Except for one thing, Naruto would have said it was a lame, normal day from the time he was sent out of class. Well, two things, really, because even holding stupid buckets in the hall wasn't enough to dampen the happiness of having Haruko-mom see him off in the morning, let alone Sakura-chan greeting him with a kiss when he arrived at class. He'd never skip a day again if she did that! Plus, being in the hall meant he didn't have to look dumb when everyone handed in the homework from yesterday that he hadn't been in class to get.
But then Sasuke came in and was mean to her and stuff while Naruto was distracted celebrating. What a big jerk! First he ignores her when she was always nice to him, then when she finally figures out that he's just a mopey bastard instead of 'cool and mysterious' or whatever, he picks on her!
Naruto wasn't going to let anyone get away with being mean to Sakura-chan, especially not after she kissed him, and definitely not Sasuke! This called for orange justice, but how? He'd long learned that simple plans were best, because there was less to go wrong, but at the same time Sasuke could detect and avoid most of the classics. He rolled his wrists so the buckets hung off his palms instead of by the curled fingers and thought about it some more.
Obviously, the punishment had to fit the crime, so that meant he had to knock the teme on the floor, preferably in a way that made him get trampled. There was no way Naruto could sneak well enough to get at his feet directly - bastard always knew if someone was in his 'bubble' - and just tripping him was too lame and would instantly get Naruto in trouble.
"Man, standing with buckets is so boring!" he complained to himself. He started doing toe-ups to keep the fidgets at bay.
Maybe he could do something during PT? The class always had to run laps as part of their warm-up, and Sasuke was always showing off and passing everyone - if he did it just right, the whole class might trample that jerk's face into the dirt! But that still left the question of how to do it...
Naruto shifted the buckets again, so now the handles were at the last joint of each finger. He lifted and lowered them in unison with his continuing toe-ups. Maybe he should get three buckets next time, so then he could juggle them? Remembering how he almost put an eye out trying to juggle kunai waiting for his turn at target practice the week before, Naruto decided he should probably work on that skill a little more first, to keep from having to spend the day in soggy clothes.
Could he 'accidentally drop' a kunai so it would stick in the ground and trip the jerk as he passed? Even real kunai weren't usually that sharp, let alone the crappy blunt things Academy students were allowed to buy. Most of the time an older ninja would get at least one good set for students to practice properly with, and while he'd scavenged a few that had been lost in training areas he wouldn't want to have one confi...
A wave of happiness crashed through Naruto again, as he remembered that /he/ had an older relative now, that Haruko-mom had even promised to go shopping with him this afternoon and replace all his gear, since most of it was still the same stuff she bought for him just before leaving, when he entered the Academy two years early. It had been so long he'd barely been able to remember even with her in front of him, the way a hug felt like home or the smell of skin, light perfume, and spices, nuzzled up to her shoulder. But if the stuff was going to be replaced anyway...
"Nihihihi..." he suppressed the mischievous giggle as best he could - no point giving anyone warning after all - and vibrated with eagerness to get on with the prank now that he had a plan.
By the time Naruto's assigned punishment had elapsed, Iruka was wrapping up the discussion of the previous day's homework. Physical training was next, but first... Well, Uzumaki was a troublemaker and carried the fox Iruka hated, but it was only fair to at least give the kid the chance to turn in his work like everyone else, and he knew class discussion could be heard from the hall if you bothered to listen. While Mizuki collected the assignments he went to the door, and found Naruto dancing in place, arms flailing to keep the buckets relatively stable as he twisted and hopped.
Most students would be near the point of total exhaustion in their arm muscles by now, he thought with a sigh, half resigned and half jealous. Even to a chuunin like himself, the kid's stamina was incredible. If only he put the same kind of effort in the rest of his studies as in exercising... Aloud, he said, "Naruto, you can turn in you work now if you got the assignments from yesterday. Otherwise, put away the buckets and join the class for PT."
"FINALLY!" the boy shouted. Still gyrating madly in place, he demanded, "How was I supposed to get that homework stuff, the Old Man's minion came to get me barely after roll call you know?"
"Even if your meeting had taken the whole day, you should still have asked one of your classmates," the teacher chided. That he didn't believe the business had really taken that long was plain in his voice and expression.
"Yeah, whatever, Iruka-sensei," Naruto grumbled, hopping from foot to foot. "Anyway, I'll get right out to the practice field, but first I really gotta pee!"
The water in one bucket sloshed over slightly and splashed onto the floor as his student broke for the boys' restroom, leaving Iruka to sigh once more as he watched the hyperactive child leave. Crouching, he wiped it up with a handkerchief before heading back inside to herd the rest of the class out for their exercise period.
After finishing his business in the restroom, Naruto took a few seconds to prepare for the prank before heading outside to join the class. They started running just as he reached the group, so he simply fell into the crowd and kept going, taking it easy for once and just keeping ahead of the largest cluster instead of racing with Sasuke and Kiba like he usually did. Sure enough, those drew rapidly drew ahead and lapped them, with the mutt a bit behind, also as usual. Stupid Uchiha showoff.
As Sasuke passed, the whiskered blond flicked the smoke bomb he'd palmed earlier at the ground under the other boy's feet, the impact of his rival's step setting it off even as he slipped on the spherical nin-tool. Grinning devilishly, Naruto 'tripped over' the sudden obstacle himself, playing it up by pitching forward and flailing his arms as he stumbled across the Uchiha's back. Kiba was still thundering along next, too fast to stop or turn in time, and then the cloud of smoke was too thick for the main group of students to see anything.
Just for kicks, Naruto tossed a couple of stink-smoke bombs as well before hurriedly rolling out of the cloud, ostentatiously patting himself down for injuries. As the now impressively foul-smelling miasma blew away it revealed a pile of complaining student ninja all struggling to get to their feet and mostly just getting in each other's way, with only Sasuke's pale, twitching hand sticking out from one side.
"Haha! (snort) Oh no," Naruto chortled. "My equipment pouch (snicker) got a hole in it, and all my (hahaha!) smoke bombs fell out! Sasuke- (snort) Sasuke must have stepped right on one, hahaha! Must be bad karma I guess!" Unable to control himself any longer, the young demon container crumpled up laughing, at least until the teachers finished untangling the other students. He had to run double the laps for making fun of his classmates but since the pouch really did have a hole in the bottom (courtesy of a quick kunai slice in the bathroom) there wasn't any proof it hadn't been an accident so there was no detention or extra assignment to serve.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:49)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.