Aligning the Stars

Time to Fight!

Last Time:

The old woman turned into the ever grinning green haired mage, "She'll forgive me ... maybe, but I had to see this years competition. You won't believe who was invited Naruko ..."

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"Alright guys, let's go." said Neji and the group of leaf and sand ninjas went to the streets to go to the stadium.

Kiba frowned at the sight of the mysterious cloaked man that followed them through the waterfall, "I can't get that guy's scent ... do you know who he is?"

A small insect flew out of Shino's sleeve and tried get closer to the cloaked man, "That's very strange ... my insects won't go near him." said Shino.

Both Hinata and Neji tried to use the byakugans to see through the cloak ... their jaws dropped, "We can't see through the seals on his cloak." gasped Hinata as he stared at his equally shock cousin.

"That's because you're all weak. Allow me." said the arrogant Uchiha who activated his sharingan ... and scowled a second later ... he couldn't see either ...

All the ninjas paused and watched the cloaked man walk away, "That man is going to great lengths to hide his identity ... be careful for him." said Gaara.

"Doggy! He's so cute!" Any shred of tension was shattered as a petite blonde girl with hazel eyes in a strange black dress, red and pink striped leggings and a pointed hat ran over to Akamaru and hugged him.

"His name is Akamaru." said Kiba who was trying not to laugh as his canine friend was cuddled by the girl.

The girl grinned, "Hello Akamaru, I'm Riki!"

Sasuke scoffed, "We're busy brat, get lost." His rudeness earned him a few glares from the other ninja except for the two kunoichi cuddling up to him of course.

Riki gave a frightened squeak and hid behind Akamaru, "Akamaru, why is there a duck butt on that guy's head?"

The seemingly innocent question made everyone, even Gaara, laugh ...

"You stupid brat!" growled the Uchiha whose face was flushed with anger and humiliation. Sasuke stepped forward and was about to hit the girl.

Choji and Lee stepped between Sasuke and Riki, "Knock it off, Sasuke." warned Choji.

"Yes, this is very unyouthful behavior." said Lee and Akamaru growled in agreement.

"Oh shut up, that brat needs to learn some respect." hissed Sasuke who remained unaware of nearly everyone preparing to stop him. He even missed the tendrils of sand creeping towards him ...

"No, they're right Sasuke. We can't go hitting everyone for such little things and keep in mind we're guests here." said Shikamaru.

"Guests? ... oh, you guys are the ninjas my sister talked about. She thinks you're hot by the way and that you have a great butt!" exclaimed Riki as she point from Shikamaru to Gaara getting a blush from both shinobi in return and some giggles from everyone else. "Oh you guys should go or you'll be late for the sign up for the Potpourri. You have to sign up before if you're new or you can't fight."

Hinata's eyes widened at this new piece of information, "Thank you, we didn't know that."

"You're welcome! Bye Akamaru and sexy shinobi, bye mean duck man!" yelled Riki as she ran off. Thankfully Lee and Choji grabbed Sasuke before he could go after the girl for insulting him.

Tenten shook his head as he watched Sasuke glare in the direction the girl went, "Would you calm down man, she was very helpful ... and perceptive." The weapon user snickered, he was never going to let Sasuke forget his new nickname.

"Whatever let's go." grumbled the Uchiha and the ninjas quickly made their way to the stadium. They found the sign up sheet and were escorted to an room made of red brick that had large arches that looked out to the arena.

Shikamaru spotted a intricate metal board mapping out the teams with gemstones showing their team name and number of members, "I see ... this competition can be with teams if we want that. We must've signed up as a team."

"Yes and it's seems we have to win three out of five rounds if we want to move on ... this person signed up as a one man team? Why would he do all that fighting? ... and he's not the only one." pondered Temari as she scanned the team names ... one name caught her attention, Furea.

"No idea, but we don't fight him right off ... we first have to go through these three teams first." pointed out Shino as he traced the lines.

"The Pirates? What a lame team name." muttered Ino.

In the distance they could hear someone who had to be the announcer, "Ladies and gentlemen welcome to this years Potpourri! I know everyone wants to get the show on the road so let's get started. First up is the ninja team from the elemental nations against the pirates. As usual this tournament will allow teams. If it's team against team the team with the best of five fights wins. If it's team against single it's the same. Any team member can fight more than once unless they lose then they can't fight again in that match. Will each team send up their first opponents?"

"I'll go first." said Temari. She blinked owlishly as she saw the announcer in his high open booth ... the announcer's entire head was a set of red lips and nothing else!

"Hey girly. Forfeit now and I might let you date me." Temari broke her gaze away from the announcer and glared at the fat bare chested pirate across from her.

"No thanks."

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*boom*

Matsuri winced, "Shouldn't we stop her? The guy is clearly out cold." She sighed in relief when the announcer called the fight and medics took the pirate away. "So who's next? ... why isn't Temari leaving the ring?"

"She's still a little mad. Let's let her blow off some steam." said Gaara as his sister took on the last two pirates.

3 minutes later ...

The announcer lit a massive cigar and started smoking, "That just goes to show you that teams don't automatically mean victory. With a clean sweep victory thanks to Temari of Sand the Ninjas have earned the first point of the evening! Talk about girl power, don't mess with these kunoichi."

Temari entered their room through the arches, "That was pretty fun, but this does show a problem with teams."

Ino huffed, "What problem? We outnumber them-"

"No, Temari is right. It doesn't matter if we have more people because either way there are a max of five rounds. If we choose the wrong people we'll end up shooting ourselves in the foot and it gets worse against the single fighters because they only need three chances to win against a team." explained Neji as he watched their team name disappear and reappear in the gemstone in the next rung up.

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Taiyo grinned as he watched the leader board, "Hmmm an interesting group these ninjas." His grin became cold when the cloaked man entered the ring as a single man team and started fighting. "So you're here to ... I wasn't sure before, but now I am."

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Shikamaru frowned as he saw the cloaked man win, "Well, at least we know he's a ninja."

"Looks like our next opponent is a single man team." said Choji.

Ino smirked when she saw the mousy brown haired woman with glasses enter the arena, "She seems easy. I'll take her." She walked into the arena.

"Hello, my name is Jessica and this is my familiar, Lily." She pointed the light brown mouse on her shoulder with two tails. The mouse squeaked and tapped the balls of fur at the end of each tail together making a spark, "We wish you luck." Ino just smirked smugly ...