"Good afternoon ninjas! Since it seems that you have all magically recovered, we've decided to inform you of the Hokage's new orders," announced Gai, "she has requested that we all keep our ninja skills intact by training on the grounds."

"We will be doing some shuriken target practice in an open space in the forest, followed by a chakra exercise. Let's get started!" exclaimed Kurenai, as she led the ninjas into the forest. Upon entering the nostalgic woods, Ino and Sakura shot each other a knowing look, as Naruto and Sasuke also exchanged glances. Sai looked at Itachi and shot him a close-eyed smile, as the Uchiha forced himself to uncomfortably smile back.

After finding the clear space, the sensei-jonins dropped the heavy equipment and faced the ninjas, telling them that they would have to take turns with the shuriken practice. There were only four targets, so only four shinobis could perform the exercise at a time. Each ninja would have a small obstacle course to complete, where they must run to the target while dodging the sensei-jonins attacks, carrying a heavy weight on their backs, and run through the trees until they reached the target. They would then have to throw twelve shurikens at it, from a precise distance, making sure that each hit the target or at least close enough. Gai would be waiting for them there, making sure that they did not cheat.

"First up, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino, Inuzuka Kiba and Akasuna no Sasori" Kakashi monotonously read from his list, without even looking up.

Groaning, Deidara asked, "But why do we have to participate too? We're supposed to be the bad guys, remember?"

"In case Orochimaru attacks again, you will have to defend Konoha with us. You all signed the contract," Kurenai reminded them.

Obviously, Sasori completed the task the fastest, not even dropping a sweat or showing any sign of expression on his passive face. Brushing it off like it was no big deal, he walked back to his Akatsuki group, but before turning to Deidara, he caught Sakura and Ino looking at him. In this moment, Sasori did something that he had never done before – he gave them a smile, although it was very small and barely even noticeable, he still did it. After all, it's not every day that he sees pretty girls admiring him, instead of running away in fear.

"Up next: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, Aburame Shino, Uchiha Itachi"

Sakura was unpleasantly disturbed from her daydreaming of last night, as she was slapped back to reality from the sound of her name. After hearing Naruto and Shino's name, she felt herself relax…. Until the last name was announced.

With a pounding heart, sweaty palms, and her mind panicking, she walked to the starting line, trying to look composed. Great, she thought sarcastically, my track is right beside his. She walked up to her place and looked to her right, where he was warming up.

Itachi and Sakura made short eye contact before she immediately turned away. Itachi felt bad for her because he could definitely sense that she was uncomfortable and decided to go easy on her. After all, he could tell that her legs were sore this morning. The thought made the Uchiha smirk, just a little.

"And Go!" Asuma yelled.

Giving her another quick glance, Itachi slowed down to her pace. Of course the other ninjas weren't slow, but compared to him, they were turtles. He was Uchiha Itachi, after all. Matching her pace, he felt himself relax. Yes, his Uchiha pride taunted him to go faster, but Itachi's concern for this particular opponent was greater.

Sakura forced herself to slow down even more, because she'd rather lose than tie with Itachi. It would just be too awkward to train under his gaze. What if he judged her moves or even laughed at her? Her fears were growing in number.

Itachi was quick to notice that the girl had slowed her pace, sinking below her potential. And as we all know, Itachi Uchiha was one to go great lengths to motivate someone to reach their highest potential. He slightly quickened his pace, but that was a lot for Sakura. He wanted her to try harder and catch up.

After reaching the target, he waited for her before throwing his shurikens. Obviously, Gai-sensei was quick to notice this, and wrote it down in his notepad, remembering the Hokage's firm words – Take notes even if they are just hook-up suspicions so we can investigate more to achieve accurate results. Gai shuddered at the flashback of Tsunade's threat to replace them as sensei-jonins and put them in charge of babies, if they failed to produce any results.

Sakura took her own sweet time, knowing that she was far ahead of her other two opponents. However, a surprised look spread across her face, when she arrived to see Itachi just standing there as if he was expecting her. They locked eyes for a moment before she threw her shurikens. They matched each other's pace was they leaped across branches to reach the starting line. On the journey back, Itachi contemplated whether he should break the silence but then decided not to. However, he did give her a close-eyed smile when they made eye contact on the way back.

This could not get any more awkward, the kuniochi thought to herself, as they simultaneously reached the starting line, shortly followed by Naruto and Shino.

The sensei-jonins had the ninjas lined up in two separate single-file lines in front of two very tall trees. They would have to race until they reached the top, carefully balancing the chakra in their bodies to the right places at the right time.

Naruto and Sasuke were paired up to eventually race each other, as they impatiently waited at the back of the line. The pairs were chosen alphabetically, by last name. Looking around the atmosphere, Sasuke couldn't help but notice one very familiar short but thick tree, on the other side. Right, that's the tree that he banged Naruto against. Ah, such fond memories. Looking back at his clueless blond partner, Sasuke called him over.

"Dobe, let's make a bet"

"You're on!"

"Whoever wins this exercise gets to be Seme, and the loser has to be the Uke, next time. No excuses."

Of course, Sasuke had an evil plan behind all of this. He knew that Naruto hadn't agreed to a "second time". But he was way too distracted with the opportunity to win a challenge, that he didn't even notice Sasuke's implication of "the next time". Sasuke had no intent of letting Naruto win, but the only reason he proposed this offer was because he needed to trick the blond into another session.

"Deal! I'm gonna beat you so that everyone will acknowledge me as the best! Dattebayo!"

Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at Naruto's response. Just what he was expecting from the dumb blond.

Well, both unfortunately (and fortunately *winks*) for him, Itachi's keen ears had heard all of this. He was eager on making Sasuke lose, just to tease his little brother about being the Uke.

….

After Itachi had beaten his opponent, he waited for a bit, just to trick his brother.

Both boys had a good start but Sasuke was still beating Naruto as they ran up the tree. Itachi took this chance to catch the younger Uchiha in an illusion genjutsu. He disguised the genjustu very carefully so that his foolish little brother would think it's just a flashback or a mean work of fate. Sasuke had no idea that his brother was so amused by his sex life, to conjure up such a devious plan. While Sasuke struggled to escape this illusion, Naruto sped up like a yellow flash and beat his opponent.

Not even bothering to wipe the smug look off of his face, he taunted Sasuke with his most arrogant laugh.

"I beat you teme! Or should I say former SEME!" he couldn't help but laugh at his own joke.

Fuck, thought Sasuke, panting heavily from the exhausting exercise, please tell me this is still an illusion.