If there was one definite thing I had to say about ninja, it would be that they could adapt to new things extremely fast. The rate at which these guys were starting to pick this stuff up was insane.

I might have been slightly jealous of their athletic abilities. But hey! Now that I was learning the ways of the magical ninja, with years of hard work and dedication I sure that I could-

Oh who was I kidding. There is no way I would be willing to stick around that long.

I watched in amazement as Lee and Tenten kicked the ball back and from opposite ends of the field with ease. The others were also doing something similarly impressive; but I was able to tell that they were getting bored with this fast.

It was time to finally start the game.

For ninja soccer though, there were a couple new rules that had to be added.

Firstly, no using chakra for anything other than staying alive and breathing. Shikamaru had been using his shadow techniques at first to stop the ball when it got too far away from him. It kind of felt like cheating to me… A couple of them also had been using chakra to speed up their movements, which I felt was kind of unnatural boost.

Secondly, though there was no way to really implement it, I put a speed limit on them. If all I could see of you was a blur, then you're going too fast. This rule was more for my benefit as a ref.

I called them back over to where I was, grabbing all of the extra soccer balls and putting them away.

After clapping my hands together to get everyone's attention, I did a quick analysis inside my head.

"Okay, I think that now that everyone's pretty much got the basics down, we can start."

I heard a few cheers coming from Ino's direction, the rest also now looking pretty psyched, even Shikamaru.

"So for teams…"

With my added restrictions, it seemed really unfair to have both of the insanely powerful taijutsu users on the same team. In order to balance it out I needed to do some shuffling.

"On the left side of the field we'll have Gai-san, Ino, Choji, and Neiji. On the right side will be Asuma-san, Shikamaru, Tenten and Lee."

I could see them sudden tearing up of Gai and Lee as they reached for one another.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The volume increased.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!

As I watched everyone else's expressions, they looked like this was a totally normal occurrence. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

"Gai-sensei!"

"L-Lee, you'll just have to do your very best, even against me."

Lee wiped away his tears, giving Gai a thumbs up.

"Of course Sensei!"

Tenten dished out some inspiring words for Lee, and he was once again fired up.

I shifted my feet uncomfortably, trying hard to not stare too much.

"Right… Anyways, go ahead and go to your spots. You'll need to figure out who's playing what position. In actual soccer there are usually more people on each team, but we'll just work with what we've got."

Asuma for the first time actually spoke to me. He tossed his cigarette on the ground and put it out with the heel of his shoe.

"Mako…-san. What will you be doing then?"

Definitely not just standing around with these guys for players.

"I'll be acting as referee; making sure to call goals, fouls, and penalties. I'm here to make sure everything goes smoothly."

And plus, if I did play, I'm sure I'd either break something or trampled to the ground in the first few seconds. I'd like to stay out of the crossfire thank you very much.

He slowly nodded before walking towards his people towards the goal.

"Ok team, this way!"

Team Gai quickly went to the other side.

You know, this whole ended up being a lot more work than I anticipated. Next time, I'm just going to teach them something simple; like ping pong. Yeah, ping pong. That sounds nice and not very complicated.

But somehow, my hopes for it turning out that way weren't very high.

It was kind of crazy how this stuff was all coming back to me after only playing soccer for two summers. Sure I played some in gym class, but I took that time as an opportunity to be a slacker.

Everyone got into their places as I grabbed a soccer ball and a ryo coin for the coin toss out of my pack.

The Naruto currency looked exactly the same on both sides; so I took what was the ninja equivalent of a sharpie and I crudely scribbled George Washington's face on one side, and the eagle on the other, in some strange attempt to recreate the US quarter. I probably could of just written 'heads' and 'tails' and English, but I guess there was no point in cutting corners now.

The two people playing offence, Lee and Neiji walked up to the center ring.

"Alright, I need one of guys to call it. Either heads or tails."

Neiji let out an slight annoyed huff, crossing his arms.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Ah Neiji, there is a reason one of my most fulfilling moments of the series is when you got your precious ego shattered and then promptly pummeled to the ground by Naruto. But… that was younger Neiji. I'm sure older Neiji probably did some growing up.

"I need you to guess what it lands on. Heads is the side with the head, and tails is the side with the eagle."

"How does that make any sense?"

I pondered this for a moment.

"You know, I not really sure… I should go and consult Wikipedia on that one sometime."

Neiji just stared.

"Who is Wuikipedeia?"

Oh… Did I just say that last part out loud…?

"He is… uh, and a great elder from my village. Many people go to him to learn the wonders of the universe. Probably not as much as elder Google though, because elder Wikipedia isn't always that reliable..."

As my explanation dragged on, he was started to look increasingly annoyed.

"I pick heads."

"And I shall have tails then Kato-san!"

I have them both a nod.

"Alrighty then."

I flipped the coin up into the air, and let it quickly fall to the ground. Upon closer observation-

"Tails. Lee, which side do you want to be on first?"

He looked a little confused.

"What about where we are now?"

Oh…

Whoops.

In my attempts to make this for only four people on each team, I forgot some important stuff. The team captains are supposed to do the coin toss, and then theychoose sides. Neiji and Lee were just the forwards instead of having any actual titles.

Note to self: write these rules out for myself some time.

"Sorry, I got a couple things mixed up. Next time I'll do it correctly. For now though just consider yourselves temporary team captains."

Lee looked absolutely thrilled, and I could tell Neiji was somewhat pleased with this decision too.

"I will make sure to live up to everyone's expectations!"

"Anyway, that means that now Neiji's team get's to kick off which I explained earlier."

What soon followed next was what had to be my more memorable soccer game ever. Whatever hopes I ever had of becoming a professional soccer player were instantly dashed in one fell swoop.

No, not just that. How they played was insane. There was so many acrobatics involved and high jumps that it felt like it defied the laws of physics.

The excitement of watching professional soccer was forever ruined for me.

I feel like I'm now qualified to ref in any possible scenario now. It's not every day you get to penalize someone for standing on top of the net. Still not sure if it's technically illegal…

Afterwards I doubled checked the tallied score I scribbled down on some paper before making the announcement.

I looked up to see the eight players, all worn out and drenched in sweat. Several were panting to catch their breath. The more notable thing though was the field itself. The sudden appearance of a giant crater defiantly caught one's attention, and the fact that the entire ring of trees around the field had been basically bulldozed over would be another.

Ino looked practically on fire with excitement.

"So Mako-chan! Who won?"

"Well, when I added it all up, it looks like-"

I could see several intense stares boring into me.

Hold for dramatic pause…

"Team Asuma. Nice strategizing Shikamaru-san in the second half."

"Aw! Come on!"

"See Gai-sensei! I made you proud!"

"Good job everyone."

"Thanks Asuma-sensei."

I gently flopped over onto my back.

Now that that was done, after cleaning up this giant mess I really needed to get back to my original objective. Time was quickly ticking by.

"Mako-chan! What do they get for winning anyway?"

"Hmm?"

I got back up into a sitting position to find Ino standing right above me, frowning, but there was still a sparkle in her eyes.

After immediately flinching into my defensive position, I relaxed back to normal and gave her what I felt like should have been the obvious answer.

"What I've been receiving as a prize for years now. The joy of winning."

"Oh… That's kind of… lame."

"Yes, yes it is."

Tenten walked up to us from the busted field, reattaching the giant scroll she picked back up from the sideline as she went.

I happily gave her a small wave. Tenten was such a nice person. She could practically get along with anyone, and it was thanks to her that the refereeing went so well between the two teams. I hadn't realized how intense Neiji and Lee's rivalry could be.

She waved back, smiling cheerfully.

"Hey Mako-san!"

"Hello! Do you have any more questions about the game?"

She shook her head, adjusting her scroll again as she clipped it in place.

"No, but Mako-san, I was wondering if I could bring you somewhere to show you something."

I reeled back in surprise, Tenten blinking a couple of extra times in confusion, the corners of her mouth slightly faltering.

Was someone actually asking me to hang out?! You mean I might not be stuck hanging around fifth-graders for the rest of my time here? I hadn't really been asked to hang out by anybody since the bathhouse incident, and the apology dinner didn't really count.

Realistically though, and as much as I regretted it; I felt dead tired and practically everything hurt. My feet were killing me from hours of standing around and running from place to place.

Even though I was going to ninja school, I still hadn't mastered the endurance part. It killed me a bit to do this, and especially to such a nice person; but I had to decline, if only for my own sanity.

I tried to sound as apologetic as possible as I said the next sentence.

"Thank you for the offer, but I think I just really need to go home and sleep right now. I'm really worn out. Could it work another time?"

Her smile seemed to freeze for a moment on her face, eyes boring into me. I flinched back a little under her stare.

"Well, it would be kind of hard to show you later. It won't take too long."

Wow, she's acting really insistent about this. Still though…

"I'm really sorry, but the homework is starting to pile up, and I still have a big favor to do for someone."

Her smile only grew stiffer, a layer of sickly sweetness added to her tone.

"Really, let's go."

My heart started to beat faster, radars going off in my head.

"W-What is it exactly?"

The volume of her voice dropped, Tenten crouching down to get closer.

"A surprise for someone. I wanted to let you in on the secret."

Um…

"But why?"

In a flash, her expression relaxed back to normal.

"It's for someone we both know. I thought you'd like be part of the plan for it."

Oh.

Was that really it? She almost appeared menacing there for a moment…

Ah ha.

"I guess so then…?"

Tenten looked pretty happy with my answer, perking up almost immediately. She turned around for a second to call back over to Gai.

"Gai-sensei! I'll be back soon!"

He gave her a slight nod from where he was standing talking with Asuma.

"Go ahead my student!"

Tenten immediately began to exit the training grounds, motioning for me to follow her.

I got back up my strained feet, quickly regretting the decision but deciding to suck it up and deal with it anyway.

AN: This is the first new chapter of edits that are going to be posted soon. I decided to divide the old chapter up into three new chapters because of how much added stuff there was.

I pretty much just changed the ending here, hopefully making it a bit more mysterious. I think I might also go back and add a couple more hints for what is going to be revealed soon. :D