The battle that followed was a blur of high-tech gadgetry and ancient martial arts. Haruka was faster, his movements honed by years of brutal Koga conditioning. But Ittoki had something the Koga lacked: a reason to live beyond the kill. He didn't want to conquer; he wanted to protect the small, quiet life he had left behind.
Ittoki looked down at his hands. They were trembling. "Is it always going to be like this? Just because our ancestors hated each other, we have to spend our lives trying to kill each other?" Shinobi no Ittoki (Dub) Episode 5
In a desperate maneuver, Ittoki used his suit’s exhaust to create a smoke screen, not to escape, but to close the distance. He didn't strike with a blade. Instead, he used a palm strike to the chest, a move his mother had taught him—not to kill, but to disarm. The battle that followed was a blur of
"You're hesitant, Ittoki," Kousetsu’s voice came from the shadows, cold and precise. She didn't look at him, her eyes fixed on the treeline where the Koga students—the 'elites'—were surely waiting. "In the world of shinobi, hesitation is a death sentence. The Koga don't care about your heart; they care about your head." He didn't want to conquer; he wanted to
The air in the Koga training grounds was thick with the scent of ozone and damp earth. Ittoki Sakuraba stood at the edge of the simulated forest, his lungs burning. He wasn't just fighting his classmates anymore; he was fighting the shadow of a father he never truly knew and a future he never asked for.
As if on cue, a flurry of shuriken whistled through the air. Ittoki reacted by instinct, his Iga-built suit whirring to life, enhancing his speed just enough to deflect the steel. Out of the darkness stepped Haruka, a Koga student whose eyes held a fanatical gleam.
"I'm not going to kill you," Ittoki said, his voice steady for the first time. "Because if I do, someone else will come for me. And then someone will come for them. I’m done being a spoke in your wheel."