Naruto: Rise of the Uzumaki by X009

Chapter 4

The clunk of wood clashing with wood rang out in the clearing as two kunoichi clashed. Sakura made several rapid strikes with her Bo staff, right, left above, below, only for Tenten to easily block each strike with her own.

The pink-haired girl leaned to the side to avoid a retaliatory jab at her chest before ducking down as Tenten swept the weapon to the side. She lashed out at Tenten's legs, only for the brunette to leap over her attack, flipping and spinning in the air to land on her feet.

Sakura immediately charged, spinning to add momentum to her next attack as Tenten landed. A sweeping blow aimed at her waist. Tenten kicked back out of range. Sakura brought her staff over her head and put all her strength into her next attack.

Tenten raised her staff and blocked Sakura's overhead attack with a final loud crack.

For a moment, the two strained against each other before Tenten smiled. "Pretty good, considering you just started a few weeks ago."

Sakura smiled back. "Thanks."

"But..." Tenten spun to the side and bent her staff, letting Sakura's weapon slip off and throw her off balance. She then jabbed at Sakura's side before following up with a kick that sent her to the ground. "You've still got a long way to go. Friendly piece of advice; if you ever get into that weapon lock like that, break it or back off ASAP. It's way too easy to take advantage of."

Sakura sat up, rubbing her side to ease the pain. "Yeah, I can see that." She replied as Tenten walked over and offered her a hand. "And I think I got another valuable lesson from all this."

"Oh, really? What?"

"Don't try to fight a walking arsenal with a weapon." Sakura smiled as that got a chuckle out of Tenten.

"Meh, it's not like close-range combat is my specialty. That would be more my teammate's shticks." Tenten said, placing a hand on her hip. "Fancy a trip to the hot spring? I know I could stand to unwind after back to back training sessions."

Sakura looked up at the sky and guessed there might be three hours of daylight left. Tenten was right; after training all day with Kakashi and then a sparring match with Tenten, all while her gear was weighing her down, a soak would be nice... "Sure. And thanks for all the help."

"Eh, don't worry about it. It's actually kind of refreshing to train with someone who isn't constantly screaming about 'youth.'"

A thought occurred to Sakura as they began to walk back to the village. "Hey, Tenten. You usually keep all those weapons in seals, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Tenten asked.

"Have you ever thought of branching out? Adding seals to those weapons?" Seeing the look Tenten was giving her, Sakura raised her hands. "It's just, well, one of my teammates has been learning wind jutsu lately and when we try to throw weapons at him, well..."

"Wind jutsu?" Tenten replied before looking upward in thought. She grimaced a moment later. "Yeah... my style probably wouldn't work well against something like that..."

"Maybe step up the training on close-range weapons? Or branch out with seals, like I said?"

Tenten thought before she nodded. She then smiled. "See? Helping you is paying off after all." Sakura smiled; glad to help her fellow kunoichi after all she did for her. "So, made any progress with that boy you like?"

"I wish..." Sakura grumbled before she brought her fist to her chest, a determined look on her face. "But I'm not going to give up." She then deflated as she remembered something. "Besides, I think my chances are better than they were before. I'm pretty sure how I acted before just annoyed him..."