I have 231 tabs divided into 19 tab groups in one session of waterfox. ヽ(ー_ー )ノ マイッタ What have I been doing on the internet?
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Characters: Naruto/Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Kiba
Rating: PG-13
Words: 808
Summary: As best friends, it’s only imperative that they continually volunteer themselves to questionable and possibly perilous situations. Like racing shopping carts down steep hills.
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The tension in the air is palpable, momentarily darkens the sky as imaginary sparks of electricity crackle between Sasuke and Sakura when their eyes meet.
Sasuke only heightens the depth of his glare, adjusting on his head Naruto’s old goggles from primary school he was forced to wear.
For good luck, Naruto claimed, your eyes are too pretty to risk anything happ-just give me the goddamn goggles, idiot.
The rusty wheels of the cart carrying Sasuke squeak over the grass as Naruto pushes and pulls at the handlebar.
Seated and cushioned by Ino’s and Shikamaru’s jackets in the other cart, Sakura pulls down at the skin beneath her right eye and sticks out her tongue at Sasuke.
Sasuke glowers in response, sitting up with his legs crossed and hands holding onto the sides of his cart. “Do it again.”
And she does, this time with a smile, because apparently his threats don’t mean anything to her anymore.
Face highly concentrative-you look constipated, Naruto says right next to Sasuke’s ear, laughs with that obnoxious laugh, then unleashes a painful cry when he’s smacked upside the head by an errant hand-Sasuke pulls up the goggles resting on top of his head and brings them over his eyes.
“You better push, usuratonkachi. Or your ass will be mine.”
Naruto blinks. “You know,” he says, pensive expression quickly developing into a lascivious grin, “that doesn’t have to be such a bad thing.”
“Keep daydreaming, loverboy.” Ino sends Naruto a cheeky grin of her own. Both hands gripping the handlebar of the cart carrying Sakura, she rotates her fists, pretends to rev the cart like a bike. “The only thing your ass is gonna be is grass.”
A few metres further down the hill, positioned in the gap between the two carts ahead of him, Shikamaru rolls his eyes. “Can I wave the flag now?”
“Would it hurt you to at least pretend to be a little more enthusiastic?” Ino says with a huff.
“Yes.”
“Enough talking,” Sasuke says, glaring at Sakura again when she taunts him with another smile. “Let’s get this going already.”
“No,” Ino says, “we have to wait for Kiba to set up the camera and give the signal. We can’t do anything yet. Not when pride is on the line.”
Four pairs of eyes stare at Ino, including Sakura’s incredulous ones when she turns around in the cart to face her. “Since when did you care about pride?” She adjusts under her chin the black strap securing to her head a pink bicycle helmet almost too small.
“Or any form of self-dignity for that matter?” Shikamaru says.
Ino pauses, taking a moment too brief to actually be considered a moment to think. “I don’t really.”
Sakura sighs, while everyone else except Ino lowers their heads. “Figures.”
“But,” Ino says, with a wave of one finger that ends up pointing at Shikamaru, “this guy right here owes me for his frequent skipping, all the times I cover for him when he’s too lazy to show up for class.”
Shikamaru crosses his arms, the flag he’s holding covering his chest, but he doesn’t argue.
Ino lowers her hand back to the handlebar of the cart. “Not to mention there's a pool in our homeroom, so I have money riding on me and Sakura winning. Which, of course, in the phenomenal off chance that doesn't end up with us crashing into an abandoned tuna can factory, we will. Isn’t that right, Sakura?”
“Oh.” Sakura turns back around and grips the sides of the cart with both hands that are covered by grey gloves. “All right then. As long as I get a share, too.”
“I hope you all end up disfigured,” Shikamaru mutters. “Or die when you inevitably do crash into that old warehouse.”
“Whatever.” Ino flicks a lock of hair behind her ear, smirks at him with a glint in her eyes. “I’ll just come back as a malevolent spirit to haunt you.”
“Ready when you are!” is Kiba’s loud cry from the bottom of the hill. He waves at them with one thumb raised in the air. In his other hand, he lifts a small camera.
“We can do this,” Ino says to Sakura, hand clamped over her shoulder. “Just imagine all the money we’ll make from those idiots who bet against us.” Her voice takes on a dreamy quality. “Imagine all the sweets from Sadaharu we’ll be able to buy.”
Sakura nods with a grin, placing her hand on top of Ino’s. She turns the grin to Sasuke, laughs and lets her grin grow wider at the sight of him smacking away Naruto’s hands trying to straighten the goggles resting uneven over Sasuke’s eyes.
With a sigh, Shikamaru raises the flag and shakes his head. “There’s no way we’re not getting in trouble for this.”