Sorry this chapter took forever to get up, but I had a lot of homework to finish, so I didn't have much time. But the main reason I didn't get it up sooner is because the Microsoft Word program on my computer was being a bitch and decided that chapter 26 was too long and didn't want save it, so it deleted all my hard work for chapter 26. I was very pissed off at the program, at the computer, and at myself. (The amount of times I banged by head on the keyboard in frustration. Oww... XD) Anyhoo, I had to split up the last chapter into smaller parts, so this isn't the last chapter any longer. (I lied. Whoops. But please don't kill me. Blame it on technology!)
Disclaimer: ...Well dang! I forgot what I was goin' to say!
Naruto was the only one who went to the campfire at Gai's campsite that evening. It was filled with many marshmallows, lame ghost stories from Tenten, sarcastic comments from Neji, and horrible off-key singing from Gai and Lee that made Naruto came back to his campsite with his hearing degraded down a level.
As he returned to the campsite, Kakashi and Sasuke were sitting on the chairs and log by the fire.
"How did Gai's campfire go?" Kakashi asked.
"What? I can't hear you! My hearing's gone down from Gai's and Lee's horrible singing!" Naruto shouted back.
"It went badly." Sasuke concluded.
"I see. That's too bad." Kakashi nodded and then spoke up, "We were just about to read some ghost stories. Would you like to join us?"
"His idea, not mine." Sasuke said as he pointed at Kakashi, making it clear that Sasuke was not enthused with silly activities like ghost stories.
"Ghost stories? Of course I wanna join in! As long as they're better than Tenten's lame ghost stories!"
Naruto sat himself down on the log next to Sasuke and opened a new bag of marshmallows, popping some in his mouth.
Kakashi opened the book (No, not Icha Icha/Make Out Paradise, the ghost stories book you fools.) and began to read, "Once upon a time-"
"What kind of ghost story starts with 'once upon a time'? This sounds more like a lame fairytale than a ghost story to me." Sasuke scoffed.
Naruto nodded in agreement, "Yeah! What the hell kind of a ghost story is this?"
"A very odd one, obviously." Kakashi replied. "Now may I continue?"
Both the boys nodded, feeling a little bad for interrupting.
Kakashi began to read again, "Once upon a time," Naruto couldn't help but snigger. "a family of four decided that they would go on a canoe trip and camp out together in the wilderness, much like the wilderness that we are staying in now. The parents were looking forward to spending quality time with the family in the outdoors and the children were very excited and couldn't wait to go."
Naruto snickered at the cheesiness of the story and Sasuke muttered under his breath, "Fairytale...", but both listened to the moderately boring story for a while. Soon the plot line began to rise as the family had encountered their bears in their campsite. The gory details began to rise and became more graphic, when suddenly...
"Naruto, let go of me, you idiot!"
Sasuke had found and tried to shake off Naruto, who was clinging to Sasuke in fear as the story became more graphic.
"I didn't mean to! The story just got a little scary, that's all. I didn't mean to cling onto you, so don't get any ideas!"
"Then make sure it doesn't happen again."
"Fine! I will!"
With that said, Naruto rose from the log and sat in one of the chairs next to Kakashi. When they settled down, Kakashi began to read again.
"With its large teeth, the first bear tore at the father's scalp, exposing his bloody skull as the second bear was dragging the mother around by her half-detached arm. The third bear ripped at the daughter's stomach with its claws, tearing the young girl's innards out-"
Kakashi then found Naruto clinging to his arm, trembling.
Sasuke had a rather disgruntled look on his face as he spoke, "This is anything but a fairytale that I thought it was going to be. This is a story about some stupid, bloody, and overly graphic bear mauling. It's not even a ghost story! Why are we reading such a pointless violent story like that?"
"Well, you guys said that you didn't want a lame fairytale story." Kakashi answered.
"That story really had us tricked there when it started with 'once upon a time' and described happy, bright, cheery scenes." Sasuke grumbled.
"It sure did!" Naruto nodded furiously. "But I thought we supposed to be reading scary yet make-believe ghost stories, not stories where whatever's happening in the story could happen to us!"
Naruto snapped his mouth shut as he just realized what he said. He clung to Kakashi's arm tighter and whimpered, "W-what if that r-really does h-happen to u-us?"
"Naruto, my arm's losing its circulation." Kakashi spoke, hoping Naruto would let go soon.
Naruto let go, trembling with the story fresh in his mind.
"What if bears do attack us in the middle of the night like it did to those campers in the story?"
"Well if that does happen, we're screwed." Sasuke sighed, trembling on the inside with the story still fresh in his mind as well.
"Well, I think it's time for bed now." Kakashi announced, shutting the book. "I probably shouldn't have read that story to you guys right before bed, so you would be better off forgetting all about it. And don't tell Sakura about the story either. I don't' want her getting all strung up over it like you two did.
"I did not get strung up over it!' Sasuke said in a slightly defensive tone.
"You so did!" Naruto laughed. "Is Sasuke-chan afraid of the big scary bears that'll come to get him in the dark?" he added in a gushy baby voice.
Sasuke did his best to ignore Naruto's teasing as he went into the tent, but not before replying, "Not as afraid as you, you big baby."
"Sasuke, you bastard! You're asking for it, insulting me like that!"
"But who made the first insult, Naruto?" Kakashi reminded the boy. "Now off to bed. I don't want to have to carry you to your sleeping bag."
Naruto went into his tent, bidding goodnight to his sensei, and crawled into his sleeping bag. A few hours later, Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi were sleeping soundly, but Naruto however, was still awake, unable fall asleep with the ghost story still fresh in his mind. He had to go to the bathroom as well, and in the dead middle of the night of all times. After Sakura's outburst earlier, he didn't want to try to ask her to take him to the washroom. Kakashi had already taken him a few nights ago, so he didn't want to trouble his tired sensei by asking him again. That left Naruto's ever-stoic rival, Sasuke, to ask.
Naruto gulped as he crawled out of his sleeping bag, crawled over to Sasuke, and shook his shoulder. "Sasuke, wake up! Please?"
Naruto continually shook Sasuke until he finally awoke and sat up.
"What is it? I was having a great dream where Sakura finally left me alone as her affections of love suddenly turned towards Kakashi-sensei instead of me..."
Naruto stared at Sasuke in shock and disgust for a moment before Sasuke fully woke up, half aware that he had just blurted out his ridiculous dream.
"...What? What do you want? I was sleeping!" Sasuke snapped irritably.
Naruto shook away Sasuke's dream and quickly remembered why he had bothered the irritated Uchiha in the first place.
"I gotta go to the bathroom!"
Sasuke groaned, "Why didn't you go before bed?"
"Because I didn't have to go back then, but I really have to go now! Can you please be my bathroom-buddy for tonight?"
"No. Go ask Kakashi-sensei. I'm not taking you."
"But he already took me! It wouldn't be fair to bug him again."
"Then go ask Sakura."
"But she'll kill me! Literally!"
"Then go by yourself!"
"But we're not allowed! Kakashi-sensei said so!"
"Who cares what he says! You can go alone and he won't even notice or hardly care."
"B-but..." Naruto stammered.
"But what?" Sasuke asked, clearly quite pissed off now.
Sasuke couldn't see clearly the dark, but Naruto's lip began to quiver and his eyes got watery.
"I'm afraid of going in the dark alone."
Sasuke stared dumbfounded at Naruto for a moment. How the hell was this loud and proud, boastful boy going to become Hokage if he was afraid of going to the washroom alone in the dark?
Sasuke gave a heavy sigh before he stood up, grabbing the flashlight and slipping his sandals on. "Fine, but it's going to be Sakura's turn next time you have to go."
"Yup, I got it!" Naruto chirped, slipping his sandals on and following Sasuke out of the tent, leaving the campsite to go to the outhouse. They walked in silence most of the way, until the silence was broken when Naruto's footsteps began sounding rather funny to Sasuke's ears.
Sasuke turned around to see that Naruto was doing some kind of weird hopping and dancing routine.
"What are you doing, Naruto?"
"I really got to go badly!" Naruto whined. "Are we almost there? Please tell me we're almost there!"
"We're there." Sasuke announced.
"Really?"
"No. I'm just screwing around with you."
Naruto tried to shout out Sasuke's name in anger, but it came out as a moan instead. They walked for another five minutes, Naruto becoming more fidgety and trying to sing a campfire song to keep his mind occupied.
Sasuke sighed, "Naruto, save the campfire songs for the campfire."
"But I need to sing so I can keep my mind off of-Hey! There it is!" Naruto cried in relief as he grabbed the flashlight from Sasuke and ran up towards the outhouse.
Sasuke cried, "Hey! Don't leave me back here in the-" The outhouse door slammed shut. "-dark..." he finished lamely.
Taking a few moments, Sasuke carefully made his way to the dim glow the flashlight made in the outhouse, praying that he wouldn't step into any potholes or walk into a ditch, bear, or skunk. Sasuke whacked his fist on the door. "Hey idiot! Next time wait until I know where I'm going before you run off with the flashlight!"
There was a yelp of surprise and then the outhouse became dark. Then there was a scream of fear. "Sasuke, you bastard! You made me drop the flashlight down the toilet!"
Naruto screamed as he was once again, trapped inside of a dark and smelly outhouse.
Sasuke groaned as Naruto's screaming filled the campgrounds and the surrounding forests and mountains. "Well, he's probably going to wake up all the campers now." But then he remembered that he and team 7 were the only campers in the campgrounds, aside from Gai's team. Nevertheless, the screaming had to stop.
"Naruto, stop screaming!"
Naruto didn't seem to hear Sasuke though, so the screaming continued.
Sasuke's voice obviously couldn't match Naruto's loud screaming one, so he approached the outhouse, kicked down the door and grabbed Naruto's arm.
"Who are you? Oh man, don't kill me!" Naruto pleaded.
"It's me, you loser!" Sasuke snapped.
"Oh, Sasuke! You saved me!"
"Yeah, yeah. Now let's blow this stink house and get back to the tent. If we can get back that is." Sasuke grumbled, pulling Naruto from the outhouse and back onto the dark path.
"Great job, Naruto. Thank you for losing our only source of light in this damn wilderness!"
"Well you startled me when you pounded your fist on that outhouse door, which caused me to drop the flashlight!" Naruto defended himself.
Sasuke sighed, trying to calm himself. "Ok, we've seriously got to stop bickering and somehow try to find our way back without the flashlight."
"When the flashlight burned out a couple nights ago, Kakashi-sensei and I had to feel our way back."
"And how did that go?"
"Well, Kakashi-sensei actually knew what he was doing and where we were going. Aside from falling into a ditch, we did pretty well!"
"Ok then. We'll just find our way back by instinct." Sasuke said, doubting Kakashi's method of feeling their way back to the campsite in the dark.
"How will you do that?" Naruto asked.
"First of all, give me your hand." Sasuke ordered.
A moment of silence hung in the air.
"I'm not trying to imply anything, ok? Just give me your hand so I can get back to the tent and sleep!" Sasuke commanded angrily.
Naruto reluctantly gave Sasuke his hand.
"Ok, I have a general sense of where we're going. I think we keep walking straight for five minutes and turn left, walk for another 2 and then turn right into our campsite."
"That sounds easy enough!" Naruto said, relieved.
Sasuke started inching forward, Naruto closely following behind. This went on for about 5 long minutes before Naruto spoke up, "Can't we go a little faster?"
"Are you crazy? If we do that, we'll over-shoot the route we're supposed to take or fall into a ditch like you and Kakashi-sensei idiotically did the other night!"
"Yeah, you're right." Naruto agreed. "I sure don't want to fall into a ditch again. It hurt!"
"Exactly why I don't want to fall into a ditch. Now let's just keep moving."
Sasuke inched forward faster and then eventually turned left. They walked further and turned right into their campsite and listened for the sounds of humans breathing. Surely enough, they could hear their team-mates' breathing.
"Alright, we made it back alive and unharmed. Now don't bug me again tonight." Sasuke told Naruto.
"Sure thing! Thanks, Sasuke." Naruto replied, yawning.
Exhausted, Sasuke and Naruto both clambered into their tent and fell asleep before they even made it to their sleeping bags.
To be continued...
Please review! And don't kill me because I lied about this being the last chapter. Once again, I'm really sorry.