Note: A faint tinge of citrus, but nothing to get excited about, so rating only goes up one notch. Big focal experiment in this chapter is writing a taijutsu match. They're hard to describe! If anyone notes any discrepancies in that area, or if it's just too damn confusing or vague, let me know via review button. Thankee muchly.
Chapter 2
Spar
Two months, she thought, ducking to avoid the knee that might have shattered her jaw had it connected. Two bloody months of sore muscles and bruises, and she still hadn't hit him more than three times. Only three, damnit. Sakura spun, using the momentum of her body to swing her leg, aiming for the fourth. He dodged easily, but she reversed the kick at the last moment, redirecting it for a spot much lower. She felt the air as his body shifted at the last possible instant.
Lee caught her ankle in one hand, using her own momentum to throw her through the air. She twisted, slicing at his windpipe with her left hand as her right dug into the muscles on his shoulder. He evaded the slash-hand and tried to shrug out from her grip, but she used him as a turning point, changing her twist to a flip that put her neatly on the ground behind him.
He spun low, trying to catch her across the ankles with his calf, but she'd seen him pull that whirlwind maneuver too often. The last time he'd tried it, she'd jumped back and away from him, and he'd followed through with a strike combination that was just too damned fast for her to deal with. So this time she tried a different tact, jumping towards him. He threw up one arm to block her double blow punches, but while her hands were occupied, his free arm looped around and snagged her shirt at the shoulder. Copying me, she realized a beat too late as he used the contact to swing up and over her, landing behind her.
Sakura dropped into a crouch, jabbing backwards as she crabbed to the side. He wasn't so easily distracted, though, and didn't bother trying to catch her elbow. He simply blocked it with his knee and brought his shoulder down hard to plant it his fist in the middle of her temporarily exposed back. Thankfully, she'd thought about that possibility, and was already moving to avoid it. His fist grazed her stomach as she twisted almost sideways to avoid the brunt of the blow, and though she knew she'd be bruised on her stomach later, the majority of the damage went to the ground beneath her. Now balancing on her left hand and foot, she threw her right knee up to catch him in the ear. Lee jumped forward, over her body and landed on his hands, now in front of her.
Perfect. Sakura pushed smoothly to her feet. Instead of dodging his next kick, she caught it neatly, and redirected the motion downwards so that Lee was forced to come back to his own feet. But he managed to turn to face her even as his captured leg was forced towards the ground, and his free leg came slamming down towards her head.
Once again, Sakura ducked inwards, towards him, and swung hard, aiming for his nose. He had to bend back to avoid the blow, and then back flip all the way to avoid her follow-up knee to the groin.
But she flipped with him, and before Lee was fully upright again she had locked her arms through his elbows, trapping his forearms between her biceps and her sides. He twisted, and somehow got his legs around Sakura's knees again – which was not a part of her plan. The man was too damn flexible, she thought with a flash of frustration. She could never quite pinpoint his limitations in that area; she invariably underestimated him.
Sakura barely had time to finish that thought when he yanked his body to the side and she found herself pinned on the ground, legs hopelessly tangled and his weight holding her upper body down. He clamped his arms tightly to his sides, and the arm-lock that she had used against him now served to pin her own arms in place. Damn!
Still, she struggled gamely for a few seconds, scowling as he simply lay there and let his superior weight do all the work for him. At length, she gave it up. Short of breaking his arms, she was stuck.
"Alright, alright, you win," she grumped. Lee grinned at her.
"You have improved greatly," he told her, face still inches from her own. "That must have been at least six or seven minutes."
"You aren't even sweating," she accused.
"Of course I am." the Beautiful Beast gave her his best Wide Eyes of Innocence Look, which was returned with a brief Green Glower of Doom. "It's just less noticeable under my training clothes. And look, I'm even breathing harder this time," he added, trying to be encouraging.
She rolled her eyes. "Someday I am going to make you regret going easy on me."
He flashed that sparkly grin again, and loosened his elbows enough for her to slip her arms out. He carefully untangled his legs and started to sit up. In a flash, Sakura twisted her hips, curved her back, and pushed. Lee's eyes shot open in surprise as he suddenly found himself lying on his back, wrists pinned to the ground by his head. Sakura smiled sweetly. "Like today."
He stared at her, and in a sudden fierce rush of awareness it occurred to her that it was more than her sudden attack that shocked him into silence. She was straddling his hips, feet hooked around his knees to hold his legs down. Her hands were locked on his wrists, and of course, she was leaning her full weight on them – which left her nose about three centimeters from his and the tips of her petal-pink hair brushing against his cheekbones. They were both panting with exertion, breath mingling in the air between them and blowing against her face.
Sakura's eyes widened, and she felt the heat of a full blown blush creep up into her cheeks. She pushed away, all but throwing herself off of him. She sat down abruptly, keeping her back to him so that he couldn't see the beet-red color of her face. Behind her, she heard him sit up slowly. Lee inhaled sharply once, but almost instantly his breathing became slow and constant as he forced it back under control.
When she dared to look back, he was sitting with his legs drawn casually up, elbows propped on his knees, watching her.
"Sorry," she said, somewhat proud at how evenly her voice came out. "That was a low trick, I know."
He shrugged, smiling. "In battle, there are no low tricks." He recited the shinobi rule at her calmly, but his smile was oddly drawn and he wouldn't quite meet her eyes. Great, she thought bitterly. She'd definitely made things much more uncomfortable between them.
"I've got to go," Sakura mumbled, scrambling to her feet gracelessly. She took a few hasty steps, then paused, almost but not quite turning her head. "I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Yeah," he answered, uncharacteristically brief. He took another deep breath, which seemed to steady him. "Of course, Sakura," he tried again, this time with a more normal cheery-Rock-Lee grin. "I'll be waiting for you."
But the next day, she didn't come. Lee waited for an hour or so before heading to the far end of the field to work on his own. He kept one eye on the path, but no pink hair or green eyes appeared. So Lee did was he always did when confronted with something he could not change: he trained. Hard. And if his stance was a little less controlled, his punches a little more rough than usual - well, there was no one around to notice.
