CH_7.45 (263)

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Takuma felt as though his head was literally splitting.

There was so much sweat and plaster on his face from running through the wall, along with the fire ninjutsu which had blown up right in front of him, that it hid the fact that he was tearing up from the pain.

His teeth and jaw hurt from over-clenching to bear the pain coming from his head.

Not once in his life had he fought through the intensity of pain he was feeling now—and he had been brutalised several times during his Ring days. Even when he was almost killed by ROOT assassins, he had Sango's painkillers in his system, which, along with adrenaline, made him practically incapable of feeling pain.

But nothing helped as he fought Kon and a ROOT agent trying to kill him. His reaction time was so slow because more than half of his mind was focused on the pain. However, he was glad that he was able to clear Rikku and Kameko out of the room with a ROOT agent for information. The mission was technically over, and he could run away, but then he wouldn't get to know what was happening to him.

He had to capture Kon to get some answers for the headaches, the scars, anything he could.

Takuma locked in on Kon; the only silver lining was that the pain from the fire jutsu and his physical trauma paled in comparison to the . He rose toward Kon as chakra flooded his arm for the highest power of augmentation he could manage without injuring his body.

In truth, Takuma had never tested the limit of how much chakra he could pack into his arm because he'd been in enemy territory for months. It was an extremely dangerous choice to make when his ability to focus and think was compromised.

But he had to bet big to win big.

His sleeve and the skin beneath was still on fire as he cocked his arm back, ready to lash out a full contact strike, when all the pain in his head suddenly vanished like it never existed.

It was the most wonderful feeling he had felt in his two lives. His entire body felt light and springy; he clenched the muscles in his arm taut, he was going to take out Kon with this strike.

The feeling of freedom from pain was short-lived because the pain returned just as quickly as it had vanished, and it returned with a vengeance. Vertigo, nausea, breathlessness—everything hit him all at once. The moulded chakra in his arm slipped out of control and dissipated before he could do anything with it.

Takuma wasn't even aware that he had hopped away from Kon on instinct because his vision was overcome by a blinding light.

His sole thought that he managed to muster through the pain was to wonder whether he had been trapped in a genjutsu.

Click.

An intense feeling of fear invaded his heart when a memory he had never seen before flashed before his eyes. He was lying down on a cold, hard metal table with a blinding white glaring down at him. In his peripheral vision, he saw the shadows of multiple men wearing scrub caps and masks.

Split.

The memory shifted to him sitting in a room with white walls, floors, and ceilings. There were only three pieces of grey furniture in the room—a bed, table, and chair. Posters stuck to the wall had writing on them that Takuma couldn't make out as the memory blurred them out.

The him in the memory looked down and saw pairs of child's arms and legs covered in bandages stained with yellow medicine and red blood—so much blood. The feel of the memory was calm, with a hint of tension present in the background. The door to the white room opened, and the memory began to shift as a figure stepped in.

He couldn't make out who they were.

Pop.

The fear and panic returned to the front in full blast as Takuma felt his back pressed against the wall. His chest and shoulders were rising faster and faster—and standing in front of him was undoubtedly a much younger Kon, who seemed to be yelling something at him. The sound was garbled, but the more he yelled, the more dread Takuma felt—to the point that he could neither breathe nor see properly.

Crack.

Takuma jerked back out of the memory into the present to find Kon's sword blade being thrust towards his heart. He barely had the time to react with his hand. The sword stabbed through his palm and then cut just below his armpit.

"Argh!"

Takuma tried to pull back, but Kon jerked the sword, which hooked onto his palm. Takuma screamed and continued to pull his palm free of the sword as it sliced through his flesh. He turned his head back and caught the ROOT agent snuck behind him from his right side; Takuma couldn't defend himself as his right hand was locked in with the sword

Takuma screamed again and continued to pull his palm free of the sword—and heard the other ROOT agent sneak behind him from his right side. He couldn't defend himself as his right hand was locked in with the sword so he raised his shoulder at the last second and received a kunai to the hilt in his back.

He was going to die, thought Takuma.

He didn't think of death often during battles because there was no use in doing so and it was more beneficial to think about the things to help him survive. Now, he was trapped, surrounded, alone, and not in his best form even before he was stabbed in two parts of his body. He didn't even have time to process the mind-breaking memories he had just seen—the first memories of the boy he had ever seen.

'Fuck it,' Takuma cursed.

He had been trying to tone down trading damage in his combat ever since Anko had started to teach him—but it was clear that way of fighting just didn't fit him. He couldn't be an elegant fighter; he had to get in there and get dirty if he wanted to win tough fights.

He was Scars, and he would always be him.

He took a deep breath and instead of trying to pull his hand free from the sword, Takuma stepped in close to Kon, who didn't expect it. Takuma charged his arm and slammed a palm augmented to the limit into his chest.

He felt Kon's ribs break under his hand and channelled all his negativity—rage, fear, hatred—all into that strike. Kon spurted blood into Takuma's face before he flew back like a cannonball into the wall, letting go of his sword.

Takuma had no time to pull it out as he turned around and spin-kicked the other ROOT agent. His form was terrible thanks to the kunai in his back, and the kick had no real power behind it, but the agent jumped back to avoid getting hit which gave Takuma time and space. He took out the kunai from his back and threw it at the agent with chakra behind it.

The agent parried it but stumbled due to its force. Takuma finally pulled the sword of palm with an ugly scream and ran out of the room through a side entrance. Perhaps taking out the kunai from his back was a bad move. He was leaking blood from two spots at a worrying pace. The state of his breathing resembled someone who was in the last stretch of an ultra-marathon, even though it had been less than fifteen minutes since he had killed the Hidden Frost shinobi outside the manor house.

His condition was worsening by the minute and extending the fight was not in his favour.

He half-stumbled into the hallway and tripped on his own feet as he made a split-second decision to change the location. He threw a shuriken to shatter a nearby window, jumped out, and then climbed up to the floor above and used Kon's sword to shatter a window to enter.

Hiding was impossible because the floor was stained by the blood dripping from his hand. So he stabbed the sword into the ground beside him and stood in front of the shattered window. He looked down at his mangled right hand and somehow began to weave hand seals. Ignoring the pain, the fingers in his right hand resisted his commands, but he managed even if barely.

Water Release: Spirit Water Wave

A football-sized orb of water with some of his blood mixed in formed before his fingers. His arms trembled as he took aim at the shattered window. The wait was less than ten seconds, but it felt like an eternity as his arms grew heavier.

The ROOT agent poked his head above the window pane, and Takuma took a shot that missed when the agent ducked down. The shot itself was a smidge to the right. Takuma looked down at the water orb, which still held the shape that had scantily happened during practice and never on-field.

However, Takuma didn't get to shoot another shot because a kunai with an explosive tag flew in from the window, and he jumped through the window before it could so much as blow up.

The water orb atop his finger drenched his hand, wasting three shots worth of chakra.

The window next to the one Takuma was standing under shattered and Kon rushed towards him.

"Free!" Kon yelled.

That message was for the other ROOT agent, who he had failed to shoot and both he and Kon immediately launched a pincer attack.

Takuma pulled Kon's sword from the floor, swung it at the agent, and then ran across the hallway to keep both of them in front of him. His right hand was useless from the damage, and he truly wished that he had the time to create water tentacles, but he didn't have the water or the time for it.

He was sure that Kon understood that as well and was giving him no time or space to remedy his injury. But he had Kon's sword that he switched to his mangled hand. He had no genuine experience with a sword, and it felt heavier in his hand because of his weakened grip; he would've been able to handle a lighter kunai much better. The sword was necessary because he didn't want his opponents close to him because of his injuries.

The ROOT agent rushed in, and Takuma responded by swinging his sword at him. Kon tried to use that time as an opening and even threw in a curve by bouncing off the ceiling, but Takuma was expecting that and punched a second-form augmentation at him. Kon crossed his hands as the chakra hit him and was thrown several feet back, temporarily knocked away from the fight, leaving the ROOT agent.

Takuma stopped backing away and slashed at the agent with the sword, and it was not only easily parried but also knocked out of his hand. He didn't panic and moved in closer and threw an augmented elbow at the agent. While the hand was useless, the rest of the arm still worked; the agent blocked with his arm the strike knocked the wind out of him.

Takuma followed up with a kick to the knee, flooring him—and then smashed his left fist in his face with a second-form augmentation, breaking his nose.

Now he finally had both space and time to use ninjutsu. Seeing that he was fighting alone, Hidden Mist Jutsu was the obvious and perfect choice. He would flood the floor with mist and then use the opportunity to cast Wild Water Wave to create water for the Eight Tentacle jutsu and then use the cover of the mist to mount himself a comeback.

He raised his hands to weave hand seals for the Hidden Mist Jutsu when he suddenly heard something move behind him.

"Takuma!"

Takuma was already turning when he registered the voice that called his name.

All the pain, the chaotic emotions stemming from the new memories, the cold spreading through his body from blood loss, the fatigue that was beginning to set in—everything came to a stop when he saw Rikku standing before him. She was facing him and gazed up at him with a shocked expression that matched his—neither of them expected what had just happened.

"My body just moved," she said, her voice just above a whimper as blood dribbled down the side of her lips.

Takuma looked down and saw a bloody sword sticking out of her body, a little bit too close to her chest. He recognised the sword because it belonged to the ROOT agent Rikku and Kameko had taken away. He watched as the bloodstain grew out from the place where the sword exited her body. He looked up and jolted when he saw Kon behind her with a hateful smirk..

His smirk grew into a grin at Takuma's growing shock.

"You're not the only one who can use clones."

Takuma wasn't listening.

Kon's clone pulled his sword out of Rikku, and she collapsed forward into Takuma's embrace, who grabbed her out of pure instinct.

"Huh?"

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