Not Another Ninja!

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. If it did, it would most likely be called, "The Super-Awesome Shikamaru Show!" But, as Shikamaru is sadly not the main character, you can assume Naruto does not belong to me.

A/n – OMG SORRY x10! It took so much longer than I thought, but I've been currently dragging myself out the hole of a failing grade in Spanish class… I'll try to get chapter four up faster than this one. It's really long to make up for it! I hope you like the idea of capture the flag. OMG. It's like Halo, but with ninjas! How cool is that? Also, if you can't tell from this chapter, I am not only a Sasuke fangirl, but also a Shikamaru and Gaara fangirl. Yay! And, if you can recognize the Red vs. Blue references in this, then you are officially cool!

A/n – Also, this chapter is mainly going to focus on the events of the blue team. Why, you ask? Because that's the team we're on, of course! Also, I have noticed the extreme decrease in reviews without the anonymous ones ''. So, just please restrain your negative responses to constructive criticism! Flames will be used to fulfill my pyromaniac urges, so flame at your own risk!

And, today's random tidbit of randomness for the people who don't just skip to the fic!

It is physically impossible to lick your elbow. Unless you are Orochimaru. In which case, seriously, that's just gross. Just how does he fit that tongue in his mouth, anyway?

Chapter Three: Capture the Flag: Part Two

"Sasuke's team will be the red team, and Leah's team will be the blue team," Kakashi told the genins. "Don't forget!"

"Umm… Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said, rubbing his head, "Doesn't this seem a little too dangerous for just training?"

Leah shrugged. "It's not so bad. If he said no to that one, my next suggestion was going to be that we play dodgeball with shurikens!"

Insert many instances of sweatdropping here.

"Whaaat?" Leah said, frowning at everyone, "Don't you like to have fun?"

"Leah," Kakashi said in exasperation, "If you want to play this game so badly, why don't you start walking?"

Twenty minutes later, Leah, Olivia, Michelle, Shikamaru, Ino, Gaara, Hinata, Naruto, and Tenten arrived at their base, or their "castle," as Leah preferred to call it. "All right, team! First order of business, I officially hereby appoint Olivia and Michelle as my sub-captains of the team!"

"Woohoo!" said Olivia.

"Next on the list," Leah went on, "If we don't want to parade around Konoha in bikinis all day, then we need a good game plan! And that–" everyone looked in one direction, "Is why we have Shikamaru on our team!"

Shikamaru sighed as he stared at the pretty butterfly above him. Why is it always me…?

Around the same time that the blue team was getting to their "castle," Sasuke, Neji, Sakura, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, Lee, Kankuro, and Temari arrived at their base, or their "worthless pile of rocks," as Sasuke preferred to call it. As her darling Sasuke-kun was clearly busy fuming over the fact that he was being forced to play a silly game when he could be training for real, Sakura quickly took charge of the red team.

"Okay, listen up!" she yelled, "To start with, it will be easier to get the blue flag if they don't have anyone defending it! So we're going to divide into subgroups to make it easier to capture them!"

"Great idea, Sakura-chan!" Lee yelled, much to Sakura's annoyance.

She chose to ignore Lee's outburst. "The groups will be: Neji, Chouji, and Kiba; Lee, Shino, and Kankuro; and Temari, Sasuke, and I."

"Yes, ma'am…" her teammates said in resignation to her enthusiasm.

Not remarkably, the blue team had just come up with a similar idea. Wait, it wasn't a similar idea, it was the exact same idea!

"Okay – groups!" Leah said, "Ino and Tenten will be with Olivia, Naruto and Hinata will be with Michelle, and Gaara and Shikamaru will be with me!"

Hinata turned a violent shade of scarlet. She was in the same group as Naruto-kun! This obviously did not go unnoticed by Michelle, who most likely had some devious matchmaking scheme going on in her head.

"Okay," Leah said, "One more thing: personal warnings. Number one: Naruto, if we win, I'll buy you ramen, but if we lose, I'll force-feed you raw slugs. Understood?"

Naruto groaned and rubbed his head. "Competitive, aren't we?"

"Like you're one to talk," Ino said with a complimentary eye roll.

"Number two: Shikamaru, there is to be no staring at the clouds while enemies are in sight. Got it?"

Shikamaru sighed and acted like he hadn't heard. He was probably to busy staring at the clouds.

"And numbers three and four are for the same person!" Leah said in false cheerfulness. "Gaara. Firstly, if you kill someone and get us disqualified, I will personally pick you up, shove you in a potato sack, drag you to the deepest fiery pit of hell, and throw you in it. Then, once you are well roasted, I will pull you out and dress you in a frilly ballerina outfit instead of a bikini."

Gaara treated Leah to one of his oh-so-enticing death glares. Inwardly, Leah was sighing romantically.

"Secondly, if not only you break the first rule, but you teamkill, I swear by all that is chocolaty that I will not only carry out my aforementioned plan, but I will buy you pink butterfly wings, fancy make-up, pink tights, and a pink wand. I will then add these accessories to your little pink leotard and tutu. Are we on the same page here?"

Gaara continued glaring at Leah. "And what if the person I kill is you?"

"Then I will come back as a ghost and make certain that you die a slow, painful, and humiliating death. In the aforementioned costume. But this time, I'll add castration. Understood?"

Gaara threw in one more death glare, then turned away. Clearly the sexy little Sand ninja had had enough of Leah's threats.

Leah turned to the rest of the team. "Now that that's all out of the way, let's get started!" She paused for a second and said, "Naruto, Hinata, and Michelle will be guarding the castle first. After two hours, Ino, Tenten, and Olivia will take a turn guarding, then after another two hours, Shikamaru, Gaara, and I will guard. The two groups who aren't guarding will meet to decide who will do what." She stopped talking and thought for a second. "Come to think of it, before we move out, let's have everyone make some noise traps to surround the castle."

"Noise traps?" Ino asked, clueless.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Dry branches, across the path, that make noise when you step on them. It's less conspicuous than sentries." The explanation finished, everyone got to work.

Noise traps being finished, Leah's group and Olivia's group left the base to begin the game. "Naruto," Michelle said immediately after the others had left, "You stay down here and make sure no one sneaks up on us. Hinata and I will go up to the top of the base to try to secure the flag down so it's harder to take."

"Right!" said Naruto, and did not move.

"Let's go, Hinata," Michelle said, and began to climb.

"Coming," Hinata said, stealing one last glance at Naruto before she joined Michelle.

"Now what?" Tenten said once they had been walking for a few minutes.

"Umm…" Olivia said, "Plan!" Everyone looked at Shikamaru expectantly.

Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome," he muttered, and resumed staring at the clouds.

Leah snapped several twigs in exasperation. "Fine," she said, "Olivia, Ino, and Tenten will play defense for now. After an hour and a half, meet back here and we'll see how things are going. Just work to establish a 'prison' and to capture the offense on the other team. Okay?" They nodded. "Gaara, Shikamaru, and I will go into the enemy territory and try to figure out a way to get the flag."

"Shouldn't you guys play defense?" Olivia asked, "What with Gaara holding them with sand and Shikamaru with shadows?"

Leah pouted. "I directly noticed that you didn't say anything about me. I can run really fast, I'll have you know!"

((A/n – I really do run quite fast. However, that's about all I can do…))

"That's ever so slightly useless in this situation," Ino said with a sigh.

Leah glared at Ino. "So what? You can hold them too. Just use your justu, dammit!"

SEVERAL DEATH GLARES LATER

"Now," Leah said, "My little friends and I are ready to leave."

"I wouldn't exactly call us friends," Shikamaru said, "I'd call us more of acquaintances… or coworkers…"

"Or," Gaara added, "People who work with other people that they hate!"

"You wound me deeply," Leah said incredibly overdramatically.

"I'm sure," Olivia said.

Hinata panted for breath. How in the world was she not to the top yet? The base definitely didn't look this high from the ground.

"Hinata, hurry up!" Michelle said, "Otherwise my instant cement will dry up, and all this work will go to waste!"

"Isn't it, I dunno, kind of, cheating to put the flag in cement?" Hinata gasped as she dragged herself onto the top ledge.

"Nah," Michelle said, "Kakashi-sensei didn't say we couldn't, so I'll just assume we can!"

"Umm… alright."

"Now give me a hand, will you?" Michelle pulled the jar of cement out of her pouch. "I don't suppose you know how to make a hole in the rock, do you? I'd have Naruto do it, but Ransengan would probably blow the whole place up…"

"But shouldn't we save our Chakra? Just in case?"

Michelle shrugged. "I guess. I'll just pile it around, then."

The flag secured (most likely permanently), it was time to come down. Hinata went to the edge to start climbing.

Then, out of the blue, Michelle tripped. And she just happened to fall on Hinata. Who just happened to fall of the base.

Naruto stood at the foot of the base, bored as anything. He hoped Hinata and Michelle would get back soon, then he would at least have someone to talk to.

Suddenly he heard a scream. Suddenly, he looked up. Suddenly, a very red Hinata fell into his arms.

"N-n-naruto-kun…" Hinata stuttered, staring up into his eyes.

"Well?" Michelle said, leaning against the base.

"What?" Naruto said, plainly confused.

Michelle rolled her eyes. "When you save a girl's life, it's customary that you kiss her! It's in the rules!"

Both Naruto and Hinata turned beet red.

"Come on," Michelle told him, "You know you want to…"

With a smile that contained none of his usual goofiness, Naruto gently set Hinata on her feet, and complied.

A/n – Aww… I love Naruto and Hinata together. It's so cute. Part three will come sooner if you review! hint hint