Total Drama Action: Episode 3
The crafts tent
On a rare occurrence, Chef presented everyone with food that looked good. At least until some people started finding hair and nails on their plates.
"Wow, scrambled eggs!" Beth said, looking forward to breakfast.
Only to stop and see Chef who started laughing hysterically at her excitement. Either because those aren't really scrambled eggs, or the food was contaminated with something other than hair. Regardless, Beth moved on and took a seat next to Lindsay where Heather tried to join in.
Only to be ignored for obvious reasons.
Except that didn't mean Lindsay and Beth weren't going to dedicate their attention to someone else. That person being Justin who was basking in the attention as usual.
However, the show would have to be rebranded if there was no drama. For the drama came in the form of Duncan needing to prank Trent by tampering with the salt shakers.
"Are you serious, man? That's a waste of salt and bad luck!" Trent exclaimed.
But like with Harold whenever he got mad, Duncan chose to ignore his anger and concern. Just like Harold, Trent decided to try and ignore Duncan and remedy the situation for himself by reaching for the pepper. Trent couldn't help but slowly relate to Harold as Duncan tampered with the pepper shaker as well, making it spill.
"What's the matter with you!?" Trent asked, making Duncan laugh again.
At this point, even Gwen started to get annoyed at the sight of her boyfriend being picked on. At the same time, she wondered why Duncan wasn't picking on Harold as usual.
"Seriously Duncan?" Gwen asked.
"What? It's just a prank." Duncan said, not caring what he did.
As they spoke, Trent tried to counter his supposed bad luck by throwing pepper over his shoulder. Only for the pepper to hit Heather in the face and make her sneeze wildly.
"Okay, that was pretty funny dude." Duncan admitted as he laughed once again.
"I didn't mean it!" Trent replied.
"Sure." Duncan said, not believing him.
While Trent wasn't a fan of Heather and learned his lesson after she got him eliminated last season. Trent didn't have it in him to purposely harm someone. Something that Gwen understood despite not caring if Heather was harmed.
Nonetheless, the issues continued for Trent as Duncan ate one of Trent's scrambled eggs. Which seemed to make him get distressed.
"Hey, now I only have eight scrambled eggs!" Ternt complained.
"So?" Duncan asked, still not caring.
Gwen got behind Trent and hugged his shoulders before eating one herself, "There, now you only have seven. It's an odd number now."
While Trent was nice and happy now, Gwen didn't know about his obsession with the number nine and how that was the problem. Before Duncan could say anything about their relationship, he was blasted with a giant blast of water that sent him flying through the kitchen.
"Boy! Don't come in here unless I ask you to mop!" Chef yelled as he threw Duncan back out.
"Haha, now that's Karma." Harold quipped.
Before Duncan could threaten someone or stew in his anger. Chris arrived riding on a surfboard that was on some water that was magically keeping him a couple feet in the air.
"Cowabunga, everyone! Today's challenge is the teen surf genre." Chris said, confusing everyone but Harold.
"The what?" Leshawna asked.
"Leshawna, it's pretty obvious. It's about movies on the beach where people surf, make sand castles and sometimes the nerd gets a lucky hit on the beach bully." Harold explained, clearing some things up.
Harold scoffed as he stood up, "Yeah, "luck". You're lucky I didn't pick on you first."
Before Harold or anyone else could respond, Duncan was suddenly hit with another wave of water. Which got Harold and a couple of others laughing at Duncan who struggled to stand up on the wet ground.
"Okay, I think Duncan gets the message." Chris said.
"That's enough Juna." Naruto said from outside of the tent.
A few people looked outside to see Naruto talking to a large amphibious looking dragon. They also then saw a few more of Naruto's kids running past him with a few coolers and umbrellas. Naruto then packed up his own bag and extended his arms as the amphibious dragon began to glow and turn human.
Thus reverting Juna to her beautiful human form as she fell into Naruto's arms. The boys briefly got lovestruck as they saw Naruto gently put his daughter down.
"I guess it takes having a scary dad to be beautiful." Beth said.
"I think scary might be an understatement." Harold said.
"Hey! Get going already! Get your swim trunks or whatever ready! We got a challenge waiting for you!" Chris said as he rode away on his magic wave.
Later
The contestants were dressed like they were heading to the beach as requested. However, Chris just had to find a way to annoy them by taking them to an ice cold room. One where he set up a water tank filled with sharks and had a surfboard attached to a machine at the center of it.
"Are you serious Chris!? Why did you have us come out here if it was going to be freezing!?" Gwen angrily asked as she shivered.
"Firstly, for authenticity's sake. Secondly, I'm not exactly going to look my best if I'm sweating." Chris said selfishly.
"Of course, your looks matter the most." Heather said sarcastically.
"And thirdly, the heat would melt poor Chef's heart." Chris said, pointing to Chef who gave an innocent smile.
Everyone just glared at Chris who couldn't care less and instead had to listen to him about the challenge.
"For your little simple minds, I'm going to keep it simple. In surfing movies, you gotta know how to ride the waves. So, all of you gotta try and hang on without falling off of the board." Chris explained as if it were that simple.
Of course, the hungry sharks that were waiting for them didn't exactly say this would be easy. It didn't help that they saw Kushina in her security uniform arrive with a tray of meat. Which she dumped into the tank which got the sharks excited as they ripped apart their food.
"Did you really have to do that, ma'am?" Harold asked.
Kushina just shrugged before smiling and standing in the background. All the while disregarding the fact the sharks were more riled up.
"So, who wants to go first?" Chris asked, only to see everyone's anxiety. "The team that wins this challenge gets a half hour head start and you're going to need it considering tonight's reward."
Despite mentioning that detail, it didn't motivate anyone much to Chris' annoyance. So he decided to get some motivation and spoke into a radio in his pocket. Resulting in Naruto popping out from a door and taking a deep breath.
"What's he doing?" Leshawna nervously asked.
Naruto then breathed out, releasing a heavy gust of wind from his lungs. Not only did it make the room colder, but it made everyone fly away and struggle to stay in place. By the end, everyone crashed in various places with Harold landing on top of the surfboard.
"Harold! How kind of you to volunteer!" Chris said before laughing.
Harold glared at the host, "You're lucky I got some mad skills."
Harold then adjusted his position and started riding around as Chris signaled for Chef to tamper with the surfboard. Harold then struggled to hang on but then found himself almost being eaten by the sharks. Resulting in him jumping into the air and grabbing onto the railing above the set as the sharks continued to try and eat him.
"Those are some skills." Heather said sarcastically.
"I'll have you know–"
Harold was cut off by a shark biting at his pants. Forcing him to jump away and hide behind Leshawna and his other teammates.
Harold's Confessional
"I will have you know, among my many skills. Animal taming is unfortunately not one of them, but if it were. No one would be laughing." Harold said as he performed somewhat interesting magic tricks.
Back on set
Just as Chris wanted to see, the contestants failed in very embarrassing ways as he made the challenge very difficult.
Lindsay was blown away by a powerful fan, DJ's shorts fell out and he had to run away to go look for them, Heather and Trent were both hit with seagulls fired from a turret and Owen accidentally broke the board with his weight. It counted as an elimination and the sharks were sent flying because of the splash that he caused.
"Break time! Union rules!" Chris said before blowing a whistle.
"Finally!" Heather exclaimed.
"You're not in the union. They are." Chris said, pointing at the sharks.
"At least this will be easier." Gwen said, feeling confident.
Chris took away that confidence by reloading his turret with more seagulls. Resulting in Gwen being another victim of seagulls and failing the challenge as well. The same being said for multiple other contestants until the sharks were good and ready to return to the water for their next victim who was Justin.
However, their desire to devour him when he fell went away as they were smitten by him. So much so that when Justin fell, they sprang into action and somehow dragged him out of the water and began to resuscitate him.
Gwen's Confessional
Gwen gave an emotionless stare at the camera, "At this point, that's somehow the least weird thing here."
Back on set
Once Justin was fine, the sharks hugged him and proceeded to shove Lindsay and Beth once they got too close. Solidifying their desire to have Justin to themselves rather than share him with the world.
"Okay you two, time to go." Kushina said, using her natural strength to pull the sharks away.
The sharks pouted and crossed their fins as they didn't have arms to cross in disappointment. They were then tossed back into the water tank and continued with Duncan as their final challenger.
"You got this Duncan!" DJ cheered.
"You better win this!" Leshawna demanded.
Duncan rolled his eyes as he hanged on for his life while avoiding the angry sharks. Even managing to avoid the seagulls that Chris fired at him and even punching one as it came too close. By the end, Chris signaled for the surfboard to stop moving.
"The Screaming Gaffers win!" Chris announced, making Gwen's team cheer.
As the Killer Grips could only sigh and look down in defeat. Beth got to work on making more friendship bracelets as she started making a surplus amount for good luck. At least it was better than the time she brought a tiki doll from Boney Island and didn't even bother returning it despite being informed that it was evil. But at least the bracelets made them feel somewhat less pathetic.
"Here Trent." Beth said, giving him one first.
"Thanks Beth! ….5, 6, 7, 8, 9!" Trent rapidly said as he tapped his head with the bracelet nine times.
"Dude, you're being weird again." Owen pointed out.
"Hey, I'm not doing anything weird. I'm just… different. Think of it as a pregame ritual." Trent said, making up an excuse.
"Wouldn't pregame mean before the actual game starts?" Owen asked.
Trent just looked away and began walking as Beth gave Owen a bracelet as well. Only to watch him eat it as if it were a snack.
"WIthout trying to intentionally be mean. I think Trent isn't the only weird one." Beth whispered over to Justin and Lindsay who both nodded.
"Let's go everybody! We're heading to a real beach!" Chris announced, making everyone scoff.
"Oh sure, a real beach. Like I would believe that." Owen said, not wanting to be tricked again.
Chris then looked over to Naruto who was eating from an instant cup of ramen. The Dragon of the Apocalypse sighed and stood up as he started waving his fingers over the air and creating portal like Dr. Strange.
"Come on, we don't have time for sass!" Chris said as Chef already started packing.
Everyone groaned and followed, wondering where Narutow as taking them. Some predicted it would be some hellish landscape or some place full of dangerous animals.
Heather's Confessional
"I think we all know that the only thing Chris can honestly say is that he's not legally allowed to kill us. Then say that being maimed for life counts as being alive. I am not looking forward to a place that's possibly a dessert that's over 60 degrees (140 degrees fahrenheit) or some place filled with dangerous wildlife." Heather explained her discomfort with Chris' shenanigans and deceit.
On the "beach"
This time, Chris wasn't lying to anyone when he referred to a beach. It also wasn't a technical issue where there was sand and a body of water surrounding them with that being considered a beach. It was a literal resort with clear fresh waters and sand that looked like gold under the sun. In the far distance, the teams could see actual buildings that looked like they belonged to a tourist resort.
"I guess he wasn't lying this time. That's surprising." Duncan said.
That's when Owen began sniffing the air, "Hey, I smell funnel cakes!"
"Woah, slow down there Owen. You're not going to the tourist trap over there. You're going rummaging into the forest." Chris said, stopping any excitement.
"And there's the trick right there." Heather said, looking annoyed.
"Calm down, it's not like we prepared monster beavers." Chris replied.
"Then what is the challenge?" Beth asked.
"You gotta build a sand castle, it's gotta be big and amazing. So you all gotta put some effort into making it look amazing for me to judge." Chris explained.
"No tricks this time? For real?" Owen asked.
"Of course not, just a simple challenge. Besides, the kids over there can do it." Chris answered.
Chris then pointed to Kanna who already built a part of a four foot tall castle. With a design that made it look like a professional architect was building it.
Leshawna's Confessional
"There it is! Chris is making us feel bad by making us look like amateurs! But dang! How does that baby girl know how to make such a smooth looking sand castle?" Leshawna asked as she looked confused.
Harold's Confessional
"I may be no professional architect, but designing is one of my mad skills. Duncan may have won for us so far, but I'm the one leading the team this time." Harold said as he effortlessly made a tower of cards.
Back on set
Chris then reminded everyone that the winner of the last challenge was given a half hour head start to begin gathering building materials and getting started. Leaving Trent and his teammates to wait around as the 30 minutes went by.
"Hey Chris, quick question. What happened to the flute?" Justin asked.
"Flute? What, you want to serenade us, hehe?" Chris asked, thinking it was a joke.
"No, I mean that pipe thing that makes music. I'm pretty sure we've gone through enough challenges and neither team has won it." Justin explained.
"Oh, that flute. Yeah, we changed up the rules. Forgot to mention it." Chris said, annoying Justin.
"So we can't use it anymore!?" Beth asked, overhearing Chris.
"Not exactly, given the rule about finders keepers. The flute is hidden. I was just waiting for someone to find it, but I guess you're all bad at scavenging for it." Chris said before walking away laughing.
"Okay, I guess that makes sense. It's like a cheat tool after all." Beth said.
"But it's a legal cheat. I say we keep an eye out for it. We can't afford another loss." Justin suggested.
"That's right, maybe it's in the woods or somewhere here on the beach." Trent suggested.
"Then we got a LOT of sand to dig up." Owen said as he grabbed a bucket and shovel.
Owen then got to digging as Kanna continued with her sand castle. All the while her father arrived wearing nothing but swim shorts as he approached the castle which was now eight feet tall.
"Having fun Kanna?" Naruto asked.
"Yes papa. Beatrice is helping me." Kanna said.
Suddenly, a blond girl with pigtails shaped into tendrils poked her head through a castle window.
"I am merely doing this to help my younger sister." Beatrice said with a scoff.
Naruto knew Beatrice was lying and secretly enjoying herself. So he just patted the two girls on the head before walking away towards the forest area. Where he saw some of his offspring setting up a volleyball net.
"Father! Join my team!" Veldora shouted on one side of the tent.
"No! Please join mine!" Ana pleaded as she stood on the other side of the ten.
"I'll take turns being on both of your teams." Naruto said as he helped finish setting up.
The two groaned while Kanna continued to have her sand castle built.
A half hour later
The Killer Grips were finally allowed to get moving and begin scrounging for sticks and other objects to begin making their sand castle. They broke off into two groups and it was no surprise that Lindsay and Beth chose to take Justin while Owen followed Trent. It was also no surprise that Trent ran into Gwen and immediately got into the mood of being lovestruck.
"Oh, hey there." Trent greeted awkwardly.
"Hey, Trent." Gwen said, feeling less awkward.
The two stared at each other in silence before Owen made it awkward by making kissing gestures. Which made them frown at Owen who made the mood even more awkward.
"Sorry." Owen said as he tried to sneak away.
Once the two were alone, they began to talk and hoped to make the tension go down.
"Trent, about Duncan, don't worry about him. He can be really cool if you get to know him, but I get he can be a bit much." Gwen said, trying to apologize for this morning.
"I think he can also be uncool when he feels like it." Trent said, sounding a tad annoyed.
Gwen frowned, "Look, can we at least keep it professional between us? At least enough to focus on the game without distractions?"
Trent sighed, "I guess that's fair."
Trent didn't want to say anything about Duncan without offending Gwen. Yet at the same time, his negative feelings towards Duncan made him feel like Gwen was defending him too much. Before Trent could voice his opinion, someone other than Owen decided to intrude on their private moment.
"Are you two going to fight or something? This is so boring! Where's the drama!?" a female voice asked in a whining tone.
Trent groaned, "Look Owen, you can't… wait, you're not Owen!"
Trent and Gwen saw a blond girl in a pink dress with blond hair tied into two large pigtails with a big pink bow on her head. The two didn't need to think too hard as they could practically sense the craziness in the girl. Unlike Izzy, this girl could pass off as just an ordinary person if she were to walk within a crowd of people.
"Nope, he's right here!" the girl said, dragging an unconscious Owen up by his arm. "I'm Nui, we haven't met but you met lots of my siblings."
"Of course, she's one of Naruto's kids." Gwen said with a tired sigh.
"Aw, you make it sound like that's a bad thing. I thought we could have fun." Nui complained.
Gwen's right eye began to twitch as she felt like she was talking to someone as crazy as Izzy but with Lindsay's level of intelligence. She was tempted to throw a rock at Nui but didn't know what the consequences would be if she tried it.
"Just leave us alone." Trent spoke up.
"Aw, I just wanted to see the drama. Because that's the name of the show." Nui said with a giggle.
"Look, do you want to continue this somewhere else or later?" Trent asked as he looked at Gwen.
"Later it is." Gwen said, moving elsewhere.
Trent then glared at Nui, "This is your fault."
"My fault? Really?" Nui asked, tilting her head.
Trent sighed and turned around before tapping his head with the friendship bracelet again.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9!" he counted.
"10! 11! 12! 13! 14!" Nui continued.
"Shut up!" Trent yelled.
"You like counting to nine. That's how many tails a certain yokai has." Nui said.
Trent just started running, hoping to avoid Nui who was going to give him a massive headache at this point. Leaving the lolita girl to walk out of the shrubbery and abandoning Owen's unconscious body in the woods.
"I'll go check on papa and the others." Nui said before pulling out an umbrella.
A while later
As the contestants continued building their sand castles, Naruto helped with the volleyball court. Naruto then looked back as he saw Kushina helping set up a lawn chair for Medusa who was wearing a simple beach dress with a sun hat. Naruto smiled at the sight of his mother getting along with his wife and caring for her.
"There, that should keep you and the baby comfortable." Kushina said.
"Thank you, Kushina." Medusa said as she sat down.
"Aw, just call me mom." Kushina said.
Medusa smiled at the gesture but wasn't sure how to feel about calling her that. Before she said anything, Kushina set up an umbrella to cover her daughter-in-law.
"Snakes hate the sun, right?" Kushina asked absentmindedly.
Medusa closed her eyes and sighed, 'Don't get mad, she doesn't know a lot of complex things. Besides, she's family and the kids love her. Some love Lisa more, but that's besides the point.'
Meanwhile, the two teams were getting a lot of progress done with their sand castles. Both of which looked like crap in comparison to the small mansion that Kanna ended up creating.
"Are you serious? How does a little kid do that?" Owen asked.
Suddenly, Kanna climbed to the top of the sand castle while wearing a robe and crown on her head. She then pulled out a scepter and pointed it at the Screaming Grips.
"Bow before me." she said.
"Can I just lay down? I feel like laying down. I think Beth's friendship bracelet went down the wrong hole." Owen said as his stomach grumbled.
Kanna just went back into her castle as Owen's team continued to build their sand castle. Surprisingly, it looked like it would have the most decoration but the worst structure.
"Here, I'll just add my friendship bracelets and have them hold the towers together." Beth said as she pulled out her bracelets.
"Good idea, Beth. Now we need nine of them." Trent said.
Lindsay then grabbed a seashell and a stick, "Look, I made a flag for us!"
"That's a good idea too, now we need eight more of those." Trent said.
"You want nine of everything?" Justin asked, getting a nod in return. "Okay… any other suggestions?"
"We could name the castle, Casa Gwen." Trent suggested, making Justin sweat drop.
Justin's Confessional
"Okay, I'm no shrink, but I think Trent has a serious problem with the number nine… and Gwen too." Justin said, looking uncomfortable.
Back on set
Gwen overheard the conversation and just sighed, "Why is he doing this?"
Then Duncan had an idea, "Five letters in Trent's name, four letters in yours. That makes…"
"Nine! Are you serious?" Gwen asked as she held her forehead and sighed.
Duncan mentally laughed at how funny things were turning out for him. He had no problem with Gwen but thought it was funny to mess with Trent. In hindsight, it did help with keeping Gwen somewhat focused as she wasn't being as obsessive as Trent. Before Duncan could continue to instigate things, a volleyball hit him in the face.
"Air ball!" Veldora yelled.
Naruto decided to go pick up the ball and saw Gwen looking distraught.
"What is wrong with her?" he asked Duncan.
"You know how it is, relationship drama and Trent is being weird. It's making her uncomfortable." Duncan said, acting like it was obvious.
Naruto just looked at Gwen who looked at Trent who was being weird and counting up to nine again. He just sighed as he couldn't help but wonder if Trent was on something.
"That's an embarrassing phase." Naruto said.
"Yeah, I can't relate though." Duncan said.
Naruto's face scrounged into a frown as a bad series of memories came to him.
Flashback, thousands of years ago
As Naruto continued to roam Ancient Greece in an attempt to make a home for himself. He came across a certain a few times and while they were initially hostile impressions. Naruto did find himself slowly communicating with Medusa and related to her. So having the mind of a child despite having lived here for a couple of decades now. Naruto decided to get her attention
First, he got the most beautiful purple and pink flowers he could locate and placed them somewhere for Medusa to find. When he spotted Medusa in the distance, he let out a roar that attracted her attention.
"Oh it's you again, how are you?" Medusa asked, trying to be civil.
Naruto, who was still in dragon form, moved his large head and gestured towards the piles of flowers.
"I see, you ripped open the vegetation." Medusa said, sounding uninterested.
"Do you like it?" Naruto asked darlingly.
Medusa stared at him for a moment before turning around, "Another day, Dragon."
Naruto watched as Medusa left, feeling disappointment for the first time in decades.
So days later, Naruto looked around for something nice to give to her as flowers proved to be worthless in her eyes. So Naruto found a beautiful mirror, a very big one meant to be gifted to the child of some ruler. So after wiping out the guards and killing some noble, Naruto dragged the large mirror and waited around Medusa's residence or at least the place she often visits.
Once again, Naruto let out a small roar to attract her attention. He piqued her interest as she saw the shining object.
"I found this, would you like it?" he asked.
At this point in time, Medusa hated her appearance because she believed herself to be cursed and couldn't be as "beautiful" as Stheno and Euryale. So the fact that Naruto offered her a mirror where she could see a monster greatly offended her.
Medusa's response was to slam her tail against the mirror and knock it over a hill. She then hissed at Naruto who looked confused by her anger.
"That was a terrible joke." she said before slithering away.
Naruto hung his head in disappointment as it felt hopeless.
End of flashback
Naruto picked up the volleyball and went back to playing with his children. All the while Medusa saw the mess that Trent was getting himself into.
"That's a familiar sight." Medusa said.
"What is?" Kushina asked.
"I remember a time when Naruto was just as awkward, but less obsessive." Medusa said before a memory came to her.
Flashback
Medusa put away her thoughts of Naruto's poor attempts at trying to win her over. So far, nothing worse than the mirror was offered to her but the gorgon couldn't help but feel tired with him trying to get her attention. Medusa didn't fully understand that Naruto was trying to win her affection at the time and didn't bother thinking much of it.
However, she found herself being attracted to some noise again. When Medusa arrived at the point of origin, she saw Naruto again which made her sigh. She expected some dumb nonsense only to hear the screams of humans panicking and begging for their lives.
'What in Gaia's name is going on?' Medusa wondered.
Medusa then saw Naruto tearing apart one of the temples of Athena and trying to rip out a large container. All the while Naruto was ignoring the dozens of arrows and spears being shot into his thick flesh.
"Begone monster! That alcohol is part of our sacrament to the Goddess of Wisdom!" an Athenian soldier with a sword shouted.
Naruto flicked the soldier across the air, sending him crashing against a rock. He trampled on more soldiers that arrived while crying out to Athena to give them the strength to slay him. Which ended with Naruto practically destroying the temple before pulling out the large container filled with wine with his teeth.
'I didn't know he wanted a drink.' Medusa thought.
Only to lock eyes with Naruto who seemed to be surprised. She then watched as Naruto dragged the container and offered it to her.
"Will you accept this?" Naruto asked, feeling hopeful.
Medusa sighed at the gesture but couldn't deny the fact that she was getting into alcohol. That and it did look nice to see annoying humans being harmed. She never liked humans, she also hated temples of Athena at this point of time so it felt like a win to steal the goddess' offerings.
"I suppose I will." Medusa said before ripping open the lid.
That night, Medusa found herself feeling close to Naruto. Which would start the beginning of their relationship as well as a large trail of blood.
End of flashback
Medusa laughed as she thought about all the alcohol she had that night. Then again, it could have been better but the priestesses put something in it to make it "holy" or something. So it didn't taste as good.
"Those two will either fix things or end things." Medusa said, referring to Trent and Gwen.
"Mama!" Kanna called out.
Medusa's focus was then put on Kanna who waved her arms at the top of the completed castle. She giggled as she saw how adorable Kanna looked up there with Beatrice by her side.
"Isn't that sweet?" she asked.
"Hang on! I need to take a picture!" Kushina said as she scrambled to find a camera.
At that moment, Chris pulled out an airhorn to get everyone's attention.
"Thirty minutes, everybody!" he announced.
At this point in time, Trent was placing the ninth flag for his team's sand castle. Which was a terrible idea as the sand castle was about to fall apart due to the heavy weight that Trent forced onto it.
"Trent, it's going to fall." Owen warned.
"Just need to put this last flag and that makes nine." Trent said.
"I think that's enough! The castle can't handle any more weight!" Beth argued.
"Just… one… more–"
Then the castle collapsed and became a mere pile of sand. Thus ruining any chance of them winning the challenge.
"Does anyone have a bucket we can borrow?" Lindsay asked.
"It's hopeless." Justin said.
At the same time, the Screaming Gaffers were doing a great job as their castle looked a lot nicer than theirs did. With perfect symmetry and design thanks to Harold having them design it the way he wanted. Only for a bunch of seagulls to appear and started sitting on the castle.
"There's birds on my belfry!" Harold shouted.
"Shoo! Shoo! Get out of here, you stupid flying rats!" Duncan cursed.
"Please go away, little birdies!" DJ pleaded.
Unfortunately, the castle collapsed, surprisingly hurting Harold more than the others on the team. Thus forcing them to quickly try and recover from this.
Now both teams struggled to try and make a presentable castle before the time came up. As they got to work, the Screaming Gaffers were at least able to somewhat recreate a version of Harold's sand castle design while Trent was just making it hard on the Killer Grips by reusing his "nine of everything" decision which annoyed everyone. However, it was by dumb luck that Lindsay made a great discovery.
"Hey Trent, before we do your "nine" thing again. We should move this stick to the middle tower because it's super shiny and would make the ninth flag look nice." Lindsay said, revealing a silver object.
"Uh, Lindsay, that's not a stick." Justin said, noticing the object looked weird.
Then Beth gasped, "Wait, that's the flute! One of us must have picked it up without realizing it or maybe it was under the sand the whole time!"
The Killer Grips all looked surprised and quickly scrambled to clean it up before using it. Beth then quickly tried playing the notes and luckily for her team, she remembered the notes from hearing the beat play. Once Beth finished, it was enough to get Naruto's attention.
"Naruto, we—"
"If it's regarding Trent's obsessive compulsive disorder, I cannot help you." Naruto interrupted.
"What? I don't have a disorder. Also, who said I'm obsessive?" Trent asked, feeling a bit offended.
"Ignore him, we need some help with our sand castle." Justin pleaded.
Naruto looked at the mess and sighed before extending a finger and raising his arm into the air. He then simulated the motion of a clock moving backwards, resulting in the sand moving backwards in time to right before Trent caused the castle to collapse.
"I added a time displacement spell as well. Nothing can cause the castle to be destroyed again, even if you add more objects." Naruto said.
"Yes, we can add the ninth flag!" Trent said as he placed the last flag on top.
And as Naruto said, the time displacement caused the sand castle to remain unaffected by whatever Trent did to it. Keeping it still and ignoring the flow of time surrounding it.
"You are so lucky that Naruto wasn't kidding about freezing it in place or whatever he just said." Justin said, only to be ignored by Trent.
Naruto then went back to the volleyball court just as Chris announced that it was time to judge the sand castles.
"I see neither one of you came close to matching little Kanna's palace." Chirs said, gesturing to Kanna's structure.
"My big sister helped me." Kanna said as Beatrice looked away in embarrassment.
"Still, I just need to judge the better looking castle." Chris said as he looked at Trent's sand castle. "Okay, that's messy and a bit excessive."
"It's Casa Gwen." Trent said proudly.
"Wow, that's not creepy at all." Chris said sarcastically.
Gwen just sighed again while everyone else just shook their heads at Trent. Gwen the focused on her castle as it was rebuilt to mostly match it's original design. Unfortunately, the seagulls came back and caused it to collapse again.
"That hurt more than any of you realize." Harold said as he clutched his heart.
"Then I guess the Screaming Gaffers win." Chris announced, making the other team cheer. "However, that's one for one. So now we gotta do the tie breaker challenge."
"A tie breaker?" Leshawna asked.
"Yeah, a little beach boogie. I need both teams to select one person to compete in a dance off." Chris explained.
"Then we got this easily. We have Leshawna who's got the moves." Harold said.
"Yeah, she's the only one here who won't look stupid trying to bust a move." Duncan said, agreeing with Harold for once.
Leshawna snickered, "Alright, alright, y'all buttered Leshawna enough. I am the dancing queen."
The Killer Grips looked at each other before looking at Trent who looked like he could bust a move without looking stupid or hurting himself.
"Fine, I'll do it." Trent said, earning some cheers.
"Alright, now you have ten minutes to warm up. You just gotta dance the best or until the other person is too tired to move." Chris said as he went to get the music set up.
At this moment, Leshawna did a small demo of her dance moves to intimidate Trent and his teammates.
"I'll give ya some respect for bravery, Trent, but Leshawna isn't some skinny white girl with no rhythm." Leshawna said before doing a challenging pose.
"Oh yeah? Well, I have passion." Trent said, making something up on the spot.
"Passion? For what?" Leshawna asked.
"Uh, to win. To kick your butts, I guess." Trent said, making some of them gasp.
But Leshawna just snickered, "Right, sure. I'll see you on the dance floor."
The two dancers began to stretch and adjust themselves for what would not be an easy challenge. All the while Trent was noticing Gwen's sad look, not knowing it was mostly from embarrassment.
"What's wrong with her? I'm doing my best, right?" Trent asked.
"Well, Gwen just wants to win. That's how I see it at least." Owen said.
"She wants to win, huh?" Trent asked himself.
Chris then came back signaling for the tiki torches to be turned on and for Chef to turn on the music.
"Leshawna, Trent, show us your moves!" He announced.
Leshawna immediately got to moving and started thrusting towards the center of the makeshift dance floor. She moved her arms and hips around to speed of the rhythm while Trent tried to keep up. However, Trent couldn't match Leshawna's energy and movements, leaving him to try and use flashy moves like moonwalking.
While Trent did put up a lot of effort with some spins and moves transitioned flawlessly, Leshawna seemed to be putting in more effort with her moves. Despite this, Trent saw the look on Gwen's face as she had a look that said that she had no confidence. For some, they thought Leshawna was doing better but that didn't stop Trent from making a mistake.
'Owen did say that girls like to win. My teammates won't get mad if I screw this up, right.' Trent thought.
As Leshawna changed her moveset, Trent started moonwalking again and pretended to trip over a rock.
"Ow!" he cried out.
"Trent!" his teammates called out.
"Don't worry, I can keep going." Trent said as he moved his shoulders around.
Chris frowned as he wasn't impressed by this pathetic display. So he snapped his fingers and waited for someone to step in. That person just happened to be Nui who strutted up to Trent.
"Silly guy, that's not dancing." Nui said before smacking him with her umbrella
Trent cried out in terror as he flew towards Kanna's sand castle. Trent watched as Beatrice appeared and casted a barrier spell around the sand castle. Which resulted in Trent crashing into an invisible barrier that made it feel like he crashed into a steel wall. Luckily the sand castle wasn't damaged and Trent didn't appear to have any fractures.
However, while the barrier stood strong, that didn't stop Beatrice or Kanna from attacking within the barrier. Because Kanna fired a rubber ball from a cannon she installed onto the sand castle and hit Trent on the head.
"Okay! Okay! I got it, I lost!" Trent said with a tired sigh.
Trent's Confessional
Trent was given a bag of ice for his head and the rest of his body by one of the background workers. Once Trent was given some treatment, he started his confession.
"Okay, while I admit that this is probably some karma. I just hope my teammates won't find out and get mad about me letting Gwen's team win." Trent said as he winced in pain.
Back on set
The Screaming Gaffers cheered as Chris confirmed Leshawna's victory in the dance off.
"The Screaming Gaffers win! For your prize, we got a small dinner waiting set up in the nearby theme park." Chris said.
"I knew I smelled funnel cake!" Owen exclaimed.
"Yeah, anyways we also got a hotel booked for the winners too." Chris added.
"That is so unfair!" Justin cried out.
"It's super fair, Pretty Boy! Ha!" Leshawna replied.
"And what about the rest of us?" Beth asked.
"I think Chef got you a bucket of crawfish and some tents." Chris said.
A second later, Chef arrived with two buckets of fresh crawfish. He then put them on a conveniently placed picnic table before setting up some utensils.
"You kids are lucky, these crawfish are good quality." Chef said, looking impressed.
However, Chef was the only one who could recognize good ingredients and recognize quality. The same couldn't be said for Trent and his teammates who thought they were looking at some weird looking lobsters. Owen appeared to be the only one who was eager to eat some.
"So it's like lobster, right?" Owen asked as he reached for them.
"They're related." Chef answered.
Just as everyone was about to give them a chance. They heard Owen cry out in pain as one of the crawfish pinched his hand and refused to let go.
"AHHH! IT'S ALIVE!" Owen yelled as he gripped his arm.
"I knew I forgot something. Oh well, don't forget the butter." Chef said before leaving.
Duncan and the others laughed as they saw Beth and Lindsay trying to pry off the crawfish. All the while Gwen looked at Trent who gave her a smile. Gwen smiled back and waved with the promise to meet with him later.
"Trent, how exactly do we eat these?" Justin asked, not noticing Trent was distracted. "Hey Trent, I'm talking to you."
Justin waved his hand around the musician's face before coming to the wrong realization.
"Oh no, I got sunburned didn't I? Is my face red? Is he ignoring me because my looks got damaged!?" Justin asked frantically.
And so, not only did Trent go on a downward spiral into letting his team down. Justin began to feel more concerned with becoming "hideous" as the show progressed.
The next day
After returning to the abandoned film lot, the two teams started their day again but were reminded that it was still summer. Summer was almost over but it was still here and very alive. So with that, despite leaving the nice beach paradise from the last challenge. They were greeted with the extreme heat and struggled to survive the heat.
"Oh no, Leshawna is getting the frizzies. This aint a good look y'all!." Leshawna said as the humidity gave her an afro.
Heather then gasped, "You have a good look?"
Leshawna was very tempted to slap Heather for the wisecrack but it was too hot. All Leshawna could do was look for a cool shade and maybe a nice drink.
"Has anyone seen a cooler?" she asked.
"If we had one, I would be hiding in it." Duncan said.
The only person who wasn't sweating was Justin who was being fanned by Owen who looked like he was about to collapse.
"Yo, Justin. How are you keeping cool?" Leshawna asked.
"Well obviously, I can't sweat. It's not a good look for me." Justin said, acting like his appearance comes before his health.
Leshawna could only sigh and wonder what else could go wrong. Her guess was that Chris would answer that by giving them a ridiculous challenge to work under this heat.
But before Chris would come and make things worse on them. They heard the sounds of horses galloping in the distance. Then to the surprise of the contestants, they saw Naruto and a couple of others dressed like cowboys with the Uzumaki patriarch wearing a sheriff's badge.
"I don't even wanna know." Leshawna said.
"You all look half dead under the sun." Naruto nodded.
"That's right, it ain't all beer and skittles here." Milim said, talking like a cowboy.
"I can't even… think of a witty… comeback…" Harold said, ready to pass out.
The third rider lifted her hat a bit to reveal Esdeath with a scary grin. The boys quickly backed up where they sat before watching as the soldier girl dropped two large coolers on the ground.
"No way! Please tell me that's fresh water!" DJ pleaded.
"Drink up, Angelica." Esdeath said.
"My name's not Angelica, but thanks." DJ said as he dug through the cooler.
"Angelica is slang, for young unmarried women." Naruto said.
DJ nodded before realizing he was just insulted and immediately felt bad. However, that bad feeling went away as he started handing out drinks.
It didn't take too long for anyone to realize what today's movie genre challenge would be. Given the hot sun and humidity, it was going to make things worse but also appropriate.
"Wait, are we doing a cowboy movie challenge?" Beth asked.
"That's right, now you're going to want to see Chris at the cowboy set. Now hurry up before we brand you." Esdeath said, looking like she wasn't kidding.
"I don't want to be branded!" Harold shouted as he covered his butt.
"Got anything in a G?" Trent suddenly asked.
Everyone gave him a look that made Trent feel uncomfortable. Gwen looked very uncomfortable when she heard that herself.
'G? As in Gwen?' Gwen thought.
At that point, Milim shot Trent in the leg with a paintball gun shaped like a revolver.
"Hurry up, land lovers!" Milim barked.
"That's pirate talk, not cowboy talk." Naruto told her.
Milim didn't seem to care as she just wildly fired into the air with her fake guns. She then started galloping on her own as her father and sister followed close behind.
"This is going to be a stressful day." Heather said, looking unamused.
"You're telling me." Leshawna said as her afro looked slightly bigger.
On the set
Once on the main set, the contestants spotted Chris wearing a black western shirt with a cowboy hat and boots. They could see their host firing wildly into some scarecrows that were dressed like desperados.
"Howdy partners! Welcome to the wild west!" Chris greeted. "And today, we're doing western themed movies!"
Chris fired a few more rounds and would have missed had some people in the background not adjusted the targets. They were moved in a subtle way that made it look like Chris actually had some sharp shooting skills. Although the cast was sure that wasn't the case but didn't say anything.
"So what craziness are you going to force on us today, Chris?" Leshawna asked, already looking annoyed.
"To keep it short, cowboys ride horses." Chris began to say.
"And?" Gwen asked, gesturing for more details.
"It's that simple, just mount the horse." Chris said.
"What horse?" Heather asked.
A moment later, they heard the neighbor a horse from the heavens. Everyone gazed at the sky as they were introduced to a majestic creature long thought to be a mere tall tale. Unlike the various monsters they had witnessed become a reality. Everyone was mesmerized as they saw an equestrian with wings arrive while being ridden by Medusa.
'And here comes the spike in ratings.' Chris thought as a Pegasus arrived.
Medusa then landed the Pegasus who neighed again upon arrival. Forcing everyone to steer clear as she steered the majestic creature onto a nearby target. Once sure that the Pegasus would stay in place, Medusa got off and walked over to Naruto who was in the background.
"Oh my gosh! A Pegasus!" Beth cried out in excitement.
"Yay! It's like a unicorn but with wings!" Lindsay said.
"Hold on, lady I checked. There's no fancy magic horses in the old west." Duncan said.
"Do you have some evidence to support that theory, Mr. Juvenile Hall?" Chris asked, mocking him,
"I got a local encyclopedia right here." Duncan said, referring to Harold who glared.
Harold's Confessional
"Okay, I don't know everything and what I do know is speculation at this point. It's said that the Pegasus was made by the Gorgon's blood and assuming Perseus was real. I doubt Naruto let him touch her, so I'm out of the game of logic on this one." Harold explained.
He did have a point as a lot of details known to modern man were proven to be inaccurate once Naruto appeared. The existence of the Pegasus and the origins are likely inaccurate. So like a few others, Harold had to roll with whatever was going on.
Back on set
Duncan confidentially approached the Pegasus, "This should be easy, all we gotta do is—"
Duncan was cut off by the Pegasus almost kicking him.
"Hey! Watch it!" Duncan yelled.
"Not like that, Duncan. Besides, Pegasus here has an attitude." Chris warned.
"So what do I do?" Duncan asked.
"That's what your first challenge is. You have to mount the "horse" from up there." Chris said, pointing to a diving board that was high in the sky.
"Are you serious? This thing can fly, how do we know it will stay in place?" Heather asked.
"And what if we hurt the Pegasus?" Beth asked, suddenly more worried about the creature rather than her own health.
The Pegasus scoffed at Beth, meaning that he was able to understand the humans. Pegasus raised his head and puffed out its chest as if to look proud.
"Aw, what is it doing?" Trent asked.
"Pegasus is smart, but has the brain of a bird. You may want to watch out for odd behaviors." Naruto spoke up.
"I guess that explains the wings." Duncan said.
Chris then spoke up again, "Since the Gaffers won last time. They get to go first."
Gwen suddenly sneezed which got some attention from her teammates.
"I think I got a cold or something coming up." she said.
"Hey, if you're feeling down. We got you." Duncan said, earning some jealous looks from Trent.
At the same time, Leshawna had to hold back a scoff as Duncan would pick on Harold when it was convenient.
Leshawna's Confessional
"Back at home, my peeps and I look out for each other and while I like hearing Duncan being a team player. I don't see him treating Harold like a peep. It doesn't matter if your peep is weird or not, you gotta watch ALL their backs." Leshawna said, emphasizing the idea of helping a comrade.
Back on
Trent then decided to make things weird, "Guys, it might be serious. If Gwen's really sick, she could fall off the diving board and land on the horse."
Trent paused and realized he mentioned his statement incorrectly.
"Isn't that goal?" Harold asked, looking confused.
Naruto sighed as he stepped forward, "I think Trent means, he's afraid Gwen will completely miss the goal. A cold in this weather is quite painful to all of you normal humans. It's so bad that Trent here is stumbling with his words."
This statement worked with most of the cast who seemed to not while the rest either didn't care or didn't believe Naruto's defense. Either way, they didn't want to argue with the dragon despite being confused as to why he helped Trent.
"Trent, just get some shade before you say more stupid stuff." Leshawna said, hardly believing Naruto's statement.
"Y-Yeah, I'll get all the shade. Some cold water too." Trent said, failing to act natural.
Esdeath then threw a cold bottle of water at the back of Trent's head. Despite feeling pain from the impact, Trent took the bottle and turned the cap nine times before drinking from it.
"Wow, the heat is really killing him." Owen said, now thinking the heat was making Trent act weird.
"...5, 6, 7, 8, 9!" Trent chanted.
"It must be super serious." Beth said, also believing the defense.
At this point, Gwen already stepped up for her team and began climbing up the ladder to the diving board. She struggled to fight against her nerves as she was afraid of falling down to her death. Sadly for the goth girl, Gwen didn't land on Pegasus and instead hit the ground with a loud crunch being heard by everyone.
"Shoot, I think she fractured her arm." Trent said as he went to help her.
"Thanks Trent, just don't– AHHH!" Gwen cried out as Trent grabbed her bad arm.
"Move it!" Leshawna yelled as she shoved Trent aside.
Trent cursed his stupidity as he realized that he just harmed his girlfriend. He then looked up and saw Esdeath help Gwen up and sat her on her own horse.
"I'll take the girl to my adoptive grandmother. She will get the delicate treatment she desires there." Esdeath said before leading the horse to the medical tent.
'I'm so stupid.' Trent thought.
"Gaffers, you're up!" Chris announced, making Trent immediately stand up.
"I'll do it! I'll make things right for Gwen!" Trent said, earning a mix of suspicious and stupified looks.
"You mean for your team, right?" Chris asked, looking confused.
"Uh, yeah. That's totally what I meant. The heat, it's messing with my head like Naruto said." Trent lied.
Trent then quickly climbed up the ladder before anyone else said anything. He then hit his forehead a few times in an attempt to clear his mind. He didn't think things could get any worse at this point and quickly jumped down before his anxiety rose up. Unfortunately, Trent had it a lot worse than Gwen.
Because he hit a conveniently placed cactus… with his crotch.
"AHHHHHH!" Trent screamed.
"I think Trent also needs delicate medical treatment." Beth said as she winced.
Suddenly, the cactus turned around and revealed itself to be Nui who was wearing a cactus costume while smiling away.
"Nui, what are you doing there?" Naruto asked.
"Oh me? I'm just doing my part for the nature-documentary theme." Nui said.
"A documentary isn't even a film. Also, we're doing western films." Naruto said, confusing Nui.
"Really? Because I imagined everyone would be dressed like animals. You know? Like they could roam around basically go through simulations of how animals are typically killed in the animal kingdom. Like being dressed like a gazelle while Masrur chases them around in lion form." Nui explained, making Chris grin.
"Hold up, could someone write that down? That sounds like a good challenge." Chris said.
"Can I get a little help?" Trent asked, reminding everyone of where he is.
Nui shook off Trent, letting him collapse as he was quickly taken away by a pair of medics.
"Okay, who's next?" Chris asked.
Harold gave a thumbs up as he began to climb up the ladder, "Time to show you my skills from Medieval Steve's Medieval Camp!"
Then to everyone's surprise, Harold jumped down before he let his fears take over and landed on the horse. There wasn't any injury or anything bad at first for Harold. That is until Duncan suddenly landed on top of Harold, crushing the poor boy and ending his brief moment of fame.
"Duncan technically landed on the horse, so that makes two points for the Grips." Chris said.
"My turn!" Owen suddenly yelled.
A minute later, Owen reached the top and Pegasus noticed the shadow of Owen. Pegasus neighed in fear as he doubted that he had the strength to carry such a boy. He had witnessed countless battles and other events that not even the strongest mortal men could comprehend. Yet Pegasus was too scared of carrying Owen should the large boy land on him.
So Pegasus took to the sky and tried to fly away. Only for Owen to grab his hide and hang on tightly.
"Hey! Don't run away! I have to ride you!" Owen yelled as Pegasus neighed in terror.
Chris just laughed at the scene as everyone watched as Owen struggled to climb onto Pegasus' saddle. Soon enough, Chris was about to award Owen the point when he saw Pegasus begin to spiral out of control like a helicopter that had just been shot down.
"AHHH! Bad horse!" Owen yelled before crashing.
"Oh my gosh! Is the horse okay?" Lindsay asked nervously.
Pegasus cried out in pain a bit just as it struggled to stand up. At the same time, it kicked Owen who was barely conscious after crashing hard.
"Okay, that was earned. That's one point for the Screaming Gaffers!" Chris announced.
"Don't worry, we got this. DJ, you're next." Leshawna said, making DJ whimper.
DJ then anxiously climbed up the tower and took a few deep breaths. All the while thinking about Chef's coaching which only made it worse on his psyche. All he could hear was Chef barking at him to not be a wimp and to take things like a man.
The one good thing about that was that DJ was able to distract himself with Chef's "motivation" before jumping down. Albeit, it was not an entirely smooth landing as DJ landed sideways on the horse.
"Am in heaven?" DJ asked, wondering if he croaked on impact.
"Nope, still here buddy." Chris said, making DJ sigh as he got off of the horse.
"Three points for the Grips! Gaffers, can you catch up?" Chris asked.
Justin shook his head, "Listen, I can't do the jump because it might risk breaking my… well everything. There's only a few non-essential things on my body that I can harm, but that's only because I haven't signed any contracts with those parts."
Chris sweat dropped, "Okay… Lindsay? Beth?"
"We'll do it together!" the girls said as they climbed up the ladder at the same time.
Once on top of the diving board, the two girls were very close to cowering away but stood strong.
"Lindsay, if one of us dies. Let's promise to inherit each other's stuff." Beth said.
Lindsay nodded and didn't think much about giving her stuff to Beth or taking in Beth's personal belongings. Regardless, their dramatics were unnecessary as they just barely managed to land on Pegasus who neighed loudly.
"We're alive!" Beth cheered.
"Thanks Horsey!" Lindsay said as she caressed Pegasus' cheek.
"I just wish we had a sugar cube to give you." Beth said.
Nui hopped towards the girls and pulled out a small bag of sugar which made Beth smile.
However, as they fed Pegasus, Leshawna and Heather climbed up the ladder in an attempt to break the tie. Only for the both of them to begin arguing with each other.
"Uh, you guys realize that you just need to go one at a time right?" Chris asked.
"What!?" Heather and Leshawna asked with shocked faces.
"Yeah, it's a one at a time thing. There's no rule against going in pairs, but sheesh. That's seriously dangerous, hahaha!" Chris answered.
"Why didn't you say anything before?" Harold asked.
"You never asked. I thought all of you were just crazy." Chris answered.
"But I'm guessing it's too late to go down, right?" Justin asked, smirking.
Chris nodded, "Yeah, coming down at this point is the same as backing out."
Leshawna and Heather cursed before arguing again. Which led to Leshawna shoving Heather who stumbled off of the diving board. Only for the bald girl to grab Leshawna's arm and pull her down with her.
Luckily, the two managed to hit a nearby windmill and hung onto the wooden blades. Although it meant that they didn't score for their teammates.
"I guess we gotta move onto a tie breaker." Chris said.
At that minute, Nui broke free of her cactus costume and revealed a pink cowgirl outfit before jumping on Pegasus' back.
"Giddyup, birdie!" she said before making Pegasus fly away.
A while later
Chef arrived and set up a rack full of toy revolvers with a barrel of water for the tie breaker challenge.
"As you know, the story always ends with a showdown at high noon. Originally, I was going to have both teams pick a designated shooter and the rest would have to run around to avoid getting shot." Chris began to say.
Trent groaned, 'I could have had Owen as the designated shooter. He would be a human target for the other team.'
"But I thought it might be more fun letting two sides shoot at each other. You know, just to keep it simple." Chris said.
However, he immediately saw Owen drinking the entire barrel of water like it was just a cup.
"I guess that means no water guns. I guess we'll switch to paintball guns." Chris said, signalling Chef to set up a different rack of revolvers.
Justin glared at Owen when he heard that.
Justin's Confessional
"Are you serious!? Paint!? Do you know what that will do to my skin and my chiseled face!?" Justin asked, afraid of the pain damaging or staining his body.
Back on set
Once the guns were set up, the two teams were given wardrobe boxes filled with typical cowboy attire. Typical things such as hats, boots, vests and even ponchos which made some of them look like desperados.
"Alright varmints, you got until high noon." Chris said in a western accent.
Everyone just stared at Chris in confusion.
"Ten minutes. Now get going!" Chris said.
A few minutes later, the two teams stood on opposite sides as they gazed at each other. Some tried to look intimidating, others looked nervous, and the rest were either distracted or just unsure of how to feel. Most notably, Trent tried to hide his anxiety as he saw the determined look on Gwen's face.
Trent's Confessional
"Okay, there's no way I can screw this up. I just gotta let Gwen hit me first but I'll try to make it look real, but how do I get everyone else to lose too?" Trent asked, looking defeated.
Back on set
Chris gave the signal and both sides pulled out their guns, although some ended up dropping their guns. Which caused a series of people fumbling with their guns. Some of which were those like Beth and Harold who gripped their guns incorrectly or Lindsay who forgot to load up her revolver.
"Um, can I get some gun thingies? You know, the tiny things that let us–"
Lindsay was cut off by Heather shooting the empty revolver in her hand. Prompting Lindsay to scream as she ran around for cover as Heather began chasing her.
"Hang on Lindsay!" Beth said as she picked up her gun and chased after Heather.
Fortunately for them, Owen was the one who had it the worst as his sheer size made him easy pickings. It wasn't funny for Owen, but it was too much fun for just about everyone else.
"Keep shooting! We almost got him!" Duncan yelled as he along with Harold and Leshawna repeatedly shot at Owen.
"AHHH! Stop, please! I'm already out! Have mercy!" Owen cried out as he tried shielding himself.
That just left DJ and Gwen, both of whom looked unsure in their present situation. DJ, being a gentle soul, hesitantly aimed his gun at Justin who shakily aimed his revolver back at him. As for Gwen, she just looked unsure of what to do as Trent looked hesitant.
"Guys, a little help here!" Owen pleaded as he continued to take the hits.
Justin ignored him and just looked at DJ, "DJ, we know how this will go. I'm a hot model that should not be hit anywhere except maybe for my butt and shoulder blades. You, on the other hand, really hate violence."
DJ nodded as that simple explanation described DJ's whole personality.
"So let's try and figure this out." Justin said, hoping they can resolve this showdown without him getting a paint stain or injury.
DJ just took a few deep breaths before getting briefly blinded by Chef who was standing at a window. DJ saw Chef mouthing something about DJ needing to be a man and taking the shot. A moment later, DJ took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off of his brow and looked at Justin who fired a shot that completely missed.
"Dang, I missed." Justin said.
"SUPPRESSING FIRE!" DJ screamed as he fired wildly.
Each paintball hit Justin on some part of his body. All of which seemed to be under some modeling contract which made him scream in terror as he fell onto his back.
"NO!" Justin cried out dramatically.
DJ then turned his attention towards Trent who raised his revolver towards Gwen. So DJ jumped in front of Gwen, mustering every ounce of bravery he could and aimed at Trent.
"Sorry Trent, but I gotta defend Gwen!" DJ said as he closed his eyes.
Trent's Confessional
"'I gotta defend Gwen'? What the heck? Now DJ is involved?" Trent asked, looking annoyed. "Wait, what am I saying? I'm just going crazy at this point."
It seemed like Trent was making a breakthrough, but at a slow rate.
Back on set
DJ rapidly pulled the trigger but nothing came out of his gun. He opened his eyes and checked to see that he was empty.
"My bad, I guess I'm out of ammo. Can we come back to this in like 30 seconds?" DJ asked sheepishly.
Trent stared at DJ for a second before shooting him in the arm. He watched as DJ yelped and fell to his side.
"Not cool! Seriously Trent? I would have given you time to reload!" DJ exclaimed.
"...5, 6, 7, 8, 9!" Trent said, tapping the revolver against his hat.
DJ suddenly looked scared.
DJ's Confessional
"Okay, so maybe all is fair in love and war, but Trent is really making me nervous." DJ admitted.
Back on Set
DJ ran away and that left Trent to look at Gwen who looked unsure. He aimed his gun, looking serious but waited for Gwen to shoot him first.
"Just do it, Trent." Gwen said, accepting her fate.
Trent then decided to fire very close to Gwen and make it look like he accidentally missed. Only to end up shooting the revolver out of her hand and making her drop it. Trent mentally cursed and started shooting around, making it look like he was taking this fight too seriously.
However, it just resulted in Trent running out of ammo and hitting a random vase by a window. The vase shattered and dropped the flute, much to his surprise.
"The flute!" Trent called out, making Gwen look at it. "I mean, I gotta get the flute so it can… give me more ammo."
Gwen looked unsure but quickly went to grab it while Trent pretended to reload his gun. The goth girl quickly picked up the flute before running towards Harold.
"Harold! Now is a good time for "those skills" or whatever." Gwen said.
Harold grinned, "Finally, you recognized my mad skills."
On another part of the set
Heather finally caught up to Lindsay who was pressed against a wall while she aimed her revolver.
"Like Heather, I know we're not friends anymore, but could you at least not aim for my hair?" Lindsay asked, thinking Heather was somewhat considerate.
Heather growled, "Do you know how painful this season was for me? Not only did I lose my wig, I'm on a team with my enemies and you along with Beth decided to turn on me."
Lindsay scratched her head in confusion, "Well, we are on opposite teams. Besides, you were super mean to me and Beth. You didn't even apologize or anything."
Heather narrowed her eyes, "You know what? I'm bleaching your hair in paint."
Lindsay screamed in terror as if that was a fate worse than death. Before she met her fate, Heather was grabbed by a lasso and pulled away. A second later, Beth revealed that she had used the lasso and began to tie up Heather.
"You deserve every bit of punishment, Heather. It's probably not right to blame anyone, but I think you gave me one teeny tiny little mean bone in my body." Beth said with a glare.
Heather looked around for an escape, "Okay, maybe Lindsay is right. Maybe I should apologize. Can we start again with that?"
Beth and Lindsay glared at Heather before tying her to a pole where she couldn't escape. Beth then gave Lindsay Heather's revolver and the two took aim at Heather.
"Heather, any last words?" Beth asked.
"Yeah, a lot but I can't say them without getting censored! You ungrateful little…" Heather began to say before stopping and sighing.
"This is right, right?" Lindsay asked, suddenly having a sense of morality.
"I mean, Heather would do something like this to us." Beth said.
"Yeah, but we don't want to be as mean as Heather, right?" Lindsay asked, making Beth think.
Beth stared for a moment as if to ponder on the idea of revenge. However, she didn't think too long as Lindsay started shooting at Heather the moment Beth did. The two girls giggled as Heather screamed as all the paint hit her body.
"Okay! Okay! I'm sorry for manipulating you and treating you as slaves!" Heather cried out.
"That's not all you gotta apologize for!" Beth said.
"And you gotta apologize to everyone else for being a mean bully girl!" Lindsay added.
Before Heather could utter a response, they heard the sounds of a flute being played. A moment later, Lindsay and Beth realized they ran out of ammo. Before they could scrounge for ammunition, they were suddenly hit by a wave of paintballs by Naruto and some of his younger kids.
"We got them, dad!" Milim exclaimed.
Naruto nodded before looking at Heather who looked at the family with desperate eyes.
"Take this one to the hoosegow." Naruto said as he pointed at Heather.
"The what!?" Heather asked.
Milim grinned as she removed Heather from the pole but kept her tied up and threw her on the back of the horse. She then galloped away and took Heather to jail while Naruto and the rest of the family went to look for Trent.
Which didn't take too long as Naruto could hear Nui laughing in the distance as she was still riding Pegasus.
"Play me a tune, bard!" Nui shouted in the distance.
"I think Nui is mixing the wild west with the medieval era." Esdeath commented.
"Nui can barely read a watch. What did you expect?" Anna asked.
With Nui
To Trent's horror, he was being chased by Nui who was firing a paintball gun in the shape of a gatling gun from the 1800s. He started regretting letting Gwen get the flute, but then again. His subconscious told him that Gwen would have it just as bad given that such a cheat tool led to this.
"Dance Guitar Boy, dance!" Nui commanded as she continued to shoot.
Trent continued to run until he tripped over Owen who was long since abandoned by the other team. Trent and Owen groaned as they struggled to get up. Only to hear Nui's insane laughter as she floated right above them.
"There ain't no justice system in the wild west!" Nui said before dropping several grenades filled with paint.
"Trent, we're going to die!" Owen cried out.
"Why did I tell Gwen about the flute!?" Trent asked.
"Yeah! Why did you… wait, what!?" Owen asked, looking shocked.
Owen did not get the chance to force an answer out of his friend. Instead, he and Trent were hit with a tidal wave of bright pink paint covered in silver glitter. Ending with not only the two boys being hit, but the entire town being covered in the same paint and glitter.
Luckily for Chris, he already evacuated from the town and cautiously entered the stained town.
"Aside from the fact that this place looks unicorn vomit, I feel satisfied." Chris said.
Trent and Owen could then be seen climbing out of a large puddle of pink paint.
"Is it over?" Owen asked.
"It sure is Owen, but before you and Trent hit the showers. You need to know… that the Screaming Gaffers win!" Chris announced.
"Aw man!" Owen cried out.
"Are you serious!?" Justin asked as he also appeared covered in pink paint and glitter.
"Woah, Justin. That's, uh, an interesting look on you." Chris joked.
"I need a spa day. Better yet, a spa week." Justin said, trying to reel in his anger.
"Yeah sure, good luck with that. Remember to decide on who to vote for at tonight's Gilded Chris ceremony." Chris said before stumbling out of the mess.
Trent just sighed as he left the area with Justin preparing to do the same. Only to notice the anxious look on Owen's face and once again, despite not being the most intelligent himself. Justin knew Owen was hiding something and it was not disappointment in losing today's challenge.
"Owen, what are you hiding?" Justin asked.
"Nothing really bad that I should keep to myself." Owen lied.
"Owen." Justin said as he crossed his arms.
Owen had very little resistance against beautiful people and people who can give somewhat threatening looks. Owen was the only other genuinely nice guy like DJ who couldn't handle being pressured or being seen as a bad person.
"Okay, I think Trent might have purposely screwed up the challenge." Owen admitted.
"I'm sorry, what?" Justin asked before getting an explanation.
Later that day
As everyone was taking turns taking their baths in a barrel of water. Gwen approached Trent and decided to confront him about the last two challenges. Trent could see the look on Gwen's face and knew this was not going to be a happy conversation.
"Oh no, don't tell me we're at that point." Trent said, dreading what is about to happen.
"Trent, we need to talk. There's no brushing past this." Gwen said solemnly.
"Come on, don't give me that!" Trent said, hoping this wasn't a break up.
"It's exactly like that but Trent believe me when I say you're a great guy. It's just that, even I can't handle your quirks and it's a been too much at this point." Gwen said.
She can forgive Trent for trying to be awkward in the beginning with the alien movie thing. A lot of couples pretend to understand and be into whatever their partner likes. Except Trent's case moved past that and acted like some weird level of obsession among other things.
"This isn't about me asking to be branded with the letter G, is it?" Trent asked.
"That's just one of the many things Trent. I understand that you have your quirks and I have mine, but it's not going to work out because you've been losing on purpose for me." Gwen explained.
Trent sighed and lowered his head knowing this was the end. Albeit, it could be much worse and a part of him told him that it was good that Gwen at least kept it professional.
"I hear you." Trent said, understanding her.
Neither of them noticed Justin was listening in and got mad.
A few minutes later
Naruto was walking past the shower area when he heard some voices. He looked over the bushes and saw Justin and the rest of his team minus Trent confronted Gwen. All of them accused Gwen of making Trent throw the game.
"I'm not doing it! Trent has been doing it on his own!" Gwen argued.
"Like we'll believe that!" Justin exclaimed.
"You guys?" Gwen asked, looking at Owen and the girls.
"I mean, Justin has some points." Owen said.
"What's going on here?" Naruto asked, making them go stiff.
Justin kept his head turned away to maintain his bravery. Albeit, he felt like he was about to die if he said something in the wrong tone.
"Nothing, just drama." Justin said, unintentionally lying.
"Justin says that Gwen made Trent throw the game." Lindsay admitted.
Naruto sighed, "Men do a lot of things for love, but they act out on their own accord."
"I'm sorry, what?" Owen asked, sounding confused.
"Men do stupid things for affection. However, they don't ask what they need to do. They act out on their own. In other words, Trent is probably being stupid because he wants to be." Naruto explained.
"You can't seriously be on her side." Justin said, still facing away from him.
"I'm not on anyone's side, but I can smell stupidity from a mile away. This show may have drama in the name, but you're only going to create more drama instead of ending it." Naruto continued.
Gwen then sighed, "Look, if you don't believe me. Then vote off Trent."
Naruto was caught off guard by that proclamation but decided to see where that went. He could see Owen and the girls were shocked as well, wondering why Gwen would betray Trent. Even Justin felt like it was a trick but then again, he wasn't very smart.
"And how would that help us?" Justin asked.
"If I really was using Trent to win unfairly. Then by getting rid of him, I wouldn't have any advantage." Gwen pointed out.
"Fine, but you owe us." Justin said.
"She owes you nothing. You're all incapable of removing a problem." Naruto pointed out.
"Hey, it's only fair!" Justin argued, beginning to walk away and leave as quickly as possible.
"Considering that you all had three or four chances to vote off Heather in the last season. You would all blame Trent while simultaneously voting someone else off." Naruto pointed out.
"But Heather always had immunity." Beth tried to say.
"Did she have immunity during the deer hunting challenge?" Naruto asked.
Everyone remembered how they voted off Cody thinking he was dead weight due to his injuries that time.
"Or the horror challenge in my castle?"
They voted off DJ for that one when he was the one to save Heather.
"Or the time you all went hunting for actual animals."
Now that one felt like irony because Heather couldn't move for the rest of the day but they chose to vote off Izzy for a second time.
"And finally, there's the challenge where Owen was handcuffed to Heather."
Considering that no one received immunity for that challenge and it was a draw, Geoff was the one to go that time.
"Okay, maybe Naruto has a point. I like Trent, but we have a reason to let him go." Beth said, looking defeated.
Assuming the team chose to ignore Gwen and got rid of someone else. They probably would blame him for any potential losses in the future and threaten to vote him off without doing so.
"Yeah, you guys do that." Gwen said before walking away and leaving.
After that, there was a long awkward silence between the three Grips and Naruto. That is until Naruto randomly pulled out a silver platter.
"Nachos?" Naruto asked.
"Give me!" Owen said as he reached for them.
That night
The Screaming Grips found themselves at the awards show again and hoped their losing streak would end. Soon after Chris went over the rules of being eliminated and never returning. Everyone was quick to vote and the results were nearly unanimous when Medusa handed them to Chris.
"Lindsay, Beth, Justin, you're all safe." Chris said as Medusa gave them their awards.
Trent suddenly lost any sense of calmness as he saw that he and Owen were the only ones left. He looked at his other teammates who hid their emotions very well. Making it hard for him to know if they wanted him gone.
"Trent, I would say better luck next time, but Owen's the one who's staying." Chris said as Owen received his Gilded Chris.
"Sorry Trent." Owen said apologetically.
Trent looked shocked, he couldn't believe what he heard.
"You guys voted for me? Are you for real?" he asked, looking betrayed.
No one bothered to explain themselves as Trent tried to reason with them. However, it was pointless and futile as Chef grabbed him and dragged him to the Lame-O-Sine.
"Wait, this isn't right! At least let me say goodbye to Gwen first!" Trent pleaded before being thrown inside of the vehicle.
Chef then signaled for the driver to go before Trent could continue his pathetic display.
As Trent left, Naruto let out a tired sigh, "That boy reminds me of a younger me… but more obsessive."
"That boy was more pathetic than your father in his younger years." Kushina said as she leaned against her son.
Naruto could only imagine how his birth father really was but didn't care. He was still fairly bitter about Minato but something else felt familiar about this. The idea of Trent doing dumb things for a girl despite said girl not wanting this. Naruto thought about it before he frowned. He didn't dwell on it any longer because he started getting a call.
"What's that? A radio?" Kushina asked, watching her son pull out a cell phone.
Naruto didn't bother to explain technology once again to his mother. Konoha was advanced enough to have running electricity that was good for certain medical machinery and filmmaking but phones were still too far away.
"It's likely one of my other sons getting into trouble in his private school again." Naruto said as he proceeded to answer.
However, instead of receiving a call about Kimito or someone else causing trouble or getting into trouble. Naruto heard the voice of another relative who seemed to have issues of her own.
"Hola abuelo." said a voice in Spanish.
"Hello Angie, how are you?" Naruto asked, wondering if this was a random social call.
A social call like this was rare, but it was expected from a selected few.
"Who is it? Can I meet them?" Kushina asked, almost sounding like an excited child.
Naruto stepped to the side and continued his call and went through the pleasantries. When he heard a lot of crashing and lasers.
"Angie, what is going on there?" Naruto asked.
"Oh that, it's virtually nothing. We hosted a girl from another dimension." Angie said casually.
"What?" Naruto asked.
"Just a princess from a world called Mewni." Angie added.
"Why is there someone from Mewni in this dimension?" Naruto asked, already sounding tired.
"Uh, foreign exchange program?" Angie asked, unsure of how to explain things. "Anyways, this isn't about the girl we're hosting. Lately Marco has been exhibiting transformation issues."
"What's going on?" Kushina asked, leaning close.
Naruto gently kept his mother at a distance as he asked Angie to explain what was going on.
"Well, Marco has been randomly transforming parts of his body. Like growing a tail, having the head of a salamander, growing fangs, and so on. It's one at a time but it's random." Angie explained.
"Right, I heard of this. It's not an issue and it can be remedied. When do you want me to pick him up?" Naruto asked.
"At your convenience, Abuelo." Angie said before another crash was heard.
"And what was that?" Naruto asked, sounding concerned.
"Oh, I think some thugs from Mewni are here." Angie said.
"You sound way too calm." Naruto pointed out, earning a laugh from Angie.
"Anyways, I'll call you back. I'll make sure the house is clean for your visit." Angie said.
Naruto nodded, "Very well, goodbye and stay safe. Tell Rafael that I said hello."
Naruto then hung up and felt Kushina lean her head on his shoulder.
"So, who was that?" Kushina asked.
"One of my descendants. Apparently her son, my great-great… great grandson I think, is experiencing issues so now I have to pick him up." Naruto explained.
Kushina was confused about the long line but didn't have time to ask or see a family tree. Instead, she just nodded and accepted the fact that she had another grandchild. Then again, it sounded more exciting in her mind that she's an ancient ancestor that can see her family line.
"Okay, I'll make sure the set is safe for him." Kushina said before heading back to her quarters.
Leaving Naruto to wonder what Chris had planned for the next challenge. At the same time, he wondered if the Killer Grips would start winning.
"Hey big guy!" Chris said as he drove towards Naruto on a golf cart. "I got the plans for the next episode here!"
Chris drove past Naruto and threw a notebook at Naruto who caught it.
Naruto skimmed through it and nodded.
'I wonder if Justine and Caroline would be interested in this challenge.' he wondered before heading inside for the night.
TO BE CONTINUED…