Disclaimer: You know the routine.

Chapter 5: Chase and Meet

Ai shook her head, "Baka..." She unraveled the paper streamer she
had wrapped around her arm, "Paper user special technique: Paper
Lasso!" She said flinging the streamer at the obsessed ninja. In a
moment she had the Jounin cocooned in paper and laying on the
sidewalk. Ai threw the end into the street, looking satisfied as the
remainder sunk deep into the stone, anchoring Kakashi to the spot.
She smirked, "Now be a good boy and you might get a present!" She
said in a sing song before slipping into the bookstore.

"Wha? Huh? Hey, who turned out the lights?" Kakashi uttered in
confusion. The paper cocoon that ensnared him writhed around
frantically as Kakashi struggled in an attempt to free himself from
the trap.

In a few moments she returned to the still writhing copy
ninja, "Really, Ka-Chan, should you be a jounin if you fall for such
a simple technique?" Ai teased then she smirked, "By the way, I'm
currently holding a copy of the newest Come Come Paradise. If you
want it, you'll have to catch me." She said, reaching down with two
fingers, she made a scissor motion and severed both the streamer,
pinning the man to the ground, and her connection to his bonds,
returning the paper to its normal fragile state. She leapt away
before the Jounin could recover. Ai had stashed the book insider her
vest as she leapt from roof top to roof top heading toward the
quarry. She only hoped Sasuke had a strong heart because for once
his sensei would be on time.

Kakashi watched as Ai disappeared from sight. "So... she wants to
play games does she?" The famed Copy Ninja sighed and tapped the tip
of his sandal on the ground then knelt down and began drawing
something in the dirt with his finger.

"Ten..." he began to count down. A little bird flew overhead and he
heard movement on the roof above him. He looked up and saw Naruto,
carrying his backpack.

"Oi. Naruto!" Kakashi called out to him. Nine...

"Huh? Kakashi-sensei?" The blond ninja youth hoped down to meet him.
When Kakashi got a good look at him, he noticed that his student's
clothes were dirty and worn.

Eight...

Kakashi smiled with his eye. "Been doing some training have you?"

Seven...

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I'm done for now. The erosennin disappeared,
probably on his peeking escapades again."

"I see..."

Six...

"What are you up to, sensei?" inquired the curious Naruto.

"Oh, just meeting up with a friend then going to check up on
Sasuke's progress. We've been training at the rock quarry."

Five...

"Oh. Okay."

"You're very fortunate to have Jiraiya as a teacher, Naruto."

Four...

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder..."

Kakashi laughed. "Don't worry about it." He patted Naruto on the
head and messed around his hair.

Three...

"Well, I'll see you later, sensei," Naruto said to him.

"Ja ne, Naruto," Kakashi said with a wave as the youth went off on
his way again.

Two...

Kakashi stretched his arms back over his head. "Well, guess I'd
better go catch up with Ai-Chan. One!"

His hands came together and he performed a quick hand seal, then the
Jounin instructor disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

A little ways away, Ai was rooftop hopping along towards the rock
quarry as the female shinobi was nearing their intended destination.

"Oi, Ai-Chan," Kakashi called out to her, approaching his old friend
and teammate from her left side. He too was hopping from building to
building towards her. "Can I have my book now, please?"

Ai paused for a moment and smiled, "But, Ka-Chan, you haven't caught
me yet." She said with a smirk. Then her hands flew out as she threw
a double handful of paper at the copy ninja. It wasn't meant to hurt
but only to slow him down since she was aiming mostly for his face.
If he could use his jutsu then she gets to use her paper. She
laughed again using her Taijutsu speed to race off to the quarry.

Kakashi brandished his kunai knife and eyed the paper as it flew
towards him. As the sunlight hit it, he noticed a kind of wet-
looking sheen to the paper that Ai sent at him.

"Flypaper," he said to himself. "Jumbo sized." He tossed his kunai
at the paper, sticking it to the top of a nearby roof as he sailed
over it.

He smiled under his mask. "Ai-Chan!" Kakashi called out to her in a
sing-songy voice. "I'm getting closer. You'll have to put a little
more effort into your attacks against me."

Aiyousha grinned, "Now if I did that, you'd get hurt." She threw
back at him. She threw up her arm and the paper she kept with her
swirled around her, hiding her from his view. She swiftly formed
seals with her hands the whole time praying the jutsu would work,
that she could force open her chakra gates enough to let this
work. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." She whispered, then she felt it, the
all too unfamiliar feeling of her chakra rushing through her. It was
powerful, it was over whelming...it resulted in a single copy. Ai
went to sigh in disappointment when she felt the pain in her chest.
One hand shot up to press over her heart as she stumbled for a
moment. She pushed too hard. Kakashi would kill her if he found out
how much stress she put on her body doing Nin and gin jutsus. It
took her only a moment to recover before she threw her arm back,
launching the paper towards the copy ninja. They cut into the roof
at his feet, as a warning to not draw so close. Both her and her
copy took off in different directions. Though after awhile the real
Aiyousha headed back towards the quarry and the waiting Sasuke.

"Are? (Huh?)" Kakashi blinked as the rooftop beneath his feet gave
way. The Copy Ninja's body vanished in a puff of grey smoke and a
statue of a panda bear replaced him and fell into the hole.

By that time, they finally reached the quarry where Sasuke was
practicing his jutsus for the final round of the chuunin exam that
would be held in a month.

The dark-haired, dour youth slammed his chakra enhanced left arm
into a large boulder, his chakra shooting out into his target like
electricity. Sasuke peeled back from his stone practice dummy and
his red eyes reverted back to their original dark color. Damn...
that took almost everything I had.

Sasuke slumped against the floor on his backside when he noticed a
pair of figures near him. A woman, who was extremely beautiful, landed
just off to his side. "Who's there?" he asked.

Then all of a sudden, Kakashi appeared behind her and wrapped his
arms around the woman, pinning her arms down at her sides. "Gotcha!
Don't think you're the only one who can send divided bodies out.
Now, for my prize." He reached one hand into her shirt to grab his
book... and ended up groping something much more soft, round, and
pleasant. "Uh... whoops."

Sasuke's jaw dropped. His sensei had just assaulted and groped an
innocent woman. "Kakashi-sensei!"

Ai kicked her feet off the ground, jerking and thrashing like a
hooked fish as she screamed, "KAKASHI! YOU PERVERT!" Finally she
managed to jerk away from the copy ninja. She re-adjusted her shirt
before pulling the book from her VEST. She threw it at her fellow
Jounin, nailing him in the head, "THERE! There's your stupid book!
It certainly hasn't taught you anything about a REAL woman!" She
snarled and turned her back to the Ninja.

"Well, you haven't changed at all," Kakashi stated, bending down and
picking up his book.

"Ano... Sensei?" asked a confused Sasuke.

He tucked it away in his vest and approached Ai and rested a hand on
her shoulder. "Look, I apologize okay. My hand slipped is all. I
know that's no excuse, but I'm still sorry all the same." He gave a
small bow of the head. Ai still had a temper, so he knew he'd have
to be pretty careful around her. Maybe after this he'd just leave
with Sasuke to train somewhere else, give her a chance to cool down.

"Sensei?"

Ai took a small breath, for some reason Kakashi could always get her
angrier than anyone else around. "Its okay, Ka-kun." She said
softly, resting her hand over Kakashi's. "Accidents happen." Her
gaze turned from Kakashi's single viewable eye to Sasuke's black
ones. "Ah, you must be Ka-kun's student, Uchiha Sasuke. It's a
pleasure to finally meet you. Ka-kun's been very vocal about your
achievements." She told him.

Kakashi smiled; the movement of his mouth under his mask was quite
obvious. "I'll just have to be more careful around you then. It's
been a while. Forgot about that hard temper you have."

Sasuke nodded his head and looked back and forth between his teacher
and Ai. "I'm... not disturbing anything here, am I. I just never
knew Kakashi had a girlfriend... I mean, considering this IS Kakashi-
sensei after all."

Ai looked shocked at Sasuke's interpretation of events. She glanced
at Kakashi and quickly looked away, blushing. "Don't say such
things, Sasuke-kun. Kakashi and I are just friends. We were in the
same cell. She said quickly, trying to defuse the situation before
Kakashi got it into his head to do something weird.

"Like you, Naruto and Sakura, Ai-Chan was my teammate from my days as
a Gennin and then a Chuunin. That's all," stated Kakashi, as serious
as ever.

Sasuke looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded his head. "Oh,
okay." He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm surprised you're hear so
early. On time, I mean. Usually, you'd have just made me wait."

"Well..." Kakashi scratched the back of his head. "I just decided to
stop by on time. I do that sometimes. Right, Ai-Chan?"

Ai chuckled, "Actually the only time he would actually be on time
was when we were genins. The only reason he's here on time is
because of me." She said, admitting her ulterior motive for buying
the new Come Come Paradise for Kakashi. "He hasn't yet figured out
that it's rude to keep one's team waiting." She said slyly.

Kakashi winced then gave a small nervous laugh. "Ha ha... you got me
there."

"Well, it doesn't really matter. I've been training here since after
lunch," Sasuke stated. "I just wanted to get the extra practice in
with that new jutsu you showed me before."

Kakashi stared at the wide holes in the stone behind his pupil. "I
see you're beginning to master it quite well."

"I've still got a long way to go."

"Ah! Sou ka! (I got it)" Kakashi tapped a closed fist into his open
palm. "Ai-Chan, would you care to help me train Sasuke. I'm sure he
could benefit from learning what you learned out in the field for so
long. What do you say?"

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. It didn't matter to him who was
training him, just so long as he got stronger. "Suki ni shiro. (Do
what you like.) The final part of the chuunin exam in one month.
I need to get strong enough to fight that guy from the Sand before
then."