The closer she got to the training ground for their test the more she started worrying about her decision. One the one hand it was the sensible choice, vomit or no vomit her and her hopeful team would operate better on a full stomach. But in going against his directive she was going against the command of a superior, in spirit, since he had not given a direct order merely a recommendation. It was entirely possible that he could be testing their resolve, their ability to trust their potential commander even to their own detriment. Or on the flipside he was trying to get them to disobey him and foster independence.

It was a conundrum, and was not helping her nerves at all, which could also be one of his aims. A true shinobi makes use of all possible battlegrounds after all.

She took a deep breath and did some of her calming exercises, practising using her specially bred gnats to feel out the shape of objects in her view. Currently she could only use about 30 of the specially bred insects at a time but the concentration required was great at distracting her from thoughts of her potential sensei and possible mind games.

She'd need to come up with a name for the bugs since they were actually distinct enough to be considered their own species, which was good considering shed spent the past two years breeding the things and developing the technique that allowed her to sense their location. The technique worked by syncing her and the specially bred insect's chakra systems, allowing her to feed them her own chakra, and unlike the kikachu which metabolised chakra these gnats simply stored her own chakra, allowing her to sense where they were similarly to how she could sense the chakra moving through her own body.

The specifics on how that actually worked were still murky for her and the village archives don't go deep enough into chakra theory to properly research; no self respecting ninja village kept information like that lying around. The best she could tell was that the more gnats she tried to sense at once the more her head hurt and the further she sent them the more draining the technique became. Giving her a current max range of a few dozen metres, enough for throwing kunai at the academy but obviously just a stepping stone for the goals she had for the technique.

One day she'd make the Hyuuga and their cheating eyes look blind in comparison.

Eventually she made it to the designated training ground, finding the boys slumped against poles on opposing sides, likely pretending the other doesn't exist.

Tsuchi resisted rolling her eyes.

Boys.

Not knowing how long they'd have before their sensei arrived she decided to cut to the chase.

"You two manage to find anything out about our sensei last night?"

Naruto returned an utterly confused look and Sasuke tried burning a hole into the ground in front of him with his eyes which was a clear enough answer.

"Information is half the battle." A direct quote from one of the first books they'd learnt out of but a fitting one my clan had burned into her soul.

"Whatever, I couldn't find much, hidden villages tend to be pretty tight lipped about their S class soldiers after all."

That, got the boys' attention.

"Yatta!" Stars shone in Naruto's eyes. "We're getting taught by an S class shinobi! I knew I was the best!"

Tsuchi put a hand up in an attempt to calm him down, he stopped shouting, which was a start but continued vibrating where he sat.

"Most of the information I have of him is things I could find in the public record, mostly battles that occurred during the third shinobi war. Supposedly he's a ninjutsu specialist, or at least most accounts of his battles focus on him using ninjutsu since they're made by civilians so I don' fully trust them." She paused and eyed Sasuke, figuring it was best to rip off this bandage. "The most informative is his moniker, Sharingan no Kakashi."

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise.

"Supposedly he's also copied over 1000 jutsu which lends credence to him having the sharingan, though I'm not sure why he hides it if its so well known."

Sasuke shook his head at that.

"Its not to hide it, a stolen eye won't work as well as one held by a true Uchiha, he can't turn it off. Bastards."

"Not like this information helps us with whatever test he's got cooked up, besides letting us know that any fight against him would be a wash." She reached into her hoodie pocket. "Reminds me, did you two follow his advice?"

Sasuke shook his head but Naruto just squinted before his stomach took the opportunity to rumble.

"Tch, idiot, you can't fight on an empty stomach." He stomped off, clearly sick of the social interaction at that point.

Naruto frowned at Tsuchi before he realised.

"Teme-sensei! I fell for it too." He sat down to sulk before realising that Tsuchi held two bars to him.

He didn't even bother saying thanks, just devouring them before running off to bother Sasuke, Tsuchi shrugged and pulled out a novel to read while they waited for their sensei, it was already past their designated meeting time. She hoped that he would not make a habit of it, or at least have a reasonable excuse, he'd not even bothered justifying it last time.

An hour later and her annoyance was beginning to rise, by the second hour both boys had long gotten tired of being at each other's throats and had taken to resting in the shade and declaring the horrid things that were going to be done to the man once he "showed his baka cyclops face again".

By the time the third hour rolled around Tsuchi realised that getting them hungry was indeed his main goal, and that he likely was waiting to force them to get hungry again after seeing that they had all disobeyed his orders.

She actually managed to finish her novel and was forced to make shapes on the stumps with insects to amuse herself, Naruto noticed it and started asking her to make various shapes. She was just on the finishing touches of Kakashi being eaten by a large dog when a pop signalled his arrival.

"YOUR LATE!"

He barely blinked. "Maa maa I was on my way here but an old lady needed help with her shopping."

Naruto sweatdropped. "For three hours!?"

Kakashi just smiled…somehow.

"Don't bother Naruto, he's late on purpose this time, he wanted us hungry for this test." Tsuchi had noticed the two bentos Kakashi held with him, along with a clock, confirming her previous theory.

Naruto just puffed his cheeks out in response.

"Well seeing as we are all here I see no reason to delay." He reached into his pouch and pulled out two bells. "You lot have until lunchtime to grab a bell off of me, if you get a bell you pass, also whoever does the worst gets tied to the pole and doesn't get lunch."

All three of them felt a bead of sweat run down their neck, this was not just any jonin, this was an S class jonin, possibly one of the ninjas top genin.

S class like the man who killed his family.

Like the man who could seal a tailed beast.

An unbeatable opponent.

He smiled again, "oh and make sure to come at me with the intent to kill, or don't bother coming after me at all."

Naruto immediately rushed him, he'd not even set the timer on the clock so it was definitely premature. Tsuchi took the opportunity to send a barrage of hollow kunai and jump onto the forest floor, sending forth larger beetles carrying spiders ahead of her to put together a makeshift leaf cover for disguise.

Sasuke followed their lead, also disappearing into the foilage. Tsuchi hastily placed a sensing gnat on each of them before she lost track of their location.

Before she could fully enter her hiding spot she felt the gnat on Naruto abruptly stop moving, unsurprised that his charge was unsuccessful she dived into cover and ordered the kikachu she'd hid in the hollows of the kunai to hide themselves on her sensei, she could not actually see them at the moment but a combination of guesswork and their intelligence and training would see her order through.

Once safely hidden she observed the situation, sending some of her gnats to critical positions on Kakashi, she turned around. He held Naruto with a kunai firmly against the back of the head.

He tutted, "maa maa very enthusiastic my cute little genin wannabees, but at least let me put on the timer first." He disappeared in a puff of smoke, causing Naruto to stumble forwards as he appeared next to where he'd set down the clock. All the bugs Tsuchi had been diligently creeping up onto him during his speech stayed behind on the log in an impressive display of mastery with the jutsu.

Tsuchi was not even aware that it was possible to do so but this was an S class ninja, such things were to be expected.

She made sure to spread more kikachu around the nearby forest, instructing them to stay close to the ground and hide among the blades of grass. While he set the timer she instructed some nearby ones to crawl into his pants and begin taking his chakra immediately.

Cold steel pressed against her neck as Kakashi crouched down above her. The Kakashi setting the clock sent her a wink.

"now now, what did I just tell you about waiting your turn?"

She sent out a rising kick but met not with the groin of her sensei but a wire that proceded to catch her leg and drag her upwards where she became tangled in a latticework of ninja wire.

Her mouth pulled to the side in frustration as she was forced to try and slowly untangle herself while Naruto made an idiot of himself in the clearing. She used the slight spatial awareness of ger gnats to give directions to the kikachu to try and help him.

His solid clones were surprising, though at least answered the question of how he managed to graduate.

For an improvised trap the wires were ridiculously hard to get out of, she'd barely wiggled her torso free when Kakashi disappeared from her 'sight'. Another kawarmi.

Tsuchi had managed to wiggle enough that she could now actually see the battlefield, just long enough to witness Naruto falling victim to the most obvious trap in the world.

It was too far way to see if her kikachu were successful in their mission of climbing onto him but Tsuchi was doubtful at this stage. He was certainly used to fighting with Aburame and likely had countermeasures to their usual tactics, probably also their unusual tactics.

Which left what? their stupid tactics?

This fight was a wash, she knew it, which meant that either he was intentionally trying to fail them or that getting the bells was not actually the win state for this exercise.

They were merely three newly graduated genin against one of the village's top shinobi, this was a test of their resolve, to see how they acted when up against an unbeatable threat.

A burst of movement from Sasuke alerted her to him finally taking action, throwing shurikern by the movement, she took the opportunity to send out most of the remaining bugs from inside her into two bug clones, her max. She added the larger beetles carrying spiders to the mix. Sending them around them each with the last of her sensing gnats, she needed to know what the terrain was like to keep the bugs consistent with the illusion.

The Kakashi lecturing Naruto went flying with spurts of blood, Tsuchi looked around to try and locate where he performed the kawarmi.

But.

"Shit." Tsuchi muttered under her breath, she had no idea where he was.

And right on cue Sasuke jumped down into the clearing like a total idiot.

Tsuchi finally managed to free herself, bouncing off a wire towards the clearing boundary rather than fall into the second layer of the trap like Naruto just did.

However, she went straight trough the tree she aimed for, crashing painfully onto the ground right next to Kakashi and Sasuke having a stand-off. The closeness did give her the opportunity to see her kikachu failing to crawl up his foot, sliding off neatly.

"Lesson, two: genjutsu; the art of the illusion."

Tsuchi spotted the title of his book: 'Icha icha paradise.' And scruncher her face up in revulsion.

"I'm not like those two clowns, I'm a real ninja."

Yea, thanks for the vote of confidence.

Kakashi put his book away.

"Save the bravado, you can call yourself a 'real ninja' after you've taken one of these bells, Sasuke."

He placed his book into his pouch again, Tsuchi took the opportunity to send a small swarm in front of his eyes to obscure his vision as her clones moved into the clearing. At the same time Sasuke let loose a barrage of ninja tools.

One of the clones kept approaching whilst the other moved towards where Naruto was being held. She'd need every asset at her disposal right now.

As Kakashi dodged the hail of shuriken a trap Sasuke placed released a barrage of knives. He dodged into he air, Tsuchi sent her closest clone at him to intercept mid-air. Kakashi neatly transformed the dodge into a flawless backwards roundhouse going straight through the clone revealing the carried spiders with strands of silk already at the ready, the momentum of the kick catching the threads caused them to spin around his leg, extending the string once commanded in an attempt to caccoon his leg.

He landed with one leg held into the air on account of being attached to his torso by multiple strands of silk.

"Don't need your help!" Sasuke roared in anger as he rushed towards Kakashi.

Naruto, now freed began rushing into battle as well, war-cry in full effect

One of the spiders from the attack started moving along his pants towards the bells.

Kakashi brought his stuck leg down, flinging the spider directly into Naruto's screaming mouth causing him to fall to the ground desperately trying to choke out the spider. That same movement snapped the spider silk and deposited the webs directly onto Sasuke's fist, heightening his anger.

He started snapping out hand signs, Tsuchi moved to intercept his likely dodging points, Naruto failed to notice that the spider had scurried out of his mouth on its master's accord.

"Katon: great fireball technique!" A large ball of fire erupted towards their sensei.

However instead of dodging above or to the sides, the gnats that Tsuchi had snuck on him went underground.

"Beneath you!"

Sasuke jumped just fast enough to dodge the hand that grasped is ankle but not the follow up that caught him before he could go further than a few feet.

"Doton: Groundhog technique decapitation"

Sasuke was pulled under the ground completely, Kakashi hopping out fully while he did it.

He crouched down to mock him but got as far as 'ninjutsu' before Tsuchi tried to attack with wide swipes of her kama. He merely swiped with a kunai, knocking both out of her hands, a spider jumped onto the string holding the bells, clamping down mouth first to try break the string.

The kunai's grip was reversed and with a sharp cutting motion Tsuchi was knocked out with the handle of the knife.

-x-

Tsuchi came to from the shrill yells of an alarm clock, a sound that worsened the headache she'd accrued from being knocked out and overusing her sensing gnats.

Worse though was the knowledge that she had failed utterly in grabbing the bells, her only saving grace was that there was a good chance that this test was just the ruse for the real test. A test in a test, it fit the man's motif, considering his fondness for trapping his traps.

She shakily made her way to the post, finding Naruto tied up and Sasuke sitting on the ground quietly next to him, the two bentos untouched.

She sat down on the other side and looked towards Kakashi who was eyes them all with a pensive look.

"I'll be honest, I was not expecting so much from genin fresh out of the academy."

Naruto and Tsuchi looked up in hope.

"But that was just sad, maa what are they teaching you there these days" He reached up to scratch his chin lazily. "The effort it would take to teach you how to be real shinobi would be wasted. My advice, drop out now, save yourselves the trouble."

He received a trio of angry eyes.

"None of you will ever be ninja!"

Sasuke abruptly charged at the man, kunai in hand, only to be immediately subdued.

He leaned forward to get a better look at the boy.

"You're all spoilt, did you really think that you would become ninja by birthright, because you have a 'dream?'"

"Do you wish to make a mockery of shinobi?"

He let them fume for a minute before speaking again.

"Tell me, why are you divided into teams?"

He roved his eyes between them daring them to speak.

"To play to each other's strengths and shore up their weaknesses." Tsuchi's reply was given through gritted teeth, she realised she had misinterpreted the meaning of the hidden test. "you presented us with an impossible challenge, I assumed you wished to test our resolve, but you wanted to know if we could work as a team in a test designed to cause division, we failed."

Kakashi got off of Sasuke, walking towards Tsuchi.

"Yes, team-work, the true goal of the test, if you three had come at me together, you may have gotten the bells. The scenario was put together to uncover who among you were willing to abandon your personal investment and aid your comrades."

"Instead," he pointed a kunai at Naruto, "You charged in blindly, determined to take me on by yourself. You." He pointed to the recalcitrant Sasuke, still on the ground. "Did the exact same, but decided also to scorn the attempts of your teammates. And you!" He abruptly smiled and his tone took a 180. "Did great, well done, though in the future do communicate your plans with your teammates, they cannot be simply controlled like your bugs."

His demeanour immediately returned to one of malice as he appeared behind Tsuchi.

"Sasuke, kill Naruto, or Tsuchi dies!"

Sasuke widened his eyes and clenched his fist but made no move to do anything.

"There will come a day where you will be forced to act in a situation like this, or be placed under the sweet mercy of an enemy, can you trust that your teammates can act to save your life."

He began walking to a stone slab, engraved with names.

"This is why I believe that the greatest tool to a ninja is their comrades. Know this, on a mission, your life is always on the line, we walk a sharp edge, and the difference between being a living legend." He tapped the slab. "Or a dead one, is the trust you hold in your comrades."

Naruto was halfway to declaring himself a future legend before shutting down when he touched the monument.

"This is a monument to ninja who died in the line of duty, it contains many friends, many comrades, most of my own." He looked back, darkness in his eyes

"It is for this reason that I cannot allow you to become ninja unless I know that you can work as a team."

"Sasuke, Naruto, I am giving you one more chance to pas this test."

"But what about Tsuchi!?" Naruto yelled.

Kakashi pet her on the head. "She has already passed, were you not listening? If neither of you pass this next chance I will be taking her as my apprentice of course. I've always wanted a cute genin apprentice."

"Sasuke you may eat your bento but do not share any with Naruto or you both fail right here, do you understand." He nodded his head. "My word is law, never forget that."

His piece said he disappeared with Tsuchi in tow.

She raised her eyebrow at him but he raised his finger to his mouth, somehow managing to wink at her.

He peaked out from under the hiding spot before giggling happily.

They reappeared back before the two boys, catching Sasuke red handed in the act of feeding Naruto.

"YOU!"

Tsuchi let out a sigh of relief that the boys figured out the hidden meaning.

"Pass."

"What?"

"To look beneath the beneath is the mark of a true shinobi. Rather than follow orders blindly you chose to directly disobey me in order to help your comrades, in this world, those that disobey the orders of their superiors are lower than even garbage. But those who do not look out for their comrades are lower than garbage."

He brought out a thumbs up.

"So congrats, you all pass, your duties will commence tomorrow." He began walking, Sasuke following.

Tsuchi hacked through the rope tying him down with her kamas, helping Naruto up as they followed their sensei back into the village.

-x-