Chapter 9

AN: Kishimoto owns all except my characters-Kiminari, and Kimiko, and later characters. Also I'm probably not going to follow any of the story line except a few small things. I may take the characters outside their natural personalities, but that's because it's my story, and it'll add to it.

Kakashi's P.O.V.

We were on the final step of our journey to Konoha. I had been teaching Kimiko a few things while we were on the move, which in return sped up our progress. She had the most stamina I'd seen from anyone her age-or anyone under jonin level, infact. She seemed quite easily adaptable, and had a bit of a vicious side when fighting; I suspect she'll have a temper too once she gets to know me more…Uzumakis.

Flashback

"Kimiko, have you tried jumping from limb to limb yet?" I asked.

"No, sensei." She replied, "But I'd like to try."

Her face told me just how excited she was to get back to training, so we stopped to have lunch, and to see how well she could do. Surprisingly, it was quite easy for her. Since she was so small, she had more room on each branch to land. Her only problem was jumping far enough, so I had still had to go a little slower. However, after a couple of minutes, she paused. I turned to see her looking at her surroundings intently.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I think I've got it figured out, but it might take more chakra." She said. If she had to rest a bit longer tonight, that's Ok, as long as it gets us there sooner. I nodded, signaling her to continue. "If I can't jump to the next branch, all I have to do is go around a little, instead of going straight ahead." Well, I knew that, I just never had to do it; besides it took longer.

I was about to leave, when she took off her backpack, and started to rummage through it. "What are you doing now?" I asked her.

"Finding more weights, that way I'll be faster tomorrow, and if anything goes wrong I can just ditch 'em and get out of here." She said with a grin. HMM, really smart move.

Before she jumped to the next branch, I saw her take a quick glance around ahead of us to see where the branches were. HMM, she plans before she moves. I'll have to see if she can change her plans quickly enough later. I thought. Then she started to jump to the next limb. I allowed her to get a little ahead of me so that I could watch her technique. Each jump was fluid, and smooth; unlike the jumps I was used to seeing from early beginners.

Kimiko's P.O.V.

After a few hours of jumping through the tree tops behind me, Kakashi moved so that he was in the lead. A few jumps later, he quickly changed his course, jumping to the left. I almost missed where he turned, but caught sight of him a moment later. We must have to change direction to get around something. I thought to myself. Then he turned to the right; then to the left again. He's toying with me. Probably just some weird test to see if I can keep up with his movements. I guess I was right, because he kept switching directions on me. After his first few moves, I thought of a plan: Instead of turning where he turns, turn at the same time he does. I can still see through the trees, so doing so shouldn't slow me down; in fact, I'll be able to react faster.

I followed this strategy for about fifteen minutes. Then he just disappeared; he seemed to have jumped down, for I could not see him when I looked up-as I did, however, I realized we'd gotten way off track. He did that on purpose. Well sensei, you asked for it. So I turned back to our original course and ran through the trees until I found him running at an average pace. I'd always beat Kankuro, and Gaara at chess; they said it helped them practice their strategy-even if they lost. So I put my ability into use. I knew he could probably sense my chakra-since Temari told me ninja could do that- so I paused and took out my map. I had a hard time at first trying to read it, because I'd never read one before. After a moment or two, I determined which way Konoha was, and found the shortest, straightest way to the village. This was going to be an interesting game.

After another thirty minutes of running, I finally saw Kakashi again, although this time, I had passed him up. He was back in the tree tops, so I tried to cut him off by breaking off the occasional branch, and hurtling it, like a kunai, toward him. However, he was too fast, and dodged them all. The third branch finally hit him, but he just poofed away. Must have been one of those shadow clone things Gaara talked about, I thought. Then another thought: He must be ahead of me if he's not behind me. I need to be extra careful and watch out.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, a larger branch was thrown at me, but I didn't see from where. It nearly hit me, but I used it as a step up to the branch above. I saw where the second branch came from- above and to the right a little- and since it was small enough for me to hold, I caught it as it came toward me. I took this opportunity to fake a fall and jump to the branch behind and beneath me. As I did so, Kakashi stopped and turned around, doing exactly what I wanted him to. I had learned a little from Temari about fighting with a fan, so I thought, how different was a fan from a sword-and this limb was the perfect substitute for a sword.

As he called my name and jumped to the branch I had fallen from, I launched myself from sitting position I'd been in and swung it at him as hard as I could. It had the exact affect intended; I missed him, but just barely. I continued slashing at him as hard, and as fast as I could, and since he was still a little shocked from my trick, I succeeded in pushing him higher into the trees. Eventually, as I had guessed, the limbs on the trees began to get thinner, and, finally, one snapped. He only fell about fourteen feet before he caught himself on a branch, but I had already jumped from my perch. He jumped to the side to try to avoid the blow and as I neared the branch that had originally held my target, but I kicked out as hard as I could at the tree truck next to me and shot out, directly at Kakashi. He hadn't been expecting me to react as quickly, I assume, because he didn't move out of the way fast enough this time. As I neared him, I tucked my legs in front of my body, so I could easily kick him down. When my feet finally made impact, I sent just enough chakra to them to hold him down, and then placed my left hand below his neck and the 'sword' I still held backwards in my hand, just above it.

AN: Don't forget about the drawing entries! If you would like, I'm starting a competition. Just send me a link in the reviews, or on private messaging of a drawing, sketch, or painting of your favorite characters from my stories. You may include characters that are from the actual universe, but all entries must include at least one of the stories OCs. I'll start the first drawing on March 1, but if you're just reading, don't worry. I plan to continue this for a while