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[Nick Soapdish]

“So why is this place all the way out here?” complained Naruto. “Not that I'm complaining about the mission this time,” he quickly added.

Reverting to lecturer mode, Sakura answered. “It's because we only use cameras and equipment like it for the chuunin exams to watch the students. Otherwise, we stick with ANBU for protection. We don't have the manpower to watch all the cameras that we'd need and besides, they're expensive. ANBU can watch over a much larger area.” Sakura sighed as she saw that Naruto's attention was already drifting. “You've looked over the mission briefing, right?”

“Yup! For a C-rank mission, it's pretty cool.”

“And this time, I brought food. Shinobi Rule #14 - Always be prepared.”

“That's not Shinobi Rule #14, Naruto.”

With that pronouncement, she turned back to the surveillance equipment in the central tower of Training Area #44. “Now to figure out the connections on this.” As she set up the cameras and microphones, Naruto snooped around the rest of the room, careful to stay out of her way.

After a few minutes, she called him back. “Ok, I've got it now. Let's get this over with.”

“Can I give the presentations this time, Sakura-chan?”

As she started to tell him no, she was caught by the hopeful look in his eyes. Defeated by the puppy dog eyes, she relented. “Yeah, Naruto. You can ...” inspiration striking, “you can warm up the audience and give the first award for each.”

"Hey, you're keeping the best ones for yourself."

"The opening act is very important," Sakura answered primly.

Naruto hesitated and then gave Sakura a big grin. “Well, let's get this started!”

Sakura grinned back. “Just wait until I get back there before you start.” Then she turned the equipment on and darted back to Naruto.

Naruto beamed at the camera and virtually shouted. “Welcome to the Awards Ceremony for the Great Heaven & Earth Fanfiction / Fanart Contest Three! I'm Uzumaki Naruto and this is Sakura-chan - ”

“Haruno Sakura,” Sakura quickly interrupted.

“Oh right,” he continued unabashed.”- Haruno Sakura and we're going to be your presenters for the evening.”

“And the third place winner for the ... uh, which do I do first, Sakura-chan?” he asked sotto-voce.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura answered, “it doesn't matter.”

“Ok, then. The third place winner for the fanart contest is ... the scroll please?”

Sakura handed him the scroll and with a dramatic flourish, Naruto unrolled it and pronounced,

"Dragonflies and Fireflies by E-vay!”

“Show her what's she's won, Sakura-chan!”

Sakura looked at Naruto darkly. “You've been watching too many gameshows. I'm your co-host, not the girl showing off the prizes.”

“Besides, we don't know what she's won. Remember?”
“What kind of awards show is this without prizes? Don't we have trophies or something?”

“”No. No trophies. If you're so intent on giving her a prize, you can give her one yourself.”

Naruto paused a second and then scribbled on the back of the scroll. He then held it up to the camera lens, revealing what might have been a drawing of Sakura and Naruto and the words 3rd place Fanart. Pulling it back, he eyed it critically. “Maybe Sai should've come as well. He could've been useful for something for once.”

“You know that they're probably going to edit that out, don't you?”

“Why?”

“This is why I didn't let you do the talking last time. Well, they'll have plenty of time to insert the applause track.”

“You mean the presentations. We still talked up here,” Naruto looked with some alarm at the tightness of Sakura's jaw. He continued as brightly as he could.

“And ... the third place finisher for the fanfiction contest is ...” He grandly gestured at Sakura for the scroll and then unrolled it.

“Is ... ?”

“It's blank. You handed me the wrong scroll, Sakura-chan.”

“I did not,” she responded halfway between confusion and anger. “We have six scrolls besides the briefing and entries. One for each prize and the seal on that one says that it's the third place winner for the fanfictions.”

“Hold on a moment.” She opened the scrolls and quickly scanned them. “Oh, I see now.”

“My turn, Naruto,” she said, smirking.

“So wait? I only get to present one award?”

“It certainly looks that way. And now, the second place winner of the fanart contest ... is ...” she paused a moment to dodge a lunging Naruto.

“Strawberry Heaven by Juujuu”

Naruto bounced back from his disappointment to comment. “Y'know, you do remind me of strawberries. Or is it the other way around?”

“Why thank you, Naruto.”

“I think,” she added, remembering his reluctance to eat anything, but ramen.

“We're already way behind so I'll move right along. And the second place finishers for the fanfiction contest are ...”

“Finishers?” Naruto asked. “As in more than one?”

“Yes, there was a tie from the judges. Now, as I was saying, we're running late, so second place goes to ...”

“Ten Days by SakuNaruLover and Bon by DasDeke”

Sakura waited a moment. “What no comments this time?”

“You said we were in a rush, right?”

“It's ok to have a little conversation. This is supposed to be entertaining.”
“Ok, then. Um, I forgot what I was going to say though.”

“You know that we're not going to get asked back to do this again, don't you? If you're going to become Hokage, you're going to have to learn how to handle ceremonies with some dignity.”

“If?” Naruto snorted in mock indignation.

“Since the comic relief has clammed up, that leaves us with the first place award for each portion of the contest,” Sakura said, trying to regain some sense of gravitas for the moment.

“And the first place award for fanart goes to ... Rain by ... rfizz? Am I pronouncing that correctly?”

“I bet that's really your umbrella in the drawing there, Sakura-chan.”

“And why's that?”

“I don't have an umbrella. I like the rain.”

“Shinobi don't have umbrellas just to stay out of the rain, Naruto. They're also good for concealing weapons or deflecting some attacks.”

“Oh, hey. Like swords and stuff. That would be cool.”

“I can take you shopping for one when we get back. But first, let's finish this show.”

“The first place award for the fanfiction goes to ... “ pause for a deep breath “Breaking Up Isn't as Hard to Do as Has Been Previously Suggested by Doc Destructo.

“Oh yeah. That one.”

“And that is why you should go on a date with me!” proclaimed Naruto.

“Say what?”

“Do you really want to wait for Sasuke or Sai to try setting us up? It'd probably be even worse in real life.”

“We haven't got Sasuke back yet and ...”

“But we will,” Naruto quickly interrupted.

“Right” answered Sakura, cheering up before she'd even had a chance to get down. “So is that really the best pick-up line that you can come up with? You've been training with the author of Icha Icha for years.”

“You want me to take advice about girls from Ero-Sennin?!”

“Well no,” Sakura quickly answered. “But I thought that you would have anyway.”

“Um, yeah. Well Ero-Sennin's pick-up lines seem to work either really well or really sucky. And you have th-” Naruto glanced at Sakura's face and quickly amended “well, it didn't seem like it'd be proper to try those sorts on you.”

“Huh. Maybe you are learning a bit from his example.”

“But first ...” Sakura began, trying to steer Naruto back to the awards show.

“Right! Congratulations to all of the winners and we'd like to thank all the participants - judges (even though they stole one of my presentations) and the submittees. Submitters?”

“Contestants is fine, Naruto.”

“Thank all the contestants,” Naruto continued. “And we hope to see you here again in six months or so.”

“Thank you, everyone” Sakura added. “And cut.” She scrambled to the equipment and began packing it up.

“Y'know, I think they'll ask us back, Sakura-chan. They like us after all.”

“We can hope so. But let's not test their limits.” Pulling a few more plugs and throwing more switches, she concluded. “Well, I think that's everything.”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?” Naruto said puzzled.

“Yes,” Sakura affirmed. “I'll go on a date with you.”

***

Sakura waited patiently for Naruto to calm down and repeated the question. “So what's this food that you brought?”

“You mean right now?”

“Sure. It'll be like a picnic. And you brought the food for a reason, right? It's a couple hours back and like you said, we don't want to do it on an empty stomach.”

“A picnic in the Forest of Death?”

“We're shinobi. This is relaxing for us. And I think I know just the spot.” She took his hand and led him out of the tower.

After a few minutes along the shinobi highway, she dropped into a grassy clearing beside a creek.

“Hey, I've been here before! This is where we rested up after ...” Naruto trailed off. “And where we almost opened the scrolls.”

“Yeah, after that. I really didn't get the chance to appreciate it at the time, but just look at it!” she exclaimed.

“You're right, Sakura-chan. The view is gorgeous. And it's so peaceful. It feels like ... an ambush.”

“See! I told you it'd be a great spot!” Sakura said grinning.

Naruto began digging through his backpack and laid out their repast.

“This is a surprise, Naruto. No ramen?”

“Sakura-chan! I wouldn't take you out for ramen on our first date,” Naruto protested. “I'm not completely dense. I know that you like to eat other stuff, too.”

“But you didn't know we were going on a date.”

“Um, yeah. Well ... I couldn't find a microwave in the tower or anything to cook it, but I brought a back-up meal for myself,” he said abashedly. Then recovering, “so I was extra prepared”. He grinned at her, his hands edging up to scratch the back of his neck.

“And the beach towel?”

“Shinobi Rule #42. Always carry a towel.”

“That's not Shinobi Rule #42. How on earth did you ever pass?”

“Heh,” he grinned sheepishly. “Well, the final wasn't written.”

The back and forth continued among them as they ate and returned to Konoha.

Finally, they were back inside Konohagakure and preparing to go their separate ways.

“Hey wait!” Naruto suddenly exclaimed. “So how's this a date? We just ate stuff and talked.”

“What did you think a date was exactly?” Sakura asked with some annoyance.

“But we do stuff like this all the time! Does that mean they've all been dates?”

“Like this? Pretty much,” Sakura answered as she leaned in and pecked him on the cheek. “And no, they haven't.”

She quickly turned to go on her way, but not quickly enough to miss Naruto's face turning the color of her hair.



....

Sorry to keep everyone waiting so long. I think it's still evening in some time zone. Hawaii, maybe?

[DocDestructo]

I am particularly fond of Rule #42 - Always carry a towel. Then again, I'm also a Douglas Adams fan. Another fun announcement, Nick!

[Ani]

Dude, we have a tie. I think thats our first one, time to celebrate! So congrats to all out winners~!

And I knew you could do it, Nick. :thumbs:

[Juujuu]

Omg I actually won something? o___0
thx everyone! but i still think there were much better submissions then mine XD

[Nick Soapdish]

Dude, we have a tie. I think thats our first one, time to celebrate! So congrats to all out winners~!

And I knew you could do it, Nick. :thumbs:

Eventually.

I really gotta proof that, but my mind's toast right now.

[Miss Soupy]

Congratulations everyone! :3

[JoHamSandwich]

...oops.

I forgot to vote. XDD!

Anyway! Congratulations to our winnars! But everyone who entered is a winner!

[Onionhead Attacks]

*does a little victory dance for the winners* wheeee good job, guys!!! enjoy your prizes !! :3 *then falls asleep after all the dancing*

[MoTD]

Ah, I can't wait till the next contest! The presentations are like a little fanfic on it's own.

Congrats to all the winners!

[DasDeke]

*blink blink*

I got second...holy smokes! Haha! I placed in something!!

PS - I always get a kick out of these announcements, Kuddo's good Sir!!

[Uzumaki's Fire]

Wow, great job with the awarding system (little fanfic of its own )

Well, I have to say............... that you guys SUCK! not, Good job with the FanFics and the FanArt, they were done very well.

[Vespar]

I didn't get through the fanfics this year...
--the whole contest snuck up on me this time!

Congrats one and all! :thumbs:

[rfizz]

Wow! How awesome is that? I'm totally blushing! Thanks so much everyone, I'm honored!

[Ashley]

I didn't vote, and this is what happens. :thumbs:

Congrats everyone!

[SakuNaruLover]

Wow! I became second place shared with DasDeke! Kewl, I didn't expect to reach the top three. I'm so happy!

Congratulations to all the other winners as well

[Jwolf0]

Ah, I had forgotten about Rule#42. It's been awhile though. Congratulations to everyone who participated - you did more than 90% of us (me included). And we get cool fics and art out of the deal!

[DasDeke]

Wow! I became second place shared with DasDeke! Kewl, I didn't expect to reach the top three. I'm so happy!

Congratulations to all the other winners as well

I wasn't expecting to win either! Glad I can share second with someone really cool! :thumbs:

[pocoloco]

Congrats winners!
And everyone else who was able to submit their talented works to the competition!

I actually forgot to vote this time. :shamefulcry0js:

Maybe next time.

[Rinzen]

Congrats to the winners and all contestants.

[fox naruto]

congrats to every one that won!