The Challenge

Chapter Twelve: “See Kurai Run”

Numerous tables were set up in a giant circle in the gym of the local community college. Over twenty-five tables held entries from three different high schools. Among them Hinata and Sasuke were adjusting the items on their table.

A large block sat in the center of the table with a white sheet over it. On either side of it sat at a slant two laptops, one belonging to Itachi and the other Hinata. Sasuke already explained what would be on them to Itachi but Naruto had yet to find out, in fact, he knew very little about the project. On two foot high legs sat a giant mirror. The legs sat far enough apart that everything fit in-between them. When the mirror was tilted just right the people far back in the crowd could see the mouse in the maze. They didn’t know how many times Kurai would run the maze before getting bored.

As Hinata centered the maze on the table and clamped the mirror in place Sasuke started the computers. On Hinata’s computer he loaded a fifteen minute video of Kurai training and running through some of the obstacles before they were put in the full maze. Itachi’s computer played a slightly shorter video of the untrained mouse bumbling over spools and pushing through incorrect paths in the maze. Each video played in a lope until they were ready to present the maze for the judges.

Naruto watched the process with an uneasy feeling. Sasuke and Hinata moved with ease; moving this and shifting that. He was stuck standing next to Itachi who was watching his brother. When Sasuke told him about Itachi’s proposal he thought he was hearing things. He gave Sasuke his address and sure enough Itachi and him showed up. In the car they chatted while Itachi kept his eyes on the road. When they arrived and Sasuke started setting up he got stuck standing by the person he suspected didn’t really like him.

For the most part Itachi stayed silent observing everything around him. Naruto wondered if he felt as out of place as he did.

A few tables away Kiba helped Shino set up different boxes containing his bug collection. He knew they would be here and what Shino’s entry was. Kiba told him there was a special surprise but kept quiet about what it actually entailed. Looking around at the other projects Shino’s was the only one that would give Hinata and Sasuke a run of the prize. Most of the other tables had home made volcanoes and other things he couldn’t identify.

“Hey,” Sasuke called as he walked over. “We should go look at the other booths now. Hinata’s going to stay near ours to answer questions and after a while we’ll switch.

“That sounds good.” Itachi reached out and tapped a finger against Sasuke’s forehead making his eyes cross momentarily. “You two start without me and I’ll catch up. I’m going to grab a coffee.”

Itachi wandered off leaving the two of them to look at the entries. “Your brother seems different.”

“Not really.” Sasuke stopped for a second to look at someone’s home made lava lamp. “This is how he normally is. The one time you met him he was in panic and worried about me.”

Unconsciously Naruto touched his arm where he remembered Itachi grabbing him. Sasuke was right; they met for the first time under unfavorable circumstances. “I guess but offering to bring me with you guys that was different.”

“Yeah I know but I knew it would happen eventually. He adapts slowly but change in enviable. We know that better that most.” The last words came out quiet, just loud enough for him to hear.

Naruto could hear the pain in his voice. Quickly he looked around them, when he didn’t catch sight of anyone who mattered he snuck and arm around Sasuke’s shoulders giving him a quick squeeze. Sasuke sighed contently and pushed against him before shifting away. Naruto let his arm drop as he caught sight of the experiment in front of them. “Hey cool a little windmill.”

Sasuke laughed and knocked his shoulder happy for the change in topic. “It produces energy; it’s going to be the next big thing.” Sasuke reached out and started spinning the crane that turned the blades of the wind mill. “Normally the windmill would stand hundreds of feet in the air where the wind blows constantly. The wind blows the blades that turn combines in the stock. All this produces electricity that can power entire cities.” Sasuke turned the crank faster making the light bulb it was connected to light up.

“Wow, I should get a giant windmill installed on top of the house. Maybe that would stop Jiraiya bitching about all the bills.” The kid manning the project looked over at then scowled at Sasuke’s fair name tag and went back to talking with others. Naruto laughed and pushed Sasuke towards the next table. After that Itachi rejoined them as they passed two volcanoes and a water cycle model.

“Well I had better let Hinata look around before the judges’ start their rounds.” Naruto smiled and waved good-bye nervously looking forwards to being left alone with Itachi.

“He knows a lot about all this stuff. My head spins trying to keep up with him.” Itachi’s voice startled him.

“You can probably follow him better than me.” Naruto let out a deep breath glad Itachi started a conversation he could contribute to. The last thing he wanted was a repeat of when he brought Sasuke home from school.

“No not really, my expertise is based more on numbers and measurements. I can look at a house and come up with the square footage but Sasuke knows what the percentage of concrete to water makes the best cement for a foundation.” Itachi sipped his coffee and led them back towards Sasuke and Hinata’s table. Before they were within ear shot he stopped and turned to him. “I want to apologize for how I acted the last time we met.”

“Um, you don’t really have to, I mean, you were preoccupied with Sasuke’s health, and I understand that.” He was really hoping they could skip this conversation.

“No I really need to. When it comes to Sasuke I get tunnel vision. I understand now that you were not involved in Sasuke’s accident. He doesn’t make a lot of friends and I’m ashamed that I’m some what responsible for that. I had my doubts but Sasuke has always had good judgment concerning people.” As Itachi finished they caught sight of two people looking official and holding clipboards.

“I think the judges are starting.” He smiled happy and uneasy that Itachi approved of their friendship. Luckily before he had to respond Sasuke waved them over.

The judges started several booths away slowly making their way over. Hinata and Sasuke tried to answer questions of the people nearby while waiting for the judges to come over. Nervously they fiddled with the sheet covering the maze anxiously awaiting the big reveal. Finally they were one table away so they removed the sheet.

Naruto was taken aback at how big and complicated it looked. At one end were two chambers completely closed off from the maze that each had a mouse. One wore a small red string around its left front paw and the other had nothing; that one had to that the untrained one. The other end had four ending compartments, two for each side, that were the right and wrong ending points for each mouse.

The maze was divided in half so the mice could run simultaneously and side by side. Both sides were identical with the same traps and path to the end. Technically it was two mazes, one for each mouse. One was going to be kept by their school’s science department in Iruka’s lab. Sasuke and Hinata had yet to decide who got the other one.

“Here we go.” Hinata pulled on Sasuke’s sleeve and whispered.

Together they turned to the judges and explained the experiment. The mirror above was adjusted so that people in the back could see but Naruto was close enough that he could look right into the box. A clear piece of plexy glass sat on top to keep the mice from crawling out but had small hatches in spots to move pieces of the maze around.

Hinata and Sasuke did a count down and pulled away the pieces separating the mice from the maze. Both scurried into the maze and took the first turn correctly. They stayed neck in neck until the first obstacle. The untrained mouse when presented with a choice between a dark tunnel and an open door way took the wrong trail and ended up at a dead end. Kurai, however, ran through the toilet paper tube sized tunnel in the right direction.

Naruto laughed and nudged Sasuke pointing at the poor disoriented mouse sniffing at the tunnel. Sasuke turned to him smiling. “He might be afraid of the dark.”

Finally it crawled through the tunnel while Kurai approached the overturned spool of thread. Kurai put his two front paws on the spool and walked it down the corridor. Once it slipped but rolled back towards Kurai bumping into the small creature.

“This part is slightly raised.” Hinata explained. “Kurai has to push the spool against resistance not just roll it out of the way.” In the maze Kurai stood up of the spool and started rolling it again.

In the bottom of the maze a small rectangular hole allowed the spool to fall into it and out of the way. It acted as a bridge and exposed the correct door way for the remainder of the maze. Just as Kurai pushed the spool into the hole the untrained mouse made it to his own spool. Unsure about the weird object blocking its path he sniffed at it making it roll slightly. A light laugh ran through the crowd as the spool rolled back hitting the un-expecting mouse on his twitching nose.

Kurai made his way down the path weaving throw the obstacles. The untrained mouse couldn’t figure out how to roll the spool so proceeded to climb over it making it skid backwards. Past the spool it tripped and fell in the hole sending another laugh through the crowd. The trained mouse approached the final door way while the other one was still trying to navigate the wrong path. Kurai sniffed at the gap under the open door way. He pushed at it making the door shift. It took a couple experimental pushes before Kurai caught sight of the cheese and moved all the way over the threshold.

Sasuke and Hinata clapped and hugged each other as Kurai’s entry into the correct ending chamber lit a small collection of Christmas lights surrounding the right box. Unfortunately the untrained mouse by passed the swinging door for the open doorway leading to the wrong door. Hinata lifted the trap door in the plexy glass over the end chamber for Kurai and petted behind his ears. For the other mouse Sasuke gave it a piece of cheese because the wrong door held no reward.

A round of applause rang out at the mice completing the maze even though the show wasn’t over. Sasuke pulled the plexy glass up and started rearranging the walls and obstacles. When finished, Hinata put Kurai back at the beginning of the maze. The untrained mouse was taken out and put back in his carrying case.

Kurai swiftly maneuvered the new paths making it past the newly ordered obstacles. This time the spool came first and had to be pushed further over two dips before it finally fell into the hole. Next came the swinging door but this time there was no prize right behind the door. Kurai still pushed throw it letting the light weight door run along its back as he made his way to the tunnel and last obstacle. He immediately climbed into the tunnel and headed towards the end. After the tunnel Kurai took a left turn and then a right into the correct ending chamber. The lights went off again and Hinata slipped him a treat.

Again the crowd clapped and Sasuke wrapped his arms around Hinata’s shoulders. They beamed as the audience applauded the performance of their mice. Naruto watched the displayed excitement on Hinata and Sasuke’s faces. He stayed to the side with Itachi as the two of them took questions and met with the judges.

“I’ve never seen Sasuke this comfortable before.” Itachi said at his side.

Naruto thought about their tutoring sessions in the mornings. “I know when he’s summarizing Iruka’s lessons it’s completely clear and he understands everything.”

The judges ended their conversation with them and moved on. At the table next to theirs a couple girls set up something on the water cycle. Sasuke walked up to them. “What’d you think?”

Itachi stepped forward to wrap his arm around Sasuke’s shoulders. “The set up was wonderful and the judges seemed impressed.”

“Thanks,” Sasuke answered almost shyly before turning eyes on Naruto. “What’d you think blondie?”

“I think you’re too smart for you own good.” Laughing he punched Sasuke’s arm softly. “Teamed up with Hinata you two could probably take over the world.”

“Shut up, you’ll ruin our plans.” Surprisingly Sasuke moved from his brother’s grasp to hug him. He kept his gaze away from Itachi not knowing how he would respond. Luckily Sasuke pulled away and caught sight of something over his shoulder. “Shino’s presenting, I want to see his insects.”

As they moved towards Shino’s table he caught Itachi’s dirty look out of the corner of his eye. He’d seen the look before when Itachi picked Sasuke up after school. With the distance and car glass between them the glare didn’t look so threatening but up close he shivered feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Instead of that he focused on his friend’s project. When everyone was gathered around Shino pulled the sheet off a rectangular glass box. Inserted pieces of glass divided the box into four sections.

Slowly and calmly Shino explained the insects represented in each section. The first part housed a chunk of raw meat covered in larva emerging from eggs. Some flies flew around the tank but the attraction was the new life of the larva. In the second part a caterpillar was hanging upside down and half way though with it’s cocoon. Shino told the crowd the species of butterfly it would become and how long it would take for it to emerge.

While he spoke in the third section a Cicada broke out of its cocoon and started its noisy song. Somewhere from the back of his head Naruto fished out Iruka’s voice saying that Cicada’s could hibernate for over seven years. Finally in the last compartment a spider spun the last bit of webbing around a small tightly packed ball in a corner. In his finally Shino revealed that before long the female spider would die near by. The babies would emerge to live on their own using her as their first meal.

Sasuke leaned against him and whispered into his ear. “It’s the circle of life. I thought he’d just show off his collection but this is… beautiful.”

Naruto turned his head to watch Sasuke stare at the exhibit in wonderment. To him it was just a bunch of bugs but Sasuke could see something inside the display that he couldn’t.

He snuck in close and quick to whisper in Sasuke’s ear. “You’re beautiful.” Sasuke’s elbow caught his side, right in the ribs. Behind him he could feel the heat of Itachi’s glare on the back of his neck. Hopefully he reacted to the whispering and didn’t hear what he said.

XX***XX

“Oh man, I can’t believe after all that you only won second place.” Naruto groaned yet again.

Sasuke sighed looking at the trophy he won and ignoring Naruto’s complaining. The award money and trophy were nice but he really enjoyed building the maze and training the mouse. Working closely with Hinata and explaining the project to a room full of people who came to see them made everything else melt away. “Shino’s project was exquisite, he deserved first place.”

“Yeah but his whole family does that bug stuff, it comes naturally. You had to work at your’s.” Naruto flailed his arms around and pouted clearly not understanding.

“Second place is still an honor. I’m just happy for the experience.” As fun as it was he would miss it but now he could only think that now he could spend more time with Naruto. Hopefully he could talk his brother into letting Naruto bring him home after school. After all Itachi was opening up to the blond.

“I guess you’re right. What are you going to spend your winnings on?” Naruto smiled at him before shoving anther piece of sushi in the mouth.

He hadn’t thought about the prize or what he was going to do with the money. Luckily the trophies were generic that had a 2nt place plaque on it so both Hinata and himself received one. The money wasn’t a lot but he had forgotten all about it. “Oh I don’t know probably a book or something.”

“That’s boring, you should buy something fun.”

“Books are fun.” Sasuke sneered.

Naruto rolled his eyes dramatically. “Why don’t we go to the mall next weekend and look for something cool for you to buy.”

Sasuke stopped mid bite to turn to his brother who until then sat at the other side of the table silently. Having lived with his brother his entire life he could see the slight tenseness in his shoulders and jaw. Itachi was clearly working out a way to object to the arrangement without sounding unreasonable especially with Naruto sitting right there. Finally his brother put his chopsticks down and replied.

“I guess you deserve a reward for such good work.” The two younger boys watched him with open mouth stares. Unfortunately Naruto had food in his mouth. “You do have several books at home that you haven’t read yet so why not buy a CD or a game.”

Itachi went back to his food as if he hadn’t just rocked Sasuke’s world. Around them the restaurant activity continues but at the bubble of their table time seemed to stop. He should’ve been overjoyed but he felt tense almost like he was waiting for Itachi to change him mind.

“That’s great.” Naruto practically yelled throwing his arms out and almost knocking over a waiter.

“You dobe, watch what you’re doing.” Sasuke groaned looking over at his brother who just shook his head.

XX***XX

As they walked in the door Itachi decided that Naruto wasn’t so bad. All through dinner he kept Sasuke smiling and laughing. His want to see more of that prompted him to let Sasuke go to the mall with Naruto. Sasuke deserved more freedom and more respect. Also Naruto deserved some respect and trust.

Trying to take off his shoes Sasuke leaned against him to keep from falling over. “Sorry, I’m tired.”

“No problem, it was quite the exciting day.” He wrapped his arms around his brother’s shoulders and put his chin on spiky black hair. “I’m very proud of you.”

“Thanks,” Sasuke slurred almost half asleep standing up.

“Go to bed, I’ll take care of cleaning up.” The younger boy pushed away and stumbled down the hall to his room.

Still awake Itachi started for the kitchen to clean up the small amount of breakfast dishes. On the way the answering machine was flashing a message. Pressing play he kept on his way until he heard the start of the message.

“Hello Mr. Uchiha, this is Ibiki-san with the prosecuting department. I don’t know if you remember me but I was the one who would have worked on your brother’s case. A situation has presented itself making it imperative that I speak with you as soon as possible. Do to the sensitive nature I would like you to contact me at my personal cell phone. The number is…”

Itachi pressed the ‘delete’ button not wanting to even hear the number. For the longest time all he could do was stare at the 0 on the small screen. Sasuke was healing so well the last thing he needed was for the past to rear its ugly head.

“Itachi,” his brother’s voice from down the hall startled him.

“What is it?”

“I thought I heard someone else’s voice.” Clad in pajamas Sasuke stepped out of the hallway and into the living room.

“Oh no it was just some advertisement from new long distance.” He quickly made up on the spot.

“Okay.” The younger boy turned and returned to his room.

Itachi let out a deep sigh and went to the kitchen. While cleaning the few dishes he made a mental list of things he needed to change. He would start with their phone number.

XX**XX

Notes:

--I planned from the beginning to have them win 2nt place after Shino’s 1st place.

--I like the projects from being told from Naruto’s point of view. He is the person who is learning and as the reader you are learning along with him. Where is I’m like Sasuke, Hinata, and Shino who already knows the ins and outs of the projects. Seeing everything through his eyes brings the complicated stuff in to simple terms.

XX***XX

Review Response:

cathydeff: Thank you so much for reviewing. I don’t remember if I reviewed it but I loved ‘Bread and Chocolate.’ I feel that both Sasuke and Naruto are seme worthy and even though this story is a bad example I hate when one of them is girly. They are both kick ass MEN and I like to write them as MEN. Also I hate when either one of them is the prize for a conquest. This story started out that way but I have tried to get away from it.

Kirai: Yes like I said the end of a story is sad but with the way I’m writing now I really have no idea how many chapters are left because I have this list of events that I want to happen. There are about 10 points on this list and sometimes I make an entire chapter surround only one event. I am very sorry that my loss of interest is coming through my writing but I posted this because I got my internet back and yes just a little bit out of guilt. In reality this chapter (See Kurai Run) was posted out of guilt that the last one (Invitation) was so short. I really like this website and I will always post here as long as I can do so for free.

MewMew2: Thank you so much I love hearing that people like what I write.