Standard disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! As a special treat, here is chapter three, posted on the same day as the previous two. Also, if anyone knows how to find/make names for jutsu that are not covered in the manga/anime, please let me know.

*******Chapter 3: The first rule of Fight Club…*********

Kakashi had joked in the past that his blonde student was Konoha's number-one-unpredictable-knucklehead ninja. He wasn't joking now.

Two Hours Earlier

Naruto and Sakura made it to their old training ground with plenty of time to spare. As they both looked around, bathing in the waves of nostalgia that hit them, their sensei broke the reverie.

"Well, I believe it is time we find out if you two can actually get the bells this time. Same rules as before," he said as he dangled the infamous bells out in front of his students. "Anything goes. You have three hours. Ready?"

Sakura nodded with an excited look plastered all over her face, while Naruto spoke up. "How about a little bet, sensei?"

The jounin's head perked up at this. Naruto wasn't normally one to make bets. "Hm?"

"If we get those bells, you stop reading the Icha Icha series for a month."

'What kind of idiot does he think I am—'

"But if we don't get those bells," he continued, "you get this." He pulled out a book from his equipment pouch.

The normally stoic jounin's single eye went wide. "I-is t-that…a new one? How—"

"It's unreleased, of course. Traveling with the author tends to have its privileges, right sensei?"

'Naruto, it's a shame. I was planning on taking it easy at first, but now…'

"Start."

Kakashi uncovered his Sharingan as Naruto performed his all-too-predictable opening move: Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. "Again with the same, Naruto? I would have thought you'd be a bit more unpredic—"

He never finished that sentence, as the new Icha Icha book came flying at his face through the smoke, with an exploding tag loosely attached. The fanboy that he was, Kakashi instantly grabbed the book and tore the exploding tag off, throwing it to the side. 'Nice one, but now you've lost your leverage—'

Without warning, he heard a distinct poof before he was slugged in the face, hard. With his years of experience, he quickly recovered. His pride, however, was not so lucky. Naruto was staring at him with an all-knowing smile on his face, while Sakura stared at her teammate with her eyebrows raised. Kakashi quickly realized his mistake; the book had actually been a henge'd clone, which had released its transformation once Kakashi took his eyes off of the book, and sucker-punched him in the face.

The blonde wasn't about to let it slide, however. "Ninja technique #1: Taijutsu."

Recalling when he had said those exact words three years ago, Kakashi amusedly wondered if his student had been looking forward to saying that back at him for a long time.

"Okay, looks like I'll need to step it up a bit," the jounin replied.

Flashing through a series of seals, Kakashi slammed his hands into the ground as a trail of razor-sharp spikes shot out at the ground towards his students. Sakura would have none of that, though, and slammed her fist into the ground with a short battle cry. The impending series of spikes were shattered from the shockwave, countering the attack. Naruto lept into the air, finished a series of several seals, and shot a menacing sphere of wind out of his mouth. Kakashi surmised that the effects of such a jutsu would be rather destructive.

He wasn't about to stick around to find out. He settled on a tried and true tactic: Kawarimi no Jutsu. Just in the nick of time, the silver-haired man was replaced with a log as the wind-sphere impacted the space he had just vacated, resulting in a huge explosion. For the first time ever, Kakashi thought that he would be the one getting schooled by his own students.

"Gaara!" Kankuro's cries, though fierce with emotion and determination, could do nothing against the surreal situation before them. The Kazekage, whom nearly everyone in Sunagakure viewed as unbeatable in his home environment, was snatched out of the air by this mysterious white bird. The fight had been spectacular, but the Kazekage had to defend his village from an explosive-weidling maniac, and paid the price for fighting a three-fronted battle.

Matsuri, for all of her growth and determination to repay her savior from three years prior, knew she would not stand a chance against shinobi of this caliber.

But that didn't mean she wasn't going to try.

Kakashi was panting harder than he had in a long time. He knew that without a doubt, if he didn't have his Sharingan, he wouldn't have been able to deal with Sakura's genjutsu or keep up with Naruto's never-ending, unpredictable assaults.

That didn't mean he couldn't blame his current predicament on his lack of complete-compatibility with the Sharingan, thus suffering from chakra drain every time he used it.

Before he could rest any significant amount, he realized that everything was too quiet. He looked above and behind him, and low and behold, three chakra signatures were poised to strike. Leaping up to a nearby branch, he performed a quick genjutsu dispelling, revealing three Naruto's standing where he was a moment ago. All three clones quickly performed a few seals, and pointed their palms towards the cycloptic jounin. 'What is it this time?'

A harsh gale of wind erupted from the clones as Kakashi barely managed to defend with a raiton-based defensive wall. Just as he did that, however, a fist connected with the back of his head, sending him careening forward into the dirt below.

With his body already exhausted, he couldn't recover in time for one of the Naruto's to grab the bells from his belt. The jounin looked back up at his students, his signature lazy look returning to his face.

A voice called out to his right, "Ninja Technique #2: Genjutsu."

And then one to his left, accompanied by the sound of ringing bells. "Ninja Technique #3: Ninjutsu."

Sighing, Kakashi stood back up and smiled at his students. "Nice work. I'm very impressed." The realization then dawned on Kakashi that the bells had, in fact, been taken before time ran out, and that he wouldn't be able to read anything from the Icha Icha series for an entire month. The smile left his face immediately. 'Oh, sonavab—'

An orange, rectangular object slammed into his face. Quickly catching the object, he realized that it was the very same book Naruto had shown him earlier. Confusion plastered all over what little of his face was visible, Kakashi looked up at the blonde. "I thought—"

"The bet was just a way to introduce the book without suspicion, so I could use it like that at the beginning," Naruto responded with a small smile on his face.

Kakashi had joked in the past that his blonde student was Konoha's number-one-unpredictable-knucklehead ninja. He wasn't joking now.

A/N: And so the first bit of action appears. I know this chapter followed canon a bit more than I would have liked, but it had so much potential, and it's hard to find another excuse to have a unique action scene at this point in time. I promise things will start to differ greatly in a few chapters, but for now, things are going to be similar to canon with my own twists until I can introduce the really big changes.

I really appreciate the reviews I've gotten so far. I wasn't going to write this chapter so soon, but two nice reviews were all the motivation I needed. Since summer just started for me, I'm going to have some free time, so if you guys want frequent updates, let me know.