But then you opened up a door, you opened up a door.
Who: Naruto Uzumaki (couragetodare) and Sakura Haruno (sucker_punches). Closed.
When: Evening of January 18th.
Where: The ruins.
Format: Paragraph, present tense.
What: Naruto and Sakura spar, which leads to an interesting development or two.
Warnings: Minor violence and teenage hormones. Not enough to warrant an R rating or anything though, haha.
Sakura thrives on this.
She's not as restless as her teammates--that would be quite the accomplishment, given that they're Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke who are notoriously bad at sitting still for any length of time--but she is a kunoichi, a woman of action, and when the daily routine of work, chores, and sleep begins to make her skin crawl, she knows she needs exactly this. She needs the dirt and the sweat and the hum of adrenaline like a drug in her blood. She's been healing so often lately. She doesn't mind it, it's a skill she has, it helps other people and a job well done is its own reward. Truly. But it's less visceral than having a target to slug. No one's more willing to provide that than Naruto.
It helps that he's more durable than most, because Sakura hits harder than most.
Naruto is her favorite to do this with. He's a challenge, he's a hurdle to overcome, he's a goal to reach, but he never makes her feel inferior when she loses. Doesn't taunt her like Ino would, doesn't look down his nose at her like Sasuke would. No, when Naruto knocks her to the dirt he offers a hand to help her up, and when she says 'again' he's always ready to go again. It's nearly impossible to tire him, though Sakura does her very best.
She can't even remember how long they've been going at this. Time fades to insignificance. It's easier to measure the length of this particular spar by how many of his clones she's popped, though she's lost track of that too. At this point all she has to go on is the burning in her muscles, a reminder that she's alive and growing stronger.
She wipes the sweat off her lip with the back of her hand. A momentary breather, and then she launches herself at him again, her grin showing all her teeth.
When: Evening of January 18th.
Where: The ruins.
Format: Paragraph, present tense.
What: Naruto and Sakura spar, which leads to an interesting development or two.
Warnings: Minor violence and teenage hormones. Not enough to warrant an R rating or anything though, haha.
Sakura thrives on this.
She's not as restless as her teammates--that would be quite the accomplishment, given that they're Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke who are notoriously bad at sitting still for any length of time--but she is a kunoichi, a woman of action, and when the daily routine of work, chores, and sleep begins to make her skin crawl, she knows she needs exactly this. She needs the dirt and the sweat and the hum of adrenaline like a drug in her blood. She's been healing so often lately. She doesn't mind it, it's a skill she has, it helps other people and a job well done is its own reward. Truly. But it's less visceral than having a target to slug. No one's more willing to provide that than Naruto.
It helps that he's more durable than most, because Sakura hits harder than most.
Naruto is her favorite to do this with. He's a challenge, he's a hurdle to overcome, he's a goal to reach, but he never makes her feel inferior when she loses. Doesn't taunt her like Ino would, doesn't look down his nose at her like Sasuke would. No, when Naruto knocks her to the dirt he offers a hand to help her up, and when she says 'again' he's always ready to go again. It's nearly impossible to tire him, though Sakura does her very best.
She can't even remember how long they've been going at this. Time fades to insignificance. It's easier to measure the length of this particular spar by how many of his clones she's popped, though she's lost track of that too. At this point all she has to go on is the burning in her muscles, a reminder that she's alive and growing stronger.
She wipes the sweat off her lip with the back of her hand. A momentary breather, and then she launches herself at him again, her grin showing all her teeth.