Fine Lines

I wrote this bit a long time ago, back when I first started Branches. It was supposed to be a one shot, but I never got around to completing it, so I thought I'd post this snippet here for you shippers. This story takes place in the Branches!AU, except without a dimension-hopping Kakashi.

Summary: There's a fine line between genius and insanity. Unfortunately for everyone else, Kakashi and Itachi seem determined to erase it.

Gai's rivalry with Kakashi was very well known. Considering that a certain Blue Beast was intent on proclaiming said rivalry from the rooftops of Konoha, it was almost impossible not to know of it. The competitions between the two were generally watched with amusement and trepidation by the general population.

However, Kakashi also had a second, less known rivalry. The only people who knew about it were ANBU agents and the Yondaime—but those chosen few considered it just as entertaining as the infamous Kakashi-Gai rivalry. In fact, the Black Ops organization had a massive running bet on the two participants, one that even the Hokage participated in.

Hatake Kakashi's other rival, of course, was the one and only Uchiha Itachi.

The competition had started rather innocuously. When the Uchiha heiress had joined ANBU, she was placed under the command of Hatake Kakashi. It seemed like a team made in heaven. The personal student of the Yondaime and the youngest ever jounin—along with the strongest Uchiha in centuries and the youngest-ever sharingan user.

Sadly, the two proclaimed prodigies found the other sorely lacking.

In the secret training fields designated for ANBU, two members of Team Inu were lounging around.

"I hear we're getting a new teammate," said Yugao, attempting to start a conversation.

"Yeah." Tenzo idly kicked a rock as they waited. "I heard that too."

A few moments passed.

"Who do you think it'll be?" Yugao prompted, used to her teammate's socially deficient ways.

Tenzo shrugged. "I heard it's an Uchiha."

"Really?" Yugao frowned, skeptical. "I heard that it was an Inuzaka. But I heard it from Boar, and Boar's really unreliable."

The mokuton user sighed. "Captain would probably know. But as usual, Captain's not here." Tenzo kicked the rock a little harder, causing it to ricochet off the tree beside him.

At the sound of soft, deliberate footsteps, the two agents straightened and turned around, conversation temporarily forgotten.

"Good evening." Uchiha Itachi, dressed in full ANBU armor, bowed slightly. Her bird mask was pushed to the side, allowing the other agents to see her placid but polite expression. "I am known as Karasu. I have been assigned to Team Inu."

Tenzo grinned sheepishly. "Um, hi. My code name is Tenzo."

"I'm called Tsuki! Nice to meet you!" Yugao smiled. "It's great to have another girl on the team!"

After a second, Itachi spoke. "Thank you."

The three stood there in a awkward silence until Kakashi finally decided to show up.

"Sorry I'm late!" he chirped, appearing in a swirl of leaves. "An Icha Icha novel was stuck in a tree, so I had to rescue it and take the long way around." Kakashi immediately pulled out the aforementioned brightly colored book. With practiced ease, he began to flip through the pages.

Tenzo and Yugao, used to their captain's habits, waited. Itachi followed their lead and stood there quietly.

After a few minutes, Kakashi looked up from his Icha Icha to address the newest member of his team. "Hmm… so. This is Karasu. She's in our team now. Yeah." He returned his book, secretly observing his newest subordinate.

To be honest, Kakashi wasn't particularly impressed with the Uchiha heiress. She seemed… rather emotionless. And bland. This girl was the strongest ninja the clan had produced since Madara? The woman who was considered to be the perfect kunoichi?

Though Itachi wasn't impressed with Kakashi either. He looked… very foolish. And unprofessional. This man was the Yondaime's apprentice? The person who Obito considered worthy of the Sharingan?

Finally, Kakashi snapped his book closed and signaled to his team. "Come on. Let's train."

Despite their less than stellar first meeting, Itachi and Kakashi developed a grudging, mutual respect for each other. Undeniably, both were extremely competent ninja. Naturally, they still tried to beat the shit out of each other in training.

"Nice try, Itachi-chan!" taunted Kakashi, dodging a spray of sparks.

"Please call me by code name, captain." Itachi vanished and reappeared behind him. Kakashi retaliated with a blast of electricity that sent the sharp smell of ozone spread through the air.

"You really need to lighten up." He sighed in mock despair as he set off an explosion. Smoke covered the field, obscuring him from view. Itachi stood in the center and waited, tenser than the taut wire she had strewn across the field.

Kakashi's attack was summarily dodged, bringing them back to a stalemate.

On the other side of the field, Yugao and Tenzo were watching the spar.

"Don't they ever get tired?" asked Yugao, with disbelief. "They've been fighting for hours."

Tenzo shrugged. "I do not know. However, Captain and Agent Karasu do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time together."

"Right! If I didn't know better, I'd say…" she trailed off. "Huh."

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing."

Tenzo examined the odd look on the woman's face. After a moment of deliberation, he decided not to ask.

Of course, the rivalry had started out small. Kakashi would kill five missing-nin, and Itachi would kill six. Itachi would assassinate eight enemy ninja, and Kakashi would assassinate nine. Subtle one-ups soon became not-so-subtle displays, whether it be during a mission or after it.

And it only escalated from there.

Every week, Kakashi and Itachi would spar, holding almost nothing back. Short of striking fatal wounds or destroying Konoha, everything was fair game. Watching the spar between the two quickly became a time-honored ANBU tradition, one followed by even the Commander. (It was rumored that the Yondaime himself would occasionally skip out on meetings just to see them fight.)

Geniuses hated to lose. And both Kakashi and Itachi were determined to win every battle, no matter how petty. Despite hard they tried, the score remained fairly even, which just made things worse.

Sadly, the competition was quickly cut short when Kakashi was pulled out of ANBU and placed back into the regular forces. No longer forced to interact with each other, the rivalry soon dimmed—though it didn't die out. Every so often, the two would meet to spar, though this time without an audience.

Then the rivalry was supercharged once Kakashi was assigned a genin team.

Team 7.

Also known as the team Minato assigned Kakashi as revenge for all stupid stuff he did as a kid.

It was as if Minato-sensei had deliberately chosen a team that would cause him the most pain. Kakashi had his own obnoxious little brother, Itachi's obnoxious little brother, and the most terrifying civilian child he had ever seen.

"Kakashi-nii!" whined Naruto. "Can we have ramen?"

Kakashi massaged his forehead and sighed. "It's Kakashi-sensei, Naruto. Don't call me Kakashi-nii," he corrected half-heartedly.

Naruto pouted. "Since when did you care about stupid stuff like that?"

"Remember when you accidentally became a hostage in Wave? Calling me Kakashi-nii is just asking for enemy-nin to make you a target."

"But I beat them up with a water dragon in the end, which was super awesome!" Naruto fist pumped and grinned. "Do you remember when—"

"Are we going to do anything useful today?" Sasuke asked, stopping Naruto before he could rant about his amazing water dragon of destruction and superness.

"Hey!" Naruto glared. "Don't cut me off! I'll revoke your best-friend status if you do!"

"I thought I'd already lost it," said Sasuke dryly. "Didn't you declare me your mortal enemy when I said that tomatoes were better than ramen?"

"Heathen!" The blond pointed an accusing finger at his friend's face. "You take that back!"

Before the argument could develop further, a feminine voice stopped the two in their tracks. "As usual, Sasuke-kun has a point." Sakura sidled up between the two boys, casually draping her arm across Sasuke's shoulder. The young Uchiha stiffened and attempted to inch away. Sakura simply tightened her grip. "Are you ready to give me your sharingan yet?" she whispered in his ear, causing him to shiver.

Naruto pulled Sakura off the shuddering boy. "Leave Sasuke alone!"

"Never!" she spat back, falling into a taijutsu stance. "Not until I get those eyes!"

"You're not an Uchiha." Sasuke finally regained his voice. "You don't deserve the sharingan."

"Kakashi-sensei has the sharingan, and he's not an Uchiha! Why can't I have one too?"

"As entertaining as this is," Kakashi said loudly, "I have something that's a little more interesting."

Kakashi massaged his head again. His headache really wasn't going to go away, was it?

"What is it?" Naruto beamed in the direction of his teacher/adopted brother. "Is it a epic awesome mission? Is it a new C-rank? Or an B-rank?" His grin grew wider. "No way! Is it an S-rank?"

"Don't be stupid, Naruto." Sakura paused, an innocent expression plastered on her face. "Oh, wait. That's physically impossible for you."

"I decided to enter you into the chunin exams!" chirped Kakashi, the edge of panic carefully hidden behind his cheerful tone. "Isn't that nice?"

The three immediately perked up.

"Now, if you decide to participate—"

"We'll participate!" they chorused, synchronized for once in their life.

"—then I'll give you some special training to help you prepare. What do you say?"

"Anything to become stronger," said Sasuke solemnly. "I have to protect my sister and bring honor to my clan."

"Chuunin is one step closer to Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto leaped a foot into the air.

"This will fit perfectly into my plans," murmured Sakura, grinning in an almost manical way.

"Excellent." For a brief second, Kakashi looked positively gleeful. "So are you three ready?"

"Yes!" they all shouted.

"Then let's begin." He chuckled, rubbing his hands together. "It's payback time," he said under his breath, eyes crinkling with the purest of joy.

Because his three students had all passed out due to his torture, or what he called training, Kakashi had to physically drop them off at their homes.

Minato simply sighed, shaking his head in a sort of fond nostalgia when he saw his unconscious son. "This brings back memories. I remember when you fell out of a tree and knocked yourself out after accidentally stepping on the explosion tag I planted. You were so adorable back then… You used to faint all the time! I mean, you still faint all the time, but you used to, too."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. Naruto had clearly inherited his talent for long-winded speeches from his father. "As much as I'd like to reminisce with you, I still have to return my other two students." He held up Sakura and Sasuke, who were still out cold.

Minato waved his hand. "Oh, of course! Don't let the ramblings of an old man—"

Kakashi disappeared, leaving a small whirlwind of leaves behind.

"... hold you back," finished the blond, shaking his head in affectionate exasperation. "I swear, he used to be more respectful when he was a kid."

Naruto was Kakashi's brother in all but blood. Minato had practically raised Kakashi, after all. Even the wards of the Namikaze residence were keyed to the Hatake's signature, and he spent more time in there than he did in his own apartment.

Sasuke, on the other hand, lived in a fancy compound in the Uchiha district… and Kakashi wasn't exactly on best of terms with that clan.

After flickering to the ornate main house, Kakashi debated on simply leaving the kid in front of the door. The seals on the mansion were a little too advanced for him to break apart quickly (oh, right, it could also cause a diplomatic incident), and he really didn't want to linger.

"Hatake-san," murmured a familiar voice, solving his dilemma for him.

"Itachi-chan!" he replied cheerfully. "How have you been? And don't call me Hatake-san. It's Kakashi, remember?"

Itachi blinked once. "I see that you are returning my brother. Unconscious. Again." A hint of ire entered her tone.

"In my defense, it's because of training this time, not a rogue S-ranked missing-nin." Kakashi smiled disarmingly as handed the young Uchiha to his older sister.

Itachi was unimpressed. "And I hear that you have entered my brother and his team into the chuunin exams."

"Yup!"

"My rookie, fresh-from-the-Academy brother." Her eyes narrowed. "I believe this is unwise."

"We both made chuunin before we turned ten." He added, "And it's not like I entered them into the Suna ones. These exams are in Konoha. It's perfectly safe!"

"My brother is not me." Itachi pinned him with a flat look. "Again, Hatake-san, I believe this is unwise."

"I'm entering my little brother too," reminded Kakashi. "Naruto's also competing in the exam." He paused. "Unlike you, I have full confidence in Naruto. But then again, Naruto's much better than Sasuke, so…"

Her eyes flashed red. "You are mistaken."

"No, I'm really not." Kakashi smirked. "Naruto's stealthier, stronger, and faster. Not to mention his ridiculous chakra reserves and his unorthodox plans. Oh, and did you know that his father's the Yondaime, who only happens to be the strongest ninja ever? And his mother was Uzumaki Kushina, and that's is self-explanatory. Skills and a stellar pedigree," he bragged.

"Listing attributes are no substitute for victory," she scoffed. "In an actual battle, your brother would lose to mine every time."

"We'll see about that." Kakashi narrowed his eyes. "I'm sure that Naruto will become chuunin on his first try."

"Sasuke will win the entire tournament and become chuunin." Itachi tossed her hair back. "That is obvious to anyone with half a brain."

"You seem to be missing more than half, if that's what you think."

Kakashi and Itachi exchanged heated glares.

"I will be seeing you, Hatake-san." Itachi managed to make the farewell sound more like a threat.

"I'm sure you will, Ita-chan." He grinned at the look of outrage on the her face before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Since Sakura's parents weren't home, Kakashi had planned on simply picking the lock and tossing her inside.

He was just about to do that when Sakura spoke.

She gave him a saccharine smile, voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Sensei, if you neglect me for Naruto, I will murder you in your sleep. Unlike the boys, I don't have a prodigy sibling or a ninja family to help."

Kakashi blinked, pausing to think it over. "Do you want to learn from Tsunade-sama?" he offered. "I can convince her." Probably.

It was Sakura's turn to muse it over. "And you'll teach me basic sealing," she decided.

"Deal."

Satisfied, Sakura closed the door.

And so, the battle began.