Life is a gamble. You can get hurt, but people die in plane crashes, lose their arms and legs in car accidents; people die every day. Same with fighters: some die, some get hurt, some go on. You just don't let yourself believe it will happen to you.
-Muhammad Ali

Chapter 10: The Gamble

"Heaven help us." Kei mumbled. Before her Naruto, well, a few hundred Narutos were giving her cocky smiles and high fiving each other. "Naruto-san, I thought I told you that Kagebunshin no Jutsu was a dangerous jutsu! You could endanger yourself by running out of chakra! Are you feeling alright?"

"Which one of you is the original?" Compared to Naruto's normal bunshin, these looked exactly like him. It was almost unnerving. They all had the same personality as well so they were extremely hard to tell apart.

"Over here, Kei-chan!" A hand waved eagerly towards the middle of the crowd. The group of Naruto's parted like the red sea to allow the original to make his way through. "Phew. I did good didn't I? Hehe..." Naruto looked proud of himself as he puffed out his chest.

Kei sighed before she let a flicker of green chakra envelop her hand before she placed on Naruto's forehead. Numbers flashed in her mind as she took his chakra system in.

He seemed... Perfectly fine. As if he had not just summoned dozens of sentient clones. How could that be? Was Naruto's chakra system really that incredible? What could make him be like this? She shook her head slightly. Now was not the time to be worrying about such things. The important thing was that he had managed to summon his clones.

"Yeah, you did great, Naruto-san." Kei smiled briefly at her teammate before turning to Shikamaru. "Try attaching your shadow to one of his clones and to him directly." Shikamaru nodded and stepped closer to Naruto.

He moved so his shadow intersected Naruto's shadow and one of his clone's shadows. He quickly signed and mumbled, "Kage Tenpu Suru no Jutsu."A black ripple escaped Shikamaru's shadow as he linked onto his friend's shadow.

Shikamaru closed his eyes and put a hand up to the side of his head as he winced slightly. Though his eyes were closed his saw so many things. Everything was strangely two-dimensional and he was staring up towards the sky. It was as if he was laying on the ground to cloud-gaze. He supposed being attached to the shadows meant that he'd see things directly from the shadow.

"You alright, Shikamaru-san?" Kei asked softly. If he was attached, then anything she said would probably be heard three different times. It would be best to talk softly to not disturb him too greatly.

"Ah. I'm fine." Shikamaru said quietly. He reached a hand out behind him and felt the air behind him and walked back until he reached the side of the cave wall. His knees bent and he placed himself carefully on the ground. He breathed in deeply and tried to recatch his breath as his teammates looked on worried.

The genius quickly noticed his teammates hesitation by the lack of sound. "Hurry up about it. I can't keep this up forever. How troublesome."

Kei and Naruto shared concerned looks before Naruto shook his head. "I'd better go." He whispered softly. He waved towards the rest of his clones before heading over to the elevator shaft. The blonde looked from the metal wire to the edge of the door for a moment before taking a deep breath. He took a few steps away from the entrance before breaking out into a run. Naruto leaped across the gap and fastened his arms around the metal.

Naruto let out a relaxed sigh before nodding quickly at Kei. He released his arms ever so slightly on the conveyor and began the long slide down to the shaft. The light slowly began to dim until Naruto was sliding down a long black corridor. Nothing lit the way for him as he headed down into the depths. What light was needed? They had expected for people to be in the elevator after all.

Blue eyes searched the area above him and he could just faintly make out the forms of his clones coming after him. That was when it struck him that he hadn't planned for how he would land. Would they all suddenly crash on top of him when he landed? Naruto swore silently and looked around for any signs of nearing the bottom. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a slight reflection. That had to be the bottom!

As the piece of metal neared, Naruto counted down until he reached the bottom. "Three... Two... One." Naruto released his hold on the wire and plummeted down to the bottom. It was only five feet, but needless to say, it hurt. He didn't have time to stop to catch his breath. Naruto rolled to the side quickly as dozens of his copies followed his way of reaching the bottom.

"Crap." Naruto grunted out as he rolled over the top of the elevator. He grabbed onto the top of the mechanical box before letting go a second later. The second fall was much lighter than the first, thank goodness. The blonde landed carefully on his feet and waited for his clones to all gather around him.

"Shikamaru-kun, I don't know if you can see anything so I'll try to talk a bit so you can understand what's going on." Naruto mumbled softly to his shadow. He turned to his clones and said, "Spread out into all the tunnels. If you find people then try and lead them back to the shaft. If you encounter Inoichi-sensei then disperse immediately and hope that he didn't see you clearly." Naruto was still not quite prepared to explain to his sensei why there were nearly a hundred versions of him running around.

"If you encounter an unknown enemy then try to follow him to see what he's up to. Once you do that then disperse to me so I can relay the information back to Kei-chan and Shikamaru-kun. Got it?" The Naruto clones all chorused a yes before spreading out through the tunnels.

The dimly lit clearing let out to five different tunnels. Each tunnel had cart tracks letting out to the main room. As his clones disappeared, Naruto sighed nervously. It was his turn to go now. A small gust of wind blew from behind him. Naruto whirled around to see a small blade of grass floating in the air beside him.

"Ah, Kei-chan... Don't scare me like that... Well I'm off! Wish me luck!" Naruto smiled cheekily before running off through the central tunnel.

-TSUME-

Inoichi rolled to the side before swiping a leg to disable his attacker. "Did you think that would work?" The man sneered at him as he slammed the flat of his sword into the information gatherer's head. Inoichi's head screamed at him as the man tumbled off to the side. The world shifted around him, but he had no time to stop.

Inoichi dived out of the way as a kunai embedded itself deep into the wall where he used to be. He flashed through the signs for an earth jutsu, but was halted in his efforts as a senbon sliced its way into one of his hands. Inoichi grunted in pain as he felt the metal shaft rip into his vein.

The unnervingly familiar sound of electricity crackled out from his left and Inoichi forced himself away from the wall. "Come, now Yamanaka-san! I thought you were a sensei now! Or did they just give you that job because you're old and senile now? Having a baby girl can do that to you I suppose." The taunting voice echoed to his side.

Inoichi forced himself to stay calm as he took in his surroundings. Everything was just so blasted dark! Somehow Aoi was able to see him and that was anything but good. Once and awhile his eyes caught the faint glimmer of the sword that Aoi was carrying, but unfortunately it was once again cloaked by darkness.

"Weren't you the one to remind me this? Use all your senses, Aoi-kun. You're going to get yourself killed unless you can use them all." A sound in the air alerted Inoichi to the impending sword coming his way. He haphazardly slipped a kunai out of his pocket and swung wildly towards the sound. A clang echoed as the steel met steel. Inoichi had found his target.

Emboldened by this, Inoichi used his other bloodied hand to reach out for his former comrade. The familiar feeling of fabric met his groping fingers and he latched onto Aoi's sleeve. "Che. Not senile yet I suppose. It's coming though." Inoichi's eyes widened as a glowing yellow ring surrounded the sword in his foe's hand.

A gasp escaped him as pain coursed through his body. His grip weakened and the kunai fell out of his grasp and onto the floor. Inoichi stumbled back into the wall and he clutched at his arm weakly. What was that?

"The Sword of the Thunder God... It's quite helpful at times, isn't it, Yamanaka-san? I suppose you must know first hand now." Aoi put the sword daintily under his companion's chin and tilted it so Inoichi was facing him. Even if Inoichi saw nothing, Aoi could still enjoy the pained look on the man's face. "I'm surprised that you came in here. I thought you were smarter than that." The green haired man clicked his tongue disapprovingly.

"I thought it was you that always told us not to do anything unnecessary... What a hypocrite you are." A bolt of electricity shot out of the sword and into the elder Yamanaka. Inoichi let out a guttural cry before darkness enveloped him and everything faded to black.

-TSUME-

Kei jolted out of her trance. That sound... It sounded like Inoichi! The girl bit her lip tightly. There was nothing she could do from up here, was there? Her mind raced as she thought of all the possible ways to communicate with Naruto. She drove her consciousness back into the blade of grass and listened carefully for any sound of footsteps.

One of the things about the Hanafuu no Jutsu was that you could change the direction of where the flora went with the wind. The downside was that you had no clue where you were going. It would all depend if she could remember the way back without seeing anything. Sweat percolated on her brow as she listened carefully for any sound of one of the clones.

The grass floated away from the direction in which she had heart Inoichi's voice and towards the main tunnel. Suddenly, she heard the patter of feet coming in her direction. She let out a sigh of relief and made another quick handsign. The blade of grass flapped around violently in an attempt to grab the boy's attention. It was exceedingly hard to do as a blade of grass is rather small and hard to see. Fortunately, luck was on her side.

"Kei-chan? Are you trying to tell me something?" The familiar sound of Naruto met her ears much to her relief. He had seen her communication. She raised her arms up and down to make the leaf look as if it was nodding. "Ah, I forgot! You can't talk er... Lead the way, I suppose? I'll find out what you need when we get there I guess..."

Thank goodness that Naruto seemed to be quick on the uptake. Now for the hard part. Her brow furrowed in thought as she began the careful process of leading her companion towards the sound she had heard earlier. "Urk." Kei grunted in annoyance. Walking in the dark was harder than she originally thought. She couldn't even feel her way around walls easily because the grass had such small dimensions.

The blade of grass floated backwards down the tunnel. It drifted slowly as it was carried by a faint wind. The Naruto clone slowly followed after the blade as it made its way through the darkness. "Hmm? What to do now?" The clone's eyes widened and it immediately backpedalled to a wall and flattened itself to merge into the darkness.

"Thank you, Kei-chan. I'll take it from here." The clone murmured softly to the grass before edging its way towards the sound.

On the outside, Kei let out a sigh of relief. It seemed that this would work well after all.

Inside the tunnels, the clone took slow steps after the sound. After taking a few steps into the darkness, he saw a yellow light in the distance. Steps echoed in the tunnel and a shadow grew across the walls leaving a churning feeling in the clone's stomach.

A figure emerged from the darkness holding out some sort of torch in front of it. The clone's eyes narrowed as his eyes tried to adjust to the sudden light. Suddenly it clicked in his mind. It was Rokusho Aoi, the man they had met on the way here! What was he doing in the tunnels? His naive mind did not even comprehend that Aoi had any evil intentions until he saw was Aoi was holding in his fist.

Trailing behind him was the bloodied form of Inoichi. Blonde threads were entangled in Aoi's fist as he carelessly dragged the jonin behind him. "Ahh. It's so dark down here. It's a pity that I couldn't just face them all above ground." Aoi sighed dramatically as he headed down the tunnels. Naruto watched worriedly from his place along the wall.

Inoichi was caught? What chance would they all stand if the person was able to take down Inoichi so easily? The clone bit it's thumb tightly in thought. He'd have to disperse for now, but at least he knew where Aoi was going. He was heading back to the elevator shaft. A small poof filled the air as the clone dispersed.

-TSUME-

Naruto gripped his head tightly as information whirled around in his brain. It was strange recalling memories that he was definitely sure he had never experienced. He searched through his thoughts when he came upon the clone's most recent realization. Inoichi had been caught. "Shoot. Shikamaru-kun, tell Kei-chan that Inoichi-sensei has been caught by Rokusho-san. I don't know what he's doing here, but apparently he's dragging Sensei back to the elevator shaft. I'm going to lead the people back through the tunnel and try to see if I can beat him there. If I can I'll send as many people up as I can and try to use my clones to stall for time."

It worried Naruto that he couldn't get any confirmation from his shadow that Shikamaru had heard him, but it would have to do. Naruto turned to the three miners that he had found on his way down the tunnel. The scraggly men looked at the boy anxiously before stepping after Naruto. It wouldn't be their choice if he was the only help they were going to get.

"Come on then." Naruto waved blindly towards the men before heading back from where he came. The men flicked on the lights on their helmets and shone small beacons of light down the hallway. Naruto found it reassuring after walking in darkness for so long. Finally he could see what the halls he was walking down looked like. Small droplets of water leaked from the ceiling into puddles on the floor. The wooden beams holding up the tunnel seemed so weak that Naruto almost thought they were on the verge of collapse. The miners didn't seem too worried though.

Naruto looked back down the tunnel where he had found the men. A small pile of debris was piled in the corner from when he had to excavate the miners. None of them were badly hurt, but one of them looked like he had a dislocated arm and another had inhaled a lot of dust, but it wasn't anything they were unused to. There had been a fourth in their party, but the fourth was no more.

Naruto wound his way back through the hallways when suddenly he pulled to a stop. "Turn off your lights." He whispered to the three behind him. He heard the clicks of switches as the lights turned off. From the edges of his eyesight, he saw the main room ahead of them. They couldn't be sure whether or not Aoi was there so it would be best to be cautious.

"Stay behind me. I'll try to see if I can get you out." Naruto motioned to the party and they set off again for the main room. Naruto peered out of the tunnel and sighed as he saw it was all clear. "Get into the elevator. Take it back up and send it back down afterwards. I don't know when the next miners will arrive."

The men nodded solemnly and rushed over to the shaft. One of the men, a younger one, turned back towards Naruto and mumbled a quiet, "Thank you." Before entering the elevator.

Naruto smiled back cheerily and turned back towards the five tunnels leading away from the room. Which tunnel had Aoi gone into? Naruto sat down and sorted through his thoughts until he figured out where his dispersed clone had come from.

Naruto looked up and gazed at the fourth tunnel warily. That would be where Aoi would come out of. Now that he knew that, what would he do? Heavens, he didn't have a real plan for how do defeat the man. The blonde was not stupid, he knew a lone genin would have no chance against a jonin and much less a jonin that had defeated Inoichi.

Naruto twitched worriedly in his place before looking back up at the tunnel. "Maybe I can trap it?" This man was a jonin, he'd see the traps... Would it ruin Naruto's element of surprise if he laid awful traps? Oh goodness, he was thinking of surprise attacks now? The boy moaned as he rubbed his forehead. Planning ahead was Shikamaru's job, not his!

Naruto counted the limited amount of jutsu he knew on a single hand. He vaguely knew how to use his air affinity. He could create kage bunshin. He could make slush bunshin. If he tried really hard he could probably throw a kunai with remote accuracy... Things looked grim.

The tunnels weren't exactly of hardy construction either. Naruto couldn't risk setting off any paper bombs or he could accidentally bring the whole mine down on top of them. No one would like them if ninja destroyed their only means of sustenance.

"Erk..." Naruto looked back at his shadow gloomily. "I don't suppose you could come down here and help could you? No... You guys probably are low on energy as it is.. Gah! What do I do now?" Naruto wracked his head for ideas only to find none. He'd just have to stall for time and hope that Inoichi would wake up soon. "My job isn't being the brains..."

Naruto leaned back onto the dirt and heaved slightly. What would he do... Hide. The first thing he should do was hide. Naruto looked around the tunnels to see if there were any good places. The room was circular so that meant there were no corners to hide behind. He looked at one of the timber beams with scrutinizing eyes before following the wood up to the roof. That could work.

An ornate series of beams crisscrossed along the ceiling. Luckily for Naruto, the beams were only six or seven feet above the ground. The roof didn't have to be unnecessarily large after all. Pale fingers traced the wood for a moment before they pulled out a kunai. Naruto dug the metal into the beam and quickly shimmied up the pole.

He crouched quietly on the rod and held his breath. After a few moments he relaxed. It seemed that it was used to holding up a few thousand pounds of weight and a single Naruto wouldn't cause it to fall apart just yet.

He crawled over towards the entrance to the fourth tunnel and scrunched himself up so he wouldn't be visible. The blonde kept a hand over his mouth to keep his breathing steady. It wouldn't do him any good if he was heard before he could launch an attack.

His spare hand gripped the hilt of the kunai tightly. And then the waiting began. It was dreadful to just lie there and wait for your enemy to arrive. A clicking sound surprised him and the boy tensed, but relaxed once more when he realized it was just the sound of the elevator heading to the bottom again.

"Ah? Some of them got out did they? It's no matter to me I suppose." The hairs on the back of Naruto's neck stood up. Aoi was here.

The green haired man still had Inoichi's hair in his hand as he towed the jonin behind him. He slipped out a roll of ninja wire from his jacket and leaned Inoichi up against the railing. He sat the unconscious jonin up against the beam before pulling out a length of wire.

If Inoichi was tie to the beam then it would be exceeding hard for Naruto to get him out. He'd have to move now. Naruto rolled off the beam and swung at Aoi's head. The Amenin ducked unconsciously out of the way and whirled around to see who had attacked him.

"Hah? One of the genin I see." Aoi snorted. "I suppose this will save me the time of getting you. It doesn't seem as if your two teammates are here though. A pity, I will have to go to the surface to collect them after all." Aoi twirled the sword around his hand with a cruel smile on his face.

Naruto let out a string of angry curses as he looked around for anything that could give him the advantage. Attacking head on would get him killed and he knew it. Oh what was he going to do now? "Kagebunshin no Jutsu!" He had to stall for as long as he could. "Attack him!" He point the clones at Aoi before running towards his sensei.

He grabbed his fallen sensei by one of his bloodied arms and dragged the elder man off to the elevator shaft. He dashed his way into the elevator before slamming a hand down onto the red button. A crackle of electricity sounded behind him and Naruto glanced back to see his clones all poofing into the air. Naruto cried out and dropped onto one knee as memories of all his clones suddenly whirled back into his mind.

"Stupid boy. Though it is a bit impressive you can do that." Aoi sneered as he approached the elevator shaft. A frown crossed his face as the metal grate slowly began to cross the entrance to the elevator.

The man sent a burst of chakra out of his feet and rushed into the elevator just before the grating closed. Naruto stood frozen in fear as the man before him slowly began to walk towards him. This was not good.

"It's harder to use this piece of junk on here now isn't it?" Aoi sighed dramatically as he twirled his sword around his hand. "One little zap and we're both fried. Wouldn't that just be tragic? Well, tragic for me. Not as much for you." He dropped the sword and the tip embedded itself in the boards on the floor. "We'll have to do this the hard way then." A malicious smirk crossed the man's face as he gripped the ninja wire in his fist.

He held onto one of the tips before throwing the base at Naruto. The genin's eyes widened as the ball came rolling towards him. He dropped down onto the floor just in time as the wire sliced off some strands of his hair. Naruto dived behind the thick wire in the center of the small box.

There was nowhere to hide but there and it provided very little protection. Soon the meager light from the main room faded away and Naruto was shrouded in darkness. Naruto took slight relief in the fact that it was now dark. This kind of blindness wen two ways didn't it? Wrong.

The roll of ninja wire flew out of the black and coiled itself around Naruto's arm. The genin squeaked in surprised as blood was drawn from the barbed wire. How was he spotted so easily? Naruto couldn't see a single thing! He reached up to try and jerk the wire off of his arm only to find that the action pulled the metal even deeper. He'd have to do something else.

"You can't run, boy. You're stuck here... With me." Naruto could just imagine the man's sickly sweet smile. The moaning of the elevator shaft stopped Naruto from tracing the origin of the sound. That left one possible option left. Naruto stuck his hand into his ninja pack and pulled out a fist full of kunai and senbon.

The boy wildly tossed the weapons around in all directions silently prayed for one to hit his target. A soft grunt met his ears and Naruto had to stop himself from letting out a cheer. His opponent probably had no problem figuring out where the genin was.

"You'll pay for that." A glimmer of silver met his eyes before suddenly he felt something slice his neck. Naruto coughed as a senbon struck his neck. He froze for a moment before crumpling to the ground.

"Just in time. I have to go deal with the other ones now." Light filtered into the elevator shaft to find Naruto paralyzed on the floor. Aoi smiled before turning around to the grating. "One down, two to go."

Kage Tenpu Suru no Jutsu|| A Rank Jutsu. Jutsu that attaches onto the shadows of animate objects to transmit images and sounds to the body.
Hanafuu no Jutsu|| B Rank Jutsu. Jutsu that allows the user to hear things through a piece of flora.
Kagebunshin no Jutsu|| B Rank Jutsu. Jutsu that creates copies of the user that are able to touch and be touched. Can also transmit memories back to the user.

Yay! The tournament is over so I'll be back to updating frequently for you all!

As an update... I have over 150 people on alerts for this story! I'm so happy! Thanks to each and every one of you for reading this when I update. /bows
I hope my story will continue to live up to your expectations! This is my best received story so I'm excited to continue writing!

Special thanks again to my beta, pokepikachu1!

Also talk to me! If there's anything you think I could do better, send me a message and I'll try to work on it in future updates. Thanks!