A/N: At long last! An update! XD Oh, and by the way: the title for this chapter was put together using my rudimentary skills in Nihongo. I don't know the exact Nihongo word for 'unknown', so I used 'not in the head' ...

Disclaimer: ...you guys know the drill...

oOo

Chapter 10: Atama ni Nai na Chikara

"Kakashi-jisama?"

"Yes, Rei?" Kakashi returned, ducking under a low branch. Around a week had passed after the shaky start to the group's chakra training; since Yuriko had been called away on a mission and wasn't expected to return for around three more days, Tsunade had asked Team Seven to train Kai and his companions. Neither Neji nor Hinata were available then, so it was decided that their 'introduction' to their second-degree cousin would have to wait for another day. The group of eight - Kyouju and Hiromi had once more elected to stay at the Uchihara compound - were on their way to the training grounds.

Rei leapt nimbly over a large rock in his path, landing lightly on his feet. "What do you have in store for us today?"

"Well, since you've already covered the basics with Yuriko - both for weaponry techniques and chakra control, I hope - I decided that, after some more basic training, we might have some friendly sparring matches today."

"What?" Takao exclaimed. Apparently, he had overheard the last part. "B-b-but we've barely got the basics down!"

"Maybe you're the only one who doesn't get the basics," Kai rolled his eyes. "You're weapon handling has somewhat improved, considering your previous kendo training with your grandfather, but you still manage to confuse the twelve basic seals - like you did Tiger and Ram - which is ridiculous for someone your age, Kinomiya."

"Ah, shut up, Kai. Not everyone can be as perfect as you..."

"I don't think so, Takao," Max piped up, stopping briefly to admire a dazzling blue butterfly in flight. "Sakura-san told me just how good Sasuke-san is in battle, due in part to his...kekkei genkai, was it?"

The jade-eyed teen nodded, smiling. The circumstances concerning this group's ancestry had been explained to her the day before, when Yuriko had left for her mission - her first since she got to Konoha. It hadn't been easy at first, but she accepted the news. Now she shook her head and forced herself to focus on the training session ahead. Tsunade had tasked her with helping the four boys fine-tune their chakra control, and frankly, she knew she was the best choice for the job; nearly four years of training under the Fifth Hokage had honed her already high-level chakra control to near-perfection and transformed her into one of the village's best medical ninja.

Breaking her concentration on the goal of that day's session, she glanced at Sasuke, who kept a few paces in front of her and to her left. She wondered how the dark-haired teen felt about finding he had a cousin. Then she glanced at Kai, who likewise kept ahead of his group of friends, and noted the subtle similarities and differences between the two. She grinned in excitement; Sakura vaguely remembered hearing Kakashi say something about friendly sparring matches, and couldn't wait to see how a fight between the Uchiha cousins - if both Kai and Sasuke agreed to being called that - would turn out.

After a few more more minutes of walking - in Rei's case, walking and then leaping lightly over several large obstacles - they arrived at the training grounds.

"So, Kakashi," Naruto began, his voice cutting quickly through the silence. "What's up first? Target practice? Dummy sparring? Advanced chakra control?"

The silver-haired jounin gave a small chuckle. "I'm afraid not, Naruto," he replied, walking over to a different part of the training grounds. There, almost in the exact center of that particular area, stood several pairs of thin wooden poles varying from one-and-a-half to five feet in height. The top of each was bowl-shaped and covered with a thick cloth - similar to those used in old drums - to form some sort of pad at the top.

"The plum flower poles?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. I noticed my...nephew's display of agility earlier during our trek here, and thought it would be nice if we started with that." Mentally, he shook his head; he wasn't quite used yet to calling anyone his nephew

"How exactly do these...'plum flower poles' work?" Kai asked, startling everyone by being one of the first to talk. He joined the masked man at the training apparatus and began examining each pole in turn.

"I'm glad you asked, Kai." Kakashi went and stood a few inches in front of the shorter pole. And then, moving very quickly and causing Kai to take one step back in shock, he leapt onto the left-hand fifth pole, stepped lightly onto the sixth, and stood very calmly on the right-hand seventh pole. "This is used to train a ninja for agility and balance, because the poles are designed to wobble. The higher you climb, the more unstable the poles become."

Kai nodded, eyeing the 'plum flowers'. Kakashi leapt down from the top pole and landed in front of the rest of the group, who had formed a semi-circle around two-and-a-half feet in front of the training apparatus. "So, Kai, Max, Rei, Takao," he began, his visible eye crinkling with the smile he apparently wore behind his dark mask. "Which of you would like to go first?" In answer, Rei stepped closer to the poles. "All right, then, Rei. Go ahead."

For a few moments, Rei stood quite still, and then, jumped onto the fourth, fifth, then seventh poles, alternating between the right and left-hand poles for the first two and using the last pair simultaneously. He grinned, showing his canines.

Takao and Naruto's jaws hung open at the same time; Sakura looked delighted; Max was smiling in awe; Kai and Sasuke both looked slightly interested. Kakashi, meanwhile, looked highly pleased. He approached Rei as the amber-eyed teen hopped down from the highest poles.

"Very nice, Rei," he commented, clapping a hand on the neko-jin's shoulder. "I guess you've inherited this skill from your father's family."

Rei smiled sheepishly. "I haven't really given it much thought. And balance is one of the things my former blading team and I focused on in training, both for our Beyblades and ourselves.

"I see." Kakashi turned to the three remaining teens, though he wasn't clear on what 'Beyblades' and 'blading' was. "Who's next?"

Takao's hand shot into the air enthusiastically. "I am!" The navy-haired teen didn't wait for the go-ahead; he rushed towards the plum flower poles and began hopping from one to the other. Everything seemed to go fine, until...

"Wh-whoa!" Takao cried out. As soon as he stepped onto the fourth pole, he'd become unnerved because of all the wobbling and came tumbling down. Takao managed to save himself from further embarrassment because he somehow caught himself before he sprawled onto the ground. "Ow..."

"Ha!" Naruto let out a bark of laughter. "Nice try, cousin, but you still need a lot of work..."

"Naruto, don't be so hard on him!" Sakura exclaimed, hitting the blonde ninja on the shoulder. "He's still a beginner, despite his age! And if I recall correctly, you didn't do so well on the plum flower poles, either!"

"Well, I was younger then!" Naruto shot back, rubbing his upper arm. "And please try not to massacre my arm..."

"Whoa, guys, no bickering," Max said, quickly stepping in between the two. "Let's try to have a nice, peaceful training session, please?"

"Max, perhaps you'd like to go next, to give your friend a chance to recover a bit..." Kakashi suggested, gesturing towards the poles. The young boy took a deep breath and nodded in agreement, tentatively stepping up to the poles.

Everyone watched as the blonde went quickly from the second, to the third, to the fifth...and promptly toppled over. Rei, however, was quick and caught his younger teammate just in time, saving him from a nasty lump on the head. Max grinned sheepishly.

"Thanks, Rei," he said as he stood, and then helped Rei to his feet. "I guess I still have a lot to work on in the balance department..."

"Don't worry about it, Max," Rei replied. "You were brave enough to start with the second pole and skip the fourth, unlike Takao who started with the first pole and didn't skip any..."

"Hey! No need to rub it in!" the stormy-eyed teen protested. He wasn't mad, really; stating each other's shortcomings or mistakes was a source of fun for him and his friends when things got a bit too serious. It helped them realize where they went wrong, and it showed that everyone was paying attention. He decided to play along. "Well, at least I didn't need anyone to catch me when I fell!"

Kakashi cleared his throat. He knew the dark-haired teen wasn't mad - he could sense it - but he wanted to finish this part of the session as soon as possible. Takao, Rei, and Max stopped talking and stood up straight. "Now then, since the three of you are finished, that leaves only one person..." The masked jounin turned to the slate-haired teen, who was leaning against a tree trunk in his usual manner. "Kai? It's your turn."

The crimson-eyed teen heaved a small, inaudible sigh as he approached the plum flower poles. Like Rei, he stood there, motionless, for a few minutes, just staring at the wooden apparatus. And then, imitating Kakashi, he leapt onto the fifth pole, then the sixth, and finally gained both seventh poles. He faltered a bit as he stood there, but otherwise, his performance was as flawless as his catlike teammate's.

"Hmm..." Kakashi began, unsure of what to say as he stepped closer to the group. "Well, Rei and Kai certainly seem to have great balance, despite their lack of proper training. Max, you're already very agile and it seems you know what to work on." The blonde smiled, nodding, and Kakashi went on. "Takao, you certainly are following your second cousin's footsteps; no doubt you've heard from Sakura that Naruto, too, had trouble with this training apparatus. I think the two of you need to work together on this one; he can help you overcome this obstacle."

Takao, somehow sensing when not to complain, merely bowed and kept silent. There was something about this man that commanded respect, but he didn't know what it was exactly. Kakashi looked pleased with this cooperation and then turned to the others. "Sakura, I trust you know what Hokage-sama asks of you; you will work with Max. He seems an intelligent sort and will most likely learn quickly. I'll be working with Rei..." Slowly, a small smile broke over Kakashi's face. "...and the cousins will work together." He remembered the day Yuriko and her friends had first come to Konoha, and he wanted to see if Kai and Sasuke's training session for the day would turn out like their first battle.

"Kakashi, what am I supposed to teach him?" Sasuke asked quietly, his face wiped of any emotion.

"...How about you test Kai for any attributes of the Sharingan?" the silver-haired man suggested, "and then see where it goes from there."

Sasuke nodded curtly, activated his Sharingan, and then turned to the other crimson-eyed teen.

"Let's go."

The other members of Team BBA watched as Kai and Sasuke walked off into the forest nearby. "I hope they don't try to kill each other..." Takao muttered, looking anxious. "That Sasuke guy looks just about ready to murder with those eyes of his, and Kai..." he shook his head. "Kai can be downright scary when he's mad."

"I doubt that's going to happen, though," Sakura said calmly. "As far as I know, Sasuke hates his older brother - I'm not quite sure why. Anyway, Sasuke hates the guy so much that he wants to kill him. Other than that, I don't think Sasuke'll murder his only other living relative..."

Rei blinked. "You mean...Sasuke and his brother are the only Uchiha clan members left alive here?" When Sakura nodded, the neko-jin's jaw dropped and Max's eyes went wide.

"Talk about freaky similarities!" Takao exclaimed. "Where we come from, there are only two Hiwatari's left, and Kai's one of them. The other one's his grandfather - but doesn't act like it, that's for sure - and Kai would give anything to rid himself of the old geezer!"

"That is a pretty eerie connection between the two..." Sakura agreed, shuddering inwardly.

"-But enough of that now," Kakashi interrupted. "We still have some training to do."

"Right!"

"So..." Sasuke started, reaching into the pouch hanging at his belt and taking out four kunai. "Shall we start?" He turned to face the slate-haired teen.

Kai's jaw was set firmly, his mouth a cold, hard line. "Of course. You're supposed to test me for traces of this...'Sharingan', right? That must mean you're to attack me without warning, and gauge my performance, correct?"

"...Something like that," Sasuke said gruffly. He tossed two of the kunai to Kai, who caught them.

Kai smiled inwardly; now he had a small inkling of what was going to happen and what was expected of him. He grasped one knife in each hand, the sharp blades facing outwards, and crossed his arms in front of him: one arm guarding the upper portion of his torso; the other, the lower portion. "Anytime you're ready...Sasuke."

The Uchiha stood quite still, head bowed, looking for all the world like he had fallen asleep on his feet. Suddenly, one second he was there; the next, he was gone.

Crimson eyes darted from side to side, slim, gray brows slightly furrowed. And then, he sidestepped and brought his left arm - the one guarding his lower torse - swinging upward. He felt a jolt in his arm, the sound of metal on metal reached his ears, and then a very faint image of Sasuke appeared in front of him. In a split-second, though, his 'adversary' had disappeared again.

Once more, Kai scanned his surroundings, finding no trace of the raven-haired teen. The thudding of his nervous heart threatened to overcome him; he knew what - who - he was up against, and it had probably been just luck that he had avoided taking a direct hit that last time. He forced himself to ease his tensed-up shoulders, relax, close his eyes, take deep, slow breaths...

Then, suddenly, movement to his left. The slate-haired teen backflipped, landing gracefully on his feet, but then faltered for a moment as a sharp pain shot through his upper left arm. His gaze fixed on the area to his left. The next second, not knowing why, he whirled around in an anti-clockwise circle, his right arm almost fully extended, and surprisingly felt the resistance of cloth. There was a ripping sound, then a sharp cry, and Sasuke appeared in front of him, gripping his upper left arm as well. The raven-haired teen smirked.

"Better than I expected, Kai, seeing as how our first meeting turned out," he said. He knew for sure that the crimson-eyed teen in front of him had never undergone proper ninja training, and so the quick reflexes he'd displayed were the result of either intensive training of another sort, a diluted version of the Sharingan...or both.

"Another round?"

Kai smirked, too, as he readied himself for another match against the darkly-clad teen. Strangely, though this fight was different from the Beybattles he was used to, he found it more than a little interesting; in fact, he found himself coming to enjoy this sort of sparring, even if it meant he'd come out quite a bit injured.

"Of course."

"Kai and Sasuke are certainly taking a long time..." Sakura commented quietly. She glanced up and squinted against the strong sunlight filtering through the pale clouds hanging in the cerulean sky. It was nearing lunchtime - they were supposed to be on lunchbreak now - and Kai hadn't taken his turn for the advanced chakra control lesson.

"Something tells me they've started the 'friendly sparring' early..." Takao muttered. "Maybe one of them is even lying on the ground, dying because from loss of blood."

Kakashi chuckled. "I don't think it's that drastic, Takao..." The silver-haired man began to make his way to the clearing the two teens had gone into earlier. "C'mon, they might just need a little reminder that it's breaktime now..."

As soon as he got to the clearing, he stood quite still, his visible eye slightly widened in shock. Curious and more than a little worried, the rest of the group went over to join him. They, too, were surprised by the sight that met their eyes.

Kai was standing with his back to them, and Sasuke was charging at him in mid-air, his arms crossed near his face and a kunai peeking out from each fist. Then, unexpectedly, Sasuke swifly uncrossed his arms.

The fatal blades slashed through empty air, though; a nanosecond before Sasuke tried to slash at him, Kai had leapt up at an angle, and then used Sasuke back as a springboard to propel him towards a tree standing at the opposite end of the small clearing.

Sasuke stumbled slightly before picking himself up and whirling around to face Kai, who was standing(?) on the tree trunk. Both teens locked gazes, and then shot towards each other. There was a clang! as the weapons collided. For a few moments, Sasuke and Kai just stood there, vying for supremacy, and then leapt backwards. Both landed on their feet and assumed defensive stances, panting slightly.

Sakura heaved a sigh of relief, and Max leaned weakly against a nearby tree.

"I thought they were really going to kill each other!" Takao exclaimed. Kakashi took no note of the comment and stepped into the clearing, clapping his hands twice. Hearing this seemed to snap both teens out of the grip of their adrenaline rush, for both straightened up and turned to face the Jounin.

"Nan'da?" Sasuke asked bluntly, the kunai still grasped in his hands.

"We thought we'd check up on the two of you," Kakashi replied, his hands in his pockets now, "and to remind you that it's just around lunchtime. We'll take a break now, and then Kai should train with Sakura for a while. After that, we'll have the one-on-one practice sparring session-" here, the masked Jounin glanced pointedly at Sasuke and Kai - "though both of you have already done that..."

Kai bent forward slightly in a formal bow. "Gomen, Kakashi-san. We...got carried away."

Kakashi smiled behind his mask. "Ah, it's all right; that actually shows you're having fun, Kai. Anway, let's go eat. I bet Hiromi-chan worked hard to pack this lunch for us."

"Yay! Food!" Takao exclaimed, jumping up and thrusting his fist into the air. And then he glanced at the bush where it had been agreed they would eat the picnic lunch, and stopped short. "Hang on..."

"Huh?" Rei arched an eyebrow questioningly. "What's the matter, Takao?"

"I don't see the lunch basket..." the storm-eyed teen glanced around worriedly. "Where is it?"

"...Um..."

Sakura whirled around to face her now-sheepishly smiling former teacher. "What's wrong, Kakashi?"

"...I...uh...I guess I left it back at Yuriko's place..."

Silence, save for the chirping of several birds. Then...

"WHAT?!"

"So we have to go all the way back there just to eat lunch?" Naruto groaned. "Aww, man..."

"Hmm...How about you guys stay here, while I'll run back and get it?" Sakura suggested. "It'll take less than fifteen minutes if I hurry."

"That's kind of you, Sakura-san," Rei commented, settling down under the shade of a large gingko tree. "But are you sure it's no trouble?"

The jade-eyed girl smiled and shook her head. "No, no problem, Rei-san. I've barely exerted myself today. Besides, you guys need your rest."

"Thanks, Sakura-chan!" Naruto half-laughed, flopping down on a small patch of grass, still in the shade.

"Oh, no! You shouldn't relax just yet, Naruto," the pink-haired girl said, grinning mischievously. "You've barely exerted yourself, too; that means you're coming with me. I might need someone to help with the basket."

"Nani?!" The orange-clad teen sat up. "But, Sakura-chan -"

"Go on, Naruto," Kakashi said, laughter in his eyes. "Be a gentleman and accompany Sakura; how bad can it be?"

"B-but...but what about Sasuke?" Naruto asked, as a sort of protest. "If I'm going with Sakura, shouldn't he come, too?"

"Sasuke needs to rest, Naruto," the silver-haired man answered matter-of-factly. "He looks a tad exhausted from his match with Kai. Oh, and Sakura," - here he glanced at the pink-haired kunoichi - "before you leave, perhaps you could check Sasuke and his - ahem - cousin for any injuries and do something about them? We don't want them collapsing later on during the later part of our training for today..."

"Sure!" The jade-eyed girl approached the Uchiha first. She nearly gasped when she saw a potentially fatal slash just below Sasuke's ribcage. She proceeded to heal it - and the cut on his upper arm, which was still bleeding slightly - but decided not to say anything. She was a little worried, though; Sasuke had gone up against a rookie, but had been injured. Yes, most were minor, but what kind of rookie could deal such damage to a Chuunin (with skills belonging to a Jounin)?

As soon as she was finished - with Sasuke nodding his thanks somewhat sullenly - Sakura stood up and went over to Kai.

"Any injuries I should know about?" she asked as she knelt in front of the slate-haired teen. "You know, the ones that aren't readily visible. We ought to take care of those first..."

Kai bit his lip. He wasn't used to this, being taken care of by a girl. He'd always taken care of his own injuries, or, if he happened to be unconscious - which happened very rarely - let a hospital staff deal with them. At lenght, he let out an inaudible sigh.

"Well," he started, shrugging off the left side of his jacket, "one of Sasuke's kunai got through and went in right about here..." With his right hand, the crimson-eyed teen indicated a spot at the back of his dark purple shirt that had been torn.

"And you took the knife out?" Max asked. He'd been sitting very near to his captain and had overheard. "Kai, any bladed weapon does more damage going out than in! You, of all people, should know that-"

"Max, I didn't do anything; the kunai just fell out," Kai interrupted quietly. He'd noticed something while fighting Sasuke earlier, and had been a bit unnerved by it.

"But Max-san is right," Sakura said gently. "Here; let me look at it..." She reached up gently peeled away the torn edges surrounding the injured area, careful not to tear away any clots that might have formed; if she had, the bleeding would begin again, and that would be one heck of a problem, given the location of the puncture wound. Then she gasped.

"What?" Max looked worried. "What is it?"

Sakura sat back, apalled. "The wound..."

"What about it?" Kakashi asked. He'd become a bit concerned that Sakura was taking so long. He crouched down.

"Well, according to Kai-san, Sasuke's kunai had entered his upper back, approximately 1.8 centimeters to the right of the peak of his left collarbone, but..." Sakura trailed off. Kakashi glanced towards it, and blinked in surprise. He could see the damaged section of cloth, stained slightly with blood, but on Kai's pale skin, there was no sign of injury whatsoever.

The masked ninja recovered from his shock and then stood up. "All right, everyone, there's been a change of plans," he said loudly. "Something's come up, and it's been decided that we'll all go back to Yuriko's house and eat lunch there."

"What? Kakashi-" Sakura was about to protest when her former mentor clapped a hand on her shoulder. Then he glanced down at her and smiled gently.

"Don't worry about it, Sakura. But thank you for pointing the...injury out to me." he said quietly. To Kai, he said, "All right, Kai, you can put on your jacket properly now."

"Thank kami..." the slate-haired teen muttered, getting to his feet impatiently.

Soon, the group was on its way back to the village proper. Bringing up the rear was Kakashi, his eye trained on Kai for the majority of the trek back.

You and I are going to have a long talk, Hiwatari Kai...

oOo

A/N: Well, that was a lengthy chapter, wasn't it? To all those who were inconvenienced by the length of this chapter, I sincerely apologize. I'm trying to make up for any overly-shortened chapters I might have posted for this particular fic. About the location of Kai's wound... well, it's something to do with anatomy (damn hard!), so just email me if you want to know why that spot is potentially fatal...

Anyway, if there are any confusions or questions about anything else, you guys know what to do. I'll read your reactions and whatnot, and if I need to, I'll answer your queries and get back to you as soon as I can. I've just started the second semester of my college freshman year, so it will be relatively easy to take care of my account.

Oh, and this is of utmost importance. When you review, can you please answer these simple questions? Here goes: 1) When you read or hear the word/s 'ninja' and 'ninjutsu', what comes to your mind? 2) What do you think influenced this association?

For those who answer the above survey, domo arigatou gozaimasu! I'm working on a research paper for English, and I need your replies for the statistical and analytical sections of the paper. Once more, thanks so much!

Well, that's it for now! Peace out! Dewa mata and God bless!