Kariudo, the blonde boy in Kakashi's squad, leaned over to his sensei, one eyebrow raised dramatically.
"Hey, that Iidoni girl's kinda hot, huh?"
Kakashi glanced at the team of medic-nin leading the stretcher out of the room absentmindedly. His eyes fell momentarily on Tsunade.
She's almost seventy! he scolded himself.
"Sure," he grunted before returning to his book.
Not one to be disappointed, Kariudo ignored his sensei's mild reaction and scanned the other side of the room, looking for the rest of the sand squadron. His mussed up hair glinted as he turned, shining with the kind of glow that comes from an exuberant personality more than anything else. He located the sand team.
"I'm gonna send a clone over to the sand squad. Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A perfect replication of Kariudo appeared next to him, and then immediately transformed into a metal ball bearing about an inch and a half in diameter. Kariudo snatched the ball out of the cloud of smoke the transformation had created and fit it into the leather holster of a slingshot he had pulled off of a strap on his belt.
"Don't be so impulsive!" Kasuma, the green eyed girl to his left scolded. Her dark brown hair was vaguely reminiscent of charred wood and pulled back in a short ponytail. "Why do you want to talk to them?" she demanded.
Kariudo grasped the leather holster with his left hand and pulled back as he brought the wooden frame of the slingshot to eye level, holding it steady.
"Why not?" he said, looking at Kasuma with a mischievous grin on his face.
He let go of the strap, and the ball bearing shot across the arena, embedding itself in the opposite wall with a soft crunch. Just above the head of the sleeping grass ninja who had tried to bring his unconscious teammates into the tournament.
Kariudo smirked bashfully.
"Oops. A little too far left. You distracted me."
"Whatever," Kasuma said haughtily, flipping her ponytail with a jerk of her head, "Waste your chakra. Reveal your jutsu to the enemy. I don't care."
"The enemy?" Kariudo asked, "The grass, sand and sound villages are our allies! Besides, this whole tournament is about diplomacy and good relations, right."
Kakashi chuckled, "You could say that. I don't know how well that's worked out in the past though."
On the opposite catwalk, the ball bearing disappeared in a burst of smoke, and Kariudo's shadow clone reappeared… in the air… directly above the Kusamaru's sleeping head. Kariudo squeaked in surprise and lunged to the side, landing with his feet on one side of the grass-nin and his hands on the other. He rolled away and straightened up, turning to the sand team. They regarded him strangely.
"That's a Shadow Clone." Kankuro said to his remaining students, a brown haired boy and another boy with a large cylindrical object wrapped in bandages strapped to his back. "Remember this technique if either of you fight him."
"Ouch, that's harsh," Kariudo replied, pushing his blonde hair back into place, "shadow clones have feelings too, y'know."
Kankuro and the boy with the large object strapped to his back turned away uninterestedly. Looking closer, Kariudo saw what looked like hair sprouting from under the bandages on top of the object.
"So…" Kariudo said to the boy with brown hair and purple eyes, "I'm Kariudo and I just came over to find out more about the hottie in all black."
The boy stared at him in mildly offended disbelief.
"I'm Iimaru, and that 'hottie' is my sister. My twin sister. You can't tell by looking?"
"Oh," Kariudo looked away awkwardly. "Well… could I, like, have her phone number or someth…"
"No."
Iimaru continued to glare directly into Kariudo's eyes. They stood there quietly for a few moments.
"So, uh, you're named Iimaru and she's named Iidoni. That's a funny coincidence," Kariudo said, trying to break the silence.
Iimaru snorted, "It's not a coincidence. We were named for our god, Iishin, the lord of life. Our parents are high priests of the Iishin religion, and we were ordained at birth to follow our god's teachings. Unfortunately, my sister has chosen to focus on the more… worldly aspects of her studies."
"Mmh, worldly?" Kariudo probed suggestively, "Worldly like how?"
"Like medicine!" Iimaru spat, "And poison!"
"Oh…" Kariudo said, somewhat disappointed.
"My sister doesn't realize that the true secret of life is in the power of Iishin. He wields all five chakra elements that make up the body: earth and water compose flesh and blood, air grants us life with each breath, fire warms the body and powers the muscles, and electricity controls all of our actions from the brain."
"Hey… that's cool…" Kariudo said uninterestedly, looking around for a subject change. He found one. "What's the story with that Kusamaru guy?" he asked, referring to the sleeping grass-nin.
Iimaru frowned slightly, "I'm not sure. My team actually took his team's heaven scroll, so I'm very surprised to see him here."
"Wow, so his team got an earth and a heaven scroll after you took it? They must be strong."
"I don't think they are," Iimaru replied with a concerned tinge in his voice, "I think he is. Apparently their whole strategy was to have the other two members stay in one place and guard the scroll while he went around fighting other teams… by himself. My team was able to get past the traps the other two grass-nin set up, and Iidoni paralyzed them with a poison that lasts about two days. I guess when Kusamaru came back with an earth scroll; he then had to get another heaven scroll and then drag his teammates to the tower, avoiding enemies, all in less than a day."
Kariudo looked over to Kusamaru warily. He seemed peaceful, innocent; breathing deeply, collapsed against the wall.
"Yikes."
Iimaru nodded in agreement. "So what god do the people of Konoha worship?"
"We don't really have a god," Kariudo replied, feeling oddly embarrassed, "We believe in the Will of Fire that holds us together and keeps us strong."
"No explanation of life or the five chakras?"
"Not really… but there are more than five chakras anyway. What about light and dark chakra?" Kariudo pointed out defensively.
Iimaru looked away solemnly, "Those two chakra types don't produce life. They represent the chaotic forces in the universe: no good or evil, no loyalty to anyone, just constant fighting for dominance without end. They lie outside the realm of Iishin."
Iimaru made eye contact with Kariudo, his purple irises flashing.
"You should know, there are chaotic forces at work in this village right now. Something important and dangerous is happening; something much larger than this stupid test."
Kariudo was taken aback, stunned by the intensity and sincerity with which Iimaru spoke. He was telling the truth.
Just then, Choji called everyone's attention to the blue screen on the wall above the statue, and random names began flashing across it once more. Kariudo didn't register what was happening; had lost feeling all over his body. The names flashed meaninglessly before his eyes. The words stopped flashing, and Choji called out the names.
"Kariudo Kayagaki versus Kusamaru Oomori!"
