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.

“

Kakashi managed to leap above the giant burning mass into the tree top where Naruto was laying in wait.

“

“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.

“

“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!”

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

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!”

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