The second round
The first riddle that said that, my sister likes slides was pretty straight forward. They, he and his sister, just liked slides. They were obsessed with it.
The second one said that he didn't like playgrounds, that was also straight forward. He was being bullied in the playground so he didn't like it there.
The third was talking about the Hokage monument. He thought that it was the greatest thing in the world and wanted his face to be made like that as well.
From this I could guess where the flag could be, unfortunately this was only a guess since all riddles only gives you some hints of the answer hidden so I can't be completely sure if the place I guessed was correct or not.
Seiten and Mio had already left the place after looking at the riddle they had chosen to follow so I had to start moving as well.
Soon, I reached my destination. It was a lone slide, completely alone in the woods. It looked like it didn't get used much since a long time ago. This slide was just at the bottom of the Hokage monument, with junk and dust all over it. And above this slide was a red flag that I needed. It had an 'M' written on it. I admired it for a second and then took it with me.
Now, there was one last hurdle between me and my goal and I am not talking about the last round of this competition. My goal in getting Mio's flag was to prevent Mio from winning a second time as well as let Seiten win the competition. I only want these two things to happen in this round but if luck is not on my side, there could be something more that I have to deal with before what I want can happen.
I prayed to God for things to go like I want and headed back to the academy. And as soon as I entered it, I was greeted with the thing that I didn't want to see. There on the playgrounds of the academy, Mio and Seiten stood with two different flags with them but that was not the thing that I didn't want to see...it was the fact that on the flag that Seiten held there was the letter 'K' written and the flag that Mio held had the letter 'S' on it.
"Do you wanna fight? Just give me that flag already!" I heard Seiten's voice as I walked towards them.
"I said No! Get me my flag first! Then we'll talk." Mio replied. As she backed away from Seiten.
As I walked closer to them, they soon noticed me and turned towards me. Seiten's expression didn't change as he still had his frown on his face that he had when he was arguing against Mio but Mio's face showed enlightenment upon noticing me. As soon as she saw me she sprinted towards me while shouting.
"Hey! THAT'S MINE!!!" I sidestepped and dodged her as she passed me by and glared at me after stopping.
This was the thing I didn't want happening. Now, I have Mio's flag, Mio has Seiten's and Seiten has my flag on him. We all have the flags that the other person needs.
"So? What now?" I asked as I closely looked at Seiten and Mio to make sure they don't jump attack me like before.
"Yes. What now?" I had expected either Seiten or Mio to speak but instead, the voice came from the side of us.
We all looked at who just spoke to find sensei there smiling at our misfortune. He had a chair placed in the shades of the academy building and was seated on it. He also had an apple in his hand that he occasionally took a bite out of.
We all walked towards him as Mio opened her mouth.
"Sensei, you are an irresponsible organizer. Now what are we supposed to do? Fight each other?" Accusing voice came out of Mio's mouth as she eyed the flag I held in my hand.
"What do you mean? It's not like I set everything up or anything. You can't accuse me like that. Oh and, just remember that whoever brings me their own flag first wins this so, just do your best." Sensei said with a smile which just irritated us three more then anything.
"Fine then! I think we all should fight each other to decide who is gonna win this round." Mio proposed and both Seiten and I didn't have any problem with that so we both agreed. But, a fight is exactly what I wanted. This situation, though not a likeable one, was still also within my expectations and I had planned for this as well yesterday.
After the fight was decided, we moved a bit distance away from each other and waited as we all looked at the other two's every movement. No one between us three wanted to move first as we waited for the other party to move first. In my case, I had to make sure that I am not the one to move first. This was necessary since as long as I didn't move, either of the two things could happen, either Seiten could attack Mio or Mio would attack me. And I was mostly certain that these were the only two things that would happen as long as I didn't make a move first.
As we all waited for the other party to make a move first, soon, almost ten minutes went by. To be honest, I didn't expect the two of them to not even move in this long but I had to just make sure that I don't move. I had to be patient with this.
"Oh c'mon! Move already! I am bored!" At the side, Sensei shouted.
I turned a little to look at sensei after hearing him say that and at the exact second, Mio came rushing towards me. She also threw a dulled kunai at me which I dodged and then started backing away towards Seiten. I made sure to have my back on Seiten so that he wouldn't be too alerted as I backed away from Mio.
Seiten after seeing me coming towards him did became alert for a second but after that, he swiftly moved to the side to let me pass and then rushed towards Mio. But not before making sure that I and he had a comfortable distance between us.
As he rushed towards Mio, I also threw a kunai at her as She first blocked the kunai and then started engaging in a battle with Seiten. In this battle, I had only one thing that I had to do, supporting Seiten by throwing a few kunaies at Mio. And that's all I did.
As we were all chunnins, Mio and Seiten were almost equally matched but my support in favor of Seiten really was helpful as Mio became cornered. She was now facing two opponents at once, me at long ranged while Seiten at close range. But Mio will not be defeated here, after all, the goal of this fight is to get the flag from the other party,not to defeat the other party and Seiten made sure to remember that. As soon as he got the chance, he immediately grabbed the flag that was on Mio's back, the flag with the letter 'S' on it and backed away.
As soon as Mio saw that Seiten had gotten the flag and now most probably will be heading towards sensei, she completely started focusing on him as she chased after him. If Seiten reached sensei with the flag that had his name on it...he would most likely win this round. Unfortunately for her, Seiten was more closer to sensei then Mio so Seiten just had to run straight towards sensei and Mio would not even be able to catch him. Which is exactly what happened and Seiten handed the flag to sensei, making him the winner of this round.
And that also spelled the end of the second rounds. The third round would be tomorrow at the training ground eighteen. After I heard that, I went back to my house and had a nice long sleep and the next morning, headed towards the training ground 18. But there was a surprise for me there.
"Karan? Wait! Were you not disqualified?" Mio asked me with a confused expression.
"Mio, He is here to cheer us, you know? Don't say things like that." Seiten said as he looked at Mio like he was representing her.
"Um...No? What are you two talking about? I am also going to be in this round." I said as I looked at both of them. Hearing my words they became confused which made me confused.
"Um...Karan, did you not know that you are disqualified?"
"What?? Disqualified?" I asked in disbelief.
"Um..." I heard a voice from behind and turned to see sensei.
"Let me explain." Sensei said but before that I heard Mio saying-
"Karan, did you not even realise that failing two rounds would instantly mean disqualification? Since there were three rounds, there was a chance that all three of us could end up winning one round each, which means that this competition would have just ended up in a tie! And since that is the case, the one who couldn't win in two matches should be disqualified to make sure that there are winners in this competition. It should have been pretty obvious! Did you really not realise it?"