Chapter 19

Training ground 9 finaly welcomed someone other than Aoki which was Kakashi. There nobody would come to interrupt their spar so Aoki suggested the place.

From Kakashi's chakra signature , Aoki did not sense any emotions like excitement so he guessed that Kakashi was not really looking forward to their fight. Well the old Aoki would be too weak to fight Kakashi anyway.

This time Kakashi would definitely be surprised when he would see the strength of his opponent though. The small forest was quiet and both figures stood apart in the clearing. Aoki had changed into a new black jumper and wore his chainmail and jounin jacket on top of it.

Kakashi looked at Aoki with his one open eye and threw a kunai in the air. Both of them who did not show any signs of movement before , suddenly exploded with speed and rushed towards each other when the kunai hit the ground. The battle was already on.

Kakashi immediately changed his expression when he felt the unexpected force behind Aoki's first casual blow.. 'His brute strength surpasses mine.' He thought while immediately discarding further exchange and retreated into the forest behind.

Aoki did not pursue because he did not need to anyway. He could see everything with his mind's eye so surprise attacks were almost useless unless he could not react in time. He just stood there and unsheathed his Dragon's breadth while closing his eyes and waiting for Kakashi to make a move.

Kakashi did not let him wait and threw several kunai strengthened with his chakra at Aoki but it was useless as all of them were easily squatted away by Aoki who casually swing his sword once.

Kakashi had expected the failure but Aoki's skill with the sword was a complete surprise to him. He assessed that hiding would not get him anywhere and he needed a surefire plan.

Aoki saw that Kakashi was changing positions while kneading fire type chakra in his body. Still Aoki did not move and planned to see what Kakashi really wanted to do.

Soon a Great Fireball came lunging towards Aoki and he could feel the air burning from the temperature. Aoki also saw that Kakashi had used this attack as diversion was approaching his way underground at astonishing speed. Now there was no time to have any unnecessary thoughts.

Aoki raised Dragon's breadth in the air and quickly coated it with some wind chakra. Then he slashed towards the Fireball with a quick swing and a wind bade met the fireball in mid air.

The fireball was actualy cut into two parts and they exploded next second. The explosion filed the air running and it became difficult to see the surroundings with naked eye. Aoki did not experience such a problem as he could still clearly see Kakashi standing right behind him while almost completely concealing his presence. As expected of a former anbu captain , Kakashi's stealth skills were top notch.

Just as Aoki landed on the ground , his back was targeted by Kakashi's chakra enhanced kunai. Next second Kakashi widened his eyes as the Aoki he should have stabbed, became pile of mud while he barely dodged a sword attack from his behind in time.

Aoki had replaced himself with a mud clone when the explosion took place. Without his sharingan , Kakashi could not see through the little trick.

Aoki did not let Kakashi rest and continued attacking him with sword strikes which were swift and precise but he had not used any sort of chakra enhancement this time. After all it was just a spar and Aoki still wanted to fight with Kakashi after he had started using his sharingan.

" Dont disappoint me Kakashi. You should know by now that you have no hope of defeating me without using your sharingan. You would be dead already if this was a real life and death battle because I would have used a wind blade and cut you into two when you barely dodged my attack that time." Aoki stopped and talked with a dissatisfied tone and finaly opened his eyes while sheathing his sword.

" Sigh.. I admit that I underestimated you before Aoki. Now let's start round two then."

Aoki finally smiled at Kakashi's comment and stepped a few steps back. Kakashi finally displayed his 3 tomoe sharingan which looked very cool in Aoki's eyes. After all Aoki had only seen it in action in the anime or the old Aoki's memories. Now real battle was on.