The Difference Between Boys And Girls by fang_shinobi
Disclaimer: Naruto and other related characters, settings and such are strictly under the ownership of Masashi Kishimoto-sama. I take no claim of ownership except for the words I have contributed.
Summary: Sasuke and Sakura have been chosen by their camp counselors to head the debate on which gender was better. But things get personal when they start a girl-against-boy war that could ruin the whole summer. Watch out for cockroaches, bloodsucking leeches and such. Sasusaku and other pairings…
CHAPTER 3
NIGHT 1
The Party 1830 hrs
Sakura glared at Sasuke more intensely than the stage lights did on them as she stomped unto the stage. He was not an ally. Never was. He was nothing but a mutual friend of Naruto. He had been a hypocrite ever since she'd met him. Always had been. And still was. He loved antagonizing her and taking her on in pretty much everything. This had to end. And she had to come out on top.
"Look like Class 1-B's debate team has come together for this challenge," remarked Kakashi, as he was most familiar with his own advisory class. "But looks like they'll be on opposing sides this time."
"This'll be fun then!" Anko said, jumping on the stage, microphone in hand.
"Anko?!" exclaimed her silver-haired colleague when he saw her. "What are you doing up here?!"
"This is a girls versus boys thing, right?" She placed the mike to her mouth and asked the audience, "Oi! That wouldn't be fair, right? If the emcee was a guy?"
Kakashi groaned and said, "Fine, Anko, go ahead." Her presence just doubled the tension by a tenfold. It was a well-known fact that Anko was the most hardcore feminist around. He better keep quiet or she'll have his head for sure. Ah, screw life.
"So let's-"
"Start this debate!" Anko cut off Kakashi, who just looked at her in trepidation.
"Who's starting?" Sakura asked, fiddling with her mike in one hand.
Sasuke looked at her with an 'I-could-care-less' look on his face. "Ladies first?" he said with a shrug.
"Is that you pretending to be a gentleman?" challenged his pink-haired opponent. "Or just trying to prove that I'd need a head start on you just because I'm a girl?"
The crowd reacted with a mix of boos and cheers. Sakura hit the mark.
A smirk escaped Sasuke's lips, and he almost looked as if he was going to laugh. "Would you like toss coin then?" he said, almost jokingly.
Kakashi didn't need any prompting to bring out a coin. "Who wants head?" he asked, not asking either by name for the sake of not getting wailed at by his uber aggressive co-worker.
Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other, expecting the other to cave in and choose first.
"Come on!" complained Anko, to Kakashi's relief. "Do we have to toss coin to toss coin? Sakura heads, Sasuke tails. Go!"
Kakashi did as he was told and said, "Tails."
"Lemme see that!" Anko suddenly demanded.
"What? You don't trust me?"
When she had indeed verified, she turned towards the two competitors and said, "Well, tails it is," looking as if she wasn't about to bite someone's head off just a few moments ago. "'Kay, Sasuke start!"
"Fine. Since I was randomly chosen after all."
Sakura rolled her eyes.
"This debate is about which gender is better. I don't want to beat around the bush. Men are better than women. We don't even need this sort of debate to prove that.
"Just look at history, current news. Everywhere. Who invented the light bulb? Cars? Television? Who established kingdoms? Republics? Monopolies? Who runs the government? Earns the salaries? Or everything women aren't capable of-"
"Everything women aren't capable of?!" Sakura cut in.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan, you can't interrupt yet," Kakashi informed her.
"Shut up! Let her speak!" Anko snapped at him.
"But-"
"Sensei, I think I've finished with what I have to say," said Sasuke, giving his opponent a victorious look. The first step to winning any competition is to aggravate the opponent. "It's Sakura's turn."
"Fine," chorused the two teachers.
The pink-haired girl huffed at her opponent's unrelenting cockiness. "Please excuse my abrupt interruption back there," she said, regaining her calm composure. "You see, I can't help but argue that women can do whatever man can, if not better. There are also women politicians, inventors, chemists, physicists, presidents and ambassadors. We are perfectly capable of being anything.
"Furthermore, the only reason that women do not appear in history as often as men do is because men just love the spotlight, which isn't surprising because they have such huge egos. We can't overlook the fact that the realms of science, math, politics and such have been male-dominated over the century only because of discrimination against women as the weaker sex, getting the "lesser" jobs like household chores and raising the kids. But isn't it surprising, that even though men act all in-charge and powerful, there are certain cultures where women do all the work. They even work the field while men sit around doing nothing and waiting to go on hunts."
"And what culture could that be?" he challenged. It was clear that this debate was of the informal kind, so no one bothered objecting to his interruption.
"African tribes are one example," Sakura stated. "Look that up. It's true. It's still practiced as we speak. Anyway, back to my point. It has been established all over the world that men are the bosses, heads of the household, dominator of women, blah blah blah. That women are too dumb to vote or study or take on jobs other than being nurses or teachers. Well, guess what, development is catching up on those ancient biases and discrimination. Women can do anything that men can."
"Well, seems as if our two teams have defended their sides," Kakashi announced. "Lets jud-"
"Wait a minute," Sasuke cut in. "The debate's not over."
His pink-haired opponent looked at him in disbelief. He wasn't going down without a fight. Well, neither was she. "We're not through yet," she added.
"Let them finish!" Anko snapped at him.
Kakashi merely raised his hands in surrender. Let them do as they wish, as long as Anko doesn't rip his head off.
"Sasuke, your turn again," the purple-haired woman said.
"As response to my opponent's defense," started the raven-haired teen, "I'd like to point out that she was just trying to prove that men and women are equals. I thought this was a debate on which was better." He watched her intensify her glare at him. Bullseye number two.
"I've made my point," Sakura replied stubbornly.
"I'll move on to other points. How about the fact that men are more logical that women, who are more… emotional? This makes us smarter."
"That sounds a bit too general," cut in the pink-haired girl. "Most of the top honor students are girls. How can you explain that?"
"We're in high school," replied Sasuke. "One's true capabilities are revealed in college and later, in the adult realm."
"Are you saying it's on the long run?"
"Who are more successful?"
Sakura's only response was to roll her eyes.
"And not only are we smarter, we're also stronger."
"Physically, but not emotionally."
"We don't bawl our eyes out," he pointed out.
"Emotional stability is better achieved when you express your emotions. Men are emotionally weaker because they think crying makes them weak. When they hold it in, they get more unstable. That's why more men commit suicide than women."
"So now we're suicidal? That's absolutely crazy. If what you say is true, then why do women have more emotional breakdowns?"
"They're not called emotional breakdowns."
"Don't blame PMS again like most of you women always do." Laughter rose from the crowd. Anko looked as if she wanted to strangle him dead.
"Another point," Sakura pointed out. "I bet men can't survive a day in our bodies. Dysmenorrhea is more painful than you think."
"Try getting circumcised."
"Hold on, you two," Kakashi cut in before Sakura could retort. "Let's not delve into those issues, 'kay? They're a bit on the sensitive side."
The two rolled their eyes in annoyance. They were getting pumped up too.
"Men are too insensitive," Sakura said.
"That's not entirely true," Sasuke stated. "Women are just too sensitive."
"Men always do the most insensitive and inconsiderate things."
"Well, women make big things of small issues."
"No, we don't!"
"You just proved it." Bullseye number three.
"…" Sakura paused to recollect herself. If this keeps up, he'd make her look like a spoilsport. "At least women are tidier than men."
"Men are perceived as slobs. I thought you were being anti-discriminatory. Why so biased all of a sudden?" Another hit.
"Biased? Who's being biased? You're the one who's so full of yourself, thinking you'd win just because I'm a girl!"
"Sakura-chan, I think you're getting a bit too personal," Kakashi told her.
"I've had enough of this!" she shouted at him, throwing the mike on the ground, sending a loud deafening buzzing sound through the speakers. She stomped off the stage, her face flushed in anger.
"Sakura, you okay?" Ino asked, rushing towards her.
"Yeah, just fine," she snapped back, biting back her tears.
"Hey, are you… crying?"
"Never mind!" she half-sobbed, pushing her friend away and stomping off.
"What the hell…"
"What do you mean you win?! That doesn't count!" The blonde turned to see Tenten shouting at Neji as she marched over to her. "Can you believe him?" the brunette asked Ino. "He thinks they won."
"Of course we win," Neji scoffed. "She walked out."
"It's a forfeit," Shikamaru added as he approached. "It's not really a win."
"What are you talking about? Of course we win!" Neji insisted.
"I'd prefer it if Sasuke beat her before she ran off," said Shikamaru. "Tch. What a sore loser."
"You do realize that you're acting like jerks again, don't you?" Ino snapped at him.
The two looked at her blankly. They didn't give a damn.
"Argh!" yelled the blonde, stomping off and leaving her brunet friend in an uproar against the two guys.
"What happened?" Hinata asked as she ran up beside Ino, who was already heading out of the area by then.
"I don't know, and I don't care," answered the other girl. "The boys have been pain in the necks all night. I don't care about them."
The indigo-haired girl watched her friend head off. She looked really mad. So did Sakura. Did she really run off crying, or was it only her imagination? She made her way back to the stage where most of their 'friends' had gathered. They were fighting again. And this time, Sakura wasn't around to stop them.
"Everyone, please-" Her voice was lost in the noise.
"Hinata-chan." She reeled around to see Naruto already pulling her along. "Let's get out of here."
She was too embarrassed to say anything as he led her away. "What happened back there?" she finally asked as they approached the cabins.
Naruto let go of her and said, "I was afraid this would happen."
"Huh?"
"'Coz… uh… you see… this thing between Sakura and Sasuke… have you noticed it too?"
"What about them?"
"They really like each other. That's what I think."
"Eh?" Hinata looked at him doubtfully. No matter how sincerely he had said that, it just seemed so unbelievable. "It didn't look that way."
The boy sighed. He seemed awfully tired from all of this. "I thought you guys should've noticed by now. I've known Sasuke since I-don't-remember-anymore. That long. Probably since first or second grade. I know him that much. You know what? He never shows how he feels. He does it some other way. We're supposed to be best friends, right? Yet, he never acts like it. We just fight a lot. Sometimes, I act all mushy, but he just whacks me for it. He's that much of an introvert. He really just won't show what he really feels. Do you get where I'm going? 'Coz I think I'm going in circles."
Hinata nodded her head. He was getting confusing, but she gathered as much.
"Anyway," he continued, "I think he likes her, 'coz he's always like taking her on in whatever. Have you noticed how they're fighting over top rank for the batch? Or the top spot for the debate team? They're competitive, but I think they are against each other 'coz they can't let their pride down."
"Like in Pride and Prejudice?"
Naruto blinked at her. "Yeah, whatever that is. Something like that." He always fell asleep whenever they were discussing world literature. "Anyway, Sasuke likes to show his emotions differently. Like last Christmas. I asked for a hug, and he pushed a fruitcake into my mouth."
Hinata couldn't surpass a giggle. Afterwards, the dreary mood returned as she remembered the whole situation. "Well, what do you think will happen now? And what does this have to do with me?" As much as possible, she wanted to be neutral in this whole case.
"They'll probably ruin our summer with this feud."
"What?!"
Naruto shrugged, almost casually. "They're good at what they do, and they can easily spearhead these sort of things. They're both stubborn, so if they choose to hate each other for the rest of the summer, they can do so and involve everyone else as well. You did see how everyone fought back there, right? If Sasuke and Sakura joined in, what do you think'll happen?"
"They'll probably make it worse," she said, almost to herself.
"You know where this leaves you, right?"
"Eh? I don't know… I…"
"You'll need to try and calm Sakura down. She's your cabinmate, right? I doubt she'd want to talk to me. War against Sasuke to her would mean war against the rest of us boys. Can you help with this?"
"Uh… s-sure, I-I guess…" she stuttered involuntarily.
"Good luck."
Cabin G5 2100 hrs
Ino peeked through Sakura's bunk curtain. She found her curled up, unchanged and sleeping peacefully. She seemed okay.
"Ino-chan, is that you?" Hinata asked, peeking from the top bunk across from them.
"Yeah," the blonde replied flatly. "Karin in yet?"
"What's it to you?" the said girl asked, opening her own curtains and sitting on the side of her bed. She raised an eyebrow, as if challenging the blonde.
"I don't have the time for this," said the blonde as she took off her shoes.
"So, Sasuke and Pinky here had a huge public fight, eh?"
"What's it to you?" echoed Ino.
Karin just laughed as she got back into her bunk and closed up for the night. "Whatever."
"What happened?" Hinata asked in a hoarse whisper.
"Hell broke loose," was Ino's only answer as she too climbed into her bunk. The light inside was turned on for a while, but it quickly died after a few minutes. The blond girl didn't even say goodnight.
Hinata slipped back into her bunk and tried to fall asleep. With Naruto's voice ringing in her ears, there was no such luck.
END OF CHAPTER
Author's note: I wrote Chapter 4 ahead, so this one's a bit rushed. Again, I blame projects, research papers and our field trip to Negros Occidental. ^^ But I do thank the fact that our internet connection failed. That way, I wasn't tempted to go online on Gaia or read manga in Onemanga. Yeah, I refer these sites to you. Add me in Gaia. My username is pau-san ^^
Sidenote: (1) Just noticed. Teachers are supposed to be called by their surnames, right? But in the manga and anime, they've gotten used to using their names, so I just used that.
(2) Why do Sasuke and Sakura have to be so competitive? It's in their innate nature. What a blast that'll be when they actually direct that competitive tension towards each other in the manga lol.
(3) Yup, there are African tribes where that is practiced. Women? Working fields?! Damn, I got so worked up when I watched that episode of Worlds Apart. Even in my country, it has been mostly the men who work the fields. There were times when women worked too, but that was way back then. These days, farming has been more or less a guy thing. Isn't that the same with western culture? I think…
(3) Oh, so sorry to bring up the whole menstruation and circumcision thing. Those issues all come up in our debates in school. Good thing I didn't use the whole 'who-carries-the-babies' and 'who-makes-em' issue lol. That'd be too hilarious.
Next time:
"Now what are you thinking about?" Tayuya asked Karin, who seemed to planning another one of her little schemes.