Chapter 9: Mourning
(With Naruto)
An alarm sounded in Naruto's room and he sat up as a result.
He didn't jump, rush, or even flinch, he just got up slowly and lifelessly.
The reason why was because something that he heard happened yesterday tore his heart into a million pieces and refused to heal.
The thing that kept him up the whole night was the fact that while he was busy fighting the Jinchuriki of the Sand Village, his Sensei was fighting Orochimaru and the past two Hokages.
He heard of it all after the invasion was over from Kakashi.
Naruto didn't blame himself, at all for Hiruzen's death, because he knew that that was the opposite of what his Sensei would've wanted.
Be that as it may though, it still tore Naruto apart that he wasn't there to help his Sensei fight that menace.
He was aware that his Sensei did everything in his power to take that snake down, but in the end, he only managed to take away his hands. So while he didn't die for no reason, it was still depressing for Naruto that he wasn't there to help him out, although, he doubts he'd have been much help in the condition that he was in, as well as the fact that he didn't have any access at all to the Kyuubi's Chakra.
Naruto refused to cry though, he didn't want one of the reasons that he cried to be because of the grandfather he adored so much, as today was his Sensei's funeral.
So after a couple of minutes passed, Naruto turned off the alarm that was going off, got off his bed, changed into his memorial clothes, and made his way out of the apartment.
(Later)
Naruto, Hinata, Ino, Kakashi, Sasuke, and all the other ninja and regular civilians in the village were there to mourn their now deceased Hokage.
The officiant for the deceased Hokage was his eldest son, Akira Sarutobi.
Said son of the Hokage began to make his way to the podium after seeing that it was time to talk. When he made it there, he let out a sad breath and told everyone
"We are gathered here today, to mourn the death of our beloved Third Hokage, Sensei, Father, and Grandfather" he started.
Akira was continuing on and as he was, everyone there clutched their hearts from the heartbreak that the man who looked after them all for so long, was gone.
Even Hiruzen's grandson, Konohamaru was there, he was right in front of Naruto, bawling his eyes out.
"Grandpa" Konohamaru cried out as he rubbed the tears away from his eyes with his sleeve.
Naruto simply put a hand on the boy's shoulder, as he was able to sympathize with him.
"There, there, just let it all out" Naruto said as he continued patting the boy's back. "No need to bottle any of it up."
"Would anyone else like to step up and say what's on their mind?"
"I would" Jiraiya said from behind.
"The stage is yours" Akira replied before getting off.
Once Konohamaru's father left the podium, Jiraiya walked up to the stage and was free to speak. So he shed a tear and began.
"Sarutobi-Sensei was a good man, he always stood up for what was right and tried his best to protect the people he really cared about. He was always trying to protect us and now we can all just pray and hope that he is now being protected from above."
The old man continued speaking to his hearts content and ended up touching everyone else's heart as well.
Naruto would've made a statement or at least thought about how such an old perv like Jiraiya could be so serious and sincere, but not at a time like this.
Now was a time to be serious and so he kept his mouth shut and his mind clear, listening in to what the old man was saying, and trying his best to keep the now dead Hokage's Grandson from crying even more.
Eventually, when the man was done talking, he asked the same question as Akira.
"Would anyone else care to speak up right now?"
Naruto decided that now was as good a time as any.
He didn't care about what any of the civilians may say. Whether they called him a demon through whispers, or ridiculed him for degrading the name of their precious Hokage, because nothing was gonna stop him from honoring his now deceased Sensei.
So he raised his arm and when everyone turned to see who that arm belonged to, only a few weren't surprised to see the arm of the Nine Tails Jinchuriki.
"Naruto-Kun, would you like to come up to the stage?" Jiraiya asked.
Naruto nodded, removed his hand from Konohamaru's shoulder, and walked up to the Toad Sage.
As he did, he noticed numerous stares, small voices, and looks being directed at him, but didn't care.
'Let them look at me angrily or call me names, I couldn't give less of a shit about it! This is the man that looked after me and tried his best to give me the life I missed out on, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna let these little bitty pieces of shit stop me from honoring him!' Naruto thought angrily with determination and while also clenching his fists.
'Naruto-Kun' Ino and Hinata both thought as they noticed the stares and names the boy was being given and called by lots of the people in attendance. 'He just saved them all and this is how they repay him!?'
Both girls got angry for obvious reasons after hearing and seeing this. They just couldn't believe that the village hated him this much for something he had absolutely no control over. It was unfair and they hated it to the core.
'He can't even mourn the death of his dear Sensei without being ridiculed for it?' Ino angrily thought while clenching her fists and teeth till blood started to ooze out from both.
'Naruto-Kun looked up to that man as if he was his own father, yet people just can't seem to leave him alone, even at a time like this?!' Hinata furiously yelled mentally.
Both girls wanted to yell at everyone in attendance but knew that doing so would just result in the ceremony being ruined, so they begrudging kept their mouths shut.
Once Naruto made it to the stand, he looked at everyone in attendance, saw that some were still giving him that 'look' but ignored it and began speaking.
"This man was the person who I looked up to and still do even in his passing. He tried everything he could to ensure The Leaf stayed the way that he wanted it to be, but of course, things don't always go as planned. He was only human though, he was bound to make mistakes, but that's something to look up to. He learned from his mistakes and did his best to fix them, and I hope that one day, we can all just take notes on how he treated us all."
As Naruto was saying this, both Ino and Hinata heard some random civilian whisper out
"Yeah for starters, he kept you alive."
That was the last straw for the both of them.
Ino nudged Hinata's shoulder and after Hinata gave her a nod of confirmation, Ino used her Mind Transfer Jutsu on that person. Her body fell limp, but thankfully, Hinata was there to catch her.
Afterwards, Ino just did what she thought was best for everyone, and that was bringing out some Kunai and performing a castration on the man.
'There wasn't even much to cut off anyways' Ino mockingly thought before reversing the Jutsu and returning back to her own body. 'That was a centimeter and a half at best... and he wasn't even soft.'
Ino and Hinata then smirked at one another, glad to have taken proper payback for their precious friend.
Naruto had just taken a pause in his speech, he paused because he saw a man from the corner of his eye hit the ground in what looked like a pain anguished face. But after realizing that he had unknowingly stopped for a moment, he cleared his throat before continuing on.
"He was a good man, and I hope that he's being treated the way he deserves to be in his final destination, may he rest in piece" Naruto ended before getting a round of applause from everyone in attendance.
He was well aware that most of the people that were giving him the round of applause were forced and insincere but he didn't care. He wasn't doing this for attention, he was doing it to honor his later Sensei, and he did it.
So he walked back to his original spot, stood right behind Konohamaru again, and just waited for the ceremony to end, and after many more minutes, it did.
"With all that being said, I hope my father is in good hands and that he is welcomed into heaven's gates with open arms" Akira was finishing up. "This ceremony is over."
Everyone in attendance bowed their heads one last time after this and then left the premises.
(Days After The Memorial)
Naruto was just in his bed, not eating, sleeping, or doing anything, as he just didn't have it in him to do anything at that moment.
After the memorial, he really didn't care about anything else and just wanted some time alone.
So he locked himself inside his room and just stayed there for the next couple of days without communicating with anyone.
What he didn't know of, was that Ino, Hinata, and all the rest of his friends were worried about him.
They knew how much Hiruzen meant to him and that's why they gave him his space to cool off. But when they didn't hear from him for several days, they grew worried, especially Hinata and Ino.
Their precious best friend/love interest was in unbearable amounts of pain in the inside, and they didn't wanna see that.
Hinata wanted to give her best friend time to himself, since she has always been told by her father that sometimes it's best to leave someone who just went through something terrible alone.
Ino however, didn't do the same thing as Hinata. She was just as torn up as Hinata because of Naruto's current state of mind, and she wanted to do something to help him, and she quickly realized that if she really wanted to help cheer him up as fast as possible, she wasn't going to do it by just sitting around and doing nothing.
So Ino devised a plan to help Naruto get back to his energetic, happy, and funny self.
(Three Hours Later)
Ino went to Naruto's Apartment and upon arriving, knocked on the door as loud as she both could.
When nobody answered, she knocked again, then again, and again, till finally, she couldn't take it anymore and kicked the door open.
As soon as the door flew off its hinges and hit a wall, she rushed inside and started looking for the blond boy that she cherished so much.
"Naruto-Kun!" Ino shouted in worry. "Where are you!?"
She then went to the most logical place in the apartment that he'd be, his bedroom.
Once she got to the door of his bedroom though, she found that it too was locked. Before she attempted to kick it down like the last one though, she decided to knock first.
"Naruto-Kun, Naruto-Kun are you in there!?" Ino shouted as loud as she could, while also knocking as loudly on the door.
She of course didn't hear anything, and so, after apologizing to the blond, like with the front door, Ino kicked his bedroom door off it hinges.
"Naruto-Kun!" Ino shouted in alarm after seeing his sleeping form laying in the couch, covered in a blanket.
She could see that he was asleep from how the blanket was sinking and rising, and as it was, she had just one thought in her mind.
'How could he sleep through all that?'
After this thought left her mind though, she shook her head, removed the blanket from the sleeping Naruto's form, and tried waking him up.
At first Ino just tried lightly shaking him while whispering for him to wake up, then she tried to shake him a little more than reasonably while also shouting at him to wake up a little more than reasonably, and when that didn't work, she shook him as hard as possible while also yelling for him to wake up as hard and as loud as possible.
"Naruto-Kun!" Ino shouted all alone as loud and as clear as possible, which made the boy shift in his sleep, but not wake up.
"Even through that?" Ino questioned in amazement.
Ino began looking around the room for a way to wake the boy up till eventually she got an idea.
Once she did, Ino looked at the covered form of Naruto, said
"Sorry Naruto-Kun, but you've left me no other choice."
Then after releasing a deep breath, she cocked her fist back, and using every ounce of strength she had, punched the blond directly in the face
"Oww!" Naruto groaned in pain, having finally awoken from his comatose like state.
"Oh good, you're up now, Naruto-Kun" Ino said with a smile.
After having finally rubbed his sore face, he looked Ino in the eyes and yelled
"What the hell Ino?!"
"I'm sorry, but it was the only way to wake you up" Ino apologized again without yelling, as she understood that Naruto had every reason to do so.
Naruto just continued rubbing his hurt face before eventually cooling off and asking
"What do you want, Ino-Chan?"
"Ouch" Ino mockingly declared after that remark from Naruto. "But anyways, I'm here to help you, Naruto-Kun."
"Then you can help me, by leaving me alone" Naruto said coldly before burying himself in his blanket again.
This statement actually hurt Ino, but she shook it off and was about to reassure Naruto that she wasn't gonna stop, but before she could, Naruto turned his eyes somewhere else and saw just how messy his room had gotten from him not doing anything to clean it up for the last couple of days.
So before Ino, said anything, he held his hand up, asked her
"Could what you're about to say actually wait for a bit? I gotta clean my room."
Ino puffed her cheeks in disappointment and also frustration at how easily Naruto brushed her off just to clean his room.
"Fine" she replied before Naruto did as he said he would
(With Kakashi)
Kakashi was currently in one of the bars of Konoha, just trying to drink away the sorrow he felt for Naruto.
'Poor kid' he thought as he took multiple shots of sake at once. 'First he lost his parents before he was even born and now he lost the guy who he saw like a grandfather.'
The bartender that was working there saw the masked Tokubetsu Jonin and asked him
"Are you good there chief, that's your fifth bottle of sake?"
"Yeah, I'm fine" Kakashi replied. "Just got a lot on my mind."
"Well take as much time as you need" the bartender replied before walking off.
Once the bartender was completely out of sight, Kakashi started whispering what he felt about the whole situation, to himself.
"If only Sensei was here to help me, to tell me what I had to do at this moment, but then again, if he was here, Naruto probably wouldn't be going through this right now."
Kakashi then pushed his hair back and began to think hard about what he could do to help his heartbroken student, when a familiar voice from behind him asked him
"Are you alright Kakashi?"
Kakashi then turned around and saw his lifelong friend and rival, Might Gai.
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine Gai" he responded.
"I've known you long enough to tell when you are and aren't being sincere, and I already know why so you don't have to hide it either" Gai reassured Kakashi.
"What do you mean?" Kakashi asked.
"It's not that hard to put two and two together. Lord Third is dead and he was like a grandfather to Naruto, so it's understandable that the boy would be quiet depressed from his death, and it also makes sense that you, as his Sensei, would feel horrible in return."
"Well, what do you expect Gai? There's nothing I can do to help the boy."
"I don't know about that, my Rival."
"What do you mean?"
Gai simply patted him on the back and told him
"Of course there's something you could do to help him, I'm always there to help my students when they feel upset, and if I'm able to do it, I'm sure you are too."
"But how?" Kakashi asked.
"Well first things first you have to get a grip" Gai claimed, much to the shock of Kakashi. "You can't help Naruto get back up from his emotional turmoil if you yourself aren't."
Kakashi then looked his long time friend in the eyes and asked him
"Well then what did you have in mind?"
"I think you already know the answer to that" Gai replied with his famous thumbs up smile.
"I don't think so."
"Well then just follow me" Gai told him before walking off.
And with that being said, the two friends walked out of the bar and then headed for the stone statues, and as they did, Kakashi realized what Gai had in mind, thought
'Oh, now I get it' and continued following behind his longtime friend.
(Naruto's Apartment)
Naruto had just gotten done cleaning his room and was now making his way to Ino, who was currently sitting on his bed with her arms crossed and an angry look in her face.
"Sorry it took so long Ino-Chan, but what were you gonna say?" Naruto apologized with a question at the end.
"Well..." Ino frustratingly trailed off. "I was going to tell you that."
"Actually" Naruto interrupted again.
"What is it this time!?" Ino yelled in question.
Naruto just started chuckling a bit after Ino said this, and when Ino asked him why, he simply responded with
"Oh nothing, I just wanted to see the way you would react."
"Dickhead" Ino angrily stated as she averted her eyes away from Naruto to hide the faint smile that was building up inside her. 'I could've easily told him no when he asked if he could clean up his room and he would've done it.'
Ino simply couldn't stop smiling after thinking this because this was exactly what she wanted.
'Unlike most others I can tell when he is actually asking someone something or is telling someone something, and he was definitely asking that time' Ino started explaining inwardly. 'I let him clean up his room though simply because I knew that this would happen, I knew that he would start laughing because of the fact that him cleaning got in the way of me speaking, and when he was about to ask me again, I just humored it because I was getting what I wanted done anyways.'
As Ino was thinking this though, Naruto's laughing had cooled down and he averted his own eyes away from Ino and began looking out his window. He just wanted to see whether or not the sun was out so he could start his day, and when he saw it was, he began averting them back to Ino.
As he was turning his eyes back to the girl, he spotted something on his nightstand from the corner of his eye. Curious as to what it was, he turned his eyes back to whatever it was, and once he did, instead of stopping his eyes on Ino, they stopped on a photo frame, a photo of him when he was eight years old getting a piggyback ride from his old Sensei.
As soon as Naruto saw this, his mood did a complete 180 and he began to get sad and depressed again at being reminded of his now deceased Sensei and grandfather figure.
Ino turned her eyes back to the boy she was trying to cheer up, only to see him tearing up and then spotting the photo of him and his old Sensei that was set on top of his nightstand.
'Damn it!' Ino inwardly yelled out in anger. ' I just cheered him up and then that ruins what I just did!'
She quickly began to calm down though and tried to clear her mind before thinking and speaking again.
Once she finally managed to calm down, she thought first before speaking.
'Okay, well I guess this just means that it's back to square one' Ino thought. 'I was going to cheer him up myself anyways, so this doesn't make a difference.'
Naruto eventually wipes the tears off his face and turns to Ino who isn't behind him anymore.
"Where'd she?" Naruto began to ask himself before Ino jump scared him from behind.
"Tah!" She shouted from behind his shoulder.
"Ahh!" Naruto screamed in startlement.
After doing this, Ino began to giggle lightly at Naruto's expense.
Naruto didn't like the jumps scare one but decided that since this was most likely Ino's revenge for him making her wait, he let it slide.
This however wasn't something Ino thought of for revenge, she simply wanted to get his mind off of the Third Hokage, and she figured that the best and quickest way to do so was by scaring him, so she did, and it worked.
So after scaring the boy, she told him
"Come follow me Naruto-Kun" in the most cheerful and upbeat way she could.
Naruto didn't want to and even told Ino
"I don't think so, or at least not today Ino-Chan."
Ino however didn't care, said
"Come on" grabbed him by the hand, and started dragging him with her, through the door.
(With the Rivals)
Kakashi and Gai were both sparring together, or rather, Gai was sparring with an open target.
The reason was because Kakashi was barely defending himself, if at all.
Whenever Gai went for a punch, Kakashi would lazily put a single arm up, miss the angle of the punch, and get hit over and over again, as he just didn't care enough about the challenges that Gai had in mind to actually do something about it.
Eventually, Gai went for a front kick and launched Kakashi off his feet and to the ground.
Kakashi's back crashed onto the ground and while he was hurt, he still showed lack of interest in the fight, or the pain he was feeling from it.
Gai simply shook his head lifelessly, looked at the downed body of Kakashi, and told him
"Just so you know, this win of mine doesn't count in my eyes."
Kakashi however, didn't even respond. He simply wasn't in a good enough mood to do so, and really didn't care about what was happening.
He didn't even try to get back up and because of that, Gai started thinking of more and more ways that he could help out his friend.
After a little bit more thinking, an idea popped into his head.
'That might work' Gai thought he grabbed Kakashi's left wrist, and dragged him to their next destined location.
(With The Kids)
Ino and Naruto both arrived at their destined location rather quickly and when they did, Ino turned to Naruto and said
"Ta da" while gesturing at a newly opened food stand.
Once Naruto's eyes were free to see what was in front of him and he saw the inside of a food stand, specifically a spicy food stand, his emotionless expression didn't change, but he was thankful that one of his dear friends was trying her hardest to cheer him up.
"Why are we here?" He asked them.
"To help cheer you up, why else?" Ino asked mockingly.
"And how exactly is this stand's food supposed to help me cheer up?" Naruto asked.
"The food won't, but this will" Ino replied as six other people entered the stand and waited for a certain something.
Naruto was confused as to what they all appeared to be waiting for until a banner unfolded itself from above him.
Being the curious kid he was, he turned his head to see what the sign said, and it read
-The Grand Hot Wings Eating Challenge-
"Oh, I get where this is going" Naruto said to the girl that was sitting right beside him.
"Yep, and I'm entering too" Ino assured the boy.
"Of course you are" he replied while scratching the top of his head, uninterested.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ino asked, slightly ticked off.
"Nothing bad, just that it's normal for friends to do this stuff together" Naruto replied after having finished scratching his head.
He was still noticeably uninterested in the contest, but did it anyways.
Once the time came and eight wings were set on their plate, the person in charge of the whole ordeal began the countdown.
"Three... two... one... go!" The person called.
And the eaters began.
Naruto was eating rather slowly, as opposed to everyone else there, including Ino, who were trying to wolf down all those wings that they had on their plates.
Naruto simply ate slowly because he was too depressed to eat fast.
Ino and everyone else that was eating was trying to eat multiple hot wings at the same time.
Naruto was eating them in a way that wasn't very popular among leaf villagers. He tore it in half between both parts that had a bone, and then took one big bite, grinned his teeth against the bone, so as to not break those bones in half., and once he reached the end, he put the bone down, swallowed the meat, did the same thing with the other side, and then repeated the process over and over again.
Ino and everyone else though, were attempting to devour their wings. They all were using the same tactic too.
That tactic included grabbed two hot wings at once and took one big bite on each of them, spitting out every bone that they bit into. Attempting however, because every time they tired to take a big bite and scarf down all that meat, the spices would get caught up in their throats, they would choke, and it would just be hard for them swallow in general.
Ino and the people behind her tried to eat, and eat, and eat as many wings as they could, but they just couldn't go further after reaching their limit.
The people all called it quits after just five wings, Ino however, still didn't call it quotes, even when she got to seventeen. But when she did, she grabbed onto the collar of her shirt and tried cooling herself off by pulling it back and forth, because while she was still in the challenge, the spice was still getting to her.
With everyone else out of the equation, all that was left was Naruto and Ino.
They both just finished their twentieth wing and there were roughly two minutes left on the timer.
Neither of them changed their game plan and continued to use the strategy they had been using from the start, till finally, Ino gave in to the spice after her twenty fifth wing, and started pulling the collar of her shirt back and forth at a much faster and harder pace than before.
Naruto was all that was left and, he didn't seem fazed at all by the spice.
He had the same expression he did before the challenge started and had it again, after it ended.
When the last two minutes of time was up and the challenge was over, Naruto emerged victorious, and didn't have so much as a speck of sweat on him, as opposed to everyone else, who were still desperately trying to cool themselves off.
"Congratulations!" The owner of the stand shouted in kudos to the young boy.
'It seems like Naruto-Kun is too depressed to really enjoy his victory' Ino thought sadly. 'But I'm not giving up, someone has to help cheer him up, and that someone is gonna be me.'
After being congratulated by the stand owner for his win, Naruto just forced on a fake smile and pretended to be happy about his win, when in actuality, he really didn't care about it at all.
'It doesn't seem like that was enough' Ino thought, spotting the falseness in Naruto's smile,
The stand owner then turned his attention to everyone else who participated in this challenge, not just Naruto and Ino, and then asked them all
"Are any of you down to try the spicy rice cake challenge next?"
Everyone but Ino and Naruto walked out and once they did, the Yamanaka Heiress shouted
"Bring it on!"
As soon as she did, everyone who originally walked out, got angry, ran back inside the stand, and in unison repeated what the Yamanaka Heiress chanted.
As the six grown ups were telling the stand owner to bring it on, the stand owner thought
'Wow, that's a first, people are actually coming back in and voluntarily trying it after having just bailed from it being too hot to eat. I guess it's because of the fact that they feel their pride's have been destroyed, as two eleven year olds were able to take more hot food than them.'
The stand owner then just lightly chuckled before saying
"So you wanna try again huh?" Everyone, except for Naruto, nodded their heads in response. "Well then this time, you have Thirty Minutes to try and eat as many hot rice cakes as possible."
Nobody flinched or showed any sign of intimidation, so the stand owner asked them
"This is your last chance to back down."
Nobody did, so the stand owner served up every last spicy rice cake,
"Alright, here goes" before sounding the air horn.
And the people dug in.
(With Kakashi and Gai)
Gai and Kakashi were both now right on top of the stone heads of the past Hokages, or more specifically, Kakashi was sitting on a bench on top of the heads whilst Gai was seemingly nowhere to be found.
'Why did he take me here if he was just gonna leave me here?' Kakashi wondered. 'Unless he wants me to try meditating.'
It wasn't long before Gai appeared right in front of the masked Jonin while shouting
"Kakashi!"
"Tah!" Kakashi shouted in alarm. "What the hell Gai?!"
"This" Gai said before grabbing Kakashi by the shoulders and tossing him over the railing.
"Son of a!" Kakashi started yelling before he tried his hardest not to crash into any of the stone heads and then landed head-first on the ground as a result.
Gai saw the whole thing go down and then mockingly shouted
"You couldn't avoid crashing, real impressive Kakashi!"
Kakashi however, got out of the mini crater, snarled angrily, yelled out
"I'm gonna get you for this Gai!" And then started running up the mountain to get to his long time rival.
He just applied as much chakra to his feet and took off as quickly as he could, eating no time and giving Gai as little time to start running and hiding.
After reaching the top of the mountain, Kakashi just looked around for his green friend and spotted him right in front of the railing that he was just thrown off of.
That friend of his, just turned around to look at him and with a cocky grin told him
"You want payback, you're gonna have to catch me first" before jumping off the railing and running down the stone heads.
As he was doing this, multiple villagers turned their heads and looked up to see what was happening. They saw large clouds of smoke rushing down the mountain at a rather alarming pace and were starting to think that the mountain was eroding. That was until they all got a good look and saw that the reason for those smoke clouds was that there was a Konoha Jonin who they all knew of as Might Gai running down the mountain.
This wasn't shocking to any regular citizen of Konoha, after all, seeing Ninja run up and down walls is a rather normal thing to see when it comes to the village, since everyone knows about chakra.
As for the few villagers that knew of Gai and the fact that he had no chakra at all though, this confused them greatly. They were all simply confused with how that Ninja was able to run down such a steep hill so quickly without applying chakra to his feet.
This however, was explained by Kakashi, who in his mind angrily said
'Why is he so fast?' Before reapplying chakra to his feet, jumping off the railing, and chasing that green friend of his again.
(With Naruto and Ino)
Ino was finishing up her last rice cake, or more specifically, her thirtieth rice cake.
Why is it her last some people may ask, because afterwards she couldn't take any more and began drinking he milk she was supplied with in front of her.
Naruto however, was just finishing up his twenty seventh rice cake.
He was pretty much just taking his time as he still wasn't interested in this stand's contest in the least bit.
He turned his head to the side and saw that numerous of the people that initially walked out of the stand just to walk back in were now just looking at both himself and Ino in envy.
'These guys really can't take it can they?' He thought as he finished his twenty eighth rice cake.
Ino, who was still drinking the milk that she had right in front of her, turned to look at the people who were staring at them both so angrily, giggled a bit, and as a result, started choking on her milk.
She spat out the milk and started coughing and hacking extremely loud as a result.
Naruto, who was just about to finish his twenty ninth rice cake, saw this, threw his rice cake to wall, rushed to Ino's side, and began tending to her.
"Ino-Chan, are you okay?!" He yelled hastily in worry.
"*Heavy Cough and Hack* I'm f- *heavy cough and hack* fine Naruto-K *heavy cough and hack* Naruto-Kun" Ino tried saying in one go, but was unable to.
Naruto then started to lightly pat Ino's back, which ended up helping her clear her throat of the milk that was clogging it and allowed her to breathe in and out properly. After a bit more patting, Naruto asked the blond girl
"Can you breathe properly now Ino-Chan?"
"A bit *cough*" Ino replied before Naruto handed her a glass of water. "Thanks."
"It's fine, just clear your throat."
Once Ino was done with the glass of water, she began clearing her throat so as to get all the remaining milk that was clogging her system out. After doing so, Ino turned to Naruto and asked him
"Why did you get water instead of milk?"
"I asked him for it, since I knew I wouldn't need milk" he responded.
Both then started laughing lightly for a couple more seconds before finally, the alarm sounded.
"Alright time is up and with that being said the winner here is Ino Yamanaka" the stand owner declared.
"What!?" Naruto and Ino shouted in unison.
"Well yeah, Naruto stopped eating once Ino started choking on her milk, in that time, the timer sounded and Naruto only had twenty nine rice cakes down whilst Ino has thirty."
"Damn!" Naruto shouted in frustration.
"I won" Ino shouted with pride with her arms raised. "Take that Naruto-Kun!"
"I want a rematch" Naruto told her.
"Do you think you could handle that?" Ino mockingly asked the boy.
"Of course I can, it's game on now" Naruto told her with determination in his eyes.
'I think I'm doing it, I'm cheering him up, or at least getting his mind off of it' Ino thought happily. "Alright, you're on."
So the two turned to the stand owner and asked him
"Do you have any other challenges?!" In unison.
"One more" the stand owner relied before turning his attention to everyone else. "And like before, do any of you wanna back out now?"
Everybody stayed but asked for some more milk before starting the challenge and the stand owner decided to grant his challengers of their wish. So he looked at them all and said
"Alright, I'll give you guys a ten minute milk break!"
Much to the relief of all the grownups partaking in the challenge.
"Well..." Ino started as she turned her head to look Naruto eye to eye.
"It looks like we have ten minutes to recharge I guess" Naruto added.
Ino then rolled her eyes and sarcastically asked Naruto
"Are you actually?"
"Of course not" Naruto replied with a smile.
"Good, neither am I" Ino said.
"Didn't you technically already do so?" Naruto asked smugly. "I mean you did intake quite a bit of milk and then water on top of that."
Ino puffed her cheeks in disappointment that Naruto had a point, which in turn caused Naruto to chuckle a bit as they waited for everyone else to finish their milk.
(With Kakashi and Gai)
Gai was running through the village top speed, trying to get as far away from Kakashi as possible, in as little time as possible.
The
He passed through stores, stands, buildings, etc. trying his hardest to not let Kakashi catch him.
As he was doing this, he smirked and thought
'It's working, I've made Kakashi so mad that he's currently focusing on killing me and not his student's blue mood.'
After a while of running though, he turned around to see how far behind him his friend is. However, when he turned around to look, nobody was there.
"Where'd he go?" He asked himself until out of nowhere, Kakashi tackled him down to the ground from behind. "Toh!"
Once the two hit the ground, Kakashi got back up and placed his foot onto Gai's left ankle, preventing him from escaping.
"Gotcha now!" Kakashi angrily yelled out.
"So..." Gai trailed off, knowing full well that Kakashi wouldn't actually hurt him out of anger and rage.
Kakashi just shook his head, removed his foot from Gai's ankle, and then backed off, allowing for Gai to get back up.
Once Gai was back on his own two feet, he immediately began stretching, till finally he cracked all his bones and told Kakashi
"Heads up" before throwing a bottle of water that he kept hidden in his vest, at him.
Kakashi caught the bottle of water with one hand and looked at Gai weirdly before he explained
"I figured that you'd be thirsty after that run, so as I was running away from you, I bought two bottles of water from a nearby stand, and then continued running away from you after I spotted you."
Kakashi just shrugged his shoulders but did drink the water, as he was rather thirsty.
Gai looked on and saw that Kakashi was seemingly just inhaling the water that he had in his hand.
'He must be real thirsty' Gai thought funnily. 'Well I mean I don't blame him, he's been drinking nothing but beer ever since the memorial passed.'
Once Kakashi finished his bottle of water, he looked Gai in the eyes, and with a look of vengeance in his eyes, he pushed him back and loudly told him
"I challenge you to a duel Gai!"
Gai smirked and said
"Oh a duel, is that right? And what for?"
"You pissed me off and I want revenge!"
"Perfect" Gai replied. "It's on!"
And like that, the two didn't even go somewhere different, they assumed their fighting positions, and battled out in the streets.
(Back With The Kids)
Naruto and Ino were both currently waiting for the stand owner to return back to them with their last challenge.
Once he came, he saw that numerous people wanted to try the challenge, but not just this challenge, every last challenge that he put out.
The stand owner smiled, and saw that there were so many people trying to get into the stand that it was beginning to overcrowd, so he realized something that he never did before had to be done.
He gladly got to it and as he was, he realized that even more people were trying to do the challenge and thanked Kami that those two kids came to the stand, because now he had to get more of what he was originally doing and eventually, after a while, he had everything he needed.
There were now so many people that wanted to try this challenge, that the stand owner had to bring out multiple tables and chairs outside for everyone who wanted to compete to sit on and attempt the challenge.
Around forty to fifty people were going to attempt this challenge, and sure enough, the stand owner was pretty invested into this competition himself.
The reason why was simply because not many people would compete in his food challenges, but now since two eleven year olds are beating everyone in this competition, everybody, grown up or not, wants to give it a go.
They simply didn't wanna lose their pride to meet pre-teens.
Once everything was set and ready, the stand owner laid down a jar full of peppers, in front of each competitor.
Once he did so, he began explaining the rules to everyone.
"Alright, listen up!" He started before everyone's attention fell to him. "You all have a jar right in front of you filled to the brim with peppers! Each jar has fifty peppers and I think it's important to tell you all that these aren't the only peppers you get! Every time you finish a jar of hot peppers, an even hotter jar filled with even spicer peppers will be waiting for you!"
Everyone aside from Naruto and Ino flinched after hearing this.
"Now let me explain the rules to you!" The stand owner started. "A pepper must at least be in your mouth for it to count as a point, you are given a single glass of milk, once you finish the milk you get no more unless you give, and lastly, no throwing up! Understood?!"
Everyone nodded their heads in affirmation and after they did, the stand owner told them all
"Begin!"
And they did.
Naruto opened the lid and took a bite of the first pepper. Immediately, his mouth started burning, but toughed it out and kept eating more and more and more.
Ino slowly and happily opened the lid of the jar of peppers before grabbing the first pepper, putting it in her mouth and eating is slowly and happily.
Quite simply put, was just so happy that Naruto was no longer sad that the spice from the pepper had no effect on her.
It was ironic really, at first Naruto was so depressed and uninterested in everything that the spicy foods didn't faze him at all, whilst they most certainly did on Ino, who at that moment was calm and relaxed.
Now it was the other way around. Ino was too happy to be fazed by the peppers whilst Naruto, who was no longer sad and depressed, struggled extremely hard to get them all down.
Naruto eventually managed to get to his fiftieth pepper and when he did, he looked at everyone behind him and saw that not a single one of the other people besides him and Ino that were partaking in the challenge were giving up.
'Wow, I guess the thought of losing to the same two eleven year old kids, three times in a row for the ones that were here since the first challenge is really pushing them past their limit. I can see it in their faces, they're all in insane pain and wanna stop but they're pushing their limits so as to spare their pride of the pain and embarrassment of losing to a duo of eleven year olds.' Naruto thought funnily as he turned to look at everyone.
"Done!" Ino claimed in bliss.
"What?" Naruto replied in a rush as he turned his head to look at the Yamanka Heiress.
"Congrats, you move on to faze two" the stand owner said.
'Damn, I was so distracted by everyone else that I forgot about Ino' Naruto thought before finishing his own fiftieth pepper and saying the same thing as Ino. "Done!"
"Okay, two advancers, anybody else?" The stand owner asked everyone in attendance with a cocky grin.
Suddenly, it was as if a fire lit off in everyone's eyes, because they immediately put even more work into inhaling each and every last pepper on each of their jars.
They were still way behind Naruto and Ino though, so there was nothing for either of them to worry about in that regard. So once they were both handed their second jar of even hotter peppers, they dug in immediately.
As soon as Naruto swallowed the first pepper, he immediately started taking a little sip of his milk. After doing so, he turned to the stand owner and asked him
"What is this?"
"It's my second type of peppers, there are ten in total, so eat up" the stand owner quickly explained before getting out of view.
As soon as Naruto and everyone else (Aside from Ino) heard what the stand owner said, their jaws dropped, but they didn't give up yet.
Naruto sucked it up, and then continued eating as many peppers as he could, trying his hardest in order to beat the girl beside him in this pepper eating contest.
(With Kakashi and Gai)
Kakashi and Gai were both still sparring when eventually, Gai landed a swift wheel kick, hit Kakashi in the gut, and sent him down to the ground, but not before being sent back a bit.
After Kakashi's back hit the ground, Gai brought his fist out, and with a smirk said
"I'm definitely counting this one."
Kakashi just rolled his eyes, got back up, and started thinking of what else he could challenge Gai to. It didn't take long before he figured it out, looked at Gai, and then told him
"I challenge you to a race!"
"Oh and to where exactly?"
Kakashi didn't even think about it and with a much quieter and calm voice, said
"To the tower of the Forrest of Death."
"Alright" Gai said with a thumbs up. "And when do we start?"
"How about..." Kakashi started as Gai started getting the message.
"Now!" Gai shouted as both ran off to the tower they were destined for at the same time.
"Hyah!" Gai shouted as he ran as fast as he could to his desired location.
"Hrah!" Kakashi too shouted as he ran to the same location as his rival.
(Five Minutes Later)
Kakashi and Gai both just entered the Forrest of death and are making their way to the tower.
They were both in their own separate part of the Forrest.
Kakashi took the North Path and Gai took the South Path.
The two were going through their own troubles as they made their way through the obstacles in the way. The landslides, trees, animals, they continued to make their way through all of it until they finally reached their destination.
(With Kakashi)
Kakashi was running through the Forrest top speed, trying to get to the tower located at the very center of the whole thing, as fast as he could.
'I won't lose to Gai, not again!' Kakashi inwardly shouted in determination.
Just then, a large boar roared and rushed at Kakashi.
Kakashi simply slid underneath the boar and passed its feet, avoiding getting crushed to death by its enormous feet, before hopping back to his feet and getting ready to run again.
Before he did though, Kakashi just sighed at the fact that he had to waste time, as small as it may be, on the boar that tried to kill him.
As he was about to start running again though, Kakash got an idea. So he jumped backwards, and then bounced off that same Boar's face forward. This launched him a couple dozen feet forward before landing on his feet and going again at his top speed.
(With Gai)
Gai was making his own journey to the tower of the Forrest of Death and was of course, going through his own hindrances.
He was currently being chased down by gorillas and monkeys who were swinging on vines trying to catch him on his feet, and Gai, being the naive and stubborn Ninja he is, decided that he would like a bit more of a challenge, since like this, there was no way in hell that those monkeys were catching him.
'If I wanna outpace those monkeys I wanna outpace them in style' he thought as he continued running.
So as he continued running, he looked around till eventually spotting a large and really thick vine hanging off a tree. He ran to it, jumped high, and once he got close enough, he extended his hands and gripped it tightly.
After getting a firm grip on the vine, he dropped his weight and began swinging himself.
This was supposed to make things harder for him but this then proved to be both beneficial and also boring for Gai, as he was actually going faster now, but because of this, he lost all the monkeys in just a couple of seconds, which was boring to him.
'Maybe I should've kept running instead of swinging' Gai thought boringly before making a realization.
He didn't stop though, since whilst this monkey chase was boring now, he still had a race to win.
'Kakashi!' He inwardly shouted before taking off even faster on the vines to get to where the duo was trying to meet up at.
So with his hands still firmly wrapped around the vine he was swinging from, he continued to make his way through the forrest, heading for the center.
(Later)
The duo were still trying to get to the tower and after a little bit more time passed, they arrived at their destination, or, were at least a lot closer to it.
So much so that when they turned the other way, they saw each other eye to eye.
'He caught up?' Kakashi thought as he continued running through the forrest.
'How did he get here?' Gai wondered as he was now running to the tower, since the vines were no longer strong enough to support his body weight.
The two then inadvertently ended up crashing into a tree at the same time and falling to the ground as a result.
"Oww!" They both exclaimed in pain after falling to the floor.
The two were in way more pain than they should've been in, had they not been off guard, and not been going their fastest.
The two just laid down in the ground, clutching their bodies in pain for the next couple of seconds till almost two minutes passed and the two flipped on to their front side before beginning to try and get back up.
They laid down, chest-first, brought their arms out beneath them, and started trying their best to push themselves back up.
They struggled a lot and groaned in pain as they tried getting back up on their feet, but ultimately were not able to do so, and crashed to the ground again.
Once they did, they again tried to get back up to their get by pushing themselves back up once more.
As they were, they looked each other in the eyes, before feeling a surge of determination and getting back up to their feet not too long afterwards.
Once they got back up to their feet, they immediately started wobbling around, as they were still off balance, due to the dizziness that came from ramming their body into that tree of their's.
After a few more seconds passed though, they managed to shake off the dizziness a little, looked forward, saw that they were only a couple hundred meters away, and began running again.
They started off slowly, more so jogging than running, until they reached the first hundred meters, in which more of their daze was gone.
They of course went on as their dizziness got lower till eventually, they passed their third one hundred meter mark and were completely out of it now.
So with one final burst of speed, they rushed to the gates of the tower as fast as they possibly could.
'Come on body, don't fail me now!' Gai inwardly shouted as he ran to the gate at top speed.
'Come on, I can feel and see myself getting closer and closer!' Kakashi thought as he made his way to his wanted destination.
The two rivals began shouting out as loud as they could.
"Hah!" Kakashi shouted.
"Shah!" Gai exclaimed.
The two were yelling and saying these things so loud, that the animals around their area flinched and hid in fear from the sound that they heard. The sound felt like an unrestrained beast making its way to capture its prey, and they of course, didn't wanna die, and hid in fear.
The two were running faster and faster by the second.
One second, they were halfway there, two seconds they were a two thirds the way there, and three seconds, they were both just an inch away from the doors, and the last second, they both crashed through the door at seemingly the same time, and then fell to the ground.
Once both fell to the ground, the realized that neither of them were anywhere near as dizzy as they were when they crashed against the thick tree at the same time.
'Must be because unlike then we were actually on guard' Kakashi thought as he pushed himself up to a single knee.
Once he managed to bring out his knee, he brought out his opposite leg, and then started standing again.
As for Gai, he stayed down on the ground for a couple extra seconds before getting enough strength to use his hands as springs and bounced himself back up to his feet.
When he landed on his feet however, he lost balance for a bit before assuming a proper position and staying absolutely still at the same time that Kakashi was doing the same.
The two managed to stay on their feet without any more difficulty and then once they did, Gai asked the obvious question
"Who won?"
Kakashi just smirked underneath his mask and said
"It was me."
"How are you so sure?" Gai asked before Kakashi walked up to him, put a hand on his shoulder, revealed his Sharingan, and looked Gai straight in the eyes.
As soon as Gai saw the Sharingan, he was taken to a red, white, and black world, where he saw everything that just happened unfold.
He looked at when the two were about to cross the gates and saw what happened.
The two were neck and neck, so it was no doubt that regardless of what, they would just end up going through the door at the same time if they still just went as fast as they could go on their own two feet without doing anything else.
However, being the genius he is, Kakashi realized that the two of them would touch the door at the same time, so he brought out a Kunai and extended it through the door.
So pretty much, his Kunai made it through the door before Gai did and because of that, Gai face-palmed at realizing he lost.
It was only for a couple seconds though, because the Genjutsu wore off quickly and once it did, Gai looked Kakashi in the eyes, and said
"Well played."
Kakashi then asked Gai
"You got any other challenge in mind?"
"Yeah."
"What?"
"Follow me" Gai instructed.
Kakashi decided to follow his rival's words, since he was just trying to lead them to their second challenge.
After just a couple seconds passed, the two left the tower of the Forrest of Death and were now outside.
Once the arrived outside, Gai began saying
"I spotted this as we were both making our way here and thankfully, it isn't too far off from here."
Kakashi grew curious as to what his friend had in mind but didn't say anything and just continued following him.
It wasn't too long that they both arrived in front of a tree, but not just any tree, the tree that knocked them both out when they took their attention away from the Forrest.
Once Kakashi saw this, he scratched his head and asked Gai
"So what are we gonna do, climb this tree or something?"
"Or something" Gai replied before climbing the tree and then sitting on one of the very thick branches where he spotted two very large eggs.
With a grin, he took the eggs and jumped back down with them both in his hands.
Kakshi looked at Kakashi's hands, saw the eggs, and soon realized what Gai had in mind.
"Oh" Kakashi said as he fully understood what Gai had in mind now.
"Yep, here take this one" Gai said before handing Kakashi one of the eggs. "We are gonna perform extremely harsh exercises and see who can keep their egg intact."
Kakashi just looked Gai in the eyes and said
"You're on."
(With The Kids)
Naruto and Ino were just finishing up their last minute of the pepper challenge they were competing in.
Naruto had downed four of the five jars hey had to eat, whilst Ino was happily eating her fifth jar.
"How *heavy pant* are *heavy pant* you not *heavy pant* fazed at all *heavy pant* by these?" Naruto asked Ino while panting from just how hot the peppers are.
Ino stopped eating her peppers, turned to Naruto with a smile on her face, and said
"Oh Naruto-Kun, I'm too happy to be fazed by anything of these things."
'Are you kidding me?' Naruto inwardly complained before trying to get the last sports of the jar he had to eat.
His milk was long gone, so he had to persevere at this point without any help.
His eyes were watering, his body was sweating, his mouth was producing so much of his saliva that it was dripping down to the floor, and he could feel his tongue swelling and giving out from just how much pain he was in.
"What is this paper called again?" Naruto asked the stand owner.
"Akuma" the stand owner replied.
"Makes sense" Naruto replied before eating it.
(Akuma translates to Demon)
"If you don't have it in you to eat any more, just spit it out kid, you already topped every grown person here, as none of them were able to make it through more than two jars" the stand owner reassured.
"No!" Naruto shouted in determination while also smacking the table. "Not yet!"
'The kid's got guts' the stand owner thought as he saw the drool from Naruto dropping down to the floor. 'I'm gonna have a lot of cleaning up to do, aren't I?'
Naruto, through his very watery and very red eyes, downed as many more peppers as he could before eventually, it became to much and he looked at the stand owner and as calmly as he could, told him
"Please, get me some more milk."
The stand owner understood, nodded, and went to go do just that.
He came back with two full cartons of milk and gave them to Naruto.
"Here you" the stand owner began before Naruto yanked them out of his hands and started inhaling the milk. "Go."
Naruto was gulping down the milk quickly and without any stopping.
He was drinking it down so much that you could visibly see the milk go down Naruto's throat as if it was his Adam's Apple traveling down and up his esophagus.
Once he managed to drink down both cartons completely, he began clearing his throat as best he could before watching in ent as Ino finished her final pepper.
"And the winner is the little girl" the stand owner replied.
Naruto giggled a bit after hearing this whilst Ino was still in too much bliss to care. Immediately after saying it though, the stand owner asked Naruto
"What's her name again I forgot?"
Naruto quit lightly giggling and replied with
"Ino."
The stand owner nodded and then corrected himself by rephrasing what he originally said.
"And the winner is Ino?"
"Yamanaka" Naruto chimed in.
The stand owner then looked at Naruto and rolled his eyes, as the little boy had just played him.
After laughing lightly again though, Naruto nudged Ino's shoulder and told her
"Alright, let's go."
Ino didn't want to though, not yet. So without turning, she said
"Wait a minute."
Naruto, deciding that she wouldn't go if he didn't do as she said, decided to stay and ask Ino
"For what?"
Ino then turned her head so she could look Naruto eye to eye and told him
"For this."
And without any further words spoken Ino grabbed the jar of peppers that Naruto failed to complete and finished them all herself.
"Damn" both Naruto and the stand owner said to this.
Ino didn't stop there though, she saw all the competitors who were still clutching their stomach, clearly from the pain and agony that this challenge put them through and decided to do the same thing with their jars.
She went to each and every single last one of the other competitors and cleared the jar of peppers they had set in front of them.
Naruto and the stand owner just looked at her go and couldn't help but be impressed by the young Yamanka Heiress, especially because of the fact that she never took a single sip of her milk to do so.
Naruto couldn't believe it, but was left impressed by how easily and painlessly Ino ate through all the hard that were left unfinished by the competitors.
Once she finished the last pepper, she looked Naruto in the eyes and said
"Now we can go."
Naruto, still frozen in amazement, didn't hear this so Ino repeated herself.
"Naruto-Kun!" She started which awoke Naruto from his shock induced paralysis. "Now we can go."
"Oh, okay" Naruto replied dully, still very shocked and amazed.
The two then thanked the stand owner and left the stand, it was still very bright and very early in the day when they left the stand though, so they just moved around, not really with anywhere on their mind.
As they were walking through the streets, Naruto turned to Ino and asked her
"How did you actually stomach through all those peppers, Ino-Chan?"
Ino, who was walking by Naruto's left side, just got closer, pressed her head against Naruto's shoulder, and blissfully replied with
"I already told you, I was too happy to be fazed by them."
Naruto, noticing the girl that was currently pressed against his shoulder, blushed a bit and then asked the obvious question.
"What were you so happy about?" Naruto questioned.
"That I got to make you happy" Ino replied as she began to snuggle her head against Naruto's very broad shoulder, which in turn made her eyes begin to shine, and her face begin to blush.
Naruto shook off the blush and with the head of the girl who managed to cheer him up still pressed against is shoulder, he looked around and spotted something else.
He spotted another stand, but this one, unlike the other, had no challenges. It was just selling ice cream and since Naruto's mouth was still burning a bit, he decided that they should go to the stand.
So he looked down at Ino and told her
"Hey, let's go to that stand over there" while pointing at said stand.
Ino, who had her eyes closed as she felt more of Naruto's shoulder, opened her eyes, turned to where the boy pointed, saw where he meant, and then asked him
"Is your tongue still on fire?"
"A little" Naruto replied while blushing and scratching the back of his head.
"Alright, let's go" she replied before the whiskered boy led the way.
(With Kakashi and Gai)
Kakashi and Gai were just finishing up doing their five hundredth one handed push-ups.
These were hard for more reasons than you'd think.
The regular one handed push-ups were tough enough as they were, but Kakashi and Gai were doing them whilst the egg they were trying to protect was underneath the hand that they were using for their push-ups.
They weren't doing the push-ups on the eggs, the egg was simply wedged in between one of their hands, whilst they were using the fingers of that same hand for the push-ups.
They went down till the egg just slightly touched the ground, then back up over and over again.
All while a massive Boulder was laying down on each of their backs.
So with the added weight, pressure, and overall difficulty, they continued on with their one handed push-ups.
"Five hundred fifty two!" Both called out in agony at the same time, as their bodies continued rotting under so much pain.
Both rivals didn't give in to the pain though and continued on with their challenge, completely determined to beat the other.
It wasn't long before both reached their one thousandth one handed push-up and once they did, they both switched the hand that they were using.
They were both using their right hand at first to do the push-ups, but then after reaching their one thousandth push-up, they switched to their left hand to continue on with using their push-ups.
As they were doing these push-ups Kakashi looked at Gai and asked him
"What happened to the mother of these eggs?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
"Yeah, I just saw them and picked them up" Gai explained.
"So what do we do if it's mother comes back and tries to kill us?" Kakashi asked.
"I doubt it'd be able to and besides, I doubt it would attack us while we were holding its eggs" Gai explained.
Kakashi was very nervous, cuz whilst Gai did have a point in the fact that if the mother of those eggs did try to kill them, she wouldn't really be able to deal any heavy amounts of damage to them. Even so though, he did feel bad in the fact that he was taking the eggs from its mother without her knowledge. He however, continued on with the challenges, not allowing Gai to beat him.
Once they both again reached their one thousandth push-up, they got up to their feet and started climbing a really tall tree with one arm behind their back, specifically the one holding the egg behind their back.
They weren't really climbing up the tree per say, but more powering up the tree.
This was because they would drive their fingers through the tree in order to be still and have a place to hold for a little bit, but then immediately after doing so, they would retract their fingers as fast as they could, jump as high as they could, just to drive their fingers through the tree again.
This essentially kept up till finally they both reached the top of the tree.
"Alright!" Gai shouted with enthusiasm.
"Who won?" Kakashi asked.
"I don't know" Gai replied.
"Then why did you shouted alright so loudly and enthusiastically?" Kakashi questioned.
Gai simply shrugged his shoulders and replied with
"Force of habit I guess" very dully.
Kakashi just shook his head and was about to jump down when outta nowhere, they each heard a loud
"Craw!" Turned to the source of the noise and saw the mother of those eggs.
It was big blue bird, had a large beak, sharp talons, and more.
"Welp, here she comes" Kakashi replied before looking at Gai.
"Now let's see who can return their egg faster" Gai proposed.
"Hai" Kakashi replied.
After this was said, both Gai and Kakashi jumped down the tree they were on top of in unison and then looked around for the tree of the bird that they took the eggs from. They were trying to find it before the mother attacked them and they were forced to hurt her, and maybe even accidentally kill her.
So they were sprinting as fast as possible while also being on the lookout for the nest of the mother bird they were currently trying to avoid, so as to protect her from harm, injury, and even death.
Eventually, after accidentally climbing up the wrong trees over and over again, they found the right one and were racing to get there before the other.
Kakashi was running from the north side down and Gai was running from the south side up.
Each were going through their own fair share of difficulties.
Gai was jumping over and avoiding as many poisonous plants, trees, bushes, and vines as he could, while also making sure not to accidentally harm any animals as he was maneuvering through these things.
Kakashi was also avoiding many obstacles, not poisonous ones though, instead, he was avoiding touching plants, bushes, trees, and vines that were covered in sleeping gas. Also Ike Gai, he was avoiding harming any nearby animals that could portentously be harmed by his quick and fluid movements.
The two were racing, sprinting as fast as they could, trying their hardest to make it to the tree before the other did, and also before they were spotted by the mother bird who by this point has already noticed that her babies were missing and was now looking for them.
'Come on!' Kakashi inwardly shouted as he ran as fast as he could with the egg still at hand. 'Almost there!'
'I will not lose, not yet, not while the Fire of youth still burns brightly!' Gai thought in determination.
The two ended up on their own side of the tree, Kakashi on the north and Gai on the south, and went further.
Kakashi and Gai then started climbing the tree the same way they did before, driving their fingers through the trunk and then launching themselves further after retracting said fingers from the tree.
Eventually, both ended up right beside the thick branch that the nest rested on and after giving each other a cocky smirk, took off to go place their egg down.
This was where things became a bit more challenging, Kakashi beat Gai in placings and was right in front of him, but they both had to balance themselves, as the branch started thin but progressively got thicker and thicker.
Eventually, the two got through this part and were now just inches away from the object of their desire.
So the two began speed walking as fast as they could, making sure they didn't accidentally fall off and also that the branch didn't break apart.
As they were doing this, Kakashi didn't notice a small wet lead right in front of him, stepped on it, and then slipped off the tree.
"Ahhh!" He shouted as he lost balance and fell off the tree.
Before he completely fell of the tree though, he tossed the egg up a bit, hoping that Gai would catch it, which he did, and after he did so, Gai put both his and Kakashi's eggs on the nest before jumping down to the ground and joining Kakashi.
Once Gai's feet hit the ground, Kakashi's back hit the ground at the same time.
"Oomph!" Kakashi wheezed as he crashed down to the ground on his back.
Gai just chuckled lightly, looked up, and saw the mother bird going back to the nest and tending to her kids.
'Good mother' Gai thought with a smile before turning his attention to his longtime friend and rival and offering him an arm.
Kakashi accepted the arm of Gai and got back up with his help.
"Thanks for that" Kakashi gasped out as he grabbed his now very sore back.
"You're welcome" Gai replied with a smile.
Kakashi just spent the next few minutes trying to catch his breath before finally looking at Gai and asking him
"Did you put both eggs back" with pain etched in his voice.
"Oh yes, both of them" Gai replied.
"Is the mother happy?"
"Of course."
"Good" Kakashi replied before letting out a breath of relief.
"But anyways" Gai started. "I guess I win this time!"
"Yep" Kakashi responded. "But don't you think we're done yet."
"That's the Kakashi I know" Gai replied after hearing the determination in Kakashi's voice. "Not giving up after just one loss."
"Yeah, I got one other challenge for us to do" Kakashi told him.
"And that is?" Gai asked.
"Seeing who can peek at the ladies in the hot springs without getting caught."
Gai then began to get a nosebleed before asking the masked jonin
"W-what?"
"Not up for it are you?"
"Why that out of anything else in the world?"
"Because I knew that it would make you react this way" Kakashi replied before lightly laughing. "I'm just joking Gai."
Gai then let out a breath of relief at the fact that his friend was only joshing around, but the. Thought a bit about it.
He knows that Kakashi is a bit of a closet pervert and maybe letting him peek at some grown women in the hot springs will really help his state of mind do a complete 180.
So after thinking it over for a couple seconds he let out a breath of air and replied.
"Alright" Gai answered
"W-wait what?" Kakashi said in shock and disbelief.
"In one condition."
"And that is?"
"This is no challenge, let's just do this till a certain time hits."
"Okay."
And like that the two friends went off to the hot springs to go park at some women bathing in the waters.
(With Naruto and Ino)
Naruto and Ino were both go dishing their last bowl of ice cream that the polite stand owner sold to them.
"Wow, that really hits the spot" Naruto said as he finally managed to cool his tongue.
"Really?" The stand owner asked. "Usually when someone comes back from that stand they wolf down at least sixty bowls of ice cream, and you just took your time with one."
"I guess I just have a higher tolerance than those grown people for hot stuff" Naruto replied.
"Oh, so that's why you opened this stand?" Ino chimed in.
"Hmm" Naruto and the stand owner mumbled as they turned to look at the Yamanaka Heiress.
"You opened this ice cream stand only a couple blocks away from the spicy food stand of that other man because you knew that people who have a taste of even a single bite of those spicy foods would be in dire need of ice cream. And you opened this up a couple blocks away because the longer the food remained in their mouth the more badly they would need something to cool it off" Ino explained. "I must say, I'm very impressed."
"I'll say" Naruto chimed in after having finished the last bits of ice cream.
"I've been doing it for fifteen years kids" the stand owner replied.
Ino turned to look at the boy and noticed that he was vanilla and chocolate ice cream smeared across lips and mouth.
So she brought out a napkin from the table and just lightly brushed it across the boy's mouth and lips.
"Ino-Ch" Naruto muffled as the napkin was covering bits of the outside part of his mouth.
"Sh" Ino said with her pointer finger raised in front of her mouth. "You have ice cream all over your mouth Naruto-Kun."
Once the napkin she was using was completely dirty, she knew that it was done for now and tossed it aside.
After throwing the paper in the trash, she turned back to Naruto and saw that there was still a little bit of ice cream smeared across his lips.
Instead of using a napkin this time though, she used her thumb to scrub away the ice cream that was plastered on the blue eyed boy's mouth.
'I never noticed, but Ino-Chan hand is so soft' Naruto thought as the Yamanaka's soft hands rubbed against his skin.
'Naruto-Kun, his whiskers, they're so defined' she thought as she scrubbed some more ice cream off of Naruto's whisker marks:
These actions and thoughts in turn caused the young eleven year old boy to blush a bit, which ended up having a chain effect on Ino, as it caused her to do the exact same thing.
Once the two were done and their blushes cooled down, the stand owner opened his mouth.
"So could I interest you two in any more ice cream or is this it?"
"This'll be it" both Naruto and Ino replied in unison before getting up from their seats and approaching the opening of the stand.
"Alright, so long you two lovebirds" the stand owner said as a farewell.
This caused both Naruto and Ino to blush in embarrassment at the complications they must have given the man to make him say that. They didn't reply to it though and just left the stand without saying another word.
After they left the stand, the two were just walking side by side past the road again, and as they were Naruto turned to Ino and asked her
"Do you know what time it is?"
Ino shrugged her shoulders and replied that she didn't.
Ironic enough, as they kept walking, they came across a random standing clock just set up right in front of a pole, saw that it read 5:30, and then continued walking.
As they continued walking, Naruto didn't notice himself getting closer and closer to Ino until eventually, he ended up wrapping an arm over her shoulder.
Ino blushed deeply at the feeling of Naruto's arm being wrapped around her shoulder and thought
'Wow, his arm, it's so big and strong' as she began getting comfortable in her place.
Naruto could feel the girl bringing and rubbing her against his arm and couldn't help but blush too.
'Why must she be so... cute' he thought as he looked down at her.
Anyone who saw the duo in the streets thought the same thing as the ice cream stand owner, that the two were a couple, and the sight itself was just too cute for anyone that saw not to say
"Aww!"
Both Naruto and Ino perked up after hearing these voices, turned around, saw a large crowd of people forming and separated immediately.
The two then started blushing deeply after they broke the embrace and were about to start walking again before some of the people there asked the two some questions.
"For how long have you two been in love?" Some random lady asked.
"How long have you two known each other?" A random man queried.
"Are your parents childhood friends?" Another person questioned the two.
"That would explain how they met and got together at such a young age" somebody added to it.
The two just looked at each other before doing some quick thinking and coming up with an idea.
So Naruto turned to the crowd, pointed forward and said
"Wait what's that?"
This successfully piked everyone's interest and made them turn to see what the blond boy was pointing at only to see nothing there.
The duo used this as their opportunity to leave so that when everyone turned back to where they were originally standing, there was nobody there.
"Guess they must've been shy" someone decided before they all shrugged their shoulders and continued on with their day.
(With Kakashi and Gai)
Kakashi and Gai were currently running out a nearby bath house from an angry mob of women who just slipped a towel on to chase the two out of bath house.
The two made it out without any woman realizing who they were and managed to get as far away as possible before they had any chance to catch them.
So with them both now out of trouble, they just exhaled a couple breaths of relief before Kakashi looked at Gai and told him
"You're terrible at peeking."
"What do you mean?"
"We were only in there for about five minutes or so before you had a nosebleed and fell limp on the ground, which notified all the women that there was a peeping Tom."
"How long are you usually in there for?"
"Half an hour."
"Whatever" Gai replied as he began stretching. "You know you should really find a woman instead of peeking at others, that could land you in major trouble."
"I know."
"Do you by any chance have someone in mind?" Gai teasingly asked.
"None of your business" Kakashi replied.
"Ouch" Gai replied jokingly. "It's her isn't it?"
Kakashi flinched upon hearing this and stammered
"Wh-who do you mean?"
"Her" Gai replied.
"What, you're kidding right?" Kakashi asked in response.
"Well not counting your students, she's all you ever talk about, so is it her?"
"Oh right, my students, I must meet up with them now" Kakashi used as an excuse. "Gotta go!"
And like that, Kakashi took off to go find his students.
"You know, something tells me that I as right" Gai replied before placing his chin between his thumb and pointer finger and thinking. 'Question is, does she like him too, and if she does, what can I do to help him confess to her? After all, if it was the other way around it would just be embarrassing for everyone involved.'
So with that thought in mind, Gai walked off to go and think of a way to bring Kakashi and the unknown woman together.
(With Naruto and Ino)
Naruto and Ino were both about to make their way to their houses but stopped to follow a beautiful little red bird that passed them by.
The bird intrigued them both with its beauty so much so that both felt a strong desire to follow it and see what it was going to do and did.
The bird was just making its way to its nest to look after its eggs.
The way it was caring for its eggs though warmed the heart of both blondes.
The bird was continuously looking around to see if any predators were nearby, while also warming the eggs with her body heat and covering them in leaves so as to blend them in and to warm them up even more.
It was showing true motherly love, not allowing for anything else, not even little tiny insects, to get anywhere near her babies and was also doing anything to keep them warm and safe.
After admiring the mother bird for a bit, the two left it on its own, having been satisfied with what they saw.
The two again began making their way back to their houses but this time, Naruto turned to Ino, whispered something in her ear, and after getting a nod of approval, they took off to the nearest store.
Upon reaching the store, they grabbed as many bottles of spray paint as possible, brought them all to the cashier, and when asked to pay, Naruto brought out his wallet and did just that.
After getting what they wanted, the two then went off to find the thing they wanted to see the most.
After just a couple more minutes passed, the duo found what they were searching for, the statue of two men, just some random nameless Shinobi, shaking hands, both were male, and both seemed to be angry with one another.
Naruto turned his head to the side and saw a sign that showed what exactly was going on with the two, or rather, what the sign was symbolizing.
The sign read -The Two Angry Shinobi Who Hated Each Other But Decided To Shake Hands For Fun-
'That is one long ass pointless name with two even more pointless Shinobi who aren't even named in the sign' Naruto thought before turning his attention back to the statues at hand.
After getti closer to the statue, Naruto and Ino smirked before bringing out the bottles of spray paint and started painting over it.
Naruto worked on the Shinobi on the left and Ino worked on the Shinobi on the right.
Naruto was just having some fun with his graffiti. He literally couldn't stop smirking as he sprayed the wet spray paint across the statue of his choosing.
Ino, while she was having fun, she was more or less trying to think of what would look funnier before she actually started, and once she figured it out, she started on her colorful work.
The two finished with their creations in about five minutes and after they did, they just stepped back a couple steps to have a clear view of what they accomplished.
After seeing what they had accomplished, they struggled so hard to keep their laughter down because quite frankly, what they saw was just too damn funny.
The Shinobi that Naruto spray painted had a purple skirt that reached down to his knees, banana yellow teeth, cross eyes, and was blowing the other statue a kiss.
The Shinobi that Ino worked on had a very noticeable bulge in his long pants, a pink tank top, high heels, a ring on his free hand, and lastly, had a tongue that was hanging out of his mouth.
The two literally couldn't hold in their laughter any longer and erupted in laughter, unable to control the volume in which they were doing so.
"Hey, you two!" A random civilian shouted.
"Shit" the two said in unison before taking off quickly, before the civilian could get a good look at them.
(Seconds Later)
The two were making their way back to their houses for the third time that day and were stopped yet again, this time though, by their Sensei Kakashi.
"Kakashi-Sensei?" Naruto said in confusion.
"What brings you here?" Ino added.
"Well I was originally gonna go to Naruto's apartment to help cheer him up, but looks like you already did that Ino" Kakashi replied with his famous eye smile.
"She sure did" Naruto responded with a smile of his own aimed towards Ino.
Ino blushed at the fact that this boy was smiling at her and then tried to change the topic by asking Kakashi
"So what are you doing now?"
Kakashi and Naruto immediately stopped smiling and turned to one another.
"That's right, I originally came here to help him, but I figured why not now I help you both?" Kakashi suggested.
"What did you have in mind?" Naruto asked.
"Well we could go to Ichiraku Ramen" Kakashi decided.
"We already ate" Ino started.
"But I'll never say no to ramen" Naruto interrupted. "You've got it."
Ino just chucked a bit because of how high Naruto's appetite was, but looked at her Sensei and agreed with the fellow blonde by her side.
"Yeah, I guess I will too" she said.
And after that, the three walked off to go get Ramen, little did they know, a certain Uchiha watched the whole thing go down and couldn't help but angrily growl and think
'Why did they help that loser feel better? Should've just let him rot in his room where he belongs. No matter, I'll beat him one day, even if he isn't depressed.'
And after thinking this, the Uchiha ran off to go train.
To Be Continued...