Tournament of "power"

What was this now, a Karaoke session? Damn. If it was Ryūka who had thought of challenging Natsume to a singing competition, he might have actually won. He seemed to have been admitting defeat time after time, not caring about a win. This was his team. He wanted them to be happy. There was no reason going hard on them in a tournament like this, where the main goal was fun. It was to be the same with Zyxis. Ryūka actually liked the idea of a riddle battle a lot. For one thing, riddles were alike poems. And poems, Ryūka knew well. He still might have lost the battle, of course. But at the worst, he would have learned riddles he didn't know before. There was no way to lose, in Ryūka's eyes. 

Ryūka thought about Zyxis' riddle for a short time. He came up with an answer that fit the riddle quite easily. He wasn't sure if it was the answer Zyxis was looking for though. So he started contemplating that. Did that even matter? A good riddle would have only had a single possible answer. If an answer could be answered multiple ways, while both fitting the question correctly, it was a bad riddle, and either answer should have been acceptable. Still, Ryūka was interested to see how Zyxis would judge a scenario like that, so he gave his answer. "Time." he said, "It is too fast, yet it is too slow at the same time. It can kill and give birth to civilizations, or it can hurt but a single tree at one time.".

Ryūka would take in Zyxis' judgement of his answer, whatever it was. It was regardless, his turn to ask him a question. Ryūka first thought of coming up with his own riddle, but then decided that he was far too restricted by time to come up with a good one. He instead decided to pick one riddle he remembered from one of the books he had read before. He spoke, "I can’t be seen, found, heard or smelled. I lie behind stars and under hills, I fill empty holes, come first and follow after. What am I?".

Ryūka smiled. He was really interested in seeing what answer Zyxis would come up with. But to be honest, he was even more interested in hearing what Hoshi's singing voice sounded like. Natsume's voice was nice. She sounded good for an untrained voice at her age. Ryūka expected Hoshi to sound worse. But he believed the boy would sound worse in a much more entertaining way. Still, there was something about the song Natsume decided to sing. Something familiar. Perhaps Ryūka had heard of that song before? He wasn't sure. 

[WC: 2802]

Natsume and Hoshi were going to sing. His eyes landed on Natsu, wondering how she would do. Zyxis fully expected her to start belting out some depressing music. Why did the lady always seem upset? Zyxis slightly frowned but ignored it. The time would come where they could have a good chat and Zyxis could try to cheer her up. Although, he had seen how that had turned out the past few times. It wouldn't be hard to attempt to continuously, it would let her know that he cared, but it seemed as if it did not affect her. Zyxis sighed and let go of the topic. Thinking about it too much would only serve to irritate and frustrate him more.

The white-haired boy listened as Natsume began to sing, all previous thoughts fading into the wind. In all honesty, he had heard better. He would never tell her that. Zyxis prided himself in how he sang, private lessons given by himself and Shadow Clones when he was bored, he was his choir. Do you know how cool it was to harmonize with yourself? Anyway, Natsu wasn't terrible by any stretch of the imagination, mainly since she was so young and her voice wasn't as developed as Ryūka's. Even though it was lovely and gave him a pleasant sensation, he grinned.

Zyxis listened to her as he focused on Ryūka at the same time. The colorful haired boy had guessed time, which was, sadly, incorrect. "I was thinking Wind when I said that. I'm probably not the best at riddles, so, sorry, if I mislead you," The Uchiha Genin said to reassure Ryūka and more importantly himself. The riddle Ryūka explained made him start to think. He began to consider that the answer was wind, ironically, but it didn't seem to fit. Not water, maybe ice? Ah, wouldn't it mean light! Although, that wouldn't be true since you would be able to feel and see the light.

"I'm gonna do with darkness. It's the only explanation that could make sense. Your statement was too big when using stars, so no animal. The star thing threw me off cause I instantly thought of space. That discarded my idea of light, so it would only make sense to be darkness right? You can't really feel it, you can't actually see it, and you most definitely can't hear or smell it. Am I right?"

Zyxis would wait for Ryūka to respond as he continued to listen to Natsu. He slightly hummed to himself, harmonizing with Natsu's singing. The white-haired boy would've loved to be in a choir. Maybe the next time they hung out they would be able to start a band or something. He called guitar and secondary vocals! Main vocals would go to Ryūka; he would probably like that. He could see Hoshi playing the drums and Natsu being a backup singer, maybe even a backup drummer as well. If they had a band, it would be the freshest band around, coolest kids on the block.

[WC: 530 | TWC: 6,000]

Hoshi was impressed and yet the same time depressed about Natsume's song choice. It seemed as though this song was one sung by a parent... Something Hoshi could never truly understand at all, Causing him to be upset and yet he wouldn't show this. His friends needed to be happy and so that should be his task to make so. He would need to try and cheer up her mood so that she could also get rid of those painful yet happy memories that seem to surface in remembrance... Just for today. And so he thought of the perfect uplifting song. 

Hoshi coughed to clear his throat "This is a song that's dear to myself. Let's say it's pretty much something to keep my mood up." He started to sing the song, The song of the king of all rock. As he sung this he started to dance around like a fool waving his arms side to side with a goofy smile on his face. Even tripping up and acting more like a fool. This song was something to keep him remembering that you can control you're emotions easily, So why not be happy! Hoshi's voice wasn't the best, Yet it wasn't bad either. It would be something akin to a karaoke bar singer. He ended up enjoying the singing more than he thought and ended up getting absorbed into the song itself. Until it ended with Hoshi lying down on the ground and looking up at the bright sky. 

 "Heh. That was a fun little song to sing. Always loved that as a kid, Always used to try and sing it and always failed at making sound decent. But now I can sort of make it work out ok and good nowadays. Though don't ask me too sing anymore songs." He laughed a hearty laugh as he looked at both Ryuka and Zyxis. "So who do ya think won! I think it may of been me though I honestly don't perfectly know how I sound like." To Hoshi his song seemed like perfection even though it was only decent and karaoke level.

[TWC-4001]

[Sorry for the late post]

Ryūka smiled. "Well. I guess the answer Darkness works. I will not reveal if that was the intended answer or not. You can take away what you want from this game." Ryūka smiled, and got up from the ground.

Then, ladies and getlemen... Get ready for the tragedy of a lifetime. One of the greatest songs ever written by one of the greatest bands ever... To be sung in the training grounds of the Cloud Village by Punchboi2988.

Ryūka was speechless. He had never seen Hoshi come so close to actually hitting him where it hurt. "Well..." Smokeperf thought, "Not as bad as Brandio I guess... I may be able to live with this...". He turned back to the friend he had been facing last. "So Zyxis... We haven't had a one-on-one fight in a while now... Wanna meet up next week for one?". He turned back to his other two friends. "Same goes for you Hoshi. And Natsume... I believe we're at a point we can finally train together. I'd love to see how far you'd come.".

He then answered Natsume's statement. "You don't thank friends Natsume. This is the least you should expect. I'm glad you dropped the 'senpai' thing at least.". He smiled. He knew he was speaking for the other two boys in the training grounds as well. They were all friends. Friends didn't need to thank each other for a good time. "So I guess that settles things? I don't know if I kept the score correctly, but I believe Natsume and Zyxis are either tied, or Zyxis won, right? To be honest, it's not that important. I'll still buy all of you dinner though.".

[WC: 3082]

Zyxis was most definitely biased. The song that Hoshi seemed to sing was one of his favorite's of all time. It looked like the two had discovered another thing that they had in common. Although the dancing and flair added to it might've thrown others off, the boy wanted to cheer. Not to the point where he would use his Sharingan to photocopy it into his mind, but it was pleasant at the moment that it had happened. The Uchiha clapped for them both as they finished, "Truly an excellent choice for a challenge. Both of your songs were great!"

It seemed as if Natsume conceded in the battle and gave it to Hoshi. Zyxis had no preference for who won that competition, nor did he have any need to beat everyone in any other game. What they had done today was truly fun, and he hoped that they could do it again. It was nice to relax; his chakra seemed at peace not having gone everywhere. Zyxis smiled at Natsu warmly, "No need for thanks, Natsume. I had the same amount of fun, and I would love to do this again. It's kind of sad that we even have to stop."

The boy would make no motion to get up, he and Ryūka still had a match. After he revealed the answer? Well, he wasn't sure if it was the answer, but he even got up and began to stretch. If he remembered correctly, he had won all three matches. Right now, that didn't mean anything to him. He had fun and was able to hang out with his friends. Maybe if it were people he didn't enjoy he would gloat about his victory, but currently there was no need.

"Sure, we can spar. Are you sure you'll be able to keep up though," Zyxis responded with a sly grin, "You and Natsume as well, we should all have our separate spars? By the way, I realized that I don't know a lot about you guys although we're teammates and are apart of the same village. I'm gonna skip on dinner for now, but the next time we meet we should have an actual talk about our lives a bit more."

Now for the final realization. Well, knowing these three other Genin; they weren't bound to be shocked, but he felt as if they should know now. He had been hiding it since it had appeared, not sure how to think about the Sharingan himself. Zyxis wondered if he would be viewed in a negative connotation as if he had been carrying a curse the whole time. 

"I found out I was apart of a clan a month ago. In certainty, I am a part of the Uchiha clan. I'm able to say this with a hundred percent confidence because," Zyxis opened his eyes wide and activated his Sharingan, the dark-red color overtaking the ruby-red, slightly changing in tone to the point that they wouldn't be able to see it if he hadn't pointed it out. Three tomoe lazily spun in it, but he quickly deactivated it. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell you guys because my descendants aren't entirely from Kumogakure, and the Sharingan's ability to copy jutsu isn't the best way to make friends. Could I ask you to be please be quiet on this?"

Hopefully, the three would. Zyxis viewed them as good friends and companions, that's the only reason he had told them about his secret. If this were to spread around, he wouldn't know how the rest of the village would feel. Hell, he wasn't even sure if the next Raikage would be okay with an Uchiha residing in the town. It wasn't fair to his mother and father to reveal this, as they could get in trouble as well, but he felt as if it was still fair for his teammates to know and to not become shocked when they got older and more experienced and found out that he had been hiding it his whole life. How would that spell out friendship?

The boy would take in each of their reactions with a grain of salt, not expecting the most favorable results, but not expecting silence either. He wasn't sure if he would feel sad, happy, or the same; but no matter what Zyxis thought he was tired and wanted to go home. "Natsume, it was excellent. Go back and get some rest. I want to take you out to dinner sometime if you're available or you want to go. Ryūka, you and I are going to spar sometime, and you'll believe me when I tell you I will win. Hoshi, we should hang out. Send me a note some time of your address, and I'll head over. Let's climb a mountain or something and get to know each other more."

With all said and done Zyxis smiled at them, deactivated his Sharingan, and began to head home. There was no need for the boy to stay anymore. Once he made it to his humble, which wasn't long since he was pretty fast now, he pulled out his Hunting Knife. Zyxis headed downstairs and outside to his front law he began swinging it around. He didn't even try to ignore the fact that he needed to train. It seemed every day he would come to the consensus that he was going to relax and he still ended up working out instead. 

The boy put his head into the familiar Clone Seal, One appearing sitting on his bed. The white-haired Genin decided that looking at the clone all day as if it was a mirror was somewhat unnerving, so he changed his appearance.

Now One had red-hair and silver-eyes, trading the color of their eye and hair. Zyxis looked at him and nodded in acceptance, "You look nice. Now I know what I would look like if I was a cousin of a Hyuuga and dyed my hair red." One grinned at him, "You know, by sarcastically calling me ugly you are calling yourself hideous as well?"

The white-haired Genin sighed, "You know that I know that we both know that. And everyone would know that the sentence I just spouted was confusing as hell." One ignored his creator as he continued where he left off, "I think I need a name now."

The two spoke out loud at the same time, "Eno." They looked at each other and continued slower, "The opposite of one!" They blinked, "Great minds think alike."  Zyxis claimed. Eon rolled his eyes, "We have the same mind." 

"Are we going to sit here all day talking to ourselves or are we going to deck me out with some jutsu?" Eno questioned, settling into a fighting stance. Zyxis hadn't needed to respond, they both knew the same answer. The two rushed at each other an clashed; their training would take place so they did not fall behind.


[WC: 1,200 | TWC: 7,200]

Claims:
- 36 Stats
- 3,478 WC + 628 to Spiraling Ring = (4,350/4,350)
- 3250 to False Darkness (3,250/3,250)
- 472 to Wind Style; Quiet Footsteps (472/500)

It seems as though Natsume agree'd with Hoshi in terms of who sung it better and let him have the win! For once his singing wasn't actually ear grating! Though Natsume's voice is better, She was way too nervous when she sang. Making the general performance worse as a result. "Sweet I win that one! Though I've barely won anything at all during this time. Could try doing more general activities, so that next time this happens. I can grab the victory overall. Though I guess this was less about winning than it was having a good time." On the inside however, Hoshi was crying like a child over the fact that he came up with this and got dominated. 

"I'm glad i set up this scenario and all. But I think a good ol spar fits me better than this. Though that's out of my own interests really. It's great fun too also train together!"Hoshi's stomach rumbled as he said this. Followed immediately by Ryuka's invitation for a dinner. How could Hoshi refuse such a generous offer "A meal? I'm down with that. Didn't get too properly enjoy my curry since it turned into a competition, But a normal meal? That'll be a nice change of pace. Thanks for the invitation Ryuka." Not only was the day a fun one but it also involved Ryuka buying him a meal? This day got better and better... Until Zyxis decided he had too leave.

"Ya don't wanna grab a bite with me and Ryuka and Natsume?" Yet that was just fluff compared to the bombshell Zyxis dropped. He's an Uchiha! "No way! Hahaha. Everyone I know had some weird bloodline or clan thing going on with them. Except maybe Ryuka. He seems to just become smoke." Really what were the chances that Hoshi would run into all these clan'd people as a simple, Ordinary human. Though Zyxis seemed to want to keep this fact hidden. Hoshi didn't know much about the uchiha but decided to co-operate. If Zyxis wanted it hidden then he would make a promise with his right hand on his chest ,where his heart is, "I promise I will never tell a soul." Hoshi intended to keep this promise no matter what. After all. Hoshi's never broken a promise. 

Now it was time to go grab a bite too eat with Ryuka and co... Actually Natsume never gave her answer. "Are you up for a bite Natsume?" Hopefully Zyxis's ,Horrible.Just horrible, flirting didn't put Natsume off eating. And she did say she would eat later in the day and it is. Well. Later now.

[WC-437]
[TWC-4438]

Zyxis approved unless interrupted.