The sound of chains and tires on the dirt road contrasts with the beautiful landscape of Konoha's forests. The village's urban perimeter is undoubtedly the size of a large city, but its walled boundaries easily surpass the capital's, making the forests within the village the perfect place for training and for a certain group of children to take advantage of their day off by riding the trails on their mountain bikes.
Today, the group consists of Karin, Naruto, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, and Sasuke. The group includes other children, but it is difficult to get everyone together on the same day, due to family issues, such as the case of Hinata, Kiba, and a rather unnoticed child named Shino.
Karin has become the undisputed leader of the group, with Ino being the second most enthusiastic about the subject. The two compete in all things bicycle-related, and conflicts and competitions between them are common, often dragging down an innocent Sakura, who tries to keep up with her friends' dominant personalities.
The boys, on the other hand, are much simpler, much more energetic than the girls, and they treat everything much more lightly. Naruto wants to turn everything into a challenge, and Shikamaru is constantly complaining about being practically forced to attend, when he'd rather be resting or sleeping.
Today's route is one of the many training areas in the village, reserved by Karin thanks to Touki, consisting of paths through forest, a couple of hills and several streams.
Today Naruto is happier than ever, as he debuts his new dirt bike, a birthday gift from Karin, Touki, and Suki, who have become an increasingly important part of the boy's life. Until recently, Naruto only rode bikes borrowed from Touki, but now he has one of his own, and it didn't take long for him to cover it with orange stickers and the most ostentatious accessories he could find.
Sasuke, for his part, maintains his characteristic serious attitude and gaze lost in the horizon, with certain touches of melancholy, something that attracts a lot of girls from the academy, especially a very fanatic Sakura.
"Sasuke-kun, it's a beautiful day," Sakura says, pedaling with great effort to get closer to Sasuke.
"Yes," the boy answers dryly and without looking at the girl, much more focused on his pedaling and the road.
"...Hee, would you like some orange juice? It's pretty nice and iced," Sakura tries again, holding up a bottle of orange juice.
"No, I already have my water," Sasuke replies.
"I would like some, Sakura-chan…" Naruto interrupts unexpectedly, appearing on Sakura's other side, causing her to jump in fright.
"Naruto, you idiot, you almost scared me to death," the girl exclaims, with an attitude completely opposite to the one she has with Sasuke.
"Sorry, Sakura-chan, can I have some juice?"
"Sorry, it's for Sasuke."
"Hey Sasuke, do you mind giving me the orange juice?" Naruto asks Sasuke.
"Do whatever you want" Sasuke responds immediately, and then puts more distance from the others with his bicycle.
Naruto immediately looks at Sakura and the juice bottle, but she moves the bottle away and avoids the boy's gaze, who simply smiles and ends up pedaling away in defeat.
"Hey Sasuke, race to the next hill, I'll beat you like always" Naruto says as he catches up to Sasuke.
"As always? I don't remember a loser like you beating me at anything in the academy," Sasuke responds with a grimace.
"But last Tuesday I beat you in the race around the academy."
"Just by a few centimeters, I would say it was more of a tie. Besides, in everything else you are not even close to my heels"
The relationship between the two children is one of contrasts. Before the Uchiha clan massacre, Sasuke barely spoke to Naruto and considered him a real nuisance. However, after the massacre, Naruto was the only one who approached Sasuke without a pitying attitude, something that everyone else showed every time they saw him or interacted with him. Sasuke hates it when others feel sorry for him, so ironically, the one he gets along with best today is Naruto, even though it may seem otherwise.
"So you're giving up?" Naruto says, as he begins to pedal faster.
"I didn't say that," Sasuke finishes saying, and then chases after Naruto.
The innocent race of both is unleashed to the laughter of their companions. Sasuke, seeing that he can't handle Naruto's stamina, grabs his water bottle and squeezes it in the direction of his competitor, causing a jet of water to shoot straight at his head.
"Haaaaaaa!" Naruto yells in surprise, slowing down and letting Sasuke overtake him. "Damn cheater!"
"You never set rules for the competition, so I figured anything goes," Sasuke says with a sneer.
What was once an innocent race turns into a vicious fight to reach the top of the hill, with both boys resorting to all sorts of dirty tricks to win, from throwing water or other objects at each other to colliding and kicking each other. In the end, neither of them made it to the finish line, as they crashed into each other and ended up collapsed on the ground, Sasuke headfirst into a bush and Naruto hugging the trunk of the tree he crashed into.
Soon, the rest of the group arrives at the crash site, and an angry Karin approaches the two children, not to help them, but to admonish them. First, Naruto receives a powerful punch to the eye.
"Gaaaaa! Karin-chan, why are you hitting someone who's already down?" Naruto says while rubbing the spot where he got punched.
"Idiot, I don't care what happens to you. Even falling off a cliff isn't enough to seriously hurt you. But what if you ruin the bike we gave you? I'm going to tell Touki," Karin replies, feigning sadness.
"Noooooo, Karin-chan, please don't tell Touki-san. He won't give me any more stickers," the boy begged on his knees.
Karin ignores Naruto and approaches Sasuke, who is helped out of the bush by Choji. The boy notices the girl approaching and immediately goes on guard, knowing how unpredictable Karin can be when angry.
Karin doesn't attack Sasuke, because she realizes that the boy doesn't have any openings in his guard, so she decides to put on a sad face again, and finally says "I'm going to tell Suki that Sasuke is a cheater."
Sasuke isn't exactly a material for friendship or affection, but there's one person who has managed to bring a smile to the apathetic boy's face more than once, and that's Suki. Their story is strange, as they don't see each other very often, only meeting when the boy goes to the bike shop or when he meets up with Karin to start a new bike ride. Suki is known by all the children for being a very affectionate young woman who likes to touch and hug everyone, her characteristic way of approaching Karin's classmates. But for Sasuke everything was very different, because the young woman reminds him a lot of the way his mother hugged him when he was a child, even her voice and the way she caressed his head, ended up melting the heart of the young Uchiha, a fact that he often denies and tries to hide, although not from Karin, who recognized him immediately and throws it in his face every time she can.
"Ugggggggg" Sasuke's initial expression is one of panic upon hearing Karin's words, but the boy manages to calm down immediately, saying in a very low volume "I'm sorry Karin"
Karin, knowing that she won't get anything better from Sasuke, decides to leave him alone and instructs the first aid specialist, Ino, to treat both boys' scratches and orders the food manager, Choji, to distribute the first snack of the day, sandwiches.
But the problems begin immediately when Sakura and Ino start fighting over who should take care of Sasuke, who ends up applying the disinfectant himself, all in full view of a disappointed Naruto, with his sandwich in his mouth, a Choji immune to everything that happens around him, eating three sandwiches at once, and a Shikamaru saying his classic 'how troublesome'.