[Host, you better wake up.] The system's voice, which she had been silent since a few years ago, woke her out of her sleepy haze. She almost forgot about it, and suddenly appeared after a few years of peace... There must have been something it wanted. She sighed and snapped her eyes open, turned her head and looked at the alarm beside her bed. She expressionlessly swept her gaze towards the window and became aware that the sun was still nowhere to be found.

Nine ignored the system's voice then rolled herself up with the blanket and once again attempted to sleep. But the system didn't intend to let her be because shortly after she cozied herself, it spoke again. [Host, you have a mission, you can't fail today's test.] She knew, that was why she desperately needed her precious sleep.

'Don't bother me, just wake me up at six. There's no way Kakashi will begin the test right away.' Nine thought that Kakashi was only messing with them. She had yet to forget the fact that he was late for three hours yesterday afternoon. Let him taste his own medicine for a little bit, she wouldn't get disqualified anyway just because of this small matter considering she was the last of her clan. She was aware of this and shamelessly took advantage of it. Nine then filtered out the system's voice and drifted to sleep once more.

After a few hours, the system anxiously woke her up again. [Host wake up! It's six o'clock.] She really hates morning. Nine rose up from her bed then sweetly took her time to clean herself up and prepare her breakfast. She took her plates and ate slowly; she needed to properly digest her food. Done with her morning rituals, Nine checked the time - seven o'clock -, she left, then headed to the training ground that Kakashi informed yesterday afternoon.

Upon her arrival, she could see the pinkhead and the demon child slumped in front of one of the trees. Presumably, they arrived at the crack of dawn, they did look sleepy though. Sensing a new presence, they looked up and came face to face with leisurely paced Sasuke walking towards them. Both of them were suddenly energized, the pinkhead stood up and asked, "Sasuke-kun! You're here! I've been with Naruto since a few hours ago!"

Nine then walked towards the other side of the field, she estimated that the demon child was going to shout at a moment's notice. True enough, the child started to pick a fight with her because of her lateness, "Sasuke! It's been a few hours since the ordered time!" He stalked rather aggressively towards her, she avoided both of them by jumping up to the tree. Nine propped herself up to find the coziest position then summoned a pillow and placed it to cushion her back. She then sighed happily, Nine heard the demon child shouted countless profanities then silenced by the pinkhead.

Nine closed her eyes and sensed that aside for the three of them and several small animals, there was no one else in the area. Hmph, she was correct after all, Kakashi was messing with them. But this chronic lateness… She needs to do something about it.

Two hours later, which she slept through it, Kakashi finally arrived. Alarmed by the sudden presence below her, she woke up then unsummoned her pillow. Nine jumped down and stood beside the pinkhead and the demon child.

"You're late!" The pinkhead and the demon child chorused each other while pointing to Kakashi. They both have a good pair of lungs… that was loud. "There was a black cat in my path so I had to take the long way around."

"You liar!" The demon child hotly replied. Kakashi then turned his gaze onto her and asked, "Have a good sleep Sasuke-kun?" Kakashi's eyes - or, eye - curved. He looked happy, then she honestly answered. "Yes sensei, you certainly took your time!" Nine faintly smiled and answered. She wouldn't let her mood be affected by this small thing. Since he said that there's a ferocious cat after him, she'll personally grant his wish! He won't be free from them for one month straight!

"Good, perhaps you need to be more careful to not encounter black cat in the future then Kakashi-sensei!" She warned him a little, for game's fairness. Kakashi didn't immediately reply but then agreed with her, "I'm glad you understand Sasuke-kun." Yes, she would understand his plight soon enough.

"Okay, now onto your test. Your task is very simple. Your goal is just to take these bells from me. I'll give you three hours, if you can't get them by noon, all of you will fail and go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts over there and you'll get to watch me while I eat my lunch." He put an alarm clock on the post and set it.

"So that's why you told us to not eat anything this morning!" The demon child pointing at him, Kakashi didn't even answer him so he left to fume by himself.

The pinkhead then asked, "But, Sensei, you only have two bells."

"Very observant Sakura! Only two of you can pass. That way, one of you will end up tied to the post and disqualified. That one goes back to the Academy." Kakashi paused, - what's with the pause? Why is he so dramatic? - then continued, "Then again, all three of you could fail together for solidarity. You can use any weapons you have. If you aren't prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells."

If Kakashi really expected both of them to be able to land a killing blow, he would be sorely disappointed. She might be able to take the bell, with a few incentives, that is. After a few seconds, Kakashi then started the test, "All of you can start!"

All of us except the demon child retreated into different areas, he was still standing in the middle of the field, the pinkhead was hiding in the bush below. Nine retracted her chakra tightly into her stomach to mask it and warped herself up with a thin grey layer of mist, then moved towards the highest tree in the area that was somewhat covered by foliage. From here she could clearly see everyone's hiding place. She still didn't intend to attack and only watched the proceeding spectacle.

The demon child directly fought Kakashi to no avail, in the end Kakashi brought out a book and read it in the middle of the fight. Oh, the demon child surely would explode. Sure enough, he exploded right at that moment.

"First lesson, taijutsu."

Kakashi then began his one-sided fight - if you could call it that - with the demon child. After almost half an hour of fighting, she still couldn't find a sign of the malevolent chakra that she sensed a few days ago. It meant that the chakra wouldn't come out even though its vessel was already beaten black and blue. Or perhaps, the degree of the injury was not enough to trigger it to appear. Ah, interesting.

She placed one of her hands on her hips while the other one was leaning on the tree trunk. Nine watched the show expectantly but Kakashi seemed to be bored because the next thing she knew was that the demon child catapulted into the river, "Wow." She was surprised, that was one mighty technique, he better wash his hands properly after this fight.

Kakashi then suddenly turned towards her direction, - oh oh, he heard it - He didn't see through her disguise though, but it probably would be safer if she moved her position. Nine then carefully slipped rather far away when the pinkhead attracted Kakashi's attention.

She didn't hear what he said but he felt a spike of chakra and a scream, "Sasuke-kun!!!" The chakra entered another body, presumably the pinkhead considering Naruto was still inside the river. Genjutsu, it must have been it. Genjutsu worked to mess up other people's perception of reality by wrecking havoc with their body senses. What type of vision did Kakashi use on her, she thought doubtfully.

Disappointingly, she didn't hear any other altercation after a few minutes of waiting. Uh, what's happening? Nine then saw Kakashi leap towards her previous location, thankfully she had foresight. She was curious about the pinkhead, what was she doing right now? Why so fast? She avoided Kakashi's searching eyes then silently ran towards pinkhead's location. Ah, there she was laying on the ground unconscious.

She lost her interest then started to plan how to get those bells. Nine slowly crept towards Kakashi's direction and examined his current situation. He was still searching for her; she sensed an increase of faint chakra on his general nose area. He was trying to track her down with the smell. That was not a bad idea but the mist that covered her entire body prevented all types of chemical from being released outside the vacuum chamber. Voice only escaped because it was formed by soundwaves.

She then experimentally tried to surprise him using the biggest tree near him. She thought, 'strike that biggest tree so that it falls down.' The shock factor was probably enough of a distraction for her to attempt a robbery. The a lightning struck out of nowhere, the incident surprised Kakashi especially when the tree started to fall down. Seeing that he was distracted, Nine performed smokeless body flicker technique and reached out. She saw his surprised and bewildered expression when he was aware that she was about to grab the bells, Kakashi then avoided her using a substitution technique.

Boom!

A bang and sounds of cracked woods were heard, she carefully watched Kakashi put away his book across her. "Ma, what a timely coincidence." He spoke lazily, she ignored him and threw several kunai after one another in his direction and ran towards him. Which direction will he take? Left, right, front, behind, or below. There were five options for him to evade, she considered the probability for each option. She estimated Kakashi's understanding of new genin; he probably thought that newly minted genin wouldn't look at something that was not so obvious at first glance. So, below?

She threw a punch directly to his kidney and sure enough, he disappeared. Nine then jumped away from her current spot and realized that Kakashi used headhunter technique. She sighed, that it would be embarrassing if she was caught and buried except for her head. Nine retreated again, she didn't like to fight like this. This retreat, attack, retreat, attack strategy was really time consuming.

A mastered technique that right now she could reasonably use as an Uchiha was a genjutsu type of attack. Right, Kakashi was still unable to locate her. As long as she didn't make a peep, he wouldn't find her. First, she weaved her power to cover the entire area in a dome like shape with a diameter of one hundred meters so that Kakashi would be covered inside her domain; she then infused Sasuke's chakra with her previously placed power. The drain was rather big, she directly felt the effect. If this wouldn't work, she would need to wracked her head again, so this better work.

Sasuke's chakra was able to easily mixed with her power, courtesy of our peaceful cohabitation. After that moment, she inserted a sliver of her consciousness into this brand new technique and watched as Kakashi began to exhibit the symptoms of terror.

Every instinct on his body recoiled from pain from the unknown source, but it had not allowed him to escape. A horrible sense of powerlessness grew steadily the longer he was trapped inside this plane, it was as though he was inhaling poisoned air but unable to stop. The air was filled with malice and anguish from an uncountable number of people, in front of him, various writhing human-like shapes took place clawing towards his direction as if asking for salvation. The horror became overwhelming, the sky was no more, only two monstrous moons, red and silver, covered this plane. From some hidden place in his mind he felt a darkness, something huge and unnameable, begin to form… This is…

Nine saw an intense reaction from Kakashi, oh great, this technique works. She cautiously walked towards Kakashi and examined his physical reactions, heavy precipitation, shortness of breath, uncontrollable pupil movements, and muscle stiffness. This was a common reaction that humans have everytime she looks at them. This is normal. She then directly took the bells, spinning them, and thought. 'But, what should I name it?' She wasn't expecting an answer but then Sasuke asked her.

'When are you going to release your Sensei?' He impatiently asked, she then answered. 'I need to give it a name first, lest people ask but I still haven't named it yet. How about Demonic Illusion: It's Just A Puzzle, no… too ugly, then Demonic Illusion: A Dream-like Puzzle. Hey, I think this is appropriate!'

'....' Sasuke sighed and hurriedly reminded her to release the technique. 'Name it as you like, there's no need to needlessly tortured other people.'

'I don't torture anyone.' Nine refuted and then released her hold on the technique. "Demonic Illusion: Release." She saw Kakashi begin to move and reflexively attack the nearest object, which was her. She jumped out of his way and called out to him. "Sensei, I win."

Kakashi moved his gaze onto her then looked at the dangling bells in her hand. He was still a little out of his depth after experiencing her genjutsu. Kakashi then quickly gathered his bearings and said, "Hm, it seems that you won the challenge." He smiled.

"Right? Sensei, I win! So…" She was asking for her verdict.

"Let's gather everyone first." Kakashi then left her in the clearing. What's that? She heard Sasuke commented, 'You're hopeless.'

No one was feeling happy, maybe except her and Kakashi. He surely did look delighted watching both the demon child and pinkhead tied up on the posts. It's hard to determine his exact expression.

Kakashi looks at all three of us in disappointment. Why does he look disappointed at her too? She won, wasn't she? "Both of you fail, none of you even manage to touch the bell." There was a sound of protest from the demon child, the pinkhead was silent, she looked embarrassed.

"And you Sasuke…" He paused.

"Yes, Sensei?" She cheerily promoted him to continue.

"Even though you got both of the bell -..."

"What!!" The demon child shouted again.

"Even though you got both of the bells you don't get the purpose of this task at all. Well, none of you got it. But Sasuke, there's a difference between you and both of them. You had many chances to help but didn't do anything, you just watched your teammates struggle from afar and even enjoyed it. You're teammates, if you don't work with each other, how are you going to defeat an opponent stronger than all of you? So, I just want to ask you, why don't you help your teammates? Just give me a reason." Kakashi seriously asked her, his huge consideration towards this topic was rather surprising. She thought, with his type of personality she thought he was an antisocial person.

Sasuke then chimed in, 'What exactly do you know about his nature? Both of you only met for two times, you don't know his personality.' Sasuke was wrong, she knew his nature from the moment he was trapped inside her illusion.

Nine tried to formulate her answer and enunciated her response softly "Hm, I didn't help them because I don't feel the need to. I have a workable plan in which they don't have any part in it.probability." She stopped and looked at their expression, she couldn't understand some of it. Shame, anger, speechlessness, and a big part of confusion. "If I suddenly change it, the possibility of it working decreased sharply. The demon child and pinkhead don't have the skill sets needed for my plan to work. If they have the needed skill sets and if the probability of it working more efficiently with them on the team. I won't be against working together, after all… it is good to strive to reach the highest peak of effectiveness and efficiency."

The demon child's face turned red in anger and tried to free himself from the knot that bound him, "Sasuke bastard! What did you just call me?!" He bellowed loudly, she winced a little.

Nine was rather perplexed with his behavior, why he was angry if she called him that and never angry when other people referred to him by that nickname. "Why are you angry? I never saw you getting angry every time other residents called you with that name… This is your most commonly used name by the masses, what's wrong with it?" She was genuinely interested in his anwer, perhaps this name could only be spoken by an older person.

"Does this name perhaps could only be used by older people?" The demon child's face was still read.

"Bastard! You saw me?! Anyway! You're not allowed!!"

"Why?" Nine asked the demon child, when he didn't give her an answer, she looked at Kakashi. Just the same, he looked rather perturbed.

"If you can't give me a good reason, I won't change it." She stubbornly persisted, what's wrong with the way she refer him? He allowed other people but he specifically forbid her, no way. She only conforms to people's way of addressing him.

"Alright, alright, children, stop fighting." Kakashi finally decided to interject. "Sasuke, you are not allowed to call other people like that. Call them by their names, nicknames are okay but this kind of nickname is not allowed." He tiredly explained it to her. Aside from not being allowed, there was still no other reason. She then just nodded, she wanted to end this test early.

"Like I said previously, you guys need to help each other. In ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash. I'll give you one more chance, if you can't do it then you three better go back to the academy. Sasuke, you can eat. Don't give them any, I'll be back in an hour." He then shunsin-ed away in a puff of smoke. He was still around, what's he doing? He thought dubiously.

Nine ignored him and ate the bento, both Naruto's and Sakura's stomach growled. That ruined her appetite, she took other sealed bento and shoved the bento in front of their face, "Eat, both of you ruin my appetite." Sensing that there was no movement from them, she looked up and saw their bound hands.

She changed her chopsticks then fed both of them, by hand. Ahh, what a good deed she did today! She continuously fed them until the bento was empty, then Kakashi appeared. Both of them looked terrified, but there's nothing to be afraid of, Kakashi was clearly watching them from the start but only appeared this time, what a ploy.

"Sasuke, I ordered you not to feed them! You dare to disregard your superior order!?" Well, to be honest he did look somewhat scary.

"Wait, Sensei! You said to work together!" Sakura interjected then Naruto chimed in, "Right, we can't work if we're hungry!"

"Calm down, you pass." Kakashi smiled again.

"..."

"..."

She stood up and asked, "So, we can go home?"

Notes:

- I never intended for her to work together with her team in this test. Teamwork is indeed a foreign concept for her. Teamwork only enter her thought because of Kakashi's scolding, and in the end her mindset is still in the "I'll think about it" stage. She right now is somewhat aware that teamwork sometimes needed especially with her body constraints, but the moment she doesn't feel like teamwork is needed, she may change her mind again.
- When Kakashi was exposed with a sliver of her consciousness, he refer her as 'it.', this is deliberate.
- I'll elaborate this technique later, if needed. This is a puzzle genjutsu, you can only free yourself by solving the puzzle OR you were being liberated by her.
- The beginning of the genjutsu doesn't involve trauma of the victims but it was imbued with pure terror produced by her. So, even if she make the visual imagery rather cheerful, the victims will still feel the terror from an 'unknown source'.
- Ah Kakashi didn't purposely ignoring her, he's still in state of shock.
- Kakashi passed them because he think that Sasuke is inherently not selfish, he just has a different brain circuits.