Almost done this fanfic. Only a couple more chapters to go. Thanks for all your reviews guys and keep them coming!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Oh-noes!
Tenten raised her arm in the air. "On your marks, get-"
"GO!" Sasuke shouted.
At the command, the two teams began to furiously paddle away.
"No wait! Stop!" Tenten cried, but no one heard her, or they possibly just didn't care. "Sasuke, I wasn't finished! Why did you do that?"
"It's fun to screw around with things like this, that's why." Sasuke smirked as he began to head around the lake.
Vexed, Tenten began to follow after him.
Naruto paddled furiously for a moment before he yet out a yelp of pain, "My arm hurts!"
"You idiot! You're not supposed to paddle that fast at the start of the race!" Sakura scolded.
"But we gotta beat the other team! With Lee and Gai, they're probably really fast!" Naruto told Sakura, eager to get moving forward again.
"Alright, team! We'll have to give it everything we've got! With Kakashi on their side, it's gonna be hard to beat them!" Gai told his team, excited at the challenge.
"How our we doing?" Lee asked as he paddled with great speed.
"Actually, we're beating them." Neji said, as he looked over his shoulder in mild surprise.
Surely enough, the canoe was falling farther behind Team Gai with each stroke they took.
"I don't know what's going on back there, but this is awesome!" Lee grinned. "We're winning against a jounin genius of natural talent! Hard work does prevail after all!"
Back where Team Kakashi was, Kakashi had stopped paddling altogether and pulled his book out to read.
"What are you doing?" Sakura cried. "Naruto and I can't paddle alone!"
"Yeah! Help us out here, sensei! We can't do all the work by ourselves!"
"I'm just taking a quick break. It won't hurt to let Gai get ahead for a moment so he feels like he's winning." Kakashi told them. "Carry on guys. You're doing great!"
"We need help, dammit!" Sakura shouted angrily. "If you weren't my superior, I'd smash this paddle on your head!"
"But you won't." Kakashi warned. "Don't worry, Sakura. I'll paddle again after I finish reading this chapter."
Angry, but determined, Sakura and Naruto paddled furiously to catch up with team Gai. But they just seemed to be falling farther behind.
"Look at them! They're just going in circles!" Lee cried. "I thought they were better than that!"
Neji turned to look around again. "You're right. They are idiots after all! At least we can win this race without a problem now."
But Neji spoke too soon, for as they paddled on vigorously for a few moments, an explosion from the water almost dumped their boat over.
"What the hell?"
"I bet Kakashi set these up! That sneaky devil...that's why he's hanging back there so we can set off all of the explosions for him." Gai growled. "Nice move, Kakashi! But you haven't won yet!" Gai shouted back at his rival.
Sakura saw the explosions ahead. "What's with the explosions ahead?"
"Looks like Gai's team hit some of the obstacles I explained about before. I tied some explosive tags to some floating and submerged logs that explode when a boat bumps into them. It won't be enough to kill or seriously injure them, so you don't have to worry."
"So that's why you stopped paddling. That was actually really good thinking." Sakura said thoughtfully. "Maybe I am on the better team after all!"
"Actually, I just wanted to read this chapter of my book." Kakashi corrected her.
Sakura glared at him, angrily shaking for a moment.
"Just help us paddle already! We're sick of paddling around in circles!" Naruto shouted.
"Alright, alright. I'll start paddling."
More explosions sounded off ahead as Team Gai frantically tried to paddle their way out of the explosions as quickly as possible.
"I can't believe that we haven't been hit by one of the explosions yet!" Neji gasped, paddling hard.
"We're going die! We gotta abandon ship!" Lee cried, dropping his paddle in the boat and getting ready to jump out.
"No! Stay in the boat, Lee! If we bail out of the boat, we lose the race! And we cannot lose to Kakashi!" Gai cried, eyes burning in determination.
"Yes, sir!" Lee saluted, picking up his paddle once more.
"But losing to Kakashi is better than dying by explosives from a stupid training exercise!" Neji shouted. "I think Lee's idea of ditching the race was a good one."
"No! Gai sensei is right! We must not lose!" Lee cried passionately, explosions setting off in the background behind him.
Neji sighed, "Why did I have to get stuck with the idiotic, overly-passionate team?"
Sasuke and Tenten had momentarily stopped walking around the lake to watch the explosives set off.
"Wow. Your team really sucks at this." Sasuke commented.
"S-shut up!" Tenten stammered angrily. "At least my team's closer to the other end of the lake than your team!"
"Yeah, and your team's also closer to being blown up." Sasuke smirked.
The explosions suddenly died down.
"I think it's over. We can paddle on now and win!" Gai cheered.
Neji and Lee gave a sigh of relief and started paddling again.
Lee glanced behind him and saw Team seven's boat quickly approaching.
"They're coming towards us fast!"
"Oh, of course! They speed up after the explosions. Just our damn luck." Neji groaned.
"Damn, they're fast." Gai growled. "But we'll beat them for sure! We've got the power of youth on our side!"
Team seven's boat passed them as Kakashi smiled and waved. "You guys should really get a move-on, you know."
"You're the ones who are gonna eat our dust! Believe it!" Naruto grinned.
Gai growled angrily, balling his fists and stood up in the boat. "Kakashi, your hip and cool attitude shall not get me down this time! My team and I will win this race and prove to you which team is the best one in Konoha!"
Lee also stood up. "Don't be so sure of yourself, Naruto! I will prove to you that the Handsome Green Beast of Konoha will win this race and Sakura's heart!"
"Don't stand up in the boat, you idiots! You're going to tip us over!" Neji shouted.
The boat rocked violently for a moment, but it luckily didn't tip. The two green-clad ninja quickly sat back down.
"You know, we're never going to catch up to them in this piece of crap that you guys call a boat." Neji said. "Anyone who uses this boat in a race is destined to fail."
"Don't say that! We can beat them and the cruel destiny of losing if we work hard enough!" Lee cried in determination. "Hard work always prevails in the end!"
"Yeah right. We'll need a miracle to beat them at this point."
Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, taking Team Gai's attention for a moment. They stared in shock and awe as they saw Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, and pieces of their canoe blow up into the air and fall back down into the water.
"Well, there's our miracle." Neji finally said. "Let's go win this stupid race now."
"Onward, team!" Gai cheered.
Tenten and Sasuke had stopped walking again to observe the race.
"What was that you said about my team being closer to being blown up?" Tenten grinned
Sasuke merely scowled and walked towards the end of the lake.
Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi grabbed onto pieces of their blown-up canoe.
"You said that there weren't any explosions left!" Sakura cried angrily.
"Whoops, my bad." Kakashi chuckled apologetically. "I just remembered that Gai probably planted a large explosion or two in this lake. We'll just swim back to the other side and hope that we don't fall for anymore of Gai's traps.
Lee pointed at them triumphantly as they approached paddling by in their boat.
"Ha! We have beaten you! Konoha's Handsome Green Beast has won!" Lee cried triumphantly.
"Hmph!" Naruto just pouted and looked away. "Who said the race was over?"
"Now that you have seen the excellence of my victory, will you do me the honour of going on a date with me Sakura-chan?" Lee grinned, flashing his teeth.
"Get lost, fuzzy brows!" Sakura screamed, throwing a piece of the canoe at Lee's head.
"Looks like this win goes to me!" Gai flashed his teeth, "Anything you want to say, Kakashi?"
"Is there anything I want to say? Hmmm..." Kakashi pondered as he hung onto the driftwood, looking like a wet dog. "...Hope you don't fall for the flying kunai and mustard gas trap that I set up somewhere ahead?"
Lee gawked for a moment. "M-mustard g-gas?"
"For a simple training exercise, that's a bit too brutal." Neji frowned. He glanced down for a moment, and saw something horrifying. "Our boat's leaking, and we're only halfway across the lake!"
Gai and Lee looked down and surely enough, saw water leaking in the boat. Lee looked as though he was going to panic, but Gai grinned.
"Ha! It doesn't matter! At least we still got a boat! Team Kakashi's so-called stable canoe got blasted to smithereens!" Gai said enthusiastically. "Yeah! Blown to smithereens! Kaboom!" Lee shouted as he danced around in the boat.
"Stop rocking the boat, you idiot!" Neji shouted.
"Anyways, see you guys later!" Gai grinned as he and his team began to paddle away.
"So now what?" Sakura asked testily.
"We follow them and hope we don't get caught in any traps." Kakashi replied as he began to dog paddle after the boat.
Paddling the boat was becoming harder for Team Gai, as the boat was filling up with water quickly, reaching near their knees.
"The boat's getting so hard to paddle all of a sudden!" Lee groaned.
"And Kakashi's team seem to be out-swimming us, which is quite sad really." Neji added. "But at least we're very close to shore now."
"They're out-swimming us? This is bad! And our boat's half submerged under the water!" Lee exclaimed. "I say we ditch the boat and out-swim them! Then it'll be a real race!"
"I suppose you're right." Gai sighed. "Well, at least we kept our boat longer than they did."
They were just about to abandon ship when a net descended from a nearby tree they were passing under. The net fell around the boat, pulling it up along with Lee, Neji, and Gai, and the "Naruto Boat" boat all hung from the tree.
"Hey! What the hell?" Neji cried.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about sinking anymore!" Lee said, trying to look at the bright side.
Soaking wet, Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi climbed on shore where Sasuke and Tenten were waiting. Sakura used her hands to try to wring the water out of her hair while Naruto took off his jacket, shaking the water out vigorously and Kakashi shook himself like a dog, both splashing water all over Sakura, getting her wet again.
"...Are you two done yet?" Sakura growled, dripping wet again.
"Oh, yes I am. Sorry about that." Kakashi replied, smiling sheepishly.
"I'm not! You might want to move away now." Naruto said, ready to shake the water out of his hair.
"Hey! Let us down from here!" Lee shouted.
Kakashi took a kunai and threw it at the net, cutting Lee, Neji, Gai, and the boat free, sending them tumbling into the water. The three clambered ashore, dragging the "Naruto Boat" boat behind them.
"So, did we win?" Lee asked in hope.
"Well technically, Naruto, Sakura, and I were the first to reach the shore." Kakashi answered.
"Yeah, but your boat blew up first, so doesn't that get you disqualified?" Neji reminded Kakashi.
"Whatever. The prize is just chocolate, so we'll say that you guys won." Kakashi shrugged, not caring either way.
" 'Just chocolate' you said? That's awesome!" Naruto exclaimed. "Now I really wish that we won!"
"What does it matter to you, Naruto? You ate a whole bunch of chocolate bars before the race today." Sakura pointed out.
"That brings our score up to 51-52 for me, Kakashi!" Gai said, striking a pose. "Good race!"
"Well, hopefully all those explosions went off, otherwise there's going to be some very unhappy and possibly injured swimmers in the future." Kakashi said.
"Didn't you think of that before you set them up in the lake?" Sasuke scoffed.
"It's not like there's going to be many who come to a place named "Camp Death" though, so there probably won't be any swimmers to swim into them." Tenten pointed out.
"Yeah, you're right." Kakashi nodded. "The park ranger even left the other day and said that he doesn't care what happens to this place anymore since nobody comes around here."
"Were you actually serious about the mustard gas trap sensei?" Naruto asked.
"No. I was just screwing with your heads."
"Can we head back to the campsite now? I'm really tired and hungry!" Sakura moaned.
"Sure, good idea." Kakashi nodded. "We better bring that boat back and repair it so we can give it back to the crazy old man. Then he'll probably leave us alone."
"Finally! The best idea anyone's come up with yet. He was really starting to scare me." Sakura sighed in relief.
"Kakashi! How would you and your team like to come over for a marshmallow roast at our campsite after dinner?" Gai offered. "Then we shall sing songs and express our youth and-"
"We'll see Gai. We're all pretty tired right now, so we might go to bed early tonight." Kakashi replied.
"What are you talking about? I'm not tired at all!" Naruto objected.
"Well you can go over then, Naruto. The rest of us will see what we want to do after dinner."
Team 7 commenced their walk around the lake to get back to their campsite, dragging "the Naruto Boat" boat behind them.
To be continued...
Review...please...thank you! Also, would you guys be able to tell me whether you think this fanfic seems like a humor/general or a humor/parody genre or a different genre combination I didn't list? I can't decide myself. Please tell me.