SasuSaku Prompts

33. Compliment

prompt: Sasuke compliments Sakura

A/N: Oh, my god! I can't believe it's been three months since I last posted something. I'm really, really, sorry!  I cannot assure you that this would make up for the time I wasn't writing because I think I've lost my nonexistent 'touch'. Sorry, in advance.

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When he asked her to spar with him, her eyes widened so much, her mouth hanged open and he scoffed because it wasn't like it's the first time they would spar. Well, maybe it was, in a way. It's the first time he would spar with just her. Sparring as a team was different, he guessed. Naruto's in a mission and so was Kakashi, he did not exactly have a choice. 

He knew about her skills--witnessed them firsthand--and it's not like it was a surprise, considering she was well-known in the shinobi world as the girl-woman who had surpassed her master, no other than the hokage herself.

He had heard rumors, even before he came back. And besides, the bumps and bruises Naruto have almost everyday were a damn give away. An evidence to her strength, he smirked at that. The dobe probably deserved it, after all.

He knew her skills were good. He just never thought--never in his life--that she would be this good, that she would manage to take him down, even in a spar.

He can still feel the tip of the kunai on his neck, his arm twisted behind him in a vice-like grip, he knew right then, he had lost, although begrudgingly. 

"I won." He could sense her grin, her hold on him finally loosening.

He stood, and then turned to her. "Hn."

She sat down on the ground, her already wide grin stretching even more, if that's even possible. "I really won."

"That was one round." He won two out of three.

She raised her eyebrows, "I still won."

"Annoying" She only giggled.

He was about to walk away, to get his bottled water, when he realized something, and then he looked at her, again. "You were holding back before."

She was now looking up at him in confusion. "What?"

"When we spar as a group, you were not like this. You were holding back. Always." Why did that change? Why now?

As if knowing his unspoken query, she only smiled and said, "Well, this wasn't a group spar. I'm up against you, Sasuke-kun."

"You want to prove yourself." Still trying to prove yourself to me. After all this time.

"Yeah, maybe I am."

He wasn't expecting that. He stiffened before he restored his indifferent posture. She was looking at him with something he knew very well, having her declare it to him all those years ago, but refused to believe. That's impossible. She's supposed to hate me.

He couldn't stand it.

He turned around. 

She only smiled sadly, she knew it would end up like this, him walking away from her, like always. Some things never change, huh? she contemplates.

But she did not expect him to stop midway, and say something that made her heart stop before continued walking.

"Now you don't have to."