----My first ever posted Fanfic! Be kind! ; This was just a cute little idea I came up with, so I decided to give it a shot. Please review and tell me if you like it! Flames will be doused. ;

Disclaimer: Try as I might, the lawyers keep telling me I cannot have Naruto. Darn. /

---Chapter 1: Preparations-

"This sucks!'

"Yep."

"This REALLY sucks!!"

"Yyyyy-up."

"So why are we doing this?!" Uzumaki Naruto hopped up from his crouching position, flopping over backwards into a huge pile of crunchy, dry leaves.

For the nine-hundredth time, Uchiha Sasuke sent his blonde companion a glare that could have melted lead. Haruno Sakura, from her leaf-collecting spot a little ways away, just sighed and looked away, knowing well enough to not complain about the ridiculous task.

And just why was Cell 7 picking up leaves?

One would figure, as logic commands, that Konohagakure village, the "Village Hidden in the Leaves," would have a great deal of raking and bagging to be done once autumn hit. And so it was every year, that once the leaves began to turn color, the villagers had a great task ahead of them. Genins, as the lowest rank on the Ninja hierarchy, were most often charged with cleaning up other's people's yards and so forth. And Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto, were of course still just Genins. They had arrived at their usual meeting spot this morning, waiting as always for their constantly late Sensei. But once Kakashi had shown up and explained their mission for the day, things only seemed to get worse. At midday, they had already been raking for four hours, and were not even half done with their list of houses to clean up. Thankfully though, they had been drafted to mostly small houses, with only about an hour or less of work to each.

So there they were, some of the most promising ninjas of their age...raking leaves.

Sasuke grunted in anger as he stuffed another bag full of the crisp brown leaves. This was beneath him. This was a waste of his precious time! He was the last surviving Uchiha, for god's sake! Raking leaves! Another hand full of the leaves went into the bag, and Sasuke made a mental note to take out his anger on Naruto later.

Naruto, with his lack of internal dialog, blurted his complaints out loud, "Ano sa, ano sa! Why do we have to do this?! Can we stop now? I'm hungry, I haven't even had breakfast yet!"

Sakura could sense Sasuke's glare without looking up. The pink haired kunoichi sighed to herself, gathering a few more dead leaves into her hands as she gave the hyper-active ninja the same answer she'd been spouting for four hours, "It's our mission, we have to do it! And Kakashi-sensei said we could eat after we'd finished!"

"So shut your mouth and get back to work!" Sasuke growled; mostly at Naruto, but he was sick of hearing Sakura whine too. The cranky Uchiha tied off his bag of leaves and gave it a toss, inadvertently hitting Naruto in his stomach.

The blonde shinobi was winded for an instant, glaring as best he could manage at the raven-haired boy. Naruto then leaned back into his pile of leaves, staring up at the sky, "But this is so boring. It's even worse then picking weeds or walking dogs!"

"Think of it this way:" Sakura glanced up as she also started tying her bag off, "It just means that the Leaf Festival is coming up!"

There was a clear scoff from Sasuke. He fidgeted with his shirt collar for a second, then settled back down on the damp ground and again started gathering leaves.

Naruto on the other hand, leapt up at the news, spilling most of his pile, "I didn't even think of it that way!"

The Leaf festival had been a tried and true tradition in Konohagakure since its creation. As the honored village hidden in the leaves, autumn held something of a special place in the hearts of the villagers. For a whole week, missions would be suspended, and there would be a massive festival all through the village. Tourists from other Ninja villages even came to visit just to see the festivities and the brilliant hues of the tree leaves. And the whole thing wound down with a massive bonfire of leaves—which was why all the leaves in the village were being collected instead of just immediately being disposed of. Kakashi even had to stop Sasuke from just burning the leaves where they were and save them the trouble of raking. The bags that the Genins would collect over the next few days were burned at the end of the festival, as a symbol of both Konoha, and the Fire country it was hidden within.

So most people, like the hyper Naruto, loved this time of year. But Sasuke was always one to kill the mood, wasn't he?

"I can't wait for the festival food! And the games! Oh, oh! And the food! Did I mention the food, Sakura-chan?" Naruto hopped up and down a few times, hands balled into excited fists as those bright blue eyes stared over at his long-time crush.

"Yes...you mentioned the food..." Sakura sweat dropped ever so slightly. Baka. What a one-track mind he had. But then again, she was not much different. Externally, all that happened was a slight blush over Sakura's cheeks. But internally, Inner Sakura was practically ablaze with determination, "I can't wait for the DANCE! This year, THIS year! Sasuke-kun, you're all mine! I'm taking you to the Leaf Festival Dance if I have to DRAG YOU OVER A HUNDRED DEAD CORPSES!!!" Sakura lost herself to these thoughts, tying her bag over and over until it was a mess of knots.

"YATTAH!" Naruto leapt in joy, nearly drooling at the thought of all that food, "I can't wait, I can't wait! Now I'm really motivated! Alright! The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get festival food!" The crazed blonde crossed his pointer and middle fingers over each other. In a poof of smoke, he split into no less then twenty duplicates of himself. Naruto's new motivation and addition of his bushin made the task go all that much quicker.

Naruto and Sakura were suddenly all smiles...but Sasuke...Sasuke just found himself crushing leaves into powder in aggravation. Damned Leaf Festival...

"Yosh!" clear across Konoha, Cell 12 found itself with the very same task of leaf raking. And as usual, Rock Lee was turning it into a competition, "If I can pick up every single leaf on this side of the yard, Sakura-san will go with me to the Festival Dance! But if I miss even one, she will reject me and make fun of my eyebrows!"

Tenten rolled her chestnut eyes at the overly energetic Lee, mumbling a few more times about how she wished she could use her signature weapons skills to lift these leaves. Their Sensei Gai had forbidden them from using anything other than physical strength to pick up the leaves. His sick idea of training, of course. He even sealed it with the usual sparkly 'Nice guy pose.'

Hyuuga Neji shifted his pale eyes over to Lee, half glaring half shutting in exasperation, "Lee. Just pick up leaves. This has nothing to do with your insane crush. Just complete the miss-"

"Ah-ha!" Lee cut off his long time rival, pointing a bandaged finger across the yard, "You are just afraid that I will pick up more leaves than you, Neji!"

Both of Lee's teammates paled. One would think that Tenten and Neji would be used to Lee's lunacy by now, but it still found a way of irritating them.

"I accept your challenge!" The proud green beast of Konohagakure screamed at the top of his lungs, "Whichever one of us can pick up the most leaves will prove the better man, Hyuuga Neji! Let us begin!" Rock Lee's teeth 'pinged' as he struck his sensei's signature pose.

Neji did not respond. He didn't even remember issuing the green-clad ninja a challenge. The Hyuuga genius stooped back over his pile of perfect raked leaves and went back to bagging them.

Lee took off like a bolt, dashing back and forth across the yard as he frantically grabbed as many crunchy leaves as he could. All that speed, however, kept spilling out whatever he had previously collected. The other two sighed at him, wondering if they would ever finish.

And so, the countdown to the Leaf Festival began among the Genin.

----Good? Bad? I require input! Please? If I ask a few hundred more times? o.o;

Words you should know anyway:
Ano sa Naruto's way of getting attention. Kind of a "Hey!"
Baka"idiot"
GeninLow Level Ninja
SenseiMaster or Teacher
Yosh!"Alright!"