SASUKE'S POV

"But Kakashi sensei, we're tired!" Naruto grumbled loudly, stomping his feet.

"I don't care, you will stay until you've at least made it across once" Came Kakashi's reply as he turned back to his book. We were in the training field where we had first fought against Kakashi to become team seven, but next to the three stumps where Naruto had once been tied was a huge wooden piece of apparatus. It looked like a huge, very spaced out set of monkey bars, made from medium sized tree trunks. When asked where it had come from, Kakashi- sensei's reply was "Well, I had a spare hour." Though when he had turned up, late as usual and with another poor excuse, the thing was already there.

"But Kakashi sensei-"

"Don't you want to become stronger Naruto? You'll never become Hokage if you give up now." Kakashi interjected, this time without even glancing up from his book. That did the trick; Naruto couldn't resist a challenge, especially one to become stronger. He stopped complaining, turned around and marched back to the huge apparatus, crouching low before springing up to run up the first trunk. From there he took a few steps along another trunk, connected at a right angle to the first; before crouching down to wrap his arms around the third, connected to form a cross shape.

The cross pattern continued down the long expanse, to form a huge monkey-bar looking monstrosity. To cross it, Kakashi had explained to us; we would have to concentrate our chakra into our hands, much like how we had learned to focus it into the bottoms of our feet to climb trees before. But the hard part was maintaining an even flow of chakra to hold on to the log while gaining a swinging momentum to propel you to the next log. The most difficult part was halting the flow of energy to your hands to let go, and refocusing it as you grabbed onto the next log along. I had managed to get to the 6th bar; the halfway point, and so far Sakura had made it to the tenth, and was currently making her way past Naruto on the other side of the equipment once again. Naruto swung and latched onto the 4th bar, the furthest he had gotten so far. He let out an excited laugh, before losing his concentration, cracking the wood beneath his palms as he let too much chakra flow through them and falling with a yell, hitting the ground hard.

I stood as he did and made my way over to the first trunk, concentrating chakra in the bottom of my feet as I picked up speed to get a running start. I risked a quick glance at my loud mouthed teammate, and saw him rubbing the base of his back, groaning in pain.

"Loser." I tisked, loud enough for him to hear as I started the vertical climb at speed. I wanted to ask him if he was okay, but knew he would just rebuff my concern. The idiot could have landed on his feet, so it was his own fault that he had gotten hurt, I told myself.

"I HEARD THAT SASUKE! YOU RAT BASTARD, NEXT TIME YOU FALL, I'LL KICK YOU WHILE YOU'RE DOWN!" He was still under the bars, on the side that I was about to start to cross, looking up at me with his hands on his hips and an aggravated expression plastered across his face. For his benefit I rolled my eyes as I gripped onto the first log and swung down. I managed to keep the pained look off my face too as I replied;

"Keep threatening me and I'll land on you, moron. You won't be doing any kicking then." I huffed as I began to move my body back and forth, gaining momentum for the swing forward. I propelled myself, grabbing onto the next log along.

Without the use of chakra it would be impossible to cross to the other side by swinging, because the 'bars' we're just too thick to hold onto without wrapping your arms around. We had been at it for hours, and the exertion was getting to me, not that I was ready to give up just yet. Unfortunately, unlike Naruto, I didn't have endless reserves of chakra to use so I knew I couldn't go on indefinitely. I swung to the third log, and looked ahead to see Sakura grabbing onto the 11th. Damn it, she was going to beat us again. I expelled an annoyed breath as I worked up the momentum for the next leap.

"Try it then, asshole! I'll beat the crap out of you!" Naruto's indignant retort brought my attention back to him. He was still below me, itching for a fight. I knew baiting him was wrong, but I just couldn't help myself; he was such an easy target "How? With that sexy jutsu of yours? Don't make me laugh, you dolt" I loved to see him angry, that cute face of his red and scowling was almost too much fun to see.

"THAT'S IT SASUKE!" He yelled up at me, while making signs with his hands. A second Naruto appeared with a puff of smoke beside him and began to kneel down to give him a boost. I cut the flow of chakra to my hands and dropped down, using the forward momentum I had to propel myself at the real Naruto. I landed on him as he yelled out, and quickly turned, palming a kunai to slash out at the shadow clone. It disappeared with another puff of smoke.

"No way! No freaking way!" Naruto started struggling with earnest beneath me, trying to wriggle free, so I placed my hand on the side of his face, turning his head until the opposite cheek was pressed against the dirt. He struggled harder. "Stop moving, Dobe" I ground out as I applied more pressure to his face. I couldn't help but revel in being cruel to him, as much as I also wanted to treat him kindly, this was so much more entertaining.

"Why are you doing this? Stupid bastard..."

I leaned down so that no one else would hear, and replied in a low voice, "You know why" I released his face and sat back, prepared to get up and leave him be for a while. I knew pissing him off would mean that he would train harder today, and I enjoyed competing with the hot head. I needed the competition to push through the fatigue and reach the end of this damned obstacle course. I suddenly felt Naruto's fist connect with my jaw, snapping my head to the side with the force. Then he shoved hard on my shoulders to push me off him. I stood up as he did and licked the blood from the corner of my mouth, smirking at the blonde.

"SASUKE!" I heard Sakura's high pitched yell and looked over to see her hopping down from where she had been sitting on the final log. Behind me I could hear Kakashi moving towards us too. Ugh, great...

Naruto faced off against me just as I felt Kakashi's hand on my shoulder.