Chapter two is here!

Please do enjoy, The Bet Chapter 2: Monday - Proving Strength


Naruto was sporting a wide grin as he walked to Team 7's old training grounds the next afternoon. He hit his daily goal yesterday with ease. He essentially tricked Sakura and Sasuke to go on a lunch date. So now Sasuke knew that he and Sakura could easily get along and enjoyed each other's company. That was an important step one. But Naruto knew Sasuke well. Just being able to get along well with someone wasn't all that was important to Sasuke. Sasuke respected strength, and he was looking for that strength in his partner.

Sakura showed that she had the power to fight side by side with them during the war, but that was four years ago. Since the war, she hadn't really had to use her physical prowess. She mostly stuck to the hospital, going on just enough missions to get her outside of Konoha's walls every now and then. That four years was plenty of time for Sasuke to forget just how strong their third teammate was. He needed a refresher. Once he was reminded how strong Sakura was, he would see even further that she is the girl for him.

Naruto buried that uncomfortable feeling that always floated to the surface whenever he thought about Sakura and Sasuke together as he approached the bridge where they used to wait for Kakashi. True to form, both Sakura and Sasuke were already there.

"You actually made it." Sasuke hummed. "After ditching us yesterday, I wasn't sure if I could trust one of your invites."

"You're late you know." Sakura added. "Don't let Kakashi fool you; hokages aren't supposed to be late."

"Sorry sorry." Naruto apologized. "I umm… I ran into a little old lady who needed my help."

"Please tell me you were purposely doing a Kakashi joke." Sakura said, sweat dropping down the back of her head. "Because you're already letting some of Tsunade's worst traits rub off on you. I do not want Kakashi's worst traits added to the mix."

"Just joking." Naruto confirmed, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

"So what did you call us out here for?" Sasuke asked. "I cleared my schedule for the afternoon at your request, so it better be good."

"It's going to be! Sakura – let's spar!"

"Huh? You want to spar me?" Sakura asked in confusion. Naruto never wanted to spar her. Partly because she knew she could let loose against him, with Kurama's natural healing factor and all, so she tended to get carried away some when sparring Naruto. But he also always held back whenever they sparred. He hated hitting her.

"Yep! Let's go!"

"So… you had me free up my afternoon, just so I could watch you spar with Sakura?"

"Yeah… let's add Sasuke to the spar too. It can be a three way. Or, we can take turns teaming up on each other."

"Nope! Sasuke will get his turn. One on one! Or are you scared to take me on alone, Sakura-chan?" Naruto prodded. Knowing her as well as he did, Naruto knew exactly what his words would accomplish.

"SCARED?! YOU THINK I'M SCARED? HELL NO!" If Naruto didn't have to worry about a super-powered kunoichi punching his head off, he probably would've laughed at Sakura's abrupt change in demeanor… But Sakura was currently running at him with her fist cocked back.

"On second thought… this should be pretty amusing." Sasuke smirked. "This is worth clearing my afternoon."

Naruto didn't have time to retort. He ducked just as Sakura's fist neared his face. With his speed, Sakura's midsection was vulnerable for attack. But this spar wasn't about him defeating Sakura. This spar was about making Sakura look good. So he held his counter attack back and twisted to his right to avoid Sakura's knee.

Naruto leaped backwards to put some distance between the two of them. Sasuke may have forgotten how strong Sakura was, but he would never forget how strong Naruto was. But to really sell this, to really make this work, Naruto knew he had to make it look like he was going all out. He tapped into the chakra Kurama entrusted him with and activated his biju mode.

"Like that's going to save you!" Sakura yelled. She rushed him again, and this time, Naruto let her hit him (although, neither Sakura nor Sasuke would have known that). What they saw was him try to dodge Sakura's punch, but not react quick enough. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of him and he doubled over.

Sakura lifted her leg, preparing to deliver an axe kick to his back. Again, with his speed, Sakura left part of herself vulnerable. Naruto could easily react quick enough to take out the one leg that was now supporting her. Instead, he flared his chakra wildly as if preparing some big attack. He cried out in pain as Sakura's leg connected with his back and drove him into the ground.

He rolled over just in time to see the sole of Sakura's sandal coming down towards his face. Now that attack he needed to dodge, or she was liable to cave his face in. Sakura was able to open rifts in the earth with the force of her stomps. He rolled to the right and flipped himself up into the air just as Sakura's foot connected with the ground where his head used to be. The ground shook in protest beneath her as huge chunks of earth were flown into the air.

Sakura had no plans on giving him any time to react. She was on him the second he landed. He weaved right, then left and then ducked to dodge her powerful swipes. He then leaped backwards again and formed a rasengan. He had zero intention of using it on her, but Sakura and their audience didn't need to know that.

Seeing one of his more powerful attacks didn't phase Sakura in the slightest. She stomped on the ground again, creating a rift in the earth where he was standing. The surprise of uneven ground was all the distraction Sakura needed to close the distance and get to him. If he were in this spar to win, he would've used his speed to flicker behind her, hit her with the rasengan in his hand and end the fight now. But he wasn't here to beat Sakura. He was here to get handily beaten by Sakura.

He made a show of being surprised at her sudden appearance and "tried" to hit her with the rasengan in hand. She grabbed his wrist and yanked it upwards. The sudden movement was enough to mess with his concentration and his rasengan dissipated. The motion also caused his feet to leave the ground and go flying up into the air. Had she let go, Naruto probably would've been thrown all the way to Suna. Unfortunately, Sakura never let go of his wrist. She tugged down hard, slamming Naruto against the ground like he were some sort of club. She lifted him from the ground and repeated the motion, not once, not twice, but three times. Naruto's entire body was wracked with pain by the third time she smashed him against the ground… but that was what happened whenever sparring with Sakura.

Finally letting go of his wrist, Sakura stomped down hard on his chest, driving him down further into the ground in a cloud of dust and destroyed earth. Now Naruto was in pretty bad shape. His body was really not happy with his decision to not dodge blows that he could have dodged. But he couldn't end the spar yet. Sakura probably impressed Sasuke with her strength already, but he needed to see that this wasn't just a quick burst. He needed to be reminded that Sakura could fight all day if she had to.

The only problem now was, Sakura wouldn't keep this up for long. Not because she couldn't, but because she wouldn't once she noticed the state his body was in. With the dust acting as his cover, Naruto cast a quick henge over himself to mask his injuries. Sakura's foot was still resting on his chest from the stomp, so Naruto grabbed her ankle and flung her down. He didn't want to… but if Sakura beat him without him so much as landing a blow, Sasuke might get suspicious.

He leaped out of the crater that had formed from Sakura's attack and ignored the way his lungs seemed to burn in pain with each breath he took. He could feel Kurama hard at work repairing the damage done to his body, but Kurama wasn't a medic.

"Still want to continue, eh Naruto?" Sakura calmly asked. She picked herself up and looked carefully at him. Her face was fairly impassive, but he could easily spot the concern on her face. She was worried that she got too carried away.

"Hell yeah! We're just getting started!"

"After we're finished, no complaining about how much I kicked your ass. I offered you an early out." Sakura grinned. Apparently his response was enough to wipe her concern away.

"I just forgot how fast you are, that's all." Naruto lied. He suddenly used a burst of speed to flicker directly in front of her. He launch a strike at her midsection, but slowed it down just enough that he knew she would be able to barely dodge. As he expected, she twisted her right to narrowly avoid his attack. She caught him in the gut with a quick knee on the counterattack.

Naruto mentally thanked Jiraiya for teaching him how to maintain a henge even after getting attacked, because his henge thankfully remained in place. He hit Sakura in the shoulder with an open palm to send her skidding backwards and did his best to ignore the pain from Sakura's latest blow.

He took a deep breath and willed his mind to ignore the pain his body was in. He needed to keep this going long enough for Sasuke to be really be impressed by Sakura's strength. He needed to keep this up long enough for Sasuke to understand that Sakura was more than strong enough to be the eventual wife he was looking for…

And so their spar continued. Naruto landed just enough attacks on Sakura to keep anyone from getting suspicious of his true intent for this spar. And in the process, his body was becoming seriously brutalized. He was pretty sure he had some broken bones… broken ribs at the least judging by the pain that came each time he took a breath… His henge dropped a couple of times, but Naruto always used the cloud of dust raised from Sakura's attacks to reapply it.

They had been sparring for 20 minutes when Sakura suddenly stopped and looked at him closely. The look on her face froze Naruto in his tracks. She had that look on her face. The look she got when she was examining a patient, trying to find the small hint that would alert her to what was wrong… He nervously gulped as her eyes widened in alarm.

"Are you henged?!"

"Ermm… eh…"

"He is." Sasuke confirmed, his sharingan flaring to life.

"I uh… forgot to wear clothes today. Yeah! So I just used a henge instead of going back home…" Naruto awkwardly lied.

"Drop it." Sakura commanded.

"Eh? I don't want you seeing me naked!"

"Naruto…" Sakura growled.

Before Naruto could offer another lie, Sasuke had flickered to him. He tried to move, but his friend was too quick. Sasuke's hand landed on Naruto's shoulder and a jolt of chakra dispersed his henge – revealing the terrible shape his body was actually in.

"SHIT!" Sakura swore. "Naruto you moron!" She ran over to him in a panic and quickly placed her glowing green hands against his body. Her soothing chakra felt amazing and he almost leaned into her touch. He simply closed his eyes instead.

"Why the hell would you henge yourself not too look beat up?!" Sakura scolded as she healed him. "Jeez, if I would've seen what shape you were in I would've stopped a long time ago! You freaking idiot!"

"I knew you would stop, so I henged myself to give me the time I needed to win. I thought I could outlast you, but your endurance is better than I remembered." Naruto explained.

"That's the most idiotic thing I have ever heard! If I could figure out how to kill you without actually killing you… I would kill you so many times right now!"

"That's what you get for underestimating her." Sasuke said.

"Yeah… I guess it's easy sometimes to forget how strong you are, Sakura. Now that you're spending most of your time in the hospital."

"You really forgot?" Sakura asked. The look on her face made it quite clear that she didn't believe him at all.

"You know me… I don't exactly have the best memory." Naruto replied with a sheepish smile. "Sorry that you didn't get to spar, Sasuke. Looks like Sakura's plan was better. We should've just done a three way spar or something."

"Watching you get your ass kicked because you consistently underestimated Sakura's speed was actually pretty amusing." Sasuke smirked. "It's a good thing hokages aren't heavily relied on to fight in the field, because your fighting instincts are clearly dulling with age."

"Dulling with age? I'm only 21!"

"Just imagine how bad they're going to be by the time you hit 30. You're going to need to have an ANBU guard stationed by you 24/7." Sasuke teased.

"I am not! Sakura's just really good!"

"I know that." Sasuke said, rolling his eyes. "Without her strength, we never would have survived Kagura. "But you used to have better instincts. You used to be able to dodge a lot of strikes you took."

"He did." Sakura confirmed. "Sasuke… it's going to take me a while to get him back to 100 percent. Do you mind going and putting us in for a table at Chouji's deli? By the time we're actually ready to be seated, we should be there."

"Sure. See you in an hour or so then."

As soon as Sasuke was out of ear shot, Sakura glared angrily at Naruto.

"Don't you ever do that again. Do you understand me?"

"I won't…"

"I don't care what you think you're doing it for, and what you think I hope will happen… but I want you to understand one thing very clearly. You are extremely important to me. There is nothing in this world that I want badly enough to warrant seriously hurting you. Do you understand me? Nothing. I'm curious what your game is with this bet… That's why I took it. But I will not allow you to do anything that puts you in harm's way to win."

"I… got it. Sorry…" Naruto apologized. He certainly didn't expect Sakura to legitimately get upset at him over this plan. Nor did he fully understand just how much she valued him. He knew he was important to her, but given the choice between him and Sasuke, he was convinced she would choose Sasuke every time.

"It's not ok. If I had done something to you that I couldn't heal…" Sakura shivered at the thought. "I… I would not be able to live with myself."

"I wouldn't have let anything go that far…"

"I somehow doubt that…" Neither said anything for the next 10 minutes as Sakura continued her work. Finally, Sakura withdrew her hands.

"There. You're going to be sore for a while, but you no longer have any broken bones or have to worry about one or more of your organs shutting down from blunt trauma. Now come on, let's go to lunch."

Naruto simply nodded and followed after her. Even though he made Sakura mad, one thing was certain: Sasuke certainly recognized her strength and prowess. That was good. So now Sasuke knew that they could get a long, and that she had the strength he was looking for in a partner. All that was left to do now was poke and prod until Sasuke asked her out. Although… he was getting ahead of himself. That was tomorrow's daily goal. Once he got home, he would mark off today's daily goal as a success, despite everything.


Fin! Hope you enjoyed, please do review! -ND