A/N: Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing, reading, favoriting, and alerting! Much thanks to you all! I'm sorry that I took a bit longer to update, but I was trying to get this chapter right. Even as it is, I'm still not quite all the way satisfied with how it turned out, and that's mostly because I don't have much experience in writing fight scenes... Hopefully it turned out well enough for you guys to enjoy it, though. Hope you enjoy this~!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the places, characters, or else in this story. I merely own Ayaka, her family, Kanae, and any kekkai genkai and jutsu that I have conjured up from my mind.

I looked around, trying to determine which Naruto in front of me was the real one. There was five of him, all grinning and waiting for my next move. I refused to bring out my shisen, and I was sure that was what Naruto was trying to force me to do. Bruises and cuts littered my body, and my arms were pulsating with pain that resulted from blocking so many of his attacks. Now that he had made clones of himself, I was either going to have to find a way to pick him out, or use akuma no shisen.

Deciding that it was time to be a little more serious with Naruto, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and opened them.

I could practically feel everyone tense up once I opened my eyes. My eyes were no longer their pretty amber, but now blood red with specks of fiery orange and with a cat-like pupil in the center. I honestly didn't find my eyes to look very terrifying, but the things they could do were, and everyone here knew that. Of course, I didn't really plan to use the genjutsu on Naruto. It was just easier to use shisen to determine which Naruto standing before me was the real one rather than trying to find any differences I could. It would also be to my advantage to use shisen in this case because I could turn the clones against him if I wanted to.

Now to find Naruto.

I scanned through them only to find myself extremely confused. My shisen wasn't determining which one was real, which would imply they were all real or the real Naruto wasn't among them, but I couldn't pick up on Naruto's chakra anywhere else but…

What the… They all have chakra! That shouldn't be possible if they're all just simple clones!

Now I was even more confused. Naruto had used a simple cloning technique, so why did they all have chakra? They should all be illusions, not real beings.

"Hehe, your dojutsu won't be able to tell which is which, Ayaka-chan!"

I looked at the Naruto that stood to the far right. "But they're just clones…"

"But they're shadow clones," One standing in the middle started.

"So you can't determine who the real Naruto is!" They all chanted together, grinning smugly.

I smiled to myself. Clever boy.

I threw several kunai at all of them, rushing at them with a speed I hadn't used on Naruto previously. Two didn't react fast enough and were struck by my kunai, disappearing in a cloud of smoke while the other three dodged or deflected the attack and went after me. I ducked as one threw a punch for my head and grabbed another's leg that had been aimed for me, swinging him around to hit the one that had missed me earlier. They both disappeared, leaving me with one Naruto who had to be the real Naruto and who went for a sliding kick in hopes of knocking me off my feet.

No such luck.

I jumped over him, landing on my feet lightly and abruptly spinning around to face him. He let out a yell, running towards me and launching his fist towards me. My arms shot up out of reflex, expecting his fist to connect with my fishnet-covered arms. Instead of the attack actually hitting me, Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke, my eyes widening in the sudden realization.

"They were all clones… Which means -"

I tried to twist around in order to block the attack I knew was coming, but I took too long to realize what was going, which meant Naruto's kick connected with my back. Hard. I was sent flying through the air and straight into a tree, knocking the wind out of me for a good few minutes as Naruto grinned triumphantly. Slowly sitting up, I tried to catch my breath, massaging my back the best I could to try and ease the pain. Man, that freaking hurt.

Well, that was… unexpected. I didn't take Naruto as someone who would pull a trick like that; I took the blonde ninja as a strictly head-on fighter. It was a nice surprise to see Naruto manage to trick me, though I could have done without the kick to the back… I'm pretty sure that's going to leave a nasty bruise.

Naruto, after realizing his kick may have affected me more than he thought, ran over to me and crouched down to my height. Worry replaced the happiness that had previously occupied his eyes.

"Are you okay, Ayaka-chan? I may have kicked a little harder than I meant to."

I smiled. It wouldn't do any good to let him know how bad my back actually hurt right now. "Yeah, I'll be okay. You just kind of surprised me. I wasn't expecting such a clever trick."

"Hey," Naruto gave me another grin. "I'm a lot smarter than you think."

Even Sakura, who I noticed was the one that got onto Naruto the most for doing stupid things, looked impressed at Naruto's ploy, and Sasuke looked like he was smirking, too, but that could have been the lights and shadows messing with my eyesight. I had to admit, Naruto had me. If we had been fighting for real, I would have been in big trouble.

"Well, I'm gonna rest a bit. Why don't you and Sasuke spar a bit?"

The two teenage boys did so, leaving Sakura and I to observe. I contemplated healing my back for a bit. It wasn't anything serious - I probably could just take some painkillers and I'd be okay - but my back would be a nuisance if I wanted to continue training and sparring with team seven. At the same time, though, I wasn't the best at healing jutsu, and performing one could drain a ton of my chakra. The pain was starting to fade away anyways. Oh, forget it; I'll just endure the pain for now.

"Hey, Ayaka-san?" I tilted my head up, realizing Sakura had walked over to stand next to me.

"Yeah?"

"Um, it's okay if you don't want to talk about it, but," Sakura hesitated.

I could hear my heart's roaring pounding. Please, don't ask…

"Um… Why won't you use your kekkai genkai?"

I nearly sighed in relief. Thank goodness, she decided against asking me about what happened those months ago. So far she and Naruto had acted as they had before, though Sakura had slipped up a little bit to begin with. She initially acted a little awkwardly, as if she wasn't quite sure how to act around me anymore. After a little while, though, the pink-haired kunoichi began to act normally, which I was thankful for, and she had nicely managed to avoid the subject once more. Thank you, Sakura.

"Well, as you know, it makes nightmares become a reality. I have no qualms about using it on an actual enemy, but I can't use it on you guys. Sure, my shisen isn't at a high enough level to make the scariest things you think of come to life, yet, but it still messes with your head. My dad," I looked down, and began thinking of blue again. "He used his on me once to give me an idea of what my opponents would be up against, and also because I needed to know how to get out of it. Well… things didn't go as planned and I couldn't escape from it. Even though my father was going easy on me, I still had trouble getting over the experience for a few days. Akuma no Shisen isn't something I would use on my sparring partner because of that."

Sakura nodded, an interested look on her face. "I see…"

A slightly awkward silence descended upon us as Naruto and Sasuke continued going back and forth, dodging and attacking. They were pretty well matched right now.

…Until Sasuke disappeared and reappeared behind Naruto with a kunai held to his neck. My eyes widened in surprise. I didn't see Sasuke do any hand signs, so that wasn't a transportation or substitution jutsu; that was simply his speed. I didn't know he was so swift. Though, Naruto did just finish sparring with me. It would be hard for anyone to keep up with that speed in his state.

Sakura cheered for Sasuke and told Naruto he needed to train more. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head and smiling at the interaction between the three. Sasuke simply smirked while Naruto pouted, irritated that he had been defeated, and Sakura lectured him. They were an amusing bunch, no doubt. That's kind of why I didn't want them to know about my past. If they knew, that knowledge might influence their behavior around me, and I don't want them to change because of me. I like how things are now. I feel… I feel better when I'm around them.

"Well, it's not fair! I just finished sparring with Ayaka-chan, so I'm tired! Obviously Sasuke won only because of that!"

Naruto continued to rant and yell for a short while. I continued to smile at the scene before me. I didn't realize he had such a competitive side.

"Well!" I stood up, stretching and hearing a few satisfying cracks. "I got to rest a bit, so how about you and I spar, Sasuke? Give Naruto a chance to rest up," I grinned at the blue-eyed blonde teasingly who turned his head away, wearing a pout. I could have sworn I saw his face turn red…

Eh, it's probably just the heat. It is pretty unbearable today.

The Uchiha smirked. "Sure. I don't mind."

"But Ayaka-san, your back…"

I turned and smiled reassuringly to Sakura. "I'm fine, Sakura-chan! If anything, I probably just have a nice bruise, now. The pain isn't even there anymore." Okay, so the last part was a lie. My back still hurt a bit, but Sakura didn't need to know that.

Sakura nodded, backing down but still looking unsure. "Okay, if you say so…"

I went to stand in front of Sasuke, readying my self for the fight that was about to come. I would either really love this next fight, or regret challenging him. Hopefully, it's the former rather than the latter.

Sasuke made the first move, throwing several shuriken at me and causing me to have to jump back a few feet in order to dodge the attack. Sasuke suddenly appeared directly in front of me, and I was beyond surprised because I hadn't been able to see him. I remembered I had deactivated shisen after fighting Naruto and realized that if I wanted to keep up with Sasuke I was going to need to activate it; otherwise, my eyes wouldn't be able to keep up with his speed.

I hastily did the hand signs for the substitution jutsu, leaving a bored-looking stuffed animal (a cat) in my place. I grinned at Sasuke's surprised face and only widened it when he realized a paper bomb was attached to the little orange cat. He threw it away from him and jumped back a few feet just in case, all the while searching the area for me. I was hiding in the taller branches of a tree, trying to decide what my next move would be. I had to think fast because I knew it wouldn't take the teen long to find me.

Grinning, I decided I would use the one thing I had above Sasuke: the element of surprise. Of course, I was hiding so I could make a surprise attack, but he also didn't know much about how I fought. The most he knew was that I was pretty good with taijutsu and that I had a kekkai genkai that I refused to actually use while sparring, while I knew about his speed and the jutsu he used (courtesy of Kanae who loved to tell me about the other shinobi my age).

Ah, this would be quite fun after all.

After biting my thumb hard enough to draw blood, I quickly made the hand signs necessary to summon Runo, a practically harmless orange cat. She was more of a companion summon rather than a summon meant for combat, but she would be useful for my plan. I quickly told her what I wanted her to do before finding another hiding place, knowing that Sasuke was about to check my previous one. While he was distracted by Runo (who had decided that Sasuke was her new best friend), I summoned Daichi, probably one of, if not my favorite, summons. He was a cheetah, full-grown and slightly larger than average. He loved teasing me and challenging my authority, but he was always there for me when it actually counted. Other than that, he was one of the fastest summons out there and a ferocious warrior.

Daichi actually scared me a little. Don't tell him that, though. His ego is big enough as it is.

Once again, I found myself telling Daichi what I wanted him to do, thankful that he was being serious today. The feline nodded, slightly nudging me to hurry up and leave, and I did so without hesitation.

I could hear Sasuke's surprised yelp of pain as Runo bit him, just as I had told her to do as soon as the onyx-haired boy noticed Daichi was summoned. Distracted by trying to get the small, stubborn feline to release his hand, he was left defenseless, allowing Daichi to swoop in and knock him down from the tree. I could hear a collective, surprised gasp in the clearing as the group of three fell down. It was a funny sight, seeing Sasuke lying on the ground on his back with Runo sitting on his chest proudly as if she had been the one to single handedly knock him down, Daichi simply looking down at the Uchiha with a bored expression.

Gathering his wits back, Sasuke jumped to his feet, distancing himself from Daichi and Runo and trying to locate me while keeping an eye on the summons. I realized he had activated his Sharingan and decided I would go ahead and activate Shisen, too. It would make keeping up with his speed easier.

Daichi bounded towards Sasuke at an alarming pace, shocking everyone in the clearing once again. Sasuke continued to keep his distance, throwing kunai and shuriken, performing fire-based jutsu to keep the large feline at bay, but Daichi, like I said before, is amazingly fast. Before Sasuke knew it, Daichi had managed to get behind him, biting his shoulder (though not hard enough to draw blood. I didn't want to seriously hurt my friend.), and his resting his large paws on Sasuke's shoulders.

I decided to jump down now, knowing the fight was over. I grinned when I came to a stop a few feet in front of Sasuke who looked caught between being annoyed and being impressed.

"I suppose I win this time. " I pet Runo as she settled herself on my shoulder.

"You hid for the majority of the time, though." Sasuke argued.

"Yes, I did, but I thought that you would find me, actually. I didn't think you would fall for my distraction. And would you have really wanted me to get involved when Daichi was going at you? Besides, he may be very precise in the amount of power he attacks with, but," I felt myself twitch, annoyed, as I saw Daichi give me an amused look. "There's been more than one occasion where I was involved in the fight and ended up in the same state as my opponent because of that knucklehead's aim."

Sasuke remained silent, probably upset that he had lost to me. Heck, I would have been annoyed to lose, too. "How come you didn't fight like this with Naruto?"

"To be honest, and no offense, Naruto, but I wasn't exactly expecting to be challenged by him as much as I was. He didn't really give me any time to think of a good plan. I was stupid and underestimated him, which I won't be doing again."

I could practically feel the pride seeping off of Naruto. I had no doubt he was going to hold the fact he had beaten me and that Sasuke hadn't over the poor teen prodigy's head for a while.

"But don't beat yourself up about losing, okay? You had no idea about what I was really capable of, while I already knew about your style somewhat. I'm sure next time we spar you'll kick my butt." I smiled reassuringly. I didn't want him to be angry with me.

I could almost swear I saw a smile flit across his face before it went blank again. "Okay… Could you get this cat off of me now?"

"Sure. Daichi, you can release him."

I got a bad feeling when I locked eyes with the swift creature. He was giving me a sly look, and I knew that those gears in his head were turning just about as fast as he could run, forming some kind of sinister plan. I scowled at him, warning him with my own eyes that he had better not do anything.

But when has that cheetah ever listened to me in a normal situation?

Daichi ceased biting Sasuke's shoulder, and I thought hopefully for a second he was going to let the poor guy go, but no such luck. Instead, he pushed Sasuke forward with his paws, causing the Uchiha to stumble forward since he wasn't expecting it. And guess whom he stumbled into as he tried to catch his balance?

Yes, that's right folks, me.

We both fell backwards, me ending up on my back and Sasuke - Well, I closed my eyes before we fell, so I wasn't actually sure how he had landed. Cracking an eye open tentatively, I saw Sasuke's surprised, pink face directly in front of my own. My eyes shot open, my face heating up. He had managed to stop himself from falling on top of me, but now his hands were on either side of my head, and his legs were straddling me. I could only imagine how bad this probably looked, but luckily, Naruto and Sakura saw what happened, so there won't be any misunderstan-

"Would someone like to tell me just what is going on?"

My head jerked to the left, finding Kakashi gazing over at Sasuke and me. If possible, my eyes got even wider, especially when I saw that Kanae was standing beside him with both a shocked and amused expression on her face. Kakashi looked about ready to kill somebody.

I am going to pummel that cheetah.

Ayaka: o/o

1000WTBS: Hmm?

Ayaka: ...Why?

1000WTBS: 'Cause ya need a bit o' romance, child! Plus a little triangle might be intriguing, hehehe...

Ayaka: O.O Oh dear, the plot bunnies are back...

1000WTBS: Yes, yes they are. :)

Anywho, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to leave a review and tell me what you thought!

~~ 1000WTBS