Chapter 23

The Weasel vs the Scarecrow

Upon his return to the stands Naruto was bombarded by questions from all sides, their collective words sounded less like words and more akin to how one might imagine a blur sounded. As a result he didn't understand any of the questions put to him so he awkwardly ignored them, to ask them to repeat them would only result in more of the same.

"You didn't hear any of that properly, did you?" Tri quietly asked him, Naruto sheepishly shook his head which turned into a half-serious scowl as Tri chuckled at his expense. Naruto haggardly leant against the railing overlooking the arena, he was exhausted, he might have questioned why he continued to stand if he weren't so tired.

He absently watched the team of Chūnin finish repairing the ring, Doton Jutsu re-firming and re-flattening the ground, Katon Jutsu had burnt away the trees leaving only ash and the occasional leaf blowing in the wind. "I explained your Nature transformation to Tou-san and the others, turns out it hadn't occurred to Tou-san to try the transformations separately."

"You also told him about your shape transformation?" Naruto was surprised to see Tri wince slightly, "I wouldn't say a multi-layered spheroid constitutes a successful application of shape transformation." Naruto's surprise only grew as he listened to Tri speak, he sounded almost downcast. "Why do you sound down? You know I tried to replicate that and failed miserably unless… Are you still caught up on that afternoon?"

He let out a long sigh before nodding, "It still makes you anxious? Naruto quietly asked, "Tri, you tried to apply both transformations. As good as your chakra control is you shouldn't beat yourself up over not being able to control it."
"Naruto. It almost killed me," he bitterly and bluntly replied.

His words cast Naruto back to that afternoon at one of the Jūnishi training grounds. Tri's first and to this day only attempt at applying both transformations to the Rasengan, for a few seconds it seemed he'd succeeded but it didn't hold. The resulting explosion utterly flatten the training ground and left Tri in A&E for a fortnight and physical therapy for just as long.

The blonde barely managed to suppress a sigh, for some time now his brother had been prone to occasional and drastic mood swings, ever since that rescue mission had ended in failure, Naruto still hadn't figured out quite how to act around him.

Their conversation seemed at an end when Itachi joined them, "How're you feeling Naruto?" the Uchiha politely inquired of his longtime comrade. "Knackered but otherwise I'm good," he curtly answered. It was as he replied he noticed Itachi weaving his hands, he recognised the hand movements as the simplistic sign language taught to the Jūnishi.

'Downcast mood?' was Itachi's silent question, Naruto signed 'Yes' in reply. Genma announcement that the arena was again ready removed any opportunity to speak further.

"Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Itachi to the arena floor," Genma shouted to the reassembling audience. With his call the sound of hurried feet emanated across the arena as people rushed back to their seats, drinks and snack items in hand. Shinobi and Civilians alike were always eager to watch a member of Konoha's premier clan in action.

Both competitors made their way to the arena without a word although Itachi had received a few supportive words from Naruto. Only at the last moment did Kakashi put his small book away in the pouch on his hip, if Itachi had been anyone else he might have chided the experienced Jōnin for not taking this seriously but he knew Kakashi well enough to know otherwise.

A lazy and disgustingly laid-back personality hid within perhaps the greatest talent of his generation. A man who graduated from the Academy at five, promoted to Chūnin at six and then to Jōnin aged twelve, not to mention his position and reputation in ANBU.

Kakashi was clad in his regular Jōnin outfit. Itachi was forgone his ANBU outfit for today, Itachi wasn't one for drawing attention to himself and wearing the garb of Konoha's secretive Shinobi organisation would do just that.

Instead he wore what was his regular Jūnishi outfit. Grey Sandals overlaid with interlocking metal plates to protect his feet, ankles wrapped in bandages. The black pants that went to mid-calf under which were hidden the metal boss plated knee braces. Getting kicked or kneed by Itachi hurt.. a lot. His sash around his waist and a light Gray form-fitting top with long sleeves with his Jōnin vest on top. Hands, Wrists and Forearms also bore wrappings but again they hid a surprise.

Under the hand wrappings were hidden his departing gift from the Daimyō, minimalist knuckle dusters, they only covered the knuckle and metacarpal bones but were fronted by a layer of chakra metal. The results when chakra was flowed through them were simply devastating, skulls would cave in, jaws and cheekbones would shatter, teeth would travel in all directions.

Kakashi's pressing concern was just how long he could effectively use the single Sharingan he possessed before succumbing to exhaustion because staring back at him was a pair of three tomoe Sharingan. He had to use his own lest he find himself ensnared by Genjutsu, a field Itachi excelled in.

'The length of time I can use Obito's eye will shrink substantially if I use many Ninjutsu so I'll start with Taijutsu.' With his plan of sorts in place the son of the White Fang lifted his Hitai-ate revealing a long vertical scar and the eye that gave him the nickname 'Kopī Ninja no Kakashi' (Copy Ninja Kakashi). As far as nicknames go it was one of Kakashi's more preferred.

"Hatake Kakashi, ready?" The silver-haired Ninja spared Genma a glance and nodded. "Uchiha Itachi, ready?" Another glance, another nod. 'Well alright then, don't you all talk at once.' Raising his arm, "Hajime!"

Genma was expecting them to start big but instead he got nothing, no Jutsu, no movement, not even a stray shuriken. 'Oh who am I kidding, this will take a whil…..' He was cut off as they both shot off, Kakashi went right while Itachi went left, they both circled the arena floor once, twice, thrice, their orbits of one another shrinking each time. By the time they'd completed the fourth circuit they clashed.

Kakashi threw out a high kick that Itachi ducked before replying with a straight punch that Kakashi side-stepped before driving his fist into Itachi's ribs. All he got was a slight wince as the Uchiha jumped back, he took a breath before jumping back in.

Kakashi noticed immediately the speed increase brought by the Uchiha as he parried a backhand and jumped over a leg-sweep, he bided his time waiting for an opening to present itself. He had to wait a while, weaving his way through Itachi's strikes. It was almost a whole minute before his chance finally came as Itachi overextended on a punch by the slightest margin allowing Kakashi the chance to punch Itachi in the ribs again.

Itachi's answer wasn't slow in coming as he slammed his boss plated knee into Kakashi's stomach, the air rushing out of the copycat's lungs. He just managed to jump back before Itachi was able to hook a leg behind him. Taking deep lungful's of air he managed to find his voice, "What is your knee made off?" Itachi simply lifted the trouser leg revealing a knee pad with a round conical piece of metal on the front.

He didn't wait for Itachi to get ready, he simply threw a pair of shuriken at him. Neither reached their target however as both were deflected by shuriken thrown by Itachi. "You'll have to do better than that, Kakashi," Itachi recommended. With a humoured shake of the head Kakashi shot forward again.

"Tou-san, why does Itachi's opponent have a Sharingan?" Sasuke asked. Fugaku turned his head to survey his youngest son and he didn't look best pleased, Sasuke's current lack of Sharingan was a source of frustration for them both, he also noted how Sasuke didn't refer to Itachi as his brother.

"He was given it towards the end of the third world war, his teammate Uchiha Obito gave Kakashi his own eye to replace Kakashi's recently destroyed left eye."

"And you allowed him to keep it?" Sasuke asked incredulously, the baffled expression etched on his face. "Yes, it was Uchiha Obito's dying wish that Kakashi have his left eye and I honoured it by allowing him to keep it." Sasuke mentally winced at his father's tone, his words were both hard and cold.

Fugaku hadn't meant to speak in the manner that he had but Sasuke's questions had brought back the memories of the arguments he'd had with several clan members who'd demanded that the eye be returned whether willingly or by force. Fugaku only allowed him to keep it because it was the dying wish of an Uchiha, under any other circumstances then he would have moved to have the eye returned.

It was the grinding of steel that pulled Fugaku out of his own thoughts and turned his lax attention back to his eldest's fight. Both had a kunai in hand and it almost looked like they were dancing due to the way they were moving. In reality the Sharingan was allowing both of them to preemptively predict the others movements meaning they'd both fallen into a strange status quo where neither could make a decisive strike against the other.

Fighting with the Sharingan was a strange sensation at first, you perceived everything in slow-motion which vastly increased the time you had to react. Fighting without his Sharingan was something Fugaku daren't thinking about, he may as well fight blind.

Fugaku was again wrested from his thoughts by an explosion below him. He trained his eyes down to see several kunai flying through the air, tied on paper tags trailing behind them.

With their kunai duel leading nowhere they had moved onto explosive tags and right now both were leaving craters all over the arena floor, the Sharingan again allowing them both to dodge with relative ease so the Status-Quo remained but this time it came with explosions.

The Uchiha Patriarch looked around him, 'Seems I'm not the only one waiting for the Ninjutsu exchange,' he reasoned going off of some of the slightly bored expressions dotted around the audience.

'Question is, what are they are waiting for? They're chewing through their allotted time and they've both only landed one or two good hits on the other.' Each match today had an allotted fifteen minute time limit and some five minutes had already come and gone.

Kakashi skid to a halt, the volume of dust and dirt thrown into the air from all the explosive tags made it difficult to keep track of Itachi, 'Not to mention he has twice as many Sharingan.' Kakashi wasn't ignorant to the fact that he'd likely be losing if it weren't for his implanted Sharingan, Itachi was faster than he was and Kakashi couldn't shake the feeling his opponent still had more speed in reserve.

Kakashi's gambit on claiming the victory through Taijutsu had failed, he'd have to fall back on his speciality, Ninjutsu. But even that was limited, with the constant drain from the Sharingan, he'd only get two shots maximum with the Chidori.

Without thinking he closed his left eye for a few moments while he devised his plan of attack, the clouds of dust hung in the air allowing him a few brief moments. He spied Itachi a few seconds later, he wouldn't notice his mistake until later.

He reopened his eye and threw a series of smoke bombs on the ground around the arena bathing most of it in darkness, once again obscuring their vision of one another. Quietly, Kakashi spoke, "Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu," (Earth Release: Hiding like a Mole Technique). He slowly sank into the ground but he preceded this by creating a pair of Shadow Clones.

Itachi was stood absolutely still and was deathly silent, listening out for the slightest hint of Kakashi's whereabouts. He got his answer when Kakashi appeared on both his left and right, both had a kunai in hand. 'Shadow Clones,' knowing they'd be slower than the original he acted quickly to dispel them both.

With a kunai of his own he broke left and was quickly able to establish himself on offence, the clone was forced to concede ground to keep itself alive until its partner arrived which it duly did a few seconds later.

Out of pure instinct Itachi ducked under the horizontal kunai slash before spinning 360° on the spot. The second clone was immediately dispelled as Itachi's kunai sliced through it's stomach, the first clone was only just able to block it but with its attention drawn it never noticed the second kunai that had appeared in Itachi's left hand and soon went up in a cloud of smoke.

With the smokescreen now clearing Itachi narrowed his eyes slightly as he returned to complete silence, 'Where have you got to Kakashi?'

Even with his extremely developed awareness skills Itachi never heard Kakashi rise up from beneath the ground directly behind him but then again Itachi had planned ahead as he felt the kunai pressed against his throat.

Strangely both were perfectly happy to wait for the vision obscuring effects of Kakashi's smoke bombs to entirely clear. There were many gasps of surprise as spectators saw the Uchiha heir with a kunai held against his throat.

"Not bad Kakashi, not bad at all," Itachi quietly said. "But?" Kakashi deadpanned.

"But.."

*Caw*

Kakashi was taken caught completely off guard as Itachi burst into a murder of Crows. Alarm setting in Kakashi quickly looked every which way he could and barely got his kunai up in time to deflect a pair of shuriken aimed at his head.

A few seconds in which nothing happened passed then another pair of shuriken came out of nowhere, again Kakashi was just about able to deflect them. 'Where are they coming from?' Kakashi simply couldn't figure it out, there'd be nothing then two shuriken that seemed to appear out of thin air. He could only think of the Tōton Jutsu (Transparent Escape Technique), but as far as he was aware only Jiraiya and Hayate knew it.

Thus Kakashi kept spinning in circles, blocking or deflecting the next batch of shuriken. That's what it looked like to him anyway but to Fugaku up in the stands, he saw something else.

"Tou-san.. What is Kakashi doing?" asked a bewildered Sasuke as he watched Itachi rung rings around Kakashi, occasionally throwing shuriken. "Kakashi has yet to notice he's under a Genjutsu," he answered. "But I thought the Sharingan allowed you to see through or spot Genjutsu?"
"It does but just before Kakashi threw the smoke bombs he closed his left eye, that's when Itachi got him. It seems your Nii-san needs only the briefest of moments to ensnare someone." Sasuke let out a low growl at being reminded Itachi was indeed his brother.

'But how long will it take you to notice Kakashi, I'm hardly close with either of my sons but I know you'll run out of time before he does Shuriken.'

He watched on as Kakashi kept searching for any sign of Itachi whereas everyone else could simply see him doing circles around the Copycat Ninja, but despite that he was making sure he was behind him as much as possible. 'He can't have cast the Genjutsu on himself, Kakashi's eye would see through it. He must have cast it on Kakashi himself. Again can't be on the eye so I'd guess the Genjutsu is inhibiting his brain's ability to see him.'

Deciding he'd had enough of being used as target practise he cast aside his kunai and flew through a series of hand-signs, he still had to duck once more to avoid yet another pair of shuriken. "Doton: Doryūheki," (Earth Release: Earth Style Wall). Kakashi raised a circular mud wall around him, it even curved inward to create a dome which surrounded him entirely.

'Ok, it's not a Genjutsu he's cast on himself because I'd see it, it's not an area of effect Genjutsu, I'd see that too so what is it if not Genjutsu?' He ran through the memories of him working missions alongside Kurenai as well as any time he sparred or trained with her then it clicked, 'Oh but it is Genjutsu, take the eye out of the equation and affect the brain instead. My eye may well see him but my brain doesn't acknowledge the input as if it's being lied to.'

'Also what the hell were those birds? Does Itachi have a summon too? Or what it just another Illusion?'

Kakashi shook his head in frustration before flushing his system with chakra. "Only one way to see if it worked." He pulled out two dozen explosive tags and spread them out around the mud dome before he again sunk into the ground to safety.

"You think Kakashi's figured out he's under a Genjutsu yet?" Naruto asked his brother next to him. "Well if he hasn't he's in trouble," Tri grumbled, the effects of downcast mood still lingering. Naruto knew his mood wouldn't last much longer so he'd bear it for now, by the time the call came for his fight he'd be right as rain once again.

With his attention turned away from the fight he was almost blown of his feet as Kakashi's unseen explosive tags detonated.

*Boom*

Itachi who was much closer, however, was blown off his feet, the force of the blast ensuring he sailed through the air towards the arena wall but he managed to orientate himself so his feet hit the wall first. Channelling chakra to his legs ensured he would break any bones, when safely secured he checked himself over, not paying any attention to the damage wrought below until he'd confirmed the presence of all his fingers and toes.

The Uchiha went he did look up found again the arena was shrouded in a thick fog of dust and dirt, he could just make out the edges of a crater. Kakashi was again absent, 'I wonder if he went deep enough to escape his own explosion?' Itachi wondered because the seconds ticked by and Kakashi still hadn't returned.

'He's going to run out of chakra if he isn't careful.'

The dust was slow in dissipating so Itachi took matters into his own hands, "Fūton: Kamikaze," (Wind Release: Divine Wind) he fired a stream of wind in a semi-circle arc in front of him, the dust cleared away to reveal a hefty circular crater, some eight feet wide and five feet deep. The explosion had been strong enough to blast through the packed dirt layer and reached the stone bedrock underneath.

It wasn't the crater that drew his attention however, it was instead the mask-clad Shinobi on the other side of the arena. Kakashi looked uninjured but tired, he was breathing heavily with his left eye clamped shut but this time he wasn't so negligent as to look Itachi in the eye, instead choosing to look at his feet.

'You're running out of Chakra Kakashi, I can see it,' Itachi mused to himself. He also knew their time limit was nearing, he was perfectly happy to let time run out because while it might have only been a 'friendly' match Kakashi was free to go all out whereas Itachi was having to fight within himself although Itachi was unsure whether Kakashi was in fact fighting to his full potential.

Across the arena Kakashi was weighing his options, by now he only had the Chakra for a single Chidori and with the time limit closing in he would be short on opportunities to use it. Not to mention if he missed he'd lose. Now despite the detached almost aloof personality Kakashi had it didn't mean he wasn't a competitive spirit, he didn't like losing, his numerous challenges with Gai were a testament to that even though he hid it well behind that 'Cool and Hip' attitude as Gai described it.

"They're both happy with a draw aren't they?" a disappointed Naruto asked. "Looks like it, Naruto-kun," a quiet until now Hiruzen replied.

Itachi slowly withdrew a kunai in full view of Kakashi, he chucked it up into the air. It soared about twenty feet up before gravity reasserted itself and the kunai began falling back to earth. Both watched the kunai whilst not taking their eye/ eyes off the other. It continued its descent, unhindered by nothing but air resistance.

"Seems we're to get a finish after all," Hiruzen murmured.

The moment the Kunai hit the floor both vanished. Only the most trained eyes could keep up with them, everyone else having to settle for spotting the sparks and sounds of grinding metals that suggested both again wielded Kunai.

Genma quickly glanced at the timer, 'Thirty seconds for someone to make something happen.'

Another five seconds passed before someone finally stopped long enough for the majority of the audience to spot them. "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu," Itachi released a stream of flames, his aim was dead on as Kakashi was engulfed in fire.

Itachi had to admit he was surprised he actually caught him in them but the flames ebbed away to reveal a scorched kunai.

"Seems they're playing from your trick book Tri," Naruto chuckled. "Not really surprising Naruto, I made the technique publically available to Chūnin and above. I'm just glad to see someone making use of it."

That brief moment of surprise almost cost Itachi as he just managed to avoid a kunai slash from Kakashi, he struck out with his own to keep him at arm's length, he somehow actually managed to leave a cut on the palm of Kakashi's free hand.

A plan immediately forming in his mind Kakashi threw his final smoke bomb, covered by the smoke he flashed through five hand-seals before driving his palm into the ground. Within a few moments Itachi found multiple summoned Ninken latching onto his body.

Then he heard it, the sound that had made Hatake Kakashi's name known across the elemental nations, the sound of a thousand chirping birds. Kakashi re-emerged from the smoke, his right hand covered in a neon blue light, arcs of electricity flickering and dancing around it.

Itachi didn't know but Kakashi had purposefully reduced the power output of the only technique he'd ever created. With his quarry restrained Kakashi thrust his right arm forward, his target the space between Itachi's right collarbone and shoulder, he didn't want to kill him after all.

He made contact, the tip of the Chidori penetrating the skin but before it could cut any deeper Itachi burst into another murder of Crows.

"What?!" nearly everyone watching exclaimed including Kakashi. Genma spared another glance at the timer.

Kakashi's moment of shock would prove to be his downfall as Itachi reappeared behind him, kunai in hand. He kicked out at the back of Kakashi's leg dropping him to one knee. He grabbed a handful of his silver hair and pulled his head back and brought the kunai towards his neck.

"TIME!"

The Kunai stopped, only inches away from Kakashi's throat. There were a few moments of eerie silence, "It appears there isn't a winner Kakashi," Itachi stated as he released his grip on him, allowing him to stand. "This bouts time limit has expired with no decisive winner, therefore I declare this match a draw," Genma informed the crowd.

"A single second, that's all you'd have needed to have been declared the winner," Kakashi explained to Itachi. The Uchiha simply shrugged his shoulders, "Doesn't matter, the time limit expired before I could place the Kunai against your neck."

Kakashi didn't look entirely convinced by his logic but nodded his head nonetheless. "By the way what were those crows about?" he inquired as he pulled his Hitai-ate back over his left eye. "Just as dogs are yours, Crows are my summons but they don't act like other summons, I can't communicate with them and I have no specific personal summon…"

Meanwhile up in the stands Tri was having to explain the same thing to those around him. "The first time you saw the Crows, it was what we've taken to calling a Crow Clone. A number of crows can disguise themselves as Itachi so long as he supplies the Chakra. The second instance I believe was a Shunshin."

"A Shunshin?" a baffled Kakashi asked. "Yes," Itachi answered, "I took a risk there however. Raiton is pretty good at playing havoc with your chakra network and your chakra control, if I'd delayed for just another moment or two then I wouldn't have been able to focus my Chakra."
"So I'd of impaled you?"
"Correct. So you see Kakashi, we were both mere fractions of a second from victory today."

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're going to take another short recess to repair the arena floor *sigh* again."

For the second time today the Chūnin repair crew took to the field as the three Jōnin took their leave and for the second time Genma appeared halfway through a conversation.

"So that's two of you with summons, do I hear three? Dattebane!" an exacerbated Kushina asked as she glared at her black and red haired son who was trying his hardest to make himself as small as possible. "Triii-kun," she said in a sickly sweet voice as he tried to slowly hide behind Naruto. "Tri, stop joking around and stop hiding behind me."

"Oh fine," he relented, the timid look on his face vanishing, "I do have a summon but I'll introduce you another time now who am I fighting since you've neglected to tell me," he inquired, trying to change the subject

"Is it a bird too Nii-chan?" Minusha asked him, 'So close,' he thought to himself. "Yep," he replied while nodding, "My twin summons are Ravens."

"Where did you all meet your summons?" Minato inquired. "You may find it hard to believe but we aren't permitted to discuss much about our summons. It seems to be a quirk for Bird summons in how very secretive they are. But mine introduced themselves to me first, turns out they'd been watching over me for years. Eventually they brought me before the Raven king who deemed me worthy, it was then they offered me the chance to sign their summoning contract," Tri answered.

"I happened across mine on a mission when I helped a young Falcon who happened to be one of the Falcon clan. From there I was offered the chance to sign the contract and Horus became my personal summon," Naruto followed up. Everyone turned to Itachi, half expecting him to describe something similar but he didn't. "I'm forbidden from saying, my summons are even more secretive, so much so that I don't know the name of a single Crow."

Itachi's admittance brought their conversation to an abrupt end and nobody knew what exactly to say to move it along. Nobody but one.

"Sooo, who am I facing?"

End Chapter

Well there you have it. This has been the hardest chapter to write so far. I wrote the first draft, read through it, thought it was rubbish, scrapped and rewrote about 75% of it, I'm much happier with the rewrite.

Also I've been pondering whether to publish every fortnight instead of every week. Apart from giving me more time to write them, it'll mean the chapters will be of a higher level of quality as well as make the chapters longer with greater levels of detail. The next two chapters I actually wrote months ago and baring some additions and changes they'll be ready on time so I'd make the switch from chapter 26. You'll have to let me know which you prefer.

Oh and we passed 150 Favourites and are on the cusp of 200 Followers, thank you all!