Naruto Primer: All
The Race (again)
"Swimmers, on your mark!" said Asuma since he just LOVES watching swimmers take off.
"I'm racing against you, Sasuke!" said Ino, even though she half regretted it because she knew she'd never be able to beat him.
"I'll beat you." Sasuke said.
"All right, Akamaru, you just stay up here." Said Kiba, putting Akamaru on his head.
"Get set…GO!!" Asuma yelled as the three swimmers jumped into the water.
Sasuke didn't bother looking behind him at any point in the race. He took off and ignored the other two, trying to focus only on winning the race, even though it was pretty apparent that he would. He still had to prove to everyone that he was THAT much better than both Kiba and Ino and didn't bother to let up on them so they could catch up. Even though no one in the right mind would do that except for…er… The Hare.
Kiba was doggy paddling. Haha. What, were you expecting him to be doing anything else? Doing the crawl would just be silly and the breaststroke would be even SILLIER!! If he had someone to tell right then and there, he would have said, "I HATE SWIMMING!!"
It just so happened that he DID have someone to tell since he and Ino were pretty much neck and neck. Ino was going at a good pace, but she couldn't exactly find a stroke that she was partial to so she had to keep switching around so that kept slowing her down. Plus, she had to rest every once and a while since she is, after all, ONLY A GIRL!!!
Sasuke jumped up onto the shore and sprinted up the beach to where the three Brain People, Chouji, Hinata and Shikamaru, were standing. Kakashi was also there, ready with a blindfold.
"Let's get this over with!" said Sasuke, stopping right next to Shikamaru who was waiting ever so patiently. Kakashi quickly blindfolded Sasuke and decided to continue quickly since Sasuke was the only one that was on his team as of now so he wanted to favor him.
"This brain event is different than the one in the other competition." Explained Kakashi as he dropped a bunch of pieces on the table. "The blindfolded person will have to put this puzzle together while being directed from the other one. Then, once the puzzle is complete, a code will be visible on the puzzle. Each letter represents another letter and then you must work together to figure out what the puzzle says."
"How am I supposed to put together a puzzle blindfolded?!" Sasuke demanded as he lamely started fumbling for the pieces.
"Just listen to my direction, okay?" Shikamaru said as he started lining up all the pieces in the order in which they belonged in only a minute or two. "I'm going to hand you a piece and all you have to do is connect it with the piece I previously gave you."
"Is that legal?" Chouji asked.
"Yeah." Said Kakashi. "You guys can copy them if you want. I would SUGGEST it."
"I guess Shikamaru DOES belong on the bad ass team then!" said Hinata.
"It's the PUPPY Team." Kakashi corrected.
"Another piece any time now, Shikamaru." Said Sasuke, sounding annoyed.
"I think I figured out the phrase we have to decipher." Shikamaru said.
"How could you have possibly done that?" Sasuke asked. "We haven't even finished the puzzle."
"Because I'm Shikamaru." Shikamaru replied.
"What's the phrase?" Kakashi asked.
"Well, I was noticing as I handed the pieces to Sasuke that each letter in the alphabet appears each time." Shikamaru explained. "And I figured that the sentences we had to decipher were random phrases that everyone knows as long as they went to grade school. Therefore, the only sentence that has all letters of the alphabet is, 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'."
Kakashi didn't say anything.
"Am I right?" Shikamaru asked.
"…" Kakashi replied. He took a deep breath. "Wait…um…no wait. Just go. Go." He pointed off in the direction they were supposed to go.
"They should have to finish the puzzle…" said Chouji as the two got up from the table and quickly left. Well, as quick as they could potentially go. After Sasuke crashed into a few things and tripped over himself, he was gone. And then Shikamaru was, of course, not really going fast in the FIRST place so it took them both a good three minutes to get out of sight.
"Well that was pathetic." Said Kakashi. "Except for that puzzle part. That was some serious looking underneath the underneath."
About five minutes later…
"I'm first!!" Kiba yelled as he ran in front of Ino and over to Hinata's side.
"No, I was here first!" Ino argued.
"It doesn't matter at this point." Said Kakashi as he blindfolded both Kiba and Ino and handed the two teams their puzzles. He explained the rules to them but there's NO reason why you should need to hear them again.
"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!!" announced Chouji.
"Yeah!" agreed Hinata.
"Um…no." said Kakashi. "You think you all had the same code? They're all different."
"Aww…" said Hinata and Chouji sadly.
Just as Kakashi had advised them, Hinata and Chouji used the same technique that Shikamaru and Sasuke had used. They finished the puzzle at roughly the same time, and now it was Hinata and Chouji's turn to show off their mad skills.
"Shikamaru figured out the code before the puzzle was even finished?!" Ino gasped. "Well, actually, why am I surprised?"
"So not only did Sasuke finish VASTLY in front of us both, but Shikamaru figured out the puzzle before we even reached the shore?" Kiba whined. "They're probably already finished with the biking event."
Just then, Sasuke wandered back in and tripped over something, falling on his face. "God damn it!" Sasuke yelled, slamming his fist on the ground. "Are we at the bikes yet, Shikamaru?!"
"Oh right." Said Shikamaru as he wandered over. "Um…go left."
"This isn't working!" Sasuke said angrily.
"Are you willing to let me lead you now?" Shikamaru asked.
"Fine!!" Sasuke said, standing up.
Shikamaru got behind Sasuke and put his hands on Sasuke's shoulders. "You just walk." He said. "I'll steer."
With that, they left again.
"…Okay…" said all the people who had just seen that.
"Wait…what?" said Ino since she was blindfolded.
"Oh!" said Hinata. "I think I have the answer! Is it, 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away'?"
"Correct!" said Kakashi.
"Nice job, Hinata!" said Kiba, giving the thumbs up to no one at all.
"Now…er…feel free to use Shikamaru and Sasuke's SECOND method as well." Said Kakashi.
"Okay!" said Hinata as she and Kiba stood up.
"Wait a second." Said Kakashi as he whipped out another mini blindfold and leaned over, covering Akamaru's eyes. "I forgot about Akamaru."
"Told you we wouldn't get away with it, Akamaru." Said Kiba as Akamaru barked a little bit.
Hinata put her hands on Kiba (and you know he liked it) and then the two, rather, THREE of them were off! That left only Chouji and Ino trying to figure out the puzzle.
"I just can't figure this out!" Chouji said. "I have no idea at all. Why am I doing the brain event?"
"Because you didn't want to do anything athletic." Ino said.
"But I have to anyway…" Chouji complained.
"All right, I have an idea!" said Ino as she used her Shintenshin no Jutsu on Chouji and possessed him right then and there even though it pained her to do so because she thinks Chouji is fat and ugly.
"Hm…" Ino said as she looked at the code. "Uh…well…um…wow, I don't know the answer either."
Meanwhile, Shikamaru and Sasuke were rounding the corner to where all the bikers were waiting.
"ALL RIGHT!!!" cheered Lee.
"Aw man…" complained Naruto.
"Please tell me my group has at least finished the swimming event." Tenten pleaded.
"There's no time for that!!" said Kurenai as she blindfolded Shikamaru. "You're in a race, remember?!"
"Let's go!!" said Lee as he jumped on his bike. Now, since we didn't tell you this, this particular bike is a THREE PERSON BIKE!! Which meant there were three seats and three sets of handlebars and three sets of pedals all connected on the very same bike. Lee was in the front, Sasuke was in the middle and Shikamaru sat at the back. "Come on, Neji's waiting for us in the running event!" Lee yelled dramatically as he kicked up the kickstand and immediately took off faster than the speed of light.
"I hate being on the bad team." Said Tenten.
"It's not the BAD team!" said Kurenai. "It's the Hornets!!"
"This is the most predictable race ever." Tenten continued.
"I think they put me on the mediocre team only so that the bad ass team wouldn't KILL the other ones." Naruto said.
"There is no mediocre team or bad ass team!" Kurenai yelled. "It's the Pink Team and the Puppy Team!!"
"Why does the bad team have the coolest name?" asked Tenten.
"They're not the BAD team!!!" Kurenai yelled.
A few moments later, Kiba and Hinata came through. "Hey, you guys aren't that far behind!" said Naruto. "I think we're more like…the OTHER bad ass team!"
"The teams aren't divided up by skill!!" Kurenai yelled even though they so obviously were.
She blindfolded up Hinata and then the three of them got on the bike and took off. Obviously, Naruto in front, Hinata in the middle and Kiba in the back.
"Akamaru, you reek!" said Naruto.
"Yeah, Akamaru, I thought I told you to stay out of the water!" Kiba said.
"I think we need some Febreeze…" said Hinata.
Akamaru barked in his defense. "You are SO not dry, Akamaru." Said Kiba. "I can feel your wetness all over me." And Akamaru barked. "Yeah, I KNOW I'm wet too but that's not MY wetness, it's yours! Are YOU accusing ME of emitting the wet dog smell?! You have to kind of be a dog to emit that smell!!"
Akamaru barked again.
"Don't talk to me anymore, Akamaru." Said Kiba. "If you don't have anything nice to say, just don't say anything at all."
Meanwhile, the other team was biking faster than the speed of light. But you already knew that because we told you that a little while ago.
"Is everyone peddling?!" Lee yelled.
"Yeah, are YOU peddling?!" Sasuke demanded.
"Oh, absolutely." Said Shikamaru. He was actually just sitting cross-legged on his seat. Shikamaru thought that peddling was too troublesome. Besides, at the current speed they were going at, the speed of light, Shikamaru knew that he wouldn't be able to catch up with that speed even if he WANTED to.
"Of course I'm peddling!!" Lee answered as if it was silly of him to ask such a question. "At this rate, we'll be at Neji in no time!"
Suddenly, Lee spotted Neji off in the distance. He peddled even faster and then put the brakes on so that the tires nearly exploded and skid marks formed on the ground. Of course, since he hadn't mentioned the fact that Neji was right there to Sasuke and Shikamaru, they had various things happen to them. Shikamaru was launched off the bike and into orbit. Sasuke, since he was still peddling, merely flipped the bike 180 degrees so that he and Lee were upside down and they both smashed their heads on the pavement.
"Ow…" they both groaned.
"Um…" said everyone else who was standing there.