Greetings, my readers... and the rest of you, you know, the glancers. I hope you're days have been far more prosperous than they have been for me. As of today, none of those job efforts have bore any fruit beyond a few courteous employers who had the decency to let me know that I wasn't fit for them, or, in one case, that someone more qualified got it in my stead. Meh, it sucks, but... what can you do, no?

At any rate, I can pleasantly say that chapter five is, clearly, uploaded. I found this chapter's conception to come along rather well up until around a fourth of the way through, where I got slight writer's block (Meaning, in my terms, that I could only write 600, or so words a day.) so I apologize before-hand if it seems disjointed. Keep in mind that I'm not the best at any form of writing -don't claim to be- and that, of all, I feel that fight scenes are my worst, right before conversations with three or more participants.

Now, onto my favorite part of this post-production writing- Answering reviewers... Not as many as last time, but hey, it is what it is.

Prank1ng- Dude, no need to apologize over that. Well, you're not expressly wrong for thinknig of those two, but it isn't quite as simple as the two of them. Here's a hint; time paradox. As far as the 'hn', well, that was actually Tsukune grunting in response to the voice- should go back and make that clearer at some point, probably. Thanks, it's a thought I've been pondering on- The sharingan, I mean- for a while; not many people have given more than a basic reasoning for how it works... I know that, as of the current time, this is as far as I've gotten, but... I plan to eventually go into the entire intricacies of the sharingan. Haha, no, this definitely ain't dead yet, dude... and, it won't die; may take a bit to update, but I got quite a bit to explore in this story.

Pyromania101- Indeed, it has been a long time. Sadly, as I stated, this long time hasn't bore me any fruits, either. Tch, typical in life, huh? Well, as far as the Saizou thing... read on; you might be let down, or pleasantly surprised. Can't give you a definite this early; it'd ruin the story! Heh. Friendship will come, yes, but it will be complicated... I can't promise that, but any "bashing" will be thoroughly earned from their canon-influenced interactions.. I ain't about to start having him rip Kurumu down for her lack of intellectual integrity, or Moka for her extreme optimism; they're defining traits and while he may lightly comment on them, I intent for him to help improve their faculties... at some point. Well, you'll just have to wait and see...

Black glasses wearing, cane-wielding, vest-wearing-dog-walking guy; aka blatant blind guy- Truly you are blind, my perception lacking friend. That, or you are truly jaded as to light hints that point otherwise... Though by reading your review I'd have to say that you're merely ignorant, '...just from reading the reviews and briefly glancing at the chapters...' If you must say he's under the guise of anyone, I'd say it's Itachi, for the time being. He'll blossom into his own soon enough.

Hmm, well it's interesting that you say that because I... could honestly care less. And, apparently, neither do the admins as my story is still here in place and I don't have a request to change it.

Gaara king of the sand- Thank you, and until I put up a chapter explaining that it will not be continued, then just assume I'm busy with my personal life.

Common Sense- Is it, really? Think about it. Look at the economy we're currently in; where graduates from college can't even find a job, and tell me that you wouldn't rather work on your own ends than to spend countless hours paying for further schooling which you can make absolutely no use of. I'm not going off on you, let me make that clear, i'm just giving you some food for thought here... His reason for failing is roughly drafted around my own... granted, I got my diploma (barely), but didn't go to college.

Thank you for giving it a chance, and I hope that you can enjoy it henceforth.

Hypothetical Spiritual Entity-

Thanks. Here it is; hope you enjoy it.

Some random anon- You didn't bother me at all with the past reviews; I rather enjoyed them and have no problem with it. Thank you for the praise on my articulateness, it is one of my few high-held prides. Meh, don't sweat not reviewing the first chapter; you got the other three in turn. While I begin putting the setting and story together, I'll hang onto the canon for the time being and will be adding my own twists to it until I'm ready to depart from it... that includes some cliché content, such as the bike incident. I agree, it is nice to not have him instantly become a hankering love-zombie. Thank you; you're a reviewer whom I look forward to hearing from, in the same echelons as Pyro, and Prank1ng. I'll try to keep my updates on a regular basis.

Disclaimer: I do not own, profit, or withdraw any sort of monetary gain from this publication, and all rights belong to Akisha Ikeda, and Kishimoto. I do, however, own the fact that I didn't feel like being witty with this rather useless piece of information.

Chapter 5: Disturbances

He blinked his eyes as the pressurized wind burst across his cheeks and scratched at his eyes. His red-tinted gaze took in the trees, every single one coming closer at one-eighth the speed of his actual movement, despite the fact that both his physical body and his eyes perceived himself touching each and every branch henceforth with unerring accuracy.

He jumped to another, and yet again to the one several yards in front of him. Another gust of wind, tinged with the light mist of the early morning blew into his face stronger than before, and a light-blue haze was inter-tangled with it. He raised a fist, "We're close; keep them off of me."

"Aye, destroy him, M'lord." He heard from behind him as four pressure waves exploded and the now-emptier air behind him washed over his form, rustling the leaves of the tree whose branch he stood upon, looking into the distance where a long, straight black-haired man with slightly tanned skin stood in pale green armor which seemed reminisce of the armor worn by the samurai.

Reaching behind him, he drew his sixty-two inch long naginata from it's place fastened to his back in a leather holster-strap. He felt the energy in his feet concentrate upon the use of an odd finger-position and in the next three seconds- in real time, and twenty-four to his eyes- he stood before the armor clad man, his naginata already piercing the chest of his target's armor, "Die, lying snake!"

The obvious target's body shattered into pieces in a spray of what looked like wood. In frustration, he felt his energy well up in his head and target his ocular sensory nerves, where it began to heat up and burn slightly. He snapped his eyes open with a yell of, "Mangekyou Sharingan!" and everything...

Now he was standing in the rain, his eyes perceiving things just as slow as they did before, yet across from him stood a man who was easily a foot taller than he, despite his five-six frame. The man's coal-black eyes suddenly were aglow in an ominous crimson, and circling the pupil were three tomoe marks, each swimming at a speed that made the slight discoloration that marked their orbit seem more like a black circle.

He blinked, wondering why he was standing here before the taller man whose black mane seemed to flow like fire, spiking in every general direction. The shadows cast by the night shrouded his rusted-crimson colored modified samurai armor fairly well, yet the light glow from his empowered, spinning eyes pushed at the shroud, tinging the metallic attire slightly.

"It is time for you to begin your training, son. You will bring the glory that they stole from our clan back to us, as the heir to our family. Prepare yourself, do not falter." That was all the deep-voiced man, whose thick accent would have made it difficult to understand his words, said before rushing him.

He pulled his arms up, blocking the initial punch and reached for his right arm, pulling it down and towards him whilst he hopped into the air and rammed his knee into his father's face, simultaneously swinging his other leg over the captured arm and landed behind him. He wasted no time and rammed an elbow into his father's neck, only for his target to flash out of existence from pure speed and a searing pain to ram into his chest -the tell-tail sign of broken ribs.

Teeth grit as he hissed in pain and began moving his fingers at a blistering speed of which even his own eyes found to be a slight blur, "Katon: Karyu Endan!"

He watched as his father's eyes widened for a second before he smirked and began to focus energy into his eyes. The second that the burning entity that formed itself in a frigging dragon, his father's tomoes seemed to spin rapidly as he whispered a barely audible, "Mangekyou Sharingan"

The rapidly spinning tomoe spun even faster if it were possible, until their after-images were colliding together. Half a second later, the spinning stopped and where his three tomoe had once been, there was now a continuous circle with hollow divots in the ring that represented them in this odd form. His father focused on the dragon sailing towards him, and he closed an eye, "Amat..."

Tsukune awoke with a start, springing up with a sharp breath as he swiveled his head and looked about his room with sporadic eyes. He was so panicked after those odd dreams and the very vivid pain, that he wasn't even aware, until his gaze passed the small mirror that hung on the inside door of his wardrobe which he had apparently left open, that his sharingan was active.

He quickly cut the energy to his eyes and felt them fade to their average brown as he gazed at the ceiling whilst getting his breathing back under his control. His body shook slightly, and he was made aware from his lack of dress -having gone to bed in only his boxers- that it was both cold, and that he had become slightly clammy with the cold sweat of that very physical dream...

He quickly vacated his bed and dressed himself in a white t-shirt and a pair of sweats. It took him little time to make two pieces of jellied toast and devour the meager -to most- breakfast and clean up what little he had used to make the meal.

It was then off to the bathroom, and more specifically, the showers. As he stepped out and walked the halls, his visage remained the stoic and unapproachable indifference that had become his base expression, despite the near-claustrophobic feeling he got as he walked through the semi-crowded halls made all the more unpleasant by the fact that his dorm-mates seemed to be rather unadapted at holding onto their disguise so soon after awakening.

Passing by a seven-foot tall teen who glanced at himself by happenstance in the compact mirror of a sophomore's girlfriend, who had decided to visit their other-half, he heard the boy groan and begin muttering about how staying human all the time sucked and began to sulk; an odd sight, considering the boy seemed to be a Kappa, made apparent by the light blue-green skin and the bony -almost beak-like- lips with the bony plate protruding his sea-weedy hair.

The boy was one of the more... tame -if odd- looking monsters who were either completely, or semi out of proper disguise, revealing their entire forms, or an arm, head, or in some cases an extra appendage. Tsukune ducked under the flailing spindly tail of some yellow boy who seemed excited over something. Perhaps he was worried, instead?

He quickly jumped in the communal shower and paid no mind to the other boys who showered along-side him, the few that there were in the morning. One aspect of his training that Asura had drilled into him was that modesty was fine and all, but a fight can erupt anywhere and under any condition, so you had to be comfortable with yourself around others in any state of dress to be ready; if you were whining and shivering like a scared child because of a meager exposure, then you were little more than a hindrance.

To that end, he would be forced to fight the man nude, even on days and night where the water traffic was rather heavy and passersby on water-taxis and passing ships could easily see. It had taken the boy being almost beaten into unconsciousness and then being left outside that night as punishment to stop worrying about his state of dress and merely focus on the task at hand.

The brunette boy hastily made his way back to his dorm room and undressed from his regular shirt and sweats, replacing them with the proper school uniform. He was adjusting his blazer, pressing the few wrinkles in it out as he exited the goth-styled buildings and emerged onto the school proper. With the low hum of students speaking in rather civilized tones around him and the melodious sounds of birds chirping which had undertones by the dirge of crows and ravens, he found himself slightly lost in thought, his pondering bringing his thoughts towards the information he had gleaned from the voice the previous night, and the dreams he had. The most prominent question in his mind was, 'What is a Mangekyou Sharingan? Is that the next level which I was warned of?'

So wrapped in his thoughts was he that he never noticed that a familiar curly haired blonde was walking up on him from the rear, a sneering smirk upturning both the edge of his lip and his nose. His angular face was twisted in a sick expression of glee as he suddenly rushed the boy and, upon channeling youki into his arm, allowed some of his true form's muscles to bulge and increase his strength.

Tsukune heard the hit connect with his back more than he felt it, but all the same, he was send lurching forward. His saving grace was his reflex as he tossed his arms out in front of him and sprang himself into a hand-standing flip, where he landed with his back to his attacker, "Truly, you leave something to be desired in your attempts, Komiya-san."

The fact that his cool remark had more venom in it than a cobra stung the taller boy who growled, "I told Moka that this wasn't over, and it isn't. You'll be staying away from her, and you'll let me do what I want, understand?"

Tsukune shifted his position so he was gazing at his fellow brunette from the corner of his right eye, "Defending Moka-san from your assaults was my first interaction with her, and I had hoped it to be the last initiated on my part." The look of satisfaction settling over the pierced boy was quickly dashed as the smaller of the two went on to say, "I cannot allow something so overlooked to take place whilst I have the power to stop it; perhaps if you had tried to bribe me at first, I may have thought about it -I still would have denied you, no doubt, but I would've thought about it."

"Why you!" The Komiya teen ground out from gnashed teeth and went rush towards Tsukune, his rage blinding him top the fact that Tsukune was ready for him.

Before he hit, Tsukune admonished, "I wouldn't advise you to contin- Alright, then!" As Saizou transformed his arm into the mucus-brown colored, leathery, yet muscle-bound arm of his true-form and raised it over-head for a crushing blow, the other brunette boy quickly jumped to the side and pivoted immediately on his heel in a full-circle where he rammed his left elbow under Saizou's right ribs and used his other arm as leverage to pry his elbow higher and cause the other boy some pain, without actually breaking the ribs.

Saizou gave a throaty, yet shrill groan of agony and rounded on Tsukune, only to receive a palm thrust to the chest, followed by a snap-kick to his solar-plexus, which caused a bit of spittle to escape his mouth along with the rush of air from his lungs. In the light daze, he couldn't help the fact that he wasn't able to properly defend against the open-fisted punch which landed right on his sternum with a 'thunk', threatening the solidity of the supporting bone.

The boy stopped his assault of the sleazy school-boy and merely stood at the ready for a moment before he relaxed his stance with a soft sigh that sounded like it could have had a disappointed snort within it as he turned his back to Saizou. As his form retreated from the older boy's presence, Tsukune was unaware of the hate-filled glare that was sent his way, nor of the crazed look in the monster's eyes as half his mouth slightly transformed, his jaws elongating into something akin to a very short muzzle or snout and sharp teeth replacing his human ones.

He was halfway to school before his next disturbance reared its head, this time in a semi-familiar face. As he walked the cobble-stoned path towards the front of the school, he was made aware of a presence walking inessentially close behind him. Deciding that he most certainly did not enjoy the feeling of being followed, his nostrils flared and he picked up speed as a scowl lightly crossed his face.

A minute later and his nostrils had flared slightly more as his breathing deepened and his eyes narrowed slightly, his fingers in his pockets balling into fists upon finding that not only had the presence kept up, but was getting closer.

Finally he stopped and rounded on the person, schooling his features as he did so, as it was rude to appear angry upon one's first meeting in a civil setting. The only sign of his apparent surprise was the barely noticeable raise of his eyebrows upon catching sight of his 'lost puppy' follower.

A pair of off-jade eyes sparkled in both merriment, yet showcased her visible anxiety of approaching him. Her long, silky shocking pink colored hair which hung to the small of her back swayed lightly in the breeze. Tsukune, though he wouldn't admit it even under threat of death, found the single rebellious strand of hair atop her head to be cute.

She stood half a head shorter than himself and looked slightly up into his chocolate eyes from where she stood, three feet away. Her hands were clasped together before her as a nervous smile pulled on her lips. She looked like she wanted to say something, but was far too nervous to do so, thus Tsukune took initiative, "Yes?"

Immediately, her cheeks flushed some and her eyes became slightly unfocussed as they threatened to look away before she calmed herself, "A-Ano, I just wanted to thank you for... yesterday."

He stared at her for a moment, before deciding to nod, "It's fine. Don't let him get you in that position again." With his words spoken, he began to walk off again, only to hear Moka address him once more.

"A-also, thank you for the juice!"

His eyes widened a fraction before they narrowed just as much, "Think nothing of it." He had hoped that he wouldn't regret being kind to her, yet he was beginning to see that it was an error in his judgment. He had hoped that, in helping her he could hopefully prevent someone from suffering as he did, and he had produced the tomato juice in an effort to take her mind off of the events. He did not, however, want a friend or a follower from the event; he had found that friends were fickle, regardless of age, affiliation, or walk of life.

Friends in school had proven to merely be mooching piles of compost, for when he refused to give them hints as to school-work, and refused to comment on why so many of the girls in school seemed drawn to him, despite his dislike of the treatment, some abandoned him in lieu of mooching off of the coattails of someone more.. susceptible to their begging.

Others were far to invasive of his personal life, wanting to know every detail of his life from birth up until the day after tomorrow, right at that moment. They didn't understand that some secrets should stay buried, and that he didn't wish to divulge his life's story to someone who was not even entirely close to him, or could even hope to understand what he went through. So many of them fell away from him due to his lack of being agreeable.

The rest of those who wanted to know about him intimately had been pushed away due to somehow not understanding his fury when they were caught rifling through his belongings in an effort to uncover information about their 'friend'. All it took was breaking one of their hands for that; not a bad price -as theft in the Middle East at one time meant lopping off a hand- to be paid, for them all to leave him by the way-side.

Then there were the fangirls. Truly, he hated them, but not for the reason one would imagine. It was the way they carried themselves, the way they asserted themselves as beyond everything but the object of their admiration, as if they were demi-gods and the only being who was better than they was he.

To some, this might seem like a great batch of friends; a group that would do anything and everything to please you and defend your honor. A group of followers who would fetch you anything and damn near lay down their lives for you. A group of loyalists so tight that nothing could shatter their resolve... But that was just it; so obsessed they were, that had he accepted their presence, they would have become the flakiest friends in existence.

They banded together as a group before he returned their affection, but once he did, they would turn on one-another and drive the others to leave. In addition, they would all too easily be swayed by someone who was even slightly more influential/powerful/handsome than himself and leave him by the way-side. It was too much of a gamble, and if there was one thing he did not enjoy, it was taking chances without a solid forty-percent in his favor.

A few hours later found Tsukune sitting in his English class, one of the two required language courses, the other being Japanese. As some monster spoke their own language, they were taught the most common language of the world, and the language of the land for which most monsters first tried to emerge into the human world through.

He was currently listening to his teacher, a Daisuke 'Excellent' Maki, explain the intricacy of human language and especially the two extremes in English; the abnormal and extreme extent to which words were spelled with either added or missing letters and their pronunciations for which sometimes didn't even match the phonetic sound of the word -this last edict thumbing American English, more than European.

He was steadily counting down the time until the bell sounded and he could get out of the dreary class; he had learned with the help of his sharingan the majority of the English language was at his disposal, as was a fairly descent Irish accent, and a slightly believable Bostonian accent.

It took five minutes that lasted every bit of the eternity that it was for the class to be let out and Tsukune brought his crimson-hued memory of his schedule into his mind, noting that his next class was Physical Education with Okuto Katsubo-sensei. Getting to the class was a whole different matter, as he had yet to actually migrate to the gym, and as such was clueless as to where to go for the most part.

He found that he couldn't keep his mind off of the happenings of the previous night. He would constantly hear the words of those spoken in his dreams speaking fractured sentences. It unnerved him because not only was he hearing his dreams whilst awake, but the worst part was that he wasn't actually hearing anything repeated; rather, it was fragments of what they were going to say... it was usually half a word, maybe three words at once, but all the same, it was worrisome.

The teen also found himself actively wondering about this morning, with Moka. The pink haired girl seemed friendly, and contrary to his initial observation, he found that she didn't have that sickening fixation most girls seemed to have, and while appreciative, he knew the look in her eyes as one that he used to hold before he blocked all but the most subtle notions of his emotions from showing without his consent; loneliness and desolation.

He blinked as he happened upon a strange sight that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up. Men, from all four years of Youkai Academy were gathered in this particular corridor, squashed against one another to the point that it would have been incessantly unbearable many times over had he been in the middle of the group.

Yet these fools seemed to not care at all how little space they had between themselves, and were far more fixated on something in the center of the hall junction. So much so that they were practically drooling over themselves, and in fact, some were.

As he pushed passed the group, he deadpanned and he resisted the urge to roll his eyes as a deep breath was sucked into his lungs from the sight before him. 'Can this girl ever stay out of trouble?' Tsukune found himself wondering in mild frustration as he pushed to the forefront of the group of infatuated students in order to get a clearer view.

Before him -by a good fifteen feet- stood Moka, her satchel bag -which he had just realized she hadn't had with her earlier- dropped on the ground beside her as her face was screwed up in astonishment and mortification. Her green pupils were contracted and it looked as if disgust was quickly growing within her. The reason?

Standing before her in a stance that exuded confidence and sexuality was a woman who was almost equal in height with the pink haired girl. Her uniquely cerulean hair framed her face lightly in the form of bangs, and the rest of her hair was held back behind her head in a loose ponytail with a purple ribbon upon which a golden star resided on the clip of the decorative ribbon.

Her violet eyes stared into Moka's green pair, mischievous intent and unspoken taunts dancing within them as her lips pulled into a saucy smirk. The plaid skirt which she wore, truly the only part of her uniform which could be called as such, was crinkled, and by the way many of the guys were staring and whispering about it, he could only infer that it had ridden up at some point and revealed whatever she was wearing -or lack thereof- under it.

The obvious reason for Moka's feelings, aside whatever the girl may have said? Her sweater clad torso was entirely too close to Moka's, and the large lumps pressing against the fabric which contorted against the firmness of Moka's own blazer clad chest from the bra she obviously wore was a good guess.

He shook his head, 'Why? Why me?' The reason for this thought was, as he attempted to leave the area without alerting anyone to his presence whilst he scoffed at the absurdity of the situation, the blue haired bombshell happened to notice him, "Oh, Moka-chan! I see your little boyfriend!"

The pink haired girl blinked and looked over to the cold, distant brunette boy who had frozen mid-step, "W-wha! H-He's not my-" It was too little, too late as the bluenette, who had introduced herself to Moka as Kurumu Korono, rushed over to Tsukune and immediately latched onto his arm, pressing her miraculously soft breasts onto the captured limb where they molded to the appendage.

For a moment, Moka was worried for Tsukune's well-being, especially after hearing of Kurumu's plan to charm every boy in the academy in order to find her Destined One. That was, until she remembered just how unapproachable and cold he seemed to be and that look in his eyes; the look that bespoke of someone so disillusioned with the world that nothing would ever be infallibly beautiful to them.

Despite it, she still felt worry for the teen and hoped that he wouldn't fall for her Charm. Sure, she wasn't friends with him in the least, but... He was the only boy she had seen who was civil with her that didn't want her for pure lustful reasons, and the only person who had actually held a conversation -no matter how small- with her without an ulterior motive.

"Hey there, cutie! How are you doing today?" Kurumu inquired with a tenuous attempt to hide the glee bouncing around within her as plans formed in her head. Tsukune shifted his eyes without turning his head and let his eye glance down to his breast-smothered arm and then up to the girl's face that was looking eagerly up at him.

He supposed that he would have to say something to get her to release him. He sighed mentally, "Hello." The greeting held no emotion, no warmth, and was laced with a dismissive undertone.

All this was lost on the girl.

She giggled and maneuvered so that the soft melons that were her breasts weren't static on his arm, hoping that the large movements that were contorting her hidden breasts and the feel of them would arouse the boy even more than she thought he was. Unfortunately for Kurumu, all she managed to do was irritate the teen further who narrowed his eyes at her a fraction, "Is there something you want?"

She blinked and despite her efforts to hide it, a small smirk form, 'This is going to be so much easier than I thought!' She smiled warmly and pressed herself even closer to him, looking up into his eyes, and with a slight pout requested, "Would you look into my eyes please?" When he refused to budge, the cerulean haired girl felt the urge to both huff and grin, he wanted or needed a reason, it seemed.

Fine, she'd give him one. She let out a small moan, so light that he was likely the only one to hear it and leaned her head on his arm slightly, "Please, I have something to tell you about your girlfriend over there!" Tsukune sighed, he didn't exactly want to hurt the girl by pulling his arm free from her rather intense grip, so perhaps doing as she wanted for a moment would make her lapse in her grip just enough for him to get free without injuring her.

He turned to face her, "Fine, but she's not my girlfriend; she's not even my friend."

Kurumu merely shrugged, "You're probably just saying that, but it doesn't matter anymore! You won't be her anything now, 'Charm!'"

Tsukune knew something was off the moment she shrugged and pulled on his arm harder, bringing him closer to her. At their current closeness, both their eyes were hidden by their hair and each-others head and body. He felt an odd energy pulse and on instinct activated his Sharingan.

Two crimson orbs of blood-drenched promises flashed into being from beneath their guise of chocolate brown eyes. The pupil retracted to that of slightly larger than a pin-prick and two tomoe swirled into being as they swam around the dark center of his eyes. The first tomoe perceived the ripples of youki converted to what he could only assume was psychic energy that emanated from the girl's eyes. The second tomoe, within the third perceived second had imprinted the image of the concentric waves exuding from her eyes and had picked it apart for later assimilation.

Then, for just a second, he felt his eyes glaze over and his vision fade before it was immediately restored. Tsukune stared at the girl, his crimson eyes spinning dangerously as she stared back, mesmerized by the beautiful spectacle that also gripped her heart in primal fear. She tentatively whispered, "D-do you love me?"

She was so worried, she knew she was easily in for the worst day of her possibly very short life if he wasn't charmed. Something within her felt intensely fearful of the boy upon seeing those crimson eyes. It was as if she were facing an apex predator who's den she had just stumbled into and managed to awaken the beast within from its slumber.

Her breath caught in her throat and she grew numb when his eyes suddenly narrowed, clearly furious with the girl before him. As if to reflect his anger, the two tomoe in his eyes sped up in their orbit until they were spinning rapidly enough that they almost had their own after-images, and as if to accentuate this, his crimson orbs appeared to become more radiant as the crimson seemed to deepen in color.

He leaned his head down, so low that he was by her ears and understandably those watching grew jealous and Moka was biting the nail on her index finger in worry for her acquaintance, believing him to possibly have been charmed.

From his place next her ear, he released a heated breath, "Whatever you just tried, you messed up. You brought me into this with the intent of hurting Moka, who I am not friends with and am not romantically involved with. You were willing to assault me, without cause, to achieve your own ends..."

She shivered, fearful that he was going to snap her neck, which he could easily do from right here. The pressure he was emitting from his presence alone was almost suffocating her; it was so strong, and yet it didn't extend very far -she felt it get insurmountably weaker just a foot behind her... To have so much refined power...

Tsukune seemed to hiss out his next words, "You're lucky I don't break you in twain... Now, leave me and do not approach myself, or Moka again unless you plan to make amends..." She almost relaxed, as much as she could being as fearful as she could; she was sure she was close to peeing herself out of fear, "Yet, if you dare to even think of tormenting either of us, I will not leave you unscathed."

He leaned up from her and cast his brown eyed gaze across the crowd, until it landed on Moka. Her innocent eyes were almost brimming with tears until they made contact with the deep chocolate eyes that acted as dual portals to the frozen, barren tundra that he displayed to the world before him. For a mere moment, she was sure she saw the edges of his lips upturn into a miniscule smirk before falling to the stoic neutrality which he normally wore.

Wordlessly, Tsukune turned his back on the vaguely shivering and pale blue haired bombshell, and the immensely relieved girl who's jade eyes looked him over as he walked off. He had no idea that his display of actively resisting Kurumu would leave very large ripples in the ocean that was Youkai Academy's social atmosphere.

After the incident in the halls with the odd neon-blue haired girl whom Tsukune found himself having mixed feelings about, the rest of the school day had breezed by with little incident beyond the normal mild irritation and redundancy that accompanied one's average first day of school. Granted, it was slightly elevated; especially with the classes that held relevancy with monsters, but even those proved to be the same routine.

By the end of his school day, he had assimilated the strangely deceptive, yet simple, school hallways and paths which led to his classes. Speaking of which, he had found that he had a rather standard schedule for the school, despite how odd it operated.

His first class happened to be World History, with Shizuka Nekonome. He found that he easily excelled at most of her class, but when she broke out a little trivia about certain things that monsters had a part in, he was clueless. Who would have guessed that one of the reasons that Napoleon Bonaparte's crusade came to an end was due to his army disturbing a family of Yeti who made the battle in the freezing Russian winter hell, and managed to help kill off a good quarter of his men.

His second class turned out to be Math with Kagome Ririko, an odd woman to be sure. The mere fact that the obviously attractive woman was allowed to actually wear a corset to school, despite it being somewhat reasonably hidden beneath her blouse was cause for minor alarm. He found her to be very passionate about her class, and even more so about the well-being and studiousness of those within, made apparent by her willingness to help a boy out who sat beside him, yet whack another across the room with an ill-placed text book against his head for making a crack about math being irrelevant.

The Third class happened to be Daisuke Maki's English class. He was loathe to attend the class; the man was an imbecile -not in his knowledge, but in his actions- and Tsukune had decided upon hearing the word, 'Excellent!' escape him for the ninth time in a five-minute period that he would lose no sleep if the man suddenly disappeared from the Earth.

Fourth happened to be Gym with Okuto Katsubo. The brunette boy found that the man was a descent enough teacher, if slightly harsh in his critique. Despite this professionalism, he refused to allow his guard to falter as the man left a large presence in the room that tasted foul. He wasn't sure what it was; maybe it was the way the man seemed to slink about the gymnasium, or the way his voice gained an edge when he called out the name of a girl who was apparently absent that was to be sitting a space across from him, a Shira-something or other. Either way, he'd keep his eyes on this one.

Lunch was taken after Gym, and it proved to be... disturbing. In spite of them being in a school that was to help with the assimilation of monsters into the human world, they certainly spared no expenses in ensuring that they cooked something that one monster or another would find delectable from their home-lands.

With nothing better to do, and a slightly hungry stomach griping at him, the brunette boy took a tray that had a steamed water-creature that looked to be a cross between an eel, and a barracuda. A side of some fluffy brown...stuff was placed beside it where it seemed to froth for a moment before smoothing out. He found solace in the fact that string beans were normal, but was once again forced to sigh as the apple he picked up seemed to have wrinkled and warped in such a way that it had a face on it. He topped all this off with a can of soda.

He absently noted that a shade of pink hair could be seen through the sea of students in green across the cafeteria. He made no effort to attract it's owner's attention, though.

Once he was stuffed and full, he was off to Monster Health, one of the classes devoted to monsters rather than humans. This class, taught by an Ukitaki Kin, explained the many ways in which different races would have to accommodate human medicines into their systems, and basic understanding of youkai anatomy. This was the only class in which they would be allowed to learn of each others monstrosity, at the most basic level -when they were sophomores. Kin was very professional, and the one time she mentioned genitalia and one student laughed, he was immediately reprimanded and informed that he would have a ton of work tacked on to his normal homework.

Considering the fact that this last class was two-hours long, he found that the school day ended directly afterward. Three classes had still needed to be visited and as such, he assumed that they would be taken tomorrow in place of Math, Gym and English. They were Japanese with Fubuki Shinji, Ulrich Weisberg taught Human Communications -a class which would help monsters get accustomed to the proper tact and nuances of human contact and conversation between different social groups and nationalities, as well as help them with the task of getting an occupation in the human world. The last was chemistry, and oddly there were three question marks next to the space where the professor's name was to be placed.

He had made his way across the academy grounds, his wanderings taking him vaguely towards the dorms as he zigzagged through the wooded lands. The boy arched an eyebrow as he found a fairly large section of the grounds were covered in gravestones of several different makes. He toyed with the thought that they were real, but shook the notion from his mind; no one would actually bury their children here at the school, and he doubted that the headmaster would allow them to be in an dang- What was he thinking! Danger was everywhere! Even if he wouldn't allow it, it would find them.

He blinked as a ghastly wind blew through the clearing which he currently stood, batting and nipping at his unruly hair with it's strong gusts. Tsukune blinked as he found himself feeling somewhat empowered by the wind; it wasn't immense by any means, but he could tell that he had a little more energy than before. -still almost negligible, though.

The brunette boy was about to continue on his tryst through the woods when he heard it, a sound carried faintly on the wind. It sounded a great deal like a scream, and with a little more concentration he found it to be feminine. His chocolate eyes narrowed into a thin glare, 'Why would a girl be screaming? It could be someone playing, or perhaps whoever it was had fallen and hurt themselves.'

He let out a sigh, 'Well, whoever it is, I hope help comes for them soon. Don't want that prick, Saizou swarming them... like... vultures...' His mind shut down for a fraction of a second before it shot awake and his teeth clenched together, "That had better not be Saizou once again." Upon hearing the scream drift along the soupy air once more, he compared it to his memory of Moka's voice. If those in the graves had the ability to see from their eternal rest, they would have only seen a werewolf shoot off faster than Tsukune did.

The boy was little more than a flash as he ran at his top speed, his legs aching and his chest burning from a complex mixture of physical strain and fury. He hopped and planted his feet against a tree, then pin-balled to one next to it until he reached a branch. He took no time in launching himself through the canopy of the nearly leafless flora, landing on every other branch with the speed and height of his jumps. So much was his concentration focused elsewhere that he not once faltered in his steps even as a handful of the weaker branches cracked and fell seconds after he landed on them.

This was another aspect of his training which Asura had taught him; whenever possible, always be taller than your opponent. Not only was the vantage point a great boon, but as history shows; most battles won were done so due to the winning side being on higher ground. Asura had also explained that if he were ever on a surface which could allow him to perpetually jump, then he should do so; he would be able to use the momentum and power of the first to haul him through several more jumps with minimal effort on his own part.

He had explained, at the end of Tsukune's intermediate training, that a true master would be able to handle running on the branches of a tree without the worry of falling.

With his rage fueling his speed, the wielder of the Pinwheels of Despair soon found himself across the Academy grounds in yet another clearing near the women's dormitories. His eyes narrowed as he made the last three jumps until he had reached a position from which he could see into the clearing.

Looking like the scene one would see in a horror movie, Moka, playing the part of the beautiful victim, was backed up against a tree, body shrunken in upon itself in fright as she gazed out in fear at the being before her. Her brilliantly pink hair was tussled and frayed from a struggle of some kind, as were her clothes -what was left of them.

Her skirt looked to have been ripped off on the side, a ragged slit now extending up the left thigh to the waistband as it hung to her with what little tensile strength it had left. Her pale pink panties could be glimpsed from this tear, revealing little bats in black stitching to be on the cloth knickers.

The Blazer which she wore had been ripped near the lapels, but despite it, they still refused to completely rip off of her person. The only undamaged bit of clothing she had was her white button up blouse beneath the green blazer which looked to be wrinkled from the struggle.

Opposing her was what could only be considered a true monster. Eight foot tall stature supported an immense frame of muscle-bound sinew and tendons that bulged beneath tightly stretched and thick brown skin. blonde hair spiked backwards in an oily, soggy mess as it hung to the beast's shoulders where two thick pieces of tendon, bone, or muscle pushed the skin up to accommodate for it's cable-like form as it crossed over his shoulder from his pectorals to his shoulder blades. From these cables, four bony plates extended out in spikes with the barest membrane of the thick skin covering them.

His arms were almost as thick as Tsukune's body as each and every muscles twitched with the barest of movement from it's form. More cables of sinew formed through it's forearms and up to it's hands, crisscrossing and creating something that looked like a warped version of gauntlets which had long-since fused to the beast's arms.

More bony protrusions formed on it's hands inversely to each knuckle, creating a very grotesque spectacle. Even more so than the hands were the fact that the overly muscled abdomen seemed to suddenly shrink to near human proportions, leaving the true state of it's being beneath the school issued uniform pants, save for two spike-like protrusions on the knees.

Two sickly green-tinted yellow eyes stared out hungrily at the assaulted girl, a beady black pupil sitting in the center of the jaundiced-looking sclera. His maw opened and revealed a double row of sharp, pointed teeth as his sickly-looking pale tongue stretched out to impossible lengths and began to move over to Moka.

"Now, now, Moka; that's certainly no way to act towards your husband!" The beast exclaimed in a deep rumble, his ability to talk clearly not hindered in spite of the fact that his tongue was extended at least a foot and a half out of his mouth. The appendage- for that was what it was clearly classified as of now- moved around Moka, circling her back and then coming full-circle around her stomach before the slack in the tip reached up an 'caressed', or licked her cheek, making the girl shudder and whisper out an 'eww'.

"W-what!" Moka eeped in both disgust and panic, now gripping his apparently strong tongue in an attempt to pry it off of her. She felt sick at the stomach from having to touch the slimy thing, and a stronger stage of panic was beginning to rear its head when she couldn't even move the thing, despite the fact that she had pushed Saizou off of her with her inherent strength.

Saizou laughed callously, his eyes seeming to undress and taste her from the leer that existed in them, "Oh, I've been thinking; why eat you when I can just as easily make you my own! Maybe I can't eat you at once, but you can survive a few pieces of flesh missing here and there... And I'll have all the pleasure I'll ever need, to boot! Haha!"

The brutish monster made to move forward and simultaneously pull the pink haired girl to himself, but the plan was sullied quickly. Saizou inadvertently received a free tongue piercing courtesy of the ball-point pen which was stuck in the center of his pale oral appendage.

With a howl, the disturbingly muscled being retracted his bleeding tongue and hissed out an angry growl, spitting a wad of blood to the ground as he narrowed his insidious eyes, turning his sights to the direction where the pen had been launched from. Upon finding the location, he stopped and stood frozen in place.

Moka turned to see what it was that had her assailant so terrified, only to find that the familiar brown-haired boy who had assisted her the day prior was now standing before Saizou, his right fist imbedded in the monster's lowest set of abs, clearly where his skin was weakest. To add insult to injury, his other hand remained tucked into his pant pocket, giving the not-so-false image that he had, at the moment, little to worry about from the monstrous being.

"You! What are you doing here, ass-clown!" Siazou exclaimed in a harsh voice, a mix of his true-form's natural sound and the wheezing from having his apparently unprotected solar-plexus assaulted, thereby being absent on air. The blonde being received his reply by way of an elbow to the chin which, despite the strength that Tsukune put in it, did little to stun the monster whose upper body was far more adapted to taking such damage.

The sickly looking beast-man granted in minor pain and set his yellow eyes back onto the frail-looking problem before him and allowed a smirk to pull at his thin lips to reveal the off-white dual-layered teeth. The thick muscles in his bulging neck and shoulders strained as he tilted his head to the side where a sharp, loud crack emanated from his body, "Heh, so that's all your skinny ass has got, huh? Pathetic, to think you gave me such a beating as a human."

Saizou allowed a sharp chuckle to escape his large maw and the only warning Tsukune got was the impossible-to-miss tensing of his muscles before he took off after him, bridging the short distance between the two in moments. It was only thanks to the training he had with Momochi Asura that he managed to duck under the massive clawed hand that swiped at him. Tsukune winced as his legs burned immensely from this new strain, still not recovered even remotely from the strain he put on them with his speed boost.

Thus, the brunette boy was in no position to do anything but narrowly be caught by a dull spiked knee to the chest that sent him careening to the side, away from Moka and into a tree. Despite the pain, Tsukune pulled himself up from the spider-webbing trunk and jumped to the side just in time to allow a maddened and monstrous Saizou to tackle and utterly demolish the weakened tree, sending chunks of bark everywhere.

In the dust that was kicked up, he only made out the slightly darker silhouette of Saizou in time to identify that it was a massive backhand which connected with his head and shoulder, sending him flying across the clearing once again to rag-doll thrice on the ground, nearly thirty feet away. Tsukune grunted to himself in frustration, 'I can't resort to using the Sharingan; if my first encounter with this beast requires it, then what does that say for my ability to fight by myself in this world... What trump card do I have, if I must always fall back on it?'

The teen pulled himself up and vaguely heard a worried warning from the fearful pink-haired girl warning him that Saizou was once again charging right for him. Tsukune took in a breath and jumped to the side once again as the muscle-bound creature that his enemy truly was, only to find that his prehensile tongue was rushing at him, prepared to ram into his throat. Thinking fast, he allowed it to get closer and quickly reached past and grabbed it, using it as grapple to spring himself over the appendage and slightly above the brute.

"Do not think so highly of yourself, Komiya-san. One slip up is all I need." Tsukune warned as he wound his leg back, building tension in his quadriceps until the burning mixed with the background pain of his nearly-destroyed muscles and unleashed it in painful knee-blow to the back of the monstrel's neck. Unfortunately, between an increased capacity to deal with pain and the armor of thick, bulging muscles that shielded the vital anatomical parts of his upper body, the blow to the neck merely caused the once-human beast to groan in pain whilst being staggered two steps.

"Heh, if that was your anticipated 'slip-up', punk, then," Siazou began gruffly as his enormous tongue swiped around behind Tsukune and swatted him in the side, sending him to skid spread-eagle against the ground behind him. He had rolled over and cleared the dust and dirt from his eyes in time to watch as the massive eight-foot-tall beast fell upon him, driving his knee in to his gut where everything exploded into white-pain before fading to a dulled pastel of the world with dots swimming along the fringes of his vision, the warbled voice of the bastard above him finishing his taunt was heard, "killing your bitch-ass will be simple!"

Saizou seemed to raise himself as if to dismount himself from Tsukune, yet right as the brunette boy made to move out from under the brute in preparation of a counter-attack, Saizou dropped his weight and drilled his dull-spiked knee right back into the teen's abdomen, causing him to let loose a jangly gasp as spittle and minute blotching streams of blood escaped from his mouth.

Two more knee-lunges into his stomach followed, and as Saizou stood overhead the asphyxiating teen, a snarled sneer came upon his lips as he leered between the downed boy and his chosen reward across the clearing with yellow orbs, "Look at you, can't even catch your breath! You dared to tell me to stay away from her, but it seems that you were all talk... Pathetic!"

Understandably, the monstrel was caught off-guard when, as he turned away from the boy with nary a thought aside claiming his ill begotten 'prize' in Moka Akashiya, enlisting his hardened tongue to smash the boy's face in behind him, he found a searing pain marking his vision red in pain and rage lash itself across his cheek.

He whipped his bony head around, his muscles rippling and unseen bones creaking at the fast movements, until he was knocked back again. This time by being launched into the air from a blow to his jaw, arching his shocked and limp body upwards a foot or two before it crashed back to the earth, sending up a large gust of loose dirt into the air. The groans that escaped the pierced monster could easily be heralded as an automobile's engine sputtering into a stall.

"Fucking bitch, I'll teach her to attack me at the last second..." The mucus-brown skinned beast muttered in a growl, gnashing his double set of pointed teeth together both in pain and in anger; the thought that Moka had attacked him rising to his attention as he pushed himself up from his kneeling position. Letting a low groan escape his tight, thin lips, Saizou straightened himself and began to dust his body off only to narrow his sickly eyes upon looking up.

It took him a moment to realize that Moka was still cowering in the spot which she had been when that punk interrupted his business. The fact that she didn't even try to escape both made him chuckle within his mind, enjoying the fact that she seemed to be falling into line with her proper place; just as it made him physically sneer in her direction at how stupid the girl was, to not have taken the opportunity to escape while he was distracted. Sure, it would have made him angry, but the chase was half the game.

As his mind cleared of feeling and intent towards his 'prize', they began to fill with further calculations that followed the logic of, 'If Moka is still there, then who attacked me?' The brutish serial rapist stretched his exorbitantly muscular neck around in an effort to see his assailant, so as to see the face of the next victim to become little more than a bloody paste on his stomping grounds. His eyes cast over the ground behind him as far as he could, and made out the ground which was stained in a burnt sienna of partial mud from the arrogant punk's blood leaking from his form, where his tongue had crushed his cranium.

A ghastly wind blew past him, and he immediately twisted his head around at breakneck speeds to visually intercept the cause of the wind. A trail of dust blew past him, obscuring his vision; a frustration which he alluded to with an angered grunt, "Stop dicking around, show yourself!' A soft series of earthly hums that sounded almost like haunted vexing laughs emanated around him, each soft sound coming from a discernibly different area, yet the reverberations frayed his ability to pinpoint the exact location after a moment.

A glint of red, like a ruby revealed in the lime-light for a scant second shone in his peripheral, yet when he jostled his head in the direction all that awaited him was a gust of wind and a cloud of obscuring dust. Another glint in the other eye had him jerking in the direction, only to find the very same awaiting him. He stumbled about, his teeth grit in anger and various grunts of promised anguish borne from his inexhaustible rage.

"Do not seize as you are; your fate is secured... You must only question: when will the die of fate be cast?" the words were carried on the wind, and in spite of trailing a tinge of scorn on its coat-tails, there was little sound actually marking it as spoken words than a hallucination induced by frustration and adrenaline.

"W-what was that? Show yourself, punk!" Saizou harshly barked to the dark, encompassing woods and the thin gusts whipping about the small clearing. As if to answer the strained, wrathful demand, another glint of brilliantly deep rubies shone amongst a shadow of ambiguous form appeared before him.

To the monstrous mass whose muscles inadvertently bulged every other second, the twin smoldering marbles resembling distant red-dwarfs gleaming in a perfect night's sky seemed to stare balefully at him with almost an all-encompassing pity- not for himself, but for an unspoken act not yet preformed.

The wind gained an edge of nipping cold to it, more so than the light chill wisps that had been inhabiting the woods thus far. The winds now gained maws of razor ice, as if the minions of ancient Fenris were biting his heels; their toxic saliva so cold it froze the blood solid. He shivered involuntarily, feeling as if the temperature -already unnaturally low, may have been dropping even further.

And then... It vanished, after what felt like minutes, perhaps hours of staring in to the same place as the winds nipped at his thick skin. He blinked and noticed that the shrouded form as well as those hauntingly infuriating eyes were absent before him. The suddenly warm air infiltrated his lungs as he readied another verbal rant to bring out his assailant, only for the air to be knocked out of his lungs by the fact that a powerful blow had managed to completely make him choke on his breath and stagger as spittle escaped his maw with heaving breaths.

An elbow to the back of the head was easily made out by those capable of seeing it from a brief reveal which knocked the breathless man truly to his knees. He released a gagged grunt of pain as his eyes widened considerably and his double toothed maw fell open further, a thick line of spit snapping from his bottom lip.

Raspy voice was heard through the pained wretches of the fallen man, " Piece of shit... I dare you to d-urgh! Ugh... Do that again." Unlike the previous times however, rather than glancing around, he kept his beady eyes on a single, focused point near his feet. Sure enough, it seemed his had taken to answering his call, and aimed to land another flurry of blows on the beast-man. Just like the last few times, the wind shifted and for a second, a trace of scent that was so faint it was hardly there invaded the earthly ambiance at around the time that a faint flicker was seen.

The blow connected to Komiya's forehead, except unlike the previous times, he didn't go anywhere and nor did he yell in pain. In fact, the unsettling grin that stretched abnormally about his already strange face pointed to the action being in his favor, and indeed it was; against the tree across the clearing laid the coughing and scuffled form of Tsukune.

The Monstrel hacked out a boisterous, mocking laugh as he pushed himself to his full, massive height. Step by step, he approached the recovering teen and began to crack his overly muscular and bony knuckles, "So, it was all you, was it?" If possible, his grin seemed to grow larger as he drew closer to the brunette teen, "Escaped death and instead of running, leaving with your life, you attack me? My, you're quite stupid."

A cold wind blew through the clearing a second before the towering monster was within arms-reach of the teen who had managed to struggle to his knees, absently wiping a thin trail of blood leaking from somewhere along his brow somewhat clear moments earlier. His eyes downcast and his hair further blocking little more than a fleeting glean of his expression, Saizou was denied any pleasure from his coming taunt, "You thought that you could stop me from taking what is mine? I told you, didn't I, that I would have what I wanted?"

The pierced blond teen who now looked hardly like his previous self clicked his tongue, letting loose a fleeting, almost whimsical sigh, "It's almost sad; the young, friendless nobody decides to take a stand for once in his life, for his first and only friend. You know, I'm almost tempted to let you live—to let you flourish and wallow in your failure, and see what becomes of you... See if you can become a true Ayashi; not the semi-selfless fool before me."

A dry leaf crunched under the approaching, gloating teen as he finally came to a stop not four feet away from Tsukune. The only sound between the two of them for the duration of the pregnant pause was that of the two young men's breaths cycling. Saizou glared down into the crown of the brunette schoolboy's head awaiting some kind of reaction and was growing agitated by the second at the lack of one. The agitation grew worse with every moment that he was not replied to, and it culminated rather quickly with a massive right-hook to the downed teen's head, sending him tumbling head over heels several times across the ground, kicking up small mounds of dust until he finally hit a tree and curled in on himself from sheer inertia.

There was no time to recover as the massively built monstrel took little time to reach his victim and it was with little thought and no remorse that another powerful blow from the muscular and bone-plated fist connected with the brunette boy- this time ramming home into his sternum with so much force that his body bounced from the stagnant ground, a fact which was not lost on Saizou. A powerful knee found its place in the young Aono's side and sent him careening into the dirt, only to be picked up by the sickly long tongue of the beast and have himself pile-driven into the ground.

As the moderately sized cloud of dust began to clear and the thin edges of the miniature crater formed in the soft ground began to show through the slightly opaque blanket, the beaten teen's body could be seen struggling to his feet as several areas of his face were obscured by the crimson paint that was his own blood. Now matted in his hair with the dirt and sparse grass, and with numerous scuffs upon his clothes, the boy looked a mess.

Yet as he pulled himself up, something seemed to be different about him; he seemed... more fluid. He shook less than he had previously when he struggled, and he also seemed to not be in near as much pain as perceived earlier- what little he let slip that he felt. The towering beast that was Saizou stepped up to Tsukune and grinned sadistically, palming a fist as his harsh voice escaped his overly-toothed maw, "It's time to get you out of the way. I've toyed with you enough; you lack the... fun I so expected of you as my prey. I hope being ripped to pieces is incredibly excruciating for you."

If it were possible, the muscle mass in his right arm almost doubled as he cocked it back and released it, intending for a violent clash with the prone boy's body. The fist crashed with such force that the crater that had been formed before was evident even obfuscated as it was. Maddening cackles ripped through the bi-jawed beast that Saizou Komiya possessed, his head reared back as he howled his raging joy towards the lunar satellite hanging in the sky, covered by light cloud cover and hazed with a thin mix of red, metallic smelling mist.

Moka stared at the dust-covered battleground and felt tears welling up in her eyes, the salty drops prickling at the edges of her eyes as they tried to run down her cheeks. Lips pressed together tightly and her tiny fangs were close to puncturing two pin-pricks into them due to the worry and despair she felt.

The sinking pit in her stomach continued to plummet further and further into oblivion as the maddening cackles Saizou released grew louder and higher in pitch as the beast no doubt began to loose his mind.

"You celebrate before victory has been assured... So foolish." Moka let out as gasp and turned her head at break-neck speeds to seek out where the voice had come from, as the tears finally leaked from her eyes. Saizou simultaneously hissed out in rage as he rushed out of the blinding cloud and stared up into a tree almost directly across from where he stood. Sixty-four teeth gnashed together in anger as his pupils dilated and his hands balled into fists.

"How! How did you survive! I felt you turn into paste under my fist!" He roared in frustration, pointing an accusing finger up to the steely teen. Tsukune felt a small tug of his lips into a miniscule smirk and closed his eyes tighter than they were, then slowly took in a breath and let it out.

"It's quite simple," Tsukune explained monotonously, rolling his shoulders casually, "You mashed the corpse of a rabbit into paste. I moved at the last second." The blond narrowed his eyes and snarled out something akin to a snort that ended in a hiss. He didn't wait any longer to, with lightning speed, lash out with his tongue, stretching it to lengths that far exceeded anything either Moka, nor Tsukune thought possible.

It had just smashed through the limb directly next to the sharingan wielder when he flickered away to a limb half-way down the tree, "I've given you enough time to give up peacefully... Now, you've chosen to end your life." He jumped away as the appendage came ripping down.

In a series of barely perceptible flashes, Tsukune rushed towards Saizou with his right fist balled up tight at his side. It didn't matter that the towering monstrel used his exceptional muscle control to try and whip the teen with the side of his tongue, as the boy merely dashed out of the way.

The brunette young man was a mere few inches from being in range to deliver his punch into the face of that damnable bastard when the strain of his technique finally reach the point that even his willpower couldn't fully cover it and he ended up stumbling as his left leg buckled. It was all the time that Saizou needed and within the same second, he was a good foot back and the side of his muscular tongue had smashed into the boy' and tossed him a foot or so to the side.

He had no time to attempt to pull himself up as, as soon as he opened his eyes, Saizou's tongue came crashing down on the area he would have just been had he not rolled at the last second. Three more times, he had to dodge the odd appendage -almost getting hit on the last one as the ayashi adapted and attempted to hit him where he was going to roll to.

The freshman got up and grit his teeth as he tried to block out the searing pain that his torn muscles were screaming over and began to ready himself to use the technique once more. The fact that, with so much pain coursing through his lower extremities, he had to be still to concentrate enough wasn't an opportunity to be passed up by the blond monster.

A swish and flick was all the command needed in order for the pale-pink appendage to whip out and began to soar towards Tsukune. Several feet away, Moka's eyes widened and she screamed, "Tsukune-san, watch out!"

Moka and Saizou both watched with baited breath; one fearful and the other vindictive, as the monstrel's tongue reached three feet from Tsukune, then two, one. As the fourth second was ticked off from impact, and Moka's green eyes began watering just as Saizou's mouth was watering, something happened.

Tsukune's half-lidded, downward gaze snapped upward and his eyes were completely wide for the world to see, and with them were the two ominously glowing orbs with three wildly spinning tomoe orbiting the central pupil. It was a fleeting and beautifully terrifying sight, for just as they both witnessed it, Tsukune vanished as the powerful oral muscle pierced through his vague after-image.

Before Saizou could hope to reel in his tongue, nor before the disrupted mirage was fully gone, the walking mass of muscle found his stomach being assaulted by three consecutive punches, followed by a powerful knee to the gut, sending him sliding back and greatly off balance. He was not given the courtesy of recovering, as the teen wielder of the sharingan nailed him solidly in the temple with an elbow and the ribs with his foot simultaneously.

In a wild effort, Saizou attempted to send his tongue out to swat at Tsukune, but he was rudely surprised when the pale appendage veered off in the opposite direction. Before he could even register that he had missed by such a large margin, a second Tsukune appeared before him and spun into a kick aimed for his head, which he brought his arms up to block. Only to find that he was struck in the small of his back, on his excessively exposed spine by the teen, and the other one was no-where to be seen.

"W-what the hell...!" Saizou exclaimed in pain as he folded down to his knees, attempting to reach for his back -an attempt for naught, as he was far too massive to be able to reach the area. His lack of attention cost him, and he found himself kneed in the chin, and no sooner was he tossed in the air by another kick to the stomach. As he fell down, a windmill kick launched the muscular being higher into the air,and as soon as he hit his crest, Tsukune was above him, and caught him in a lariat and spun, just above the ground, to add to the force in which he was slammed down.

Tsukune, a mere foot away from the small crater made by Saizou, collapsed to one knee and struggled to hold in the pained gasp that threatened to rip free from his esophagus. Closing his right eye as a means to concentrate, Tsukune worked to get the words out in between small pants, "I offer you one final chance; concede defeat and swear loyalty to me, and swear to never attempt anything upon Moka, unless given express permission."

Faint sickly-green eyes narrowed at the kneeling teen who had managed to best him with what seemed like so little effort, even in spite of the thrashing he had delivered and the several times he had nearly killed him. Saizou hissed out in frustration before he forced his eyes closed and grit his teeth as acid tainted words left his mouth, "...Fine, fine... I'll follow your lead, tch."

The monstrous teen seethed in anger and resisted the urge to crush the brunette boy's head when he glanced up at him with those damnable crimson eyes set in a glare, and lightly tilted his head in the pink-headed damsel's direction. In a biting, furious growl he begrudgingly nodded once, "I also promise to not do anything undesirable to Akashiya-san."

Tsukune allowed a small smirk to rest upon his lips as he regained his breath and slowly rose to his feet, even as unstable an attempt as it was, he somehow managed it with some grace. He made his way over to Saizou and looked down at the pain-riddled monster, "I'ts good that you conceded; I am truly averse to taking a life... Even one that could easily be lost with the darkness resonating about it."

Ignoring the glare that his mucus colored class-mate sent him, the Sharingan wielder knelt down some and offered him a hand to consolidate their truce. Komiya glanced at the offered hand, then up to the now chocolate-eyed teen whose barest hint of a smile was almost imperceptible, then back to his hand. He raised his own oversized hand and, for a moment, he hesitated before finally grasping Tsukune's hand and giving it a firm shake.

Right before he twisted his body weight and launched the near emotionless brunette into the air and out towards the tree-line which obscured a sudden cliff about thirty meters from Saizou. As Tsukune soared through the air, his crimson eyes ignited back into existence, and stayed locked on to Saizou who had begun to cackle as his prey was sent in to the woods, crashing into a few trees.

"Ah, now that he's out of the way for the moment," Green-yellow eyes blinked, and a long prehensile tongue trailed hungrily over his lips as he stared at the slowly back-peddling Moka, "I think it's high time that you begin to take an active role in your new life!"

Saizou grinned as the pinkette whimpered, panic gleaming in her jade eyes which darted about as she crawled backwards, repeatedly failing to stand up properly; always stumbling and falling back down. His tongue began to coil up within his maw, awaiting the time to strike at his helpless target, his eyes greedily taking in every movement that her ripped clothes revealed as they clung to her perspiring body.

She turned to look behind her, and lucky she did, as she was approaching a tree. With a little maneuvering, she managed to avoid trapping herself in that way, yet she was far from free. She couldn't help but to look back at the slowly enclosing beast who was taking his time to stalk her towards a dead end, and felt her eyes tear up, glistening lightly.

The jaundiced-looking eyes swathed over her body, undressing her with their sick gaze and imagining every immoral thought which their owner could every moment that their gaze lingered upon her flawless face, teary eyes, luscious thighs. Saizou could hardly contain himself, wanting to rush over to her and rip her clothes off, ravage her painfully, and possibly take a snack to go.

His enormous strides made quick work of catching up to the pinkette, despite his stalking pace. A massive, drool-letting, grin ripped his face in half as his prehensile tongue flicked to and fro in anticipation, awaiting to taste her delectable flesh, her sweet nectar, her crimson life's blood and the meat stained therein.

A guttural grunt escaped his mouth, wild desire that far exceeded that of the most rabid, starved beast known to humanity shone in the crazed monstrel's eyes, and on his twisted expression even more so. A single cackled-snort escaped him as, finally, Moka crawled herself against a tree and frantically glanced around in an attempt to secure an escape, but it was not to be- a fact that Saizou enjoyed, "No where else to run, Akashiya-san... It was a nice chase, but now, I have you."

He sighed after a moment, as Moka began to whimper and beg for him to not do what he was thinking of doing to her, "I'll be nice; I'll offer you the deal I made earlier..."

Saizou grinned as he reached down to grasp Moka, licking his lips as the tears finally spilled over her cheeks and a single sob wracked her petite frame, "Now, tell me... Will you agree to be my woman; to do whatever the fuck I say? And, remember, I won't kill you right away if you agree; I'll just shave a slice here and there for a while, whad'ya say?"

Moka stared up at him, her breath hitched deep within her as her mind was caught somewhere between and beyond terror and disgust. She opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out was a sound not unlike a croak of someone whom had discarded their voice long ago. She tried to speak, tried to voice something, but all that managed to escape were hollow hiccups and sobs, she couldn't even find a way to shake her head one way or the other.

Saizou Komiya was many things; most of them negative and horrid, and the main cause of such traits was the most glaring flaw- he was not a patient man. This current lack of response by the terrified young woman was eating at him, and he had quite enough, "Pathetic... I give you a descent deal, and you spit in my face without even the courtesy to verbally deny it. Fine, that's just fine; I'll enjoy ripping what's left of you to shreds after my cock is done with you!"

Having decided on a course of action, the blond wasted no time in gripping Moka in his massive hand and wrapping his tongue around her; gripping her arms tight around the shoulder, squeezing one of her breasts, and caressing her cheek simultaneously. However, when Moka tried to squirm loose, she found herself shoved violently into the tree she had trapped herself on, and he mouth was soon seized by the beast, and his lips smashed upon hers.

Saizou was enjoying himself, enjoying the start of what would be his complete and total violation of the innocent Moka Akashiya's body, mind, and -if he did his job right- soul. His bone-plated, muscular hand had reached down and began to fondle her breast through her blazer, button-up shirt and bra. Meanwhile his other hand had snaked down her body and was cupping her bottom, and fingering the cotton cloth that separated him from her womanhood. He slowly snaked a finger past the elastic band hugging her thigh and began to search out the source of heat trapped under the intimate cloth, when something happened.

He had just found a slightly moist, fleshy flap of skin and prepared to delve into the folds within, when a creaking sound caught his attention, and he felt the woman in his arms whom was squirming suddenly begin to melt away into a tar-like substance. Her face began to droop downwards, her lips smeared and dripped off her face. Her hair fell out and became puddles on the ground, and her breasts splattered once they fell. All the while, the inverted and shrill sound of a possessed child cooed below the decibel of normal hearing.

Then, suddenly, it was all gone; Moka, the puddle she became, the tree which he was pressing his captive against. Then he noticed that rather than standing where he had been several minutes ago, the sky was directly in his vision and the ground was oddly jagged and looked to be peering out from the bottom of his field of vision.

The vertigo then came on, and he realized suddenly that he was falling; the wind whipping by as it tore at his clothes and hair, ruffling as he increased in speed. Saizou blinked twice and cast his eyes to either side, only to realize that the 'ground' he saw was really a cliff face. Yet, it was far too late for him to do anything about it, pain suddenly erupted from his back and quickly spread to his chest.

As his vision began to blur and become overly sensitive to the moon's light, he lazily shifted his vision upwards and stared in shock. Standing atop the cliff, barely a drinking-glass in size from the distance, stood the damnable boy who had caused him so much trouble. He felt something gurgle out of his mouth, and he couldn't help but to spit out the thick, rich blood that escaped and was brought to the realization that the last thing he remembered was tossing the brunette somewhere near the cliffs.

He coughed, and moments later a wave crashed upon his body, then another and another. Blinking away the darkening blur that sheathed his eyes ever more, Saizou could just make out the eery red glow that Tsukune's Sharingan gave off. The last thing he knew before the darkness claimed him was that, somehow, someway, that bastard had bested him even though he had given it his all. If he respected anyone at all, it would be him; for one reason: ...he had no clue how the hell that bastard had ended him so easily.

As I stated, fight scenes aren't quite my forte, yet in direct conflict with my feelings and experience, I plan for many of those exact scenes to take place. I can only hope that I can bring my experience to a higher level and get better with it. So, tell me, how did you find this first fight scene... I ask you to grade me on three criteria; first, on the presentation. Second, on the flow of the fight. Lastly, I would like to know if the way I ended it was... sub-par. I feel I could have done better, but I left it as is on account of having no idea of just how to make it better.

Beyond that, I hope you liked the encounter with Kurumu. It's a tad earlier than the manga and lacks the annoying introductory that is usually included in most every fanfiction. Also, I hope that my slight detail into his school-day and schedule was well-received; in most cases his day isn't even mentioned except once or twice in passing...

So, I hope that you'll review and tell me what I need to improve upon. I hope to one day be able to write on the level that Ou-Rex, Lord of the land of fire, and perhaps even Kenchi618 do.