Naruto Primer: Lil' Naruto
Monkey Bars
Ever since Naruto was just a child (and you know this will eventually lead to the Magic Crystal Ball of the Past) he's felt a need to prove himself in front of everyone else. So we'll show you.
It was recess time at the academy and all the little boys were out on the playground while the girls were off picking flowers with their teacher.
"Hey you!!" yelled the young eight-year-old Kiba as he pointed at Naruto. "I bet that I could run from one side of the playground to the other faster than you could!!"
"You're on!!" said Naruto. "I'll prove to you that I'm faster!!"
"Not YOU." Said Kiba, looking offended.
Naruto turned around to see Sasuke standing right there.
"What?!" Naruto yelled at Kiba. "You were talking to Sasuke?!"
"Well obviously." Said Kiba. "A race against you would be pointless because I would win way too easily. I want to at least challenge myself a little bit."
"I would beat you!" said Naruto.
"NO YOU WOULDN'T!!!" Kiba yelled.
"Then why don't you prove it?" Naruto said, crossing his arms.
"Fine!" said Kiba. "Sasuke, I'll race you LATER after I beat Naruto!"
"Whatever." Said Sasuke since he never actually agreed to race Kiba in the first place.
Kiba grabbed some sidewalk chalk and drew a line across a part of the playground that was pavement. "Okay, we'll start behind this line," Kiba explained. "And race all way over there where Shikamaru and Chouji are playing checkers."
"All right!" said Naruto.
"On your mark…get set…" Kiba said slowly as he got in his running ready position. "GO!!!"
With that, Naruto and Kiba were off. They were speed demons all the way over to Shikamaru and Chouji!! Unfortunately for Naruto, Kiba was much more demonic than he was and was much faster to the end point.
"See?" said Kiba, not tired at all. "There's no way YOU could beat ME."
"Grr…" said Naruto angrily.
"Now I'm going to go and challenge Sasuke to a race!" said Kiba as he strutted away arrogantly.
"Aw man!" said Naruto.
"I beat you Chouji." Said Shikamaru. "That makes fourteen wins and no losses for me."
"I just can't beat you, Shikamaru!" said Chouji.
Shikamaru looked up. "Oh, you look like a good challenge." He commented.
"Me?" said Naruto.
"Uh, no." said Shikamaru.
Naruto turned around again to see Sasuke standing there with his hands in his pockets. "Not YOU again!!" Naruto yelled.
"Do you want to play?" Shikamaru asked as he started setting up the board again.
"He's not playing until AFTER you beat me!!" Naruto said, pushing Chouji out of the way and sitting in his spot. "The winner gets to play Sasuke!"
"Do you even know how to play chess?" Shikamaru said skeptically.
"I thought it was checkers!" Naruto said.
"No, it's chess." Said Shikamaru.
"Go Shikamaru!!" cheered Chouji.
"Of COURSE I know how to play!!" said Naruto as if he was offended. He really had no reason to be offended because, in actuality, he didn't really know how to play and Shikamaru ended up beating him in four turns.
"Check mate." Shikamaru said.
"Hurray, Shikamaru won!!" said Chouji.
"How…?!" Naruto demanded, looking at the board. "I hardly moved any of my pieces!"
"That's how." Shikamaru explained. He looked up in search for Sasuke. "Great, now Sasuke's gone. It's too troublesome to go and look for him though. Chouji, do you want to play again?"
"Do I ever!" said Chouji excitedly.
"Don't you want to play me again?" Naruto asked.
"No." said Shikamaru. "You're worse than Chouji."
"FINE!!!" said Naruto, standing up and stomping away. It wasn't long until he stumbled across Shino who was…
On the swings! That's right, he wasn't collecting bugs. He was on the swings.
"Hey you," said Shino.
"Me?" said Naruto.
"…No." said Shino.
Naruto turned around to see Sasuke standing there again. "WHY DO YOU KEEP JUST STANDING BEHIND ME?!" he demanded.
"Why do you keep standing in front of me?" Sasuke retorted.
"That's it!" said Naruto as he ran over to the swing that was next to Shino. "Shino, I bet I can jump off the swings further than you!!"
"…?" said Shino.
"If you want to challenge Sasuke to a jumping off the swings contest then you'll have to get through me first!!" Naruto announced.
"I just wanted to ask Sasuke the time because I saw he had a watch." Shino said.
"Well now you're in a contest with me!!" Naruto said as he started pumping in attempt to get higher than Shino. "You jump first and then I will and whoever lands further away from the swings is the winner!!"
"If I do this will you go away?" Shino asked.
"ONLY IF YOU BEAT ME!!!" Naruto yelled.
"Fine." Said Shino as he leapt off the swings with such grace and landed EVER so far away and so perfectly on his two feet. It was pretty far, so Naruto would have to beat it.
But he didn't.
In fact, he only kind of tumbled off the swings and tried rolling so much to pass Shino but that didn't happen.
"Do over!" Naruto declared.
"No." said Shino. "I won now go away."
"Swinging on the swings is for losers!!" said Naruto as he ran off to find a nice private place to cry. But, instead, he found Sasuke sitting in a sandy area building a beautiful sand castle.
"HEY!!" said Naruto, stomping over. Sasuke just ignored him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!!" When Sasuke didn't respond, Naruto wound up and kicked the castle with all his might so that all the sand went flying in all sorts of directions, including Sasuke's face.
Sasuke sat there in shock for a moment and then stood up, brushing himself off. Then he looked at Naruto and pointed at him. "I challenge you." He said.
"I accept!!" said Naruto. "I'll beat you!"
"Meet me at the monkey bars in three minutes." Sasuke said.
"I'll be there!" said Naruto. "So you better be!"
Word spread pretty quickly that Sasuke and Naruto were fighting and everyone wanted to be there to see it. Not so much the fight between Sasuke and Naruto, they were just eager to see Sasuke beat up Naruto since he had been annoying them all so recently.
Naruto and Sasuke were at the appointed place at exact right time. All the boys were there to watch too.
"What's the challenge?" said Naruto.
"Whoever can get further across the monkey bars is the winner." Sasuke said.
"NO ONE can do the monkey bars!" said Naruto.
Sasuke crossed his arms. "No one?" he said cockily.
"EXCEPT ME!!" Naruto finished quickly.
"We'll see about that." Said Sasuke, jumping up and grabbing hold of the bar. Then, ever so swiftly, he went all the way to the other side of the monkey bar area and then, just to spite Naruto, easily made his way back and jumped off. All the boys clapped to congratulate him. "Beat that." He said.
"I will!" said Naruto even though he knew he couldn't do that much monkey bar action in a million years. He jumped up and grabbed onto the first bar. He reached for the second one but his wrist that held him up started twisting and pretty soon, he was facing the wrong direction. All the boys laughed at him as he fell off and landed right on his face.
"Do over!" Naruto yelled.
"Nice job." Said Sasuke sarcastically.
"Recess is over!" came the voice of Iruka. "Everyone back inside!"
All the boys ran back inside in a big cloud of dust and flying paper, leaving Naruto to just lie there for a minute before getting up as well and slowly making his way back to the academy. It's not like that recess was any different for all the other recesses he had had. They were USUALLY like that.