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Chapter 9: Round 2, Weaponry 101

In the pitch dark of the room, Whisper's barely seen form was sprawled atop Kroqgar, his hands resting on her shapely rear. As they kissed each other, Whisper slowly worked her hands down Kroqgar's stomach, stopping at the waistband of his boxer shorts. Clad only in a bra and boxers herself, she disengaged from the kiss and sat up, looking down into his eyes.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" His tone was warm and gentle, filled with compassion and concern. She could tell that he was very eager, but she knew he would pull back in a heartbeat if told to.

Thankfully no such command was forthcoming. Leaning back down to kiss him once more, she smiled and breathed, "Yes..."

As her hands crept behind her to undo her bra... sunlight flooded into her open eyes.

Propping herself up on her hands, she looked confusedly around the room. A frustrated "Wah?" escaped her. As she realised that she had been dreaming and had just woken, a scowl settled on her muzzle. She had rather been looking forward to that dream.

She glanced downward. "Speak of the devil." She was, conveniently, sprawled atop Kroqgar, her hands resting on his chest as she held herself up, rising and falling with his steady breathing. A smile and a blush crept across her features, as they usually did whenever she awoke like this. As she shifted her lower body against him, the blush intensified and the smile lost its innocence. Though her anatomical knowledge was limited, she knew how males usually were in the morning, and that it was beyond their control.

Just as she was beginning to enjoy her predicament, a knock sounded at the door. Sighing, Whisper carefully disengaged from Kroqgar ( a small part of her mind growled in frustration) and headed out of the room, yawning as she went. "Figures." At least she knew what had woken her up so early now.

As she reached for the doorknob, a thought occurred to her. Steepling her fingers, she mumbled "Transfmshnjtsu..." A puff of smoke later, furless, pink-haired Whisper opened the door.

And was hurtled into painfully aware consciousness as she saw that it was Naruto.

"Naruto! What's wrong? Are you okay?" She leaned out of the door and looked both ways, concerned as to his unexpected presence so early. When the boy didn't answer, she met his gaze.

Or she tried to. His face was burning red, and he was staring dead ahead. A moment later, Whisper's still drowsy brain realised that Naruto only came up to her chest height and upon this realisation she suddenly became acutely aware that she was still clad in only a bra and boxers. Quickly slamming the door shut behind her, she called out "One second!" and silently sprinted back into her wardrobe via the bathroom to grab a robe. Hurtling past a still snoozing Kroqgar, she went back to the door, pulling on the robe and fastening it on the way. Now in a decent state of dress, she opened the door to see Naruto standing stock still, a stunned look on his face. With a brief smile, Whisper waved a hand in front of his face to break him out of his reverie.

That did it. When her met her gaze, she asked "Would you like to come in?"

His blush fading slightly, Naruto nodded. "Sure, thank you." He raised a hand to the back of his head. "Sorry about that just then, seeing you like that I mean, when you were like that, I didn't know you wouldn't be fully not ready like that and I wouldn't of otherwise but when you-"

Whisper quickly cut off his rambling, shaking her head and interjecting smoothly, "Don't worry about it, it's not your fault, it was my mistake for answering the door like that." She grinned, hoping to put him at ease. "Besides, it's kind of flattering anyway. Come on in." She stood aside to let him pass. She felt oddly happy for some reason she couldn't quite place her claw on. She would later realise that was the first time she became aware that anyone, excluding Kroqgar, found her attractive. She may have had a hard life but she was still only sixteen, and though she didn't know it the blushing stare did wonders for her self-esteem.

Closing the door after Naruto, she asked, "Can I get you anything?" and let her transformation drop.

She noticed that he immediately tried not to stare, though he clearly wanted to. "No, I just wanted to talk." His tone made it clear what about.

"Oh, okay... Do you want me to get Kroqgar as well?"

"Is he asleep?" Whisper replied with a nod. "Don't worry about it then."

"Alright then. And please, we want you to be comfortable around us. If you need to examine our appearance, please, go ahead." His body language revealed his gratitude, and she sat still for a moment, watching as his fascinated gaze slid from the open window on her right to an intense but unobtrusive scutiny of her face and form, paying particular attention to her muzzle, feet and hands.

When she felt that his gaze was wandering too much (though reminding herself that this was Naruto and in all likelihood was entirely innocent, despite outside influ-sannin-ences), she recaptured his attention by saying, "So, what's on your mind?"

Focusing once more, Naruto replied, "I wanted to talk about everything you told me last night."

Whisper was relieved to note that he merely looked curious. "I thought as much."

"Firstly, the world you guys are from."

Whisper sat down on the couch and gestured for Naruto to sit across from her. "You know we can't tell you much about it."

As he sat down, Naruto shook his head, saying, "That's just it - I don't think I want to know anything about it. It's a different world, with an entirely different... culture, technology, civilisation, ecosystem, everything! I don't think I could get it, so I'm just not thinking about it."

Silently Whisper was impressed, Naruto had really thought this through! How much sleep had the boy ended up getting? However outwardly she nodded, understanding his reasoning. "Fair enough, you don't really need to learn anything about it, so yeah, thinking about it will just give you a headache."

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, her words echoing his thoughts. "Exactly. Now, how you guys look..."

Whisper tensed imperceptibly.

"...It really doesn't bother me. I mean, I have a giant talking fox inside of me already, another talking fox isn't too much of a stretch." Naruto pondered for a moment, recalling something. "Plus, you guys probably know about the two ninjas that attacked me and Pervy Sage when we were looking for Grandma Tsunade. One of them looked like a fish, he was blue and had gills and everything. No one seemed to notice it but it was weird. After that, you two aren't so strange at all. Your appearance doesn't change who you are inside anyway, and I think you guys look sorta cool."

Whisper gasped out, "Oh thank God..." as she sank further into her seat, a relieved smile evident. At Naruto's look of confusion, she decided the boy was owed the truth, or at least part of it. "Listen, Naruto... You know that me and Kroqgar pretty much know most everything there is to know about you, yeah?" The other genin nodded, though obviously he was still slightly uncomfortable about someone else having such intimate knowledge about him. "If there is one thing we do know about you, it is that your just a really good person. All the hardship you've had to live with, all the hate and pain you've had to endure, and you've still turned out as kind and brave as you are now. Your life has been hard. Shit, your life has been Hell." Naruto quirked a brow. Hearing the gentle, elder genin swear was odd. "We just want to be the friends you never had, we just want to be close to such a good person. And knowing that you accept us, even though you've had to struggle so hard for acceptance yourself..." Whisper struggled for words for a moment, before simply shaking her head, rising and walking over to the blonde jinchuuriki.

As she had been speaking, Naruto's look of confusion had steadily changed to one of mild embarassment at her praise, and finally to one of happiness at her acceptance of him. Now, as Whisper knelt beside him, all that showed was shock. As the older genin wrapped her arms around him, all he heard her say was "Thank you..." He was unsure of himself for a moment, never having been in a situation like this with someone so young without the imminent threat of being punched in the face, but hesitantly raised his arms to return the embrace. After a moment, he found that this felt much more natural than he had thought, and relaxed. He had been hugged by women before, Shizune, Grandma Tsunade, even Ayame, but this was the first time a girl so near his own age had ever embraced him... And he was willing to admit it felt nice.

Whisper pulled back with a huge smile, quickly wiping at her face. She looked into his eyes, wanting him to fully appreciate how serious she was being. "Thank you for accepting us."

Naruto smiled softly, a slight tinge of colour on his cheeks. With as much sincerity as he could manage, he replied "No problem."

They both remained there, sharing a moment they didn't quite understand but that neither was willing to let go of. Acceptance. Whisper had Kroqgar. Naruto had precious little amounts from anyone, and he had always had to fight for it. Now there was one more person who knew everything about them, and accepted them. Whisper and Kroqgar had learned of Naruto's life from day one, and they had held nothing back when they spoke to him of their own lives. Here they were, completely exposed... and safe.

Taking her seat once more, Whisper (still smiling broadly) asked, "So was there anything else you wanted to know?"

Naruto breathed a sigh, his brow furrowing in thought. "Well, you guys know everything about my past... _Every_thing..."

"Actually," interjected Whisper, "We don't know everything, only the big things. Imagine if you wrote a book about someone's life, you wouldn't mention them going to the bathroom, or having breakfast, or whatever."

"Ok... Well then you guys know everything that's worth knowing about my life." He thought for a moment, before meeting her eyes and smiling. "And I think I'm okay with that. But there was one other thing that was bothering me..."

Whisper inhaled sharply. Here it was.

"These books, the ones about me..." It still felt weird to Naruto. His life had been a story... "What did they cover?"

Thinking quickly, Whisper tried to avert the younger shinobi from the truth. "Well, they started at your birth, of course they mention a few things here and there from before that. Bits and pieces of your childhood, mainly your career as a genin."

Though she had tried to speak casually, the look on Naruto's face betrayed his suspicion.

"How old am I when the stories end?"

She couldn't avoid it. "Well, when we came here, the story was still ongoing, so we never saw the end, but..." She decided to give him what he was obviously looking for, but to limit what she said. Sighing, she said, "It goes up to the point where you are at least fifteen."

Naruto slowly nodded, causing her to blink in mild surprise. She had been expecting some sort of huge outburst of disbelief, and for a kunai-wielding, half-naked Kroqgar to burst into the room (which, she realised, she had half been hoping for).

"So... You guys pretty much know the future, right?"

There it was, out in the open. They had avoided discussing it last night, and had in all honesty hoped that the younger genin wouldn't think of it. Nodding, she said, "Yes, I suppose we do. At least one version of it."

"So you should be able to stop everything bad from happening!" Naruto rose out of his chair in excitement, a huge smile blooming on his face.

However Whisper's calm response stopped him in his tracks. "Yes, but like I said before, only one version of anything bad." She explained that while they wanted to change everything for the better, there were risks inherent in even the slightest change, and so they had to be very careful about what they did. Naruto took it all in, at first expressing disbelief that they couldn't preemptively right wrongs, but finally understanding their decision.

"Well," he said, "I think I get it. I don't like it, but I see your point. I would do things differently, but I trust you two know what you are doing."

This gave Whisper pause. "Woah, woah, back up there. What would you do differently? You know we value your opinion Naruto", she smiled at him.

His confidence raised by her encouragement, Naruto replied, "Well, I would try to change every bad thing I could as they happened, and then sort of figure it out as I went after that. Things couldn't get too bad afterward, right?" He grinned when Whisper nodded at his idea, but it faded at her response.

"We thought of that too Naruto, but if we go around making too many changes, the future we know becomes uncertain. Things change too drastically. Then we lose our ability to change anything that is still a long way off."

Naruto scowled at first but nodded after a moment, seeing the reasoning. "So what do you plan to do?"

Grinning, Whisper replied, "In 10 words or less? We plan to make everything as good as we can."

The jinchuuriki found the simple, honest answer to be very amusing. "Now that's my kind of plan!", he laughed, Whisper joining him.

After their mirth died down, Naruto realized that he didn't have anything else to say. He looked at the vixen and smiled warmly, saying, "Y'know, that's everything. Thanks for explaining everything Whisper." Once again, the sincerity of his thanks was evident in his voice.

"No problem," she replied, as she rose from her seat. "Are you sure I can't get you anything?"

So conveniently that it caused Whisper to wonder if it was a nosebleed-and-face-planting-style anime law, Naruto's stomach growled. Looking at her with puppy dog eyes, he asked, "You don't have any ramen do you?"

With a laugh, Whisper started walking back to her bedroom. "Unfortunately no, but once I get dressed I'll bring you something even better!"

His jaw dropped. Better than ramen?

"Fruit!"

...

For the next few hours, as the sun truly rose, Whisper and Naruto sat and talked like old friends, sharing stories and ideas, reflecting on both of their lives. After a time Kroqgar rose and joined them, being taken to the side by Whisper at first and returning a few minutes later with a massive smile on his face, having been filled in on their earlier conversation (though at first Naruto admittedly thought he was smiling for an entirely different reason). Even Naruto's stomach eventually relented, accepting the sacrilegious fruit. Finally, as 8 o'clock arrived, Naruto left with a wave to get what he called "Proper breakfast!", and Kroqgar and Whisper started getting ready for their day. A note that Kakashi had given Naruto instructed them to be at their team's training field at nine. A few minutes and a transformation jutsu later, the young couple headed towards the training fields, hands clasped.

...

The week passed in a blur for the pair, so busy were they. Between their new training, the development of their new weapons, adjusting to life in Konoha, meeting everyone new and most importantly each other, they barely had a moment of peace. They couldn't be happier.

Now they stood side-by-side on Training Ground Three, ready for the challenge before them. Along the sideline stood the entire Rookie Nine (with the notable exception of Sasuke) along with Team Guy, and their senseis. Kroqgar and Whisper had gone out of their way to meet and try to get to know each of them, no easy feat. Yet they had succeeded in their quest, and could now speak to each of them on friendly terms, albeit barely in some cases. Their presence was at Whisper's insistence; she and Kroqgar had agreed that it could only be beneficial to the time-line if all of the Konoha genin were closer to each other, and saw this demonstration as a brilliant way to accomplish that. They had told the Hokage as much, and seeing the wisdom of the plan, Tsunade had agreed immediately.

The sannin herself was standing before Konoha's newest shinobi, Shizune, Kurenai and Kakashi beside her. Jiraiya was sitting high in a tree smoking a pipe and finally two civilians topped off the gathering, standing off to the side and recognised by few. Several others had caught wind of the event, namely some of Kakashi's old ANBU friends and those with close ties to the two civilians, but on Tsunade's orders this was to be a private demonstration.

The Hokage stepped forward. "For those of you that don't know why you are here, today we are going to see a demonstration of some new weaponry." Reactions among the genin ranged from rapt, drooling attention to complete and utter indifference. The latter caused Tsunade to grit her teeth. "WAKE UP SHIKAMARU!!" The lazy Nara sat up straight, yelling something about shogi fouls. "As I was saying, today our newest genin, Kroqgar and Whisper..." She indicated the two ninjas, who smiled weakly and waved, somewhat unused to being in the spotlight like this. "...Are going to demonstrate to you first their abilities as shinobi, and secondly their proficiency with their chosen weapons, which, to the best of our knowledge, have never before been used."

Ino spoke up, feeling more comfortable around the Hokage than the rest of them after she had talked with the older woman at The Iron Kimono yesterday. "Lady Tsunade, why do we need to see this?"

"The main reason is that we have decided that from now on, your genin teams will be working more closely, to promote teamwork and to allow you all to further your training. At the Chunin Exams, you were each given the opportunity to observe the abilities of your peers, so you know, roughly, where you stand. However Kroqgar and Whisper's abilities are unknown to you, with the exception of their team-mates, and even they haven't fully seen what they are capable of. Do you all remember the earthquake on Mount Toukai?" Several heads nodded. "That wasn't an earthquake, it was caused by these two!" Following Tsunade's pointing finger, the assembled genin all stared wide-eyed at Kroqgar and Whisper, their sensei's giving them appraising looks.

"So the purpose of today's training exercise is to show you all just what your newest team-mates can do, and to give you a taste of some of the things to come. But first, we've got to give them their weapons! Kaji, Hotaru, come out here!"

The two artists, masters of their craft, stepped onto the field, each holding a flat wooden box under their arm. Each was smiling broadly, thoroughly unnerving Kakashi and Kurenai. Apparently this was going to be quite a surprise.

The weaponsmith approached Kroqgar, while the tailor approached Whisper. Everyone expected some sort of speech, however with all the time they had all spent together creating the armaments, there was really nothing left to say. The two genin showed their appreciation by bowing a final time to each of the specialists, embarrassing them slightly.

Just as Kaji and Hotaru lifted the lids of the two boxes, an incredibly loud and hilariously familiar voice boomed out of them. "LET IT BE KNOWN THAT THIS TRIUMPH COULD NOT HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED WITHOUT THE WISE AND LEARNED HELP OF THE GREAT TOAD SAGE JIRAIYA!!"

As one, the assembled Konohans face-planted, legs twitching in complete disbelief. Only Tsunade herself stood standing, gritting her teeth and glaring murderously at the spot she had last seen Jiraiya. Her last glimpse had been of him performing a hand-sign and disappearing on the spot, obviously using his damn peeping technique, the Transparency Jutsu. Even she wouldn't be able to find him now, the only sign of his presence his lingering laugh.

As everyone recovered, they got their first glimpse of the contents of each box.

The box in Kaji's hands was lined with white cloth, the better to present the item within. All the master crafters of the village had boxes like it, re-used for presentation ceremonies for important clients. The occasion didn't particularly call for the lavish container, but the items it held certainly did. Sitting proudly in the middle of the box, the white surroundings a stark contrast to their own colouring, was a pair of black wristbands.

Though at first somewhat of a disappointment to the assembled shinobi, the longer they observed the revealed wristbands the more they admired them. They were made of a silken material that seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it, and almost seemed alive, shifting as Kroqgar reached in and reverently grasped one of them. As the large shinobi raised them from the box, everyone finally saw what exactly the offensive part of them was.

Picked out in bone-white cloth circling each wristband was a seal. As Kroqgar slipped off his own wristbands and replaced them with what were so much more than just higher quality replicas, the assembled jounin quietly told those students that were ignorant of the purpose of the seal. As best as they could each guess, it was a customised containment seal.

After he had stored his old bracers inside an inner pocket, Kroqgar raised both his arms before him, observing the small, dark bands on his wrists. They felt completely and inexplicably perfect, as if they had been made for him. Which made sense, because they had been. He slowly clenched his fists, feeling the power stored inside each wristband. Smiling, he turned to face his sensei. As he caught Kakashi's eye, he saw (barely) that the older man was grinning widely. Ohhh, this was gonna be good.

Then it was Whisper's turn.

A smirking Hotaru stepped forward, the ex-jounin revealing the contents of the box in her hands. Inside, nestled on a magnificently accompanying bed of black silk, were a pair of simple, fingerless gloves. They were coloured an identical dark purple to the rest of Whisper's outfit (though, similar to Kroqgar's bracers, made of a clearly more high-quality material). The kunoichi slipped off her own gloves, taking care with the armour plating on the right one, and replaced them with her new ones, putting the old pair in the box for now.

Over time they had come to the conclusion that due to Whisper's incredible speed, having armour plating would simply slow her down and get in her way, so the design for this new pair was born. Aside from their craftsmanship however, there was really nothing special about them. Only seven of those assembled knew just what their capabilities were. The rest, including the jounin, hadn't a clue.

Satisfied at seeing Kroqgar and Whisper already completely at ease with these new changes, Tsunade turned to Kakashi and Kurenai. She was surprised to see the Copy Ninja lower his forehead protector, and suppressed a grin. With his Sharingan he might have picked out a few more details and made some additional conclusions, but even he wouldn't figure out the whole story until it was too late.

"All right!" said Tsunade as she clapped her hands. "Who wants to go first?" Kaji and Hotaru hastily left the field.

"Hold on Grandma Tsunade, what about these new weapons we are 'sposed to see!!" yelled out Naruto, glaring daggers at the Hokage.

"If you don't keep quiet you brat you will see a kunai much closer than you ever wanted to! This isn't just about their new weapons, Kroqgar and Whisper have been developing other skills they can show as well. And if they are clever about it, they might barely need to use their weapons at all! Now..." She turned back towards the shinobi before her. "As I was saying... Who wants to go first?"

Whisper stepped forward, her eyes gleaming emerald fire. "I do Lady Hokage. I honestly don't think I could wait any longer if I tried."

The older kunoichi actually laughed out loud at that. "I can understand that, believe it or not Whisper. Kakashi, Kroqgar, head to the sideline. And you Shizune. You two", she said, indicating Whisper and Kurenai, "better get ready for a good workout. I'll personally be refereeing this match. Kurenai?"

"Yes, Lady Hokage?" replied the Genjutsu Mistress, completely focused on the upcoming battle.

Tsunade looked like she meant to say something, but thought better of it. She let loose a chuckle, finally saying "Be on your guard."

Sensei and student faced each other and bowed, grinning. Tsunade looked at each in turn, before nodding and raising her hand in the air. Swiftly, she brought it down and jumped back. "GO!"

Whisper exploded into motion, flinging shuriken at Kurenai as the genin leapt backwards, opening up a massive gap between the two. Instantly realising that her pupil was planning something, the Genjutsu Mistress sprinted forwards, slipping past the shuriken and aiming for Whisper.

But she simply couldn't keep up with the girl at this level. As Kurenai raced toward her, Whisper steepled her fingers, yelling, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" In an instant three doppelgangers stood beside her. Grinning for a moment, Whisper decided to show off one of her new tricks.

...

After a harsh day of special training with Might Guy and Rock Lee, Kroqgar and Whisper were both excited to say that they could now partially open the first chakra gate. Guy had said to them that even though fully opening a gate was much, much harder than doing so partially, their progress had been nothing short of phenomenal. With a hearty laugh, he had said "It's almost like you two know how they work better than I do!"

Laughing uncomfortably at his surprisingly accurate joke, the two had said their thank-yous and their goodbyes before heading off to a meeting with Jiraiya. Finding the Toad Sage (surprisingly) sitting by a calm pond and meditating, they had sat with him.

"So what's up, Jiraiya-sensei?" Kroqgar said, hand entwined with Whisper's.

Smiling broadly, and managing the impressive feat of appearing to strut whilst sitting down, the sannin smugly replied, "After hours and hours of tireless, selfless work, I, Jiraiya of the Sannin, The Toad Sage, have finally discovered what makes you each so strong," he said, pointing at Kroqgar before turning to Whisper, "and fast."

Realising that this was an enigma that neither of them had so far given much thought to, the genin found that they were quite curious. "What is it? What did you find?"

With an incredibly satisfied expression on his face, Jiraiya responded with one word. "Ki."

The sannin explained that it seemed their body maintained a steady flow of ki to their muscles at all times, regardless of their conscious mind. It didn't drain their ki over time, and since they had arrived in Konoha with those abilities already active there was no way of knowing whether it weakened them. He said that, obviously, Whisper's ki focused on her speed, keeping her muscles strong but compact, whereas Kroqgar's opted for a much bulkier, heavy-duty approach. What the sage explained next though was what really got their attention.

"Given proper training, I can't see any reason why you two couldn't stop the ki from circulating in your system, potentially giving you more to draw on, or you could enhance it with your current reserves, making you stronger, faster, more powerful."

Kroqgar and Whisper looked at each other for a moment, before smiling knowingly and nodding. Kroqgar turned towards the white-haired man and said, "Jiraiya-sensei, let me tell you about a technique we know called the 'Kaio-ken'..."

...

Taking a quick breath to steady herself, Whisper mentally ordered each of her clones to open the first chakra gate slightly, partially removing the restraints of the brain on their muscles. Each clone then flowed ki into their bodies in one sharp burst, temporarily boosting their speed dramatically. The result was a pink-haired blur so fast that only those of jounin rank or higher caught it. In a fraction of an instant, each Whisper was right next to Kurenai, surrounding her. With a collective shout, they all began their attack.

The downside to their new technique, that Kroqgar had affectionately dubbed the "Gate-o-ken", was that it could only be used in brief bursts, and even then it was to be used very sparingly. Both Whisper and Kroqgar knew the dangers of straining either their chakra gates or their ki circulation.

Kurenai was at an immediate disadvantage. The speed at which Whisper and her clones had moved surprised her just barely enough for them to get inside her guard. Now she was frantically warding off high-speed blows from every direction, taking a few hits in the process. And for all her speed she wouldn't exactly call the girl weak.

By now each of the assembled genin, even Shikamaru, were on their feet, watching the match in awe. Neji and Hinata had been bombarded with questions, but even they had sheepishly admitted that Whisper had moved too fast for their Byakuugans. The knowledge that Kroqgar and Whisper used ki had trickled through the genin teams by now, and each jounin sensei was quietly explaining to their team what exactly Whisper had done by combining the two techniques, none more proudly than Guy. Kroqgar himself was standing tall on the sideline, watching the match with a big grin on his face. "You ain't seen nothin' yet."

Though Whisper had the drop on Kurenai, they had fought this way before. Slowly the jounin gained ground, steadily besting Whisper (though not yet managing to dispel the clones). A fierce grin crossed Whisper's face as she decided to take it up a step.

The flurry of fists and feet surrounding Kurenai suddenly sped up, almost like the genin was changing gear. There was a collective gasp from the audience at her speed, and even Kurenai arched an eyebrow in surprise, though it was nothing she couldn't compensate for. However just as she went to deflect a blow to her midsection, a sharp blow to her ribs stunned her just barely long enough for the strike to connect. Ignoring the pain, she kept on fighting, but again she blocked a blow only to be struck by an invisible force directly behind where she had blocked. Over and over, blow after blow she seemed to block only to feel the force hit her a second later. Watching closely, she stopped a punch to her gut in the flat of her hand, and immediately felt something hit her in the stomach like a sledgehammer. She couldn't endure this forever, what was going on?!

The answer came a moment later, when one of the clones happened to over-extend itself on a striker, and come too close to her head (it was a mark of how harried she was that she didn't take advantage of the slip up). In the instant that its lips were close to her ear, she heard one whispered word.

"Kabe."

Awake to the game now, the Genjutsu Mistress realised that each Whisper was constantly murmuring the word under their breath, every time they launched a strike. The punches and kicks were just a ruse to distract her from Whisper's constant use of her Windwall Jutsu, the invisible force constantly striking her. She was impressed that the girls clones were strong enough to continually maintain the offensive. Now that she knew what was going on however, the jounin could plan her counterattack.

Taking a few hits in the process (including one worrying crack to the back of the head), Kurenai lashed out violently at what she now knew were the weakened clones, managing to plow right through them one by one. Swiftly turning on the spot, she launched herself at Whisper, for once outpacing the momentarily stunned girl ("Must be the backlash from the clones", she thought.) and attacking her with a flurry of high level taijutsu, leaving the genin to frantically backpedal, desperately trying to open some space. Kurenai let her do just that.

Letting Whisper take a half-step backwards, she began flying through handseals. Whisper had no time at all to try and stop her, and instead braced herself for a point blank strike, ready to try and evade.

And found herself a moment later tied to a tree.

Bafflement etched its way across her face. Everyone was still along the sidelines, the same as they had been a moment before, yet Kurenai was nowhere to be seen, and this tree had come out... of nowhere...

Mentally berating herself, Whisper realised that she was stuck in one of Kurenai's genjutsu, the same one she had used on Itachi when he had infiltrated the village with Kisame after Naruto. She had a surprise in store for Kurenai though. Kroqgar and her hadn't yet learned how to halt the flow of ki through their bodies, but they had certainly learned how to boost it.

For an instant she flared her ki, her clothing and hair billowing out. The genjutsu holding her shattered. She sprung forward and turned in the air, facing a surprised looking Kurenai.

The jounin stood for a moment. "Ok, I'm impressed. How did you manage to break that genjutsu so easily?"

Whisper grinned in response. "Most genjutsus, since they act purely as illusions and therefore have no physical substance, are largely unaffected by the physical side of chakra. The spiritual half of it is what has all the effect. That's is why it takes so much raw chakra to break most genjutsus, only half of it is really working. And the spiritual side of chakra is...?"

Kurenai sighed. "Ki..."

"Bingo!" responded Whisper, a wide smile on her face. She summoned a yellow ball of ki in her hand as she spoke, holding it before her. "Since Kroqgar and I have such easy access to so much ki, more than twice as powerful as chakra in breaking genjutsu, they don't really bother us. That's not to say that ki doesn't have its physical uses as well!" She finished with a shout, throwing the sphere at Kurenai as hard as she could.

The small energy-blast moved fast, incredibly fast, but Kurenai was still capable of dodging it. Knowing her student like she did she was easily able to slip into a defensive stance as she saw Whisper almost on top of her, following in her attack's wake. What she did not expect, however, was for Whisper to grin and disappear.

The genin, taking a leaf out of Kroqgar's book, had substituted herself with the ki sphere, something Whisper knew only a ki user would be able to do. In a puff of smoke, she appeared right behind Kurenai, and the ki sphere charged out of the smoke in front of her. The jounin felt a ki-enhanced kick strike her in her lower back, propelling her forwards and directly into the ki sphere. Thankfully the thing was fast but not very strong. It exploded against her midsection, knocking her to the ground and slightly burning her stomach. Leaping to her feet almost immediately, the Genjutsu Mistress was not given a second of reprieve as she felt herself bombarded on all sides once more by Whisper and some fresh shadow clones. Feeling a Windwall strike to her ribs, she set about planning her next move.

...

Kakashi, his book long since stored, happened to notice Asuma watching the fight with what one could call a hint more than friendly concern. Chuckling at the drama taking place within his own ranks, the Copy Ninja turned his attention to his students.

"Sakura, Naruto, what do you two think so far?"

Naruto, in his typical simple fashion, summed up what most of the genin were thinking. "She's so fast..." Sakura dumbly nodded in slack-jawed agreement for a moment before realising that a better answer was expected.

"Whisper's technique is pretty fantastic. She just moves so quickly, and using the Windwall jutsu like that to throw Kurenai-sensei off her guard was genius." The two genin had already seen Kroqgar use the pair's original jutsu in training, so already knew how it worked. "Add to that the fact that genjutsu is essentially useless against Whisper and that she hasn't really used many ki-based abilities so far and I think that Kurenai-sensei might be in trouble."

Kakashi nodded, pleased with her analysis, before turning to his last student. The two had gotten along well in the previous week and he was curious to see what Kroqgar's take on the action was. He nudged the larger shinobi with his elbow to get his attention. "What do you think so far?"

Kroqgar's head tilted slightly, and Kakashi could almost see the ears on top of his head quirk. "I'd say that right now, Whisper definitely has the advantage. Plus she's still a relative unknown, especially so considering her new gloves." He flashed a smile. "She's wearing herself down much faster than Kurenai-sensei, but she must know it. She's got a plan. I'd say this fight is Whisper's."

Kakashi was about to add something, before a flash of light caught his attention.

...

"Figures", thought Kurenai. Just when you've got it figured out, the game changes. She and the four Whispers had traded blows for a few moments, before the jounin had pieced together a strategy. Just as she was about to spring into action, Whisper surprised her again.

With a grunt of exertion, each Whisper suddenly ramped up its speed once more, all moving just that bit faster than at first. By now not only was Kurenai sure that Whisper was constantly streaming extra ki into her system, she could barely hold the girl at bay. Blows came from everywhere at once, some enhanced by Windwall strikes, others not. The seemingly random flurry was putting her off, and more and more she was getting winged by Whisper's strikes. A foot beside her face, dodge. An elbow to her chest, block. A kick to her leg... too fast. Hoping to even the playing field, Kurenai opened her own chakra gate, but as she did so she felt Whisper speed up even more, evidently mimicking her action.

The genin in the audience were standing slack jawed, watching the exchange before them. All they could see was Kurenai amidst a blurred mass of fists and legs now, the only evidence of Whisper's presence. As the glow of ki started to emerge, at least one jounin and more than a few genin were heard saying "Wow..."

Kurenai was now getting desperate. Whisper was pushing herself to her limit, if the strained look on her face was anything to go by, and not only had she increased her speed even more (just barely enough to seriously press Kurenai), each of the clones and the original were now all fighting with ki spheres appearing periodically in their hands. Whenever they went for a closed-fist strike, she felt a miniature windwall hit her, something she still had no defense against. Now however, they were interspersing them with sweeps of her open hands, the golden glow in each throwing all of them into deep shadow over and over. Kurenai knew that Whisper was trying to land what the girl called an "energy slap", by slapping her with her open palm as she was holding a ki sphere. Now the girl was moving too fast for her to differentiate between windwall strikes and energy slaps in time, so she was just trying to dodge everything. She twisted and turned, ducked and leaped, all to avoid getting struck. Windwalls blasted past her. Ki singed her over and over.

Letting out a yell of pain, Whisper blasted into her full speed for a fraction of a second. Her body briefly glowed a soft shade of red and each clone immediately dispelled from the action, but the original was now just too fast. She blitzed Kurenai, striking her over and over and over. For a split second, Kurenai was completely overwhelmed.

Drawing back for a final strike, Whisper slammed her fist into Kurenai's chest, directly over her heart. The jounin did not notice the smile of triumph cross Whisper's face. Absorbing the full force of the blow (and oddly feeling a sharp pinch), Kurenai flew backwards, before flipping and landing on her feet with her guard up.

Immediately she saw Whisper hunched over with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. The genin was not as spent as she was after the first time they had fought, but she was not too far off. As Whisper stood up straight once more, Kurenai smiled at her.

"I must say Whisper, you constantly surprise me. I had no idea you could move that fast. I'm not even sure sannin could move that fast (Tsunade went to say something but stopped at a look from Shizune.). But, while you had me almost completely overwhelmed, you didn't really do to much lasting damage. I've got a few cuts and bruises, but considering the energy you just put out I should be much more damaged. I think it's my turn now."

Just as she was about to leap forward, Tsunade's voice reached her. "Actually, Kurenai, I'm afraid the match is already over." Both combatants turned to see the Hokage striding onto the field, wearing an amused expression.

"Over?" Kurenai looked confused. "But there is no clear winner yet, Lady Hokage."

Tsunade grinned broadly. "I hate to correct you Kurenai, but there is." She threw an arm around Whisper's shoulders, the genin smiling widely. "And she's standing right here."

Curious but respectful, Kurenai asked "How do you judge her to be the winner Lady Hokage?" In answer, the older woman just pointed. Following her finger, Kurenai looked down at herself, and noticed that she was bleeding from a small cut on her chest. Lifting her collar slightly, she looked under her clothing and saw three scratches in a line directly over her heart.

"But that was just from her last strike. Or are her new gloves poisoned in some way?" She eyed Whisper's hands somewhat apprehensively.

Tsunade waved her concerns off with a laugh. "Don't worry about it Kurenai, your not in any danger, you just didn't see. Come over to your audience, I'll explain it all at once."

They walked over towards the assembled shinobi (plus two civilians), Whisper making a slight detour to Kroqgar. Surprising her, her picked her up in his arms and kissed her, in full view of everyone. She was somewhat embarrassed; they had never done anything like that so publicly (she would later reflect that it was hilarious that both Naruto and Kiba said "WHOOOO!"). But she quickly regained her composure, and smiled warmly at him.

"You were awesome," he breathed in her ear. "Most of the time I could barely see you."

Smiling broadly at her boyfriend's praise (it still felt ridiculously good to call him that), she rejoined Kurenai and Tsunade. The latter was answering any questions the genin had about the match, including those the jounin wanted to know but were too embarrassed to ask. Finally, she turned to Kurenai and Whisper.

"Now, I bet that you'd all like to know how exactly the match ended, particularly you Kurenai." Even with Tsunade's luck, she wasn't going to lose that one. "You all saw that Whisper was pressing Kurenai pretty badly with the combination of her speed, her jutsu and her ki abilities. What you might not have seen was the very ending. For a brief moment, Whisper pushed herself to what I think is almost her maximum speed, an action which dispelled her clones. From what I was able to see, she completely overwhelmed Kurenai's guard, and was able to completely outmatch her sensei."

Kurenai smiled, somewhat embarrassed.

"The reason I judged her to be the winner however, was due to her final action. Her last attack was to punch Kurenai right here, on her heart. Normally, a blow like that wouldn't be enough, but in this case there's more to it. Whisper?"

Whisper stepped forward, smiling broadly. "Right before I struck Kurenai-sensei, I used my weapons very slightly for the first time." She held her fist before them all, to let them all see. "Just as I was about to come into contact, I did this." From out of nowhere, in the spaces on the glove between her knuckles, three small claws slid out, drawing a gasp from most present.

"But where do they come from?" asked Hinata quietly, raising her gaze to her teammate's face.

Whisper smiled back encouragingly. "Special storage seals, hidden in the stitching between the knuckles." She gestured at a smiling Hotaru. "You can thank Konoha's finest seamstress for that!" The ex-jounin curtsied jokingly.

By now, most jounin had an inkling of what was going on, but they left it to the genin to figure out. "That is a very clever attack Whisper", said Rock Lee, inwardly envious of her speed. He knew that generally he was faster than her, and his peak speed was higher than hers, but the ease with which she could alter her speed was enviable. "But I do not see how that would cause Lady Hokage to name you the winner."

Konoha's resident genius came to the rescue, his curiosity piqued by the intriguing puzzle before him. "How far out do those claws come?" asked Shikamaru.

Smiling broadly, Whisper extended her claws to their maximum length with a brief pulse of chakra. Without a sound, the three curved, metal blades swiftly extended to just under the length of her forearm. There was a moment of stunned silence before Kiba whistled softly. "I wish my claws were that cool." The assenting bark from Akamaru drew a laugh from everyone present.

"Now you see why I called Whisper as the winner," said Tsunade, stepping forward once more. "Simply to prove her point, she barely scratched Kurenai. However, if she had extended her claws to their full extent..." She let the sentence hang as most of the genin shuddered.

"In any case," continued the sannin, turning to face Kurenai. She looked at her seriously for a moment before laughing. "I told you to be on your guard." She didn't say anything about truly meaning the sentiment, not wanting anyone there to know she had just lost her bet on the first match to Jiraiya.

...

After a short break, Tsunade called the next two combatants to the field. Kakashi walked forward steadily, as calm as always, but Kroqgar was smiling from ear to ear, bouncing on the toes of his boots and cracking his neck in anticipation. When the two turned to face each other, Kakashi arched an eyebrow at his student's exuberance.

Raising his headband to bare his Sharingan, Kakashi said, "You seem in particularly high spirits. Anything I should be worried about?"

Kroqgar laughed. "You have no idea."

Tsunade stepped forward. "Both sides ready?" Both nodded. "Then... GO!"

Clenching his teeth briefly, Kroqgar brought his fist back, before flinging it forwards, firing a blast of ki at the ground before Kakashi. As soon as the thing exploded, Kroqgar burst into motion, summoning a shadow clone as he sprinted around the resulting dust cloud. He sent the clone in for a head-on attack, before bursting in from the side himself.

...

Asuma Sarutobi shook his head, before lighting a cigarette. "Kid's a goner."

His students looked to him. Ino asked, "What makes you say that sensei?" Kaji and Hotaru listened in, curious. Asuma noticed their attention.

Raising his voice slightly, the bearded jounin replied, "For all his strength, he's at a disadvantage. Kakashi has the Sharingan, so he's always going to be tough to beat in a straight-out taijutsu brawl. But the second Kroqgar stepped in there with him..." He gestured at the cloud of dust. "Now Kroqgar's pretty much working blind. And Kakashi is still at full strength. This match is already over."

As if to emphasise Asuma's point, a dull thud and a grunt of pain were heard from within the dust, before a body came tumbling out of it. Landing on its feet, the tall lanky frame sighed tiredly before brushing itself down.

"So..." said Kakashi, watching as a smiling Kroqgar walked out of the dust. "You can detect ki signiatures. That's new."

...

The jounin sprang forwards, determined to take the offensive. Quickly forming hand seals, Kakashi launched a fireball at Kroqgar. As the genin leapt aside, Kakashi was upon him with a kunai. With a metallic clang, Kroqgar blocked it with his own. The two struggled for a moment, before breaking off and having at each other.

Now Kroqgar realised how much danger he was in. With taijutsu he was confident he could hold his own against the much more experienced ninja, if only because of his strength, but he knew that Kakashi was far more skilled with a blade.

"At least..." he thought, mentally grinning, "This type of blade..."

Suddenly Kroqgar was all fumbles and stumbles, barely holding Kakashi off. The older shinobi, seeing his advantage, pressed the attack. As Kroqgar was pushed back, and back, the genin on the sidelines gasped. Was it going to be over so quickly? Even Whisper looked concerned.

Suddenly, Kroqgar's boot caught in the dirt, and he fell backward, catching himself on one hand. With one sharp swipe, Kakashi struck the kunai from his hand, sending it out of reach. Raising his blade to administer the final, harmless strike to Kroqgar's neck and win the spar, Kakashi paid no attention to Kroqgar's raised hand, futilely trying to ward off the blow.

As he brought his kunai down, a long cloud of smoke exploded into being in its path, and Kakashi struck metal. No fool, the Copy Ninja immediately jumped backwards to reassess.

Kroqgar was rising from the ground, and clutched in his hand was one of the most formidable weapons Kakashi had ever seen. A backwards-curving blade extended for well over a metre from both the front and back of the hilt, which had a small shield protecting it from the outside. The shield itself tapered to a point on one end and was spiked on the other. Kroqgar raised his other hand, and Kakashi's Sharingan detected a pulse of chakra in to the bracer on his wrist before another of the weapons appeared, clearly summoned from the wristband. Both of the weapons were coloured solid black, and trimmed in brilliant white. Kakashi blinked, picturing Kroqgar in his true form. Solid black fur, white fangs and claws, black and white clothing and weaponry. An imposing sight.

"So, Kakashi-sensei..." said Kroqgar, performing a complicated flourish with the two weapons, twirling them around his sides and over his head. He smiled broadly, saying, "How do you like my new glaives?"

Kakashi was silent for a moment as he watched Kroqgar perform the same maneouvre in reverse. "Glaives, huh? I must say, they look very fierce. How skilled are you with them?"

A moment later, Kakashi would curse his foolishness. From directly behind him, he heard a disembodied voice say "Let's find out shall we..."

The jounin exploded into motion, jumping high and twisting, avoiding the strike from behind. He had completely forgotten about Kroqgar's shadow clone, and that mistake had almost cost him his head. He backed up from the genin, his mind working frantically to try and think of a way around his weapons.

Kroqgar gave him no such reprieve. The younger shinobi went on the warpath, both him and his clone closing with Kakashi. They attacked mercilessly, brutally, forcing Kakashi back further and further. The jounin didn't know the full powers of the weapon yet, but he knew Kroqgar's strength. He had seen the boy completely unload on a giant tree mere days before, and knew that if he tried to stop a blow with that kind if power behind it with his kunai he'd be sliced in two.

Kroqgar managed to distract him for a split second when he tossed one of his glaives up into the air, its blades catching the light as they spun over and over. There was something about it... Something was off. The weapon had a chakra flow. It was fading but it was there, and for a fraction of an instant Kakashi couldn't tear his eye away from it.

A moment later, Kakashi awoke to the realisation that he had been asleep. Leaping to his feet, the jounin saw Kroqgar and his clone standing a good twenty feet away, shoulder to shoulder and massive. A glance behind him revealed the shattered remains of what looked to have been quite a sturdy tree. The tenderness on the left side of his face cemented his theory of what had happened.

...

(A moment ago)

Everyone in attendance, save the two combatants in the ring, winced and gasped as they saw Kroqgar land a murderous right hook to Kakashi's face, sending the older shinobi flying into a tree.

...

The Copy Ninja blinked slowly. "Ow."

Kroqgar merely smiled in return. The two stared each other down for a moment, the battlefield dead silent.

Kakashi frowned. "Almost dead silent." There was something, somewhere... Kakashi didn't know if it was the blow to the head, but he knew he was forgetting something, something important.

A moment later, his eye widened.

Diving into a roll, the jounin leaped forward, barely dodging the massive blade that implanted itself into the earth where he had been standing. That was it, that was what was off! Kroqgar had thrown the thing up but a moment ago, and the crafty genin had predicted exactly where Kakashi would be standing. A week ago the boy wouldn't have been able to do that, he was improving in leaps and bounds!

Raising his head, Kakashi saw the sole of a boot heading straight for it. Sighing at the necessity, he lowered his front leg straight and dipped into a split, the only way to avoid Kroqgar's strike. Even in his focused state of mind he was able to detect the hisses of sympathetic pain from some of the male genin.

A glint of white caught the light in front of him. His Sharingan spun for a moment, before he lowered himself even further, pressing his forehead protector to the knee in front of him. Even so, Kakashi felt a few of the longer hairs on his head trimmed as Kroqgar's weapon followed in the shinobi's wake.

Deciding to reassess, the Copy Ninja sunk quickly into the ground. Kroqgar looked up just in time to see Kakashi's newly shorn head of silver hair disappear, after the genin landed on the side of the weapon he had embedded in the ground (a move of Zabuza's he couldn't resist copying). He raised his other hand and immediately caught the weapon that was following him, feeling the centered hilt smack into his palm. With a thought, he dismissed his two weapons, after using the grounded one as a platform to leap into the air.

At the height of his jump Kroqgar brought his cocked fist behind him and channeled ki into it, before yelling as loud as he could, "NOT GOOD ENOUGH SENSEI!!", and plummeting to the earth, shattering the ground around him. A spiderweb of cracks appeared along the training field as massive chunks of stone and earth were thrown about, Kroqgar's eyes constantly searching for the jounin's presence. The spectators looked ready to move as the fissures in the ground expanded toward them, but just as they reached the sidelines, Tsunade stomped her foot and stopped them cold, a small smirk on her face.

Kroqgar resummoned both his weapons, and locked on to Kakashi's ki signiature. With a grunt of exertion, he tossed both glaives in that direction, both spinning swiftly end over end. Several of the watching shinobi raised curious eyebrows as they saw that the trajectory of his weapons seemed to be off, both spinning out from Kroqgar in a "V" shape, each getting further away from its twin as they spun.

With a smile, Kroqgar clenched both his fists in front of him, still in the position he had held after he threw his glaives. He suddenly flicked both of his arms as if using a whip, and brought his forearms into an "X" in front of him. Ahead of him, his glaives both spun about in a graceful arc, curving back in to intersect each other.

...

On the sidelines, both Neji and Hinata gasped. After seeing the astounding maneuver on the battlefield, many genin turned to the Byakuugan users for explanation.

Neji responded, bafflement clear in the Hyuuga prodigy's voice. "Kroqgar's connected to his weapons by a cable of chakra! He's using it to control them!"

"It's based off the Puppet Master Jutsu."

All heads turned at this interruption. Tsunade didn't turn, her brown eyes still calmly fixed on the battle.

"A chakra thread is used to connect the user to the tool, in this case a glaive instead of a puppet. Kroqgar's version is actually somewhat stronger than the Puppet Master Jutsu, but is nowhere near as precise."

...

Kakashi burst from a crack in the ground, directly into the path of the two spinning glaives. Raising his arms on either side of him, the elite jounin proved his mettle by unerringly catching both glaives in mid-flight, before either could so much as nick him.

Kroqgar, his raised arms still crossed in front of him, grinned savagely, looking far more wolf than human.

" PERFECT!!"

Straightening his arms once more, he flicked his chakra cables, before pulling them taut. Due to his Sharingan, Kakashi was able to detect the chakra cables leading from the weapons, so had an idea of what Kroqgar was up to. The genin wanted to fling Kakashi, still holding onto the glaives, over his shoulder and into the ground. Somewhat cautious over how simple his student's attack was to evade, Kakashi made to let go of the glaives.

And found that he couldn't.

His eye widened in shock as the mind that had kept him alive through a Shinobi World War almost immediately analyzed the available data and reached a conclusion. The weapons having a chakra flow, the strength of Kroqgar's chakra cables, the adhesive properties of chakra.... Somehow, through his chakra cables, the genin was capable of exerting his chakra through his glaives as if they were his skin, in effect binding them to Kakashi.

The jounin reached the conclusion that he didn't have the time to think of a way around it right now. So he did the next best thing, and anchored himself to the earth with chakra. Kroqgar could pull all he wanted, but Kakashi was not going to be dislodged from the ground.

The one thing the Copy Ninja discounted was Kroqgar's monstrous strength. If he had factored that in, he might have realized the ground wasn't as secure as he thought it was.

With a rush of ki and a roar that made the air vibrate, Kroqgar tore Kakashi from the ground, a small amount of dirt and rock still clinging to the jounin's feet, and flung the jounin high in the air.

Kakashi narrowed his eye, waiting. "Wait for it..." His shadow was moving rapidly across the ground, heading towards Kroqgar. "Wait for it..." The second his shadow moved across his student's face, the jounin moved. "NOW!"

With several quick, sharp movements and bursts of chakra, Kakashi kicked the assortment of large rocks that he had kept attached to his feet at Kroqgar, one by one. His Sharingan eye whirled as it tracked their movement. The Copy Ninja had never done something like this before, and was curious about his aim. A moment later he realised he had nothing to worry about.

The first rock struck Kroqgar in the stomach, bending the younger shinobi over slightly as all the air rushed out of his body. A split second later another stone impacted on his shoulder, heavily bruising him and rocking him back a step. The genin made the inexperienced mistake of raising his head to look at Kakashi. A third rock laid a thunderous blow across his jaw.

Kakashi was nowhere near done. Remembering a trick he had used in the last war against a Puppet Master from the Hidden Stone Village, he improvised.

"Lightning Style: Dual Puppet Surge!"

Immediately his hands started glowing electric blue. In an instant, the lightning chakra surged out of his hands and into the highly conductive metal, before flowing down Kroqgar's chakra cables and into the stunned shinobi himself. The genin immediately tensed up, all his muscles being strung taught by the flow of Kakashi's jutsu.

Not good enough.

Furrowing his brow, Kakashi increased the flow of his chakra, overwhelming his student. Despite being almost immobile Kroqgar opened his jaw wide and released a roar of agony. "Come on Kroqgar, how long do you want to make me do this!?" The jounin didn't like hurting his comrade's like this, but he knew that the ball was now in Kroqgar's court.

His Sharingan caught the shadow of Kroqgar clone swiftly approaching him from behind. With a brief twist and a burst of chakra the last (and only lethally sharp) stone left attached to Kakashi's feet pierced the clone straight through it's non-existent heart, dispelling it instantaneously.

Suddenly Kakashi's hands were free and an explosion rocked the ground beneath him, Kroqgar's barely seen form twisting through the air away from it. It seemed Kroqgar had retracted his glaives just a moment too late. The buildup of lightning chakra had reached a crescendo and, having nowhere else to go, exploded at the point where Kroqgar's feet met the ground.

Kakashi fell to the ground, landing lightly and picking himself up. He was barely breathing hard.

In the distance, Kroqgar slowly raised himself from the ground, brushing dirt off his massive frame. Sensei and student regarded one another for a moment. Both decided it was time to end this.

"LIGHTNING BEAST RUNNING JUTSU!"

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

In an instant both fired their techniques, the Kamehameha surging across the earth as Kakashi's lightning hound howled in anticipation.

He wasn't sure, but Kakashi thought that as their techniques were about to collide he saw the head of a great wolf snarling and snapping at his lightning hound from the Kamehameha. As the two attacks met...

...Kakashi's hound was brushed aside like it was nothing.

The Copy Ninja smiled.

Moments before the Kamehameha was about to strike him, he made a handseal, before disappearing with a "poof" to employ Kroqgar's own trick against him.

White shot through the jounin's vision. All he could hear was a high-pitched ringing. Then Kroqgar's voice permeated the haze. "Substitution Jutsu... Essentially a two-way shunshin to swap places with another object, in this case me. Useless against an opponent expecting it."

Kroqgar grinned fiercely as he parroted his sensei, ecstatic to have pulled one over the jounin. If not for the situation the look on his face would have been priceless as the Kakashi clone burst into smoke.

"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bomb!"

A giant dragon's head formed in the ground in front of him. Opening it's jaws wide, the thing started shooting cannonballs of mud at him, forcing Kroqgar to dodge, duck and roll, weaving in and out of the projectiles. Summoning his glaives once more, he even used them to slice a bullet in half when he couldn't avoid it.

"Earth Style: Double Earth Dragon!"

Looking around quickly, Kroqgar saw no sign of his sensei anywhere. "Where are you you silver-haired bastard?" A pair of dragons rose from the ground on either side of him and streaked towards him.

Kroqgar brain stalled for an instant at a time he really, really didn't want that to happen. "Kakashi is hidden. Dragons on each side. Earth still being shot at me." Time seemed to still for the genin for a moment, as he closed his eyes and thought.

Time sped up. He threw both glaives in front of him, slicing through an approaching earth bullet and embedding themselves deep in the head of the earth dragon, dispelling the jutsu. Kroqgar had looked away the instant the glaives left his hands.

Raising his arms on each side, he pointed his palms at the approaching dragons.

"HAAAAA!"

Focusing intensely, he fired a beam of ki at each dragon, the two attacks meeting on either side of him with a loud crash.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb!"

Breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his brow, Kroqgar turned and beheld three dragons made of white hot flames rushing towards him. He still couldn't locate Kakashi, and knew that the jounin by now could have moved anywhere.

"Shame I can't worry about him right now."

Quickly re-summoning his glaives, he performed what seemed to the spectators a strange maneuver. He held both of them vertically in front of him, and turned them so that the two blades on each weapon were curving in towards their twin, before embedding them both in the ground, creating an oval shape before him, framed by the glaives. Gritting his teeth, Kroqgar forced as much chakra as he could into each of his weapons, and to the keen eyes of those watching an azure haze appeared in the space before him.

A split second later Kakashi's jutsu impacted, the trio of dragons all throwing themselves at Kroqgar. None of them however were able to pass the glaives. Flame splashed out on either side, the ground was blackened all around save for a wedge shape behind Kroqgar, but the shinobi didn't budge an inch.

The assault stopped. Kroqgar dropped to one knee, drained from the effort to withstand Kakashi's attack.

He stiffened slightly as a hand lightly pressed against his back, over his heart. From behind him he heard Kakashi's proud voice say, "Lightning Blade."

And that's game! Again, I'm sorry that it takes me so long to post these chapters, but I 'spose that's just how I roll. Periods of writing fever interspersed with screw this I want to do something else. In any case, how'd you all like the chapter? Hopefully I made the fights believable, I know they seem a bit strong, but like I've said previously, they're almost complete unknowns so the usual characters don't quite know how to handle them.

I just want to say that I love writing with Kakashi. You can make him do almost any jutsu you want, even if he has never been seen using it. He has copied over a thousand jutsu after all.

Dear readers (though pitifully few you are), I have come to a realisation. I can't keep writing this the way I have been, it just makes it harder on both of us. From now on I'm going to start aiming for shorter chapters but try and update more. I want to finish this thing and I'm going to. From now on, expect shorter chapters more frequently. All good? Good.

And I think that's about it. Please remember to review, I love getting ideas from people who want to see something written in the story. Thanks again!

Next time: Less combat, more genin interaction, enter Sasuke and if your lucky the start of a new mission!