Two to Tango

Author's Note: Whooo, yay, another oneshot! I'm kind of 'off' Symphonies for the moment, but I'll continue it later. I'm just kind of out of ideas for the moment, although I'm trying to work on a KibaSaku at the moment, or maybe ShikaSaku since I'm working on C:ATS a lot. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this SaiSaku. It's my first, so feel free to give me constructive criticism. No flames on the pairing, please.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, because there would be some MAJOR Sakura-kick-butt-scenes, but since I don't this'll just have to do.

Two to Tango

It was a dance.

An odd dance, yes, and Haruno Sakura would be the first to agree to that, but a dance nonetheless. A dance to the music of shuriken speeding past, of the metallic clash of steel on steel as kunais slid against each other, to the sound of grunts and dull thuds as fists and feet met forearms, a dance to the sound of the satisfying crack of contact. It was a dance whose rythym was marked by the panting breaths they took, the shuffles of their feet on the ground and taps of the same body part on the trees, to the beat of the blood pumping furiously in their veins. It was a dance that drew the thin line between quick thinking and stupidity, between pride and insanity.

And Sakura was realizing that she must have been both extremely prideful and extremely stupid to accept Sai's challenge.

It had started out normally, the two walking with Naruto after an easy B-rank mission to Ichiraku for a bowl of ramen. Naruto had commented rather rudely about Sakura's monstrous strength, resulting in the inevitable eye-twitch and fist-clench, and then had followed this (obviously, he felt like living dangerously) with a remark about how cute she looked when she was angry. Laughing, he'd run away frantically as Sakura chased him, roaring that she'd tell Hinata and pound him into a bloody pulp for good measure. After giving him a sound thrashing, she appeared with him in tow, dragging him along by the ear. Sai had clucked and shaken his head and sighed.

"You know," he'd said as they sat down, "the dickless wonder is incredibly stupid."

"See?" Sakura exclaimed, happy to have found someone to agree with. "Even Sai agrees with me, Naruto. I mean-"

"You're really not pretty at all, happy or mad," Sai had finished, eating tidily.

Sakura had frozen dangerously. "Nani?" she asked, turning around, narrowing her jade-green eyes. "What was that, Sai?"

Naruto had been shaking his head frantically from behind her, moving his hands in a horizontal motion to tell Sai to shut up while he could still use his mouth.

The artist-nin had smiled emotionlessly at his pink-haired teammate. "You need a hearing aid, Ugly? I said you could never be pretty."

"That's what I thought you said," Sakura had snarled, cracking her knuckles.

He eyed her with the dull disinterest that made her want to throttle him. "You think you can beat me, Hag?"

"I know I can, Sai."

He had smirked in a manner not unlike Sasuke, eerily enough, and had finished his noodles in a last gulp, standing and putting money on the counter. "Well, then, Ugly, let's meet tomorrow at seven at the northeast clearing. We'll see about that then."

Slightly taken aback, her mouth had fallen open slightly, and she was staring at him. Recovering quickly, she had shaken her fist at him huffily. "Fine! I'll be there, Sai, and I'll beat you worse than Naruto!"

Needless to say, her beat-Sai-into-nothing-but-a-hitai-ate-and-set-of-clothing was being delayed, mostly because of the artist himself.

He just wouldn't stand still.

"Sai, come on! Get back here and take it like a man!" She cried into the trees, exasperated.

"You'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Ugly?" he taunted, jumping from tree to tree.

Growling, she withdrew a handful of shuriken and threw, the projectiles missing him by a mile.

"Wow, so you're ugly and have bad aim," he murmured, just loud enough for her to hear, tilting his head in a fake smile.

She smirked and moved her hands back, as if pulling something. The shuriken that had gone past him came back and twisted around him, tying him to a tree.

Wires. Why hadn't he noticed that?

As she leapt into the trees to meet him, he cut the wires with a kunai, throwing it at her. He back-handsprung away from her as she grabbed the kunai in midair, throwing it back at him and disappearing behind a tree. Landing catilke on a branch, Sai frowned. Where was she?

He caught a whiff of a cherry blossom scent and looked up just in time to be bodily tackled to the ground, hitting the ground in a less-forceful version of Rock Lee's Lotus move. Sakura flipped off of him and smirked, putting a hand on her hip. "Give up?"

He sighed from the ground, getting nimbly to his feet. "Don't think I'll let you off that easy, Hag. We've still got some fighting to do."

She rolled her eyes and ran towards him, making a rapid series of handsigns. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" Three more Sakuras spread from her as she ran. Molding chakra into their feet, the four Sakuras smirked. One stopped in front of him, the other leapt behind him, and the other two took their places at his sides. The front Sakura faked a kick, distracting Sai as the one on his right punched him in the gut. He quickly took a kunai and ran through both of them, turning to the other two. The one on his left barraged him with a series of kicks and punches that he dodged with some difficulty, weaving in between her flailing limbs. Finding an opening, he punched her, the clone disappearing in a puff of smoke.

He turned around to the last one and kicked it, only to look rather stupidly as it turned into a log. "Kawarimi!" he breathed, eyes widening slightly. "How did she... where is she now?"

Suddenly, there was a rumbling from below him. Sakura burst from the ground, punching him forcefully in the jaw, grabbing him by the shoulder, and forcing him into the ground. Sai stared at her.

"What, didn't think I was this strong?" Sakura dusted off her knuckles. "Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu. Inner Decaptitation Technique. Kakashi taught it to me."

Sai dissolved.

Sakura gaped. "Nani?" She gasped. "Ink clone!"

"Good guess," Sai said from behind her. She whirled around to be punched in the gut. Winded, she coughed, eyes narrowing in anger as he started a taijutsu routine. She dodged his punches, getting hit only twice, a credit to her speed. A shuriken in his fist grazed her cheek, drawing blood, and she kicked at him in a burst of anger. He grabbed her leg, but she pushed at him with it, using the momentum to twist herself around and kick him in the face with her other foot. Releasing her, Sai rubbed his cheek with a small scowl.

He leapt into the air as Sakura let fly a round of kunai. He dodged them in midair, and she leapt up to join him, the two engaging in a spout of sky taijutsu. Sakura grabbed him by the shirt and forced herself above him, extending her leg. Sai quickly dove towards the ground, but he was too late. "Tsutenkyaku!" Sakura shouted. The Painful Sky Leg descended on his back. Sai heard something crack painfully as he dropped towards the ground.

He quickly formed handsigns, smirking slightly as he pulled out his sketchbook and placed his finger on a bird. "Choju Giga!" The bird on his sketchbook slowly unfolded into real life, supporting him and flying him above Sakura.

Sakura was in awe, as she usually was whenever Sai performed his ink jutsus. The bird had unfolded in a dripping magnificance of blank ink, molding into a solid animal in the blink of an eye. It was a beautiful jutsu, a beautiful step to their dance. Her awe was interrupted, though, as a round of kunai was dispatched in her direction.

Her feet stirred dust on the dry floor as she stood her ground. She caught most of them and placed a couple in her teeth, one scraping her cheek just enough to draw blood.

Sai stared. She looked like some sort of wild battle goddess, with bruises on her face and arms, dirt and dust rubbing onto her body and kunai knives in her mouth and in between her fingers. Smirking slightly, Sakura let Sai's kunai fly back at him, one by one in forceful jerks. He halted his ink bird and threw shuriken, watching in satisfaction as they blocked the kunai. But wait, what was this? Where they were blocked, scraps of paper fell to the ground. He dropped from his bird as the last kunai was countered and stood among the pieces of paper, smirking slightly at the confetti around him. He picked up a scrap and his eyes widened. An exploding tag?

He looked quickly at Sakura, who was grinning widely and twirling a kunai with an exploding note tied to it around her index finger. With a jerk of her wrist, it landed on one of the exploding tags.

A huge series of thundering booms threw Sai off his feet and into a tree. Groaning at the heat and pain, he opened his eyes blearily.

"Ready to admit defeat?" Sakura asked smugly, strutting in front of him.

He shot a shuriken at her, and it doubled back, but she merely stepped to the side. There was no way to break her concentration! The steps of this dance went in perfect motion, but why wasn't he leading anymore?

There was only one way...

He got up with a small smirk, making Sakura feel slightly nervous. She shifted her weight. "Sai, what are you... ano..."

He was close. Too close. When had he ever gotten this close to her?

And then as she was running these thoughts in her head, his head dipped down and he was kissing her, a hand grasping her chin, another grasping her waist. His lips were hot and his eyes were closed, a certain sexy mysteriousness about the way his hair draped over his eyes and over her face.

Sakura was in shock. It was a good kiss. Hell, no... it was an amazing kiss. The best, out of many, she'd ever had. Since when was Sai a good kisser? Wait... since when did Sai actually kiss anyone? Her thoughts were broken off for the nth time that day when, to her extreme surprise and pleasure, his tongue ran a path down her bottom lip. She opened her mouth obediently, and it delved into her mouth, tracing patterns on her own tongue, which hesitantly came to meet his. Her arms went around his neck, and the hand on her chin went to the small of her back, pushing her closer to him, if that was even possible.

He broke apart suddenly, panting, and she realized in a haze that there was a kunai at her neck. He smirked smugly. "I win."

She growled at him and removed her hand, taking the kunai from him and throwing it into a tree, watching in satisfaction as it embedded itself thoroughly. "Shut up, Sai." She kissed him gently but firmly.

He smirked as she let go. "Hai, Sakura."

Sakura. Not Hag? She smiled, thinking of the dance. It was slightly chaotic now, but wasn't that how it was supposed to go anyway? As they kissed again, she giggled into his mouth, arousing a growl.

It was a dance that drew the line between wit and stupidity, between pride and insanity.

Sakura thought that she was pretty damn insane.