In Which Naruto Gets Wet

"Hee, hee!" Naruto giggled, perched on the guardrail of the bridge. "I'm the first one today! Take that, Sasuke!"

"What about me?"

Naruto whipped around to see Sasuke standing behind him. He was holding a closed umbrella and looking annoyed.

"I was just saying that I got here first!" Naruto exclaimed. "You're late!" Then he noticed the umbrella. "What's that for?"

"It's going to rain," Sasuke said, pointing at a dark cloud in the distance.

Naruto laughed. "Stupid Sasuke. It's not going to rain! It's sunny!"

Sasuke turned away from him, a look of complete conviction on his face. "We'll see, Naruto."

"Have you seen Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked, changing the subject.

Sasuke shook his head.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" called a familiar voice. Sakura came up behind Sasuke, looking absolutely jubilant. She was also holding an umbrella. "Oh, hi, Naruto," she added upon catching sight of her other, less-cool teammate.

Naruto pointed at her umbrella. "Um…Sakura-chan…you do know it's not going to rain, right?" he asked.

"Don't be stupid, Naruto. Of course, it's going to rain!" Sakura scolded. She emphasized by pointing at the same cloud Sasuke had pointed out.

"I'm the stupid one?" asked Sasuke, looking meaningfully at Naruto.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto hopped back onto the guardrail. "We'll see who's right."

Twenty minutes later, there was a downpour. Sakura and Sasuke opened their black and pink umbrellas, respectively, and stood there looking as normal as could be. Naruto, meanwhile, was completely soaked within a matter of seconds.

"Could I share your umbrella, Sakura-chan?" he asked hopefully over the sound of the rain.

"Nope," Sakura said, shaking her head. "You weren't smart enough to bring one, so that's what you get!"

Naruto didn't even bother asking Sasuke.

"Fine!" Naruto cried. "I'll get out of the rain my own way! Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Sasuke and Sakura watched as an army of Narutos appeared on the bridge, surrounding the three squad members. Then, the clones simultaneously began climbing over one another, trying to arrange themselves in one of those complicated gymnastic formations that could, in some strange, utterly impossible way, shield Naruto.

Needless to say, the plan failed. Once they'd finished their mighty formation, the clones at the bottom lost their balance, causing the ones on top to topple forward, and in less than a second, all of the clones had landed on top of Naruto and disappeared. Naruto was left lying in a puddle.

And it kept raining.

"I repeat, I'm the stupid one?" Sasuke taunted.

Naruto didn't reply.

The next ten minutes were spent in reflective silence. Naruto continued to lie on the bridge, the very image of defeat; Sakura was alternating between her normal self (I told you so, Naruto. If you'd just listen once in a while…) and her inner self (YOU STUPID IDIOT! HA! I KNEW I'D BE RIGHT!); and Sasuke was looking bored, thinking about philosophical ideas pertaining to rain.

And then it stopped raining. Sasuke and Sakura slowly lowered and shook out their umbrellas. Naruto didn't move, because he'd decided to be an angst-muffin.

And then someone - a tall, silver-haired, book-reading someone – walked past.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cried. "You're late again! We were all here an hour ago!"

"I'm not late," Kakashi replied. "I know of no appointments that I had at this time."

"You were supposed to meet us here!" Sakura shouted.

Kakashi stood there, looking utterly blank. Well, as utterly blank as a person can look when the only expression-related feature that anyone can see is a single eye. Kakashi had a way of making that eye pretty expressive.

"I was?" he asked finally.

Sakura groaned and slapped her forehead.

"Forget it," she muttered. "I'm going home. 'Bye, Sasuke-kun!" As she was leaving, she almost stepped on Naruto's prone form. "Oh…'bye, Naruto."

"Goodbye, Sakura-chan," Naruto replied, his voice full of woe and grief.

Sakura rolled her eyes and walked off.

"Well, I guess our meeting's done for the day," Kakashi said, smiling. "Now, I'm going off to get lost on the path of life. 'Bye, boys."

And he walked away as quietly as he had come, his face buried in his book.

Sasuke stared after him in arrogant disbelief. "Once more, Naruto…I'm the stupid one?"

Naruto raised his hand from where he was still lying on the boards of the bridge. "Touché."

Sasuke walked away, and Naruto remained sulking on the bridge for another half hour.