2: Problems
With all the lithe running abilities of a horde of elephants, Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto thundered down the road to the Sasegawa residence. They crashed into the house, nearly splintering the wood of the door, and fell into a jumbled heap at the entrance. Sasuke very quickly removed himself from the tangled limbs and stood up, trying to hide his exertion.
The door opened tentatively, and two pairs of eyes peeked out.
"Um, sorry we're late but—" Sakura began.
"THEY'RE HERE!" two voices screamed, as the door was swung open. Two bodies came hurtling out of the door and sprinted down the street, much to the confusion of the genin.
Sakura turned back to the door and attempted to enter before a frazzled woman emerged from the threshold. She smiled weakly at them and asked, "Kakashi's?"
They could only nod.
She let out an enormous sigh of relief. "Thank goodness you're finally here. I've been waiting for a while now. Well, Kiri and Karin went that way," she said, motioning down the street where the two mysterious bodies had gone scurrying down just a few moments ago. "And I'll be going this way." With that, she began to calmly walk in the opposite direction.
Naruto was dumbfounded.
"H-Hey! Wait! What do you mean?!" he asked.
"Oh, they do that every now and then," the woman said, looking over her shoulder. "Just drag them back home by the time I return. Ganbatte, ne."
Before they could question her further, she ran off quickly.
Sakura's jaw dropped to the ground. "W-WHAT KIND OF PARENTING IS THIS?!"
Sasuke looked peeved.
---
"NUH-UH. NO WAY."
Kiba, Hinata, and Shino tilted their heads upward to marvel at the impressive building in front of them.
"Is this the right address?!" Kiba exclaimed, staring at the piece of paper.
"I-I think so," Hinata said nervously. "But Kurenai-sensei said it wasn't very large…"
"SHE OBVIOUSLY LIED!" Kiba exclaimed. Hinata winced.
Shino, more composed than Kiba would've liked, put his hands into his pockets and made a low whistle at the three-story house that nearly took up an entire block of the neighborhood. It was monstrous from where they were standing in the street. Just looking at it made Shino want to sigh.
"It is rather impressive," Shino said.
"I HATE PAINTING!"
---
As soon as the woman left her instructions to the three, Shikamaru toppled onto the grass with feigned exhaustion.
"Really," he muttered. "How troublesome."
Ino let out a dry sob. "This entire garden is FILLED with weeds! It's practically a jungle! Does this grandma just sit around all day on her ass?"
"I'm really hungry, guys," Chouji said.
"Okay, here's the plan," Ino said quickly. She crouched amongst the weeds, that were so high they nearly reached her knees, and leaned towards her two teammates. "I'll rake the leaves and you guys can split up the weeding amongst yourselves. I really should just do the easy job myself, but I'm too nice to you guys."
Shikamaru gave her a withering glare. "Weren't you the one who was complaining about how this resembled a jungle?"
Ino let out an indifferent shrug. "I know plants better than you guys do, and all I'm saying is that weeds like this are usually very easy to pull up."
"I think these weeds have some type of thorns in them," Chouji said.
"Okay, so they may have a weak form of protection, but really, weeding is so much easier than raking," she said hastily.
"I think Chouji should rake then, if it's such a difficult job," Shikamaru said. "He is the strongest."
"I insist!" Ino exclaimed.
"I insist harder."
"You're too lazy to insist harder!" Ino snapped.
"Good point."
"Then it's decided!" Ino said gleefully. "I'll rake while you guys weed. Let's go!"
"Women are so troublesome," Shikamaru muttered under his breath.
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Coming up...
3: Sasuke Screws Up
Sasuke let out a low feral growl. "Let's get them," he spat.
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