Strong Man Competition - 20 SP - Compete with the villagers through various strength oriented events - 1-2 people

I was supposed to make friends with them. Yes, that had to be the reason. There wasn't any other logical conclusion for pitting a small fourteen year old girl against oversized lumps of walking muscle in a contest of strength. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would take it seriously. Not if they valued their sanity at least.

Unfortunately for me the instructor appeared to be lacking even the slightest hint of common sense. A closer approximation of measurement would have been a tea spoon. Though, knowing him, it would be unlikely to fill the whole spoon. Regardless of what lack of logical thought had lead to this moment, I now had to go through with it.

I knew they would all laugh. I walked up to the participant's area. Everyone that saw me was soon trying to keep a straight face. They knew they would all laugh. I walked up to the man in charge of the participant's registration. He looked around expecting that this was a joke and that he would soon see a group of people doubled over trying to stop their sides splitting.

"Are you here for the contest little girl?" he asked

I nodded.

The other contestants were the first to give in to temptation, bursting into a round of bellowing laughter. They didn't know me. My family's existence was kept a secret. I was just a girl with strange eyes, not a shinobi to them, not the four-tails Jinchuriki. I had to make a good impression on them while I was still just a girl. The man still expecting that this was a joke tried to comfort me.

"Don't worry about them, you can leave now." The man tried to pat me on the head. I nimbly dodged it moving under his arm and continuing past him.

"No, I'm here for the contest." I wasn't here for the contest. I was here to make friends.

He began to look worried. The joke was obviously going too far for him. The first event began, luckily before he could attempt another comforting gesture. It was the Boulder Push (With boulder). It wasn't much of a push. It was more of a roll really. Though in some cases it was also a pick-up-and-drop, with the occasional oh-god-watch-for-the-toes moment. There didn't seem to be any rules to it.

You got the boulder from point A to point B as quickly as possible and you did it however you liked. Despite the task seeming so simple, the men struggled with the goat sized lump of stone. After learning a number of new and interesting curse words, it was my turn.

The task reminded me of something the Tsuchikage had put me through during my personal training. Although it had involved a boulder twice my size the principles seemed to be the same. It was all about letting the rock do the work for you. Getting it rolling was the battle, it takes very little compared to keep it rolling.

There was the inevitable snickering as I went to push the boulder. I took a strong stance and started charging chakra in my feet and hands. The men were still making jokes about me. I finished kneading the chakra and pushed against the boulder but nothing happened. This was met by an explosion of laughter.

The rock slowly tilted forward, it was slowly getting into motion. I tensed my legs and gave it a shove setting it rolling. The laughter slowly stopped as the boulder moved, gaining speed. I kept nudging it to keep it going and slowly increase the speed, stopping when it reached the line. To add to the surprise of the men the boulder kept rolling past the finish and into a tree, hitting it with a loud thud.

Convinced that it was some kind of fluke they put me first up for the next event the Tower of strength (With Hammer). The hammer that was being used was big, twice as big as me in fact. It also looked as if it might be twice as heavy. I looked at the hammer and then back at the organisers.

"Do I have to use the hammer?" I asked.

"Well no you don't bu-" I didn't wait for him to continue past 'no' stamping my foot down onto the plate. His response was cut short by a loud ringing sound.

I removed my foot as the crowd erupted into a wall of noise. The number of people all trying to touch me scared me more than any amount of wild, rabid creatures. In my defence there was at least a slight resemblance to wild, rabid creatures in a few of the crowd members. I screamed and ran away, although not into the distance as I had intended but directly into someone.

Luckily for me it was only Mariko a special Jonin who had taught at the academy when I was there, through she had now moved on and was preparing to enter ANBU.

"You look so cute when you're scared Miki-Chan" she said patting me on the head. I immediately tried to get behind her so I could hide.

A loud member from the crowd spoke up which soon started an avalanche of questions.

"That girl is amazing."

"Who is she?"

"I she a shinobi?"

"What's with her eyes?"

Mariko whispered to me "Oh my, you're quite the popular one Miki-Chan"

"Is it true that she's a Hyūga?"

The last question threw the crowd into silence. They were waiting for Mariko to answer.

"This -" She pulled me out from behind her and put me in front wrapping her arms across my chest. Partly to comfort me and partly to stop me from running. She did know me very well after all. "- is Hyūga Miki"

Everyone gasped as a whole; even in Iwakagure the Hyūga clan was still famous for their legendary Dojustsu. Mariko continued introducing me and explaining the questions.

"She's one of my precious little Genin that graduated from the academy last year."

The same man who'd asked about me being a Hyūga spoke up again. I thought he sounded familiar, like one of the other teachers in the academy. "Can she use the Byūakugan?"

"Of course" Mariko replied "But you didn't let me finish introducing her."

The murmurs from the crowd about my Byūakugan were silenced.

"Miki-Chan here is also the Jinchuriki for the four-tails."

The silence was different from those that had followed before. It was mixed with fear and apprehension. They had all seen me before, I was definitely different but I'd never seemed to be even the slightest bit threatening.

"Would anyone like to come and introduce themselves?"

Most people's reactions suggested she had just asked for volunteers to floss a hungry lion's mouth. They froze in spot, neither willing to leave less they miss something nor willing to be the ones to try introducing themselves. An elderly looking man came up to greet me, he extended his hand.

"Hello Miki-Chan, I'm Genzou, nice to meet you." He gave me a wink and whispered "Remember me?"

It took me a while to realise the transformation jutsu in place but he was definitely one of the academy teachers. Mariko urged me to take his hand. I did, an intense feeling of relief sweeping over the rest of the villagers. It was now safe to assume I wouldn't try biting any of them. A line of the braver members of the crowd began to form to introduce themselves to me and shake my hand.

I kept my place held in Mariko's comforting arms as I forced myself to make a good impression on everyone. The line slowly grew until everyone had now met me or would soon. It was dark by the time the last of the villagers left. I was completely exhausted. Mariko bent down to hug me.

"Well that went well. You made a good first impression on them." She gave me another squeeze.

"You did well Miki, I'm proud of you."

I hated to admit it but if the instructor had planned this then he wasn't an idiot, he was a genius who just happened to act like one.

I raced Mariko up the hill towards the Tsuchikage's office. She let me win like always but I didn't mind this time. I was too happy to care about being doted upon.