The Konoha ninjas that we all know and love sat down at a wooden table that they found under the debris of a damaged house. The table had all four legs but was chipped at the side and had small droplets of bloodstaining its frame. Well, seeing that it was found after the destruction of Konoha, it was actually in a pretty good shape and they had no complaints.
In the dark, starry night and at the middle of the devastated village, the 12 friends began to play a game…
Sai was the one to break the eerie silence that surrounded the group, "how does this game go again?"
"It's just Truth or Dare Sai, don't tell me you've never played it in that weird organization you used to be in," Naruto eyed Sai like he was an alien.
"Shut up Naruto! Like Danzo would ever let his 'minions' engage in a game of Truth or Dare in the foundation. Can you start thinking before you even speak?" Sakura chided her blonde teammate, getting Sai off the hook.
"Anyway… this game's really troublesome but you can say it's fun to a certain extent. So Sai, all you really have to do is to pick to tell the truth or get dared when the bottle spins and points to you," Shikamaru chimed in and explained the objective of the game.
A few simple rules were established before the game initiated. Although ninjas could do practically anything, sometimes dares do get too ridiculous since the game is played by a bunch of teenagers. With that said, some restrictions should be pre-set to avoid any embarrassing or disastrous situations.
"So, any other boring rules? No? Great, here we go," Kiba voiced and spun the bottle with some might, beginning the game.
The empty glass bottle spun around for a few seconds and slowly came into halt. It pointed to the loudest ninja in the group and he growled to express unhappiness.
"Damn, I kinda just managed to resurrect everyone who died in the village and went through a hell of a fight. I mean really? I could get a few turns to destroy some pride before I get mine trashed. I knew it, god really hates me afterall," Naruto whined and finally sighed in defeat.
"Well, technically Nagato resurrected the dead, not you, so you got nothing on that," Choji uttered and pushed a handful of chips into his mouth.
"I… 'hn,' whatever. There's no point in arguing when you have your mouth stuffed with junk food anyway. DARE!" Naruto mumbled then screamed his 'desired' punishment.
"I dare you to admit you're madly in love with Uchiha Sasuke!" Kiba yelled in the peaceful night as Akamaru barked in agreement.
"What? I am not in love with Sasuke! Can someone come up with a more sane challenge?" Naruto complained to his friends, hoping that they are in a sound state of mind to throw a better dare.
Kiba tried again, "I dare you to-"
"I said sane," Naruto glared at Kiba and said in a slightly loud voice.
Neji, who looked like he was in deep thought finally, spoke up, "Okay, I dare you to confront Hinata about her confession to you during the fight."
"Ne-Neji-niisan!" Hinata yelped, her face slightly red from embarrassment.
"Agreed," the rest of the group chorused in unity.
Naruto gulped and look away from Hinata. He was planning to avoid that matter completely since he didn't really know how to react. Sure Hinata had touched him a little when she jumped out in a futile attempt to safe him from getting abducted by Nagato but he had someone else on mind at the moment- Sakura. Why didn't Sakura popped in to try to safe him instead? Things were getting a little messed up.
"I- I…" Naruto stuttered while everyone fell into silence, "Hinata, I'm not ready for any kind of relationship yet. Well, not until we all get a little more mature and then I have to get Sasuke back to Konoha, what I mean is…" Naruto lifted his hands to the back of his head and managed to put on a bright smile before he finished, "I really like you and you're a nice girl so maybe we can try this out after everything gets a little better around here."
"That was most youthful Naruto-kun! I am more than happy for your passion to grasp the true meaning of love!" Lee beamed and presented a thumb's up to Naruto.
Hinata almost fainted, her face was burning while everyone widened their eyes in disbelief and Sai gasped at Naruto's reaction; this was definitely beyond comprehension.
Ino, who had sat beside Sakura elbowed her pink-headed friend teasingly and laughed, "Looks like you got booted out of the league, eh Sakura?"
"Shut up Ino-pig! I've never even liked Naruto," Sakura whispered back as she stared at a smiling Naruto, her eyes were filled with slight disappointment.
Clumsily, Naruto fumbled around and spun the glass bottle again. This time, it stopped and pointed to Shino, our bug-specialist.
"Truth or dare Sh-Shino-kun?" Hinata questioned in an attempt to get that previous speech out of her mind. She didn't want to look too affected by what her crush just said.
"Truth. Why? Because a Ninja would always evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of his or her choices and since I have nothing to hide from you guys, Truth would be a better option," Shino spoke in his usual monotonous voice.
"Alright, alright, my turn to pop his balloon of confidence," Naruto grinned wryly and formulated his plan to humiliate Shino.
After a few seconds of rumination, Naruto asked, "Between Kiba and Hinata, who would you, rather save in a dire situation?"
"What? This is like asking if you liked Sasuke or Sakura more. It's ridiculous, I would save both of them," Shino replied, sounding a little flared up.
"Nope this question is quite normal, besides, you aren't answering the question. You can only choose one of them to safe," Tenten gave her opinion.
The others nodded approvingly and demanded an appropriate answer from Shino who was already eyed intently by both Kiba and Hinata.
"This is why I never choose Truth questions," Naruto claimed proudly, feeling like the smartest person around.
"I uhmm… Hinata?" Shino answered, sounding unsure and hoping he doesn't get pounced by Kiba.
"Sh-Shino kun!" Hinata smiled with tears welling up in her eyes.
Kiba, on the other hand, had his head lowered and was sulking but he managed to put across his message, "Well, I would have bashed you up if you left Hinata in the lurch to safe me instead. You're the man Shino."
"That was anti-climactic," Naruto exclaimed with a frown. He expected Kiba to go all out in a rage to murder Shino but got Kiba's bullshit of saving a girl first is gentlemanly of Shino.
As Kiba continued to sulk while feeling a little more than proud of Shino, Shino moved his hand to send the empty bottle into rotation. The bottle finally stopped and the mouth was aiming at Lee.
"Yes, dare! The moment of a very youthful challenge is coming up and I will complete it with no difficulties like Gai-sensei would want me to!" Lee hopped to his feet, preparing to face any weird demands that would come at him.
"Hey it's the first time Shino's giving a dare to Lee right? This is going to be pretty good," Ino smirked, a hint of evil radiating from her sly grin.
"What? Shino's boring. He would probably give lame dares like kiss a tree or refrain from killing any bug for 1 week," Choji groaned, he finally finished his bag of chips, right down to the very last crumb.
Shino pouted behind his collar as Choji had already figured out his ultimate dare: to not kill any insect for at least a week. He had to come up with something better so he doesn't look stupid.
Shikamaru revealed a smile on his face and he snickered, "Don't worry Choji, Shino looks like he's got a good one this time around."
"What makes you so sure Shikamaru?" Naruto commented, not comprehending whatever was going on. Since when had Shino made good dares?
Lee enthusiastically exclaimed again, "No matter what Shino-kun dares me I will accept it like a man and with flaming, youthful passion, I will accomplish it!"
As Shino began to speak up, Ino formed a triangle with her fingers and silently used a mind transfer jutsu on Shino, "Shin-ten-shin no jutsu!" she yelled in her head and immediately went unconscious.
"I dare you, Lee, to run to Gai-sensei tomorrow morning, slap him across the cheek when he let his guard down then high-tail away before he gets to ask 'what's going on', all while saying he sucks and is bad teacher," Shino, or Ino in Shino's body said in one shot and cancelled the jutsu to return to her body.
Lee who hadn't caught what just happened had his mouth hanged wide open, staring at Shino with white eyes.
"No I can never do that to my beloved Sensei!" Lee screamed in denial and sniffled.
"Okay that wasn't what I had in mind but let's go with that. Why? Because it's better than what I devised a few moments ago," Shino admitted but didn't give the details as the only ones who figured out Ino was Shikamaru, Shino and Sakura who had felt Ino faint beside her.
"Well, I don't really get what Shino's saying but I think he just came up with an excellent dare for Lee, all in favour say 'I'," Naruto said, baffled by Shino's sudden transformation into a good 'darer'.
"I!" the rest of the group exclaimed and it was obvious that both Neji and TenTen were extremely daunted (in a good way) by this unexpected dare from Shino.
"Well Lee-san has no choice but to do it then. Shall we all be there to watch the miracle unfold?" Sai suggested with an all-so-familiar smile plastered across his face.
"Definitely!" Neji affirmed. This was probably one of those rare occasions that he would get so fired up for.
Lee had no choice but to accept the supposedly sorrowful challenge and he wistfully spun the holy bottle to appoint the next victim. The bottle went in circles and circles before coming to yet another dramatic halt. It had picked its next prey- Sai, the new-comer. Everyone stared at the pale-skinned, waiting for him to decide on his penalty.
"Truth. I believe I do not wish to end up like Lee-san, who as what a book writer would describe him as, pathetic," Sai said, his gaze unwavering.
Lee clenched a fist as he sobbed, "I was planning a good youthful dare for the next challenger but since you have so passionately chosen to tell the truth I will do what I can to shame your blazing pride!"
"Come out with it already Lee, no one wants to sit here all night listening to your 'youthful' speeches," TenTen grumbled and leaned her head backwards to show fatigue.
"Okay, here is a question for you Sai-kun: If you are a girl now, and have to date a guy in this group who will it be and why?" Lee asked as he remembered that Gai-sensei had mentioned that he was once posted with this question and it made his friends very happy (and by happy he meant shaken) when his answer was Kakashi.
"Hey Lee your question sounds so familiar… Oh now I remembered, Kurenai-sensei once mentioned that she gave this question to Gai-sensei in a Truth or Dare game when they were young," Kiba voiced and Akamaru barked twice to acknowledge that memory.
"Yes that is very true! And Gai-sensei had said that his passionate reply had allowed everyone to have a good time in that game!" Lee smiled, he was proud of his respected Sensei.
Kiba raised an eyebrow, "That wasn't what Kurenai-sensei said. She said Guy got Kakashi avoiding him for three weeks and everyone was either laughing at Guy-sensei or trembling in disgust. Right Akamaru?"
"Arf arf arf!" Akamaru excitedly replied and it seems to be saying, "You are absolutely correct!"
"What? That was not what Gai-sensei had reiterated," Lee expressed with a little more than faith in his sensei's word.
"I wouldn't really know how to choose since all of you have no balls, especially Naruto. But I would choose Neji-san," Sai cut into the conversation suddenly with his answer.
"Hey!" Naruto, Kiba, Choji and Lee glared at Sai, they were obviously peeved.
"Whatever," Shikamaru said as he rolled his eyes and stuck his hands into his pocket.
Shino couldn't have cared less and mumbled nothing but had managed a slight raise in the corner of his lips, "Neji huh," he wondered to himself.
"What? Me? Wait, why me? I barely even know you," Neji grilled in bewilderment, he couldn't believe his ears.
"I've read in a book that girls like intelligent guys who can tell what they want. Shikamaru is smart but he finds it too troublesome for him to do the girl's bidding. And well, the others are just stupid. I mean Shino-san can be quite clever too but the book also says that girls hate insects so that just rules him out as well. Then if I was a girl, that just leaves me with you," Sai calmly explained while offending Choji, Kiba, Lee, Naruto and Shino this time around.
"Oh… okay. Luckily you're not really attracted to me in other physical aspects, that'll be weird since guys are fated to be with an opposite sex after all," Neji sighed in relief, he was definitely not into males.
Sai showed his infamous smile and continued, "Then there's also that part of you which shouts, 'Eat me' to a guy. I think it's your hair that really attracts me."
With that, the other guys were gaping at Sai and there Neji could feel himself blushing, but he was also slightly disgusted. The girls were just giggling at the abrupt confession and Hinata was rather stunned.
The rest of the night went on with an awkwardness present between Sai and Neji, but pretty much just on Neji's part that was embarrassing. The game went on with a few more spins and everyone returned to their respective tents at the camping grounds.
The next morning
Naruto woke up via Akamaru's wet, slobbery licks, his friends were all awake and dressed ready for the big event. It was 5 a.m. in the morning and it was also the time for a scheduled training for Lee with Gai.
"Oi, Naruto! Hurry and get dressed or we're going to miss the show," Kiba growled at Naruto as Akamaru lifted Naruto to sit up.
Moments later, the group gathered behind random shrubs and trees at training ground 9. They were far enough to stay undetected by Gai but also near enough to catch the good performance in action. Then, after settling in their respective hiding spot, Lee appeared on cue.
"Gai sensei!" he yelled and ran towards Gai. He could barely hold in his tears of guilt.
"Oh Lee! My beloved student!" Gai shouted back and waved ecstatically at the bushy-browed.
As Lee closed in on his well-respected teacher, he sent a slap across Gai's left cheek while saying, "I hate you, you're a lousy teacher!"
Then he sprinted off, leaving a baffled Gai standing alone in an empty (or not so empty) training ground.
The audience that were hidden behind the leaves, cackled silently, with hands covering their mouths to muffle the sound. Yes, all of them were laughing, Shino, Neji and Shikamaru included.
-End-