Insert disclaimer here
Blah Blah Blah basic text (i.e. description, speech, etc)
Blah Blah Blah Thought or some transaction within someone's mind
Blah Blah Blah Kyuubi talking Jutsu will also be bold
BLAH BLAH BLAH yelling or emphasis of some sort
Naruto of the Nine Tails
Rated M for language, violence, adult content, and graphic imagery
Chp 17: Piggy vs Pinky
Training Ground 44
"Haruno Sakura versus Yamanaka Ino, BEGIN!" Hayate called before jumping away from the two combatants.
Nothing happened, for the longest time they just stood there staring at eachother until…
"So," Sakura began, "How do we want to do this?"
"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Ino suggested.
Sakura rolled her eyes, "Yeah because that's such a fair way to decide it," she commented sarcastically.
Up in the stands Kiba wondered, "How can rock, paper, scissors not be fair?"
"They've known eachother for so long that Ino found a way to read Sakura for which one she'll pick so Ino always wins," Shikamaru answered, "Besides, this is just playful banter, they already know what they're going to do," 'They don't need to know that it's a variation of one of her families spying techniques that allows her to read intention to some extent,' he added silently.
Back on the floor Ino struck a mock thinking pose, "No holds barred?"
With a grin stolen from the cat that ate the canary Sakura nodded, "No holds barred."
With that the two girls turned away from eachother and began repositioning their respective ninja gear and discarding what they weren't going to need or use.
"So troublesome…" Shikamaru grumbled pinching the bridge of his nose.
"And what do you find so "troublesome" about this, Shikamaru?" Asuma asked.
"For those of you who don't already know what's about to happen," at this all of the observing rookies minus Sasuke snickered, "you all have front row seats to witness why there is a standing order at the Academy to never match Sakura and Ino in a spar."
Then, as though to emphasize Shikamaru's statement, Sakura took off her ever present backpack (read personal library) letting it fall to the floor with the force of a small meteor creating a crater nearly three meters in diameter.
"Huh, last time she threw it," Hinata muttered remembering how Sakura had destroyed a large section of several walls when she had started the Academy spar by throwing her backpack at Ino.
To say the spectators, most of the rookies excluded, were stunned would be a gross understatement.
The general reaction of the foreign ninja consisted mostly of some combination and a varied selection expletives (one muttered "Not another one") while the sentiments from the home crowd were a little more varied.
"…How did I miss that?" Sasuke wondered. How exactly had he missed something like that? Was he sick the last time they sparred without restrictions?
Sarutobi was lost in fond memories both girls' childhood and those of another promising short tempered Kunoichi.
Most of the Jounin were simply struck dumb, they'd thought Kakashi was exaggerating when he'd described how strong Sakura was.
Kakashi just grumbled, "I told them but does anyone listen to Kakashi? Nooo of course not, why would they do that…"
Gai and Lee… well suffice it to say that it was very in character, consisting of loud proclamations of youth, manly hugs, admiration for Sakura's spirit, hugs, ridiculous boasts that they would most likely follow up on, more hugs, the dreaded Ocean and Sunset genjutsu, and of course more hugs.
Meanwhile Sakura and Ino were ready to begin, "On three?" Sakura asked slipping on a pair of leather gloves.
Ino nodded, "On three."
"Ready…" Sakura said as they both assumed their respective stances.
"THREE!" they shouted together launching forward to attack, Sakura with her fists and Ino with a pair of Kunai.
What followed could only be described as a vicious yet oddly beautiful dance. Whether it was because they were both particularly skilled in evasion or they just knew eachother that well neither seemed to be able to land a hit because the other would move out of the way before the blow could find purchase.
Jab
Swipe
Left Hook
Stab
Backhand
Cross Slash
Roundhouse
On and on it went the deadly dance of dodge, strike, and dodge again.
"Holy shit! Are they trying to kill eachother?" Kiba muttered.
"Nope, they're just warming up," Hanabi chirped as Sakura sank her fist into the concrete wall where Ino had been a moment before.
'This is a warm up?' Kankuro wondered as he moved closer to the more Konoha dominated section of the observation level so that he could hear better, 'What the hell were they feeding these kids?'
"HA!" Sakura cried as she came down with an Axe Kick that would have crippled Ino for life if she hadn't dodged at the last second, the sizable crater left by her food was evidence enough of that.
BOOM!
A large section of the floor disappeared as Sakura was force to leap out of the blast radius of Ino's exploding note only to dive into the smoke afterward.
A second later Ino was ducking under a brace of shuriken only to find another set following just behind them at her adjusted height forcing her to block with her kunai.
Crack
"Shit!" Ino cursed, rolling to the side just as Sakura burst from the ground throwing an uppercut that would have no doubt shattered Ino's jaw only for Sakura to change tactics mid-motion and fire a piece of the ruble she'd just created with pinpoint accuracy at Ino's back.
Poof
"Kawarimi," Sakura muttered as Ino disappeared. The next second she was forced to duck under a swipe from one of Ino's kunai before she used the motion to move into a reverse leg sweep only for Ino to back flip away loosing one of her kunai at Sakura as she went.
There was another poof as Sakura was replaced by a piece of ruble appearing on Ino's left with her fist cocked back as she went for a Straight Right.
Ino ducked to the side attempting a Counter Slash to Sakura's midsection.
Sakura lent out of the way before coming back with a Left Cross.
Slipping the punch Ino slid inside Sakura's guard attempting to elbow her in the chin only for Sakura to lean backwards out of the way while simultaneously bringing her knee up into Ino's gut before following it up with a downward punch that would drive Ino into the concrete and end the match.
Poof
Even though her finisher had missed Sakura smiled as she glanced at the now gasping Ino who was now across the arena clutching her stomach, "First blood's mine Piggy."
"Well… if you want… to get technical," Ino wheezed, "first blood is mine," she finished holding up her slightly bloody kunai for emphasis.
Feeling the sting on her cheek Sakura scowled, "Fine then, we'll call it a draw," before charging Ino while making hand seals.
"Oh shit," Ino muttered as she recognized the seal combination and started backpedaling.
"What's she so worried about?" Kankuro asked, "It's just… bunshin?" his statement turned into a question as Sakura finished the hand seals but no illusionary clones appeared. His question was answered a moment later when Sakura caught up to Ino and suddenly split into six different attacks, "Holy shit! She superimposed them!?" he cried as the different Sakuras continued to move in and out of eachother in confusing patterns as they attacked.
'Bunshin Superimposition,' Anko thought approvingly as the clones and Sakura merged into one person before splitting apart again a second later, 'Simplistic genius turning one of the most basic techniques of our trade into an extremely deadly variation… hard as hell to pull off though with all the concentration it takes, still don't know how she does it on the fly.'
What Anko didn't know was that Sakura's Inner Persona allowed her to split her concentration essentially giving her the processing power of two separate people.
'That was… incredibly helpful actually…maybe having a voice in my head isn't so bad?'
Back on the lower level Ino had palmed a pair of smoke bombs and was waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
'NOW!' she thought throwing the little balls to the ground as Sakura got close consuming both of them in a cloud of purple smoke.
There were several seconds worth of scuffling before they stopped and everyone waited for the smoke to clear. When it did it revealed a stalemate, Sakura had Ino by the neck and could snap it with a twitch of her wrist while Ino had kunai to Sakura's jugular and both scowling at not getting an advantage over the other.
"Round two?" Sakura asked.
"Round two," Ino agreed, nodding her head as much as she could with Sakura's hand still around her throat.
And with that the two friends broke apart to begin their battle anew.
At this point Kankuro, who had by this time moved so that he was standing with Team 10, turned to Shikamaru, "Are all the women in this village scary or is it just this group?" he asked remembering the three separate incidents involving Hinata (that he knew about) during and before the Exam, then the way these two supposed best friends (from what he could tell) happily tried to kill eachother... it made him nervous.
"I'd like to think it's just them but then my mother knocks me out of my bed with a frying pan," Shikamaru replied in a tone that clearly stated that he wasn't kidding.
Hearing this Kankuro returned his attention to the two girls who were turning the arena into a war zone, 'I need to give some serious thought to my involvement in the invasion,' he decided, 'That Jinchuuriki was one thing but if this is what I can expect from gennin…'
End Notes
Ok sorry about the long wait… a few things kind of came up. In my defense this fic has gone well and beyond what I originally meant it for, originally this was just supposed to be a crack fic to get me started and then I was going to move on to one of my more serious ideas but it was so well received that well... this happened. Quite frankly I didn't have all that much planned for it so I've ended up making it up as I went and I've hit the point where I can't just toss stuff out anymore.
Muse Rant
To expand on Delta's horribly simplified explanation for the delay: he actually got a life, his hours got jacked up at work, he found several good books that will remain unnamed, and he finally got a girlfriend thus proving that he is not gay (all bets can be collected at the end of the week).
I wasn't that bad
…Really!?
…you suck
*Final Fantasy 7 victory music plays in the background*
…
…did I just win?
…
HOLY SHIT! I JUST WON!
…this time
VICTORY IS MINE!