"Ora!"
"Ha!"
Kicks, punches and swift skills of two aspiring shinobi kids cross each other. In front of that teenager, those two kids are giving all their chakra in order to beat the other.
"You're not going to win this time, Toru" Uchiha Sasuke smiled defiantly, with a glint in his eyes full of passion for the fight.
Unlike this kid, Toru just kept his poker face the whole time while evading and blocking Sasuke's punches.
The teenager watching them, Itachi, smiled at seeing the rivalry between these two boys. Little Toru doesn't think so, though. As it were, Sasuke is the one who strives to be stronger in taijutsu.
Bam!
Holding Sasuke's wrists, Toru bumped his head against his and looked him in the eyes. At the same time, Sasuke struggled to break free from Toru's grip while trying to push him away using his head, but this didn't seem to work.
Moreover, Toru's calm attitude at this moment irritated Sasuke, who gritted his teeth hard and stepped back a little and then slammed his head against Toru's a second time.
'¡¿?!' Itachi's eyes widened slightly when he saw blood splattering from the foreheads of these boys. This was no longer training, as Sasuke was beginning to despair at the sight of his own weakness. So, as an older brother, he interfered right away by stepping in between the two boys and pushing them to make them fall.
"Hah... hah... hah... hah..." He put his hand to his forehead and then looked at his with a frown. Blood was on his hand, the blood of... no, that was his own blood. "What the hell are you, is your skull made of stone or what!" It certainly hurt Sasuke quite a bit from the blow. After all he lunged hard to try and hurt Toru, but it backfired.
In response to this, Toru pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped off Sasuke's blood.
Itachi could only sigh at the sight.
"Sasuke..."
"It hurts!"
Letting out a small groan of pain after Itachi hit his forehead with two fingers, Sasuke touched his forehead.
"I had told you before that you must learn to control yourself, right? If you get carried away with your emotions, things go wrong, just like a few seconds ago."
"Itachi-san is right" Toru stood up and dusted off his clothes. "If you show impatience in a fight, everything will go against you."
Itachi saw that this observation was quite accurate. Toru is quite intelligent, a quick learner and his reaction speed is not normal. Basically, he is a taijutsu prodigy. If one does not take into account his ability to perform ninjutsu, Toru would be a great shinobi. It's a pity Kyoko won't allow him to attend the Shinobi Academy alongside Sasuke.
'Nee-san is quite strict with Toru. But... I can understand, I know better than anyone' The reason why Kyoko doesn't want her son to become a shinobi....
"Toru-chan!" A woman's voice echoed through the trees of the forest. Almost instantly, Toru's face became so pale and cold that he seemed to have died on the spot.
Sasuke saw this and smiled. Everyone knows that Toru hates being next to Kyoko, as she is... so to speak, very cloying.
Unnoticed, Toru was slowly walking in the opposite direction where the voice was heard, but Itachi looked at this and sighed. He instantly pointed at Toru and shouted, "Sasuke! Toru is trying to run away! Get him!"
"This is my revenge, Toru!" Sasuke jumped on top of Toru and held his arms. Toru's eyes widened when he heard someone's footsteps approaching, so he tried to free himself, but he was against the ground and couldn't move.
Sasuke smiled in pleasure at this. Although he lost to Toru before, but now this is his victory. Well, this happened because Toru was in his moment of weakness, so it was obvious that this would happen.
At last, the owner of the voice appeared and looked at Toru with a frown. "Toru-chan... I've been looking all over for you. You always run away like that. At least tell me when you go out."
He sighed and touched her forehead to the ground. "If I did, you wouldn't let me out..."
"That's not true, Toru-chan!" Kyoko approached Toru. It seemed that Sasuke had prevented Toru's escape, so she was grateful for that. Still, when Sasuke let go of Toru, Kyoko's eyes looked at the blood on Sasuke's forehead. "Sasuke-chan!!! What happened to you! Your forehead is full of blood!"
"Long story."
"Long story!"
"Long story"
The three boys responded in unison. This only left Kyoko uncertain, but she decided not to ask any more questions. She now had her beloved son in front of her, so her maternal instinct kicked in and she took him in her arms, pressing him tightly against her chest.
"Ugh... Okaa-sama... I can't... breathe" Toru tried to let go, but for some reason Kyoko had too much strength. He felt dizzy and then... fainted from lack of oxygen.
Sasuke reached over and touched Toru's head with a branch he found lying on the ground. "Is he dead?"
The woman let go of the boy after hearing that. This caused Toru to regain oxygen and come back to life.
Itachi could only laugh at this. Kyoko loved her son so much and felt no shame in showing her affection. Still, for Toru this was not good. He felt suffocated every time Kyoko acted this way, but there was nothing he could do about it, just wait for her to get tired.
'It would seem that they are a united and happy family...' Itachi felt nostalgic. He had so many things on his mind that he couldn't just think so much about his family with the exception of Sasuke. Although Itachi also saw Toru as his second younger brother, someone to guide him to be a good person in the future.
'It would be perfect... a future filled with peace, just like this moment' Itachi smiled tenderly as Toru was smothered on his mother's chest again.
Everything was so peaceful, so beautiful. Even Sasuke couldn't help but laugh after seeing this. This was... without a doubt, perfect....
However... this beautiful scene, soon turned dark.
The trees and dirt floor were replaced by walls and wooden planks. There was blood splattered everywhere Itachi looked. His hands trembled, his gaze filled with fear for a moment and then....
In his hands he felt the cold hilt of the katana filled with blood and the scream of a child was heard right after that.
The beautiful scene of that mother hugging her child was replaced in front of his eyes, like a strange blizzard of black feathers. Now there was a child screaming in despair with the corpse of his mother in his arms.
The pool of blood filled the ground. The salty smell of blood made Itachi recoil as he looked into the boy's eyes, which glowed strangely, in a beautiful blue color like the sky.
Itachi dropped the katana, letting it fall to the ground and then looked down at his hands. His eyes widened in horror as he saw the blood on his palms....
And then... a loud rumble was heard, thunder echoed in the distance.
***
When the lightning stopped, the thunder rumbled in a strange melody combined with the rain of the moment. Itachi opened his eyes and cold sweat poured down his forehead, which mixed with the rainwater that soaked his clothes.
His eyes, a little sleepy, looked at the sky and a sigh came out of his mouth.
He saw his hands again, but this time there was no blood. However, that feeling of guilt and sadness was still present at that moment.
'The time is near' He squeezed his hand gently forming a fist. He narrowed his eyes and went back to thinking again. However, a presence made up of chakra began to approach.
He knew immediately who it was, after all, he was the one who called out to it.
"Why?" that monochromatic-eyed boy looked at Itachi and asked. A few moments ago, a raven with a sharingan in its eye appeared and used genjutsu to share with him the message Itachi wanted to give him.
(I need to talk to you) Was what a version of Itachi said that Toru saw inside the genjutsu. Although just a second later he activated the Kodō Shigan to not fall for that trick again.
In response to Toru's question, Itachi kept silent and looked at him. A blurred image from the past interposed itself in front of Toru. It was a strange vision of Itachi, who still remembered that weird kid who hated sweet things, who hated to have his personal space invaded and in the end... hated Itachi for what he did.
He could still feel the blood on his hands, but he decided not to think about that so much, since Toru was now in front of him.
"Itachi?"
"Hm... it's nothing" He shook his head as he closed his eyes and let out a sigh. "Follow me" And then he continued walking in front of Toru as he crossed the entrance to Amegakure.
He just stared at Itachi in silence. He didn't understand why this guy had so suddenly called him to the entrance to Amegakure. Moreover, he managed to get the crow through Pain's gaze, though possibly Nagato had allowed it.
It was confusing, but surely Itachi was coming for the medicine for his illness. So, if they were going to the lab, in that case Itachi is going in the opposite direction.
'What are you planning, Itachi?' The light of death flashed in his eyes. He didn't want to admit it, but he still wanted to know what was going on.
Suddenly Itachi appears and this is what happens. Quite suspicious.
***
They passed over the long bridge that led to the large village after crossing the lake. Soon, they entered the commercial area of Amegakure and walked in silence.
People held their umbrellas to protect themselves from the rain, while Itachi only wore his hat as did Toru.
People watched them. Two members of Akatsuki walking quietly through the streets of this hidden city of the world. Everyone recognized them, everyone talked about them, but neither of these two shinobi listened to anything of what the others said, because now, even though the rain and the people were too noisy, they only heard the silence of their own footsteps.
...
"Hm?" Toru felt something hit his shoulder after a girl's moan of pain reached his ears. He looked to his right, and saw two girls in strange clothing, very different from typical shinobi or villager clothing. One of them was now on the ground after having collided with Toru.
"Ouch... it doesn't hurt, but...!" The silver eye of that girl who wore a cloth patch on her left eye opened when she saw Toru's face. She was immediately speechless as was the girl accompanying her.
"Are you all right? They're not even carrying umbrellas and they don't look like they're from here" Toru's eyes flashed dangerously. 'Though if that's true, Nagato would have noticed by now.'
In response to this, the girl, with black hair and a strange black dress with leather boots the same color, stuttered again and again trying to find the right words.
She looked at the girl next to her. She was blonde and silver-eyed. She wore a white shirt with long sleeves, a blue skirt with long black stockings that covered her legs, she also had short black boots very similar to the girl next to her, who had a very striking black dress.
"We're so sorry, Ott-...I mean, onii-san" The blonde-haired girl took her sister by the hand and bowed. After that, they both ran off at an absurd speed.
This seemed ridiculous to Toru, but when he looked ahead, Itachi was waiting for him. So he simply let out a sigh and continued on his way leaving the two strange girls aside.
***
A few minutes passed after that, they both arrived at a slightly uninhabited part of the village. The buildings were a bit empty and there weren't many people.
Toru recognized this place, as he usually meets the Ajisai team here. So, being familiar with this place, he jumped up and climbed up one of the buildings. When he looked down, Itachi was gone.
"Toru, how old are you now?"
Not giving a thought to such a sudden question and that Itachi was now by his side, Toru sighed and then answered. "I was about to turn seven when you exterminated die clan" He looked at the rain with an expressionless face. "It's been nine years since that happened. So you should know by now, right?"
Itachi just closed his eyes and didn't answer.
To be continued...
__________
First chapter of the week. If you want another one then you will have to reach 150 power stones. See you soon.
There was a similar situation in the past. Itachi asked the same question. (Toru, how old are you now?) He was asking that question, even though he already knew the answer. It was strange, so to speak. Toru didn't understand him, just like he didn't understand the others.
He was locked in his own bubble, where only what he wanted mattered. He was a rather selfish child, certainly. Even in Itachi's eyes, he was a child who didn't yet know the world as it really is.
Normally, when Toru answered the question by saying his age, Itachi would smile and say, "I see" with a nostalgic smile, but this time, he just remained silent, looking at the rain with an emotionless face.
"Time...has passed quite slowly" Itachi paused and closed his eyes.
Hearing this, Toru paused to think for a while. Certainly time has passed rather slowly, like a slow and painful death, possibly ending up being eternal. "I'm of the same opinion as you..." He folded his arms and sat on the roof.
After that, a long and strangely comfortable silence took over the scene. None of them said anything, they just listened and felt the rain falling from the sky, as if someone up there was crying.
Right there, small fleeting memories flooded Toru's mind. The past that over and over again replayed in his mind, in the form of nightmares, like shadows that haunted him all the time.
How many years had passed since he regained the memory of his past life?
"Ha~" Toru shook his head. Itachi noticed that, but when he wanted to speak, Toru stepped forward. "Itachi, get to the point, what do you want?"
Toru's gaze looked dull as always. Itachi could easily notice that. "What I want..." He opened his eyes and thought carefully. After that, he sat down next to Toru and pulled out a kunai from the sleeve of his robe.
The kunai had no edge, moreover, it looked quite old and poorly kept. It looked more like an old toy than a weapon of war. On the metal, it had a name engraved.
[Uchiha Sasuke]
When Toru saw it, he remembered the day he met Sasuke. He was carrying that old dagger and using it to practice fast throwing. Toru didn't know how Itachi got that, but he couldn't care less. For at the end of it all, it didn't answer his question.
"You guys trained together quite often..."
The atmosphere became a bit heavy for Toru. Suddenly, some black feathers began to float around Itachi, this being physically impossible in the midst of the Amegakure rain. This was...
'Genjutsu...' Toru saw Itachi's Sharingan, it was activated, but he did not sense hostile intentions. Also, Itachi's muscles sounded quite relaxed, so it didn't look like he would attack at any moment.
With this in mind, Toru just in case, held the broken dagger in his right hand, but did not activate the Kodō Shigan. He wanted to know what Itachi was planning to do.
"We used to spar? I guess I remember, since at that time you hadn't killed my family yet."
Itachi didn't answer. Deep down, he felt hurt by Toru's words, as well as the memories of that crimson night.
"Well... Sasuke was the only person my age who knew taijutsu at a higher level. I just took advantage of that to become stronger."
Ever since Toru was a child, his intelligence far surpassed that of all children his age, but even if he studied ninjutsu, he never managed to do well, because in his blood was the flaw of the Asahi clan. In fact, Itachi thought Toru was so smart, that sometimes it was scary, since he didn't look like a child by the way he spoke or the way he looked at the world. Even so, he was still a child, so, like all children, they have feelings that can be easily corrupted.
The only thing Toru could do was to train taijutsu and so he took advantage of Sasuke attending the Shinobi Academy.
"Still..." Toru took off his hat. "I don't know why you're talking about it so suddenly. It doesn't make sense."
Again, Itachi didn't respond. He just stared at the rain with that crimson light in his eyes. Feathers were floating strangely and at the same time, on the roofs of the buildings, mysterious crows could be seen looking at Toru with dark, cold eyes.
For some reason the rain gradually disappeared, at the same time as the sky became darker.
Toru was already thinking seriously about this situation and whether he should activate the Kodō Shigan. But he still didn't feel hostility from Itachi. It was like a strange cold and lonely feeling, a feeling that Toru knew all too well.
"Asahi Toru..." Itachi held out his hand and a crow landed in his palm. The crow looked at Toru showing a Sharingan in one of its eyes. The Sharingan rotated once inside the crow's eye and then everything went dark. There was nothing and no one anymore, just darkness and... blood on the ground.
'Ha~ I should have foreseen that' Toru looked down at his hand to use the Shimikomaseru on the dagger, but the dagger was gone.
This made him look around for Itachi, but everything was empty.
The floor was completely filled with blood. This place was quite familiar to Toru, as he had a certain memory of hundreds of blood bodies trying to drag him to the bottom of this crimson liquid.
"Hm..." Toru shook his head and then looked forward. "Itachi, if you stop this now, I won't consider you my enemy. If you don't, then I will have to respond to your hostility disguised as mystery" He clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes waiting for an answer, but got nothing in return. "Then so be it, eh..."
At that moment, an organic X began to appear in the center of Toru's eyes, at the same time black feathers began to surround him, forming a large tornado, however....
"Toru-chan! Toru-chan! My god, where did this child go?"
A woman's voice was heard. That voice caused Toru's Shigan to instantly deactivate as his eyes widened in shock.
The feathers around him stopped surrounding him and fell to the ground, where a second later they disappeared.
Now Toru was no longer in the great ocean of blood, but in a very different place... a place... that shouldn't look like this.
The sun was bright in the sky, a blue sky so pure it looked like a dream. The ground was dirt, very normal, just as Toru remembered it and in front of him... no longer was that dreary house about to fall apart due to lack of maintenance. This was... the perfect and beautiful mansion of the main family of the Asahi clan.
"This... no... it can't be..."
Toru looked off in the distance at a woman who seemed to be looking for something or someone. She...
"Oh? Toru-chan!" The woman saw Toru and smiled. Almost instantly she ran towards him at a speed that didn't seem normal for a woman like her. Well, considering who she is, it was quite possible. "Darling, where are you going? You always leave without warning" She hugged Toru, sinking the boy's face into her chest.
He simply didn't know how to react. His body for a few seconds stopped working and his brain tried to think of a solution to that situation. Besides, his body seemed to be smaller than usual.
He looked at his hand and it was surprisingly smaller, his whole body had shrunk. No, that was not the answer.
"Toru-chan... Toru-chan? What's the matter? You look pale. You look like you saw a ghost."
"I... I..." His breathing was heavy for a few seconds. He didn't understand what was happening. Even as she hugged him, he could feel the warmth of her body.
"Toru-chan... ...What's wrong? You can talk to me..."
She took Toru by the shoulders and looked into his eyes.
In response to this, Toru didn't know what to do. In this situation, even his vision improved. His vision was no longer blurry and dark, but he still felt a slight headache.
...
...
"...Okaa...-sama?" His voice trembled, his hands lost strength and he could only see the confused woman in front of him.
Everything looked extremely real, as if he had truly returned to the past.
"We'd better go back home. Come on, Toru-chan..." Kyoko took Toru's hand and tried to lead him back to the mansion, but he wouldn't budge from the spot. "Won't you come? Then I'll carry you like when you were a baby" She smiled as she hugged her little son, who was still as cold as an iceberg.
***
The scene changes to Toru, now in his old room.
He was looking at all this being quite confused. He didn't understand what was going on. In fact, it had never hurt his head to think so much, but now, he felt constant waves of pain in his brain, as if he was trying to return to reality without activating the Shigan.
'This is fake... I know it is. That Sharingan is pretty annoying, but I don't think a simple genjutsu can do something like this' He looked around the room as he thought.
After Toru entered the room, Kyoko left with the excuse that she was going to prepare something to eat, being that she doesn't know how to cook.
"¡¿?!" Toru's eyes widened in shock. This event, Kyoko saying she was going to cook... happened on the same day the entire Asahi clan was slaughtered. 'No... I'm not like that' Toru breathed softly and relaxed his body.
It's time to put an end to Itachi's game. So, without a second thought, Toru was about to activate the Kodō Shigan. However, someone suddenly appeared in the room in front of him, interrupting again.
That person tapped his shoulder and said with that cold tone of voice that Toru remembers quite well. "Wait, Toru."
"Itachi, what are you planning?" Toru looked at him with a frown. "I'm running out of patience. So, answer me. what do you want? Why are you showing me all this? How is it possible that you can use a genjutsu like this?" For a moment, Toru's questions were like a quick nervous shower.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. I suppose you already remember this day?"
"...Of course I remember it. I...I had nightmares for years because of this day..." She covered her right eye in pain.
At the same time, Itachi, who was still wearing the Akatsuki robe, took a few steps until he reached the door. "In that case, follow me. I'll answer your questions from now on."
But Toru couldn't understand. He thought that he had finally managed to forget everything that happened that night, that there would be no more nightmares like when he was only 8 years old. He thought he had finally managed to bury the past as he did his past life, but now....
Itachi just waited at the door while looking at Toru. In his eyes, the characteristic crimson color of the Sharingan could be seen, in addition to the raven perched on his left shoulder, which had a strange Mangekyo Sharingan in one of its eyes.
"I'm not going to attack you or anything, if that's what you think."
"You're not going to attack me, huh..." A nervous smile formed on Toru's mouth. He dropped his arms over his shoulders and then looked Itachi in the eyes. "How can I trust someone who murdered my entire family and left me with nothing?" This situation somehow made Toru feel like laughing. "How funny. I didn't know you were a comedian" He shook his head while making a denial gesture with his hands. "It's about time to end your stupid game, Itachi."
"Listen..." Itachi took a step out of the room, looked forward with his back to Toru and said, "Please..."
That simple word and gesture made Toru's expression turn dull and confused. Still, he had nothing to lose. If he could see how far this went, he could come to a quick conclusion.
So, giving no importance to Itachi's words, which somehow sounded somewhat sad, Toru left the room following him.
***
They only advanced a few steps, but the whole place began to change. As if time moved forward, the sun moved across the sky fast into the sunset. The lights of the houses all along the Asahi clan's ascent began to light up and then Itachi and Toru found themselves outside Konoha.
"The reason why I brought you to this place..."
Toru frowned as he saw that, in front of them, was another Itachi. Only this Itachi looked quite young, just a teenager, who was walking alone, looking around the surroundings as if he was looking for someone.
The young Itachi looked in front of him and then a masked man appeared. Almost instantly, Toru clenched his fists in disbelief.
No, he believed what he saw, he just couldn't admit it. After all, that masked man is....
"The reason I did all this..."
The truth...
To be continued...
_____________
Well, they didn't reach 150 power stones, but I'll give them this chapter anyway. When you reach 220 power stones I will publish the next one. Good luck
ความคิดเห็นย่อย
คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ
นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า
เข้าใจแล้ว