"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu!" Kakashi sent a large dragon composed of water towards Saru, who was barely able to slide under it. He popped up and charged at Kakashi with his chakra scalpels engaged and made a swipe at his side.
"Got ya!" Saru's cockiness faded when he felt Kakashi grab his forearm and held him there.
"Chidori." Saru was barely able to dodge the blow that was aimed at his heart, and was instead pierced through his shoulder with Kakashi's lighting based Jutsu. "No, I got you." Although his face wasn't able to be seen, Saru could almost feel his smugness. But then, Kakashi's vision blurred slightly.
"The joke is on you, Kakashi Hatake. My blood itself is flowing with poison. Poison that can seep through any orifice and affect you. Can you feel my poison weakening your senses?" Kakashi quickly kicked off Saru's stomach and got some distance between the two. While Kakashi did this, Saru began to heal the wound that Kakashi made and proceeded to begin forming hand signs.
"Dynamic Ent-"Gai flew at Kuma, only to have his foot grabbed in mid air and toss him up. He then flipped up after him and kicked him hard in the stomach to send him flying higher.
"You can't announce the name of your attack, if you're going to do the same attack five times in a row!" Kuma was caught by the attack the first three times, but after that he got the speed of the attack down pact. Gai came down and flipped to his feet, before giving his opponent a weird pose that involved sticking his thumb up and smiling.
"A worthy opponent, finally! Now I can break lose!" Gai grinned while crossing his arms together. "Gate of Opening…Release! Gate of Healing…Release! Gate of life…Release!" Gai's skin turned completely red, and he zipped towards a shocked Kuma. "Violent Leaf Adamantine Strength Whirlwind!" The round house kick sent Kuma flying several feet back, past his partner, and into a boulder.
"Kid, I'm impressed. How many gates can you open?" Kuma recovered, and effortlessly popped his shoulder back in place. His pain tolerance was immense, even for a shinobi.
"Four, working on five." Something compelled Gai to be honest. Maybe it was because his opponent was a Taijutsu master as well, or maybe it was just because Kuma just seemed like he wasn't as bad as he made himself out to be.
"Impressive, I admit that. Alright, tell you what…I'll match you. Gate of life…Release!" Kuma, unlike Gai, was able to skip directly to the third gate and release all three at once. The two charged each other, with Gai attempting to kick Kuma in the head but missing due to Kuma moving behind him. "Gungnir!" Kuma took his palm and forced it into Gai's back with such speed that it resembled a spear and sent him flying.
"Poison Seeking Mind Alteration Jutsu!" Saru slammed his hand down on the ground and a jet of purple mist flung on the ground and shot towards Kakashi, who moved out of its path. However, it followed him. Kakashi used a shadow clone to pop up behind him and he used it as a step ladder to jump into the air.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Kakashi shot a blast of fire at Saru that hit him dead on. Once Saru recovered from the attack, he was met with another Chidori to his stomach. Kakashi had adapted to the poison in Saru's body that was affecting his eyesight. In fact, now he had been relying on his ears and nose to fight instead. He withdrew his arm from Saru's stomach and moved away to escape any counter attack. Saru healed himself quickly, and reformed his chakra scalpels. Saru had noticeably more chakra than Kakashi, although that was more than likely due to the unnatural Sharingan that Kakashi had activated during the battle. Gai too, had been knocked out of his eight gates mode and managed to somehow make it next to Kakashi.
"I get the Sharingan!" Saru seemed pleased with that fact.
"I don't want it anyway. It's not like I can use Ninjutsu anyway." Kuma shrugged, and instead looked towards the exhausted Gai. Saru started to point out that because he could use Chakra to run on water and trees, he probably could learn Ninjutsu and was just bad at it, but decided against it. Mostly because he didn't want Kuma to change his mind about the Sharingan, but also because he didn't feel like being punched in the face by him.
"Let's just finish them off." The duo charged at Kakashi and Gai, but was blocked by a wall of mud. When it faded, an elder man wearing a black combat uniform had been standing in front of them.
"Hokage-sama." Kakashi and Gai kneeled down before their savior.
"Go on you two. I'll take care of them. I won't let any more harm come to my precious shinobi." The third Hokage, whom had recently came out of retirement, was particularly annoyed still over the loss of the fourth Hokage.
"Kuma…let's go. Tora gave us specific orders to flee on sight if the Hokage showed u-"
"Tora said blah blah blah!" Kuma made his voice significantly higher pitch in order to mock Saru. He then opened up the fifth gate, and charged at the Hokage at full speed. The Hokage side stepped rather quickly however.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb Jutsu!" The attack came out so quick, and was so powerful; the explosion that it made when it connected with Kuma nearly defeated Saru. Reacting quickly, Saru ran over and grabbed Kuma whom had been knocked unconscious. He figured he could heal him later but would need to get away from the Hokage first. "Go. I will not pursuit. But if you attack again, I will not show mercy." Saru didn't hesitate to take the Hokage' offer. He knew that today, this battle was their loss, and left.
"So what does this Kame kid look like?" Ookami barely looked up at Shishi as the two walked by.
"I don't know. I just know he's supposed to be at that temple up there." Shishi pointed to the temple before them, and increased his speed to knock on the door. When no one answered, Ookami just pushed the door open and walked inside.
"Yo! Kame!" Ookami found herself looking at a rather muscular young man with shaggy black hair and onyx eyes peering back at them. His hair was drawn back by a red bandana, which matched the long sleeve shirt he wore. "We're-"
"I know who you are. And the answer is no, I won't join you." Shishi and Ookami were taken aback by the fact that Kame knew who the duo were. It had never occurred before in their history of recruiting.
"And why not?" Shishi stepped up to speak this time.
"You know my power. You know I can't turn it off. It's slowly driving me mad. I need to isolate myself. And you aren't strong enough to stop me if I do end up going mad. None of you are." Kame was highly wanted because of his kekkei genkai; at all times he had a twenty foot invisible barrier erected that allowed him to read thoughts of anyone who passed through it. Granted, it wasn't perfected and he couldn't pick and choose what thoughts he wanted to read or turn the ability off, but he had the potential to perfect it.
"Well how about we prove to you that we are." Ookami had grown tired of the talk. She had expected this to be a simple retrieval mission so she could take a nap, but so far it wasn't working out that way.
"A Genjutsu master and a Hyuuga? Fine, but I'm telling you that you won't be enough. Not even your leader would be enough, Shishi." It was obvious that Kame had picked up their thoughts. But just how much did he know? Did he see all of their abilities? Would he be able to predict every one of their moves? The two readied themselves for battle, because either way, they were about to find out.