Chapter three

It was the next day.

After the... Introductions, so to say, they were dismissed, ordered to go to training ground seven the next day, which was today.

Asking around yesterday was the best thing he could do, Drunk people were the best source of information, he had the headband now he was technically an adult. Old enough to kill old enough to drink, was the motto in this world. A poor excuse but an excuse nonetheless.

Walking in the clearing at the designated time, Sasuke bit the fine specimen of an apple. Hmm, he sure loved them apples.

He was five hours early, his teammates would arrive in two hours and their teacher would arrive in five. Cracking his neck, the boy tossed the finished apple to the side and took off the bag he was carrying and opened it, revealing steel wire inside along with a few dozen batches of paper and a ton of rope.

Cracking his knuckles he bent to pick up the wire and turned towards the forest. Hopefully, the man wouldn't die... But he was highly trained, an A-rank in the bingo book, he should be able to handle a few neat tricks... Probably.

-Much Later, Hokage's office-

"Kakashi, mind telling me why there is a tree trunk stuck in a cliff... in the nose of the lord first?"

A man with a wrinkled face, wearing white robes along with a white hat with a red tip in front adorned with the symbol of fire. Coincidentally, he was also the leader of the village, and he looked very annoyed.

The said man, was the same man in charge of team seven, consisting of Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura.

He looked like he went through hell and came back to tell the tale. His green vest had a gash on his abdomen. the blue overalls he was wearing was missing the right sleeve, his face mask actually had a cut present in it the wound was still bleeding and his hair was a bit burned at the tips.

"... and what happened to you?"

The man's single eye looked like he had seen the devil himself and it smiled at him so innocently that it was scary.

Slowly, quietly, Kakashi muttered five words that even the old man thought he misheard it.

"I blame you for this."

-Earlier, at the training grounds-

Sasuke stared at their teacher that was indeed late by exactly three hours. After a bit of explaining about their objective that was getting two bells that would allow them to pass the test. Honestly the underlying meaning of the test was easy to figure out, however, he didn't want all of his hard work to go to waste.

"Come at me with the intent to kill-"

As soon as he said those words, his hand went to the thigh holster he had strapped on and using his pointer finger to unclip the lid and hooked his middle finger inside the ring of the Kunai that was inside.

With a flick of the hand, the small dagger sailed through the air, aiming right in the middle of the silver haired man's eye. It was caught between the index and the middle finger of Kakashi and he could see his mouth opening to say something but he didn't get the chance.

The boy felt the energy inside him, called chakra, pulse as it traveled to his lungs and with one big exhale, a giant ball of fire left his mouth.

Kakashi didn't need to see it, he could feel the heat coming off of it, considering it was basically a point blank attack.

The older man's chakra, denser and stronger, surged a second later as the fireball enveloped him.

Sakura and Naruto stared, wide eyed at what happened. Their teammate just burned their teacher alive! They didn't even realize when Sasuke took them by their clothes, picked them up and dashed off into the trees surrounding the training ground seven.

Kakashi stared, standing on a tree the opposite side of the clearing, blinking his single eye at what just happened.

"Well, lets steer away from th-"

He was cut of again by a sound of sizzling, looking down at the Kunai that he was still holding, the silver haired Jounin blinked again at the few sparks that were coming from below the handle wrap.

"...Shit."

-Sasuke POV-

Dropping my two teammates on the ground, my hand rose, making a seal with middle and index finger pointing up with others curled and a second later, my ears were greeted by the sound of explosion. Humming at that, I looked at the two people I just dropped, my teammates.

Naruto snapped out of the confusion first, immediately jumping to his feet and looking at him incredulously with his eyebrows raised soon followed by his hands.

"What the hell, teme!? Did you just kill our Sensei?!"

Rolling my eyes, I looked back at where we arrived from, narrowing my eyes as I sensed another flicker of chakra in the distance. He managed to get away from that too.

"No, he's alive, I can't kill a Jounin with tricks like that. Anyway, I need you're help, we need to get the bells together."

Telling them the real objective of the task was optimal, passing without them was like thinking a bird could fly with only one wing.

"Why would I help you?! You just want to pass the test so one of us fails!"

Looks like Naruto didn't like the idea at all. Sighing again, my hand gripped the sword that was attached to my waist, right above the tailbone and slid the deadly steel out of it's sheath. My hands moved instinctively, swinging the sword through the air, towards the sound of something cutting through the air.

My sword impacted three shuriken that were heading right towards me and I returned the favor in kind. Chakra rushed to my left hand and a burst of smoke erupted from my gloves. My fingers instinctively curled around the kunai that came into existence inside the smoke and was thrown in the direction the attack came from.

"He's here."

I muttered, my left hand instinctively curling around a handle that wasn't there and I stopped myself. Kakashi burst from the leaves, a kunai in hand and his green vest slightly charred. So the explosion did get him, good to know.

"Sakura, Naruto! Get back and provide cover!"

I spit out as the Silver haired Jounin clashed with me, his Kunai grinding against my sword. His single eye still looking as disinterested as before. My eyes narrowed once again as an earie calm overtook me, my emotions cast aside for the battle that I was in. With a grunt of exertion, I redirected the blade to the side and towards the ground as I pivoted on my heel, my other leg coming up to hit the Jounin's side.

It never connected however, as his left hand stopped it in it's tracks.

"I can give you one better!"

Naruto's shout reached my ears as smoke erupted around us. When the smoke dispersed, it revealed dozen copies of Naruto, making me wonder when he mastered the Illusion clone, but a second later, my confusion only grew when I sensed every one of them having the same amount of Chakra inside them, even the original.

Two of the clones rushed Kakashi, making him back off from me as he effortlessly dispatched his newly formed assailants. The other copies used this moment to rush in as well, only to be taken out one by one as effortlessly as before.

"Sakura, provide cover, Naruto, How many of those clones can you make?"

I asked as I jumped back in the middle of the two, fixing the grip on my sword. I watched silently as Kakashi was engaged by the clones because the number advantage seemed like nothing to him as he lazily swung a leg to hit a clones head, making it disperse in the same smoke it came from.

"I don't have Kunai..."

What?

"A few dozen, why?"

At least one of them was helpful. Repressing another sigh, as I didn't feel like getting too old too soon, I reached for the pouch on my waist. Unclipping it, I tossed it to Sakura as I turned to Naruto, keeping Kakashi in my peripheral vision.

"Naruto, cut those on my signal."

I pointed at two ropes tied around a thick branch when Kakashi's back was turned to us. The blonde sent me a questioning look but I was already moving towards our would be teacher.

My sword cut through the air, cutting through one of the Naruto's clones horizontally across the back, and heading straight for Kakashi's abdomen. The Jounin jumped back just in time but not before having his vest cut through. I could hear Naruto scream out a curse but it went ignored as Kakashi charged back at me with fervor, another Kunai sliding into his hand that was used to deflect the less then accurate projectiles thrown by Sakura from the side.

We engaged in combat again as the song of blade against blade rang out in the small forest. I was allowing him to push me back, I had no delusions that I could overpower him but I could fight him at a stand still for a while for sure, right now, however, I needed to get him in position for the trap to work.

I kept up with his swings that seemed to be getting faster as the battle went on, managing to block the kunai in his left hand with the flat of my blade only for his right hand to shoot out, aiming the tip of the small yet deadly dagger at my ribs where it would pierce straight through my lungs.

My hand that was holding the hilt of the sword twisted in an arc, bringing the blunt side of the blade down, impacting the back of his right hand. The kunai went off its course, missing my vest by inches as his hands formed a sideways cross with him on one end and me on the other. Loosening the grip with my right hand, I let the blade go as it spun in the air due to the momentum I managed to accumulate when twisting it and my left hand took its place on the hilt, holding the sword in a reverse grip and sent it to Kakashi's face.

Since he was leaning forward, he couldn't jump back so he did the next best thing and leaned to the side, managing to avoid a direct hit to his face, only getting a chip in the mask and a small wound on his cheek.

He rolled to the side and immediately jumped when a clone of Naruto tried to tackle him. His legs impacted the clones back as he avoided a volley of Shuriken and Kunai that were heading his way, curtesy of my female teammate.

She knew how to time her attacks at least.

Another clone sprang into action from a branch of a tree, managing to actually make contact with the silver haired Jounin and tackle him to the ground, but the tall man was no longer in his grip when they landed, replaced by another clone of the blonde.

The silver haired man was standing next to me, the back of his kunai heading right for the back of my head. Too bad for him, this is where I wanted him to be.

"Now, Naruto!"

The said blonde who had been waiting for the signal for a little while now, itching to join the fight finally cut the two ropes from left to right.

I pushed Chakra into my legs, more so into the soles of my feet. The overload of chakra caused the ground beneath my feet to burst, sending me away from the hit that would knock me out as a giant log came straight towards Kakashi. He jumped to avoid it, throwing the Kunai he was holding straight towards me as I blocked them with my blade.

As he was in the air, a second log burst from between the trees and he landed on it sideways, sticking on it's side with Chakra.

"Maa, you guy's are scary, Where did you find the time to-"

The tree he was standing on exploded.