Naruto Primer: All
The Triathlon
"So those are the rules of the Triathlon!" Kurenai finished up. "To sum it all up, you will have a swimmer, a biker and a runner. The swimmer will swim the given distance and pass off the shuriken to the biker who will bike the given distance. The biker will then pass off the shuriken to the runner who will finish up the race. It's pretty self explanatory, but whoever passes the finish line first wins."
"Okay, you can all decide amongst yourselves who you want to do each event." Kakashi said.
They had already finished their complaining and whining and pointing out that the teachers had recently given them a short vacation. But we're past all that in which they are over their disappointment and anger and now pumped to beat each other in a triathlon race.
"I'll do the running event." Said Sasuke. "I don't care what you two do but I've been training a lot with my speed lately."
"Fine." Said Naruto because, even though he didn't want to admit it, Sasuke was faster than he was. "Sakura, do you have a preference?"
"I'd rather not swim." Sakura admitted.
"All right, then I'LL do the swimming!" Naruto decided.
"And I'll bike!" said Sakura.
Shikamaru turned around from watching that group easily come to that conclusion while they all sat there and argued about who would have to do what. "All right, I've got it." he said. "Chouji, you do the swimming and half the biking. Ino, you can finish up the biking and then do the running part. I'll cheer you guys on from the side and come up with strategies."
"Shikamaru, no." said Ino. "How about you do the biking?"
Shikamaru sighed as if they were asking an unreasonable thing from him. "That's so troublesome." He said.
Things were going mostly easily for the other groups as well.
"I'M DEFINITELY RUNNING!!" Lee announced, punching the air.
"I was just at the beach all day yesterday, so I'm all pumped for swimming!" Tenten announced.
Neji was half glad since he didn't know how to swim but wasn't ABOUT to say that! "Fine, then I'll do the biking." He said.
And the last group was a bit indecisive…but not really…
"I don't do water." Said Shino.
"I don't either!" said Kiba. "Akamaru doesn't like swimming. He doesn't really like getting wet. He smells bad too. And, ironically enough, so do I."
"I'll swim then!" said Hinata cooperatively.
"Akamaru and I will run." Said Kiba. "That's our forte."
"Really?" Shino asked. "Since when?"
"Since now." Kiba replied. "You can bike."
"Is everyone ready now?" Asuma said out of nowhere.
"No, we have to get to our posts." Said everyone.
So then everyone got to the posts.
"Is everyone ready NOW?!" Asuma bellowed.
"OKAY!" said all the swimmers as they gave the thumbs up to Asuma.
"Ready…GO!!" Asuma said dramatically as Naruto, Chouji, Tenten and Hinata dove into the water and began their swimming event.
Naruto was pumped to prove to everyone that he wasn't a loser. He was going to win this event even if it killed him. He might have started off a little too fast, though, because he got tired after a minute and had to rest shortly. Then he figured he'd pace himself better and actually managed to get out in front of the other three.
Chouji didn't know what the hell he was doing in the swimming event. He wasn't a very good swimmer and there was no way he was going to be able to swim the given distance. He was already so far behind that he couldn't see any of the other swimmers.
Tenten was a pretty good swimmer, but nothing special. She had been swimming at the beach a lot so she was all in the motion and everything so that made it easier. She definitely couldn't keep up with Naruto's mad swimming skills but, whenever he took a break, she was able to fill in most of the distance. She was pretty good at pacing herself, something Naruto was not doing very well.
As for Hinata, she was just swimming along and a reasonable pace. She was behind Tenten, but could still vaguely see her off in the distance. She knew she wasn't going to win the race, but she also knew that she couldn't let her team down. After all, the race wasn't over when she finished swimming and the more time she could fill in, the better chance Shino and Kiba had in their events.
Naruto reached the shore and nearly collapsed from exhaustion. He found the strength to make it up to the beach where Sakura was waiting ever so impatiently for him to pass of the shuriken to her.
"YAY!" she cheered, looking at the other bikers. "We're first!"
Neji used his Byakugan to see how far along Tenten was. "Tenten will be here any minute." He said.
Sakura mounted her bike as Naruto got closer and closer to where she was. "Remember, you can't leave until you have the shuriken." Said Kakashi since he was there at that starting are.
"Like I'm going to leave without it!" said Sakura.
"And you better win." Kakashi said, trying to hide his excitement that his group was first. That's when Naruto came running over and handed off the shuriken to Sakura, and she sped off. Everyone knew that she wouldn't be able to keep that pace for very long.
Naruto then collapsed and died. Luckily, the term 'died' is an overstatement for he did not REALLY die. And, as Neji spotted Tenten coming up the beach as well with the shuriken, he mounted his bike as well. It didn't take Tenten nearly as long to run up as it took Naruto and Neji was off, Sakura with only a few minute's head start.
"Man, this is troublesome." Said Shikamaru as he shielded his eyes from the sun and looked out at the water. "I wonder how long it'll take Chouji to get here. I hope it takes a while because I don't feel like biking."
Shino only just stood there and stared at him. He was waiting for Hinata.
A while later, Hinata came up on shore with the shuriken. She passed it off to Shino and he was gone within only seconds and then she started hacking and choking but, thankfully, there was no blood this time so there was no need for a hospital visit.
"Oh Chouji, I knew you weren't good at swimming…" Shikamaru narrated to himself.
"Why did you put him in that event then?" asked Tenten. "It seems ludicrous."
"This doesn't really matter that much to me." Shikamaru replied.
"It matters to me!!" yelled Naruto.
So, about ten minutes later, Chouji came up on the beach. It took him even longer than it took Naruto to get up to Shikamaru and pass off the shuriken. Shikamaru gave a heavy sigh and mounted his bike ever so slowly, as if every muscle of his body ached and then turned the pedals once or twice, gliding the rest of the way.
"That is the lamest thing I have ever seen." Said Kakashi.
Meanwhile, Sakura was completely out of breath. She was in pain as she moved the pedals but she wasn't about to give up. Even though Neji had passed her going at top speed a LONG time ago, she was going to keep going until she reached the marker where she could hand off the shuriken to Sasuke and impress him!
It was then that Shino passed her. He was going at a reasonable speed too, but it's not like he was killer fast like Neji was. He had reached his goal of getting ahead at least one place from where he had started, but that didn't mean he was just going to STOP trying!
Neji, on the other hand, was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else. He was biking THROUGH the pain as if it wasn't even there. He was determined to beat everyone else! Frankly, he was so in the zone that he didn't even realize that he had passed Sakura already, so he was determined to pass her. I guess that's better for him because if he knew he was in first, e probably wouldn't be so ridiculously ambitious.
Well, as for Shikamaru…yeah, he got tired of biking and dismounted. He started WALKING his bike. Every once and while, he would stop to look up at the sky and then keep going if he managed to jerk himself back into reality after about five minutes. Once he got past five minutes, there was no saving him.
Neji used his Byakugan to see how much further he had to go before he reached his destination. He was happy to see that it was merely right around the corner. When he reached in the general area of the runners, he practically dove off his bike and threw the shuriken to Lee who jumped up and caught it and then ran off before anyone could even react.
Neji tumbled to a stop right in front of Gai who was standing at the starting line for the runners. "Nice job, Neji!" said Gai as he put his thumb up and his teeth went 'PING!!'
He sat up from his lying down position and looked at the runners. "I thought Sakura was ahead of me." He said.
"No." said Gai, looking at the runners.
"So does that mean Sakura's in second?" Sasuke asked.
"I don't know." Neji said. "I thought she was ahead of me."
Suddenly, they could see a figure off in the distance. "That must be her now!" Sasuke said.
As the figure got closer, they all came to realize that that was most definitely NOT Sakura. "Yahoo! Even better!" cheered Kiba. "All right, Akamaru! I'm going to start running and you stay behind to catch the shuriken! Then catch up with me, got it?" Akamaru barked in response as Kiba started running off.
"Hey!!" said Sasuke. "That's not legal!"
"Sure it is." Said Gai with a shrug. He knew that Kiba couldn't beat Lee so he wasn't worried. Now, if Sasuke had a little dog friend, and had done the same thing, maybe he would have said that it wasn't legal.
"Aw man…" said Ino. "I wonder where Shikamaru is! I bet Chouji hasn't even gotten to shore yet…"
Almost as soon as she said that, another figure came around the corner.
"It's Sakura!" Sasuke said immediately before he even got a good look.
"No, it's GOT to be Shikamaru!" Ino argued.
"You wish." Said Sasuke, getting all into the heat of the 'battle'. And it's a good thing it WAS Sakura or else Sasuke would have looked pretty silly. She passed the shuriken to him and then he tore off with crazed speed. It would be very difficult to pass Lee but he knew he could do it because he was better than him.
"Aw…should I even bother?" complained Ino, sitting down.
Neji looked at Ino and then at where Shikamaru SHOULD have been biking around the corner any minute. He used his Byuakugan to check on him. He couldn't even FIND Shikamaru! "I don't think he's going to be coming any time soon." Neji said to Ino.
"I figured so much." Ino sighed. "Even if he DID come, there's no way I'd be able to catch up with Lee or Sasuke or Kiba. I wonder who messed it up? Chouji or Shikamaru? Or both of them…"
"I'll say this much; he didn't look like he was in the mood to ride a bike when I left." Shino said.
Lee was making good time. He wasn't tired at all but he knew that if he were to keep this lead, he would have to take the weights off. So he jumped up into the air and removed them as fast as he could, dropping them on the ground and destroying the path. Then he took off even faster than before.
Kiba was making good time too, relative to a normal person who wasn't as insanely fast as Lee. Akamaru had caught up with him with the shuriken and now they were together again! And he loves that.
Sasuke was frustrated that he wasn't in first, but when he caught sight of Kiba off in the distance, he only sped up faster and eventually passed him. He started feeling really great and special, that now he had a chance of winning, but then he came across the huge hole with the weights at the bottom of it, which sent him into his inferiority complex because he knew that Lee had taken off his weights and now there was NO way he had a chance of winning.
Kurenai was standing at the finish line, hoping against hope and wishing against wish that some kind of force of nature allowed Kiba to be the victor and that she would see him come up and cross any second. She wasn't expecting much from her team in this event, not with Lee and Sasuke completing the running part of it. But that's why there were four other events!
Then she saw Lee coming up. She was very sad, but Lee crossed the finish line. "I'M THE WINNER!!!" Lee yelled, doing a victory dance.
"Congratulations!" said Kurenai but she secretly resented him.
Then they looked up to see a giant cloud of dust off in the distance. Sasuke was in front of it, looking more in the zone than anyone else in the entire world as he sprinted as fast inhumanly possible. He crossed the finish line and stopped on a dime.
Then he saw Lee standing there triumphantly.
"That's it!" he said. "Fight me now!!"
"What?" said Lee.
"There will be NO fighting!" said Kurenai. "Settle it in the next event if you have to!"
What followed then was a lot of waiting around. But then Kiba came up and crossed the finish line in third place. "Was I really that far behind?" Kiba said noticing how bored Lee and Sasuke looked. Well, Lee looked bored. Sasuke looked murderous.
"You did GREAT Kiba!" said Kurenai.
"What about Akamaru?" Kiba said, looking at her in a disappointed fashion as Akamaru barked angrily. "He did a lot!"
"Oh right, sorry." Said Kurenai. "Nice job Akamaru."
Ino never did cross the finish line. She actually never even started. Everyone had to go on a scavenger hunt and the only thing on the list was 'Shikamaru'. They found his bike about a mile from where they found him, lying in a field that branched of from the path.
"What are you doing?!" demanded Ino. "We were supposed to be in a race!"
"Oh right." Said Shikamaru, sitting up. "Well, I WAS biking, but that got too troublesome, so I started walking my bike. But that was even more troublesome so I just left it behind me and figured that as long as I crossed the finish line…"
"I don't even want to hear it." said Ino, rolling her eyes.
"Some chuunin." Said Gai to Asuma.
"That's Shikamaru's style!" said Asuma, though you can assume that if this was all in Japanese then he would have said 'style' in English while adding a 'u' at the end.
"Well, don't let that get you down!" said Kurenai. "There still four more events that you could potentially win!!"
"Let's go to the next one then." Kakashi said.