AN: it's late again. I am so sorry. I'm literally beating myself up about it.

Lesson 6: The mind is the most dangerous weapon humans possess, because in the end, it is the mind that creates, destroys, and decides.

The weirdest thing happened to me during our introductions. At first I was just sitting there watching everything play out, and then the next thing I see is a hazy overlay on my vision that looks like someone put a transparent image over it.

In half a second, three images flash over the scene before me, and I suddenly fully understand the impact I have had on this world. I had changed the timeline irreparably without even trying. This was the first glimpse I had ever seen of what kind of power I had as someone with a powerful, probably fractured mind.

Future seer indeed.

"Okay. Your turn. You in the front right. You first." Kakashi tactfully switched the subject. The two idiots just went along with it, but I saw Sasuke's eyebrow twitch at it from my position on Naruto's upper left. Well, it looks like blatant trust and childish attitudes stuck around for half the team. Not to say that I was arrogantly an asshole like Sasuke, but I wasn't not childish either. I just hid it better.

"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku Noodle Shop." He said. I was internally drooling. Food. I guess I ate too little for breakfast again. "But I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobbies are eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them." Again my thoughts wandered. Miso. Spicy Miso. Shouyu. Miso with eggplant. Tofu. Calamari. Dango. Mochi. Ice cream. But Naruto's loud voice popped me out of my thought bubble again. "...To be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will have to stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"

I felt my thoughts slam into a different direction. Way to sideswipe your own conversation Naruto. Kakashi said nothing, probably filing away those facts for later and categorizing Naruto by his attitude, mindset, and habits. Like the constant adjusting of his headband.

My thoughts are already working on the sideswiped tangent. First, I would feed them food. Then, I would begin bonding slash trust building time. Then, I would put them through training hell. If Kakashi didn't end up training them down to the bone, I sure would. And I wouldn't be so deceptively nice.

"Alright. Next." He said eyeing Sakura with a lazy gaze.

"I'm Sakura Haruno." Once I thought about it, her name really does suit her. You know, the pink and everything. "What I like... I mean the person I like..." She gazed longingly at Sasuke. Alright, screw me being nice to her. I decided I was going to beat that fangirlism out of her as soon as possible. "Uh... my hobbies is uh... My dreams of the future is..." Cue fangirl squeal.

"And," Kakashi coaxed, probably just as tired of her fangirling as I was. "What do you hate?"

There is no hesitation here. "Naruto!" And then she goes back to staring and Naruto cries the fake yet dramatic tears of the rejected. I pat him on the shoulder in consolation. Poor teammates. Poor delusional teammates. I was beginning to think that Sasuke and I had the most in common. And that right there was a frightening thought.

"Okay then. You on the far right. Next." Kakashi said. I did a lazy mock salute and then rolled out my answers. All practiced of course.

"My name is Ameko Hatake. I do not like certain things. I do not hate other things. I do not have numerous hobbies. And I do not have a sane dream." I said. "Read between the lines, 'cause that's all you're gonna get." Same ending note I gave when I joined their class two years ago.

Sakura scowled at me. "Can't you answer a question like a normal person?"

I gave her a look. "What makes you think I'm a normal person?"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Naruto shouts.

"What do you think it means?" I say back. Naruto and Sakura give me glares.

"This is pointless." I hear Sasuke mumble under his breath.

"Alright, everyone. Last one. Go ahead." Kakashi interrupts. Great timing on his part.

"My name, is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything." Sasuke says. I can see Sakura deflate out of the corner of my eye. Mehe. "What I have is not a dream, because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone."

Right then is when I had the vision slash flashback slash memory echo.

I saw ten different faces. Mousy brown spikes with dark almond eyes and odd lines; honey golden locks on a heart shaped face; eerie yellow on paper white; spiky ash white and a cocky smirk; stylish brown and a snarky smile; calm earthy pools and a serious expression; sunny yellow and cheerful sky blue; jet black and a reckless grin; chocolate strands and violet makeup; unruly silver and apathetic eyes. Then everything bleeds back to green, blue, orange, and red.

I blink and surmised that less than a second had passed. A chill went up my spine as my mind was working on its implications. 'Shit. I might be schizophrenic.' I thought for a second.

I could still feel the frostiness in the air. After having that weird flash over my vision, I was tense too. Then I decided that it was time to break the ice.

"Aww. Don't worry, Sasuke." I said with false cheeriness. Everyone looked at me. "I hate you too." Absolutely one hundred percent true. The guy is a bastard.

Their reactions were varyingly hilarious. Naruto was laughing so hard he was having trouble breathing, Sakura was screaming bloody murder, Sasuke gave me the death glare that made his face look like a fish, and Kakashi just sat there smiling cat-like at the entire scene.

In short, my imagination made Naruto the Joker, Sakura the Red Queen, Sasuke Marlin the Clownfish, and Kakashi O'Malley the Alley Cat.

And who was I? I was Happy, obviously. Laughter, check. Murder, check. Fish, check. Other chaos making cat, check. Iciness gone, check. Sanity gone, check. All was good and I had successfully made myself forget about what I had just seen.

Then suddenly Kakashi was laughing his evil laugh. Not good. I instantly darted behind Naruto to try and hide myself.

He gave a slight yelp of surprise as I grabbed his shoulders and maneuvered him to block me. "What the hell?" He exclaimed. "What are you doing?!"

I looked at him with slightly crazed eyes and he squeaked in horror. "Kakashi. Evil laugh. Bad." I said in broken sentences.

"W-what's that s-supposed to mean?!"

"Laugh it up while you can, because tomorrow we'll be doing our first mission. But first there is a task that the five of us will do together." Kakashi continued. I gave him a look. We? Is he hinting at what I think he is? He chuckled again and I felt myself shrink behind Naruto's back.

"What's so funny sensei?" Sakura asked innocently. She's gonna get the surprise of a lifetime right now. But there's going to be plenty more when they pass this time around. Especially with me here. I almost feel bad for her. She's the only one with an non-tragic back story as well. Poor, innocent, vulnerable, Sakura.

"I'm going to tell you, but you're not going to like it." He chuckled again. Everyone sat on the edge of their seats. "Of the twenty-eight graduates that just came here, only ten will make the cut. In other words this is a make it or break it pass fail test where the chance you'll fail is at least sixty-six percent."

All of them made varying expressions of surprise and I glared at him.

"That's it?" I asked, a bit put off. "I thought that you were going to try and dye everyone's clothes pink or something atrocious like that." I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you planning?"

Naruto sprang out of my grip and began screaming at Kakashi. "That's crazy! We worked hard to get here! What was all that training for then?!"

"Oh, that?" Kakashi asked completely unfazed. "Those were just to pick out who might become genin. Or not."

"What?!"

I looked at them.

"Don't tell me you didn't know?" They all stared at me blankly at that. I sighed and explained. "We take a written test to make sure we have the knowledge we need to be a ninja and we take a practical exam to make sure we have all the skills to be a ninja. After that," I pointed to Kakashi. "The Jounin sensei that each candidate is assigned to tests them with the final test. The field test. It's to see if the candidate can put it all together and actually stand a chance in the field."

I looked at each of them, looking for some sort of recognition in their eyes. Naruto and Sakura tilted their heads to the side in confusion while Sasuke just growled at me. I snorted.

"I guess it's your guys' fault that you didn't read between the lines on that, not mine." I said indifferently. Iruka-sensei certainly hinted at it several times during the year, saying that we needed to prepare for anything after we graduated from the Academy, because we needed to be able to hold our own in the field before we went on missions. I was absolutely positive that, even without my foreknowledge, I would have been able to figure out simply because phrase understanding and social maturity were above average.

I could even trace the line of thought I would have gone through to figure out the purpose of the test itself and not its broadcasted purpose.

I shivered when I thought about it. Had I a genius like intelligence or had not been trained in the arts of becoming unassuming, I probably would have attracted more attention then I did in this timeline. I was lucky enough to be able to snag only an average score on my tests due to my exhaustion rather than an outstanding one. Thank God for small favors.

"Well, that's it. You're dismissed." Kakashi said to everyone. "Oh, and one more thing. Don't eat breakfast tomorrow or you'll puke." Kakashi said apathetically.

"Ameko, a word please." He said pointedly at me. I froze and only one word ran through my mind.

Busted.

As Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto exited the roof, I ran through all the possible things that he could be upset at me with. When nothing came up, I panicked and vainly tried to sprint away from the demon that was my brother. He caught me by the arm and put me in a headlock.

"Calm down. I'm not mad at you." He said to me as I flailed wildly in his grip. I wouldn't seriously try to escape, even though I could have, simply because I knew he wouldn't seriously hurt me. The worst injury I had gotten from him was a mild concussion, and even then, I was able to walk and speak coherently. Still, it was little comfort when the person I who was keeping me captive was the Kakashi Hatake. "I just want to ask you something."

"I probably didn't do it! If I did, I'm sorry! Whatever it is..." I trailed off. Poor defense before a certified genius.

He let me go and a stood facing him with a suspicious glare. He sighed. I braced myself.

"Do you know the purpose of the test? The real purpose?" He asked me. I blinked in surprise.

"Yeah. It's not exactly a secret." I told him. "I was sure that someone must have noticed besides me."

Kakashi shook his head slightly. "Only you. The other Jounin discreetly inquired about inclinations towards teamwork and knowing about the test, but you are the only one that really picked up on it, as discreetly as I inquired about it. I saw the look you gave me." I scrunched up my nose at that. I wasn't trying to hide it, but the way he phrased it sounded like I should have. Then it clicked.

"Because 'we' and 'together' implies teamwork, but the situation doesn't, logically unless I was specifically inclined to working with people, or knew about the real objective of the test, I wouldn't have responded to the phrasing the way I did." I nearly slapped myself at the simplicity of it. "I did know of it before hand though. And even if I didn't I think I would have figured it out anyway."

"I see." He said, taking note of what I said. "In that case, I'm not going to test you."

I choked on my tongue. "W-what?! Why not?"

"I don't see the point." He said simply. "And this gives me another tool for the test tomorrow."

I didn't like the way he said that. "What do you mean by that?"

He eye smiled and bent down to meet my eyes. "You get to be my hostage." He said gleefully.

I tried to gauge if he was serious or not. When his expression didn't budge, I turned away.

"No way in hell." Was my simple reply. But he wasn't done there.

"I'll buy you dango on the way back." He bribed.

I stared at him.

He stared back.

I gave him a suspicious look.

He smiled.

I let my shoulders drop.

"...Fine."

I woke up the next morning to find myself gagged, blindfolded, and tied up like a tree on Christmas. I panicked a bit, slightly fearful that whoever had kidnapped me was on Kage level because I hadn't woken up when they began tie me up, but then I remembered. I fell asleep like a rock the night before after eating the two sticks of dango Kakashi had bought me. I suspected a sleeping drug. Kakashi you bastard. Was it really that hard to ask?

I sniffed at the air and used my hearing to find out where I was. There was a slight breeze, and it was rather cold, but sure enough I could hear the clinking of silverware and smell the dog was still everywhere.

So I was still at the apartment.

I wormed my way towards what my nose was telling me was the kitchen. Groggy, I was sure that my stomach was empty and that I had made enough noise trying to get to the kitchen to wake the Kazekage.

I heard footsteps come toward me.

I flipped over towards them.

"Maa, you're awake. I was almost afraid I had given you an overdose."

I growled at him, and my stomach echoed me in protest.

"Sorry but you can't eat either. It's not fair to your misguided teammates." The was mirth laced in his voice. "But I'll save you the pain for now."

Eh?

The blindfold was then suddenly pulled up and I was staring straight into a frightening crimson eye with rotating symbols. I tried to fight the genjutsu but my eyes were closing and my world slowly faded.

Chakra induced sleep is almost as bad as a sleeping drug. The only difference was that I could probably escape from the genjutsu if I focused hard enough, but with the drug I couldn't. The after effects were the same though. When I woke up in the middle of an unfamiliar smelling and sounding place, I was still to weakened by the genjutsu to do anything but give a quiet moan as a headache formed.

Fortunately or unfortunately, that brought attention to me.

"Hatake?" A familiar voice asked after a bit. I just groaned in response, able to do little else as I was tied up to my eyes. "What the hell happened of you?"

I heard someone step towards me, heavily for who I thought it was, but then again, I didn't really pay attention to the way he walked at all.

Bright light entered my vision at the blindfold was ripped off my face and revealed a rather disheveled looking Uchiha. I would have screamed at him had I the ability to do so. I settled for glaring at him. I pulled at the rope helplessly as he looked at me funnily.

"You're awfully quiet." He observed. I rolled my eyes at him. Suddenly a presence caught my attention and I sniffed at the air. Sasuke's attention immediately focused on me. I heard the zing of shuriken and threw my weight towards the unmoving Uchiha. I was barely able to push him out of the way of the shuriken's path.

When I pushed myself up from my position beside him, I made eye contact and them flicked my head to the side. He looked at me with narrowed eyes. I was telling him to leave. I could still sense Kakashi's presence nearby.

Without a word he left.

When I was sure that he was gone, Kakashi dropped down from a tree and did a few quick hand seals.

In my weakened state, all I could do was submit to the genjutsu once again.

When I awoke next, I was staring into the brilliant blue eyes of my blonde teammate. "Hey, uh, Ameko-chan, you okay?" He asked. I blinked tiredly at him, then bobbed my head back and forth in a so-so motion. He had had enough sense to wake me up, but it didn't seem to cross his mind that untying me would be a good idea too. According to my stinging cheek, that is.

I sat up and looked around. I was in a small clearing with Naruto to my left and a big obsidian stone to my right. There were two bentos at the base of it. I heard a stomach growl next to me.

Apparently distracted but the divine smell of food, that in my still foggy state of mind didn't register completely, Naruto the orange blob snatched up one of the lunches and was just about to dig in.

I felt a burst of chakra and my eyes snapped to the top of the stone. There sat Kakashi in all his menacing glory.

Naruto was snatched up with a squeak before I could even register my brother moving, and a gray haze settled over my mind again in a numbing blur.

Damn it. That's the third time today.

Thankfully, I wasn't under the genjutsu for very long, and as soon as I woke up from it, I bolted upright and nearly head butted Sakura.

"You're awake!" Why did she sound so relieved? "You practically weren't breathing! I was afraid..." She trailed off. I shook my head vigorously to clear the vanishing traces of the genjutsu out of my system.

"I thought you were going to die, Ameko-chan!" I heard Naruto say to my left. I glanced up at him and saw that he was tied up to one of the three logs in my vision.

"...You were in a really bad way..." I heard someone mumble beside me. I turned to see Sasuke discreetly taking out a kunai and cutting through the rope as quietly as possible. When the ropes finally fell off me, I flexed my muscles gingerly as they were stiff from being in the same position for practically the entire day.

Once I got feeling back in my fingertips in untied the gag from behind my head and consequently pulled off my mask to spit the thing out. I choked as the piece of rough fabric slid painfully out of my throat and had a long coughing fit afterwards.

I heaved for air and finally able to calm my breathing down enough to speak.

"Why... The hell -cough- am I only being untied -gasp- now?" I managed to croak out.

None of them said a word but they stared at me with comically wide eyes. My brows furrowed.

"What?" I asked.

I looked at Sakura and she covered her mouth with a squeak. My gaze wandered to Naruto who just kept staring at me with his mouth wide open. I then turned to Sasuke, and he avoided my gaze.

Then Naruto broke out of his trance enough to speak.

"Ameko-chan is cute." He said almost breathlessly. Instantly I felt my face heat up, and I pulled up my mask hastily.

We sat there for practically ten minutes in the most awkward silence I have ever felt since I was in high school.

Then as if on cue, both my stomach and Naruto's stomach growled. I sniffed the air and located the two bentos from before and saw the open chopsticks and missing food. I looked to Sakura and Sasuke and saw bits of rice still clinging to their faces and it looked like they had eaten a bit before deciding to wake me up. My stomach growled again and I turned to Sakura sheepishly.

"Uh, mind sharing a bit please?" I asked politely. Sakura suddenly shook her head vigorously.

"We can't. Sensei said not to." She said matter-of-factly. I felt my features scrunch into a frown. I turned to Sasuke and Naruto. They looked away sadly.

I furrowed my brow, looking for a loophole.

"What was Sensei's exact phrasing?" I asked, feeling the title sensei sliding off my tongue oddly.

Sakura looked at me funny. "'Don't feed Naruto or Ame-chan. Naruto broke the rules and should remain tied up and Ameko deserves it as payback for drawing in my books. If you feed them, you fail.'" She recited.

"So he said nothing about me getting untied, taking your food for myself, and feeding Naruto myself?" I asked them.

A smirk began to grow on Sasuke's face. "No. He didn't. He said we needed to work together to get the bells, but he didn't say anything about how we did it."

"Teamwork huh?" I asked as I contemplated it. "Whoever said teamwork had to follow the rules? We could definitely bend them a bit and break them in others." I grinned.

Sakura looked between the two of us and then resolutely offered it to Naruto.

With a quick glance, I stole Sasuke's bento and inhaled half of it. Then I watched as Sakura angrily fed an eager Naruto a bite of rice.

A blast of chakra laced wind burst into the clearing accompanied by a plume of chakra smoke.

"You!" Kakashi growled menacingly. Instantly I jumped in front of Naruto and pulled out a kunai. Sakura freaked out and turned as pale as a sheet while Sasuke tensed like a compressed spring as he broke out in cold sweat. "You broke the rules! Prepare for the consequences!"

I saw Kakashi weave hand signs for a familiar genjutsu and the sky turned dark and stormy. My clammy, shaking, weakened hands gripped my kunai tighter, not sure whether or not Kakashi would really attack. After all, I had interfered with the test enough for him to want to edit it a bit to fit the situation.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?" He snarled at us. All four of us gulped involuntarily.

"But, but..." Naruto started.

"Hmm?" Kakashi focused his attention on the orange clad boy.

"You said that we were a team! That's why... They..." He trailed off.

Sasuke glanced at us then continued. "We're all in this together. We're a team. We'll fight as a team and fail as one."

"Yeah!" Sakura put in. "The four of us are one."

"That's right! That's right!" Naruto screamed as he struggled against the rope.

Kakashi leaned over menacingly. "The four of you are one? That's all you have to say?"

I glared at him. "Do you need us to repeat that?" I asked, half going with it and half serious.

"In that case..." Kakashi whispered intently. They braced for the worst. "You pass!" Kakashi finished happily.

"Eh...?" I nearly collapsed in relief. It was finally over.

"You. Pass."

AN: I will focus on this more. I promise. P.S. This is unbetaed. Sorry for any errors I have missed.