Child of the Moon

Ino vs Sakura and something on the side

The two girls stood opposite each other, and Tsukiko watched quietly to see what would happen. They'd been at each other's throats for some time, and it was grating to hear them belittling each other so often. She knew they still cared about each other deeply, but sadly they'd let a boy get between them.

An unwilling boy, at that. Well, kind of. Tsukiko suspected that Sakura had a lead on Ino in that department, but she was going to keep that to herself.

She could detect a fair bit of mixed reactions from the various teams. Asuma was naturally confident in Ino's abilities, and Nanami seemed equally sure of those abilities. Yet there was a concern from Ino's team that she wouldn't be able to bring herself to fight Sakura seriously.

"GO SAKURA!" Naruto was naturally oblivious to it all. "YOU CAN DO IT!"

As soon as the match was declared, Sakura and Ino ran forward, Sakura starting it all off with a high kick, that Ino dodged. Ino responded with a punch which was blocked and Sakura followed up with a sweeping kick, lifting her leg higher and swinging it back when Ino jumped up over the leg, but Ino simply ducked under the kick again.

"They almost seem equally matched," Tsukiko thought. "Except that they're obviously holding back. Neither actually wants to fight the other."

Sakura threw kunai knives, Ino dodging one, catching another and throwing it to deflect the last.

Naruto naturally took offense to all the complaining happening around him.

"That's it?" Neji questioned. "That's as good as kunoichi get at hand to hand combat?"

"It's not because they're girls, you know Neji," Tenten retorted.

Before Naruto could get any angrier, Aiyanna laughed and turned to Neji.

"It's like you forgot that Aki beat Shino in a fight, and she's a girl," she said. "But hey, we'll see how you fare against us girls later, ok hot-stuff?"

Neji scowled at the girl who threw him a wink before turning back to Naruto. "And Naruto, do you honestly think that's the best either of them can do? Because it's honestly a bit sad."

"What?!"

"Naruto," Tsukiko said. "Think about it. Do either of them look like they're taking any real damage?"

"Huh?" he looked back, and true enough, while winded, neither were actually looking like they'd taken any kind of significant damage.

Ino suddenly got an upper hand, after a punch to the gut left Sakura winded, but at the last possible second, her fist became an open-handed slap, as Ino seemed suddenly shaken by something. For a moment, it seemed like Ino would give up, unable to continue fighting her former best friend. But Sakura... Sakura wasn't going to let Ino back out. So she did the one thing she knew would get Ino riled.

She taunted her, claiming to be the better kunoichi. Rejecting Ino as a rival for Sasuke's affections.

Tsukiko chuckled to herself. It was working.

Ino got more and more riled until finally, she decided to fight seriously. It all accumulated in the two putting their headbands on their foreheads.

Once that had been done, the following punches held a lot more power, and it was clear. There was no more holding back.

"About time," Aiyanna chuckled. "I would never insult Aki like that by holding back. I'm glad they're taking this seriously now."

Nanami nodded, a soft smile on her face.