Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
The sound of mud squishing under the tracker tires caused Neji to momentarily question his current situation.
…
"Gai-sensai you cannot be serious."
Stated the brown haired kunochi. A small frown set on her lips.
"My precious petal, I am over flowing with seriousness. Yesterday when we were feasting on the curry of life that I had prepared I noticed that you all threw away more than half of your bowls! Such wastefulness will not be tolerated!"
"Why can't we just do 1,000 laps on our hands around the Hokage Mountain like you usually set us out to do for punishment?"
Questioned Tenten who never thought that she would actually find herself wanting to do that.
"I am sorry my precious petal but we cannot do that. I have also observed that that punishment is ineffective."
Why is Gai-sensai so observant all of a sudden though Neji as his kunochi teammate sweat dropped?
"In fact, my youthful prodigy Lee loves that punishment."
"Yosh!"
Confirmed Lee with a thumbs up.
"And now my hot blooded students,
Said Gai wiping out three baskets out of thin air
, let us begin your youthful punishment!"
…
"Hn so that's how I ended up here" thought Neji.
Tenten tried to block out lee as he began making obvious observation about their surroundings.
"Look at all these green plants! Green is such a youthful color like my jumpsuit."
Said Lee pulling at the green youth suit as it snapped painfully back in place.
"Yosh the sky is so blue and the air is filled with the smell of youthful cow excrements!"
Exclaimed Lee rubbing the current sore spot.
Tenten face palmed as the tractor rolled to a stop in front of a large lush strawberry field.
Team Gai stepped off the "youthfully green" tractor (as Gai put it) and faced their "hot-blooded sensei". He was dressed in a typical farmer get up straw hat, galoshes, and a piece of wheat hanging from his mouth.
"Oh kami! Where do you even buy green overalls?" though Tenten as Gai said
"Now, my youthful students bring me back 3 quarts filled with the droplets of red hot-blooded youth that nature so easily produced!"
Lee was the first to begin skipping down the row of strawberries dressed in an outfit that mirrored Gai's.
"Hn."
Grunted Neji as he turned on his heels his long dark hair flowing behind him in the country air. The brown hair kunochi turned around with a shrug and started down after her teammates.
…
Strawberries where sparse this year due to dramatic climate changes. Tenten noted wondering why it was that Lee was bouncing down the field with what seemed to be a full basket. Upon closer inspection Tenten let out a deep sigh.
"Lee-"
Tenten started but she was cut off.
"My beautiful lotus blossom. I have dutifully completed my punishment! I picked the most youthful strawberries and Gai-sensai will be so proud!"
Lee exclaimed as man tears began streaming down his tan face. Tenten plucked a strawberry from Lee's quart an exasperated expression emerged on her face.
"Lee, these berries are not yet ripe. "
She dangled the small green berry in front of his face,
"You have to pick the red berries."
"No my lotus blossom. Green is always great!"
Said Lee striking his good guy pose.
"Lee' Gai-sensai can only use red in his pie."
"But-"
"No buts."
"Green-"
"Lee…"
Tenten warned.
"Youth-"
"LEE!"
Tenten exclaimed throwing the hard green berry directly at the middle of his forehead.
"Here try this green berry than try this red berry."
Suggested Tenten after picking out a red berry from her own quart.
"Oh my lotus blossom, how could you suggest such nonsense? Did you not read the ten foot look sign that read "DO NOT EAT THE STRAWBERRIES"? Oh how unyouthful! Oh Ten-"
"Lee stop. Now didn't Gai-sensai once say that it's ok to break some rules to complete a mission in the most-"
She paused dreading the next word that was about to escape her mouth but demined it necessary-
"Youthful way."
She finished through closed teeth.
Lee's eyes widened at the sound of his favorite word.
"Most youthful way? I would do anything in the name of youth!"
Cried Lee straightening up and jabbing his thumb at his chest. He snatched the green and red berry from Tenten's hand and plopped the green berry in his mouth.
"Let youth preva-"
Was all Lee could get out before his mouth shut letting the extremely bitter tart flavor of the berry soak into his taste buds. His left eye began to twitch violently. No longer able to endure the disgusting flavor Lee spit to the berry all over Tenten's face.
Tenten shrieked and using her free hand wiped Lee's "man spit" off. Lee took a good look at Tenten's expression and gulped. He would have sworn he saw smoke come out of her nostrils. Sadly, that was the last thing he saw before Tenten's fist pounded in Lee's face and sent him flying down the field. His strong body made a loud dull thud as he crashed into the ground.
He sat up and frowned disappointed that youth had NOT prevailed. He looked at the lush red berry that he somehow managed to keep hold of and with a defeated sight cautiously nibbled at the strawberry.
Lee's eyes widened again this time from the immense pleasure that his taste buds where experiencing.
"Youth comes in a new color!"
…
"Tenten."
Neji thought as his teammate trudged over to him with a scowl on her lips. He turned back to his searching allowing a small smile to adorn his mouth because of the exasperated look that Tenten was currently sporting.
"Neji!"
Tenten greeted before Neji could ask what was bugging her. Though he no longer felt the need as she was currently beaming at him. He'd never admit it but he sure did love that smile.
"How have you been faring so far?"
The question was innocent enough but it caused his light mood to darken. He felt a scowl form on his face as he began to feel a bit ashamed at what he had been able to accomplish so far.
He held out his basket for her to peer inside. She gave Neji a quizzically look.
"Don't they all need to be perfect."
Neji said more as a statement than a question. Neji had never eaten a strawberry before because they never had them at the Hyuga compound. In fact he'd only seen them in pictures or magazines up in till now. And in each picture the small berries were perfect blemish free and vibrantly red.
Tenten chuckled; Neji not sure whether to be hurt that she was laughing at him or just enjoy the sparkly sound. He chose the latter.
"Neji, just because it doesn't look perfect doesn't mean that it taste worse than this one."
Tenten said pointing the sole berry in Neji's basket.
"Gai-sensai is going to mash them all up for his pie anyway."
"Hn."
Neji grunted taking in this new found information. With that Tenten turned around as Neji, kekki genkai activated, began picking all the acceptable berries in his sight.
…
"Is it strange that my extremely youthful prodigy would be the last to complete my mission?"
Questioned a concerned Gai.
Tenten barely heard his question as she was currently too busy sending death waves to the woman behind the counter who was ogling at Neji.
"Why don't you start cashing us out while we wait for our other teammate?"
Tenten suggested through clenched teeth.
"Oh! Um yeah."
The girl came out of her daydream and began summing up the total when a familiar voice behind them began ratting off youthful apologizes.
Tenten wasn't going to turn around until she noticed quite a curious expression the young woman's face. Tenten whipped her head around to face her spandex clad teammate.
Her mouth made a soft wet noise as it dropped. Around Lee's lips was a thick dark red circle clearly made by the juice of strawberries. His silky black hair held about five strawberry stems haphazardly pointing in different directions.
"I have youthfully completed my punishment!"
Lee flashed his classic Good Guy pose revealing a ton of small strawberry seeds scattered all along his usually impeccable white teeth.
The young cashier composed herself eyes brows still raised and said,
"I'm going to charge you an extra four dollars"
Blah. I just hate it when I got pickling and there's a sign that says no eating strawberries. It effectively dampens the mood but does not stop me from eating a few. ;) Anyway, please review!