Ch. 14 The Suna Squad Festival

Rain and Gazu got up the next day and headed to the festival. They finally reached it and stood around waiting for all the contestants to arrive. They were the first ones there. Apparently Don's habit of not only waking up early, but arriving to places early rubbed off on them.

"I wonder if he is even going to come." Gazu grunted. "I don't know, I doubt he can even get up after the week's worth of a beating that he took from us." Rain replied. "Yeah, I guess you are right." Gazu said. They watched as the hours went by and squad after squad arrived, and still no sign of Dan. Gazu and Rain got quite a few looks from the oncoming squads, which in return they just glared back and their eye contact broke.

"He's got five minute, if he doesn't get here in that time; we are going to register without him." Gazu said. "Right." Rain replied. Then a lone figure came into view. "Well, well, looks like he actually managed to get up this morning and come. I'm mildly impressed." Gazu said. "Let's see how he does in the festival. That will be his true test." Rain added.

Dan walked up to them. Rain and Gazu did not say a word and the three of them walked to get registered. They went their separate ways to join the other shinobi in their divisions. The newer squads looked a bit surprised to see only a two man squad others looked really confident because there were only two of them.

Rain and Gazu were called for the first round. "This will be too easy." Rain said. "Yeah, I don't even know why we are even in this festival." Gazu said. "Because Baki-sama told us to." Rain replied. "Oh, right." Gazu said as they walked casually onto the field.

"Just cover your eyes." Rain said and instantly Gazu did as she said. Rain then made a quick hand sign and stunned her opponents with a bright flash of light. Not only there they paralyzed but also blinded temporarily. "All your Gazu." Rain said. "Thank you Rain, I will make short work of this." He replied happily and he quickly brought out his boxer puppet and make short work of their opponents.

In a short time, everyone that was registered was soon beaten by Rain and Gazu, so their competition was over with. It was too easy for them, the rules were simple, you fought until you couldn't anymore, that was basically the code incorporated into everything in Suna, even if it was something as fun as a festival.

Rain and Gazu went to go see Dan fight. "I'm going to go get something to eat; I'll meet you at the fighting ring where Dan is." Rain said. "Ok." Gazu replied. Gazu saw ahead of him a large crowd that gathered around the fighting ring. He managed to peek through a tiny space between some people to see Dan fighting.

Dan stood off against three exhausted opponents. Dan made a hand motion and slammed his hands onto the ground. Gazu's eyes widened when he saw three large scorpions summoned. "It's time I finished this." Dan said. He pointed at his opponents, "Finish them my pets." He said in a dark tone. "Those scorpions, how is it possible?" he said. He then turned and ran to go find Rain. He eventually found her at the front of the line at the snack bar. "How's Dan, is he already eliminated?" Rain asked and she paid for her snacks.

"No, about that, Rain I need to talk to you I think he's…" Gazu started. "Hey guys, I managed to win all of my matches, I'm champion of my division." Dan said happily. "Impressive Dan, you may just make it into this squad, though don't think just because of this easy victory you belong in this squad. Gazu you were saying something?" Rain said. "Oh, right, I was going to tell you that Dan hadn't been beaten yet and it looked like he was actually going to pull through." Gazu said to cover up for what he was really going to say.

"Well Dan, I think you deserve to have the week off, think of this as a small token of congratulations from me." Gazu said. "Sweet, thanks!" Dan said and he ran off. "Rain, come to my house. We need to talk." Gazu said. Rain followed Gazu to his house and they went up to his room. Rain sat on his bed while Gazu went through his messy closet and looked for something.

"You know Gazu, you should really consider cleaning your closet, it looks like you could get lost in all the junk for just thinking of walking in there. Gazu came out with a large old book and sat next to Rain. "Rain, I didn't want to tell you infront of Dan, but there's something wrong with him." He started. "What do you mean? He seemed as stupid and naïve as usual to me." Rain replied.

"Well, while you were at the snack bar, I went to the fighting ring and happened to see a large crowd gathered around. I managed to find a small gap between some people and peeked through there and watch Dan fight." "Ok, so? What was so weird about that?" Rain asked. "I saw something I thought I never would see. I watched as he summoned three large scorpions and fiendishly sent them on his three exhausted opponents. He didn't kill them but he brutally toyed with them. They ended up going to the hospital with severe wounds."

"Scorpions?" Rain asked. "Yeah, I though the story of the scorpion nomads was just a bed time story my parents used to tell me but I never thought that they were really telling me of something that actually was real at one time." Gazu said looking worried.

"Scorpion Nomads? Gazu, what are you talking about." Rain asked looking worried herself. Gazu opened the book and thumbed through it until he got to the page that he wanted to and showed it to her. "Look. This story dates back to the very founding of our village. You see not long after this village was settled a massacre of our people occurred. Many of our people were killed; men women and children, if a woman wasn't killed she was raped." Gazu said. Rain gasped as she read along the pages.

"The current leader that the time eventually made an order to kill all the offspring of the nomads for they knew that they would become a thread if they were allowed to live. It's a miracle that we managed to survive. As the book describes, scorpions nearly engulfed our entire village, there was quite a handful of large scorpions as well, and we would have been wiped out if it weren't for one family."

Rain read along until she reached the family's name. "Gazu, that was your family?" Rain asked. Gazu nodded. "Summoning scorpions was their kekei genkai; there is no one else in the world that could do that."

"So what are you suggesting, that Dan is a descendent of these people and is planning on destroying this village?" Rain said. "Yes Rain, that's exactly what I'm saying, but you are missing one key detail; he also wants to kill off the family that eventually helped wipe out his. He will be coming for me." Gazu said sternly.