The moment the fight began, Razor shot straight toward Scars without the pretense of any planning. He drew the sword out and pointed it at Scars, who armed himself with a kunai in each hand and charged for Razor.

Razor grinned behind his mask when he saw Scars taking charge and swung his sword in an aggressive downward strike that Scars took on with his kunai. Sparks flew as metal clashed. Scars pushed the sword away and immediately swiped for Razor's gut, but Razor's footwork moved faster, and he skipped an inch out of range.

With the swipe, Scars' body moved in the direction of his swing, committing him to the movement. Razor had already drawn his sword back, ready for the next move, now in a position to strike.

"Got you!" the glee oozing in his voice.

Razor thrusted the pointy end toward Scars' shoulder. He wanted to take one arm away so he could have an easier time working on his art on the 'canvas.' He wished to put on a good show and was sure that the audience would appreciate it as well.

As Scars' body moved behind his swing, his other arm shot up and forward. The blade met through the leather arm guard, and the blade sliced the surface fairly deep but didn't reach the skin— and with the upward arm movement, Scars disrupted the trajectory.

Razor clicked his tongue. He pulled back his sword in an attempt to slice through the leather and draw some blood from a skin wound, but Scars now moved faster. Scars put the weight on his back foot and struck out with his front foot for Razor's knee. The ankle dug into the kneecap and immediately hobbled Razor as his entire balance was kicked into disorder.

Scars freed his arm away from the sword and once again swiped for Razor, and this time, it worked. Blood spurted out of a cut across the chest; the wound was shallow due to Razor's last-moment desperate dodge.

Razor didn't look down at the wound as any moment looking away from his opponent could lead to his death; he didn't need to look down as the warm blood on his skin and pain over his chest told him everything. He didn't appreciate having his body and blood used as a canvas.

As Razor tried to push away to get some space, Scars dropped the kunai in his hand and clenched it into a fist. Razor skipped back, but Scars took a swift fore step and whipped out a body punch. Razor closed his body into a defensive position and brought his block closer to stop the punch, but in the split second before the fist made contact with Razor, he was abruptly pulled away from the punch's trajectory.

Smoking Tiger pushed Razor away behind him as he faced Scars.

"This ain't going to be this easy, young buck," said Smoking Tiger.

———

.

Smoking Tiger brandished his sword as he set himself between Scars and Razor. He couldn't let his partner get taken out in the first bout of the fight— that would most definitely spell the end of the fight.

In truth, he believed Razor was an equal match to Scars. In fact, their team, too, believed that— which was why they immediately accepted when the scheduling office gave them a choice between Razor and another team member. Smoking Tiger was chosen as the aid to provide Razor with the edge he needed and, well, keep him focused and not let things get crazy.

Scars was on an impressive win streak, much more impressive when one considered he had 2v1 sprinkled among those wins. Smoking Tiger could only imagine the rising win-streak bonus he was going home with after every fight. Not only would this win give Smoking Tiger and Razor some notoriety in the Ring by taking down a big shot, but it'll also get them the incentives their team promised them.

Smoking Tiger knew that he couldn't stop Scars, which was why Razor needed to be in fighting condition.

His eyes shifted to Scars' clenched fist that he had saved Razor from. That fist was well-known in the Ring; as far as Smoking Tiger knew, Scars was the only one to use chakra augmentation in the Ring. The uniqueness of it and the damage it could do made it threatening— so much so that many had lodged complaints against Scars and had pushed for banning the chakra augmentations from the taijutsu and weapons category— but they hadn't gotten anywhere with it.

Scars was too big of a draw to restrict now. The people had seen him use chakra augmentation, and if he suddenly stopped using it, they'd be dissatisfied. And he was sure the amount of 2v1 Scars was participating in influenced the management's decision, allowing him to use something everyone else thought should've only been permissible in the ninjutsu category.

Smoking Tiger blocked and evaded a spray of shuriken from Scars but immediately jumped back in when Scars tried to bypass him to get to Razor. He slashed at Scars, who had reequipped himself with a kunai in both hands like he always did.

Smoking Tiger didn't believe he could beat Scars, but that didn't mean he couldn't hold him back. He took charge and pushed Scars back with aggressive swings that Scars effortlessly blocked, but Smoking Tiger was able to push Scars away from Razor… and he was able to create enough time.

Smoking Tiger deflected one of Scars' kunai strikes and jumped back as Scars swung the kunai only for Razor to switch in and block the other strike seamlessly.

"I'm back, baby!" Razor yelled with an expression filled with fervor, blood still dribbling from his chest, but he didn't seem bothered at all. He stabbed Scars and nicked him in the shoulder.

Scars retaliated with a sudden kunai throw at point-blank range that cracked Razor's laugh, but like a madman, Razor completely ignored it and immediately left a deep gash in the back of Scars' right hand.

Smoking Tiger smiled behind his mask, and the moment he saw the gash on Scars' hand, he positioned himself on that side, and the moment he saw an opening, he lunged in with a thrust that ripped through the side of the already injured arm. The arm guard took a chunk of the thrust, but Smoking Tiger was satisfied with it. He stepped back and gave Razor the space, who immediately turned up the aggression to eleven and pressured Scars back while getting a few slashes.

"That's more like it!" Razor yelled. "Today will be a great show."

Scars hobbled back a few steps as Razor landed a solid strike to the calf and almost brought Scars to his knee.

Smoking Tiger saw an opportunity and moved in.

Scars deserved the reputation he had in the Ring as even with his shoddy balance, he parried the next slash from Razor and rolled on his back to evade the downward slash from Smoking Tiger all the while regaining the balance at the end of the backward roll.

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Razor and Smoking Tiger didn't want him to recollect himself and straightaway charged in to pile more pressure on him.

And their efforts paid off as Scars froze up in the face of two assailants.

Smoking Tiger left a gash in the side with a well-placed thrust while Razor aimed a downward slash for the neck that instead caught the shoulder and dug deep due to the momentum and gravity.

'We got him,' thought Smoking Tiger.

But the next moment, faster than he had moved in the fight or the fight they had previously seen, Scars palmed Razor's sword up out of his shoulder while launching a terrifyingly quick palm strike into his stomach that launched Razor back like a cannonball.

Out of pure instinct, Smoking Tiger followed Razor— and instantly realized his mistake— he had looked away from his opponent in the middle of the fight. More importantly, he had looked away from Scars, someone who had just demonstrated that he could use chakra augmentation. Smoking Tiger hastily looked back at Scars, fully expecting to get socked in the face, but Scars suddenly jumped all the way up to the cage surrounding the arena.

———

.

"Chakra augmentation," Kano whistled. "Now, that's interesting."

She wasn't expecting to see chakra augmentation down in the Ring. There were several types of chakra augmentations that affected different attributes, depending on their use case. Many clans held some variant of chakra augmentations that suited their combat style.

Chakra augmentations weren't restricted to clan shinobi. There were plenty of augmentations in the jutsu archives— even though most of them, in Kano's opinion, weren't practically usable— but they were only usually used by chunin who specialized in combat. She was surprised to see a genin in the Ring use chakra augmentation, and from the looks of it, he seemed to be decently proficient in it.

"He could have finished the fight right there," Arisu said, shaking her head.

"That was a mistake." Kano agreed. The one named Smoking Tiger had looked away— a grievous mistake— and Scars should've punished Smoking Tiger for it. It would've taken a single kunai stab in the right place to end the fight for Smoking Tiger. She turned to Razor, who was quaking as he attempted to get up.

Both Scars and Razor were injured, and she didn't know if either had shown their complete hand, so she couldn't predict how the fight would go between the two. Scars was the superior fighter because he was going solo, so if she had to, she would go with Scars— especially with the chakra augmentation he had shown.

"Ring fighters are good at attacking vital points." Given that they were at Ring, Kano decided she could give a quick few pointers to Arisu. It wasn't part of her responsibility, but Arisu was from the Fuma clan, Uchiha's closest allies, and she liked Arisu well enough to help her out here and there.

"It's interesting, you know," Kano said after recollecting the points of interest that had already happened in the fight until then. "Every clan has developed their combat style after years and decades of adjusting, improving, and optimizing to create something unique to them— suitable to their bloodlines and traits. Older clans like mine and yours with old roots in the Warring Era had honed their combat through true combat in the turbulent times of chaos, blood, and death.

It's that pedigree, rich culture, and tradition that makes us better than others."

Uchiha's Interceptor Style, Fuma's Shadow Windmill, and others were developed through long years of effort by entire clans that had accumulated into what they were today, and were continued to be developed by the current generation and would continually be developed by the future generations.

Kano continued. "The Ring is doing something similar. A group of shinobi who learn from each other through repeated combat, which, while not exactly actual lethal combat, is dangerous enough. Each one of them brings something unique to them, even if that something isn't special, due to the nature of combat, people learn even if they don't actively intend to.

In many ways, it's similar to how clans develop their styles. It's not as effective as the methods that the clans have perfected, and the Ring very well doesn't have the pedigree, and it's highly inconsistent due to the competitive and adversarial nature of it all— but they have, without a doubt, created a style of combat flexible enough that it successfully becomes the foundation— a competent foundation— of so many Hidden Leaf genin that go through this.

Observe them, Arisu. Many look down at this place, and they aren't completely wrong, but you can't deny that there's something that you and even I can learn if we want to."

Arisu looked away from Kano and down at the arena. Kano didn't know if Arisu took her words seriously, many in their position wouldn't, but Kano had done her job; now, it was up to Arisu to proceed from here on.

———

.

Smoking Tiger cautiously but hastily skipped back towards Razor while keeping an eye on Scars, who remained hanging from the cage.

"Razor, how's your condition? Can you continue?"

Razor lifted his hard mask above the mouth slit in the ski mask, and spat out blood. He clutched his lower chest in agony.

"I-I can," he coughed, "fight… fight!"

'Did he break a rib?' Smoking Tiger bit the inside of his cheek. The place where Scars had punched had bruised horribly. It didn't look good. This kind of injury wasn't optimal, but if it was only as bad as it looked, Razor could continue to fight. Plus, they, too, had injured Scar, and if his time hanging on the cage and his lack of attack on Smoking Tiger, it seemed they had done significant damage.

There was a sudden burst of cheers from the crowd that made Smoking Tiger look back. Scars had dropped down from the cage and was now standing in the middle of the arena, staring at them. Beside him, Razor stood up and took his sword that Smoking Tiger had retrieved.

Smoking Tiger spoke, "I have a plan; we should—"

"Shut up," Razor snarled and recklessly charged at full speed toward Scars.

"Razor!"

"I will kill you!" Razor screamed as he drew his sword, bloodlust oozing out of him.

Scars threw a trio of kunai at Razor, who effortlessly deflected them with his sword.

"How dare you make me—" yelled Razor.

"Razor, look out!" Smoking Tiger tried to warn.

Razor hadn't noticed that right after the kunai, Scars had thrown a surujin (a rope with weights on each end) in their shadow. The rope directed by the weights caught Razor's legs and rapidly wrapped around them, snapping them together, and tripping Razor down to the ground.

Razor fell.

Scars ran toward his fallen opponent.

Smoking Tiger ran towards his partner. Alas, he was much slower than Scars. Scars reached Razor first.

Razor tried to swing his sword at Scars, who dodged and kicked him in the face. A kunai appeared in Scars' hand, and he immediately used it.

Stab! Stab! Stab!

Blood spurted out of Razor's shoulder. He screamed as the same kunai dug into his side. And before he could react, Scars stabbed Razor's thigh and dragged the kunai down to the knee, leaving it there.

By the time Smoking Tiger reached them, it was clear that Razor wasn't going to be continuing the fight.

Scars looked up, and Smoking Tiger froze when he felt the cold eyes pierce him. He felt a bloodlust blast his body, and it felt like someone was stabbing his body with a hundred kunai. Compared to Razor, who was a maniac for blood, it felt on a completely next level.

He got a very strong sense that there was a real possibility that things could go terribly wrong and end with his death.

He couldn't believe that he had considered Razor and Scars on the same level.

Smoking Tiger immediately jumped back and raised his hand in the air, declaring forfeit. His heart leaped in his throat when Scars ran after him with Razor's sword in his hand.

Fortunately, Scars stopped the moment Smoking Tiger declared forfeit, and a sharp horn shot blared through the arena, announcing the end of the fight.

Smoking Tiger couldn't calm his heart well past after the fight had ended.

———

.

Takuma laid with his eyes closed in the medical room while Sango treated his injuries.

He had made an egregious mistake. He had frozen during the fight. He might have very well knelt in front of his opponents and given them free swings at him. He had panicked.

In that moment when Razor and Smoking Tiger were upon him, the image of two sword-bearing fighters had overlapped with the memory of the two Hidden Frost shinobi who had almost killed him in the Land of Frost. Something in his consciousness had made the connection.

He clenched his fist. He had defeated the Frost duo; he was alive while they were dead— even if Razor and Smoking Tiger triggered that memory, it shouldn't have elicited that reaction from him. But the truth of the matter was that it did, and that fact unsettled him deeply. It didn't help that one memory dragged more memories out to the surface.

It left an undesired taste behind.

"Hey, ease your arm," Sango said, displeased.

Takuma took a deep breath and eased his body, but it didn't help ease what he was feeling.

"I found what you told me to find out," Sango said after she was done patching him up.

Takuma opened his eyes and looked at Sango.

Perfect.

This was exactly what he needed to take things off his mind.