind do you want me to tune your seal down to level 2," Kakashi's voice came from the front, all four of them were currently running and Sasuke and Hinata were lagging behind the two of them.

'Dammit,' Sasuke cursed as he pushed his legs to move, the sprint went for another 5 laps before Kakashi motioned for them to stop. He on the other hand kept on running along with Naruto while Sasuke and Hinata stopped to take a break.

Sasuke looked as Naruto barely kept up pace with Kakashi once his sensei started increasing the pace ever so slightly.

'The dobe is once again able to keep up with him...' Sasuke thought as he gritted his teeth, the pressure he felt increased ever so slightly every day when he saw Naruto of all people surpass him in something. Although in their spars he still had an advantage in skill, but the difference in speed was slowly catching up to him.

Kakashi ran and after every lap, he increased his speed just a little bit until Naruto wasn't able to keep up after 12 more laps. Kakashi stared at Naruto, he was struggling to keep up and as his form deteriorated his breathing became uneven prompting him to speak up, "You're done Naruto, go back and rest with the others."

Before the blond could protest Kakashi sped up and left Naruto behind, his thoughts though were still focused on the blond, 'He was able to increase his endurance by two laps again today, plus he is on level 4 seal rather than level 3 like the rest of them.'

Naruto had a better physique than both of his other students, Sasuke was more proficient in Ninjutsu and Hinata trumped the two boys in Taijutsu. Although it was a pain in the ass to get her to attack Naruto with the intent to harm him.

...

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{A Month Ago}

{One day after Graduation Day}

{Training Ground #7}

{Kakashi's Clone POV}

Kakashi stared at Hinata, the indigo-haired Hyuga on the other hand was staring at the ground her neck disappearing in her cream-colored jacket.

"Genin Hinata," Kakshi's voice was stern but low, Hinata stared up abruptly at Kakashi and when he had her attention he finally asked her, "Do you remember the class on teamwork and why all Konoha squads are a stable 3-man cell."

"Yes Kakashi sensei," Hinata stuttered at first but then slowly repeated the normal explanation of them covering each other's limitations in the early period of their careers.

"Good, so you are just shy, not dumb, we can work with that. What do you think about Naruto," Kakashi said abruptly, his eyes watching all the emotional ques that Hinata was providing, the widening of her eyes at Naruto's name, the blush that appeared on her face, and the way her fingers gravitated to each other as she ducked her head.

"Ah, so you don't like him as well," her head snapped upwards the denial stuck at the tip of her tongue, "see all Jonin are supposed to investigate their student's advantages when they propose to form a team, you know to cover each other's weaknesses."

"Now I need to teach Sasuke because he is the last Uchiha and because you have the Byakugan I'm pretty sure you know what is hiding underneath this," Kakashi pointed his finger to his covered eye.

"Um, No sensei I didn't spy on you-" Hinata spoke but Kakashi cut her off.

"Then you are incompetent," seeing Hinata shrinking he sighed internally and got her attention back, "We are shinobi, we are trained to kill my mission could be to kill Naruto or Sasuke but because of your actions I have already killed them."

Hinata's Byakugan activated instantly as her eyes rolled for a couple of seconds before she gave Kakashi a puzzled expression, "Exactly, it took you 1 second of a precaution that could save the life of your two teammates, though, from the way your eyes rolled, you only searched for one that means you only cared enough to check on Sasuke." (AN: Kakashi knows Hinata searched for Naruto)

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"It's understandable because not many people like Naruto, now my problem is that I was assigned Sasuke by default. Who I wanted to teach was Naruto, he has a lot of potential that some blind academy instructors wasted. You wanted to be acknowledged by someone, I can make sure you are strong enough to do that any way you see fit. But if I find you slacking and not following instructions I would have no choice but to drop this team," Kakshi continued plotting out the whole story.

"And since only I can teach Sasuke, I would have to drop you and Naruto from the team. You can go back to your clan to learn but Naruto would have to go to the reserve program where he wouldn't get any training and would probably die in a mission," Kakashi spoke getting another wide-eyed look from the genin.

"So that gets me to my question, can you put your hatred for Naruto aside to focus on the team, that way you won't have the blood of your comrade on your hands..."

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{Back to the present...}

Hinata hasn't denied his order till now which at least makes it so the physical development of his three students is on track. Although Naruto's development has surpassed both Hinata and Sasuke when it comes to Speed, Strength, and Endurance.

The harder Naruto trained the faster he progressed and Kakashi had seen Sasuke once again getting annoyed a little bit at his constant losses.

'His competitiveness on the other hand is making sure he tries a lot harder...' Kakashi thought as he stopped in front of his three genins after completing his quota of laps.

"Alright, your physical development is on track, at least you won't be an embarrassment when it comes to sparring. Naruto has relearned the Academy Taijutsu style while both of you are using your clan's taijutsu style. From today till the end of our training trip, the 3 of you will fight me every day, the spar will be taijutsu only."

Kakshi indicated the clearing they were in, "The clearing is your range, no one is allowed to leave the area. You have 2 hours to land a solid hit on me, whoever does not manage to do that will have to do the next day's physical conditioning with their resistance seals off." Kakashi spoke.

He wanted to regulate the training so that these idiots wouldn't rush and damage their muscles, this way he could see their seals and look at Sasuke and Naruto's expression this was enough motivation for them to work harder.

Kakashi had already instilled the mentality of working hard in the minds of his three genin in the past month, their strength and speed have increased rapidly breaking into low chunin level ranges, and once they have gotten a taste for rapid progress they would naturally be opposed to let go of their training method.

"On the contrary, if all three of you manage to hit me on the same day, then I will allow you to increase your resistance seal level by 1. So who's ready for the spar..."

Kakashi stared at the determined faces of his cute little genins and chuckled internally.

'So how long would it take for them to figure out that only by helping each other they would be able to achieve that rather than trying to use each other... though Hinata would probably help Naruto even without asking.' Kakashi thought as he jumped back avoiding Sasuke's punch as the spar started.

...

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{Tazuna's House, Land of Waves}

{06:19 PM, 21st Mar 13 Yrs ANB}

{3rd Person POV}

Hayate looked as Ren was meditating on top of the ocean, he had been sitting on top of the water for more than 10 minutes indicating his chakra reserves had grown once again.

'His chakra reserves are growing rapidly, during the spar with Zabuza he was able to use ninjutsu quite rapidly. Maybe his talent in Ninjutsu far surpasses his physical talent...'

Using Ninjutsu was dependent on talent, chakra control, and elemental affinity. According to Asuma, Ren had a quite strong elemental affinity and even his use of Fire Release jutsu was impressive. The problem was that Ren couldn't focus too much on all the different things, it was one of the reasons he didn't learn a lot of different Fire Release jutsus.

"Ren," Hayate spoke getting Ren's attention, Ren opened his eyes and jumped on the roof next to Hayate.

"Yes Sensei," Ren asked confused, 'Did something happen, I thought Gato was dead and they didn't find anything.'

"I want to talk to you about your progress," Hayate spoke indicating for Ren to sit down, he stared at the endless sea as he spoke, "Even though you used a Fire Release Jutsu in your final exams I misjudged your talent in Ninjutsu. All the training plans I made were focused on your impressive growth with your physical aspects, that's why I included Kenjutsu as it is the fastest way to get rid of most of your weaknesses..."

Hayate sighed and continued, "I still underestimated your growth," Hayate looked at Ren and spoke, "The chunin exams will start in the first week of July so you will have 3 months after this mission ends to prepare. I would continue to help you hone your Kenjutsu but you would need to find a team to take part in the exams which will take some time."

"Yes Sensei," Ren replied, he was excited as he clenched his fists, the battle with Zabuza was something of an eye-opener for him. The way his body reacted to being under such intense killing intent was an eye-opener for him, his thoughts and response were at another level during the whole battle and Ren cannot forget that feeling.

Maybe it was the excitement or the fear that made him look forward to that battle again, he simulated the battle multiple times in his mind, and with each battle, he concluded that it would have been impossible to deal with Zabuza by himself.

'I need to be faster and complete more missions...' Ren thought, the main problem he was facing right now was his INT stat, he needed to level up more so that he could increase his INT stat and increase his dynamic vision and reflexes.

"I think we should take more missions after this sensei," Ren put his thoughts out there, he needed EXP to level up.

"I achieved some breakthrough when we fought Zabuza more missions would give me more experience..." Ren asked and Hayate stared at his only student for a bit.

Finally, Hayate sighed and nodded, he was quite pleased with this outcome too, before Team #21 broke up it would be a good idea to do a few more missions.

'Maybe a couple of missions to the Land of Hot Springs wouldn't hurt...'