Chapter 4

Sakura used her hands to slow her momentum as she landed with force hard enough for her to skid backwards, her legs aching in complaint to the added strain.

Hasao watched her mutely for a second before pointing upward.

Before Sakura could even look up, she felt a sharp pain on her head, and instinctively reached both hands up to cup the offended area from further damage. "Itai itai itai…"

A gleaming object to her right caught her attention, and she scowled upon realizing that she had been hit with the handle of kunai. Hasao had thrown the kunai lightly enough that its weight eventually caused the weapon to slip from the tree above and right onto her head.

Sakura pouted, glaring at the grass to prevent herself from tearing up. She had been so focused on dodging his weapons, she hadn't even considered that he was planning anything else.

She threw her own weapon to the ground and folded her arms grumpily. "Mou, how am I supposed to dodge all your attacks and think at the same time?" She kicked at the grass angrily, her frustration throughout the night finally overflowing. "I just can't do it."

Hasao let out a sympathetic sigh and slowly closed the distance between him and the pink haired child.

His voice was soft and soothing. "Everyone has their own unique strengths and weaknesses in battle - everyone is different. Don't focus on matching my speed, focus on using your strength to your advantage - your intelligence." Bright green eyes moved to his, the furrow in her brow disappearing as she gazed up at him, soaking in his words.

"A friend told me once, that having the skill to track down a fugitive is important, but so is understanding how he thinks. You can thwart him by understanding his mindset without having physical skill." He paused, letting his words sink in. "You're smarter than most, Sakura, and you can use that to your advantage. "

The pink haired girl blushed at the rare compliment, slowly forgetting the ache in her limbs.

However, the moment didn't last long, for Hasao lashed out with his hand to grab her arm. Having experienced many surprise attacks, Sakura instinctively jumped back, leaving Hasao to grab empty air.

She grinned at her successful evasion, and pulled three kunai from her own holster. "Not this time, sensei!"

As she launched her weapons in his direction, she liked to think that there was a small smile before he evaded her attack.

Safely hidden behind bushes, Sakura watched as Naruto was launched into the lake with Kakashi's deadly "Thousand Years of Pain", wincing as the tiger seal made contact with a sensitive area.

Understand your opponent…? How can I possibly begin to understand the inner mechanisms of this strange man?

Two kunai flew from where the lake toward Kakashi, to Sakura's surprise. She was pretty impressed that he could aim accurately despite his lack of vision.

Sakura always had a sensitivity toward chakra and its movement. Therefore, when she felt his chakra splitting into multiples within the lake, her admiration grew, watching with a growing grin when only a single Naruto slowly clambered out.

This jutsu…! He's planning an ambush!

Once she realized his intent, she moved to reposition herself. Kakashi most likely knew what was about to happen - if she could feel Naruto's chakra signatures split off, so could the jounin. However, it could open up room for her to enact a surprise attack. She ran while keeping an eye on the clearing, and almost ran into another chakra signature in her haste. Sakura stopped herself in time, finding scathing onyx eyes tensely watching her approach. Sakura held out a hand in apology, but not without rolling her eyes a bit.

This one obviously expected the worst from her. But that was understandable. Respect was earned, after all.

She tapped her temple with a slight smile, indicating that she had a plan in mind, and eagerly took a spot a couple feet away from him, watching the scene unfold.

From the field, Naruto gazed at his opponent, eyes blazing with determination. "There's no turning back now, dattebeyo! I'm going to become a ninja no matter what!"

With his declaration, seven of Naruto's shadow clones burst from the lake, all equally soaked. "Security is your greatest enemy! Now for my favorite multi-shadow clone jutsu!"

Kakashi tore his eyes away from his orange book, his single eye widening a fraction in mock surprise.

Sakura moved quickly, knowing that she only had a small window of opportunity, and threw three low shuriken at Kakashi's legs. The jounin jumped backwards to avoid the attack, backing right up into a clone that was approaching from behind.

The clone snickered in victory, holding Kakashi down by wrapping his arms and legs like an ape. "A ninja shouldn't let themselves be taken from behind, sensei!"

Sakura had also dashed into the clearing, aiming for the jounin. However, she quickly realized that the silver haired jounin was already channeling his chakra for another jutsu. "Kuso!"

He's already trying to escape!

She threw two kunai aimed for Kakashi's head, and waited for him to throw his head back to avoid it. She planned to use the blind spot when an opponent throws their head back to attack his hands and interrupt the jutsu.

Unfortunately, the silver haired jounin seemed to anticipate her intent, and instead threw the clone on his back into her projectiles, causing the clone to dissapate with a poof and leave the jounin with free arms.

Meanwhile, Sakura had already began her next move, and used the momentum from her dash to slide forward with a foot extended. She approached with great speed, aiming for his shins. Kakashi jumped, as calculated, but as Sakura reached out to grab his ankle, his jutsu completed. Instead, she grabbed the foot of a clone, just as Naruto threw a punch at where Kakashi had previously been.

Sakura quickly let go before she dragged any clones with her in her kick-slide and used her hand to stop her slide. She growled, slamming her fist into the grass in frustration.

If I was a second faster, I could've made contact and used a genjutsu!

Behind her, shouting erupted and broke her out of her thoughts. She looked back to see the Naruto clones engaged in a heated fight. A vein in her temple popped as they threw around punches and yells of, "You're Kakashi-sensei, aren't you?!" and "You smell like old man!".

The pink haired girl pushed herself to her feet, brushing the grass off of herself. "Stop, you baka. He used a substitution jutsu to escape - he's not here anymore. He must've known about the clone and let himself get caught to pull off this trick."

At her words, the clones paused in their brawl, blinking as realization seeped in. They stopped fighting, but continued to eye each other suspiciously. "How do I know none of you posers are Kakashi-sensei in disguise as me?"

A clone with a fistfull of another's hair in his hand yelled, "Wait! Why don't you dispel the jutsu and then only two Naruto's will be left anyway!"

"Why didn't you think of that earlier, baka?"

"You're me, you idiot, now undo the jutsu!"

Sakura groaned and squeezed the bridge of her nose in annoyance, in disbelief at her teammate's simple-mindedness.

He has the skill and chakra storage to conduct such an impressive jutsu, yet is weighed down by his lack of brain cells!

Sure enough, Naruto and Sakura were the only ones left in the clearing once the rest of the clones were dispelled.

"Hey look! He dropped his bell!"

Sakura snapped her head up, eyes wide when she realized what was happening. "No you-!"

With a snap, blue eyes widened with surprise as his world suddenly flipped, and found himself dangling upside-down with a rope around his ankle. "S-Sakura-chan quick! The bell!"

Sakura hesitated. The worst thing you could do was underestimate your opponent, and Kakashi had most definitely planned a trap for her as well. Instead, she threw a kunai at the base of Naruto's rope, freeing the blonde from his confinements.

The Uzumaki instinctively landed on a handstand, bending his elbows to soften the impact. However, a second rope, triggered by the weight, immediately tightened around his torso and yanked him back up to his original position. "Mou…! Are you serious, dattebeyo?!"

Sakura snorted and burst into laughter, finding the constant misfortune of her teammate highly amusing. "Good thing I didn't go for the bell, huh, Naruto?"

Kakashi leapt down from his spot in the trees and crouched to pick up the metal object. "It seems like only one of you two has any sense, hm?"

Sakura shifted her stance to the defensive, feeling for her opponent's chakra movement. For the moment, it felt like his normal chakra, so she was sure it wasn't a clone. Though, she could tell that he had something in store by the way his chakra was so fluidly moving, ready for his next move.

"Be careful when you use chakra - it can be used against you, like I did with the clones" he lectured, lightly tossing the bell in mockery. "And, Naruto, don't fall for such an obvious trap, you fool."

In the midst of his lecturing, a barrage of weapons emerged from Sasuke's position within the bushes, curving for the jounin. Before the weapons were even halfway to his position, Sakura felt Kakashi's chakra spike. Emerald eyes narrowed on her opponent, observing him intently she tried to predict what he was going to do.

It's not going to work.

Much to Naruto's horror, Sasuke's weapons embedded themselves into the target, throwing Kakashi's body to the side with its impact. "T-Teme! You've gone too far, you asshole!"

As the jounin's replaced his original self with another log, Sakura jumped into the leaves of the tree where Naruto was trapped, concealing herself, and with a great leap, escaped into the surrounding foliage once more.

She turned to dash deeper into the forest. She doubted that the jounin would waste any more time hanging around that clearing. She could feel Sasuke's chakra similarly jerk away from its spot, now that his position had been compromised.

Sakura bit her bottom lip in thought, eyes scanning her surroundings for clues as to the silver haired man's whereabouts.

What's your next move, you sadistic pervert?

Sasuke glowered at the dirt, cursing at himself for not being fast enough. That old bastard had pulled him under the ground, and now the Uchiha was reduced to just a head above dirt.

His finger brushed the bell, felt the cold metal on the tip of his hand, and lost the opportunity just as quickly as it came. It was closer than any of his teammates had gotten to grabbing their objective, but a failure was still a failure. And now, he was wasting precious time by being stuck in the ground as the hours quickly approached noon.

He growled, attempting to wiggle his shoulders so that he could loosen the soil around his body, but stopped when he heard footsteps. He turned, and found himself looking at his pink-haired teammate frozen mid-step.

They blinked at each other for a second before he spoke.

"Sakura?"

The sound of her name seemed to break the kunoichi, and she fell to her knees with her head bowed, her cheeks puffed to keep her laughter from breaking out. Tears came to her eyes with the effort to preserve her teammate's dignity. Sasuke watched with building resentment as she use her shirt to muffle her delight, dark eyes glaring at her hair in hopes that he could somehow set it aflame to stop her laughter.

Sakura found herself laughing so hard she was gasping for breath, "I can't believe… (gasp)... he did this… (gasp)... dear Kami… (gasp)... he's the best…!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance and returned to his wiggling effort to loosen the dirt around him, seeing that his teammate wasn't making the move to help out.

Seeing this, Sakura wiped the tears from her eyes and finally moved to help him, though her infuriating laughter still seemed to have no end. "Sorry," she cackled, "This just doesn't happen often."

With a strength that impressed the Uchiha, she pulled him out of the ground and onto flat land again. He let out a sigh of relief as his limbs were freed again, giving the girl a curious glance as he brushed the dirt off of himself.

She was first in the academy, even above himself, but he found himself with low expectations since he associated her as one of his first fangirls. However, her intuition had surprised him multiple times already throughout the exercise, and he couldn't help but feel a smidgen of respect building for her talent.

The presence of others still proved to be a hindrance, but this pink haired nuisance had proved herself to have earned the headband that rested on her head.

But he should be thinking about the mission on hand.

His teammate seemed to share his thoughts, and her expression turned serious. "We have to go. We don't have much time left."

Sasuke gave a curt nod, but before they could leave, the sound of the timer pierced the air.

Sakura let out a colorful string of curses, in which Sasuke found himself agreeing with.

Time was up. And none of them had grabbed a single bell.

A/N: Lemme know how you like this chapter! Hope whoever's reading this has a great day.