This was inspired by the flash game, Battle Royale, by matt-likes-swords. The game involved a mingame "quick-draw" tournament where all you had to was press the SPACE bar, but as you rose through the opponent tiers, the computer AI responds to you even faster and it gets harder. And now I'm here with a similar Naruto-styled imitation of it.
similar; adj.
Related in appearance or nature; alike though not identical.
imitation; noun.
The act, practice, or art of copying the manner or expression of another.
Preparations. Day One!
"Alright. The tournament is in three days and as far as I'm concerned, you're all still Academy students and won't last a second against shinobi with so much as a year of experience in war." Kakashi Hatake, Genin of the Leaf Village, instructed the three Genin; Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchicha Sasuke, his excellent squad for many successful D-Rank missions. But today, as he had stated, they were virtually nothing in the face of the tournament.
Shinobi from all over the world, some from different eras and even those thought to exist only in myth or legend, lost in history or otherwise. The impossible was guaranteed to be the only reliable thing, Sarutobi himself had warned the Jonin of this, as he himself was entering. The second Sannin, Jiraiya, had gone to the length of inviting his partner and formerly respected Sannin, Lady Tsunade, who herself, with her reluctant friend Shizune, brought in many of her gambling debt collectors and many of THEIR contracts, all on the decision of her victory and rewarded prize money, over a million Ryo.
If there was one thing every Jonin knew as they departed Hiruzen's meeting chamber, racing off to rally their separate squads and prepare them for quite possibly the most difficult and intense training of their young lives, it was that this tournament would offer no mercy, and to it's contenders...
\/\/\/\/
Sarutobi sighed, the pipe he had carried for so many of his elder years he at last laid against the wooden table before him. He lumbered to the closet on the far side of the room, resting his staff on it's side. In minutes, he was wearing his ancient, kevlar-fashioned battle armor, he smoothed away the dust from the head mantle and eased onto his head, pulling left and right, his muscles eased and the helmet gradually comforted him. It was a friendly, yet foreboding feeling.
One he had long hoped to have forgotten.
\/\/\/\/
"Kabuto. I am to understand that the King of Rats is hosting a tournament, yes?" the snake-like demon master replied, a tone that questioned his servant's willpower. With a stern nod, and a curt face, Kabuto nodded.
"Yes Orochimaru."
The bed-ridden missing-nin appeared to study the air for a moment. He was pondering things that no other could fathom, poisonous thoughts whipped his pupils left and right in a confusing manner. Kabuto himself was lost debating whether or not his master was examining his surroundings, maybe an intruder had been monitoring them, or if he was simply playing with his psyche. The fallen Sannin had his own reasons for playing sadistic mind games with his loyalists, but as he made an abrupt jerk with his two broken arms in Kabuto's directions, his eyes claimed a serious, almost deadly directness.
"Then you should enter." the words came to Kabuto like a dull blade, he tried not to step back and reveal his shock, spraying hot saliva down his throat with a coarse gulp. But the next few words finally made the snake that was Orochimaru's being curve it's hollow lips into a deep, evil smile. "In fact, I think I shall enter as well."
\/\/\/\/
"The Jinchiruuki's power is rising. I can feel it." came the voice of a dark-robed shinobi, perched atop a slender wooden pike plunged into the moon's eyes. Below him were two more, like him although completely different in truth, one was wielding a large, almost unbelievably sized broadsword braided halfway up to it's fuller in false tape.
The other member was a long-haired man with indescribable eyes dark-colored eyes, a jewel of deceiving light sitting within the left, as did a shadow in the right. The two spirits, a member of the Darkness and an angel of the light, ran away with each other as his pupils scanned the horizon of the Leaf Village. It wasn't their objective, of course, but there was something else inside of the village he had a personal vendetta to collect from. It was the same, heartless eyes that peered into the whispers of cold afternoon air that the Uchiha spotted, following them even as his brother attempted to evade his eponymous presence by darting away through trees in the opposite direction.
"His eyes have changed." Itachi commented at a tone so low that only Kisame's ears could twitch in response to it. The shark mutant ninja was used to Itachi's ramblings, especially in the presence of his younger sibling, and he felt no need to taunt him by playing the fool and alerting their team's superior to his suspicious thoughts.
"It's time guys. We won't be participating, but we shall observe until the time is right." said Tobi, rubbing a hand over his orange swirl mask mockfully towards Konohagkure. "Still your hand. Someone's watching us..." he whispered, turning to the evenly-disarrayed face of a young boy who had wandered far off in search of his discarded toy.
"Perhaps youth IS wasted on the young." he whispered.
\/\/\/\/
"Guys! Guys! Did you hear! Master Naruto is entering!" shouted Konohomaru, running at the greatest speed his legs would exert, into his friends who were both happy to see that he had returned fro mhis eavesdropping adventure, and equally baffled as he nearly shoved them to the floor in hurry.
The news was splendid.
"B..but Konohomaru?" moaned Udon, a blob of snot ran beneath his left nostril, "We're not old enough to enter!"
"C'mon Konohomaru! Think of something!" chimed Moegi, her orange hair suddenly hiccuped red.
Oh brother...
/\/\/\/\