A Fox, a Dog and a Raven - Chapter 4 (Home Coming - Part 4)
#5 of A Fox, a Dog and a Raven
This is the 4th part of the first arc, and is consists of 5 parts. I will post the final part on Wednesday and the first chapter of the next arc, 'Sexual Tensions' on Friday.
In this chapter Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura's test against Kakashi comes to its conclusion.
Any phrases you see that are underlined like this are the names of jutsu that are being activated.
For those of you not familiar with the Naruto series there may be some words or terminology that you are not familiar with. I have listed such words in a journal. (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4979582/)Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, this is a non-profit fan-fiction written for fun.
In any case, you came here for the story, so I hope you enjoy it.
"NARUTO!!!"
"SASUKE!!!"
Naruto and Sasuke charged each other, their chidori and rasangan connecting, the attacks repelling each other and burst into a bright light which engulfed them. The next thing that Sasuke knew was he was kneeling over Naruto's unconscious body, staring down at Naruto's face, unsure what he was to do. He had fought Naruto and won, proving that he was stronger than the blond, now he was free to go to Orochimaru and learn the jutsu he needed to become strong enough to beat his brother. But he couldn't tear his eyes off Naruto's face, he was feeling conflicted, a few minutes ago he was willing to kill the blond but now...
The heavens opened, a crack of thunder roared over head, water rained down around them heavily. Sasuke couldn't explain this feeling... he had experienced it before, he could never forget this feeling. Remorse, the same feeling he had felt when it had finally sunk in that his family was dead, after his brother Itachi had slaughtered them all and left him alive. He had suppressed that emotion for another, anger, he would spend the next few years training himself to become strong enough to kill his brother! Why was he feeling this now for Naruto? The blond was still alive and someone would be along shorty and find him and give him the medial care he needs, why was he feeling like this? Sasuke could feel not just the rain running down his face but his own tears as well, what the hell was happening to him?! He had always found Naruto annoying, the blond always infuriated him, eventually he came to respect him as Naruto had proven that he was more than just a dumb, blond knuckle-head. Eventually he had become resentful of Naruto as he had become so strong... that was what had pushed Sasuke to join Orochimaru in his search for power. He had been willing to cast aside everything, his friends, the village, he had even been willing to kill Naruto but now his heart ached as he looked down at Naruto's still bondy, the only sign of life was the weak rise and fall of his chest. Sasuke couldn't tear himself away... he used to feel like this when... was that it? Did he love Naruto?
Kakashi leapt to the ground, he hadn't seen any sign of Sasuke or the others since he had surprised them with the paper bomb kunai a few hours back. They only had a few hours left to find him and take the bells from him or they would fail the test. He reached into his pouch to retrieve his book but quickly pulled his hand back, he couldn't risk reading it. This wasn't the same three academy students he had fought last time, he needed to keep his wits about him. He took a moment to gather himself, the silence of the night broken only by the sound of the nearby river.
"Found you Kakashi-sensei!"
Kakashi spun round to see Naruto hurtling through the air straight at him, a Rasengan glowing brightly in his hand. Kakashi leapt out of the way, Naruto's attack smashing into he ground leaving a small crater. Several of Naruto's clones leapt from the bushes in pursuit of Kakashi. Kakashi easily dispatch Naruto's Shadow clones using his Taijutsu, as the last Naruto disappeared Sakura leapt from a bush behind Kakashi. Kakashi grabbed her arm stopping her fist when he realised something was wrong.
"Hang on you're..." Kakashi kicked Sakura in the back sending her flying into a tree, she disappeared in a puff of smoke just like Naruto's Shadow Clones had. He looked up instinctively and saw Sakura falling from the sky towards him, her fist pulled back to strike.
'If that grazes me I'm finished!' Kakashi side stepped, Sakura's fist missing him by no more than an inch, he leapt away just as her fist connected with the ground, the earth shattered and huge chunks of earth flew into the air, a large crater formed around Sakura. 'Naruto was just a distraction.' Kakashi sigh a breath of relief as he landed on a tree branch, his relief was short lived as Sasuke appeared out of no where to his right.
"Fire Style: Giant Fireball Jutsu!"
Kakashi managed to leap above the giant burning mass into the tree top where Naruto was laying in wait.
"Rasengan!" Naruto's launched himself at Kakashi the moment he appeared, driving the swirling mass of chakra in his hand into Kakashi's gut. Kakashi grunted as the air was knocked from his lungs and was spinning through the air into a tree before falling to the ground below. Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto landed nearby and looked to see that Kakashi was no where to be seen, only a large damaged block of wood in his place.
"Tch... Substitution!" Sasuke said annoyed. Before the trio could ready themselves Kakashi burst from the ground behind them on the other side of a small stream, his hands became a blur as they ran through numerous hand signs.
'So fast!!' Naruto and Sakura thought to themselves as Kakashi finished.
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" The stream in front of Kakashi erupted, the large mass of water spiralling straight into the air, it quickly changed direction heading toward the trio, taking on the form a large dragons head. They leapt in different directions in an attempt to avoid Kakashi's attack, the mass of water crashed into a tree, the tree cracked and splintered under the force of the attack.
"Where'd he go!?" Sasuke yelled, both Naruto and Sakura looked around and discovered that Kakashi had once again disappeared from sight.
"Man, I forgot how tough Kakashi-sensei was!" Naruto huffed. "Did you see how quickly he ran through those hand signs?"
"Yeah, I'm wondering if we can actually do this!" Sakura sighed.
"Kakashi is strong, but he can't beat all three of us." Sasuke declared confidently. "Now come on, he can't have gotten too far!"
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Kakashi was quickly making distance between himself and his students, they had caught him off guard and very nearly got him with their excellent team work, it was hard to believe that the three of them hadn't worked together in nearly two years. Any one of their attacks would have been enough to take him out if they had connected. There was still one thing that didn't make sense to him though, why hadn't Naruto used his sword yet?
He didn't have any time to think about it though as several shuriken struck the tree next to him, Kakashi quickly dived to the forest floor. Sasuke was quick to catch up with him though. Sasuke had drawn his sword and quickly had Kakashi on the defensive, the pair knew each other extremely well, Sasuke could easily match him move for move in Taijutsu and had recently begun to out match him in Kenjutsu. Kakashi's advantage was Ninjutsu. Kakashi ducked under a horizontal slice from Sasuke and rolled away before leaping into the air to create distance. Kakashi quickly began to run through hand signs and Sasuke sheathed his sword and began to copy him, his sharingan allowing him to copy Kakashi's hand signs perfectly.
"Fire Style: Flame Thrower Jutsu!"
"Fire Style: Flame Thrower Jutsu!"
Taking in a deep breath, both Sasuke and Kakashi began to spew out a powerful stream of fames at each other. The two attacks collided, each attack matching the other in strength. The pair continued their stand off each of them firing out a constant stream of fire at the other, the two attacks not giving any ground to the other, stray flames setting nearby bushes and trees on caught fire. Kakashi spotted Naruto charging him from his left, he quickly disengaged his ninjutsu and leapt away. Kakashi reached for his holster and threw several shuriken at Naruto. Naruto avoided getting hit by ducking behind a tree. Sasuke wasn't going to let Kakashi escape this time, drawing his sword again he sprinted after his sensei. Kakashi was expecting this and pulled a scroll from one of his pockets of his flak jacket, unrolled it revealing a seal, he bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood before wiping it across the seal, a short sword appeared in a cloud of smoke. He dropped the scroll and grabbed the sword in time to lock swords with Sasuke.
"You're not getting away this time!" Sasuke growled.
"Then lets see you try and stop me Sasuke!" Kakashi yelled back.
The next few moments were a blur of movement, the pairs swords flashing in darkness as the moon light reflected off them, sparks flew when the blades connected, but it was obvious that Sasuke had the upper hand. Sasuke's sword was longer and had better reach and he could match Kakashi's speed move for move. What he hadn't expected how ever was that Kakashi wasn't interested in sparring with him, when the opportunity presented its self Kakashi ducked past Sasuke and began to sprint away from him.
"Shit!" Sasuke cursed as he took off after Kakashi. "Naruto! Sakura! Cut him off!"
"Way ahead of you!" Naruto yelled triumphantly as he leapt into the path of Kakashi, quickly spreading his legs wide and gripping the handle of his sword while staring down Kakashi. Normally Kakashi would have changed direction but something told him to keep going, to see just how Naruto expected to stop him. Raising his sword Kakashi charged the motionless Naruto who still hadn't drawn his sword.
'What is he doing? Draw your sword Naruto! I'm not going to pull any punches here!' Kakashi ordered the blond silently.
"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled.
"Draw your sword Dobe!"
Kakashi swung his blade for Naruto's neck like he would any other opponent, Naruto was just a few feet away and still hadn't moved since he had stood in front of him his hand still resting on the handle of his sword, the split second before it happened Kakashi had looked into the eyes of Naruto, the determination and focus was unmistakable, Kakashi knew that he had made a very grave error in judgement. His sharingan barely registered it, Naruto's arm was blur and he felt the impact as Naruto's blade connect with his own, the force of the strike was enough to rip his sword from his hand and send it flying blade first into a nearby tree trunk, burying itself to the hilt in the wood. Kakashi's momentum carried him straight past Naruto, where he skidded to a halt in surprise. Sasuke and Sakura also had stopped in their tracks as they tried to work out what had just happened.
Kakashi turned around and looked at Naruto, he hadn't moved since he had launched his attack, his sword was still extended upwards into the air. Naruto slowly lowered the sword and returned to a normal standing position and sheathed his sword again, his back still turned to Kakashi.
"That was an impressive move Naruto" He praised the blond, the speed and force of the attack was incredible, he must have spent months of constantly training to be able to draw his sword like that. "But the fights not over yet!" Naruto looked over his shoulder at him with the biggest grin on his face, raising his left fist up and showing two bells attached to red ribbons hanging from between his fingers.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that Sensei!" Naruto beamed. Kakashi quickly looked to his belt to find that the bells were indeed missing. Naruto had grabbed them when Kakashi had been distracted by the speed of his Naruto's attack, his sharingan had been so focused on keeping up with the attack that he had missed Naruto's other hand grabbing the bells. Kakashi slumped his shoulders and let out a sigh of defeat before smiling at Naruto.
"Well done Naruto!"
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