Here's another drabble written for the LJ community narutocontest, and this week's is exceptionally cracktastic, complete with cheesy title:
Bikini Bonanza
Fund raisers were the root of all evil, and Iruka Umino could attest to this. He knew better than anyone that the academy indeed needed the money, considering some of the practice kunai were so old they wouldn't hold an edge no matter how much you sharpened them, and the straw dummies they used as targets didn't exactly grow on trees. However, he was still at a loss as to how he had been roped in along with Genma and Jiraiya to act as judges in Konoha's first kunoichi bikini competition.
It Konohamaru who had though of it and Iruka had fought against the instant barrage of supporters, but they argued that civilian and shinobi villagers alike would gladly pay for slightly overpriced tickets if it meant the opportunity to gaze at the local beauties in flimsy bikinis, and Tsunade had agreed.
Now he was in the middle of the judge's panel, surrounded by what was likely to be the entire village sitting in hastily erected wooden bleachers. The sun was shining but it wasn't unbearably hot, a perfect day for an outdoor swimsuit competition, at least it would have been if he was in to this sort of thing. The judges on either side of him seemed far more enthusiasm than he did. To the left, Genma was staring up expectantly at the temporary stage constructed for the event, senbon dangling from his lips like the world's deadliest toothpick, and to the right sat Jiraiya, rubbing his palms together in almost gleeful anticipation.
"Good afternoon folks, and thanks for coming out today to Konoha's first kunoichi swimsuit competition!"
Ebisu's voice rang out loud and clear on the microphone as he emerged from in between the white sheets that were serving as the stage's makeshift curtains.
A chorus of cheers came from the crowd, most of them male, at the word "swimsuit".
"I'd like to remind you that a hundred percent of the proceeds will go directly to the ninja academy. Thank you for all of your support," Ebisu continued, adjusting his dark glasses. "Now without further delay, let's start the show!"
Izumo tweaked a few knobs an the sound booth and gave a thumbs up to the man on stage, while behind the scenes, Kotetsu pulled the rope rigged to a simple pulley system to open the curtains. Both seemed far more happy with their current jobs than their usual tasks better known as "Tsunade's persona; gophers."
More masculine shouts filled the air as Ebizu took a seat on a stool near the wings, microphone in hand.
Genma clapped enthusiastically while Jiraiya cheered like he was rooting for his favorite team. Iruka grabbed a tissue out of the box on the table before him, just in case. He was prone to explosive nose bleeds at the sight of a beautiful woman, which was why he hadn't wanted to judge in the first place. He had a reputation of being a respectable man, something that was important when he worked with so many children, and he didn't want a public display of a nosebleed caused by perverted thoughts to change that.
"Our first contestant is a master with all things sharp, pointy, and hazardous to your health. Please welcome Tenten!"
Whistles and heavy applause greeted the brunette as she walked on stage. Her hair was free of its normal buns, done up instead in twin braids that only made her baby blue polka dot bikini all the more endearing, especially with the beach ball under her arm.
"There's my Tenten, a beautiful blossom in the springtime of youth!" a voice cried out above all the cheers, and nobody was surprised to see Gai standing up in his seat, hands clasped together as tears streamed down his face. The similar looking boy next to him seemed just as moved by their team mate's performance, both shouting praise, but Neji was simply shaking his head, a palm pressed to his forehead as he tried to endure the embarrassment of being seen with Rock Lee and their exuberant sensei.
"Gai, sit down. The people behind you can't see," a calm voice said. Mai looked down to the silver haired man sitting next to him and saw he hadn't even bothered to put down his book.
"But look at her charm, her beauty! Is it not a truly wonderful sight to see our students enjoying the fires of their youth?"
"Sit down," Kakashi repeated without looking up from his book.
Reluctantly, Gai complied, but continued to speak, his unnaturally bushy eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"Perhaps my female student exhibits more magnificence than your own?"
"Perhaps," he replied blandly.
"A challenge!" Gai cried, pointing a finger skyward for no apparent reason. "I say we let the judges find the gem which sparkles the brightest among Konoha's youthful treasures. The sensei of the loser shall do three hundred laps around Konoha on their hands, backwards.
"If you insist," Kakashi drawled, disinterested in the whole thing.
Up on stage Tenten was walking the perimeter, looking every bit the carefree girl she was role playing. Her performance seemed to impress at least two of the judges for Genma removed his senbon long enough to blow her a kiss and Jiraiya was scribbling in a notebook and muttering something about inspiration for a new book. Iruku had the tissue held to his nose, his eyes flicking about trying to look everywhere but at the woman on stage.
Tenten took the beach ball she had been holding and spiked it into the audience. It went straight for Neji and he caught the ball easily, looking at the girl who had thrown it with wide opal eyes. She giggled, clasping her hands behind her back, smiling at him from the stage and letting him and all of Konoha know that the ball landing in his lap had been more than chance. The Hyuuga's cheeks turned slightly pink and Kiba, who was sitting behind him, leaned forward to elbow him knowingly.
Teneten turned on her heel and flounced off stage, leaving a roaring crowd in her wake as Ebisu picked up his mic once again.
"Once again, that was Tenten ladies and gentleman. Wasn't she sweet?"
A chorus of yells let by Rock Lee confirmed that she was.
"Our next contestant is as pretty as the posies she sells. Please welcome Ino Yamanaka!"
The moment she walked on stage, whistles and cat calls erupted from all sides, including the judge's panel, considering Jiraiya was hollering loudly. Genma had settled for just waggling his eyebrows at her suggestively while Iruka could feel the first drops of blood trickle out his nose and into his tissue. It was hardly surprising considering she was wearing a metallic teal bikini that was definitely cut on the skimpy side. The bottoms were cut high and held together only by ties on the side and the triangles of fabric making up her top barely contained her breasts. Her hair was in its usual ponytail but her eyes held such a sultry and confident gaze that she had every man practically howling like wolves at the moon.
"Hey Shika, she doesn't look half bad," Chouji remarked through a handful of potato chips.
The young genius sighed, dragging his focus away from the sky and the clouds above to glance at her before yawning and picking at his ear with his pinky finger.
"This is all so troublesome," he mumbled. "She doesn't need all of this adoration going to her head."
"Now, now," Asuma chuckled between deep drags on his cigarette. "One of these days you're going to be interested in women and when that day finally comes, you might see the world a little differently."
Shikamaru tried not to notice as his sensei's hand discreetly took the hand of the woman next to him, gazing into her ruby red eyes before removing his cigarette to kiss her on the cheek. Shikamaru looked skyward again, convinced that the display was enough to make anyone sick.
In the row in front of him, Sasuke was looking equally bored, although not so much that he didn't steal a glance or two at the body that was on display.
"What do you know," Sai piped up, who so far had managed to sit net to the Uchiha without instigating a fight. "The dog doesn't look so ugly when she wears that."
"Yeah, sure," Naruto replied from his seat between Sai and Kakashi, shamelessly fascinated with the way Ino's chest jiggled slightly with her every step. "But if you ever talk to her in person about it, just tell her she looked pretty."
The blonde woman smiled seductively, showing off her best supermodel walk complete with poses, making sure everyone got a good view of her, both front side and back before leaving the stage, hips swishing provocatively.
"Let's hear it for Ino," Ebisu said, raising a fresh chorus of applause.
"Uh Kiba, are you ok?" Shino asked, noting that he was panting with his tongue out like a dog that had just run a mile. The real dog laying on the bleacher next to him was in the middle of a nap.
"Huh? Oh, I'm fine," Kiba replied, shaking his head like he had just come out of a daze. Kunrenai reached over the sleeping dog to whack the fanged ninja upside the head for practically drooling all over himself.
"Next is a little lady you might meet during your next hospital visit, but don't worry, she's sure to make it all better. Please welcome Sakura Haruno!"
"This is the last time I send you on an errand to buy me clothes," the medic kunoichi hissed to Kotetsu as she walked past him in the wings. He simply grinned at her and gave her the "ok" sign with his thumb and pointer finger, implying that despite her own opinion, he thought she looked great.
She rolled her eyes and plastered a smile on her face as she walked on to the stage, adjusting her grip on the orange plastic buoy under her arm.
"It appears I may have met my match," Gai noted as the audience cheered wildly. "You're student is a glorious vision of youthful beauty."
Kakashi finally dragged his gaze away from his book to focus on the woman on stage. If it wasn't for the mask covering his face, the whole town would have had the opportunity to witness his jaw go slack. His normally modest student was in a simple bikini, but what really made his mouth go dry were the strategically placed white medical crosses, one in the middle of each triangle of her top and one dangerously low on the front of her bottoms. If she was indeed in need of some first aid in those places, he wouldn't mind administering it.
"Wow, Sakura-chan is so hot, isn't she Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto shouted excitedly. Sai and even Sasuske were watching her attentively as well.
It seemed Kakashi was a little tongue tied at the moment, his visible eye wide and focused raptly on the pink haired woman on stage, so Naruto turned to Sai instead.
"It's a good thing you said she wasn't feminine enough for this contest, otherwise she never would have entered."
"Yes," Sai responded. "But I don't understand why she punched me in the face for it before going off to register."
"It's because you're an idiot," Sasuke replied tersely, although his eyes were still glued to Sakura.
"I suppose that beats a dickless backstabber," Sai remarked, smiling a fake, cheerful smile at the brooding man next to him.
A vein began to throb in the Uchiha's forehead as he finally turned to face the man beside him.
"Sai, after this contest is over, I'm going to kill you."
Iruka was beginning to panic. His nose was bleeding steadily now and he already had to change tissues twice. This was not looking good. Jiraiya was one again scribbling away in his notebook, letting out exclamations of "glorious" and "ultra sexy" that could be heard even over Rock Lee's loud and incredibly obnoxious confessions of love. Genma was eyeing her up and down like she was prime rib and he was a mighty hungry man. For as heated as his gaze was, Sakura returned one that was equally chilling, shutting down the Casanova on the spot.
"Sakura, you better win!" a shout sounded from the crowd. "I bet a lot of money on you!"
Shizune was unsuccessfully trying to subdue the already inebriated blonde at her side who was waving a mostly empty sake bottle around.
"Tsunade-sama, please calm down," she pleaded nearly getting smacked in the face by the glass bottle as the Hokage flailed her arms.
"Take off your top!" the buxom blonde hollered. "That will score you some points!"
Men within earshot agreed enthusiastically, pumping fists into the air, but it seemed like the pink haired kunoichi had no intention of turning the odds in her favor by baring a little extra skin.
"Sakura-chan, marry me!" Naruto blurted, not to be outdone by his green spandex wearing peer or the intoxicated godaime.
His plea stopped her in her tracks as she was walking away and she spun around to fix him with a glare. With frightening force and accuracy, she hurled her buoy at him, nailing him right between the eyes and sending him flying backwards off his seat before stomping off into the wings.
The whole audience went silence for a moment before simultaneously breaking into rounds of loud cheering.
"What a firecracker folks!" Ebisu said. "Let's hear it again for Sakura."
The host waited for the noise to subside before announcing the next contestant, but when he went to read off the note card in his hand, he squinted hard at it as if he couldn't believe what it said.
"Alright folk," he said, recovering at last. "Our next kunoichi is by far the youngest in the competition but let's make sure she feels welcome. On stage next is…Moegi."
While there was some hesitant applause, there was also a great deal of hushed whispering, mostly asking questions like, "wasn't there an age limit to register?" and "is it really alright to promote this?"
That didn't seem to deter the young kunoichi as she emerged from the curtains, smiling face beaming like the sun as she flounced around in her yellow tankini. Despite all her training, her figure was slightly rounded with the baby fat she had yet to lose. Other than that, she had no real curves to speak of.
"Jail bait," Genma muttered around his senbon, while Jiraiya scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"A scene with a minor could be something new and fresh, but would they still publish it?"
Iruka didn't even want to know what was going on in the older man's head, but he was thankful for the younger girl's appearance. He was able to look at her without feeling like every drop of blood in his body was going to squirt out his nose.
While she wasn't exactly the sexiest competitor, she was definitely cute, smiling and waving while grinning from ear to ear.
"Woo! Moegi rocks!" shouted Konohamaru who was sitting in the front row of bleachers. The praise from her team mate only made her beam brighter and she shined like a mini sun until she disappeared off stage.
"She's got to be the cutest little thing in Konoha," Ebisu said. "Let's give her another round of applause.
The crowd complied with clapping that was much less hesitant this time as Iruka made sure to give her full marks on his score sheet. Not making him feel like he was going to pass out from blood loss had to be worth something, right?
"We're coming down to the end folks. Only two more contestants to go."
The audience responded with a resounding "aww," not wanting the parade of eye candy to end so soon.
"I know, I know. So let's make sure we really cheer for our last two girls." Ebisu said before introducing the next name.
"This flower may be fair but she's not exactly delicate, and if she looks like she's staring right through you, that's because she is! Please welcome Hinata Hyuuga!"
The clapping and cheering was immediate and Kiba leaned over to talk to Neji again.
"Hinata? Really? You talked her into entering? How did you manage that?"
The brown haired man shrugged as he held his beach ball on his lap.
"Don't ask me. I had nothing to do with it. I think Hanabi told her that entering might get Naruto to notice her."
Kiba grinned toothily.
"Hopefully. That idiot is so dense that the whole world knows she likes him but him."
The clapping continued but slowly ebbed away when no bikini clad kunoichi appeared.
Ebisu looked around perplexed before announcing her again.
"I repeat, please welcome Hinata!"
The crowd had gone silent and a soft feminine voice could be heard coming from the wings.
"I-I can't go out there, not in…this."
"Sounds like your cousin is having second thoughts about this," Rock Lee whispered to the man next to him. Neji wasn't at all surprised. In fact, he had been astonished she had agreed to do it in the first place.
"It seems our next contestant is a little shy. How about we show her some support folks?" Ebizu said.
The crowd began to chant her name in unison, clapping as they called "Hi-na-ta!Hi-na-ta!"
Backstage, Kotetsu had left his post near the curtain to try and persuade the timid woman to walk on stage.
"Come on Hinata, it will only be for a few minutes. You can do it."
"B-but, everyone will see me dressed this way," she whimpered, crossing her arms over her chest in an attempt to cover herself more.
The man adjusted the bandage over the bridge of his nose and sighed.
"Well, yeah. The point of a swimsuit contest is that you wear a swimsuit."
"B-b-but I…"
Kotetsu realized words were not going to work on this girl and instead began to shoo her towards stage, closing in on her so the only place she could step was into the wings.
"No, Kotetsu-san. I can't…"
"You'll be great. Don't worry."
"No…please," she begged.
"Hinata, just go."
He punctuated his last word with a soft shove that sent her stumbling out onto the stage in view of everyone and instantly, the audience was hushed.
Hinata squeaked like a frightened mouse, her cheeks turning crimson as she tried to cover up her breast with crossed arms, knock knees trembling like a rabbit in the face of countless eyes fixed on her.
Her long, violet tinted hair hung loose down her back, framing her face and contrasting beautifully with alabaster skin. Opal eyes were wide and shiny as mortified tears welled up in them. It wasn't like her outfit was scandalous. In fact, the deep purple one piece was cut quite modestly with only an oval cut out in the back showing additional skin. The scoop neck line wasn't exceptionally low, but still showed off a hint of cleavage. If the contestants scored points based on cup size, Hinata was definitely in the running for first place.
For a breathless moment, nobody spoke, all eyes transfixed on the figure on stage that was wide eyed and frozen like a deer in the headlights. Then suddenly, as if a spell had been broken, everyone went wild at once.
"You're beautiful!" Rock Lee cried, practically swooning.
"Yes, a fine example of our vivacious youth," Gai agreed.
"Where has she been hiding those?" Kiba gasped, eyes practically popping out of his head. He had trained with her for years and not once had he seen her so exposed. Now that she had, he would never get the awe inspiring sight of her big, round breasts out of his head ever again.
Wordlessly, Kunrenai reached over to smack him again.
"It's a shame she's always wearing that jacket," Shino muttered low enough so he wouldn't receive similar punishment.
Neji groaned aloud. He had known about Hinata's bountiful breasts ever since they had first developed. As cousins, they shared a co-ed bath at the hot springs from time to time and he had noticed that she was unusually gifted in that particular area. She was always self conscious about them and always bound them as tightly as she could, but now that the whole village knew what was under her clothes, there would be no end to the men that came to call on her now. Great. Just great.
He looked over at the orange jacketed imbecile in the stands, hoping that he might finally get a clue. Hinata was doing it for him after all.
Naruto looked completely captivated, expression awed before melting into a dreamy and slightly goofy smile.
"Wow, she's so pretty," he murmured. "I always thought she was just some weird girl, but she's really pretty."
"Direct hit, cupid," Kakashi muttered, actually finding Hinata more interesting than his book, though not nearly as interesting as Sakura.
"About time," Sasuke grumbled, knowing that Naruto was long overdue in taking notice of the Hyuuga heiress.
Chouji had paused, a handful of chips raised halfway to his mouth and even Shikimaru was looking at her and not the clouds.
"Perfection!" Jiraiya cried, making a square with both thumbs and index fingers and peering through it like the viewfinder on a camera. "You are the next heroine of Icha Icha! Everything about you is magnificent!"
Genma, who was usually so suave and smooth, was staring slack jawed, eyes roaming over her figure from head to toe and back. He looked like a man lost in the desert that had finally spotted an oasis but was trying to figure out whether the heavenly vision was real or not.
Between them, Iruka had his eyes shut tight. Judging by the crowd's reaction, one look could be the end of him. He couldn't look. He wouldn't look, no matter how badly he wanted too. He had finally just gotten his nosebleed under control after Moegi's act and he didn't want to lose it all now. He simply wouldn't look and he would be fine. It would all be over see. He…wait, why was he opening his eyes?!
It appeared sheer curiosity and the fact he was a man were a greater force than his willpower. Before he knew it, he was staring at the adorably sexy scene that was Hinata Hyuuga, all flustered and shy and trembling, gorgeous without even trying.
It all happened so quick that he couldn't stop himself. He didn't even have time to grab a new tissue as a torrent of blood shot from both nostrils, the force sending him rocketing backwards and tipping over his chair.
"What the…jeez Iruka are you ok?" Genma asked, the twin geysers of blood next to him snapping him out of his stupor.
As he tried to help his incapacitated friend back into a sitting position, Hinata seemed to finally gain some of her mobility back. The wall of people cheering all for her was too much. She could face this many enemies, but this many fans? That was a concept too frightening to contemplate.
"I'm sorry!" she cried, tipping her head in a small bow before bolting off stage, lips quivering when she realized she hadn't even gotten the chance to pick Naruto out of the crowd.
Her abrupt exit only increased the volume of the plentiful cheers.
"She's so cute!" Kiba cried, seeing his team mate from a whole new perspective.
Naruto continued to stare dreamily at the spot on stage where she had been.
"I think the idiot is smitten," Sasuke scoffed, although he had to admit her rack had been impressive.
"Alright, alright. Let's settle down," Ebisu announced when it seemed the rampant cheering was not going to die down on its own. "We still have one more contestant to welcome."
Applause for Hinata finally died away, and he continued.
"This lovely lady had come quite a ways to be a part of this, so let's all show her how much we appreciate it. Let's hear it for Temari!"
Shikimaru, who had been slouching lazily in his seat suddenly sat up a little straighter.
"Temari? She didn't tell me she was going to be in town."
Asuma chuckled knowingly.
"What's this? Interested in things concerning a woman?"
The ponytailed man rolled his eyes as if the question was tedious.
"No. It's just that…she usually tells me when she'll be in Konoha."
"Maybe she wanted to surprise you," Kurenai smiled, exchanging glances with Asuma. They both knew what Shikimaru didn't want to admit to himself, but they weren't going to point it out. He would figure it out eventually.
A tall, slender figure took the stage, her strong presence demanding the attention of the audience. Her hair was in its usual style of four small ponytails but instead of the normal, massive fan she always carried, she had two smaller ones, one in each hand. They were open, displaying bright patterns that strategically covered her body at the breasts and hips. With the paper fans open, it was hard to tell if she was wearing anything underneath.
"I thought you had to be a Konoha ninja to qualify for this," Shino mused, lifting dark glasses to stare at her without a dark tint.
"Who cares man? Just enjoy the show," Kiba grinned, clearly appreciating the view.
Temari moved with style and grace, making sure her body continued to face the audience so as not to give away whether or not she was wearing a swimsuit by showering them her profile.
She definitely had a sexy aura about her, but something else was beneath the surface, a subtle something that every experienced ninja was attuned to. It was the aura of someone extremely dangerous. She may be beautiful, but she was like a rose, and getting pricked by her thorns could be deadly. To many men in the crowd, that only served to make her all the more alluring.
After walking across the stage, she made her way back to the middle. There were only whispered and low murmurs rippling through the crowd, meaning she had them completely intrigued. She smiled up at two men who had only just recently appeared behind the very back row of bleachers. They appeared to be floating in mid air, but she knew better.
With a theatrical flourish, she flipped the fans in mid air, passing them to opposite hands and spun around to close them both with a snap, revealing herself in a tiny black bikini that wasn't quite as small as Ino's, but darn close.
The crowd instantly applauded at her trick, whistling and clapping wildly.
One of the new figured was clapping as well while the other merely stood with his arms crossed.
"Don't encourage her Kankuro," the shorter man sighed, glaring at his brother's clapping hands.
"But look how happy she is. She's loving this, and the crowd obviously loves her," he replied before sticking two fingers in his mouth and whistling loud and shrill.
"Yes, she does seem to enjoy the theatrics," Gaara nodded. "Although, I still can't believe she dragged us all the way to Konoha for this."
"Hey, we could use the vacation," Kankura smiled, still clapping for his sister.
"Whatever," Gaara replied shortly, commanding the pillar of sand they were standing on to sink back into the ground.
Temari basked in the cheers and applause, strutting proudly around the stage. She had immediately caught sight of Shikamaru when she had entered the scene and made a point to direct her sultry gaze up at him. When she was sure his eyes had locked on hers, she winked before turning and walking towards the wings.
His spine went erect, sitting up straighter than he had for months at her flirtatious gesture, his cheeks turning a lovely shade of pale pink.
"What's the matter Shikamaru? You look flushed," Kurenai said, her voice teasing.
"It's nothing. I'm fine," he said irritably, stubbornly crossing his arms and looking once again towards the sky, although his blush didn't go away.
"All the way from Wind Country, let's hear it again for Temari!" Ebisu said, having become quite proficient at rallying the crowd. "That was our last contestant folks but don't go anywhere. After a few moments, the judges will determine a winner."
Right on cue, Genma stood, dragging an unconscious looking Iruka behind him who still had blood dribbling from his nose. Jiraiya brought up the rear, scribbling in his notebook and muttering something about a scene with a seductress who danced with fans and used them as a means to cover her naked body.
As they wandered off to an undisclosed location to compare scores, the contestants gathered in the wings.
Ino was staring after the judges and made a few hand seals before steepling her fingers in the sign marking her mind control jutsu. She might have succeeded in entering Jiraiya's mind too if Sakura hadn't caught her and slapped them out of the formed seal.
"No cheating Ino Pig," she barked with her hands on her hips.
"What's the matter? Afraid you don't have what it takes to win?" Ino smiled sweetly.
"Well apparently you are if you're resorting to cheap tricks," Sakura shot back
Ino's smile instantly transformed into a glare and the two stared daggers at each other until Temari intervened.
"Ok you two, that's enough," she said, smacking them both on the head with closed fans. "Let's at least be civil until the competition is over."
Moegi giggled.
"They're always like that Temari-san."
Tenten was speaking in soothing tones to Hinata who seemed highly distraught about going back on stage while the winner was announced and Kotetsu was silently enjoying the whole thing, doing his fair share of ogling while the ogling was good.
It didn't take long for the judges to return, Genma and Jiraiya taking their seats while Iruku, who had a wad of tissue shoved up each nostril, handed Ebisu an envelope.
"Well everyone, this is it," he said into the mic, summoning the attention of the crowd that had been murmuring amongst themselves until now. "I have the winning name here in my hand. But before we get to that, why don't we have all of our ladies come out one last time?"
As the swimsuit clad women made their way out onto the stage one by one, the crowd let out a deafening roar of applause that was by far the loudest of the afternoon.
All of them were smiling, except Hinata who seemed to be clinging to Tenten's hand as if for dear life, hoping she could steal some of her courage to dispel her stage fright via osmosis.
Ebisu took center stage, envelope in hand.
"Well, it was one heck of a competition ladies, but I'm afraid there can only be one winner, and may I remind you that the winner receives a free day of pampering at Konoha's local hot spring and spa."
The girls tittered among themselves. The word "spa" always seemed to get females excited.
"The winner of the first kunoichi swimsuit contest it…"
He paused for dramatic effect while the audience held its breath.
"Hinata Hyuuga!"
"Nooo!" Tsunade wailed, losing yet another bet before yelling, "It was rigged I tell you! Sakura should have won!"
Ino gasped, clearly shocked that she wasn't the victor while the crowd, once again, went wild. Moegi, Sakura and Tenten were congratulating the winning woman while Temari, seemingly uninterested in the whole affair, was once again smiling up at Shikamaru in the stands.
"Hinata, Hinata you won! Isn't that great?" Tenten smiled.
"Yeah, Naruto has to notice you now," Moegi grinned.
The heiress seemed at a loss for words, looking rather shocked and paler than usual.
"Congratulations!" Ebisu said into the mic as he handed her a bouquet of pretty pink roses along with her gift card to the spa.
"I…I…" Hinata sputtered.
Sakura noted that the winning woman suddenly wasn't looking so good.
"Hinata, are you ok?" she asked, the medic in her kicking in.
She never had a chance to answer, because her eyes slid shut and she fell to the floor as she fainted dead away.
Sakura was on her in an instant, ordering the others to stand back as she took her pulse and checked to make sure she was breathing. What should have been a critical situation only spurred on the enthusiastic crowd.
"Give her mouth to mouth!" Kiba yelled to Sakura before flinching as Kurenai threatened to hit him once again.
Neji sighed in his seat, not overly concerned about his cousin's condition. She fainted all the time, and honestly, he was mildly surprised she hadn't done it sooner.
Kotestu ran to his post and closed the curtains, obscuring the scene from view as Ebisu thanked everyone for coming out and told them that the contest was indeed over.
"You know," Kakashi said, leaning over to speak to Naruto. "After all this is over, you should take Hinata out to dinner to congratulate her."
Naruto's eyes were big and blue and hopelessly clueless.
"You really think so?"
"Of course," the masked man smiled. "You want to tell her how pretty she looked today right?"
The blonde grinned sheepishly.
"Well yeah. I never realized she looked so…well…pretty. She's even better looking than Sakura."
"Just don't tell her that or you're a dead man," Sasuke chuckled, shoving his hands in his pockets as he stood.
"I get the feeling that talking about a woman's appearance is a very delicate matter," Sai commented as they made their way down the bleachers with the rest of the crowd.
Kakashi chuckled at his student's lack of understanding when it came to the female species.
"Sai, you have no idea."
Iruka let out a heavy sigh of relief. He had survived his first fund raiser, although it probably wouldn't be his last if he continued to teach at the academy. One thing was for sure though. He didn't care how many people begged. All future fundraisers would have absolutely nothing to do with bikinis, plain and simple.
"Well, that went well, don't you think?" Genma asked, clapping him on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.
Considering the winner was passed out backstage and he still had tissue shoved up his nose, Iruka wasn't so sure.
"Yes, this was a big hit, and I was able to do plenty of research!" Jiraiya laughed.
A big hit huh? Tsunade would be the judge of that, but knowing her, she would gladly host another one no matter how much debt her betting on this one had put her in. If that was the case, Iruka was quite certain he wanted no part of it.
Far above the crowd, on top of the Hokage monument, two dark figures had been watching the proceedings, but now that the show was over, they turned to go.
"Damn, why doesn't our organization get some women like that? Our hideout is a sausage fest," one man complained as he adjusted the large sword he carried on his back. "And the only chick we do have is off limits."
"It would be an unnecessary distraction to have women around," the shorter man said as he walked away without a second glance.
The sword wielder grinned, displaying countless rows of dangerous, serrated teeth.
"That's probably true. You seemed particularly distracted by that pink haired girl in the red bikini. I don't blame you. I wouldn't mind having a little alone time with her myself if you know what I mean."
His partner shot him a crimson eyed glare that said he didn't appreciate his statement at all.
"I don't know what you're talking about," he said.
"Hey, you can deny it all you want Itachi, but you're human too you know," the tall, blue skinned man grinned. "I bet you can do some pretty awesome bedroom tricks with that Sharingan too."
"Drop it Kisame," Itachi said shortly, not at all amused by his partner's antics.
The shark man sighed as they made for Konoha's borders.
"Hey Itachi," he said after a moment. "What are the odds that the next town we go to will also be holding a swimsuit competition?"
"Not good," he replied with a swish of his red and black cloak.
Kisame chuckled.
"Well, I can dream can't I?"