A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for the wonderful reviews and I really hope you like this chapter!

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fan fiction using characters from the NarutoTM world, which is trademarked by Masashi Kishimoto. The story I tell here is created for entertainment only and is not part of the official NarutoTM storyline. I do not profit financially from this story.

Chapter 7: Turning Tables

After a full day of chakra control, agility, and strength training exercises, to put it lightly, Sakura was exhausted. She stopped only briefly for a snack around noon, but otherwise, she'd spent eight consecutive hours immersed in the ninja arts today.

Despite how much pain she was in, Sakura was certain that her abilities were improving. Her newly-healed muscles allowed her to lift heavier objects for longer periods of time, throw weapons farther with increased accuracy, and her ever-growing reserve of chakra took twice as long to deplete compared to a week ago. She still had a lot of work to do, but at least she was getting somewhere.

Sasuke slumped down next to his bag, breathing heavily. He also seemed worn out after the long day. "That last drill was great," he said. Sakura designed an exercise where they stuck shuriken to the soles of their feet and then, with just the perfect release of chakra, kicked the weapons at a target. After an hour of using stationary targets, Sakura started tossing other shuriken into the air for him to hit. "We're going to have to work on that one tomorrow."

Sakura smiled and folded her arms. "So we're training again tomorrow, are we?"

He glanced over at her with raised eyebrows. "Why wouldn't we be?"

She shrugged. "Well maybe I have better things to do," she answered sarcastically, still smiling. But her comment seemed to confuse her teammate.

Sasuke wasn't known for his sense of humour. Or social skills in general for that matter.

He stood up. "You're benefitting from this training as much as I am – maybe even more. Just think of where you'll be in a week from now at this rate."

Sakura stared at him. Her sarcasm clearly went right over his head. "No, I meant –"

"We're doing this again tomorrow," Sasuke deadpanned defensively. Then he turned to pack up his bag. Sakura made a mental note to avoid using sarcasm the next time he was in one of these weird, intense moods. "For me, training with you is the only thing worth my time these days," he mumbled from where he was crouched by his bag.

Oh?

Sakura perked up, her heartrate quickening. The powerful, evil Sasuke Uchiha, one of the biggest threats to the world I left behind, is this interested in learning from me huh? The boy with famous, unrivaled abilities felt that training with an ordinary ninja with some skills in medical ninjutsu and slightly above-average chakra control was the only thing worth his time?

Her face and ears were suddenly feeling hot.

"So... tomorrow?"

Pulled back to earth, Sakura blinked and fought against the tightening in her chest. "All right," she said, shrugging, and trying to seem as nonchalant as one possibly could after receiving praise from the Uchiha prodigy. She turned to grab her own bag and then reminded herself that this Sasuke wasn't an evil threat to the village. Sure he was a prodigy, but right now he was just a young ninja-in-training looking to learn new skills.

And when he mastered everything that Sakura had to teach him, he would move on in pursuit of new sources of power.

He'll get over this phase – this is just a temporary interest.

Sakura knew before she opened her eyes that someone was in her bedroom.

From curled up under the blankets of her bed, she heard a faint rustling near the doorway. And once her mind was functional and her senses alert, she recognized a distinct chakra presence.

The impostor was a ninja.

Heart pounding, Sakura very carefully reached for the kunai under her pillow. Not taking any chances, she fired the knife in the direction of the chakra signature.

With a resounding thunk the knife struck the wall, missing the target. But it seemed to surprise the intruder enough to drop whatever they were holding onto her floor with a crash. Sakura summersaulted out of bed, making a beeline for the weapon holster on her desk. In one fluid motion, she snatched another knife from it and flicked on the small bedside light.

"Who are –," she started but she froze mid-sentence when she caught a glimpse of the impostor's face.

"Sakura?!" called Mebuki from the bedroom down the hallway. "What's going on in there?"

"It's fine, mom! Just a nightmare!" Sakura answered while striding up to the now-petrified impostor and pinning him to the wall with her arm.

"Sasuke. What the hell are you doing in my room?" Sakura hissed and holding the knife to his throat. She studied him intensely, including his mannerisms and chakra signature, to ensure that this wasn't a substitution disguise or a genjutsu.

He passed her brief assessment. This was Sasuke all right.

"I was –"

"Didn't I tell you I thought someone was sneaking into my bedroom? Didn't I tell you I wanted to set up traps in here to stop situations like this from happening? What made you think it would be fine for you to barge right in yourself?"

She glared at him, livid from the rush of emotional turmoil he caused her.

"I... hadn't thought of that," he said and carefully pulling her hand away from his neck. His wide eyes were flickering between her face and the kunai.

Sakura stepped back and put her head in her hands. "Why are you in my room?" she asked again, quietly this time, trying to calm down and contain her anger.

"I remembered what you said. What you said about the intruders and the traps," he said, his voice shakier than usual. He was still pressing himself against the wall even though Sakura had released him. "Since you weren't awake to train yet, I figured I wouldn't waste any time. So I started... uh..."

Through her fingers, Sakura glimpsed the thin wires around her door. She followed them with her eyes and realized that they were part of an interconnected system of wires lining the walls of her entire room. "You're setting up traps?" she asked while lowering her hands.

Sasuke exhaled sharply from his nose. "Yeah," he said, avoiding her eyes.

Letting out a deep breath and massaging her temples, Sakura tried to determine how she felt about this situation. She was conflicted between feeling gracious and pissed off. "Um, thanks," she said slowly. "But sneaking in my room like that was..."

"Not a good idea. I get it," he said quickly.

Sakura nodded. "Good," she sighed while trying to wrap her head around what was going on. She walked over to her night table to get her water glass. "Well, I guess I –"

"Don't touch that," Sasuke said sharply and raising his hand in warning. "I've set a trap there."

"What?" she gasped and immediately retracting her hand. "How many traps did you lay out in here?"

"Twelve."

Baffled, she whirled around to assess his work. "Where are the others then?" she asked.

He straightened up. "I'll walk you through them when you're ready to go," he said with a brisk nod in her direction.

His comment reminded Sakura that she was wearing a light nightgown that wasn't the most conservative or practical outfit for ninja business. "Fine. Give me a minute," she said and feeling her face flush as she turned away.

Then Sasuke, despite his general inability to pick up on social cues, seemed to realize that he needed to leave. "Right," he said and creeping out into the hallway while she got dressed.

Sasuke pointed out all the traps he laid out in her room and Sakura politely asked him to remove several of them (specifically, the traps he laid in places she regularly accessed such as her personal bathroom entrance and the closet door). Just before they finished, an idea occurred to her. "Can you please put one, er... around this drawer?" Sakura asked and nodding towards the underwear drawer of her dresser.

"What's in there?" Sasuke asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing you'd be interested in," she answered quickly and tucking a loose strand of her shoulder-length hair behind her ear.

If Sasuke took one look in there, he would definitely agree with me.

He cast her a skeptical glance but set up a trap nonetheless and mumbled something that sounded like "Weird-ass stalker." After her room was as ninja-proofed as it could be while still being functional, Sakura forced her teammate to exit by her window so her parents wouldn't see him leave her bedroom, packed her bag, ate a quick breakfast, and met him at the training grounds as they had arranged.

But this training session wasn't quite like the others.

Sakura was miffed to find that the morning's incidents didn't seem to faze Sasuke at all. Despite how she'd ironically dreamed of getting this boy into her room for most of her life, now that he had a growing presence in her personal life, Sakura was just feeling resentful. Not only did Sasuke invade her privacy, but he set up traps that prevented her from accessing her own belongings without consulting her first.

What if, during his snooping, he had stumbled upon the time travel scroll? His pushiness was making her vulnerable.

He's getting too close… too comfortable…

Sasuke was now explaining how to hold a bow but all Sakura could hear was his patronizing tone.

Sasuke seemed to notice her faraway expression and paused. "Well?" he asked irritably while raising his eyebrows.

Whoops. "Sorry, what was the question?"

His dark eyes narrowed. "You didn't hear a word I said, did you?" Sakura shook her head. He rolled his eyes but started again.

Unfortunately, the rift between them didn't end there.

Two hours later, the high branch Sakura was standing on in a training exercise snapped and she abruptly found herself plummeting to the ground, Sasuke's bow flying out of her hand. She managed to brace her fall by rolling as she landed but she overestimated the amount of force her skinny ankles could withstand. Her right ankle twisted awkwardly when she landed on it and it immediately began to throb.

"I caught the bow," Sasuke said when he emerged from the tangle of bushes ahead of her. "It isn't damaged." Then he noticed his training partner's crumpled position on the ground. "Heal yourself and get up. I want to get through a few more drills after this one."

Just like that, Sakura's temper reached its limit.

And she knew her emotions shouldn't take the reins and she knew she'd better just take a deep breath and hold her tongue.

But she didn't.

"I'm done," Sakura said flatly. "You can finish the drill yourself."

Sasuke blinked. "You don't like archery?" he asked, clearly perplexed by her reaction.

Sakura stood up and pumped just enough green chakra to her ankle to walk. She strode towards the tree stumps where her bag was left open on the ground. "I'm done training with you today," she deadpanned without sparing him a glance.

Sakura reached the bag and started shoving her measly collection of weapons inside it, preparing to depart from the training grounds. But when she motioned to grab one of her kunai, a blue sandal reached it before her hand did. Stepping down on her knife, Sasuke asked in an icy tone, "What are you doing?"

"I'm leaving," she answered simply. "Going home for the day. I've had enough."

"Enough of what?" he asked.

Standing up and squarely facing her teammate, Sakura hissed, "Of you. You haven't apologized to me for this morning. You don't give me any space. And you've been patronizing me since we got here – treating me like a tool. Like I'm just another weapon in your bag." She stopped herself, wondering if what she was saying made any sense at all. She also realized that she would probably hit some sore spots if she didn't get a hold of herself.

Sasuke folded his arms and stared at her seriously. He seemed to be contemplating something, and right when Sakura thought she was getting through to him he said, "That's it?"

Fuming, she snatched up her bag and started marching towards the village.

Until Sasuke appeared in front of her and blocked her path.

"Excuse me," she spat without meeting his eye.

"You're mad at me," he noted. His casual tone didn't sit well with her, but Sakura tried not to linger on that. She took a deep breath.

"Look, Sasuke. I'm not like you. With this revenge stuff. I need some space to figure things out on my own." His expression was unreadable and he made no motion to speak. "I'm in a very different situation than you are. My revenge is... a little more fresh and confusing. I don't know how many people I need to kill. I don't know if I'll ever be able to do it."

"You're weak. I'm helping you get stronger," Sasuke said flatly with a hint of coldness in his tone. His jaw was clenched and Sakura realized she was probably treading on thin ice.

But this wasn't about him. This was about her mission. And it was dawning on her now that training with Sasuke was a terrible idea. If she was going to stop him from betraying the village one day, she needed to be stronger than him. If he trained with her and molded her every skill, she had no chance of outsmarting him. And no chance of saving him.

And besides, spending so much time with Sasuke increased her risk of being blinded by her emotions. She couldn't afford to be his puppet. Tsunade sent her here to make some changes. Changes weren't going to happen if she kept following him around like she used to.

"I need to be alone," she said firmly. "I need to focus on my own revenge."

"I used to think that way too," he countered. "But I've realized that if I want power, I need to seek it out."

"This is different," she snapped. "I need to work alone."

"You're wrong. You just need –"

"Stop! You're annoying me, Sasuke!"

"What?"

Sakura stopped in her tracks. She could hardly believe the words coming out of her mouth. Could the tables have turned so much that she was using Sasuke's own lines against him? She'd lost count how many times he called her annoying in her old life.

Even on that dreaded night… the night he knocked her unconscious, left her body on a park bench, and betrayed the Hidden Leaf village. The night Sakura had worn her heart on her sleeve and had it torn to pieces.

Annoying. Annoying.

She repeated the words quietly, but not to the Sasuke who stood before her.

"You're annoying."