All three recognized it as dry and hot and carrying strange odors. Naruto recognized the scent of blood, a fainter smell of sewage, and sweat - with the odd scents being spices of some sort.
"An arena," summarized Sasuke, eyes flicking over the large bars blocking off the exits and the walls. "Good four meter height on the walls, not many handholds except over on the far left where something cracked the wall."
Naruto sniffed, wanting to contribute himself. "Blood. Odd smells. Some of the guys in the crowd are yelling out bets."
"What? You can understand them?" asked Sakura. "I can't even tell what language that is."
Sasuke's eyes flicked to Naruto, who was obviously trying to listen. Idiot didn't seem to be lying. "I don't understand it either."
"Huh? You're kidding, they're just speaking normal right?" asked Naruto.
Bat hid, having flicked from shadow to shadow and used a shunshin to get to a good vantage point.
He couldn't understand the language. He also didn't know what the blazes some of the creatures in the stands were supposed to be. Mostly human in appearance, but with heavy tusks and green or blue skin. At least he was assuming that the green and blues were of the same species since they otherwise looked damn similar. There were others scattered about that had very different features, but he wasn't sure what to make of them either.
Some island from what he could see, but the wind was coming off a large dry plateau to one side of the village. The arena was on the plateau-side of a village with either a bay or lake or something beyond that. Or an ocean. Hard to tell through all the towers and walls and such.
Definitely not the Elemental Countries. Overly tall buildings were harder to defend from various Earth Release techniques that could be used to destabilize them.
Now one of the "people" in the arena was using some sort of voice amplification jutsu.
Sasuke watched Naruto's face as the voice echoed through the stands. He kept an open mind instead of dismissing the idiot for his idiocy, as the situation was decidedly NOT normal. From his expression and the way it changed, he was guessing Naruto was serious and he could understand whatever the local language was.
"That didn't sound good, whatever they said," said Sakura as the voice ended.
"What did they say, Naruto?" asked Sasuke.
Naruto's initial confusion had been replaced with a frown and stubborn expression. "They just called us kids wandering into the fights. They said we're a warmup before the real event - didn't say what that was supposed to be."
"Sakura was right, that didn't sound good," agreed Sasuke.
The voice started shouting something else. As soon as it stopped both Sakura and Sasuke looked to Naruto.
"It said that we were gonna be facing 'Bonecrush Diver' an 'ogre' and as soon as we're dead, they'll get on with the next fight," translated Naruto. "You really don't understand that?"
"No," said Sasuke as one of the sets of bars slowly ratcheted up into the wall.
Something moved out from the shadows, momentarily blinking at finding itself out in the sun.
"I take it that's an 'ogre'?" asked Sakura, pointing. "It's HUGE!"
"It's an oni!" declared Naruto. It might not have horns but it looked close enough for him.
"How many explosive tags have you got?" asked Sasuke, already tying some into place.
Three meters and change tall, about two meters across, and very clearly NOT human. Bald, a mouthful of pointy teeth, beady little yellow eyes, and wearing leather sheets that had been roughly stitched together with leather straps. What looked like a tree trunk into which had been pounded iron spikes was held in one hand.
The creature roared, pounding its chest with the free hand and brandishing that weapon.
As soon as its head was rearing back, Sasuke moved, darting to circle to the creature's left. As it brought its head back down, he threw three kunai and continued circling.
The kunai struck into the creature's left leg and then exploded with a satisfying amount of force. That the creature bellowed in pain was a momentary satisfaction.
"Look out!" yelled Sakura.
Sasuke blinked, straightening, as he realized the big thing had been hurt but that it was also enraged and now charging him. It wasn't too fast on the wounded leg though, so he'd be able to evade it quite-
At which point the creature threw the club with surprising accuracy.
Bat winced and prepared to intervene, while it would reveal his presence - he couldn't let the genin die without doing something.
At which point a wall of orange swarmed the creature and began stabbing it with kunai. The creature would grab at one, which would explode in a puff of smoke, and then grab at another, which did the same, while three more of the demon container were retreating with the dazed Uchiha.
Multiple shadow clones. Wonder if the kid realized some of the problems with that jutsu.
"Let. Go." Sasuke was NOT happy that he'd just been saved by the class clown. On the other hand, he recognized that the orange tide of Naruto clones was keeping the creature confused. As soon as it had killed off a bunch of the clones, Naruto would send a fresh wave in. The kunai stabs weren't doing much damage except that there were a LOT of kunai all being jabbed multiple times into any area not covered with the hide before that clone would get poofed.
It was inelegant, annoying, an eyesore, but marginally effective so it was okay.
"Oh, kami, Sasuke! I thought you were gonna die!"
Whereas Sakura had apparently frozen and was still shaking. Useless.
The ogre roared again, trying to reach the club that three more of the Naruto-clones were running around the arena with.
"Got any poisons?" asked Sasuke.
"Uhm, no," said Sakura, sounding apologetic.
"Explosive notes? Ninja wire? Eggshell grenades?" asked Sasuke.
"I really wasn't expecting to do anything today other than meet our new sensei," explained Sakura.
"Useless," said Sasuke, not realizing he had said that aloud. "Well, I'm not going to let the class clown beat that thing on his own."
Sasuke charged, drawing two more kunai and completely not noticing how Sakura had just sagged in place.
"Mages? Monks? Whatever they are, they are not simple children," mused the Arena Master as Bonecrush Diver fell under a few of those explosive daggers and a swarm of orange-clad children. "Tolan. Tolan! What are you staring at?"
"I think there's a rogue around, something tripped one of my wards but whatever it is - it's keeping hidden," said Tolan. "What is it, Lord Shivak?"
"Hit the three of them with one of your spells to incapacitate them, they have promise and we can always use some slaves that understand showmanship like that orange kid," said Lord Shivak, the Arena Master. "Have them put in a cell, use some of the chains with anti-magic runes."
"What of the rogue?" asked Tolan, flicking his cloak open and looking over the wands he had ready. After a moment he selected a long one made of polished bone.
"Probably a spy for one of the factions or a gambler's agent," said Shivak, waving away the concern. "Not infrequent. Tell Grimble I want him to check those kids out. May be able to use them for the half-time show next week if things pan out."
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(Posted Tue, 14 Oct 2014 17:29)
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