"You said you wanted to have a fight against powerful enemies if you were allowed, right?"
A ferocious smile emerged on the leader's face, not that of a predator, but that of a warrior, as he understood what Kaida was asking.
"I did, didn't I?"
"So how about a small spar, to see if you are really as strong as you say." Crack, crack Kaida said, cracking his knuckles. From their conversation till now, Kaida got one thing clear: these guys didn't want to kill him... yet. And since he was getting a chance to fight an opponent of similar power level, where he didn't have to focus on keeping his trump card hidden—why would he miss this chance?
"Well, I have a reputation to save," the leader said, and with another howl, all of the wolves made a circle big enough to spread across the area of three football fields.
"I was only talking about sparring with you, not the whole pack, you know that right?" Kaida asked with a small chuckle.
"Hahahaha, don't worry! They are only doing this to watch. We don't spar like you humans. In our pack, if the alpha is challenged, he will have to accept the duel, unless it is done by an enemy—at that time the whole pack will just kill the enemy. And since you are not an enemy, because you are not killed till now, the first rule will apply to you. You will now have a duel with me, and whoever wins will be the alpha or leader of the pack," the leader said, getting ready for the fight.
"Hey, hey! I don't want to be the leader of the pack. Heck, I already have way too many responsibilities on my shoulders," Kaida said, now cursing his big mouth.
"I love how you think you can easily defeat me already. I have not maintained my position as an alpha for so many years for no reason." The air around the leader became heavy, rich with bloodlust and anger.
Thankfully, Kaida already had an encounter with such an attack, so he was not that affected this time.
"I'm not saying anything like that, but can we not put your position on the line, please? It is too one-sided. Look, I have not placed anything on the line," Kaida said.
"Hmm, that's true. So how about this: if I win, you will handle the food supply of the pack for a month? I know people of the Land of Fire are rich, so I guess you will be able to do that?" the leader asked, a little impatient with all this talk.
"Hah! Yeah, I think I will be able to do at least that much," Kaida said, seeing how nonchalant his opponent was. He also decided to let go of his worries for now.
Both of them stood next to each other, ready to make the first move.
Awooooo All of the wolves surrounding them howled at the same time, which served as a starting signal, because the leader jumped towards Kaida at that moment exactly.
Covering the distance of 50 meters in a second, there was no chakra involved in his movement—just pure physical strength. With his jaw wide open, the leader directly went for Kaida's head but stopped just a few centimeters away from it.
"Nice try, kid, but to fool this nose, you have to try much harder," the leader said, looking at his left side. The image of Kaida vanished from his front and appeared there.
"Man, you are resistant to genjutsu?" Kaida said, already making hand signs, and Poof a shadow clone appeared next to him.
"Interesting. This one is not a fake, but how?" the leader said, carefully looking between Kaida and the clone.
"Humans have also made some progress in all those years you have been resting here," Kaida said, as he started making another shadow clone while the first one went to engage the leader for the meantime.
It was a completely physical fight, where the clone used Iron Skin jutsu to make sure that it would not suffer any premature dispersal, and then engaged in a fist-to-claw fight with the wolf.
"Quite daring of you," the leader said, dodging the perfect uppercut by the clone with a speed that should have been impossible for someone of his size.
But the clone didn't stop its attack at that. It swiftly used Body Flicker jutsu to appear next to the wolf, throwing another punch to the belly of the behemoth. But before it could even complete half of its motion, the wolf turned and swiped its claw, which was more than twice the size of Kaida's fist, toward him.
Both attacks collided with each other in the middle, and the result: Poof
"So this copy of yours gets destroyed when it suffers some damage. Interesting," the leader said, looking toward Kaida, once again surprised to see not one but five exactly same opponents standing in front of him.
'To find out that in just one fight. Nice,' Kaida thought, ready to send the next attack.
"Just how many of these can you make?" the wolf asked, dodging the double attack from two clones this time. They were wearing metal gloves this time, the ones with metal knuckles which promised a broken bone on a good punch.
"Around 150-200 or something," one of the clones said, continuing the attack, this time using chakra to increase its speed and power, making it harder for the wolf to dodge with just physical power alone.
"Great, but I fail to see the benefit of them when they are so fragile," the wolf said, and Poof, poof two more clones got dispersed.
But it was not the same as the first time. This time, he had to use chakra to increase his speed to deal a decisive blow to the clones.
"Oh, I'm just using them to find out your cards. According to my brother, in a fight, the one to show all of his cards first loses," a clone said, taking out a bunch of shuriken as two other clones got ready to go on the offensive once again.
"Then I should be winning, as you have already shown this trump card of yours, and mine are still completely hidden," the wolf said, easily dodging both the punches and the shuriken with his new chakra-enhanced speed.
Poof
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," a clone said, trying to land a punch on the wolf, only to get dispersed because of the slash from the claw.
"Hey, how long are you going to keep using these small fries? This is getting boring," the wolf said, dispersing the last of three clones.
"Then let me make this interesting for you," a clone said, as the wolf made eye contact with him, only to realize it was surrounded by five shadow clones, each of them making one hand sign after another.
"Interesting."
As he said this, five clones released five different jutsus:
Fire Release: Fire Stream Jutsu
Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu
Wind Release: Divine Mountain Wind Jutsu
Wind Release: Wind Blade Jutsu
Earth Release: Earth Spear Jutsu
A barrage of attacks cooperated with each other so well that it became a sea of fire, with three lethal attacks hidden, moving toward the wolf from all sides. But opposite of what one might think, there was a smile on the wolf's face—the game was just starting.