Welcome to the Colosseum (Tournament Signups)

[Kakashi Hatake]

With the rampaging brigade of fel orcs taken care of, the journey back to the village was uneventful. Kakashi was glad to have reached a working relationship with his new worg friend as venturing back to the village with chakra levels as low as his would have been fairly difficult. The beast bounded powerfully through the forest, expertly avoiding the abundant foliage until the trio reached Mokugakure’s main gate.

The copy ninja dismounted, eyeing the dire wolf with caution. The beast responded similarly, squaring his broad shoulders and maintaining eye contact. “Do you think it’ll stay put?” Kakashi inquired, glancing down at Pakkun.

“I'll try to ask,” the pug offered. He looked up at the mammoth beast, throwing a few barks in its direction. The worg grunted a few times in response, maintaining eye-contact with the silver-haired shinobi. “He says as long as you feed him he’ll do whatever,” Pakkun replied. “He says you smell better than the orcs and you don’t weigh as much, so it doesn’t bother him.”

Kakashi chuckled. “That sounds fair. Does he have a name?”

Pakkun engaged in another exchange with the wolf before returning his attention to Kakashi. “Fenrir.”

The copy ninja smiled beneath his mask. “Fenrir it is.” He turned his attention back to the worg, “just tell him to hang tight for a while.”

“He can understand you,” the miniature pug replied, smirking. Kakashi shook his head in response, chuckling again.

“Well, I’m glad to see you’re back in one piece,” the warm, nonchalant voice of Asuma met the copy ninja’s ears. “When your ninken came back with you, we got a little concerned.”

“Sorry about that,” the scarecrow responded, scratching his head nervously. “Things didn’t go quite to plan.”

“Yeah, when the night elves showed up we gathered that.” Asuma replied, lighting a cigarette. “Let’s get to Tsunade and clue her in.”

- -

For the next day or so, Kakashi remained relatively sedentary. The Omniverse seemed to allow his chakra reserves to recovery more quickly than they normally did back home, though this could simply be chalked up to how small they now were. On the morning of his second day of food and bed rest, he was met with a familiar figure standing at the foot of his bed.

“Good morning, Kakashi,” The Morikage smiled warmly, yet snarkily. “Taking your time, huh?”
The copy ninja sat up at once, bowing his head. “My apologies, Lady First. I should be done recovering today.”

The Slug Princess chuckled. “That’s good to hear. After hearing about how well your last mission went, I’m glad you’re still with us.”

The silver-haired shinobi averted his gaze, staring out the window into the crisp morning. “My apologies.”

“You completed the mission, don’t apologize. Might not have been as clean as we wanted, but you managed to thin the giant and orc populations and save a handful of night elves.” Tsunade smiled despite herself. “In my book that will make everyone here feel a bit safer.”

“Uhh...any time?” Kakashi responded, shrugging.

“Well, funny you should say that,” the Sannin said suddenly. “I do have another mission for you. A pretty dangerous one. I’d send someone else, but I feel this would suit you pretty well.”

“What’s that, Lady First?”

“You’re to head to Camelot and participate in the Colosseum Tournament there,” the Morikage replied simply. “Sending you under our banner could help us drum up some more missions if you do well. And that could mean more money and less of my men being hired to kill each other.”

Hatake was flabbergasted. His mission was...a tournament? The premise was odd to the shinobi, but he could not fault his superior’s logic. If officials in the audience noticed the caliber of his techniques, they would be likely to hire help from Mokugakure. That was a big ‘if’, but after seeing the state that the village was currently in, he understood the reasoning. “Alright,” Kakashi finally replied. “I’ll head out at noon.”

A few hours later the shinobi again stood at the village gate, prepared to leave for his assignment. He has cleaned his armor and weaponry and summoned shuriken to replace those lost in his battles. He elected to keep his ninken in Mokugakure for the time being, keeping the summoning scroll on hand in case of emergencies. The sharingan wielder found Fenrir and hopped onto the worg’s back, handing the beast a large chunk of deer meat per their agreement. The wolf quickly devoured the treat, letting out a satisfied growl. With a quick tap of his heels on the worg’s belly, they were off in the direction of the Camelot gate.

Kakashi and his animal companion reached the gate in a timely manner, stepping through the luminescent portal without pause. As the scenery shifted from jungle to countryside, the scarecrow knew he had arrived in the right locale.

“Are you a Prime?!” a tiny voice squeaked as he entered.

The masked shinobi glanced down for the source of the noise, spying a tiny woman with short auburn hair wearing a cream colored dress. “Uh...yes?” Kakashi replied.

A huge grin spread across the gnome’s face. “That’s great! Here, I’m supposed to give these out to anyone that comes through here. It’s a map to the Colosseum.” She was smiling so hard Kakashi thought it looked somewhat painful.

“Thanks…” the copy ninja responded, taking the pamphlet.

Upon examination, the map was an extremely basic and bland sketch of how to get to the tournament from the gate: essentially a ‘You Are Here’ and an arrow leading to an ‘X’. From what he could gather, it was essentially a straight shot down the road and then around a corner. Shrugging, he pocketed the paper and departed from the gnome, urging Fenrir down the road. Just a few minutes later he found himself outside of the Colosseum, wading through the small crowd that was gathering at the entrance.

“Probably best to go the rest of the way on foot,” the masked shinobi muttered, dismounting. He turned his gaze to Fenrir. “Can you just hang around here a while? You can go hunt if you want until I come back.” The worg nodded in response, trotting proudly away from the gathering.

Without the burden of the large canid, Kakashi found it much easier to blend in with the crowd as he approached the front of the line. He preferred it this way, anyway. The line slowly worked its way through until eventually the sharingan-wielder stood before the registration booth.

“Are you interested in joining?” the official inquired. The man was dressed in a dark blue tunic over rough-looking black trousers. He looked somewhat disheveled, though the shinobi chalked this up to the craziness of the day.

“Yes,” he responded, jotting his name on the list before him. “Kakashi Hatake representing Mokugakure.”

“Ooooh, wonderful,” the man responded, grinning. “We can’t wait to see what you’ve got!”

The silver-haired shinobi nodded, bowing slightly. With that, he turned and made his way into the tournament grounds.