"Stop fixating on my hands," said Sasuke calmly, as he effortlessly dodged Sakura's cross counter. "Keep my entire body in your field of vision for as long as you can. Only close the gap and strike when you're certain you can land a killing blow."
"I'll try to keep that in mind," said Sakura miserably, wiping her bloody nose with her sleeve. "Ugh, my head is spinning…"
At this hour of the morning, Sakura would normally still be in bed, lost in her lewd dreams. But today, much to her irritation, she'd been rudely awakened and hauled off to the old, abandoned Uchiha compound's training grounds.
In Sasuke's own words, it was high time she learned to fight like the Uchiha she was!
"Your eyes will do your work for you, if you'll let them," said Sasuke dispassionately. "…and remember to blink when it's safe— now, come at me again."
"Shannaro!" shouted Sakura, launching herself at Sasuke once again.
Sakura stepped forward with her left foot and sent out a left jab to test the waters. When Sasuke raised his arms to block, partially obscuring his own field of view, she quickly transitioned into a low kick, which he easily checked.
"I wouldn't recommend blocking my attacks," said Sakura, her eyeballs moving rapidly as they exchanged a flurry of blows. "If I use Chakra Enhanced Strength, they'll have to reattach your limbs at the hospital, y'know~"
"Stop talking," grunted Sasuke, jumping over her leg sweep. "Fight."
Despite his words, Sasuke began deflecting and evading her attacks rather than absorbing them outright. From the craters he'd seen her carve into the ground with her fists and feet, he knew she could hit harder than he ever could!
'Annoying,' hissed Inner Sakura, as their sparring session progressed. 'Stop moving, will you!?'
With his three-tomoe Sharingan's insight, Sasuke's prescience bordered on the supernatural. Even when Sakura was about to leave his line of sight, he'd still be able to gauge her intentions by tracking the flow of chakra in her body and reading the involuntary twitching of her muscles. Paired with the blistering speed he'd gained from his specialised Lee-style training under Kakashi-sensei, he was invincible in a pure contest of Taijutsu. The only reason Sakura could even touch him was because he was allowing her to!
Sakura stepped in with her left foot and fired off a straight right, but her punch was immediately parried. Undeterred, she leapt into a Konoha Whirlwind-style kick, only for Sasuke to duck beneath it. Seizing the opportunity as his head dipped low, she grabbed the back of his neck with both hands and tried driving her knee into his face— but before she knew it, Sasuke tackled her, grabbing her kicking leg and sweeping the other out from under her, slamming her hard onto her side.
Sakura scrambled to her feet and glared at Sasuke, tears of pain in her eyes.
How dare he bully her this way! If Ninjutsu and Genjutsu were allowed in this spar, she'd have already vaporised him a dozen times already!
"You've noticed it too, right? I saw you struggling more than you should have when we were fighting against the shinobi of the Hidden Star," said Sasuke, eyeing Sakura critically. "I know what you're going through. I went through the same experience during the Chūnin exams."
With Nanashi's Sharingan and Minato's extraordinary nerve impulse speed, Sakura could follow Sasuke's movements with ease. The problem, however, was that her physical body couldn't catch up with her senses— her brain was issuing commands to her limbs and the message was getting there, but her muscle fibres couldn't twitch and contract fast enough to keep up.
In her mind, she was already moving— dodging, countering, striking— but in reality, her body was lagging behind. There existed a gap between perception and action where none had existed before; blows she could have once easily avoided were now landing clean, so this ping was something she urgently needed to get used to.
"Well, sorry," Sakura grumbled. "I'm not some prodigy who awakened the Sharingan at eight years old, like you, Sasuke…"
"What are you talking about, Sakura?" said Sasuke in confusion. "I awakened my two-tomoe Sharingan a year ago, when we were fighting against Haku in the Land of Waves."
Sasuke hadn't realised it at the time, but he'd already awakened his one-tomoe Sharingan on the night of the Uchiha massacre. His Sharingan had briefly popped up again when Sakura's breasts had started growing before his eyes during dinner at Tsunami's house, and once more by accident while fighting alongside Sakura, but it wasn't until Naruto got hurt that he got his second tomoe. After that, he'd go on to use his Dōjutsu as a last resort during the Chūnin exams, but it was only once the exams had concluded that he'd gained enough chakra to use his special eyes on a regular basis.
"Forget I said anything," said Sakura waving her hand. "Say, do you always push yourself this hard, Sasu…"
Sakura's voice trailed off. There were two masked ANBU members observing her from the sidelines, though to her disappointment, neither of them were Gekkō Hayate's hot girlfriend.
"Haruno Sakura," the dog-masked ANBU called out to her. "."
"Lady Tsunade usually sends another Genin if she needs to fetch me," said Sakura, tilting her head quizzically. "Is there something urgent at the hospital?"
Alarm bells started ringing in Sakura's head.
"Your friend can take care of collecting your belongings," said the rabbit-masked ANBU menacingly. "You will . Now."
"Lead the way, then," said Sakura suspiciously. "I guess I'll be right back, Sasuke."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
Back when his parents were still alive, he'd overheard them talking about something . Rumours of Kekkei Genkai and clan shinobi being forcefully taken by the village's darkness. Feeling slightly worried, he glanced in Sakura's direction, but she slowly shook her head.
"STOP RIGHT THERE!" came a girl's voice from a rustling bush.
Startled, Sakura, Sasuke, and the two ANBU members turned toward the bush that had inexplicably gained the ability to talk. To Sakura's surprise, Karin's fiery red hair suddenly burst out from the top of the bush, tree branches taped to the sides of her head for camouflage. Somehow, Sakura and Sasuke had completely failed to notice her presence during their training session— her ability to conceal her chakra was simply a divine gift for stalkers like her!
"Since onee-sama is always asking me to check if anyone's around when she's about to do something naughty, I decided to memorise each and every chakra signature coming from ANBU headquarters!" Karin declared proudly. "I don't know yours, so who are you really, you fakers?"
"Kyaah!" squealed Karin, wrapping her arms around herself and wriggling her body like a worm. "I didn't think it was possible, but onee-sama's somehow become even cooler with her new eyes!"