Run with the Hares (Hunt with the Hounds)

Chapter 2

They nurse the tension until it bloats, bursting all at once as they meet in the middle with a thunderous clash.

She's aggressive, closing the distance with more bravado than Kakashi expects, ducking into his guard with the veteran expertise of a close-quarters combatant. He's unbalanced for a split second but recovers quickly, slamming the end of his kunai against the cap of her wakizashi before it bridges the gap.

Anyone else would have been disarmed, but she meets his blow and powers through with unexpected strength. Kakashi grits his teeth and jumps back in time to avoid being nicked, flexing his arm to suppress the sudden tremor vibrating through his bones. She wastes no time taking the opening, ducking under that arm as he swings it overhead to force her low.

She sees through the feint, and her free hand catches his oncoming fist in a bruising grip. Deftly using her momentum, she pushes him back and sweeps his legs.

But Kakashi's speed is legendary, and he's already in the air, landing a safe distance away with a barrage of shuriken as a buffer.

She deflects and disappears, leaving Kakashi with only a split second and the barest breeze as allies to determine where she'll appear. He catches her to his left, striking out with a leg before she touches the ground. Infuriatingly, she matches his pace, predicting his movements with uncanny accuracy, wrapping her arm around his calf and tapping the back of his knee with the flat of her blade in a pale imitation of a crippling blow he's seen Yugao favor.

He tucks away that information and pushes through, ignoring the sting in his thigh as he meets her again.

By some unspoken agreement, they keep their fight physical. Blood is a fee, but deadly force is a price neither pay as they trade blows. Kakashi adjusts his aim when he rakes his kunai toward her neck, and she turns her blade to its blunted edge when she knocks it aside. Body and steel stay in constant contact as Kakashi tests her resolve, annoyed that she meets the challenge with stubborn ferocity.

She's successful, and Kakashi will be sporting a few cuts and bruises come morning, but it's worth letting her believe he's on the back foot for now.

The woman is sharp and decently quick, with an iron grip over her chakra that most shinobi would envy. She has control in spades and knows how to use the impressive strength lurking under her lean frame when she gets the opportunity, but she lacks speed and reach, depending on her sword to maintain distance.

The wakizashi keeps him at bay, and she wields it with enough finesse to speak to hours of practice, but a hint of stiffness in her movements betrays inexperience. However long she's trained in kenjutsu, she's far from mastery, and the gall of giving the mask to someone so average boils Kakashi's blood.

He finds the cracks and chips away with relish, watching with an almost detached sense of amusement as she falls for one of his gambits, taking the full brunt of his fist to her sternum as a reward. It's a hard enough blow to stun most Jounin, but to her credit, she doesn't cough or stagger; merely palms the hilt of her sword with renewed fervor and rushes him.

Maybe she's content to think them evenly matched, but Kakashi has no qualms about putting that belief to rest. He descends on her with increasingly tight and vicious blows, savagely satisfied to see her go on the defensive. She pays for her earlier audacity in blood, tiny rivulets decorating her skin as she hops, focusing more on dodging his strikes as they increase in speed and precision.

He almost catches the side of her head, and she moves just enough that her hairband is the only casualty. Then she's a dozen feet away, earning some space with a sealless flicker, and while Kakashi is grudgingly impressed at her immaculate control, the oncoming kunai is pathetic.