Disclaimer: Although I wish I did, I do not own Naruto. –tears-
Refresher:
Naruto grinned, "Alright! I'm going to beat you at this Sasuke – Believe it!" He said exuberantly, Sasuke looked at him, "Wait, wait, I think I've heard this one before." He said, then added, "But you won't, in what world could you have beaten me?" He asked, then strode off to collect his beast. Sakura smiled, Sasuke was so cool! She grinned and went to grab Snow Fall.
Naruto stood there for so long Kakashi called out to him, "Are you frozen from fear? Or are you just waiting for dramatics?" Naruto looked over at Kakashi and grinned, "Nope, I'm giving Sasuke a head-start!" He said evily, then walked off to get Nightmare.
Sakura smiled as she collected the mare from the wall, she'd tied her a bit apart from Honey Snapper, and way far apart from Nightmare. She smiled as the mare snapped at her, an intelligent black eye drifted up to look at her. She smiled and stroked the mare's face. She grinned slightly, then led the mare away from the rail and towards the arena she was supposed to go into. She smiled, bunching her free hand close to her chest.
I'll show Sasuke how to handle a horse! She thought with a smile, her eyes closed, then opened as her hand touched the gate. She opened it and let the mare in after her. The gray vixen snorted and tossed her head, wary, but mostly calm.
Sakura closed the gate and locked it securely. She smiled and then unbuckled the halter from the mare and pulled it over her face, over her gray ears and smiled, then clucked to the mare, who eyed her, unsure what was happening.
Sakura started to twirl the rope at the mare's hindquarters. The mare pinned her ears at the female and bucked out at then started to walk along the rail, Sakura smiled and released the 'pressure' off the mare. She watched as the mare walked, after a few circuits around the round-pen, she picked up the rope in her hand once again and twirled it at the mare,
"CHA!"
She yelled, startling the mare like Kakashi had startled Snap, the mare pinned her ears and broke into a fast trot, her ears; twin spires on her head swiveled, still not listening to what Sakura was saying, the gray mare shifted her weight as she trotted around the arena.
Sakura was caught in the beauty of her movements, she felt her body silently rocking in time to that motion, she closed her eyes and envisioned the mare under her as she trotted, hearing the familiar foot falls of the mare as they trotted along, Sakura sat tight in the saddle, looking relaxed and calm. She felt the mare slow down, and clucked her tongue; swinging the rope at the mare; the motion jarred her back into reality.
The mare came into too close to her, using more rope Sakura drove her off. Snow Fall snorted and tossed her proud head.
The gray lifted her head; spirits still high. Snow Fall snorted loudly, then whinnied and bucked her legs high into the air. Sakura was amazed at the spirit of the beautiful mare. The horse snorted and flicked her tail over her hindquarters.
Sakura smiled and brushed a lock of pink hair out of her face her emerald eyes focused on the horse, who snorted once more and glanced at her. Sakura could feel those black eyes had be focused on her. She smiled slightly, then looked at the mare, who seemed to be slacking off in her trot. Sakura knew the time had come for a step-up in pace.
She twirled the rope, calling out to the mare, who pinned her ears and bucked out, hind quarters glistening as she picked up her pace into a fast gallop, her bannered tail held aloft mane that could be described as ribbons floated off her small crest as the she-horse burst into her fast gait.
The mare's head was thrown forward and up as she moved, up and back, forward and down. Her feet looked like a train, her front left hoof and rear left hoof moved seemingly as one, the hind stepping in the exact spot the front had left.
The mare snorted and bucked again, then slowed to a trot; Sakura, anticipating this, placed more pressure on the mare with the rope and drove her back into the fast-paced gait. The mare once more pinned her ears and bucked, but went on with the fast gait anyway.
Sakura was feeling rather pleased when she spotted Kakashi standing over by the fence. She hadn't noticed him due to her focus on the mare; whether he was there or not was not going to break her concentration now! She focused back on the mare, but fond a bit of her attention wandered back over to her sensei ( who was now reading ).
Snow Fall, seeing this, took advantage of this new freedom and slowed her pace. Sakura snorted, rather annoyed, then whipped the rope around her head at the mare's flanks. The mare snorted, pinned her ears once more, bared her teeth and picked up the gallop once agan.
Sakura fumed angrily as she glanced over at Kakashi for the last time. He merely gave her the 'happy curled eye' looks and walked off. She could have sworn he was chuckling since he shoulders were moving up and down.
Sakura turned her attention back on the mare, making sure she wasn't about to stop so soon once again. Sakura was ready when the mare slowly pulled up at the gate, thinking herself smarter than the fool in the center, she pulled up, only to jerk forward in surprise when a sharp pain raced from her flank up her body. She instinctively kicked out but met nothing with her daggers.
Sakura watched the mare lower her head slightly, her eyes focused only on Sakura. The female genin knew that it was time to bring her in. She walked in front of the mare, since she'd been careful to stay near the female's hips, and 'cut' the mare off.
She slowly back up, watching the mare, she even called out to the horse.
Snow Fall looked at the human, her ears perked forward and she ambled slowly to the strange creature. Her forelegs picked up as she walked closure to the girl, then stopped a few feet away from her. She blew air from her nose, almost winded from the forced gallop.
Sakura watched the mare's eyes, now there was none of that killer intent the mare had given her before, now there was only calm trust. Sakura smiled and walked boldly up to the mare. She placed a soft hand on the mare's shoulder, then grinned and smiled. Sakura laughed as well. Snow Fall snorted and tossed her head slightly.
"I wonder Snow Fall,"
The female said mostly to herself,
"Would you follow me?"
Sakura smiled, there was only one way to find out if the mare would follow her or not, and that was to walk away.
Which is what Sakura did, she turned and walked away from the mare. After a few steps and there was no accompanying sound of hoof-on-turf, she sighed, then called to the mare, who was gazing at her, confused.
The mare whickered to her softly, not wanting to be left behind, and slowly plodded after the genin, her ears perked upright on her head.
Inside of Sakura, Inner Sakura was cheering boldly, 'CHA! Beat that Naruto! I'm better than you!'
Snow Fall merely followed the female because she wanted to know why the human had made her run about, then was leaving her. She whickered to the female and picked up her pace to a fast trot and drew even, nosing the ninja student with her velvet muzzle.
Sakura laughed an cupped the beautiful snozzle in her hands and blew into the flaring nostrils. The mare snorted, lifting her head from the genin's grasp and shaking her head, fetlock flicked around merrily as the mare tossed her dainty head slightly. Then snorted at the female and nosed her gently.
Sakura beamed at the horse and patted the flea-bitten hide and stroked her shoulder slowly. The pink-haired female sighed and leaned against the shoulder of the horse, who stood there, glancing back at the girl every now and then, as if she guessed what the girl must have been thinking.
"Maa, I knew you'd do better than the rest."
A low voice said, Sakura could tell the speaker was pleased with her. The genin blushed slightly and looked at her sensei, Snow Fall did the same. But the mare pinned her ears at him instead of lifting them up in interest. Sakura looked at Kakashi and grinned quite happily,
"Really?"
She asked, touched by the praise in his voice, it was a rare enough thing to get him to praise them, any of them, but easy enough to obtain criticism from the older nin. She saw Kakashi nod, Snap snorted.
"Hai, Naruto and Sasuke are having trouble; as usual."
He said in a bland tone, Sakura glanced over, worried that Sasuke might be hurt, but he appeared to be doing fine, he just wouldn't allow the horse to get close to him. Instead of letting the horse get close, he was driving the animal off.
Even though the horse had sweated and was looking to join with the boy, Sasuke wouldn't let him. Sakura sighed in anger,
"Why is he scared of them Kakashi-sensei?"
She asked carefully, Kakashi, who had been studying Sasuke and Honey Snapper, sighed and shook his head,
"I think he's just intimidated by their size."
He said softly, Sakura sighed. Honey Snapper looked ready to fall over dead now, "We should stop him Kakashi-sensei." She said, her voice worried. Her emerald eyes glanced at Kakashi's black eye and she sighed, infuriated when he shook his head.
"But he'll kill the horse!" She said, willing to tread Sasuke's anger if only to save the horse. She looked at Kakashi.
"I'll stop him before the horse drops," He looked away and back at the two, "Don't you worry Sakura-chan." He said, though she could tell he wasn't really focused on her. She snorted angrily and looked at Snow Fall.
"It's fine girl, we don't need him." She said angrily, stroking the mare's roman nose with a delicate hand. The mare snorted and nipped the girl playfully. Sakura laughed,
"You're bored, aren't you? Of course you are, who wants to stand around her anyway?" Sakura sighed to the mare. The gray mare nosed her gently and whickered, her ears perked forward on her face, Sakura nodded her head and went back to the gate, she quickly opened it and led the mare out behind her, stopping to grab the halter before closing the gate behind the mare.
Sakura turned and spotted Naruto still having difficulties, and she noticed Sasuke still hadn't calmed down. She sighed and fingered the mare's fetlock with a casual hand.
The mare snorted and tossed her head, nudging the girl with her roman snout, she sighed and grumbled. The pink-haired genin smiled, it met her emerald eyes, making them sparkle.
She put the mare back into her stall after she'd brushed her down, the mare's flea-speckled pelt shimmered. She tossed her head happily and dove her nose into the alfalfa with happy grunts.
The girl smiled and closed the gate. She turned, and leaped back into the iron gate in shock, she'd also taken a sharp breath,
"Kakashi-sensei!"
She said breathlessly, her eyes slowly narrowed at the goofy sensei who now stood in front of her. Her eyebrow twitched in anger.
"Hi."
He said with a mock salute,
"I'll be keeping Sasuke-kun and Naruto until later, they both don't get the idea; yet." The jounin told her, she nodded her head; it had been expected. "So you can go home now." He told her, "Consider it, a day off." He said, giving her a wink and vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"Hai, arigatou Kakashi-sensei."
She said, bowing her head slightly and walked out of the stables and back to where she'd wanted to go.
Pansk: I hope you liked it, I can tell you (if you haven't noticed) That it was a strain on me, since Sakura is such a good-hand with the horses, it was hard to write the five pages I wrote for her. –sighs– Ah well, I hope to do better next time. Naruto's the next one who gets to taste my writing hands!
-.- Well, also, I must say, thank you for all of the reviews! Keep it up!