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Three Great Dōjutsu vs. Powerhouses of Konoha

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Sasuke pulled out two worn rags and ripped them each in half, resulting in four pieces of cloth. He tossed two of them at his opponents, Sakura and Naruto.

"Tie them around two different branches," he ordered. "We're going to play Capture-the-Flag. Each team tries to get the other team's two flags while defending their own. First team to capture both flags wins. Did you get all that, dobe?" Sasuke rolled his eyes as said dobe flipped him the bird.

Naruto matched his eye roll, making sure to exaggerate the movement. "Yeah yeah, kick the teme's ass, steal a flag, kick the teme's ass again, steal another flag, win! Then, head to Ichiraku where teme pays for dinner!"

"I never agreed to such things," Sasuke dryly retorted. He sighed, turning to Hinata. "I do not understand what you see in this twit."

Hinata's face glowed warmly, but she teased him right back, "I did not know that you were so interested in romantic matters, Sasuke-kun. I'm sure that Sakura-san will appreciate it," she said loftily, securing her rag tightly around a branch before joining him on the ground.

Sasuke frowned, and insisted, "I am not."

Once the flags were positioned, Sakura wasted no time getting started.

An enthusiastic ""SHANNAAARO!" bellowed out of Sakura, followed by a plume of dust exploding into the air. A summoned gust of wind, courtesy of her partner, propelled the dirt into a whirlwind.

Sasuke and Hinata simultaneously dodged to higher ground. "She created a giant crater in the forest floor, Sakura-san and Naruto-kun aren't there anymore," Hinata relayed, scanning for the two shinobi.

Sasuke huffed. "Our eyes can easily see through this dust but−"

"The dust acts as an irritant, and your Rinnegan's weakness is that it has trouble seeing through visual barriers," Hinata finished.

"How did you−"

"Like I would come here without doing research on all of you, Sasuke-kun, above us!" Hinata shifted into her fighting stance.

Looking up, he saw a rainstorm of Naruto clones hailing down from the sky.

"Clones, all of them!"

Sasuke inhaled deeply, "Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique."

Blazing dragon heads fired off in succession, burning all the Narutos into clouds of smoke. Without missing a beat, Sasuke then directed his attention towards the whirlwind they had evaded. He shot blasts of fire to blow through the dust.

"Rasengan!"

"Water Release: Tearing Torrent!"

The techniques combined into a towering vortex of water. Powered by Naruto's wind swirling in the middle, water whipped up the sides in rapid spins. Sakura learned how to control her water-release affinity significantly better, he thought, mildly impressed. The Typhoon Water Vortex barraged into his fire dragons; the resulting collision of fire and water cloaking the forest in a steamy mist. They must have planned this.

"Hinata," he twisted to where she had last been standing. He didn't sense her presence. Focusing his Sharingan, he saw her chakra pattern facing off with Sakura's a couple trees away.

It was his opening to flip to the offensive. He didn't get very far, however, as he soon had to lift his arm up to catch a right hook.

"Rasengan!" He leaned back and ducked a wind sphere that nearly grazed his nose.

"You got lucky you missed that." Naruto emerged from the mist, a smirk playing at his lips.

"Tch. Child's play," Sasuke droned.

A shriek pierced through the air, one too high to belong to Sakura. The earth below them trembled as Sakura's deadly fists annihilated a tree. The crash of splitting wood and rustling of crisp foliage echoed throughout the forest.

"Hinata!" Naruto cried, immediately dropping his guard.

Sasuke's Sharingan honed in on Hinata, barely escaping Sakura's punch and dangling from a branch of a nearby tree. Sakura dashed for their flag. Sasuke was about to jump up to intercept her when Hinata hoisted herself up, and with incredible speed, rushed Sakura. It looked like his partner had the situation under control.

Taking advantage of Naruto's weakened defense, he thrust a punch into his gut, twisting his fist counter-clockwise to increase the force. Naruto slammed into the branch with a startled yelp. On his back, he coughed out thick phlegm. "What the hell!?"

"You weren't paying attention, so I took advantage," Sasuke said simply.

"You," Naruto hacked again, "bastard!"

Sasuke's lips pressed into a thin line. "You're letting yourself get too distracted. Restrain yourself," he advised.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Naruto denied.

Sasuke sighed. "When Hinata is hurt you drop everything," he directly explained, "she will be your strength, but also your weakness. Trust that she can take care of herself."

To prove his point, he gestured towards the girls sparring above them. Hinata had activated her Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms defense to snap in half the barrage of poison senbons Sakura had flung her way.

Cracking her knuckles, Sakura smashed her fist on the branch they were standing on and jumped up to grip the branch above them. The medic-nin lunged for the flag, smirking when she snagged the rugged material between her fingers. Her victory was short-lived, however, as a flurry of punctures bombarded both of her forearms.

"Shit," Sakura flexed her arms, frowning at the bruises. "Your precision has really improved, Hinata," she grimaced as she realized she could no longer send chakra to her hands.

"Thank you, Sakura-san," Hinata said between pants. "Your strength and quick-thinking are also very formidable."

Sasuke suddenly materialized between the two kunoichi. "You let her take one," he scowled.

"Sorry, Sasuke-kun, we'll be sure to get the next one," Hinata reassured. She held a hand up. "Before you continue and say that I could have intercepted, yes I know I could have. But it was either I choose the flag, or choose to disrupt Sakura-san's chakra network. Her powerful blows are because she controls her chakra with delicate efficiency and releases it in tandem with her physical strikes. Block that, and her immense strength is quite reduced. Also, immobilizing her hands limits her healing capabilities."

Sakura nodded. "Hinata's on point," a determined glint flickered into her green eyes. "But don't count me out yet! I've still got more in store."

Sasuke shrugged. "Fine," he clipped, returning back to the starting position.

"That guy− sorry Sakura-san, looks like I'll have to try even harder this round."

The pink-haired girl shook her head and smirked. "No I'm glad, let's both do our best!"

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The second round lasted longer than the first, wearing them all down to the core. Even without the full strength of her taijutsu prowess, Sakura still could inflict plenty of damage. While Naruto distracted Sasuke and Hinata with clones, Sakura arranged quite an array of poisonous traps and sleep bombs.

When Naruto became a serious threat, rather than a serious annoyance, Sasuke had unsheathed his sword, charging it with Chidori's blue electricity.

The scales finally tipped when, on a thick and sturdy branch, Naruto and Hinata sparred cleanly with taijutsu. She knew that even if she deactivated her Byakugan, she would still feel the immense power repressed under his taut skin. The number of attempts he made in striking her could be counted on one hand, and when he did try, his hits could easily be deflected. Instead, his focus fell to just dodging her offensive attacks.

As Naruto brought his arms up in a cross to defend against a jab to his upper body, Hinata caught his wrist.

"Naruto-kun…you don't have to go easy on me," she said firmly, frustration edging into her tone.

"I-I'm not," he protested, chuckling weakly.

Hinata took a deep breath. "You won't hurt me, I'm strong enough to take a bit of pain," she persisted.

Naruto straightened, a serious expression on his face. "I know that, of course you're strong. I know first hand how amazing you are," Naruto declared, "It's just that…" He paused, reddening as he found himself at a loss.

"Oi," Sasuke's impatient monotone intoned, saving Naruto from further embarrassment. "Hinata, your movements are still too slow."

Her head snapped towards him, but before she could speak Sasuke continued, "Take off your jacket, it'll make you more aerodynamic. You're wearing something underneath I assume. It'll speed you up…and this round too," he added, his eyes innocently traveling to Naruto.

She raised an eyebrow and questioned, "What do you mean?"

Sasuke shrugged one shoulder. "Just a hunch."

Still perplexed, Hinata unzipped her jacket and peeled it off her torso. She stood in black ninja pants, but more notably, in rather…form-fitting mesh armor.

Naruto faltered, pink tingeing his cheeks.

His defenses opened just long enough for her to catch him in a low sweep, and as he tumbled onto his butt, she slipped past him and grabbed the flag in between her fingers.

With a triumphant smile stretched wide across her face, she turned towards Sasuke, who grunted in approval. However, her attention soon turned to a dumbfounded Naruto, who still sat as motionlessly as a log. "Naruto-kun? Are you okay?" Hinata asked worriedly.

"Oh um, yup! Absolutely fine," Naruto cracked a smile at her, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck.

Sakura appeared then, and snatched Naruto up by his collar before proceeding to drag him away.

A hint of a smile ghosted on Sasuke's lips as he eavesdropped on Sakura scolding Naruto. They believed that they were too far away to be within earshot, but they didn't take into consideration their lack of…volume control.

"Naruto you idiot! How could you lose to sexual tension? Not to Chidori Charge, or to Gentle Fist Palms, but to freakin' sexual tension. You don't see me losin' it over Sasuke-kun's hot, sweaty...muscular body."

Naruto scoffed, disgruntlement clear on his face. "What the hell? That comparison isn't even fair! I don't know how you're even attracted to the 'dirty hobo' look the teme's got going on."

"It isn't about the clothes! It's about the person wearing them!" Sakura grabbed Naruto by the front of his jacket and shook him.

"So…less clothes mean more person which means more distraction. Right? So…not my fault?"

"No still very much your fault."

"Geez Sakura-chan…alright next time we fight I'm going to propose that Sasuke-teme goes shirtless and we'll see how that goes."

Next to him, Hinata chattered about something, oblivious to their opponent's ridiculous dispute. He regarded her with blank eyes, vaguely wondering how he got so distracted by his teammate's bickering.

"What did you say," he stated the question.

Hinata sighed. "Never mind…it wasn't important."

"Okay," his mouth said, but he stared at her with a disquieting intensity.

It didn't take long for her to relent. "All I said was, how about I target Sakura-san and you target Naruto-kun? Now please s-stop looking at me like that."

Heeding her request, Sasuke's eyes flicked upwards to a falling leaf, flipping languidly from side to side. "You do not believe that you are strong enough to fight Naruto? You sparred with me earlier," he reminded.

"It's not that…" Hinata folded her arms, hands clasping onto her elbows. "It just seems that…Naruto-kun is uncomfortable fighting with me. Is it because of the way I excused myself last night? Oh no…I hope I didn't upset him," Hinata worried, biting her lip.

"Even if you tried, I doubt you could upset him," Sasuke replied honestly.

"Really? He was really upset when you left, Sasuke-kun. And he gets upset when he hasn't eaten for a few hours−"

"No," he cut off, "I meant…never mind," he stopped himself and returned to the more pressing matter. "Fine, you cover Sakura, I'll take the dobe. I'm going to release my Great Fireball technique, and you chase after it. They may try to attack it head on, or if they're smart, evade it. Make sure you're fast enough to make it in time and use your Vacuum Palm. We'll improvise from there."

"I understand," Hinata affirmed, activating the arteries and veins around her eyes.

Sasuke closed his eyes, concentrating his chakra. He exhaled deeply, his diaphragm rising to push the air out of his lungs. "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique."

An enormous ball of fire accelerated towards the remainder of Team 7, both of whom ceased their squabbling immediately. Hinata sprinted close behind the jutsu's heels.

Naruto placed his hands over one another to summon his signature Shadow Clones, but was interrupted by Sakura shoving him.

"Don't bother fighting it! Dodge!" She ordered. As Sakura sprung up in the air, grabbing Naruto by the collar, she suddenly sensed another presence and twisted around to send off a flurry of poison senbon.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!" A wave of highly pressurized chakra burst towards them, hurling the poison senbon back at them.

"Gah," Sakura gasped as she whipped out a kunai to deflect her own weapons. Her muscles slackened as the Vacuum Palm inflicted some damage. She knew she didn't have time to lose.

Keeping up the fast pace, Sasuke charged up a Chidori and slammed it into his own fireball, sending flames flying everywhere. As one particularly large chunk crashed into Naruto's back, the blond jerked out of Sakura's grasp and glared daggers at the perpetrator.

"Teme! I just did my laundry!" Naruto shouted, waving one hand angrily while the other arm swatted his back furiously.

"Then I see why you're so upset, after all, laundry for you is a once-a-year occurrence," Sasuke remarked.

"Alright that's it you're askin' for it now!" Naruto summoned two clones and began whirling together wind chakra.

"Tch." Sasuke reached behind his back to pull out his sword. He squeezed his fist on the hilt for blue electricity to run up its length.

Ten Naruto clones ran up to Sasuke, attempting to distract the Uchiha as the real Naruto charged at him, wind blades spinning in his hand. "Rasenshuriken!"

Raising his sword, Sasuke blocked the attack, his feet dragging in the dirt as the momentum propelled him backwards. He couldn't slice through the dense chakra, but managed to get his Chidori to travel onto the Rasenshuriken and infuse it with dancing blue light. He angled his sword and repelled it straight at Naruto.

Instead of countering with a brash, head on attack, Naruto somersaulted out of the way. Dread trickled down Sasuke's throat the moment he saw where−or more specifically who−the attack headed towards.

"Sakura," he hissed her name. Sword forgotten on the ground, he leapt towards the pink-haired girl. Behind him, he heard Naruto call his name. He ignored him completely. Sasuke cursed, using his Rinnegan's ability to teleport faster.

"Sasuke! What's going on?" The blond shouted from afar.

"Stop your attack," Sasuke called back, desperation leaking into his command.

"Stop my−It doesn't work that way! Rasenshuriken is still hard for me to control in my normal form!" Naruto's eyes followed the path of their combined attack; panic welled into his stomach as he too noticed the target. "Hin…Hinata! Sakura!" He yelled at the top of his lungs.

Sakura was wiping sweat off her brow when Naruto's obnoxious voice rang through her ears. Before she could move, however, a familiar whizzing buzz arrested her attention.

Sasuke swore under his breath, pumping his legs to run faster.

Sakura turned, her mouth falling agape as a sharp, spinning mass of wind chakra barreled towards her. Fear dilated her pupils, breath hitching tightly as her feet rooted themselves to the tree. Her eyes flickered to match his, and in that instant he could see each traumatic incidence−caused by no one other than himself−flash through them. Or, was that his own memories reflected onto her eyes?

Shit. This can't be happening, not again. It seemed that all Sasuke could ever do was hurt her. Instead of cleansing his list of sins, his bloody ledger only seemed to grow longer.

Suddenly, in a flash of dark hair and pale skin, Sakura was tackled to the ground, safe from harm's way.

"Hi…Hinata…" Sakura rasped. She shot upright and anxiously called her name, "Hinata!"

"Hinata!" Naruto's frantic voice clamored. "Are you okay?"

Hinata slowly craned her neck towards him and nodded. "I'm fine," she said shakily. Clearing her throat, she reiterated more confidently, "Don't worry about me, I just received a small scratch." She lifted the hand covering her shoulder to reveal a gash gushing out blood. Warm blood trickled over her fingers. One eye shut close and she winced, but she managed to conceal it from Naruto. "Though the Chidori current is admittedly…unpleasant," she confessed under her breath, loud enough for only Sakura to hear.

Sakura's hands immediately glowed a comforting green and she leaned towards Hinata. With her free arm, Hinata carefully restored Sakura's disrupted chakra network. The intensity of her healing power multiplied ten-fold, blooming into a brilliant sphere of light. Still quivering, Sakura looked up at Hinata's kind smile, bravely bracing the pain. Overwhelming love and gratitude surged through her. She couldn't help herself, and threw her arms around Hinata in a tight embrace.

"Sakura-san," Hinata blinked in surprise, but automatically returned the gesture.

Like water bursting out of a dam, relief flooded Sasuke's chest. He skidded to a stop and placed a closed fist over his heart.

Naruto caught up to Sasuke, who hunched over with his hands on his knees. "Oh thank god, I'm so relieved they're both okay." Naruto dropped to a squat and let out a low whistle.

Sasuke didn't say anything.

"That could have gone really bad…" Naruto continued, lips curving into a frown.

"You think?" Sasuke ground out, narrowing his eyes to a glare.

Naruto's frown pressed tighter, taken aback by Sasuke's sudden rage.

"You need to train. A lot more. Train until you can control the Rasenshuriken like second nature," Sasuke demanded, impatience coursing through his words.

"I know that! I saw what almost happened too!" Naruto cried.

The Uchiha ignored him. "Your current mastery of Rasenshuriken in your normal state is clumsy at best. Change that."

"I know I know geez, you don't have to keep on repeating it. It's like you're trying to pin all the blame on me…" Blue eyes widened and he whipped his head towards Sasuke. "Wait…it's because you are. You can't handle another one, can you?"

Sasuke said nothing. The idiot's perceptiveness checked in at all the wrong times.

"You can't have another memory of hurting Sakura, so you have to shove this on me. I'm right aren't I?"

Once again, Sasuke said nothing, but he shifted so his back was turned to Naruto.

It was enough of a confirmation.

The dots connected in Naruto's head. "So when you said earlier…that Hinata is my greatest weakness, you only said that 'cause you're in a similar situation, aren't you?"

"Shut up," Sasuke finally spoke in a reluctant grumble. "No one asked you."

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"Sakura-san, I'm fine really. This isn't anything compared to other injuries." Hinata gently removed her friend's hand from her shoulder. She smiled gratefully. "I've already taken up too much of your chakra."

Worried green eyes continued to examine her shoulder. "Are you sure? I've barely infused any chakra…"

"Mhmm," she reassured. "I almost can't feel the effects of the Chidori current anymore, and honestly the Rasenshuriken barely scratched me."

Both boys suddenly materialized next to her. On impulse, Naruto tenderly ran his fingers over the jagged scar. It extended for a solid six-inches. "I'm sorry, Hinata…" he said miserably.

Hinata shook her head from side to side. "There's no need to apologize Naruto-kun, you didn't do anything wrong. You're both fussing over nothing."

"Hinata," a low voice called.

Raising an eyebrow, Hinata turned towards Sasuke. "Not you too."

Although Sasuke's expression didn't change, she noted that he seemed to be struggling with something.

"I…" he started, but quickly trailed off into an uncomfortable silence.

A laugh slipped out, and she brought a hand up towards her mouth. "It's okay Sasuke-kun, you don't have to finish. You're welcome." White eyes furtively landed on Sakura before giving Sasuke a knowing look.

"Anyways, thank you to everyone for allowing me to train with the original Team 7, it was an honor, and so fun as well!"

Team 7 collectively blinked. Sakura moved first and wrapped an arm around Hinata's good shoulder. "Hinata! There's no need to be so formal, you're always welcome here!"

"Yeah definitely!" Naruto's boisterous voice contributed eagerly. "It's rare to have someone here who's actually…nice to me."

Sasuke too, nodded his assent.

Hinata smiled, a blush creeping onto her cheeks. "Thank you, everyone."

Hinata excused herself not long after, explaining that she needed to return home before her father became worried.

As Naruto watched her retreating back, he felt the strangest warmth engulf him. He gulped, and then croakily cleared his throat.

"Hey guys, I think I'm going to head out too," he announced to his teammates.

"Already?" Sakura asked in confusion. "This is pretty early for you."

"Yeah, I've got er−stuff to do," he said evasively. With a shaky smile, Naruto bid his teammates goodbye and departed.

Sasuke followed the blond with his eyes, vaguely noting the odd behavior. Usually, Naruto would have stayed longer and pushed his limits−he continuously prattled that nothing felt better than flopping onto bed with aching muscles.

"Are you going to head home too, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura said as she packed her weapons into her pouch.

"Soon," he answered.

Silence stretched between them but neither felt the need to fill the space with words.

"I'm going to head home now, Sasuke-kun, see you tomorrow?" She asked.

He nodded, and couldn't help but notice the way her shoulders unwound as he confirmed his presence for another day, as if her dream could last another day. It was still unfathomable to him that he fit into someone's dreams rather than their nightmares. Though, he had a sinking feeling that he existed in both of hers.

"Thank you."

Green eyes widened, the confusion swimming in them evident. "For what?" She inquired, unable to keep the astonishment out of her tone.

Sasuke looked away from her searching gaze, "Kindness is not a weakness," he settled on saying.

Luckily for him, she understood immediately.

"Oh Sasuke-kun…" Sakura bounded up to him and for a second, seemed like she wanted to throw her arms around him. But in a jerky, rigid movement she stopped herself, opting for a bright smile instead. "I'm proud of you," she said sincerely, her smile crinkling into her eyes.

He didn't say anything in return…although a dark corner in the recess of his mind wondered what it would have felt like to have her arms around him again.

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Author's Note: I conducted a lot of research for writing this battle and did my best, I hope it managed to be accurate enough. You all can probably guess who's chapter(s) are coming next. :) I also started a new NaruHina AU series: Of Parallel Lines and Intersections that will be my next focus after this.

Some interesting guest reviews to address:
Fuu: I see where you're coming from, I was apprehensive about naming this Consolation Prize as well because I thought that the negative connotation could deter readers. The more I thought about it though, the more I liked the irony of the title and how it could be an interesting theme.
Destoryah24: Yes there will be more hints of Sasuke's development for SasuSaku, but NaruHina still needs their progress. To put it shortly, to develop a realistic SasuSaku from Sasuke's side...will probably take another story!
To the general comments about The Last: I appreciate the comments about this story being like a prologue to The Last :) I agree with most of you, and like someone said, I felt like it would have been nice if there was a montage that showed what happened in the time gap.