"Okay, Sumire. Show us what you can do." Sakura said as she stood in front of the tigress.

Sumire purred and turned to her mature size. She moved away from the team and slammed her paw on the ground. A trail of purple coloured crystals shot up from the ground.

The team was astounded by such a feat. Usually, animal-nins collaborate with their owners in performing a jutsu or any other skill. It is rarely seen that an animal-nin can use ninjutsu independently.

"Crystal release. I've never seen animals with chakra natures.." Kakashi frowned. "It is a special kekkei genkai that very few shinobi has."

Sakura walked to the crystals and tapped on it. She raised her arm and poured all her energy into her fist, then she punched a huge piece of crystal; but she only yelped in pain and the crystal was left unscathed.

"Aka." Sasuke ordered.

He turned to his adult size and ran for the tree. He raised its paws and tapped a few trees. Those trees exploded behind Aka as he calmly walked to the group.

"Amazing!" Sasuke complimented with a proud smile. "Good job, Aka."

It was heartwarming to see Sasuke being affectionate with his companion.

"Explosion release only exists in Iwagakure but it's rarely seen even for them." The Jounin said.

Neji looked at the tiger with black fur, he already transformed and was ready to perform. He jumped a few feet away from them and roared, but nothing happened.

"Raimu?"

The silver-haired ninja walked over to the tiger and did a couple of handsigns before tapping Raimu's throat. "This may allow him to talk our language for awhile."

"Attack me." The tiger said. The three prodigies were stunned for a moment, it isn't everyday they hear an animal speak. It felt weird to them.

"Sakura, you have the honours." Neji said.

The said girl pointed to herself, "Me??" He nodded. "Okay.. I'm sorry if I hurt him.."

"Cherry Blossom Release: Raging Cherry Blossoms!"

A heavy shower of cherry blossom flowers were shot from the pinkette's mouth. Raimu opened its mouth and absorbed the flowers; then, he turned around and blew the attack to the trees. Sakura's eyes widened in shock.

She was not the only one. Kakashi could not believe his eyes. "That's..dark release, shade style. It only exists in legends..."

Neji was proud with Raimu, he did a great job and his chakra nature will be very useful in battles. They definitely will have the upper hand in a fight.

"They truly are the legendary tiger-nins. Truthfully, nobody knows about much them because they don't usually roam in places with minimum human concentration. They were believed as myths, but Third Hokage was one of the few people who encountered them."

"To think that these tigers have rare chakra natures..." The Hyuga trailed off.

Kakashi nodded, "With proper training, they will become very powerful. Anyhow, we should meet the Hokage first. It's about the prophecy."

The trio exchanged glances, all of them sharing curiosity and worry. They followed the Jounin to the Hokage tower with their tiger-nins.

When the team stepped inside the room after their permission was granted, Kakashi locked the door and did hand signs, then slammed on the wall.

"This shall seal the sound away." Kakashi muttered and faced the Hokage.

"It's time." The Hokage said.

"Time?" Neji raised his eyebrow.

"Time for what?" Sakura asked.

"I believe all of you still remember what I said during our last meeting about the matter." The trio nodded. "With the sudden appearance of the tiger-nins other factors, we believe that the three of you are the mentioned 'Trio Prodigies'."

The Hokage continued, "The three of you are the first team who are heirs and heiress of noble clans, not to mention the top three in the country. While your performance isn't particularly different from the previous teams, we believe all three of you will grow up to be outstanding ninjas."

All three of them listened intently. They were nervous and just a tad bit afraid of what fate may bring them. Sakura frowned at the Hokage's words, her fears were coming true. In addition to her own family legacy, there's the prophecy on her shoulders.

"Because of your significance to the village and the world's future, you will be guarded by shinobis so do not fear if you will their presence. This should not be said to a third party. If Orochimaru were to find out, all three of you will become his target for evil purposes."

"You have our word, Lord Minato." Neji said.

"Once again, teamwork must be heavily emphasised in your group. Kakashi, train them well."

"Of course, I will train them to the best of my abilities."

"Dismissed."

"Hai." The trio prodigies and ex-member of trio prodigies left the room.

They returned to the training ground and sat quietly in a circle. Kakashi began asking them about their chakra natures.

Sakura was the first to answer, "Wind, Cherry Blossom and Yang."

"Water, Earth and Yin." Neji followed after.

Finally, it was Sasuke. "Fire and Lightning."

The Jounin nodded, "Good. The three of you can possibly be the strongest team known to mankind. Each of you have different chakra natures. It is possible for you to compliment each other's power. For example, fire can becomes stronger by adding wind to it."

"Yes, we tried that during the fight with Orochimaru." Sakura stated.

"Right, there it is also possible to combine your powers to create a new chakra nature."

The students widened their eyes, that was unheard of.

"It's possible?" Sakura questioned in disbelief, she had never read about that from books. It was a new to her.

"Definitely. If you combine your wind chakra with Neji's water and Sasuke's fire, it will produce dust release. Dust release is an extremely rare chakra nature and even I have not met someone with that chakra nature. The three of you as a team plus your tiger-nins, it is possible to own all chakra natures in existence."

Right after Kakashi finished his last sentence, something clicked in his mind. Possibly owning all chakra natures as a team is certainly another hint that they are the trio mentioned in the prophecy.

"It sounds very useful, but why isn't it mentioned in books?" The pinkette asked.

"It's because nobody succeeded in doing it." The copy ninja stated truthfully. "This is also something you must figure out yourselves. Teamwork is probably the key, so you three must perfect it."

Their teacher felt helpless. There wasn't much he could help them with. These three ninjas are exposed to things nobody had experienced. It is up to them to figure things out as the fate of everybody's future lies on their hands. Challenges will only keep coming for them and the must breakthrough.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning right here. I have things to attend to." He said and vanished in a puff of smoke.

As a Jounin, he could possibly enter the room where ancient scrolls are kept in. Maybe one of them mentioned about the skills his team has to master. If he heard about it, there must be a record somewhere.

Meanwhile, his team was in distress.

"We have to figure it out ourselves.." Neji muttered.

"Experimenting on combining our chakra natures would take too much time." Sakura said. "Let's focus on perfecting our teamwork and complimenting each other's strengths."

Sasuke nodded, "That's true, we need to train with our tiger-nins as well."

==

Dedicated to mangafreak7511 for your vote on this story!

Published: December 2014
Rewritten: 9 May 2018