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

[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

[sucker_punches]

It's difficult to keep up with the pace he's setting, but Sakura does try. The hand he'd just freed she throws across his shoulder, clutches his back, and just holds on against the tidal onslaught for a moment. Awareness creeps in--painful awareness of her own naïvete here. Naruto's just so good at this, at least in her estimation. And she knows he's done this and more before so she can't help but wonder how she matches up. She slacks, for just a moment

[couragetodare]

Needless to say, Naruto doesn't mind. This, any of it. He is only dimly aware that Sakura has discarded her gloves, he is still caught up in the quiet shock of her arching up to meet him without protest or apparent forethought and she was warm and lithe and even in that little motion there was strength and just like everything else so far he wants more of it. He might even have thought to ask were it not for the sound that followed it. Not even a sound, hardly that, just an innocent sigh that should have been innocuous but wasn't because it was like a quiet jolt of electricity across Naruto's nerves and really Sakura has no idea what she is doing to him because that little sigh is enough to send heat blazing down his spine adding fuel to that already growing fire

[sucker_punches]

In this pause, rather like the calm part of a storm, it occurs to Sakura that there might have been a bit of a disconnect between his intentions and hers, here. It's in the heat of his eyes, the hunger there, and the heat of his hand gripping her thigh. They ask, the entreat, all on their own, Naruto doesn't need to say anything for them to convey enough for her to understand that this has the potential to go much, much farther than she's ready yet. She's torn. She wants him to come back and do what he was doing again but she doesn't want him to think that this is an invitation to do more. Hazy and fuzzy-brained though she still is, there are lines and she's not quite sure where they are but she's not willing to cross them yet. But she really really wants him to kiss her again.

Even as she thinks this, though, she finds herself diverted as she looks at him--and she really looks at him, like she's never quite known his face before. A shift in perspective and suddenly he is comfortingly familiar and a stranger all at the same time.

[couragetodare]

He would kiss her if he could move. In fact, he will kiss her, as soon as he can move. Or, when he can think to move, because his mind and body has been short-circuited into stillness by ... things. Several things in fact, the foremost of which was probably that small smile Sakura offered him because he sure as hell didn't know what to do with that and he's been staring at it for several seconds now he knows, and the only thing that tears his eyes from it (from her mouth) is the touch of her hand to his face.

That halts him too, almost completely in fact, his breath falters, stops, and so does his heart. Or rather it sort of skips a beat or two, tripping over itself as his eyes narrow, infinitesimally at the touch. It's been- howlonghasitbeen?- months since anyone has touched him like this. Months and he's not sure what to do with it at first and he has recollections of older touches but they don't belong here and her fingers are smaller, lighter, still as calloused as the ones he remembers but they're not those, they're hers and he

[sucker_punches]

This is something of an exploration in contrasts. The way Naruto closes his eyes, tilts his head a little into her touch; and then again the look in them when he opens them, just a bit but that's all that is necessary for them to convey... well. Something. Something that makes her heart speed up. Tenderness one second, and heat the next, and she isn't sure which one she prefers. Maybe she doesn't have to decide. Both of them are present, blending themselves like paint until one becomes the other, and the other becomes the first, and there's no difference between them.

The first touch of his mouth is a relief; the second is an annoyance, once Sakura wises up to what he's doing. No, no, no. She doesn't want to be teased. She wants to be pressed back down again and kissed breathless and be made to feel like a woman, for once. (She's just seventeen but children grow up at an alarming rate in a ninja village.) A woman who can inspire passion like his. It's new and she's becoming hooked on it and Naruto is denying her, teasing her.

"

[couragetodare]

And so does he. Problem is, he doesn't know which route to take. There's the route that demands he hike her legs around his waist, propriety be damned, then grab her and haul her up into his lap so they can both be vertical, and there's the route that whisper he settle between her thighs right here and rock down, kiss her until she really cannot breathe and then maybe she will understand a measure of his want because it claws at the backs of his eyelids, slithers just under the surface, lines the insides of his ribcage, pounding with every beat of his heart and he's had a tight leash his want for Sakura for years really- had to, she would break him into pieces if he tried anything- and now that leash is unravelling and he's not sure what to do with this

[sucker_punches]

Sakura gasps, her eyes sliding shut. Whatever she expected, it wasn't quite this. She had provoked this no-longer-contained ferocity of his and she begins to think she may have gotten herself in over her head. If she had time to really think she'd wonder if he'd really held all of this in for her for so long. She knows Naruto loves her but this is something altogether... not different, but more, than love. He's certainly not holding back now, and that's what she wanted, but she hadn't known just how much he was really holding back.

She couldn't exactly regret goading him into this, though. In fact, her back can't help but curve up again, slightly, when he pins her wrists, the instinct to fight against that grip meeting the instinct to stay pressed up against his body in the motion. And her mouth does ache when his pulls away, and when he bites her it hurts and she thinks she might be twisted up somewhere because it's pleasureable because it hurts. Even when he rocks his hip against hers and she feels... that--and she does feel it--

[couragetodare]

He releases her immediately, planting his hands next to her head as he pulls back -again and why is he pausing now?- just enough to watch her as he breathes, as she breathes. Because he was forced to live in a world where sex was a prerequisite for survival once and the craving somehow seeped into his blood and it is only now that he is becoming aware of this. But it's not just that he wants, it's that this is Sakura. Haruno Sakura (his Sakura) and it is that he is very bad at waiting, woefully unpractised even and it is because maybe, just maybe he has been waiting for this ( maybe precisely her) all along

[sucker_punches]

"What about them?" It tumbles out before she can think because her brain is still having a bit of difficulty catching up with her mouth. Especially once he'd tugged on her lip again. It wasn't exactly waiting but she couldn't find it in her to be properly annoyed with him, so she didn't try. Once her wits do come back up to speed, she can sort of figure out on her own what about them all on her own and she blushes, again.

In this space, in this lull, she closes her eyes and just breathes, listens to him do the same. Feels him do the same against her lips, because he's still just a scant distance from them but he's waiting like she asked and she's grateful for that. Her hands come up to cup his head again, stroking through his hair gently, nothing of that heat and desire in the gesture. It's just something to occupy her hands with, an absent idle thing to do as she focuses on breathing and calming down, because she should really do that. They should really do that. This is going to spin out of control if they don't

[couragetodare]

He doesn't even think to move. Not immediately at least. His attention is divided. There are sensations here that are familiar. Her hands in his hair, though it's never been her hands before, not like this because this touch soothes, but he remembers something like it all the same and then across his shoulders and there are echoes of older feelings there too and Naruto understands enough to understand he is a little jumbled and so he spends a moment or three trying to untangle himself. And he hears her speak, understands she is in fact speaking to him and conscious thought scrambles to catch up- get a grip, Uzumaki- as he swallows again, licks his lips, forces himself to open his eyes and he does not answer her first question because really, Sakura is a smart person. But what comes after-

"You-" A careful breath. Try again. "You never need to apologise for somethin' like that," he murmurs. And he means it. Both for the act, and for wanting to stop. If anything is to happen then it will be at her pace and that is that. It is a little

[sucker_punches]

Naruto understands. He always does, so she's not sure why she was worried, but she was and it's a small relief to be assuaged. Perhaps she could have understood why that worry existed, or understand that it was unnecessary in the first place, if she'd understood much about this whole thing at all. She hadn't been thinking when she'd started, just acting.

Why? Sakura doesn't know why. If he asked she wouldn't know what to say. With Naruto her feelings aren't as obvious, as cut-and-dried, as they are with Sasuke. That she loves Sasuke is a fact not unlike knowing that grass is generally green, that the sky is generally blue, that the sun will rise in the east and set in the west. Just fact. Just basic, simple fact. Naruto, however... that is a more complicated question. It involves sorting through affections and different kinds of love and really, it's a good thing he doesn't ask, because she might not be able to answer him.

But it's not just getting carried away by hormones, she knows that. It's not just anything. That's just not who

[couragetodare]

There's a whisper of surprise when she leans into his touch. All things considered Naruto probably should not be surprised and he doesn't even quite understand why he is. He just is. In the same way he is still quietly -silently- coming to grips with the fact that this is he, and Sakura. Because there has never been a 'he and Sakura', not like this at least. In the friendly sense, sure, but it's a little obvious that they've stepped over that line. Actually, it's more like they have stepped over that line and left it in the dust behind them, trawled all the way to no-man's-land so that he has no idea where they are now. He's not thinking about it much either though, to be fair, because Sakura is leaning into his touch and though unexpected it is a pleasant response. It's as soothing as the fingers in his hair are

[sucker_punches]

Sakura laughs a little, or as much as she can with his mouth touching hers. There's a giddy breathlessness in the sound, a huff of air around his lips, but she can't help it, just like he can't help smiling. Naruto is all heart, she knows, emphatic and honest, and that little sheepish confession is that too. There's no subterfuge with him, no deception, and she will never have to wonder what he feels about her because he'll say it and mean it. At least, she shouldn't, and she doesn't now but while she's thinking clearly again, doubt, that ever-nagging thing, hasn't quite reasserted itself. Because, in part, she doesn't want it to. It's not welcome right now

[couragetodare]

Neither does he. There is something easy about this, the soft press of Sakura's lips, maybe too easy were he to consider it. Or maybe it is simply that this is right, as Naruto has discovered certain other things to be right. Cognizant thought isn't necessary, he doesn't give it a chance to creep in too much because there might not be enough space for Sakura and him and it right now. He doesn't want to entertain a doubt here because he does have them, they're as inherent to him as Sakura's past rebuttals are. They have a routine, she and him and this is such a massive departure from that routine that all logic suggests this is only an anomaly. Still, the fact is that Naruto has shut the door on logic for the moment, is ignoring it in favour of Sakura's mouth and the quiet giddy feeling sitting in his stomach because if it is one thing he understands is that sometimes logic is very overrated and right now logic can go to hell because this?

This is right.He half wants to tell her this, to murmur it against her mouth, to offer up that

[sucker_punches]

Right