--------Kakashi--------

Any good ninja would tell you that when trying to figure out a target, you have to spend at least a week with them.

Kakashi let his eyes trail to his youngest genin that he had gotten back a few weeks ago. He grew his hair out which made him look like Minoto sensei, but after a talk with said genin he found out that he is planning to grow his hair out longer.

When it comes to visible changes it's obvious, besides the scars that make Kakashi wince wherever he sees them, there are a few differences.

His beaming, I am the literal sun, the smile has weakened into a reassuring soft grin. The eyes that were always a bit lighter than Minato senseis darkened into a darker blue, mirroring Minato sensei.

He has Kushina's energy and ticks seen when he drummed his fingers against his ribs after sitting still for too long. When training he looks almost bored, while his other genin are on the floor panting Naruto is still ready to go. Then again that's nothing new, the kid could outrun Anbu at the age of 6.

The most disturbing fact is that he is quiet. He still talks a bit, giving some sound advice and encouragement, cheering on Sakura and Sasuke, but it's wrong. No more loud decorations of strength, no more screaming that he will be Hokage, and no more begging for stronger missions.

Only raised eyebrows at training, smirking at the Hokage when he hands them a scroll, and finishing missions with the team without much effort.

His other two genins have no idea how to interact with this new team because they don't know Naruto anymore.

Sasuke who used to command Naruto without a second thought now opened his mouth and shut it. Sakura who used to yell and leave Naruto to go after Sasuke was now looking at Naruto for advice.

Naruto who used to yell at Sasuke for looking at him is now showing Sasuke a fire Jutsu he learned on his mission, the Dragon Fire Technique. A good C rank, but Kakashi doubts that Naruto has a fire nature.

This was proven when Naruto asked Kakashi if he could test his nature after the Hokage commented on this. He has main affinities of wind and water, with fire being his secondary.

Kakashi also tested Sasuke and Sakura, with Sasuke getting lighting and fire as his secondary and Sakura getting earth.

Since that day Sasuke and Naruto have been talking about fire and other elemental jutsus whenever they get a break.

Then with Sakura, Naruto has been asking her about chakra control. He apparently learned water walking on his mission and wanted Sakura to try and help him out. Then when Sakura completed water walking in two tries Naruto made an offhand comment about medical ninjutsu, which now had Sakura going to the hospital after training.

Oh and he knows fuinjutsu. Kakashi during break Naruto took out a little notepad and started doodling. Kakashi, concerned for his student that looks like death washed over everyone he cares about but left him alive just to spite him decided to look at what he was doodling.

He was expecting something similar to flowers, weapons, or a scene after all Kushina had the same habit. If she saw something that she liked she would draw it.

So when he saw something he vaguely recognized as a seal he asked and in reply, he got a word vomit of how the chakra seal was supposed to work and why he was adding specific parts, and he said something about Guy's not so mini me that Kakashi completely missed.

When he finished speaking at 5 miles a minute he blushed a shade of red that would have put his mother's hair to shame and apologized.

" Sorry it's a really bad habit, Shikamaru's been trying to train it out of me but he has failed," He said with an embarrassed laugh.

Kakashi's eyes sharpened at the name of the heir of the Nara clan.

While Naruto's been talking with the team it's usually Sakura or Kakashi starting the conversations otherwise Naruto and Sasuke will just stay silent.

When Shikamaru comes to collect Naruto, another thing Kakashi finds odd is that Naruto never leaves the training grounds alone. Shikamaru, Hinata, or Lee will come to pick him up, Naruto instantly smiles brighter than he had the entire day and practically drapes himself over the boy.

The first time this happened Sakura who was about to comment on this was stopped by a harsh glare from the protective Nara.

What the hell happened on that mission

-------Shikamaru---------

Shikamaru is not stupid. Years of training and natural genius will prove that. Even as a kid he was above his class in training and brain, if he had actually put in the effort in his classes he would have probably tried with Sasuke for rookie of the year.

Shikamaru is also good at reading people, especially if said people were his friends.

Shikamaru knows Naruto, through years of contact with the blond he knows Naruto better than himself.

Shikamaru knows that Naruto was always a bit smarter than he let on. Always getting lower grades and asking stupid questions so people would look at him.

But there would be someday, rare enough so people wouldn't question it when Naruto would be quiet, every interaction was forced through gritted teeth.

As a genin, Shikamaru always thought it was strange but never thought much of it.

The same way he always saw Ino giving regretful glances at Sakura and turned a blind eye. The same way he saw Choji hesitate to open a new bag of chips for a slip second.

After as he himself said, it was too troublesome.

This time it would be different. He was one of Naruto's first friends and he would act like it. Picking him up after training was something simple to Shikamaru, but the blond lit up whenever he saw the Nara. Again Shikamaru cussed out the 4th for doing this to his own son. He cussed out the villagers for being so blind. He cussed out himself for not noticing earlier.

This habit passed onto Hinata and Lee who would sometimes go wherever Shikamaru was still training or at him thanks to clan business.

This not only gave Naruto some affection that there was no doubt he needed at this point in time but also put the villagers in their place. Seeing him with clan heirs and with a member of the current best genin team in Konoha should make sure they keep their actions to a minimum.

There was no doubt in his mind that the blond didn't receive a full amount of affection until he went on his training trip with Jiraiya, and even then they were focused on training and evading the Akatsuki that there was probably no real-time for caring gestures.

An unwanted image of Hidan flashed through Shikamaru's mind. He is still alive at this time but Shikamaru will change that. Asuma, the first person who saw him as he was and not some lazy genius, will live this time to see his daughter grow.

Shikamaru's hold on the broom he was holding relaxed at the thought and he went back to cleaning.

During the year Asuma died Shikamaru's mother kept him busy by having him help her clean and cook wherever he was entering one of his moods. While Shikamaru never liked cooking, that was Naruto's specialty, he liked cleaning. I gave him time to think. So the first thing he did when he woke up the day he came home was to ask his mom if she needed help.

Yoshino looked at him weirdly before handing him a broom and then sent him off to clean the living room. Since then they would both try to coordinate their time so they could finish cleaning at one time.

" At least he's not completely useless like his father" Yoshino teased when Shikaku came home.

The man who undoubtedly wanted to question his son was fought off with a harsh glare from his wife and instantly went to his office.

Yoshino then sent a soft look towards her grateful son and continued cleaning.

I was worried about dad finding out, but maybe it's mom that I should be worried about it.

-------Hisashi---------

Hisashi stared at his daughter with a harsh glare.

That mission completely changed her.

Hisashi is a clan head and Hinata's father, he always knew that Hinata was holding back during the fights with her sister. That itself is a sign of weakness.

Now, just 2 weeks ago, Hisashi put his daughters in the dojo and started the fight. In less than a minute Hinata had Hanabi fly across the room.

The room filled with the elders of the clan went silent. Hisashi went silent. Hinata walked towards her sister.

It was the second that Hisashi had a flashback of when he himself was put against his brother. Hisashi won by nearly killing his brother, and continued beating him when he was on the ground.

Now Hinata was standing walking towards a collapsed Hanabi with a face that for the first time Hisashi associated with his own. He wanted to stop the match to save his youngest from what happened to his twin that day but Hasashi found himself unable to speak.

Hinata crouched towards Hanabi and a soft green glow started from her hands.

Medical Ninjutsu

" I never want to hurt you Hanabi" Hinata spoke, her voice soft and carried across the room.

" But if I don't you will never grow to the heights I know you can get to," Hinata said and Hinata stopped healing an injury less Hanabi.

Hinata took Hanabi in a bridal hold and stood up. As she began to walk towards the door her eyes caught Hisishi's.

" As a ninja, I will protect my village. As the clan heir, I am supposed to protect my clan. Please tell me father, what part of this fight protected Hanabi" She spoke her voice still soft but now carried an edge to it.

" How long will it take you to realize that the cursed seal that you are so proud of can be used to kill 75% of this clan in seconds. Will it be after Hanabi or I have been branded by this seal of death, or maybe after one of us is forced to die for the other" Hinata, his daughter, the daughter that used to cower whenever someone looked at her said no longer the soft siluet of her mother but as the women next in line to lead the clan.

With that said she turned on her heel and left the dojo with Hanabi in her arms.

Since that day, everything she said was true. The Hyuga council has been pressuring Hisashi to brand Hanabi as she lost against Hinata.

What happened to my daughter

-------Neji---------

Neji is starting to get annoyed. If you had asked a month ago if he wanted Lee to be more normal, he honestly would have started to cry.

Now he just wants his teammate back from this imposter.

A month ago if you had taken a look at his team Lee would have been in the middle, with TenTen on the side, and Neji in the back. Despite everything said, Neji liked this setup. Neji was content with his past team.

Now Neji was bulldozed into the middle of his team, TenTen stayed in the side and Lee was in the background.

Guy sensei who was always screaming about the power of youth with Lee was now pushing Lee to interact with his team. Normally this would be fine with Neji, if Lee needed some time alone that's fine, Kami knows that without his alone time Neji would have gone insane.

But it wasn't that. Lee nearly jumped out of his skin, the second training ended to go see some other genin. Neji, Tenten, and Lee have been a team for a year, yet Lee seems closer to the Blond, the Nara, and Hinata Hime than with them.

Speaking of Hinata Hime, after that fight 2 weeks ago the council has been pushing Hisashi to put the curse mark on Hanabi, how the tables turn.

Will it be after Hanabi or I have been branded by this seal of death, or maybe after one of us is forced to die for the other

Neji felt his hands clenched, that line was directed towards his father.

She had said it in a condescending manner like it was teaching a child not to draw on the walls. At first, he thought that she was simply insulting his father, making him be a means to an end, but the sentence kept repeating in his head, until the other day.

The training was over when Hinata entered their training grounds, Neji sneered but didn't say anything until Lee jumped up and flattened. That's when Neji took a good look at his cousin. Her face was clearly forced neutral, and her eyes had an emotion that Neji has never seen in her face.

" Hinata" Lee spoke his voice dull and made Neji and his team flitch.

Hinata walked up to him and bit her thumb before putting the blood on a piece of paper that made a yellowish barrier appear.

Lee and Hinata spoke for a second before Hinata said something that made Lee shout.

Thanks to his byakugan Neji was able to read Lee's lips say " Please tell me this was a joke" before Hinata's eyes caught him.

She glared at him and Neji froze, because that was not Hinata, that was someone dangerous.

Hinata then made a few headwinds and then the area around her and Lee blurred making him unable to read what was going on.

Guy sensei looked oddly serious when the barrier was let down minutes later and Hinata left. 

And then Neji understood what she meant by saying what she said. She is punishing his uncle, she is forcing him to relive that moment, but why.