Back to Basics

AN: More SakuNaru bondage. Cuz I likey. >_< Seriously, I just felt like writing a chair tie. *cough* And I wimped out on the sex. I'll probably finish it with a lemon in the next chapter if people pester me about it, lol. Otherwise. . . enjoy the limey scenario? *embarrassed that she's even posting this* Oh, and I kind of poked fun at myself at one point in this chapter over the Tentacles/Naruto (genjutsu) request I filled. Link in case you're curious: http://naruto.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600092753&chapter=2

There was no question about it, between the two of them, Naruto was the stronger opponent even if she surpassed him in official rank. But when it came to the basics—the little things, really—he'd often regretted his many days of sleeping through lectures or cutting class altogether. (In his defense, it had been hard to find sufficient motivation when he knew he was just going to be failed anyway: In the end, Iruka-sensei had been hard on him but fair. His two previous teacher's hadn't even given him a chance.)

So when Sakura offered to re-train him with an aim at improved efficiency regarding the areas of his primary weakness just a month before the upcoming Chuunin exams, he'd jumped at the opportunity. After all, any excuse to spend time with Sakura was good enough for him. And maybe because he was feeling a bit bummed that she wouldn't be one of his teammates this year.

The first couple weeks had been surprisingly draining in their intensity. Sakura had given him a crash course in preventing, recognizing, and escaping genjutsu. He was now intimate with the fact that when Sakura trained (at least when it came to him), she didn't bother to hold back.

He could tell his body was tired when he winced slightly upon landing at her apartment door step. But he didn't dream about skipping a session. At the end of the day, if he'd done well she'd treat him to a home cooked meal, when he performed poorly she would force him to buy her dinner. It was a punishment he could more than live with.

He rapped at the door impatiently, grinning as he called out, “Hurry up, Sakura-chan. You know you don't have to pluck your eyebrows just for me.”

Within seconds, the door flung inward. The pink-haired girl slumped in the door frame, scowling, crossed her arms over her chest and huffed, “As if.”

Naruto let the jab roll past him, purposely oblivious to the not-so-subtle rejection. “Oi, you're gonna get a wrinkle between your brows if you keep frowning like that all the time.”

He offered her his most endearing smile.

“You're too loud.”

It was then that he noticed her slightly wrinkled, nurse uniform complete with black panty-hose and 3-inch high pumps. “You just get off from a shift?”

He suddenly felt guilty, pestering her so early in the morning under the guise of his training. He knew she worked full time at the hospital, but he'd assumed she'd been training him on her days off. And, after all, it was her idea to start with.

“Ah, Sakura-chan, you know if you haven't had a chance to sleep yet. . .”

“We're training here today.”

She stepped back, pulling the door open wider. He peered past her into the spacious living room. The furniture had been pushed back to the walls, a space cleared in the middle in the room now occupied by a single wooden chair which he recognized as part of the kitchen table's set.

He shot her a confused look and re-shouldered his pack. “What are we learning?”

“How to follow orders for one, now get inside.”

Naruto grinned sheepishly. “If you want me that badly, Sakura-chan, you've only got to say so.”

His teasing earned him a smack on the chest from his pink-haired teammate, but he didn't fail to notice the way her lips quirked slightly at the corners when he finally stepped into the front hallway. He slipped his shoes off and padded down the hall after her, noticing that oddly she hadn't removed hers as well.

He paused in the kitchen long enough to dig his packed lunch from the knapsack, setting both on the counter top by the sink. “Are you going to explain now or is part of this lesson called 'lets see how fun it is to keep Naruto in the dark'?”

Sakura hmm-ed thoughtfully from the back bedroom, finally re-emerging with a bag of her own. “I need you to take your jacket off to ease the process.”

Naruto rolled his eyes in annoyance, though the effort was mostly wasted as Sakura didn't bother to notice him, instead bent over the unzipped bag as she rummaged through it's contents. He shrugged out of the black and orange jacket anyway and finally huffed, “Sa-ku-ra-chan!”

He thought about dropping the jacket on her head, but decided against it as he really didn't want to suffer the consequences of a punch to the gut or risk getting the session off on a bad start.

She looked up, feigning ignorance with wide, innocent eyes.

“Ah! I knew it!” So she was toying with him.

Sakura waved her overly excitable teammate off with one hand, trying to hide her smile as she admonished, “Really, Naruto, you're too loud sometimes.” Standing with a coil of rope in her hand, she explained, “I know you excel at close range combat and you've improved in evasive maneuvering, but you sorely need to practice some escape techniques should you get caught.”

Naruto's gaze slid down to the black cording and for the barest of moments he felt a knot catch in the back of his throat. Standing there with one hand clutching some bindings, the other resting on the high back of the chair, Sakura looked more than serious. She looked down right intimidating coupled with the uniform and heels.

“Oh come on. We both know I won't get caught.” He tried to laugh it off, but the atmosphere was too heavy. Honestly, the Chuunin exams weren't just at stake here. He had no worries about easily surpassing his competitors in this area, but losing to a member of Akatsuki was no joking matter. He could tell from the set of her jaw she understood well that their primary aim was not to kill him in combat.

When she didn't answer, he tried a different tactic. “You can't expect me to understand without a demonstration.”

He allowed himself to leer at her slightly until she took the bait and slapped at him.

“I'll explain it to you,” she laughed, grabbing for his wrist.

He twisted away spryly, forcing her to chase him around the room, but even in heels she proved difficult to out maneuver. When she finally dragged him down onto the couch in a tangle of grunts and bodies, he relented, laughing, “Okay, Sakura-chan. I'll let you tie me up.”

“What makes you think I need you to let me?” she complained back, straddling his waist with mock-triumph, but she was already panting slightly.

She leaned over to press his wrists into the cushions above his head, and he became painfully aware of the proximity of their bodies. Her hair slipped forward to tickle across his cheek and he offered quietly, “If you were planning to seduce me into it, you should have just done that to start with.”

In his fantasy that little retort earned him a slow, sensual kiss. He should have known, however, that in reality, Sakura liked to explain her affection (and embarrassment) through the language of her fists. So it was with a wheezed groan that he finally fell back against the hard line of the chair.

“Was my taking my jacket off making this easier for you or me?”

He could feel the cording tighten where it wound around his chest in thick lines before she pulled one arm back behind the chair's wooden slats. She wrenched his wrist up at a painful angle and he gasped sharply.

“Both.”

Short, clipped answers. She was definitely—most probably—going rough on him out of spite. Not a brilliant idea to embarrass a short-tempered (albeit cute) girl right before you're about to let her bind you to a chair. It was a good thing she hadn't mentioned anything about the techniques for withstanding a torture session.

She wrenched his other arm up, cinching a loop of rope tightly around it, and he wriggled slightly in discomfort.

“I thought you were going to explain everything.”

Okay, so he was whining not five minutes into the lesson, but dammit the position was tight and kinda hurt.

She brushed the tips of her fingers over one palm and his hand twitched, reflexively. He wanted to gently close his fist, just barely touch his fingers to hers. She closed his fist for him, pressing his fingers toward his wrist till they brushed the rough texture of rope.

“Here. Feel the smoothness? Most ninja will know to place the knots on the backside, out of finger reach. So you'll have to think of an alternative to simply untying the ropes.”

Naruto nodded, not trusting himself to speak, and she moved around to the front, scampering on her knees. She slipped his legs open, placing a knee on either side of the seat before she moved one of his ankles back, latching it to the chair's same-side hind leg.

“Time is also against you, as the tightness and position are both meant to restrict blood flow. You should go ahead and work on your upper body while I finish down here.”

How? He wanted to ask her, but knew she wouldn't reveal the proper method until he'd first failed horribly. She understood better than most that he learned best with his body.

He began twisting and jerking at the ropes, testing the different effects that concentrating (or removing) chakra from the area had. Since his wrists were crossed in opposite directions, he wouldn't be able to form proper handseals.

He'd begun grunting from the effort of straining against the ties, barely noticing when she finished his ankles and added several loops across his hips to hold him more firmly against the seat of the chair.

“Don't you think,” he panted finally, slumping in exhaustion already, “that we should have started with something a bit more easy?”

“No more questions.” She slipped one hand under his chin, tilting his face up to look at her. Her stance brooked no argument and coupled with the slightly revealing uniform, he suddenly felt every bit the vulnerability of his situation. “Don't forget,” she smirked, and he noticed the red cloth in her hand for the first time. “You'll likely be gagged.”

“I will?”

He shivered slightly at the uncertainty and subtle pleading in his voice. He wasn't so weak as to ask her to spare him. . . was he?

“Of course, dummy. Have you forgotten how loud and obnoxious you can be? What criminal ninja would want to put up with that?”

He laughed quietly to himself in defeat, unable to meet her eyes. “You know. . .”

She moved her hand to rub fingers through his soft tangle of spiky locks, gripping a handful of the blond hair before forcing his head back.

“Ah.” He opened his mouth to the cloth pressed against his lips and allowed her to press it in, jumbled and thick before she tied it into place with a short, cut length of the black rope.

He felt his cheeks flare a little with heat but wasn't exactly sure why, silent and still as he stared at her in the ensuing moments. He almost expected her to whip out a camera for pictures, giggling, “Pay back” or some other teasing statement to indicate that the whole thing had been an elaborate joke. Which he was dumbass enough to fall for because, afterall, it was Sakura-chan.

She gave him a once over and nodded, apparently pleased with her workmanship and then stalked the several feet to the kitchen. When she reached the edge of the conjoined dining room he could hear the staccato clicking of her heels on the tile floor. The sound was followed by the electronic beeps of the microwave buttons and she called back to him, “Timer's set for twenty minutes.”

He gave a pathetic sort of whine which (and he never thought he'd admit this) he was thankful was mostly muffled by the gag and set about thrashing once more. It was a rather retarded method for trying to get free, but he was clueless for other ideas, and it seemed to suit his style well enough. Maybe if he worked himself up enough he could use the fox chakra to break the ropes and impress Sakura with his strength.

From somewhere in the recesses of his mind he heard a faint chuckling, “Not a chance, kid.”

“I think I've forgotten something,” Sakura mused as she waltzed back from the kitchen.

Naruto looked to her expectantly, chest heaving against the ropes holding him to the back of the chair.

“Hmm.” Sakura examined him in her mock thoughtfulness, trying to hide her smile behind a hand. “It's true that you'll probably be in a situation that you would find distracting to your efforts—something perilous in nature, however. . .”

With a swipe of her wrist she smoothly unclipped the first few clasps to her dress. Naruto followed the line of her neck down to the exposed area of her chest to her hand, resting on the next silver snap. His eyes widened with realization as she continued unsnapping the front of her dress until it fully gaped open, revealing her matching black lingerie.

A trap, this was definitely a trap.

She let the uniform fall to the floor in a bunch of pristine fabric and lifted one high-heeled foot to rest firmly on the space between his legs.

“Guh.” He was probably drooling into the rag.

Sakura leaned forward and rubbed her hand across his cheek, dragging her nails lightly over his scars, but the effort was somewhat disillusioned by her obvious blushing. Afraid she would give up, he squirmed in the seat and offered (what he hoped were) some encouraging noises.

Probably, there was something seriously impaired in their relationship if Sakura felt she had to completely incapacitate him to make a move, but at that moment his thoughts were more centered around the lines of yes, please, and now.

Sakura ran her hand down, tracing languid circles across his chest and further down still to slip up under the hem of his shirt before pressing her palm over the taut skin of his stomach. She'd touched his bare skin plenty of times but usually under the guise of healing—sometimes for comfort, but both of those felt different than this. This made his tummy feel tight and his legs burn.

He 'mn'-ed when she lowered herself to straddle his lap, hand still tickling a soft exploration across the expanse of his waist as she nuzzled her face into the crook of his neck and placed the lightest of kisses there. He felt the wet warmth of her tongue where it licked a trail across his skin. She paused her kissing to suck at the jut of his collar-bone, grazing the skin with her teeth. She rubbed herself over his crotch, grinding against him and mewling quietly into his skin as she continued licking and sucking up along his throat.

He didn't try to hold back the whimpering, hoping it would push her to do more.

When she slipped to her knees on the floor and cupped a hand over the bulge in his pants, he nodded his head enthusiastically, nearly shedding tears of glee. At long last, Sakura had finally come around to the inevitable acceptance of his affection and—

She glared up at him, grinding her palm into his balls. “If you're not trying to get free there's no point in my distracting you.”

“Un-hm.” He mumbled his understanding and set about struggling against the tie, praying she wouldn't stop this close to the promise of release.

It was mortifying really, the extent he was willing to go for a little sex from the girl he loved.

“Besides,” she added, rubbing her fingers up and down the clothed length of him. “If you want to continue after the timer goes off, you better figure out a way to get free.”