[Naruto]
I'm low key excited for this.
Late this morning, Tsunade barged into the hokage tower in the middle of a briefing between Kakashi and me.
She also conveniently ignored the handful of office aids who trailed behind her helplessly, sputtering chastising remarks for interrupting a meeting of the Hokage. One quick look from her sent them reeling back towards the office door and into the hallway. A further, pointed, "ahem!" had one of the aids scuttling back just to shut the door behind them.
Tsunade then announced that she had a bright idea - a "stroke of inspiration". And before either Kakashi or I could get a word in, she turned to me and asked me to spar against Sakura during their training session later today.
My immediate response was a strong "hell no!". I need to stay away from Sakura as much as I can, for as long as I can, and no one - not even the former kage - would stand in the way of that.
That was the plan, anyway. But granny Tsunade can be very convincing when she wants. My right ear still hurts from where she boxed it - and me - into submission. She didn't let go until I changed my "hell no" into a "yes, Tsunade-sama, I would love to."
Kakashi didn't even try to step in, not that I blame him.
We're all a little afraid of her.
My gaze is steady as I watch Sakura finish fastening her bell onto the right side of her hip, about fifteen feet away. She's wearing her medic uniform instead of whatever the hell she had on this morning. It's a lot more practical for battle, but a small part of me is disappointed that I won't see her fighting in that top. It was just low enough to show off her cleavage, high enough to expose her toned stomach, and baggy enough to move just a little too much in the wind.
On the other hand, her medic uniform reveals her long, toned, legs, which were hidden away by her sweats this morning. I've always been more of a legs and ass kind of guy anyway.
But now is not the time to get distracted. This is as much an assessment of my skill as it is of Sakura's.
Whatever misgivings I have of her, my body is gunning for a fight of some kind, preferably the kind where lots of punches and kicks are thrown around. I haven't properly sparred with anyone since I returned, and I'm restless. And I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't curious to see how she's grown over the last few years. I can feel the chakra buzzing under her skin. She's going to come into this fight unleashed like the hellcat she is.
Tsunade and the rest of the gang have since moved to the sidelines, away from any of the damage that's about to happen. Sakura straightens up and watches me carefully. A warm breeze blows past us, causing her hair to dance in the sunlight. Her expression had transformed from the jibbering, flustered, girl that she was a moment ago. Instead, her eyes are cool, calculating and sharp.
My gaze connects with hers and that spark in her eyes - intelligent, intense, with a hint of mischievous - works its way deep into me, hooking into my ribs and pulling me into their emerald depths. An odd lulling sensation flows over my body and, for a second, I never want to look away. For a second, I'm convinced that I could drown in her eyes and die a happy man.
Fuck. I need to get a hold of myself. Years ago, that look would have had me waiting by her feet in a split second, waiting - hoping - for any chance to prove myself to her and win her approval. But I'm not who I was years ago, and damned if she'll have the same effect on me.
As I hold her gaze, a soft blush enters her cheeks and I can tell she's forcing herself not to look away. Something's changed in our dynamic since four years ago, and I know I have an effect on her. It fills me with a sense of self-importance that has probably brought men far superior to me down to their knees. I'm like a kid, armed with a long pokey stick and wrapped up in the feeling of invincibility, facing down a hornet's nest.
I know I shouldn't, but I can't help the next words out of my mouth. It's like this morning all over again.
"You might need a safe word for this." I call out lazily, smirking.
Her cheeks color even more, though her expression doesn't otherwise change. Bingo.
"In your dreams." She responds shortly.
She's making this too easy. My smile spreads across my face.
"And exactly what kind of dreams am I having of you, Sakura?" As her blush darkens, satisfaction lodges deep in me. Then her eyes narrow.
"Oh, you know," She replies silkily. In a flicker, she's disappeared. A soft voice whispers into my ear, as if trailing in the wind, with a faint scent of cherry blossoms and peaches.
"Only the naughtiest kinds, Naruto-kun."
My eyes widen for a fraction of a second as my brain grinds to a halt. Shit, my game of chicken backfired.
My momentary paralysis almost screws me over. I barely get the hell out of the way as she appears from behind, only just managing to avoid the full force of her chakra-laden fist. Shaking my head out of my funk, I remind myself to focus. One square hit from her and this match will be over before it begins.
Swearing under my breath, I land twenty feet from her and glare at her. I can't help but be impressed though. Her fist only glanced my shoulder, but my shoulder is throbbing like a bitch.
"You've gotten faster, Sakura."
She smirks and gives a slight snort in return. She flickers out of sight again and I have a split second to respond by blocking a kick to my side. I grunt and dig my feet into the ground with chakra to absorb her impact, before throwing her off balance by shifting to the side and kicking up against her chest. Sakura dodges the brunt of the attack while launching another chakra-laden fist at my face. I shift so that it only skims over my cheekbone, but pain explodes where she made contact. I'm pretty sure it's fractured.
Something is wrong with me, because she's never been hotter.
But I won't let her distract me. Instead, I take a second to analyze her strategy. She would try to turn this into a taijutsu match. With her chakra control, all she needs to do is land one solid hit. Which means I need her to back up and give me some distance.
Spinning around, I grab a kunai from my pouch and swing my arm at her in a wide arc. Predictably, Sakura leaps backwards, though the chakra enhanced blade of mine manages to slice through the fabric of the skirt of her uniform. Without pausing, I unleash a trio of shuriken from my other hand, forcing Sakura another ten feet back until I'm a safe distance from any chakra-laden limbs.
The screechy notes of Ino's voice pierce through the air, reminding me that we're not alone.
"Ohmygod forehead you shoulda just grabbed it when you were there!"
Ino's so into it, I can hear her stomping her foot against the ground somewhere behind me. Unsurprisingly, Ino's commentary seems to piss of Sakura, who lets out a string of curse words that would make any proper lady's ears burn.
Such a pretty face uttering such crass language. It's a contradiction that basically sums up Sakura in a nutshell - she's uniquely her, with no comparison.
Besides, what Ino's saying is easier said than done. Sakura was busy navigating my attacks as much as I was hers. This early in the fight, we're still gauging our opponent's skillset. A premature attempt to grab the bells could mean instant victory for the other.
We stare at each other for a moment, and the same shifting sensation that I feel flows over me again. She looks ethereal, her delicate features and alabaster skin juxtaposed with the smudges of dirt on her face, her wild hair, and her clothing torn by yours truly. There's a brightness in her eyes, awakened by a good fight. An energy about her that I want to drown in. Or maybe breathe in.
Frowning slightly, I shake myself out of it.
Yo, Naruto. Kurama pipes up. You getting your ass beat by your girl?
Ugh. I usually don't mind him piping up during my fights. But right now, his voice is damn annoying.
She's not my girl, Kurama.
We've been through this before, and he knows my complicated feelings about Sakura.
Turns out under all those deep anger issues, Kurama's got the heart of a gossiping teenage girl. He's always been like that, apparently. The things you learn when you befriend all the tailed beasts.
That bastard keeps talking, ignoring me. She's gotten good. Really good. She's even prettier now, too. You need to be careful around her, she'll lead you around by the nose you know.
I cut Kurama off impatiently. Kurama, shut up. Let me handle this.
I'm itching to jump back into the fight, to poke her a little more, get a little closer. Up until now, she's been avoiding me as much as she can. Even earlier this morning, she wouldn't look at me for longer than a few seconds at a time. I should be happy that she's keeping her distance. God knows that's the wiser decision. Yet, her full attention is sending a rush of adrenaline through me.
There's a slight pause and Kurama's response is snide. So she's not giving you the attention you want? You got rejected by her again? Is it Sasuke again?
"Kurama, shut up!" The words burst out of my mouth loud enough for Sakura to look at me with a slightly confused expression.
Kurama pauses again, and he's smug as bird shit on a window. So be it, Naruto. Don't say I didn't warn you. That woman is a vixen.
Like I need a warning about this woman. Anyone can see she's deadly.
Sakura had near-perfect chakra control as a genin and her control has only gotten better. Her intelligence rivals that of Shikamaru, although they're each suited to different fields. My briefings with Kakashi have caught me up with the fact that she's taken over as head medic of Konoha. She's the youngest head of all the ninja villages, which is a lot, considering that Konoha is at the forefront of medical advances.
Her biggest weakness has always been her physical combat and defensive abilities, and it looks like she's got that part figured out now too.
"Are you going to keep talking to your tailed beast or are you going to fight me?" Sakura interrupts my thoughts pointedly, a hand on her hip. I can't tell if she's amused or annoyed.
Either way, she looks a little too confident. She needs to be knocked off balance a little more.
"Why, miss me already?" I remark, smirking when another wave of pink stains her cheeks.
With a slight 'hmph!', Sakura responds by raising a fist and punching it down onto the ground. A huge chasm rips through the earth from the point of impact, so deep that it looks bottomless, and explodes out towards me.
I leap sideways as the earth beneath me splits open. Airborne, I breathe in deep, gathering chakra in my lungs and exhale. Torrents of chakra-infused mud spew from my mouth, cascading into the vacuous depths of the gorge, and I don't stop until it's filled to the top.
Satisfied, my hands form a seal as I land on the lowest branch of a nearby tree. In an instant, large mud arms lurch up from the earth through the initial point of contact at Sakura's feet to pull her into my newly created swamp. Anyone or anything that makes contact with my mud will be trapped until I choose to release them. The mud drains its captive of their chakra until they're too weak to move. It's my take on Jiraiya's swamp jutsu.
But the mud arms never make contact with her. Instead, Sakura flickers out of the way, reappearing a few feet to the side. She's forming a set of seals I've seen countless times in the past and my brows slam together at my realization. It doesn't take a genius to know who Sakura learned this jutsu from.
"Katon! Gokakyu no Jutsu!" Flames shoot out from her mouth, stretching across the entire surface of my swamp. The incredible heat of her jutsu scorches the mud, generating a god awful amount of steam until it blocks all visibility around us. She must have meant to dry it out, but the mud runs too deep, and the chakra infused within it acts as some kind of protection against the fire. It's a testament, however, to Sakura's jutsu that her flames remain on the surface of my swamp, turning it into a fiery lake and throwing a steady supply of mist into the air.
Sakura bites out a curse, making me grin. In a battle where there's nil visibility, I've got the definite edge and she knows it. I can sense the chakra signature of every person in Konoha at any given time. I don't do it, obviously, since it's a huge invasion of privacy and a drain on my mental focus and chakra. Focusing on one person's chakra, though, is a piece of cake.
I open my senses around me and immediately latch onto Sakura's signature. It's not hard to recognize the smooth essence of her chakra. Everyone's chakra is different and Sakura's is femine and sweet, like peaches, mint and - no surprise - cherry blossoms.
She's headed into the forested area of the training grounds. Smart decision, seeing as the trees offer much more protection and will slow down a pursuer. I set off after her.
Suddenly, her signature splits into three and leaps into opposing directions. My eyes widen. When did she start using kage bunshin no jutsu? She must have chosen to use it predicting that I'd use my sensory ability at some point. It's a moot strategy though. Most shinobi don't realize it, but kage bunshin clones aren't precisely equal in the amount of chakra held in them, and the strongest signature is almost always the original. It's so subtle that most shinobi could never tell the difference.
Not me. I don't even try to hide my grin. Target locked.
Pushing off the trunk of another tree, I pivot and follow the strongest signature. After a couple minutes, it begins slowing down a little. That's weird - and now it's flaring in sporadic bursts.
It flares two more times, then blinks out like a light. Realization slams into me. Fuck! It was a red herring.
"Ha!"
Her voice trickles past me in a gentle breeze, blowing by my cheek and ropes appear around my hands, binding them together in front of me. Another set of ropes drop simultaneously from the branch above me, snaking around my ankles, and pulling me roughly into the air until I'm dangling upside down.
"That's for tying me up earlier today." Sakura's mocking voice and laughter echoes from the treetops, somewhere over top. I still can't see her, thanks to the thick fog coming from the fiery swamp.
Growling in annoyance, I flex my arms to break the ropes around my wrist, but it doesn't budge. She strengthened it with so much chakra, I'm forced to bite down on it, channeling a vicious blade of wind chakra to cut through. Once my hands are free, I cut the ropes around my ankles with another quick blade of wind chakra, landing back on my feet. Her essence seems to swirl around me. Even the rope smells like her, sweet and at odds with the sparring match.
The same lulling sensation washes over me again. Her scent seems to follow me, wrapping around me, making my mind buzz and awakening parts of my body that have no business waking during a fight.
Being a sensory type has its downfalls. Connecting with a person's chakra signature for a practical purpose, like a medic healing a patient, or a tracker nin hunting down a bad guy, is matter-of-fact. Neutral. It is what it is. But in other situations, the best word to describe the experience of touching another person's chakra is 'intimate '. Like the connection you get when your dick is buried deep in a woman's pussy.
Not that I'm thinking about sex. I grit my teeth in annoyance.
Anyway, using my sensory skill is like wrestling - it means one thing when it's done for sport, another thing when done in a life-or-death battle. And in the bedroom, the same motions take on a whole new meaning.
My traitorous body is getting confused about the context. Warning bells are ringing at the back of my mind - this doesn't make sense. The amount of contact I've had with her, chakrally speaking, shouldn't have caused this intense reaction in me. It's almost as if she's surrounding me as much as I'm drilling my energy into her.
A description that would make Freud proud.
A low groan escapes me. I'm seriously turned on right now. In fact, my body is thrumming with desperation to be near her. To see her. Touch her.
Frustrated, I wipe a hand across my face.
Suddenly, a kunai is touching my neck. A quiet whisper sounds into my ear, from behind, going straight to my cock.
"And this makes us even, Mr. Protege."
She's right behind me and I was too distracted to notice her approach. And her hand is reaching towards my bell.
Shit. Thinking fast, I summon my chakra to the surface of my skin, agitating the energy until needle-like currents of chakra swirl around me, making my entire body glow. Forming a thin layer over me, I send it outwards in a powerful pulse. The whole thing takes less than a second.
Getting hit by my chakra field hurts like thousands of wasp stings, or like an attack of a raging porcupine. I've heard it described as either, depending on who you talk to. Either way, its needle-like force penetrates all materials until it hits skin, kind of like an electric shock. If I want, I can up the intensity, making it a kill shot. The chakra moves through the person, disassembling them down to the cellular level. Not that I'm doing that here.
I feel slightly bad as my chakra field pushes into Sakura, until I hear a pop and her body disappears on contact. Another clone.
The sole remaining chakra signature is located above me, about twenty feet away. The fog from the swamp has risen high, swirling around even the highest branches of the forest. I know she's there, but I can't see her. I can't afford to get more distracted, and clearly, my sensory tactics are backfiring against me.
Shutting my chakra connection to her, I close my eyes and focus as I form a seal.
Hiraishin.
When Sakura got me in the shoulder earlier on, I left a mark of my own on the back of hers. Now it's time to collect.
The gentle tug around my navel pulls me through air and dimension as I teleport to Sakura. I'm going to end this fight now. She's got me out of sorts, and I desperately need to regroup. And then redirect my sexual energy onto someone else - someone safe - before this gets out of hand.
I snap my fingers as my feet touch down on the same branch as her. Ropes appear out of nowhere, tying her back against the tree trunk. Two cuffs have also appeared, one on each of her wrists, with a kunai pinning each to a tree.
Sakura gasps in surprise before her eyes narrow at me. She makes to pull the cuffs out of the tree, kunai and all, then realizes that she can't.
I can't help the half smile on my lips. Her eyes are burning with outrage as she realizes what I've done. The cuffs, by themselves, could have been shattered by her monstrous strength. Both kunai, though, have been sealed to the tree, compliments of an Uzumaki sealing technique I learned when I delved into my mother's history and the history of her clan.
She's stuck, alright.
I can't help but admire my handiwork. She looks good tied up, chest heaving, her cheeks flushed and her eyes bright. Right now she has murder in her eyes but that's neither here nor there. She's always been a sore loser.
I survey her coolly.
"Bet you wish you had a safe word now, don't you." I remark dryly.
She glares up at me, then replies as I reach towards her bell.
"But I do have a safeword."
She said that way too sweetly and it makes me pause. She's got to be jerking me around right now. But it's got me picturing her in various situations with ropes and things, none of it appropriate to the here and now.
These might be my famous last words, but I gotta know. It's a hill I'll die on.
"What is it?" I scrutinize her with narrowed eyes.
She's silent for a moment, looking downward. My hand has frozen in place a few inches from her bell, unwilling to end the match until my curiosity is satiated. Suddenly, her green eyes flick up and they're bright. Too bright. In fact, they're glowing. Literally, glowing.
As I stare, trapped in her gaze, she opens her mouth. The basic, survival instinct inside of me screams at me to get the fuck far away from her, but it's too late.
"Zonbi no jutsu."
My world goes dark.
xxxxxxxxxx
"Oh! He's up!"
My mind is spinning and I'm hella groggy. I open my eyes slowly, and the world swims into focus. Why am I outside on the grass? The sky has dimmed somewhat and my stomach is gurgling, so it's probably around dinner time.
It takes another moment before I realize I'm on the training grounds.
Shikamaru's face appears in view, peering down at me from above.
"Hey, Naruto. Glad you're back."
Where was I? My mind is still playing catch up as I gingerly sit up. Seeing Tsunade, Kakashi, Ino and Shikamaru confuses me for a moment. Then I see Sakura and everything comes flooding back.
The sparring match.
"What happened?" I ask, and wince slightly at the dry croaking sound of my voice. Geez. I've had better hangovers than this.
Ino pipes up cheerfully.
"Sakura kicked your ass! I wish I could have seen it happening, but that damn mist was everywhere."
Shikamaru nods calmly, though I can see a spark in his eyes. Whatever happened has got him excited, which is a rare occasion. He offers more of an explanation.
"We didn't see much of the fight itself because of the mist. We were waiting for a while but couldn't see what was going on. We were all debating whether we should go home. Then you walked out of the mist. We thought you had won the fight because your bell was still attached to your hip. Then you got rid of the flames and hardened the mud into earth."
That explains where all the fog has gone.
Ino continues excitedly.
"But then you went up to Tsunade-sama and said - and I repeat - 'Sakura-hime has done all that you have requested and gone all out in the spar against me, your lowly servant, Since I was fucking around like a dipshit in the weeds, Sakura overcame me. I respectfully remove this bell from my hip in honor of her great prowess, and acknowledge that I am indeed under her full influence.'"
"You then took your bell off and started walking back towards the trees." Kakashi remarks.
"That's when Sakura came out of the woods. She held out her hand and you dropped to your knees and held up the bell for her to take." Shikamaru finishes. He says it neutrally, but I can see the amusement in his expression.
Dumbfounded. Though I narrow my eyes at Ino.
"No way I said any of that crap."
Ino is smug as a cat with a feather sticking out of her mouth. She pulls out her phone, pulls up a video, then hands it to me. Apparently she recorded the end of the match, starting from my exit from the forest and approach towards them and then to Sakura.
A strange sense of dissociation wells up as I watch the video. That's me, facing them with a vacant expression on my face, and those actual words are coming out of my mouth. That's also me kneeling before Sakura like she's the queen of the universe and offering up my own fucking bell.
"How the hell?" I ask weakly. I'm still sitting on the ground, and I don't feel ready to stand yet. I remember everything up until the point where I had her secured against the tree. But it's a blank tape after that. My brain feels like I've just gone through a washing machine.
"It's a jutsu Sakura has been working on." Tsunade cuts in smoothly. "Zonbi no jutsu. It renders the captive into a dormant, obedient, state. The user of the jutsu can order the captive to do anything within the captive's power to do. Or it's supposed to."
"What do you mean 'supposed to'?" I demand.
Tsunade hesitates, which is not a great sign.
"It hasn't been tested until now." She finally answers. Tsunade has the grace to shuffle her feet, a clear signal of guilty behavior.
"What do you mean, it hasn't been tested until now?" I demand. Kakashi, Ino and Shikamaru look as curious as I feel.
Tsunade clears her throat, before Sakura cuts in, tiredly.
"It's not an entirely new jutsu in itself. It's a variation of another technique." She says.
Awareness flashes across Kakashi's face as something clicks into place. He turns to Tsunade, disapproval marking his voice.
"Really, now Tsunade, isn't that a little much?"
Tsunade scoffs, replying.
"Sakura could do it. Besides, Naruto is very hardy. I would bet my life on Sakura's success."
That, if anything, makes everything even more alarming. "You're literally the worst gambler out of the entire five villages!" I leap to my feet before a wave of dizziness forces me to sit back down heavily. Too soon. "What is the other technique?" I ask, wearily.
Kakashi then turns to face me, a serious look in his eyes.
"It's for assassinations."
I don't scare easily, but my blood does run a degree cooler at his response. I turn to take a closer look at Sakura. She's pale and exhausted. She's also breathing heavily - more heavily than I would expect from our sparring match. What the hell was she doing during our fight?
"Sakura?" I level a look at her, a potpourri of feelings. I'm a little afraid to hear her answer.
Sakura pauses slightly before responding.
"It's a technique I developed a while ago that is meant to efficiently and permanently shut down a dangerous opponent. I surround the neurons of their brains with chakra … " She tapers off, hesitating. Tsunade steps in.
"Basically, the chakra exerts pressure around each brain cell of the person until the cells burst. In other words, the opponent dies of severe brain hemorrhaging." Tsunade finishes.
Ino whistles long and low. Even Shikamaru looks slightly green.
I'm speechless.
"Naruto", Sakura speaks up tiredly, "for what it counts, the risk of killing or seriously damaging you was low. Otherwise I wouldn't have tried it, no matter what Tsunade suggested."
Everyone seems to relax at her words - a testament to Sakura's character and skill. If Sakura says that there wasn't much risk, then there wasn't much risk, even if my brain feels like oatmeal. Sakura's always been cautious, and we might be stuck in a weird limbo right now, but she sure as hell doesn't want to murder me.
After some more discussion among the group, we begin to split up. The sun has almost fully set and it's way past dinner time. I feel almost normal, considering my bashed shoulder and throbbing cheekbone, and start to stand, grimacing as I use the wrong shoulder to push myself up.
"Naruto, wait." It's Sakura, looking at me with concern. "Hold on, take a seat for a few more minutes."
Gingerly, I let myself back down on the ground and look up at her. It's kind of awkward, now with just her and me, without anyone else to buffer our interactions. But Sakura looks determined. Her hands glow a soft green before she places them on my hurting shoulder.
"It's definitely bruised, huh." I say, just to fill in the space between us.
A slight smile ghosts Sakura's lips.
"Actually, it's a rotator cuff tear. You should be in pretty excruciating pain and it's a wonder you were able to continue using your arm afterwards. Torn clear through."
The pain does seem more intense than the usual bruising, but I hadn't really thought much of it, running on adrenaline. Also, a good shinobi makes his body his bitch. A paraphrase of something Jiraiya used to say to me whenever he trained me to the point of collapse.
Sakura's eyes soften, and she speaks quietly.
"Just give me a sec."
The immediate, cooling, sensation of her healing chakra flows into my bruised, sore and apparently severed muscle and tendons, alleviating my pain. In another couple minutes, it feels back to normal.
I give my shoulder a couple of experimental rotations. It's a little tight, but the flexibility is there, and it doesn't hurt at all. As good as new. She's always been a fucking genius.
"Thanks." I say gratefully.
She nods slightly in response and I freeze as she slowly shifts her hand up to my cheekbone, cupping it gently and releasing the same healing chakra into it. It has the same instant relief. But now I'm not thinking of that. I can't stop thinking about anything other than her proximity.
When the glow finally stops, it's just the two of us, sitting inches apart. We're shrouded in the embers of the setting sun, but does nothing to maske the expressiveness of her eyes. My face is healed, but it's barely registered in my brain.
She still hasn't moved her hand from my cheek.
I'm man enough to admit my heart's beating a mile a minute, and my eyes have been glued to her mouth the entire time. Instant heat shoots down my body when her tongue peeks out, wetting her lips subconsciously. I can hear her breathing as hard as I am, and it's definitely not from our spar. We've both long recovered from that. It's not the same, lulling, sensation from during the fight, but instead just the regular, old school lust travelling through my veins. And damn it's running through me in torrents.
God, she's beautiful. The blood in my body rushes downwards and I'm hanging on by a thread here. But I'm not about to let my body make me its bitch.
Besides, she made it clear, when I left Konoha four years ago, that she wasn't serious about me. Not gonna open that can of worms again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Roughly, I speak up.
"I should really go."
Sakura looks like she has something to say, but she hesitates. Slowly, she releases her hand from my cheek and nods softly in response.
I try to memorize her face in the semi-darkness. Enjoy it while I can. Because after this, I need to reinstate some distance from her.
"Thanks, Sakura." Clearing my throat, I walk off into the forest towards central Konoha, back to a quiet night with my hand.
