I don't own Naruto

"Why, Asuma-sensei? Why!"

"Asuma-sensei, are you insane?!" Ino shrieked. The leader of Team 10, the great and powerful Asuma, the level headed, reliable, down-to-earth leader Asuma, put a hand behind his head and gave his team an uneasy grin.

"Well, I'm sorry, Ino, I just-. Well you see I-." He paused, then sighed in a defeated fashion. "Yes, I probably am. I'm sorry. But I feel that, in the long run, you all will benefit from this decision." He looked at Ino, who was wearing a monster face, complete with fiery eyes and steam coming out of her ears. Asuma quickly turned to the two male members of his team, looking for some sign of support. Or forgiveness.

Shikamaru, the strategic genius, had his eyes closed and one eyebrow was twitching. Uh-oh, thought Asuma. That's not a good sign. In desperation, he turned to Choji. Choji was standing stock still, a chip frozen half way from the bag to his mouth. Uh-oh. That's an even worse sign.

Finally, Shikamaru spoke. "I don't think I heard you correctly, sensei, because I swear that you just told us that we're going to practice with Gai's team."

An uneasy silence. A very long uneasy silence. Then Choji started shoveling chips down his throat, panicking. "I can't train with Gai's Team! They're incredible! They run ten miles a day! Then they train for four hours after that! WITH NO BREAK! I can't do it!"

"And on top of their insane training regime, Neji hates us." Shikamaru looked at Asuma with his expressionless eyes.

"What do you mean? Why would Neji hate you?" Asuma was confused.

The three looked at each other. "We kept bumping into him in the forest of death. He could have taken our scroll at least three times. But he felt it was beneath him to beat a team like us."

"Would you rather him have fought you?"

"No way." The three shared a group shudder.

Asuma sighed. "Can you guys just please try to get through today? It's only one day, and then we'll never train with them again. It was Gai's idea in the first place. He was going on about youth, and leaf village bonding, and such. I think there was a sunset involved…"

Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji looked at each other, all looking skeptical. Then Ino sighed. "Fine. But only today."

Asuma smiled weakly at them. "Thanks, guys."

The four set off towards Team Gai's training ground. As they did, a clap of thunder was heard. Choji looked up brightly.

"Maybe they'll want to cancel?" The three looked at each other, then Choji shook his head sadly. "It was a nice thought while it lasted." Little drops of rain started to fall.

Shikamaru sighed. "How troublesome…"

The four arrived at Team Gai's training field, soaked to the bone and grumpy. When they saw the training yard, three jaws hit the ground. It looked nothing like their training ground, which consisted of some weights (never used), one old practice dummy (used even less), and a cooler (used quite often). What was arranged before them now was their stuff times one hundred, worn looking from use instead of neglect, and four of the best ninja in Konoha.

Gai, for whom Team Gai was named, stood in his green spandex, talking to his team. Rock Lee was standing right in front of him, also in green spandex, listening to every word as though it were gold. Tenten stood a little ways from Lee, listening to her sensei, but also throwing a kunai up and catching it again and again. Next to Tenten stood Neji Hyuga, the prodigy who supposedly hated Team Ten. He stood with arms folded, eyes closed, and Team Ten wasn't really sure what he was doing.

Gai heard the rookie's approach and turned. "Asuma! Team Ten! How nice you could join us! Are you ready for an afternoon filled with vigorous exercise fueled by the Springtime of Youth?!" He flashed his shiny teeth while sticking his thumb in the air. Lee imitated the pose, also beaming.

"Hey, Gai." Asuma walked up to his fellow jonin, his team following him. He eyed the training equipment, then said, in an almost too casual voice. "So, do you still want to train, even with all this rain?"

"Why, of course, Asuma, you silly duck. Training is never canceled, whatever the weather! Isn't that right, Lee?"

"Yes, Gai-sensei!" He jumped to attention, punching a fist into the air. Tenten sighed and gave Team Ten an apologetic smile. Neji continued ignoring everything.

Asuma took one more look at the equipment, then said, "Well, that's too bad. You see, Tsunade just told me that I had to go on a mission today. Isn't that unfortunate?" He tried to look sad. "Well, I'll just leave my team here, and you can have them for the whole day! Good? Well then, see ya!" He disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"What? Sensei!" Ino was speechless. How could he leave us here?!

Shikamaru folded his arms. "How troublesome…"

Choji was staring at the place where Asuma had disappeared, his jaw hanging open.

"Well then! Shall we begin, my youthful comrades?!" Gai shouted, giving a thumbs up.

"YES, GAI SENSEI! LET US BEGIN!" Lee jumped into the air in excitement.

"Fantastic! First, we shall run for ten miles!"

"YES!" Lee disappeared in a splattering of mud as he took off down the road. Tenten and Neji (who finally opened his eyes) exchanged a look, then ran after their teammate at a more sensible pace, although still much faster then Team Ten thought was necessary.

"Come, Team Ten, and run with us!" Gai pushed the three open-mouthed ninja in the direction of the road. They almost overbalanced, but saved themselves and started running. But Gai didn't seem to think that this was actually 'running'.

"Ah, good idea, my youthful companions, start out slow so that you can run even faster later! Bravo!" Needless to say, Team Ten started running faster.

After about five miles, Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji were a mess. Choji looked as though he would topple over any minute, while Ino and Shikamaru were both red-faced and panting. Gai was still fresh as a daisy and the other members of Team Gai were nowhere to be seen. And it was still raining.

Oh, Asuma-sensei, you're going to regret thisIno roared inside her head.

"Now, let's move our youthful joints and touch elbows to knees!" Gai ran along side them, pulling his green-clad knees up to his elbows while running. Choji almost did pass out just watching him. Ino and Shikamaru steadied him even while they stared at the remarkable feet just accomplished by their substitute-sensei.

"Uh…..," was all Shikamaru could say.

"Is that humanly possible?" Ino whispered.

"Why, of course! Anything is possible when you have the power of youth on your side!" He stood behind the three. "LET'S GO!"

The three started to run, awkwardly throwing their knees up as high as they could, elbows flailing. Gai stopped running to watch them. He sweat-dropped, thinking, What has Asuma been teaching these kids?

"Oh well!" He said out loud. "I shall make up for all the glorious and youthful activities they have missed out on!"

These glorious and youthful activities, Team Ten soon found out, included running up a hill with a fifty pound boulder strapped to his or her back, running up another hill with two, twenty-five pound weights tied to his or her ankles, and pushing a larger boulder then the one you had strapped to your back up a hill with your hands tied behind your back.

Needless to say, Team Ten was lucky to still be alive after all of this. Gai looked at the three genin before him and decided that they should stick to just running (if he didn't want to fill out a lot of very tedious and un-youthful paper work about how three genin had been worked to their death).

So, they continued running. Shikamaru was almost glad. But his happiness was short lived. The three genin turned a corner and saw the biggest hill that they had ever seen in their entire lives.

Ho-ly. Crap. Ino thought, too shocked to think anything else.

Since when has there been a hill this big in Konoha? Shikamaru thought, having never seen or heard about the monstrous hill before in his life.

Choji took one look at it and passed out.

"Ah, Choji, you genius! Why didn't I think of it! Push-up break!!" Gai laughed and gave the thumbs up. Then he pulled out a whistle and blew it. No noise came out. Ino and Shikamaru, who had stopped running, exchanged a slightly terrified look.

All of a sudden, a dull rumbling was heard coming from ahead of them on the road. Ino and Shikamaru turned. Shikamaru had a feeling that something, something green and spandexy, had responded to that whistle. And he was right.

A fountain of mud burst from the top of the hill and what looked like a green bullet came streaking down the hillside, yelling, "GAI-SENSEI!!" It came to a screeching halt ten feet in front of them, covering not Gai and Choji, but Shikamaru and Ino from head to toe with mud.

Ino glared daggers at the green boy, steam coming out of her ears. Shikamaru spat out a fountain of mud before folding his arms and sighing, "He's even more troublesome than-." He stopped when Ino turned her icy and furious gaze on him. "Than other people I know," he finished lamely, but Ino was partially mollified. She turned her glare back to Lee as Shikamaru relaxed.

"Gai-sensei, I heard your call!" Lee stood at attention, not even panting from his run.

"Ah, Lee, your youthfulness brought you to me faster then the last time by at least three-hundredths of a second!"

"Really, Gai-sensei?" Lee's eyes were huge and shining as he stared up at his idol. "Really?"

"Yes, Lee, indeed it was! A job well done!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!" A sunset appeared and they hugged. The sun dried the mud coating Ino and Shikamaru. It cracked and shattered, landing back in the wet mud with a splash. Then the sunset disappeared.

"Anyway, Lee," Gai said, straightening and looking at his student. "Choji here has called for a push-up break!"

"YES! I AM QUITE ECSTATIC, GAI-SENSEI! I shall do five thousand push-ups, and then I shall run the ten miles over again!"

"Great idea! Let's begin!" Both of the green clad ninja fell to the ground next to Choji and began to wildly do push-ups. Ino and Shikamaru stood watching for a second, then began to slowly inch away. When they were out of sight, the two bolted. They ran pretty fast for two people who, just minutes before, were completely exhausted from running seven miles. Anyway.

When they were far enough away, the two stopped. Shikamaru put his hands on his knees, sighing a sigh of relief and panting. Ino fell to her knees in the mud and yelled to the heavens, "WHY, ASUMA-SENSEI? WHY?!"

Shikamaru's head snapped up. "Be quiet!" he hissed. "Or else they'll hear you!"

Ino gasped and threw her hands over her mouth. They stood still, listening intently for any noise that could be a spandex-clothed monster. But nothing came. After five minutes, they relaxed. When they caught their breath, Shikamaru and Ino walked through the woods in the direction that they thought could be the actual village.

They traveled in silence, both weary beyond belief.

Wow. It's probably not a good thing that we're this exhausted after only one day of training, Shikamaru thought. Even though one-day of Team Gai training is probably equal to a month of our team's training, it is kind of pathetic. He sighed.

Ino was not wasting her time thinking about the physical condition of her team. Instead, she was thinking about ways to get revenge on Asuma-sensei. She was in the middle of a particularly evil plan involving a banana, a sludge hammer, and a jar of termites when a twig snapped somewhere to their left. Shikamaru and Ino froze.

When nothing green burst out at them yelling about youth and push-ups, they relaxed a little. They exchanged a look, then stepped closer to the clump of trees where the noise had come from. They peered around a tree. Ino opened her mouth to gasp, but Shikamaru covered it quickly with a muddy hand. Both of their eyes were huge.

Standing in a small clearing, arms wrapped around each other, muddy from the rain and the run, kissing, were,

Neji and Tenten?!

Ino and Shikamaru pulled back their heads and jumped away as quickly as possible. They sat down on a log.

"Who'd have guessed that those two would get together?" Ino said, sounding astounded.

Shikamaru didn't say anything.

"Well," Ino thought out loud, "They are on the same team. And they have been teammates for almost two years. And they spar together almost everyday-."

"How do you know that?"

Ino waved her hand impatiently. "Everyone knows that! Anyway." She put a finger on her chin, thinking. "I guess they do look good together."

Shikamaru sighed and rolled his eyes.

Ino's mouth spread slowly into a smile as her mind pondered Neji and Tenten's relationship. "Ooh! I bet it's one of those situations where the two best friends fall in love with each other, but neither wants to admit it for fear that it would ruin their friendship or their team, and then due to some odd circumstances like maybe rigorous training, they confess their feelings and then they feel so stupid for not saying it earlier, and then they kiss and live happily ever after!" She clapped her hands. "That would be so sweet!"

Shikamaru looked at Ino, his mouth hanging slightly open. Ino looked at him, thinking about what she had just said. A blush started to creep onto her cheeks. Shikamaru's cheeks imitated. They avoided each other's eye, trying to look somewhere else but always managing to get back together. Their blushes deepened.

Then Ino said. "Shikamaru, this isn't-."

"No way!" He said quickly, running a hand through his ponytail.

"Good, because I wouldn't want, you know." Ino was fascinated by her shoes.

"Yeah, that would be weird, the two of us…" Shikamaru mumbled.

"Oh, yeah. Totally."

"Yeah."

"Yeah."

"I mean, why would I like y-," Shikamaru started, then stopped.

Ino's eyes narrowed and she turned to him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing!" Shikamaru said nervously. "It's just that, well, you're so…"

"So what? Unattractive? Unappealing? Distasteful? Am I not good enough for you?!"

"No! It's not like that!" Shikamaru waved his hands frantically in front of him, sweating.

"Do you think I'm ugly?!"

"No!"

"Am I obnoxious?!"

"No!"

"DO I SMELL?! AM I FAT?!"

"NO!"

"THEN WHAT IS IT!?" Ino practically shrieked.

"I-I-I LIKE YOU!"

Silence.

"…What?" Ino whispered.

"Uh, nothing." Shikamaru stared at a tree.

"Did you say that you liked me?" Ino asked hesitantly.

"Uh, no."

He concentrated on a particularly interesting leaf. Then a muddy hand grabbed his chin and pulled his face around to face hers. They looked at each other for a second, both of their faces going redder. And then they kissed.

The End.

Well, this is a very very very very VERY late birthday present for tomboy14. I hope you enjoyed it!

This was just a fun story that I wanted to write, because I'm doing three long stories, and I just wanted a break to write something fun. So please review, tell me if you laughed, or if you thought it was stupid. Whatever. Thanks a lot!