"Rivalry isn't hate, it is a partnership in disguise."


CHAPTER TWO

Saruna sprung out of bed. Over the past year at the academy, they had been learning all the fundamentals of taijutsu, genjutsu, and ninjutsu. Today was finally the day they would start learning how to use them. Saruna was so excited she didn't even eat breakfast or say goodbye to her mother before dashing out the door. On most days, she would run to catch up to Kakashi whose house was on her route to school. When she first started doing this, he'd deliberately avoid her, but now she swore sometimes he even waited to leave until he saw her coming. On the way, she'd talk his ear off about any number of things. He never said anything back, but the fact that he even allowed it was progress enough for Saruna. Saruna and Kakashi had developed an unspoken rivalry since that first day, always attempting to one up each other. Kakashi always acted as though it were effortless, and his aloofness irritated her to no end. They walked a fine line between competition and friendship, annoyance and amusement. That morning when Saruna caught up to him, she nudged his shoulder and beamed. "Today is the day. I've been training so hard, you'll see how strong I really am when I fight you!" Kakashi casually rolled his eyes and actually responded, which was a rarity. "You don't even know that we'll be fighting each other, and besides, even if we did you aren't going to beat me," he said with that infuriating shrug that made Saruna's blood boil. "We'll see..." she grumbled underneath her breath, and they walked the rest of the way in silence.

Saruna and her fellow classmates sat anxiously on the ground in front of an encircled area that was undoubtedly meant for sparring matches. Their sensei stood in front of them and addressed the group. "Today, we will be practicing sparring. You will only be using taijutsu, or hand to hand combat. Ninja tools will not be permitted at this time. At the start of the match you will acknowledge your opponent using the traditional gesture," he said as he demonstrated holding two fingers out in front of his chest, "and at the end of the match you will perform the unison sign by linking fingers to show respect for your opponent regardless of the outcome. Is that clear?" The students nodded in understanding with a level of apprehension that was palpable. He continued. "The match will end when one person is forced out of the ring, yields, is otherwise incapacitated, or when I determine the match to be over. Now, I will take volunteers or I will randomly assign you. Would anyone like to go first?" Saruna shot her hand up in the air before she had time to doubt herself. "I want to go first, and I want to fight Kakashi," she said without hesitation. Sensei laughed. "Why am I not surprised? Alright, fine. Saruna, Kakashi, please each stand at one end of the ring. You will begin when I say 'begin'." Saruna stood up and walked to one side of the ring with a confidence she wasn't sure she actually had. She looked across at Kakashi, who looked unfazed. "When will he ever take me seriously?" she thought to herself. She had grown a little, but he was still taller than her by a few inches. She looked down at her hands, calloused from practicing her punches and blocks on the tree outside her house. She'd spent so many hours with bleeding knuckles and drenched in sweat preparing for this moment. She knew Kakashi had been training as well, but the difference was that he was being trained by an elite jonin and she was being trained by a tree and a notepad full of notes she took from spying on the Anbu training grounds. Her mother was a shinobi, but specialized in medical ninjutsu and worked full time at the hospital. Saruna worried about her lack of technique, but could only hope that her will was enough to make up for it. Kakashi looked back at her, expressionless, and raised the sign to begin the match. Saruna did the same. "Begin!" shouted her sensei.

Saruna barely had time to react before Kakashi was in front of her throwing punches. "So fast..." she thought to herself, and barely raised her arms up in time to block his fists. In a way, she was glad Kakashi was not going easy on her, but wondered if perhaps she might have underestimated the difference in their strength. "No time to feel sorry for myself," she reminded herself before being knocked off balance onto her back. She quickly threw herself back to her feet and ducked below his kick before sweeping her own leg out against his remaining grounded one. She felt her foot just barely make contact with his leg before he backflipped out of the way. He looked down at his leg, almost in disbelief. "So close..." she growled to herself. Kakashi's fanclub of girls cheered for him on the sidelines, whereas a few of the boys sprang to their feet and starting clapping when Saruna almost landed that hit; she suspected some of them wanted to see Kakashi taken down a peg. They went on like this for some time, with Saruna barely blocking hits and nearly missing landing them. Kakashi started to seem almost frustrated that it was taking this long to best her, which by itself felt like an accomplishment to Saruna. Her blocks became clumsier as she tried to keep up with Kakashi's speed until finally he was able to sneak a punch through her defenses and landed a hit directly on her cheek. She flew backwards, landing face down. Her ears started to ring. "Get up, get up!" she internally screamed to herself. Just as she had reoriented enough to try and pull herself off the ground, she felt Kakashi pin her right arm behind her and place his foot on the back of her neck. She had lost. "Enough! Kakashi wins," shouted the sensei over the cheers of the class. Saruna thought carefully about her next move as she lay face down in the dirt. She felt humiliated...exactly how Kakashi wanted her to feel. So, she decided to swallow her tears. When he released his grip on her, she flipped over onto her back. Kakashi was obviously surprised to see Saruna smiling up at him. She offered out her hand to make the unison sign. "That was a great fight Kakashi, now I know exactly what I have to do to beat you next time." He stared down at her with a puzzled look in his eyes, feeling as if his victory had been cheapened by her positive attitude. He offered the unison sign in return. They both returned to the class where they sat, watching the rest of the matches. No one came close to their skill.

Kakashi walked home that day feeling satisfied with his victory, but also uneasy that Saruna seemed so difficult to break. She was always stubborn, he supposed. On the hill he was standing on, he could see a small clearing about halfway between their houses. There she was, still bruised from their fight earlier in the day, practicing her taijutsu alone. He considered the rest of his classmates, and had to admit that Saruna was really the only one even remotely close to him in skill. He wondered if maybe he should train with her; it would benefit him to learn how to counter other fighting styles besides his father's (not that you could call how Saruna fought a style), and he didn't really have anything better to do. He ran down the hillside into the clearing. Saruna turned to face him, knees dirty as always. He smirked at that, unwittingly. "Kakashi! Do you want to keep fighting? I'm ready to take you on again!" She said with her toothless smile. He could have sworn she had more teeth than that this morning. He shrugged his usual shrug and approached her. They sparred for hours, each time with the same result: Kakashi knocking Saruna down into the dirt. After about 35 defeats, Saruna pulled herself up one last time, and could barely stay standing. "Aren't you going to give up already?" Kakashi asked, barely looking tired. She wiped the sweat from her brow, leaving a dirty stripe on her forehead. "No way," she replied, putting her hands up. Kakashi rolled his eyes, and they continued. He certainly could put less effort in now, since she was barely able to throw a punch after getting beaten so badly all day. Just when his guard dropped ever so slightly, he felt his legs give out from underneath him and found himself face up on the ground with a disheveled little girl smiling down at him. Kakashi's eyes widened. "Don't underestimate me Kakashi!" she said as she picked up her things and ran into the setting sun towards her house.

Kakashi sat at the table with his father, pushing his food around the plate rather than eating it. "Is something wrong, Kakashi?" he implored, even though the answer was obvious. "She knocked me down," Kakashi replied. "Even though I'm stronger than her and I'd beaten her a hundred times already and she could barely stand, Saruna still knocked me down." he exclaimed and slammed his fist down on the table. "Why do you think that she was able to do that, Kakashi?" his father replied, calmly as always as he continued to eat his dinner. Kakashi rested his head on his fist and sighed. "She got lucky," he grumbled. His father looked up from his meal now, and commanded Kakashi's attention by doing so. "Wrong, Kakashi. You are certainly gifted, but Saruna was able to beat you because you thought you were better than her and she never gave up thinking she could beat you. You underestimated your enemy. Hopefully you learned something from Saruna today, and feel humbled by it." Kakashi let out a small gasp of surprise before averting his eyes and asking to be excused. He went to his room and lied in his bed for hours, staring at the ceiling and thinking about what his father said before he eventually fell asleep. He had been so distracted by Saruna that he forgot it was his birthday tomorrow.