But then you opened up a door, you opened up a door.

[sucker_punches]

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.

Comments

[couragetodare]

He waits, shifting his weight, feet planted in the dirt, firmly grounded. His grin mirrors hers, sharp, it curves like a scythe and he recognises the fierceness in her expression because it's as intrinsic to him as this is. Blows and blood and adrenaline. It's been there for a while and as much as Sakura thrives on this, Naruto thrives on that. The grin, the light in her eyes, the film of sweat on her brow, the heady knowledge of just how much power her small fists contain, the prospect of meeting that power head on, of surviving it.

Naruto likes to dance in when he can, to get as close as he dares, he likes to feel those fists just miss. (Except for when they hit and when they hit, she always wins, and he usually finds himself sprawled at the other side of the small space amidst the ruins, nursing a concussion at the least. Lucky for him, he recovers quickly. It never takes him long to come back for more.) He likes the thrill behind it because it doesn't matter how much Naruto wants peace, and these days he wants it more than

[sucker_punches]

More clones. Not a surprise, coming from Naruto; she knew half way through the chain of seals what he would do. But sheer numbers aren't enough to intimidate Sakura, who has fought Sasori and his one hundred puppets. Twice. No, shadow clones don't overwhelm her, and her smile doesn't slip upon seeing them. She has to stay sharp with them in play, though. They keep her on her toes, which is fine with her, because that's the easiest place to act from

[couragetodare]

Good thing the punch doesn't quite connect because Naruto doesn't want this to end so soon either

[sucker_punches]

That feral laugh he lets out makes her blood pump harder, her own excitement fueled by his. If she stopped she could probably feel it in her neck but there's no stopping this as she slides through her motions like she's following a set choreography. Except much more dangerous. But the danger is most of the fun.

Sakura moves but not quite quick enough. He glances the side of her knee and her balance buckles for about half the span it takes to draw a sharp breath. Not pained, exactly, because she's experienced far worse. But she knows she loses that hair of time and a voice swears in her head. Inner Sakura is largely dormant these days, but not when she fights. Sakura's stance is sure on her other foot so she doesn't fall, simply picks up the leg he'd hit after that momentary unstableness and aims it at the clone's side.

As her body twists to follow through with full force she allows her head to carry through with the motion, taking another opportunity to assess her surroundings. If she hadn't she would have missed the second clone--

[couragetodare]

- that's lunging in, body low to the ground to tackle her and take her down if it can.

His eyes flicker up to her face, on her expression for half a heartbeat, but it hasn't wavered from what it was and she's already recovered he can tell as a second clone joins the first.

Gonna have to pick up the pace, Sakura-chan.He trusts her to do this. She has to do this because he's not pausing and neither are the clones. Still low to the ground he watches her even as he flips and sweeps his other leg back in, hoping that the clones are enough of a distraction that he can trip her up this time but she's moving. It's like a dance, he sees her shoulders shift, that little tell that's enough for him but not for the clone that tries to blindside her

[sucker_punches]

And she knows it.

Getting hit at all is a signal of how tired she's become. There are battles where one touch means life or death and the medic has to survive to take care of the team, so she'd been taught how to dodge. That was a lesson drilled into her from day one of her apprenticeship.

She's slacking.

It can't quite be called anger, what she's feeling directed at herself. It's not quite that blunt an emotion. It's something razor-fine and hard, just enough to sharpen her resolve to do better, be better, to not fall behind. Something that adds a vicious force to the punch she throws at one clone, the elbow through another trying to sneak up on her. Not this time, she thinks, a bit smugly

[couragetodare]

He has a single moment to think- oh shit - as she turns and he almost knows what it is, is expecting a fist to the face (because one-for-one unless he is using Senjutsu, and he is not then Sakura's fists have the far greater impact) but she doesn't move to deck him, and the expected blow never arrives. Instead she has his hand and when he feels the grip of her fingers understanding is quick to follow. He's going down. He knows he's going down because he doesn't have the time to compensate for his speed and the drive behind it.

He grins anyway as she pulls, fiercely appreciative because that's what he wants, no holding back here and he loves that she can take what he gives and dish this out in return. He grins like a demon and just as she has his shirt, his free hand is flying out to grab at what it can, which in this case happens to be the waistline of her skirt. He curls his fingers and he holds and he lets her throw him down, swoops with her counterattack instead of against it, with a counter of his own-

Goin' down--as he flips

[sucker_punches]

She doesn't resist. She's got a fistful of his clothing and he's got a fistful of hers and that's a reciprocation she can't complain about. Sakura doesn't mind being tugged down with him--going down was the point. He'd bounce right back up otherwise. She wants to keep him down, for good. (For now, until the next time.) And she's not afraid of getting a little dirty to claim a victory.

When Naruto's back hits the ground, knocking the breath from him, her knees and one hand impact at the same time, bracing her over him. The one hand, the remaining one gripping his shirt, she doesn't release, because that's the one she's using to pin him to the ground. It's enforced with chakra. Not enough to threaten to crack his ribs, but enough for her to keep a shinobi half a foot taller than her down. Pure physics works against her, but ninja don't exactly have to fight fair.

He's not going anywhere.

A pause. A breather. Her heart's still pounding out blood and her lungs are tugging in air heavily. Fight is still running in her veins and there's

[couragetodare]

He's on the ground and so is she, over him. Around him. She fills his line of vision until she's all he can see (all he wants to see right now at any rate) and his surroundings become irrelevant because this close he can smell her. Sweat and heat and how long have they been doing this? He doesn't know. He shrugged off his jacket an hour ago, maybe two, revelling in the cool night air against his arms and right now, against the cool night air, all he can understand for a moment is that Sakura is warm, this close. His eyes narrow again, taking in the curve to her mouth, the grin that would only incense him were it to come from anyone else

[sucker_punches]

Her back hits the dirt before she could think to resist it. He'd disarmed her completely. She'd been anticipating him trying to push up, or to try and pry her hand from him, but he did neither of those things; Naruto really did live up to his nickname sometimes. She couldn't have accounted for the way his warm, calloused hands would feel on her bare skin, or how his thumbs on her stomach would make it clench up with something she didn't fully understand.

... She should probably be angry about that, actually. It's a cheap shot and she doesn't trust his motives to be entirely pure. But she isn't because if anyone else had tried it on her, she wouldn't have gotten distracted, she would have decked them. She has no qualms about hitting him, so she's not sure why--

Besides, it doesn't occur to her until he's already reversed their positions. He's over her and he's looking at her with too-dark eyes and she doesn't know why that makes her gut clench either. (Except, maybe, she does if she thinks about it, but now's not really the time for

[couragetodare]

It's not nearly as forceful as it should be. Not in Naruto's mind at least. Had he been thinking it through he would be the first to admit that pulling a stunt like that should have resulted in a fist to the face as retaliation. From Sakura at least. But she doesn't hit him. She hasn't hit him. Not at all, she's under him instead, breathing hard, hair fanned out over the ground in a wild disarray, eyes wide open, looking up and- and he's staring down at her and it doesn't occur to him that she hasn't hit him because he hasn't thought that far ahead, cannot think that far ahead because there is this moment and nothing outside of it and in this moment he's still got his hands around her waist and does she know he can feel her breathe just like this? That he can feel her breath catch, just like this

[sucker_punches]

Naruto is too close. He's way too close. He's always been just a little too brash, a hair too bold, with her, and that's why he gets hit so often, but never quite like this. She can feel him speak against her face because he's that close, she can feel his breathing. So little room between them, but it's there, there's a distance that could be closed. Her normally sharp mind sways a little and she finds herself wondering if he will. What she'd do if he did.

This is too much. This is an overload, and her eyes slide closed for just a moment. There's nothing else that she can feel and smell--and he smells like sweat and the wind. Is he aware of what the pad of his thumb is doing? She shivers, and her whole body tenses against the urge to arch up, just a little, into that touch. To encourage his advances for once, and not to push him away

[couragetodare]

He hasn't forgotten the question. He manages to cling to it somehow past the quiet shock that are those fingers in his hair, at the tie of his hitai-ate. Her fingers those fingers are hers and they belong to her hand and that's hers too which means that she's doing this and no one else but her-- They're not tangling and it can't be said they're even holding but they're there and he is shockingly aware of them.

He should be shocked at the fact that she hasn't hit him yet. He should be floored that she has cast aside the routine they have, is rewriting the script and that once again someone he knows is deviating from custom and expectations and habit and instead veering straight for the completely unexpected. But, he's not. He's not because it still hasn't occurred to him, because when she shivered he felt it under his thumb, just like the spark of something that followed it and whispered dothatagain. Avid and hungry and rapt. He's not because he is still blessedly free of thoughts that lean towards any potential consequences of just

[sucker_punches]

Sakura doesn't know what she wants, but only if she thinks about it. If she thinks about it she would think but I love Sasuke-kun, I don't know if this is right, is this even fair to Naruto? When it comes to this, if given half the chance, Sakura has a tendency to overthink, which probably makes it a good thing that she isn't being given that chance. Every scrap of attention she posesses is caught up in him, her skin thrumming and attuned to every move he makes. When he pins her wrist to the ground it sparks a dull thrill not unrelated to the one provoked simply by having a strong boy--man (when had Naruto stopped being a boy in her head?) over her. His body just barely not-touching and his lips

[couragetodare]

And it is. Naruto doesn't know exactly what it is but it is far beyond a mere win or loss and there is a moment where he is suspended, held and caught by the sensation of her mouth pressed against his own. It is just a moment- less than one really- but he is frozen, still, not even breathing and in the space of time between his fingers flex where they curl around her wrist, holding fast, gripping tight and parts of Naruto try to quietly rearrange to fit this world where Haruno Sakura is kissing him. In that moment he closes his eyes, sharply and he does this to block everything out, everything bar that sensation and Sakura, even as this awareness scrambles frantically towards consideration for what this is, falls far short of it. If he could, he would be thinking: be sure, please be sure don't do this unless you're sure-

-be sure be sure.But he's not thinking. That one conscious steel laden appeal is blessedly absent. And in the next moment Naruto is pressing back and down with the quiet ferocity that is years of pent up want and in

[sucker_punches]

He threatens to press the breath out of her. With his weight and with the heavy drugged feeling... euphoria, that's a word for it. It's hard to string words and thoughts together. Her attention is sharp but it is wholly stolen by baser instinct, nothing left for higher cognition. Consequences? What happens tomorrow, what this means? These things don't even enter her head. Pulling back those layers where lie doubt, second-guessing, the layers that make things complicated (and perhaps this is complicated) there is an exposure of deeper truths. Truths like: Naruto means as much to her as Sasuke does. She trusts Naruto above so many others. When Naruto smiles a warm feeling spreads through her, and when he catches her off-guard with a grin that shows teeth and mischief her breath wants to catch.

Funny what hides there, even from her. These are all belated realizations.

But want and love and desire are tangled things to her, and Sakura's as sure as she can possibly be. To be fair, it is pretty damn sure