Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

--

"Okay Temari," Sakura said cooly, mentally picking at her strengths a weaknesses. "I'll spar with you."

Whoo! Kick her ass!

Temari grinned in her trademark way, teeth bared and eyes glinting dangerously. Sakura regarded her warily. She'd never liked sadistic people. They creeped her out.

...weren't thinking of that when you fell in love with Sasuke, were you?

Ow. Why did her mind have to be so mean?

...oh God, she was going insane.

"Little girl!" Sakura's head snapped up at Temari's voice. "I said, are you ready?"

Little girl? "Uh, yes."

"All right then." Temari moved until she and Sakura were parallel, with a few yard's distance spacing them. The boys settled to watch from the sidelines, Shikamaru fidgeting.

"Does this happen a lot?" Kankuro asked, keeping a wary eye on the two females.

"No," Shikamaru coughed softly. "Usually the other girl runs away after Temari threatens her."

"Not Sakura-chan though," Naruto grinned proudly.

Gaara glared at the sky. "Do you realize that Haruno is walking into suicide, Uzumaki?"

Naruto blinked. "What, you don't think she's good enough?"

Gaara's silent stare was answer enough.

Naruto bristled. "You've never even seen her fight! She's great, she can – "

Any further conversation was interrupted by an eruption of sand shooting at least twenty feet into the air. The males shut their mouths and brought their attention back to the fight.

Sakura backpedaled furiously, violently coughing. Okay, so, maybe punching the sand had been a bad idea. You're supposed to be the smart one! Dammit, sand is different from dirt! Use your head!

All right, where did she go...Sakura's eyes searched for Temari. Right, left, behind, in front...shit. She moved just in time; a second later Temari's fan slammed into the exact spot Sakura had been standing seconds ago.

"Are you crazy?" She yelled, landing safely a few feet away, not liking how close Temari had come to snapping her spine. "You could've killed me!"

Sparing match my ass!

Temari didn't reply, just swept her fan open in one smooth motion.

So she wasn't going to waste time by showing off. Great, just great. That could have given Sakura enough time to work out a strategy, if Temari had opened her fan one section at a time like she usually did.

So splitting the ground open was out, judging by the last time she'd tried, and hitting Temari was out...what else could she do?

Sakura resisted the urge to rip her hair out. All this time, she had only learned super strength and healing jutsus. And that was all well and good, but she had never stopped to think what would happen if her strength was rendered useless. That was her only offensive attack. She couldn't pull tendons and tamper with the enemy's blood streams like Tsunade could. She could only heal. Obviously, that wouldn't help her here.

Sakura suddenly threw herself flat to the ground to avoid the series of sharp, blade like winds that passed overhead. One just barely nicked the back of her shirt.

That was too close...again. She thought shakily, jumping to her feet and moving a safe distance away from her opponent. Temari's really serious about this. All I did was hug him! What's her problem? That's so...ew. Shikamaru's like a brother, shouldn't she know that?

She momentarily stopped thinking, lips parted and head cocked to the side.

Hello.

"Do you think I'm playing? Pay attention," Temari snapped, already arcing her fan through the air.

Sakura jumped to the side, pumping chakra to her eyes. This was risky, she knew that. Though her taijutsu and chakra reserves had improved greatly, they weren't to Uchiha standards. She could seriously damage herself if she overdid it. She didn't even know how to use the sharingan.

But.

She had the element of surprise on her side. She was smart. She could figure something out.

"I said pay attention!"

Sakura clenched her fists. "Will you just shut up?" She yelled back. Here she was trying to strategize, and that amazon was distracting her. God.

Temari charged her. Sakura held her ground, mouth set in a grim line. Good. It looked like Temari's temper had reached the breaking point – just enough to make her a tiny bit reckless. Inhaling deeply, Sakura quickly cast a light genjutsu to hide her current eye color. It wouldn't hold out for long; as soon as she was distracted, it would drop. But she wouldn't need it for long.

Come and get me. I've got it all planned out.

REVENGE, BITCH!

As soon as Temari was in range, Sakura ploughed her fist into the ground. Sand shot up around her, getting in her eyes and burning her nose. She coughed violently, once, then forced the second one back. Temari pulled back at the last second and wasn't caught in the upsurge.

Sakura smirked.

Good.

She moved her hands in a quick series of seals.

Temari squinted at Sakura's silhouette through the sand quickly being pulled downward by gravity. She was making a doppelganger? Did she think she was stupid?

Not waiting for the air to clear, Temari swept her fan in front of her in a smooth, wide arc. The sand was blown clear away, as was Sakura's clone. It disappeared in a small poof of white smoke.

Temari leaned her elbow against the top of her fan, relaxed. All she had to do now was wait...

A second clone dashed at her; Temari destroyed it with a wave of her fan.

Before the smoke from the clone had even cleared, a hand shot up from the ground and grasped Temari's ankle.

The smirk died from her face.

Sakura pushed herself out of the ground, twisting Temari's arms behind her.

"Surprised?"

Temari didn't reply, her face blank. She didn't move.

"Do you give up?"

Temari disappeared, and Sakura was left holding a small boulder. The fan dropped to the sandy ground, no longer having anyone to support it.

"Don't be so cocky," a voice hissed into Sakura's ear as a kunai was pressed to the back of her neck. "Did you really think I wouldn't consider this from Kakashi's student? Do you think I'm that stupid?"

Sakura glared at her from over her shoulder. Temari's breath caught in her throat and she cringed in surprise. "Yeah."

Sakura didn't let the brief loss of the kunai's pressure go to waste. Without missing a beat, she twisted, and kneed Temari in the stomach. Temari's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, before her hands automatically went to clench her stomach. Sakura grabbed her right shoulder, trying to ignore the fact that she had to stand on tip toe to do so, and pushed Temari to the ground, face first. Her knee pressed into the small of her back and her hands pinned Temari's wrists together.

"Do you give up now?"

Temari didn't answer, just lay there, stunned. Did she...did this girl have...?

"Why...do you have sharingan?" She demanded, craning her neck to stare at the pink

haired girl looking down at her. No, she hadn't imagined it. Haruno's eyes had turnedblood red. They were unmistakable.

Unwillingly she remembered her fight with the Uchiha, during the Chuunin exams. That boy, he had humiliated her. She should have won. She was older and smarter than him. She had trained harder. But she didn't. Sasuke had beat her, and there had been nothing she could do about it.

"Why do you think?" Sakura answered,

And now, if her assumptions were correct, she was about to be beaten by another Uchiha.

"...get off me."

"You give up?"

"Get off me!" Temari violently wrenched her arms in an attempt to get free. Sakura had anticipated this. She held on firmly, knowing that she was the stronger of the two. What she hadn't anticipated was for Temari's legs to practically disjoint themselves by bending backwards and slamming into the back of her head. Sakura's mouth opened in a silent gasp of pain, and Temari used her momentary lapse to roughly throw her off.

Temari stood and darted to where her fan lay a few feet away, mind screaming.

Sakura shakily pushed herself to her feet, trying to summon some nonexistent chakra.

Temari watched her hatefully. How dare she, she who was younger and weaker, belittle her. She would pay, Temari was going to make her regret hitting her, she was going to kill her –

She didn't even know when she had started running, fan raised above head, ready to strike. Sakura willed some energy into her legs, but they wouldn't work. She had used all her strength and chakra. She couldn't run.

In a last ditch attempt to defend herself, Sakura threw her arms over her head.

Nothing happened.

Tentatively, Sakura cracked open an eye.

A barrier of sand was in front of her, protecting her from Temari's onslaught. She lowered her arms, bewildered. Naruto was running towards her. The sand dropped, and Temari was revealed, still poised to fight. Kankuro was behind her, restraining her from beating Sakura to a bloody pulp. "Temari, calm down. What's wrong with you? It's not a death match."

"Sakura-chan, that was awesome!" Naruto bounced on the soles of his feet, grinning proudly. "You almost won!"

Sakura stared at him, then at Temari, who had stopped struggling and was watching the ground intensely, then to Gaara, who was standing a few feet away, arms crossed, like nothing had happened.

I lost.

She drew a shaky breath, taking a few steps backward. Temari jerked herself out of her brother's grip and stalked off towards the village. Shikamaru, looking anxious, waved to them and quickly followed. Naruto was still babbling to her about how close she had come.

...almost.

"I am not staying with her tonight," she blurted randomly, suddenly remembering her sleeping arrangement. "She'll murder me in my sleep."

"Yeah, she probably will," Kankuro agreed easily, watching his sister's retreating back. "I guess there's no choice but to stay with me. We can share the bed."

She was about to sarcastically remark something along the lines of, Such a gentleman, but Gaara beat her to the punch.

"No."

"Why not?" Kankuro pouted.

Gaara gave him a flat stare.

"All right, fine," he grumbled. "But you know, that only leaves you."

"I have a guest room."

--

Sakura sighed, staring at the guest room ceiling. This wasn't bad. She was lying flat on her back on the bed. It wasn't very comfortable, but at the moment she was just glad that she had a bed.

I can't believe I lost.

She closed her eyes, brow creasing.

I always either lose or tie. Why can't I ever win?

Zaku...Ino...Temari...she had never won a match in her life. Even when she had killed Sasori, she'd needed outside help. Couldn't she do anything? What had all those years of training been for? Had they been a waste of her time? Was she doomed to be weak forever?

She brought her left hand up and held it at eye level. Nice, soft, pretty hands like Ino's had been a sacrifice she had made when she became Tsunade's apprentice. Shattering boulders with your bare hands didn't come without consequences. Her hands were scarred and calloused; a symbol of how hard she had worked.

She lowered her hand back to her side and forced her fight with Temari out of her mind. She had other things to worry about. Like Sasuke and Kakashi. And her sharingan. And Gaara, who was just down the hall.

"I have a message for you."

Sakura's eyes shot open and she sat bolt upright. Gaara was standing calmly at the end of her bed.

"I...what?" She babbled. "Um...do you knock?"

"It's my house."

"...right."

"Do you want your message or not?"

"Yes," she sighed. "Please give me my message, Gaara-san."

"Temari says that your taijutsu sucks and she can help you improve if you'd like."

She paused, halfway through running her hand through her bangs.

"She wants to fight me again?"

Gaara gave her an exasperated look. "No, she wants to train you."

"Oh...well...that's nice of her."

"She won't hurt you, if that's what you're afraid of."

"I'm not afraid of her!" Sakura defended, lifting her chin defiantly.

Gaara just snorted. "I'm sure. Goodnight, kunoichi." He moved to leave.

"Sakura."

He paused. "What?"

"You always call me kunoichi or girl or Haruno. My name is Sakura. I call you by your name, it's only fair that you return the favor."

Gaara gave her a long, level stare, then smirked. "Fine. Goodnight, Sakura."

--