Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 4

The forest turned out to be much larger than they had imagined. The two eleven-year-olds were growing very frustrated with the lack of opponents they faced. Even Akira was confused. All of the chakra signatures that she could feel were weak, meaning they were very far away.

"Feel anything yet?" Yuhi asked from behind her.

Akira jumped to the next tree, effortlessly keeping up her speed. She shook her head. "Nothing."

Something Kakashi had said had been drifting around in her mind for a while now. Don't let your guard down around those sand shinobi. Now that she thought about it, the chakra signatures she had been feeling for a while were only those belonging to members of the leaf village, and one sand team on the other side of the forest. She hadn't felt anything around them since they left the gates. That couldn't be right though. Where was everyone else?

"Guys, this is weird. I've got a bad feeling about thi–"

Yuhi was cut off by a kunai slicing the air right in front of her. It left a small cut on the bridge of her nose. The three of them stopped cold, landing on a thick branch. They joined together, forming a circle with kunai at the ready and backs to each other in a defense position. A peal of laughter emanated through the forest around them.

"What the hell? Akira, do you sense anything?" Somaru asked in a low voice.

"Still nothing. They must be suppressing their chakra." It made sense now. Why she couldn't sense them, but they were very clearly there.

"Aw, is the little girl scared because she can't sense us? Poor thing." A cold voice rang out from around them. It sounded as if it were coming from everywhere.

"Where are they?" Yuhi growled.

More laughter. "Why don't you just give us your scroll, and then we will be on our way. We won't even hurt you too badly."

Akira tightened her grip on her kunai. They had no way of knowing what type of scroll the other group had. Or even how many enemies they were facing. They had to get to the ground. They were too vulnerable from every angle up here.

Akira started to voice her thoughts. "Guys–"

"Let's go." Yuhi leaped off of the branch, propelling herself downwards toward the ground. Somaru leapt in a different direction, leaving Akira alone on the branch. She flipped backwards off of it and kunai pierced the bark at her feet. She was in a freefall towards the ground now.

Akira landed on a branch below her, and leaped towards another one just as a kunai with a paper bomb attached blew up behind her. She grabbed the new branch with her hands and used it to swing herself towards the ground. She hit and rolled, coming up in a crouch. She made three hand signs, then slammed her hands against the ground.

"Mud wall!" She yelled. A wall of rock rose up in front of her, just in time. Four kunai with paper bombs attached slammed hilt-deep into the wall and exploded. The blast seared the leaves of the bushes around Akira. The heat made her skin dry, cracking her knuckles.

Yuhi and Somaru dropped down to the ground beside Akira, protecting her backside.

"Those were some powerful paper bombs!" Somaru said, sounding slightly out of breath.

Akira nodded. "They sure were. Get ready for the next assault. I still can't pinpoint their location, but there has to be more than one enemy. You can't do ninjutsu or genjutsu when your chakra is suppressed, but you can still use taijutsu. They're going to try to overpower us with numbers."

Suddenly, a sand shinobi appeared in front of the three of them. "Very astute observation. I see we were right not to underestimate you, little one."

The shinobi was tall, and looked to be about Kakashi's age. He glared down at them, brown eyes carefully watching their movements. He had two long swords in his hands, the blades glinting in the sunlight. He smirked at their angered expressions.