Maya - a Naruto Fanfic

19. Catching Worms

I take a deep breath and scream at the top of my lungs, the lunches well hidden in a hole underneath a large boulder. There's a brief moment of silence, then Kakashi comes flying out of the forest, landing in front of me with a thunderous look.

"What?" He snaps. He must have been fighting with Sasuke.

"Naruto and Sakura took the lunches." I don't mince words, and try to look even a little bit ashamed.

"I told you to guard them!" He yells, clearly frustrated. Good.

"They're shinobi! I'm not! What did you expect me to do?" I scowl back at him.

"Scream."

"They covered my mouth!"

"Useless." He clicks his tongue, and straightens up, looking over the clearing. I pray Naruto and Sakura have hidden themselves well enough.

"Looks like they've run-"

"Ha!" Naruto laughs loudly as he launches himself out of the bushes.

"Stu-pid, stu-pid, Kakashi is stu-pid!" He taunts, jumping around. Kakashi sighs, probably thinking about what an imbecile he has for a student. Well, Naruto may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knows how to be creative.

"Didn't I tell you already?" Kakashi darts towards Naruto, but as he reaches him, the clone goes up in a puff of smoke.

"Wha-"

"Hey, I'm over here, stuu-pid!" This time he's in a tree, orange jumpsuit making him stick out like a sore thumb. This Naruto waves a bento, looking triumphant.

"You're not quite as stupid as I thought, I'll give you that." Kakashi doesn't go after him this time, waiting and watching. Good.

Sakura darts across the clearing, and Kakashi moves to intercept, just as the Naruto clone vanishes from the tree and another launches himself out of the water. Now it's my turn.

I run as fast as I can for the forest, where the rest of our plan is to take place. Naruto breaks away from his fight with Kakashi, and both he and Sakura run for the trees, Kakashi hot on their heels. He must have realised we have some kind of plan by now. I dive right, tumbling into the bushes and lying flat on my stomach in the ditch we found earlier. Naruto goes up into the trees and Sakura moves left, taking up position opposite me in the bushes beside the path.

The moment Kakashi moves between us, Naruto drops down, landing on his shoulders, wrapping his arms around his head and holding tight. Sakura and I slip a loop around each ankle as he struggles, pulling them tight. He notices as soon as the rope snakes tighter, but the trap's already springing into place, pulling Kakashi up into the air, with Naruto still on his shoulders. Naruto keeps fighting Kakashi's arms away from the bells while Sakura reaches up and grabs the bells from his hip.

"Yeah!" She yells, holding them high. Naruto drops from Kakashi's shoulders cheering, and I jump up and wrap my arms around Sakura's shoulders.

"Congratulations." Kakashi sighs and slices himself free from the trap.

"We beat you, we beat you!" Naruto dances around in a circle.

"Yes. Did you see, Sasuke?" Kakashi asks without looking around. The sulky shinobi in question steps from the shadows, looking like he's just sucked on a lemon.

"Yeah." Is all he says, scowling at us. Sakura flushes for a moment, and I tuck her under my arm, grinning at Sasuke. She smiles slightly nervously.

Kakashi obviously isn't satisfied with his answer.

"The teammates you consider so far below you achieved what you couldn't by working as a group and using every member's individual strengths. Tell me, which one of you came up with the plan?" He turns to us.

"Sakura did. She's a great leader." I tell him, and Sakura blushes harder.

"Yeah, yeah! She knew exactly what to do!"

"Is that true, Sakura?"

"I guess, but I couldn't have come up with it as quickly as I did without Naruto and Maya." Sakura replies humbly. I plant a kiss on her temple, and she smiles. Sasuke clicks his tongue and looks away from us.

"Hm." Kakashi looks a little perturbed as he watches us all grinning widely.

"Did you really eat those lunches?" He asks eventually.

"Nah, we wrapped them up and buried them under a boulder." I say.

"Go get them. They're yours. Sasuke will be going hungry. I'll talk to you as you eat." He walks us over to the clearing again, and, quick as a flash, ties Sasuke to the post.

"Hey!"

"This is your punishment. Now, nobody feed him." With that, he vanishes, leaving us alone.

After digging up the thankfully untouched lunches, Naruto and Sakura dig into theirs while I eat the one I brought. Sasuke tries not to look at us, but every now and then I see him glance in our direction, and hear his stomach growl.

After a few moments of this, I sigh, and hold a piece of tofu up to his mouth.

"What're you doing?"

"Feeding you. Eat."

"I'm not a dog."

"No you're a person and people need food."

"I don't want your pity."

"For god's sake, Sasuke, just eat the damn food!"

"Fine." He snatches it off the chopsticks and chews, a sour look on his face. I watch him for a moment, before saying;

"You know, if the wind changes your face'll get stuck like that." The look he gives me cracks me up, and I flop back in a fit of giggles.

"Grow up." He snaps. I laugh harder and throw my hands up towards the sky.

"Never!!"

A/N: BECAUSE SCREW CANON also can you tell I'm not a fan of Sasuke? Because I am not a fan of Sasuke. Especially not the way Kishimoto butchered his character development at the end of the original series thing (what do you even call pre-shippuden?) but hey, that's none of my business. I'm just going to change it completely.
Ta-ta~