Tournament of "power"

"Just because this is a speed game doesn't mean You'll be able to beat me easily."

He was right. Speed wasn't all there was to it. Unfortunately, Hoshi must not have been thinking back to their first spar when he suggested this play. As Hoshi approached him, Smokeperf became, well, Smokeperf. His human form faded, leaving behind a body of smoke. Stones Hoshi threw went through the smoke, as would any contact Hoshi tried to make afterwards.

This would have been the first time Natsume had seen this form of Ryūka, and honestly he was curious how she would react to this reveal. In his smoke form, a voice would come from the smoke, even if the exacty origin of it was impossible to tell, as Ryūka didn't have vocal chords in his current state. "Never invite a bird to a flying competition, friend." he said, as he started to watch those around him, "And never expect him not to use its wings when you do. Hey, Zyxis, Natsume! You two still didn't start your game? Come on, pick something already. Hey! Since you're both apparently book nerds, why don't you do a trivia quiz or something?".

[WC: 1531]

Zyxis would continue, "Let's play a game. I have two that I'd like to do. One, we play checkers. It's one of my favorite games and I barely ever lose at it. Well, the more fluid version of the game. The second option is to play a simple game of hide-and-seek."

That's all that the white-haired Genin was going to propose until Ryūka decided to speak up. Zyxis wanted to tell him to mind his own business; the two of them were in the middle of a game after all. Anyway, Zyxis didn't look his way, and instead just went about it as if he thought about it, "Or a trivia quiz. We could talk about anything ranging from shinobi or citizen stuff. In all honesty, I'd like to play hide and seek, but it's your choice."

If Natsume said, checkers, he would pull out the board and lay it in the grass, "I pick red, and I'll go first." He'd say. He would sit down and begin to play. If Natsume picked hide-and-seek, he would tell her to count, and he would hide. Once it was over, they would switch back and forth as hider and seeker. Zyxis would close his eyes and activate his Sharingan. First to three won a point overall. If she picked trivia, he would suggest ninja stuff and start with the question, "What are all Kages called? What do they do?" Whoever provided the most information would win.

Now, Zyxis liked all of these options. He wouldn't mind which one they picked. He would leave it up to Natsume. Zyxis wanted to say that chivalry wasn't dead. He had many more options for games in his head, but he wanted to get this show on the road. There were other games like Simon Says or something similar to that.

It would've been funny if he were to play as Ryūka or Hoshi and have her guess which one he was from different ways he portrayed them. Or they could've played something they did in the Academy where they spun around a bunch of times and then had to do something while dizzy. There were millions of options, but sadly, Zyxis wasn't the fun-est person to play these games with; he liked more logical games, stuff that made sense and had meaning to it, strategy games like checkers and chess.

And when he played them, he focused on them as if he were to lose it would be fatal. Games weren't games to him. They were just another way to get stronger.

Once he was stronger and older, then he could finally begin to have some fun without needing to worry about the threat of unnatural death.

[WC: 476 / TWC: 2,804]

How could this happen to me. I've made my mistakes, Got nowhere to run. The night goes on as I'm fading away. I'm sick of this life. I just want to screeaaaammmmm. How could this happen to me.

Hoshi's inner feelings became muddled with despair as not only was Ryuka faster than him... But he also turned into smoke. Just running away like that destroyed Hoshi's image of the powerful Ryuka who would accept any challenge and now it's just, A pathetic and depressing image. "I see Ryuka... You just ran away from me and disappeared into smoke when I wanted a serious match. I guess you like that technique. Very much..." Hoshi didn't give up but felt horrible. Wait a minute, An idea sprouted in his head. "If you've become smoke Then all I have to do is still just tag you and I've won if I stay away for a minute? I guess your smokey body must count as contact then." And with that in mind Hoshi went to try and tag Ryuka but... The unthinkable happens.

Hoshi tripped over right before tagging the vape called Ryuka. This trip may of been the most embarrassing thing Hoshi has done in front of Ryuka ,as he managed to land face down ass up into the floor, With the time running out Hoshi tried to get up quickly and continue to try and at least touch the mist with only 5 seconds left remaining. If it was stationary Hoshi may of had a chance, But this technique was still unknown to Hoshi if he could freely move or not.

"Hoshi I warned you, and you knew about this. This is good. This is a chance for you to learn. Also I don't think that would count as making contact buddy. You're not in contact with the air, you can't touch gas. There's always gap between your fingers and the molecules, believe me, I read a lot of books specifically about this.". Smokey the Smoke smoke saw his friend Hoshi fall down, but didn't address it, saving him the embarrassment. 

Rocky the detective realized the sass Zyxis was giving him, paying him no attention and bluntly stealing his idea. Oh, Rocky didn't react to that yet, but noted it, to maybe address it later, when it was his turn to face Zyxis.

Smokeperf then addressed the other two contenders in the tournament. "Hey. Zyxis. Natsume. I just literally turned into smoke. You two have no reaction to this?".

[WC: 1679]

OOC:

Zyxis lazily glanced over towards his two teammates. He internally laughed as Hoshi face planted and ate dirt. Aw man, he wished that he could've taken a picture or something. He turned back to Natsume as she pulled out the checkerboard. The white-haired male Genin smiled, "I don't mind. You know what, checkers might be my favorite board game."

As she questioned what he said, he raised an eyebrow, "Ah, never mind that. Some people like to play where you're forced to jump somebody, or they can jump over their pieces or something stupid like that. I just like the normal rules." As he spoke, he began to set up the checkerboard.

The older Genin would be red while the younger one would be black. The two began to play. Zyxis moved his piece closest to the corner, into the corner. That was always his first move. He looked up at Natsume, judging her face. His mind was already moving faster than the speed of light as he began to determine her next movements.

He looked over as Ryūka called his name. He made sure to note where the position of his pieces was on the board before he looked over towards the two other Genin playing tag. Zyxis raised an eyebrow, had he seen that before? Probably not, he couldn't remember any time.

He wondered what kind of jutsu allowed someone to turn into smoke. That would be useful to have. He should ask Ryūka about it later. Hopefully, it wasn't something that he couldn't learn. He'd be disappointed.

Zyxis turned back to the game and watched Natsume make her moves.

[WC: 262 / TWC: 3,066]

With Ryuka now busy in smoke and having humiliated himself Hoshi decided to take an action of sorts "Yeah I guess it was kinda stupid to challenge ya to this kinda event. Though since those guys have only just begun their's I think instead of waiting around for them to finish i'll just go grab a bite too eat and i'll be sure to bring back some decent grub for everyone else here so don't just go missing or anything alright!" With that said Hoshi just abandoned Ryuka, It would be dishonest to say leaving Ryuka alone was not the main reason why he decided to leave. The feelings of betrayal still rung hard as he left the training grounds, Even though Ryuka had every single right to use that technique and even warned him about trying that kind of event.

With Hoshi going to a spicy place called the red oni he tried to think of the last time he went here... Where he fainted from simply eating the medium spices dish. Though today would be the day he would be able to conquer it, As he slammed through the cowboy tavern like doors "I have returned! Would I be able to take 4 of the medium devil meal for take away!" With this loud and obnoxious declaration booming down the store it was only a moment before the head chef decided to arrive and deliver the ,admittedly, quickly prepared meal. "Next time just come up to the desk like a normal person Okay there!" The head chef also had a pretty booming voice alike Hoshi.

The meal was in front of him and ready to be consumed. Yet the heat from it could be felt easily by Hoshi through the back. Yep these'll be spicy all right. With the food in hand Hoshi returned to the training grounds and decided to offer everyone a meal. "Would anyone like to partake in the spicy demon challenge." As he stated this he smiled as if he knew he had the victory under his belt.

First, Ryūka addressed Natsume, as his challenger left the training grounds. "Yeah, sure. You can study my transformation. Just to be clear, I'm not giving you my blood though. Don't take it personally, it's a matter of principle.". Ryūka was smiling, but being smoke, that couldn't have been obvious to Natsume.

"Okay, now we're talking Hoshi. Forget about the tag, we're competing in the spice challenge.". Smokeperf returned to his Regularperf mode. He headed over to Hoshi. "Of course I wouldn't crown myself a winner like that, Hoshi. We're friends. Take a lesson from that though.". He patted Hoshi on his back. "Now let's see how spicy and how demony these really are. Let's sit.". Smokeperf sat down as he suggested. He opened up one of the devil meals Hoshi brought, and took out one piece of the carefully packed menu, one that looked like a big red pepper. Ryūka put it in his mouth and started chewing. As soon as he did, his face became as red as Zyxis's eyes, and his eyes started watering. "This is nothing. This is basically sweet.".

[WC: 1862]

In all honesty, Zyxis wasn't worried about the checker match. He wasn't sure if Natsume was good at the game or not, but he was just that confident that he had no fear. The boy had been playing checkers since he was a little child; before he invested in the tactics of being a shinobi at all. For him, checkers was something he was confident that he could win at no matter who or what he played against in this game. He had beaten adults, elders, children, anything that had come his way. As he watched her move, it was as if he automatically moved the next piece.

Some of his pieces got jumped, and inwardly he cringed. Zyxis knew that it must be impossible, he had never done it before, but what would it be like to win without sacrificing any people? If he was Kage, and he was instructed to lead the village, he wouldn't want to waste any of his shinobi talents. Fatalities were unavoidable. Maybe his next goal for when he played checkers was to win a game without losing any pieces. It might be the hardest game he played of checkers yet.

He shook his head to clear away his thoughts. Before he knew it, the game was already over. He hadn't heard Natsume saying anything, nor had he paid attention to anything else around him. When he played checkers the world around him faded, and each piece was the most critical thing in the world to him. As she sacrificed her pieces and admitted defeat, he spoke as if it was instinctive, "Good game, Natsume."

He cleared away the pieces and put away. It wasn't a hard match, no. But he had fun playing with Natsu. In all honesty, he wanted to play with her again. Although his plans for a rematch tarnished, it was time for lunch.

The white-haired male Genin sat just a bit away from the others. Next to Natsume and across from Ryūka. Zyxis grabbed the meal and looked at it. Just the smell of it seemed spicy. The boy wasn't worried though. On his adventure throughout this barren landscape known as Earth, he had tasted everything from the sweetest to the sourest. Heat wouldn't be anything different to him. If he could handle a lightning bolt carving his skin, then he could take in some spicy food.

He poked at it with his fork before he took a bite. Zyxis looked at Ryūka and almost laughed. His face was bright red. As soon as the meat and rice touched his mouth, his whole world ignited. It felt as if he was in hell, literally hugging Satan in a lava fall. And as soon as it had happened, he had come back. He swallowed it and grinned, his face looking no worse for the wear. A few sweat droplets ran down his forehead, had it just gotten hot in here? Wow, Hoshi had some good taste in food.

"This is good, Hoshi," Zyxis said, "Thanks for taking us out and buying it for us." The Genin then turned to Ryūka, "Too hot for you?" And then to Natsume, "How do you like it so far?" Hopefully, she liked it enough to eat it and not starve for the rest of the day. He would buy something for her if she wanted him to. Other than that, he was free to enjoy his meal.

[WC: 638 | TWC: 3,658]