Killing Time
Chapter Three: The Bell Test…Again
By Kaori

She never agreed to being kidnapped while she was sleeping in the wee hours of the morning to take part in a team building exercise. And she certainly hadn't agreed to being dragged from her nice warm bed at the ass-crack of dawn and not being permitted a hot bath and a meal. Yet here she was at six a.m., not even shower or breakfast with her hair a fluffy mess, barefoot and tied to a tree in some training ground she probably wouldn't have gone near otherwise. Thank goodness she had fallen asleep in her clothes last night or she'd be out here in her pajamas. Someone was going to suffer for this indignity. Specifically that someone she and her two kidnappers were waiting for.

Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke had been ordered by one Hatake Kakashi to bring Kotorra Lewis to the training grounds for a team building exercise. Kotorra herself had not been informed of this nor did it cross Kakashi's mind that it might be a good idea to ask his contracted mercenary whether or not this was part of their contract. If Sasuke and Sakura weren't ninjas, it was quite possible they would've been severely injured when they went to collect their third member. Luckily their training is more than enough to handle one irate half-asleep mercenary.

To Kotorra's credit, Sakura is missing a significant clump of hair and Sasuke has several bite marks up his left arm. She had been tied to a tree to prevent further violence on to persons from her.

Kakashi came strolling into the clearing a good two hours late, much to everyone else's chagrin.

"You must not like your life, Hatake Kakashi." Glared Kotorra. Kakashi eye smiled at her.

"And good morning to you, too!" he said cheerily. "Well, since we're all here we can begin." He took out a single bell. "You three have until noon to get this bell away from me. If you fail, you buy me lunch."

"What do we get if we do get the bell?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm…I'll let you decide. Ready?"

"No!" Kotorra protested. "Untie me first you psychos!"

Once the Wild Card had been released from her bonds she, Sasuke, and Sakura made themselves scarce.

"All right, Naruto told me about this bell test of yours. It's basically a test of The Power of Friendship right?" Kotorra muttered.

"Teamwork." Sasuke corrected.

"Exactly, and since anyone with half the sense the Creator gave them knows experience beats The Power of Friendship in these situations, we will need to fight dirty."

"I don't know…" Sakura said, trying to come up with an objection that didn't start out sounding like an insult. The other girl was ticked off enough. Unfortunately her objection was enough for Kotorra to fix a nasty glare in her direction.

"It's that or I can do what I planned to you guys instead." The two genin looked at each other, then at the dangerously serious expression on Kotorra's face. "Just remember, your sensei isn't permitted to do anything to you that would prevent you from performing your duties. I on the other hand have no such compunction."

"The Hokage would have you arrested." Sasuke pointed out.

"I can be in Sunagakure before she even finds out. Hell, I can disappear from this world completely if I wanted to."

"Prove it."

"Do as I say and you'll have all the proof you need."

"Deal."

Kakashi had hoped they'd attack him immediately but it seemed that since they had a far less impulsive person on their team that wasn't going to happen. Ah well, whatever plan they'd come up with should prove to be interesting. A sudden feeling of dread to his left broke him from his musing.

Kotorra was standing out in the open looking for the entire world like she'd been there the whole time. She waved at him jauntily at him and then disappeared. Kakashi moved out of the way just in time to avoid the girl axe kicking him in the head. How she managed to get that high in the air he did not have time to ponder, as Sasuke was suddenly attacking him.

While the jounin was preoccupied, Sakura was in a nearby tree preparing her genjutsu. Kotorra hadn't explained what exactly she was going to do after Kakashi was caught in it, but it was vitally important that the genin did not mess up. They were only going to get one shot at this. And, truth be told, she was very pleased at the opportunity to turn her sensei's trick against him. She just had to wait for the right moment…!

Suddenly the wind picked up. Perfect.

Leaves suddenly blew around Kakashi, obscuring his vision enough for Sasuke to deliver a hard blow to his stomach. He moved to the side and was shocked to see a kunai whiz passed him only to stab Sasuke in the chest. His heart lurched and he immediately ran to his fallen student. Before he could reach him, things suddenly went black.

When next he was aware of himself, he could hear people laughing. He blinked and looked in his hand; there was a very worn down piece of chalk. Puzzled, he looked ahead to see that he was standing in front of a blackboard. A sudden draft made him realize that he was only wearing his mask and underwear.

The laughter was suddenly very loud in his ears. Kakashi turned around slowly.

He was in the academy classroom. Iruka, Kurenai, Asuma, Gai and their teams, were sitting in the chairs laughing so hard they were having trouble breathing. Sakura and Sasuke were standing next to Iruka's desk and Kotorra was sitting behind it with her feet propped up, tossing a bell up and down in her left hand and fingering an odd device in her right. Embarrassed as all get out but still rather curious he regarded his team.

"And just how long has this been going on?" he asked.

"It's two o' clock in the afternoon." Kotorra said frankly. It was then he noticed that she was wearing clean clothes and her hair was done up in a severe bun instead of loose. "I made you draw my bath and buy us lunch before making you strip down to your underwear and parading you up and down the village declaring yourself a shameless pervert. Then we came here with the audience we gathered and you've been writing lines for the last forty-five minutes."

Kakashi turned to see exactly what it was he had been writing all that time.''

On the blackboard, in his own handwriting were the words: I will not fuck with Kotorra Lewis. He turned back to look at the Wild Card.

"I trust," she said, icily. "that you won't be trying that crap on me again?"

Once the room had been cleared of spectators and Kakashi had been given his clothes back Kotorra explained to him what they'd done.

The whole plan was nothing more than a series of distractions. Kotorra was the initial distraction for Sasuke since she knew she didn't have any chance with the jounin in a straight up fight. Sasuke, could at least keep Kakashi busy long enough for Sakura to prepare and use Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu; the very same jutsu that was used on Sakura during their first bell test. This would keep Kakashi occupied so Kotorra could use her Somnambulum on him.

"And what," Kakashi asked. "is a Somnambulum?"

Kotorra deftly removed a button-sized device from the back of Kakashi's neck; it resembled a butterfly. "This is a Somnambulum. It's usually only used on sleeping people but it seems to work just as well on people under the influence of genjutsu. For the last two hours you've been, for lack of a better definition, sleepwalking awake. I've been using this," she held up the device she'd been playing with; a stylized microphone. "to influence your actions. I could have kept this up for another eight hours but that would have been cruel."

"All of this just because I woke you up early?"

"I never agreed to be your student Kakashi, I'm only standing in. If you need me to be somewhere at least have the decency to tell me instead of hauling me out of bed like a convict. If you insist on doing stuff like that you'd better damn well kill me afterwards; shit like that's for ninja I'm a Wild Card."

"I'll admit my methodology may have lacked a certain amount of tact on my part, but I merely wanted to test how well you three would work together; which is rather effectively I'd say. By the way, how did you keep disappearing like that? I didn't even sense it." Kotorra grinned at him, reached into her shirt and pulled up the necklace she was wearing.

"I can go anywhere I can remember with this." She stated. "I just pictured myself about two feet above your head, which would have been funny as hell if I'd actually managed to hit you but that wasn't the idea. My martial skills aren't at your level, but I can set up a decent ambush given enough time to work. Suits me just fine, I'm not overly fond of killing people. Don't get me wrong I understand that sometimes there's no other option, but I feel living hell is the best revenge."

"I see." Kakashi nodded. "Well, since you passed the test, and have apparently already eaten lunch, I suppose you are dismissed for the day." And with that, he disappeared.

Sometime later, the Hokage listened while Kakashi gave his report. She mulled it over for a moment then turned to look out the window.

"You realize, that if that had been an actual battle and they were more experienced any one of them could have taken the opportunity to kill you." Tsunade stated.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Nodded Kakashi. "Lewis-san's little device has some horrifying assassination applications. It could…" Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a derisive snort.

"She'd never let us have such a thing. You heard her, she dislikes killing. She understands the necessity of it and won't hesitate to defend herself, but she's the type that won't give you a sword if you've got two good kunai already." She sighed. "Shame, she would've made a hell of an assassin the way she thinks."

"I'm almost glad she's not." The masked man said blandly. "She's terrifying enough as a negotiator."

"And expensive."

Completely ignorant of that she was being discussed Kotorra was in the basement of her house with Faust checking her surveillance system.

She'd set it up a week after they'd first moved in as a means to discover just who the hell was spying on her friends and herself and so far the only thing she'd learned is that they were ANBU of some sort.

ANBU spying on them was nothing new but this particular group had violated the sanctity of her home. Thankfully they were unable to get in the basement or the roof from inside thanks to the strange chakra absorbing doors; and while they did get up to the roof via climbing up the outer walls there was nothing up there that would interest anybody but a decorator or an arborist.

Frowning, she rewound the most recent footage trying to see if she could spot some sort of clue as to the identity of her unwanted visitors. Sadly, none was forthcoming and she decided to give it up for more pleasant pursuits. Mainly, examining the data from the Somnambulum.

She'd neglected to tell Kakashi that she had (like just about everything she makes nowadays) modified it so that it recorded the type and frequency of the energy flow of his body. Kotorra was not giving up on her artificially generated chakra idea, and since she can't create it on her own she was going to study the ninja around her. She seriously doubted she'd be able to use the Somnambulum on any of the members of Team 7 again, and using it on anyone else without permission would get her in trouble therefore, she would need a way of detecting and seeing it herself.

So, phase one was to understand how this type of energy manifests by studying her new data.

"I just wish there was someone else here to bounce ideas off of." She muttered.

"Raak!" squawked Faust.

"I meant one that understands biophysics and quantum mechanics (1)."

1) For the record, I have a very low understanding of both subjects and fully intend to make stuff up based on what I do know, and steal the rest from scifi books, movies, and video games.