Roller Blades

It was a sunny weekend in Konoha and Team Gai was sitting at their usual training area. It was only about 6:30 in the morning so Tenten and Neji were still sort of half asleep, though Lee was bouncing up and down while waiting for their sensei to arrive.

The day before Gai had said something about 'Special Training' for all of them...

All of them had just finished their afternoon training session when Gai called them over for a meeting. Once Tenten, Lee, and Neji were all sitting cross-legged in front of him he started talking/yelling, "My three young pupils! Tomorrow morning we will be having 'Special Training' and bonding time! Make sure you are on time tomorrow so you don't miss it!" He completed his mini-speech with a good-guy pose.

All three of them heard a familiar 'poof' sound in front of them and instantly immediately changed their attention to their posing sensei so they wouldn't get a punch to the head. "I am glad my three students are here bright and early today! Like I said, we'll be doing some 'Special Training' and have some bonding time!" He pulled the hand he had behind his back out, holding the pairs of...

"ROLLER BLADES! Thank you Gai-sensei! This is going to be the most youthful day EVER!" Lee shouted, doing a small victory dance because he was so happy.

"Wow... I thought this was going to end up being something like running around doing D-ranked missions all day... This might actually be fun." Tenten said, a small sweat drop on the back of her head from Lee's dancing. She was quite glad that nobody could see him like that.

Meanwhile, Neji was sulking. You couldn't see it from the outside, but in his mind, he was sulking. And only he knew why. 'Why in the world did it have to be roller blading! I never had time to learn when I was younger!'

Gai continued the explanation. "We will be heading to the back side of the Hokage monument to roller blade up and down the paths there all morning! Now remember, the faster you go, the more training you'll get! Let's get our flames of youth started and go!" He posed once again, walking off towards their destination followed by his students.

After about fifteen minutes of walking (not in silence because a certain bowl-headed thirteen year old kept cheering) they reached the bottom of the trails. Everybody sat down on a rock and started pulling on the roller blades after taking their shoes off.

"Okay, before we start doing anything we want at any speed we want... We're going to have a contest! You three are going to race as fast as you can around the longest trail! Whoever comes in first, though it might harm their flames of youth, gets a week off of training of their choosing, though they still have to go on missions!" Gai said, already standing up wearing his metallic green roller blades.

Neji was fortunately sitting on the rock that was the marking of the start and finish line, so he just had to stand up, still holding on to the rock for support so he wouldn't fall over. Both of his teammates casually skated over, not noticing that Neji was having a LOT of trouble just standing.

"Ready..." Gai said, rasing one of his arms in the air to use as a flag-ish thing... "Set... GO!" He waved his arm down really quick, causing Tenten and Lee to speed off, literally leaving Neji eating their dust. He coughed a little bit as the flung up dirt slowly settled back down on the ground. Since Gai had decided to roller blade beside his students in the race, Neji was left alone.

By The Race Contestants

Tenten was finally pulling a bit ahead of Lee. "Looks like your Taijutsu skills don't really help here Lee!" She called back in between quick breaths. The only bad this is we're not even half way done and I'm getting tired while he looks like he could keep going forever... Hey, where's Neji? Did he pull far ahead while I wasn't looking?

"I have more stamina, so you don't have a chance of winning unless I get hurt somehow." Lee called forward to her. Catching up again as she slowed down.

"That's the spirit! Keep your flames of youth burning by going even FASTER!" Gai said, easily keeping up with the both of them. He then realized that there was no sign of his other pupil, and started looking around for the Hyuuga boy.

At The Bottom Of The Mountain

Neji had given up about five minutes earlier, he was now laying on the ground, face in the dirt, since he knew if he tried to get up again he would just fall back down again. It's going to be so humiliating if those three find me like this... He thought, finally deciding that crawling into some nearby bushes would be the smartest idea.

When he was just barely covered by the leaves while still being able to see, Neji heard the rest of his team skating up. Gai's voice called through the area around them, "The winner is, Rock Lee!"

Gai-sensei is going to be so proud of me for doing this... For being so nice to a friend and teammate. "I am sorry, Gai-sensei, but I can't accept the prize because a week off would dampen my brilliant flames of youth. I would like to pass on the honor to Tenten."

"Okay then... The winner is, Tenten!" Gai called out, inwardly proud of his smaller look-alike. "And one thing I'm asking the both of you, do you have any clue of where Neji is? I wouldn't want him to miss out on our day of fun."

"I haven't seen him." Lee said, looking completely horrified that Neji would miss out on the very rare fun day that Gai would give them.

"I haven't either." Tenten said after Lee, looking around for her unenthusiastic teammate.

Neji still sat quietly in the bushes, listening to his team's conversation. He didn't have his Byakugan activated, so he didn't notice a small rabbit sneaking up behind him, until it jumped up and landed on his back, causing him to jump out of the bushes.

He landed on his feet and stayed there for about one second before slipping backward and falling onto the hard rock ground, knocking the wind out of him. Since he'd closed his eyes while he fell, after finally catching his breath after a few seconds, slowly he opened his eyes to see his friends and sensei standing above him.

"Neji, why didn't you race?" Tenten asked, faking a disappointed look, though she knew if he had raced Lee would've won anyway but passed the week off on to him.

"Yeah, Neji. Why didn't you race! I wanted another chance to try and defeat my greatest rival!" Lee yelled as loud as he could. Tenten stuck out her hand so she could help Neji up.

After pulling him up, he once again stayed up for a few seconds, before falling forward, right onto Tenten. This time they both were laying on the ground, looking like they were hugging. Tenten quickly stood up, looking embarrassed, and Neji tried to stand up, also looking embarrassed, except for the fact that he wasn't able to actually get up.

"You can't roller blade, can you, Neji?" Gai said, finally talking again. Neji didn't nod, shake his head, or give any indication of an answer, though his whole team could tell because the smallest of blushes was on his face.

"Oh my gosh! THE Neji Hyuuga CAN'T roller blade!" Tenten said, fake shock in her voice.

"YAHOO! That's another thing that I have beaten you in Neji! I can roller blade while YOU CAN'T!" He began another victory dance, this one more eccentric than any other they had seen before.

And so began, Neji's roller blading lessons...