This chapter is dedicated to my lovely cousins.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I do own a Sasuke-kun t-shirt! Thanks again Mustard-Gal!
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Chapter 9: Water Park
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"Why are we here?" Neji asked, as they walked through the gates of the water park that had recently opened.
"Because," Tenten said. "Its a million degrees and we're not going to let our new bathing suits go to waste."
"And we didn't hear you complaining when we suggested this," Sakura added.
"Mostly because he's not as gay as we thought he was," Naruto said, sporting a pair of orange swimming trunks.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Neji asked, glaring.
"And they say you're the genius…" Naruto trailed off. Neji just continued glaring at him.
"He means," Sasuke said, walking up behind them. "That you agreed to come so that you could see Tenten in a swim suit.
"What's your reason Uchiha?" Neji asked, glaring and trying to cover a faint blush.
"It is a million degrees," he said simply.
"And Sakura-chan's wearing a bikini," Akimoto added, walking past them, leading Hinata to one of the rides. Sasuke glared in her general direction.
"Have you guys seen Ino?" Sakura asked, looking for her blonde friend/rival.
"She was arguing with Shikamaru about something," Tenten said, scanning the park for something to do.
"She's over there," Neji said, pointing over his shoulder where the blonde and genius were bickering like an old married couple.
"Ino!" Sakura called. "Wanna go on a roller coaster?"
"Of course!" she called back, running to her friend's side as they took off.
"What about us?" Tenten yelled at their retreating backs.
"There's a shooting game over there," Temari pointed out.
"Goody!" Tenten said, rushing over there, Temari on her trail.
"We've been ditched," Naruto stated.
"I'm hurt," Sasuke said sarcastically.
"So am I," Neji said, a smirk on his face. "We should do something to get back at them."
"They sell squirt guns over there," Shikamaru said, pointing to a small stand.
"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Naruto asked.
"Hai," Neji said, smirking.
"Demo," Sasuke added. "On a brain higher level."
"Ok… wait a minute…" Naruto pouted.
As the boys picked out their weapons of choice, the girls met up (minus Temari, who disappeared suddenly) and bought some snow cones, unaware of the evil being plotted against them. That's when it hit them, literally. They screamed as blasts of cold water hit they're backs, soaking them.
"Who did that?" Ino asked as the shots paused. They turned around cautiously to find they're 'friends' standing there with large water weapons, each with a smirk on his respective face.
"What was that for?" Akimoto asked; the glare on her face could rival Sasuke's.
"You ditched us," Naruto said simply.
"What are you talking about?" Tenten asked.
"We were supposed to enjoy a day of fun together," Neji said, he kept his water gun up, just incase.
"How is this fun?" Ino asked, shaking with rage.
"Its tons of fun," Sasuke said smirking.
"For us," Shikamaru added.
"We're the only ones who get to finish each other's sentences," Sakura said motioning to herself and Ino.
"It's creepy when other people do it," Ino said.
"Its creepy when you guys do it," Gaara pointed out.
"BAKA!" Sakura and Ino yelled, which was a big mistake. For future reference, insulting the people that have weapons pointed at you isn't the brightest of ideas. Ino and Sakura's comment cost all their friends another round of water, this time soaking the front of them. Now, there's only so much a girl can take before she snaps, and for Sakura, Ino, Tenten, and Akimoto, that was it. Sasuke, Shikamaru, Neji, and Gaara were now covered in the sweet syrup of snow cone flavoring. Hinata managed to keep her cool, but she's a Hyuuga, a shy one yes, but one nonetheless, so she seemed to have inherited a sense of self control.
One would think that Naruto would have been safe now, which was partially true, Hinata didn't dump her snow cone one him, but when he started laughing hysterically and making fun of his friends, he was in more trouble than what he thought. While Naruto was getting attacked by blasts of water, the girls took this as a distraction and snuck off to where they could purchase their own water guns, but they didn't stop there. They then bought three packets of water balloons and each grabbed two empty cups, which they took to a nearby bathroom.
They filled up their weapons, but hid them well. Tenten and Akimoto had each brought a backpack which they had packed sun block, snacks, towels, etc. Akimoto put everything that she had brought into Tenten's backpack, and then filled her own with the now filled water balloons, and everyone's spare cup. Everyone walked out of the bathroom, supposedly sipping innocently on their drinks. By this time they're former attackers had noticed that they were gone, they quickly snuck behind them, and were about to soak the females again, when the person they were going to attack threw the water in their faces, temporarily blinding them.
Taking advantage of their seeing disability, the girls quickly soaked them with the water from their guns. Sadly, there isn't an infantine amount of water in the super soakers, so when the girls ran out of ammo, they were in a trouble. The males of the group hadn't used up all of the water they had in stock (although Naruto did have considerably more considering a lot was wasted on him), they raised their weapons and fired.
Everyone knows that there is a time and place to retreat, and this was defiantly one of those times. Making their way back into a bathroom, they quickly refilled their water containers, before realizing their mistake. They were trapped. If they went out, they would surely be attacked once again by their 'friends'.
"What are we going to do?" Ino asked, looking at the walls of the restroom in disgust.
"I say we sacrifice one of us," Sakura suggested, looking at Ino.
"Good idea," Ino agreed brightly. "Anyone with a weird hair color and wide forehead gets kicked out!"
"Ino-pig!" Sakura said angrily.
"Billboard brow!" Ino shot back.
"P-please don't fight," Hinata stuttered quietly.
"No, let them," Akimoto said looking around.
"Why would we do that?" Tenten asked, glaring at her friends as they screamed at each other.
"Boys can't hear us talking over them," Akimoto said simply.
"Does that mean you have a plan?" Tenten whispered.
"Hai, but I'm not sure how well it'll work."
"As long as it gets us out of here," Hinata said.
Akimoto nodded, "Does anyone have a watch?" Sakura held up her wrist to signal she did, not once pausing her argument with Ino. "Excellent! All we have to do is take away all of Sakura-chan's weapons, except one which she'll hide, she'll walk out, hands in the air, saying that she just wants to put her watch in the car because it isn't waterproof. She'll do just that, and then come back here, thanking them for their kindness. But as soon as she opens the door, she'll attack them, then we'll barge out, continue with the attack, and then we're out of here!"
"You could give Shikamaru a run for his money," Tenten commented. "WILL YOU TWO GIVE IT A REST ALREADY?"
"Gomen Tenten-chan," Sakura and Ino said.
"Sakura-chan, what time is it?" Akimoto asked; giving Sakura a look that told her this was he queue.
"It's— THIS WATCH ISN'T WATERPROOF!" She yelled worry evident in her voice. She walked to the door, and banged on it. "Sasuke-kun, Naruto, will you please let me out, without attacking me?"
"Why would we do a stupid thing like that?" Sasuke asked from the other side of the door.
"I just need to put my watch in the car, it isn't waterproof and I'm afraid it'll get ruined," she explained pleadingly.
"I don't think we should trust her," came Gaara's voice.
"Come on Gaara-kun," Akimoto said, sounding annoyed. "We'll take away her weapons; she just doesn't want to get her watch broken. Its not that big of a request, one of you can follow her if it makes you feel any better."
"Come on guys, its just Sakura-chan," Naruto said. "She doesn't even have anything to attack us with."
"'Just Sakura-chan'?" Sakura quoted anger evident in her voice. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Just let her out before she breaks down the door to kill Naruto," Tenten said, clearly bored.
"Fine," Sasuke said. "We won't attack, but no one but Sakura is allowed out of there, or we'll shoot."
"Deal," everyone in the small room said, backing away from the door as Sakura stepped out, her hands in the air as Akimoto had instructed.
"I'll walk with you," Sasuke said monotonously, holding up the keys to his car to signal it was locked.
"ArigatouSasuke-kun," Sakura said smiling at him.
"It's just so I can unlock the car and make sure you don't try anything sneaky while you walk away."
"Whatever you say Sasuke-kun," she said.
They reached Sasuke's car, Sakura dropped off her watch, and then they walked back to where the female population was still trapped. Everything was going according to Akimoto's plan, and Sakura was pleased to see the water balloon hit Naruto in the gut, causing him to double over, the object breaking when it hit the ground, splattering him in the face, the males looked over in confusion as the girls broke out, attacking them, and escaping.
They were chased around the park, being shot at the whole way there; it wasn't long before everyone was out of ammo once again. Here was the problem; there were only two places where you could fill up your weapons, not including the restrooms. Neji and Shikamaru had taken it upon themselves to guard said areas, so the girls were once again forced into their prison, and this time they didn't have a watch to use as a distraction.
"We're stuck," Ino stated.
"Really?" Sakura asked sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed."
"You two better not start another argument," Tenten warned.
"D-do you have any more b-brilliant plans A-Akimoto-chan?" Hinata asked, shivering so much she was stuttering.
"Sadly no," Akimoto answered, handing Hinata a jacket she'd brought with her.
"Oww!"
"What was that?" Ino asked, looking at the door with worry.
"It sounded like Naruto," Sakura said, looking puzzled.
"Ouch! Stop it!" the voice sounded again.
"It's Naruto," Tenten said, laughing.
"Can I come?" Naruto yelled through the closed door. "I want to join your team!"
"Liar!" Akimoto shouted, not one to trust their opponents at the moment.
"Please!" Naruto whined. "Sasuke-teme keeps hitting me!"
"You probably deserve it," Ino muttered.
"Why should we trust you?" Tenten asked suspiciously.
"I swear my loyalty to you," Naruto shouted.
"You're a traitor," Sasuke said.
"You should have thought about that before you started being mean to me."
"If you betray us, you'll wish you had Sasuke-kun smacking you," Akimoto threatened, opening the door just wide enough for Naruto to squeeze in.
"You can trust me!" Naruto said, grinning widely.
"Just like the boys did?"
"That's not fair Sakura-chan," Naruto whined once again. "Sasuke-teme was being mean to me, I had to show him!"
"Whatever," Akimoto said. "But until we know we can trust you entirely, you're not allowed to actually battle anyone. You get to stay in here and fill up water balloons."
"And say one word and we'll throw you out," Ino added as Naruto opened his mouth to complain once again.
"I think we should use him as a human shield and bust out of here," Tenten suggested. "Wait a minute, I've got an idea…" she looked around the room, locating a small trash can located under the paper towels. She took the plastic bag out of it, tied it in a knot, and set it in the corner of the room. She then grabbed the empty trash can and began filling it with water. "We'll fill this up, and then we'll dump it on them, and make a run for it."
"We've got two masterminds!" Sakura said excitedly.
"Who thought up the first plan?" Naruto asked.
"We're not telling you," Ino said. "If you're a spy we're not going to give you information on whose good at thinking up plans."
"Why don't you trust me?" Naruto asked, sinking onto the floor beside Hinata.
"I trust you N-Naruto-kun," she said quietly, blushing at how close he was to her.
"Why are you so cold?"
"You shot me with a w-water gun."
"Oh… I guess I did…. Do you want another jacket? I left one of mine in the teme's car."
"We're k-kind of stuck in here N-N-Naruto-kun," Hinata pointed out, blushing heavily.
"I'll grab it the next time we break out… and that'll be now." He stood up, grabbed a bunch of water balloons, opened the door, and started throwing them in random directions, missing often. He did manage to break out though, but was chased, and eventually soaked entirely, being attacked by all members of the group. The boys after simply because he was on the other team, and the girls were mad that he had wasted their balloons, but they did manage to escape, so they weren't as mad as they would have been.
While half of the girls took this time to attack the confused boys, the other half claimed a water fountain in which they could fill of their weapons without being attacked. Things seemed to be turning around for the girls, it also helped that Temari showed up, with her own gun so that she could help out.
"It's so nice to have reinforcements," Akimoto said, filling up as many water balloons as she could.
"I don't care if you're supposed to be geniuses!" Gaara was heard. "You two argue more than Ino and Sakura. I'm joining their side, at least they'll put off their arguments long enough to attack someone else."
"Naruto, you're breaking the rules!" Sakura shouted. "If their filling up their weapons, you can't attack them."
"Since when were there rules?" Naruto asked.
"It's the unwritten rules, dobe," Sasuke said, trying to fill up his gun while said annoyance was squirting him in the face. "We don't attack you, and you don't attack us. Otherwise people aren't able to fill up and eventually nobody will have any water left, and the game loses any entertainment value it might have had."
"He's right Naruto-kun," Akimoto said, she seemed to be elected the team leader, though she wasn't to happy about it. It seems that whoever the opposing team thinks is leader, gets attacked even more. "Welcome to the team Gaara-kun."
Naruto just got mad that he everyone was agreeing with Sasuke even though he was the enemy, so he continued to shoot water in his face. When yelling at him didn't work, Akimoto did the only thing that she could think of, which happened to be dumping a cup of water on his head.
"I'm on your team!" Naruto yelled.
"If you break the rules, you get punished."
"Fine," Naruto said, crossing his arms and pouting childishly. Naruto's agreement didn't last long.
"I said I was sorry!" he yelled as everyone chased him around, each throwing some form of water at him.
"They'll attack us if you keep attacking them!" Akimoto said angrily, throwing a well aimed water balloon at his back.
"I should have stayed home," he muttered as he ran out of breath and was forced to stop. Sakura punched him in the head and figured that he was punished enough, so they continued their game, apologizing for Naruto's rude behavior.
Not long after, an argument broke out among the males of the group. A battle of their own erupted, and soon Sasuke and Neji were both attacking each other.
"How did this happen?" Gaara asked, looking at the two who were currently dumping cups of water on each other.
"I've been wondering that too," Akimoto answered.
"Does this mean the teams are turning on each other?"
"I guess so, but I'm not—," her sentence was cut off when a bucket of cold water was dumped on her head. "You're going to pay for that Gaara!"
Gaara ran as Akimoto chased after him, shouting death threats the whole way. It wasn't long before she had him cornered in what he thought was a great hiding place about two minutes earlier. "I've got good news and bad news for you," she said, picking up a large stick on the ground. The good news is that I'm out of water, the bad news is that I don't care, and I found a stick."
"Don't you think that's against the rules?"
"I think attacking me without reason qualifies as against the rules."
"You were the one that said that the teams were turning on each other."
"That wasn't an invitation to soak me! And I said that I guessed so, I didn't say that that was what was happening!"
"I say you brought this upon yourself, and if I were you, I'd brace myself."
"For what?" Gaara didn't have to answer, because Shikamaru and Naruto had come to the rescue of their friend. They did this by dumping even more water on poor Akimoto. "Why me?"
"Because having Gaara beaten with a stick would be troublesome to watch," if you don't know who said that, then stop reading right now.
"And I just wanted to dump water on you," Naruto added.
"Oh, and Temari, Ino, Sakura, and Tenten kind of left…"
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You're supposed to be a genius!"
"Doesn't mean I understand girls."
"You're worthless."
"I also have dry spots on my clothes, the same cannot be said for you."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Yours," Gaara said simply.
"YOU ATTACKED ME!"
"You were an open target."
"Akimoto has a dry spot on her back," Naruto said.
"You're point is?" Akimoto asked, then it dawned on her, then she took off running.
I've gotta find a way out of this, Akimoto thought as Gaara and Naruto chased after her, Shikamaru muttering something about too troublesome to join them. I've only got one shot at this, and it'll cost me another soaking, and possibly a pain in my knee.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to injure her knee, because Naruto and Gaara were faster than she was. They quickly caught up to her and throw a few water balloons at her, making her completely and totally soaked. I hope they fall for this, she thought as she began choking for air.
"What's wrong with her?" Naruto asked.
"Are you ok?"
"Can't… breathe…" Akimoto said, not dropping her act.
"Why not?" Naruto asked, but he didn't receive an answer. Akimoto dropped to the ground, and began to breathe at a somewhat steady rate.
"Are you ok Akimoto-chan?" Gaara asked, looking concerned.
"Did you just call me Akimoto-chan?"
"Never mind that," Gaara said, a light blush on his face. "What just happened?"
"I think I had a minor panic attack… but I'm not to sure…"
"You weren't breathing," Naruto pointed out.
"What gave you that idea?" Akimoto asked sarcastically.
"Naruto," Gaara said. "Help me lift her up; we should get her back home."
"Is she that heavy?"
"Naruto-kun," Akimoto said sweetly. "You're dead." Naruto didn't say anything, but grabbed Akimoto's left arm and brought it over his shoulder as Gaara did the same to her right. "I can walk you know."
"I'm sure you can," Gaara said, not loosening his grip on her.
"Sasuke-teme!" Naruto shouted, Akimoto was sure she lost a bit of hearing. "Something's wrong with Akimoto!"
"And?"
"She's sick, she stopped breathing."
"I'll unlock the car," he answered, walking to the parking lot.
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This was actually really close to how it happened at my family reunion. We really were trapped in a bathroom, my cousin (who is loud, blonde and obnoxious) did get smacked and switched sides. I got tons of water dumped on me, and did have to fake an attack to get them to leave me alone. However, any fluff you might have read, I made up, I love my cousins, but not that way.
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