After a night of reading fanfiction, I got this weird idea. It's based on the same principle as "Naruto takes place in high school", but it's really not in the same setting, exactly, so I thought it might be kind of original.

Disclaimer: I disclaim.

Naruto Uzumaki was having a sleepover. He had invited his spirit bro, Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka, who brought Akamaru with him, Rock Lee, Shino Aburame, Haku Momochi, Shikamaru Nara, and Gaara. The party had begun hours ago. They watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and Death Note II. They played HALO and Bomberman. Now it was 2:00 AM, and they were bored.

"What do you think we should do?" asked Shino.

"I already told you, I don't know," Shikamaru sighed, "This is so troublesome."

"Hey, Uchiha, why don't we play that game?" asked Kiba

Sasuke looked up and asked, "What game?"

"The one you said you used to play with your brother."

"Ninja Tag?" said Sasuke incredulously, "We can't play that. Iruka would kill us."

At this point, Naruto began to catch on.

"Hey, what dad doesn't know won't hurt us, you know?" said Naruto.

"Well-but I don't-" Sasuke stuttered.

"C'mon, Uchiha. Let's do it!" Kiba said enthusiastically.

"Okay," Sasuke sighed, "Do you all know the rules?"

Save for Naruto, they all shook their heads.

"Alright. Here's how it works," he began, "you know hide-and-go-seek tag, right? Well, this is like that. But there's a few differences. First off, everyone's it, and anyone can be tagged. You can hide anywhere, in other people's yards, on garage roofs, on top of a streetlight, whatever.

"Or, you can go searching for other people. When you see someone else, try to sneak up on them and assassinate them. If they see you, you can run, they can run, or you can fight. First one assassinated loses. If someone runs, they can be tackled, then assassinated. If someone gets assassinated, they join their assassin's team, and so does anyone they get from that point on. Any unorthodox assassinations have to be explained afterwards. Throwing a yo-yo at someone's neck counts if you tell them it's got sharpened blades on it afterwards."

Shikamaru glanced up, "This is just an elaborate game of pretend? How troublesome."

"No, this is an elaborate game of tag! I vow to win with Youthful intensity!" said Lee entusiastically.

"Won't we need camouflage? I don't want to be out there in this shirt," said Haku, who was wearing a pink T-shirt. Slowly, they all looked at their clothes. Naruto was wearing a bright orange T-shirt. Lee was wearing green, good for forest ninja tag, not so good for street ninja tag. Kiba wore a brown hoodie, which would work okay, but wasn't that ninja-esque. Shikamaru wore fishnets, to make girls think he was gay, but which would look suspicious if he was caught in someone's yard with them. Shino was wearing a black trench coat, equally suspicious. Gaara wore maroon. The only one who would be able to pass for "ninja" was Sasuke, who had already finished turning his black Superman shirt inside out.

Everyone looked at Naruto.

"What?"

In the end, Naruto had enough black T-shirts for himself, Lee, and Haku, albeit with his own adorned by the words "Bruce Ironstaunch is my Homeboy" on the front (but he wore it inside out). They hid the keys underneath the doormat, and went outside.

"Okay," said Sasuke, "We'll meet up here at three if the game isn't over. Let's go."

And they all ran off in different directions.

To be continued...

This story is based on an actual experience I once had, namely, playing Ninja Tag. But reality is often less climactic than fiction, so my experience ended with less excitement than this will.

And I like the idea of Haku in a pink shirt. ;D