Strawberries (A Naruto Fanfic)

Chapter 6: Underestimating What a Friend Can Do

Author's Note

I was originally going to merge this chapter with chapter 5 but, I was being lazy that day. School is so much work right now, and I have to do this. I'm lucky I'm even getting time. The good news is that since school started I can improve my writing abilities! So 'yay!', to that! Not much I have to say but Review, Fav, and Disclaimer= Love Naruto...Don't own it OR any of it's characters. I keep forgetting that :P. Enjoy if you can!

P.s.- I know I don't write much in a chapter...I can't give any promises I will write more in a chapter than what I have but I will try to soak in more of that good stuff into my future chapters. I've read stories with chapters that have 9,000 word-counts and + in it and I'm just like "How do you guys do it?!" So this is the most I've ever wrote in a ch...for now.

I regret even agreeing to this game now. We are actually losing. I can't believe it, and I don't even have an interest in sports!

So far, we've had three games and the girls have been in the lead the whole time. This, the last play of the game, includes Furea and I and our other select teammates. The rest of our teams are sitting on the side, doing their best to cheer us on. Not that it helps...

It's not that we are actually losing. In fact, the score is tied neck-and-neck between both genders. At first we all thought we should go soft on the girls since, y'know, they're girls, but now I can say I will do whatever it takes to win. These girls play hard.

You can just feel the shatter of our manly pride, I guess.

So here we are, face to face, sweat to sweat, kick to kick, in the last minutes of the game. The sweat is dripping off the ends of my spiky black hair and trickling down my neck. I'm panting so hard my lungs hurt. My whole body feels overheated and exhausted, but once I'm in the game, I'm in the game.

Furea and the girls aren't looking better than us, either – and it doesn't help that they are sweating, too, and their gym shirts and shorts are hugging their bodies, making every curve they have noticeable. As I've said countless times before, I'm not into girls as much as the other boys in this school so I'm not paying attention, but you should hear how much my other male classmates sitting on the side are whistling and making perverted remarks at them. Some of the girls are just eating it up, too. It's just another distraction that may be the catalyst for us losing.

Only two minutes left in the game and TenTen, who is in my gym period too, has the ball. She moves side to side, dodging all the boys that come in her way, kicking the ball with expertise. I've learned from this experience that she is a great athlete, and when I say great, I meanscary great.

She gets halfway across the field before she abruptly comes to a stop. She puts her hands on her knees, exhausted and panting hard. A boy from my team tries to steal it from her but his efforts are all in vain: she kicks it away with ease. This boy, I kid you not, keeps trying and trying despite the same outcome each time. All of us on the field are silently watching in amusement or confusion as the scene plays out. Ticked off, TenTen shouts at the boy, "Are you not getting tired, ya dumbass?"

Everyone bursts into laughter and I roll my eyes in annoyance. Can't we get back to the –

I think that too soon. The people from my team on the field and on the bench start to yell repeatedly at me, "Get the ball, Menma!" I look over to one of them, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion. He quickly points at something behind me, his eyes wide with disbelief, and I turn around to see Furea kicking the ball back up to the girls' goal.

Shit. TenTen must have passed it up to Furea when we weren't paying attention. Or at least I wasn't.

Everyone is cheering me on and shouting at me to get the ball. Snapping out of my daze, I make an effort to catch up to Furea and steal the ball before she goes for a goal. When she is around ten feet away from her target, she reels her left leg in slowly, making it obvious she's trying to make the goal. I quickly realize that, based on the lining of her foot and the position of the ball, she will make a perfect shot. The goalie will have no chance. When I catch up to her, I run in front of the ball just before she kicks it. I try to deflect the ball back using my chest, but I am faced with the reality of the situation when Furea finally kicks the ball forcefully, with her eyes shut tight – and it flies in the direction of my face instead.