Notes: So a long time ago I wrote a fic called "For You," which was a Lee/Sakura story. It was shortish, and not all that serious (particularly the final chapter), and I liked writing it but didn't invest a whole lot of myself into it. Then, for some strange and inexplicable reason, I suddenly dug up an old story I started awhile ago featuring Sakura, and then re-wrote it to fit into the "For You" storyline….the moral of this story is that I ended up writing two little semi-sequel(ish) one shots that I decided to tack on. What the hell. Here they are.

Of Weights and Water

Somewhere, someone was having a nice, peaceful evening. How could they not? It was the kind of evening that even the most anti-poetic individual could, at the least, describe as "lovely." Deep in the lush forests of Konoha, far from prying eyes and bustling cities, the last golden rays of sunlight reflected on the silvery waves of the lake as the evening drew her purple veil across the sky. The world was a poem, sung by the sweet-voiced nightingale.

Three feet under the surface, Sakura watched the first glittering star dance into view and swore that if she made it home alive, she was going to burn all her poetry books. And then she just swore. That was a mistake. A lungful of bubbles escaped her mouth and rushed merrily upwards to the surface of the lake, while her mouth and lungs sank another inch or so deeper.

Sakura was not having a nice evening.

To be honest, she had only herself to blame. Her long-standing need to be the best in class, coupled with her burning desire to grow in strength and her compulsive perfectionism had brought her to this end. And it wasn't much of an end, as far as ninja ends went, she thought bitterly. (I mean, what self-respecting shinobi dies of drowning?)

Her lungs were starting to burn now, and she started kicking viciously with her feet. It was cheating to swim – she was supposed to be using her chakra to propel herself up and then to walk calmly across the surface. Still, cheating was better than sinking. Her legs ached, her lungs burned, and the surface still looked much too far away for comfort. The watery world around her began to dim, she was going to die down here in the cold, wet lake (seriously, Inner Sakura snorted, this is just pathetic in so many ways), her chest constricted, her legs lashed out, and with a last desperate surge of energy, she pushed –

- and burst through the silver barrier with an explosive hacking cough.

She wasn't a great swimmer (who bothered with swim lessons in a ninja village?) but with much thrashing and kicking, she managed to muscle her way through the water until her sandaled feet touched the muddy bottom. Tired, dirty, and cold, she trudged up the shore and threw herself down against a nearby tree, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. "Okay," she murmured soothingly to her frazzled nerves. "It's okay. Tsunade-sensei said this would be challenging." (And didn't she just look a little too smug when she said it, her inner voice grumbled. I should have known it was going to be miserable.)

Sakura shook her head. "It's okay if it takes me a few times. I'm not going to figure it out in a day. It's supposed to be hard. I can do this. I can."

"Lee's rubbing off on you, isn't he?"

She was already up and moving before the first word was complete, and by the time the voice had stopped speaking, Sakura was crouched three feet away, kunai in hand and eyes scanning the leaves. "I'm not here to fight you," the voice said, male, young, calm, and with a certain edge that denoted a competent fighter. Shinobi, she added to her snap-assessment. As a body dropped gracefully to the ground a few inches from where she had been sitting, she finished with non-threatening and stood fully upright again.

"Hyuuga Neji," she greeted him politely. "Good evening. I certainly didn't expect to meet you out here at this hour of the day."

"Who did you expect?"

"Uh…" She tried to shrug casually, tried to make her voice light and carefree. It was difficult; those white-in-white eyes seemed to be staring at her, through her, and around her all at once. "Well, you know," she laughed humorlessly. "Shinobi rule number seven: if you cannot see an enemy, look behind you."

"Rule number eight: if you cannot sense an enemy, you have already lost the fight." Neji walked towards, stopping just out of arm's reach. "Addendum to number eight," he said with exactly the kind of casual tone that had eluded Sakura, "always keep your senses alert."

She didn't drop the polite smile, but mentally, she stomped on his foot. Hard. "You're right, that was careless of me," she managed after a beat. "I am sorry." There, she thought. (He snuck up on me so he could do his duty and admonish a lower-ranked ninja for being incautious. He'll probably leave now.)

It was a little too dark now for her to see his eyes well without staring, but she got the impression that he was looking her up and down. "You are also wet," he remarked.

"I noticed," she replied dryly.

She wondered if her response displeased him. She wondered if he even registered the vague attempt at humor. She wondered if he ever had any expression on his face except unruffled indifference. "Why?" Neji asked. "Surely you have mastered the chakra control necessary to walk on the surface by now?"

"Of course," Sakura swallowed back the sudden spasm of anger that squeezed her chest tighter than the lack of air. (It isn't his fault he assumes I'm a talentless weakling, she tried to tell the iron bands of anger around her heart. It's not like he's seen me much since the first chunin exams…) She swallowed again, biting back the bile and bitterness of those particular memories. "Of course I've mastered walking on water. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem at all. Heck, normally I could dance on it, no problem."

She turned from him and stared out at the lake, it's surface now grown ominously dark in the deepening gloom of the oncoming night. "But today I'm having some…trouble."

"I assume it has something to do with your unusual choice of footwear," he remarked, shifting his weight slightly behind her. She tensed, but he had merely crossed his arms and settled back on his heels. Apparently, he wasn't planning on leaving any time soon.

Sakura automatically lifted one leg up a little off the ground, and then mentally made a face at herself. What is she doing, showing off her legs like they're up for inspection? "Lee gave them to me. They've got pockets for the special training weights that Tsunade-sensei told me to start wearing." She reached down and hooked one finger into the soft material of the boot, smiling a little as she adjusted it against her calf. Lee had been almost indecently enthusiastic when she'd told him about the special weights, and had presented her with the boots as if he were the one getting the gift.

Neiji's eyes flicked casually down to her legs and back up again. "I know." (Right, Inner Sakura shuddered. He can see through things. Like boots. And shirts. But I'm not thinking about that. Not at all.) His voice cut into her musings, and there was a note of disapproval behind the indifference. "They don't look heavy."

"They're not physical weights," she explained, turning back to face him and holding out her arms, palms up. "They're chakra weights. I haven't completely figured out how they work, but I know that they work by messing with your chakra."

"And the disruption of chakra flow benefits you in some way?" He sounded bored, but his arms unfolded and he took a step forward. (Stop staring at his face, Inner Sakura waved her arms frantically. He'll think you're disrespectful or something.)

"Is the challenge to figure out the pattern of the disrupted chakra?" he asked, and suddenly sounded a little less like a self-contained ANBU evaluating a new training method and a little more like a young man checking out a new toy. It wasn't much, but it dissipated the irritation that she had been building up in her chest.

"I don't think they're disrupting chakra flow." Sakura tilted her head slightly, regarding her shins thoughtfully. "I mean, all Tsunade-shishou told me was that they were chakra weights, and my assignment was to walk on water while wearing them." (She also said they would be my favorite training method to hate for a long time, Sakura sighed inwardly. But I'll worry about those miseries when they get here.)

"An assignment which you appear to be failing." He took a step closer and knelt at her feet, examining her boots in a way that almost made her too uncomfortable to be offended.

Almost.

(No need to be a jerk! Inner Sakura snapped into his satisfyingly startled face.) "It's been a damp day," she said politely to the top of his head.

"Why is that, if these 'weights' are not disrupting your chakra flow as you claim?"

"I'm not sure exactly what they're doing, but I know it's not a total disruption of flow, because I can still feel the chakra in my hands and feet. I just can't seem to control it." Sakura was starting to feel restless and antsy under the scrutiny, but she didn't dare move her legs. Not with the nose of an esteemed jounin inches away. She had a sudden giddy desire to twitch her knees towards his face. Maybe it would be funny. Maybe he would jump in surprise. Maybe he would slice off her feet. Maybe it wasn't really a good idea.

"Hold still," he commanded, and closed his eyes briefly. That was all the warning she got, but it was enough to keep her from snatching her arms back and possibly taking a swing at him out of pure reflex when his eyes snapped back open. The veins in his face bulged, and the white irises looked strained. Worse, Sakura could feel him looking at her, a sensation that sent little shivers racing up and down her spine and all her limbs.

Finally, after an eternity of about five seconds, he blinked again, and his face returned to an expression of relatively relaxed indifference. He looked up at her. He opened his mouth. She leaned forward, eager to know what he was going to say.

"Ah," he said. "Interesting."

And then he nodded politely. "Good evening."

He was halfway back to the tree line when a small bomb went off behind him, just missing his left heel. He stepped to the left, neatly avoiding the flash of pink on his right. She skidded to a halt, spun on her toe, and came to an abrupt standstill inches in front of him. "Oh," she said in a low voice he had never heard. "No. You. Don't."

He folded his arms and watched her innocently, looking for all the world like he was merely out for a stroll and had no idea who the strange girl with the glowering face could be. "Yes, Haruno?"

"Oh, come on," she stamped her foot, a little. "You can't do that."

He shrugged. "I thought this was a training exercise for you. I'd hate to give away the secret and ruin all your fun."

She pursed her lips. "I'll forgive you, I promise."

He let her glower for another moment, and then gestured to her left leg. Wordlessly, she stepped it forward. "In a normal, healthy individual," he told her in a lecture-tone that rivaled her own, "the flow of chakra creates an aura that extends out from the body by several inches, depending on the strength of the chakra." He held a finger about four inches away from her thigh. "Here. However, your chakra aura is currently extended to only about," he lowered his hand until his fingertip hovered mere centimeters above her skin, "here."

Sakura suppressed the urge to twitch; the almost-contact made her skin itch ever so slightly. "That means the chakra flow is being slowed, right?"

"Actually, I think it's being repressed."

"Eh?"

"I think these weights are constricting the flow, keeping the channels tighter, more coiled. It means that when you want to use chakra, say, when you want to extend it out beyond the soles of your feet, you have to exert yourself far more in order to force it to flow at normal levels."

She gaped at him, then at her wrists, then out at the lake. "Ah," she said at last. "Interesting."

"Indeed."

"Forcing chakra to flow at an accelerated rate like that will eventually damage body tissue," she murmured, still eyeing the lake. "It will disrupt muscle and fat, and dehydrate the organs. Probably rupture derma cells."

"You think these weights will harm you?"

"I think," she sighed, "that this is going to hurt like hell." (But hey, Inner Sakura perked up. Lee will probably give me one of his backrubs when I come home battered and sore. That pretty much makes the pain worth it.)

Neji nodded, probably unaware of her sudden diverging line of thought. "I can see why you called them weights. They force the chakra to work harder at simple tasks, as Lee's weights force his muscles to work harder to move."

"Thank you for your help," Sakura said. "I apologize if I disturbed you earlier with all my noise. I'm afraid I'm going to have to be rude and leave you now." She smiled at him, but the corners of her mouth hardened with determination as she looked back at the lake. "I've got a lot of work to do."

She walked towards the lake, and hours later, still wet, cold, and happy, she walked back onto an empty shore.

******

A/N: Yeah, I know. Calling this a Lee/Saku when Lee isn't even in it is pretty ballsy of me, if I do say so myself.