Holy crap, 20 chapters! You guys can tell I was really bored, right? But only 3 reviews for the last chapter? ;; The reviews seem to have been declining with each chapter, but maybe it's because the last few chapters were boring? This chapter should be more amusing and interesting, so I'm sorry if the last chapters have been boring you in any way.
Another note; Updating might be slower now since it's September and I have school back on. I was hoping to get this fanfic up by the end of the summer, as it is a summer-themed fanfic. Well, fat chance of that happening now as summer's over. It might be mid-late September or October before the whole thing gets posted up. So sorry! I'll try to make it quick.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or its characters. Never have, never will.
"Hey! What's that?"
"How should I know?"
This was the 5th time that day that Naruto pointed something out to Sasuke and asked him what it was, and it was beginning to get on Sasuke's nerves, as they had only been walking for a slow and painful 5 minutes.
"How big is this freaking lake anyways?" Sasuke growled.
"However big it is, we should explore around the whole thing!" Naruto grinned, fists balling up in excitement.
Sasuke shuddered at the thought of hours and hours of trying to keep Naruto occupied by walking around the lake, Naruto babbling on and on without end.
Naruto was suddenly distracted by what looked like 6 tree branches stood up against each other in a certain way with one lying on top to resemble a sort of tent-shaped shelter.
"Who do you think made that?" Naruto asked Sasuke, pointing to the shelter.
"How should I know?" Sasuke said for the 6th time that day. "Whoever started it sure didn't finish it."
A pile of branches and thin rope lay nearby. Naruto darted off towards the materials, kneeling down.
"I'm going to make it into a fort!" Naruto grinned, beginning to fiddle around with the tree branches and rope. "Want to help, Sasuke?"
"Fool. That kind of stuff is for losers." The grouchy Uchiha scowled.
With that said, Sasuke wandered off into the trees as he spotted some berries nearby. Naruto shrugged and went back to building his fort out of branches and sticks.
Sasuke picked the berries and stored them in his back pocket for later. As he wandered a bit deeper into the forest, a loud 'snap' sounded off as a toothed-metal trap jumped out of the dirt and leaves where Sasuke stepped, clamping down hard onto his foot.
This obviously caused Sasuke much pain, and he screamed a very profane and naughty word out loudly, sending all the birds in the trees nearby taking off into the sky. Naruto obviously heard this too and shouted out to Sasuke.
"You know you shouldn't say bad words like that, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted in Sasuke's direction. "Are you alright in there?"
Sasuke gritted his teeth in pain and anger at Naruto as he tried to pry the trap off his foot. "I'm fine! Ow!"
"Are you sure?" Naruto asked. "You sound like you're in pain or pissed off about something!"
"I said I'm fine, dammit!"
"Ok, if you say so! I'll be here if you need me!"
Sasuke cursed under his breath as he looked at the metal trap on his foot, trying to figure out how to get it off his foot without tearing any of his toes off in the process.
"Real smart. I thought only Naruto could fall for these stupid kind of traps!" Sasuke muttered under his breath, groaning in pain.
Meanwhile back at the tent, Sakura was beginning to wonder where Sasuke had gone when she had heard his loud and profane scream.
"Sasuke's in trouble!" Sakura cried. She stumbled out of the tent, forgetting about her sore back, only to tumble face first into the dirt.
"Ow! Real smart, Sakura." The pink-haired kunoichi muttered to herself as she tried to get back on her feet. Painfully and slowly, she began to make her way to the lake.
"I'm-ow!-coming, Sasuke! Ouch!"
Back near the lakeshore in the forest, Sasuke let out something between an angry growl and a painful scream as he tried, but failed), to get the trap off of his foot.
"You could've just told me that you had a trap stuck on your foot. I could've helped get it off of you sooner!"
Sasuke looked up as he saw Naruto crouched down in front of him. He had been so fixed on getting the trap off his foot that he hadn't even seen or heard Naruto approaching him.
"Naruto, what the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke grumbled.
"I finished my fort. See it over there? I had lots of fun making it!" Naruto grinned as he pointed beyond the trees, where just barely visible, was the shelter tree branches, now complete. It still looked like a tent made out of branches, but at least it was stably standing and it could keep out the most of any rain that fell. "That shelter-building activity that Kakashi-sensei made us do really helped!" Naruto added.
"So you've finished already...how long have I been trying to get this thing off my foot now?" Sasuke mumbled to himself.
"Oh, probably for about 2 hours now, because that's how long it took me to finish that fort." Naruto answered Sasuke, much to the Uchiha's displeasure. "But I didn't think you were this stupid to get caught in a silly trap like that!"
"It was hidden well under the leaves and dirt! I couldn't see it." Sasuke defended.
"Well, DUH! It's a trap! Of course it was hidden and of course you couldn't see it! That's the whole point of a trap!" Naruto pointed out.
Sasuke was beginning to become aware that Naruto was disturbingly starting to sound like the smart one.
"Whatever, I didn't ask for your opinion or help. I can get this thing off myself." Sasuke said, trying to regain his cool and calm composure.
"You sure?"
"Yes, now go away!"
"But I don't have anything else better to do. And your foot's bleeding! I could help get that thing off, you know." Naruto offered.
"No! Just go collect some berries or something while I get this off. There are tons of them around here and we need as much food as possible if we want to survive another day, week, month, however long we're stuck here for. I can get this off myself. I don't need your help!"
"Ok then. Have fun playing with that trap!" Naruto laughed as he rose to his feet and began picking berries off the bushes around the area, while Sasuke growled angrily, desperately trying to gently pry the trap off his foot.
Half an hour later, Sasuke was still trying to work the trap off from his now rather bloody foot, and Naruto was attempting to communicate with a chipmunk, crouching down and making squeaky chattering sounds.
Sasuke gave a groan of frustration and sat there, watching Naruto imitate the chipmunk by shoving some berries into his mouth. Sasuke's stomach gave a hungry growl.
"Maybe I better eat some of those berries too so I have energy to get this bloody trap off my foot." Sasuke mumbled to himself.
He was about to reach into his pocket when Naruto cried out at Sasuke.
"Sasuke! Your butt's bleeding now too!" Naruto cried, pointing at Sasuke's red-stained white shorts.
Sasuke looked at his rear pocket and to his horror, he saw red stains. "What? How the hell-" He suddenly remembered the berries that he had picked and put in his rear pocket before he got his foot caught in the trap. He realized that he had probably squashed the berries when he had fell over on the ground after the trap had got his foot.
"Wow, bleeding from your butt...that's bad, but it's hilarious too!" Naruto laughed.
"Shut up, you dumb ass. It's just some squashed berries I put in my pocket earlier." Sasuke grumbled.
"Oh. Do you need some more berries then?" Naruto asked.
Now as we know, Sasuke is a rather proud person, so he didn't want to accept Naruto's offer to pick some berries for him. So being the proud bastard he is, he would ignore Naruto's offer to help him and get the berries himself. Sasuke stood up on his good foot and then attempted to stand up on the trapped foot. Sasuke yelped in pain as he stepped on his injured foot and fell back down.
"You sure you don't want help with getting that thing off your foot, Sasuke?" Naruto offered once again.
"No! I don't want help!" Sasuke snarled.
"Are you hungry? You can have some of the berries I picked." Naruto said, holding some out for Sasuke.
"I can get the berries off the bush myself!" Sasuke growled.
Sasuke knew he wouldn't be able to stand up, so he flopped down on his belly and used his arms to drag himself over to the nearest berry bush. He reached up to the nearest berry on the bush, but he couldn't quite reach it.
Now as these metal jaw traps are always chained into the earth in order to not allowing the caught prey to wander off far, Sasuke couldn't travel more than a couple of feet away from the trap spot. Sasuke swung his hand up at the berry, trying to reach it, but alas, the trap would not allow him to go any nearer to the berry bush.
"Want help with that?" Naruto asked, sitting down and watching Sasuke's desperate attempts.
"NO!"
Sasuke swung his hands at the berry bush, trying reaching the berry for about 10 minutes before Naruto picked the berry, and placed it in front of Sasuke's nose on the ground.
"You should learn to depend less on yourself, Sasuke. We're a team after all!" Naruto told him, grinning.
Sasuke grumbled something before he grudgingly took the berry and ate it.
Just then, Sakura reached where the two boys were and gasped at Sasuke's bloody foot caught in the trap and nearly fainted.
"What happened to you?" Sakura cried.
"My foot got caught in a hidden trap." Sasuke replied through gritted teeth.
"Naruto you idiot! Why didn't you help him? What if he bleeds to death?"
"But he wouldn't let me help him!" Naruto defended.
"Enough with your excuses!" Sakura shouted, getting angry.
"I specifically told him not to help me several times, so it's not his fault." Sasuke told the angered kunoichi. "I'm not going to bleed to death, Sakura. I'll be fine."
"But we've got to get that trap off of your foot now!"
"I can do it myself. You guys go back to the campsite. I'll catch up." Sasuke told his to team-mates.
"Don't be ridiculous! You need help!" Sakura objected.
Sasuke said nothing as he reached into his back pouch to take out a kunai so he could try to break the trap. But he reached into his pouch to find nothing. He had left the last of his weapons back at the campsite.
Sasuke let out a curse. He then saw a rock lying a few feet away from him. He reached his hand out to get it, but like the berry on the bush, the rock was too far from his reach.
"Sasuke, let me get that for you." Sakura offered.
"No! Leave that rock there." Sasuke commanded. "Leave it right there! I can get it myself! You'll see..."
He kept stretching his arm out and pulling against the chain, reaching towards it for a good five minutes until he stopped for a moment, catching his breath. Sakura quickly moved near the rock, pushing it gently with her foot closer to where Sasuke's hand was while he wasn't looking. He looked up, tried to grab the rock and grasped it in his hand, not noticing that it had been pushed closer to him.
"See? I told you I could do it myself! I don't need you losers to survive in these woods." Sasuke smirked in triumph.
Sakura laughed nervously "congratulating" Sasuke, as Naruto rolled his eyes and sighed.
Sasuke took the rock and began beating at the chain, not allowing Sakura or Naruto help him. After one painful hour, Sasuke finally broke the chain, now free from being chained to the ground, but not free from the metal jaws of the trap. Too bad. More pain for him.
"Good job! Now we can get the trap off your foot!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Aw man! How long is that going take?" Naruto groaned.
Sasuke was too exhausted from breaking the trap chain to argue against them taking the trap off for him, so Naruto and Sakura tried to pry the trap off of Sasuke's foot with their hands. Just when they almost seemed to have it off, Sasuke would shout in pain, and this sent Sakura freaking out, refusing to cause Sasuke any more pain and letting go of the trap
"Hey! A little help with taking this thing off?" Naruto asked. "I can't do it alone, Sakura!"
"I'm sorry! I just can't do it! Sasuke's in too much pain for me to pry that trap off of him!" Sakura whimpered on the verge of tears.
"Aw man!" Naruto groaned, "Where's Kakashi-sensei when you need him? He'd know what to do in a situation like this."
Naruto stood there silently as though he was expecting Kakashi to appear. But quite obviously, he didn't.
Sakura was sobbing and was practically hyperventilating for that matter. "W-what i-if you d-d-die S-Sasuke-kun?" Sakura chocked between tears.
"Dammit you guys! I'm not going to die from a simple trap wound! Stop freaking out and just carry me back to the camp. We'll rest there." Sasuke grumbled.
Sakura stopped sobbing and hyperventilating for a moment to listen to Sasuke. "Good idea! I'll help carry you."
Sakura lifted Sasuke off the ground a couple of feet, but with her previously injured back from the canoe incident, she let out a cry of pain, dropping Sasuke onto the ground.
"Thanks, Sakura. Great job!" Sasuke grumbled, gritting his teeth as he made his sarcastic remark.
"Naruto, you're going to have to carry him." Sakura told her team-mate.
"What? Me? But I can't carry him! My back will get injured too!" Naruto whined.
"Just do it, unless you want to sleep out here with the bears!" Sakura growled, holding up a shaking fist threateningly.
"On second thought…here Sasuke, grab onto my shoulders and I'll see if I can piggy back you back to the campsite if you don't crush my back first." Naruto said, bending to the will of Sakura's fist.
So Naruto, with some help with Sakura, got an embarrassed and pride-shattered Sasuke onto Naruto's back.
(Man, I can really hear those SasuNaru fans now...)
Naruto staggered under the weight of Sasuke on his back, but put a determined face on.
"This is nothing! It's just like training, that's all! I can do this no problem! Believe it!"
But 5 minutes down the road heading back to the campsite, Naruto collapsed under the weight of Sasuke, unable to get up.
"I can't go another step! You're so heavy, Sasuke!" Naruto groaned.
"Are you calling me fat?" Sasuke demanded, clearly offended.
"Don't you dare call Sasuke-kun fat!" Sakura shouted, ready to pummel Naruto's head in.
"I never did! I just said that he was heavy, that's all! Doesn't mean that he's fat." Naruto grumbled.
"But you made it sound like he was!" Sakura accused.
"Guys, we're arguing again. Let's get back to the campsite before it gets too dark to even find our way back." Sasuke cut in.
"Here, I'll try to help Sasuke-kun." Sakura offered. "Put one arm around me and the other around Naruto and try to hop on your good foot."
Sasuke put an arm around Sakura, and the other around Naruto. Sasuke frowned, turning a bit red.
"Now don't you two get any weird ideas from this!" Sasuke warned.
"You're sick! Why would I like you in that kind of way?" Naruto frowned, making a disgusted face.
Sakura sighed like she was in heaven as they all painfully made their way back to the campsite.
To be continued...
Please keep the reviews coming! It'll make me so happy.