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Sakura adjusts her black gloves with a smirk.
“Are you sure you’re ready for this, Lee?” She taunts despite the sweat gathering at the nape of her neck.
“I am always prepared to engage in a passionate display of youth with you, Sakura-san!” Lee declares with a wide smile.
An unladylike snort escapes her. Lee could manage to say the most ridiculous things that border on innuendo with a straight face.
“You asked for it.” Sakura replies.
Lee shoots her another blinding grin as he stands ready in his usual pose. If she didn’t know that he couldn’t mold chakra, she’d assume that it’s a genjutsu. Yet it seemed that the sun truly chose to shine on him.
Sakura doesn’t waste a moment as she throws herself towards him. He neatly dodges the first punch she aims towards his face, countering with a fist of his own.
She drops down to sweep his feet out from under him.
“A good tactic, my springtime blossom!” Lee shouts as he flips back and aims a roundhouse kick towards her head.
Sakura keeps a disgruntled comment about him complimenting a failed attack to herself.
Lee’s animated compliments were always genuine. It was one of the things she liked most about him – he wore his heart on his sleeve. An undesirable trait for a shinobi, but Lee broke conformity in every way he could. She admired that about him.
Sakura appreciated that he never held back against her – something that both Naruto and Kakashi-sensei still struggled with, despite her training under Tsunade-shishou. With Lee it felt like he saw her and her development, not just who she used to be or who they wanted her to be.
Her thoughts are interrupted by a feigned kick towards her midsection. Only she realizes a second too late that it isn’t feigned. It connects.
She flies back across the training ground until her back slams into a tree. A groan builds in her throat as leaves fall down around her.
Rather than rushing to her side or apologizing, Lee shifts back into his signature stance. He’s ready for her to come at him. He knows she won’t let a hit slide, that she’ll attack with twice the ferocity.
Something warm unfurls in her chest, like a spring leaf striving to reach the sun.
Lee has never underestimated her – in fact, sometimes it felt like he was the only one of the remaining Konoha 12 that respected her.
He would buy her dango after grueling hospital shifts, challenge her to spars or ridiculous challenges when she was stressed.
Sakura realizes with stunning clarity that Lee is precious to her.
She’d been aware for a long time now that he was one of her precious people. But now she had an inkling of just how important he was to her. All the interactions where he’d wormed his way into her heart had been natural – not forced, nothing that made her feel the need to change the way she acted around him.
A smile tugs at the corners of her mouth as she gets to her feet.
“I bet you can’t land another hit on me.” Sakura challenges as she cracks her knuckles.
Lee is smart enough to look worried at the action, but his enthusiasm for a good spar quickly wins out.
“If I cannot land another hit on you, I will run 500 laps around Konoha on my hands!” Lee announces. There’s an excited glint in his eyes.
“How about you just treat me to dinner instead?” Sakura suggests.
She can feel her heart pounding inside her rib cage, caused by more than just the rush of a good fight.
“Dinner it is! Anywhere you’d like, my youthful friend!” Lee readily agrees.
Sakura pauses.
“As a date.” She clarifies as she settles into her own stance.
It’s visible when her words sink in.
Lee’s thick eyebrows raise and his mouth drops open.
“You… You mean that?” He asks, stance suddenly loose and unsure. He’s doing everything but scuffing his sandal through the dirt.
A gentle smile upturns the corners of her mouth. “I do.” She confirms.
His dark eyes become troublingly shiny and Sakura distantly wonders how she’ll handle the waterworks. It’d feel rude to brush them off like usual when she was the cause of them this time.
“Yosh! Then I must win! For your hand!” Lee holds up a clenched fist.
A laugh bubbles out of her. “Lee, we’re going on a date regardless. This spar just decides who pays.”
She’s enchanted by the way his wide smile softens into something small and sweet. She’s never seen this smile before. It feels special, like it's just for her.
Lee steadies himself and holds out his hand, the other tucked behind his back. His eyes twinkle as he gestures her forward with a curl of his fingers.
Sakura grins with too many teeth. She wasn’t going to make it easy for him him, despite the money she’d squirreled away from overtime shifts at the hospital.
She charges, a whirl of pink and red. They exchange blows and dodge kicks. It’s a dance, one that only they know the steps to.