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Reward

Ryuu swatted the kunai aside, watching the prisoner dance away. Their Kekkei Genkai was probably the most annoyingly entertaining one he had seen in his month there. She amplified her chakra the more she danced, allowing her to move faster, hit harder, and take stronger hits, on the rare occasions that he could actually land a hit, without nearly as much damage as she should have. And she also wasn't alone. Besides the girl with the ungodly entertaining Kekkei Genkai, there was also a male one with a telekinesis Kekkei Genkai.

The male prisoner, stomped his foot, the ground breaking apart into spears before he swiped a hand, sending them flying at Ryuu. Ryuu jumped, flipping over them and catching one, twirling it as he landed before spinning and sending it hurtling through the air back at the male prisoner. The male prisoner raised a hand, the spear stopping just as the female twirled and jumped toward Ryuu, doing something of a ballet dance now. Ryuu rolled his eyes forming hand seals rapidly before inhaling.

"Fire Style, Giant Fireball Jutsu!" Ryuu shouted before exhaling the fireball at her.

She avoided it, of course, but as she was rapidly moonwalking out of the way of the fireball, the spear the male prisoner had sent back at Ryuu again drilled itself through her rear leg, causing her to scream and trip. Ryuu sprinted forward, flipping as several massive boulders flew under him, the male prisoner trying to keep him away from the female. He ignored the reasoning behind the male's actions, closing his eyes as he drove his kunai down into the female's eye. As he ripped it back out, blood sprayed out, splashing onto his face. He slowly raised his head, staring at the male, Sharingan glowing. The male staggered backward, shouting in fear. Then, Ryuu sped forward, avoiding attack after attack, the man throwing everything his imagination could form out of the ground at Ryuu. Finally, Ryuu reached him, slashing at his throat only for his hand to freeze. The man grinned until Ryuu formed a Chidori in his free hand, driving it up through the man's ribcage from below.

The man dropped and Ryuu tossed the body aside, staring at the blood coating his hand. A door off to the side opened and Ryuu obediently walked through it, walking through the hallways with a practiced ease, reaching Kabuto's experimentation room and lying down, allowing Kabuto to strap him down. One long torturous process later, Kabuto released Ryuu's restraints and Ryuu healed his own eyes, sitting up.

"I'll be by later for your lesson," Kabuto said, Ryuu nodding mutely.

Then, he left the room, again following the dark hallways with a practiced ease, reaching the room where anyone who won and actually killed their opponents was allowed to stay for the night. Compared to the holding cell, it was practically a palace. It had real beds, which had rusted springs sticking out of it and numerous stains that Ryuu didn't want or need to guess about the source of, an actual shower that was actually decent, albeit a cold communal one, and real food, as opposed to the slop they served the rest of the day in the holding cell. Ryuu, since he fought at least three times a week, had become quite familiar with the room. And hated everything about it. The room was supposed to represent a reward for doing as commanded. All Ryuu saw was a reminder that he had murdered at least one person, if not more.

As he stepped into the room, he found both Lena and Max waiting. He managed a small smile. They almost never all got to be in that room together. They weren't alone, of course. There were about eight total. Aside from Lena, there were only two other girls, however. Another reason Ryuu hated the room was the fact that apparently the communal shower made it okay for the prisoners in it to walk around naked, which everyone but Ryuu and Lena did. Even Max did.

Ryuu sighed, walking into the shower and dropping his rags by the door. He turned it on and stood under the spray, watching the blood on his entire left forearm and hand slowly wash off. Once it was gone, he cleaned himself, and used Fire Style Chakra to dry his skin before using the shower to wash his clothes. Then, he got dressed and walked out into the room, ignoring two of the prisoners, an adult male and woman, having sex on one of the beds. It was very far from the first time. Countless times had been in the holding cell, which was horrible because it meant the "couple" was doing it literally on top of others, and once had even ben a man and woman that had been chosen to fight. The man had then been killed by the woman.

Ryuu sat on the floor against the wall and stared at the wall ahead of him. After a moment, Lena knelt beside him, taking his hand.

"It's not your fault," Lena said. "We've been over this. If you didn't do it, you couldn't see Fu again."

"That doesn't make it okay," Ryuu said, taking his hand back. "You're right. We've been over this. Nothing makes taking a life okay. Even doing it because I want to see Fu again."

Lena sighed and nodded as the door opened and Kabuto walked in. Ryuu stood, walking over and Kabuto handed him a scroll. Then, Kabuto left. Ryuu sat down, rolling it open and reading through the information. It was about healing bones, and specific methods of increasing chakra control so that he'd be able to heal injuries faster, as well as other ways to make Medical Ninjutsu more effective. Ryuu sighed, beginning to practice speeding his Medical Ninjutsu up by using his teeth to cut his palm open, then sealing it. Once he had gotten tired of that, he set his hand down, stepping on it before gritting his teeth and yanking, shouting in pain as he snapped his wrist. He gingerly set it on his lap and began to heal it, struggling to get the hang of it, since he only had one hand to use. Finally, he finished, rolling his wrist and testing his hand, finding it completely fixed.

"I understand your reasoning, but was it really necessary to do that?" Lena asked. "And can you really trust him?"

"So long as I follow the rules and help him keep prisoners alive when he needs me, he'll teach me Medical Ninjutsu," Ryuu said before laughing humorlessly. "What a joke. Being taught to keep people alive as a reward for killing. And keeping prisoners alive through experiments just so that they can die in the arena later."

Lena sighed. "Someday, I'm going to find a corpse strong enough to get us out of here."

Ryuu nodded. "I hope so. I hate this place."

Lena nodded and Ryuu lay down on his side, curling into the fetal position and falling asleep. The next morning, they were all gathered up and returned to the holding cell to await their next fight.

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