Favorite Excerpt: From Agent Spielplatz's story, Juniper

“What good will that do? They’ll blame him for getting into trouble on his own, even though we both know that he could have done nothing to avoid this, and that will make the next two weeks hell for all three of them. This is supposed to be a learning experience; you agreed to hold off on your twisted little test until they were communicating better, and yet here you are doing the same thing over a longer period of time,” Iruka retorted.

Kakashi’s glare shifted into an affronted look, with just enough of a hint of amusement that Iruka just knew he had guessed correctly. “This is nothing like my test,” Kakashi finally retorted.

“In order to succeed the three of them have to work together. This isn’t just a survival game; they have teamwork exercises that won’t be completed if one of them doesn’t want to go along with them. You’re also playing on weaknesses you already discovered to put them in situations that will destroy the few attempts they’ve already made to correct these faults. Sakura’s already gone back to favoring Sasuke. Sasuke’s already trying to take control and find ways to do everything on his own. And Naruto has no clue how to deal with them because even if he did want to work with them he has no choice but to silently go along with what they tell him to do or leave on his own. How is this not like your test?”

“There are no bells,” Kakashi responded lightly pulling out his book and leaning back. Iruka’s jaw dropped and he gaped at Kakashi for several moments before forcing his mouth to shut and dropping his heads into his hands.