She had bright red hair, messy and tangled from just one side like she always slept on that side. A pair of broken glasses hung crooked on her nose, and behind them, red eyes full of tears stared at him. Her face was scratched, pale, but still soft… around his age. She looked terrified.
Sukuna stood frozen for a second. That red hair was enough to tell Sukuna that he was dealing with an Uzumaki, clearly a dying breed if Naruto was any example—and goddamn, that kid was only alive because his plot armor was thicker than Choji's mom...
"Is she…" Sukuna's mind finally rebooted, and he immediately connected the dots. There was only one red-haired Uzumaki girl in the story around his age.
'This has to be Karin, right? What's she doing here?' Questions popped inside his head one after another, making him question his own knowledge of the canon.
But before he could react any further, the missing-nin pressed a kunai to her neck.
"Don't move!" the man shouted. "Come any closer and I'll slit her throat!"
Sukuna's playful smirk vanished.
'Damn, I only planned to goof around a little, but you really pulled a kunai on that little girl. Adults of this world are shameless...'
However, he really didn't move. Seeing that kunai almost drawing blood from Karin's neck, he reluctantly remained in his place.
Still, Sukuna didn't plan to just do what the old man had to say. No. If he was going to bring kids into this, then Sukuna was going to remove the kid gloves too.
In a blink, his eyes shone with red light. He didn't move, didn't flinch. Just focused on the man's head. Space distorted like a whirlpool in the air—suddenly, with a soft pop, the missing-nin's head vanished, sucked into another dimension.
Gasps could be heard from others as the body fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, leaving the girl trembling in place, stunned.
Sukuna hadn't had much training in the long-range version of Kamui so far, so he had to stand in one place and concentrate before launching this attack.
As for slashes, he still couldn't do them without using his hands.
Sukuna appeared next to her in a flash, with pure speed. He stood in front of her protectively, his eyes scanning the rest of the battlefield.
Everyone froze.
The remaining missing-nin backed away, eyes wide in shock. They had just watched one of their own get taken out without a sound, without a fight.
Earlier, the annoying boy was just playing around—it was obvious since he wasn't killing, nor did his attacks have much power behind them. But this...
"Nope," one of them muttered. "We're done. He's a monster."
They turned and started running into the forest, desperate to escape.
"Not so quick..." Sukuna didn't let them go, though.
With a flick of his hand, a terrible slash rushed at those shinobi. Before they knew it, all of them were cut in half. Their lower bodies were separated from their upper halves, and blood splattered.
Kusagakure shinobi stiffened at this.
Cold sweat broke down their backs seeing shinobi from their village—even though they were now rogue—dealt with like the slaughtering of pigs and cows.
A sharp chill spread through their bodies, a feeling that a cold blade was pressing right against them and could cut them at any second—and they couldn't do anything to defend themselves.
But the Kusagakure shinobi, who had originally come to capture the missing-nin, didn't run. Instead, they stepped forward slowly, hands up.
"Kid," one of them said, "Listen… we are not enemies. That girl belongs to our village. We were sent to bring her back safely. Look, we are Anbu from Kusagakure."
One of the Anbu said, showing off his headband. Perhaps he saw there was no running away—none saw that attack coming. There was no guarantee that they could escape before this boy cut them in half as well. In this case, the only way to get out with the Uzumaki brat was to talk their way out.
Another added, "We're not your enemies. We're just here to rescue her. Let us take her."
Sukuna didn't budge. He didn't answer them. His eyes flicked toward the red-haired girl behind him.
She was scared. Shaking. Her eyes horridly fixed on the corpses cut in half. And then she looked back at Sukuna with fear.
'Sigh…' Sukuna had no way to explain this at this moment. He could only try to let Karin make the decision on her own.
Sukuna asked gently, without turning around, "Hey… Do you want to go with them?"
There was a pause. Karin looked scared, both of him and those Kusa ninja.
With a shaking body, Karin didn't say a word. She just shook her head—slowly, firmly.
'I don't wanna go with anyone. Just leave me alone…' was most likely what she wished to shout right now.
That was all Sukuna needed. It was a good decision as well. He knew how much Karin suffered at the hands of those Kusa Nin.
"You heard the girl…" He raised his hand slightly, as if warning the Kusa shinobi not to take another step. "She doesn't want to go with you," he said plainly.
The lead Kusa-nin narrowed his eyes. "That girl is property of—"
"People are not property, mister…" Sukuna said, his voice cold and sharp.
He moved before they could speak again. Kamui activated. Space warped. He vanished and appeared behind the two Kusa shinobi instantly.
They barely had time to blink.
The first man received a brutal kick to the head, knocking him out cold. The second tried to draw a kunai, but Sukuna slipped into his intangible state—the kunai passed right through him. Then Sukuna grabbed his arm, twisted it, and slammed him face-first into the dirt.
The remaining two Kusa shinobi backed away, clearly terrified.
"We—we'll leave," one stuttered. "Keep the girl—we don't want trouble!"
Sukuna fell into contemplation. They hadn't seen his face. What he had shown wasn't enough for anyone to trace it back to him directly.
There was a way to make them forget but…
'If I remember right, then these bastards here are not that innocent, are they? They killed Karin's mother by using her like a blood bag and would have done the same to Karin in the future.'
"KAI…" So… with a single swipe of his hand, their heads rolled.
Silence fell again once he was done.
Sukuna stood up straight and turned to Karin. She was still sitting on the ground, hugging her knees, trying not to cry.
Now, it was just him and the girl. A little girl who was crying, and there was no one to stop him to slowly…
"Fuck, what am I thinking…" He shook his head. Clearly, this was Ryomen's influence. Had to be. He was clearly a gentleman in his past life. He would never harm a little girl. No way…
Sukuna turned around slowly and crouched in front of her. Only to find that he wasn't that much bigger than her either. Awkwardly adjusting his position so he looked at least a little more authoritative, he looked at her.
She was still sitting on the ground, hugging her knees, shaking like a leaf. Her wide red eyes were fixed on him like he was some kind of monster.
"Hey," Sukuna said gently, trying his best not to sound like someone who just snapped a man's neck. "You okay?"
The girl didn't speak. She just blinked, then flinched when he moved closer.
"Okay okay… Listen," he tried again, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "I'm not gonna hurt you, alright? I just saved you. You saw that, right?"
She kept staring. Her eyes glaring at him with distrust.
"I mean yeah, sure, it looked a little brutal," he muttered, mostly to himself. "But they were gonna sell you. You said you didn't want to go with them, didn't you..."
Still no response.
Thinking maybe the mask was scaring her, he tugged it off with a small smile. "There, see… I'm not the bad guy."
The moment she saw his eyes, she yelped and scooted back.
A twitch appeared on his forehead. What does this girl mean, huh…
'Am I really that ugly or what?'
Irritated, he walked forward and pinched the already scared girl's cheek, earning a pitiful squirm from her as more tears appeared on her face.
Only after his action did he recall his own eyes—they were bloody red with a ring right now. He might find them cool, but even he had to admit they were a little scary.
"Whaaaa…" Karin, however, by now was wailing—soft but still.
"Okay okay… quiet it down, brat. I haven't even pinched you that hard." He really didn't. He just subconsciously acted just like how he did with Sakura.
"You—you're the pervert Mom told me about." She pointed her finger at him and accused.
"What!"
"Oi, OI… what the hell are you talking about? I just pinched your cheeks. What's so perverted about that?" Sukuna was speechless.
"Hmph! Mommy said when I grow up men will try to touch me. I shouldn't let them…"
Twitch.
He grabbed onto those soft cheeks again and this time gave them a harder pinch, making her almost break out in tears again.
"You… you bad man…" she pointed her finger toward him, accusatory. Righteous fury filled her, and seeing that the enemy was only her own age, she launched herself at him—conveniently forgetting that the boy just killed real shinobi in front of her.
"Oh, you wanna play like that, brat? You're too early to go against me." Sukuna had seen this desperate charge too many times from Sakura to not know what to do. Instead of dodging away, he embraced her, fixing the little girl under him with force, and then those fingers started doing their magic.
"Konoha Secret Art of Brotherly Love…
Tickle Attack."
"Ahaaa…" First, she was shocked seeing the sudden turn, but then…
"Hahahaha… hahaha, stop, please stop. I won't do it again. Stop, it hurts, it hurts…
Haha… I was wrong, Onii-chan, please stop…"
xxx
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