Test of Strength

Introducing himself was by no means easy, rather he found it an even harder task than navigating his way through the very crowded Harajuku, though thankfully Gojo's playful nature made it all the easier. If it weren't for him, he's pretty sure Megumi would've attacked him or something by the way he was looking at him. Ever since he had arrived there, he was thrown side glances by the guy and dirty looks and he knew exactly why.

Other than that though, everything else went pretty well and now they were making their way to the site of the mission to test the newbies, newbies being everyone except for Fushiguro. Shukuro followed behind the group closely yet stayed to himself, only engaging in conversation when his name was mentioned because his mind was buried in more important thoughts.

'Tch. This is annoying. Shall I reveal my technique or just stick to using my trait? Though hiding it and revealing it later will only build distrust where it's not needed so I'll just use it, but not fully. Revealing all my cards even to allies would be stupid, I mean I'm currently not strong enough to boast my technique

around like Gojo Satoru. Best I keep it a mystery.'

"So Shukuro," Hearing his name, he broke out of his thoughts and turned to the voice, meeting the face of Gojo Satoru. "This is your student ID for Jujutsu High, it's nothing much but keep it with you because it shows your sorcerer grade."

Taking the card from the man's extended hand, he glanced at it, quickly analysing it's contents. 'Grade 4? Seriously? Eh, whatever.' Dismissing the innate dissatisfaction that he felt, he turned his attention back to his classmates.

Itadori let an over exaggerated huff and scrunched his face in annoyance. "Are we there yet? I feel like we've been walking for hours."

Sporting a smug look, Gojo stopped his walk and pointed at a rundown building with moss infecting its walls. "There it is."

A thick vein popped off on Itadori's forehead as he clenched his fists in disbelief. Nobara looked at Gojo incredulously as she realized she fell for his ploy.

"Y-you tr-"

Before she could finish her sentence Gojo had disappeared from before them and leaned against the wall of the deteriorating building. He waved to them and told them to join him.

"There's curses here aren't there?" Megumi examined the building with sharp eyes after feeling ominous cursed energy leaking out of the structure.

"Yup." Gojo confirmed popping the 'p'. "Nobara, Shukuro, Yuji." He informed the three, coming off the wall as his expression held seriousness. "You three will go and exorcise the curses inside the building."

"Huh? But you can only exorcise a curse with another curse, right? I can't use sorcery."

"You're already something like a half-curse." Handing him a cursed tool, Gojo instructed, "Here, use this. With that, you can exorcise curses."

"All three of us, though? A bit overkill, don't you think?" A moment of silence passed after Shukuro's input. Gojo turned to the boy with a face devoid of his earlier playfulness as he silently analysed Shukuro.

"Oh? Confident in your abilities, are you? Think you can clear this mission?" Now adorning a slight smirk as he probed his newest student's courage.

"Without a doubt."

'I know he isn't of the level of a grade 4 sorcerer but it's the principle to start him as such. He's stronger and that's just judging by the amount of cursed energy he has. It feels smoky and light, perhaps a cursed technique? No, a cursed property.' His eyes, although covered, trailed over Shukuro's figure in silent contemplation. 'His technique, if he does have one, must be something to do with that sword he grips so tightly on his waist.'

Gojo shook himself out of his thoughts and let out a sigh of defeat. "Alright, Nobara and Yuji, you two head in. Megumi, I'm leaving you in charge of this mission. Shukuro, follow me." With that, he walked away towards an open space far away in the field.

'Eh? Don't tell me I'm going have to fight Gojo Satoru, the strongest sorcerer of today. You know what…this is better. I need to prove my strength. Prove that I have potential.' With a strengthened resolve, Shukuro continued pursuing the white haired man who started to break out into a run. Struggling to keep up with swift pace of the Strongest, he reinforced his body with cursed energy and sped up. Finally, they reached an open field far from the rest of the team with Gojo facing Shukuro and a distance between the two.

"Impressive for you to keep up with that speed. I must say your really surprising me. And I'm sure you've figured out why were all the way out here, right?" Shukuro nodding in response, "Great. I also think that mission is less than what your capable of. So why don't you confirm my thoughts? Come at me in a test of strength, Tsukishima."

'Test of Strength? Guess he won't be using infinity if he wants to see how strong I am.'

Gripping his sword's hilt, Shukuro withdrew his sword and stabbed into the ground below, an abrupt flash of light erupted from the new crevice formed on the ground.

'Interesting.' Gojo thought.

"Let's Go." Shukuro spoke, taking his sword out the ground and back into his dominant hand. Dashing with extreme speed, the dark haired boy appeared before Gojo, striking at his head with a horizontal slash however his opponent caught the blade in between his fingers.

'Huh?'

Pulling the sword out of it's owner's grip, Gojo threw it against a distant tree and smiled widely from ear to ear at Shukuro. Jumping back, Shukro furrowed his brows in frustration before being attacked with a punch to his head, which he responded to with a head tilt and threw a jab at Gojo's chest.

Satoru quickly blocked the strike to his chest and twisted his body to deliver a kick to his opponent, however the boy jumped over his kick and expelled smoke from his hands in an attempt to block Gojo's vision.

'Seriously…. Trying to block my vision… Oh well.' Gojo thought before snapping back to reality and blocking an augmented kick coming from a figure hidden in the smoke.

Suddenly, the ground below him erupted in an abundance of earth spikes as Gojo leaped into the air to avoid being pierced but was met with an incoming kick to his head which he could've dodged but allowed it to hit him.

'Just for the sake of battle, you know.' Gojo internally spoke to himself. This battle wasn't to see how the boy would fare in a fight against Gojo Satoru because that would simply be too unfair. The objective was to test strength, that was it, and in order to do that he had to allow Shukuro to be the offensive one in this fight.

The force of the kick sent Gojo back onto the floor skidding against the earth as dust rose from his feet, however he quickly stabilised himself. Before even having time to think, the ground beneath his feet exploded and a loud thunderous sound reverberated through the vicinity.

Boom!

All that could be seen was dust and small growing flames at the site of the explosion and the victim of the attack was far from it.

Shukuro reappeared standing on a raised earth platform giving him view over the battlefield as he once again held his sword in hand. Scanning the area, he couldn't find Sensei anywhere but he knew at any moment he could appear out of nowhere and attack.

'I need to stay rea-.'

"That explosion was cute. Now, let me just ask you one question before we continue this battle. Your technique allows you to alter the area, am I right?" A strong vote of confidence lingering in the blue eyes man's tone.

"No, you're wrong."