Naruto: Blind

"As I told you yesterday, we're going to be starting taijutsu training today," she said getting right the point, "I don't know how much you relied on hand-eye coordination when striking your opponents, so I want to test your skill. Hit me."

"What?"

"You heard me," she replied with an amused smile, "Don't hold back."

He frowned and did not move. "I don't want to render you unconscious."

A frown of her own creased her face; why was he hesitating? She was surprised; she thought that Sasuke would have swung at her with no second thoughts. She didn't think that he could hurt her, but apparently he thought otherwise; she wasn't sure if he was overconfident in his skill or if he thought that she did not have much skill herself.

"You won't. Even if you do manage to hit me, I'll be fine," she replied in a curt tone, then repeated: "Don't hold back."

He raised a fist uncertainly, taken up a fight stance. She took one up as well, not so much so that she would attack him, but so that she could dodge any hits he threw at her. She did not doubt the Uchiha's skill at all.

"Too scared to hit me?" she taunted, deciding to attack his pride—something she found herself doing more and more, "If you were a man, you wouldn't act like a coward."

Perhaps that was laying it on a bit thick, he saw through the last statement fairly easily.

"I would be a man to hit a woman?" he smirked slightly.

"No," she replied evenly, a smirk on her own lips now, "To hit a kunoichi, don't be scared to hit me."

"I'm not," he replied coldly, her comments beginning to rub him the wrong way, "I'm worried to hit you."

"Coward," she remarked mockingly.

He really looked like he really was about to hit her, but at the last moment he restrained himself. Her frown of displeasure deepened; Sasuke would have hit anyone by this point, but the fact that he had not yet tried to hurt her suggested strongly that he was indeed concerned for her. Of course that wouldn't do, because she couldn't find out anything if he refused to fight.

"When I sparred with Naruto, he wasn't scared to hit me," she tried again, keeping the face of taunting him, "He took it like a real training session."

"Fine," he snapped angrily at her, clenching his fist tighter, "But don't complain if I hurt you."

With that statement, he swung his fist at her, aiming at her face, where the sound of her voice had come from; she had anticipated this and simply shifted slightly to the left, his fist soaring harmlessly by her ear. His speed had been extraordinarily quick, Inner Sakura was telling outer Sakura, as expected. His speed was up from his genin level, granted, but even though she had taken it into consideration, the speed was remarkable. But something didn't sit right—even with the speed, he wasn't going as fast as he potentially could, he was holding back.

Outer Sakura took in this information from Inner Sakura subconsciously, not paying much attention to it as she became aware of Sasuke's left fist coming in lower for a second swipe, attempting to land a hit on her before he hit the ground. The momentum of his first punch threw off his balance, and as he fell past her, he made a second attempt with his other hand, using the force of falling to give more strength to his blow. Sakura knew immediately that she wouldn't be able to dodge this hit without leaping clear of the fight completely, which would be unfair in the close-proximity combat, considering Sasuke's condition. Focusing chakra in her hand she reached out and grabbed his incoming fist; the blow would have broken her hand if she didn't use the chakra to cushion it.

Sasuke was now falling on her right, his left arm pinned underneath him and unable to move it because she was hanging onto it. Taking advantage of the position, Sakura pulled on his left fist, pulling his shoulder, and consequently causing his whole body to be jerked unceremoniously over. He twisted in the air as a result of her pull and continued to spin until he was completely over; Sakura had not released his hand, and when he landed roughly on the ground, his left arm was in the air, restrained by Sakura, and her foot was on his back, pinning him to the ground. In a last feeble attempt to strike her, he swung his right arm around behind him, trying to hit her foot off his back. Sakura merely raised the heel of her foot and effectively trapped his right wrist under her heel when it arrived.

"Okay, that was good," she told him after a moment, Inner Sakura briefly basking in the glory of victory. She released his arm and took her foot off his back, and as he stood to his feet, grumbling, she gave him a hand, "You did very well: your aim was good, surprisingly good; you compensated for my dodge and tried to hit with your other hand. Contrarily, once you had initiated those attacks, you couldn't guess where I went from there."

"Obviously," he spat grouchily as he grabbed his arm away from her, and she could tell that he was irritated with her. Sakura smirked; poor sport.

.

.

.

‼️If you want to access to more than 400 advanced chapters, wait no more and subscribe to my Ko-Fi, where you can buy books in completely downloadable PDF format.‼️

☕️ko-fi.com/skyarc☕️