Naruto squares up.

"Count us off, Sakura?"

She grins, looking forward to watching this.

"Absolutely!"

"Three…"

"Two…"

"One…"

"Go!"

As soon as the words leave Sakura's mouth, Naruto pushes chakra into his muscles, surging directly toward Hinata and into melee range.

Hinata waits until what she thinks is the last possible moment to dodge, pivoting just out of the way of Naruto-sama's strike and trying to strike a tenketsu point on his dominant arm.

The chakra ceases flowing into Naruto's arm, and he loses his balance for a moment, tumbling past his friend before recovering and rolling to his feet.

Damn!

He circles slowly around Hinata, warily holding his distance.

Hinata maintains a ready stance for a moment, turning to keep her guard toward Naruto-sama.

He's keeping his distance.

She'll have to go to him.

She lunges for his other arm, once again aiming for a tenketsu, ready to twist into a block when he reacts.

Spinning to throw her off-balance, he— oh, wow, his arm is really not moving right, is it?

He manages to deflect her blow, but loses a bit of his balance and fails to capitalize on the parry, instead scrambling back out of melee range.

She steps back into a guard, waiting for him to gather himself and attack again. He'll come to her.

He will! After taking a moment to catch his breath and his balance, Naruto suddenly bolts straight back toward Hinata with chakra-boosted speed, good arm raised and ready.

At the last moment, Naruto ducks into a crouch and springs forward, aiming below Hinata's guard with a swift punch to the gut!

She sees the crouch coming the moment his muscles start to shift, so her hand brushes his wrist, deflecting the strike to the side and twisting him away from her a little, her other hand coming in to try to strike at a tenketsu on his shoulder.

As his attack is deflected, Naruto falls into a roll to evade his opponent's inevitable strike, scraping his body roughly against the sandy ground but successfully avoiding the attack and quickly—if unsteadily—jumping to his feet.

Panting, he rests his hands on his knees for a moment, carefully watching Hinata for signs of movement. This isn't going well for him, but if he can wear her down, he can still win this.

Hinata doesn't have the stamina he does, but she's not breathing hard yet. She hasn't had a fight already this afternoon to tire her out.

She holds her guard steady, waiting for Naruto to come to her again.

After a moment of rest, he suddenly charges forward in a burst of energy, going for a low kick at Hinata's legs!

She can see his kick coming with her Byakugan and steps easily out of the way, dropping just low enough to tag a tenketsu on his leg — ever watchful for him to change directions suddenly, of course.

His leg suddenly weakens, and Naruto loses his balance, tripping and rolling to a stop a few feet away from his friend.

He lets out a frustrated noise. "Ahh, ack, you win!" he says, tapping the ground with his good arm.

And Hinata drops out of her guard, hurrying anxiously over. "Oh, are you okay, Naruto-sama?"

Oh crap, is she worried? No, that's not allowed.

"I'm fine, don't worry! Just a little startled when my leg gave out."

He laughs, scratching the back of his head.

"You really got me good there! I thought I'd get a few more hits in and wear you down, but in the end, I didn't stand a chance!"

"I, um. It's just the Byakugan. I'm not that good yet."

{She's shy, and she doesn't have any instinct to go for the kill yet, but she's good. Blondie's got strength and unpredictability, but that doesn't help much against an opponent who can see your strike as soon as you start the motion.}

{Yeah, I don't think he ever stood much of a chance.}

{Hinata's scary, but I think we can take her.}

{We can. If I'm understanding chakra systems right, she can probably do those disabling touches from any part of her body, but I bet that's an advanced skill. Deflect her strikes when you're in close, and try to keep her at range.}

{Good plan!}

Sakura grins.