The Cloud Over The Leaf

I wake up early in the morning the next day and wash up. My muscles are a bit sore, but I think I'll be ok today. 

I head out into the kitchen and was immediately shocked!

""Morning, Nii-san!""

The twins!

They woke up early?!!

I'm sure my mouth would go to the floor right now, but I can't help it.

"Don't worry,Hii. We were shocked as well."

Grandpa rubs my head as we look at the two discussing plans for today.

"Haaa. They only ever wake up in time for mischief."

Grandma shakes her head as she makes breakfast.

"Nii-san! Can you come here?"

Moya calls me over to her and Yozora.

Well, let's see what they have in mind.

"Hehe! Let me tell you the plan, Nii-san!"

Moya goes on to explain what they came up with.

.....It's vicious. No matter how I look at it....

"You're not trying to kill him, are you?"

".......No."

'Why did you pause for so long?!'

I started to sweat a little at the side plans they made in case the main one failed. They're not any better than the first one.

[These two are little devils.]

'Yeah. I'm starting to wonder if this will be a sparring match or a death match.'

[You should probably back out.]

'I can't. I suggested it, I have to see it through!'

I sigh as I resign myself to a crazy time.

"Nii-san."

Yozora pats my shoulder as I turn to him.

"You fight him first."

"Eh?"

"Yeah! You spar with him first for your match and we'll fight him afterwards!"

"This is just a sparing match though?!"

""Nuh-uh!""

Oh boy.

I'll just focus on doing my best.

I want no parts of their fight!

********

We head over to the nearby training ground those three decided on yesterday. 

These two have become so solemn and serious, it's scary!

They're just inspecting everything and checking the best places for traps. Grandma and Grandpa found a place to sit while I nervously watched the twins prep.

"These brats! They only remember what I tell them when they're up to no good. I wonder who they got that from?"

Grandma kept watching the two work while Grandpa just stared at her and sighed.

'It must come from Grandma.'

We wait for a bit as the twins keep surveying the grounds when Kakashi finally came.

"You're late, Mask nii-san! You getting scared~?!"

"Of course not. I had to feed a neighborhood kitten on my way here. Sorry about that."

Grandma just laughs as Kakashi scratches his head.

The twins aren't amused from the looks of their puffed cheeks.

"Haaa. Kakashi nii-san, you and I will be fighting first. You'll fight the twins afterwards. Is that ok?"

"Ooh~. That's perfectly fine. A good warm up would do nicely."

"Ouch! No need to shoot my confidence down that bad."

"Ah! Sorry! I didn't mean anything by that. It's just that I always get riled up by brats acting tough without reason. I'm excited for the twins to show me what they can do."

I can feel their anger from behind me, but I'm not turning around. Kakashi just chuckles in their direction and goes to one side of the training ground.

"What are the rules for our match then?"

I ask while I do my stretches.

"Just hit me with everything you got."

He puts his dog mask fully on his face and readies himself. 

I nod and pull my blade out and slowly shift towards him.

"Haaa!"

I shot out towards Kakashi and swing my blade at him! 

My speed has increased greatly since I started training with Guy, so I'm eager to see how fast I am now.

*Clang*

Kakashi reads my move and blocks it with a kunai. We trade blows for a bit and I notice that Kakashi has a form to his Kenjutsu.

I wonder if he can teach me what he knows?

"Not bad, but you should give up if this is all you're capable of."

"I'll have to try harder then!"

I jump back and prepare my jutsu!

Kakashi sees my jutsu and also weaves handsigns?!

Water Style: Raging Torrent ×2!

He copied my move?!

Our streams clash against each other, splashing water everywhere.

This works in my favor!

Lightning Style: Paralyzing Bolt!

Lightning shoots out of my hand and  shoots along the water toward Kakashi.

"Hnnngh!"

Yosh! Kakashi should be paralyzed!

*Poof*

Shit! A substitution!

I rush to a nearby tree and look around the area for him.

I checked everywhere, but he hasn't popped up.

I suddenly felt a shiver and jumped out of the tree immediately as a rain of kunai fell where I just was.

'This is probably a diversion.'

I weave handsigns and hold my jutsu as I land on the ground.

Earth Style: Headhunting Jutsu!

As I land on the ground, a pair of hands grab my ankles and drag me into the ground!

I can't move!

"Well,you did better than I expected. Not bad at all."

Kakashi appears beside me and pokes my head.

"It's not over yet!"

*Poof*

"What?!"

My Shadow clone disappears as I send shurikens and kunai at Kakashi!

He jumps in the air to dodge, right into my trap!

Water Style: Abyss Chain Jutsu!

This is a new move I made!

The water from the ground shoots up and attaches to Kakashi's limbs.

Four water chains wrap around Kakashi, immobilizing him as he's dragged to ground.

"I got you!"

"You did. Congratulations."

A voice sounds behind as I feel the cold edge of a blade.

Damn! He figured out I was hiding in the bush!

I have one more move!

Lightning Armor Chakra Mode!

My hair spikes up and I immediately dash out of the bush!

I see my chains are wrapped around a stump. 

Looks like my only choice to win is to use Kenjutsu!

Kakashi jumps out of the bush, throwing shurikens towards me!

*Clang Clang*

I block them with my sword and dash towards him.

We exchange more blows and I managed to knock the kunai out of his hand!

"Haaaah!"

I strike him with my blade and he blocks it with a cross arm guard!

He grabs the blade and flips me over his back!

I flip to my feet and move to punch him, but he sees me coming and hits me in the stomach.

"Ugh!"

The armor blocks most of it, but it still staggers me. 

He wraps his arm around my neck when I tried to recover!

I try to break out, but he has a firm hold around my neck.

"Got you~."

Haaaa.

I tap on his arm and he lets go. 

"Good job! You really gave me a bit of a hard time."

"Yeah...."

Damn it! I still lost! Did I even have a chance?!

[Calm down. The goal isn't to win, but to get better. We get a little better every time, losses and all.]

I grab my sword and grudgingly walk over to Grandma and Grandpa. I sit down between them and lie down. I feel a hand rubbing my head as I sulk.

"Hey now, don't feel bad about losing. You improved a lot since you first started training. Catching Kakashi off guard is no easy feat."

"He still won though..."

Grandma laughs as she watches the twins do their stretches. 

"He better win, or I'd start to worry about the Anbu. You did put up a good show for the twins though. Look at how fired up they are."

I checked the twins and noticed they were only looking at Kakashi with fire in their eyes

Have they always been so determined?

"What happened to them?"

"Ara~! You don't know? Those two look up to you. If a bad man in their eyes beats their brother, they will definetly try to get back at them."

The twins finish stretching and head towards Kakashi.

"You're gonna pay for making Nii-san sad!!"

"Umu!"

"Oh! I hope you'll go a bit easy on me."

""Not a chance!""

Moya darts toward Kakashi while Yozora throws shurikens at him!

Kakashi dodges the shurikens and blocks Moya's punches and kicks with ease at first, but they slowly started to get in synch with each other.

I'm shocked to see them doing so well against him.

"Surprised?"

Grandpa asks me as we watch the fight.

"Yeah. I never knew they could get this good."

"That's the funny part about those two. They always have fun no matter how bad it gets. If the training is fun, they do great. If it isn't, it's a mess. They don't care about much else, but their family and few friends they have. That's really all you need to get stronger."

I watch the two set off some nearby traps and piss Kakashi off. When did they put a log up there?

"You surprised us even more."

"Huh?"

"I never expected you to be able to move that fast with the Lightning Armor so soon. That Jutsu you used as well was also interesting. You'll definitely get much stronger in the future. Keep training hard."

Grandma says while Grandpa nods his head.

[You're definitely getting stronger, Hii. It's just all of your opponents are scary.]

......I see. I guess I was worrying too much.

I feel my blood start to pump as my hand reaches for my sword and a smile creeps on my face from watching them.

Win or lose, it doesn't matter as long as it's fun.

I can fight for something like that!

I stand up and start to head over to the battlefield.

Moya got caught in Kakashi's Hunting Jutsu as well. He's staring down Yozora who has shurikens in his hand with his foot on Moya's head. He turns to me and sighs when he sees my face.

"You're all stubborn, huh?"

"Get off me, Mask! I'll definitely kick your butt!"

"Language."

"Not now, Yozo!"

"Hahaha! I guess I better help then. Sorry, Kakashi-san."

"Haaaaaa...."

I draw my blade and charge toward Kakashi!

I can't let my sister get buried now, can I?

*******

Riku and Di watched as their grandkids "played" around with Kakashi. 

"They're all getting strong pretty fast. It'll be a good while before Moya gets the hang of Earth Style. Yozora will probably get it faster than her."

Di only nodded his head as he watched Hii and Yozora pull their sister out of the ground.

"Hii picked up on fighting abnormally fast."

"It's in his genes. Nothing too strange."

Riku only gave her husband a short glance and turned back to the fight.

"So Hii will learn the Storm Blade when he's older, correct?"

"Umu."

"When are you going to give him a real sword? I know you've been making them in your spare time."

Riku glanced at Di, but he avoided her gaze.

"....You're not gonna try to make the perfect blade again, are you?"

"....."

*Smack*

Riku slapped Di's shoulder and sighed.

"You know, you can be so ridiculous when it comes to blades. I can see it now. You must've thought you made the perfect blade for him, was going to give it as a gift, and found one imperfection in it."

Di held his gaze on the battle, ignoring Riku's condescending gaze.

"You scrapped it, huh?"

Di flinched, but still said nothing. He didn't need to, however, as his wife figured him out.

"He needs to get used to a real blade's weight. Get it done, dear."

"Umu."

Riku refocused on the fight and laughed.

"He's not going to do that 1000 years of death thing on them, is he?"

"He might."

Riku face became blank, then she sighed.

"They'll probably need a kick in their asses to get into training anyway. Might as well let Kakashi do it."

""Gyaaaaaah!!!!"

"Ah. There they go."

The two warmly watched their twin grandchildren get healed by the oldest one while they stared viciously at Kakashi. It seemed a blood feud would start between them soon.

It seemed that today would be another good day.