"My precious book!" Kakashi shouted in sorrow.
"Switch."
Naruto and Sasuke clapped hands in a swift, practiced motion. As Naruto stepped back, Sasuke moved to take his place.
Still recovering from the force of Naruto's jutsu, Kakashi finally set aside his casual deanor. He grimaced, tucking away the tattered remains of his 'Icha Icha Paradise', only the cover had survived. He sighed as he thought, 'Well there goes my 1 S-rank mission inco for my collector's edition.'
He decided to give Sasuke his full attention.
'Surely Sasuke doesn't possess Naruto's level of strength,' he thought.
"Don't worry, Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke isn't as strong as , and he can't use the ninjutsu I just did," Naruto explained. Sasuke's chakra affinities were primarily Lightning and Fire, aning he knew little, if anything, about Wind Release. "That ninjutsu just now really drained a lot of chakra. It only took about one percent of my reserves, but it's already back, though."
A vein throbbed in Kakashi's temple.
"Hn. He's right, I'm not as strong as him, and I don't know any Wind Release." Sasuke admitted it freely. After all their ti training together, Naruto was the person he admired most in the village.
Few saw Konoha in the pre-dawn hours, at four in the morning.
Naruto saw it almost every day.
His almost maniacal training regin had left a deep impression on Sasuke.
Looking at Kakashi, Sasuke slowly opened a scroll from his ninja pouch. "But, Sensei... if you underestimate because of that..."
'When did I ever say I was underestimating you?' Kakashi thought wearily.
With a soft *puff* of white smoke, a tanto appeared in Sasuke's hand. He'd absorbed much of the kenjutsu and taijutsu Naruto had shared from his own training, supplenting it with techniques from other sources. He was more than ready.
"...you're going to be in for a surprise," Sasuke finished. The next instant, he vanished, closing the distance to Kakashi with incredible speed.
'Kids these days just don't know how to listen,' Kakashi sighed internally. He drew a kunai from his hip pouch, disappearing from his spot just as Sasuke's blade sliced through the air where he'd been standing.
*Shing! Clang! Clang!*
A rapid series of ringing clashes filled the air, the sharp sound of a tanto against a kunai. The two were locked in a high-speed exchange of taijutsu or rather specifically kenjutsu, their movents almost too fast to follow.
The attacks were pure Konoha-Style Kenjutsu, executed with a precision that felt unnervingly familiar to Kakashi. It was the sa style he had mastered as a boy, the sa art that had made him a kenjutsu specialist before he was even a jonin. That was before the mission at Kannabi Bridge, before he'd lost an eye and inherited a friend's Sharingan.
He'd largely abandoned his proudest skill to focus on ninjutsu, forced to compensate for the constant chakra drain from an eye he couldn't turn off.
The guilt from that ti, compounded by the tragedy of having to kill his teammate Rin due to Kirigakure, had sent him into a spiral. The forr genius had let himself beco a slacker who hid behind smut novels. Even so, his foundation remained.
After another sharp clash, they broke apart, each retreating to a different side with a silent, mutual understanding.
"You're strong," Sasuke said, his chest heaving slightly.
'You're the one who's strong,' Kakashi thought, genuinely impressed. The technique was flawless. If it weren't for the boy's lack of real combat experience, he might have already been in trouble. Looking at Sasuke, poised with the tanto, Kakashi felt a flicker of recognition. He saw a younger version of himself, just as skilled, just as far ahead of his peers, just as... well, handso.
'What just happened?' Sakura thought, her eyes wide. Her vision couldn't keep up with their movents at all, but she wasn't foolish. 'He's keeping up with Kakashi-sensei... Amazing, Sasuke-kun!'
Naruto, however, had seen it all. He frowned, noticing that Sasuke had been at a slight disadvantage in that exchange. But it was just a warm-up, neither of them was fighting seriously yet.
"Again!"
A rare, fierce excitent lit up Sasuke's face. He was holding his own against a jonin. 'So this is how strong I've beco,' he realized, a surge of confidence rushing through him. For a fleeting mont, he felt invincible, like sothing had ignited within him. 'Itachi... you're next.'
But the truth was, Kakashi was holding back.
He wasn't just a kenjutsu specialist anymore. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu,summoning, sealing, he was a master of versatility, renowned as the Copy Ninja for his ability to counter thousands of jutsu. His only real check on his power was his notoriously low chakra reserve, a constant drain he had to manage in every fight. For now, he was content to et Sasuke purely on the grounds of physical combat.
The air filled again with the sound of clashing steel. In the space of a few breaths, they exchanged dozens of blows. Sasuke's offense was a relentless tide, one attack flowing into the next, but Kakashi's speed was always a fraction faster, allowing him to parry every strike.
Finding himself unable to break through, Sasuke decided to get serious. "Dance of the Crescent Moon!"
His form flickered, splitting into three. Three Sasukes descended on Kakashi, from the left, the right, and above, all moving at incredible speeds.
Kakashi's eyes widened, a flicker of shock crossing his face as he faced the true force of Sasuke's attack.
'Are academy students *this* ferocious these days?' he wondered.
Kakashi was far from unfamiliar with the Dance of the Crescent Moon, in fact, he knew it quite well.
So of his Anbu teammates knew this technique.
This was the pinnacle of Konoha-Style Kenjutsu.
'Three figures, moving as one... A flawless, versatile kenjutsu.'
But this was far beyond what a new genin should be capable of. Sasuke's speed was even greater than that of the Anbu he'd known.
Done holding back, Kakashi raised his hand and slid his forehead protector up, revealing the left eye beneath it. Three black tomoe spun to life within the crimson iris.
With the dynamic vision of the Sharingan, Sasuke's movents seed to slow to a crawl in Kakashi's perception.
'I see it!'
The mont Sasuke saw that eye, however, he faltered. The sight of it struck him like a physical blow, and his fluid movents stuttered.
'A Sharingan?!'
'Why does Kakashi-sensei have the Uchiha clan's Sharingan?'
The questions swirled in his mind, and that brief mont of distraction was all Kakashi needed. He sidestepped the attack with ease, the three images of Sasuke sweeping past him.
From the sidelines, Naruto's frown deepened.
'I never told him about Kakashi's eye,' Naruto thought, his brow furrowed in frustration. 'I wanted them on equal footing.' A test was only fair if both sides had the sa information. On a real battlefield, a mont of hesitation like that would have been fatal. He couldn't stay silent any longer.
Naruto couldn't hold back a sharp reprimand. "Sasuke, what are you doing?"
===============
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