A/N: WOW! I haven't updated this story in a really long time and it really wasn't on purpose! I was working on a lot of other things the past couple months and so this story ended up on the backburner. However, that is not the case anymore! I find that the thing I love most about writing this story is that I don't feel obligated to make it go in a certain direction. I absolutely adore writing this story and hope to update more often in the future.
Thanks so much to all those of you who favourited, followed, or reviewed in the meantime. You guys are da bomb.
Now, without further ado...
A week had passed since Sakura had started learning to fight with a katana.
Despite her initial failings and Sasuke's apparent boredom during her first lesson—she was growing to be quite the sword-fighter. Sasuke now kept a weathered eye on her during their lessons, no longer aloof but evidently paying attention to her and guiding her through her training.
He was a brilliant teacher—she had to admit. Harsh. Unyielding. But strangely—never cruel. There were some instances when Sakura was certain he would grow angry with her for not getting a set or a position on the first couple tries, but he was patient. If she had to guess—Sasuke was glad for the distraction to teach her swordplay. It kept his mind off the occasional pains that shot through his right arm and reminded him that he was still healing. He would wince in those rare moments and she did him the curtesy of acting like she hadn't noticed.
Because she knew that those moments made him feel utterly weak. And sometimes, she felt weak too.
However, those small acts of kindness did not exempt her from practicing with him well into the night. Fortunately, since Sakura was now on "break" from missions according to Kakashi, she was able to spend her mornings catching up on sleep.
It was on such a morning that she lay sprawled on her bed, pink hair a tangled mess, and very possibly some half-dried drool on her chin, when Sasuke knocked ominously on her window in the early morning hour.
She woke with a half-yelled curse, sitting up and pulling her covers up to her nose as she stared at Sasuke. He stood outside the window of her room, hands in his pocket, eyes alight with—well, sunlight. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him outside during the day, under the sun. He seemed so nocturnal these days.
"What are you doing out there, Sasuke?" she demanded, seeing no reason why he should have disturbed her sleep when he so thoroughly worked her to death with set positions only a few hours prior on the training grounds.
The window was either soundproof or Sasuke just chose not to answer, but he merely gestured his chin to the forest behind the training grounds, as if saying, come out and you'll see.
Fine, she thought.
Within the next five minutes she had made sure three times over that there was no longer any drool on her chin and that she looked decent enough to venture outside.
Upon reaching the training grounds she found Sasuke sitting under a large tree at the edge of the forest with two packs on the ground beside him. He had one leg bent under his arm and the other stretched out. He looked at leisure. Maybe even at peace.
The sight made waking up early utterly worth it.
"Do you plan on telling me what we're doing out here in the early morning?" she asked as she approached him. She stood awkwardly by the tree, unsure whether she was supposed to sit down or if they were going elsewhere.
She didn't know if he would ever want her to sit there. In the place next to him.
He stood up, seemingly coming out of his calm. His face recovered its usual unpleasant expression. "Field training," he declared.
"What?" she exclaimed. "You can't be serious. We were training just last night!" She very nearly began to complain that she was tired and didn't want to go, but held her tongue. Complaining and whining was something Sakura from the past would do. Having been through a war and countless battles she didn't think that behaviour would make Sasuke think any better of her.
"You need more training," he simply said before shouldering one pack and chucking the other at her. She caught it haphazardly with one arm as he walked into the forest, ducking under branches and stepping over ditches expertly.
Sakura huffed a sigh, shouldered the pack and trudged into the forest after him.
They walked in silence for the better part of an hour. Every time Sakura thought about saying something she found herself holding back her words—constantly worrying. She did not know what to say to Sasuke. Truthfully, she never had.
She could never say the right thing to him. Nothing to comfort him, nothing to draw him out of the prison he'd built for himself in his mind. Everything she said to him in the past in review now seemed frivolous. Unnecessary.
Annoying.
So, with the rising sun at her back and the sounds of the forest—of crunching leaves beneath her feet, and the back-and-forth calls of birds—she hobbled along after him, lacking the courage to walk beside him but content to follow behind him wherever he wished to lead her.
Finally, when they stopped before a very small clearing bordered by thin aspen trees that towered over them, stretching far into the sky where Sakura could not see them past the sun, Sasuke threw down his pack and Sakura decided to speak up.
"Please don't tell me we're walking up trees again, Sasuke."
To her surprise, the hint of a smirk tugged at his lips as he looked up at the tree closest to her. He shook his head. "You'd beat me at that anyway."
Sakura just blinked at him.
It was true. Even when they were younger, Sakura had possessed better chakra control as compared to the two volatile boys of Team 7. She'd made walking up a tree seem easy while Sasuke and Naruto had struggled to do the same.
She hadn't expected Sasuke to ever mention that experience. And especially not in a way that favoured her.
"We're here so you can practice fighting multiple attackers and also so you can try using different settings to your advantage."
Sakura put a hand on her hip and looked at him skeptically. "I don't see any other attackers in my midst."
Besides you of course, Sasuke.
Sasuke nodded. "I would summon shadow clones but I don't think you're ready to handle multiple moving attackers yet. Stagnant ones will have to do." He pushed an arm out wide to gesture the trees. "They will be your attackers and I will teach you how to weave in and out between them while still managing with your katana even in close range."
"Hai," she affirmed, ever the good student.
"Right foot, pivot! Duck! Strike low! Jump! Overhead swing!" Sasuke yelled commands as Sakura danced between the trees, a layer of sweat running over her skin and the trees dangerously starting to seem like real-life attackers.
"Faster!" Sasuke commanded.
Sakura bit down a complaint. Why don't you come down here and try swinging your sword around?
After a moment the commands stopped. She turned to look at him. He wore a blank expression as he picked up his katana in his right hand—the prosthetic—and came to stand before her.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"What you wanted," he said cryptically. "I came down here and now I'm going to try swinging my sword around—at you."
Sakura clamped a hand over her mouth in horror. Did I just say that out loud?!
"Yes, you did," he said and she mentally slapped herself while assuming proper position. Sasuke was all seriousness and she would be the same, there was no time for crushing embarrassment.
"We're going to move on to using your settings," he said. "This is different to regular taijutsu fighting on a mission because now—you have a sword. It's in your hands and it's an extension of you. You must learn to move and evade with it by considering the space it takes up and how you'll have to adjust the way you move to accommodate it. This can be difficult because sword fighting is not meant to be close range. Other ninjas will often try to use this against you.
"First, I will attack you with my sword and you will use your surroundings to both fight back and also evade me. Then, I will attack you without my katana, and with regular taijutsu instead. You must find a way to keep me at a distance while still making contact with your sword."
Sakura had barely nodded in affirmation when Sasuke swung at her. She leaped back in surprise, desperately lifting her katana up to defend herself.
"I guess I shouldn't have expected a warning," she grumbled, dodging around a thin tree and ducking under Sasuke's slashing blade.
"Your enemies won't give you warnings," he said evenly. Not even out of breath.
Sakura dropped to her knees and slide across the grassy floor, bringing her sword up over her head and holding against Sasuke's pressure. She gained purchase with one foot and pushed upwards, shoving him backwards. She followed up immediately after by kicking off the side of a thicker tree, flying up over him so that she could swing her katana down over his head.
Sasuke, quick and deadly as ever, caught her sword at the last possible moment, catching her off-balance as she fell back down to the ground. She had fallen backwards on her elbows and would've been very nearly sliced in half by Sasuke if she hadn't twisted to the side bringing her feet up to push at the flat of his katana.
Sasuke laughed.
The sudden and rare sound threw her off focus as she flipped up onto her feet. Sasuke had her immediately shoved up against a tree, his sword pushing against hers deadly close to her neck.
Their shared breaths were heavy between them.
Sakura stared hard at him. A small smile tugged at Sasuke's lips as if he were actually enjoying this fight. His eyes were alight with—anticipation. Eager to see what she would do next—of how she would surprise him again.
"Admit Sasuke-kun. I've gotten much better at this." Her voice came out as a husk whisper from not speaking for the past while. Sasuke's face was barely three inches away from hers.
His eyes darkened. "You haven't called me Sasuke-kun since the war ended."
Sakura was breathing heavily and she noticed now that Sasuke was too. She couldn't seem to meet his eyes as she said, "I must've gotten lost in the moment."
"That won't do. You should be keeping your full focus during a fight," he said with a sly smirk. The next moment Sakura felt pressure against her ribs. She looked down to see a kunai poised to stab under her ribcage and at her heart. "You never know what other tricks your enemies will have up their sleeves."
Sakura looked back up at him. A strand of his dark hair had fallen over his eyes. She smiled. "Then I guess you aren't fully focused, Sasuke-kun."
A look of confusion crossed his face and then dawning realization loosened his features as she pressed the kunai in her left hand firmly into his back.
He smiled then. A real lift of both corners of his mouth—the Sasuke equivalent of grinning like a fool.
She tilted her head up at him and his lips very nearly brushed hers as he leaned in.
They were wrapped in a deadly embrace. Neither seemed ready to let go just yet.
A/N: Have I mentioned how much I love writing this story? :D And how much I adore SasuxSaku? Anyyyyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'd love to hear your thoughts/reactions/criticisms on this story or my writing! So pretty please shoot me a review and I'll be forever grateful!