"Use your teammate as a distraction to be tortured and killed in your place?" Kakashi quoted back at her verbatim after the boys were gone.
"What? You wanted teamwork, that was the easiest way to get them into the right mindset," she told him.
"I distinctly remember saying something about convincing them instead of using underhanded, manipulative tactics," he glared at her. He was more resigned than angry though, so she just shrugged.
"All interactions are manipulative on some level. It worked out well and nobody got hurt. I don't see your problem. By the way, while we're talking about our decisions. Are you planning on getting Sasuke's Sharingan activated at some point?"
"He's a genin. The most exciting thing he will do over the next weeks is paint fences and help old ladies over the street."
"Yeah, because having the Sharingan isn't going to help with his training or anything. Do you just not trust him with such a powerful kekkei genkai or is it that you don't want to talk about how you got yours?"
"Enough!" He growled at her, chakra sparking with real anger this time. She shrugged, wished him a nice day and left. They had these kinds of conversations from time to time. Haruka would dig a little too deep, see a little too much, and Kakashi would snap at her. They'd be fine tomorrow and it wasn't like she cared enough about Sasuke's progress to fight Kakashi on this. She'd mostly just brought it up out of curiosity because the jonin had been exceptionally vague when telling them about the memorial stone and their shortcomings as shinobi.
Sasuke was too arrogant, too confident in his own abilities and didn't even consider what a team could offer him. Naruto was too brash, too loud and didn't stop to think before he acted. Haruka was too careless with her health and felt she had to manipulate her teammates instead of trusting they would help of their own accord. He criticized the way they fought, their tactics, Naruto's and Sasuke's lack of knowledge about Konoha's basic cipher. It was a very long, very nitpicky lecture—most likely because they had dared to lay hands on his precious book—but he also told them what they could become, individually and as a team. And during all that he somehow managed to never even mention the Sharingan.
It wasn't a secret. Most shinobi had heard about the legendary Copy Ninja Hatake Kakashi. The Bingo Book she got from Ibiki even outright called him Kakashi of the Sharingan. Sasuke had no clue though and he would feel entitled to know. She couldn't predict how well he would react to learning that kind of information from anyone other than Kakashi himself. Regardless, Sasuke might be her teammate now and she would fight by his side when the time came, but Kakashi was pack and pack trumped anything else.
***
Later that day Haruka spent some time on Senju Hashirama's stone head. She hadn't meant to go there, but just like when she had run from Sai, it was where she ended up. The location was nice enough. High above the village, but not actually that far away, and quiet. People rarely ever came here, especially not civilians. It wasn't the kind of place one could just visit without the use of chakra.
She'd been thinking about the three breadcrumbs Ibiki had given her. The colors were obviously a reference to her teammates's hair. White was Kakashi, gold Naruto and black Sasuke. The rest though, wasn't quite as clear.
What did Kakashi have to do with a tree that had deep roots? The tree could be Konoha itself, but seeing as the Shodaime was legendary for his Wood Release it might also be an actual tree, or a metaphor for any number of things really. The 'had' was curious as well. Ibiki was too pedantic to screw up the tense so that implied the tree—whatever it was—used to have deep roots at some point, but didn't anymore. Not a lot she could do with that.
Next was Naruto. The fox that attacked the Leaf was obviously Kyubi, but at that time Naruto might not even have been born yet. He certainly hadn't been older than one, so what could possibly have happened that day that would make someone interested in the blond?
Sasuke wasn't any better. The only rumors about the Uchiha clan she knew of also had to do with that attack twelve years ago. Was it the same secret? Or had there been other rumors about the clan at one point? Maybe in connection with the massacre?
Pity she couldn't just ask them. First of all, they might not know, and even if they did they had no reason to tell her. Naruto and Sasuke had only met her two days ago and Kakashi liked to keep his cards close to his chest. Not just the secrets either, but everything. If he could get away with it he would probably avoid telling people his name.
***
Sai found her less than an hour later, still in the same position.
"Are you sick?" He asked, when she shook her head, sighing for what felt like the hundredth time. Haruka gave him a weak smile. His tone had been as bland as ever and his chakra felt like various shades of neutral at the best of times, so it was hard to tell whether he actually cared or if asking was more of a habit.
"I'm fine," she told him. "Did you need something?"
"I have a question."
It took Haruka a few seconds of silence before she realized that he was waiting for permission to ask.
"When we are alone you may always ask me any questions you want."
Sai probably had a lot of weird questions. She wasn't quite willing to risk being overheard by someone like Sasuke, who might make fun of Sai, or worse Ibiki, who might decide he needed to be interrogated. As long as there was no one else though a few words wouldn't hurt either of them. Probably.
"I read a book," Sai started and then pulled one out of his pack to hand it over. 'How to make Friends,' was written on the cover in bold letters. Haruka leafed through it for a moment and then motioned for Sai to continue. "It advised to give people nicknames based on their characteristics in order to forge a closer friendship. I tried with Sakura and Subaru, but they both got angry at me."
Subaru, she assumed, was his third teammate. Very average boy, brown hair, brown eyes, no defining characteristics whatsoever.
"What did you call them?" She asked and then burst out laughing when he said 'ugly' and 'boring'. Sai waited very patiently for Haruka to calm down again, but it took several long minutes. He was wearing his fake smile, the one that looked almost natural, yet just wrong enough to be unsettling.
"You don't need to do that with me. If you don't feel like smiling don't force it, and maybe get some more practice if you actually want to convince people that you're happy," she told him, handing the book back. "The nicknames you used angered your teammates because they are rude."
Sai cocked his head in confusion, that seemed to be the only emotion he was actually capable of. At least as far as she was aware.
"But they are true. The book said to be honest with your friends."
"It's not quite that easy. Actually I might not be the best person to ask. My friendships aren't really the normal kind."
"I see," Sai said, turning around. Haruka stopped him by grabbing his wrist. He immediately froze, even though her touch was light, barely there even. She waited him out, not taking the hand away. This was another thing she recognized. If she let go he would run, but if she did anything more than hold still he'd shut her out. So instead she counted seconds that turned into one minute and then two and then Sai finally relaxed. She let her hand fall away again.
"It was just a warning, that my information might not be very good," she said and then tried to explain the difference between being rude and telling the truth. She told him that nicknames could be used to mock and that that was likely how his teammates had understood them. Haruka also told him to think about why he wanted to be friends with Sakura and Subaru, because there were many different kinds of friendship.
They had a very weird discussion on what types of nicknames might be appropriate in various scenarios. Sai's first approach at a polite nickname had been to go with the complete opposite of what he actually thought, which would make Sakura 'gorgeous' and Subaru 'exiting'. So she had to explain how those might be understood as an attempt to flirt and why Sai probably didn't want to do that accidentally. His next try involved comparisons with various animals and it only got worse from there.
***
Several hours later the sky was dark and the village quiet beneath their feet. Sai seemed almost more confused than when he had first found her to ask his question. Haruka idly wondered how helpful her perspective really was. After all, it was heavily colored by her experiences and she hadn't been lying when she'd said that none of her friendships qualified as normal.
"Until next time weirdo," Sai said when he left. She laughed, watching him go. It certainly wasn't a polite nickname, but she guessed that meant they were friends now.