“Is he part of the group?” asked Takuma in the shadow of the fighter’s tunnel.

Standing behind him, Sango, the brunette iryo-nin, nodded. “Uh-huh, Bearpelt is part of the group, alright.”

Takuma narrowed his eyes as he hummed, “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me, I just got a meal at any place I like.”

“Any place you like, but capped at X00 ryo,” Takuma said sharply to Sango. He didn’t want to empty his wallet for a simple yes or no answer.

He turned back to look out to the arena at the average-sized man with a rotund belly covered with body hair that covered every inch of his front and even on his back. This was the first person he was fighting from the group after Purplewind.

He couldn’t let someone run over him and allow them to go unpunished…. In this place if he let people push him around, they’ll take that as an invitation.

Takuma clenched his fist and ran out of the tunnel when the announcer called his introduction.

———

.

Kunio rotated the shoulder, feeling the kink in his shoulder. It still pained from the slam during his last fight. But he wasn’t worried; his opponent today was the kid. Kunio smiled behind his bear mask, thinking about the opponent.

They had caught a delicious prey in their grasp. They had found a tell in the kid— and what a treat it was.

It was commonplace practice for group members to share information about other fighters among themselves to increase the chance of victory. But when a group had an in with the scheduling office, they could hunt down their prey and get some sweet mission points while enjoying dealing out a beatdown.

“Battling it out against the mighty Bearpelt is the rising star with the record of 11-7, SCARS!”

Kunio turned his body to see the skinny kid skip past the stairs to enter the arena. They met eyes, and neither looked away. The kid had some guts. Kunio grinned, walked directly up to the kid, and looked down at him.

“What are you looking at, brat?”

Kunio could see Scar’s black eyes staring up at him, unblinking. “Nothing, just wondering who has bigger boobs between you and your mama because not many can rival that bosom of yours,” said Scar and made squeezing gestures with his hands.

Kunio’s face contorted and his skin turned red as he screamed, “What the fuck did you say, boy!” He shoved Scars and was about to take the brat’s head out when the announcer pulled him back.

A smile appeared in Scars’ eyes as he shouted. “Oh, did that hurt because it’s true? Hey, I’m curious. Can you see your dick when you look down? I doubt you’d be able to see the raisin-looking micro-cock even if someone jacked it hard, you fat fuck face!”

“Fucking let me go!” Kunio screamed his lungs off as he glared at Scars.

“Bearpelt, just let me go out of the arena, and then you can do whatever you want,” the announcer said as held the shinobi fighter back.

“Get off of me!”

“Do you understand what I said?” said the announcer, tightening his grip around Kunio’s shoulder. “Try to start the fight before I exit, and I’ll disqualify you.”

Kunio clicked his tongue and turned away from Scars. “Yeah, I get it!” he spat and shoved the announcer when the man loosened his grip on him. He didn’t charge at Scars. He could wait a few seconds before he destroyed the boy. The fucking brat had to pay. He was going to make him pay.

The plan was to exploit the Scars’ tell and have everyone in the group fight him and get those victory mission points. They couldn’t all go one after another because that would look too suspicious, and they had to fix the schedule so that Scars would have other fighters outside of the group. The plan after everyone in the group had fought the kid was to sell the information to other fighters who were going to fight Scars and take a cut of their fight winnings.

‘Fuck that!’ Kunio gritted his teeth.

He was going to break every bone in the boy’s body and then leak the information to everyone in the Ring who was willing to listen. He wanted Scars to lose every fight, starting with the one with him. Scars was still new and had a large part of his contract in front of him; Kunio wanted to see Scars beaten blue and black for the rest of his contract without being able to get out of it.

No one got out of their Ring contract without completing their obligations.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

Kunio turned to face Scars. The announcer was talking to Scars, but the boy was staring at him directly. The look only served to fan the flames of rage in him. He was going to break the boy to the point they would need to delay his fights— even if that meant he would get some pushback.

The crowd was rowdy from the pre-fight altercation that the Ring didn’t see happen much as the announcers would be out of the arena after a short introduction, and the fighters would take out any grudge between them during the fight.

It was exciting.

The crowd grew louder, demanding for the fight to start at this very moment.

The announcer walked away from Scars, and as he walked towards the exit, both fighters took walking steps towards each other— but everyone could see that they were rearing to go, and the brawl would start the moment the metal gate fell.

The crowd fell silent in anticipation.

And so it happened,

*Thud!*

The gate closed, and Bearpelt and Scars charged each other with the smaller crowd creating enough noise to rival the peak of weekend night primetime fights.

Kunio knew he was stronger than Scars and planned to use his size and strength to overcome the smaller opponent. He’d make a play out of it for the watching crowd, embarrassing the brat. Then, after a time, he’d crack the boy’s skull, putting him out of commission. It was cruel, and that’s what Kunio desired. Since the boy wanted a fight, he’d give it to him. When they would come asking questions, he’d tell them that he had controlled and pushed the blame upon them who let a child enter the Ring.

Kunio, bigger, with longer arms, came in range first and sent a thundering blow for Scars’ neck. His hands moved faster than an untrained eye could track, ripped through the air, keening as it went. Scars swept beneath it and stepped closer to smash an elbow just below the chest.

Kunio grunted as the force knocked him back a few steps. But he was immediately back and thrusting a palm strike only to find Scars, with his shoulder raised, launching towards him. Kunio was a heavy man so the collision pushed Scars back a couple strides, but it also threw Kunio to the ground.

Before anyone could even draw a breath, Scars jumped the fallen Kunio, and both men were clinching on the ground. Scars planted a knee into Kunio’s gut before Kunio grabbed him by the neck and rolled to the top.

“Got you, you little fuck,” Kunio laughed and raised his other fist to start the massacre.

He looked Scars in the eye and saw no fear or even the slightest bit of tremor. The next thing he felt was intense pain in the crotch. Scar kicked Kunio in the groin and was followed immediately by a throat strike.

Kunio’s eyes bulged and his veins flared as he couldn’t scream or even grunt as he tried to take a breath over the dreadful sensation of being choked assaulted him.

Scars grabbed Kunio’s hand holding his neck, and as the grip loosened, he got up from under Kunio, grabbed his wrist and snapped it. In the heat of the moment, Kunio flung his arm as hard as possible, and fortunately, it hit. Scars was sent flying away, and it gave Kunio time to gather himself back up.

His heart was thumping against his ribcage as he staggered around with his eyes searching for Scars. The flame of rage had been doused with the cold splash of panic. He backed away and put some distance between them as Scars immediately got up.

Kunio’s eyes went to Scars’ feet and saw them square up for a moment before Scars dashed. A flash of hope glimmered in his eyes as he readied for a leap/jump from Scars. He raised his guard at the last moment, fighting through the pain in his broken wrist, when he saw Scars ready to leap… only for Scars to whip out a low kick to his knee.

Kunio’s heavy body weight crumbled with half of his footing breaking down as the bashed knee gave away. Scars grabbed Kunio’s broken wrist, twisted it more, and yanked Kunio to the ground with it, all the while eliciting a pathetic scream from the man.

“You’re not the one paying attention, you know,” said Scars as he held Kunio’s arm up and placed a leg on the back of his shoulder. “Your shoulder is hurting, isn’t it… let me fix it.”

Kunio looked up and found himself staring into a pair of frigid cold eyes, with nil emotion in the dark pools of black. He knew what was about to happen and opened his mouth to beg, but Scar snapped the shoulder clean without a ripple in his eyes.

The crowd’s enthusiasm fell into a hushed silence as Kunio’s screams cut through the underground cavity. It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen harsher injuries in the Ring— blood and breaks were part of the experience… It was the prolonged screech of the scream that got through many.

Scar dropped the arm and stomped on Kunio’s face, which stifled away the scream of anguish.

“Tell your group they know where to find me. I’m waiting for every single one of them.”

He walked away from Kunio as the announcer entered the arena.

“Do you want to continue, Bearpelt?” asked the announcer as he squatted by Kunio.

“… N-No,” said Kunio through gritted teeth as pain assaulted his body.

He could continue to fight, but it wasn’t worth fighting. Even if he won, injuries would only pile up. It would put a disturbance in his life in and outside the Ring— he couldn’t afford a prolonged absence from either shinobi duty or his Ring fights.

And though he wouldn’t admit it…

… the dark frigid eyes frightened him.

———

.

As Takuma entered the fighter’s tunnel, Sango was waiting for him. She walked towards him with a smile but stopped to stare at Takuma, her previous expression fading.

“Is something wrong?” asked Takuma.

She stayed silent for a moment before hesitantly asking, “Are you alright?"

“Yeah, I don’t think I’m bruised or anything. The fat fuck went down easy,” he said and noticed that she was still staring, “What is it? Is something wrong?”

“… No, it’s nothing,” she said. “Now, come on. Let’s clear out of here for the next fight.”

Takuma flashed a smile Sango couldn’t see as he still wore his mask.

As they walked to the medical room, Takuma reflected back on the fight. He felt satisfied with what he had accomplished with Bearfelt.

He had sent a message— he wasn’t to be taken lightly. He wasn’t going to be seen as a weak player on the board. He was going to make sure they didn’t think they were looking at him like a weak naïve kid to exploit.

If they wanted to hit him, he would hit them back.

The conversation with Maruboshi had blindsided him, but seeing his teacher’s reaction, had left him with a lot to think about. He had decided that if the Ring could provide him the value he seeked, he would continue to swim in it.

However, he understood that he swam with sharks, who would devour him if he showed a hint of blood.

He was here to take things from it, and not the other way around like Maruboshi had warned him about… and for that, he couldn’t let anyone underestimate him.

If it took for him to repeat Bearpelt to make it that way, then he would do it as many times as he deemed it necessary.