Disclaimer:Swirly (points to self) doesn't own Naruto (sadly). Nor does she own the various hockey references used in this fic. So there. : P
Warning: This fic is AU (Alternate Universe), contains slight NaruHina, SakuLee, ShikaTema, InoChou, KibaOC, GaaraOC and KakashiOC. The OC's for Kakashi and Gaara are not mine, but I am using them with permission. Oh, yeah, and Sasuke may be slightly OOC, or a little more than slightly. XD I may also throw in some VERY light AyaSasu (AyamexSasuke). Have fun. : P
Me: runs around insanely Ahhh! I was supposed to update Walk Like a Shinobi! Gah!
Naruto:So do it later.
Me:Easy for you to say! I have...to...uhh...Nevermind.
Naruto:smirks Thought so.
Me:SHUT UP AND GET YOUR GEAR ON! THIS IS A HOCKEY AU FIC!
Naruto:Say what?!
Me:nods wisely You won't be able to be the captain of the team if you go in without gear on.
Kakashi:sweatdrop Do any of us...actually know how to play hockey?
Me:Kiba does. : P click teh linky! (not my pic by the way!)-- e-vay./art/Verb-Kiba-47443724
Kiba:Wow. I do. XD
Me:Oh, yeah, and this fic contains AU-ness (duh), a few OC pairings (two of them are not mine, but I use them with permission! : P ), and general hockey based violence and language. XD Yesh. XD Oh, and for those of you wondering, I decided to write this a while ago (okay, I decided to write it recently, but the idea appeared a while ago). So, I was at Game Seven between the Caps and the Flyers (I WAS THREE ROWS AWAY FORM THE ICE! PW0NED!), and even though I'm a Flyers fan at heart, I wanted the Caps to win so they could get the cup. : ( Poor likkle Capitals. So, this is my tribute to them—Naruto style! XD
Hockey Ninja
The cold hiss of the ice beneath his skates...the swoosh off snowspray coming off the blades as he turned sharply and drove the puck down the line. There it was, the goal...the opposition had no chance against him now...nothing could stop him...it was wide open...the goalie wouldn't even know what had hit him.
There it goes, sailing across the ice, slamming into the back of the net, the crowd roars and jumps to its feet...
Yeah, right.
Naruto turned sharply to avoid actually running into the goalie and bowling him over. Akimichi Chouji, the goalie, gave him a glare through his mask as he whooshed past.
"Sorry, Chouji!" Naruto called over his shoulder. Then, as a way of explanation, "Daydreaming!"
Chouji rolled his eyes and flipped his mask up, going for the bottle of water that was placed on top of the net. After satisfying his thirst, he recapped the bottle and put it down again. Other members of the team, however, were not to be so easily placated.
"Look alive, dobe!" Sasuke, the right lineman, yelled across the rink to Naruto, who shot him a glare.
"Are sure you should be talking to your team captain like that, teme?!" Naruto retorted, coming to a halt and sticking his tongue out at Sasuke.
Form where he stood on his skates near the wall, Kiba burst out laughing. "Oh, nice!" he said, holding his sides. "Real mature for a captain, Naruto!"
"Exactly," muttered Sasuke, before Naruto managed to scoop up some of the snowspray that peppered the ice and chuck a fair-sized snowball at him. Sasuke ducked, before Kiba pinned him on the side of the head. Sasuke sent the other offensive player a death glare, which only made Kiba laugh again.
"Ahhh, c'mon," Shikamaru groaned from where he was leaning against the safety net. "We can't even get through a practice without you three being idiots?"
"It's them, not me!" Sasuke snapped, looking indignant.
"Still, it's troublesome."
"Well, you use that line to much!"
"Do I care?"
"Oh, shut up," Kankuro snapped irritably. It was well known among the team that he hadn't been getting much sleep lately do to an injury from last season working up again in his back, and yet he was determined to play again anyway. You had to give him points for that, right? "Can't we just finish this practice so we can eat?"
"Not like it'll make a difference," Sasuke muttered. "We've been in the bottom five teams for the past three seasons. What'll make that change this year?"
"Don't be so unyouthful, Sasuke-kun!" shouted Lee, raising a fist in the air defiantly. "We shall most definitely win the Yondaime Cup this season! No one shall be able to suppress our explosion of YOUTH!"
Naruto sweatdropped. "Um, is 'unyouthful' even a word, Lee?"
"Of course!"
"Yeah, well," Sasuke said, looking dubious. "'Youth' isn't the only thing that we need to get through this season with our pathetic amount of dignity, Lee."
While Lee looked shocked and blabbered his astonishment that Sasuke could event suggest such a thing, an old man in the announcement box of the arena looked annoyed and tapped the speaker button.
Naruto winced as the speaker screeched and Jiriya bellowed at them, "Get back to practice, you guys! We have a game this weekend, first of the new season, or did you forget?! And you already made your oh-so-impressive mark on the pregames, so don't screw this up!"
"He's right," Gaara put in quietly, propelling himself across to the slick ice to where they had all gathered by the goal. "We should actually put in some real effort this year. No more conflicts."
Chouji nodded wisely and hunched down again, tapping his stick against the ice. "Good point. Plus, we can't leave for dinner until we're done here. So hurry up and shoot."
Naruto rolled his eyes and tightened his grip on the stick. "Okay, here!" He brought the stick up and back before slamming the puck towards the goal in a magnificent slapshot. Chouji dove to stop it before Kiba interfered and skated around the back of the goal with it.
"Go, Kiba!" Naruto cheered as Kiba shot at Chouji's unprotected left side of the goal and scored. He and the dog-lover high-fived and grinned while Sasuke rolled his eyes.
"Now if only you two could do that to the opposing team's goal," he said. Naruto and Kiba glared at him.
"Shut it, teme!" they both snapped at once.
Jiriya's voice boomed over the loudspeakers again. "Pick it up, boys, or you're buyin' your own pizza tonight!"
And since nobody wanted to pay the bill that evening, they all readjusted the chinstraps on their helmets and got back to work.
-
Hatake Kakashi was waiting in the lobby for them when they finally came out, reading a book and propped up against the wall. He turned a page in his novel, oblivious to the irritated scowl darkening Naruto and Sasuke's features.
"Hey! Sensei!" Naruto yipped, trying to gain some attention.
No response.
Sasuke glowered and snatched the book out of his former coach's hands. Or tried to, anyway. Kakashi held on to it grimly, as though his fingers were glued to the literature. And still Kakashi didn't notice them. Sasuke threw his hands up in disgust and tramped back to the team, scowling.
A loud, happy laugh sounded from the other side of the lounge, and the entire team turned their heads to look as a girl with shoulder-length golden-blonde hair logged across the lobby with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
"You're doing it wrong," she informed them, grinning broadly. She turned to Kakashi and motioned to them over her shoulder. They all leaned forward. "Like this."
Having said so, she promptly grabbed a hold of the top of the book, flicking her wrist deftly and wrenching it out of Kakashi's grasp, snapping it closed. Kakashi blinked at the empty space between his hands, then blinked again and looked up at her. It took him a second, before a look of wry amusement, boredom, and slight irritation crossed his face.
"You always have to take my book away, Moriko," he sighed, grinning lopsidedly and holding his hand out to take the book back.
Moriko dangled it away from his reach and tossed it to Naruto, who caught it easily. She laughed. "Sensei, hasn't anyone ever told you not to read porn in public?"
Kakashi scowled and almost pouted, rolling his eyes up as if thinking. "Maybe, I don't remember."
"Exactly!"
"Nice work, Moriko!" Naruto laughed, tossing the book up and down in his hand and flipping it over to Sasuke, who promptly tossed it backwards to Neji, a defenseman. Kakashi's eyes followed thee path of the book obsessively. "We can never get it away from him. How do you do it?"
Moriko grinned. "Years of practice. Speaking of which, sorry I just got here—Sakura called about meeting you all here and insisted I come too. Where is she, anyhow? I don't see her." Shikamaru raised his hands helplessly.
"We haven't—"
"Sasuke-kuuuun!" a loud voice called, making Sasuke grimace. Haruno Sakura bounced over to them, smiling happily. "Hi! Sorry, everyone, I got held up at the clothes store...Oh, Moriko, you made it! Good, because now we seriously need to go..."
"Wait, go where?" Sai asked from the back of the cluster of hockey players. "We just finished practice. Isn't dinner next?"
"Really, Sakura," Kakashi added, turning his eyes away momentarily from the path of his book, which was now in the hands of Shino, a nearly silent defenseman. "What do you have planned?"
Sakura suddenly split into a grin and put a finger to her lips secretly, winking. "Oh, you'll see!"
Naruto whined, "Why can't you just tell us, Sakura-chan? I'm not in the mood to guess anything!"
"Well, I—"
"Ummm...am I intruding on anything h-here?" a timid voice asked them. A crowd of heads swung around to look for the user of the voice immediately. Naruto's ocean-blue eyes landed on a furiously blushing girl with long violet hair and lavender eyes. She was looking at the floor and pushing her fingers together shyly.
After a second of blinking confusedly, Naruto inquired, "Who're you?"
Sakura bounded over and hugged the girl tightly, pushing her forward to meet the team. "Hinata! I'm so glad you decided to come!"
"Hinata?" Neji blinked, clearing his eyes. "Oh, it is you. Sorry, but it's been a while since I'd seen you, cousin."
Hinata stammered, "R-right, I-I w-was b-busy in college f-finishing my d-degree, so..."
"Which college?" Naruto immediately asked, curious.
"K-Konoha University..."
"I went there!" Naruto exclaimed, as the rest of the group except for Kankuro and Gaara nodded. "How come I haven't seen you, then?"
Hinata looked at him, her eyes widening slightly. What were the chances the 'sports event' Sakura had hinted at would end up including the famous Uzumaki Naruto? "O-Oh, I s-saw you around, b-but we always had different classes, a-and..."
"Hey, hey," Moriko interrupted, impatient to get moving. "We can all catch up later, but Sakura, didn't you have some kind of plot to drag us into?"
Sakura paused again before smiling widely. "Yup! Everybody get in their cars, and follow me as I drive. Temari and Ino and a few others are going to meet us there, but right now we have to hurry before the reservation expires!"
"Reservation to what?" Kiba persisted, annoyed. He could see Akamaru, the wolf-sized white dog who was always with him waiting expectantly outside for them, because for whatever reason no dogs were allowed in the building. Akamaru would be bored after a day waiting for Kiba to finish up his practice...
Sakura grinned. "A good-luck party!"
Blank confusion registered on most of the group's faces. "Ummm...huh?" Kankuro said, echoed by some of the others.
"Just get in, and come on!"
Moriko rolled her eyes and started after the hyper Sakura. "Guess it's treat time, guys..."
Sai put a finger to his chin thoughtfully before turning to Naruto and saying, "I hope you don't get wasted on root beer and ramen again, Naruto."
Naruto pouted and stuck his tongue out at Sai as he turned to follow the happy Sakura out the door. "Shut up, Sai..." he muttered. The rest of the team laughed at his discomfort as they left the lobby and piled into their cars.
-
Approximately fifteen minutes later, Naruto had entered a small restaurant. And about five minutes after that, the blonde boy was dancing wildly on top of the counter, cheered on by everyone else.
Kakashi laughed as Naruto and Moriko ended up in a wrestling match over the last piece of cake a half hour after that. "You were smart to put this party together, Sakura," he said, swishing his drink in his right hand and propping his chin up against the table with his left. Sakura turned to him.
"Really?" she said, green eyes blinking. "How come? It was only an idea..."
Kakashi winced as his newer eye throbbed once. Bad premonition, and in the middle of a party, too. "Because. Our opening game this weekend is against the Gato Gangmen. Their starting forward is Momochi Zabuza, a pro veteran. And I hear that they also have a new member on their team they recruited from some college. That could be a problem, especially with our record."
Sakura nodded wisely, although most of what Kakashi had said had gone straight over her pink-haired head. "So the boys need to be on the top of their game this weekend, ne?"
Kakashi nodded again. "We'll need to be on the top of our game for the entire season this time, Sakura."
She sighed and blew hair out of her face. "I know, sensei."
On top of the table, Moriko had won the battle for the cake, and Naruto was preparing to leap off the counter top.
"Herre Iyyy...cooommee!!" he shouted, catapulting himself off of the table and into the mass of people. Many of the patrons cheered and clapped as he was caught by Kiba and Sai and thrown again, where Naruto landed in a somersault and held both his arms up in triumph. Hinata giggled in the corner and everyone laughed.
"All right!" Naruto roared, shaking his fists at the ceiling and dancing a jig. "I feel great! We are so gonna kick butt this season! Yondaime Cup, here we come!"
-
Author's Note:HA! HA! HAAAA!
Do you like it so far? You'd better. : P
Lol, just kidding. Tell me whatcha think--but flames are welcome if you want me to flame you back and block ya', so there. : P
Moriko: Hey, I'm in this now! : D Wait, I get Kiba, right?
Me: sighs Yes, Moriko, you get Kiba.
Moriko: OWNED! XD
Naruto: high offa ramen SNOWBALL FIGHT! XD
Kakashi: -.-"
Lol, so, yeah, enjoy! XD I needed my brother to help me with the hockey terms...-.-"...my dignity has DIED...XD. Okay, so, since I'm still juggling like four other fics (even though two are on hiatus, my friend keeps buggin' me to update them...-.-"'""'""'), and Walk Like a Shinobi WILL BE UPDATED SOON. So don't worry. : P waves Bye!
