Author's note:
My DSL modem decided that I am no longer capable of being its master. It then proceeded to steal my car, run over my dog, and drove off to that evil place they call Sympatico Headquarters. So I've been without internet for sometime, and didn't get a chance to update like I was suppose to.
And wait, let me turn fangirl for a second. I Wuv U all reviewer! Heart Heart!! I can't believ it! U guyz r the best, u Rox! Hug hug!!!
Ok, that's out of the way. I have the next chapter done, and I'm starting on some other story arcs. I might do a DnD one, or I might do a Starcraft/Warcraft one, I don't know, I haven't played DnD on Pen and Paper for that long. Though I've played Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale. But I have to finish this DDR thingie first.
Let's Maxx! - "I AAed Sakura, 8X, Reverse, Hidden!" "That's great, now go beat End of the Century."
It's been three months.
Three months with nothing but caffeinated drinks, celery stalks, and protein bars.
But today is different. Today is the day K.U.N.A.I. - Konoha Underage Ninja Athletics Invitational, is being held at Hidden Leaf. Team Green Beast will no longer have to endure their rigorous training exercises and harsh food menus. Ever since Gai-sensei heard about K.U.N.A.I., he took it personally to train his team to be the best DDR players in all of Konoha. Gai-sensei made sure that everyone had enough fibers, proteins, and caffeine in their system to last them throughout the competition. But good intentions often go bad, and bad is the one word that sums up the conditions of the Green Beast. Neji has been staring at the TV set for so long, his eyes are no longer white, but stained with lines of crimson. Tenten had so much coffee she couldn't stop twitching. It didn't help either that whenever she twitched, sharp metal objects would find their way out of her sleeves and embed themselves in walls, dogs or Lee.
"Heh heh, if I didn't know you better Tenten, I'd say you are trying to injure me on purpose." fling, three kunais sped past Lee, two missing his head, and the remaining one gave him a much needed haircut.
"Man, how many cups of coffee did you drink?" thwump, a spiked mace dropped on what would have been Lee's head, had he not cleverly moved out of the way.
"Aww, Tenten, you really don't have to. I know you are trying to pay me back for when I reorganized your computer. You are such a good friend, giving me this reflex training."
"j00 phuCK1N' 455W1p3! 1t w4z j00?" (Mr. Toilet Paper, I thank you for your actions) Lee's "reorganization" consists of replacing "Windows" by "Folder 1", "System" by "Folder 2", "My Documents" by "Folder 3", and etc. It took Tenten about a week to sort everything back. A week without CounterStrike . . .
I guess it was lucky that Gai decided the team should get a move on so they won't be late for the tournament. Or else Lee would have shown up resembling a porcupine turned inside out, quills in and innards out.
At the Tournament Ground
"What the hell happened to the ride here?" Asked Neji "Weren't we suppose to take a car ride or jump to here or something? One second we almost lost a team member (not that I would have minded) and the next moment we are here?"
"Eh . . . You see, due to some . . . constraints, we had to cut some scenes . . . " answered a hesitant Gai.
"What do you mean cut some scenes? What do we look like to you? Some anime characters?"
Suddenly, several spectators begin to jerk violently, and then the next moment, zoom, five identical men stood next to Neji. Each had a white earpiece attached to his left ear, and each dressed like a funeral director.
"Mr. Hyuuga, we would like to ask you some . . . questions. Would you kindly follow us?" The five men spoke simultaneously.
"Who the hell are you people? And what was that jutsu you just did, melting out of those people?"
"Take the Red Pill Neji! The Red Pill!" Gai shouted, while attempting to cut through two funeral people.
"It seems Mr. Hyuuga, you have some . . . notions that are unsuited to our current . . . world. It would seem that you know a bit . . . too much." The creepy men in suits took a step forward.
"That's it. I've had it with you strange people! Byakugan! Hakke Shou Kaiten!" Releasing Chakra from his pathways and forcing them out of his system, Neji created a large cyclone, pushing all 5 agents backward.
"Mr. Hyuuga, we will be back, make no mistake, the Matrix has you." All five copies melted, leaving the previous unconscious victim on the ground.
"What was that freaky stuff, Gai-sensei? Who were those people? Why did they look like they came out of a movie that had a bad sequel?"
"Say no more Neji, say no more." Gai shook his head.
"We are here!" Lee jumped, fist pumping into the air.
"wE W42 hurr ph0 20 m1N" (Our presence has been known for at least one third of an hour) Tenten scoffed.
"Then what are we waiting? Let's confirm our registration and win this tournament!"
At the Registration Desk
"How the hell did we teleport here again?" Neji was getting annoyed.
Gai quickly put his hand on Neji's mouth. "Don't say it again. We don't have the money to pay for more cameo appearances."
Five suit wearing men walked off muttering something about "cheap bastards"
Neji shuts up (not like he had a choice, some guy sitting on a director's chair, wearing a cap and holding a megaphone was shouting at him, threatening to "half his paycheck," whatever that was).
"Alright, Team Green Beast? You are number three, go report to your booth and prepare for further instructions." The Registration Ninja then handed them their badge, forms, and tags. "Fill in your name here and your scoretag here. Once you've decided on your scoretag, you may not change it. The tag only allows capital letters to be entered, no punctuation either. You will be required to enter your tag when you are competing. Everyone has his individual scoretag, and we keep track of your scores by using it." Then he handed them some more forms. "These are the forms stating that we are not responsible for any injury, death or eternal damnation occurred on site. Please be careful when competing and try not to get yourself maimed, crippled, or damned."
Everyone signed their forms, and proceeds to walk to booth three.
"What should I put for my scoretag?" Lee wondered out loud. "4 letters only . . . I know! I will be Lee. R.!" Lee then proceeds to fill in his tag.
"why 1z j00 T4g g4Y?" (Lee, why is your tag radiating homosexual tendencies) Tenten inquired.
"Yes Lee, do tell us why you chose to name yourself after a Pokemon attack?"
"What are you talking about? I am Lee. R. See?" Lee held up his scoretag "For someone claiming to have the "Ultimate Eyes" you sure can't see what's in front of you."
"Lee, look, it says LEER. See, even Tenten agrees."
"R0FL02, 5UXx0R2 l00K2 a7 P0kEm0N, ghey! LM40" (It is rather amusing to see Lee being involved with the bane of all things straight)
"Whatever guys, you are just jealous of my sexy nametag. Hey! Hurry up, less puking, we need to get to the booth."
At the Booth
"Damn it! Stop doing that!" Neji was getting angry.
"Alright! Everyone LISTEN UP!" Tsunade sure has a way of getting everyone's attention, being the only source of fan service in Naruto. "I will be one of your judges today, so listen up you brats, I'm only going to say this once. First of all, there are exactly 3 divisions you may enter, one for each member of your team. First division is the Maniac Division. Players in the Maniac Division will play exactly 3 songs. First player picks a song. Second player picks the mod. They switch on the next song, and the last song is played on Roulette and Shuffle. The songs and modifiers are to be picked in advance are there are no rest periods between songs. The scoring for the Maniac Division will be 2 X the number of Perfects the number of Greats the number of OKs. Yes, holding your freezes helps your team's total score. In the next division, Trick Division, we also have 2 players compete head to head, except no modifiers are allowed. Songs are also not picked in advance. The scoring is the same as the Maniac Division, except we subtract from you any N.G., Good, Boo or Miss X 5. The last division is the Freestyle division, competing players are to play their songs separately from each other. They may choose to play on singles or doubles. Their score will be the number of Perfects X 3 whatever our judges give you. Any questions?"
"Yeah! What songs are we gonna be to playin'?" Kiba barked out.
"Oh thank you Kiba, that reminded me. You may play any song on our machine. However, once someone had played a song, it's over, no one else may play the same song. Also, if you fail a song, then consider your score voided for that song. Understood?"
"Yeah."
"Good, any more questions?"
"What about Ninjutsus?"
"Not until you get to the semifinals, until then, you cannot interfere with your opponent. That means no harmful ninjutsus, no genjutsus, and definitely no taijutsus. Anyone else? No? Well, let the games begin!"
Author's Note:
Since I didn't update in so long, I'll give you guys something extra.
"Alright guys, gather round, I've got a strategy." Kiba, Akamaru, Shino and Hinata all huddled in a circle. "Alright, look, Shino, you are definitely going into Freestyle, no questions asked. Hinata, go into Trick, you probably can't handle the all-out nonstop course, so I'll be in the Maniac Division. Besides, I've got the perfect plan to beat these guys."
"Um . . . Kiba-san? What's our team name?" Hinata pointed her fingers together, almost as if she was embarrassed to ask such a question.
"..." Shino would also like to know.
"Wha? Team name? Uh . . . how 'bout Akamaru?"
"..." Shino asks what about Akamaru.
"Akamaru! Our team name! It's brilliant. Don't you think so Akamaru?"
"Woof! Woof!"
"Aight, he agrees, how 'bout you guys?"
"..." Shino doesn't really care.
"Um . . . if everyone says so . . . "
"Great! It's settled!" Kiba jumped up "Move your asses, we are facing 'Desert Storm' on our first match."
Surprise, Desert Storm turned out to be Garaa and the Gang. What? You thought they were going to be gangster ninjas? As if.
"Ha! Look who's here, it's Bug Boy, Freaky Eyes, and Puppy Chow. We are advancing for sure." Temari seemed very confident for her match.
"Whatever gay boy, gay boy and gay boy. We can whoop your ass any day." Kiba wasn't one to back down from insults.
"Gay boy, gay boy and gay boy? Oh gee, and here I thought the Leaf could produce some intelligent ninjas. Let's just hope your dancing skills aren't as bad as your wit, or I'd feel really sorry when I cream your pathetic little group." Temari had her trademark smirk on.
"Shut up and dance! So Deep, heavy!" Kiba was getting really worked up. Hah, beat this, you egotistical bitch!
"Ooo, bringing out the heavy artillery aren't we? Not bad, I choose Boost for the modifier." Kiba was now the one wearing the smirk. Can't read the arrows, so you chose Boost right? You'll love what I'm going to do next then.
"And I'm going to pick Sandstorm, heavy."
"Then I pick 8X!" Kiba was really smiling now, especially after Temari's "WTF?!?"
"..." Shino asks Kiba whether that was a wise move.
"Don't worry. I got it all covered." Kiba was not going to lose that grin for a long time.
"Maniac Players up first! Temari of the Desert Storm vs. Kiba of the Akamaru, begin!" Tsunade announced, and both players entered their scoretags, TMRI against KIBA.
Off on the sidelines, the spectators were discussing amongst themselves what would likely be the outcome of the match.
"Hey, Neji, who do you think is going to win this one?" Lee finally settled down after complaining about not being able to go first.
"Hmm . . . just by the looks of things, I'd say Kiba. Not only did he pick So Deep, but he also picked 8X for Sandstorm. That would make the BPM go into the 1000 region. Unless Kiba has some amazing reflexes, or he memorized the song, there is no way he'd be able to read that fast." Neji contemplated.
"hE 12 hAxx0R?" (Are you suggesting that Kiba might have additional tricks up his sleeve?)
"Hm . . . I don't know, let's wait and see."
Temari was sweating profusely now. So Deep, even with Boost, was still a hard song. 500 steps of nothing but chaos. Following the synthetic beat and clearly reading all the arrows are the only ways to beat this 9 feet monster. Temari did not have much training with this song, and more often than not, she found herself out of sync with the steps. Kiba on the other hand, was only doing about average, getting the occasional good here and there.
"..." Shino asks whether Kiba really could play the next song on 8X.
"398 Perfects, 77 Greats, that adds up to 873, read them and weep gay boy." Panted Kiba, who was bending over trying to get some much needed air into his lungs.
Ugh, I barely passed that one, 311 perfects and 106 greats gives me 728. That's more than 100 points less then Puppy Chow. Damn it! I'm out of breath for the next song too. "Don't get too cocky now, huff, I'll have you, huff, know, Sandstorm is my best song, I can, cough cough, AA it no matter how tired I am." I really need some water.
"Whatever, just play the damn song."
Neji's brows were knitted together. If Kiba could barely manages an A on So Deep with Boost, then why did he choose 8X?
"Oh yeah, time out, let me get something." Kiba reached into his ninja pouch and extracted a soldier pill.
"What the hell? You can't do that!" yelled Temari "Judge! Disqualify this cheater right now!"
"Well . . . technically, he isn't cheating. The rules only said not to interfere with your opponent, it didn't prohibit the usage of ninja tools. A Soldier Pill is definitely a ninja tool." The Fifth Hokage explained.
"Looking underneath the underneath . . . "
"Did you say something Sasuke-kun?" Sakura peered over her shoulder.
"It's nothing. Leave me alone."
Temari knew she lost right there and then, even if Sandstorm was her best song, she wasn't a Freestyler and never bothered memorizing songs. By the time the long freeze came, Temari could do nothing but fail. Kiba on the other hand, due his ultra-responsive senses, could read 8X like it was just normal. "What's this I see? 186 Perfects and 30 Greats? What's that again? 438 points to 0 points? Ahahahaha! Did you say AA? I guess you must have meant me AAing it. And you thought you could beat me! What a joke!" Kiba was never one to resist gloating over defeated enemies.
Things didn't look good for Desert Storm, Temari passed Paranoia Max (Dirty Mix) as her last song, but because Kiba's soldier pill still hasn't worn off yet, he got a much better score than she did. Adding his two previous victories, Kiba put team Akamaru into first position by a long shot. Can Kankuro and Garaa bring the team back on track? Why is Shino "definitely" in Freestyle? Find out all in the next chapter: First Stage.
Author's Note:
There, done 1 battle, wait for the next chapter, where Garaa get's to do some DDRing. Who would have thought that Shukaku can get down with it?
Also, each chapter, I'll try and provide a summary of one of the participating teams in K.U.N.A.I. There are the summaries of the players, their statistics, and brief summaries of the teams.
All stats given are loosely based on a scale from 1 to 100s. But like the DDR radar, stats can break their respective cap.
PA: Perfect Accuracy, some people call it Perfect Attack. This is the relative number of Perfects you can score on a song. Whatever you call it though, PA is the one thing all DDR players wish they could improve. PA is the one thing that stands between an A and an AA, and between an AA and an AAA.
Stamina: Should be self-explanatory. Stamina measures how much endurance this particular person has. The more endurance, the more likely they can play through many hard songs without interruption. This is especially required if a person want to pass the Oni courses.
Reflex: When playing bag for the first time, how fast can you read the arrows? If someone puts Sudden as a modifier, can you still hit the steps? Reflex measures a person's ability to adapt to a situation, usually one that is not familiar to them. Reflex is the most important skill if your opponent selects a song that you've never even heard of.
Knowledge: Unlike Reflex, which was the measure of how likely you can adapt to a situation, Knowledge measures how much background in DDR you have. Sometimes, knowing a song by heart will edge out any reflexive moves.
Overall: This is measured when compared to every other player in the tournament. A person might be the best under his or her division, but that does not mean that he or she is automatically placed into the top echelon of the tournament. Think of it more as a percentile score.
Team Desert Storm
Name: Temari
Tag: TMRI
Best Song: Sandstorm
Division: Maniac
PA: 72
Stamina: 69
Reflex: 76
Knowledge: 68
Overall: 81
Name: Garaa
Tag: LOVE
Best Song: Leading Cyber
Division: Trick
PA: 162
Stamina: 147
Reflex: 75
Knowledge: 17
Overall: 87
Name: Kankuro
Tag: DOLL
Best Song: Witch Doctor (Giants Toons Version)
Division: Freestyle
PA: 78
Stamina: 74
Reflex: 63
Knowledge: 59
Overall: 77
Team Description: The only representative sent by the Hidden Village of the Sand. Desert Storm boasts impressive players and gravity-defying techniques. With Temari's strategic planning, Garaa's 100 percent accuracy, and Kankuro's person-doll duo, Desert Storm is certainly one of the more advanced teams. Now if only they could broaden their range of songs, and include more than just the ones that are related to sand...