Wow! There were quite a few reviews for chapter 20! Thanks a lot guys. It's always fun to receive and read reviews, and sometimes even respond to them. Keep sending them in guys. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Disclaimer: Naruto are not belong to I.
The 3 tired genins arrived back at the camp. Naruto and Sakura with sore backs, and Sasuke with a sore foot still caught in the metal trap.
"Hey! Are we going have dinner? We've had no breakfast and only a bit of lunch!" Naruto piped.
"My back is too sore for me to cook now. I just want to go to sleep." Sakura sighed.
"Good plan. I need some sleep too." Sasuke said.
"With that trap still on your foot?" Naruto gaped.
"He's right. We can't just leave it on there!" Sakura said, suddenly ignoring her sore back.
"Sure we can. I'll work on getting it off my foot tomorrow." Sasuke replied.
"Sasuke, that's not healthy! What if your foot becomes infected, or it falls off in the middle of the night, or something terrible like that?" Sakura cried frantically.
"That's ridiculous! My foot's not going to randomly fall off in the middle of the night. Besides, you guys are too sore to help me out right now. Let's worry about it tomorrow when we have more strength."
So the 3 genins headed into their tent to get some rest. Fat chance of that with Sasuke, as he was in so much pain that he couldn't fall asleep. So he listened to Naruto and Sakura's chatter.
"Hey Sasuke! If you can't get that trap off your foot soon and since we're out of weapons, you're going to have to chew your own foot off like animals do when they get their feet caught in traps!" Naruto told Sasuke, grinning mischievously at the thought.
Sakura smacked Naruto as Sasuke gave a shudder at the thought of amputating his own foot off.
"Stop talking about Sasuke's foot! You're scaring him!"
"No he's not. My foot won't get that bad. I'm sure of it."
"I hope so too. Kakashi-sensei will know what to do when he gets back." Sakura assured Sasuke.
"You mean if he gets back." Sasuke corrected.
"He said he was supposed to be back by tonight." Sakura said, a trace of worry in her voice. "I wonder where he is now and how he's doing..."
"I wonder what's behind his mask..." Naruto thought out loud.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Sakura asked, staring at Naruto.
"Who cares? It's fun to wonder! He's gotta have big fat lips! Or maybe pointy fangs, or really ugly crooked teeth!"
"Ever consider that it might not be his mouth, but his nose?" Sakura suggested.
"Yeah! Maybe he has a bunch of nose hair or tons of warts on his nose! Or maybe...what if he has really bad acne on his face?"
"Oh please. You could be making up all sorts of stupid theories of what our sensei's face really looks like. Why don't you two just go to sleep already." Sasuke growled, wanting to get some sleep.
"Oh...of course, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura replied, eager to obey Sasuke's wishes.
"You're no fun, Sasuke!" Naruto huffed, silently giving him the finger in the dark.
"I'm going to try to sleep now. Goodnight." Sasuke merely replied.
"That means quiet, so go to sleep, Naruto." Sakura said sternly to her rambunctious team-mate.
"Aw, alright. Fine." Naruto grumbled as he lay down, not feeling the slightest bit tired.
The three genin lay in their sleeping bags for a few moments, listening to the wind rustles through the leaves and dozing off, until Naruto broke the silence.
"Ever think that Kakashi-sensei might have a moustache or a beard under that mask?" Naruto asked out loud in the dark.
Sakura smothered a laugh into her pillow, trying not to look or sound stupid in Sasuke's presence or anger him.
"Just shut up, you dumb ass!" Sasuke growled.
"Party pooper!" Naruto scowled, sticking his tongue out at Sasuke. "Well, I still think it's acne he's trying to hide."
"We really should go to sleep now." Sakura told Naruto.
They attempted once more to fall asleep, but an old raspy voice began to call out.
"I'm gonna get yeh..."
Sakura gave out a small shriek.
"What was that?" Naruto cried out.
"It's that creepy old man from earlier on today!" Sakura answered, sounding on the verge of tears.
"Oh-no. Not again..." Sasuke groaned.
"If he tries to do anything to us, we can't fight back in our injured state!" Sakura told her two team-mates in fear. And then she began cry.
"Toughen up already! We can take him!" Sasuke scolded Sakura angrily.
"But he's really creepy and scary, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura sniffled as she tried to stop crying.
"And he has a dog with him!" Naruto added, voice shaking.
"Well good for him! Maybe if we actually try to shut up, he'll go away." Sasuke suggested, teeth gritted.
So they all lay still and stayed absolutely silent, hardly daring to breath, listening in fear as the crazy old man's footsteps came closer and closer. His silhouette could clearly be seen through the tent.
"Holy crap! He has an axe with him!" Naruto screamed.
"You idiot! I told you to be quiet!" Sasuke growled, thumping his fist upon Naruto's head.
"There goes our 'be quiet' plan." Sakura groaned.
"Don't kill us! Do it tomorrow!" Naruto cried and pleaded to the crazy old man outside of the tent.
"What?" Sakura and Sasuke cried in unison.
The crazy old man took a swing with his axe, but suddenly cried out in pain, dropping his axe, cursing and swearing about his bad back.
"Yeh win this time, but tomorrow I'll be back, yeh pesky vermin...tomorrow!" The crazy old man rasped. With his injured back, he hobbled away, wheezing and muttering.
"That was way too close for comfort!" Sakura finally said after she let out her breath that she had been holding.
"We're lucky he had a bad back like we do right now." Sasuke said, sighing in relief.
"We're going to die tomorrow, aren't we?" Naruto whimpered. He then began to sob.
"No we won't. We'll kill him first." Sasuke assured them.
"But isn't it kind of...unjust or unfair or something like that to kill an old man?" Sakura asked.
"Not if he's trying to kill us. Now shut up so I can get some sleep already." Sasuke growled as he lay back down in his sleeping bag.
So with that, Sakura and Naruto fell asleep like logs, glad that they could give their backs a rest as Sasuke lay there, trying to fall asleep, his foot throbbing throughout the night.
The next morning, Naruto awoke, his back feeling good as new. Nobody else was awake though, so he left the tent. He looked around for a moment and with nothing else better to do, he walked out of the campsite. He walked down the gravely road for a few moments before he heard something rustle in the bushes near him.
Naruto stopped, turned his head and peered at the bushes and heard more rustling. Naruto jumped back in fear, thinking it could be a bear, or worse; the crazy old axe-wielding man with his crazy old dog.
Then it darted from the bushes. It was large and green and it knocked Naruto right off his feet. Naruto cried as he hit the ground hard. He started flailing about. "Please don't hurt me!"
"Naruto? Is that you? What are you doing here?" The thing from the bushes said as it stopped and looked down at Naruto. Naruto looked up to see...
"Lee? What are you-"
"It is you, Naruto! Your team came camping too? My team and Gai-sensei just arrived early this morning! With you and your team here, this is going to be great!" Lee cheered, pumping his fists into the air. Naruto stared for a moment.
"Am I dreaming?" Naruto mumbled as he stood up, brushing the dirt off his bottom. "There's more human life here after all!"
"Tonight we should have a campfire together, and sometime today or tomorrow, we should do-"
"Listen, Lee. I could listen to you all day, but I gotta get back to Sasuke and Sakura. They're sleeping in way too late right now and things are getting boring without them." Naruto cut in.
"They are? At this hour in the day? It's practically noon! Never fear, Naruto! I will help you awaken them!" Lee cheered, throwing his arms into the air.
"Thanks, I guess. I suppose I might need help waking up the two of them since the sleep like logs. Just don't do anything too crazy. Follow me!"
The two ran back to Naruto's campsite and were just about to enter the tent when Naruto stopped.
"Hey Lee! I think I have a great idea!" Naruto said, pointing to the picnic table where the equipment box lay.
To be continued...
Review and you shall see what dreadful idea Naruto has...