Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. But please read anyway ☺.
Today was April 1st; a holiday for fools and tricksters. On the other hand, it was an annoying day of doom to their victims. Naruto knew this, but didn't pay any mind. He had a special prank in store for his peers and for his creepy teacher.
Before heading off to school, he passed by his favorite novelty shop. Second to the ramen joint he would visit almost everyday; he could never pass up one of their many offers. For example: two exploding cigars for the price of one, or buy one hand buzzer and get one free. As much as the young prankster urged to buy them; he wanted to try something unique and original.
"So, what can I get you today Naruto?" the store clerk asked to his regular customer.
Naruto scratched the back of his head, while looking at the selection.
"Hmm…whatcha got?"
The store clerk turned his back for a moment, and pulled out a small box of whoopee cushions, and a box of fake toothpaste bottles. Naruto eyed the items, but only shook his head.
"Nah, I want to get something original –something no one would ever expect." He said.
"Anyone in particular? I heard you have a hit list of people to pull pranks on."
Naruto looked at the clerk funny; who told him that? Naruto shrugged it off, and answered him.
"Nope, nobody in particular." He lied. He wasn't too sure if he could trust this guy, after all, someone did tell him about his prank hit list.
"Well, I'm going to go look around. I'll let you know if I need anything." Naruto instructed, and went off searching.
He found a whole bunch of stuff: fake limbs, non-ripping toilet paper, stink bombs, a can of snakes, and trick gum.
"Ooh, I'll get a few of these!" He said to himself, as he picked up the gum and the can of snakes.
Just as he was about to place the contents on the counter, he noticed something else. A pair of handcuffs. A mischievous glint showed in his eyes. He knew exactly who this would be for.
He paid for the stuff, and hurried off to school. This is going to be fun. He thought.
Sakura, who had been eying Sasuke the whole time they were there, greeted him. Annoyed by the unwanted attention, Sasuke moved over to the other side of the bridge; the bridge was their meeting place.
"So, Naruto," Sakura started. "What idiotic plan do you have up your sleeve this time?" She was prepared for anything.
Naruto shrugged, pretending to be innocent and not know what she was talking about. "I didn't plan for anything today." He lied. "I forgot."
Sakura gave him an unsure look; he forgot about April Fools day? She felt a bit relieved, but still she kept her guard up.
"Hey, where's Kakashi-sensei?" He asked. "Is he here yet?"
Kakashi, their teacher was infamous for being a half-hour to an hour late. This always peeved his students. To make things more annoying, he would use excuse after excuse to get out of it.
"Nope; late as always." She fumed. She was thinking of reporting him to the 4th Hokage. At least the other teachers were on time; if they were to get a replacement; there'd be no need for her to complain.
"Good morning class." Came a male voice. It belonged to a gray-haired man; carrying only his well-known novel, he approached the trio with a masked smile. This was their teacher.
"YOUR'E LATE!" Naruto and Sakura scolded.
"Sorry, I got..."
"You got lost on the road to life; yeah yeah yeah, we've heard it before." Naruto sassed.
Sakura and Sasuke were a bit surprised to hear that coming from Naruto. However, it was to be expected; he was after all a loud mouth. Kakashi didn't seem to mind though.
"Well, let's get started shall we?" He said ignoring his student. "We're taking it to the practice field."
The three followed their sensei into the woods; a yard or two away from the school where they would spar and occasionally, have their lessons. On their way there, Naruto decided to prank on his first victim.
He stared at her with mischievous eyes; wondering if she was going to fall for it, she was a weak fighter, but she wasn't stupid. He strolled up next to her, as if he was taking in the view from their little nature walk; avoiding eye contact with her.
"Hey Sakura?" He asked.
Sakura wasn't paying him any mind; she was busy with thoughts of her own. To her, Sasuke was everything. Besides thinking about him, she would dream about him every night; embracing her to the point where she could feel his heart beating. She was in heaven. However, there was also someone else she's had her eye on.
"HEY SAKURA?" Naruto called, waving a hand in front of her face.
"What do you want dobe! Cant' you see I'm busy?" She asked aggravated. Both Kakashi and Sasuke looked back at her, a bit wide eyed. What did she just say?
"With what?" Naruto asked. He then looked up at the two ninjas in front of him, and smiled.
"Oh, you mean…" His voice was muffled.
"Say anything, and I'll kill you!" She whispered.
They finally reached a clearing, which seemed to have been occupied. All of the practice logs were badly damaged; one of them completely leveled off.
"Hmn…looks like Team 9 was here." Kakashi said. He walked over to a fresh stump and sat down. Now was the perfect time for Naruto to strike.
"Hey Sakura, want some gum?" He asked harmlessly. He pulled out the trick gum, and handed a piece to her.
She thanked him, and ate it. While trying to figure out the flavor, she didn't realize the glimmer in Naruto's eyes.
"How is it?" He asked, trying his hardest not to laugh.
She looked at him strangely. "It's fine…why?"
Suddenly, he burst out laughing. She didn't know why, until she stuck her tongue out: it was covered in black ink.
"NARUTO!"
While she was spitting out what was left of the ink, Naruto was nursing the side of his cheek. Apparently, Sakura had punched him hard in the face. He could have sworn he lost a tooth in the process.
"Okay, gather around now." Kakashi finally said. He put his book into his back pocket, and beckoned them to come forward.
"Today, we're going to learn some new techniques. Now whatever you saw on TV, forget it. It's a fake, and I'm going to show you how it's really done."
Everyone was silent; no one had a clue as to what he was talking about anyway.
"Any questions?" He asked.
"Yeah. What are you talking about? And what's this technique?" Sasuke spoke.
Sakura glanced at him again; obviously she was in her little fantasy world of Sasuke Uchiha. His bad-boy attitude, his gorgeous look; she could look at him all day if she had the chance. That wasn't all. There was also someone else that caught her attention. Every time he would talk to her, or help her out with a technique, she would blush the same color as her hair. He was sitting right in front of her.
"Well my angsty friend, the technique is called the…the…gee, I forgot the name of the jutsu." He said.
Everyone looked at him wide-eyed. How could he forget? He's the teacher; he's supposed to know these things.
"WHAAAAA?"
"Oh well, I guess we can do some exercises then." He said, scratching the back of his head.
While everyone was going over the exercises, it was Sasuke's turn. Naruto had to be crafty; Sasuke was very smart, and if he detected anything wrong, he'll pick it up and that could be lethal on Naruto's behalf. While they were taking a break, he ran over to Sasuke with excitement. From the looks of it, Naruto was trying to contain something inside a small blue can.
"Hey Sasuke, guess what I caught?" He asked trying to catch his breath.
Sasuke was leaning up against one of the battered logs, arms folded and contemplating something: Itatchi.
"Let me guess, your brain?" Sasuke asked.
"No you baka, it's something really neat…I've never seen it before!" Naruto lied. He had to be really good for someone like Sasuke to look closely. Just before Sasuke could pull away, Naruto opened the can, and sprigged snakes flew everywhere scaring the daylights out of the young chunnin. Naruto couldn't stop himself from laughing; he fell to the ground holding his stomach as he rolled from side to side.
"I can't believe you fell for that Sasuke! You should have seen the look on your…"
Again, Naruto was nursing the side of his face. While all of this was happening, Kakashi was occupied in his book, making mental images of what was going on in the story.
"Oh Jariya, you're such a genius." He thought, as he turned the page.
This was the perfect time for Sakura some time to talk to him. Why was she all of a sudden crushing on him? For one thing, he was older than she was, and as far as she knew he wasn't interested in her. But she approached him anyway.
"Um…K-Kakashi-sensei?" She asked.
"What is it Sakura?" He asked, while he put the book down on his lap
She immediately blushed as she stared at him; his features even though it was hidden, kind of gave her a clue as to what he looked like. Oh how she pondered the possibilities of taking that mask off.
I bet he's as handsome as Sasuke. She thought as emitted a small smile.
"I was wondering when we would be getting ready for that test you were talking about." She asked.
Kakashi thought for a moment, trying to recall what he told them yesterday. Suddenly, it clicked in.
"Oh yeah the test…well we'll prepare for it on Wednesday. You see, since the Chunnin exams, I think it's best to try some new techniques and see if we can work on those weaknesses that the three of you have…and I know the three of you have weaknesses." He explained.
Sakura lowered her head a little. She remembered her fight with Ino in the preliminary match. Oh how angry she felt towards her; but that was over now. Even though they both lost, at least she got to prove herself; too bad Sasuke wasn't there to see her.
"I see." She said. As she turned to leave, Kakashi stopped her.
"By the way, I noticed your moves during the exercise. You did pretty good, but you're missing one thing."
Sakura started to blush again. He was watching her, and he thought she did a good job?
"What is it?" She asked.
"When you're doing your side kicks, try not to bend your foot like an "L". You can break it when you hit the subject."
Sakura thanked him, and went off to continue practicing; keeping his advice in mind. This made Kakashi smile, though no one could see it. He stretched his arms, deciding whether or not to continue his reading. How long had he been sitting there? 10 to 15 minutes? Before he could put the book away, he felt something attach to his hands; something cold.
"What the heck is this?" He said out loud, looking at the handcuffs. "Who did this?"
Naruto laughed harder this time as he stood in front of his teacher, pointing at his misfortune.
…Big mistake
As if a breeze had gone by, he found himself bound next to his teacher. Somehow, one of the cuffs wasn't tight enough, so Kakashi had gotten one of his hands out, and cuffed "the Joker".
"HEY WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA!" Exclaimed the young ninja as he tried to break free. It was no use.
"I was going to ask you the same question Uzumaki." Kakashi said coolly. Sasuke and Sakura gave Naruto a stern "you're such an idiot" look.
"Well, it seems like your prank fell back on you, dobe." Sasuke said.
"You know what they say… "An eye for an eye." Sakura added. She was certain Sasuke was agreeing with her; well that's what she was hoping for.
"I was thinking of something along the lines of, "a fool is a fool only when he's caught." Kakashi interrupted.
Naruto didn't care about that. He just wanted to get out, and away from his teacher. This indeed was a lesson he would never forget. With his free hand, he searched his pockets for what would save him: the key.
Wait! Did the thing even come with a key? He thought, as he tried to remember what else was in the pack.
"Okay Naruto, you got me; April Fools, now get me out of this thing." Kakashi said. His wrist was starting to hurt.
Naruto fell dead silent.
"Naruto, where's the key?" Sakura asked. By the look on his face, this did not look good.
"Um…I don't know."
"You're telling me that the handcuffs didn't come with a key?" Sasuke asked in shock.
Naruto smiled nervously, scratching the back of his head with his free hand. He knew he was in for a serious beat down later on by Sakura, or worse, he had to spend the rest of the week or the rest of his life, with his creepy teacher until they could find a way to get the cuffs off.
"YOU IDIOT! WHAT IN THE WORLD MADE YOU WANT TO GET SOMETHING LIKE THAT?" Sakura yelled, as she hit him on the head with her fist.
"OW…it was just for a prank. It is April Fools day after all." Naruto cried, as he rubbed the top of his head. "That really hurt by the way."
"Well, serves your right!" Sakura fumed.
Kakashi didn't let the problem bother him too much; he was reading his book; too bad he couldn't turn the pages.
Dang"Look, if you two would stop arguing for a moment, we can figure this out." Kakashi interrupted. He put the book back into his vest jacket; there was no use in reading it anyway in his condition.
"Now Naruto wasn't there anything in the pack besides the handcuffs… Directions?"
Naruto thought for a second. He remembered a small piece of paper inside, but all it said was inspected by #37.
"No, not really. But I do remember a phone number being on the back of the box." Naruto answered.
Together, they made their way over to his backpack. Naruto searched for the box, while Kakashi tried his best to break the chain that was between them; nothing worked.
"Here it is!" Naruto said, as he picked up the box. He handed it over to Sasuke.
Sasuke looked on the back of the box, which read For questions, comments, or technical problems please call this number # 4687.
"I'll call this number as soon as we get back to the school." Sasuke said, as he put the box back.
"No need." Said Sakura. She pulled out of her pack a small cell phone.
"Here, give me the box."
After a few moments of talking, Sakura hung up the phone. Her face looked a bit disappointed, but to Naruto that wasn't the case; it looked somewhat mischievous. Naruto wondered what that meant.
"Well, they said that things like that happen all the time. The manufacturer would forget to put the key in, and the results end up like this. They'll be able to send us a key tomorrow afternoon. But in the meantime, you guys will be stuck together for the whole day…night even." Sakura explained.
"Well, that's a relief." Kakashi said sarcastically. He really didn't mind too much having to stick with Naruto. The boy was kind of afraid of him anyway, because of his reputation as a pervert. But to Naruto, everything was different; this was torture.