Awesome, I managed to reach my 20th chapter without breaking a sweat! Thanks war sage, punisher7771, Crispybaconlove, and lildip14 for supporting my fanfic! I'm also thinking of starting a new series soon, so be on the lookout for it!

Chapter 20: Strangers in Town

Characters (in order of first appearance):

Gaara / Tarma

Temari / Pallamano

Kankuro / Oscuro

After Gelato and the others returned to the Godfather's headquarters via taxi, they told him everything that happened, from the encounter with the Demon Brothers to aiding the Riva district in their second uprising against the vicious gangster Malacca. The Godfather listened with all ears, though he was strongly displeased that they didn't tell him before or keep in touch on the situation. Nevertheless, he took the wad of hundred-dollar bills that Freno gave Spauracchio before they left, and split large portions of it between the four of them. But as punishment for stepping out of line and meddling in the affairs of another district, Spauracchio and his Squad were banned from doing any more missions for the next three months.

"This sucks!" Gelato pouted. "After all we did to save an innocent district from poverty and corruption!"

"I told you we should've stuck to the original plan, but you didn't listen," Spauracchio said, leading the other three out of the driveway to the Godfather's house.

"Then would you have left Freno to die instead?" Rosa asked, looking up at Spauracchio.

"If I wasn't badly injured during our first encounter with Disprezzare, I would've left the minute we dropped Freno off."

"You're cruel, Capo! And you haven't even told us how you got that eye!"

"Yeah, there's no point in pretending you didn't show it to us!" Gelato chimed in, standing in front of Spauracchio. "We demand answers."

"As much as I want to resist the temptation, I would like to know too," Tony said, standing next to Gelato. "After all, what you possess is my family's secret gift."

"All right, I'll tell you," Spauracchio said, looking around after the gate to the driveway had been closed behind them. "But not here."

So they went to the fountain where they met him and there he sat down, and told them his story. He didn't mention names, and vaguely described the people in it, which made it difficult for the three to understand. But the basic summary was that during the Third Mafia War (Third Ninja War), when Spauracchio was a Soldier about their age, he and his Squad were sent into the Roccia territory (Rock Village) for a covert operation. Unfortunately, they were caught trespassing and were captured by Roccia Soldiers. Luckily, one member on his Squad happened to be from the Fuori clan, and activated his Specchio Occhi eyes in time to help them escape. Unfortunately, during their flight, they activated a trap which sent rolling boulders towards them, and the Fuori kid got crushed as a result. As he was dying, he asked the girl of their Squad to transfer one of his eyes to Spauracchio using Healing Alchemy (Medical Jutsu), which he took to honor his dead friend. Since then, Spauracchio trained himself vigorously in using the eye until he mastered it a few years ago, without consulting any of the Fuori clan members.

"Why didn't you ask them?" Tony asked, looking dubiously at Spauracchio. "They would've been willing to help since you were friends with one of their own, until they were massacred, that is."

"Well, me and the Fuori kid weren't exactly friends," Spauracchio said, calmly smoking a cigarette. "We were rivals, just like you and Gelato."

"I see," Tony said, and looked down.

"It hurts to think about your family, doesn't it?" Rosa said, sitting closer to him.

"Of course it does! How stupid are you?" Tony snapped.

"I-I was only trying to sympathize with you."

"Someone as privileged as yourself would never know the pain and agony I had to go through, especially after seeing my entire family murdered before my eyes!"

After that, Spauracchio had to leave on business, leaving the other three alone. Tony was about to head for home, but Rosa wanted him to hang out with her. When he rejected, Gelato tried to convince Rosa to hang out with him instead, but got a slap in the face for it. But then their attention was diverted by a strange trio walking towards them, which consisted of two boys and a girl.

One of the boys, who looked to be in his late teens, had short brown hair with strange marks all over his face, wearing a black trench-coat and wide-brimmed hat. The girl was about the same age as the first boy, with four blond pig-tails and wearing a pink Flapper dress and matching shoes, carrying a white parasol with purple polka-dots at her side. The second boy was clearly the youngest, but was much creepier than the other two. Apart from a tattoo with the word 'amare (love)' carved into the top-left corner of his forehead underneath his short ginger hair he had dark eye-shadow around his pale-blue eyes with no pupils, and wore a simple black T-shirt and pants, with a large burlap sack tied behind his back.

After a minute or so of just staring at each other, Tony noticed the tie the teenage boy was wearing underneath the trench-coat, which was gray and had an hourglass shape stitched into it. Then he looked at the girl, and noticed a golden necklace she wore around her neck with an hourglass-shaped charm on it. Afterwards, he glanced at the younger boy's belt, which was the same tie the first boy had on.

"You guys are from the Rena family (Sand Village), aren't you?" Tony asked politely.

"So you've noticed our decorations," the teenage boy said, fiddling with his tie. "And I suppose you're wondering what we're doing in Foglia territory?"

"If it's to start another war, you'll have to beat me first!" Gelato said, charging towards them.

The older boy and girl calmly stepped out of the way of Gelato's path, leaving the younger boy exposed, though he didn't seem to care. He reached behind him and pulled the string tied around the sack, causing bits of sand to fall out. But to Tony and Rosa's surprise, the sand came to life and formed a wall in front of the boy to block Gelato, who ran into it and flew back as if it were made of bricks. While the two teens chuckled, the younger boy's serious expression didn't change as Tony and Rosa went to check on Gelato, who was coughing and couldn't see from the sand in his eyes.

The two were about to pull out their guns when the older boy held his arms up and said, "Now, now, we're not here to start a war. We're participating in a competition."

"What kind of competition?" Gelato asked between coughs.

"The Gladiator Games, of course," the girl said.

The three drew blank stares.

"You've never heard of it before?" the girl sighed. "Should I bother telling them?"

"Might as well," the older boy said.

"It's basically a special event that's held every three years by the various Mafia families in the city as a way to promote peace, and let off steam from old grudges without having to go to war. So each family picks five Squads, minus the Capos, to represent them as they compete in a series of challenges to win the grand prize, which is a collateral sum of money contributed by each participating family."

"But what's the point in competing when it's all going to go to one of the Bosses?" Rosa asked.

"Because the money will eventually trickle down to the winners, and we're talking millions of dollars here," answered the girl. Then she snapped her finger. "Say, why don't you guys enter the competition too? That way, we can settle the score your friend and my little brother have."

"The red-haired boy's your brother?"

"That's why they call us the Rena Siblings (Sand Siblings) back home," the girl explained, swinging her parasol around at the two boys and then at herself. "The one in the trench coat is Oscuro, my older brother, the youngest boy in our group is Tarma, and I'm Pallamano, the middle child."

"So I guess if you're willing to give us your names, it's only fair if we give you ours," Tony said, while Gelato got up and dusted himself off. "I'm Tony, the girl's Rosa, and that idiot next to her is Gelato."

"Hey, I'm not an idiot!" Gelato snapped, and gave Tarma the finger. "You'll pay for nearly choking me to death, Tarko!"

"It's Tarma," this was the first time the younger boy spoke, and his voice was just as creepy as his face. He clenched his fist, and the sand moved under his feet. Without warning, the sand grabbed Gelato by the ankles, and threw him into the fountain with a loud splash. "Remember it well, for death awaits you."

After they left, Spauracchio showed up and helped Gelato out of the fountain. While Gelato was drying himself off, Tony and Rosa explained what happened. Spauracchio listened, and then he thought about the name the three strangers gave them.

"The Rena Siblings…I think I've heard of them in the papers," Spauracchio said with a serious tone. "They tend to leave their victims cut to ribbons or buried in sand, but the ones who are left alive go insane, screaming about demons attacking them."

"Yeah, we saw one of them manipulate sand and use it on Gelato," Tony responded. "They also mentioned they were here for some kind of competition called the Gladiator Games. Do you know anything about this?"

"Well that's quite a coincidence, because I just came to tell you that I volunteered our Squad to participate in the Gladiator Games, but if you managed to piss off one of the Rena Siblings, I might ask the Godfather to pull you out."

Gelato was surprised. "Why? From the way those siblings described it, the Gladiator Games would be the perfect way to get back at them for what they did to me!"

"It would also provide a good environment to improve ourselves physically and our Alchemy," Rosa agreed.

"Plus we have nothing better to do, since we're banned from doing any missions, so I'm game," Tony said, shrugging his shoulders.

Spauracchio sighed. "All right, but it will be more intense than our trip to Riva, more demanding of your personal strength, and the opponents you'll face might be deadlier than Disprezzare and Fiera combined. So with that said, do you still want to participate?"

"Yes, Capo!" all three said.

"I hoped you would say that. Report to the closed-down apartment building on 3rd street and Sunny road tomorrow at two o'clock sharp."

End of Chapter 20