Masochist

"That's it!" Margaret raged after getting up. "I've had enough of you!"

The towering statue began to shift once more as the multitude of wooden hands prepared for another Summit Enlightenment technique.

Arthur sensed the coming storm, so he channeled more natural energy into his weapon. Spinning it, a golden aura trailed at the tip of the blade.

'Sage art…' As the many wooden hands began, he remained resolute on his target. 'Tailed Beast: fracture strike!'

In a single, powerful slash, he then brought the blade down. Invisible slashes cut through the air, severing both the earth below and the very essence of the attack aimed at him.

Each of Margaret's thousand fists met an imperceptible onslaught of slashes that shattered and subsequently broke her Summit Enlightenment apart while sending splinters to scatter in every direction.

But his attack didn't stop there.

A final, colossal slash roared through the battlefield—an unrelenting and fierce wave of pure energy that carved both Margaret and her giant statue down the middle in an awe-inspiring display of supremacy.

Screams of rage and disbelief tore through her throat as she felt her connection to the statue sever before the devastating explosion engulfed her.

Then, the battlefield lay still for a moment in the aftermath.

When the remnants began to clear, visions of destruction unfurled. Arthur spotted the leftovers of Margaret's statue. It was turned to shattered wooden fragments that littered the massive crater.

The smouldering ground beneath his feet wasn't enough to express how this ground battle unfolded.

His focus narrowed as he searched for her to see if she had endured yet again.

Gradually, through the haze of smoke and scorched earth, Margaret finally emerged. Her body was battered, but she was alive.

The offcuts of her once-mighty form had been reduced to ash and ruin—she was out of Sage Chakra.

"No Sage Chakra means no more playing tough, little girl…"

"You… just who the heck are you anyway?!" she gasped, staggering as she tried to regain her balance.

Pushing against the pain, she tapped into the last of her chakra reserves and channeled everything she had left deep within.

"I won't…!" she howled, causing the winds to stir. "I won't let you win!"

Arthur stood, dematerialized his weapon, and brushed his hair while she gathered every last drop of her chakra. Without waiting any further, he rushed at her.

"No!" she cried, but it was too late.

He grabbed her face and slammed her into the earth, creating a mini-crater.

Bang!

Straightening himself, he then looked at the destruction around him. There was a sense of finality. While he was a tad fatigued, he held firm and had more than enough power to deal the finishing blow.

Margaret had fought valiantly, but in the end, wrath could not withstand the light of his tenacity.

Atop of her, he could still see her breathing. Her eyes were closed, yet her breaths were ragged.

'Durable,' he commented to himself after releasing his Angelic Sage Mode.

If he wanted to, he could not only place a Flying raijin mark on her; he could also slice her throat and bury her thirty feet under.

But who was he to go against his virtues?

Then there was the other important factor: this entire fight was being monitored.

How did he know this? Simple: Margaret had Jada's Flying raijin mark on her back.

Since the start, Arthur was careful to execute techniques he thought necessary for this battle. At any moment, if he made the wrong move, one of these players would have intervened by now.

Be it through time traveling, teleportation, or some convoluted plot twist, Arthur was ready for it all. How else had he made it this far into the fight without any interference?

Instead of finishing her off, he began to walk away from the battlefield. Doing so would make everyone mindful of those who dared challenge him again.

Margaret, however, fought against the overwhelming tide of exhaustion. Her body was battered, but somehow she found the strength to rise again. Yet she was barely managing to remain on her feet.

Arthur slowly turned to watch. There wasn't a single sign of admiration on his stoic face.

Here she stood, defiant, with a spirit unwilling to succumb to the pain that wracked her body.

That resilience was something he could analyze like a rare trait in only the strongest opponents he had faced, rivaling even that of William.

But it wasn't just sheer will that fueled her—he understood that her passive healing ability was in play. It was knitting her wounds together and allowing her to stand when most would have collapsed by now.

With a ragged breath, she spat blood onto the ground. Then, raising her head, she fixed her gaze on him and said, "I'm glad, Mr. John…"

Arthur paused, slightly interested by her formal address.

She continued, "All this time, I've been bored out of my mind, but to think this world had someone like you in it. No… To think I could live here and fight people like you!"

Arthur never quite knew who Margaret was. From what he understood, she was an eighteen-year-old girl. And based on her behaviour, she was the type to run away from home at an early age.

But for the first time, he observed her expression closely, noting not just her words but the wild, almost sadistic smile on her face and the reddish tint across her cheeks.

It was a look that hinted at something deeper—an unsettling excitement in the face of pain. It was as if she truly enjoyed this struggle, this pain that he had inflicted on her.

Was she some sort of girl who found gratification from their own pain or humiliation?

Before he could ponder the implications of her smile, she dashed forward at him.

A flash of steel glinted as she brandished a kunai. He swiftly weaved past her, but she continued. Each thrust was met with an evasive move; he hardly needed to think about it.

"It's over, Margaret…" he intoned.

Yet despite his slippery maneuvers, she still sought to break through his defenses. Her strikes were becoming more desperate and more furious.

The two engaged in a brief yet intense exchange of martial arts, but Arthur not once retaliated. He stayed dodging while observing her anxious movements.

Just looking in her eyes, he could tell what she was thinking: 'Why? Why is he so strong? Why can't I land a hit on him? Has someone like this always existed in Naruto?!'

Her mental anguish was clear as she struggled against him. Even after taking so much damage, she was fighting quite valiantly.

Then her fatigue started to show. Her strikes became less explosive, and she was getting slower.

As she launched another desperate stab aimed at his chest, something finally broke within her; she suddenly stumbled as her chakra waned past the point of no return.

She then collapsed and fell to her knees before Arthur's chest, breathless and defeated.

He just stood there like a statue, slowly letting her flop to the ground.

"Looks like you ran out of chakra," he coolly remarked, knowing full well that she wouldn't be able to respond.

It was more an observation than an expectation for dialogue; with her chakra depleted, her healing abilities would render her powerless, and every bit of energy she had fought with had faded into nothing.

Arthur gazed down at her as she remained limp. The only thing that set him off edge was that she was smiling, smiling as if she had enjoyed getting pummeled down—signs of a masochist.

'Worthy of being called the third strongest player,' he quietly thought, turning around.

While he might have stated the obvious, his words weren't laced with respect. She had only pushed him to the limits he knew he could reach.

All this fighting did for him was test his own abilities. Even now, he humbled himself and knew that he still had much more room to improve.

The moment he took a step, three figures emerged onto the scorched field: Jada, Alice, and William—exactly as Arthur expected.

They had been tracking Margaret, consumed with worry, and finally, they caught up. But they were late; she had already lost.

The sight that greeted them was staggering. Arthur stood a few feet from Margaret's defeated form. There was an indifferent expression on his face.

To Alice and Jada's disbelief, Margaret, usually so strong and defiant, lay incapacitated.

Jada instinctively shielded Margaret's body and positioned herself protectively in front of her friend. Alice remained cautiously observant while scanning the man before her. She couldn't tell whether it was Arthur or not.

"I don't believe we've met…" he casually began .

"Get away from her!" Jada shouted in anger while swiping a kunai at him.

He took one hop back and expanded the distance by several yards.

William then stepped forward and, pointing an accusatory finger at him, said, "You're that guy who went after my cousin, Naruto!"

"So what…?" Arthur replied, crossing his arms.

"So what?!" William repeated in frustration. "That was so wrong of you, you bastard! You'll pay for that and what you did to Marge!"

Arthur scoffed, "What would you know about what's right and wrong…?"

Alice narrowed her gaze, trying to sense out who this man really was. Was it really some former delegate of the Water Country turned criminal, or was it Arthur in disguise?

So she inquired, "Just who the heck do you think you are?"

"I'm just a mere passerby," he nonchalantly replied. His demeanour was that of a spectator rather than an intruder who had just incapacitated one of their strongest. "If you really have a problem with what transpired here, do something about it."

Without warning, Jada activated her Sharingan. Her crimson eyes met his cold gaze as she fiercely declared, "You have no right to hurt my friends!"

Arthur could have chuckled at that statement, but that simply wasn't his style.

"In this world," he gestured with a flick of his wrist, "only a select few can dictate how it runs. You lot… are part of that handful. But… you lack any real morale; you lack the fortitude to truly change things."

William had had enough of Arthur's taunts. With a hand sign, he summoned his authentic clones and shouted, "Ya know what? We will do something about it then!"

As they were about to charge in, Jada summoned the massive, ethereal arm of her pink Susanoo to halt their advances.

"Wait!" she interjected.

"What's the big idea?" William demanded.

Ignoring him, Jada focused intently on Arthur and asked, "Marge came here looking for the Akatsuki, and she wound up fighting you instead. So what's your deal?"

"Looks like you're pretty smart," he said.

Before they could react, he then turned on his heel and dashed away.

"Get back here!" the Williams screamed after jumping over Jada's Susanoo and taking off in pursuit.

"Will, wait!" Alice called, but it was too late. In their moment of shock, Alice watched Jada teleport Margaret back to the Leaf Village. "That idiot!"

"Come on," Jada instructed. "After them!"

The two then gave chase.

After escaping the crater, the group was spotted running in a long valley. It was flanked by towering cliffs as Arthur raced forward.

His long strides ate up the distance while he darted around obstacles without so much as making a single face.

Behind him, the sounds of pursuit followed. The many clones of William were the closest. Arthur could tell they were actually putting in effort to close the gap. Jada and Alice kept pace just behind them.

By now, he could tell that Alice was using her technique to mentally relay them messages.

As they thundered into the narrow part of the valley, he leaped onto a rock formation jutting upward and used it as a launchpad to propel himself further.

The Williams stopped just as the cliffs began to narrow toward a rocky passage. When Jada caught up, one William jumped up, allowing her to summon her Susanoo arm and fling him toward Arthur's direction.

He landed and immediately tried to block Arthur's escape. Yet Arthur punched him so hard that his face contorted.

For the moment, Arthur stopped to look at his fist and noticed blood on it. William was definitely knocked out in one hit, but for how long?

It's then that Jada and Alice finally caught up. The other Williamses weren't present.

"Ow!" Willaim said, jolting up and holding his nose. "That freaking hurt!"

The chase was at its climax.

Yet Arthur wasn't even the least perturbed. He coolly tucked his hands into his pockets and rose one leg in a casual stance.

Was he really going to fight three players—an Uchiha, an Uzumaki, and a Yamanaka who could use telepathy—at once?