CHAPTER TEN
Racoons - Leniency
"Why did I ever agree to do this?" Naruto grumbled, as he crawled through the ducts above the school. "Yes, for the free ramen, but this is...oh, eww, is that a spider!?"
"Naruto?" A voice called from behind him, and Naruto half-turned to shine the flashlight on Sakura.
"Sakura? What are you doing here?" Naruto blinked his baby blue eyes.
"Get that thing off me." She snapped and, when he did: "I couldn't let you do this alone, Naruto." Sakura told him gently. "Besides, the Animal Brigade voted, and said I had to go."
"The what?"
"Never mind."
OoO
OoO
OoO
"Do you think they're okay up there?" Temari wondered, as she and everyone else had been staring at the ceiling for about ten minutes.
"Sakura, sure." Sai shrugged. "Naruto...not so much."
Hinata sighed.
"And what was that for?" Musha asked her.
"Ah-I-ah-well-you see..." Hinata stammered and, to save her from the awkwardness of the situation, Kiba called out: "Hey, has anyone seen that cat Sasuke brought in?"
"Come to think of it...where's Chouji!!" Ino screamed.
"Chouji?" Mari cried.
"Spud!?" Matsuri exclaimed. "Oh no, Emma, my cat's gone!"
"Your cat?" Emma raised an eyebrow, and didn't look worried because...
The door suddenly opened, and in came Chouji, with the cat on his shoulder, and an armload of food from the canteen.
Including ramen, for Naruto when he came back!
OoO
OoO
OoO
"I hope my parents aren't too worried about me, at school in this storm." Sakura murmured, as she and Naruto crawled their way through the school's air-con ducts. I bet they never saw me doing this, is this even LEGAL!?
"Nobody's worried about me." Naruto said softly.
Sakura winced. "Oh, Naruto, I'm sorry. Sometimes you're so...I dunno, you, that I forget you're an...you know..."
"An orphan?" Naruto responded. "You can say it, I don't care."
But, he did care.
OoO
OoO
OoO
Matsuri started singing, and Emma joined in.
"Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember..."
When they finished the song, everyone cheered, and someone, probably Mari (who had decided to be the 'class-idiot' whilst Naruto was off racoon-hunting) suggested a sing-a-long.
"It's cold in here, Naruto was right." Ino said, shivering. "For once." She added.
"I hope the racoon didn't eat its way through the heating wires." Chouji muttered, eating a sausage roll.
"I'll bet the school isn't rich enough to heat all of the rooms at once." Matsuri said.
"Yup." Sai nodded.
"We must sing!" Lee declared. "It is the youthful thing to o! I shall start!" And, he launched into a rendition of Burning Love, by Elvis Presley. Everyone else joined in, because there was nothing left to do.
Then, they sung other 'warm' songs, such as Burn and 'down, down, down into a burning ring of fire'.
Then, Kiba, damn him, started singing Frozen by Madonna.
The others joined in, and he was glad to see them all shivering, because Kiba's just evil. :)
OoO
OoO
OoO
"Hey, do you hear that?" Sakura asked suddenly.
"Hear what?" Naruto asked.
"That...scrabbling noise..." Sakura whispered, afraid to speak any louder because she already knew what it was.
"Well...ah, what does it sound like?" Naruto wanted to know.
"Like a creature running on all fours in this direction..." Sakura muttered.
Naruto trained the flashlight straight in front of them. The beam shone on metal, dust, the occasional spider and...
A furry grey and black creature was running full tilt towards Naruto and Sakura, who was peering in worry over the blonde boy's shoulder, and she screamed: "KYAAAAA!!" When the racoon ran straight into them.
OoO
OoO
OoO
"Hey!" Kiba suddenly cried, putting an end to the singing. "Did somebody hear that?"
"Hear what?" Asked Kin, who was sitting close by and strumming a ukelele she had found in the classroom.
"That sound." Kiba said, closing his eyes and listening very hard. "It sounded almost like...Sakura. Screaming."
"WHAT!!" Lee yelled, jumping to his feet.
"Hey, I hear it too!" Musha cried, also standing up. "Kiba, did you just hear Naruto yell 'Motherfu'..."
"Yes!" Kiba nodded, before Musha could go on any further. "And now Sakura's saying...it's too big!"
Everyone was staring at Kiba and Musha in shock now.
"Umm...Temari?" Garaa whispered to his sister. "What's happening up there?"
Temari glanced down at Garaa, startled, and said: "You really don't understand any of this?"
Matsuri and Emma exchanged a glance. Kankurou just groaned.
Temari exhaled loudly. "Oh-kay..." She said but, just then, Kiba gasped.
"I just heard Naruto say they're both bleeding!" He cried.
Even Kankurou looked worried now. "Does that usually happen?" He asked nobody in particular.
Emma chose to answer. "Well, I dunno about guys..." She trailed off, and both she and Kankurou looked embarrassed.
Garaa was still waiting for Temari to continue. She thought maybe Kankurou and Garaa should have this talk.
"This is ridiculous." Kai suddenly said.
"What is, Kai?" Mari wanted to know.
"Well," He said. "I was reading Naruto's diary..."
Everyone stared at him.
"And he's..." Kai looked embarrassed. "Well, let's just say I think it's weird for him to have 'you-know-what' for the first time in an air-conditioning duct!"
"Oh, I get it." Ai nodded. "Naruto's a virgin."
Sore rolled her eyes.
Chouji looked thoughtful. "Does this mean Sakura's a virgin too?"
"Ha!" Ino cried. "Yeah, right! I wouldn't be surprised if she's..."
Kakashi was pretending not to hear all of this.
OoO
OoO
OoO
Grr, little Ino pig! Sakura was thinking, as she and Naruto wrestled the rabid racoon.
Suddenly, the area of the duct they were in chose to gave way, and Naruto, Sakura and the racoon fell into Tsunade's office, where she was currently making out with none other then Mr. Jiraiya, the health teacher.
"AAAAUUUURRRRGGGGHHHH!!" Sakura, Naruto, Jiraiya and Tsunade screamed. "AAAAUUUURRRRGGGGHHHH!!"
And, the racoon chose Naruto's head to clamber up onto, nearly scratching the poor kid's eyes out - but, he almost wished that it had!
OoO
OoO
OoO
"What happened to you?" Kiba cried, when Naruto and Sakura walked back into the classroom, nursing cuts and bruises.
"Let's just say..." Naruto groaned.
"That we may have to leave this school or be expelled." Sakura shuddered.
Together they said: "There are just some things you were never meant to see."
The entire class stared at them in shock.
Lee started bawling his eyes out in the corner.
Hinata had turned white, so white that Sakura noticed it and said: "Hey, Hinata, you feeling okay? I mean, after Naruto's and mine tangle with that rabid racoon, we should be..."
"OHHHH!!" Everyone else said, and Hinata and Lee looked relieved, to say the least.
"We thought you were..." Mari began, but Kai covered her mouth with his hand and said: "We're glad you're alright. Where's the racoon now?"
"Serving as a paper-weight on Tsunade's desk." Naruto replied.
"Hey everybody!" Ino suddenly called, to get the focus away from her rival, Sakura. "The snow's stopped! We can go outside now!"
OoO
OoO
OoO
Well, they actually had to wait another hour or so before they could go outside but, once they were allowed to, they were in awe.
Konoha had been transformed into a wintery wonderland of whiteness. It was magical, enchanting, and totally cool.
Kakashi watched calmly as the students in his homeroom went wild.
Naruto and Sakura made a snow-sculpture of the racoon they had tangled with. Matsuri's cat romped around in the snow, playing mountain lion. Matsuri followed him, and Sasuke followed her, chatting with her occasionally whilst Ino looked on enviously.
Some kids built a sled hill, and they took turns sledding down it on anything they could find.
Some of the girls in the class made snow angels.
"Cool!" Naruto cried, abandoning his racoon sculpture and flopping down on the ground, moving his arms and legs. He stood up, and then frowned at his demonic creation. "Aww, why does that always happen?"
"Naruto just had a chilling realisation!" Temari laughed.
Shikamaru fell asleep in the snow, so a few students buried him in it.
"Kankurou!" Temari suddenly cried, watching as her eldest younger brother sat on a bench, eating snow. "What are you doing!? That's snow that's been on the ground!"
"Garaa!" Kankurou called. "Write that one down so we can have it at home!"
Ai and Zaku began building a snow-castle, and soon people began joining in, and two were made.
"We'll have to start thinking about carriage driving instead of sleigh driving now." Emma said to Garaa.
"What?" Matsuri asked.
"Nothing." Emma smiled sweetly, as she and Kankurou started work on a snow stables.
Ino and Shino began making a snow bakery/flower shop (double business), and Hinata, Matsuri and Kiba began to make a snow jail house.
Dosu, Kin and Sore made a giant snow sculpture for their 'village'.
During all of this, Sai managed to tug Musha aside and ask her where Hoshi was today.
"Oh, she's sick in bed with a cold." Musha leaned closer and whispered: "I think she knew the storm was coming."
"Ah, I see." Sai nodded.
Suddenly, a snowball came flying and hit Mushi on the shoulder.
Everyone stopped and looked around. Who threw that snowball?
Finally, Tsunade stood up and said: "Just for today...you may have one snowball fight!"
"HOORAY!!" The students all screamed, and quickly broke into teams.
Tenten quickly finished her snow panda, and even Neji got up and joined in, and soon people were running around, throwing snowballs, laughing, dodging snowballs, and tagging people out.
"For our people!!" Declared Temari.
"No, for our people!!" Kiba rebelled.
Everyone laughed, especially when those two were forced to switch sides a moment later when they were struck out by snowballs.
Everyone was having such a good time, that no one wanted to leave, but in the end they all had to. It was getting late, and dark, save for a few lights on here and there.
OoO
OoO
OoO
"Huh?" Shika awoke with a start. "Wha...where am I?" He looked around sleepily, and found Chouji waiting for him.
"Ready to go?" He asked him, and Shika nodded.
Chouji heaved him out of the snow.
"Where is everyone?" Shika looked around. It was very late.
Chouji motioned for Shika to follow him, and then led him to the snow bakery/florist, which they found by following the lights from around the school walls.
Inside the snow building was a snow sculpture of Sasuke. Ino herself was sitting at a snow table, and saying: "Some more tea, my Sasuke-dear?"
Shika and Chouji both sweatdropped.
OoO
OoO
OoO
MEG: Ino? Time to go-lo…Ino-San?
INO: Some more tea, Sasuke dear?
SASUKE: (Mysteriously vanished)
RACOON: Why am I a paperweight?
TSUNADE: And why was I kissing Jiraiya!? He's a freak!
JIRAIYA: That's not what ya said last night dear!
TSUNADE: Call me dear again, and I'll kill you!
MEG: …Uh, please R&R pplz!