The genin were dirty, their clothes were torn to pieces, and they'd long since run out of rations. Luckily, between Kento, Michiko, and Aisa's knowledge, they knew the difference from what was safe to eat and what would immediately send them into convulsions. But with both the dangers of the forest and my attacks weighing on them, they'd begun wearing incredibly, incredibly thin.

Which is why I wasn't surprised to see Michiko, who was supposed to be on watch, begin dozing off. She wasn't truly asleep, but it was enough that her guard was down and reflexes were slowed.

Which was too bad, seeing as they were about to be attacked by a tiger.

***

They hadn't slept for fifty hours. It was clear to me that they were cracking apart, mentally, physically, and emotionally. They'd recently found a stream that I'd allowed them to spend eight hours by, eating their fill of fish and drinking their fill of water.

There was an awkward moment between the three when they decided to wash in the river but weren't willing to separate. Luckily, necessity overtook propriety.

Then, without remorse, I chased them away.

***

It took awhile, but they finally realized that they needed to go on the offensive. I had what they needed to end this exercise, and I wasn't about to be at a disadvantage when I chose to harry them in the middle of the night.

They would never be able to track me on their own, even with Michiko's chakra sensitivity, so I decided to make another appearance, in a clear field with a lot of advantageous terrain.

Kento was the first to attack, with taijutsu. Sparring an opponent whose strongest suit was hand to hand combat? Especially when it wasn't his strongest?

I was excited to see just what my genin had up their sleeves.

He attempted to grab for the bells that were tied to the edge of a kunai knife, tucked into my weapons pouch.

I drew my twin blades and swung down, preventing him from getting the bells, and causing him to create a distance between us. He drew his own samurai sword out and came directly at me again, launching his sword at the nape of my neck.

I countered easily and twisted my sword to manipulate his into the air, and knocking him aside.

Michiko appeared from above, holding the sword that I'd knocked out of Kento's hand, and swung down hard-- with the intent to kill.

I grabbed the hilt of the sword in her hand casually, and her eyes widened in slight fear as she realized what I was about to do.

In a swift motion, I pressed down onto two pressure points behind her ankles, and threw her with force onto the other side of the clear. Not in a way that would cause her severe damage to vital organs, but to non vital areas of the body. And she certainly would not be walking for a while. With those two pressure points, I had made Michiko a temporary paraplegic.

And then there was one, though Kento and Michiko weren't completely out of the fight yet. Aisa walked out onto the field, arm bandaged and in a sling. His teammates had probably told him to stay out of the fight in order to preserve his arm. With only two bells threatening one person on the team, they showed remarkable trust in each other.

Kakashi would have loved these kids.

"Sensei," Aisa greeted. He was clearly in a lot of pain, but I ignored it. This training was harsh, harsher than most genin would be going through at this point, but not as harsh, never as harsh as the tortuous training I went through as a Claw.

This exercise would find every strength the genin had and temper it into deadly skill. In turn, every weak point in the genin would be sniffed out and crushed into dust, leaving room for me to rebuild strengths in the place of their weaknesses.

It wasn't fun. It wasn't pretty. But if all went well, by the end of my training they would learn some lessons along the way. Such as that I was stronger. Smarter. More experienced. That 90% of the ninja world was more knowledgeable than them, stronger than them, more skilled. They were weak. Naive. Young. If they learned, this training could save their lives.

Because they also had potential. They were a team. A strong team. And if I could pound the idiot out of them, make them stronger, smarter, then they could be a great team.

But first, I had to show them exactly where they stood in the world.

I closed my eyes behind the Claw mask for a moment, twirl my blades once, and met Aisa head on.

***

"Choose," I said, holding out the two bells in front of them. Confusion lit their faces.

"What do you mean sensei?" Michiko asked, unsuccessful in figuring out what I meant.

"I said, choose," I further explained, "The three of you didn't defeat me and your time limit is up. There are still two bells, so I'm changing the rules. If you can decide amongst yourselves who gets the bells, then only one of you will be subject to the loser's fate."

Of course, I knew how they would react to this.

Outraged.

Aisa jumped up. "You can't make us choose!"

"Yeah, we wouldn't do that," Kento supported Aisa.

"We're a team," Michiko piped in. I shrugged.

"Well," I smirked. "At least there's no denying that you three are a team. Though, now it seems as though all of you get to be subject to my special training." They watched me warily, standing shoulder to shoulder. I wondered if they knew that I would have always manipulated the outcome so all three were forced to endure my training. After letting the silence weigh on them for a moment, I continued. "You are to track me down to the location your next phase of training will take place. The longer you take, the worse it will get."

I disappeared, made sure to leave a few tracks so they'd actually be able to trace my path, and appeared at my destination. My team had become even more tightly knit after the Forest of Death, and while there was only so much by which their skills could increase in such a short amount of time, increased they had.

Which was why it was time to pound the second part of the lesson into their heads.

***

"What is sensei doing here?" I heard Kento murmur.

"Maybe this was a false trail," Michiko muttered back. "Which would suck, seeing as we've already taken over two hours."

"It would've been less if we hadn't stopped for food," Aisa snapped back.

"After being in the forest for so long, nothing was gonna stop me from getting something to eat," Kento replied.

"Yeah, we don't know when we'll next get a chance to eat a real, hot meal," Michiko agreed. "But I thought that stand owner was gonna kick us out or refuse to serve us!"

"To be fair," Aisa pointed out dryly, "we stink."

Then they round the corner and see me, for a long moment they freeze, hands hovering over weapons pouches, scanning every area for traps, and I couldn't help but let a faint smile overtake my face. They were learning. The rift from the mission between me as their sensei and them as a team wouldn't ever close again, but in response, I was succeeding in making them capable of their desired independence.

Though they were still so very far from ready. They'd learned that in the past days.

At the sight of my slightly upturned lips they didn't seem to know whether to relax or run screaming from the building, but finally, with no Claw mask in sight, they slowly approached me.

"A library, sensei?" Michiko was the first to speak.

The slight smile grew poisonous as I grab a box of scrolls and slam them down on the table in front of them. The genin were exhausted still, mentally, physically, emotionally, and it would leave their minds more open to influence, less prone to defiance. With that in mind, I had handpicked the material, ranging from history to theory of chakra to political, with a few well chosen documentations of ninja who had gone rogue by abandoning their mission and the consequences of their decisions.

"Start studying."

***

"Go home."

I said it so normally, so suddenly, that the genin didn't stir for several moments. Suddenly Kento looked up from the report he was nearly done reading, surprise clear on his face, and repeated incredulously, voice squeaking, "Go home?!"

The other two joined him in staring as I nodded. "But we haven't each read all the scrolls and stuff," Michiko pointed out.

"Individually, no," I agreed. "But between the three of you it's all been read. If I asked a question about anything out of this material, one of you should be able to answer it. So go. Take a shower. Sleep. Meet me at our usual training ground at 7:00 a.m."

The stood slowly, eyes never leaving me as they pushed in their chairs. The looked as though they half expected me to scream, "Gotcha!" And throw them back into the forest. Finally, with several paranoid glances back over their shoulders, they left the building to get some, as much as I hated to admit it, deserved rest.

I stood in the library for several more minutes, studying the scrolls and books surrounding me and wondering if I should take some out to study. With a sigh, I grab a couple of the more interesting ones, knowing I would need something to occupy my time until tomorrow morning.

Aisa wouldn't want me returning home to his apartment. He needed space, and time with his older brother, and I had a perfectly serviceable apartment at my disposal.

I checked out the material I'd selected and headed towards the apartment.

***

I opened my door, and a spurt of panic raced through me when I see a figure already in my apartment. My heart starts racing as I try to identify if I have my entourage of ANBU with me or if I was in my own for this, and how the hell had they gotten in past my traps which, I admit, weren't at the level they normally would be if I regularly stayed at my apartment, and, oh.

The figure shifts slightly, and the frozen breath is released as I recognize Kakashi's figure. Of course he was here, and of course he would manage to disable my traps. "What do you want, Kakashi?"

He held up a bag, and I grudgingly nodded when I saw the logo for one of my favorite sushi places. "Just checking in. Did you figure out your genin situation?" He replied, stepping out of the shadows from the wall he'd been leaning against, setting the sushi on a counter.

I flicked on the lights, closing and locking the door behind me and glaring at the first destroyed trap I saw. "Well, clearly you knew I'd be at my apartment today, after so much time in the Forest of Death. What do you think?"

Kakashi sighed, ambling over and helping me reset the traps he'd either triggered or dismantled. "You don't think you were a little harsh on them?"

"They knew that there would be consequences for their actions. And besides, they really grew during the exercise. Surprised me," I muttered, concentrating on the hairpin trigger for one of the traps.

"You, surprised?" he mocked.

"Ha, ha." I sprawled across my couch, satisfied with my defensive, and opened one of the scrolls after popping a piece of sushi into my mouth. "Help yourself," I invited, gesturing towards the reading material.

He pulled out his own book. "I'm good."

I rolled my eyes. Typical. "Whatever."

"You should go a little easy on them," he suggested. "Don't break them completely. They may be ninja, but they are still children."

"Don't tell me what to do," I snapped out of reflex, though I knew he was right. I had demolished enough. It was time to start the mending process, the optimal time to produce the best in each of the genin. I had destroyed the worst of their weakness to make room for strengths. Now I had to start building those strengths.

The next time I looked up from a scroll, Kakashi was gone.

__________________________________

Hi guys! Slightly longer pause between updates but we're still working on them! Real life punched me in the face and then while I was down it kicked me in the stomach and then pulled out a lemon and squeezed it over my wounds.

I'm being dramatic I just had to set up real life responsibilities like electricity/water/has/internet/rent/find furniture and my other roommates are not being particularly helpful. Send money help rent tuition my poor bank account

ANYHOW there's another chapter detailing the training and some Kakashi/Cashile moments. The training kind of felt like filler but it also felt like something we shouldn't skip over so it came out like this. What do y'all think? Like dislike?

Comment long and beautiful comments for inspiration!

gaara119

Supes is busy cleaning her apartment with her roommate so comment lots of comments for her to look forward to when she's done!

Comment, Vote, and Fan!

Ja ne!

Insomniac_Lullabies