A hitched breath and an aborted movement to grasp at his cousin was all he remembered as he stared at the body for longer than he knew was wise. Especially when the killer was still out there. His eyes imprinted the image of white hair soaked in blood into his brain.

The shock had swiftly turned to horror, and horror to rage, rage to wrath, and wrath to cold apathy. He would've have time to grieve. That time was not now. Detaching and suppressing his emotions behind the doors he learned to form during his time in ANBU. He analyzed the bleeding form on the ground.

A loud boom that shook the earth drew his attention from Satoru for what felt like the first time in days. The continuous explosions and vibrations forced him to tear his eyes from the body and turn towards the inner parts of the school.

With a stomp of his feet, he moved Leaving the body behind for Nanami and whoever came after to deal with. Geto's cursed energy acted as a beacon to his location. A location he knew his cousin's killer was present in.

He's too late to stop the first swing of the sword. He could only watch. His eyes burning the image into his brain as steel cleaves through Geto's chest at insane speed. The splash of blood covers the man's view for a split second, yet he swings the blade a second time. Knowing the perfect angle to cut.

He's not too late this time.

He bursts into the falling corridor and stomps on the falling blade with his left leg, forcing it into the wooden floor. With a twist of his hips, he spins and slams his right shin into the surprised man's face, hard enough to send him rocketing back out of the falling corridor and into the ruin that used to be the Tombs of the sky corridor.

With one swift movement, he picks up Geto and leaps out. Landing a few meters away from the collapsing structure

"Huh, what is this? The little monster is present too" Waving off dust the muscular man walks out of a hole in the building he was buried in. Cracking his neck as he eyes him up.

He eyes his cousin's killer too. Over six feet tall with a physique that screamed unbridled strength. No cursed energy emission or residual. Feet's are spread out in a casual way that seems languid.

He remembers the speed that almost bisected Geto into two. The resilience that allowed him to survive a reinforced kick to the head and a trip through multiple buildings without a scratch and comes to a conclusion. Close combat against him would be suboptimal. A glance back at Geto's bleeding form reinforces that fact. Yet he didn't have a choice.

"A quiet one? Or does that have something to do with the dead body of your cousin you passed"

Blazing red eyes met placid black set in a face with a sharp smile that was all teeth. He sent his cursed energy through them. Few genjutsu were as good as the one in his right eye. And he had enough hate to fuel this with sheer brute force.

Tsukuyomi

He felt his eye split and morph into its Mangyeko form. Visceral illusions at the tip of his tongue. The cursed energy slipped into the man and when it found nothing to hang on to, it leaked back out of the man faster than it slipped in.

No cursed energy instead of absolute control? How.

With a step forward the man continued unaware of how easily this fight could've ended. "I'm not here for you brat, move aside"

"You killed him didn't you". He didn't realize he had spoken till the man gave him a surprised look. It had not sounded like his voice. That tone, devoid of all inflection. When last had he been heavy with such anger that he was forced to shut down his emotional responses? Shusiu's death.

"Revenge then" the surprise transitioned into amusement "Valid as any reason I guess" With a shrug the man moved. He had underestimated the scared man's speed. Yet the man had also underestimated his eyes.

The sharingan predicted an opponent's movement by reading the flow of chakra and the subtle twitches in muscles and body language. The man's lack of cursed energy made it harder to predict his movements, but not impossible. He saw the Lariat coming, and even with his vaunted speed and reinforcement it took all he had to dive beneath the outstretched forearm.

Rolling to his feet he spun and unleashed a left hook into his opponent's back, but the man had stopped his own momentum with a disgustingly powerful feat of strength and resilience. Slamming his feet hard enough into the ground to crater it, he twisted his hips and lashed out with a kick of his own.

The two attacks hit simultaneously. Where his blow sent the scared man staggering a step back, the kick sent him flying back in an ironic reversal of what happened barely a minute ago.

Flipping mid-air he landed and lashed out with an instinctive kick that forced the man to block in surprise. He had gotten too close too fast.

Against his cousin's killer. There was no time to think. No time to plan. Against his inhuman speed, the only tools at his disposal were his eyes and instincts, and that was why he lasted this long while dodging blows that sent shockwaves through the air and deflecting kicks that shattered what remained of the Tombs Of The Sky Corridor.

The fight was a whirlwind. His opponent's movements to unpredictable for him to use amarterasu. His attack pattern relentless. His stamina even after going through two previous battles seemed untouched and even with his eyes against this opponent, all he could do was react.

Another blow snuck past his guard before burying itself into his rib. The pain of two of them breaking from the impact fueled his resolve to slam his fist into the overextended arm in a desperate bid at breaking the forearm. His exertions forced only a wince from his foe.

He had started flagging. For all his immense cursed energy, his body was just too young. Unlike chakra, cursed energy was too volatile. It was not as suitable for a still-developing child to stress,

He looked into his opponent's eyes and the bright grin on his murderous face as he ducked under a fist and lashed out with a kick to his diaphragm that sent him into the air. He realized something. The man enjoyed the fight. The thrill. The pressure of a life lived on the knife edge. The bloodlust. The opportunity to indulge in combat for the sake of it, and for a second he saw a familiar blue-skinned man in his place.

It resolved back into the black hair and black eyes of his opponent with a blink of his eye. The kick had propelled him into the immense tree that lay at the center of the Tombs Of The Sky Corridor. And the man had dug his hand into the tree to keep himself aloof.

This was the first respite he got since he stopped Geto from going the same way as Satoru and that was all he needed to slow down his perception enough to think.

For the first time, the man was stationary. Unmoving. Amaterasu could end this immediately. He considered it for all of 0.2 seconds before discarding it. The man had leverage and a platform. With his reflex and speed, he could dodge the black fire before it finished emerging. What he needed to do was draw him close.

With a glance at the man's serene breathing pattern, he had to admit what he had suspected earlier. The man was holding back. He had seen his cousin's body. Two different blade wounds. One on his head and the one that almost split him in half.

One of them must have been what pierced limitless, especially with his lack of innate cursed energy. The how was ambiguous but the capacity for it existed. And yet when he looked at the man he didn't see a single weapon, other than the the purple segmented cursed spirit with a baby's face that lay coiled around his torso.

"Enhanced perception and a pre-cognitive sight, those are what your eyes offer are they not" He looked down upon him as he spoke "Yet you're hamstrung by a body too young and too weak to keep up. If you were maybe ten years older maybe this would've been a challenge"

Releasing his grip on the tree, he landed on one of the thick knots of ropes that bound the tree and stared down at him with a tilt of his head and a knowing smile that reeked of arrogance. For all his bloodlust, the man was more analytical than he expected.

He had to buy time, both for reinforcements and for his own risky plan. All he needed was to catch his breath and start twisting his cursed energy into what he wanted.

"Immense strength, resilience, speed, and reflexes at the cost of your cursed energy, how is that?"

With a raised brow that man considered his question. "You're really a child, aren't you? To be unaware of a heavenly restriction. With the way you fought, I could've mistaken you for someone else"

A groan and movement a few meters behind him drew both their attention to the limp form of Geto forcing himself to his feet. He watched as the amusement and interest bled from the man into a soft frown that sent a chill down his spine.

"I don't suppose you'll just close your eyes and let me go would you"

His flat-eyed stare was all the reply the man needed. With another crack of his neck, he continued. "Would rather not kill a kid barely older than mine, but you're not giving me much of a choice. An arm or a leg then. With what you've shown so far, I'm sure you'll make do" With a soft smile and his arms spread out he continued "My name is Toji. Toji Fushiguro. Don't forget the name of the man you're supposed to have your revenge on you little monster"

A whisper came from behind him. A whisper that saved him from losing an arm.

"The cursed spirit"

That was the only reason he looked to his right the moment Toji disappeared from his sight. The sheer speed the man had displayed earlier was ridiculous. But this, this was inconceivable. Without being able to read his cursed energy even before he moved, for the first time in both lives, his perception failed him.

Appearing mid-air in front of him while drawing a one-edge broadsword with a fur hilt from the purple curse's mouth, Toji let out a bastardized laido swing that aimed for his shoulder.

The broadsword was slowed down by a red spectral clavicle and scapula that formed above him, the swing only stopped after parting through three red ribs before halting a few meters from his actual shoulder. The dispersed force of the strike turned the area beneath them into a crater, sending him to his knees and blowing the struggling form of Geto and the collapsed buildings away.

He could not say who was more surprised as he stared into shocked black eyes and could see his own expression reflected in them.

He could feel the dip in his cursed energy, even as naked muscles formed around the skeleton torso that protected him instinctively, With the drain from his susanno, he knew only had enough in reserve for one last strike. The gambit had paid off. Toji was stuck mid-air with no leverage for his immense speed.

With a whisper, he unshackled his hold on the black flames, Amaterasu. He only had a spare second to watch the flames spring up on Toji before his vision blurred with a spike of excruciating pain that went from his eyes to his brain before he was sent crashing into the ground head first. Yet his hearing was clear enough to hear Toji's howl of pain before he was sucked into the empty embrace of unconsciousness.

NOTE

Yeah, Toji has this little thing called arrogance. Can't even blame him considering he can back it up. Usually at least.

If he was not holding back. If he wasn't too busy enjoying the fight and let loose early enough he would've made a hole through Itachi. Reinforcement or not. Or If he used the inverted spear of fuckoff. It would've pierced through the Susanno like a hot knife through butter. A whole lot of If's icl.

Is Itachi going to face the consequences of using Amaterasu and Susanno at the same time as a child? Is Toji going to be devoured by Amaterasu? Stayed tuned to the next chapter (icl I don't know when that's going to be. Got a part-time job that just drains my soul, so no promises for this week or the next)

Anyway thanks for the new reviews, fav and follows.

Vader: Yeah didn't realize Tengen was actually a female. I'm an anime-only follower. Plus I generally ignore Wiki pages cause of spoilers.

Randomguy: No love interest planned. Don't have any idea about writing romance. Might consider it if enough people are interested, but it's not even tangentially a focus for me rn.

Plz don't: you'll just have to wait and see my good lad.

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