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He threw his head back as sweat pearls ran down both sides of his face and turned on his heel to dodge the incoming punch. Even with weights on both legs and arms Lee was still very agile and fast, a skill he had trained hard to achieve over his childhood years and then honed even more following his injury in the Chuunin exams. Now, with the weights off, nobody could keep up with him and he was proud of that. If a mission required speed he was the one that was addressed first.
When it came to raw strength however, Lady Tsunade and in accordance with that Sakura were out matching him at a tenfold. Both women had built muscle mass over the years that Lee had never built like that (his natural build was just different and kept him lean even when he was strong) and so they were unmatched in a one on one fight. Especially since they could mould chakra well for their work as healers and concentrate them to their fists, which led to the overwhelming power of their punches. Defeating them would mean having to be agile like he was because taking one of these punches could knock you clean out.
That was why Lee liked working with Sakura and he supposed Sakura liked training with him too for a similar reason. Lee learned how to take harder punches or avoid the deadly ones and Sakura learned accuracy against an opponent that was fast and agile. Yes, Lee would probably win against her with weights off, but this wasn’t a real one on one fight, this was just training.
He jumped backwards and pushed himself up on his hands to escape the avalanche of stones that had appeared out of the earth. Sakura had punched down and ripped it clean open, but Lee was faster than that and so the only thing that was affected a little was his leg. He felt the cut before he saw the blood. Ouch, but nothing to be done about it.
“I’m sorry, Lee,” Sakura said and stopped for a moment, but Lee shook his head so that his hair was flying. “I can continue,” he offered her a thumbs up that had her smiling.
The only reason he had been hit, Lee concluded, was that his left arm still wasn’t as strong as it could be. The injury on both of his arms had largely healed and he was stronger now than he had ever been, but sometimes, after a long training session or mission, the left one got a little shaky. As if the nerves suddenly couldn’t handle the strain at all and needed a break. “That will never change, Lee,” Tsunade had said. “You are lucky you can still work as a shinobi, so it’s better to just accept that.”
Sakura knew too, of course. THere were days when he came home from missions and his arm was shaking so nervously that he couldn’t undress himself. In those times she would give him soothing ointments or calm the strain with a healing jutsu or other so that he could recover. She probably had noticed his shaking and was worried now, but Lee wasn’t ready yet to give up this training session. Not when he was so close to figuring out this new move he was trying to pull off.
Lee pushed himself forward and then jumped right over Sakura’s head. She just stared at him with attentive eyes knowing full well that she wouldn’T be able to follow him to these heights. Still, she pushed her fist into the earth and shot another stone upwards. He had assumed she would do that and couldn’t help but grin. He spun around just enough so that his right hand could directly go through the stone as if it was nothing more than butter to slice through. The two halves fell apart and Sakura needed to dodge not to be hit by them.
If he would improve this specific technique he would be able to cut through everything Gai-sensei had said. Be it earth or steel or wood. He was excited about that. It made him feel like a superhero from the manga he had read as a child.
Still, Sakura knew him well too, so once he was on his feet again she started her counter offensive, her right fist ready to go for him. “Got you,” she said once she was close enough to him and swung her arm, which gave him no option but to jump on his left arm to dodge.
Crash.
HIs left arm hadn’t been able to hold his weight any longer and he toppled over and crashed face first into the ground. For a moment Lee lost sight of whatever was happening in front of him, too much dust in the air and everything in front of his eyes spinning too. HIs nose hurt and his left arm was also shaking painfully.
“Lee, Lee, hello, Lee, are you awake?” He heard Sakura’s voice through such a filter that it seemed as if she was miles away.
Then there was a sudden warmth on his arm spreading first from soft fingertips through his insides to his head. Sakura was healing him, he realised, just like she was always soothing his nerves when he was straining himself too much. Slowly his mind stopped spinning and he could push his eyes open again.
He was lying on his belly on the ground, both arms pushed away to the side. He turned his head and found Sakura hunched over him, the green light of chakra healing almost obscuring her face but he could still see that she was biting her lips like she always did when she was a little frustrated with something.
“Sakura…” he said weakly but she threw him a look that told him to be quiet for now. He felt a little ashamed that he was causing her such trouble, especially after she had extra checked in with him to give him an option to end their training session and he had declined it.
Soon the shaking stopped and Lee could feel strength returning to his arm. Sakura stopped with the chakra infusion, but she kept her hand on his arm and stroked over the bandages like she sometimes stroked over the scars beneath it. Lee tried to push himself up on his right arm so he could sit up, but Sakura was faster than him.
“Let me help you”, she said and crouched over so he could throw his arm around her shoulders. This was also something he had needed to learn. The younger version of himself had always promised himself that he would be the one that would take care of Sakura and protect her, but Sakura was really capable too of not only protecting herself, but also helping him in return.
She pulled him up and set his back up against a tree so she could examine him again. “Why didn’t you say you are bleeding!” she said in alarm and softly touched along Lee’s nose which seemed to be broken. “Really Lee, you have to be more careful during training. All your practice has no use if you end up injuring yourself so much that you can't fight anymore.”
While she was slowly touching over his face, infusing chakra where he had small injuries, his eyes were focused on hers the entire time. Sakura had always been very beautiful to him, but when she was concentrated and working she was the most beautiful. Especially when she was taking care of him. He smiled.
“Tsunade-sama has told you that your left arm is weaker than your right one,” Sakura said in her stricter teacher voice. “And that you should not strain it too much, especially when the nerves are giving in. We don’t know if they could sever again if you aren’t careful. So please, Lee, promise me you won’t ever do it again. Especially not in training.” She furrowed her brow. “And don’t lie to me again when I ask you if you are alright.”
Lee laughed. He couldn’T help it. Her behaviour was cute when she was worrying over him like this. Of course she was right and he was putting himself in danger, but if that meant that she was going to take care of him like this…? Maybe love did make you a little selfish.
“Lee, promise me !” She repeated.
He looked up and smiled at her. “You know, this is all still kind of hard to get used to…”
She put her head to the side like children did if they didn’t understand something: “What is?”
“Being someone that somebody would care for like this,” he replied with a quiet smile. “Someone somebody else would worry about.”
A moment passed in which Sakura said nothing and Lee just kept his eyes on his hands, then, suddenly, she pulled him into a hug. “Idiot,” she said and sounded a little like she was crying. “Of course I worry about you.”
He wrapped his hands around her and just held her like this, his nose half buried in her hair. There had been a time when Lee had thought that Sakura was just naturally warm. That her skin and her body emanate warmth like a little heater, to keep him warmed up no matter the situation or weather. But then he had once talked to Ino about it, who had shared my sleepovers with Sakura when they were younger, and realised that no, Sakura wasn’t warmer than any other person. She was just warm to him . It had nothing to do with unique circulation or such, it was all connected to how he felt when she was holding him close.
“I’ve seen you injured, you know,” Sakura pulled away a little, just far enough so she could look straight into his face. “It was horrible and I don’t want to ever have to see it again.”
Lee smiled and tried to look as apologetic as he possibly could: “I’m sorry.”
“You better be,” she pouted a little. “You gave me a heart attack when I saw you fall apart like that. I thought I might have hurt you by accident! I like training with you, because you look especially cute when you are focusing on your abilities… but not if that means you end up injured like this!” She knocked her forehead into his. “I know I’m repeating myself, but I want you to carve it into your mind. I care about you, a lot. So please promise me to stop overdoing it.”
Sakura called him cute all the time, after all that was sort of how they had started dating in the first place. She had of course known about his feelings ever since they were children, but she had only gradually started liking him back. One day she told him that she realised that she thought he was actually really cute (and she added: in the handsome sort of way) and the rest went from there. Still, it didn’t ever lose its effect. Nothing could make him blush quite as easily.
He learned forward and pressed a light kiss to her cheek. “I promise,” he replied and squeezed her arm just enough to show that he meant it.
Wonderfully, the kiss made Sakura blush a little too. She found herself quickly again though: “Also, don’t tell me Tenten doesn’t also care for you! And Gai-sensei! They both worry about you and care for you very much! Don’t you disregard them with such nonsense talk.” She shook him a little.
“Right, right, yes, of course, I would never claim such a thing,” Lee waved his arms defensively. “But with you it is different. It makes me happy that it is you that takes care of me. If it is you, it makes me so happy that I can’t describe it. Everything about you makes me so very happy.”
Her blush deepened and for a moment her eyes went wide and he knew her well enough to know he had touched her with what he had said. “Ah, Lee, don’t say such things,” she replied, averting her eyes from his. “It’s too much.”
Lee pulled her into his arms again and tangled her fingers into his hair. He could have continued for several hours about all the things he liked about her and the things she did that made him happy and even more about the things she had done for him that he was thankful for, but for now he felt like just holding her like this said enough.