191. Fear

191. Fear

After Shino’s match Tomoka just tuned out the rest of the matches. Kiba fought against an Ame-nin and won. The third member of the sound-nins fought against another Ame-nin and won as well. And Gaara murdered the last Ame-nin using his sand burial technique, the idiot refused to give up saying something like he was the last of his team and held their hopes, idiot.

With that only thirteen people were left and three matches remained. Six out of thirteen would need to fight again and it would be decided by luck again. The first set of names to come out were those of Ouka and Shikamaru. The less said about Ouka’s disgraceful loss the better. Subpar taijutsu, good enough bukijutsu, no ninjutsu. Ouka barely lasted five minutes before being ensnared by Shikamaru’s shadow.

Following that sad fight came Gaara against the guy from sound. Fate seemed to hate that guy cause he got killed by Gaara in cannon outside the exams, now... well. He became a mangled corpse inside Gaara’s sand burial setting quite the nasty precedent for Gaara with two matches and two kills.

The last match came and as soon as the names appeared on the screen mad cackling could be heard coming from one Tomoka. That’s right she had been selected to fight again. Not only that but her opponent is the gal from sound. She had many ways to win the match, instead of using a brute force approach she decided to go for something fun, nasty, very, very, nasty but fun.

Taking a small scroll from her weapons pouch Tomoka unfurled it and with a “kai” a puff of smoke later a mask appeared on top of the scroll. The lower part of the mask looked like the mouth of an Oni painted a bright poisonous looking green. The top part of the mask is a simple see through green tinted plastic. Taking the object in question Tomoka attached it to her face before taking a deep breath. As she exhaled green smoke flowed out of the Oni mouth.

That wasn’t all the scroll held, Unfurling it a bit more she once again released its contents. A black trench coat with glowing neon green lines appeared. Unfurling the scroll a bit more again a pair of black gloves with the same neon green lines appeared. Taking those items she put them on before jumping down onto the ring. A devilish smile hidden behind her mask.

“Are the two of you ready?” Hayate Gekko asked, dismissing Tomoka’s sudden change of getup.

“One moment please.” Tomoka said before cutting her finger with a kunai. A few hand signs later a small spider the size of her palm appeared. Many would argue that this isn’t a small spider but taking into consideration the behemoths she could summon it was small indeed.

The spider wasn’t alone though. It stood on top of a rather large scroll. Not minding where it appeared the little thing extended one of its legs asking for payment. With a small chuckle Tomoka gave her a slip of paper before she banished in a poof of smoke.

Tomoka took the scroll and attached it to her back. As soon as the scroll took its rightful place the neon green lines began pulsing with ominous light. With a satisfied nod Tomoka looked towards Hayate and gave him a nod as well. After confirming that Tomoka’s opponent was ready as well, the match began.

“WELCOME TO MY WORLD!” Tomoka’s voice became both amplified and distorted by her mask as green gas flowed out of the palms of her gloved hands. In an instant the entire fighting ring became covered in the thick gas making it impossible to see further than two meters in front. Then a strange song began playing from out of nowhere.

Though its light beckons forth, a melody calls out.

Too late, too late.

As she turned around to flee into the fields of wheat she saw a strange scarecrow hidden in the thick green mist. One of its hands holding a candle lit lamp. Despite the terror and dread she felt her curiosity got the better of her. Like a moth drawn to a flame she approached. A moment later the scarecrow collapsed leaving nothing behind.

“y̶̛̦͖̺͎̰͇̰̙̺̹̭̓͐̆͌̽̽̌͗́̋͒͌̑͗Ǫ̴̲̘͋͒͐̒͝û̶̦̑̈́͛̄͆̀̎̂̚͝ ̷̼̗̩̺̰̙̻̦̤̫̎̂͆̈́̚͜Ḑ̷̨̨̡̛̺̗̬̹̼̼̤̹̪̹̃̈́͌̀̂͠i̷̜̦̮̺̦̥̻̼͆͌̄́̏̈́̽͘͘͝s̸̨̫̣̞͇͇̳͎̪̘̑͆A̵͇̯̣̙͖͖̹͚̟͉͇̬̦͙̰̔͐͘͝p̷̭͖͌͆̍̏̑̃̉̌̓͗̄̈͐̓̕0̵̲̈́͝|̴̱̿̌͜͝n̵̬͈͇̥̘̹͇̣̮̣̜̭̱͔̼̈̅̂̈̄́͋̔͂͗̇͘͝T̴̢̮͋̊̐̿̌͆̈͜ ̷̡̛̛̝̪̼͍͖̖͔̈́͐́̄̒̽̀̒̄͘̚͝m̸̧̱̯͖̰͎̳̹̺̎͆̌̄͋̄̉̐͝Ē̵̡̧͔̹̟̻̭̟̳͕̳̬̒͌̐͜!̸͙̠̺̰͕̭̼͓̰̼̣̝̬̓̉̓̈́̓̉̋̚̚ͅͅ”

Her skin crawled as she heard her lord behind her back, no that wasn’t lord Orochimaru. Even though it was his voice it was too distorted to be him. No it wasn't him, the voice wasn’t even his. This was wrong, this was all wrong. She wanted out, she wanted out, she wanted out!

Turning around she saw the horrible visage of a scarecrow built with scrap. A malevolent gleam shone red through what passed as its eyes. The lamp it held up with a pitch black limb illuminated the horror she witnessed.

The creature was no more than two meters from here. Then the screaming began, the song had continued she hadn’t realized. With the screams the horror lunged at her with its maw open wide its razor sharp metal teeth shone with the promise of death. She joined the chorus of screams from the song as she collapsed into a heaping crying pile waiting for the moment she would die.

The acrid smell of piss flowed through the air coming from the small pool below her. She weeped in terror; she didn’t want to die. She didn’t want that thing to kill her. Her fate would be worse than death. It was irrational but something told her she wouldn’t know peace in the afterlife. She would forever be trapped being hunted down by that creature knowing nothing but fear.

The green smoke cleared to reveal the girl shaking in a corner of the ring. Eyes blood shot as she looked around searching for something. Tears stained her cheeks as she muttered something so low nobody could hear it properly.

Hayate could do nothing more but wonder what the hell had happened inside that green smoke. He had jumped away as soon as the smoke began to fill the area. Thankfully it was restricted to only the fighting ring by Tomoka using a wind jutsu.

“Kin Tsuchi is unable to continue.” As he said this he looked towards Kin to see if she would object. No such objection came, she wasn’t even fully there. Her muttering hadn’t stopped nor did the frantic and paranoid way she looked around.

“Tomoka is the winner.” Tomoka removed her mask and smiled before walking on the wall back to her team. Did she feel bad for traumatizing the poor girl? No, though traumatizing feels a bit too mild, a better word would be break. Kin would never know peace for as long as she lived.