Previously:

The pair separated, one crouching, cradling his arm and the pinkette standing with a smirk on her face.

"Oh, I'm sorry Sasuke-kun," Sakura said in a deceptively sweet voice. "Were you expecting someone else?"

"...Hn."

A slam of wood separated them, and the pair jumped apart to join the melee going on at the center of the arena.

Chapter 10: Spar of the Dragons (Part 2)

(Posted 2015-09-20, Updated 2015-09-30)

{(S)}

: Afternoon, Arena

The spar continued for the next twenty minutes, no one giving an inch. No one pulled out the big guns just yet, all knowing that doing so would escalate things far too quickly for a satisfying spar.

They all sported some scruffs and bruises, but no one had bled yet, much to the excitement of all the civilians present. (The shinobi were impressed, but it wasn't anything they hadn't seen before.)

Somehow, in the middle of the spar, Sai and Tenzo decided to team up and start picking the others off one by one; they weren't doing a great job, but a lot more effective than had they'd been working on their own. Of course, Naruto was annoyed.

"Oi, teme! We can totally overpower everyone with your Susanoo and my Sage mode! Let's team up!"

"...Tch. As if I need you to win."

"Don't lie, dattebayo! Just give me some time to gather chakra!"

"Hmph. Just this once." he couldn't help but add a 'dobe', which rang with the unspoken and condescending 'since you need it'.

Predictably, Naruto fell for the bait, as he always have and always will until he no longer felt the need to shout, 'Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage, dattebayo!'.

"Teme! You're the only one with broken bones!"

"As if I need to be at a hundred percent to beat you, dead last."

"That's it! I take it back — you need another lesson on who can beat who! Let's see exactly who's the 'dobe' here!"

The two broke off from their respective sparring partners and started towards each other, punching and blocking furiously, Sasuke pulling out a minor form of the Susanoo while Naruto brought out a little of Kurama's chakra. After the initial clash that separated them, they began running towards each other with a Chidori and Rasengan in their respective hand, all but ignoring the flash of pink headed towards their point of impact (later they insisted that they had seen it but just decided not to act on it).

Their techniques never had a chance to clash, as a canister landed between them and let loose a purple-tinged smoke. Naruto and Sasuke immediately moved away from the probably-gas cloud, quickly pulled into a taijutsu match. Sai and Tenzo took on Naruto and Sakura tentatively allied with Kakashi clashed with Sasuke.

It seemed like the spar would go on for quite a bit longer, when the most promising winner of the match (he beat all his opponents in the war and everyone knew about/was treated to his brand of therapy-no-jutsu) made a foolish mistake that even rookies were reluctant to admit to, much less in an arena full of people.

Naruto slipped.

A few seconds into the two two-to-one matches, the entire group had coincidentially (or by design by someone in the group, it was hard to tell) gone near the gigantic crater that Sakura had made near the beginning of the match to reveal Naruto attempting to absorb Sage chakra underground.

By this time, there was a puddle nearby made of a mixture of Sai's ink residue (from all his ink creations exploding into ink all around the arena) and water from a stray water bullet, and the ground around was quite soft from the numerous Hidden Mole jutsus that had coincidently passed through that specific area.

Naruto, in his distraction of trying to get back to fighting Sasuke and 'Make the teme see the truth, dattebayo! Let me at him!', slipped on the puddle, got the same foot tripped up by a stray piece of rock, had a not-intentionally-made-quicksand-trap catch his other foot before he could stop himself from falling, then fell over the edge of the crater.

As he was falling, Tenzo took advantage with a smirk and pushed the blond further down, keeping him there with several well-placed wooden columns, trapping the jinchuuriki on all sides in wooden restraints. Much to Sai's delight, the former Root was the closest to give the blonde the conclusive blow (a quick slash with his tanto across one of Naruto's arms) and the following drop of blood from the scratch caught almost everyone unawares.

"Uzumaki Naruto, disqualified." Temari said in an deadpan voice. (Several chuckles came from shinobi who remembered a very similar scene from a chunin exam during the war where she did the exact same thing to the same ninja)

At the announcement, all scuffles in the arena stopped, and the audience became still as they caught up with what just happened. Most ended up shaking their heads with a sigh, and Kakashi had the gall to murmur a 'most unpredictable ninja, indeed...' during the lull.

"Hn. Just goes to show who's truly superior, dumbass." Sasuke said with a smirk.

"Uchiha Sasuke, disqualified."

Sasuke's face became blank at the unexpected announcement.

"What —"

"Maa, you really should always be paying attention in a fight, Sasuke." Kakashi lightly told him, letting go of the razor-thin wire connected his hand and the ground, the wire just glancing the unarmored area of Sasuke's calves. The silver-haired jounin quickly dropped the wire to jump away from an ink-snake trying to trap his foot and headed off to retaliate to the brace of kunai from Sakura, leaving behind an Uchiha who looked visibly shocked, disbelieving of his situation.

"What."

"Ha! Take that, Sasuke! At least I lost against two opponents! You lost against one, no — a wire!"

"Shut up, first disqualified."

"T-Teme!"

"Both the disqualified participants, please leave the arena for the other contestants. Any collateral injuries will be even more ruinous for your reputation as the two who sealed Kaguya and 'saved the shinobi world'."

{(S)}

Kumiko: Afternoon, Kage Booth, Arena

Kumiko yawned. Things were exciting, but all she could see were blurs of colors that were zipping back and forth from one place to another. And, she couldn't really differentiate between Sasuke-san and Tenzo-san, as they had similar, dull and muted colors. On the other hand Sai-san, Naruto-san, Sakura-san, and Kakashi-ojisan were the easiest to keep track of, though they still moved a little too quickly for her to see exactly what they did.

Sai-san was making a lot of black ink wherever he was, so she just had to follow the moving black water back to where it began to find him. His ink bird in the beginning was the coolest technique, because Sai-san could fly. Who else could say 'I can fly' so casually?

The bright orange and yellow hair of Naruto-san was the most eye-catching, but every other minute the color multiplied from the clones. In the end, she didn't know which one to keep an eye on... Kumiko supposed that that was the reason why Naruto-san used them so much.

Sakura-sensei's pretty pink hair was not as fast or as widespread in area when moving, but she moved slowly enough sometimes to show really cool, literally earth-shattering moves, all done with a deceptively soft looking punch (Kumiko kind of wanted to be an amazing woman just like her).

Kakashi-ojisan's silver was the fastest (at least, in her opinion) in the arena, but her oji-san was most noticeable in that he kept separating from the main fighting, until the blurs of color followed him. There were even moments when he was almost just standing around doing nothing (he looked really cool, and she thinks she now knows what Gai-san meant) until he began to move again with quick jumps and dodges of things she couldn't quite see until a moment later (She was now very sure that her oji-san was the coolest of them all, even if he didn't win).

The crowd 'ooh'ed, and Kumiko stifled yet another yawn, petting the fluffy puppy in her arms. Ha-basan had insisted that puppies were irritating to take to the match, but Kumiko was glad that she had insisted on company. Whatever else would she have done, if the puppy wasn't there to distract her from her boredom?

A wet nose buried itself into her arm, and Kumiko looked down at the small pup to see that it was whining softly, pawing to be let down. Without thinking too much about it, she let the gold-furred dog down onto the ground, to watch in surprise as it rushed out of the booth.

Shocked, Kumiko immediately followed it out, unconsciously using her nose to track the puppy down.

Now, normally, the booth would be watched by several ANBU Hokage Guards, who would be watching things in the booth to make sure that the Hokage was fine. Normally, the Hokage was quite aware of her surroundings enough that any people going to and from her presence would be noted quite easily.

Well, the moment the dog was placed down on the floor, Naruto and Sasuke were about to duke it out, ignoring all their surroundings. The moment the puppy ran out, Naruto had been taken by surprise by the 'slippery piece of rock with the abilities of a Hirashin', as he would say later. The resulting WTF moment in the audience affected even the most rigid of the ANBU guards, some who shared a (hidden) face-palm with the rest of the Naruto-supporters in the audience, because by this point, the entire village was in on the betting pool.

The moment Kumiko followed the dog, Sasuke had been taken out by the wire. Which was followed by several 'I told you so's from the anti-Sasuke faction of the Naruto supporters, and the next few seconds where full of disappointment and satisfied glee in the audience (both civilians and ANBU) from the disqualifications of the two most anticipated participants. Tsunade was the most vociferous of them all, swearing up and down at the blond ninja who she was so sure that she could make money off of without negative consequences (for once in her life).

{(S)}

ANBU: Afternoon, Kage Booth

"That clumsy brat!"

It should be noted that it was around this time that an ANBU had noticed the missing girl and attempted to let the Hokage know.

"Um, Hokage-sama..."

"How dare he! His luck was supposed to cancel out mine! How is this possible? I just lost a million ryo!"

"Hokage-sama —"

"And that Uchiha brat! See if I'll heal that arm! Well, Kakashi's still in the running, aren't you glad brat — where's the brat?"

The ANBU remained hidden in each of their hidey holes, letting the one in the bear mask (the newbie) to take the full blow of Tsunade's glare. Tsunade, after a few seconds of silent glaring, pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. When she looked back up to find all her ANBU out of their hiding places, waiting for her expectantly, she pointed out of the booth, snapping a finger.

"Well? What are you waiting for? A written order? Go look for her, now!"

An ANBU in a tiger mask began to protest. "But Hokage-sama, we're here for your prote —"

"Are you insinuating that I can't protect myself in my own village?"

All the ANBU quailed under her harsh gaze, but no one moved until the tiger masked ANBU spoke up again. "Hokage-sama, we aren't taking any chances."

Harrumphing loudly, Tsunade turned back to the spar as she waved them back into their hiding places. "Fine. Half of you go look for her. She can't have gone far."

{(S)}

Kumiko: Afternoon, Konoha Streets Somewhere

Kumiko was so lost.

Where did the puppy go?

She had just turned a corner, and the milk-and-kibbles scent of the puppy got really mixed up, seemingly splitting in at least three different directions from the milk cart that passed by.

When she looked around, the streets were mostly empty, with most of the shops closed for business. As Kumiko began to panic, a scary masked person in a long black hooded cloak just appeared in front of her.

"Kyaa!"

"Tanaka Kumiko, you are to go back to the arena."

Eyes impossibly huge, she backstepped away quickly, pointing at the — bear? — mask.

"S- s- scary! You're not supposed to just appear out of nowhere! It's impolite!"

The masked man stood very, very still. Kumiko, after seeing that the scary person wasn't doing anything, calmed herself and slowly approached the ANBU (still scrutinizing her from the way he was looking at her).

Poking the cloak to check that it was real, she commented, "Why are you wearing a mask to hide your face?"

"...ANBU protocol."

"ANBU?"

"ANBU is the group of ninjas that the Hokage has sole control over, taking care of... things."

"Oh. So Tsunade-sama sent you here to look for me."

Bear didn't answer, steadily staring at her though his mask in hopes of intimidating her into following quietly back to the arena...

"Even if you try to act cool, Kakashi-ojisan is a lot cooler than you, and he doesn't even cover all his face."

The rookie ANBU sweatdropped at the childish declaration, simply stating, "It's time to go back to the arena."

But again, Kumiko disagreed with the rookie ANBU.

"Before that, you need to help me find Yoshi!"

After a pregnant pause, The ANBU hesitantly (and incredulously at the girl's bravery) asked, "...the puppy?"

"Yes. He has golden fur."

Bear inwardly cursed. He had made a bet on Tenzo-san, and he really had hoped he was in time to see the rest of the match...

"The Hokage wants you back right away."

"But... Ha-basan... she's going to get so mad at me... Please...?"

The ANBU stared at the little girl who looked about to cry, trying not to cave to the incredibly effective puppy-pout face.

If he said no, it looked like she would really shed a tear or two, which would get him killed by any and all who came across her crying who would immediately blame him...

If he said yes, he would no doubt face even more teasing from the other ANBU for being so easy to manipulate. Though... they would have to see the girl's puppy eyes for themselves to know that it was really no joke to resist them.

This was no choice at all.

"...Very well, we shall capture the dog first."

"Yay!"

ANBU Bear had never been more thankful for his mask, because her smile just then was radiant enough to make even the crankiest of grandpas jump up and do a jig of happiness. The slightly teary eyes from before had morphed and given her already bright eyes a sparkling effect, multiplying the (dare he say it) cute factor by tenfold. The goofy smile twitching at his lips were thankfully quite well hidden behind the porcelain mask.

Unaware of the effect of her smile, Kumiko began to gesture towards the street. "I was following until it suddenly split. This way," She told the ANBU, reaching out to grab a hand.

Bear froze at the contact, quickly removing his hand from her grip. Kumiko stopped, shocked, and Bear paled when a very hurt and confused look (his inner protective instincts were roaring at him to never let her make that face again) was pointed in his direction.

Hiding his inner discomfort, he attempted to be as cold as possible, bringing out his most intimidating ANBU voice.

"There is no need for... hand grabbing."

Kumiko frowned then crossed her arms together, her face set into a stubborn pout.

"But if I don't hold your hand, everyone is going to think that you are really scary!"

Bear stayed silent, trying again to be as intimidating as possible, but his pride as ANBU was shattered with the following comment.

"You're trying to act cool again, but you're failing. Very badly."

As Bear tried to gather the pieces of his pride together, he missed Kumiko muttering a 'Oji-san is tons cooler than you. I bet he won the match decisively,' under her breath.

{(S)}

Kakashi: Afternoon, Arena

"Hatake Kakashi, winner."

""That's not fair!""

"Ah, my cute students and kohais, you forgot the very essence of ninja: look underneath the —"

Kakashi cut himself off, ducking to avoid several shuriken that flew past where his head had been just a moment before.

The crowds were going wild, finally understanding that Kakashi, the next Hokage candidate and the teacher-team leader of the Titans of Konoha, won the spar. The TI department was busy handing out the winnings while many more mourned at the loss of their favorite fighters.

It was not unlike a scene from a racing horse arena.

Kakashi lazily gave a small wave to acknowledge the crowd, then turned to the booth to check up on Kumiko.

Strangely enough, she was just entering the booth holding onto the hand of Bear (who held a puppy in his other arm), looked around the cheering crowd and waved down at him.

He eye-smiled and waved back at her (even though she probably couldn't see the eye-smile) and sent a subtle signal to Tiger to 'report later'.

She was not supposed to have left the booth at all, and if she had, Tiger and the rest of the ANBU had much to answer for, as they were supposed to be the elite of the elites in ANBU.

Oh, he was not being spiteful because Kumiko missed his fight.

Kakashi watched as all the ANBU in the booth suddenly stood stock still as his eye-smile, hand wave, and not-quite-killer-intent was turned towards their direction.

No, not spiteful at all.

=OMAKE=

=How Kakashi Won Decisively=

"Huh?"

"A ninja is supposed to expect anything from an opponent's attacks, my cute idiotic students and kohai."

What? That handseal... No way! He's going to use *that* jutsu?

"Too late."

There's no way he's going to use *that*! It's too much to use in a spar!

*Horror on everyone's faces*

Kakashi's eyes sparkle with evil intent as he shouts his technique:

"Hidden Leaf Ancient Supreme Technique! 15-YEAR-MYSTERY UNMASKED!"

...'Supreme technique'?

All paused, taking in a surprised breath as Kakashi's hand traveled up to his mask.

That's not a jutsu... Wait a minute...

Kakashi's fingers slowly curled around the edges of his mask, then his hand swiped down the mask. As he did, all five nin felt a slight sting on their ankles, but it was quickly forgotten as they realized that THERE WAS NO MASK UNDER KAKASHI'S MASK.

"Tada~!"

"Uzumaki Naruto, Yamato, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Sai, disqualified. Hatake Kakashi, winner." Temari's even voice filled the silence.

"You have a SPOT, DATTEBAYO?!"

"It's called a birthmark, baka."

"But — but — he almost looks normal!"

"...I'm not even going to comment on that."

And that is how Kakashi won the Spar decisively.

A/N - Yup, it's finally, finally here. (Did you guys see the manga short with Kakashi unmasked?! OMG!)

Um. Yeah. About Succession.

...I've been trying and trying and trying to get this story line to work, but it's. not. happening. It's just going to be fluff. No plot, people. Just fluff.

Yeah.

...Sorry?

But definitely, my thanks to all you peeps who took the time to review and love the story, even with my sporadic updates. (Next update... Don't know. Sorry, lost all my previous ideas somewhere in my mess of docs in my comp)

Much cyber-love to you all.