Sorry that it's a little later than I said it would be. I had a lot of homework this week.

I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, except for on a wristband.

Sokota couldn't help but smile. She moved the now unconscious Sasuke on to his bed.

Well, she sort of flopped him on to the bed, seeing as she could only use one arm. Ignoring the pain in her injured arm as it swung beside her, she moved Sasuke into the middle of the small bed and tucked him in under the thin blanket that had been thrown onto the floor. After the strain of the jutsu, he would be unconscious for an hour or so. The average would have been unconscious for at least a day. But Sasuke's special, seeing as he's a Sharingan user himself

The soft padding of someone walking down the hallway caught Sokota's attention. Silently, she walked across the room towards the window. After moving onto the window sill in a crouched position, she gave a last look at the sleeping Uchiha.

He'll come find me. I know he will.

After the soft click of the door opening, she leapt out of the window and disappeared into another window ten yards from Sasuke's room. As soon as she had jumped, a tall, pale man walked into the room to check on Sasuke, as he did at night every now and then. His yellow, purple-rimmed eyes looked out the window in time to see a flash of blonde hair disappear somewhere along the building. Orochimaru couldn't help but smile his serpent-like grin at seeing the Uchiha obviously escaping from the room. He glanced at Sasuke, who seemed perfectly content as he slept.

I wonder if Sasuke is just a heavy sleeper tonight, or if she knocked him out. Honestly, I'd go with the second one. I may have been training Sasuke for almost three years now, but I doubt he's at Sokota's level…Or is he?

Orochimaru turned to exit the room, closing the door behind him. He walked softly down the hall, making plans for the next day in his head.

Well, we'll just have to have a little spar between the two tomorrow and find out.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Upon disappearing into the window, which led into her own sleeping quarters, Sokota walked across the room and sat at the desk, holding her left wrist as it throbbed painfully, even though her jump had been graceful. Using her uninjured arm, she moved the damaged wrist onto the desk in front of her. After making sure her hand and arm were aligned, she moved her right hand so that it hovered over the broken bone. Slowly, her hand began to glow a light green color. She pressed the hand onto the skin of her wrist. Gradually, she could feel the chakra coming from her hand move the two pieces of the bone together. The chakra she directed into the cells then sped up the process of the bones reconnecting. After a few uncomfortable, yet luckily painless, minutes, her hand stopped glowing and she removed it from her left wrist.

Gingerly, she lifted her left arm. There was no pain. She smiled as she flexed each finger, then her whole hand. They moved as if nothing had happened at all.

My healing jutsu are definitely getting better.

Sliding her chair back, Sokota stood up and stretched her arms over her head. Silently, she walked over to her window. The sky showed a hint of purple near the horizon, signaling the start of day. She sighed.

Guess I don't get to go back to sleep, eh? Good thing I slept for a few hours before I went to Sasuke's room. I'll just go train by myself before I have to see Orochimaru.

Sokota looked down at her ready-for-sleep outfit. She had on a black, loose fitting long-sleeved shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back and some matching black pants that were loose enough to hide a few kunai. She moved to the left towards the small dresser in the room, stripping off her shirt and pants as she walked. She went through the drawers to search for her usual training entire. After a few minutes of searching, she pulled out the desired clothing. She pulled a pale blue short-sleeved shirt that, unsurprisingly, had a large Uchiha fan on the back over her head and smoothed it over her still bound upper body, seeing as she hadn't unwrapped the bandages before going to sleep. She then slipped on her white, detached sleeves and buckled them at her wrists. She cast an odd look down at her arms.

We had a similar taste in clothing throughout our childhood. His style has changed quite dramatically, though.

As she thought, she pulled on a pair of fishnet stockings that went past her hips to the bandages on her torso. Realizing that she was taking longer than she had wanted, Sokota hastily pulled on a pair of white shorts and buckled a belt around her waist that matched the color of her shirt. She quickly pulled on her dark blue ninja sandals and grabbed her sound hitai ate and shuriken holster before swiftly exiting the room.

Although Orochimaru's current base was a labyrinth of hallways, Sokota was able to navigate it quite easily. After about ten minutes of walking, she came to the training area.

The training area was a large, circular section in the middle of the base. There was no roof over it so the many trees that were planted could grow to enormous heights. Around the edges of the training ground were small, clearings that everyone in the base had permission to use for spars. But, in the center of the whole training area, was a large circular clearing. This was off limits to everyone without special permission from Orochimaru.

Good thing Orochimaru always lets me use it. It's a nicer area for shuriken practice than the other areas.

As Sokota walked through the thin forest, she buckled her shuriken holster to her left thigh, and tied her sound hitai ate around her right thigh. It glimmered in the early morning sun. After a few moments of walking, Sokota reached the main clearing. Her eyes widened as she noticed Orochimaru standing in the center.

She walked up to him and bowed slightly.

"Ohayo, Orochimaru-sensei. I did not expect you to come here this early." Sokota greeted.

"Ahh, Sokota-san. I came here early to request that you spar with someone." Orochimaru responded, not bothering to hide the smile growing on his face.

"Another spar, sensei? You want to lose another one of your ninja?" Sokota questioned. Sokota was never one to brag, but she couldn't hide the fact that she had killed numerous ninja over the years in what were supposed to only be spars.

I guess I forget that these aren't life and death battles. It's the anticipation of the blood, I suppose.

"Don't worry, Sokota-san. The person you will be sparring against is my most promising shinobi since, well, you. I'm almost positive that you won't be able to kill him as easily as the rest." Orochimaru explained.

"Who, may I ask, is this person?" Sokota inquired. This shinobi that Orochimaru had described piqued her interest.

"Ah, yes. I believe you have met him before. Today you will spar against-"

Orochimaru stopped mid sentence and stepped to the side. Behind him stood a dark-haired shinobi.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Orochimaru finished.

Sokota took a step backwards as Sasuke glared at her. She looked from Orochimaru to Sasuke and then it clicked into place.

Orochimaru must have seen me leave last night. Damn it.

After Sokota regained her composure, she stood up fully and slid her hands into her pockets. He had obviously recognized her as his cousin last night, but he it seemed he still didn't trust her completely.

Ehh, back to the mind game it seems.

"Sasuke-san." Sokota bowed, accepting the spar with Sasuke.

"Sokota-san." Sasuke mimicked Sokota's bow as he also accepted her as his opponent.

"Ah, yesss. I believe we all know the rules. First one to have a kunai to the neck of their opponent wins. Don't use your cursed seals. I quite like this training area. And I would love if you didn't kill each other. I do need you both. Oh and why don't we make this a No Sharingan spar? I'd like to see how you both can fight without the aid of your bloodline abilities. Understood?" Orochimaru said as he took a few steps back.

"Hai." Both shinobi said in unison as they each fell into their own fighting stance.

"Begin!" Orochimaru yelled as he leaned against a tree at the edge of the area.

This will most definitely be fun.

Sasuke instantly starting forming hand seals. Instinctively, Sokota reached into her shuriken holster and sent three of the ninja stars at Sasuke in an attempt to stop him from finishing his chain of seals. But her shuriken didn't make it in time. Sasuke ended on the seal for tiger as he leapt into the air, the shuriken whizzing just under the soles of his feet.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Sasuke yelled before taking a deep breath. He resembled a dragon as he forced the air out of his lungs. As soon as the air got past his hands, which were still in the tiger seal position, it turned into red-orange flames that sped at Sokota. Oddly, she didn't move as the flames engulfed her. A moment later there was a poof and cloud of smoke. Sasuke stopped blowing, and the flames quickly dissipated. There only lay a black, burned cylinder that resembled a log where Sokota had been standing.

Hn. Substitution Jutsu.

Sasuke quickly eyed his surroundings. He could only see trees, trees, more trees, Orochimaru, and a few shinobi who had gathered to watch the early morning spar. He could feel the kunoichi's chakra, but he couldn't see her. His hands started to form a flurry of seals.

Behind Sasuke, Sokota slowly came into focus in front of one of the trees behind Sasuke. She was highly surprised that Sasuke hadn't noticed her.

Something doesn't feel right.

Tentatively, she moved slowly behind Sasuke, her footsteps inaudible on the soft, dirt ground. She stood there a few seconds, waiting for Sasuke to notice her strong chakra. But he only stood there, still as a statue. Sokota wasn't even sure if he was breathing. Suddenly, the corners of her mouth turned downwards into a frown. She pulled her leg up and kicked Sasuke right between the shoulder blades.

There was a 'poof' and a cloud of smoke engulfed what had been Sasuke. When the smoke cleared, a log fell to the ground with a clunk. She turned around so that the log was behind her.

"Oh very clever, Sasu-kun. I never saw that coming." Sokota yelled to the clearing in a sarcastic tone. She could sense Sasuke's chakra behind her and found it difficult to hide the smile threatening to over take her mouth. Unexpectedly, Sokota felt one of the hair ties holding her hair in her odd hairstyle fall out. Sokota always wore her blonde hair in four braids towards the back of her head, so that her long hair wouldn't get in the way of training. She made sure to tie the hair ties as tight as possible so that they wouldn't fall out. Apparently, one had somehow worked its way loose.

Sokota sighed and started to redo the once-braid. Her arms were above her head as she worked the hair together. Over the years, she had become quite good at braiding her hair and was able to braid faster than the average person.

Noticing that Sokota had dropped her guard, Sasuke took this opportunity to silently approach her. He stood behind her and started to raise a kunai to her neck. He was so positive that he had now won that he didn't notice her leg move.

He never saw the log coming. She had simply kicked the log that was between them, which hit his ankles and caused him to tumble forward. Before he could even comprehend what had happened, the wind was knocked out of him as she sat on his back.

She had used the remnants of his Substitution jutsu against him. She had caused him to foolishly fall forward. And she was now sitting on top of him.

She's trying to humiliate me.

Sasuke glared at the ground as he tried to breath under Sokota's weight.

Sokota quickly pulled a hair tie out of her shuriken holster and secure the newly braided hair. A few moments later she reached into her shuriken holster with her left hand and pulled out a kunai. She leaned down so that her face was close to Sasuke's.

"Never let your guard down, even when you can see victory." She spoke in a whisper. Sokota wasn't bragging. Her tone was soft, as if she was giving him advice.

She pulled her head back up and places the kunai next to Sasuke's neck.

"I win." She proclaimed. Her voice was still soft, but she spoke in a loud assurance that everyone could here.

Orochimaru smiled and began to clap. At the same time, all the sound shinobi that had gathered to see the spar had began to clap as well. Everyone knew that Sokota was quite skilled and, even though this wasn't her best victory, respected the fact that she won. Sokota smiled briefly, acknowledging the applause, and then stood up. She moved in front of Sasuke, and offered him a hand.

Sasuke only glared at Sokota. She waited a few moments, but Sasuke didn't take her hand. She was about to withdraw the offer when he grabbed her hand and pulled himself up.

Sokota felt her heart start beating faster. She may have one the spar, but winning the acceptance of Sasuke was a more satisfying victory.

Once standing, Sasuke leaned close to Sokota so that he could whisper in her ear without anyone else hearing him.

"We need to talk." He stated.

Sokota nodded. "Can you meet me in my room after my meeting with Orochimaru?" She questioned.

Sasuke thought for a moment, and then nodded slightly. He walked away with a "Hn.", which Sokota took as some sort of goodbye. She smiled and waved at his retreating form before regaining her usual emotionless expression. She then turned to face Orochimaru and the crowd.

The next chapter will be done by next week. I'll make sure of it.

Please Review.