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A brick wall that had been decorated in the ugliest and most annoying migraine-inducing animated wallpaper ever known to man.

I didn't know what that looked like, but if one could take Kakashi Hatake's personality and market it as wallpaper, that would be what it would look like.

The real question was, should I call his bluff? Should I not?

I should not. Even if I called his bluff, and told him exactly what I knew – something that Dad always said was dangerous, since knowledge, like bargaining chips, wasn't something you laid down flat in front of the enemy – he could still fail us all, and perhaps grade us even harder now that we knew the rules. Sometimes calling a bluff would allow an automatic pass, but that wouldn't be the case here. He was annoying to me because he was unreadable, not because he was stupid. Far from it. His infuriating smile was definitely hiding something, and yet I had no idea what it was. There was nothing I hated more than that half state of knowing and yet not.

The more experienced a Jonin was, the more messed up they were, and thus the more ruthless in their mind games. He was probably the type to try and trick us into doing something illegal, and, if we pointed out that we knew, would make us do it anyway just to see if we wouldn't get caught. And when we did, he could point out that it was our fault entirely since we knew and did it anyway, and if we had just kept our mouths shut we'd at least be able to plead ignorance.

Better to play dumb, until we knew a bit more about what he had in store. This was his game, with his rules, and so he had the advantage.

When I was little I would play a card game called Mao with my cousins and friends. Every once in a while, when it's not shogi or chess, my Dad and I still play. The premise of the game is simple. You try to get rid of all of your cards, kind of like in Crazy Eights or Uno, but there are certain rules in how you can lay them down. The problem is, you don't know all of those rules. Only the current Rule Setter does. Break a rule and you have to add cards to your hand. The rules can be anything as logical as "the next card has to be of the same suit or number as the previous card", or anything as stupid as "every time the girl closest to you goes, you have to say 'Chicken Ramen'". The trick is to find out what all the rules are before you've gained too many cards.

Here, it was the same. We were playing Mao against Kakashi Hatake. We knew the basic form of play, but not all of the rules. He did. We had to find those rules – or at least some of them – to even out the playing field.

But we couldn't say anything. Not when Naruto still had his arm pinned behind his back, his own kunai pointed at the back of his head.

"Well then," Kakashi shrugged, releasing Naruto and attaching the bells to his belt, "if you're ready, then…go!"

Not wasting any time, the three of us ran off to hide.

Or, at least, Ino and I did. Naruto was still standing on top of the grassy knoll in all of his orange glory, yelling something about a fair fight.

Naruto, I'm sorry, but "Shinobi" and "fair fight" do not belong together in the same sentence.

We'd have to correct Naruto's behavior, seeing as we'd be stuck with him until we became Chunin and started to lead our own cells. Unless, of course, his current classification as a highly visible target was actually a trick to hide his true nature – but I doubted that. For now, his hotheadedness would serve as a semi-useful distraction to our target. Now was a good time to plan, when Kakashi was busy marvelling at Naruto's…er, orange-ness.

I felt a little bad, using Naruto to buy time for the rest of us without him knowing, but I had no other choice. I couldn't communicate with him if he was just standing there out in the open like that, and if we waited for Kakashi Hatake to finish up with Naruto, none of us would have any time left.

Watching Kakashi Hatake vs. Naruto Uzumaki was not pretty. To call it a fight would have been implying that Naruto even had a chance – I'd more accurately describe it as an entirely one-sided curbstomp. I was well aware that this wasn't even a Jonin's proper strength. I should know. My mother's a Chunin, and she never clowned around this much.

Actually, on second thought, that was a bad example. Izumo and Kotetsu, at the front gate. There we go. They clowned around, too, but even they wouldn't waste their time reading and fighting at the same time. That seemed like the ultimate way to insult Naruto – not considering him good enough to even give him your full and undivided attention, and yet somehow able to toy with him to such an extent anyway.

Naruto was getting more and more riled up with each passing second as he was unable to land even a hit on Kakashi. And when he became riled up, his movements were even sloppier. And when his movements became sloppy, Kakashi would just rile him up even more.

At least, this was a good thing for the rest of us. It meant that Kakashi Hatake was treating us like weak and powerless Genin instead of taking us seriously. Or, at least, he was treating Naruto like a weak and powerless Genin. He might be more wary of Ino and me since we had our clan techniques and extra training.

"NARUTO! That's a tiger seal! Get out of there; you'll be killed!"

Oh, no, Ino! Don't give away your position so easily…

And…yep. Another bluff. All Naruto would suffer was a sore behind and some wounded pride, although…

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when his fingers actually connected. I took a few seconds to wrap my head around just how far Naruto was flying with that one poke. That had to be unreal; it really did. Even normal ninja would have trouble throwing a kunai that far…

We were way out of our leagues here. That was definitely confirmed. High Chunin to low Jonin level taijutsu and my clan's secret techniques – that really was all I had. That, and some above-average weapons skills and minor genjutsu. And a few other things, but like my father always said, I didn't want to give them away so early. Ino might know some genjutsu, maybe. Her clan technique was not suitable for combat. But even if it was, it wouldn't work here. As far as her dad was concerned, "Don't bother with scanning the mind of someone like Hatake. You won't like what you'll find in there. And on that note, certain names like the Three Sannin and Itachi Uchiha are also brains to avoid. Off-limits except to the highest level of ANBU training, got it?"

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