Chapter 54: Bugs aplenty. Earth Travel to earth country.
"So, what should we do when we arrive in earth!" Ino said Happily, "I say we visit Terona, I hear they have the most beautiful flowers there."
"We are not here for flowers Ino," Kin said Irritably, "We are here to become stronger."
"Oh come on, live a little Kinny," Ino said, "I know, lets ask Shino, he is the leader after all."
"We go to Terona," Shino replied.
"Why go there?" asked Kin.
"Thats the reason I choose for us to travel to earth, they are holding a tournament of travelers soon. They are going to be a max of 16 people entered, paired off in random teams of 8. That seemed that an effective method of training," Shino replied.
"Why is it you either answer anything I ask you in very few words a drawn out explanation?" asked Kin.
When Shino didn't reply Ino said, "He's strange like that. Pay no attention."
"My my, arn't we caring about our team mates," Kin Muttered.
"I heard that!" Ino yelled. At her.
"Shut up," Shino said.
"What!?" they both yelled at him. He only continued to walk forward while the two girls followed behind him brooding.
They arrived at a city and calmly walked in. There were 13 other people gathered around a booth. Shino walked up and breifly spoke to a man their, who began writing things on a piece of paper. Shino walked back to them and said, "We're signed in."
"Excelent, lets just hope I don't get paired with this women," She said pointing at Ino.
"Who'd want to be paired with an ugly which like you!" Ino returned.
"What did you say!?" Kin fired back.
"Both of you shut up," Ino said Irritabley, "And besides, Kin's not ugly."
"What?" Kin said, no quite catching the last part since Shino said it softer than the rest.
"Nothing," Shino said, turning slightly red as he turned away. Musn't say such things when more important things are happening, Shino thought to himself. The three rested that night, awaiting for the tournament to start in the morning.
The three team mates stood in a large arena, similar to the one the Chuunin exams were held in. An man stood at the center holding a piece of paper, "The rules are simple, if you kill your opponent, sucks for them. Any Shinobi participating in this fight are allowed to use their Ninja tools and Jutsu freely, any Non Shinobi are allowed to use weapons that they see fit. No interfering with a fight that is not yours. The fights will be fought in teams of two, which I will read off Shortly. Keep the fight in the arena and no hurting the crowd. The teams will be as Followed.
Team 1: Yamanako Ino and Subara Bell
Team 2: Sala Kino and Barona Cina
Team 3: Aburame Shino and Tsuchi Kin
Team 4: Gorala Tsukiko and Bendo Talon
Round one will bean Team 1 Vs. Team 2. Fighters approach the ring."
Ino entered the ring with a women with long wavy brown hair who stood at Ino's height. She wore a Headband with the symbol of the Hidden Sand Village. Here eyes were bright blue and she looked at Ino with a smile, "I love your hair style, you'll have to do mine when this is over."
"No need," smiled Ino, "Your hair suites you perfectly. Now lets go out and kick these Guys butts."
"Sounds fun," she said, returning the smile. They looked at their two opponents. The one called Kino was about 5"8, had spiky blond hair and a muscular build. He wore a headband of the Hidden cloud. The other man, Cina, was a bald man who stood 5"6 and looked extremely thin. His headband bore the symbol of hidden Stone.
"Let's get this started," Cina said doing some hand seals, "Rugged Terain Jutsu!" he called out placing both hands on the ground. The terrain of the Arena began rumbling and forming mounds of stone. While not doing any damage, it made it difficult for anyone not use the the terrain to move, giving Cina an advantage.
"I think I can work with this, Ground Clouds!" called out Kino, Clouds forming over the ground, covering up the ground.
"So, now we are not only impared because of the terain, but because we can't see the terrain," smiled Bell, "Looks like this is going to be interesting."
"Don't worry, the ground won't slow me down," Ino smiled dropping down to the ground using the clouds to conceal her.
"While my partners planning something under the clouds there, I think I should do something, don't you?" she smiled as she did some hand seals, "Tornado Shuriken!" and with that she threw five shuriken, which began spinning together forming a large spinning disk. The two enemy Shinobi jumped to the side to avoid it, however it shot off the Shuriken in all directions when it was between them. While Cina managed to avoid fine, Kino stumbled due to the unfamiliar terrain, barely managing to avoid the Shuriken and keep his balance. His eyes widened for a breif moment, but he quickly regain composer.
"Lets regroup," Kino said. Cina nodded and both came back together. However as Cina begna some seals, he stopped when a kunai pressed against the back of his neck, "I suggest we surrender, don't you?" he asked.
"Why you," Cina muttered, not sure what was going on, "Fine, I Surrender."
"As do I," Kino smiled as the clouds dissapeared. As they did, Ino's body lay limp on the now rugged terrain. Bell rushed over, wondering what happened to her partner. However a smile appeared on Ino's face as the one on Kino's dissapeared and was replaced with an enraged look.
"What the hell!?" yelled Kino, "I don't surrender, that Ninja was in my head!"
"You surreneder, so the fights over, Ino and Bell win," he said.
"So, you must be of the clan in leaf that specilizes in the Jutsu that switches bodies, aren't you?" Bell laughed, "Well played Ino."
"Thank you, though if not for your distraction I couldn't have gotten the chance," smiled Ino.
"Well, lets just go to the brake room so the rest can fight, shall we?" Bell said. Ino nodded and the two walked into a small room.
Shino and Kin approached the arena. Tsukiko stood in front of them. She had long brown hair down to her waste, small blue eyes, and wore a headband of hidden sound. Strangely, the other that she was suppose to be partnered with didn't show.
"Well," Tsukiko said with a bit of a twisted grin on her face, "It would seem that my partner didn't show. Guess I'll have to forfeit this round," and she turned and walked out of the Ring.
"Two surrender in a row In such a short time?" the Orator said a bit confused, "This has never happened before. So in one hour the final match will start. Good luck to the final four."
"Something's not right," Shino said looking at Kin, "Did you ever see her in sound?"
"Yeah, but only once. She was just another random Genin, Orichimaru must have sent her here to scout out more people to join. If that one Ninja refused to join, she probably killed him so he wouldn't snitch on her. Common tactic amongst the sound Nin."
"She seems to be leaving, lets follow after," Shino said.
"Why not get Ino first?" asked Kin.
"My kikai sense them heading the opposite direction towards the market, we have no time to grab them.
"Do you always know where your team mates are at any given time?" asked Kin sarcastictly. However she didn't expect the response Shino gave.
"Yes," he replied, leaving Kin speechless as they moved towards Tsukiko.
They came across Tsukiko talking with Kino in an alley, "Listen, you seem to have some talent, so I'd like to invite you to join the Hidden village of sound. Orichimaru would most enjoy your assistance."
"Alright," Kino smiled, "Besides, Orichimaru is likely to attack Leaf again, giving me a chance to get back at that Ino brat for possessing me."
"Alright, but lets have a little test first, lets get rid of the two spies," she smiled, looking towards the end of the alley, where Shino and Kin walked out from the shadows.
"Sounds like fun, Concealment of the clouds!" cried Kino, clouds covering the entire Alley, blocking all sound.
"Now lets have some fun," laughed Tsukiko, "Super sonic Sight Jutsu!" and Tsukiko began navigating the clouds using her supper sonic energy. All she could see coming in was bugs, everywhere. She quickly realized that this Shino must be the leafs Aburame prodigy she heard about from Orichimaru, quickly began to remove the bugs.
She blasted them with her supersonic jutsu she used to see in order to distort their senses. However they kept coming. They didn't seem affected by the sound. She quickly turned to warn Kino, however he had already been swarmed by the Kikai, unable to see them through the very mist he created.
"My Kikai hunt by Chakra, your sound Jutsu or the mist wills top them. Her super sonic began precieving millions of Kikai swarming her, and as she let out a scream, she felt a strong punch to the gut. She keeled over as the bugs dissapeared from sight and the clouds cleared.
"How, my sonic scrambles the mind, it still should have worked on the Kikai," she said panting.
"Simple," smiled Kin, "Look around," Tsukiko did so, seeing nothing but wires everywhere, with tiny bells that made vitrutally no noise. Tsukiko was shocked when she realized what happened.
"So, using a weaker version of your sound Genjutsu, you were able to create small creatures without creating enough sound to notice, and your genjutsu maid even my Supersonic sight think there were bugs. And when I thought the bugs were unnaffected I paniced and revealed my posiion. The only real bugs had swarmed over Kino, is that right?" asked Tsukiko.
"Yeah," laughed Kin, "I remembered what kind of Jutsu you specilized in when we trained under Orichimaru, and with Shino's mind it was easy to find a way to beat you."
"But what about Kino? Neither of you knew him," said Tsukiko.
"As I said," replied Shino, "My bugs track by Chakra, and by creating the cloud he made himself easy pray. He dug his own grave, making the only variable in my plan easy to work around."
"So, I guess we'll be taken prisoner by leaf now then?" asked Tsukiko with a weak smile.
"To bad you didn't abandon Orochimaru like the rest of us, would have made your life easier," smiled Kin.
"ANBU will be here shortly," said Shino, "Lets not trouble ourselves with them and wait."
"Fine," Kin said, and thus the two awaited the arrival of ANBU.
Ino and Bell stood in the center of a very dissapointed crowd. They had not seen a real fight all day, and payed good money to see some action. However since the remaining two contestents failed to show, Ino and Bell were declared the winners and given a small bag of money. While happy of their winnings, they were highly dissapointed in the fact not a singe person had cheered for them.
Not very action packed I know, but I enjoyed writing this one. Anyway, enjoy.