I don't own TD series or Naruto
**Camera Static**
Ignoring the wet and angry teens, Kakashi eye smiled to the camera and kept going as if nothing happened.
"Ah precious moments, immortalized by technology." He said with a sigh as Karui stomped up to him, twitching in obvious anger.
"What's the big idea, dumping us in the water HUH!"
"Why, it's just a little first test." Kakashi said in mock offense, placing a hand lightly on his own chest as if he were taken aback by the accusation. "I figured ninjas would be more than capable of realizing when their ground is being swept out from under them, but I guess not." he said with a shrug.
"But everyones' failings aside." Ignoring the growling and glares sent his way, "It's time for the first competition!" That shocked them out of their anger and back to focus, a challenge right out of the gate.
"Consider this a 'get to know you' event. Ninjas often need to multitask, and collect information on the fly. They also would need to travel great distances on foot, so your challenge is two fold." Kakashi explained, pulling a large map from somewhere on his person and holding it out in front of him for the ninjas to see.
"Your task is to complete a run around the entirety of the island, while also socializing with your fellow competitors. Because the reward for today's challenge is simple, the top two finishers of the race get to be our two team captains, and will pick teams after the completion of the race." Kakashi explained and many eyes sharpened at the news, eyes shifting back and forth in competition.
"Keep in mind," Kakashi continued, "That not everyone will be the same speed, so there might be some people the leaders will be blindly selecting, so choose carefully." Kakashi warned before leading the teens a short distance away, to a starting line marked in the sand.
"Not every challenge will be as simple as today, but a nice run on the beach will be all for today. Go."
Many stumbled at the suddenness of Kakashi's words, but Naruto and Sasuke shot off full speed before anyone else could realize the race had begun, Neji, Lee, Kiba, and Fu not far behind them. Kurotsuchi and Karui made up the last of the sprinters as the group rapidly left everyone else behind them.
The rest of the ninja took off as well, starting out at a jog but speeding up to a light run. Not a sprint, but fast enough to make a good time. A large group of the girls were in this group, Ino, Sakura, Samui, Temari, Tenten, and Hinata. As well as Chojuro, Omoi. And Haku. Ino and Sakura were harshly glaring at one another as they ran, their competition keeping them in the lead of the middle group while the rest fell in behind them, Tenten, Haku and Hinata talking quietly amongst one another and Chojuro and Omoi drifting towards one another as the only boys in the group.
The final group was the walkers, consisting of Gaara, Kankuro, Shikamaru, Choji, Sai, Karin, and Shino. Shino, Gaara, and the lone girl Karin were content to walk in silence, the other four struck a conversation as they walked, ignoring Kakashi's eye on them as they were the last out of his line of sight.
**Camera Static**
Naruto and Sasuke were still leading the pack, neither one willing to let up at all as they raced around the island, sand spraying behind their heavy footfalls, focusing more on speed than on stealth like some ninja might.
"Not bad teme, you're actually managing to give me a challenge, and here I thought I'd have this thing in the bag!" Naruto complimented as he grit his teeth and kept going full speed, regardless of the fact that they'd already been running for almost an hour without slowing up.
"Like a dobe could beat me." Sasuke spat at him, matching Naruto's intense pace step for step, sweat shining on his forehead as he readjusted his rope belt and sword around his waist, not stopping for a second at the minor inconvenience.
"Oh, and what makes me such a 'dobe' teme." Naruto challenged, flexing his arms as he ran, rolling up the sleeves of his jumpsuit, revealing well developed and toned arms that told of years of training.
"Only a dobe could wear such a hideous color and smile about it, clearly you were dropped on your head repetitively as a child." Sasuke growled back.
"And your parents clearly had you go through a surgery to get a concrete pillar inserted right up main street." Naruto returned fire, both scowling at the shots at one another, before turning away from each other and speeding up again, focusing only on out racing one another.
Just behind them, Neji and Lee were having a similar contest, but instead of insults being traded, Lee was encouraging both himself and his opponent with a wide smile as he blitzed through the sand.
"YOSH! This is a good race, Neji, but we must work harder to catch up with Naruto and Sasuke, both are truly strong competitors to race so quickly for so long!"
Neji only scoffed at Lee's enthusiasm, rolling his eyes and keeping pace with him with what seemed like ease, although the sweat marks slowly forming on his white shirt showed that was only a front. "As if I would lose to that orange garbed loser, or you for that matter, dead last clown." Neji spat at Lee, whose smile didn't even falter at the insult.
"YOSH! We shall see then my speedy friend! Look out Naruto, I will catch up with you!"
"Better get moving then Lee, BRING IT ON!" Naruto called back over his shoulder, leaning forward slightly and increasing his speed as he did so.
And with that the two were racing off after Naruto and Sasuke again, the latter duo slowly putting more distance between the other pair of racers.
A little ways behind Lee and Neji, Kurotsuchi and Karui had caught up to Kiba and Fu, all four now running quickly across the sand with practiced ease, although they could all see Neji and Lee pulling away from them with no sight of Sasuke and Naruto.
"Ladies." Kiba addressed the other three with his attempt at a suave voice, wiggling his eyebrows as he ran alongside them. "You're looking hot today."
Kurotsuchi rolled her eyes at the obvious and open ended flirt from the cocky boy while Karui scoffed and shot him a glare that did nothing to the boy's confidence.
"Hello, nice to meet you Kiba, I'm Fu!" Fu greeted with a smile, keeping her fast pace easily despite the conversation. "Aren't you getting hot in that jacket?" She honestly asked, "We're all in lighter weight clothing, so if anyone here would get heat stroke, it'd be you."
Kiba stuttered and stumbled for a second while Karui and Kurotsuchi chuckled at the playboy getting stonewalled by the innocent and naive girl who kept on running as if the fang tattooed boy hadn't just almost face planted in the sand.
"Don't worry about him too much Fu." Kurotsuchi told the mint haired girl while Karui listened in. "The horn dog is more than used to spending hours at a time getting sweaty in a leather suit."
At this Karui gave a bellow of laughter and Kiba fully face planted in the sand at the implication. Fu completely missed what was being implied and just shrugged, speeding ahead while Kurotsuchi and Karui laughed and Kiba was spitting sand out of his mouth on all fours.
"Nice one, seems like he's more than used to being stuck on all fours anyway." Karui snarked back to Kurotsuchi as the two picked speed back up to catch up with Fu while Kiba gagged again at the comment. After a minute of cleaning out both his mind of the images the snarky girls put into it and his mouth of the sand, Kiba was back on his feet and sprinting off again, growling in anger with the black and red haired girls who mocked him.
**Camera Static**
A ways behind the sprinters, Sakura and Ino were leading the mid level, spitting insults at one another the whole way.
"Harlot hair"
"Blonde bimbo"
"Billboard brow"
"Flower Slut"
"Washboard chest"
"Pig face"
And so on and so forth. A little ways behind them, the rest of the middle speed runners were lazily chatting amongst themselves, ignoring the pinkette and platinum blonde's feud.
"So, do those two boss you around often?" Chojuro asked Omoi as the two ran at an even pace alongside one another, eyes scanning the large group conversing just ahead of them while they brought up the rear of the group.
"Depends." Omoi replied, shifting the candy in his mouth. "Our teacher is pretty chill most of the time, so Karui yells a lot in his place. But if he's ever not around, Samui takes charge of everything."
"So what I'm hearing is, you're completely and utterly whipped."
"Yup." Omoi nodded solemnly. "But it's honestly fine. If neither of them ever took charge then I'd have to take charge and if I have to take charge I have to make all the decisions and if I have to make decisions then I'd make wrong decisions and if I make the wrong decisions it'd attract attention and if we have attention then the government might come after us and if the government comes after us they might experiment on us and we'd all end up dead!"
Chojuro just watched Omoi talk himself up to panicked levels of volume, the candy in his mouth twitching as he spoke. "Have you considered anti-depressants?"
"I can't take meds, if I do then…" Omoi started up again and Chojuro did his best to tune the worrywart out.
Between the bickering duo at the front and the two boys trailing in the back of the mid-speed runners, the remaining four girls and Haku were talking amongst themselves.
"So who do you think actually will grab one of the leader spots? With how they took off, it's down to eyebrows, girly hair, broody, and captain orange." Temari was the one who shifted the topic away from the weather and the like, posing the question to the other four running with her.
Tenten was the first to speak after almost a moment's thought, "Naruto and Sasuke were the first two out of the gate, as long as the two of them have the stamina to stay at the front it'll probably be those two. Makes me glad that Lee won't be a captain, doesn't really seem like leadership material honestly."
"He certainly does have a lot of...energy." Temari agreed, trailing off before turning to the others in the group.
Haku just gave her a coy smile but remained silent, pacing themself equally with the others but showing no visible strain despite the heavy layers of clothing they were wearing.
"As long as they're cool, I don't mind any of them being leader." Samui added in her two cents, not fully paying attention to the rest of the running group, her assets bouncing as she ran.
"N-neji nii-san is very capable and f-fast, but Naruto looks like he could b-beat him if he tried hard enough…" Hinata said with a small stutter, her expressions turned inwards and guarded as she aired her opinion.
"So a general vote for Naruto and one of the two broody boys huh, and zero faith in eyebrows." Temari summarized the opinions with a raised eyebrow, taking in the information given, and the method it was delivered in.
"Sounds about right, Sasuke would probably be the more serious leader and Naruto would be the fun one, but Sasuke's team would probably have the advantage." Tenten agreed before turning her attention towards Haku. "And while I know I'm probably not going to get an answer, but are you a really girly boy, or just a chick? Because you really have both angles going for you."
Haku tilted their head coyly as everyone turned to face them, smiling a little without showing any teeth. "If we get close enough, I'm sure you'll find out Tenten, those buns do look very good on you."
Tenten blushed crimson while the others laughed and kept running, even the shy Hinata giggled a little at the remark.
"Well we'll just have to wait and see if anyone figures it out then, we ARE ninja after all." Temari snarked at Haku, a challenging glint in her eye that Haku matched, the two of them issuing an unspoken challenge of their own, although it was one much friendlier than the bickering duo in front of them.
"We'll just see if we end up on the same team then. I'm sure I will be up for the challenge." Haku, laughing in a soft tinkle alongside the others as everyone continued running around the island beaches.
**Camera Static**
A good way behind the middle group, the last of the competitors were walking along the beach, a few conversing amongst themselves, and others remained completely silent in their march.
Shikamaru and Choji were walking alongside each other, mostly in silence aside from some commentary from Choji about the large boy's first impressions of the others while he munched on a large bag of potato chips and Shikamaru's periodic interjections of 'troublesome'.
Behind them was Gaara and Shino walking in complete silence, Gaara walking along the sand with his sandals in one hand, his bare feet crunching softly along as a thoughtful scowl covered his face as he walked.
Shino on the other hand was walking on the edge of the treeline, his focus more directed on the forest than on the beach path in front of him, his hooded form slowly marching through the light shadows cast by the treeline.
At the tail end of the walkers was the last grouping, consisting of Karin, Sai, and Kankuro, who were talking as they walked.
"So both of us came with family huh?" Kankuro asked Karin as they walked. "Siblings do make for a nice voting block don't they?"
Karin rolled her eyes and groaned at the cat suited boy, "Naruto's my COUSIN not my brother. We barely even look alike" She complained. "His mom, my aunt, all but dragged me into the audition video and forced me along when we both got accepted."
"So you plan to be eliminated early then?" Sai asked in his fake cheery voice, his eyes closed, no teeth smile creeping out both Karin and Kankuro.
"I mean, I don't really care about winning, I know if it came down to it Naruto would beat the crap out of me in pretty much every aspect of being a ninja, but as long as that hunk Sasuke is here I might as well try and stay, now there's a ninja if you know what I mean." Karin finished with a giggle, a small trickle of blood dripping down her nose.
"Creepy crush aside, I get the feeling." Kankuro agreed, ignoring the odd behavior from Karin without so much as blinking. "Gaara is an absolute monster, and while he doesn't really look it, I doubt there's anyone here who can take him head on." Kankuro punctuated his statement by nodding forward at his silent brother, who was still slowly walking through the sand, dragging his toes behind him as he walked to feel the sand under his feet.
"I understand." Sai suddenly piped up, getting Karin and Kankuro to turn to face him, red and brown eyes questioning his sudden comment. "You both are spineless and have already decided you are going to lose."
"OI!"
"HEY!"
Kankuro and Karin yelled at the pale and still smiling teen who didn't even flinch at the angry yelling directed at him. He just smiled slightly larger and continued walking, ignoring the protesting squawks from the duo he had just insulted, his half shirt blowing slightly in the faint breeze coming up off the water.
"Come on then spineless cat and spineless tomato, we still have to finish the race." Sai remarked with obviously fake cheer in his voice, once again ignoring the angry yelling, squawking, and sputtering from the duo he insulted.
Watching their spat, Gaara and Shikamaru eyes both tightened almost unnoticeably, intense focus only visible for a brief moment before fading away to apathy again.
**Camera Static**
"It looks like our top two competitors are coming in hot now." Kakashi commented blandly as two plumes of dust grew on the horizon. After only a few more seconds, it was quickly revealed to be Naruto and Sasuke, still neck and neck with one another, glaring and with hands twitching to shove one another as they neared the finish line.
Both noticing Kakashi and the finish line at the same time, both Naruto and Sasuke threw a shove at one another, Sasuke with a one handed swipe and Naruto with a shoulder check.
Both ninjas responded equally quickly to the other however, Sasuke turning his shove into a leap over Naruto, keeping his forward momentum perfectly while Naruto transitioned his check into a forward lean and kicked up his speed for the final sprint.
Kakashi blinked as both young ninja blitzed past him, skidding to a half several dozen feet past the finish line, kicking up a spray of sand as they did so, both turning to glare at one another, Naruto with a smirk on his face while Sasuke was grimacing in fatigue.
"Congrats you two, you are now the team captains, take a moment to catch your breath while everyone else catches up." Kakashi said to the duo with a little wave, noticing that even as he said so, Lee and Neji were dashing into view, ending the lap of the island only minutes behind Naruto and Sasuke.
"Yosh!" Lee cheered when he saw both Sasuke and Naruto already waiting at the finish line, ignoring Neji as the long haired boy fought to catch his breath. "I see both of you will make for fitting rivals in this contest, I look forward to our competition!"
"Back at ya' Lee, friends and rivals!" Naruto agreed with a cheeky thumbs up and smile of his own, and he and Lee laughed heartily to themselves while both Sasuke and Neji rolled their eyes while finishing catching their breath.
It took several hours for the walkers to finally make it to the finish line, all the while the rest of the ninja competitors banter lightly amongst themselves under Kakashi's….semi…watchful eye. When it wasn't glued to the orange novel he was reading that is.
Finally, Shikamaru and Choji crossed the finish line, the lazy teen with his hands stuffed in his pockets with a blank expression while Choji worked his way through a massive bag of chips.
"Now that everyone has arrived…finally…" Kakashi trailed off to give the last duo a stink eye that Choji missed and Shikamaru ignored with a muttered 'troublesome', "Sasuke and Naruto, as the first two to cross the finish line, you are our team captains."
"So which one of them gets first pick, because clearly I should be Sasuke's first choice." Sakura attempted to flirt, failing to notice that Sasuke completely ignored her, his focus instead on Kakashi.
"Well, we had a photo finish," Here Kakashi held up his phone, revealing that Naruto and Sasuke crossed the finish line at literally the exact time, "And that meant nothing, so I'll just flip this coin and whoever wins the flip gets first choice."
Kakashi wasted no time flipping the coin high into the air, Sasuke's gaze snapping to the coin instantly while Naruto stared down Kakashi instead. Shikamaru's gaze followed the entire exchange with a lazy eye.
"Tails"
It was Sasuke who called it, and the second he did, Kakashi swiped the coin out of the air with one hand and slapped it down onto the back of his other hand, holding up the revealed coin, depicting a ceremonial oni mask.
"And heads it is, which means you get first pick Naruto." Kakashi said cheerily and Naruto whooped to himself before turning to face the rest of the assembled ninja.
Glancing at his cousin Karin for a moment, who sent him a death glare and drew her thumb over her throat before jerking it towards Sasuke, Naruto turned his attention to the third/fourth place finishers of the race.
"Lee, you're with me!" Naruto announced and the balck haired boy cheered alongside his new team captain, fist bumping him as he joined him in line."
"Neji." Sasuke quickly responded, and the long haired boy strode behind his fellow stoic ninja soundlessly, breathing softly in relief that he dodged being on the same team as either of the energetic goofballs, no matter how fast they ran.
"Temari." Naruto took almost no time with his next selection, cheerily pointing to the blonde with four pigtails, who raised an eyebrow and silently walked into line behind him, leaving Sasuke to ponder his choice.
"So why me blondie? I wasn't one of the runners at the top line like you and eyebrows here." Temari asked, trying to figure out Naruto's strategy.
"Well I figure we blondes have more fun, so I was just going to pick all the blondes." Naruto answered without hesitating, a smile still stretched across his face.
"Of course you are…" Temari muttered, resisting the urge to face palm as Sasuke selected Kurotsuchi as his next teammate, the professional girl walking over to his side wordlessly as Neji had.
"Do you trust me as a teammate?" Temari asked before Naruto could make his next pick.
"Sure. Kakashi, Temari is gonna make my next pick." Naruto announced and both host and contestants blinked in shock while Karin facepalmed and muttered about 'over-trusting idiots'.
"We'll take Gaara." Temari announced, and her youngest brother joined them silently, only those from the back of the pack remembering Kankuro's warning about the crimson haired shinobi.
"Kankuro." Clearly, Sasuke wouldn't allow all three siblings to be on Naruto's team, despite how ridiculous the third one dressed.
"Samui." Naruto picked next, continuing his theme of blondes, and Temari rolled her eyes at the fact that Naruto's first two blonde picks had been the girls.
"Shino." The creepy hooded ninja joined Sasuke's team.
"Ino." Naruto picked and Temari's suspicions were confirmed while Ino growled in displeasure at being chosen for the team competing against Sasuke rather than by the dark haired teen.
"Haku." The androgyneus teen joined Sasuke's team with a pleasant smile for everyone.
"Omoi." The last of the blondes, the hyper nervous one, joined Naruto's team, and Samui had to smack him over the head to get him to stop muttering to himself.
"Tenten."
"Uh…" Naruto trailed off as he surveyed the remaining options, with no blondes left, he was running out of ideas for who to pick, everyone just seemed so friendly. "Does anyone want to join my team?" Naruto asked, and Fu quickly raised her hand and waved it in the air.
"Oh, I do!"
"Welcome to the team then Fu!" Naruto welcomed the mint haired girl, sharing a fist bump with her, and Lee exchanged a thumbs up with her as well, getting a laugh from her.
"Sai." Sasuke selected without waiting for Fu to fully join Naruto's team, selecting the second of the creepy contestants for his team.
"Hmmmm" Naruto paused to think again, noticing how Hinata seemed to duck behind Choji away from him while both Sakura and Karin were sending him glares that threatened death if he picked them. "I guess I'll go with Kiba."
The slowest in the sprinter group joined Naruto's team with a haughty laugh and smirk, wiggling his eyebrows at Ino and Samui as he joined the team, both of whom ignored him completely.
"Karui." Like before, Sasuke seemed to realize it probably wasn't the best idea to let Naruto's side have any of the established groups completely on his team.
"Hey Naruto, take Shikamaru next, lazy bastard can at least come up with a halfway decent strategy if he has to." Ino told her team leader, and Naruto nodded along and took the lazy teen next.
"What a drag…" Shikamaru complained before trudging over to Naruto's team.
"Choji." Sasuke selected next.
"Chojuro." Naruto's penultimate choice was easier for him, as of the remaining four, he seemed like the only one who didn't actively want to avoid being on his team. Hinata shying away from him and the death glares from Sakura and Karin sent enough of a message for him.
"Hinata." Sasuke selected just as quickly, ignoring the continued pouts at him from Karin and Sakura. He knew he was going to wind up stuck with one of them, but Sasuke had long ago learned his lesson about fangirls…they were absolutely not worth the trouble.
Hinata squeaked lightly and joined Sasuke's team, flinching under Neji's harsh glare directed towards her.
Now Naruto was stuck with a choice, take either his cousin, and the rather pretty pink haired girl Sakura, both of whom were glaring at him with everything they had to try and ward him off from picking them. Better the devil you know Naruto eventually decided as he made his final selection.
"Karin." Naruto chose, getting a curse from the vibrant red head and a whoop of joy from Sakura.
"And that leaves Sakura for your team Sasuke." Kakashi said, shooing the girl towards the sulking Sasuke.
"So: Naruto, Lee, Temari, Gaara, Ino, Shikamaru, Fu, Omoi, Samui, Kiba, Karin, Chojuro. You twelve make up our first team, the Titanic Toads!" An orange toad in a seated position was their team's logo, the color making Naruto fistpump in excitement.
"And the other half: Sasuke, Kurotsuchi, Sakura, Choji, Haku, Karui, Shino, Neji, Tenten, Sai, Hinata, Kankuro. You are hereby dubbed, the Howling Hawks!"
"Do hawks howl?" Tenten wondered aloud as a green logo depicting a diving hawk chimed and hoverd next to their team.
"Who knows." Kakashi shrugged, "All I know is that you all have a night to get settled into your cabins, because we are starting our first challenge off bright and early tomorrow! So fall in everyone!" Kakashi marched the 24 teens into the heart of the camp from the beach, pointing at the two cabins.
"Each team gets a cabin, and there's a side for each gender…which may or may not have the correct number of beds because someone," Here Kakashi glared at Haku, "refused to let us know their gender."
"What kind of ninja simply gives out information about themselves, it's simply illogical Kakashi-san." Haku said cheerily before making their way towards the Hawk's cabin, completely unflustered by the man's glaring.
"Well, they do have a point…how troublesome." Shikamaru groaned, heading towards the Toad cabin himself, long since ready to pass out.
"Well, we've met the teens and made the teams, what comes next, only I know." Kakashi addressed the camera as the ninja teens trickled off to the cabins, intent on further socialization and sleep.
"Find out next time on TOTAL! NINJA! ISLAND!"
**Camera Static**
And there I go, almost forgetting to update because I forgot what day of the week it was…ah life. It kicks you when you're down. Constantly.
The story continues, I actually made them all do a thing to be on teams, build up on the Naruto and Sasuke rivalry stuff. From the very limited feedback I've gotten, the only thing to address is about pairings, and honestly, they're just there for social dynamics for the game, not a focus of the story. If I'm following canon and straying doesn't matter, because I'm not focusing on pairings…mostly because the only kind of romance I can write is the warrior and fair maiden kind…and that's really overdone in Naruto fics anyway.
Shout out to Green-Extreme-Ninjetti13 for being the first to fav and follow, literally a minute after posting the story.
Happy Reading -Centurion Africanus