Chapter 49

"I've been wondering, Kakashi-sensei...Is it possible to blow up the moon?" I asked absently as the jounin arrived at the training grounds. He was only an hour late so I wondered whether he had something new planned for us today. Weeks of dreary D-rank missions were starting to get on my nerves. I only assumed Sasuke and Sakura felt the same way.

"Hm? Why would you want to do something like that, Haru?" Kakashi asked.

"It just seems easier than the alternative at this point," I said, not bothering to explain.

Kakashi ignored my nonsense. "So, how are my students enjoying the ninja life?"

Sasuke responded, "It was easier than I expected." With his cat summons, Sasuke had easily been able to find the cat of the Daimyo's wife. Between the three of us, using the Kage Bunshin trivialized harvesting field crops and other similar menial work. And my genjutsu was perfect for occupying little kids on babysitting jobs.

Sakura gave a sympathetic look, "It really has been kind of easy."

"I wouldn't mind so much if you actually taught us something for once," I added spitefully. "I just wanna learn how to use a sword and not get myself killed by Suigetsu. I swear if Kakashi doesn't start teaching us kenjutsu and we end up going to Land of Waves..."

"You know, I'm starting to realize that I don't know very much about you guys. So I was thinking that we should have a little practice to get to know each other better." Kakashi dangled a trio of bells on strings from his fingers. "The objective will be the same. You must take a bell from me by the end of the time limit. Except this time, you will fight me one-on-one. If you manage to take a bell from me, well, let's just say I'll give you something good."

"I'll go last," I said. I would need some time to prepare if I wanted to stand a chance against the Copy Ninja.

"How much time do we have?" Sakura asked, raising her hand timidly.

Our teacher simply raised his hands, "Maa, who knows? Depends on when I get tired, I guess."

Kakashi tied the bells to his belt. "So who's going first? Sasuke? Sakura?"

Sasuke walked forward, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. "One-on-one suits me just fine."

In response, Kakashi pulled his headband level on his forehead and opened his scarred eye, "Good luck, Sasuke." I swear the man was smiling underneath that facemask.

Sakura was weeping over the crumpled, limp, unconscious body of her beloved. "How could you, Kakashi-sensei? He was only a genin! Sasuke will be scarred for life! Now I'll never get married!"

The jounin instructor watched the scene and tilted his head. With his Sharingan eye closed, he said, "Maa, Sasuke will be fine. Anyways, he should have been prepared for a surprise attack. A ninja must see underneath the underneath."

The girl cried furiously, "That wasn't even a real technique! What the hell is One Thousand Years of Death anyways?"

Sasuke had fought head-on as he typically did, but every jutsu and summon he brought out had been countered with either an identical or opposite jutsu by Kakashi. Eventually, he had tried to incinerate the man with the Great Fireball Technique just as in the previous bell test. The Uchiha had been ready for the counter attack, but the clone performing the Headhunter Jutsu was merely a feint to make Sasuke leave the ground. The real Kakashi had performed the devastating final attack from Sasuke's blindspot while the boy was unable to maneuver in the air.

"Now you can't say that I don't teach you guys anything," Kakashi told her with a shrug. Personally, I found it hilarious. Even my shadow clone was finding it hard to suppress a chuckle as he meditated with his eyes closed and legs crossed.

Far from amused, Sakura began to emit more killing intent than I had ever inspired in her. I patted my clone on the shoulder and we moved a safe distance away. After the girl finished examining Sasuke, she stood up and faced the man who had harmed Sasuke. "Kakashi-sensei!" she screamed as she put her hands together in a series of seals.

The Copy Ninja stared at her with both eyes open, standing wide open with a posture that begged to be attacked from any of the many holes in its defense. As an outside observer, I could tell that the lack of a stance was merely a deception. Kakashi was trying to make it seem like he wasn't taking her seriously. Even when Sakura's hands began to glow blue, the jounin made no movement until she charged at him.

Sakura's taijutsu wasn't particularly strong. Personally, I thought Sasuke and myself ranked up in the high-chunin area. The unorthodox training methods I had used to make the girl slightly more bearable had only driven her to a high-genin, beginning-chunin skill level. And that was mainly after she learned that I had been teaching him, which I had kept secret from her for as long as possible.

Although she attacked fiercely, Kakashi deflected her Chakra Scalpel technique with a kunai in each hand using tiny, efficient movements. Even her deadly, glowing kicks were avoided with small sidesteps. The man made it seem ridiculously easy, although from experience I knew that Sakura could be terrifying if properly motivated. I was nowhere near using Chakra Scalpels in combat and it was hard for me to deal with her potentially debilitating attacks without permanently harming her when I occasionally went too far with my teasing.

Although it didn't seem he had tried using genjutsu on Sasuke, he tried it on Sakura, who immediately broke out of every attempt he made to affect her mind. I felt a smidge of pride whenever she would immediately shout "Kai!" at the slightest hint of an illusion, throwing shuriken at where she predicted the real Kakashi would be.

It was only when Kakashi said, "Look! Sasuke is waking up!" that Sakura dropped her focus, getting tackled to the ground by the larger man. She growled at him as he twisted her arms around her back but eventually closed her eyes and stopped struggling.

"Alright! It's my turn!" I said, excited to test my skills against a jounin. I stood up and popped the clone that was meditating and preparing senjutsu chakra for me. It took several minutes that I wouldn't have in a real fight but it was a crazy rush of power like the world was your plaything. It was what I imagined a Super Saiyan would feel. Using a clone to gather natural energy meant that only fifty percent of my chakra capacity was senjutsu empowered, but I had wanted to watch the previous fights.

"Maa, I'm tired. Haru, you fail because the other fights took too long," Kakashi said with a shrug. His Sharingan was still spinning wildly as he stared at me, however. "Since no one got a bell, no one gets to learn my special one-hit-kill technique. But I do feel that you guys are ready for some slightly harder missions, yeah?"

Sasuke was still sprawled on the ground, moaning in pain as he began to come to consciousness. Sakura was sitting next to him, her chin propped up on the butt of her palm with a grouchy look on her face. Her red dress still had dirt marring its color but otherwise she was fine.

"Alright. I won't forget this loss, Kakashi-sensei. That's one win for each of us so far. Next time, I won't go so easy on you!" I gave him a thumbs-up gesture and a wink. The older man seemed to shiver in fear slightly. "Psychological warfare is a valid tactic, right?"