Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: Carnival

Team Gai

As we write this, it is fast approaching the 4th of Luglio, which means there's going to be parades and fireworks and CARNIVALS!! I think this calls for a chapter all about carnivals. And just so you know, the next four chapters are meant to occur simultaneously.

"I haven't been in a carnival since…forever!" said Lee to his teammates as they all paid to get into the carnival.

"I can't believe Gai's making us come to this carnival…" Neji said.

"What are you talking about?" Tenten asked. "Gai's not making us."

"Lee said that Gai said we HAD to come." Neji said. Then he stopped and turned to Lee. "Lee…you said that Gai said we HAD to come."

"I knew it would be the ONLY way to get YOU to come!" said Lee.

"Why would you want to go to a carnival with me?!" Neji demanded. "I'm leaving."

"You've already paid." Said Tenten. "You might as well stay."

"Come on, it'll be FUN!" said Lee happily. "First we can go on rides, then we can stuff our faces and then…" Lee's eyes lit up as he caught sight of the rows and rows of games to play. "Or we could start with the games…"

"Lee, you know those are all rigged so you'll spend money to keep playing." Tenten said.

"I still want to play!!" Lee said as he sprinted over to the first game he came across and laid his money out on the table.

"All you have to do is throw this baseball into one of those holes." Said the guy behind the counter as he took the money and handed Lee a baseball.

"Piece of cake!" Lee said as he wound up and threw the ball at the hole. But the ball bounced off and landed on the ground as Lee gaped in surprise, just as Neji and Tenten came over.

"See?" said Tenten. "These games are rigged."

"But…" Lee said, looking like he would burst into tears.

"Excuse me, young lady, but did you just say that my game is rigged?" said the carnival man.

"I did." Said Tenten. "It's obvious that you made the holes smaller than the baseball. At this angle and distance, it's impossible to tell, though."

"Uh…" said the carnival man as he handed Tenten a baseball. "Anyone can throw a ball into the hole as long as they have good aim! A child could do it, and I'm sure you can too!"

"It's rigged." Tenten said as she threw the baseball anyway. It passed cleanly through the hole and lights flashed and played happy music.

"We have a winner!!" said the guy into a microphone as everyone cheered.

"Oh…never mind then." Said Tenten with a shrug as she took a stuffed animal.

"That's just because Tenten has impeccable aim!" said Lee. "No NORMAL person would be able to get the baseball in there! Watch! Neji, YOU do it."

"I'm not spending my money on something stupid like…this." Said Neji.

"Here, I'LL pay for you." Said Lee as he put more money out. He mostly wanted to make sure he wasn't the only one in the entire world who couldn't get the baseball in the hole. Neji figured that as long as he didn't have to spend the money, he might as well. As soon as he threw the ball, though, he realized he was only going to end up further ruining his reputation, but to his amazement, the ball went through the hole.

"We have another winner!" said the man behind the counter. "Here you go, young man!"

He handed Neji a stuffed animal.

"Now I have a stupid stuffed animal." Said Neji as if it would kill him.

"All right, my turn again!!" Lee said, as he put down more money. He kept throwing the baseballs one after another but none of them went into the hole.

"Lee, you're wasting your money…" Tenten tried to reason with him but Lee started throwing a fit that gathered attention. The man tried to calm Lee down, but it wasn't going to work.

"I swear that those openings are smaller than these baseballs!" Lee yelled.

"Please, stop…" said the man behind the counter. "Here, I'll give you the prize if you just go away…"

"It's the PRINCIPLE of the thing!!" Lee yelled.

"Lee, just shut up." Said Neji, rolling his eyes.

"What's going on?" came a familiar voice behind him. Neji turned around to see Kiba standing there.

"Lee is outraged because he didn't win." he replied. He held up the stuffed animal that he had won a few minutes before. "And I did."

"And me." Said Tenten, holding up her stuffed animal as well.

"Oh." Said Kiba. "You just shouldn't play those games at all! Let's go guys!" He left with Shino and Hinata.

The man behind the counter was finally able to make Lee go away by giving him a prize and five dollars. "I'm so enraged!" said Lee. "I'm never playing another one of those carnival games again!"

Then Lee caught sight of "The Ship". You know, that ship that swings back and forth… I don't know if it has a formal name, but you get it if we just say, "The Ship", right?

"Guys, we have to ride the ship." Said Lee.

"I don't know…" said Tenten. "I've never really liked scary rides…"

"The ship isn't scary!!" said Lee. "There are plenty of rides that are a million trillion times scarier than this and I won't ask either of you to go on any of them as long as you come on the ship with me!" Lee got down on his knees and pleaded with Neji and Tenten.

"Lee, if you need to go on it so badly, just go on by yourself." Said Neji finally, getting annoyed that Lee was being SO annoying.

"Going on a ride alone isn't any fun at all!" said Lee.

"But there are other people on the ride." Tenten pointed out. "Why don't you go with THEM?"

"Because you guys are my best friends and I want to go with you two!!" Lee said. Then Lee was suddenly distracted because he caught sight of Sakura coming towards him. Sure, she wasn't coming directly towards him and obviously had no intention of stopping to talk to him so he would have to force himself on her as USUAL!

So he stood up and ran over to her without saying anything to Neji and Tenten.

"Sakura!!" Lee yelled, leaping in front of her, causing her to stop. "I had no idea you were at this carnival too!"

"I was actually just leaving." Sakura said, trying to step around Lee.

"Why?" Lee asked.

"Sasuke got freaked out from the House of Horrors." Naruto said, coming out of nowhere as he pointed at the Haunted House ride.

"Is it really that scary?" Lee said.

"We have to go." said Sakura as she quickly ran away.

"WAIT!!" Naruto yelled, chasing after Sakura.

"Hm…" Lee said, rubbing his chin as he returned to where Neji and Tenten were both standing singing the Yoshi song. "Guys, instead of going on the Ship, can we go in the House of Horrors?"

"Why?" said Neji. "I though you needed to go on the ship."

"I DID…" said Lee. "But, as you just saw, I happened to crash into Sakura and she mentioned that the Haunted House was VERY scary. In fact, Sasuke was so freaked out that he had to leave."

"Sasuke was?" Neji said, looking intrigued. "Perhaps I would like to take a look at that place…"

"Oh come on, the haunted house is lame every year." Said Tenten.

"Obviously it's NOT lame if Sasuke was afraid of it!" Lee said, pointing his finger up in the air.

"Okay…fine…" said Tenten with a sigh. The three of them went over to the House of Horrors and waited in the nonexistent line. They wedged into the same cart and started off into the mysterious beyond.

"I'm ALREADY scared!" said Lee before anything even happened.

Bells sounded and paintings lit up. Lee, Tenten and Neji all waited for something to freak them out.

"This is what they do." Lee said as if he knew. "They throw a bunch of un-scary things at you and just when you think that the place is dumb, a bunch of scary things come out so they're even SCARIER!"

"Really?" said Neji with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't convinced or impressed.

"I told you guys." Said Tenten as they rounded the corner and came out into the light again.

"That was disappointing." Said Lee as the ride came to a stop. They all got out of the cart.

"I can't believe Sasuke was afraid of THAT." Tenten said.

"Maybe we missed the scary part…?" Lee said.

"I am done with this place." Neji said.

"Wait, I still NEED to go on the ship!!" said Lee.

"No, we're not going on the ship." Neji said.

"Then we have to at least spend our money on overpriced food!!" Lee said. "Come on, how about some French fries?!" Lee pointed at the French fry hut that they were standing in front of.

"Can we leave after the French fries?" Neji said.

"Yes!" said Lee. "After the French fries, we can leave!"

"All right then." Neji said, getting in line.

"I still can't believe that that ride scared Sasuke." Said Tenten.

"Like I already said, we must have missed the scary part!" Lee said. "Maybe only a few carts get to see a super scary half of the ride! Like… um… every five carts that go in take a different turn and go to the SCARIEST things in the world! That way, no one would know just how scary the ride actually was!"

"Lee, why would they want four out of five people to think that the ride wasn't scary when they're calling it 'The House of Horrors'?" Neji said.

"I don't know!" said Lee. "Maybe to keep it EXCLUSIVE!"

"This is a carnival, Lee." Said Tenten. "They're not looking to make certain people happier than others."

"Hey, do you think we could get in line with you guys?" came a voice behind them. They turned around to see Ino, Chouji and Shikamaru standing there.

"Do we even know you?" said Neji.

"It's us!" said Chouji. "Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji!"

"Chouji, don't bother." Said Shikamaru. "Let's just go to the end of the line."

"Fine…" said Ino and Chouji sadly as the two of them followed Shikamaru to the end.

"What was that all about?" said Tenten.

"I know." Said Neji. "Them thinking they have the right to just walk up and ask something like that."

"I was talking about you not letting them get in line with us." Tenten said.

"Oh." Said Neji. "Well, I just don't think they should…never mind, we're next."

They got to the front and Lee ordered three tubs of French fries that were drenched in ketchup, salt and other nasty things that made all them stick together.

"I love carnival French fries." Said Lee as he happily ate some.

Neji eyed Lee and, when his back was turned, Neji quickly threw the French fries in the trash.

"Haha…mmm…" said Tenten, trying to make Lee happy by eating one.

"I'm going now." Said Neji finally.

"Oh but I don't WANT to!!" said Lee.

"Lee, you said that we could leave after you had your disgusting French fries." Neji reminded him.

"I was living in the now!" said Lee. "I just wanted French fries! I wanted them so badly that I would agree to anything! Even if you had told me I had to cut off both my arms, I likely would have agreed as long as I got French fries!"

"I don't know whether or not you're trying to help yourself or hurt yourself with that argument." Said Neji.

"Yeah, Lee, I think I want to leave too." Said Tenten. "This place is kind of…dumb. The food is bad and so are the rides."

"We only went on one ride!" said Lee. "And it was that stupid haunted house!"

"Lee, we got a nice variety." Tenten said. "One game, one ride, one bit of food…I think we can leave now."

"Only ONE of each?!" Lee said. "How about two of each!"

"Only if you cut off both your arms, Lee." Said Neji.

"I'm not THAT desperate." Laughed Lee.

"But you would have done it for French fries?" Neji said.

"I said I LIKELY would have done it." Lee said. "That doesn't necessarily mean that I WOULD have!"

Neji gave a heavy sigh. "Lee, I'm leaving now." Said Neji. "I don't care if you stay or not, but I know I'm leaving."

With that, Neji turned and walked away.

"Yeah…me too…" said Tenten as she walked away.

"FINE!" said Lee as he turned around and started crying into his hands that he didn't have any friends to be at the carnival with. Just then, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see… GAI!

"Come on, Lee!" said Gai as his teeth went PING!! "Let's have fun at the carnival all night!"

"YES GAI!" said Lee. The two of them ran off to have fun until the cows came home.