Chapter 13: Arena in Kiri

The good news was that we left for Kiri the day after the negotiations. The headache-inducing bad news, though, was that the ball of fat sent his second son, that I will refer to as the second ball of fat Jr, with us to Kiri. And wasn't that the irony?

Two second sons of Daimyos on a journey towards Kiri. Now, if only he wasn't such a pervert and stopped demanding my 'servants' to service him. I got bored of rejecting his demands already and was really close to just smacking the fat outta him.

It took us five days to reach Kiri because of the lazy pace his caravan set. It would take ten but fortunately, he relented and made his caravan speed up after I threatened him that if the girl dies in the prison, there will be no payment, and instead, I will make sure the Kaminari razes this country to the ground!

The unimportant ball of fat aside, the security in Kiri was strict. We were searched from inside out, Kumo emissary or not. Well, clearly, these chunin-ranked guards never encountered a proper seal master. As if they could find anything I tried to hide. Humph.

We were led to the best hotel in Kiri and accommodated for free. A perk of being 'a guest of Daimyo'. Of course, we had to wait until the meatball speaks with Yagura, Yagura reports to Obito, and Obito decides what to do. Sigh. Politics...

We had time. So, I decided to stroll around the Kiri. You know, get the views. Well. They had an arena in the village. The curious thing was that the timetable for it was completely filled. After a few offhanded inquires I found out the Kiri ninja can pay to fight prisoners to get experience and a percentage of the spectator fees which would make them quite the sum, in the end. The fights are, of course, to death. It's basically an execution. If the prisoner wins, he survives until the next time. While barbaric, the village gets a lot of money from it.

I paid for a spectator entrance for me and Kagura and we watched the 'show'. The other 'servants' were probably discreetly scouting Kiri or something. Not like I care.

The show was quite disappointing though. They were having genin exams and well, watching barely trained kids killing each other was quite revolting. The crowd though was cheering loudly.

I watched three rounds and became quite bored when they announced the next fight.

"The next genin hopefuls are Kiriko vs Gema Rukko!" The proctor shouted.

"Show what you are made of, kids." He lifted his arm up "Start!" And swung it down.

Everyone cheered for Rukko-boy. Well, not having a surname meant being an orphan so the girl wasn't very liked.

Both were quite frightened but Kiriko snapped out of it first and started running at Gema. Which was idiotic because the boy was clearly physically stronger.

I sighed in disappointment when the boy jumped at the speeding girl with kunai. That was the moment something magical happened. The girl tripped. No. The sly fox just pretended to trip. Gema's eyes started to widen in delight as he thought he won when the falling girl twisted herself in the air and pulled senbon from her hair and accurately threw it at him as she was falling. His gleefully widened eyes widened even more. This time from pain. He stopped in his track and fell down because the long needle ended up going right through his crotch.

The boy screamed in pain and the audience winced as the girl collected herself, stood up, and jumped back while pulling a shuriken from her sleeve, throwing it at his chest in caution. Hah, she made it seem as if she aimed for chest and actually hit his throat because she 'missed'.

What a clutz! But, no. I had senjutsu chakra naturally mixed in my reserves, remember? I knew instantly she wanted to seem like she won because of luck. No, she was not a clutz. She was a fox. Intelligent enough to know that her life expectancy will be very short in Kiri during the civil war.

Showing talent as an orphan would mean being sent on very dangerous missions with little training pretty fast to force her growth. She will either improve faster or die trying. While orphans who are average and managed to become genin are fodder, they give at least some training to them and the missions are not as demanding. Being an orphan was viewed as having no reason to be loyal after all. There were no blood ties to the village and Kiri was not manipulating kids as Konoha. Hence, they didn't want to give them much power. Plus the orphans were expendable. No one would complain or grieve if they died.

"Winner, Kiriko!" The proctor announced results as the boy died from the loss of blood. Kiriko shakenly walked away. Hmmm, she is clearly not used to blood.

Many more fights proceeded but nothing interesting happened. It was either straight out slug-fest or kiddy-fight to the death. Sigh. These kinds of matches could excite only civilians. The kids weren't bad though. Many of the now-dead kids had potential. Sigh. What a waste...

The genin exams ended and we were about to go when an old man next to me called us out.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"Huh?" I mustered all of my enormous intelligence to answer.

"It's not over yet. After the genin exam, there is usually a fight between a few criminals and a jonin. It's a bonus!" His eyes gleamed madly in excited expectation to see blood being shed.

"Ah, thank you. If I may ask. What is your profession?" I asked as I sat down again. Geez, he showed such a lust for blood and sadistic expectations I am really curious about it. Is he a mercenary? Samurai? Thug?

"I am a farmer." He said confusedly.

"Ah, nevermind then." I awkwardly said.

I started to ignore him and as I saw who is going to fight, my eyes widened and a blood-curling grin split my face. Heh, even Kagura got weirded out by my reaction.

In the arena, Ringo Ameyuri prepared to fight twenty prisoners. Seeing my interest, the old man elaborated.

"That is the holder of Kiba! Lately, she is spending all her money to fight against insurmountable odds. Nobody knows why. Everybody says she went completely bonkers!"

"Bonkers, huh." I barely paid attention to him. I saw only her back but the second I saw her I was hooked.

God, her hair! They were done exactly the same as in anime! In real life, it looked even more hilarious! I had a hard time stifling my laughter. At least, until the fight started and she released her killing intent. It was monstrous. The feral woman jumped right into the fray and electrocuted five weakest men in a second. One vs twenty instantly turned to one vs fifteen. This made her opponents frightened and erratic.

She jumped at another poor guy. He tried to hack his sword at her, making her sidestep it and cutting off his sword arm. She didn't manage to finish him off because another opponent forced her to duck. As his blade sailed above her head she pierced his gut with the tip of her left sword and jammed her right one into the throat of the recently de-armed chap in an upward thrust. She was not fighting. No, she was dancing. Never stopped even for a second. The second her sword pierced through his throat she was already springing herself away from them, savagely ripping her swords out of them. Another two men were out of the fight.

Her jump was a well-controlled one. Her back was facing one of her opponents making him drop his guard because of the opportunity to attack her. As his body excitedly started its attack, Ringo kicked the ground hard, pivoting her body to the right side, completely bypassing the guy. She didn't even look at him. Only her left sword was positioned to cut him in half at the gut as she was passing him. Twelve opponents remaining.

As she landed on the ground, the guy's body split into two pieces, flopping onto the ground. She swiped her right sword through the air in a violent arc, clearly aiming at hitting nothing. Her opponents didn't rejoice at her 'mistake' for long though. From the tip of her sword flew an arc of lightning at the furthest opponent, a small woman, frying her from inside out as she shrieked her lungs out. Eleven people remained.

Ringo suddenly bent over and fell to the ground on all four as a harsh cough started to violently thrash her body. Some of her opponents saw it as an opportunity and jumped at her. After all, all is fair in love and war. Eight of them tried to take advantage of this opening.

Ringo was still heaving harshly but her face was split in a massive grin. A barely visible ring of lightning appeared around her as they closed in on her. She forced her body up and rotated to slash her swords around herself in a circle. Her jutsu activated and Kiba swords were used as lightning rods. The weak rings of lightning suddenly burst with power, the circle enlarged and in flash reached from the ground to the sky, frying everything it went through. The eight still standing smoking corpses fell to the ground with a thud.

Three opponents remaining. Ringo's gleeful grin was emphasized by her blood around her mouth. She quickly hid it with her sleeve though and started to rub her mouth harshly into it. She also used her feet to hide the small smear of blood on the ground. I chuckled at the adorable action. Hah, what a prideful creature.

From there the fight was swift. Two of the remaining opponents broke down and jumped into the fray in a desperate attempt to injure her. One from her right side and second from her left. She again pivoted on the balls of her feet, making her body rotate quickly with the swords sticking out. They didn't get to even attack as their heads separated from their bodies. As her rotation ended she again slashed her sword into the air, sending an arc of electricity to the last remaining foe. The crowd burst into cheers as the ground of the arena was dyed red. Game over.

"She is dangerous. Too dangerous." Kagura analyzed the fight with a shudder as she stared at Ringo with narrowed eyes.

I, on the other hand, couldn't stop smiling like a fool as we exited the stadium.