Ok, so here comes my entry for contest- theme : baseball. Let's swing it, luvs! (my wattpad, in case someone feel like leaving comment: https://www.wattpad.com/600021869-clothing-release-celebration-fanfiction-contest )

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'I am so... sooo borrrrrred...' Scarlet groaned, rolling over on his back, on a patch of grass.

Ground of Training Field, pleasantly warm, thanks to summer sun, was making him sleepy and he started to think that a short nap is a way better idea to kill time, than just staring either on those little clouds lazily flowing through sky, or on his best bro, being busy with another set of push-ups.

'You c*ways join for some workout. Training is a lot of fun!' said Crimson, switching for sit-ups.

'Borrrrrinnnng...'

'Beside, it really would be good for that lack of muscles of yours.' Crimson grinned.

'Are you calling me weak??? Take that, you mountain of flesh!!' Scarlet threw handful of grass at other boy, who had to stop training because of laughing too hard.

'For your information- not everyone can be a beefcake like you. Some are born to be blessed with BOTH marvelous appearance AND intelect, just like my- humble yet amazing- self.'

Scarlet said it all with serious face but bursted out laughing together with Crimson, short after.

'No but really...' he stood up and sighed. 'I wanna do something fun... new... ugggghhh!'

Sudden loud sound and cheerful yells following it, breaking through calm and hot air of afternoon, caught attention of boys.

'Looks like baseball team is training...'

Scarlet knew that those sounds were coming from a nearby ballpark, built few years ago, when this new sport got introduced to the Konoha and conquered hearts of small group of young people rather fast. It was already during his time before ninja training in Academy, when he got to play it a bit too- and man, was it fun!

'Crimson, I have idea. How about we go ask them if we can joi-'

His words got interrupted by unexpected, angry barking, from the level of his knees. Scarlet gazed down at Akamaru.

'What do you want from me, you little devil?'

For some mysterious reasons, this one certain ninja dog, always was reacting like this for him. And seemed that ONLY for him. At this point, Scarlet was pretty sure that Kiba, who never really was a good friend of him, simply trained him to attack anytime he saw him.

Scarlet barked back at noisy dog, who bared fangs at him.

'Leave Akamaru alone, you punk!'

"But of course... All I need now is that annoying guy and his rat..."

'Not my fault, he started. ' said Scarlet, putting hands in pockets. 'He's always like this, barking at me for no reason at all! tell him Crimso-... no... what are you... why are you petting this hell spawn?? Stop it right there you traitor!!'

Scarlet stared betrayed at his friend and Akamaru happily licking his hand. Kiba's laughing rung in his ears, to his growing irritation.

'Hahaha! Even Akamaru knows how much of a loser you are, Scarlet Fail!'

Fire-nin snorted.

'Ya' know, Kiba- if your level of IQ was as high as low is your creativity at making funny, derogative nicknames- you would beat Shikamaru at shogi.'

What stopped Kiba from chargin at other boy, was familiar voice, coming from somewhere above.

'You are all too loud.' said Midnight, with his usual ice-cold tone. he was sitting on a branch of nearby large tree. 'How about you two go somewhere else and fight, so maybe at least one will finally drop dead.'

'Awesome idea! Fight me, you midget!'

'A duel, huh?' Scarlet smiled widely. 'How about something more fun.' he pointed at ballpark, from where they could still hear sounds of an ongoing training.

'Here's the deal: beat me at baseball match and I will admitt that you are way better than me.'

'Huh?' Kiba rose eyebrow. "What kind of * idea is this... Are you joking?'

'Naah. Get a beast team you can find and meet meat ballpark in, let's say- 3 days. let's show them all who's skilled enough to win EVEN at something like this.' Scarlet decorated face with his trademarked smirk. 'Or such pathetic puppy like you can't even fetch a ball, huh?'

'it's on, punk.' growled Kiba, swearing to himself that he will beat that smile out of his face, even if would be at ballet dancing.

Midnight jumped off the tree, landing near Scarlet.

'It won't be a duel anymore, you dummy. Why are you dragging others into your nonsense ideas?'

'Oh, Middy-chan, you know nothing about fun! Beside~' Scarlet wrapped his arm on taller's boy shoulder. '~you gonna be in my team, sweatie.'

Midnight s* other boy off him, fighting strong urge to stab him.

'Not in a million years. And call me "sweatie" again and I will fillet you.'

'Hah!' Kiba snorted with contempt. 'What would that failure wannabe-Kakashi show us in match anyway, hahaha. Go play with that wittle stiick you call a sword!'

Midnight's cold and still expression didn't change even a tiny bit. Just a single, pullsing vein, showed up on his temple. His voice was filled with intense murder intent when he finally spoke out.

'Count me in, Scarlet.'

Crimson grabbed both boys in bone-crushing hug.

'Ok then! Looking forward for a good game, see you in 3 days, Kiba!'

Scarlet wasn't wasting time- one successful visit at Ichiraku ended up with naruto joining the team. breeze, who agreed after long list of promises from fire-nin, did a great job at persuading baseball team's coach to lend them place for training and match, and also- borrowing them equipment. They also decided to add few junior players to fill up empty spots in both teams.

'Thank you so much!' Breeze blew a kiss at the coach, leaving him with a dreamy look on his face. her charm never failed.

Kiba had a bit of hard time finding volunteers, untill Gai-sensei and Lee heard about this and proclaimed it to be a "great opportunity for youth to shine!". Their enthuism was something not worth opposing. And so, Team Blue was formed of 5 young ninjas: Lee, TenTen, Neji and Sakura (who seriously just wanted to beat naruto after his last antics during mission) joined Kiba, together with few more proffesional baseball players.

Meanwhile, Team Red was trying out their new outfits. Scarlet stood in front of them, with big, bright smile.

'Now, look at this team- we're gonna do great!'

'Doubt.' said Midnight, staring at Naruto chopping air with a bat and Crimson trying to figure out the rules, with rather puzzled look on his face.

'Don't worry! A little training and it will be fi-'

Azure, standing next to Scarlet, put a red, shiny helmet on his head, then knocked on it few times.

'Safety first! I will be watching whole time, in case anyone will get hurt.' she sighed. 'Be safe there, guys.'

'Our beautiful guardian angel!' Scarlet tried to hug her but got stopped with a finger placed on his nose.

'Out for training you go! Shoo shoo!'

Finally, after 3 days filled with chaos, both teams marched on the field- prepared (at least partially) and hyper (too much), lively cheered on by a small group of supporters, who came to watch.

'Hey, lookie, Middy-chan- your fanclub is there too.' Scarlet pointed at group of girls, which was following lightning ninja pretty often, bringing headache to poor Midnight, who wasn't interested in this sort of stuff.

Scarlet, ignored completely by friend, waved at Azure, standing near the play field.

'Do your best, Scarlet-kun!' she shouted, waving back.

Iruka, who got forced to be a 2nd arbiter, together with baseball teams' coach, stood in front of teams, to remind them rules for this match.

'Forget that you are ninjas for the time of playing. No weapons, nin- gen- taijutsu tricks. No ninja pets allowed either.'

Akamaru was whining quietly in arms of Hinata, who was watching match with others.

'Let it be a good and fair game. Let's begin!'

Scarlet took a look at both teams. All of them were focused and even if they had really so little time to actualy learn to play- seemed that they are pretty sure of their skills and were happy for a match. He gazed at Kiba, who, not surprisingly , was looking very confident.

'Ok team, let's rock it!!' Scarlet yelled to teammates and voices of agreement answered aloud.

Blue Team, leaded by Kiba, was first to get on offence. After 3 fast and powerful throws by pitcher Crimson- TenTen got strikeouted.

'You go, brooooo!!' Scarlet chanted from his position near 2nd base.

Kiba was next at bat. he let first ball without even trying to hit it. Second one was a clear hit to the middle of the field- enough for him to get 1st base.

Players of Red Team, being in defense, were doing their best, trying to take out opponents. So focused on ball, that few times they were closer to knockout own teammates by colliding with eachother.

First part of this round ended after furious Sakura got outted by Breeze, with 5 points for Blue Team.

Teams switched. Rock lee, who was now the pitcher brofisted Crimson, as they exchanged looks saying "do your best!"

One of "borrowed" players managed to get to 3rd base, other at 2nd. Third of them got strikeouted. Next one was Naruto. After 1st strike, he managed to hit the ball pretty hard- it flew high and other team created a small havoc on field, trying to catch it before it hit the ground.

Naruto threw bat away and started to run... But...

'Noooooo... Naruto back! Go back!' yelled Scarlet from the bench, where he waited for his turn. 'WRONG DIRECTION!!'

Blond ninja realized his mistake after few more steps and turned to run back to 1st base- miraculously, he got there before ball. Players from 3rd base scored. Scarlet fell back on bench, with loud sound of relief.

Midnight stood up and marched on position, cheered on by applaud of noisy fangirls.

First throw. Midnight took a wide swing and... missed.

'Strike!'

Second ball and... also this one got missed by his bat for few centimeters.

'Where are your glasses?? C'mon man, don't do this to meeee...' cried out Scarlet.

Lightning ninja tried to focus and ignore growing irritation and fact that it was all actually Scarlet's fight, not his problem. he imagined ball as a head of that annoying shorty.

This time it got hit with a sound of thunder. Midnight dashed, while ball flew far away into field. he stopped at 2nd base, freed by Naruto just in time.

Scarlet was watching nervously but Breeze managed to hit ball- letting both boys on bases score.

Now was his chance Scarlet took position and weighted bat in his hands. He focused blood-red eyes on the ball and mind on all the throws of Lee he saw untill now.

He swinged bat with fast, strong precise hit and ball flew with great great speed, between opponents and bounced further on ground. before they could get close to it, Scarlet passed 1st base. When he was getting close to 2nd, Kiba caught the ball and with full force threw it at his direction. Aimed on purpose, ball hit the head of running boy, making him fall on his back just in a moment when his foot touched the base.

He was lying for a moment, without a move, when Azure dashed to him, calling loudly.

'Scarlet... Scarlet!'

When she got very close, boy suddenly moved his leg, making her trip and fall on top of him.

'Oh my gosh...imsorry...imsoclumsy!!!...are you ok??' she cried but then meet the smilling all happily face of boy.

'Well, look at that. Someone's falling hard for me.' he said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Azure went straight from panic to full *n blush and escaped from boy's arms, standing up very fast.

'BAKA!!!' she yelled. 'A-are you ok, * you...'

He also got up and knocked on his helmet. 'Safety first, haha.'

Azure punched his arm and run fast back to her position. Breeze sighed loudly from 3rd base. Boys, ehhhh...

Last hit, done by Crimson, was strong but not really precise- still it was enough to let Breeze and Scarlet score, while last "borrowed" player sadly got strikeouted by Lee.

First half came to an end with 5:4 for the Blue Team.

Scarlet didn't lose a bit of his will to win this- during whole break, he was warming and motivating his team, for even better second round.

'They might be winning by 1 point now- but when we will end them on next half- they will be crying, hugging to their puppies!"

It didn't matter of how much sense it had, Scarlet's words lead them to field with great moods anyway.

But not everything went so smooth.

When 3rd of Blue players got outted- they had 9 points. Scarlet was looking nervously at Red Teams' score, after Naruto, breeze and 4 borrowed players finished their turns. they had 8 points. Need 2 more for a win. Scarlet looked around at team, while holding bat again. Midnight would need to pass 2 bases to give them chance for that.

Fire-nin took a deep, slow breath. he tightened bit shaking hands on wood.

Focus and hit.

With all he got, he send ball flying high and far, almost near the end of the field. Both him and Midnight dashed.

'Point for Red Team!' he heard and moment later he landed on 2nd base. Score was even now.

Scarlet gazed with hope at Crimson. He catched that look and rised his thumb in return, then swung bat in the air for a try.

All they needed now was one, good hit. Two bases to pass- Scarlet wasn't so fast as his white-haired friend but if hit will be good enough...

Only one out was also needed to end this match.

Scarlet swallowed slowly. Then looked around again at both teams. Even tho pretty nervous and tired- everyone seemed to have fun. teammates were communicating with smiles, group of fans cheered aloud for both teams. Akamaru was barking from time to time.

He closed eyes for a moment and smiled. He can do it. Just 2 bases and it's their win.

His heartbeat rushed for the sound of the hit. He could almost hear sound of the ball breaking the air, when he dashed.

3rd base. Just few more steps.

Other team got the ball from ground. It flew closer, passed from one to another.

He can make it. Barking ball of fur won't stop him.

Huh...

In a split second of like a slow-motion movie, he saw scene on his side: player being closest to his position was about to catch high ball but misscalculated and tripped, falling backward in comicaly long motion...

...straight on a small, white dog, running towards Scarlet and barking furiously.

He didn't think. It was all in a one, loud heartbeat. One jump dividing him from score got broken, as he dived under falling opponent, shielding confused Akamaru with his body and rolling further, thanks to momentum of jump.

Ballfield suddenly turned silent from cheering a moment ago. Other opponent catched the ball and threw it to home base. Whistle of arbiter ended turn of red Team and match.

'Hey, you little dummy, are you ok?' Scarlet looked at whining, scared puppy, who moment later run to approaching Kiba and jumped to his arms.

'Man... you could win this, you know, right?...' Kiba stood over the boy, lying flat on grass.

'Aha.' he smiled wide in response.

Kiba turned a little ashamed face away.

'Dude... thanks.'

'As if I could let them turn that noisy fluffball into a demon pancake, haha.'

Scarlet looked up at hand reached out to him. he stood up with a help of other boy.

'We're even now, yeah?' he smiled. 'And man, was it fun!'

Kiba smiled back and suddenly whole crowd around them exploded with loud happy chants and laughs.

'You are sure you don't want to settle this even score?'

'Naah. You know what is better idea?' Scarlet wrapped one arm around shoulder of other boy. 'Let's go eat. I'm deadly hungry!'

Akamaru barked at Scarlet again- this time with pure agreement.

END.