"Easy for you to say." Sakura grumbled, "Ino-pig is a Ninja Clan Heiress! She's got all the natural advantages over me-"
"-That she has been wasting." Naruto interrupted gently, "She's been slacking off on her training and dieting, neither of which you do anymore. That has closed the gap between you and her more than you might think. She doesn't know how hard you've trained or how much of a difference that will make. No, I'm not giving her enough credit. She might know that in her mind but knowing something as a theory and seeing physical evidence of that theory in action can be jarring. Use that to your advantage."
Sakura nodded as Naruto stiffened. "My Shadow Clone just dispelled. Ino and her parents are on their way up."
"Inoichi-oji-san and Saori-oba-san?!" the pinkette looked worried before turning a suspicious look on the blond in the room.
"I had no idea either!" Naruto said quickly, holding his arms up in a pacifying gesture, "It must be Ino's idea!"
"Damn you!" Sakura growled at her not-yet-present opponent.
Minutes later, the Yamanaka family entered the room and Ino was treated to Sakura's emerald-eyed glare. She responded with a shrug.
"Hey, it wasn't my idea, Forehead. Daddy and Okaa-san wanted to watch and wouldn't take 'no' for an answer."
"It's not often someone challenges my princess to a taijutsu match, Sakura-chan." Inoichi said mildly, "We wanted to watch and see how Ino does. You don't mind, do you?"
Despite the way he phrased it, the Yamanaka Clan Head wasn't asking a question.
Sakura reluctantly shook her head. "No, Oji-san."
Saori walked over and patted the pinkette on the head fondly. "Do your best, Sakura-chan."
"Hey!" Ino protested, "Whose side are you on?!"
Naruto cleared his throat. "I'll be acting as the referee, if that's acceptable?"
"Sounds good." Inoichi said with a nod, "Be fair though."
"I wouldn't be anything else." Naruto promised, "Take your positions, please."
Sakura and Ino took the centre of the training room while Inoichi and Saori leaned against one of the walls. Naruto took a position between and to one side of the two kunoichi aspirants.
"This fight will be a best of three matches." Naruto said firmly, "A round ends when one of you lands on your back or front as a result of the other's actions, I judge you to be unable to continue fighting or if you are forced to tap out of a submission hold. If I tell one of you to stop, you will stop of forfeit a round. Is that understood?"
He had looked up formal language especially for this occasion.
The girls nodded once each.
"OK then. Please make the Tairitsu no In." he directed.
Both of the girls complied, emerald eyes locked onto teal counterparts as the two frenemies stared each other down.
"Hajime!" Naruto said before leaping back out of the line of fire.
Ino moved in and lashed out with a basic punch that seemed way too slow for Sakura, who dodged it easily before grabbing that arm and throwing a surprised Ino into the air with unexpected strength. The blond girl flipped in mid-air and landed safely though, glaring in surprise and consternation at her frenemy.
Sakura, for her part, was surprised. Granted, she had been sparring against Naruto for over a month and he was much faster than Ino, and she had been getting stronger as a result of her exercises, but she had never dreamed that she could counterattack a Ninja Clan kunoichi like Ino so easily!
"Nice move, Forehead!" Ino called with a smirk as she straightened up, "Not good enough to put me down though!"
"We'll see about that, Pig!" Sakura replied with a smirk of her own, "If you are holding out on me, you might want to stop it. I'm not the same girl as I was a couple of months ago."
Before Ino could respond verbally, her rival darted in and let loose a quick one-two punch combo before driving an elbow into Ino's solar plexus, driving the wind from her lungs and making her collapse to her knees, wheezing.
"Round goes to Sakura-chan!" Naruto declared with a barely concealed smirk.
"Well done." Saori whispered, with her husband nodding in agreement.
'What the hell?! She…she was way too fast!' Ino thought in disbelief as she got her breath back, 'No…it wasn't that she was fast; she was economical with her movements. She wasted as few moves as possible and hit me faster because of that! What the hell has Naruto-baka been teaching her?!'
"I did warn you that Sakura-chan would kick your ass, Ino-san." Naruto remarked blandly, earning him a glare from his fellow blond.
"I haven't lost yet!" the Yamanaka Heiress snarled before standing with a wince and assuming a defensive stance. Apparently she wanted Sakura to come at her, despite the fact that hadn't worked out so well for her the last time.
Naruto almost groaned as Sakura took the bait and charged at Ino, but barely managed to suppress it. Despite her intelligence, she had a remarkable fondness for direct action in hand-to-hand combat. Attack as the best form of defence, he had heard Iruka-sensei call it.
This time it was Ino who danced out of the way of Sakura's attack, swiftly (although still slowly to Naruto's eyes) unleashing a triple kick combo that had Sakura on the defensive almost at once. Naruto had noted that about Ino. She had long legs and did prefer to kick rather than punch if given the choice.
"You're thrashing your legs like an upturned pig!" Sakura teased.