Beware of what you play


Jumanji

A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles gets another turn, the first player to reach the end wins.

Adventurers beware; do not begin, unless you intend to finish. The exciting consequences of the game, will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name…


Well, I thought the response wasn't really up to my expectations but since it's my story, so I have the right to continue or end it. Besides I hate things without endings, unless they are force to be… lardie la la! Anyway has everyone got a great Christmas? Happy New Year!

Disclaimer: do I look like I own Jumanji and the Naruto crew? No? Good, though the poems belongs to me…


Chapter 2: Roll of the dice

"What's this?" Kiba growled as Akamaru sniffed the board. All five heads then bend forward to take a closer look…

"Let's open it." Naruto said enthusiastically. He reached out and ran his hand over the slit through the word and to the edge. There was a little dent to indicate how the board should be opened. Then the blond ninja flipped opened the flap and the other.

Now, in front of them is something foreign to them. There's a black shiny circle in the center, with four white strips, made up of squares branching out from there. The brown fading marks around the edges of the white strips and some parts of the squares indicated how old the board was. The background was a musty green piece of mosaic, which did well in bringing out the path lines and the black circle. The board look mysterious, but somehow familiar to those who had played board games before.

"Looks like a board game or something…" Shikamaru said after a moment of silence.

There was some words written on the flaps, but since Naruto wasn't that great a reader, he decided go for the little compartment that is beneath the words. He opened it as though opening his drawer back at his house, not a sign of anticipation or fear.

In the compartment were six items, four tokens, of which three is black and one is white, and two dices. Naruto picked up the four tokens and before he could study them further, the four wooden pieces flew and attached themselves to the four ends of the white paths.

Everyone was taken aback, each looked up and glanced at each other, and then everyone turned to look at the culprit.

"What? I didn't do anything!" Naruto protested. He reached out to retrieve one of the tokens but it just won't budge. Naruto frowned and continue to pry the token from the board, but it proved futile.

"ARF!"

"What is it, Akamaru?" Kiba turned to see his buddy barking at the words on the flaps. "Jumanji…"

"A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles gets another turn, the first player to reach the end wins…" Shikamaru read off the flap.

"A way to leave their world behind?" Chouji repeated, he had stopped munching on his chips and turned his attention to the more important.

Everyone gave the words some thought. 'To leave their world behind.' Sounds like it's going to transport you away to some twilight zone. Then again, what's a board going to do to the world?

Naruto opened the compartment again and took out the old white dices. He looked at his three friends, and the expression on his face questioned them if they would want to play.

"I'm going back, it's just a silly game anyway… I'd rather play shogi than this…" Shikamaru said, standing up. And when he did, he accidentally knocked onto Naruto's arm, an action that caused the two chipped-off dices to fall to the board.

One die showed two dots, the other showed three.

Then, something miraculous caught their eyes. One of the black tokens started to move. Shikamaru stopped and stared. The black token stopped after moving five squares. Naruto looked up and stared at Shikamaru, his eyes told him that whatever is going to happen it's his fault, after all, if he hadn't knocked into him, he wouldn't have dropped the dices.

"Hey look!" Chouji exclaimed. Everyone turned to board, because in the black piece of glass something is stirring. There was greenish yellow smoke-like substance floating and swirling, and then they took the form of words of a riddle.

"It's not nightfall, it's not eclipse, but they just want to bite your lips." Naruto read the smoke words. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's not nightfall… not eclipse… and bite my lips?!" Naruto repeated in slow motion.

And at that, the sunshine was gone bit by bit, replaced by a dark shadow that moved across the floor, like a wave of dark water crashed onto the shore, dying the sand black…

"I don't like the sound of this…" Kiba uttered as the shadow covered his face and Akamaru hopped back into his coat. Chouji and Shikamaru looked up and around, trying to locate the cause of the shadow. Naruto hopped out of the shelter to have a better look at the surroundings.

Then there was a little sound that resembles something like a creek and a puff. And when the ninjas looked up, all they saw was a patch of gray and a long beak…

"ARGH!!!!!!!!"

Naruto cried out when the beak headed for him and tried to snap him. They all scrambled out of the shelter they were previously in and saw for themselves what they are in.

Above in the sky was three large birds the size of rooftops, with long beaks and long claws. Their cries were louder and more piercing than any other they have ever heard. And at each swoop they tried to take a bite off them, snapping their beaks and clawing.

"What are they?" Kiba was shouting, dodging one sideways attack.

"I don't care what they are!!" Shikamaru cried, waving his hands to try to swat an approaching wing. "Urgh!"

At that, he took out a several kunais and started to throw them in the birds' direction. Then the others followed suit and started to play a game of darts, just that their targets are larger than usual and they can fly, and their darts are somewhat knifes…

"Take that!" Kiba cried as he threw one at the approaching assailant and hit it right in his head. "Let's go Akamaru!"

"ARF!" the dog barked as a 'poof' was heard and they saw two Kibas standing in fighting position.

"Gatsuga!" one of them cried as the two spun into action, creating two torrents of what looks like spinning drills and blasted the birds away one by one.

The giant flying creatures cried out in agony as they are hit one after another. One of them dropped down onto the shelter, crashing it. Then after a while they took off in the direction of the mountains in jagged motions, indicating that they are injured rather badly. The ninjas picked up from where they, either crouching or flat on the ground and looked at the disappearing creatures. Then they glanced at each other.

"You think those things came from the game?" Chouji asked, with a sign of fear in his voice.

"Oh come on!" Kiba rolled his eyes as if the answer was laid right out in front of them. "Just because of that silly thing you are going to think the game created these creatures? It's probably some enemy outside our village waiting to attack, we have to report this to the Hokage!"

"ARF!" the dog barked in agreement. The others started to nod their heads to agree. Yes, this could just be just the beginning.

"No… they came from the game."

Everyone stopped in his tracks and turned to look who was the one who said that. Shikamaru looked up at them, with a look that they had never seen before.

"What did you just say?" Kiba asked.

"I said, those birds came from the game." Shikamaru repeated, this time without his usual 'troublesome' tone.

"Are you ok?" Naruto asked. Something is wrong, for Shikamaru to say something that ridiculous as that…

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and pointed to the board amongst the debris of the shelter.

"Take a closer look at that."

Everyone walked closer to the board.

"A game for those who seek to find, a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles gets another turn, the first player to reach the end wins." Naruto repeated. "Now what?"

"This one here." Shikamaru pointed to the other flap. Oh, no… they missed that bit…

"Adventurers beware; do not begin, unless you intend to finish. The exciting consequences of the game, will vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji and called out its name…" Shikamaru finished it for them.

"Will only vanish only when a player has reached Jumanji?" Naruto shrieked.

"Yes, that means to make those things disappear, we have to finish the game," Shikamaru said. "Who know what those are going to do to us later…"

"Don't you think we should report this to the Hokage?" Chouji asked.

Right, report to the Hokage. That's it, that what we'll do!

Uh…

(Dream Sequence)

"WHAT?! THIS IS ALL BECAUSE OF YOU GUYS WE HAVE GIANT CREATURES EATING PEOPLE!!" Tsunade screamed at them.

"THIS IS TOO MUCH!!! HOW COULD YOU GUYS PUT THE VILLAGE ON THE LINE?!"

"DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO HANDLE A SUSPICIOUS OBJECT? YOU WANT TO BE SENT BACK TO ACADEMY?"

CRASH! BASH! BOOM! POW!

……………

(End of dream sequence)

Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru, Shikamaru and Chouji shook their heads frantically.

"Let's continue the game…"

"Yeah."

"Ok."

"ARF!"

Apparently, the horrors that'll await them at the Hokage's office is much more horrifying than the horrors that the game would bring…

"All right, whose turn is it?" Kiba asked as he tried to drag the board out of the debris.

You look at me, I look at you…

"Who's next?" Naruto prompted. "I had my turn already."

Kiba was still pulling the board.

"ARGH!!! COME OUT!!!"

Then in one move, the board was released from the fallen boards and crashed into him. The game opened and the dices flew into the air. Everyone's eyes followed the flying cubes as they head back down on to the board.

The dices clicked as they made contact with the board game. They showed a five and a two.

And at that point, another black token began to move.

"WHAT?! That's counted?" Kiba groaned. Then the other guys crowded around the board as the greenish-yellow smoke in the black glass started to stir again.

"Do not doubt about where he's been, take a break and he will win..."


So how's the chapter? Sorry for the lack of discriptions and the scenes were rather shallow and fast-paced. I was somewhere in daze... well, review me and tell me how it is all right? thanks in advance. Hope you had a merry christmas and happy new year to you.

Setus.