Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon?
"And with that we have arrived in Suna" said Kurama exhausted when they finally arrived at their destination
After meeting with Kiba and agreeing on competing with him in the tournament some days ago in front of the Ichiraku's pub Naruto focused on training for the tournament
He and Hanabi went all the way to floor 11 in the konoha dungeon nothing was really different there it was similar to all the other floors in the dungeon expect for floor 10, it had cavern like corridors and some big rooms that led to more corridors and nothing else special, they even somehow manage to never encounter a Minotaur when they headed there
The day before they traveled to Suna they decided to take it off to rest since they would head out early in the morning so that they would be able to arrive on the same day at Suna, it hadn't been an easy trip specially because they didn't planned it correctly somehow they forgot it was a desert and most of the trip was done on the hottest hours of the day
"Finally I thought we would die out there" said Hanabi sitting down exhausted from the trip
"We should have thought this through better" said Hinata sitting down with her sister and reaching into her backpack to take a bottle of water
"First things first then, let's find someplace to stay while we are here at Suna" said Kurama "We'll think what to do after that later"
Hinata stood up closing the empty bottle of water that had been full a second ago "I know a place" said Hinata "there's a hotel near here were we could stay"
"Have you come to Suna before?" asked Naruto since she seem to know about the city
"Never, but I read a lot about it before we came here so I know a little bit" said Hinata
"You two are so similar, Hanabi also reads a lot about the dungeon before we go in there" said Naruto
"It's just so that we don't end dead in there" said Hanabi "Speaking of which, are we going to the dungeon in Suna later?"
"Maybe after the tournament" said Naruto, the Suna tournament started in two days but since they would probably want to sight see the next day they would wait until the tournament ended, or at least until after the exhibition match
The tournament held by Shukaku normally lasted three to four days starting with a show match between members of the Shukaku familia followed by the exhibition match against monsters where Naruto was participating
The next day the tournament proper started, Naruto didn't know how the tournament worked but he wanted to see it to get an idea on how strong the strongest adventurers were, that way he would know how strong he needed to get to be able to become the best adventurer there was
They were staying until the tournament ended anyways since Kurama-sama had something to do in Suna
"Ok then let's get moving before the hotel run out of rooms, adventurers from all over the nation will come to the tournament either to participate or just to watch it so let's hurry up" said Kurama moving everyone towards the hotel
After they had gotten their rooms in the hotel, Kurama said she had to do something and excused herself from the group, She had to go see Matatabi but she hadn't told Naruto that she had started working yet so she just said that she needed to do something
Matatabi's shop in Suna
When Kurama arrived to learn more of the place where she would be working during the tournament she noticed that Matatabi was there and she seem busy ordering people around to move stuff and making sure it was all ready. While ordering a guy to move a box full of weapons to the back of the shop Matatabi noticed Kurama and moved towards her
"Good you're here" said Matatabi as if some weight was lifted from her back "I kinda thought you would run off at the last second and was getting worried"
"I told you I wouldn't run away and I don't start until tomorrow anyways" said Kurama
"Nothing of that I need more help here" said Matatabi "You start today"
"What b-but I don't have my uniform" said Kurama nervously trying to find a way out not really wanting to do physical labor after the long trip to Suna
"It doesn't matter we're just getting ready to open tomorrow" said Matatabi "It was supposed to be ready a week ago but I just arrived and found out nothing had been done. We need to hurry to get it ready for tomorrow"
"You'll only open one shop during the tournament?" asked Kurama feeling it was a missed opportunity with the large amount of people that would be in Suna during the tournament
"I have other shops that are open year round in Suna, this one only opens during the tournament" explained Matatabi "That's why the employees are from Konoha"
Kurama nodded understanding what Matatabi said
Matatabi was about to remind Kurama that she was starting early and that she should get to work when they were interrupted by another bijuu appearing
"Hey Matatabi, Kurama good to see you two here" said Gyuki approaching getting their attention
"Gyuki, I didn't know you were coming to see the tournament" said Matatabi surprised by the appearance of the other Bijuu
"I promised Kurama I would come to see her new member" said Gyuki "And I didn't have anything better to do anyways"
"That means you'll keep your promise?" asked Kurama to Gyuki "If Naruto wins you'll make him a weapon?"
"I didn't said that" said Gyuki "I said that I would see the boy and then talk to you again after that"
"Anyways what are you doing here?" asked Matatabi as she had not been expecting Gyuki to stop by her shop
"I came to say hi" said Gyuki "Actually I was just walking around, it's been a while since I last came to Suna, I was just exploring around when I saw you two"
"Actually I was wondering what Kurama was doing here with you, I didn't expect you two to be together" asked Gyuki
"She working for me" said Matatabi
Gyuki seem as if his eyes would get out off his sockets as he raised his hands to chest level almost in surprise "Kurama working!?" asked Gyuki which angered Kurama
"I can work you know!" said Kurama "And I needed the money, I can't rely on Naruto all the time"
"I get it, but I still can imagine you working" said Gyuki still in shock
"I know I couldn't believe it either when she came to ask me for a job" said Matatabi "especially because she came to me for that"
"You guys know I'm here right" said Kurama
"Sorry, sorry" said Gyuki "anyways I better be going, I have to go see someone else today"
After that Gyuki left headed to the center of the city
"Good, now you get to work we need to have this shop open by tomorrow!" said Matatabi
"Fine" said Kurama not really motivated moving to the shop
"Faster! We have a lot to do still!" said Matatabi making sure everyone was doing something specially Kurama
Suna's Coliseum
The stadium where the tournament was going to be held was huge. Calling it stadium didn't really do it justice since it looked more like a coliseum. That's why it had been called the Suna coliseum; it was constructed some years ago by the Shukaku familia to celebrate the same tournament they were celebrating today
And it was in this place that Naruto had gotten lost
Naruto finding nothing better to do decided to go pay the inscription fee he had to pay to enter the tournament, they were pretty lenient with when you had to pay it, as long as you paid it before you enter the arena it was fine
He knew he was supposed to pay it somewhere inside the coliseum but he got lost while trying to find where to pay the inscription
"This place is really big" said Naruto to himself while looking around trying to find where he was supposed to go "Why are there no maps around here or something like that"
"Are you by any chance lost here?" asked a voiced behind Naruto
He turned around to see a person he had never seen before; he had ash-grey hair and onyx eyes covert by a pair of black rimmed circular glasses
Naruto trying to avoid embarrassment responded quickly "I'm not lost, I'm just heading to pay my inscription fee for the tournament" said Naruto confidently
"The tournament!?" asked the person surprised "Then you must be a strong adventurer"
"I'm pretty strong for my level" said Naruto confidently
"What would that level be?" asked the man wanting to know
Naruto deflated a little before answering "Level 1" said Naruto
"Level 1!" said the man shocked "You should not be competing in the tournament you'll get killed"
"Don't worry I'm just competing in the exhibition match against monsters" said Naruto dispelling the man worries
"Even then I need to ask to be sure you'll be ok, are your stats high enough for that?" asked the man sounding worried
"Yeah they are pretty high just As and some S" said Naruto "I got to admit I even surprise myself with those stats. I haven't been an adventurer for long, just barely for a month"
It was true the last time Kurama had updated his stats he had gain even more S rank stats and he had been pretty excited about the tournament after that since he felt like he could deal with anything they had
"In that case I think its fine" said the man "By the way my name is Kabuto"
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki" said Naruto "and you better remember that name Kabuto, because I'll be the greatest adventurer there was someday"
"Don't worry there's no way I'll forget your name" said Kabuto "I'll be seeing he tournament tomorrow, so do your best I want to see how strong the greatest adventurer ever is"
"I'll make sure to win this that way I'll be closer to my objective" said Naruto "Anyway I better get going I want to pay my inscription before they close for the day"
Naruto turned his back to Kabuto and started walking away in a random direction
"You do know the place where you pay is that way" said Kabuto pointing to the direction opposite to where Naruto was heading
Naruto immediately turned around and moved in that direction "Thanks Kabuto" said Naruto "To tell you the truth I was lost a little while ago"
"You're welcome Naruto" said Kabuto "I just wanted to help, in any case I better get going too. I have to meet with someone in a little while"
"Ok then, see you later Kabuto" said Naruto saying good bye to the man once he didn't see him anymore he added "That guy was a little weird, I wonder what was he doing here"
A mysterious place
A person was going through several vials and bottles in a cabinet examining them all as if he was looking for something when another person entered the room from a door behind him
The person that entered the door was none other than Kabuto
"Orochimaru-sama I'm back and I finally learned more about the adventurer" said Kabuto
The man looking thorough the vials and bottles stopped and turned around to look at Kabuto with a small smile in his face
"Oh so we finally know more about the adventurer that stole one of my experiment subjects" said the man probably Orochimaru since Kabuto had referred at him like that
"I spoke to him earlier, he's a level 1 adventurer named Naruto Uzumaki" said Kabuto
Orochimaru looked surprised something that Kabuto didn't saw often, then the face of surprise changed as he started laughing
"So you are telling me a level 1 adventurer is the problem?" said Orochimaru "This isn't worth my time, I'll focus on other stuff"
"Pardon me Orochimaru-sama but I think this person is pretty interesting" said Kabuto
Orochimaru looked at Kabuto curious; it wasn't common for Kabuto to do something like this
"How is this level 1 adventurer interesting?" asked Orochimaru
"If what he told me is true he has just been an adventurer for close to a month, but he has A ranks and several S from what he told me" said Kabuto "even the strongest adventurers known took more than that to get that strong"
Orochimaru looked rather intrigued by what Kabuto told him "You might be right Kabuto, he sounds interesting" said Orochimaru "We'll keep an eye on him for now. But I need a test something that shows me that what he says is true"
"He did say he would compete in the tournament" said Kabuto
"That's perfect" said Orochimaru "I'll take care of the preparations myself, meanwhile I want you to learn more about this 'Naruto' you know what to do"
"As you order Orochimaru-sama" said Kabuto moving to leave
"Oh and Kabuto" said Orochimaru "This should go without saying. But make sure Manda-sama doesn't hear any of this, we don't want him getting his nose in this"
"Of course Orochimaru-sama" said Kabuto leaving to start his investigation
"Naruto Uzumaki" said Orochimaru as he was alone "He could be a good specimen"
Suna Coliseum – 2 days later (the day of the tournament)
Everyone had a great time in Suna, Naruto looked around in shops and stuff for adventurers he came close to buying a armor but it was just a tad too expensive for him to pay for it
Hinata and Hanabi had spent a lot of time together catching up and talking about stuff, mostly about the dungeon Hinata had been curious about how it was in the inside
"If you want to know, just come with us sometime. You'll just have to become an adventurer" had said Hanabi trying to convince her sister into following her old dream
But Hinata had said that she didn't wanted to become an adventurer anymore, she was happy with her new job. Hanabi wasn't totally buying it but she left the subject alone for a time
Kurama had disappeared for most of the trip, she just appeared late at night and then left early in the morning
On the day of the tournament Naruto had headed out early to the coliseum. The show match started at 9 AM and the exhibition match started right after that, they had to start early because a lot of people signed up for the tournament every year
Hanabi and Hinata said that they would wander around the city for a while and go see the tournament later around 10:30 AM since Naruto wasn't expected to go out in the early group as he had been told when he paid his inscription fee he would be one of the last ones to go into the arena
Kurama said she would arrive around that time as well since she had to do something. She had asked Matatabi to let her see Naruto fight and she had given her permission so she had no trouble going there to see the fight
He was told all the rules would be explained in the morning before the show match started so he had to arrive early
When he arrived he was pointed towards a room where all the contestants would meet until they were called. Inside it was full of people he couldn't believe this many people were competing in the tournament it was almost intimidating just watching all the persons stand there
After Naruto entered he was greeted by Kiba that was dragging Sasuke around
"So you really are participating eh rookie" said Kiba to Naruto when he got close "I thought you were just bluffing for a while but it seem it was the real deal"
"I told you I would win this, what I want to know is if you're ready to have a leash around your neck a whole day dog face" taunted Naruto
"So you remember the bet" said Kiba "I hope you're ready to fulfill your part of the deal when I win and you too Sasuke"
"I never agreed to participate in your silly bet" said Sasuke removing Kiba's hand from his shirt that he had been pulling for the last few minutes "Now I would appreciate you stop dragging me around"
"You can't back down now Sasuke" said Kiba "A bet is a bet and you are participating in it you want it or not"
"Yeah we decided that outside the pub some days ago don't forget it" said Naruto
Sasuke just sighted "Fine then, but I won't go easy" said Sasuke
Before anyone could say anything two figures entered the room, one had war paint in his face and a black hood
The other man had blue markings in his visible skin and long sandy brown hair that was tied in the end; he was wearing clothes that matched the color of his hair
The man in sandy brown clothes smiled when he saw the large amount of adventurer present
"Hello everyone!" said the man in the sandy brown clothes "I Shukaku welcome you all to the tournament"
Everyone immediately paid full attention to the man talking; he apparently was Shukaku the bijuu that held this tournament
"Everyone here please split in two groups" said the other man that had war paint in the face "The ones that will compete in the exhibition match against monsters to the left, everyone else to the right"
"Come on Kankuro at least let me talk to them first" said Shukaku
"We are a little behind schedule Shukaku-sama, we need to move this quickly" said Kankuro "The preliminary matches have to start soon for the ones competing"
"Preliminary matches?" asked Naruto not understanding
"Not everyone in the other group will compete in the tournament it would take too long to let everyone compete, for that reason while we face monsters in the exhibition they will be competing against each other in shorter matches with more strict rules as to end them quickly, that will eliminate at least half of the competitors so that tournament doesn't last for too long" explained Sasuke
"I didn't expected you to know so much" said Naruto surprised
"Someone told me how this works" said Sasuke
"Fine, continue" said Shukaku letting Kankuro continue
"Now everyone that's not competing in the exhibition match against monster follow me" said Kankuro "the rest stay here with Shukaku-sama"
With that Kankuro took most of the adventurers that were there to another room leaving only nearly one quarter of the amount that were originally there
"This are a lot less than what I expected, but it will do" said Shukaku seeing the ones that remained "Now I will explain the rules for the match against monsters"
"You will be awarded points on three different categories during your fight. At the end the one with more points will win a prize" said Shukaku "I'll get to the prize later"
"What are these categories?" asked someone from the group
"The categories are speed, difficulty and we call the last one crowd. Speed is self explanatory kill the monster fast on you will get more points" explained Shukaku
"Crowd is also easy to explain, make the crowd go wild with your performance and you will get more points. So do anything you can to make it look better, show off, use skills and jutsus or you could even let the monster hit you and make it look like a comeback victory" continued Shukaku
"I see so we could end it fast but in doing so the crowd might not like us, but if we take too long we also lose points" said another person from the group
"Exactly but that's not all" said Shukaku "The third category is probably the most important difficulty. We have 5 different difficulty ranks for the monsters they are D,C,B,A and S before going into the arena you will be asked what rank you want you can choose whichever you want"
"Is there a reference to know how strong an S rank monster is?" asked the first person that asked about the categories
"Well an orc is in the C rank and the monsters just get stronger as you go up through the ranks" explained Shukaku "that should give you an idea of how strong each rank is"
"Also as you already know, you are not allowed to bring any weapons or armor into the arena. The only weapons and armor you are allowed to use are the one we provide" said Shukaku
It was true when Naruto paid his inscription he had been told that exact same thing so he had come without his armor or knife
"So follow me I'll guide to the place where you'll get your armor and weapons" said Shukaku going through a door everyone behind him
When they arrived at the room they were surprised by the amount of weapons and armors in the room it was full almost from ceiling to floor and wall to wall
"All the armors in here are the same the only difference is the size that should put you all on the same level, you can use any weapon in here even more than one if you like there's no limit" explained Shukaku
"During the fight you can use any jutsu or skill you know we won't stop you and it won't cost you points" explained Shukaku
"And what about the prize Shukaku-sama?" asked one of the contestants
"Oh yeah the prize I almost forgot" said Shukaku pulling out a book "This is your prize, in this book is a really strong magic and if you're worried that you can't learn it don't worry"
"This is a special book whenever you read it, it will turn blank and you will know the magic that's in it" explained Shukaku "We don't really know what magic this book has, but we had it evaluated and is high level magic and worst case scenario you have to sell the book it cost more than 10 million Ryo"
"Wow" said Naruto excited, if he won he would get that book and could learn whatever magic it has. He would finally have magic
Everyone seem to be thinking something similar, they wanted the magic or maybe they wanted to sell the book for the money
"Ok then, I'll be taking my leave I need to start the tournament after all" said Shukaku "In a short while one of the members from my familia will come and take the first contestant into the waiting room until the exhibition match starts, if you still have any questions ask her"
"Also if you go through that door you will be able to see the matches" explained Shukaku "I hope you all give it your all, after all you are adventurers you live to fight"
With that Shukaku took his leave through a door leaving them there to put their armor on and pick a weapon
Naruto decided that he would use a knife like always, he could have picked anything else but since he had no practice with other weapons he figured the knife was his best bet
He looked around and saw that everyone was getting ready as well some seem nervous others seem more sure of themselves
Naruto himself was a little nervous but he had been training for this day for a long time now and he was ready, in a few minutes the tournament would start and he would give it his all
Decided to end it there, tell me what you thought
This was one of the hardest chapters to write till now, I changed it 4 times in other versions it was just going around Suna without arriving at the tournament but I decided I needed to move it along a little faster so that's how it ended like this