Back at the campsite, Sakura was cooking the tacos while Naruto started up the campfire, roasting smores before dinner. (The shame!) Sasuke just sat at the picnic table, most likely thinking about revenge on Itachi, and Kakashi was fixing the "Naruto Boat" boat up.
"You know Naruto, it should be you fixing that boat, not Kakashi-sensei." Sakura scolded.
"Yeah, but it is sensei's fault that he put up the training exercise, which in the end caused the boat to get a hole in it from the explosions." Naruto replied.
"Hey Naruto, could you go get Team Gai's prizes from my tent?" Kakashi requested. "They should be four prizes in the side pouch of my bag, but you can split one of the prizes between Sasuke and Sakura since Team Gai only need three prizes now."
Naruto dropped his marshmallow stick and dashed towards Kakashi's tent, crawling inside. A moment passed before a scream was heard.
"A dead mouse? What kind of prize is that!" Naruto shouted out.
"What? That's not supposed to be there...look in the bag some more."
A few seconds later, a squeal of glee was heard and Naruto came running out, grinning from ear to ear.
"What is it?" Sasuke asked. "Whatever it is, I get some too."
"It's chocolate!" Naruto gleamed, holding up the treasured prizes, simple chocolate bars. Sasuke just stared in disappointment.
"...That's it? Well that was a stupid prize to get worked up over."
"Aren't you going to have some?" Naruto asked.
"I don't like chocolate." Sasuke grumbled.
Naruto stared at Sasuke like he was crazy for a moment before shrugging.
"Ah well. More for me then!"
Kakashi looked at Sasuke for a moment as he took three of the chocolate bars from Naruto. "I don't understand how someone your age couldn't like chocolate, Sasuke."
"I just don't like chocolate bars. Plus it's been lying next to an old, diseased dead mouse, another reason why not to have it. Who knows what's crawling inside that chocolate now."
Naruto was about to take a bite from it, forgetting that it had indeed been lying next to an old dead rodent. Naruto dropped the chocolate bar on the ground, frowning.
"Thanks for ruining my fun!"
"What? I never said that you couldn't eat it!" Sasuke shot back. "I don't care if you get poisoned."
"Kakashi-sensei! Sasuke's making me feel unloved again!"
"Maybe I shouldn't give these to Gai and his team after all." Kakashi grimaced as he looked at the three chocolate bars.
"Dinner's ready!" Sakura called out.
At hearing that glorious phrase, the 3 male shinobi immediately sat down at the table and began dressing their tacos. Sakura muttered something about boys being so impatient to eat as she sat down with them
"Alright, tacos! One of the best meals out there aside from ramen!" Naruto cheered. "Hey! Wouldn't it be awesome if there was taco-flavoured ramen, or ramen-stuffed tacos?"
Silence hung around the picnic table for a moment before Kakashi spoke,
"That's just gross."
"And that's coming from someone who puts wasabion their tacos, which was a pain in the ass to get at the grocery store by the way, so you better be thankful!" Sasuke glared accusingly at Kakashi who was indeed dressing his taco with wasabi.
"What? Everybody's got to have a little fun with their food, right?" Kakashi defended.
"Fun with their food...hey! I've got a great idea!" Naruto ran over to the campfire, grabbing his marshmallow stick and ran back to the picnic table. He took his half-stuffed taco and put two roasted marshmallows and hunks of chocolate in it.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sakura cried.
"What does it look like? I'm making my taco, of course!"
"And I thought the wasabi was crazy." Sasuke muttered to himself.
"That's not healthy eating, Naruto!" Sakura said in a matter-of fact tone.
Naruto frowned. "But I don't like beans in my tacos! Beef and onions are ok, but I don't like beans! They give me bad gas actually."
"Thank you for sharing that piece of information with us." Sasuke said in sarcasm.
"Kakashi-sensei, stop him!" Sakura cried. "Show Naruto how to eat properly!"
"Let him be. This is a vacation. We probably won't get an opportunity like this ever again in our lives. As gross as the food is that he's stuffing in his taco, let's just let him have his fun."
Naruto grinned happily before stuffing his taco into his mouth, crumbs dropping out.
"It's still gross though." Sakura shuddered as Naruto devoured his taco within seconds and took another.
Sasuke glanced over at Naruto, who was by then having his third taco. Sasuke took his third taco, quickly dressing it and stuffing it into his mouth. Naruto glared at Sasuke, taking a fourth taco. Sasuke took a fourth and a fifth. Once again, the two were trying to out-do each other by stuffing their faces. And Kakashi and Sakura were still making only their first tacos.
"Just wonderful." Kakashi sighed. "We're going to have two sick boys puking all night long."
"Why can't they just sit down and eat more slowly to enjoy their meal, like we are?" Sakura frowned as she glanced at Kakashi to see that his taco was gone. Sakura pointed at Kakashi's plate, "Where did your taco go?"
"I ate it."
Sakura stared in shock. "What? But it was there literally 5 seconds ago! How did you-"
"I just naturally eat really fast, that's all." Kakashi replied, smiling.
"Boys!" Sakura huffed, then started to grumble, "Acting like such pigs, trying to out-eat each other and then sensei wolfing down his food like it's his last meal..."
"Oh-no, Sakura. If this was my last meal, I would savour it and eat very slowly." Kakashi smiled.
"Whatever!" The miffed kunoichi huffed. "You weren't supposed to hear me grumbling!"
Naruto raised his firsts into the air as he cheered, "Ha! I win! I ate eight tacos and you only ate seven!"
"That's because you happened to grab the last taco before me, you pig!" Sasuke shot back.
"Survival of the fastest, Sasuke!" Naruto stuck his tongue out at the grouchy Uchiha.
"Did you ever consider on saving more food for Sakura and I? We only got one taco each." Kakashi cut in.
Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head, grinning apologetically. "Whoops! Sorry about that, guys."
Sakura brought her fist upon Naruto's head. "Stop thinking about your own ego and stomach for once and start thinking of others!"
"Yeah, you loser." Sasuke added.
"Speak for yourself, Sasuke. You should be getting the same scolding from Sakura, but seeing as she wouldn't do such a thing to you, I'll do it to you for her instead." Kakashi lectured. "You should also start thinking about others and-"
"Screw off!" Sasuke snapped.
"Hey! Can we go to Gai's campsite for campfire now?" Naruto asked.
"Let's return the boat to the old man first so we don't have to worry about him trying to do anything to us in the middle of the night." Kakashi replied.
"I like that idea." Sakura nodded.
Kakashi picked up the boat, Naruto and Sakura following close behind. (And Sasuke, staying behind.) Naruto glanced up at the boat for a second, noticing something wrong.
"Kakashi-sensei! How could you?" Naruto gasped.
"What?"
"You washed the name off the boat!"
Sakura rolled her eyes. "Well, duh! The crazy old man wouldn't want his boat back with your name on it!"
"Think Naruto, would you like to have your boat named "the Crazy Old Man boat"?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto thought for a moment. "Well...not really."
"Exactly."
"But that's a stupid name! Who'd want their boat named after a crazy old hobo? At least with my name, it sounds better and it's the name of the future Hokage!"
"That's not the point, Naruto." Kakashi told the young boy.
"Yes it is!"
"Naruto, nobody cares!" Sakura half shouted. "Nobody wants a boat named after you!"
"Well, here's his campsite." Kakashi announced.
Sakura stared at the campsite. "I'm surprised that he hasn't been kicked out of here by the park ranger yet."
"He's probably too scared to try." Naruto replied.
"There's no park ranger to even try to kick him out now." Kakashi said.
The old man suddenly popped out of his ragged old tent, holding an axe in his hand with his old mutt of a dog following him.
"He's gonna kill us!" Naruto cried. "I'll fight any ninja, but not this creepy psycho geezer!"
Naruto began to run, but Sakura and Kakashi grabbed him by the collar of his jacket to prevent him from running any further.
"Before you run away, at least apologize to the old man." Kakashi said.
"Alright, fine!" Naruto scowled and then turned to face the crazy old man. "I'm sorry I broke your boat. You happy now?"
Kakashi put the boat down in front of the old man. "I fixed it and cleaned it up to make up for my student losing it and me wrecking your other boat some 15 years ago. Hope it's to your liking"
The crazy old man inspected it for a moment before finally spoke, showing his rotten half-fallen out teeth, making Sakura and Naruto cringe.
"That clean up job ain't half bad. Thanks, kid!" The crazy old man replied.
"...Kid?" Kakashi said in confusion.
"So you're not going to kill us now?" Naruto asked.
Sakura quickly covered Naruto's mouth with her hand before he could do any more damage.
The old man chuckled at Naruto's question before he replied, "Nope, don't see any reason to pester yeh anymore. Just don't mess around with mah stuff again, ya got that?"
"Don't worry. I'll keep them out of trouble." Kakashi assured the old man.
"Ya go and do that, kid. I'll see ya around. Now scram before I sick my dog on y'all!"
"But I'm not a kid anymore." Kakashi corrected at him.
The crazy old man looked at him for a moment.
"Yer right! Boy, yah've sure grown! And ya still look as old as ever!"
"He isn't making any sense!" Naruto whispered to his sensei. "What the hell is he talking about?"
"I don't really know. He's crazy after all. Nobody's supposed to really understand him" Kakashi replied.
"Can we just go before he or his dog decide to suddenly attack us?" Sakura pleaded.
The three shinobi left the site quickly, returning to their campground as darkness begun to fall and mosquitoes came out. Sakura swung her hands about, trying to keep them off of her.
Sasuke glanced up to see his team-mates had returned. "So how did it go?"
"Great, just great." Naruto replied, scowling. "Thanks for coming along with us, Sasuke!"
"Sure, no problem."
"It's called sarcasm, you dumb ass!"
"I know. I just fired it back at you, that's all," Sasuke smirked. "You dumb ass."
Naruto angrily shouted at Sasuke as Sakura screamed with frustration, the mosquitoes continuously biting her.
"Do you want some bug spray?" Kakashi offered as he approached her. Unfortunately, Sakura turned her anger on Kakashi.
"Leave me alone!" She shouted in frustration. "I've had it with being dirty and being eaten alive by mosquitoes and being the only girl and getting attacked by bears and eating nothing but fish, rodents, and berries and using dirty outhouses and getting blown-up by submerged bombs and getting wet and sharing a tent, and most of all, I've had it with being surrounded by three males that stink!"
Kakashi quickly backed away as Naruto and Sasuke stared at Sakura in mild surprise and fear at her random outburst.
"What's eating her?" Naruto muttered to Sasuke.
"…I stink?" Kakashi asked, mildly surprised as he pointed to himself.
"You're such a whiner, Sakura." Sasuke scoffed.
Sakura's eyes began to tear up.
"Is there anything we can do? Anything you want at the moment?" Kakashi asked.
"I want a shower!" Tears poured out as Sakura cried loudly and ran off into the tent. Naruto followed after her.
"Hey Sakura! I know what'll cheer you up! Why don't we go to the lake? You can wash up there! It'll be better than a shower!"
"Go away, Naruto!" Sakura angrily shouted. "I'm not going to wash myself in something where fish have been swimming and animals have been peeing in!"
"Naruto, it's safer if you just leave her alone." Kakashi advised the young boy.
"Why is she getting so upset over such small things?" Naruto asked.
"She's just being a girl." Sasuke replied.
"Oh, ok. Wait...animals pee in the lake?"
To be continued...
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