Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Because I am lame and forgot to in the first chapter, I'd like to thank kaori and yoshi for beta reading for me.


Chapter 2 – Pass or Fail: Kakashi's Decision

Amaya followed Kakashi through the trees that separated the 3rd training ground from the Memorial Stone. Sure enough, three kids waited for them. Amaya stood back and watched, smiling at Kakashi's excuse (black cat indeed!) as a blond-haired boy in an orange jumpsuit and a pink-haired kunoichi in a red, tapering dress with shorts underneath accused the Jonin of being late. Her gaze slid to the raven-haired boy in a blue shirt and white shorts who stood impassively, as if he thought himself too good for his present company. Kakashi certainly had his hands full.

Kakashi was almost through explaining the bell test before the three young ninja noticed her.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, who's the lady? I thought you said it would just be the four of us," asked the blond, much more loudly than necessary.

Kakashi flashed what would look like a bored glance to the kids, but Amaya saw the smile hidden there just for her. "No one important, Naruto. She just wanted to observe."

Amaya bristled at his tone. How she hated when he slipped into that apathy of his. And he knew it. Apathy didn't become the man she knew.

"Whatever. The whole village could watch. I'm still gonna kick your butt and when I do, they'll make me Hokage for sure!" Naruto announced.

Amaya shunshined into a nearby tree that gave her a good view of the whole training ground, much to the surprise of Naruto and the kunoichi. From her vantage point, she grinned as Naruto charged Kakashi, thinking to take him head on, and received the Thousand Years of Death technique for his trouble.

"Not the most graceful of moves, I know, but he'll get my reasoning eventually," Kakashi said, appearing beside her moments later.

Amaya cast a glance back to where the Genin had been. They had scattered, hiding rather effectively, all except Naruto, "Shadow clone?"

The silver-haired shinobi nodded. "That's all that's needed."

"When did you stop mentoring your last team?"

The Copy-nin shrugged. "I've never taught any Genin. They keep trying to give me teams, but they're always...lacking. So I fail them. What do you think of these three, though?"

"Well, Naruto's certainly grown since the last time I saw him. He reminds me of Minato but without his level-headedness. He's brash and impulsive and he sticks out like a sore thumb."

"You've no right to say that. You used to wear bright yellow."

"Yeah, well, my wardrobe changed while I was away."

"I can see that," Kakashi said, taking in the outfit of his former…. He didn't quite know what to call her anymore. Comrade was too stiff and lover didn't work either. He decided just to think of her as a friend for the time being. His friend wore a red half-shirt with a short, black jacket over it. One sleeve was long, hanging loosely around her wrist; the other ended halfway between her shoulder and elbow. Black, calf-length pants and black, fingerless gloves completed her new look. The most striking thing, though, was that every inch of exposed skin save her feet, fingers, and face was covered in bandages. Kakashi knew what was underneath the white linen and thought he knew why she wore the bandages, but he also knew better than to press her on something she obviously didn't want to talk about.

Amaya watched as the other two Genin were soundly defeated. "The girl...Sakura, was it? If she'd get her head out of the clouds, she would've realized you'd used genjutsu. And Sasuke…. Well, he's as arrogant as any Uchiha I ever met, but he's smart. If he didn't think so little of the other two, he might've realized what this test is actually about."

"Hmmmm," Kakashi said as his clone tied up Naruto, giving Sasuke and Sakura each a boxed lunch. He shunshined in, seamlessly replacing his clone. He tried one last time to get them to see the point, that teamwork was the goal of the exercise. Sasuke charged Kakashi as Amaya leapt from her tree, landing lightly on her feet. The Genin didn't notice her as she leaned against a closer tree to watch the show. Her heart broke when Kakashi told the Genin, in his round-about way, of the lessons he wished he'd learned sooner, of the lessons that might have saved Obito and Rin. He gave the children one more chance, but told them not to feed Naruto since he'd tried to steal the lunches earlier.

The Copy-nin left the three to their lunch, but listened from behind a tree. When Sasuke offered Naruto his food and Sakura actually fed the blond, Kakashi flickered in front of them, accompanied by a great deal of smoke. Angry storm clouds gathered overhead after a series of hand seals from Kakashi. He asked if any of them had any last words. The Uchiha spoke up first, surprising Amaya, and said they fed Naruto because they were a team. Sakura immediately agreed, which didn't surprise her in the least, and Naruto agreed with them both.

"The three of you are one? That's your excuse? ...You pass," said a smiling Kakashi.

Amaya pushed off her tree and walked toward the group, clapping slowly, "Well done. Well done indeed. I hear you're the first squad to actually get the point of Kakashi-san's exercise. But if I may, I'd like to give you a test of my own. If that's alright with your sensei?" She cast a questioning glance at Kakashi. He was surprised and a bit of confusion was buried beneath his veneer of apathy.

He nodded. "If you want."

"What? We just had a test. What do we need another one if we passed?" Sakura whined.

"I'm sure my colleague has a good reason," Kakashi said.

"Then bring it on," Naruto proclaimed. "I can handle anything you throw at me! Believe it!"

Amaya smiled sweetly. "As you wish."