Chapter 49: The Festivities Begin

The two of them quickly made their way back to the quickly growing crowd that by now had left the celebration area and were instead filling out onto a large open field that had clearly been prepared beforehand. 

If there were any doubts as to what was going to happen next, then the props, tools and weapons out on display quelled them all. 

There was a clear area that had been marked out with chairs and benches for the spectators and a wide pen filled with trees, mounds of earth, dung out trenches, rocks, and other such obstacles littered across the field. 

What was odd though was that even from where he was standing, Keirato could notice several targets that were strapped to trees, resting on the gourd, and even a few that were hanging from a few branches swaying from side to side as the wind blew.

Of course the main reason he even noticed the targets in the first place was because they had all been painted in vibrant colors. Red and blue were the most numerous, while there were a few scattered orange targets and even one that was purple. 

Keitaro's attention was quickly pulled away from the course displayed in front of him when he felt Tsume tap him on his shoulder. 

"This is where we'll be parting for now. Go and have fun watching the event. See if you can make a few friends while you're at it. This sort of thing is great for making connections no matter how small they might be."

Tsume didn't even wait for his reply before she waved him away as she instead made her way over to the other Elders of the clan, who Keitaro could see were getting comfortable in the special seating area that had been arranged for the various clans. 

Left to his own devices Keitaro gazed out over the crowd looking to see if he could make out Kentaro from amongst the crowd, unsure as to whether or not he was planning to take part in this particular event. 

"I guess it's going to be shuriken throwing that's going first?" 

Keitaro muttered to himself as he eyed a few obvious competitors who were warming up off to the side by throwing numerous shuriken at a few targets that had most likely been put aside for that exact reason.

"Of course it is. It'll help set the tone for the rest of the evening." Said Neji as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere to stand next to Keitaro.

"Wha-why are you still here?!" asked a startled Keitaro as he glanced around to see if anyone had seen him nearly jump out of his skin in shock.

"I was told to accompany you for the rest of the evening, so I'm doing as I was told." Neji rolled his eyes as he said it, but what else was he supposed to do?

He had been directly told to follow around and help Keitaro for the rest of the day by his uncle the patriarch and even if he would have much rather punched Keitaro in the face, he had a job to do.

"Were you just waiting here for me to come back?"

"Of course, not. I was waiting with the other people from your clan, when I saw Tsume come back without you, I just asked her where you were when she went back to the others and she pointed me to you."

Keitaro tsked softly but decided not to keep being so harsh. Sure he and Neji got off on the wrong foot but all things considered, things could have gone a lot worse. 

Plus who knows, Neji might be worth more as a friend than as a begrudged enemy. Of course the main reason why he was happy to bury the hatchet was because he just didn't think it was mature of him to have beef with a 4 year old kid. 

"Well since you are supposed to be of help, why don't you try actually being useful. Are there any favorites to look out for?"

 Neji rolled his eyes as he began walking towards some empty seats.

"How am I supposed to know? I'm just as clueless as you are."

Keitaro for a moment, entertained the thought of walking the other way and ditching Neji just for the heck of it, but in the end decided to follow behind him. 

"Are you seriously planning on being difficult just because I took you down before?" 

Neji's nose flared and his breath hitched as he geared up to unleash a tirade of choice words, but after a moment he simply took a deep breath and ignored Keitaro's taunts.

"You only managed to beat me because you poisoned me. You might have gotten lucky this time around but there won't be a next time."

The corners of Keitaro's mouth twitched as he tried his best not to smile at the disgruntled Neji's attempts at being tough and threatening, an effect that wasn't working quite so well given his baby face.

"Are you planning on fighting me sometime soon? Sorry to disappoint you but I don't have time to play around with kids like you, I've got more important things to think about." Keitaro said as he ruffled Neji's hair. 

"You're barely a few years older than me! If anything, the fact that I almost took you down shows that I'm better than you. Once I reach your age I'll be wiping the floor with you, just watch and see." 

"Keep telling yourself that. If I've done it once then I most definitely do it again."

The two continued to bicker with each other as they soon found comfortable seats amongst the crowd. They instead turned their attention to the evening's events. 

The group of participants who had signed up for this particular event had all gathered up and were just standing to the side, waiting for everything to begin. 

They didn't have to wait too long either as one of the Hyuga members soon stood up in front of everyone and started shouting to get everyone's attention. 

A couple more minutes passed with him lavishing praise for the various important persons in attendance and especially touting the horn of the Hyuga. Thankfully though he soon pivoted to something much more important. 

"Alright everyone, it's time to explain the rules of the evening's game. It's pretty simple and as long as you're not too shabby with a kunai, then you should be able to put up a pretty good showing." 

"There are several targets placed all around the field. Your aim is to hit these targets with the shuriken or kunai that are being provided to you. The more targets you hit, the higher your score will be and at the end of it all, the person with the highest score wins."

The announcer pulled up a blank target from the table next to him and showed it to everyone. It was a flat circular target that was about as large as a basketball and a few inches thick. 

He even took out a Kunai and pushed it into the target to show how easily the thrown weapons should be able to penetrate it once thrown during the event itself. 

"Each of the targets are worth a set amount of points, with the targets that are farther away being worth more, and targets that are especially tricky to hit being worth even more. No worries of course, it's easy to distinguish the special targets from the rest as they are colored in red, blue, orange, and purple. Of course the points allocated to each color are 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Does everyone understand so far?"

General murmurs of understanding and the eager nods from the participants greeted him as the announcer quickly continued. 

"Now, here is where things get tricky. Each target has three rings on it that can affect your score depending on which ring you hit."

He turned the target in his hand around, allowing everyone to see the three black lines that served to separate the disk into three segments. The bull's eye of the target was about an inch in diameter which would make it much that much more challenging to hit, especially from a good distance away. 

Yet it wasn't the small bulls eyes that surprised people but was instead the middle and outer section of the target that were a surprise. 

Instead of dividing the rest of the target equally between its outer and middle section, the middle section actually took up three quarters of the remaining space on the target leaving the outer section to be nothing more than a small strip barely two inches wide.

"If you are lucky enough and manage to hit the target at its center, then the points tabulated for that hit are multiplied by ten. If you instead only manage to hit the outer ring then the points for that target are only doubled, but If you hit the inner ring or middle ring, then your points are halved." 

The crowd gasped at that, not expecting such a twist to be presented. Logically speaking, it made sense for each successive ring to be worth more as it became harder and harder to hit the target dead center, but this instead made it much more thrilling. 

There was a very high likelihood that a person aiming for the center of the target might fall short of their goal, and instead of hitting the jackpot might instead find themselves bursting the bank.

Of course that didn't necessarily mean that you were better off targeting the edge of the target instead either. You could just as easily hit the middle section accidentally or even miss the target all together if your aim was a little off. 

As if indifferent to the murmurs of the crowd, the announcer simply turned to the competitors and waved them forward. 

"I'm sure I don't need to explain the intricacy that can come about due to these various little rules. At the end of the day, all you guys need to do is to make sure that at the end of the day you manage to score the most out of everyone." 

With that, the announcer twirled the kunai that was still being held in his hand with a flurry before arching his hand back behind his back without looking. 

The Kunai flew through the air and hit the closest target dead center with enough force to cause the target in question to split and break apart. The Kunai however continued on its path until it sank a few inches deep into that tree behind the target. 

The crowd all grew quiet at the display before breaking out into loud applause. The announcer bowed slightly to the crowd with a smirk shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Let the games begin!"