Chapter Text
It started like this : team 7 had just finished all of their D-ranks for the day and spent the rest of the afternoon training. Of course "training" here just means that Sasuke and Naruto yell at each other and spar for 4 hours straight while Kakashi sits back and reads his little orange book and Sakura cheers Sasuke on.
And you know, Sakura doesn't particularly mind that none of the boys think to ask her to spar, really, her dress is too cute to ruin anyways and besides, it's so much better to just watch Sasuke-kun beat Naruto up!
Yeah.
Sakura shakes her head and cheers again as Sasuke-kun delivers a rather nasty uppercut to Naruto, but the blond just gets back up and throws himself at Sasuke-kun as if he wasn't hit in the first place.
And Sakura wasn't envious, she really wasn't, that would be absurd. Who would be envious of the deadlast anyways? It's not as if the boys hesitate during their spars because they know she can't take a hit, or that between the three of them she's the slowest, clumsiest, and the one with the least stamina. She couldn't really do anything to improve that anyways, not with her incompetent excuse of a jounin sensei who hadn't so much as glanced at her way since the disaster that was Wave. It was fine.
Sakura shook her head before she went back down to that trail of thought and forced a ditzy smile on just as Naruto managed to trip Sasuke-kun into a pile of mud. Sasuke came up sputtering and Sakura couldn't hold back the giggle at the sight of him; he looked like a drowned cat compared to his usual cool appearance. She slapped a hand over her mouth, mortified of the idea of laughing at her crush, but luckily nobody seemed to notice.
(Would she call it luck if her own teammates didn't even glance in her direction)
Sasuke launched himself at Naruto with a battle cry (he sounded too much like a strangled cat to be threatening, really, a treacherous part of Sakura drawled) which instigated a full blown mud fight between the boys. Sakura knew that at this point no actual training would be achieved (and it's not like she was actually doing anything) and stood up, brushing nonexistent dirt off her skirt and smiled primly at Kakashi-sensei before picking up her bag and walking towards the exit of the training grounds. She unsuccessfully tried to make Sasuke-kun acknowledge her as she enthusiastically waved at him while expertly dodging Naruto and his date requests.
Sakura left the training grounds and the two boys training together like any other day and started her way home. Just another day with team 7. It's not as if Sakura noticed her lack of improvement, but who was she to doubt Kakashi-sensei, he was the jounin sensei here, not her.
Sakura sighed again and started her trek home, wondering if she actually had a place in team 7, before a green blur slammed right into her and knocked her off her feet.
Sakura squawked in surprise as she rolled on the ground and quickly sprung to her feet, fully intending to give whoever ungracefully body slammed her a thorough tongue lashing. But before she could open her mouth she was bombarded with a flurry of green spandex and shining hair.
"MY BLOOMING FLOWER OF YOUTH I SINCERELY APOLOGIZE FOR MY LACK OF GRACE!!", The boy - and he was clearly around her age - then bowed hastily with his hands clasped in front of him.
Sakura blinked at the strange boy in front of her - and strange he was with his eccentric green spandex and bowl cut and bushy eyebrows- before hesitantly replying.
"Erm, it's fine really, I wasn't looking where i was going so it's kinda my fault," And it was wasn't it? If she hadn't been brooding so much she would've noticed him, really she should pay more attention to her surroundings Sasuke-kun would never pay attention to her if she's that bad of a kunoichi.
The boy continued his apologies, unaware of her inner turmoil, "I am Rock Lee!! The Blue Devil of Konoha!! I must apologize again!! For I have just mastered a new taijutsu move and have been overwhelmed with the powerful Force of Youth!! And who are you, Beautiful Flower of Spring?!"
Sakura giggled slightly at the oddity of the boy - Lee - before answering, "I'm Haruno Sakura. It's nice to meet you Lee, even though we both almost got squished into the pavement,"
Lee struck another pose and grinned brightly at her, and if she wasn't already accustomed to Naruto's mega watt smile she might've been blinded.
"Sakura-chan!! A beautiful name to match a beautiful soul!! Would you like to go on a date with me!! I swear I will protect you until my death!!"
Sakura blanched at that, and was about to reject him, about to call his hair too weird and his eyebrows too bushy, but paused before she could form the words. Yes, her one and true love was Sasuke-kun but it didn't hurt to have experience, and besides, Ino-pig still didn't have her first kiss or boyfriend yet and there's no way Sakura is going to let her beat her! Besides, Lee was kind of cute if you squint and imagine him in anything but spandex.
(and she remembered, before Sasuke-kun, before Ino-pig, she was just a shy kid with a too large forehead and she'll be damned before she makes fun of another person for their looks)
"I don't know about the protecting part but you seem like a very nice person," Lee deflated at that, already imagining a rejection, but quickly sprung up again as Sakura raises her hand to continue, " and I'd like to go on a date with you to know you better,"
Lee slightly faltered in surprise, clearly not expecting her to agree, before jumping ecstatically and threw his arms around her in a crushing hug. Sakura wheezed in his tight grip before being abruptly let go by a stammering, blushing Lee. Sakura smiled at him before gathering her bag again.
" You said something about a taijutsu move?"
It started like this : Haruno Sakura had just finished another day of grueling D-ranks where she did most of the work as Sasuke-kun and Naruto squabbled, then useless training with an incompetent sensei and two annoying boys. She was lonely, tired , and sweaty and yet a random boy declared her to be beautiful.
She accepted to go on a date with him, and that might have just changed everything.