#8 - The Trio: Part 8

Tsubaki wasn't punctual by nature, it was something that had been trained into her by the Clan mandated etiquette training that she supposed everyone from the main family of a prestigious clan had to go through.

It meant that although she tried to be on time due to being conditioned to feel crippling guilt and anxiety when she was late - it also meant 5 am starts were somewhat taxing on her, as a human child that was still growing.

That was why she turned up at training ground 3 at 6:30 am with a badly organised backpack, bedhead and shoes that hadn't been strapped correctly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she was already saying before anyone could get to scolding her, not that they would, Naruto might comment and Sasuke might make fun of her, but she was the one doing the scolding usually.

"You look a mess," Sasuke informed her and she rolled her eyes, collapsing on the floor where Naruto was already sat and fixing her shoes.

She hadn't even put them on the right way round.

"Your backpack won't zip," Naruto told her, after attempting to close it three times. Sasuke shoved him aside, ignoring his growl of protest and kneeled with her bag in front of him, and began actually organising it into some kind of order.

"Thanks, Sasuke," Tsubaki sighed, she pulled out the hairbrush she had stuck in her pocket on her way out of the house and began brushing out her excessively long hair.

It was straight and silky so it didn't tangle much, but there was a lot of it, which made brushing it out a major pain.

"I might chop it all of, you know," she commented in an off-hand manner, which made Naruto gasp in shock,

"Don't, your hair is really pretty," he said at the same time Sasuke said,

"You should, it's impractical,"

"I can't believe you guys would even disagree about my hair," Tsubaki sighed, shaking her head.

"Well, it is impractical," Sasuke shrugged,

"But no one else I've ever seen has hair like yours, it would be a shame," Naruto said, sincerely and Tsubaki pinched his cheek because that was kind of cute and she wasn't good with emotions.

"Ow ow ow! Let go! What'd I say!?"

"Nothing, shut up, don't be gross," she told him, with a pink flush in her cheeks.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he folded a towel and shoved it back into her backpack.

"Why do you have so much stuff anyway?" He asked, their backpacks were the sling over your shoulder for a one-night-trip, small kid, while Tsubaki's was the 1-week-vacation through the mountains, big kind.

"It's survival training, sensei said we would start today, but he never said when we would finish, I would assume it would last at least one day, but you saw what an asshole he was, he even told us not to eat breakfast, so I thought he would try to starve us for a week in the forests or something," she shrugged, Sasuke paused for a moment, then nodded as though it made sense but Naruto was more optimistic than the both of them combined,

"No... he wouldn't do that right? That has to be against some kind of law... my plants would die," he said miserably,

"You have plants?" Sasuke asked, despite himself, apparently, the shock was enough to make him actually talk to Naruto,

"Yeah, Tsubaki said it would be good to have them." Naruto shrugged, Sasuke looked at her,

"According to a book I read, people who have to take care of other things, like plants and pets, end up becoming more responsible and able to look after themselves as adults." She explained,

"Was it a parenting book?" Sasuke asked flatly, Tsubaki stared at him, surprised,

"How did you know?"

"There was a book like that at our house too," he said,

"Why were you reading a parenting book in the first place, Tsubaki?" Naruto asked before something akin to horror flooded his face,

"Oh my god, are you pregnant?" He screamed,

"What no! Shut up, I'm 12!" She snapped, cheeks fully flushed once again.

It was another half an hour later, that Tsubaki realised Kakashi was not going to be here any time soon, was the lateness thing a habit or was he just messing with him for the sake of it?

"Hey, do you guys want some ration bars? They digest quickly and I don't think Kakashi will notice if he bury the wrappers," she offered, holding them out with one already in her mouth.

"But... what about throwing up if we eat?" Naruto asked,

"I mean, short of punching me in the gut or giving me concussion or poisoning me, I don't see how..." Tsubaki shrugged,

"Unless that's exactly what he does," Sasuke pointed out, Naruto gulped, and Tsubaki slowly pulled the half-eaten bar out of her mouth.

"Oh... right..." she sighed before throwing the bar into the nearby trees.

Kakashi showed up at 11 am, about 6 hours after he said he would. Naruto was fast sleep on Tsubaki's leg at that point. Tsubaki had used her giant bag as a pillow and Sasuke had his legs stretched out in front of him as he rested against the wooden post - much more alert than the other two.

"Hi fellows, good morning," Kakashi said.

"You're late!" Naruto screamed while Tsubaki ambled to her feet, looking around groggily,

"Training grounds, survival mission," Sasuke told her when she directed her confused gaze at him.

"Oh, a black cat crossed my path, so..." he sounded like he was joking, and none of them were in that mood, as they silently glared at him.

He cleared his throat, "Let's move on," bringing out a large alarm clock which he placed on the log post nearest to him.

"The alarm is set for 12 O'clock," he told them, as they stared on, still kind of grumpy and more than a little clueless,

"Today's goal is to steal one of these bells from me by noon, whoever can't, will have no lunch. I'm going to tie to one of the log posts and eat lunch in front of you," he smiled,

"I can't believe we ended up with the sadist," Tsubaki sighed, then paused, eyes catching on the twinkle of the sun on the bells,

"Sensei, you only have two bells," she told him,

"Indeed, I do, and because there's only two, one of you will be tied to the post, that person will fail, since they failed to complete the mission and will return to the Academy, it might just be one, or it might be all three," he told them with a bright smile.

Tsubaki frowned, that left some more questions to be asked, but Kakashi had already moved on and was explaining the rules,

"You can use kunai, shuriken and whatever else you have in your arsenal, you won't be able to get these unless you have the will to kill me," he told them.

"Isn't that a bit too dangerous? You couldn't even dodge that chalk eraser?" Naruto asked looking genuinely concerned,

"In society, those who aren't as competent tend to complain more, just ignore the guy with the lowest score," he said, and Tsubaki felt a spark of annoyance.

She was allowed to make fun of Naruto and maybe make him cry occasionally, but no one else was - Sasuke got a pass because Naruto snapped back at him just as much. But this guy was someone they had just met, who barely knew anything about them, he wasn't allowed to say anything.

"We'll begin when I say 'Start' -" Naruto charged. And was stopped in an instant- before Tsubaki could even react.

This wasn't going to be as easy as Naruto had thought.

"Don't be so hasty, I haven't even said 'Start' yet," Kakashi told him, completely unfazed.

Tsubaki let out a soft whistle, high then low then high, like a loop of sound. It sounded like a moment of appreciation, especially when she followed with,

"Well, at least we know we can't accidentally kill you or something, sensei,"

But her teammates knew what it meant, she just hoped they would do what she wanted them to.

Kakashi released Naruto and smiled, "Well, correct, but you have the will to kill me now, which will make things more fun, I think I can finally start liking you three," he said, and Tsubaki wanted to make a comment about sadomasochism but he was already speaking again,

"Ready.. start!"

They jumped in different directions, Tsubaki found a place in some bushes where she had a good view of the training ground and Kakashi couldn't sneak up behind her and suppressed her chakra - hiding out and chakra control were two things she actually had some confidence in and waited to see what her teammates would do.

They had used whistling as signals for their last practical test and both Sasuke and Naruto knew a short ABA (high, low, high) note pattern meant 'gather in one place'.

But they couldn't just have a strategy meeting without Kakashi punching on them, which meant it would have to happen two-at-a-time with one of the distracting Kakashi.

Knowing Naruto, he would lose patience and attack first, so Tsubaki had to find Sasuke and also maybe try and understand the gap between their skills. For now, she had 'overwhelmingly large' which wasn't a good scale to work on.

Sure enough, Naruto had already found his place directly in front of Kakashi and Tsubaki sighed heavily, as much as she loved him, and she did, Naruto was a thoughtless idiotic dumbass who had attended maybe 1/3 of lessons and paid attention to even less.

Why someone who wanted to be Hokage didn't know about sneak attacks, she would never understand, but he was loud and obnoxious and the took up all of Kakashi's attention (she hoped) so she shifted backwards and hopped around the clearing jumping from branch to branch, looking for Sasuke.

It wasn't hard to find him since he had found a spot from where he could watch Kakashi, which wasn't too far from her own.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed his eyes glued to where Naruto was getting his ass handed to him with Kakashi's eyes glued to his book.

"We need to strategize, he's too strong for us to beat individually," Tsubaki told him,

"So you're abandoning Naruto?" Sasuke asked, and Tsubaki gave him an incredulous look,

"Of course not, I mean we can decide between the three of us, who gets the bells, but for now I want to beat that sensei." She told him,

Sasuke's stiffened and Tsubaki glanced to the training grounds where Kakashi had a hand-sign ready,

"The tiger seal," she noted nervously,

"That's fire element jutsus," Sasuke muttered, hand clinging to a branch,

"We need to help him," Tsubaki said, making to move forwards but Sasuke grabbed her arm, it was too late,

"Konoha's secret master art: A thousand years of pain!" Kakashi declared, Naruto went flying and it took Tsubaki a moment to process the shock.

"Oh my god, I hate him,"

"They're both usratonkachi,"

A moment later, Tsubaki sighed and placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder when he tried to reach for his holster, and he paused, looking at her questioningly. Naruto wasn't strong enough that he could beat Kakashi, but he wasn't so weak that something like that could knock him out.

And sure enough, a moment later, two shurikens came flying out of the water, at Kakashi, who caught them on his fingers like someone had aimed to do that.

Naruto crawled out of the pond looking like a bedraggled kitten, there was a moment when they exchanged some words but Tsubaki's mind was turning too fast to really listen to them.

From the beginning, this test didn't make sense, Kakashi wasn't someone they could beat, or even fool, even if they worked together, he was playing around with Naruto like he was a helpless child - and despite his poor grades, Naruto wasn't exactly weak, what he lacked in technique he made up for in persistence, stamina and brute force.

Even if Sasuke and Tsubaki were added into the mix, the three of them were freshly graduated genin who had never even been in a real fight before, there was no way they could scratch Kakashi.

Although the test wasn't to beat him, it was to steal the bells, Kakashi knew they were coming, and they had a time limit on the task, which would mean they couldn't set up many tricks, traps or ambushes.

An overwhelming power difference, no time to strategize, and on top of that, there were only two bells. Which made it unlikely for them to cooperate.

She knew she could convince Sasuke because he had a goal that meant if she focused on getting herself and him a bell, he would work with her. But Naruto wouldn't work with anyone now.

He had that stubborn look to him he got before he ran off into the woods to try and wrestle a bear to prove he was strong. And Kakashi's comments seemed to be hitting him where it hurt.

But still, it felt wrong to just sacrifice Naruto.

The mission was to steal the bells from Kakashi... those who failed would be returning to the Academy... that couldn't be possible either, she had never heard of graduates returning, it simply didn't happen.

Think think think...