Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: All
Tiebreaker
Everyone looked over at the scoreboard to see that it was, in fact, nine against nine.
"This is entirely unexpected." Said Kakashi.
"All right, for the tiebreaker---" began Kurenai.
"We do an extra inning?" Kiba said.
"NO!" Kurenai replied angrily. "This has got to be the most boring challenge we have ever thought up and there's no way we're going to do another inning! Instead, we're going to conduct a mini-competition to decide which team wins."
"Each team has to pick one representative to perform the task." Asuma said.
"What's the task?" asked Shikamaru. "It would be better if we could plan accordingly."
"Oh." Said Asuma. "Well, it's whoever can hit the ball closest to a certain landmark." He pointed at Gai who had just sprinted way far off into the outfield. "Whoever can hit the ball closer to Gai wins it for their team!"
"And did we forget to mention?" said Kurenai with a slight laugh. "You pick the representative for the OTHER team. Meaning the Woodchucks choose a member from the Caramel Apples and the Caramel Apples choose a member from the Woodchucks!"
"GASP!!!" gasped everyone. The two teams went into huddles.
"All right…" said Shikamaru to the rest of the Caramel Apples. "I'm taking the amount of hits by each player into account and the person with the lowest batting average is Hinata."
"Well, then I guess there's not really much for us to discuss." Said Chouji.
The Woodchucks had a very similar conversation, except it was more dumbed down.
"Since Neji never even swung once, let's pick him." Said Kiba.
"Awwwwwwwwwllll RIGHT!!" cheered the Woodchucks as they jumped up into the air like a group of Power Rangers.
"What are the choices?" asked Kakashi.
"We pick Hinata!!" said Lee, dramatically pointing at Hinata who gasped.
"And WE pick Neji!!" Naruto responded, dramatically pointing at Neji who KNEW he was going to be picked.
"OH NO!!" Gai yelled. "ONCE AGAIN, THE HYUUGAS, ONE FROM THE MAIN HOUSE AND ONE FROM THE BRANCH HOUSE, MUST FACE OFF AGAINST EACH OTHER!! WHAT IS TO HAPPEN?!"
Everyone stared at him.
"You're supposed to be out there!!" Asuma yelled, pointing to where Gai SHOULD have been standing.
"SORRY!" said Gai as he ran back out to where he was supposed to stand.
"So, I'm going to throw the ball to Hinata first---" started Kakashi.
"Yeah, of course he'd throw it to Hinata first." Said Neji under his breath but loud enough for everyone to hear.
"No, it's just because her name comes first in the alphabet." Said Kakashi. "But anyway. I'll throw it to Hinata first and she'll hit it. Then I'll throw it to Neji and he'll hit it. Of course, these hits are theoretical. And whoever hits it closest to Gai wins!"
Kakashi then grabbed a baseball bat as Hinata held onto the bat as tightly as she could. She had to hit it! It was three more points she could win for Naruto! She didn't want to let her team down! Kakashi threw, Hinata swung…and there was contact! Hinata hit it!
It kind of sailed off in an obscure direction but she hit it none the less!
"Aw man…" said Lee. "I was hoping she wouldn't hit it! Now we're DOOMED!"
"Neji, just go up there and do nothing like you usually do." Said Shikamaru. "I'LL take care of everything."
Neji only glared at Shikamaru and then took the bat from Hinata who was celebrating with her team happily. They all supported her because they all loved her. Especially Kiba.
"REMEMBER TO SWING, NEJI!!" Gai bellowed from the outfield just as Kakashi pitched.
Neji could feel it. He was going to swing this time.
But before he could swing…he swung! The bat connected with the ball. The ball sailed over the field and landed on the ground, coming to a stop right at Gai's feet.
Everyone was astounded, but Neji was the most astounded of all. This was because, of course, he hadn't moved his body. And now as he stood there in the follow through position, he still couldn't do so. Then, all of a sudden, he could! He turned around to his team to see Shikamaru's shadow retracting.
No one noticed this because they were all too busy being astounded. Not even other members of the Caramel Apple team noticed!!
"If you could do that the whole time, why didn't you swing during the game?!" demanded Lee. "Oh, I get it! You knew it could come down to a tiebreaker so you pretended to be bad the whole game so that the other team would pick you to do this part!! That real sly! I envy you for being so sly!!"
"Before you all go home, we would like to request that both teams choose an MVP of the game!" said Asuma. "And then we teachers are going to pick MVPs of each team!!"
"Asuma, I thought we said we weren't going to do that." Said Kurenai.
"But I want to!" whined Asuma.
"So you can all talk amongst yourselves." Said Kakashi.
"I think that Sasuke should be the MVP!" said Ino.
"What about Shikamaru?!" said Chouji. "He did EVERYTHING!!"
"HE DID NOTHING!!" Ino yelled.
"I think we're ALL the MVP!" said Lee, getting fireball eyes.
"Lee, you're not helping." Said Ino.
"Let's do this the right way." Said Shikamaru. "Let's just go around the group and ask who wants who to be MVP. We KNOW that Ino wants Sasuke to be MVP and we know that Chouji wants me. And we also know that Sasuke wants himself to be the winner of course."
"But—" Sasuke started but then he realized that it was true so he shrugged and nodded.
"Neji, who do you want to be MVP?" asked Shikamaru.
"Um…" Neji said slowly. "I'd have to say you, Shikamaru. You know why."
"Right." Said Shikamaru. "That's two for me and two for Sasuke. What about you, Lee?"
"I vote for Neji because he pulled for the team in the end!!" said Lee.
"No, it's between me or Sasuke." Shikamaru said.
"Oh!" said Lee. He looked truly torn. "You both played your hardest! I choose… YOU BOTH!!!"
"All right…" said Shikamaru with a roll of his eyes. "Since I'm the only one who hasn't voted then I'm the deciding vote."
"Damn." Sasuke thought.
"And I choose…Sasuke." Shikamaru said.
Everyone was surprised.
"Why?" asked Sasuke.
"Because being an MVP is troublesome." Shikamaru replied.
The Woodchucks were having their shares of problems…
"I vote for Hinata!" said Kiba. "She was our captain, she played her hardest and, though she didn't win at the end, she still gave it her all! That's why I choose her! Great job, Hinata!"
"Thanks Kiba!" said Hinata. "But I'm going to vote for Naruto because he never stopped trying and had a lot of team spirit!"
Kiba nearly deflated with unhappiness.
"I vote for me too!!" said Naruto. "That's two votes for me!!"
"What about you, Shino?" asked Hinata pleasantly.
"I'm going with majority." Said Shino who literally hasn't said anything in the past few chapters.
"No way!" said Sakura. "I REFUSE to vote for Naruto! And, since the only way to beat him is to vote for Hinata because she already has a vote, I vote for Hinata!"
"Me too!" said Tenten. "Just because I want a girl to win!!"
"And since Shino is going with majority, that means it's four votes for Hinata and two votes for Naruto!" said Kiba. "Nice job Hinata!"
"Oh…I thought that Naruto deserved to win…" said Hinata.
"Nope, it was you!" said Kiba.
"But I only hit the ball a few times!" Hinata said. "Naruto hit it every time!"
"NOPE, it was you!" Kiba repeated but in a more irritated voice.
"Well…all right then…" said Hinata, a little sad.
"Have you decided on your MVPs?!" asked Gai who had returned from the outfield.
"Ours is Sasuke!" said Ino.
"What a surprise!" groaned Naruto.
"And ours is Hinata!" Kiba finished.
"Excellent!" said Asuma. "Congratulations!!"
"And now it comes down to the teacher's MVP decisions!" said Kakashi. "We cannot choose the same MVP that the students picked. We'll start with the Caramel Apples."
"And we pick Lee because his team spirit was just off the scale!" Kurenai announced.
"YAAAAAY!!" cheered Lee.
"Guys, I thought we were going to pick Shikamaru!" said Asuma.
"We just said that to shut you up." Said Kakashi.
"But Shikamaru did EVERYTHING!" Asuma said.
"Shikamaru did NOTHING!!" yelled Kurenai.
Shikamaru would have got offended if it wasn't so troublesome.
"As for the Woodchucks!" said Gai, turning to the Woodchucks.
"It was a long, long process but we finally emerged with the perfect MVP!" said Kakashi. "And that's TENTEN!"
"TENTEN?!" yelled Naruto. "WHAT ABOUT ME?! WHAT ABOUT MY TEAM SPIRIT AND MY HITTING THE BALL SKILLS?!"
"A team is nothing without its pitcher!" said Gai. "And what a pitcher she is!"
"Yay!" cheered Tenten.
"Two members from my team received MVP awards!" said Gai happily.
"Asuma, I couldn't help but notice that your team was the only one that didn't receive any MVP awards." Said Kakashi.
"Yeah well…" Asuma said, pulling out the tally sheet. "Shikamaru is a chuunin so I'm automatically cooler than all of you put together."