Chapter 1
Kakashi looked at the longhaired kid with doubt, this guy can't be much of an opponent. Eyeing his own pouch, the ninja had an urgent desire to read his book. Kakashi took his book out, opened it to page seventy-six, and gave the command "Hajumae!"
With that command the fight began, Kiyoshi and the two preteens by his side were supposed to get the bells away from Kakashi sensei. Kiyoshi was rather confused about whether Kakashi really meant for them to start their attacks or not. The two kids charged at Kakashi blindly, thinking that this would be a breeze. The blonde teen had no choice but to charge in with them. When they reached him, they grabbed for the bells and pulled them off with Kakashi still reading the book. Which followed by them jumping around and cheering. Kiyoshi was rather confused by what just happened, the fact that it was too easy haunted his mind, making him really cautious.
"Get away from there!" screamed Kiyoshi as the kids stopped to look at him in triumph.
"Haha, you're the one who's going to be tied up Kiyoshi!" still unaware that the task they just completed went too smoothly to be true.
All of a sudden, Kakashi and the bells disappeared in a cloud of smoke. He was using a clone technique to make two clones of himself and disguise them into bells. The kids stood and stared at their empty hands in awe, they fell into his trap.
"Oh no" whispered Kiyoshi, as he activated his blood time limit. "Get over here, now!" the kids complied and rushed over to him. In an instant he tackled them out of the way right before Kakashi's hands reached up from the underground.
"What did you do that for?!!" screamed one of the kids lying on the floor. Kiyoshi did nothing but point in the direction of the two holes in the ground to reply.
All of a sudden, the ground began to shake and he screamed, "We have to move! Run like you never ran before!" The three of them ran as fast as they could towards the forest nearby. Seconds later, huge columns of water broke out from the underground, one after the other trying to toss them up into the air. "Your left! Coming from the right! Duck!", the kids did everything he said, and managed to evade every attack Kakashi had thrown at them.
One of the kids took the glove off of one of his hands and screamed, "Jump!" Kiyoshi picked up the other kid and jumped. The boy, with the combination of 5 hand seals pointed all his fingers at an incoming attack, and a bold of lightning came out spreading through the water, following the wet trail back to the source of it.
An explosion came from the ground as Kakashi flew out, with a graceful landing he didn't lift an eye, but continued to read his book. "Your lightning can't do anything to me on that level, you still have much to learn about your element..." He was going to continue lecturing the boy, but got interrupted by a scene in the book, and started giggling.
"Are you really a teacher? You seem to me like a man who still can't get over the fact that he's over 18." suggested Kiyoshi with a taunt, to which Kakashi said nothing seeing as he was too much into the book. The kids charged again, and Kiyoshi screamed "No, come back!" to which they responded accordingly, remembering what happened last time they attacked blindly. He whispered to them, "we need a plan, retreat for now, we still have lots of time to get those bells." then he threw a smoke bomb, and the three of them disappeared.
"I guess i can sit down now" said Kakashi into the void, calmly turned around and headed towards the nearest tree, still reading.
"Do you know what airborne fighting is?" to which both kids shook their heads "That was a pretty stupid question seeing as I am the one who invented it, and therefore the only one who knows how to use it" Their eyes started twitching at what he just said to them. "Never mind that, here's what it is, it's basic hand to hand combat, designed for assault, evasion and flexibility all at the same time." This got them interested; he continued "furthermore, it becomes even more effective when you have more opponents." With that, the hope in their eyes faded, and their smiles disappeared. "So we'll have to tweak this combat slightly to work to our advantage. The basic idea is to use the opponents as the ground you stand on, but rather than standing, they're repeated kicks entering the opponent's vital points. this way, you have more possibilities for movements in mid air, and all four of your limbs are attacking, i guess the easiest way to explain it, fighting without touching the ground."
The kids were now definitely into the idea of Kiyoshi being the leader. he was stopping the mission to teach them techniques of his own. "Since there are three of us, and only one of him, my technique would only benefit him, so we have to use this technique and teamwork together." The kids groaned and looked in all directions but his. "yes.. the dreadful t-word. But here's the best part of it... it looks cool!" There was a small silence, the kids didn't know what to make of the blond in front of them, to consider him mature or still childish. "Anyways, what we'll have to do is attack him, and support eachother in midair while doing so. Lets go practice on that tree over there." The three of them went towards a tree and started their training.
Eleven hours had passed, and it was night. Kakashi nodded off, with the book covering his face. The group looked from afar, and Kiyoshi decided to use the group's new skill as a last resort. "We're going to try to get the bells, be quiet."
"But what about our technique? I want to try it out" whined the shorter kid.
"That's a last resort. And remember, if it comes to that, do not aim for vital spots, he's out friend, and we have no reason to hurt him."
"Alright, lets go" said the taller kid.
As they were sneaking up, he turned his blood limit on again, and they asked him what's happening to his eyes, to which he replied with the index finger to his lips signaling them to be quiet. They can't be too careful with an opponent like Kakashi. As they reached him, one of the kids attempted an approach, several seconds later, with an alarmed face Kiyoshi pulled the kid away as he let out an "Eek!" A trap went off, and a noose got pulled up catching nothing. That noose could've been wrapped around the kid's ankle and Kakashi would've woken up. Still, Kakashi woke up because of the "eek" the kid had released, and was startled to see glowing green eyes in the dark.
Frozen, as if villains caught in their act, the trio stood still (with the kid still dangling from Kiyoshi's arms), observing Kakashi. Without any concern for the surroundings, Kakashi yawned and stretched his arms out sideways, still sitting. He smacked his lips and folded his arms on his laps.
"well what're you waiting for?" asked Kakashi, to which Kiyoshi had no answer to.
Kiyoshi thought to himself "how can someone be so calm? especially after being nearly snuck up on, furthermore, being so oblivious to the surrounding opponents.
The whole group stared in shock thinking the same thing. "Well, if you're not going to do anything, I guess I'll have to" said Kakashi rubbing his eye, picking up his book, and getting up.
Suddenly, without a warning Kakashi attempted to tackle Kiyoshi
Kiyoshi Rolled over backwards with a grunt supporting Kakashi's weight with all four of his limbs and tossing him in the opposite direction.
Kakashi landed once again gracefully and without effort, but was a bit surprised to see that this kid could fight, the same kid that he once thought of being incapable of completing a simple task of boiling a pot of tea.
This time, the fight truly began, the group attacked in a formation that Kakashi was unfamiliar with, and using a fighting style which the masked ninja had never seen before.
The fight went on for three hours, and eventually Kiyoshi and the group had to retreat once again. He was very disappointed, they had lost a perfect opportunity to complete the mission, and furthermore, Kakashi now examined Kiyoshi's Blood limit, They were at a disadvantage. This time, he asked them what they could do, the smaller kid said he could cast a very nice genjutsu, but wouldn't be very effective against someone of Kakashi's caliber. The taller kid said that he knew his lightning technique and had potentially good aim with kunai and shurikens. Kiyoshi considered this, came up with a plan, and briefed his team on what to do.
Several hours passed, and they now only had an hour left to get the bells. It was the morning and Kakashi was reading his book again, from the beginning, for the third time, and occasionally slapping himself to stay awake considering what happened last time he dosed off.
The attack came using one of the wise man's rules; Kakashi saw a flag coming out of the forest with fingers peeking out over the top, the rest of the body hidden behind it, at which he became slightly ignorant chuckling lightly. Only seconds later he realized what had happened, he was caught in a beginner's genjutsu. He quickly brought his arms together, formed a seal and said "release!" only to see two kunai already airborne meters away from him traveling at a ridiculous speed. He quickly realized what the point of this attack was; to separate him from the bells. The kunai tips caught the tiny rings that connected the bells to the ribbons on Kakashi's belt. The kunai tore the bells off, flying into the distance. Now was the test of agility, Kiyoshi was racing the copy ninja to retrieve the bells.
Kakashi removed the mask from his second eye to prepare for combat. The bells were impaled to a tree, when the two blood limit users had arrived. Kiyoshi reached for the bells, but Kakashi grabbed his hand, the process repeated with Kiyoshi's left hand.
Kakashi's grip tightened and he attempted to flip Kiyoshi over himself.
As Kiyoshi was flying upside down over Kakashi who was still hanging on to him, he tucked his left leg in, and spread his right leg out to the side to kick himself off a tree. This threw Kakashi's attack out of proportion and they both landed in an awkward position.
They were connected by the hands, leaning on eachother in an upside down manner, forming a bridge. Kiyoshi decided to go with the flow and gripped onto Kakashi's wrists as the ninja did to his. They flipped over a few times in mid air, hands still connected, and landed in nekoashi-dachi (cat stance). Since their hands were occupied they couldn't form seals, and had to fight with only their feet, and this worked to Kiyoshi's advantage, so just in case Kakashi would try to abandon the situation he binded their hands with chakra.
The two kids were running to aid Kiyoshi, who was in battle about two Kilometers away.
The younger kid kept whining "Why did you have to throw the kunai so hard, now we'll be tired and useless once we get there."
The second kid considered this, stopped running and replied "you're right, slow down, we need to conserve energy."
Younger boy was worried about Kiyoshi though "do you think he'll be alright?"
"yeah, we'll be there soon enough" said the taller kid without considering the amount of time they have left; only 12 minutes left to retrieve the bells or else they fail.
Kakashi has already seen through Kiyoshi's blood limit, and after observation he came to the conclusion that Kiyoshi had only unlocked the first stage of his power. He also figured out what it was, even calculated how much into the future the teen could see. He was at a disadvantage, his Sharingan could only give him high reflexes which at this short range wasn't too effective for combat, his memorizing skill didn't work too well seeing that he couldn't get too many chances to get a lock on from his previous fight, his only option was to use the his genjutsu, because he wouldn't dare use his Mangeky[ Sharingan, not in a situation like this.
He cast the Genjutsu not knowing what would happen, but what actually happened was Kiyoshi's mind split into two, which he practiced with using the dual Kodachis, Kakashi did not foresee this, and therefore had to break Kiyoshi's chakra connection with his own chakra, which would take two times as much because he was putting it in the offence.
Kiyoshi grinned at Kakashi's failure to use his Genjutsu, but was a bit surprised to see Kakashi trying to back out of the bind. He felt His chakra connection weakening so he pumped more into it. He was surprised at how much power Kakashi had, it takes two times the amount of chakra to put on the offensive than defensive, and yet, Kakashi is overpowering him. The blue glow around their connected hands grew bigger and brighter, until there was a big explosion. They both flew back seventeen meters, slid across the ground scarring the ground's grassy texture. Kiyoshi stood there slightly slouched, and panting, where as Kakashi was standing up straight with no worries about catching his breath.
Then Kiyoshi's shadow caught the ninja's attention. He looked up at the sun then back at Kiyoshi and said "Oi, time's up".
Just at that point the kids arrived and were about to engage Kakashi in battle, when he raised his hand to stop them, and pointer at Kiyoshi with the other. The next thing they saw was Kiyoshi collapsing on the scarred ground. The three rushed over to Kiyoshi. They stood around him, looking at the guy snoring at their feet, Sweat drops came down the sides of their heads.
"Did he get the bells?" asked the smaller kid
"No, but he was very close" replied Kakashi while pointing at the bells still stuck in the tree. he went over to take the bells back, and had some trouble taking the kunai out. "Oi kid!" the taller kid turned around, "nice throw".
"Thanks... So what do we do with him?" asked the Taller kid pointing at Kiyoshi.
"You two grab his arms, I'll grab his legs." replied Kakashi.
As they were all struggling to hold Kiyoshi up, the smaller kid whined "why is he so heavy?"
Kakashi unrolled the blond boy's sleeves, to see that Kiyoshi was wearing some sort of high-density alloy, which he then searched for and found numerous plates of it, all over Kiyoshi's body. "holy mother of.." then turned around to see the kids staring at him, waiting to hear what he was going to say next. "Umm, let's just leave these weights here behind this tree until he comes to. Then we'll tell him where he can collect them."
This time, when they tried to pick him up, they put so much effort at once that they tossed Kiyoshi up into the air. Kakashi was barely able to catch the teen. "on second thought, i think i can carry him by myself."
The three of them walked with Kiyoshi folded over Kakashi's shoulder, while Kakashi told the kids what happened in the fight. After he was done telling them, there was a small pause, then he said, "don't train today, go home, meditate on what you've learned, and get some sleep. That's an order."
"Did we pass the test?" asked Kiyoshi in his sleep. Everyone stopped walking due to the confusion the sleeping teen had brought on. Kakashi then remembered Kiyoshi's secondary mind, which allows him to multitask with maximum concentration.
The kids were a bit startled, but then turned to Kakashi and asked, "Yeah, did we? Because even though we didn't get the bells, we tried out hardest."
Kakashi considered this and replied "don't bother yourself with that for now, but if you think that hard work is the only thing that gets you a pass, you're mistaken."
"But..."
Kakashi interrupted "I'll explain it to you later, but for now, i suggest you forget about all that nonsense, and meditate on what you've learned."
"Fine..." replied the small kid with a pout, making Kiyoshi and Kakashi smile.
Author's note: Hello everyone, this was my first fanfic, and it's only part one of two. I finished it a few days ago, but the first thirteen chapters still needed to be fixed before I marked it off as "completed". I just finished repairing those chapters, and Now I'm working on part two, called "A Fateful Roll". You can check it out by going to my profile and clicking on the link, but seeing that it's a continuation, reading the "Lost Soul" is manditory to go to the next. Have a nice day -Silencer299