The hallway turns out to be a straight shot with no other rooms or branching hallways the whole way down. Sakura, Sasuke, and I proceed at a cautious pace. I wouldn't put anything past the proctors at this point, least of all an ambush on the way to the 'third task.' Somehow, though, we make it through without any issues after a solid five minutes of walking. We come to the end of the hallway and stop just inside of it.
I whistle. "Wow."
An enormous circular room stretches out before us, sporting a circumference comparable to the Hokage Tower back in Konoha and a stone platform the size of a training field cratered in the center of it. Entrances to other hallways line the outer walls of the coliseum every ten feet or so, and a ring of metal railings surround the platform, broken up by a handful of staircases leading down into the center.
"Alright," I say when I've seen my fill, clapping a hand on each of my teammates' shoulders. "We're almost there. Let's do this." Sakura nods firmly, Sasuke smirks, and we walk into the light as a team.
When we walk in and the entirety of the indoor coliseum is revealed, I realize that there are a lot more genin here than I'd first thought. Something like thirty competitors are loitering around on the edges of the room, mostly Iwa and Suna nin from what I can tell. Kumo really did get screwed by that first task, then. I can't even see any Kumo nin in the room right now.
I can see jonin, though, sprinkled amidst the masses of genin. One per every three genin, roughly. So that would mean…
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura cries happily. I spin around and come face to face with Hatake himself.
"Hey there you three," he greets.
"Hey sensei," I say in turn, grinning. "Long time no see."
"Too long," he says, gripping his chest. "A whole week away from my cute little students. I almost broke down."
"Are you here to watch the third task?" Sasuke asks, cocking an eyebrow.
Hatake hums in confirmation. "They let the jonin sensei with students still competing come cheer them on." His eye quirks. "I've been looking forward to it."
"Do you know what the task is gonna be?" I ask, crossing my fingers, but he only shakes his head. "Damn."
"Mah, mah, you'll find out soon enough," he says, waving a hand. He leans back against the railings, regarding us with curiosity. "What I want to know is how you've been doing so far. Have you faced anything really challenging yet?"
Sasuke snorts, I snicker, and Sakura gives our sensei a strained smile. "You could say that, sensei."
"So the first task was really weird," I begin when Hatake tilts his head. "They had us draw numbers which they used to split us up into random pairs, and then they threw us into this giant forest and pretty much told us to fight to the death."
"Is that so?"
Sakura sighs in exasperation. "Not exactly."
She launches into her account of the first task from there, with helpful additions from Sasuke sprinkled in here and there. It's every bit as grueling to listen to as I thought it would be when they first told me about it yesterday. Or the day before yesterday, I guess? How long did I even sleep?
"-were gaining on us, and Sasuke was running out of chakra fast. I had no idea what to do." Sakura glances aside at me. "Then Naruto appeared from out of nowhere and distracted them with a Great Breakthrough, giving us enough time to escape. We made it to the tower without any trouble after that."
"And how did Naruto deal with them?" Hatake asks, looking over at me with a speculative glint in his eye.
I cough. "I ran away."
"With a jutsu he made up on the spot," Sasuke adds.
"Oh?" Hatake prods, interest bleeding into his usual drawl.
"Yeah," I say, shooting Sasuke a glare. "I kind of took the Great Breakthrough and, uh, shifted it to the bottom of my feet. It made me go pretty fast."
"Through your feet?" Hatake repeats, his visible eye widening fraction. "That's... interesting," he says, back to his aloof drawl. "How did things go for you before that? Who did you get as your partner?"
"I got a girl from Kumo. Her name's Samui, and she's awesome." I pause, craning my head around. "Actually, she might be here soon…" A flash of familiar platinum blonde hair catches my eye. "Or right now!" I break off from my teammates, jogging towards her location about a quarter of the way around the stadium. "I'll be right back!"
She's leaning on the railing, looking down at the platform with a pensive expression. Her teammates are nowhere in sight, so I slide right up next to her, resting my forearms on the metallic bar and smiling at her sidelong.
"Hey."
She starts, tearing her gaze from the stone arena below and looking at me. "Naruto. You made it."
"Yup."
"Where are your teammates?" She asks, peering over my shoulder. I hook a thumb over to where they are.
"They're over there. The tall scarecrow looking guy is our sensei."
A little smile flickers across her lips. "I see them."
I nod. "So where are your teammates at?" Wait. "Er, they did pass, right?"
"Yes. They were each paired with other Kumo nin for the first task, thankfully."
"That's good," I say, relieved for her if not for the weird duo I'd met back in the spire before the first task. "Are they mingling somewhere else?" I ask, glancing around the stadium again. Samui shakes her head.
"They're with my sensei looking for medical supplies," she says, disgruntled.
"Your leg?" I ask.
"I re injured it during the second task."
"So those guys were able to heal you up after the first task?" I press. I don't know how she could have passed the second task otherwise.
"They healed my muscle damage from the lightning chakra, which was the biggest problem," Samui says. She reaches down, rubbing at her leg and the heavy white bandages wrapped around it. "They couldn't do much about the stab wound itself, though. The second task was… difficult."
"What'd you guys pick for your challenges?"
"Taijutsu." She bites her lip. "If we had taken separate doors I don't know if I'd have been able to do it. They helped me a lot."
"It's that bad, huh?" She nods. "Are you going to be able to get by for this task?"
"I'm not sure," she says quietly. "I hope so. I'm one of the last Kumo nin left." Her gaze falls back on the arena.
I nudge her with my elbow. "Hey." She raises an eyebrow at me. "You're gonna do great, and I'm gonna be cheering you on all the way. On the inside, I mean. Because if my teammates saw me rooting for a Kumo nin, what would they think of me?" I ask, placing a dramatic hand against my chest. Samui cracks another smile, opening her mouth to retort.
"I said shut up! Nobody is going to care that we took a couple things from the infirmary, you moron!" A shrill voice sounds from one of the hallways behind us.
"What happens if the next task is the most dangerous one yet? What if someone dies because we stole from the infirmary and there weren't enough supplies to heal them? And what if that someone is one of the Kazekage's children? Then the Kazekage would demand an investigation and he'd find out it was us and he'd declare war on Kumo! You're going to start a war, Karui. Is that what you want?"
"I said SHUT UP!" Karui shouts. I snicker, but Samui just purses her lips.
"You should go."
I blink. "Huh?"
"I told them you put me under a Genjutsu, remember?" She says, more urgently now as the voices of her teammates draw closer and closer. I mouth a silent 'oh,' and give her a thumbs up.
"Yeah, I gotcha. Good luck!" With that said I turn and start the jog back to my team. I listen for her begrudging 'You too,' but this time it doesn't come. She must be really nervous about her leg.
...
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