Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

Later That Night

The sound of eating utensils echos throughout the room. When Orochimaru said that he wanted to talk over dinner, he wasn't kidding. Orochimaru, Sasuke and I are all sitting at a dinning table with steak and BBQ spread before us. It is exactly what I asked for.

It is almost a pleasant sight. You know if it wasn't Orochimaru, Sasuke and I being the ones eating. We make the strangest picture ever.

First there is Orochimaru, a pale snake like man who is constantly eyeing both Sasuke and me with unadulterated glee.

Second is Sasuke, a pretty boy with an attitude to match. He's eating like royalty would, with proper manners and elegance. He keeps sending me questioning glances, almost as if he thinks I'm angry at him.

Then there is me, the strange kid in sunglasses even though we are indoors. I'm openly staring at both of the others and hopefully not displaying any emotion on my face.

This is not how I expected my defection to go. Quaint home cooked meals with the leader of my new village is the last thing I would have possibly imagined. I expected fire and brimstone before this.

We eat in silence, no one wants to talk. Well, Sasuke and I don't want to talk. I am pretty sure Orochimaru is too happy to form words coherently.

Eventually Sasuke cracks, he asks me a question. "Alvarcus, I didn't... uh... hurt you earlier today did I?"

Ah, that would be why he is acting like I'm mad at him. "Not too badly. I've had worse."

"He speared your heart out with an A-rank assassination lightning jutsu and your reaction is 'I've had worse?' Oh you are just a treat!" Orochimaru chimes in and ruins my plan to hide that fact from Sasuke.

Sasuke's whole body tenses. "I really did do that then. I wasn't sure, it seems hazy. Like I was looking at everything through a think fog. Almost like it wasn't me, like I was an observer."

"Quit the pity party." I am stopping this right now. Sasuke will not be timid with me. He will not hold back on me. I won't allow it. "You played with a new power and it didn't end well. Happens to all of us. Hell, I nearly killed myself when I first made my kunai traps."

Orochimaru leans forward in anticipation. "Kunai traps? You have a skill that I haven't seen yet?"

"He uses his chakra strings to launch a kunai that is far away from him. It isn't that impressive." Sasuke blandly informs Orochimaru for me. "What I want to know is how you messed up and nearly killed yourself."

I wince. That wasn't my best moment. "Long story short, the first one I ever made went off when I didn't expect it to and kinda sorta... almost stabbed me in my head?"

Sasuke bursts out laughing. "Really? You of all people almost stabbed yourself in the head? Oh I would pay good money to see that!"

"Oh hush. Like you've never lit yourself on fire before!" I accuse Sasuke.

He haughtily raises his head at me. "I have never done such a thing!"

"Deny it all you want, I've watched it happen."

Sasuke pales dramatically. "But the only time I've done that was when I first started learning the Grand Fireball from my family." A moment of silence follows until Sasuke realizes what he just said. "NO! I mean... uh... crap. I lied?" He says weakly.

Orochimaru clears his throat, reminding us who we are sitting next to. "As amusing as this is, I want to know why you both came to me. What are your reasons?" He turns to Sasuke first and waits for his response.

"Power. Strength. You can make me good enough to kill Itachi, you can help me achieve my ambition. That is my only reason for coming. Konoha wouldn't train me as well as you will." Sasuke tells Orochimaru confidently. He knows that he is wanted here, that there is a spot for him. Orochimaru will not kick him out.

Orochimaru turns his piercing yellow eyes onto me. Man I wish I still had eyes that color, I would be so much more intimidating. That being said, pure black eyes made of threads is very intimidating in its own right.

"I've already told you my reasons for coming. We discussed it at the entrance before Sasuke emerged from his barrel." I skirt around his question.

Orochimaru grins. "Sasuke, you came for Sasuke. I want to know why you came for him. I already know it wasn't because you wanted to be trained by me, the Sound Four made that perfectly clear when I debriefed them."

This will be one of the stupidest things I've ever done. I'm going to be honest with Orochimaru.

"I came because Sasuke will need me. Let's get one thing straight right now. I'm loyal to Sasuke first, he is who I will pick over anyone and anything else. You come second, I'll do what I'm told as long as it won't harm Sasuke or me. Then I am loyal to Sound. If you can't live with that, kill me now."

Orochimaru doesn't react for a few second. Those seconds are terrifying. I have no idea how he will react to that, but I know I won't be able to lie to him. He'll know if I am trying to deceive him. I'm gambling with my life.

Orochimaru claps his hands together and has a large grin splitting his face. "Brilliant! I can see now why your team was never split. Either one of you will die for the other without hesitation. You would even tell me that I come second! I've killed many people for much less, but you two are just perfect as a team! Where one is weak, the other excels! I can't wait to see the results of my training."

"When do we start?" Sasuke eagerly asks the Snake Sannin. He's revving to go.

"Tomorrow." Orochimaru replies nonchalantly. "You'll get one last night of rest before you experience The Pit." Why do I feel like my doom is coming soon?

"The Pit?" I question. "Care to elaborate or are you just going to throw us in there? Not literally I hope."

"Kukukuku," Kami I hate that laugh, "The Pit is a process that all of my prospective elite shinobi must go through. It is a massive cave in the bottom of this base. It is where I toss all of my experiments when I am done with them. Last time I counted there are around one to two hundred down there. Every day food for three quarters of the experiments is provided, they fight it out between themselves to see who eats. The strongest feast, the weak die off. It is a wonderful process."

Sasuke has a crazy gleam in his eyes. "And how long will we be down there?" Is he looking forward to this?

Orochimaru takes a bite of his steak. "A month or two." He goes back to eating like he didn't just tell us that we will be in hell for months, literally fighting for food.

"Well that sounds fun." I sarcastically retort. "I better have another piece of BBQ. It'll be a long time before I can have food this good again." I grab two, just to be safe.

The Next Morning, The Entrance to The Pit

"This is The Pit." Orochimaru gestures at the deep hole in the ground. "Only I know how to let people in or out, there is a barrier set up around the entrance to insure that the experiments stay put. Can't have them running around wild."

"Of course." I blandly reply. "This isn't a zoo."

"I'm glad you understand!" Did he not know I was kidding? "Now, once the barrier is down you need to jump in. The fall is only around twenty meters, you should survive. Don't try to leave before I come get you, the barrier will... deal with you."

Orochimaru flies through some hand signs too quickly for me to memorize. I glance at Sasuke, he shakes his head no. Damn, he missed them too. The barrier deactivates.

I calmly walk behind Sasuke. "Remember that one time when you pushed me into a stream?"

He whirls around. "Alvarcus don't you dare- YOU ASSHOLE I HATE YOU!" He yells back up at me as he falls down.

"Oh sweet revenge. I'll cherish this moment forever. Did you see the look on his- OI WHAT THE HELL!" I fall down into the pit after Sasuke.

"Kukukuku, I will cherish this moment forever."

Bottom of The Pit

I land on my feet with a dull thud. Instantly I feel a hand grasp my shoulder. "Alvarcus, tell me one good reason why I shouldn't hurt you." Sasuke squeezes down hard.

"Because Orochimaru pushed me down after you?" I weakly offer. "I can't believe he did that, who would have guessed the Snake Sannin had a playful side? Okay, maybe playful isn't the right word."

Sasuke squeezes harder. "I don't believe you."

"Ow ow ow! Why would I lie about that? Come on man! I'm probably the only one down here who won't attack you!" He releases me. Thank Kami, he has a death grip.

He sighs in defeat. "You're probably right. So, got a plan?"

"I have an idea or two. It depends on how big of a target we want to make ourselves. We could suck up to the strongest one here and use them to get us food." I say while rubbing my abused shoulder.

"No." Sasuke cuts in. "I will not be a minion for something down here."

"Then we become the strongest." I say with a smirk. "We should take a day or two to observe how things work then get a better plan together."

"Fresssssh meat?" A raspy voice calls out from the dark. "We haven't had fresssssh meat in sssssso long. It'sssss juicy and tender." Sasuke and I turn towards the voice.

"Their plan won't work. They think they are strong? Strong enough to become the strongest? No, they need to learn their place." A surprisingly feminine calls out from off to our left.

The two unknown people step into the light. Correction, one steps and the other slithers.

Who I assume is the first voice can no longer pass as human. Their entire lower half is the body of a snake. The torso is male and the entirety of his body is covered in dull brown scales from the tip of his tail to his face. He even has a forked tongue that tastes the air every few seconds. Creepy as hell.

The second voice, the feminine one, is a scantily clad woman with horns and bat like wings sprouting from her back. She also has a tail that extends out of the base of her spine. She has dark red hair and pointed incisors. She's a succubus. A literal succubus. I wonder if Orochimaru planned that? Do succubi even exist in the lore of this world?

I turn to Sasuke. "Or we could just beat everyone down here into submission right now. That works too."

Sasuke grins and his eyes flash crimson. "I like the third option. Let's do that one."

"Dibs on the hot one!" I call out.

"Uh... Alvarcus? Which one is the hot one? They both look disgusting to me." Sasuke asks.

I look at him with disbelief on my face. "Dude. How is that a question? Option A: Demon woman wearing kinky leather. Only thing that could make that better is a whip, that would totally complete the look. Option B: Naked snake-man. Take a wild guess. Here's a hint, I'm not into men or snakes or any combination of the two."

"You wish to fight Gina?" The demon woman asks uncertainly.

"You Gina?" I ask back. She nods in confusion. "Then yes, I want to fight you. I have a bad history with snake-men. The last one I met shoved me down in here. Still processing that to be honest."

"And I still don't believe you." Sasuke dryly retorts. "Orochimaru isn't the type. He's definitely more of a 'kill you then let your corpse fall down with a sickening splat.'"

"Gina is confused." She turns to the snake-man. "Gina thought that fresh meat is supposed to be easy pickings? The fresh meat isn't scared of Gina and Apodora."

"They will learn their place!" The snake-man, Apodora, says while rearing up to a shocking three meters. That snake body really adds on the height. He lunges at Sasuke like a striking cobra.

Sasuke steps out of the way and turns to me uncertainly. "Should we kill them or just beat them into bloody pulps? I mean if we kill them they'll never bother us again, but if we just beat them they'll talk about us to others."

Gina rushes towards me in a burst of surprising speed and at a very extreme angle. Her tail must be helping her keep balance. Her clawed hands rake towards my face and I calmly lean back. I don't even move my feet.

"Let's just go for bloody pulp this time. Who knows what is down here, they might have friends. We shouldn't try to piss everyone off on our first day. Actually..." A devious grin makes its way onto my face. "we could do exactly that."

"It would certainly make it memorable." Sasuke agrees with me while lazily side stepping Apodora's quick snake lunges.

"It is decided! Let's go kick some ass!" I roar.

Sasuke and I drag our beaten and broken bodies off to a defensible alcove along the wall. We're covered in bruises and blood. Most of it is from those we defeated.

"Let's piss everyone off he says. It'll be fun he says." Sasuke groans in pain. "I hate your plans. I really do."

"Hey you agreed to my plan. You could have said no." I spit out a tooth. "Gross. That's not even my tooth. How did that get in my mouth?"

"That's disgusting. I'm fairly sure it is from that wolf man you fought about an hour or two ago." Sasuke rolls onto his back with a pitiful noise.

"I never bit anyone today." I plop down next to him. Jiongu or not, I am tired and sore. I've never fought that long and hard before. "I'm a shinobi. Shinobi don't bite."

"He bit you in the throat. Must have left a tooth behind."

"Yeah that fucking hurt!" I rub my tender neck. What kind of an animal does that? Oh, right. Wolf man, that's kinda obvious. "Did you see the surprise on his face when I ripped his jaw off? It's like he's never seen anyone live after having their throat ripped out. Good times."

Sasuke grunts. "That's probably because he's never seen anyone live after having their throat ripped out." He groans in pain again. "You have to be one of the freakiest people down here."

I lean against the wall, giving me a good view of where someone would attack us from. "Have you seen some of the weird creatures down here? How am I the freakiest?"

Sasuke flops his head in my general direction. "They look strange and have unique bodies, but you are literally made of threads. You surprised the things down here. Do you have any idea some of the stuff that they must have seen?"

I grimace. "Fair point. How many of them did we go through? I lost count when I was around forty three? Or was it forty five?"

"I have no idea. I think between the two of us we did half of what's down here?" He coughs up some blood. "Orochimaru said anywhere between one to two hundred. Last number I remember is sixty five. That was at the four hour mark. How long did we fight for?"

"Feels like days. Five or six hours I think?" I grimly reply. "The real question is why did you tell me to not use any high level jutsu, chakra strings or thread monsters. Hell you even limited your Sharingan usage! What was that about? We relied on basic taijutsu and that was it!"

"I didn't want the observers to know everything about us." He spits out a glob of blood. "We didn't fight the smart ones yet. They watched and learned about us first."

"Ah, you planned ahead. Smart. I still think we could have beaten everyone here if we didn't hold back."

"Of course we could have. It would have been child's play." There's the trademarked arrogant Uchiha tone. "I still want to know how many we went through. Let's figure we both got around seventy five. That's one hundred and fifty. So we beat three quarters. Not bad for the first day down here."

"Gina counted one hundred and seventy four." Gina's voice adds to our conversation. "Gina counted after her defeat." She adds on matter of factly. "Only twelve of them died."

She walks into my line of sight. I stand up and place myself between her and Sasuke. He's down for the night, it is up to me to defend him.

"Hello again Gina. Did you need something?" I ask politely. There is no reason I can't be civil, even if we were attacking each other five to six hours ago.

"Gina wants to know if you need help?" She asks uncertainly, as if she's afraid we'll lash out at her. "Gina knows some medical jutsu, she can close wounds and fix limbs."

That could be extremely useful. Sasuke has seen better days, he could use someone to patch him up. Plus then I don't have to do all of the heavy lifting when it comes to defending ourselves for the next few days as he heals.

I don't look away from her and call out, "Sasuke, your call. I know I'll be fine by tomorrow."

He huffs in annoyance. "How quickly can you kill her if she tries anything funny?"

"Sasuke, if she hurts you she won't get a quick death." I smile sweetly at Gina. "It'll take hours before I finally let her have that sweet release." I don't plan on torturing her, but she doesn't need to know that. A little misdirection never hurt and it will make her even more cautious around us if she is scared of us.

My plan worked, she pales dramatically. She's almost as pale as me now, which is saying something.

"Gina means no harm." She readily assures us. Still she looks ready to flee at a moment's notice. "Gina was a medical kunoichi before, her combat skills are small. That's why Gina attacks fresh meat, they are usually the weakest. Gina can't defend herself from some of the creatures down here, she needs protection."

"Oh, I get it now. You watched us fight and win against everyone that opposed us, hell we didn't even kill most of them. You know we're strong so you want to stand in our shadows and reap what we sow." She's trying to do my second plan, associate with someone strong and hide in their shadows. That's awfully smart of her, she knows that she doesn't have any physical skills to help plead her case so she's bartering with the one thing she does have. Conveniently for her, that happens to be one thing Sasuke and I are lacking.

Gina nods her head. "Yes. Gina is not a fighter, she's a healer." For all of Sasuke and my skills, we're talentless when it comes to healing.

"Sasuke, your call. It is you who she will be healing." I leave it up to him.

He sighs in resignation. "Fine. Get over here before I change my mind."

She smiles and happily bounces over to the prone Sasuke.

"Alvarcus, if you even think she's trying something funny, cut off a limb or two." Sasuke's steely cold voice yanks all of the bubbliness out of Gina and her happy smile fades.

I lay a hand on her shoulder as a warning. "Right now we don't trust you. You'll have to earn that. Heal Sasuke and we have no reason to attack you. Cross us and do something malicious to him and... use your imagination. He and I can be very creative when we want to be."

She nods briskly. She's still nervous around us. Good. "Gina is going to start now." Her clawed hands turn green and Sasuke visibly relaxes.

"She's good." He says after a half hour has gone by. "The pain is already almost gone. I'm impressed, it isn't usually that fast that the pain fades."

"You don't have severe wounds." She calmly says as she works on a rather long cut on Sasuke's forearm. It's always fascinating to watch medic nins work, to visibly see wounds seal themselves close and leave no trace behind. "Gina is not doing much. The worst is minor internal bleeding, Gina has fixed that already."

She continues in silence for another ten minutes. Neither Sasuke or I disturb her work.

The green glow fades from her hands. She stands up. "Gina is done!" She turns to me with a questioning look on her face as she meekly extends out her hands. "You next?"

"Can you regrow skin? That is all I need. I've taken care of everything else." She nods.

Sasuke sits up against the wall as I lay down for Gina to start working on me. Her hands reach out to me and start to glow green. She sharply inhales and stares at me.

I look right back at her, but what I see doesn't really make sense. There isn't a shred of pity in her eyes nor is there any kind of empathy for what I must have gone through. Neither is there confusion about her misreading what has to be the diagnostic jutsu like I've come to expect. No, the only thing I can see in her is wonder. She finds me amazing.

"You used the diagnostic jutsu didn't you?" Sasuke asks. He didn't even watch her, all he heard was the inhale of breath.

"Gina did." She pauses. Quietly she asks me, "You have five hearts?"

"Yep. Now you know why I only need my skin back." This is new. I've never had a person react this way why they discovered what the Jiongu did to me.

She start to work on me without any further questions. She's done in only a quick fifteen minutes, I was missing a lot of skin. My neck is smooth again -minus the scar from Samehada, that isn't going away. Even the newly made skin is still marked by a jagged white tear- and she patched up my shredded arms and legs and a few rents and gouges on my chest and back.

"Gina is done!" She calls out happily. "Can... can Gina stay with you two? Gina promises to be useful! She can heal you both!" She sounds desperate.

This goes beyond trying to use us to survive, she must have endured truly horrific things down here. Orochimaru usually only uses scum for his experiments. Murderers, rapists, bandits, thieves, and who knows what else. That means that this place, this Pit, is full of criminals. Anyone who isn't prepared for this kind of lifestyle would be scared senseless by the atrocities down here.

I turn to Sasuke. "I'm game. It would be nice to have someone to fix you up."

He snorts at me. "She fixed you up too."

"Yeah, but I didn't need to be fixed up. You did." I accuse Sasuke.

"Jerk." He turns to Gina. "Yes, you can stay." Gina starts to jump around happily. "I can't believe I agreed to this." Sasuke mumbles to himself.

"It helps that she's easy on the eyes." I suggest. "Although, she doesn't look like Ino. I know you two were a thing."

"WE WERE NOT A THING!" Sasuke shouts. "Ahem. We were not a thing."

Holy crap! Could it be? Has Ino actually managed to woo the stoic Uchiha? "I don't judge. Ino is hot."

Sasuke blushes madly.

"Oh my Kami you did! You actually went after Ino!" I can't believe it! I never would have expected this!

He turns even more red. "It was only a few times." He mumbles under his breath.

"Sasuke you scoundrel! A few times!" I wipe a fake tear off of my face. "I've never been more proud. So, how was it? She a good kisser?"

"Oh shut up!" He lobs a rock at my head. I lazily dodge it, he wasn't trying that hard to hit me. "Can we not talk about this now? We are in the middle of a creature infested cesspit of carnage and death where we literally have to fight for food."

"Fine, fine. I'll let it drop." I smirk at him. "I'm still going to grill you for details later."

"Whatever."

The Next Morning, The Pit

"Oi. Alvarcus get up." Sasuke prods me with his foot. I took the first watch and he did the second.

"Mmmpf five more minutes." I intelligently reply.

"Get up now. We have a visitor." This time he kicks me.

"Ow! I'm up dammit I'm up! Quit kicking me! I was awake after the first one!" That bastard got me a good five times. "Great, those are going to bruise. Did you have to aim for my face?"

"Ahem." A voice I don't know echos through the air. I turn to face the unknown person. "My name is Hiro." Hiro is a bird-man. He's covered in feathers and has talons for feet. His eyes have huge pupils, so he can probably see very well in these conditions. Thankfully I have the Jiongu for eyes, it can adjust just like his if not better. Sasuke has the Sharingan, enough said about that.

"Sasuke."

"Alvarcus."

"Gina." Oh she is still around. I forgot she stayed with us last night. Was that night? The Pit has no sunlight, so I have no idea.

Hiro bristles at Gina's introduction. Interesting, is there bad blood between them, or is he mad that she got to us first?

"I will be blunt: I want you two to work for me, to be a part of my faction down here. I'm one of the strongest people here, I've been here nearly the longest. I know how things work, I can help you survive."

"No." Sasuke blandly says to the bird-man.

Hiro's feathers puff up. Most likely from agitation. "You both are new, fresh meat. Without protection you'll die. I offer that protection, I will teach you how to live in The Pit."

"No." I say this time.

His feathers ruffle even more. "What ever she has told you is a lie!" Hiro angrily points at Gina. "She has no talent! She's weak! She won't be able to protect you! She's a bottom feeder! She'll get you killed!"

"She didn't promise to defend us." Sasuke says in a bored tone. "Besides, you saw us yesterday. Do you really think we need protection? No, you're here to get us to protect you."

The bird-man's feathers slowly lie back down. He must have remembered that he is trying to recruit us. "You don't know how things work down here. Sure what you did was showy and made a statement, but that isn't the best use for strength. Even if you have strength, which you both most certainly do, you aren't using it right."

"Bullshit." I call him out. "Down here strength is everything. The strong feast while the weak die. We're strong, we will feast like kings. And you, if you're lucky we'll leave you some scraps." He bristles at my words. "You seek us out for your own ends, you want us to further your power. You need to understand something here birdbrain. We aren't pieces on the game board, we aren't even players. We're the Game Masters. The strong will make the rules and the weak will follow them. And you, you aren't strong." I start to let killing intent waft off of me. Not enough to scare him away, but enough to make him wary. "Run along little birdy, the cat has come to play."

That does it, Hiro finally loses his temper. "I WILL NOT BE TALKED DOWN TO BY FRESH MEAT! I CHALLENGE YOU TO A PIT DUEL!" He roars at me.

I laugh. "Pit duel? How lame. Couldn't you come up with a better name for that? Let me guess, a fight to the death. One on one. You vs me."

He grins sadistically. "Yes. It is one of the rules down here, consider this a free lesson in how things work. Anyone can challenge anyone. Once a Pit Duel has been issued there will only be one that walks away."

"Cool." I nonchalantly say. "Where we doing this?" His feathers lay down a little. He seems unsure, confused. "Oh, I get it now! You think that would scare me! You thought I would beg for forgiveness and plead for you to let me go." His feathers are completely down, he looks much smaller than he did when he first approached us. "You were wrong. Let's duel. Right now."

"Let's not be so hasty!" He tries to stop me.

I walk right past him towards the open center of The Pit. "Well?" I call out to the surrounding people. They must want to see the fight since there wasn't a crowd here moments ago. "You heard his challenge. I accept. Or will you back out? Will you be a coward?" I'm goading him to fight me. I want him to. I will make an example out of one of the 'strongest' down here.

The crowd roars in approval of me. Soon Hiro is pushed through them and is standing across from me. Quite a crowd is gathering around us, these Pit Duels must be their form of entertainment. In that case, I better make this a good show.

Sasuke calmly walks up to me. "Alvarcus, don't reveal too much." That is all he says.

"Whenever you're ready birdbrain." I taunt Hiro.

He lunges at me, talon raised ready to rake across my chest. I calmly snap my hand forward and bat his leg away. He follows up with a flurry of punches and kicks. I don't let any connect. I'm toying with him, he is as threatening as a new gennin fresh out of the Academy. In other words, not at all. I start doing more and more dramatic dodges. I start flipping out of the way instead of stepping. I roll along the ground when I could have leaned out of the way. I dramatically bat away punches and kicks when a simple tap would redirect them away from me. I want everyone watching to know I'm not trying at all. The crowd loves it.

Each attack I dodge they cheer. Each flip I do they howl in approval. Each punch or kick I swat away they jest at Hiro. I let it go on for a solid five minutes before I catch his next punch.

"I'm bored now." I say with a yawn. "You were boring. Are you really one of the strongest down here?" I snap his arm like a twig. He crumples to the ground. "Well that was a waste of time. And you wanted me to work under you? Please, I'll be running this place in a week." I calmly walk over to him and place my foot on his neck. His eyes widen in fear, his hands flounder against my leg. I push down.

"You've made your point."

I hear footsteps from behind me. I casually look over my shoulder at the person who is interrupting my fight. He's also a bird-man. Interesting.

"What will it take to get you to release my brother?"

The crowd falls silent. This person, he must be a real player. They have a respect for him, a fear.

"I was under the impression that Pit Duels were to the death." I calmly say without removing any pressure on Hiro's neck.

"Exceptions can be made." The newcomer assures me. "We can discuss this like adults, not squabble like mindless beasts."

I let up on the pressure. "What do you offer?" This one, he seems dangerous. Not physically dangerous, but socially dangerous. The others listen to what he says.

"My faction will not attack you. You will not attack us." Murmurs go through the crowd. That must be a pretty big deal.

I look to Sasuke. "We don't want a peace treaty. We want to be kings. He challenged Alvarcus to the duel, he knows the consequences. We decline. Kill him."

CRUNCH

I snapped Hiro's neck.

"DIE!" His brother lunges at me with fury in his eyes. He doesn't make it close to me.

"Chidori." Sasuke puts his fist through the bird-man's chest. Blood flies through the air. He dies a quick messy death.

Silence falls in The Pit. We did just casually take down one of the big players.

"Let's set some rules right now." Sasuke says to the crowd. "You don't fuck with us, we don't kill you. You let us do as we please. You don't oppose us. You just roll over and take it. Then, in a month or two we'll leave and you low-lifes can go back to gutting each other to your hearts content. If you have a problem with that, get out here now."

One person steps forward. A gorilla human hybrid. "You punks think you can order us around? I won't-"

His head thuds to the ground. I cut it off with a wind whip.

"Anyone else?" I call out. No one steps forward. "Good."