𝚎𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜𝚎

the underground

A/N: If they ever make Naruto themed body spray, they need to call it "Shadow Cologne".

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Moments after that, Tsunade was leading me back down the twisting hallways me and Neji took earlier.

We passed the staircase, and I was suddenly reminded of Neji's books that had fallen all the way down the staircase.

The thought of dropping that jerk's books everywhere brought a grin to my face.

Now back at the entrance, we walked around behind the twin staircases.

The first floor had a circular area where two hallways split off in opposite directions, and furthest back were elegant glass doors that lead to a courtyard in the center of the school. The school appeared to be a large, hollow square.

I followed Tsunade to a desk area to our far left, built into the curve of the wall. A middle aged man with shaggy brown hair stood behind a glass screen, smoking a cigar.

Dull amusement had shown on his face once we were standing across from him, and he blew smoke from his nose.

Is that not against the rules?

"I hadn't expected to see you today, Tsunade sama." He spoke dryly.

I accidentally inhaled some of his smoke that came from a circular opening in the glass.

"Hello, Genma. This one's the newbie, Naruto Uzumaki." She spoke in a familiar tone, apparently unbothered by the fact that this guy was smoking on school property.

'Genma' grunted a little, and turned to shuffle through some filing cabinets behind him.

"...you lookin' to take him underground?" Genma peeked over his shoulder, and I assumed his lazy expression was just a permanent part of his demeanor.

"That's right."

I frowned and looked to Tsunade . "What's underground? And why are you taking me there?"

There was no response from either adult as Genma finally took a scroll with strange writings on it. He then formed some hand sign over the piece of parchment, and whatever ink was on it began to disappear.

...What the hell?

I rubbed my eyes, trying and failing to believe what I just saw. I wondered if cigarette smoke could cause hallucinations.

I looked back up at Tsunade, opening my mouth to speak, before hearing the sound of marble sliding against marble. I looked behind me to see...

...An entire section of the floor behind me moving.

As in, an entire square of the ground lowered like a pressure plate before sliding under the marble.

I felt my jaw drop slightly.

"...This school has a basement?"

Gemma let out a small scoff behind me.

"Oh it's more than just a basement, kid. Down those steps lies the real Konoha High."

I looked back at the tired-looking man to see an amused grin spread across his plain features.

"Real Konoha High? What is that supposed to mean?"

Genma let out another puff. Is he not suffocating in there?

"That's what I'm about to show you." Tsunade nodded at Genma before walking to the large opening in the floor. She looked back up at me and shifted her chin to the right.

"Well? Are you coming or not?"

It became apparent to me that I hadn't moved since the ground had opened up to reveal...whatever was down those stairs.

Here goes nothing.

I followed Tsunade down into the darkness.

***

The trek downwards ended sooner than I'd initially thought it would. And strangely, at that.

First of all, the overall time taken couldn't have been longer than 30 seconds, and even that might've been an overstatement.

Secondly, I definitely did not expect to be teleported through a tunnel of blinding white light.

If the disappearing scroll or moving floor pieces wasn't enough to convince me this was a dream, I was sure that this would be.

Bringing my hand up to my arm, I took my pointer finger and thumb and squeezed.

"...ow."

I reopened my eyes and was greeted by a dimly lit tunnel with countless metal pipes twisting and winding across the stone walls. (Again, pretty old-fashioned for such a rich school.)

The distant hum of voices, hundreds of people it sounded like, was coming from further down the tunnel.

The torch lights flickered softly; a drop of water hit the musty floor.

"...What exactly goes on in this creepy tunnel place?" I asked hesitantly.

I received no answer as we walked further into the dimly lit hallway, Tsunade's heels clicking softly against the stone flooring.

Closer and closer.

The buzzing was now getting louder, and I felt my nerves rising along with the volume of the voices.

Finally, we reached the opening at the end of the tunnel. I followed Tsunade without hesitation.

We entered in the upper level of a huge circular arena. There seemed to be thousands of people packed into the seats that surrounded a single platform in the middle.

Torches were lit against tall looming columns, the flames changing color from red to green to purple all at once.

...There was an elevated 'judges box' centered above the middle platform, and a voice at the top was making announcements from the chart hanging up there. It had pairings listed by name, organized like a tournament.

I then spoke up, "Say, granny, why exactly did you take me to a fighting tournament?"

"Don't call me that! Little brat." Tsunade gave me an old lady glare. "Just be quiet and watch what will happen."

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A/N: I was listening to that one song from given whilst writing this