Disclaimer: I don't own anyone or anything aside from a few OCs.
Warnings: same as in previous chapter, with possible mentioned yuri alongside the yaoi there already is in the story.
Note: No, Laxus' Exceed from the original version of this will not be included.
Enjoy!
"All contestants in Hidden are hiding and seeking at the same time!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu complained.
"In order to earn points, one player has to land an attack on another. Whether it does any damage, the attacker will win one point, while the…heh…victim loses one point."
"Dozens of figures suddenly manifested around the contestants.
"Wait…now what's going on?" Toph asked from the stands, eyebrows furrowing. She could feel physical forms appearing on the battle grounds below.
"Dozens of copies of each contestant just appeared." Meredy whispered.
Toph raised an eyebrow, wondering if she should've gone down there instead. After all, she could tell the difference between the real ones and the fakes by their heartbeats…or lack thereof.
After a moment, she shrugged.
She doubted her teammate would have any trouble with this.
"I know they're pretty, folks, but they're not just for show! Attack one of your fake competitors by mistake, and it'll cost you one point! Now, it's time to begin. Some advice: hide in plain sight!"
A gong sounded.
Itachi blinked at the many clones surrounding him, all perfectly still.
He gave a mental shudder, having a strange mental image of puppets made from human corpses.
He paused. Where had that come from?
"You don't really know how this game works, do you?" he heard a voice from behind, though he had already been aware of the man's presence, and turned to see the purple Raven Tail competitor.
Itachi stared at the man, not deigning to respond, and Nalpudding quickly launched an attack at him…
Only for Itachi to disappear in a whirl of leaves, using one of his ninja techniques to switch places with one of his clones.
"What the hell?!" Nalpudding demanded as he lost a point.
"Kawairimi…" Sasuke murmured.
"Ah." Naruto said, eyes sharp as he watched the contestants on the huge lacrima in front of him. "And the Shunshin."
The pair were in Fiore purely as guests to evaluate the land that bordered the Elemental Nations, just in case they ever went to war (not that they were planning on it; they had enough to deal with just with the ninja villages), so they didn't have a team in the Games.
…Which meant that Sasuke could silently cheer his brother on and not feel guilty about it.
(AN: Kawairimi is the replacement technique from Naruto, and Shunshin is the Body Flicker technique, where the user moves so quickly that they appear to be teleporting.)
Lyon glomped one of Juvia's clones.
Even if he had given up on her returning his feelings, he still wanted to have fun by making Gray jealous.
-1 point.
Lyon groaned in dismay.
Juvia glanced down at her abdomen as she saw an attack go through her.
"Hah!" Nalpudding crowed, eyes closed. "Weak Fairy Tail mages—Wah!"
He was knocked into a building by Juvia's water whip when he wasn't paying attention. He also didn't notice that his attack had gone right through Juvia's body and into one of the clones.
-2 more points..
One from hitting Itachi's clone, one from Juvia's attack, and one from the clone he'd hit trying to attack the Water mage.
Feeling himself be transported to another part of the arena, Nalpudding gaped. "How the hell—?!"
"It would seem that attacks that hit Juvia's Water Body do not count against her." Juvia said in her usual monotone, walking up from behind him as she found him again (he had only gone to the next street, so she went through an alley).
"Shit!" Nalpudding gasped as he hurriedly dodged an attack, only to be hit in the back a moment later.
Juvia glanced up, seeing Itachi's cloak disappear down the same alley she had come through, and smiled.
Yajima cringed.
He and the game master's hadn't thought to program the scoreboard to recognize attacks that hit water, which gave Fairy Tail Team B's Juvia Lockser an unfair advantage, if she kept using that technique.
…Their bad.
Worse, it wasn't her mistake, so the points stood.
Itachi wandered around the makeshift town aimlessly, occasionally dodging attacks (somehow they all ended up hitting clones, giving them negative points), using the Shunshin to get away from his opponents.
He hadn't been hit, but he hadn't landed once since Nalpudding, either.
Yukio sighed, reloading his two guns as he tried to find people.
He'd already been hit four times, and he hadn't managed to land a hit on anyone.
Damn it…
Oh!
"Got you…" the Exorcist murmured quietly as he aimed at the blonde Viking wielding a large axe.
Astrid hadn't been doing very well either, fury causing her to attack the clones of Hiccup's guildmates whenever she happened to glance up at the traitor or that godsforsaken beast of his.
And now she grunted in pain as she was hit in the arm with a metal projectile.
Glancing up, she glared as she saw one of those demon-hunters (what a laugh, she thought, calling themselves exorcists) aiming at her, and she narrowed her eyes before she was whisked away.
She'd get him back. Maybe not now, but she would.
"This isn't hide and seek, it's just seek." Yeager, the Quatro Cerberus mage, muttered to himself.
"Oh my…" Rufus Lore sighed, closing his eyes as he noticed that the two Fairy Tail mages were racking up the points. "This won't do…"
He wanted to wait until the time was almost up, but if he did that the black-haired one, at least, would quickly surpass him...
"What's happening?" Erza asked as day turned to night.
The contestants were suddenly surrounded by light, separating them from their clone counterparts…
Rufus let out an attack, which struck all but two…
"Missed me!" Nalpudding sneered, jumping out from behind Rufus and trying to land a hit. Unfortunately, the blonde disappeared. "A clone?"
"No, that was the memory of my being there. You didn't lose a point." Rufus said with a chuckle. "I find it much more useful than mere clones…"
His eyes widened as he was hit from behind, seeing the mage from Fairy Tail Team A hit Nalpudding from behind at the same exact time. "Who—"
He turned, only to see another image of Itachi disperse. "A clone?"
The Sabertooth thought it ironic that he was repeating Nalpudding's words, but didn't pay much attention, wondering how the Fairy Tail mage had managed to use one (or two?) of his clones to attack them.
He didn't know that Itachi wasn't a mage, and that those weren't clones created by the game masters.
"What was that?!" one of the judges shouted, just as surprised as Rufus.
"Kage Bunshin…" Itachi whispered, responding quietly to the judge's question. He had started regaining memories of the techniques he was able to use. "Shadow Clones…they are the ninja equivalent of a thought projection, right down to their fighting power being split in half…"
Though unlike Thought Projections, Shadow Clones were capable of independent thought and could act on their own without the user guiding their every movement from somewhere else.
He had managed to dodge the Sabertooth mage's attack, and when he realized how many points the move had brought the blonde he had summoned one clone to attack each opposing group.
Rufus Lore. Nalpudding. That strange Quatro Cerberus man. Beth Vanderwood. Eve Tearm. Lyon Vastia. His clones hit Yukio Okumura and Astrid Hofferson particularly hard, knowing that they had both hurt a member of Fairy Tail.
He had made a token attempt on Juvia, well aware that it wouldn't do any damage or count against her. He had no intention of seriously attacking any of his companions (and, dare he think it, friends) in Fairy Tail, but he had to look like he was trying or else he'd get called out for favoritism.
Eve groaned, sitting up after Rufus Lore and then Itachi Uchiha's attack.
"I need to get a move on." He realized, quickly summoning up a mini-snowstorm.
"That's got to be Eve." Jenny said knowingly from her position at the judge's table (she was that day's guest).
"It's a shame that Lyon isn't affected by the cold." Eve said, standing up from a crouch. "And I don't know about Juvia-nee. But most of them are."
"I see." Ichiya realized. "They're starting to shiver, and you can see the steam from their breath."
"But it doesn't work that way for the copies." Ren finished with a smirk.
"Pretty smart strategy." Hibiki said approvingly.
"I can see you!" Eve called out, pulling a hand back and letting loose a spell that his Nalpudding, Beth, and Yeager.
The blonde Blue Pegasus mage glanced up to see where he stood with his points, but was distracted when a flock of ice birds struck his body.
He glanced up, spotting Lyon.
"Unfortunately for you I've spent my life training in the cold!"
"Yeah, I kind of figured." Eve said with a pained grin, clutching his side.
Rufus scowled as the gong rang, interrupting him just when he was about to cast his spell again.
"1st with 10 points is Fairy Tail Team A!
2nd with 9 points is Sabertooth!
3rd with 8 points is Fairy Tail Team B!
4th with 7 points is Blue Pegasus!
5th with 6 points is Lamia Scale!
6th with 5 points is Raven Tail!
7th with 4 points is True Cross Order (the Exorcists)!
8th with 3 points is Quatro Cerberus!
9th with 2 points is Mermaid Heel!
And in last place, with 1 point, is the Hairy Hooligan tribe!"
Oh yes, Astrid had been particularly vicious during the event, but she'd attacked so many clones in her rage (she had just wanted to hack away at something, visualizing Hiccup and the Night Fury all the while) that she was deep in the negatives.
Please review! Please. *puppy-eyes*
I know that in the series the points system was different, but I did it like this because now there are 10 teams competing, not 8, so I can't keep it the same. I'm not explaining well, but it makes sense in my head, at least.
Juvia got third place because none of the hits that landed on her counted because they went right through her Water Body and didn't register, and Itachi was going around with clones to kick everyone's asses and make them lose points while he gained them and didn't lose any because no one could land a hit.
As for why only two non-mage groups are participating in the Games…the Exorcists from the True Cross Order and the Vikings from the Hairy Hooligan tribe were the only ones arrogant enough to enter the competition without checking out what the mages are capable of. Every other outsider, like Sasuke and Naruto, for example, are just in the audience to see if they'll even have a chance to win in later years if they get another opportunity. The Vikings things everyone but them is weak and the Exorcists just hate magic and want to prove that they can beat the mages.
It definitely makes it much easier for me to plan the events and battles, since there's only two more groups to deal with.
