I do not own Naruto – if I did, Kakashi would really be great – like a Sannin etc etc etc… and we'd see what's under his mask.

Addressing Kaki-kun: there are always win-lose situations. Like where you win a battle but lose a war. Iruka can win - and not win at the same time... hehehe! But then, who could get the better of Kakashi-kun?

Revelation of the Wolf: The Glory of the Hatake Clan

Testing Journeys

Kakashi arrived half an hour late on the training fields. Iruka was already practicing some kicks and punches, knowing that the silver-haired Jounin was perennially late.

"Where were you?" asked Iruka, trying to keep accusation from his voice.

"I –" Kakashi paused and scratched his head. "I lost my dog so I had to go out and find it…"

Iruka drooped in disbelief.

"I just can't believe that… that's the lamest excuse I've heard in ages! It's worse than the one Hanabi told me the other day!"

"Hoe?"

"She told me that her father had used her essay to light his pipe."

"It's……… possible," Kakashi said, struggling to visualize the Lord Hyuuga lighting a pipe with paper. "How big was her essay?"

Iruka glared. "Stop joking around! It's not funny!"

"Sure, sure."

Kakashi stared at the Chuunin.

"So…." He said, wondering what to do next.

"So….." Iruka said, wondering what to say next.

"How about some sparring, just to see how you are?" Kakashi said, slouching into his habitual lazy posture.

Iruka eyed the older man and how his hands were hidden in his pockets.

"So…."

"Hmmmm….. I thought a lot about this…." Kakashi said, looking thoughtfully up at the sky. "A bell test is best."

He held up a bell and attached it to his waist.

"You can only get it if you come at me with the intent to kill."

Iruka's eyes widened. Kakashi slouched.

The bell test! The one that he failed so many students with!

"But I'm adding something else. You must get it back to the clock on time – so once you get it, that isn't the end."

Iruka nodded and disappeared.

Kakashi pulled out his book and started to read.

Watching the lazy Jounin, Iruka sighed, disillusioned.

Does this guy always start fights with a book? No wonder Team 7 were so exasperated with Kakashi! But then… I guess it's supposed to trick his opponents into thinking he's not paying attention.

Creeping further away, Iruka made several buunshins and sending them back to Kakashi, masked his chakra and followed carefully.

When he arrived, the buunshins withdrew and threw their shuriken and kunai. Kakashi evaded some and those he could not evade he deflected with his own kunai.

Iruka's eyes widened as he recognized the speed of Kakashi's defense.

He had not been the only one working out.

Eventually, Kakashi found the clones and after fighting them hand-to-hand (nothing very exciting) dispatched them easily. As he sliced through the throat of the last one, he was drenched with water.

Water.

Iruka has water clone jutsus under his belt? Since when?

Suddenly, Kakashi found himself swallowed up by a huge wave which crashed through the trees and swamped the entire area. As he tried to reach the surface, he found that the water seemed strangely resistant and weeds reached out to pull him further down.

For a second, Kakashi felt momentary panic and then, his eyes narrowed.

A genjutsu!

Concentrating briefly, Kakashi yelled, "Kai!", dispelling the illusion and found himself under attack again, this time by shadow water clones. They were better than before.

And faster.

Much faster.

Rock-Lee-speed.

The clones then started to blink out and then reappear in different places. Kakashi stepped back uncertainly.

Teleportation? A genjutsu? Some sort of invisibility cloak?

Raising his hitae ate, Kakashi stared around him as he watched the four bodies of chakra appear and then disappear only to appear again somewhere different.

Kakashi wasn't given much time to observe – before he knew it a hand brushed across his waist, a finger on the bells.

A tinkle.

Shibato!

Kakashi jumped away, managing to get two down on the fly. One of them kicked Kakashi squarely in the gut which spun the older Jounin around and then down, just in time to evade the slice of a kunai from the other Chuunin buunshin.

It must be some sort of flash technique like my sensei's. Which means…..

Kakashi chose one of the buunshins and, completing the seals after identifying the source, transported himself to the back of the first buunshin, quickly dispatching it.

Iruka's eyebrows rose.

That's like my technique – except it finds the target! Must be a ninjutsu…. Well… I guess there's no help for it.

Iruka found the river before Kakashi tracked him, by the time the silver-haired shinobi got to the banks he found another bunch of water clones waiting for him.

Suddenly, the air was filled with bullets of water, smashing into him. Kakashi's clone disappeared with a 'poof' and Kakashi jumped into the air, forming handseals as fast as lightning.

"Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He intoned before opening his mouth to emit a large blast of flame, which destroyed the next round of water bullets and the buunshins standing on the river.

"Iruka! Still afraid to fight me face to face?" He said.

His only visible eye widened as a blue sandaled foot connected heavily with his head, knocking him down toward the ground. As the brown dirt approached fast, another Iruka from the side socked him in the jaw.

Before he could react, a hand shot out from the earth below him and snatched the bell.

Springing out of the earth, Iruka sped off as fast as his legs could carry him.

Kakashi stared after the brown-ponytail.

Rock Lee…. What have you done? Well… it's probably Gai's way of getting back at me for the last time…. Mmmmm…. Almost time….

Iruka raced across the grounds to the clock, one minute left on the clock, when he felt two hands grab him from behind, tackling him to the ground.

Wrestling wildly, Iruka tried to kick/shove/punch/knee Kakashi off of him, but the Jounin stuck to him like glue.

The bell rang and Iruka went limp.

"Kakashi-sensei! That wasn't fair!"

"What?"

"Since when does a shinobi tackle somebody like that?"

"Since when did a shinobi follow rules while in a fight? Iruka-sensei, a textbook is all well and good – but there are times when the text book needs be thrown out of the window…"

Iruka wriggled angrily as Kakashi sat on his lower back and retrieved the bell from Iruka's pocket.

"Well…. It's not suprising since you're a teacher… but I think that the ability to surprise people in battle is a bonus. It makes you unpredicatable and less dead."

"I can see that," Iruka said crossly. "Now can you get off of me? You're breaking my back!"

"Still," Kakashi said, ruminating to himself. "Not bad all things considering."

"What ARE you guys doing?" asked Genma.

"I don't really think this is the time?" muttered Raido in Genma's ear.

Kakashi got off of Iruka quickly.

"My, my, Genma! I heard you trained Iruka…. I guess it wasn't too bad…."

"It wasn't too bad?" screeched Iruka. "I got the bell from you! I just wasn't able to evade your technique – what is it by the way – it's like mine…. Did you copy it?"

"Ahahaha! No, don't worry. My technique is rather old now – and only two people know how to use it…. I think…."

"Hoe?"

"Hmmm…. Yes, well…."

"You got the bell from Kakashi?" asked Raido. "Good job – it's not really a big deal about getting back on time anyways…"

Kakashi's eyebrow rose.

"It is important! The reason why I put the addition on is because Iruka-sensei may have the powers and abilities to get the bell, and may be able to work solo or with a team to acquire it ….. but a shinobi also must have the ability to finish his mission – which means thinking ahead and learning to reserve chakra."

Iruka pouted.

"He's got a point," Genma nodded, sucking sharply at his stir stick. "It's one thing to get a scroll from an enemy camp, it's another thing getting out of there and arriving in one piece to the kage's desk."

Raido nodded.

"Point ceded. Still… considering it is Iruka though…"

Iruka went red.

"What's THAT supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing," Raido shrugged innocently.

"Ignore the idiots," Kakashi said, turning away. He started to walk off.

"Hey, where're you going?" asked Iruka.

"Home – maybe the ramen shop first…."

"I'll go with you!"

"I'll go with you! Kaka-sensei!" mimicked Raido. "Let me walk you home and we can talk about Naruto and his new training!"

"Really, Raido," sighed Iruka. "We're friends. So why don't you go get somebody else to annoy."

"He's annoying me," Genma rolled his eyes. "I want to go and do something worthwhile – not sit around and watch you two talk shop in your similarly repressed ways."

"Why didn't you say so?" asked Raido with a gleam in his eye.

The two Jounin's disappeared.

Iruka caught up with Kakashi who had once again readjusted his hitae ate.

"Man, those guys really bother us – I mean, me!" Iruka said, breathlessly.

"Hn."

"Ummm…. You said surprise is one of the most important things on the battlefield…."

"Yeah. Naruto has a natural ability for that…. Might be just dumb luck…."

"Well, that's good, 'cause Naruto often needs that extra edge!"

"You're saying Naruto needs an edge? Iruka!" Kakashi teased. "Are my ears deceiving me? Can it be that Iruka-sensei actually finds fault with Naruto?"

Iruka glared.

"I'm am nothing if not a objective critic."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Now… come on. Let's go get some ramen or something."