Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: Team Asuma
Spring
"What do you think our training will be today?" Ino asked Chouji and Shikamaru as the three of them walked up to Asuma's house.
"I wonder why Asuma asked us to meet him here today instead of at the usual spot!" said Chouji as he rung the doorbell. "What do you think Shikamaru?"
"Well…it's the first day of spring…" Shikamaru said just as the door flung open and Asuma was standing there looking rather welcoming.
"Good morning, students!" said Asuma. "You have a very important mission for today!" He reached into the house and pulled out some brooms, paper towels and other cleaning things. "SPRING CLEANING!!!"
"WHAT?!" demanded Ino and Chouji.
"I figured so much…" Shikamaru sighed.
"Asuma, we're your students, not your personal slaves!" said Ino. "We should be doing missions, not cleaning your house!"
"Au contraire!" said Asuma, whipping out a scroll that had a big letter D on it. "This IS a mission! The Hokage assigned it to you three personally since I have such an unmanageable house that is creating a public disturbance!"
"Aw man!" complained his students.
"So in you go!" said Asuma as he moved to the side and ushered the three young pupils into his abode. It was, as previously explained, messier than a house really should be. The kind of messy you only see in television shows or stories or something.
…
ANYWAY!
"All right, we'll start with the kitchen!" said Asuma, looking lovingly at his horribly messy kitchen area.
"Wow!" said Chouji. "This is…appalling!"
"Thanks!" said Asuma. "I actually did do a little bit of sprucing up before you guys came just so it wouldn't be EMBARRASSINGLY messy…"
"Asuma…how did you let this happen?" Shikamaru questioned.
"We have a lady that comes once a week to clean our house FOR us." Ino commented. "Let's just call HER."
"No, this is a mission!" said Asuma. "Therefore, I want you all to treat it like you're in a battle of some sort. Shikamaru, you start by devising a strategy for the best way to go about cleaning this room!"
"Start on top and work our way down." Shikamaru said.
"NO!" said Asuma. "A REAL strategy!"
"That sounded like a real strategy to me." Ino said.
"No…a real strategy where he has to… you know…" Asuma said.
"Go into the thinking position?" Chouji said, a light bulb appearing over his head.
"EXACTLY!" said Asuma.
"I only need to do that when I'm thinking really hard about something in a seemingly impossible situation." Shikamaru said.
But Shikamaru finally gave in when Asuma and Chouji both gave him big puppy eyes.
"Fine…" he said, rolling his eyes as he went through the motions just to make them happy. Everyone waited patiently for Shikamaru to finish. He figured that a few minutes was convincing enough and when he finished, he looked back up. "We have to start from the top and work our way down."
"GREAT IDEA SHIKAMARU!" Asuma complimented.
"Why not start from the bottom, Shikamaru?" asked Chouji.
"Because if we clean the bottom first then if we drop anything, we'll just have to clean up down there again." Shikamaru replied.
"Shikamaru, you're so lazy that you do anything in your power to avoid doing any extra work!" said Ino.
"…No, it makes sense." Said Shikamaru. "NO ONE wants to clean the same place twice. Especially if the rest of Asuma's house is like this."
"Whatever Shikamaru, but I know your REAL incentive is just to avoid doing as much work as you can." Ino said as she told Shikamaru to talk to the hand.
Shikamaru knew there was no point in arguing with Ino. "You're right, Ino." Said Shikamaru. "There's no denying it anymore. I am SO lazy."
"Well at least you're finally admitting it." said Ino.
"Let's get started!!" said Asuma.
Everyone began working. Shikamaru lasted about five minutes. Only long enough to clear off a space on the table and a chair so he could sit down on it and rest his head on the table. Chouji decided that it was near lunchtime so he cleared off the stove area and started making some lunch. Asuma found that book that he was three quarters of the way finished with and decided that now was a good time to finish.
As Ino worked on arranging some glasses on a shelf, she suddenly turned around to see no one helping her. "HEY!" she yelled. "Why am I the ONLY one working?!"
"Because I'm cooking!" said Chouji.
"And I'm reading!" said Asuma.
They both looked at Shikamaru to see he was sleeping.
"And Shikamaru's sleeping!" Chouji said.
"AND he's a chuunin!" Asuma added.
"That doesn't take away from the fact that you all have to be helping me!" Ino said. "And if you don't help then I should be the only one who gets credit for completing this mission!"
"It's a TEAM thing, Ino." Said Asuma. "You can't be the ONLY one to get credit."
"Yeah, Asuma." Said Ino. "It's a TEAM thing. So how about you guys help me clean? AS A TEAM?"
"Hahaha!" laughed Chouji. "That rhymes!"
Ino let out an exasperated sigh. "I SWEAR I was put on the wrong team!" she announced. Then she crossed her arms and sat down on a part of the counter that had been cleaned off. "I REFUSE to do anymore work until I see you guys contribute!"
"I was just making lunch for all of us." Chouji said.
"AND making a mess in the process!" Ino pointed out.
"And I'm almost done with this book…" Asuma said.
"But you're getting in the way!" Ino said. "As for Shikamaru, whenever I look at him being so lazy, I get more and more offended! I think it's turning into one of my pet peeves!"
"Shikamaru's existence or his laziness?" asked Chouji.
"His laziness!" said Ino. "He can exist, as long as he's doing something!"
She jumped off the table.
"If you guys aren't helping then I'm leaving!" Ino announced.
"Fine, I didn't want to clean anyway." Said Asuma. "I made up that thing about it being a mission. I just wanted to trick you guys into cleaning my house."
"That was nice." Said Chouji.
"I know, I know." Sighed Asuma. "And I'm so glad that Shikamaru caught on SO EARLY and didn't clean!"
"It's not that he KNEW!" said Ino, getting offended even more. "He's just LAZY! He fell asleep!!"
"No, I'm sure he knew I made it up." Asuma said. "He's very smart."
"I know." Said Ino. "But there's no way he could have figured out that you made the whole thing up."
"You're underestimating Shikamaru's intelligence!" said Asuma.
"Yeah, besides, Ino, I knew it too." Said Chouji. "That's why I stopped. I just didn't say anything because I figured you LIKED to clean."
"Why would I like to clean?" Ino demanded.
Chouji shrugged. "Because you're a girl?" he tried.
Ino sounded VERY frustrated. "I'm going home!" she declared as she stomped over to the door, flung it open and stormed out.
Asuma and Chouji sighed, sounding satisfied. Now that Ino was gone, the three of them could hang around and celebrate their manliness.