•○Love Is Nothing to Be Ashamed Of○• <KAKANARU>

Chapter 3

As I soared through the dark, moody trees, I saw a red beam of light coming from the training ground entrance. I guess that means Bear is entering the forest. I stopped abruptly on a tree branch high up in the trees. I crossed my fingers in a plus sign and said quietly, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." and sent the clone to gather nature chakra. He ran far from my location, masking his chakra.

I don't know how powerful Bear is. He is an ANBU, after all. I'm not as cocky and stupid as I used to be before the war, so I refrain from sending out a taunting wave of chakra. I stay as quiet as possible when I finally sense a carefully shrouded chakra signature steadily coming towards me. It seems Bear is trying to mask his chakra. Well, either he is underestimating me or just has bad chakra control. I assume the first option since the boy had to be pretty exceptional to be in the ANBU Black Ops.

Suddenly, the chakra signature was gone, and a pillar of wood shot at the branch I stood on. I jumped from the branch and to another, only to see the wooden pillar split in two and try to attack me from two angles. I waited until the pillars got close enough to me, and then I jumped on top of them. I ran toward the source of the pillars only to be met by another coming from the ground below.

Nothing I couldn't handle, but the boy was still good. I didn't sense the jutsu coming from below me. Anyway, it's useless trying to hide now, so I sent put a wave of chakra. "Found you." I said, then jumped as high as I could into the air. Multiple wooden pillars shot towards me, but they were slow and sloppy, so I dodged them and made a clone mid-air. The clone made a spinning sphere of air chakra in my hand and dispersed itself.

As I fell to the ground, flexible pillars came from the piece of ground I was aiming for. Over the years, with Jiraiya, I mastered and improved my Rasengan. It was greatly powerful at this point and blasted straight through the pieces of wood. "Rasengan!" I yelled. Dust flew. So did Bear. He just barely made it away from my attack. I wasn't aiming directly at him, anyway, so as to not severely injure him.

I quickly made a clone, and as the dust cleared, I saw Bear lying on the ground, eyes barely open. He was clutching his side. He looked at me, then smiled and winced. Suddenly, he disappeared into a cloud of smoke. The smoke quickly went away, and the injured Bear was replaced with a log. I smirked when I heard a small explosion in the distance.

I got the memories from my dispersed clone. The real Bear was hiding somewhere nearby. Of course, I knew the wood clone I was fighting wasn't the real one, but I didn't have time to search for the real one in the heat of battle. My clone had sprinted toward the suppressed chakra signature and engaged Bear in a taijutsu battle. He landed every blow he could make and finished off the fight with a Rasengan. The last image I have from the clone's memories before dispersing was an unconscious but still alive Bear being propped up against a tree.

As I made my way to Bear to check up on him, make sure he wasn't severely injured, a kunai flew by me. It was a close call. It just barely grazed my whiskered cheek. My head serves toward the source of the kunai. Kakashi. Kakashi was hiding in the direction of the thrown kunai. I had to give it to the dog man. He hid his chakra a LOT better than Bear.

Another kunai flew towards me at an amazing speed, but it wasn't fast enough to rival the Hero of the Hidden Leaf, and I caught the kunai in between my index and middle finger. "Hm. Not bad, Kakashi." I said, them gave a warm smile. It was really nice seeing him as a kid. Still young, still naive, but not innocent.

The said Kakashi jumped from his hiding place, gracing a taijutsu stance and a kunai. His mask was still on, I couldn't see his face, so I could only imagine his expression as confusion and anger radiated off him. "How do you know my name." He said, a growl present in his voice. "Like I wouldn't know my own Sensei and savior~" I replied. While he took me to the hospital that day, I recognized his chakra as my Sensei's. Wow, it was funny seeing his reactions. Usually, he's pretty stoic and collected, but once you rile him up a bit, it only escalates from there.

The silver-haired ANBU was shaking in fear and frustration. Wait. Fear? Is Kakashi scared of... me? I chuckled in surprise and slight sadness. Well, that would have to change. I can't have my former Sensei afraid of me, now, can I?

Kakashi charged at me. As he ran towards me, I jumped into the tree beside me. I needed to see his fighting skills before I used my ace in the hole. I jumped from tree to tree in the forest, Kakashi hot on my trail. Once again, I crossed my fingers and said, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" And summoning at least 10 clones. The clones and I split up, going in multiple directions.

As I ran farther and farther from Kakashi, I got many of my clones' memories of being dispersed by the boy. There were only four clones left, and that number was declining steadily. One of my clones seems to be a pain in the neck because he used a Raikiri to disperse it. He should be getting tired, especially after using such a big jutsu. I sighed at the ANBU boy's foolishness and met up with my clones. Kakashi might be a prodigy, but even prodigies make rash decisions sometimes.

As my clones and I masked our chakra as best as we could, we grouped together. My clones quietly and quickly discussed our observations of the 14 year old Kakashi Hatake. "Thank you for the information. Now, I have an idea." I whispered to the four other me's. We discussed my plan as fast as possible, and my clones darted in all directions once again.

1063 words.