Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: All
Play Ball
"Come on, Naruto!!" Sakura called from the bench. "Don't screw it up on the first swing!!"
Lee did an extensive wind up and finally threw the ball in no special fashion whatsoever. It's not like he had been training his entire life to throw a baseball, but he didn't have a girly throw or anything.
Naruto was able to hit the ball. Like Lee, he had not been training in baseball for his entire life so he couldn't score an awesome homerun on the first try. He sort of just hit it out to right field where Ino fumbled with it for a second or two before finally picking it up. By the time she turned around to throw it to Neji at first base, however, Naruto had already reached the base. So, instead, she just threw the ball back to Lee.
"I GOT ON BASE!!!" cheered Naruto as he started doing the Hustle.
"I'll get to SECOND base!!" Kiba declared as he picked up the bat and went to home plate.
Lee did his wind up again only it was LONGER so everyone yelled at him so he finally threw it! Kiba gave a mighty swing and hit the ball high in the air right towards Sasuke. Sasuke used to play catch all the time when he was little so he just opened his glove and easily caught the ball sailing right towards him.
Then he looked to see that Naruto was unaware of the tagging up rule so he casually strode over to where Naruto currently was celebrating over his recent achievements and then tapped him with the ball.
"I'm already on the base you moron." Said Naruto.
"TWO OUTS!!!" yelled Asuma, getting all into the hand motions.
"WHY?!" screamed Kiba and Naruto. Gai pulled them aside to explain the rules of baseball to them and they both started crying as they went back to the bench and Hinata went up to the plate.
She wanted to impress Naruto by getting on base. But she was a little worried that she wouldn't even be able to hit the ball. As it turned out, three balls whizzed right by her and her inability to swing at the right time caused strike one, two AND three to occur in less than a minute. She was really embarrassed as Kakashi instructed the field players to get on the bench and all the other people to get on the field.
"I am DEFINITLY batting first." Said Sasuke as he took the bat before anyone could argue. It's not like anyone was GOING to argue though.
"I'll show that stupid Sasuke that I can play third base better than him!" said Naruto as he ran over to third base.
"I'll pitch." Said Tenten. "I've got impeccable aim after all."
In the end, Shino took Ino's position of running back and forth in the outfield. Kiba took first base, Hinata took center field and Sakura manned home plate as the catcher.
"SWING batter batter batter batter!" chanted Naruto. "SWING! SWING batter batter! Sasuke's got nothing! Sasuke's got nothing!! Swing, swing!!"
Tenten pitched the ball and Sasuke swung. There was a very clean smack of the baseball coming in contact with the bat and then the ball was shot off into orbit, probably never to return again.
"Home run!!" Kurenai yelled as Sasuke ran the bases.
"Stupid Sasuke!!!" Naruto said angrily as he shook his fist at Sasuke when he passed.
"That's one point for the Caramel Apples!" said Kakashi as he put up a little tally mark next to the picture of the Caramel Apple mascot.
Sasuke came over back to the bench.
"Nice job Sasuke!!" squealed Ino. "Sit next to me!"
"I'LL GET A HOME RUN TOO!!!" yelled Lee as he sprang up and grabbed the bat, running up to home plate faster than you could say…er…something that you could potentially say really really fast.
"SWING BATTER BATTER!!!" Naruto continued.
"SWING SWING SA-WING!!" Kiba joined in.
"Geez you guys…" Tenten said, rolling her eyes. As Naruto and Kiba continued to chant, (who put these two guys together?!) Tenten threw the ball to Lee.
Lee was all pumped with the battle aura around him and he was glowing all sorts of colors and, as the ball flew closer and closer, everyone in the outfield backed up more and more. They knew he would hit it far. They just wanted to be ready.
"YEAH!!!" screamed Lee as he swung the bat as hard as he could but then stopped it at the last second.
The ball rolled a few feet forward.
Lee immediately took off sprinting around the bases. Sakura, the catcher, had just begun to uncover her eyes when he was skidding over home plate.
"GREAT JOB LEE!!!" yelled Gai, giving thumbs up.
"SAFE!!!" Asuma said.
"HOME RUN!!!" cheered Lee as he did the happiest victory dance ever.
"The score is now Caramel Apples: 2, Woodchucks: 0!" Kakashi said as he changed the one to a two next to the Caramel Apples.
"Come on, guys!" said Kiba. "We have to pick it up! Let's pick it up!"
"YEAH!!" agreed Naruto. "Everyone has to pick up their game!"
On the bench, the Caramel Apples were trying to decide who would go next. "I don't want to ruin our home run streak!" said Chouji.
Ino agreed. "I agree!" she agreed.
"That means you're up, Neji." Said Shikamaru.
"Me?" said Neji. He had hoped that maybe there would be three outs by the time it was his turn. Now he was expected to go up and get a homerun just like Sasuke and Lee did.
He didn't need everyone to know that he was bad at ANOTHER thing. People just assume that he was good at everything just because he had mad skills at fighting. And, even though he kind of liked that, it was a little embarrassing when everyone came to realize that he couldn't do ANOTHER thing. But he had been observing Lee, Sasuke, Naruto and Kiba. He had seen how they bat and which way he was supposed to run.
So he took the bat silently and walked up to home plate. He tried to ignore Kiba and Naruto's constant and senseless jeering and tried to concentrate only on the ball.
The first pitch came…and then went. Neji didn't even swing.
"STEEEEE-RIKE ONE!!" Asuma yelled as Neji stepped backwards from the plate for a moment. He wiped his face. He hadn't even done anything yet and he was already sweating bullets.
"Come on Neji!!" cheered Gai.
Neji stepped back up to the plate. He swore to himself that he would swing on this pitch.
Once again, the ball flew by and Neji was unable to react. He was stressing himself out way too much.
"STEEEEE-RIKE TWO!!!" Asuma yelled again.
Likewise, Tenten was stressing out just as much. She had no desire to pitch to Neji since she knew how awesome he was. She figured that he was just waiting for the perfect pitch.
Neji took one last deep breath and stepped up to the plate. He tried to psyche himself up by thinking about the Main House and his father and how he lost to Naruto in the tournament and various other things. Clutching the bat tightly, he watched as Tenten wound up to throw again.
Everyone was watching and if he messed up, he'd lose his reputation… AGAIN.
She threw the ball and it whizzed right by.
"STEEEEEEEEE-RIKE THREE!! YOU'RE OUT!!!" Asuma yelled WAY too enthusiastically.
Neji stood in his frozen state for a moment. Tenten nearly dropped her glove in surprise. In fact, EVERYONE nearly dropped their gloves in surprise.
Gai cleared his throat and approached Neji. "You know, Neji…" he began as he led Neji off the field. "The object of the game is to hit the ball."
"That was hard to watch…" commented Shikamaru.
"YOU go up there next, then!" said Lee since he ALWAYS sticks up for Neji. Except when there's someone else he could potentially stick up for.
"No way, it's too troublesome." Shikamaru replied.
"PLEASE Shikamaru?" begged Chouji. "I want you to be on base when I hit it so I might be able to get you home!"
"Fine…" said Shikamaru, standing up and grabbing the bat. He walked up to home plate.
"Shikamaru's got nothing!!" yelled Naruto. "SWING!!!"
Shikamaru just got the 'this is so troublesome…' face.
Tenten pitched and Shikamaru turned himself so that the ball hit him in the back.
"WALK!!" called Asuma.
"He stepped into that!" Sakura said, standing up.
"No he didn't." Asuma replied.
"Yes he did!" argued pretty much everyone on The Woodchucks.
"Fine, fine!" he said stubbornly.
So Tenten pitched again and Shikamaru just so happen to step into it once again.
"WALK!" Asuma yelled.
"No, he stepped into that one too!" Sakura said angrily. Shikamaru only looked at Asuma with a very convincing expression.
"He did no such thing!" Asuma said. "Play ball!"
Sakura groaned as Tenten pitched again. A third time, it hit him.
"You can't say he didn't step into that one!" said Sakura.
Asuma was overtaken by the little chuunin vest folded on the bench. "He didn't! He gets to walk!" he said.
"Asuma…" said Kurenai. "I've been letting it slide but Shikamaru has stepped in front of all three of those perfect pitches!"
"Hey, who's the umpire here?!" Asuma demanded.
"You're not going to be umpire for very much longer if you keep playing favorites like this!" said Gai.
"Fine…" said Asuma. "Play ball!"
Tenten threw ANOTHER pitch and this time, it went perfectly clear over home plate but Shikamaru did not step in front of it. In fact, he didn't swing at all.
"BALL FOUR!!!" Asuma yelled. "HE GETS TO WALK!!!"
Shikamaru dropped his bat and started strolling to first base.
"WHAT?!" Gai HOLL-ered. "THAT PITCH WAS PERFECT!!! I WAS WAY OVER HERE AND I EVEN SAW THAT IT WAS PERFECT!!! AND NOT ONLY THAT, IT WOULD BE BALL ONE!!!"
"ASUMA IS A BIASED UMPIRE!!!" yelled the other team.
"I AM NOT!!!" Asuma retorted.
The game continued for eight more innings. Neji was finally learning how to swing the bat towards the end, but the game was over when he finally took a swing. He missed it, of course, but that's beside the point! Let's not make him feel worse about it than he already does.
"OH MY GOD!!!" gasped Gai. "A TIE!!!"