"Along with what?" the Inuzuka questioned a moment too late. By then a towering musclehead of some obvious importance was staring her down. Be it by reflex or instinct, the kunoichi was quick to trade glares with the imposing stranger, posture unbudging while frosty hues dared him to say something first. Yes indeed, this was a contest all on its own. "Hmph." Somehow Makoto got away with it too, if the bouncer's approval was any indication.
"Egh! Keep all that number crap to yerself, pup. Won't make any difference when I get started." Three to five? Odds and evens? The terminology flew right over her head. All she cared for was the first opponent and how much exhileration she'd earn for beating them in front of a crowd. Patting Nomura on the shoulder in a reassuring manner, she continued, "Instead of worryin' about that useless stuff maybe ya should pay attention to the fight. Who knows, ya could learn a thing or two when I'm riskin' my hide for yer payday." A fanged grin flashed across her features before she moved ahead, eager to see what this competition had to offer.
"I mean it!" she barked back to Nomura for emphasis, vanishing into the crowd in search of her stage.
When next Makoto emerged into view, she did so on the edge of the makeshift arena, pushing her way past droves of drunkards. She could smell the blood and sweat mixed into the sand, a sense of familiarity washing over her. "ARE WE DOIN' THIS OR NOT?!" came the Inuzuka's brazen shout as she eyed the closest spectators with a furious leer. Hell, she was impatient today.
Makoto's appearance to the ring was understated, with only the bouncer taking notice. A nod of his head, turning to face the crowd as he massaged his throat.
Another man, this one somehow the inverse of the bouncer, came skittering up to the Inuzuka, a rash smile revealing a mouth of solid gold. The nervous clatter of his metallic teeth sounded before his voice did, like scribbles on wall. "We would like to remindyou, of noweapons, partners, executions, or anyblows thatwould dismember orotherwise kill theopponent."
Before the woman could reply, he'd disappear, the resounding boom of the bouncer's voice once again sounding. "ON THE RING TONIGHT, WE HAVE A RETURNING STAR, YOU KNOW HIM WELL -" a lone holler of excitement, the bouncer's bravado all but lost on the crowd, "-SASUKE WATASHIANI!"
Across the ring from Makoto, a rather wide man emerged, two hammerlike fists swinging in excitement, although he appeared to be too dumb to make a resounding speech. What came out sounding closer to diaherrea than speech - "HOOOOOOOOAGH!!" Slamming them forward, the freak man stared at the woman, one word somehow forming on its lips. "brothwer."
"Where the fuck do they get these guys?" I muttered to myself, watching from the crowd. The bouncer continued himself, raising an arm towards Makoto.
"A NEW FIGHTER ON THE OTHER! WHO WILL WIN TONIGHT!?" A hand flew downwards, and the fight would begin.
Rules, rules, rules. Most of them flew right in one ear and went out the other. Makoto already understood the gist of this little fighting game, which amounted to 'no killing' as far as she could tell. After all, if she'd brought her ninken into the ring too then her opponents wouldn't have been able to throw a punch much less put up a decent fight. This way was much more exciting. Much more challenging.
Then she saw her first foe stumble into the arena and Makoto's jaw dropped. "S-Seriously?" It looked like a brain-dead oaf and sounded like one too. Surely this wasn't the caliber of fighter this place got attention for. Somebody was playing a joke, right?
Before Makoto could shoot her pupil a dirty look for getting her into this mess, the match began and the bumbling giant came swinging right out of the gate. The space between combatants shrunk in an instant as the first of those meaty fists went flying, prompting the Inuzuka to duck out of the way. Clumsy as the opponent looked, getting smacked by one of those punches wouldn't feel good.
"That it?" the kunoichi snickered.
Blow after blow rained down on her evasive form, punches slipping right past her dark mane as she sidestepped and slid out of range. The oaf was putting his all into the pursuit, huffing loudly as he continued to swing those huge fists with reckless abandon, clearly thinking himself on the cusp of victory. As a result he swung even harder and barreled ahead more aggressively, pressuring the kunoichi to the point that she was rolling and spinning to avoid contact.
A fist slammed down, followed by another, and another, and anotherererererererererererer- The man's voice drenched in spittle, almost turning to words as liquid filled the air. At first, they started slow, clumsy, easily readable, even by my standards. But something seemed to switch on in those dull, lifeless eyes.
A missed hit? Faster. Stronger. The next few punches started to spray up sand in geysers, several of the crowd finding themselves 'drenched'. Another roar of raw, undiluted rage and - did he get faster? Another swipe of his arm, this one grazing Makoto's clothes, a tear against her sleeve. A snort in seemingly glee, followed by another yell.
"I have no idea how he's doing that." A thought formed, held quietly under my breath. Normally, when someone is holding back, you could kind of tell. Punches weren't given their full force, steps weren't as big as they could be, it was subtle, but noticeable. The man, beast, thing was giving it his all. Each punch from the beginning was at his full strength, nothing left to give.
My usual squint tightened, peering into the arena best I could. "There's no way that thing can use jutsu, is there?"
Makoto Inuzuka | 197 words | what doesn't kill me makes me -
To the discerning eye, one might recognize the brute was using more than physical strength to bolster his assault. Sort of smart, honestly. There was chakra baked into each of those clumsy haymakers, rendering them more dangerous than the average punch. Though it didn't change the fact that his control was rudimentary. Crude. A childish attempt at the genuine article.
"Tch."
Makoto brought her evasion to an abrupt end, feet grinding into the sand as she stopped short to face the foe. A jabbing fist flew right by her head when she did so, displacing her dark mane as the pressure whizzed by. She was gone by the time Sasuke threw that second and third punch, her speed so astonishing that it seemed she vanished from sight. Though in truth, all the Jounin did was crouch down on all fours, disappearing from her opponent's awareness for but a second while she readied a strike from below.
When she jolted back up in a flash of movement, Makoto's fist delivered an uppercut that rang out with a heavy crack. She hit the oaf squarely below the chin and with such impact that he reeled away, arms continuing to flail like windmills. The Jounin dashed after him before he could recover, throwing punch after punch at the same spot with rapid speed. Only when the sputtering oaf finally lost balance from the repeated uppercuts to his face did Makoto relent, calmly watching as the foe collapsed onto his back with a grunt.
Each blow was decisive against the giant. His eyes visibly turning a stark white as they rolled back, arms still continued to swing. As he fell back, one final blow was swung at the Inuzuka woman, spinning the goliath of man as he slammed face first into the sand. For a moment, the crowd felt a buzz of excitement, a stir of the man's form - then nothing.
The crowd fell eerily silent; he was Well and truly passed out. The bouncer appeared from within the crowd to check Sasuke's pulse, a shake of the head confirming the results as he raised Makoto's arm and his voice. "WINNER!" Some among the crowd clapped for Makoto, myself included as I waded near the edge of the arena, fighting elbows and kicks from the rowdier crowd members.
I'd raise my hand to whistle at her, waving with my other. "Congrats!", probably the closest thing to a cheer in the entire crowd. No one was into it tonight, it seemed.
Makoto Inuzuka | 166 words | short one - grab the lead, and we can finish it off in 2 more
Although Makoto didn't take much pride in putting weaklings in their place, a win was still a win. She harbored no doubts that the sputtering oaf would remember this loss for quite some time, whether out of embarrassment or an injured ego. Having barely exerted herself for the quick exchange, she was ready for the next match before the victory could even be announced.
After hearing the praise from her student Makoto simply shook her head, visibly unimpressed with the outcome. "That wasn't even a warm-up. The only part she could find some satisfaction in was perhaps teaching Nomura what *not* to do. The demonstration of skill she was looking for wasn't here. Not yet anyway. "Okay, who's next?" she growled with another leer passing over the crowd, cracking her knuckles impatiently.
"SEND OUT THE TOUGHEST ONE!"
Makoto howled over the noise of the next announcement. Stomping defiantly into the center of the ring, the kunoichi gave off a foreboding presence as her features appeared to sharpen with battlelust. The approach was far from tactful but it was loud. Very loud. Makoto was goading anyone to step forward, though few spectators dared to lock eyes with her ferocious visage.
"Hell. BRING 'EM ALL! LET'S MAKE THIS INTERESTIN'!"
Makoto's display of animosity wasn't particularly well received. If you could call being all-but-ignored received at all. I was starting to wonder why any of them had even bothered to gather - but the less thought given to that was for the better.
"Yeah, uh," my voice trailed off, sifting through the various looks of the crowd. Dazed, angry, tired - it had been a late night, after all. "I don't think they're particularly interested, sensei." A look back at the bouncer, the goliath shaking his head at the woman. Definitely not.
Something felt off. Admittedly, who I'd heard about this place from wasn't the brightest - but that was Kirigakure for you. I almost moved towards the bouncer, the reminder that I had actually won my bet blinking faintly into existence behind a wall of concern for our newly forming situation.
As if on cue, the tiny man with golden teeth scrambled his way towards me, throwing up a small sack of coin. Grabbing it with a flick of my wrist, I noticed the size of the other bets getting returned. A faint tingle shot down my spine. "Let's just get out of here, yeah?" I continued, extending a hand to pull Makoto into the crowd and out of town.
Well this was certainly a first. Makoto had dealt with some rough crowds in her day but she couldn't remember a time where she'd been so thoroughly ignored. Not when she was howling for a good old-fashioned fight among a bunch of shady sailors. Usually a drunkard or two had the confidence to test his luck, or at the very least there'd be some young pup full of spirit who was ready to step up for a challenge
Instead all Makoto got was a ring full of greedy cowards. Pretenders. They were too afraid to take the risk. Wasn't that just ironic? Money was all they played for and yet they were robbing themselves of the real thrill.
"Hmph. Spineless lil' worms, ain'tcha." Makoto spat on the floor, clearly meaning every disrespect to the players and their sad excuse for a game. "Lose a bit o' money an' suddenly ya got no balls?" Nomura had talked their group up like they were worth a damn, so color her surprised to see just how pitiful they behaved in the face of a challenge. Makoto had half a mind to bring their fun crashing down, starting with whoever the ringleader was after she strung them up to a pole. The only thing stopping her from that reckless course was the danger it could pose to her pupil.
"Whatever," she finally sighed, dismissing the sour looks of crowd.
Restraining the urge to lash out at the closest thugs, the Inuzuka joined the genin with a loud huff. "Bring me to a real fight next time, y'hear? All this meek spirit is makin' me sick. Too many thin-necked cowards standin' around." She wasn't the least bit angry with Nomura but her twitching grimace showed how drained her patience had become.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." the edges of my face almost slipped, my hand grabbing hers. The idle grin, shaky as it might be, was important among particular... types of people, and indebted betters were some I considered roughly in that category. Was it worth the coin? Obviously.
The tone in my head found wanting notwithstanding, I began to tug our way through the crowd. A few more dirty looks, and a few attempts at forced conversation from onlookers, and we were once again at the entrance. A cough tickled the back of my throat, cutting into an awkward silence as I let go of my sensei's hand. Idling scratching the back of my neck, a shrug followed as I spoke. "Yeah, that was... Not great."
Rumors weren't always big winners, after all.
Out of the corner of my eye, a rapidly approaching, and very angry, man was approaching. My focus snapped back, turning rapidly on my heel. Before I could speak, a roar enveloped the beach - "WHY AREN'T YOU AT YOUR POST?!!" - the volume almost popping my eardrums. A faint bow to Makoto as a I ran off towards him, almost a 'sorry'. Not much of one, even if it had been sincere. "Coming!"[/font[
Not going to be able to sleep tonight... Bemoaned in the back of my skull, a long night dawdling ahead of me.