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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.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to Patreón @
[ https://www.patreón.com/fictiononlyreader ]
The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
Takuma sighed as he knocked on the heavy metal door, uncharacteristic of a grocery store's back door. The sun had long set down, and he was hungry because he hadn't had the time to have dinner— but here he was, hungry and exhausted after a day's worth of hard work, most of it spent outside under the sun.
He heard a pair of footsteps that abruptly stopped. The slot in the door slid open, and the man behind the door sighed before opening the door. Unfortunately, the guard behind the door wasn't the only one in the corridor; another man stood in the middle of the corridor.
He and Takuma met eyes, and almost straight away, the other man clicked his tongue upon seeing Takuma and walked past him, exiting the building with a displeased face. Takuma didn't say anything or acknowledge the man and simply fixed the mask over his face that imparted him another identity.
The fact that he hid his face didn't sit well with many of the dealers under Ryuu; they didn't like to be so closely connected to someone they didn't know anything about. Takuma couldn't blame them, and as long as they didn't mess with him, he didn't mind facing their displeased reactions from time to time. However, if they tried to disrupt his business, he would find where it hurt most and strike them there.
Ryuu's grocery store acted as a front for his drug dealing business. The first floor ran a profitable grocery business, while the basement was the drug shop that racked in even more, selling a commodity with a demand that never seemed to dwindle.
Takuma walked down the familiar stairs to the basement almost every week to renew his stash; it was a bother to visit every week, so much so that he had arrived today to increase his order so that he could cut his visits to every other week.
In the basement, one of Ryuu's men acknowledged Takuma.
"Late, aren't ya, Tobi." While many disliked Takuma, he wasn't without 'friends.' Some people were civil with him, and he usually only interacted with people.
"Work's a bitch," said Takuma, his voice distorted. He handed the man two thick stacks of cash and told him the order.
"Oh? This is more than usual," said the man as he counted the cash, "and you're getting more of the better stuff today, huh."
"Got me a few folks who can afford the better stuff," replied Takuma. There were different strains of weed, some more potent, some providing a different experience than others— people had their preferences, and they had their budgets. Recently, Takuma had found a few clients who could afford the better stuff, and he was more than happy to fulfill their demands because the better quality always had a better margin.
The man took out the produce, weighed it, and packed them in zip-lock bags before handing them to Takuma, who double-packed them in heavy-duty zip-lock bags. With the exchange done, Takuma was about to leave when the man spoke to him,
"The boss wanted to see you."
Takuma looked deeper into the large basement, where a small office made from sheet metal stood. After their first meeting, Takuma had only met Ryuu occasionally̦— once a month on average. Other than those, he usually only dealt with Ryuu's underlings who worked directly for him.
"Why?" asked Takuma. "Did he say why he wanted to meet me?"
The man shrugged his shoulders as he marked some entries into a ledger. "If he did, he didn't tell me. You should hurry, it's already late, and I doubt he'll be happy if you keep him waiting much longer."
Takuma sighed. He was tired and wanted to go home, but he couldn't say no to his supplier. He walked to the office and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
Takuma stepped inside the room and was immediately hit by a sweet smell lingering in the room. His eyes went to a candle sitting in the corner of the room, releasing wisps of smoke. It was a special-made candle, crazy effective at getting rid of smells— one of Takuma's best-selling accessories that he had to buy from another shop to sell to his clients.
"You wanted to meet?" he asked.
"Sit," Ryuu said from behind his desk. He read an old leather book with a title that Takuma couldn't spot because of the faded leather. "How's the business going?"
"Decent," said Takuma.
Ryuu chuckled, "Don't say that to other people."
"What's this about?"
"In a hurry, are you?" Ryuu looked up from his book.
"It's getting late, and I'm sure both of us want to return home now."
"That's why I like you, kid. So straight to the point, it's refreshing," Ryuu closed the book and looked up at Takuma. "I want you to do something for me."
"I refuse," Takuma directly shot down the topic. "We are supplier-and-dealer. I pay you upfront, and you give me the product. There's no need for anything to be added to our dynamic."
"Well, things change, kid. It's the natural world order," said Ryuu, unperturbed, "and if I say I want you to do something for me, you don't have a choice in the matter."
Takuma's eyes narrowed behind his mask. "What if I refuse?" he asked.
Takuma didn't see this coming. Until he had stepped into the office, nothing had given him any inkling regarding the current situation. He would've prepared in some ways if he had seen it coming. Even though he didn't know what Ryuu was asking him, Takuma did not doubt that it would be bothersome.
"If you refuse, we end our little business right here," said Ryuu with a smile. "I like you, kid, but you aren't an easy one to work with. In our business, trust is everything— and there are things that give substance to that trust, which you don't really have. I love working with you, and you're a good customer, but the fact remains that I know nothing about you, and you know everything about me— who I am, where I work, who I deal with…. That's not fair, don't you think?
Simply put, I need the incentive to put myself at this risk."
Takuma felt his heart grow heavy. He had finally begun to feel comfortable with dealing and had built a good amount of repeat customers who were coming back in their cycles, which brought him a reliable income.
He had moved to a new stage in his career and life— however, things hadn't changed much from before. Before Takuma had joined Iruka's team, he was like any Genin Corp genin who took a comfortable base pay and tried to bolster it with a day-in-day-out series of D-rank missions that paid peanuts.
Then Enomoto gave him the ticket to the Ring, another avenue to additional income— which he didn't see for three months, but at that time, he didn't have a need for it, and when the bulk pay hit, he had utilized the mission points to buy himself a new set of shiny jutsu while keeping the cash in the bank to collect some interest. However, that money wasn't given the time to collect as the entry to the Ring's weapons category brought an additional expense in the form of Sango's treatments. With a bump in lethality, he needed support that would allow him to keep fighting and maintain a normal life, but that support was costly, and it quickly ate into that cash pool sitting in the bank.
If it were just that, Takuma wouldn't have many problems. His other source of income was enough for a comfortable life— not one of luxury and indulgence, but one where he wasn't sacrificing basic creature comforts— the stable infusion of C-rank missions under Iruka brought an income higher than most Genin Corp genin.
However, he had more expenditures. Ring provided him an opportunity to improve his combat prowess while earning— other skills weren't so 'giving.'
Improvements cost money.
Learning new things cost money.
If he wanted to work on his shurikenjutsu skills, he needed to book training facilities with moving targets, plus the buying and maintenance costs of kunai and shuriken that would chip and bend after repeated use. Locksmithing required him to buy new locks to keep himself up to date. Working on safes had him pay experienced locksmiths for their time and access to safes to practice on. Training facilities for his work towards seeing in low visibility while fighting with the Hidden Mist Jutsu cost money. New high-quality maps for cartography were costly as he built his collection (and maps weren't the only things he had gotten in the habit of collecting).
Takuma was even learning how to ride a horse on the weekends because no other shinobi seemingly knew how to, and he thought it to be a unique skill in case he needed to pretend to be a civilian merchant. He had recently enrolled himself in a class that taught how to work a field radio for communication and had bought himself a second-hand radio for practice that took a lot of space in his small house. Similarly, he had worked on Morse Code proficiency during his first year as a genin, which had similarly cost money.
He attended the first-aid and other field emergency treatment classes in hospitals for practice because the last time he had stuffed gauze into an open wound in a foreign land, it was overly messy, revealing that attending those classes once wasn't enough and that he needed practice. Those classes were quite affordable, but they still cost some money.
There were ten other things that poked tiny prick-sized holes in the water bag known as his ryo reserves.
Working in the police force came with yet another set of requirements that had him learn new things—the training period had felt like he was back in school with a lot of theoretical (and practical) learning regarding how to investigate and process crimes and the shinobi law.
He had books that the Police Force gave him free of cost, and his status as a shinobi and Police Force member granted him access to the general shinobi libraries and the Police Force archives— but that didn't mean he didn't need to buy new books which he always needed on hand due to their importance. Those books, once again, were expensive.
In this world, Takuma realized how lucky he had access to the internet, where he could access a seemingly infinite amount of free information and knowledge at his fingertips—without that all-important utility, accessing various resources cost money if he wanted to learn anything.
If he could choose one motto to live his life by, then it would be Maruboshi's words that Takuma spoke to himself every day:
'—A shinobi is more than the chakra he wields—'
And thus, he couldn't stop learning.
He couldn't afford to let go of the drug dealing money because it freed money that enabled him to continue learning. The Police Force might have been a big step forward for his career, but when it came from a monetary standpoint, Takuma had only gotten a 15% pay hike from his Team Iruka days— the Police Force had used their reputation, and the current political unrest to lowball their new recruits, who couldn't say anything in the face of the great opportunity they were given. Takuma was one of the lucky ones, the special recruits, who had gotten a pay hike— most of them were either earning as much or in some rare cases lower than before.
He was satisfied with what the Police Force did for his resume, but he really expected them to pay him more.
Mission points might be an important currency in the world of shinobi, but cold hard cash (ryo) still made the world go around. Civilians and practically every career genin preferred ryo because the former couldn't use mission points, and the latter no longer used mission points as much.
Mission points could be used to buy equipment and other things, but Takuma had decided to earmark every single mission point for jutsu purchases— and nothing else.
He had even fucked himself in the short-term by the terms of his Ring contract. It was biased towards mission points over ryo. From per-fight winnings, to win-streak bonuses, his contract made sure it would maximize his mission points. It was good for him in the long-run, but not so much when he looked at the short-term.
As it stood, Takuma was not living paycheck to paycheck with close to no ryo savings, but he cut it close every month— and he didn't care about savings that much as he thought investing himself was better, but that didn't mean he didn't understand the importance of saving money for a rainy day.
Streat dealing, with its lean margins, had finally begun to grow to a level that he could actually save a little bit.
He weighed the pros and cons, and the result told him that the best possible thing for him was to stay with Ryuu and continue. Changing things now would halt his business, tear his clients away from him, and would set him back several steps that would be a pain to climb back up.
"So be it," said Takuma as he stood up. He would build his business back up. "Short it may be, but it was a good run. I wish you continued success."
He would go to Enomoto and have the chunin introduce him to one of the other suppliers under Enomoto. Ryuu wasn't the only one who bought from Enomoto; there were a couple more suppliers who bought from Enomoto.
"Did you ever think why Enomoto brought you to me?" Ryuu asked as Takuma turned his back to him. Takuma paused with his hand on the doorknob. "You've been doing this long enough to understand how unique your position is. Do you think someone else would be willing to work with you without knowing your identity? Do you believe Enomoto would vouch for you another time?"
Takuma bit the inside of his cheek.
He couldn't deny Ryuu's pointed questions. In the several months he had been dealing, he hadn't met a single dealer, no matter the supplier, who hid their identity as he did. It was because of Enomoto's vouching that Ryuu accepted Takuma. And as Ryuu said, the chances of Enomoto vouching for him another time might not work if the supplier didn't want to work with Takuma. Enomoto couldn't –wouldn't– force them. It was bad business.
"As far as I know, I was the only one even willing to meet with you when Enomoto told us about your condition," Ryuu continued. "How do you think it'll look to others on the outside when they see me and you fall out?"
It'd be terrible.
As Takuma began to rethink his decision, he realized that he was being overly optimistic. His one advantage had become the biggest hindrance, keeping him from moving on.
At the same time, he didn't want to slow down his progress as a shinobi. He was in the Police Force, and from his chance meeting with Naruto, he knew the little blonde was already in the academy. Takuma didn't know when the Uchiha massacre would happen, but he knew it was close. He had to keep learning; make himself more valuable.
"Sit down, kid. If you leave now, even if you agree later, the offer will be closed," Ryuu said. "The way I see it— you get to keep your identity a secret, and I get a little something out of it. Disagree if you will, but this is your best option. You're a shinobi; treat me as a patron and what I ask you as a mission. It's simple if you look at it that way. In return, just like a patron, I'll pay you in the form of a discount on the product."
Takuma disagreed wholeheartedly, but he sat down.
"What's the job?" he asked.
"I want you to deliver something across the village."
"Why can't your people do it?"
"Because my men are known for their association with me. We can't be connected to this. You, on the other hand, are an unknown; change your look a little bit and drop the package at the destination— nothing more, nothing less."
"What's in the package?"
"The less you know, the better for everyone," said Ryuu.
"This has been great." Takuma stood up. "I'll not do a job if I don't know everything about it." He understood where Ryuu was coming from, but after the Land of Frost, he preferred to know more, even if that knowledge later became a curse later on.
Ryuu didn't say anything.
Takuma shrugged and moved to exit the office. It was a pity that he would no longer be able to work with Ryuu, as that was the most stable thing for him in the drug business. He knew that the chances of getting another supplier were on the floor.
Even if he revealed his identity and became like every other dealer wouldn't work because when people knew that he was in the Police Force, they wouldn't touch him with a ten-feet pole.
It was over… he would find some way else to earn more, or else cut down his classes.
"Soldier pills and other medicinal mixtures."
Takuma's lips curled briefly up behind his mask before he turned back and sat down.
"Who's the recipient?" asked Takuma.
"You're to drop the package in a location. Someone will collect it after you're gone," said Ryuu.
Takuma let the room sit in silence as he matched his eyes with Ryuu.
Ryuu sighed, "Are you sure you want to know, kid? Sometimes it's better not to know and leave things behind."
"I don't want to do this, but if you're going to have me do this job, I need you to answer all of my questions," said Takuma.
"The Maiko Triad," answered Ryuu.
Takuma's eyes narrowed when he heard the name. He knew about the Maiko Triads from both his time as a dealer and from the information binders he had to memorize during the Police Force training period.
They were dangerous people; some very not nice shinobi.
Takuma's eyes shined.
"Alright, let's do this," he said.
"I knew you wouldn't refuse me, kid," Ryuu's words along with a few chuckles followed Takuma as he walked out of the office.
Takuma looked up at the starry sky outside and sighed as he lit a blunt.
He had agreed with Ryuu, but that didn't mean he was going to do it. From the looks of it, he most probably was going to do it— but not before he paid Enomoto a visit to see if he could get some help from that avenue before he was forced to fulfill his commitment.
He felt twice as fatigued as before, but his appetite had been thoroughly killed.
.
———
Chat with me and the rest of the community on our DISCORD server.
The link is in the synopsis!
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