I don't own Naruto or solo leveling
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"Tell me about it…" A tremble ran through Jinah's body as she watched the street she was on a second ago covered in rubble.
She faintly heard Sasuke mutter something as they watched a loud screaming beast-like man emerge from the store.
"Sasuke!" She cried when she saw him jump down into the fray without an iota of hesitation. Her face was the picture of terror as she watched her friend jump into what she knew to be certain death. It didn't cross her mind that he was an official hunter and it was his job to face monsters.
No, to her he was just Sasuke. A friend to care for and be concerned about.
"I can't say I've ever been glad to see you."
Tae-shik relaxed when Sasuke pushed back Beast Minho, saving him in the process.
"Well I'm not. What's going on here? Dungeon Break?" Sasuke questioned, holding back the beast-like man known as Minho.
He intended to summon a powerful burst of electricity, but instead a green magic circle appeared and a multidited of green vines gushed forward. This caused Minho to spiral into a building.
"I didn't mean to do that." he muttered, stupidly staring at his hands.
Taeshik got to his feet and patted him on the shoulder, "Well, whatever it was it sure sent him flying."
He ignored him in favour of clenching and unclenching his hands, a stream of thoughts entering his mind. 'I wanted to use the Chidori Stream but ended up casting a magic circle that summoned vines out of nowhere. Wait?' He closed his eyes and looked to do something he hadn't in a very long time and that was to make a conscious effort to knead chakra. However, that was to no avail. 'I can't feel my chakra at all! Just like back in the Darkspace!'
He was broken from his internal panic when Taeshik spoke after catching his breath, "That guy is a hunter gone awol so be careful."
Confusion crossed Sasuke's features, glancing at Taeshik.
"Huh, awol? What are you talking about?"
"Uh…" Taeshik drawled searching for the words to explain the situation, in other words lie. Fortunately, his ability to think quickly made it easy to weave a story together. However, whether he could keep his story straight was another matter altogether.
"...I suspect that he's a user of this new drug Eclipse which boosts a hunter's abilities by 20-30%. There was a tough boss-grade magic beast and he used it to turn the tides and eventually defeated it single-handedly. However, it seemed to have cost him his sanity as he went completely berserk and killed his whole team. Since I'm a B-rank I've been managing to hold him off but it hasn't been easy with all my injuries."
"And I assume the beast features he's taken are a side effect of this drug?"
"Yeah, likely so."
Sasuke could tell by the state of him, blood running down his face, bruised and singed chest, and clothes torn apart that he wasn't lying. He watched the awol hunter rise from the rubble and channeled the energy that wasn't chakra into his eyes hoping to feel the familiar sting of his Sharingan. He sighed in relief when the world got clearer and much more detailed. He usually used his Sharingan to get a good gauge on his power level. If Taeshik could be left in such a state by this man then he couldn't take him lightly.
'It's like his mana is on fire. I've never seen anything like it! Without a magic sensor I won't be able to get a good read on him.'
The mana pool of a hunter was usually a calming lake or a flowing river which made it easy for Sasuke to gauge their rank at a glance with his Sharingan, but Minho's mana pool looked like it was a blazing forest fire━burning him from the inside out.
"Ta…Taes-Taeshik!!!"
Minho screamed out, bursting from the rubble in a blind rage. His gaze locked onto Taeshik and he burst forward in an even more blinding rage. Sasuke stood there frozen in time as he was briefly reminded of his own blinding rage in the past. It made him sceptical of Taeshik's story, but he wouldn't let the eggplant meet his end without all the facts.
Using the kinetic vision of the Sharingan Sasuke was able to see the future of his movement and intercepted his wild swing on the still dazed supervisor. He kneed him in the face and landed a kick squarely on his chin, sending him flying upwards. He never liked doing things he wasn't used to, but if he wanted to end this quickly then he'd need to take a risk.
[Rooted]
He slammed his hands on the ground and watched as a green magic circle burst roots from the street to crash into and swarm Minho. He writhed and struggled against the roots, using his sharp teeth and claws to tear through them like a wild animal. Sasuke channeled even more 'not chakra' into the roots and more roots sprouted out of nowhere to wrap around Minho and encase him in a cocoon-like structure.
"There." Sasuke breathed out a sigh of relief.
"Well, that's new." Taeshik whistled, impressed. "Where are you getting all these skills from?" He said, walking up to the roots with Sasuke following closely in order to inspect his work up close.
His gaze darkened, "I'm wondering the same thing…" He was even more sure now that the result of this wasn't his chakra, but the mana he had learned to use in the Darkspace. However, the question was why it suddenly started to overpower his ability to use and sense his own chakra.
"Taeshik!!!" Minho screams were muffled, shooting out of the cocoon with terrifying brute force. He grabbed Sasuke by the face and muffled the boy's cries as Minho slammed him into the pavement. Taeshik then rushed in trying to save Sasuke by slicing at Minho's limbs, but he only succeeded in superficial cuts. 'Damnit! If I wasn't so weakened I'd be able to tear through your arms like nothing!' He cursed.
Minho focused his attention on the object of his boiling rage and jumped out of the cocoon after him, using Sasuke as a projectile to throw at the agent. Both their bodies collided, dribbling off of concrete and through the window of a nearby store.
From the rooftop Jinah gasped as another tremble raked her body. She had started to celebrate once the threat had been neutralised thanks to Sasuke's powerful magic attacks. However, the fear that gripped her heart came back with a vengeance. Sasuke getting thrown into a building like a ragdoll was not a pretty sight and she struggled to think about what she could in this situation. Not much other than watch.
'But he's really strong. I wonder if Oppa is that strong.' She really didn't have a good idea on a hunter's strength other than they were all superhumans, she didn't even know her own brother's rank However, on the rare occasion she'd run into him at the hospital, the doctors would comment that it was unusual for a hunter to always be injured. Maybe he wasn't that strong or the monsters he ran into were very strong.
Regardless, her heartbeat raced all the same at the possibility of Sasuke meeting his end. She didn't want to lose a friend like him. 'We just got to know each other! C'mon, Sasuke. You better not die!'
"That guy seems to have a grudge against you. Care to explain that?" Sasuke groaned, shaking off the pieces of glass stuck in his hair.
"I would if I could, but I'm just as lost as you are." Spouting another lie.
Sasuke grumbled, dissatisfied with his answer, focusing his gaze back on the approaching beast-like man. 'He's got a lot of tenacity, I really thought the [Rooted] spell would have done it. That drug must be really strong.' Sasuke thought.
Regardless, no normal C-rank should have gotten up from that attack.
Looking ahead, his Sharingan was able to see that the raging forest fire had calmed to a building burning down. This meant that he was growing weaker and wouldn't be in this state for much longer. Very good.
[Root Strike]
He clapped his hands together and stretched his arms out as wooden spikes flew out of the magic circle. Minho flared up his aura and used both hands to block the spikes with little to no damage but Sasuke had intended it as a distraction.
He drew on more of his mana as green mana coated his arm making it as tough as steel. Sasuke blitzed over at a speed that Minho couldn't possibly react to and stabbed into his stomach with his arm turned mana coated blade. Having a running start increased his penetrative force and is what allowed him to pierce the tough hide that manifested on Minho as a side effect of Eclipse.
"Arck! Ta-Taeshiiiik!" Minho vomited out a splotch of blood as his knees grew weak. He channeled more of his rage and grasped Sasuke by the waist and hoisted him up high into the air. "What the!?" Sasuke cried out, as he was slammed head first into the ground.
If it had been anytime before today then that attack would have done serious damage, but thanks to being able to focus his mana he was able to increase his durability on other parts of his body. The only thing he'd have to show for it at the end of the day would be a cut on the back of his head. He managed to roll away from the angry hunter, watching as his beast-like features regressed and the fire in his belly simmered down to the embers of a dying campfire.
He breathed out and stood over the man bleeding out on the ground from the deep gash in his stomach. His face was unreadable but his eyes couldn't hide the sympathy and understanding from the world. After all, that was the rage of a man who had lost everything, a past version of himself lashing out at the source of his misfortune.
"I know it might be a side effect of the drug, but the hatred in your eyes cannot escape me. People died and I'll make sure they get justice." Sasuke whispered into the wind. It seemed as if his words reached the man's ears because he started to sport a peaceful smile, like he was glad that someone had acknowledged his feelings. It looked like he would be ready to meet his end right then and there but he wouldn't let that happen.
He kneeled down and placed a hand on the man, 'You're not done yet.'
"Sasuke!"
"Huh?" He looked up, focusing on Jinah rushing towards him and wrapping him up in a tight hug. "Ack! Jinah…! Too tight…" he strained his voice as her bear hug zapped the air from his lungs.
She quickly let go once realizing her mistake, "Ahahaha, sorry about that!" She rubbed the back of her neck, embarrassed, before switching to a scolding expression, "You had me scared. I thought you were gonna die! I know you're a hunter and all, but damn that was really scary."
"Um… yeah. I, uh, didn't mean to do that."
She gave him a look of exasperation, "Not even gonna try with an excuse?" She asked in her usual playful tone.
"Sorry to ask this of you Jinah, but can you try and keep this man from bleeding out." Sasuke asked, easily changing topics. "He'll die of blood loss if he's not treated soon."
Jinah looked down at the man as if noticing him for the first time, 'The monster was actually a person? Why was he attacking another person?'
She crouched down quickly and examined the wound in his stomach. It was deep, but she could do something at the very least. "Let me borrow your jacket, Sasuke." She said, her voice becoming commanding in a matter of moments.
"Right, of course," He said, taking off his jacket and handing it over without issue. It's a good thing that she showed up when she did because he knew she was studying to become a doctor. She would be able to administer first aid better than he could.
As she worked on the man's major wounds he asked, "You have your cell phone with you, right?"
"Uh, yeah, why?" She answered off-handedly, her face the picture of focus and concentration.
"Well, mine got kinda ruined in the fight." He pulled out his phone so Jinah could see that it was crushed. "We need to call emergency services."
Jinah nodded. Sasuke was right. No matter how much of a good job she did know it was only a patch work job, it wouldn't give the man any more than an extra hour more to live.
"Alright, um, it's in my back pocket." She told him with a faint blush on her face.
"Cool." Sasuke replied and dug into her back pocket and pulled out her phone. Jinah's face did grow hotter but she decided to ignore it and instead focus more of her attention on Minho.
'Hehe, cute.' He thought, opening the phone and seeing on the lock screen a selfie of Jinah and Jinwoo using a cute cat filter. He dialed in the number and called for an ambulance to come pick up Minho, who was dying of blood loss.
"Hey, what about me?" Tae Shik's raspy voice cut through after climbing out the building. "Oh, hey there girlie. Did I interrupt another one of your dates? Sorry about that." He chuckled with blood flowing freely down his face.
Jinah blushed at the man's assumptions because she had just managed to convince herself that it wasn't a date this morning. Sasuke, however, was immune to his teasing and regarded him with contempt. "You'll be fine. Stop being a baby, you damn eggplant."
"Oooh harsh. C'mon, man. I'm dying here." He joked, rubbing the back of his neck.
"You'll live. Unfortunately…"
"Ah damn. Really harsh." He laughed.
After calming down he took on a more serious tone. "I'd like to personally see him off to the hospital. Make sure that he doesn't pull any other tricks."
Sasuke raised a brow, glancing at the man on the ground, "I don't think he'll be much of a threat. Also he seems to hold a particular grudge for you. Are you sure that you're the first person he wants to see when he wakes up."
"Without the drug he's just a C-rank. He'll be no threat to me plus it's Association protocol that drug users be secured by active supervisors."
Sasuke's eyes narrowed suspiciously before turning to Jinah, "Hey, Jinah."
"Uh, yeah."
"You can make it home from here, right?"
"Yeah, the station isn't too far from here." She answered.
"Not going to walk the little lady home? How ungentlemanly of you, kid." Taeshik chuckled.
Sasuke ignored his jab, "When the ambulance gets here you should probably head back. Sorry that I can't accompany you."
"That's okay." She said, still working on mitigating the amount of blood loss Minho was going through. Somewhere in the back of her mind she wondered how she was going to explain away all this blood on her.
Once the ambulance arrived no more than 10 minutes later and on board there was a C-rank healer that was able to seal up Minho's wound and take care of both Sasuke and Taeshik's injuries.
"The healer said you did a good job. I think you're on track to becoming a good doctor like you want." Sasuke complimented.
"Oh, you remember me saying that? Thanks I guess." Jinah replied bashfully, looking away from Sasuke.
"Of course. I remember a lot of things. Like the fact that you're a bit of a glutton for fried chicken." Sasuke joked as he made a face of mock disgust while pointing at his mouth.
"I'm pretty sure you were going ham on that Margherita pizza." She put a finger on her chin with a mirthful smile on her face, "What was it? 2 large pizzas in row? Sounds pretty gluttonous."
"Well, the tomatoes were good." he admitted quietly, which forced a cute laugh from Jinah.
"Anyway, I gotta get going." He said, getting to his feet. Giving Jinah another significant look before walking off to the ambulance.
"Wait Sasuke!" Jinah called out to him. He turned around as she walked up to him again with a tight smile. "Be careful okay," She whispered softly but he heard her all the same. He didn't dignify her plea with anything more than a simple nod to show that he heard her.
After that he joined Taeshik in the ambulance who had shit-eating grin plaster all over his face.
"Now, wasn't that just cute?"
"Shut up."
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"My four lieutenants. I'm glad you're all here and on such quick notice." Dal stood on top of a ledge overlooking downtown. The night air freely flowing and making his long red coat flutter in the wind.
He liked this view of the sprawling city lights and how they danced in his vision. It reminded him of the promise made to him by his father nearly 9 years ago, before all these hunters started to show up. This city was theirs back then and it would be again.
Behind him, his 4 lieutenants stood with their arms crossed and expressions bored. Kiha, Guild master of the Courage Guild, was the first to speak up. "If you wouldn't mind me asking, sir, what is the purpose of this meeting? You've been very tight-lipped about your intentions as of late." She said
Dal smiled with his back still turned to them. "How unlike you, Kiha, getting straight to the point. Alright then…" He turned around to face them and pulled out a file from his coat and threw it over to Daijo. He caught the file and gave him a look of confusion, but Dal just prompted him to read it.
Daijo looked through the file as he started to speak again, "The night of the shootout to kill that slippery bastard Sook had ended in nearly an entire gang in the custody of the SPD. The reason was all due to a man named Woo Jin Chul."
Kiha gasped, already familiar with that name as a hunter with a registered guild, "The Chief of the Hunters Association's Monitoring Division."
Dal nodded at her, but the absent-minded Seven blinked, "Huh? Is he some important guy?"
Kiha scoffed at his question, "Yeah, no duh! Aside from Chairman Go Gun-hee and the S-ranks, he's probably the strongest hunter in the country. He's also basically the chief of police in hunter society."
"Ohhh, so he is a big deal." Seven replied in a way that seemed to further aggravate Kiha. Dal noticed her growing impatience with the young man and waved his hand to get her to calm down. Satisfied that tempers had simmered down he continued.
"Later that night Chief Jinchul tracked down his stolen car to an abandoned alleyway and coincidently the man that stole his car was none other than Sook himself. After that night Sook hasn't been seen or heard from since." Dal explained.
"Ah, then we can only assume he's been in the custody of the Association this whole time then." Daijo surmised unsurprisingly to Dal. The man may look like a brute but he had sharp wit and a good sense of judgement.
"Exactly."
Dong was a soft spoken man. He was hulking in size similar to Daijo but he had a clean head of soft scruffy brown hair unlike Daijo wh preferred his hair shaved. He was the most quiet out of all of Dal's lieutenants even more so than Seven who had child-like tendencies and was generally lazy in all areas of socializing. He only spoke when he had something to add or was curious about something.
"If it's not too much to ask, sir, I'd like to know how you came about this information."
"Certainly not, Dong. My connections in the police department let me know who called them to arrest those fools and after that I questioned one of them to find out what they were doing causing such a ruckus. Demanding that I see the CCTV footage that captured the shoot out and using that footage I was able to track the car to the alleway before it was sent for repairs."
"Quite the detective work you did, sir. Is that what has preoccupied your time?" Dong asked.
"Not all my time but a good amount of it." He admitted. In this city he hated having things unknown to him but the city was so big that he couldn't possibly know everything. However, in his spheres of influence he made it his mission to not be uninformed.
"So now that we know Sook is in their custody, what are we going to do? It's only a matter of time before he squeals if he hasn't already to protect his neck." Daijo asked, voicing what was in everyone's heads except for Seven.
Dal paused for dramatic effect as a wind swirled all around them. "The point of today is to expand our operations. As you said it won't be long until the Hunters Association catches onto us. Since having only one source of output leaves us vulnerable to collapsing years of hard work, I find it imperative we do so quickly."
"You're trying to increase productivity?" Seven chimed in, by the sound of his voice Dal could tell he wouldn't be looking forward to more work.
"Quite so. The Courage Guild will not be able to provide us with enough resources so to counter that we will need more guilds under our control."
Dong chuckled at the suggestion.
"That's a pretty tall order, sir. If we're not careful things go bad quickly."
"Yeah and isn't the doctor still working on perfecting the formula? It does have unintended side effects on hunters of a high level." Kiha raised another concern with Dal's intention to step forward.
"What? I thought the boss let us spread it out because it was ready? Did I mess up?" Seven cut in, a worried expression crossing his face. He was a lazy individual and seemed to be always out of the loop of things.
An annoyed expression crossed Kiha's soft features, "Do you ever pay attention? Mr. Dal said the drug wasn't perfect and that it was fine. The point is to get it out there as much as possible. I didn't get it at first but after learning all this I imagine it was because you were worried about the little leak in our plans."
Daijo clicked his tongue at the mention of a 'leak'. It was because it happened in his area that Sook, the leader of the exterminated Blue Dawn gang, was able to infiltrate and almost have his way with the doctor. It's likely that their existence had been exposed to the relevant authorities in Hunter society.
"All of these are valid concerns." Dal admitted. "But like the Moon that blocks out the Sun. We will be the ones to block the shine of the S-ranks. We will be the Eclipse." Dal's eyes glowed a calm pale blue.
"I like the sound of that!" Daijo exclaimed, slamming his fists together in his usual brutish manner.
"Let's step inside to meet the doctor so that we'll work out finer details later but I believe in all of you to play your part."
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"Thanks for your report, Agent Taeshik. You may retire for the night." Jinchul dismissed the disheveled agent. Taeshik nodded, leaving his office with a disgruntled expression, likely from the injuries he had suffered. Even if he was healed, the pride of losing to a C-rank hunter stung very deep for someone like Taeshik—at least that's what he assumed.
'It's not much and we still haven't got the drug itself to study, but it is progress. The report for Han Jihye did mention he took on beast-like features although less prominent than the one's Hunter Minho displayed. Is it a result of the drug becoming more potent?' Jinchul wondered, stewing over the two new reports. 'In any case we're bound to get more reports and from there I can form a proper conclusion as to how to move forward.'
He was broken from his thoughts by the click of his door reopening and Sasuke entering the office. His expression held nothing that he could discern as he coolly sat down in a chair.
"You know you've been a hard man to find as of late, Hunter Uchiha." He laid the reports in front of him.
"You can blame that on Choi."
"I was." He deadpanned. "Are you ready to give your statement?" He asked, folding his hands together and leaning forward over his desk.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that…" he said flatly. The air was thick with tension between them. Sasuke Uchiha remained an enigma to the Chief even in this very moment. They boy himself not having really formed a concrete opinion on Jinchul but knowing that he was at least professional.
"I'm suspicious of one of your agents and his name is Gang Taeshik."
Jinchul remained neutral but a slight tilt of his head gave indication to curiosity at his words.
"Gang Taeshik? What could you possibly be suspicious of?"
"I'm not quite sure yet, but I suspect that he could be responsible for the annihilation of a raid squad. The story he told you and me seems to hold up to scrutiny but something about it doesn't sit right."
"And what would that be?"
Sasuke elected to switch topics instead. "Would it be possible to see that hunter's file and possibly the squad he had been part of?"
"Now why would I grant you that curtsy? You still haven't given me a reason to warrant your suspicion other than 'something not sitting right'" He said with sarcastic air quotes.
Sasuke huffed in annoyance because he did bring up a valid point. He was the chief of an organization that held confidential information on thousands of people. It would seriously call into question their integrity as an organization if they handed out such files to some punk kid. Sasuke would need to make some kind of sacrifice if he wanted to follow his 'lead'. He had to ask himself if he was certain.
'You've been doing a lot of deliberating these past few months but it's time to make a decision isn't it?'
Sasuke widened his eyes at the voice of Indra booming in his head.
'Be decisive. Make a choice.'
Jinchul noted the shift in Sasuke's demeanour and felt the air around him grow cold.
'He's a B-rank, right? Why do I feel so on edge?' Jinchul thought, a pensive expression crossing his face. Sasuke stared at him with his Sharingan spinning hypnotically. Suddenly Jinchul saw an image of himself reflected in those passionate red eyes of the young boy. A ruthless sense of justice that mirrored his own.
"People died today and no matter how much I try I can't just ignore that. I'm going to to the bottom of it with or without your help." Sasuke said, determined.
Jinchul cleared his throat and leaned back in his seat, "I can tell that you're serious and will take what you've said into consideration." He got up from his seat and extended his hand in a show of good faith.
Sasuke blinked and then accepted his handshake. "Thanks I guess. I'll be seeing you at a later date?"
"Ha, I'm sure you will so stay out of trouble for now."
There was quite a bit he didn't know about the boy, Uchiha Sasuke, but the pieces are slowly falling in place for his profile. If he had the right guidance he could become an excellent supervisor, that kind of fiery passion needed a path.
"Well then I'll be seeing you, Hunter Uchiha." He said, giving him the respect of a proper hunter. Even if he was a teenager, the powers of a hunter weren't dictated by age.
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"There don't seem to be any complications after healing his injuries but all his mana is basically at zero. It'll be a while for him to recover and be at 100% again." A nurse talked to herself as she stood with a clipboard over Minho's bed. "Eh, I give it a day. You hunters are basically freaks of nature anyway. I bet you'll be dungeon diving by tomorrow morning, ay?" She laughs, leaving the room in and switching off the lights.
As Minho's chest rose and fell in the darkness of the hospital, a figure appeared out of thin air as if a veil was being uncovered in reality. This figure was no other than Kang Taeshik and he had a massive bloodthirsty grin on his face.
"Sorry buddy, I can't let you go talking about what really happened in there."
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Here we go! This chapter was kind of a pain to get through but I'm happy with the final results (I hope you guys are too) Sasuke has magic spells now and no access to his chakra! He already knows how to use mana thanks to his experience in the Darkspace, but the magic spells are all new to him. It's likely because he's a bonified prodigy and manifested them or maybe that was something else? Jinah being cute lol!
Do you guys enjoy Dal?
The scene with Jinchul and Sasuke, I was kinda going for something similar to what Go Gun-hee and Sung had in the main timeline where Gun-hee liked Sung's apietite for raiding dungeons.
I think Jinchul and Sasuke would have a similar sense of justice although their world views might be different.
Taeshik that slippery snake he get away with it!!!
Peace out and God bless you!