"You surprise me, kid," said Yasu casually.
Looking into Yasu's eyes, Toru remained silent.
'Toru...'
She was shocked by what she had just seen, but that was all she could do, as she didn't have enough strength to stand up and run.
"Couldn't you wait for your turn?" said Yasu, struggling against the daggers. "You're not going to answer? Then I'll have to kill you first."
"No..." said Toru, the expression on his face completely gone. Like a wooden doll, without a single emotion.
At that moment, Yasu noticed something. The look in Toru's eyes was different from what he had always seen. This made a smile spread across Yasu's face.
"Then let's see what you can do, kid," Yasu replied as he jumped backward.
"You tried to kill me..." Toru whispered.
Yasu's smile disappeared.
"Yes, I tried to kill you, and I'm still trying," he replied, maneuvering his spear. This created a small gust of wind that lifted the leaves scattered across the ground.
"Then... there won't be a problem if I try to kill you, right?"
'Kill him? Toru, you...' thought Ino.
She was confused. Toru's calm attitude had completely changed.
"Kill me? I don't think that's going to happen, kid. I'll kill you before you can touch me with those little knives," Yasu laughed. However...
The sound of metal echoed. Yasu had stopped Toru's attack.
"?!"
His single eye stared at Toru as his hands gripped the spear tightly. Toru had appeared in front of Yasu in the blink of an eye. The attack had been so powerful that Yasu was lucky to have blocked it. "What the hell?"
Toru attacked again. In less than a second, he managed to strike three times.
Yasu was stunned. The speed at which Toru could attack was ridiculous.
'What the hell is this kid?' thought Yasu as he blocked Toru's attacks. "Do you really think that's going to work?!"
Yasu launched an attack, aiming his spear directly at the boy's heart, but Toru blocked every strike.
Once again, the sound of weapons clashing echoed through the area, while the sparks created by the impacts of the metal illuminated everything in brief flashes.
'You're really pissing me off, you damn brat!' thought Yasu as he tried to kill Toru, but the boy was far too agile and fast.
"Gyakusatsu no Mai: San Geki," Toru whispered.
Using the tip of Yasu's spear to propel himself, Toru launched himself into the air. A second later, he came crashing down, aiming his daggers at Yasu's throat.
Yasu realized what Toru was about to do, so he used the shaft of his spear to stop Toru's attack.
"You fell for it," said Toru. At that exact moment, he disappeared, only to reappear in front of Yasu.
"Shit!"
Yasu jumped and tried to strike the boy with the tip of his spear, but Toru blocked it with one of his daggers while using the other to wound him.
"Damned brat!" Yasu shouted, trying to move away, but something strange happened.
Yasu smiled. Toru noticed it. Then he felt blood running down his forehead. Yasu had managed to hit Toru. Even though the blow had been delivered with the shaft of the spear, that alone had been enough to hurt him.
"See, brat? Even if you're fast, there's one thing you're missing, and that's strength," said Yasu, laughing, but his words were completely wrong.
Before he knew it, Toru appeared in front of him again and, using his legs to propel himself forward, managed to strike Yasu in the stomach. The impact sent Yasu crashing into a tree, but Toru's attack wasn't over yet.
"Gyakusatsu no Mai: San Suiteki," said Toru, striking three times in one second with the handles of his daggers.
However, Yasu managed to recover in time and dodged the attack.
"I'm tired of playing, you damn brat..."
A little blood was coming from his mouth, which only made him angrier.
'I shouldn't have bragged about my strength,' thought Yasu, taking a strange fighting stance. "It's been a while since I've used my full strength, so I might get a little excited. That's why I'm telling you not to die too quickly."
With a smile, the bandage over his eye became stained red, as if the eye itself were crying blood.
"Jagan: Amadoku," said Yasu.
Suddenly, a strange viscous purple liquid began to ooze from the tip of his spear.
'Poison...' thought Toru.
If he allowed the poison on the spear to touch him, the fight would be over.
"Get ready, brat!"
Yasu launched himself into the attack and managed to strike Toru's daggers, but Yasu's intention was to make the poison touch the boy, something Toru wasn't going to allow.
'What is this? I'm scared,' thought Ino. 'Is this what being a ninja is? Kill or be killed? I don't want this... I don't want to die.'
The fear of the unknown, the moment when she discovered for the first time what it meant to be a ninja. Ino's tears fell onto the dirt as Toru and Yasu fought to the death before her eyes.
"Toru... give up... If we surrender, maybe they'll let us live," she said through her tears, but when she saw Toru's eyes, Ino swallowed her own words.
The spear and daggers clashed with brilliant sparks. With every passing second, the bloodlust inside Toru grew stronger. His eyes glowed strangely, strange lines flickering around everything surrounding him...
'Shit. Shit. SHIT!'
Yasu was backed into a corner. As Toru's bloodlust increased, his chakra and stamina continued to drain with every passing second.
"It's not enough!" shouted the spearman.
Then Toru was sent flying into one of the walls of a house. Yasu had used the shaft of his spear to knock him away so he could think of something, but that didn't happen because, at that moment, Toru wasn't himself anymore.
"Damn it..."
Yasu looked at Toru as he emerged from the rubble. For a second, his legs trembled and fear began eating away at his mind. If he had to describe Toru's gaze at that moment with a single word, it would be...
"Death..." he whispered.
But he immediately shook his head.
'No! I mustn't be afraid! For Miroku-sama, I'll kill the brat.'
With an expression of displeasure on his face, Yasu gripped his spear tightly as he walked toward Toru.
"You've given me a lot of trouble, you stupid brat."
Metal clashed once again. Toru and Yasu stared into each other's eyes for a brief moment. Yasu moved his spear from side to side, attempting to block Toru's thrusts, but with every passing second, it seemed harder and harder to stop his attacks.
'You tried to kill me... I'll do the same. You will die,' thought Toru. "Die..."
A quick movement. A stab to the abdomen. Yasu stopped dead.
"How...?"
Yasu looked at Toru, who had appeared in front of him like a ghost. A crimson color began spreading across Yasu's clothes, but even so...
"You're too careless," said Yasu. The spear had managed to leave a small wound on Toru's face.
"What...?"
Toru touched the wound with his fingers. Blood tainted with purple... He raised his gaze, his eyes glowing intensely as he stared at Yasu. The spearman felt a shiver run through his entire body.
Then Toru jumped into the air and tried to kill Yasu, but he blocked the attack with his spear. However, the force Toru put into the attack was so great that it created a crater in the ground.
Ino watched from a distance. The expression on her face showed nothing but fear at that moment.
Everything she knew about that boy had been wrong. Yes, Toru was strong and intelligent; he had demonstrated that several times at the Shinobi Academy. But he had always been too strange, quiet, and solitary, too strange for anyone to approach him and talk to him.
Right now, Toru...
'He's... going to kill him.'
Toru was approaching Yasu, who lay on the ground after being kicked by the same strange-eyed boy.
"What an idiot," said Yasu, disappearing into smoke and attacking from behind.
"No..."
Yasu charged forward with his spear, approaching Toru, but the sound of clashing metal sent sparks flying and illuminated the area. Immediately afterward, Toru climbed onto Yasu's back, and...
"Ah—"
A scream that was cut off instantly as the air left Yasu's lungs. Blood splattered across Toru's face, and Yasu fell to the ground as blood poured from the wound in his back.
Again and again, while Ino watched with a horrified expression on her face, Toru stabbed Yasu without stopping, without changing his expression, without saying a word.
Yasu tried with all his strength to escape, stretching out his hands and digging his fingers into the dirt. His face was filled with fear and regret. He couldn't scream, he couldn't run, he could only cry as his life slipped away.
Ino felt sick at the sight of such a sinister scene and couldn't help but vomit.
Every time the daggers pierced Yasu, blood splattered everywhere. Though he didn't show it, Toru was desperate. Every time he stabbed, the darkest memories of his past returned to remind him that he was now just like the one who had taken his family from him.
However, amidst those memories, he felt someone's hand on his shoulder, making him stop.
"That's enough, Toru," said Yamato.
Toru looked at his blood-covered hands. Looking at the ground, he whispered:
"I'm sorry, sensei. I lost control."
Yamato nodded, understanding Toru's situation. Then he looked at Ino, who lay there terrified.
'How am I going to explain this to Hokage-sama?'