Let the game begin my friends. Reading this chapter over, it isn't my strongest chapter, but I still hope you enjoy it. I think it gets better, but the football part of this was hard to get through for me. I did work hard on it, but I'm not good at writing action. I also have another reason for making his chapter hard, but I can't explain that part here. Please read the second author's note at the bottom.
Chapter 12: State Championship
Bright lights shined down on Naruto as he stared up from his place, flat on his back after being tackled by a guy twice his size. The hit had been hard just like they'd been all night. But it's not like that going to stop him. He pushed himself to his feet and reoriented himself while hurrying back to get in the huddle. The seconds were ticking away as time was running out in the first half of the championship game; they had to make a final play and right now.
Kiba leaned in as the team came around him, telling them the final play. Breaking from the huddle they each hurried over to their spot. Naruto's blue eyes glanced up at the ticking clock on the scoreboard of the stadium as it counted down the first half, and showing the score 28-10. But, sadly, not in their favor.
With the ball hiked, Naruto charged down field, his defender quickly coming up beside him. He faked in one direction, and then took off in the other, but his man stayed right with him. He seemed to break away a bit with his speed as he went toward the end zone. He knew where the ball would be going and twisted and reached up to catch it. The ball was right there. He jumped and tried to bring it down with him, but his defender tipped the ball over his hands, where it fell to the ground. And the first half was done.
Naruto just shook his head a bit as he'd been so close. He'd felt it graze his fingers. He sighed to himself, pulling off his helmet before looking up in the stands to see a brown-haired boy looking back. He could see just how much Konohamaru was disappointed for him.
The Kono High side of the stands seemed disappointed as they were trailing, but they were still trying to cheer on the team. The cheerleaders were doing their best to keep the crowd going as Naruto moved to hurry up and join the team as they hurried into the locker room. He maneuvered around the marching band as they went to line up for the halftime show as he went and hurried down into the tunnel behind the team; photographer snapping photos of him as he past by.
Naruto came into the room and slid into a seat beside Choji as Coach Sarutobi came in. It was obvious that they hadn't been playing up to the level they'd need to win this game. If they were going to win, they were going to have to be brining it up even more than where they had been. It was to be expected though; it was the state championship after all. Why would it be easy?
Sketching out some of the plays they'd be running in the second half and discussing some of the strategy, Coach would talk to them all. Naruto leaned forward a bit on his knees. He couldn't help but have his mind drift. This was his last high school game. It was looking like he'd get to play in college, but that wasn't what mattered. This was his last time on a field with his friends.
Choji's body accidently bumping against him brought him back to the real world. "So, before we get back out there, anyone have anything else to say?" Coach Sarutobi asked, looking around.
As Naruto stood up, people turned to look at him. "Coach if I can," he said as he looked around at the players around him. "I was thinking while sitting here. This is my last time going out the field with you guys. No matter what happens, I won't get to play with all of you again. This is the state championship; this is it; we made it here. And I'm not willing to just let them take it away from us. I don't know about you, but I will not let myself give up out there. I'm not going to slow down or give them an inch. I'm going to give it my all I have until we are done. I don't know about you all, but I'm going to know at the end of this that I gave it everything until the end. How's going to go out there with me? Because if so, we don't stop until the end. We don't quit until the end. We are going to run faster, going to hit harder. We. Are. Going to take this game back in our hand. What do you say? Are we going to take this game?!"
His teammates cheered as some jumped to their feet and leaned in. "We gonna take this game?" he sounded again as they all moved around him putting their helmets up. "This is our game! Let's go take it!" Naruto shouted as the team started to roar and busted out of the room. Running down the tunnel and onto the field again as once again their crowd cheered.
A new spark of energy had come over the team in the second half. They stopped everything that was put to them. And couldn't be slowed down at they moved down field. In the third quarter they put up back-to-back touchdown-scoring drives bringing the score to 28-24. However, a fumbled ball let put their opponents in good field position at the start of the fourth quarter.
With that good position, they were able to quickly put up one more touchdown against Kono High, which put Naruto's team further behind again, 35-24. It wasn't something that was going to put any drag in Naruto's step though. He was being more heavily covered now though as he was catching everything that was coming toward him. So, Kiba had to find more options to throw to. When Lee caught a good opening though, he seemed to fly down field though as he put up six more points for them, and one more for the field goal to follow, 35-31.
Minutes were ticking down though as each team tried to push on. The opposing team nearly got within field goal range, but a needed fumble gave them the ball back with a few minutes remaining and a lot of field to cover. Naruto was still under heavy coverage as he'd been all game, but Kiba was keeping the ball moving still.
Naruto came hurrying back to the huddle as they got a new set of downs with 39 seconds left. They moved into position and hiked. Lee was handed the ball and started to run down field, but only picked up 4 yards before going down. The clock running and one time out left, they quickly got set once again as Coach signaled the play and they moved with speed into place. Hike. And Kiba was blitzed and made a pass to a receiver, but it missed and no one got it. The clock was stopped with 14 seconds more to go.
The final timeout was called, and they hurried over to the sidelines. Coach Sarutobi started to talk them through the final play. "Coach, let me have it," he said firmly. Sarutobi looked at him.
"Naruto, they have been on you pretty heavily this second half," he said.
"I know. But, I'll catch it."
A smile curled his lips a little as the toothpick in his mouth ran from one side to the other as he looked through the facemask at the determined look in the blue eyes. "You will huh?... Alright, Naruto." He pulled out the playbook and diagrammed the play.
As they hurried away as the timeout was almost over, Naruto took one look up at the crowd. The lights shining. The crowds yelling and cheering, waving their school colors. He moved over into position. It almost seemed to go in slow as he got set. He waited. As soon as the ball was hiked, everything seemed to be flying by. He charged down the field, going yard after yard as he was going toward the end of the field. He flipped and spun around as he went in other direction. The ball was flying. Naruto was in the endzone as a second defender was coming at him as well. He could see the ball coming toward him. He jumped up and reached up for it…
Naruto slowly woke up to see the clock beside his bed showing the time. He'd overslept, but after the game last night what could be expected. He pulled back the covers and sat up naked on the edge of his bed. He then noticed something on the end of the bed. It looked like Iruka had come in this morning and set it on the bed. He reached over and grabbed the newspaper and saw the photo of him pulling down the winning catch to win state. "CHAMPS! Kono takes state title 38-31." was the headline above it.
He flipped open the paper and started to glance through it. There were several photos from the game in the paper, especially on the sports section where they had put together a two-page section with just photos from the game. He glanced through them as each one sparked a memory of last night. He then felt a hand sliding around his waist as brunette boy moved behind him and put his head on his shoulder. Naruto smiled and nuzzled his cheek back against Konohamaru's as the boy put his head on the blonde's shoulder.
"Morning Naruto," he said.
"Morning. Sleep well?" Naruto asked. "You feeling ok?"
The brunette slid his naked body up against Naruto and hugged him close. "More than ok." He enjoyed the feeling of Naruto's body against him, and Naruto felt the same as he felt the weight of the boy against him.
Naruto let the paper slip from his hands as he leaned his head back and kissed him. They soon slide back and were making out on the bed. Naruto remembering how they'd gotten to this point.
As the team was celebrating after the game, he had felt a hand grab his shoulder. When he had turned around, the boy's lips had firmly pressed against his. Naruto had been obviously surprised by it all. "Congratulations babe," Konohamaru had said with a smile.
Naruto cocked his head to the side and gave the boy a grin. "Didn't you say you didn't think you could trust me?"
The young boy just shrugged. "I figured it is still worth the risk," he said with a smirk.
The two kissed once more before teammates and the coach had pulled Naruto away as they celebrated. That was the last time he saw Konohamaru that night he had figured. The rest of that time had been a whirlwind of excitement before they loaded up the buses and headed home.
It was late when Naruto's car pulled back once again to a stop in front of his house. He yawned as he noticed something move in front of the house. He then noticed a familiar shadow sitting in front of his house once again.
He climbed out of the car and pulled on his letterman jacket as he had a glowing smile on his face as he could see the other boy smiling back at him. The two quickly were rushing toward the other and Konohamaru jumped into Naruto's arms, planting a deep kiss on him.
The two boys soon slipped inside and snuck up the stairs and into his room. They shortly found themselves naked in each other arms as they made love to celebrate and make up. They soon were exhausted and looking in the other's eyes as they each drifted off to sleep, holding each other.
Yay! They are back together, so I'm sure most of you are excited. Hopefully you got through it all ok. But, this isn't the end of things. Nope, I got at least one more chapter for this story. Well, actually two more. I know some of the readers have wanted a Mature-rated chapter, and I figured this is the best place to put it. But for all my readers who don't want to read that, I left this chapter vague and left this teen-rated material.
So, if you want to just stay at this rating, then continue to enjoy the story.
If you would like to see a mature scene between our favorite to boys, then check out: "Kono High Hero: Making up, Making Love"
[fanfiction][.net][/s/5332369/1/Kono_High_Hero_Chapter_12_5]