Chapter 2 - Mad Dogs Gang

'Kill him!'

'Rip his head off!'

'Destroy him!'

Were the roars coming from the bloodlusted crowd. There, in the middle of a large warehouse, a ring had been erected and two fighters were facing each other in a bloody fight.

On one side of the ring, a huge silhouette stood like a ferocious beast. It was 7 feet tall man packed with bulging muscles and with red tattoos all over his grey-coloured skin. And if he didn't have a fierce appearance already, the flesh on half of his face was peeled off revealing a metallic skull... It was unexpectedly a cyborg... but his opponent had realized that way too late.

On the other side of the ring, in stark contrast with the gigantic grey-skinned cyborg, a rather ordinary-looking Asian teenager was barely standing on one of his feet while clinging himself from the fence of the cage. His fox-themed mask laid in pieces on the ring's floor, his sun-kissed blonde hair was painted red with his own blood, 4 deep scratches gushed with blood on his chest and the skin of his left leg was purple in colour while the shin was bent in an unnatural angle.

'Why did it come to this?' the boy thought desperately.

Two days had passed since he had made that deal with Gotham's vigilante and until this moment Naruto had fought in 3 more matches with the current one being the fourth. It was the final match. Apparently, when Batman gave him 3 days to find an opportunity to shoot Bronze Tiger with the poisoned darts it was because Batman had known beforehand that the final match of the illegal tournament would take place in three days. And Bronze Tiger was a very well protected individual. Not only was he a legendary martial artist in his own right but there was also quite the number of bodyguards surrounding him every time he came to watch the fights.

The purpose of the tournament was not a secret for anyone. Besides the monetary prize, the winner of the final would be offered the chance to become something like an apprentice or disciple of the famed martial artist. Suffice to say that the winner would also have no financial problems anymore under Bronze Tiger's tutelage.

Naruto wanted to shoot Bronze Tiger with the poisoned darts, but so far he had not been offered he opportunity. The only chance he had now was to win the tournament and when Bronze Tiger himself will come into the ring to declare him the winner, he'll make use of the opportunity... but given the present situation, Naruto would consider himself to be lucky if he could even get out alive from the cage. And that's because each round of the match lasted 3 minutes or until one of the fighters was knocked out...or killed. The fighters were locked in the cage-like ring and no amount of pleading would make the judges open it if one of the above-mentioned conditions was not fulfilled.

Until this last match, Naruto had blasted his way through his opponents. With agility surpassing an ordinary human's capabilities and thanks to the martial arts training received from his grandfather ever since he was a toddler he had rarely even gotten hit - that's how he had managed to keep his 'nightly activities' a secret from his older sister. His agility and martial arts coupled with the use of his chakra had made most of his fights end with instant knockouts. Because Naruto only had to get a good hit in and the opponent would be wasted. But in the last match, Naruto had both figuratively and literally hit a very hard metal plate. He had easily dodged the grey brute's slow and wide punches at first and while bearing in his mind the intention to end the match in one hit again, Naruto had pumped almost all of the chakra in his body towards his legs, towards the left one especially. Jumping high up in the air, with chakra boiling fiercely in his legs, he delivered towards the grey-skinned giant's head a marvellous round-house kick - his grandfather called this move 'Konoha Senpuu.'

It was a highly destructive move which with the aid of chakra could even shatter concrete walls... But when Naruto's shin impacted the cyborg's head, it was snapped like a flimsy twig!

At that moment, in the midst of the excruciating pain, his deceased grandfather's words rang at the front of his mind:

'Listen to me, Naruto! The time when martial artists were seen as the strongest hand-to-hand combatants has passed decades ago. Nowadays a serum could offer someone more strength than what an ordinary person could possibly achieve even after a lifetime of arduous training.'

The opponent in front of him was probably not given a serum to boost his physical capabilities, but Naruto had finally understood and was finally forced to accept the truth behind those words. The giant in front of him was even worse than a street punk when it came to his technique. He was simply throwing around punches like a stupid gorilla, relying on his brute force and the iron defence of his body to get the job done. But the disparity in the physical capabilities between him and Naruto was so large that no amount of skill could give the teenager an edge in this fight. That's what absolute power meant. No amount of skill could cover this gap.

Fortunately, after Naruto fell to the ground screaming in pain at having his shin snapped, the giant didn't immediately try to stomp him. Although Naruto was left with the most grievous injury, the cyborg had not been left untouched either. The skin over half of his face had been ripped off and quite a few of the circuits of the metallic part of his skull had been rattled.

It took an inhuman amount of effort for Naruto to not pass out from the pain, let alone stand up to his feet. But he gnashed his teeth and grabbed the fence of the cage with his fingers, forcing himself to get up. In that moment he remembered the lyrics of the song he had listened to 2 days ago:

When your body's screaming out

Get up

And your hope is fading now

Get up

He wanted to scream to pump himself up, but he didn't have enough force to do that. He merely grit his teeth and gripped the fence harder. Right then, the cyborg who seemed like it was malfunctioning smashed his large fist into Naruto's head.

Blood began to gush like a spring from his head and his previously blonde hair was now dyed crimson red. But he didn't feel any pain from the hit. It was nothing in comparison with what he felt from the broken bone in his leg that threatened to pierce through the flesh. His brain was incapable of registering other tactile stimuli besides those coming from the nerves of his broken shin.

'I lost. I'm so fucking pathetic.'

'I'm dying and I haven't even gotten my sister enough money for her to have a chance to live a good life... to get away from this hellhole called Gotham.' - were Naruto's thoughts as he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness.

But the cyborg brute didn't seem content with letting the teenager simply fall unconscious. Although his movements were now slow and robotic-like after the kick to his head made him malfunction, the cyborg's enormous fists began to rain upon the barely conscious teenager.

An enraged scream was suddenly heard above all the excited roars of the crowd:

'OPEN THE CAGE FUCKERS, DON'T YOU SEE HE'S KNOCKED OUT ALREADY?'

The voice came from a 16 or 17-year-old teenager. His black biker jacket and leather pants coupled with the mess of spiky brown hair and the two fang tattoos on each of his cheeks gave him a wild and dangerous appearance.

But the judges were left unimpressed by his shout and ignored him...however, that only made the teenager become even more enraged. No-one ignored the Mad Dogs and got away in one piece! He went to the judges' table and with a roar, he violently smashed one of judges' head into the table. A pocket knife made its way into his hand and with a growl he said:

'Open the fucking cage or I'll fucking slit his throat.' and to show them he wasn't just a bag full of hot air, he pressed the blade of the knife to the whimpering man's neck almost drawing blood.

'Security!' one of the judges shouted in panic but the biker teenager truly wasn't playing around. The knife plunged into the judge's neck and blood began to spurt while the man's screams were choked by his own blood.

Around twenty men suddenly made their way from the 'VIP booth' with guns in their hands and the hundreds of the spectators in the warehouse all started to scream and run away in panic. But once again, there was no hint of fear on the tattooed teenager's face. He put two fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly.

The large doors of the warehouse were suddenly yanked away from their hinges by a bunch of ropes tied to a large Hummer. 30 to 40 bikers with similar fang-like tattoos on their faces rushed in riding their bikes and screaming loudly with crowbars in their hands. They started to run over with their bikes and hit with the crowbars everyone in their way not caring about anyone's identity.

And everyone scurried out of their way like scared sheep. When through the doors of the warehouse two women that were barely holding from their leashes fifteen large Pitbull dogs came the bystanders were all terrified.

It was in moments like this one that the scum of Gotham and the interlopers all understood why the Mad Dogs Gang from Chinatown was one of the most dangerous factions from Gotham City's criminal world.

Bronze Tiger had wanted at first to jump into the fight to settle down everything with his own hands but when he saw the fifteen bloodthirsty Pitbull dogs he changed his mind right away. He could deal with 4 maybe even 6 or 7 of the dogs if they were to pounce on him but with 15 bloodthirsty beasts at the same time? That was suicide. The suitcase with the money prize was left with the judges of the match but he left it without looking back. It wasn't like losing 100 thousand dollars was that much of a hit for him. Bronze Tiger was a worldwide known top martial artist and assassin. This sum of money was only pocket money for him.

The cage covering the ring was lifted right away and the younger of the two women let go of the 7 dogs she was holding.

'Rip that fucking bastard to shreds!' she shouted and the beasts couldn't be any happier to comply. They understood who were they were supposed to rip apart because, from the two beings in the ring, they were familiar with the smaller one. He was one of their master's friends.

With a howl, the bloodthirsty dogs plunged towards the grey-skinned giant and bit from all over his body, savagely ripping off entire chunks of his flesh. These were not ordinary Pitbull dogs. They had been carefully bred and trained by the gang for generations. It was to the point that the Inuzuka Family that controlled the Mad Dogs gang even had the backing of the Military thanks to providing them with such powerful and intelligent fighting dogs.

The giant never stood a chance. In less than 10 minutes all that was left of him on the ring was a metallic half of a skull and a titanium arm. Even the blood was licked clean.

Unbeknownst to anyone, during the chaos created by the attack of the gang of bikers, a black shadowy silhouette slipped away on Bronze Tiger's pursuit.