Chapter 05
Sakura could feel her heart thumping wildly against her chest. She didn't know if it was because she was sparring with Lee or it was because of the presence of a certain Uchiha who was also busy practicing on his own at the other side of the forest.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop her eyes from stealing glances at Sasuke every now and then.
Blood rose to her cheeks when a particular memory decided to flash inside her mind. She shook her head vigorously, attempting to kick the images away from her head.
Sasuke nearly kissed her…
She cursed herself. She shouldn't think about that! Not now!
But the images still continued to haunt her… and to her surprise, a distant memory of Sasuke doing something more to her crossed her mind. She saw an image of him as he leaned his face down… down to her neck and…
What in the world…?
She gasped out loud when Lee's kick almost connected against her side. It was a good thing that she managed to leap away just in time. Darn it… I'd better concentrate! She thought with a frown as she forced herself to keep her mind on Lee's moves… and not on something… disturbing.
She'd better stop thinking about Sasuke!
Besides, if she kept on thinking about him, Lee's going to beat the heck out of her again! She already swore to herself that Lee would be the one to go home with clothes ripped, not her!
With a loud battle cry, Sakura rushed towards Lee, her fist directed at his grinning face. Much to her disappointment, he raised both his arms and blocked her attack. "You're too slow, Sakura-san!"
Sakura knew that Lee didn't mean any harm with what he just said, but still, she couldn't help but feel a little bit irritated. Too slow, huh? She thought with a frown before delivering a barrage of punches and kicks. She bit her lip in annoyance when Lee easily blocked them all.
"Great job, Sakura-san… but you've got to try harder!" Her eyes widened when she saw him grin widely. He pulled his arm back and would have managed to punch her on her stomach if she hadn't leapt away just in time. She was breathing heavily when she landed on the ground a few meters away from him.
He was so fast! She almost missed that punch!
"You've got to concentrate more, Sakura-san." Lee told her with a smile. "Let's see if you can block this attack." He said before he rushed towards her with his arm extended.
Sakura gritted her teeth and prepared herself for Lee's incoming attack. Just as she was about to raise her arms to cover herself, an uncomfortable feeling washed over her, forcing her to lose her focus.
What…? She wondered briefly why she suddenly felt anxious. As if by chance, her attention turned towards the person on the other side of the forest.
Sasuke was staring at her again… and this time, his gaze looked predatory…
Sakura's mouth went dry. She felt her heart leap in response to his steady gaze. Beads of sweat trailed down on the side of her face as she tried her best to avert her eyes away from his.
"S-Sasuke-kun…." She murmured before her breath got knocked out of her lungs. Pain surged through her stomach, making her cry out in surprise. She staggered, making her stumble backwards before she collapsed to the ground with an undignified yelp.
Lee was beside her in an instant. "Sakura-san! I am so sorry! Sorry!" His voice was filled with concern and guilt. "I thought you were… I was just… I never thought…! I'm so sorry…!" Sakura couldn't understand what Lee was trying to say, but she tried to ease his worries with a smile. Her smile, however, turned to look more like a grimace because of the pain.
"I-It's okay, Lee-san…" But it sure hurts like hell! Sakura thought as she rubbed her sore stomach.
It's your fault for not paying any attention! Inner-Sakura scolded her, her inner self once again making its presence known. If you weren't so engrossed with Sasuke-kun all the time then you would have been able to block that punch!
Well, could you blame me? Sakura retorted back to her inner self as she once again tried to tell Lee that she was okay and the punch didn't really hurt that much. She sighed in defeat when Lee continued to fuss over her. Sasuke-kun was staring at me as if he wanted to… to…
Her cheeks burned at the sudden thought. The memory from before decided to invade her mind once again, forcing her cheeks to burn even brighter.
That image of that near-kiss was enough to make her feel faint.
"Sakura-san? Sakura-san?" Lee gently shook her shoulders, his face frantic. "Are you okay, Sakura-san? Your face! It's all red!"
Sakura was slightly taken aback when she suddenly found herself looking face-to-face at Lee. She chuckled nervously, hoping that Lee wouldn't discover the cause of her lack of concentration.
This is all Sasuke's fault! If he hadn't stared at her like that, she wouldn't become like this!
Right... Inner-Sakura snapped at her sarcastically. As if you didn't enjoy his stares...
Sakura scowled. Next time, she was going to teach her inner thoughts how to shut up.
But then… why was Sasuke-kun staring at her like that? It wasn't that she didn't like getting his attention. It was just that his stares were turning her into a complete mush…
…and she was starting to have the strangest feeling that butterflies were living inside her stomach.
Sakura knew that glancing at Sasuke again would make her lose her mind once more, but the temptation was far too great for her to resist. Lee was blocking her view of Sasuke, so she shifted a little and tilted her head to the side in order to catch a glimpse of her dark-haired teammate. Much to her surprise, Sasuke was no longer standing there.
"I'm all right, Lee-san…" She murmured to Lee, before wondering where Sasuke went. Stop it! She scolded herself as soon as she realized where her thoughts were leading her. Stop thinking about him and focus! "Anyway, let's spar now, Lee-san!" She blurted out, trying to sound all cheerful and excited so Lee would stop worrying about her.
Once they start training again, she'd eventually forget about him!
"Are you sure, Sakura-san?" Lee asked uncertainly. "Your face still looks really red. Do you have a fever?"
Sakura sweat dropped. She watched Lee lift his right hand before he reached out for her. His palm was just about to make contact with her forehead when Sakura's eyes caught something glinting right across the sky.
Her eyes widened in shock when that something turned out to be a kunai and it was dangerously heading their way… or to be more precise, straight towards her companion's head!
Sakura opened her mouth to shout at Lee to watch out, but it seemed that Lee already knew about the incoming danger. He leaned back a little and caught the kunai between his fingers before somersaulting a few meters away from her. He landed on the ground with a grace that only a beautiful green beast of Konoha could do.
"No worries, Sakura-san!" He granted her a huge smile and a thumbs-up, apparently enjoying the way she gaped at him in awe after he executed one of his nifty moves.
Sakura, seeing that her companion didn't have a kunai stuck on his head, wanted to sigh in relief. But as soon as she noticed the red tag that was attached on the kunai, it made her gasp out loud instead. "Lee-san! Look out!"
She saw Lee narrow his eyebrows at her in confusion. But as soon as he looked down at the object that he was holding, she could have sworn that his eyes nearly bulged out of its sockets.
There was a loud blast, followed by huge puffs of grey smoke. Sakura, who had covered herself with her arms from the small explosion, tried to cry out to Lee. It took a few minutes before the smoke was finally cleared. Sakura didn't waste any more time and immediately rushed forward in order to find her friend. She found him leaning weakly against one of the trees.
"Lee-san!" She called out to him worriedly as she hurried towards his side. His face and arms were all dirty and his green suit was almost torn to shreds. He wasn't seriously hurt, much to Sakura's relief, but there were bruises on some parts of his body.
Lee forced out a weak chuckle as he looked at Sakura's worried eyes. "I'm okay, Sakura-san…" He coughed as he tried to walk. He stumbled and would have fallen to the ground if Sakura's arms hadn't caught him just in time.
"Where in the world did that kunai come from?" Sakura was angry. Lee squinted his eyes when she nearly screamed in his ears. "I swear, once I get my hands on that jerk I'll…!"
"You'll what?"
Both heads turned their attention to where the low voice came from. Sakura's anger immediately disappeared as soon as she saw who the culprit was. "S-Sasuke-kun…?"
For a long moment, the trio continued to stare at each other. Sakura noted that Sasuke wasn't looking at her, mainly because he was busy looking straight at Lee. For some weird reason, she started to get nervous. She didn't really have any reason to be uneasy because the two men weren't exactly glaring daggers at each other. Sasuke was just looking at Lee with an impassive look on his face while Lee continued to stare up at him in confusion.
So, why was she being so nervous then?
It was because of the sudden tension in the air… and it was starting to grow thick.
Sakura had the strangest feeling of déjà vu.
Deciding that she had enough of this uncomfortable silence, Sakura finally cleared her throat. "Sasuke-kun… Why did you…?"
"My hands slipped."
Another bout of silence…
Did she just hear that?
"Umm… I'm sorry, what did you say again…?" She asked, not believing her ears.
He frowned. "I was training with kunais and I slipped." And with that, he turned his back from them and headed towards the center of the training grounds.
Sakura didn't know if she was just hearing things or not.
Sasuke… slipped?
"Well… I guess even the genius Uchiha makes mistakes once in a while." She heard Lee mutter beside her before he turned towards her with a playful grin. Sakura forced herself to nod at Lee, but deep inside her, she knew that this wasn't just any accident.
It wasn't that Sasuke doesn't make any mistakes, it was just that from all the years that team 7 had trained together, she rarely saw Sasuke slip, especially when it came to accuracy with weapons. Not that Sasuke was as great as Ten-Ten when it came to weapons, but she knew that the man was quite skillful with handling kunais.
Also, if Sasuke really didslip when he was training, the odds are that the kunai wouldn't head that accurately at the direction of Lee's head. Or better yet, if Sasuke really wastraining with kunais, where were the other kunais then? And why was it that she didn't hear or see them explode like this one did?
Just what was Sasuke trying to do? Kill Lee?
Sakura shook her head as she suppressed the urge to laugh at where her thoughts were leading her.
Maybe she was just jumping to conclusions… Maybe Sasuke really did slip and this was all just a big accident… Sasuke was only human, after all. Genius or not, he was still bound to make mistakes every now and then…
But even so… Sakura was still having a hard time believing it… and she knew the reason why.
Lee's coughing fits interrupted Sakura's train of thoughts. She turned her full attention to him and lowered him to the ground as gently as she could. "Maybe you should rest for a bit, Lee-san." She whispered to him as she brushed his hair away from his face. Lee instantly blushed like a ripe tomato at her gentle touch. "We'll train later."
"I-I'm all right, Sakura-san…!" She heard him protest, but she shushed him and told him to rest for a few hours.
He was going to fall asleep whether he liked it or not anyway… If Lady Tsunade was teaching her right, the faint smell that she managed to get a whiff on his shirt was a sleeping powder. Sakura suspected that the powder must have been attached to the exploding tag.
And that was the whole reason why she didn't believe the 'Sasuke slipped thing'.
Sasuke-kun… what are you trying to do? She thought in wonder as she looked at Lee. He was already fast asleep, just as she suspected. And where did you get that sleeping powder…?
"Took him long enough."
His voice nearly made Sakura jump ten foot in the air. "S-Sasuke-kun!" She gasped out his name before she turned to look at him.
She was surprised when she saw him glaring at Lee. But when Sasuke noticed her staring at him, his features returned back to his normal poker-faced expression.
Sakura knew that she should be angry with him for doing such a nasty thing to Lee. She stood up and took a step closer to him. Whatever his problems are, he still didn't have the right to do that to Lee! She was about to open her mouth to yell at him or something when Sasuke beat her to it.
"Sakura." He started, his voice deadly serious. "We need to talk."
To be continued...
