AN: Ayyyy, look who it is. Thanks for supporting guys, it means a lot :).
Naruto knew Gai.
Why did Naruto know Gai?
Kakashi despaired to himself, doing to his best to ignore Gai nattering away next to him. He focused on his blondest genin, who was hanging off of Konoha's second Green Beast with a smile as bright as the sun.
He didn't trust it.
His other two genin, didn't either, going by the wary looks they were both sporting. Kakashi approved; Naruto and Lee together was a disaster waiting to happen. How the universe could have allowed this, Kakashi didn't know.
"Ne, ne, Sasuke-snowflake. You and Eyebrows-nii should spar!"
Oh no.
Oh no.
Kakashi stepped forward, alarmed, only for Gai to fling an arm across his shoulders, laughing heartily.
"An inspired idea, young Uzumaki-chan!" He boomed. "Testing yourself against new opponents is a good way to judge one's growth, and capacity for more. Along with the simple fact that exposure equals experience!"
While Gai was technically right, that didn't mean that Kakashi particularly wanted this to happen. He wasn't an expert on children, but even Kakashi could tell that Sasuke had a hell of a lot of issues, including but not limited to some sort of inferiority complex. He was strong for a new graduate, but Lee's strength was off the charts. If (when) Sasuke lost to Lee, Kakashi didn't know what would happen.
Unfortunately, before Kakashi could even begin to explain why a spar was a very, very bad idea, Sasuke had already looked Lee up and down speculatively (and clearly found him wanting; Kakashi made a mental note to teach the little shit how to see, preferably before his sharingan came in), agreeing without pause.
The wide, shark-like grin that stretched across Naruto's face made Kakashi want to cry. The smell of triumph poured off of her in waves.
Honestly, what had he done to deserve this? Why had she suddenly decided that she wanted to see her poor sensei suffering? Was it a rebellious phase?
God, why had he ever let Sarutobi bully him into this?
"You can do it, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura pumped her fist, hearts shining in her eyes.
"Hn." Sasuke's reply, if you could call it that, may as well have been 'I know I can, peasant'.
There were a lot of things Kakashi was going to have to do about that boy, and he was not looking forward to it. Hopefully the upcoming beat-down would start the work off for him.
As everybody moved towards the edges of the training ground to give the two genin space, Kakashi pat his moody duckling on the shoulder. "Don't be deceived," he said quietly. "Rock Lee is one of the strongest genin in the village. Try to keep your distance."
Whether Sasuke deigned to listen to him or not, at least nobody could say that he hadn't tried.
The kid looked a little startled anyway, so maybe Kakashi wasn't wasting his breath. Lee, unfortunately, didn't seem to be underestimating his opponent at all; his round black eyes were fixed on Sasuke even though his eagerness was written all over his face.
"Maa, remember children, this is a friendly spar. Try not to hurt yourselves, hm? It's too early to be dealing with doctors." And with that, Kakashi gave the signal to begin.
The two genin blurred into motion, both instantly going on the attack. Sasuke was good, there was no doubting that. His grasp of the Academy-taught taijutsu style was exceptional, and his speed was nothing to sneeze at either, for a new genin.
But Lee still had the upper hand.
It was easy to see the frustration building. Every hit that Lee landed sent Sasuke skidding back, and pushed him into defensive manoeuvring. A spar it may have been, but the Strong Fist was still a style of taijutsu that utilised raw strength; if Lee had been using his full power, he would have sent Sasuke flying on first impact (partially because the kid wouldn't have expected it; no matter what Kakashi told him, there was no way he would have prepared himself enough to defend against that).
Finally, it seemed that Sasuke had had enough. He ducked under Lee's fist and jumped back, forming hand seals with impressive dexterity.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"
A rush of flame burst from between his lips, heading unerringly at the older genin. Lee, with only taijutsu in his arsenal, had no choice but to rely on his physical speed to dodge.
Which he did.
Despite the volume and longevity of the flame – and the heat; for no discernible reason, the Great Fireball was one of the hottest Katon in existence – it seemed to take only a little effort for Lee to take several leaps back, divots in the earth marking the spots where he landed.
Kakashi cast a sideways glance at Gai as the two genin took to circling each other. "Exactly how much does that kid weigh?"
A beaming grin and a wink was the only answer he got.
"Come on, Eyebrows-nii-chan! You've got this!"
"What?! No way, you can do it, Sasuke-kun!"
Next to him, Kakashi's baby kunoichi were calling out their encouragements. Naruto was grinning, jumping and waving her fists around in the air. Sakura, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to strangle the blonde girl. Her indignation was almost palpable; Kakashi thought that if it wasn't for Sasuke being her first priority, he might've had two fights on his hands.
"Naruto, you banana brain!" Sakura fumed. "Support your teammate! Obviously Sasuke-kun is going to win!"
Naruto just laughed, looking nonplussed. "Nah. Eyebrows-nii has this in the bag. Sasuke-snowflake isn't cool enough to beat him yet."
Neji and Tenten, who thus far had been watching the spar with silent interest (or not, in the boy's case), both twitched at the implication that Lee was any sort of cool. Kakashi was just hopeful that the 'yet' tacked on at the end was a sign that at least one of his baby genin was open to improving their current relationship.
"Konoha Senpu!"
Lee called it out as his body turned in mid-air, the leg that Sasuke had just blocked finding purchase on the ground at the exact moment that the opposite leg snapped out and kicked him straight in the chest. Sasuke was knocked back, flying through the air and crashing into a tree twelve feet away, landing in a crumpled heap at its' base.
Kakashi winced.
It was an easy enough move to evade once you got used to it, but the strength that Gai and Lee both put into every single movement was… intense. Especially to the unsuspecting, which Sasuke definitely was.
Naruto whooped, bounding forward and throwing herself at the older genin. "So cool! You're the best, Eyebrows-nii!"
Sparkles burst from Lee's body as he grinned, swinging Naruto around with much enthusiasm. "Yosh!" He shouted. "I will not have to climb the Hokage Monument with my legs tied together!"
That was- horrifying.
Choosing to pretend that he hadn't heard that, Kakashi went to check on his downed student. Sakura was already there (she'd screamed his name the second he hit the ground, rushing immediately to his side), hovering over a scowling Sasuke.
He'd rolled into a sitting position, and hadn't moved a muscle since. He simply sat there, glaring black death at Lee (who didn't seem to care, or even notice, too busy shouting and jumping around with Naruto).
"Maa, Sasuke-kun, don't look like that. You did well."
The blistering glare the kid sent him told Kakashi exactly what he could do with his praise.
"You really did, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura gushed, green eyes painfully earnest. "You almost had him!"
Definitely not true, but Kakashi had to give the girl credit for her blind devotion (actually, he should probably do something about that, it really wasn't healthy).
Sasuke's brow twitched. He finally moved, dragging himself to his feet and pinning Kakashi with his dark gaze. "I need to get stronger."
Beneath the simple statement, Kakashi heard the much darker one that Sasuke really meant: 'If I can't even beat this guy, how am I going to kill Itachi?'
Itachi, being a prodigy at all forms of the ninja arts, was so far beyond Sasuke's current reach that it wasn't funny. The thought of his baby genin (that he hadn't actually wanted but had somehow grown on him like a shinobi fungus) trying to go up against his missing-nin brother was terrifying.
Not for the sake of vengeance, but for the preservation of their tiny lives… Kakashi was going to grind these kids into the ground if it meant they would have they strength to protect themselves.
Okay, so maybe Naruto had lost control of the situation.
Just a little!
Things had gone in the general direction that she'd intended – goading the snowflake into getting his ass beat by Lee and thus infuriating him enough that he would start harassing their sensei into training them even harder so that he could be strong enough to beat Lee in a rematch. It was supposed to be a win-win for Naruto; more training, seeing Team Gai more often, and forcing Kakashi-sensei into close proximity with his rival.
Except it'd been a week since Lee and Sasuke had sparred, and Team Seven's training had taken a turn for the hellish.
Naruto panted, sweat running in literal rivers down her face. A few yards behind her, Sakura had been forced to tap out, laying flat on her back and drawing in heaving gulps of air. Sasuke was still on his feet, but Naruto thought it might be pure determination that was holding him up.
Before them, Kakashi-sensei looked infuriatingly casual. He spun a kunai around his finger once, slipping it into his palm and gesturing loosely at the two genin: 'Come get me.'
She'd been fucking trying.
Still. Uzumaki Naruto never gave up, dattebayo!
She flicked her eyes in Sasuke's direction, catching his black gaze inquiringly. He nodded.
With a loud cry, Naruto rushed forward, popping out kage bunshin left and right as she did. Several of them immediately henge'd into Sasuke, and the two real genin did their best to blend in as the group swarmed Kakashi.
Clones started bursting almost instantly. Naruto did her best to keep tabs on Sasuke's chakra signature through the smoke (a neat new trick their sensei had been teaching them); they'd gotten pretty good at reading each other's movements since their training had gone into overdrive, and she was confident that they would be able to tell what the other was intending even if they couldn't see.
Feeling Sasuke go directly for Kakashi-sensei, Naruto decided she wanted to try something different. The goal of the exercise was to knock the kunai out of the jōnin's hand. It should have been simple. More simple than that stupid bell test, even.
And yet.
Still surrounded by the chakra smoke of her burst clones, Naruto rushed in low. Kakashi's feet weren't moving at all, even as he avoided every single attack that Sasuke and the clones threw at him. His upper body was swaying every which way, and his arms moved like lightning to deflect the genin's strikes, but his goddamn feet weren't. Moving.
Which is why Naruto had made the decision to tackle him around his knees.
It maybe wasn't the smartest decision, but Kakashi's sudden transformation into a statue was pissing her the fuck off, so it did make her feel a little better when she connected.
That is, until she felt a smaller-than-expected fist thunk her on the head.
"Tch. Get off of me, dobe."
"Wha-?!" Naruto, finding herself wrapped around her teammate's knees instead of her sensei's, hastily let go and scrambled to her feet. She whirled around, golden ponytails still managing to fly, sweaty and manky though they were.
Kakashi-sensei stood there, still in the same position. Only, he was in a different spot.
"Ooohhhh!" Naruto shook her fist at him. "Kawarimi doesn't count!"
"Maa, Naruto-chan." He eye-smiled, balancing the kunai point-down on the tip of his finger. "I did say that the three basic academy jutsu were allowed."
"By us!"
"I don't remember specifying that. The only caveat was that you be able to use kage bunshin because your regular ones are abysmal." Somehow, his eye-smile stretched wider.
Naruto wished she could poke him in that eye, just once.
"I don't care about your cavities or whatever." Naruto shook her head. "But you know what, Sensei? I'm gonna take this as a win."
"You literally failed the only goal I gave you, Naruto-chan."
Kakashi-sensei's voice was as dry as the desert.
Ignoring the annoyed grunt that Sasuke let out behind her, Naruto wagged a finger in the jōnin's direction. "Maybe so-"
"Literally so."
"May. Be. So." She grit out between clenched teeth. "But I did technically manage to make you move, even if you cheated by using kawarimi."
"Is that what you were trying to do?" Kakashi hummed, finally pocketing the kunai. "Shall we make that tomorrow's challenge then, Naruto-chan? You three do your best to make me lift my feet."
Sakura, still laying flat out under the shade of the trees, made a garbled sound of horror. Naruto had to agree.
She was definitely going to be maximising their visits with Team Gai, to make this worth it.
AN: You know how it goes. Drop ya thoughts and ish in the reviews.
- Kelly