Real Strength

[hobnob]

The stand were filling at a rapid pace, the youth dashed through the corridors, between people, volunteers, and shinobi. This fight was going to be a good one, and everyone knew it. Good seats would be hard to come by, speed was of the essence. When he burst out the end of the corridor, the space opened up to rows and rows of seats that were mostly filled, 'Tch...' the youth let out as he scanned the area, hoping to find some seats that would offer him a decent view of the battle that would shortly begin. Off to the right, he spotted a whole segment of the stand that was near enough empty. It either did not offer a good view, or the seats were not the best and so did not attract the same amount of people. Quickly he dashed through the crowds who stood doing exactly what he was, and found a seat in the middle of the center row. He sat down and looked out onto the battle arena. The view was not bad, the seats were not the comfiest, but they would do. Being too comfortable would only distract him, make him doze off and eventually fall asleep. And so he sat there, waiting patiently for the fight to begin, hoping that people would not fill up the seats, he wanted to hear where was going on down there, as well as witness the strength of the elite. With his prior meeting with the man named Shinji, he had an idea what to expect from this fight. Although he did not know much about the man named Yoru, only that he was from Konoha, and was wearing an eye patch. The two contestants were already in the arena, eyeing each other as the tension in the arena and the stands built. People from Konoha and Kiri had traveled to support their representatives, shouting could be heard from all around the stands, words of support as well as cursing. The youth found it interesting how invested in their villages military strength civilians were, although he was not sure that was what was happening here, they could all be here for the thrill. Noeru let out a gently sigh as he tried to calm the fire within him, the excitement reached him too.

[Zao]

'So it is finally time...' Though of cpurse the genin bouts had been an interesting look into the future shinobi of each village the real reason behind Zao traveling here with the village participants was revealed. The exhibition matches for the day were about to begin and the white haired spirit saint was truly interested in three of the fighters. But out of all them was the man he noticed upon first arriving to the tournament grounds a few days ago, the red haired Bannin of the Hidden Leaf and former high ranking criminal from before the war happened. How things have changed...

The whited haired man scanned the arena as crowds began to fill the arena seats, the bout would be beginning soon and so he became just one person moving thrpugh the crowd and to a centrally located set of seating. To his suprise the man set down in the seat one row behind and one seat to the left of the young Leaf genin whom he'd shared a cup of tea with not long ago. 'What a coincidence....' A gentle smile fell upon the man's thin lips as he reached forward with his sole hand letting it fall upon the genin's left shoulder as he simultaneously greeted the boy. "Well, it seems we meet again Noeru-kun"

The man's voice was soft as he spoke to the fellow ninja, but his gaze had already shifted onto the arena floor down below as the announcer was introducing the first set of competitors for this round: Yoru from Konoha and Shinji from the Mist. Both having impressive records from the war, Zao hadn't been able to do much in his time confined to the village except read into the records of the war and its many battlefronts. Both of these men had made quite a fame for themselves during the past five years. Plus the earlier match between Shinji and Taiga had really impressive a couple days ago. "This should be a very interesting bout, especially considering the history between their villages." He spoke almost to himself but aloud enough that his young friend could clearly hear as the crowd began to sound out cheers for their fighters..