Shadow of the Night

Chapter 5

I could have sworn Kakashi smirked at me. The again, I could only see abut 1/5 of his face, so it was hard to tell. His relaxed stance told me nothing of his planned moves, with the exception of his slightly tensed muscles. He was ready to fight, but what would his strategy be? 

"Taijutsu first?" I nod, and we jumped forward at the same time.

He was very good, blocking all of my attacks, and delivering swift ones in return. Not a problem for me, but I hadn't had a pressing opponent in so long. The urge to use my shadows was creeping in. I usually like to slow down attacks by binding an opponent's ankles. I put a bit of extra effort in, jabbing him in the solar plexus and then grabbing his shoulder. I flipped him over my shoulder, and he landed hard on the ground. 

There was a stunned silence.
I guess Kakashi was a big shot.

He stood, renewed curiosity shining in his visible eye. 

"I suppose you can use your trump card. I'm dying to see it."

"Fine, but don't feel to bad when you can't handle it."

Is was my turn to smirk. This didn't worry me unduly, since I had been put up against countless opponents when I trained with Orochimaru. No jutsu could phase me now.

I watch carefully as he lifted his forehead protector.

So the rumors were true. He had a sharingan. This just got interesting, and a bit more worrisome. If I could just hold him off in a taijutsu battle before, who knows how good he is now. I had always thought that 'Kakashi of the Sharingan' simply was so fast and skilled he surpassed those with the sharingan. I had doubted whether or not he genuinely possessed an Uchiha eye.

"Well you get points for surprising me. Tell me the story after I beat your ass won't you?"

Kakashi chuckled, the warm sound surprising me too. He must be confidant in his skills. Time to see how well a borrowed eye works for an outsider.

We began sparring again, and I must say, he was pushing me. I knew better than to use ninjutsu, he would just copy me. He was already close to beating me. In a quick burst of power, I push him back a few meters. "Alright if I use my shadows now?"

He simply nodded.

Shadowy matter twisted from the trees on the outskirts of the forest. They moved to wrap around me, then I sent them shooting forward to attempt to restrain Kakashi. He jumped away at the last moment, not that I expected any less. 

What to do, what to do.

Kakashi's POV

Her shadows wrapped around her small frame again after attacking me. I could tell she was trying to decide her next move, but I had to strike before that happened. If I was caught in her shadows, it was game over.

I thought back to when the team and I were trapped in her shadows before. Sure, it had been to protect us, but we didn't know that. I tried every jutsu I knew, and nothing worked until I used my last resort- the raikiri. My most powerful chidori.

Running to face her head on, I summoned my chidori to blast through the shadows protecting her, careful not to accidentally impale her with my lethal chakra. I let it die out as I tackled Hikari, pressing her shoulders into the dirt. I grin at her. "I win."

"Not so fast Kashi-kun, I'm just getting warmed up."

I balked at the nickname. I don't get many of those. But before I could gather my thoughts Hikari whipped her leg up, catching the back of her knee against my throat and using her own body weight and her kicks momentum to flip us, pinning me instead.

I blinked in surprise, then cursed myself silently. I shouldn't have gotten distracted. But all I could think was that she smelled really good. And damn she was nimble how the hell did she get her leg up here?

Mentally shaking myself, I let out a soft cough, letting her know I'd like to be let up now.

Hikari let the shadow kunai at my throat melt away, and leaped lightly off my chest. She extended her hand to me, and I hauled myself up with her help. I hope she can see through deception, because I wasn't finished.

Hikari's POV

I knew he was going to attack me again, and was therefore not surprised when he lunged at me again. I dodged his quick attack, but he anticipated this, moving to meet me where I ducked away. We sparred for about 10 more minutes using taijutsu. Neither of us seemed to have the upper hand, but on the inside I was faltering. I couldn't last much longer, and I think he knew. Finally, Kakashi ducked one of my blows and swept my legs out from under me. I tried for a back hand spring away, but he anticipated this. Kakashi wrapped his arm around my waist, rolling me and pinning my shoulders to the ground with one forearm.

"I suppose you do win." I said, slightly out of breath.

He chuckled again, releasing me. "Damn you're good. No one's pressed me that long on a ranking spar." Kakashi noted. 

"I underestimated you." I glanced at his still uncovered sharingan. "Where did you get that? You're definitely not an Uchiha."

Kakashi sighed, but spoke teasingly. "Maybe I'll tell you the story some time."

I pout at his evasive answer, but a grin finds its way to my face.

************

"I think I'll make you both jounin. We don't have a team you both can join, so I'm thinking we might have you help genin teams until we find a good place for both of you." The Hokage's office was dark by the time we got there. Kakashi stood languidly in the corner, reading a book with questionable content. I mentally sighed and turned to the Hokage. 

It was obvious what the Hokage was doing. We were easily ANBU level, but the Hokage wasn't going to just accept us with open arms into their elites. He wanted us where we could be further evaluated, watched, and away from the village's secrets.

"When do we start?"

*AN
Sorry if there are spelling mistakes or whatever, I'm still writing on my phone. I'm also trying to keep Kakashi as in character as possible, let me know if I'm failing :)
-Hanna