[POV: Sora]

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Sora was alone, again.

Just when the annoying old man was getting somewhat more bearable, he went and managed to get himself killed. The entire temple had been a site of disaster. And that was after the survived monk did some clean up before he returned from the mission. It would probably take years for the temple to recover.

Not that Sora cared about the temple. His life wasn’t great in the village and it was barely better in the strict place surrounded by monks. It wasn’t what he would call a home, but it was closest to one. And at least there were some that didn’t treat him as monster. Some that he could consider a friend.

And now most of them were dead.

Sora didn’t expect that he cared about them this much. He only realized that after their death. So instead of spending time with the few friends that survived and rebuilding the place; something that would surely make the old man happy, he did something reckless.

The past weeks of his life were far from pleasant or comfortable. He spent most of it searching for the killer, out to get revenge on the criminal called Kakuzu. The monks tried to hide information from him. Something that made him furious back then. Now though, it was obvious that they had tried to prevent an outcome like this.

Not that he didn’t knew how dangerous his endeavor was going to be. The bastard was strong. Of course he was; he had managed to defeat the old man after all. Sora knew that chances of him defeating such foe with his own strength were abysmally low. Yet, he couldn’t simply continue to live like nothing happened. He would simply hate himself rest of his miserable existence if he did. He would rather let the curse consume him then live a life like that.

So on he went, in search of the old man’s killer.

Sora wasn’t much of a shinobi, so he had trouble with finding clues at first. But with some time and effort, he had managed to come across some people that knew what he was looking for. They directed him to the place that belonged to the one who he had been searching for, and he fell for the trap like an idiot, barging into the establishment and demanding the man’s location.

In retrospect, he probably should have though more about it. Found it suspicious how eager those guys were to divulge the information. But he was too blinded by the desire for revenge to think too much about it.

He should have been more careful.

The guards showed up like they were waiting for him to get himself in trouble, and he was the one that ended up being chased.

After days of stress and exhaustion, they caught him and threw him into the prison.

The very first night they had brought him here, they didn’t even let him spend the night in the cell, but dragged him in a creepy cave-laboratory. Then was the last thing he could remember before he lost his consciousness. He couldn’t tell how much time passed after that. Hours? Days? Everything was hazy, like a he was struck in a nightmare. Trapped in this semi-conscious state, all he felt was powerless as his energy was being drained off of him, leading him towards a pathetic death.

So when his consciousness returned, and the first thing he saw was the face of the old man’s murderer, that flickering flame of rage that was slowly dying down from hopelessness, blazed like it was about to consume his entire being. When Sora saw the last chance to give his failure of a life meaning, he grasped it like his life depended on it.

He couldn’t hear what the man said before he shifted attention back to him, but it didn’t matter. He strained against restraints, only thing on his mind destroying the man before him.

Sora screamed with rage, his body and chakra going haywire from the strain. Then something exploded inside him, for the first time being glad about the curse of a power that washed over him, and he tore through the binds, clad in the bloody red cloak of chakra, his claws aiming at the man.

Finally, the calm expression on the bastard’s face changed, replaced by shock. He leapt backwards, avoiding his strike.

“Well, I can’t say I expected this. Where did that power up even come from? Did you just have a flashback?”

“Shut it.” Sora shouted. He hated the man with all his being, but that disregard made that hatred far more intense. “I’ll kill you, even if it’s the last thing I do!”

Already, Sora’s mind was getting hazy, affected by the vile red chakra surrounding his invading and surrounding his body. This chakra, cause of his life of misery that had began to awaken once more, was a curse he was bearing. What else could the highly destructive power that you had no control over be called? Not only would the chakra begin to mess with his mind, but it would eventually turn him into a mindless monster that would attack anyone in sight, the curse inflicting physical and psychological scars on the ones it came in contact with.

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But, right now that was just fine by him. He didn’t care about the consequences. There were no innocent people around. In this damned and corrupted prison with the abusive guards and the crazed warden, no one’s life mattered. Hell, he himself would probably die in this very room as well. If the old man himself was defeated without much trouble, he had no illusions of leaving this fight unscathed. More likely, it would be half-dead at best.

“It wasn’t personal, kid.” the man said.

“It was for me, you bastard!” Sora responded as he glared at the man. He gathered chakra around his jaw and shouted. The heavily concentrated chakra shockwave blasted from forward in all directions, pushing the man in front of him a step backwards and throwing the warden at the wall.

“You’re not half bad. It’s a shame we’re on a bad terms. I could use someone strong like you.”

Did the guy wanted to drive him further into the madness? If so, it was working like a charm.

Sora followed up with a slash. He brought his chakra-clad hand forward and collided with the man’s blackened arm. Sora guessed it to be some sort of defensive jutsu that allowed him to block him so effortlessly, but he was not done yet. The power was still building up inside him, healing him of the fatigue and enhancing his body and instincts, allowing him to keep up with the opponent’s speed and strength.

With the each consecutive strike, his blows became stronger as he got used to the power while the man had to put noticeable more effort to counter his attacks.

It was strange. It felt freeing in a way, not having to hold himself back, not having to worry about the consequences. Nothing mattered aside from single, clear goal. And it seemed that the curse was resonating with his desire to kill.

Sora tore through the wave of dark tendrils that tried to restrain him and swiped his claw towards his target, infusing wind nature chakra into it. Powerful wind blades cut through the air, enhanced further by the curse’s chakra, rapidly approaching their destination while slicing anything in their way. The man grunted as he blocked the jutsu, barely holding his ground. Seeing the opportunity, Sora moved, closing the distance and bringing his claws to impale the opponent’s heart.

The next few seconds were flash. The man somehow managed to catch him strike with his palm, and brought the opposite arm toward his face. The punch knocked him out for a second and everything went white. Before he could regain control, the kick landing on his face sent him crashing at the wall.

Sora dislodged himself from the wall. He was pretty sure he broke something there and it was definitely more than one bone. He grunted from the pain but ignored it. The curse was healing the damage. It should allow him to at least see this through.

He eyed the man who didn’t seem to be showing any desire to go on the offense. He hated that attitude that felt no remorse for his actions. Seeing it being wiped off would be die for.

Before Sora could engage again, his instincts flared up in alarm. He whirled around, using the chakra tails to strike at the one that tried to attack him from the blind spot. The dense chakra that had materialized as tails collided with the body, making it crash against the wall. But he wasn't fast enough to react properly, as the chains, connected to the sickle that the warden was holding, had already wrapped around his torso in a tight hold. The warden was still here, whatever the psycho’s goal was, still trying to capture him.

Sora tensed against the chains, breaking them off without much struggle. He went after the warden, aiming to get rid off the weaker opponent first, but still not taking his eyes off the main target. The man had enough speed to cross the distance and attack him before he could get rid off, who himself didn’t seem like a piece of cake either.

The warden coughed blood as he was forced to took the full brunt of his charge, but it was clear for Sora that it would take more to take the freak out of commission. Not to mention that bullshit technique of his. He could still feel the burning pain that it gave him, rendering him completely useless to fight. He couldn’t give the warden guy time to perform the hand signs for it and had to make sure his palm didn’t made contact. He wasn’t sure how the curse would react to the jutsu, but, considering even channeling small pulse of chakra felt like he was burning, he didn’t like his chances.

The warden tried to create some distance, but Sora was faster than him. He quickly closed in on the guy and cut the attempt of casting the jutsu. Now, the fight became purely physical. Sora wasn’t great at taijutsu. His focus was more in ninjutsu and application of his elemental affinities in combat. But allowing the fight to shift towards the ninjutsu competition would not end well for him. Even with the advantage that the curse provided, his skills were lacking in comparison to the prison guy. It was clear that being overwhelmed, guy was still holding his own against him, despite Sora reaching the state where even the old man would not enough to suppress the curse alone.

Sora’s mind became further muddled with the dark desires as the chakra around him became more potent, turning from semi-translucent cloak to fully encasing his figure in red. Three tails had fully materialized behind him while his hands turned into claws. The power was flowing through him with more vigor than ever before, for the first time having opportunity to unleash itself without resistance from him. Well, apart from him trying to wretch him mind from the total madness. But him not rejecting the will of the curse gave enough control to not turn into a mindless berserker.

Gradually, as Sora actually let himself freely make use of the power, he began adapting to it, forcing his mind into clarity and trying to be tactical with it. He was willing to squeeze every bit of potential out of the curse as long as it allowed his death to have some meaning.

Finally, after exchanging dozens of moves against his opponent, Sora saw an opening. The warden was unable to properly block his charge and, shaken off balance, failed regain footing in time. It was only for a fraction of second, yet it was all he needed to connect his swing. The claws pierced the skin and blood spurted in the air. But there was no further tearing of the flesh. His claws cutting nothing but air, and instead of tearing off the hand of his enemy, Sora saw a blur, and the warden disappeared from where he stood. Turning around, Sora saw Kakuzu drawing the threads back that he used to pull away the warden from the slash.

“That is enough,” the man said. “You’ve proven yourself capable. Let’s get serious.”