Now on to your regularly scheduled fanfic.

The Shinobi's Guide to Television
By Kaori

The three teams were standing outside Konoha Television station (K-TV: All Ninjas, All the Time) "Is it too late to run off and become a nukenin?" asked Sasuke.

"Yes." Kakashi replied.

"Damn."

"Let's just get this troublesome thing over with." Sighed Shikamaru.

They entered the large building and walked over to the receptionist's desk. A young woman with narrow, gray eyes and curly black hair sat behind the desk. Her hair reminded the younger ninjas of a headdress and they regarded her with bemused looks; not because of her hair but because of what she was wearing. I mean, really, who goes to work in an evening gown and a feather boa. "Welcome to K-TV. What can I do for you today?"

"Err…good morning we're the replacements?" ventured Asuma.

"Oh yes, I was told we should be expecting some temp employees." The receptionist nodded. "The manager is waiting for you on the seventh floor. Go down the left corridor, take a right after the board room and it's the fifth door on your right."

"Thank you, miss."

"No, thank you. If you hadn't shown up I probably would be stuck here all day. Right now the receptionist is covering for the messenger, the messenger is covering for the janitor, the janitor is covering for the weather man, and the weather man is covering for the anchor man."

"What happened to the anchor man?" Kiba asked.

"He met with an…accident."

"What the hell is with this place and accidents!"

"If we knew that we wouldn't need to hire you."

"Grr…"

"Down boy." Quipped Sakura.

"Da dada dada dum dee dee dee dee…" sang Naruto, Ino smacked him upside the head. "Ow!"

"Enough with the elevator music already!" she growled.

Said contraption dinged and the twelve individuals stepped out of it. They made their way to the manager's office, went up to the door and knocked.

"Come in, come in! But mind the floor, it's booby trapped!" a cheerful voice said. The ninjas looked at each other, shrugged, and cautiously entered the room.

"Hey! There aren't any booby traps in here!" whined Kiba.

"You make that sound like a bad thing." mumbled Shikamaru.

"Well… I suppose I lied a little bit." The owner of the cheerful voice said. Sitting behind the desk was a man that reminded those assembled of Kabuto; in facial expression anyway. He was thin and probably only met Kakashi at the shoulder if he stood up. His hair and eyes were chocolate brown and he had his feet up on the table. "This room used to be booby trapped but with all the recent…accidents one can't be too careful." Kakashi noticed the very slight frown when he'd said the word "accidents."

"Are you the station manager?" Kurenai asked.

"Assistant Station Manager." The man said. "My name is Kawazoe Shun.. I'm assuming you are the temporary help Hokage-sama sent over?"

"That's us!" Naruto smiled. Shun smiled back.

"I'm so glad you're here! It's been quite hard keeping the station running since we're short staffed because of the…accidents."

"Let me guess, the station manager also had an…accident?" Ino was getting a little tired of hearing that word and even more so of the way people would pause just before they said it.

"Oh goodness, no, he's just on vacation." Shun laughed.

"Err…anyway can you tell us what we'll be doing here?" Sakura inquired.

"Well…" Shun began, the gennin's leaned in closer in anticipation. "How do you feel about acting?"

"We're going to be on TV!" squealed Ino and Sakura.

"Well, some of you are. You see, the regular cast…er…how do I say this..."

"Met with an…accident?" Naruto suggested.

"I suppose there's no getting around that." Sighed Shun. "Well along with the other people that have met with misfortune, the entire cast and crew of Nin-Nin Theater was maimed when all the studio lighting came crashing down on their heads. Everybody who wasn't crushed was electrocuted." The temporary employees all had horrified looks on their faces. "This wouldn't be quite so terrible if they hadn't died before they could finish filming for the day. 'Nothing worse than dying before you finish a mission' is what my dad used to say…" He rambled on a bit before Kurenai gave a slight cough. "Err…yes. Anyway, we'd like you to finish the filming for us if you don't mind. It's only one scene so you shouldn't have a problem with it."

"It's not like we have an option." Sighed Asuma. "If we don't do it we'll have failed to complete the mission and Hokage-sama will just send us back here until it's complete."

"Excellent!" Shun clapped his hands. "Head down to Studio Seven and the production manager will give you what you need."

"I just hope we don't meet with any…accidents." Naruto said.

"I just hope there's a food cart down there." Said Chouji.

How hard can it be to do one scene? Will there be…accidents? Will there be food? Will the author stop asking these stupid questions?

Very. Maybe. Yes. Of course not.