Silence.
Naruto squirmed, loathing the deafening silence.
"H-Hey...it's getting pretty dark. Shouldn't we start a fire or something?"
"Good idea Naruto. Start 'r up." Shikamaru said, tossing Naruto a few sticks and resting his head on the back of a log.
Naruto peered at the sticks for a minute, then glared at Shikamaru's foot.
"What the hell am I supposed to do with these?" He grunted.
"Make a fire, you idiot." Neji sighed, crossing his legs.
"How about you make it Neji? It's your destiny." Naruto said, throwing the sticks at him.
Neji glared at him, and tossed them back to Naruto.
"You're the one who suggested it."
Naruto glared at Neji with a 'humph', and stared at the forest ahead of him.
"Don't we need firewood or sumethin'?"
"Good idea Naruto!" Gai said, giving him the 'Nice Guy' pose. "How about you go get some?"
"Nuh-uh! I ain't going in there!" Naruto said, pointing at the woods.
"Yup, how about you go Sakura? An excellent Shinobi like you would find plenty of wood easy!" Ino said, giving Sakura a clap on the back and moving more twords Sasuke in the process.
"No, I'll stay so Sasuke doesn't feel lonely. Why don't you go?" Sakura said sweetly, squashing herself against Sasuke's right side.
"I already told you. I'll stay so Sasuke stays out of danger." Ino said, pressing more against Sasuke's left.
"No, I'll stay, you go! He's only in more danger with you around!" Sakura said, twisting her body around so she could face Ino.
After a few more minutes of pointless arguing between the two, Sasuke got up and stood next to Naruto.
"I'll go, just get me the hell away from these two..." Sasuke grunted, glaring daggers at Ino and Sakura, who frowned at his scowl.
"Aww, I'll go with anyone else, but why him?" Naruto groaned, sagging quite a bit.
"I'd stop complaining idiot...unless you'd like to go alone." Sasuke said, starting for the woods.
Naruto sighed, and ran up ahead of him. "Fine, but I'll collect more wood than you, believe it!"
Everyone paused and watched Sasuke and Naruto disappear into the depths of the woods.
"...Does anyone have anything else to eat?" Chouji said, throwing Shikamaru's lunch to the ground carelessly.
"Damn it Chouji, why don't you try saving the rest of us some food?" Ino snapped.
"But Ino, I'm huuuunnngrrry...." Chouji whined. "I can't survive a full day without something to eat..."
"We won't survive either if you pig out on all the food! You've eaten what?...Half of the food supplies already?" Shikamaru sighed, adjusting his head on the log.
Chouji ended the small argument with a sigh, and rested his back against a tree.
"...Now what?" Tenten said, glancing back at the water behind her.
"We could tell a spooky story." Gai said, slapping Kakashi across the back. "How 'bout it Kakashi? This could settle the score between you and me once and for all!"
Kakashi said nothing, only looked at his hands blankly. Gai sighed, and turned to the rest of the young Genin.
"Alright, who wants to go first?"
Not surprisingly, Lee bubbled up with excitement, waving his hand frantically in the air.
"Oh oh oh! Me, Gai-Sensei! I got a story!"
Gai hesitated for a moment, only making Lee's yells more and more frantic.
"......Alright, LEE!" Gai said, finally ruffling the youth's hair.
Lee sucked in some air, and started the story:
"Well, the spookiest thing I have come across in my missions was terrible...My spine chills at the very memory of it!...it was so... creepy... so... scary, SO UNYOUTHFUL!! Even Gai Sensei was unprepared to deal with it! We thought about throwing some shuriken or kunai...but we thought it might not be enough to push it to become youthful and energetic! We tried to sing the virtues of SEISHYUN, but it did not budge. We felt so ignored...it was scaring our wits out! so Sensei decided that the only way of injecting youth into it was dressing it with one of our spare jumpsuits...It didn't move. he was the laziest, slackerest, unyouthful-est men I ever saw!" Lee finished, with fire in his eyes. He took a quick look at Gai, who looked quite pale.
Everyone stared blankly at Lee.
"But that wasn't scary!!" They snapped at the same time.
Lee shrugged. "Well, it scared ME...right, Gai-Sensei?"
Gai, who was finally restoring some color to his face, nodded.
"It was TERRIFYING Lee. You're a great storyteller."
Lee nodded with a smile, and faced his friends. Neji shook his head.
"What an embarrassment..." He muttered to Tenten, who nodded.
Naruto walked hopelessly in circles, collecting every little twig and stick he could find. he joined up with Sasuke a few minutes later, carrying a handful of sticks; which could only keep the flame lit for a minute or so.
"Alright Sasuke, where are we? Are we lost?" Naruto asked, peering around in the darkness.
Sasuke had lit a broken branch with one of his techniques a little while ago.
"Don't be such a knucklehead...just listen for the yelling." Sasuke said, walking forward.
Of course, Naruto could hear Chouji's pleas for food and Lee's cries, but it sounded quite a distance away. Naruto sighed, and continued on.
After a few more minutes, they finally returned with the sticks.
"Humph. Only took ya long enough!" Sakura pouted, making room for Sasuke to sit next to her.
He did quite the opposite, and sat in a corner all by himself. She shook her head in defeat.
"Alright, now what do I do?" Naruto said, holding the two sticks together while gathering the other twigs in a huge pile.
"Start rubbing those two stick you have in the pile...a fire will start eventually." Shikamaru said, gazing at the cloudy night sky.
Naruto pouted and turned to Kakashi.
"Here Kakashi-Sensei, you make the fire. You haven't done one thing ever since you lost that book of yours." He grumped.
Kakashi got up with a sigh, and began to rub the sticks together.
"Faster, Kakashi-Sensei! It won't light if you're that slow!" Sakura scolded.
Kakashi's face grew more gloomy as he did as she told; the fire eventually sparked up after a few minutes. Everyone huddled around the fire, and started to set up the tents; one for each Team.
Finally, everyone was set up for bed. They said their 'Good nights' and crawled in the sleeping bags.
"...............Can I have a midnight snack?" Chouji asked.
All but a few groans were heard, and silence fell on the camp once more.
Ah, what a great ending...[/sarcasm]
Yeah, the story Lee told was completely Hinko Midori no Kemono's idea, not mine. So I shall give her full credit for letting me use it. ARIGATO HMnK-San!!
Alright, tell me what you think. ^^