Of Tales now and Long Ago

Of Bonding and Missions

Chapter NINE

Two hours and eleven bowls of ramen later, Sasuke and Sakura dragged Naruto away from Ichiraku and made their way towards their training ground. When they got there, Kakashi wasn't there, but that was not a surprise.

"What do you want to do?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "We should-"

He was interrupted by a puff of smoke that surprised all three of them.

"Yo!"

"You're late!" Naruto yelled.

Kakashi just sent him his eye smile. "Hello, my cute little students."

Sasuke eyed him suspiciously.

Sakura waved. "Hello, Kashi!"

An eye-smile was sent her way too. "Today, we're going to start with a three way spar," Kakashi said, "Since yesterday, I wasn't able to grasp at your skill levels."

The three shot each other looks.

"You're going to continue until I say stop." Kakashi said.

Sakura quickly stripped out of her robe and sealed it in her scroll, which went right back into her arm. She tightened her purple sash and fingered the mask that went over the lower half of her face. She decided to leave it down.

"That's interesting." Kakashi said, eyeing Sakura's clothes. He tapped his own mask.

Sakura grinned.

The three spread out in the training grounds, eyeing each other. Now that they thought about it, they had never gone beyond playful Taijutsu spars.

Naruto was the first to move. He brought his hands together. "Kage bunshin no jutus!" Ten Naruto copies appeared in a puff of smoke.

Kakashi was slightly taken back. The Shadow Clone technique? He then remembered his teacher saying something about it and scolded himself for not paying attention.

Five flew at Sasuke while the other five went for Sakura.

Sasuke went through a set of his own hand seals. "Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!" A blew out a fire ball and sent it towards the clones, destroying them in one go.

Kakashi's eyes widened. Due to the huge number of chakra needed,Genin weren't supposed to be able to perform Elemental Ninjutsu.

Sakura swiped at one of the clones with her hand. It dispersed.

Sakura grinned and held up her hands. "Chakra Scalpel." She said. She then made quick work of getting rid of the others.

Now, Kakashi was actually very impressed.

While Sakura was busy, Sasuke and Naruto had engaged in a Taijutsu battle. Naruto's blows were powerful, and a few blows would be enough to knock Sasuke away. However, Sasuke was quick, and he could dodge around Naruto's blows. All in all, they were evenly matched.

Sakura quickly ran up to them and joined the fight. She stabbed a finger into Naruto's shoulder. The blond grinned. "Sakura-chan? What was that supposed to-" He tried to raise his arm and froze.

Sakura smiled. "I pressed a pressure point." She frowned. "But because I couldn't see where exactly I was pressing, it isn't as effective."

Kakashi noted that Sakura spoke like her teammates knew about her Byakugan, which was supposed to be a secret between him, Minato and the third. Kakashi inwardly smiled. Maybe this team really did know about being a team.