The Land of Iron is the same as we left it: Gray, sturdy, and huge. The gate still groans when they open it for us and the snow still claws at our backs on the way in. But as soon as we get through and head into the streets, I realize the people are a bit different this time around.
Where muted colors and modest styles of clothing had been the norm before, every facet of fashion I've seen plus a ton that I haven't seem to be represented in the crowds now. The sweeping cloaks and cloth headdresses of the Land of Wind, the vibrant colors favored by the Land of Earth, and even some of the crazy provocative styles from the Land of Lightning, in spite of the frigid chill. As we walk farther down the street, escorted once again by a samurai guard, I find myself craning my head to and fro, admiring the sheer variety surrounding me on all sides.
And it seems the variety is admiring me, too.
For every street we walk down, the people milling about it pause whatever it is they're doing to watch us pass. Sometimes it's just a brief glance of interest, but other times it's a few whispered words to someone nearby, a pointed finger, and even a call of encouragement. Those last ones only come from a very small minority, to be fair, but they're there.
"What's the deal?" I murmur to Hatake as we turn a corner onto another street full of people to gawk at us. "Nobody cared about us last time we were here."
"That was when there were hundreds of you, and none of you had made it into the finals yet," he says. "The main event for the civilians here is the tournament, since they're not allowed to attend the tasks. You weren't important back then because they didn't know if they'd be seeing you at the tournament or not." He smiles. "Now, though, you're celebrities."
Off to my right a little boy pulls at his mother's skirt, jabbing his finger at me excitedly. "Weird."
"You're going to have to get used to it sometime, Hokage-sama," he says airily. I snort, pulling my cloak tighter around myself and turning my attention back on our guide.
It takes us a lot longer to get to our living quarters than last time, and when we arrive it becomes very clear why. Instead of the sturdy, modest hotel that we'd been lead to when we first came here, our guide directs us to an enormous mansion of a building, shining with vibrantly colored tiles and a modern style, a sharp contrast to most of the other buildings in the village.
The samurai bows, holding an arm out towards the building. "These will be your lodgings for the duration of your stay here. I hope they will suffice, and on behalf of the Land of Iron I wish you noble warriors good luck in your battles tomorrow."
I share a look with Sakura. "Uh, thanks." The samurai nods, straightening up from his bow and striding back towards his post.
The hotel, if it can even be called that, turns out to be just as ridiculous on the inside as it is on the outside. The reception area is the size of my apartment, easy, decorated with statues and paintings and all sorts of culturally magnificent things that are wasted on my shinobi sensibilities. The receptionist is a beautiful young woman with long black hair and stunning green eyes who gets us signed in with all the sunny cheer of Lee and Gai mid-youth.
But instead of getting out of her comfy-looking leather chair to show us to our rooms, the receptionist rings a little bell on her desk and a dignified man in formal civilian clothes appears from the void to our left. He bows low, his deep, smooth voice drifting up to his through his dark brown whiskers.
"Good afternoon, honored guests. Allow me to escort you to your rooms." Sakura and I share another look.
"Please do," Hatake says happily. The attendant brings us to a grand spiral staircase, like the one the old man showed me leading to his office from the torture and interrogation center back in Konoha, but bigger and flashier. We ascend the steps, past the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors, until we finally step out onto the top floor.
Instead of stepping into a hallway, like the last hotel we'd stayed at, though, we find ourselves entering a massive circular room, furnished with a towering fountain in the middle, elegant hotel couches on the edges, trays of snacks and drinks, and are those butlers? I gape at the men and women standing at attention against the walls, almost missing it when the attendant leading us points out our room.
There are ten rooms in all on the top floor, spaced evenly apart from one another, and ours are on the far side of the room from the stairs, side by side. The one my team and I are dropped in is every bit as big and fancy as the rest of the building, and furnished with three bedrooms instead of two. The kitchen is just as nice as the last hotel's, but stuffed with a higher quality of food than I've ever seen outside of the old man's desk. And the living room…
"Oh my god, this is so comfortable!" Sakura squeals, stretching out on one of the five couches the hotel room's living area has to offer. I mumble intelligibly in reply from my spot on the other side of the room, having collapsed face first onto the first open couch I saw. A couch which had turned out to be more comfortable than the one I have at my apartment.
A hotel couch that doesn't suck. It has to be a Genjutsu of some sort. The kind that can affect me, I mean.
"So, I take it you three are all ready to go for tomorrow?" Hatake asks, lounging on one of the shorter couches, his legs dangling over the side and his book laying on his chest. "Packed all your weapons, memorized all your hand seal chains, shined all your headbands?"
I roll over onto my side, staring hard at Sasuke, laid out on a couch beside Hatake. "Yeah. I'm ready."
"Me too," Sakura says, blissfully unaware of the sudden tension in the room.
"Hn."
"Good to hear," Hatake says. "Wouldn't want to make any embarrassing mistakes in front of all your peers, now would you?"
"Our what?" I blurt, tearing my glare away from Sasuke.
"Yup!" He confirms happily. "Teams 8 and 10 both got tickets for the finals. They'll be arriving here in the next couple days for the start of the tournament. I'm told they got very good seats, too."
"Really?" Sakura asks, craning her head to look at our sensei in disbelief. "Aren't the finals supposed to be a big deal?"
"Oh, they are," Hatake assures her. "The Daimyo got them the tickets."
Sasuke grunts. "Why would he do that?"
"Team 10's sensei, the man who trained Naruto, is an old friend of the Daimyo's. He sends him little presents like this all the time," Hatake explains.
"Because he's the old man's son, right?" I say, remembering my introduction to the jonin sensei weeks ago.
Hatake's eye quirks up. "Something like that."
"So now we have to worry about them on top of everyone else," Sakura sighs. "Great."
"Don't worry too much about it," Hatake says, waving a hand. "Neither of them are Heavy Assault teams, so I doubt they're on your level at this point. Just focus on getting through your fights and you'll impress them just fine."
We carry on with some small talk for a while, explore what will be our hotel room for the next few days, and Hatake promises to give us a more thorough briefing on all the genin competing in the tournament in the morning. He then promptly sinks further into his couch and shoves his little orange book in his face. He tends to do that rather than sleep like a normal person. Sasuke disappears into his room soon after, and Sakura and I follow suit when the moon begins its climb into the sky.
My room is of a simple design compared to the rest of the hotel, holding an oaken dresser that reaches up to my chest, a full length mirror on the wall to the left of the entrance, and a king-sized bed that I waste no time in flopping down on. I toss my backpack, jacket, and cloak across the room onto the dresser and kick my sandals off before burrowing into the silken sheets with with a moan of pleasure.
I curl up under the covers, deciding that this must be the most comfortable bed I've ever laid in. I rub my cheek against the pillow, realizing it's the softest pillow I've ever seen. I wrap the comforter tight around my shoulders, deducing that it's the warmest comforter I've ever- Yeah.
...
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