~Chapter Nine~

Winter shifts slightly as she sits in a corner, a ear splitting siren ringing out. The others within the holding area stood at attention, most edging closer to the twin doors that were locked tightly shut. Winter scanned over the crowd, her mind coming up with dozens upon dozens of possibilities of what was going to happen.

One of the doors open slightly and three burlap bags are thrown onto the sand.

Everything seems to freeze before the door slams shut. The loud clang that sounds out acts a bell of sorts, the people rushing to the bags. The burlap is torn and food spills out, a mad frenzy taking place. People are shoved, punched and even bitten to grab any amount of food. However out of the chaos that ensued she noticed the white haired guy weaving in and out of the crowd, others moving just slightly to let him throw.

He's feared.

She realizes, her eyes narrowing in on him. He was probably five.seven and he wasn't overly muscular. Still there was this air around him, one that radiated danger. Almost as bad as the one surrounding Judar. He danced out of the crowd, walking silently back to the part of the wall that he'd seem to have claimed as his.

He's trained, ninja? No... assassin. A hitman most likely.

As if sensing her gaze he looks up and his amber eyes stare coolly at her. In response she inclines her head slightly to him before looking back at the dispersing crowd. It appeared as though there were silent rules; one of them being that once you got food and went back to your group or area, no one could touch it.

Sand shifts next to her and she snaps her head in the direction it came from. The amber eyed boy blinks at her luxuriously. "I came to inform you about this place." His voice is mellow with a iron undertone, a facade of laziness overlapping. "Seeing how you'll most likely survive your first fight."

She blinks but doesn't say anything, the boy taking this as his cue to continue on talking. "This loving place you're in is the Holding Cell, you live here unless you're brought to the surface. When they call your number go with the guards, they'll take you to your gate. Then you get fight. You win, you come back here and survive another day. You don't win, you stop breathing. Listen to the guards, don't anger the Master, and don't pick fights like you did with Evik.

You can make or join alliances, or stay solo. Your wounds, unless severe, will remain untreated so I suggest you try and find a group to take care of you incase you fall ill. Food is delivered once a day, weapons once a week. You actually manage to get a weapon, you get to keep it as long as you win a fight with it. Don't bother me, don't bother the guards and don't try to break out."

He walks off after unloading all of the heavy information on her shoulders. Running her tongue along her now not-sharp-at-all teeth, Winter process the information storing it away. She closes her eyes halfway.

Step One. Gather information.

She nods slightly as she runs through her plan in her head. First things first, she needed to find out as much as she could about this place. And that would start with the first fight she was going to participate in.

It took seven hours, twenty-one minutes and fifty-nine seconds for her to find out just what this place was about.

A series of sharp bells ring out; ding ding ding -pause- ding ding ding -pause- ding ding ding. Her nose wrinkles at the annoying sound and she glances at the iron doors as they slide open. Unlike the time before people have moved back from the door, most seeming hesitant about the upcoming event.

Guards stalk in, one holding out a piece of parchment. It's dead silent until the guard speaks up. "Number twenty-six." A man with a scar going from his temple to his chin gets up, walking over slowly.

"Zero."

The amber eyed boy gets up and walks over silently, people shying away from him.

"Number eighty-two."

No one moves and Winter realizes that it must mean she was supposed to get up. She stands up and walks over feeling several gazes on her back. "She won't make it." Someone murmurs, "Too weak."

"She doesn't seem like a fighter." Another agrees.

"Looks like a traveler, not a warrior."

She keeps her head held up high, walking out with the other two. The guards surround them, leading them past several cells with musty hallways paved with worn cobblestone. Zero is led in a separate direction and the other guy is put into a cell. She is then lead down a labyrinth of halls with the faint smell of copper in the air.

Shoved into a cell with a door on the other side made out of woven metal she can feel the ground beneath her feet trembling. Sunlight streamed in between the gated door, a sound reaching her ears that was faint.

The gate slides up, leaving the scent of hot sand and a faint smell of blood washing over her. The wall behind her creaks and groans, moving forward and forcing her to walk out of the cell. Hot, white, fine sand covers her bare feet. Blinding sunlight streaming down below. Thirty feet high walls, stands behind them.

A gate on the other side opening. Snarls coming from within the other gate. The trembling coming from the stands where hundreds of people stand; bandits, thieves, rogue ninja, the shadows of this world.

A single dagger dropped onto the sand by her, a large tiger at least ten feet tall stalking out of it's cell.

"It's a place where the outcasts of this world gather, where rogue ninja relax, where sadists enjoy the show. A place run by the Black Sellout, innocent people having to fight to survive, hybrid creatures brought to fight them. It's a place that the Five Kages have unanimously decided needs to be brought down.

However, they couldn't find one of their shinobi compatible to this mission; someone who wouldn't break under the pressure. That is why I have chosen you, the last Ookami, to take on this daunting task. To survive in a place no one has ever escaped from, to thrive in it, to earn the trust of a criminal and then to destroy it. You will not escape this unscathed, and the public will be told you went rouge.

It is a thankless task to keep the mission in the dark, but it is one that shall keep this world safe. You could die, in fact many have died before trying to infiltrate this place and bring it down. But I have faith that you will be the one to bring Judar to his knees.

You will be the one to save all of those people."

Winter looked at Lady Tsunade, conflicted emotions boiling within her. "Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate this place..." Winter absorbed all the information, her mind full of doubt and determination. "Winter... it's called..."

Well she'd found the place is alright. A place that feed off of sorrow, anger and blood. A sick, twisted place that liked to crush people.

This... this was...

"The Colosseum."

Picture to the side/at the top is Judar the Black Sellout.