"What's wrong?" Aiden asked as he noticed me stiffen, peace on the top of the hill disturbed.

I tugged myself away from him and stood, dusting my coat. "Kakashi," I greeted.

"What? Cashile, are you okay?" Aiden asked, propped up on his forearms and clearly perplexed about why I was speaking Kakashi's name. Kakashi hadn't yet appeared over the top of the hill.

I sighed, not feeling the need to explain myself. Kakashi explained for me, taking that moment to step into view. "Cashile," he replied.

"Is it time already?" I asked, picking at my nails in a bored manner. I knew this interrogation would go absolutely no where.

Kakashi nodded. "The boy is awake,"

"It," I corrected. I was promptly ignored.

"Come on, Cashile. Lets go."

***

So far, the boy refused to break. But now he was talking, so that was something new.

"You were the one we all tried to emulate," the boy said, no emotion in his voice and no soul in his eyes, staring at nothing in particular but clearly addressing me. "You were the one we wanted to be. Do you know what we called you? The others, the ones who weren't the Claw? The ones who were just kept in storage until it was their turn? Do you know what we called you?"

I stared at him, no interest in my eyes. Being near someone from The Rising Phoenix always did this to me, always made me more Claw-like, more--

"Mujōna," the boy whispered. "Soulless."

"What's in a name?" I replied flippantly.

Ibiki shot me a concerned look, studying me closely. He didn't know everything, I reminded myself. He didn't know everything I did, everything that was done to me.

"I'm telling you Ibiki, you aren't going to get anything from It," I restated.

"We have to try," Ibiki replied. "On my watch," he motioned to his team. "I'm going in again,"

"Good luck with that, then. My presence here is useless."

Ibiki ignored me, and I took that as my cue to leave. Damn. Well I wasted a perfectly good afternoon.

As I walked out of the hospital room, I tensed and shifted to my side, in a stance prepared to defend and attack.

I eased my stance slightly when the ANBU appeared in front of me. "You've been summoned by the hokage." He intoned, promptly disappearing once his message was delivered. Why were all ANBU such a talkative bunch?

"Aye aye," I muttered to the empty space in front of me.

I jumped from the window, noting the flickers of movement that were my ANBU entourage as I flew through the air. Two more had been added to my little protective team since the attack. With a sigh I enter the Hokage building, strolling up the stairs as though I had all the time in the world and was definitely not curious about what mission Team Ten would be given.

I knocked on the door as I opened it, ignoring Tsunade's glare of irritation.

"So?" I questioned. "A mission I presume?"

She raised her right eyebrow in a questioning manner. "And if I were to say no?"

"By your hypothetical question, body language and tone of voice I already know it is, so you can get to the point," I pointed out.

She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Team ten's first C-rank mission. An interception. Do you think that they're ready?"

"Yes," I replied without hesitation. "Their skills have improved significantly and the experience wouldn't do them harm. And if anything goes wrong on the mission I'll always be there to do my job," I said.

I could protect the three genin with less than a quarter of my true skills. Well, for a C-rank mission, at least.

"Alright, report to my office with your team in two hours. Dismissed!" She concluded sharply.

"Yes ma'am," I muttered mockingly, and disappeared before Tsunade could retaliate. I really should be more wary of her strength. Well, noted. She would only let me get away with so much.

Now I had to go genin hunting. They should be doing their workout right now. Perhaps I'll even catch them in the act of not doing what I had sentenced them to do. I started running the course around Konoha. Within a couple of minutes I spotted them.

Three knuckleheads, goofing around in a woods area of the trail.

I appeared between Aida and Kaden in the blink of an eye and smacked both of them on top of their foreheads.

"Bakas!" I exclaimed. I gifted a purposefully accusing look to Michiko, the only one who wasn't nursing a tender forehead.

"Well?" I asked, placing my hand on my hip, expecting some crazy made up excuse to get them out of a rough situation. Michiko seemed to realize this was her chance to get out of being smacked as well.

"Sensei, you caught us. We're not doing our workout." Michiko stated for the three of them , owning up to their actions.

"Wow. That was... Brutally honest. Have I not taught you anything?"

Had these kids not learned an ounce of deceit from me? It had been weeks. They should be able to lie on the spot, crap excuse or not. I smack Michiko on the head, rolling my eyes at her poor attempt to dodge.

Their mouths dropped open as the meaning behind my words finally makes its way through their thick brains.

"You're our sensei. Won't we get in trouble if we lie to you?!" Kento asked, astounded.

"Well... Yeah," I said. "If you do it poorly. But if you pull it off... well, I'll be none the wiser, yeah? By the way, I came to collect you three to reward you for all your hard work, but now I'm not so sure you guys deserve to go on a C-rank mission..."

They looked at me, a mixture of newfound guilt and regret painting their faces as they chorused their apologies and reasonings. Ha, they had been sent on so many crappy d-rank missions where I had sat back and allowed them to do the dirty work. And now they thought they had blown their one chance at a "real" mission.

"We were just taking a break! We were doing the workout, promise!" Michiko tried to convince, unconvincingly.

"Oh man!" Kento exclaimed, bummed.

"C'mon Cashile-sensei! That's unfair!" Aisa whined.

"Life's unfair," I snapped back, waiting for them to do something to "convince" me.

"What if we finish the workout before we leave for the mission?" Kento to reasoned.

I stared at him, slightly dumbfounded. "That's the most sensible thing I've heard you suggest in weeks, redhead." Kento scowled at me.  "That sounds like a plan."

Of course I wasn't going to tell them that I couldn't simply cancel missions that Tsunade assigned us... though I would love to see their faces when they realized I'd been bluffing.

Of course I could discourage the assignment of a c-rank mission, mention that team 12 wasn't ready for it or something, but then what fun would that be?

I swayed back and forth on a tree branch, idly reading through the bingo book and hoping to see some information on our Claw from... well, from before he was a Claw. That is, if their was a before for him. Three genin panted below me as they went through my (rather brutal, I'll admit) assigned set of push-ups, sit-ups, sprints and and series of stress positions that still managed to make me sweat when held long enough.

Occasionally I would call down a critique about positioning or form, much to the genin's chagrin. But they would make the adjustment, either sighing in relief as the change would alleviate the pain or grumbling in pain as the exercise became more difficult.

Michiko let out a sudden whine of pain and collapsed. Kento and Aisa grit their teeth, muscles straining and shaking, faces red and sweat dripping from their bodies as they struggled to maintain the stress position I had ordered.

"This is too hard for us!" Michiko gasped, rubbing trembling muscles as she tried to regain strength.

I view her boredly, then close my book and fall to the ground. I slowly walk over to her, hiding my smirk as I see the trepidation that wasn't quite hidden in her eyes. Finally I was standing just in front of her, forcing Michiko to crane her neck to look up at me. "Excuse me?" I ask softly.

She hesitates, then shakes her head, narrowing her eyes in determination. "We can't do this! It's far too difficult!"

"You can do this," I reply, and she looks shocked by the encouragement, but I was simply stating a fact. "I curtailed every exercise for each of you and your limits. It's all in your head, you idiot. If you applied yourself, you could do these exercises. They would push you to your limit just as they're designed to, but you can finish them. And you will. Now."

I notice that both Kento and Aisa have stopped, instead opting to watch us with clear interest and just a little fear. Michiko glances over to them and sets her jaw, shaking her head at me and glaring. "No!" she declares. "We won't do the stress positions anymore!"

I raise a single eyebrow, clearly challenging her. She drops her gaze but otherwise refuses to back down. "Why, pray tell, do you refuse to complete the exercise regimen?"

"Because it's a form of torture!" she burst out.

"What?" I ask. That was the last thing I had expected her to say.

"We learned about it at the academy! Forcing people to hold positions like these is a form of torture! You've been torturing us!"Michiko shouts.

I blink, staring. She takes several deep breaths, waiting for my reaction.

I think the last thing she expected me to do is laugh.

But laugh I do, a real, hard laugh that I find myself unable to control. Every time I see her face I burst out laughing again.

"It's not funny!" Kento finally butted in, throwing his support behind Michiko. "We're just  kids and you've literally been torturing us!"

"Torture," I chortle. "Torture! This isn't torture!"

"Um..." Aisa speaks up hesitantly. "Isn't it, though? Technically speaking?"

"This is torture," I snap, suddenly irritated that all three were being complete idiots, throwing my coat open and hiking up my shirt. I knew that there were a litany of scars scattered across my skin, but what drew their attention was the bottom quarter of a brand on the left side of my back.

I drag my shirt back down and glare at them. "And its what will happen to you if you don't do my exercises and grow strong! These "tortuous" stress positions are hell, I know! But you know what? I've carefully chosen each one for the muscle group it targets and those muscles will be stronger than any other genin's! The muscles needed for explosive movement, for putting as much weight behind a kick or a punch as possible! Those are the muscles we're strengthening! Those are the muscles that will save your life one day! But only if you do as I say!"

The three genin are staring at me with wide eyes. No one makes a sound.

The Michiko moves.

I turn my gaze to her and she flinches heavily under it  as she returns to the position she had originally fallen from. I nod approvingly, knowing that I had put the genin in their place once again.

Even if in the process I had revealed more than I'd meant to.

***

Despite the scare I had purposefully caused them, Team Ten was still more than eager to go on the C-ranked mission.

"Before you give the mission details," I start, hiding a wince as Tsunade glares at me for cutting her off. "I feel the need to remind you that I was released from the hospital just over three hours ago. My injuries are mostly healed, but some will still limit my mobility."

Tsunade snaps. "Like the injury caused by the rasengan that you purposefully allowed Naruto to hit you with?"

"Erm," I allow a smidgen of discomfort to show in the hopes that her angry tirade would be lessened. "Yes?" I don't even bother feeding her a sob story about how I had tried to dodge but Naruto was just faster than I'd expected. She wouldn't believe it for a second.

Tsunade sighs. "I'm sorely tempted to force you to deal with the consequences of your actions, but you are correct. It could put the completion of the mission at risk, despite it only being a c-ranked mission. Go and see Sakura before you go. She'll make sure that you're all set."

I nod. "And my... overprotective friends?"

Michiko shifts closer to Kento. "Sensei has friends?" she muttered from the corner of her mouth. I expertly ignore her remark and Kento's snort. They would pay for that in training later.

"They will not interfere with the mission," she replied easily. I nodded, understanding that unless something went horribly wrong or I was attacked by a Claw the ANBU wouldn't show their face.

"Alright then," I nodded. "Kento, Michiko, Aisa! Listen up! You better remember this mission and all details that Tsunade tells you now, because I won't be helping you out if you forget. So pay attention!"

With that, Tsunade began.

__________________________

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