The night before the finals, Suigetsu, Jugo, Tenten, and Gekido said goodnight to each other and went to sleep. However, several loud noises woke Tenten up in the middle of her slumber.

"Aww! ..."

Tenten rubbed her eyes - still half-asleep and her hair undone and down to her neck - then tried finding the source of the noise that woke her up. She heard some banging below her, and immediately afterward noticed that Gekido was not in his bed.

Gekido? What are you doing up so late?

Tenten got out of bed and went downstairs to check on him. When she arrived on the ground floor, Gekido was still nowhere to be found, but the noises got louder and were still below her.

In the basement?

Tenten went down another flight of stairs. When she got to the bottom, she noticed Gekido sitting at a table and hitting something on top of it with a hammer.

"What's going on, Gekido?"

Tenten's question alerted Gekido to her presence, the boy standing up in panic and pointing to the objects on the table. Tenten approached him and the table to find several shards of something long and sharp.

"I've been trying to repair that…" said Gekido. "They're fragments of a sword I broke when I was on a mission… I wanted to use it during the finals."

Tenten sat down and examined the shards. Soon enough she sighed:

"Don't bother with it now. A repair job like this would take way too long to do right. You're losing valuable sleep as is; no weapon is going to help you if you don't have the stamina to use it. Why don't you just use one of my swords? I have quite a few stored in my scroll."

Gekido bowed with a faint blush on his cheeks. "Oh… Thank you, Ms. Tenten."

"Come on up with me, okay?"

Tenten stood up, turned around, and went back up the stairs. Gekido followed her. They soon arrived at Tenten's weapon scroll, which lay next to her bed. She promptly rolled part of it open and tapped a mark on it, conjuring a child-sized katana inside a sheath, which she then handed to Gekido.

The Genin looked down at the sword in his hands with awe. "A blade my size?"

"I noticed the bamboo sword you were given in the preliminaries was too heavy for you. This will feel lighter, and you'll swing faster."

"I can't thank you enough, Ms. Tenten…"

Gekido began crying tears of joy as he proceeded to hug Tenten with both arms, careful not to touch her with the sword he just received, snuggling his head in between Tenten's breasts.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?"

Gekido gently let go and looked up into Tenten's eyes. "You remind me a lot of my mother. Mother's very kind, very pretty, and very good at fixing things… just like you."

"I'm flattered… Say, where is your mother anyway? I know about your father, but what happened to her? You're living all alone…"

"Mother lives up north. I moved out when I decided to become a shinobi, but she still sends me money from time to time. Know how I said Mother is very good at fixing things? She's a professional. If you can name it, Mother can fix it… with one exception."

"What was that exception?" Tenten asked, sitting down on her bed and inviting Gekido to do the same. Gekido sat down next to Tenten and started shivering before he gave an answer:

"The one thing she couldn't fix was Father's obsession… Father was so obsessed that he abandoned us to get his fix… I wanted to become a ninja so I could track Father down and stop him, but I was too late… the obsession got Father killed before I graduated. And now the people that took his life are escaping justice… Ms. Tenten, can I ask you something personal?"

Tenten put an arm around Gekido, helping him ease his nerves. "Go right ahead."

"Do you think I'm obsessed? Obsessed with revenge... I got you, Senpai, and Jugo-san into making my wish for me, I refused your help during the preliminaries when I needed it, and now I'm staying up late…"

Tenten calmly shook her head and cradled Gekido close to her:

"No. You're not obsessed. Not in my eyes. One of my teammates had an obsession. It consumed him to the point he shoved everyone he knew away and tried to kill the people he swore to protect… You're not like he was. You're gentle to the core; you don't even wish death on your father's killers. Darkness hasn't consumed you, and if it threatens you in the future, I trust that you'll make the right choice."

"Thank you…"

Gekido cried himself into silence.

"Now get back to sleep, would you?" Tenten let Gekido go and lay down on her bed once more. "We have a big day tomorrow. Good night, Gekido…"

"Good night, Ms. Tenten…"

Gekido had replied just in time for the kunoichi to fall asleep once more.

[X-X-X]

The next morning, Suigetsu, Jugo, Tenten, and Gekido left the house and headed for Ryujin Stadium, and Gekido in particular remembered to attach Tenten's sword to his belt for use in the finals.

During their trek there, someone else arrived at Ryujin Stadium…

"Lord Daimyo! Pleasure to meet you again."

Mei was waving hello to an incoming carriage from just outside the stadium entrance with Chojuro and Killer B at her sides. The carriage stopped a few feet away from them, and out came the Water Daimyo to watch the finals as promised.

"Please… the pleasure is mine, Lady Mizukage." The Water Daimyo said. As he approached the Mizukage and her entourage, the Water Daimyo's guards lifted his carriage in unison. When the Water Daimyo reached proximity to the Mizukage's group, he quickly singled out Killer B and squinted. He then bowed and extended his hand to shake:

"If it isn't Lord B of the Hidden Cloud! How appropriate that you be present to watch this tournament unfold, as the wielder of Samehada."

"No, no, no!" B extended his right fist. "This is how you say hello!"

"I see…"

The Water Daimyo meekly closed his hand into a fist and bumped B's. After a second or so of contact, B retracted his arm with a satisfied smirk.

"Please allow me to escort you to your seat, Lord Daimyo!" the Mizukage interjected as she turned around with a smile and motioned for the Daimyo and his guard to follow her. The Daimyo nodded and began following Mei inside with his entourage close behind, and Chojuro and B at the rear.

Mei led the Water Daimyo and the others through a curving hallway, then up a flight of stairs inside a rock formation, and finally to a set of seven seats on what appeared to the Daimyo to be a cliff overlooking the entire arena. One seat was right at the edge in the centre, two were a little ways behind the front seat to the left and right, and four more were behind them composing the back row.

"This is your seat, Lord Daimyo." Mei pointed to the seat in the second row to the right. "Lord B will be taking the seat opposite yours, and your guards can take the back. I'll be sitting in the front, naturally."

"And what about the boy with you?" the Water Daimyo asked as he pointed at Chojuro. "From what I recall from the war… Vice-Captain Chojuro, was it?"

"Yes sir… And actually, I'll be the referee for today's matches."

"Ah. That explains it." The Water Daimyo nodded to himself and promptly took his seat. "Let's see what this stadium is like… haven't been here in a while."

The Water Daimyo took in the view of Ryujin Stadium. In the centre was a fairly wide square white marble floor surrounded by a shallow pool forming a circle around the square. There was also a walkway linking the arena to the wall opposite the Daimyo's side, just wide enough for two people to walk on side-by-side. The pool itself was surrounded by a circular wall and several rows of seats, reaching up to just over half the height the Daimyo was watching from. The wall, incidentally, was just short enough that members of the front row might get wet if someone were to be hit into the pool.

The Water Daimyo only had a few moments to take in the general structure of Ryujin Stadium, however, since something directly opposite him caught his eye. It was a giant cobalt statue of a bearded man staring into his eyes - built into the stadium itself - with a hollowed out base where the walkway ended.

"Haven't I seen that man's visage before?" the Daimyo asked as he pointed to the statue.

"Oh, that is one of the founding fathers of the Hidden Mist Village, Lord Urashima Taro." Mei explained. "I don't know the specifics since our records were wiped nine years ago by my predecessor, but according to legend Lord Taro once saved a shark from being killed by poachers. Little did he know, that shark could talk, and offered to bring him to its home and give him a present as thanks for saving its life. Lord Taro accepted, and so he rode the shark to its home. But then it turned out that the shark was actually an exceedingly beautiful mermaid princess in disguise, and the gift she had in store for Lord Taro was one of her father's treasures: a king's treasure. Lord Taro received his gift and returned to the village, which decided to build this stadium as a tribute to Lord Taro and this king… We're currently inside the statue of said king, looking out from where his mouth would be."

The Water Daimyo stroked his chin. "Ah, Lord Taro, yes…"

"Chojuro!"

The wielder of Hiramekarei saluted at attention. "Yes, Lady Mizukage?"

"Go down and prepare for the arrival of the finalists. You can leave Lord Daimyo's protection to Lord B and me."

"Right away!"

Chojuro briskly walked down the stairs within the king's statue.

[X-X-X]

And so hours passed and with time, Ryujin Stadium filled. The finalists arrived first and with Chojuro's lead, were sent inside Urashima Taro's statue to wait until they were called. Then the crowd's seats got fuller and fuller with villagers and citizens from across the country, until at last the audience was packed. The last people to get into position were various Hunter Ninja lining the crowds for security detail and medics near the front row to provide emergency support in case a contestant needed it.

Once it finally reached noon, Mei stood up from her seat and addressed the audience:

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to witness the final rounds of the Strongest Under the Mist tournament! Today, eight exceptional ninja will be competing before you! Here they are!"

On cue, Chojuro led the eight finalists down the walkway to the arena double-file, beginning with Tia and Kukyo, then Suigetsu and Gekido, then Yuri and Tenten, and finally with Torasame and Jugo in the rear. Once they reached the centre of the arena, they lined up in order side-by-side facing the Mizukage, smiling to the crowd as best they could.

Gekido singled out a woman sitting in the audience wearing a red qipao, with neatly parted black hair tied in a ponytail and the same brown eyes he had.

Mother? You came to watch me?

The woman responded to Gekido's eye contact by smiling and waving.

"The winners of the first set of fights, the final four, will be rewarded with the remaining Swords of the Mist!" Mei continued. "Priority of choice will be given in order of position! Take the Kiba, for example! If one of our contestants wants Kiba and makes it to the final four, they could still lose their chance if someone else places ahead of them and chooses the Kiba first! With this in mind finalists, don't stop giving it your all until you've reached the very top!"

Oh come on, Mizukage… that was totally directed at me. The whole village probably knows what sword I'm after by now. Suigetsu thought.

"And as a bonus…" Mei added, "There is an additional grand prize for the winner of the entire tournament! What is this prize, you might be wondering? It is one wish from yours truly! As long as you don't wish for an additional Sword of the Mist or my job, then if it within my power, anything your heart desires will be made real! And I do mean anything!" She finished with a wink directed at the finalists.

Sweat started dripping from Chojuro's cheeks. Oh dear… You just want the winner to ask for your hand in marriage, Lady Mizukage…

"Without further ado, let's begin the first match!"

Mei sat back down after concluding her announcement. On cue, the audience made a round of applause and all the finalists except for Tia and Kukyo left along the walkway and got back into the waiting room. Tia and Kukyo spread out and faced each other about ten feet apart, and Chojuro stood between them and just little further away from them than the Mizukage, who he was still facing.

Chojuro put his focus on the combatants. "Let's go over the rules again. The battle ends when one fighter is knocked down for ten seconds, is knocked out of bounds, or if I deem them unable to continue. Of course, you're free to surrender at any time as well. You can use anything at your disposal to win, but going for the kill is strictly prohibited and I will intervene and disqualify you if it comes to that. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir." Tia and Kukyo both replied.

"Good."

Chojuro raised his right hand for the audience to see. Then he quickly brought it down in a gesture signifying his following statement:

"Then… begin!"