Chapter 21: A New Rival

Characters (in order of first appearance):

Rock Lee / Beni Niro

Might Guy / Scar Face

Tenten / Cielo

Neji Hyuga / Voluta Soleggiato

Kabuto Yakushi / Casco Tradotto

The next day, Gelato, Rosa, and Tony met up outside the shuttered apartment at the exact same time. Spauracchio wasn't there, but they figured this since he wasn't participating in the Gladiator Games. So they went up to the door and knocked, and were received the door being flung at their faces, which they managed to dodge without getting hurt. Behind the door appeared a boy about their age who fell to the ground. Then a strange mist appeared around him, and he became an adult.

But before either of them could question what was going on, another boy appeared in the doorway. He had black, bowl-cut hair, thick eyebrows, and a scar on the left side of his face and white bandages covering his fists. For a second, he looked down at the man, and then he looked both ways down the street.

"Did you guys happen to see a boy about my age with spiky hair and bandages across his nose fly out the door?" he asked.

"Isn't that him?" Rosa said, pointing at the man lying on top of the door.

It was then that the boy noticed Rosa, and was completely fixated by her. "No, it can't be, sweetheart. This guy's an adult, not a kid."

"But he has the same features you just described! All he did was use a Transfiguration spell to make him look younger and…wait, what did you call me?"

"A sweetheart," the boy said, stepping closer. "Say, I believe we've met somewhere before."

"Well I don't remember seeing you among the crowd of Cugines when we were assigned into Squads, because you would've stood out."

"I was referring to my dreams. I dreamed that an angel had descended from heaven, and given me the most heavenly kiss, saying that she would be mine, and you, sweetheart, might be that angel."

"Hey, get away from her, buddy!" Gelato said, stepping in front of the boy. "If you think Rosa's going to become your girlfriend just like that, take a hike! She's already got the hots for me!"

"Pipe down, you moron!" Rosa said, knocking Gelato down with a punch to the back of the head. "That's not true and you know it! My heart belongs to Tony, and no one else!"

"Then you must be Tony," the boy said, looking at Tony. "How lucky it must be to have such a lovely creature fawning over you."

"It's actually kind of annoying," Tony said bluntly.

"How can you say such a thing? I shall defend the pretty damsel's honor by defeating you in battle right here and now!"

"There's no need to fight," Tony said, stepping away from Rosa. "She's yours if you want her."

This made Rosa blush with anger.

"Well if you not going to defend her from this creep, then I will!" Gelato said, and charged forward for a punch, when a blur of white came out of nowhere and blocked Gelato.

Standing over the guy who had been knocked out, was another boy that looked about Gelato's age, but had an air of maturity that made Gelato feel inferior. He had long brown hair tied in a ponytail, pale skin, and stared at Gelato with pale eyes that shone like the moon. As for clothing, he wore a simple short-sleeved dress-shirt, black shorts, and black shoes with short socks.

After staring at Gelato, he looked to the boy with the bowl haircut and said, "Beni Niro, save your strength for the Gladiator Games, and don't waste it on this idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!" Gelato shouted. "Why does everyone think I'm an idiot?"

"Because you are," Rosa said, folding her arms. "But now this makes me more determined to prove myself in these games."

"I understand your concern, Voluta," said Beni, the bowl-haircut boy. "But I will not be satisfied until that kid with the black chicken-butt on his head apologizes to the pink-haired angel!"

"It's Rosa, not 'angel', you lovesick nut!" Rosa exclaimed.

"Rosa…I like the way it sounds," Beni Niro said, and charged at Tony. "Adrenaline Sprint (Leaf Gale)!"

Tony dodged but was met by a blow to the ribcage afterwards. But before he could react, he was punched in the face and thrown into the inside of the shuttered apartment. Everyone went inside to see the fight, while the guy with the bandages on his nose was left behind, still passed out. The dust scattered as Tony fell, and immediately activated his Specchio Occhi eyes. He saw Beni's aura, but it was moving so fast that Tony couldn't see where he was going to hit, and was punched in the chest. This made him double over, and was sent flying up in the air when Beni started punching him several more times saying "Adrenaline Rush (Leaf Whirlwind)!"

Then, Beni untied the bandages around his fists as he grabbed Tony in midair and wrapped the bandages around Tony and said "Impulse of the Adrenaline (Shadow of the Dancing Leaf)!" as they went into a tailspin.

While Tony was focused on the incoming floor below them, Beni shouted, "And the final blow is…Blood Pressure Drop (Front Lotus)!"

But then, a sudden blur came out of nowhere and snatched Tony away from as Beni fell headfirst onto the back of a large Centaur that had appeared in the middle of the room out of a white cloud.

Then, a boy with medium brown hair wearing the same black suit as the guy with the bandages came out from the shadows unseen by the young Soldiers and went outside to help the guy up, dragging him into the shade of the alley next to the apartment. Once they were there, the brown-haired boy shook the man violently, causing him to wake up.

Then he Transfigured back into an adult version of himself, and said, "Hey, buddy, are you all right?"

"Yeah, but you have to admit…the boy with the bowl-haircut is pretty talented for a Chemistry (Taijutsu) user," the man with the bandages responded, rubbing the side of his cheek, which was starting to swell.

"I did manage to take a look at some of the new kids that just came in, and I have to admit, the blond kid and the pinkie don't look like much, but the dark-haired kid has the Specchio Occhi eyes."

"You mean Tony Fuori, the sole survivor of the Fuori clan, is going to compete?" the guy with the bandages said in disbelief. Then he got up and looked up at the apartment. "This could be a very interesting competition."

As the dust settled again, the blur was revealed to be a tall, muscular man wearing the same forest green suit with the loose green tie, white dress-shirt buttoned down to his chest and bowl-haircut that Beni had, making Gelato and Rosa suspect Beni was influenced by him as he also bore a scar on the left side of his face but with thicker eyebrows than Beni. The eyebrows equally shocked Tony as the man looked down and winked, which gave Tony the chills as the man gingerly placed him down on the hidden stairs that were next to the main area. While Rosa and Gelato ran up to check on him, the guy with the thick eyebrows jumped down to Beni, who was just getting up on the Centaur's back, grabbed him by the collar of his dress-shirt and punched him in the face.

"Beni Niro, you are an ignorant fool! Do you realize you could've killed the poor boy if you had gone through with the Blood-Pressure Drop?" he yelled, and then he broke into tears. "After everything I've taught you…I thought you were better than that! Please don't do that again, unless you want to protect something valuable!"

"I will Scar Face, honorable gangster of gangsters!" Beni Niro said, crying along with Scar Face as they embraced affectionately.

This left Squad 7 with confused looks on their faces until they noticed a girl standing on the stairs above them. She was about Rosa's age, with brunette pom-poms that matched, a Chinese dress made of pink silk, and black heels with a matching gun holster strapped to her thigh. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "They do that all the time, so after awhile, you just get used to it."

Rosa looked up at her and asked, "How come I've never seen Beni, or that guy who stopped Gelato from punching Beni, or you when we were being assigned into Squads?"

"The three of us got initiated a year before the rest of you did, because the Godfather saw great potential in our various talents, but unlike the rest of you Squads who are named after numbers, our Capo thought we were so special that he named the Squad after himself," the pom-pom girl answered.

"Sounds like an egotist to me," Rosa said, then her and the girl chuckled. "I'm Rosa, by the way."

"Cielo."

Rosa was surprised.

"It's the dress, isn't it? I look Asian, but I'm definitely Italian. I was raised by a Chinese family for a short period of time, so I got used to wearing their clothes, and brought that habit with me when I was adopted by one of the Associates of the Foglia family."

"Wow, that's…quite a history, Cielo," Rosa responded.

"Excuse me, but if you girls are done chatting, I'd like us to get upstairs so we can start these stupid games!" Tony said in a bitter tone.

"All right, Tony, just calm down," Rosa said, blushing a little.

Cielo noticed, and hid her smile as Rosa and Tony made their way up the stairs, with Gelato bringing up the rear. He made one last look at Beni and Scar Face, and scowled at Beni. But he noticed that the Centaur was still there, and wondered how it got there.

"That's Chiron, a creature that can only be Summoned (Summoning Technique) by Scar Face," Cielo said, noticing the confused look on Gelato's face. "He's wiser and faster than most Centaurs, but he can never fully comprehend the irrationality those two have."

"Oh, I see, kind of like those dogs Spauracchio summoned," Gelato said, muttering to himself as he made his way up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a long hallway with a lot of people gathered about a large door towards the back. Each of them carried a piece of paper with a pentagram symbol on it, and because Squad 7 was fine with Spauracchio volunteering them, they got their papers later the previous day. Most of the faces there weren't recognizable, and some of them were from different families. Luckily, they didn't notice the Rena Siblings anywhere, but they did run into some familiar faces, like the girl in the purple dress who glared at Rosa when she was sitting next to Tony, and a few others. Soon, the members of Squad Face and the Rena Siblings joined the crowd, causing awkward tension in the air, which made Squad 7 feel uncomfortable.

"Hey, guys, you look a little lost! Please, come sit beside me!" said a friendly voice coming from the far corner of the hallway. When Squad 7 hesitated, he said, "It's okay, I won't bite!"

So they accepted his invitation and sat next to him. Up close, he was a man in his twenties, with long silver hair tied in a ponytail, wearing glasses, and a purple suit with the green tie. Even though they never met him before, his charismatic air made him seem friendly.

"Is this your first time participating in the Gladiator Games?" he asked.

They all nodded.

"Well, you're in for a treat, because the games can get pretty rough if you don't watch your step," the man said, and cleared his throat. "And that's where I come in. My name is Casco Tradotto, a veteran participant and information gatherer in the Foglia family, and I would like to help you."

"But why would you want to help us when we've just met?" Tony asked, looking at him suspiciously.

"You're wrong, my dear boy," Casco said with a grin. "I know everything about you, all of you actually, thanks to my Mafia Play Cards (Ninja Info Cards)."

Then he took out a small deck of cards, which looked like ordinary play cards on the outside, but on the inside of the protective plastic cover, they contained profiles of different Mafia members and gangsters with various data printed on them, showing their strengths, weaknesses, specialties, Gifts, etc. Squad 7 was fascinated by these cards, and asked Casco to bring up cards on each of them. Tony wasn't surprised with his data, but Rosa and Gelato were, and they didn't like what they saw.

"I'm below average on everything?!" Rosa exclaimed. "I'll never get through the Gladiator Games with these numbers!"

Gelato sighed, "You think you've got it bad, my nature energy-level is low, my strength is average, my skill is average, and my intelligence is below average! Is this why everyone calls me an idiot?"

"Relax, guys, these are just numbers based on calculations and speculations," Casco said assumingly. "The real data comes from what you observe about others and yourself when you're in combat, and I'm here to find that out."

End of Chapter 21