There was no time to dodge.

Sakura's fist hit her right in the face. She saw the small spark of chakra fly down the pathways and explode. Out of the three things that hit her, the fist, the chakra, and the wall Hinata would have to say the fist hurt the most.

She wiped the blood from her mouth, not certain if it was from a fresh wound, or from a reopened wound from the last match. Either way, She refused to lose now. This was her chance to show them how strong she was.

If only Naruto was here to see it. Would he cheer for her? Or his teammate?

"You've gotten stronger Hinata," Sakura said just loud enough for her to hear. She was just as battered as bruised, if not more so. Sakura's hand hovered above the sealed chakra point Hinata had inflicted. It neutralized her right arm.

Hinata swallowed hard and assumed her fighting stance once more. Sakura was a dangerous opponent, but in theory, she had every advantage, she relied more on chakra than most of the other fighters. And if she continued to waste chakra trying to heal a chakra point mid fight it would only be a matter of time.

Sakura flexed her right arm hard, her well-formed muscles became pronounced. And chakra flared to life in the knuckles. "But there's no way I can lose here!"

Did she miss the spot? Was it not enough chakra? Or was Sakura just that amazing, to not only heal a damaged chakra point that fast but to do so in the middle of a fight. Either Sakura had improved more than she thought, or she was still the same weak girl that lost to Neji in the last chunin exams.

No, she wasn't going to give up. Naruto wouldn't give up if it meant becoming a chunin, so there was no way that she would give up here!

She would lose a war of attrition, and she would lose against Sakura's offense. With steeled resolve, Hinata rushed forward. "I won't give up!"

She couldn't lose there was no way she would lose here! Sakura's counter-attacked with a punch to the ground that dislodged the thick stone slabs that made up the arena floor. In theory, the Hyuuga favored flat terrain.

Shame she wasn't much of a Hyuuga. Hinata sprung off of one of the panels, she landed next to Sakura and had to dodge a vicious backswing and follow up punch. Both would have meant a swift defeat.

A thirty-two palms attack wouldn't be enough, she'd have to go above and beyond. If she failed now it would mean defeat. No room for error. She attacked before Sakura had a chance to recover.

Two, two, four, eight, sixteen. The first thirty-two flowed like clockwork, each hit landed where it was supposed to. The next thirty-two needed to be perfect. Hinata Twisted her foot and stepped on an uneven rock, her ankle rolled and hot pain surged through her leg.

She grit her teeth and pushed forward, the next thirty-two slammed Sakura hard enough to knock her back and away.

Pride surged through her. She did it. She performed the Sixty-four palms in live combat. She looked up to Neji, her cousin had that same prideful smile on his face. But it was directed towards her, shame her father wasn't here to see it. She allowed herself to smile and kept her combat stance at the ready.

Sakura wasn't that easy to defeat. The pink haired girl stood up battered and bruised. It reminded Hinata so much of Naruto. The way he always stood back up. The way he never gave up. Sakura had the same look in her eyes as Naruto did. Losing had become an impossibility for her. "S-stay down, Sakura, I've sealed your chakra points you can't win."

Sakura gave a hard short laugh and walked forward. She removed her glove, fingers clenched into a fist and her muscles coiled. "If I lose here, how can I keep up with them? Sorry Hinata but I'll beat you even without my chakra!"

Hinata's mouth went dry when Sakura charged at her. It didn't make sense, how was Sakura still moving? She should have been defeated with that attack! The look in Sakura's eyes was so much like Naruto. Had Sakura always been as determined as Naruto?

She tried to dodge Sakura's attack, but her ankle flared and her leg wouldn't move. Even without chakra, Sakura's punches still hurt a lot, probably harder than Kiba's or as hard as Neji's. The air was knocked from her as Sakura slammed into her stomach. She was off balance and falling.

Sakura spun around and drove her elbow into Hinata's stomach and grabbed Hinata's arm. She with a scream she redirected all of the kinetic energy into an over the shoulder throw. "I will not give up!"

Had Sakura always sounded so much like Naruto? They were so similar. Hinata gasped when she was slammed into the ground. Her entire body hurt. Sakura was above her, ungloved fist and bloodied knuckle ready to punch her face in.

She heard Sakura say something. But she didn't understand it. All she could do was stare at Sakura and smile. "You really are amazing Sakura."

She stayed awake long enough to see Sakura's eyes go wide and a small blush, appear on Sakura's face. It was kind of cute.

XXXX

A pink haired angle was healing her. She was barely awake the first time it happened, Sakura's fingers felt soft on her skin. And she could feel the warm medical chakra pour into her head and make the headache go away. It was like eating mint ice-cream.

She closed her eyes for a long time and saw Sakura rubbing her damaged ankle softly. It felt wonderful. She leaned up to get a better look at Sakura, There were still scratch marks on her and various bruises as well. "Sakura?"

Sakura jumped slightly and turned to look at Hinata with a soft smile. "Oh, Hinata you're awake, how are you feeling?"

"Better," Hinata said with a smile. "But, why are you healing me? Shouldn't you be going to the final round? Did I miss it?"

Sakura gave a small laugh and turned back to Hinata's ankle. She gave a soft shrug and continued to massage the bone back into place. "Well, after our fight, I was in no condition to fight another one, so I got yelled at by Master for being reckless and saying that I should have given up sooner because I'm a medic nin. This might hurt by the way."

Hinata gasped as she felt Sakura twist her ankle and snap it back into the place. It burned for a second and then felt remarkably well. "But that's not fair. Why would she yell at you, you did amazing! I think you should be made a chunin!"

"So does she, and I think you're going to make the cut as well, she seemed impressed that you didn't pass out when I punched you in the face the first time." Sakura gave Hinata a small smile and backed away from the table.

"You punch hard."

Sakura scratched the side of her cheek, a faint blush tinged her cheeks. "Side effect of Master's training and you hit pretty hard yourself, how long have you been able to do the Sixty-four-palms?"

"Actually that was my first time doing it correctly," Hinata admitted as she set up. She allowed her shoeless feet to graze against the cold floor of the infirmary room.

"Really, that's amazing Hinata!" Sakura clapped her hands once in excitement.

So much like Naruto. And yet so very different. Hinata blushed and had trouble looking Sakura in the eyes. They were such a pretty green too. "I just really didn't want to lose to you."

"The feeling was mutual, you're a really good opponent Hinata." Sakura stepped forward a step and grabbed Hinata's hand. She raised it up and forced Hinata to look her in the eyes. "Hey, I know! When we get back we should train together, both of our styles involve precise chakra control I'm sure that we could learn a lot from each other."

Their faces were so close. Hinata could feel Sakura's breath on her face, her breath smelled like cherry lip balm. If Naruto was this close she would probably faint. Her vision blurred slightly and she could feel her face slowly burn. "I… I yes! I would like that very much yes!"

"Awesome!" Sakura half cheered and spun around to sit down right next to Hinata. There was barely two hands between them. Sakura looked at Hinata and her smile vanished. "Hey, your face is red, are you feeling okay?"

"I um, yes!" So very much like Naruto. Why was she blushing? It was just because of the heat, yes that was it. "It's just rather hot in here."

"Well, Kiba should be."

The door opened up and Akamaru walked in first, his tail wagged frantically when he saw Hinata was up and about. The large dog bounded over to her and placed its head in Hinata's lap ready to be petted.

Sakura laughed and smiled at Kiba when he walked in the door. "Speak of the devil."

"Hey, do you have any idea how hard it is to find ice cream in the place let alone Mint ice-cream?" Kiba growled, he held out a small cup with two scoops of green ice cream in it and a flat wooden spoon. "How are you feeling Hinata?"

"Much, better thank you. Sakura is a fantastic medical ninja." Hinata flipped a bit of hair out of her face and looked at the Mint ice-cream Kiba held out to her. She took it without thinking. "Why'd you get me this?"

Sakura snorted and patted Hinata on the back gently. "Well, Kiba was so worried about you that when you started to mumble out Mint ice-cream he ran off to go find you some."

"I thought it would help!"

"She got knocked out because I punched her she didn't have heat stroke!"

"Well whatever, there's nothing better than ice cream after a doctor's visit anyways!"

Hinata laughed at her friends and gave Akamaru a soft pat on his head before she accepted the ice-cream. She did admit Mint sounded good right now. She took a small bite and had to squeal in delight. "Oh, my thank you Kiba this is delicious!"

That got Sakura's attention. She looked at the bit of ice-cream still on Hinata's spoon and smiled. "Oh really? Let me try."

She brushed her hair back and leaned forward. Hinata felt Sakura's lips on her fingertips. Sakura slid back on the spoon, there was no ice-cream left on it. Sakura hummed happily and nodded. "That is really good."

Kiba stood there with his mouth open. "Well, that was hot."

Hinata sat on the bed red-faced as Sakura chased Kiba about with shouts of pervert and condemning the male race to a bunch of perverts. Slowly she took a second scoop of Ice scream and sucked on the spoon for a bit longer than necessary.

The mint was good, but she could taste Sakura's cherry lip balm as well. The two combined tasted wonderful.

AN: Hey look! I wrote yuri!

A mini project I started waiting for my betas to do something.

Anyways, I think I have like five chapters planned for this. It's meant to be extra fluffy and sweet.