A/N: Sorry this is late. Tell me if it's too long or whatever. It's the only way I can improve

"Your mission is this: the retrieval of this document," he began, pulling out his beloved Icha Icha book with a wry smile, "is priority one. I'm an enemy nin, and if I get this book back to…" he thought for a moment, "Lee's doujo, then I'll have the intel to destroy Konoha and everything you hold dear."

"You're going to destroy Konoha with porn?" Sakura asked, trying not to smile at the absurdity.

"Absolutely. This is a very corruptive influence, you know."

"I noticed," Sakura quipped.

"Oh, the carnage, the devastation this document could cause if it fell into the wrong hands," Kakashi looked away in mock distress. "There'll be blood in the streets. Crying babies, orphaned kittens… Do you want that on your conscience?"

Sakura covered her mouth to hide her soft chuckle. "Would you just start running already?"

"You never have any fun," Kakashi teased, tucking the book into his back pouch so Sakura could see. "You ready?" he asked her, before blurring away through the trees before she could answer. She knew that the point was to always be ready. Spinning on her heel, she took off after him.

She was matching his every step, but about six trees behind. Plunging her hand into her kunai pouch, she threw a handful of the heavy blades toward the place Kakashi would be standing when they landed. He dodged them all without even looking back at her. She gritted her teeth, determined to make him fight her. The chase was an important part of a ninja's life, but she wanted confrontation.

Changing her tactic, she used chakra to boost her off the branch. Not out, but down… She was swan-diving head-first into the very hard earth beneath her. At the last foreseeable second she swung her chakra-loaded fist out to break her fall. Gravity and her bizarre strength sent a shock-wave of energy through the earth, splitting the ground before her in two. It would catch Kakashi far quicker than she would at this rate.

The second Kakashi landed on the next branch he knew it felt different. The whole forest felt different, with vibrations making the tree shudder and jolt him forward. He was able to catch the next tree, but the wave had caught up with him and he was flung down to the churned-up ground. The tree's ear-splitting crack was the only warning he had before it toppled down after him. Just barely rolling free of the bigger branches, he brought his hands up to his face to protect his eye from the shower of twigs and woodland creatures that seemed to rain down upon him. He was completely free in less than a few seconds, but she was already there waiting for him.

His body switched immediately from flight to fight, as his right leg slid back to give leverage to his first blow.

"There was a family of birds living in that tree," he told her.

"I'll write them a letter," she dismissed, leaping toward him. He dodged her strike to his chest by swinging his body to the right. Then he used her momentum to send her flying back over his knee. She tumbled the landing as gracefully as she could, considering he had just thrown her into a fallen tree. Sakura no longer stood directly in his path, so he sprinted forward once more. He knew it was an honest fight she wanted, but he would make her work for it.

She was far closer now as she dogged Kakashi. He sprinted horizontally up the first tree trunk that wasn't still shaking and continued his zig-zagging leaps. There was no point wasting chakra on splitting the earth again when she was close enough to stop him herself. Following him into the trees she kept him close, desperate to keep the ground she had covered. Now it was his turn to throw projectiles, sending razor-sharp shuriken into his blind spot whenever he lost her in his peripherals.

She heard one of the metal stars sing as it flew past her head. Something bit into her thigh, but it only grazed her and kept going. To be honest, she was more worried that the first one hadn't sliced off a chunk of her hair.

They were almost at Lee's doujo, Sakura realised as she passed a familiar-looking bush. Her heart raced with the fear of losing, of being beaten without a proper fight. Sprinting through the trees was technically less energy-consuming than hand-to-hand combat, but it wasn't challenging to anticipate Kakashi's moves from one leap to the next, and the repetition was draining her. When a particularly thick branch came into view, Sakura aimed for it. The moment she landed she forced all of her chakra into her legs, springing out like one of Naruto's toads. The branch was strong, but she still felt it crack a little from the sheer force of her jump. A smaller branch would have fallen straight off and given her no force. As it was, she was hurtling for Kakashi, gloved fingers stretched out for his back pouch.

One moment Kakashi was staying just ahead of the 'enemy', with the doujo nearly in sight. The next, a massive impact on small of his back had literally knocked him off his feet. Sakura didn't have a good enough hold on his pouch to remove it, but she wasn't letting go of it either. He couldn't land safely with her grabbing him around his middle, and so he twisted his shoulders to bring his elbow down on her head and make her let go. It connected; he felt the impact jolt up through his entire arm, but her grip didn't loosen one bit. They hit the ground together in a graceless heap. Kakashi immediately stood up, dragging Sakura's dead weight with him. Damn she was stubborn.

Once she could get purchase with her feet, she charged forwards and drove Kakashi into the base of a tree. Either the pouch would break free, or the impact would stun him long enough to free it herself. Neither happened; Kakashi threw his weight back onto her, placing his feet onto the trunk to reverse their momentum. Sakura was forced to let go, though once again she stood between him and the doujo. The look in her eyes told him that if they didn't fight now, then she wouldn't stop even if they did reach it. It had been selfish of him to put it off anyway. It was a training exercise, in which showing off his superior speed wouldn't be helpful to her.

He made the first move this time, moving in with a simple kick. She brought her own leg up to protect her stomach, forced to take the impact in a poorly-balanced stance. She sucked in a quick breath as she wobbled backward, but did not fall. She immediately countered with a kunai-slash to the chest. The blade's edge barely tore the fabric of his jacket, but he still took a step back. Pulling out his own kunai, metal clashed against metal as they exchanged a series of blows and blocks. Kakashi expected Sakura's usual aggressive attitude and battle-cries, but the way she fought him now was strangely silent and intense. Her jade eyes burned into him as she dropped down on all fours to avoid his left hook and swung her legs under his to sweep him backward. Instead of trying to fight gravity, he arched his back as he fell, throwing back his hands to try to regain verticality in a simple back flip.

Just as his hands connected with the ground and he began to push himself upright once more, Sakura's own hand grabbed the front of his jacket and pushed him back down with enough force to knock the wind out of him and possibly break a rib. Her other hand drew back to hit him again, but he grabbed her by the shoulders and brought his knee up to her chest. The blow didn't have as much force from his current position on the ground, but it was enough to stun Sakura for a second. Pulling himself up, he threw her by her shoulders back onto the grass, then turned to run for the doujo.

Sakura wasn't as stunned as Kakashi thought, because she was able to snake out her hand and catch his left ankle before he could get away. He turned back see her lying on the ground, smiling innocently up at him. Kakashi smiled wryly before Sakura yanked his foot backward. Suddenly he was on one knee in a position somewhere between a chivalrous kneel and the splits. The mad waving of his arms in an attempt to keep his balance completed the absurd picture. Sakura let out a breath of laughter, scrambling to get up before he did. Then it was his turn to drag her back down, yanking back on her shirt and pulling himself up.

"Hey!" she cried as she was dumped back on her butt. She kicked him in the thigh and leapt up to tackle him round the middle. "Don't think you're getting away that easily!"

Kakashi was glad Sakura seemed to be enjoying herself again, even if it came at the expense of his health. They seemed to be taking it in turns tripping each other over now. Each time one of them tried to stand, the other would drag them back down. Kakashi tugged teasingly at a lock of Sakura's hair as she tried to pin him on his back.

"Looks like I got you with those shuriken after all, Sakura-chan," he teased as her eyes widened.

"If I'm missing even one hair, I'm gonna shave you when you sleep, Kakashi-sensei," she returned, trying to check her hair and keep him pinned at the same time. "You're just jealous that pink is nicer than grey."

"It's silver," Kakashi pretended to complain, reaching up to grab a lock of his own hair. "See the amazing way it shimmers in the light?"

Sakura knew Kakashi was trying to cheer her up, and she was only slightly annoyed that it was working. She laughed at him, tilting her head as though trying to inspect his hair in the light.

"You're delusional, Kakashi."

Kakashi chuckled, and was about to say something clever back at her, or topple her off his chest (it was starting to become uncomfortable), when he was interrupted by the shout "Sakura-san! Kakashi-sensei! I could hear the youthful energy of your fight from my doujo! It makes me so happy to see you two putting all your effort into such a no-holds-barred battle!"

Sakura grimaced at Lee's 'youthful' outburst as Kakashi laughed quietly. "And here's my back-up," he said as he picked himself up and checked he was all there. Truthfully, their battle had been far from 'no-holds-barred' in the end; they were having too much fun joking around to continue fighting as intensely as they had been.

Kakashi held out his hand to help Sakura stand and she took it, checking herself the same way Kakashi had. She would be black and blue by tomorrow, but that was nothing new. She had a few cuts here and there, but as long as she cleaned them they wouldn't even need chakra to heal perfectly. She cast her medic's eye over Kakashi too, knowing he hated hospitals so much that even if he were injured he probably wouldn't say anything about it. He saw her looking and winked, standing straighter so she could see he was okay. She didn't think she'd broken any of his ribs after all, so she turned to Lee instead.

"I'm sorry I lost my temper at you before," she told him, lowering her head and looking at him meekly through her lashes. She thought she heard Kakashi snigger, but Lee seemed satisfied.

"No Sakura-san, the fault is all mine! I shouldn't have held back with you!" He was eager to convince her that things were okay between them, and as she was in a better mood she was happy to accept it. She smiled at him, before raising her hand to both shinobi.

"Well, I guess I should be getting home now," she told them, glancing at the lowering sun. "See you, Lee. Kakashi," she began, leaning forward and solemnly shaking his hand, "Better luck next time."

She grinned and disappeared into the trees before Kakashi could comment on her audacity. She may have done well, but she hadn't won. Her mission was to get his Icha Icha book off him, and it was still safe in his-

He froze as he felt in his kunai pouch and didn't come across anything book-shaped. Then he laughed ruefully, snapping the pouch shut and rubbing his hand over his eye. The confused and slightly alarmed look on Lee's face only made him laugh harder.

"Oh, I am going to kill her…"