Another push, and I'm rocketing back towards my woefully off guard sparring victim. He throws up another hurried cross block in front of his face, but it's far too late for that. A feral grin twists my features.
"Lariat!" My right arm swings for his throat.
And the stupid asshole trips.
...
He falls backward onto his shoulders, curls up, and arches upward, and oh god my ribs. My vision flickers black as his feet catch me in the chest, sending me flying. The weight of a thousand Bijuu presses down on my ribs, and it takes all of my will-power to clench my teeth around pained sound and curl myself into a ball. I hit the ground hard, of course, completely avoiding the nice soft water sitting kindly a few feet behind me. I bounce a few times for good measure, coming to an abrupt stop on something smooth and squishy. Someone squeaks above me.
I crack an eye open and Sakura's surprised and concerned visage appears above me. Man, but is her lap comfy.
"You're in," I gasp. "Taijutsu only, full restrictions." I roll off of her, wincing.
"Wha-?" She's cut off quite handily by Sasuke leaping clear across the pond, no doubt hitting her with the full brunt of that constipated battle scowl of his. Sakura immediately bolts for the pond, leaving me to regain my senses one painful breath at a time.
My hand rubs tenderly at my chest. "I can't believe he just did that." I manage to sit up, hissing forcefully through my teeth. "What kind of shinobi trips on dirt?"
I make it back up after another minute or so of dramatic groaning, and find Sakura and Sasuke facing off atop the water. Well, Sakura is in a solid Taijutsu stance, at least- Sasuke is sort of stumbling around like my old caretaker after her date nights. Spotting an opportunity for painful mischief, I quickly turn and scurry up a looming tree.
My teammates meet in a brief bout of Taijutsu that is quite frankly painful to watch. Sasuke can't keep a solid footing to save his life and Sakura isn't good enough at Taijutsu to capitalize on it. I'll have to fix that. I shimmy up and over and across until I'm perched above them. They break apart for a breath, and I strike.
"Free for all!" I bellow gleefully, rocketing from the tangle of treetops above. Sasuke curses loudly, twisting and diving for the water. "Not this time you slippery bastard!" My arms wrap around his chest as I crash bodily into him, and I shove my face into his side just in time to avoid the frantic jab at my eyes. The pond swallows us up in the next instant while he squirms and thrashes and I squeeze tighter and tighter on his chest. After about a minute of struggling he goes limp.
I roll my eyes, leaning back and planting both feet against his head. Quick as lightning he breaks free of my now awkward grip and makes for the surface. There's an Uchiha for you. I kick my way up after him, surfacing to see him attempting to climb back onto the water while Sakura edges back from the two of us, her eyes on something behind me. I splash around.
Kakashi peers down at me curiously. "I don't think I've ever seen chakra control training done like that before," he muses slowly.
Oh goodie. "What can I say? I think outside the box," I reply. Kakashi nods pleasantly.
"Good for you. Now get out of the water- you have thirty seconds until our next combat session."
Sigh.
...
My shirt comes off with a wet tearing sound, dripping water and pink, diluted blood. I flop ungracefully to the ground, crossing my legs and set to work wringing out my soaked garment. I shake my sopping hair, grunting in annoyance. I snap my shirt out, eyeing it critically.
Yeah, it's not going to get much drier than that. I slip it back on, taking care not to put pressure on the large purple bruise on my right side or the shallow cut just above my belly button. Snapping my weapons pouch off my thigh, I empty it of its contents and wring it out as well. My gaze flickers to the right as I reach for a kunai to dry off.
My pretty- well, my female teammate- is sitting stiffly up against a training dummy log, pawing ineffectually at her own clothing. She hisses in pain, snatching her hand back from the sleeve of her battle dress.
Changing her mind, she peels the middle slit of the dark green material back, revealing smooth, wet, pale flesh. Bruised flesh. I wince at the sight of the ugly splotches of color traveling up her legs to the cutoff of her skin tight black shorts.
I deposit my kunai into the weapons pouch, reaching out for another while keeping a discrete eye on Sakura. She gingerly massages her thighs, and an honest to god whimper drifts past her lips. A whimper. I can feel my bleeding heart soaking through my shirt already.
"Well, I don't know about you three, but I had a blast that time!" Kakashi says happily from his leaning position against another dummy. In his left hand is Sasuke's sandal and dangling from his right is a double ended kunai still dripping with my blood. "You almost made me try."
"Gee, thanks," I mutter, grabbing a damp shuriken from the pile.
"Nobody likes a sore loser, Naruto," he chides.
"Then he's screwed twice over," Sasuke snarks from his tree perch. I scowl up at him, but decide it isn't worth the effort and turn back to my work.
"So are we going to pick up a mission today?" I ask, more out of desperate habit than anything as I swipe my final shuriken off on my stained orange pants. The answer was no the first day of training, it was no the second day, the third, the four, and the fifth. And now for the sixth-
"I don't see why not," Kakashi agrees. My head snaps up, eyes wide. Sasuke collapses to the ground a few feet beside me with a muffled grunt, startled right off his branch.
"Seriously?" I press. Kakashi nods.
"Of course. You three have learned the lesson you needed to learn, even if I didhave to give you the answer. You're ready."
"Wait wait wait," I say, waving my hands. "Let me get this straight. You're telling me we haven't done any missions yet because we weren't working together? We didn't even have to get the stupid bells!?" Kakashi raises a singular eyebrow.
"Did you really think I expected a team of genin fresh out of the Academy to take anything more than a beating from a veteran jounin?"
The worst.
"Does this mean we can start eating lunch again?" Sakura pipes up, timidly hopeful.
"Nope," Kakashi denies cheerfully. "Still need a bell for that." Sakura moans in dismay, clutching at her stomach.
"What kind of mission will we be going on?" Sasuke questions, climbing to his feet and stretching his nicked and bleeding arms above his head. Kakashi shrugs.
"Depends on what Hokage-sama gives us." He flicks his wrist and throws Sasuke's dark blue sandal back to him, spinning my kunai in his hand thoughtfully for a moment before tossing it underhand to me. "We won't be getting any missions if we don't hurry, though. The desk will be closing down soon."
That late already? My eyes turn skyward, and sure enough the sun is dipping behind the Nidaime's stone head, casting the distant village in shadow.
Time to go, then. Clipping my weapons pouch back to my thigh, I rise laboriously to follow Kakashi and Sasuke, who are already heading for the edge of the trees at an easy pace. I absently dislodge one of Sasuke's kunai from a training dummy and deposit it with the rest. Finders keepers, prick.
A quiet moan behind me stops me just as I'm about to leave the training ground.
"Idiot," I growl, rushing back to my female teammate. She has one leg curled underneath her and both arms pressing against the ground, struggling to stand. "Here, I've got you," I say quickly, wrapping my arms gently around her shoulders and lifting her up. She tenses, but stays steady when I let her go.
"I'm sorry," she blurts. "I've never been this sore right after a spar before."
"You've also never had the pleasure of getting your ass beaten black and blue by our wonderful sensei before," I reassure her dryly. She takes a few stiff steps, gradually relaxing into a steady walk. I fall into step beside her, taking turns studying my teammate and admiring the general orange hue of sunset-bathed Konoha.
"Hey, I meant to apologize," I speak up, when the silence becomes too much. "For sneaking off this morning. It was pretty screwed up of me."
"It's fine," she hastens to assure me. "It's mostly my fault, anyway. I didn't realize until you made that comment to Sasuke how your, ah, defect would affect you in combat. I just thought... well, I didn't think, really." She finishes meekly. A frown steals onto my face. Sasuke would have sooner slapped an Uchiha emblem on the back of his shirt than allowed me that much ground. What's up with this girl?
"That's hardly fair," I protest, to her surprise. "Not knowing the intricacies of my defect a week after we became teammates isn't a hard mistake to make. Of the three of us, Sasuke is obviously the one to blame," I declare.
"I've been kicking that guy's ass for years. He knows my fighting style inside and out. I wouldn't be surprised if he decided to hang back just to spite me." Sakura smiles at that, the ever present furrow lifting from her brow. Booyah, Uzumaki.
"Besides, you stuck by me today. Better late than never, eh?" I venture. Sakura bobs her head in agreement.
"Thanks, Naruto." She says softly.
"No problem."
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