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32.34% Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve / Chapter 109: CH_4.9 (109)

Chapter 109: CH_4.9 (109)

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The link is also in the synopsis

———

.

Takuma watched through the two-way mirror as Kano battered Gorou into a purple-and-blue pulp. The man had bruises so ugly that even his mother couldn't love the swollen and bloody face. Kano had been going at the man for a few hours already, and Gorou had already fainted countless times under the interrogation, woken up, and then thrashed again— but the man refused to speak up.

The Hirano murder case proceeded swiftly after Gorou's arrest. They had blood from under Hirano's fingernails and after matching it to blood samples procured from the man himself, it was clear beyond any doubt that Gorou was the killer. They had the neighbor as an eye-witness placing Gorou on the scene, his blood on the victim, and a charge sheet in the Police Force records telling a history of involvement in the drug trade— they didn't need anything more to put Gorou away for a good few years.

Capital punishment existed in the Hidden Leaf Village and Land of Fire, but the value of life was much different in a world strife with war fought with superhuman mercenaries. Gorou killing one person didn't warrant putting him to death.

No, Gorou had something else planned for his future. If he were lucky, he would spend time in imprisonment, but that was unlikely. Gorou was once a shinobi, and possessed a body strengthened by chakra. Letting an able body be idle in captivity was a waste. Instead, Gorou would be sentenced to a few years as an unpaid 'slave' down in the mines, digging for coal or whatever mineral that needed to be mined out.

Takuma didn't envy Gorou one bit. He had heard stories about how criminals were treated down in the mines. None of those stories had the word 'pleasant' associated with them.

Kano left Gorou alone in the room and walked into the viewing area. She removed her blood-stained leather gloves and slumped down in the vacant chair.

"He isn't opening his mouth," Kano clicked her tongue.

They had already got Gorou for the murder, but they wanted more from him. Kano wasn't beating the life out of Gorou for the fun of it. They wanted Gorou to name someone in the Haru group and implicate them for ordering the hit. But Gorou had kept his lips zipped.

"I would've taken the deal we offered him before," Arisu commented.

They had offered Gorou a lowered sentence, less time in the mine, but he had rejected it and kept his mouth shut, which had led them to use force. They knew the Haru group higher-ups behind Gorou, but they needed Gorou's willing word to create a tie to them so they could progress the matter.

"He's scared," Takuma stared at Gorou. "He knows we won't kill him, but that can't be said about the people from the Haru group…. If he opens his mouth, even going to the mines for a few years won't be safe."

The problem was that Takuma didn't know how to exploit the fear. He didn't know how to either overshadow Gorou's fear of the Haru Group or relieve that fear on a condition.

"We'll try again tomorrow," Kano sighed as she stretched her arms and legs, "and if he still refuses, we move on."

Technically, they were already 'done' with the case with Gorou— getting their hands on someone in the Haru Group was them trying to make something extra of the situation.

"Alright, it's getting late; get out, both of you," said Kano. She turned to Takuma. "Just one last thing. I don't care how you apprehend a suspect resisting arrest as long as you don't damage public property. A portion of the repair costs go out of our budget, and we already don't have much of that. So, let's try not to drain our wallets."

"Yes, ma'am." Takuma understood and did a mock salute.

He wholeheartedly understood where Kano was coming from. The Hidden Leaf Village was always in a state of damage and repair due to the presence of shinobi. Things broke due to careless use of chakra and strength, which made the government spend a significant chunk of the budget towards the maintenance of the village to keep it livable.

Takuma sighed. Of course, in the real world, disparities existed. In impoverished areas such as where Takuma lived, funds often didn't make it through, and when they did, they were insufficient and needed to be stretched, which led to the usage of poor construction materials. The roads around his house had new potholes whenever it rained.

He could kick down light poles, crack walls, dig holes in the ground, and it would be months before anyone would move their ass to fix stuff.

Takuma shook his head and took his leave. He changed into casual clothes in the locker room before heading into the town.

Being a shinobi often turned distance into displacement. It was like marking a spot on the mini-map and heading toward it in a straight line. Takuma avoided roods by jumping roof to roof, avoiding stepping on roads, and occasionally watching the people below him. Watching people go about their lives as he leaped over them was one of his favorite sights.

He soon reached his destination and threw a black ski mask over his face before entering an old diner from the back entrance. The diner was manned by a mother and her son in his early twenties. The back of the diner could be seen through the kitchen but not by the dining area. Both of them saw Takuma enter, but neither gave him a second glance and went back to work.

Both of them were civilians and ran a legitimate diner, but they also hosted one of the entrances to the Ring exclusive to staff members and fighters. He didn't know what deal they had made with the Ring, and he didn't care.

Takuma entered a back room with a huge well-sized hole in the middle. He stepped over the shallow wall and jumped inside. The depth was around twenty feet, and it opened up to a rough tunnel with yellow bulbs lining the ceiling that opened to the familiar corridors of the Ring. He went straight to his single-person locker room that had his gear.

There was a knock on the door, and Scars exited the room to meet the Ring employee.

"Ready?"

Takuma nodded and slowly walked to the arena entrance.

Being rough and heavy-handed with Gorou wasn't just to finish things swiftly; it was also to ensure that Takuma himself didn't get injured. As it stood, Takuma's most important asset was his body; if he got injured, it was an annoying hassle until he got fixed. He moved around a lot these days. Furthermore, he already had an occupation that risked his well-being— he didn't want to add another one.

"… Scars!"

Takuma ran out of the tunnel and entered the cage to the crowd's cheers. He turned a full circle to look at all the people around the arena; it had grown double in size since his first contract days. It no longer came as a surprise to him. His fight spots had improved, making the audience improve naturally— plus, he had a nine-fight win streak, attracting the gambling audience to him.

Takuma stretched his back and rolled his shoulder as he turned to face his opponent, only surprised to see a young teenager standing across from him. Ninety-nine percent of the people he fought were young adults and adults, and there were sometimes people on the cusp of adulthood— but he hadn't had someone as young as the guy in front of him. From the looks of it, his opponent couldn't have been older than sixteen years old.

The question was, why would they pit someone as young against him? This was the 19th fight on his second contract, and he had won 14 of them— a stellar record. And if you include his 42 previous wins, he was still cruising on a sixty percent win percentage.

"… and going against him is the Fall Hornet with a record of 13-15."

'Not even 36 fights,' Takuma frowned.

Takuma put the thoughts aside as the announcer exited the arena and turned his attention to his opponent, Fall Hornet. The fight was in the taijutsu category, which somewhat explained why someone like Fall Hornet had been matched against him due to Fall Hornet still being an inexperienced fighter— but it still didn't why against him.

The moment the doors fell down, Takuma shot toward Fall Hornet, who assumed a stance instead of creating distance between them. If Takuma was Fall Hornet, he would've made a distance between them, given the gap in their record, but seeing that Fall Hornet assumed a stance, he was either confident or inexperienced.

For a moment, Takuma wondered if there was something strange with Fall Hornet and that the guy might be one of the prodigies— perhaps even someone who was in a jonin team. But he put that aside almost immediately. He was on the attack, and hesitating while on offense was the last thing one should do.

He planted his foot on the ground as he pivoted and lashed out a spinning hook into Fall Hornet's side, who went for an arm block. Fall Hornet's legs couldn't keep him on the ground, and he went flying to the side.

Takuma stepped on the pedal and chased after Fall Hornet as he tumbled and rolled on the ground while trying to regain his balance. Fall Hornet regained control and slid back on one knee and one foot. But when he looked up, Takuma came down at him with a punch that knocked him down despite having a block up.

Takuma didn't miss beat mounted Fall Hornet on the waist and rained down strikes on his face while Fall Hornet tried to raise his joined arms to block, which didn't go well as Takuma got in most of his punches.

Crack!

Fall Hornet's mask cracked… another crack appeared… and another… until the bottom left quarter broke away, exposing the black ski mask beneath it.

Perhaps it was panic from part of the mask coming off that Fall Hornet's arm shot up and grabbed Takuma's hands. The fight slowed down as Fall Hornet gripped Takuma's wrists as the latter tried to push his fists forward.

Takuma stared into Fall Hornet's brown eyes, one of which had almost closed up due to the swelling caused by Takuma's beat down. Takuma felt Fall Hornet's arms shake; he put a bit more force, and the arms buckled as Fall Hornet groaned under pressure.

"You should be careful with your hands," Takuma said, his voice modulated with chakra. The next moment, Takuma opened his fist and grabbed Fall Hornet's wrists as he jerked the grip off his wrists. "You'll be in dire trouble if you lose one of your main weapons."

Takuma gripped Fall Hornet's wrist tightly and twisted them the wrong way. Fall Hornet's one eye widened. He began to shake and push underneath Takuma while trying to free his hands in desperation. Takuma felt the bones move underneath his grip before he felt the snaps.

Fall Hornet screamed as he felt his wrist break.

Takuma let one of Fall Hornet's wrists go and launched a brutal elbow strike down on Fall Hornet's face that knocked the lights out of him.

"Scars! Victory!" the announcer screamed.

Takuma stood up and frowned down at his opponent. The fight was easy, which was good for him; it meant more money, mission points, and he didn't have to hire Sango for healing sessions— but he couldn't help but feel a bad taste in his mouth. Now, after the fight had ended, it was clearer than ever that Fall Hornet shouldn't have fought him.

At that moment, he felt like he was Bishop and Fall Hornet was him.

"With this victory, Scars has established a ten-fight win streak, showing why he's one of the rising stars!"

Takuma stepped out of the arena while the announcer hyped him up. He didn't like to participate in the hype as it didn't serve a purpose for him, as he didn't need his ego stroked after every win. But he couldn't lie that the ten-fight win steak felt pretty great— so great that he wondered if he should go out to celebrate.

"Ah, Scars, my prized boy."

As soon as Takuma entered the tunnel, his mood soured upon hearing Tsubura's voice greet him. His mood worsened when he saw the Ring's boss' fat face. He wanted to punch it, but Tsubura's two bodyguards prevented him from making a move.

Why was Tsubura here?

"I must commend you for your stellar performance, boy," Tsubura said with his greasy smile. "You're making people very happy with your fights."

'You mean I'm making you happy with my fights,' Takuma snorted internally.

"Which is why I think it's a great time to take things to the next level," Tsubura continued. "It's time to make good on your contract, boy. It's time for you to breathe some new life into the 2v1 category."

Takuma's eyes narrowed. It had been three months since Takuma had started his second contract with the Ring, and in that time, he had jumped between the taijutsu and weapons categories, accumulating wins on his record. The opponents had gotten tougher, but so had he. The cream-of-the-crop record was proof of it.

Takuma attributed most of it to fear. He had become cautious now that he was in the Leaf Military Police Force; he had become more critical about his safety. He didn't want to walk into training rocking a visible injury and get questioned about it— he could use the training excuse a couple of times, but if it happened repeatedly, it'd be nothing but suspicion.

He believed that the raised stakes had made him better at fighting.

But now, with 2v1 introduced into the fray, Takuma felt the stakes rise once again. He felt the stress grow inside him, but he took it in.

He could do it; he had gotten better.

"It's fitting, don't you think? 20th fight and a ten-fight win streak on the line at your 2v1 debut," said Tsubura. "… I'm glad that the planning went well. Your next will be a memorable one."

Takuma's eyes widened behind his mask.

He realized why he had fought Fall Hornet today.

He glared at Tsubura as the bad taste in his mouth worsened.

.

———

Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.

The link is in the synopsis!


Chapter 110: CH_4.10 (110)

Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @

[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]

The link is also in the synopsis

———

.

Takuma sat on the sole bench in the fighter's tunnel. Beside him stood a Ring employee standing, and one look told how tense he was— anyone would be tense while standing close to Takuma as he was now. Even though his face was hidden behind a mask, and the dark tunnel obscured his eyes, the vibe coming from the body language was heavy and oppressive.

It couldn't be clearer that Takuma wasn't in a good mood.

"… The fight will begin shortly," said the employee.

Takuma nodded without looking up.

His debut in the 2v1 category was supposed to be a 'momentous' day, and he wished to be in peak condition for the fight, but for the past three days, his mood had been in flames ever since his last fight.

If given a choice, Takuma wouldn't participate in the Ring. And while aware of his feelings towards the Ring, he was cognizant of the fact that, as it stood, his life revolved around the Ring. His fights were arguably the most important part of his training, the majority of his income source, the reason behind why he sold drugs, and why he had to be so careful with everything about his personal life. Life could've been so much easier if the Ring wasn't part of it— but he still did it because of his future.

And perhaps it was because of that that Takuma took the Ring quite seriously. Every victory brought money, but every fight also carried the risk of injury and death to him and the opponent— even though every fighter knew not to make mortal strikes, anything was possible in the heat of the battle.

Strangely so, Takuma had developed a sense of pride in what he did. For him, it took a lot of work to perform in every battle. He had to train for it, ensure he was in tip-top condition for the fight, and then actually fight while keeping in mind to minimize injuries to reduce future risk and expenditure. Which made every win precious— making it hard-earned.

So, when he realized that Tsubura had rigged the fight against Fall Hornet to get him an easy win, that pride of his had been hurt. When he should've been happy for the quick and easy no-injury win, he felt the win was cheap. Takuma told himself he was needlessly caring about it too much, but no matter how much he repeated it to himself, he couldn't convince himself not to feel absolute shit.

He didn't think he had been angrier in his life.

He felt insulted.

"It's time," said the employee.

Takuma stood up from his bench and walked to the exit. The announcer was finishing introducing the duo fighting him. He closed his eyes and focused on the crowd's noise and cheers— it was larger than usual, perhaps even larger than when he had fought Ironbull, his biggest fight in the Ring.

The hype surrounding 2v1 was huge. The arena chosen for it was also one of the larger ones to accommodate the capacity. He hadn't been to the Ring since last week, but he had heard one of his clients that he would watch and bet on the fight.

Takuma heard his 'stage name' called and walked out of the tunnel sedately. Immediately, the noise levels rose and hit him like a wall. He didn't look at anyone no matter how much they rattled the mesh walls around him, calmly walked into the arena, and only then did he look around and the crowd was indeed larger, people standing around banging shoulders against each other, screaming their throats out in anticipation of a bloody battle.

Takuma had done public speaking a couple of times, and the eyes of the crowd had bothered him, but strangely enough, the crowd in the Ring didn't do anything for him. He had fought in front of a paltry group of few and a packed crowd— they were both the same. When there was a person in front of you trying to break your bones or stick pointy metals in your body, there was no time to worry about crowds.

He then finally looked at his opponents for the day. Seeing two people in the arena other than him was somewhat strange. He hadn't seen a 2v1 fight due to their rarity; the few times they were held, he wasn't free to go and watch them. Adding one more person made the large arena feel smaller, which was true when you considered how much distance an average person could cover and command.

But he did know his opponents. The Ring informed the fighters about their opponents beforehand. When Takuma was new, the competition he was fighting was bottom of the barrel, so not much information was available about them. However, as he collected wins and the fights got more formidable, the opposition also rose in quality and thus had more details about them due to their popularity.

The Ring staff also got friendlier when he signed his second contract, giving him tips and tricks when he dropped by the offices after every fight. Takuma was genuinely able to understand why Ring fighters joined teams.

He squatted down as he stared at his opponents.

Two men. One of them had a simple red circle on the plain mask where the nose was supposed to be, and the source of his name— Clown Nose. And his partner for the fight— Stonehands, a name that allegedly came from abnormally large hands, disproportionate to the man's height and better-suited someone seven feet tall— big enough to palm a basketball comfortably.

Both of them were on their second contract, each having more fights than him— but they had records worse than him. From what the announcer had announced, it seemed both had a sub-50%-win record.

It made sense for them to have a worse record than him. It wouldn't make sense from a betting perspective if both members of the duo were of the same level as the solo opponent. A balance needed to be struck so that the audience could see both sides winning— two people working together to defeat a stronger opponent or a comparatively stronger fighter edging out a victory against two people working together in tandem— only then would the betting odds work.

Takuma kept his eyes on his opponents, who whispered to each other; because of their masks, Takuma couldn't read their lips, and the crowd noise made it impossible to eavesdrop. But he was able to read some of their body language.

'They haven't made a plan,' thought Takuma.

He stood up and walked towards them as soon as the announcer began to walk towards the exit. Seeing Takuma suddenly move, Clown Nose and Stonehands broke their conversation and moved away from each other, taking positions in a hurried manner.

As it was Takuma's first 2v1 fight, Tsubura had made it in the taijutsu sub-category, meaning weapons weren't allowed. Takuma clenched his fist as his stride widened, and he was sprinting by the time the announcer stepped out.

Stonehands ran forward and stood in front of Clown Nose, who began to move sideways.

Takuma saw Stonehands raise his massive hands into fists, ready in a fighting stance to engage him in a battle. But Takuma didn't slow down, and the moment he was in Stonehands' range, Takuma leaped over Stonehands' head, passing him without a confrontation.

"Wha—"

Takuma didn't look back at Stonehands and zoned in towards Clown Nose, who was taken by surprise. Takuma did a short hop and planted a spinning kick that was blocked but followed by two more kicks before his feet touched, one of which caught Clown Nose in the hip.

"Ugh," Clown Nose grunted lightly, but the kick didn't seem to do much damage as he whipped out a punch towards Takuma's face that he dodged by shifting his head to the side and followed by an uppercut body shot, digging his fist below Clown Nose's chest.

Clown Nose's body folded, opening up opportunities to deal more damage to Clown Nose, but Takuma was aware that he was fighting two people.

He grabbed Clown Nose's shoulders with both hands and fell on the floor, pulling Clown Nose with him before kicking Clown Nose over him. Stonehands, who was rushing towards Clown Nose and Takuma, was again met by an unexpected surprise when he saw Clown Nose thrown towards him. Stonehands had no choice but to catch his teammate instead of attacking Takuma.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

Clown Nose replied. "Y-Yeah, I'm good. Let's—" But before he could even finish his sentence, Stonehands pushed him to the side.

It was because Stonehands saw Takuma over Clown Nose's shoulder.

Takuma took a quick step towards the duo and wanted to hit Clown Nose on his back, but when he saw Stonehands push Clown Nose away, his eyes flashed, and he simply changed the target. His tensed arm shot out with chakra flowing through the muscles, augmenting a devastating strength in the strike.

Bang!

Stonehands' arms raised to block met Takuma's fist. He couldn't stay on his feet and shot back like a cannonball from the force that screamed out of Takuma's chakra augmentation.

The crowd raised a crazed ruckus, filling the underground with an energy that could only be seen in a gladiator arena.

Despite the successful attack, Takuma clicked his tongue. His skill with chakra augmentation had come a long way since he had first broken his arm using it— and the recent fights in the taijutsu categories especially had helped him grow the skill. While he was far from perfect, and the augmentation still backfired occasionally, his control had surged. And with that skill increase, Takuma added another layer of experimentation to the chakra augmentation.

He had begun trying to focus the burst of chakra that surged out on impact in an effort to concentrate the damage into a shorter area.

But it hadn't gone that way right now, and instead of the chakra concentrating into a shorter area, it had expanded, thus diluting the damage over a larger area— which had sent Stonehands flying instead of perhaps inflicting a tiny hair-line fracture into Stonehands' arms.

Takuma didn't ponder the moment and turned to Clown Nose and charged him. They hadn't communicated beforehand, and from what Takuma understood, the best way to manage a 2v1 fight was to separate them and then deal with them one at a time.

Clown Nose had enough time to gather himself and was ready when Takuma came at him, and within an instant, they exchanged strikes with speeds that blurred their arms to the untrained eye.

Clown Nose screwed a punch into Takuma's side, but not without Takuma striking a palm strike behind Clown Nose's ear. Takuma stumbled a few steps due to the pain in his side, but he bit the inside of his cheek when he saw Clown Nose grabbing the side of his head in pain.

He skipped a step forward and launched a taekwondo-styled high side kick that dug Takuma's clipped Clown Nose's chin before digging into the throat.

Takuma felt a wave of exhilaration shoot through him that erased all the anger he was feeling from before the fight. He never knew the feeling of landing a satisfying strike before coming to this world, but after over two years of learning combat, he cherished every time he got to experience a perfectly executed strike. There were few things that could match that experience.

Even before Clown Nose collapsed to the ground, Takuma knew that he was done. And as he expected, Clown Nose crumbled flat down on the arena floor.

Takuma turned away from Clown Nose and faced Stonehands. He didn't rush towards, and neither did Stonehands, whose arms were now trembling. Both of them knew that the dynamics of the fight had changed— with Clown Nose out of the game, the fight was no longer 2v1.

It was now a regular fight— but a regular fight between two fighters who weren't on the same level.

Takuma didn't take the foot off the pedal and charged for Stonehands, who shook his hands and got ready for the clash. Takuma took to the air with his leg stretched forward, but before it could hit, Stonehand's giant claws grabbed onto Takuma's leg, and he swung Takuma around with surprising strength. The giant hand wrapped around Takuma's ankle like a cuff.

Takuma had his entire balance and momentum stripped from him, but while he was being pulled mid-air, his eyes were trained on Stonehands, giving him a place to focus. He bent his knees, and before he was slammed to the ground, he snapped a kick into Stonehands' upper chest.

Stonehands' grip loosened around Takuma's ankle, but the momentum was already enough to slam Takuma into the arena floor, knocking all the air out of his lungs. He freed his foot from Stonehands' grip but was left in a worse position than him.

It took a moment for both fighters to recover before they were back into the fight. Stonehands went for a stomp that Takuma avoided with a roll to the side and immediately struck out with a sweeping kick to take out Stonehands' legs, getting him to the ground.

Takuma immediately rolled to the side and jumped on Stonehands' back, and the next moment, one of his arms snaked around Stonehands' neck while the other arm locked the head in between two arms before Takuma began applying pressure.

Stonehands must've felt the danger from what was happening as he started to thrash around while trying to get Takuma off his back, but Takuma wasn't going to let the opportunity go as he kneed Stonehands in the back while increasing the pressure around Stonehands' neck.

"Rargh!"

Stonehands tried to stand up, and with his superior strength, he was able to stand up with Takuma on his back with legs wrapped around his waist. But the moment Stonehands was able to stabilize himself, his eyes partially rolled up, and he stumbled back for a couple of steps before falling again with Takuma, not letting the pressure around the neck go.

Stonehands hands clawed for Takuma's arm for a few moments before the entire body went limp.

Takuma let go of Stonehands and stood up with labored breathing while looking down at Stonehands and then at the unconscious Clown Nose in the distance.

And then he raised his arm, which the crowd took as the signal to go cause an underground earthquake.

.

———

Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.

The link is in the synopsis!


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