Sakura's new Technique is revealed; I wanted to give her something else she could use in combat because from what I've seen in the anime, all she can really do is punch things really hard.

Remember what I said about not writing action sequences again?

Well, after writing Chapter 2 of "An Acknowledged Love"…I take it back!

Thanks for reading

CHAPTER RATING: T

Episode 14: Embrace of the Wind

Naruto awoke to the feeling of Sakura's silken hair on his bare chest; he glanced down and met Sakura's smile with his own. Sakura lowered her head and pushed it deeper into his chest. He wrapped his arm around her, feeling the fabric of his own jacket she wore, brought her closer, and held her for a long moment. A knock at the door interrupted their embrace.

"Who do you think that is?" Sakura asked.

"I don't plan to answer it." Naruto replied with a grin. "I wouldn't give this moment for anything." The knocking at the door grew louder.

"Naruto? Open up…You've been discharged, right? Well, Sakura's missing." It was Kakashi. Naruto sighed while getting up to his feet.

"I guess I'll go explain." Naruto said to Sakura in a low tone while quickly putting on a white shirt, rubbing his eyes, straightening his hair, and zipping up his pants. He took a deep breath and kept walking.

"I'm on my way!" Naruto shouted at the door. He turned the knob and cracked it open. "What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" he asked in a slightly annoyed tone. "I'm kind of busy."

"Naruto? Are you feeling well? I hear you were discharged early." Kakashi said

"Uh, Y-yeah, I feel great. Something helped speed my recovery..." Naruto replied

"Good. Now then, do you know where Sakura is? She didn't answer her door at home."

"Yeah, she was the person who accompanied me on my recovery. She's…" Naruto slightly jerked his head towards his house. "…Do you know what I mean?" Naruto asked. Kakashi lifted an eyebrow at the statement.

"Tell her that she's nearly completed her new technique; meet me on the training grounds when you find the time." Kakashi stated. He turned around and began to walk towards the stairway. "I'll be in touch. Take it easy."

"Y-yeah. I'll be sure to take it easy. Thanks, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto added as closed the door in front of him. He turned, and walked back towards his bedroom. Naruto entered the bedroom and was greety by an embrace and kiss from Sakura.

"What did he say? She asked him while slightly pulling away.

"He says that your own technique is almost finished; he you to meet him later at the training grounds. What did you manage to create?" he asked.

"I'll show it to you later, just come watch me at the training grounds later in the day." She said with a smile. "I think you'll really like it."

"I'm sure it's amazing." Naruto replied with a smile.

Sakura turned around to leave; she slowly began to take off Naruto's jacket. His arms gently wrapped around her as his hands gently grasped hers. She felt his head resting on her shoulders.

"Keep it." He whispered into her ear. She broght the jacket back together and zipped it up.

"I'll see you later, I have some things I need to do, too." He said while gently releasing his grip on her hands.

She smiled softly, brought her hand to his chin, turned his head, and kissed him.

"I'm looking forward to it."

…

Naruto walked into a long, winding hallway as he heard a loud bang as a door shut behind him. At the end of hallway was a single cell. He walked towards the cell and stared into it. The prisoner inside stood up and walked towards the cell bars.

"Are you here to see me again?" She said in a seductive tone. "Did you enjoy what I did to you?" Naruto's face held a look of determination.

"I am here to see you again, but I'm here to tell you that what you tried to do, failed." Naruto replied. Karin placed her arms between the cell bars and held them out. Naruto stood firm, not reaching out to hold her. She shot him an ugly look and snorted while pulling her arms back into the cell.

"Don't worry, Karin-chan; someone else will take care of you." Behind them, there came another sound of the door shutting. "Here is your personal escort." Behind Naruto, stood Sai.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you." Sai said with a smile. Naruto smiled at Karin.

"We picked him because there's no way that he'll fall for you." He glanced over at Sai. "Sai, what do you think of Karin? Oh, and you can be honest." Naruto asked.

"Why, she's just as ugly as every other woman Konoha." Sai answered with an even more sincere smile. Karin flinched at his statement, and rushed the bars, trying to claw at Sai's face. Sai opened a scroll and painted a few snakes, moments later, they came to life, tying up Karin's hands.

"What the?! Let me go!" Karin demanded.

"Sai, you might want to do something about her mouth, too. She can really do some damage with that thing…She can-"

"She can talk for hours without stopping?" Sai interrupted.

"Ah-I wasn't going to say that. If she bites you, she can take your chakra, so…"

"YOU'RE NOT DOING ANY-" Sai took his scroll and drew another picture. A star shape jumped from the page and smacked itself against her lips.

"Sai, what's that?" Naruto asked.

"It's called a 'Starfish'…I read about it in this book." He said as he held a book called Creatures from Under the Sea.

A guard opened the cell door and took hold of Karin's arm. She offered Naruto a depressed expression, but he waved a hand and passed it off.

"Can you handle this, Sai?" Naruto asked.

"I've got in under control. Take care of yourself, Naruto." Sai replied.

Sai struck Karin's neck with a chop, she fell over in a daze; he bent over and caught her with his shoulder.

…

Naruto stood quietly outside of the Hyuuga residence, leaned up against the wall, with his head tilted down.

What should I say to her?

He took a deep sigh.

I guess I'll just improvise.

He turned, brought his hand forward, and knocked on the door. A few moments later, the door cracked open and Neji greeted him with a a scornful expression.

"Naruto, what do you want?" he angrily asked.

"H-Hey, Neji. Is Hinata home? I need to talk to her." Naruto replied.

"About what?"

"Well…about something private." Neji shot another look at Naruto that sent chills of regret down his spine.

"Come in, sit down, I'll get her." Neji reluctantly said.

Naruto did as he was instructed. He sat down and held his head in his hands.

Relax, this can't be too hard. Just say what you need to say. He heard the door slide open and caught a glimpse of Hinata, who silently walked up to him and took a seat directly in front of him.

"What is it you needed to talk about, Naruto-kun?" She quietly asked. Naruto nervously placed his hand on his neck while simultaneously diverting his eyes.

"Well, Hinata…if you remember that night. I just wanted to say I'm really sorry for what happened…and I want to tell you that I meant what I said. You are the only person who stood up for me when Pain attacked. You are one of the strongest Kunoichi that I know."

Hinata slightly tilted her head down.

Naruto planted his face onto the floor as he bowed.

"I'm so sorry for what I did! Please forgive me!" he shouted.

Hinata's hands grabbed his head and brought him up. She held him tightly and looked into his eyes while pulling him closer and tightly hugging him. With a smile on her face, she whispered into his ear.

"It's okay, Naruto-kun. I forgive you. Please, don't worry yourself over this issue anymore." He wrapped his hands around her and returned the embrace.

"Thank you, Hinata. Thank you so much...For everything." With that said, Naruto stood and smiled at Hinata, she replied with another friendly smile. He felt a rush of relief as he turned and exited the house.

…

Navigating his way through the forest, Naruto came across the familiar sound of a rushing waterfall clashing with the ground. He weaved through the forest and came across an opening.

The opening seemed to be larger than when he was training.

There were many more lone tree trunks than he remembered too.

As he took in a breath, he felt his lungs fill with dust, and them he felt a massive amount of brown dust rush to his face. He rubbed his eyes and opened them to see Sakura, still wearing his jacket, with her fist extended, and a bare tree trunk sitting in front of her.

Kakashi stood a few feet away from her, reading his copy of Make-out Tactics which seemingly contained tens of thousands of pages. Even further still, sat Yamato, with an expression of exhaustion on his face.

Yamato brought another had forward, and the tree regrew before Naruto's very eyes. She reared her fist back, and struck the tree once again. Instantly, the tree was pulverized into a fine dust and carried away with the breeze.

Naruto's jaw dropped.

If she can do that with a tree…What if she hits me with that?

His mind was flooded with images of himself being struck by her fist, and exploding in a giant, bloody mess. He cringed at the images; regaining his composure, he began to walk towards their position. Kakashi caught sight of him while he was approaching.

"Alright, Yamato, take a break." He said. Yamato fell backwards and nearly caused a fissure in the ground as he fell backwards. Sakura rushed towards Naruto with great enthusiasm.

"Naruto! Did you see that?!" she shouted.

"Y-yeah. It's pretty awesome." Naruto replied, both scared and impressed. "Please tell me that you won't ever hit me with it." He added with a smile. Kakashi nodded at them both.

"Well, since you're both here, why don't we have a little sparring session? Yamato there seems to be knocked out, so I'll take him back to the village. Naruto, you can stay here and learn about Sakura's new techniques that she's acquired."

"Sakura-chan, you created two techniques?" Naruto curiously asked.

"Yep! So, how about it? Want to train a little?" Sakura asked

"Sure." He replied

"Good then it's settled. Remember that this is just a training session, take care of each other." Kakashi stated as he walked over to Yamato and picked him up with his shoulder. Within minutes, he bagan to walk back into the forest, and was soon out of sight.

They slowly backed away from each other, creating a good amount of space in front of them.

"Alright, here I come, Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted as he rushed her position. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted as a shadow clone appeared at his side. The shadow clone moved to her right, as Naruto went left. Sakura quickly enter a ready position and swung her left leg in a wide arch, catching the shadow clone with a serious impact to his ribs, and sent him flying. Amazed that the shadow clone had not disappeared from the impact, Naruto hesitated.

Sakura's momentum carried her right fist over to his cheek, the back of her hand crashed into his face, bringing him to a quick and harsh crash landing. He rolled away with a greater speed.

Sakura leaped a great height and her fist came crashing down against the ground, causing a massive shockwave that pushed Naruto even farther. Naruto looked at his shadow clone.

"You're bleeding?" he asked as the clone coughed up blood. "Why haven't you disappeared yet?"

"I don't know. She can hit hard enough to cause pain, but not make us disappear?" Naruto placed a hand on the shadow clone's shoulder.

"I'll deal with this, I'm sorry for causing you pain." Naruto apologetically stated.

"Hey, that's why I'm here. Thanks." The shadow clone replied as Naruto lifted his hand.

"Release!" he shouted as the shadow clone disappeared. A pain then shot through his ribs. He took another deep breath as blood began to trickle down his lower lip.

"Naruto?! Are you okay?!" Sakura shouted in a worried tone. Instead of answering, Naruto stood and began to charge at her. Sakura's eyes narrowed and focused on his lower lip, noticing the blood flowing down his chin.

Before she had time to ask about his well being again, he had already closed the distance and began attacking. Sakura's calmness overcame his aggression.

Her hands were parrying his with every blow. Naruto then firmly planted his left foot into the ground, and with a swinging kick, delivered a similar strike to her lower back.

Sakura was sent flying at the impact. But as she soared through the air, he noticed a green glow surrounding her. She impacted the ground with multiple crashes, but with no dust to show her impact, and almost no sound to accompany her falls. Naruto's ribs ached and he brought his right arm across them.

Sakura stood up again and regained her footing. Naruto was amazed to see that she didn't have a single scratch on her. Quickly, Sakura began to form seals with her hands. She pushed her hand forward, palm facing Naruto, and clenched her hand into a fist.

Naruto gave her a confused look, his look of confusion turned into a horrified look of worry as he felt a wind pushing him from behind. The wind was so strong, and he was being lifted off of the ground; it felt as if he was just picked up and suddenly hurled at Sakura. Traveling at a great velocity, he panicked as he came closer.

Sakura reared her fist back, Naruto closed his eyes in fear of what was about to transpire. Then he felt a soft pressure on his chest as he realized that Sakura had caught him with her arm. She took hold of his head and slowly lower him to his back. She placed a glowing left hand on his ribs.

"You should have told me you were hurt." Sakura stated as she moved closer to him. Stunned, he stood in awe. Her eyes shined like those fireflies in contrast to the orange hue of the sky, her hand came to his chin and wiped away the scarlet liquid that dripped down. "I would have stopped right away." She whispered while moving closer to him.

He felt her lips on his as his eyes closed. The pain in his ribs was leaving his body. Naruto smiled as she lifted her lips from his.

"As long as you're here, Sakura-chan…I know that I'll be fine."

Kakashi watched from the forest as the sun was setting. He saw Sakura bring Naruto up and hug him.

"I guess…I shouldn't treat them like kids anymore." He muttered to himself as he opened his endless novel and began reading again.

With two major stories floating in my head, I'll update on Saturdays and Sundays.