Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any form shape or fashion. If I did, I would have already killed him and taken Hinata for myself…
Chapter 8. Soccer Practice.
"Man, this sucks. Junky liked us better as boys." Naruto was complaining as they waited on the field for the soccer coach. They each had on soccer uniforms, which made Naruto and Sasuke happy for some reason. Sakura chalked it up to having a more manly appearance. "She gave me and Sasuke three days detention for skipping class."
I wonder WHY she liked you better as boys? Sakura thought sarcastically glancing at Naruto and Sasuke. She hated to admit it in Naruto's case, but he and Sasuke were both rather handsome young men. She had gotten some pretty interesting jealous glares, and so had Hinata for that matter. Hinata however had been, and for that matter still was still a little lost. She stared with longing eyes back towards the gate where they had said 'good-bye' to Sasuke and Naruto.
Sakura also hated to admit that in a way it was good-bye. They were on a mission. They had a job to do, and if they started fawning over Sasuke and Naruto, they'd never get it done. Sakura resolved to have a long talk with Hinata once they were alone. She still had stars in her eyes from finally realizing her life long dream of opening up to Naruto. Admittedly, Sakura did too, but in all honesty she'd been around the real Uchiha Sasuke enough to let that cool her enthusiasm.
He could be an egotistical pain. He was rude, and quite often would say things just to make her angry. OK, and she also loved him for it. However, she hoped that the time she'd spent with Sasuke as a teammate had prepared her for the idea of a REAL relationship with him instead of just some sort of childish crush.
After a moment, something Naruto had said sunk in and her brain started working. "Did you say you have detention?"
"Yeah, not the first time I must say. What of it?" Naruto said testily.
"Are you going to be able to make it through detention this afternoon until you can get back to the room and rest?" Sakura asked seriously.
"I think so. We're only going to be there for a couple of hours. We're probably not going to be supervised either, so we'll be able to rest a little if we have to." Naruto said knowingly.
"Not supervised? Why not?" Sakura asked. She admittedly had never had detention in her life, where as they'd retired Naruto's desk at the ninja academy. Well, more like threw it away and replaced it since they didn't have to worry about Naruto carving anything in it anymore.
"Detention is supposed to be punishment for the student, not the teacher. They've got things to do just like the rest of us. We're actually going to use it to our advantage." Naruto said impressed with his own ingenuity.
"How exactly?" Sakura asked getting vaguely worried.
"Sasuke's going to sneak out and spy on the teachers while I stay behind. If a teacher walks in they'll see one of my shadow clones and me imitating Shiori." Naruto said happily.
"Thought of that yourself did you?" Sakura said impressed.
"Actually, Kakashi suggested it." Sasuke said quietly.
Shiori and Naniko were about to have a real good catfight when a whistle blew and all the girls lined up in front of the coach. The woman was tall and muscular and would have been a real good candidate to be kunoichi. She walked up and looked over the girls.
"Hello girls. My name is Coach Takamori Shika, but you will refer to me simply as 'Coach'. I'll be trying to keep you girls physically fit while you're here. We do this by playing soccer. Some of you girls are obviously in good shape, but a little more exercise never hurts. You have undoubtedly heard of the big ball at the end of the semester where each class you take has something to do with the ball. Well, this class has absolutely nothing to do with any ball other than this one." The coach said as she held up a soccer ball.
Naruto and Sasuke cheered.
"However, this class does have something that you girls are going to be preparing for, namely soccer tryouts and the game season this semester in which we will be competing against other schools for the Girl's Soccer Regional Trophy." Coach said looking over her class.
The rest of the girls groaned. Actually all the girls groaned except for Kimi, who apparently played back home.
Sakura watched as Kimi was bouncing a soccer ball from knee to knee. Her heart then start sinking as she realized that Naruto and Sasuke had gotten into a dribbling contest to see who could dribble the fastest. Neither of them were using their hands either. You two! We're supposed to be normal girls, not highly trained ninjas! Sakura thought angrily.
Apparently this stunt hadn't been lost on the coach either as she watched them. "You two know how to play soccer?"
"Not really." Sasuke said as he slammed the ball down and started dribbling it on his head, again without hands. Not to be outdone, Naruto looked like he was going to do the same only using more imaginative parts of the anatomy.
"Uh, why don't you go out and try being the goalie, Naniko." Coach said watching the three. "Kimi, you and Shiori try to kick the ball into the net behind Shiori."
The three 'girls' went out to take their places. Kimi and Shiori had already started into it. "I was the best on my team," Kimi said bragging, "stick around and I'll show you a few things."
"Like how to loose?" Shiori said with a snicker.
Sakura was holding her head in her hands. This was not going to end well, these two had too much testosterone and being girls, oddly, just seemed to add to the problem. Shiori and Kimi each kicked a ball toward Naruto who easily dodged.
"Naniko! What are you doing?" Sakura asked sadly.
"Not getting hit." Came back the customary smart mouthed answer.
"You're supposed to block the balls and not let them get into the goal!" Sakura yelled.
"You know how to play?" Coach asked.
"No, I just glanced at the rule book." Sakura admitted.
Coach handed her a clipboard. "Here you can be the team manager. Your legs don't look like they were made for soccer."
Sakura boiled on the inside for a moment. Translation: I don't walk around on tree trunks for kicking or lithe little nimble legs for running. Sakura was pretty steamed. She or Hinata either one could easily best any of the other girls on the team except for Naruto or Sasuke due to their training. It was just that SOME people knew how to act undercover. Besides, her legs were fairly lean and sexy.
The coach turned around and looked back at the girls. "Here, let's stir things up a bit. Nariko, Hinata you two roll the balls to Shiori and Kimi and let's see how well Naniko does." The coach threw the ball at Hinata. Unfortunately, Hinata was still a little spaced out and got nailed in the forehead.
Hinata went down like a sack of potatoes. Girls gathered around her and tried to wake her up. The coach never really moved. Sakura just sighed at the amount of money the Hyuuga clan must spend on the laundry to get out all the grass stains.
"Is she all right?" The coach asked.
"She's out cold ma'am." Someone answered.
"Is she bleeding?"
"No, but she does have a pretty big red spot on her forehead. You want us to take her to the nurse?"
"No just leave her. She'll wake up eventually." Sakura got the impression that the coach was one of those people that would look at a fractured skull and say 'Suck it up'.
The girls started rolling balls and the coach started watching her clipboard. Sakura finally looked up to see Naruto in some sort of fighting stance breathing pretty hard. Sasuke and Kimi hadn't broken a sweat yet. It only took a moment for Sakura to deduce the problem.
"Naniko! USE YOUR HANDS STUPID!" Sakura shouted onto the field.
"I thought you told us not to." Naruto accused.
"The goalie can you idiot!" Sakura shrieked back. Naruto had been leaping, spinning, and bouncing back and forth to kick all the balls out of the air that were often kicked simultaneously at different ends of the goal. Not a single one had gotten past him.
The coach's eyes were glued as the contest intensified. Kimi and Sasuke were kicking balls as fast as they could, trying to be the first one to get a goal. Sakura inwardly hoped that she could come up with something to explain this.
"That was awesome!" The coach cried as the three of them stopped due to a lack of any more soccer balls more than anything else. "I've finally got something I can use! You three are going to be my star players!"
Sakura slapped her forehead in exasperation. UNDERCOVER, PEOPLE!
"You don't approve?" The coach asked looking down at Sakura.
"Oh no!" Sakura said looking around for some reason to have been slapping her forehead. "It's these plays. They're awfully old. We'll never win like this."
The look on the coach's face told Sakura that she had better choose her next words VERY carefully. "So you think you can do better? Show me."
Sakura looked down at the diagrams. She could pretty well guess what they were trying to do with each one, so Sakura started thinking. In fact, thinking about some of the strategies used by the ninjas in training, formations, and such things as this. She didn't know about soccer, but she knew how to keep somebody from getting something by using teamwork. Sakura quickly sketched out one of the more basic strategies the ninjas used, Naruto and Sasuke would be familiar with them as well as Hinata.
The coach looked over her shoulder as she wrote and then straightened up. "Right, uh, good job. We'll see if we can't test that one out sometime."
Practice had been a quick affair. Sakura had given the coach some notes on things to try and the woman had toddled off some where to 'correct' them, which meant in the language of students and teachers, 'Alright you smart little bugger let me go copy these in my own handwriting'.
Sakura and Hinata were sitting up in the stands after they'd had their little discussion. As they watched, Kimi appeared out of the locker rooms followed by Sasuke and Naruto. Sakura watched as Kimi started off across the field. She also watched as Naruto and Sasuke watched Kimi walk off across the field. She also watched Hinata as Hinata watched as Naruto watched Kimi walk across the field.
Sakura decided to curtail the rampant watching with a quick clearing of the throat that caused the two young men's heads to suddenly whip around. They quickly trotted up into the stands to join the real girls and to their merit (and continued survival) they didn't look back. All she heard as they approached were Naruto and Sasuke saying something about really liking soccer.
"Something interesting?" Sakura asked sweetly.
"Oh. No, just wondering about something." Naruto said sheepishly.
Yeah, I bet. Sakura thought sourly.
No one was really surprised when Kakashi suddenly appeared next to them. It was after all pretty well deserted around the stands now so they could talk privately. "Hello class." Kakashi said mildly.
"Hello sensei." They chimed in unison out of habit from the day's classes.
"I bring news. Apparently Kurenai has discovered that our assassin is indeed a man. We haven't got a positive identification yet, but it's definitely a man." Kakashi reported.
"That's good. That way we know that he's staying across the lake. Now we'll know where to look should he try anything. It's pretty hard for men to get around out here without attracting notice, even YOU have to be sneakier than usual sensei." Sakura said happily.
"Well don't get too cocky, apparently this guy has help of some sort. So keep your eyes open." Kakashi said sternly. "Now I've brought the two of you something."
"Us?" Sakura said looking to Hinata.
"Yes, it might look funny for two young girls with such devoted boyfriends not having pictures of them for their room, so I brought you these." Kakashi said as he produced a couple of picture frames and gave them to Sakura and Hinata. The two of them looked at the pictures that Kakashi must have taken of their first kiss and smiled. He really could be a sweet father figure sometimes.
Sakura stood up and she and Hinata gave Kakashi a great big hug, and for once in his life, probably the only time in his life, Kakashi simply hugged them back without being a pervert.
"So any more ideas on who the target might be?" Kakashi asked.
"No we're going spying this afternoon." Sasuke answered.
"Good, I'll keep to the woods and make sure our 'friend' has a hard time coming and going. I can only cover one side though." Kakashi told them.
"We'll keep a close eyes on the south side of the lake." Sakura told him.
"How did you know I wanted you to cover the south side?" Kakashi asked.
"Because the north side is where the girls dorms are." Sakura said snidely.
"That's my girl." Kakashi said mussing Sakura's hair like a five year old.
Sakura and Hinata were lying on their beds when the boys returned. The two of them came busting through the doors and barely shut them before they suddenly switched back to being boys. Naruto felt like an idiot standing there gasping for air in a skirt.
"Any luck?" Sakura asked them.
"Not really." Sasuke answered. "Each of the teachers has a room in the dormitory that's their responsibility. Junky stays downstairs on the first floor next to the stairs leading up. The only way in or out is past her room and the woman has pretty sharp hearing. She's been with the school for years and this dorm has a reputation for being one of the toughest to get into or out of without her noticing."
"You think the assassin might still be posing as one of the teachers?" Sakura asked.
"It's possible, just because he's a man doesn't mean he can't blend in like Naruto and I can. Besides, we really don't know who's helping him. He may very well have some of the teachers over here helping.
"I bet it's Furucho. She's a mean old lady." Naruto said vehemently. The old bat had been in charge of their detention. She had finally left to go do what old bats do, which was probably go scare small children and make gingerbread cottages.
"As much as I would like to agree Naruto, she's been here longer than nearly any other teacher. We also don't have any guarantees that the people helping this assassin are teachers. It could very well be students." Sasuke said seriously. "However, if it were somebody really close to the target, closer than we are, they'd probably have already had the opportunity to kill or kidnap them."
"If it IS a matter of the assassin staying across the lake we'll have to look out for anything where the two schools have to get together." Sakura said as she suddenly looked up at Sasuke.
"The ball." The two of them said in unison.
Sasuke slapped his forehead and slouched against the wall. "I was really hoping we could be gone before I have to sing."
"I'm looking forward to my number!" Naruto said proudly.
"Glad somebody is." Sasuke shot back. "I'm exhausted, I'm just going to crash. I don't even have the chakra to go get a shower." Sasuke said as he headed for his bed fully clothed. Naruto decided that it sounded like a great idea, not that he'd ever confess that to Sasuke.
The two boys went over to the bunk beds and started climbing up. Naruto was just about to reach the top and sink into blissful oblivion when he heard Hinata's startled gasp.
He stopped and looked down quickly. "What 's wrong Hinata?" He asked in confusion.
Hinata's eyes were as wide as they could go and she had her hands up over her mouth and what looked like her bleeding nose. He glanced over to Sakura and she was likewise trying to stop the flow of blood as she was looking up at Sasuke and blushing furiously. Naruto was finally brought back to reality by Hinata's question.
"Uh, Naruto-kun? Where's your underwear?"