"..." Talking
'...' Thoughts
Inner Sakura
Dreams
Chapter 3 – Skills
Once the groups had been assigned to the pairs, they had preceded to the academy's outside shuriken posts, where they practiced their shuriken and kunai throwing.
Sakura watched the students aim for the targets, while Coda corrected some of their positions.
Ino and Shikamaru helped the students on their throwing techniques, while Kira and Kuro sparred slightly as their group practiced.
Sakura slowly walked up to Coda, stopping just as he finished correcting a small boy's stance.
"Oh, hey Sakura-chan" he greeted.
"H-Hey" Sakura stuttered as Coda walked up to her slowly.
"Is something wrong?"
Sakura shook her head.
Coda smiled slightly, his eyes seeming to gleam in the sunlight.
Sakura blushed faintly, hoping Coda didn't notice.
"Listen Sakura-chan, um…I was just wondering but, during lunch, would you like to train with me?" Coda asked after a long pause, rubbing the back of his head.
Sakura was slightly surprised by the offer, but did want to test his skills.
"Um…ok, sure"
"Great!"
Sakura smiled back at Coda, blushing slightly at his grin; somehow, he reminded her of Sasuke and was a bit like Naruto too, but, at the same time, he seemed different from both.
"So, how do you like it in Konohagakure?" Sakura asked, not knowing what else to ask.
"It's different from the country town I grew up in, I can tell you that. But, even though it wasn't as big, we did have a ninja academy" Coda said, but a sad and thoughtful expression washed over his face after he said this.
"Is something wrong, Coda-kun?" Sakura asked, a blush rising as she added 'kun' to his name.
Coda shook his head and turned to Sakura with a faint smile, "No, I'm alright…"
Sakura watched him with pleading and curious eyes, but smiled after a moment.
There was an awkward silence between the two before someone called to Coda.
"Coda-san, dodge this!" a boy cried.
Coda turned slightly to face the boy when a kunai whizzed past his nose, missing him by centimetres.
Coda turned abruptly to face the boy before he gave a sly grin and drew two kunai, taking a fighting stance and beckoning the boy forward.
The boy seemed slightly confused for a moment before he grinned and drew two of his own kunai, running at Coda before tackling him, whom allowed himself to topple over and land with a thud.
"Ok, ok, you got me!" Coda laughed as the other boys started leaping on him.
Sakura eyed Coda gently with a gentle smile.
I guess you could say he's a remarkable one.
'Yeah…'
Lunch came quickly, too quickly if you asked Sakura, and she and Coda were already 10 minutes into their training.
It was actually more of a fight than training, however, even though neither touched each other.
On and on the fight went, kicks, punches, and even lashing blades were aimed at each other, but didn't mark the other's body.
'Damn, Sakura-chan's fast' Coda thought as he dodged a kick and a punch from Sakura.
He suddenly flipped backwards, Sakura dodging his feet by millimetres, before he landed and took up a fighting stance.
Sakura took up a fighting stance too, panting slightly before the two ran at each other.
'Coda-kun's fast' Sakura thought just before the two almost collided in the middle.
There was a huge cloud of dust that the two created as they halted abruptly before each other, the dust settling to show a katana held millimetres from Sakura's neck and a kunai held millimetres from Coda's stomach.
They stood for a moment, eying each other before they allowed themselves to start quivering.
Sakura and Coda smiled at each other as they withdrew their weapons.
"Maybe we should head back now?" Sakura suggested.
As much as Coda liked just being alone with Sakura, he nodded in agreement before his stomach growled.
"Well, my stomach agrees so let's go!" he smiled.
Sakura laughed as the two started walking.
"Do you think they've left any food for us?" Sakura asked.
Coda laughed, "I hope so"
Sakura smiled, "C'mon, I'll race you back" and with that, Sakura started running ahead.
"Hey, wait up!" Coda called as he started running after her.
He hadn't known Sakura for long, but Coda had started to like Sakura, he just hoped he could ask her to this festival that was coming up.
Sakura and Coda arrived back at the academy just moments apart, panting heavily as they walked towards the others.
"No fair, you got a head start!" Coda said as he came up to Sakura.
"Oh, are you sad that you got beaten by a girl?" Sakura teased.
"No, but you still had a head start!"
Sakura laughed as they stopped where the other's sat.
"Where've you two been?" Shikamaru asked.
"Sparring, did you bother leaving us anything to eat?" Sakura asked.
Ino smiled, "There're a few sandwiches left if you want them"
"Thanks Ino" Sakura replied as she and Coda sat with Ino.
"Say, where're Kira and Kuro?" Coda asked before he started eating.
"Well, Kira went off somewhere and Kuro went with her, but where they actually are is a mystery to us" Shikamaru said.
"Maybe they wanted some 'alone' time" Ino suggested.
Sakura laughed, "I don't think that's the real reason why they went off. Kira-chan has had a pretty traumatising past, and Kuro-san is her team mate and best male friend, so maybe she just trusts him the most"
Ino shrugged, "It's possible, but maybe it's something more"
Sakura shrugged with a small smile.
Shikamaru sighed as he flopped backwards, "You guys are troublesome"
Ino and Sakura smiled, but Sakura's faded and she looked down at the ground before her feet.
"You ok, Sakura?" Ino asked.
"Yeah, I'm ok…" Sakura replied, but her head snapped up when something rustled in the tree above them.
They all looked up, but only to find Kuro and Kira looking down at them from a branch.
"Yo" Kuro smiled.
"What the hell! Don't surprise us like that!" Ino exclaimed.
Kira smiled slightly before she jumped down and sat on the other side of Sakura.
"Are you ok? I heard you went off with Kuro" Sakura asked as she put a comforting arm around Kira.
Kira merely nodded, but noticed Kuro stayed in the tree.
"I wonder what this surprise is supposed to be" he sighed.
"We all want to know, but I think it's best to wait and find out" Coda replied.
Kuro gave a weak smile before students started running in through the academy doors.
"Looks like lunch's over" Kira commented as she got to her feet.
Kuro jumped down and landed by Kira before Sakura, Ino, Coda and Shikamaru stood too.
They started to near the door, more students running in before a kunai whizzed past the group and embedded itself into the door frame.
The group was puzzled for a moment before they whirled around just in time to block hundreds of kunai that were thrown at them.
The rest of the students ran in side as the kunai clattered to the ground.
They all looked up from shielding themselves, slightly battered, to find 6, cloaked figures standing at the academy's gate, all looking very skilled.
Woo, chapter 3 and a cliffhanger!
I like cliffhangers! And I'll try to post the next chapter asap!
For now, please read and review and I'll work on the next chapter.
Btw, yes the easter show was fun!
Hope you all like!
Ja ne!
