Of All the Games…

(#17 -- Hopscotch)


Summary: It was just another one of Gai-sensei's ridiculous ideas. But unlike the others, this one actually worked.

Characters: Tenten, Neji, Lee, Gai

Word Count: 1,273

Extra warning: None necessary. Rated K.


The stupidest, or perhaps smartest, thing Gai-sensei had ever proposed to his team was one of his many 'bonding' exercises. His 'bonding' exercises tended to range from cooking to, oddly enough, playing a prank on the current Hokage. Of the all the exercises they conducted, the pranks never tended to end well. Neither Tenten, nor Neji, nor Lee, nor Gai, were any good at pulling a well orchestrated prank. It was usually either a lame prank or they got caught doing the prank at the worst possible time. Over time, Tenten and Neji became clever enough to find a way out of the training exercises, but in the beginning they were forced along.

One of his few successful exercises was rather impromptu and proposed back when his team was still undeniably at odds with each other. It had began with the end of a rather unorthodox training session in which Gai-sensei had them work on how long they could hold their breath while sparring using only taijutsu. Tenten lost almost immediately. On average she was okay in her taijutsu, combine that with holding her breath and it spelled disaster. Although, she was the best when Gai-sensei allowed them to use weapons while holding their breath; but without weapons she failed miserably. Lee lost about twenty seven times to Neji before finally winning one, though Tenten attributed the win to the fact that Neji was getting exhausted and Neji just didn't hold the same resilience Lee did at that time.

Lee would eventually surpass Neji in taijutsu, but at the moment, Lee was still lacking in everything but heart.

"Can I go home now?" She had complained to Gai-sensei once Lee had finally bested Neji. "You know, since we're done?"

"But we must train harder!" Lee protested.

Neji just sat there stoically.

It was at that interval that Gai-sensei seemed to find it appropriate to try to unite them closer as a team once again. Tenten had told him constantly to quit trying. She, Lee, and Neji were far too different to ever get along appropriately. But Gai was just as hard-headed as Lee - they both refused to ever give up on anything.

"I know what youthful exercise we can do!"

"Please no." Tenten pleaded at the same time Neji sighed in aggravation.

"Let us play hopscotch, my young students!"

Tenten felt her eyebrow twitching. "Hopscotch?" Of all stupid things, Gai had picked hopscotch? She wondered yet again if someone had hit him too hard in the back of his head in a mission. He had to be mentally unwell in some retrospect.

"I have to–" Neji tried to wrangle out of it, but Gai-sensei hushed him with another long monologue on how hopscotch would surely light the inner fires of their youth.

Tenten had no reservations about telling her sensei to shut the hell up, but she'd long since realized that doing so only made his monologue longer. So rather, she picked herself up from the comfy spot on the floor and started digging a kunai into the grass so that the lines of the hopscotch squares were clearly evident by the brown lines of dirt through the brightly colored grass. "Fine. Let's get it over with." She interrupted, hoping this would, in effect, shut him up.

Neji hesitated. "I don't know how."

Tenten yawned. "How what?"

"How to play."

It took her a few seconds to register the information, though seemingly it seemed she was the first to understand. Lee gaped at Neji in astonishment and Gai looked a cross between a child who'd just had his candy taken away and a child who couldn't understand where his mother had gone when peekaboo was being played.

"How can you not know how to play?" She asked baffled. "Doesn't every kid play hopscotch? Hell, I'm poor as dirt and have no parents, and I've played the game."

He scowled. "Well, I've never played."

She straightened, realizing that she may have inadvertently offended him. She blinked, "Look, I didn't mean…It's just…It's weird okay? I didn't expect that, especially from you." Without as 

second thought, she took his hand in hers and dragged him over to the game she'd just dug into the grass. "Okay, look, there's these squares."

Lee seemed to have regained his composure and moved to stand beside her. "They are numbered."

Tenten nodded. "Right. And the object of the game is really just to get through all the squares and back, but you have to hop through them." She hopped through her design, "Just like this." She showed him again coming back.

Lee picked up a pebble. "And you throw a rock to get to the right square. If you do no't get it in or if it touches the line, you lose your turn." Lee tossed the pebble in example.

"Also, if while you're hopping on a single square your other foot touches the ground it's a violation. Your turn is disregard and you go back to where you lst were. Same thing happens if you hop on a line." Tenten showed him what she meant.

Neji frowned. "Well, it's a pretty easy game for a ninja wouldn't you say?"

Tenten analyzed her rudimentary design. "Now that you mention it…"

"What if we play on a mountain?" Lee suggested.

Tenten nodded. "Yeah…Oh! And instead of a pebble we use a kunai, but we also draw a target on each square where we have to get a bulls-eye or else have our turn skipped!"

"I know!" Gai interrupted, finally falling out of his revere, "We also separate the squares by 25feet!"

Neji's eye started twitching. "How about between five and eight feet?"

Tenten nodded. "Yeah, five or eight sounds good." Twenty-five was just ridiculous.

Thirty minutes later, they finished constructing their game of hopscotch on one of the steepest mountains in the village. Despite Tenten's initial disinclinations to the game, she found herself having fun. "Hey! Cheater!" She accused, pointing her finger at Neji. "You toed the line!"

"I DID NOT!" He protested.

Tenten turned to Lee. "You be the judge. Did he or did he not?"

Lee shook his head. "Tenten, I did not see him touch the line."

"Gah!" She protested bitterly. "You're both in cahoots."

"Who says 'cahoots' nowadays?" Neji smirked.

"Who says 'nowadays'?" She shot back.

"Bitter." He smirked.

"Cheater." She snapped. "EP! STOP!" She yelled at Gai.

Gai froze, halting before going to the next jump. "What?"

"You cheated." Neji explained.

"Exactly." Tenten harrumphed.

"I did not cheat!" Gai protested.

"Lee?" Tenten inquired.

"Gai-sensei," Lee said smiling, "you touched the line."

"Ha-ha!" Tenten grinned. "Told ya!"

Neji rolled his eyes. "It's about time one of your accusations proved to be true."

"Hey," She protested, sticking her tongue out at her teammate. "They were all true; this is just the first time I could get one of you pinned."

"Sure." Neji said. "Suure."

Somehow, that rather strange game of hopscotch made friends out of strangers and teammates of outsiders. As friends, they would always be called the oddest bunch, but that day Tenten found, it really wasn't so bad. Being friends with them was rather nice, because beneath their skin they were rather different. And it was special to be able to say that she was one of the few who could see it.

Also, it turned out that their modified version of the game of hopscotch became not only the most popular game among shinobi, but one of the only 'fun' training exercises that senseis could use to mold their students.

Hunh, they were starting trends. And all because Gai-sensei had another harebrained idea.


A/N: Hey, guys! Firstly, I want to thank you all for reading and reviewing. You're the best. Second, in case you didn't know, I am now in my senior year of high school and have recently begun searching for scholarships. I have entered one in which I could get 500 dollars but it all depends on people voting for my picture. I have a link on my profile (near the top) and if you all could vote for my picture I would really truly appreciate it. You don't even have to register at the site to vote for my picture, (although, I believe registering would give my picture more points) so if you could go and vote I would owe you soooo much. I will be forever in your debt.

In fact, if you like, I will write absolutely anything you request of me. (even if I hate the very idea)

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