Looking for a beta for my Naruto stories, any volunteers?
Naruto had never been so glad to have classes as he was for the past four days. What with the pair of green demons chasing after him every waking moment of the day, he didn't think that his sanity would hold out much longer. There was one benefit from their pursuit, none of the other jocks were trying to make his life miserable. They'd even left his latest poster in the commons alone out of either respect for his torment at the hands of Gai and Lee, or fear that the duo would focus on anyone attempting to best Naruto in any form.
Okay, so maybe Kakashi was being a little easier on his homework then he'd ever been in the past, but that was mostly since he was Gai's usual target, and with Naruto being the target now, he was finally able to just relax. It was nice that he'd attach notes on hiding places, and ways to distract Gai on the notes. He did not know about the fact that bunnies would send Gai running in terror, but he was glad for the information.
He'd also gotten good practice with something that he'd come to consider his dream-self's signature jutsu, kage bunshin. He'd make a couple clones, and have them pull that silly cartoon trick where one would duck into a door, while another would appear from another. That actually kept Gai and Lee both busy for three full hours, while the third clone that he'd created to just observe sent him back what had to be the funniest thing he'd ever seen.
Apparently one clone had gotten the pair so confused, that after one door was left open, Gai attempted to open it up ending with the bowl cut crowned teacher attempt to open said door, and slam into the wall with enough force to knock himself out. If only he had a camera recording it...
But now it was Friday, and he just had to make it until tomorrow before he'd be taken to the city for shopping, and Gai wouldn't be able to get him there. A day's respite before getting sucked into the chase again was just what the doctor was prescribing for him right now.
His musings were cut off by the sound of the bell ringing, telling him the class was over. Letting the other students filter out first, he groaned as he remembered what class he had next. Maybe he could just claim to be sick to get out of gym.
Deciding instead to face the enemy head on, he began his death-march. Five minutes later, he was in the locker room, changed and dreading every step towards the gym in which Gai would be waiting for him. After all, what was gym class, but a full forty-five minutes in which he couldn't escape from Gai's gaze?
"Hello my most youthful students! Today is a special day," Gai proclaimed loudly while beaming directly at Naruto. If the alarms weren't blaring in his head already, Naruto knew that they'd be blaring at this singular action. "For today we are going to run through the obstacle course today!"
Oh yeah... special to Gai meant bone weary exhausting to most anyone else with even a lick of sense in their brain. Everyone lined up in alphabetic order, as was standard Gai protocol for such days. This meant that Naruto was towards the back, right behind Sasuke. It would seem that Gai had other plans for today, as he called out, "To explore our youthfulness, we shall make it a competition! Sasuke, Naruto, both of you are going first, and the loser has to do laps while the others run through the course!"
Of course, he'd pull something like that. If he beat Sasuke, he'd only get clobbered by the Uchiha's fanbase, and then captured to join the mixed martial arts team. If he lost, he'd be running laps until he couldn't escape. It was a lose-lose scenario for Naruto.
Getting up to the starting line with the duck-butt haired prince of the school, he sighed heavily and assumed the position. There had to be some way to get out of this, win and he'd lose, lose and he'd lose... there had to be another way.
Starting off, the two were in a dead heat as they sprang over the hurdles set to various heights. The crawl under the cargo netting gave Naruto the idea to use chakra to ensure that he won, and then had the energy to run away. But that would only get Gai after him in a bigger hurry. The division began at the climbing wall, where Sasuke slipped on a patch of oil that Gai had prepared for them. Naruto on the other hand managed to adjust for it with little problem.
He'd actually gotten to the top, when he realized that the oil patches had even been there. After all, he slipped upon landing, sending his legs in two painfully opposing directions. Giving himself half a moment's rest to recover from the pain, he saw that Sasuke had gotten down off the wall, and was racing towards the swinging ropes. Well now, he couldn't just let Sasuke win, could he?
Pushing up, he sprinted at full speed, smirking as his chakra began forming itself to stick despite the oil. He had managed to get up a good amount of speed by the time he reached the ropes, and used it to launch him past the second rope, and onto the third, which in turn allowed him to continue swinging along at a faster pace than Sasuke could.
It was as he tackled going up the cargo netting that he got the idea. If he couldn't win, and couldn't lose... why not ensure that it happened that neither of them won, nor lost? All he had to do was keep pace with Sasuke during the slalom at the end of the course. Rolling onto his back at the top of the net, he paused to gulp down some air.
He had the zip line, the monkey bars, the spinning padded whackers, and the dodge ball parts to go before he reached the slalom. This was going to be fuuuuuun...
Leveraging himself upwards, he found that Sasuke was catching up nicely. Now he just had to keep that true. Walking over, he grabbed the first zip line's handles and began his descent. It was a three stage process, and by the end of the first run, Sasuke had started his slide.
At the second platform, Naruto forewent walking over, instead using the momentum to spring over to the other zipline, and hooked his knees on the handles. Halfway through the ride, he switched over to his hands, and hit the landing in a roll.
The easiest way to deal with the monkey bars would have been to just walk on the top of them, but that would have gotten cries of cheating, and he was pushing it as is. So instead, he began crossing it the proper way, finding out the hard way that Gai had decided to grease random bars here. Maybe he should have just done it the other way anyhow.
"Hey Sasuke, the bars are greased!" Naruto shouted back, while trying to recover his momentum. It was his hope that the prince would take the warning, and do the smart thing. As Naruto finished crossing the bars, he smiled seeing that indeed the silent survivor was up on top of the bars, walking along carefully in case of grease up there.
Naruto focused back on the race, weaving through the spinning arms. Sure they were padded, but they still would have hurt should one hit. Duck, leap, slip to the right, roll to the left, duck, roll under the forth and fifth arms, and spring up over the next two. It was just really wonderful to be in this interwoven network of spinning arms of padded pain. A second's respite, brought him sight of Sasuke working his way through the padded arms with about as much ease as Naruto was having. Finally Naruto was free, and panting heavily.
The slalom was the easiest part of the course, as he and Sasuke were neck and neck with each other, slipping and sliding through the oil on the course, using it to ski through the final part. And then they were through, tied to the second. "Good... Job..." Naruto panted while holding his knees.
"Hnn..." Sasuke eloquently put it, while he nursed a bruise he'd gotten somewhere on the course. After a moment he lowered his voice and mumbled. "Thanks... for the warning back there..."
Naruto blinked as he tried to understand that he was actually hearing Sasuke thanking him for anything. A smile split his face, while he gulped down air. "No problem, didn't want you losing to something like that..."
"Hnn..." Sasuke grunted out as they slipped and slid their way over to Gai, Naruto used just a trickle of chakra subconsciously to keep from doing the splits again, and lent Sasuke a bit of stability on their way. Gai, for his part was either genuinely happy at their performance, or a top-notch actor.
"Very youthful! The both of you performed perfectly, however, I'm afraid that it ended in an unyouthful tie... and as such the both of you have to run the course again... with weights!" Gai proclaimed while pulling out two pairs of ankle weights from nowhere. Seriously, nowhere, he was in skin-tight spandex, and no one could see any possible place for him to have housed them.
The two boys that had just ran the course did the only thing either one of them could think of. They pointed at each other and shouted. "HE WON!"
Without even waiting for someone to try and settle the matter, the went to go do laps around the perimeter of the school. Hey, Gai never once mentioned that they had to do laps indoors, or that they actually had to run, so instead they just kept it to a steady jog. "He's psychotic..." Naruto groaned as they made it outside, where the warm sunshine fell upon them.
"Hnn..." Sasuke agreed while they fell into step together. "Why'd you tie with me? If you hadn't stopped twice, you would have won..."
"And gotten beaten up by your fanclub," Naruto countered bitterly, missing the look of surprise on Sasuke's face. He did however catch the sound of the face-palming and the groan from the survivor of the Uchiha family.
"That was his plan, wasn't it? He wanted to wear you out to get me to join his club..." Sasuke mumbled into his palm angrily. "If he wears you out, he'll have an easier time trapping you to joining that team of his..."
The pieces of the puzzle began falling into place, and Naruto knew he'd been set up. First by his friend Tenten, and then by the school's idol Sasuke. Oh yeah, this was just a real stellar week all said and done. "How long do I have to hold out for you to win?"
"Until the end of day Monday," Sasuke answered solemnly as they around the first corner of the school, "He caught me just after he caught Tenten. My deal was if she joined, I would. Should have known he'd pull something like this..."
"Gee ya think?" Naruto questioned sarcastically. Hey, he was sick of being used by others to get out of being on the team. "Who else is in on the wager?"
"Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka will be joining if I do. Shikamaru Nara and Chouji Akimichi will likely be pulled in with Ino, and if those two get dragged in..." Sasuke trailed off, trying to remember the rest of the list. "Short list is looking to be including Shino Aburame, Kiba Inuzuka, Neji Hyuuga, his cousin Hinata Hyuuga... and I think I heard about a couple of teachers agreeing to joining up if he got enough students..."
"So... no pressure, right?" Naruto snarked as they continued the first circuit.
"Hnn..." Sasuke agreed, while they continued their jog. They were passing the greenhouses now, and Naruto smiled at seeing the thriving center of life that he'd helped cultivate. Seeing it made him remember that he'd been counted on to this degree before, and had risen to the occasion. All he had to do was avoid Gai for three more days.
No problem at all.
