Hello! Well, I promised this a long, long, long time ago. I know it isn't much, but there is another piece coming. A piece that will make me have to change the rating of this fic.

Note: Slight language. Everything else should be easy to swallow. Just saying. Enjoy!


Naruto had always known that Sakura wasn't a woman to mess with.

He could take on the world's 'strongest' foes and carry on after a few days in the hospital like nothing had happened. Yeah, there had been a few close calls and, yeah, he had lost a few, but the point here was that he was no push over.

Sakura, however, had the ability to control him like one of Kankuro's puppets. This had been more than apparent since the academy days and damned if she didn't use her fists to prove her point. Yes, Naruto was quite wary of those leather wrapped, slender appendages.

He was also very well aware that his mouth, and it's tendency to not remain closed when it should, had him reacquainting himself with those hands quite often.

Last night would classify as one such time and that, maybe, he shouldn't have compared her training regime to his own with negative connotations. Honestly though, how could she say she trained as hard as he did when she had responsibilities and priorities like Tsunade, and the hospital, and her family and tutoring, and then Naruto himself to attend to on a daily basis. It simply wasn't possible.

She obviously disagreed.


Heaving for air, head on a swivel, Naruto tried to shake the pins-n-needles from his hand. That was the second time she'd turned his arm into a rubber extremity by hitting specific pressure points. She'd just appear, poke and dash away, leaving Naruto to stand on the open swinging his useless arm like an ape. It sucked.

Not to mention that Sakura was damned near non-existent when she hid. They were limited to basic training techniques, making Sage mode unavailable. That was fine, he'd managed well enough before it, and really... he'd wouldn't admit it until later - he didn't want to actually die during this spar, but he was having a blast.

In fact, there were only a couple of things he'd rather be doing, and most of those involved his girlfriend anyway. So, for now, he would stand here in the middle of the ripped up field, sweating and hot and sticky and muddy and waiting for Sakura to come rushing from the shadows in another swift attack.

LIKE THAT! Her fist barely missed his cheek as he swung his body parallel to the ground, rolling away in mid-air. Twirling upright again, he expected her to be gone but she was right there, ready to deliver another punch. He dodged again and dropped low, swinging his leg out to drive her back to give him a split moment of time to summon his clones.

Throwing her hand to the ground to stop her slide, Sakura licked her lips and narrowed her emerald eyes. That freaking hand sign! She did not want to go up against a group of Naruto's again. Thinking quick, she brought her heel down to the ground and the earth quaked as the surface cracked, jagged boulders and mounds of earth sprouting from the crevice.

Naruto, wide eyed and arms akimbo, was hopping on one foot as he tried to regain his lost balance. The few clones he'd managed to summon popping into non-existence as they fell into the rumbling ground.

Satisfied, Sakura sneered and rushed him, eyeing the landscape and the thirty plus feet between them, her eyes snagged a freshly unearthed boulder. Despite the slippery surface, she ran up its slope and launched herself into the air.

Grinding his teeth from the vibrations of the mini earthquake his loving teammate created, Naruto forced his attentions on the soaring pinkette; arm pulled back, black glove pulled tight over her fist. Her face shaded with the sun at her back.

Oh. Shit. He was gonna' hurt bad if that connected.

Bracing himself for swift and pain-filled maneuvering, he swung around her fist and grabbing her waist, he thrust himself into the air, using her momentum to bring them into a series of somersaults.

Sakura gasped, she'd expected Naruto to dodge, not grab her and flop! Her back hit the dirt as she grappled with him, feeling her legs lift as she was flipped end over end, her senses overloaded with inertia and Naruto.

Her hands found purchase in his jacket and she pulled hard enough to break the zipper, the bits of metal teeth hitting her face as they snapped. The blond grunted and Sakura instinctively knew, even though she couldn't focus on his face with all the tumbling, he was grinning like the pervert she knew he was.

She smiled back, and concentrating her chakra to her neck to not break it in her next move, she waited until she was rolled to her back and then with a feral growl, she pulled her legs into her chest, planted them into his stomach and kicked. Hard.

From her headstand, she watched Naruto hit a tree bordering the sidelines, snapping the trunk; bits of bark and splintered wood flying, then land in a heap on the ground at its base.

A second of worrying if she'd really hurt him, ...and then she was aghast as the pile that was Naruto threw a thumb up into the air, and with a loud, obnoxious poof! He was gone.

Oh, that ass!

Hunkering down, she spun in her spot, watching, searching. Somehow, the idiot in orange was quite capable of hiding. Annoyed now, a scowl marred her features as she continued to attempt to figure out Naruto's next move.

The sun was high, beating down relentlessly on the back of her neck. Her glove left a muddy streak on her forehead as she wiped away a layer of sweat. She was tired now, they'd been at this for nearly seven hours.


She'd dragged Naruto from the couch to the training ground early this morning. She felt no compassion for this, seeing as it was his own fault for bragging that he trained more than her.

As true as that may be, he also had an entire catalogue of abilities and chakra manipulations and the like that needed refining and completing. Not to mention his Sage training and Kyuubi and, well, the list was rather extensive.

Not that she was without, but she worked damned hard for her few accomplishments and to have Naruto belittle that was too insulting to ignore.

Yes, Naruto had known by the deadly glint in her eyes that he was in for it. She'd promptly kicked him right out of the bed they shared, locked the door behind him, laid a few low-level genjutsu traps and had curled up amongst the cooled sheets and pouted. She had been so damned angry and churlish that she hadn't slept more than a collective hour, which hadn't worked well in favour of softening her resolve about her plans for showing Naruto the exact results of her 'lack of training'.

She had literally pulled him off the couch when the first streaks of pink and orange had hit the horizon, choosing to ignore how even Mother Nature had a sense of irony.

The 'walk' to the training grounds had been interesting. Despite the early hour, a few villagers and ninja were in the vicinity and had watched with comical expressions as one of the village's strongest shinobi was bodily dragged over the ground by the collar of his t-shirt, trying valiantly to hold his pants up.


Nearly eight hours later, Sakura was circling the grounds, soaking up the, now, despicable sun, shirt sticking to the sweat on her back and feeling her stomach bottom out with the unmistakeable sounds of shifting soil beneath her feet.

In a breakneck surprise attack, hands erupted from the ground and grabbed her ankles. The dirt crumbled underneath her soles and crying out, Sakura was soon up to her waist in the soil. Naruto was standing just out her reach, hands on hips and grinning big.

It was moments like these that Sakura couldn't decide if she hated his blonde ass or not. Did Naruto really think she'd be caught that easily?

Naruto's shit-eating grin began to slowly fade from his whiskered face. Something was off. The dulled expression that fell over Sakura's face was a big clue, followed by the poof; grey smoke wafting gingerly in the air, obscuring the tilted log sitting in the ground.

Shit.

Huffing for air, Naruto shaded his eyes and searched the grounds. The upturned earth was already drying out, waves of heat rising up from the ground in the distance. Nearby wildlife had vacated long ago, but the insects were loud; chirping and squeaking and making damned nuisances of themselves.

He was trying to listen for Sakura's approach, damnit!.

Wait…

Quickly executing a genjutsu release, he found Sakura. She was standing right in front of him. The snarkiest of smirks on her lips and hand raised. With a flick of her middle finger in the middle of his forehead, Naruto's world faded into nothing, his unconscious body falling to the ground at Sakura's feet.

Jumping back until she was satisfied with the distance, Sakura cursed her direction. From her perspective, all she could see was his back and legs crossed over each other. His arms, and therefore his hands, were hidden in front of him.

She didn't trust that he was actually out of it, not at all. If she were to get closer, she would deserve what ever sneak attack he had planned for her.

And so, Sakura stood and waited. ...And waited. Slowly, she pulled her gloves from her hands and tucked them into the waistband of her apron. Still, her eyes never left Naruto's prone form on the ground. He had yet to move which made her uneasy. What game was he playing?

Timidly, she made her way back, legs tense, ever ready to spring away if he so much as twitched. He didn't, instead Sakura was very much surprised to hear a subtle snore coming from the guy.

Wide eyed, she tip toed around his feet until she could see for herself that he really was sleeping. Hands empty, large, red welt blossoming in the middle of his forehead.

Plopping down to the ground beside him, Sakura heaved a relieved sigh. She was so far gone from angry with him now, all she wanted from this moment was to drink a massive bottle of water, shower and spend the rest of the day with her boyfriend. He had to wake up first.

Looking at him though, as he laid there completely unaware and open to attack, Sakura had a funny thought...

"…This is what it feels like to win against Naruto? Imagine that!"


Hearing her whispered comment, Naruto tried hard not to grin and give himself away.